Papers for Monday, Apr 26 2021

The Local Group is a unique environment in which to study the astrophysics of galaxy formation. The proximity of the Milky Way and M31 causes a large fraction of the low-mass halo population to interact with more massive dark matter haloes, which increases their concentrations and strips them of gas and other material. Some low-mass haloes pass through the haloes of the Milky Way or M31 and are either ejected into the field or exchanged between the two primary hosts. We use high resolution gas-dynamical simulations to describe a new class of field halo that passed through the haloes of both the Milky Way and M31 at early times and is almost twice as concentrated as isolated field haloes. These 'Hermeian' haloes are distributed anisotropically at greater distances from the Local Group barycentre than the primary haloes and appear to cluster close to the Milky Way and M31 in projection. We show that some Hermeian haloes can host galaxies that are promising targets for indirect dark matter searches and are competitive with signals from other dwarf galaxies. Hermeian galaxies in the Local Group should be detectable by forthcoming wide-field imaging surveys.

Our Milky Way (MW) has witnessed a series of major accretion events. One of the later additions, Gaia-Enceladus, has contributed a considerable mass to the inner Galaxy, but also generously donated to the outer halo. So far, associations with present-day MW globular clusters (GCs) have been chiefly based on their kinematics and ages. Here, we present a chemical abundance study of the outer halo (R$_{\rm GC}$=18 kpc) GC NGC 1261, which has been suggested to be an accreted object. We measured 31 species of 29 elements in two stars from high-resolution Magellan/MIKE spectra and find that the cluster is moderately metal poor, at [Fe/H]=-1.26. NGC 1261 is moderately $\alpha$-enhanced to the 0.3-dex level. While from the small sample alone it remains vague to assert any abundance correlations, the light elements Na,O,Mg, and Al differ significantly between the two stars, in contrast to the majority of other elements with smaller scatter, arguing in favour of multiple generations of stars coexisting in this GC. Intriguingly for its metallicity, NGC 1261 shows heavy element abundances that are consistent with $r$-process nucleosynthesis and we discuss their origin in various sites. In particular the Eu-overabundance quantitatively suggests that one single $r$-process event, such as a neutron-star neutron-star merger or a rare kind of supernova, can be responsible for the stellar enhancement or even the cluster's enrichment with the excess $r$-material. Its heavy element pattern makes NGC 1261 resemble the moderately enhanced r-I stars that are commonly found in the halo and that have been detected in Gaia-Enceladus as well. Therefore, combining all kinematical, age, and chemical evidence we conclude that NGC 1261 is a chemically intriguing GC that was born in Gaia-Enceladus and has been subsequently accreted into the MW halo. [abridged]

The absence of planets interior to Mercury continues to puzzle terrestrial planet formation models, particularly when contrasted with the relatively high derived occurrence rates of short-period planets around Sun-like stars. Recent work proposed that the majority of systems hosting hot super-Earths attain their orbital architectures through an epoch of dynamical instability after forming in quasi-stable, tightly packed configurations. Isotopic evidence seems to suggest that the formation of objects in the super-Earth mass regime is unlikely to have occurred in the solar system as the terrestrial-forming disk is thought to have been significantly mass-deprived starting around 2 Myr after CAI; a consequence of either Jupiter's growth or an intrinsic disk feature. Nevertheless, terrestrial planet formation models and high-resolution investigations of planetesimal dynamics in the gas disk phase occasionally find that quasi-stable proto-planets with masses comparable to that of Mars emerge in the vicinity of Mercury's modern orbit. In this paper, we investigate whether it is possible for a primordial configuration of such objects to be cataclysmically destroyed in a manner that leaves Mercury behind as the sole survivor without disturbing the other terrestrial worlds. We use numerical simulations to show that this scenario is plausible. In many cases, the surviving Mercury analog experiences a series of erosive impacts; thereby boosting its Fe/Si ratio. A caveat of our proposed genesis scenario for Mercury is that Venus typically experiences at least one late giant impact.

The occurrence of pair-instability supernovae is predicted to prevent the formation of black holes with masses $\gtrsim 50 M_\odot$. Recent gravitational-wave detections in this mass range require an explanation beyond that of standard stellar collapse. Current modeling strategies include the hierarchical assembly of previous generations of black-hole mergers as well as other mechanisms of astrophysical nature (lowered nuclear-reaction rates, envelope retention, stellar mergers, accretion, dredge-up episodes). In this paper, we point out the occurrence of an exclusion region that cannot be easily populated by hierarchical black-hole mergers. A future gravitational-wave detection of a black hole with mass $\gtrsim 50M_\odot$ and spin $\lesssim 0.2$ will indicate that the pair-instability mass gap is polluted in some other way. Such a putative outlier can be explained using hierarchical mergers only with considerable fine-tuning of both mass ratio and spins of the preceding black-hole merger --an assumption that can then be cross-checked against the bulk of the gravitational-wave catalog.

Combining high-contrast imaging with medium-resolution spectroscopy has been shown to significantly boost the direct detection of exoplanets. HARMONI, one of the first-light instruments to be mounted on ESO's ELT, will be equipped with a single-conjugated adaptive optics system to reach the diffraction limit of the ELT in H and K bands, a high-contrast module dedicated to exoplanet imaging, and a medium-resolution (up to R = 17 000) optical and near-infrared integral field spectrograph. Combined together, these systems will provide unprecedented contrast limits at separations between 50 and 400 mas. In this paper, we estimate the capabilities of the HARMONI high-contrast module for the direct detection of young giant exoplanets. We use an end-to-end model of the instrument to simulate observations based on realistic observing scenarios and conditions. We analyze these data with the so-called "molecule mapping" technique combined to a matched-filter approach, in order to disentangle the companions from the host star and tellurics, and increase the S/N of the planetary signal. We detect planets above 5-sigma at contrasts up to 16 mag and separations down to 75 mas in several spectral configurations of the instrument. We show that molecule mapping allows the detection of companions up to 2.5 mag fainter compared to state-of-the-art high-contrast imaging techniques based on angular differential imaging. We also demonstrate that the performance is not strongly affected by the spectral type of the host star, and that we reach close sensitivities for the best three quartiles of observing conditions at Armazones, which means that HARMONI could be used in near-critical observations during 60 to 70% of telescope time at the ELT. Finally, we simulate planets from population synthesis models to further explore the parameter space that HARMONI and its high-contrast module will soon open.

Modern terrestrial planet formation models are highly successful at consistently generating planets with masses and orbits analogous to those of Earth and Venus. In stark contrast to classic theoretical predictions and inferred demographics of multi-planet systems of rocky exoplanets, the mass (>10) and orbital period (>2) ratios between Venus and Earth and the neighboring Mercury and Mars are not common outcomes in numerically generated systems. While viable solutions to the small-Mars problem are abundant in the literature, Mercury's peculiar origin remains rather mysterious. In this paper, we investigate the possibility that Mercury formed in a mass-depleted, inner region of the terrestrial disk (a < 0.5 au). This regime is often neglected in terrestrial planet formation models because of the high computational cost of resolving hundreds of short-period objects over ~100 Myr timescales. By testing multiple disk profiles and mass distributions, we identify several promising sets of initial conditions that lead to remarkably successful analog systems. In particular, our most successful simulations consider moderate total masses of Mercury-forming material (0.1-0.25 Earth masses). While larger initial masses tend to yield disproportionate Mercury analogs, smaller values often inhibit the planets' formation as the entire region of material is easily accreted by Venus. Additionally, we find that shallow surface density profiles and larger inventories of small planetesimals moderately improve the likelihood of adequately reproducing Mercury.

Nitrogen is one of the most abundant metals in the interstellar medium (ISM), and thus it constitutes an excellent test to study a variety of astrophysical environments, ranging from nova to active galactic nuclei. We present a detailed analysis of the gaseous component of the N K~edge using high-resolution {\it XMM-Newton} spectra of 12 Galactic and 40 extragalactic sources. For each source, we have estimated column densities for {\rm N}~{\sc i}, {\rm N}~{\sc ii}, {\rm N}~{\sc iii}, {\rm N}~{\sc v}, {\rm N}~{\sc vi} and {\rm N}~{\sc vii} ionic species, which trace the cold, warm and hot phases of the local Galactic interstellar medium. We have found that the cold-warm component column densities decrease with the Galactic latitude while the hot component does not. Moreover, the cold column density distribution is in good agreement with UV measurements. This is the first detailed analysis of the nitrogen K-edge absorption due to ISM using high-resolution X-ray spectra.

We study the radial motions of cold, star-forming gas in the secular evolution phase of a set of 14 magnetohydrodynamical cosmological zoom-in simulations of Milky Way-mass galaxies. We study the radial transport of material within the disc plane in a series of concentric rings. For the gas in each ring at a given time we compute two quantities as a function of time and radius: 1) the radial bulk flow of the gas; and 2) the radial spread of the gas relative to the bulk flow. Averaging the data from all the halos, we find that the radial spread increases with radius in the form of a power law with strong secondary dependencies on the fraction of accreted material and the local radial velocity dispersion of the gas. We find that the bulk motion of gas is well described in the inner disc regions by a radially-independent mean inward flow speed of $-$2.4 km s$^{-1}$. The spread around this value relates to the change in angular momentum of the gas and also the amount of accreted material. These scalings from fully cosmological, MHD simulations of galaxy formation can then be used in semi-analytic models to better parameterise the radial flow of gas in discs.

The future large adaptive telescopes will trigger new constraints for the calibration of Adaptive Optics (AO) systems equipped with pre-focal Deformable Mirrors (DM). The image of the DM actuators grid as seen by the Wave-Front Sensor (WFS) may evolve during the operations due to the flexures of the opto-mechanical components present in the optical path. The latter will result in degraded AO performance that will impact the scientific operation. To overcome this challenge, it will be necessary to regularly monitor and compensate for these DM/WFS mis-registrations either by physically re-aligning some optical components or by updating the control matrix of the system. In this paper, we present a new strategy to track mis-registrations using a pseudo-synthetic model of the AO system. The method is based on an invasive approach where signals are acquired on-sky, before or during the scientific operations, and fed to the model to extract the mis-registration parameters. We introduce a method to compute the most sensitive modes to these mis-registrations that allows to reduce the number of degrees of freedom required by the algorithm and minimize the impact on the scientific performance. We demonstrate that, using only a few of these well selected signals, the method provides a very good accuracy on the parameters estimation, well under the targeted accuracy, and has a negligible impact on the scientific path. In addition, the method appears to be very robust to varying operating conditions of noise and atmospheric turbulence and performs equally for both Pyramid and Shack-Hartmann WFS.

We present a new, inexpensive, bench-top method for measuring groove period over large areas with high mapping resolution and high measurement accuracy, dubbed the grating mapper for accurate period (GMAP). The GMAP has the ability to measure large groove period changes and non-parallel grooves, both of which cannot be measured via optical interferometry. In this paper, we detail the calibration and setup of the GMAP, and employ the instrument to measure three distinct gratings. Two of these measured gratings have customized groove patterns that prevent them from being measured via other traditional methods, such as optical interferometry. Our implementation of this tool achieves a spatial resolution of 0.1 mm$\times$0.1 mm and a period error of 1.7 nm for a 3 $\mu$m size groove period.

In the last decades, several multiwavelength studies have been dedicated to exploring the properties of the obscuring material in active galactic nuclei (AGN). Various models have been developed to describe the structure and distribution of this material and constrain its physical and geometrical parameters through spectral fitting techniques. However, questions, including how the torus mid-infrared (mid-IR) and X-ray emission are related remain unanswered. In this work, we study whether the dust continuum at mid-IR and gas reflection at X-rays have the same distribution in a sample of AGN. We carefully selected a sample of 36 nearby AGN with NuSTAR and Spitzer spectra available in both archives. We derived the properties of the nuclear dust and gas through a spectral fitting, using models developed for mid-IR and X-ray wavelengths assuming smooth and clumpy distributions for this structure. We found that a combination of smooth and clumpy distributions of gas and dust, respectively, is preferred for ~80% of sources with good spectral fits according to the Akaike criterion. However, considering extra information about each individual source, such as the absorption variability, we found that ~50% of our sources are best described by a clumpy distribution of both dust and gas. The remaining ~50% of our sources can still be explained with a smooth distribution of gas and a clumpy distribution of dust. The results presented in this paper suggest that the distribution of the gas and dust in AGN is complex. We find at least six scenarios to explain the observed properties of our sample. In these scenarios, three gas-dust distribution combinations are possible: clumpy-clumpy, smooth-smooth, and smooth-clumpy. Most of them are in agreement with the notion that gas could also be located in the dust-free region, which is consistent with the dust-to-gas ratio found.

We study the role of drift effect in the temporal changes of the anisotropy of galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) and the influence of the sector structure of the heliospheric magnetic field on it. We analyze the GCRs anisotropy in the Solar Cycle 24 and solar minimum 23_24 with negative polarity for the period of 2007-2009 and near minimum 24_25 with positive polarity in 2017-2018 using data of global network of Neutron Monitors. We use the harmonic analyses method to calculate the radial and tangential components of the anisotropy of GCRs for different sectors (plus corresponds to the positive and minus to the negative directions) of the heliospheric magnetic field. We compare the analysis of GCRs anisotropy using different evaluations of the mean GCRs rigidity related to Neutron Monitor observations. Then the radial and tangential components are used for characterizing the GCRs modulation in the heliosphere. We show that in the solar minimum 23_24 in 2007-2009 when negative, the drift effect is not visibly evident in the changes of the radial component, i.e. the drift effect is found to produce 4 % change in the radial component of the GCRs anisotropy for 2007-2009. Hence the diffusion dominated model of GCRs transport is more acceptable in 2007-2009. In turn, near the solar minimum 24_25 in 2017-2018 when positive, the drift effect is evidently visible and produce 40% change in the radial component of the GCRs anisotropy for 2017-2018. So in the period of 2017-2018 diffusion model with noticeably manifested drift is acceptable. The results of this work are in good agreement with the drift theory of GCRs modulation, according to which during negative (positive) polarity cycles, a drift stream of GCRs is directed toward (away from) the Sun, thus giving rise to a 22-year cycle variation of the radial GCRs anisotropy.

We study features of the 3D anisotropy of galactic cosmic rays (GCR) for 1965-2014. We analyze the 27-day variations of the 2D GCR anisotropy in the ecliptic plane, and the north-south anisotropy normal to the ecliptic plane. We study the dependence of the 27-day variation of the 3D GCR anisotropy on the solar cycle and solar magnetic cycle. We demonstrate that the 27-day variations of the GCR intensity and anisotropy can be used as an important tool to study solar wind, solar activity and heliosphere. We use the components of the 3D GCR anisotropy found based on hourly data of neutron monitors (NMs) and muon telescopes (MTs) using the harmonic analyses and spectrographic methods. We correct 2D diurnal variation of the GCR intensity for the influence of the Earth magnetic field. We derive the north-south component of the GCR anisotropy based on the GG index calculated as the difference in GCR intensities of Nagoya multidirectional MTs. We show that behavior of the 27-variation of the 3D anisotropy verifies an existence of a stable long-lived active heliolongitudes on the sun. This finding illustrates usefulness of the 27-day variation of the GCR anisotropy as a unique proxy to study solar wind, solar activity and heliosphere. We distinguish a tendency of the 22-year changes of the amplitudes of the 27-day variation of the 2D anisotropy connected with the solar magnetic cycle. We demonstrate that the amplitudes of the 27-day variation of the north-south component of the anisotropy vary upon the 11 year solar cycle, however, a dependence of the solar magnetic polarity hardly can be recognized. We show that the 27-day recurrences of the $GG$ index and At component are in a high positive correlation, and both are highly correlated with By component of the heliospheric magnetic field.

We consider Tsallis cosmology as an approach to thermodynamic gravity and derive the bound on the Tsallis parameter to be $\beta<2$ by using the constraints derived from the formation of the primordial light elements, Helium, Deuterium and Litium, from the observational data from Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) which allows only a very tiny deviation from General Relativity (GR). Next we consider thermal dark matter (DM) freeze-out mechanism in Tsallis cosmological era and derive bounds on the Tsallis parameter from the observed DM relic abundance to be $1-\beta < 10^{-5}$.

The circular polarization of black hole accretion flows can encode properties of the underlying magnetic field structure. Using general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (GRMHD) simulations, we study the imprint of magnetic field geometry on circular polarization images potentially observable by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). We decompose images into the different mechanisms that generate circular polarization in these models, which are sensitive to both the line of sight direction and twist of the magnetic field. In these models, a stable sign of the circular polarization over time, as observed for several sources, can be attributed to a stability of these properties. We illustrate how different aspects of a generic helical magnetic field geometry become imprinted on a circular polarization image. We also identify novel effects of light bending that affect the circular polarization image on event horizon scales. One consequence is the sign flipping of successive photon rings in face-on systems, which if observable and uncorrupted by Faraday rotation, can directly encode the handedness of the approaching magnetic field.

The DMASS sample is a photometric sample from the DES Year 1 data set designed to replicate the properties of the CMASS sample from BOSS, in support of a joint analysis of DES and BOSS beyond the small overlapping area. In this paper, we present the measurement of galaxy-galaxy lensing using the DMASS sample as gravitational lenses in the DES Y1 imaging data. We test a number of potential systematics that can bias the galaxy-galaxy lensing signal, including those from shear estimation, photometric redshifts, and observing conditions. After careful systematic tests, we obtain a highly significant detection of the galaxy-galaxy lensing signal, with total $S/N=25.7$. With the measured signal, we assess the feasibility of using DMASS as gravitational lenses equivalent to CMASS, by estimating the galaxy-matter cross-correlation coefficient $r_{\rm cc}$. By jointly fitting the galaxy-galaxy lensing measurement with the galaxy clustering measurement from CMASS, we obtain $r_{\rm cc}=1.09^{+0.12}_{-0.11}$ for the scale cut of $4~h^{-1}{\rm Mpc}$ and $r_{\rm cc}=1.06^{+0.13}_{-0.12}$ for $12~h^{-1}{\rm Mpc}$ in fixed cosmology. By adding the angular galaxy clustering of DMASS, we obtain $r_{\rm cc}=1.06\pm 0.10$ for the scale cut of $4~h^{-1}{\rm Mpc}$ and $r_{\rm cc}=1.03\pm 0.11$ for $12~h^{-1}{\rm Mpc}$. The resulting values of $r_{\rm cc}$ indicate that the lensing signal of DMASS is equivalent to the one that would have been measured if CMASS had populated the DES region within the given statistical uncertainty. The measurement of galaxy-galaxy lensing presented in this paper will serve as part of the data vector for the forthcoming cosmology analysis in preparation.

We introduce Z-Sequence, a novel empirical model that utilises photometric measurements of observed galaxies within a specified search radius to estimate the photometric redshift of galaxy clusters. Z-Sequence itself is composed of a machine learning ensemble based on the k-nearest neighbours algorithm. We implement an automated feature selection strategy that iteratively determines appropriate combinations of filters and colours to minimise photometric redshift prediction error. We intend for Z-Sequence to be a standalone technique but it can be combined with cluster finders that do not intrinsically predict redshift, such as our own DEEP-CEE. In this proof-of-concept study we train, fine-tune and test Z-Sequence on publicly available cluster catalogues derived from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We determine the photometric redshift prediction error of Z-Sequence via the median value of $|\Delta z|/(1+z)$ (across a photometric redshift range of $0.05 \le \textit{z} \le 0.6$) to be $\sim0.01$ when applying a small search radius. The photometric redshift prediction error for test samples increases by 30-50 per cent when the search radius is enlarged, likely due to line-of-sight interloping galaxies. Eventually, we aim to apply Z-Sequence to upcoming imaging surveys such as the Legacy Survey of Space and Time to provide photometric redshift estimates for large samples of as yet undiscovered and distant clusters.

Few solar system asteroids and comets are found in high eccentricity orbits ($e > 0.9$) but in the primordial planetesimal disks and in exoplanet systems around dying stars such objects are believed to be common. For 2006 HY51, the main belt asteroid with the highest known eccentricity 0.9684, we investigate the probable rotational states today using our computer-efficient chaotic process simulation method. Starting with random initial conditions, we find that this asteroid is inevitably captured into stable spin-orbit resonances typically within tens to a hundred Myr. The resonances are confirmed by direct integration of the equation of motion in the vicinity of end-points. Most resonances are located at high spin values above 960 times the mean motion (such as 964:1 or 4169:4), corresponding to rotation periods of a few days. We discover three types of resonance in the high-eccentricity regime: 1) regular circulation with weakly librating aphelion velocities and integer-number spin-orbit commensurabilities; 2) switching resonances of higher order with orientation alternating between aligned (0 or $\pi$) and sidewise ($\pi/2$) angles at aphelia and perihelia; 3) jumping resonances with aphelion spin alternating between two quantum states in the absence of spin-orbit commensurability. The islands of equilibrium are numerous at high spin rates but small in parameter space area, so that it takes millions of orbits of chaotic wandering to accidentally entrap in one of them. We discuss the implications of this discovery for the origins and destiny of high-eccentricity objects and the prospects of extending this analysis to the full 3D treatment.

In this paper, we perform an analysis of 13 outflows in the Cygnus X star-forming region. We use the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope observations of $^{13}$CO(3-2) and C$^{18}$O(3-2) molecular emission lines combined with archival $^{12}$CO(3-2) data. Using these new observations, we measure the mechanical properties of the outflows, and identify the associated protostars, finding their properties consistent with previous surveys of outflows throughout the Milky Way. Finally, we develop and test a method to measure the same properties using the existing $^{12}$CO(3-2) line data alone, finding the properties agree to within a factor of 2.

The fast radio bursts ( FRBs ) are energetic radio bursts with millisecond duration only observed at radio frequencies. The generation mechanism is still mysterious. We have proposed a generation mechanism of both repeating and one-off FRBs. They arise from the axion star collision with neutron star or magnetized accretion disk of galactic black hole. Once we accept the existence of the axions, we find that the mechanism well explain previously observed spectral-temporal features. In this paper we show that it also explains recently observed phenomena such as downward drifting in the repeating FRBs, etc.. Analysis of the downward drifting based on Doppler effects has been presented in recent papers, in which a superradiance system of molecular or atom has been proposed as a source of FRBs. We apply the analysis to our mechanism and find that it well explains the relation between the downward drifting rate and the duration of the repeating FRBs. The Doppler effects lead to the fact that the duration of radio burst with higher center frequency is shorter than that of radio burst with lower center frequency in the repeating FRBs. Our generation mechanism naturally explain polarization angle swing observed in the repeating FRB180301 and one-off FRBs. We also discuss the association between the FRB200428 and magnetar SGR J1935+2154. The X ray burst observed just after the observation of the FRB could be triggered by the axion star collision with the magnetar. We also explain the consistency of our generation mechanism with observed spectral-temporal differences in the repeating and one-off FRBs, e.g. longer duration ( smaller flux density ) of repeating FRBs than duration ( flux density ) of one-off FRBs.

We report follow-up observations of the Crab nebula with the PolarLight X-ray polarimeter, which revealed a possible variation in polarization associated with a pulsar glitch in 2019. The new observations confirm that the polarization has recovered roughly 100 days after the glitch. With the new observations, we find that the polarization angle (PA) measured with PolarLight from the total nebular emission has a difference of 18.0 +- 4.6 (deg) from that measured 42 years ago with OSO-8, indicating a secular evolution of polarization with either the Crab nebula or pulsar. The long-term variation in PA could be a result of multiple glitches in the history, magnetic reconnection or movement of synchrotron emitting structures in the nebula, or secular evolution of the pulsar magnetic geometry.

The cosmological {7Li problem consists in explaining why the primordial Li abundance, as predicted by the standard Big Bang nucleosynthesis theory with constraints from WMAP and Planck, is a factor of 3 larger than the Li abundance measured in the stars of the Spite plateau defined by old, warm dwarf stars of the Milky Way halo. Several explanations have been proposed to explain this difference, including various Li depletion processes as well as non standard Big Bang nucleosynthesis, but the main question remains unanswered. In this paper, we present detailed chemical evolution models for dwarf spheroidal and ultra faint galaxies, compute the galactic evolution of 7Li abundance in these objects and compare it with observations of similar objects. In our models, Li is mainly produced by novae and cosmic rays and to a minor extent by low and intermediate mass stars. We adopt the yield combination which best fits the Li abundances in the Milky Way stars. It is evident that the observations of dwarf objects define a Spite plateau, identical to that observed in the Milky Way, thus suggesting that the Spite plateau could be a universal feature and its meaning should be discussed. The predictions of our models for dwarf galaxies, are obtained by assuming as Li primordial abundance either the one detected in the atmospheres of the oldest halo stars (Spite plateau; A(Li)=2.2 dex), or the one from cosmological observations (WMAP; A(Li)=2.66 dex). Finally, we discuss the implications of the universality of the Spite plateau results.

We report the detection of the oxygen-bearing complex organic molecules propenal (C2H3CHO), vinyl alcohol (C2H3OH), methyl formate (HCOOCH3), and dimethyl ether (CH3OCH3) toward the cyanopolyyne peak of the starless core TMC-1. These molecules are detected through several emission lines in a deep Q-band line survey of TMC-1 carried out with the Yebes 40m telescope. These observations reveal that the cyanopolyyne peak of TMC-1, which is the prototype of cold dark cloud rich in carbon chains, contains also O-bearing complex organic molecules like HCOOCH3 and CH3OCH3, which have been previously seen in a handful of cold interstellar clouds. In addition, this is the first secure detection of C2H3OH in space and the first time that C2H3CHO and C2H3OH are detected in a cold environment, adding new pieces in the puzzle of complex organic molecules in cold sources. We derive column densities of (2.2 +/- 0.3)e11 cm-2, (2.5 +/- 0.5)e12 cm-2, (1.1 +/- 0.2)e12 cm-2, and (2.5 +/- 0.7)e12 cm-2 for C2H3CHO, C2H3OH, HCOOCH3, and CH3OCH3, respectively. Interestingly, C2H3OH has an abundance similar to that of its well known isomer acetaldehyde (CH3CHO), with C2H3OH/CH3CHO ~ 1 at the cyanopolyyne peak. We discuss potential formation routes to these molecules and recognize that further experimental, theoretical, and astronomical studies are needed to elucidate the true mechanism of formation of these O-bearing complex organic molecules in cold interstellar sources.

Variability observed in photometric lightcurves of late-type stars (on timescales longer than a day) is a dominant noise source in exoplanet surveys and results predominantly from surface manifestations of stellar magnetic activity, namely faculae and spots. The implementation of faculae in lightcurve models is an open problem, with scaling typically based on spectra equivalent to hot stellar atmospheres or assuming a solar-derived facular contrast. We modelled rotational (single period) lightcurves of active G2, K0, M0 and M2 stars, with Sun-like surface distributions and realistic limb-dependent contrasts for faculae and spots. The sensitivity of lightcurve variability to changes in model parameters such as stellar inclination, feature area coverage, spot temperature, facular region magnetic flux density and active band latitudes is explored. For our lightcurve modelling approach we used actress, a geometrically accurate model for stellar variability. actress generates 2-sphere maps representing stellar surfaces and populates them with user-prescribed spot and facular region distributions. From this, lightcurves can be calculated at any inclination. Quiet star limb darkening and limb-dependent facular contrasts were derived from MURaM 3D magnetoconvection simulations using ATLAS9. 1D stellar atmosphere models were used for the spot contrasts. We applied actress in Monte-Carlo simulations, calculating lightcurve variability amplitudes in the Kepler band. We found that, for a given spectral type and stellar inclination, spot temperature and spot area coverage have the largest effect on variability of all simulation parameters. For a spot coverage of 1%, the typical variability of a solar-type star is around 2 parts-per-thousand. The presence of faculae clearly affects the mean brightness and lightcurve shape, but has relatively little influence on the variability.

Aims. We study the 27-day variations of galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) based on neutron monitor (NM), ACE/CRIS, STEREO and SOHO/EPHIN measurements, in solar minima 23/24 and 24/25 characterized by the opposite polarities of solar magnetic cycle. Now there is an opportunity to reanalyze the polarity dependence of the amplitudes of the recurrent GCR variations in 2007-2009 for negative A < 0 solar magnetic polarity and to compare it with the clear periodic variations related to solar rotation in 2017-2019 for positive A > 0. Methods. We use the Fourier analysis method to study the periodicity in the GCR fluxes. Since the GCR recurrence is a consequence of solar rotation, we analyze not only GCR fluxes, but also solar and heliospheric parameters examining the relationships between the 27-day GCR variations and heliospheric, as well as, solar wind parameters. Results. We find that the polarity dependence of the amplitudes of the 27-day variations of the GCR intensity and anisotropy for NMs data is kept for the last two solar minima: 23/24 (2007-2009) and 24/25 (2017-2019) with greater amplitudes in positive A > 0 solar magnetic polarity. ACE/CRIS, SOHO/EPHIN and STEREO measurements are not governed by this principle of greater amplitudes in positive A > 0 polarity. GCR recurrence caused by the solar rotation for low energy (< 1GeV) cosmic rays is more sensitive to the enhanced diffusion effects, resulting in the same level of the 27-day amplitudes for positive and negative polarities. While high energy (> 1GeV) cosmic rays registered by NMs, are more sensitive to the large-scale drift effect leading to the 22-year Hale cycle in the 27-day GCR variation, with the larger amplitudes in the A > 0 polarity than in the A < 0.

In our recent papers (Kereslidze et all 2019a, 2021) a non-standard quasi-molecular mechanism was suggested and applied to treat the cosmological recombination. It was assumed that in the pre-recombination stage of evolution of the Universe an electron combined with two neighbouring protons and created the hydrogen molecular ion, $H_2^+$ in highly excited states, which then descended into the lower-lying states or dissociated. In this work, we elaborate the scheme of calculation for free-bound radiative transitions into attractive states of $H_2^+$ as functions of redshift $z$. Together with the earlier developed treatment of bound-bound radiative transitions in $H_2^+$, the elaborated scheme of calculation can be used for the design of a fast and complete cosmological recombination code.

We investigate the inclination-growth mechanisms for two-planet systems during the late protoplanetary disc phase. In previous works, much attention has been directed to the inclination-type resonance, and it has been shown that it asks for high eccentricities to be acquired during the migration of the giant planets. By adopting eccentricity and inclination damping formulae based on hydrodynamical simulations (instead of the K-prescription), we have carried out 20 000 numerical simulations, where we vary the initial planetary eccentricities, the migration rate, and the dispersal time of the gas disc. Our results confirm that highly mutually inclined systems are unlikely to be produced by an inclination-type resonance of two migrating giant planets. However, in ~1 per cent of the simulations, inclination-type resonance is observed, and a dynamical study of the evolutions reveals that the inclination-type resonance mechanism operates in three cases: (i) when the inner planet reaches the inner cavity of the disc, (ii) at moderate to high eccentricities for faster migration rates, and (iii) at low to moderate eccentricities after a phase of orbital destabilization and re-arrangement.

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are extremely strong radio flares lasting several milliseconds, most of which come from unidentified objects at a cosmological distance. They can be apparently repeating or not. In this paper, we analyzed 18 repeaters and 12 non-repeating FRBs observed in the frequency bands of 400-800 MHz from CHIME. We investigated the distributions of FRB isotropic-equivalent radio luminosity, considering the K correction. Statistically, the luminosity distribution can be better fitted by Gaussian form than by power-law. Based on the above results, together with the observed FRB event rate, pulse duration, and radio luminosity, FRB origin models are evaluated and constrained such that the gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) may be excluded for the non-repeaters while magnetars or neutron stars (NSs) emitting the supergiant pulses are preferred for the repeaters. We also found the necessity of a small FRB emission beaming solid angle (about 0.1 sr) from magnetars that should be considered, and/or the FRB association with soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs) may lie at a low probability of about 10%. Finally, we discussed the uncertainty of FRB luminosity caused by the estimation of the distance that is inferred by the simple relation between the redshift and dispersion measure (DM).

The Kepler-1647 is a binary system with two Sun-type stars (approximately 1.22 and 0.97 Solar mass). It has the most massive circumbinary planet (1.52 Jupiter mass) with the longest orbital period (1,107.6 days) detected by the Kepler probe and is located within the habitable zone (HZ) of the system. In this work, we investigated the ability to form and house an Earth-sized planet within its HZ. First, we computed the limits of its HZ and performed numerical stability tests within that region. We found that HZ has three sub-regions that show stability, one internal, one co-orbital, and external to the host planet Kepler-1647b. Within the limits of these three regions, we performed numerical simulations of planetary formation. In the regions inner and outer to the planet, we used two different density profiles to explore different conditions of formation. In the co-orbital region, we used eight different values of total disc mass. We showed that many resonances are located within regions causing much of the disc material to be ejected before a planet is formed. Thus, the system might have two asteroid belts with Kirkwood gaps, similar to the Solar System\'s main belt of asteroids. The co-orbital region proved to be extremely sensitive, not allowing the planet formation, but showing that this binary system has the capacity to have Trojan bodies. Finally, we looked for regions of stability for an Earth-sized moon. We found that there is stability for a moon with this mass up to 0.4 Hill\'s radius from the host planet.

In the pebble accretion scenario, the pebbles that form planets drift inward from the outer disk regions, carrying water ice with them. At the water ice line, the water ice on the inward drifting pebbles evaporates and is released into the gas phase, resulting in water-rich gas and dry pebbles that move into the inner disk regions. Large planetary cores can block the inward drifting pebbles by forming a pressure bump outside their orbit in the protoplanetary disk. Depending on the relative position of a growing planetary core relative to the water ice line, water-rich pebbles might be blocked outside or inside the water ice line. Pebbles blocked outside the water ice line do not evaporate and thus do not release their water vapor into the gas phase, resulting in a dry inner disk, while pebbles blocked outside the water ice line release their water vapor into the gas phase, resulting in water vapor diffusing into the inner disk. As a consequence, close-in sub-Neptunes that accrete some gas from the disk should be dry or wet, respectively, if outer gas giants are outside or inside the water ice line, assuming that giant planets form fast, as has been suggested for Jupiter in our Solar System. Alternatively, a sub-Neptune could form outside the water ice line, accreting a large amount of icy pebbles and then migrating inward as a very wet sub-Neptune. We suggest that the water content of inner sub-Neptunes in systems with giant planets that can efficiently block the inward drifting pebbles could constrain the formation conditions of these systems, thus making these sub-Neptunes exciting targets for detailed characterization (e.g., with JWST, ELT, or ARIEL). In addition, the search for giant planets in systems with already characterized sub-Neptunes can be used to constrain the formation conditions of giant planets as well.

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is the latest observational effort to find exoplanets and map bright transient optical phenomena. Supernovae (SN) are particularly interesting as cosmological standard candles for cosmological distance measures. The limiting magnitude of TESS strongly constrains supernova detection to the very nearby Universe ($m \sim$ 19, $z<0.05$). We explore the possibility that more distant supernovae that are gravitationally lensed and magnified by a foreground galaxy can be detected by TESS, an opportunity to measure the time delay between light paths and constrain the Hubble constant independently. We estimate the rate of occurrence of such systems, assuming reasonable distributions of magnification, host dust attenuation and redshift. There are approximately 16 type Ia and 43 core-collapse SN (SNcc) expected to be observable with TESS each year, which translates to 18% and 43% chance of detection per year, respectively. Monitoring the largest collections of known strong galaxy-galaxy lenses from Petrillo et al., this translates into 0.6% and 1.3% chances of a SNIa and SNcc per year. The TESS all-sky detection rates are lower than those of the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) and Vera Rubin Observatory. However, on the ecliptic poles, TESS performs almost as well as its all-sky search thanks to its continuous coverage: 2 and 4% chance of an observed SN (Ia or cc) each year. These rates argue for timely processing of full-frame TESS imaging to facilitate follow-up and should motivate further searches for low-redshift lensing system.

We present the discovery and timing of the young (age $\sim 28.6$ kyr) pulsar PSR J0837$-$2454. Based on its high latitude ($b = 9.8^{\circ}$) and dispersion measure (DM $ = 143$~pc~cm$^{-3}$), the pulsar appears to be at a $z$-height of $>$1 kpc above the Galactic plane, but near the edge of our Galaxy. This is many times the observed scale height of the canonical pulsar population, which suggests this pulsar may have been born far out of the plane. If accurate, the young age and high $z$-height imply that this is the first pulsar known to be born from a runaway O/B star. In follow-up imaging with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA), we detect the pulsar with a flux density $S_{1400} = 0.18 \pm 0.05$ mJy. We do not detect an obvious supernova remnant around the pulsar in our ATCA data, but we detect a co-located, low-surface-brightness region of $\sim$1.5$^\circ$ extent in archival Galactic and Extragalactic All-sky MWA Survey data. We also detect co-located H$\alpha$ emission from the Southern H$\alpha$ Sky Survey Atlas. Distance estimates based on these two detections come out to $\sim$0.9 kpc and $\sim$0.2 kpc respectively, both of which are much smaller than the distance predicted by the NE2001 model ($6.3$ kpc) and YMW model ($>25$ kpc) and place the pulsar much closer to the plane of the Galaxy. If the pulsar/remnant association holds, this result also highlights the inherent difficulty in the classification of transients as "Galactic" (pulsar) or "extragalactic" (fast radio burst) toward the Galactic anti-center based solely on the modeled Galactic electron contribution to a detection.

In this study, we explore the evolution of lithium in giant stars based on data assembled from the literature on asteroseismology and Li abundances for giants. Our final sample of 187 giants consists of 44 red giant branch (RGB), 140 core He-burning (CHeB) and three giants with an unclassified evolutionary phase. For all 187 stars, the seismic parameters $\nu\rm_{max}$ (frequency of maximum oscillation power) and $\Delta \nu$ (large frequency spacing) are available, while $\Delta \Pi\rm_{1}$ (the asymptotic gravity-mode period spacing) is available for a subset of 64. For some of the CHeB giants, mass estimates from the asteroseismic scaling relations are found to be underestimated when compared with mass estimates from isochrones based on seismic data. Whilst most of the Li-rich giants in the sample have masses less than 1.5 $M_\odot$, they are also present up to and beyond the maximum mass expected to have suffered a core He-flash, i.e. $M$ $\leq$ 2.25 $M_\odot$: this suggests contributions from other processes towards Li enrichment. To understand the evolution of giants in the $\Delta \Pi\rm_{1}$ $-$ $\Delta \nu$ plane, we use the {\it Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics} models which show the presence of mini He-flashes following the initial strong core He-flash. From the distribution of A(Li) as a function of $\Delta \nu$, which is similar to the distribution of A(Li) as a function of luminosity, we find no indication of Li enrichment near the luminosity bump. Also, A(Li) trends to $\sim$ -1.5 dex near the RGB tip. The data also suggest a decrease in A(Li) with an increase in $\Delta \Pi\rm_{1}$ for CHeB giants.

In expansion of our recent proposal (Physics, 2020, 2, 213-276) that the solar system's evolution occurred in two stages -- during the first stage, the gaseous giants formed (via disk instability), and, during the second stage (caused by an encounter with a particular stellar-object leading to "in-system" fission-driven nucleogenesis), the terrestrial planets formed (via accretion) -- we emphasize here that the mechanism of formation of such stellar-objects is generally universal and therefore encounters of such objects with stellar-systems may have occurred elsewhere across galaxies. If so, their aftereffects may perhaps be observed as puzzling features in the spectra of individual stars (such as idiosyncratic chemical enrichments) and/or in the structures of exoplanetary systems (such as unusually high planet densities or short orbital periods). This paper reviews and reinterprets astronomical data within the "fission-events framework." Classification of stellar systems as "pristine" or "impacted" is offered.

The ability to model the evolution of compact binaries from the inspiral to coalescence is central to gravitational wave astronomy. Current waveform catalogues are built from vacuum binary black hole models, by evolving Einstein equations numerically and complementing them with knowledge from slow-motion expansions. Much less is known about the coalescence process in the presence of matter, or in theories other than General Relativity. Here, we explore the Close Limit Approximation as a powerful tool to understand the coalescence process in general setups. In particular, we study the head-on collision of two equal-mass, compact but horizonless objects. Our results show the appearance of "echoes" and indicate that a significant fraction of the merger energy goes into these late-time repetitions. We also apply the Close Limit Approximation to investigate the effect of colliding black holes on surrounding scalar fields. Notably, our results indicate that observables obtained through perturbation theory may be extended to a significant segment of the merger phase, where in principle only a numerical approach is appropriate.

Wavelet scattering networks, which are convolutional neural networks (CNNs) with fixed filters and weights, are promising tools for image analysis. Imposing symmetry on image statistics can improve human interpretability, aid in generalization, and provide dimension reduction. In this work, we introduce a fast-to-compute, translationally invariant and rotationally equivariant wavelet scattering network (EqWS) and filter bank of wavelets (triglets). We demonstrate the interpretability and quantify the invariance/equivariance of the coefficients, briefly commenting on difficulties with implementing scale equivariance. On MNIST, we show that training on a rotationally invariant reduction of the coefficients maintains rotational invariance when generalized to test data and visualize residual symmetry breaking terms. Rotation equivariance is leveraged to estimate the rotation angle of digits and reconstruct the full rotation dependence of each coefficient from a single angle. We benchmark EqWS with linear classifiers on EMNIST and CIFAR-10/100, introducing a new second-order, cross-color channel coupling for the color images. We conclude by comparing the performance of an isotropic reduction of the scattering coefficients and RWST, a previous coefficient reduction, on an isotropic classification of magnetohydrodynamic simulations with astrophysical relevance.

We explore the parameter space of a U(1) extension of the standard model -- also called the super-weak model -- from the point of view of explaining the observed dark matter energy density in the Universe. The new particle spectrum contains a complex scalar singlet and three right-handed neutrinos, among which the lightest one is the dark matter candidate. We explore both freeze-in and freeze-out mechanisms of dark matter production. In both cases, we find regions in the plane of the super-weak coupling vs. the mass of the new gauge boson that are not excluded by current experimental constraints. These regions are distinct and the one for freeze-out will be explored in searches for neutral gauge boson in the near future.

We present a study of the relationship between astronomy and landscape centered on the orientation of Christian churches of the island of La Gomera, located in the Canary Archipelago. The fieldwork consisted of measuring the precise coordinates of 38 churches, which represents almost all of the island's religious constructions, which has an area of approximately 370 km2. For each church, we measured the azimuth and the angular height of the horizon taken in the direction towards which the altar of each temple points. The data obtained were corroborated with digital terrain models frequently used in archaeoastronomical studies. Finally, for the study of the sample, various analyzes were carried out: statistical, calendarical and orographic, trying to find clues that would allow us to understand the pattern of orientations found. From this analysis, we can infer that in some places the canonical tradition of orienting Christian temples in the solar range was respected. Also, it is possible that a few constructions were oriented with imitation patterns of the aborigine cult, especially in solstitial directions. However, we find that the orientation of the majority of the churches is towards the northeast and, in the absence of a better justification, we think that reason should be sought more in the terrestrial landscape than in the celestial one. Judging by the way in which several small groups of temples are distributed, we estimate this unusual pattern of global orientations is motivated by the particular orography of the island. A significant proportion of churches seems to adapt to the characteristics of their sites, orienting themselves according to the numerous geographical features where they are located. These results allow us to conjecture that the known "abrupt nature" of La Gomera is perhaps the main reason for the particular pattern of orientations of its worship sanctuaries.

A lingering mystery in core-collapse supernova theory is how collective neutrino oscillations affect the dynamics. All previously identified flavor instabilities, some of which might make the effects considerable, are essentially collisionless phenomena. Here it is shown that collisional instabilities exist as well. They are associated with asymmetries between the neutrino and antineutrino interaction rates, are possibly prevalent deep inside supernovae, and pose an unusual instance of decoherent interactions with a thermal environment causing the sustained growth of quantum coherence.

Dark matter represents currently an outstanding problem in both cosmology and particle physics. In this review we discuss the possible explanations for dark matter and the experimental observables which can eventually lead to the discovery of dark matter and its nature, and demonstrate the close interplay between the cosmological properties of the early Universe and the observables used to constrain dark matter models in the context of new physics beyond the Standard Model.

The light we receive from distant astrophysical objects carries information about their origins and the physical mechanisms that power them. The study of these signals, however, is complicated by the fact that observations are often a mixture of the light emitted by multiple localized sources situated in a spatially-varying background. A general algorithm to achieve robust and accurate source identification in this case remains an open question in astrophysics. This paper focuses on high-energy light (such as X-rays and gamma-rays), for which observatories can detect individual photons (quanta of light), measuring their incoming direction, arrival time, and energy. Our proposed Bayesian methodology uses both the spatial and energy information to identify point sources, that is, separate them from the spatially-varying background, to estimate their number, and to compute the posterior probabilities that each photon originated from each identified source. This is accomplished via a Dirichlet process mixture while the background is simultaneously reconstructed via a flexible Bayesian nonparametric model based on B-splines. Our proposed method is validated with a suite of simulation studies and illustrated with an application to a complex region of the sky observed by the \emph{Fermi} Gamma-ray Space Telescope.

Reconnection is an important process that rules dissipation and diffusion of magnetic energy in plasmas. It is already clear that its rate is enhanced by turbulence, and that reconnection itself may increase its stochasticity, but the main mechanism that connects these two effects is still not completely understood. The aim of this work is to identify, from the terms of the electromotive force, the dominant physical process responsible for enhancing the reconnection rate in turbulent plasmas. We employ full three-dimensional numerical simulations of turbulence driven by stochastic reconnection and estimate the production and dissipation of turbulent energy and cross-helicity, the amount of produced residual helicity, and determine the relation between these quantities and the reconnection rate. We observe the development of the electromotive force in the studied models with plasma-$\beta = 0.1 - 2$ and the Lundquist number $S=10^{-5}-10^{-4}$. The turbulent energy and residual helicity develop in the large-scale current sheet, with the latter decreasing the effects of turbulent magnetic diffusion. We demonstrate that the stochastic reconnection, apart from the turbulence, can produce a significant amount of cross-helicity as well. The cross-helicity to turbulent energy ratio, however, has no correlation with the reconnection rate. We show that its sufficiently large value is not a necessary condition for fast reconnection to occur. The results suggest that cross-helicity is inherent to turbulent fields, but the reconnection rate enhancement is possibly caused by the effects of magnetic turbulent diffusion and controlled by the residual helicity.