Papers for Wednesday, Feb 02 2022

Galactic rotation curves exhibit a diverse range of inner slopes. Observational data indicates that explaining this diversity may require a mechanism that correlates a galaxy's surface brightness with the central-most region of its dark matter halo. In this work, we compare several concrete models that capture the relevant physics required to explain the galaxy diversity problem. We focus specifically on a Self-Interacting Dark Matter (SIDM) model with an isothermal core and two Cold Dark Matter (CDM) models with/without baryonic feedback. Using rotation curves from 90 galaxies in the Spitzer Photometry and Accurate Rotation Curves (SPARC) catalog, we perform a comprehensive model comparison that addresses issues of statistical methodology from prior works. The best-fit halo models that we recover are consistent with the Planck concentration-mass relation as well as standard abundance matching relations. We find that both the SIDM and feedback-affected CDM models are better than a CDM model with no feedback in explaining the rotation curves of low and high surface brightness galaxies in the sample. However, when compared to each other, there is no strong statistical preference for either the SIDM or the feedback-affected CDM halo model as the source of galaxy diversity in the SPARC catalog.

Planet formation is often considered in the context of one circumstellar disk around one star. Yet stellar binary systems are ubiquitous, and thus a substantial fraction of all potential planets must form and evolve in more complex, dynamical environments. We present the results of a five-year astrometric monitoring campaign studying 45 binary star systems that host Kepler planet candidates. The planet-forming environments in these systems would have literally been shaped by the binary orbits that persist to the present day. Crucially, the mutual inclinations of star-planet orbits can only be addressed by a statistical sample. We describe in detail our sample selection and Keck/NIRC2 laser guide star adaptive optics observations collected from 2012 to 2017. We measure orbital arcs, with a typical accuracy of ~0.1 mas/yr, that test whether the binary orbits tend to be aligned with the edge-on transiting planet orbits. We rule out randomly-distributed binary orbits at 4.7$\sigma$, and we show that low mutual inclinations are required to explain the observed orbital arcs. If the stellar orbits have a field binary-like eccentricity distribution, then the best match to our observed orbital arcs is a distribution of mutual inclinations ranging from 0-30 degrees. We discuss the implications of such widespread planet-binary alignment in the theoretical context of planet formation and circumstellar disk evolution.

Tidal disruption events with tidal radius $r_{\rm t}$ and pericenter distance $r_{\rm p}$ are characterized by the quantity $\beta = r_{\rm t}/r_{\rm p}$, and "deep encounters" have $\beta \gg 1$. It has been assumed that there is a critical $\beta \equiv \beta_{\rm c} \sim 1$ that differentiates between partial and full disruption: for $\beta < \beta_{\rm c}$ a fraction of the star survives the tidal interaction with the black hole, while for $\beta > \beta_{\rm c}$ the star is completely destroyed, and hence all deep encounters should be full. Here we show that this assumption is incorrect by providing an example of a $\beta = 16$ encounter between a $\gamma = 5/3$, solar-like polytrope and a $10^6 M_{\odot}$ black hole -- for which previous investigations have found $\beta_{\rm c} \simeq 0.9$ -- that results in the reformation of a stellar core post-disruption that comprises approximately 25\% of the original stellar mass. We propose that the core reforms under self-gravity, which remains important because of the compression of the gas both near pericenter, where the compression occurs out of the orbital plane, and substantially after pericenter, where compression is within the plane. We find that the core forms on a bound orbit about the black hole, and we discuss the corresponding implications of our findings in the context of recently observed, repeating nuclear transients.

The timescales for galaxy quenching offer clues to its underlying physical drivers. We investigate central galaxy quenching timescales in the IllustrisTNG 100-1 simulation, their evolution over time, and the pre-quenching properties of galaxies that predict their quenching timescales. Defining quenching duration $\tau_q$ as the time between crossing sSFR thresholds, we find that $\sim$40% of galaxies quench rapidly with $\tau_q<$1 Gyr, but a substantial tail of galaxies can take up to 10 Gyr to quench. Furthermore, 29% of galaxies that left the star forming main sequence (SFMS) more than 2 Gyr ago never fully quench by $z=0$. While the median $\tau_q$ is fairly constant with epoch, the rate of galaxies leaving the SFMS increases steadily over cosmic time, with the rate of slow quenchers being dominant around $z\sim2$ to 0.7. Compared to fast quenchers ($\tau_q<$1 Gyr), slow-quenching galaxies ($\tau_q>$1 Gyr) were more massive, had more massive black holes, had larger stellar radii and accreted gas with higher specific angular momentum (AM) prior to quenching. These properties evolve little by $z=0$, except for the accreting gas AM for fast quenchers, which reaches the same high AM as the gas in slow quenchers. By $z=0$, slow quenchers also have residual star formation in extended gas rings. Using the expected relationship between stellar age gradient and $\tau_q$ for inside-out quenching we find agreement with MaNGA IFU observations. Our results suggest the accreting gas AM and potential well depth determine the quenching timescale.

The connection between the escape fraction of ionizing photons ($f_{\rm esc}$) and star-formation rate surface density ($\Sigma_{\rm SFR}$) is a key input for reionization models, but remains untested at high redshift. We analyse 35 z~3 galaxies from the Keck Lyman Continuum Survey (KLCS) covered by deep, rest far-UV spectra of the Lyman continuum (LyC) and high-resolution HST V$_{606}$ imaging. The dataset enables estimates of both ionizing escape fractions and rest-UV sizes. Using S\'ersic profile fits to HST images and spectral-energy distribution fits to multi-band photometry, we measure effective sizes and star-formation rates for the galaxies in our sample, and separate the sample into two bins of $\Sigma_{\rm SFR}$. Based on composite spectra, we estimate <$f_{\rm esc}$> for both $\Sigma_{\rm SFR}$ subsamples, and find no significant difference in <$f_{\rm esc}$> between the two. To test the representativeness of the KLCS HST sample and the robustness of this result, we attempt to recover the well-established correlation between $f_{\rm esc}$ and Ly$\alpha$ equivalent width. This correlation is not significant within the KLCS HST sample, indicating that the sample is not sufficient for correlating $f_{\rm esc}$ and galaxy properties such as $\Sigma_{\rm SFR}$. We perform stacking simulations using the KLCS parent sample to determine the optimal sample size for robust probes of the $f_{\rm esc}$-$\Sigma_{\rm SFR}$ connection to inform future HST LyC observing programs. For a program with a selection that is independent of ionizing properties, >= 90 objects are required; for a program preferentially observing strongly-leaking LyC sources, >= 58 objects would be required. More generally, measuring the connection between $f_{\rm esc}$ and $\Sigma_{\rm SFR}$ requires a larger, representative sample spanning a wide dynamic range in galaxies properties such as $\Sigma_{\rm SFR}$.

The Star Formation Rate Density (SFRD) history of the Universe is well constrained up to redshift $z \sim 2$. At earlier cosmic epochs, the picture has been largely inferred from UV-selected galaxies (e.g. Lyman-break galaxies, LBGs). However, LBGs' inferred SFRs strongly depend on the assumed dust extinction correction, which is not well-constrained at high-$z$, while observations in the radio domain are not affected by this issue. In this work we measure the SFRD from a 1.4 GHz-selected sample of $\sim$600 galaxies in the GOODS-N field up to redshift $\sim 3.5$. We take into account the contribution of Active Galactic Nuclei from the Infrared-Radio correlation. We measure the radio luminosity function, fitted with a modified Schechter function, and derive the SFRD. The cosmic SFRD shows a rise up to $z \sim 2$ and then an almost flat plateau up to $z \sim 3.5$. Our SFRD is in agreement with the ones from other FIR/radio surveys and a factor 2 higher than those from LBG samples. We also estimate that galaxies lacking a counterpart in the HST/WFC3 H-band ($H$-dark) make up $\sim 25\%$ of the $\phi$-integrated SFRD relative to the full sample at z $\sim 3.2$, and up to $58\%$ relative to LBG samples.

We study the present-day rotational velocity ($V_{rot}$) and velocity dispersion (${\sigma}$) profiles of the globular cluster (GC) systems in a sample of 50 lenticular (S0) galaxies from the E-MOSAICS galaxy formation simulations. We find that 82% of the galaxies have GCs that are rotating along the photometric major axis of the galaxy ($aligned$), while the remaining 18% of the galaxies do not ($misaligned$). This is generally consistent with the observations from the SLUGGS survey. For the $aligned$ galaxies, classified as $peaked$ $and$ $outwardly$ $decreasing$ (49%), $flat$ (24%) and $increasing$ (27%) based on the $V_{rot}/{\sigma}$ profiles out to large radii, we do not find any clear correlation between these present-day $V_{rot}/{\sigma}$ profiles of the GCs and the past merger histories of the S0 galaxies, unlike in previous simulations of galaxy stars. For just over half of the $misaligned$ galaxies, we find that the GC misalignment is the result of a major merger within the last 10 Gyr so that the $ex$-$situ$ GCs are misaligned by an angle between 0{\deg} (co-rotation) to 180{\deg} (counter-rotation) with respect to the $in$-$situ$ GCs, depending on the orbital configuration of the merging galaxies. For the remaining $misaligned$ galaxies, we suggest that the $in$-$situ$ metal-poor GCs, formed at early times, have undergone more frequent kinematic perturbations than the $in$-$situ$ metal-rich GCs. We also find that the GCs accreted early and the $in$-$situ$ GCs are predominantly located within 0.2 virial radii ($R_{200}$) from the centre of galaxies in 3D phase-space diagrams.

Double-close-binary quadruples (2+2 systems) are hierarchical systems of four stars where two short-period binary systems move around their common center of mass on a wider orbit. Using Gaia Early Data Release 3, we search for comoving pairs where both components are eclipsing binaries. We present eight 2+2 quadruple systems with inner orbital periods of $<$ 0.4 days and with outer separations of $\gtrsim 1000$ AU. All but one system are newly discovered by this work, and we catalog their orbital information measured from their light curves. We find that the occurrence rate of 2+2 quadruples is 7.3 $\pm$ 2.6 times higher than what is expected from random pairings of field stars. At most a factor of $\sim$2 enhancement may be explained by the age and metallicity dependence of the eclipsing binary fraction in the field stellar population. The remaining factor of $\sim$3 represents a genuine enhancement of the production of short-period binaries in wide-separation ($>10^3$ AU) pairs, suggesting a close binary formation channel that may be enhanced by the presence of wide companions.

We report on the internal distribution of star formation efficiency in IRAS 08339+6517 (hereafter IRAS08), using $\sim$200~pc resolution CO(2-1) observations from NOEMA. The molecular gas depletion time changes by 2 orders-of-magnitude from disk-like values in the outer parts to less than 10$^8$~yr inside the half-light radius. This translates to a star formation efficiency per free-fall time that also changes by 2 orders-of-magnitude, reaching 50-100\%, different than local spiral galaxies and typical assumption of constant, low star formation efficiencies. Our target is a compact, massive disk galaxy that has SFR 10$\times$ above the $z=0$ main-sequence; Toomre $Q\approx0.5-0.7$ and high gas velocity dispersion ($\sigma_{mol}\approx 25$~km~s$^{-1}$). We find that IRAS08 is similar to other rotating, starburst galaxies from the literature in the resolved $\Sigma_{SFR}\propto\Sigma_{mol}^N$ relation. By combining resolved literature studies we find that distance from the main-sequence is a strong indicator of the Kennicutt-Schmidt powerlaw slope, with slopes of $N\approx1.6$ for starbursts from 100-10$^4$~M$_{\odot}$~pc$^{-2}$. Our target is consistent with a scenario in which violent disk instabilities drive rapid inflows of gas. It has low values of Toomre-$Q$, and also at all radii the inflow timescale of the gas is less than the depletion time, which is consistent with the flat metallicity gradients in IRAS08. We consider these results in light of popular star formation theories, in general observations of IRAS08 find the most tension with theories in which star formation efficiency is a constant. Our results argue for the need of high spatial resolution CO observations are a larger number of similar targets.

We report here radio follow-up observations of the optical Tidal Disruption Event (TDE) AT 2019azh. Previously reported X-ray observations of this TDE showed variability at early times and a dramatic increase in luminosity, by a factor of $\sim 10$, about 8 months after optical discovery. The X-ray emission is mainly dominated by intermediate hard--soft X-rays and is exceptionally soft around the X-ray peak, which is $L_X \sim 10^{43} \rm \, erg \, s^{-1}$. The high cadence $15.5$ GHz observations reported here show an early rise in radio emission followed by an approximately constant light curve, and a late-time flare. This flare starts roughly at the time of the observed X-ray peak luminosity and reaches its peak about $110$ days after the peak in the X-ray, and a year after optical discovery. The radio flare peaks at $\nu L_{\nu} \sim 10^{38} \rm \, erg \, s^{-1}$, a factor of two higher than the emission preceding the flare. In light of the late-time radio and X-ray flares, and the X-ray spectral evolution, we speculate a possible transition in the accretion state of this TDE, similar to the observed behavior in black hole X-ray binaries. We compare the radio properties of AT 2019azh to other known TDEs, and focus on the similarities to the late time radio flare of the TDE ASASSN-15oi.

The characterization of an exoplanet's interior is an inverse problem, which requires statistical methods such as Bayesian inference in order to be solved. Current methods employ Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling to infer the posterior probability of planetary structure parameters for a given exoplanet. These methods are time consuming since they require the calculation of a large number of planetary structure models. To speed up the inference process when characterizing an exoplanet, we propose to use conditional invertible neural networks (cINNs) to calculate the posterior probability of the internal structure parameters. cINNs are a special type of neural network which excel in solving inverse problems. We constructed a cINN using FrEIA, which was then trained on a database of $5.6\cdot 10^6$ internal structure models to recover the inverse mapping between internal structure parameters and observable features (i.e., planetary mass, planetary radius and composition of the host star). The cINN method was compared to a Metropolis-Hastings MCMC. For that we repeated the characterization of the exoplanet K2-111 b, using both the MCMC method and the trained cINN. We show that the inferred posterior probability of the internal structure parameters from both methods are very similar, with the biggest differences seen in the exoplanet's water content. Thus cINNs are a possible alternative to the standard time-consuming sampling methods. Indeed, using cINNs allows for orders of magnitude faster inference of an exoplanet's composition than what is possible using an MCMC method, however, it still requires the computation of a large database of internal structures to train the cINN. Since this database is only computed once, we found that using a cINN is more efficient than an MCMC, when more than 10 exoplanets are characterized using the same cINN.

Young exoplanets and their corresponding host stars are fascinating laboratories for constraining the timescale of planetary evolution and planet-star interactions. However, because young stars are typically much more active than the older population, in order to discover more young exoplanets, greater knowledge of the wide array of young star variability is needed. Here Kohonen Self Organising Maps (SOMs) are used to explore young star variability present in the first year of observations from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), with such knowledge valuable to perform targeted detrending of young stars in the future. This technique was found to be particularly effective at separating the signals of young eclipsing binaries and potential transiting objects from stellar variability, a list of which are provided in this paper. The effect of pre-training the Self-Organising Maps on known variability classes was tested, but found to be challenging without a significant training set from TESS. SOMs were also found to provide an intuitive and informative overview of leftover systematics in the TESS data, providing an important new way to characterise troublesome systematics in photometric data-sets. This paper represents the first stage of the wider YOUNGSTER program, which will use a machine-learning-based approach to classification and targeted detrending of young stars in order to improve the recovery of smaller young exoplanets.

We present a novel model that explains the origin of Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) -- short ($<1~\rm{s}$), bright ($0.1 - 1000~\rm{Jy}$) bursts of GHz frequency radio waves. The model has three ingredients -- compact object, progenitor with effective magnetic field strength around $10^{10}~{\rm Gauss}$, and GHz frequency gravitational waves (GWs). The energy conversion from GWs to electromagnetic waves occurs when GWs pass through the magnetosphere of such compact objects due to the Gertsenshtein-Zel'dovich effect. This conversion produces bursts of electromagnetic waves in the GHz range, leading to FRBs. Our model has three key features: (i) can generate peak-flux up to $1000~{\rm Jy}$, (ii) can naturally explain the pulse-width and (iii) predict FRB's random and repeating nature with a wide flux range. We thus conclude that the millisecond pulsars could be the progenitor of FRBs. Further, our model offers a novel perspective on the indirection detection of GWs at high-frequency beyond detection capabilities. Thus, transient events like FRBs are a rich source for the current era of multi-messenger astronomy.

High accuracy proper motions (PMs) of M31 and other Local Group satellites have now been provided by the {\it Gaia} satellite. We revisit the Timing Argument to compute the total mass $M$ of the Local Group from the orbit of the Milky Way and M31, allowing for the Cosmological Constant. We rectify for a systematic effect caused by the presence of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). The interaction of the LMC with the Milky Way induces a motion towards the LMC. This contribution to the measured velocity of approach of the Milky Way and M31 must be removed. We allow for cosmic bias and scatter by extracting correction factors tailored to the accretion history of the Local Group. The distribution of correction factors is centered around $0.63$ with a scatter $\pm 0.2$, indicating that the Timing Argument significantly overestimates the true mass. Adjusting for all these effects, the estimated mass of the Local Group is $ M = 3.4^{+1.4}_{-1.1} \times 10^{12} M_{\odot}$ (68\% CL) when using the M31 tangential velocity $v_{\rm tan}= 82^{+38}_{-35}\,\kms$. Lower tangential velocity models with $v_{\rm tan}= 59^{+42}_{-38}\,\kms$ (derived from the same PM data with a flat prior on the tangential velocity) lead to an estimated mass of $ M = 3.1^{+1.3}_{-1.0} \times 10^{12} M_{\odot}$ (68\% CL). By making an inventory of the total mass associated with the 4 most substantial LG members (the Milky Way, M31, M33 and the LMC), we estimate the known mass is in the range $3.7^{+0.5}_{-0.5} \times 10^{12} \, M_{\odot}$.

We perform cosmological zoom-in simulations of $19$ relaxed cluster-mass haloes with the inclusion of adiabatic gas within the cold dark matter (CDM) and self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) models. These clusters are selected as dynamically relaxed clusters from a parent simulation and have typical masses of $M_{\rm 200} \simeq 1\operatorname{-}3\times 10^{15}\,{\rm M}_{\odot}$. We find that both the dark matter and the intracluster gas distributions in SIDM are more spherical than their CDM counterparts, although the difference is smaller for the gas. Mock X-ray images are generated based on the simulations and are compared to the real X-ray images of $84$ relaxed clusters selected from the Chandra and ROSAT archives. We perform ellipse fitting for the isophotes of mock and real X-ray images and obtain the ellipticities at cluster-centric radii of $r\simeq 0.1\operatorname{-}0.2\,R_{\rm 200}$. The X-ray isophotes in SIDM models with increasing cross-sections are rounder than their CDM counterparts, which manifests as a systematic shift in the distribution function of ellipticities. Unexpectedly, the X-ray morphology of the observed "non-peaky" (non-cool-core) clusters agrees better with SIDM models with cross-section per unit mass $(\sigma/m)= 0.5\operatorname{-}1~{\rm cm}^2/{\rm g}$ than CDM and SIDM with $(\sigma/m)=0.1\,{\rm cm}^2/{\rm g}$. Our statistical analysis indicates that the latter two models are disfavored at least at the $68\%$ confidence level. This conclusion is not altered by shifting the radial range of measurements or applying temperature selection criterion. However, the primary uncertainty originates from the lack of baryonic physics in the adiabatic model, such as gas cooling, star formation and feedback effects, which have the potential to reconcile CDM simulations with observations.

We present multi-epoch optical spectra of the $\gamma$-ray bright blazar 1156+295 (4C +29.45, Ton 599) obtained with the 4.3~m Lowell Discovery Telescope. During a multi-wavelength outburst in late 2017, when the $\gamma$-ray flux increased to $2.5\times 10^{-6} \; \rm phot\; cm^{-2}\; s^{-1}$ and the quasar was first detected at energies $\geq100$ GeV, the flux of the Mg II $\lambda 2798$ emission line changed, as did that of the Fe emission complex at shorter wavelengths. These emission line fluxes increased along with the highly polarized optical continuum flux, which is presumably synchrotron radiation from the relativistic jet, with a relative time delay of $\lesssim2$ weeks. This implies that the line-emitting clouds lie near the jet, which points almost directly toward the line of sight. The emission-line radiation from such clouds, which are located outside the canonical accretion-disk related broad-line region, may be a primary source of seed photons that are up-scattered to $\gamma$-ray energies by relativistic electrons in the jet.

The Wide Field Imager (WFI) flying on Athena will usher in the next era of studying the hot and energetic Universe. WFI observations of faint, diffuse sources will be limited by uncertainty in the background produced by high-energy particles. These particles produce easily identified "cosmic-ray tracks" along with signals from secondary photons and electrons generated by particle interactions with the instrument. The signal from these secondaries is identical to the X-rays focused by the optics, and cannot be filtered without also eliminating these precious photons. As part of a larger effort to understand the WFI background, we here present results from a study of background-reduction techniques that exploit the spatial correlation between cosmic-ray particle tracks and secondary events. We use Geant4 simulations to generate a realistic particle background, sort this into simulated WFI frames, and process those frames in a similar way to the expected flight and ground software to produce a WFI observation containing only particle background. The technique under study, Self Anti-Coincidence or SAC, then selectively filters regions of the detector around particle tracks, turning the WFI into its own anti-coincidence detector. We show that SAC is effective at improving the systematic uncertainty for observations of faint, diffuse sources, but at the cost of statistical uncertainty due to a reduction in signal. If sufficient pixel pulse-height information is telemetered to the ground for each frame, then this technique can be applied selectively based on the science goals, providing flexibility without affecting the data quality for other science. The results presented here are relevant for any future silicon-based pixelated X-ray imaging detector, and could allow the WFI and similar instruments to probe to truly faint X-ray surface brightness.

In this series of papers, we employ several machine learning (ML) methods to classify the point-like sources from the miniJPAS catalogue, and identify quasar candidates. Since no representative sample of spectroscopically confirmed sources exists at present to train these ML algorithms, we rely on mock catalogues. In this first paper we develop a pipeline to compute synthetic photometry of quasars, galaxies and stars using spectra of objects targeted as quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. To match the same depths and signal-to-noise ratio distributions in all bands expected for miniJPAS point sources in the range $17.5\leq r<24$, we augment our sample of available spectra by shifting the original $r$-band magnitude distributions towards the faint end, ensure that the relative incidence rates of the different objects are distributed according to their respective luminosity functions, and perform a thorough modeling of the noise distribution in each filter, by sampling the flux variance either from Gaussian realizations with given widths, or from combinations of Gaussian functions. Finally, we also add in the mocks the patterns of non-detections which are present in all real observations. Although the mock catalogues presented in this work are a first step towards simulated data sets that match the properties of the miniJPAS observations, these mocks can be adapted to serve the purposes of other photometric surveys.

Future measurements of the millimeter-wavelength sky require a low-loss superconducting microstrip, typically made from niobium and silicon-nitride, coupling the antenna to detectors. We propose a simple device for characterizing these low-loss microstrips at 150 GHz. In our device we illuminate an antenna with a thermal source and compare the measured power at 150 GHz transmitted down microstrips of different lengths. The power measurement is made using Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors (MKIDs) fabricated directly onto the microstrip dielectric, and comparing the measured response provides a direct measurement of the microstrip loss. Our proposed structure provides a simple device (4 layers and a DRIE etch) for characterizing the dielectric loss of various microstrip materials and substrates. We present initial results using these devices. We demonstrate that the millimeter wavelength loss of microstrip lines, a few tens of millimeters long, can be measured using a practical aluminum MKID with a black body source at a few tens of Kelvin.

We present the Deep Integral Field Spectrograph View of Nuclei of Galaxies (DIVING$^{3D}$) survey, a seeing-limited optical 3D spectroscopy study of the central regions of all 170 galaxies in the Southern hemisphere with B < 12.0 and |b| > 15 degrees. Most of the observations were taken with the Integral Field Unit of the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph, at the Gemini South telescope, but some are also being taken with the Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope (SOAR) Integral Field Spectrograph. The DIVING$^{3D}$ survey was designed for the study of nuclear emission-line properties, circumnuclear (within scales of hundreds of pc) emission-line properties, stellar and gas kinematics and stellar archaeology. The data have a combination of high spatial and spectral resolution not matched by previous surveys and will result in significant contributions for studies related to, for example, the statistics of low-luminosity active galactic nuclei, the ionization mechanisms in Low-Ionization Nuclear Emission-Line Regions, the nature of transition objects, among other topics.

We perform a tomographic cross-correlation analysis of archival FIRAS data and the BOSS galaxy redshift survey to constrain the amplitude of [CII] $^2P_{3/2}\rightarrow$ $^2P_{1/2}$ fine structure emission. Our analysis employs spherical harmonic tomography (SHT), which is based on the angular cross-power spectrum between FIRAS maps and BOSS galaxy over-densities at each pair of redshift bins, over a redshift range of $0.24<z<0.69$. We develop the SHT approach for intensity mapping, where it has several advantages over existing power spectral estimators. Our analysis constrains the product of the [CII] bias and [CII] specific intensity, $b_{[CII]}I_{[CII]i}$, to be $<0.31$ MJy/sr at $z {\approx} 0.35$ and $<0.28$ MJy/sr at $z {\approx} 0.57$ at $95\%$ confidence. These limits are consistent with most current models of the [CII] signal, as well as with higher-redshift [CII] cross-power spectrum measurements from the Planck satellite and BOSS quasars. We also show that our analysis, if applied to data from a more sensitive instrument such as the proposed PIXIE satellite, can detect pessimistic [CII] models at high significance.

Population (Pop) III stars, first stars, or metal-free stars are made of primordial gas. We have examined if they can be dominant origins of merging binary black holes (BHs) and extremely metal-poor stars. The abundance pattern of EMP stars is helpful to trace back the properties of Pop III stars. We have confirmed previous arguments that the observed BH merger rate needs Pop III star formation efficiency 10 times larger than theoretically predicted values, while the cosmic reionization history still permits such a high Pop III star formation efficiency. On the other hand, we have newly found that the elemental abundance pattern of EMP stars only allows the Pop III initial mass function with the minimum mass of $\sim 15 - 27$ $M_\odot$. In other words, the minimum mass must not deviate largely from the critical mass below and above which Pop III stars leave behind neutron stars and BHs, respectively. Pop III stars may be still a dominant origin of merging binary BHs but our study has reduced the allowed parameter space under a hypothesis that EMP stars are formed from primordial gas mixed with Pop III supernova ejecta.

Large and publicly available astronomical archives open up new possibilities to search and study Solar System objects. However, advanced techniques are required to deal with the large amounts of data. These unbiased surveys can be used to constrain the size distribution of minor bodies, which represents a piece of the puzzle for the formation models of the Solar System. We aim to identify asteroids in archival images from the ESA Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Science data archive using data mining. We developed a citizen science project on the Zooniverse platform, Hubble Asteroid Hunter (www.asteroidhunter.org) asking members of the public to identify asteroid trails in archival HST images. We used the labels provided by the volunteers to train an automated deep learning model built with Google Cloud AutoML Vision to explore the entire HST archive to detect asteroids crossing the field-of-view. We report the detection of 1701 new asteroid trails identified in archival HST data via our citizen science project and the subsequent machine learning exploration of the ESA HST science data archive. We detect asteroids to a magnitude of 24.5, which are statistically fainter than the populations of asteroids identified from ground-based surveys. The majority of asteroids are distributed near the ecliptic plane, as expected, where we find an approximate density of 80 asteroids per square degree. We match 670 trails (39% of the trails found) with 454 known Solar System objects in the Minor Planet Center database, however, no matches are found for 1031 (61%) trails. The unidentified asteroids are faint, being on average 1.6 magnitudes fainter than the asteroids we succeeded to identify. They probably correspond to previously unknown objects. This work demonstrates that citizen science and machine learning are useful techniques for the systematic search of SSOs in existing astronomy science archives.

The composition and structure of interstellar dust are important and complex for the study of the evolution of stars and the \textbf{interstellar medium} (ISM). However, there is a lack of corresponding experimental data and model theories. By theoretical calculations based on ab-initio method, we have predicted and geometry optimized the structures of Carbon-rich (C-rich) dusts, carbon ($^{12}$C), iron carbide (FeC), silicon carbide (SiC), even silicon ($^{28}$Si), iron ($^{56}$Fe), and investigated the optical absorption coefficients and emission coefficients of these materials in 0D (zero$-$dimensional), 1D, and 2D nanostructures. Comparing the \textbf{nebular spectra} of the supernovae (SN) with the coefficient of dust, we find that the optical absorption coefficient of the 2D $^{12}$C, $^{28}$Si, $^{56}$Fe, SiC and FeC structure corresponds to the absorption peak displayed in the infrared band (5$-$8) $\mu$$m$ of the spectrum at 7554 days after the SN1987A explosion. And it also corresponds to the spectrum of 535 days after the explosion of SN2018bsz, when the wavelength in the range of (0.2$-$0.8) and (3$-$10) $\mu$$m$. Nevertheless, 2D SiC and FeC corresponds to the spectrum of 844 days after the explosion of SN2010jl, when the wavelength is within (0.08$-$10) $\mu$$m$. Therefore, FeC and SiC may be the second type of dust in SN1987A corresponding to infrared band (5$-$8) $\mu$$m$ of dust and may be in the ejecta of SN2010jl and SN2018bsz.

The Halpha emission of a set of southern gamma-Cas stars was monitored since 2019, with the aim of detecting transition events and examining how their peculiar X-ray emission would react in such cases. Two stars, HD119682 and V767Cen, were found to display slowly decreasing disk emissions. These decreases were not perfectly monotonic and several temporary and limited re-building events were observed. For HD119682, the emission component in Halpha disappeared in mid-July 2020. In X-rays, the X-ray flux was twice smaller than recorded two decades ago but of a similar level as observed a decade ago. The X-ray flux decreased over the campaign by 30%, but the hardness remained similar in datasets of all epochs. In particular, the gamma-Cas character remained as clear as before even when there was no trace of disk emission in the Halpha line. For V767Cen, the full disappearance of disk emission in Halpha never occurred. We followed closely a disk rebuilding event, but no significant change in flux or hardness was detected. These behaviours are compared to those of other gamma-Cas stars and their consequences on the X-ray generation are discussed.

Following the GRB 170817A prompt emission lasting a fraction of a second, $10^8$ s of data in the X-rays, optical, and radio wavelengths have been acquired. We here present a model that fits the spectra, flux, and time variability of all these emissions, based on the thermal and synchrotron cooling of the expanding matter ejected in a binary white dwarf merger. The $10^{-3} M_\odot$ of ejecta, expanding at velocities of $10^9$ cm s$^{-1}$, are powered by the newborn massive, fast rotating, magnetized white dwarf with a mass of $1.3 M_\odot$, a rotation period of $\gtrsim 12$ s, and a dipole magnetic field $\sim 10^{10}$ G, born in the merger of a $1.0+0.8 M_\odot$ white dwarf binary. Therefore, the long-lasting mystery of the GRB 170817A nature is solved by the merger of a white dwarf binary that also explains the prompt emission energetics.

Long gamma-ray bursts show an afterglow emission in the X-rays, optical, and radio wavelengths with luminosities that fade with time with a nearly identical power-law behavior. In this talk, I present an analytic treatment that shows that this afterglow is produced by synchrotron radiation from the supernova ejecta associated with binary-driven hypernovae.

Gravitational-wave (GW) data contains non-Gaussian noise transients called "glitches". During the third LIGO-Virgo observing run about 24% of all gravitational-wave candidates were in the vicinity of a glitch, while even more events could be affected in future observing runs due to increasing detector sensitivity. This poses a problem since glitches can affect the estimation of GW source parameters, including sky localisation, which is crucial to identify an electromagnetic (EM) counterpart. In this paper we present a study that estimates how much sky localisation is affected by a nearby glitch in low latency. We injected binary black hole (BBH), binary neutron star (BNS) and neutron star-black hole (NSBH) signals into data containing three different classes of glitches: blips, thunderstorms and fast scatterings. The impact of these glitches was assessed by estimating the number of tile pointings that a telescope would need to search over until the true sky location of an event is observed. We found that blip glitches affect the localisation of BBH mergers the most; in the most extreme cases a BBH event is completely missed even by a 20 deg$^2$ field-of-view (FOV) telescope. Thunderstorm glitches have the biggest impact on BBH and NSBH events, especially if there is no third interferometer, while BNS events appear to be not affected. Fast scattering glitches impact low latency localisation only for NSBH signals. For two-interferometer network small (FOV=1 deg$^2$) and large (FOV=20 deg$^2$) telescopes are affected, whereas three-interferometer localisation bias is small enough not to affect large (FOV=20 deg$^2$) telescopes.

The central star of the planetary nebula (PN) HuBi\,1 has been recently proposed to have experienced a very late thermal pulse (VLTP), but the dilution of the emission of the recent ejecta by that of the surrounding H-rich old outer shell has so far hindered confirming its suspected H-poor nature. We present here an analysis of the optical properties of the ejecta in the innermost regions of HuBi\,1 using MEGARA high-dispersion integral field and OSIRIS intermediate-dispersion long-slit spectroscopic observations obtained with the 10.4m Gran Telescopio de Canarias. The unprecedented tomographic capability of MEGARA to resolve structures in velocity space allowed us to disentangle for the first time the H$\alpha$ and H$\beta$ emission of the recent ejecta from that of the outer shell. The recent ejecta is found to have much higher extinction than the outer shell, implying the presence of large amounts of dust. The spatial distribution of the emission from the ejecta and the locus of key line ratios in diagnostic diagrams probe the shock excitation of the inner ejecta in HuBi\,1, in stark contrast with the photoionization nature of the H-rich outer shell. The abundances of the recent ejecta have been computed using the {\sc mappings v} code under a shock scenario. They are found to be consistent with a born-again ejection scenario experienced by the progenitor star, which is thus firmly confirmed as a new "born-again" star.

The present study investigates a mini-filament eruption associated with cancelling magnetic fluxes. The eruption originates from a small-scale loop complex commonly known as a Coronal Bright Point (CBP). The event is uniquely recorded in both the imaging and spectroscopic data taken with IRIS. We analyse IRIS spectroscopic and slit-jaw imaging observations as well as images taken in the extreme-ultraviolet channels of AIA, and line-of-sight magnetic-field data from HMI onboard the SDO. We also employ an NLFFF relaxation approach based on the HMI magnetogram time series. We identify a strong small-scale brightening as a micro-flare in a CBP. The mini-eruption manifests with the ejection of hot (CBP loops) and cool (mini-filament) plasma recorded in both the imaging and spectroscopic data. The micro-flare is preceded by the appearance of an elongated bright feature in the IRIS slit-jaw 1400 A images located above the polarity inversion line. The micro-flare starts with an IRIS pixel size brightening and propagates bi-directionally along the elongated feature. We detect in both the spectral and imaging IRIS data and AIA data, strong flows along and at the edges of the elongated feature which we believe represent reconnection outflows. Both edges of the elongated feature that wrap around the edges of the erupting MF evolve into a J-type shape creating a sigmoid appearance. A quasi-separatrix layer (QSL) is identified in the vicinity of the polarity inversion line by computing the squashing factor Q in different horizontal planes of the NLFFF model. The QSL reconnection site has the same spectral appearance as the so-called explosive events identified by strong blue- and red-shifted emission, thus answering a long outstanding question about the true nature of this spectral phenomenon.

We present a high-resolution (2.5 au) multiband analysis of the protoplanetary disk around TW Hya using ALMA long baseline data at Bands 3, 4, 6, and 7. We aim to reconstruct a high-sensitivity millimeter continuum image and revisit the spectral index distribution. The imaging is performed by combining new ALMA data at Bands 4 and 6 with available archive data. Two methods are employed to reconstruct the images; multi-frequency synthesis (MFS) and the fiducial image-oriented method, where each band is imaged separately and the frequency dependence is fitted pixel by pixel. We find that the MFS imaging with the second order of Taylor expansion can reproduce the frequency dependence of the continuum emission between Bands 3 and 7 in a manner consistent with previous studies and is a reasonable method to reconstruct the spectral index map. The image-oriented method provides a spectral index map consistent with the MFS imaging, but with a two times lower resolution. Mock observations of an intensity model were conducted to validate the images from the two methods. We find that the MFS imaging provides a high-resolution spectral index distribution with an uncertainty of $<10$~\%. Using the submillimeter spectrum reproduced from our MFS images, we directly calculated the optical depth, power-law index of the dust opacity coefficient ($\beta$), and dust temperature. The derived parameters are consistent with previous works, and the enhancement of $\beta$ within the intensity gaps is also confirmed, supporting a deficit of millimeter-sized grains within the gaps.

Observations of diffuse clouds showed that they contain a number of simple hydrocarbons (e.g. CH, C$_2$H, (l- and c-)C$_3$H$_2$, and C$_4$H) in abundances that may be difficult to understand on the basis of conventional gas-phase chemical models. Recent experimental results revealed that the photo-decomposition mechanism of hydrogenated amorphous carbon (HAC) and of solid hexane releases a range of hydrocarbons into the gas, containing up to 6 C-atoms for the case of HAC decomposition. These findings motivated us to introduce a new potential input to interstellar chemistry; the "top-down" or degradation scheme, as opposed to the conventional "build-up" or synthesis scheme. In this work, we demonstrate the feasibility of the top-down approach in diffuse clouds using gas-grain chemical models. In order to examine this scheme, we derived an expression to account for the formation of hydrocarbons when HACs are photo-decomposed after their injection from grain mantles. Then, we calculated the actual formation rate of these species by knowing their injected fraction (from experimental work) and the average rate of mantle carbon injection into the ISM (from observations). Our preliminary results are promising and reveal that the degradation scheme can be considered as an efficient mechanism for the formation of some simple hydrocarbons in diffuse clouds. However, an actual proof of the efficiency of this process and its rate constants would require comprehensive experimental determination.

Low Frequency Quasi-Periodic Oscillations or LF QPOs are ubiquitous in BH X-ray binaries and provide strong constraints on the accretion-ejection processes. Although several models have been proposed so far, none has been proven to reproduce all observational constraints and no consensus has emerged yet. We make the conjecture that disks are threaded by a large scale vertical magnetic field that splits it into two radial zones. In the inner Jet Emitting Disk (JED), a near equipartition field allows to drive powerful self-collimated jets, while beyond a transition radius, the disk magnetization is too low and a Standard Accretion Disk (SAD) is settled. In a series of papers, this hybrid JED-SAD disk configuration has been shown to successfully reproduce most multi-wavelength (radio and X-rays) observations, as well as the concurrence with the LFQPOs for the archetypal source GX 339-4. We first analyze the main QPO scenarios provided in the literature: 1) a specific process occurring at the transition radius, 2) the accretion-ejection instability and 3) the solid-body Lense-Thirring disk precession. We recall their main assumptions and shed light on some severe theoretical issues that question the capability to reproduce LF QPOs. We then argue that none of these models could be operating under the JED-SAD physical conditions. We finally propose an alternative scenario where LF QPOs would be the disk response to an instability triggered in the jets, near a magnetic recollimation zone. Such a situation could account for most Type-C QPO phenomenology and is consistent with the global behavior of black hole binaries. The calculation of this non-destructive jet instability remains however to be done. If the existence of this instability is numerically confirmed, then it could also naturally account for the jet wobbling phenomenology seen in various accreting sources.

We study the complexity of the supergranular network through fractal dimension by using Ca II K digitized data archive obtained from Kodaikanal solar observatory. The data consists of 326 visually selected supergranular cells spread across the 23rd solar cycle. Only cells that were well-defined were chosen for the analysis and we discuss the potential selection effect thereof, mainly that it favors cells of a smaller size (< 20 Mm). Within this sample, we analyzed the fractal dimension of supergranules across the Solar cycle and find that it is anticorrelated with the activity level.

In this paper, we make use of data collected for open cluster members by high-resolution spectroscopic surveys and programmes (i.e., APOGEE, Gaia-ESO, GALAH, OCCASO, and SPA). These data have been homogenised and then analysed as a whole. The resulting catalogue contains [Fe/H] and orbital parameters for 251 Galactic open clusters. The slope of the radial metallicity gradient obtained through 175 open clusters with high-quality metallicity determinations is $-$0.064 $\pm$ 0.007 dex kpc$^{-1}$. The radial metallicity distribution traced by open clusters flattens beyond R$_{\rm Gal}$=12.1 $\pm$ 1.1 kpc. The slope traced by open clusters in the [Fe/H]-L$_{\rm z}$ diagram is $-$0.31 $\pm$ 0.02 10$^{3}$ dex km$^{-1}$ kpc$^{-1}$ s, but it flattens beyond L$_{\rm z}$=2769 $\pm$ 177 km kpc s$^{-1}$. In this paper, we also review some high-priority practical challenges around the study of open clusters that will significantly push our understanding beyond the state-of-the-art. Finally, we compare the shape of the galactic radial metallicity gradient to those of other spiral galaxies.

Density discontinuities cannot be precisely modelled in standard formulations of smoothed particles hydrodynamics (SPH) because the density field is defined smoothly as a kernel-weighted sum of neighbouring particle masses. This is a problem when performing simulations of giant impacts between proto-planets, for example, because planets typically do have density discontinuities both at their surfaces and at any internal boundaries between different materials. The inappropriate densities in these regions create artificial forces that effectively suppress mixing between particles of different material and, as a consequence, this problem introduces a key unknown systematic error into studies that rely on SPH simulations. In this work we present a novel, computationally cheap method that deals simultaneously with both of these types of density discontinuity in SPH simulations. We perform standard hydrodynamical tests and several example giant impact simulations, and compare the results with standard SPH. In a simulated Moon-forming impact using $10^7$ particles, the improved treatment at boundaries affects at least 30% of the particles at some point during the simulation.

We present the results obtained from broadband X-ray timing and spectral analysis of black hole candidate MAXI J1803-298 using an AstroSat observation on May 11-12, 2021. Four periodic absorption dips with a periodicity of $7.02 \pm 0.18$ hour are detected in the light curve. AstroSat observe the source when it was undergoing a transition from hard-intermediate state to soft-intermediate state. Our timing analysis reveals the presence of a sharp type-C quasi periodic oscillation (QPO) in the power density spectra (PDS) with an evolving QPO frequency ranging from $5.31 \pm 0.02$ Hz to $7.61\pm 0.09$ Hz. We investigate the energy dependence of the QPO and do not find this feature in the PDS above 30 keV. The combined $0.7-80$ keV SXT and LAXPC spectra are fitted with a model consisting of thermal multi-colour blackbody emission and Comptonized emission components. We perform time-resolved spectroscopy by extracting spectra during the dip and non-dip phases of the observation. A neutral absorber is detected during the dip and non-dip phases though a signature of an ionized absorber is also present in the dip phases. The spectral and temporal parameters are found to evolve during our observation. We estimate the mass function of the system as $f(M) = 2.1-7.2~M_{\odot}$ and the mass of the black hole candidate in the range of $M_{\rm BH} \sim 3.5-12.5~M_{\odot}$.

$\textbf{Aims}$. With the ever-increasing survey speed of optical wide-field telescopes and the importance of discovering transients when they are still young, rapid and reliable source localization is paramount. We present AutoSourceID-Light (ASID-L), an innovative framework that uses computer vision techniques that can naturally deal with large amounts of data and rapidly localize sources in optical images. $\textbf{Methods}$. We show that the AutoSourceID-Light algorithm based on U-shaped networks and enhanced with a Laplacian of Gaussian filter (Chen et al. 1987) enables outstanding performances in the localization of sources. A U-Net (Ronneberger et al. 2015) network discerns the sources in the images from many different artifacts and passes the result to a Laplacian of Gaussian filter that then estimates the exact location. $\textbf{Results}$. Application on optical images of the MeerLICHT telescope demonstrates the great speed and localization power of the method. We compare the results with the widely used SExtractor (Bertin & Arnouts 1996) and show the out-performances of our method. AutoSourceID-Light rapidly detects more sources not only in low and mid crowded fields, but particularly in areas with more than 150 sources per square arcminute.

We perform a 2.5 dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulation to understand a comprehensive view of the formation of spicule-like cool jets due to initial transverse velocity pulses akin to Alfv\'en pulses in the solar chromosphere. We invoke multiple velocity ($V_{z}$) pulses between 1.5 and 2.0 Mm in the solar atmosphere, which create the initial transverse velocity perturbations. These pulses transfer energy non-linearly to the field aligned perturbations due to the ponderomotive force. This physical process further creates the magnetoacoustic shocks followed by quasi-periodic plasma motions in the solar atmosphere. The field aligned magnetoacoustic shocks move upward which subsequently cause quasi-periodic rise and fall of the chromospheric plasma into the overlying corona as a thin and cool spicule-like jets. The magnitude of the initial applied transverse velocity pulses are taken in the range of 50-90 km $s^{-1}$. These pulses are found to be strong enough to generate the spicule-like jets. We analyze the evolution, kinematics and energetics of these spicule-like jets. We find that the transported mass flux and kinetic energy density are substantial in the localized solar-corona. These mass motions generate $\it in$ $situ$ quasi-periodic oscillations on the scale of $\simeq$ 4.0 min above the transition region.

The propagation of gamma-rays over cosmological distances is the subject of extensive theoretical and observational research at GeV and TeV energies. The mean free path of gamma-rays in the cosmic web is limited above 100 GeV due to the production of electrons and positrons on the cosmic optical and infrared backgrounds. Electrons and positrons cool in the intergalactic medium while gyrating in its magnetic fields, which could cause either its global heating or the production of lower-energy secondary gamma-rays. The energy distribution of gamma-rays surviving the cosmological journey carries observed absorption features that gauge the emissivity of baryonic matter over cosmic time, constrain the distance scale of $\Lambda$CDM cosmology, and limit the alterations of the interaction cross section. Competitive constraints are in particular placed on the cosmic star-formation history as well as on phenomena expected from quantum gravity and string theory, such as the coupling to hypothetical axion-like particles or the violation of Lorentz invariance. Recent theoretical and observational advances offer a glimpse of the multi-wavelength and multi-messenger path that the new generation of gamma-ray observatories is about to open.

Observations of protoplanetary disks have revealed them to be complex and dynamic, with vertical and radial transport of gas and dust occurring simultaneously with chemistry and planet formation. Previous models of protoplanetary disks focused primarily on chemical evolution of gas and dust in a static disk, or dynamical evolution of solids in a chemically passive disk. In this paper, we present a new 1D method for modelling pebble growth and chemistry simultaneously. Gas and small dust particles are allowed to diffuse vertically, connecting chemistry at all elevations of the disk. Pebbles are assumed to form from the dust present around the midplane, inheriting the composition of ices at this location. We present the results of this model after 1 Myr of disk evolution around a 1$M_\odot$ star at various locations both inside and outside of the CO snowline. We find that for a turbulent disk ($\alpha = 10^{-3}$), CO is depleted from the surface layers of the disk by roughly 1-2 orders of magnitude, consistent with observations of protoplanetary disks. This is achieved by a combination of ice sequestration and decreasing UV opacity, both driven by pebble growth. Further, we find the selective removal of ice species via pebble growth and sequestration can increase gas phase C/O ratios to values of approximately unity. However, our model is unable to produce C/O values of $\sim$1.5-2.0 inferred from protoplanetary disk observations, implying selective sequestration of ice is not sufficient to explain C/O ratios $>1$.

We introduce a multi-component chemo-dynamical method for splitting the Galactic population of Globular Clusters (GCs) into three distinct constituents: bulge, disc, and stellar halo. The latter is further decomposed into the individual large accretion events that built up the Galactic stellar halo: the Gaia-Enceladus-Sausage, Kraken and Sequoia structures, and the Sagittarius and Helmi streams. Our modelling is extensively tested using mock GC samples constructed from the AURIGA suite of hydrodynamical simulations of Milky Way (MW)-like galaxies. We find that, on average, a proportion of the accreted GCs cannot be associated with their true infall group and are left ungrouped, biasing our recovered population numbers to approximately 80 percent of their true value. Furthermore, the identified groups have a completeness and a purity of only 65 percent. This reflects the difficulty of the problem, a result of the large degree of overlap in energy-action space of the debris from past accretion events. We apply the method to the Galactic data to infer, in a statistically robust and easily quantifiable way, the GCs associated with each MW accretion event. The resulting groups' population numbers of GCs, corrected for biases, are then used to infer the halo and stellar masses of the now defunct satellites that built up the halo of the MW.

Strongly magnetic, rapidly rotating B-type stars with relatively weak winds form centrifugal magnetospheres (CMs), as the stellar wind becomes magnetically confined above the Kepler co-rotation radius. Approximating the magnetic field as a dipole tilted by an angle $\beta$ with respect to the rotation axis, the CM plasma is concentrated in clouds at and above the Kepler radius along the intersection of the rotational and magnetic equatorial planes. Stellar rotation can bring such clouds in front of the stellar disk, leading to absorption of order 0.1 magnitude ($\sim 10 \%$ of continuum flux). However some stars with prominent CMs, such as $\sigma$ Ori E, show an emission bump in addition to absorption dips, which has been so far unexplained. We show that emission can occur from electron scattering toward the observer when CM clouds are projected off the stellar limb. Using the Rigidly Rotating Magnetosphere model, modified with a centrifugal breakout density scaling, we present a model grid of photometric light curves spanning parameter space in observer inclination angle $i$, magnetic obliquity angle $\beta$, critical rotation fraction $W$, and optical depth at the Kepler radius $\tau_{\text{K}}$. We show that $\tau_{\text{K}}$ of order unity can produce emission bumps of the magnitude $\sim 0.05$ seen in $\sigma$ Ori E. We discuss the implications for modeling the light curves of CM stars, as well as future work for applying the radiative transfer model developed here to 3D MHD simulations of CMs.

In this paper we provide clear direct evidence of multiple concurrent higher order magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) modes in circular and elliptical sunspots by applying both Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) and Dynamic Mode Decomposition (DMD) techniques on solar observational data. These techniques are well documented and validated in the areas of fluid mechanics, hydraulics, and granular flows, yet are relatively new to the field of solar physics. While POD identifies modes based on orthogonality in space and it provides a clear ranking of modes in terms of their contribution to the variance of the signal, DMD resolves modes that are orthogonal in time. The clear presence of the fundamental slow sausage and kink body modes, as well as higher order slow sausage and kink body modes have been identified using POD and DMD analysis of the chromospheric H$\alpha$ line at 6562.808~{\AA} for both the circular and elliptical sunspots. Additionally, to the various slow body modes, evidence for the presence of the fast surface kink mode was found in the circular sunspot. All the MHD modes patterns were cross-correlated with their theoretically predicted counterparts and we demonstrated that ellipticity cannot be neglected when interpreting MHD wave modes. The higher-order MHD wave modes are even more sensitive to irregularities in umbral cross-sectional shapes, hence this must be taken into account for more accurate modelling of the modes in sunspots and pores.

General Relativity allows for a cosmological constant ($\Lambda$) which has inspired models of cosmic Inflation and Dark Energy. We show instead that $r_\Lambda = \sqrt{3/\Lambda}$ corresponds to an event horizon: a causal boundary term in the action. Our Universe is expanding inside its Schwarzschild radius $r_S=\rL=2GM$, which could have originated from a uniform free falling cloud of mass $M$ that collapsed as a Black Hole (BH) 25 Gyrs ago. Such a BH Universe allows for large-scale structure formation without the need of Inflation or Dark Energy.

The discovery that neutrinos have mass has important consequences for cosmology. The main effect of massive neutrinos is to suppress the growth of cosmic structure on small scales. Such growth can be accurately modelled using cosmological $N$-body simulations, but doing so requires accurate initial conditions (ICs). There is a trade-off, especially with first-order ICs, between truncation errors for late starts and discreteness and relativistic errors for early starts. Errors can be minimized by starting simulations at late times using higher-order ICs. In this paper, we show that neutrino effects can be absorbed into scale-independent coefficients in higher-order Lagrangian perturbation theory (LPT). This clears the way for the use of higher-order ICs for massive neutrino simulations. We demonstrate that going to higher order substantially improves the accuracy of simulations. To match the sensitivity of surveys like DESI and Euclid, errors in the matter power spectrum should be well below 1%. However, we find that first-order Zel'dovich ICs lead to much larger errors, even when starting as early as $z=127$, exceeding 1% at $z=0$ for $k>0.5\text{ Mpc}^{-1}$ for the power spectrum and $k>0.1\text{ Mpc}^{-1}$ for the equilateral bispectrum in our simulations. Ratios of power spectra with different neutrino masses are more robust than absolute statistics, but still depend on the choice of ICs. For all statistics considered, we obtain 1% agreement between 2LPT and 3LPT at $z=0$.

We construct a novel class of spherically symmetric and asymptotically flat black hole solutions surrounded by anisotropic dark matter fluid with the equation of state (EoS) of the form $P_t=\omega \rho$. We assume that dark matter is made of weakly interacting particles orbiting around the supermassive black hole in the galactic center and the dark matter halo is formed by means of Einstein clusters having only tangential pressure. In the large distance from the black hole we obtain the constant flat curve with the upper bound for the dark matter state parameter $\omega\lesssim 10^{-7}$. To this end, we also check the energy conditions of the dark matter fluid outside the black hole, the deflection of light by the galaxy, and the shadow images of the Sgr A$^\star$ black hole using the rotating and radiating particles. We find that the effect of dark matter fluid on the shadow radius is small, in particular the angular radius of the black hole is shown to increase by the order $10^{-4} \mu$arcsec. Finally, we study the stability of the S2 star orbit around Sgr A$^\star$ black hole under dark matter effects. It is argued that the motion of S2 star orbit is stable for values $\omega \lesssim 10^{-7}$, however further increase of $\omega $ leads to unstable orbits.

This fourth release of the RIT public catalog of numerical relativity black-hole-binary waveforms \url{this http URL} consists of 1881 accurate simulations that include 446 precessing and 611 nonprecessing quasicircular/inspiraling binary systems with mass ratios $q=m_1/m_2$ in the range $1/128\leq q\leq1$ and individual spins up to $s/m^2=0.95$; and 824 in eccentric orbits in the range $0<e\leq1$. The catalog also provides initial parameters of the binary, trajectory information, peak radiation, and final remnant black hole properties. The waveforms are corrected for the center of mass drifting and are extrapolated to future null infinity. As an application of this waveform catalog we reanalyze all of the peak radiation and remnant properties to find new, simple, correlations among them, valid in the presence of eccentricity, for practical astrophysical usage.

Gravitational wave (GW) standard sirens are well-established probes with which one can measure cosmological parameters, and are complementary to other probes like the cosmic microwave background or supernovae standard candles. Here we focus on dark GW sirens, specifically binary black holes (BBHs) for which there is only GW data. W rely on the assumption of a source mass model for the BBH distribution, and we consider four models that are representative of the BBH population observed so far. In addition to inferring cosmological and mass model parameters, we use dark sirens to test modified gravity theories. These theories often predict a different GW propagation, leading to a changed GW luminosity distance which in some cases can be parametrized by variables $\Xi_0$ and $n$. General relativity (GR) corresponds to $\Xi_0= 1$. We perform a joint estimate of the population parameters governing mass, redshift, cosmology, and GW propagation. We use data from the third LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA observation run (O3) and find -- for the four mass models and three signal-to-noise cutoffs -- that GR is consistently the preferred model to describe all observed BBH GW signals to date. Furthermore, all modified gravity parameters have posteriors that are compatible with the values predicted by GR at the $90\%$ confidence interval. We then focus on future observation runs O4 and O5. We show that there are strong correlations between cosmological, astrophysical and modified gravity parameters. If GR is the correct theory of gravity, and assuming narrow priors on the cosmological parameters, we recover the modified gravity parameter $\Xi_0 = 1.47^{+0.92}_{-0.57} $ with O4, and $\Xi_0 = 1.08 ^{+0.27}_{-0.16}$ with O4 and O5. If, however, Nature follows a modified gravity model with $\Xi_0=1.8$ and $n=1.91$, we exclude GR at the 1.7$\,\sigma$ level with O4 and at the $2.3\,\sigma$ level with O4 and O5 combined.

A foundational theorem due to Buchdahl states that, within General Relativity (GR), the maximum compactness $\mathcal{C}\equiv GM/(Rc^2)$ of a static, spherically symmetric, perfect fluid object of mass $M$ and radius $R$ is $\mathcal{C}=4/9$. As a corollary, there exists a compactness gap between perfect fluid stars and black holes (where $\mathcal{C}=1/2$). Here we generalize Buchdahl's result by introducing the most general equation of state for elastic matter with constant longitudinal wave speeds and apply it to compute the maximum compactness of regular, self-gravitating objects in GR. We show that: (i) the maximum compactness grows monotonically with the longitudinal wave speed and with the shear modulus of the material; (ii) elastic matter can exceed Buchdahl's bound and reach the black hole compactness $\mathcal{C}=1/2$ continuously; (iii) however, imposing subluminal wave propagation lowers the maximum compactness bound to $\mathcal{C}\approx 0.423$, which we conjecture to be the maximum compactness of any static elastic object satisfying causality; (iv) imposing also radial stability further decreases the maximum compactness to $\mathcal{C}\approx 0.376$. Therefore, although anisotropies are often invoked as a mechanism for supporting horizonless ultracompact objects, we argue that the black hole compactness cannot be reached with physically reasonable matter within GR and that true black hole mimickers require beyond-GR effects.

The radiation observed in quasars and active galactic nuclei is mainly produced by a relativistic plasma orbiting close to the black hole event horizon, where strong gravitational effects are relevant. The observational data of such systems can be compared with theoretical models to infer the black hole and plasma properties. In the comparison process, ray tracing algorithms are essential to computing the trajectories followed by the photons from the source to our telescopes. In this paper, we present OSIRIS: a new stable FORTRAN code capable of efficiently computing null geodesics around compact objects, including general relativistic effects such as gravitational lensing, redshift, and relativistic boosting. The algorithm is based on the Hamiltonian formulation and uses different integration schemes to evolve null geodesics while tracking the error in the Hamiltonian constrain to ensure physical results. We found from an error analysis that the integration schemes are all stable, and the best one maintains an error below $10^{-11}$. Particularly, to test the robustness and ability of the code to evolve geodesics in curved spacetime, we compute the shadow and Einstein rings of a Kerr black hole with different rotation parameters and obtain the image of a thin Keplerian accretion disk around a Schwarzschild black hole. Although OSIRIS is parallelized neither with MPI nor with CUDA, the computation times are of the same order as those reported by other codes with these types of parallel computing platforms.

We consider effects of the Earth rotation on antenna patterns of a ground-based gravitational wave (GW) detector in a general metric theory that allows at most six polarization states (two spin-0, two spin-1 and two spin-2) in a four-dimensional spacetime. By defining the cyclically averaged antenna matrix for continuous GWs from a known pulsar, we show that different polarization states can be separated out from a given set of the strain outputs at a single detector. The third-generation GW detectors such as the Cosmic Explorer and the Einstein Telescope can place a stringent constraint $\sim 10^{-30}$ on the extra GW polarization amplitudes at $\sim100$ Hz.

Axion cosmology is reexamined taking into account effect of kinetic pseudo Nambu-Goldstone modes, with its importance recently pointed out. When Peccei-Quinn (PQ) symmetry is broken by a chiral U(1) singlet, it is found the effect of kinetic Nambu-Goldstone mode makes the axion dark matter untenable. When PQ symmetry is extended and is broken by two singlets, we find axion cosmology to work, but there are several differences from the axion cosmology studied in the literature. The differences are (1) ordinary type of dark matter scaling as $1/{\rm cosmic \; scale\; factor}^3$ arising from a modulus field and not from the usual angular field, (2) mass of the dark matter quantum in the ultralight range, $(10^{-32} \sim 10^{-14})\,$eV, (3) emergence of dark energy with the present density of order (a few meV)$^4$ consistent with observations, (4) presence of a long range spin-dependent force, (5) slow-roll inflation after PQ symmetry breaking when conformal coupling to gravity is introduced.

We consider the periapsis shifts of bound orbits of stars on static clouds around a black hole. The background spacetime is constructed from a Schwarzschild black hole surrounded by a static and spherically symmetric self-gravitating system of massive particles, which satisfies all energy conditions and physically models the gravitational effect of dark matter distribution around a nonrotating black hole. Using nearly circular bound orbits of stars, we obtain a simple formula for the precession rate. This formula explicitly shows that the precession rate is determined by a positive contribution (i.e., a prograde shift) from the conventional general-relativistic effect and a negative contribution (i.e., a retrograde shift) from the local matter density. The four quantities for such an orbit (i.e., the orbital shift angle, the radial oscillation period, the redshift, and the star position mapped onto the celestial sphere) determine the local values of the background model functions. Furthermore, we not only evaluate the precession rate of nearly circular bound orbits in several specific models but also simulate several bound orbits with large eccentricity and their periapsis shifts. The present exact model demonstrates that the retrograde precession does not mean any exotic central objects such as naked singularities or wormholes but simply the existence of significant energy density of matters on the star orbit around the black hole.

Fluid and ultralight bosonic dark matter can interact through gravity to form stable fermion-boson stars, which are static and regular mixed solutions of the Einstein-Euler-(complex, massive) Klein-Gordon system. In this work we study the dynamical formation via gravitational cooling of a spherical mixed white-dwarf--boson star, whose properties depend on the boson particle mass and the mass of the boson star. Due to the accretion of bosonic dark matter, the white dwarf migrates to a denser and more compact object with a boson star core, thus modifying its gravitational redshift and altering the electromagnetic radiation emitted from the photosphere. We discuss the implications of the changes in the gravitational redshift that in principle could be produced by any type of dark matter and that might lead to small discrepancies in the estimation of masses and radii derived from white dwarf observations.

Recent numerical studies have shown that forced, statistically isotropic turbulence develops a `thermal equilibrium' spectrum, $\mathcal{E}(k) \propto k^2$, at large scales. This behaviour presents a puzzle, as it appears to imply the growth of a non-zero Saffman integral, which would require the longitudinal velocity correlation function, $\chi(r)$, to satisfy $\chi(r\to \infty)\propto r^{-3}$. As is well known, the Saffman integral is an invariant of decaying turbulence, precisely because non-local interactions (i.e., interactions via exchange of pressure waves) are too weak to generate such correlations. Subject to certain restrictions on the nature of the forcing, we argue that the same should be true for forced turbulence. We show that long-range correlations and a $k^2$ spectrum arise as a result of the turbulent diffusion of linear momentum, and extend only up to a maximum scale that grows slowly with time. This picture has a number of interesting consequences. First, if the forcing generates eddies with significant linear momentum (as in so-called Saffman turbulence), a thermal spectrum is not reached - instead, a shallower spectrum develops. Secondly, the energy of turbulence that is forced for a while and then allowed to decay generically obeys Saffman's decay laws in the late-time limit.

Recent observations of the Milky-way galactic center at various frequencies suggest a supermassive compact object. Generally, that supermassive compact object is assumed to be a `Black Hole', having more than four million solar masses. In this work, we study the observational appearance at $230$ GHz and probe the nature of Sagittarius-A* (Sgr A*) as the naked singularity. Here, we consider the first type of Joshi-Malafarina-Narayan (JMN-1) and Janis-Newman-Winicour (JNW) naked singularity spacetimes which are anisotropic fluid solutions of the Einstein field equations. Motivated by radiatively inefficient accretion flows (RIAF), we use an analytical model for emission and absorption coefficients to solve the general relativistic radiative transfer equation. The resulting emission is then utilized to generate images to predict the nature of the Sgr A* with synthetic Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) images from current and future Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) arrays. Three different EHT array configurations are being used to simulate the models of naked singularities and a black hole. This may have little effect on the baseline, but it would increase the u-v plane gridding, making it feasible to capture a better-resolved image. Therefore, it is quite interesting and useful for the upcoming shadow image of the Sgr A* to predict whether it is a supermassive black hole or a naked singularity.

Following the idea that a stable sexaquark state with quark content (uuddss) would have gone unnoticed by experiment so far and that such a particle would be a good dark matter candidate, we investigate the possible role of a stable sexaquark in the physics of compact stars given the stringent constraints on the equation of state that stem from observations of high mass pulsars and GW170817 bounds on the compactness of intermediate mass stars. We find that there is a "sexaquark dilemma" (analogous to the hyperon dilemma) for which the dissociation of the sexaquark in quark matter is a viable solution fulfilling all present constraints from multi-messenger astronomy. The parameters needed to model the hybrid star including sexaquarks are in line with parameters of pre-existing quark- and hadronic-matter models. We find that current constraints -- tidal deformability in accordance with GW170817 and maximum mass above the lower limit from PSR J0740+6620 -- can be satisfied two ways: with early quark deconfinement such that neither sexaquarks nor hyperons are present in any NS interiors, or with later deconfinement such that a neutron-sexaquark shell surrounds the inner quark matter core.