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Papers for Thursday, Mar 24 2022

Papers with local authors

Lucia Armillotta, Eve C. Ostriker, Yan-Fei Jiang

Accepted for publication in ApJ

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Paper 2 — arXiv:2203.11949
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Paper 2 — arXiv:2203.11949

We study the propagation of mildly-relativistic cosmic rays (CRs) in multiphase interstellar medium environments with conditions typical of nearby disk galaxies. We employ the techniques developed in Armillotta+21 to post-process three high-resolution TIGRESS magnetohydrodynamic simulations modeling local patches of star-forming galactic disks. Together, the three simulations cover a wide range of gas surface density, gravitational potential, and star formation rate (SFR). Our prescription for CR propagation includes the effects of advection by the background gas, streaming along the magnetic field at the local ion Alfv\'en speed, and diffusion relative to the Alfv\'en waves, with the diffusion coefficient set by the balance between streaming-driven Alfv\'en wave excitation and damping mediated by local gas properties. We find that the combined transport processes are more effective in environments with higher SFR. These environments are characterized by higher-velocity hot outflows (created by clustered supernovae) that rapidly advect CRs away from the galactic plane. As a consequence, the ratio of midplane CR pressure to midplane gas pressures decreases with increasing SFR. We also use the post-processed simulations to make predictions regarding potential dynamical impacts of CRs. The relatively flat CR pressure profiles near the midplane argue that they would not provide significant support against gravity for most of the ISM mass. However, the CR pressure gradients are larger than the other pressure gradients in the extra-planar region (|z|>0.5 kpc), suggesting that CRs may affect the dynamics of galactic fountains and/or winds. The degree of this impact is expected to increase in environments with lower SFR.

Xin Pan, Shuang-Liang Li, Xinwu Cao, Giovanni Miniutti, Mingfeng Gu

9 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in ApJL

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Paper 23 — arXiv:2203.12137
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Paper 23 — arXiv:2203.12137

GSN 069 is a recently discovered QPE (Quasi-periodic eruptions) source recurring about every 9 hours. The mechanism for the QPEs of GSN 069 is still unclear so far. In this work, a disk instability model is constructed to explain GSN 069 based on Pan et al. (2021) (PLC21), where the authors proposed a toy model for the repeating changing-look (CL) active galactic nuclei (AGN). We improve the work of PLC21 by including a non-zero viscous torque condition on the inner boundary of disk and adopting a general form for the viscous stress torque in Kerr metric. It is found that the 0.4-2 keV light curves, the light curves at different energy bands and the phase-resolved X-ray spectrum of GSN 069 can all be qualitatively reproduced by our model. Furthermore, the profiles of light curve in QPEs can be significantly changed by the parameter \mu in viscous torque equation, which implies that our model may also be applied to other QPEs.

All other papers

Uwe Schmitt, Beatrice Moser, Christiane S. Lorenz, Alexandre Refregier

28 pages, 5 figures, 5 tables, Link to package: this https URL , the described packaged sympy2c is used within arXiv:2112.08395

Computer algebra systems play an important role in science as they facilitate the development of new theoretical models. The resulting symbolic equations are often implemented in a compiled programming language in order to provide fast and portable codes for practical applications. We describe sympy2c, a new Python package designed to bridge the gap between the symbolic development and the numerical implementation of a theoretical model. sympy2c translates symbolic equations implemented in the SymPy Python package to C/C++ code that is optimized using symbolic transformations. The resulting functions can be conveniently used as an extension module in Python. sympy2c is used within the PyCosmo Python package to solve the Einstein-Boltzmann equations, a large system of ODEs describing the evolution of linear perturbations in the Universe. After reviewing the functionalities and usage of sympy2c, we describe its implementation and optimization strategies. This includes, in particular, a novel approach to generate optimized ODE solvers making use of the sparsity of the symbolic Jacobian matrix. We demonstrate its performance using the Einstein-Boltzmann equations as a test case. sympy2c is widely applicable and may prove useful for various areas of computational physics. sympy2c is publicly available at https://cosmology.ethz.ch/research/software-lab/sympy2c.html

Azimuthally asymmetric structures have been discovered in millimeter continuum emission from many protoplanetary disks. One hypothesis is that they are vortices produced by the Rossby wave instability, for example at edges of planet-opened gaps or deadzones. Confirming the vortex nature of these structures will have profound implications to planet formation. One way to test the hypothesis is to compare the observed morphology of vortex candidates in near-infrared scattered light with theoretical expectations. To this end, we synthesize the appearance of vortices in H-band polarized light by combining hydrodynamic and radiative transfer simulations of the Rossby wave instability at a deadzone edge. In a disk at 140 pc, at the peak in its evolution a vortex at 65 au may appear as a radially narrow arc 50% - 70% brighter compared with an axisymmetric disk model. The contrast depends on the inclination of the disk and the position angle of the vortex only weakly. Such contrast levels are well detectable in imaging observations of bright disks using instruments such as VLT/SPHERE, Subaru/SCExAO, and Gemini/GPI. A vortex also casts a shadow in the outer disk, which may aid its identification. Finally, at modest to high inclinations (e.g., 60 degrees) a vortex may mimic a one-armed spiral. In the HD 34282 disk, such a one-armed spiral with a shadowed region on the outside has been found in scattered light. This feature roughly coincides with an azimuthal asymmetry in mm continuum emission, signifying the presence of a vortex.

Murray Brightman, Peter Kosec, Felix Fürst, Hannah Earnshaw, Marianne Heida, Matthew J Middleton, Daniel Stern, Dominic J Walton

Accepted for publication in ApJ

We report on the discovery of an absorption line at $E=8.56^{+0.05}_{-0.11}$ keV detected with a significance of $>3.3\sigma$ in the NuSTAR and XMM-Newton spectra of a newly discovered hyperluminous X-ray source (HLX, $L_{\rm X}>10^{41}$ ergs$^{-1}$) in the galaxy NGC 4045 at a distance of 32 Mpc. The source was first discovered serendipitously in a Swift/XRT observation of the galaxy, and Swift monitoring reveals a highly variable source changing by over an order of magnitude from maximum to minimum. The origin of the absorption line appears likely to be by highly ionized iron with a blue shift of 0.19$c$, indicating an ultrafast outflow (UFO). However, the large equivalent width of the line (EW$=-0.22^{+0.08}_{-0.09}$ keV) paired with the lack of other absorption lines detected are difficult to reconcile with models. An alternative explanation is that the line is due to a cyclotron resonance scattering feature (CRSF), produced by the interaction of X-ray photons with the powerful magnetic field of a neutron star.

Benjamin J. Holzschuh, Conor M. O'Riordan, Simona Vegetti, Vicente Rodriguez-Gomez, Nils Thuerey

33 pages, 21 figures, submitted to MNRAS, comments welcome

We examine the capability of generative models to produce realistic galaxy images. We show that mixing generated data with the original data improves the robustness in downstream machine learning tasks. We focus on three different data sets; analytical S\'ersic profiles, real galaxies from the COSMOS survey, and galaxy images produced with the SKIRT code, from the IllustrisTNG simulation. We quantify the performance of each generative model using the Wasserstein distance between the distributions of morphological properties (e.g. the Gini-coefficient, the asymmetry, and ellipticity), the surface brightness distribution on various scales (as encoded by the power-spectrum), the bulge statistic and the colour for the generated and source data sets. With an average Wasserstein distance (Fr\'echet Inception Distance) of $7.19 \times 10^{-2}\, (0.55)$, $5.98 \times 10^{-2}\, (1.45)$ and $5.08 \times 10^{-2}\, (7.76)$ for the S\'ersic, COSMOS and SKIRT data set, respectively, our best models convincingly reproduce even the most complicated galaxy properties and create images that are visually indistinguishable from the source data. We demonstrate that by supplementing the training data set with generated data, it is possible to significantly improve the robustness against domain-shifts and out-of-distribution data. In particular, we train a convolutional neural network to denoise a data set of mock observations. By mixing generated images into the original training data, we obtain an improvement of $11$ and $45$ per cent in the model performance regarding domain-shifts in the physical pixel size and background noise level, respectively.

Ezra Sukay, Gourav Khullar, Michael D. Gladders, Keren Sharon, Guillaume Mahler, Kate Napier, Lindsey E. Bleem, Håkon Dahle, Michael K. Florian, Katya Gozman, Jason J. Lin, Michael N. Martinez, Owen S. Matthews Acuña, Elisabeth Medina, Kaiya Merz, Jorge A. Sanchez, Emily E. Sisco, Daniel J. Kavin Stein, Kiyan Tavangar, Katherine E. Whitaker

Submitted to the Astrophysical Journal. 11 pages, 7 figures, and 2 tables. Feedback welcome

We present COOL J1323+0343, an early-type galaxy at $z = 1.0153 \pm 0.0006$, strongly lensed by a cluster of galaxies at z = $z = 0.353 \pm 0.001$. This object was originally imaged by DECaLS and noted as a gravitational lens by COOL-LAMPS, a collaboration initiated to find strong-lensing systems in recent public optical imaging data, and confirmed with follow-up data. With ground-based grzH imaging and optical spectroscopy from the Las Campanas Observatory and the Nordic Optical Telescope, we derive a stellar mass, metallicity, and star-formation history from stellar-population synthesis modeling. The lens modeling implies a total magnification of $\mu \sim $113. The median remnant stellar mass in the source plane is M$_* \sim 10.63$ $M_\odot$ and the median star-formation rate in the source plane is SFR $\sim 1.55 \times 10^{-3}$ M$_\odot$ yr$^{-1}$ (log sSFR = -13.4 yr$^{-1}$) in the youngest two age bins (0-100 Myr), closest to the epoch of observation. Our measurements place COOL J1323+0343 below the characteristic mass of the stellar mass function, making it an especially compelling target that could help clarify how intermediate mass quiescent galaxies evolve. We reconstruct COOL J1323+0343 in the source plane and fit its light profile. This object is below the expected size-evolution of early-type galaxy at this mass with an effective radius r$_e \sim$ 0.5 kpc. This extraordinarily magnified and bright lensed early-type galaxy offers an exciting opportunity to study the morphology and star formation history of an intermediate mass early-type galaxy in detail at $z \sim $1 .

Alice Concas, Roberto Maiolino, Mirko Curti, Connor Hayden-Pawson, Michele Cirasuolo, Gareth C. Jones, Amata Mercurio, Francesco Belfiore, Giovanni Cresci, Fergus Cullen, Filippo Mannucci, Alessandro Marconi, Michele Cappellari, Claudia Cicone, Yingjie Peng, Paulina Troncoso

Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 28 pages, 20 figures

We investigate the presence of ionised gas outflows in a sample of 141 main-sequence star-forming galaxies at $1.2<z<2.6$ from the KLEVER (KMOS Lensed Emission Lines and VElocity Review) survey. Our sample covers an exceptionally wide range of stellar masses, $8.1<\log(M_\star/M_{\odot})<11.3$, pushing outflow studies into the dwarf regime thanks to gravitationally lensed objects. We stack optical rest-frame emission lines (H$\beta$, [OIII], H$\alpha$ and [NII]) in different mass bins and seek for tracers of gas outflows by using a novel, physically motivated method that improves over the widely used, simplistic double Gaussian fitting. We compare the observed emission lines with the expectations from a rotating disc (disc+bulge for the most massive galaxies) model, whereby significant deviations are interpreted as a signature of outflows. We find clear evidence for outflows in the most massive, $\log(M_\star/M_{\odot}) > 10.8$, AGN-dominated galaxies, suggesting that AGNs may be the primary drivers of these gas flows. Surprisingly, at $\log(M_\star/M_{\odot})\leq 9.6$, the observed line profiles are fully consistent with a rotating disc model, indicating that ionised gas outflows in dwarf galaxies might play a negligible role even during the peak of cosmic star-formation activity. Finally, we find that the observed mass loading factor scales with stellar mass as expected from the TNG50 cosmological simulation, but the ionised gas mass accounts for only 2$\%$ of the predicted value. This suggests that either the bulk of the outflowing mass is in other gaseous phases or the current feedback models implemented in cosmological simulations need to be revised.

S. Andreon, G. Trinchieri, A. Moretti

MNRAS, 511, 4991: this https URL ; arxiv version is prior to english polishing, hyperlink, hyperref

We aim at studying scaling relations of a small but well defined sample of galaxy clusters that includes the recently discovered class of objects that are X-ray faint for their mass. These clusters have an average low X-ray surface brightness, a low gas fraction and are under-represented (by a factor of 10) in X-ray surveys or entirely absent in SZ surveys. With the inclusion of these objects, we find that the temperature-mass relation has an unprecedented large scatter, 0.20+-0.03 dex at fixed mass, as wide as allowed by the temperature range, and the location of a cluster in this plane depends on its surface brightness. Clusters obey a relatively tight luminosity-temperature relation independently of the their brightness. We interpret the wide difference in scatter around the two relations as due to the fact that X-ray luminosity and temperature are dominated by photons coming from small radii (in particular for T we used a 300 kpc aperture radius) and strongly affected by gas thermodynamics (e.g. shocks, cool-cores), whereas mass is dominated by dark matter at large radii. We measure a slope of 2.0+-0.2 for the L500-T relation. Given the characteristics of our sample, this value is free from the collinearity (degeneracy) between evolution and slope and from hypothesis on the undetected population, that both affect the analysis of X-ray selected samples, and can therefore be profitably used both as reference and to break the above degeneracy of X-ray selected-samples.

Abraham Loeb (Harvard)

5 pages, submitted to ApJL

I show that gravitational scattering of massive objects provides the cross-section per unit mass required in self-interacting dark matter models that alleviate the small-scale structure problems of cold dark matter. For primordial objects of mass 10^4*(M_4) solar masses, moving at the velocity dispersion characteristic of dwarf galaxies, 10*(v_1) km/s, the cross-section per unit mass for gravitational scattering is 10*[M_4/(v_1)^4] cm^2/g. The steep decline in interaction with increasing velocity explains why self-interaction is not evident in data on massive galaxies and clusters of galaxies.

Sihan Yuan, Lehman H. Garrison, Daniel J. Eisenstein, Risa H. Wechsler

Submitted to MNRAS, comments welcome

We present a novel simulation-based hybrid emulator approach that maximally derives cosmological and Halo Occupation Distribution (HOD) information from non-linear galaxy clustering, with sufficient precision for DESI Year 1 (Y1) analysis. Our hybrid approach first samples the HOD space on a fixed cosmological simulation grid to constrain the high-likelihood region of cosmology+HOD parameter space, and then constructs the emulator within this constrained region. This approach significantly reduces the parameter volume emulated over, thus achieving much smaller emulator errors with fixed number of training points. We demonstrate that this combined with state-of-the-art simulations result in tight emulator errors comparable to expected DESI Y1 LRG sample variance. We leverage the new AbacusSummit simulations and apply our hybrid approach to CMASS non-linear galaxy clustering data. We infer constraints on $\sigma_8 = 0.762\pm0.024$ and $f\sigma_8 (z_{eff} = 0.52) = 0.444\pm0.016$, the tightest among contemporary galaxy clustering studies. We also demonstrate that our $f\sigma_8$ constraint is robust against secondary biases and other HOD model choices, a critical first step towards showcasing the robust cosmology information accessible in non-linear scales. We speculate that the additional statistical power of DESI Y1 should tighten the growth rate constraints by at least another 50-60%, significantly elucidating any potential tension with Planck. We also address the "lensing is low" tension, where we find that the combined effect of a lower $f\sigma_8$ and environment-based bias lowers the predicted lensing signal by 15%, accounting for approximately 50% of the discrepancy between the lensing measurement and clustering-based predictions.

Hyunseop Choi, Karen M. Leighly, Donald M. Terndrup, Collin Dabbieri, Sarah C. Gallagher, Gordon T. Richards

accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

We present the first systematic study of 50 low redshift ($0.66 < z < 1.63$) iron low-ionization broad absorption-line quasars (FeLoBALQs) using $SimBAL$ which represents a more than five-fold increase in the number of FeLoBALQs with detailed absorption line spectral analyses. We found the outflows have a wide range of ionization parameters, $-4\lesssim\log U\lesssim 1.2$ and densities, $2.8\lesssim\log n\lesssim8\ \rm[cm^{-3}]$. The objects in our sample showed FeLoBAL gas located at a wide range of distances $0\lesssim\log R\lesssim 4.4$ [pc], although we do not find any evidence for disk winds (with $R\ll0.01$ pc) in our sample. The outflow strength primarily depends on the outflow velocity with faster outflows found in quasars that are luminous or that have flat or redder spectral energy distributions. We found that $\sim18\%$ of the FeLoBALQs in the sample have the significantly powerful outflows needed for quasar feedback. Eight objects showed "overlapping troughs" in the spectra and we identified eleven "loitering outflow" objects, a new class of FeLoBALQs that are characterized by low outflow velocities and high column density winds located $\log R\lesssim1$ [pc] from the central engine. The FeLoBALs in loitering outflows objects do not show properties expected for radiatively driven winds and these objects may represent a distinct population among FeLoBALQs. We discuss how the potential acceleration mechanisms and the origins of the FeLoBAL winds may differ for outflows at different locations in quasars.

Sudeb Ranjan Datta, Tushar Mondal, Banibrata Mukhopadhyay

18 pages, 12 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRAS, comments are welcome

Outward transport of angular momentum, as well as viscous and thermal stability, are the necessary criteria for the formation of accretion disc and to radiate steadily. Turbulent motions originating from magneto-rotational instability or hydrodynamic instability can do the required transport. We explore the effect of a large-scale magnetic field (LSMF) over the turbulent transport in an optically thin advective disc. In this work, turbulent transport is represented through the usual Shakura-Sunyaev $\alpha$-viscosity. The evolution of the magnetic field and other variables is found by solving vertically integrated height averaged magnetohydrodynamic equations. Depending on its configuration, the LSMF can support or oppose $\alpha$ in outward transport of angular momentum. Once outward transport of angular momentum is assured, i.e., formation of the disc is confirmed through the combined effect of $\alpha$-viscosity and the LSMF, we explore the impact of the LSMF in thermally stabilizing the disc. As found earlier, we also find that the advection of heat energy becomes zero or negative with increasing accretion rate. That is why at or above a critical accretion rate, the optically thin advective disc becomes thermally unstable. We show however that with the addition of a strong enough magnetic field, the disc regains its thermal stability and Joule heating turns out to play the key role in that. Throughout our analysis the plasma-$\beta$ ($\beta_\mathrm{m}$) remains within the range of 5-$10^3$, which does not impose any restriction in the simultaneous operation of the LSMF and the turbulent transport.

I. Pessa, E. Schinnerer, A. Leroy, E. Koch, E. Rosolowsky, T. Williams, H.-A. Pan, A. Schruba, A. Usero, F. Belfiore, G. Blanc, M. Chevance, D. Dale, E. Emsellem, J. Gensior, S. Glover, K. Grasha, B. Groves, R. Klessen, K. Kreckel, J. M. D. Kruijssen, D. Liu, S. E. Meidt, J. Pety, M. Querejeta, T. Saito, P. Sanchez-Blazquez, E. J. Watkins

21 pages, 16 figures, accepted for publication in A&A

There exists some consensus that stellar mass surface density ($\Sigma_{*}$) and molecular gas mass surface density ($\Sigma_{\rm mol}$) are the main quantities responsible for locally setting the star formation rate. This regulation is inferred from locally resolved scaling relations between these two quantities and the star formation rate surface density ($\Sigma_{\rm SFR}$). However, the universality of these relations is debated. Here, we probe the interplay between these three quantities across different galactic environments at a spatial resolution of 150 pc. We perform a hierarchical Bayesian linear regression to find the best set of parameters $C_{*}$, $C_{\rm mol}$, and $C_{\rm norm}$ that describe the star-forming plane conformed by these quantities, such that $\log \Sigma_{\rm SFR} = C_{*} \log \Sigma_{*} + C_{\rm mol} \log \Sigma_{\rm mol} + C_{\rm norm}$, and explore variations in the determined parameters across galactic environments, focusing our analysis on the $C_{*}$ and $C_{\rm mol}$ slopes. We find signs of variations in the posterior distributions of $C_{*}$ and $C_{\rm mol}$ across different galactic environments. Bars show the most negative value of $C_{*}$, a sign of longer depletion times, while spiral arms show the highest $C_{*}$ among all environments. We conclude that systematic variations in the interplay of $\Sigma_{*}$, $\Sigma_{\rm mol}$ and $\Sigma_{\rm SFR}$ across galactic environments exist at a spatial resolution of 150 pc, and we interpret these variations as produced by an additional mechanism regulating the formation of stars that is not captured by either $\Sigma_{*}$ or $\Sigma_{\rm mol}$. We find that these variations correlate with changes in the star formation efficiency across environments, which could be linked to the dynamical state of the gas that prevents it from collapsing and forming stars, or to changes in the molecular gas fraction.

Charles L. H. Hull, Haifeng Yang, Paulo C. Cortés, William R. F. Dent, Quentin Kral, Zhi-Yun Li, Valentin J. M. Le Gouellec, A. Meredith Hughes, Julien Milli, Richard Teague, Mark C. Wyatt

22 pages, 13 figures, 2 tables. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. Materials accessible in the online version of the ApJ article include the FITS files used to make the ALMA images

We present 870 $\mu$m ALMA polarization observations of thermal dust emission from the iconic, edge-on debris disk $\beta$ Pic. While the spatially resolved map does not exhibit detectable polarized dust emission, we detect polarization at the $\sim$3$\sigma$ level when averaging the emission across the entire disk. The corresponding polarization fraction is $P_\textrm{frac}$ = $0.51 \pm 0.19$%. The polarization position angle $\chi$ is aligned with the minor axis of the disk, as expected from models of dust grains aligned via radiative alignment torques (RAT) with respect to a toroidal magnetic field ($B$-RAT) or with respect to the anisotropy in the radiation field ($k$-RAT). When averaging the polarized emission across the outer versus inner thirds of the disk, we find that the polarization arises primarily from the SW third. We perform synthetic observations assuming grain alignment via both $k$-RAT and $B$-RAT. Both models produce polarization fractions close to our observed value when the emission is averaged across the entire disk. When we average the models in the inner versus outer thirds of the disk, we find that $k$-RAT is the likely mechanism producing the polarized emission in $\beta$ Pic. A comparison of timescales relevant to grain alignment also yields the same conclusion. For dust grains with realistic aspect ratios (i.e., $s > 1.1$), our models imply low grain-alignment efficiencies.

U. Kavak, J. Bally, J. R. Goicoechea, C. H. M. Pabst, F. F. S. van der Tak, A. G. G. M. Tielens

18 pages, 18 figures, Accepted by A&A on March 22, 2022

Interest in stellar feedback has recently increased because new studies suggest that radiative and mechanical feedback from young massive stars regulate the physical and chemical composition of the interstellar medium (ISM) significantly. Recent SOFIA [CII] 158 micron observations of the Orion Veil revealed that the expanding bubble is powered by stellar winds and influenced by previously active molecular outflows of ionizing massive stars. We aim to investigate the mechanical feedback on the whole Veil shell by searching for jets/outflows interacting with the Veil shell and determining the origin/driving mechanisms of these collisions. In the light of these findings, as well as the momenta of the dents and their dynamical timescales, we propose that the dents are created by the interaction of collimated jets/outflows from protostars with luminosities ranging from 10$^3$ to 10$^4$ $L_\odot$ indicating B-type stars in the Orion star-forming cloud with the surrounding Veil shell. However, it is challenging to pinpoint the driving stars as they may have moved from the original ejection points of the jets/outflows. We conclude that the dynamics of the expanding Veil shell is influenced not just by the O-type stars in the Trapezium cluster, but also by less massive stars, especially B-type, in the Orion Nebula. Mechanical feedback from protostars with a range of masses appears to play an important role in determining the morphology of [HII] regions and injecting turbulence into the medium.

Timon Thomas, Christoph Pfrommer, Rüdiger Pakmor

19 pages, 12 figures, submitted to MNRAS, comments welcome

Feedback mediated by cosmic rays (CRs) is an important process in galaxy formation. Because CRs are long-lived and because they are transported along magnetic field lines independently of any gas flow, they can efficiently distribute their feedback energy within the galaxy. We present an in-depth investigation of (i) how CRs launch galactic winds from a disc that is forming in a $10^{11} \mathrm{M}_\odot$ halo and (ii) how CR transport affects the dynamics in a galactic outflow. To this end, we use the Arepo moving-mesh code and model CR transport with the two-moment description of CR hydrodynamics. This model includes the CR interaction with gyroresonant Alfv\'en waves that enables us to self-consistently calculate the CR diffusion coefficient and CR transport speeds based on coarse-grained models for plasma physical effects. This delivers insight into key questions such as whether the effective CR transport is streaming-like or diffusive-like, how the CR diffusion coefficient and transport speed change inside the circumgalactic medium (CGM), and to what degree the two-moment approximation is needed to faithfully capture these effects. We find that the CR-diffusion coefficient reaches a steady-state in most environments with the notable exception of our newly discovered Alfv\'en-wave dark regions where the toroidal wind magnetic field is nearly perpendicular to the CR pressure gradient so that CRs are unable to excite gyroresonant Alfv\'en waves. However, CR transport itself cannot reach a steady-state and is not well described by either the CR streaming paradigm, the CR diffusion paradigm or a combination of both.

Evan J. Arena, David M. Goldberg, David J. Bacon

Cosmic flexion, like cosmic shear, is a correlation function whose signal originates from the large-scale structure of the universe. Building on the observational success of cosmic shear, along with the unprecedented quality of large-scale cosmological datasets, the time is ripe to explore the practical constraints from cosmic flexion. Unlike cosmic shear, which has a broad window function for power, cosmic flexion is only measurable on small scales and therefore can uniquely place constraints on the small-scale matter power spectrum. Here, we present a full theoretical formalism for cosmic flexion, including both flexion-flexion and shear-flexion two-point correlations. We present forecasts for measuring cosmic flexion in the Dark Energy Survey (DES), a Stage III cosmological survey, and comment on the future prospects of measuring these cosmological flexion signals in the upcoming era of Stage IV experiments.

R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, C. Adams, N. Adhikari, R. X. Adhikari, V. B. Adya, C. Affeldt, D. Agarwal, M. Agathos, K. Agatsuma, N. Aggarwal, O. D. Aguiar, L. Aiello, A. Ain, P. Ajith, T. Akutsu, S. Albanesi, A. Allocca, P. A. Altin, A. Amato, C. Anand, S. Anand, A. Ananyeva, S. B. Anderson, W. G. Anderson, M. Ando, T. Andrade, N. Andres, T. Andrić, S. V. Angelova, S. Ansoldi, J. M. Antelis, S. Antier, S. Appert, Koji Arai, Koya Arai, Y. Arai, S. Araki, A. Araya, M. C. Araya, J. S. Areeda, M. Arène, N. Aritomi, N. Arnaud, S. M. Aronson, K. G. Arun, H. Asada, Y. Asali, G. Ashton, Y. Aso, M. Assiduo, S. M. Aston, P. Astone, F. Aubin, C. Austin, S. Babak, et al. (1595 additional authors not shown)

35 pages, 6 figures, 8 tables

We search for gravitational-wave transients associated with fast radio bursts (FRBs) detected by the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment Fast Radio Burst Project (CHIME/FRB), during the first part of the third observing run of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo (1 April 2019 15:00 UTC-1 Oct 2019 15:00 UTC). Triggers from 22 FRBs were analyzed with a search that targets compact binary coalescences with at least one neutron star component. A targeted search for generic gravitational-wave transients was conducted on 40 FRBs. We find no significant evidence for a gravitational-wave association in either search. Given the large uncertainties in the distances of the FRBs inferred from the dispersion measures in our sample, however, this does not conclusively exclude any progenitor models that include emission of a gravitational wave of the types searched for from any of these FRB events. We report $90\%$ confidence lower bounds on the distance to each FRB for a range of gravitational-wave progenitor models. By combining the inferred maximum distance information for each FRB with the sensitivity of the gravitational-wave searches, we set upper limits on the energy emitted through gravitational waves for a range of emission scenarios. We find values of order $10^{51}$-$10^{57}$ erg for a range of different emission models with central gravitational wave frequencies in the range 70-3560 Hz. Finally, we also found no significant coincident detection of gravitational waves with the repeater, FRB 20200120E, which is the closest known extragalactic FRB.

A. Bédard, P. Bergeron, P. Brassard

23 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

We continue our comprehensive theoretical investigation of the spectral evolution of white dwarfs based on sophisticated simulations of element transport. In this paper, we focus on the transformation of PG 1159 stars into DO/DB white dwarfs due to the gravitational settling of heavy elements, and then into DQ white dwarfs through the convective dredge-up of carbon. We study the impact of several physical parameters on the evolution of the surface carbon abundance over a wide range of effective temperature. In the hot PG 1159 and DO phases, our calculations confirm that the temperature of the PG 1159-to-DO transition depends sensitively on the stellar mass and the wind mass-loss rate. We show that measured carbon abundances of DOZ white dwarfs are mostly accounted for by our models, with the notable exception of the coolest DOZ stars. In the cooler DB and DQ phases, the predicted atmospheric composition is strongly influenced by the stellar mass, the thickness of the envelope, the initial carbon content, the efficiency of convective overshoot, and the presence of residual hydrogen. We demonstrate that, under reasonable assumptions, our simulations reproduce very well the observed carbon abundance pattern of DQ stars, which thus allows us to constrain the extent of the overshoot region in cool helium-rich white dwarfs. We also argue that our calculations naturally explain a number of recent empirical results, such as the relative excess of low-mass DQ stars and the presence of trace hydrogen and/or carbon at the surface of most DC and DZ stars.

Maosheng Xiang (MPIA), Hans-Walter Rix (MPIA)

20 pages, 9 figures. Published in Nature in the issue of March 24, 2022. url: this https URL This is the authors' version before final edits

The formation of our Milky Way can be parsed qualitatively into different phases that resulted in its structurally different stellar populations: the halo and the disk components. Revealing a quantitative overall picture of the Galactic assembly awaits a large sample of stars with very precise ages. Here we report an analysis of such a sample using subgiant stars. We find that the stellar age-metallicity distribution p(age, metallicity) splits into two almost disjoint parts, separated at 8 Gyr. The younger reflecting a late phase of quiescent Galactic disk formation with manifest evidence for stellar radial orbit migration; the other reflecting the earlier phase, when the stellar halo and the old alpha-process-enhanced (thick) disk formed. Our results indicate that the formation of the Galactic old (thick) disk started 13 Gyr ago, only 0.8 Gyr after the Big Bang, and two Gigayears earlier than the final assembly of the inner Galactic halo. Most of these stars formed 11 Gyr ago, when the Gaia-Sausage-Enceladus satellite merged with our Galaxy. Over the next 5--6 Gyr, the Galaxy experienced continuous chemical element enrichment, ultimately by a factor of 10, while the star-forming gas managed to stay well-mixed.

Néstor Espino-Briones, Pablo G. Pérez-González, Jaime Zamorano, Lucía Rodríguez-Muñoz

24 pages, 11 figures, MNRAS accepted

We study in detail the properties of the stellar populations of 111 massive ($\log(M_{\star}/\mathrm{M}_\odot) \ge 10)$ dusty (FIR-selected) starburst ($SFR/SFR_\mathrm{MS}>2$) galaxies at $0.7<z<1.2$. For that purpose, we use self-consistent methods that analyse the UV-to-FIR broadband observations in terms of the stellar light and dust re-emission with energy-balance techniques. We find that the emission of our starburst galaxies can be interpreted as a recent star formation episode superimposed on a more evolved stellar population. On average, the burst age is $\sim 80$ Myr and its attenuation $\sim 2.4$ mag. Assuming our starburst galaxies at half their lifetimes, we infer a duration of the starburst phase of $\sim 160$ Myr. The median stellar mass and SFR are $\log(M_\star/\mathrm{M}_\odot)\sim 10.6$ and $\sim220~\mathrm{M}_\odot~$yr$^{-1}$. Assuming this SFR and the inferred duration of the starburst phase, the stellar mass added during this phase corresponds to $\sim 40$ per cent the median stellar mass of our sample. The young-population age determines the position of our galaxies in the $M_{\star}-SFR$ plane. Galaxies located at the largest distances of the MS present shorter young-population ages. The properties of the underlying stellar population cannot be constrained accurately with our broadband data. We also discuss the impact of including the FIR data and energy-balance techniques in the analysis of the properties of the stellar populations in starburst galaxies.

Yuji Sunada, Naoki Isobe, Makoto S. Tashiro, Motoki Kino, Shoko Koyama, Satomi Nakahara

12 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

The far infrared counterpart of hot spot D, the terminal hot spot of the eastern jet hosted by the radio galaxy Cygnus A, is detected with \textit{Herschel} Aperture photometery of the source performed in 5 photometric bands covering the wavelength range of $70\unicode{x2013}350$ $\mathrm{\mu m}$. After removing the contamination from another nearby hot spot, E, the far-infrared intensity of hot spot D is derived as $83\pm13$ and $269\pm66$ mJy at $160$ and $350$ $\mathrm{\mu m}$, respectively. Since the far-infrared spectrum of the object smoothly connects to the radio one, the far-infrared emission is attributed to the synchrotron radiation from the radio-emitting electron population. The radio-to-near-infrared spectrum is confirmed to exhibit a far-infrared break feature at the frequency of $\nu_\mathrm{br}=2.0^{+1.2}_{-0.8} \times10^{12}$ Hz. The change in energy index at the break ($\Delta\alpha=0.5$) is interpreted as the impact of radiative cooling on an electron distribution sustained by continuous injection from diffusive shock acceleration. By ascribing the derived break to this cooling break, the magnetic field, $B$, in the hot spot is determined as a function of its radius, $R$ within a uniform one-zone model combined with the strong relativistic shock condition. An independent $B$-$R$ constraint is obtained by assuming the X-ray spectrum is wholly due to synchrotron-self-Compton emission. By combining these conditions, the two parameters are tightly determined as $B=120\unicode{x2013}150$ $\mathrm{\mu G}$ and $R=1.3\unicode{x2013}1.6$ kpc. A further investigation into the two conditions indicates the observed X-ray flux is highly dominated by the synchrotron-self-Compton emission.

Kepler's observations show most of the exoplanets are super-Earths. The formation of super-Earth is generally related to the atmospheric mass loss that is crucial in the planetary structure and evolution. The shock driven by the giant impact will heat the planet, resulting in the atmosphere escape. We focus on whether self-gravity changes the efficiency of mass loss. Without self-gravity, if the impactor mass is comparable to the envelope mass, there is a significant mass-loss. The radiative-convective boundary will shift inward by self-gravity. As the temperature and envelope mass increase, the situation becomes more prominent, resulting in a heavier envelope. Therefore, the impactor mass will increase to motivate the significant mass loss, as the self-gravity is included. With the increase of envelope mass, the self-gravity is particularly important.

Shyam H. Menon, Christoph Federrath, Mark R. Krumholz, Rolf Kuiper, Benjamin D. Wibking, Manuel Jung

7 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the proceedings of IAUS362: The predictive power of computational astrophysics as discovery tool (D. Bisikalo, T. Hanawa, C. Boily, J. Stone, eds.). arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2202.08778

We present a new algorithm to solve the equations of radiation hydrodynamics (RHD) in a frequency-integrated, two-moment formulation. Novel features of the algorithm include i) the adoption of a non-local Variable Eddington Tensor (VET) closure for the radiation moment equations, computed with a ray-tracing method, ii) support for adaptive mesh refinement (AMR), iii) use of a time-implicit Godunov method for the hyperbolic transport of radiation, and iv) a fixed-point Picard iteration scheme to accurately handle the stiff nonlinear gas-radiation energy exchange. Tests demonstrate that our scheme works correctly, yields accurate rates of energy and momentum transfer between gas and radiation, and obtains the correct radiation field distribution even in situations where more commonly used -- but less accurate -- closure relations like the Flux-limited Diffusion and Moment-1 approximations fail. Our scheme presents an important step towards performing RHD simulations with increasing spatial and directional accuracy, effectively improving their predictive capabilities.

Daniel Friedan

6 pages. Calculations are shown in ancillary files

The dark matter in the CGF cosmology is a cosmological SU(2)-weak gauge field (the CGF). The TOV stellar structure equations are solved numerically for stars composed of this dark matter. The star mass M can take any value up to a maximum $9.14 \times 10^{-6}$ M_sun. For each value of M the star radius R lies between 5.23cm and 13.6cm. More than one value of R is possible when M > $5.09 \times 10^{-6}$ M_sun. For those stars, a transition from larger to smaller R would release gravitational energy on the order of $10^{41}$J in a time on the order of $10^{-10}$s.

We examined the chromo-natural inflation in the context of warm inflation. The dynamical equations of this model are obtained. We studied the cosmological perturbation theory in this model. The sources of density fluctuations in this model are mainly the thermal fluctuations of the inflaton field like general warm inflationary model. Finally, cosmological observables, namely, the spectral index and tensor to scalar ratio are calculated. It is found that the cosmological observables are consistent with observational data and the tensor to scalar ratio is smaller than that in the chromo-natural inflation.

Liu Jiren, Peter A Jenke, Ji Long, Zhang Shuang-Nan, Zhang Shu, Ge Mingyu, Liao Jinyuan, Li Xiaobo, Song Liming

8 pages, 5 figs, to appear on MNRAS

We present a detailed timing study of the pulse profile of Swift J0243.6+6124 with HXMT and Fermi/GBM data during its 2017 giant outburst. The double-peak profile at luminosity above $5\times10^{38}$erg\,s$^{-1}$ is found to be 0.25 phase offset from that below $1.5\times10^{38}$erg\,s$^{-1}$, which strongly supports for a transition from a pencil beam to a fan beam, and thus for the formation of shock dominated accretion column. During the rising stage of the high double-peak regime, the faint peak got saturated in 10-100 keV band above a luminosity of $L_t\sim1.3\times10^{39}$erg\,s$^{-1}$, which is coincident with sudden spectral changes of both the main and faint peaks. They imply a sudden change of emission pattern around $L_t$. The spin-up rate ($\dot{\nu}$) is linearly correlated with luminosity ($L$) below $L_t$, consistent with the prediction of a radiation pressure dominated (RPD) disk. The $\dot{\nu}-L$ relation flattens above $L_t$, indicating a less efficient transfer of angular momentum and a change of accretion disk geometry above $L_t$. It is likely due to irradiation of the disk by the central accretion column and indicates significant radiation feedback before the inner disk radius reaching the spherization radius.

Y. P. Peng, T. Liu, S.-L. Qin, T. Baug, H.-L. Liu, K. Wang, G. Garay, C. Zhang, L.-F. Chen, C. W. Lee, M. Juvela, D. L. Li, K. Tatematsu, X.-C. Liu, J.-E. Lee, G. Luo, L. Dewangan, Y.-F. Wu, L. Zhang, L. Bronfman, J.X. Ge, M. Y. Tang, Y. Zhang, F.-W. Xu, Y. Wang, B. Zhou

40 pages, 23 figures

Investigating the physical and chemical structures of massive star-forming regions is critical for understanding the formation and the early evolution of massive stars. We performed a detailed line survey toward six dense cores named as MM1, MM4, MM6, MM7, MM8, and MM11 in G9.62+0.19 star-forming region resolved in ALMA band 3 observations. Toward these cores, about 172 transitions have been identified and attributed to 16 species including organic Oxygen-, Nitrogen-, Sulfur-bearing molecules and their isotopologues. Four dense cores MM7, MM8, MM4, and MM11 are line rich sources. Modeling of these spectral lines reveals the rotational temperature in a range of 72$-$115~K, 100$-$163~K, 102$-$204~K, and 84$-$123~K for the MM7, MM8, MM4, and MM11, respectively. The molecular column densities are 1.6 $\times$ 10$^{15}$ $-$ 9.2 $\times$ 10$^{17}$~cm$^{-2}$ toward the four cores. The cores MM8 and MM4 show chemical difference between Oxygen- and Nitrogen-bearing species, i.e., MM4 is rich in oxygen-bearing molecules while nitrogen-bearing molecules especially vibrationally excited HC$_{3}$N lines are mainly observed in MM8. The distinct initial temperature at accretion phase may lead to this N/O differentiation. Through analyzing column densities and spatial distributions of O-bearing Complex Organic Molecules (COMs), we found that C$_{2}$H$_{5}$OH and CH$_{3}$OCH$_{3}$ might have a common precursor, CH$_{3}$OH. CH$_{3}$OCHO and CH$_{3}$OCH$_{3}$ are likely chemically linked. In addition, the observed variation in HC$_{3}$N and HC$_{5}$N emission may indicate that their different formation mechanism at hot and cold regions.

A. Ridolfi, P. C. C. Freire, T. Gautam, S. M. Ransom, E. D. Barr, S. Buchner, M. Burgay, F. Abbate, V. Venkatraman Krishnan, L. Vleeschower, A. Possenti, B. W. Stappers, M. Kramer, W. Chen, P. V. Padmanabh, D. J. Champion, M. Bailes, L. Levin, E. F. Keane, R. P. Breton, M. Bezuidenhout, J.-M. Grießmeier, L. Künkel, Y. Men, F. Camilo, M. Geyer, B. V. Hugo, A. Jameson, A. Parthasarathy, M. Serylak

12 pages, 6 figures, 3 tables. Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics

We report the discovery of 13 new pulsars in the globular cluster NGC 1851 by the TRAPUM Large Survey Project using the MeerKAT radio telescope. The discoveries consist of six isolated millisecond pulsars (MSPs) and seven binary pulsars, of which six are MSPs and one is mildly recycled. For all the pulsars, we present the basic kinematic, astrometric, and orbital parameters, where applicable, as well as their polarimetric properties, when these are measurable. Two of the binary MSPs (PSR J0514-4002D and PSR J0514-4002E) are in wide and extremely eccentric (e > 0.7) orbits with a heavy white dwarf and a neutron star as their companion, respectively. With these discoveries, NGC 1851 is now tied with M28 as the cluster with the third largest number of known pulsars (14). Its pulsar population shows remarkable similarities with that of M28, Terzan 5 and other clusters with comparable structural parameters. The newly-found pulsars are all located in the innermost regions of NGC 1851 and will likely enable, among other things, detailed studies of the cluster structure and dynamics.

Petr Hellinger, Victor Montagud-Camps, Luca Franci, Lorenzo Matteini, Emanuele Papini, Andrea Verdini, Simone Landi

7 pages, 3 figures

We investigate properties of solar wind-like plasma turbulence using direct numerical simulations. We analyze the transition from large, magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) scales to the ion characteristic ones using two-dimensional hybrid (fluid electrons, kinetic ions) simulations. To capture and quantify turbulence properties, we apply the Karman-Howarth-Monin (KHM) equation for compressible Hall MHD (extended by considering the plasma pressure as a tensor quantity) to the numerical results. The KHM analysis indicates that the transition from MHD to ion scales (the so called ion break in the power spectrum) results from a combination of an onset of Hall physics and of an effective dissipation owing to the pressure-strain energy-exchange channel and resistivity. We discuss the simulation results in the context of the solar wind.

Alison K. Young, Richard Alexander, Giovanni Rosotti, Christophe Pinte

16 pages. Accepted to MNRAS

Many circumstellar discs appear to have misaligned central regions that give rise to shadows seen in scattered light observations. Small warps ($<20^\circ$ misalignment) are probably more common but are also more difficult to detect than the large misalignments studied previously. We present the characteristics of CO emission that may be used to identify a small disc warp, found from synthetic $^{13}$CO maps of a model misaligned circumbinary disc. The spectra are not symmetrical, so fitting a Keplerian model is not appropriate and can hide a warp or lead to spurious features such as spirals appearing in the residuals. We quantify the observed warp structure by fitting sinusoids to concentric annuli of the disc. From this we can trace the radial variation of the peak velocity and of the azimuth of the peak velocity, i.e., the twist. At near face-on inclinations, these radial profiles reveal the warp structure. The twist remains detectable at moderate inclinations (${i_{\rm outer~disc}\lesssim 35^{\circ}}$) in the absence of radial flows but the measured inclination must be accurate to $\lesssim 5^{\circ}$ to allow detection of the radial variation. The observed twist does not provide a direct measure of the warp structure because of its dependence on optical depth. The warp causes broad asymmetries in the channel maps that span several channels and that are distinct from localised features caused by embedded planets and gravitational instability. We suspect that kinematic evidence of warps may have been missed and we suggest a few examples where the data may be revisited.

T. Suhasaria, V. Mennella

7 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables

Formamide (NH$_2$CHO), a potential prebiotic precursor, has been proposed to play an important role in the context of origin of life on our planet. It has been observed in different environments in space including the protostellar regions and comets. The abundance and stability of NH$_2$CHO in the early stages of star formation can be better understood by incorporating the formation and destruction data in the astrochemical models. We carried out an experimental investigation to study the destruction of pure NH$_2$CHO ice at 12 K by the interaction of Ly$\alpha$ (121.6 nm) photons. The UV photo destruction of NH$_2$CHO was studied using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. After UV processing, the intensity of NH$_2$CHO IR bands decreases and new bands corresponding to HCN, CO, NH$_4^+$ OCN$^-$, HNCO, and CO$_2$ appeared in the spectrum. Destruction and cumulative product formation cross-sections were derived. The comparison of destruction rate derived from the cross-section in cold and dense molecular cloud for different energetic processing agents, reveals that UV photons induces an order of magnitude higher NH$_2$CHO destruction than cosmic rays, but three orders of magnitude lower than for H atoms.

Daniel Friedan

27 pages. Calculations are shown in ancillary files

In an earlier paper I proposed a highly symmetric semi-classical initial condition to describe the universe in the period leading up to the electroweak transition and completely determine all cosmology after that. Nothing beyond the Standard Model is assumed. Inflation is not needed. The initial symmetry allows no adjustable parameters. It is a complete theory of the Standard Model cosmological epoch, predictive and falsifiable. Here, the time evolution of the initial condition is calculated in the classical approximation. The fields with nontrivial classical values are the SU(2)-weak gauge field (the cosmological gauge field or CGF) and the Higgs field. The CGF produces the electroweak transition then evolves as a non-relativistic perfect fluid ($w_{\mathrm{CGF}}\approx 0$). At the present time, i.e. when $H=H_{0}$, the CGF energy density satisfies $\Omega_{\Lambda}+\Omega_{\mathrm{CGF}}=1$. The CGF is the dark matter. The dark matter is a classical phenomenon of the Standard Model. The classsical universe contains only the dark matter, no ordinary matter. At next to leading order the fluctuations of the Standard Model fields will provide a calculable, relatively small amount of ordinary matter such that $\Omega_{\Lambda}+\Omega_{\mathrm{CGF}}+\Omega_{\mathrm{ordinary}}=1$.

S. A. Tyul'bashev, T. V. Smirnova, E.A.Brylyakova, M.A. Kitaeva

9 pages, 5 figures

The analysis of individual pulses of four rotating radio transients (RRATs), previously discovered in a monitoring survey running for 5.5 years at the frequency of 111 MHz, is presented. At a time interval equivalent to five days of continuous observations for each RRAT, 90, 389, 206, and 157 pulses were detected in J0640+07, J1005+30, J1132+25, and J1336+33, respectively. The investigated RRATs have a different distribution of the pulses amplitude. For J0640+07 and J1132+25, the distribution is described by a single exponent over the entire range of flux densities. For J1005+30 and J1336+33, it is a lognormal function with a power law tail. For J0640+07 and J1005+30, we have detected pulses with a signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio of few hundreds. For J1132+25 and J1336+33, the S/N of the strongest pulses reaches several tens. These RRATs show strong changing of character of emission. When strengths of pulse amplitudes significantly changed, we see long intervals of absence of emission or its strong attenuation. The analysis carried out in this work shows that it is possible that all the studied RRATs are, apparently, pulsars with giant pulses.

Y. Omori, E. J. Baxter, C. Chang, O. Friedrich, A. Alarcon, O. Alves, A. Amon, F. Andrade-Oliveira, K. Bechtol, M. R. Becker, G. M. Bernstein, J. Blazek, L. E. Bleem, H. Camacho, A. Campos, A. Carnero Rosell, M. Carrasco Kind, R. Cawthon, R. Chen, A. Choi, J. Cordero, T. M. Crawford, M. Crocce, C. Davis, J. DeRose, S. Dodelson, C. Doux, A. Drlica-Wagner, K. Eckert, T. F. Eifler, F. Elsner, J. Elvin-Poole, S. Everett, X. Fang, A. Ferté, P. Fosalba, M. Gatti, G. Giannini, D. Gruen, R. A. Gruendl, I. Harrison, K. Herner, H. Huang, E. M. Huff, D. Huterer, M. Jarvis, E. Krause, N. Kuropatkin, P.-F. Leget, P. Lemos, A. R. Liddle, N. MacCrann, J. McCullough, J. Muir, J. Myles, A. Navarro-Alsina, S. Pandey, Y. Park, A. Porredon, J. Prat, M. Raveri, R. P. Rollins, A. Roodman, R. Rosenfeld, A. J. Ross, et al. (98 additional authors not shown)

30 pages, 20 figures, To be submitted to PRD

Joint analyses of cross-correlations between measurements of galaxy positions, galaxy lensing, and lensing of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) offer powerful constraints on the large-scale structure of the Universe. In a forthcoming analysis, we will present cosmological constraints from the analysis of such cross-correlations measured using Year 3 data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES), and CMB data from the South Pole Telescope (SPT) and Planck. Here we present two key ingredients of this analysis: (1) an improved CMB lensing map in the SPT-SZ survey footprint, and (2) the analysis methodology that will be used to extract cosmological information from the cross-correlation measurements. Relative to previous lensing maps made from the same CMB observations, we have implemented techniques to remove contamination from the thermal Sunyaev Zel'dovich effect, enabling the extraction of cosmological information from smaller angular scales of the cross-correlation measurements than in previous analyses with DES Year 1 data. We describe our model for the cross-correlations between these maps and DES data, and validate our modeling choices to demonstrate the robustness of our analysis. We then forecast the expected cosmological constraints from the galaxy survey-CMB lensing auto and cross-correlations. We find that the galaxy-CMB lensing and galaxy shear-CMB lensing correlations will on their own provide a constraint on $S_8=\sigma_8 \sqrt{\Omega_{\rm m}/0.3}$ at the few percent level, providing a powerful consistency check for the DES-only constraints. We explore scenarios where external priors on shear calibration are removed, finding that the joint analysis of CMB lensing cross-correlations can provide constraints on the shear calibration amplitude at the 5 to 10% level.

C. Chang, Y. Omori, E. J. Baxter, C. Doux, A. Choi, S. Pandey, A. Alarcon, O. Alves, A. Amon, F. Andrade-Oliveira, K. Bechtol, M. R. Becker, G. M. Bernstein, F. Bianchini, J. Blazek, L. E. Bleem, H. Camacho, A. Campos, A. Carnero Rosell, M. Carrasco Kind, R. Cawthon, R. Chen, J. Cordero, T. M. Crawford, M. Crocce, C. Davis, J. DeRose, S. Dodelson, A. Drlica-Wagner, K. Eckert, T. F. Eifler, F. Elsner, J. Elvin-Poole, S. Everett, X. Fang, A. Ferté, P. Fosalba, O. Friedrich, M. Gatti, G. Giannini, D. Gruen, R. A. Gruendl, I. Harrison, K. Herner, H. Huang, E. M. Huff, D. Huterer, M. Jarvis, A. Kovacs, E. Krause, N. Kuropatkin, P.-F. Leget, P. Lemos, A. R. Liddle, N. MacCrann, J. McCullough, J. Muir, J. Myles, A. Navarro-Alsina, Y. Park, A. Porredon, J. Prat, M. Raveri, R. P. Rollins, A. Roodman, et al. (101 additional authors not shown)

25 pages, 19 figures, to be submitted to PRD

Cross-correlations of galaxy positions and galaxy shears with maps of gravitational lensing of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) are sensitive to the distribution of large-scale structure in the Universe. Such cross-correlations are also expected to be immune to some of the systematic effects that complicate correlation measurements internal to galaxy surveys. We present measurements and modeling of the cross-correlations between galaxy positions and galaxy lensing measured in the first three years of data from the Dark Energy Survey with CMB lensing maps derived from a combination of data from the 2500 deg$^2$ SPT-SZ survey conducted with the South Pole Telescope and full-sky data from the Planck satellite. The CMB lensing maps used in this analysis have been constructed in a way that minimizes biases from the thermal Sunyaev Zel'dovich effect, making them well suited for cross-correlation studies. The total signal-to-noise of the cross-correlation measurements is 23.9 (25.7) when using a choice of angular scales optimized for a linear (nonlinear) galaxy bias model. We use the cross-correlation measurements to obtain constraints on cosmological parameters. For our fiducial galaxy sample, which consist of four bins of magnitude-selected galaxies, we find constraints of $\Omega_{m} = 0.27^{+0.03}_{-0.05}$ and $S_{8} \equiv \sigma_8 \sqrt{\Omega_{m}/0.3}= 0.74^{+0.03}_{-0.04}$ ($\Omega_{m} = 0.25^{+0.03}_{-0.04}$ and $S_{8} = 0.73^{+0.04}_{-0.03}$) when assuming linear (nonlinear) galaxy bias in our modeling. Considering only the cross-correlation of galaxy shear with CMB lensing, we find $\Omega_{m}= 0.27^{+0.04}_{-0.06}$ and $S_{8}= 0.74^{+0.03}_{-0.04}$. Our constraints on $S_8$ are consistent with recent cosmic shear measurements, but lower than the values preferred by primary CMB measurements from Planck.

The statistics of nonlinear processes in avalanching systems, based on the {\sl self-organized criticality (SOC)} concept of Bak et al.~(1987), predicts power law-like size (or occurrence frequency) distribution functions. Following up on previous work we define a {\sl standard SOC model} in terms of six assumptions: (i) multi-fractality; (ii) the length-area-volume relationship of Mandelbrot (1977); (iii) the flux-volume relationship, (iv) classical diffusion, (v) the Euclidean volume limit at the event peak time, and (vi) the spatio-temporal fluence or energy of an avalanche event. We gather data of the fractal dimension and power law slopes from 162 publications and assemble them in 28 groups (e.g., solar and stellar flare energies), from which we find that 75\% of the groups are consistent with the standard SOC model. Alternative SOC models (Levy-flight, flat-world, non-fractal) are slightly less correlated with the data. The remaining discrepancies are attributed to outliers caused by small-number statistics, background subtraction problems, inadequate fitting ranges, and deviations from ideal power laws.

Mojtaba Taheri, Alan W. McConnachie, Paolo Turri, Davide Massari, David Andersen, Giuseppe Bono, Giuliana Fiorentino, Kim Venn, Jean-Pierre Veran, Peter B. Stetson

The Extremely Large Telescope and the Thirty Meter Telescope will use state of the art multiconjugate adaptive optics (MCAO) systems to obtain the full D4 advantage that their apertures can provide. However, to reach the full astrometric potential of these facilities for on-sky science requires understanding any residual astrometric distortions from these systems and find ways to measure and eliminate them. In this work, we use Gemini multiconjugate adaptive optic system (GeMS) observations of the core of NGC 6723 to better understand the on-sky astrometric performance of MCAO. We develop new methods to measure the astrometric distortion fields of the observing system, which probe the distortion at the highest possible spatial resolution. We also describe methods for examining the time-variable and static components of the astrometric distortion. When applied to the GeMS Gemini South Adaptive Optics Imager (GSAOI) data, we are able to see the effect of the field rotator at the subpixel level, and we are able to empirically derive the distortion due to the optical design of GeMS-GSAOI. We argue that the resulting distortion maps are a valuable tool to measure and monitor the on-sky astrometric performance of future instrumentation. Our overall astrometry pipeline produces high-quality proper motions with an uncertainty floor of 45 uas per year. We measure the proper motion dispersion profile of NGC 6723 from a radius of 10 arcsec out to 1 arcmin based on 12000 stars. We also produce a high-quality optical-near infrared color-magnitude diagram, which clearly shows the extreme horizontal branch and main-sequence knee of this cluster.

Han-Yue Guo, Hao Wei

17 pages, 4 tables, 11 figures, revtex4

Although fast radio bursts (FRBs) have been an active field in astronomy and cosmology, their origin is still unknown to date. One of the interesting topics is the classification of FRBs, which is closely related to the origin of FRBs. Different physical mechanisms are required by different classes of FRBs. In the literature, they usually could be classified into non-repeating and repeating FRBs. Well motivated by the observations, here we are interested in the possible subclassification of FRBs. By using the first CHIME/FRB catalog, we propose to subclassify non-repeating (type I) FRBs into type Ia and Ib FRBs. The distribution of type Ia FRBs is delayed with respect to the cosmic star formation history (SFH), and hence they are probably associated with old stellar populations, while the distribution of type Ib FRBs tracks SFH, and hence they are probably associated with young stellar populations. Accordingly, the physical criteria for this subclassification of type I FRBs have been clearly determined. We find that there are some tight empirical correlations for type Ia FRBs but not for type Ib FRBs, and vice versa. These make them different in physical properties. Similarly, we suggest that repeating (type II) FRBs could also be subclassified into type IIa and IIb FRBs. A universal subclassification scheme is given at the end. This subclassification of FRBs might help us to reveal quite different physical mechanisms behind them, and improve their applications in astronomy and cosmology.

Alexander Ebenbichler (1), Andreas Postel (1), Norbert Przybilla (1), Andreas Seifahrt (2), David Weßmayer (1), Wolfgang Kausch (1), Markus Firnstein (3), Keith Butler (4), Hans-Ulrich Käufl (5), Andreas Kaufer (5), Harold Linnartz (6) ((1) Institut für Astro- und Teilchenphysik, Universität Innsbruck, (2) Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago, (3) Dr. Karl Remeis-Sternwarte and Erlangen Centre for Astroparticle Physics, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, (4) LMU München, (5) European Southern Observatory, (6) Laboratory for Astrophysics, Leiden Observatory)

17 pages, 14 figures, submitted to Astronomy & Astrophysics

A high spectral resolution investigation of diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs) in the near-infrared ($YJ$ band) is conducted to test new methods, to confirm and improve existing parameters, and to search for new DIBs. Methods: The CRyogenic high-resolution InfraRed Echelle Spectrograph (CRIRES) on the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope was employed to obtain spectra of four reddened background supergiant stars (HD 183143, HD 165784, HD 92207, HD 111613) and an unreddened comparison star (HD 87737) at the highest resolution of $R \approx 100000$ currently achievable at near-infrared wavelengths. The correction for telluric absorption was performed by a modelling approach. Non-local thermodynamic equilibrium spectral modelling of available optical and the new near-infrared spectra facilitated a comprehensive characterisation of the atmospheric properties of the background stars. A more precise and accurate determination of the reddening law along the sight lines could be achieved than feasible before by comparison of the observed and model spectral energy distributions. For DIBs that overlap with stellar lines the DIB profile shapes could be recovered. Results: Seventeen known near-infrared DIBs were confirmed, and 12 previously unknown and generally weaker DIBs were identified in the $YJ$ band. Three DIBs that show uniform profiles along all sight lines were identified, possibly connected to transitions from a common lower state of the same carrier. The divergent extinction curve towards the frequently discussed DIB standard star HD 183143 could be reproduced for the first time, requiring extra absorption by $\sim$3.5 mag due to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) to match the ultraviolet extinction bump. This extra absorption probably stems from a circumstellar bubble lying in front of the star which is intersected tangentially by the line of sight.

Georgios Zacharegkas, Damiano Caprioli, Colby Haggerty, Siddhartha Gupta

37th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2021), held 12-23 July, 2021 in Berlin, Germany - Online at $\href{ this https URL }{\rm this \; https \; URL}$, 8 pages, 3 figures

The nonresonant cosmic ray instability, predicted by Bell (2004), is thought to play an important role in the acceleration and confinement of cosmic rays (CR) close to supernova remnants. Despite its importance, the exact mechanism responsible for the saturation of the instability has not been determined, and there is no first-principle prediction for the amplitude of the saturated magnetic field. Using a survey of self-consistent hybrid simulations (with kinetic ions and fluid electrons), we study the non-linear evolution of the Bell instability as a function of the parameters of the CR population. We find that saturation is achieved when the magnetic pressure in the amplified field is comparable to the initial CR momentum flux.

Dongwoo T Chung

12 pages + bibliography and appendix (15 pages total); 8 figures, 2 tables; submitted to MNRAS

The field of millimetre-wave line-intensity mapping (LIM) is seeing increased experimental activity with pathfinder surveys already deployed or deploying in the next few years, making spectroscopic measurements of unresolved atomic and molecular line emission tracing the large-scale structure of the Universe. The next decade will also see the Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) undertake a photometric galaxy survey programme of unprecedented scope, including measurements of cosmic shear exploiting weak gravitational lensing (WL) of background galaxies to map projected large-scale structure. We consider prospects for detecting angular cross power spectra between non-tomographic cosmic shear and mm-wave LIM surveys that measure emission from CO lines at $z=0.5$-$1$. We forecast that once the LSST Year 10 WL dataset is available, a future LIM experiment, conceivably deployed in the next 10-15 years, would enable such a cross-correlation detection with an overall signal-to-noise ratio of $50$, although the current pathfinder generation of CO/[C II] surveys are more likely to achieve a marginal $2\sigma$ detection against an earlier-stage LSST WL dataset. The signal has modest astrophysical constraining power yielding competitive constraints on cosmic molecular gas density at $z\lesssim1$, and degeneracies between astrophysical parameters and the intrinsic alignment amplitude mean that external information on either one could allow the cross-correlation analysis to significantly improve its constraints on the other.

The imprint of interacting dark energy (IDE) needs to be correctly identified in order to avoid bias in constraints on IDE, on the largest scales. This paper investigates the large-scale imprint of IDE in redshift space distortions. The results suggest that, for a constant dark energy equation of state parameter, an IDE model where the dark energy transfer rate is proportional to the dark energy density, exhibits an alternating positive-negative effect in the redshift space distortions angular power spectrum -- which varies with respect to redshift z. The results also suggest that the redshift space distortions can be used to distinguish IDE models at low z ~ 0.1. Moreover, the angular power spectrum coss-correlations appear to hold the potential to be a viable tool for detecting the imprint of IDE, at z < 0.7.

We present the first detailed analysis of the connection between galaxies and their dark matter halos for the unWISE galaxy catalog -- a full-sky, infrared-selected sample built from WISE data, containing over 500 million galaxies. Using unWISE galaxy-galaxy auto-correlation and Planck CMB lensing-galaxy cross-correlation measurements down to 10 arcmin angular scales, we constrain the halo occupation distribution (HOD), a model describing how central and satellite galaxies are distributed within dark matter halos, for three unWISE} galaxy samples at mean redshifts $\bar{z} \approx 0.6$, $1.1$, and $1.5$. We constrain the characteristic minimum halo mass to host a central galaxy, $M_\mathrm{min}^\mathrm{HOD} = 1.83^{+0.41}_{-1.63} \times 10^{12} M_\odot/h$, $5.22^{+0.34}_{-4.80} \times 10^{12} M_\odot/h$, $6.60 ^{+0.30}_{-1.11} \times 10^{13} M_\odot/h$ for the unWISE samples at $\bar{z}\approx 0.6$, $1.1$, and $1.5$, respectively. We find that all three samples are dominated by central galaxies, rather than satellites. Using our constrained HOD models, we infer the effective linear galaxy bias for each unWISE sample, and find that it does not evolve as steeply with redshift as found in previous perturbation-theory-based analyses of these galaxies. We discuss possible sources of systematic uncertainty in our results, the most significant of which is the uncertainty on the galaxy redshift distribution. Our HOD constraints provide a detailed, quantitative understanding of how the unWISE galaxies populate the underlying dark matter halo distribution. These constraints will have a direct impact on future studies employing the unWISE galaxies as a cosmological and astrophysical probe, including measurements of ionized gas thermodynamics and dark matter profiles via Sunyaev-Zel'dovich and lensing cross-correlations.

We consider stellar-origin black hole binaries, which are among the main astrophysical sources for next generation gravitational wave (GW) detectors such as the Einstein Telescope (ET) and Cosmic Explorer (CE). Using population models calibrated with the most recent LIGO/Virgo results from O3b run, we show that ET and CE will be capable of detecting tens of thousands of such sources (and virtually all of those present in our past light cone up to $z\lesssim 0.7$ for ET and $z\lesssim 1$ for CE) with a signal-to-noise ratio up to several hundreds, irrespective of the detector design. When it comes to parameter estimation, we use a Fisher-matrix analysis to assess the impact of the design on the estimation of the intrinsic and extrinsic parameters. We find that the CE detector, consisting of two distinct $L-$shape interferometers, has better sky localization performance compared to ET in its triangular configuration. We also find that the network is typically capable of measuring the chirp mass, mass ratio and effective spin of the binary at order of $10^{-4}$, $10^{-6}$ and $10^{-3}$ fractional error respectively. While the fractional errors for the extrinsic parameters are of order $10^{-2}$ for the sky localization, luminosity distance and inclination.

The problem of thermalization of radiation within a self-emitting hydrogen isothermal atmosphere is considered for the case of a hydrostatic profile of the plasma density. The probabilistic approach to define the thermalization depth for the photon of a given frequency is used. Quantitative conclusions are made on the value of the optical depth at which the radiation can be viewed as thermalized up to a given frequency. The solutions of the radiative transfer equations confirm these results. The frequency dependencies of the single-interaction free-free absorption probability in a cold nonmagnetized and magnetized plasma are calculated.

It is widely believed that string theory easily allows for a QCD axion in the cosmologically favoured mass range. The required small decay constant, $f_a\ll M_P$, can be implemented by using a large compactification volume. This points to the Large Volume Scenario (LVS), which in turn makes certain cosmological predictions: First, the axion behaves similarly to a field-theoretic axion in the pre-inflationary scenario, i.e. the initial value can be tuned but one is constrained by isocurvature fluctuations. In addition, the volume naively represents a long-lived modulus, that may lead to an early matter-dominated phase. Finally, the volume modulus' decay to its own axion tends to produce excessive dark radiation. In this paper we aim to carefully analyze the cosmology by studying models that not only allow for a QCD axion but also include inflation. Quite generally, limits on isocurvature fluctuations restrict us to relatively low-scale inflation, which in the present stringy context points to Kahler or blowup inflation models. Moreover, we find as a novel and at first sight encouraging feature that the lightest (volume) modulus is likely to couple strongly to the Higgs. It hence quickly decays to the Standard Model, thus seemingly resolving the dark radiation problem. This decay is much faster than that of the inflaton such that the latter comes to dominate the Universe. Since the inflaton distributes its energy equally between the QCD axion and the Standard Model, this turns out to be a curse rather than a blessing: Generically, the dark radiation abundance remains too high. We briefly discuss possibilities to circumvent this issue. In particular, the rapid decay of the volume modulus into Higgses demotes dark radiation from a generic LVS problem to an issue resolvable by inflationary model building.

Chandrachur Chakraborty (IISc / MCNS-MAHE), Banibrata Mukhopadhyay (IISc)

12 pages including 4 figures; Version published in Universe

It was predicted that the spin precession frequency of a stationary gyroscope shows various anomalies in the strong gravity regime if its orbit shrinks, and eventually its precession frequency becomes arbitrarily high very close to the horizon of a rotating black hole. Considering the gravity waves of a flowing fluid with vortex in a shallow basin, that acts as a rotating analogue black hole, one can observe the predicted strong gravity effect on the spin precession in the laboratory. Attaching a thread with the buoyant particles and anchored it to the bottom of the fluid container with a short length of miniature chain, one can construct a simple local test gyroscope to measure the spin precession frequency in the vicinity of the gravity wave analogue black hole. The thread acts as the axis of the gyroscope. By regulating the orbital frequency of the test gyroscope, one can also be able to measure the strong gravity Lense-Thirring effect and geodetic/de-Sitter effect with this experimental set-up, as the special cases. For example, to measure the Lense-Thirring effect, the length of the miniature chain can be set to zero, so that the gyroscope becomes static. One can also measure the geodetic precession with this system by orbiting the test gyroscope in the so-called Keplerian frequency around the non-rotating analogue black hole that can be constructed by making the rotation of the fluid/vortex negligible compared to its radial velocity.

Action-angle coordinates are a tool commonly used in celestial mechanics to systematically parametrize and store general solutions of the equations of motion of astrophysical bodies. I perturbatively construct action-angle coordinates for bound test particle motion in static, spherically symmetric space-times using a post-circular expansion. Then I specialise the expressions to the motion in the gravitational fields of Schwarzschild black holes and give explicit formulas for the Hamiltonian to the 10th power in the radial action (20th power in eccentricity), and the transformation to angle coordinates up to the 8th harmonic with respect to a relativistic orbital anomaly. The results provide a closed-form perturbative solution for the orbital motion parametrized by coordinate time that will find applications in the modelling of compact binary inspirals and other fields of astrophysics.

Bogar Díaz, Miguel Ángel García Ariza, J. E. Ramírez

We derive a formula for the dry adiabatic lapse rate of atmospheres composed of real gases. We restrict our study to those described by a family of two-parameter cubic equations of state and the recent Guevara non-cubic equation. Since our formula depends on the adiabatic curves, we compute them all at once considering molecules that can move, rotate, and vibrate, for any equation of state. To illustrate our results, we estimate the lapse rate of the troposphere of Titan, obtaining a better approximation to the observed data in some instances, when compared to the estimation provided by the virial expansion up to third order.

Daniel Friedan

32 pages. Calculations are shown in ancillary files

The CGF cosmology is a complete theory of cosmology from the electroweak transition onward. It is semi-classical. At leading order the only matter is dark matter -- a cosmological SU(2)-weak gauge field (the CGF). Ordinary matter is a subleading correction from fluctuations around the classical state. The CGF is periodic in imaginary time. It acts as thermal bath for the fluctuations of the Standard Model fields. Here, the initial thermal state of the SU(2) gauge field fluctuations is constructed and shown to be thermodynamically stable. This is a warm-up for (1) constructing the initial thermal state of all the fluctuations in order to calculate its time evolution and (2) showing that initial state to be thermodynamically stable in order to show that the CGF cosmology is physically natural.

Minimally modified gravity is a class of models with only the two tensor degrees of freedom as in general relativity. Using the framework with auxiliary constraints these models can maintain a dynamical cosmological background. The form of the constraints is thereby restricted by the requirement of dynamical dark energy and the avoidance of a breakdown of perturbation theory. Studying the linear perturbations around the FLRW background the results are, however, quite insensitive to the details of the constraints leading to a modified effective gravitational constant or a non-vanishing sound speed for dust.

Omar Alfarisi, Zeyar Aung, Qingfeng Huang, Ashraf Al-Khateeb, Hamed Alhashmi, Mohamed Abdelsalam, Salem Alzaabi, Haifa Alyazeedi, Anthony Tzes

Planetary exploration depends heavily on 3D image data to characterize the static and dynamic properties of the rock and environment. Analyzing 3D images requires many computations, causing efficiency to suffer lengthy processing time alongside large energy consumption. High-Performance Computing (HPC) provides apparent efficiency at the expense of energy consumption. However, for remote explorations, the conveyed surveillance and the robotized sensing need faster data analysis with ultimate accuracy to make real-time decisions. In such environments, access to HPC and energy is limited. Therefore, we realize that reducing the number of computations to optimal and maintaining the desired accuracy leads to higher efficiency. This paper demonstrates the semantic segmentation capability of a probabilistic decision tree algorithm, 3D Adapted Random Forest Vision (3DARFV), exceeding deep learning algorithm efficiency at the utmost accuracy.

Philippe Brax, Hauke Fischer, Christian Käding, Mario Pitschmann

14 pages, 4 figures

We derive approximate analytical solutions to the environment-dependent dilaton field theory equations in the presence of a one or two mirror system or a sphere. The one-dimensional equations of motion are integrated for each system. The solutions obtained herein can be applied to \textit{q}BOUNCE experiments, neutron interferometry and for the calculation of the dilaton field induced "Casimir force" in the \textsc{Cannex} experiment as well as for Lunar Laser Ranging. They are typical of the Damour-Polyakov screening mechanism whereby deviations from General Relativity are suppressed by a vanishingly small direct coupling of the dilaton to matter in dense environments.

Ziming Liu (MIT), Varun Madhavan (IIT), Max Tegmark (MIT)

17 pages, 10 figures

We present a machine learning algorithm that discovers conservation laws from differential equations, both numerically (parametrized as neural networks) and symbolically, ensuring their functional independence (a non-linear generalization of linear independence). Our independence module can be viewed as a nonlinear generalization of singular value decomposition. Our method can readily handle inductive biases for conservation laws. We validate it with examples including the 3-body problem, the KdV equation and nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation.