Papers for Wednesday, May 11 2022

We present results from a suite of eight direct N-body simulations, performed with \textsc{Nbody6++GPU}, representing realistic models of rotating star clusters with up to $1.1\times 10^5$ stars. Our models feature primordial (hard) binaries, a continuous mass spectrum, differential rotation, and tidal mass loss induced by the overall gravitational field of the host galaxy. We explore the impact of rotation and stellar evolution on the star cluster dynamics. In all runs for rotating star clusters we detect a previously predicted mechanism: an initial phase of violent relaxation followed by the so-called gravogyro catastrophe. We find that the gravogyro catastrophe reaches a finite amplitude, which depends in strength on the level of the bulk rotation, and then levels off. After this phase the angular momentum is transferred from high-mass to low-mass particles in the cluster (both stars and compact objects). Simultaneously, the system becomes gravothermally unstable and collapses, thus undergoing the so-called gravothermal-gravogyro catastrophe. Comparing models with and without stellar evolution, we find an interesting difference. When stellar evolution is not taken into account, the whole process proceeds at a faster pace. The population of heavy objects tend to form a triaxial structure that rotates in the cluster centre. When stellar evolution is taken into account, we find that such a {\it rotating bar} is populated by stellar black holes and their progenitors. The triaxial structure becomes axisymmetric over time, but we also find that the models without stellar evolution suffer repeated gravogyro catastrophes as sufficient angular momentum and mass are removed by the tidal field.

The mass distribution of dark matter haloes is the result of the hierarchical growth of initial density perturbations through mass accretion and mergers. We use an interpretable machine-learning framework to provide physical insights into the origin of the spherically-averaged mass profile of dark matter haloes. We train a gradient-boosted-trees algorithm to predict the final mass profiles of cluster-sized haloes, and measure the importance of the different inputs provided to the algorithm. We find two primary scales in the initial conditions (ICs) that impact the final mass profile: the density at approximately the scale of the haloes' Lagrangian patch $R_L$ ($R\sim 0.7\, R_L$) and that in the large-scale environment ($R\sim 1.7~R_L$). The model also identifies three primary time-scales in the halo assembly history that affect the final profile: (i) the formation time of the virialized, collapsed material inside the halo, (ii) the dynamical time, which captures the dynamically unrelaxed, infalling component of the halo over its first orbit, (iii) a third, most recent time-scale, which captures the impact on the outer profile of recent massive merger events. While the inner profile retains memory of the ICs, this information alone is insufficient to yield accurate predictions for the outer profile. As we add information about the haloes' mass accretion history, we find a significant improvement in the predicted profiles at all radii. Our machine-learning framework provides novel insights into the role of the ICs and the mass assembly history in determining the final mass profile of cluster-sized haloes.

We present a detailed time-resolved photometric study of the ultra-compact X-ray binary candidate 4U 1812-12. The multicolor light curves obtained with HiPERCAM on the 10.4-m Gran Telescopio Canarias show an aprox 114 min modulation similar to a superhump. Under this interpretation, this period should lie very close to the orbital period of the system. Contrary to what its other observational properties suggest (namely, persistent dim luminosity, low optical-to-X-ray flux ratio and lack of hydrogen features in the optical spectrum), this implies that 4U1812-12 is most likely not an ultra-compact X-ray binary, which are usually defined as systems with orbital periods lower than 80 min. We discuss the nature of the system, showing that a scenario in which 4U 1812-12 is the progenitor of an ultra-compact X-ray binary may reconcile all the observables.

We present the circumnuclear multi-phase gas properties of the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) in the center of Abell 1644-South. A1644-S is the main cluster in a merging system, which is well known for X-ray hot gas sloshing in its core. The sharply peaked X-ray profile of A1644-S implies the presence of a strongly cooling gas core. In this study, we analyze ALMA CO (1-0) data, JVLA HI data, and KaVA 22 GHz data for the central region of A1644-S to probe the potential origin of the cool gas and its role in (re)powering the central active galactic nucleus (AGN). We find CO clumps distributed in an arc shape along the X-ray gas sloshing, which is suggestive of a connection between the cold gas and the hot intracluster medium (ICM). HI and CN are detected in absorption against the AGN continuum emission. The absorption dip is observed at the systemic velocity of the BCG with an extended, redshifted tail. Based on the spatial and spectral configurations of the HI, CN and CO gases, it is inferred that cool gas spirals into the core of the BCG, which is then fed to the central AGN. Indeed, our KaVA observation reveals a parsec-scale bipolar jet, implying that this AGN could have been (re)powered quite recently. Combining this, we suggest that some cold gas in A1644-S could have been formed from the cooling of the ICM, triggering the activity of the central AGN in the early development of a cool-core cluster.

We carry out a comparative analysis of the relation between the mass of supermassive black holes (BHs) and the stellar mass of their host galaxies at $0.2<z<1.7$ using well-matched observations and multiple state-of-the-art simulations (e.g., Massive Black II, Horizon-AGN, Illustris, TNG and a semi-analytic model). The observed sample consists of 646 uniformly-selected SDSS quasars ($0.2 < z < 0.8$) and 32 broad-line AGNs ($1.2<z<1.7$) with imaging from Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) for the former and Hubble Space Telescope (HST) for the latter. We first add realistic observational uncertainties to the simulation data and then construct a simulated sample in the same manner as the observations. Over the full redshift range, our analysis demonstrates that all simulations predict a level of intrinsic scatter of the scaling relations comparable to the observations which appear to agree with the dispersion of the local relation. Regarding the mean relation, Horizon-AGN and TNG are in closest agreement with the observations at low and high redshift ($z\sim$ 0.2 and 1.5, respectively) while the other simulations show subtle differences within the uncertainties. For insight into the physics involved, the scatter of the scaling relation, seen in the SAM, is reduced by a factor of two and closer to the observations after adopting a new feedback model which considers the geometry of the AGN outflow. The consistency in the dispersion with redshift in our analysis supports the importance of both quasar and radio mode feedback prescriptions in the simulations. Finally, we highlight the importance of increasing the sensitivity, e.g., JWST, thereby pushing to lower masses and minimizing biases due to selection effects.

A first-order phase transition in the early universe can give an observable stochastic gravitational background (SGWB), which will necessarily have primordial anisotropies across the sky. In multi-field inflationary scenarios, these anisotropies may have a significant isocurvature component very different from adiabatic fluctuations, providing an alternate discovery channel for high energy physics at inflationary scales. Here, we consider classically oscillating heavy fields during inflation that can imprint distinctive scale-invariance-breaking features in the power spectrum of primordial anisotropies. While such features are highly constrained in the cosmic microwave background, we show that their amplitude can be observably large in isocurvature SGWB, despite both probing a similar period of inflation. Measuring SGWB multipoles at the required level, $\ell \sim {\cal O}(10-100)$, will be technologically challenging. However, we expect that early detection of a strong isotropic SGWB, and the guarantee of anisotropies, would spur development of next-generation detectors with sufficient sensitivity, angular resolution, and foreground discrimination.

We report observations of a bright dumb-bell system of galaxies ($z =0.162$) with the upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope ($u$GMRT), which show that each member of this gravitationally bound pair of galaxies hosts bipolar radio jets extended on 100 kiloparsec scales. Only two cases of such radio morphology have been reported previously, both being dumb-bell systems, as well. The famous first example, 3C 75, was discovered 4 decades ago, and the second case was discovered 3 decades ago. This implies that such `Twin-Radio-Galaxies' (TRGs) are an exceedingly rare phenomenon. As in the case of its two senior cousins, the bi-polar radio jets of the present TRG (J104454+354055) exhibit strong wiggles and are edge-darkened (Fanaroff-Riley class I). However, there are important differences, too. For instance, the jets in the present TRG do not merge and, moreover, show no signs of distortion due to an external crosswind. This makes the present TRG a much neater laboratory for studying the physics of (sideway) colliding jets of relativistic plasma. This TRG has a Wide-Angle-Tail (WAT) neighbour hosted by another bright galaxy belonging to the same group, which appears to be moving towards the TRG.

We implement advanced Riemann solvers HLLC and HLLD \cite{Mignone:2005ft,MUB:2009} together with an advanced constrained transport scheme \cite{Gardiner:2007nc} in a numerical-relativity neutrino-radiation magnetohydrodynamics code. We validate our implementation by performing a series of one- and multi-dimensional test problems for relativistic hydrodynamics and magnetohydrodynamics in both Minkowski spacetime and a static black hole spacetime. We find that the numerical solutions with the advanced Riemann solvers are more accurate than those with the HLLE solver \cite{DelZanna:2002rv}, which was originally implemented in our code. As an application to numerical relativity, we simulate an asymmetric binary neutron star merger leading to a short-lived massive neutron star both with and without magnetic fields. We find that the lifetime of the rotating massive neutron star formed after the merger and also the amount of the tidally-driven dynamical ejecta are overestimated when we employ the diffusive HLLE solver. We also find that the magnetorotational instability is less resolved when we employ the HLLE solver because of the solver's large numerical diffusivity. This causes a spurious enhancement both of magnetic winding resulting from large scale poloidal magnetic fields, and also of the energy of the outflow induced by magnetic pressure.

As of October 2021 (Period 108), the European Southern Observatory (ESO) offers a new mode of the ESPRESSO spectrograph designed to use the High Resolution grating with 4x2 binning (spatial by spectral; HR42 mode) with the specific objective of observing faint targets with a single Unit Telescope at Paranal. We validated the new HR42 mode using four hours of on-target observations of the quasar J0003-2603, known to host an intervening metal-poor absorber along the line of sight. The capabilities of the ESPRESSO HR42 mode (resolving power R~137 000) were evaluated by comparing to a UVES spectrum of the same target with a similar integration time but lower resolving power (R~48 000). For both data sets we tested the ability to decompose the velocity profile of the intervening absorber using Voigt profile fitting and extracted the total column densities of CIV, NI, SiII, AlII, FeII, and NiII. With ~3x the resolving power and ~2x lower S/N for a nearly equivalent exposure time, the ESPRESSO data is able to just as accurately characterize the individual components of the absorption lines as the comparison UVES data, but has the added bonus of identifying narrower components not detected by UVES. For UVES to provide similar spectral resolution (R>100 000; 0.3'' slit) and the broad wavelength coverage of ESPRESSO, the Exposure Time Calculator (ETC) supplied by ESO estimates 8 hrs of exposure time spread over two settings; requiring double the time investment than that of ESPRESSO's HR42 mode whilst not properly sampling the UVES spectral resolution element. Thus ESPRESSO's HR42 mode offers nearly triple the resolving power of UVES (0.8'' slit to match typical ambient conditions at Paranal) and provides more accurate characterization of quasar absorption features for an equivalent exposure time.

The Rayleigh scattering of cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons off the neutral hydrogen produced during recombination effectively creates an additional scattering surface after recombination that encodes new cosmological information, including the expansion and ionization history of the universe. A first detection of Rayleigh scattering is a tantalizing target for next-generation CMB experiments. We have developed a Rayleigh scattering forecasting pipeline that includes instrumental effects, atmospheric noise, and astrophysical foregrounds (e.g., Galactic dust, cosmic infrared background, or CIB, and the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect). We forecast the Rayleigh scattering detection significance for several upcoming ground-based experiments, including SPT-3G+, Simons Observatory, CCAT-prime, and CMB-S4, and examine the limitations from atmospheric and astrophysical foregrounds as well as potential mitigation strategies. When combined with Planck data, we estimate that the ground-based experiments will detect Rayleigh scattering with a significance between 1.6 and 3.7, primarily limited by atmospheric noise and the CIB.

Rayleigh scattering of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) by neutral hydrogen shortly after recombination leaves frequency-dependent imprints on intensity and polarization fluctuations. High signal-to-noise observations of CMB Rayleigh scattering would provide additional insight into the physics of recombination, including greater constraining power for parameters like the primordial helium fraction, the light relic density, and the sum of neutrino masses. However, such a measurement of CMB Rayleigh scattering is challenging due to the presence of astrophysical foregrounds, which are more intense at the high frequencies, where the effects of Rayleigh scattering are most prominent. Here we forecast the detectability of CMB Rayleigh scattering including foreground removal using blind internal linear combination methods for a set of near-future surveys. We show that atmospheric effects for ground-based observatories and astrophysical foregrounds pose a significant hindrance to detecting CMB Rayleigh scattering with experiments planned for this decade, though a high-significance measurement should be possible with a future CMB satellite.

Fronts are regions of transition from one state to another in a medium. They are present in many areas of science and applied mathematics, and modelling them and their evolution is often an effective way of treating the underlying phenomena responsible for them. In this paper, we propose a new approach to modelling front propagation, which characterises the evolution of structures surrounding radiative sources. This approach is generic and has a wide range of applications, particularly when dealing with the propagation of phase or state transitions in media surrounding radiation emitting objects. As an illustration, we show an application in modelling the propagation of ionisation fronts around early stars during the cosmological Epoch of Reionisation (EoR) and show that the results are consistent with those of existing equations but provide much richer sources of information.

We present a new investigation of the intergalactic medium (IGM) near reionization using dark gaps in the Lyman-$\beta$ (Ly$\beta$) forest. With its lower optical depth, Ly$\beta$ offers a potentially more sensitive probe to any remaining neutral gas compared to commonly used Ly$\alpha$ line. We identify dark gaps in the Ly$\beta$ forest using spectra of 42 QSOs at $z_{\rm em}>5.5$, including new data from the XQR-30 VLT Large Programme. Approximately $40\%$ of these QSO spectra exhibit dark gaps longer than $10h^{-1}{\rm Mpc}$ at $z\simeq5.8$. By comparing the results to predictions from simulations, we find that the data are broadly consistent both with models where fluctuations in the Ly$\alpha$ forest are caused solely by ionizing ultraviolet background (UVB) fluctuations and with models that include large neutral hydrogen patches at $z<6$ due to a late end to reionization. Of particular interest is a very long ($L=28h^{-1}{\rm Mpc}$) and dark ($\tau_{\rm eff} \gtrsim 6$) gap persisting down to $z\simeq 5.5$ in the Ly$\beta$ forest of the $z_{\rm}=5.85$ QSO PSO J025$-$11. This gap may support late reionization models with a volume-weighted average neutral hydrogen fraction of $ \langle x_{\rm HI}\rangle \gtrsim 5\%$ by $z=5.6$. Finally, we infer constraints on $\langle x_{\rm HI}\rangle$ over $5.5 \lesssim z \lesssim 6.0$ based on the observed Ly$\beta$ dark gap length distribution and a conservative relationship between gap length and neutral fraction derived from simulations. We find $\langle x_{\rm HI}\rangle \leq 0.05$, 0.17, and 0.29 at $z\simeq 5.55$, 5.75, and 5.95, respectively. These constraints are consistent with models where reionization ends significantly later than $z = 6$.

The rotation curves of some star forming massive galaxies at redshift two decline over the radial range of a few times the effective radius, indicating a significant deficit of dark matter (DM) mass in the galaxy centre. The DM mass deficit is interpreted as the existence of a DM density core rather than the cuspy structure predicted by the standard cosmological model. A recent study proposed that a galaxy merger, in which the smaller satellite galaxy is significantly compacted by dissipative contraction of the galactic gas, can heat the centre of the host galaxy and help make a large DM core. By using an $N$-body simulation, we find that a large amount of DM mass is imported to the centre by the merging satellite, making this scenario an unlikely solution for the DM mass deficit. In this work, we consider giant baryonic clumps in high redshift galaxies as alternative heating source for creating the baryon dominated galaxies with a DM core. Due to dynamical friction, the orbit of clumps decays in a few Gyr and the baryons condensate at the galactic centre. As a back-reaction, the halo centre is heated up and the density cusp is flattened out. The combination of the baryon condensation and core formation makes the galaxy baryon dominated in the central 2-5 kpc, comparable to the effective radius of the observed galaxies. Thus, the dynamical heating by giant baryonic clumps is a viable mechanism for explaining the observed dearth of DM in high redshift galaxies.

We extend the modal decomposition method, previously applied to compress the information in the real-space bispectrum, to the anisotropic redshift-space galaxy bispectrum. In the modal method approach, the bispectrum is expanded on a basis of smooth functions of triangles and their orientations, such that a set of modal expansion coefficients can capture the information in the bispectrum. We assume a reference survey and compute Fisher forecasts for the compressed modal bispectrum and two other basis decompositions of the redshift-space bispectrum in the literature, one based on (single) spherical harmonics and another based on tripolar spherical harmonics. In each case, we compare the forecasted constraints from the compressed statistic with forecasted constraints from the full, uncompressed bispectrum which includes all triangles and orientations. Our main result is that all three compression methods achieve good recovery of the full information content of the bispectrum, but the modal decomposition approach achieves this the most efficiently: only 14 (42) modal expansion coefficients are necessary to obtain constraints that are within 10% (2%) of the full bispectrum result. The next most efficient decomposition is the one based on tripolar spherical harmonics, while the spherical harmonic multipoles are the least efficient.

With the aim of using machine learning techniques to obtain photometric redshifts based upon a source's radio spectrum alone, we have extracted the radio sources from the Million Quasars Catalogue. Of these, 44,119 have a spectroscopic redshift, required for model validation, and for which photometry could be obtained. Using the radio spectral properties as features, we fail to find a model which can reliably predict the redshifts, although there is the suggestion that the models improve with the size of the training sample. Using the near-infrared--optical--ultraviolet bands magnitudes, we obtain reliable predictions based on the 12,503 radio sources which have all of the required photometry. From the 80:20 training--validation split, this gives only 2501 validation sources, although training the sample upon our previous SDSS model gives comparable results for all 12,503 sources. This makes us confident that SkyMapper, which will survey southern sky in the u, v, g, r, i, z bands, can be used to predict the redshifts of radio sources detected with the Square Kilometre Array. By using machine learning to impute the magnitudes missing from much of the sample, we can predict the redshifts for 32,698 sources, an increase from 28% to 74% of the sample, at the cost of increasing the outlier fraction by a factor of 1.4. While the "optical" band data prove successful, at this stage we cannot rule out the possibility of a radio photometric redshift, given sufficient data which may be necessary to overcome the relatively featureless radio spectra.

Some ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) exhibit X-ray pulses, and their central sources are thought to be neutron stars. It has also been suggested that some are transient sources with Be-type donors. In this study, we use the mass accretion model of a Be-type high mass X-ray binary (BeHMXB) to estimate the conditions under which a giant X-ray burst caused by a BeHMXB exceeds the Eddington luminosity. Moreover, we investigate the duration for which BeHMXBs can be observed as transient ULXs with bursts above the Eddington luminosity during binary evolutions. The results indicate that BeHMXBs could be ULXs for a typical duration of approximately 1 Myr. Comparisons with nearby observed BeHMXBs indicate that many binary systems have the potential to become ULXs during their evolution. Particularly, a BeHMXB system tends to become a ULX when the Be donor has a dense deccretion disc aligned with the orbital plane. Because BeHMXBs are very common objects and a significant number of them can become ULXs, we conclude that a reasonable fraction of the observed ULXs could consist of evolved BeHMXBs.

We report our independent image reconstruction of the M 87 from the public data of the Event Horizon Telescope Collaborators (EHTC). Our result is different from the image published by the EHTC. Our analysis shows that (a) the structure at 230 GHz is consistent with those of lower frequency VLBI observations, (b) the jet structure is evident at 230 GHz extending from the core to a few mas, though the intensity rapidly decreases along the axis, and (c) the unresolved core is resolved into bright three features presumably showing an initial jet with a wide opening angle of about 70 deg. The ring-like structures of the EHTC can be created not only from the public data, but also from the simulated data of a point image. Also, the rings are very sensitive to the FOV size. The u-v coverage of EHT lack about 40 micro-asec fringe spacings. Combining with a very narrow FOV, it created the 40 micro-asec ring structure. We conclude that the absence of the jet and the presence of the ring in the EHTC result are both artifacts owing to the narrow FOV setting and the u-v data sampling bias effect of the EHT array. Because the EHTC's simulations only take into account the reproduction of the input image models, and not those of the input noise models, their optimal parameters can enhance the effects of sampling bias and produce artifacts such as the 40 micro-asec ring structure, rather than reproducing the correct image.

We study the spectral evolution of the black hole candidate EXO 1846$-$031 during its 2019 outburst, in the 1--150 keV band,with the {\it {Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope}}. The continuum spectrum is well modelled with an absorbed disk-blackbody plus cutoff power-law, in the hard, intermediate and soft states. In addition, we detect an $\approx$6.6 keV Fe emission line in the hard intermediate state. Throughout the soft intermediate and soft states, the fitted inner disk radius remains almost constant; we suggest that it has settled at the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO). However, in the hard and hard intermediate states, the apparent inner radius was unphysically small (smaller than ISCO), even after accounting for the Compton scattering of some of the disk photons by the corona in the fit. We argue that this is the result of a high hardening factor, $f_{\rm col}\approx2.0-2.7$, in the early phases of outburst evolution, well above the canonical value of 1.7 suitable to a steady disk. We suggest that the inner disk radius was close to ISCO already in the low/hard state. Furthermore, we propose that this high value of hardening factor in the relatively hard state is probably caused by the additional illuminating of the coronal irradiation onto the disk. Additionally, we estimate the spin parameter with the continuum-fitting method, over a range of plausible black hole masses and distances. We compare our results with the spin measured with the reflection-fitting method and find that the inconsistency of the two results is partly caused by the different choices of $f_{\rm col}$.

We investigate the contribution of extended radio sources such as Centaurus A, and Galactic supernova remnants (SNRs) to our ability to detect the statistical $21\,\rm{cm}$ signal from the Epoch of Reionisation (EoR) with the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA). These sources are typically ignored because they are in highly attenuated parts of the MWA primary beam, however in aggregate these sources have apparent flux densities of $10\,\rm{Jy}$ on angular scales we expect to detect the $21\,\rm{cm}$ signal. We create bespoke multi-component 2D Gaussian models for Galactic SNRs and for Centaurus A, and simulate the visibilities for two MWA snapshot observations. We grid those visibilities and then Fourier transform them with respect to frequency, averaging them both spherically and cylindrically to produce the 1D and 2D power spectra. We compare the simulated 1D power spectra to the expected $21\,\rm{cm}$ power spectrum. We find that although these extended sources are in highly attenuated parts of the MWA primary beam pattern, collectively they have enough power ($\sim10^4-10^5\,\rm{mK^2}\,\it{h^{-3}} \,\rm{Mpc^{3}}$) on EoR significant modes ($|\mathbf{k}| \leq 0.1 h \rm{Mpc}^{-1}$) to prohibit detection of the $21\,\rm{cm}$ signal ($10^4\,\rm{mK^2}\,\it{h^{-3}} \,\rm{Mpc^{3}}$). We find that $50-90\%$ of sources must be removed in order to reduce leakage to a level of $10-20\%$ of the $21\,\rm{cm}$ power spectrum on EoR significant modes. The effects of widefield extended sources will have implications on the detectability of the $21\,\rm{cm}$ signal for the MWA and with the future Square Kilometre Array (SKA).

We provide a cosmological test of modified gravity with two tensorial degrees of freedom and no extra propagating scalar mode. The theory of gravity we consider admits a cosmological model that is indistinguishable from the $\Lambda$CDM model at the level of the background evolution. The model has a single modified-gravity parameter $\beta$, the effect of which can be seen in linear perturbations, though no extra scalar mode is propagating. Using the Boltzmann code modified to incorporate the present model, we derive the constraints $-0.047 < \beta < -0.028$ at 68$\%$ confidence from Planck CMB data. Since our modified gravity model can hardly be constrained by the Solar System tests and gravitational-wave propagation, our result offers the only bounds available so far on the model.

The first interstellar object to be discovered, 1I/'Oumuamua, exhibited various unusual properties as it was tracked on its passage through the inner solar system in 2017/2018. In terms of the potential scientific return, a spacecraft mission to intercept and study it in situ would be invaluable. As an extension to previous Project Lyra studies, this paper elaborates an alternative mission to 1I/'Oumuamua, this time also requiring a Jupiter Oberth Manoeuvre (JOM) to accelerate the spacecraft towards its destination. The difference is in the combination of planetary flybys exploited to get to Jupiter, which includes a Mars encounter before proceeding to Jupiter. The trajectory identified is inferior to previous finds in terms of higher $\Delta V$ requirement (15.6 $kms^{-1}$), longer flight duration (29 years) and less mission preparation time (launch 2026), however it benefits from a feature absent from previous JOM candidates, in that there is little or no $\Delta V$ en route to Jupiter (i.e. a free ride) which means the spacecraft need not carry a liquid propellant stage. This is marginally offset by the higher $\Delta V$ needed at Jupiter, requiring either 2 or 3 staged solid rocket motors. As an example, a Falcon Heavy Expendable with a CASTOR 30XL booster followed by a STAR 48B can deliver 102kg to 1I/'Oumuamua by the year 2059. Other scenarios with shorter flight durations and higher payload masses are possible.

Warm absorber spectra contain bound-bound and bound-free absorption features seen in the X-ray and UV spectra from many active galactic nuclei (AGN). The widths and centroid energies of these features indicate they occur in outflowing gas, and the outflow can affect the gas within the host galaxy. Thus the warm absorber mass and energy budgets are of great interest. Estimates for these properties depend on models which connect the observed strengths of the absorption features with the density, composition, and ionization state of the absorbing gas. Such models assume that the ionization and heating of the gas come primarily from the strong continuum near the central black hole. They also assume that the various heating, cooling, ionization, and recombination processes are in a time-steady balance. This assumption may not be valid, owing to the intrinsic time-variability of the illuminating continuum, or other factors which change the cloud environment. This paper presents models for warm absorbers which follow the time dependence of the ionization, temperature, and radiation field in warm absorber gas clouds in response to a changing continuum illumination. We show that the effects of time variability are important over a range of parameter values, that time dependent models differ from equilibrium models in important ways, and that these effects should be included in models which derive properties of warm absorber outflows.

We have presented a multiwavelength temporal and spectral study of the Blazar PKS 0346-27 between the time period 2019 January-2021 December (MJD 58484-59575). We analysed the data collected by Fermi-LAT (gamma-rays), Swift-XRT (x-rays) and Swift-UVOT (ultra-violet). Flaring episodes are identified by analysing the gamma-ray lightcurve. Flares are fitted using polynomial fit. We have found rapid variability on time scales of hours during brightest flaring activity, which implies that the emission region is very compact. The broadband emission mechanism was studied by modelling the simultaneous multi waveband Spectral Energy Distributions (SED) using leptonic emission mechanism. We found that the optical-UV and X-ray data can be explained by the synchrotron emission. However, the high energy peak is best fitted with external Compton of disk photon rather than the BLR or DT. Our modeling also suggest that the flare 1 and flare 5 have more jet power than flare 2 and 3 which can be caused by different processes. It also suggest that all the flares are produced in different situation. An auto correlation of gamma-ray lightcure was done and concluded the possibility of the source being gravitationally lensed. We have also produced the power spectral density for this source and a powerlaw seems to produce the best fit with slope 2.15+/-0.87 suggesting variability in this source is dominated by stochastic process. This source could be a promising target for upcoming CTA for its harder spectrum at lower energies (tens of GeV).

TMC-1A is a protostellar source harboring a young protostar, IRAS 04365+2353, and shows a highly asymmetric features of a few 100 au scale in the molecular emission lines. Blue-shifted emission is much stronger in the CS ($J=5$-4) line than red-shifted one. The asymmetry can be explained if the gas accretion is episodic and takes the form of cloudlet capture, given the cloudlet approached toward us. The gravity of the protostar transforms the cloudlet into a stream and changes its velocity along the flow. The emission from the cloudlet should be blue-shifted before the periastron, while it should be red-shifted after the periastron. If a major part of cloudlet has not reached the periastron, the former should be dominant. We perform hydrodynamical simulations to examine the validity of the scenario. Our numerical simulations can reproduce the observed asymmetry if the orbit of the cloudlet is inclined to the disk plane. The inclination can explain the slow infall velocity observed in the C$^{18}$O ($J$=2-1) line emission. Such episodic accretion may occur in various protostellar cores since actual clouds could have inhomogeneous density distribution. We also discuss the implication of the cloudlet capture on observations of related objects.

The central strong activities in core-collapse supernovae expect to produce the overturning of the Fe- and Si/O-rich ejecta during the supernova explosion based on multi-dimensional simulations. X-ray observations of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A have indicated that the Fe-rich ejecta lies outside the Si-rich materials in the southeastern region, which is consistent with the hypothesis on the inversion of the ejecta. We investigate the kinematic and nucleosynthetic properties of the inverted ejecta layers in detail to understand its formation process using the data taken by the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Three-dimensional velocities of Fe- and Si/O-rich ejecta are obtained as $>$4,500 km s$^{-1}$ and $\sim$2,000--3,000 km s$^{-1}$, respectively, by combining proper motion and line-of-sight velocities, indicating that the velocity of the Si/O-rich ejecta is slower than that of the Fe-rich ejecta since the early stage of the explosion. To constrain their burning regime, the Cr/Fe mass ratios are evaluated as $0.51_{-0.10}^{+0.11}$% in the outermost Fe-rich region and $1.24 ^{+0.19}_{-0.20}$% in the inner Fe/Si-rich region, suggesting that the complete Si burning layer is invertedly located to the incomplete Si burning layer. All the results support the ejecta overturning at the early stages of the remnant's evolution or during the supernova explosion of Cassiopeia A.

In this work we present the results of our analysis of 16,300 medium-resolution LAMOST spectra of late-type stars in the Kepler field with the aim of determining the stellar parameters, activity level, lithium atmospheric content, and binarity. We have used a version of the code ROTFIT specifically developed for these spectra. We provide a catalog with the atmospheric parameters (Teff, log(g), and [Fe/H]), radial velocity (RV), and projected rotation velocity (vsini). For cool stars (Teff < 6500 K), we also calculated the H-alpha and LiI-6708 equivalent width, which are important indicators of chromospheric activity and evolutionary stage, respectively. We have derived the RV and atmospheric parameters for 14,300 spectra of 7443 stars. Literature data were used for a quality control of the results. The Teff and log(g) values are in good agreement with the literature. The [Fe/H] values appear to be overestimated for metal-poor stars. We propose a relation to correct the [Fe/H] values derived with ROTFIT. We were able to identify double-lined binaries, stars with variable RVs, lithium-rich giants, and emission-line objects. Based on the H-alpha flux, we found 327 active stars. We detected the LiI-6708 line and measure its equivalent width for 1657 stars, both giants and stars on the main sequence. Regarding the latter, we performed a discrete age classification based on the atmospheric lithium abundance and the upper envelopes of a few open clusters. Among the giants, we found 195 Li-rich stars, 161 of which are reported here for the first time. No relationship is found between stellar rotation and lithium abundance, which allows us to rule out merger scenarios as the predominant explanation of the enrichment of Li in our sample. The fraction of Li-rich giants, about 4%, is higher than expected.

The accretion process in a typical S-type symbiotic star, targeting~AG Draconis, is investigated through 3D hydrodynamical simulations using the FLASH code. Regardless of the wind velocity of the giant star, an accretion disk surrounding the white dwarf is always formed. In the wind models faster than the orbital velocity of the white dwarf, the disk size and accretion rate are consistent with the predictions under the Bondi-Hoyle-Lyttleton (BHL) condition. In slower wind models, unlike the BHL predictions, the disk size does not grow and the accretion rate increases to a considerably higher level, up to $>20\%$ of the mass-loss rate of the giant star. The accretion disk in our fiducial model is characterized by a flared disk with a radius of 0.16~au and a scale height of 0.03 au. The disk mass of $\sim 5 \times 10^{-8} M_\odot$ is asymmetrically distributed with the density peak toward the giant star, being about $50\%$ higher than the density minimum in the disk. Two inflowing spiral features are clearly identified and their relevance to the azimuthal asymmetry of disk is pointed out. The flow in the accretion disk is found to be sub-Keplerian with about $90\%$ of the Keplerian speed, which indicates the caveat of overestimating the O VI emission region from spectroscopy of Raman-scattered O VI features at 6825 {\AA} and 7082 {\AA}.

We present the Fermi-LAT observations of the behind-the-limb (BTL) flare of July 17, 2021 and the joint detection of this flare by STIX onboard Solar Orbiter. The separation between Earth and the Solar Orbiter was 99.2$^{\circ}$ at 05:00 UT, allowing STIX to have a front view of the flare. The location of the flare was ~S20E140 in Stonyhurst heliographic coordinates making this the most distant behind-the-limb flare ever detected in $>$100 MeV gamma-rays. The LAT detection lasted for $\sim$16 minutes, the peak flux was $ 3.6 \pm 0.8 $ (10$^{-5}$) ph cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ with a significance $>$15$\sigma$. A coronal wave was observed from both STEREO-A and SDO in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) with an onset on the visible disk in coincidence with the LAT onset. A complex type II radio burst was observed by GLOSS also in coincidence with the onset of the LAT emission indicating the presence of a shock wave. We discuss the relation between the time derivative of the EUV wave intensity profile at 193\angstrom\ as observed by STEREO-A and the LAT flux to show that the appearance of the coronal wave at the visible disk and the acceleration of protons as traced by the observed $>$100 MeV gamma-ray emission are coupled. We also report how this coupling is present in the data from 3 other BTL flares detected by Fermi-LAT suggesting that the protons driving the gamma-ray emission of BTL solar flares and the coronal wave share a common origin.

We investigated the impact of selected cloud condensates in exoplanetary atmospheres on the polarization of scattered stellar radiation. We considered a selection of 25 cloud condensates that are expected to be present in extrasolar planetary atmospheres. Using the three-dimensional Monte Carlo radiative transfer code POLARIS and assuming Mie scattering theory, we calculated and studied the net polarization of scattered radiation as a function of planetary phase angle at optical to near-infrared wavelengths. In addition to the well-known characteristics in the state of polarization, such as the rainbow determined by the real part of the refractive index, the behavior of the underlying imaginary part of the refractive index causes an increase or decrease in the degree of polarization and a change of sign in the polarization at a characteristic wavelength. In contrast to Al$_2$O$_3$ and MgFeSiO$_4$, clouds composed of SiO, MnS, Na$_2$S, or ZnS produce a rapidly decreasing degree of polarization with increasing wavelength in the context of an exoplanetary atmosphere. Furthermore, the sign of the polarization changes at a wavelength of about 0.5 $\mu$m to 0.6 $\mu$m, depending on the specific cloud condensate. The resulting net polarization is mainly positive for cloud compositions with large imaginary parts of the refractive index, such as Fe, FeS, and FeO. In addition, for Fe and FeS clouds, the maximum degree of polarization at long wavelengths is shifted to larger phase angles than for FeO. We found that most of these cloud condensates are distinguishable from each other due to their unique wavelength-dependent complex refractive index. In particular, an increase or decrease of the net polarization as a function of wavelength and a change of sign in the polarization at specific wavelengths are important features for characterizing cloud compositions in exoplanetary atmospheres.

Context. State of the art simulations of astrospheres are modelled using three-dimensional (3D) magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). An astrospheric interaction of a stellar wind (SW) with its surrounding interstellar medium (ISM) can only generate a bow shock if the speed of the interstellar inflow is higher than the fast magnetosonic speed. Aims. The differences of astrospheres at differing speeds of the ISM inflow are investigated, and the necessity of the third dimension in modelling is evaluated. Methods. The model astrosphere of the runaway O-star $\lambda$ Cephei is computed in both two- and three-dimensional MHD at four different ISM inflow speeds, one of which is barely faster (superfast) and one of which is slower (subfast) than the fast magnetosonic speed. Results. The two-dimensional (2D) and 3D models of astrospheres with ISM inflow speeds considerably higher than the fast magnetosonic speed are in good agreement. However, in 2D models, where no realistic SW magnetic field can be modelled, the downwind structures of the astrospheres vacillate. Models where hydrodynamic effects are not clearly dominant over the magnetic field show asymmetries, thus necessitating a 3D approach. The physical times of simulations of astrospheres with slow ISM inflows can swiftly exceed the lifetime of the corresponding star. A hitherto unobserved structure has been found downwind of the astrotail in the subfast 3D model.

We present an analytic model of the lightcurve variation for stars with non-evolving starspots on a differentially rotating surface. The Fourier coefficients of the harmonics of the rotation period are expressed in terms of the latitude of the spot, $\ell_{s}$, and the observer's line-of-sight direction, $\ell_{o}$, including the limb darkening effect. We generate different realizations of multi-spots according to the model, and perform mock observations of the resulting lightcurve modulations. We discuss to what extent one can recover the properties of the spots and the parameters for the differential rotation law from the periodogram analysis. Although our analytical model neglects the evolution of spots on the stellar surface (dynamical motion, creation and annihilation), it provides a basic framework to interpret the photometric variation of stars, in particular from the existing Kepler data and the future space-born mission. It is also applicable to photometric modulations induced by rotation of various astronomical objects.

Nitric oxide is an open-shell molecule abundantly detected in the interstellar medium. A precise modeling of its radiative and collisional processes opens the path to a precise estimate of its abundance. We present here the first rate coefficients for fine and hyperfine (de-)excitation of NO by collisions with the most ubiquitous collision partner in the interstellar medium, $para$-H$_2$ hydrogen molecules, using a recently developed accurate interaction potential. We report quantum scattering calculations for transitions involving the first 74 fine levels and the corresponding 442 hyperfine levels belonging to both $F_1$ and $F_2$ spin-orbit manifolds. To do so, we have calculated cross sections by means of the quantum mechanical close-coupling approach up to 1000 cm$^{-1}$ of total energy and rate coefficients from 5 to 100 K. Propensity rules are discussed and the new NO-H$_2$ rates are compared to those available in the literature, based on scaled NO-He rates. Large differences are observed between the two sets of rate coefficients, and this comparison shows that the new collision rates must be used in interpreting NO emission lines. We also examined the effect of these new rates on the NO excitation in cold clouds by performing radiative transfer calculations of the excitation and brightness temperatures for the two NO lines at 150.176 and 250.4368 GHz. This shows that the local thermodynamic equilibrium is not fulfilled for this species for typical conditions. We expect the use of the rates presented in this study to improve the constraints on the abundance of NO.

A dearth of close-in planets orbiting rapid rotators was reported almost a decade ago. According to this view only slowly spinning stars with rotation periods longer than 5-10 days would host planets with orbital periods shorter than 2 or 3 days. This Letter brings an enlarged and more detailed analysis that led us to the question: Is there really a dearth in that distribution or is it a dearth of data? For this new analysis, we combined different samples of Kepler and TESS stars with confirmed planets or planet candidates with measured stellar rotation periods, using Gaia data to perform an in-depth selection of 1013 planet-hosting main-sequence stars. With the newer, enlarged, and more refined data, the reported dearth of close-in planets orbiting rapid rotators tends to disappear, thus suggesting that it may reflect a scarcity of data in the prior analysis. A two sample statistical test strongly supports our results, showing that the distribution of close-in planets orbiting rapid rotators is almost indistinguishable from that for close-in planets orbiting slow rotators.

The X8.2-class limb flare on September 10, 2017 is among the best studied solar flare events owing to its great similarity to the standard flare model and the broad coverage by multiple spacecraft and ground-based observations. These multiwavelength observations indicate that electron acceleration and transport are efficient in the reconnection and flare looptop regions. However, there lacks a comprehensive model for explaining and interpreting the multi-faceted observations. In this work, we model the electron acceleration and transport in the early impulsive phase of this flare. We solve the Parker transport equation that includes the primary acceleration mechanism during magnetic reconnection in the large-scale flare region modeled by MHD simulations. We find that electrons are accelerated up to several MeV and fill a large volume of the reconnection region, similar to the observations shown in microwaves. The electron spatial distribution and spectral shape in the looptop region agree well with those derived from the microwave and hard X-ray emissions before magnetic islands grow large and dominate the acceleration. Future emission modelings using the electron maps will enable direct comparison with microwave and hard X-ray observations. These results shed new light on the electron acceleration and transport in a broad region of solar flares within a data-constrained realistic flare geometry.

In this work, we study the magnetic field morphology of selected star-forming clouds spread over the galactic latitude ($b$) range, $-10^\circ$ to $10^\circ$. The polarimetric observation of clouds CB24, CB27 and CB188 are conducted to study the magnetic field geometry of those clouds from ARIES, Manora Peak, Nainital, India. These observations are combined with those of 14 further low latitude clouds available in the literature. Analyzing the polarimetric data of 17 clouds, we find that the alignment between the envelope magnetic field ($\theta_{B}^{env}$) and Galactic plane ($\theta_{GP}$) of the low-latitude clouds varies with their galactic longitudes ($l$). We observe a strong correlation between the longitude (\textit{l}) and the offset ($\theta_{off}=|\theta_B^{env}-\theta_{GP}|$) which shows that $\theta_{B}^{env}$ is parallel to the Galactic plane (GP) when the clouds are situated in the region, $115^\circ<l<250^\circ$. However, $\theta_{B}^{env}$ has its own local deflection irrespective of the orientation of $\theta_{GP}$ when the clouds are at $l<100^\circ$ and $l>250^\circ$. To check the consistency of our results, the stellar polarization data available at Heiles (2000) catalogue are overlaid on DSS image of the clouds having mean polarization vector of field stars. The results are almost consistent with the Heiles data. The effect of turbulence of the cloud is also studied which may play an important role in causing the misalignment phenomenon observed between $\theta_{B}^{env}$ and $\theta_{GP}$. We have used \textit{Herschel} \textit{SPIRE} 500 $\mu m$ and \textit{SCUBA} 850 $\mu m$ dust continuum emission maps in our work to understand the density structure of the clouds.

Ultralight scalar dark matter is expected to be able to form a cloud surrounding the supermassive black hole (SMBH) in the Galactic center. With increasing precision of the observations of the stellar kinematics around the SMBH, tiny effects from such a dark matter cloud, including its gravitational perturbation and the direct coupling with ordinary matter may be detectable. In this work, we search for possible evidence of the scalar cloud using accurate orbital measurements of the S2 star around Sgr A*. We solve the first order Post-Newtonian equation, considering simultaneously the extended mass distribution of the scalar cloud and the additional coupling via Higgs-portal or photon-portal interaction. We find that the astrometric and spectroscopic data of the S2 star are well consistent with the scenario of point-like mass of Sgr A*. We thus derive upper limits of the extended mass and the coupling of the new interaction. The limits of the Higgs coupling and extended mass of the scalar cloud are the most stringent ones for the scalar mass window between $3.2\times 10^{-19}$ eV and $1.6\times 10^{-18}$ eV.

The unprecedented quality of the asteroseismic data of solar-type stars made available by space missions such as NASA's Kepler telescope are making it possible to explore stellar interior structures. This offers possibilities of constraining stellar core properties (such as core sizes, abundances, and physics) paving the way for improving the precision of the inferred stellar ages. We employ 16 Cyg A and B as our benchmark stars for an asteroseismic study in which we present a novel approach aimed at selecting from a sample of acceptable stellar models returned from Forward Modelling techniques, down to the ones that better represent the core of each star. This is accomplished by comparing specific properties of the observed frequency ratios for each star to the ones derived from the acceptable stellar models. We demonstrate that in this way we are able to constrain further the hydrogen mass fraction in the core, establishing the stars' precise evolutionary states and ages. The ranges of the derived core hydrogen mass fractions are [0.01 - 0.06] and [0.12 - 0.19] for 16 Cyg A and B, respectively, and, considering that the stars are coeval, the age and metal mass fraction parameters span the region [6.4 - 7.4] Gyr and [0.023 - 0.026], respectively. In addition, our findings show that using a single helium-to-heavy element enrichment ratio, ($\Delta Y/\Delta Z$), when forward modelling the 16 Cyg binary system, may result in a sample of acceptable models that do not simultaneously fit the observed frequency ratios, further highlighting that such an approach to the definition of the helium content of the star may not be adequate in studies of individual stars.

The magnetar SGR J1935+2154 underwent a new active episode on 2020 April 27-28, when a forest of hundreds of X-ray bursts and a large enhancement of the persistent flux were detected. For the first time, a radio burst with properties similar to those of fast radio bursts and with a X-ray counterpart was observed from this source, showing that magnetars can power at least a group of fast radio bursts. In this paper, we report on the X-ray spectral and timing properties of SGR J1935+2154 based on a long-term monitoring campaign with Chandra, XMM-Newton, NuSTAR, Swift and NICER covering a time span of ~7 months since the outburst onset. The broadband spectrum exhibited a non-thermal power-law component (photon index~1.2) extending up to ~20-25 keV throughout the campaign and a blackbody component with temperature decreasing from ~1.5 keV at the outburst peak to ~0.45 keV in the following months. We found that the luminosity decay is well described by the sum of two exponential functions, reflecting the fast decay (~1 d) at the early stage of the outburst followed by a slower decrease (~30 d). The source reached quiescence about ~80 days after the outburst onset, releasing an energy of ~6e40 erg during the outburst. We detected X-ray pulsations in the XMM-Newton data sets and derived an average spin-down rate of ~3.5e-11 s/s using the spin period measurements derived in this work and three values reported previously during the same active period. Moreover, we report on simultaneous radio observations performed with the Sardinia Radio Telescope. No evidence for periodic or single-pulse radio emission was found.

We continue our study of triple systems of black holes in the context of Burrau's problem by including the effect of spin. Numerical integration of orbits was conducted using ARCcode with relativistic corrections (post-Newtonian) up to the 2.5$^{th}$ order. Pythagorean triangles with with different linear scales were selected where the largest black hole in these systems were given spin vectors in normalised units where maximum is close to unity, ranging from 0 to about 0.95. We also study different masses in scales ranging from 10$^{0}$ M$_{\odot}$ - 10$^{12}$ M$_{\odot}$. It was found that while there was no distinctive effect on the number of two-body encounters nor the fraction of mergers, the lifetimes of the systems may have been affected - particularly in the intermediary mass ranges (10$^{4}$ M$_{\odot}$-10$^{7}$ M$_{\odot}$) in comparison to the zero spin problem. Differences were also found between configurations considered more hierarchical and those of lesser hierarchy. Triple systems ended up moving from the two-dimensional planar problem to the three dimensional one where we see increased motion in the z-axis with increasing spin magnitude for the large mass systems. The argument of periapsis, $\omega$, and the longitude of ascending node, $\Omega$ between the rotating black hole and a non-rotating one within the system, were also affected by the added spin.

pyspeckit is a toolkit and library for spectroscopic analysis in Python. We describe the pyspeckit package and highlight some of its capabilities, such as interactively fitting a model to data, akin to the historically widely-used splot function in IRAF. pyspeckit employs the Levenberg-Marquardt optimization method via the mpfit and lmfit implementations, and important assumptions regarding error estimation are described here. Wrappers to use pymc and emcee as optimizers are provided. A parallelized wrapper to fit lines in spectral cubes is included. As part of the astropy affiliated package ecosystem, pyspeckit is open source and open development and welcomes input and collaboration from the community.

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are intense episodes of high-energy emission seen isotropically across the sky and all through cosmic time. For decades, they have been broadly divided into `long'- and `short'-duration bursts, lasting more or less than 2s, respectively, but it has been apparent for several years that this dichotomy is imperfect. The split does not map directly to the two progenitor channels that are known to produce GRBs -- the merger of compact objects (merger-GRBs) or the collapse of massive stars (collapsar-GRBs). In particular, the merger population (typically short-duration) also includes bursts with a short, hard $<$2s spike and subsequent longer, softer extended emission (EE). There have also been examples of apparent short bursts in which supernova detections indicate a collapsar origin. The recent discovery of a kilonova -- the radioactive glow of heavy elements made in neutron star mergers -- in the 50s-duration GRB 211211A further complicates this picture, demonstrating that mergers can drive GRBs with complex and long-lived light curves whose broad spectral and temporal properties are consistent with the collapsar population. Here we present detailed analysis of the high energy emission associated with GRB 211211A. We demonstrate that the rapidly-evolving spectrum can be fit by purely synchrotron emission with both the peak and cooling frequencies moving through the $\gamma$-ray band, down to the X-rays. This is the first time that such spectral evolution has been demonstrated in a merger-GRB, and we show that it drives the extended emission signature at late times. The remarkable consistency of these signatures across the population suggests that GRB 211211A may provide a unifying blueprint for identifying long-duration GRBs from mergers, potentially paving the way for strong diagnostics of the progenitor type.

The $\Lambda$CDM model faces several tensions with recent cosmological data and their increased accuracy. The mismatch between the values of the Hubble constant $H_0$ obtained from direct distance ladder measurements and from the cosmic microwave background (CMB) is the most statistically significant, but the amplitude of the matter fluctuations is also regarded as a serious concern, leading to the investigation of a plethora of models. We first show that the combination of several recent measurements from local probes leads to a tight constraint on the present-day matter density $\Omega_M$ as well as on the amplitude of the matter fluctuations, both acceptably consistent with the values inferred from the CMB. Secondly, we show that the data on cosmic chronometers allow to derive an accurate value of the Hubble constant $H_0$ for $\Lambda$CDM models: $H_0 = 67.4 \pm 1.34$ km/s/Mpc. This implies that, within $\Lambda$CDM, some determinations of $H_0$ are biased. Considering a bias on the Hubble constant as a nuisance parameter within $\Lambda$CDM, we examine such a $\Lambda$CDM$+ H_0$ bias model on the same statistical grounds as alternative cosmological models. We show that the former statistically supersede most existing extended models proposed up to now. In a third step, we show that the value of $\Omega_M$ we obtained, combined with $H_0$ from SH0ES, leads to an accurate measurement of $\omega_M$, providing an additional low-redshift test for cosmological models. From this test, most extensions seem to be confronted with a new tension, whereas the $\Lambda$CDM with $H_0 \sim 67 $ has none. We conclude that a standard $\Lambda$CDM model with an unknown bias in the Cepheids distance calibration represents a model that reaches a remarkable agreement, statistically better than previously proposed extensions with $H_0 \sim 73 $ for which such a comparison can be performed. (abridged)

The chemical composition of the solar corona is different from that of the solar photosphere, with the strongest variation being observed in active regions (ARs). Using data from the Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) Imaging Spectrometer (EIS) on Hinode, we present a survey of coronal elemental composition as expressed in the first ionisation potential (FIP) bias in 28 ARs of different ages and magnetic flux content, which are at different stages in their evolution. We find no correlation between the FIP bias of an AR and its total unsigned magnetic flux or age. However, there is a weak dependence of FIP bias on the evolutionary stage, decreasing from 1.9-2.2 in ARs with spots to 1.5-1.6 in ARs that are at more advanced stages of the decay phase. FIP bias shows an increasing trend with average magnetic flux density up to 200 G but this trend does not continue at higher values. The FIP bias distribution within ARs has a spread between 0.4 and 1. The largest spread is observed in very dispersed ARs. We attribute this to a range of physical processes taking place in these ARs including processes associated with filament channel formation. These findings indicate that, while some general trends can be observed, the processes influencing the composition of an AR are complex and specific to its evolution, magnetic configuration or environment. The spread of FIP bias values in ARs shows a broad match with that previously observed in situ in the slow solar wind.

Recently, a Kilonova-associated gamma-ray burst (GRB 211211A) has attracted great attentions, whose lightcurve consists a precursor ($\sim 0.2$ s), a hard spiky emission ($\sim 10$ s), and a soft long extended emission ($\sim 40$ s). Kilonova association could prove its merger origin, while the detection of the precursor infers at least one highly magnetized NS being involved in the merger. In this case, a strong magnetic flux $\Phi$ is expected to surround the central engine of GRB 211211A. Here we suggest that when $\Phi$ is large enough, the accretion flow could be halted far from the innermost stable radius, which will significantly prolong the lifetime of the accretion process, so as the GRB duration. For example, we show that as long as the central BH is surrounded by a strong magnetic flux $\Phi\sim 10^{29}\rm cm^2 G$, an accretion flow with $\dot{M}_{\rm ini} \simeq 0.1 M_\odot s^{-1}$ could be halted at 40 times gravitational radius and slowly transfer into the black hole in order of $\sim$10 s, which naturally explains the duration of hard spiky emission. After most of the disk mass has been accreted onto the BH, the inflow rate will be reduced, so a long and soft extended emission is expected when a new balance between the magnetic field and the accretion current is reconstructed at a further radius. Our results further support that the special behavior of GRB 211211A is mainly due to the strong magnetic field of its progenitor stars. Multi-messenger detections of GRB 211211A-like events (sometimes may disguise as a typical LGRBs without extended emission) could help to diagnose their progenitor system and to better study the events of compact binary mergers involving high magnetic field NSs.

Binaries have received much attention as possible progenitors of Type Ia supernova (SNIa) explosions, but long-term gravitational effects in tight triple or quadruple systems could also play a key role in producing SNIa. Here we report on the properties of a spectroscopic quadruple (SB4) found within a star cluster: the 2+2 hierarchical system HD 74438. Its membership in the open cluster IC 2391 makes it the youngest (43 My) SB4 discovered so far and among the quadruple systems with the shortest outer orbital period. The eccentricity of the 6 y outer period is 0.46 and the two inner orbits, with periods of 20.5 d and 4.4 d, and eccentricities of 0.36 and 0.15, are not coplanar. Using an innovative combination of ground-based high resolution spectroscopy and Gaia/Hipparcos astrometry, we show that this system is undergoing secular interaction that likely pumped the eccentricity of one of the inner orbits higher than expected for the spectral types of its components. We compute the future evolution of HD 74438 and show that this system is an excellent candidate progenitor of sub-Chandrasekhar SNIa through white dwarf (WD) mergers. Taking into account the contribution of this specific type of SNIa better accounts for the chemical evolution of iron-peak elements in the Galaxy than considering only near Chandrasekhar-mass SNIa.

Neutron stars (NS) of age $>10^9$ yrs exhaust thermal and rotational energies and cool down to temperatures below $\mathcal{O}(100)$ K. Accretion of particle dark matter (DM) by such NS can heat them up through kinetic and annihilation processes. This increases the NS surface temperature to a maximum of $\sim 2600$ K in the best case scenario. The maximum accretion rate depends on the DM ambient density and velocity dispersion, and on the NS equation of state and their velocity distributions. Upon scanning over these variables, we find that the effective surface temperature varies at most by $\sim 40\%$. Black body spectrum of such warm NS peak at near infrared wavelengths with magnitudes in the range potentially detectable by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Using the JWST exposure time calculator, we demonstrate that NS with surface temperatures $\gtrsim 2400$ K, located at a distance of 10 pc can be detected through the F150W2 (F322W2) filters of the NIRCAM instrument at SNR $\gtrsim 10$ (5) within 24 hours of exposure time.

The chromosphere is a partially ionized layer of the solar atmosphere, the transition between the photosphere where the gas is almost neutral and the fully ionized corona. As the collisional coupling between neutral and charged particles decreases in the upper part of the chromosphere, the hydrodynamical timescales may become comparable to the collisional timescale, and a two-fluid model is needed. In this paper we describe the implementation and validation of a two-fluid model which simultaneously evolves charges and neutrals, coupled by collisions. The two-fluid equations are implemented in the fully open-source MPI-AMRVAC code. In the photosphere and the lower part of the solar atmosphere, where collisions between charged and neutral particles are very frequent, an explicit time-marching would be too restrictive, since for stability the timestep needs to be proportional to the inverse of the collision frequency. This is overcome by evaluating the collisional terms implicitly using an explicit-implicit (IMEX) scheme. The cases presented cover very different collisional regimes and our results are fully consistent with related literature findings. If collisional time and length scales are smaller than the hydrodynamical scales usually considered in the solar chromosphere, density structures seen in the neutral and charged fluids are similar, with the effect of elastic collisions between charges and neutrals being similar to diffusivity. Otherwise, density structures are different and the decoupling in velocity between the two species increases. The use of IMEX schemes efficiently avoids the small timestep constraints of fully explicit implementations in strongly collisional regimes. Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR) greatly decreases the computational cost, compared to uniform grid runs at the same effective resolution.

AST3-3 is the third robotic facility of the Antarctic Survey Telescopes (AST3) for transient surveys to be deployed at Dome A, Antarctica. Due to the current pandemic, the telescope has been currently deployed at the Yaoan Observation Station in China, starting the commissioning observation and a transient survey. This paper presents a fully automatic data processing system for AST3-3 observations. The transient detection pipeline uses state-of-the-art image subtraction techniques optimised for GPU devices. Image reduction and transient photometry are accelerated by concurrent task methods. Our Python-based system allows for transient detection from wide-field data in a real-time and accurate way. A ResNet-based rotational-invariant neural network was employed to classify the transient candidates. As a result, the system enables auto-generation of transients and their light curves.

The ESA Ariel mission has been adopted for launch in 2029 and will conduct a survey of around one thousand exoplanetary atmospheres during its primary mission life. By providing homogeneous datasets, with a high SNR and wide wavelength coverage, Ariel will unveil the atmospheric demographics of these far-away worlds, helping to constrain planet formation and evolution processes on a galactic scale. Ariel seeks to undertake a statistical survey of a diverse population of planets and, therefore, the sample of planets from which this selection can be made is of the utmost importance. While many suitable targets have already been found, hundreds more will be discovered before the mission is operational. Previous studies have used predictions of exoplanet detections to forecast the available planet population by the launch date of Ariel, with the most recent noting that the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) alone should provide over a thousand potential targets. In this work, we consider the planet candidates found to date by TESS to show that, with the addition of already confirmed planets, Ariel will already have a more than sufficient sample to choose its target list from once these candidates are validated. We showcase the breadth of this population as well as exploring, for the first time, the ability of Ariel to characterise multiple planets within a single system. Comparative planetology of worlds orbiting the same star, as well as across the wider population, will undoubtedly revolutionise our understanding of planet formation and evolution.

Primordial black holes (PBHs) provide an exciting prospect for accounting for dark matter. In this paper, we consider inflationary models that incorporate realistic features from high-energy physics -- including multiple interacting scalar fields and nonminimal couplings to the spacetime Ricci scalar -- that could produce PBHs with masses in the range required to address the present-day dark matter abundance. Such models are consistent with supersymmetric constructions, and only incorporate operators in the effective action that would be expected from generic effective field theory considerations. The models feature potentials with smooth large-field plateaus together with small-field features that can induce a brief phase of ultra-slow-roll evolution. Inflationary dynamics within this family of models yield predictions for observables in close agreement with recent measurements, such as the spectral index of primordial curvature perturbations and the ratio of power spectra for tensor to scalar perturbations. As in previous studies of PBH formation resulting from a period of ultra-slow-roll inflation, we find that at least one dimensionless parameter must be highly fine-tuned to produce PBHs in the relevant mass-range for dark matter. Nonetheless, we find that the models described here yield accurate predictions for a significant number of observable quantities using a smaller number of relevant free parameters.

We continue the study of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMP) started in [arXiv:2107.09688], focusing on a single complex electroweak $n$-plet with non-zero hypercharge added to the Standard Model. The minimal splitting between the Dark Matter and its electroweak neutral partner required to circumvent direct detection constraints allows only multiplets with hypercharge smaller or equal to 1. We compute for the first time all the calculable WIMP masses up to the largest multiplet allowed by perturbative unitarity. For the minimal allowed splitting, most of these multiplets can be fully probed at future large-exposure direct detection experiments, with the notable exception of the doublet with hypercharge 1/2. We show how a future muon collider can fully explore the parameter space of the complex doublet combining missing mass, displaced track and long-lived track searches. In the same spirit, we study how a future muon collider can probe the parameter space of complex WIMPs in regions where the direct detection cross section drops below the neutrino floor. Finally, we comment on how precision observables can provide additional constraints on complex WIMPs.

Plasma jets are widely investigated both in the laboratory and in nature. Astrophysical objects such as black holes, active galactic nuclei, and young stellar objects commonly emit plasma jets in various forms. With the availability of data from plasma jet experiments resembling astrophysical plasma jets, classification of such data would potentially aid in investigating not only the underlying physics of the experiments but the study of astrophysical jets. In this work we use deep learning to process all of the laboratory plasma images from the Caltech Spheromak Experiment spanning two decades. We found that cosine similarity can aid in feature selection, classify images through comparison of feature vector direction, and be used as a loss function for the training of AlexNet for plasma image classification. We also develop a simple vector direction comparison algorithm for binary and multi-class classification. Using our algorithm we demonstrate 93% accurate binary classification to distinguish unstable columns from stable columns and 92% accurate five-way classification of a small, labeled data set which includes three classes corresponding to varying levels of kink instability.

Large-amplitude Alfv\'en waves are subject to parametric decays which can have important consequences in space, astrophysical, and fusion plasmas. Though this Alfv\'en wave parametric decay instability was predicted decades ago, its observational evidence has not been well established, stimulating considerable interest in laboratory demonstration of the instability and associated numerical modeling. Here, we report on novel hybrid simulation modeling of the Alfv\'en wave parametric decay instability in a laboratory plasma (based on the Large Plasma Device), including collisionless ion kinetics. Using realistic wave injection and wave-plasma parameters we identify the threshold Alfv\'en wave amplitudes and frequencies required for triggering the instability in the bounded plasma. These threshold behaviors are corroborated by simple theoretical considerations. Compounding effects such as finite source sizes and ion-neutral collisions are briefly discussed. These hybrid simulations represent a promising tool for investigating laboratory Alfv\'en wave dynamics and our results may help to guide the first laboratory demonstration of the parametric decay instability.

Using a Lattice Boltzmann hydrodynamic computational modeler to simulate relativistic fluid systems we explore turbulence in two-dimensional relativistic flows. We first a give a pedagogical description of the phenomenon of turbulence and its characteristics in a two-dimensional system. The classical Lattice Boltzmann Method and its extension to relativistic fluid systems is then described. The model is tested against a system incorporating a random stirring force in k-space and then applied to a realistic sample of graphene. Part I: We investigate the relativistic adaptation of the Lattice Boltzmann Method reproducing a turbulent, two-dimensional, massless hydrodynamic system with a zero-averaged stirring force randomly generated in momentum space. The numeric formulation is evaluated and the flow characteristics produced are compared to properties of classical turbulence. The model can reasonably be expected to offer quantitative simulations of charged fluid flows in two-dimensional relativistic fluid systems. Part II: At low Reynolds numbers, the wind flow in the wake of a single wind turbine is generally not turbulent. However, turbines in wind farms affect each other's wakes so that a turbulent flow can arise. An analogue of this effect for the massless charge carrier flow around obstacles in graphene is outlined. We use a relativistic hydrodynamic simulation to analyze the flow in a sample containing impurities. Depending on the density of impurities in the sample, we indeed find evidence for a potentially turbulent flow and discuss experimental consequences.

We propose a mechanism of the baryon $-$ the lepton number generation triggered by dynamical relaxation of inflaton field towards the zero cosmological constant. CPT violation in the presence of a chemical potential gives the necessary time arrow and B $-$ L violating scattering generates a net $B- L$ number. The proposed mechanism does not require CP violating phases in physics beyond the standard model. We identify the epoch of lepto-genesis based on two scenarios, thermal genesis and primordial black hole evaporation, which gives the right amount of baryon asymmetry. The model simultaneously solves major cosmological conundrums; slow-roll inflation, late-time acceleration and cold dark matter. The basic theoretical framework is a recently proposed conformal scalar-tensor gravity that provides stronger gravity than general relativity predicts.

Gravity and general relativity are considered as an Effective Field Theory (EFT) at low energies and macroscopic distance scales. The effective action of the conformal trace anomaly of light or massless quantum fields has significant effects on macroscopic scales, owing to its describing light cone singularities not captured by an expansion in local curvature invariants. A compact local form for the Wess-Zumino effective action of the conformal anomaly and stress tensor is given, involving the introduction of a new light scalar, which it is argued should be included in the low energy effective action for gravity. This scalar conformalon couples to the conformal part of the spacetime metric and allows the effective value of the vacuum energy, described as a condensate of a 4-form abelian gauge field, to change in space and time. The EFT of vacuum energy thereby replaces the fixed constant Lambda of the classical theory with a dynamical condensate whose natural ground state value in empty flat space is Lambda_eff = 0 identically. In addition to the conformal anomaly, the principal physical inputs to the EFT are a topological vacuum susceptibility characterizing the coupling of the 4-form condensate to the anomaly current, in analogy to the chiral susceptibility of QCD, and the extension of the fermion anomaly to a general Einstein-Cartan space including torsion. By allowing Lambda_eff to vary rapidly near a black hole horizon, the EFT of dynamical vacuum energy provides an effective Lagrangian framework for gravitational condenstate stars, as the final state of complete gravitational collapse consistent with quantum theory. The possible consequences of dynamical vacuum dark energy in cosmology, the cosmic coincidence problem, and the role of conformal invariance for other fine tuning issues in the Standard Model are discussed.

Inspired by the recent determination of the $W$-boson mass by the CDF collaboration, we revisit an SO(10) axion model in which a scalar $SU(2)_L$ triplet field with zero hypercharge is known to acquire a non-zero VEV through its mixing with the Standard Model Higgs doublet. The triplet VEV provides a sizable contribution to the W mass, which helps in significantly lowering the $7\sigma$ discrepancy between the SM prediction and the higher CDF value for $m_W$. We show that the relatively light triplet mass ($\sim (1-50)$ TeV) is compatible with gauge coupling unification and observable proton decay. An unbroken $Z_2$ gauge symmetry, coupled with the presence of two fermionic $10$-plets required to resolve the axion domain wall problem, means that both axions and a stable intermediate mass ($\sim 10^9-10^{10}$ GeV) fermion are plausible dark matter candidates. We also display the gravitational wave spectrum from the intermediate scale topologically stable cosmic strings predicted by the model.

We consider spherical steady accretion of the relativistic Vlasov gas onto a Schwarzschild-like black hole. The gas complies with Maxwell-J{\"u}ttner distribution at infinity. We determine the expressions for the particle current density and accretion rate and present the limiting expressions for the mass accretion rate at high and low temperature. The results show that the parameter characterizing the breaking of Lorentz symmetry can reduce the mass accretion rate.

Space-based next-generation interferometers propose to measure the Lyapunov exponents of the nearly bound geodesics that comprise the photon ring surrounding the black hole M87*. We argue that these classical Lyapunov exponents equal the quantum Ruelle resonances describing the late-time approach to thermal equilibrium of the quantum microstate holographically dual to any Kerr black hole such as M87*. Moreover, we identify "near-ring regions" in the phase space of fields propagating on Kerr that exhibit critical behavior, including emergent conformal symmetries. These are analogues for sub-extremal Kerr of the much-studied "near-horizon regions" of (near-)extremal black holes. The emergent conformal symmetries greatly constrain the observational predictions for the fine photon ring substructure around M87* and for quasinormal gravitational-wave ringdowns, as well as any proposal for a quantum holographic dual to the Kerr black hole. More generally, we hope that our identification of several universal features of Kerr spectroscopy provides a useful starting point for a bottom-up approach to holography for astrophysical black holes.