Papers for Friday, Jun 03 2022

We measure the 3PCF of 300 halo catalogs from the Minerva simulations covering a total volume of $~1000 h^{-3} \mathrm{Gpc}^3$. Each 3PCF measurement includes all possible triangular configurations with sides between 20 and $130h^{-1}\mathrm{Gpc}$. First, we test different estimates of the covariance matrix, a crucial aspect of the analysis. We compare the covariance computed numerically from the limited but accurate benchmark simulations set to the one obtained from $10000$ approximate halo catalogs generated with the Pinocchio code. We demonstrate that the two numerically-estimated covariance matrices largely match, confirming the validity of approximate methods based on Lagrangian Perturbation Theory for generating mocks suitable for covariance estimation. We also compare the numerical covariance with a theoretical prediction in the Gaussian approximation. We find a good match between the two for separations above 40 $h^{-1} \mathrm{Gpc}$. We test the 3PCF tree-level model in Perturbation Theory. The model is adopted in a likelihood analysis aimed at the determination of bias parameters. We find that, for our sample of halos at redshift $z=1$, the tree-level model performs well for separations $r \geq 40 \, h^{-1}\mathrm{Gpc}$. Results obtained with this scale cut are robust against different choices of covariance matrix. We compare to the analogous analysis of the halo bispectrum already presented in a previous publication, finding a remarkable agreement between the two statistics. We then test different assumptions to build the model defining a robust combination of hypotheses that lead to unbiased parameter estimates. Our results confirm the importance of 3PCF, supplying a solid recipe for its inclusion in likelihood analyses. Moreover, it opens the path for further improvements, especially in modelling, to extract information from non-linear regimes

The physical processes of the gamma-ray emission and particle acceleration during the prompt phase in GRBs are still unsettled. In order to perform an unambiguous physical modelling of observations, a clear identification of the emission mechanism is needed. An instance of a clear identification is the synchrotron emission during the very strong flare in GRB160821A, that occurs during the prompt phase at 135 s. Here we show that the distribution of the radiating electrons in this flare is initially very narrow, but later develops a power-law tail of accelerated electrons. We thus identify for the first time the onset of particle acceleration in a GRB jet. The flare is consistent with a late energy release from the central engine causing an external-shock as it encounters a preexisting ring nebula of a progenitor Wolf-Rayet star. Relativistic forward and reverse shocks develop, leading to two distinct emission zones with similar properties. The particle acceleration only occurs in the forward shock, moving into the dense nebula matter. Here, the magnetisation also decreases below the critical value, which allows for Fermi acceleration to operate. Using this fact, we find a bulk Lorentz factor of $420 \simleq \Gamma \simleq 770$, and an emission radius of $R \sim 10^{18}$ cm, indicating a tenuous gas of the immediate circumburst surrounding. The observation of the onset of particle acceleration thus gives new and independent constraints on the properties of the flow as well as on theories of particle acceleration in collisionless astrophysical shocks.

Counter-rotating components in galaxies are one of the most direct forms of evidence for past gas accretion or merging. We discovered ten edge-on disk gaseous counter-rotators in a sample of 523 edge-on galaxies identified in the final MaNGA (Mapping Nearby Galaxies at APO) IFU sample. The counter-rotators tend to located in small groups. The gaseous counter-rotators have intermediate stellar masses and and located in the green valley and red sequence of the color magnitude diagram. The average vertical extents of the stellar and ionized gas disks are the same as for the rest of the sample while their radial gas and stellar distributions are more centrally concentrated. This may point at angular momentum loss during the formation process of the counter-rotating disks. The counter-rotators have low gas and dust content, weak emission line strengths, and low star formation rates. This suggests that the formation of counter-rotators may be an efficient way to quench galaxies. One counter-rotator, SDSS J080016.09+292817.1 (Galaxy F), has a post starburst region and a possible AGN at the center. Another counter-rotator, SDSS J131234.03+482159.8 (Galaxy H), is identified as a potential on-going galaxy interaction with its companion satellite galaxy, a gas rich spiral galaxy. This may be representative case of a gaseous counter-rotator forming through a merger origin. However, tidal distortions expected in mergers are only found in a few of the galaxies and we cannot rule out direct gas accretion as another formation mechanism.

We present H-band (1.65 $\mu$m) and SOFIA HAWC+ 154 $\mu$m polarization observations of the low-mass core L483. Our H-band observations reveal a magnetic field that is overwhelmingly in the E-W direction, which is approximately parallel to the bipolar outflow that is observed in scattered IR light and in single-dish $^{12}$CO observations. From our 154 $\mu$m data, we infer a $\sim$ 45$^{\circ}$ twist in the magnetic field within the inner 5" (1000 au) of L483. We compare these new observations with published single-dish 350 $\mu$m polarimetry and find that the 10,000 au scale H-band data match the smaller scale 350 $\mu$m data, indicating that the collapse of L483 is magnetically regulated on these larger scales. We also present high-resolution 1.3 mm ALMA data of L483 which reveals it is a close binary star with a separation of 34 au. The plane of the binary of L483 is observed to be approximately parallel to the twisted field in the inner 1000 au. Comparing this result to the $\sim$ 1000 au protostellar envelope, we find that the envelope is roughly perpendicular to the 1000 au HAWC+ field. Using the data presented, we speculate that L483 initially formed as a wide binary and the companion star migrated to its current position, causing an extreme shift in angular momentum thereby producing the twisted magnetic field morphology observed. More observations are needed to further test this scenario.

GRAVITY+ is the upgrade of GRAVITY and the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) with wide-separation fringe tracking, new adaptive optics, and laser guide stars on all four 8~m Unit Telescopes (UTs), for ever fainter, all-sky, high contrast, milliarcsecond interferometry. Here we present the design and first results of the first phase of GRAVITY+, called GRAVITY Wide. GRAVITY Wide combines the dual-beam capabilities of the VLTI and the GRAVITY instrument to increase the maximum separation between the science target and the reference star from 2 arcseconds with the 8 m UTs up to several 10 arcseconds, limited only by the Earth's turbulent atmosphere. This increases the sky-coverage of GRAVITY by two orders of magnitude, opening up milliarcsecond resolution observations of faint objects, and in particular the extragalactic sky. The first observations in 2019 - 2022 include first infrared interferometry of two redshift $z\sim2$ quasars, interferometric imaging on the binary system HD 105913A, and repeated observations of multiple star systems in the Orion Trapezium Cluster. We find the coherence loss between the science object and fringe-tracking reference star well described by the turbulence of the Earth's atmosphere. We confirm that the larger apertures of the UTs result in higher visibilities for a given separation due to larger overlap of the projected pupils on sky and give predictions for visibility loss as a function of separation to be used for future planning.

Companions embedded in the cavities of transitional circumstellar disks have been observed to exhibit excess luminosity at H$\alpha$, an indication that they are actively accreting. We report 5 years (2013-2018) of monitoring of the position and H$\alpha$ excess luminosity of the embedded, accreting low-mass stellar companion HD 142527 B from the MagAO/VisAO instrument. We use pyklip, a python implementation of the Karhounen-Loeve Image Processing algorithm, to detect the companion. Using pyklip forward modeling, we constrain the relative astrometry to $1-2 \mathrm{mas}$ precision and achieve sufficient photometric precision ($\pm0.2 \mathrm{mag}, 3\%$ error) to detect changes in the H$\alpha$ contrast of the companion over time. In order to accurately determine the relative astrometry of the companion, we conduct an astrometric calibration of the MagAO/VisAO camera against 20 years of Keck/NIRC2 images of the Trapezium cluster. We demonstrate agreement of our VisAO astrometry with other published positions for HD 142527 B, and use orbitize! to generate a posterior distribution of orbits fit to the relative astrometry of HD 142527 B. Our data suggest that the companion is close to periastron passage, on an orbit significantly misinclined with respect to both the wide circumbinary disk and the recently observed inner disk encircling HD 142527 A. We translate observed H-alpha contrasts for HD 142527 B into mass accretion rate estimates on the order of $4-9\times10^{-10} \mathrm{M_\odot}\mathrm{yr}^{-1}$. Photometric variation in the H-alpha excess of the companion suggests that the accretion rate onto the companion is variable. This work represents a significant step towards observing accretion-driven variability onto protoplanets, such as PDS 70 b\&c.

A recent hydrodynamic model, "radiation-driven fountain model" (Wada et al. 2016), presented a dynamical picture that active galactic nuclei (AGNs) tori sustain their geometrical thickness by gas circulation around AGNs, and previous papers confirmed that this picture is consistent with multi-wavelength observations of nearby Seyfert galaxies. Recent near-infrared observations implied that CO rovibrational absorption lines ($\Delta J=\pm1$, $v=0-1$, $\lambda \sim 4.7$ $\mathrm{\mu m}$) could probe physical properties of the inside tori. However, the origin of the CO absorption lines has been under debate. In this paper, we investigate the origin of the absorption lines and conditions for detecting them by performing line radiative transfer calculations based on the radiation-driven fountain model. We find that CO rovibrational absorption lines are detected at inclination angles $\theta_\mathrm{obs} = 50-80$ $^{\circ}$. At the inclination angle $\theta_\mathrm{obs} = 77$ $^{\circ}$, we observe multi-velocity components: inflow ($v_\mathrm{LOS}=30$ $\mathrm{kms^{-1}}$), systemic ($v_\mathrm{LOS}=0 \, \mathrm{kms^{-1}}$), and outflows ($v_\mathrm{LOS}=-75,\, -95,$ and $-105$ $\mathrm{kms^{-1}}$). The inflow and outflow components ($v_\mathrm{LOS}= 30$ and $-95$ $\mathrm{kms^{-1}}$) are collisionally excited at the excitation temperature of $186$ and $380$ K up to $J=12$ and $4$, respectively. The inflow and outflow components originate from the accreting gas on the equatorial plane at $1.5$ pc from the AGN center and the outflowing gas driven by AGN radiation pressure at $1.0$ pc, respectively. These results suggest that CO rovibrational absorption lines can provide us with the velocities and kinetic temperatures of the inflow and outflow in the inner a-few-pc regions of AGN tori, and the observations can probe the gas circulation inside the tori.

Ring diagram analysis is a standard local helioseismic technique. Data from the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) on the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) are routinely used for Ring-diagram analysis, and fits to the power spectra as well as inversion results are standard data products. In this paper we examine the effects of different tracking rates, noise, and resolution on ring-diagram results. Most of the analysis is for $15^\circ$ tiles, but we also examine the effects of different tile sizes. The largest effect we find is that of resolution. Doppler noise has very little effect on the results, except perhaps at the deepest regions for which the tiles can give reliable results; variations in the tracking rate have a similar effect.

While the cosmic microwave background (CMB) dipole is largely assumed entirely kinematic, there appears evidence that a part of it is primordial. Such possibility arises in models implying a tilt, interpreted as a dark flow, across the observable Universe. The kinematic nature of the entire CMB dipole can be probed using the dipole of cosmic backgrounds from galaxies after the last scattering. The near-IR cosmic infrared background (CIB) spectral energy distribution leads to an amplified dipole compared to the CMB. The CIB dipole is affected by galaxy clustering, decreasing with fainter, more distant galaxies, and by Solar System emissions and Galactic dust, which dominate the net CIB cosmological dipole in the optical/near-IR. We propose a technique that enables an accurate measurement of the kinematic near-IR CIB dipole. The CIB, effectively the integrated galaxy light (IGL), would be reconstructed from resolved galaxies in the forthcoming space-borne wide surveys covering four bands 0.9 to 2.5 micron. The galaxies will be sub-selected from the identified magnitude range where the dipole component from galaxy clustering is below the expected kinematic dipole. Using this technique the dipole can be measured in each of the bands at the statistical signal-to-noise S/N>50--100 with the forthcoming Euclid and Roman surveys, isolating CMB dipole's kinematic nature.

The aim of this article is to perform a phenomenological parametrization of the standard cosmological model, $\Lambda$CDM, to weight the different physical processes that define the pattern of the angular power spectra of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropies. We use six phenomenological amplitudes to account for the Sachs-Wolfe, early and late Integrated Sachs-Wolfe, polarization contribution, Doppler and lensing effects. To this end, we have adapted CLASS Boltzmann code and used the Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampler from Cobaya to explore Planck 2018 likelihood to constrain different combinations of cosmological and phenomenological parameters. Observing deviations of the mean values of the phenomenological amplitudes from the $\Lambda$CDM model predictions might be helpful to resolve the existing cosmological tensions. For the first time an integral analysis of the CMB physical processes using Planck 2018 temperature, polarization and lensing power spectra was performed. In a previous work, the phenomenological amplitudes were constrained using only TT data, however, when including polarization and lensing data we found that the constraints on those physical contributions are tighten. Also, some degeneracies which appear when only TT data are considered are completely broken when taking into account all Planck 2018 data. Consequently, models which more than three phenomenological amplitudes could be studied, which is prohibitive when only the temperature power spectrum is used. The results presented in this work show Planck experiment is able to constraint all the phenomenological amplitudes except the late Integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect. No inconsistencies were found with $\Lambda$CDM model and the greatest improvements were obtained for models including the lensing parameter, $A_L$.

Globally ice-covered oceans have been found on multiple moons in the solar system and may also have been a feature of Earth's past. However, relatively little is understood about the dynamics of these ice-covered oceans, which affect not only the physical environment but also any potential life and its detectability. A number of studies have simulated the circulation of icy-world oceans, but have come to widely different conclusions. To better understand and narrow down these diverging results, we discuss energetic constraints for the circulation on ice-covered oceans, focusing in particular on Snowball Earth, Europa, and Enceladus. Energy input that can drive ocean circulation on ice-covered bodies can be associated with heat and salt fluxes at the boundaries as well as ocean tides and librations. We show that heating from the solid core balanced by heat loss through the ice sheet can drive an ocean circulation, but the resulting flows would be relatively weak and strongly affected by rotation. Salt fluxes associated with freezing and melting at the ice sheet boundary are unlikely to energetically drive a circulation, although they can shape the large-scale circulation when combined with turbulent mixing. Ocean tides and librations may provide an energy source for such turbulence, but their strength remains highly uncertain for the icy moons, which poses a major obstacle to predicting the ocean dynamics of icy worlds and remains as an important topic for future research.

This paper describes the X-ray and gamma-ray imaging spectroscopy capabilities of the Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI). It also outlines RHESSI's major scientific accomplishments during the 16 years of operations from 2002 to 2018. These include unique contributions to solar flare research and to other aspects of solar physics (oblateness), astrophysics (magnetars), and Earth sciences (terrestrial gamma-ray flashes).

In this paper we present photometric redshifts for 2.7 million galaxies in the XMM-LSS and COSMOS fields, both with rich optical and near-infrared data from VISTA and HyperSuprimeCam. Both template fitting (using galaxy and Active Galactic Nuclei templates within LePhare) and machine learning (using GPz) methods are run on the aperture photometry of sources selected in the Ks-band. The resulting predictions are then combined using a Hierarchical Bayesian model, to produce consensus photometric redshift point estimates and probability distribution functions that outperform each method individually. Our point estimates have a root mean square error of ~0.08-0.09, and an outlier fraction of ~3-4 percent when compared to spectroscopic redshifts. We also compare our results to the COSMOS2020 photometric redshifts, which contains fewer sources, but had access to a larger number of bands and greater wavelength coverage, finding that comparable photo-z quality can be achieved (for bright and intermediate luminosity sources where a direct comparison can be made). Our resulting redshifts represent the most accurate set of photometric redshifts (for a catalogue this large) for these deep multi-square degree multi-wavelength fields to date.

X-ray polarimetry missions like IXPE will be able to measure for the first time the polarization properties of accreting, weakly magnetized neutron stars in Low Mass X-ray Binaries. In this work we present simulations of the expected X-ray polarized signal including the coronal emission for different geometries of the corona itself, i.e. a slab above the accretion disc and a spherical shell around the neutron star. The simulations are performed with the fully relativistic Monte Carlo code monk capable of computing the X-ray polarization degree and angle for various physical input parameters of the neutron star, disc and corona. Different coronal geometries result in significantly different X-ray polarization properties, which can therefore be used to constrain the geometry of the systems.

In this work, we study some properties of the Hickson Compact Groups (HCGs) using N-body simulations for the Generalized Dark Matter (GDM) model, described by three free functions, the sound speed, the viscosity and the equation of state. We consider three GDM models associated with different values of the free functions to neglect collisional effects. We constructed the initial seeds of our simulations according to the matter power spectrum of GDM linear perturbations, which hold a cut-off at small scales, and explored their effects on the non-linear structure formation at small and intermediate scales. We generated mock catalogues of galaxies for different models and classify HCGs by implementing an algorithm that adapts the original selection method for mock catalogues. Once the HCGs samples are classified, we analyzed their properties and compared them between models. We found that a larger amount of HCGs are counted in GDM simulations in comparison to CDM counts. This difference suggests that HCGs can proliferate within GDM despite the suppressed substructure, which indicates a possible modification in the HCG formation process within models where DM is not perfectly like CDM. Additionally, we identified different mechanisms of clustering, for models with a large amount of galaxy-halos self-agglomerate because of their abundance while models with fewer galaxy-halos need massive halos acting as a dominant potential well. Finally, by comparing distributions of different observables of simulated HCGs against observations, we found a good agreement in the intrinsic properties. However, a discrepancy in the velocity dispersion remains unsolved.

We aim to shed light on the physical properties and kinematics of the molecular material in the nucleus of one of the closest type 2 active galaxies. To this end, we obtained high angular resolution ALMA observations of the nucleus of the Circinus galaxy. The observations map the emission at 350GHz and 690GHz with spatial resolutions of ~3.8pc and ~2.2pc, respectively. The continuum emission traces cold ($T\lesssim100$K) dust in a circumnuclear disk with spiral arms on scales of 25pc, plus a marginally resolved nuclear emission peak. The latter is not extended in polar direction as claimed based on earlier ALMA observations. A significant amount (of the order of 40%) of the 350GHz emission is not related to dust, but most likely free-free emission instead. We detect CO(3-2) and CO(6-5) as well as HCO$^+$(4-3), HCN(4-3), and CS(4-3). The CO emission is extended, showing a spiral pattern, similar to the extended dust emission. Towards the nucleus, CO is excited to higher transitions and its emission is self-absorbed, leading to an apparent hole in the CO(3-2) but not the CO(6-5) emission. On the other hand, the high gas density tracers HCO$^+$, HCN, and CS show a strong, yet unresolved (($\lesssim4$pc) concentration of the emission at the nucleus, pointing at a very small 'torus'. The kinematics are dominated by rotation and point at a geometrically thin disk down to the resolution limit of our observations. In contrast to several other AGNs, no HCN enhancement is found towards the nucleus. The Circinus nucleus is therefore composed of at least two distinct components: (1) an optically thin, warm outflow of ionised gas containing clouds of dust; and (2) a cold molecular and dusty disk. These findings support the most recent radiative transfer calculations of the obscuring structures in AGNs, which find a similar two-component structure. (Abridged)

We report the independent discovery of PSR J0027-1956 with the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) in the ongoing Southern-sky MWA Rapid Two-meter (SMART) pulsar survey. J0027-1956 has a period of ~1.306 s, a dispersion measure (DM) of ~20.869 pc cm^-3 , and a nulling fraction of ~77%. This pulsar highlights the advantages of the survey's long dwell times (~80 min), which, when fully searched, will be sensitive to the expected population of similarly bright, intermittent pulsars with long nulls. A single-pulse analysis in the MWA's 140-170 MHz band also reveals a complex sub-pulse drifting behavior, including both rapid changes of the drift rate characteristic of mode switching pulsars, as well as a slow, consistent evolution of the drift rate within modes. In some longer drift sequences, interruptions in the otherwise smooth drift rate evolution occur preferentially at a particular phase, typically lasting a few pulses. These properties make this pulsar an ideal test bed for prevailing models of drifting behavior such as the carousel model.

KH 15D contains a circumbinary disk that is tilted relative to the orbital plane of the central binary. The precession of the disk and the orbital motion of the binary together produce rich phenomena in the photometric light curve. In this work, we present the discovery and preliminary analysis of two objects that resemble the key features of KH 15D from the Zwicky Transient Facility. These new objects, Bernhard-1 and Bernhard-2, show large-amplitude ($>1.5\,$mag), long-duration (more than tens of days), and periodic dimming events. A one-sided screen model is developed to model the photometric behaviour of these objects, the physical interpretation of which is a tilted, warped circumbinary disk occulting the inner binary. Changes in the object light curves suggest potential precession periods over timescales longer than 10 years. Additional photometric and spectroscopic observations are encouraged to better understand the nature of these interesting systems.

We present the results from our seven-year long broad-band X-ray observing campaign of SN\,2014C with \emph{Chandra} and \emph{NuSTAR}. These coordinated observations represent the first look at the evolution of a young extragalactic SN in the 0.3-80 keV energy range in the years after core collapse. We find that the spectroscopic metamorphosis of SN\,2014C from an ordinary type Ib SN into an interacting SN with copious hydrogen emission is accompanied by luminous X-rays reaching $L_x\approx 5.6\times10^{40}\, \rm{erg\,s^{-1}}$ (0.3--100 keV) at $\sim 1000$ days post explosion and declining as $L_x\propto t^{-1}$ afterwards. The broad-band X-ray spectrum is of thermal origin and shows clear evidence for cooling after peak, with $T(t)\approx 20 \,{\rm keV}(t/t_{\rm pk})^{-0.5}$. Soft X-rays of sub-keV energy suffer from large photoelectric absorption originating from the local SN environment with $NH_{\rm int}(t)\approx3\times 10^{22}(t/400 \,\rm{days})^{-1.4}\,\rm{cm^{-2}}$. We interpret these findings as the result of the interaction of the SN shock with a dense ($n\approx 10^{5}-10^{6}\,\rm{cm^{-3}}$), H-rich disk-like circumstellar medium (CSM) with inner radius $\sim2\times 10^{16}$ cm and extending to $\sim 10^{17}$ cm. Based on the declining $NH_{\rm int}(t)$ and X-ray luminosity evolution, we infer a CSM mass of $\sim(1.2\,f$--2.0$\sqrt{f}) \rm{M_{\odot}}$, where $f$ is the volume filling factor. Finally, we place SN\,2014C in the context of 119 core-collapse SNe with evidence for strong shock interaction with a thick circumstellar medium and we highlight the challenges that the current mass-loss theories (including wave-driven mass loss, binary interaction and line-driven winds) face when interpreting the wide dynamic ranges of CSM parameters inferred from observations.

We analyzed the light curves of 165 AGB variables, mostly Miras, in the sky area centered between M16 and M17 (l=16, b=0), using the OGLE GVS database in the I_C band. Comparison with the published light curves, derived about 50 years earlier by P.~Maffei using Kodak I-N photographic plates, allowed us to find no significant period changes in any star. Remarkably, a few stars of the sample appear to have substantially changed their average luminosity, the most striking case being KZ Ser. We provide a better identification for three stars: IX Ser, NSV 10522, and NSV 10326, all of them being Miras. We classify the light curves of 6 stars, discovered but not classified by Maffei, (GL Ser, NSV 10271, NSV 10326, NSV 10522, NSV 10677, and NSV 10772) five of them being new Miras, and confirm the R CrB nature of V391 Sct. The magnitude scale used by Maffei is compared to the modern I_C one.

In this paper we report a search for vanishing sources in POSS I red images using Virtual Observatory archives, tools and services. The search, conducted in the framework of the VASCO project, aims at finding POSS I (red) sources not present in recent catalogues like Pan-STARRS DR2 (limiting magnitude r=21.4) or Gaia EDR3 (limiting magnitude G=21). We found 298 165 sources visible only in POSS I plates, out of which 288 770 had a crossmatch within 5 arcsec in other archives (mainly in the infrared), 189 were classified as asteroids, 35 as variable objects, 3 592 as artefacts from the comparison to a second digitization (Supercosmos), and 180 as high proper motion objects without information on proper motion in Gaia EDR3. The remaining unidentified transients (5 399) as well as the 172 163 sources not detected in the optical but identified in the infrared regime are available from a Virtual Observatory compliant archive and can be of interest in searches for strong M-dwarf flares, high-redshift supernovae, asteroids, or other categories of unidentified red transients. No point sources were detected by both POSS-I and POSS-II before vanishing, setting the rate of failed supernovae in the Milky Way during 70 years to less than one in one billion.

We present results of polarimetric, photometric, and spectral observations of the near-Earth asteroid (3200) Phaethon carried out at the 6-m BTA telescope of the Special Astrophysical Observatory and the 2.6-m and 1.25-m telescopes of the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory over a wide range of phase angles during its close approach to the Earth at the end of 2017 (19-135 deg) and in 2020 at \alpha = 52.2 deg. Using our and other available in literature data, we found that the maximum degree of linear polarization of Phaethon in the V band is 45% at the phase angle 124 deg. Using the dependence (polarimetric slope-albedo) we have found the geometric albedo of asteroid Phaethon to be 0.06. This value falls into the lower range of albedo values for asteroids determined by different methods. The mean color indices U-B=0.207 and B-V=0.639 of the asteroid are derived at heliocentric and geocentric distances 1.077 au and 0.102 au, respectively. The effective diameter of Phaethon is estimated from obtained absolute magnitude and geometrical albedo, it is equal to 6.8 km. The best fit to the observed polarimetric data was obtained with the Sh-matrix model of conjugated random Gaussian particles composed of Mg-rich silicate (90%) and amorphous carbon (10%).

Context: A rich population of low-mass brown dwarfs and isolated planetary mass objects has been reported recently in the Upper Scorpius and Ophiuchus star forming complex. Aims: We investigate the membership, nature and properties of 17 of these isolated planetary mass candidates using low-resolution near-infrared spectra. Methods: We investigate the membership by looking for evidences of youth using four diagnostics: the slope of the continuum between the J and Ks band, the Hcont and TLI-g gravity sensitive indices, and by comparing the spectra to young and field (old) M and L-dwarf standards. Results: All the targets but one are confirmed as young ultracool objects, with spectral types between L0 and L6 and masses in the range 0.004-0.013 M according to evolutionary models. The status of the last target is unclear at this point. Conclusions: Only one possible contaminant has been identified among the 17 targets, suggesting that the contamination level of the original sample must be lower than 6%

Planetary formation theories and, more specifically, migration models predict that planets can be captured in mean-motion resonances (MMRs) during the disc phase. The distribution of period ratios between adjacent planets shows an accumulation in the vicinity of the resonance, which is not centred on the nominal resonance but instead presents an offset slightly exterior to it. Here we extend on previous works by thoroughly exploring the effect of different disc and planet parameters on the resonance offset during the disc migration phase. The dynamical study is carried out for several first-order MMRs and for both low-mass Earth-like planets undergoing type-I migration and giant planets evolving under type-II migration. We find that the offset varies with time during the migration of the two-planet system along the apsidal corotation resonance family. The departure from the nominal resonance increases for higher planetary masses and stronger eccentricity damping. In the Earth to super-Earth regime, we find offset values in agreement with the observations when using a sophisticated modelling for the planet-disc interactions, where the damping timescale depends on the eccentricity. This dependence causes a feedback which induces an increase of the resonance offsets. Regarding giant planets, the offsets of detected planet pairs are well reproduced with a classical $K$-factor prescription for the planet-disc interactions when the eccentricity damping rate remains low to moderate. In both regimes, eccentricities are in agreement with the observations too. As a result, planet-disc interactions provide a generic channel to generate the offsets found in the observations.

We present late-time optical follow-up observations of GRB 171010A/SN 2017htp ($z$ = 0.33) and low-luminosity GRB 171205A/SN 2017iuk ($z$ = 0.037) acquired using the 4K$\times$4K CCD Imager mounted at the 3.6m Devasthal Optical Telescope (3.6m DOT) along with the prompt emission data analysis of these two interesting bursts. The prompt characteristics (other than brightness) such as spectral hardness, T$_{90}$, and minimum variability time-scale are comparable for both the bursts. The isotropic $X$-ray and kinetic energies of the plateau phase of GRB 171205A are found to be less than the maximum energy budget of magnetars, supporting magnetar as a central engine powering source. The new optical data of SN 2017htp and SN 2017iuk presented here, along with published ones, indicate that SN 2017htp is one of the brightest and SN 21017iuk is among the faintest GRB associated SNe (GRB-SNe). Semi-analytical light-curve modelling of SN 2017htp, SN 2017iuk and only known GRB associated superluminous supernova (SLSN 2011kl) are performed using the {\tt MINIM} code. The model with a spin-down millisecond magnetar as a central engine powering source nicely reproduced the bolometric light curves of all three GRB-SNe mentioned above. The magnetar central engines for SN 2017htp, SN 2017iuk, and SLSN 2011kl exhibit values of initial spin periods higher and magnetic fields closer to those observed for long GRBs and H-deficient SLSNe. Detection of these rare events at such late epochs also demonstrates the capabilities of the 3.6m DOT for deep imaging considering longitudinal advantage in the era of time-domain astronomy.

Cyclic C5H (c-C5H), the radical formed by substituting an ethynyl group CCH for the hydrogen atom in the c-C3H radical, has been detected for the first time in the space. The c-C5H species is an isomer of the well-known linear radical l-C5H and is 6 kcal/mol less stable. A total of 17 rotational transitions were detected for the c-C5H species in TMC-1 within the 31.0-50.3 GHz range using the Yebes 40m radio telescope. We derive a column density of (9.0 +/- 0.9)e10 cm-2 for c-C5H. Additionally, we observed 12 lines for l-C5H and derive a column density for it of (1.3 +/- 0.3)e12 cm-2, which results in an abundance ratio c-C5H/l-C5H of 0.069. This is in sharp contrast with the value found for the analogue system c-C3H/l-C3H, whose ratio is 5.5 in TMC-1. We discuss the formation of c-C5H and conclude that this radical is probably formed in the reaction of atomic carbon with diacetylene.

High energy cosmic rays "illuminate" the Sun and produce an image that could be observed in up to five different channels: a cosmic ray shadow (whose energy dependence has been studied by HAWC); a gamma ray flux (observed at $E\le 200$ GeV by Fermi-LAT); a muon shadow (detected by ANTARES and IceCube); a neutron flux (undetected, as there are no hadronic calorimeters in space); and a flux of high energy neutrinos. Since these signals are correlated, the ones already observed can be used to reduce the uncertainty in the still undetected ones. Here we define a simple set up that explains the Fermi-LAT and HAWC observations and implies very definite fluxes of neutrons and neutrinos from the solar disk. In particular, we provide a fit of the neutrino flux at 10 GeV-10 TeV that includes its dependence on the zenith angle and on the period of the solar cycle. This flux represents a "neutrino floor" in indirect dark matter searches. We show that in some benchmark models the current bounds on the dark matter-nucleon cross section push the solar signal below this neutrino floor.

Physically realistic models of stellar spectra are needed in a variety of astronomical studies, from the analysis of fundamental stellar parameters, to studies of exoplanets and stellar populations in galaxies. Here we present a new version of the widely-used radiative transfer code Turbospectrum, which we update with the capacity to perform spectrum synthesis for lines of multiple chemical elements in Non-Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium (NLTE). We use the code in the analysis of metallicites and abundances of the Gaia FGK benchmark stars, using one-dimensional MARCS atmospheric models and the averages of 3D radiation-hydrodynamics simulations of stellar surface convection. We show that the new more physically realistic models offer a better description of the observed data and make the program and the associated microphysics data publicly available, including grids of NLTE departure coefficients for H, O, Na, Mg, Si, Ca, Ti, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Sr, and Ba.

This pedagogical document about stellar photometry - aimed at those for whom astronomical arcana seem arcane - endeavours to explain the concepts of magnitudes, color indices, absolute magnitudes, distance moduli, extinctions, attenuations, color excesses, K corrections, and bolometric corrections. I include some discussion of observational technique, and some discussion of epistemology, but the primary focus here is on the theoretical or interpretive connections between the observational astronomical quantities and the physical properties of the observational targets.

Uniform and accurate photometric calibration plays an important role in the current and next-generation wide-field imaging surveys. Herein, we review the modern photometric calibration methods, including the classic standard star method, "hardware/observation-driven" methods (such as the Ubercalibration, Hypercalibration, and Forward Global Calibration Methods), and "software/physics-driven" methods (e.g., the Stellar Locus Regression, Stellar Locus, and Stellar Color Regression Methods). Further, we discuss their advantages, limitations, and future developments toward millimagnitude precision calibration.

The shape of the ion energy spectra plays a critical role toward determining the ion energetics, the acceleration mechanisms and the possible sources of different plasma and suprathermal ion populations. The determination of the exact shape of the total particle spectrum, provide the necessary means to address the inner heliosheath (IHS) dynamics. Apart from various modeling efforts, a direct fit to the measured ion spectra for an extended energy range of $\sim$0.11 to 344 MeV has not been performed to date. We use an extended set of combined 0.11-55 keV ENA measurements from the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX-Lo and IBEX-Hi) and Cassini/Ion and Neutral Camera (INCA), converted to protons, together with $\sim$28 keV to 344 MeV ion measurements from the Low Energy Charged Particle (LECP) and Cosmic Ray Subsystem (CRS) experiments on Voyager 2, over the declining phase of Solar Cyle 23 (SC23) and ascending phase Solar Cylce 24 (SC24) (2009-2016) to study the characteristics of the particle energy spectrum. We fit the 0.11 keV to 344 MeV composite spectra with a set of regularized isotropic $\kappa$-distribution functions (RKD) allowing the determination of the macroscopic physical properties. We demonstrate that the 2009-2012 spectrum that corresponds to the declining phase of SC23 is well fitted by three different RKDs, while the 2013-2016 spectrum, associated with the rise of SC24, can only be approximated with six different RKDs. Our results are generally consistent with shock accelerated particles that undergo additional acceleration inside the IHS. We identify a low energy transmitted population of particles, a suprathermal reflected population and a very high energy component that is modulated by GCRs. The 2013-2016 time period is most likely associated with a mixture of particles from SC23 and SC24, which is reflected by the need to employ six RDKs.

We describe the algorithm, implementation and numerical tests of a multifluid dust module in the Athena++ magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) code. The module can accommodate an arbitrary number of dust species interacting with the gas via aerodynamic drag (characterized by the stopping time), with a number of numerical solvers. In particular, we describe two second-order accurate, two-stage, fully-implicit solvers that are stable in stiff regimes including short stopping time and high dust mass loading, and they are paired with the second-order explicit van-Leer and Runge-Kutta gas dynamics solvers in Athena++, respectively. Moreover, we formulate a consistent treatment of dust concentration diffusion with dust back-reaction, which incorporates momentum diffusion and ensures Galilean invariance. The new formulation and stiff drag solvers are implemented to be compatible with most existing features of Athena++, including different coordinate systems, mesh refinement, shearing-box and orbital advection. We present a large suite of test problems, including the streaming instability in linear and nonlinear regimes, as well as local and global setting, which demonstrate that the code achieves the desired performance. This module will be particularly useful for studies of dust dynamics and planet formation in protoplanetary disks.

Interacting dark matter-dark energy (IDMDE) models can be taken to account as one of the present challenges that may affect the cosmic structures. In this work, we study the integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect in IDMDE models. To this end, we initially introduce a theoretical framework for IDMDE models. Moreover, we briefly discuss the stability conditions of IDMDE models and by specifying a simple functional form for the energy density transfer rate, we calculate the perturbation equations. In the following, we calculate the amplitude of the matter power spectrum for the IDMDE model and compare it with the corresponding result obtained from the $\Lambda$CDM model. Furthermore, we calculate the amplitude of the ISW auto-power spectrum as a function of multipole order l for the IDMDE model. The results indicate that the amplitude of the ISW auto-power spectrum in the IDMDE model for different phantom dark energy equations of state behaves similar to the one for the $\Lambda$CDM model, whereas, for the quintessence dark energy equations of state, the amplitude of the ISW-auto power spectrum for the IDMDE model should be higher than the one for the $\Lambda$CDM model. Also, it turns out that the corresponding results by different values of the coupling parameter demonstrate that $\xi$ is inversely proportional to the amplitude of the ISW-auto power spectrum in the IDMDE model. Finally, by employing four different surveys, we calculate the amplitude of the ISW-cross power spectrum as a function of multipole order $l$ for the IDMDE model. The results exhibit that the amplitude of the ISW-cross power spectrum for the IDMDE model for all values of $\omega_{\rm x}$ is higher than the one obtained for the $\Lambda$CDM model. Also, it turns out that the amplitude of the ISW-cross power spectrum in the IDMDE model changes inversely with the value of coupling parameter $\xi$.

Impact of a solid object onto a small-body surface can be modeled by the solid impact onto a hierarchically structured granular target. Impact drag force model for the hierarchically structured granular target is developed based on the experiment. We perform a set of granular impact experiments in which mechanical strength and porosity of target grains are systematically varied. Tiny glass beads ($5$~$\mu$m in diameter) are agglomerated to form porous grains of $2$--$4$~mm in diameter. Then, the grains are sintered to control their strength. A polyethylene sphere ($12.7$~mm in diameter) is dropped onto a hierarchical granular target consisting of these porous grains. Motion of the penetrating sphere is captured by a high-speed camera and analyzed. We find that impact drag force produced by the hierarchically structured granular target can be modeled by the sum of inertial drag and depth-proportional drag. The depth-proportional drag in hierarchical granular impact is much greater than that of the usual granular target consisting of rigid grains. The ratio between grain strength and impact dynamic pressure is a key dimensionless parameter to characterize this extraordinary large depth-proportional drag. Grain fracturing plays an important role in the impact dynamics when the impact dynamic pressure is sufficiently larger than the grain strength. This implies that the effect of grain fracturing should be considered also for the impact on a small body. Perhaps, effective strength of the surface grains can be estimated based on the kinematic observation of the intrusion or touchdown of the planetary explorator.

We report the detection of an optical impact flash on Jupiter on 15 October 2021 by a dedicated telescope, Planetary ObservatioN Camera for Optical Transient Surveys (PONCOTS), for the first time. Our temporally resolved three-band observations of the flash allowed investigations of its optical energy without the need for approximations on the impact brightness temperature. The kinetic energy of the impactor was equivalent to approximately two megatons of TNT, an order of magnitude greater than that of previously detected flashes on Jupiter and comparable with the Tunguska impact on Earth in 1908. This detection indicates that Tunguska-like impact events on Jupiter occur approximately once per year, two-three orders of magnitude more frequent than terrestrial impacts. The observed flash displayed a single-temperature blackbody spectrum with an effective temperature of approximately 8300 K without clear temporal variation, possibly representing common radiative features of terrestrial Tunguska-class superbolides.

Nitriles play a key role as molecular precursors in prebiotic experiments based on the RNA-world scenario for the origin of life. These chemical compounds could have been partially delivered to the young Earth from extraterrestrial objects, stressing the importance of establishing the reservoir of nitriles in the interstellar medium. We report here the detection towards the molecular cloud G+0.693-0.027 of several nitriles, including cyanic acid (HOCN), and three C$_4$H$_3$N isomers (cyanoallene, CH$_2$CCHCN; propargyl cyanide, HCCCH$_2$CN; and cyanopropyne (CH$_3$CCCN), and the tentative detections of cyanoformaldehyde (HCOCN), and glycolonitrile (HOCH$_2$CN). We have also performed the first interstellar search of cyanoacetaldehyde (HCOCH$_2$CN), which was not detected. Based on the derived molecular abundances of the different nitriles in G+0.693-0.027 and other interstellar sources, we have discussed their formation mechanisms in the ISM. We propose that the observed HOCN abundance in G+0.693-0.027 is mainly due to surface chemistry and subsequent shock-induced desorption, while HCOCN might be mainly formed through gas-phase chemistry. In the case of HOCH$_2$CN, several grain-surface routes from abundant precursors could produce it. The derived abundances of the three C$_4$H$_3$N isomers in G+0.693-0.027 are very similar, and also similar to those previously reported in the dark cold cloud TMC-1. This suggests that the three isomers are likely formed through gas-phase chemistry from common precursors, possibly unsaturated hydrocarbons (CH$_3$CCH and CH$_2$CCH$_2$) that react with the cyanide radical (CN). The rich nitrile feedstock found towards G+0.693-0.027 confirms that interstellar chemistry is able to synthesize in space molecular species that could drive the prebiotic chemistry of the RNA-world.

We study the polarizations induced by the Galileon as a stochastic gravitational wave background in the cross correlated power in a pulsar timing array. Working within Galileon gravity, we first show that the scalar gravitational wave signature of the Galileon is encoded solely in its effective mass, which is controlled by the bare mass, conformal coupling, and a tadpole. Then, we study the phenomenology of the Galileon induced scalar polarizations and place observational constraints on these using the present NANOGrav data set. Our results feature longitudinal spatial correlation, indicative of a $10^{-22}$ eV Galileon, and show the Galileon polarizations as more statistically relevant compared with the tranverse tensor ones expected in general relativity.

Cosmological simulations are crucial tools in studying the Universe, but they typically do not directly match real observed structures. Constrained cosmological simulations, on the other hand, are designed to match the observed distribution of galaxies. Here we present constrained simulations based on spectroscopic surveys at a redshift of z~2.3, corresponding to an epoch of nearly 11 Gyrs ago. This allows us to 'fast-forward' the simulation to our present-day and study the evolution of observed cosmic structures self-consistently. We confirm that several previously-reported protoclusters will evolve into massive galaxy clusters by our present epoch, including the 'Hyperion' structure that we predict will collapse into a giant filamentary supercluster spanning 100 Megaparsecs. We also discover previously unknown protoclusters, with lower final masses than typically detectable by other methods, that nearly double the number of known protoclusters within this volume. Constrained simulations, applied to future high-redshift datasets, represents a unique opportunity for studying early structure formation and matching galaxy properties between high and low redshifts.

In recent years, collisional charging has been proposed to promote the growth of pebbles in early phases of planet formation. Ambient pressure in protoplanetary disks spans a wide range from below $10^{-9}$ mbar up to way beyond mbar. Yet, experiments on collisional charging of same material surfaces have only been conducted under Earth atmospheric pressure, Martian pressure and more generally down to $10^{-2}$ mbar thus far. This work presents first pressure dependent charge measurements of same material collisions between $10^{-8}$ and $10^3$ mbar. Strong charging occurs down to the lowest pressure. In detail, our observations show a strong similarity to the pressure dependence of the breakdown voltage between two electrodes and we suggest that breakdown also determines the maximum charge on colliding grains in protoplanetary disks. We conclude that collisional charging can occur in all parts of protoplanetary disks relevant for planet formation.

The spatial properties of small star-clusters suggest that they may originate from a fragmentation cascade of the cloud for which there might be traces up to a few dozen of kAU. Our goal is to investigate the multi-scale spatial structure of gas clumps, to probe the existence of a hierarchical cascade and to evaluate its possible link with star production in terms of multiplicity. From the Herschel emission maps of NGC 2264, clumps are extracted using getsf software at each of their associated spatial resolution, respectively [8.4, 13.5, 18.2, 24.9, 36.3]". Using the spatial distribution of these clumps and the class 0/I Young Stellar Object (YSO) from Spitzer data, we develop a graph-theoretic analysis to represent the multi-scale structure of the cloud as a connected network. From this network, we derive three classes of multi-scale structure in NGC 2264 depending on the number of nodes produced at the deepest level: hierarchical, linear and isolated. The structure class is strongly correlated with the column density $N_{\rm H_2}$ since the hierarchical ones dominate the regions whose N$_{\rm H_2} > 6 \times 10^{22}$cm$^{-2}$. Although the latter are in minority, they contain half of the class 0/I YSOs proving that they are highly efficient in producing stars. We define a novel statistical metric, the fractality coefficient F that measure the fractal index describing the scale-free process of the cascade. For NGC 2264, we estimate F = 1.45$\pm$0.12. However, a single fractal index fails to fully describe a scale-free process since the hierarchical cascade starts at a 13 kAU characteristic spatial scale. Our novel methodology allows us to correlate YSOs with their multi-scale gaseous environment. This hierarchical cascade that drives efficient star formation is suspected to be both hierarchical and rooted by the larger-scale gas environment up to 13 kAU.

The 3D-Drift And SHift (3D-DASH) program is a \textit{Hubble Space Telescope} WFC3 F160W imaging and G141 grism survey of the equatorial COSMOS field. 3D-DASH extends the legacy of HST near-infrared imaging and spectroscopy to degree-scale swaths of the sky, enabling the identification and study of distant galaxies ($z>2$) that are rare or in short-lived phases of galaxy evolution at rest-frame optical wavelengths. Furthermore, when combined with existing ACS/F814W imaging, the program facilitates spatially-resolved studies of the stellar populations and dust content of intermediate-redshift ($0.5<z<2$) galaxies. Here we present the reduced F160W imaging mosaic available to the community. Observed with the efficient DASH technique, the mosaic comprises 1256 individual WFC3 pointings, corresponding to an area of 1.35 deg$^2$ (1.43 deg$^2$ in 1912 when including archival data). The median $5\sigma$ point-source limit in $H_{160}$ is 24.74 mag. We also provide tools to determine the local point spread function (PSF), create cutouts, and explore the image at any location within the 3D-DASH footprint. 3D-DASH is the widest \textit{HST}/WFC3 imaging survey in the F160W filter to date, increasing the existing extragalactic survey area in the near-infrared at HST resolution by an order of magnitude.

The effect of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) on their host galaxies -- in particular their levels of star formation -- remains one of the key outstanding questions of galaxy evolution. Successful cosmological models of galaxy evolution require a fraction of energy released by an AGN to be redistributed into the interstellar medium to reproduce the observed stellar mass and luminosity function and to prevent the formation of over-massive galaxies. Observations have confirmed that the radio-AGN population is energetically capable of heating and redistributing gas at all phases, however, direct evidence of AGN enhancing or quenching star formation remains rare. With modern, deep radio surveys and large integral field spectroscopy (IFS) surveys, we can detect fainter synchrotron emission from AGN jets and accurately probe the star-forming properties of galaxies, respectively. In this paper, we combine data from the LOw Frequency ARray Two-meter Sky Survey with data from one of the largest optical IFS surveys, Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory to probe the star-forming properties of 307 local (z $<$ 0.15) galaxies that host radio-detected AGN (RDAGN). We compare our results to a robust control sample of non-active galaxies that each match the stellar mass, redshift, visual morphology, and inclination of a RDAGN host. We find that RDAGN and control galaxies have broad SFR distributions, typically lie below the star-forming main-sequence, and have negative stellar light-weighted age gradients. These results indicate that AGN selected based on their current activity are not responsible for suppressing their host galaxies' star formation. Rather, our results support the maintenance mode role that radio AGN are expected to have in the local Universe.

The spectra of brown dwarfs are key to exploring the chemistry and physics that take place in their atmospheres. Late-T dwarf spectra are particularly diagnostic due to their relatively cloud-free atmospheres and deep molecular bands. With the use of powerful atmospheric retrieval tools applied to the spectra of these objects, direct constraints on molecular/atomic abundances, gravity, and vertical thermal profiles can be obtained enabling a broad exploration of the chemical/physical mechanisms operating in their atmospheres. We present a uniform retrieval analysis on low-resolution IRTF SpeX near-IR spectra of a sample of 50 T dwarfs, including new observations as part of a recent volume-limited survey. This analysis more than quadruples the sample of T dwarfs with retrieved temperature profiles and abundances (H$_2$O, CH$_4$, NH$_3$, K and subsequent C/O and metallicities). We are generally able to constrain effective temperatures to within 50K, volume mixing ratios for major species to within 0.25dex, atmospheric metallicities [M/H] to within 0.2, and C/O ratios to within 0.2. We compare our retrieved constraints on the thermal structure, chemistry, and gravities of these objects with predictions from self-consistent radiative-convective equilibrium models and find, in general though with substantial scatter, consistency with solar composition chemistry and thermal profiles of the neighboring stellar FGK population. Objects with notable discrepancies between the two modeling techniques and potential mechanisms for their differences, be they related to modeling approach or physically motivated, are discussed more thoroughly in the text.

We study the scattering of gravitational waves by a Schwarzschild black hole and its perturbed siblings to investigate influences of proposed spectral instability of quasinormal modes on the ringdown signal. Our results indicate that information of dominant ringdown signals, which are ascribed to the fundamental (i.e., least damping) quasinormal mode of unperturbed Schwarzschild black holes, is imprinted in the phase shift defined from the transmission amplitude (1/A_{in} in our notation). This approximately parallels the fact that the resonance of quantum systems is imprinted in the phase shift of the S-matrix. The phase shift around the oscillation frequency of the fundamental mode is modified only perturbatively even if the quasinormal-mode spectrum is destabilized by a perturbative bump at a distant location, signifying the stability of the ringdown signal. At the same time, the phase shift at low frequencies is modulated substantially reflecting the late-time excitation of echo signals associated with the quasinormal-mode spectrum after destabilization.

The large neutrino density in the deep interior of core-collapse supernovae makes neutrino flavor evolution non-linear because of the coherent forward scattering of neutrinos among themselves. Under the assumption of spherical symmetry, we model neutrino decoupling from matter and present the first non-linear simulation of flavor evolution in the presence of charged current and neutral current collisions and neutrino advection. Flavor transformation occurs before neutrinos are fully decoupled from matter, dynamically affecting the flavor distributions of all neutrino species and shifting the location of the neutrino decoupling surfaces. Our findings may have implications on the explosion mechanism of supernovae, the nucleosynthesis of the heavy elements, as well as the observable neutrino signal, all of which is yet to be assessed.

The recent measurement of helium-4 from the near-infrared spectroscopy of extremely metal-poor galaxies by the Subaru Survey may point to a new puzzle in the Early Universe. We exploit this new helium measurement together with the percent-level determination of primordial deuterium, to assess indications for a non-vanishing lepton asymmetry during the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) era, paying particular attention to the role of uncertainties in the nuclear reaction network. A cutting-edge Bayesian analysis of BBN data jointly with information from the Cosmic Microwave Background suggests the existence of a nonzero lepton asymmetry at around the 2$\sigma$ level, providing a hint for cosmology beyond $\Lambda$CDM. We discuss conditions for a large total lepton asymmetry to be consistently realized in the Early Universe.

The concept of putting a neutrino detector in close orbit of the sun has been unexplored until very recently. The primary scientific return is to vastly enhance our understanding of the solar interior, which is a major NASA goal. Preliminary calculations show that such a spacecraft, if properly shielded, can operate in space environments while taking data from neutrino interactions. These interactions can be distinguished from random background rates of solar electromagnetic emissions, galactic charged cosmic-rays, and gamma-rays by using a double pulsed signature. Early simulations of this project have shown this veto schema to be successful in eliminating background and identifying the neutrino interaction signal in upwards of 75% of gamma ray interactions and nearly 100% of other interactions. Hence, we propose a new instrument to explore and study our sun. Due to inverse square scaling, this instrument has the potential to outperform earth-based experiments in several domains such as making measurements not accessible from the earth's orbit.

In this work we investigate the effects of a geometrically generated early dark energy era on the energy spectrum of the primordial gravitational waves. The early dark energy era, which we choose it to have a constant equation of state parameter $w$, is synergistically generated by an appropriate $f(R)$ gravity in the presence of matter and radiation perfect fluids. As we demonstrate, the predicted signal for the energy spectrum of the $f(R)$ primordial gravitational waves is amplified and can be detectable, for various reheating temperatures, especially for large reheating temperatures. The signal amplitude depends on the duration of the early dark energy era and on the value of the dark energy equation of state parameter, with the most latter affecting more crucially the amplification. Specifically the amplification occurs when the equation of state parameter approaches the de Sitter value $w=-1$. Regarding the duration of the early dark energy era, we find that the largest amplification occurs when the early dark energy era commences at a temperature $T=0.85\,$eV until $T=7.8\,$eV. Moreover we study a similar scenario in which amplification occurs, where the early dark energy era commences at $T=0.29\,$eV and lasts until the temperature is increased by $\Delta T\sim 1.7\,$eV.

We present a convolutional neural network that is capable of searching for continuous gravitational waves, quasi-monochromatic, persistent signals arising from asymmetrically rotating neutron stars, in $\sim 1$ year of simulated data that is plagued by non-stationary, narrow-band disturbances, i.e., lines. Our network has learned to classify the input strain data into four categories: (1) only Gaussian noise, (2) an astrophysical signal injected into Gaussian noise, (3) a line embedded in Gaussian noise, and (4) an astrophysical signal contaminated by both Gaussian noise and line noise. In our algorithm, different frequencies are treated independently; therefore, our network is robust against sets of evenly-spaced lines, i.e., combs, and we only need to consider perfectly sinusoidal line in this work. We find that our neural network can distinguish between astrophysical signals and lines with high accuracy. In a frequency band without line noise, the sensitivity depth of our network is about $\mathcal{D}^{95\%} \simeq 43.9$ with a false alarm probability of $\sim 0.5\%$, while in the presence of line noise, we can maintain a false alarm probability of $\sim 10\%$ and achieve $\mathcal{D}^\mathrm{95\%} \simeq 3.62$ when the line noise amplitude is $h_0^\mathrm{line}/\sqrt{S_\mathrm{n}(f_k)} = 1.0$. We evaluate the computational cost of our method to be $O(10^{19})$ floating point operations, and compare it to those from standard all-sky searches, putting aside differences between covered parameter spaces. Our results show that our method is more efficient by one or two orders of magnitude than standard searches. Although our neural network takes about $O(10^8)$ sec to employ using our current facilities (a single GPU of GTX1080Ti), we expect that it can be reduced to an acceptable level by utilizing a larger number of improved GPUs.

Average-atom models are an important tool in studying matter under extreme conditions, such as those conditions experienced in planetary cores, brown and white dwarfs, and during inertial confinement fusion. In the right context, average-atom models can yield results with similar accuracy to simulations which require orders of magnitude more computing time, and thus they can greatly reduce financial and environmental costs. Unfortunately, due to the wide range of possible models and approximations, and the lack of open-source codes, average-atom models can at times appear inaccessible. In this paper, we present our open-source average-atom code, atoMEC. We explain the aims and structure of atoMEC to illuminate the different stages and options in an average-atom calculation, and facilitate community contributions. We also discuss the use of various open-source Python packages in atoMEC, which have expedited its development.

We re-derive the vev-insertion approximation (VIA) source in electroweak baryogenesis. In contrast to the original derivation, we rely solely on 1-particle-irreducible self-energy diagrams. We solve the Green's function equations both perturbatively and resummed over all vev-insertions. The VIA source corresponds to the leading order contribution in the gradient expansion of the Kadanoff-Baym (KB) equations. We find that it vanishes both for bosons and fermions, both in the perturbative and in the resummed approach. Interestingly, the non-existence of the source is a result of a cancellation between different terms in the KB equations, and not of a pathology in the vev-insertion approximation itself.

The energy budget for gravitational waves of a cosmological first order phase transitions depends on the speed of sound in the thermal plasma in both phases around the bubble wall. Working in the real-singlet augmented Standard Model, which admits a strong two-step electroweak phase transition, we compute higher order corrections to the pressure and sound speed. We compare our result to lower-order approximations to the sound speed and the energy budget and investigate the impact on the gravitational wave signal. We find that deviations in the speed of sound from $c_s^2 = 1/3$ are enhanced up to $\mathcal O(5\%)$ in our higher-order computation. This results in a suppression in the energy budget of up to $\mathcal O (50\%)$ compared to approximations assuming $c_s^2 = 1/3$. The effect is most significant for hybrid and detonation solutions. We generalise our discussion to the case of multiple inert scalars and the case of a reduced number of fermion families in order to mimic hypothetical dark sector phase transitions. In this sector with modified field content, the sound speed can receive significant suppression, with potential order-of-magnitude impact on the gravitational wave amplitude.

The stochastic gravitational-wave backgrounds (SGWBs) from the cosmological first-order phase transitions (FOPTs) serve as a promising probe for the new physics beyond the standard model of particle physics. When most of the bubble walls collide with each other long after they had reached the terminal wall velocity, the dominated contribution to the SGWBs comes from the sound waves characterized by the efficiency factor of inserting the released vacuum energy into the bulk fluid motions. However, the previous works of estimating this efficiency factor have only considered the simplified case of the constant sound velocities in both symmetric and broken phases, either for the bag model with equal sound velocities or $\nu$-model with different sound velocities in the symmetric and broken phases, which is not only unrealistic from a viewpoint of particle physics, but also inconsistent since the sound velocity profile should be solved from the fluid equation of motion (EoM). In this paper, we consistently solve the fluid EoM with the iteration method when taking into account the sound-velocity variation across the bubble wall for a general and realistic equation of state (EoS) beyond the simple bag model and $\nu$-model. We have found a universal suppression effect for the efficiency factor of bulk fluid motions, though such a suppression effect could be negligible for the strong FOPT, in which case the previous estimation from a bag EoS on the efficiency factor of bulk fluid motions still works as a good approximation.

The phenomenology of primordial black holes (PBHs) physics, and the associated PBH abundance constraints, can be used in order to probe the early-universe evolution. In this work, we focus on the bounce realization within $F(R)$ modified gravity and we investigate the corresponding PBH behavior. In particular, we calculate the energy density power spectrum at horizon crossing time as a function of the involved theoretical parameters, and then we extract the PBH abundance in the context of peak theory, considering the non-linear relation between the density contrast and the comoving curvature perturbation, as well as the critical collapse law for the PBH masses. We first calculate the PBH mass function, and then we extract the PBH abundance $\Omega_\mathrm{PBH,f}$ at formation time as a function of the model parameters, namely the involved $F(R)$ parameter $\alpha$ and the Hubble parameter at the transition time from the bounce to the radiation dominated epoch $H_\mathrm{RD}$. Interestingly, we find that in order to have a significant black hole production, namely $10^{-10}<\Omega_\mathrm{PBH,f}<1$, $H_\mathrm{RD}$ and $\alpha$ should lie roughly within the ranges $10^{-7}M_\mathrm{Pl}\leq H_\mathrm{RD}\leq 10^{-6}M_\mathrm{Pl}$, $10^{-9}M_\mathrm{Pl}\leq H_\mathrm{RD}\leq 2\times 10^{-9}M_\mathrm{Pl}$ and $10^{-30}M^2_\mathrm{Pl}\leq \alpha \leq 10^{-12}M^2_\mathrm{Pl}$ respectively. Finally, we show that the excluded region corresponding to PBH overproduction forms a closed ring.

We report on a search for continuous gravitational waves (GWs) from NS 1987A, the neutron star born in SN 1987A. The search covered a frequency band of 75-275 Hz, included a wide range of spin-down parameters for the first time, and coherently integrated 12.8 days of data below 125 Hz and 8.7 days of data above 125 Hz from the second Advanced LIGO observing run. We found no astrophysical signal. We set upper limits on GW emission as tight as an intrinsic strain of $2\times10^{-25}$ at 90\% confidence. The large spin-down parameter space makes this search the first astrophysically consistent one for continuous GWs from NS 1987A. Our upper limits are the first consistent ones to beat an analog of the spin-down limit based on the age of the neutron star, and hence are the first GW observations to put new constraints on NS 1987A.