Papers for Tuesday, Jul 05 2022

We demonstrate the application of the YOLOv5 model, a general purpose convolution-based single-shot object detection model, in the task of detecting binary neutron star (BNS) coalescence events from gravitational-wave data of current generation interferometer detectors. We also present a thorough explanation of the synthetic data generation and preparation tasks based on approximant waveform models used for the model training, validation and testing steps. Using this approach, we achieve mean average precision ($\text{mAP}_{[0.50]}$) values of 0.945 for a single class validation dataset and as high as 0.978 for test datasets. Moreover, the trained model is successful in identifying the GW170817 event in the LIGO H1 detector data. The identification of this event is also possible for the LIGO L1 detector data with an additional pre-processing step, without the need of removing the large glitch in the final stages of the inspiral. The detection of the GW190425 event is less successful, which attests to performance degradation with the signal-to-noise ratio. Our study indicates that the YOLOv5 model is an interesting approach for first-stage detection alarm pipelines and, when integrated in more complex pipelines, for real-time inference of physical source parameters.

Around $10^5$ strongly lensed galaxies are expected to be discovered with Euclid and the LSST. Utilising these large samples to study the inner structure of lens galaxies requires source redshifts, to turn lens models into mass measurements. However, obtaining spectroscopic source redshifts for large lens samples is prohibitive with the capacity of spectroscopic facilities. Alternatively, we study the possibility of obtaining source photometric redshifts (photo-zs) for large lens samples. Our strategy consists of deblending the source and lens light by simultaneously modelling the lens and background source in all available photometric bands, and feeding the derived source colours to a template-fitting photo-z algorithm. We describe the lens and source light with a Sersic profile, and the lens mass with a Singular Isothermal Ellipsoid. We test our approach on a simulated and a real sample of lenses, both in broad-band photometry of the Hyper Suprime-Cam survey. We identify the deviations of the lens light from a Sersic profile and the contrast between the lens and source image as the main drivers of the source colour measurement error. We split the real sample based on the ratio $\Lambda$ of the lens to source surface brightness measured at the image locations. In the $\Lambda<1$ regime, the photo-z outlier fraction is $20\%$, and the accuracy of photo-z estimation is limited by the performance of template-fitting process. In the opposite regime, the photo-z outlier fraction is $75\%$, and the errors from the source colour measurements dominate the photo-z uncertainty. Measuring source photo-zs for lenses with $\Lambda<1$ poses no particular challenges, compared to isolated galaxies. For systems with significant lens light contamination, however, improving the description of the surface brightness distribution of the lens is required: a single Sersic model is not sufficiently accurate.

We report periodic oscillations in the 15-year long optical light curve of the gravitationally lensed quasar QJ0158-4325. The signal is enhanced during a high magnification microlensing event undergone by the fainter lensed image of the quasar, between 2003 and 2010. We measure a period of $P_{o}=172.6\pm0.9$ days. We explore four scenarios to explain the origin of the periodicity: 1- the high magnification microlensing event is due to a binary star in the lensing galaxy, 2- QJ0158-4325 contains a massive binary black hole system in its final dynamical stage before merging, 3- the quasar accretion disk contains a bright inhomogeneity in Keplerian motion around the black hole, and 4- the accretion disk is in precession. Among these four scenarios, only a binary supermassive black hole can account for both the short observed period and the amplitude of the signal, through the oscillation of the accretion disk towards and away from high-magnification regions of a microlensing caustic. The short measured period implies that the semi-long axis of the orbit is $\sim10^{-3}$pc, and the coalescence timescale is $t_{coal}\sim1000$ years, assuming that the decay of the orbit is solely powered by the emission of gravitational waves. The probability of observing a system so close to coalescence suggests either a much larger population of supermassive black hole binaries than predicted, or, more likely, that some other mechanism significantly increases the coalescence timescale. Three tests of the binary black hole hypothesis include: i) the recurrence of oscillations in photometric monitoring during any future microlensing events in either image, ii) spectroscopic detection of Doppler shifts (up to 0.01$c$), and iii) the detection of gravitational waves through Pulsar Timing Array experiments, such as the SKA, which will have the sensitivity to detect the $\sim$100 nano-hertz emission.

The intracluster medium (ICM) is a reservoir of heavy elements synthesized by different supernovae (SNe) types over cosmic history. Different enrichment mechanisms contribute a different relative metal production, predominantly caused by different SNe Type dominance. Using spatially resolved X-ray spectroscopy, one can probe the contribution of each metal enrichment mechanism. However, a large variety of physically feasible supernova explosion models make the analysis of the ICM enrichment history more uncertain. This paper presents a non-parametric PDF analysis to rank different theoretical SNe yields models by comparing their performance against observations. Specifically, we apply this new methodology to rank 7192 combinations of core-collapse SN and Type Ia SN models using 8 abundance ratios from $Suzaku$ observations of 18 galaxy systems (clusters and groups) to test their predictions. This novel technique can compare many SN models and maximize spectral information extraction, considering all the individual measurable abundance ratios and their uncertainties. We find that Type II Supernova with nonzero initial metallicity progenitors in general performed better than Pair-Instability SN and Hypernova models and that 3D SNIa models (with the WD progenitor central density of $2.9\times10^9 \mathrm{g\,cm^{-3}}$) performed best among all tested SN model pairs.

Fossil groups (FG) of galaxies still present a puzzle to theories of structure formation. Despite the low number of bright galaxies, they have relatively high velocity dispersions and ICM temperatures often corresponding to cluster-like potential wells. Their measured concentrations are typically high, indicating early formation epochs as expected from the originally proposed scenario for their origin as being older undisturbed systems. This is, however, in contradiction with the typical lack of expected well developed cool cores. Here, we apply a cluster dynamical indicator recently discovered in the intracluster light fraction (ICLf) to a classic FG, RX J1000742.53+380046.6, to assess its dynamical state. We also refine that indicator to use as an independent age estimator. We find negative radial temperature and metal abundance gradients, the abundance achieving supersolar values at the hot core. The X-ray flux concentration is consistent with that of cool core systems. The ICLf analysis provides an independent probe of the system's dynamical state and shows that the system is very relaxed, more than all clusters, where the same analysis has been performed. The specific ICLf is more $\sim$5 times higher than any of the clusters previously analyzed, which is consistent with an older non-interactive galaxy system that had its last merging event within the last $\sim$5Gyr. The specific ICLf is predicted to be an important new tool to identify fossil systems and to constrain the relative age of clusters.

We present a model for the remnants of haloes that have gone through an adiabatic tidal stripping process. We show that this model exactly reproduces the remnant of an NFW halo that is exposed to a slowly increasing isotropic tidal field and approximately for an anisotropic tidal field. The model can be used to predict the asymptotic mass loss limit for orbiting subhaloes, solely as a function of the initial structure of the subhalo and the value of the tidal field at pericentre. Predictions can easily be made for differently concentrated host-haloes with and without baryonic components, which differ most notably in their relation between pericentre radius and tidal field. The model correctly predicts several empirically measured relations such as the `tidal track' and the `orbital frequency relation' that was reported by Errani & Navarro (2021) for the case of an isothermal sphere. Further, we discover the `structure-tide' degeneracy which implies that increasing the concentration of a subhalo has exactly the same impact on tidal stripping as reducing the amplitude of the tidal field. Beyond this, we find that simple relations hold for the bound mass, truncation radius, WIMP annihilation luminosity and tidal ratio of tidally stripped NFW haloes in relation to quantities measured at the radius of maximum circular velocity. Finally, we note that NFW haloes cannot be completely disrupted when exposed adiabatically to tidal fields of arbitrary magnitudes. We provide an open-source implementation of our model and suggest that it can be used to improve predictions of dark matter annihilation.

We present an analysis of 10 ks snapshot Chandra observations of 12 shocked post-starburst galaxies, which provide a window into the unresolved question of active galactic nuclei (AGN) activity in post-starburst galaxies and its role in the transition of galaxies from actively star forming to quiescence. While 7/12 galaxies have statistically significant detections (with 2 more marginal detections), the brightest only obtained 10 photons. Given the wide variety of hardness ratios in this sample, we chose to pursue a forward modeling approach to constrain the intrinsic luminosity and obscuration of these galaxies rather than stacking. We constrain intrinsic luminosity of obscured power-laws based on the total number of counts and spectral shape, itself mostly set by the obscuration, with hardness ratios consistent with the data. We also tested thermal models. While all the galaxies have power-law models consistent with their observations, a third of the galaxies are better fit as an obscured power-law and another third are better fit as thermal emission. If these post-starburst galaxies, early in their transition, contain AGN, then these are mostly confined to a lower obscuration ($n_H \leq10^{23}$ cm$^{-2}$) and lower luminosity ($L_{2-10~ \rm keV}\leq10^{42}$erg s$^{-1}$). Two galaxies, however, are clearly best fit as significantly obscured AGN. At least half of this sample show evidence of at least low luminosity AGN activity, though none could radiatively drive out the remaining molecular gas reservoirs. Therefore, these AGN are more likely along for the ride, having been fed gas by the same processes driving the transition.

HD 166620 was recently identified as a Maunder Minimum candidate based on nearly 50 years of Ca II H & K activity data from Mount Wilson and Keck-HIRES (Baum et al. 2022). These data showed clear cyclic behavior on a 17-year timescale during the Mount Wilson survey that became flat when picked up later with Keck-HIRES planet-search observations. Unfortunately, the transition between these two data sets -- and therefore the transition into the candidate Maunder Minimum phase -- contained little to no data. Here we present additional Mount Wilson data not present in Baum et al. (2022) along with photometry over a nearly 30-year baseline that definitively trace the transition from cyclic activity to a prolonged phase of flat activity. We present this as conclusive evidence of the star entering a grand magnetic minimum and therefore the first true Maunder Minimum analog. We further show that neither the overall brightness nor the chromospheric activity level (as measured by S$_{\mathrm{HK}}$) is significantly lower during the grand magnetic minimum than its activity cycle minimum, implying that anomalously low mean or instantaneous activity levels are not a good diagnostic or criterion for identifying additional Maunder Minimum candidates. Intraseasonal variability in S$_{\mathrm{HK}}$, however, is lower in the star's grand minimum; this may prove a useful symptom of the phenomenon.

The response of the Advanced LIGO interferometers is known to vary with time [arXiv:1608.05134]. Accurate calibration of the interferometers must therefore track and compensate for temporal variations in calibration model parameters. These variations were tracked during the first three Advanced LIGO observing runs, and compensation for some of them has been implemented in the calibration procedure. During the second observing run, multiplicative corrections to the interferometer response were applied while producing calibrated strain data both in real-time and in high-latency. In a high-latency calibration produced after the second observing run and during the entirety of the third observing run, a correction involving updating filters was applied to the calibration -- the time dependence of the coupled cavity pole frequency $f_{\rm cc}$. Methods have now been developed to compensate for variations in the interferometer response requiring time-dependent filters, including variable zeros, poles, gains, and time delays. Compensation for well-modeled time dependence of the interferometer response has helped to reduce systematic errors in the calibration to $<2$% in magnitude and $<2^{\circ}$ in phase across LIGO's most sensitive frequency band of 20 - 2000 Hz [arXiv:2005.02531, arXiv:2107.00129]. Additionally, such compensation was shown to reduce uncertainty and bias in the sky localization for a simulated binary neutron star merger.

Abridged. Neutron stars are surrounded by ultra-relativistic particles efficiently accelerated by ultra strong electromagnetic fields. However so far, no numerical simulations were able to handle such extreme regimes of very high Lorentz factors and magnetic field strengths. It is the purpose of this paper to study particle acceleration and radiation reaction damping in a rotating magnetic dipole with realistic field strengths typical of millisecond and young pulsars as well as of magnetars. To this end, we implemented an exact analytical particle pusher including radiation reaction in the reduced Landau-Lifshitz approximation where the electromagnetic field is assumed constant in time and uniform in space during one time step integration. The position update is performed using a velocity Verlet method. We extensively tested our algorithm against time independent background electromagnetic fields like the electric drift in cross electric and magnetic fields and the magnetic drift and mirror motion in a dipole. Eventually, we apply it to realistic neutron star environments. We investigated particle acceleration and the impact of radiation reaction for electrons, protons and iron nuclei plunged around millisecond pulsars, young pulsars and magnetars, comparing it to situations without radiation reaction. We found that the maximum Lorentz factor depends on the particle species but only weakly on the neutron star type. Electrons reach energies up to $\gamma_e \approx 10^8-10^9$ whereas protons energies up to $\gamma_p \approx 10^5-10^6$ and iron up to $\gamma \approx 10^4-10^5$. While protons and irons are not affected by radiation reaction, electrons are drastically decelerated, reducing their maximum Lorentz factor by 2 orders of magnitude. We also found that the radiation reaction limit trajectories fairly agree with the reduced Landau-Lifshitz approximation in almost all cases.

The origin of life and the detection of alien life have historically been treated as separate scientific research problems. However, they are not strictly independent. Here, we discuss the need for a better integration of the sciences of life detection and origins of life. Framing these dual problems within the formalism of Bayesian hypothesis testing, we show via simple examples how high confidence in life detection claims require either (1) a strong prior hypothesis about the existence of life in a particular alien environment, or conversely, (2) signatures of life that are not susceptible to false positives. As a case study, we discuss the role of priors and hypothesis testing in recent results reporting potential detection of life in the Venusian atmosphere and in the icy plumes of Enceladus. While many current leading biosignature candidates are subject to false positives because they are not definitive of life, our analyses demonstrate why it is necessary to shift focus to candidate signatures that are definitive. This indicates a necessity to develop methods that lack false positives, by using observables for life that rely on prior hypotheses with strong theoretical and empirical support in identifying defining features of life. Abstract theories developed in pursuit of understanding universal features of life are more likely to be definitive and to apply to life-as-we-don't-know-it. In the absence of alien examples these are best validated in origin of life experiments, substantiating the need for better integration between origins of life and biosignature science research communities.

The evolution and lifetime of protoplanetary disks (PPDs) play a central role in the formation and architecture of planetary systems. Astronomical observations suggest that PPDs evolve in two timescales, accreting onto the star for up to several million years (Myr) followed by gas dissipation within <1 Myr. Because solar nebula magnetic fields are sustained by the gas of the protoplanetary disk, we can use paleomagnetic measurements to infer the lifetime of the solar nebula. Here, we use paleomagnetic measurements of meteorites to constrain this lifetime and investigate whether the solar nebula had a two-timescale evolution. We report on paleomagnetic measurements of bulk subsamples of two CO carbonaceous chondrites: Allan Hills A77307 and Dominion Range 08006. If magnetite in these meteorites can acquire a crystallization remanent magnetization that recorded the ambient field during aqueous alteration, our measurements suggest that the local magnetic field strength at the CO parent body location was <0.9 \muT at some time between 2.7 and 5.1 Myr after the formation of calcium-aluminum-rich inclusions. Coupled with previous paleomagnetic studies, we conclude that the dissipation of the solar nebula in the 3-7 AU region occurred <1.5 Myr after the dissipation of the nebula in the 1-3 AU region, suggesting that protoplanetary disks go through a two-timescale evolution in their lifetime, consistent with dissipation by photoevaporation and/or magnetohydrodynamic winds. We also discuss future directions necessary to obtain robust records of solar nebula fields using bulk chondrites, including obtaining ages from meteorites and experimental work to determine how magnetite acquires magnetization during chondrite parent body alteration.

We present a new Monte-Carlo radiative transfer code, which we have used to model the cyclotron line features in the environment of a variable magnetic field and plasma density. The code accepts an input continuum and performs only the line transfer by including the three cyclotron resonant processes (cyclotron absorption, cyclotron emission, cyclotron scattering). Subsequently, the effects of gravitational red-shift and light bending on the emergent spectra are computed. We have applied our code to predict the observable spectra from three different emission geometries; 1) an optically thin slab near the stellar surface, 2) an accretion mound formed by the accumulation of the accreted matter, 3) an accretion column representing the zone of a settling flow onto the star. Our results show that the locally emergent spectra from the emission volume are significantly anisotropic. However, in the presence of strong light bending the anisotropy reduces considerably. This averaging also drastically reduces the strength of harmonics higher than second in the observable cyclotron spectra. We find that uniform field slabs produce line features that are too narrow, and mounds with large magnetic distortions produce features that are too wide compared to the average widths of the spectral features observed from various sources. The column with a gently varying (dipole) field produces widths in the intermediate range, similar to those observed.

With its exquisite astrometric precision, the latest Gaia data release includes $\sim$$10^5$ astrometric binaries, each of which have measured orbital periods, eccentricities, and the Thiele-Innes orbital parameters. Using these and an estimate of the luminous stars' masses, we derive the companion stars' masses, from which we identify a sample of 24 binaries in long period orbits ($P_{\rm orb}\sim{\rm yrs}$) with a high probability of hosting a massive ($>$1.4 $M_{\odot}$), dark companion: a neutron star (NS) or black hole (BH). The luminous stars in these binaries tend to be F-, G-, and K-dwarfs with the notable exception of one hot subdwarf. Follow-up spectroscopy of eight of these stars shows no evidence for contamination by white dwarfs or other luminous stars. The dark companions in these binaries span a mass range of 1.35-2.7 $M_{\odot}$ and therefore likely includes both NSs and BHs without a significant mass gap in between. Furthermore, the masses of several of these objects are $\simeq$1.7 $M_{\odot}$, similar to the mass of at least one of the merging compact objects in GW190425. Given that these orbits are too wide for significant mass accretion to have occurred, this sample implies that some NSs are born heavy ($\gtrsim$1.5 $M_{\odot}$). Additionally, the low orbital velocities ($\lesssim$20 km s$^{-1}$) of these binaries requires that at least some heavy NSs receive low natal kicks, otherwise they would have been disrupted during core collapse. Although none will become gravitational wave sources within a Hubble time, these systems will be exceptionally useful for testing binary evolution theory.

Based on the current experimental data, the Standard Model predicts that the current vacuum state of the Universe is metastable, leading to a non-zero rate of vacuum decay through nucleation of bubbles of true vacuum. Our existence implies that there cannot have been any such bubble nucleation events anywhere in our whole past lightcone. We consider a minimal scenario of the Standard Model together with Starobinsky inflation, using three-loop renormalization group improved Higgs effective potential with one-loop curvature corrections. We show that the survival of the vacuum state through inflation places a lower bound $\xi\gtrsim 0.1$ on the non-minimal Higgs curvature coupling, the last unknown parameter of the Standard Model. This bound is significantly stronger than in single field inflation models with no Higgs-inflaton coupling. It is also sensitive to the details of the dynamics at the end of inflation, and therefore it can be improved with a more detailed study of that period.

We present an observational study of the luminous red nova (LRN) AT\,2021biy in the nearby galaxy NGC\,4631. The field of the object was routinely imaged during the pre-eruptive stage by synoptic surveys, but the transient was detected only at a few epochs from $\sim 231$\,days before maximum brightness. The LRN outburst was monitored with unprecedented cadence both photometrically and spectroscopically. AT\,2021biy shows a short-duration blue peak, with a bolometric luminosity of $\sim 1.6 \times 10^{41}$\,erg\,s$^{-1}$, followed by the longest plateau among LRNe to date, with a duration of 210\,days. A late-time hump in the light curve was also observed, possibly produced by a shell-shell collision. AT\,2021biy exhibits the typical spectral evolution of LRNe. Early-time spectra are characterised by a blue continuum and prominent H emission lines. Then, the continuum becomes redder, resembling that of a K-type star with a forest of metal absorption lines during the plateau phase. Finally, late-time spectra show a very red continuum ($T_{\mathrm{BB}} \approx 2050$ K) with molecular features (e.g., TiO) resembling those of M-type stars. Spectropolarimetric analysis indicates that AT\,2021biy has local dust properties similar to those of V838\,Mon in the Milky Way Galaxy. Inspection of archival {\it Hubble Space Telescope} data taken on 2003 August 3 reveals a $\sim 20$\,\msun\ progenitor candidate with log\,$(L/{\rm L}_{\odot}) = 5.0$\,dex and $T_{\rm{eff}} = 5900$\,K at solar metallicity. The above luminosity and colour match those of a luminous yellow supergiant. Most likely, this source is a close binary, with a 17--24\,\msun\ primary component.

We study the origin of the UV-excess in star clusters by performing N-body simulations of six clusters with N=10k and N=100k (single stars & binary systems) and metallicities of Z=0.01, 0.001, and 0.0001, using PETAR. All models initially have a 50 percent primordial binary fraction. Using GalevNB we convert the simulated data into synthetic spectra and photometry for the China Space Station Telescope (CSST) and Hubble Space Telescope (HST). From the spectral energy distributions we identify three stellar populations that contribute to the UV-excess: (1) second asymptotic giant branch stars, which contribute to the UV flux at early times; (2) naked helium stars, and (3) white dwarfs, which are long-term contributors to the FUV spectra. Binary stars consisting of a white dwarf and a main-sequence star are cataclysmic variable (CV) candidates. The magnitude distribution of CV candidates is bimodal up to 2 Gyr. The bright CV population is particularly bright in FUV-NUV. The FUV-NUV color of our model clusters is 1-2 mag redder than the UV-excess globular clusters in M 87 and in the Milky Way. This discrepancy may be induced by helium enrichment in observed clusters. Our simulations are based on simple stellar evolution; we do not include the effects of variations in helium and light elements or multiple stellar populations. A positive radial color gradient is present in CSST NUV-y for main-sequence stars of all models with a color difference of 0.2-0.5 mag, up to 4 half-mass radii. The CSST NUV-g color correlates strongly with HST FUV-NUV for NUV-g>1 mag, with the linear relation $FUV-NUV=(1.09\pm0.12)\times(NUV-g)+(-1.01\pm0.22)$. This allows for conversion of future CSST NUV-g colors into HST FUV-NUV colors, which are sensitive to UV-excess features. We find that CSST will be able to detect UV-excess in galactic/extra-galactic star clusters with ages >200 Myr.

Astrophysical jets are launched from strongly magnetized systems that host an accretion disk surrounding a central object. The origin of the magnetic field, which is a key component of the launching process, is still an open question. Here we address the question of how the magnetic field required for jet launching is generated and maintained by a dynamo process. By carrying out non-ideal MHD simulations (PLUTO code), we investigate how the feedback of the generated magnetic field on the mean-field dynamo affects the disk and jet properties. We find that a stronger quenching of the dynamo leads to a saturation of the magnetic field at a lower disk magnetization. Nevertheless, we find that, while applying different dynamo feedback models, the overall jet properties remain unaffected. We then investigate a feedback model which encompasses a quenching of the magnetic diffusivity. Our modeling considers a more consistent approach for mean-field dynamo modeling simulations, as the magnetic quenching of turbulence should be considered for both, a turbulent dynamo and turbulent magnetic diffusivity. We find that, after the magnetic field is saturated, the Blandford-Payne mechanism can work efficiently, leading to more collimated jets, that move, however, with slower speed. We find strong intermittent periods of flaring and knot ejection for low Coriolis numbers. In particular, flux ropes are built up and advected towards the inner disk thereby cutting off of the inner disk wind, leading to magnetic field reversals, reconnection and the emergence of intermittent flares.

Small radio telescope in 21cm was used for studying the partial solar eclipse, with magnitude 0.89, in Hong Kong on 21st June, 2020. The radio telescope SPIDER 300A was designed and constructed by the Radio2Space Company, Italy. Radio flux density time curves (light curve) and a two-dimension mapping of the eclipse is presented in this paper. Standard radio data reduction methods were used to obtain the intensity time curve. We also adopted the semi-pipeline method for the reduction of data to obtain the same results as with the built-in software of the radio telescope SPIDER 300A. The total solar radio flux of the eclipse was found to reduce by maximum 55 +/- 5 percent, while the maximum eclipsed area of the same eclipse is 86.08%. Other radio observations of solar eclipses in Hong Kong are also discussed in this paper, including SPIDER 300A observation of partial solar eclipse on 26th December 2019 (APPENDIX A); and small radio telescope (SRT), developed by the Haystack Observatory, MIT, USA, observation of 2020 eclipse (APPENDIX B).

By adopting the intermediate and power-law scale factors, we study the tachyon inflation with constant sound speed. We perform some numerical analysis on the perturbation and non-gaussianity parameters in this model and compare the results with observational data. By using the constraints on the scalar spectral index and tensor-to-scalar-ratio, obtained from Planck2018 TT, TE, EE+lowE+lensing+BAO+BK14 data, the constraint on the running of the scalar spectral index obtained from Planck2018 TT, TE, EE+lowEB+lensing data, and constraint on tensor spectral index obtained from Planck2018 TT, TE, EE +lowE+lensing+BK14+BAO+LIGO and Virgo2016 data, we find the observationally viable ranges of the model's parameters at both $68\%$ CL and $95\%$ CL. We also analyze the non-gaussian features of the model in the equilateral and orthogonal configurations. Based on Planck2018 TTT, EEE, TTE and EET data, we find the constraints on the sound speed as $0.276\leq c_{s}\leq 1$ at $68\%$ CL, $0.213\leq c_{s}\leq 1$ at $95\%$ CL, and $0.186\leq c_{s}\leq 1$ at $97\%$ CL.

Tight limits on the photon mass have been set through analyzing the arrival time differences of photons with different frequencies originating from the same astrophysical source. However, all these constraints have relied on using the first-order Taylor expansion of the dispersion due to a nonzero photon mass. In this work, we present an analysis of the nonzero photon mass dispersion with the second-order derivative of Taylor series. If the arrival time delay corrected for all known effects (including the first-order delay time due to the plasma and photon mass effects) is assumed to be dominated by the second-order term of the nonzero photon mass dispersion, a conservative upper limit on the photon mass can be estimated. Here we show that the dedispersed pulses with the second-order time delays from the Crab pulsar and the fast radio burst FRB 180916B pose strict limits on the photon mass, i.e., $m_{\gamma,2} \leq5.7\times10^{-46}\;{\rm kg}\simeq3.2\times10^{-10}\; {\rm eV}/c^{2}$ and $m_{\gamma,2} \leq5.1\times10^{-47}\;{\rm kg}\simeq2.9\times10^{-11}\; {\rm eV}/c^{2}$, respectively. This is the first time to study the possible second-order photon mass effect.

We explore the accretion geometry in Arakelian 120 using intensive UV and X-ray monitoring from Swift. The hard X-rays ($1-10$ keV) show large amplitude, fast (few-day) variability, so we expect reverberation from the disc to produce UV variability from the varying hard X-ray illumination. We model the spectral energy distribution including an outer standard disc (optical), an intermediate warm Comptonisation region (UV and soft X-ray) and a hot corona (hard X-rays). Unlike the lower Eddington fraction AGN (NGC 4151 and NGC 5548 at $L/L_{Edd} \approx 0.02$ and $0.03$ respectively), the SED of Akn 120 ($L\approx 0.05 L_{Edd}$) is dominated by the UV, restricting the impact of reverberating hard X-rays just from energetics. Illumination from a hard X-ray corona with height $\sim10$ $R_g$ produces minimal UV variability. Increasing the coronal scale height to $100$ $R_g$ improves the match to the observed amplitude of UV variability as the disc subtends a larger solid angle, but results in too much fast variability to match the UV data. The soft X-rays (connected to the UV in the warm Comptonisation model) are more variable than the hard, but again contain too much fast variability to match the observed smoother variability seen in the UV. Results on lower Eddington fraction AGN have emphasised the contribution from reverberation from larger scales (the broad line region), but reverberation induces lags on similar timescales to the smoothing, producing a larger delay than is compatible with the data. We conclude that the majority of the UV variability is therefore intrinsic, connected to mass accretion rate fluctuations in the warm Comptonisation region.

Modeling strong gravitational lenses in order to quantify the distortions in the images of background sources and to reconstruct the mass density in the foreground lenses has traditionally been a difficult computational challenge. As the quality of gravitational lens images increases, the task of fully exploiting the information they contain becomes computationally and algorithmically more difficult. In this work, we use a neural network based on the Recurrent Inference Machine (RIM) to simultaneously reconstruct an undistorted image of the background source and the lens mass density distribution as pixelated maps. The method we present iteratively reconstructs the model parameters (the source and density map pixels) by learning the process of optimization of their likelihood given the data using the physical model (a ray-tracing simulation), regularized by a prior implicitly learned by the neural network through its training data. When compared to more traditional parametric models, the proposed method is significantly more expressive and can reconstruct complex mass distributions, which we demonstrate by using realistic lensing galaxies taken from the cosmological hydrodynamic simulation IllustrisTNG.

In this research, we investigate Explosive Events (EEs) in the off-limb solar atmosphere, with simultaneous observations from the Si IV, Mg II k, and slit-jaw images (SJI) based on the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS), in 2014 August 17, and February 19. IRIS data can be investigated to observe the motion of matter, fluctuations, energy absorption, and heat transition of the solar atmosphere. Mechanisms responsible for solar large-scale structures, such as flares and coronal mass ejections might be originated from these small-scale energetic events. Therefore, the study of these events can be helpful for understanding mechanisms in mass and energy transporting from the chromosphere toward the transition region and corona. We obtain intensity profiles from spectra in two altitudes i.e., solar limb and 5 arcsec distance from solar limb, and then analyze the EEs fluctuations at two altitudes along the slit. We observed that some line profiles of spectra show enhancements in blue and red wings indicating outward and downward flows, and some profiles represent opposite EEs on their both wings. The Amplitude of the Doppler velocity in two data for the two altitudes was approximated to be about 50 km/s. We calculated the phase velocity of the oscillations using a technique based on cross-correlation. The phase velocity is obtained as about 220 km/s. According to the periodic red and blue enhancements in EEs, we suggested that the fluctuations in the EEs with one side enhancement indicate the swaying motions of spicules over their axes, and those EEs observed on both wings indicate the rotational motions of spicules. The swaying and rotating motions are responsible for the kink and twisted waves respectively.

Stellar-mass binary black holes (BBHs) embedded in active galactic nucleus (AGN) discs offer a promising dynamical channel to produce black-hole mergers that are detectable by LIGO/Virgo. Modeling the interactions between the disc gas and the embedded BBHs is crucial to understand their orbital evolution. Using a suite of 2D high-resolution simulations of prograde equal-mass circular binaries in local disc models, we systematically study how their hydrodynamical evolution depends on the equation of state (EOS; including the $\gamma$-law and isothermal EOS) and on the binary mass and separation scales (relative to the supermassive BH mass and the Hill radius, respectively). We find that binaries accrete slower and contract in orbit if the EOS is far from isothermal such that the surrounding gas is diffuse, hot, and turbulent. The typical orbital decay rate is of the order of a few times the mass doubling rate. For a fixed EOS, the accretion flows are denser, hotter, and more turbulent around more massive or tighter binaries. The torque associated with accretion is often comparable to the gravitational torque, so both torques are essential in determining the long-term binary orbital evolution. We carry out additional simulations with non-accreting binaries and find that their orbital evolution can be stochastic and is sensitive to the gravitational softening length, and the secular orbital evolution can be very different from those of accreting binaries. Our results indicate that stellar-mass BBHs may be hardened efficiently under ideal conditions, namely less massive and wider binaries embedded in discs with a non-isothermal EOS.

The cosmological background of higher order vector modes can be generated by the first order scalar perturbations. We investigate the second order and the third order vector modes systematically. The explicit expressions of two point functions $\langle V^{(n),\lambda}V^{(n),\lambda'} \rangle$$\left(n=2,3\right)$ and power spectra corresponded are presented. In the case of a monochromatic primordial power spectrum, the second order vector modes do not exist. However, the third order vector modes can be generated by a monochromatic primordial power spectrum. And it is found that the third order vector modes sourced by the second order scalar perturbations dominate the two point function $\langle V^{(3),\lambda}V^{(3),\lambda'} \rangle$ and power spectrum corresponded.

We summarise observations and our current understanding of the interstellar medium (ISM) in galaxies, which mainly consists of three phases: cold atomic or molecular gas and clouds, warm neutral or ionised gas, and hot ionised gas. These three gas phases form thermally stable states, while disturbances are caused by gravitation and stellar feedback in form of photons and shocks in stellar winds and supernovae. Hot plasma is mainly found in stellar bubbles, superbubbles, and Galactic outflows/fountains and is often dynamically unstable and is over-pressurised. In addition, in galactic nuclear regions, accretion onto the supermassive black hole causes enhanced star formation, outflows, additional heating, and acceleration of cosmic rays.

We present the results of a cluster search in the gamma-ray sky images of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) region by means of the Minimum Spanning Tree (MST) and DBSCAN algorithms, at energies higher than 6 and 10 GeV, using 12 years of Fermi-LAT data. Several significant clusters were found, the majority of which associated with previously known gamma-ray sources. We confirm our previous detection of the Supernova Remnants N 49B and N 63A and found new significant clusters associated with the SNRs N 49, N 186D and N 44. These sources are among the brightest X-ray remnants in the LMC and corresponds to core-collapse supernovae interacting with dense HII regions, indicating that an hadronic origin of high energy photons is the most likely process.

Galactic Novae is at present well established class of gamma-ray sources. We wonder for how long the mechanism of acceleration of electrons operates in shells of Novae. In order to put constraints on the time scale of the electron acceleration, we consider a specific model for the injection and propagation of electrons within the shell of the recurrent Nova RS Ophiuchi. We calculate the equilibrium spectra of electrons within the Nova shell and the gamma-ray fluxes produced by these electrons in the comptonization of the soft radiation from the Red Giant within the Nova binary system and also radiation from the Nova photosphere. We investigate two component, time dependent model in which a spherically ejected Nova shell propagates freely in the polar region of the Nova binary system. But, the shell is significantly decelerated in the dense equatorial region of the binary system. We discuss the conditions for which electrons can produce gamma-rays which might be detectable by the present and/or future gamma-ray observatories. It is concluded that freely expending shells of Novae in the optimal case (strongly magnetised shell and efficiency of acceleration of electrons of the order of 10%) can produce TeV gamma-rays within the sensitivity of the Cherenkov Telescpe Array only within 1-2 years after explosion. On the other hand, decelerated shells of Novae have a chance to be detected during the whole recurrence period of RS Ophiuchi, i.e. ~15 years.

With the release of the third Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalogue (GWTC-3), 90 observations of compact-binary mergers by Virgo and LIGO detectors are confirmed. Some of these mergers are suspected to have occurred in star clusters. The density of black holes at the cores of these clusters is so high that mergers can occur through a few generations forming increasingly massive black holes. These conditions also make it possible for three black holes to interact, most likely via single-binary encounters. In this paper, we present a first study of how often such encounters can happen in nuclear star clusters (NSCs) as a function of redshift, and whether these encounters are observable by gravitational-wave (GW) detectors. This study focuses on effectively hyperbolic encounters leaving out the resonant encounters. We find that in NSCs single-binary encounters occur rarely compared to binary mergers, and that hyperbolic encounters most likely produce the strongest GW emission below the observation band of terrestrial GW detectors. While several of them can be expected to occur per year with peak energy in the LISA band, their amplitude is low, and detection by LISA seems improbable.

We show signatures of spicules termed Rapid Blue-shifted Excursions (RBEs) in the Si iv 1394 {\AA} emission line using a semi-automated detection approach. We use the H{\alpha} filtergrams obtained by the CRISP imaging spectropolarimeter on the Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope and co-aligned Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph data using the SJI 1400 {\AA} channel to study the Spatio-temporal signature of the RBEs in the transition region. The detection of RBEs is carried out using an oriented coronal loop tracing algorithm on H{\alpha} Dopplergrams at 35 km s^-1. We find that the number of detected features is significantly impacted by the time-varying contrast values of the detection images, which are caused by the changes in the atmospheric seeing conditions. We detect 407 events with lifetime greater than 32 sec. This number is further reduced to 168 RBEs based on the H{\alpha} profile and the proximity of RBEs to the large scale flow. Of these 168 RBEs, 89 of them display a clear Spatio-temporal signature in the SJI 1400 {\AA} channel, indicating that a total of ~53% are observed to have co-spatial signatures between the chromosphere and the transition region.

We critically assess limits on the maximum energy of protons accelerated within superbubbles around massive stellar clusters, considering a number of different scenarios. In particular, we derive under which circumstances acceleration of protons above peta-electronvolt (PeV) energies can be expected. While the external forward shock of the superbubble may account for acceleration of particles up to 100 TeV, internal primary shocks such as supernova remnants expanding in the low density medium or the collective wind termination shock which forms around a young compact cluster provide more favourable channels to accelerate protons up to 1 PeV, and possibly beyond. Under reasonable conditions, clustered supernovae launching powerful shocks into the magnetised wind of a young and compact massive star cluster are found to be the most promising systems to accelerate protons above 10 PeV. On the other hand, stochastic re-acceleration in the strongly turbulent plasma is found to be much less effective than claimed in previous works, with a maximum proton energy of at most a few hundred TeV.

In this paper, we expand upon previous work that argued for the possibility of a sub-equipartition magnetic field in the accretion flow of a black hole binary system. Using X-ray observations of the three well-known sources A0620-00, XTE J1118+480 and V404 Cyg during the quiescent state, we compare the theoretically expected spectral shape with the observed data in order to verify that the parameters of the sub-equipartition model are plausible. In all three cases, we find that it is possible to reproduce the spectral shape of the X-ray observations with a sub-equipartition flow. These findings support the idea that the quiescent state spectrum of X-ray binary systems is produced by a weakly-magnetized accretion flow. A sub-equipartition flow would pose a significant challenge to our current understanding of jet-launching, which relies on the presence of a strong magnetic field to power the jet.

In this paper we analyze new observations from ALMA and VLA, at a high angular resolution corresponding to 5 - 8 au, of the protoplanetary disk around HD 163296 to determine the dust spatial distribution and grain properties. We fit the spectral energy distribution as a function of the radius at five wavelengths from 0.9 to 9\,mm, using a simple power law and a physical model based on an analytic description of radiative transfer that includes isothermal scattering. We considered eight dust populations and compared the models' performance using Bayesian evidence. Our analysis shows that the moderately high optical depth ($\tau$>1) at $\lambda \leq$ 1.3 mm in the dust rings artificially lower the millimeter spectral index, which should therefore not be considered as a reliable direct proxy of the dust properties and especially the grain size. We find that the outer disk is composed of small grains on the order of 200 $\mu$m with no significant difference between rings at 66 and 100 au and the adjacent gaps, while in the innermost 30 au, larger grains ($\geq$mm) could be present. We show that the assumptions on the dust composition have a strong impact on the derived surface densities and grain size. In particular, increasing the porosity of the grains to 80\% results in a total dust mass about five times higher with respect to grains with 25\% porosity. Finally, we find that the derived opacities as a function of frequency deviate from a simple power law and that grains with a lower porosity seem to better reproduce the observations of HD163296. While we do not find evidence of differential trapping in the rings of HD163296, our overall results are consistent with the postulated presence of giant planets affecting the dust temperature structure and surface density, and possibly originating a second-generation dust population of small grains.

The early dark energy (EDE) solution to the Hubble tension comes at the cost of an increased clustering amplitude that has been argued to worsen the fit to galaxy clustering data. We explore whether freeing the total neutrino mass $M_{\nu}$, which can suppress small-scale power, improves EDE's fit to galaxy clustering. Using Planck Cosmic Microwave Background and BOSS galaxy clustering data, a Bayesian analysis shows that freeing $M_{\nu}$ does not appreciably increase the inferred EDE fraction $f_{\rm EDE}$: we find the 95% C.L. upper limits $f_{\rm EDE}<0.092$ and $M_{\nu}<0.15\,{\rm eV}$. Similarly, in a frequentist profile likelihood setting (where our results support previous findings that prior volume effects are important), we find that the baseline EDE model (with $M_{\nu}=0.06\,{\rm eV}$) provides the overall best fit. For instance, compared to baseline EDE, a model with $M_\nu=0.24\,{\rm eV}$ maintains the same $H_0$(km/s/Mpc)=(70.08, 70.11, respectively) whilst decreasing $S_8$=(0.837, 0.826) to the $\Lambda$CDM level, but worsening the fit significantly by $\Delta\chi^2=7.5$. These results are driven not by the clustering amplitude, but by background modifications to the late-time expansion rate due to massive neutrinos, which worsen the fit to measurements of the BAO scale.

Based on the light an exoplanet blocks from its host star as it passes in front of it during a transit, the mid-transit time can be determined. Periodic variations in mid-transit times can indicate another planet's gravitational influence. We investigate 83 transits of TrES-1 b as observed from 6-inch telescopes in the MicroObservatory robotic telescope network. The EXOTIC data reduction pipeline is used to process these transits, fit transit models to light curves, and calculate transit midpoints. This paper details the methodology for analyzing transit timing variations (TTVs) and using transit measurements to maintain ephemerides. The application of Lomb-Scargle period analysis for studying the plausibility of TTVs is explained. The analysis of the resultant TTVs from 46 transits from MicroObservatory and 47 transits from archival data in the Exoplanet Transit Database indicated the possible existence of other planets affecting the orbit of TrES-1 and improved the precision of the ephemeris by one order of magnitude. We now estimate the ephemeris to be $(2455489.66026 \text{ BJD}_\text{TDB} \pm 0.00044 \text{ d}) + (3.0300689 \pm 0.0000007)\text{ d} \times \text{epoch}$. This analysis also demonstrates the role of small telescopes in making precise mid-transit time measurements, which can be used to help maintain ephemerides and perform TTV analysis. The maintenance of ephemerides allows for an increased ability to optimize telescope time on large ground-based telescopes and space telescope missions.

Neutron star-black hole (NSBH) mergers detected in gravitational-waves have the potential to shed light on supernova physics, the dense matter equation of state, and the astrophysical processes that power their potential electromagnetic counterparts. We use the population of four candidate NSBH events detected in gravitational waves so far with a false alarm rate $\leq 1~\mathrm{yr}^{-1}$ to constrain the mass and spin distributions and multimessenger prospects of these systems. We find that the black holes in NSBHs are both less massive and more slowly spinning that those in black hole binaries. We also find evidence for a mass gap between the most massive neutron stars and least massive black holes in NSBHs at 98.6% credibility. We consider both a Gaussian and a power-law pairing function for the distribution of the mass ratio between the neutron star and black hole masses but find no statistical preference between the two. Using an approach driven by gravitational-wave data rather than binary simulations, we find that fewer than 15% of NSBH mergers detectable in gravitational waves will have an electromagnetic counterpart. Finally, we propose a method for the multimessenger analysis of NSBH mergers based on the nondetection of an electromagnetic counterpart and conclude that, even in the most optimistic case, the constraints on the neutron star equation of state that can be obtained with multimessenger NSBH detections are not competitive with those from gravitational-wave measurements of tides in binary neutron star mergers and radio and X-ray pulsar observations.

In view of the growing tension between the dipole anisotropy of number counts of cosmologically distant sources and of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), we investigate the number count dipole induced by primordial perturbations with wavelength comparable to or exceeding the Hubble radius today. First, we find that neither adiabatic nor isocurvature superhorizon modes can generate an intrinsic number count dipole. However a superhorizon isocurvature mode does induce a relative velocity between the CMB and the (dark) matter rest frames and thereby affects the CMB dipole. We revisit the possibility that it has an intrinsic component due to such a mode, thus enabling consistency with the galaxy number count dipole if the latter is actually kinematic in origin. Although this scenario is not particularly natural, there are possible links with other anomalies and it predicts a concommitant galaxy number count quadrupole which may be measurable in future surveys. We also investigate the number count dipole induced by modes smaller than the Hubble radius, finding that subject to CMB constraints this is too small to reconcile the dipole tension.

Radio variability in some radio-quiet (RQ) active galactic nuclei suggests emission from regions close to the central engine, possibly the outer accretion disc corona. If the origins of the radio and the X-ray emission are physically related, their emission may be temporarily correlated, possibly with some time delays. We present the results of quasi-simultaneous radio and X-ray monitoring of three RQ Seyfert galaxies, Mrk 110, Mrk 766, and NGC 4593, carried out with the Very Large Array at 8.5 GHz over a period of about 300 days, and with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer at 2-10 keV over a period of about 2000 days. The radio core variability is likely detected in the highest resolution (A configuration) observations of Mrk 110 and NGC 4593, with a fractional variability amplitude of 6.3% and 9.5%, respectively. A cross-correlation analysis suggests an apparently strong (Pearson r = -0.89) and highly significant correlation (p = 1 x 10^(-6)) in Mrk 110, with the radio lagging the X-ray by 56 days. However, a further analysis of the r values distribution for physically unrelated long time delays, reveals that this correlation is not significant. This occurs since the Pearson correlation assumes white noise, while both the X-ray and the radio light curves follow red noise, which dramatically increases the chance, by a factor of ~ 10^3, to get extremely high r values in uncorrelated data sets. A significantly longer radio monitoring with a higher sampling rate, preferably with a high-resolution fixed radio array, is required in order to reliably detect a delay.

Transmission spectra of exoplanets orbiting active stars suffer from wavelength-dependent effects due to stellar photospheric heterogeneity. WASP-19b, an ultra-hot Jupiter (T$_{eq}$ $\sim$ 2100 K), is one such strongly irradiated gas-giant orbiting an active solar-type star. We present optical (520-900 nm) transmission spectra of WASP-19b obtained across eight epochs using the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) on the Gemini-South telescope. We apply our recently developed Gaussian Processes regression based method to model the transit light curve systematics and extract the transmission spectrum at each epoch. We find that WASP-19b's transmission spectrum is affected by stellar variability at individual epochs. We report an observed anticorrelation between the relative slopes and offsets of the spectra across all epochs. This anticorrelation is consistent with the predictions from the forward transmission models, which account for the effect of unocculted stellar spots and faculae measured previously for WASP-19. We introduce a new method to correct for this stellar variability effect at each epoch by using the observed correlation between the transmission spectral slopes and offsets. We compare our stellar variability corrected GMOS transmission spectrum with previous contradicting MOS measurements for WASP-19b and attempt to reconcile them. We also measure the amplitude and timescale of broadband stellar variability of WASP-19 from TESS photometry, which we find to be consistent with the effect observed in GMOS spectroscopy and ground-based broadband photometric long-term monitoring. Our results ultimately caution against combining multi-epoch optical transmission spectra of exoplanets orbiting active stars before correcting each epoch for stellar variability.

Hundreds of millions of supermassive black hole binaries are expected to contribute to the gravitational-wave signal in the nanohertz frequency band. Their signal is often approximated either as an isotropic Gaussian stochastic background with a power-law spectrum, or as an individual source corresponding to the brightest binary. In reality, the signal is best described as a combination of a stochastic background and a few of the brightest binaries modeled individually. We present a method that uses this approach to efficiently create realistic pulsar timing array datasets using synthetic catalogs of binaries based on the Illustris cosmological hydrodynamic simulation. We explore three different properties of such realistic backgrounds, which could help distinguish them from those formed in the early universe: i) their characteristic strain spectrum; ii) their statistical isotropy; and iii) the variance of their spatial correlations. We also investigate how the presence of confusion noise from a stochastic background affects detection prospects of individual binaries. We calculate signal-to-noise ratios of the brightest binaries in different realizations for a simulated pulsar timing array based on the NANOGrav 12.5-year dataset extended to a time span of 15 years. We find that $\sim$8% of the realizations produce systems with signal-to-noise ratios larger than 5, suggesting that individual systems might soon be detected (the fraction increases to $\sim$32% at 20 years). These can be taken as a pessimistic prediction for the upcoming NANOGrav 15-year dataset, since it does not include the effect of potentially improved timing solutions and newly added pulsars.

We baseline with current cosmological observations to forecast the power of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) in two ways: 1. the gain in constraining power of parameter combinations in the standard $\Lambda$CDM model, and 2. the reconstruction of quintessence models of dark energy. For the former task we use a recently developed formalism to extract the leading parameter combinations constrained by different combinations of cosmological survey data. For the latter, we perform a non-parametric reconstruction of quintessence using the Effective Field Theory of Dark Energy. Using mock DESI observations of the Hubble parameter, angular diameter distance, and growth rate, we find that DESI will provide significant improvements over current datasets on $\Lambda$CDM and quintessence constraints. Including DESI mocks in our $\Lambda$CDM analysis improves constraints on $\Omega_m$, $H_0$, and $\sigma_8$ by a factor of two, where the improvement results almost entirely from the angular diameter distance and growth of structure measurements. Our quintessence reconstruction suggests that DESI will considerably improve constraints on a range of quintessence properties, such as the reconstructed potential, scalar field excursion, and the dark energy equation of state. The angular diameter distance measurements are particularly constraining in the presence of a non-$\Lambda$CDM signal in which the potential cannot be accounted for by shifts in $H_0$ and $\Omega_m$.

Dark matter particles can be observably produced at intensity-frontier experiments, and opportunities in the next decade will explore important parameter space motivated by thermal DM models, the dark sector paradigm, and anomalies in data. This whitepaper describes the motivations, detection strategies, prospects and challenges for such searches, as well as synergies and complementarity both within RF6 and across HEP.

The consideration of the holographic dark energy approach and matter creation effects in a single cosmological model is carried out in this work accordingly, we discuss some cases of interest. We test this cosmological proposal against recent observations. Considering the best fit values obtained for the free cosmological parameters, the model exhibits a transition from a decelerated cosmic expansion to an accelerated one. The deceleration-acceleration transition can not be determined consistently from the coincidence parameter for this kind of model. At effective level the parameter state associated to the whole energy density contribution describes a quintessence scenario in the fluid analogy at present time.

Most matter in the Universe is invisible and unknown, which is called dark matter. A candidate of dark matter is axion, which is an ultra-light particle motivated as a solution for the CP problem. Axions form clouds in a galactic halo, amplify, and delay a part of gravitational waves propagating in the clouds. The Milky Way is surrounded by the dark matter halo composed of a number of axion patches. Thus, the characteristic secondary gravitational waves are always expected right after the reported gravitational-wave signals from compact binary mergers. In this paper, we derive a realistic amplitude of the secondary gravitational waves. Then we search the gravitational waves having the characteristic time delay and duration with a method optimized for them. We find no significant signal. Assuming the axions are dominant component of dark matter, we obtain the constraints on the axion coupling to the parity violating sector of gravity for the mass range, [$1.7 \times 10^{-13}, 8.5 \times 10^{-12}$]$\mathrm{eV}$, which is at most $\sim 10$ times stronger than that from Gravity Probe B.

I show that pair production on sunlight introduces a sizable anisotropy in the cosmic background of TeV gamma-rays. The anisotropy amplitude in the direction of the Sun exceeds the cosmic dipole anisotropy from the motion of the Sun relative to the cosmic rest-frame.

Experiments aiming to directly detect dark matter through particle recoils can achieve energy thresholds of $\mathcal{O}(1\,\mathrm{eV})$. In this regime, ionization signals from small-angle Compton scatters of environmental $\gamma$-rays constitute a significant background. Monte Carlo simulations used to build background models have not been experimentally validated at these low energies. We report a precision measurement of Compton scattering on silicon atomic shell electrons down to 23$\,$eV. A skipper charge-coupled device (CCD) with single-electron resolution, developed for the DAMIC-M experiment, was exposed to a $^{241}$Am $\gamma$-ray source over several months. Features associated with the silicon K, L$_{1}$, and L$_{2,3}$-shells are clearly identified, and scattering on valence electrons is detected for the first time below 100$\,$eV. We find that the relativistic impulse approximation for Compton scattering, which is implemented in Monte Carlo simulations commonly used by direct detection experiments, does not reproduce the measured spectrum below 0.5$\,$keV. The data are in better agreement with $ab$ $initio$ calculations originally developed for X-ray absorption spectroscopy.

Hawking's black hole area theorem can be tested by monitoring the evolution of a single black hole over time. Using current imaging observations of two supermassive black holes M87* and Sgr A* from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), we find their horizon area variation fractions are consistent with the prediction of the black hole area law at the $1\,\sigma$ confidence level. We point out that whether the black hole area law is valid or not could be determined by future high precision EHT observations of Sgr A*.

Fractional cosmology has emerged recently, based on the formalism of fractional calculus, which modifies the standard derivative to one fractional derivative of order $\alpha$. In this mathematical framework, the Friedmann equations are modified with an additional term, and the standard evolution of the cosmic species densities depends on the fractional parameter $\alpha$ and the age of the Universe $t_U$. The hypothesis is that the Universe does not contain a dark energy component, and the late accelerated expansion can be sourced by the additional term in the new equation governing the cosmic dynamics. To elucidate that, we estimate stringent constraints on the fractional parameter using cosmic chronometers, Type Ia supernovae and joint analysis. We obtain $\alpha=2.839^{+0.117}_{-0.193}$ within $1\sigma$ confidence level that can provide a non-standard cosmic acceleration at late times; consequently, the Universe would be older than the standard estimations. Additionally, we present a dynamical system and stability analysis to explore the phase-space under the assumption of different $\alpha$ parameters. One late-time attractor, which is physical for $1\leq\alpha<5/2$, corresponds to a power-law (decelerated) late-time attractor for $\alpha < 2$. Moreover, an additional point not present in General Relativity exists, which is physical for $\alpha>1$ and a sink for $\alpha>2$. This solution is a decelerated power-law if $1<\alpha<2$ and an accelerated power-law solution if $\alpha > 2$. This last result is consistent with the mean values obtained from the observational analysis. Therefore, under the fractional calculus, it is possible to obtain modified Friedmann equations at the background level, which provide a late cosmic acceleration without introducing a dark energy component. This radical approach could be a new path to tackle problems not resolved until now in cosmology.

The $\mu$Hz gravitational waves (GWs) from coalescing supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs) carry extensive information which is valuable for the research of cosmology, astronomy, and fundamental physics. Before the operations of space-borne antennas like LISA and Taiji, current detectors are insensitive to GWs in this frequency range, leaving a gap to be filled with other methods. While, such GWs can induce lasting imprints on satellite orbit motions through resonant effect, and observational evidence for this phenomenon may be obtained via the satellite laser ranging (SLR) measurements. Our study is mainly dedicated to exploring the potential of SLR as a probe of GWs from SMBHBs. Based on previous work, we calculated the resonant evolutions of satellite orbits both numerically and analytically, and investigated the dependence on relevant parameters. Results of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) analysis showed that the imprint of an individual signal may not be quite remarkable, whereas before the operation of space-borne antennas, the possibility of discovering the first GW from a coalescing SMBHB with SLR missions is still promising. The thorough re-analysis of the documented data of SLR missions are also suggested.

We obtain the equation of state (EoS) for two-color QCD at low temperature and high density from the lattice Monte Carlo simulation. We find that the velocity of sound exceeds the relativistic limit ($c_s^2/c^2=1/3$) after BEC-BCS crossover in the superfluid phase. Such an excess of the sound velocity is predicted by several effective theories but is previously unknown from any lattice calculations for QCD-like theories. This finding might have a possible relevance to the EoS of neutron star matter revealed by recent measurements of neutron star masses and radii.

We consider non-local Integral Kernel Theories of Gravity in a homogeneous and isotropic universe background as a possible scenario to drive the cosmic history. In particular, we investigate the cosmological properties of a gravitational action containing the inverse d'Alembert operator of the Ricci scalar proposed to improve Einstein's gravity at both high and low-energy regimes. In particular, the dynamics of a physically motivated non-local exponential coupling is analyzed in detail by recasting the cosmological equations as an autonomous system of first-order differential equations with dimensionless variables. Consequently, we study the phase-space domain and its critical points, investigating their stability and main properties. In particular, saddle points and late-time cosmological attractors are discussed in terms of the free parameters of the model. Finally, we discuss the main physical consequences of our approach in view of dark energy behavior and the $\Lambda$CDM model.

The current great precision on cosmic-ray (CR) spectral data allows us to precisely test our simple models on propagation of charged particles in the Galaxy. However, our studies are severely limited by the uncertainties related to cross sections for CR interactions. Therefore we have developed a new set of cross sections derived from the FLUKA Monte Carlo code, which is optimized for the treatment of CR interactions. We show these cross sections and the main results on their application for CR propagation studies. Finally, we discuss the prediction of a low-energy break in the electrons spectra inferred from gamma-ray data.