Papers for Thursday, Jul 14 2022

We investigate the primordial curvature perturbation by the observation of dark matter substructure. Assuming a bump in the spectrum of the curvature perturbation in the wavenumber of k>1 Mpc^{-1}, we track the evolution of the host halo and subhalos in a semi-analytic way. Taking into account possible uncertainties in the evaluation of the tidal stripping effect on the subhalo growth, we find a new robust bound on the curvature perturbation with a bump from the number of observed dwarf spheroidal galaxies in our Galaxy and the observations of the stellar stream. The upper limit on the amplitude of the bump is O(10^{-7}) for k~10^3 Mpc^{-1}. Furthermore we find the boost factor, which is crucial for the indirect detection of dark matter signals, is up to O(10^4) due to the bump that is allowed in the current observational bounds.

Recent evidence suggests that high-redshift Ly-alpha emitting galaxies (LAEs) with logL(Ly-alpha) > 43.5 erg/s, referred to as ultraluminous LAEs (ULLAEs), may show less evolution than lower-luminosity LAEs in the redshift range z=5.7-6.6. Here we explore the redshift evolution of the velocity widths of the Ly-alpha emission lines in LAEs over this redshift interval. We use new wide-field, narrowband observations from Subaru/Hyper Suprime-Cam to provide a sample of 24 z=6.6 and 12 z=5.7 LAEs with log L(Ly-alpha) > 43 erg/s, all of which have follow-up spectroscopy from Keck/DEIMOS. Combining with archival lower-luminosity data, we find a significant narrowing of the Ly-alpha lines in LAEs at logL(Ly-alpha) < 43.25 erg/s -- somewhat lower than the usual ULLAE definition -- at z = 6.6 relative to those at z = 5.7, but we do not see this in higher-luminosity LAEs. As we move to higher redshifts, the increasing neutrality of the intergalactic medium should increase the scattering of the Ly-alpha lines, making them narrower. The absence of this effect in the higher-luminosity LAEs suggests they may lie in more highly ionized regions, self-shielding from the scattering effects of the intergalactic medium.

The majority of binary star systems that host exoplanets will spend the first portion of their lives within a star-forming cluster that may drive dynamical evolution of the binary-planet system. We perform numerical simulations of S-type planets, with masses and orbital architecture analogous to the solar system's 4 gas giants, orbiting within the influence of a 0.5 solar-mass binary companion. The binary-planet system is integrated simultaneously with an embedded stellar cluster environment. ~10% of our planetary systems are destabilized when perturbations from our cluster environment drive the binary periastron toward the planets. This destabilization occurs despite all of our systems being initialized with binary orbits that would allow stable planets in the absence of the cluster. The planet-planet scattering triggered in our systems typically results in the loss of lower mass planets and the excitement of the eccentricities of surviving higher mass planets. Many of our planetary systems that go unstable also lose their binary companions prior to cluster dispersal and can therefore masquerade as hosts of eccentric exoplanets that have spent their entire histories as isolated stars. The cluster-driven binary orbital evolution in our simulations can also generate planetary systems with misaligned spin-orbit angles. This is typically done as the planetary system precesses as a rigid disk under the influence of an inclined binary, and those systems with the highest spin-orbit angles should often retain their binary companion and possess multiple surviving planets.

Distorted protoplanetary disks constitute a fertile ground for the formation of pressure traps. One of the major challenges in the early stages of planet formation is the meter-size barrier, which sets severe constraints on the growth timescale of planets. Many solutions were suggested to the meter-size barrier, among them is pressure traps, i.e. regions in the disk in which the pressure differs from the general gradient in the disk, such that the drifting of planetesimals is halted. However, the origin of pressure traps is not clear yet and hence so does their profile. Distorted disks are ubiquitous among accretion disks in general and protoplanetary disks in particular, and we claim that they give rise to the formation of pressure traps, which assist in overcoming on the meter-size barrier . We derive the profile of the formed pressure trap induced by a general external torque and discuss the implications on the initial stages of planet formation in several environments including circumbinary disks and gap edges.

Modeling the mass distribution of galaxy-scale strong gravitational lenses is a task of increasing difficulty. The high-resolution and depth of imaging data now available render simple analytical forms ineffective at capturing lens structures spanning a large range in spatial scale, mass scale, and morphology. In this work, we address the problem with a novel multi-scale method based on wavelets. We test our method on simulated Hubble Space Telescope imaging data of strong lenses containing different types of mass substructures making them deviate from smooth models: (1) a localized small dark matter subhalo, (2) a Gaussian random field that mimics a non-localized population of subhalos along the line of sight, (3) galaxy-scale multipoles that break elliptical symmetry. We show that wavelets are able to recover all of these structures accurately. This is made technically possible by using gradient-informed optimization based on automatic differentiation over thousands of parameters, also allowing us to sample the posterior distributions of all model parameters simultaneously. By construction, our method merges all current modeling paradigms - analytical, pixelated, and deep learning - into a single modular framework. It is also well-suited for the fast modeling of large samples of lenses. All methods presented here are publicly available in our new Herculens package.

The Cosmological Principle (CP) -- the notion that the Universe is spatially isotropic and homogeneous on large scales -- underlies a century of progress in cosmology. It is formulated through the Friedmann-Lema\^itre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) cosmologies as the spacetime metric, and culminates in the successful and highly predictive $\Lambda$-Cold-Dark-Matter ($\Lambda$CDM) model. Yet, tensions have emerged within the $\Lambda$CDM model, most notably a statistically significant discrepancy in the value of the Hubble constant, $H_0$. Since the notion of cosmic expansion determined by a single parameter is intimately tied to the CP, implications of the $H_0$ tension may extend beyond $\Lambda$CDM to the CP itself. This review surveys current observational hints for deviations from the expectations of the CP, highlighting synergies and disagreements that warrant further study. Setting aside the debate about individual large structures, potential deviations from the CP include variations of cosmological parameters on the sky, discrepancies in the cosmic dipoles, and mysterious alignments in quasar polarizations and galaxy spins. While it is possible that a host of observational systematics are impacting results, it is equally plausible that precision cosmology may have outgrown the FLRW paradigm, an extremely pragmatic but non-fundamental symmetry assumption.

Most of the hydrogen in the intergalactic medium (IGM) was rapidly ionized at high-redshifts. While observations have established that reionization occurred, observational constraints on the emissivity of ionizing photons at high-redshift remains elusive. Here, we present a new analysis of the Low-redshift Lyman Continuum Survey (LzLCS) and archival observations, a combined sample of 89 star-forming galaxies at z~0.3 with Hubble Space Telescope observations of their ionizing continua (or Lyman Continuum, LyC). We find a strong (6$\sigma$ significant) inverse correlation between the continuum slope at 1550\r{A} (defined as F$_\lambda\propto\lambda^{\beta}$) and both the LyC escape fraction (f$_{esc}$) and f$_{esc}$ times the ionizing photon production efficiency ($\xi_{ ion}$). On average, galaxies with redder continuum slopes have smaller f$_{esc}$ than galaxies with bluer slopes. More than 5% (20%) of the LyC emission escapes galaxies with $\beta$<-2.1 (-2.6). We find strong correlations between $\beta$ and the gas-phase ionization ([OIII]/[OII] flux ratio; at 7.5$\sigma$ significance), galaxy stellar mass (at 5.9$\sigma$), the gas-phase metallicity (at 4.6$\sigma$), and the observed FUV absolute magnitude (at 3.4$\sigma$). Using previous observations of $\beta$ at high-redshift, we estimate the evolution of f$_{esc}$ with both redshift and galaxy magnitude. The LzLCS observations suggest that fainter and lower mass galaxies dominate the ionizing photon budget at higher redshift, possibly due to their rapidly evolving metal and dust content. Finally, we use our correlation between $\beta$ and f$_{ esc}\times\xi_{ion}$ to predict the ionizing emissivity of galaxies during the epoch of reionization. Our estimated emissivities match IGM observations, and suggest that star-forming galaxies emit sufficient LyC photons into the IGM to exceed recombinations near redshifts of 7-8.

We constrain the distribution of merging compact binaries across the celestial sphere using the GWTC-3 catalog from the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaborations' (LVK) third observing run. With 63 confident detections from O3, we constrain the relative variability (standard deviation) of the rate density across the sky to be $\lesssim 16\%$ at 90\% confidence assuming the logarithm of the rate density is described by a Gaussian random field with correlation length $\geq 10^\circ$. This tightens to $\lesssim 3.5\%$ when the correlation length is $\geq 20^\circ$. While the new O3 data provides the tightest constraints on anisotropies available to-date, we do not find overwhelming evidence in favor of isotropy, either. A simple counting experiment favors an isotropic distribution by a factor of $\mathcal{B}^\mathrm{iso}_\mathrm{ani} = 3.7$, which is nonetheless an improvement of more than a factor of two compared to analogous analyses based on only the first and second observing runs of the LVK.

The fate of a massive star during the latest stages of its evolution is highly dependent on its mass-loss history and geometry, with the yellow hypergiants being key objects to study those phases of evolution. We present near-IR interferometric observations of the famous yellow hypergiant IRC +10420 and blue spectra taken between 1994-2019. Our 2.2 $\mu$m GRAVITY/VLTI observations attain a spatial resolution of $\sim$5 stellar radii and probe the hot emission in the K-band tracing the gas via Na i double emission and the Br$\gamma$ emission. The observed configurations spatially resolve the 2.2 $\mu$m continuum as well as the Br$\gamma$ and the Na i emission lines. Our geometric modelling demonstrates the presence of a compact neutral zone (Na i) which is slightly larger than the continuum but within an extended Br$\gamma$ emitting region. Our geometric models of the Br$\gamma$ emission confirm an hour-glass geometry of the wind. To explain this peculiar geometry we investigate the presence of a companion at 7-800 au separations and find no signature at the contrast limit of our observations (3.7 mag at 3$\sigma$). We report an evolution of the ejecta over a time span of 7 years, which allows us to constrain the opening angle of the hour-glass geometry at $<$10$^\circ$. Lastly, we present the first blue optical spectra of IRC +10420 since 1994. The multi-epoch data indicate that the spectral type, and thus temperature, of the object has essentially remained constant during the intervening years. This confirms earlier conclusions that following an increase in temperature of 2000 K in less than two decades prior to 1994, the temperature increase has halted. This suggests that this yellow hypergiant has "hit" the White Wall in the HR-diagram preventing it from evolving blue-wards, and will likely undergo a major mass-loss event in the near future.

Saturn's largest moon, Titan, has an Earth-like volatile cycle, but with methane playing the role of water and surface liquid reservoirs geographically isolated at high latitudes. We recreate Titan's characteristic dry hydroclimate at the equator of an Earth-like climate model without seasons and with water as the condensable by varying a small set of planetary parameters. We use three observationally motivated criteria for Titan-like conditions at the equator: 1) the peak in surface specific humidity is not at the equator, despite it having the warmest annual-mean temperatures; 2) the vertical profile of specific humidity in the equatorial column is nearly constant through the lower troposphere; and 3) the relative humidity near the surface at the equator is significantly lower than saturation (lower than 60%). We find that simply reducing the available water at the equator does not fully reproduce Titan-like conditions. We additionally vary the rotation period and volatility of water to mimic Titan's slower rotation and more abundant methane vapor. Longer rotation periods coupled with a dry equatorial surface meet fewer of the Titan-like criteria than equivalent experiments with shorter rotation periods. Experiments with higher volatility of water meet more criteria than those with lower volatility, with some of those with the highest volatility meeting all three, demonstrating that an Earth-like planet can display Titan-like climatology by changing only a few physical parameters.

We explore the possibility that primordial black holes (PBHs), formed early in the history of the Universe, contain electric charge down to the present day. We find that PBHs should hold a non-zero charge at their formation, calculating initial charges sourced by (i) Poisson fluctuations in the number of charged particles within the volume that enters the horizon to form PBHs, and (ii) the formation of maximally charged Reissner-Nordstr\"om (RN) PBHs of Planck mass via collisions in the early universe. Although initial charges are thought to be subject to fast discharge processes, we show that the dipolar magnetic fields sourced by spinning black holes can deviate incoming or outgoing charges and avoid their accretion or emission, regardless of the PBH mass. In particular, we estimate the interaction strength due to Hawking particle emission and the Schwinger process, finding that charged, maximally spinning PBHs produce magnetic fields that are able to cancel the Schwinger effect for all masses, and the Hawking emission for $M>1$kg PBHs. These considerations allow PBHs to maintain their charge for extended periods. At late times, the plasma within virialised dark matter haloes can charge a fraction of PBHs with one electron (i.e., $Q=e$) within a Hubble time up to $M\sim10^{13}$ kg. Higher mass PBHs in haloes can acquire larger charges, reaching a scaling of $Q/M\simeq1.15 \times 10^{-52}M\,C/\mbox{kg}$ for $M>10^{22}$ kg PBHs. Altogether these calculations show that PBHs of all mass scales could hold charges from 2 to 10 orders of magnitude lower than the maximal RN value, and even the extremal charge for Planck mass PBHs. The latter are of particular interest, as they could constitute charged, stable relics that could compose the entirety of dark matter.

The Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) effect is a powerful tool in modern cosmology. With future observations promising ever improving SZ measurements, the relativistic corrections to the SZ signals from galaxy groups and clusters are increasingly relevant. As such, it is important to understand the differences between three temperature measures: (a) the average relativistic SZ (rSZ) temperature, (b) the mass-weighted temperature relevant for the thermal SZ (tSZ) effect, and (c) the X-ray spectroscopic temperature. In this work, we compare these cluster temperatures, as predicted by the {\sc Bahamas} \& {\sc Macsis}, {\sc Illustris-TNG}, {\sc Magneticum}, and {\sc The Three Hundred Project} simulations. Despite the wide range of simulation parameters, we find the SZ temperatures are consistent across the simulations. We estimate a $\simeq 10\%$ level correction from rSZ to clusters with $Y\simeq10^{-4}$~Mpc$^{-2}$. Our analysis confirms a systematic offset between the three temperature measures; with the rSZ temperature $\simeq 20\%$ larger than the other measures, and diverging further at higher redshifts. We demonstrate that these measures depart from simple self-similar evolution and explore how they vary with the defined radius of haloes. We investigate how different feedback prescriptions and resolution affect the observed temperatures, and discover the SZ temperatures are rather insensitive to these details. The agreement between simulations indicates an exciting avenue for observational and theoretical exploration, determining the extent of relativistic SZ corrections. We provide multiple simulation-based fits to the scaling relations for use in future SZ modelling.

A brief summary is given of an alternative interpretation of the Event Horizon Telescope observations of the massive black hole in the nucleus of the nearby galaxy M87. It is proposed that the flow is primarily powered by the black hole rotation, not the release of gravitational energy by the infalling gas. Consequently, the observed millimetre emission is produced by an "ergomagnetosphere" that connects the black hole horizon to an "ejection disk" from which most of the gas supplied at a remote "magnetopause" is lost through a magnetocentrifugal wind. It is argued that the boundary conditions at high latitude on the magnetopause play a crucial role in the collimation of the relativistic jets. The application of these ideas to other types of source is briefly discussed.

HATS-18b is a transiting planet with a large mass and a short orbital period, and is one of the best candidates for the detection of orbital decay induced by tidal effects. We present extensive photometry of HATS-18 from which we measure 27 times of mid-transit. Two further transit times were measured from data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and three more taken from the literature. The transit timings were fitted with linear and quadratic ephemerides and an upper limit on orbital decay was determined. This corresponds to a lower limit on the modified stellar tidal quality factor of $Q_\star^{\,\prime} > 10^{5.11 \pm 0.04}$. This is at the cusp of constraining the presence of enhanced tidal dissipation due to internal gravity waves. We also refine the measured physical properties of the HATS-18 system, place upper limits on the masses of third bodies, and compare the relative performance of TESS and the 1.54-m Danish Telescope in measuring transit times for this system.

TRAPPIST-1 is an ultra-cool dwarf that hosts seven known transiting planets. We present photometry of the system obtained using three telescopes at ESO La Silla (the Danish 1.54-m telescope and the 2.2-m MPI telescope) and Paranal (Unit Telescope 1 of the Very Large Telescope). We obtained 18 light curves from the Danish telescope, eight from the 2.2-m and four from the VLT. From these we measure 25 times of mid-transit for four of the planets (b, c, f, g). These light curves and times of mid-transit will be useful in determining the masses and radii of the planets, which show variations in their transit times due to gravitational interactions.

Recent studies have indicated that the ratio between half-mass and half-light radii, $r_{\rm mass} / r_{\rm light}$, varies significantly as a function of stellar mass and redshift, complicating the interpretation of the ubiquitous $r_{\rm light}- M_*$ relation. To investigate, in this study we construct the light and color profiles of $\sim 3000$ galaxies at $1<z<2$ with $\log\, M_*/M_\odot > 10.25$ using $\texttt{imcascade}$, a Bayesian implementation of the Multi-Gaussian expansion (MGE) technique. $\texttt{imcascade}$ flexibly represents galaxy profiles using a series of Gaussians, free of any a-priori parameterization. We find that both star-forming and quiescent galaxies have on average negative color gradients. For star forming galaxies, we find steeper gradients that evolve with redshift and correlate with dust content. Using the color gradients as a proxy for gradients in the $M/L$ ratio we measure half mass radii for our sample of galaxies. There is significant scatter in individual $r_{\rm mass} / r_{\rm light}$ ratios, which is correlated with variation in the color gradients. We find that the median $r_{\rm mass} / r_{\rm light}$ ratio evolves from 0.75 at $z=2$ to 0.5 at $z=1$, consistent with previous results. We characterize the $r_{\rm mass}- M_*$ relation and we find that it has a shallower slope and shows less redshift evolution than the $r_{\rm light} - M_*$ relation. This applies both to star-forming and quiescent galaxies. We discuss some of the implications of using $r_{\rm mass}$ instead of $r_{\rm light}$, including an investigation of the size-inclination bias and a comparison to numerical simulations.

Context. Active regions (ARs) appear in the solar atmosphere as a consequence of the emergence of magnetic flux tubes. The presence of elongated magnetic polarities in line-of-sight (LOS) magnetograms indicates the existence of twist in the flux tubes forming them. These polarity elongations, called magnetic tongues, bias the measurement of AR characteristics obtained during their emergence phase (e.g. their tilt angle and magnetic flux, among others). In particular, obtaining a good estimation of the tilt angle evolution plays a key role in constraining flux-transport dynamo models. Aims. In this work we aim to estimate the intrinsic properties of the twisted flux tubes, or flux ropes, that form ARs by quantitatively comparing observed LOS magnetograms with synthetic ones derived from a toroidal magnetic flux tube model. Methods. For this reason, we develop a Bayesian inference method to obtain the statistical distributions of the inferred model parameters. As an example, we apply the method to NOAA AR 10268. Next, we test the results using a synthetic-AR generator to quantify the effect of small scale perturbations over the inferred parameter distributions. Results. We conclude that this method can significantly remove the effects of magnetic tongues on the derived AR global characteristics, providing a better knowledge of the intrinsic properties of the emerging flux rope. Conclusions. These results provide a framework for future analysis of the physical properties of emerging ARs using Bayesian statistics.

We report high resolution 2" ~ 200 pc mappings of the central region of the nearby barred spiral galaxy NGC 1365 in the CO(1--0) and CO(2--1) emission lines. The 2--1/1--0 ratio of integrated intensities shows a large scatter (0.15) with a median value of 0.67. We also calculate the ratio of velocity dispersions and peak temperatures and find that in most cases the velocity dispersion ratio is close to unity and thus the peak temperature ratio is comparable to the integrated intensity ratio. This result indicates that both CO(1--0) and CO(2--1) lines trace similar components of molecular gas, with their integrated intensity (or peak temperature) ratios reflecting the gas density and/or temperature. Similar to recent kpc scale studies, these ratios show a positive correlation with a star formation rate indicator (here we use an extinction-corrected H-alpha map), suggesting that molecular gas associated with recent star formation is denser and/or warmer. We also find that some CO spectra show two peaks owing to complicated kinematics, and such two components likely trace molecular gas at different conditions. This result demonstrates the importance of spectral fitting to measure integrated intensities and their ratios more accurately.

A 22 GHz water maser survey was conducted towards 178 O-rich AGB stars with the aim of identifying maser emission associated with the Sagittarius stellar stream. In this survey, maser emissions were detected in 21 targets, of which 20 were new detections. We studied the Galactic distributions of H2O and SiO maser-traced AGBs towards the Sgr orbital plane, and found an elongated structure towards the (l, b)~(340, 40) direction. In order to verify its association with the Sagittarius tidal stream, we further studied the 3D motions of these sources, but found, kinematically, these maser-traced AGBs are still Galactic disc sources rather than Stream debris. In addition, we found a remarkable outward motion, ~50 km/s away from the Galactic center of these maser-traced AGBs, but with no systermatic lag of rotational speed which were reported in 2000 for solar neighborhood Miras.

We report the discovery of a circumplanetary disk (CPD) candidate embedded in the circumstellar disk of the T Tauri star AS 209 at a radial distance of about 200 au (on-sky separation of 1."4 from the star at a position angle of $161^\circ$), isolated via $^{13}$CO $J=2-1$ emission. This is the first instance of CPD detection via gaseous emission capable of tracing the overall CPD mass. The CPD is spatially unresolved with a $117\times82$ mas beam and manifests as a point source in $^{13}$CO, indicating that its diameter is $\lesssim14$ au. The CPD is embedded within an annular gap in the circumstellar disk previously identified using $^{12}$CO and near-infrared scattered light observations, and is associated with localized velocity perturbations in $^{12}$CO. The coincidence of these features suggests that they have a common origin: an embedded giant planet. We use the $^{13}$CO intensity to constrain the CPD gas temperature and mass. We find that the CPD temperature is $\gtrsim35$ K, higher than the circumstellar disk temperature at the radial location of the CPD, 22 K, suggesting that heating sources localized to the CPD must be present. The CPD gas mass is $\gtrsim 0.095 M_{\rm Jup} \simeq 30 M_{\rm Earth}$ adopting a standard $^{13}$CO abundance. From the non-detection of millimeter continuum emission at the location of the CPD ($3\sigma$ flux density $\lesssim26.4~\mu$Jy), we infer that the CPD dust mass is $\lesssim 0.027 M_{\rm Earth} \simeq 2.2$ lunar masses, indicating a low dust-to-gas mass ratio of $\lesssim9\times10^{-4}$. We discuss the formation mechanism of the CPD-hosting giant planet on a wide orbit in the framework of gravitational instability and pebble accretion.

The X-ray binary SS 433, embedded in the W50 nebula (or supernova remnant W50), shows bipolar jets that are ejected with mildly relativistic velocities, and extend toward the east and west out to scales of tens of parsecs. Previous X-ray observations revealed twin lobes along the jet precession axis that contain compact bright knots dominated by synchrotron radiation, which provide evidence of electron acceleration in this system. Particle acceleration in this system is substantiated by the recently detected gamma rays with energies up to at least 25 TeV. To further elucidate the origin of the knots and particle acceleration sites in SS 433/W50, we report here on detailed, spatially resolved X-ray spectroscopy of its western lobe with Chandra. We detect synchrotron emission along the jet precession axis, as well as optically thin thermal emission that is more spatially extended. Between the two previously known knots, w1 and w2, we discover another synchrotron knot, which we call w1.5. We find no significant synchrotron emission between SS 433 and the innermost X-ray knot (w1), suggesting that electrons only begin to be accelerated at w1. The X-ray spectra become gradually steeper from w1 to w2, and then rapidly so immediately outside of w2. Comparing with a model taking into account electron transport and cooling along the jet, this result indicates that the magnetic field in w2 is substantially enhanced, which also explains its brightness. We discuss possible origins of the enhanced magnetic field of w2 as well as scenarios to explain the other two knots.

We investigate various dynamic processes including magnetic reconnection, chromospheric evaporation, and coronal rain draining in two limb solar flares through imaging and spectroscopic observations from the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) and the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory. In the early phase of the flares, a bright and dense loop-top structure with a cusp-like shape can be seen in multi-wavelength images, which is co-spatial with the hard X-ray 25--50 keV emission. In particular, intermittent magnetic reconnection downflows are detected in the time-space maps of AIA 304 {\AA}. The reconnection downflows are manifested as redshifts on one half of the loops and blueshifts on the other half in the IRIS Si {\sc iv} 1393.76 {\AA} line due to a projection effect. The Si {\sc iv} profiles exhibit complex features (say, multi-peak) with a relatively larger width at the loop-top region. During the impulsive phase, chromospheric evaporation is observed in both AIA images and the IRIS Fe {\sc xxi} 1354.08 {\AA} line. Upward motions can be seen from AIA 131 {\AA} images. The Fe {\sc xxi} line is significantly enhanced and shows a good Gaussian shape. In the gradual phase, warm rains are observed as downward moving plasmas in AIA 304 {\AA} images. Both the Si {\sc iv} and Fe {\sc xxi} lines show a relatively symmetric shape with a larger width around the loop top. These results provide observational evidence for various dynamic processes involved in and are crucial to understand the energy release process of solar flares.

The $H_0$ tension between low- and high- redshift measurements is definitely a serious issue faced by current cosmologists since it ranges from 4$\sigma$ to 6$\sigma$. To relieve this tension, in this paper we propose a new interacting dark energy model with time varying coupling parameter by parameterizing the densities of dark matter and dark energy, this parametric approach for interacting dark sectors are inspired by our previous work concerning the coupled generalized three-form dark energy model in which dark matter and dark energy behave like two uncoupled dark sectors with effective equation of state when the three-form $|\kappa X|\gg1$, for this reason, we reconstruct coupled generalized three-form dark energy from such parametric model under the condition $|\kappa X_0|\gg1$. In the end, we place constraints on the parametric model with the coupled generalized three-form dark energy model proposed in our previous work in light of the Planck 2018 cosmic microwave background (CMB) distance priors, baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) data from the BOSS Data Release (DR) 12, Pantheon compilation of Type Ia supernovae (SN Ia) data and the latest local determinations of the Hubble constant from Riess et al., i.e. the so called R20. The fitting results show that, comparing to R20, the parametric model relieves the Hubble tension to 0.05$\sigma$ with $\chi_{\rm min}^2=6.70$ and the coupled generalized three-form dark energy model relieves the Hubble tension to 0.70$\sigma$ with $\chi_{\rm min}^2=9.02$. However, it is worth noting that the tiny Hubble tension between R20 and the parametric model is mostly due to the fact that the introduction of the parameter $k$ greatly increase the uncertainty of the Hubble constant obtained without using a $H_0$ prior.

Ultra-hot Jupiters (UHJs) have recently been the focus of several atmospheric studies due to their extreme properties. While molecular hydrogen (H$_2$) plays a key role in UHJ atmospheres, it has not been directly detected on an exoplanet. To determine the feasibility of H$_2$ detection via transmission spectroscopy of the Lyman and Werner bands, we modeled UHJ atmospheres with H$_2$ rotational temperatures varying from 2000 K to 4000 K orbiting A-type stars ranging from $T_{eff}$ = 8,500 K to $T_{eff}$ = 10,300 K. We present simulated transmission spectra for each planet-star temperature combination while adding Poisson noise varying in magnitude from 0.5% to 2.0%. Finally, we cross-correlated the spectra with expected atmospheric H$_2$ absorption templates for each temperature combination. Our results suggest that H$_2$ detection with current facilities, namely the Hubble Space Telescope, is not possible. However, direct atmospheric transmission spectroscopy of H$_2$ may be viable with future UV-capable flagship missions.

We present a solution for the light curve of two bodies mutually transiting a star with polynomial limb darkening. The term "mutual transit" in this work refers to a transit of the star during which overlap occurs between the two transiting bodies. These could be an exoplanet with an exomoon companion, two exoplanets, an eclipsing binary and a planet, or two stars eclipsing a third in a triple star system. We include analytic derivatives of the light curve with respect to the positions and radii of both bodies. We provide code that implements a photodynamical model for a mutual transit. We include two dynamical models, one for hierarchical systems in which a secondary body orbits a larger primary (e.g. an exomoon system) and a second for confocal systems in which two bodies independently orbit a central mass (e.g. two planets in widely separated orbits). Our code is fast enough to enable inference with MCMC algorithms, and the inclusion of derivatives allows for the use of gradient-based inference methods such as Hamiltonian Monte Carlo. While applicable to a variety of systems, this work was undertaken primarily with exomoons in mind. It is our hope that making this code publicly available will reduce barriers for the community to assess the detectability of exomoons, conduct searches for exomoons, and attempt to validate existing exomoon candidates. We also anticipate that our code will be useful for studies of planet-planet transits in exoplanetary systems, transits of circumbinary planets, and eclipses in triple-star systems.

Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) acquired tens of millions of low-resolution stellar spectra. The large amount of the spectra result in the urgency to explore automatic atmospheric parameter estimation methods. There are lots of LAMOST spectra with low signal-to-noise ratios (SNR), which result in a sharp degradation on the accuracy of their estimations. Therefore, it is necessary to explore better estimation methods for low-SNR spectra. This paper proposed a neural network-based scheme to deliver atmospheric parameters, LASSO-MLPNet. Firstly, we adopt a polynomial fitting method to obtain pseudo-continuum and remove it. Then, some parameter-sensitive features in the existence of high noises were detected using Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO). Finally, LASSO-MLPNet used a Multilayer Perceptron network (MLPNet) to estimate atmospheric parameters $T_{\mathrm{eff}}$, log $g$ and [Fe/H]. The effectiveness of the LASSO-MLPNet was evaluated on some LAMOST stellar spectra of the common star between APOGEE (The Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment) and LAMOST. it is shown that the estimation accuracy is significantly improved on the stellar spectra with $10<\mathrm{SNR}\leq80$. Especially, LASSO-MLPNet reduces the mean absolute error (MAE) of the estimation of $T_{\mathrm{eff}}$, log $g$ and [Fe/H] from (144.59 K, 0.236 dex, 0.108 dex) (LASP) to (90.29 K, 0.152 dex, 0.064 dex) (LASSO-MLPNet) on the stellar spectra with $10<\mathrm{SNR}\leq20$. To facilitate reference, we release the estimates of the LASSO-MLPNet from more than 4.82 million stellar spectra with $10<\mathrm{SNR}\leq80$ and 3500 < SNR$g$ $\leq$ 6500 as a value-added output.

The SDSS-IV MaNGA survey has measured two-dimensional maps of emission line velocities for a statistically powerful sample of nearby galaxies. The asymmetric features of these kinematics maps reflect the non-rotational component of a galaxy's internal motion of ionized gas. In this study, we present a catalog of kinematic asymmetry measurement of $H\alpha$ velocity map of a sample of 5353 MaNGA galaxies. Based on this catalog, we find that `special' galaxies (e.g. merging galaxies, barred galaxies, and AGN host galaxies) contain more galaxies with highly asymmetric velocity maps. However, we notice that more than half of galaxies with high kinematic asymmetry in our sample are quite `regular'. For those `regular' galaxies, kinematic asymmetry shows a significant anti-correlation with stellar mass at $\log M_\star < 9.7$, while such a trend becomes very weak at $\log M_\star>9.7$. Moreover, at a given stellar mass, the kinematic asymmetry shows weak correlations with photometric morphology, star formation rate, and environment, while it is independent of HI gas content. We also have quantified the observational effects in the kinematic asymmetry measurement. We find that both the signal-to-noise ratio of $H\alpha$ flux and disk inclination angle contribute to the measures of kinematic asymmetry, while the physical spatial resolution is an irrelevant factor inside the MaNGA redshift coverage.

Atmospheric abundances are thought to constrain the planet formation pathway, because different species evaporate at different temperatures leaving distinct signatures in the accreted atmosphere. The planetary C/O ratio is thought to constrain the planet formation pathway, because of the condensation sequence of H$_2$O, CO$_2$, CH$_4$, and CO, resulting in an increase of the gas phase C/O ratio with increasing distance. Here we use a disc evolution model including pebble growth, drift and evaporation coupled with a planet formation model that includes pebble and gas accretion as well as planet migration to compute the atmospheric compositions of giant planets. We compare our results to the recent observations of the hot Jupiters WASP-77A b and $\tau$ Bo\"otis b, which feature sub-solar and super-solar C/H and O/H values, respectively. Our simulations reproduce these measurements and show that giants like WASP-77A b should start to form beyond the CO$_2$ evaporation front, while giants like $\tau$ Bo\"otis b should originate from beyond the H$_2$O line. Our model allows the formation of sub- and super-solar atmospheric compositions. However simulations without pebble evaporation can not reproduce the super-solar C/H and O/H ratios of $\tau$ Bo\"otis b's atmosphere without additional accretion of solids. We identify the $\alpha$ viscosity parameter of the disc as a key ingredient, because the viscosity drives the inward motion of volatile enriched vapor, responsible for the accretion of gaseous C and O. Depending on the planet's migration history order-of-magnitude differences in atmospheric C/H and O/H are expected. Our simulations also predict super-solar N/H for $\tau$ Bo\"otis b and solar N/H for WASP-77A b. We conclude that pebble evaporation is a key ingredient to explain the variety of exoplanet atmospheres, because it can explain both, sub- and super-solar atmospheric abundances.

Recent observations of supermassive black holes have brought us new information on their magnetospheres. In this study we attempt a theoretical modelling of the coupling of black holes with their jets and discs, via three innovations. First, we propose a semi-analytical MHD description of a steady relativistic inflow-outflow structure characteristic to the extraction of the hole rotational energy. The mass-loading is ensured in a thin layer, the stagnation surface, by a two-photon pair production originating to a gamma-ray emission from the surrounding disc. The double flow is described near the polar axis by an axisymmetric meridionally self-similar MHD model. Second, the inflow and outflow solutions are crossing the MHD critical points and are matched at the stagnation surface. Knowledge of the MHD field on the horizon give us the angular momentum and energy extracted from the black hole. Finally, we illustrate the model with three specific examples of double-flow solutions by varying the energetic interaction between the MHD field and the rotating black hole. When the isorotation frequency is half of the black hole one, the extracted Poynting flux is comparable to the one obtained using the force-free assumption. In two of the presented solutions, the Penrose process dominates at large colatitudes, while the third is Poynting flux dominated at mid colatitudes. Mass injection rate estimations, from disk luminosity and inner radius, give an upper limit just above the values obtained for two solutions. This model is pertinent to describe the flows near the polar axis where pair production is more efficient.

Isotopologue abundance ratios are important to understand the evolution of astrophysical objects and ultimately the origins of a planetary system like our own. Being nitrogen a fundamental ingredient of pre-biotic material, understanding its chemistry and inheritance is of fundamental importance to understand the formation of the building blocks of life. We present here single-dish observations of the ground state rotational transitions of the $^{13}$C and $^{15}$N isotopologues of HCN, HNC and CN with the IRAM 30m telescope. We analyse their column densities and compute the $^{14}$N/$^{15}$N ratio map for HCN. The $^{15}$N-fractionation of CN and HNC is computed towards different offsets across L1544. The $^{15}$N-fractionation map of HCN shows a clear decrease of the $^{14}$N/$^{15}$N ratio towards the southern edge of L1544, where carbon chain molecules present a peak, strongly suggesting that isotope-selective photodissociation has a strong effect on the fractionation of nitrogen across pre-stellar cores. The $^{14}$N/$^{15}$N ratio in CN measured towards four positions across the core also shows a decrease towards the South-East of the core, while HNC shows opposite behaviour. The uneven illumination of the pre-stellar core L1544 provides clear evidence that $^{15}$N-fractionation of HCN and CN is enhanced toward the region more exposed to the interstellar radiation field. Isotope-selective photodissociation of N$_2$ is then a crucial process to understand $^{15}$N fractionation, as already found in protoplanetary disks. Therefore, the $^{15}$N-fractionation in pre-stellar material is expected to change depending on the environment within which pre-stellar cores are embedded. The $^{12}$CN/$^{13}$CN ratio also varies across the core, but its variation does not affect our conclusions on the effect of the environment on the fractionation of nitrogen.

(abridged) Quantifying the ISM porosity to ionizing photons in nearby galaxies may improve our understanding of the mechanisms leading to Lyman Continuum photons leakage from galaxies. Primitive galaxies with low metal and dust content have been shown to host a more patchy and porous ISM than their high-metallicity counterparts. To what extent this peculiar structure contributes to the leakage of ionizing photons remains to be quantitatively studied. To address these questions we build a refined grid of models including density-bounded regions and a possible contribution of an X-ray source. Using MULTIGRIS, a new Bayesian code based on Monte Carlo sampling, we combine the models as sectors under various assumptions to extract the probability density distributions of the parameters and infer the corresponding escape fractions from H II regions (fesc,HII). We apply this new code to a sample of 39 well-know local starbursting dwarf galaxies from the Dwarf Galaxy Survey. We confirm previous results hinting at an increased porosity to ionizing photons of the ISM in low-metallicity galaxies and provide, for the first time, quantitative predictions for fesc,HII. The predicted fesc,HII for low-metallicity objects span a large range of values, up to 60%, while the values derived for more metal-rich galaxies are globally lower. We also examine the influence of other parameters on the escape fractions, and find that the specific star-formation rate correlates best with fesc,HII . Finally, we provide observational line ratios which could be used as tracers of the photons escaping from density-bounded regions. Although this multi-sector modelling remains too simple to fully capture the ISM complexity, it can be used to preselect galaxy samples with potential leakage of ionizing photons based on current and up-coming spectral data in unresolved surveys of local and high-redshift galaxies.

Observation of the redshifted 21-cm signal from Cosmic Dawn and Epoch of Reionization is a challenging endeavor in observational cosmology. Presence of orders of magnitude brighter astrophysical foregrounds and various instrumental systematics increases the complexity of these observations. This work presents an end-to-end pipeline dealing with synthetic interferometric data of sensitive radio observations . The mock sky model includes the redshifted 21-cm signal and astrophysical foregrounds. The effects of calibration error and position error in the extraction of the redshifted 21-cm power spectrum has been simulated. The effect of the errors in the image plane detection of the cosmological signal has also been studied. A comparative analysis for array configurations like the SKA1-Low, MWA and HERA has been demonstrated. The calibration error tolerance of the arrays, under some assumptions about the nature of the systematic components, is optimally found to be $\sim 0.01\%$ for the detection of the signal. For position errors, an offset of $\gtrapprox 5\arcsec$ makes the residual foregrounds obscure the target signal. These simulations also imply that in the SKA-1 Low performs marginally better than the others in the image domain, while the same is true for MWA in the power spectrum domain. This is one of the first studies that compares performance of various radio telescopes operating under similar observing conditions towards detecting the cosmological signal. This end-to-end pipeline can also be extended to study effects of chromatic primary beam, radio frequency inferences, foregrounds with spectral features, etc.

Given the multiple energy loss mechanisms of cosmic ray electrons in galaxies, the tightness of the infrared - radio continuum correlation is surprising. We extended the analytical model of galactic disks of Vollmer et al. (2017) by including a simplified prescription for the synchrotron emissivity. The galactic gas disks of local spiral galaxies, low-z starburst galaxies, high-z main sequence starforming, and high-z starburst galaxies are treated as turbulent clumpy accretion disks. The magnetic field strength is determined by the equipartition between the turbulent kinetic and the magnetic energy densities. Our fiducial model, which neither includes galactic winds nor CR electron secondaries, reproduces the observed radio continuum SEDs of most (~70%) of the galaxies. Except for the local spiral galaxies, fast galactic winds can potentially make the conflicting models agree with observations. The observed IR - radio correlations are reproduced by the model within 2 sigma of the joint uncertainty of model and data for all datasets. The model agrees with the observed SFR - radio correlations within ~4 sigma. Energy equipartition between the CR particles and the magnetic field only approximately holds in our models of main sequence starforming galaxies. If a CR electron calorimeter is assumed, the slope of the IR - radio correlation flattens significantly. Inverse Compton (IC) losses are not dominant in the starburst galaxies because in these galaxies not only the gas density but also the turbulent velocity dispersion is higher than in normally starforming galaxies. Equipartition between the turbulent kinetic and magnetic field energy densities then leads to very high magnetic field strengths and very short synchrotron timescales. The exponents of our model SFR - radio correlations at 150 MHz and 1.4 GHz are very close to one.

Supernova light curves are dominated at early time, hours to days, by the escape of photons from the expanding shock heated envelope. We provide a simple analytic description of the time dependent luminosity, $L$, and color temperature, $T_{\rm col}$, for explosions of red supergiants (with convective polytropic envelopes), valid up to H recombination ($T\approx0.7$ eV). The analytic description is based on an interpolation between earlier analytic expressions valid at different (initial planar and later spherical) stages of the expansion, calibrated against the results of numerical hydrodynamic diffusion calculations for a wide range of progenitor parameters (mass, radius, core/envelope mass and radius ratios, metalicity), and explosion energies. The numerically derived $L$ and $T_{\rm col}$ are described by the analytic expressions with 10\% and 5\% accuracy respectively. $T_{\rm col}$ is inferred from the hydrodynamic profiles using (time and space dependent) effective "gray" (frequency independent) opacity, based on opacity tables that we have constructed for this purpose (and will be made publicly available) including the contributions of bound-bound and bound-free transitions. In an accompanying paper (Paper II) we show, using a large set of multi-group photon diffusion calculations, that the spectral energy distribution is well described by a Planck spectrum with $T=T_{\rm col}$, except at UV frequencies (beyond the spectral peak at $3T_{\rm col}$), where the flux is significantly suppressed due to the presence of strong line absorption. We defer the full discussion of the multi-group results to paper II, but provide here for completeness an analytic description also of the UV suppression. Our analytic results are a useful tool for inferring progenitor properties, explosion velocity, and also relative extinction based on early multi-band shock cooling observations of supernovae.

The contribution of galactic supernova remnants (SNRs) to the origin of cosmic rays (CRs) is an important open question in modern astrophysics. Broadband non-thermal emission is a useful proxy for probing the energy budget and production history of CRs in SNRs. We conduct hydrodynamic simulations to model the long-term SNR evolution from explosion all the way to the radiative phase (or $3\times10^5$ yrs at maximum), and compute the time evolution of the broadband non-thermal spectrum to explore its potential applications on constraining the surrounding environments as well as the natures and mass-loss histories of the SNR progenitors. A parametric survey is performed on the ambient environments separated into two main groups, namely a homogeneous medium with a uniform gas density and one with the presence of a circumstellar structure created by the stellar wind of a massive red-supergiant (RSG) progenitor star. Our results reveal a highly diverse evolution history of the non-thermal emission closely correlated to the environmental characteristics of a SNR. Up to the radiative phase, the roles of CR re-acceleration and ion-neutral wave damping on the spectral evolution are investigated. Finally, we make an assessment of the future prospect of SNR observations by the next-generation hard X-ray space observatory FORCE and predict what we can learn from their comparison with our evolution models.

We performed new photometric observations for two contact binaries (i.e., CRTS J025408.1+265957 and CRTS J012111.1+272933), which were observed by the 1.0-m telescope at Xingjiang Astronomical Observatory. From our light curves and several survey data, we derived several sets of photometric solutions. We found that CRTS J025408.1+265957 and CRTS J012111.1+272933 were Aand W-type W UMa, respectively. The results imply that the spot migrates or disappears in two contact binaries, which were identified by chromospheric activity emissions (e.g. H{\alpha} emission) from LAMOST spectra. From the O-C curves, the orbital periods of two contact binaries may be increasing, which is interpreted by the mass transfer from the less massive component to the more massive one. With mass transferring, two contact binaries may evolve from the contact configurations to semi-detected ones as predicted by the theory of thermal relaxation oscillation.

In this work, we deploy archival data from {\it HST}, {\it Chandra}, {\it XMM-Newton}, and {\it Swift-XRT}, to probe the nature of 9 candidate ULXs in NGC 1672. Specifically, our study focuses on using the precise source positions obtained via improved astrometry based on {\it Chandra} and {\it HST} observations to search for and identify potential optical counterparts for these ULXs. Unique optical counterparts are identified for two of the ULX candidates i.e., X2 and X6; for three of the candidates i.e., X1, X5 and X7, we found two potential counterparts for each source within the respective error radii. No optical counterparts were found for the remaining four sources. The spectral energy distribution of X2 is fitted to a blackbody spectrum with a temperature of $\sim$ 10$^{4}$K and the spectral class of the source is determined to be B7$-$A3, a supergiant donor star. We used colour magnitude diagrams (CMDs) to investigate ages of the counterparts. Of all the sources studied, X9 exhibits the most variability whereby the X-ray flux varies by a factor of $\sim$ 50 over a time period spanning 2004 to 2019, and also traces a partial q-curve-like feature in the hardness-intensity diagram, hinting at possible spectral transitions.

The $P\dot P$ diagram is a cornerstone of pulsar research. It is used in multiple ways for classifying the population, understanding evolutionary tracks, identifying issues in our theoretical reach, and more. However, we have been looking at the same plot for more than five decades. A fresh appraisal may be healthy. Is the $P\dot P$-diagram the most useful or complete way to visualize the pulsars we know? Here we pose a fresh look at the information we have on the pulsar population. First, we use principal components analysis over magnitudes depending on the intrinsic pulsar's timing properties (proxies to relevant physical pulsar features), to analyze whether the information contained by the pulsar's period and period derivative is enough to describe the variety of the pulsar population. Even when the variables of interest depend on $P$ and $\dot P$, we show that $P\dot P$ are not principal components. Thus, any distance ranking or visualization based only on $P$ and $\dot P$ is potentially misleading. Next, we define and compute a properly normalized distance to measure pulsar nearness, calculate the minimum spanning tree of the population, and discuss possible applications. The pulsar tree hosts information about pulsar similarities that go beyond $P$ and $\dot P$, and are thus naturally difficult to read from the $P\dot P$-diagram. We use this work to introduce the pulsar tree website this http URL containing visualization tools and data to allow users to gather information in terms of MST and distance ranking.

Neutrinos are the most elusive particles in the Universe, capable of traveling nearly unimpeded across it. Despite the vast amount of data collected, a long standing and unsolved issue is still the association of high-energy neutrinos with the astrophysical sources that originate them. Amongst the candidate sources of neutrinos there are blazars, a class of extragalactic sources powered by supermassive black holes that feed highly relativistic jets, pointed towards the Earth. Previous studies appear controversial, with several efforts claiming a tentative link between high-energy neutrino events and individual blazars, and others putting into question such relation. In this work we show that blazars are unambiguously associated with high-energy astrophysical neutrinos at unprecedented level of confidence, i.e. chance probability of 6 x 10^{-7}. Our statistical analysis provides the observational evidence that blazars are astrophysical neutrino factories and hence, extragalactic cosmic-ray accelerators.

It has been shown in a previous work that torsional Alfv\'en waves can drive turbulence in nonuniform coronal loops with a purely axial magnetic field. Here we explore the role of the magnetic twist. We model a coronal loop as a transversely nonuniform straight flux tube, anchored in the photosphere, and embedded in a uniform coronal environment. We consider that the magnetic field is twisted and control the strength of magnetic twist by a free parameter of the model. We excite the longitudinally fundamental mode of standing torsional Alfv\'en waves, whose temporal evolution is obtained by means of high-resolution three-dimensional ideal magnetohydrodynamic numerical simulations. We find that phase mixing of torsional Alfv\'en waves creates velocity shear in the direction perpendicular to the magnetic field lines. The velocity shear eventually triggers the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHi). In weakly twisted magnetic tubes, the KHi is able to grow nonlinearly and, subsequently, turbulence is driven in the coronal loop in a similar manner as in the untwisted case. Provided that magnetic twist remains weak, the effect of magnetic twist is to delay the onset of the KHi and to slow down the development of turbulence. In contrast, magnetic tension can suppress the nonlinear growth of the KHi when magnetic twist is strong enough, even if the KHi has locally been excited by the phase-mixing shear. Thus, turbulence is not generated in strongly twisted loops

It is generally assumed within the standard cosmological model that initial density perturbations are Gaussian at all scales. However, primordial quantum diffusion unavoidably generates non-Gaussian, exponential tails in the distribution of inflationary perturbations. These exponential tails have direct consequences for the formation of collapsed structures in the universe, as has been studied in the context of primordial black holes. We show that these tails also affect the very-large-scale structures, making heavy clusters like "El Gordo", or large voids like the one associated with the cosmic microwave background cold spot, more probable. We compute the halo mass function and cluster abundance as a function of redshift in the presence of exponential tails. We find that quantum diffusion generically enlarges the number of heavy clusters and depletes subhalos, an effect that cannot be captured by the famed $f_{\mathrm{NL}}$ corrections. These late-universe signatures could thus be fingerprints of quantum dynamics during inflation that should be incorporated in N-body simulations and checked against astrophysical data.

The Hubble Frontier Fields represent the opportunity to probe the high-redshift evolution of the main sequence of star-forming galaxies to lower masses than possible in blank fields thanks to foreground lensing of massive galaxy clusters. We use the BEAGLE SED-fitting code to derive stellar masses, $\mathrm{M_{\star}}=\log(M/\mathrm{M_{\odot}})$, SFRs, $\Psi=\log(\psi/\mathrm{M_{\odot}}\,\mathrm{yr}^{-1})$ and redshifts from galaxies within the ASTRODEEP catalogue. We fit a fully Bayesian hierarchical model of the main sequence over $1.25<z<6$ of the form $\Psi = \alpha_\mathrm{9.7}(z) + \beta(\mathrm{M_{\star}}-9.7) + \mathcal{N}(0,\sigma^2)$ while explicitly modelling the outlier distribution. The redshift-dependent intercept at $\mathrm{M_{\star}}=9.7$ is parametrized as $\alpha_\mathrm{9.7}(z) = \log[N (1+z)^{\gamma}] + 0.7$. Our results agree with an increase in normalization of the main sequence to high redshifts that follows the redshift-dependent rate of accretion of gas onto dark matter halos with $\gamma=2.40^{+0.18}_{-0.18}$. We measure a slope and intrinsic scatter of $\beta=0.79^{+0.03}_{-0.04}$ and $\sigma=0.26^{+0.02}_{-0.02}$. We find that the sampling of the SED provided by the combination of filters (Hubble + ground-based Ks-band + Spitzer 3.6 and 4.5 $\mathrm{\mu m}$) is insufficient to constrain $\mathrm{M_{\star}}$ and $\Psi$ over the full dynamic range of the observed main sequence, even at the lowest redshifts studied. While this filter set represents the best current sampling of high-redshift galaxy SEDs out to $z>3$, measurements of the main sequence to low masses and high redshifts still strongly depend on priors employed in SED fitting (as well as other fitting assumptions). Future data-sets with JWST should improve this.

The ASTRI Mini-Array is a project for the Cherenkov astronomy in the TeV energy range. ASTRI Mini-Array consists of nine Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes located at the Teide Observatory (Canarias Islands). Large volumes of monitoring and logging data result from the operation of a large-scale astrophysical observatory. In the last few years, several "Big Data" technologies have been developed to deal with such volumes of data, especially in the Internet of Things (IoT) framework. We present the Monitoring, Logging, and Alarm (MLA) system for the ASTRI Mini-Array aimed at supporting the analysis of scientific data and improving the operational activities of the telescope facility. The MLA system was designed and built considering the latest software tools and concepts coming from Big Data and IoT to respond to the challenges posed by the operation of the array. A particular relevance has been given to satisfying the reliability, availability, and maintainability requirements towards all the array sub-systems and auxiliary devices. The system architecture has been designed to scale up with the number of devices to be monitored and with the number of software components to be considered in the distributed logging system.

We present preliminary test results for the correct sizing of the bare metal hardware that will host the database of the Monitoring system (MON) for the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). The MON is the subsystem of the Array Control and Data Acquisition System (ACADA) that is responsible for monitoring and logging the overall CTA array. It acquires and stores monitoring points and logging information from the array elements, at each of the CTA sites. MON is designed and built in order to deal with big data time series, and exploits some of the currently most advanced technologies in the fields of databases and Internet of Things (IoT). To dimension the bare metal hardware required by the monitoring system (excluding the logging), we performed the test campaign that is discussed in this paper. We discuss here the best set of parameters and the optimized configuration to maximize the database data writing in terms of the number of updated rows per second. We also demonstrate the feasibility of our approach in the frame of the CTA requirements.

The wavelet scattering transform (WST) has recently gained attention in the context of large-scale structure studies, being a possible generator of summary statistics encapsulating non-Gaussianities beyond the reach of the conventional power spectrum. This work examines the three-dimensional solid harmonic WST in the context of a three-dimensional line-intensity mapping measurement to be undertaken by current and proposed phases of the CO Mapping Array Project (COMAP). The WST coefficients demonstrate interpretable behaviour in the context of noiseless CO line-intensity simulations. The contribution of the cosmological $z\sim3$ signal to these coefficients is also detectable in principle even in the Pathfinder phase of COMAP. In Fisher forecasts based on large numbers of simulations that incorporate observational noise, even a reduced 'shapeless' set of $\ell$-averaged WST coefficients show constraining power that can exceed that of the power spectrum alone even with similar detection significance. The full WST could improve parameter constraints even over the combination of the power spectrum and the voxel intensity distribution, showing that it uniquely encapsulates shape information about the line-intensity field. However, practical applications urgently require further understanding of the WST in key contexts like covariances and cross-correlations.

We explore the dynamics of stellar discs in the close vicinity of a supermassive black hole (SMBH) by means of direct $N$-body simulations. We show that in the absence of a spherical star cluster an isolated nuclear stellar disc exhibits anisotropic mass segregation meaning that massive stars settle to lower orbital inclinations and more circular orbits than the light stars. However, in systems in which the stellar disc is embedded in a much more massive isotropic stellar cluster, anisotropic mass segregation tends to be suppressed. In both cases, an initially thin stellar disc becomes thicker, especially in the inner parts due to the fluctuating anisotropy in the spherical component. We find that vector resonant relaxation is quenched in the disc by nodal precession, but it is still the most efficient relaxation process around SMBHs of mass $10^6M_\odot$ and above. Two body relaxation may dominate for less massive SMBHs found in dwarf galaxies. Stellar discs embedded in massive isotropic stellar clusters ultimately tend to become isotropic on the local two-body relaxation time-scale. Our simulations show that the dynamics of young stars at the centre of the Milky Way is mostly driven by vector resonant relaxation leading to an anticorrelation between the scatter of orbital inclinations and distance from the SMBH. If the $S$-stars formed in a disc less than 10 Myr ago, the root-sum-squared mass of objects must be 500--$1000M_\odot$ within 0.05pc to reproduce the observed scatter of angular momenta, consistent with a cusp of stellar mass black holes or an intermediate mass black hole with mass up to $1000M_\odot$ in this region.

We present photometric, astrometric, and kinematic studies of the old open star clusters NGC 1193 and NGC 1798. Both of the clusters are investigated by combining data sets from Gaia EDR3 and CCD UBV observational data. Analysis of the radial distribution of stars through the cluster regions indicates that the cluster limit radii are $r_{\rm lim}=8'$ for both of the clusters. We determine the membership probabilities of stars considering Gaia EDR3 proper motion and trigonometric parallax data, resulting in 361 stars in NGC 1193 and 428 in NGC 1798 being identified as most likely cluster members, having membership probabilities greater than P>0.5. Mean proper motion components are estimated as ($\mu_{\alpha}\cos \delta$, $\mu_{\delta}) = (-0.207(0.009), -0.431(0.008)$) for NGC 1193 and ($\mu_{\alpha}\cos \delta$, $\mu_{\delta})=(0.793(0.006), -0.373(0.005)$) mas/yr for NGC 1798. E(B-V) color excesses were derived for NGC 1193 as $0.150(0.037)$ and for NGC 1798 as 0.505(0.100) mag through the use of two-color diagrams. Photometric metallicities are also determined from two-color diagrams with the results of [Fe/H] = -0.30(0.06) dex for NGC 1193 and [Fe/H]=-0.20(0.07) dex for NGC 1798. The isochrone fitting distance and age of NGC 1193 are 5562(381) pc and 4.6(1) Gyr, respectively. For NGC 1798, these parameters are 4451(728) pc and 1.3(0.2) Gyr. These ages indicate that NGC 1193 and NGC 1798 are old open clusters. The overall present-day mass function slopes for main-sequence stars are found as 1.38(2.16) for NGC 1193 and 1.30(0.21) for NGC 1798, which are in fair agreement with the value of Salpeter (1955). Kinematic and dynamic orbital calculations indicate that NGC 1193 and NGC 1798 belong to the thick-disk and thin-disk populations, respectively. In addition, both of the clusters were born outside the solar circle, and both orbit in the metal-poor region of the Galactic disk.

Dark photon can be the ultralight dark matter candidate, which can interact with the Standard Model particles via the kinetic mixing. We propose to look for ultralight dark photon dark matter (DPDM) with local absorption at the radio telescope. The DPDM induces an harmonic oscillation of the electrons in the antenna of a radio telescope, which induces a monochromatic radio signal, and will be recorded by the telescope detectors. We show that with this method, the upper limit from the observation data of the FAST telescope on the kinetic mixing can already reach $10^{-12}$ for DPDM with oscillation frequency range $1-1.5$ GHz, stronger than the CMB constraint by about one order of magnitude. We also show that with large scale interferometric arrays the LOFAR and SKA1 telescopes can achieve extraordinary sensitivities for DPDM from 10 MHz to 10 GHz, and provide a competing and complementary method to search for DPDM directly.

In this work, we investigate the particle dynamics around a static and spherically symmetric Bardeen-Kiselev black hole with cosmological constant which is a solution of the Einstein-non-linear Maxwell field equations along with a quintessential field. We compute the quasinormal frequencies for Bardeen-Kiselev black hole(BH) with cosmological constant due to electromagnetic and gravitational perturbations. By varying the black hole parameters, we discuss the behaviour of both real and imaginary parts of the BH quasinormal frequencies. Interestingly, we find that except for the effect of the normalization factor on the damping rate, the gravitational perturbations and have similar qualitative behavior to electromagnetic perturbations in terms of the other parameters. By using the WKB method, we study the dynamics of perturbation and the scattering from the Bardeen-Kiselev black hole with cosmological constant. Also greybody factors and their variations with BH parameters are investigated.

This manuscript aims to establish the gravitational junction conditions(JCs) for the $f(\mathcal{G},~T)$ gravity. In this gravitational theory, $f$ is an arbitrary function of Gauss-Bonnet invariant $\mathcal{G}$ and the trace of the energy-momentum tensor $T_{\mu\nu}$ i.e., $T$. We start by introducing this gravity theory in its usual geometrical representation and posteriorly obtain a dynamically equivalent scalar-tensor demonstration on which the arbitrary dependence on the generic function $f$ in both $\mathcal G$ and $T$ is exchanged by two scalar fields and scalar potential. We then derive the JCs for matching between two different space-times across a separation hyper-surface $\Sigma$, assuming the matter sector to be described by an isotropic perfect fluid configuration. We take the general approach assuming the possibility of a thin-shell arising at $\Sigma$ between the two space-times. However, our results establish that, for the distribution formalism to be well-defined, thin-shells are not allowed to emerge in the general version of this theory. We thus obtain instead a complete set of JCs for a smooth matching at $\Sigma$ under the same conditions. The same results are then obtained in the scalar-tensor representation of the theory, thus emphasizing the equivalence between these two representations. Our results significantly constrain the possibility of developing models for alternative compact structures supported by thin-shells in $f(\mathcal{G},~T)$ gravity, e.g. gravastars and thin-shell wormholes, but provide a suitable framework for the search of models presenting a smooth matching at their surface, from which perfect fluid stars are possible examples.

This work is directed to explore the efficacy of strong and consistent correlations between the $\Delta$X component of magnetic field at two equatorial/low-latitude stations at nearly antipodal locations during geomagnetic storms. The antipodal stations considered are Huancayo (HUA: 12.06$^\circ$S, 75.21$^\circ$W geographic; magnetic dip 0.3$^\circ$N) in the Peruvian longitude sector and Alibag (ABG: 18.64$^\circ$N, 72.87$^\circ$E geographic; magnetic dip 10$^\circ$N) in the Indian longitude sector. Six strong geomagnetic storm events during the period 2000-2005, falling in the maximum-to-declining phase of solar cycle 23, are analyzed for this study. These stations are part of the SuperMAG network and data from these stations are openly available. It is noted that although $\Delta$X variations over these two stations are, in general, uncorrelated, significant correlations are observed on certain occasions. Correlation coefficient of at least 75$\%$ for 10 minutes is defined as a requisite criterion to infer the possible connection between the $\Delta$X variations over these two stations. The ionospheric convection maps from the SuperDARN network are also used to understand the Spatio-temporal evolution of the two-cell ionospheric convection patterns over high-latitudes during these periods of observations. This exercise reveals that the $\Delta$X variations over the antipodal locations are significantly correlated when the two-cell convection maps show appropriate rotations and both the stations possibly come under the single cell. Therefore, this investigation brings out a novel method to identify the IMF $B_y$ influence over the low/equatorial latitudes based on the openly available data.

In the present work, our main objective is to investigate the orbits of spinning test particles around a Schwarzschild black hole under the influence of a quintessence matter field (SQBH). We begin with the dynamics of the spinning test particles around SQBH which is governed by the Mathisson-Papapetrou-Dixon (MPD) equations under the pole-dipole approximation, where the gravitational field and the higher multipoles of the particle are neglected. Depending on the types of saddle points,the effective potential are classified and the possibility of chaotic orbits is discussed. The inner most stable circular orbits (ISCOs) of the spinning particle around SQBH are addressed, as are the effects of the parameters $S$ (particles' spin) and $\epsilon$ (equation of state parameter). Later, Periastron precession is investigated up to the first-order spin correction for a spinning particle moving in nearly circular orbits around SQBH. It is noted that the addition of particle's spin revamps the results obtained for the non-spinning particles and also articulates the some interesting observational properties of the SQBH. Additionally, we discuss the ramifications of employing first-order spin corrections for analysing ISCOs, as well as compare our results to the Schwarzschild black hole to ensure that they are consistent in the limit when equation of state parameter $\epsilon=-1/3$ and normalization factor $\alpha \to 0$.

We study the prospect of Bardeen black holes in explaining the observed shadow of Sgr A* and M87*. Bardeen black holes are regular black holes endowed with a magnetic monopole charge that arise in Einstein gravity coupled to non-linear electrodynamics. These black holes are interesting as they can evade the r = 0 curvature singularity arising in general relativity. It is therefore worthwhile to look for signatures of Bardeen black holes in astrophysical observations. With two successive release of black hole images by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration, the scope to test the nature of strong gravity has substantially increased. We compare the theoretically computed shadow observables with the observed image of Sgr A* and M87*. Our analysis reveals that while the observed angular diameter of M87* favors the Kerr scenario, the shadow of Sgr A* can be better explained by the Bardeen background. This indicates that although rare, certain black holes exhibit a preference towards regular black holes like the Bardeen spacetime.

This paper is the second in a set of two investigating tilt-to-length (TTL) coupling. TTL describes the cross-coupling of angular or lateral jitter into an interferometric phase signal and is an important noise source in precision interferometers, including space gravitational wave detectors like LISA. We discussed in 10.1088/2040-8986/ac675e the TTL coupling effects originating from optical path length changes, i.e. geometric TTL coupling. Within this work, we focus on the wavefront and detector geometry dependent TTL coupling, called non-geometric TTL coupling, in the case of two interfering fundamental Gaussian beams. We characterise the coupling originating from the properties of the interfering beams, i.e. their absolute and relative angle at the detector, their relative offset and the individual beam parameters. Furthermore, we discuss the dependency of the TTL coupling on the geometry of the detecting photodiode. Wherever possible, we provide analytical expressions for the expected TTL coupling effects. We investigate the non-geometric coupling effects originating from beam walk due to the angular or lateral jitter of a mirror or a receiving system. These effects are directly compared with the corresponding detected optical path length changes in 10.1088/2040-8986/ac675e. Both together provide the total interferometric readout. We discuss in which cases the geometric and non-geometric TTL effects cancel one-another. Additionally, we list linear TTL contributions that can be used to counteract other TTL effects. Altogether, our results provide key knowledge to minimise the total TTL coupling noise in experiments by design or realignment.