Papers for Monday, Jul 18 2022

We present a set of multi-wavelength mosaics and photometric catalogs in the ALMA lensing cluster survey (ALCS) fields. The catalogs were built by reprocessing of archival data from the CHArGE compilation, taken by the $\textit{Hubble Space Telescope}$ ($\textit{HST}$) in the RELICS, CLASH and Hubble Frontier Fields. Additionally we have reconstructed the $\textit{Spitzer}$ IRAC 3.6 and 4.5 $\mu$m mosaics, by utilising all the available archival IRSA/SHA exposures. To alleviate the effect of blending in such a crowded region, we have modelled the $\textit{Spitzer}$ photometry by convolving the $\textit{HST}$ detection image with the $\textit{Spitzer}$ PSF using the novel $\texttt{golfir}$ software. The final catalogs contain 218,000 sources, covering a combined area of 690 arcmin$^2$. These catalogs will serve as an important tool in aiding the search of the sub-mm galaxies in future ALMA surveys, as well as follow ups of the $\textit{HST}$ dark - IRAC sources. Coupled with the available $\textit{HST}$ photometry the addition of the 3.6 and 4.5 $\mu$m bands will allow us to place a better constraint on photometric redshifts and stellar masses of these objects, thus giving us an opportunity to identify high-redshift candidates for spectroscopic follow ups and answer the important questions regarding the epoch of reionization and formation of first galaxies.

We present a bottom-up calculation of the flux of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) and high-energy neutrinos produced by powerful jets of active galactic nuclei (AGNs). By propagating test particles in 3D relativistic magnetohydrodynamic jet simulations, including a Monte Carlo treatment of sub-grid pitch-angle scattering and attenuation losses due to realistic photon fields, we study the spectrum and composition of the accelerated UHECRs and estimate the amount of neutrinos produced in such sources. We find that UHECRs may not be significantly affected by photodisintegration in AGN jets where the espresso mechanism efficiently accelerated particles, consistent with Auger's results that favor a heavy composition at the highest energies. Moreover, we present estimates and upper bounds for the flux of high-energy neutrinos expected from AGN jets. In particular, we find that: i) source neutrinos may account for a sizable fraction, or even dominate, the expected flux of cosmogenic neutrinos; ii) neutrinos from the beta-decay of secondary neutrons produced in nucleus photodisintegration could in principle contribute to the PeV neutrino flux observed by IceCube, but can hardly account for all of it; iii) UHECRs accelerated via the espresso mechanism lead to nearly isotropic neutrino emission, which suggests that nearby radio galaxies may be more promising as potential sources. We discuss our results in the light of multimessenger astronomy and current/future neutrino experiments.

We present a toy model for the thermal optical/UV/X-ray emission from tidal disruption events (TDE). Motivated by recent hydrodynamical simulations, we assume the debris streams promptly and rapidly circularize (on the orbital period of the most tightly bound debris), generating a hot quasi-spherical pressure-supported envelope of radius R_v ~ 1e14 cm (photosphere radius ~1e15 cm) surrounding the supermassive black hole (SMBH). As the envelope cools radiatively, it undergoes Kelvin-Helmholtz contraction R_v ~ t^(-1), its temperature rising T_eff ~ t^(1/2) while its total luminosity remains roughly constant; the optical luminosity decays as nu L_nu ~ R_v^2 T_eff ~ t^(-3/2). Despite this similarity to the mass fall-back rate Mdot_fb ~ t^(-5/3), envelope heating from fall-back accretion is sub-dominant compared to the envelope cooling luminosity except near optical peak (where they are comparable). Envelope contraction can be delayed by energy injection from accretion from the inner envelope onto the SMBH in a regulated manner, leading to a late-time flattening of the optical/X-ray light curves, similar to those observed in some TDEs. Eventually, as the envelope contracts to near the circularization radius, the SMBH accretion rate rises to its maximum, in tandem with the decreasing optical luminosity. This cooling-induced (rather than circularization-induced) delay of up to several hundred days, may account for the delayed onset of thermal X-rays, late-time radio flares, and high-energy neutrino generation, observed in some TDEs. We compare the model predictions to recent TDE light curve correlation studies, finding agreement as well as points of tension.

We present the radio properties of 66 spectroscopically-confirmed normal star-forming galaxies (SFGs) at $4.4<z<5.9$ in the COSMOS field that were [C II] detected in the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) Large Program to INvestigate [C II] at Early times (ALPINE). We separate these galaxies ("CII-detected-all") into lower redshift ("CII-detected-lz", $\langle z\rangle=4.5$) and higher redshift ("CII-detected-hz", $\langle z\rangle=5.6$) sub-samples and stack multi-wavelength imaging for each sub-sample from X-ray to radio bands. A radio signal is detected in the stacked 3 GHz image of CII-detected-all and -lz samples at $\gtrsim3\sigma$. We find that the infrared-radio correlation of our sample, quantified by $q_{\mathrm{TIR}}$, is lower than the local relation for normal SFGs at $\sim$3$\sigma$ significance level, and is instead broadly consistent with that of bright sub-mm galaxies at $2<z<5$. Neither of these samples show evidence of dominant AGN activity in their stacked Spectral Energy Distributions (SEDs), rest-frame UV spectra, or X-ray images. Although we cannot rule out the possible effect of the assumed spectral index and the applied infrared SED templates as at least partially causing these differences, the lower obscured fraction of star formation than at lower redshift can alleviate the tension between our stacked $q_{\mathrm{TIR}}$s and that of local normal SFGs. It is possible that the dust buildup, which primarily governs the IR emission in addition to older stellar populations, has not had enough time to occur fully in these galaxies, whereas the radio emission can respond on a more rapid timescale. Therefore, we might expect a lower $q_{\mathrm{TIR}}$ to be a general property of high-redshift SFGs.

We use the GALFORM semi-analytical model of galaxy formation and the Planck-Millennium simulation to investigate the origins of stellar mass in galaxies and their spheroids. We compare the importance of mergers and disc instabilities, as well as the starbursts that they trigger. We find that the fraction of galaxy stellar mass formed \textit{ex situ} ($f_\mathrm{ex}$) increases sharply from $M_*=10^{11}$ M$_\odot$ upwards, reaching $80\%$ at $M_*=10^{11.3}$ M$_\odot$. For low-mass galaxies we find larger \textit{\textit{ex situ}} contributions at $z=0$ than in other models ($7$-$12\%$), with a decrease towards higher redshifts. The global \textit{ex situ} fraction of all stellar mass falls sharply with redshift, from $40\%$ at $z=0$ to $3\%$ at $z=10$. Major mergers contribute roughly half of the \textit{ex situ} mass, with minor mergers and smooth accretion of satellites both accounting for $\approx25\%$, almost independent of stellar mass and redshift. Mergers dominate in building up high-mass ($M_\mathrm{*,sph}>10^{11}$ M$_\odot$) and low-mass ($M_\mathrm{*,sph}<10^{8.5}$ M$_\odot$) spheroids. Disc instabilities and their associated starbursts dominate for intermediate-mass spheroids ($10^{8.5}<M_\mathrm{*,sph}<10^{11}$ M$_\odot$) at $z=0$. The mass regime where pseudobulges dominate is in agreement with observed pseudobulge fractions, but the peak value in the pseudobulge fraction predicted by GALFORM is likely too high. The total contributions of disc instabilities and their starbursts are roughly equal at $z=0$, with the former dominating for lower-mass spheroids (peak at $M_\mathrm{*,sph}=10^{9.5}$ M$_\odot$) and the latter for higher-mass ones (peak at $M_\mathrm{*,sph}=10^{10.5}$ M$_\odot$).

We present Chandra X-ray observations of 6 previously-identified Peter Pan objects, rare 40 Myr systems with evidence of primordial disk retention. We observe X-ray luminosities (0.8-3.0 keV) ranging from log Lx 27.7-29.1. We find that our Peter Pan sample exhibits X-ray properties similar to that of weak-lined T-Tauri stars and do not exhibit evidence of stellar accretion induced X-ray suppression. Our observed Peter Pan X-ray luminosities are consistent with that measured for field dM stars of similar spectral type and age, implying their long primordial disk lifetimes are likely not a consequence of unusually faint X-ray host stars. Our derived X-ray photoevaporative mass loss rates predict our systems have passed the point of rapid gas dispersal and call into question the impact of this internal mechanism for primordial disk dispersal around dM stars. Our qualitative assessment of the surrounding Peter Pan environments also does not predict unusually low levels of external photoevaporation relative to other respective moving group members. Overall, our results suggest Peter Pan disks may be a consequence of the low FUV flux incident on the disk in low-mass DM stars given their relatively lower levels of accretion over the course of their pre-main-sequence evolution.

Certain inflationary models like Natural inflation and Coleman-Weinberg inflation are disfavoured by cosmological data in the standard $\Lambda\rm CDM+r$ model (where $r$ is the scalar-to-tensor ratio), as these inflationary models predict the regions in the $n_s-r$ parameter space that are excluded by the cosmological data at more than 2$\sigma$ (here $n_s$ is the scalar spectral index). Cosmological models incorporating strongly self-interacting neutrinos (with a heavy mediator) are, however, known to prefer lower $n_s$ values compared to the $\Lambda\rm CDM$ model. Considering such neutrino self-interactions can, thus, open up the parameter space to accommodate the above inflationary models. In this work, we implement the massive neutrino self-interactions with a heavy mediator in two different ways: flavour-universal (among all three neutrinos), and flavour-specific (involving only one neutrino species). We implement the new interaction in both scalar and tensor perturbation equations of neutrinos. Interestingly, we find that the current cosmological data can support both of these inflationary models at 2$\sigma$ in the presence of such neutrino self-interactions.

We present a new 1-D multi-physics simulation code with use cases intended for, but not limited to, hydrodynamic escapeproblems of planetary atmospheres and planetary accretion models. Our formulation treats an arbitrary number of species asseparated hydrodynamic fields, couples them via friction laws, allows for a multi-band flux-limited radiation transport, and tracksionization fronts in high-energy irradiation bands. Besides coupling various known numerical solution techniques together, weimprove on the numerical stability of deep hydrostatic atmospheres by using a well-balanced scheme, hence preventing unphysicaldriving of atmospheric in- or outflow. We demonstrate the correct physical behaviour of the individual code modules and presenta few simple, new applications, such as a proof-of-concept simulations of combined core-powered mass-loss and UV-drivenatmospheric escape, along with a fully time-dependent core-collapse giant planet simulation. The multi-species nature of thecode opens up the area of exploring simulations that are agnostic towards the dominant atmospheric species and can lead toimplementations of advanced planetary evolution schemes.

We present multi-band ATLAS photometry for SN 2019tsf, a stripped-envelope Type Ib supernova (SESN). The SN shows a triple-peaked light curve and a late (re-)brightening, making it unique among stripped-envelope systems. The re-brightening observations represent the latest photometric measurements of a multi-peaked Type Ib SN to date. As late-time photometry and spectroscopy suggest no hydrogen, the potential circumstellar material (CSM) must be H-poor. Moreover, late (>150 days) spectra show no signs of narrow emission lines, further disfavouring CSM interaction. On the contrary, an extended CSM structure is seen through a follow-up radio campaign with Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), indicating a source of bright optically thick radio emission at late times, which is highly unusual among H-poor SESNe. We attribute this phenomenology to an interaction of the supernova ejecta with spherically-asymmetric CSM, potentially disk-like, and we present several models that can potentially explain the origin of this rare Type Ib supernova. The warped disc model paints a novel picture, where the tertiary companion perturbs the progenitors CSM, that can explain the multi-peaked light curves of SNe, and here we apply it to SN 2019tsf. This SN 2019tsf is likely a member of a new sub-class of Type Ib SNe and among the recently discovered class of SNe that undergo mass transfer at the moment of explosion

We present a new approach to measure the power-law temperature density relationship $T=T_0 (\rho / \bar{\rho})^{\gamma -1}$ and the UV background photoionization rate $\Gamma_{\rm HI}$ of the IGM based on the Voigt profile decomposition of the Ly$\alpha$ forest into a set of discrete absorption lines with Doppler parameter $b$ and the neutral hydrogen column density $N_{\rm HI}$. Previous work demonstrated that the shape of the $b$-$N_{\rm HI}$ distribution is sensitive to the IGM thermal parameters $T_0$ and $\gamma$, whereas our new inference algorithm also takes into account the normalization of the distribution, i.e. the line-density d$N$/d$z$, and we demonstrate that precise constraints can also be obtained on $\Gamma_{\rm HI}$. We use density-estimation likelihood-free inference (DELFI) to emulate the dependence of the $b$-$N_{\rm HI}$ distribution on IGM parameters trained on an ensemble of 624 Nyx hydrodynamical simulations at $z = 0.1$, which we combine with a Gaussian process emulator of the normalization. To demonstrate the efficacy of this approach, we generate hundreds of realizations of realistic mock HST/COS datasets, each comprising 34 quasar sightlines, and forward model the noise and resolution to match the real data. We use this large ensemble of mocks to extensively test our inference and empirically demonstrate that our posterior distributions are robust. Our analysis shows that by applying our new approach to existing Ly$\alpha$ forest spectra at $z\simeq 0.1$, one can measure the thermal and ionization state of the IGM with very high precision ($\sigma_{\log T_0} \sim 0.08$ dex, $\sigma_\gamma \sim 0.06$, and $\sigma_{\log \Gamma_{\rm HI}} \sim 0.07$ dex).

Chemical kinetics plays an important role in governing the thermal evolution in reactive flows problems. The possible interactions between chemical species increase drastically with the number of species considered in the system. Various ways have been proposed before to simplify chemical networks with an aim to reduce the computational complexity of the chemical network. These techniques oftentimes require domain-knowledge experts to handcraftedly identify important reaction pathways and possible simplifications. Here, we propose a combination of autoencoder and neural ordinary differential equation to model the temporal evolution of chemical kinetics in a reduced subspace. We demonstrated that our model has achieved a close-to 10-fold speed-up compared to commonly used astro-chemistry solver for a 9-species primordial network, while maintaining 1 percent accuracy across a wide-range of density and temperature.

The recently launched James Webb Space Telescope promises unparalleled advances in our understanding of the first stars and galaxies, but realizing this potential requires cosmological simulations that capture the key physical processes that affected these objects. Here we show that radiative transfer and subgrid turbulent mixing are two such processes. By comparing simulations with and without radiative transfer but with exactly the same physical parameters and subgrid turbulent mixing model, we show that tracking radiative transfer suppresses the Population III (Pop III) star formation density by a factor of approximately 4. In both simulations, $\gtrsim 90\%$ of Pop III stars are found in the unresolved pristine regions tracked by our subgrid model, which does a better job at modeling the regions surrounding proto-galaxy cores where metals from supernovae take tens of Myrs to mix thoroughly. At the same time, radiative transfer suppresses Pop III star formation, via the development of ionized bubbles that slows gas accretion in these regions, and it results in compact high-redshift galaxies that are surrounded by isolated low mass satellites. Thus turbulent mixing and radiative transfer are both essential processes that must be included to accurately model the morphology, composition, and growth of primordial galaxies.

The winds of massive stars are important for their direct impact on the interstellar medium, and for their influence on the final state of a star prior to it exploding as a supernova. However, the dynamics of these winds is understood primarily via their illumination from a single central source. The Doppler shift seen in resonance lines is a useful tool for inferring these dynamics, but the mapping from that Doppler shift to the radial distance from the source is ambiguous. Binary systems can reduce this ambiguity by providing a second light source at a known radius in the wind, seen from orbitally modulated directions. From the nature of the collision between the winds, a massive companion also provides unique additional information about wind momentum fluxes. Since massive stars are strong ultraviolet (UV) sources, and UV resonance line opacity in the wind is strong, UV instruments with a high resolution spectroscopic capability are essential for extracting this dynamical information. Polarimetric capability also helps to further resolve ambiguities in aspects of the wind geometry that are not axisymmetric about the line of sight, because of its unique access to scattering direction information. We review how the proposed MIDEX-scale mission Polstar can use UV spectropolarimetric observations to critically constrain the physics of colliding winds, and hence radiatively-driven winds in general. We propose a sample of 20 binary targets, capitalizing on this unique combination of illumination by companion starlight, and collision with a companion wind, to probe wind attributes over a range in wind strengths. Of particular interest is the hypothesis that the radial distribution of the wind acceleration is altered significantly, when the radiative transfer within the winds becomes optically thick to resonance scattering in multiple overlapping UV lines.

We use the latest Type Ia supernovae sample Pantheon+ to explore new physics on cosmic scales. Specifically, in light of this new sample, we constrain the interacting dark energy and Hu-Sawicki $f(R)$ gravity models and employ the model-independent Gaussian processes to investigate whether there is an evidence of dark energy evolution. We find that Pantheon+ alone just gives weak constraints. However, a data combination of Pantheon+ with cosmic microwave background, baryon acoustic oscillations and cosmic chronometers gives a strong constraint on the modified matter expansion rate $\epsilon=0.048\pm0.026$, which indicates that the momentum may transfer from dark energy to dark matter in the dark sector of the universe at the $1.85\,\sigma$ confidence level. In the meantime, we obtain a very tight constraint on the deviation from general relativity $\log_{10} f_{R0}< -6.32$ at the $2\,\sigma$ confidence level. Interestingly, when combining Pantheon+ with cosmic chronometers and cosmic microwave background data, we find a quintessence-like dark energy signal beyond the $2\,\sigma$ confidence level in the redshift range $z\in[0.70,1.05]$. This implies the nature of dark energy may actually be dynamical.

We present a new rest-frame color-color selection method using "synthetic $u_s-g_s$ and $g_s-i_s$'', $(ugi)_s$ colors to identify star-forming and quiescent galaxies. Our method is similar to the widely-used $U-V$ versus $V-J$ ($UVJ$) diagram. However, $UVJ$ suffers known systematics. Spectroscopic campaigns have shown that $UVJ$-selected quiescent samples at $z \gtrsim 3$ include $\sim 10-30\%$ contamination from galaxies with dust-obscured star formation and strong emission lines. Moreover, at $z>3$, $UVJ$ colors are extrapolated because the rest-frame J-band shifts beyond the coverage of the deepest bandpasses at $< 5~\mu m$ (typically $Spitzer$/IRAC 4.5 $\mu m$ or future $JWST$/NIRCam observations). We demonstrate that $(ugi)_s$ offers improvements to $UVJ$ at $z>3$, and can be applied to galaxies in the $JWST$ era. We apply $(ugi)_s$ selection to galaxies at $0.5<z<6$ from the (observed) 3D-HST and UltraVISTA catalogs, and to the (simulated) JAGUAR catalogs. We show that extrapolation can affect $(V-J)_0$ color by up to 1 magnitude, but changes $(u_s-i_s)_0$ color by $\leq$ 0.2 mag, even at $z\simeq 6$. While $(ugi)_s$-selected quiescent samples are comparable to $UVJ$ in completeness (both achieve $\sim$85-90% at $z=3-3.5$), $(ugi)_s$ reduces contamination in quiescent samples by nearly a factor of two, from $\simeq$35% to $\simeq$17% at $z=3$, and from $\simeq $60% to $\simeq $33% at $z=6$. This leads to improvements in the true-to-false-positive ratio (TP/FP), where we find TP/FP $\gtrsim$ 2.2 for $(ugi)_s$ at $z \simeq 3.5 - 6$, compared to TP/FP $<$ 1 for $UVJ$-selected samples. This indicates that contaminants will outnumber true quiescent galaxies in $UVJ$ at these redshifts, while $(ugi)_s$ will provide higher-fidelity samples.

Millimeter emission from debris disks around stars of different ages provides constraints on the collisional evolution of planetesimals. We present ALMA 1.3 millimeter observations of a sample of 76 Solar-type stars in the ~115 Myr old Pleiades star cluster. These ALMA observations complement previous infrared observations of this sample by providing sensitivity to emission from circumstellar dust at lower temperatures, corresponding to debris at radii comparable to the Kuiper Belt and beyond. The observations obtain a beam size of 1.5 arcsec (200 au) and a median rms noise of 54 mircoJy/beam, which corresponds to a fractional luminosity $L_{dust}/L_{star} \sim 10^{-4}$ for 40 K dust for a typical star in the sample. The ALMA images show no significant detections of the targeted stars. We interpret these limits in the context of a steady-state collisional cascade model for debris disk evolution that provides a good description of observations of the field population near the Sun but is not well-calibrated on younger populations.The ALMA non-detections of the Pleiades systems are compatible with the disk flux predictions of this model. We find no high fractional luminosity outliers from these ALMA data that could be associated with enhanced collisions resulting from activity not accounted for by steady-state evolution. However, we note that two systems (HII 1132 and HD 22680) show 24 micron excess much higher than the predictions of this model, perhaps due to unusually high dust production from dynamical events involving planets.

We numerically make a comparison between the fuzzy dark matter model and the cold dark matter model, focusing on formations of satellite galaxy planes around massive galaxies. We demonstrate that satellite galaxies in the fuzzy dark matter side have a tendency to form more flattened and corotating satellite systems than in the cold dark matter side due to the dissipation by the gravitational cooling effect of the fuzzy dark matter. We also show that, even with the same set of initial conditions, the number of satellites surviving becomes smaller in the fuzzy dark matter model than the cold dark matter counterpart.

We report the results of the performance characterization of a prototype wavefront sensor for millimetric adaptive optics (MAO) installed on the Nobeyama 45 m radio telescope. MAO is a key component to realize a future large-aperture submillimeter telescope, such as Large Submillimeter Telescope (LST) or Atacama Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (AtLAST). The difficulty of MAO is, however, real-time sensing of wavefront deformation with ~10 um accuracy across the aperture. Our wavefront sensor operating at 20 GHz measures the radio path length between a certain position of the primary mirror surface to the focal point where a 20 GHz coherent receiver is placed. With the 2-element prototype, we sampled two positions on the primary mirror surface (at radii of 5 m and 16 m) at a sampling rate of 10 Hz. Then an excess path length (EPL) between the two positions was obtained by differentiating the two optical paths. A power spectral density of the EPL shows three components: a low-frequency drift (1/f^n), oscillations, and a white noise. A comparison of EPL measurements under a variety of wind conditions suggests that the former two are likely induced by the wind load on the telescope structure. The power of the white noise corresponds to a 1sigma statistical error of 8 um in EPL measurements. The 8 um r.m.s. is significant with respect to the mirror surface accuracy required by the LST and AtLAST (~20-40 um r.m.s.), which demonstrates that our technique is also useful for the future large-aperture submillimeter telescopes.

A solar active region (AR) may produce multiple notable flares during its passage across the solar disk. We investigate successive flares from flare-eruptive active regions, and explore their relationship with solar magnetic parameters. We examine six ARs in this study, each with at least one major flare above X1.0. The Space-Weather HMI Active Region Patch (SHARP) is employed in this study to parameterize the ARs. We aim to identify the most flare-related SHARP parameters and lay foundation for future practical flare forecasts. We first evaluate the correlation coefficients between the SHARP parameters and the successive flare production. Then we adopt a Natural Gradient Boost (NGBoost) method to analyze the relationship between the SHARP parameters and the successive flare bursts. Based on the correlation analysis and the importance distribution returned from NGBoost, we select 8 most flare-related SHARP parameters. Finally, we discuss the physical meanings of the 8 selected parameters and their relationship with flare production.

Ultra-massive white dwarfs ($ 1.05 \rm M_\odot \lesssim M_{WD}$) are particularly interesting objects that allow us to study extreme astrophysical phenomena such as type Ia supernovae explosions and merger events. Traditionally, ultra-massive white dwarfs are thought to harbour oxygen-neon (ONe) cores. However, recent theoretical studies and new observations suggest that some ultra-massive white dwarfs could harbour carbon-oxygen (CO) cores. Although several studies have attempted to elucidate the core composition of ultra-massive white dwarfs, to date, it has not been possible to distinguish them through their observed properties. Here, we present a new method for revealing the core-chemical composition in ultra-massive white dwarfs that is based on the study of magnetic fields generated by convective mixing induced by the crystallization process. ONe white dwarfs crystallize at higher luminosities than their CO counterparts. Therefore, the study of magnetic ultra-massive white dwarfs in the particular domain where ONe cores have reached the crystallization conditions but CO cores have not, may provide valuable support to their ONe core-chemical composition, since ONe white dwarfs would display signs of magnetic fields and CO would not. We apply our method to eight white dwarfs with magnetic field measurements and we suggest that these stars are candidate ONe white dwarfs.

We use archival WISE and Spitzer photometry to derive optical line fluxes for a sample of distant quasars at z ~6. We find evidence for exceptionally high equivalent width [OIII] emission (rest-frame EW ~400 {\AA}) similar to that inferred for star-forming galaxies at similar redshifts. The median Halpha and Hbeta equivalent widths are derived to be ~400{\AA} and 100~{\AA}, respectively, and are consistent with values seen among quasars in the local Universe, and at z ~2. After accounting for the contribution of photoionization in the broad line regions of quasars, we suggest that the OIII emission corresponds to strong, narrow line emission likely arising from feedback due to massive star-formation in the quasar host. The high [OIII]/Hbeta line ratios can uniquely be interpreted with radiative shock models, and translate to magnetic field strengths of ~8 microGauss with shock velocities of ~400km/s. Our measurement implies that strong, coherent magnetic fields were present in the interstellar medium at a time when the universe was < 1 billion years old. Comparing our estimated magnetic field strengths with models for the evolution of galaxy-scale fields, favors high seed field strengths exceeding 0.1 microGauss, the first observational constraint on such fields. This high value favors scenarios where seed magnetic fields were produced by turbulence in the early stages of galaxy formation. Forthcoming mid-infrared spectroscopy with the James Webb Space Telescope will help constrain the physical conditions in quasar hosts further.

We continue our program of publishing all planets (and possible planets) found by eye in 2021 Korea Microlensing Telescope Network (KMTNet) online data. We present 4 planets, (KMT-2021-BLG-0712Lb, KMT-2021-BLG-0909Lb, KMT-2021-BLG-2478Lb, and KMT-2021-BLG-1105Lb), with planet-host mass ratios in the range -3.3 < log q < -2.2. This brings the total of secure, by-eye, 2021 KMTNet planets to 16, including 8 in this series. The by-eye sample is an important check of the completeness of semi-automated detections, which are the basis for statistical analyses. One of the planets, KMT-2021-BLG-1105Lb, is blended with a relatively bright $(I,V)\sim (18.9,21.6)$ star that may be the host. This could be verified immediately by high-resolution imaging. If so, the host is an early G dwarf, and the planet could be characterized by radial-velocity observations on 30m class telescopes.

External galaxies often intervene in front of background radio sources such as quasars and radio galaxies. Linear polarization of the background emission is depolarized by Faraday rotation of inhomogeneous magnetized plasma of the intervening galaxies. Exploring the depolarizing intervening galaxies (DINGs) can be a powerful tool to investigate the cosmological evolution of the galactic magnetic field. In this paper, we investigate the effects of DINGs on background radio emission using theoretical DING models. We find that complex structures of galaxy result in complicated depolarization features and the Faraday dispersion functions (FDFs), but, for the features of depolarizations and FDFs, the global component of magnetic fields is important. We show the simplest results with ring magnetic field in the galactic disk. We find that the degree of depolarization significantly depends on the inclination angle and the impact parameter of the DING. We found that the larger the standard deviation, the more likely it is that depolarization will occur. The FDF represents the RM structure within the beam. The FDF exhibits multi-components due mainly to the RM structure within the beam and the fraction of the DING that covers the background emission (the filling factor). The peak Faraday depth of the FDF is different from the beam-averaged RM of the DING. The Monte-Carlo simulations indicate that DING's contribution to the standard deviation of observed RMs follows $\sigma_{\rm RM} \propto 1/{(1+z)^k}$ with $k \sim 2.7$ and exhibits a steeper redshift dependence than the wavelength squared. DINGs will have a significant impact on RM catalogs created by future survey projects such as the SKA and SKA Precursor/Pathfinder.

The interaction of an asteroid-mass primordial black hole (PBH) with a slowly-rotating neutron star (NS) can lead to detectable gamma-ray emission via modern observatories like Fermi-LAT or ASTROGRAM. Depending on the specific PBH relativistic orbit in the NS Schwarschild spacetime and the relative orientation of this binary system with respect to Earth, the PBH Hawking radiation will show a characteristic temperature profile over time. Essentially, a moderate heating behaviour (or even a constant temperature value) is found for the majority of the event, followed by a sudden and dramatic cool-down at the end of the burst. Our theoretical model might provide a means of identification of such hypothetical PBH-NS interactions, based on the distinctive temperature evolution of thermal-like gamma ray bursts (GRBs) described in this article.

CSS100217 was a nuclear, rapid and luminous flare in a Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 galaxy, whose initial interpretation as a supernova is now debated between variability of the active galactic nucleus (AGN) or a tidal disruption event (TDE). In this paper, we present and discuss new evidence in favour of a TDE or extreme flaring episode scenario. After the decay of the flare, the galaxy entered a long-term low luminosity state, 0.4 magnitudes lower than the pre-outburst emission in the V band. We attribute this to the creation of a cavity in the accretion disk after the tidal disruption of a star in a retrograde orbit with respect to the accretion disk rotation, making a TDE our favoured interpretation of the flare. We also show how the host galaxy shows a point-like, compact profile, no evidence for an extended component and a relatively low mass, unlike what expected from an AGN host galaxy at z=0.147. A compact host galaxy may result in an increased TDE rate, strengthening our interpretation of the event.

We propose a way to constrain the primordial black hole (PBH) abundance in the range of PBH masses $m$ around $10^{20}$g based on their capture by Sun-like stars in dwarf galaxies, with subsequent star destruction. We calculate numerically the probability of a PBH capture by a star at the time of its formation in an environment typical of dwarf galaxies. Requiring that no more than a fraction $\xi$ of stars in a dwarf galaxy is destroyed by PBHs translates into an upper limit on the PBH abundance. For the parameters of Triangulum II and $\xi=0.5$ we find that no more than $\sim 30\%$ of DM can consist of PBHs in the mass range $10^{18} - \text{(a few)}\times 10^{21}$g. The constraints depend strongly on the parameter $\xi$ and may significantly improve if smaller values of $\xi$ are established from observations. An accurate determination of $\xi$ from dwarf galaxy modeling is thus of major importance.

Rotationally symmetric shapes with parabolic cross sections are frequently used to model astrophysical objects such as magnetospheres and other blunt objects immersed in interplanetary or interstellar gas or plasma flows. We present a simple formula for the potential flow of an incompressible fluid around an elliptic paraboloid whose axis of symmetry coincides with the direction of incoming flow. We then derive an exact analytical solution to the induction equation of ideal magnetohydrodynamics, thereby obtaining explicit expressions for an initially homogeneous magnetic field of arbitrary orientation being passively advected in this flow. The solution procedure employs Euler potentials and the method of Cauchy's Integral based on the flow's stream function and its isochrones. Furthermore, a novel renormalization procedure allows us to generate more general analytic expressions modeling the deformation experienced by arbitrary scalar or vector-valued fields embedded into the flow as they are advected first towards and then past the parabolic obstacle. Finally, the flow field is generalized from incompressible to mildly compressible velocities, where the associated density distribution is found from Bernoulli's principle.

Theoretically predicted yields of elements created by the rapid neutron capture (r-) process carry potentially large uncertainties associated with incomplete knowledge of nuclear properties as well as approximative hydrodynamical modelling of the matter ejection processes. We present an in-depth study of the nuclear uncertainties by systematically varying theoretical nuclear input models that describe the experimentally unknown neutron-rich nuclei. This includes two frameworks for calculating the radiative neutron capture rates and six, four and four models for the nuclear masses, $\beta$-decay rates and fission properties, respectively. Our r-process nuclear network calculations are based on detailed hydrodynamical simulations of dynamically ejected material from NS-NS or NS-BH binary mergers plus the secular ejecta from BH-torus systems. The impact of nuclear uncertainties on the r-process abundance distribution and early radioactive heating rate is found to be modest (within a factor $\sim 20$ for individual $A>90$ nuclei and a factor 2 for the heating rate), however the impact on the late-time heating rate is more significant and depends strongly on the contribution from fission. We witness significantly larger sensitivity to the nuclear physics input if only a single trajectory is used compared to considering ensembles of $\sim$200-300 trajectories, and the quantitative effects of the nuclear uncertainties strongly depend on the adopted conditions for the individual trajectory. We use the predicted Th/U ratio to estimate the cosmochronometric age of six metal-poor stars to set a lower limit of the age of the Galaxy and find the impact of the nuclear uncertainties to be up to 2 Gyr.

Based on high contrast images obtained with the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI), we report the discovery of two point-like sources at angular separations of $\rho\sim0.18''$ and $\rho\sim0.80''$ from the stars HD 29992 and HD 196385. A combined analysis of the new GPI observations and images from the literature indicates that the source close to HD 29992 could be a companion to the star. Concerning HD 196385, the small number of contaminants ($\sim0.5$) suggests that the detected source may be gravitationally bound to the star. For both systems, we discarded the presence of other potential companions with $m>75$ M$_{\rm Jup}$ at $\rho\sim0.3 - 1.3''$. From stellar model atmospheres and low-resolution GPI spectra, we derive masses of $\sim0.2$ - $0.3$ M$_{\odot}$ for these sources. Using a Markov-chain Monte Carlo approach, we performed a joint fit of the new astrometry measurements and published radial velocity data to characterize the possible orbits. For HD 196385B, the median dynamic mass is in agreement with that derived from model atmospheres, whilst for HD 29992B, the orbital fit favors masses close to the brown dwarf regime($\sim0.08$ M$_{\odot}$). HD 29992 and HD 196385 might be two new binary systems with M-type stellar companions. However, new high angular resolution images would help to definitively confirm whether the detected sources are gravitationally bound to their respective stars, and permit tighter constraints on the orbital parameters of both systems.

Transit Timing Variations (TTVs) can provide useful information on compact multi-planetary systems observed by transits, by putting constraints on the masses and eccentricities of the observed planets. This is especially helpful when the host star is not bright enough for radial velocity follow-up. However, in the past decades, numerous works have shown that TTV-characterised planets tend to have a lower densities than RV-characterised planets. Re-analysing 34 Kepler planets in the super-Earth to sub-Neptunes range using the RIVERS approach, we show that at least part of these discrepancies was due to the way transit timings were extracted from the light curve, which had a tendency to under-estimate the TTV amplitudes. We recover robust mass estimates (i.e. low prior dependency) for 23 of the planets. We compare these planets the RV-characterised population. A large fraction of these previously had a surprisingly low density now occupy a place of the mass-radius diagram much closer to the bulk of the known planets, although a slight shift toward lower densities remains, which could indicate that the compact multi-planetary systems characterised by TTVs are indeed composed of planets which are different from the bulk of the RV-characterised population. These results are especially important for obtaining an unbiased view of the compact multi-planetary systems detected by Kepler, TESS, and the upcoming PLATO mission.

The search for compact components of strong ($S_{int} \ge 5$ Jy at 102.5 MHz) discrete radio sources from the Pushchino catalogue was carried out using the method of interplanetary scintillation. A total of 3620 sources were examined, and 812 of them were found to compact (scintillating) components. Estimates of fluctuations of the flux density of these compact components were derived from the scintillation index ($m_{max}$) corresponding to an elongation of $25^o$. The angular size and compactness of 178 sources with compact components were estimated. Scintillation indices of sources corresponding to the compact component ($m_{max}$) and flux densities of compact components were determined. It was demonstrated that slow variations of the spatial distribution of interplanetary plasma, which are related to the 11-year cycle of solar activity, may exert a systematic influence on the estimates of angular sizes of sources. Coefficients compensating the deviation from the spherical symmetry of solar wind in the estimates of angular sizes were found using the coefficient of asymmetry of the statistical distribution of intensity fluctuations. The study of correlations between the parameters of sources in the sample revealed that the maximum value of the scintillation index decreases as the integrated flux increases, while the angular size has no marked dependence on the integrated flux.

This study sums up a major part of the red giant V449 Cygni measurements for the years 1974 through 2022, obtained by visual and CCD GEOS observers, the Unione Astrofili Italiani, and various automatized telescopes. It appears that the light variations of V449 Cyg in the years 1970-1990 corresponded more to an L-type star according to the GCVS classification, with irregular amplitude variations, sometimes marked by a quasi-periodicity of about 100 days. Since the mid-1990s, these variations have become more regular, with an amplitude of about 0.7 magnitude in V, and a period of about 54,1 days, as shown by various period search routines applied to the best recent CCD series. A longer period of about 2000 days is possible to describe the long term variation of V449 Cyg. Therefore, V449 Cyg appears to be an SRB-type star.

We select 456 gas-star kinematically misaligned galaxies from the internal Product Launch-10 of MaNGA survey, including 74 star-forming (SF), 136 green-valley (GV) and 206 quiescent (QS) galaxies. We find that the distributions of difference between gas and star position angles for galaxies have three local peaks at $\sim0^{\circ}$, $90^{\circ}$, $180^{\circ}$. The fraction of misaligned galaxies peaks at $\log(M_*/M_{\odot})\sim10.5$ and declines to both low and high mass end. This fraction decreases monotonically with increasing SFR and sSFR. We compare the global parameters including gas kinematic asymmetry $V_{\mathrm{asym}}$, HI detection rate and mass fraction of molecular gas, effective radius $R_e$, S\'{e}rsic index $n$ as well as spin parameter $\lambda_{R_e}$ between misaligned galaxies and their control samples. We find that the misaligned galaxies have lower HI detection rate and molecular gas mass fraction, smaller size, higher S\'{e}rsic index and lower spin parameters than their control samples. The SF and GV misaligned galaxies are more asymmetric in gas velocity fields than their controls. These observational evidences point to the gas accretion scenario followed by angular momentum redistribution from gas-gas collision, leading to gas inflow and central star formation for the SF and GV misaligned galaxies. We propose three possible origins of the misaligned QS galaxies: (1) external gas accretion; (2) merger; (3) GV misaligned galaxies evolve into QS galaxies.

We study the short- and long-timescale properties of quasi-periodic eruptions (QPEs) in GSN 069 and its overall X-ray evolution over the past 11 yr using 11 XMM-Newton and 1 Chandra observations from December 2010 to December 2021. QPEs are a transient phenomenon in GSN 069 last detected in January 2020 with a life-time between 1 and 5.5 yr. On short timescales, the QPE intensity and recurrence time oscillate defining alternating strong/weak QPEs and long/short recurrence times. The quiescent level variability in observations with QPEs exhibits a quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) at the average observation-dependent recurrence time peaking with a delay of a few hr w.r.t. the preceding QPE. A significant late-time X-ray re-brightening starting with the QPE disappearance is observed in the long-term light curve of the quiescent emission, and the overall X-ray evolution follows the relation expected from constant-area blackbody emission. QPEs in GSN 069 are consistent with being produced by repeating tidal stripping events of a white dwarf (WD) donor in a highly eccentric orbit around the supermassive black hole, one QPE being produced at each pericenter passage. Our data suggest that the WD was partially disrupted when QPEs disappeared in GSN 069, giving rise to the observed X-ray re-brightening. We predict the re-appearance of QPEs in GSN 0699 in the near future with different recurrence times than currently detected QPEs, as the surviving core will again suffer a series of tidal stripping events at pericenter passage.

We investigate the source eruption, propagation and expansion characteristics, and heliospheric impacts of the 2020 November 29 coronal mass ejection (CME) and associated shock, using remote sensing and in situ observations from multiple spacecraft. A potential--field source--surface model is employed to examine the coronal magnetic fields surrounding the source region. The CME and associated shock are tracked from the early stage to the outer corona using extreme ultraviolet and white light observations. Forward models are applied to determine the structures and kinematics of the CME and the shock near the Sun. The shock shows an ellipsoidal structure, expands in all directions, and encloses the whole Sun as viewed from both SOHO and STEREO A, which results from the large expansion of the CME flux rope and its fast acceleration. The structure and potential impacts of the shock are mainly determined by its radial and lateral expansions. The CME and shock arrive at Parker Solar Probe and STEREO A. Only based on the remote sensing observations, it is difficult to predict whether and when the CME/shock would arrive at the Earth. Combining Wind in situ measurements and WSA-ENLIL simulation results, we confirm that the far flank of the CME (or the CME leg) arrives at the Earth with no shock signature. These results highlight the importance of multipoint remote sensing and in situ observations for determining the heliospheric impacts of CMEs.

It is shown that force-free electrodynamics (FFE) breaks down in regions where $B^2 -E^2 <0$ (electric zones) even if $\pmb{E}\cdot\pmb{B} =0$. Spontaneous creation of such regions will inevitably lead to plasma oscillations that will subsequently decay over a few periods via anomalous heating and, under certain conditions, emission of high energy quanta, until the system relaxes to a state in which $B^2-E^2 \sim 0$. For M87, assuming pair plasma with order unity multiplicity, the inverse Compton cooling time is estimated to be shorter than the dynamical time when $E^2/B^2-1 > (10^4/\sigma)^2$ roughly, where $\sigma$ is the magnetization. If the electric zone is weak, the global system will maintain a nearly force-free state, however, the force-free condition, $F^{\mu\nu}J_\nu=0$, will be broken at the order of the access electric field and cannot describe wave dynamics. Our analysis does not support recent claims, that creation of electric zones can trigger a transition to force-free turbulence which, when generated in the ergosphere of a Kerr black hole, can lead to extraction of the black hole rotational energy. Whether some secondary electromagnetic modes produced in the decaying electric zone can extract the BH energy is yet an open question.

We introduce collisions of solids as a new and efficient ionization mechanism for gas in protoplanetary disks, which especially operates in the dense midplane of protoplanetary disks. This idea is sparked by laboratory experiments where we found that charge, which is exchanged by grains in mutual collision (tribocharging), is not tied to their surfaces alone. As kind of collateral effect, charges also become entrained into the gas phase, i.e. collisions ionize the protoplanetary disk. Therefore, solids are not only sinks of charges in disks but also sources. A first estimate shows that ionization rates in the midplane at 1 AU in the range of $10^{-19} ... 10^{-15} \rm \, s^{-1}$ seem feasible depending on the assumption of rather calm or highly turbulent conditions with radial particle pile up.

Satellites around substellar companions are a heterogeneous class of objects with a variety of different formation histories. Focusing on potentially detectable satellites around exoplanets and brown dwarfs, we might expect to find objects belonging to two main populations: planet-like satellites similar to Titan or the Galileian Satellites - likely formed within the scope of core accretion; and binary-like objects, formed within different scenarios, such as disk instability. The properties of these potential satellites would be very different from each other. Additionally, we expect that their characterization would provide insightful information about the history of the system. This is particularly important for planets/brown dwarfs discovered via direct imaging (DI) with ambiguous origins. In this paper, we review different techniques, applied to DI planets/brown dwarfs, that can be used to discover such satellites. This was achieved by simulating a population of satellites around the exoplanet $\beta$ Pic b, which served as a test case. For each simulated satellite, the amplitude of DI, radial velocity, transit and astrometric signals, with respect to the planet, were retrieved and compared with the detection limits of current and future instruments. Furthermore, we compiled a list of 38 substellar companions discovered via DI to give a preliminary estimate on the probability of finding satellites extracted from the two populations mentioned above, with different techniques. This simplified approach shows that detection of planet-like satellites, though not strictly impossible, is very improbable. On the other hand, detection of binary-like satellites is within the capabilities of current instrumentation.

We present a project to implement a national common strategy for the mitigation of the steadily deteriorating Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) situation at the Italian radio telescopes. The project involves the Medicina, Noto, and Sardinia dish antennas and comprised the definition of a coordinated plan for site monitoring as well as the implementation of state-of-the-art hardware and software tools for RFI mitigation. Coordinated monitoring of frequency bands up to 40 GHz has been performed by means of continuous observations and dedicated measurement campaigns with fixed stations and mobile laboratories. Measurements were executed on the frequency bands allocated to the radio astronomy and space research service for shared or exclusive use and on the wider ones employed by the current and under-development receivers at the telescopes. Results of the monitoring campaigns provide a reference scenario useful to evaluate the evolution of the interference situation at the telescopes sites and a case series to test and improve the hardware and software tools we conceived to counteract radio frequency interference. We developed a multi-purpose digital backend for high spectral and time resolution observations over large bandwidths. Observational results demonstrate that the spectrometer robustness and sensitivity enable the efficient detection and analysis of interfering signals in radio astronomical data. A prototype off-line software tool for interference detection and flagging has been also implemented. This package is capable to handle the huge amount of data delivered by the most modern instrumentation on board of the Italian radio telecsopes, like dense focal plane arrays, and its modularity easen the integration of new algorithms and the re-usability in different contexts or telescopes.

Future ground-based gravitational wave observatories will be ideal probes of the environments surrounding black holes with masses $1 - 10\,\mathrm{M_\odot}$. Binary black hole mergers with mass ratios of order $q=m_2/m_1\lesssim10^{-3}$ can remain in the frequency band of such detectors for months or years, enabling precision searches for modifications of their gravitational waveforms with respect to vacuum inspirals. As a concrete example of an environmental effect, we consider here a population of binary primordial black holes which are expected to be embedded in dense cold dark matter spikes. We provide a viable formation scenario for these systems compatible with all observational constraints, and predict upper and lower limits on the merger rates of small mass ratio pairs. Given a detected signal of one such system by either Einstein Telescope or Cosmic Explorer, we show that the properties of the binary and of the dark matter spike can be measured to excellent precision with one week's worth of data, if the effect of the dark matter spike on the waveform is taken into account. However, we show that there is a risk of biased parameter inference or missing the events entirely if the effect of the predicted dark matter overdensity around these objects is not properly accounted for.

Cosmic Microwave Background experiments need to measure polarization properties of the incoming radiation very accurately to achieve their scientific goals. As a result of that, it is necessary to properly characterize these instruments. However, there are not natural sources that can be used for this purpose. For this reason, we developed the PROTOtype CALibrator for Cosmology, PROTOCALC, which is a calibrator source designed for the 90GHz band of these telescopes. This source is purely polarized and the direction of the polarization vector is known with an accuracy better than 0.1deg. This source flew for the first time in May 2022 showing promising result

We present theoretical expectations for infall toward supercluster-scale cosmological filaments, motivated by the Arecibo Pisces-Perseus Supercluster Survey (APPSS) to map the velocity field around the Pisces-Perseus Supercluster (PPS) filament. We use a minimum spanning tree applied to dark matter halos the size of galaxy clusters to identify 236 large filaments within the Millennium simulation. Stacking the filaments along their principal axes, we determine a well-defined, sharp-peaked velocity profile function that can be expressed in terms of the maximum infall rate $V_{\rm max}$ and the distance $\rho_{\rm max}$ between the location of maximum infall and the principal axis of the filament. This simple, two-parameter functional form is surprisingly universal across a wide range of linear mass densities. $V_{\rm max}$ is positively correlated with the halo mass per length along the filament, and $\rho_{\rm max}$ is negatively correlated with the degree to which the halos are concentrated along the principal axis. We also assess an alternative, single parameter method using $V_{25}$, the infall rate at a distance of 25 Mpc from the axis of the filament. Filaments similar to the PPS have $V_{\rm max} = 612 \ \pm$ 116 km s$^{-1}$, $\rho_{\rm max} = 8.9 \pm 2.1$ Mpc, and $V_{25} =329 \ \pm$ 68 km s$^{-1}$. We create mock observations to model uncertainties associated with viewing angle, lack of three-dimensional velocity information, limited sample size, and distance uncertainties. Our results suggest that it would be especially useful to measure infall for a larger sample of filaments to test our predictions for the shape of the infall profile and the relationships among infall rates and filament properties.

We study the formation and evolution of jets in the solar atmosphere using numerical simulations of partially ionized plasma. The two-fluid magnetohydrodynamic equations with ion+electron and neutral hydrogen components are used in two-dimensional (2D) Cartesian geometry. Numerical simulations show that a localized nonlinear Gaussian pulse of ion and neutral pressures initially launched from the magnetic null point of a potential arcade located below the transition region quickly develops into a shock due to the decrease of density with height. The shock propagates upwards into the solar corona and lifts the cold and dense chromospheric plasma behind in the form of a collimated jet with an inverted-Y shape. The inverted-Y shape of jets is connected with the topology of a magnetic null point. The pulse also excites a nonlinear wake in the chromosphere, which leads to quasi-periodic secondary shocks. The secondary shocks lift the chromospheric plasma upwards and create quasi-periodic jets in the lower corona. Ion and neutral fluids show generally similar behavior, but their relative velocity is higher near the upper part of jets, which leads to enhanced temperature or heating due to ion-neutral collisions. Simulations of jets with inverted-Y shape and their heating may explain the properties of some jets observed in the solar atmosphere.

The final orbital configuration of a planetary system is shaped by both its early star-disk environment and late-stage gravitational interactions. Assessing the relative importance of each of these factors is not straightforward due to the observed diversity of planetary systems compounded by observational biases. Our goal is to understand how a planetary system may change when planetesimal accretion and planet migrations stop and secular gravitational effects take over. Our approach starts with a novel classification of planetary systems based on their orbital architecture, validated using Approximate Bayesian Computation methods. We apply this scheme to observed planetary systems and also to $\sim 400$ synthetic systems hosting $\sim 5000$ planets, synthesized from a Monte Carlo planet population model. Our classification scheme robustly yields four system classes according to their planet masses and semi-major axes, for both observed and synthetic systems. We then estimate the orbital distribution density of each of the synthetic systems before and after dynamically evolving them for up to 1 Myr with a gravitational+collisional $N$-body code. Using the Kullback-Leibler divergence to statistically measure orbital configuration changes, we find that $\lesssim 10 \%$ of synthetic planetary systems experience such changes. We also find that this fraction belongs to a class of systems for which their center of mass is very close to their host star. Although changes in the orbital configuration of planetary systems may not very common, they are more likely to happen in systems with close-in, massive planets, with F- and G-type host-stars and stellar metallicities $\mathrm{[Fe/H]} > 0.2$.

In the past decades, numerous experiments have emerged to unveil the nature of dark matter, one of the most discussed open questions in modern particle physics. Among them, the CRESST experiment, located at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, operates scintillating crystals as cryogenic phonon detectors. In this work, we present first results from the operation of two detector modules which both have 10.46 g LiAlO$_2$ targets in CRESST-III. The lithium contents in the crystal are $^6$Li, with an odd number of protons and neutrons, and $^7$Li, with an odd number of protons. By considering both isotopes of lithium and $^{27}$Al, we set the currently strongest cross section upper limits on spin-dependent interaction of dark matter with protons and neutrons for the mass region between 0.25 and 1.5 GeV/c$^2$.

We investigate the effectiveness of the statistical radio frequency interference (RFI) mitigation technique spectral kurtosis (SK) in the face of simulated realistic RFI signals. SK estimates the kurtosis of a collection of M power values in a single channel and provides a detection metric that is able to discern between human-made RFI and incoherent astronomical signals of interest. We test the ability of SK to flag signals with various representative modulation types, data rates, duty cycles, and carrier frequencies. We flag with various accumulation lengths M and implement multi-scale SK, which combines information from adjacent time-frequency bins to mitigate weaknesses in single-scale \SK. We find that signals with significant sidelobe emission from high data rates are harder to flag, as well as signals with a 50% effective duty cycle and weak signal-to-noise ratios. Multi-scale SK with at least one extra channel can detect both the center channel and side-band interference, flagging greater than 90% as long as the bin channel width is wider in frequency than the RFI.

We use high-resolution, hydrodynamic, galaxy simulations from the Latte suite of FIRE-2 simulations to investigate the inherent variation of dark matter in sub-sampled regions around the Solar Circle of a Milky Way-type analogue galaxy and its impact on direct dark matter detection. These simulations show that the baryonic backreaction, as well as the assembly history of substructures, has lasting impacts on the dark matter's spatial and velocity distributions. These are experienced as 'gusts' of dark matter wind around the Solar Circle, potentially complicating interpretations of direct detection experiments on Earth. We find that the velocity distribution function in the galactocentric frame shows strong deviations from the Maxwell Boltzmann form typically assumed in the fiducial Standard Halo Model, indicating the presence of high-velocity substructures. By introducing a new numerical integration technique which removes any dependencies on the Standard Halo Model, we generate event-rate predictions for both single-element Germanium and compound Sodium Iodide detectors, and explore how the variability of dark matter around the Solar Circle influences annual modulation signal predictions. We find that these velocity substructures contribute additional astrophysical uncertainty to the interpretation of event rates, although their impact on summary statistics such as the peak day of annual modulation is generally low.

Axion-like particles (ALPs), a compelling candidate for dark matter (DM), are the pseudo Nambu-Goldstone bosons of a spontaneously and explicitly broken global $U(1)$ symmetry. When the symmetry breaking happens after inflation, the ALP cosmology predicts the formation of a string-wall network which must annihilate early enough, producing gravitational waves (GWs) and primordial black holes (PBHs), as well as non-relativistic ALPs. We call this process catastrogenesis. We show that, under the generic assumption that the potential has several degenerate minima, GWs from string-wall annihilation at temperatures below 100 eV could be detected by future CMB and astrometry probes, for ALPs with mass from $10^{-16}$ to $10^{6}\,\rm eV$. In this case, structure formation could limit ALPs to constitute a fraction of the DM and the annihilation would produce mostly ``stupendously large" PBHs. For larger annihilation temperatures, ALPs can constitute $100\%$ of DM, and the annihilation could produce supermassive black holes with a mass of up to $10^9\, M_\odot$ as found at the center of large galaxies. Therefore our model could solve two mysteries, the nature of the DM and the origin of these black holes.

This paper investigates the various spherically symmetric wormhole solutions in the presence of tidal forces and applies numerous methods, such as test particle orbital dynamics, ray-tracing and microlensing. We make the theoretical predictions on the test particle orbital motion around the tidal wormholes with the use of normalized by $\mathcal{L}^2$ effective potential. In order to obtain the ray-tracing images (of both geometrically thin and thick accretion disks, relativistic jets), we properly modify the open source $\texttt{GYOTO}$ code with python interface. We applied this techniques to probe the accretion flows nearby the Schwarzschild-like and charged Reissner-N\"ordstrom (RS) wormholes (we assumed both charged RS wormhole and special case with the vanishing electromagnetic charge, namely Damour-Solodukhin (DS) wormhole). It was shown that the photon sphere for Schwarzschild-like wormhole presents for both thin and thick accretion disks and even for the vanishing tidal forces. Moreover, it was observed that $r_{\mathrm{ph}}\to\infty$ as $\alpha\to\infty$, which constraints $\alpha$ parameter to be sufficiently small and positive in order to respect the EHT observations. On the other hand, for the case of RS wormhole, photon sphere radius shrinks as $\Lambda\to\infty$, as it was predicted by the effective potential. In addition to the accretion disks, we as well probe the relativistic jets around two wormhole solutions of our consideration. Finally, with the help of star bulb microlensing, we approximate the radius of the wormhole shadow and as we found out, for Schild WH, $R_{\mathrm{Sh}}\approx r_0$ for ZTF and grows linearly with $\alpha$. On the contrary, shadow radius for charged wormholes slowly decreases with the growing trend of DS parameter $\Lambda$.

We estimate the accuracy in the measurement of the tidal Love number of a supermassive compact object through the detection of an extreme mass ratio inspiral~(EMRI) by the future LISA mission. A nonzero Love number would be a smoking gun for departures from the classical black hole prediction of General Relativity. We find that an EMRI detection by LISA could set constraints on the tidal Love number of a spinning central object with dimensionless spin $\hat a=0.9$ ($\hat a=0.99$) which are approximately four (six) orders of magnitude more stringent than what achievable with current ground-based detectors for stellar-mass binaries. Our approach is based on the stationary phase approximation to obtain approximate but accurate semi-analytical EMRI waveforms in the frequency-domain, which greatly speeds up high-precision Fisher-information matrix computations. This approach can be easily extended to several other tests of gravity with EMRIs and to efficiently account for multiple deviations in the waveform at the same time.

We present a new open-source package, Hazma 2, that computes accurate spectra relevant for indirect dark matter searches for photon, neutrino, and positron production from vector-mediated dark matter annihilation and for spin-one dark matter decay. The tool bridges across the regimes of validity of two state of the art codes: Hazma 1, which provides an accurate description below hadronic resonances up to center-of-mass energies around 250 MeV, and HERWIG4DM, which is based on vector meson dominance and measured form factors, and accurate well into the few GeV range. The applicability of the combined code extends to approximately 1.5 GeV, above which the number of final state hadrons off of which we individually compute the photon, neutrino, and positron yield grows exceedingly rapidly. We provide example branching ratios, particle spectra and conservative observational constraints from existing gamma-ray data for the well-motivated cases of decaying dark photon dark matter and vector-mediated fermionic dark matter annihilation. Finally, we compare our results to other existing codes at the boundaries of their respective ranges of applicability. Hazma 2 is freely available on GitHub.