Papers for Tuesday, Nov 08 2022

In a recent search (Kim et al. 2022), we looked for microlensing signature in gravitational waves from spectrograms of the binary black hole events in the first and second gravitational-wave transient catalogs. For the search, we have implemented a deep learning-based method (Kim et al. 2021) and figured out that one event, GW190707 093326, out of forty-six events, is classified into the lensed class. However, upon estimating the p-value of this event, we observed that the uncertainty of the p-value still includes the possibility of the event being unlensed. Therefore, we concluded that no significant evidence of beating patterns from the evaluated binary black hole events has found from the search. For a consequence study, we discuss the distinguishability between microlensed gravitational waves and the signal from precessing black hole binaries.

2009 MS9 is a trans-Neptunian object (TNO) whose perihelion brings it close to the distance where some long period comets are seen to become active. Knowing this, and the fact that this object appears to brighten in excess of it's predicted nucleus brightness suggests that 2009 MS9 has a delayed onset of activity brought on by the sublimation of a species more volatile than water. In this paper we characterize 2009 MS9's physical properties and investigate potential outgassing through composite images, sublimation models, and measurements of spectral reflectivity. We find that deep composite images of the object at various epochs along its orbit show no evidence of dust yet place sensitive limits to the dust production. We estimate the nucleus radius to be 11.5 km $\pm 3.5$ km using thermal IR modeling from NEOWISE data and use this and data pre-perihelion to estimate a geometric albedo of 0.25. We compare a CO-sublimation activity model to its post perihelion heliocentric light curve and find this data supports an active fractional area of $5 \times 10^{-6}$ assuming 2 $\mu$m sized grains and other typical comet parameters. The spectral reflectivity of the surface materials obtained with the Gemini Observatory and CFHT at different epochs shows a reddening spectral slope. We compare the physical properties of 2009 MS9 to both TNO and comet populations, and speculate that 2009 MS9's reddening may be due to the buildup of a dust mantle on the surface and could be an explanation of why TNOs exhibit a color bimodality.

Taking advantage of the Photometric objects Around Cosmic webs (PAC) method developed in Paper I, we measure the excess surface density $\bar{n}_2w_{{\rm{p}}}$ of photometric objects around spectroscopic objects down to stellar mass $10^{8.0}M_{\odot}$, $10^{9.2}M_{\odot}$ and $10^{9.8}M_{\odot}$ in the redshift ranges of $z_s<0.2$, $0.2<z_s<0.4$ and $0.5<z_s<0.7$ respectively, using the data from the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys and the spectroscopic samples of Slogan Digital Sky Survey (i.e. Main, LOWZ and CMASS samples). We model the measured $\bar{n}_2w_{{\rm{p}}}$ in N-body simulation using abundance matching method and constrain the stellar-halo mass relations (SHMR) in the three redshift ranges to percent level. With the accurate modeling, we demonstrate that the stellar mass scatter for given halo mass is nearly a constant, and that the empirical form of Behroozi et al describes the SHMR better than the double power law form at low mass. Our SHMR accurately captures the downsizing of massive galaxies since $z_s=0.7$, while it also indicates that small galaxies are still growing faster than their host halos. The galaxy stellar mass functions (GSMF) from our modeling are in perfect agreement with the {\it model-independent} measurements in Paper III, though the current work extends the GSMF to a much smaller stellar mass. Based on the GSMF and SHMR, we derive the stellar mass completeness and halo occupation distributions for the LOWZ and CMASS samples, which are useful for correctly interpreting their cosmological measurements such as galaxy-galaxy lensing and redshift space distortion.

It is still a matter of intense debate how supermassive black holes (SMBH) grow, and the role played by feedback from active galactic nuclei (AGN) in the co-evolution of SMBHs and galaxies. To test the coevolution proposed by theoretical models, we compile a large AGN sample of 5639 X-ray detected AGN, over a wide redshift range, spanning nearly three orders of magnitude in X-ray luminosity. The AGN have been detected in the {\it{COSMOS-Legacy}}, the Bo$\rm \ddot{o}$tes, the XMM-{\it{XXL}} and the eFEDS fields. Using the specific star formation rate estimates, we split the AGN host galaxies into star forming (SF), starburst (SB) and quiescent (Q). Our results show that the AGN accretion is increased in SB systems compared to SF and Q. Our analysis reveals a mild increase of L$_X$ with M$_*$. The L$_X$/SFR ratio has a weak dependence on M$_*$, and at fixed M$_*$ it is highest in Q systems. The latter trend is mostly driven by the significant drop in SFR in the Q state. The measured strong variations in SFR from the SB/SF to Q mirror those predicted in merger models with AGN feedback. However, the observed mild variations in L$_X$ are at variance with the same models. We also study the evolution of SFR for a galaxy control sample and found that it is very similar to that of X-ray AGN. This suggests that either AGN play a minor role in the star formation quenching, or the relative timescales of the two processes are different.

Once only accessible in nearby galaxies, we can now study individual stars across much of the observable universe aided by galaxy-cluster gravitational lenses. When a star, compact object, or multiple such objects in the foreground galaxy-cluster lens become aligned, they can magnify a background individual star, and the timescale of a magnification peak can limit its size to tens of AU. The number and frequency of microlensing events therefore opens a window into the population of stars and compact objects, as well as high-redshift stars. To assemble the first statistical sample of stars in order to constrain the initial mass function (IMF) of massive stars at redshift z=0.7-1.5, the abundance of primordial black holes in galaxy-cluster dark matter, and the IMF of the stars making up the intracluster light, we are carrying out a 192-orbit program with the Hubble Space Telescope called "Flashlights," which is now two-thirds complete owing to scheduling challenges. We use the ultrawide F200LP and F350LP long-pass WFC3 UVIS filters and conduct two 16-orbit visits separated by one year. Having an identical roll angle during both visits, while difficult to schedule, yields extremely clean subtraction. Here we report the discovery of more than a dozen bright microlensing events, including multiple examples in the famous "Dragon Arc" discovered in the 1980s, as well as the "Spocks" and "Warhol" arcs that have hosted already known supergiants. The ultradeep observer-frame ultraviolet-through-optical imaging is sensitive to hot stars, which will complement deep James Webb Space Telescope infrared imaging. We are also acquiring Large Binocular Telescope LUCI and Keck-I MOSFIRE near-infrared spectra of the highly magnified arcs to constrain their recent star-formation histories.

We used a combination of high-resolution optical images acquired with the Hubble Space Telescope and near-IR wide-field data to investigate the stellar density profile and the population of blue straggler star (BSS) in the Galactic globular cluster NGC6256, with the aim of probing its current stage of internal dynamical evolution. We found that the inner stellar density profile significantly deviates from a King model while is well reproduced by a steep cusp with a power-law slope alpha=-0.89, thus implying that the cluster is currently in the post core-collapse (PCC) phase. This is also confirmed by the very high segregation level of the BSS population measured through the A+ parameter. We also found that the distribution of BSSs in the color-magnitude diagram is characterized by a collimated blue sequence and a red more sparse component, as already observed in other three PCC clusters. The comparison with appropriate collisional models demonstrates that the vast majority of the BSSs lying along the collimated blue sequence is consistent with a generation of coeval (1 Gyr-old) stars with different masses originated by an event that highly enhanced the collisional rate of the system (i.e. the core collapse). This study confirms that the segregation level of BSSs is a powerful dynamical diagnostic also of star cluster in a very advanced stage of dynamical evolution. Moreover, it pushes forward the possibility of using the morphology of the BSS in the color-magnitude diagram as a tracer of the core-collapse and subsequent dynamical evolutionary phases.

Ultraviolet and optical spectra of the hydrogen-dominated atmosphere white dwarf star G238-44 obtained with FUSE, Keck/HIRES, HST/COS, and HST/STIS reveal ten elements heavier than helium: C, N, O, Mg, Al, Si, P, S, Ca, and Fe. G238-44 is only the third white dwarf with nitrogen detected in its atmosphere from polluting planetary system material. Keck/HIRES data taken on eleven nights over 24 years show no evidence for variation in the equivalent width of measured absorption lines, suggesting stable and continuous accretion from a circumstellar reservoir. From measured abundances and limits on other elements we find an anomalous abundance pattern and evidence for the presence of metallic iron. If the pollution is from a single parent body, then it would have no known counterpart within the solar system. If we allow for two distinct parent bodies, then we can reproduce the observed abundances with a mix of iron-rich Mercury-like material and an analog of an icy Kuiper Belt object with a respective mass ratio of 1.7:1. Such compositionally disparate objects would provide chemical evidence for both rocky and icy bodies in an exoplanetary system and would be indicative of a planetary system so strongly perturbed that G238-44 is able to capture both asteroid- and Kuiper Belt-analog bodies near-simultaneously within its $<$100 Myr cooling age.

It is well known that Globular cluster systems are different among galaxies. Here we test to which degree these differences remain on the scale of galaxy clusters by comparing the globular clusters (GCs) in optical surveys of the Virgo galaxy cluster (ACSVCS) and the Fornax galaxy cluster (ACSFCS) in Kolmogorov-Smirnoff Tests. Both surveys were obtained with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) on board the Hubble Space Telescope, and contain thousands of GCs in dozens of galaxies each. Also well over 100 point sources in the Chandra X-ray Observatory source catalogue were attributed to the GCs in both optical catalogues, and interpreted as low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs). Thus, the optical and X-ray data are as uniform as possible. Our main findings are as follows: (1) The spread in luminosities and half-light radii is larger in the ACSVCS than in the ACSFCS. (2) The ratio between the half-light radii for the F475W-passband and the F850LP-passband is on average smaller in the ACSVCS. (3) The distribution of the LMXBs with the luminosity of the GCs is different between both surveys. These findings are significant. The first finding could be a consequence of a wider spread in the distances of the GCs in the ACSVCS, but the others must have internal reasons in the GCs. Thus, the GC systems are also different on a galaxy cluster scale.

Binary population synthesis provides a direct way of studying the effects of different choices of binary evolution models and initial parameter distributions on present-day binary compact merger populations, which can then be compared to empirical properties such as observed merger rates. Samples of zero-age main sequence binaries to be evolved by such codes are typically generated from an universal IMF and simple, uniform, distributions for orbital period $P$, mass ratio $q$ and eccentricity $e$. More recently, however, mounting observational evidence has suggested the non-universality of the IMF and the existence of correlations between binary parameters. In this study, we implement a metallicity- and redshift-dependent IMF alongside correlated distributions for $P$, $q$ and $e$ in order to generate representative populations of binaries at varying redshifts, which are then evolved with the COMPAS code in order to study the variations in merger rates and overall population properties.

All cool main sequence stars including our Sun are thought to have magnetic fields. Observations of the Sun revealed that even in quiet regions small-scale turbulent magnetic fields are present. Simulations further showed that such magnetic fields affect the subsurface and photospheric structure, and thus the radiative transfer and emergent flux. Since small-scale turbulent magnetic fields on other stars cannot be directly observed, it is imperative to study their effects on the near surface layers numerically. Until recently comprehensive three-dimensional simulations capturing the effect of small-scale turbulent magnetic fields only exists for the solar case. A series of investigations extending SSD simulations for other stars has been started. Here we aim to examine small-scale turbulent magnetic fields in stars of solar effective temperature but different metallicity. We investigate the properties of three-dimensional simulations of the magneto-convection in boxes covering the upper convection zone and photosphere carried out with the MURaM code for metallicity values of $ \rm M/H = \{-1.0, 0.0, 0.5\}$ with and without a small-scale-dynamo. We find that small-scale turbulent magnetic fields enhanced by a small-scale turbulent dynamo noticeably affect the subsurface dynamics and significantly change the flow velocities in the photosphere. Moreover, significantly stronger magnetic field strengths are present in the convection zone for low metallicity. Whereas, at the optical surface the averaged vertical magnetic field ranges from 64G for M/H = 0.5 to 85G for M/H = -1.0.

Strong dynamical interactions among stars and compact objects are expected in a variety of astrophysical settings, such as star clusters and the disks of active galactic nuclei. Here, via a suite of 3D hydrodynamics simulations using the moving-mesh code {\small AREPO}, we investigate the effect of close encounters between an equal-mass circular binary star with mass of $2M_{\odot}$ or $20M_{\odot}$ and single $20M_{\odot}$ black hole (BH), focusing on the formation of transient phenomena and their properties. Stars can be disrupted by the BH during three-body dynamical interactions, naturally producing electromagnetic transient phenomena. Encounters with impact parameters smaller than the semimajor axis of the initial binary frequently lead to a variety of transients whose electromagnetic signatures are qualitatively different from those of ordinary tidal disruption events involving just two bodies. These include the simultaneous or successive full disruptions of both stars and one full disruption of one star accompanied by successive partial disruptions of the other star. On the other hand, when the impact parameter is larger than the semimajor axis of the initial binary, the binary is either simply tidally perturbed or dissociated into bound and unbound single stars (``micro-Hills'' mechanism). We found that the dissociation of binaries consisting of $10M_{\odot}$ stars can produce the formation of a runaway star and an active isolated BH moving away from one another. Also, one of the unbound stars produced in the binary dissociation can either form an interacting binary with the BH, or a non-interacting, hard binary (which may later shrink via weak encounters); both of these could be candidates of BH high- and low-mass X-ray binaries with periodic luminosity modulation.

Mapping the expansion history of the universe is a compelling task of physical cosmology, especially in the context of the observational evidence for the recent acceleration of the universe, which demonstrates that canonical theories of cosmology and particle physics are incomplete and that there is new physics still to be discovered. Cosmography is a phenomenological approach to cosmology, where (with some caveats) physical quantities are expanded as a Taylor series in the cosmological redshift $z$, or analogous parameters such as the rescaled redshift $y=z/(1+z)$ or the logarithmic redshift $x=\ln{(1+z)}$. Moreover, the redshift drift of objects following cosmological expansion provides a model-independent observable, detectable by facilities currently under construction, {\it viz.} the Extremely Large Telescope and the Square Kilometre Array Observatory (at least in its full configuration). Here we use simulated redshift drift measurements from the two facilities to carry out an assessment of the cosmological impact and model discriminating power of redshift drift cosmography. We find that the combination of measurements from the two facilities can provide a stringent test of the $\Lambda$CDM paradigm, and that overall the logarithmic based expansions of the spectroscopic velocity drift are the most reliable ones, performing better than analogous expansions in the redshift or the rescaled redshift: the former nominally gives the smaller error bars for the cosmographic coefficients but is vulnerable to biases in the higher order terms (in other words, it is only reliable at low redshifts), while the latter always performs poorly.

In cosmology, we routinely choose between models to describe our data, and can incur biases due to insufficient models or lose constraining power with overly complex models. In this paper we propose an empirical approach to model selection that explicitly balances parameter bias against model complexity. Our method uses synthetic data to calibrate the relation between bias and the $\chi^2$ difference between models. This allows us to interpret $\chi^2$ values obtained from real data (even if catalogues are blinded) and choose a model accordingly. We apply our method to the problem of intrinsic alignments -- one of the most significant weak lensing systematics, and a major contributor to the error budget in modern lensing surveys. Specifically, we consider the example of the Dark Energy Survey Year 3 (DES Y3), and compare the commonly used nonlinear alignment (NLA) and tidal alignment & tidal torque (TATT) models. The models are calibrated against bias in the $\Omega_m - S_8$ plane. Once noise is accounted for, we find that it is possible to set a threshold $\Delta \chi^2$ that guarantees an analysis using NLA is unbiased at some specified level $N\sigma$ and confidence level. By contrast, we find that theoretically defined thresholds (based on, e.g., $p-$values for $\chi^2$) tend to be overly optimistic, and do not reliably rule out cosmological biases up to $\sim 1-2\sigma$. Considering the real DES Y3 cosmic shear results, based on the reported difference in $\chi^2$ from NLA and TATT analyses, we find a roughly $30\%$ chance that were NLA to be the fiducial model, the results would be biased (in the $\Omega_m - S_8$ plane) by more than $0.3\sigma$. More broadly, the method we propose here is simple and general, and requires a relatively low level of resources. We foresee applications to future analyses as a model selection tool in many contexts.

We present high-cadence photometric and spectroscopic observations of SN~2020jfo in ultraviolet and optical/near-infrared bands starting from $\sim 3$ to $\sim 434$ days after the explosion, including the earliest data with the 10.4\,m GTC. SN~2020jfo is a hydrogen-rich Type II SN with a relatively short plateau duration ($67.0 \pm 0.6$ days). When compared to other Type II supernovae (SNe) of similar or shorter plateau lengths, SN~2020jfo exhibits a fainter peak absolute $V$-band magnitude ($M_V = -16.90 \pm 0.34$ mag). SN~2020jfo shows significant H$\alpha$ absorption in the plateau phase similar to that of typical SNe~II. The emission line of stable [Ni~II] $\lambda$7378, mostly seen in low-luminosity SNe~II, is very prominent in the nebular-phase spectra of SN~2020jfo. Using the relative strengths of [Ni~II] $\lambda$7378 and [Fe~II] $\lambda$7155, we derive the Ni/Fe production (abundance) ratio of 0.08--0.10, which is $\sim 1.5$ times the solar value. The progenitor mass of SN~2020jfo from nebular-phase spectral modelling and semi-analytical modelling falls in the range of 12--15\,$M_\odot$. Furthermore, semi-analytical modelling suggests a massive H envelope in the progenitor of SN~2020jfo, which is unlikely for SNe~II having short plateaus.

We exploit the recent determination of cosmic star formation rate (SFR) density at redshifts $z\gtrsim 4$ to derive astroparticle constraints on three common dark matter scenarios alternative to standard cold dark matter (CDM): warm dark matter (WDM), fuzzy dark matter ($\psi$DM) and self-interacting dark matter (SIDM). Our analysis relies on the UV luminosity functions measured by the Hubble Space Telescope out to $z\lesssim 10$ and down to UV magnitudes $M_{\rm UV}\lesssim -17$. We extrapolate these to fainter yet unexplored magnitude ranges, and perform abundance matching with the halo mass functions in a given DM scenario, so obtaining a relationship between the UV magnitude and the halo mass. We then compute the cosmic SFR density by integrating the extrapolated UV luminosity functions down to a faint magnitude limit $M_{\rm UV}^{\rm lim}$, which is determined via the above abundance matching relationship by two free parameters: the minimum threshold halo mass $M_{\rm H}^{\rm GF}$ for galaxy formation, and the astroparticle quantity $X$ characterizing each DM scenario (namely, particle mass for WDM and $\psi$DM, and kinetic temperature at decoupling $T_X$ for SIDM). We perform Bayesian inference on such parameters via a MCMC technique by comparing the cosmic SFR density from our approach to the current observational estimates at $z\gtrsim 4$, constraining the WDM particle mass to $m_X\approx 1.2^{+0.3\,(11.3)}_{-0.4\,(-0.5)}$ keV, the $\psi$DM particle mass to $m_X\approx 3.7^{+1.8\,(+12.9.3)}_{-0.4\,(-0.5)}\times 10^{-22}$ eV, and the SIDM temperature to $T_X\approx 0.21^{+0.04\,(+1.8)}_{-0.06\,(-0.07)}$ keV at $68\%$ ($95\%$) confidence level. We then forecast how such constraints will be strengthened by upcoming refined estimates of the cosmic SFR density, if the early data on the UV luminosity function at $z\gtrsim 10$ from JWST will be confirmed down to ultra-faint magnitudes.

We construct axisymmetric self-similar solutions of transonic outflows emanating from a point source including the effect of the rotation. The solutions are constructed exclusively on the equatorial plane. The features of solutions are determined by three parameters; the adiabatic index $\gamma$, the dimensionless coordinate of the transonic point, and the dimensionless azimuthal velocity at the transonic point. We classify the solutions into five groups according to the asymptotic behaviors. We find that the behaviors of the self-similar solutions change at $\gamma = 11/9$. In addition, some solutions show double-power-law density profiles, which are usually seen in ejecta from a binary merger or nova-like explosion. Thus, our self-similar solutions can be applied not only to the outflow blowing from the central spinning objects, but also to the ejecta erupted from the binary merger or nova-like explosion.

G4.8+6.2 was proposed as a possible kilonova remnant associated with the Korean guest star of AD 1163 in our Milky Way galaxy. Its age is about 860 years according to the historical record. If a neutron star was left in the center of G4.8+6.2, this young neutron star may radiate strong continuous gravitational waves, which could beat the indirect age-based upper limit with current LIGO sensitivity. In this work, we searched such continuous gravitational waves in the frequency band $20-1500 \mathrm{~Hz}$. This search used two days of LIGO O3b data from the Hanford and Livingston detectors. While no signal was found, we placed upper limits on the gravitational wave strain. For comparison we also showed the latest results of all-sky searches obtained with various search pipelines. With upgrading of the LIGO detectors, it will provide the opportunity to see whether a black hole or a neutron star is harbored inside G4.8+6.2.

In this work we present the interpretation of the energy spectrum and mass composition data as measured by the Pierre Auger Collaboration above $6 \times 10^{17}$ eV. We use an astrophysical model with two extragalactic source populations to model the hardening of the cosmic-ray flux at around $5\times 10^{18}$ eV (the so-called "ankle" feature) as a transition between these two components. We find our data to be well reproduced if sources above the ankle emit a mixed composition with a hard spectrum and a low rigidity cutoff. The component below the ankle is required to have a very soft spectrum and a mix of protons and intermediate-mass nuclei. The origin of this intermediate-mass component is not well constrained and it could originate from either Galactic or extragalactic sources. To the aim of evaluating our capability to constrain astrophysical models, we discuss the impact on the fit results of the main experimental systematic uncertainties and of the assumptions about quantities affecting the air shower development as well as the propagation and redshift distribution of injected ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs).

The reliable characterization of planetary atmospheres with transmission spectroscopy requires realistic modeling of stellar magnetic features, since features that are attributable to an exoplanet atmosphere could instead stem from the host star's magnetic activity. Current retrieval algorithms for analysing transmission spectra rely on intensity contrasts of magnetic features from 1D radiative-convective models. However, magnetic features, especially faculae, are not fully captured by such simplified models. Here we investigate how well such 1D models can reproduce 3D facular contrasts, taking a G2V star as an example. We employ the well established radiative magnetohydrodynamic code MURaM to obtain three-dimensional simulations of the magneto-convection and photosphere harboring a local small-scale-dynamo. Simulations without additional vertical magnetic fields are taken to describe the quiet solar regions, while simulations with initially 100 G, 200 G and 300 G vertical magnetic fields are used to represent different magnetic activity levels. Subsequently, the spectra emergent from the MURaM cubes are calculated with the MPS-ATLAS radiative transfer code. We find that the wavelength dependence of facular contrast from 1D radiative-convective models cannot reproduce facular contrasts obtained from 3D modeling. This has far reaching consequences for exoplanet characterization using transmission spectroscopy, where accurate knowledge of the host star is essential for unbiased inferences of the planetary atmospheric properties.

We report a search for excess absorption in the 1083.2 nm line of ortho (triplet) helium during transits of TOI-1807b and TOI-2076b, 1.25 and 2.5R$_{\rm Earth}$ planets on 0.55- and 10.4-day orbits around nearby $\sim$200~Myr-old K dwarf stars. We limit the equivalent width of any transit-associated absorption to $<$4 and $<$8 mA, respectively. We limit the escape of solar-composition atmospheres from TOI-1807b and TOI-2076b to $\lesssim$1 and $\lesssim$0.1M$_{\rm Earth}$ Gyr$^{-1}$, respectively, depending on wind temperature. The absence of a H/He signature for TOI-1807b is consistent with a measurement of mass indicating a rocky body and the prediction by a hydrodynamic model that any H-dominated atmosphere would be unstable and already have been lost. Differential spectra obtained during the transit of TOI-2076b contain a He I-like feature, but this closely resembles the stellar line and extends beyond the transit interval. Until additional transits are observed, we suspect this to be the result of variation in the stellar He I line produced by rotation of active regions and/or flaring on the young, active host star. Non-detection of escape could mean that TOI-2076b is more massive than expected, the star is less EUV-luminous, the models overestimate escape, or the planet has a H/He-poor atmosphere that is primarily molecules such as H$_2$O. Photochemical models of planetary winds predict a semi-major axis at which triplet He I observations are most sensitive to mass loss: TOI-2076b orbits near this optimum. Future surveys could use a distance criterion to increase the yield of detections.

The properties of the atmospheres of the exoplanets depend on several interconnected parameters, making it difficult to determine them. The mass of the planets plays a role in determining the scale height of atmospheres, similarly to that covered by the average molecular weight of the gas. We investigated the relevance of planetary mass knowledge in spectral retrievals, identifying in which cases a mass measurements is needed for clear or cloudy, primary or secondary atmospheres, and at which precision, in the context of the ESA M4 Ariel Mission. We used TauREx to simulate the Ariel transmission spectra of representative targets of the Ariel mission reference sample assuming different scenarios: a primordial cloudy atmosphere of a hot-Jupiter and hot-Neptune and a secondary atmosphere of a super-Earth, also in presence of clouds. We extract information about various properties of the atmospheres for the cases of unknown mass, or mass with different uncertainty. We also test how the signal-to-noise impacts the atmospheric retrieval for different wavelength ranges. We accurately retrieved the primordial atmospheric composition independently from mass uncertainties for clear atmospheres, while the uncertainties increased for high altitude clouds. We highlighted the importance of signal-to-noise ratio in the Rayleigh scattering region of the spectrum. For the secondary atmosphere cases a minimum mass uncertainty of 50% is sufficient to retrieve the atmospheric parameters, even in presence of clouds. Our analysis suggests that even in worst case scenarios a 50% mass precision level is enough for producing reliable retrievals, while an atmospheric retrieval without any knowledge of a planetary mass could lead to biases in cloudy primary atmosphere and in secondary atmosphere.

The main interest of the Science Team for the exploitation of the MEGARA instrument at the 10.4m Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC hereafter) is devoted to the study of nearby galaxies, with focus on the research of the history of star formation, and chemical and kinematical properties of disc systems. We refer to this project as MEGADES: MEGARA Galaxy Discs Evolution Survey. The initial goal of MEGADES is to provide a detailed study of the inner regions of nearby disc galaxies, both in terms of their spectrophotometric and chemical evolution, and their dynamical characterisation, by disentangling the contribution of in-situ and ex-situ processes to the history of star formation and effective chemical enrichment of these regions. In addition, the dynamical analysis of these inner regions naturally includes the identification and characterization of galactic winds potentially present in these regions. At a later stage, we will extend this study further out in galactocentric distance. The first stage of this project encompasses the analysis of the central regions of a total of 43 nearby galaxies observed with the MEGARA Integral Field Unit for 114 hours, including both Guaranteed Time and Open Time observations. In this paper we provide a set of all the processed data products available to the community and early results from the analysis of these data regarding stellar continuum, ionized and neutral gas features.

We construct non-linear inflaton potential energy densities that describe not-necessarily very-slowly-rolling closed and open inflation models, and compute tilted primordial spatial inhomogeneity power spectra that follow from quantum mechanical fluctuations during inflation in these models. These tilted power spectra differ from those that have previously been used to study cosmological data in non-flat cosmological models.

Instruments such as the ROTSE, TORTORA, Pi of the Sky, MASTER-net, and others have recorded single-band optical flux measurements starting as early as $\thicksim$ 10 seconds after a gamma-ray burst trigger. The earliest measurements of optical spectral shape have been made only much later, typically on hour time scales, never starting less than a minute after trigger, until now. Beginning only 58 seconds after the Swift BAT triggerred on GRB201015A, we observed a sharp rise in flux to a peak, followed by an approximate power law decay light curve, $\propto t^{-0.81 \pm 0.03}$. Flux was measured simultaneously in three optical filter bands, g', r', and i', using our unique instrument mounted on the Nazarbayev University Transient Telescope at Assy-Turgen Astrophysical Observatory (NUTTelA-TAO). Our simultaneous multi-band observations of the early afterglow show strong colour evolution from red to blue, with a change in the optical log slope (after correction for Milky Way extinction) of $+0.72 \pm 0.14$; during this time the X-ray log slope remained constant. We did not find evidence for a two-component jet structure or a transition from reverse to forward shock that would explain this change in slope. We find that the majority of the optical spectral slope evolution is consistent with a monotonic decay of extinction, evidence of dust destruction. If we assume that the optical log slope is constant throughout this period, with the value given by the late-time slope, and we further assume an SMC-like extinction curve, we derive a change in the local extinction $A_\mathrm{v}^\mathrm{local}$ from $\thicksim$0.8 mag to 0.3 mag in $\thicksim$2500 s. This work shows that significant information about the early emission phase (and possibly prompt emission, if observed early enough) is being missed without such early observations with simultaneous multi-band instruments.

Recent observations have shown that Nitrogen-bearing complex organic species are present in large quantities in star-forming regions. Thus, investigating the N-bearing species in a hot molecular core, such as G10.47+0.03, is crucial to understanding the molecular complexity in star-forming regions. They also allow us to investigate the chemical and physical processes that determine the many phases during the structural and chemical evolution of the source in star-forming regions. The aim of this study is to investigate the spatial distribution and the chemical evolution states of N-bearing complex organic molecules in the hot core G10.47+0.03. We used the ALMA archival data of the hot molecular core G10.47+0.03. The extracted spectra were analyzed assuming LTE. Furthermore, robust methods such as MCMC and rotational diagram methods are implemented for molecules for which multiple transitions were identified to constrain the temperature and column density. Finally, we used the Nautilus gas-grain code to simulate the nitrogen chemistry in the hot molecular core. We carried out both 0D and 1D simulations of the source and compared with observational results. We report various transitions of nitrogen-bearing species (NH2CN, HC3N, HC5N, C2H3CN, C2H5CN, and H2NCH2CN) together with some of their isotopologues and isomers. Besides this, we also report the identification of CH3CCH and one of its isotopologues. The emissions originating from vinyl cyanide, ethyl cyanide, cyanoacetylene, and cyanamide are compact, which could be explained by our astrochemical modeling. Our 0D model shows that the chemistry of certain N-bearing molecules can be very sensitive to initial local conditions such as density or dust temperature. In our 1D model, simulated higher abundances of species such as HCN, HC3N, and HC5N toward the inner shells of the source confirm the observational findings.

In the self-similar scenario for galaxy cluster formation and evolution, the thermodynamic properties of the X-ray emitting plasma can be predicted in their dependencies on the halo mass and redshift only. However, several departures from this simple self-similar scenario have been observed. We show how our semi-analytic model $i(cm)z$, that modifies the self-similar predictions through two temperature-dependent quantities --the gas mass fraction $f_g = f_0 T^{f_1} E_z^{f_z}$ and the temperature variation $f_T = t_0 T^{t_1} E_z^{t_z}$--, can be calibrated to incorporate the mass and redshift dependencies. We use a published set of 17 scaling relations to constrain the parameters of the model. Then, we are able to make predictions on the slope of any observed scaling relation within a few per cent of the central value and about one $\sigma$ of the nominal error. Contextually, also the evolution of these scaling laws is determined, with predictions within $1.5 \sigma$ and within 10 per cent of the observational constraints. Relying on this calibration, we evaluate also the consistency of the predictions on the radial profiles with some observational datasets. For a sample of high-quality data (X-COP), we are able to constrain a further parameter of the model, the hydrostatic bias $b$. By calibrating the model versus a large set of X-ray scaling laws, we obtain that (i) the slopes of the temperature dependence are $f_1 = 0.403 (\pm 0.009)$ and $t_1 = 0.144 (\pm 0.017)$; (ii) the dependence upon $E_z$ are constrained to be $f_z = -0.004 (\pm 0.023)$ and $t_z = 0.349 (\pm 0.059)$. These values permit us to estimate directly how the normalizations of a given quantity change as a function of the mass (or temperature) and redshift halo in the form $Q_{\Delta} \sim M^{a_M} E_z^{a_z} \sim T^{a_T} \, E_z^{a_{Tz}}$, in very good agreement with the current observational constraints.

Context. Arrays of radio antennas have proven to be successful in astroparticle physics with the observation of extensive air showers initiated by high-energy cosmic rays in the Earth's atmosphere. Accurate determination of the energy scale of the primary particles' energies requires an absolute calibration of the radio antennas for which, in recent years, the utilization of the Galactic emission as a reference source has emerged as a potential standard. Aims. To apply the "Galactic Calibration", a proper estimation of the systematic uncertainties on the prediction of the Galactic emission from sky models is necessary, which we aim to determine on a global level as well as for the specific cases of selected radio arrays. We further aim to quantify the influence of the quiet Sun on the Galactic Calibration. Methods. We look at four different sky models that predict the full-sky Galactic emission in the frequency range from 30 to 408 MHz and compare them. We make an inventory of the reference maps on which they rely and use the output of the models to determine their global level of agreement. Next, we take the sky exposures and frequency bands of selected radio arrays into account and repeat the comparison for each of them. Finally, we study the relative influence of the Sun in its quiet state by projecting it onto the sky with brightness data from recent measurements. Results. We find systematic uncertainty of 12% on the predicted power from the Galactic emission, which scales to approximately half of that value as the uncertainty on the determination of the energy of cosmic particles. When looking at the selected radio arrays, the uncertainty on the predicted power varies between 10% and 19%. The influence of the quiet Sun turns out to be insignificant at the lowest frequencies but increases to a relative contribution of ~ 20% around 400 MHz.

We investigate the dynamics and electromagnetic (EM) signatures of neutron star-neutron star (NS-NS) or neutron star-black hole (NS-BH) merger ejecta that occurs in the accretion disk of an active galactic nucleus (AGN). We find that the interaction between ejecta and disk gas leads to important effects on the dynamics and radiation. We show five stages of the ejecta dynamics: gravitational slowing down, coasting, Sedov-Taylor deceleration in the disk, re-acceleration after the breakout from the disk surface, and momentum-conserved snowplow phase. Meanwhile, the radiation from the ejecta is so bright that its typical peak luminosity reaches a few times $10^{43}-10^{44}~\rm erg~s^{-1}$. Since most of the radiation energy has converted from the kinetic energy of merger ejecta, we call such an explosive phenomenon an interacting kilonova (IKN). It should be emphasized that IKNe are very promising, bright EM counterparts to NS-NS/BH-NS merger events in AGN disks. The bright peak luminosity and long rising time (i.e., ten to twenty days in UV bands, thirty to fifty days in optical bands, and one hundred days to hundreds of days in IR bands) allow most survey telescopes to have ample time to detect an IKN. However, the peak brightness, peak time, and evolution pattern of the light curve of an IKN are similar to a superluminous supernova in a galactic nucleus and a tidal disruption event making it difficult to distinguish between them. But it also suggests that IKNe might have been present in recorded AGN transients.

The search for gravitational waves using Pulsar Timing Arrays (PTAs) is a computationally expensive complex analysis that involves source-specific noise studies. As more pulsars are added to the arrays, this stage of PTA analysis will become increasingly challenging. Therefore, optimizing the number of included pulsars is crucial to reduce the computational burden of data analysis. Here, we present a suite of methods to rank pulsars for use within the scope of PTA analysis. First, we use the maximization of the signal-to-noise ratio as a proxy to select pulsars. With this method, we target the detection of stochastic and continuous gravitational wave signals. Next, we present a ranking that minimizes the coupling between spatial correlation signatures, namely monopolar, dipolar, and Hellings & Downs correlations. Finally, we also explore how to combine these two methods. We test these approaches against mock data using frequentist and Bayesian hypothesis testing. For equal-noise pulsars, we find that an optimal selection leads to an increase in the log-Bayes factor two times steeper than a random selection for the hypothesis test of a gravitational wave background versus a common uncorrelated red noise process. For the same test but for a realistic EPTA dataset, a subset of 25 pulsars selected out of 40 can provide a log-likelihood ratio that is $89\%$ of the total, implying that an optimally selected subset of pulsars can yield results comparable to those obtained from the whole array. We expect these selection methods to play a crucial role in future PTA data combinations.

We explore a model introduced by Cyr-Racine, Ge, and Knox (arXiv:2107.13000(2)) that resolves the Hubble tension by invoking a ``mirror world" dark sector with energy density a fixed fraction of the ``ordinary" sector of Lambda-CDM. Although it reconciles cosmic microwave background and large-scale structure observations with local measurements of the Hubble constant, the model requires a value of the primordial Helium mass fraction that is discrepant with observations and with the predictions of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN). We consider a variant of the model with standard Helium mass fraction but with the value of the electromagnetic fine-structure constant slightly different during photon decoupling from its present value. If $\alpha$ at that epoch is lower than its current value by $\Delta \alpha \simeq -2\times 10^{-5}$, then we can achieve the same Hubble tension resolution as in Cyr-Racine, et al. but with consistent Helium abundance. As an example of such time-evolution, we consider a toy model of an ultra-light scalar field, with mass $m <4\times 10^{-29}$ eV, coupled to electromagnetism, which evolves after photon decoupling and that appears to be consistent with late-time constraints on $\alpha$ variation.

Nested sampling (NS) is a popular algorithm for Bayesian computation. We investigate statistical errors in NS both analytically and numerically. We show two analytic results. First, we show that the leading terms in Skilling's expression using information theory match the leading terms in Keeton's expression from an analysis of moments. This approximate agreement was previously only known numerically and was somewhat mysterious. Second, we show that the uncertainty in single NS runs approximately equals the standard deviation in repeated NS runs. Whilst intuitive, this was previously taken for granted. We close by investigating our results and their assumptions in several numerical examples, including cases in which NS uncertainties increase without bound.

I summarize and streamline the results of recent modeling of the orbital evolution and cascading fragmentation of the Kreutz sungrazers. The model starts with Aristotle's comet -- the progenitor whose nucleus is assumed to be a contact binary -- splitting near aphelion into the two lobes and concludes with the SOHO dwarf objects as the end products of the fragmentation process. The Great March Comet of 1843, a member of Population I, and the Great September Comet of 1882, a member of Population II, are deemed the largest surviving masses of the lobes. I establish that the Kreutz system consists currently of nine populations, one of which -- associated with comet Pereyra -- is a side branch of Population I. The additions to the Kreutz system proposed as part of the new model are the daylight comets of AD 363, recorded by the Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus, and the Chinese comets of September 1041 and September 1138, both listed in Ho's catalogue. The comets of 363 are the first-generation fragments, the latter -- together with the Great Comet of 1106 -- the second-generation fragments. Attention is directed toward the populations' histograms of perihelion distance of the SOHO sungrazers and the plots of this distance as a function of the longitude of the ascending node. Arrival of bright, naked-eye Kreutz sungrazers in the coming decades is predicted.

Inertial waves, which are dominantly driven by the Coriolis force, likely play an important role in solar dynamics, and additionally, provide a window into the solar subsurface. The latter allows us to infer properties that are inaccessible to the traditional technique of acoustic-wave helioseismology. Thus, a full characterization of these normal modes holds promise in enabling the investigation of solar subsurface dynamics. In this work, we develop a spectral eigenvalue solver to model the spectrum of inertial waves in the Sun. We model the solar convection zone as an anelastic medium, and solve for the normal modes of the momentum and energy equations. We demonstrate that the solver can reproduce the observed mode frequencies and line-widths well, not only of sectoral Rossby modes, but also the recently observed high-frequency inertial modes. In addition, we believe that the spectral solver is a useful contribution to the numerical methods on modeling inertial modes on the Sun.

In order for a double-detonation model to be viable for normal type Ia supernovae, the adverse impact of helium-burning ash on early-time observables has to be avoided, which requires that the helium envelope mass should be at most 0.02 solar mass. Most of the previous studies introduced detonation by artificial hot spots, and therefore the robustness of the spontaneous helium detonation remains uncertain. In the present work, we conduct a self-consistent hydrodynamic study on the spontaneous ignition of the helium envelope in the context of the double-degenerate channel, by applying an idealized one-dimensional model and a simplified 7 isotope reaction network. We explore a wide range of the progenitor conditions, and demonstrate that the chance of direct initiation of detonation is limited. Especially, the spontaneous detonation requires the primary envelope mass of >~ 0.03 solar mass. Ignition as deflagration is instead far more likely, which is feasible for the lower envelope mass down to ~ 0.01 solar mass, which might lead to subsequent detonation once the deflagration to detonation transition (DDT) would be realized. High-resolution multi-dimensional simulations are required to further investigate the DDT possibility, as well as accurately derive the threshold between the spontaneous detonation and deflagration ignition regimes. Another interesting finding is the effect of the composition; while mixing with the core material enhances detonation as previously suggested, it rather narrows the chance for deflagration due to the slower rate of 12C(alpha,gamma)16O reaction at the lower temperature ~108K, with the caveat that we presently neglect the proton-catalyzed reaction sequence of 12C(p,gamma)13O(alpha,p)16O.

The relative number of sunspots represents the longest evidence describing the level of solar activity. As such, its use goes beyond solar physics, e.g. towards climate research. The construction of a single representative series is a delicate task which involves a combination of observation of many observers. We propose a new iterative algorithm that allows to construct a target series of relative sunspot number of a hypothetical stable observer by optimally combining series obtained by many observers. We show that our methodology provides us with results that are comparable with recent reconstructions of both sunspot number and group number. Furthermore, the methodology accounts for the possible non-solar changes of observers' time series such as gradually changing observing conditions or slow change in the observers vision. It also provides us with reconstruction uncertainties. We apply the methodology to a limited sample of observations by \v{C}ESLOPOL network and discuss its properties and limitations.

The $Om3$ diagnostic (Shafieloo et al. 2012) tests the consistency of the cosmological constant as a candidate for dark energy using Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) data. An important feature of $Om3$ is that it is independent of any parametric assumption for dark energy, neither does it depend upon the dynamics of the Universe during the pre-recombination and post-recombination eras. In other words $Om3$ can be estimated using BAO observables and used either to confirm or falsify the cosmological constant independently of the value of the Hubble constant $H_0$ (expansion rate at $z=0$), and the baryon drag epoch, $r_d$ (which is a function of the physics of the Universe prior to recombination). Consequently $Om3$ can play a key role in identifying the nature of dark energy (DE) regardless of the existing tensions in the standard model of cosmology and the possible presence of systematics in some of the data sets. We revisit $Om3$ using the most recent BAO observables from the eBOSS survey in order to test the consistency of the cosmological constant with this data. Our results show a reasonable consistency of dark energy being the cosmological constant. Moreover with eBOSS data we have achieved an impressive precision of $1.5\%$ for this three-point diagnostic. This demonstrates that $Om3$ can be a very potent diagnostic of dark energy when used in conjunction with the high precision data expected from forthcoming large scale structure surveys such as the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) and Euclid.

Pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) are searching for nanohertz-frequency gravitational waves (GWs) through cross-correlation of pulse arrival times from a set of radio pulsars. PTAs have relied upon a frequency-shift formula of the pulse, where planar GWs are usually assumed. Phase corrections due to the wavefront curvature have been recently discussed. In this paper, we derive a frequency-shift formula for GWs from a compact source such as a binary of supermassive black holes, where the differences in the GW amplitude and direction between the Earth and the pulsar are examined in the quadrupole approximation. By using the new formula, effects beyond the plane-wave approximation are discussed and nearby relevant GW source candidates are also mentioned.

Observing dynamical interactions between planets and disks is key to understanding their formation and evolution. Two protoplanets have recently been discovered within PDS 70's protoplanetary disk, along with an arm-like structure towards the north-west of the star. Our aim is to constrain the morphology and origin of this arm-like structure, and to assess whether it could trace a spiral density wave caused by the dynamical interaction between the planet PDS 70c and the disk. We analyze polarized and angular differential imaging (PDI and ADI) data taken with VLT/SPHERE, spanning six years of observations. PDI data sets are reduced using the IRDAP polarimetric data reduction pipeline, while ADI data sets are processed using MUSTARD, a novel inverse problem algorithm to tackle the geometrical biases spoiling the images previously used for the analysis of this disk. We confirm the presence of the arm-like structure in all PDI and ADI datasets. We do not observe a south-east symmetric arm with respect to the disk minor axis, which seems to reject the previous hypothesis that the arm is the footprint of a double-ring structure. If the structure traces a spiral density wave following the motion of PDS 70c, we would expect $11\overset{\circ}{.}28^{+2\overset{\circ}{.}20}_{-0\overset{\circ}{.}86}$ rotation for the spiral in six years. However, we do not measure any significant movement of the structure. If the arm-like structure is a planet-driven spiral arm, the observed lack of rotation would suggest that the assumption of rigid-body rotation may be inappropriate for spirals induced by planets. We suggest that the arm-like structure may rather trace a vortex appearing as a one-armed spiral in scattered light due to projection effects. The vortex hypothesis accounts for both the lack of observed rotation and the presence of a nearby sub-mm continuum asymmetry detected with ALMA.

We considered the fourth catalog of gamma-ray point sources produced by the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) and selected only jetted active galactic nuclei (AGN) or sources with no specific classification, but with a low-frequency counterpart. Our final list is composed of 2980 gamma-ray point sources. We then searched for optical spectra in all the available literature and publicly available databases, to measure redshifts and to confirm or change the original LAT classification. Our final list of gamma-ray emitting jetted AGN is composed of BL Lac Objects (40%), flat-spectrum radio quasars (23%), misaligned AGN (2.8%), narrow-line Seyfert 1, Seyfert, and low-ionization nuclear emission-line region galaxies (1.9%). We also found a significant number of objects changing from one type to another, and vice versa (changing-look AGN, 1.1%). About 30% of gamma-ray sources still have an ambiguous classification or lack one altogether.

We proposed a machine learning approach to identify and distinguish dusty stellar sources employing supervised and unsupervised methods and categorizing point sources, mainly evolved stars, using photometric and spectroscopic data collected over the IR sky. Spectroscopic data is typically used to identify specific infrared sources. However, our goal is to determine how well these sources can be identified using multiwavelength data. Consequently, we developed a robust training set of spectra of confirmed sources from the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds derived from SAGE-Spec Spitzer Legacy and SMC-Spec Spitzer Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) spectral catalogs. Subsequently, we applied various learning classifiers to distinguish stellar subcategories comprising young stellar objects (YSOs), C-rich asymptotic giant branch (CAGB), O-rich AGB stars (OAGB), Red supergiant (RSG), and post-AGB stars. We have classified around 700 counts of these sources. It should be highlighted that despite utilizing the limited spectroscopic data we trained, the accuracy and models' learning curve provided outstanding results for some of the models. Therefore, the Support Vector Classifier (SVC) is the most accurate classifier for this limited dataset.

Many theories beyond the Standard Model of particle physics predict the existence of axionlike particles (ALPs) that mix with photons in the presence of a magnetic field. Searching for the effects of ALP-photon mixing in gamma-ray observations of blazars has provided some of the strongest constraints on ALP parameter space so far. Previously, only individual sources have been analysed. We perform a combined analysis on $\textit{Fermi}$ Large Area Telescope data of three bright, flaring flat-spectrum radio quasars, with the blazar jets themselves as the dominant mixing region. For the first time, we include a full treatment of photon-photon dispersion within the jet, and account for the uncertainty in our B-field model by leaving the field strength free in the fitting. Overall, we find no evidence for ALPs, but are able to exclude the ALP parameters $m_a\lesssim200$ neV and $g_{a\gamma}\gtrsim 5 \times 10^{-12}$ GeV$^{-1}$ with 95\% confidence.

SDSS-IV APOGEE-2, GALAH and Gaia-ESO are high resolution, ground-based, multi-object spectroscopic surveys providing fundamental stellar atmospheric parameters and multiple elemental abundance ratios for hundreds of thousands of stars of the Milky Way. We undertake a comparison between the most recent data releases of these surveys to investigate the accuracy and precision of derived parameters by placing the abundances on an absolute scale. We discuss the correlations in parameter and abundance differences as a function of main parameters. Uncovering the variants provides a basis to on-going efforts of future sky surveys. Quality samples from the APOGEE-GALAH, APOGEE-GES and GALAH-GES overlapping catalogs are collected. We investigate the mean variants between the surveys, and linear trends are also investigated. We compare the slope of correlations and mean differences with the reported uncertainties. The average and scatter of vrad, Teff, log g, [M/H] and vmicro, along with numerous species of elemental abundances in the combined catalogs show that in general there is a good agreement between the surveys. We find large radial velocity scatters ranging from 1.3 km/s to 4.4 km/s when comparing the three surveys. We observe weak trends: e.g. in $\Delta$Teff vs. $\Delta$log g for the APOGEE-GES stars, and a clear correlation in the vmicro-$\Delta$vmicro planes in the APOGEE-GALAH common sample. For [$\alpha$/H], [Ti/H] (APOGEE-GALAH giants) and [Al/H] (APOGEE-GALAH dwarfs) potential strong correlations are discovered as a function of the differences in the main atmospheric parameters, and we find weak trends for other elements. In general we find good agreement between the three surveys within their respective uncertainties. However, there are certain regimes in which strong variants exist, which we discuss. There are still offsets larger than 0.1 dex in the absolute abundance scales.

Stars interact with their planets through gravitation, radiation, and magnetic fields. Although magnetic activity decreases with time, reducing associated high-energy (e.g., coronal XUV emission, flares), stellar winds persist throughout the entire evolution of the system. Their cumulative effect will be dominant for both the star and for possible orbiting exoplanets, affecting in this way the expected habitability conditions. However, observations of stellar winds in low-mass main sequence stars are limited, which motivates the usage of models as a pathway to explore how these winds look like and how they behave. Here we present the results from a grid of 3D state-of-the-art stellar wind models for cool stars (spectral types F to M). We explore the role played by the different stellar properties (mass, radius, rotation, magnetic field) on the characteristics of the resulting magnetized winds (mass and angular momentum losses, terminal speeds, wind topology) and isolate the most important dependencies between the parameters involved. These results will be used to establish scaling laws that will complement the lack of stellar wind observational constraints.

We present observations of the active M-dwarf binary AT Mic (dM4.5e+dM4.5e) obtained with the orbital observatory AstroSat. During 20 ks of observations, in the far ultraviolet ($130-180$ nm) and soft X-ray ($0.3-7$ keV) spectral ranges, we detected both quiescent emission and at least five flares on different components of the binary. The X-ray flares were typically longer than and delayed (by $5-6$ min) with respect to their ultraviolet counterparts, in agreement with the Neupert effect. Using X-ray spectral fits, we have estimated the parameters of the emitting plasma. The results indicate the presence of a hot multi-thermal corona with the average temperatures in the range of $\sim 7-15$ MK and the emission measure of $\sim (2.9-4.5)\times 10^{52}$ $\textrm{cm}^{-3}$; both the temperature and the emission measure increased during the flares. The estimated abundance of heavy elements in the corona of AT Mic is considerably lower than at the Sun ($\sim 0.18-0.34$ of the solar photospheric value); the coronal abundance increased during the flares due to chromospheric evaporation. The detected flares had the energies of $\sim 10^{31}-10^{32}$ erg; the energy-duration relations indicate the presence of magnetic fields stronger than in typical solar flares.

Abstract abridged. The eROSITA X-ray telescope aboard the SRG orbital observatory, in the course of its all-sky survey, is expected to detect about three million active galactic nuclei (AGN) and hundred thousand clusters and groups of galaxies. Such a sample complemented with redshift information, will open a new window into the studies of the Large-Scale structure (LSS) of the Universe and the determination of its cosmological parameters. The purpose of this work is to assess the prospects of cosmological measurements with the eROSITA sample of AGN and clusters of galaxies. We assume the availability of photometric redshift measurements for eROSITA sources and explore the impact of their quality on our forecasts. We use the redshift-resolved angular power spectrum of objects. We use a Fisher-matrix formalism and assume flat LambdaCDM cosmology to forecast the constraining power. We compute the LSS-relevant characteristics of AGN and clusters in the framework of the halo model and their X-ray luminosity functions. We find that the accuracy of photometric redshift estimates has a more profound effect on cosmological measurements than the fraction of catastrophic errors. Under realistic assumptions about the photometric redshift quality, the marginalized errors on the cosmological parameters achieve 1 - 10% accuracy depending on the cosmological priors used from other experiments. The statistical significance of BAO detection in angular power spectra of AGN and clusters of galaxies considered individually achieves 5 - 6 sigma. Our results demonstrate that the eROSITA sample of AGN and clusters of galaxies used in combination with currently available photometric redshift estimates will provide cosmological constraints on a par with dedicated optical LSS surveys.

Spiral galaxies, including the Milky Way, have large-scale magnetic fields with significant energy densities. The dominant theory attributes these magnetic fields to a large-scale dynamo. We review the current status of dynamo theory and discuss various numerical simulations designed to explain either particular aspects of the problem or to reproduce galactic magnetic fields globally. Our main conclusions can be summarized as follows. (i) Idealized direct numerical simulations produce mean magnetic fields, whose saturation energy density tends to decline with increasing magnetic Reynolds number. This could imply that the observed large-scale galactic magnetic fields might not entirely originate from a mean-field dynamo. Much of the current numerical effort is focused on this unsolved problem. (ii) Small-scale dynamos are important throughout a galaxy's life, and probably provide strong seed fields at early stages. (iii) Large-scale galactic magnetic fields of microGauss strengths can probably only be explained if helical magnetic fields of small or moderate length scales can rapidly be ejected or destroyed. (iv) The circumgalactic medium (CGM) may play an important role in driving dynamo action at small and large length scales. These interactions between the galactic disk and the CGM may be a key aspect in understanding galactic dynamos. We expect future research in galactic dynamos to focus on the cosmological history of galaxies and the interaction with the CGM as means of replacing the idealized boundary conditions used in earlier work.

Cosmic rays in star-forming galaxies are a dominant source of both diffuse $\gamma$-ray emission and ionisation in gas too deeply shielded for photons to penetrate. Though the cosmic rays responsible for $\gamma$-rays and ionisation are of different energies, they are produced by the same star formation-driven sources, and thus galaxies' star formation rates, $\gamma$-ray luminosities, and ionisation rates should all be linked. In this paper we use up-to-date cross-section data to determine this relationship, finding that cosmic rays in a galaxy of star formation rate $\dot{M}_*$ and gas depletion time $t_\mathrm{dep}$ produce a maximum primary ionisation rate $\zeta \approx 1\times 10^{-16} (t_\mathrm{dep}/\mbox{Gyr})^{-1}$ s$^{-1}$ and a maximum $\gamma$-ray luminosity $L_\gamma\approx 4\times 10^{39} (\dot{M}_*/\mathrm{M}_\odot\mbox{ yr}^{-1})$ erg s$^{-1}$ in the 0.1 - 100 GeV band. These budgets imply either that the ionisation rates measured in Milky Way molecular clouds include a significant contribution from local sources that elevate them above the Galactic mean, or that CR-driven ionisation in the Milky Way is enhanced by sources not linked directly to star formation. Our results also imply that ionisation rates in starburst systems are only moderately enhanced compared to those in the Milky Way. Finally, we point out that measurements of $\gamma$-ray luminosities can be used to place constraints on galactic ionisation budgets in starburst galaxies that are nearly free of systematic uncertainties on the details of cosmic ray acceleration.

We investigate dust-unbiased star formation rates (SFR) as a function of the environment in 20 massive clusters ($M_{200}>4\times10^{14}\,{\rm M}_{\odot}$) between $0.15<z<0.35$ using radio luminosities ($L_{\rm 1.4GHz}$) from the recently released MeerKAT Galaxy Cluster Legacy Survey catalogue. We use optical data from the Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey to estimate photo-$z$s and assign cluster membership. We observe a steady decline in the fraction ($f_{\rm SF}$) of star-forming galaxies from $2R_{200}$ to the cluster centres in our full cluster sample, but notice a significant difference in $f_{\rm SF}$ gradients between clusters hosting large-scale extended radio emission in the form of haloes and relics (associated with ongoing merger activity) and non-radio-halo/relic hosting clusters. For star-forming galaxies within $R_{200}$, the $f_{\rm SF}$ in clusters hosting radio haloes and relics ($0.148\pm0.016$) is $\approx23\%$ higher than in non-radio-halo/relic hosting clusters ($0.120\pm0.011$). We observe a $3\sigma$ difference between the total SFR normalised by cluster mass for non-radio-halo/relic hosting clusters ($21.5\pm1.9$\,M$_{\odot}$yr$^{-1}$/$10^{14}$M$_{\odot}$) and for clusters with radio haloes and relics ($26.1\pm1.4$\,M$_{\odot}$yr$^{-1}$/$10^{14}$M$_{\odot}$). There is a $\approx4\times$ decline in the mass normalised total SFR of clusters for galaxies with SFR above the luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs) SFR limit at our redshift slice, corresponding to 2\,Gyr in look-back time. This is consistent with the rapid decline in SF activity with decreasing redshift amongst cluster LIRGs seen by previous studies using infrared-derived SFR.

The primordial black hole (PBH) productions from the inflationary potential with an inflection point usually rely heavily on the fine-tuning of the model parameters. We propose in this work a new kind of the $\alpha$-attractor inflation with asymmetric double poles that naturally lead to two periods of the standard slow-roll phases connected by a non-attractor ultra-slow-roll phase, during which the PBH productions are guaranteed without fine-tuning the model parameters. This double-pole inflation can be tested against the observational data in the future with rich phenomenological signatures: (1) the enhanced curvature perturbations at small scales admit a distinctive feature of ultraviolet oscillations in the power spectrum; (2) the quasi-monochromatic mass function of the produced PBHs can be made compatible to the asteroid-mass PBHs as the dominant dark matter component, the planet-mass PBHs as the OGLE ultrashort-timescale microlensing events, and the solar-mass PBHs as the LIGO events; (3) the induced gravitational waves can be detected by the gravitational-wave detectors in space and Pulsar Timing Array/Square Kilometer Array.

Cosmic inflation is arguably the most favoured paradigm of the very early Universe. It postulates an early phase of fast, nearly exponential, and accelerated expansion. Inflationary models are capable of explaining the overall flatness and homogeneity of today's Universe at large scales. Despite being widely accepted by the physics community, these models are not absent from criticism. In scalar field inflation, a necessary condition to begin inflation is the requirement of a Universe dominated by the field's potential, which implies a subdominant contribution from the scalar field dynamics. This has originated to large amounts of scientific debate and literature on the naturalness, and possible fine-tuning of the initial conditions for inflation. Another controversial issue concerns the end of inflation, and the fact that a preheating mechanism is necessary to originate the hot big bang plasma after inflation. In this thesis, we present full general relativistic simulations to study these two problems, with a particular focus on the Starobinsky and Higgs models of inflation. First, we consider the fine-tuning problem of beginning inflation from a highly dynamical and inhomogeneous "preinflation" epoch in the single-field case. In our second study, we approach the multifield paradigm of preinflation, together and consistently, with the preheating phase. These investigations confirm the robustness of these inflationary models to generic initial conditions, while putting in evidence the non-negligible gravitational effects during preheating. At the end of the manuscript, we discuss potential applications of numerical simulations in cosmology, including our preliminary investigations on primordial black hole formation.

Galaxies are observed to be lopsided, meaning that they are more massive and more extended along one direction than the opposite. However, the galaxies generated in cosmological simulations are much less lopsided, inconsistent with observations. In this work, we provide a statistical analysis of the lopsided morphology of 2148 simulated isolated satellite galaxies generated by TNG50-1 simulation, incorporating the effect of tidal fields from halo centres. We study the radial alignment (RA) between the major axes of satellites and the radial direction of their halo centres within truncation radii of $3R_h$, $5R_h$ and $10R_h$. According to our results, RA is absent for all these truncations. We also calculate the far-to-near-side semi-axial ratios of the major axes, denoted by $a_-/a_+$, which measures the semi-axial ratios of the major axes in the hemispheres between backwards (far-side) and facing (near-side) the halo centres. If the satellites are truncated within radii of $3R_h$ and $5R_h$ with $R_h$ being the stellar half mass radius, the numbers of satellites with longer semi-axes on the far-side are found to be almost equal to those with longer semi-axes on the near-side. Within a larger truncated radius of $10R_h$, the number of satellites with axial ratios $a_-/a_+ <1.0$ is about $10\%$ more than that with $a_-/a_+ > 1.0$. Therefore, the tidal fields from halo centres play a minor role in the generation of lopsided satellites. The lopsidedness radial alignment (LRA), i.e., an alignment of long semi-major-axes along the radial direction of halo centres, is further studied. No clear evidence of LRA is found in our sample within the framework of $\Lambda$CDM Newtonian dynamics. In comparison, the LRA can be naturally induced by the external fields from the central host galaxy in Milgromian dynamics. (See paper for full abstract)

Blazars are very broadband cosmic sources with spectra spanning over twenty orders of magnitude in frequency, down to the 100 MHz regime in the radio range, up to VHE at several tens of TeV. The modelling of their spectral energy distribution at high energies currently considers two main classes of models, leptonic and lepto-hadronic, which both succeed fairly well in describing the observed spectra for the two populations of blazars, namely BL Lac objects (BL Lacs) and flat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs). However they are both confronted with difficulties, in particular to reproduce flaring phenomena monitored with a good multi-spectral and temporal coverage, or to reproduce extreme sources which challenge the basic descriptions. Such a situation has led to a diversity of specific scenarios, the positioning of which in relation to the general context of the sources is generally not clearly fixed. The identification of the dominant particle acceleration mechanism at work and a better understanding of the location of the TeV emitting zone would make it possible to break the degeneracies between models. Multi-wavelength and multi-messenger studies should also help in this regard, with the perspective to elaborate a general reference scenario of blazars and AGNs.

Past occultation and phase-curve observations of the ultra-short period super-Earth 55 Cnc e obtained at visible and infrared wavelengths have been challenging to reconcile with a planetary reflection and emission model. In this study, we analyse a set of 41 occultations obtained over a two-year timespan with the CHEOPS satellite. We report the detection of 55 Cnc e's occultation with an average depth of $12\pm3$ ppm. We derive a corresponding 2-$\sigma$ upper limit on the geometric albedo of $A_g < 0.55$ once decontaminated from the thermal emission measured by Spitzer at 4.5$\mu$m. CHEOPS's photometric performance enables, for the first time, the detection of individual occultations of this super-Earth in the visible and identifies short-timescale photometric corrugations likely induced by stellar granulation. We also find a clear 47.3-day sinusoidal pattern in the time-dependent occultation depths that we are unable to relate to stellar noise, nor instrumental systematics, but whose planetary origin could be tested with upcoming JWST occultation observations of this iconic super-Earth.

$\upsilon$ Sgr is the prototype of four known hydrogen-deficient binary (HdB) systems. These are characterised by a hydrogen-deficient A-type primary, variable hydrogen emission lines, and a normally unseen secondary presumed to be an upper main-sequence star. Orbital periods range from tens of days to 360 d. TESS observations of all four HdBs show a flux variation with well-defined period in the range 0.5 -- 0.9 d, too short to be associated with the supergiant primary, and more likely to be the rotation period of the secondary and associated with a chemical surface asymmetry or a low-order non-radial oscillation. The observed rotation period supports a recent analysis of the $\upsilon$ Sgr secondary. The observations give a direct glimpse of the secondary in all four systems, and should help to explain how the primary has been stripped to become a low-mass hydrogen remnant.

A primordial black hole (PBH) is thought to be made of the regular matter or ordinary mass ($M$) only, and hence could have already been decayed due to the Hawking radiation if its initial ordinary mass were $\lesssim 5 \times 10^{11}$ kg. Here, we study the role of gravitomagnetic monopole for the evaporation of PBHs, and propose that the lower energy PBHs (equivalent to ordinary mass $M << 5\times 10^{11}$ kg) could still exist in our present Universe, if it has gravitomagnetic monopole. If a PBH was initially made of both regular matter and gravitomagnetic monopole, the regular matter could decay away due to the Hawking radiation. The remnant gravitomagnetic monopole might not entirely decay, which could still be found as a PBH in the form of the pseudo `mass-energy'. If a PBH with $M \gtrsim 5 \times 10^{11}$ kg is detected, one may not be able to conclude if it has gravitomagnetic monopole. But, a plausible detection of a relatively low energy (equivalent to $2.176 \times 10^{-8}$ kg $< M \lesssim 5\times10^{11}$ kg) PBH in future may imply the existence of a gravitomagnetic monopole PBH, which may or may not contain the ordinary mass.

We compare properties of high-redshift galaxies observed by JWST with hydrodynamical simulations, in the standard cold dark matter model and in warm dark matter models with a suppressed linear matter power spectrum. We find that current data are not in tension with cold dark matter nor with warm dark matter models with mWDM > 2 keV, since they probe bright and rare objects whose physical properties are similar in the different scenarios. We also show how two observables, the galaxy luminosity functions and the galaxy correlation function at small scales of faint objects, can be promising tools for discriminating between the different dark matter models.

Aims. In this work we use the Gaia DR3 set of ultracool dwarf candidates and complement the Gaia spectrophotometry with additional photometry in order to characterise its global properties. This includes the inference of the distances, their locus in the Gaia colour-absolute magnitude diagram and the (biased through selection) luminosity function in the faint end of the Main Sequence. We study the overall changes in the Gaia RP spectra as a function of spectral type. We study the UCDs in binary systems, attempt to identify low-mass members of nearby young associations, star forming regions and clusters, and analyse their variability properties. Results. We detect 57 young, kinematically homogeneous groups some of which are identified as well known star forming regions, associations and clusters of different ages. We find that the primary members of 880 binary systems with a UCD belong mainly to the thin and thick disk components of the Milky Way. We identify 1109 variable UCDs using the variability tables in the Gaia archive, 728 of which belong to the star forming regions defined by HMAC. We define two groups of variable UCDs with extreme bright or faint outliers. Conclusions. The set of sources identified as UCDs in the Gaia archive contains a wealth of information that will require focused follow-up studies and observations. It will help to advance our understanding of the nature of the faint end of the Main Sequence and the stellar/substellar transition.

Models fail to reproduce observations of the coldest parts of the Sun's atmosphere, where interactions between multiple ionized and neutral species prevent an accurate MHD representation. This paper argues that a meter-scale electrostatic plasma instability develops in these regions and causes heating. We refer to this instability as the Thermal Farley-Buneman instability, or TFBI. Using parameters from a 2.5D radiative MHD Bifrost simulation, we show that the TFBI develops in many of the colder regions in the chromosphere. This paper also presents the first multi-fluid simulation of the TFBI and validates this new result by demonstrating close agreement with theory during the linear regime. The simulation eventually develops turbulence, and we characterize the resulting wave-driven heating, plasma transport, and random motions. These results all contend that effects of the TFBI contribute to the discrepancies between solar observations and radiative MHD models.

The Strange Quark matter (SQM) hypothesis states that at extreme pressure and density conditions a new ground state of matter would arise, in which half of the \textit{down} quarks become strange quarks. If true, it would mean that at least the core of neutron stars is made of SQM. In this hypothesis, SQM would be released in the inter-stellar medium when two of these objects merge. It is estimated that $10^{-2} M\odot$ of SQM would be released this way. This matter will undergo a sequence of processes that should result in a fraction of the released SQM becoming heavy nuclei through \textit{r-process}. In this work we are interested in characterizing the fragmentation of SQM, with the novelty of keeping track of the \textit{quark configuration} of the fragmented matter. This is accomplished by developing a methodology to estimate the energy of each fragment as the sum of its \textit{constituent quarks}, the Coulomb interaction among the quarks and fragments' momenta. The determination of the fragmentation output is crucial to fully characterize the subsequent nucleosynthesis.

ALMA observations of line emission from planet forming discs have demonstrated to be an excellent tool to probe the internal disc kinematics, often revealing subtle effects related to important dynamical processes occurring in them, such as turbulence, or the presence of planets, that can be inferred from pressure bumps perturbing the gas motion, or from detection of the planetary wake. In particular, we have recently shown for the case of the massive disc in Elias 2-27 how one can use such kind of observations to measure deviations from Keplerianity induced by the disc self-gravity, thus constraining the total disc mass with good accuracy and independently on mass conversion factors between the tracer used and the total mass. Here, we refine our methodology and extend it to two additional sources, GM Aur and IM Lup, for which archival line observations are available for both the 12CO and the 13CO line. For IM Lup, we are able to obtain a consistent disc mass of Mdisc=0.1 Msun, implying a disc-star mass ratio of 0.1 (consistent with the observed spiral structure in the continuum emission) and a gas/dust ratio of ~ 65 (consistent with standard assumptions), with a systematic uncertainty by a factor ~2 due to the different methods to extract the rotation curve. For GM Aur, the two lines we use provide slightly inconsistent rotation curves, that cannot be attributed only to a difference in the height of the emitting layer, nor to a vertical temperature stratification. Our best fit disc mass measurement is Mdisc=0.26Msun, implying a disc-star mass ratio of ~0.35 and a gas/dust ratio of ~130... ABRIDGED

We present a magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulation of the coronal mass ejection (CME) on 13 December 2006 in the emerging delta-sunspot active region 10930, improving upon a previous simulation by Fan (2016) as follows. (1) Incorporate an ambient solar wind instead of using a static potential magnetic field extrapolation as the initial state. (2) In addition to imposing the emergence of a twisted flux rope, also impose at the lower boundary a random electric field that represents the effect of turbulent convection, which drives field-line braiding and produces resistive and viscous heating in the corona. With the inclusion of this heating, which depends on the magnetic field topology, we are able to model the synthetic soft X-ray images that would be observed by the X-Ray Telescope (XRT) of the Hinode satellite, produced by the simulated coronal magnetic field. We find that the simulated pre-eruption magnetic field with the build up of a twisted magnetic flux rope, produces synthetic soft X-ray emission that shows qualitatively similar morphology as that observed by the Hinode/XRT for both the ambient coronal loops of the active region and the central inverse-S shaped "sigmoid" that sharpens just before the onset of the eruption. The synthetic post-flare loop brightening also shows similar morphology as that seen in the Hinode/XRT image during the impulsive phase of the eruption. It is found that the kinematics of the erupting flux rope is significantly affected by the open magnetic fields and fast solar wind streams adjacent to the active region.

During the last century many observations have been made to peep into the dark matter in the universe and many astonishing behaviors of Galaxy clusters have been found which do not fit to any theories formulated before. However, Optical Spectroscopic observation has been initially used to measure the rotational velocity of the Andromeda Galaxy as a function of distance found in contrast to the Law of Gravitation.Due to the expansion of space, electromagnetic radiation emitted in the distant Universe is redshifted on its path towards us which can be used to determine the distances of astronomical objects.

Upcoming astronomical surveys will observe billions of galaxies across cosmic time, providing a unique opportunity to map the many pathways of galaxy assembly to an incredibly high resolution. However, the huge amount of data also poses an immediate computational challenge: current tools for inferring parameters from the light of galaxies take $\gtrsim 10$ hours per fit. This is prohibitively expensive. Simulation-based Inference (SBI) is a promising solution. However, it requires simulated data with identical characteristics to the observed data, whereas real astronomical surveys are often highly heterogeneous, with missing observations and variable uncertainties determined by sky and telescope conditions. Here we present a Monte Carlo technique for treating out-of-distribution measurement errors and missing data using standard SBI tools. We show that out-of-distribution measurement errors can be approximated by using standard SBI evaluations, and that missing data can be marginalized over using SBI evaluations over nearby data realizations in the training set. While these techniques slow the inference process from $\sim 1$ sec to $\sim 1.5$ min per object, this is still significantly faster than standard approaches while also dramatically expanding the applicability of SBI. This expanded regime has broad implications for future applications to astronomical surveys.

There is an increasing number of observational evidence that very high energy gamma-rays in radio-loud active galactic nuclei are produced in the direct vicinity of a supermassive black hole (SMBH), close to the base of a relativistic jet. In the case of some blazars, the angle between the jet axis and the observer's line of sight is smaller than the angular extent of the jet. Gamma-rays that are produced close to SMBH therefore have to propagate in the nonthermal radiation of the extended jet before reaching the observer. This gamma-ray emission can be strongly absorbed in the extended jet radiation, producing a second generation of electron-positron pairs that loses energy mainly via the synchrotron process. We show that this advanced inhomogeneous jet model can explain the multiwavelength spectrum of the BL Lac object Mrk 421 in a nonflaring state for reasonable parameters of the jet and the SMBH. Moreover, we argue that synchrotron emission from the secondary electron-positron pairs, which appear as a result of absorption of gamma-rays that are produced close to the SMBH within the jet radiation, is consistent with the concave hard X-ray emission observed from Mrk 421.

Supernovae (SNe) that have been multiply-imaged by gravitational lensing are rare and powerful probes for cosmology. Each detection is an opportunity to develop the critical tools and methodologies needed as the sample of lensed SNe increases by orders of magnitude with the upcoming Vera C. Rubin Observatory and Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. The latest such discovery is of the quadruply-imaged Type Ia SN 2022qmx (aka, "SN Zwicky"; Goobar et al. 2022) at z = 0.3544. SN Zwicky was discovered by the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) in spatially unresolved data. Here we present follow-up Hubble Space Telescope observations of SN Zwicky, the first from the multi-cycle "LensWatch" program (www.lenswatch.org). We measure photometry for each of the four images of SN Zwicky, which are resolved in three WFC3/UVIS filters (F475W, F625W, F814W) but unresolved with WFC3/IR F160W, and produce an analysis of the lensing system using a variety of independent lens modeling methods. We find consistency between time delays estimated with the single epoch of HST photometry and the lens model predictions constrained through the multiple image positions, with both inferring time delays of <1 day. Our lens models converge to an Einstein radius of (0.168+0.009-0.005)", the smallest yet seen in a lensed SN. The "standard candle" nature of SN Zwicky provides magnification estimates independent of the lens modeling that are brighter by ~1.5 mag and ~0.8 mag for two of the four images, suggesting significant microlensing and/or additional substructure beyond the flexibility of our image-position mass models.

We define a sample of 200 protostellar outflows showing blue and redshifted CO emission in the nearby molecular clouds Ophiuchus, Taurus, Perseus and Orion to investigate the correlation between outflow orientations and local, but relatively large-scale, magnetic field directions traced by Planck 353 GHz dust polarization. At high significance (p~1e-4), we exclude a random distribution of relative orientations and find that there is a preference for alignment of projected plane of sky outflow axes with magnetic field directions. The distribution of relative position angles peaks at ~30deg and exhibits a broad dispersion of ~50deg. These results indicate that magnetic fields have dynamical influence in regulating the launching and/or propagation directions of outflows. However, the significant dispersion around perfect alignment orientation implies that there are large measurement uncertainties and/or a high degree of intrinsic variation caused by other physical processes, such as turbulence or strong stellar dynamical interactions. Outflow to magnetic field alignment is expected to lead to a correlation in the directions of nearby outflow pairs, depending on the degree of order of the field. Analyzing this effect we find limited correlation, except on relatively small scales < 0.5 pc. Furthermore, we train a convolutional neural network to infer the inclination angle of outflows with respect to the line of sight and apply it to our outflow sample to estimate their full 3D orientations. We find that the angles between outflow pairs in 3D space also show evidence of small-scale alignment.

Extragalactic foregrounds are known to generate significant biases in temperature-based CMB lensing reconstruction. Several techniques, which include ``source hardening'' and ``shear-only estimators'' have been proposed to mitigate contamination and have been shown to be very effective at reducing foreground-induced biases. Here we extend both techniques to polarization, which will be an essential component of CMB lensing reconstruction for future experiments, and investigate the ``large-lens'' limit analytically to gain insight on the origin and scaling of foreground biases, as well as the sensitivity to their profiles.Using simulations of polarized point sources, we estimate the expected bias to both Simons Observatory and CMB-S4 like (polarization-based) lensing reconstruction, finding that biases to the former are minuscule while those to the latter are potentially non-negligible at small scales ($L\sim1000-2000$). In particular, we show that for a CMB-S4 like experiment, an optimal linear combination of point-source hardened estimators can reduce the (point-source induced) bias to the CMB lensing power spectrum by up to two orders of magnitude, at a $\sim4\%$ noise cost relative to the global minimum variance estimator.

In this work we study an alternative topological model for explaining the observed acceleration of space-time, we answer the question of whether this acceleration could be a consequence of the topology of the universe. For doing that, we propose that the whole universe is composed of a four dimensional base space, which represents space-time, endowed with a fiber forming a principal fiber bundle. We analyze this hypothesis for a homogeneous and isotropic four dimensional space-time and show that the effect of the fiber onto the base space is that the space-time accelerates depending on the group of the fiber, even in an oscillatory way, resembling the behavior of the universe according to recent observations. We conclude that there is the possibility of the accelerating behavior of the universe being due to its whole topology instead of an exotic kind of matter.

We study brane-world models and demonstrate that such models do not admit self-similar solutions through the matter collineation approach. By introducing the hypothesis of variable brane tension, $\lambda,$ we outline the new effective field equation (EFE) in the most simple case (symmetric embedding) under the assumption that the fundamental constants in 5D are constants. In this case, we find the exact form that each physical quantity may take in order that the EFE become invariant under scale transformations. By taking into account such assumptions, we find that in 4D, the gravitational constant $\kappa^{2}\thicksim\lambda$ while the cosmological constant $\Lambda\thicksim\lambda^{2}$ are always decreasing. These results are quite general and valid for any homogeneous self-similar metric. Nevertheless, the study of the EFE under scale symmetries suggests that $\rho\thicksim\lambda$ (as a functional relationship). This allows to get a growing $\kappa^{2}$ but, in this case, the fundamental constants in 5D must vary as well. We outline a toy model allowing such a possibility.

The cosmological gauge field (CGF) is a classical solution of SU(2)-weak gauge theory oscillating rapidly in time. It is the dark matter driving the CGF cosmology. A general, local, mathematically natural construction of the CGF is given here. The macroscopic properties are derived. The CGF is an irrotational perfect fluid. It provides a synchronized global time coordinate and a global rest frame. There is a conserved number density. The energy density and pressure are related by the same equation of state as derived in the CGF cosmology and used in the TOV stellar structure equations for stars made of CGF dark matter. The present construction justifies the TOV solution. Some possible routes towards testing the theory are suggested at the end.

We present the improved Mathematica code which computes quasinormal frequencies with the help of the Bernstein spectral method for a general class of black holes, allowing for asymptotically flat, de Sitter or anti-de Sitter asymptotic. The method is especially efficient when searching for purely imaginary modes and here it is used for detecting the instability region of a charged scalar field in the background of the charged asymptotically de Sitter dilatonic black hole. We show that the instability has superradiant nature and the dilaton field essentially influences the region of instability.

We briefly discuss the most prominent results and specific sources detected by gravitational-wave observatories LIGO-Virgo during first three O1-O3 runs, as well as possible astrophysical and cosmological channels of their formation. We show that it is possible to explain the observed correlation between the effective spin of coalescing binary black holes and mass ratio of the components by accretion from the ambient medium onto primordial binary black holes. We also briefly discuss the recent results of searches for stochastic gravitational-wave background in the nano-Hz frequency band by pulsar timing arrays.

Space-time variation of fundamental physical constants in expanding Universe is predicted by a number of popular models. The masses of second generation quarks are larger than first generation quark masses by several orders of magnitude, therefore space-time variation in quark masses may significantly vary between each generation. We evaluate limits on variation in the s and c quark masses from Big Bang nucleosynthesis, Oklo natural nuclear reactor, Yb+, Cs and Rb clock data. The construction of 229Th nuclear clock is expected to enhance these limits by several orders of magnitude. Furthermore, constraints are obtained on an oscillating scalar or pseudoscalar cold dark matter field, as interactions of the field with quarks produce variations in quark masses.

We study the anisotropies of gravitational waves induced by weak hypermagnetic fields which are randomly distributed and oriented during the electroweak phase transition in the early universe. The theory setup of this study is the standard model plus a real singlet scalar field, which can produce the needed strongly first order electroweak phase transition. Then we investigate how the hypermagnetic fields can convert to magnetic fields and we compute the departure of energy difference between the symmetric phase and the broken phase when the magnetic fields are turned on. It is found that the presence of the hypermagnetic fields can increase the Euclidean action, thus can decrease nucleation temperature, which can lead to a supercool plasma. We point out that the hypermagnetic field can enhance the gravitational wave production from a first order electroweak phase transition and the inhomogeneity of primordial hypermagnetic field can lead to anisotropies of gravitational waves. By examining three well-motivated distribution of hypermagnetic fields, we calculate the corresponding angular power spectra of stochastic gravitational wave background and find they can be significantly larger than the contributions of the Sachs-Wolfe effects and integrated Sachs-Wolfe effects. Our results show that the anisotropies of gravitational wave could provide a novel probe to the primordial hypermagnetic field in the electroweak phase transition epoch.

The most widely studied formation mechanism of a primordial black hole (PBH) is collapse of large-amplitude perturbation on small scales generated in single-field inflation. In this Letter, we calculate one-loop correction to the large-scale power spectrum in such a model. We find models producing appreciable amount of PBHs generically induce too large one-loop correction on large scale probed by cosmic microwave background radiation. We therefore conclude that PBH formation from single-field inflation is ruled out.

Goodness-of-fit tests are often used in data analysis to test the agreement of a model to a set of data. Out of the box tests that can target any proposed distribution model are only available in the univariate case. In this note I discuss how to build a goodness-of-fit test for arbitrary multivariate distributions or multivariate data generation models. The resulting tests perform an unbinned analysis and do not need any trials factor or look-elsewhere correction since the multivariate data can be analyzed all at once. The proposed distribution or generative model is used to transform the data to an uncorrelated space where the test is developed. Depending on the complexity of the model, it is possible to perform the transformation analytically or numerically with the help of a Normalizing Flow algorithm.

The ever increasing dependence of modern societies in space based services results in a rising number of objects in orbit which grows the probability of collisions between them. The increase in space debris is a threat to space assets, space based-operations and led to a common effort to develop programs for dealing with it. As part of the Portuguese Space Surveillance and Tracking (SST) project, led by the Portuguese Ministry of Defense (MoD), Instituto de Telecomunica\c{c}\~oes (IT) is developing the rAdio TeLescope pAmpilhosa Serra (ATLAS), a new monostatic radar tracking sensor located at the Pampilhosa da Serra Space Observatory (PASO), Portugal. The system operates at 5.56 GHz and aims to provide information on objects in low earth orbit (LEO), with cross sections above 10 cm$^2$ at 1000~km. The sensor is tasked by the Portuguese Network Operations Center (NOC), located in the Azores island, which interfaces with the EU-SST network.

We discuss predictions for cosmology which result from the scaling solution of functional flow equations for a quantum field theory of gravity. A scaling solution is necessary to render quantum gravity renormalizable. Our scaling solution is directly connected to the quantum effective action for the metric coupled to a scalar field. It includes all effects of quantum fluctuations and is invariant under general coordinate transformations. Solving the cosmological field equations derived by variation of the quantum effective action provides for a detailed quantitative description of the evolution of the universe. The \qq{beginning state} of the universe is found close to an ultraviolet fixed point of the flow equation. It can be described by an inflationary epoch, with approximate scale invariance of the observed primordial fluctuation spectrum explained by approximate quantum scale symmetry. Overall cosmology realizes a dynamical crossover from the ultraviolet fixed point to an infrared fixed point which is approached in the infinite future. Present cosmology is close to the infrared fixed point. It features dynamical dark energy mediated by a light scalar field. The tiny mass of this cosmon arises from its role as a pseudo Goldstone boson of spontaneously broken quantum scale symmetry. The extremely small value of the present dark energy density in Planck units results dynamically as a consequence of the huge age of the universe. The cosmological constant problem finds a dynamical solution. We present a detailed quantitative computation of the scaling solution for the scalar effective potential and the field-dependent coefficient of the curvature scalar. This allows for further quantitative predictions.