Papers for Tuesday, Nov 29 2022

Dense stellar environments as hosts of ongoing star formation increase the probability of gravitational encounters among stellar systems during the early stages of evolution. Stellar interaction may occur through non-recurring, hyperbolic or parabolic passages (a so-called 'fly-by'), through secular binary evolution, or through binary capture. In all three scenarios, the strong gravitational perturbation is expected to manifest itself in the disc structures around the individual stars. Here, we present near-infrared polarised light observations that were taken with the SPHERE/IRDIS instrument of three known interacting twin-disc systems: AS 205, EM* SR 24, and FU Orionis. The scattered light exposes spirals likely caused by the gravitational interaction. On a larger scale, we observe connecting filaments between the stars. We analyse their very complex polarised intensity and put particular attention to the presence of multiple light sources in these systems. The local angle of linear polarisation indicates the source whose light dominates the scattering process from the bridging region between the two stars. Further, we show that the polarised intensity from scattering with multiple relevant light sources results from an incoherent summation of the individuals' contribution. This can produce nulls of polarised intensity in an image, as potentially observed in AS 205. We discuss the geometry and content of the systems by comparing the polarised light observations with other data at similar resolution, namely with ALMA continuum and gas emission. Collective observational data can constrain the systems' geometry and stellar trajectories, with the important potential to differentiate between dynamical scenarios of stellar interaction.

[Full abstract in the paper] We aim to better constrain the atmospheric properties of the directly imaged exoplanet 51~Eri~b by using a retrieval approach on higher signal-to-noise data than previously reported. In this context, we also compare the results of using the atmospheric retrieval code \texttt{petitRADTRANS} vs a self-consistent model to fit atmospheric parameters. We present a higher signal-to-noise $YH$ spectrum of the planet and revised $K1K2$ photometry (M$_{K1} = 15.11 \pm 0.04$ mag, M$_{K2} = 17.11 \pm 0.38$ mag). The best-fit parameters obtained using an atmospheric retrieval differ from previous results using self-consistent models. In general, we find that our solutions tend towards cloud-free atmospheres (e.g. log $\tau_{\rm clouds} = -5.20 \pm 1.44$). For our ``nominal'' model with new data, we find a lower metallicity ([Fe/H] $= 0.26\pm$0.30 dex) and C/O ratio ($0.38\pm0.09$), and a slightly higher effective temperature (T$_{\rm{eff}} = 807\pm$45 K) than previous studies. The surface gravity (log $g = 4.05\pm0.37$) is in agreement with the reported values in the literature within uncertainties. We estimate the mass of the planet to be between 2 and 4 M$_{\rm{Jup}}$. When comparing with self-consistent models, we encounter a known correlation between the presence of clouds and the shape of the $P-T$ profiles. Our findings support the idea that results from atmospheric retrievals should not be discussed in isolation, but rather along with self-consistent temperature structures obtained using the retrieval's best-fit parameters.

From observations of both low and high redshifts, it is well known that the bulk of dark matter (DM) has to be stable or, at least, very long-lived. However, the possibility that a small fraction of DM is unstable or that all of DM decays with a half-life time ($\tau$) significantly larger than the age of the universe is not ruled out. One-body decaying dark matter (DDM) consists of a minimal extension to the $\Lambda$CDM model. It causes a modification of the cosmic growth history as well as a suppression of the small-scale clustering signal, providing interesting consequences regarding the $S_8$-tension, the observed differences of the clustering amplitude between weak lensing (WL) and cosmic microwave background (CMB) observations. In this paper we investigate models where a fraction or all DM decays into radiation, focusing on the long-lived regime i.e. $\tau \gtrsim H_0^{-1}$ ( $H_0^{-1}$ being the Hubble time). We use WL data from the Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS) and CMB data from Planck. First, we confirm that this DDM model cannot alleviate the $S_8$-tension. We then show that the most constraining power for DM decays does not come from the nonlinear weak lensing data but from CMB via the integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect. From the CMB data alone, we obtain constraints of $\tau \geq 288$ Gyr if all the DM is assumed to be unstable, and we show that a maximum fraction of $f=0.07$ is allowed to decay assuming the half-life time to be comparable to (or smaller than) one Hubble time. The constraints from the KiDS-1000 WL data are significantly weaker, being at $\tau \geq 60$ Gyr and $f<0.34$, respectively. Combining the CMB and WL data does not yield tighter constraints than the CMB alone, except for small half-life times where the maximum allowed fraction becomes $f=0.03$. All limits are provided at 95\% confidence level.

Flickering, and more specifically aperiodic broad-band variability, is an important phenomenon used in understanding the geometry and dynamics of accretion flows. Although the inner regions of accretion flows are known to generate variability on relatively fast timescales, the broad-band variability generated in the outer regions have mostly remained elusive due to their long intrinsic variability timescales. Ultra-compact AM CVn systems are relatively small when compared to other accreting binaries and are well suited to search and characterise low frequency variability. Here we present the first low frequency power spectral analysis of the ultracompact accreting white dwarf system SDSS J1908$+$3940. The analysis reveals a low frequency break at $\sim 6.8 \times 10^{-7} $ Hz in the time-averaged power spectrum as well as a second higher frequency component with characteristic frequency of $\sim 1.3 \times 10^{-4} $ Hz. We associate both components to the viscous timescales within the disc through empirical fits to the power spectrum as well as analytical fits using the fluctuating accretion disk model. Our results show that the low frequency break can be associated to the disk outer regions of a geometrically thin accretion flow. The detection of the low frequency break in SDSS J1908$+$3940 provides a precedent for further detection of similar features in other ultracompact accreting systems. More importantly, it provides a new observable that can help constrain simulations of accretion flows.

The Standard Cosmological Model has experienced tremendous success at reproducing observational data by assuming a universe dominated by a cosmological constant and dark matter in a flat geometry. However, several studies, based on local measurements, indicate that the universe is expanding too fast, in disagreement with the Cosmic Microwave Background. Taking into account combined data from CMB, Baryon Acoustic Oscillation, and type Ia Supernovae, we show that if the mechanism behind the production of dark matter particles has at least a small non-thermal origin, one can induce larger values of the Hubble rate $H_0$, within the $\Lambda$CDM, to alleviate the trouble with $H_0$. In the presence of non-standard cosmology, however, we can fully reconcile CMB and local measurements and reach $H_0=70-74\, {\rm km s^{-1} Mpc^{-1}}$.

We present an improved version of the 3D Monte Carlo radiative transfer code POSSIS to model kilonovae from neutron star mergers, wherein nuclear heating rates, thermalization efficiencies and wavelength-dependent opacities depend on local properties of the ejecta and time. Using an axially-symmetric two-component ejecta model, we explore how simplistic assumptions on heating rates, thermalization efficiencies and opacities often found in the literature affect kilonova spectra and light curves. Specifically, we compute five models: one ($\texttt{FIDUCIAL}$) with an appropriate treatment of these three quantities, one ($\texttt{SIMPLE-HEAT}$) with uniform heating rates throughout the ejecta, one ($\texttt{SIMPLE-THERM}$) with a constant and uniform thermalization efficiency, one ($\texttt{SIMPLE-OPAC}$) with grey opacities and one ($\texttt{SIMPLE-ALL}$) with all these three simplistic assumptions combined. We find that deviations from the $\texttt{FIDUCIAl}$ model are of several ($\sim1-10$) magnitudes and are generally larger for the $\texttt{SIMPLE-OPAC}$ and $\texttt{SIMPLE-ALL}$ compared to the $\texttt{SIMPLE-THERM}$ and $\texttt{SIMPLE-HEAT}$ models. The discrepancies generally increase from a face-on to an edge-on view of the system, from early to late epochs and from infrared to ultraviolet/optical wavelengths. Our work indicates that kilonova studies using either of these simplistic assumptions ought to be treated with caution and that appropriate systematic uncertainties ought to be added to kilonova light curves when performing inference on ejecta parameters.

We characterize massive stars (M>8 M_sun) in the nearby (D~0.8 Mpc) extremely metal-poor (Z~5% Z_sun) galaxy Leo A using Hubble Space Telescope ultra-violet (UV), optical, and near-infrared (NIR) imaging along with Keck/LRIS and MMT/Binospec optical spectroscopy for 18 main sequence OB stars. We find that: (a) 12 of our 18 stars show emission lines, despite not being associated with an H II region, suggestive of stellar activity (e.g., mass loss, accretion, binary star interaction), which is consistent with previous predictions of enhanced activity at low metallicity; (b) 6 are Be stars, which are the first to be spectroscopically studied at such low metallicity -- these Be stars have unusual panchromatic SEDs; (c) for stars well-fit by the TLUSTY non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (non-LTE) models, the photometric and spectroscopic values of T_eff and log(g) agree to within ~0.01 dex and ~0.18 dex, respectively, indicating that NUV/optical/NIR imaging can be used to reliably characterize massive (M ~ 8-30 M_sun) main sequence star properties relative to optical spectroscopy; (d) the properties of the most massive stars in H II regions are consistent with constraints from previous nebular emission line studies; and (e) 13 stars with M>8 M_sun are >40 pc from a known star cluster or H II region. Our sample comprises ~50% of all known massive stars at Z < 10% Z_sun with derived stellar parameters, high-quality optical spectra, and panchromatic photometry.

Understanding the initial properties of star-forming material and how they affect the star formation process is key. From an observational point of view, the feedback from young high-mass stars on future star formation properties is still poorly constrained. In the framework of the IRAM 30m ORION-B large program, we obtained observations of the translucent and moderately dense gas, which we used to analyze the kinematics over a field of 5 deg^2 around the filamentary structures. We used the ROHSA algorithm to decompose and de-noise the C18O(1-0) and 13CO(1-0) signals by taking the spatial coherence of the emission into account. We produced gas column density and mean velocity maps to estimate the relative orientation of their spatial gradients. We identified three cloud velocity layers at different systemic velocities and extracted the filaments in each velocity layer. The filaments are preferentially located in regions of low centroid velocity gradients. By comparing the relative orientation between the column density and velocity gradients of each layer from the ORION-B observations and synthetic observations from 3D kinematic toy models, we distinguish two types of behavior in the dynamics around filaments: (i) radial flows perpendicular to the filament axis that can be either inflows (increasing the filament mass) or outflows and (ii) longitudinal flows along the filament axis. The former case is seen in the Orion B data, while the latter is not identified. We have also identified asymmetrical flow patterns, usually associated with filaments located at the edge of an HII region. This is the first observational study to highlight feedback from HII regions on filament formation and, thus, on star formation in the Orion B cloud. This simple statistical method can be used for any molecular cloud to obtain coherent information on the kinematics.

Where dust and gas are uniformly mixed, atomic hydrogen can be traced through the detection of far-infrared (FIR) or UV emission of dust. We considered, for the origin of discrepancies observed between various direct and indirect tracers of gas outside the Galactic plane, possible corrections to the zero levels of the Planck-HFI detectors. We set the zero levels of the Planck High Frequency Instrument (HFI) skymaps as well as the 100 $\mu$m map from COBE/DIRBE and IRAS from the correlation between FIR emission and atomic hydrogen column density excluding regions of lowest gas column density. A modified blackbody model fit to those new zero-subtracted maps led to significantly different maps of the opacity spectral index $\beta$ and temperature $T$ and an overall increase in the optical depth at 353 GHz $\tau_{353}$ of 7.1$\times$10$^{-7}$ compared to the data release 2 Planck map. When comparing $\tau_{353}$ and the HI column density, we observed a uniform spatial distribution of the opacity outside regions with dark neutral gas and CO except in various large-scale regions of low NHI that represent 25% of the sky. In those regions, we observed an average dust column density 45% higher than predictions based on NHI with a maximum of 250% toward the Lockman Hole region. From the average opacity $\sigma_{e 353}$=(8.9$\pm$0.1)$\times$10$^{-27}$ cm$^2$ we deduced a dust-to-gas mass ratio of 0.53$\times$10$^{-2}$. We did not see evidence of dust associated to a Reynolds layer of ionized hydrogen. We measured a far-ultraviolet isotropic intensity of 137$\pm$15 photons s$^{-1}$cm$^{-2}$sr$^{-1}$$A$$^{-1}$ in agreement with extragalactic flux predictions and a near-ultraviolet isotropic intensity of 378$\pm$45 photons s$^{-1}$cm$^{-2}$sr$^{-1}$$A$$^{-1}$ corresponding to twice the predicted flux.

Mrk 590 is a known changing-look AGN which almost turned off in 2012, and then in 2017 partially re-ignited into a repeat flaring state, unusual for an AGN. Our \emph{Swift} observations since 2013 allow us to characterise the accretion-generated emission and its reprocessing in the central engine of a changing-look AGN. The X-ray and UV variability amplitudes are higher than those typically observed in `steady-state' AGN at similar moderate accretion rates; instead, the variability is similar to that of highly accreting AGN. The unusually strong X-ray to UV correlation suggests that the UV-emitting region is directly illuminated by X-ray outbursts. We find evidence that the X-rays are reprocessed by two UV components, with the dominant one at $\sim$3 days and a faint additional reprocessor at near-zero lag. However, we exclude a significant contribution from diffuse broad line region continuum, known to contribute for bona-fide AGN. A near-zero lag is expected for a standard `lamp-post' disk reprocessing model with a driving continuum source near the black hole. That the overall UV response is dominated by the $\sim$3-day lagged component suggests a complicated reprocessing geometry, with most of the UV continuum not produced in a compact disk, as also found in recent studies of NGC 5548 and NGC 4151. Nonetheless, the observed flares display characteristic timescales of $\sim$100 rest-frame days, consistent with the expected thermal timescale in an accretion disk.

Stellar granulation generates fluctuations in photometric and spectroscopic data whose properties depend on the stellar type, composition, and evolutionary state. In this study, we aim to detect the signatures of stellar granulation, link spectroscopic and photometric signatures of convection for main-sequence stars, and test predictions from 3D hydrodynamic models. For the first time, we observed two bright stars (Teff = 5833 K and 6205 K) with high-precision observations taken simultaneously with CHEOPS and ESPRESSO. We analyzed the properties of the stellar granulation signal in each individual data set. We compared them to Kepler observations and 3D hydrodynamic models. While isolating the granulation-induced changes by attenuating the p-mode oscillation signals, we studied the relationship between photometric and spectroscopic observables. The signature of stellar granulation is detected and precisely characterized for the hotter F star in the CHEOPS and ESPRESSO observations. For the cooler G star, we obtain a clear detection in the CHEOPS dataset only. The TESS observations are blind to this stellar signal. Based on CHEOPS observations, we show that the inferred properties of stellar granulation are in agreement with both Kepler observations and hydrodynamic models. Comparing their periodograms, we observe a strong link between spectroscopic and photometric observables. Correlations of this stellar signal in the time domain (flux vs RV) and with specific spectroscopic observables (shape of the cross-correlation functions) are however difficult to isolate due to signal-to-noise dependent variations. In the context of the upcoming PLATO mission and the extreme precision RV surveys, a thorough understanding of the properties of the stellar granulation signal is needed. The CHEOPS and ESPRESSO observations pave the way for detailed analyses of this stellar process.

In this work, we identify elements of effective machine learning datasets in astronomy and present suggestions for their design and creation. Machine learning has become an increasingly important tool for analyzing and understanding the large-scale flood of data in astronomy. To take advantage of these tools, datasets are required for training and testing. However, building machine learning datasets for astronomy can be challenging. Astronomical data is collected from instruments built to explore science questions in a traditional fashion rather than to conduct machine learning. Thus, it is often the case that raw data, or even downstream processed data is not in a form amenable to machine learning. We explore the construction of machine learning datasets and we ask: what elements define effective machine learning datasets? We define effective machine learning datasets in astronomy to be formed with well-defined data points, structure, and metadata. We discuss why these elements are important for astronomical applications and ways to put them in practice. We posit that these qualities not only make the data suitable for machine learning, they also help to foster usable, reusable, and replicable science practices.

We first derive a set of equations describing general stationary configurations of relativistic force-free plasma, without assuming any geometric symmetries. We then demonstrate that electromagnetic interaction of merging neutron stars is necessarily dissipative due to the effect of electromagnetic draping - creation of dissipative regions near the star (in the single-magnetized case) or at the magnetospheric boundary (in the double-magnetized case). Our results indicate that even in the single magnetized case we expect that relativistic jets (or ``tongues'') are produced, with correspondingly beamed emission pattern.

We present both a disc-wind model on the optical/UV emission continuum and CLOUDY modelling on the spectral lines of the tidal disruption event (TDE) iPTF16axa to understand the disc-wind emission and the properties of the atmosphere that impacts the line luminosity of the TDE. Assuming the optical/UV emission from the wind due to the disc super-Eddington phase, we use the steady structured disc-wind model with a spherical wind with constant velocity to fit the observations on multiple days. The extracted parameters are stellar-mass $M_{\star} = 6.20 \pm 1.19 M_{\odot}$, disc radiative efficiency $\log_{\rm 10}(\eta) = -1.22 \pm 1.327$, wind inner radius $r_l = (2.013 \pm 0.551) \times 10^{14}~{\rm cm}$ and velocity $v_w = 18999.4 \pm 1785.1 ~{\rm km~s^{-1}}$. The photosphere temperature for wind emission is $ \sim 2 \times 10^4~{\rm K}$ and the disc single blackbody temperature is $\sim 0.995 \times 10^5~{\rm K}$. We also perform CLOUDY modelling to explain the observed He and H line luminosities that estimate a wind inner radius $r_l = 7.07 \times 10^{14}~{\rm cm}$ and velocity $v_w = 1.3 \times 10^4~{\rm km~s^{-1}}$. The independent analyses of iPTF16axa using CLOUDY and disc-wind models show comparable results that agree with observations. The CLOUDY modelling finds that both the super solar abundance of He and a smaller He II line optical depth is responsible for the enhancement of He II line luminosity over the H$\alpha$ line luminosity. The super-solar abundance of He II agrees with a relatively large stellar mass and suggests that the disrupted star might have been a red giant.

About the driven mechanisms of the quasi-periodic fast-propagating (QFP) wave trains, there exist two dominant competing physical explanations: associated with the flaring energy release or attributed to the waveguide dispersion. Employing Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) 171 A images, we investigated a series of QFP wave trains composed of multiple wavefronts propagating along a loop system during the accompanying flare on 2011 November 11. The wave trains showed a high correlation in start time with the energy release of the accompanying flare. Measurements show that the wave trains phase speed is almost consistent with its group speed with a value of about 1000 km s-1, indicating that the wave trains should not be dispersed waves. The period of the wave trains was the same as that of the oscillatory signal in X ray emissions released by the flare. Thus we propose that the QFP wave trains were most likely triggered by the flare rather than by dispersion. We investigated the seismological application with the QFP waves and then obtained that the magnetic field strength of the waveguide was about 10 Gauss. Meanwhile, we also estimated that the energy flux of the wave trains was about 1.2X105 erg cm-2 s-1.

Over the last two decades, around three hundred quasars have been discovered at $z\gtrsim6$, yet only one was identified as being strong-gravitationally lensed. We explore a new approach, enlarging the permitted spectral parameter space while introducing a new spatial geometry veto criterion, implemented via image-based deep learning. We made the first application of this approach in a systematic search for reionization-era lensed quasars, using data from the Dark Energy Survey, the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy Hemisphere Survey, and the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. Our search method consists of two main parts: (i) pre-selection of the candidates based on their spectral energy distributions (SEDs) using catalog-level photometry and (ii) relative probabilities calculation of being a lens or some contaminant utilizing a convolutional neural network (CNN) classification. The training datasets are constructed by painting deflected point-source lights over actual galaxy images to generate realistic galaxy-quasar lens models, optimized to find systems with small image separations, i.e., Einstein radii of $\theta_\mathrm{E} \leq 1$ arcsec. Visual inspection is then performed for sources with CNN scores of $P_\mathrm{lens} > 0.1$, which led us to obtain 36 newly-selected lens candidates, waiting for spectroscopic confirmation. These findings show that automated SED modeling and deep learning pipelines, supported by modest human input, are a promising route for detecting strong lenses from large catalogs that can overcome the veto limitations of primarily dropout-based SED selection approaches.

The variability of the X-ray emission from active galactic nuclei is often characterized using time lags observed between soft and hard energy bands in the detector. The time lags are usually computed using the complex cross spectrum, which is based on the Fourier transforms of the hard and soft time series data. It has been noted that some active galactic nuclei display soft X-ray time lags, in addition to the more ubiquitous hard lags. Hard time lags are thought to be produced via propagating fluctuations, spatial reverberation, or via the thermal Comptonization of soft seed photons injected into a hot electron cloud. The physical origin of the soft lags has been a subject of debate over the last decade. Currently, the reverberation interpretation is recognized as a leading theory. In this paper, we explore the alternative possibility that the soft X-ray time lags result partially from the thermal and bulk Comptonization of monochromatic seed photons, which in the case of the narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy 1H 0707-495, may correlate with fluorescence of iron L-line emission. In our model, the seed photons are injected into a hot, quasi-spherical corona in the inner region of the accretion flow. We develop an exact, time-dependent analytical model for the thermal and bulk Comptonization of the seed photons based on a Fourier-transformed radiation transport equation, and we demonstrate that the model successfully reproduces both the hard and soft time lags observed from 1H 0707-495.

Imaging the planets that orbit around other stars requires blocking the host star which is usually 8-10 orders of magnitude brighter than the planets. This is achieved with the help of a stellar coronagraph. In the current work, a concept of a new type of stellar coronagraph is introduced where the star light is blocked by a linear polarizer in the collimated beam. It is based on differential rotation between the linear polarization state of planet light and that of star light. This is achieved with the help of a set of thick birefringent crystals in the collimated beam of a telescope where the planet light is made to travel extra optical path length compared to star light. By adjusting the orientation and thickness of the crystal, the optical path length can be made to cause a phase difference of {\pi}, just enough to rotate the initial plane of polarization by 90{\deg} for planet-light without affecting the star light. Theoretical calculations involving the phase difference due to birefringent crystals are presented here along with the basic configuration and design. It is shown that the design blocks the star light identically at all wavelengths. Application of this concept for detecting Earth-like extrasolar planet is discussed using a one-meter class telescope.

Although episodic star formation (SF) had been suggested for nearby SF regions, a panoramic view to the latest episodic SF history in the solar neighborhood is still missing. By uniformly constraining the slope $\alpha$ of infrared spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of young stellar objects (YSOs) in the 13 largest Gould's Belt (GB) protoclusters surveyed by Spitzer Space Telescope, we have constructed a cluster-averaged histogram of $\alpha$ representing YSO evolution lifetime as a function of the $\alpha$ value. Complementary to the traditional SED classification scheme (0, I, F, II, III) that is based on different $\alpha$ values, a staging scheme (A,B,C,D,E) of SED evolution is advised on the basis of the $\alpha$ statistical features that can be better matched to the physical stages of disk dissipation and giant planet formation. This has also allowed us to unravel the fluctuations of star formation rate (SFR) in the past three-million-year (3 Myr) history of these GB protoclusters. Diverse evolutionary patterns such as single peak, double peaks and on-going acceleration of SFR are revealed. The SFR fluctuations are between $20\%\sim60\%$ ($\sim40\%$ on average) and no dependence on the average SFR or the number of SFR episodes is found. However, spatially close protoclusters tend to share similar SFR fluctuation trends, indicating that the driving force of the fluctuations should be at size scales beyond the typical cluster sizes of several parsec.

This paper focuses on the utility of various data transformation techniques, which might be under the principal component analysis (PCA) category, on exoplanet research. The first section introduces the methodological background of PCA and related techniques. The second section reviews the studies which utilized these techniques in the exoplanet research field and compiles the focuses in the literature under different items in the overview, with future research direction recommendations at the end.

The longest recognized stellar stream in the Milky Way Galaxy has an expanse of over more than half the north sky. There was a physical disturbance within the stream, 500 million years ago, which could have been the scar of a dark matter collision. Due to its proximity to the galactic center, the GD-1 stellar stream can act as an antenna for gravitational perturbations. In 2018, a significant gap in GD-1 was discovered due to perturbation. A stream gap occurs when a massive object collides with the stellar stream. Based on the chasm location and width, we can guess when and where the impact occurred. Using globular cluster sky coordinates and simulated galactocentric distributions, we calculated how close each globular cluster came to the GD-1 stream. This would be the first time a globular cluster has come close enough to the GD-1 stream to impact another object. Clusters, on the other hand, rarely approach GD-1, indicating that it was struck by something more exotic, like a clump of dark matter, when discovered. A simulation and theoretical model were created to better understand the GD-1 stellar stream behavior. These details can be used to map the large-scale distribution of dark matter in our galaxy as well as the small-scale structure of dark matter in the host galaxies of the streams. Examination of stellar streams and detection of subhalos will not only confirm the presence of dark matter but also reveal information about its particle nature.

Spectroastrometry measures source astrometry as a function of wavelength/velocity. Reverberations of spectroastrometric signals naturally arise in broad-line regions (BLRs) of active galactic nuclei as a result of the continuum variations that drive responses of the broad emission lines with time delays. Such signals provide a new diagnostic for mapping BLR kinematics and geometry, complementary to the traditional intensity reverberation mapping (RM) technique. We present the generic mathematical formulism for spectroastrometric RM and show that under realistic parameters of a phenomenological BLR model, the spectroastrometric reverberation signals vary on a level of several to tens of microarcseconds, depending on the BLR size, continuum variability, and angular-size distance. We also derive the analytical expressions of spectroastrometric RM for an inclined ring-like BLR. We develop a Bayesian framework with a sophisticated Monte-Carlo sampling technique to analyze spectroastrometic data and infer the BLR properties, including the central black hole mass and angular-size distance. We demonstrate the potential of spectroastrometric RM in spatially resolving BLR kinematics and geometry through a suite of simulation tests. An application to realistic observation data of 3C~273 obtains tentative, but enlightening results, reinforcing the practical feasibility of conducting spectroastrometric RM experiments on bright AGNs with the operating Very Large Telescope Interferometer as well as possibly with the planned next-generation 30m-class telescopes.

We derive an analytical model for the so-called phenomenon of `resonant dynamical friction', where a disc of stars around a super-massive black hole interacts with a massive perturber, so as to align its inclination with the disc's orientation. We show that it stems from singular behaviour of the orbit-averaged equations of motion, which leads to a rapid alignment of the argument of the ascending node $\Omega$ of each of the disc stars, with that of the perturber, $\Omega_{\rm p}$, with a phase-difference of $90^\circ$, for all stars whose maximum possible $\dot{\Omega}$ (maximised over all values of $\Omega$ for all the disc stars), is greater than $\dot{\Omega}_{\rm p}$; this corresponds approximately to all stars whose semi-major axes are less than twice that of the perturber. This persists until the perturber enters the disc. The predictions of this model agree with a suite of numerical $N$-body simulations which we perform to explore this phenomenon, for a wide range of initial conditions, masses, \emph{etc.}, and are an instance of a general phenomenon. Similar effects could occur in the context of planetary systems, too.

We investigate infrared properties of OGLE4 Mira variables in our Galaxy. For each object, we cross-identify the WISE, 2MASS, and IRAS counterparts. We present various IR two-color diagrams (2CDs) and period-magnitude and period-color relations for the Mira variables. Generally, the Miras variables with longer periods are brighter in the IR fluxes and redder in the IR colors. In this work, we also revise and update the previous catalog of AGB stars in our Galaxy using the new sample of OGLE4 Mira variables. Now, we present a new catalog of 74,093 (64,609 O-rich and 9484 C-rich) AGB stars in our Galaxy. A group of 23,314 (19,196 O-rich and 4118 C-rich) AGB stars are identified based on the IRAS PSC and another group of 50,779 (45,413 O-rich and 5366 C-rich) AGB stars are identified based on the AllWISE source catalog. For all of the AGB stars, we cross-identify the IRAS, AKARI, MSX, AllWISE, 2MASS, OGLE4, Gaia, and AAVSO counterparts and present various infrared 2CDs. Comparing the observations with the theory, we find that basic theoretical dust shell models can account for the IR observations fairly well for most of the AGB stars.

Aims. We here demonstrate how the recently developed Lightweaver framework makes non-LTE (NLTE) spectral synthesis feasible on a new 3D ab-initio magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) filament/prominence simulation, in a post-processing step. Methods. We clarify the need to introduce filament/prominent-specific Lightweaver boundary conditions that accurately model incident chromospheric radiation, and include a self-consistent and smoothly varying limb darkening function. Results. Progressing from isothermal/isobaric models to the self-consistently generated stratifications within a fully 3D MHD filament/prominence simulation, we find excellent agreement between our 1.5D non local thermodynamic equilibrium Lightweaver synthesis and a popular Hydrogen H{\alpha} proxy. We compute additional lines including Ca~\textsc{ii} 8542 alongside the more optically-thick Ca~\textsc{ii} H&K & Mg~\textsc{ii} h&k lines, for which no comparable proxy exists, and explore their formation properties within filament/prominence atmospheres. Conclusions. The versatility of the Lightweaver framework is demonstrated with this extension to 1.5D filament/prominence models, where each vertical column of the instantaneous 3D MHD state is spectrally analysed separately, without accounting for (important) multi-dimensional radiative effects. The general agreement found in the line core contrast of both observations and the Lightweaver-synthesised simulation further validates the current generation of solar filaments/prominences models constructed numerically with MPI-AMRVAC.

Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) light emitted by the Sun impacts satellite operations and communications and affects the habitability of planets. Currently, EUV-observing instruments are constrained to viewing the Sun from its equator (i.e., ecliptic), limiting our ability to forecast EUV emission for other viewpoints (e.g. solar poles), and to generalize our knowledge of the Sun-Earth system to other host stars. In this work, we adapt Neural Radiance Fields (NeRFs) to the physical properties of the Sun and demonstrate that non-ecliptic viewpoints could be reconstructed from observations limited to the solar ecliptic. To validate our approach, we train on simulations of solar EUV emission that provide a ground truth for all viewpoints. Our model accurately reconstructs the simulated 3D structure of the Sun, achieving a peak signal-to-noise ratio of 43.3 dB and a mean absolute relative error of 0.3\% for non-ecliptic viewpoints. Our method provides a consistent 3D reconstruction of the Sun from a limited number of viewpoints, thus highlighting the potential to create a virtual instrument for satellite observations of the Sun. Its extension to real observations will provide the missing link to compare the Sun to other stars and to improve space-weather forecasting.

We forecast the constraints on single-field inflation from the bispectrum of future high-redshift surveys such as MegaMapper. Considering non-local primordial non-Gaussianity (NLPNG), we find that current methods will yield constraints of order $\sigma(f_{\rm NL}^{\rm eq})\approx 23$, $\sigma(f_{\rm NL}^{\rm orth})\approx 12$ in a joint power-spectrum and bispectrum analysis, varying both nuisance parameters and cosmology, including a conservative range of scales. Fixing cosmological parameters and quadratic bias parameter relations, the limits tighten significantly to $\sigma(f_{\rm NL}^{\rm eq})\approx 17$, $\sigma(f_{\rm NL}^{\rm orth})\approx 8$. These compare favorably with the forecasted bounds from CMB-S4: $\sigma(f_{\rm NL}^{\rm eq})\approx 21$, $\sigma(f_{\rm NL}^{\rm orth})\approx 9$, with a combined constraint of $\sigma(f_{\rm NL}^{\rm eq})\approx 14$, $\sigma(f_{\rm NL}^{\rm orth})\approx 7$; this weakens only slightly if one instead combines with data from the Simons Observatory. We additionally perform a range of Fisher analyses for the error, forecasting the dependence on nuisance parameter marginalization, scale cuts, and survey strategy. Lack of knowledge of bias and counterterm parameters is found to significantly limit the information content; this could be ameliorated by tight simulation-based priors on the nuisance parameters. The error-bars decrease significantly as the number of observed galaxies and survey depth is increased: as expected, deep dense surveys are the most constraining, though it will be difficult to reach $\sigma(f_{\rm NL})\approx 1$ with current methods. The NLPNG constraints will tighten further with improved theoretical models (incorporating higher-loop corrections), as well as the inclusion of additional higher-order statistics.

Primordial black holes (PBHs) can generically form in inflationary setups through the collapse of enhanced cosmological perturbations, providing us access to the early Universe through their associated observational signatures. In the current work we propose a new mechanism of PBH production within non-canonical inflation, using a class of steep-deformed inflationary potentials compatible with natural values for the non-canonical exponents. In particular, by requiring significant PBH production we extract constraints on the non-canonical exponents. Additionally, we find that our scenario can lead to the formation of asteroid-mass PBHs, which can account for the totality of the dark matter, as well as to production of solar-mass PBHs within the LIGO/VIRGO detection band. Finally, we find that the enhanced cosmological perturbations which collapse to form PBHs can produce a stochastic gravitational-wave (GW) background induced by second-order gravitational interactions. Very interestingly, we obtain a GW signal detectable by future GW experiments, in particular by SKA, LISA and BBO.

The spectrum derived here for the most tightly-focused component of the radiation generated by the superluminally moving current sheet in the magnetrosphere of a non-aligned neutron star has a distribution function that fits the entire gamma-ray spectrum of the Crab pulsar on its own. This is the first time that the undivided breadth of this spectrum, from 10^2 to 10^6 MeV, is not only described by a single distribution function but is also explained by means of a single emission mechanism.

Observations of cosmic ray electrons have made great strides in the last decade and direct observations of the all-electron flux as well as separate electron and positron spectra are now available up to ~ 1 TeV. In this invited contribution to the 2022 edition of the Rencontres de Moriond on Very High Energy Phenomena in the Universe, we review the data on cosmic ray electron and positron spectra at TeV energies and offer general comments on their interpretation. Subsequently, we focus on the study of the stochastic fluctuations and a secondary model for the positron excess.

CSS1603+19 is a cataclysmic variable (CV) with an orbital period of 81.96 min, near the minimal period of cataclysmic variables. It is unusual in having a strong mid-infrared excess inconsistent with thermal emission from a brown dwarf companion. Here we present time-resolved multi-wavelength observations of this system. WISE photometry indicates that the mid-infrared excess displays a one-magnitude eclipsing-like variability during the orbit. We obtained near-infrared and optical spectroscopy using Gemini, MDM and APO telescopes. Near-infrared spectra show possible cyclotron features indicating that the white dwarf has a magnetic field of about 5MG. Optical and near-infrared spectra display double-peaked emission lines, with both components showing strong radial velocity variations during the orbital period and with the broad component leading the narrow component stably by about 0.2 of the orbital phase. We construct a physical model informed by existing observations of the system and determine that one component likely originates from the accretion column onto the magnetized white dwarf in synchronous rotation with the orbital motion and the other from the Roche overflow point. This allows us to constrain the masses of the binary components to be $M_1>0.24 M_{\odot}$ for the white dwarf accretor and $M_2=0.0644\pm0.0074 M_\odot$ for the donor. We classify the system as an AM Herculis star, or a polar. It has likely completed its stint on the period gap, but has not yet gone through the period bounce.

We study slow roll single field inflationary scenario and the production of non-thermal fermionic dark matter, together with standard model Higgs, during reheating. For the inflationary scenario, we have considered two models of polynomial potential - one is symmetric about the origin and another one is not. We fix the coefficients of the potential from the current Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) data from Planck/Bicep. Next, we explore the allowed parameter space on the coupling $(y_\chi)$ with inflaton and mass $(m_\chi)$ of dark matter (DM) particles $(\chi)$ produced during reheating and satisfying CMB and several other cosmological constraints.

Soft X-ray emission (0.5--2.0 keV) plays a pivotal role in regulating the optical and UV emission in the AGNs. We collected a sample of 1811 AGNs from the SDSS database and obtained various parameters of Balmer lines, optical continuum, MgII line \& UV continuum and studied their dependencies on soft X-ray luminosity. Based on the linear regression analysis, we found that FWHM$_{\text{MgII}}$ $\propto$ FWHM$_{\text{H}\beta}^{0.554}$ suggesting that UV emission is arising from a region relatively outside the broad line region (BLR) associated to the H$\beta$ emission and found a strong correlation between optical and UV luminosities (L$_{\text{MgII}}$ $\propto$ L$_{\text{H}\beta}^{0.822}$). It was noticed that the dependency of optical continuum luminosities on soft excess changes with the redshift (L$_{\text{X}}$ $\propto$ L$^{0.596}_{5100\text{\AA}}$ for z < 0.5 and L$_{\text{X}}$ $\propto$ L$^{0.429}_{5100\text{\AA}}$ for z > 0.5). The FWHM components of H${\beta}$ and MgII core components were found to be virialized and is not affected by the soft excess emission whereas the wings of MgII display a dependency. We estimated a relation viz. L$_{\text{X}}$ $\propto$L$^{0.520}_{3000\text{\AA}}$ FWHM$^{0.525}_{\text{MgII}}$ and found to be well in agreement with a proposed physical scenario. All the derived relations were used to understand the inter-modulating association of the BLR and disc in the AGNs.

We examine the HI gas kinematics of galaxy pairs in two clusters and a group using Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) WALLABY pilot survey observations. We compare the HI properties of galaxy pair candidates in the Hydra I and Norma clusters, and the NGC 4636 group, with those of non-paired control galaxies selected in the same fields. We perform HI profile decomposition of the sample galaxies using a tool, {\sc baygaud} which allows us to de-blend a line-of-sight velocity profile with an optimal number of Gaussian components. We construct HI super-profiles of the sample galaxies via stacking of their line profiles after aligning the central velocities. We fit a double Gaussian model to the super-profiles and classify them as kinematically narrow and broad components with respect to their velocity dispersions. Additionally, we investigate the gravitational instability of HI gas disks of the sample galaxies using Toomre Q parameters and HI morphological disturbances. We investigate the effect of the cluster environment on the HI properties of galaxy pairs by dividing the cluster environment into three subcluster regions (i.e., outskirts, infalling and central regions). We find that the denser cluster environment (i.e., infalling and central regions) is likely to impact the HI gas properties of galaxies in a way of decreasing the amplitude of the kinematically narrow HI gas ($M_{\rm{narrow}}^{\rm{HI}}$/$M_{\rm{total}}^{\rm{HI}}$), and increasing the Toomre Q values of the infalling and central galaxies. This tendency is likely to be more enhanced for galaxy pairs in the cluster environment.

We present a free-form reconstruction of the primordial power spectrum using Planck 2018 CMB temperature and polarisation data. We extend the modified Richardson-Lucy (MRL) algorithm to include polarisation and apply it to the CamSpec unbinned $C_\ell$s. Combined with a new regularisation technique inspired by the diffusion equation, we obtain a form of primordial power spectrum with features that improve the fit to each of TT, TE, and EE data simultaneously. The resulting features are consistent with the previous findings from the temperature-only analyses. We evaluate the statistical significance of the features in our reconstructions using simulated $C_\ell$s and find the data to be consistent with having a featureless primordial power spectrum. The machinery developed here will be a complimentary tool in the search for features in the primordial power spectrum with upcoming CMB surveys.

While ALMA and JWST are revolutionizing our view of star and planet formation with their unprecedented sensitivity and resolution at submillimeter and near-IR wavelengths, many outstanding questions can only be answered with observations in the thermal (mid- and far-) infrared domain. Many of these questions require space-based observations, to achieve the necessary sensitivity and/or wavelength coverage. In particular, how do interstellar clouds develop filamentary structures and dense cores? What are the masses and luminosities of objects at the earliest stages of star formation? What are the gas masses of planet-forming disks, and how do these disks disperse during planet formation? How is refractory and volatile material distributed within the disks, and how does this evolve with time? This article reviews how upcoming and planned balloon-borne and space-based telescopes for the mid- and far-infrared will address these questions, and outlines which further missions will be needed beyond 2030, when the ELTs will be in full operation.

The mergers of supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs) can serve as standard sirens: the gravitational wave (GW) analog of standard candles. The upcoming space-borne GW detectors will be able to discover such systems and estimate their luminosity distances precisely. Unfortunately, weak gravitational lensing can induce significant errors in the measured distance of these standard sirens at high redshift, severely limiting their usefulness as precise distance probes. The uncertainty due to weak lensing can be reduced if the lensing magnification of the siren can be estimated independently, a procedure called 'delensing'. With the help of up-to-date numerical simulations, here we investigate how much the weak-lensing errors can be reduced using convergence maps reconstructed from shear measurements. We also evaluate the impact of delensing on cosmological parameter estimation with bright standard sirens. We find that the weak-lensing errors for sirens at $z_s = 2.9$ can be reduced by about a factor of two on average, but to achieve this would require expensive ultra-deep field observations for every siren. Such an approach is likely to be practical in only limited cases, and the reduction in the weak-lensing error is therefore likely to be insufficient to significantly improve the cosmological parameter estimation. We conclude that performing delensing corrections is unlikely to be worthwhile, in contrast to the more positive expectations presented in previous studies. For delensing to become more practicable and useful in the future will require significant improvements in the resolution/depth of the weak-lensing surveys themselves and/or the accuracy of the methods to reconstruct convergence maps from these surveys.

Fields in cosmology, such as the matter distribution, are observed by experiments up to experimental noise. The first step in cosmological data analysis is usually to de-noise the observed field using an analytic or simulation driven prior. On large enough scales, such fields are Gaussian, and the de-noising step is known as Wiener filtering. However, on smaller scales probed by upcoming experiments, a Gaussian prior is substantially sub-optimal because the true field distribution is very non-Gaussian. Using normalizing flows, it is possible to learn the non-Gaussian prior from simulations (or from more high-resolution observations), and use this knowledge to de-noise the data more effectively. We show that we can train a flow to represent the matter distribution of the universe, and evaluate how much signal-to-noise can be gained as a function of the experimental noise under idealized conditions. We also introduce a patching method to reconstruct fields on arbitrarily large images by dividing them up into small maps (where we reconstruct non-Gaussian features), and patching the small posterior maps together on large scales (where the field is Gaussian).

Although diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs) were discovered over 100 years ago, for most of them, their origins are still unknown. Investigation on the correlations between different DIBs is an important way to study the behavior and distributions of their carriers. Based on stacking thousands of spectra from the Pristine Inner Galaxy Survey, we study the correlations between two DIBs at 442.8 nm ($\lambda$442.8) and 862.1 nm ($\lambda$862.1), as well as the dust grains, in a range of latitude spanning ${\sim}22^{\circ}$ ($4^{\circ}\,{<}\,|b|\,{<}\,15^{\circ}$) toward the Galactic center ($|\ell|\,{<}\,11^{\circ}$). Tight linear intensity correlations can be found between $\lambda$442.8, $\lambda$862.1, and dust grains for $|b|\,{<}\,12^{\circ}$ or $E(B-V)\,{>}\,0.3$ mag. For $|b|\,{>}\,12^{\circ}$, $\lambda$442.8 and $\lambda$862.1 present larger relative strength with respect to the dust grains. A systematic variation of the relative strength between $\lambda$442.8 and $\lambda$862.1 with $|b|$ and $E(B-V)$ concludes that the two DIBs do not share a common carrier. Furthermore, the carrier of $\lambda$862.1 is more abundant at high latitudes than that of $\lambda$442.8. This work can be treated as an example showing the significance and potentials to the DIB research covering a large latitude range.

The Fermi source 4FGL J1848.7-0129 has been historically related to the globular cluster GLIMPSE-C01 since its very first detection. Although this association is widely accepted, as it appears in the most recent Fermi catalog, it deserves to be revisited given the multi-wavelength evidences and the recent discovery of variable X-ray sources in the Fermi source region. In particular, low frequency radio maps from the Giant Metre Radio Telescope in Pune (India) have been carefully inspected which, together with X-ray data re-analysis from Chandra, lead us to get a deep insight into the candidates to be associated to 4FGL J1848.7-0129. This results in the discovery of a new X-ray variable point source coincident with an unreported non-thermal radio emitter, both of them well inside the 4FGL J1848.7-0129 error ellipse. We analyze and discuss all these observational facts, and we propose now a newly discovered blazar candidate as the most promising responsible for the gamma ray emission in the Fermi source. If confirmed, this result would set constrains on the number of millisecond pulsars in GLIMPSE-C01 or their gamma-ray emission properties.

We numerically investigate the internal evolution of multiphase clouds, which are at rest with respect to an ambient, highly ionized medium (HIM) representing the hot component of the circumgalactic medium (CGM). Time-dependent saturated thermal conduction and its implications like condensation rates and mixing efficiency are assessed in multiphase clouds. Our simulations are carried out by using the adaptive mesh refinement code Flash. We perform a grid of models of which we present here those characteristic for the presented study. The model clouds are initially in both hydrostatic and thermal equilibrium and are in pressure balance with the HIM. Thus, they have steep gradients in both temperature and density at the interface to HIM leading to non-negligible thermal conduction. Several physical processes are considered numerically or semi-analytically: thermal conduction, radiative cooling and external heating of gas, self-gravity, mass diffusion, and dissociation of molecules and ionization of atoms. It turns out that saturated thermal conduction triggers a continuous condensation irrespective of cloud mass. Dynamical interactions with ambient HIM all relate to the radial density gradient in the clouds: (1) mass flux due to condensation is the higher the more homogeneous the clouds are; (2) mixing of condensed gas with cloud gas is easier in low-mass clouds, because of their shallower radial density gradient; thus (3) accreted gas is distributed more efficiently. A distinct and sub-structured transition zone forms at the interface between cloud and HIM, which starts at smaller radii and is much narrower as deduced from analytical theory.

Aims The possible influence of solar superflares on the near-Earth space radiation environment are assessed through the investigation of scaling laws between the peak proton flux and fluence of Solar Energetic Particle (SEP) events with the solar flare soft X-ray peak photon flux. Methods We compiled a catalog of 65 well-connected (W20-90) SEP events during the last three solar cycles covering a period of $\sim$34 years (1984-2020) that were associated with flares of class $\geq$C6.0 and investigated the statistical relations between the recorded peak proton fluxes ($I_{P}$) and the fluences ($F_{P}$) at a set of integral energies from E $>$10; $>$30; $>$60; to $>$100 MeV versus the associated solar flare peak soft X-ray flux in the 1$-$8 A band ($F_{SXR}$). Based on the inferred relations, we calculate the integrated energy dependence of the peak proton flux ($I_{P}$) and fluence ($F_{P}$) of the SEP events, assuming that they follow an inverse power-law with respect to energy. Finally, we make use of simple physical assumptions, combining our derived scaling laws, and estimate the upper limits for $I_{P}$ and $F_{P}$ focusing on the flare associated with the strongest GLE yet directly observed (GLE 05 on 23 February 1956), and that inferred for the cosmogenic radionuclide based SEP event of AD774/775. Results We show that $I_{P}$ and $F_{P}$ scale with the solar flare SXR flux as $\propto$~$F_{SXR}^{5/6}$. For the AD774/775 event (with a re-scaled upper limit $F_{SXR}$ = X600) these scaling laws yield values of $F_{P}$ at E$>$200 MeV of $\sim$10$^{10}$ cm$^{-2}$ and $\sim$1.5 $\times$ 10$^{9}$ cm$^{-2}$ at E$>$430 MeV that are consistent with values inferred from the measurements of $^{14}$C and $^{10}$Be.

The SNR G106.3+2.7, detected at 1--100 TeV energies by different $\gamma$-ray facilities, is one of the most promising PeVatron candidates. This SNR has a cometary shape which can be divided into a head and a tail region with different physical conditions. However, it is not identified in which region the 100 TeV emission is produced due to the limited position accuracy and/or angular resolution of existing observational data. Additionally, it remains unclear whether the origin of the $\gamma$-ray emission is leptonic or hadronic. With the better angular resolution provided by these new MAGIC data compared to earlier $\gamma$-ray datasets, we aim to reveal the acceleration site of PeV particles and the emission mechanism by resolving the SNR G106.3+2.7 with 0.1$^\circ$ resolution at TeV energies. We detected extended $\gamma$-ray emission spatially coincident with the radio continuum emission at the head and tail of SNR G106.3+2.7. The fact that we detected a significant $\gamma$-ray emission with energies above 6.0 TeV from the tail region only suggests that the emissions above 10 TeV, detected with air shower experiments (Milagro, HAWC, Tibet AS$\gamma$ and LHAASO), are emitted only from the SNR tail. Under this assumption, the multi-wavelength spectrum of the head region can be explained with either hadronic or leptonic models, while the leptonic model for the tail region is in contradiction with the emission above 10 TeV and X-rays. In contrast, the hadronic model could reproduce the observed spectrum at the tail by assuming a proton spectrum with a cutoff energy of $\sim 1$ PeV for the tail region. Such a high energy emission in this middle-aged SNR (4--10 kyr) can be explained by considering the scenario that protons escaping from the SNR in the past interact with surrounding dense gases at present.

The acceleration and transport of energetic electrons during solar flares is one of the outstanding topics in solar physics. Recent X-ray and radio imaging and spectroscopy observations have provided diagnostics of the distribution of nonthermal electrons and suggested that, in certain flare events, electrons are primarily accelerated in the loop-top and likely experience trapping and/or scattering effects. By combining the focused particle transport equation with magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of solar flares, we present a macroscopic particle model that naturally incorporates electron acceleration and transport. Our simulation results indicate that the physical processes such as turbulent pitch-angle scattering can have important impacts on both electron acceleration in the loop-top and transport in the flare loop, and their influences are highly energy dependent. A spatial-dependent turbulent scattering with enhancement in the loop-top can enable both efficient electron acceleration to high energies and transport of abundant electrons to the footpoints. We further generate spatially resolved synthetic hard X-ray (HXR) emission images and spectra, revealing both the loop-top and footpoint HXR sources. Similar to the observations, we show that the footpoint HXR sources are brighter and harder than the loop-top HXR source. We suggest that the macroscopic particle model provides new insights into understanding the connection between the observed loop-top and footpoint nonthermal emission sources by combining the particle model with dynamically evolving MHD simulations of solar flares.

Stellar activity can reveal itself in the form of radiation (eg, enhanced X-ray coronal emission, flares) and particles (eg, winds, coronal mass ejections). Together, these phenomena shape the space weather around (exo)planets. As stars evolve, so do their different forms of activity -- in general, younger solar-like stars have stronger winds, enhanced flare occurrence and likely more frequent coronal mass ejections. Altogether, these effects can create harsher particle and radiation environments for habitable-zone planets, in comparison to Earth, in particular at young ages. In this article, I will review some effects of these harsher environments on potentially habitable exoplanets.

In this contribution, I briefly review the long-term evolution of the solar wind (its mass-loss rate), including the evolution of observed properties that are intimately linked to the solar wind (rotation, magnetism and activity). I also briefly discuss implications of the evolution of the solar wind on the evolving Earth. I argue that studying exoplanetary systems could open up new avenues for progress to be made in our understanding of the evolution of the solar wind.

We present magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of the star-forming multiphase interstellar medium (ISM) in stratified galactic patches with gas surface densities $\Sigma_\mathrm{gas} =$ 10, 30, 50, and 100 $\mathrm{M_\odot\,pc^{-2}}$. The SILCC project simulation framework accounts for non-equilibrium thermal and chemical processes in the warm and cold ISM. The sink-based star formation and feedback model includes stellar winds, hydrogen-ionising UV radiation, core-collapse supernovae, and cosmic ray (CR) injection and diffusion. The simulations follow the observed relation between $\Sigma_\mathrm{gas}$ and the star formation rate surface density $\Sigma_\mathrm{SFR}$. CRs qualitatively change the outflow phase structure. Without CRs, the outflows transition from a two-phase (warm and hot at 1 kpc) to a single-phase (hot at 2 kpc) structure. With CRs, the outflow always has three phases (cold, warm, and hot), dominated in mass by the warm phase. The impact of CRs on mass loading decreases for higher $\Sigma_\mathrm{gas}$ and the mass loading factors of the CR-supported outflows are of order unity independent of $\Sigma_\mathrm{SFR}$. Similar to observations, vertical velocity dispersions of the warm ionised medium (WIM) and the cold neutral medium (CNM) correlate with the star formation rate as $\sigma_\mathrm{z} \propto \Sigma_\mathrm{SFR}^a$, with $a \sim 0.20$. In the absence of stellar feedback, we find no correlation. The velocity dispersion of the WIM is a factor $\sim 2.2$ higher than that of the CNM, in agreement with local observations. For $\Sigma_\mathrm{SFR} \gtrsim 1.5 \times 10^{-2}\,\mathrm{M}_\odot\,\mathrm{yr}^{-1}\,\mathrm{kpc}^{-2}$ the WIM motions become supersonic.

We present the statistical analysis of a subsample of 45 young stars surrounded by protoplanetary disks (PPDs). This is the largest imaging survey uniquely focused on PPDs to date. Our goal is to search for young forming companions embedded in the disk material and to constrain their occurrence rate in relation to the formation mechanism. We used principal component analysis based point spread function subtraction techniques to reveal young companions forming in the disks. We calculated detection limits for our datasets and adopted a black-body model to derive temperature upper limits of potential forming planets. We then used Monte Carlo simulations to constrain the population of forming gas giant companions and compare our results to different types of formation scenarios. Our data revealed a new binary system (HD38120) and a recently identified triple system with a brown dwarf companion orbiting a binary system (HD101412), in addition to 12 known companions. Furthermore, we detected signals from 17 disks, two of which (HD72106 and TCrA) were imaged for the first time. We reached median detection limits of L =15.4 mag at 2.0 arcsec, which were used to investigate the temperature of potentially embedded forming companions. We can constrain the occurrence of forming planets with semi-major axis a in [20 - 500] au and Teff in [600 - 3000] K, in line with the statistical results obtained for more evolved systems from other direct imaging surveys. The NaCo-ISPY data confirm that massive bright planets accreting at high rates are rare. More powerful instruments with better sensitivity in the near- to mid-infrared are likely required to unveil the wealth of forming planets sculpting the observed disk substructures.

Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) is an endemic problem in radio astronomy. Information in contaminated frequency channels is lost and it can lead to significant systematic error if not properly modelled. In this paper we propose a RFI mitigation methodology that takes a Bayesian approach, where contaminated data is both flagged and managed as part of a single step fitting process. To the authors knowledge, our approach is first-of-its-kind. We provide a proof-of-concept of our methods which are also tested and shown to be effective on both a simple toy model and when incorporated into the Bayesian data analysis pipeline for REACH (a modern cosmological radio experiment).

We report results on the analysis of eleven new Milky Way open cluster candidates, recently discovered from the detection of stellar overdensities in the Vector Point diagram, by employing extreme deconvolution Gaussian mixture models. We treated these objects as real open clusters and derived their fundamental properties with their associated intrinsic dispersions by exploring the parameter space through the minimization of likelihood functions on generated synthetic colour-magnitude diagrams (CMDs). The intrinsic dispersions of the resulting ages turned out to be much larger than those usually obtained for open clusters. Indeed, they resemble those of ages and metallicities of composite star field populations. We also traced their stellar number density profiles and mass functions, derived their total masses, Jacobi and tidal radii, which helped us as criteria while assessing their physical nature as real open clusters. Because the eleven candidates show a clear gathering of stars in the proper motion plane and some hint for similar distances, we concluded that they are possibly sparse groups of stars.

FIREBall-2 is a stratospheric balloon-borne 1-m telescope coupled to a UV multi-object slit spectrograph designed to map the faint UV emission surrounding z~0.7 galaxies and quasars through their Lyman-alpha line emission. This spectro-imager had its first launch on September 22nd 2018 out of Ft. Sumner, NM, USA. Because the balloon was punctured, the flight was abruptly interrupted. Instead of the nominal 8 hours above 32 km altitude, the instrument could only perform science acquisition for 45 minutes at this altitude. In addition, the shape of the deflated balloon, combined with a full Moon, revealed a severe off-axis scattered light path, directly into the UV science detector and about 100 times larger than expected. In preparation for the next flight, and in addition to describing FIREBall-2's upgrade, this paper discusses the exposure time calculator (ETC) that has been designed to analyze the instrument's optimal performance (explore the instrument's limitations and subtle trade-offs).

We investigate the effect of a pinned superfluid component on the gravitational wave emission of a rotating neutron star. Pinning of superfluid vortices to the flux-tubes in the outer core (where the protons are likely to form a type-II superconductor) is a possible mechanism to sustain long-lived and non-axisymmetric neutron currents in the interior, that break the axial symmetry of the unperturbed hydrostatic configuration. We consider pinning-induced perturbations to a stationary corotating configuration, and determine upper limits on the strength of gravitational wave emission due to the pinning of vortices with a strong toroidal magnetic field of the kind predicted by recent magneto-hydrodynamic simulations of neutron star interiors. We estimate the contributions to gravitational wave emission from both the mass and current multipole generated by the pinned vorticity in the outer core, and find that the mass quadrupole can be large enough for gravitational waves to provide the dominant spindown torque in millisecond pulsars.

It has recently been demonstrated that deep learning has significant potential to automate parts of the exoplanet detection pipeline using light curve data from satellites such as Kepler \cite{borucki2010kepler} \cite{koch2010kepler} and NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) \cite{ricker2010transiting}. Unfortunately, the smallness of the available datasets makes it difficult to realize the level of performance one expects from powerful network architectures. In this paper, we investigate the use of data augmentation techniques on light curve data from to train neural networks to identify exoplanets. The augmentation techniques used are of two classes: Simple (e.g. additive noise augmentation) and learning-based (e.g. first training a GAN \cite{goodfellow2020generative} to generate new examples). We demonstrate that data augmentation has a potential to improve model performance for the exoplanet detection problem, and recommend the use of augmentation based on generative models as more data becomes available.

We consider a formulation of gauge field theory where the gauge field $A_\alpha$ and the field strength $F_{\alpha\beta}$ are independent variables, as in the Palatini formulation of gravity. For the simplest gauge field action, this is known to be equivalent to the usual formulation. We add non-minimal couplings between $F_{\alpha\beta}$ and a scalar field, solve for $F_{\alpha\beta}$ and insert it back into the action. This leads to modified gauge field and scalar field terms. We consider slow-roll inflation and show that because of the modifications to the scalar sector, adding higher order terms to the inflaton potential does not spoil its flatness, unlike in the usual case. Instead they make the effective potential closer to quadratic. The modifications also solve the problem that Higgs inflation in the Palatini formulation is sensitive to higher order terms.

We present a review of observational studies of high-mass star formation, based mainly on our own research. It includes surveys of high-mass star-forming regions in various molecular lines and in continuum, investigations of filamentary infrared dark clouds, which represent the earliest phases of massive star formation, detailed studies of individual high-mass star-forming regions, dense cores and disks harboring massive (proto)stars, and associated outflows. Chemistry in these regions is discussed, too.

Bar formation in cosmological simulations of galaxy formation remains challenging. It was previously shown that the fraction of barred galaxies at low stellar masses ($M_*<10^{10.5} M_\odot$) in TNG50 is too low compared to observations. Here, we highlight another tension, also observed at higher stellar masses, namely that barred galaxies in TNG50 appear to be maximal disks, in the sense that the majority of the gravitational acceleration is accounted for by baryons at the peak radius of the baryonic rotation curve, while observations account for a substantial fraction of barred submaximal disks. In this letter, we compare the barred fraction of submaximal disks in the local Universe from the SPARC catalogue with that in the TNG50 simulation. We show that, although SPARC tends to select against barred galaxies, the fraction of barred submaximal disks in this dataset is significantly larger than in TNG50. This result adds to the list of challenges related to predicting the right statistics and properties of barred galaxies in $\Lambda$CDM simulations of galaxy formation.

In the standard picture of galactic cosmic rays, a diffuse flux of high-energy gamma-rays and neutrinos is produced from inelastic collisions of cosmic ray nuclei with the interstellar gas. The neutrino flux is a guaranteed signal for high-energy neutrino observatories such as IceCube, but has not been found yet. Experimental searches for this flux constitute an important test of the standard picture of galactic cosmic rays. Both the observation and non-observation would allow important implications for the physics of cosmic ray acceleration and transport. We present DINECRAFT, a new model of galactic diffuse high-energy gamma-rays and neutrinos, fitted to recent cosmic ray data from AMS-02, DAMPE, IceTop as well as KASCADE. We quantify the uncertainties for the predicted emission from the cosmic ray model, but also from the choice of source distribution, gas maps and cross-sections. We consider the possibility of a contribution from unresolved sources. Our model predictions exhibit significant deviations from older models. Our fiducial model is available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7373010 .

Filaments have been studied in detail through observations and simulations. A range of numerical works have separately investigated how chemistry and diffusion effects, as well as magnetic fields and their structure impact the gas dynamics of the filament. However, non-ideal effects have hardly been explored thus far. We investigate how non-ideal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) effects, combined with a simplified chemical model affect the evolution and accretion of a star-forming filament. We modeled an accreting self-gravitating turbulent filament using lemongrab, a one-dimensional (1D) non-ideal MHD code that includes chemistry. We explore the influence of non-ideal MHD, the orientation and strength of the magnetic field, and the cosmic ray ionization rate, on the evolution of the filament, with particular focus on the width and accretion rate. We find that the filament width and the accretion rate are determined by the magnetic field properties, including the initial strength, the coupling with the gas controlled by the cosmic ray ionization rate, and the orientation of the magnetic field with respect to the accretion flow direction. Increasing the cosmic-ray ionization rate leads to a behavior closer to that of ideal MHD, reducing the magnetic pressure support and, hence, damping the accretion efficiency with a consequent broadening of the filament width. For the same reason, we obtained a narrower width and a larger accretion rate when we reduced the initial magnetic field strength. Overall, while these factors affect the final results by approximately a factor of~2, removing the non-ideal MHD effects results in a much greater variation (up to a factor of~7). The inclusion of non-ideal MHD effects and the cosmic-ray ionization is crucial for the study of self-gravitating filaments and in determining critical observable quantities, such as the filament width and accretion rate.

We studied the variability properties of the linear polarization of active galactic nucleus (AGN) jets on parsec-scales using stacking. Our sample is drawn from the MOJAVE program and consists of 436 AGNs manifesting core-jet morphology and having at least five VLBA observing epochs at 15 GHz from January 1996 through August 2019, with some additional archival VLBA data reduced by us. We employed a stacking procedure and constructed maps of (i) standard deviation of fractional polarization and electric vector position angle (EVPA) over epochs as the measure of variability, (ii) median polarization degree to quantify typical values in time. The distributions of these values were analysed along and across the jet. We found that EVPA variability in the core is typically higher than in the jet, most likely due to changes in opacity and component blending in the core region. The EVPA becomes more stable down the outflow. Most of the sources showing this trend have a time coverage of more than 12 years and at least 15 epochs. The possible cause could be the increase of stability in the magnetic field direction. The majority of AGNs exhibit insignificant trends of the relative fractional polarization variability along the ridgeline or across the jet width. There are no significant optical-class-dependent or spectral-class-dependent relations in the properties of EVPA and relative fractional polarization variability.

The observed colour bimodality allows a classification of the galaxies into two distinct classes: the `blue cloud' and the `red sequence'. Such classification is often carried out using empirical cuts in colour and other galaxy properties that lack solid mathematical justifications. We propose a method for separating the galaxies in the `blue cloud' and the `red sequence' using Otsu's thresholding technique for image segmentation. We show that this technique provides a robust and parameter-free method for the classification of the red and blue galaxies based on the minimization of the inter-class variance and maximization of the intra-class variance. We also apply an iterative triclass thresholding technique based on Otsu's method to improve the classification. The same method can also be applied to classify the galaxies based on their physical properties, such as star formation rate, stellar mass function, bulge-to-disk mass ratio and age, all of which have bimodal distributions.

The ability to represent perturbative expansions of interacting quantum field theories in terms of simple diagrammatic rules has revolutionized calculations in particle physics (and elsewhere). Moreover, these rules are readily automated, a process that has catalysed the rise of symbolic algebra packages. However, in the case of extended theories of gravity, such as scalar-tensor theories, it is necessary to precondition the Lagrangian to apply this automation or, at the very least, to take advantage of existing software pipelines. We present a Mathematica code FeynMG, which works in conjunction with the well-known package FeynRules, to do just that: FeynMG takes as inputs the FeynRules model file for a non-gravitational theory and a user-supplied gravitational Lagrangian. FeynMG provides functionality that inserts the minimal gravitational couplings of the degrees of freedom specified in the model file, determines the couplings of the additional tensor and scalar degrees of freedom (the metric and the scalar field from the gravitational sector), and preconditions the resulting Lagrangian so that it can be passed to FeynRules, either directly or by outputting an updated FeynRules model file. The Feynman rules can then be determined and output through FeynRules, using existing universal output formats and interfaces to other analysis packages.

We study cosmological gravitational particle production as applied to "rapid-turn" models of inflation involving two scalar fields. We are interested in the production of massive spin-0 particles that only interact gravitationally and provide a candidate for the dark matter. Specifically, we study two models of rapid-turn multifield inflation, motivated in part by the de Sitter swampland conjecture, that are distinguished by the curvature of field space and the presence or absence of field space 'angular momentum' conservation. We find that one of these models leads to insufficient particle production and cannot explain the observed dark matter relic abundance. The second model is able to explain the origin of spin-0 dark matter via gravitational production, and we identify the relevant region of parameter space that is consistent with measurements of the dark-matter relic abundance, the dark-matter-photon isocurvature perturbations, and the spectrum of curvature perturbations that is probed by cosmological observations. Our work demonstrates the compatibility of the de Sitter swampland conjecture with completely dark matter.

The four-point correlation function of primordial scalar perturbations has parity-even and parity-odd contributions, and the parity-odd signal in cosmological observations is opening a novel window to look for new physics in the inflationary epoch. We study the distinct parity-odd and even prediction from the axion inflation model, in which the inflaton couples to a vector field via a Chern-Simons interaction, and the vector field is considered to be either approximately massless ($m_A \ll $ the Hubble scale $H$) or very massive ($m_A \sim H $). The parity-odd signal arises due to one transverse mode of the vector field being predominantly produced during inflation. We adopt the in-in formalism to evaluate the correlation functions. Considering the vector field mode function to be dominated by its real part up to a constant phase, we simplify the formulas for numerical computations. The numerical studies show that the massive and massless vector fields give significant parity-even signals, while the parity-odd signals are about one to two orders of magnitude smaller.

The Weak Gravity Conjecture indicates that extremal black holes in the low energy effective field theory should be able to decay. This criterion gives rise to non-trivial constraints on the coefficients of higher-order derivative corrections to gravity. In this paper, we investigate the tidal deformability of neutral black holes due to higher-order derivative corrections. As a case in point, we consider a correction of cubic order in the Riemann curvature tensor. The tidal Love numbers of neutral black holes receive leading-order corrections from higher-order derivative terms, since black holes in pure General Relativity have vanishing tidal Love number. We conclude that the tidal deformability of neutral black holes is constrained by the Weak Gravity Conjecture, and therefore provides a test for quantum gravity.

We extend the reach of the ``cosmological collider'' for massive gauge boson production during inflation from the CMB scales to the interferometer scales. Considering a Chern-Simons coupling between the gauge bosons and the pseudoscalar inflaton, one of the transverse gauge modes is efficiently produced and its inverse decay leaves an imprint in the primordial scalar and tensor perturbations. We study the correlation functions of these perturbations and derive the updated constraints on the parameter space from CMB observables. We then extrapolate the tensor power spectrum to smaller scales consistently taking into account the impact of the gauge field on inflationary dynamics. Our results show that the presence of massive gauge fields during inflation can be detected from characteristic gravitational wave signals encompassing the whole range of current and planned interferometers.

We consider the resummation of large electroweak Sudakov logarithms for the annihilation of neutralino DM with $\mathcal{O}$(TeV) mass to high-energy photons in the minimal supersymmetric standard model, extending previous work on the minimal wino and Higgsino models. We find that NLL resummation reduces the yield of photons by about $20\%$ for Higgsino-dominated DM at masses around 1~TeV, and up to $45\%$ for neutralinos with larger wino admixture at heavier masses near 3~TeV. This sizable effect is relevant when observations or exclusion limits are translated into MSSM parameter-space constraints.

The Parker Solar Probe is in a solar orbit with a perihelion for orbit 12 at 13.3 solar radii. The electric field experiment on this satellite observes what we call triggered ion-acoustic waves as the most dominant wave mode above a few Hz within the solar radial distance of 15-25 solar radii. In this mode, a few Hz electrostatic wave is typically accompanied by bursts of a few hundred Hz wave whose bursts are phase locked with each low frequency wave period. Plasma density fluctuations with {\Delta}n/n~0.1 accompany these waves and they have no magnetic field component. The wave durations can be hours and their field and density fluctuations are nearly pure sine waves. They are identified as ion-acoustic waves. The low and high frequency waves are measured to have the same phase velocity within experimental uncertainties, which is a requirement associated with their phase locked relationship. From the measured wavelength, the potential associated with the low frequency wave is estimated to be ~10 Volts, which can result in electron heating via the Landau resonance that is in agreement with observations of the core electron temperature increases at times of such waves. Their phase locked relationship and pure frequency are surprising features that characterize a new regime of instability and evolution of ion-acoustic waves that may not have been reported previously. That these waves are an instrumental effect unrelated to natural processes is considered. While this is unlikely, the possibility that these waves are artificial cannot be rule out

We develop an approach to chiral kinetic theories for electrons close to equilibrium and neutrinos away from equilibrium based on a systematic power counting scheme for different time scales of electromagnetic and weak interactions. Under this framework, we derive electric and energy currents along magnetic fields induced by neutrino radiation in general nonequilibrium states. This may be regarded as an effective chiral magnetic effect (CME), which is present without a chiral chemical potential, unlike the conventional CME. We also consider the so-called gain region of core-collapse supernovae as an example and find that the effective CME enhanced by persistent neutrino emission in time is sufficiently large to lead to the inverse cascade of magnetic and fluid kinetic energies and observed magnitudes of pulsar kicks. Our framework may also be applicable to other dense-matter systems involving nonequilibrium neutrinos.

We revisit the domain wall problem for QCD axion models with more than one quark charged under the Peccei-Quinn symmetry. Symmetry breaking during or after inflation results in the formation of a domain wall network which would cause cosmic catastrophe if it comes to dominate the Universe. The network may be made unstable by invoking a `tilt' in the axion potential due to Planck scale suppressed non-renormalisable operators. Alternatively the random walk of the axion field during inflation can generate a `bias' favouring one of the degenerate vacuua. However consideration of the axion abundance generated by the decay of the wall network then requires the Peccei-Quinn scale to be rather low -- thus ruling out e.g. the DFSZ axion with mass below 60~meV, where most experimental searches are in fact focussed.

Sources of geophysical noise (such as wind, sea waves and earthquakes) or of anthropogenic noise (nearby activities, road traffic, etc.) impact ground-based gravitational-wave (GW) interferometric detectors, causing transient sensitivity worsening and gaps in data taking. During the one year-long third Observing Run (O3: from April 01, 2019 to March 27, 2020), the Virgo Collaboration collected a large dataset, which has been used to study the response of the Advanced Virgo detector to a variety of environmental conditions. We correlated environmental parameters to global detector performance, such as observation range (the live distance up to which a given GW source could be detected), duty cycle and control losses (losses of the global working point, the instrument configuration needed to observe the cosmos). Where possible, we identified weaknesses in the detector that will be used to elaborate strategies in order to improve Virgo robustness against external disturbances for the next data taking period, O4, currently planned to start in March 2023. The lessons learned could also provide useful insights for the design of the next generation of ground-based interferometers.

We investigate the shadow cast by a regular black hole in scalar-tensor-vector mOdified gravity theory. This black hole differs from a Schwarzschild-Kerr black hole by the dimensionless parameter $\beta$. The size of the shadow depends on this parameter. Increasing the value of the parameter $\beta$ shrinks the shadow. A critical value of the parameter $\beta$ is found to be $\beta_{\rm crit}=0.40263$. The shadow for the horizonless dark compact object has been analysed for the static, spherically symmetric case and compared with M87* and Sgr A* data. Shadow observables have been determined in the context of the regular black hole and used for obtaining the energy emission rate. The peak of the energy emission rate shifts to lower frequency for the increasing value of the parameter $\beta$.

In recent years, tremendous progress has been made on complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) sensors for applications as X-ray detectors. To shield the visible light in X-ray detection, a blocking filter of aluminum is commonly employed. We designed three types of aluminum coating layers, which are deposited directly on the surface of back-illuminated sCMOS sensors during fabrication. A commercial 2k * 2k sCMOS sensor is used to realize these designs. In this work, we report their performance by comparison with that of an uncoated sCMOS sensor. The optical transmissions at 660 nm and 850 nm are measured, and the results show that the optical transmission reaches a level of about 10-9 for the 200 nm aluminum layer and about 10-4 for the 100 nm aluminum layer. Light leakage is found around the four sides of the sensor. The readout noise, fixed-pattern noise and energy resolution of these Al-coated sCMOS sensors do not show significant changes. The dark currents of these Al-coated sCMOS sensors show a noticeable increase compared with that of the uncoated sCMOS sensor at room temperatures, while no significant difference is found when the sCMOS sensors are cooled down to about -15 degree. The aluminum coatings show no visible crack after the thermal cycle and aging tests. Based on these results, an aluminum coating of a larger area on larger sCMOS sensors is proposed for future work.

A joint fit of the mass and redshift distributions of the population of Binary Black Holes detected with Gravitational-Wave observations can be used to obtain constraints on the Hubble parameter and on deviations from General Relativity in the propagation of Gravitational Waves. We first present applications of this technique to the latest catalog of Gravitational-Wave events, focusing on the comparison of different parametrizations for the source-frame mass distribution of Black Hole Binaries. We find that models with more than one feature are favourite by the data, as suggested by population studies, even when varying the cosmology. Then, we discuss perspectives for the use of this technique with third generation Gravitational-Wave detectors, exploiting the recently developed Fisher information matrix Python code GWFAST.