Papers for Thursday, Dec 22 2022

We revisit the secular 3D planetary three-body problem aiming to provide a unified formalism for studying the structure of the phase space for progressively higher values of the mutual inclination $i_{mut}$ between the two planets' orbits. We propose a `book-keeping' technique yielding (after Jacobi reduction) a clear decomposition of the secular Hamiltonian as $H_{sec}=H_{planar} +H_{space}$, where $H_{space}$ contains all terms depending on $i_{mut}$. We numerically compare several models obtained via expansion in the orbital eccentricities or via multipole expansion. We find the mimimum required truncation orders to accurately represent the dynamics. We explore the transition, as $i_{mut}$ increases, from a `planar-like' to a `Lidov-Kozai' regime. Using a typical (non-hierarchical) example, we show how the structure of the phase portraits of the integrable secular dynamics of the planar case is reproduced to a large extent also in the 3D case. We estimate semi-analytically the level of $i_{mut}$ up to which the dynamics remains nearly-integrable. In this regime, we propose a normal form method by which the basic periodic orbits of the nearly-integrable regime (apsidal corotation resonances) can be computed semi-analytically. On the other hand, as the energy increases the system gradually moves to the `Lidov-Kozai' regime. The latter is dominated by two different families of inclined periodic orbits ($C_1$ and $C_2$), of which $C_2$ becomes unstable via the usual Lidov-Kozai mechanism. We discuss the connection between the above families of periodic orbits. Finally, we study numerically the form of the phase portraits for different mass and semi-major axis ratios of the two planets, aiming to establish how generic are the phenomena reported above as the systems parameters are chosen close to one or more hierarchical limits.

We compare mid-infrared (mid-IR), extinction-corrected H$\alpha$, and CO (2-1) emission at 70--160 pc resolution in the first four PHANGS-JWST targets. We report correlation strengths, intensity ratios, and power law fits relating emission in JWST's F770W, F1000W, F1130W, and F2100W bands to CO and H$\alpha$. At these scales, CO and H$\alpha$ each correlate strongly with mid-IR emission, and these correlations are each stronger than the one relating CO to H$\alpha$ emission. This reflects that mid-IR emission simultaneously acts as a dust column density tracer, leading to the good match with the molecular gas-tracing CO, and as a heating tracer, leading to the good match with the H$\alpha$. By combining mid-IR, CO, and H$\alpha$ at scales where the overall correlation between cold gas and star formation begins to break down, we are able to separate these two effects. We model the mid-IR above $I_\nu = 0.5$~MJy sr$^{-1}$ at F770W, a cut designed to select regions where the molecular gas dominates the interstellar medium (ISM) mass. This bright emission can be described to first order by a model that combines a CO-tracing component and an H$\alpha$-tracing component. The best-fitting models imply that $\sim 50\%$ of the mid-IR flux arises from molecular gas heated by the diffuse interstellar radiation field, with the remaining $\sim 50\%$ associated with bright, dusty star forming regions. We discuss differences between the F770W, F1000W, F1130W bands and the continuum dominated F2100W band and suggest next steps for using the mid-IR as an ISM tracer.

We study current bounds on strong first-order phase transitions (PTs) along the equation of state (EOS) of dense strongly interacting matter in neutron stars, under the simplifying assumption that on either side of the PT the EOS can be approximated by a simple polytropic form. We construct a large ensemble of possible EOSs of this form, anchor them to chiral effective field theory calculations at nuclear density and perturbative QCD at high densities, and subject them to astrophysical constraints from high-mass pulsars and gravitational-wave observations. Within this setup, we find that a PT permits neutron-star solutions with larger radii, but only if the transition begins below twice nuclear saturation density. We also identify a large parameter space of allowed PTs currently unexplored by numerical-relativity studies. Additionally, we locate a small region of parameter space allowing twin-star solutions, though we find them to only marginally pass the current astrophysical constraints. Finally, we find that sizeable cores of high-density matter beyond the PT may be located in the centers of some stable neutron stars, primarily those with larger masses.

The idea of self-interacting bosonic dark matter capable of exhibiting superfluidity is revisited. We show that the most interesting parameter space of the theory corresponds to fully thermalized dark matter halos. As a result the entire halo undergoes Bose-Einstein condensation due to high degeneracy. Since it is observationally preferable for the dark matter density profile to be similar to cold dark matter in the outskirts of the halo, we argue that the Jeans wavelength must be at least few times shorter than the virial radius. This entails that, upon condensation, a dark matter halo fragments into superfluid clumps. However, we demonstrate that these would-be solitons experience strong tidal disruption and behave as virialized weakly interacting streams. An exception is the central soliton, which can be as large as few tens of kiloparsecs in size without contradicting observational bounds. As a result, in dwarf galaxies, the observed rotation curves can be completely contained within the superfluid soliton. In this case, the dark matter distribution is expected to be strongly sensitive to the baryonic density profile. We argue that the diversity of rotation curves observed for dwarf galaxies is a natural consequence of the superfluid dark matter scenario.

Using $\sim$427 ks of Chandra observations, we present a study of shock heating and ICM cooling in the galaxy cluster RBS 797. We discover three nested pairs of weak shocks at roughly 50 kpc, 80 kpc and 130 kpc from the center. The total energy associated with the shocks is $\sim6\times10^{61}$ erg, with the central AGN driving a pair of weak shocks every 20-30 Myr with a power $P_{sh}\approx10^{46}$ erg s$^{-1}$. Based on its morphology and age ($\sim$30 Myr), the inner cocoon shock is associated with the four equidistant X-ray cavities previously discovered. From the thermodynamic analysis of the inner 30 kpc, we find evidence for ICM condensation into colder gas between and behind the X-ray cavities. The total AGN mechanical power (cavities and shocks) of $3.4\times10^{46}$ erg s$^{-1}$ can balance the ICM radiative losses, estimated as $L_{cool} = 2.3\times10^{45}$ erg s$^{-1}$. By building plots of $P_{cav}$ vs. $L_{cool}$, $P_{shock}$ vs. $L_{cool}$ and $P_{tot}$ vs. $L_{cool}$ for RBS 797 and 14 other galaxy clusters, groups and elliptical galaxies where both cavities and shocks are detected, we verify that the most powerful outbursts are found in the strongest cooling systems. Ultimately, we observe that the mechanical power of the AGN exceeds the gas radiative losses by a factor that is different for FR I and FR II radio galaxies, being less than a few tens for FR Is (as RBS 797) and more than roughly a hundred for FR IIs.

Nearby metal-poor starburst dwarf galaxies present a unique opportunity to probe the physics of high-density star formation with a detail and sensitivity unmatched by any observation of the high-z Universe. Here we present the first results from a chemodynamical study of the nearby, gas-rich starburst dwarf CGCG 007-025. We use VLT/MUSE integral field spectroscopy to characterise the properties of the star-forming (SF) gas, from its metal content to its kinematics. The star formation rate (SFR) surface density presents a clumpy distribution, with the brightest knot hosting a 5 Myr young, Wolf-Rayet (WR) population (revealed by the presence of the characteristic 5808\AA~WR bump). The ionised gas kinematics are dominated by disordered motions. A superposition of a narrow ($\sigma \approx$ 50 km s$^{-1}$), intermediate (150 km s$^{-1}$) and broad (1000 km s$^{-1}$) kinematic components are needed to model the emission line profiles in the brightest SF region, suggesting the presence of energetic outflows from massive stars. The gas-phase metallicity of the galaxy spans 0.6 dex and displays a strong anti-correlation with SFR surface density, dropping to 12+log(O/H) = 7.7 in the central SF knot. The spatially-resolved BPTs indicates the gas is being ionised purely by SF processes. Finally, the anti-correlation between the SFR and the gas metallicity points out to accretion of metal-poor gas as the origin of the recent off-centre starburst, in which the infalling material decreases the metallicity of the gas and ignites the SF episode.

We present polarimetric maps of the Circinus galaxy nucleus in the $BVRI$ bands, obtained with VLT/FORS2. Circinus is the closest Seyfert 2 galaxy and harbours an archetypal obscured active galactic nucleus (AGN). Recent high angular resolution imaging revealed that a major fraction of its mid-infrared (MIR) emission is coming from the polar region. Previously, we demonstrated that these observations are consistent with a model of a compact dusty disc and a hyperboloid shell, resembling a hollow cone on larger scales. Here we focus on the AGN core, up to 40 pc from the central engine, and compare the observations to the radiative transfer models. Polarization maps reveal a conical structure, coinciding with the ionization cone. The wavelength-dependence of the polarization degree indicates that scattering on dust grains is producing polarization. The observed polarization degree ($\approx1-3\%$) is lower than predicted by the models; however, this is only a lower limit, since stellar emission dominates the total flux in the optical. The observed polarization angle ($\approx30$ degrees) is reproduced by the model of a dusty disc with a hollow cone that is illuminated by a tilted anisotropic central source. An accretion disc aligned with the ionization cone axis, and alternative dust geometries, such as a paraboloid shell, or a torus enveloped by ambient dust, are inconsistent with the data. We conclude that the optical polarimetric imaging supports earlier evidence for the presence of dust in the polar region, tentatively associated with dusty outflows.

This work focuses on the gas chemical composition of CGCG007-025. This compact dwarf is undergoing a galaxy wide star forming burst, whose spatial behaviour has been observed by VLT/MUSE. We present a new line measurement library to treat almost 7800 voxels. The direct method chemical analysis is limited to 484 voxels with good detection of the $[SIII]6312\AA$ temperature diagnostic line. The recombination fluxes are corrected for stellar absorption via a population synthesis. Additionally, we discuss a new algorithm to fit photoionization models via neural networks. The 8 ionic abundances analyzed show a spatial normal distribution with a $\sigma\sim0.1\,dex$, where only half this value can be explained by the uncertainty in the measurements. The oxygen abundance distribution is $12+log(O/H)=7.88\pm0.11$. The $T_{e}[SIII]$ and $ne[SII]$ are also normally distributed. However, in the central and brightest region, the $ne[SII]$ is almost thrice the mean galaxy value. This is also reflected in the extinction measurements. The ionization parameter has a distribution of $log(U) = -2.52^{0.17}_{0.19}$. The parameter spatial behaviour agrees with the $S^{2+}/S^{+}$ map. Finally, the discrepancies between the direct method and the photoionization model fitting are discussed. In the latter technique, we find that mixing lines with uneven uncertainty magnitudes can impact the accuracy of the results. In these fittings, we recommend overestimating the minimum flux uncertainty one order below the maximum line flux uncertainty. This provides a better match with the direct method.

Galaxies in cosmic voids have been reported with properties related to a delayed evolution with respect to the Universe in general. These characteristics reflect the interaction of galaxies with the environment. However, it is not clear the degree of influence of the large-scale structure on the properties of void galaxies or, if these are only influenced by the low local density around them typical of these regions. In this article we identified cosmic voids in the SDSS-DR16 and studied various properties of galaxies, such as g-r colour, star formation rate, and concentration. To characterise the local environment, we have identified groups of galaxies and studied their properties as a function of their dark matter and stellar masses, analysing separately those found in voids and in the general sample. Our results show that galaxies that inhabit haloes of a given mass (below \sim 10^13.5 M_\dot ), are bluer, have a higher star formation rate and are less concentrated when the host halo is inside voids compared to other regions. For larger halo masses, the trend disappears. We also analyse whether the properties of galaxies are sensitive to the type of voids that inhabit. This is done by separating voids embedded in overdense regions (S-type) from those that asymptotically converge to the average density of the universe (R-type). We found that galaxies in R-type voids are bluer, with higher SFR and less concentration than in S-type voids. Our results indicate some degree of correlation of galaxy properties with the large-scale environment provided by voids, suggesting possible second-order mechanisms in galaxy evolution.

We investigate the role of galaxy mergers on supermassive black hole (SMBH) accretion and star formation quenching in three state-of-the-art cosmological simulations with contrasting physics models: EAGLE, Illustris and IllustrisTNG. We find that recently coalesced 'post-mergers' in all three simulations have elevated SMBH accretion rates by factors of ~2-5. However, rapid (within 500 Myr of coalescence) quenching of star formation is rare, with incidence rates of 0.4% in Illustris, 4.5% in EAGLE and 10% in IllustrisTNG. The rarity of quenching in post-mergers results from substantial gas reservoirs that remain intact after the merger. The post-mergers that do successfully quench tend to be those that had both low pre-merger gas fractions as well as those that experience the largest gas losses. Although rare, the recently quenched fraction of post-mergers is still elevated compared to a control sample of non-mergers by factors of two in IllustrisTNG and 11 in EAGLE. Conversely, quenching is rarer in Illustris post-mergers than in their control. Recent observational results by Ellison et al. have found rapid quenching to be at least 30 times more common in post-mergers, a significantly higher excess than found in any of the simulations. Our results, therefore, indicate that whilst merger-induced SMBH accretion is a widespread prediction of the simulations, its link to quenching depends sensitively on the physics models, and that none of the subgrid models of the simulations studied here can fully capture the connection between mergers and rapid quenching seen in observations.

We present a numerical study of the balance between the gravitational (Eg), kinetic (Ek), and magnetic (Em) energies of the clumps and cores within a hub-filament system in a simulation of the formation of a giant molecular cloud and its subsequent hierarchical gravitational contraction. We investigate the scaling of the virial parameter, $\alpha$ with mass, and of the Larson ratio, $L$ with column density. We also define the magnetic counterparts of $\alpha$ and $L$, and consider their corresponding scalings, as well as the direct scalings of Ek and Em with Eg. Finally, we compare our numerical results with an observational sample of dense cores. We find that: 1) The magnetic energy budget parameters follow similar scalings as their kinetic counterparts ($\alpha$ and $L$), although the ratio Em/Ek decreases as |Eg| increases. 2) $\alpha$ exhibit a large scatter at low masses, as do $L$ at low column density. At large masses/column densities, the structures tend to be moderately subvirial, in agreement with observations. 3) The largest objects, tend to be gravitationally bound, while their internal substructures tend to appear unbound. Thus, the latter are being compressed by the infall of their parent structures. 4) The largest structures are magnetically supercritical, while their internal substructures often appear subcritical, supporting earlier suggestions that the measured mass-to-magnetic flux ratio $\mu$ decreases inwards in a centrally-peaked cloud. 5) Within a fixed boundary, the mass content increases due to accretion from the parent structure, causing a temporal increase of both $\mu$ and the fragmentation level. 6) The scatter observed in point two, is strongly reduced when Ek and Em are plotted directly against Eg, suggesting that the main controlling parameter of the energy budget in the structures is Eg and that they derive their kinetic and magnetic energies from it.

The fluid dynamics in planet Saturn gives rise to alternating east-west jet streams, large cyclonic and anticyclonic vortices, and a dipole-dominant magnetic field which is highly axisymmetric about the planetary rotation axis. Modelling these features in a self-consistent manner is crucial for understanding the dynamics of Saturn's interior and atmosphere. Here we report a turbulent high-resolution dynamo simulation in a spherical shell which produces these features simultaneously for the first time. A crucial model ingredient is a long-hypothesised stably stratified layer (SSL), sandwiched between a deep metallic hydrogen layer and an outer low-conductivity molecular layer, born out of limited solubility of Helium inside metallic Hydrogen at certain depths. The model spontaneously produces polar cyclones and significant low and mid latitude jet stream activities in the molecular layer. The off-equatorial low-latitude jet streams partially penetrate into the SSL and interact with the magnetic field. This helps to axisymmetrize the magnetic field about the rotation axis and convert some of the poloidal magnetic field to toroidal field, which appears as two global magnetic energy rings surrounding the deeper dynamo region. The simulation also mimics a distinctive dip in the fifth spherical harmonic in Saturn's magnetic energy spectrum as inferred from the Cassini Grand Finale measurements. Our model highlights the role of an SSL in shaping the fluid dynamical and magnetic features of giant planets, as exemplified at Saturn.

We measure differential rotation and meridional flow in the Sun's surface shear layer by tracking the motions of the magnetic network seen in magnetograms from SOHO/MDI and SDO/HMI over solar cycles 23, 24, and the start of 25 (1996-2022). We examine the axisymmetric flows derived from 15-24 daily measurements averaged over individual 27-day Carrington rotations. Variations in the differential rotation include the equatorial torsional oscillation - cyclonic flows centered on the active latitudes with slower flows on the poleward sides of the active latitudes and faster flows equatorward. The fast flow band starts at $\sim$45$^\circ$ latitude during the declining phase of the previous cycle and drifts equatorward, terminating at the equator at about the time of cycle minimum. Variations in the differential rotation also include a polar oscillation above 45$^\circ$ with faster rotation at cycle maxima and slower rotation at cycle minima. The equatorial variations were stronger in cycle 24 than in cycle 23 but the polar variations were weaker. Variations in the meridional flow include a slowing of the poleward flow in the active latitudes during cycle rise and maximum and a speeding up of the poleward flow during cycle decline and minimum. The slowing in the active latitudes was less pronounced in cycle 24 than in cycle 23. Polar countercells (equatorward flow) extend from the poles down to $\sim$60$^\circ$ latitude from time to time (1996-2000 and 2016-2022 in the south and 2001-2011 and 2017-2022 in the north). Both axisymmetric flows vary in strength with depth. The rotation rate increases inward while the meridional flow weakens inward.

The vertical shear instability (VSI) is a source of hydrodynamic turbulence that can drive vigorous vertical mixing and moderate levels of accretion in protoplanetary disks, and it could be observable in the near future. With high-resolution three-dimensional numerical hydrodynamics simulations, we modeled the behavior of the VSI in protoplanetary disks with and without embedded planets. We then measured its accretion and mixing capabilities by comparing the full Reynolds stress, which includes the contribution of nonaxisymmetric features, such as spiral arms and vortices, to the Reynolds stress due to the azimuthally averaged velocity field, which can be attributed to good approximation to the VSI. We verified that the VSI can contribute to the accretion stress and showed that, depending on disk conditions, an embedded planet can coexist with or suppress VSI turbulent stress. Specifically, the presence of spiral shocks launched by a planet or planet-generated vortices can interfere with the VSI near the planet's vicinity, with the instability recovering at large enough distances from the planet or vortex. Our results suggest that observations of VSI signatures are unlikely in disks that contain massive, nonaxisymmetric features.

The gas-phase metallicity of galaxies encodes important information about galaxy evolution processes, in particular star formation, feedback, outflows and gas accretion, the relative importance of which can be extracted from systematic trends in the scatter of the mass-metallicity relation (MZR). Here, we use a sample of low redshift (0.02<z<0.055) galaxies from SDSS to investigate the nature of the scatter around the MZR, the observables and physical processes causing it, and its dependence on galaxy mass. We use cold gas masses inferred from optical emission lines using the technique of Scholte & Saintonge (2023) to confirm that at fixed stellar mass, metallicity and gas mass are anti-correlated, but only for galaxies up to M*=10^10.5Msun. In that mass regime, we find a link between the offset of a galaxy from the MZR and halo mass, using the amplitude of the two-point correlation function as a proxy for halo mass; at fixed stellar mass, the most gas-poor galaxies reside in the most massive halos. This observation can be explained via changes in gas accretion rates onto galaxies as a function of halo mass, as predicted by simulations. At higher stellar masses, the scatter of the MZR correlates only very weakly with gas mass and halo mass, but a stronger trend is found with AGN activity. These results confirm expectations from models and simulations that metallicity is set by the interplay between gas in- and outflows, star formation, and AGN feedback, shaping the MZR and its scatter.

Supernova remnants (SNRs) have long been considered to be the dominant source of Galactic cosmic rays, which implied that they provided most of the energy to power cosmic rays as well as being PeVatrons. The lack of evidence for PeV cosmic rays in SNRs, as well as theoretical considerations, has made this scenario untenable. At the same time the latest LHAASO and other gamma-ray results suggest that PeVatrons lurk inside starforming regions. Here I will discuss why SNRs should still be considered the main sources of Galactic cosmic rays at least up to 10 TeV, but that the cosmic-ray data allow for a second component of cosmic rays with energies up to several PeV. This second component could be a subset of supernovae/SNRs, reacceleration inside starforming regions, or pulsars. As a special case I show that the recent observations of Westerlund 1 by H.E.S.S. suggest a low value of the diffusion coefficient inside this region, which is, together with an Alfv\'en speed > 100 km/s, a prerequisite for making a starforming region collectively a PeVatron due to second order Fermi acceleration.

The variance and fractional variance on a fixed time window (variously known as "rms percent" or "modulation index") are commonly used to characterize the variability of astronomical sources. We summarize properties of this statistic for a Gaussian process.

Along with binary neutron star mergers, the in-spiral and merger of a black hole and a neutron star is a predicted site of $r$-process nucleosynthesis and associated kilonovae. For the right mass ratio, very large amounts of neutron rich material may become unbound from the post-merger accretion disk. We simulate a suite of four post-merger disks with full-transport general relativistic neutrino radiation magnetohydrodynamics. We find that the outflows from these disks are very close to the threshold conditions for robust $r$-process nucleosynthesis. For these conditions, the detailed properties of the outflow determine whether a full $r$-process can or cannot occur, implying that a wide range of observable phenomena are possible. We show that on average the disk outflow lanthanide fraction is suppressed relative to the solar isotopic pattern. In combination with the dynamical ejecta, these outflows imply a kilonova with both blue and red components.

Studying the physical and chemical processes leading to the formation of low-mass stars is crucial for understanding the origin of our Sun and the Solar System. In particular, analyzing the emission and absorption lines from molecules is a fundamental tool to obtain information on the kinematics and chemistry at the very early stages of star formation. In this work we aim to examine the spatial structures and molecular abundances of material surrounding the very well-known low-mass binary protostar IRAS 16293-2422 and the prestellar core 16293E, which are embedded in the Lynds 1689N dark cloud. We have used the LAsMA heterodyne array installed on the Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment (APEX) 12 meter submillimeter telescope to image a region of about 0.12x0.12pc$^2$ around IRAS 16293-2422 and 16293E and to study their molecular environment covering 45.6GHz in a frequency range from 277GHz to 375GHz. We have identified 144 transitions from 36 molecular species, including isotopologues. The maps reveal the envelope to have a complex morphology around the cloud cores and the emission peaks known as E1, E2, W1, W2, and HE2, including the outflow structure arising from IRAS 16293-2422. Using several transitions of para-H$_2$CO, we have derived new lower limits for the kinetic temperatures toward IRAS 16293-2422 and the surrounding emission peaks. Based on these temperatures, H$_2$ volume densities and column densities for all detected species were derived around the cloud cores and all emission peaks. Our new observations further confirm the scenario of an outflow arising from IRAS 16293-2422 interacting with the prestellar core 16293E. We observe a large-scale velocity gradient across the molecular cloud. Furthermore, we see clear chemical differences at the examined positions. The data suggests that emission peak W2 may be related to a colder dust source.

Bars play an important role in mixing material in the inner regions of galaxies and stimulating radial migration. Previous observations have found evidence for the impact of a bar on metallicity gradients but the effect is still inconclusive. We use the TYPHOON/PrISM survey to investigate the metallicity gradients along and beyond the bar region across the entire star-forming disk of five nearby galaxies. Using emission line diagrams to identify star-forming spaxels, we recover the global metallicity gradients ranging from -0.0162 to -0.073 dex/kpc with evidence that the galactic bars act as an agent in affecting in-situ star formation as well as the motions of gas and stars. We observe cases with a `shallow-steep' metallicity radial profile, with evidence of the bar flattening the metallicity gradients inside the bar region (NGC~5068 and NGC~1566) and also note instances where the bar appears to drive a steeper metallicity gradient producing `steep-shallow' metallicity profiles (NGC~1365 and NGC~1744). For NGC~2835, a `steep-shallow' metallicity gradient break occurs at a distance $\sim$ 4 times the bar radius, which is more likely driven by gas accretion to the outskirt of the galaxy instead of the bar. The variation of metallicity gradients around the bar region traces the fluctuations of star formation rate surface density in NGC~1365, NGC~1566 and NGC~1744. A larger sample combined with hydrodynamical simulations is required to further explore the diversity and the relative importance of different ISM mixing mechanisms on the gas-phase metallicity gradients in local galaxies.

We present reactive gasdynamic, axisymmetric simulations of dense, high velocity clumps for modelling the CO streamers observed in Orion BN/KL. We have considered 15 chemical species, a cooling function for atomic and molecular gas, and heating through cosmic rays. Our numerical simulations explore different ejection velocities, interstellar medium density configurations, and CO content. Using the CO density and temperature, we have calculated the CO ($J=2\to1$) emissivity, and have built CO maps and spatially resolved line profiles, allowing us to see the CO emitting regions of the streamers and to obtain position velocity diagrams to compare with observations. We find that in order to reproduce the images and line profiles of the BN/KL CO streamers and H$_2$ fingers, we need to have clumps that first travel within a dense cloud core, and then emerge into a lower-density environment.

WOCS 4540 is the longest orbital period ($P_{\rm orb}=3030$ days) blue straggler (BSS) - white dwarf (WD) pair in the old open cluster NGC 188 . It also contains one of the most luminous BSS in the cluster. Prior \textit{Hubble Space Telescope} COS spectroscopy measured a WD mass of 0.53 $M_{\odot}$, indicative of a carbon-oxygen WD and suggesting previous mass transfer from an asymptotic branch giant (AGB). Detailed modeling of the system evolution, including red giant branch phase wind mass transfer, AGB wind Roche-lobe overflow and regular Roche-lobe overflow, is done with Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics. The best-fit model produces excellent agreement with a wide array of observational constraints on the BSS, the WD and the binary system. To produce the observed luminosity and effective temperature of the BSS, all three donor mass-transfer mechanisms contribute similarly to build a 1.5 $M_{\odot}$ BSS. The overall mass-transfer efficiency is 55%. Regular Roche-lobe overflow occurs only during the largest AGB thermal pulse, but yields a very high accretion rate at 75% efficiency and briefly (less than 1 Myr) a very high luminosity boost from the accretor.

Visual classification of the variability classes of over 120,000 Kepler, K2 and TESS stars is presented. The sample is mainly based on stars with known spectral types. Since variability classification often requires the location of the star in the H--R diagram, a catalogue of effective temperatures was compiled. Luminosities were estimated from Gaia DR3 parallaxes. The different classes of variable found in this survey are discussed. Examples of light curves and periodograms for common variability classes are shown. A catalogue of projected rotational velocities is also included.

We analyzed 39 ks NuSTAR observation data of the high mass X-ray binary Cen X-3 in order to investigate the orbital- and spin-phase spectral variability. The observation covers the orbital phase of $\Phi=0.199$-$0.414$ of the source, where $\Phi=0$ corresponds to the mid-eclipse. The orbital-phase-resolved spectroscopy revealed that low energy photons are more dominant for the spectral fluctuation, and a large part of the variability can be explained in terms of absorption by clumps of stellar wind. The spin-phase-resolved spectroscopy together with energy-resolved pulse profiles, on the other hand, presented large flux variations in high energy bands, which suggests that the origin of the variability is the different efficiency of Comptonization inside the accretion column. The energy band which includes Fe emission lines or cyclotron resonance scattering feature (CRSF) shows distinct variability compared to the nearby bands. The Fe lines show low variability along the spin phase, which indicates that the emission regions are apart from the neutron star. The central energy and strength of the CRSF are both positively correlated with the spin-phase-resolved flux, which suggests that the emitted photons face stronger magnetic fields and deeper absorption when they come from high-flux regions. We also examined the independence of the orbital- and spin-phase variability. They showed no correlation with each other and were highly independent, which implies the accretion stream is stable during the observation.

During 2017, when the Sun was moving toward the minimum phase of solar cycle 24, an exceptionally eruptive active region (AR) NOAA 12673 emerged on the Sun during August 28-September 10. During the highest activity level, the AR turned into a delta-type sunspot region, which manifests the most complex configuration of magnetic fields from the photosphere to the coronal heights. The AR 12673 produced four X-class and 27 M-class flares, along with numerous C-class flares, making it one of the most powerful ARs of solar cycle 24. Notably, it produced the largest flare of solar cycle 24, namely, the X9.3 event on 2017 September 6. In this work, we highlight the results of our comprehensive analysis involving multi-wavelength imaging and coronal magnetic field modeling to understand the evolution and eruptivity from AR 12673. We especially focus on the morphological, spectral and kinematical evolution of the two X-class flares on 6 September 2017. We explore various large- and small-scale magnetic field structures of the active region which are associated with the triggering and subsequent outbursts during the powerful solar transients.

By performing $N$-body simulations, we investigated fundamental processes of collisions between dust aggregates composed of submicron-sized icy dust monomers. We examined the mass distribution of fragments in the collisional outcomes in a wide range of the mass ratio and the collision velocity between colliding dust aggregates. We derived analytic expressions of the mass distribution of large remnants and small fragments by numerical fitting to the simulation results. Our analytic formulae for masses of the large remnants can reproduce the contribution of mass transfer from a large target to a small projectile, which occurs for a mass ratio of $\gtrsim 3$ and is shown in a previous study (Hasegawa et al. 2021). We found that the power-law index of the cumulative mass distribution of the small fragments is independent of the mass ratio and only weakly dependent on the collision velocity. On the other hand, the mass fraction of fragments of individual dust monomers decreases with an increasing total mass of colliding aggregates for a fixed mass ratio. This tendency implies that multiple hierarchical disruptive collisions (i.e., collisions between fragments, collisions between fragments of fragments) are required for producing a large amount of individual dust monomers via collisional fragmentation. Our fragment model suggests that the total geometric cross section integrated over the fragments is estimated to be about the same order of the geometric cross section of the target.

We predict the dwarf galaxy detection limits for the upcoming Chinese Space Station Telescope (CSST) survey that will cover 17,500 deg$^{2}$ of the sky with a wide field of view of 1.1 deg$^2$. The point-source depth reaches 26.3 mag in the $g$ band and 25.9 mag in the $i$ band. Constructing mock survey data based on the designed photometric bands, we estimate the recovery rate of artificial dwarf galaxies from mock point-source photometric catalogues. The detection of these artificial dwarf galaxies is strongly dependent on their distance, magnitude and size, in agreement with searches in current surveys. We expect CSST to enable the detection of dwarf galaxies with $M_V = -3.0$ and $\mu_{250} = 32.0$ mag/arcsec$^2$ (surface-brightness limit for a system of half-light radius $r_{\rm h}$ = 250 pc at 400 kpc, and $M_V = -4.9$ and $\mu_{250} = 30.5$ mag/arcsec$^2$ around the Andromeda galaxy. Beyond the Local Group, the CSST survey will achieve $M_V = -5.8$, and $\mu_{250}$ = 29.7 mag/arcsec$^2$ in the distance range of 1--2 Mpc, opening up an exciting discovery space for faint field dwarf galaxies. With its optical bands, wide survey footprint, and space resolution, CSST will undoubtedly expand our knowledge of low-mass dwarf galaxies to an unprecedented volume.

We study the HII regions associated with the NGC 6334 molecular cloud observed in the sub-millimeter and taken as part of the B-fields In STar-forming Region Observations (BISTRO) Survey. In particular, we investigate the polarization patterns and magnetic field morphologies associated with these HII regions. Through polarization pattern and pressure calculation analyses, several of these bubbles indicate that the gas and magnetic field lines have been pushed away from the bubble, toward an almost tangential (to the bubble) magnetic field morphology. In the densest part of NGC 6334, where the magnetic field morphology is similar to an hourglass, the polarization observations do not exhibit observable impact from HII regions. We detect two nested radial polarization patterns in a bubble to the south of NGC 6334 that correspond to the previously observed bipolar structure in this bubble. Finally, using the results of this study, we present steps (incorporating computer vision; circular Hough Transform) that can be used in future studies to identify bubbles that have physically impacted magnetic field lines.

We study tidal disruption of white dwarfs in elliptic orbits with the eccenticity of $\sim 1/3$--$2/3$ by a non-spinning supermassive black hole of mass $M_{\rm BH}=10^5M_\odot$ in fully general relativistic simulations targeting the extreme mass-ratio inspiral leading eventually to tidal disruption. Numerical-relativity simulations are performed by employing a suitable formulation in which the weak self-gravity of white dwarfs is accurately solved. We reconfirm that tidal disruption occurs for white dwarfs of the typical mass of $\sim 0.6M_\odot$ and radius $\approx 1.2 \times 10^4$\,km near the marginally bound orbit around a non-spinning black hole with $M_{\rm BH}\alt 4\times 10^5M_\odot$.

Hot Jupiters form an enigmatic class of object with yet unclear formation pathways. Determination of their occurrence rates as function orbit, planet and stellar mass, and system age, can be an important ingredient for understanding how they form. To date, various Hot Jupiters have been discovered orbiting red giant stars and deriving their incidence would be highly interesting. In this study we aim to determine the number of Hot Jupiters in a well-defined sample of red giants, estimate their occurrence rate and compare it with that for A, F and G-type stars. A sample of 14474 red giant stars, with estimated radii between 2 and 5 $R_\odot$, was selected using Gaia to coincide with observations by the NASA TESS mission. Subsequently, the TESS light curves were searched for transits from Hot Jupiters. The detection efficiency was determined using injected signals, and the results further corrected for the geometric transit probability to estimate the occurrence rate. Three previously confirmed Hot Jupiters were found in the TESS data, in addition to one other TESS Object of Interest, and two M-dwarf companions. This results in an occurrence rate of $0.37^{+0.29}_{-0.09}$%. Due to the yet large uncertainties, this cannot be distinguished from that of A-, F- and G-type stars. We argue that it is unlikely that planet engulfment in expanding red giants plays yet an important role in this sample.

The maximum mass of black holes formed in isolated binaries is determined by stellar winds and the interactions between the binary components. We consider for the first time fully self-consistent detailed stellar structure and binary evolution calculations in population-synthesis models and a new, qualitatively different picture emerges for the formation of black-hole binaries, compared to studies employing rapid population synthesis models. We find merging binary black holes can form with a non-negligible rate ($\sim 4\times10^{-7}\,M_\odot^{-1}$) at solar metallicity. Their progenitor stars with initial masses $\gtrsim 50\,M_\odot$ do not expand to supergiant radii, mostly avoiding significant dust-driven or luminous blue variable winds. Overall, the progenitor stars lose less mass in stellar winds, resulting in black holes as massive as $\sim 30\,M_\odot$, and, approximately half of them avoid a mass-transfer episode before forming the first-born black hole. Finally, binaries with initial periods of a few days, some of which may undergo episodes of Roche-lobe overflow mass transfer, result in mildly spinning first-born black holes, $\chi_\mathrm{BH1} \lesssim 0.2$, assuming efficient angular-momentum transport.

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and double neutron-star merger gravitational wave events are followed by afterglows that shine from X-rays to radio, and these broadband transients are generally interpreted using analytical models. Such models are relatively fast to execute, and thus easily allow estimates of the energy and geometry parameters of the blast wave, through many trial-and-error model calculations. One problem, however, is that such analytical models do not capture the underlying physical processes as well as more realistic relativistic numerical hydrodynamic (RHD) simulations do. Ideally, those simulations are used for parameter estimation instead, but their computational cost makes this intractable. To this end, we present DeepGlow, a highly efficient neural network architecture trained to emulate a computationally costly RHD-based model of GRB afterglows, to within a few percent accuracy. As a first scientific application, we compare both the emulator and a different analytical model calibrated to RHD simulations, to estimate the parameters of a broadband GRB afterglow. We find consistent results between these two models, and also give further evidence for a stellar wind progenitor environment around this GRB source. DeepGlow fuses simulations that are otherwise too complex to execute over all parameters, to real broadband data of current and future GRB afterglows.

Basaltic rocks occur widely on the terrestrial planets and differentiated asteroids, including the asteroid 4 Vesta. We conducted a shock recovery experiment with decaying compressive pulses on a terrestrial basalt at Chiba Institute of Technology, Japan. The sample recorded a range of pressures, and shock physics modeling was conducted to add a pressure scale to the observed shock features. The shocked sample was examined by optical and electron microscopy, electron back-scattered diffractometry, and Raman spectroscopy. We found that localized melting occurs at a lower pressure (~10 GPa) than previously thought (>20 GPa). The shocked basalt near the epicenter represents shock degree C of a recently proposed classification scheme for basaltic eucrites and, as such, our results provide a pressure scale for the classification scheme. Finally, we estimated the total fraction of the basaltic eucrites classified as shock degree C to be ~15% by assuming the impact velocity distribution onto Vesta.

MEGARA is the optical integral field and multi-object spectrograph at the Gran Telescopio Canarias. We have created MEGASTAR, an empirical library of stellar spectra obtained using MEGARA at high resolution $R=20\,000$ (FWHM), available in two wavelength ranges: one centered in H${\alpha}$, from 6420 to 6790\,\AA\ and the other centered in the \ion{Ca}{ii} triplet, from 8370 to 8885\,\AA\ (\mbox{HR-R} and \mbox{HR-I} VPH-grating configurations). In this work, we use MEGASTAR spectra, combination of these two short wavelength intervals, to estimate the stellar parameters namely effective temperature, surface gravity and metallicity (and their associated errors) for a sample of 351 MEGASTAR members with spectral types earlier than B2. We have applied a $\chi^2$ technique by comparing MEGASTAR data to theoretical stellar models. For those stars with stellar parameters derived in the literature, we have obtained a good agreement between those published parameters and ours. Besides the stellar parameters, we also provide several products like the rectified spectra, radial velocities and stellar indices for this sample of stars. In a near future, we will use MEGASTAR spectra and their derived stellar parameters to compute stellar population evolutionary synthesis models, which will contribute to a better interpretation of star clusters and galaxies spectra obtained with MEGARA.

We study the high energy emission of two active galactic nuclei (AGN), NGC 4258 and NGC 7213. We directly apply the general-relativistic (GR) hot flow model, kerrflow, to the archival BeppoSAX, NuSTAR and Suzaku observations of these objects. Most of these data sets indicate that about 10-20 per cent of the accretion power is used for the direct heating of electrons, however, we find also indications for significant changes of the electron heating efficiency in some cases. Furthermore, all these X-ray data sets indicate rather strongly magnetized flows, with the magnetic field close to the equipartition with the gas pressure. Comparison of the model prediction with the Fermi/LAT data for NGC 7213 allows us to constrain the content of nonthermal protons to at most 10 per cent.

The X-ray Multi-mirror Mission (XMM-Newton) provides simultaneous non-dispersive spectroscopic X-ray imaging and timing, medium resolution dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and optical/UV imaging, spectroscopy and timing. In combination, the imaging cameras offer an effective area over the energy range from 150 eV to 12 keV of up to 2500 cm$^2$ at 1.5 keV and $\sim$1800 cm$^2$ at 5 keV. The gratings cover an energy range from 0.4 keV to 2.2 keV with a combined effective area of up to 120 cm$^2$ at 0.8 keV. XMM-Newton offers unique opportunities for a wide variety of sensitive X-ray observations accompanied by simultaneous optical/UV measurements. The majority of XMM-Newton's observing time is made available to the astronomical community by peer-reviewed Announcements of Opportunity. The scientific exploitation of XMM-Newton data is aided by an observatory-class X-ray facility which provides analysis software, pipeline processing, calibration and catalogue generation. Around 380 refereed papers based on XMM-Newton data are published each year with a high fraction of papers reporting transformative scientific results.

Recent observations have revealed a trove of unexpected morphological features in many of the Milky Way's stellar streams. Explanations for such features include time-dependent deformations of the Galactic gravitational potential, local disruptions induced by dark matter substructure, and special configurations of the streams' progenitors. In this paper, we study how these morphologies can also arise in certain static, non-spherical gravitational potentials that host a subset of resonantly-trapped orbit families. The transitions, or separatrices, between these orbit families mark abrupt discontinuities in the orbital structure of the potential. We develop a novel numerical approach for measuring the libration frequencies of resonant and near-resonant orbits, and apply it to study the evolution of stellar streams on these orbits. We reveal two distinct morphological features that arise in streams on near-resonant orbits: fans, that come about due to a large spread in the libration frequencies near a separatrix; and bifurcations, that arise when a separatrix splits the orbital distribution of the stellar stream between two (or more) distinct orbit families. We demonstrate that these effects can arise in some Milky Way streams for certain choices of the dark matter halo potential, and discuss how this might be used to probe and constrain the global shape of the Milky Way's gravitational potential.

Context: Radiative transfer modelling of expanding stellar envelopes is an important task in their analysis. To account for inhomogeneities and deviations from spherical symmetry, it is necessary to develop a 3D approach to radiative transfer modelling. Aims: We present a 3D Monte Carlo code for radiative transfer modelling, which is aimed to calculate the plasma ionisation and excitation state with the statistical equilibrium equations, moreover, to implement photon-matter coupling. As a first step, we present our Monte Carlo radiation transfer routines developed and tested from scratch. Methods: The background model atmosphere (the temperature, density, and velocity structure) can use an arbitrary grid referred to as the model grid (modGrid). The radiative transfer was solved using the Monte Carlo method in a Cartesian grid, referred to as the propagation grid (propgrid). This Cartesian grid was created based on the structure of the modgrid; correspondence between these two grids was set at the beginning of the calculations and then kept fixed. The propgrid can be either regular or adaptive; two modes of adaptive grids were tested. The accuracy and calculation speed for different propgrids was analysed. Photon interaction with matter was handled using the Lucy's macroatom approach. Test calculations using our code were compared with the results obtained by a different Monte Carlo radiative transfer code. Results: Our method and the related code for the 3D radiative transfer using the Monte Carlo and macroatom methods offer an accurate and reliable solution for the radiative transfer problem, and are especially promising for the inclusion and treatment of 3D inhomogeneities.

The number density of galaxy clusters as a function of mass and redshift is a sensitive function of the cosmological parameters. To use clusters for cosmological parameter studies, it is necessary to determine their masses as accurately as possible, which is typically done via mass-observable scaling relations. X-ray observables can be biased by multiphase gas and projection effects, especially in the case where cluster temperatures and luminosities are estimated from single-model fits to all of the emission with a given radius. Using simulated galaxy clusters from a realistic cosmological simulation, we seek to determine the importance of these biases in the context of Spectrum-Roentgen-Gamma/eROSITA observations of clusters. We extract clusters from the Magneticum suite, and simulate eROSITA observations of these clusters using PHOX and SIXTE. We compare the fitted observables from these observations to those derived from the simulations. We fitted an intrinsically scattered $L_{\rm X}-T$ scaling relation to these measurements following a Bayesian approach with which we fully took into account the selection effects and the mass function. The largest biases on the cluster observables come from the inadequacy of single-temperature model fits to represent emission from multiphase gas, as well as a bias arising from cluster emission within the projected $r_{500c}$ along the line of sight but outside of the spherical $r_{500c}$. We find that the biases on temperature and luminosity due to the projection of emission from other clusters within $r_{500c}$ is small. We find that our simulated clusters follow a $L_{\rm X}-T$ scaling relation that has a broadly consistent but slightly shallower slope compared to the literature, and that the intrinsic scatter of $L_{\rm X}$ at given T is lower compared to the recent observational results where the selection effects are fully considered.

We systematically searched for open clusters in the solar neighborhood within 500 pc using pyUPMASK and HDBSCAN clustering algorithms based on {\it Gaia} DR3. Taking into consideration that the physical size for most open clusters is less than 50 pc, we adopted a slicing approach for different distance shells and identified 324 neighboring open clusters, including 223 reported open clusters and 101 newly discovered open clusters (named as OCSN, Open Cluster of Solar Neighborhood). Our discovery has increased the number of open clusters in the solar neighborhood by about 45\%. In this work, larger spatial extents and more member stars were attained for our cluster sample. We provided the member stars and the membership probabilities through the pyUPMASK algorithm for each cluster and derived their astrophysical, age, and structural parameters.

Long predicted more than fifty years ago, strong evidence for the existence of crystalline cores inside white dwarfs has recently been obtained by the Gaia space telescope. It is thus important to investigate how a crystalline core may affect the properties and dynamics of white dwarfs. In this paper, we first study the dependence of the frequencies of the fundamental (f), interfacial (i), and shear (s) oscillation modes on the size of the crystalline core. We find that the frequencies of the i- and s-modes depend sensitively on the size of the core, while the frequency of the f-mode is affected only slightly by at most a few percent for our chosen white dwarf models. We next consider the tidal deformability of crystallized white dwarfs and find that the effect of crystallization becomes significant only when the radius of the core is larger than about 70% of the stellar radius. The tidal deformability can change by a few to about 10 percent when a white dwarf becomes fully crystallized. We also show that there exist approximate equation-of-state insensitive relations connecting the mass, moment of inertia, tidal deformability, and f-mode frequency for pure fluid white dwarfs. Depending on the stellar mass and composition, however, these relations can be affected by a few percent when the white dwarf is crystallized. These changes could leave an imprint on the gravitational waves emitted from the late inspiral or merger of white dwarf binaries, which may be detectable by future space-borne gravitational wave detectors.

We used solar observations of a plage/enhanced network with the Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array (ALMA) in Band 3 and Band 6 together with synthetic continuum maps from numerical simulations with Bifrost at the same bands to carry out a detailed study of bright small-scale magnetic features. To this end, we have used an algorithm to automatically identify and trace the features within the field of view (FoV) of the observations and the simulation. We found 193 and 293 features in the Bands 3 and 6 observations, respectively. In the degraded simulation, the total number of features were 24 for Band 3 and 204 for Band 6. In the original simulation, the total number of features were 36 for Band 3 and 392 for Band 6. Based on the simulation, we confirm the magnetic nature of the features which exhibit an oscillatory behaviour in temperature, size and horizontal velocity. The average oscillation periods were of 30-99\,s for temperature, 37-92\,s for size and 37-78\,s for horizontal velocity. There are indications for the possible presence of transverse (kink) waves with average amplitude velocities of 2.1-5.0\,km\,s$^{-1}$. An anti-phase behaviour between temperature and size oscillations suggest the presence of compressible fast-sausage Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) modes. Finally, we have estimated the flux of energy of the fast-sausage waves at the chromospheric heights sampled by ALMA as 453-1838\,W\,m$^{-2}$ for Band 3 and 3640-5485\,W\,m$^{-2}$ for Band 6. The decrease of wave energy-flux with height (from Band 6 to Band 3) could possibly suggest energy dissipation at chromospheric heights, thus wave heating, with the assumptions that the identified small-scale waves are typical at each band and they propagate upward through the chromosphere.

One of the main science questions of the Solar Orbiter and Parker Solar Probe missions deals with understanding how electrons in the lower solar corona are accelerated and how they subsequently access interplanetary space. We aim to investigate the electron acceleration and energy release sites as well as the manner in which accelerated electrons access the interplanetary space in the case of the SOL2021-02-18T18:05 event, a GOES A8 class microflare associated with a coronal jet. This study takes advantage of three different vantage points, Solar Orbiter, STEREO-A, and Earth, with observations ranging from radio to X-ray. Multi-wavelength timing analysis combined with UV/EUV imagery and X-ray spectroscopy by Solar Orbiter/STIX (Spectrometer/Telescope for Imaging X-rays) is used to investigate the origin of the observed emission during different flare phases. The event under investigation satisfies the classical picture of the onset time of the acceleration of electrons coinciding with the jet and the radio type III bursts. This microflare features prominent hard X-ray nonthermal emission down to at least 10 keV and a spectrum that is much harder than usual for a microflare with a spectral index of 2.9. From Earth's vantage point, the microflare is seen near the limb, revealing the coronal energy release site above the flare loop in EUV, which, from STIX spectroscopic analysis, turns out to be hot (at roughly the same temperature of the flare). Moreover, this region is moving toward higher altitudes over time (about 30 km/s). During the flare, the same region spatially coincides with the origin of the coronal jet. We conclude that the energy release site observed above-the-loop corresponds to the electron acceleration site, corroborating that interchange reconnection is a viable candidate for particle acceleration in the low corona on field lines open to interplanetary space.

We report a detailed analysis of a failed eruption and flare in active region 12018 on 2014 April 3 using multiwavelength observations from SDO/AIA, IRIS, STEREO, and Hinode/SOT. At least four jets were observed to emanate from the cusp of this small active region (large bright point) with a null-point topology during the two hours prior to the slow rise of a filament. During the filament slow rise multiple plasma blobs were seen, most likely formed in a null-point current sheet near the cusp. The subsequent filament eruption, which was outside the IRIS field of view, was accompanied by a flare but remained confined. During the explosive flare reconnection phase, additional blobs appeared repetitively and moved bidirectionally within the flaring region below the erupting filament. The filament kinked, rotated, and underwent leg-leg reconnection as it rose, yet it failed to produce a coronal mass ejection. Tiny jet-like features in the fan loops were detected during the filament slow-rise/pre-flare phase. We interpret them as signatures of reconnection between the ambient magnetic field and the plasmoids leaving the null-point sheet and streaming along the fan loops. We contrast our interpretation of these tiny jets, which occur within the large-scale context of a failed filament eruption, with the local nanoflare-heating scenario proposed by Antolin et al. (2021).

JWST observations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission provide some of the deepest and highest resolution views of the cold interstellar medium (ISM) in nearby galaxies. If PAHs are well mixed with the atomic and molecular gas and illuminated by the average diffuse interstellar radiation field, PAH emission may provide an approximately linear, high resolution, high sensitivity tracer of diffuse gas surface density. We present a pilot study that explores using PAH emission in this way based on MIRI observations of IC 5332, NGC 628, NGC 1365, and NGC 7496 from the PHANGS-JWST Treasury. Using scaling relationships calibrated in Leroy et al. (2022), scaled F1130W provides 10--40 pc resolution and 3$\sigma$ sensitivity of $\Sigma_{\rm gas} \sim 2$ M$_\odot$ pc$^{-2}$. We characterize the surface densities of structures seen at $< 7$ M$_\odot$ pc$^{-2}$ in our targets, where we expect the gas to be HI-dominated. We highlight the existence of filaments, inter-arm emission, and holes in the diffuse ISM at these low surface densities. Below $\sim 10$ M$_\odot$ pc$^{-2}$ for NGC 628, NGC 1365, and NGC 7496 the gas distribution shows a ``Swiss cheese''-like topology due to holes and bubbles pervading the relatively smooth distribution of diffuse ISM. Comparing to recent galaxy simulations, we observe similar topology for the low surface density gas, though with notable variations between simulations with different setups and resolution. Such a comparison of high resolution, low surface density gas with simulations is not possible with existing atomic and molecular gas maps, highlighting the unique power of JWST maps of PAH emission.

Radio pulsars exhibit several unexplained phenomena, in particular the average pulse profiles with the apparent core-cone structure and interesting frequency evolution. I show that they can be interpreted through essential geometric properties of the inverse Compton scattering. If the scattering occurs in a dipolar magnetosphere and the mean-free-path is long, a nested cone structure is expected with the cone size ratio of two-thirds, which is consistent with observations. Being a discontinuous process, the scattering is consistent with the discrete altitude structure of emission rings as derived from aberration-retardation effects. Assuming that the upscattered signal is the curvature radiation (CR), one can interpret the observed bifurcated components (BCs) as a magnified microbeam of CR: the BCs are wide low-frequency CR microbeams that have been upshifted in frequency with their width preserved by beam-copying scattering in divergent magnetic field. The large flux of BCs is partly caused by compression of the full emitted spectrum into the narrow observed bandwidth, which explains why the frequency-resolved BCs have the frequency-integrated shape. The wide low-frequency microbeams can encompass large magnetospheric volumes, which considerably abates the requirements of the energy needed for coherency. The properties of BCs thus suggest that the observed modulated radio flux is strongly affected by the scattering-driven blueshift and spectral compression. The relativistic beaming formula (1/\gamma) is not always applicable, in the sense that it may not be directly applied to some blueshifted profile features.

The presence of radioactive $^{26}$Al at 1.8 MeV reflects ongoing nucleosynthesis in the Milky Way. Diffuse emission from its decay can be measured with gamma-ray telescopes in space. The intensity, line shape, and spatial distribution of the $^{26}$Al emission allow a study of these nucleosynthesis sources. The line parameters trace massive-star feedback in the interstellar medium due to its 1~My lifetime. We aim to deepen previous studies of the $^{26}$Al emission in the Milky Way, using all gamma-ray data including single and double events as collected with SPI on INTEGRAL from 2003 until 2020. We apply improved spectral response and background as evaluated from tracing spectral details over the entire mission. The exposure for Galactic $^{26}$Al emission is enhanced using all event types measured within SPI. We re-determine the intensity of Galactic $^{26}$Al emission across the entire sky, through maximum likelihood fits of simulated and model-built sky distributions to SPI spectra for single and for double detector hits. We find an all-sky flux of (1.84$\pm$0.03$)\times$10$^{-3}$~ph~cm$^{-2}$s$^{-1}$ in the 1.809~MeV line from $^{26}$Al, determined as fitted to sky distributions from previous observations with COMPTEL. Significant emission from higher latitudes indicate an origin from nearby massive-star groups and superbubbles, also supported by a bottom-up population synthesis model. The line centroid is found at (1809.83$\pm$0.04~keV, and line broadening from source kinematics integrated over the sky is (0.62$\pm0.3$)~keV (FWHM).

Hypernebulae are inflated by accretion-powered winds accompanying hyper-Eddington mass transfer from an evolved post-main sequence star onto a black hole or neutron star companion. The ions accelerated at the termination shock$-$where the collimated fast disk winds/jet collide with the slower, wide-angled winds$-$can generate high-energy neutrinos via hadronic ($pp$) reactions, and photohadronic ($p\gamma$) interactions with the disk thermal and Comptonized nonthermal background photons. It has been suggested that some fast radio bursts (FRBs) may be powered by such short-lived jetted hyper-accreting engines. Although neutrino emission associated with the ms-duration bursts themselves is challenging to detect, the persistent radio counterparts of some FRB sources$-$if associated with hypernebulae$-$could contribute to the high energy neutrino diffuse background flux. If the hypernebula birth rate follows that of steller-merger transients and common envelope events, we find that their volume-integrated neutrino emission$-$depending on the population-averaged mass-transfer rates$-$could explain $\gtrsim 25\%$ of the high-energy diffuse neutrino flux observed by the IceCube Observatory and the Baikal-GVD Telescope. The time-averaged neutrino spectrum from hypernebula$-$depending on the population parameters$-$can also reproduce the observed diffuse neutrino spectrum. The neutrino emission could in some cases furthermore extend to $>$100 PeV, detectable by future ultra-high-energy neutrino observatories. The large optical depth through the nebula to Breit-Wheeler ($\gamma\gamma$) interaction attenuates the escape of GeV-PeV gamma-rays co-produced with the neutrinos, rendering these gamma-ray-faint neutrino sources, consistent with the Fermi observations of the isotropic gamma-ray background.

We begin here a series of papers examining the chromospheric and coronal properties of solar active regions. This first paper describes an extensive dataset of images from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly on the Solar Dynamics Observatory curated for large-sample analysis of this topic. Based on (and constructed to coordinate with) the ``Active Region Patches'' as identified by the pipeline data analysis system for the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) on the same mission, the ``HARPs''), the ``AIA Active Region Patches'' (AARPs), described herein, comprise an unbiased multi-wavelength set of FITS files downsampled spatially only by way of HARP-centered patch extractions (full spatial sampling is retained), and downsampled in the temporal domain but still able to describe both short-lived kinematics and longer-term trends. The AARPs database enables physics-informed parametrization and analysis using Nonparametric Discriminant Analysis in Paper II of this series, and is validated for analysis using Differential Emission Measure techniques. The AARP dataset presently covers mid-2010 through December 2018, is approx 9TB in size, and available through the Solar Data Analysis Center.

A large sample of active-region-targeted time-series images from the Solar Dynamics Observatory / Atmospheric Imaging Assembly, the AIA Active Region Patch database ("AARPs", Paper I: Dissauer et al 2022) is used to investigate whether parameters describing the coronal, transition region, and chromospheric emission can differentiate a region that will imminently produce a solar flare from one that will not. Parametrizations based on moment analysis of direct and running-difference images provide for physically-interpretable results from nonparametric discriminant analysis. Across four event definitions including both 24hr and 6hr validity periods, 160 image-based parameters capture the general state of the atmosphere, rapid brightness changes, and longer-term intensity evolution. We find top Brier Skill Scores in the 0.07--0.33 range, True Skill Statistics in the 0.68--0.82 range (both depending on event definition), and Receiver Operating Characteristic Skill Scores above 0.8. Total emission can perform notably as can steeply increasing or decreasing brightness, although mean brightness measures do not, demonstrating the well-known active-region-size/flare-productivity relation. Once a region is flare productive, the active-region coronal plasma appears to stay hot. The 94AA filter data provides the most parameters with discriminating power, with indications that it benefits from sampling multiple physical regimes. In particular, classification success using higher-order moments of running difference images indicate a propensity for flare-imminent regions to display short-lived small-scale brightening events. Parameters describing the evolution of the corona can provide flare-imminent indicators, but at no preference over "static" parameters. Finally, all parameters and NPDA-derived probabilities are available to the community for additional research.

The recently identified source class of pulsar haloes may be numerous and bright enough in the TeV range to constitute a large fraction of the sources that will be observed with the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). In this work, we quantify the prospects for detecting and characterizing pulsar haloes in observations of the projected Galactic Plane Survey (GPS), using a simple phenomenological diffusion model for individual pulsar haloes and their population in the Milky Way. Our ability to uncover pulsar haloes and constrain their main physical parameters in the CTA GPS is assessed in the framework of a full spatial-spectral likelihood analysis of simulated survey observations, using the most recent estimates for the instrument response function and prototypes for the science tools. For a model setup representative of the halo around Geminga, we find that about three hundred objects could give rise to detectable emission in the GPS survey. Yet, only a third of them could be identified through their energy-dependent morphology, and only one-tenth of them would allow the derivation of strong constraints on key physical parameters like the magnitude or extent of suppressed diffusion around the pulsar. We also provide a list of known pulsars that could be hosting a detectable (Geminga-like) halo in the GPS and assess the robustness of our findings against several systematic uncertainties.

We discuss the dynamics of expanding bubble walls in the presence of massive dark photons whose mass changes as they cross the wall. For sufficiently thin walls, we show that there exists a transient kinematic regime characterized by a constant reflection probability of longitudinal -- but not transverse -- modes. This effect can have important implications for the dynamics of expanding vacuum bubbles in the early Universe. Most notably, it leads to a new source of pressure on the expanding interface, featuring a non-monotonic dependence on the $\gamma$-factor of the bubble walls and reaching a peak at intermediate $\gamma$-factors that we dub Maximum Dynamic Pressure. When this pressure is large enough to halt the acceleration of the bubble walls, the difference in vacuum energy densities goes into making a fraction of the dark photons relativistic, turning them into dark radiation. If the dark radiation remains relativistic until late times, an observable contribution to $\Delta N_\text{eff}$ is possible for phase transitions with strength $\alpha \sim 10^{-2} - 10^{-1}$.

The de Sitter spacetime is a maximally symmetric spacetime. It is one of the vacuum solutions to Einstein equations with a cosmological constant. It is the solution with a positive cosmological constant and describes a universe undergoing accelerated expansion. Among the possible signs for a cosmological constant, this solution is relevant for primordial and late-time cosmology. In the case of zero cosmological constant, studies on the representations of its isometry group have led to a broader understanding of particle physics. The isometry group of $d+1$-dimensional de Sitter is the group $SO(d+1,1)$, whose representations are well known. Given this insight what can we learn about the elementary degrees of freedom in a four dimensional de Sitter universe by exploring how the unitary irreducible representations of $SO(4,1)$ present themselves in cosmological setups? This article aims to summarize recent advances along this line that benefit towards a broader understanding of quantum field theory and holography at different signs of the cosmological constant. Particular focus is given to the manifestation of $SO(4,1)$ representations at the late-time boundary of de Sitter. The discussion is concluded by pointing towards future questions at the late-time boundary and the static patch with a focus on the representations.

In the late age of developing quantum mechanics, Lev Landau, one of the distinguished players, made great efforts to understand the nature of matter, even stellar matter, by applying the quantum theory. Ninety years ago, he published his idea of "neutron" star, which burst upon him during his visit over Europe in the previous year. The key point that motivated Landau to write the paper is to make a state with lower energy for "gigantic nucleus", avoiding extremely high kinematic energy of electron gas due to the new Fermi-Dirac statistics focused hotly on at that time. Landau had no alternative but to neutronize/neutralize by "combining a proton and an electron", as electron and proton were supposed to be elementary before the discovery of neutron. However, our understanding of the Nature has fundamentally improved today, and another way (i.e., strangeonization) could also embody neutralization and thus a low-energy state that Landau had in mind, which could further make unprecedented opportunities in this multi-messenger era of astronomy. Strangeon matter in "old" physics may impact dramatically on today's physics, from compact stars initiated by Landau, to cosmic rays and dark matter. In this essay, we are making briefly the origin and development of neutron star concept to reform radically, to remember Landau's substantial contribution in astrophysics and to recall those peculiar memories.

A violation of the null energy condition (NEC) during inflation in a single field inflation model will naturally enhance the amplitude of the parity violation effect (defined by $\Delta\chi$) of inflationary primordial gravitational waves (GWs), provided the inflaton is non-minimally coupled to a gravitational Chern-Simons term. After going through the NEC-violating phase, the universe enters subsequent slow-roll inflation with a higher scale, which results in an enhanced nearly scale-invariant power spectrum (i.e., $P_{\rm T}$) of inflationary primordial GWs in the high-frequency band, while $P_{\rm T}$ remains consistent with observations in the frequency band of the cosmic microwave background. Therefore, the violation of NEC during inflation will amplify the observability (i.e., $P_{\rm T}\cdot\Delta\chi$) of the parity violation effect. For a sufficiently large $P_{\rm T}$, a $\Delta\chi$ as small as a few percent can imprint a significant signal of parity violation in the GWs background, which might be detectable for pulsar timing arrays and space-based detectors in the future.

Quasars observed at redshifts $z\sim 7.5$ are powered by supermassive black holes which are too large to have grown from early stellar remnants. A proposal for alleviating this tension is for dust and metal-free gas clouds to have undergone a process of direct collapse, producing black hole seeds of mass $M_\textrm{seed}\sim10^5 M_\odot$ around redshift $z \sim 17$. For direct collapse to occur, a large flux of UV photons must exist to photodissociate molecular hydrogen, allowing the gas to cool slowly and avoid fragmentation. We investigate the possibility of sub-keV mass dark matter decaying or annihilating to produce the UV flux needed to cause direct collapse. We find that annihilating dark matter with a mass in the range of $13.6 \textrm{ eV} \le m_{dm} \le 20 \textrm{ eV}$ can produce the required flux while avoiding existing constraints. A non-thermally produced dark matter particle which comprises the entire dark matter abundance requires a thermally averaged cross section of $\langle\sigma v \rangle \sim 10^{-35}$ cm$^3/$s. Alternatively, the flux could originate from a thermal relic which comprises only a fraction $\sim10^{-9}$ of the total dark matter density. Decaying dark matter models which are unconstrained by independent astrophysical observations are unable to sufficiently suppress molecular hydrogen, except in gas clouds embedded in dark matter halos which are larger, cuspier, or more concentrated than current simulations predict. Lastly, we explore how our results could change with the inclusion of full three-dimensional effects. Notably, we demonstrate that if the $\mathrm{H}_2$ self-shielding is less than the conservative estimate used in this work, the range of both annihilating and decaying dark matter models which can cause direct collapse is significantly increased.

Eccentricity of compact binaries can improve the parameter estimation of gravitational waves (GWs), which is due to the fact that the multiple harmonics induced by eccentricity can provide more information and break the degeneracy between waveform parameters. In this paper, we first investigate the parameter estimation of eccentric GWs with decihertz observatory. We consider two scenarios for the configuration of DECIGO, i.e., the one cluster of DECIGO with its design sensitivity and B-DECIGO which also has one cluster but with inferior sensitivity as a comparison. We adopt the Fisher matrix to estimate the parameter errors. By mocking up the typical binaries in GWTC-3, we find a nonvanishing eccentricity can significantly improve the estimation for almost all waveform parameters. In particular, the localization of typical binary black holes (BBH) can achieve $\mathcal{O}(10-10^{3.5})$ factors of improvement when the initial eccentricity $e_0=0.4$ at 0.1 Hz. The precise localization of binary neutron stars (BNS) and neutron star--black hole binaries (NSBH), together with the large improvement of localization of BBH from eccentricity in the mid-band, inspire us to construct the catalogs of golden dark sirens whose host galaxies can be uniquely identified. We find that with only one cluster of DECIGO running 1 year in its design sensitivity, hundreds of golden dark BNS, NSBH, and tens of golden dark BBH can be observed. Eccentricity can greatly increase the population of golden dark BBH from $\sim 7~(e_0=0)$ to $\sim 65~(e_0=0.2)$. Such an increase of population of golden dark BBH events can improve the precision of Hubble constant measurement from 2.06\% to 0.68\%, matter density parameter from 64\% to 16\% in $\Lambda$CDM model. Through the phenomenological parameterization of GW propagation, the constraints of modified gravity can be improved from 6.2\% to 1.6\%.

The recently developed resummation technique known as {\it renormalization group optimized perturbation theory} (RGOPT) is employed in the evaluation of the EoS describing non-strange cold quark matter at NLO. Inspired by recent investigations which suggest that stable quark matter can be made only of up and down quarks, the mass-radius relation for two flavor pure quark stars is evaluated and compared with the predictions from perturbative QCD (pQCD) at NNLO. This comparison explicitly shows that by being imbued with renormalization group properties, and a variational optimization procedure, the method allows for an efficient resummation of the perturbative series. Remarkably, when the renormalization scale is chosen so as to reproduce the mass of pulsar PSR J0740+6620, $M= 2.08\pm 0.07 M_\odot$, one obtains a mass-radius curve which also predicts quite accurate values for the masses and radii of pulsar PSR J0030+0451, and compact object HESS J1731-347. Moreover, the scale dependence of the EoS (and mass-radius relation) obtained with the RGOPT is greatly improved when compared to that of pQCD. This seminal application to the description of quark stars shows that the RGOPT represents a robust alternative to pQCD when describing compressed quark matter.

Domain wall networks in the early universe, formed upon spontaneous breaking of a discrete symmetry, have a rich impact on cosmology. Yet, they remain somewhat unexplored. We introduce a new analytic strategy to understand better the domain wall epoch, from formation to annihilation. Our method includes a quantum field theoretical treatment of the initial state at domain wall formation, as well as of the time evolution. We find that the domain wall area density for a network with biased initial condition in $d+1$ dimensional flat spacetime evolves as $t^{-1/2}\,\exp\big(- (t/t_{ann})^{d/2}\big)$. We comment on the relation between this and previous results obtained in condensed matter and in cosmology. The extrapolation of this law to an expanding universe applies to networks that are close to the domain wall `gas' limit.