Papers for Wednesday, Dec 28 2022

An amateur astronomer in the modern world has the opportunity not only to make visual observations for own interest, but can make scientific astronomical observations and new discoveries in astronomy. In my example, as amateur astronomer and only through self-education, I inform about my discoveries: of the possible dwarf nova on the old digitized photographic plates and of new variable stars from sky surveys data by means of data mining; how I discovered (in the images of the sky surveys): astronomical transients, supernovae, planetary nebula candidates and new binary systems in the data of Gaia DR2; I describe my discoveries of three novae in the Andromeda Galaxy. I report about some of my scientific observations using remote telescopes: of superhumps of cataclysmic variable stars; of echo outburst of AM CVn star; of maximum brightness of blazars; of optical afterglows of gamma-ray bursts (including GRB 221009A); of microlensing events; of rotation of near-Earth asteroid 2022 AB. I also describe my photometric follow-up observations of novae (including V1405 Cas and V1674 Her) and my astrometric observations of Solar System objects (including the confirmation of objects posted at the Confirmation Pages of the Minor Planet Center) including observations of comet 2I/Borisov, asteroids 2020 AV2 and (65803) Didymos. I also describe some of my observations of occultations: of the star by asteroid (159) Aemilia, of the star by Saturn's moon Titan and of Uranus by the Moon during total lunar eclipse on November 8, 2022; and visual observations of variable stars, meteors and sunspots (including during the transit of Venus in 2012). Some of my data already used in scientific papers, others were sent to the databases. I share my experience of discovery and research of astronomical objects and in my example, I show that an amateur astronomer can make a real contribution to the science.

This paper introduces new definitions of common geodetic measures on a planetary surface (namely surface area, path length, and mean value or other statistical parameters of a surface function) that are not based on a datum such as a reference ellipsoid. Instead, the so-called datumless geodetic measures are based on physically meaningful formulations that rely only on the actual planetary surface and gravity. The datumless measures provide universally standardized measurements on any terrestrial object, including non-ellipsoidal asteroids and comets. Conveniently, on fairly round planets such as Earth and Mars, the datumless measures yield very similar values as corresponding geodetic measures on a reference ellipsoid. Like their ellipsoidal counterparts, the datumless measures quantify area and length in the familiar "bird's-eye view" or "horizontal, normal-to-gravity" sense. Far from being purely theoretical, the datumless measures can be approximated in GIS software using a digital elevation model and a gravity model such as a geoid.

The most commonly accepted progenitor system for Type Iax supernovae (SNe Iax) is the partial deflagration of a near-Chandrasekhar-mass white dwarf (WD) accreting from a non-degenerate helium donor star, leaving a bound remnant following the explosion. In this paper, we investigate whether the WD remant can undergo multiple SNe during the system's lifetime. We use Modules for Experiments in Astrophysics (MESA) to evolve various single-degenerate binaries to determine which could plausibly undergo multiple SNe Iax due to multiple helium accretion phases. We also investigate the possibility for a subsequent Type Ia SN after the formation of a double WD system. Our work concludes that close binaries with relatively high-mass donors produce the highest probability for several thermonuclear SNe.

The Astrophysics Source Code Library (ASCL) contains 3000 metadata records about astrophysics research software and serves primarily as a registry of software, though it also can and does accept code deposit. Though the ASCL was started in 1999, many astronomers, especially those new to the field, are not very familiar with it. This hands-on virtual tutorial was geared to new users of the resource to teach them how to use the ASCL, with a focus on finding software and information about software not only in this resource, but also by using Google and NASA's Astrophysics Data System (ADS). With computational methods so important to research, finding these methods is useful for examining (for transparency) and possibly reusing the software (for reproducibility or to enable new research). Metadata about software is useful for, for example, knowing how to cite software when it is used for research and studying trends in the computational landscape. Though the tutorial was primarily aimed at new users, advanced users were also likely to learn something new.

Are others using software you've written in their research and citing it as you want it to be cited? Software can be cited in different ways, some good, and some not good at all for tracking and counting citations in indexers such as ADS and Clarivate's Web of Science. Generally, these resources need to match citations to resources, such as journal articles or software records, they ingest. This presentation covered common reasons as to why a code might not be cited well (in a trackable/countable way), which citation methods are trackable, how to specify this information for your software, and where this information should be placed. It also covered standard software metadata files, how to create them, and how to use them. Creating a metadata file, such as a CITATION.cff or codemeta.json, and adding it to the root of your code repo is easy to do with the ASCL's metadata file creation overlay, and will help out anyone wanting to give you credit for your computational method, whether it's a huge carefully-written and tested package, or a short quick-and-dirty-but-oh-so-useful code.

We report about HD 213258, an Ap star that we recently identified as presenting a unique combination of rare, remarkable properties. Our study of this star is based on ESPaDOnS Stokes I and V data obtained at 7 epochs spanning a time interval slightly shorter than 2 years, on TESS data, and on radial velocity measurements from the CORAVEL data base. We confirm that HD 213258 is definitely an Ap star. We found that, in its spectrum, the Fe II {\lambda}6149.2 {\AA} line is resolved into its two magnetically split components. The mean magnetic field modulus of HD 213258, <B> ~ 3.8 kG does not show significant variations over ~2 years. Comparing our mean longitudinal field determinations with a couple of measurements from the literature, we show that the stellar rotation period must likely be of the order of 50 years, with a reversal of the field polarity. Moreover, HD 213258 is a rapidly oscillating Ap (roAp) star, in which high overtone pulsations with a period of 7.58 min are detected. Finally, we confirm that HD 213258 has a mean radial velocity exceeding (in absolute value) that of at least 99% of the Ap stars. The radial velocity shows low amplitude variations, which suggests that the star is a single-line spectroscopic binary. It is also a known astrometric binary. While its orbital elements remain to be determined, its orbital period likely is one of the shortest known for a binary roAp star. Its secondary is close to the borderline between stellar and substellar objects. There is a significant probability that it may be a brown dwarf. While most of the above-mentioned properties, taken in isolation, are observed in a small fraction of the whole population of Ap stars, the probability that a single star possesses all of them is extremely low. This makes HD 213258 an exceptionally interesting object that deserves to be studied in detail in the future.

In this review we briefly summarize the so-called effective fluid approach, which is a compact framework that can be used to describe a plethora of different modified gravity models as general relativity (GR) and a dark energy (DE) fluid. This approach, which is complementary to the cosmological effective field theory, has several benefits as it allows for the easier inclusion of most modified gravity models into the state-of-the-art Boltzmann codes, that are typically hard-coded for GR and DE. Furthermore, it can also provide theoretical insights into their behavior, since in linear perturbation theory it is easy to derive physically motivated quantities such as the DE anisotropic stress or the DE sound speed. We also present some explicit applications of the effective fluid approach with $f(R)$, Horndeski and Scalar-Vector-Tensor models, namely how this approach can be used to easily solve the perturbation equations and incorporate the aforementioned modified gravity models into Boltzmann codes so as to obtain cosmological constraints using Monte Carlo analyses.

In spite of the advent of extremely large telescopes in the UV/optical/NIR range, the current generation of 8-10m facilities is likely to remain competitive at ground-UV wavelengths for the foreseeable future. The Cassegrain U-Band Efficient Spectrograph (CUBES) has been designed to provide high-efficiency (>40%) observations in the near UV (305-400 nm requirement, 300-420 nm goal) at a spectral resolving power of R>20,000, although a lower-resolution, sky-limited mode of R ~ 7,000 is also planned. CUBES will offer new possibilities in many fields of astrophysics, providing access to key lines of stellar spectra: a tremendous diversity of iron-peak and heavy elements, lighter elements (in particular Beryllium) and light-element molecules (CO, CN, OH), as well as Balmer lines and the Balmer jump (particularly important for young stellar objects). The UV range is also critical in extragalactic studies: the circumgalactic medium of distant galaxies, the contribution of different types of sources to the cosmic UV background, the measurement of H2 and primordial Deuterium in a regime of relatively transparent intergalactic medium, and follow-up of explosive transients. The CUBES project completed a Phase A conceptual design in June 2021 and has now entered the Phase B dedicated to detailed design and construction. First science operations are planned for 2028. In this paper, we briefly describe the CUBES project development and goals, the main science cases, the instrument design and the project organization and management.

Recent photometric detections of extreme $(z>10)$ redshift galaxies from the JWST have been shown to be in strong tension with existing simulation models for galaxy formation, and in the most acute case, in tension with $\Lambda CDM$ itself. These results, however, all rest on the confirmation of these distances by spectroscopy. Recently, the JADES survey has detected the most distant galaxies with spectroscopically confirmed redshifts, with four galaxies found with redshifts between $z=10.38$ and $z=13.2$. In this paper, we compare simulation predictions from four large cosmological volumes and two zoom-in protoclusters with the JADES observations to determine whether these spectroscopically confirmed galaxy detections are in tension with existing models for galaxy formation, or with $\Lambda CDM$ more broadly. We find that existing models for cosmological galaxy formation can generally reproduce the observations for JADES, in terms of galaxy stellar masses, star formation rates, and the number density of galaxies at $z>10$.

Context. Supernova remnants (SNR) are one of the main sources of galactic cosmic rays acceleration. This acceleration, believed to happen at the blast wave front, leads to an energy loss at the shock front. This results in the apparent proximity between the blast wave and the contact discontinuity. Aims. In this article, we study the effect that turbulent-like density perturbations of the interstellar medium (ISM) have on the evolution of young SNRs. We focus on the impact such fluctuations have on the SNRs structure and more precisely on the resulting distance between blast wave and contact discontinuity. Since cosmic rays acceleration is necessary to explain this distance, this study indirectly put into question the cosmic rays acceleration at the blast wave front. Methods. We performed a set of purely hydrodynamic three-dimensional simulations without cosmic ray acceleration in a co-expanding frame. We randomly initialised the density variation of the interstellar medium following a Kolmogorov power law. The resulting ratios of radii between blast wave, contact discontinuity and reverse shock are then compared to the astronomical observations. Results. The addition of density perturbation doesnt significantly change the average ratio of radii. However, the simulations show a higher growth of interfacial instabilities in the presence of a turbulent ISM. The resulting deformation of the contact discontinuity could explain the proximity between contact discontinuity and blast wave. They also explain the plateau in the radial distribution of the line of sight velocity associated with the observations of Tycho. Conclusions. The density perturbation of the ISM should not be neglected in the simulation of young SNR as they have an impact comparable to the cosmic rays acceleration on the SNR structure.

In this paper, we study scalar inflation in detail by applying the preheating of LATTICEEASY simulation. In general, scalar inflation potential with non-minimal coupling can be approximated to the quartic potential inflation. We observe that the evolutionary trend of this potential is independent of the coupling coefficient, and theoretical predictions for the scalar spectral index $n_s$ and tensor-to-scalar power ratio $r$ are also independent of the coefficient, which implies that the coefficients of this model will not be bounded by the Planck observations. Fortunately, the properties of preheating after inflation provide a feasible scheme to study those coefficients. For the preheating process, the evolution of particle number density, scale factor, and energy density can be restored and tracked by applying LATTICEEASY simulation, then the parameters energy ratio $\gamma$ and the e-folding number of preheating $N_{pre}$ will be deduced, and the $n_s$ and $r$ can be further predicted. We have tested the scalar inflation model by the preheating nature of LATTICEEASY based on the analytical relationship between preheating and inflation models.

This study developed a novel thermal control system to cool detectors of the General AntiParticle Spectrometer (GAPS) before its flights. GAPS is a balloon-borne cosmic-ray observation experiment. In its payload, GAPS contains over 1000 silicon detectors that must be cooled below $-40^{\circ}\mbox{C}$. All detectors are thermally coupled to a unique heat-pipe system (HPS) that transfers heat from the detectors to a radiator. The radiator is designed to be cooled below $-50^{\circ}\mbox{C}$ during the flight by exposure to space. The pre-flight state of the detectors is checked on the ground at 1 atm and ambient room temperature, but the radiator cannot be similarly cooled. The authors have developed a ground cooling system (GCS) to chill the detectors for ground testing. The GCS consists of a cold plate, a chiller, and insulating foam. The cold plate is designed to be attached to the radiator and cooled by a coolant pumped by the chiller. The payload configuration, including the HPS, can be the same as that of the flight. The GCS design was validated by thermal tests using a scale model. The GCS design is simple and provides a practical guideline, including a simple estimation of appropriate thermal insulation thickness, which can be easily adapted to other applications.

We report the fourth installment in the series of the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) Quasar Survey, which includes quasars observed between September, 2017 and June, 2021. There are in total 13,066 quasars reliably identified, of which 6,685 are newly discovered that are not reported in the SDSS DR14 quasar catalog or Million Quasars catalog. Because LAMOST does not provide accurate absolute flux calibration, we re-calibrate the spectra with the SDSS/Pan-STARRS1 multi-band photometric data. The emission line properties of H$\alpha$, H$\beta$, Mg\,{\sc ii} and C\,{\sc iv}, and the continuum luminosities are measured by fitting the re-calibrated spectra. We also estimate the single-epoch virial black hole masses ($\rm M_{BH}$) using the derived emission line and continuum parameters. This is the first time that the emission line and continuum fluxes were estimated based on LAMOST re-calibrated quasar spectra. The catalog and spectra for these quasars are available online. After the nine-year LAMOST quasar survey, there are in total 56,175 identified quasars, of which 24,127 are newly discovered. The LAMOST quasar survey not only discovers a great number of new quasars, but also provides a database for investigating the spectral variability of the quasars observed by both LAMOST and SDSS, and finding rare quasars including changing-look quasars and broad absorption line quasars.

With the upcoming large-scale surveys like LSST, we expect to find approximately $10^5$ strong gravitational lenses among data of many orders of magnitude larger. In this scenario, the usage of non-automated techniques is too time-consuming and hence impractical for science. For this reason, machine learning techniques started becoming an alternative to previous methods. We propose a new machine learning architecture, based on the principle of self-attention, trained to find strong gravitational lenses on simulated data from the Bologna Lens Challenge. Self-attention-based models have clear advantages compared to simpler CNNs and highly competing performance in comparison to the current state-of-art CNN models. We apply the proposed model to the Kilo Degree Survey, identifying some new strong lens candidates, however, these have been identified among a plethora of false positives which made the application of this model not so advantageous. Therefore, throughout this paper, we investigate the pitfalls of this approach, and possible solutions, such as transfer learning, are proposed.

Studying structural parameters of brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) provides important clues to understand their formation and evolution. We present the results of the surface brightness profile fitting of 1685 brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) drawn from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey in the redshift range of $0.1 < z < 1.0$. We fit $r$-band images of BCGs with a single S\'ersic profile. The sample is splitted into two groups based on the host cluster richness to investigate the impact of the environment. Our results suggest that BCGs in rich clusters are statistically larger than their counterparts in poor clusters. We provide best-fit linear regressions for the Kormendy, the $log \ R_e - log \ n$, and the size-luminosity relations. In addition, we examined the evolution of the structural parameters, however the BCGs in our sample do not show a significant size change since z$\sim$1.

We conduct a systematic investigation of the microlensing data collected during the previous observation seasons for the purpose of reanalyzing anomalous lensing events with no suggested plausible models. We find that two anomalous lensing events OGLE-2018-BLG-0584 and KMT-2018-BLG-2119 cannot be explained with the usual models based on either a binary-lens single-source (2L1S) or a single-lens binary-source (1L2S) interpretation. We test the feasibility of explaining the light curves with more sophisticated models by adding an extra lens (3L1S model) or a source (2L2S model) component to the 2L1S lens-system configuration. We find that a 2L2S interpretation well explains the light curves of both events, for each of which there are a pair of solutions resulting from the close and wide degeneracy. For the event OGLE-2018-BLG-0584, the source is a binary composed of two K-type stars, and the lens is a binary composed of two M dwarfs. For KMT-2018-BLG-2119, the source is a binary composed of two dwarfs of G and K spectral types, and the lens is a binary composed of a low-mass M dwarf and a brown dwarf.

We calculate the evolution of cloud cores embedded in different envelopes to investigate environmental effects on the mass accretion rate onto protostars. As the initial state, we neglect the magnetic field and cloud rotation, and adopt star-forming cores composed of two parts: a centrally condensed core and an outer envelope. The inner core has a critical Bonnor-Ebert density profile and is enclosed by the outer envelope. We prepare 15 star-forming cores with different outer envelope densities and gravitational radii, within which the gas flows into the collapsing core, and calculate their evolution until $\sim 2 \times10^5$ yr after protostar formation. The mass accretion rate decreases as the core is depleted when the outer envelope density is low. In contrast, the mass accretion rate is temporarily enhanced when the outer envelope density is high and the resultant protostellar mass exceeds the initial mass of the centrally condensed core. Some recent observations indicate that the mass of prestellar cores is too small to reproduce the stellar mass distribution. Our simulations show that the mass inflow from outside the core contributes greatly to protostellar mass growth when the core is embedded in a high-density envelope, which could explain the recent observations.

The Aditya-L1 is the first space-based solar observatory of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). The spacecraft will carry seven payloads providing uninterrupted observations of the Sun from the first Lagrangian point. Aditya-L1 comprises four remote sensing instruments, {\it viz.} a coronagraph observing in visible and infrared, a full disk imager in Near Ultra-Violet (NUV), and two full-sun integrated spectrometers in soft X-ray and hard X-ray. In addition, there are three instruments for in-situ measurements, including a magnetometer, to study the magnetic field variations during energetic events. Aditya-L1 is truly a mission for multi-messenger solar astronomy from space that will provide comprehensive observations of the Sun across the electromagnetic spectrum and in-situ measurements in a broad range of energy, including magnetic field measurements at L1.

Constraining the polarisation properties of extragalactic point sources is a relevant task not only because they are one of the main contaminants for primordial cosmic microwave background B-mode detection if the tensor-to-scalar ratio is lower than r = 0.001, but also for a better understanding of the properties of radio-loud active galactic nuclei. We develop and train a machine learning model based on a convolutional neural network to learn how to estimate the polarisation flux density and angle of point sources embedded in cosmic microwave background images knowing only their positions. To train the neural network, we use realistic simulations of patches of area 32x32 pixels at the 217 GHz Planck channel with injected point sources at their centres. The patches also contain a realistic background composed by dust, the CMB and instrumental noise. Firstly, we study the comparison between true and estimated polarisation flux densities for P, Q and U. Secondly, we analyse the comparison between true and estimated polarisation angles. Finally, we study the performance of our model with real data and we compare our results against the PCCS2. We obtain that our model is reliable to constrain the polarisation flux above 80 mJy. For this limit, we obtain errors lower than 30%. Training the same network with Q and U, the reliability limit is above +-250 mJy for determining the polarisation angle of both Q and U sources with a 1sigma uncertainty of +-29deg and +-32deg for Q and U sources respectively. We obtain similar results to the PCCS2 for some sources, although we also find discrepancies in the 300-400 mJy flux density range with respect to the Planck catalogue. Based on these results, our model seems to be a promising tool to give estimations of the polarisation flux densities and angles of point sources above 80 mJy in any catalogue with practically null computational time.

Knowledge about the Lorentz factor and its evolution of relativistic jets in gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) is crucial to understand their physics. An exact value of bulk Lorentz factor can be estimated based on a high-energy spectral cutoff, which may appear in GRBs' prompt emission owing to the absorption of photon-photon pair production. In this work, we focus on the investigation of the bulk Lorentz factor evolution of jets in an individual burst. Based on \textsl{Fermi} observations, we search for the bursts with multiple $\gamma$-ray pulses characterized by a high-energy spectral cutoff, and nine GRBs are obtained. Together with the estimation of the pulse duration and radiation spectrum, the Lorentz factor of jets corresponding to different pulses in an individual GRB are estimated. It is shown that the Lorentz factor of jets in an individual GRB fluctuates within a certain range and without a general trend in these nine GRBs. In addition, the Lorentz factors of the jets in GRBs~130821A, 160509A and 160625B seem to increase with time. We also study the relations among $L_{\rm iso }$, $E_{\rm p,z}$, and $\Gamma$ for the pulses in our sample, which is found to be consistent with that found in previous works.

We report spectro-polarimetric results of an observational campaign of the bright neutron star low-mass X-ray binary Cyg X-2 simultaneously observed by IXPE, NICER and INTEGRAL. Consistently with previous results, the broad-band spectrum is characterized by a lower-energy component, attributed to the accretion disc with $kT_{\rm in} \approx$ 1 keV, plus unsaturated Comptonization in thermal plasma with temperature $kT_{\rm e} = 3$ keV and optical depth $\tau \approx 4$, assuming a slab geometry. We measure the polarization degree in the 2-8 keV band $P=1.8 \pm 0.3$ per cent and polarization angle $\phi = 140^{\circ} \pm 4^{\circ}$, consistent with the previous X-ray polarimetric measurements by OSO-8 as well as with the direction of the radio jet which was earlier observed from the source. While polarization of the disc spectral component is poorly constrained with the IXPE data, the Comptonized emission has a polarization degree $P =4.0 \pm 0.7$ per cent and a polarization angle aligned with the radio jet. Our results strongly favour a spreading layer at the neutron star surface as the main source of the polarization signal. However, we cannot exclude a significant contribution from reflection off the accretion disc, as indicated by the presence of the iron fluorescence line.

In this work, we consider a new cosmological model (named $\tilde\Lambda$CDM) in which the vacuum energy interacts with matter and radiation, and test this model using the current cosmological observations. We find that this model can significantly relieve the $H_0$ tension, and at the same time it can also slightly reduce the $S_8$ tension, which cannot be easily observed in other cosmological models. Using the CMB+BAO+SN (CBS) data to constrain the model, we obtain the results of $H_0=70.6^{+1.4}_{-1.7}~\rm{km~s^{-1} Mpc^{-1}}$ and $S_8=0.820\pm 0.011$, and thus the $H_0$ and $S_8$ tensions are relieved to $1.28\sigma$ and $2.67\sigma$, respectively. However, in this case the $\tilde\Lambda$CDM model is not favored by the data, compared with $\Lambda$CDM. We find that when the $H_0$ and $S_8$ data are added into the data combination, the situation is significantly improved. In the CBS+$H_0$ case, we obtain the result of $H_0=72.2\pm 1.2$ ${\rm km~s^{-1}~Mpc^{-1}}$, which relieves the $H_0$ tension to $0.53\sigma$, and in this case the model is favored over $\Lambda$CDM. In the CBS+$H_0$+$S_8$ case, we get a synthetically best situation, $H_0=71.9\pm 1.1$ ${\rm km~s^{-1}~Mpc^{-1}}$ and $S_8=0.8071\pm 0.0099$, in which the $H_0$ and $S_8$ tensions are relived to $0.75\sigma$ and $2.09\sigma$, respectively. In this case, the model is most favored by the data. Therefore, such a cosmological model can greatly relieve the $H_0$ tension, and at the same time it can also effectively alleviate the $S_8$ tension.

Recently, CHIME/FRB project published its first fast radio burst (FRB) catalog (hereafter, Catalog 1), which totally contains 536 unique bursts. With the help of the latest set of FRBs in this large-size catalog, we aim to investigate the dispersion measure (DM) or redshift ($z$) distribution of the FRB population, and solution of this problem could be used to clarify the question of FRB origin. In this study, we adopted the M\&E 2018 model, to fit the observed $z$ distribution of FRBs in Catalog 1. In the M\&E 2018 model, we are mostly interested in the $\Phi(z)$ function, i.e., number of bursts per proper time per comoving volume, which is represented by the star formation rate (SFR) with a power-law index $n$. Our estimated value of $n$ is $0.0_{-0.0}^{+0.6}$ ($0.0_{-0.0}^{+2.1}$) at the 68 (95) per cent confidence level, implying that the FRB population evolves with redshift consistent with, or faster than, the SFR. Specially, the consistency of the $n$ values estimated by this study and the SFR provides a potential support for the hypothesis of FRBs originating from young magnetars.

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are extragalactic radio transients with millisecond duration and extremely high brightness temperature. Very recently, some highly circularly polarized bursts were found in a repeater, FRB 20201124A. The significant circular polarization might be produced by coherent curvature radiation by bunches with the line of sight (LOS) deviating from the bunch central trajectories. In this work, we carry out simulations to study the statistical properties of burst polarization within the framework of coherent curvature radiation by charged bunches in the neutron star magnetosphere for repeating FRBs. The flux is almost constant within the opening angle of the bunch. However, when the LOS derivates from the bunch opening angle, the larger the derivation, the larger the circular polarization but the lower the flux. We investigate the statistical distribution of circular polarization and flux of radio bursts from an FRB repeater, and find that most of the bursts with high circular polarization have a relatively low flux. Besides, we find that most of the depolarization degrees of bursts have a small variation in a wide frequency band. Furthermore, we simulate the polarization angle (PA) evolution and find that most bursts show a flat PA evolution within the burst phases, and some bursts present a swing of PA.

In order to link infrared observations of dust formed during planet formation in debris disks to mid-infrared spectroscopic data of planetary materials from differentiated terrestrial and asteroidal bodies, we obtained absorption spectra of a representative suite of terrestrial crustal and mantle materials, and of typical Martian meteorites. A series of debris disk spectra characterized by a strong feature in the 9.0-9.5 micron range (HD23514, HD15407a, HD172555 and HD165014), is comparable to materials that underwent shock, collision or high temperature events. These are amorphous materials such as tektites, SiO2-glass, obsidian, and highly shocked shergottites as well as inclusions from mesosiderites (Group A). A second group (BD+20307, Beta Pictoris, HD145263, ID8, HD113766, HD69830, P1121, and Eta Corvi) have strong pyroxene and olivine bands in the 9-12 micron range and is very similar to ultramafic rocks (e.g. harzburgite, dunite)(Group B). This could indicate the occurrence of differentiated materials similar to those in our Solar System in these other systems. However, mixing of projectile and target material, as well as that of crustal and mantle material has to be taken into account in large scale events like hit-and-run and giant collisions or even large-scale planetary impacts. This could explain the olivine-dominated dust of group B. The crustal-type material of group A would possibly require the stripping of upper layers by grazing-style hit-and run encounters or high energy events like evaporation/condensation in giant collisions. In tidal disruptions or the involvement of predominantly icy/water bodies the resulting mineral dust would originate mainly in one of the involved planetesimals. This could allow attributing the observed composition to a specific body (such as e.g. Eta Corvi).

Neutron stars close to the Galactic center are expected to swim in a dense background of dark matter. For models in which the dark matter has efficient interactions with neutrons, they are expected to accumulate their own local cloud of dark matter, making them appealing targets for observations seeking signs of dark matter annihilation. For theories with very light mediators, the dark matter may annihilate into pairs of mediators which are sufficiently long-lived to escape the star and decay outside it into neutrinos. We examine the bounds on the parameter space of heavy ($\sim$TeV to $\sim$PeV) dark matter theories with long-lived mediators decaying into neutrinos based on observations of high energy neutrino observatories, and make projections for the future. We find that these observations provide information that is complementary to terrestrial searches, and probe otherwise inaccessible regimes of dark matter parameter space.

$CaWO_4$ and $Al_2O_3$ are well-established target materials used by experiments searching for rare events like the elastic scattering off of a hypothetical Dark Matter particle. In recent years, experiments have reached detection thresholds for nuclear recoils at the 10 eV-scale. At this energy scale, a reliable Monte Carlo simulation of the expected background is crucial. However, none of the publicly available general-purpose simulation packages are validated at this energy scale and for these targets. The recently started ELOISE project aims to provide reliable simulations of electromagnetic particle interactions for this use case by obtaining experimental reference data, validating the simulation code against them, and, if needed, calibrating the code to the reference data.

In real-time and high-resolution Earth observation imagery, Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites capture images that are subsequently transmitted to ground to create an updated map of an area of interest. Such maps provide valuable information for meteorology or environmental monitoring, but can also be employed in near-real time operation for disaster detection, identification, and management. However, the amount of data generated by these applications can easily exceed the communication capabilities of LEO satellites, leading to congestion and packet dropping. To avoid these problems, the Inter-Satellite Links (ISLs) can be used to distribute the data among the satellites for processing. In this paper, we address an energy minimization problem based on a general satellite mobile edge computing (SMEC) framework for real-time and very-high resolution Earth observation. Our results illustrate that the optimal allocation of data and selection of the compression parameters increase the amount of images that the system can support by a factor of 12 when compared to directly downloading the data. Further, energy savings greater than 11% were observed in a real-life scenario of imaging a volcanic island, while a sensitivity analysis of the image acquisition process demonstrates that potential energy savings can be as high as 92%.

It is shown how one, guided by causality, starting from so-called dynamical triangulations, is led to a candidate of quantum gravity that describes our Universe. This theory is based on W- and Jordan algebras. It explains how our Universe was created, how cosmic inflation began and ended, how the topology and the geometry of our Universe was formed, and what was the origin of Big Bang energy. The theory also leads to a modified Friedmann equation which explains the present accelerating expansion of our Universe without appealing to the cosmological constant.

Precision cosmology is crucial to understand the different energy components in the Universe and their evolution through cosmic time. Gravitational wave sources are standard sirens that can accurately map out distances in the Universe. Together with the source redshift information, we can then probe the expansion history of the Universe. We explore the capabilities of various gravitational-wave detector networks to constrain different cosmological models while employing separate waveform models for inspiral and post-merger part of the gravitational wave signal from equal mass binary neutron stars. We consider two different avenues to measure the redshift of a gravitational-wave source: first, we examine an electromagnetic measurement of the redshift via either a kilonova or a gamma ray burst detection following a binary neutron star merger (the electromagnetic counterpart method); second, we estimate the redshift from the gravitational-wave signal itself from the adiabatic tides between the component stars characterized by the tidal Love number, to provide a second mass-scale and break the mass-redshift degeneracy (the counterpart-less method). We find that the electromagnetic counterpart method is better suited to measure the Hubble constant while the counterpart-less method places more stringent bounds on other cosmological parameters. In the era of next-generation gravitational-wave detector networks, both methods achieve sub-percent measurement of the Hubble constant $H_0$ after one year of observations. The dark matter energy density parameter $\Omega_{\rm M}$ in the $\Lambda$CDM model can be measured at percent-level precision using the counterpart method, whereas the counterpart-less method achieves sub-percent precision. We, however, do not find the postmerger signal to contribute significantly to these precision measurements.