Papers for Wednesday, Jan 11 2023

Although low-mass star-forming galaxies are the leading candidates of the reionisation process, we cannot conclusively rule out high-mass star-forming galaxies as candidates. While most simulations indicate the former is the best candidate some models suggest that at z > 6 massive, UV-bright galaxies - "oligarchs" - account for at least 80% of the ionising budget. To test this hypothesis we target massive (log10 (M*[Msol]) > 10), UV-bright (MUV ~ -22) Lya emitters at z > 7 in archival data, observed with similar resolution spectrographs (VLT/X-shooter and Keck/MOSFIRE). To increase the reliability of our conclusions we stack all spectra and obtain a deep-stacked spectrum of 24.75 hrs. The stacked Lya profile displays a clear asymmetric red peak and an absence of a blue peak. We additionally estimate the intrinsic stacked Lya profile of our targets by correcting for IGM transmission using a range of neutral hydrogen fractions, finding no significant change in the profile. We measure a velocity offset Vred > 300 km/s and an asymmetry in our red peak A ~3. Using various models and estimators such as the peak separation, the asymmetry of the red peak, the ratio between Lya and Hb and the beta slope, we conclude that the escape fraction in these three UV bright, massive (10^10 Msol), z > 7 galaxies is fesc(LyC) < 10%.

We review conceptual aspects of inflationary scenarios able to produce primordial black holes, by amplifying the size of curvature fluctuations to the level required for triggering black hole formation. We identify general mechanisms to do so, both for single and multiple field inflation. In single field inflation, the spectrum of curvature fluctuations is enhanced by pronounced gradients of background quantities controlling the cosmological dynamics, which can induce brief phases of non--slow-roll inflationary evolution. In multiple field inflation, the amplification occurs through appropriate couplings with additional sectors, characterized by tachyonic instabilities that enhance the size of their fluctuations. As representative examples, we consider axion inflation, and two-field models of inflation with rapid turns in field space. We develop our discussion in a pedagogical manner, by including some of the most relevant calculations, and by guiding the reader through the existing theoretical literature, emphasizing general themes common to several models.

The very massive first stars ($m>100\rm M_{\odot}$) were fundamental to the early phases of reionization, metal enrichment, and super-massive black hole formation. Among them, those with $140\leq\rm m/\rm M_{\odot}\leq260$ are predicted to evolve as Pair Instability Supernovae (PISN) leaving a unique chemical signature in their chemical yields. Still, despite long searches, the stellar descendants of PISN remain elusive. Here we propose a new methodology, the PISN-explorer, to identify candidates for stars with a dominant PISN enrichment. The PISN-explorer is based on a combination of physically driven models, and the FERRE code; and applied to data from large spectroscopic surveys (APOGEE, GALAH, GES, MINCE, and the JINA database). We looked into more than 1.4 million objects and built a catalogue with 166 candidates of PISN descendants. One of which, 2M13593064+3241036, was observed with UVES at VLT and full chemical signature was derived, including the killing elements, Cu and Zn. We find that our proposed methodology is efficient in selecting PISN candidates from both the Milky Way and dwarf satellite galaxies such as Sextans or Draco. Further high-resolution observations are highly required to confirm our best selected candidates, therefore allowing us to probe the existence and properties of the very massive First Stars.

Pulsar timing array collaborations, such as the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav), are seeking nanohertz gravitational waves emitted by supermassive black hole binaries formed in the aftermath of galaxy mergers. We have searched for continuous waves from individual circular supermassive black hole binaries using the NANOGrav's recent 12.5-year data set. We created new methods to accurately model the uncertainties on pulsar distances in our analysis, and we implemented new techniques to account for a common red noise process in pulsar timing array data sets while searching for deterministic gravitational wave signals, including continuous waves. As we found no evidence for continuous waves in our data, we placed 95\% upper limits on the strain amplitude of continuous waves emitted by these sources. At our most sensitive frequency of 7.65 nanohertz, we placed a sky-averaged limit of $h_0 < $ $(6.82 \pm 0.35) \times 10^{-15}$, and $h_0 <$ $(2.66 \pm 0.15) \times 10^{-15}$ in our most sensitive sky location. Finally, we placed a multi-messenger limit of $\mathcal{M} <$ $(1.41 \pm 0.02) \times 10^9 M_\odot$ on the chirp mass of the supermassive black hole binary candidate 3C~66B.

We present multi-wavelength high-spatial resolution (~0.1'', 70 pc) observations of UGC 4211 at z=0.03474, a late-stage major galaxy merger at the closest nuclear separation yet found in near-IR imaging (0.32'', ~230 pc projected separation). Using Hubble Space Telescope/STIS, VLT/MUSE+AO, Keck/OSIRIS+AO spectroscopy, and ALMA observations, we show that the spatial distribution, optical and NIR emission lines, and millimeter continuum emission are all consistent with both nuclei being powered by accreting supermassive black holes (SMBHs). Our data, combined with common black hole mass prescriptions, suggests that both SMBHs have similar masses, log MBH~8.1 (south) and log MBH~8.3 (north), respectively. The projected separation of 230 pc (~6X the black hole sphere of influence) represents the closest-separation dual AGN studied to date with multi-wavelength resolved spectroscopy and shows the potential of nuclear (<50 pc) continuum observations with ALMA to discover hidden growing SMBH pairs. While the exact occurrence rate of close-separation dual AGN is not yet known, it may be surprisingly high, given that UGC 4211 was found within a small, volume-limited sample of nearby hard X-ray detected AGN. Observations of dual SMBH binaries in the sub-kpc regime at the final stages of dynamical friction provide important constraints for future gravitational wave observatories.

Details of the core-collapse supernova (CCSN) explosion mechanism still need to be fully understood. There is an increasing number of successful examples of reproducing explosions in multidimensional hydrodynamic simulations, but subsequent studies pointed out that the growth rates of the explosion energy $\dot{E}_\mathrm{expl}$ of these simulations are insufficient to produce enough $^{56}$Ni to match observations. This issue is known as the `$^{56}$Ni problem' in CCSNe. Recently, however, some studies have suggested that this $^{56}$Ni problem is derived from the simplicity of the explosion model. In response, we investigate the effect of the explosion energy growth rate $\dot{E}_\mathrm{expl}$ on the behavior of nucleosynthesis in CCSNe in a more realistic model. We employ the 1D Lagrangian hydrodynamic code, in which we take neutrino heating and cooling terms into account with the light-bulb approximation. We reiterate that, consistent with previous rebuttal studies, there is the $^{56}$Ni problem: Although $^{56}$Ni is synthesized to almost the same mass coordinate independent of $\dot{E}_\mathrm{expl}$, some of the innermost material in the low-$\dot{E}_\mathrm{expl}$ model failed to escape, leading to a shift in the innermost mass coordinate of the ejecta to the outer positions. Comparing our results with observations, we find that while modern slow explosions can, in principle, reproduce observations of standard Type II SNe, this is not possible with stripped-envelope SNe. Our finding places a strong constraint on the explosion mechanism. There are significant differences in the progenitor structures and the explosion mechanism between Type II and stripped-envelope SNe.

Subsonic turbulence plays a major role in determining properties of the intra cluster medium (ICM). We introduce a new Meshless Finite Mass (MFM) implementation in OpenGadget3 and apply it to this specific problem. To this end, we present a set of test cases to validate our implementation of the MFM framework in our code. These include but are not limited to: the soundwave and Kepler disk as smooth situations to probe the stability, a Rayleigh-Taylor and Kelvin-Helmholtz instability as popular mixing instabilities, a blob test as more complex example including both mixing and shocks, shock tubes with various Mach numbers, a Sedov blast wave, different tests including self-gravity such as gravitational freefall, a hydrostatic sphere, the Zeldovich-pancake, and the nifty cluster as cosmological application. Advantages over SPH include increased mixing and a better convergence behavior. We demonstrate that the MFM-solver is robust, also in a cosmological context. We show evidence that the solver preforms extraordinarily well when applied to decaying subsonic turbulence, a problem very difficult to handle for many methods. MFM captures the expected velocity power spectrum with high accuracy and shows a good convergence behavior. Using MFM or SPH within OpenGadget3 leads to a comparable decay in turbulent energy due to numerical dissipation. When studying the energy decay for different initial turbulent energy fractions, we find that MFM performs well down to Mach numbers $\mathcal{M}\approx 0.007$. Finally, we show how important the slope limiter and the energy-entropy switch are to control the behavior and the evolution of the fluids.

We conduct a hard X-ray to radio multiwavelength spectral energy distribution (SED) decomposition for 57 local luminous and ultraluminous infrared galaxies (U/LIRGs) observed with Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array and/or Swift/Burst Alert Telescope in GOALS (Armus et al. 2009) sample. We modify the latest SED-fitting code X-CIGALE by implementing the infrared (IR) CLUMPY model, allowing the multiwavelength study with the X-ray torus model (XCLUMPY) self-consistently. Adopting the torus parameters obtained by the X-ray fitting (Yamada et al. 2021), we estimate the properties of host galaxies, active galactic nucleus (AGN) tori, and polar dust. The star formation rates (SFRs) become larger with merger stage and most of them are above the main sequence. The SFRs are correlated with radio luminosity, indicating starburst emission is dominant in the radio band. Although polar-dust extinction is much smaller than torus extinction, the UV-to-IR (mainly IR) polar dust luminosities are $\sim$2 times larger than the torus ones. The polar-dust temperature decreases while the physical size, estimated by the temperature and dust sublimation radius, increases with AGN luminosity from a few tens of parsec (early mergers) to kiloparsec scales (late mergers), where the polar dust is likely the expanding (i.e., evolving) dusty outflows. The comparison between SFRs and intrinsic AGN luminosities suggests that the starbursts occur first and AGNs arise later, and overall their growth rates follow the simultaneous coevolution relation that can establish the local galaxy-SMBH mass relation. We confirm the coexistence of intense starbursts, AGNs, and large-scale outflows in late mergers, supporting a standard AGN feedback scenario.

We use a dynamical model of galactic fountain to study the neutral extraplanar gas (EPG) in the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 2403. We have modelled the EPG as a combination of material ejected from the disc by stellar feedback (i.e. galactic fountain) and gas accreting from the inner circumgalactic medium (CGM). This accretion is expected to occur because of cooling/condensation of the hot CGM (corona) triggered by the fountain. Our dynamical model reproduces the distribution and kinematics of the EPG H$\mathrm{\scriptsize{I}}$ emission in NGC 2403 remarkably well and suggests a total EPG mass of $4.7^{+1.2}_{-0.9}\times10^8\mathrm{M}_\odot$, with a typical scale height of around 1 kpc and a vertical gradient of the rotation velocity of $-10.0\pm2.7\,\mathrm{km\,s^{-1}\,kpc^{-1}}$. The best-fitting model requires a characteristic outflow velocity of $50\pm10\,\mathrm{km\,s^{-1}}$. The outflowing gas starts out mostly ionised and only becomes neutral later in the trajectory. The accretion rate from the condensation of the inner hot CGM inferred by the model is 0.8$\,\mathrm{M}_\odot\,\mathrm{yr}^{-1}$, approximately equal to the star formation rate in this galaxy (0.6$\,\mathrm{M}_\odot\,\mathrm{yr}^{-1}$). We show that the accretion profile, which peaks at a radius of about 4.5$\,$kpc, predicts a disc growth rate compatible with the observed value. Our results indicate that fountain-driven corona condensation is a likely mechanism to sustain star formation as well as the disc inside-out growth in local disc galaxies.

We present SOFIA+ALMA continuum and spectral-line polarisation data on the massive molecular cloud BYF 73, revealing important details about the magnetic field morphology, gas structures, and energetics in this unusual massive star formation laboratory. The 154$\mu$m HAWC+ polarisation map finds a highly organised magnetic field in the densest, inner 0.55$\times$0.40 pc portion of the cloud, compared to an unremarkable morphology in the cloud's outer layers. The 3mm continuum ALMA polarisation data reveal several more structures in the inner domain, including a pc-long, $\sim$500 M$_{\odot}$ "Streamer" around the central massive protostellar object MIR 2, with magnetic fields mostly parallel to the east-west Streamer but oriented north-south across MIR 2. The magnetic field orientation changes from mostly parallel to the column density structures to mostly perpendicular, at thresholds $N_{\rm crit}$ = 6.6$\times$10$^{26}$ m$^{-2}$, $n_{\rm crit}$ = 2.5$\times$10$^{11}$ m$^{-3}$, and $B_{\rm crit}$ = 42$\pm$7 nT. ALMA also mapped Goldreich-Kylafis polarisation in $^{12}$CO across the cloud, which traces in both total intensity and polarised flux, a powerful bipolar outflow from MIR 2 that interacts strongly with the Streamer. The magnetic field is also strongly aligned along the outflow direction; energetically, it may dominate the outflow near MIR 2, comprising rare evidence for a magnetocentrifugal origin to such outflows. A portion of the Streamer may be in Keplerian rotation around MIR 2, implying a gravitating mass 1350$\pm$50 M$_{\odot}$ for the protostar+disk+envelope; alternatively, these kinematics can be explained by gas in free fall towards a 950$\pm$35 M$_{\odot}$ object. The high accretion rate onto MIR 2 apparently occurs through the Streamer/disk, and could account for $\sim$33% of MIR 2's total luminosity via gravitational energy release.

We use numerical relativity simulations of binary neutron star mergers to show that high density deconfinement phase transitions (PTs) to quark matter can be probed using multimodal postmerger gravitational wave (GW) spectroscopy. Hadron-quark PTs suppress the one-armed spiral instability in the remnant. This is manifested in an anti-correlation between the energy carried in the $l=2, m=1$ GW mode and energy density gap which separates the two phases. Consequently, a single measurement of the signal-to-noise ratios of the $l=2, m=1$ and $l=2, m=2$ GW modes could constrain the energy density gap of the PT.

We propose a new method to hunt for dark matter using dark forest/absorption features across the whole electromagnetic spectrum from radio to gamma rays, especially in the bands where there is a desert i.e. regions where no strong lines from baryons are expected. Such novel signatures can arise for dark matter models with a composite nature and internal electromagnetic transitions. The photons from a background source can interact with the dark matter resulting in an absorption signal in the source spectrum. In the case of a compact source, such as a quasar, such interactions in the dark matter halos can produce a series of closely spaced absorption lines, which we call the dark forest. We show that the dark forest feature is a sensitive probe of the dark matter self-interactions and the halo mass function, especially at the low mass end. Moreover, the absorption of CMB photons by dark matter gives rise to a global absorption signal in the CMB spectrum. For dark matter transition energies in the range $2.5\times 10^{-4} \text{eV}$-$5\times 10^{3}$ eV, such absorption features result in spectral distortions of the CMB in the COBE/FIRAS band of 60-600 GHz. If the dark matter transition frequency is $\sim$156 GHz, we show that the absorption of CMB photons by dark matter can provide an explanation for the anomalous absorption feature detected by the EDGES collaboration in 50-100 MHz range.

We present a free-form model of SMACS0723, the first cluster observed with JWST. This model makes no strong assumptions about the distribution of mass (mostly dark matter) in the cluster and we use it to study the possible correlation between dark matter with the intracluster light and distribution of globular clusters. To explore the uncertainty in mass modelling, we derive three lens models based on spectroscopically confirmed systems and new candidate systems with redshifts predicted by the lens model derived from the spectroscopic systems. We find that beyond the radius of influence of the BCG, the total mass does not trace the ICL, implying the need for a dark component (dark matter). Two loop-like structures observed in the intracluster light do not have an obvious correspondence with the total mass (mostly dark matter) distribution. The radial profiles of the ICL and the distribution of globular clusters are similar to each other, but steeper than the profile of the lens model. More specifically, we find that the total mass is shallower by 1 dex in log scale than both ICL and globular cluster profiles. This is in excellent agreement with N-body simulations of cold dark matter.

We use numerical hydrodynamics simulations to study line driven winds launched from an accreting alpha-disc. Building on previous work where the driving radiation field is static, we compute a time-dependent radiation flux from the local, variable accretion rate of the disc. We find that prior to the establishment of a steady state in the disc, variations of ~ 15% in disc luminosity correlate with variations of ~ 2-3 in the mass flux of the wind. After a steady state is reached, when luminosity variations drop to ~ 3%, these correlations vanish as the variability in the mass flux is dominated by the intrinsic variability of the winds. This is especially evident in lower luminosity runs where intrinsic variability is higher due to a greater prevalence of failed winds. The changing mass flux occurs primarily due to the formation of clumps and voids near the disc atmosphere that propagate out into the low velocity part of the flow, a process that can be influenced by local variations in disc intensity. By computing the normalised standard deviation of the mass outflow, we show that the impact of luminosity variations on mass outflow is more visible at higher luminosity. However, the absolute change in mass outflow due to luminosity increases is larger for lower luminosity models due to the luminosity-mass flux scaling relation becoming steeper. We further discuss implications for CVs and AGN and observational prospects.

We study the emergent spectral fluxes of transiting hot Jupiters, using secondary eclipses from Spitzer. To achieve a large and uniform sample, we have re-analyzed all secondary eclipses for all hot Jupiters observed by Spitzer at 3.6- and/or 4.5 microns. Our sample comprises 457 eclipses of 122 planets, including eclipses of 13 planets not previously published. We use these eclipse depths to calculate the spectral fluxes emergent from the exoplanetary atmospheres, and thereby infer temperature and spectral properties of hot Jupiters. We find that an abrupt rise in brightness temperature, similar to a phase change, occurs on the day side atmospheres of the population at an equilibrium temperature between 1714K and 1818K (99-percent confidence limits). The amplitude of the rise is 291 +/-49 Kelvins, and two viable causes are the onset of magnetic drag that inhibits longitudinal heat redistribution, and/or the rapid dissipation of day side clouds. We also study hot Jupiter spectral properties with respect to metallicity and temperature inversions. Models exhibiting 4.5 micron emission from temperature inversions reproduce our fluxes statistically for the hottest planets, but the transition to emission is gradual, not abrupt. The Spitzer fluxes are sensitive to metallicity for planets cooler than approximately 1200 Kelvins, and most of the hot Jupiter population falls between model tracks having solar to 30X-solar metallicity.

Context: Analyzing the large-scale structure (LSS) with galaxy surveys demands accurate structure formation models. Such models should ideally be fast and have a clear theoretical framework to rapidly scan a variety of cosmological parameter spaces without requiring large training data sets. Aims: This study aims to extend Lagrangian perturbation theory (LPT), including viscosity and vorticity, to reproduce the cosmic evolution from dark matter N-body calculations at the field level. Methods: We extend Augmented LPT (ALPT) to an Eulerian framework, dubbed eALPT. This enables modelling the stress tensor, with this introducing vorticity. To compensate that ALPT assumes curl-free fields, a fraction of the vorticity, emerging after each Eulerian transformation, is added to the subsequent timestep. The model has three free parameters apart from the choice of cosmology, redshift snapshots, cosmic volume, and the number of particles-cells. Results: We find that the cross-correlation of the dark matter distribution as compared to N-body solvers increases at k = 1 h Mpc$^{-1}$ from ~55% with the Zel'dovich approximation (~70% with ALPT); to ~96 and 97% with eALPT, and power spectra within percentage accuracy up to k~ 0.3 and 0.7 h Mpc$^{-1}$, using three and five steps, respectively.

We study the solar energetic particle (SEP) event observed on 9 October 2021, by multiple spacecraft including Solar Orbiter (SolO). The event was associated with an M1.6 flare, a coronal mass ejection (CME) and a shock wave. During the event, high-energy protons and electrons were recorded by multiple instruments located within a narrow longitudinal cone. An interesting aspect of the event was the multi-stage particle energization during the flare impulsive phase and also what appears to be a separate phase of electron acceleration detected at SolO after the flare maximum. We aim to investigate and identify the multiple sources of energetic electron acceleration. We utilize SEP electron observations from the Energetic Particle Detector (EPD) and hard X-ray (HXR) observations from the Spectrometer/Telescope for Imaging X-rays (STIX) on-board SolO, in combination with radio observations at a broad frequency range. We focus on establishing an association between the energetic electrons and the different HXR and radio emissions associated with the multiple acceleration episodes. We have found that the flare was able to accelerate electrons for at least 20 minutes during the nonthermal phase observed in the form of five discrete HXR pulses. We also show evidence that the shock wave has contributed to the electron acceleration during and after the impulsive flare phase. The detailed analysis of EPD electron data shows that there was a time difference in the release of low- and high-energy electrons, with the high-energy release delayed. Also, the observed electron anisotropy characteristics suggest different connectivity during the two phases of acceleration.

A substantial fraction of oxygen in diffuse clouds is unaccounted for by observations and is postulated to be in an unknown refractory form, referred to as unidentified depleted oxygen (UDO), which, depending on the local gas density, may contribute up to 50% of the total oxygen content. Previous Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) observations suggest that a significant fraction of oxygen in even denser, translucent clouds may be in atomic form. We have analyzed velocity-resolved archival SOFIA observations of the 63 $\mu$m fine-structure [O I] transition toward the high-mass star-forming region Sgr B2(M) in the Central Molecular Zone. The foreground spiral-arm clouds as well as the extended Sgr B2 envelope between the Sun and the background dust continuum source produce multiple [O i] absorption components, spectrally separated in velocity space. The gas-phase atomic oxygen column density in foreground clouds toward Sgr B2 is well correlated with the total hydrogen column density, with an average atomic oxygen abundance of $(2.51 \pm 0.69) \times 10^{-4}$ with respect to hydrogen nuclei. This value is in good agreement with the earlier ISO measurements on the same line of sight, and is about 35% lower than the total interstellar medium oxygen abundance in the low-density warm gas, as measured in the UV. We find no evidence that a significant fraction of the oxygen on the line of sight toward Sagittarius B2 is in the form of UDO.

The Commission Femmes et Astronomie conducted a statistical study that aims at mapping the presence of women in French professional Astronomy today, and set a starting point for studying its evolution with time. For the year 2021, we proceeded with a sub-set of 8 astronomy and astrophysics institutes, hosting a total of 1060 employees, among which PhD students, post-doctoral researchers, and academic, technical, and administrative staff, representing around 25% of the community. We have investigated how the percentage of women vary with career stage, level of responsibility, job security, and level of income. The results of this preliminary study seem to illustrate the leaky pipeline, with one major bottleneck being the access to permanent positions. It appears that the proportion of women steadily decreases with the security of jobs, with the career stage, with the qualification level and with the income level.

Thermonuclear and core-collapse supernova remnants (SNRs) are the nebular leftovers of defunct stars. Their morphology and emission properties provide insights into the evolutionary history of the progenitor star. But while some SNRs are spherical, as expected from a point-like explosion expanding into a roughly uniform medium, many others exhibit complex non-spherical morphologies which are often not easily explained. In this work, we use three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations to show that rectangular and jet-like morphologies can be explained by supernovae (SNe), either type Ia or type II, expanding within anisotropic, bipolar stellar wind bubbles driven by the progenitor star. The stellar wind has an anisotropic density distribution, which channels the SN ejecta differently depending on the anisotropy characteristics. We compute synthetic thermal (X-ray) and non-thermal (synchrotron) emission maps from our numerical simulations to compare with observations. We find rectangular morphologies are generated when the stellar wind has a high mass loss rate and forms a dense, narrow disk at the equatorial region. Instead, a jet-like or ear-like morphology is obtained when the stellar wind develops a wide, dense disk. Stellar winds with low mass-loss rates do not strongly influence the SNR morphology. Finally, our synthetic synchrotron and X-ray maps for the high mass-loss rate case qualitatively agree with the observations of the SNRs G332.5-5.6 and G290.1-0.8.

In Earth's current climate, moist convective updraft speeds increase with surface warming. This trend suggests that very vigorous convection might be the norm in extremely hot and humid atmospheres, such as those undergoing a runaway greenhouse transition. However, theoretical and numerical evidence suggests that convection is actually gentle in water vapor-dominated atmospheres, implying that convective vigor may peak at some intermediate humidity level. Here, we perform small-domain convection-resolving simulations of an Earth-like atmosphere over a wide range of surface temperatures and confirm that there is indeed a peak in convective vigor, which we show occurs near T_s ~ 330 K. We show that a similar peak in convective vigor exists when the relative abundance of water vapor is changed by varying the amount of background (non-condensing) gas at fixed T_s, which may have implications for Earth's climate and atmospheric chemistry during the Hadean and Archean. We also show that Titan-like thermodynamics (i.e., a thick nitrogen atmosphere with condensing methane and low gravity) produce a peak in convective vigor at T_s ~ 95 K, which is curiously close to the current surface temperature of Titan. Plotted as functions of the saturation specific humidity at cloud base, metrics of convective vigor from both Earth-like and Titan-like experiments all peak when cloud-base air contains roughly 10% of the condensible gas by mass. Our results point to a potentially common phenomenon in terrestrial atmospheres: that moist convection is most vigorous when the condensible component is between dilute and non-dilute abundance.

We review a large body of literature for concentrations of halogens in chondrites and stellar halogen data used for solar system abundances (i.e., representative abundances of the solar system at the time of its formation) and associated analytical problems. Claims of lower solar system chlorine, bromine and iodine abundances from recent analyses of CI-chondrites are untenable because of incompatibility of such low values with nuclear abundance systematics and measurements of halogens in the sun and other stars. We suspect analytical problems associated with these peculiar rock types caused lower analytical results in several studies. Mass concentrations in CI-chondrites are F=92+-20 ppm, Cl=717+-110 ppm, Br=3.77+-0.90 ppm, and I=0.77+-0.31 ppm, and abundances normalized to N(Si) =10^6 atoms are N(F)=1270+-270, N(Cl)=5290+-810, N(Br)=12.3+-2.9, and N(I)=1.59+-0.64. Meteoritic values scaled to present-day photospheric abundances with log N(H)=12 are A(F)=4.61+-0.09, A(Cl)=5.23+-0.06, A(Br)=2.60+-0.09, and A(I)=1.71+-0.15. These recommended present-day solar system abundances compare to the sunspot values of N(F)=776+-260, A(F)=4.40+-0.25, and N(Cl)=5500+-810, A(Cl)=5.25+-0.12 and are consistent with F and Cl abundance ratios in other stars and other astronomical environments. The chlorine abundance of 776+-21 ppm by Yokoyama et al. (2022) for the CI-chondrite-like asteroid Ryugu is consistent with the chlorine abundance evaluated for CI-chondrites here. Updated equilibrium 50% condensation temperatures from our previous work (Lodders 2003, Fegley & Schaefer 2010, Fegley & Lodders 2018) considering solid-solution and kinetic inhibition effects are 713K (F), 427K (Cl), 392K (Br) and 312K (I) at 10^-4 bar total pressure. Condensation temperatures computed with lower halogen abundances do not represent the correct condensation temperatures from a solar composition gas. (abridged)

We identify the intrinsic dependence of star formation quenching on a variety of galactic and environmental parameters, utilizing a machine learning approach with Random Forest classification. We have previously demonstrated the power of this technique to isolate causality, not mere correlation, in complex astronomical data. First, we analyze three cosmological hydrodynamical simulations (Eagle, Illustris, and IllustrisTNG), selecting snapshots spanning the bulk of cosmic history from comic noon ($z \sim 2$) to the present epoch, with stellar masses in the range $9 < \log(M_*/M_{\odot}) < 12$. In the simulations, black hole mass is unanimously found to be the most predictive parameter of central galaxy quenching at all epochs. Perhaps surprisingly, black hole accretion rate (and hence the bolometric luminosity of active galactic nuclei, AGN) is found to be of little predictive power over quenching. This theoretical result is important for observational studies of galaxy quenching as it cautions against using the current AGN state of a galaxy as a useful proxy for the cumulative impact of AGN feedback on a galactic system. The latter is traced by black hole mass not AGN luminosity. Additionally, we explore a sub-set of 'observable' parameters, which can be readily measured in extant wide-field galaxy surveys targeting $z = 0 - 2$, at $9 < \log(M_*/M_{\odot}) < 12$. All three simulations predict that in lieu of black hole mass, the stellar gravitational potential will outperform the other parameters in predicting quenching. We confirm this theoretical prediction observationally in the SDSS (at low redshifts) and in CANDELS (at intermediate and high redshifts).

The kinematic disturbances associated with major galaxy mergers are known to produce gas inflows, which in turn may trigger accretion onto the supermassive black holes (SMBH) of the participant galaxies. While this effect has been studied in galaxy pairs, the frequency of active galactic nuclei (AGN) in fully coalesced post-merger systems is poorly constrained due to the limited size or impurity of extant post-merger samples. Previously, we combined convolutional neural network (CNN) predictions with visual classifications to identify a highly pure sample of 699 post-mergers in deep r-band imaging. In the work presented here, we quantify the frequency of AGN in this sample using three metrics: optical emission lines, mid-infrared (mid- IR) colour, and radio detection of low-excitation radio galaxies (LERGs). We also compare the frequency of AGN in post-mergers to that in a sample of spectroscopically identified galaxy pairs. We find that AGN identified by narrow-line optical emission and mid-IR colour have an increased incidence rate in post-mergers, with excesses of ~4 over mass- and redshift-matched controls. The optical and mid-IR AGN excesses in post-mergers exceed the values found for galaxy pairs, indicating that AGN activity in mergers peaks after coalescence. Conversely, we recover no significant excess of LERGs in post-mergers or pairs. Finally, we find that the [OIII] luminosity (a proxy for SMBH accretion rate) in post-mergers that host an optical AGN is ~0.3 dex higher on average than in non-interacting galaxies with an optical AGN, suggesting that mergers generate higher accretion rates than secular triggering mechanisms.

The recent image of our galaxy's supermassive black hole Sgr A* derived from the 7 April 2017 data of the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration shows multiple hot spots in its accretion disk. Using the analytical framework, we demonstrate that the observed hot spots may not be disjoint elements but causally linked components ("petals") of one rotating quasi-stationary macro-structure formed in the thermo-vorticial field within the accretion disk.

A long-standing problem when deriving the physical properties of stellar populations is the degeneracy between age, reddening, and metallicity. When a single metallicity is used for all star clusters in a galaxy, this degeneracy can result in $`$catastrophic$'$ errors for old globular clusters. Typically, approximately 10 - 20 % of all clusters detected in spiral galaxies can have ages that are incorrect by a factor of ten or more. In this paper we present a pilot study for four galaxies (NGC 628, NGC 1433, NGC 1365, and NGC 3351) from the PHANGS-HST survey. We describe methods to correct the age-dating for old globular clusters, by first identifying candidates using their colors, and then reassigning ages and reddening based on a lower metallicity solution. We find that young $`$interlopers$'$ can be identified from their Halpha flux. CO (2-1) intensity or the presence of dust can also be used, but our tests show that they do not work as well. Improvements in the success fraction are possible at the $\sim$ 15 % level (reducing the fraction of catastrophic age-estimates from between 13 - 21 % to 3 - 8 %). A large fraction of the incorrectly age-dated globular clusters are systematically given ages around 100 Myr, polluting the younger populations as well. Incorrectly age-dated globular clusters significantly impact the observed cluster age distribution in NGC 628, which affects the physical interpretation of cluster disruption in this galaxy. For NGC 1365, we also demonstrate how to fix a second major age-dating problem, where very dusty young clusters with E(B-V) $>$ 1.5 mag are assigned old, globular-cluster like ages. Finally, we note the discovery of a dense population of $\sim$ 300 Myr clusters around the central region of NGC 1365. and discuss how this results naturally from the dynamics in a barred galaxy.

We test the smooth dark energy paradigm using Dark Energy Survey (DES) Year 1 and Year 3 weak lensing and galaxy clustering data. Within the $\Lambda$CDM and $w$CDM model we separate the expansion and structure growth history by splitting $\Omega_\mathrm{m}$ (and $w$) into two meta-parameters that allow for different evolution of growth and geometry in the Universe. We consider three different combinations of priors on geometry from CMB, SNIa, BAO, BBN that differ in constraining power but have been designed such that the growth information comes solely from the DES weak lensing and galaxy clustering. For the DES-Y1 data we find no detectable tension between growth and geometry meta-parameters in both the $\Lambda$CDM and $w$CDM parameter space. This statement also holds for DES-Y3 cosmic shear and 3x2pt analyses. For the combination of DES-Y3 galaxy-galaxy lensing and galaxy clustering (2x2pt) we measure a tension between our growth and geometry meta-parameters of 2.6$\sigma$ in the $\Lambda$CDM and 4.48$\sigma$ in the $w$CDM model space, respectively. We attribute this tension to residual systematics in the DES-Y3 RedMagic galaxy sample rather than to new physics. We plan to investigate our findings further using alternative lens samples in DES-Y3 and future weak lensing and galaxy clustering datasets.

We present a revised measurement of the extra-galactic background light (EBL) at radio frequencies based on a near complete compendium of radio source counts. We present the radio-EBL at 150 MHz, 325 MHz, 610 MHz, 1.4 GHz, 3 GHz, 5 GHz, and 8.4 GHz. In all cases the contribution to the radio-EBL, per decade of flux, exhibits a two-humped distribution well matched to the AGN and star-forming galaxy (SFG) populations, and with each population contributing roughly equal energy. Only at 3 GHz are the source count contributions to the EBL fully convergent, and hence we report empirical lower limits to the radio-EBL in the remaining bands. Adopting predictions from the SHARK semi-analytic model for the form of the SFG population, we can fit the fainter source counts providing measurements of the total contribution to the radio-EBL for the SFG and the AGN populations separately. This constitutes an empirically constrained model-dependent measurement for the SFG contribution, but a fully empirical measurement of the AGN contribution. Using the {\sc ProSpect} spectral energy distribution code we can model the UV-optical-infrared-mm-radio SFG EBL at all frequencies from the cosmic star-formation history and the adoption of a Chabrier initial mass function. However, significant discrepancy remains ($5\times$) between our source-count estimates of the radio-EBL and the direct measurements reported from the ARCADE-2 experiment. We can rule out a significant missing discrete source radio population and suggest that the cause of the high ARCADE-2 radio-EBL values may need to be sought either in the foreground subtraction or as a yet unknown diffuse component in the radio sky.

The timescales on which galaxies move out of the blue cloud to the red sequence ($\tau^{}_\mathrm{Q}$) provide insight into the mechanisms driving quenching. Here, we build upon previous work, where we showcased a method to reconstruct the colour evolution of observed low-redshift galaxies from the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey based on spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting with ProSpect, together with a statistically-driven definition for the blue and red populations. We also use the predicted colour evolution from the SHARK semi-analytic model, combined with SED fits of our simulated galaxy sample, to study the accuracy of the measured $\tau^{}_\mathrm{Q}$ and gain physical insight into the colour evolution of galaxies. In this work, we measure $\tau^{}_\mathrm{Q}$ in a consistent approach for both observations and simulations. After accounting for selection bias, we find evidence for an increase in $\tau^{}_\mathrm{Q}$ in GAMA as a function of cosmic time (from $\tau^{}_\mathrm{Q}\sim1$ Gyr to $\tau^{}_\mathrm{Q}\sim2$ Gyr in the lapse of $\sim4$ Gyr), but not in SHARK ($\tau^{}_\mathrm{Q}\lesssim1$ Gyr). Our observations and simulations disagree on the effect of stellar mass, with GAMA showing massive galaxies transitioning faster, but is the opposite in SHARK. We find that environment only impacts galaxies below $\sim10^{10}$ M$_\odot$ in GAMA, with satellites having shorter $\tau^{}_\mathrm{Q}$ than centrals by $\sim0.4$ Gyr, with SHARK only in qualitative agreement. Finally, we compare to previous literature, finding consistency with timescales in the order of couple Gyr, but with several differences that we discuss.

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is continuing its second extended mission after 55 sectors of observations. TESS publishes full-frame images (FFI) at a cadence of 1800, 600, or 200 seconds, allowing light curves to be extracted for stars beyond a limited number of pre-selected stars. Simulations show that thousands of exoplanets, eclipsing binaries, variable stars, and other astrophysical transients can be found in these FFI light curves. To obtain high-precision light curves, we forward model the FFI with the effective point spread function to remove contamination from nearby stars. We adopt star positions and magnitudes from Gaia DR3 as priors. The resulting light curves, called TESS-Gaia Light Curves (TGLC), show a photometric precision closely tracking the pre-launch prediction of the noise level. TGLC's photometric precision reaches <~2% at 16th TESS magnitude even in crowded fields. We publish TGLC Aperture and PSF light curves for stars down to 16th TESS magnitude through the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST) for all available sectors and will continue to deliver future light curves via DOI: 10.17909/610m-9474. The open-source package tglc is publicly available to enable any user to produce customized light curves.

Dwarf galaxies located in extremely under-dense cosmic voids are excellent test-beds for disentangling the effects of large-scale environment on galaxy formation and evolution. We present integral field spectroscopy for low-mass galaxies ($M_{\star}=10^{7}-10^{9}~M_{\odot}$) located inside (N=21) and outside (N=9) cosmic voids using the Keck Cosmic Web Imager (KCWI). Using measurements of stellar line-of-sight rotational velocity $v_{\mathrm{rot}}$ and velocity dispersion $\sigma_{\star}$, we test the tidal stirring hypothesis, which posits that dwarf spheroidal galaxies are formed through tidal interactions with more massive host galaxies. We measure low values of $v_{\mathrm{rot}}/\sigma_{\star}\lesssim2$ for our sample of isolated dwarf galaxies, and we find no trend between $v_{\mathrm{rot}}/\sigma_{\star}$ and distance from a massive galaxy $d_{L^{\star}}$ out to $d_{L^{\star}}\sim10$ Mpc. These suggest that dwarf galaxies can become dispersion-supported "puffy" systems even in the absence of environmental effects like tidal interactions. We also find indications of an upward trend between $v_{\mathrm{rot}}/\sigma_{\star}$ and galaxy stellar mass, perhaps implying that stellar disk formation depends on mass rather than environment. Although some of our conclusions may be slightly modified by systematic effects, our main result still holds: that isolated low-mass galaxies may form and remain as puffy systems rather than the dynamically cold disks predicted by classical galaxy formation theory.

LS And was a transient discovered in 1971 in the M31 region and it has been argued whether it could be an intergalactic nova or a dwarf nova. Using the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) data, I found that the object underwent the second known outburst in 2022 April. The behavior was that of a WZ Sge-type dwarf nova with a long fading tail and the light curves of the 1971 and 2022 outbursts matched very well. The light curves suggest that LS And is a typical WZ Sge-type dwarf nova near (but before reaching) the period minimum of cataclysmic variables. The true observed peak of the 1971 outburst was likely 12.2 mag. The outburst parameters were similar to those of other WZ Sge-type dwarf novae. The fading tail lasts more than a year and the object is still currently on this tail. There was a hint of 0.5-mag temporary brightening on the fading tail and the object appears still active after the outburst.

The cosmological observations of cosmic microwave background and large-scale structure indicate that our universe has a nearly scaling invariant power spectrum of the primordial perturbation. However, the exact origin for this primordial spectrum is still unclear. Here, we propose the Weyl scaling invariant $R^2+R^3$ gravity that gives rise to inflation that is responsible for the primordial perturbation in the early universe. We develop both analytic and numerical treatments on inflationary observables, and find this model gives a distinctive scalar potential that can support two different patterns of inflation. The first one is similar to that occurs in the pure $R^2$ model, but with a wide range of tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ from $\mathcal O(10^{-4})$ to $\mathcal O(10^{-2})$. The other one is a new situation with not only slow-roll inflation but also a short stage of oscillation-induced accelerating expansion. Both patterns of inflation have viable parameter spaces that can be probed by future experiments on cosmic microwave background and primordial gravitational waves.

We have estimated the magnetic field strengths of a sample of seven galaxies using their non-thermal synchrotron radio emission at metre wavelengths, and assuming energy equipartition between magnetic fields and cosmic ray particles. Spatially resolved star formation rates (SFR) were estimated for the seven galaxies along with five galaxies studied previously. For the combined sample of twelve galaxies, the equipartition magnetic fields (B$_\textrm{eq}$) are correlated with the SFR surface densities ($\Sigma_\textrm{SFR}$) at sub-kpc scales with B$_\textrm{eq}$ $\propto$ $\Sigma_\textrm{SFR}^ {0.31\pm0.06}$, consistent with model predictions. We estimated gas densities ($\rho_\textrm{gas}$) for a sub-sample of seven galaxies using archival observations of the carbon monoxide (CO) rotational transitions and the atomic hydrogen (HI) 21 cm line and studied the spatially-resolved correlation between the magnetic fields and $\rho_\textrm{gas}$. Magnetic fields and gas densities are found to be correlated at sub-kpc scale as B$_\textrm{eq}$ $\propto$ $\rho_\textrm{gas}^{0.40\pm0.09}$. This is broadly consistent with models, which typically predict B $\propto$ $\rho_\textrm{gas}^{0.5}$.

We present new empirical infrared Period-Luminosity-Metallicity (PLZ) and Period-Wesenheit-Metallicity (PWZ) relations for RR Lyrae based on the latest Gaia EDR3 parallaxes. The relations are provided in the WISE $W1$ and $W2$ bands, as well as in the $W(W1, V - W1)$ and $W(W2, V - W2)$ Wesenheit magnitudes. The relations are calibrated using a very large sample of Galactic halo field RR Lyrae stars with homogeneous spectroscopic [Fe/H] abundances (over 1,000 stars in the $W1$ band), covering a broad range of metallicities ($-2.5 \lesssim \textrm{[Fe/H]} \lesssim 0.0$). We test the performance of our PLZ and PWZ relations by determining the distance moduli of both galactic and extragalactic stellar associations: the Sculptor dwarf spheroidal galaxy in the Local Group (finding $\bar{\mu}_{0}=19.47 \pm 0.06$), the Galactic globular clusters M4 ($\bar{\mu}_{0}=11.16 \pm 0.05$) and the Reticulum globular cluster in the Large Magellanic Cloud ($\bar{\mu}_{0}=18.23 \pm 0.06$). The distance moduli determined through all our relations are internally self-consistent (within $\lesssim$ 0.05 mag) but are systematically smaller (by $\sim$ 2-3$\sigma$) than previous literature measurements taken from a variety of methods/anchors. However, a comparison with similar recent RR Lyrae empirical relations anchored with EDR3 likewise shows to varying extents a systematically smaller distance modulus for PLZ/PWZ RR Lyrae relations.

Ionized nebulae provide critical insights into the conditions of the interstellar medium (ISM). Their bright emission lines enable the measurement of physical properties, such as the gas-phase metallicity, across galaxy disks and in distant galaxies. The PHANGS--MUSE survey has produced optical spectroscopic coverage of the central star-forming discs of 19 nearby main-sequence galaxies. Here, we use the H{\alpha} morphology from this data to identify 30,790 distinct nebulae, finding thousands of nebulae per galaxy. For each nebula, we extract emission line fluxes and, using diagnostic line ratios, identify the dominant excitation mechanism. A total of 23,244 nebulae (75%) are classified as HII regions. The dust attenuation of every nebulae is characterised via the Balmer decrement and we use existing environmental masks to identify their large scale galactic environment (centre, bar, arm, interarm and disc). Using strong-line prescriptions, we measure the gas-phase oxygen abundances (metallicity) and ionization parameter for all HII regions. With this new catalogue, we measure the radial metallicity gradients and explore second order metallicity variations within each galaxy. By quantifying the global scatter in metallicity per galaxy, we find a weak negative correlation with global star formation rate and stronger negative correlation with global gas velocity dispersion (in both ionized and molecular gas). With this paper we release the full catalogue of strong line fluxes and derived properties, providing a rich database for a broad variety of ISM studies.

Isolated Stellar-Mass BlackHoles (ISMBHs) are potentially discernible through microlensing observations. In this work, we study detecting and characterizing ISMBHs with the Roman observations. We simulate a big ensemble of these events as seen by Roman and estimate the errors in the physical parameters of the lens objects, including their masses, distances, and proper motions through calculating Fisher and Covariance matrices. Since the ~2.3-year time gap between Roman's first three observing seasons and the others may lower the efficiency of realizing microlensing events and characterizing ISMBHs, we additionally consider a scenario where we add a small amount of additional observations -- one hour of observations every 10 days when the Bulge is observable during the large time gap -- which is equivalent to a total of about one additional day of observations with the Roman telescope. These extra observations increase Roman's efficiency for characterizing ISMBHs by ~$1-2\%$ and, more importantly, improve the robustness of the results by avoiding possible degenerate solutions. By considering uniform, and power-law mass functions ($dN/dM ~ M^{-\alpha}$, $\alpha=2,~1,~0.5$) for ISMBHs in the range of $[2,~50] M_{\odot}$, we conclude that the Roman telescope will determine the physical parameters of the lenses within $<5\%$ uncertainty, with efficiencies of $21\%$, and $16$-$18\%$, respectively. By considering these mass functions, we expect that the Roman telescope during its mission will detect and characterize $3$-$4$, $15$-$17$ and $22$-$24$ ISMBHs through astrometric microlensing, with the relative errors for all physical parameters less than $1,~5,~10\%$, respectively. Microlensing events owing to ISMBHs with a mass $\simeq 10$-$25 M_{\odot}$ and located close to the observer with $D_l \lesssim 0.5 D_s$ while the source is inside the Galactic disk can be characterized with least errors.

Remote sensing of the Earth has demonstrated that photosynthesis is traceable as the vegetation red edge (VRE), which is the steep rise in the reflection spectrum of vegetation, and as solar-induced fluorescence. This study examined the detectability of biological fluorescence from two types of photosynthetic pigments, chlorophylls (Chls) and bacteriochlorophylls (BChls), on Earth-like planets with oxygen-rich/poor and anoxic atmospheres around the Sun and M dwarfs. Atmospheric absorption, such as H2O, CH4, O2, and O3, and the VRE obscure the fluorescence emissions from Chls and BChls. We found that BChl-based fluorescence for wavelengths of 1000-1100 nm, assuming the spectrum of BChl b-bearing purple bacteria, could provide a suitable biosignature but only in the absence of the water cloud coverage or other strong absorbers near 1000 nm. The Chl fluorescence is weaker for several reasons, e.g., spectral blending with the VRE. The apparent reflectance excess is greatly increased in both Chl and BChl cases around TRAPPIST-1 due to fluorescence and stellar absorption lines. This could be a promising feature for detecting the fluorescence around ultracool red dwarfs by follow-up ground-based observations with high spectral resolution; however, it requires a long time around Sun-like stars, even for a LUVOIR-like space mission. Moreover, the simultaneous detection of fluorescence and VRE is key to identifying traces of photosynthesis because absorption, reflectance, and fluorescence are physically connected. For further validation of fluorescence detection, the nonlinear response of biological fluorescence as a function of light intensity could be considered.

Pebble accretion is recognized as a significant accelerator of planet formation. Yet, only formulae for single-sized (monodisperse) distribution have been derived in the literature. These can lead to significant underestimates for Bondi accretion, for which the best accreted pebble size may not be the one that dominates the mass distribution. We derive in this paper the polydisperse theory of pebble accretion. We consider a power-law distribution in pebble radius, and we find the resulting surface and volume number density distribution functions. We derive also the exact monodisperse analytical pebble accretion rate for which 3D and 2D accretion are limits. In addition, we find analytical solutions to the polydisperse 2D Hill and 3D Bondi limits. We integrate the polydisperse pebble accretion numerically for the MRN distribution, finding a slight decrease (by an exact factor 3/7) in the Hill regime compared to the monodisperse case. In contrast, in the Bondi regime, we find 1-2 orders of magnitude higher accretion rates compared to monodisperse, also extending the onset of pebble accretion to 1-2 order of magnitude lower in mass. We find Myr-timescales, within the disk lifetime, for Bondi accretion on top of planetary seeds of masses $10^{-6}-10^{-4} M_\oplus$, over a significant range of the parameter space. This mass range overlaps with the high mass end of the planetesimal initial mass function, and thus pebble accretion is possible directly following formation by streaming instability. This alleviates the need for mutual planetesimal collisions as a major contribution to planetary growth.

We conduct one-dimensional stellar evolution simulations of red supergiant (RSG) stars that mimic common envelope evolution (CEE) and find that the inner boundary of the envelope convective zone moves into the initial envelope radiative zone. The envelope convection practically disappears only when the RSG radius decreases by about an order of magnitude or more. The implication is that one cannot split the CEE into one stage during which the companion spirals-in inside the envelope convective zone and removes it, and a second slower phase when the companion orbits the initial envelope radiative zone and a stable mass transfer takes place. At best, this might take place when the orbital separation is about several solar radii. However, by that time other processes become important. We conclude that as of yet, the commonly used alpha-formalism that is based on energy considerations is the best phenomenological formalism.

We developed a system to run quick analyses of Cherenkov data in compliance with the FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management (FAIR: Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable), through the use of interoperability standards and technologies, particularly those provided by the International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA) to build the Virtual Observatory (VO). We therefore provide a controlled and stable environment on a computing cluster, in order to execute and re-execute well defined jobs. User-specific input parameters can be specified to configure the execution of an analysis job. Provenance information is automatically captured by the system and accessible to the user. To avoid long transfers, the data can be placed close to the computing nodes. This system is primarily used to analyse Cherenkov astronomy data, though it may be used for other purposes.

This conference proceedings paper provides a short summary of the constraints presented in Menci et al. 2016, 2017 on the mass of thermal WDM candidates, and of the results presented in Romanello et al. 2021 on how Reionization scenarios are affected by early galaxy formation in WDM cosmologies. The abundance of galaxies in the epoch of reionization ($z>$6) is dependent on fundamental cosmological parameters, most importantly on the properties of dark matter, such that it can be used as a powerful cosmological probe. Here we show how the number density of primordial galaxies allows to constrain the mass of thermal WDM candidates, and we discuss the constraints that will be made possible by future JWST observations. We then investigate how the Reionization process is affected by early galaxy formation in different cosmological scenarios. We use a semi-analytic model with suppressed initial power spectra to obtain the UV Luminosity Function in thermal Warm Dark Matter and sterile neutrino cosmologies. For each cosmology, we find an upper limit to fixed $f_{esc}$, which guarantees the completion of the process at $z<6.7$.

The most massive globular cluster in our Galaxy, Omega Centauri, is an interesting target for pulsar searches, because of its multiple stellar populations and the intriguing possibility that it was once the nucleus of a galaxy that was absorbed into the Milky Way. The recent discoveries of pulsars in this globular cluster and their association with known X-ray sources was a hint that, given the large number of known X-ray sources, there is a much larger undiscovered pulsar population. We used the superior sensitivity of the MeerKAT radio telescope to search for pulsars in Omega Centauri. In this paper, we present some of the first results of this survey, including the discovery of 13 new pulsars; the total number of known pulsars in this cluster currently stands at 18. At least half of them are in binary systems and preliminary orbital constraints suggest that most of the binaries have light companions. We also discuss the ratio between isolated and binaries pulsars and how they were formed in this cluster.

Galaxies, dark matter haloes, and star clusters have a finite extent, yet most simple dynamical models have an infinite extent. The default method to generate dynamical models with a finite extent is to apply an energy truncation to the distribution function, but this approach is not suited to construct models with a preset density profile and it imposes unphysical constraints on the orbit population. We investigate whether it is possible to construct simple dynamical models for spherical systems with a preset density profile with a finite extent, and ideally with a different range of orbital structures. We systematically investigate the consistency of radially truncated dynamical models, and demonstrate that no spherical models with a discontinuous density truncation can be supported by an ergodic orbital structure. On the other hand, we argue that many radially truncated models can be supported by a tangential Osipkov-Merritt orbital structure that becomes completely tangential at the truncation radius. We formulate a consistency hypothesis for radially truncated models with such an orbital structure, and test it using an analytical example and the numerical exploration of a large model parameter space using the SpheCow code. We physically interpret our results in terms of the occupancy of bound orbits, and we discuss possible extensions of the tangential Osipkov-Merritt orbital structure that can support radially truncated models.

This conference proceedings paper provides a short summary of the constraints presented by Menci et al. (2020) and Menci et al. (2022) to dynamical dark energy models. Dynamical dark energy (DDE) models have been proposed to address several observational tensions arising within the standard $\Lambda$ cold dark matter ($\Lambda$CDM) scenario. Different DDE models, parameterized by different combinations of the local value of the equation-of-state parameter $w_0$ and its time derivative $w_a$, predict different maximal abundance of massive galaxies in the early Universe. We use the observed abundance of massive galaxies already in place at z>=4.5 to constrain DDE models. To this aim, we consider four independent probes: (i) the observed stellar mass function at z~6 from the CANDELS survey; (ii) the estimated volume density of massive haloes derived from the observation of massive, star-forming galaxies detected in the submillimeter range at z~5; (iii) the rareness of the most massive system detected at z~7 by the SPT survey; (iv) the abundance of massive (M>10^10.5 Msun) galaxies at z~10 as inferred from early JWST observations. Our probes exclude a major fraction of the DDE parameter space that is allowed by other existing probes. In particular, early JWST results, if confirmed, are in tension with the standard $\Lambda$CDM scenario at a 2$\sigma$ confidence level.

{\it JWST} observations of NGC 346, a star-forming region in the metal-poor Small Magellanic Cloud, reveal a substantial population of sub-solar mass young stellar objects (YSOs) with IR excess. We have detected more than 33,000 sources across six NIRCam filters with deep, high-resolution imaging, where ongoing low-mass star formation is concentrated along dust filaments. From these observations, we construct detailed near-IR colour-magnitude diagrams with which preliminary classifications of different YSO classes are made. For the youngest, most deeply embedded objects, {\em JWST}/NIRCam reaches over 10 magnitudes below {\em Spitzer} observations at comparable wavelengths, and two magnitudes fainter than {\em HST} for more evolved pre main sequence sources, corresponding to $\sim$0.1~\Msun. For the first time in an extragalactic environment, we detect the full sequence of low-mass YSOs at all evolutionary phases. Furthermore, evidence of IR excess and accretion suggests that the dust required for rocky planet formation is present at low metallicities.

Model based reinforcement learning has proven to be more sample efficient than model free methods. On the other hand, the construction of a dynamics model in model based reinforcement learning has increased complexity. Data processing tasks in radio astronomy are such situations where the original problem which is being solved by reinforcement learning itself is the creation of a model. Fortunately, many methods based on heuristics or signal processing do exist to perform the same tasks and we can leverage them to propose the best action to take, or in other words, to provide a `hint'. We propose to use `hints' generated by the environment as an aid to the reinforcement learning process mitigating the complexity of model construction. We modify the soft actor critic algorithm to use hints and use the alternating direction method of multipliers algorithm with inequality constraints to train the agent. Results in several environments show that we get the increased sample efficiency by using hints as compared to model free methods.

Considering possible solutions to the $S_8$ tension between the Planck cosmic microwave background (CMB) measurement and low-redshift probes, we extended the standard $\Lambda$CDM cosmological model by including decay of dark matter (DDM). We first tested the DDM model in which dark matter decays into a form of non-interacting dark radiation. Under this DDM model, we investigated the DDM's impacts on the Sunyaev Zel'dovich effect by varying the decay lifetime, $\Gamma^{-1}$, including the background evolution in cosmology and non-linear prescription in the halo mass function. We performed a cosmological analysis under the assumption of this extended cosmological model by combining the latest high-redshift Planck CMB measurement and low-redshift SZ measurement. Our result shows a preference for $\Gamma^{-1} \sim 200$ Gyr with a lower bound on the decay lifetime of $\sim$ 77 Gyr at 95\% confidence level. However, the CMB data do not prefer this model, and the $S_8$ tension still remains. Additionally, we tested the other DDM model in which dark matter decays into warm dark matter and dark radiation. This model supports $\Gamma^{-1} \sim 204$ Gyr to resolve the $S_8$ tension with a lower bound on the decay lifetime of $\sim$ 47 Gyr at 95\% confidence level.

About half of white dwarfs (WDs) evolve to the DC state as they cool; the others become DQ or (temporarily?) DZ WDs. The recent magnetic survey of the local 20 pc volume has established a high frequency of magnetic fields among WDs older than 2-3 Gyr, demonstrating that in low- and average-mass WDs, the effects of magnetism become more common as they age, and the fields on average become stronger. However, the available statistics of WDs older than about 5 Gyr do not clearly establish how fields evolve beyond this age. We are carrying out a survey to clarify the occurrence of magnetism in DC-type WDs in order to better understand this late evolution. We use broadband filter polarimetry, arguably the most efficient way to detect magnetic fields in featureless WDs via continuum circular polarization. Here we report the discovery of a magnetic field in five DC WDs (of 23 observed), almost doubling the total sample of known magnetic WDs belonging to the DC spectral class.

The physical properties of transiting exoplanets are connected with the physical properties of their host stars. We present a homogeneous spectroscopic analysis based on spectra of FGK-type stars observed with the Hydra spectrograph on the WIYN telescope. We derived effective temperatures, surface gravities, and metallicities, for 81 stars observed by K2 and 33 from Kepler 1. We constructed an Fe I and II line list that is adequate for the analysis of R$\sim$18,000 spectra covering 6050-6350 \r{A} and adopted the spectroscopic technique based on equivalent width measurements. The calculations were done in LTE using Kurucz model atmospheres and the qoyllur-quipu (q$^2$) package. We validated our methodology via analysis of a benchmark solar twin and solar proxies, which are used as the solar reference. We estimated the effects that including Zeeman sensitive Fe I lines have on the derived stellar parameters for young and possibly active stars in our sample and found it not to be significant. Stellar masses and radii were derived by combining the stellar parameters with Gaia EDR3 and V magnitudes and isochrones. The measured stellar radii have 4.2\% median internal precision, leading to a median internal uncertainty of 4.4\% in the derived planetary radii. With our sample of 83 confirmed planets orbiting K2 host stars, the radius gap near R$_{planet}1.9R{_\plus}$ is detected, in agreement with previous findings. Relations between the planetary radius, orbital period and metallicity are explored and these also confirm previous findings for Kepler 1 systems.

We consider the unified bulk viscous scenarios and constrain them using the Cosmic Microwave Background observations from Planck 2018 and the Pantheon sample from Type Ia Supernovae. Then we generate the luminosity distance measurements from ${\cal O}(10^3)$ mock Gravitational Wave Standard Sirens (GWSS) events for the proposed Einstein Telescope. We then combine these mock luminosity distance measurements from the GWSS with the current cosmological probes in order to forecast how the mock GWSS data could be effective in constraining these bulk viscous scenarios. Our results show that a non-zero time dependent bulk viscosity in the universe sector is strongly preferred by the current cosmological probes and will possibly be confirmed at many standard deviations by the future GWSS measurements. We further mention that the addition of GWSS data can significantly reduce the uncertainties of the key cosmological parameters obtained from the usual cosmological probes employed in this work.

In 1981 Icko Iben Jr published a paper entitled 'The carbon star mystery: why do the low mass ones become such, and where have all the high mass ones gone?', where he discussed the discrepancy between the theoretical expectation and its observational counterpart about the luminosity function of AGB carbon stars. After more than 40 years, our understanding of this longstanding problem is greatly improved, also thanks to more refined stellar models and a growing amount of observational constraints. In this paper we review the state of the art of these studies and we briefly illustrate the future perspectives.

Methods based on Deep Learning have recently been applied on astrophysical parameter recovery thanks to their ability to capture information from complex data. One of these methods is the approximate Bayesian Neural Networks (BNNs) which have demonstrated to yield consistent posterior distribution into the parameter space, helpful for uncertainty quantification. However, as any modern neural networks, they tend to produce overly confident uncertainty estimates and can introduce bias when BNNs are applied to data. In this work, we implement multiplicative normalizing flows (MNFs), a family of approximate posteriors for the parameters of BNNs with the purpose of enhancing the flexibility of the variational posterior distribution, to extract $\Omega_m$, $h$, and $\sigma_8$ from the QUIJOTE simulations. We have compared this method with respect to the standard BNNs, and the flipout estimator. We found that MNFs combined with BNNs outperform the other models obtaining predictive performance with almost one order of magnitude larger that standard BNNs, $\sigma_8$ extracted with high accuracy ($r^2=0.99$), and precise uncertainty estimates. The latter implies that MNFs provide more realistic predictive distribution closer to the true posterior mitigating the bias introduced by the variational approximation and allowing to work with well-calibrated networks.

AGN-driven outflows are now routinely used in models of galaxy evolution as a feedback mechanism, however many of their properties remain highly uncertain. Perhaps the greatest source of uncertainty is the electron density of the outflowing gas, which directly affects derived kinetic powers and mass outflow rates. Here we present spatially-resolved, wide spectral-coverage Xshooter observations of the nearby active galaxy IC 5063 (z=0.001131), which shows clear signatures of outflows being driven by shocks induced by a radio jet interacting with the ISM. For the first time, we use the higher critical-density transauroral [SII] and [OII] lines to derive electron densities in spatially-resolved observations of an active galaxy, and present evidence that the lines are emitted in the same spatial regions as other key diagnostic lines. In addition, we find that the post-shock gas is denser than the pre-shock gas, possibly due to shock compression effects. We derive kinetic powers for the warm ionised outflow phase and find them to be below those required by galaxy evolution models; however, other studies of different gas phases in IC 5063 allow us to place our results in a wider context in which the cooler gas phases constitute most of the outflowing mass. We investigate the dominant ionisation and excitation mechanisms and find that the warm ionised outflow phase is dominated by AGN-photoionisation, while the warm molecular phase has composite AGN-shock excitation. Overall, our results highlight the importance of robust outflow diagnostics and reinforce the utility of the transauroral lines for future studies of outflows in active galaxies.

Measurements of the angular momentum (spin) of astrophysical black holes are extremely important, as they provide information on the black hole formation and evolution. We present simulated observations of a X-ray binary system with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE), with the aim to study the robustness of black hole spin and geometry measurements using X-ray polarimetry. As a representative example, we used the parameters of GRS 1915+105 in its former unobscured, soft state. In order to simulate the polarization properties, we modeled the source emission with a multicolor blackbody accounting for thermal radiation from the accretion disk, including returning radiation. Our analysis shows that the polarimetric observations in the X-ray waveband will be able to estimate both spin and inclination of the system with a good precision (without returning radiation we obtained for the lowest spin $\Delta a \leq 0.4$ (0.4/0.998 $\sim$ 40 \%) for spin and $\Delta i \leq 30^\circ$ (30$^\circ$/70$^\circ$ $\sim$ 43\%) for inclination, while for the higher spin values we obtained $\Delta a \leq 0.12$ ($\sim$ 12 \%) for spin and $\Delta i \leq 20^\circ$ ($ \sim $ 29\%) for inclination, within 1$ \sigma $ errors). When focusing on the case of returning radiation and treating inclination as a known parameter, we were able to successfully reconstruct spin and disk albedo in $\Delta a \leq 0.15$ ($\sim$ 15 \%) interval and $\Delta$ albedo $\leq 0.45$ (45 \%) intervals within 1$ \sigma $ errors. We conclude that X-ray polarimetry will be a useful tool to constrain black hole spins, in addition to timing and spectral-fitting methods.

Theoretical models have suggested peculiar velocity dispersion profiles of star clusters facing dissolution. They predicted that, besides bound stars that still belong to the star cluster, and unbound ones already stripped off, there is an intermediate population of stars that having acquired the enough energy to escape the cluster are still within the cluster Jacobi radius. Both, potential escapers and unbound stars, show hot kinematics, not observed along tidal tails of star clusters. We report on the first evidence of an open cluster with stars crossing such a transitional scenario, namely: ASCC 92. The open cluster gathers nearly 10 percent of its initial total mass, and is moving toward Galactic regions affected by higher interstellar absorption. Precisely, the obscured appearance of the cluster could have hampered disentangling its true internal dynamical evolutionary stage, previously.

We use the tidal deformations of the Moon induced by the Earth and the Sun as a tool for studying the inner structure of our satellite. Based on measurements of the degree-two tidal Love numbers k2 and h2 and dissipation coefficients from the GRAIL mission, Lunar Laser Ranging and Laser Altimetry on board of the LRO spacecraft, we perform Monte Carlo samplings for 120,000 possible combinations of thicknesses and viscosities for two classes of the lunar models. The first one includes a uniform core, a low viscosity zone (LVZ) at the core-mantle boundary, a mantle and a crust. The second one has an additional inner core. All models are consistent with the lunar total mass as well as its moment of inertia. By comparing predicted and observed parameters for the tidal deformations we find that the existence of an inner core cannot be ruled out. Furthermore, by deducing temperature profiles for the LVZ and an Earth-like mantle, we obtain stringent constraints on the radius (500 +- 1) km, viscosity,21 (4.5 +- 0.8) x 10^16 Pa.s and the density (3400 +- 10) kg/m^3 of the LVZ. We also infer the first estimation for the outer core viscosity, (2.07 +- 1.03) x 10^17 Pa.s, for two different possible structures: a Moon with a 70 km thick outer core and a large inner core (290 km radius with a density of 6000 kg/m3), and a Moon with a thicker outer core (169 km thick) but a denser and smaller inner core (219 km radius for 8000 kg/m^3).

This paper is an initial stage of consideration of the general problem of joint modeling of the vertical structure of a Galactic flat subsystem and the average surface of the disk of the Galaxy, taking into account the natural and measurement dispersions. We approximate the average surface of the Galactic disk with a polynomial model and determine its parameters by minimizing the squared deviations of objects along the normal to the model surface. The developed method allows us to simultaneously identify significant details of the Galactic warping and estimate the offset $z_\odot$ of the Sun relative to the average (non-flat) surface of the Galactic disk and the vertical scale of the object system for an arbitrary area of the disk covered by data. The method is applied to data on classical Cepheids. Significant local extremes of the average disk surface model were found: the minimum in the first Galactic quadrant and the maximum in the second. A well-known warp in the third quadrant has been confirmed. The optimal order of the model was found to be $n_\text{o}=4$. The local (near the Sun, $n_\text{o}=0$) estimate of $z_\odot = 28.1 \pm \left.6.1\right|_{\text{stat.}}\left.{}\pm1.3\right|_{\text{cal.}}$ pc is close to the non-local ($n_\text{o}=4$) $z_\odot = 27.1 \pm \left.8.8\right|_{\text{stat.}}\left.{}^{+1.3}_{-1.2}\right|_{\text{cal.}}$ pc, which suggests that the proposed method eliminates the influence of warping on the $z_\odot$ estimate. However, the non-local estimate of the vertical standard deviation of Cepheids $\sigma_{\rho} = 132.0 \pm \left.3.7\right|_{\text{stat.}}\left.{}^{+6.3}_{-5.9}\right|_{\text{cal.}}$ pc differs significantly from the local $\sigma_{\rho} = \left.76.5 \pm 4.4\right|_{\text{stat.}}\left.{}^{+3.6}_{-3.4}\right|_{\text{cal.}}$ pc, which means the need to introduce more complex models outside the Sun's vicinity.

PSRJ1910-5959A (J1910A) is a binary millisecond pulsar in a 0.837 day circular orbit around a helium white dwarf (HeWD) companion. This pulsar is located 6.3 arcmin away from the centre of the globular cluster NGC6752. Given the large offset, the association of the pulsar to NGC6752 has been debated. We have made use of two decades of archival Parkes 64-m "Murriyang" telescope data and recently carried out observations with the MeerKAT telescope. We obtained Pulse times of arrival using standard data reduction techniques and analysed using Bayesian pulsar timing techniques. We analysed the pulsar's total intensity and polarisation profile, to study the interstellar scattering along the line of sight, and the pulsar's geometry by applying the rotating vector model. We obtain precise measurements of several post-Keplerian parameters: the range $r=0.202(6)T_\odot$ and shape s=0.999823(4) of the Shapiro delay, from which we infer the orbital inclination to be $88.9^{+0.15}_{-0.14}\deg$ and the masses of both the pulsar and the companion to be $1.55(7)M_{\odot}$ and $0.202(6)M_{\odot}$ respectively; a secular change in the orbital period $\dot{P}_{\rm b}=-53^{+7.4}_{-6.0}\times 10^{-15}$\,s\,s$^{-1}$ that proves the association to NGGC6752 and a secular change in the projected semi-major axis of the pulsar $\dot{x}= -40.7^{+7.3}_{-8.2}\times10^{-16}$\,s\,s$^{-1}$ that is likely caused by the spin-orbit interaction from a misaligned HeWD spin, at odds with the likely isolated binary evolution of the system. We also discuss some theoretical models for the structure and evolution of WDs in NS-WD binaries by using J1910A's companion as a test bed. J1910A is a rare system for which several parameters of both the pulsar and the HeWD companion can be accurately measured. As such, it is a test bed to discriminate between alternative models for HeWD structure and cooling.

During its early evolution, a pulsar wind nebula (PWN) sweeps the inner part of the supernova ejecta and forms a thin massive shell. Later on, when the shell has been reached by the reverse shock of the supernova remnant, the evolution becomes more complex, in most cases reverting the expansion into a compression: this later phase is called "reverberation". Computations done so far to understand this phase have been mostly performed in the thin-shell approximation, where the evolution of the PWN radius is assimilated to that of the swept-up shell under the effect of both the inner pressure from the PWN, and the outer pressure from the supernova remnant. Despite the thin-shell approach seems rather justifiable, its implementations have so far been inaccurate, and its correctness, never tested. The outer pressure was naively assumed to be scaled according to the Sedov solution (or a constant fraction of it) along the entire evolution. The thin-shell assumption itself fails along the process, being the shell no longer thin in comparison with the size of the PWN. Here, through a combination of numerical models, dimensional arguments, and analytic approximations, we present a detailed analysis of the interaction of the PWN with the supernova remnant. We provide a new analytic approximation of the outer pressure, beyond the Sedov solution, and a revised "thin-shell" able to reproduce results from numerical simulations. Finally, we compute the efficiency by which the PWN is compressed during reverberation over a wide population of sources.

The characteristics of the radius valley, i.e., an observed lack of planets between 1.5-2 Earth radii at periods shorter than about 100 days, provide insights into the formation and evolution of close-in planets. We present a novel view of the radius valley by refitting the transits of 431 planets using Kepler 1-minute short cadence observations, the vast majority of which have not been previously analysed in this way. In some cases, the updated planetary parameters differ significantly from previous studies, resulting in a deeper radius valley than previously observed. This suggests that planets are likely to have a more homogeneous core composition at formation. Furthermore, using support-vector machines, we find that the radius valley location strongly depends on orbital period and stellar mass and weakly depends on stellar age, with $\partial \log {\left(R_{p, \text{valley}} \right)}/ \partial \log{P} = -0.096_{-0.027}^{+0.023}$, $\partial \log {\left(R_{p, \text{valley}} \right)}/ \partial \log{M_{\star}} = 0.231_{-0.064}^{+0.053}$, and $\partial \log {\left(R_{p, \text{valley}} \right)}/ \partial \log{\left( \text{age} \right)} = 0.033_{-0.025}^{+0.017}$. These findings favour thermally-driven mass loss models such as photoevaporation and core-powered mass loss, with a slight preference for the latter scenario. Finally, this work highlights the value of transit observations with short photometric cadence to precisely determine planet radii, and we provide an updated list of precisely and homogeneously determined parameters for the planets in our sample.

We report on the subpulse modulation properties of 1198 pulsars using the Thousand-Pulsar-Array programme on MeerKAT. About 35% of the analysed pulsars exhibit drifting subpulses which are more pronounced towards the deathline, consistent with previous studies. We estimate that this common phenomenon is detectable in 60% of the overall pulsar population if high quality data were available for all. This large study reveals the evolution of drifting subpulses across the pulsar population in unprecedented detail. In particular, we find that the modulation period $P_3$ follows a V-shaped evolution with respect to the characteristic age $\tau_c$, such that the smallest $P_3$ values, corresponding to the Nyquist period $P_3>\sim2$, are found at $\tau_c>\sim10^{7.5}$ yr. The V-shaped evolution can be interpreted and reproduced if young pulsars possess aliased fast intrinsic $P_3$, which monotonically increase, ultimately achieving a slow unaliased $P_3$. Enhancement of irregularities in intrinsic subpulse modulation by aliasing in small $\tau_c$ pulsars would explain their observed less well defined $P_3$'s and weaker spectral features. Modelling these results as rotating subbeams, their circulation must slow down as the pulsar evolves. This is the opposite to that expected if circulation is driven by ExB drift. This can be resolved if the observed $P_3$ periodicity is due to a beat between an ExB system and the pulsar period. As a by-product, we identify the correct periods and spin-down rates for 12 pulsars, for which harmonically related values were reported in the literature.

Noting the weakest modulation and relatively high metal abundance of the ab type RR Lyrae star V838 Cyg, we collected the photometric data of this star in several sky surveys to carry out an in-depth analysis. The O-C diagram shows that the pulsation period of V838 Cyg increases linearly on the large time scale. In the reanalysis of the high-precision Kepler data, we confirmed the modulation with the period of 59.45\pm0.04 days found earlier, and also found an additional weak modulation with a longer period (840\pm21 days). After a series of analyses, we incline to the view that the mechanisms leading the two modulations are different: the former is more similar to the typical Blazhko effect, while the mechanism leading to the latter may be an extrinsic factor. We also collected and compared the modulation and physical parameters of other Blazhko RR Lyrae stars from several works of literature, and find that there is a potential negative correlation between the modulation amplitude (or upper limit of amplitude) and the metal abundance. We infer that the relative metal-rich will promote the convection in the outer stellar atmosphere, and then inhibit those factors (turbulence, shock wave, etc.) that may cause Blazhko modulation. Future observations and research work can be carried out with reference to this viewpoint.

Photometric redshifts are a key ingredient in the analysis and interpretation of large-scale structure (LSS) surveys. The accuracy and precision of these redshifts estimates is directly linked to the constraining power of photometric surveys. It is hence necessary to define precision and accuracy requirements for the redshift calibration to not to infer biased results in the final analysis. For weak gravitational lensing of the LSS the photometry culminates in the estimation of the source redshift distribution (SRD) in each of the tomographic bins used in the analysis. The focus has been on shifts of the mean of the SRDs and how well the calibration must be able to recover those. Since the estimated SRDs are usually given as a normalized histogram with corresponding errors, it would be advantageous to propagate these uncertainties accordingly to see whether the requirements of the given survey are indeed fulfilled. Here we propose the use of functional derivatives to calculate the sensitivity of the final observables, e.g. the lensing angular power spectrum, with respect to the SRD at a specific redshift. This allows the propagation of arbitrarily shaped small perturbations to the SRD, without having to run the whole analysis pipeline for each realization again. We apply our method to a EUCLID survey and demonstrate it with SRDs of the KV450 data set, recovering previous results. Lastly, we note that for cosmic shear moments of order larger than two will probably be not relevant when propagating redshift uncertainties.

The Mg II 2796, 2803 doublet has been suggested to be a useful indirect indicator for the escape of Ly-alpha and Lyman continuum (LyC) photons in local star-forming galaxies. However, studies to date have focused on small samples of galaxies with strong Mg II or strong LyC emission. Here we present the first study of Mg II probing a large dynamic range of galaxy properties, using newly obtained high signal-to-noise, moderate-resolution spectra of Mg II for a sample of 34 galaxies selected from the Low-redshift Lyman Continuum Survey. We show that the galaxies in our sample have Mg II profiles ranging from strong emission to P-Cygni profiles, and to pure absorption. We find there is a significant trend (with a possibility of spurious correlations of ~ 2%) that galaxies detected as strong LyC Emitters (LCEs) also show larger equivalent widths of Mg II emission, and non-LCEs tend to show evidence of more scattering and absorption features in Mg II We then find Mg II strongly correlates with Ly-alpha in both equivalent width and escape fraction, regardless of whether the emission or absorption dominates the Mg II profiles. Furthermore, we present that, for galaxies categorized as Mg II emitters (MgE), one can adopt the information of Mg II, metallicity, and dust to estimate the escape fraction of LyC within a factor of 3. These findings confirm that Mg II lines can be used as a tool to select galaxies as LCEs and to serve as an indirect indicator for the escape of Ly-alpha and LyC.

Some families of carbonaceous chondrites are rich in prebiotic organics that may have contributed to the origin of life on Earth and elsewhere. However, the formation and chemical evolution of complex soluble organic molecules from interstellar precursors under relevant parent body conditions has not been thoroughly investigated. In this study, we approach this topic by simulating meteorite parent body aqueous alteration of interstellar residue analogs. The distributions of amines and amino acids are qualitatively and quantitatively investigated and linked to closing the gap between interstellar and meteoritic prebiotic organic abundances. We find that the abundance trend of methylamine > ethylamine> glycine > serine > alanine > \b{eta}-alanine does not change from pre- to post-aqueous alteration, suggesting that certain cloud conditions have an influential role on the distributions of interstellar-inherited meteoritic organics. However, the abundances for most of the amines and amino acids studied here varied by about 2-fold when aqueously processed for 7 days at 125 {\deg}C, and the changes in the {\alpha}- to \b{eta}-alanine ratio were consistent with those of aqueously altered carbonaceous chondrites, pointing to an influential role of meteorite parent body processing on the distributions of interstellar-inherited meteoritic organics. We detected higher abundances of {\alpha}- over \b{eta}-alanine, which is opposite to what is typically observed in aqueously altered carbonaceous chondrites; these results may be explained by at least the lack of minerals and insoluble organic matter-relevant materials in the experiments. The high abundance of volatile amines in the non-aqueously altered samples suggests that these types of interstellar volatiles can be efficiently transferred to asteroids and comets, supporting the idea of the presence of interstellar organics in solar system objects.

[Abbreviated] We investigate the dependence of Lyman-$\alpha$ emitter (LAE) clustering on Lyman-$\alpha$ luminosity. We use 1030 LAEs from the MUSE-Wide survey, 679 LAEs from MUSE-Deep, and 367 LAEs from the to-date deepest ever spectroscopic survey, the MUSE Extremely Deep Field. All objects have spectroscopic redshifts of $3<z<6$ and cover a large dynamic range of Ly$\alpha$ luminosities: $40.15<\log (L_{\rm{Ly}\alpha}/[\rm{erg \:s}^{-1}])<43.35$. We apply the Adelberger et al. K-estimator as the clustering statistic and fit the measurements with state-of-the-art halo occupation distribution (HOD) models. From the three main data sets, we find that the large-scale bias factor, the minimum mass to host one central LAE, $M_{\rm{min}}$, and (on average) one satellite LAE, $M_1$, increase weakly with an increasing line luminosity. The satellite fractions are $\lesssim10$% ($\lesssim20$%) at $1\sigma$ ($3\sigma$) confidence level, supporting a scenario in which DMHs typically host one single LAE. We next bisected the three main samples into disjoint subsets to thoroughly explore the dependence of the clustering properties on $L_{\rm{Ly}\alpha}$. We report a strong ($8\sigma$) clustering dependence on $L_{\rm{Ly}\alpha}$, where the highest luminosity LAE subsample ($\log(L_{\rm{Ly}\alpha}/[\rm{erg \:s}^{-1}])\approx42.53$) clusters more strongly ($b_{\rm{high}}=3.13^{+0.08}_{-0.15}$) and resides in more massive DMHs ($\log(M_{\rm{h}}/[h^{-1}\rm{M}_{\odot}])=11.43^{+0.04}_{-0.10}$) than the lowest luminosity one ($\log(L_{\rm{Ly}\alpha}/[\rm{erg \:s}^{-1}])\approx40.97$), which presents a bias of $b_{\rm{low}}=1.79^{+0.08}_{-0.06}$ and occupies $\log(M_{\rm{h}}/[h^{-1}\rm{M}_{\odot}])=10.00^{+0.12}_{-0.09}$ halos. We discuss the implications of these results for evolving Ly$\alpha$ luminosity functions, halo mass dependent Ly$\alpha$ escape fractions, and incomplete reionization signatures.

The collection of a statistically significant number detected of cosmic rays with energy above $10^{17}$ to $10^{18}$ eV requires widely-spaced particle detectors at the ground level to detect the extensive air showers induced in the atmosphere. The air-shower sizes, proxies of the primary energies, are then estimated by fitting the observed signals to a functional form for expectations so as to interpolate the signal at a reference distance. The functional form describes the rapid falloff of the expected signal with the distance from the shower core, using typically two logarithmic slopes to account for the short-range and long-range decreases of signals. The uncertainties associated to the air-shower sizes are determined under the assumption of a quadratic dependence of the log-likelihood on the fitted parameters around the minimum, so that a meaningful variance-covariance matrix is provided. In this paper, we show that for an event topology where one signal is much larger than the others, the quadratic dependence of the fitted function around the minimum is a poor approximation that leads to an inaccurate estimate of the uncertainties. To restore a quadratic shape, we propose to use the polar coordinates around the detector recording the largest signal, projected onto the plane of the shower front, to define the likelihood function in terms of logarithmic polar distances, polar angles and logarithmic shower sizes as free parameters. We show that a meaningful variance-covariance matrix is then recovered in the new coordinate system, as the dependence of the fitted function on the modified parameters is properly approximated by a quadratic function. The use of the uncertainties in the new coordinate system for subsequent high-level analyses is illustrated.

Ultralight axions and dark photons are well-motivated dark matter (DM) candidates. The axion DM and dark photon DM (DPDM) can resonantly convert into electromagnetic (EM) waves in the solar corona when their mass is equal to the solar plasma frequency. The resultant EM waves are mono-chromatic in the radio-frequency range with an energy equal to the DM mass, which can be detected via radio telescopes for solar observations. We search for converted mono-chromatic signals in the observational data of the high-sensitivity Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) telescope. We find the upper limit on the kinetic mixing coupling between DPDM and photon can reach $10^{-13}$ in the frequency range $30-80$ MHz, which is about one order of magnitude better than the existing constraint from the cosmic microwave background (CMB) observation. In addition, we also get the upper limit on the axion-photon coupling in the same frequency range, which is better than the constraints from Light-Shining-through-a-Wall experiments but does not exceed the CAST or other astrophysical bounds.

Non-annihilating dark matter particles, owing to their interactions with ordinary baryonic matter, can efficiently accumulate inside celestial objects. For heavy mass, they gravitate toward the core of the celestial objects, thermalize in a small core region, and eventually form tiny black holes via core collapse, resulting destruction of the host objects. We demonstrate that the existence of a variety of celestial objects provides stringent constraints on strongly-interacting heavy dark matter, a blind-spot for the terrestrial dark matter detectors as well as for the cosmological probes. Celestial objects with larger sizes and lower core temperatures, such as Jupiter, are the most optimal detectors to probe the strongly-interacting heavy asymmetric dark matter.

A review is made of constraints on the nuclear symmetry energy parameters arising from nuclear binding energy measurements, theoretical chiral effective field predictions of neutron matter properties, the unitary gas conjecture, and measurements of neutron skin thicknesses and dipole polarizabilities. While most studies have been confined to the parameters $S_V$ and $L$, the important roles played by, and constraints on $K_{\rm sym}$, or, equivalently, the neutron matter incompressibility $K_N$, are discussed. Strong correlations among $S_V, L$, and $K_{N}$ are found from both nuclear binding energies and neutron matter theory. However, these correlations somewhat differ in the two cases, and those from neutron matter theory have smaller uncertainties. To 68\% confidence, it is found from neutron matter theory that $S_V=32.0\pm1.1$ MeV, $L=51.9\pm7.9$ MeV and $K_N=152.2\pm38.1$ MeV. Theoretical predictions for neutron skin thickness and dipole polarizability measurements of the neutron-rich nuclei $^{48}$Ca, $^{120}$Sn, and $^{208}$Pb are compared to recent experimental measurements, most notably the CREX and PREX neutron skin experiments from Jefferson Laboratory. By themselves, PREX I+II measurements of $^{208}$Pb and CREX measurement of $^{48}$Ca suggest $L=121\pm47$ MeV and $L=-5\pm40$ MeV, respectively, to 68\% confidence. However, we show that nuclear interactions optimally satisfying both measurements imply $L=53\pm13$ MeV, nearly the range suggested by either nuclear mass measurements or neutron matter theory, and is also consistent with nuclear dipole polarizability measurements. This small parameter range implies $R_{1.4} = 11.6\pm1.0$ km and $\Lambda_{1.4} = 228^{+148}_{-90}$, which are consistent with NICER X-ray and LIGO/Virgo gravitational wave observations of neutron stars.

The novel data analysis challenges posed by the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) arise from the overwhelmingly large number of astrophysical sources in the measurement band and the density with which they are found in the data. Robust detection and characterization of the numerous gravitational wave sources in LISA data can not be done sequentially, but rather through a simultaneous global fit of a data model containing the full suite of astrophysical and instrumental features present in the data. While previous analyses have focused on individual source types in isolation, here we present the first demonstration of a LISA global fit analysis containing combined astrophysical populations. The prototype pipeline uses a blocked Metropolis Hastings algorithm to alternatingly fit to a population of ultra compact galactic binaries, known ``verification binaries'' already identified by electromagnetic observations, a population of massive black hole mergers, and an instrument noise model. The Global LISA Analysis Software Suite (GLASS) is assembled from independently developed samplers for the different model components. The modular design enables flexibility to future development by defining standard interfaces for adding new, or updating additional, components to the global fit without being overly prescriptive for how those modules must be internally designed. The GLASS pipeline is demonstrated on data simulated for the LISA Data Challenge 2b. Results of the analysis and a road-map for continued development are described in detail.

In this study, we investigate the consequence of the constant-roll condition and examine the role of $f(Q,T)$ gravity in the cosmological inflation process. We analyze the inflationary scenario by calculating modified Friedmann equations, and giving an alternative technique that enables relating modified slow-roll parameters to the constant roll parameter $\beta $. Considering both chaotic and hilltop models, we calculate the spectral index and the tensor-to-scalar ratio and compare their compatibility with Planck's data for different choices of the constant roll parameter $\beta $. We examine the evolution of primordial black holes in our chosen modified gravity model taking into account the accretion process and the evaporation due to Hawking radiation. We compute the evaporation and accretion masses rate and provide an analytic estimation of the primordial black holes masse and of the radiation in the $f(Q,T)$ gravity model.

This paper is dedicated to assessing modified cosmological settings based on the gravitational Standard-Model Extension (SME). Our analysis rests upon the Hubble tension (HT), which is a discrepancy between the observational determination of the Hubble parameter via data from the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and Type Ia supernovae, respectively. While the latter approach is model-independent, the former highly depends on the model used to describe the physics of the early Universe. Motivated by the HT, we take into account two recently introduced cosmological models as test frameworks of the pre-CMB era. These settings involve local Lorentz and diffeomorphism violation parameterized by nondynamical SME background fields $s_{00}$ and $s^{ij}$, respectively. We aim at explaining the tension in the measured results of the cosmic expansion rate in early and late epochs by resorting to these two modified cosmologies as potential descriptions of the pre-CMB era. As long as the HT does not turn out to be a merely systematic effect, it can serve as a criterion for exploring regions of the parameter space in certain pre-CMB new-physics candidates such as SME cosmologies. By setting extracted limits on SME coefficients into perspective with already existing bounds in the literature, we infer that none of the aforementioned models are suitable pre-CMB candidates for fixing the HT. In this way, new physics arising from the particular realizations of Lorentz and diffeomorphism violation studied in this paper does not explain the HT. Our paper exemplifies how to exploit this discrepancy as a novel possibility of refining our description of the early Universe.

We analyze a merged Parker Solar Probe ($PSP$) and Solar Orbiter ($SO$) dataset covering heliocentric distances $13 \ R_{\odot} \lesssim R \lesssim 220$ $R_{\odot}$ to investigate the radial evolution of power and spectral-index anisotropy in the wavevector space of solar wind turbulence. Our results show that anisotropic signatures of turbulence display a distinct radial evolution when fast, $V_{sw} \geq ~ 400 ~km ~s^{-1}$, and slow, $V_{sw} \leq ~ 400 ~km ~s^{-1}$, wind streams are considered. The anisotropic properties of slow wind in Earth orbit are consistent with a ``critically balanced'' cascade, but both spectral-index anisotropy and power anisotropy diminish with decreasing heliographic distance. Fast streams are observed to roughly retain their near-Sun anisotropic properties, with the observed spectral index and power anisotropies being more consistent with a ``dynamically aligned'' type of cascade, though the lack of extended fast-wind intervals makes it difficult to accurately measure the anisotropic scaling. A high-resolution analysis during the first perihelion of PSP confirms the presence of two sub-ranges within the inertial range, which may be associated with the transition from weak to strong turbulence. The transition occurs at $\kappa d_{i} \approx 6 \times 10^{-2}$, and signifies a shift from -5/3 to -2 and -3/2 to -1.61 scaling in parallel and perpendicular spectra, respectively. Our results provide strong observational constraints for anisotropic theories of MHD turbulence in the solar wind.

The orbital propagation of large sets of initial conditions under high accuracy requirements is currently a bottleneck in the development of space missions, e.g. for planetary protection compliance analyses. The proposed approach can include any force source in the dynamical model through efficient Picard-Chebyshev (PC) numerical simulations. A two-level augmentation of the integration scheme is proposed, to run an arbitrary number of simulations within the same algorithm call, fully exploiting high performance and GPU (Graphics Processing Units) computing facilities. The performances obtained with implementation in C and NVIDIA CUDA programming languages are shown, on a test case taken from the optimization of a Solar Orbiter-like first resonant phase with Venus.