Papers for Friday, Feb 03 2023

We develop a new model within which the radius-dependent transition of the galaxy inner spins with respect to the cosmic web and the variation of the transition threshold radius ($r_{\rm th}$) with galaxy mass ($M_{\rm vir}$), smoothing scale ($r_{f}$), and redshift ($z$) can be coherently explained. The key tenet of this model is that the competition between the pressure effect of the inner mass and the compression effect of the local tidal field determines which principal direction of the tidal field the inner spins are aligned with. If the former predominates, then only the tidal torques turn on, resulting in the alignments of the inner spins with the intermediate principal axes of the tidal field. Otherwise, the galaxy spins acquire a tendency to be aligned with the shortest axes of the galaxy shapes, which is in the major principal directions of the tidal field. Quantifying the two effects in terms of the mean squared densities, we make a purely analytical prediction for $r_{\rm th}(M_{\rm vir}, z, r_{f})$. Testing this model against the numerical results from a high-resolution simulation in the redshift range of $0\le z\le 3$ on the galactic mass scale of $11.8\le \log M_{\rm vir}/(h^{-1}M_{\odot})\le 12.6$ for two different cases of $r_{f}/(h^{-1}{\rm Mpc})=0.5$ and $1$, we find excellent agreements of the model predictions with the numerical results. It is also shown that this model naturally predicts the alignments between the inner spins of the present galaxies with the principal directions of the high-$z$ tidal field at the progenitors' locations.

The photometric catalogue of galaxy clusters extracted from ESA Euclid data is expected to be very competitive for cosmological studies. Using state-of-the-art hydrodynamical simulations, we present systematic analyses simulating the expected weak lensing profiles from clusters in a variety of dynamic states and at wide range of redshifts. In order to derive cluster masses, we use a model consistent with the implementation within the Euclid Consortium of the dedicated processing function and find that, when jointly modelling mass and the concentration parameter of the Navarro-Frenk-White halo profile, the weak lensing masses tend to be, on average, biased low with respect to the true mass. Using a fixed value for the concentration, the mass bias is diminished along with its relative uncertainty. Simulating the weak lensing signal by projecting along the directions of the axes of the moment of inertia tensor ellipsoid, we find that orientation matters: when clusters are oriented along the major axis the lensing signal is boosted, and the recovered weak lensing mass is correspondingly overestimated. Typically, the weak lensing mass bias of individual clusters is modulated by the weak lensing signal-to-noise ratio, and the negative mass bias tends to be larger toward higher redshifts. However, when we use a fixed value of the concentration parameter the redshift evolution trend is reduced. These results provide a solid basis for the weak-lensing mass calibration required by the cosmological application of future cluster surveys from Euclid and Rubin.

Obscuration in quasars may arise from steep viewing angles along the dusty torus, or instead may represent a distinct phase of supermassive black hole growth. We test these scenarios by probing the host dark matter halo environments of $\sim 1.4$ million WISE-selected obscured and unobscured quasars at $\langle z \rangle = 1.4$ using angular clustering measurements as well as cross-correlation measurements of quasar positions with the gravitational lensing of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). We interpret these signals within a halo occupation distribution (HOD) framework to conclude that obscured systems reside in more massive effective halos ($ \sim 10^{12.9} h^{-1} M_{\odot}$) than their unobscured counterparts ($ \sim 10^{12.6} h^{-1} M_{\odot}$), though we do not detect a difference in the satellite fraction. We find excellent agreement between the clustering and lensing analyses and show that this implies the observed difference is robust to uncertainties in the obscured quasar redshift distribution, highlighting the power of combining angular clustering and weak lensing measurements. This finding appears in tension with models that ascribe obscuration exclusively to orientation of the dusty torus along the line-of-sight, and instead may be consistent with the notion that some obscured quasars are attenuated by galaxy-scale or circumnuclear material during an evolutionary phase.

After the companion dynamically plunges through the primary's envelope, the two cores remain surrounded by a common envelope and the decrease of the orbital period $P_\text{orb}$ stalls. The subsequent evolution has never been systematically explored with multi-dimensional simulations. Here, we perform 3D hydrodynamical simulations of an envelope evolving under the influence of a central binary star using an adaptively refined spherical grid. We follow the evolution over hundreds of orbits of the central binary to characterize the transport of angular momentum by advection, gravitational torques, turbulence, and viscosity. We find that local advective torques from the mean flow and Reynolds stresses associated with the turbulent flow dominate the angular momentum transport, which occurs outward in a disk-like structure about the orbital plane and inward along the polar axis. Turbulent transport is less efficient, but can locally significantly damp or enhance the net angular momentum radial transport and may even reverse its direction. Short-term variability in the envelope is remarkably similar to circumbinary disks, including the formation and destruction of lump-like overdensities, which enhance mass accretion and contribute to the outward transport of eccentricity generated in the vicinity of the binary. If the accretion onto the binary is allowed, the orbital decay timescale settles to a nearly constant value $\tau_\text{b} \sim 10^3$ to $10^4\,P_\text{orb}$, while preventing accretion leads to a slowly increasing $\tau_\text{b} \sim 10^5\,P_\text{orb}$ at the end of our simulations. Our results suggest that the post-dynamical orbital contraction and envelope ejection will slowly continue while the binary is surrounded by gas and that $\tau_\text{b}$ is often much shorter than the thermal timescale of the envelope.

We present an analytic model for the cool, $T \approx 10^4$ K, circumgalactic medium (CGM), describing the gas distribution, thermal and ionization state. Our model assumes (total) pressure equilibrium with the ambient warm/hot CGM, photoionization by the metagalactic radiation field, and allows for non-thermal pressure support, parametrized by the ratio of thermal pressures, $\eta = P_{\rm hot,th}/P_{\rm cool,th}$. We apply the model to the COS-Halos data set and find that a nominal model with $\eta = 3$, gas distribution out to $r \approx 0.6 R_{\rm vir}$, and $M_{\rm cool} = 3 \times 10^9~{\rm M_{\odot}}$, corresponding to a volume filling fraction of $f_{\rm V,cool} \approx 1\%$, reproduces the mean measured column densities of HI and low/intermediate metal ions (CII, CIII, SiII, SiIII, MgII). Variation of $\pm 0.5$ dex in the non-thermal pressure or gas mass encompasses $\sim 2/3$ of the scatter between objects. Our nominal model underproduces the measured CIV and SiIV columns, and we show these can be reproduced with (i) a cool phase with $M_{\rm cool} \approx 10^{10}~{\rm M_{\odot}}$ and $\eta \approx 5$, or (ii) an additional component at intermediate temperatures, of cooling or mixing gas, with $M \approx 1.5 \times 10^{10}~{\rm M_{\odot}}$ and occupying $\sim 1/2$ of the total CGM volume. For cool gas with $f_{\rm V,cool} \approx 1\%$ we provide an upper limit on the cloud sizes, $R_{\rm cl} \lesssim 0.5$ kpc. Our results suggest that for the average galaxy CGM, the mass and non-thermal support in the cool phase are lower than estimated in previous works, and extreme scenarios for galactic feedback and non-thermal support may not be necessary. We estimate the rates of cool gas depletion and replenishment, and find accretion onto the galaxy can be entirely offset by condensation, outflows, and IGM accretion, allowing $\dot{M}_{\rm cool}\sim0$ over long timescales.

In the near future, projects like LISA and Pulsar Timing Arrays are expected to detect gravitational waves from mergers between supermassive black holes, and it is crucial to precisely model the underlying merger populations now to maximize what we can learn from this new data. Here we characterize expected high-redshift (z > 2) black hole mergers using the very large volume Astrid cosmological simulation, which uses a range of seed masses to probe down to low-mass BHs, and directly incorporates dynamical friction so as to accurately model the dynamical processes which bring black holes to the galaxy center where binary formation and coalescence will occur. The black hole populations in Astrid include black holes down to 10$^{4.5}$ M$_\odot$, and remain broadly consistent with the TNG simulations at scales > 10$^6$ M$_\odot$ (the seed mass used in TNG). By resolving lower-mass black holes, the overall merger rate is ~5x higher than in TNG. However, incorporating dynamical friction delays mergers compared to a recentering scheme, reducing the high-z merger rate mass-matched mergers by a factor of ~2x. We also calculate the expected LISA Signal-to-Noise values, and show that the distribution peaks at high SNR (>100), emphasizing the importance of implementing a seed mass well below LISA's peak sensitivity (10$^6$ M$_\odot$) to resolve the majority of LISA's GW detections.

Contrary to some widespread intuitive belief, the night sky brightness perceived by the human eye or any other physical detector does not come (exclusively) from high in the sky. The detected brightness is built up from the scattered radiance contributed by all elementary atmospheric volumes along the line of sight, starting from the very first millimeter from the eye cornea or the entrance aperture of the measuring instrument. In artificially lit environments, nearby light sources may be responsible for a large share of the total perceived sky radiance. We present in this paper a quantitative analytical model for the sky radiance in the vicinity of outdoor light sources, free from singularities at the origin, which provides useful insights for the correct design or urban dark sky places. It is found that the artificial zenith sky brightness produced by a small ground-level source detected by a ground-level observer at short distances (from the typical dimension of the source up to several hundred meters) decays with the inverse of the distance to the source. This amounts to a reduction of 2.5 mag/arcsec2 in sky brightness for every log10 unit increase of the distance. The effects of screening by obstacles are also discussed.

We develop a novel statistical approach to identify emission features or set upper limits in high-resolution spectra in the presence of high background. The method relies on detecting differences from the background using smooth tests and using classical likelihood ratio tests to characterise known shapes like emission lines. We perform signal detection or place upper limits on line fluxes while accounting for the problem of multiple comparisons. We illustrate the method by applying it to a Chandra LETGS+HRC-S observation of symbiotic star RT Cru, successfully detecting previously known features like the Fe line emission in the 6-7 keV range and the Iridium-edge due to the mirror coating on Chandra. We search for thermal emission lines from Ne X, Fe XVII, O VIII, and O VII, but do not detect them, and place upper limits on their intensities consistent with a $\approx$1 keV plasma. We serendipitously detect a line at 16.93 $\unicode{x212B}$ that we attribute to photoionisation or a reflection component.

Quasars and microquasars differ in more than their scales: Quasars, containing supermassive black holes, are proportionally much more efficient accelerators of energetic electrons. In quasars the radio luminosities are typically 1--30\% of the bolometric luminosities; in microquasars the fraction is ${\cal O}(10^{-5})$ or less. This micropaper considers how this may be explained by accretion disc scaling laws.

The rising population of artificial satellites and associated debris in low-altitude orbits is increasing the overall brightness of the night sky, threatening ground-based astronomy as well as a diversity of stakeholders and ecosystems reliant on dark skies. We present calculations of the potentially large rise in global sky brightness from space objects, including qualitative and quantitative assessments of how professional astronomy may be affected. Debris proliferation is of special concern: since all log-decades in debris size contribute approximately the same amount of night sky radiance, debris-generating events are expected to lead to a rapid rise in night sky brightness along with serious collision risks for satellites from centimetre-sized objects. This will lead to loss of astronomical data and diminish opportunities for ground-based discoveries as faint astrophysical signals become increasingly lost in the noise. Lastly, we discuss the broader consequences of brighter skies for a range of sky constituencies, equity/inclusion and accessibility for Earth- and space-based science, and cultural sky traditions. Space and dark skies represent an intangible heritage that deserves intentional preservation and safeguarding for future generations.

Semi-analytical computation of the matter power spectrum often relies on the halo mass function (HMF) as a key component. In this paper, we explore how certain variations of the HMF affect the modelling of the matter power spectra and quantify the impact on the structure growth parameter $S_8 = \sigma_8\sqrt{\Omega_\mathrm{m}/0.3}$. We use the weak gravitational lensing 2-point correlation functions from both the KiDS-1000 and DES-y3 to constrain the HMF parameters, which are sensitive to dark matter properties, structure formation, and baryonic feedback. We find that, when assuming a Planck background cosmology, the canonical HMF parameters are ruled out at more than $2\sigma$ for both KiDS and DES. In the reconstructed HMF from these posteriors, we observe a $47.0\%^{+8.6\%}_{-9.8\%}$ lower for KiDS-1000 and a $29.5\%^{+8.3\%}_{-8.2\%}$ lower for DES-y3 in terms of total halo mass larger than $M_\mathrm{Halo} > 10^{14} M_\odot$, when compared to a canonical HMF model. In addition, a higher, Planck-like $S_8$ is also preferred if massive haloes were to have a more than $20\%$ lower abundance compared to a canonical halo mass function. Under one of these alternative HMFs, we found a rescaled $S_8 \sim 0.826_{-0.019}^{+0.021}$ for KiDS-1000 and $0.851_{-0.021}^{+0.020}$ for DES-y3. Our work suggests that varying the halo abundance provides an alternative to varying the matter power spectrum when exploring possible solutions to the $S_8$ tension. This difference in halo abundance may come from both dark matter particle physics or astrophysical processes, such as a lower halo merging rate or a stronger active galactic nuclei feedback. By comparing the posteriors of both cosmological and HMF parameters between two different surveys, we are also testing the self-consistency of the cosmological interpretation at a level that has corresponding particle and/or astrophysical interpretations.

The fundamental constants in Nature play a crucial role in the understanding of physical phenomena. Hence, it is of paramount importance to measure them with exquisite precision and to examine whether they present any variability across cosmic time, as a means to test the standard model of Cosmology, as well as fundamental physics. We revisit a consistency test of the speed of light variability proposed by Cai {\it et al.} using the latest cosmological observations, viz., Pantheon compilation of Type Ia Supernova luminosity distances (SN), cosmic chronometers from differential galaxy ages (CC), and measurements of both radial and transverse modes of baryonic acoustic oscillations ($r$-BAO and $a$-BAO) respectively. Such a test has the advantage of being independent of any assumption on the cosmic curvature - which can be degenerated with some variable speed of light models - as well as any dark energy model. We deploy the well-known Gaussian Processes to reconstruct cosmic distances and ages in the $0<z<2$ redshift range. Moreover, we examine the impact of cosmological priors on our analysis, such as the Hubble constant, supernova absolute magnitude, and the sound horizon scale. We find null evidence for the speed of light variability hypothesis for most choices of priors and data-set combinations, except for a mild deviation from it (at $\sim 2\sigma$ confidence level) at $z>1$ when the $a$-BAO data are included for some priors and reconstruction kernel cases. Still, we ascribe no statistical significance to this result for the incompleteness of this data set at such higher redshifts.

Vera C. Rubin Observatory, through the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), will allow us to derive a panchromatic view of variability in young stellar objects (YSOs) across all relevant timescales. Indeed, both short-term variability (on timescales of hours to days) and long-term variability (months to years), predominantly driven by the dynamics of accretion processes in disk-hosting YSOs, can be explored by taking advantage of the multi-band filters option available in Rubin LSST, in particular the $u,g,r,i$ filters that enable us to discriminate between photospheric stellar properties and accretion signatures. The homogeneity and depth of sky coverage that will be achieved with LSST will provide us with a unique opportunity to characterize the time evolution of disk accretion as a function of age and varying environmental conditions (e.g. field crowdedness, massive neighbors, metallicity), by targeting different star-forming regions. In this contribution to the Rubin LSST Survey Strategy Focus Issue, we discuss how implementing a dense observing cadence to explore short-term variability in YSOs represents a key complementary effort to the Wide-Fast-Deep observing mode that will be used to survey the sky over the full duration of the main survey ($\approx$10 years). The combination of these two modes will be vital to investigate the connection between the inner disk dynamics and longer-term eruptive variability behaviors, such as those observed on EXor objects.

X-ray low frequency quasi-periodic oscillations (LFQPOs) of black hole X-ray binaries, especially those type-C LFQPOs, are representative timing signals of black hole low/hard state and intermediate state, which has been suspected as to originate due to Lense-Thirring precession of the accretion flow. Here we report an analysis of one of the \emph{Insight}-HXMT observations of the black hole transient MAXI J1820$+$070 taken near the flux peak of its hard spectral state during which strong type-C LFQPOs were detected in all three instruments up to photon energies above 150 keV. We obtained and analyzed the short-timescale X-ray spectra corresponding to high- and low-intensity phases of the observed LFQPO waveform with a spectral model composed of Comptonization and disk reflection components. We found that the normalization of the spectral model is the primary parameter that varied between the low and high-intensity phases. The variation in the LFQPO flux at the hard X-ray band (> 100 keV) is from the Compton component alone, while the energy-dependent variation in the LFQPO flux at lower energies (< 30 keV) is mainly caused by the reflection component with a large reflection fraction in response to the incident Compton component. The observed X-ray LFQPOs thus should be understood as manifesting the original timing signals or beats in the hard Compton component, which gives rise to additional variability in softer energies due to disk reflection.

We present new upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (uGMRT) HI 21-cm observations of the ultra-luminous infrared galaxy IRAS 10565+2448, previously reported to show blueshifted, broad, and shallow HI absorption indicating an outflow. Our higher spatial resolution observations have localised this blueshifted outflow, which is $\sim$ 1.36 kpc southwest of the radio centre and has a blueshifted velocity of $\sim 148\,\rm km\,s^{-1}$ and a full width at half maximum (FWHM) of $\sim 581\,\rm km\,s^{-1}$. The spatial extent and kinematic properties of the HI outflow are consistent with the previously detected cold molecular outflows in IRAS 10565+2448, suggesting that they likely have the same driving mechanism and are tracing the same outflow. By combining the multi-phase gas observations, we estimate a total outflowing mass rate of at least $140\, \rm M_\odot \,yr^{-1}$ and a total energy loss rate of at least $8.9\times10^{42}\,\rm erg\,s^{-1}$, where the contribution from the ionised outflow is negligible, emphasising the importance of including both cold neutral and molecular gas when quantifying the impact of outflows. We present evidence of the presence of a radio jet and argue that this may play a role in driving the observed outflows. The modest radio luminosity $L_{\rm1.4GHz}$ $\sim1.3\times10^{23}\,{\rm W\,Hz^{-1}}$ of the jet in IRAS 10565+2448 implies that the jet contribution to driving outflows should not be ignored in low radio luminosity AGN.

Observations of protostellar envelopes are essential to understand better the process of gravitational collapse toward star and planet formation. From a theoretical perspective, magnetic fields are considered an important factor during the early stages of star formation, especially during the main accretion phase. We aim to study the relation between kinematics and magnetic fields at a very early stage of the star formation process by using data from the Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment (APEX) single dish antenna with the angular resolution of 28". We observed the two molecular lines C18O(2-1) and DCO+(3-2), toward the Class 0 young stellar object IRAS15398-3359. We implement a multi-component Gaussian fitting on the molecular data to study the kinematics. Also, we use previous polarization observations on this source to predict the influence of the magnetic field on the core. The velocity gradient along the central object can be explained as an ongoing outflow motion. We report flowing of material from the filament toward the central object, and of the merging of two velocity components in the C18O (2-1) emission around the protostar position, probably due to the merging of filamentary clouds. Our analysis shows that the large-scale magnetic field line observed previously is preferentially aligned to the rotation axis of the core.

We present the results of our study of the X-ray emission from the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster based on INTEGRAL/IBIS data in the energy range 20-120 keV. Our goal is the search for a nonthermal emission component from the cluster. Using the INTEGRAL data over the period of observations 2003-2009, we have constructed the images of the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster in different energy bands from 20 to 120~keV with the extraction of spectral information. We show that in the hard X-ray energy band the source is an extended one with an angular size of 4.9 +/- 0.1 arcmins. Assuming a fixed intracluster gas temperature of 8.5 keV, a power-law component of the possible nonthermal X-ray emission is observed at a 5.5 sigma significance level, the flux from which is consistent with previous studies. However, in view of the uncertainty in constraining the thermal emission component in the X-ray spectrum at energies above 20 keV, we cannot assert that the nonthermal emission of the cluster has been significantly detected. Based on the fact of a confident detection of the cluster up to 70 keV, we can draw the conclusion only about the possible presence of a nonthermal excess at energies above 60 keV.

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission searches for new exoplanets. The observing strategy of TESS results in high-precision photometry of millions of stars across the sky, allowing for detailed asteroseismic studies of individual systems. In this work, we present a detailed asteroseismic analysis of the giant star HD 76920 hosting a highly eccentric giant planet ($e = 0.878$) with an orbital period of 415 days, using 5 sectors of TESS light curve that cover around 140 days of data. Solar-like oscillations in HD 76920 are detected around $52 \, \mu$Hz by TESS for the first time. By utilizing asteroseismic modeling that takes classical observational parameters and stellar oscillation frequencies as constraints, we determine improved measurements of the stellar mass ($1.22 \pm 0.11\, M_\odot$), radius ($8.68 \pm 0.34\,R_\odot$), and age ($5.2 \pm 1.4\,$Gyr). With the updated parameters of the host star, we update the semi-major axis and mass of the planet as $a=1.165 \pm 0.035$ au and $M_{\rm p}\sin{i} = 3.57 \pm 0.22\,M_{\rm Jup}$. With an orbital pericenter of $0.142 \pm 0.005$ au, we confirm that the planet is currently far away enough from the star to experience negligible tidal decay until being engulfed in the stellar envelope. We also confirm that this event will occur within about 100\,Myr, depending on the stellar model used.

(abridged) The role of magnetic field in the shaping of Planetary Nebulae (PNe), either directly or indirectly after being enhanced by binary interaction, has long been a topic of debate. Large scale magnetic fields around pre-PNe have been inferred from polarisation observations of masers. However, because masers probe very specific regions, it is still unclear if the maser results are representative of the intrinsic magnetic field in the circumstellar envelope (CSE). Molecular line polarisation can provide important information about the magnetic field. A comparison between the field morphology determined from maser observations and that observed in the more diffuse CO gas, can reveal if the two tracers probe the same magnetic field. We compare observations taken with ALMA of molecular line polarisation around the post-Asymptotic Giant Branch)/pre-PNe star OH~17.7-2.0 with previous observations of polarisation in the 1612~MHz OH maser region. We detect CO~$J=2-1$ molecular line polarisation at a level of $\sim4\%$ that displays an ordered linear polarisation structure. We find that, correcting for Faraday rotation of the OH~maser linear polarisation vectors, the OH and CO linearly polarised emission trace the same large scale magnetic field. A structure function analysis of the CO linear polarisation reveals a plane-of-the-sky magnetic field strength of $B_\perp\sim1$~mG in the CO region, consistent with previous OH Zeeman observations. The consistency of the ALMA CO molecular line polarisation with maser observations indicate that both can be used to determine the magnetic field in CSEs. The existence of a strong, ordered, magnetic-field around OH 17.7-2.0 indicates that magnetic fields are likely involved in the formation of this bipolar pre-PNe.

Despite rapidly growing disk observations, it remains a mystery what primordial dust aggregates look like and what the physical and chemical properties of their constituent grains (monomers) are in young planet-forming disks. Confrontation of models with observations to answer this mystery has been a notorious task because we have to abandon a commonly used assumption, perfectly spherical grains, and take into account particles with complex morphology. In this Letter, we present the first thorough comparison between near-infrared scattered light of the young planet-forming disk around IM Lup and the light-scattering properties of complex-shaped dust particles. The availability of scattering observations at multiple wavelengths and over a significant range of scattering angles allows for the first determination of the monomer size, fractal dimension, and size of dust aggregates in a planet-forming disk. We show that the observations are best explained by fractal aggregates with a fractal dimension of 1.5 and a characteristic radius larger than $\sim2~\mu$m. We also determined the radius of the monomer to be $\sim200$ nm, and monomers much smaller than this size can be ruled out on the premise that the fractal dimension is less than 2. Furthermore, dust composition comprising amorphous carbon is found to be favorable to simultaneously account for the faint scattered light and the flared disk morphology. Our results support that planet formation begins with fractal coagulation of sub-micron-sized grains. All the optical properties of complex dust particles computed in this study are publicly available.

The light-cone (LC) anisotropy arises due to cosmic evolution of the cosmic dawn 21-cm signal along the line-of-sight (LoS) axis of the observation volume. The LC effect makes the signal statistically non-ergodic along the LoS axis. The multi-frequency angular power spectrum (MAPS) provides an unbiased alternative to the popular 3D power spectrum as it does not assume statistical ergodicity along every direction in the signal volume. Unlike the 3D power spectrum, MAPS captures the cosmological evolution of the intergalactic medium. Here we first study the impact of different underlying physical processes during cosmic dawn on the behaviour of the 21-cm MAPS using simulations of various different scenarios and models. We also make error predictions in 21-cm MAPS measurements considering only the system noise and cosmic variance for mock observations of HERA, NenuFAR and SKA-Low. We find that $100~{\rm h}$ of HERA observations will be able to measure 21-cm MAPS at $\geq 3\sigma$ for $\ell \lesssim 1000$ with $0.1\,{\rm MHz}$ channel-width. The better sensitivity of SKA-Low allows reaching this sensitivity up to $\ell \lesssim 3000$. Considering NenuFAR, measurements $\geq 2\sigma$ are possible only for $\ell \lesssim 600$ with $0.2\,{\rm MHz}$ channel-width and for a ten times longer observation time of $t_{\rm obs} = 1000~{\rm h}$. However, for the range $300 \lesssim \ell \lesssim 600$ and $t_{\rm obs}=1000~{\rm h}$ more than $3\sigma$ measurements are still possible for NenuFAR when combining consecutive frequency channels within a $5 ~{\rm MHz}$ band.

We present new results of the observing program which is a part of the NEOROCKS project aimed to improve knowledge on physical properties of near-Earth Objects (NEOs) for planetary defense. Photometric observations were performed using the 1.2m telescope at the Haute-Provence observatory (France) in the BVRI filters of the Johnson-Cousins photometric systems between June 2021 and April 2022. We obtained new surface colors for 42 NEOs. Based on the measured colors we classified 20 objects as S-complex, 9 as C-complex, 9 as X-complex, 2 as D-type, one object as V-type, and one object remained unclassified. For all the observed objects we estimated their absolute magnitudes and diameters. Combining these new observations with the previously acquired data within the NEOROCKS project extended our dataset to 93 objects. The majority of objects in the dataset with diameters D<500m belongs to a group of silicate bodies, which could be related to observational bias. Based on MOID and $\Delta$V values we selected 14 objects that could be accessible by a spacecraft. Notably, we find D-type asteroid (163014) 2001 UA5 and A-type asteroid 2017 SE19 to be of particular interest as possible space mission targets.

We present the analysis of high resolution follow-up observations of OGLE-2016-BLG-1195 using Keck, four years after the event's peak. We find the lens system to be at $D_L = 6.87\pm 0.65$ kpc and comprised of a $M_{\rm p} = 9.91\pm 1.61\ M_{\rm Earth}$ planet, orbiting an M-dwarf, $M_{\rm L} = 0.57\pm 0.06\ M_{\odot}$, beyond the snow line, with a projected separation of $r_\perp=2.62\pm 0.28$ AU. Our results are consistent with the discovery paper, which reports values with 1-sigma uncertainties based on a single mass-distance constraint from finite source effects. However, both the discovery paper and our follow-up results disagree with the analysis of a different group that also present the planetary signal detection. The latter utilizes Spitzer photometry to measure a parallax signal. Combined with finite source effects, they claim to measure the mass and distance of the system to much greater accuracy, suggesting that it is composed of an Earth-mass planet orbiting an ultracool dwarf. Their parallax signal though is improbable since it suggests a lens star in the disk moving perpendicular to disk rotation. Moreover, parallaxes are known to be affected by systematic errors in the photometry. Therefore, we reanalyze the Spitzer photometry for this event and conclude that the parallax signal is not significantly greater than the instrumental noise, and is likely affected by systematic errors in the photometric data. The results of this paper act as a cautionary tale that conclusions of analyses that rely heavily on low signal-to-noise Spitzer photometric data, can be misleading.

With the advent of large-scale photometric surveys of the sky, modern science witnesses the dawn of big data astronomy, where automatic handling and discovery are paramount. In this context, classification tasks are among the key capabilities a data reduction pipeline must possess in order to compile reliable datasets, to accomplish data processing with an efficiency level impossible to achieve by means of detailed processing and human intervention. The VISTA Variables of the V\'ia L\'actea Survey, in the southern part of the Galactic disc, comprises multi-epoch photometric data necessary for the potential discovery of variable objects, including eclipsing binary systems (EBs). In this study we use a recently published catalogue of one hundred EBs, classified by fine-tuning theoretical models according to contact, detached or semi-detached classes belonging to the tile d040 of the VVV. We describe the method implemented to obtain a supervised machine learning model, capable of classifying EBs using information extracted from the light curves of variable object candidates in the phase space from tile d078. We also discuss the efficiency of the models, the relative importance of the features and the future prospects to construct an extensive database of EBs in the VVV survey.

This paper deals with the gravitational potential of a homogeneous torus with elliptical cross-section. We present a new expression for its gravitational potential which is valid in any point of the space, obtained by modeling the torus with a set of massive circles (infinitely thin rings). We found that the outer potential can be represented with good accuracy by the potential of two massive circles with masses which are half of the torus mass. These massive circles intercept the elliptical cross-section at two points along the major axis which are in opposite directions and at half of the distances to the foci of the cross-section. The same formula works for both cases: oblate and prolate cross-sections. For the case of the prolate cross-section of the torus the distances to massive circles are imaginary and conjugate ones but the values of the torus potential for this case are real. The obtained approximation is robust as the error maps show.

In this paper, we present a large-scale dynamical survey of the trans-Neptunian region, with particular attention to mean-motion resonances (MMRs). We study a set of 4121 trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), a sample far larger than in previous works. We perform direct long-term numerical integrations that enable us to examine the overall dynamics of the individual TNOs as well as to identify all MMRs. For the latter purpose, we apply the own-developed FAIR method that allows the semi-automatic identification of even very high-order MMRs. Apart from searching for the more frequent eccentricity-type resonances that previous studies concentrated on, we set our method to allow the identification of inclination-type MMRs, too. Furthermore, we distinguish between TNOs that are locked in the given MMR throughout the whole integration time span ($10^8$\,years) and those that are only temporarily captured in resonances. For a more detailed dynamical analysis of the trans-Neptunian space, we also construct dynamical maps using test particles. Observing the fine structure of the $ 34-80 $~AU region underlines the stabilizing role of the MMRs, with the regular regions coinciding with the position of the real TNOs.

The main purpose of this study is to review the Schenberg resonant antenna transfer function and to recalculate the antenna design strain sensitivity for gravitational waves. We consider the spherical antenna with six transducers in the semi dodecahedral configuration. When coupled to the antenna, the transducer-sphere system will work as a mass-spring system with three masses. The first one is the antenna effective mass for each quadrupole mode, the second one is the mass of the mechanical structure of the transducer first mechanical mode and the third one is the effective mass of the transducer membrane that makes one of the transducer microwave cavity walls. All the calculations are done for the degenerate (all the sphere quadrupole mode frequencies equal) and non-degenerate sphere cases. We have come to the conclusion that the 'ultimate' sensitivity of an advanced version of Schenberg antenna (aSchenberg) is around the standard quantum limit (although the parametric transducers used could, in principle, surpass this limit). However, this sensitivity, in the frequency range where Schenberg operates, has already been achieved by the two aLIGOs in the O3 run, therefore, the only reasonable justification for remounting the Schenberg antenna and trying to place it in the sensitivity of the standard quantum limit would be to detect gravitational waves with another physical principle, different from the one used by laser interferometers. This other physical principle would be the absorption of the gravitational wave energy by a resonant mass like Schenberg.

We present here the design, architecture, and first data release for the Solar System Notification Alert Processing System (SNAPS). SNAPS is a Solar System broker that ingests alert data from all-sky surveys. At present, we ingest data from the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) public survey, and we will ingest data from the forthcoming Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) when it comes online. SNAPS is an official LSST downstream broker. In this paper we present the SNAPS design goals and requirements. We describe the details of our automatic pipeline processing in which physical properties of asteroids are derived. We present SNAPShot1, our first data release, which contains 5,458,459 observations of 31,693 asteroids observed by ZTF from July, 2018, through May, 2020. By comparing a number of derived properties for this ensemble to previously published results for overlapping objects we show that our automatic processing is highly reliable. We present a short list of science results, among many that will be enabled by our SNAPS catalog: (1) we demonstrate that there are no known asteroids with very short periods and high amplitudes, which clearly indicates that in general asteroids in the size range 0.3--20 km are strengthless; (2) we find no difference in the period distributions of Jupiter Trojan asteroids, implying that the L4 and L5 cloud have different shape distributions; and (3) we highlight several individual asteroids of interest. Finally, we describe future work for SNAPS and our ability to operate at LSST scale.

Context. Whistler waves are electromagnetic waves produced by electron-driven instabilities, that in turn can reshape the electron distributions via wave-particle interactions. In the solar wind, they are one of the main candidates for explaining the scattering of the strahl electron population into the halo at increasing radial distances from the Sun and for subsequently regulating the solar wind heat flux. However, it is unclear what type of instability dominates to drive whistlers in the solar wind. Aims. Our goal is to study whistler wave parameters in the young solar wind sampled by Parker Solar Probe (PSP). The wave normal angle (WNA) in particular is a key parameter to discriminate between the generation mechanisms of these waves. Methods. We analyze the cross-spectral matrices of magnetic fieldfluctuations measured by the Search-Coil Magnetometer (SCM) and processed by the Digital Fields Board (DFB) from the FIELDS suite during PSP's first perihelion. Results. Among the 2701 wave packets detected in the cross spectra, namely individual bins in time and frequency, most were quasi-parallel to the background magnetic field but a significant part (3%) of observed waves had oblique (> 45{\deg}) WNA. The validation analysis conducted with the time-series waveforms reveal that this percentage is a lower limit. Moreover, we find that about 64% of the whistler waves detected in the spectra are associated with at least one magnetic dip. Conclusions. We conclude that magnetic dips provides favorable conditions for the generation of whistler waves. We hypothesize that the whistlers detected in magnetic dips are locally generated by the thermal anisotropy as quasi-parallel and can gain obliqueness during their propagation. We finally discuss the implication of our results for the scattering of the strahl in the solar wind.

The neutrino-driven wind from proto-neutron stars is a proposed site for r-process nucleosynthesis, although most previous work has found that a wind heated only by neutrinos cannot produce the third r-process peak. However, several groups have noted that introducing a secondary heating source within the wind can change the hydrodynamic conditions sufficiently for a strong r-process to proceed. One possible secondary heating source is gravito-acoustic waves, generated by convection inside the proto-neutron star. As these waves propagate into the wind, they can both accelerate the wind and shock and deposit energy into the wind. Additionally, the acceleration of the wind by these waves can reduce the total number of neutrino captures and thereby reduce the final electron fraction of the wind. In neutron rich conditions, all of these effects can make conditions more favorable for r-process nucleosynthesis. Here, we present a systematic investigation of the impact of these convection-generated gravito-acoustic waves within the wind on potential nucleosynthesis. We find that wave effects in the wind can generate conditions favorable for a strong r-process, even when the energy flux in the waves is a factor of $10^{-4}$ smaller than the total neutrino energy flux and the wind is marginally neutron-rich. Nevertheless, this depends strongly on the radius at which the wave become non-linear and form shocks. We also find that both entropy production after shock formation and the acceleration of the wind due to stresses produced by the waves prior to shock formation impact the structure and nucleosynthesis of these waves.

Classical and recurrent nova explosions occur on top of white dwarfs accreting H-rich matter from a companion main sequence or red giant star, in a close binary system. In the recent years, since the launch of the Fermi gamma-ray satellite by NASA in 2008, several novae have been detected by Fermi/LAT (LAT: Large Area Telescope) in high-energy (HE) gamma rays, with energies larger than 100 MeV. This emission is known to be related to the acceleration of particles in the internal and/or external shocks occurring early after the thermonuclear nova explosion. However, very-high-energy (VHE) gamma-rays, with energies larger than 100 GeV, produced as a consequence of nova explosions have only been discovered very recently, in the recurrent nova RS Oph, that had an outburst in August 2021. These require the acceleration of protons, and not only of electrons; this was in fact predicted theoretically - based in observations at other wavelengths - in the previous eruption of RS Oph, in 2006, but has not been confirmed observationally until now. We review the origin of the different types of gamma-ray emission in novae and highlight the relevance of the recent VHE gamma-ray emission discoveries for the nova theory, mainly in the field of the mass ejection and the associated particle (electrons and protons) acceleration processes.

The Quick-Look Pipeline (QLP; Huang et al. 2020, Kunimoto et al. 2021 and references therein) searches for transit signals in the multi-sector light curves of several hundreds of thousand stars observed by TESS every 27.4-day sector. The computational expense of the planet search has grown considerably over time, especially as the TESS observing baseline continues to increase in the second Extended Mission. Starting in Sector 59, QLP has switched to a significantly faster GPU-based transit search capable of searching an entire sector in only ~1 day. We describe its implementation and performance.

Many disc galaxies host galactic bars, which exert time-dependent, non-axisymmetric forces that can alter the orbits of stars. There should be both angle and radius-dependence in the resulting radial re-arrangement of stars ('radial mixing') due to a bar; we present here novel results and trends through analysis of the joint impact of these factors. We use an N-body simulation to investigate the changes in the radial locations of star particles in a disc after a bar forms by quantifying the change in orbital radii in a series of annuli at different times post bar-formation. We find that the bar induces both azimuth angle- and radius-dependent trends in the median distance that stars have travelled to enter a given annulus. Angle-dependent trends are present at all radii we consider, and the radius-dependent trends roughly divide the disc into three 'zones'. In the inner zone, stars generally originated at larger radii and their orbits evolved inwards. Stars in the outer zone likely originated at smaller radii and their orbits evolved outwards. In the intermediate zone, there is no net inwards or outwards evolution of orbits. We adopt a simple radius-dependent initial metallicity gradient and discuss recent observational evidence for angle-dependent stellar metallicity variations in the Milky Way in the context of this toy model. We briefly comment on the possibility of using observed angle-dependent metallicity trends to learn about the initial metallicity gradient(s) and the radial re-arrangement that occurred in the disc.

We present evidence for a suppressed growth rate of large-scale structure during the dark-energy dominated era. Modeling the growth rate of perturbations with the ``growth index'' $\gamma$, we find that current cosmological data strongly prefer a higher growth index than the value $\gamma=0.55$ predicted by general relativity in a flat $\Lambda$CDM cosmology. Both the cosmic microwave background data from Planck and the large-scale structure data from weak lensing, galaxy clustering, and cosmic velocities separately favor growth suppression. When combined, they yield $\gamma=0.633^{+0.025}_{-0.024}$, excluding $\gamma=0.55$ at a statistical significance of 3.7$\sigma$. The combination of $f\sigma_8$ and Planck measurements prefers an even higher growth index of $\gamma=0.639^{+0.024}_{-0.025}$, corresponding to a 4.2$\sigma$-tension with the concordance model. In Planck data, the suppressed growth rate offsets the preference for nonzero curvature and fits the data equally well as the latter model. A higher $\gamma$ leads to a higher matter fluctuation amplitude $S_8$ inferred from galaxy clustering and weak lensing measurements, and a lower $S_8$ from Planck data, effectively resolving the $S_8$ tension.

A new class of white dwarfs, dubbed DAHe, that present Zeeman-split Balmer lines in emission has recently emerged. However, the physical origin of these emission lines remains unclear. We present here a sample of 21 newly identified DAHe systems and determine magnetic field strengths and (for a subset) periods which span the ranges of ~ 6.5 -- 147 MG and ~ 0.4 -- 36 h respectively. All but four of these systems were identified from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) survey sample of more than 47000 white dwarf candidates observed during its first year of observations. We present detailed analysis of the new DAHe WDJ161634.36+541011.51 with a spin period of 95.3 min, which exhibits an anti-correlation between broadband flux and Balmer line strength that is typically observed for this class of systems. All DAHe systems cluster closely on the Gaia Hertzsprung-Russell diagram where they represent ~ 1 per cent of white dwarfs within that region. This grouping further solidifies their unexplained emergence at relatively late cooling times and we discuss this in context of current formation theories. Nine of the new DAHe systems are identifiable from SDSS spectra of white dwarfs that had been previously classified as featureless DC-type systems. We suggest high S/N, unbiased observations of DCs as a possible route for discovering additional DAHe systems.

The probability of photon emission of a charged particle traversing a strong field becomes modified if vacuum polarization is considered. This feature is important for fundamental quantum electrodynamics processes present in extreme astrophysical environments, such as magnetars and black holes, and can be studied in a collision of a charged particle with a strong laser field. We show that for today's available 700~GeV (6.5~TeV) protons and the field provided by the next generation of lasers, the emission spectra peak is enhanced due to vacuum polarization effect by 30\% (suppressed by 65\%) in comparison to the traditionally considered Compton process in which vacuum polarization is neglected. This striking phenomenon offers a novel path to the laboratory-based manifestation of vacuum polarization.

We study the linear stability of nonrelativistic $\ell$-boson stars, describing static, spherically symmetric configurations of the Schr\"odinger-Poisson system with multiple wave functions having the same value of the angular momentum $\ell$. In this work we restrict our analysis to time-dependent perturbations of the radial profiles of the $2\ell+1$ wave functions, keeping their angular dependency fixed. Based on a combination of analytic and numerical methods, we find that for each $\ell$, the ground state is linearly stable, whereas the $n$'th excited states possess $2n$ unstable (exponentially in time growing) modes. Our results also indicate that all excited states correspond to saddle points of the conserved energy functional of the theory.

In the non-relativistic limit, two types of dark matter axion interactions with fermions are thought to dominate: one is induced by the spatial gradient of the axion field and called the axion wind, and the other by the time-derivative of the axion field, generating axioelectric effects. By generalizing Schiff theorem, it is demonstrated that this latter interaction is actually strongly screened. For a neutral fermion, it can be entirely rotated away and is unobservable. For charged fermions, the only effect that can peek through the screening is an axion-induced electric dipole moment (EDM). These EDMs are not related to the axion coupling to gluons, represent a prediction of the Dirac theory analogous to the g=2 magnetic moments, and are not further screened by the original Schiff theorem, at least when axions are not too light. The two main phenomenological consequences are first that the axion-induced neutron EDM could be several orders of magnitude larger than expected from the axion gluonic coupling, and second, that the electron EDM would also become available, and would actually be highly sensitive to relic axions.

We provide an Emergent Universe picture in which the fine-tuning on the initial conditions is replaced by cut-off physics, implemented on a semiclassical level when referred to the Universe dynamics and on a purely quantum level for the quantum fluctuations of the inflaton field. The adopted cut-off physics is inspired by Polymer Quantum Mechanics but expanded in the limit of a small lattice step. On a quasi-classical level, this results in modified Poisson Brackets for the Hamiltonian Universe dynamics similar to a Generalized Uncertainty Principle algebra. The resulting Universe is indeed asymptotically Einstein-static, emerging from a finite volume configuration in the distant past and then properly reconnecting with the most relevant Universe phases. The calculation of the modifications of the primordial inflaton spectrum is then performed by treating new physics as a small correction on the standard Hamiltonian of each Fourier mode of the field. The merit of this study is to provide a new paradigm for a non-singular Emergent Universe, which is associated with a precise fingerprint on the temperature distribution of the microwave background, in principle observable by future experiments.

Stellar nuclear fusion reactions take place in a hot, dense plasma within stars. To account for the effect of these environments, the theory of open quantum systems is used to conduct pioneering studies of thermal and atomic effects on fusion probability at a broad range of temperatures and densities. Since low-lying excited states are more likely to be populated at stellar temperatures and increase nuclear particle interaction rates, a 188Os nucleus was used as a target that interacts with an inert 16O projectile. Key results showed thermal effects yield an average increase in fusion probability of 15.5% and 36.9% for our test nuclei at temperatures of 0.1 and 0.5 MeV respectively, compared to calculations at zero temperature.