Papers for Wednesday, Feb 08 2023

We present spatially resolved H$\alpha$ properties of 21 type 1 AGN host galaxies at z$\sim$2 derived from the SUPER survey. These targets were observed with the adaptive optics capabilities of the SINFONI spectrograph, a near-infrared integral field spectrograph, that provided a median spatial resolution of 0.3 arcsec ($\sim$2 kpc). We model the H$\alpha$ emission line profile in each pixel to investigate whether it traces gas in the narrow line region or if it is associated with star formation. To do this, we first investigate the presence of resolved H$\alpha$ emission by removing the contribution of the AGN PSF. We find extended H$\alpha$ emission in sixteen out of the 21 type 1 AGN host galaxies (76%). Based on the BPT diagnostics, optical line flux ratios and the line widths (FWHM), we show that the H$\alpha$ emission in five galaxies is ionised by the AGN (30%), in four galaxies by star formation (25%) and for the rest (45%), the ionisation source is unconstrained. Two galaxies show extended H$\alpha$ FWHM $>$600 km/s, which is interpreted as a part of an AGN-driven outflow. Morphological and kinematic maps of H$\alpha$ emission in targets with sufficient signal-to-noise ratio suggest the presence of rotationally supported disks in six galaxies and possible presence of companions in four galaxies. In two galaxies, we find an anti-correlation between the locations of extended H$\alpha$ emission and [OIII]-based ionised outflows, indicating possible negative feedback at play. However, in the majority of galaxies, we do not find evidence of outflows impacting H$\alpha$ based star formation.

Every dark matter halo and subhalo is expected to have a prompt $\rho\propto r^{-1.5}$ central density cusp, which is a relic of its condensation out of the smooth mass distribution of the early universe. The sizes of these prompt cusps are linked to the scales of the peaks in the initial density field from which they formed. In warm dark matter (WDM) models, the smoothing scale set by free streaming of the dark matter can result in prompt cusps with masses of order $10^7$ M$_\odot$. We show that WDM models with particle masses ranging from 2 to 6 keV predict prompt cusps that could detectably alter the observed kinematics of Local Group dwarf galaxies. Thus, prompt cusps present a viable new probe of WDM. A prompt cusp's properties are highly sensitive to when it formed, so prospects can be improved with a better understanding of when the haloes of the Local Group dwarfs originally formed. Tidal stripping can also affect prompt cusps, so constraints on satellite galaxy orbits can further tighten WDM inferences.

We use new HCN(1-0) data from the ALMOND (ACA Large-sample Mapping Of Nearby galaxies in Dense gas) survey to trace the kpc-scale molecular gas density structure and CO(2-1) data from PHANGS-ALMA to trace the bulk molecular gas across 25 nearby, star-forming galaxies. At 2.1 kpc scale, we measure the density-sensitive HCN/CO line ratio and the SFR/HCN ratio to trace the star formation efficiency in the denser molecular medium. At 150 pc scale, we measure structural and dynamical properties of the molecular gas via CO(2-1) line emission, which is linked to the lower resolution data using an intensity-weighted averaging method. We find positive correlations (negative) of HCN/CO (SFR/HCN) with the surface density, the velocity dispersion and the internal turbulent pressure of the molecular gas. These observed correlations agree with expected trends from turbulent models of star formation, which consider a single free-fall time gravitational collapse. Our results show that the kpc-scale HCN/CO line ratio is a powerful tool to trace the 150 pc scale average density distribution of the molecular clouds. Lastly, we find systematic variations of the SFR/HCN ratio with cloud-scale molecular gas properties, which are incompatible with a universal star formation efficiency. Overall, these findings show that mean molecular gas density, molecular cloud properties and star formation are closely linked in a coherent way, and observations of density-sensitive molecular gas tracers are a useful tool to analyse these variations, linking molecular gas physics to stellar output across galaxy discs.

Classical novae are shock-powered multi-wavelength transients triggered by a thermonuclear runaway on an accreting white dwarf. V1674 Her is the fastest nova ever recorded (time to declined by two magnitudes is t_2=1.1 d) that challenges our understanding of shock formation in novae. We investigate the physical mechanisms behind nova emission from GeV gamma-rays to cm-band radio using coordinated Fermi-LAT, NuSTAR, Swift and VLA observations supported by optical photometry. Fermi-LAT detected short-lived (18 h) 0.1-100 GeV emission from V1674 Her that appeared 6 h after the eruption began; this was at a level of (1.6 +/- 0.4)x10^-6 photons cm^-2 s^-1. Eleven days later, simultaneous NuSTAR and Swift X-ray observations revealed optically thin thermal plasma shock-heated to kT_shock = 4 keV. The lack of a detectable 6.7 keV Fe K_alpha emission suggests super-solar CNO abundances. The radio emission from V1674 Her was consistent with thermal emission at early times and synchrotron at late times. The radio spectrum steeply rising with frequency may be a result of either free-free absorption of synchrotron and thermal emission by unshocked outer regions of the nova shell or the Razin-Tsytovich effect attenuating synchrotron emission in dense plasma. The development of the shock inside the ejecta is unaffected by the extraordinarily rapid evolution and the intermediate polar host of this nova.

Carbon monoxide (CO) emission is the most widely used tracer of the bulk molecular gas in the interstellar medium (ISM) in extragalactic studies. The CO-to-H$_2$ conversion factor, $\alpha_{\rm CO}$, links the observed CO emission to the total molecular gas mass. However, no single prescription perfectly describes the variation of $\alpha_{\rm CO}$ across all environments across galaxies as a function of metallicity, molecular gas opacity, line excitation, and other factors. Using resolved spectral line observations of CO and its isotopologues, we can constrain the molecular gas conditions and link them to a variation in the conversion factor. We present new IRAM 30-m 1mm and 3mm line observations of $^{12}$CO, $^{13}$CO, and C$^{18}$O} across the nearby galaxy M101. Based on the CO isotopologue line ratios, we find that selective nucleosynthesis and opacity changes are the main drivers of the variation in the line emission across the galaxy. Furthermore, we estimated $\alpha_{\rm CO(1-0)}$ using different approaches, including (i) the dust mass surface density derived from far-IR emission as an independent tracer of the total gas surface density and (ii) LTE-based measurements using the optically thin $^{13}$CO(1-0) intensity. We find an average value of $\alpha_{\rm CO}=4.4{\pm}0.9\rm\,M_\odot\,pc^{-2}(K\,km\,s^{-1})^{-1}$ across the galaxy, with a decrease by a factor of 10 toward the 2 kpc central region. In contrast, we find LTE-based values are lower by a factor of 2-3 across the disk relative to the dust-based result. Accounting for $\alpha_{\rm CO}$ variations, we found significantly reduced molecular gas depletion time by a factor 10 in the galaxy's center. In conclusion, our result suggests implications for commonly derived scaling relations, such as an underestimation of the slope of the Kennicutt Schmidt law, if $\alpha_{\rm CO}$ variations are not accounted for.

Likelihood analysis is typically limited to normally distributed noise due to the difficulty of determining the probability density function of complex, high-dimensional, non-Gaussian, and anisotropic noise. This is a major limitation for precision measurements in many domains of science, including astrophysics, for example, for the analysis of the Cosmic Microwave Background, gravitational waves, gravitational lensing, and exoplanets. This work presents Score-based LIkelihood Characterization (SLIC), a framework that resolves this issue by building a data-driven noise model using a set of noise realizations from observations. We show that the approach produces unbiased and precise likelihoods even in the presence of highly non-Gaussian correlated and spatially varying noise. We use diffusion generative models to estimate the gradient of the probability density of noise with respect to data elements. In combination with the Jacobian of the physical model of the signal, we use Langevin sampling to produce independent samples from the unbiased likelihood. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the method using real data from the Hubble Space Telescope and James Webb Space Telescope.

The dense environments in the cores of globular clusters (GCs) facilitate many strong dynamical encounters among stellar objects. These encounters have been shown capable of ejecting stars from the host GC, whereupon they become runaway stars, or hypervelocity stars if unbound to the galactic potential. We study high speed stellar ejecta originating from GCs by using Monte Carlo N-body models, in particular focusing on binary-single encounters involving compact objects. We pair our model-discriminated populations with observational catalogs of Milky Way GCs to compose a present-day galactic population of stellar ejecta. We find that these kinds of encounters can accelerate stars to velocities in excess of 2000 km/s, to speeds beyond the previously predicted limits for ejecta from star-only encounters and in the same regime of galactic center ejections. However, the same ejections can only account for 1.5-20% of the total population of stellar runaways, and only 0.0001-1% of hypervelocity stars, with similar relative rates found for runaway white dwarfs. We also provide credible regions for ejecta from 149 Milky Way GCs, which we hope will be useful as supplementary evidence when pairing runaway stars with origin GCs.

The discovery of galaxies with regularly rotating discs at redshifts $\geq$ has been a puzzling challenge to galaxy formation models that tend to predict chaotic gas kinematics in the early Universe as a consequence of gas accretion, mergers and efficient feedback. In this work, we investigated the kinematics of five highly resolved galaxies at z $\sim$ 4.5 observed with ALMA in the [CII] 158 $\mu$m emission line. The sample is diverse: AzTEC1 (starburst galaxy), BRI1335-0417 (starburst and quasar host galaxy), J081740 (normal star-forming galaxy) and SGP38326 (two starburst galaxies in a group). The five galaxies show velocity gradients, but four were found to be rotating discs while the remaining, AzTEC1, is likely a merger. We studied the gas kinematics of the discs using 3DBAROLO and found that they rotate with maximum rotation velocities between 198 and 562 km/s while the gas velocity dispersions, averaged across the discs, are between 49 and 75 km/s. The rotation curves are generally flat and the galaxies have ratios of ordered-to-random motion (V/$\sigma$) between 2.7 and 9.8. We present CANNUBI, an algorithm for fitting the disc geometry of rotating discs in 3D emission-line observations prior to modelling the kinematics, with which we find indications that these discs may have thicknesses of the order of 1 kpc. This study shows that early disc formation with a clear dominance of rotation with respect to turbulent motions is present across a variety of galaxy types.

Understanding the physical characteristics of Venus, including its atmosphere, interior, and its evolutionary pathway with respect to Earth, remains a vital component for terrestrial planet evolution models and the emergence and/or decline of planetary habitability. A statistical strategy for evaluating the evolutionary pathways of terrestrial planets lies in the atmospheric characterization of exoplanets, where the sample size provides sufficient means for determining required runaway greenhouse conditions. Observations of potential exoVenuses can help confirm hypotheses about Venus' past, as well as the occurrence rate of Venus-like planets in other systems. Additionally, the data from future Venus missions, such as DAVINCI, EnVision, and VERITAS, will provide valuable information regarding Venus, and the study of exoVenuses will be complimentary to these missions. To facilitate studies of exoVenus candidates, we provide a catalog of all confirmed terrestrial planets in the Venus Zone, including transiting and non-transiting cases, and quantify their potential for follow-up observations. We examine the demographics of the exoVenus population with relation to stellar and planetary properties, such as the planetary radius gap. We highlight specific high-priority exoVenus targets for follow-up observations including: TOI-2285 b, LTT 1445 A c, TOI-1266 c, LHS 1140 c, and L98-59 d. We also discuss follow-up observations that may yield further insight into the Venus/Earth divergence in atmospheric properties.

Observations suggest that the amount of galactic dust in the Universe decreased by a factor $\sim 2-3$ during the last $\sim 8$ Gyr. However, cosmological models of galaxy evolution usually struggle to explain this decrease. Here we use the semi-analytic model (SAM) L-Galaxies2020 to show that this drop may be reproduced assuming standard prescriptions for dust production and evolution. We extend the SAM with i) a state-of-the-art dust model which adopts the two-size approximation and ii) a new disc instability criterion which triggers bulge and central black hole growth. The model reproduces some fundamental properties of the local galaxy population, such as the fraction of spheroid-dominated galaxies and some scaling relations involving dust. Moreover, the model predicts a galactic dust drop from $z \sim 1 \rightarrow 0$, which becomes closer to the observed one when adopting the new treatment of disc instabilities. This result is related to the newly implemented super-massive black hole growth during disc instabilities, which enhances the quenching of massive galaxies. Consequently, these objects feature a lower gas and dust content. We provide a census of the contribution of all the processes affecting the galactic dust content. Accretion is the dominant dust mass growth process. Destruction by supernovae, astration and ejection by winds have all a non-negligible role in decreasing the overall dust content in galaxies below $z \sim 1$. We also discuss predictions concerning extra-galactic dust, confirming that a sputtering efficiency lower than the canonical one is required to match the few available observations.

In this work, we present a new catalogue of >40000 ionised nebulae distributed across the 19 galaxies observed by the PHANGS-MUSE survey. The nebulae have been classified using a new model-comparison-based algorithm that exploits the odds ratio principle to assign a probabilistic classification to each nebula in the sample. The resulting catalogue is the largest catalogue containing complete spectral and spatial information for a variety of ionised nebulae available so far in the literature. We developed this new algorithm to address some of the limitations of the traditional classification criteria, such as their binarity, the sharpness of the involved limits, and the limited amount of data they rely on for the classification. The analysis of the catalogue shows that the algorithm performs well when selecting H II regions. We can recover their luminosity function, and its properties are in line with what is available in the literature. We also identify a rather significant population of shock-ionised regions (mostly composed of supernova remnants), an order of magnitude larger than any other homogeneous catalogue of supernova remnants currently available in the literature. The number of supernova remnants we identify per galaxy is in line with results in our Galaxy and other very nearby sources. However, limitations in the source detection algorithm result in an incomplete sample of planetary nebulae, even though their classification seems robust. Finally, we demonstrate how applying a correction for the contribution of the diffuse ionised gas to the nebulae's spectra is essential to obtain a robust classification of the objects and how a correct measurement of the extinction using DIG-corrected line fluxes prompts the use of a higher theoretical Ha/Hb ratio (3.03) than what is commonly used when recovering the E(B-V) via the Balmer decrement technique in massive star-forming galaxies.

The theory of Type~I migration has been widely used in many studies. Transiting multi-planet systems offer us the opportunity to examine the consistency between observation and theory, especially for those systems harbouring planets in Mean Motion Resonance (MMR). The displacement these resonant pairs show from exact commensurability provides us with information on their migration and eccentricity-damping histories. Here, we adopt a probabilistic approach, characterized by two distributions -- appropriate for either the resonant or non-resonant planets -- to fit the observed planet period ratio distribution. With the Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method, we find that ${\approx}15\%$ of exoplanets are in first order ($j+1{:}j$) MMRs, the ratio of eccentricity-to-semi-major axis damping is too high to allow overstable librations \citep{GoldreichSchlichting2014} and that the results are by-and-large consistent with Type-I migration theory. In addition, our modeling finds that a small fraction of resonant pairs is captured into resonance during migration, implying late planet formation (gas-poor). Most of the resonant pairs park themselves at the migration barrier, indicating early planet formation (gas-rich). Furthermore, after improving the criterion on two-body resonant trapping, we obtain an upper limit of the disc surface density at the time the planets are locked in resonance.

Type Iax supernovae (SN Iax) are the largest known class of peculiar white dwarf supernovae, distinct from normal type Ia supernovae (SN Ia). The unique properties of SN Iax, especially their strong photospheric lines out to extremely late-times, allow us to model their optical spectra and derive physical parameters for the long-lasting photosphere. We present an extensive spectral timeseries, including 21 new spectra, of SN Iax 2014dt from +11 to +562 days after maximum light. We are able to reproduce the entire timeseries with a self-consistent, nearly unaltered deflagration explosion model from Fink et al. (2014) using TARDIS, an open-source radiative transfer code (Kerzendorf & Sim 2014; Kerzendorf et al. 2023). We find that the photospheric velocity of SN 2014dt slows its evolution between +64 and +148 days, which closely overlaps the phase when we see SN 2014dt diverge from the normal spectral evolution of SN Ia (+90 to +150 days). The photospheric velocity at these epochs, ~ 400--1000 km s$^{-1}$, may demarcate a boundary within the ejecta below which the physics of SN Iax and normal SN Ia differ. Our results suggest that SN 2014dt is consistent with a weak deflagration explosion model that leaves behind a bound remnant and drives an optically thick, quasi-steady-state wind creating the photospheric lines at late times. The data also suggest that this wind may weaken at epochs past +450 days, perhaps indicating a depleted radioactive power source.

Context: Type II supernovae provide a direct way to estimate distances through the expanding photosphere method, which is independent of the cosmic distance ladder. A recently introduced Gaussian process-based method allows for a fast and precise modelling of spectral time series, which puts accurate and computationally cheap Type II-based absolute distance determinations within reach. Aims: The goal of the paper is to assess the internal consistency of this new modelling technique coupled with the distance estimation empirically, using the spectral time series of supernova siblings, i.e. supernovae that exploded in the same host galaxy. Methods: We use a recently developed spectral emulator code, which is trained on \textsc{Tardis} radiative transfer models and is capable of a fast maximum likelihood parameter estimation and spectral fitting. After calculating the relevant physical parameters of supernovae we apply the expanding photosphere method to estimate their distances. Finally, we test the consistency of the obtained values by applying the formalism of Bayes factors. Results: The distances to four different host galaxies were estimated based on two supernovae in each. The distance estimates are not only consistent within the errors for each of the supernova sibling pairs, but in the case of two hosts they are precise to better than 5\%. Conclusions: Even though the literature data we used was not tailored for the requirements of our analysis, the agreement of the final estimates shows that the method is robust and is capable of inferring both precise and consistent distances. By using high-quality spectral time series, this method can provide precise distance estimates independent of the distance ladder, which are of high value for cosmology.

Measurements of the polarization of radio emission are subject to a number of depolarization effects such as bandwidth depolarization, which is caused by the averaging effect of a finite channel bandwidth combined with the frequency-dependent polarization caused by Faraday rotation. There have been very few mathematical treatments of bandwidth depolarization, especially in the context of the rotation measure (RM) synthesis method for analyzing radio polarization data. We have found a simple equation for predicting if bandwidth depolarization is significant for a given observational configuration. We have derived and tested three methods of modifying RM synthesis to correct for bandwidth depolarization. From these tests we have developed a new algorithm that can detect bandwidth-depolarized signals with higher signal-to-noise than conventional RM synthesis and recover the correct source polarization properties (RM and polarized intensity). We have verified that this algorithm works as expected with real data from the LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey. To make this algorithm available to the community, we have added it as a new tool in the RM-Tools polarization analysis package.

We search for local extremely metal-poor galaxies (EMPGs), selecting photometric candidates by broadband color excess and machine-learning techniques with the SDSS photometric data. After removing stellar contaminants by shallow spectroscopy with Seimei and Nayuta telescopes, we confirm that three candidates are EMPGs with 0.05--0.1 $Z_\odot$ by deep Magellan/MagE spectroscopy for faint {\sc[Oiii]}$\lambda$4363 lines. Using a statistical sample consisting of 105 spectroscopically-confirmed EMPGs taken from our study and the literature, we calculate cross-correlation function (CCF) of the EMPGs and all SDSS galaxies to quantify environments of EMPGs. Comparing another CCF of all SDSS galaxies and comparison SDSS galaxies in the same stellar mass range ($10^{7.0}-10^{8.4} M_\odot$), we find no significant ($>1\sigma$) difference between these two CCFs. We also compare mass-metallicity relations (MZRs) of the EMPGs and those of galaxies at $z\sim$ 0--4 with a steady chemical evolution model and find that the EMPG MZR is comparable with the model prediction on average. These clustering and chemical properties of EMPGs are explained by a scenario of stochastic metal-poor gas accretion on metal-rich galaxies showing metal-poor star formation. Extending the broadband color-excess technique to a high-$z$ EMPG search, we select 17 candidates of $z\sim$ 4--5 EMPGs with the deep ($\simeq30$ mag) near-infrared JWST/NIRCam images obtained by ERO and ERS programs. We find galaxy candidates with negligible {\sc[Oiii]}$\lambda\lambda$4959,5007 emission weaker than the local EMPGs and known high-$z$ galaxies, suggesting that some of these candidates may fall in 0--0.01 $Z_\odot$, which potentially break the lowest metallicity limit known to date.

Using self-consistent models of turbulent particle growth in an evolving protoplanetary nebula of solar composition we find that recently proposed local metallicity and Stokes number criteria necessary for the streaming instability to generate gravitationally bound particle overdensities are generally not approached anywhere in the disk during the first million years, an epoch in which meteoritic and observational evidence strongly suggests that the formation of the first planetesimals and perhaps giant planet core accretion is already occurring.

The study of the multiplicity of massive stars gives hints on their formation processes and their evolutionary paths, which are still not fully understood. Large separation binaries (>50 milliseconds of arc, mas) can be probed by adaptive-optics-assisted direct imaging and sparse aperture masking, while close binaries can be resolved by photometry and spectroscopy. However, optical long baseline interferometry is mandatory to establish the multiplicity of Galactic massive stars at the separation gap between 1 and 50 mas. In this paper, we aim to demonstrate the capability of the new interferometric instrument MIRC-X, located at the CHARA Array, to study the multiplicity of O-type stars and therefore probe the full range of separation for more than 120 massive stars (H<7.5 mag). We initiated a pilot survey of bright O-type stars (H<6.5mag) observable with MIRC-X. We observed 29 O-type stars, including two systems in average atmospheric conditions around a magnitude of H=7.5 mag. We systematically reduced the obtained data with the public reduction pipeline of the instrument. We analyzed the reduced data using the dedicated python software CANDID to detect companions. Out of these 29 systems, we resolved 19 companions in 17 different systems with angular separations between ~0.5 and 50 mas. This results in a multiplicity fraction fm=17/29=0.59+/-0.09, and an average number of companions fc=19/29=0.66+/-0.13. Those results are in agreement with the results of the SMASH+ survey in the Southern Hemisphere. Thirteen of these companions have been resolved for the first time, including the companion responsible for the nonthermal emission in Cyg OB2-5 A and the confirmation of the candidate companion of HD 47129 suggested by SMASH+. A large survey on more than 120 northern O-type stars (H<7.5) is possible with MIRC-X and will be fruitful.

Critical points represent a subset of special points tracing cosmological structures, carrying remarkable topological properties. They thus offer a richer high-level description of the multiscale cosmic web, being more robust to systematic effects. For the first time, we characterize here their clustering statistics in massive neutrino cosmologies, including cross-correlations, and quantify their simultaneous imprints on the corresponding web constituents - i.e., halos, filaments, walls, and voids - for a series of rarity levels. Our first analysis is centered on a density-threshold-based approach in configuration space. In particular, we show that the presence of massive neutrinos does affect the baryon acoustic oscillation peak amplitudes of all of the critical point correlation functions above/below the rarity threshold, as well as the positions of their correspondent inflection points at large scales: departures from analogous measurements carried out in the baseline massless neutrino scenario can reach up to ~7% in autocorrelations and ~9% in cross-correlations at z=0 when M_nu=0.1 eV, and are more pronounced for higher neutrino mass values. In turn, these combined multiscale effects can be used as a novel technique to set upper limits on the summed neutrino mass and infer the type of hierarchy. Our study is particularly relevant for ongoing and future large-volume redshift surveys such as the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument and the Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time, which will provide unique datasets suitable for establishing competitive neutrino mass constraints.

We present Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array observations of the $\sim$10 kAU environment surrounding 21 protostars in the Orion A molecular cloud tracing outflows. Our sample is composed of Class 0 to flat-spectrum protostars, spanning the full $\sim$1 Myr lifetime. We derive the angular distribution of outflow momentum and energy profiles and obtain the first two-dimensional instantaneous mass, momentum, and energy ejection rate maps using our new approach: the Pixel Flux-tracing Technique (PFT). Our results indicate that by the end of the protostellar phase, outflows will remove $\sim$2 to 4 M$_\odot$ from the surrounding $\sim$1 M$_\odot$ low-mass core. These high values indicate that outflows remove a significant amount of gas from their parent cores and continuous core accretion from larger scales is needed to replenish core material for star formation. This poses serious challenges to the concept of ``cores as well-defined mass reservoirs", and hence to the simplified core-to-star conversion prescriptions. Furthermore, we show that cavity opening angles, and momentum and energy distributions all increase with the protostar evolutionary stage. This is clear evidence that even garden-variety protostellar outflows: (a) effectively inject energy and momentum into their environments on $10$ kAU scales, and (b) significantly disrupt their natal cores, ejecting a large fraction of the mass that would have otherwise fed the nascent star. Our results support the conclusion that protostellar outflows have a direct impact on how stars get their mass, and that the natal sites of individual low-mass star formation are far more dynamic than commonly accepted theoretical paradigms.

Time-delay cosmography uses strong gravitational lensing of a time-variable source to infer the Hubble Constant. The measurement is independent from both traditional distance ladder and CMB measurements. An accurate measurement with this technique requires considering the effects of objects along the line of sight outside the primary lens, which is quantified by the external convergence ($\kappa_{\rm{ext}}$). In absence of such corrections, $H_0$ will be biased towards higher values in overdense fields and lower values in underdense fields. We discuss the current state of the methods used to account for environment effects. We present a new software package built for this kind of analysis and others that can leverage large astronomical survey datasets. We apply these techniques to the SDSS J0924+0219 strong lens field. We infer the relative density of the SDSS J0924+0219 field by computing weighted number counts for all galaxies in the field, and comparing to weighted number counts computed for a large number of fields in a reference survey. We then compute weighted number counts in the Millennium Simulation and compare these results to infer the external convergence of the lens field.Results. Our results show the SDSS J0924+0219 field is a fairly typical line of sight, with median $\kappa_{\rm{ext}} = -0.012$ and standard deviation $\sigma_{\kappa} = 0.028$.

Massive stars are linked with diverse astronomical processes and objects including star formation, supernovae and their remnants, cosmic rays, interstellar media, and galaxy evolution. Understanding their properties is of primary importance for modern astronomy, and finding simple rules that characterize them is especially useful. However, theoretical simulations have not yet realized such relations, instead finding that the late evolutionary phases are significantly affected by a complicated interplay between nuclear reactions, chemical mixing, and neutrino radiation, leading to non-monotonic initial mass dependencies of the iron core mass and the compactness parameter. We conduct a set of stellar evolution simulations, in which evolutions of He star models are followed until their central densities uniformly reach 10$^{10}$ g cm$^{-3}$, and analyze their final structures as well as their evolutionary properties including the lifetime, surface radius change, and presumable fates after core collapse. Based on the homogeneous data set, we have found that monotonicity is inherent in the cores of massive stars. We show that not only the density, entropy, and chemical distributions, but also their lifetimes and explosion properties such as the proto-neutron-star mass and the explosion energy can be simultaneously ordered into a monotonic sequence. This monotonicity can be regarded as an empirical principle that characterizes the cores of massive stars.

Jet precession has previously been proposed to explain the apparently repeating features in the light curves of a few gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). In this {\it Letter}, we further apply the precession model to a bright GRB 220408B by examining both its temporal and spectral consistency with the predictions of the model. As one of the recently confirmed GRBs observed by our GRID CubeSat mission, GRB 220408B is noteworthy as it exhibits three apparently similar emission episodes. Furthermore, the similarities are reinforced by their strong temporal correlations and similar features in terms of spectral evolution and spectral lags. Our analysis demonstrates that these features can be well explained by the modulated emission of a Fast-Rise-Exponential-Decay (FRED) shape light curve intrinsically produced by a precessing jet with a precession period of $18.4 \pm 0.2$ seconds, a nutation period of $11.1 \pm 0.2$ seconds and viewed off-axis. This study provides a straightforward explanation for the complex yet similar multi-episode GRB light curves.

We observed the classical interacting galaxy M51 with FAST and obtain high sensitivity HI image with column density down to 3.8 $\times$ 10$^{18}$ cm$^{-2}$. In the image we can see a diffuse extended envelope around the system and several new tidal features. We also get a deeper look at M51b's probable gas, which has an approximated velocity range of 560 to 740 km s$^{-1}$ and a flux of 7.5 Jy km s$^{-1}$. Compared to the VLA image, we observe more complete structures of the Southeast Tail, Northeast Cloud and Northwest Plume, as well as new features of the Northwest Cloud and Southwest Plume. M51's most prominent tidal feature, the Southeast Tail, looks very long and broad, in addition with two small detached clouds at the periphery. Due to the presence of optical and simulated counterparts, the Northwest cloud appears to be the tail of M51a, while the Northwest Plume is more likely a tidal tail of M51b. The large mass of the Northwest Plume suggests that M51b may have been as gas-rich as M51a before the interaction. In addition, the formation process of the Northeast Cloud and Southwest Plume is obscured by the lack of optical and simulated counterparts. These novel tidal features, together with M51b's probable gas, will inspire future simulations and provide a deeper understanding of the evolution of this interacting system.

We present the results on broadband X-ray properties of persistent black hole binaries GRS 1758$-$258 and 1E 1740.7$-$2942 using AstroSat, NuSTAR and Swift-XRT observations carried out during 2016$-$2022. We perform spectral modeling of both sources after eliminating the contamination in their \textit{LAXPC} spectra from nearby X-ray sources. Preliminary spectral modelling using Comptonization and line emission ($\sim$ 6.4 keV) models suggest that GRS 1758$-$258 occupies both dim-soft state ($kT_{bb}=0.37\pm0.01$ keV, $\Gamma\sim5.9$, $L_{bol}=1 %$ of Eddington luminosity L$_{Edd}$) and hard state ($\Gamma=1.64-2.22$, $kT_{e}$=4$-$45 keV, $L_{bol}$=1$-$5 % L$_{Edd}$) that requires a multi-colour disc blackbody model ($kT_{in}=0.54\pm0.01$ keV) occasionally. 1E 1740.7$-$2942 instead is found only in hard state ($\Gamma$=1.67$-$2.32, $kT_{e}$=5$-$16 keV, $L_{bol}$=1$-$2 % L$_{Edd}$). Reflection properties of both sources are studied by applying relativistic reflection model RELXILL to the broadband spectra. Our results from \textit{AstroSat} and \textit{NuSTAR} consistently unveiled the presence of a Comptonizing region along with an ionized reflection region (ionization parameter $log\xi$=2.7$-$3.8 and 2.7$-$4.7 erg cm s$^{-1}$ in GRS 1758$-$258 and 1E 1740.7$-$2942 respectively) in both sources. Reflection modeling revealed GRS 1758$-$258 to have a high metal abundance ($A_{fe}=3.9^{+0.4}_{-0.3}$ times solar metal abundance) and inclination angle ($i$) of $61\pm2^{\circ}$. In case of 1E 1740.7$-$2942, $i$ is constrained to be $55\pm1^{\circ}$. Finally, we discuss the implication of our findings in the context of accretion dynamics by comparing our results with the previous studies.

Radiative transfer investigations of the solar Mg II h and k resonance lines around 280~nm showed that, while their circular polarization (Stokes V) signals arise from the Zeeman effect, the linear polarization profiles (Stokes Q and U) are dominated by the scattering of anisotropic radiation and the Hanle and magneto-optical (MO) effects. Using the unprecedented observations of the Mg II and Mn I resonance lines obtained by the Chromospheric LAyer Spectro-Polarimeter (CLASP2), here we investigate how the linear polarization signals at different wavelengths (i.e., at the center, and at the near and far wings of the k line) vary with the longitudinal component of the magnetic field ($B_{L}$) at their approximate height of formation. The $B_{L}$ is estimated from the V signals in the aforementioned spectral lines. Particular attention is given to the following quantities that are expected to be influenced by the presence of magnetic fields through the Hanle and MO effects: the sign of the U signals, the total linear polarization amplitude ($LP$) and its direction ($\chi$) with respect to a reference direction. We find that at the center and near wings of the $k$ line, the behavior of these quantities is significantly different in the observed quiet and plage regions, and that both $LP$ and $\chi$ seem to depend on $B_{L}$. These observational results are indicative of the operation of the Hanle effect

Thin stellar discs on both galactic and nuclear, sub-kpc scales are believed to be fragile structures that would be easily destroyed in major mergers. In turn, this makes the age-dating of their stellar populations a useful diagnostics for the assembly history of galaxies. We aim at carefully exploring the fragility of such stellar discs in intermediate- and low- mass encounters, using high-resolution N-body simulations of galaxy models with structural and kinematic properties tailored to actually observed galaxies. As a first but challenging step, we create a dynamical model of FCC 170, a nearly edge-on galaxy in the Fornax cluster with multiple galactic components and including both a galactic scale and nuclear stellar disc (NSD), using detailed kinematic data from the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer and a novel method for constructing distribution function-based self-consistent galaxy models. We then create N-body realisations of this model and demonstrate that it remains in equilibrium and preserves its properties over many Gyr, when evolved with a sufficiently high particle number. However, the NSD is more prone to numerical heating, which gradually increases its thickness by up to 22 per cent in 10 Gyr even in our highest-resolution runs. Nevertheless, these N-body models can serve as realistic representations of actual galaxies in merger simulations.

The next generation of space-based experiments will go hunting for answers to cosmology's key open questions which revolve around inflation, dark matter and dark energy. Low earth orbit and lunar missions within the European Space Agency's Human and Robotic Exploration programme can push our knowledge forward in all of these three fields. A radio interferometer on the Moon, a cold atom interferometer in low earth orbit and a gravitational wave interferometer on the Moon are highlighted as the most fruitful missions to plan and execute in the mid-term.

Elliptical galaxies with blue optical colours and significant star formation are hypothesised to be major merger remnants of gas rich spiral galaxies or normal elliptical galaxies with a sudden burst of star formation. We present here a scenario where blue elliptical galaxies identified from shallow imaging surveys may fail to recover faint features indicative of a past merger activity using a nearby major merger remnant. Based on deep optical imaging data of a post merger galaxy, NGC 7252, we demonstrate that the galaxy can appear as an elliptical galaxy if observed at higher redshifts. The main body and the low-surface brightness merger features found at the outskirts of the galaxy are blue in optical g-r colour map. We argue that the higher redshift blue elliptical galaxies discovered in surveys as shallow as the SDSS or DECaLS may be advanced mergers with their defining tidal features falling below the detection limits of the surveys. This should be taken into consideration during the morphological classification of such systems in future and ongoing surveys.

FU Orionis (FUor) and EX Lupi (EXor) type objects represent two small, but rather spectacular groups of low-mass, young eruptive stars. Outbursts of several magnitudes are observed, attributed to enhanced accretion from the circumstellar disk onto the central protostar. The host molecular environments of FUors/EXors are poorly explored due to the scarcity of systematic molecular line observations. We carried out the first dedicated survey of the molecular environments of a large sample of FUors/EXors, observing a total of 51 sources with the aim of studying the ammonia (NH$_3$) emission in their host environments. We observed the ammonia (J,K)=(1,1), (2,2), and (3,3) inversion transitions using the Effelsberg 100-m radio telescope. We derived H$_2$ column densities and dust temperatures using archival Herschel SPIRE data. We detected the (1,1) transition toward 28 sources and the (2,2) transition toward 12 sources, while the (3,3) transition was detected toward only two sources. We find kinetic temperatures between ~12 K and 21 K, ammonia column densities from $5.2\times10^{13}\,cm^{-2}$ to $3.2\times10^{15}\,cm^{-2}$, and fractional ammonia abundances with respect to H$_{2}$ from $4.7\times10^{-9}$ to $1.5\times10^{-7}$. The results are comparable to those found in infrared dark clouds (IRDCs). Kinetic analysis suggests that most of the eruptive stars in our sample reside in rather quiescent (sonic or transonic) host environments. Our NH$_3$ observations and analysis of the SPIRE dust-based H$_2$ column density maps confirm the presence of dense material toward 7 sources in our sample; additional sources might also harbour dense gas based on their NH$_2$ (2,2) detections, might indicate an earlier phase than originally classified. Based on our results, we suggest observations targeting additional molecular lines would help to refine the evolutionary classification of eruptive stars.

Context. The rotation period of stars is an important parameter along with mass, radius, effective temperature. It is an essential parameter for any radial velocity monitoring, as stellar activity can mimic the presence of a planet at the stellar rotation period. Several methods exist to measure it, including long sequences of photometric measurements or temporal series of stellar activity indicators. Aims. Here, we use the circular polarization in near-infrared spectral lines for a sample of 43 quiet M dwarfs and compare the measured rotation periods to those obtained with other methods. Methods. From Stokes V spectropolarimetric sequences observed with SPIRou at CFHT and the data processed with the APERO pipeline, we compute the least squares deconvolution profiles using different masks of atomic stellar lines with known Land\'e factor appropriate to the effective temperature of the star. We derive the longitudinal magnetic field to examine its possible variation along the 50 to 200 observations of each star. For determining the stellar rotation period, we apply a Gaussian process regression enabling us to determine the rotation period of stars with evolving longitudinal field. Results. Among the 43 stars of our sample, we were able to measure a rotation period for 27 stars. For 8 stars, the rotation period was previously unknown. We find a good agreement of our rotation periods with periods found in the literature based on photometry and activity indicators and confirm that near-infrared spectropolarimetry is an important tool to measure rotation periods, even for magnetically quiet stars. Furthermore, we compute ages for 20 stars of our sample using gyrochronology.

The first spectro-polarimetric analysis of the transient NS-LMXB XTE J1701$-$462 has been carried out using IXPE, NICER and NuSTAR data during its 2022 outburst. We report the significant detection of energy-dependent polarization in the X-ray signal from the source on 2022 September 29 in the $2-4$ keV, $4-8$ keV and $2-8$ keV energy bands with a polarization degree of 3.9 $\pm$ 0.3% (10.7$\sigma$), 5.5 $\pm$ 0.6% (9.1$\sigma$) and 4.5 $\pm$ 0.4% (12.6$\sigma$), respectively. The polarization angle in the overall $2-8$ keV band was found to be $\sim 143^{\circ}\pm 2^{\circ}$. The spectra were modelled using a combination of thermal emission from an accretion disc, Comptonized emission from the corona and a Gaussian line. From spectro-polarimetric analysis, the polarization degree due to the disc emission was found to have an upper limit of $\sim$ 6%, and that of the Comptonized emission was constrained at $\sim$ 10.5$\pm$4.9% (at the 3$\sigma$ level). The implication of these results on the coronal geometry and emission mechanisms is discussed.

We investigate the mechanism of polar alignment for accretion discs in hierarchical systems (HSs) with more than two stars. In eccentric binary systems, low mass discs that are sufficiently tilted to the binary orbit align in a polar configuration with respect to the binary plane by aligning their angular momentum to the binary eccentricity vector. In HSs, secular evolution of the orbital parameters makes the eccentricity vector of the system precess with time. This precession undermines the stability of the polar orbit for accretion discs hosted in HSs. We analytically show that the binary criteria for polar alignment derived in the literature are necessary but not sufficient conditions for polar alignment in HSs. Then, we derive an analytical criterion for polar alignment in HSs. In general, we find that discs orbiting the innermost level of a HS can go polar. Conversely, radially extended discs orbiting the outer levels of a HS cannot polarly align and evolve as orbiting around a circular binary. We confirm our findings through detailed numerical simulations. Also, our results are compatible with the observed distribution of disc-orbit mutual inclination. Finally, we compare the observed distribution of disc inclinations in the binary and in the HS populations. Binaries host mainly coplanar discs, while HSs show a wide range of disc inclinations. We suggest that the wider range of inclinations in HSs results from the secular oscillation of their orbital parameters (such as Kozai-Lidov oscillations), rather than from a different initial condition or evolution between HSs and binaries.

The scalar field is considered to have dominated the early Universe. One subtle yet crucial requirement of this assumption is that the solution must be highly stable, i.e., indifferent to any initial conditions because there are no favored ones. Inflation, which is now the most successful early Universe paradigm, answers most of the early Universe's problems, including the fact that it is mostly stable. In this article, in addition to the inflationary solution, we systematically investigate every possible early Universe solution in the presence of a barotropic fluid in the general non-minimal (scalar-tensor) coupled theory. In doing so, we rely upon the classical perturbative techniques. We find, to our surprise, that inflation does not always ensure stability in the Einstein frame, although ekpyrosis can. We also discover that, contrary to the inflationary paradigm, ekpyrosis always assures stability in the presence of any fluid with any equation of state in general non-minimal models. We utilize conformal transformation to map the inflationary theory in the minimal frame to the ekpyrotic theory in the no-minimal frame, and show that the latter is always much more stable than the former, resulting in a much more preferred model that can even be studied in different contexts such as late time cosmology.

NGC 5907 ULX1 is the most luminous ultra-luminous X-ray pulsar (ULXP) known to date, reaching luminosities in excess of 1e41 erg/s. The pulsar is known for its fast spin-up during the on-state. Here, we present a long-term monitoring of the X-ray flux and the pulse period between 2003-2022. We find that the source was in an off- or low-state between mid-2017 to mid-2020. During this state, our pulse period monitoring shows that the source had spun down considerably. We interpret this spin-down as likely being due to the propeller effect, whereby accretion onto the neutron star surface is inhibited. Using state-of-the-art accretion and torque models, we use the spin-up and spin-down episodes to constrain the magnetic field. For the spin-up episode, we find solutions for magnetic field strengths of either around 1e12G or 1e13G, however, the strong spin-down during the off-state seems only to be consistent with a very high magnetic field, namely, >1e13G. This is the first time a strong spin-down is seen during a low flux state in a ULXP. Based on the assumption that the source entered the propeller regime, this gives us the best estimate so far for the magnetic field of NGC 5907 ULX1.

Excitation of Rossby wave instability and development of a large-scale vortex at the outer dead zone edge of protoplanetary discs is one of the leading theories that explains horseshoe-like brightness distribution in transition discs. Formation of such vortices requires a relatively sharp viscosity transition. Detailed modelling, however, indicates that viscosity transitions at the outer edge of the dead zone is relatively smooth. In this study, we present 2D global, non-isothermal, gas-dust coupled hydrodynamic simulations to investigate the possibility of vortex excitation at smooth viscosity transitions. Our models are based on a recently postulated scenario, wherein the recombination of charged particles on the surface of dust grains results in reduced ionisation fraction and in turn the turbulence due to magnetorotational instability. Thus, the alpha-parameter for the disc viscosity depends on the local dust-to-gas mass ratio. We found that the smooth viscosity transitions at the outer edge of the dead zone can become Rossby unstable and form vortices. A single large-scale vortex develops if the dust content of the disc is well coupled to the gas, however, multiple small-scale vortices ensue for the case of less coupled dust. As both type of vortices are trapped at the dead zone outer edge, they provide sufficient time for dust growth. The solid content collected by the vortices can exceed several hundred Earth masses, while the dust-to-gas density ratio within often exceeds unity. Thus, such vortices function as planetary nurseries within the disc, providing ideal sites for formation of planetesimals and eventually planetary systems.

Classical Cepheids (DCEPs) are the most important standard candles in the extra-galactic distance scale thanks to the Period-Luminosity ($\rm PL$), Period-Luminosity-Color ($\rm PLC$) and Period-Wesenheit ($\rm PW$) relations that hold for these objects. The advent of the {\it Gaia} mission, and in particular the Early Data Release 3 (EDR3) provided accurate parallaxes to calibrate these relations. In order to fully exploit {\it Gaia} measurements, the zero point (ZP) of {\it Gaia} parallaxes should be determined with an accuracy of a few $\rm \mu as$. The individual ZP corrections provided by the {\it Gaia} team depend on the magnitude and the position on the sky of the target. In this paper, we use an implicit method that relies on the Cepheid $\rm PL$ and $\rm PW$ relations to evaluate the ensemble {\it Gaia} parallax zero point. The best inferred estimation of the offset value needed to additionally correct (after the {\it Gaia} team correction) the {\it Gaia} parallaxes of the present DCEP sample, amounts to $\rm -22\pm 4\, \mu as$. This value is in agreement with the most recent literature values and confirms that the correction proposed by the {\it Gaia} team over-corrected the parallaxes.\\ As a further application of our results, we derive an estimate of the Large Magellanic Cloud distance ($\rm \mu_0=18.49\pm 0.06\, mag$), in very good agreement with the currently accepted value obtained through geometric methods.

(Abridged) Most massive stars are located in multiple systems. The modeling of disk fragmentation, a possible mechanism leading to stellar multiplicity, relies on parallel 3D simulation codes whose agreement remains to be evaluated. Using the Cartesian AMR code RAMSES, we compare disk fragmentation in a centrally-condensed protostellar system to the study of Oliva & Kuiper (2020) performed on a grid in spherical coordinates using PLUTO. Two RAMSES runs are considered and give qualitatively distinct pictures. When allowing for unlimited sink particle creation, gas fragmentation leads to a multiple stellar system whose multiplicity is affected by the grid when triggering fragmentation and by numerically-assisted mergers. On the other hand, using a unique, central, fixed sink particle, a centrally-condensed system forms, similar to that reported in PLUTO. The RAMSES-PLUTO comparison is performed with the latter: agreement between the two codes is found regarding the first rotationally-supported disk formation, the presence of an accretion shock onto it, the first fragmentation phase. Gaseous fragments form and their properties are in agreement between the two codes. As a minor difference, fragments dynamics causes the disk structure to be sub-Keplerian in RAMSES whereas it is found to be Keplerian and reaches quiescence in PLUTO. We attribute this discrepancy to the central star being twice less massive in RAMSES because of the different stellar accretion subgrid models. In a centrally-condensed system, the agreement between RAMSES and PLUTO regarding many of the collapse properties and fragmentation process is good. Fragmentation occurring in the innermost region and numerical choices (use of sink particles, grid) have a crucial impact when similar but smooth initial conditions are employed - more crucial than the code's choice - on the system's outcome, multiple or centrally-condensed.

A $Z'$ boson associated with a broken $U(1)_{L_{\mu} - L_{\tau}}$ gauge symmetry offers an economical solution to the long-standing $g_\mu-2$ anomaly, confirmed and strengthened by recent measurements at Fermilab. Here, we revisit the impact of such a $Z'$ on the spectrum of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos, as measured by the IceCube experiment. This spectrum has been observed to exhibit a dip-like feature at $E_{\nu} \sim 0.2-1 \, {\rm PeV}$, which could plausibly arise from the physics of the sources themselves, but could also be the consequence of high-energy neutrinos resonantly scattering with the cosmic neutrino background, mediated by a $Z'$ with a mass on the order of $m_{Z'} \sim 10 \, {\rm MeV}$. In this study, we calculate the impact of such a $Z'$ on the high-energy neutrino spectrum for a variety of model parameters and source distributions. For couplings that can resolve the $g_{\mu}-2$ anomaly, we find that this model could self-consistently produce a spectral feature that is consistent with IceCube's measurement, in particular if the neutrinos observed by IceCube predominantly originate from high-redshift sources.

Images of both rotating celestial bodies (e.g., asteroids) and spheroidal planets with banded atmospheres (e.g., Jupiter) can contain features that are well-modeled as a circle of latitude (CoL). The projections of these CoLs appear as ellipses in images collected by cameras or telescopes onboard exploration spacecraft. This work shows how CoL projections may be used to determine the pole orientation and covariance for a spinning asteroid. In the case of a known planet modeled as an oblate spheroid, it is shown how similar CoL projections may be used for spacecraft localization. These methods are developed using the principles of projective geometry. Numerical results are provided for simulated images of asteroid Bennu (for pole orientation) and of Jupiter (for spacecraft localization).

We present the results of the $UBVI_C$ variability survey in the young open cluster NGC 6611 based on observations obtained during 34 nights spanning one year. In total, we found 95 variable stars. Most of these stars are classified as periodic and irregular pre-main sequence (PMS) stars. The analysis of the $JHK_S$ 2MASS photometry and four-colour IRAC photometry revealed 165 Class II young stellar sources, 20 of which are irregular variables and one is an eclipsing binary. These classifications, complemented by $JHK$ UKIDSS photometry and $riH\alpha$ VPHAS photometry, were used to identify 24 candidates for classical T Tauri stars and 30 weak-lined T Tauri stars. In addition to the PMS variables, we discovered eight $\delta$ Scuti candidates. None of these were previously known. Furthermore, we detected 17 eclipsing binaries where two were previously known. Based on the proper motions provided by the Gaia EDR3 catalogue, we calculated the cluster membership probabilities for 91 variable stars. For 61 variables, a probability higher than 80% was determined, which makes them cluster members. Only 25 variables with a probability less than 20% were regarded to be non-members.

We report the discovery of the unusually bright long-duration gamma-ray burst (GRB), GRB 221009A, as observed by the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory (Swift), Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image (MAXI), and Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer Mission (NICER). This energetic GRB was located relatively nearby (z = 0.151), allowing for sustained observations of the afterglow. The large X-ray luminosity and low Galactic latitude (b = 4.3 degrees) make GRB 221009A a powerful probe of dust in the Milky Way. Using echo tomography we map the line-of-sight dust distribution and find evidence for significant column densities at large distances (~> 10kpc). We present analysis of the light curves and spectra at X-ray and UV/optical wavelengths, and find that the X-ray afterglow of GRB 221009A is more than an order of magnitude brighter at T0 + 4.5 ks than any previous GRB observed by Swift. In its rest frame GRB 221009A is at the high end of the afterglow luminosity distribution, but not uniquely so. In a simulation of randomly generated bursts, only 1 in 10^4 long GRBs were as energetic as GRB 221009A; such a large E_gamma,iso implies a narrow jet structure, but the afterglow light curve is inconsistent with simple top-hat jet models. Using the sample of Swift GRBs with redshifts, we estimate that GRBs as energetic and nearby as GRB 221009A occur at a rate of ~<1 per 1000 yr - making this a truly remarkable opportunity unlikely to be repeated in our lifetime.

We examine the variations in the spectral characteristics and intensities of PAHs in two different scenarios of PAH processing (or formation): (1) small PAHs are being destroyed (or equivalently large PAHs are being formed, referred to as SPR i.e. small PAHs removed), and (2) large PAHs are being destroyed (or equivalently small PAHs are being formed referred to as LPR i.e. large PAHs removed). PAH emission was measured considering both the presence or absence of plateau components. The variation in the PAH band intensities as a function of the average number of carbon atoms <N$_{C}$> has the highest dynamic range in the SPR case suggesting that smaller PAHs have higher impact on the PAH band strengths. The plateaus show overall declining emission with <N$_{C}$>, and their higher dynamic range in the SPR case also suggests that smaller PAHs are mainly contributing to the plateau emission. The 7.7/(11.0+11.2) $\mu$m PAH band ratio presents the least amount of variance with the lowest dynamic range, rendering this ratio as the better choice for tracing PAH charge. The 3.3/(11.2+11.0) $\mu$m PAH band ratio is the only ratio that has both a monotonic variance and fully separated values among the SPR and LPR scenarios, highlighting its efficiency as PAH size tracer but also allowing the characterization of the dominant scenario of processing or formation in a given region or source. We present new PAH charge $-$ size diagnostic diagrams, which can provide insights on the average, maximum, or minimum N$_{C}$ within astrophysical sources.

Binary stars play a crucial role in our understanding of the formation and evolution of star clusters and their stellar populations. We use Gaia Data Release 3 to homogeneously analyze 78 Galactic open clusters and the unresolved binary systems they host, each composed of two main sequence (MS) stars. We first investigated the structural parameters of these clusters, such as the core radius and the central density, and determined the cluster mass function (MF) and total mass by interpolating the density profile of each cluster. We measured the fraction of binaries with a large mass ratio and the fraction of blue straggler stars (BSSs), and finally investigated possible connections between the populations of binary stars and BSSs with the main parameters of the host cluster. {Remarkably, we find that the MFs of 78 analyzed open clusters follow a similar trend and are well reproduced by two single power-law functions, with a change in slope around masses of 1$M_{\odot}$. The fraction of binary stars ranges from $\sim$15\% to more than $\sim$60\% without significant correlation with the mass and the age of the host cluster. Moreover, we detect hints of a correlation between the total fraction of binary stars and the central density of the host cluster. We compared the fraction of binary stars with that of BSSs, finding that clusters with high and low central density exhibit different trends. The fraction of binaries does not significantly change with the mass of the primary star and the mass ratio. The radial distribution of binary stars depends on cluster age. The binaries of clusters younger than $\sim$800\,Myr typically show a flat radial distribution, with some hints of a double peak. In contrast, the binaries of the remaining clusters are more centrally concentrated than the single stars, which is similar to what is observed in globular clusters.

We discuss the dynamics of a rigid body, taking its Lagrangian action with kinematic constraints as the only starting point. Several equivalent forms for the equations of motion of rotational degrees of freedom are deduced and discussed on this basis. Using the resulting formulation, we revise some cases of integrability, and discuss a number of features, that are not always taken into account when formulating the laws of motion of a rigid body.

Black hole spectroscopy is the program to measure the complex gravitational-wave frequencies of merger remnants, and to quantify their agreement with the characteristic frequencies of black holes computed at linear order in black hole perturbation theory. In a "weaker" (non-agnostic) version of this test, one assumes that the frequencies depend on the mass and spin of the final Kerr black hole as predicted in perturbation theory. Linear perturbation theory is expected to be a good approximation only at late times, when the remnant is close enough to a stationary Kerr black hole. However, it has been claimed that a superposition of overtones with frequencies fixed at their asymptotic values in linear perturbation theory can reproduce the waveform strain even at the peak. Is this overfitting, or are the overtones physically present in the signal? To answer this question, we fit toy models of increasing complexity, waveforms produced within linear perturbation theory, and full numerical relativity waveforms using both agnostic and non-agnostic ringdown models. We find that higher overtones are unphysical: their role is mainly to "fit away" features such as initial data effects, power-law tails, and (when present) nonlinearities. We then identify physical quasinormal modes by fitting numerical waveforms in the original, agnostic spirit of the no-hair test. We find that a physically meaningful ringdown model requires the inclusion of higher multipoles, quasinormal mode frequencies induced by spherical-spheroidal mode mixing, and nonlinear quasinormal modes. Even in this "infinite signal-to-noise ratio" version of the original spectroscopy test, there is convincing evidence for the first overtone of the dominant multipole only well after the peak of the radiation.

The portal connecting the invisible and visible sectors is one of the most natural explanations of the dark world. However, the early-time dark matter production via the portal faces extremely stringent late-time constraints. To solve such tension, we construct the scalar-controlled kinetic mixing varying with the ultralight CP-even scalar's cosmological evolution. To realize this and eliminate the constant mixing, we couple the ultralight scalar within the mass range $10^{-33}\text{eV} \lesssim m_0 \ll \text{eV}$ with the heavy doubly charged messengers and impose the $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry under the dark charge conjugation. Via the varying mixing, the $\text{keV}-\text{MeV}$ dark photon dark matter is produced through the early-time freeze-in when the scalar is misaligned from the origin and free from the late-time exclusions when the scalar does the damped oscillation and dynamically sets the kinetic mixing. We also find that the scalar-photon coupling emerges from the underlying physics, which changes the cosmological history and provides the experimental targets based on the fine-structure constant variation and the equivalence principle violation. To protect the scalar naturalness, we discretely re-establish the broken shift symmetry by embedding the minimal model into the $\mathbb{Z}_N$-protected model. When $N \sim 10$, the scalar's mass quantum correction can be suppressed much below $10^{-33}\text{eV}$. Moreover, utilizing two different methods, we precisely calculate the $\mathbb{Z}_N$-invariant Coleman-Weinberg potential to arbitrary orders. Finally, we explore the varying kinetic mixing in the Dirac gaugino model and the dark matter models via other varying portals.

We study the production of a beyond the Standard Model (BSM) free streaming relativistic particles which contribute to $N_{eff}$ and investigate how much the predictions for the inflationary analysis change. We consider inflaton decay as the source of this dark radiation and use the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) data from $\textit{Planck}$-2018 to constrain the scenarios and identify the parameter space involving couplings and masses of the inflaton that will be within the reach of next-generation CMB experiments like SPT-3G, CMB-S4, $\text{CMB-Bh$\overline{a}$rat}$, PICO, CMB-HD, etc. We find that if the BSM particle is produced only from the interaction with inflaton along with Standard Model (SM) relativistic particles, then its contribution to $N_{eff}$ is a monotonically increasing function of the branching fraction, $B_X$ of the inflaton to the BSM particle $X$; $\textit{Planck}$ bound on $N_{eff}$ rules out such $B_X \gtrsim 0.09$. Considering two different analyses of $\textit{Planck}$+BICEP data together with other cosmological observations, $N_{eff}$ is treated as a free parameter, which relaxes the constraints on scalar spectral index ($n_s$) and tensor-to-scalar ratio ($r$). The first analysis leads to predictions on the inflationary models like Hilltop inflation being consistent with the data. Second analysis rules out the possibility that BSM particle $X$ producing from the inflaton decay in Coleman-Weinberg Inflation or Starobinsky Inflation scenarios. To this end, we assume that SM Higgs is produced along with the BSM particle. We explore the possibilities that $X$ can be either a scalar or a fermion or a gauge boson and consider possible interactions with inflaton and find out the permissible range on the allowed parameter space Planck and those which will be within the reaches of future CMB observations.

Search sensitivity to a stochastic gravitational-wave background (SGWB) is enhanced by cross-correlating detector signals. However, one of the most serious concerns is the environmental noise correlated between detectors. The global electromagnetic fields on the Earth, known as Schumann resonances, produce the correlated noise through the instrumental magnetic couplings. In this paper, we study the detectability of a SGWB in the presence of the correlated magnetic noise, using the Fisher analysis based on the analytical model of the correlated magnetic noise. We find that there is no significant degeneracy between the SGWB and noise parameters, and the impact of marginalizing over the correlated noise parameters is not significant irrespective of the magnetic coupling strength. We also confirm that the forecast results are robust against the variation of correlated noise parameters and can vary up to $40\%$ in the realistic range of the coupling parameters for the second-generation detectors. However, ignoring the presence of the correlated noise and estimating the SGWB parameters introduce biases in the parameter estimation in general, but it is insignificant for the detectors with the realistic couplings to magnetic fields.

We investigate the scalar perturbations and the possible strong coupling issues of $f(T)$ and $f(T,B)$ gravity around a cosmological background, applying the effective field theory (EFT) approach in a systematic way. We revisit the generalized EFT framework of modified teleparallel gravity, and we apply it by considering both linear and second-order perturbations for both theories. In the case of $f(T)$ gravity we find that no new scalar mode is present in both linear and second order perturbations, which suggests a strong coupling problem. However, based on the ratio of cubic to quadratic Lagrangians, we provide a simple estimation of the strong coupling scale, a result which shows that the strong coupling problem can be avoided at least for some modes. Additionally, in the case of $f(T,B)$ gravity we find that in general the extra scalar mode vanishes at quadratic order, but it becomes dynamical at higher orders, which implies that a strong coupling issue may appear, however estimating the strong coupling scale could provide a way to avoid it. Furthermore, we show that there are special subclasses of $f(T,B)$ gravity, including $f(R)$ case, which possess an extra propagating mode at linear perturbation level and thus are immediately free from strong coupling. In conclusion, perturbation behaviors that at first appear problematic may not inevitably lead to a strong coupling problem, as long as the relevant scale is comparable with the cutoff scale $M$ of the applicability of the theory.

Phased arrays have enabled advances in communications, sensing, imaging, and wireless power transfer. In all these applications, large apertures enable higher power, higher data rates, higher resolution, and complex functionalities, but are elusive owing to a correspondingly large cost, mass, and physical size. Flexible phased arrays (FPAs) show potential in breaking this trade-off. Their thinness and extremely low mass allow FPAs to be folded, rolled, or otherwise compressed into smaller sizes, thus enabling new regimes of transport and entirely new applications currently not possible. Though a number laboratory prototypes of FPAs have been constructed, the economics of large-scale FPA production has yet to be explored. This paper presents a model FPA architecture and a cost model for producing it at large-scale. The estimate of the per-unit-area cost is bounded by a three-tiered approach. The cost model projects a "middle" estimate for FPA production at $89 per square meter. Estimates for aerial mass density and startup cost are also discussed. This cost model demonstrates that an FPA can be produced at an efficient price point and can potentially replace existing solutions for space, communications, and vehicular applications that demand lightweight, portability, and durability in extreme conditions.