Papers for Monday, Jul 03 2023

We show that the recent detection of a gravitational wave (GW) background reported by various pulsar timing array (PTA) collaborations including NANOGrav-15yr, PPTA, EPTA, and CPTA can be explained in terms of first order phase transitions (FOPTs) from dark sector models (DSM). Specifically, we explore a model for first order phase transitions that involves the majoron, a Nambu-Goldstone boson that is emerging from the spontaneous symmetry breaking of a $U(1)_{L}$ or $U(1)_{B-L}$ symmetry. We show how the predicted GW power spectrum, with a realistic choice of the FOPT parameters, is consistent with 1-$\sigma$ deviations from the estimated parameters of the background detected by the PTA collaborations.

Gaia EDR3 has provided proper motions of Milky Way (MW) dwarf galaxies with an unprecedented accuracy, which allows us to investigate their orbital properties. We found that the total energy and angular momentum of MW dwarf galaxies are much larger than that of MW K-giant stars, Sagittarius stream stars and globular clusters. It suggests that many MW dwarf galaxies have had a recent infall into the MW halo. We confirmed that MW dwarf galaxies lie near their pericenters, which suggests that they do not behave like satellite systems derived from Lambda-Cold-Dark-Matter cosmological simulations. These new results require revisiting the origin of MW dwarf galaxies, e.g., if they came recently, they were likely to have experienced gas removal due to the ram pressure induced by MW's hot gas, and to be affected by MW tides. We will discuss the consequences of these processes on their mass estimation.

The physical mechanisms driving the transport of angular momentum in stars are not fully understood, as current models cannot explain the observed stellar rotation profiles across all stages of evolution. By making use of pulsating F-type dwarfs, this work aims at (i) observationally calibrating the efficiency of angular momentum transport, assuming a constant uniform viscosity, and (ii) testing how well state-of-the-art rotating stellar models with angular momentum (AM) transport by rotationally-induced processes can explain observed rotation profiles. In both cases, the aim is to simultaneously reproduce the measured near-core rotation and core-to-surface rotation ratio. Asteroseismic modelling is applied to a sample of seven slowly rotating pulsators, to derive (core) masses and ages from their gravity-mode oscillations. This work focuses on the main sequence, using models that start with an initial uniform rotation frequency at the start of core-hydrogen burning that is a free parameter. Two treatments of AM transport are considered: (i) a constant uniform viscosity, and (ii) rotationally-induced processes. Next, the initial rotation frequency of each star is derived from the observed present-day near-core rotation frequency for both treatments. To explain the near-core rotation rate at the inferred age, initial rotation frequencies at the zero-age main sequence need to be below 10 percent of the initial critical break-up frequency. A diffusive approximation of angular momentum transport can in general explain the observed rotation profiles of the six slowly-rotating F-type dwarfs, for average values of the viscosity between 2x10^5 and 5x10^7 cm^2/s or when the viscosity is computed from rotationally-induced mechanisms. Yet, for three stars in the sample, the core-to-surface rotation fraction from rotationally-induced mechanisms is predicted to be higher than observed.

The motion of S2, one of the stars closest to the Galactic Centre, has been measured accurately and used to study the compact object at the centre of the Milky Way. It is commonly accepted that this object is a supermassive black hole but the nature of its environment is open to discussion. Here, we investigate the possibility that dark matter in the form of an ultralight scalar field ``cloud'' clusters around Sgr~A*. We use the available data for S2 to perform a Markov Chain Monte Carlo analysis and find the best-fit estimates for a scalar cloud structure. Our results show no substantial evidence for such structures. When the cloud size is of the order of the size of the orbit of S2, we are able to constrain its mass to be smaller than $0.1\%$ of the central mass, setting a strong bound on the presence of new fields in the galactic centre.

We show that the distribution of observed accretion rates is a powerful diagnostic of protoplanetary disc physics. Accretion due to turbulent ("viscous") transport of angular momentum results in a fundamentally different distribution of accretion rates than accretion driven by magnetised disc winds. We find that a homogeneous sample of $\gtrsim$300 observed accretion rates would be sufficient to distinguish between these two mechanisms of disc accretion at high confidence, even for pessimistic assumptions. Current samples of T Tauri star accretion rates are not this large, and also suffer from significant inhomogeneity, so both viscous and wind-driven models are broadly consistent with the existing observations. If accretion is viscous, the observed accretion rates require low rates of disc photoevaporation ($\lesssim$$10^{-9}$M$_{\odot}$yr$^{-1}$). Uniform, homogeneous surveys of stellar accretion rates can therefore provide a clear answer to the long-standing question of how protoplanetary discs accrete.

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope's (RST) Wide Field Imager (WFI) is equipped with a slitless prism that can be used for spectroscopic discovery and follow-up of explosive transients at high redshift as part of its High Latitude Time Domain Survey. This is new and unique spectroscopic capability, not only for its original purpose for cosmology, but also for other types of explosive transients. This white paper is intended to help make this new capability more clear to the community. The depth of the RST prism compared to ground-based spectrographs is explored, showing that the RST prism will be unrivaled in the observer-frame NIR. The influence of the selected sky locations on the speed and homogeneity of a RST prism survey is also estimated. This unique new capability should be considered when balancing the HLTDS time devoted to cadenced imaging and spectroscopy.

The current proposal for the High Latitude Time Domain Survey (HLTDS) is two tiers (wide and deep) of multi-band imaging and prism spectroscopy with a cadence of five days (Rose et al., 2021). The five-day cadence is motivated by the desire to measure mid-redshift SNe where time dilation is modest as well as to better photometrically characterize the transients detected. This white paper does not provide a conclusion as to the best cadence for the HLTDS. Rather, it collects a set of considerations that should be used for a careful study of cadence by a future committee optimizing the Roman survey. This study should optimize the HLTDS for both SN Ia cosmology and other transient science.

Efforts to understand the origin and growth of massive black holes observed in the early Universe have spurred a strong interest in the evolution and fate of rapidly-accreting primordial (metal-free) stars. Here, we investigate the evolution of such Population III stars under variable accretion rates, focusing on the thermal response and stellar structure, the impact of the luminosity wave encountered early in the pre-main sequence phase, and the influence of accretion on their subsequent evolution. We employ the Geneva stellar evolution code and simulate ten models with varying accretion histories, covering a final mass range from 491 M$_{\odot}$ to 6127 M$_{\odot}$. Our findings indicate that the critical accretion rate delineating the red and blue supergiant regimes during the pre-main sequence evolution is approximately $2.5\times10^{-2} $M$_{\odot}$/yr. Once core hydrogen burning commences, the value of this critical accretion rate drops to $7.0\times10^{-3}$M$_{\odot}$/yr. Moreover, we also confirm that the Kelvin-Helmholtz timescale in the outer surface layers is the more relevant timescale for determining the transition between red and blue phases. Regarding the luminosity wave, we find that it affects only the early pre-main sequence phase of evolution and does not directly influence the transition between red and blue phases, which primarily depends on the accretion rate. Finally, we demonstrate that variable accretion rates significantly impact the lifetimes, surface enrichment, final mass and time spent in the red phase. Our study provides a comprehensive understanding of the intricate evolutionary patterns of Population III stars subjected to variable accretion rates.

Motivated by constraints on the dark energy equation of state from supernova-data, we propose a formalism for the Bayesian inference of functions: Starting at a functional variant of the Kullback-Leibler divergence we construct a functional Fisher-matrix and a suitable partition functional which takes on the shape of a path integral. After showing the validity of the Cram\'er-Rao bound and unbiasedness for functional inference in the Gaussian case, we construct Fisher-functionals for the dark energy equation of state constrained by the cosmological redshift-luminosity relationship of supernovae of type Ia, for both the linearised and the lowest-order non-linear model. Introducing Fourier-expansions and expansions into Gegenbauer-polynomials as discretisations of the dark energy equation of state function shows how the uncertainty on the inferred function scales with model complexity and how functional assumptions can lead to errors in extrapolation to poorly constrained redshift ranges.

Galaxy morphologies provide valuable insights into their formation processes, tracing the spatial distribution of ongoing star formation and encoding signatures of dynamical interactions. While such information has been extensively investigated at low redshift, it is crucial to develop a robust system for characterising galaxy morphologies at earlier cosmic epochs. Relying solely on the nomenclature established for low-redshift galaxies risks introducing biases that hinder our understanding of this new regime. In this paper, we employ variational auto-encoders to perform feature extraction on galaxies at z $>$ 2 using JWST/NIRCam data. Our sample comprises 6869 galaxies at z $>$ 2, including 255 galaxies z $>$ 5, which have been detected in both the CANDELS/HST fields and CEERS/JWST, ensuring reliable measurements of redshift, mass, and star formation rates. To address potential biases, we eliminate galaxy orientation and background sources prior to encoding the galaxy features, thereby constructing a physically meaningful feature space. We identify 11 distinct morphological classes that exhibit clear separation in various structural parameters, such as CAS-$M_{20}$, S\'ersic indices, specific star formation rates, and axis ratios. We observe a decline in the presence of spheroidal-type galaxies with increasing redshift, indicating a dominance of disk-like galaxies in the early universe. We demonstrate that conventional visual classification systems are inadequate for high-redshift morphology classification and advocate the need for a more detailed and refined classification scheme. Leveraging machine-extracted features, we propose a solution to this challenge and illustrate how our extracted clusters align with measured parameters, offering greater physical relevance compared to traditional methods.

In this white paper, we review five top considerations for selecting locations of the fields of the Roman High-latitude Time Domain Survey. Based on these considerations, we recommend Akari Deep Field South (ADFS)/Euclid Deep Field South (EDFS) in the Southern Hemisphere has it avoids bright stars, has minimal Milky Way dust, is in Roman Continuous viewing zone, overlaps with multiple past and future surveys, and minimal zodiacal background variation. In the North, Extended Groth Strip (EGS) is good except for its zodiacal variation and Supernova/Acceleration Probe North (SNAP-N) and European Large Area Infrared Space Observatory Survey-North 1 (ELAIS N-1) are good except for their synergistic archival data.

The current reference High-latitude time domain survey increases the completeness of transients with prism temporal time series data by adjusting the ratio of prism-to-imaging time. However, there are two other nobs that allow for a more complete prism coverage: prism cadence and exposure time. In this white paper, we discuss how changes to the prism cadence and exposure time -- in order to increase the fraction of observed transients with spectral time series -- affect supernova cosmology, transient typing and template building, and the study of rare transients.

The formation mechanism of the enigmatic subclass of radio galaxies, called 'X-shaped radio galaxies' (XRGs), or 'winged' radio galaxies, which account for $\sim 10\%$ of the radio galaxy population, can be effectively constrained using the radio spectral-index distribution across their twin pairs of radio lobes. If indeed, the existing claims of no systematic spectral index difference between the wing and the associated primary lobe are valid in general, this would provide impetus to the XRG model attributing their origin to an unresolved binary of active supermassive black holes within the nucleus of the host galaxy. To investigate this interesting possibility, we have mapped spatial variation of spectral index for a well-defined sample of 25 XRGs, by combining their 1.4 GHz VLA (FIRST survey)/uGMRT maps with their 144 MHz maps (LoTSS-DR2). This has yielded the best available combination of sensitivity, angular resolution, frequency range and sample size, for spectral mapping of an XRG sample. A rich diversity of spectral index patterns is thus revealed in our XRG sample, but we find at most one case where a secondary lobe (wing) exhibits a flatter spectrum compared to its associated primary lobe. We conclude that such a spectral pattern is exceedingly rare and by no means a common trait of XRGs.

We present arguments for including observations with all of the Wide Field Instrument imaging filters, with the exception of F146, within the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (\emph{Roman}) High Latitude Time Domain Survey (HLTDS). Our case is largely driven by the extragalactic deep field science that can be accomplished with HLTDS observations and also by the improvements in type Ia supernova (SN Ia) cosmology systematics that a wide wavelength coverage affords.

Type-I Superluminous Supernovae (SLSNe) are an exotic class of core-collapse SN (CCSN) that can be up to 100 times brighter and more slowly-evolving than normal CCSNe. SLSNe represent the end-stages of the most massive stripped stars, and are thought to be powered by the spin-down energy of a millisecond magnetar. Studying them and measuring their physical parameters can help us to better understand stellar mass-loss, evolution, and explosions. Moreover, thanks to their high luminosities, SLSNe can be seen up to greater distances, allowing us to explore how stellar physics evolves as a function of redshift. The High Latitude Time Domain Survey (HLTDS) will provide us with an exquisite dataset that will discover 100s of SLSNe. Here, we focus on the question of which sets of filters and cadences will allow us to best characterize the physical parameters of these SLSNe. We simulate a set of SLSNe at redshifts ranging from z = 0.1 to z = 5.0, using six different sets of filters, and cadences ranging from 5 to 100 days. We then fit these simulated light curves to attempt to recover the input parameter values for their ejecta mass, ejecta velocity, magnetic field strength, and magnetar spin period. We find that four filters are sufficient to accurately characterize SLSNe at redshifts below $z = 3$, and that cadences faster than 20 days are required to obtain measurements with an uncertainty below 10\%, although a cadence of 70 days is still acceptable under certain conditions. Finally, we find that the nominal survey strategy will not be able to properly characterize the most distant SLSNe at $z = 5$. We find that the addition of 60-day cadence observations for 4 years to the nominal HLTDS survey can greatly improve the prospect of characterizing these most extreme and distant SNe, with only an 8\% increase to the time commitment of the survey.

Model-independent tests of gravity with cosmology are important when testing extensions to the standard cosmological model. To maximise the impact of these tests one requires predictions for the matter power spectrum on non-linear scales. In this work we validate the \texttt{ReACT} approach to the non-linear matter power spectrum against a suite of phenomenological modified gravity N-body simulations with a time-varying gravitational constant, covering a wider range of parameter space than previously examined. This vanilla application of \texttt{ReACT} has limited range and precision due to the different concentration-mass relation $c(M)$ that occurs when gravity is modified. We extend this approach with a fitting function for a modified concentration-mass relation, allowing for accurate (1$\%$) computation of the matter power spectrum up $k=2\,h\,{\rm Mpc}^{-1}$ across a substantial range of parameter space. This fitting function allows precision model-independent tests of modified gravity to be carried out using the data from upcoming large scale structure surveys.

Using the EXOplanet Transit Interpretation Code (EXOTIC), we reduced 52 sets of images of WASP-104 b, a Hot Jupiter-class exoplanet orbiting WASP-104, in order to obtain an updated mid-transit time (ephemeris) and orbital period for the planet. We performed this reduction on images taken with a 6-inch telescope of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian MicroObservatory. Of the reduced light curves, 13 were of sufficient accuracy to be used in updating the ephemerides for WASP-104 b, meeting or exceeding the three-sigma standard for determining a significant detection. Our final mid-transit value was 2457805.170208 +/- 0.000036 BJD_TBD and the final period value was 1.75540644 +/- 0.00000016 days. The true significance of our results is in their derivation from image sets gathered over time by a small, ground-based telescope as part of the Exoplanet Watch citizen science initiative, and their competitive results to an ephemeris generated from data gathered by the TESS telescope. We use these results to further show how such techniques can be employed by amateur astronomers and citizen scientists to maximize the efficacy of larger telescopes by reducing the use of expensive observation time. The work done in the paper was accomplished as part of the first fully online Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) for astronomy majors in the only online Bachelor of Science program in Astronomical and Planetary Sciences.

The Galactic diffuse emission (GDE) is formed when cosmic rays leave the sources where they were accelerated, diffusively propagate in the Galactic magnetic field, and interact with the interstellar medium and interstellar radiation field. GDE in $\gamma$-ray (GDE-$\gamma$) has been observed up to sub-PeV energies, though its origin may be explained by either cosmic-ray nuclei or electrons. We show that the $\gamma$-rays accompanying the high-energy neutrinos recently observed by the IceCube Observatory from the Galactic plane have a flux that is consistent with the GDE-$\gamma$ observed by the Fermi-LAT and Tibet AS$\gamma$ experiments around 1 TeV and 0.5 PeV, respectively. The consistency suggests that the diffuse $\gamma$-ray emission above $\sim$1 TeV could be dominated by hadronuclear interactions, though partial leptonic contribution cannot be excluded. Moreover, by comparing the fluxes of the Galactic and extragalactic diffuse emission backgrounds, we find that the neutrino luminosity of the Milky Way is one to two orders of magnitude lower than the average of distant galaxies. This implies that our Galaxy has not hosted the type of neutrino emitters that dominates the isotropic neutrino background in the past few million years.

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory has recently reported strong evidence for neutrino emission from the Galactic plane. The signal is consistent with model predictions of diffuse emission from cosmic ray propagation in the interstellar medium. However, due to IceCube's limited potential of identifying individual neutrino sources, it is also feasible that unresolved Galactic sources could contribute to the observation. We investigate the contribution of this quasi-diffuse emission and show that the observed Galactic diffuse flux at 100~TeV could be dominated by hard emission of unresolved sources. Particularly interesting candidate sources are young massive stellar clusters that have been considered as cosmic-ray PeVatrons. We examine whether this hypothesis can be tested by the upcoming KM3NeT detector or the planned future facility IceCube-Gen2 with about five times the sensitivity of IceCube.

Galactic and extragalactic objects in the universe are sources of high-energy neutrinos that can be detected by the IceCube neutrino detector, with the former being easier to resolve due to comparatively smaller distances. Recently, a study done using cascade-like events seen by IceCube reported neutrino emission from the Galactic plane with $>$4$\sigma$ significance. In this work, we put a limit on the number of Galactic sources required to explain this emission. To achieve this, we make use of a simulation package created to simulate point sources in the Galaxy along with the neutrino and gamma-ray flux emissions originating from them. Along with making use of past IceCube sensitivity curves, we also account for Eddington bias effects due to Poisson fluctuations in the number of detected neutrino events. By making use of a toy-Monte Carlo simulation method, we find that there should be more than 10 sources, each with luminosities $10^{35}$ erg/s responsible for the Galactic neutrino emission. Our results constrain the number of individual point-like emission regions, which applies both to discrete astrophysical sources and to individual points of diffuse emission.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the most common approach to finding proto-clusters is to search for over-densities of galaxies. Upgrades to submillimetre interferometers and the advent of the James Webb Space Telescope mean that we will soon find more distant candidate proto-clusters in deep sky surveys without spectroscopic confirmation. In this letter, we report the serendipitous discovery of an extremely dense region behind the blazar J0217-0820 at z=0.6 in the ALMACAL sky survey. Its overdensity is eight times higher than the predicted by the blind sky surveys. Among the seven submillimetre-bright galaxies, three are conventional, single-dish submm galaxies with S 870{\mu}m > 3 mJy. The over-density is thus comparable to the densest known, confirmed proto-cluster cores. However, their spectral properties suggest a wide range of redshifts. We investigate the likelihood of line-of-sight projection effects using the light cones from cosmological simulations, and find that the deeper we search, the higher the chance that we will suffer from such projection effects. Meanwhile, this extreme overdensity is very likely produced by the projection effects of the large-scale structures. We must therefore question the fidelity of galaxy proto-cluster candidates selected via galaxy photometric over-densities, and the cosmic variance in deep submm surveys, where the negative K correction eases the detection of dusty galaxies along an extraordinarily long line of sight.

The physical connection between thermal convection in the solar interior and the solar wind remains unclear due to their significant scale separation. Using an extended version of the three-dimensional radiative magnetohydrodynamic code RAMENS, we perform the first comprehensive simulation of the solar wind formation, starting from the wave excitation and the small-scale dynamo below the photosphere. The simulation satisfies various observational constraints as a slow solar wind emanating from the coronal hole boundary. The magnetic energy is persistently released in the simulated corona, showing a hot upward flow at the interface between open and closed fields. To evaluate the energetic contributions from Alfv\'en wave and interchange reconnection, we develop a new method to quantify the cross-field energy transport in the simulated atmosphere. The measured energy transport from closed coronal loops to open field accounts for approximately half of the total. These findings suggest a significant role of the supergranular-scale interchange reconnection in solar wind formation.

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory will undertake the Legacy Survey of Space and Time, providing an unprecedented, volume-limited catalog of star clusters in the Southern Sky, including Galactic and extragalactic star clusters. The Star Clusters subgroup of the Stars, Milky Way and Local Volume Working Group has identified key areas where Rubin Observatory will enable significant progress in star cluster research. This roadmap represents our science cases and preparation for studies of all kinds of star clusters from the Milky Way out to distances of tens of megaparsecs.

We analyze the optical power spectral density (PSD) for 22 active galactic nuclei (AGN) with measured X-ray PSDs using light curves from the All-Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae (ASAS-SN) and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). The joint optical PSD is measured over up to six orders of magnitude in frequency space from timescales of minutes to a decade. We fit either a damped random walk (DRW) or a broken power law model to constrain the PSD model and break frequency. For the broken power-law fits to the joint PSDs, we find a high-frequency timescale which is proportional to both the X-ray timescales and the black hole masses, but the optical timescale is 2.7 dex longer. Assuming the optical and X-ray breaks are related by a physical process, such as reprocessing of X-ray emission, the break frequency difference interpreted as a light crossing time is consistent with the expected size difference between the optical and X-ray emission regions. On timescales of months to a decade, we also measured a correlation between the low-frequency optical break timescales and the X-ray break timescales, but with a much shallower slope. The DRW model provides acceptable fits and we generally confirm previously reported correlations between the DRW timescales and the black hole mass.

In this work we present several characteristic examples of theories of gravity and particle physics scenarios that may yield an observable energy spectrum of stochastic primordial gravitational waves, compatible with the 2023 NANOGrav observations. The resulting theories yield a flat or a peak-like energy spectrum, and we further seek the conditions which if hold true, the energy spectrum can be compatible with the recent NANOGrav stochastic gravitational wave detection. As we show, in most cases a blue tilted spectrum combined with a relatively low reheating temperature is needed, the scale of which is determined by whether the radiation domination era is ordinary or it is an abnormal radiation domination era. One intriguing Higgs-axion model, which predicts short slow-roll eras for the axion field at the post-electroweak breaking epoch, which eventually change the total equation of state parameter at the reheating era, can explain the NANOGrav signal, if a blue tilted tensor spectral index inflationary era precedes the reheating era, and a reheating temperature of the order $\mathcal{O}(400)\,$GeV. This specific model produces an energy spectrum of primordial gravitational waves with a characteristic peak that is detectable from both the NANOGrav and future LISA experiment, but not from the future Einstein telescope.

This paper provides collapses of massive, fully convective, and non-rotating white dwarfs (WDs) formed by accretion-induced collapse or merger-induced collapse and the subsequent explosions with the general relativistic neutrino-radiation hydrodynamics simulations. We produce initial WDs in hydrostatic equilibrium, which have super-Chandrasekhar mass and are about to collapse. The WDs have masses of 1.6$M_\odot$ with different initial central densities specifically at $10^{10}$, $10^{9.6}$, $10^{9.3}$ and $10^{9.0}\,{\rm g\,cm^{-3}}$. First, we check whether initial WDs are stable without weak interactions. Second, we calculate the collapse of WDs with weak interactions. We employ hydrodynamics simulations with Newtonian gravity in the first and second steps. Third, we calculate the formation of neutron stars and accompanying explosions with general relativistic simulations. As a result, WDs with the highest density of $10^{10}\,{\rm g\,cm^{-3}}$ collapse not by weak interactions but by the photodissociation of the iron, and three WDs with low central densities collapse by the electron capture as expected at the second step and succeed in the explosion with a small explosion energy of $\sim 10^{48}$ erg at the third step. By changing the surrounding environment of WDs, we find that there is a minimum value of ejecta masses being $\sim 10^{-5}M_{\odot}$. With the most elaborate simulations of this kind so far, the value is one to two orders of magnitude smaller than previously reported values and is compatible with the estimated ejecta mass from FRB~121102.

Regardless of whether or not all fast radio bursts (FRBs) repeat, those that do form a population with a distribution of rates. This work considers a power-law model of this population, with rate distribution $\Phi_r \sim R^{\gamma_r}$ between $R_{\rm min}$ and $R_{\rm max}$. The zDM code is used to model the probability of detecting this population as either apparently once-off or repeat events as a function of redshift, $z$, and dispersion measure, DM. I demonstrate that in the nearby Universe, repeating sources can contribute significantly to the total burst rate. This causes an apparent deficit in the total number of observed sources (once-off and repeaters) relative to the distant Universe that will cause a bias in FRB population models. Thus instruments with long exposure times should explicitly take repetition into account when fitting the FRB population. I then fit data from The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME). The relative number of repeat and apparently once-off FRBs, and their DM, declination, and burst rate distributions, can be well-explained by 50--100\% of CHIME single FRBs being due to repeaters, with $R_{\rm max} > 0.75$ day$^{-1}$ above $10^{39}$ erg, and ${\gamma_r} = -2.2_{-0.8}^{+0.6}$. This result is surprisingly consistent with follow-up studies of FRBs detected by the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP). Thus the evidence suggests that CHIME and ASKAP view the same repeating FRB population, which is responsible not just for repeating FRBs, but the majority of apparently once-off bursts. For greater quantitative accuracy, non-Poissonian arrival times, second-order effects in the CHIME response, and a simultaneous fit to the total FRB population parameters, should be treated in more detail in future studies.

We study the general physical properties of Fermi blazars using the Fermi fourth source catalog data (4FGL-DR2). The quasi-simultaneous multiwavelength data of Fermi blazar are fitted by using the one-zone leptonic model to obtain some physical parameters, such as jet power, magnetic field and Doppler factor. We study the distributions of the derived physical parameter as a function of black hole mass and accretion disk luminosity. The main results are as follows. (1) For a standard thin accretion disk, the jet kinetic power of most FSRQs can be explained by the BP mechanism. However, the jet kinetic power of most BL Lacs can not be explained by both the BZ mechanism or the BP mechanism. The BL Lacs may have ADAFs surrounding their massive black holes. (2) After excluding the redshift, there is a moderately strong correlation between the jet kinetic power and jet radiation power and the accretion disk luminosity for Fermi blazars. These results confirm a close connection between jet and accretion. The jet kinetic power is slightly larger than the accretion disk luminosity for Fermi blazars. (3) There is a significant correlation between jet kinetic power and gamma-ray luminosity and radio luminosity for Fermi blazars, which suggests that gamma-ray luminosity and radio luminosity can be used to indicate the jet kinetic power.

Wide-area deep imaging surveys have discovered large numbers of extremely low surface brightness dwarf galaxies, which challenge galaxy formation theory and, potentially, offer new constraints on the nature of dark matter. Here we discuss one as-yet unexplored formation mechanism that may account for a fraction of low surface brightness dwarfs. We call this the `ghost galaxy' scenario. In this scenario, inefficient radiative cooling prevents star formation in the `main branch' of the merger tree of a low mass dark matter halo, such that almost all its stellar mass is acquired through mergers with less massive (but nevertheless star-forming) progenitors. Present-day systems formed in this way would be `ghostly' isolated stellar halos with no central galaxy. We use merger trees based on the Extended Press-Schechter formalism and the COCO cosmological N-body simulation to demonstrate that mass assembly histories of this kind can occur for low-mass halos in Lambda-CDM, but they are rare. They are most probable in isolated halos of present-day mass ~4x10^9 M_sun, occurring for ~5 per cent of all halos of that mass under standard assumptions about the timing and effect of cosmic reionization. The stellar masses of star-forming progenitors in these systems are highly uncertain; abundance-matching arguments imply a bimodal present-day mass function having a brighter population (median M_star ~3x10^6 M_sun) consistent with the tail of the observed luminosity function of ultra-diffuse galaxies. This suggests observable analogues of these systems may await discovery. We find that a stronger ionizing background (globally or locally) produces brighter and more extended ghost galaxies.

NASA citizen scientists from all over the world have used EXOplanet Transit Interpretation Code (EXOTIC) to reduce 71 sets of time-series images of WASP-12 taken by the 6-inch telescope operated by the Centre of Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian MicroObservatory. Of these sets, 24 result in clean Transit light curves of the WASP-12b which are uploaded to the NASA Exoplanet Watch website. We use priors from the NASA Exoplanet Archive to calculate the ephemeris of the planet and combine it with ETD (Exoplanet Transit Database) and ExoClock observations. Combining the Exoplanet Watch, ETD, and Exoclock datasets gives an updated ephemeris for the WASP-12b system of 2454508.97872 +/- 0.00003 with an orbital period of 1.0914196 +/- 1.7325322e-08 days which can be used to inform future space telescope observations.

Infrared observations of Sgr A$^*$ and M87$^*$ are incompatible with the assumption that these sources have physical surfaces in thermal equilibrium with their accreting environments. In this paper we discuss a general parametrization of the energy balance in a horizonless object, which permits to quantify how close a horizonless object is in its behavior to a black hole, and analyze the timescale in which its surface can thermalize. We show that the thermalization timescale is unbounded, growing large for objects that mimic closely the behavior of a black hole (and being infinite for the latter). In particular, the thermalization timescale is proportional to the time that energy spends inside the horizonless object due to propagation and interactions with the bulk. Hence, these observations can be used to quantitatively restrict the dynamical behavior of horizonless objects, without being able to discard the existence of a physical surface.

Gravitational Waves (GWs) from coalescing binaries carry crucial information about their component sources, like mass, spin and tidal effects. This implies that the analysis of GW signals from binary neutron star mergers can offer unique opportunities to extract information about the tidal properties of NSs, thereby adding constraints to the NS equation of state. In this work, we use Deep Learning (DL) techniques to overcome the computational challenges confronted in conventional methods of matched-filtering and Bayesian analyses for signal-detection and parameter-estimation. We devise a DL approach to classify GW signals from binary black hole and binary neutron star mergers. We further employ DL to analyze simulated GWs from binary neutron star merger events for parameter estimation, in particular, the regression of mass and tidal deformability of the component objects. The results presented in this work demonstrate the promising potential of DL techniques in GW analysis, paving the way for further advancement in this rapidly evolving field. The proposed approach is an efficient alternative to explore the wealth of information contained within GW signals of binary neutron star mergers, which can further help constrain the NS EoS.

Over the past two decades, significant strides have been made in the study of Dark Matter (DM) admixed neutron stars and their associated properties. However, an intriguing facet regarding the effect of DM on magnetized neutron stars still remains unexplored. This study is carried out to analyse the properties of DM admixed magnetized neutron stars. The equation of state for the DM admixed neutron star is calculated using the relativistic mean-field model with the inclusion of a density-dependent magnetic field. Several macroscopic properties such as mass, radius, particle fractions, tidal deformability, and the $f$-mode frequency are calculated with different magnetic field strengths and DM configurations. The equation of state is softer with the presence of DM as well as for the parallel components of the magnetic field, and vice-versa for the perpendicular one. Other macroscopic properties, such as mass, radius, tidal deformability, etc., are also affected by both DM and the magnetic fields. The change in the magnitude of different neutron star observables is proportional to the amount of DM percentage and the strength of the magnetic field. We observe that the change is seen mainly in the core part of the star without affecting the crustal properties.

We use numerical simulations of circumplanetary disks to determine the boundary between disks that are radially truncated by the tidal potential, and those where gas escapes the Hill sphere. We consider a model problem, in which a coplanar circumplanetary disk is resupplied with gas at an injection radius smaller than the Hill radius. We evolve the disk using the PHANTOM Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics code until a steady-state is reached. We find that the most significant dependence of the truncation boundary is on the disk aspect ratio $H/R$. Circumplanetary disks are efficiently truncated for $H/R \lesssim 0.2$. For $H/R \simeq 0.3$, up to about half of the injected mass, depending on the injection radius, flows outwards through the decretion disk and escapes. As expected from analytic arguments, the conditions ($H/R$ and Shakura-Sunyaev $\alpha$) required for tidal truncation are independent of planet mass. A simulation with larger $\alpha=0.1$ shows stronger outflow than one with $\alpha=0.01$, but the dependence on transport efficiency is less important than variations of $H/R$. Our results suggest two distinct classes of circumplanetary disks: tidally truncated thin disks with dust-poor outer regions, and thicker actively decreting disks with enhanced dust-to-gas ratios. Applying our results to the PDS 70c system, we predict a largely truncated circumplanetary disk, but it is possible that enough mass escapes to support an outward flow of dust that could explain the observed disk size.

This article presents a study of the geometry and motion of the Galactic disk using open clusters in the Gaia era. The findings suggest that the inclination angle of the Galactic disk increases gradually from the inner to the outer disk, with a shift in orientation at the Galactocentric radius of approximately 5 to 7 kpc. Furthermore, the study reveals that the inclined orbits may be elliptical rather than circular, however, more observations are needed to confirm this. An analysis of the vertical motion along the Galactocentric radius reveals that the disk has warped with precession, and that the line-of-nodes shifts at different radii, aligning with the results from the classical Cepheids. Although there is uncertainty for precession/peculiar motion in Solar orbit, after considering the uncertainty, the study derives a median value of precession rate = 6.8 km/s/kpc in the Galaxy. This value for the derived precession in the outer disk is lower than those in the literature due to the systematic motion in Solar orbit (inclination angle = 0.6 deg). The study also finds that the inclinational variation of the disk is significant and can cause systematic motion, with the inclinational variation rate decreasing along the Galactic radius with a slope of -8.9 uas/yr/kpc. Moreover, the derived inclinational variation rate in Solar orbit is 59.1+-11.2(sample)+-7.7(VZsun) uas/yr, which makes it observable for high precision astrometry.

V838 Mon is a stellar merger remnant that erupted in 2002 in a luminous red novae event. Although it is well studied in the optical, near infrared and submillimeter regimes, its structure in the mid-infrared wavelengths remains elusive. We observed V838 Mon with the MATISSE (LMN bands) and GRAVITY (K band) instruments at the VLTI and also the MIRCX/MYSTIC (HK bands) instruments at the CHARA array. We geometrically modelled the squared visibilities and the closure phases in each of the bands to obtain constraints on physical parameters. Furthermore, we constructed high resolution images of V838 Mon in the HK bands, using the MIRA and SQUEEZE algorithms to study the immediate surroundings of the star. Lastly, we also modelled the spectral features seen in the K and M bands at various temperatures. The image reconstructions show a bipolar structure that surrounds the central star in the post merger remnant. In the K band, the super resolved images show an extended structure (uniform disk diameter $\sim 1.94$ mas) with a clumpy morphology that is aligned along a north-west position angle (PA) of $-40^\circ$. Whereas in the H band, the extended structure (uniform disk diameter $\sim 1.18$ mas) lies roughly along the same PA. However, the northern lobe is slightly misaligned with respect to the southern lobe, which results in the closure phase deviations. The VLTI and CHARA imaging results show that V838 Mon is surrounded by features that resemble jets that are intrinsically asymmetric. This is also confirmed by the closure phase modelling. Further observations with VLTI can help to determine whether this structure shows any variation over time, and also if such bipolar structures are commonly formed in other stellar merger remnants.

The Fermi catalogue contains about 2000 unassociated $\gamma$-ray sources. Some of them were recently identified as pulsars, including so called redbacks and black widows, which are millisecond pulsars in tight binary systems with non- and partially-degenerate low-mass stellar companions irradiated by the pulsar wind. We study a likely optical and X-ray counterpart of the Fermi source 4FGL J2054.2+6904 proposed earlier as a pulsar candidate. We use archival optical data as well as Swift/XRT and SRG/eROSITA X-ray data to clarify its nature. Using Zwicky Transient Facility data in $g$ and $r$ bands spanning over 4.7 years, we find a period of $\approx$7.5 h. The folded light curve has a smooth sinusoidal shape with the peak-to-peak amplitude of $\approx$0.4 mag. The spectral fit to the optical spectral energy distribution of the counterpart candidate gives the star radius of 0.5$\pm$0.1$R_\odot$ and temperature of 5500$\pm$300 K implying a G2--G9-type star. Its X-ray spectrum is well fitted by an absorbed power law with the photon index of 1.0$\pm$0.3 and unabsorbed flux of $\approx 2\times10^{-13}$ erg s$^{-1}$ cm$^{-2}$. All the properties of 4FGL J2054.2$+$6904 and its presumed counterpart suggest that it is a member of the redback family.

We present three-dimensional radiative transfer calculations for the ejecta from a neutron star merger that include line-by-line opacities for tens of millions of bound-bound transitions, composition from an r-process nuclear network, and time-dependent thermalization of decay products from individual $\alpha$ and $\beta^-$ decay reactions. In contrast to expansion opacities and other wavelength-binned treatments, a line-by-line treatment enables us include fluorescence effects and associate spectral features with the emitting and absorbing lines of individual elements. We find variations in the synthetic observables with both the polar and azimuthal viewing angles. The spectra exhibit blended features with strong interactions by Ce III, Sr II, Y II, and Zr II that vary with time and viewing direction. We demonstrate the importance of wavelength-calibration of atomic data using a model with calibrated Sr, Y, and Zr data, and find major differences in the resulting spectra, including a better agreement with AT2017gfo. The synthetic spectra for near-polar inclination show a feature at around 8000 A, similar to AT2017gfo. However, they evolve on a more rapid timescale, likely due to the low ejecta mass (0.005 M$_\odot$) as we take into account only the early ejecta. The comparatively featureless spectra for equatorial observers gives a tentative prediction that future observations of edge-on kilonovae will appear substantially different from AT2017gfo. We also show that 1D models obtained by spherically averaging the 3D ejecta lead to dramatically different direction-integrated luminosities and spectra compared to full 3D calculations.

Tidal dissipation in star-planet systems can occur through various mechanisms, among which is the elliptical instability. This acts on elliptically deformed equilibrium tidal flows in rotating fluid planets and stars, and excites inertial waves in convective regions if the dimensionless tidal amplitude ($\epsilon$) is sufficiently large. We study its interaction with turbulent convection, and attempt to constrain the contributions of both elliptical instability and convection to tidal dissipation. For this, we perform an extensive suite of Cartesian hydrodynamical simulations of rotating Rayleigh-B\'{e}nard convection in a small patch of a planet. We find that tidal dissipation resulting from the elliptical instability, when it operates, is consistent with $\epsilon^3$, as in prior simulations without convection. Convective motions also act as an effective viscosity on large-scale tidal flows, resulting in continuous tidal dissipation (scaling as $\epsilon^2$). We derive scaling laws for the effective viscosity using (rotating) mixing-length theory, and find that they predict the turbulent quantities found in our simulations very well. In addition, we examine the reduction of the effective viscosity for fast tides, which we observe to scale with tidal frequency ($\omega$) as $\omega^{-2}$. We evaluate our scaling laws using interior models of Hot Jupiters computed with MESA. We conclude that rotation reduces convective length scales, velocities and effective viscosities (though not in the fast tides regime). We estimate that elliptical instability is efficient for the shortest-period Hot Jupiters, and that effective viscosity of turbulent convection is negligible in giant planets compared with inertial waves.

We revisit the abundances of neutron-capture elements in the metal-poor ([Fe/H]=-2.9) r-process-rich halo star CS 31082-001. Partly motivated by the development of the new near-ultraviolet Cassegrain U-band Efficient Spectrograph for the Very Large Telescope, we compiled an expanded line list for heavy elements over the range 3000-4000 {\AA}, including hyperfine structure for several elements. Combining archival near-ultraviolet spectra of CS 31082-001 from the Hubble Space Telescope and the Very Large Telescope, we investigate the abundances and nucleosynthesis of 35 heavy elements (Ge, Sr, Y, Zr, Nb, Mo, Ru, Rh, Pd, Ag, Cd, Sn, Ba, La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu, Hf, Os, Ir, Pt, Pb, Bi, Th, and U). Our analysis includes the first abundance estimates for tin, holmium, and ytterbium from these data, and the first for lutetium from ground-based data, enabling a more complete view of the abundance pattern of this important reference star. In general, the r-process dominated elements are as enhanced as those in the Sun, particularly for elements with Z $\ge$ 56 (Ba and heavier). However, the abundances for the lighter elements in our sample, from Ge to Sn (31 $\le$ Z $\le$ 50), do not scale with the solar abundance pattern. Moreover, the Ge abundance is deficient relative to solar, indicating that it is dominantly an iron-peak rather than neutron-capture element. Our results (or upper limits) on Sn, Pt, Au, Pb and Bi all pose further questions, prompting further study on the origin and evolution of the known r-rich and actinide-rich, metal-poor stars.

PSO J334.2028+1.4075 (PSO J334) is a luminous quasar located at redshift z=2.06. The source gained attention when periodic flux density variations were discovered in its optical light curve. These variations were initially interpreted as the variability due to the orbital motion of a supermassive black hole binary (SMBHB) residing in a single circumbinary accretion disk. However, subsequent multiwavelength observations provided evidence against the binary hypothesis as no optical periodicity was found on extended time baselines. On the other hand, detailed radio analysis with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) and the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) revealed a lobe-dominated quasar at kpc scales, and possibly a precessing jet, which could retain PSO J334 as a binary SMBH candidate. We aim to study both the large- and small-scale radio structures in PSO J334 to provide additional evidence for or against the binary scenario. We observed the source at 1.7 GHz with the European Very Long Baseline Interferometry Network (EVN), and at 1.5 and 6.2 GHz with the VLA, at frequencies that complement the previous radio interferometric study. Our images reveal a single component at parsec scales slightly resolved in the southeast-northwest direction and a lobe-dominated quasar at kiloparsec scales with a complex structure. The source morphology and polarization in our VLA maps suggest that the jet is interacting with dense clumps of the ambient medium. While we also observe a misalignment between the inner jet and the outer lobes, we suggest that this is due to the restarted nature of the radio jet activity and the possible presence of a warped accretion disk rather than due to the perturbing effects of a companion SMBH. Our analysis suggests that PSO J334 is most likely a jetted AGN with a single SMBH, and there is no clear evidence of a binary SMBH system in its central engine.

Space Very Long Baseline Interferometry is a radio astronomy technique distinguished by a record-high angular resolution reaching single-digit microseconds of arc. The paper provides a brief account of the history of developments of this technique over the period 1960s-2020s.

The AGN STORM 2 campaign is a large, multiwavelength reverberation mapping project designed to trace out the structure of Mrk 817 from the inner accretion disk to the broad emission line region and out to the dusty torus. As part of this campaign, Swift performed daily monitoring of Mrk 817 for approximately 15 months, obtaining observations in X-rays and six UV/optical filters. The X-ray monitoring shows that Mrk 817 was in a significantly fainter state than in previous observations, with only a brief flare where it reached prior flux levels. The X-ray spectrum is heavily obscured. The UV/optical light curves show significant variability throughout the campaign and are well correlated with one another, but uncorrelated with the X-rays. Combining the Swift UV/optical light curves with Hubble UV continuum light curves, we measure interband continuum lags, $\tau(\lambda)$, that increase with increasing wavelength roughly following $\tau(\lambda) \propto \lambda^{4/3}$, the dependence expected for a geometrically thin, optically thick, centrally illuminated disk. Modeling of the light curves reveals a period at the beginning of the campaign where the response of the continuum is suppressed compared to later in the light curve - the light curves are not simple shifted and scaled versions of each other. The interval of suppressed response corresponds to a period of high UV line and X-ray absorption, and reduced emission line variability amplitudes. We suggest that this indicates a significant contribution to the continuum from the broad line region gas that sees an absorbed ionizing continuum.

Fuzzy dark matter (FDM), a practical alternative to cold dark matter, can exist in compact stars. Here, applying the FDM equation of state (EoS) constrained by CMB and large-scale structure data, we calculate the structure of relativistic stars in the presence of FDM. For this aim, the EoS for the visible matter in neutron stars, quark stars, and hybrid stars from the observational data are employed. A piecewise polytropic EoS constrained by the observational data of GW170817 and the data of six low-mass X-ray binaries with thermonuclear burst or the symmetry energy of the nuclear interaction describes the neutron star matter. For quark star matter, we apply the EoSs within the Bayesian statistical approach using the mass and radius measurements of PSR J0030+0451 from NICER. Employing the two-fluid formalism, we study the structure of FDM admixed relativistic stars.

We present a method for obtaining unbiased signal estimates in the presence of a significant background, eliminating the need for a parametric model for the background itself. Our approach is based on a minimal set of conditions for observation and background estimators, which are typically satisfied in practical scenarios. To showcase the effectiveness of our method, we apply it to simulated data from the planned dielectric axion haloscope MADMAX.

The Breakthrough Listen Initiative is conducting a program using multiple telescopes around the world to search for "technosignatures": artificial transmitters of extraterrestrial origin from beyond our solar system. The VERITAS Collaboration joined this program in 2018, and provides the capability to search for one particular technosignature: optical pulses of a few nanoseconds duration detectable over interstellar distances. We report here on the analysis and results of dedicated VERITAS observations of Breakthrough Listen targets conducted in 2019 and 2020 and of archival VERITAS data collected since 2012. Thirty hours of dedicated observations of 136 targets and 249 archival observations of 140 targets were analyzed and did not reveal any signals consistent with a technosignature. The results are used to place limits on the fraction of stars hosting transmitting civilizations. We also discuss the minimum-pulse sensitivity of our observations and present VERITAS observations of CALIOP: a space-based pulsed laser onboard the CALIPSO satellite. The detection of these pulses with VERITAS, using the analysis techniques developed for our technosignature search, allows a test of our analysis efficiency and serves as an important proof-of-principle.

Massive star clusters are often used as tracers of galaxy formation and assembly. In order to do so, we must understand their properties at formation, and how those properties change with time, galactic environment, and galaxy assembly history. The two most important intrinsic properties that govern star cluster evolution are mass and radius. In this paper, we investigate 10 theoretically and observationally motivated initial size-mass relations for star clusters, and evolve populations of clusters through galaxy formation models. We compare our results to each other and to observations of cluster populations in M83, M31, and the Milky Way. We find that none of our size-mass relations agree with the observations after 6-10 Gyr of evolution. We can successfully reproduce the cluster mass functions with models that have a small range of initial radii, and which do not allow cluster radii to change with time. However, these models do not agree with our understanding of cluster evolution, which does involve radius evolution, and do not match the observed distributions of radii. We note that there is a region of parameter space where clusters are optimally protected from both tidal shocks and evaporation due to two-body relaxation. Clusters which are allowed to evolve into this parameter space will likely survive. An improved understanding of both mass and radius evolution of star clusters in realistic, time-varying galactic potentials is necessary to appropriately make the connection between present-day cluster properties and their use as tracers of galaxy formation and assembly.

One of the most fundamental hypotheses in astrochemistry and astrobiology states that crucial biotic molecules like glycine (NH$_2$CH$_2$COOH) found in meteorites and comets are inherited from early phases of star formation. Most observational searches for glycine in the interstellar medium have focused on warm, high-mass molecular cloud sources. However, recent studies suggest that it might be appropriate to shift the observational focus to cold, low-mass sources. We aim to detect glycine towards the so-called methanol hotspot in the Barnard 5 dark cloud. The hotspot is a cold source ($T_\mathrm{gas}\approx 7.5$ K) with yet high abundances of complex organic molecules (COMs) and water in the gas phase. We carried out deep, pointed observations with the Onsala 20m telescope, targeting several transitions of glycine conformers I and II (Gly-I and Gly-II) in the frequency range $70.2$-$77.9$ GHz. No glycine lines are detected towards the targeted position, but we use a line stacking procedure to derive sensitive abundance upper limits w.r.t. H$_2$ for Gly-I and Gly-II, i.e. $\leq(2$-$5)\times10^{-10}$ and $\leq(0.7$-$3)\times10^{-11}$, respectively. The obtained Gly-II upper limits are the most stringent for a cold source, while the Gly-I upper limits are mostly on the same order as previously measured limits. The measured abundances w.r.t. H$_2$ of other COMs at the B5 methanol hotspot range from $2\times10^{-10}$ (acetaldehyde) to $2\times10^{-8}$ (methanol). Hence, based on a total glycine upper limit of $(2$-$5)\times10^{-10}$, we cannot rule out that glycine is present but undetected.

Roman telescope provides the best opportunity to detect a large number of Isolated Stellar-Mass Black Holes (ISMBHs) through microlensing. Roman will not only detect long-duration microlensing events caused by ISMBHs, but will also measure the deflections caused by the ISMBHs, which can be used to estimate their masses. Recently, Sajadian and Sahu (2023) studied the efficiency of detecting ISMBHs by Roman through simulation of a large ensemble of such events. They estimated the resulting errors in the physical parameters of the lens objects, including their masses, distances, and proper motions through calculating Fisher and Covariance matrices. Their simulation shows that the 2.3-year time gap between Roman's first three and the last three observing seasons not only lowers the efficiency of detection, but also makes the solutions degenerate. We recommend a small amount of additional observations -- about one hour of observations every 10 to 20 days when the Bulge is observable during the large time gap -- which is equivalent to a total of about one to two additional days of observations with Roman. This small amount of additional observations will greatly improve the efficiency and robustness of detection of ISMBHs, and provide firm estimates of their masses.

Atom interferometers measure quantum interference patterns in the wave functions of cold atoms that follow superpositions of different space-time trajectories. These can be sensitive to phase shifts induced by fundamental physics processes such as interactions with ultralight dark matter or the passage of gravitational waves. The capabilities of large-scale atom interferometers are illustrated by their estimated sensitivities to the possible interactions of ultralight dark matter with electrons and photons, and to gravitational waves in the frequency range around 1 Hz, intermediate between the peak sensitivities of the LIGO and LISA experiments. Atom interferometers can probe ultralight scalar couplings with much greater sensitivity than is currently available from probes of the Equivalence Principle. Their sensitivity to mid-frequency gravitational waves may open a window on mergers of masses intermediate between those discovered by the LIGO and Virgo experiments and the supermassive black holes present in the cores of galaxies, as well as fundamental physics processes in the early Universe such as first-order phase transitions and the evolution of networks of cosmic strings.

The study of solar wind charge exchange (SWCX) emission is vital to both the X-ray astrophysics and heliophysics communities. SWCX emission contaminates all astrophysical observations in X-rays regardless of the direction. Ignoring this contribution to X-ray spectra can lead to erroneous conclusions regarding the astrophysical plasmas along the line of sight due to the similar spectral distributions of SWCX and several common types of more distant astrophysical plasmas. Since its discovery, literature has distinguished between diffuse SWCX emission resulting from solar wind neutral interactions within the terrestrial magnetosphere, called magnetospheric SWCX, and similar interactions occurring more generally throughout the heliosphere, called heliospheric SWCX. Here, we build upon previous work validating a modeling method for the heliospheric SWCX contribution in X-ray spectra obtained with a medium resolution CubeSat instrument named HaloSat at low ecliptic latitudes. We now apply this model to a specially designed set of extended observations with the same instrument and successfully separate the spectral contributions of the astrophysical background and the heliospheric SWCX from the remaining contributions. Specifically, we find significant excess emission for four observations in the O VII emission line not explained by other sources, possibly indicative of magnetospheric SWCX. We discuss these results in comparison with simulation results publicly available through the Community Coordinated Modeling Center. We also report an absorbed high-temperature component in two of the twelve fields of view analyzed.

We study the angular clustering of Quaia, a Gaia- and unWISE-based catalog of over a million quasars with an exceptionally well-defined selection function. With it, we derive cosmology constraints from the amplitude and growth of structure across cosmic time. We divide the sample into two redshift bins, centered at $z=1.0$ and $z=2.1$, and measure both overdensity auto-correlations and cross-correlations with maps of the Cosmic Microwave Background convergence measured by Planck. From these data, and including a prior from measurements of the baryon acoustic oscillations scale, we place constraints on the amplitude of the matter power spectrum $\sigma_8=0.766\pm 0.034$, and on the matter density parameter $\Omega_m=0.343^{+0.017}_{-0.019}$. These measurements are in reasonable agreement with \planck at the $\sim$ 1.4$\sigma$ level, and are found to be robust with respect to observational and theoretical uncertainties. We find that our slightly lower value of $\sigma_8$ is driven by the higher-redshift sample, which favours a low amplitude of matter fluctuations. We present plausible arguments showing that this could be driven by contamination of the CMB lensing map by high-redshift extragalactic foregrounds, which should also affect other cross-correlations with tracers of large-scale structure beyond $z\sim1.5$. Our constraints are competitive with those from state-of-the-art 3$\times$2-point analyses, but arise from a range of scales and redshifts that is highly complementary to those covered by cosmic shear data and most galaxy clustering samples. This, coupled with the unprecedented combination of volume and redshift precision achieved by Quaia allows us to break the usual degeneracy between $\Omega_m$ and $\sigma_8$.

We present a new, all-sky quasar catalog, Quaia, that samples the largest comoving volume and has the cleanest selection function of any existing spectroscopic quasar sample. The catalog draws on the 6,649,162 quasar candidates identified by the Gaia mission that have redshift estimates from the space observatory's low-resolution BP/RP spectra. This initial sample is highly homogeneous and complete, but has low purity, and 18% of even the bright ($G<20.0$) confirmed quasars have discrepant redshift estimates ($|\Delta z/(1+z)| > 0.2$) compared to those from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). In this work, we combine the Gaia candidates with unWISE infrared data (based on the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer survey) to construct a catalog useful for cosmological and astrophysical quasar studies. We apply cuts based on proper motions and Gaia and unWISE colors, reducing the number of contaminants by $\sim$4$\times$. We improve the redshifts by training a $k$-nearest neighbors model on colors and Gaia redshift estimates and using SDSS redshift labels, and achieve redshift estimates on the $G<20.0$ sample with only 6% (10%) catastrophic errors with $|\Delta z/(1+z)| > 0.2$ ($0.1$), a reduction of $\sim$3$\times$ ($\sim$2$\times$) compared to the Gaia redshifts. The final catalog has 1,295,502 quasars with a $G<20.5$, and 755,850 candidates in an even cleaner $G<20.0$ sample. We also construct a rigorous all-sky selection function model for the catalog. We compare Quaia to existing quasar catalogs, in particular showing that its large effective volume makes it a highly competitive sample for cosmological large-scale structure analyses. The catalog is publicly available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8060755.

Although resonant planets have orbital periods near commensurability, resonance is also dictated by other factors, such as the planets' eccentricities and masses, and therefore must be confirmed through a study of the system's dynamics. Here, we perform such a study for five multi-planet systems: Kepler-226, Kepler-254, Kepler-363, Kepler-1542, and K2-32. For each system, we run a suite of N-body simulations that span the full parameter-space that is consistent with the constrained orbital and planetary properties. We study the stability of each system and look for resonances based on the libration of the critical resonant angles. We find strong evidence for a two-body resonance in each system; we confirm a 3:2 resonance between Kepler-226c and Kepler-226d, confirm a 3:2 resonance between Kepler-254c and Kepler-254d, and confirm a three-body 1:2:3 resonant chain between the three planets of Kepler-363. We explore the dynamical history of two of these systems and find that these resonances most likely formed without migration. Migration leads to the libration of the three-body resonant angle, but these angles circulate in both Kepler-254 and Kepler-363. Applying our methods to additional near-resonant systems could help us identify which systems are truly resonant or non-resonant and which systems require additional follow-up analysis.

The unimodular theory of gravity is an alternative perspective to traditional Einstein's general relativity and opens new possibilities for exploring its implications in cosmology. In this paper, we investigate the unimodular gravity (UG) with the latest cosmological data from the Pantheon sample of Type Ia supernovae (SN), Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO), and the observational H(z) data from Differential Age method (DA). We consider a model consisting of a generalized cosmological constant with radiation and dark matter. The considered theory respects only unimodular coordinate transformations. We fit our model with low-redshift data from SN and DA and determine the value of parameter $\xi$ of the theory. We find the best-fit value of parameter $\xi =6.23 \pm 0.5$; which deviates from 6, for which the theory becomes the standard general theory of relativity. We further study the Hubble constant problem by combining the SN and DA data with BAO data. We observe deviation in the value of $H_0$ from the standard $\Lambda$CDM model. We obtain $H_0$ as $70.7 \pm 4.1 \ \mbox{Km s}^{-1} \mbox{Mpc} ^{-1}$ and $69.24 \pm 0.90 \ \mbox{Km s}^{-1} \mbox{Mpc} ^{-1}$ from supernovae data and BAO data, respectively in unimodular gravity. Combining the BAO data with SN+DA data set, we obtain $H_0$ as $70.57 \pm 0.56 \ \mbox{Km s}^{-1} \mbox{Mpc} ^{-1}$.

Long-period variables are bright, evolved red giant stars showing periodic photometric changes due to stellar pulsation. They follow one or more period-luminosity and period-age relations, which make them highly promising distance indicators and tracers of young and intermediate-age stellar populations. Such a potential is especially interesting in view of the massive amount of data delivered by modern large-scale variability surveys. Crucially, these applications require a clear theoretical understanding of pulsation physics in connection with stellar evolution. Here, I describe an ongoing effort from our collaboration dedicated to the modelling of stellar pulsation in evolved stars, and how this work is impacting our capability of investigating long-period variables and exploiting them for other astrophysical studies. Furthermore, I present our ongoing work aimed at assessing the potential of semi-regular variables, an often neglected sub-type of long-period variables, to be distance indicators complementary to their better-known, more evolved counterparts, the Mira variables.

Pattern speeds are a fundamental parameter of the dynamical features (e.g. bars, spiral arms) of a galaxy, setting resonance locations. Pattern speeds are not directly observable, so the Tremaine-Weinberg (TW) method has become the most common method used to measure them in galaxies. However, it has not been tested properly whether this method can straightforwardly be applied to gas tracers, despite this being widely done in the literature. When applied to observations, the TW method may return invalid results, which are difficult to diagnose due to a lack of ground truth for comparison. Although some works applying the TW method to simulated galaxies exist, only stellar populations have been tested. Therefore, here we explore the applicability of the TW method for gas gracers, by applying it to hydrodynamical simulations of galaxies, where we know the true value of the bar pattern speed. We perform some simple tests to see if the TW method has a physically reasonable output. We add different kinds of uncertainties (e.g. in position angle or flux) to the data to mock observational errors based on the magnitude of uncertainty present in the observations. Second, we test the method on 3D simulations with chemical networks. We show that in general, applying TW to observations of gas will not recover the true pattern speed. These results have implications for many "pattern speeds" reported in the literature, and based on these tests we also give some best practices for measuring pattern speeds using gas tracers going forwards.

We report on multiwavelength target-of-opportunity observations of the blazar PKS 0735+178, located 2.2$^\circ$ away from the best-fit position of the IceCube neutrino event IceCube-211208A detected on December 8, 2021. The source was in a high-flux state in the optical, ultraviolet, X-ray, and GeV gamma-ray bands around the time of the neutrino event, exhibiting daily variability in the soft X-ray flux. The X-ray data from Swift-XRT and NuSTAR characterize the transition between the low-energy and high-energy components of the broadband spectral energy distribution (SED), and the gamma-ray data from Fermi -LAT, VERITAS, and H.E.S.S. require a spectral cut-off near 100 GeV. Both X-ray and gamma-ray measurements provide strong constraints on the leptonic and hadronic models. We analytically explore a synchrotron self-Compton model, an external Compton model, and a lepto-hadronic model. Models that are entirely based on internal photon fields face serious difficulties in matching the observed SED. The existence of an external photon field in the source would instead explain the observed gamma-ray spectral cut-off in both leptonic and lepto-hadronic models and allow a proton jet power that marginally agrees with the Eddington limit in the lepto-hadronic model. We show a numerical lepto-hadronic model with external target photons that reproduces the observed SED and is reasonably consistent with the neutrino event despite requiring a high jet power.

We explore the orbital implications of the binary Supermassive Black Holes (SMBHs) discovered in UGC4211, for the frequency spectrum of stochastic gravitational wave background (SGWB) being measured with pulsar timing arrays. The binary SMBHs in UGC4211 are observed to have a separation of $\sim 230$ pc and relative velocity of $\sim 150$ km/s along the line of sight, in deep MUSE/ALMA observations. It indicates an unseen mass of $\sim 10^9 M_\odot$, about one order of magnitude more than the two SMBHs plus the observed gas and stellar disc combined. One possible explanation is that a massive soliton of wave dark matter is enclosed by the two SMBHs. Such a scenario is encouraging as during galaxy merging the two galaxy solitons should combine to form a new one such that the initially separated SMBHs becomes more efficiently bound. Generalizing this mechanism to the main population of SMBH binaries, we show that the spectrum of the SGWB produced from their late-stage inspiraling could be enhanced in the low frequency end, relative to the high-frequency one. Finally we discuss the future study beyond this proof-of-concept work by comparing this model with the 15-year NANOGrav data.

Multiple pulsar timing array (PTA) collaborations recently announced the evidence of common-spectral processes caused by gravitational waves (GWs). This can be the stochastic GW background and its origin may be astrophysical or cosmological. We interpret it as the GWs induced by the primordial curvature perturbations and discuss its implications on primordial black holes (PBHs). We show that the newly released data suggests PBHs much lighter than the Sun in contrast to what was expected due to the previous PTA data releases.

In this letter we evaluate whether the gravitational wave background recently observed by a number of different pulsar timing arrays could be due to merging primordial supermassive black hole binaries. We find that for homogeneously distributed primordial black holes this possibility is inconsistent with the strong cosmological and astrophysical constraints on their total abundance. If the distribution exhibits some clustering, however, the merger rate will in general be enhanced, opening the window for a consistent interpretation of the PTA data in terms of merging primordial black holes.

What constitutes a habitable planet is a frontier to be explored and requires pushing the boundaries of our terracentric viewpoint for what we deem to be a habitable environment. Despite Venus' 700 K surface temperature being too hot for any plausible solvent and most organic covalent chemistry, Venus' cloud-filled atmosphere layers at 48 to 60 km above the surface hold the main requirements for life: suitable temperatures for covalent bonds; an energy source (sunlight); and a liquid solvent. Yet, the Venus clouds are widely thought to be incapable of supporting life because the droplets are composed of concentrated liquid sulfuric acid-an aggressive solvent that is assumed to rapidly destroy most biochemicals of life on Earth. Recent work, however, demonstrates that a rich organic chemistry can evolve from simple precursor molecules seeded into concentrated sulfuric acid, a result that is corroborated by domain knowledge in industry that such chemistry leads to complex molecules, including aromatics. We aim to expand the set of molecules known to be stable in concentrated sulfuric acid. Here, we show that nucleic acid bases adenine, cytosine, guanine, thymine, and uracil, as well as 2,6-diaminopurine and the "core" nucleic acid bases purine and pyrimidine, are stable in sulfuric acid in the Venus cloud temperature and sulfuric acid concentration range, using UV spectroscopy and combinations of 1D and 2D 1H 13C 15N NMR spectroscopy. The stability of nucleic acid bases in concentrated sulfuric acid advances the idea that chemistry to support life may exist in the Venus cloud particle environment.

Physicists routinely need probabilistic models for a number of tasks such as parameter inference or the generation of new realizations of a field. Establishing such models for highly non-Gaussian fields is a challenge, especially when the number of samples is limited. In this paper, we introduce scattering spectra models for stationary fields and we show that they provide accurate and robust statistical descriptions of a wide range of fields encountered in physics. These models are based on covariances of scattering coefficients, i.e. wavelet decomposition of a field coupled with a point-wise modulus. After introducing useful dimension reductions taking advantage of the regularity of a field under rotation and scaling, we validate these models on various multi-scale physical fields and demonstrate that they reproduce standard statistics, including spatial moments up to 4th order. These scattering spectra provide us with a low-dimensional structured representation that captures key properties encountered in a wide range of physical fields. These generic models can be used for data exploration, classification, parameter inference, symmetry detection, and component separation.

We argue that field trajectories, which lead to cosmic acceleration and feature rapid turns near the boundary of the moduli space, are in the Swampland. We obtain this result by assuming the validity of the Swampland Distance Conjecture (SDC) in the presence of a positive scalar potential and by focusing on hyperbolic spaces, as prototype geometries of infinite distance limits of Calabi-Yau compactifications. We find that, in a quasi-de Sitter space with Hubble rate $H$ and acceleration parameter $\epsilon$, the turning rate $\Omega$ is upper bounded such as $\Omega/H<\mathcal{O}(\sqrt{\epsilon})$. Therefore, field trajectories consistent with the SDC can only have a negligible deviation from geodesics. This has direct implications for the realization and consistency of multi-field scenarios in string theory. Moreover, it implies a tension between asymptotic accelerating expansion, consistent with observations, and the de Sitter conjecture.

We investigate the production of particle Dark Matter (DM) in a minimal freeze-in model considering a non-instantaneous reheating phase after inflation. We demonstrate that for low reheating temperatures, bosonic or fermionic reheating from monomial potentials can lead to a different evolution in the DM production and hence to distinct predictions for the parent particle lifetime and mass, constrained by long-lived particle (LLP) searches. We highlight that such scenario predicts parent particle decay lengths larger compared to using the instantaneous reheating approximation. Moreover, we demonstrate the importance of an accurate definition of the reheating temperature and emphasize its relevance for the correct interpretation of experimental constraints. We explore different models of inflation, which can lead to the considered reheating potential. We find that the extent to which the standard DM freeze-in production can be modified crucially depends on the underlying inflationary model. Based on latest CMB constraints, we derive lower limits on the decay length of the parent particle and confront these results with the corresponding reach of LLP searches. Our findings underscore the impact of the specific dynamics of inflation on DM freeze-in production and highlight their importance for the interpretation of collider signatures. At the same time, our results indicate the potential for LLP searches to shed light on the underlying dynamics of reheating.

Several pulsar timing array collaborations recently reported evidence of a stochastic gravitational wave background (SGWB) at nHz frequencies. Whilst the SGWB could originate from the merger of supermassive black holes, it could be a signature of new physics near the 100 MeV scale. Supercooled first-order phase transitions that end at the 100 MeV scale are intriguing explanations, because they could connect the nHz signal to new physics at the electroweak scale or beyond. Here, however, we provide a clear demonstration that it is not simple to create a nHz signal from a supercooled phase transition, due to two crucial issues that should be checked in any proposed supercooled explanations. As an example, we use a model based on non-linearly realized electroweak symmetry that has been cited as evidence for a supercooled explanation. First, we show that a FOPT cannot complete for the required transition temperature of around 100 MeV. Such supercooling implies a period of vacuum domination that hinders bubble percolation and transition completion. Second, we show that even if completion is not required or if this constraint is evaded, the Universe typically reheats to the scale of any physics driving the FOPT. This redshifts the SGWB away from the required nHz range.

We investigate the possibility of improving the accuracy of the phenomenological waveform model, IMRPhenomD, by jointly optimizing all the calibration coefficients at once, given a set of numerical relativity (NR) waveforms. When IMRPhenomD was first calibrated to NR waveforms, different parts (i.e., the inspiral, merger, and ringdown) of the waveform were calibrated separately. Using ripple, a library of waveform models compatible with automatic differentiation, we can, for the first time, perform gradient-based optimization on all the waveform coefficients at the same time. This joint optimization process allows us to capture previously ignored correlations between separate parts of the waveform. We found that after recalibration, the median mismatch between the model and NR waveforms decreases by 50%. We further explore how different regions of the source parameter space respond to the optimization procedure. We find that the degree of improvement correlates with the spins of the source. This work shows a promising avenue to help understand and treat systematic error in waveform models.

LISA gravitational waves space-based detector involves a complex, multidimensional closed-loop dynamical system. Its instrument performance is expected to be less efficiently isolated from platform jitters than was its technological demonstrator, LISA Pathfinder. Therefore, it is of crucial importance to understand and model LISA dynamical behavior closely, to master the propagation of dynamical excitations through the response of the instrument down to the space interferometer data streams, and more generally, to prepare the processing and the interpretation of the in-flight metrology data. In this work, we present a comprehensive mathematical modeling of the closed-loop system dynamics and its numerical implementation within the LISA consortium simulation suite. We provide for the first time a full, time-domain numerical demonstration that post-processing Time Delay Interferometry techniques can efficiently suppress spacecraft noisy motion in the final interferometer data streams, in the idealized test case where physical coupling to spacecraft and telescope jitters (tilt-to-length, stiffnesses, actuation cross-talks) are turned off.

The recent observations by pulsar timing array (PTA) experiments suggest the existence of stochastic gravitational wave background in the nano-Hz range. It can be a hint for the new physics and cosmic string is one of the promising candidate. In this paper, we study the implication of the PTA result for cosmic strings and dark photon dark matter produced by the decay of cosmic string loops. It can simultaneously explain the PTA result and present dark matter abundance for the dark photon mass m~10^{-6}--10^{-4}eV. Implications for the gravitational wave detection with multi-frequency bands are also discussed.

The maximal values of the general relativistic Lense-Thirring (LT) orbital shifts $\Delta I^\mathrm{LT},\,\Delta\Omega^\mathrm{LT}$ and $\Delta\omega^\mathrm{LT}$ of the inclination $I$, the longitude of the ascending node $\Omega$ and the perinigricon $\omega$ of the recently discovered star S4716, which has the shortest orbital period $\left(P_\mathrm{b}=4.02\,\mathrm{yr}\right)$ of all the S-stars that orbit the supermassive black hole (SMBH) in Sgr A$^\ast$, are of the order of $\simeq 5-16$ arcseconds per revolution $\left(^{\prime\prime}\,\mathrm{rev}^{-1}\right)$. Given the current error $\sigma_\omega = 0.02^\circ$ in determining $\omega$, which is the most accurate orbital parameter of S4716 among all those affected by the SMBH's gravitomagnetic field through its angular momentum ${\boldsymbol{J}}_\bullet$, about 48 yr would be needed to reduce $\sigma_\omega$ to $\simeq 10\%$ of the cumulative LT perinigricon shift over the same time span. Measuring $\Delta I^\mathrm{LT}$ and $\Delta\Omega^\mathrm{LT}$ to the same level of accuracy would take even much longer. Instead, after just 16 yr, a per cent measurement of the larger gravitoelectric (GE) Schwarzschild-like perinigricon shift $\Delta\omega^\mathrm{GE}$, which depends only on the SMBH's mass $M_\bullet$, would be possible. On the other hand, the uncertainties in the physical and orbital parameters entering $\Delta\omega^\mathrm{GE}$ would cause a huge systematic bias of $\Delta\omega^\mathrm{LT}$ itself. The SMBH's quadrupole mass moment $Q_2^\bullet$ induces orbital shifts as little as $\simeq 0.01-0.05\,^{\prime\prime}\,\mathrm{rev}^{-1}$.

Recently, observational hints for supermassive black holes have been accumulating, which has inspired ones to wonder: Can primordial black holes (PBHs) be supermassive, in particular with the mass $M\gtrsim 10^{9}M_\odot$? A supercritical bubble (with an inflating baby universe inside it) that nucleated during inflation can develop into a PBH in our observable Universe. Here, we find that when the inflaton slowly passes by a neighboring vacuum, the nucleating rate of supercritical bubbles would inevitably attain a peak, so the mass distribution of multiverse PBHs, and the mass of peak can be up to $M\gtrsim 10^{11}M_\odot$. Thus our mechanism naturally provides a primordial origin of supermassive BHs.

Quantum decoherence effects in neutrinos, described by the open quantum systems formalism, serve as a gateway to explore potential new physics, including quantum gravity. Previous research extensively investigated these effects across various neutrino sources, imposing stringent constraints on spontaneous loss of coherence. In this study, we demonstrate that even within the Supernovae environment, where neutrinos are released as incoherent states, quantum decoherence could influence the flavor equipartition of $3\nu$ mixing. Additionally, we examine the potential energy dependence of quantum decoherence parameters ($\Gamma = \Gamma_0 (E/E_0)^n$) with different power laws ($n = 0, 2, 5/2$). Our findings indicate that future-generation detectors (DUNE, Hyper-K, and JUNO) can significantly constrain quantum decoherence effects under different scenarios. For a Supernova located 10 kpc away from Earth, DUNE could potentially establish $3\sigma$ bounds of $\Gamma \leq 6.2 \times 10^{-14}$ eV in the normal mass hierarchy (NH) scenario, while Hyper-K could impose a $2\sigma$ limit of $\Gamma \leq 3.6 \times 10^{-14}$ eV for the inverted mass hierarchy (IH) scenario with $n=0$ - assuming no energy exchange between the neutrino subsystem and non-standard environment ($[H,V_p] = 0$). These limits become even more restrictive for a closer Supernova. When we relax the assumption of energy exchange ($[H,V_p] \neq 0$), DUNE can establish a $3\sigma$ limit of $\Gamma_8 \leq 4.2 \times 10^{-28}$ eV for NH, while Hyper-K could constrain $\Gamma_8 \leq 9.3 \times 10^{-28}$ eV for IH ($n=0$) with the same significance, representing the most stringent bounds reported to date. Furthermore, we examine the impact of neutrino loss during propagation for future Supernova detection.

New physics beyond the Standard Model can give rise to stochastic gravitational wave backgrounds, for example through cosmic strings. In this way, gravitational-wave searches with pulsar-timing arrays as well as existing and future laser interferometers may provide information on particle physics beyond the Standard Model. Here, we take one additional step and link particle physics beyond the Standard Model to quantum gravity. We investigate whether particle physics models that may give rise to cosmic strings can be embedded into an asymptotically safe theory of quantum gravity and matter. We focus on models where cosmic strings arise from U(1)-symmetry-breaking in an extended Yukawa-Abelian-Higgs sector that may be part of a dark sector. We find a negative answer for the simplest model that can give rise to cosmic strings and also find constraints on an extended model. We tentatively conclude that cosmic strings are difficult to accommodate in asymptotically safe models. This fits well with the latest 15-year dataset and search for new physics from the NANOGrav collaboration, which disfavors a stable-cosmic-string interpretation. In that sense, the recent data provide an indirect, albeit at present rather tentative, hint about the quantum theory of gravity.

Interaction of plasma flow with a magnetic obstacles is a frequent process in many laser-plasma experiments in the laboratory, and is an important event in many astrophysical objects: X-ray pulsars, AGN, GRB etc. As a result of plasma penetration through the magnetic wall we could expect a formation of MHD shock waves, as well as of electromagnetic ones. To study these processes we need equations following from hydrodynamic and Maxwell equations, which in the limiting situations describe MHD and EM waves, and are valid for the general case, when both phenomena are present. Here we derive a set of equations following from HD and Maxwell equation, without neglecting a displacement current, needed for a formation of EM waves. We find a dispersion equation describing a propagation of a weak linear wave in a magnetized plasma along the $x$ axis, perpendicular to the magnetic field $H_z(x)$, which contains MHD, HD and EM waves in the limiting cases, and some new types of behaviour in a general situation. We consider a plasma with zero viscosity and heat conductivity, but with a finite electro-conductivity with a scalar coefficient.

It has been shown that both scalar and tensor modes with non-Bunch-Davies initial states can enhance the amplitudes of the primordial bispectra compared to those with the Bunch-Davies state, especially for wavenumber modes in a flattened triangle configuration. However, in the case of the non-Bunch-Davies scalar modes, it has also been found that those enhancements in Fourier space are somewhat reduced in bispectra of cosmic microwave background (CMB) fluctuations. In this paper, we show that the enhancement resulting from the tensor modes is partially reduced to a degree differing from that of the scalar modes, which makes the non-Bunch-Davies effects unobservable in gravitational theories with the same quadratic and cubic operators of the tensor perturbations as general relativity. Furthermore, we present examples of gravitational theories yielding enhancements that would potentially be detected through CMB experiments.

Composite topological structures such as ``superheavy quasi-stable strings" and ``walls bounded by strings" arise in realistic extensions of the Standard Model of high energy physics. We show that the gravitational radiation emitted in the early universe by these two unstable structures, with a dimensionless string tension $G\mu\approx 10^{-6}$, is consistent with the NANOGrav discovery of low frequency gravitational background, as well as the recent LIGO-VIRGO constraints, provided the superheavy strings and monopoles experience a certain amount of inflation. For the case of walls bounded by strings, the domain wall arises from the spontaneous breaking of a remnant discrete gauge symmetry around the electroweak scale. The quasi-stable strings, on the other hand, arise from a two step breaking of a local gauge symmetry. The monopoles appear from the first breaking and get connected to strings that arise from the second breaking. Both composite structures decay by emitting gravitational waves over a wide frequency range.

Recently, the NANOGrav, PPTA, EPTA and CPTA collaborations independently reported their evidence of the Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background (SGWB). While the inferred gravitational-wave background amplitude and spectrum are consistent with astrophysical expectations for a signal from the population of supermassive black-hole binaries (SMBHB), the search for new physics remains plausible in this observational window. In this work, we explore the possibility of explaining such a signal by the scalar-induced gravitational waves (IGWs) in the very early universe. We use a parameterized broken power-law function as a general description of the energy spectrum of the SGWB, and fit it to the newly released results of NANOGrav and PPTA. We find that this method can lead to tight limits on the parameter space of IGWs and further yield restrictions on various inflation models that may produce PBHs in the early universe, which is also expected to be examined by the forthcoming space-based GW experiments.

In this work, we present novel analytical solutions for static and spherically symmetric wormhole geometries threaded by an anisotropic distribution of matter conformally coupled to a scalar ghost field. We explore the main features of the theory, such as the dynamics of the scalar field and matter throughout the wormhole, as well as the role played by the non-minimal coupling. Furthermore, coupled ghosts in the presence of a scalar potential are considered and traversability conditions are analysed within such geometrical scheme. More specifically, we find analytical solutions that although the energy density of the ghost is strictly negative, the energy density of matter may attain positive values.

The recent results from the Pulsar Timing Array (PTA) collaborations show the first evidence for the detection of a stochastic background of gravitational waves at the nHz frequencies. This discovery has profound implications for the physics of both the late and the early Universe. In fact, together with the possible interpretation in terms of super massive black hole binaries, many sources in the early Universe can provide viable explanations as well. In this paper, we study the gravitational wave background sourced by a network of axion-like-particle (ALP) domain walls at temperatures around the QCD crossover, where the QCD-induced potential provides the necessary bias to annihilate the network. Remarkably, this implies a peak amplitude at frequencies around the sensitivity range of PTAs. We extend previous analysis by taking into account the unavoidable friction on the network stemming from the topological coupling of the ALP to QCD in terms of gluon and pion reflection off the domain walls at high and low temperatures, respectively. We identify the regions of parameter space where the network annihilates in the scaling regime ensuring compatibility with the PTA results, as well as those where friction can be important and a more detailed study around the QCD crossover is required.

Recently, NANOGrav has reported the observation of a stochastic gravitational wave background (SGWB) at nano-Hertz frequencies. String-wall networks and domain walls have been proposed as possible sources. To be cosmologically viable, these topological defect networks must annihilate before they dominate the energy budget of the universe, producing a SGWB. However, a part of the network can copiously produce primordial black holes that exceed current bounds. Performing a Bayesian analysis of pulsar timing residual datasets we find that the SGWB detected in PTA data is therefore hardly compatible with such an origin. This lends credibility to other interpretations, including supermassive black hole mergers, first order phase transitions, Nambu-Goto strings, and curvature-induced gravitational waves.