Papers for Monday, Jul 17 2023

The present work is devoted to the study of faint Be stars observed by CoRoT in the fourth long run (LRA02). The astrophysical parameters were determined from the spectra observed with the VLT/FLAMES instruments at ESO. Spectra were fitted with models of stellar atmospheres using our GIRFIT package. Spectra in the lambda-lambda 6400-7200$ AA domain enabled the confirmation or a first identification of Be star candidates. The apparent parameters (Teff,log g,Vsin i) for a set of 19 B and Be stars were corrected for the effects induced by the rapid rotation. These allowed us to determine: 1) masses that are in agreement with those measured for detached binary systems; 2) distances that agree with the GAIA parallaxes; and 3) centrifugal/gravity equatorial force ratios of ~0.6-0.7, which indicate that our Be stars are subcritical rotators. A study of the Balmer Halpha, Hgamma and Hdelta emission lines produced: extents of the circumstellar disk (CD) emitting regions that agree with the interferometric inferences in other Be stars; R-dependent exponents n(R) of the CD radial density distributions; CD base densities. The Hgamma and Hdelta emission lines are formed in CD layers close to the central star. These lines produced a different value of the exponent n(R) than assumed for Halpha. Further detailed studies of Hgamma and Hdelta emission lines could reveal the physical properties of regions where the viscous transport of angular momentum to the remaining CD regions is likely to originate from. The subcritical rotation of Be stars suggests that their huge discrete mass-ejections and concomitant non-radial pulsations might have a common origin in stellar envelope regions that become unstable to convection due to rotation. The errors induced on the estimated Teff by the possible presence of stripped sub-dwarf O/B companions are not likely to exceed their present uncertainties.

The Solar Submillimeter Telescope (SST) is an unique instrument that has been observing the Sun daily since 2001 bringing a wealth of information and raising new questions about the particle acceleration and transport, and emission mechanisms during flares. We are now designing its successor, the SSTng, that will expand the scientific goals of the instrument, including non-solar source observations.

To detect Earth-mass planets using the Doppler method, a major obstacle is to differentiate the planetary signal from intrinsic stellar variability (e.g., pulsations, granulation, spots and plages). Convective blueshift, which results from small-scale convection at the surface of Sun-like stars, is relevant for Earth-twin detections as it exhibits Doppler noise on the order of 1 m/s. Here, we present a simple model for convective blueshift based on fundamental equations of stellar structure. Our model successfully matches observations of convective blueshift for FGK stars. Based on our model, we also compute the intrinsic noise floor for stellar granulation in the radial velocity observations. We find that for a given mass range, stars with higher metallicities display lower radial-velocity dispersion due to granulation, in agreement with MHD simulations. We also provide a set of formulae to predict the amplitude of radial-velocity dispersion due to granulation as a function of stellar parameters. Our work is vital in identifying the most amenable stellar targets for EPRV surveys and radial velocity follow-up programmes for TESS, CHEOPS, and the upcoming PLATO mission.

The black hole candidate XTE J2012+381 underwent an outburst at the end of 2022. We analyzed 105 NICER observations and 2 NuSTAR observations of the source during the outburst. The NuSTAR observations of the $M \sim10M_\odot$ black hole indicate clear signs of relativistic disk reflection, which we modeled to measure a BH spin of $a=0.988^{+0.008}_{-0.030}$ and an inclination of $\theta=68^{+6}_{-11}$ degrees ($1\sigma$ statistical errors). In our analysis, we test an array of models and examine the effect of fitting NuSTAR spectra alone versus fitting simultaneously with NICER. We find that when the underlying continuum emission is properly accounted for, the reflected emission is similarly characterized by multiple models. We combined 52 NICER spectra to obtain a spectrum with an effective exposure of 190 ks in order to probe the presence of absorption lines that would be suggestive of disk winds, but the resulting features were not statistically significant. We discuss the implications of this measurement in relation to the overall BH spin distribution in X-ray binary systems.

We develop in detail a recently proposed optical-path modification of astronomical intensity interferometers. Extended-Path Intensity Correlation (EPIC) introduces a tunable path extension, enabling differential astrometry of multiple compact sources such as stars and quasars at separations of up to a few arcseconds. Combined with other recent technological advances in spectroscopy and fast single-photon detection, a ground-based intensity interferometer array can achieve microarcsecond resolution and even better light-centroiding accuracy on bright sources of magnitude $m \lesssim 15$. We lay out the theory and technical requirements of EPIC, and discuss the scientific potential. Promising applications include astrometric lensing of stars and quasar images, binary-orbit characterization, exoplanet detection, Galactic acceleration measurements and calibration of the cosmic distance ladder. The introduction of the path extension thus significantly increases the scope of intensity interferometry while reaching unprecedented levels of relative astrometric precision.

The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) will detect gravitational waves (GWs) emitted by massive black hole binaries (MBHBs) in the low-frequency ($\sim$mHz) band. Low-mass lenses, such as dark-matter (DM) subhalos, have sizes comparable to the wavelength of these GWs. Encounters with these lenses produce wave-optics (WO) effects that alter waveform phase and amplitude. Thus, a single event with observable WO effects can be used to probe the lens properties. In this paper, we first compute the probability of observing WO effects in a model-agnostic way. We perform parameter estimation over approximately 1000 MBHBs with total mass, mass ratio, and redshift spanning the ranges relevant to LISA. We then calculate lensing rates using three semi-analytical models of MBHB populations. In both cases, we use a waveform model that includes merger, ringdown, and higher-order modes. We use two lens population models: the theory-based Press-Schechter halo mass function and an observation-based model derived from Sloan Digital Sky Survey, called the measured velocity function. We find that the probability of detecting WO effects can be as large as $\sim 3\%$, $\sim1.5\%$, and $\sim 1 \%$ at $1\sigma$, $3\sigma$, and $5\sigma$ confidence levels, respectively. The most optimistic MBHB population model yields $\sim 8$, $\sim 4$, and $\sim 3$ events at the same confidence levels, while the rates drop to $\sim 0.01$ in the more pessimistic scenarios. The most likely lens masses probed by LISA are in the range $(10^3, 10^8)\, M_{\odot}$, and the most probable redshifts are in the range $(0.3, 1.7)$. Therefore, LISA observations of WO effects can probe DM subhalos, complementing strong lensing and other observations.

Using membership of 85 open clusters from previous studies (Pang et al. 2021a,b, 2022b; Li et al. 2021) based on Gaia DR3 data, we identify binary candidates in the color-magnitude diagram, for systems with mass ratio q > 0.4. The binary fraction is corrected for incompleteness at different distances due to the Gaia angular resolution limit. We find a decreasing binary fraction with increasing cluster age, with substantial scatter. For clusters with a total mass > 200$M_\odot$, the binary fraction is independent of cluster mass. The binary fraction depends strongly on stellar density. Among four types of cluster environments, the lowest-density filamentary and fractal stellar groups have the highest mean binary fraction: 23.6% and 23.2%, respectively. The mean binary fraction in tidal-tail clusters is 20.8%, and is lowest in the densest halo-type clusters: 14.8%. We find clear evidence of early disruptions of binary stars in the cluster sample. The radial binary fraction depends strongly on the cluster-centric distance across all four types of environments, with the smallest binary fraction within the half-mass radius $r_h$, and increasing towards a few $r_h$. Only hints of mass segregation is found in the target clusters. The observed amount of mass segregation is not significant to generate a global effect inside the target clusters. We evaluate the bias of unresolved binary systems (assuming a primary mass of 1$M_\odot$) in 1D tangential velocity, which is 0.1-1$\,\rm km\,s^{-1}$. Further studies are required to characterize the internal star cluster kinematics using Gaia proper motions.

We present the results of our study of the luminous (L_{X} ~ 10^{39} erg/s) X-ray binary CXOU J121538.2+361921 in NGC 4214, the high mass X-ray binary with the shortest known orbital period. Using Chandra data, we confirm the ~13,000 s (3.6 hr) eclipse period, and an eclipse duration of ~2000 s. From this, we estimate a mass ratio M_2/M_1 >~ 3 and a stellar density of about 6 g cm^{-3}, which implies that the donor must be a Wolf-Rayet or a stripped Helium star. The eclipse egress is consistently much slower than the ingress. This can be explained by denser gas located either in front of the compact object (as expected for a bow shock) or trailing the donor star (as expected for a shadow wind, launched from the shaded side of the donor). There is no change in X-ray spectral shape with changing flux during the egress, which suggests either variable partial covering of the X-ray source by opaque clumps or, more likely, a grey opacity dominated by electron scattering in a highly ionized medium. We identify the optical counterpart from Hubble images. Photometry blueward of ~5500 Ang indicates a bright (M_{B} = -3.6 +/- 0.3 mag, for a range of plausible extinctions), hot (T = 90,000 +/- 30,000 K) emitter, consistent with the Wolf-Rayet scenario. There is also a bright (M_{I} ~ -5.2 mag), cool (T = 2700 +/- 300 K) component consistent with an irradiated circumbinary disk or with a chance projection of an unrelated asymptotic giant branch star along the same line of sight.

We present high-resolution 1.5--6 GHz Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) and $\textit{Hubble Space Telescope}$ ($\textit{HST}$) optical and infrared observations of the extremely active repeating fast radio burst (FRB) FRB$\,$20201124A and its barred spiral host galaxy. We constrain the location and morphology of star formation in the host and search for a persistent radio source (PRS) coincident with FRB$\,$20201124A. We resolve the morphology of the radio emission across all frequency bands and measure a star formation rate SFR $\approx 8.9\,M_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$, a factor of $\approx 4-6$ larger than optically-inferred SFRs, demonstrating dust-obscured star formation throughout the host. Compared to a sample of all known FRB hosts with radio emission, the host of FRB$\,$20201124A has the most significant obscured star formation. While ${\it HST}$ observations show the FRB to be offset from the bar or spiral arms, the radio emission extends to the FRB location. We propose that the FRB progenitor could have formed $\textit{in situ}$ (e.g., a magnetar central engine born from the explosion of a massive star). It is still plausible, although less likely, that the progenitor of FRB$\,$20201124A migrated from the central bar of the host, e.g., via a runaway massive star. We further place a limit on the luminosity of a putative PRS at the FRB position of $L_{\rm 6.0 \ GHz}$ $\lesssim$ 2.6 $\times$ $10^{27}$ erg s$^{-1}$ Hz$^{-1}$, two orders of magnitude below any PRS known to date. However, this limit is still broadly consistent with both magnetar nebulae and hypernebulae models assuming a constant energy injection rate of the magnetar and an age of $\gtrsim 10^{5}$ yr in each model, respectively.

We describe the current state of the Burke-Gaffney Observatory (BGO) at Saint Mary's University - a unique fully roboticized remote-access observatory that allows students to carry out imaging, photometry, and spectroscopy projects remotely from anywhere in the world via a web browser or social media. Stellar spectroscopy is available with the ALPY 600 low resolution grism spectrograph equipped with a CCD detector. We describe our custom CCD spectroscopy reduction procedure written in the Python programming language and demonstrate the quality of fits of synthetic spectra computed with the ChromaStarServer (CSS) code to BGO spectra. The facility along with the accompanying Python BGO spectroscopy reduction package and the CSS spectrum synthesis code provide an accessible means for students anywhere to carry our projects at the undergraduate honours level. BGO web pages for potential observers are at the site: observatory.smu.ca/bgo-useme. All codes are available from the OpenStars www site: openstars.smu.ca/

A planet's orbital eccentricity is fundamental to understanding the present dynamical state of a system and is a relic of its formation history. There is high scientific value in measuring eccentricities of Kepler and TESS planets given the sheer size of these samples and the diversity of their planetary systems. However, Kepler and TESS lightcurves typically only permit robust determinations of planet-to-star radius ratio $r$, orbital period $P$, and transit mid-point $t_0$. Three other orbital properties, including impact parameter $b$, eccentricity $e$, and argument of periastron $\omega$, are more challenging to measure because they are all encoded in the lightcurve through subtle effects on a single observable -- the transit duration $T_{14}$. In Gilbert, MacDougall, & Petigura (2022), we showed that a five-parameter transit description $\{P, t_0, r, b, T_{14}\}$ naturally yields unbiased measurements of $r$ and $b$. Here, we build upon our previous work and introduce an accurate and efficient prescription to measure $e$ and $\omega$. We validate this approach through a suite of injection-and-recovery experiments. Our method agrees with previous approaches that use a seven-parameter transit description $\{P, t_0, r, b, \rho_\star, e, \omega\}$ which explicitly fits the eccentricity vector and mean stellar density. The five-parameter method is simpler than the seven-parameter method and is "future-proof" in that posterior samples can be quickly reweighted (via importance sampling) to accommodate updated priors and updated stellar properties. This method thus circumvents the need for an expensive reanalysis of the raw photometry, offering a streamlined path toward large-scale population analyses of eccentricity from transit surveys.

Accurately modeling the cold gas content in the universe is challenging for current theoretical models. We propose a new empirical model NeutralUniverseMachine for the evolution of HI and H$_2$ gas along with dark matter halos based on the UniverseMachine catalog. It is able to accurately describe the observed HI and H$_2$ mass functions, molecular-to-atomic ratio, HI-halo mass relation, HI/H$_2$-stellar mass relations at $z\sim0$, as well as the evolution of cosmic gas densities $\rho_{\rm HI}$ and $\rho_{\rm H_2}$ in $0<z<6$. The predictions from our model include: (i) There is weak evolution of HI mass function in $0<z<3$, but the evolution of H$_2$ mass function is much stronger at the massive end. (ii) The average HI and H$_2$ masses at a given stellar mass decrease by around 1 dex since $z=3$ for the star-forming galaxies, but the evolution for the quenched galaxies is much weaker. (iii) Star-forming galaxies have varying HI depletion time $\tau_{\rm HI}$ from 0.1 Gyr to 10 Gyr, and the dependence of $\tau_{\rm HI}$ on stellar mass and redshift is much stronger than those of H$_2$ depletion time. The quenched galaxies have much longer gas depletion time and weaker redshift evolution. (iv) The cosmic baryon density associated with galaxies is dominated by stars for $z<1.2$ and mainly contributed by HI gas at higher redshifts. (v) The HI bias gradually increases with the redshift from 0.69 to 2.33 in $0<z<3$ and is consistent with recent HI intensity mapping experiments.

The minimum variation timescale (MVT) of soft gamma-ray repeaters can be an important probe to estimate the emission region in pulsar-like models, as well as the Lorentz factor and radius of the possible relativistic jet in gamma-ray burst (GRB)-like models, thus revealing their progenitors and physical mechanisms. In this work, we systematically study the MVTs of hundreds of X-ray bursts (XRBs) from SGR J1935+2154 observed by {\it Insight}-HXMT, GECAM and Fermi/GBM from July 2014 to Jan 2022 through the Bayesian Block algorithm. We find that the MVTs peak at $\sim$ 2 ms, corresponding to a light travel time size of about 600 km, which supports the magnetospheric origin in pulsar-like models. The shock radius and the Lorentz factor of the jet are also constrained in GRB-like models. Interestingly, the MVT of the XRB associated with FRB 200428 is $\sim$ 70 ms, which is longer than that of most bursts and implies its special radiation mechanism. Besides, the median of MVTs is 7 ms, shorter than the median MVTs of 40 ms and 480 ms for short GRBs or long GRBs, respectively. However, the MVT is independent of duration, similar to GRBs. Finally, we investigate the energy dependence of MVT and suggest that there is a marginal evidence for a power-law relationship like GRBs but the rate of variation is at least about an order of magnitude smaller. These features may provide an approach to identify bursts with a magnetar origin.

The tumultuous early era of outer solar system evolution culminated when Neptune migrated across the primordial Kuiper belt (PKB) and triggered a dynamical instability among the giant planets. This event led to the ejection of approximately 99.9\% of the PKB (here called the destabilized population), heavy bombardment of the giant planet satellites, and the capture of Jupiter's Trojans. While this scenario has been widely tested using dynamical models, there have been fewer investigations into how the PKB, its destabilized population, and the Trojans experienced collisional evolution. Here we examined this issue for all three populations with the code Boulder. Our constraints included the size-frequency distributions (SFDs) of the Trojan asteroids and craters on the giant planet satellites. Using this combination, we solved for the unknown disruption law affecting bodies in these populations. The weakest ones, from an impact energy per mass perspective, were 20 m in diameter. Overall, collisional evolution produces a power-law-like shape for multikilometer Trojans and a wavy-shaped SFD in the PKB and destabilized populations. The latter can explain (i) the shapes of the ancient and younger crater SFDs observed on the giant planet satellites, (ii) the shapes of the Jupiter family and long-period comet SFDs, which experienced different degrees of collision evolution, and (iii) the present-day impact frequency of superbolides on Jupiter and smaller projectiles on Saturn's rings. Our model results also indicate that many observed comets, most which are smaller than 10 km in diameter, are likely to be gravitational aggregates formed by large-scale collision events.

As the brightest Gamma-Ray burst (GRB) ever detected, GRB 221009A may offer a chance that reveals some interesting features which are hidden in those bursts that are not so bright. There seems a very weak emission with a flux of $10^{-8}\sim10^{-7}$ erg cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ between the first pulse ($T_0\sim T_0+50$~s, $T_0$ is the trigger time) and the main burst (appears from $T_0+180$ s). Thus the gap time between them is not really quiescent, and the first pulse could be taken as an unconventional precursor, which may provide a peculiar case study for the GRB-precursor phenomena. A two-stage collapsar scenario is proposed as the most likely origin for this burst. In this model, the jet for the precursor is produced during the initial core-collapse phase, and should be weak enough not to disrupt the star when it breaks out of the envelope, so that the fallback accretion process and the forming of the disk could continue. We present an approach in which the duration and flux both provide constraints on the luminosity ($L_{\rm j}$) and the Lorentz factor at the breakout time ($\Gamma_{\rm b}$) of this weak jet. The estimated $L_{\rm j}\lesssim 10^{49}$ erg s$^{-1}$ and $\Gamma_{\rm b}$ has an order of ten, which are well consistent with the theoretical prediction. Besides, the weak emission in the gap time could be interpreted as a MHD outflow due to a magnetically driven wind during the period from the proto-neutron star phase to forming the accretion disk in this scenario.

The positron excess in cosmic rays has stimulated a lot of interests in the last decade. The dark matter origin of the extra positrons has attracted great attention. However, the $\gamma$-ray search set very stringent constraints on the dark matter annihilation/decay rate, which leads to great disfavor of the dark matter scenario. In the work, we incorporate the recent progress in cosmic rays propagation and reexamine the dark matter scenario accounting for the positron excess. Recent observations indicate that cosmic rays propagation in the Milky Way may be not uniform and diffusion in the Galactic disk should be slower than that in the halo. In the spatial-dependent propagation model, the positrons/electrons are more concentrated in the disk and lead to smaller dark matter annihilation/decay rate to account for the positron excess and also a smaller deficit in the background positron flux. Especially for the $\mu^+\mu^-$ channel the positron spectrum fit the AMS-02 latest data perfectly and the annihilation rate satisfies all the present constraints from $\gamma$-ray and CMB observations.

High-energy neutrinos are detected by the IceCube Observatory in the direction of NGC 1068, the archetypical type II Seyfert galaxy. The neutrino flux, surprisingly, is more than an order of magnitude higher than the $\gamma$-ray upper limits at measured TeV energy, posing tight constraints on the physical conditions of a neutrino production site. We report an analysis of the sub-millimeter, mid-infrared, and ultraviolet observations of the central $50$ pc of NGC 1068 and suggest that the inner dusty torus and the region where the jet interacts with the surrounding interstellar medium (ISM) may be a potential neutrino production site. Based on radiation and magnetic field properties derived from observations, we calculate the electromagnetic cascade of the $\gamma$-rays accompanying the neutrinos. Our model may explain the observed neutrino flux above $\sim 10$ TeV and contribute to 20% of the neutrino flux at 3 TeV. It predicts a unique sub-TeV $\gamma$-ray component, which could be identified by a future observation. Jet-ISM interactions are commonly observed in the proximity of jets of both supermassive and stellar-mass black holes. Our results imply that such interaction regions could be $\gamma$-ray obscured neutrino production sites, which are needed to explain the IceCube diffuse neutrino flux.

We report observations of a remarkable major axes alignment nearly parallel to the Galactic plane of 5{\sigma} significance for a subset of bulge "planetary nebulae" (PNe) that host, or are inferred to host, short period binaries. Nearly all are bipolar. It is solely this specific PNe population that accounts for the much weaker statistical alignments previously reported for the more general bulge PNe. It is clear evidence of a persistent, organised process acting on a measurable parameter at the heart of our Galaxy over perhaps cosmologically significant periods of time for this very particular PNe sample. Stable magnetic fields are currently the only plausible mechanism that could affect multiple binary star orbits as revealed by the observed major axes orientations of their eventual PNe. Examples are fed into the current bulge planetary nebulae population at a rate determined by their formation history and mass range of their binary stellar progenitors.

This is the first in a series of papers on the properties of ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs) in clusters of galaxies. We present an updated catalog of UDGs in the Coma cluster using \textit{g}- and \textit{r}-band images obtained with Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) of the Subaru telescope. We develop a method to find UDGs even in the presence of contaminating objects, such as halos and background galaxies. This study expands upon our previous works that covered about half the area of the Coma cluster. The HSC observations covered the whole Coma cluster up to the virial radius and beyond (an area twice larger than the previous studies) and doubled the numbers of UDGs ($r_{\rm eff, r} \geq 1.5$ kpc) and sub-UDGs ($1.0 \leq r_{\rm eff, r} < 1.5$ kpc) to 774 and 729 respectively. The new UDGs show internal properties consistent with those of the previous studies (e.g., S\'ersic index of approximately 1), and are distributed across the cluster, with a concentration around the cluster center. The whole cluster coverage clearly revealed an excess of their distribution toward the east to south-west direction along the cluster center, where Coma connects to the large scale structure, and where a known substructure exists (the NGC4839 subgroup). The alignment of the UDG distribution along the large scale structure around Coma supports the interpretation that most of them lie at the distance of the Coma cluster and the NGC4839 subgroup.

In this review we summarize results of our analysis of the observations of solar eruptive flares made by the Ond\v{r}ejov radiospectrograph for more than twenty years. We also present some Potsdam-Tremsdorf radio spectra from our common studies. Considering a 3-dimensional model of eruptive flares together with the results of our magnetohydrodynamic and particle-in-cell simulations we show an importance of decimetric radio bursts for understanding of plasma processes in eruptive flares. We present drifting pulsation structures as signatures of plasmoids, an unusual zebra pattern in the very early flare stage, narrowband dm-spikes as the bursts generated in the reconnection plasma outflows, radio bursts indicating a merging of plasmoids, pair of decimetric type III bursts indicating the electron beams propagating upwards and downwards in the solar atmosphere from the acceleration site, and a special decimetric type III burst formed probably around the plasmoid. We present unusual radio bursts connected with the rising magnetic rope at the very beginning of eruptive flares. Furthermore, based on the analysis of decimetric continua we estimated the level of the plasma turbulence in a vicinity of the flare termination shock. Interpretations of all these bursts are based on models and time coincidences with observations in X-ray, UV and optical ranges; in most cases an information about positions of these radio sources is missing. To show an importance of positional information, we present a rare example of observations, where the drifting pulsation structure was observed simultaneously with the observations made by the EOVSA radiointerferometer. All the presented bursts are then summarized in a new scheme of bursts and compared with the schema commonly used.

Asteroseismology provides a new avenue for accurately measuring the masses of evolved globular cluster (GC) stars through the detection of their solar-like oscillations. We present the first detections of solar-like oscillations in 47 red giant branch (RGB) and early asymptotic giant branch (EAGB) stars in the metal-poor GC M80; only the second ever with measured seismic masses. We investigate two major areas of stellar evolution and GC science; the multiple populations and stellar mass-loss. We detected a distinct bimodality in the EAGB mass distribution. We showed that this is likely due to sub-population membership. If confirmed, it would be the first direct measurement of a mass difference between sub-populations. A mass difference was not detected between the sub-populations in our RGB sample. We instead measured an average RGB mass of $0.782\pm0.009~\msun$, which we interpret as the average between the sub-populations. Differing mass-loss rates on the RGB has been proposed as the second parameter that could explain the horizontal branch (HB) morphology variations between GCs. We calculated an integrated RGB mass-loss separately for each sub-population: $0.12\pm0.02~\msun$ (SP1) and $0.25\pm0.02~\msun$ (SP2). Thus, SP2 stars have greatly enhanced mass-loss on the RGB. Mass-loss is thought to scale with metallicity, which we confirm by comparing our results to a higher metallicity GC, M4. We also find that M80 stars have insignificant mass-loss on the HB. This is different to M4, suggesting that there is a metallicity and temperature dependence in the HB mass-loss. Finally, our study shows the robustness of the $\Delta\nu$-independent mass scaling relation in the low-metallicity (and low-surface gravity) regime.

The studies and constraints on the emission region are crucial to the blazar radiation mechanism. Yet the previous works mainly focus on individual sources. In this work, we make use of the largest and the latest spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting results in the literature to statistically study the blazar emission region property in the framework of leptonic one-zone. Our results reveal (1) FSRQs show lower electron energy ($\gamma_{\rm p} \lesssim 1.6 \times 10^{3}$) than BL Lacs and tend to have a stronger magnetic field ($B$) and smaller electron-to-magnetic energy ratio ($U_{\rm e}/U_{\rm B}$) than BL Lacs; (2) we find the electro-magnetic equipartition would rather happen in the jets of BL Lacs than happen in the jets of FSRQs; (3) there are 682 blazars with a magnetic field weaker critical value of generating the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, thus one-third of the blazars in our sample are able to produce this instability; (4) the distance ($d_{\rm em}$) between the emission region and the central black hole (BH) is in the scale of $\sim$0.1 pc, the location of the emission region may be evenly distributed inside and outside the broad line region (BLR).

The ARIANNA experiment is an Askaryan radio detector designed to measure high-energy neutrino induced cascades within the Antarctic ice. Ultra-high-energy neutrinos above $10^{16}$ eV have an extremely low flux, so experimental data captured at trigger level need to be classified correctly to retain more neutrino signal. We first describe two new physics-based neutrino selection methods, or "cuts", (the updown and dipole cut) that extend a previously published analysis to a specialized ARIANNA station with 8 antenna channels, which is double the number used in the prior analysis. The new cuts produce a neutrino efficiency of > 95% per station-year, while rejecting 99.93% of the background (corresponding to 53 remaining events). When the new cuts are combined with a previously developed cut using neutrino waveform templates, all background is removed at no change of efficiency. In addition, the neutrino efficiency is extrapolated to 1,000 station-years of operation, obtaining 91%. This work then introduces a new selection method (the deep learning cut) to augment the identification of neutrino events by using deep learning methods and compares the efficiency to the physics-based analysis. The deep learning cut gives 99% signal efficiency per station-year of operation while rejecting 99.997% of the background (corresponding to 2 remaining experimental background events), which are subsequently removed by the waveform template cut at no significant change in efficiency. The results of the deep learning cut were verified using measured cosmic rays which shows that the simulations do not introduce artifacts with respect to experimental data. The paper demonstrates that the background rejection and signal efficiency of near surface antennas meets the requirements of a large scale future array, as considered in baseline design of the radio component of IceCube-Gen2.

The Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope has carried out a survey of the entire Southern Sky at 887.5MHz. The wide area, high angular resolution, and broad bandwidth provided by the low-band Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey (RACS-low) allow the production of a next-generation rotation measure (RM) grid across the entire Southern Sky. Here we introduce this project as Spectral and Polarisation in Cutouts of Extragalactic sources from RACS (SPICE-RACS). In our first data release, we image 30 RACS-low fields in Stokes $I$, $Q$, $U$ at 25'' angular resolution, across 744 to 1032MHz with 1MHz spectral resolution. Using a bespoke, highly parallelised, software pipeline we are able to rapidly process wide-area spectro-polarimetric ASKAP observations. Notably, we use 'postage stamp' cutouts to assess the polarisation properties of \ncomponents\ radio components detected in total intensity. We find that our Stokes $Q$ and $U$ images have an rms noise of ~80$\mu$Jy/PSF, and our correction for instrumental polarisation leakage allows us to characterise components with >1% polarisation fraction over most of the field of view. We produce a broadband polarised radio component catalogue that contains \nrms\ RM measurements over an area of ~1300deg^2 with an average error in RM of 1.6+1.1-1.0rad/m^2, and an average linear polarisation fraction 3.4+3.0-1.6%. We determine this subset of components using the conditions that the polarised signal-to-noise ratio is $>8$, the polarisation fraction is above our estimated polarised leakage, and the Stokes $I$ spectrum has a reliable model. Our catalogue provides an areal density of $4\pm2$ RMs/deg^2; an increase of $\sim4$ times over the previous state-of-the-art (Taylor et al. 2009). Meaning that, having used just 3% of the RACS-low sky area, we have produced the 3rd largest RM catalogue to date. This catalogue has broad applications for studying...

In the past few years, there has been a resurgence in studies towards space-based optical/infrared interferometry, particularly with the vision to use the technique to discover and characterise temperate Earth-like exoplanets around solar analogues. One of the key technological leaps needed to make such a mission feasible is demonstrating that formation flying precision at the level needed for interferometry is possible. Here, we present $\textit{Pyxis}$, a ground-based demonstrator for a future small satellite mission with the aim to demonstrate the precision metrology needed for space-based interferometry. We describe the science potential of such a ground-based instrument, and detail the various subsystems: three six-axis robots, a multi-stage metrology system, an integrated optics beam combiner and the control systems required for the necessary precision and stability. We end by looking towards the next stage of $\textit{Pyxis}$: a collection of small satellites in Earth orbit.

In this paper, we investigate the interaction between early dark energy (EDE) and scalar field dark matter, proposing a coupled scalar fields model to address the Hubble tension and $S_8$ tension. While the EDE model successfully alleviates the Hubble tension, it exacerbates the $S_8$ tension. To mitigate the negative impact of EDE, we introduce the interaction between EDE and dark matter. Specifically, we replace cold dark matter with scalar field dark matter, given its capability to suppress structure growth on small scales. We constrained the new model using cosmological observations including the temperature and polarization anisotropy power spectra data of cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) from \textit{Planck} 2018 results, baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) measurements extracted from 6dFGS, SDSS and BOSS, the Pantheon sample of type Ia supernovae (SNIa), the local distance-ladder data (SH0ES), and the Dark Energy Survey Year-3 data. Employing Markov Chain Monte Carlo method, we find that this novel model yields best-fit values of $H_0$ and $S_8$ equal to $71.13$ km/s/Mpc and $0.8256$, respectively. Compared to the $\Lambda$CDM model, the new model alleviates the Hubble tension but still fails to resolve the $S_8$ tension. However, we obtain a smaller value of $S_8$ compared to the result of $0.8316$ obtained for EDE model, which mitigates to some extent the shortcoming of the EDE model.

The accuracy of Bayesian inference can be negatively affected by the use of inaccurate forward models. In the case of gravitational-wave inference, accurate but computationally expensive waveform models are sometimes substituted with faster but approximate ones. The model error introduced by this substitution can be mitigated in various ways, one of which is by interpolating and marginalizing over the error using Gaussian process regression. However, the use of Gaussian process regression is limited by the curse of dimensionality, which makes it less effective for analyzing higher-dimensional parameter spaces and longer signal durations. In this work, to address this limitation, we focus on gravitational-wave signals from extreme-mass-ratio inspirals as an example, and propose several significant improvements to the base method: an improved prescription for constructing the training set, GPU-accelerated training algorithms, and a new likelihood that better adapts the base method to the presence of detector noise. Our results suggest that the new method is more viable for the analysis of realistic gravitational-wave data.

The comparative primary cosmic rays (PCR) comparative analysis by E0 and the spectra of variable stars by periods is carried out in order to establish the causes of irregularities in the spectrum of PCR by E0. The relationship between the periods of variable stars and the maximum energy E0 of the nuclei of PCRs generated by these types of stars is shown. Irregularities in the PCR spectrum by E0 are associated with the transition from one dominant stars type to another. The knee in the PCR spectrum at E0 = 3-5 PeV is associated with a decrease in the contribution of SRB variability stars and a further increase in the contribution of Mira variable stars to the PCR flux. The bump in the PCR spectrum with a maximum at E0 = 80 PeV is formed by giant stars and super-giants of the Mira and SRC variability.

Baikal-GVD has recently published its first measurement of the diffuse astrophysical neutrino flux, performed using high-energy cascade-like events. We further explore the Baikal-GVD cascade dataset collected in 2018-2022, with the aim to identify possible associations between the Baikal-GVD neutrinos and known astrophysical sources. We leverage the relatively high angular resolution of the Baikal-GVD neutrino telescope (2-3 deg.), made possible by the use of liquid water as the detection medium, enabling the study of astrophysical point sources even with cascade events. We estimate the telescope's sensitivity in the cascade channel for high-energy astrophysical sources and refine our analysis prescriptions using Monte-Carlo simulations. We primarily focus on cascades with energies exceeding 100 TeV, which we employ to search for correlation with radio-bright blazars. Although the currently limited neutrino sample size provides no statistically significant effects, our analysis suggests a number of possible associations with both extragalactic and Galactic sources. Specifically, we present an analysis of an observed triplet of neutrino candidate events in the Galactic plane, focusing on its potential connection with certain Galactic sources, and discuss the coincidence of cascades with several bright and flaring blazars.

In stellar-dense environments, stars can collide with each other. For collisions close to a supermassive black hole (SMBH), the collisional kinetic energy can be so large that the colliding stars can be completely destroyed, potentially releasing an amount of energy comparable to that of a supernova. These violent events have been examined mostly analytically, with the non-linear hydrodynamical effects being left largely unstudied. Using the moving-mesh hydrodynamics code {\small AREPO}, we investigate high-velocity ($>10^{3}$ km/s) collisions between 1M$_{\odot}$ giants with varying radii, impact parameters, and initial approaching velocities, and estimate their observables. Very strong shocks across the collision surface efficiently convert $\gtrsim10\%$ of the initial kinetic energy into radiation energy. The outcome is a gas cloud expanding supersonically, homologously, and quasi-spherically, generating a flare with a peak luminosity $\simeq 10^{41}-10^{44}$ erg/s in the extreme UV band ($\simeq 10$ eV). The luminosity decreases approximately following a power-law $t^{-0.7}$ initially, then $t^{-0.4}$ after $t\simeq$10 days at which point it would be bright in the optical band ($\lesssim 1$eV). Subsequent, and possibly even brighter, emission would be generated due to the accretion of the gas cloud onto the nearby SMBH, possibly lasting up to multi-year timescales. This inevitable BH-collision product interaction can contribute to the growth of BHs at all mass scales, in particular, seed BHs at high redshifts. Furthermore, the proximity of the events to the central BH makes them a potential tool for probing the existence of dormant BHs, even very massive ones which cannot be probed by tidal disruption events.

RDSim is a fast, accurate and flexible framework for the simulation of the radio emission of downgoing air showers and its detection by an arbitrary array, including showers initiated by neutrino interactions or tau-lepton decays. RDSim was build around speed and is based on simple and fast, yet still accurate, toymodel-like approaches. It models the radio emission using a superposition emission model that disentangles the Askaryan and geomagnetic components of the shower radio emission. It uses full ZHAireS simulations as an input to estimate the electric field at any position on the ground. A single input simulation can be scaled in energy and rotated in azimuth, taking into account all relevant effects. This makes it possible to simulate a huge number of geometries and energies using just a few ZHAireS input simulations. RDSim takes into account the main characteristics of the detector, such as trigger setups, thresholds and antenna patterns. To accommodate arrays that use particle detectors for triggering, such as the Auger RD extension, it also features a second toymodel to estimate the muon density at ground level and perform simple particle trigger simulations. Owing to the large statistics made possible by its speed, it can be used to investigate in detail events with a very low trigger probability and geometrical effects due to the array layout, making it specially suited to be used as a fast and accurate aperture calculator. In case more detailed studies of the radio emission and detector response are desired, RDSim can also be used to sweep the phase-space for the efficient creation of dedicated full simulation sets. This is particularly important in the case of neutrino events, that have extra variables that greatly impact shower characteristics, such as interaction or $\tau$ decay depth as well as the type of interaction and it's fluctuations.

We use simulated cluster member galaxies from Illustris TNG300-1 to develop a technique for measuring the galaxy cluster mass accretion rate (MAR) that can be applied directly to observations. We analyze 1318 IllustrisTNG clusters of galaxies with $M_{200c}>10^{14}$M$_\odot$ and $0.01\leq z \leq 1.04$. The MAR we derive is the ratio between the mass of a spherical shell located in the infall region and the time for the infalling shell to accrete onto the cluster core. At fixed redshift, an $\sim 1$ order of magnitude increase in $M_{200c}$ results in a comparable increase in MAR. At fixed mass, the MAR increases by a factor of $\sim 5$ from $z=0.01$ to $z=1.04$. The MAR estimates derived from the caustic technique are unbiased and lie within 20% of the MAR's based on the true mass profiles. This agreement is crucial for observational derivation of the MAR. The IllustrisTNG results are also consistent with (i) previous merger tree approaches based on N-body dark matter only simulations and with (ii) previously determined MAR's of real clusters based on the caustic method. Future spectroscopic and photometric surveys will provide MAR's of enormous cluster samples with mass profiles derived from both spectroscopy and weak lensing. Combined with future larger volume hydrodynamical simulations that extend to higher redshift, the MAR promises important insights into evolution of massive systems of galaxies.

Flat rotation curves v(r) are naturally explained by elongated (prolate) Dark Matter (DM) distributions, and we have provided competitive fits to the SPARC database. To further probe the geometry of the halo one needs out-of-plane observables. Stellar streams, poetically analogous to airplane contrails, but caused by tidal dispersion of massive substructures such as satellite dwarf galaxies, would lie on a plane should the DM-halo gravitational field be spherically symmetric. We aim at establishing stellar stream torsion, a local observable that measures the deviation from planarity in differential curve geometry. We perform small-scale simulations of tidally distorted star clusters to check that indeed a central force center produces negligible torsion. Turning to observational data, we identify among the known streams those that are at largest distance from the galactic center and likely not affected by the Magellanic clouds, as most promising for the study, and by means of polynomial fits we extract their differential torsion. We find that the torsion of the few known streams that should be sensitive to most of the Milky Way's DM Halo is much larger than expected for a central spherical bulb alone. This is consistent with non-sphericity of the halo. Future studies of stellar stream torsion with larger samples and further out of the galactic plane should be able to extract the ellipticity of the halo to see whether it is just a slight distortion of a spherical shape or rather ressembles a more elongated cigar.

Nearby dwarf spheroidal galaxies are ideal targets in the search for indirect dark matter (DM) signals. In this work, we analyze MUSE spectroscopic observations of a sample of five galaxies, composed of both classical and ultra-faint dwarf spheroidals. The goal is to search for radiative decays of axion-like particles (ALPs) in the mass range of 2.7-5.3 eV. After taking into account the uncertainties associated with the DM spatial distribution in the galaxies, we derive robust bounds on the effective ALP-two-photon coupling. They lie well below the QCD axion band and are significantly more constraining than limits from other probes, in the relevant mass range. We also test the possible presence of a positive signal, concluding that none of the channels selected for this analysis, i.e., not affected by large background contamination, is exhibiting such evidence.

Environmental effects, such as stellar fly-bys and external irradiation, are thought to affect the evolution of protoplanetary disks in clustered star formation. Previous ALMA images at 225 GHz of the ISO-Oph 2 binary revealed a peculiar morphology in the disk of the primary, perhaps due to a possible fly-by with the secondary. Here we report on new ALMA continuum observations of this system at 97.5 GHz, 145 GHz and 405 GHz, which reveal strong morphological variations. Multi-frequency positional alignment allows to interpret these spectral variations in terms of underlying physical conditions. ISO-Oph 2A is remarkably offset from the centroid of its ring, at all frequencies, and the disk is lopsided, pointing at gravitational interactions. However, the dust temperature also varies in azimuth, with two peaks whose direction connects with HD 147889, the earliest-type star in the Ophiuchus complex, suggesting that it is the dominant heat source. The stellar environment of ISO-Oph 2 appears to drive both its density structure and its thermal balance.Simon Casassus, Lucas Cieza, Miguel C\'arcamo, \'Alvaro Ribas, Valentin Christiaens, Abigali Rodr\'iguez-Jim\'enez, Carla Arce-Tord, Trisha Bhowmik, Prachi Chavan, Camilo Gonz\'alez-Ruilova, Rafael Mart\'inez-Brunner, Valeria Guidotti, Mauricio Leiva

The tangential velocity dispersion of stars belonging to the Milky Way globular cluster's tidal tails has recently been found from N-body simulations to be a parameter that distinguishes between cored and cuspy profiles of low-mass dwarf galaxy dark matter subhaloes where that globular cluster formed, and the in-situ formation scenario. In this context, we discovered that M5's tidal tails are composed by stars at two different metallicity regimes ([Fe/H] ~ -1.4 dex and -2.0 dex). The more metal-rich tidal tail stars are of the same metal content than M5's members and have a tangential velocity dispersion that coincides with the predicted value for a cuspy formation scenario (subhalo mass $\sim$ 10$^9$ M$_{\odot}$). The more metal-poor stars, that are found along the entire M5 tidal tails and have similar distributions to their more metal-rich counterparts in the M5 colour-magnitude diagram and orbit trajectory, have a tangential velocity dispersion that refers to a cored subhalo (mass $\sim$ 10$^9$ M$_{\odot}$) or an in-situ formation scenario. In order to reconcile the dual distribution of M5 tidal tail stars, in kinematics and chemistry, we propose that M5 collided with another more metal-poor and less massive globular cluster anytime before or after it was accreted into the Milky Way.

IceCube collaboration reported the first high-significance observation of the neutrino emission from the Galactic disk. The observed signal can be due to diffuse emission produced by cosmic rays interacting with interstellar gas but can also arise from a population of sources. In this paper, we evaluate both the diffuse and source contribution by taking advantage of gamma-ray observations and/or theoretical considerations. By comparing our expectations with IceCube measurement, we constrain the fraction of Galactic TeV gamma-ray sources (resolved and unresolved) with hadronic nature. In order to be compatible with the IceCube results, this fraction should be less than $\sim 40\%$ corresponding to a cumulative source flux $\Phi_{\nu, \rm s} \le 2.6 \times 10^{-10} cm^{-2}s^{-1}$ integrated in the 1-100 TeV energy range.

Following the discovery of radio pulsars at the position of Fermi-LAT unassociated sources by the TRAPUM group, we conduct Swift-XRT observations of six of those 4FGL sources to determine if any pulsar-like X-ray sources are present and to confirm the reported detection of an X-ray counterpart via eROSITA at 4FGL J1803.1-6708. At two of the six targets, we detect no X-ray sources at the TRAPUM radio position, placing an upper limit on the 0.3-10.0 keV flux. At 4FGL J1803.1-6708 we find an X-ray source at the TRAPUM and eROSITA position. At 4FGL J1858.3-5424 we find a new X-ray counterpart at the TRAPUM position with S/N=4.17, but also detect a distinct and separate X-ray source. At 4FGL J1823.8-3544 and 4FGL J1906.4-1757 we detect no X-ray flux at the TRAPUM positions, but we do detect separate X-ray sources elsewhere in the Fermi error ellipse. At these last two targets, our newly detected Swift sources are possible alternatives to the radio pulsar associations proposed by TRAPUM. Our findings confirm several of the discoveries reported by the TRAPUM group but suggest that further observations and investigations are necessary to confirm the low-energy counterpart of several unassociated sources.

We report high angular resolution observations, made with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array in band 6, of high excitation molecular lines of CH3CN and SO2 and of the H29a radio recombination line towards the G345.0061+01.794 B HC H II region, in order to investigate the physical and kinematical characteristics of its surroundings. Emission was detected in all observed components of the J=14-13 rotational ladder of CH3CN and in the 30(4,26)-30(3,27) and 32(4,28)-32(3,29) lines of SO2. The peak of the velocity integrated molecular emission is located \sim0.4" northwest of the peak of the continuum emission. The first-order moment images and channel maps show a velocity gradient, of 1.1 km s-1 arcsec-1, across the source, and a distinctive spot of blueshifted emission towards the peak of the zero-order moment. We derived that the rotational temperature decreases from 230 Kelvin at the peak position to 137 Kelvin at its edge, indicating that our molecular observations are probing a hot molecular core that is internally excited. The emission in the H29a line arises from a region of 0.65" in size, whose peak is coincident with that of the dust continuum, has a center velocity of -18.1pm0.9 km s-1 and a width (FWHM) of 33.7pm2.3 km s-1. We modeled the kinematical characteristics of "central blue spot" feature as due to infalling motions, deriving a central mass of 126.0pm8.7M_sun. Our observations indicate that this HC H II region is surrounded by a compact structure of hot molecular gas, which is rotating and infalling toward a central mass, that is most likely confining the ionized region.

We use X-ray observations of quasar microlensing (sensitive to smaller compact objects than in the optical) to study the possible presence of a population of low mass black holes (from $\sim$ $10^{-3}M_{\odot}$ to $10^{-1}M_{\odot}$) in lens galaxies. We compare these observations with microlensing magnification simulations of a mixed population of stars and black holes (BHs) plus a smooth matter component. We estimate the individual mass fractions of both, stars and BHs, for three different BH masses in the range of substellar to planetary masses. Our Bayesian analysis indicates that the contribution of BHs is negligible in the substellar mass range but that a population of BHs of planetary mass (M $\lesssim$ $10^{-3}M_{\odot}$) could pass unnoticed to X-ray microlensing. We provide new upper limits to the contribution of BHs to the fraction of dark matter based on both, the quasar microlensing data in the X-ray band, and our previous estimates in the optical of intermediate-mass BHs with an additional upper limit at $M=3M_{\odot}$.

We present a series of full-shape analyses of galaxy power spectrum multipole measurements from the 6dFGS, BOSS, and eBOSS galaxy surveys. We use an emulated effective field theory of large-scale structure (EFTofLSS) model to conduct these analyses. We exploit the accelerated prediction speed of the neural-network-based emulator to explore various analysis setups for our cosmological inference pipeline. Via a set of mock full-shape analyses of synthetic power spectrum multipoles, designed to approximate measurements from the surveys above, we demonstrate that the use of alternative priors on nuisance parameters and restricted model complexity reduces many of the biases previously observed in marginalised cosmological constraints coming from EFTofLSS analyses. The alternative priors take the form of a Jeffreys prior (Jeffreys 1998); a non-informative prior that can mitigate against biases induced by marginalising over poorly constrained nuisance parameters. When performing a joint analysis of all synthetic multipoles, we see an improvement in the level of agreement between the marginalised $\ln{\left(10^{10}A_s\right)}$ constraints and the truth; from $\sim2.0\sigma$ to $\sim0.42\sigma$. Using our pipeline to analyse the measured multipoles, we find an improvement in the level of agreement with cosmic microwave background (CMB) results; from $\sim2.4\sigma$ to $\sim0.5\sigma$. Therefore, we conclude that the spectroscopic galaxy survey datasets listed above are consistent with constraints obtained from the CMB.

Gravity-Assisted maneuvers have been used as a technique to reduce fuel consumption in deep space missions for several decades now. It opened the doors of the exterior solar system. The literature shows those results, as well as new versions of this maneuver, which includes: the use of propulsion combined with the close approach, both high or low thrust; the passage by the atmosphere of a planet to help to change the trajectory of the spacecraft; the use of tethers to increase the changes in the velocity of the spacecraft. All those new versions have the goal of increasing the variations of energy given by the maneuver, making possible missions that would not be possible without this technique.

To collect additional solar energy during the hours of darkness and to overcome the limited Terrestrial solar power due to the diurnal day night cycle, the concept of a Geostationary Tethered Collecting Solar Power Satellite System has been proposed by several authors in the last years. This tethered system consists of a long tether used to link two bodies: a single large panel with a capability of collecting solar energy, and an Earth-pointing microwave transmitting satellite. In this manner, the solar energy would be collected directly from the space and beamed back down to any point on Earth. Planar configurations, when the panel and the microwave transmitting satellite are placed on geostationary orbits, have been usually investigated to maintain the tethered system around the Earth. However, this configuration implies that the panel and the microwave transmitting satellite must to orbit the Earth in exactly the same orbital plane of all geostationary satellites.

We provide a pedagogical approach to gravitational waves in cosmology with focus on gravitational wave signals related to primordial black holes. These lectures notes contain more details than one is able to present in the two two-hour lectures they are meant to and, as such, they should be thought as a complementary material. The main aim of these lectures is that, by the end, one obtains a certain degree of intuition on gravitational waves in cosmology and understands the basic features of scalar induced gravitational waves. We also highlight must-check properties of induced gravitational waves as well as current issues regarding secondary gravitational waves in cosmology. Throughout the lecture we provide exercises, supplementary information and activities with public codes to be ready to derive your own results.

In this work we present PRyMordial: A package dedicated to efficient computations of observables in the Early Universe with the focus on the cosmological era of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN). The code offers fast and precise evaluation of BBN light-element abundances together with the effective number of relativistic degrees of freedom, including non-instantaneous decoupling effects. PRyMordial is suitable for state-of-the-art analyses in the Standard Model as well as for general investigations into New Physics active during BBN. After reviewing the physics implemented in PRyMordial, we provide a short guide on how to use the code for applications in the Standard Model and beyond. The package is written in Python, but more advanced users can optionally take advantage of the open-source community for Julia. PRyMordial is publicly available on GitHub.

Proton-$\gamma$ coincidences from $(\mathrm{d},\mathrm{p})$ reactions between a $^{66}\mathrm{Ni}$ beam and a deuterated polyethylene target have been analyzed with the inverse Oslo method to find the nuclear level density (NLD) and $\gamma$-ray strength function ($\gamma$SF) of $^{67}\mathrm{Ni}$. The $^{66}\mathrm{Ni}(\mathrm{n},\gamma)$ capture cross section has been calculated using the Hauser-Feshbach model in TALYS using the measured NLD and $\gamma$SF as constraints. We confirm that $^{66}\mathrm{Ni}(\mathrm{n},\gamma)$ acts as a bottleneck when relying on one-zone nucleosynthesis calculations. However, we find that the impact of this reaction is strongly damped in multi-zone low-metallicity AGB stellar models experiencing i-process nucleosynthesis.

Dark matter induced event rate in an Earth-based detector is predicted to show an annual modulation as a result of the Earth's orbital motion around the Sun. We searched for this modulation signature using the ionization signal of the DarkSide-50 liquid argon time projection chamber. No significant signature compatible with dark matter is observed in the electron recoil equivalent energy range above $40~{\rm eV_{ee}}$, the lowest threshold ever achieved in such a search.

Dark Matter (DM) particles with sufficiently large cross sections may scatter as they travel through Earth's bulk. The corresponding changes in the DM flux give rise to a characteristic daily modulation signal in detectors sensitive to DM-electron interactions. Here, we report results obtained from the first underground operation of the DAMIC-M prototype detector searching for such a signal from DM with MeV-scale mass. A model-independent analysis finds no modulation in the rate of 1$e^-$ events with periods in the range 1-48 h. We then use these data to place exclusion limits on DM in the mass range [0.53, 2.7] MeV/c$^2$ interacting with electrons via a dark photon mediator. Taking advantage of the time-dependent signal we improve by $\sim$2 orders of magnitude on our previous limit obtained from the total rate of 1$e^-$ events, using the same data set. This daily modulation search represents the current strongest limit on DM-electron scattering via ultralight mediators for DM masses around 1 MeV/c$^2$.

In this paper, numerical methods using Physics-Informed Neural Networks (PINNs) are presented with the aim to solve higher-order ordinary differential equations (ODEs). Indeed, this deep-learning technique is successfully applied for solving different classes of singular ODEs, namely the well known second-order Lane-Emden equations, third order-order Emden-Fowler equations, and fourth-order Lane-Emden-Fowler equations. Two variants of PINNs technique are considered and compared. First, a minimization procedure is used to constrain the total loss function of the neural network, in which the equation residual is considered with some weight to form a physics-based loss and added to the training data loss that contains the initial/boundary conditions. Second, a specific choice of trial solutions ensuring these conditions as hard constraints is done in order to satisfy the differential equation, contrary to the first variant based on training data where the constraints appear as soft ones. Advantages and drawbacks of PINNs variants are highlighted.

The ringdown phase of gravitational waves emitted by a perturbed black hole is described by a superposition of exponentially decaying sinusoidal modes, called quasinormal modes (QNMs), whose frequencies depend only on the property of the black hole geometry. The extraction of QNM frequencies of an isolated black hole would allow for testing how well the black hole is described by general relativity. However, astrophysical black holes are not isolated. It remains unclear whether the extra matter surrounding the black holes such as accretion disks would affect the validity of the black hole spectroscopy when the gravitational effects of the disks are taken into account. In this paper, we study the QNMs of a Schwarzschild black hole superposed with a gravitating thin disk. Considering up to the first order of the mass ratio between the disk and the black hole, we find that the existence of the disk would decrease the oscillating frequency and the decay rate. In addition, within the parameter space where the disk model can be regarded as physical, there seems to be a universal relation that the QNM frequencies tend to obey. The relation, if it holds generically, would assist in disentangling the QNM shifts caused by the disk contributions from those induced by other putative effects beyond general relativity. The QNMs in the eikonal limit, as well as their correspondence with bound photon orbits in this model, are briefly discussed.

We compute the spectrum of linearized gravitational excitations of black holes with substantial angular momentum in the presence of higher-derivative corrections to general relativity. We do so perturbatively to leading order in the higher-derivative couplings and up to order fourteen in the black hole angular momentum. This allows us to accurately predict quasinormal mode frequencies of black holes with spins up to about $70\%$ of the extremal value. For some higher-derivative corrections, we find that sizable rotation enhances the frequency shifts by almost an order of magnitude relative to the static case.

Light spectator fields may not be dynamically relevant for the inflationary phase of the early universe, but they can still induce interesting imprints on cosmological observables. In this paper, we compute the cross-correlations of the inflationary perturbations, both scalar and tensor, with the fluctuations of a non-minimally interacting spectator field using the in-in formalism and investigate the consistency relations associated with such cross-correlations. In particular, the scalar consistency relation is derived semi-classically by generalizing the consistency relation obtained earlier for cosmic magnetic fields. Notably, we find that the direct coupling between the inflaton and the spectator solely determines the local non-linearity parameter associated with the scalar cross-correlation during slow-roll inflation, regardless of the specific form of the Lagrangian for the spectator field. Further, we calculate the tensor correlation with spectator fluctuations, explore the associated soft limits, and demonstrate the violation of the conventional tensor consistency relation with a non-minimal derivative coupling. Our analysis stresses that the violation of tensor consistency relations does not necessarily imply the superhorizon evolution of tensor modes. Instead, such violations can arise due to the non-minimal derivative coupling of the spectator field to gravity. Finally, we discuss the wider implications of our results in the context of cosmological soft theorems.