12 pages, 6 figures
Thermochemical modeling and shock-tube experiments show that shocks applied to N$_2$/CH$_4$ gas mixtures can synthesize organic molecules. Sufficiently large, hypersonic meteoroids entering the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan should therefore drive organic chemistry. To do so meteoroids must be sufficiently large compared to the atmospheric mean free path at a given altitude to generate shocks, and deposit enough energy per path length to produce temperatures high enough to excite and dissociate the relevant molecules. The Cassini spacecraft imaged multiple meteoroid impacts on Saturn's rings, allowing for the first time an empirical estimate to be made of the flux and size-frequency distributions of meteoroids in the millimeter-to-meter size range. We combine these results with an atmospheric entry model and thermochemical and experimental shock production efficiencies for N$_2$/CH$_4$ atmospheres and calculate the shock production rates for HCN, C$_2$H$_2$, and C$_2$H$_4$ as well as the resulting H$_2$ generation. We find that meteoroids may be producing these molecules at as much as $\sim$1% the production rate of photochemistry driven by UV photons, and may be depositing more energy than magnetospheric ions and 90-100 nm UV photons. Moreover, these meteoroids produce these organic molecules hundreds of kilometers lower in Titan's atmosphere than the relevant UV photons and magnetospheric ions penetrate, with peak production occurring between 200 and 500 km altitudes, i.e., at the observed haze layer. Meteoroid-driven shock generation of molecules may therefore be crucial to understanding Titan's atmospheric chemistry.
38 pages, 23 figures. All the polarized pulse profiles presented in this paper are available on the webpage this http URL
Pulsar polarization profiles are very basic database for understanding the emission processes in pulsar magnetosphere. After careful polarization calibration of the 19-beam L-band receiver and verification of beam-offset observation results, we obtain polarization profiles of 682 pulsars from observations by the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) during the survey tests for the Galactic Plan Pulsar Snapshot (GPPS) survey and other normal FAST projects. Among them, polarization profiles of about 460 pulsars are observed for the first time. The profiles exhibit diverse features. Some pulsars have a polarization position angle curve with a good S-shaped swing, and some with orthogonal modes; some have components with highly linearly components or strong circularly polarized components; some have a very wide profile, coming from an aligned rotator, and some have an interpulse from a perpendicular rotator; some wide profiles are caused by interstellar scattering. We derive geometry parameters for 190 pulsars from the S-shaped position angle curves or with orthogonal modes. We find that the linear and circular polarization or the widths of pulse profiles have various frequency dependencies. Pulsars with large fraction of linear polarization are more likely to have a large Edot.
20 pages, 5 figures
In the dark dimension scenario, which predicts an extra dimension of micron scale, dark gravitons (KK modes) are a natural dark matter candidate. In this paper, we study observable features of this model. In particular, their decay to standard matter fields can distort the CMB and impact other astrophysical signals. Using this we place bounds on the parameters of this model. In particular we find that the natural range of parameters in this scenario is consistent with these constraints and leads to the prediction that the mean mass of the dark matter today is less than a few hundred keV and the size of the extra dimension is greater than $\sim 10 \;\mu\mathrm{m}$.
23 pages, 13 figures, Accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal
Observational data from astronomical imaging surveys contain information about a variety of source populations and environments, and its complexity will increase substantially as telescopes become more sensitive. Even for existing observations, measuring the correlations between point-like and diffuse emission can be crucial to correctly inferring the properties of any individual component. For this task information is typically lost, either because of conservative data cuts, aggressive filtering or incomplete treatment of contaminated data. We present the code PCAT-DE, an extension of probabilistic cataloging designed to simultaneously model point-like and diffuse signals. This work incorporates both explicit spatial templates and a set of non-parametric Fourier component templates into a forward model of astronomical images, reducing the number of processing steps applied to the observed data. Using synthetic Herschel-SPIRE multiband observations, we demonstrate that point source and diffuse emission can be reliably separated and measured. We present two applications of this model. For the first, we perform point source detection/photometry in the presence of galactic cirrus and demonstrate that cosmic infrared background (CIB) galaxy counts can be recovered in cases of significant contamination. In the second we show that the spatially extended thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (tSZ) effect signal can be reliably measured even when it is subdominant to the point-like emission from individual galaxies.
13pages, 5figures, Accepted for publication in RAA
Fermi-LAT LCR provide continuous and regularly-sampled gamma-ray light curves, spanning about 14 years, for a large sample of blazars. The log-normal flux distribution and linear RMS-Flux relation of the light curves for a few of Fermi blazar have been examined in previous studies. However, the probability that blazars exhibit log-normal flux distribution and linear RMS-Flux relation in their gamma-ray light curves has not been systematically explored. In this study, we comprehensively research on the distribution of gamma-ray flux and the statistical characteristics on a large sample of 1414 variable blazars from the Fermi-LAT LCR catalog, including 572 FSRQs, 477 BL Lacs, and 365 BCUs, and statistically compare their flux distributions with normal and log-normal distributions. The results indicate that the probability of not reject log-normal is 42.05% for the large sample, and there is still 2.05% probability of not reject normality, based on the joint of Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Shapiro-Wilk and Normality tests. We further find that the probability that BL Lacs conforms to the log-normal distribution is higher than that of FSRQs. Besides, after removing sources with less than 200 data points from this large sample, a sample of 549 blazars, which is still a large sample comparing to the previous studies, was obtained. Basing on dividing the light curves into segments every 20 points (or 40 points, or one year), we fitted the linear RMS-Flux relation of this three different sets, and found that the Pearson correlation coefficients are all close to 1 of the most blazars. This result indicates a strong linear correlation between the RMS and the flux of this 549 blazars. The log-normal distribution and linear RMS-Flux relation indicate that the variability of gamma-ray flux for most blazars is non-linear and multiplicative process.
33 pages, 22 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRAS
There has been a concerted effort in recent years to identify the astrophysical sites of the $r$-process that can operate early in the Galaxy. The discovery of many $r$-process-enhanced (RPE) stars (especially by the $R$-process Alliance collaboration) has significantly accelerated this effort. However, only limited data exist on the detailed elemental abundances covering the primary neutron-capture peaks. Subtle differences in the structure of the $r$-process pattern, such as the relative abundances of elements in the third peak, in particular, are expected to constrain the $r$-process sites further. Here, we present a detailed elemental-abundance analysis of four bright RPE stars selected from the HESP-GOMPA survey. Observations were carried out with the 10-m class telescope Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC), Spain. The high spectral signal-to-noise ratios obtained allow us to derive abundances for 20 neutron-capture elements, including the third $r$-process peak element osmium (Os). We detect thorium (Th) in two stars, which we use to estimate their ages. We discuss the metallicity evolution of Mg, Sr, Ba, Eu, Os, and Th in $r$-II and $r$-I stars, based on a compilation of RPE stars from the literature. The strontium (Sr) abundance trend with respect to europium (Eu) suggests the need for an additional production site for Sr (similar to several earlier studies); this requirement could be milder for yttrium (Y) and zirconium (Zr). We also show that there could be some time delay between $r$-II and $r$-I star formation, based on the Mg/Th abundance ratios.
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12 pages, 6 figures
This paper was submitted as a contribution to the proceedings of the third Belgo-Indian Network for Astronomy and Astrophysics (BINA) workshop, which was held in Bhimtal, Uttarakhand (India) on 22-24 March 2023. The final, peer-reviewed version will be published in Bulletin de la Soci\'et\'e Royale des Sciences de Li\`ege. The manuscript contains ten pages
25 pages, 15 figures, submitted to A&A
9 pages, 1 figure. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2301.02829
31 pages (including 5 pages in appendix), 19 figures, the abstract is abridged; submitted to A&A (in mid May; awaiting report)
30 pages, no figures, submitted. Abstract abridged
A&A, 2023, in press
17 pages, accepted for publication in A&A
8 pages, 4 figures; ApJ Letters submitted
11 pages, 12 figures, 3 tables. Submitted to MNRAS
Submitted to MNRAS
24 pages, 9 figures
26 pages and 27 figures
17 pages, 9 figures, revtex4-1 two-column format
17 pages, 14 figures, Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics
(13 pages, 9 figures, submitted to Astronomy & Astrophysics)
14 pages, 3 figures, 4 tables, 1 appendix, accepted for publication to AJ
arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2307.07351
12 pages, 5 figures, submitted to ApJ
20 pages, 26 figures, to be submitted to MNRAS
13 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in the MNRAS
16 pages, invited review to appear in Cosmic Masers: Proper Motion toward the Next-Generation Large Projects, IAU Symposium No. 380, T. Hirota, H. Imai, K. Menten, & Y. Pihlstrom, eds
26 pages, 11 figures, and 8 tables. This is the version of the article before publication editing, as submitted by an author to Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. IOP Publishing Ltd is not responsible for any errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version derived from it. The Version of Record will be added when it becomes available
Submitted to the Astrophysical Journal, 25 pages, 15 figures
Written as part of the undergraduate program at Reed College
8 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Icarus
15 pages, 8 figures, accepted to PSJ
5 pages, 5 figures, 1 table, accepted by Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
12 pages, 14 figures, Animations are available from here this https URL
15 pages, 10 figures. Comments welcome!
10 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in ApJ, comments are welcome
7 pages, 4 figures; accepted for publication in Physical Review D
11 pages, 8 figures
10 pages, 4 figures
accepted in A&A
19 pages, 11 figures, 6 tables, Table 2 is only available in electronic form, accepted to Astrophysical Bulletin
Accepted for publication in A&A Letters; 13 pages, 13 figures, 1 table
under review for publication in A&A (22 pages + 4 pages of appendix, 21 figures, 33 pages of tables in the Appendix)
Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 10 pages, 7 figures and 2 tables
23 pages, 19 figures, published in A&A 675, A180 (2023)
15 pages
7 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, and Supplemental material (7 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables)
21 pages, 10 figures
13 pages, 14 figures, 4 tables, submitted to MNRAS
25 pages, 15 figures
15 pages, 9 figures, accepted in A&A
13 pages, 13 figures, submitted to MNRAS
7 pages, 1 figure
8 pages, 3 figures. Submitted as a proceeding for ICRC 2023. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2210.03756
8 pages, 6 figures
31 pages, 16 figures; comments are welcome
15 pages. Accepted for publication in Astroparticle Physics
18 pages, 6 figures
6 pages, 5 figures
15+9 pages, 3 figures
50 pages, 3 figures; comments are welcome
45 pages, 20 figures
8 pages, 2 figures
9 pages, proceedings of the online symposium "Anomalies in Modern Astronomy Research" (October 22nd, 2022), organized by the Society of Scientific Exploration (SSE), to be published in "EdgeScience Magazine" of SSE. Excerpts from the book "Fundamental Ideas in Cosmology. Scientific, Philosophical and Sociological Critical Perspectives" (2022, IoP Science)
12 pages, 9 figures
Draft version of the article published in the JGCD
7 pages, 9 figures