Papers for Wednesday, Dec 06 2023

We demonstrate for the first time that Galactic cosmic rays with energies as high as 1e10 eV can trigger a cascade of low-energy (< 20 eV) secondary electrons that could be a significant contributor to the interstellar synthesis of prebiotic molecules whose delivery by comets, meteorites, and interplanetary dust particles may have kick-started life on Earth. We explore the relative importance of low-energy (< 20 eV) secondary electrons--agents of radiation chemistry--and low-energy (< 10 eV), non-ionizing photons--instigators of photochemistry. Our calculations indicate fluxes of 100 electrons/cm2/s for low-energy secondary electrons produced within interstellar ices due to incident attenuated Galactic cosmic-ray (CR) protons. Consequently, in certain star-forming regions where internal high-energy radiation sources produce ionization rates that are observed to be a thousand times greater than the typical interstellar Galactic ionization rate, the flux of low-energy secondary electrons should far exceed that of non-ionizing photons. Because reaction cross-sections can be several orders of magnitude larger for electrons than for photons, even in the absence of such enhancement our calculations indicate that secondary low-energy electrons are at least as significant as low-energy (< 10 eV) non-ionizing photons in the interstellar synthesis of prebiotic molecules. Most importantly, our results demonstrate the pressing need for explicitly incorporating low-energy electrons in current and future astrochemical simulations of cosmic ices. Such models are critically important for interpreting James Webb Space Telescope infrared measurements, which are currently being used to probe the origins of life by studying complex organic molecules found in ices near star-forming regions.

The production of long-lived radioactive isotopes due to the exposure to cosmic rays on the Earth's surface is an hazard for experiments searching for rare events like the direct detection of galactic dark matter particles. The use of large amounts of liquid Argon is foreseen in different projects, like the DarkSide-20k experiment, intended to look for Weakly Interacting Massive Particles at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso. Here, results from the study of the cosmogenic activation of Argon carried out in the context of DarkSide-20k are presented. The induced activity of several isotopes, including 39Ar, and the expected counting rates in the detector have been deduced, considering exposure conditions as realistic as possible.

Kilonovae (KNe) are one of the fastest types of optical transients known, cooling rapidly in the first few days following their neutron-star merger origin. We show here that KN spectral features go through rapid recombination transitions, with features due to elements in the new ionisation state emerging quickly. Due to time-delay effects of the rapidly-expanding KN, a 'wave' of these new features passing though the ejecta should be a detectable phenomenon. In particular, isolated line features will emerge as blueshifted absorption features first, gradually evolving into more pronounced absorption/emission P Cygni features and then pure emission features. In this analysis we present the evolution of the individual exposures of the KN AT2017gfo observed with VLT/X-shooter that together comprise X-shooter's first epoch spectrum (1.43 days post-merger). We show that the spectra of these 'sub-epochs' show a significant evolution across the roughly one hour of observations, including a decrease of the blackbody temperature and photospheric velocity. The early cooling is even more rapid than that inferred from later photospheric epochs, and suggest a fixed power-law relation between temperature and time cannot capture the data. The cooling constrains the recombination-wave, where a Sr II interpretation of the AT2017gfo $\sim1 \mu$m feature predicts both a specific timing for the feature emergence and its early spectral shape, including the very weak emission component observed at 1.43 days. This reverberation analysis suggests that temporal modelling is important for interpreting individual spectra and that higher cadence spectral series, especially when concentrated at specific times, can provide strong constraints on KN line identifications. Given the use of such short-timescale information, we lay out improved observing strategies for future KN monitoring.

The study of the high-energy (MeV-GeV) part of GRBs spectrum can play a crucial role in investigating the physics of the prompt emission, but it is often hampered by low statistic and the paucity of GeV observations. In this work, we analyze the prompt emission spectra of the 22 brightest GRBs which have been simultaneously observed by Fermi/GBM and Fermi/LAT, spanning 6 orders of magnitude in energy. The high-energy photon spectra can be modelled with a power-law $N(E)\propto E^{-\beta}$ possibly featuring an exponential cutoff. We find that, with the inclusion of the LAT data, the spectral index $\beta$ is softer than what typically inferred from the analysis of Fermi/GBM data alone. Under the assumption that the emission is synchrotron, we derive the index $p\sim2.79$ of the power-law energy distribution of accelerated particles ($N(\gamma)\propto \gamma^{-p}$). In 9 out of 22 GRB spectra, we find a significant presence of an exponential cut-off at high-energy, ranging between 14 and 298 MeV. By interpreting the observed cut-off as a sign of pair-production opacity, we estimate the jet bulk Lorentz factor $\Gamma$, finding values in the range 130-330. These values are consistent with those inferred from the afterglow light curve onset time. Finally, by combining the information from the high-energy prompt emission spectrum with the afterglow lightcurve, we provide a method to derive the distance R from the central engine where the prompt emission occurs. These results highlight the importance of including high-energy data, when available, in the study of prompt spectra and their role in addressing the current challenges of the GRB standard model.

Before the launch of the Kepler Space Telescope, models of low-mass planet formation predicted that convergent Type I migration would often produce systems of low-mass planets in low-order mean-motion resonances. Instead, Kepler discovered that systems of small planets frequently have period ratios larger than those associated with mean-motion resonances and rarely have period ratios smaller than those associated with mean-motion resonances. Both short-timescale processes related to the formation or early evolution of planetary systems and long-timescale secular processes have been proposed as explanations for these observations. Using a thin disk stellar population's Galactic velocity dispersion as a relative age proxy, we find that Kepler-discovered multiple-planet systems with at least one planet pair near a period ratio suggestive of a second-order mean-motion resonance have a colder Galactic velocity dispersion and are therefore younger than both single-transiting and multiple-planet systems that lack planet pairs consistent with mean-motion resonances. We argue that a non-tidal secular process with a characteristic timescale no less than a few hundred Myr is responsible for moving systems of low-mass planets away from second-order mean-motion resonances. Among systems with at least one planet pair near a period ratio suggestive of a first-order mean-motion resonance, only the population of systems likely affected by tidal dissipation inside their innermost planets has a small Galactic velocity dispersion and is therefore young. We predict that period ratios suggestive of mean-motion resonances are more common in young systems with 10 Myr $\lesssim \tau \lesssim 100$ Myr and become less common as planetary systems age.

Early expansion plays a fundamental role in the dynamical evolution of young star clusters. However, until very recently most of our understanding of cluster expansion was based only on indirect evidence or on statistically limited samples of clusters. Here we present a comprehensive kinematic analysis of virtually all known young ($t<300$ Myr) Galactic clusters based on the improved astrometric quality of the Gaia DR3 data. Such a large sample provides the unprecedented opportunity to robustly constrain the fraction of clusters and the timescale during which expansion has a prominent impact on the overall kinematics. We find that a remarkable fraction (up to $80\%$) of clusters younger than $\sim30$ Myr is currently experiencing significant expansion, whereas older systems are mostly compatible with equilibrium configurations. We observe a trend where the expansion speed increases with the clustercentric distance, suggesting that clusters undergoing expansion will likely lose a fraction of their present-day mass. Also, most young expanding clusters show large sizes, possibly due to the expansion itself. A comparison with a set of N-body simulations of young star clusters shows that the observed expansion pattern is in general qualitative agreement with that found for systems undergoing violent relaxation and evolving toward a final virial equilibrium state. However, we also note that additional processes likely associated with residual gas expulsion and mass loss due to stellar evolution are also likely to play a key role in driving the observed expansion.

Astrophysical transient phenomena are traditionally classified spectroscopically in a hierarchical taxonomy; however, this graph structure is currently not utilized in neural net-based photometric classifiers for time-domain astrophysics. Instead, independent classifiers are trained for different tiers of classified data, and events are excluded if they fall outside of these well-defined but flat classification schemes. Here, we introduce a weighted hierarchical cross-entropy objective function for classification of astrophysical transients. Our method allows users to directly build and use physics- or observationally-motivated tree-based taxonomies. Our weighted hierarchical cross-entropy loss directly uses this graph to accurately classify all targets into any node of the tree, re-weighting imbalanced classes. We test our novel loss on a set of variable stars and extragalactic transients from the Zwicky Transient Facility, showing that we can achieve similar performance to fine-tuned classifiers with the advantage of notably more flexibility in downstream classification tasks.

We find ourselves on the brink of an exciting era in observational astrophysics, driven by groundbreaking facilities like JWST, Euclid, Rubin, Roman, SKA, or ELT. Simultaneously, computational astrophysics has shown significant strides, yielding highly realistic galaxy formation simulations, thanks to both hardware and software enhancements. Bridging the gap between simulations and observations has become paramount for meaningful comparisons. We introduce py-ananke, a Python pipeline designed to generate synthetic resolved stellar surveys from cosmological simulations, adaptable to various instruments. Building upon its predecessor, ananke by Sanderson et al. 2020 (arXiv:1806.10564), which produced Gaia DR2 mock star surveys, the py-ananke package offers a user-friendly "plug & play" experience. The pipeline employs cutting-edge phase-space density estimation and initial mass function sampling to convert particle data into synthetic stars, while interpolating pre-computed stellar isochrone tracks for photometry. Additionally, it includes modules for estimating interstellar reddening, dust-induced extinctions, and for quantifying errors through dedicated modeling approaches. py-ananke promises to serve as a vital bridge between computational astrophysics and observational astronomy, facilitating preparations and making scientific predictions for the next generation of telescopes.

The duration of the gravitational waves (GW) induced orbital decay is often the bottleneck of the evolutionary phases going from star formation to a merger. We show here that kicks imparted to the newly born compact object during the second collapse generically result in a GW merger times distribution behaving like $dN/d\log t \propto t^{2/7}$ at short durations, leading to ultrafast mergers. Namely, a non-negligible fraction of neutron star binaries, formed in this way, will merge on a time scale as short as 10 Myr, and a small fraction will merge even on a time scale less than 10 kyr. The results can be applied to different types of compact binaries. We discuss here the implications for binary neutron star mergers. These include: unique short GRBs, eccentric and misaligned mergers, r-process enrichment in the very early Universe and in highly star-forming regions and possible radio precursors. Interestingly we conclude that among the few hundred short GRBs detected so far a few must have formed via this ultrafast channel.

Carbon monoxide (CO) is a poor tracer of H$_{2}$ in the diffuse interstellar medium (ISM), where most of the carbon is not incorporated into CO molecules unlike the situation at higher extinctions. We present a novel, indirect method to constrain H$_{2}$ column densities ($N_{H_{2}}$) without employing CO observations. We show that previously-recognized nonlinearities in the relation between the extinction, $A_{V} ({H}_{2})$, derived from dust emission and the HI column density ($N_{HI}$) are due to the presence of molecular gas. We employ archival $N_{H_{2}}$ data, obtained from the UV spectra of stars, and calculate $A_{V} ({H}_{2})$ towards these sight lines using 3D extinction maps. We derive an empirical relation between $A_{V} ({H}_{2})$ and $N_{H_{2}}$, which we use to constrain $N_{H_{2}}$ in the diffuse ISM. We construct a $N_{H_{2}}$ map of our Galaxy and compare it to the CO integrated intensity ($W_{CO}$) distribution. We find that the average ratio ($X_{CO}$) between $N_{H_{2}}$ and $W_{CO}$ is approximately equal to $2 \times 10^{20}$ cm$^{-2}$ (K km s$^{-1}$)$^{-1}$, consistent with previous estimates. However, we find that the $X_{CO}$ factor varies by orders of magnitude on arcminute scales between the outer and the central portions of molecular clouds. For regions with $N_{H_{2}} \gtrsim 10^{20}$ cm$^{-2}$, we estimate that the average H$_{2}$ fractional abundance, $f_{{H}_{2}}$ = $2N_{H_{2}}$/(2$N_{H_{2}}$ + $N_{{HI}}$), is 0.25. Multiple (distinct) largely atomic clouds are likely found along high-extinction sightlines ($A_{V} \geq 1$ mag), hence limiting $f_{{H}_{2}}$ in these directions. More than $50 \%$ of the lines of sight with $N_{H_{2}} \geq 10^{20}$ cm$^{-2}$ are untraceable by CO with a $J$ = 1-0 sensitivity limit $W_{CO} = 1$ K km s$^{-1}$.

Recent studies have postulated that the presence of dark matter (DM) spikes around IMBHs could lead to observable dephasing effects in gravitational wave (GW) signals emitted by Intermediate Mass Ratio Inspirals (IMRIs). While prior investigations primarily relied on non-self-consistent analytic methods to estimate the influence of DM spikes on eccentric IMRIs, our work introduces the first self-consistent treatment of this phenomenon through $N$-body simulations. Contrary to previous studies, which suggested that dynamical friction (DF), a cumulative effect of two-body encounters, is the primary mechanism responsible for energy dissipation, we reveal that the slingshot mechanism, a three-body effect, plays a more significant role in driving the binary system's energy loss and consequent orbital shrinkage, similar to stellar loss cone scattering in Massive Black Hole (MBH) binaries. Furthermore, our work extends its analysis to include rotation in DM spikes, a factor often overlooked in previous studies. We find that binaries that counter-rotate with respect to the spike particles merge faster, while binaries that co-rotate merge slower, in opposition to the expectation from DF theory. While our models are idealistic, they offer findings that pave the way for a more comprehensive understanding of the complex interactions between DM spikes, IMRIs, GW emission, and the ability to constrain DM microphysics. Our work systematically includes Post-Newtonian (PN) effects until 2.5 order and our results are accurate and robust.

The J-region Asymptotic Giant Branch (JAGB) method is a standard candle that leverages the constant luminosities of color-selected, carbon-rich AGB stars, measured in the near infrared at 1.2 microns. The Chicago-Carnegie Hubble Program (CCHP) has obtained JWST imaging of the SN Ia host galaxies NGC 7250, NGC 4536, and NGC 3972. With these observations, the JAGB method can be studied for the first time using JWST. Lee et al. 2022 [arXiv:2205.11323] demonstrated the JAGB magnitude is optimally measured in the outer disks of galaxies, because in the inner regions the JAGB magnitude can vary significantly due to a confluence of reddening, blending, and crowding effects. However, determining where the 'outer disk' lies can be subjective. Therefore, we introduce a novel method for systematically selecting the outer disk. In a given galaxy, the JAGB magnitude is first separately measured in concentric regions, and the 'outer disk' is then defined as the first radial bin where the JAGB magnitude stabilizes to a few hundredths of a magnitude. After successfully employing this method in our JWST galaxy sample, we find the JAGB stars are well-segregated from other stellar populations in color-magnitude space, and have observed dispersions about their individual F115W modes of $\sigma_{N7250}=0.32$ mag, $\sigma_{N4536}=0.34$ mag, and $\sigma_{N3972}=0.35$ mag. These measured dispersions are similar to the scatter measured for the JAGB stars in the LMC using 2MASS data ($\sigma=0.33$ mag, Weinberg & Nikolaev 2001 [arXiv:astro-ph/0003204 ). In conclusion, the JAGB stars as observed with JWST clearly demonstrate their considerable power both as high-precision extragalactic distance indicators and as SN Ia supernova calibrators.

Recent observations of galaxy clusters and groups with misalignments between their central AGN jets and X-ray cavities, or with multiple misaligned cavities, have raised concerns about the jet - bubble connection in cooling cores, and the processes responsible for jet realignment. To investigate the frequency and causes of such misalignments, we construct a sample of 16 cool core galaxy clusters and groups. Using VLBA radio data we measure the parsec-scale position angle of the jets, and compare it with the position angle of the X-ray cavities detected in Chandra data. Using the overall sample and selected subsets, we consistently find that there is a 30% - 38% chance to find a misalignment larger than $\Delta\Psi = 45^{\circ}$ when observing a cluster/group with a detected jet and at least one cavity. We determine that projection may account for an apparently large $\Delta\Psi$ only in a fraction of objects ($\sim$35%), and given that gas dynamical disturbances (as sloshing) are found in both aligned and misaligned systems, we exclude environmental perturbation as the main driver of cavity - jet misalignment. Moreover, we find that large misalignments (up to $\sim90^{\circ}$) are favored over smaller ones ($45^{\circ}\leq\Delta\Psi\leq70^{\circ}$), and that the change in jet direction can occur on timescales between one and a few tens of Myr. We conclude that misalignments are more likely related to actual reorientation of the jet axis, and we discuss several engine-based mechanisms that may cause these dramatic changes.

M dwarfs are common host stars to exoplanets but often lack atmospheric abundance measurements. Late-M dwarfs are also good analogs to the youngest substellar companions, which share similar $T_{\rm eff}\sim2300-2800~K$. We present atmospheric analyses for the M7.5 companion HIP 55507 B and its K6V primary star with Keck/KPIC high-resolution ($R\sim35,000$) $K$ band spectroscopy. First, by including KPIC relative radial velocities between the primary and secondary in the orbit fit, we improve the dynamical mass precision by 60% and find $M_B=88.0_{-3.2}^{+3.4}$ $M_{\rm Jup}$, putting HIP 55507 B above the stellar-substellar boundary. We also find that HIP 55507 B orbits its K6V primary star with $a=38^{+4}_{-3}$ AU and $e=0.40\pm0.04$. From atmospheric retrievals of HIP 55507 B, we measure $\rm [C/H]=0.24\pm0.13$, $\rm [O/H]=0.15\pm0.13$, and $\rm C/O=0.67\pm0.04$. Moreover, we strongly detect $\rm ^{13}CO$ ($7.8\sigma$ significance) and tentatively detect $\rm H_2^{18}O$ ($3.7\sigma$ significance) in companion's atmosphere, and measure $\rm ^{12}CO/^{13}CO=98_{-22}^{+28}$ and $\rm H_2^{16}O/H_2^{18}O=240_{-80}^{+145}$ after accounting for systematic errors. From a simplified retrieval analysis of HIP 55507 A, we measure $\rm ^{12}CO/^{13}CO=79_{-16}^{+21}$ and $\rm C^{16}O/C^{18}O=288_{-70}^{+125}$ for the primary star. These results demonstrate that HIP 55507 A and B have consistent $\rm ^{12} C/^{13}C$ and $\rm ^{16}O/^{18}O$ to the $<1\sigma$ level, as expected for a chemically homogeneous binary system. Given the similar flux ratios and separations between HIP 55507 AB and systems with young, substellar companions, our results open the door to systematically measuring $\rm ^{13}CO$ and $\rm H_2^{18}O$ abundances in the atmospheres of substellar or even planetary-mass companions with similar spectral types.

The optical properties of particulate-matter aerosols, within the context of exoplanet and brown dwarf atmospheres, are compared using three different models: Mie theory, Modified Mean Field (MMF) Theory, and Discrete Dipole Approximation (DDA). Previous results have demonstrated that fractal haze particles (MMF and DDA) absorb much less long-wavelength radiation than their spherical counterparts (Mie), however it is shown here that the opposite can also be true if a more varying refractive index profile is used. Additionally, it is demonstrated that absorption and scattering cross-sections, as well as the asymmetry parameter, are underestimated if Mie theory is used. Although DDA can be used to obtain more accurate results, it is known to be much more computationally intensive; to avoid this, the use of low-resolution aerosol models is explored, which could dramatically speed up the process of obtaining accurate computations of optical cross-sections within a certain parameter space. The validity of DDA is probed for wavelengths of interest for observations of aerosols within exoplanet and brown dwarf atmospheres (0.2 to 15 micrometres). Finally, novel code is presented to compare the results of Mie, MMF and DDA theories (CORAL: Comparison Of Radiative AnaLyses), as well as to increase and decrease the resolution of DDA shape files accordingly (SPHERIFY). Both codes can be applied to a range of other interesting astrophysical environments in addition to exoplanet atmospheres, for example dust grains within protoplanetary disks.

We present an analysis searching for dual AGN among 62 high-redshift ($2.5 < z < 3.5$) X-ray sources selected from publicly available deep Chandra fields. We aim to quantify the frequency of dual AGN in the high-redshift Universe, which holds implications for black hole merger timescales and low-frequency gravitational wave detection rates. We analyze each X-ray source using BAYMAX, an analysis tool that calculates the Bayes factor for whether a given archival Chandra AGN is more likely a single or dual point source. We find no strong evidence for dual AGN in any individual source in our sample. We then increase our sensitivity to search for dual AGN across the sample by comparing our measured distribution of Bayes factors to that expected from a sample composed entirely of single point sources, and again find no evidence for dual AGN in the observed sample distribution. Although our analysis utilizes one of the largest Chandra catalogs of high-$z$ X-ray point sources available to study, the findings remain limited by the modest number of sources observed at the highest spatial resolution with Chandra and the typical count rates of the detected sources. Our non-detection allows us to place an upper-limit on the X-ray dual AGN fraction between $2.5<z<3.5$ of 4.8\%. Expanding substantially on these results at X-ray wavelengths will require future surveys spanning larger sky areas and extending to fainter fluxes than has been possible with Chandra. We illustrate the potential of the AXIS mission concept in this regard.

The Milky Way's last significant merger, the Gaia Enceladus/Sausage (GES), is thought to have taken place between 8-11 Gyr ago. Recent studies in the literature suggest that the bar of the Milky Way is rather old, indicating that it formed at a similar epoch to the GES merger. We investigate the possible link between these events using one of the Auriga cosmological simulations which has salient features in common with the Milky Way, including a last significant merger with kinematic signatures resembling that of the GES. In this simulation, the GES-like merger event triggers tidal forces on the disc, gas inflows and a burst of star formation, with the formation of a bar occuring within 1 Gyr of the first pericentre. To highlight the effects of the merger, we rerun the simulation from z=4 with the progenitors of the GES-like galaxy removed well before the merger time. The consequence is a delay in bar formation by around 2 Gyr, and this new bar forms without any significant external perturbers. We conclude that this Milky Way-like simulation shows a route to the real Milky Way's bar formation being triggered primarily via tidal forces from the GES. We also note some later morphological differences between the disc of the original simulation and our rerun, in particular that the latter does not grow radially for the final 7 Gyr. Our study suggests that the GES may therefore be responsible for the formation of the Milky Way's bar, as well as for the build-up of its extended disc.

We present a new crater chronology for Jupiter's Trojan asteroids. This tool can be used to interpret the collisional history of the bodies observed by NASA's Lucy mission. The Lucy mission will visit a total of six Trojan asteroids: Eurybates, Polymele, Orus, Leucus, and the near equal mass binary Patroclus-Menoetius. In addition, Eurybates and Polymele each have a small satellite. Here we present a prediction of Trojan cratering based on current models of how the Solar System and the objects themselves evolved. We give particular emphasis to the time lapsed since their implantation into stable regions near Jupiter's Lagrangian L4 and L4 points. We find that cratering on Trojans is generally dominated by mutual collisions, with the exception of a short period of time (~10 Myr) after implantation, in which cometary impacts may have been significant. For adopted crater scaling laws, we find that the overall spatial density of craters on Trojans is significantly lower than that of Main Belt asteroids on surfaces with similar formation ages. We also discuss specific predictions for similar-sized Eurybates and Orus, and the binary system Patroclus-Menoetius.

We report on the discovery of one of the most extreme cases of high-frequency radio variability ever measured in active galactic nuclei (AGN), observed on timescales of days and exhibiting variability amplitudes of three to four orders of magnitude. These sources, all radio-weak narrow-line Seyfert 1 (NLS1) galaxies, were discovered some years ago at Aalto University Mets\"ahovi Radio Observatory (MRO) based on recurring flaring at 37 GHz, strongly indicating the presence of relativistic jets. In subsequent observations with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (JVLA) at 1.6, 5.2, and 9.0~GHz no signs of jets were seen. To determine the cause of their extraordinary behaviour, we observed them with the JVLA at 10, 15, 22, 33, and 45 GHz, and with the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) at 15 GHz. These observations were complemented with single-dish monitoring at 37 GHz at MRO, and at 15 GHz at Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO). Intriguingly, all but one source either have a steep radio spectrum up to 45 GHz, or were not detected at all. Based on the 37 GHz data the timescales of the radio flares are a few days, and the derived variability brightness temperatures and variability Doppler factors comparable to those seen in blazars. We discuss alternative explanations for their extreme behaviour, but so far no definite conclusions can be made. These sources exhibit radio variability at a level rarely, if ever, seen in AGN. They might represent a new type of jetted AGN, or a new variability phenomenon, and thus deserve our continued attention.

We present six strongly gravitationally lensed Ly-$\alpha$ Emitters (LAEs) at $z\sim4-5$ with HST narrowband imaging isolating Ly-$\alpha$. Through complex radiative transfer Ly-$\alpha$ encodes information about the spatial distribution and kinematics of the neutral hydrogen upon which it scatters. We investigate the galaxy properties and Ly-$\alpha$ morphologies of our sample. Many previous studies of high-redshift LAEs have been limited in Ly-$\alpha$ spatial resolution. In this work we take advantage of high-resolution Ly-$\alpha$ imaging boosted by lensing magnification, allowing us to probe sub-galactic scales that are otherwise inaccessible at these redshifts. We use broadband imaging from HST (rest-frame UV) and Spitzer (rest-frame optical) in SED fitting; providing estimates on the stellar masses ($\sim 10^8 - 10^9 M_{\odot}$), stellar population ages ($t_{50} <40$ Myr), and amounts of dust ($A_V \sim 0.1 - 0.6$, statistically consistent with zero). We employ non-parametric star-formation histories to probe the young stellar-populations which create Ly-$\alpha$. We also examine the offsets between the Ly-$\alpha$ and stellar continuum, finding small upper limits of offsets ($< 0.1"$) consistent with studies of low-redshift LAEs; indicating our galaxies are not interacting or merging. Finally, we find a bimodality in our sample's Ly-$\alpha$ morphologies: clumpy and extended. We find a suggestive trend: our LAEs with clumpy Ly-$\alpha$ are generally younger than the LAEs with extended Ly-$\alpha$, suggesting a possible correlation with age.

The minimum orbital separation of planets in long-stable planetary systems is often modeled as a step function, parameterized with a single value $\Delta_{min}$ (measured in mutual Hill radius of the two neighboring planets). Systems with smaller separations are considered unstable, and planet pairs with greater separations are considered stable. Here we report that a log-normal distribution function for $\Delta_{min}$, rather than a single threshold value, provides a more accurate model. From our suite of simulated planetary systems, the parameters of the best-fit log-normal distribution are $\mu=1.97\pm0.02$ and $\sigma=0.40\pm0.02$, such that the mean, median, and mode of $\Delta_{min}$ are 7.77, 7.17, and 6.11, respectively. This result is consistent with previous estimates for $\Delta_{min}$ threshold values in the range $\sim$5$-$8. We find a modest dependence of the distribution of $\Delta_{min}$ on multiplicity within the system, as well as on planetary mass ratios of the closest planet pair. The overall distribution of nearest-neighbor planetary orbital spacings (measured in the mutual Hill radii and denoted simply as $\Delta$) in long-term stable systems is also well fit with a log-normal distribution, with parameters $\mu=3.14\pm0.03$ and $\sigma=0.76\pm0.02$. In simulations of sets of many planets initially packed very close together, we find that the orbital spacings of long-term stable systems is statistically similar to that in the observed Kepler sample of exo-planetary systems, indicating a strong role of sculpting of planetary architectures by dynamical instabilities.

We use photometric metallicity estimates for about 700000 stars in the surroundings of the Sun, with very accurate distances and 3-D motions measures from Gaia DR3, to explore the properties of the metal-poor (-2.0<[Fe/H]<= -1.5; MP) and very metal-poor ([Fe/H]<= -2.0; VMP) stars with disc kinematics in the sample. We confirm the presence of a significant fraction of MP and VMP stars with disc-like orbits and that prograde orbits are prevalent among them, with prograde to retrograde ratio P/R ~3. We highlight for the first time a statistically significant difference in the distribution of the Z-component of the angular momentum (L_Z) and orbital eccentricity between prograde and retrograde disc-like MP stars. The same kind of difference is found also in the VMP subsample, albeit at a much lower level of statistical significance, likely due to the small sample size. We show that prograde disc-like MP and VMP stars display an additional component of the |L_Z| distribution with respect to their retrograde counterpart. This component is at higher |L_Z| with respect to the main peak of the distribution, possibly hinting at the presence of a pristine prograde disc in the Milky Way. This hypothesis is supported by the results of the analysis of a large sub-sample dominated by stars born in-situ. Also in this case the prevalence of prograde stars is clearly detected at [Fe/H]<= -1.5 and their |L_Z| distribution is more skewed toward high |L_Z| values than their retrograde counterpart. This suggests that the seed of what will eventually evolve into the main disc components of the Milky Way may have been already in place in the earliest phases of the Galaxy assembly.

We present a theoretical framework for linking quasar properties, such as quasar age, to the surrounding Ly$\alpha$ emission intensity. In particular, we focus on a method for mapping the large-scale structure of Ly$\alpha$ emission intensity with galaxy spectra from wide-field spectroscopic surveys, e.g., the Subaru Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS) or the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), and consider the quasar-induced Ly$\alpha$ emission from the intergalactic medium (IGM). To do this, we construct a theoretical model based on two physical processes: resonant scattering of quasar Ly$\alpha$ photons and fluorescence due to quasar ionizing photons, finding that the fluorescence contribution due to optically thick gas clouds is dominant. Taking into account the light cone effect and assuming a typical quasar spectrum, we calculate the fluorescence contribution to the spectrum stacked within each bin of the separation angle from the quasar as a function of quasar age. Furthermore, we compute the quasar-Ly$\alpha$ emission cross-correlation and its SNR for the planned PFS survey. The predicted signal can account for $\sim10\%$ of the measurements indicated from the BOSS and eBOSS surveys in the outer region of $>10\ \rm{cMpc}\ \rm{h}^{-1}$. The predicted SNR is not enough to detect the quasar-induced contribution, while it is enhanced by including contributions from other Ly$\alpha$ emission sources, e.g., star-forming galaxies. We discuss other possible contributions to the Ly$\alpha$ emission excess around quasars, the efficiency of using spectroscopic fibers, and the redshift dependence of our model.

Multi-band light curves of two RR Lyrae variables in Segue II and Ursa Major II ultra-faint dwarf (UFD) galaxies were collected from near simultaneous observations using the Lulin One-meter Telescope in Vgri bands. Together with Gaia G-band light curves, we determined photometric metallicities using empirical relations involving pulsation period and Fourier parameter as dependent parameters. We demonstrated that the RR Lyrae photometric metallicity can be determined accurately when these empirical relations were employed at multiple wavelengths, which can potentially improve the distance determination based on RR Lyrae stars. The photometric metallicities based on our approach were found to be $-2.27\pm0.13$ dex and $-1.87\pm0.16$ dex for the RR Lyrae in Segue II and Ursa Major II UFD, respectively, with corresponding distance moduli of $17.69\pm0.15$ mag and $17.58\pm0.15$ mag, in agreement with previous literature determinations. This approach of photometric metallicity of RR Lyrae based on multi-band optical light curves will be particularly relevant for distance measurements in the era of the Vera C Rubin's Legacy Survey of Space and Time.

Studying the escaping atmospheres of highly-irradiated exoplanets is critical for understanding the physical mechanisms that shape the demographics of close-in planets. A number of planetary outflows have been observed as excess H/He absorption during/after transit. Such an outflow has been observed for WASP-69b by multiple groups that disagree on the geometry and velocity structure of the outflow. Here, we report the detection of this planet's outflow using Keck/NIRSPEC for the first time. We observed the outflow 1.28 hours after egress until the target set, demonstrating the outflow extends at least $5.8 \times 10^5$ km or 7.5 planet radii. This detection is significantly longer than previous observations which report an outflow extending $\sim$2.2 planet radii just one year prior. The outflow is blue-shifted by $-$23 km s$^{-1}$ in the planetary rest frame. We estimate a current mass loss rate of 1 $M_{\oplus}$ Gyr$^{-1}$. Our observations are most consistent with an outflow that is strongly sculpted by ram pressure from the stellar wind. However, potential variability in the outflow could be due to time-varying interactions with the stellar wind or differences in instrumental precision.

Very-high energy (GeV-TeV) gamma rays in the universe suggest the presence of an accelerator in the source. Neutrinos and gamma rays are intriguing astrophysical messengers. Multi-messenger particle emission produced by interactions of cosmic rays with radiation fields and interstellar matter is a probe of luminosity of sources of cosmic rays with EeV energies, known as Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs). In this study, we estimate the neutrino flux, positing that the gamma-ray emission mainly arises from these cosmic-ray interactions during propagation. This work provides UHECR luminosity of galaxies from multi-messenger particles. These findings not only highlight the potential of certain galaxies as sources of UHECR, but also underscore the intricate interplay of various astrophysical processes within them. By understanding the luminosity patterns and multi-messenger particle emissions, we can gain valuable insights into the environmental conditions, acceleration mechanisms, and other intrinsic properties that position these galaxies as candidates for UHECR production.

We investigate the cosmological constraints on the Variable Chaplygin gas model with the latest observational data from the Fast Radio Bursts and SNeIa (Pantheon+SHOES). The Variable Chaplygin gas model is shown to be compatible with Type Ia Supernovae and Fast Radio Burts. We have obtained tighter constraints on cosmological parameters Bs and n, using the the FRB data set. By using the Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method on the SNeIa data set, we obtain Bs=0.1956 +- 0.1047 , n= 1.3581 +- 1.1678 and H0= 70.3902 +- 0.6381 and we obtain Bs= 0.1780 +-0.1069 , n= 1.2633+- 1.2433 and H0=70.397 +- 0.6597 from the FRB data set. We are able to get a good agreement between the H0 values from the two data sets.

We report an attempt to detect molecular and atomic species in the atmosphere of the ultra-hot Jupiter WASP-33b using the high-resolution echelle spectrograph NEID with a wavelength coverage of 380$-$930 nm. By analyzing the transmission spectrum of WASP-33b using the line-by-line technique and the cross-correlation technique, we confirm previous detection of H$\alpha$, H$\beta$, H$\gamma$, and Ca II infrared triplets. We find no evidence for a significant day-to-night wind in WASP-33b, taking into account the effects of stellar pulsations using a relatively novel GP method and poorly constrained systemic velocity measurements. We also detect the previously reported pre-transit absorption signal, which may be a pulsation mode induced by the planet. Combined with previous CARMENES and HARPS-N observations, we report the non-detection of TiO, Ti I, and V I in the transmission spectrum, while they were already detected in the dayside atmosphere of WASP-33b. This implies a difference in the chemical compositions and abundances between the dayside and terminator atmospheres of WASP-33b, and certainly requires further improvements in the sensitivity of the detection methods.

We perform a comparative study of the ex--situ second--parameter pair globular clusters (GCs) M30 and M92, having similar metallicities but different horizontal branch morphologies. We obtain the similar mean primordial carbon abundances for both clusters. However, M92 shows a large dispersion in carbon due to a more extended C--N anticorrelation, while M30 exhibits a higher primordial nitrogen abundance, suggesting that they have different chemical enrichment histories. Our new results confirm our previous result that M92 is a metal--complex GC showing a bimodal metallicity distribution. We also find that the metal--rich group of stars in M92 shows a helium enhancement as large as $\Delta Y$ $\sim$ 0.05 from the red giant branch bump (RGBB) $V$ magnitudes, which can also be supported by (i) a lack of bright RGB stars, (ii) synthetic evolutionary HB population models and (iii) the more extended spatial distribution due to different degree of the diffusion process from their lower masses. We reinterpret the [Eu/Fe] measurements by other, finding that the two metallicity groups of stars in M92 have significantly different [Eu/Fe] abundances with small scatters. This strongly suggests that they formed independently out of well mixed interstellar media in different environments. We suggest that M92 is a more complex system than a normal GC, most likely a merger remnant of two GCs or a even more complex system. In Appendix, we address the problems with the recently developed color--temperature relations and the usage of broadband photometry in the populational taggings.

Detecting anomalous behaviour of satellites is an important goal within the broader task of space situational awareness. The Two Line Element (TLE) data published by NORAD is the only widely-available, comprehensive source of data for satellite orbits. We present here a filtering approach for detecting anomalies in satellite orbits from TLE data. Optimal proposal particle filters are deployed to track the state of the satellites' orbits. New TLEs that are unlikely given our belief of the current orbital state are designated as anomalies. The change in the orbits over time is modelled using the SGP4 model with some adaptations. A model uncertainty is derived to handle the errors in SGP4 around singularities in the orbital elements. The proposed techniques are evaluated on a set of 15 satellites for which ground truth is available and the particle filters are shown to be superior at detecting the subtle in-track and cross-track manoeuvres in the simulated dataset, as well as providing a measure of uncertainty of detections.

We introduce a novel halo/galaxy matching technique between two cosmological simulations with different resolutions, which utilizes the positions and masses of halos along their subhalo merger tree. With this tool, we conduct a study of resolution biases through the galaxy-by-galaxy inspection of a pair of simulations that have the same simulation configuration but different mass resolutions, utilizing a suite of IllustrisTNG simulations to assess the impact on galaxy properties. We find that, with the subgrid physics model calibrated for TNG100-1, subhalos in TNG100-1 (high resolution) have $\lesssim0.5$ dex higher stellar masses than their counterparts in the TNG100-2 (low-resolution). It is also discovered that the subhalos with $M_{\mathrm{gas}}\sim10^{8.5}{\rm M}_\odot$ in TNG100-1 have $\sim0.5$ dex higher gas mass than those in TNG100-2. The mass profiles of the subhalos reveal that the dark matter masses of low-resolution subhalos are $\sim0.6$ times lower within 2 kpc, near the resolution limit. The differences in stellar mass and hot gas mass are most pronounced in the central region. We exploit machine learning to build a correction mapping for the physical quantities of subhalos from low- to high-resolution simulations (TNG300-1 and TNG100-1), which enables us to find an efficient way to compile a high-resolution galaxy catalog even from a low-resolution simulation. Our tools can easily be applied to other large cosmological simulations, testing and mitigating the resolution biases of their numerical codes and subgrid physics models.

Timing a pulsar orbiting around Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) can provide us with a unique opportunity of testing gravity theories. We investigate the detectability of a vector charge carried by the Sgr A* black hole (BH) in the bumblebee gravity model with simulated future pulsar timing observations. The spacetime of a bumblebee BH introduces characteristic changes to the orbital dynamics of the pulsar and the light propagation of radio signals. Assuming a timing precision of 1 ms, our simulation shows that a 5-yr observation of a pulsar with an orbital period $P_b\sim 0.5\,{\rm yr}$ and an orbital eccentricity $e\sim 0.8$ can probe a vector charge-to-mass ratio as small as $Q/M\sim 10^{-3}$, which is much more stringent than the current constraint from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) observations, and comparable to the prospective constraint from extreme mass-ratio inspirals with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA).

WL 17 is a Class I object and was considered to have a ring-hole structure. We analyzed the structure around WL 17 to investigate the detailed properties of WL 17. We used ALMA archival data, which have a higher angular resolution than previous observations. We investigated the WL 17 system with the 1.3 mm dust continuum and 12CO and C18O (J = 2-1) line emissions. The dust continuum emission showed a clear ring structure with inner and outer edges of ~11 and ~21 au, respectively. In addition, we detected an inner disk of < 5 au radius enclosing the central star within the ring, the first observation of this structure. Thus, WL 17 has a ring-gap structure, not a ring-hole structure. We did not detect any marked emission in either the gap or inner disk, indicating that there is no sign of a planet, circumplanetary disk, or binary companion. We identified the base of both blue-shifted and red-shifted outflows based on the 12CO emission, which is clearly associated with the disk around WL 17. The outflow mass ejection rate is ~3.6x10^-7 Msun yr-1 and the dynamical timescale is as short as ~ 10^4 yr. The C18O emission showed that an inhomogeneous infalling envelope, which can induce episodic mass accretion, is distributed in the region within ~1000 au from the central protostar. With these new findings, we can constrain the planet formation and dust growth scenarios in the accretion phase of star formation.

We explore the information content of 21cm intensity maps in redshift space using the 1-loop Effective Field Theory power spectrum model and the bispectrum at tree level. The 21cm signal contains signatures of dark matter, dark energy and the growth of large-scale structure in the Universe. These signatures are typically analyzed via the 2-point correlation function or power spectrum. However, adding the information from the 3-point correlation function or bispectrum will be crucial to exploiting next-generation intensity mapping experiments. The bispectrum could offer a unique opportunity to break key parameter degeneracies that hinder the measurement of cosmological parameters and improve on the precision. We use a Fisher forecast analysis to estimate the constraining power of the HIRAX survey on cosmological parameters, dark energy and modified gravity.

A considerable number of photographic plate archives exist world wide and digitization is in progress or already has been finished. Not only different type of scanners were used but also spatial resolution and dynamic range often were limited due to process duration and storage space. The open question is the effect of these limitations on the results. 61 high resolution photographic plates of the Gamma Cyg field from the Bruce astrograph at Landessternwarte Heidelberg--K\"onigstuhl (aperture 40~cm, focal length 200~cm) had been digitized both in Heidelberg and Sonneberg. Both scanners were set to 16 bit dynamic range. The Heidelberg scanner was operated at 2540 dpi resolution, resulting in a scale of 1 arcsec/pixel, while the Sonneberg scanner was operated at 1200 dpi, yielding a scale of 2.1 arsec/pixel. In the presented study the standard deviation of non--variable star light curves were examined in dependence of brightness and plate coordinates in both series. No evident differences could be found. A comparison of the analysis of both scan series will be presented.

We analyzed data from HaloSat observations for five fields in the Galactic disk located far away from the Galactic center (135$^{\circ}$ $<$ $l$ $<$ 254$^{\circ}$) to understand the nature of soft X-ray energy emission in the Galactic disk. The fields have 14$^{\circ}$ diameter and were selected to contain no significant high-flux X-ray sources. All five HaloSat soft X-ray energy spectra (0.4--7 keV with energy resolution of $<$100 eV below 1 keV) show a possibility of the presence of unresolved high-temperature plasma in the Galactic disk (UHTPGD) with a temperature of 0.8--1.0 keV and an emission measure of (8--11)$\times10^{-4} \rm cm^{-6} pc$ in addition to the soft X-ray diffuse background components mainly studied at higher galactic latitudes (solar wind charge exchange emission, local hot bubble, Milky Way halo emission, and the cosmic X-ray background). This suggests that the UHTPGD is present across the whole Galactic disk. We also observed UHTPGD emission in a region with no bright sources in an {\it XMM-Newton} field contained within one of the {\it HaloSat} fields. The temperature and emission measure are consistent with those measured with {\it HaloSat}. Moreover, the stacked spectra of the X-ray point-like sources and NIR-identified point sources such as stars in the {\it XMM-Newton} field also show a spectral feature similar to the UHTPGD emission. This suggests that the UHTPGD may partly originate from point-like sources such as stars.

The Galactic Center Excess (GCE), one of the most remarkable discoveries by Fermi-LAT, has prompted extensive exploration over the past decade, often attributed to dark matter or millisecond pulsars. This work proposes a novel interpretation on the origin of the GCE, focusing on the observed spectral shape. Protons are accelerated at the Galactic center and collide with the neutron cluster on the surface of the non-rotating neutron stars. Due to the gluon condensation in nucleons, these collisions produce a large number of mesons, which have reached to the saturation state and subsequently generate the broken power law in the gamma ray spectra. We explained the spectral shape of GCE using the gluon condensation and an assumption of existing the non-rotating neutron stars at the Galactic center. This example of the gluon condensation mechanism not only expands the applications of the hadronic scenario in the cosmic gamma ray spectra but also provides a new evidence of the gluon condensation.

The Meudon Solar Tower (MST) is a 0.60 m telescope dedicated to spectroscopic observations of solar regions. It includes a 14-meter focal length spectrograph which offers high spectral resolution. The spectrograph works either in classical thin slit mode (R > 300000) or 2D imaging spectroscopy (60000 < R < 180000). This specific mode is able to provide high temporal resolution measurements (1 min) of velocities and magnetic fields upon a 2D field of view, using the Multichannel Subtractive Double Pass (MSDP) system. The purpose of this paper is to describe the capabilities of the MSDP at MST with available slicers for broad and thin lines. The goal is to produce multichannel spectra-images, from which cubes of instantaneous data (x, y, $\lambda$) are derived, in order to study of the plasma dynamics and magnetic fields (with polarimetry).

Planetary nebulae (PNe) are excellent tracers of the metal-poor haloes of nearby early-type galaxies. They are commonly used to trace spatial distribution and kinematics of the halo and intracluster light at distances of up to 100 Mpcs. The results on the early-type galaxy M105 in the Leo I group represent a benchmark for the quantitative analysis of halo and intragroup light. Since the Leo I group lies at just a 10 Mpc distance, it is at the ideal location to compare results from resolved stellar populations with the homogeneous constraints over a much larger field of view from the PN populations. In M105, we have -- for the first time -- established a direct link between the presence of a metal-poor halo as traced by resolved red-giant branch stars and a PN population with a high specific frequency ($\alpha$-parameter). This confirms our inferences that the high $\alpha$-parameter PN population in the outer halo of M49 in the Virgo Cluster traces the metal-poor halo and intra-group light.

Theories of spiral structure traditionally separate into tight-winding Lin-Shu spiral density waves and the swing-amplified material patterns of Goldreich & Lynden-Bell and Julian & Toomre. In this paper we consolidate these two types of spirals into a unified description, treating density waves beyond the tight-winding limit, in the regime of shearing and non-steady open spirals. This 'shearing wave' scenario novelly captures swing amplification that enables structure formation above conventional Q thresholds. However, it also highlights the fundamental role of spiral forcing on the amplification process in general, whether the wave is shearing or not. Thus it captures resonant and non-resonant mode growth through the donkey effect described by Lynden-Bell & Kalnajs and, critically, the cessation of growth when donkey behavior is no longer permitted. Our calculations predict growth exclusive to trailing spirals above the Jeans length, the prominence of spirals across a range of orientations that increases with decreasing arm multiplicity, and a critical orientation where growth is fastest that is the same for both modes and material patterns. Predicted structures are consistent with highly regular, high-multiplicity gaseous spur features and long filaments spaced close to the Jeans scale in spirals and bars. Applied to stellar disks, conditions favor low multiplicity (m<5) open trailing spirals with pitch angles in the observed range $10 deg$<$i_p$<$50 deg$. The results of this work serve as a basis for describing spirals as a unified class of transient waves, abundantly stimulated but narrowly selected for growth depending on local conditions.

Context. Comet 46P/Wirtanen is a near-Earth object (NEO) for which no associated meteor shower has ever been reported. Aims. This study is aimed at improving our understanding of why there has been no observed shower activity for this NEO to date, as well as to consider whether any past activity could be uncovered from the post-prediction results. Methods. The usual dynamic tools for meteoroid streams were used to describe the behavior of the particles ejected by the comet. The resulting modeled meteoroid stream was thoroughly inspected for collisions between the stream and the Earth. Results. The results show a possible encounter forecast for December 12, 2023, between 8:00 and 12:30 UT. The slow entry velocity is typically known to cause dim meteors. The activity level of the shower is highly uncertain due to the absence of reported past showers. Conclusions. Overall, the most optimal observations on the forecasted day would be achieved from Eastern Australia, New Zealand, and Oceania. These observations will help constrain the size distribution of meteoroids from comet 46P/Wirtanen in the millimeter range.

A dipole anisotropy in ultra-high-energy cosmic ray (UHECR) arrival directions, of extragalactic origin, is now firmly established at energies E > 8 EeV. Furthermore, the UHECR angular power spectrum shows no power at smaller angular scales than the dipole, apart from hints of possible individual hot or warm spots for energy thresholds $\gtrsim$40 EeV. Here, we exploit the magnitude of the dipole and the limits on smaller-scale anisotropies to place constraints on two quantities: the extragalactic magnetic field (EGMF) and the number density of UHECR sources or the volumetric event rate if UHECR sources are transient. We also vary the bias between the extragalactic matter and the UHECR source densities, reflecting whether UHECR sources are preferentially found in over- or under-dense regions, and find that little or no bias is favored. We follow Ding et al. (2021) in using the Cosmic Flows 2 density distribution of the local universe as our baseline distribution of UHECR sources, but we improve and extend that work by employing an accurate and self-consistent treatment of interactions and energy losses during propagation. Deflections in the Galactic magnetic field are treated using both the full JF12 magnetic field model, with random as well as coherent components, or just the coherent part, to bracket the impact of the GMF on the dipole anisotropy. This Large Scale Structure (LSS) model gives good agreement with both the direction and magnitude of the measured dipole anisotropy and forms the basis for simulations of discrete sources and the inclusion of EGMF effects.

The dark compact object at the centre of the Milky Way is well established to be a supermassive black hole with mass $M_{\bullet} \sim 4.3 \cdot 10^6 \, M_{\odot}$, but the nature of its environment is still under debate. In this work, we used astrometric and spectroscopic measurements of the motion of the star S2, one of the closest stars to the massive black hole, to determine an upper limit on an extended mass composed of a massive vector field around Sagittarius A*. For a vector with effective mass $10^{-19} \, \rm eV \lesssim m_s \lesssim 10^{-18} \, \rm eV$, our Markov Chain Monte Carlo analysis shows no evidence for such a cloud, placing an upper bound $M_{\rm cloud} \lesssim 0.1\% M_{\bullet}$ at $3\sigma$ confidence level. We show that dynamical friction exerted by the medium on S2 motion plays no role in the analysis performed in this and previous works, and can be neglected thus.

The period-luminosity (PL) relation of Cepheids in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) plays a pivotal role in extra-galactic distance measurement and the determination of the Hubble constant $(H_{0})$. In this work, we probe the geometry of the LMC through a detailed study of multi-phase PL relations of these Cepheids, leveraging data from the OGLE-IV and Gaia DR3 databases. We analyse the light curves of a combined sample of $\sim$3300 fundamental (FU) and first overtone (FO) mode classical Cepheids. We obtain multi-phase data with $50$ phase points over a complete pulsation cycle from the OGLE $(V, I)$ and Gaia $(G,G_{\rm BP}, G_{\rm RP})$ photometric bands. We determine the distance modulus and reddening values of individual Cepheids by fitting a simultaneous reddening law to the apparent distance modulus values. We calculate the LMC viewing angle parameters: the inclination angle $(i)$ and position angle of line of nodes $(\theta_{\rm lon})$ by fitting a plane of the form $z = f(x,y)$ to the three-dimensional distribution of Cepheids in Cartesian coordinates $(x,y,z)$. The values of LMC viewing angles from multi-phase PL relations are found to be: $i = 22\rlap{.}^{\circ}87 \pm 0\rlap{.}^{\circ}43 ~\textrm{(stat.)} \pm 0\rlap{.}^{\circ}53 ~\textrm{(syst.)}$, $\theta_{\rm lon} = 154\rlap{.}^{\circ}76 \pm 1\rlap{.}^{\circ}16 ~\textrm{(stat.)} \pm 1\rlap{.}^{\circ}01 ~\textrm{(syst.)}$, respectively. The use of multi-phase PL relations in multiple bands results in lower uncertainties for the LMC viewing angle parameters as compared to those derived from the mean light PL relations. This shows that the use of multi-phase PL relations with multi-wavelength photometry significantly improves the precision of these measurements, allowing better constraints on the morphology and the structure of the LMC.

We compare properties of classical and pseudo-bulges and properties of their hosting galaxies selected from the MaNGA survey. Bulge types are identified based on the S$\mathrm{\acute{e}}$rsic index n of bulge component and the position of bulges on the Kormandy diagram. For the 393 classical bulges and 422 pseudo-bulges selected and their hosting galaxies, we study their kinematic properties including a proxy for specific angular momentum and central velocity dispersion, their stellar population properties including stellar age, metallicity, and specific star formation rate, as well as HI fractions of the galaxies. Our results show that at given stellar mass, disc components of pseudo-bulge galaxies are younger, have more active star formation, rotate more, and may contain more HI content compared with those of classical bulge galaxies, and the differences are larger than those between bulges themselves. The correlations between bulge types and disc properties indicate that different types of bulges are shaped by different processes that may regulate both growth of central components and evolution of outer discs in galaxies. In addition, we propose a stellar mass dependent divider of central velocity dispersion to separate galaxies with classical bulges from those with pseudo-bulges in galaxy mass range of $10.4<\mathrm{log}(M_*/M_\odot)<11.4$: $\mathrm{log}(\sigma_0) = 0.23 \times \mathrm{log}(M_*/M_\odot)-0.46$. Galaxies with larger/smaller $\sigma_0$ can be classified as hosts of classical/pseudo-bulges.

We present a comprehensive overview of a volume-complete sample of white dwarfs located within 40 pc of the Sun, a significant proportion of which were detected in Gaia Data Release 3 (DR3). Our DR3 sample contains 1076 spectroscopically confirmed white dwarfs, with just five candidates within the volume remaining unconfirmed (more than 99 per cent spectroscopic completeness). Additionally, 28 white dwarfs were not in our initial selection from Gaia DR3, most of which are in unresolved binaries. We use Gaia DR3 photometry and astrometry to determine a uniform set of white dwarf parameters, including mass, effective temperature, and cooling age. We assess the demographics of the 40 pc sample, specifically magnetic fields, binarity, space density and mass distributions.

We examine the contribution of tensor modes, in addition to the dominant scalar ones, on the temperature anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). To this end, we analyze in detail the temperature two-point angular correlation function $C(\theta)$ from the Planck 2018 dataset, focusing on large angles ($\theta \gtrsim 120^{\circ}$) corresponding to small $\ell$ multipoles. A hierarchical set of infrared cutoffs are naturally introduced to the scalar and tensor power spectra of the CMB by invoking an extra Kaluza-Klein dimension compactifying at about the GUT scale between the Planck epoch and the start of inflation. We associate this set of lower scalar and tensor cutoffs with the parity of the multipole expansion of the $C(\theta)$ function. By fitting the Planck 2018 data we compute the multipole coefficients thereby reproducing the well-known odd-parity preference in angular correlations seen by all three satellite missions COBE, WMAP and Planck. Our fits improve significantly once tensor modes are included in the analysis, hence providing a hint of the imprints of primordial gravitational waves on the temperature correlations observed in the CMB today. To conclude we suggest a relationship between, on the one hand, the lack of (positive) large-angle correlations and the odd-parity dominance in the CMB and, on the other hand, the effect of primordial gravitational waves on the CMB temperature anisotropies.

We present an application of an artificial neural network methodology to a modern wide-field sky survey Pan-STARRS1 in order to build a high-quality sample of disk galaxies visible in edge-on orientation. Such galaxies play an important role in the study of the vertical distribution of stars, gas and dust, which is usually not available to study in other galaxies outside the Milky Way. We give a detailed description of the network architecture and the learning process. The method demonstrates good effectiveness with detection rate about 97\% and it works equally well for galaxies over a wide range of brightnesses and sizes, which resulted in a creation of a catalogue of edge-on galaxies with $10^5$ of objects. The catalogue is published on-line with an open access.

In other to understand galaxy growth evolution, it is critical to constrain the evolution of its building block: gas. Mostly comprised by Hydrogen in its neutral (HI) and molecular (H$_2$) phases, the latter is the one mostly directly associated to star-formation, while the neutral phase is considered the long-term gas reservoir. In this work, we make use of an empirical relation between dust emission at millimeter wavelengths and total gas mass in the inter-stellar medium (MHI plus MH2) in order to retrieve the HI content in galaxies. We assemble an heterogeneous sample of 335 galaxies at $0.01<z<6.4$ detected in both mm-continuum and carbon monoxide (CO), with special focus on a blindly selected sample to retrieve HI cosmological content when the Universe was ~2-6Gyr old ($1<z<3$). We find no significant evolution with redshift of the $M_{\rm HI}/M_{\rm H_2}$ ratio, which is about 1-3 (depending on the relation used to estimate $M_{\rm HI}$). This also shows that $M_{\rm H_2}$-based gas depletion times are underestimated overall by a factor of 2-4. Compared to local Universe HI mass functions, we find that the number density of galaxies with $M_{\rm HI} > 10^{10.5} {\rm M}_\odot$ significantly decreased since 8-12Gyr ago. The specific sample used for this analysis is associated to 20-50% of the total cosmic HI content as estimated via Damped Lyman-alpha Absorbers. In IR luminous galaxies, HI mass content decreases between $z\sim 2.5$ and $z\sim 1.5$, while H$_2$ seems to increase. We also show source detection expectations for SKA surveys.

The satellite Planetary Transits and Oscillations of stars (PLATO), due to be launched late 2026, will provide us with an unprecedented sample of light curves of solar-type stars that will exhibit both solar-type oscillations and signatures of activity-induced brightness modulations. Solar-type pulsators only have moderate levels of activity because high levels of activity inhibit oscillations. This means that these targets represent a specific challenge for starspot modelling. In order to assess the possibilities that PLATO will soon open, we wish to characterise the morphology of active regions at the surface of stars for which we also have a detection of solar-like acoustic oscillations. In this context, we report the results of an ensemble starspot modelling analysis of the Sun and ten solar-type pulsators observed by the Kepler satellite. We implement a Bayesian starspot modelling approach based on a continuous-grid model, accounting for the combined starspot and facular contribution to activity-induced brightness modulations. From our analysis, we find that several stars of our sample exhibit clear signatures of stable longitudinal active nests while sharing activity levels and convection versus rotation regimes similar to the solar regime. By searching for modulations in the reconstructed starspot coverage, we found significant periodicities that we identify as possible signatures of cyclic modulations similar to the quasi-biennal oscillation or the Rieger cycle. We can infer the corresponding intensity of the magnetic field at the bottom of the convective envelope based on the hypothesis that internal magneto-Rossby waves acting on the tachocline cause these modulations.

Betelgeuse, a red supergiant star of semi-regular variability, underwent a historical minimum of brightness in February 2020, the Great Dimming. Even though the brightness has returned to the values prior to the Great Dimming by now, it continues to exhibit highly unusual behavior. Understanding the long-term atmospheric motions of Betelgeuse and its variability could be a clue to the nature of the Great Dimming and the mass-loss process in red supergiants. Our goal is to study long-term dynamics of the photosphere. We applied the tomographic method, which allows different layers in the stellar atmosphere to be probed in order to reconstruct depth-dependent velocity fields. The method is based on the construction of spectral masks by grouping spectral lines from specific optical depths. These masks are cross-correlated with the observed spectra to recover the velocity field inside each atmospheric layer. We obtained about 2700 spectra during the past 15 years, observed with the STELLA robotic telescope in Tenerife. We analysed the variability of 5 different layers of Betelgeuses photosphere. We found phase shift between the layers, as well as between the variability of velocity and photometry. The time variations of the widths of the cross-correlation function reveal propagation of two shock waves during the Great Dimming. For about 2 years after the Dimming, the time scale of variability was different between the inner and outer photospheric layers. By 2022, all the layers seemingly started to follow a similar behavior as before the Dimming, but pulsating with higher frequency corresponding with the first overtone. Combination of the extensive high-resolution spectroscopic data set with the tomographic method revealed the variable velocity fields in the photosphere of Betelgeuse, for the first time in such detail.

We present radio and X-ray studies of A3444 and MS1455.0+2232, two galaxy clusters with radio minihalos in their cool cores. A3444 is imaged using the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) at 333, 607 and 1300 MHz and the Very Large Array at 1435 MHz. Most of the minihalo is contained within r<120 kpc, but a fainter extension, stretching out to 380 kpc South-West of the center, is detected at 607 MHz. Using Chandra, we detect four X-ray sloshing cold fronts: three in the cool core at r=60, 120 and 230 kpc, and a fourth one at r=400 kpc - in the region of the southwestern radio extension - suggesting that the intracluster medium (ICM) is sloshing on a cluster-wide scale. The radio emission is contained within the envelope defined by these fronts. We also analyzed archival 383 MHz GMRT and Chandra observations of MS1455.0+2232, which exhibits a known minihalo with its bright part delineated by cold fronts inside the cool core, but with a faint extension beyond the core. Similarly to A3444, we find a cold front at r~425 kpc, containing the radio emission. Thus the entire diffuse radio emission seen in these clusters appears to be related to large-scale sloshing of the ICM. The radio spectrum of the A3444 minihalo is a power law with a steep index $\alpha=1.0\pm0.1$. The spectrum steepens with increasing distance from the center, as expected if the minihalo originates from re-acceleration of relativistic particles by the sloshing-induced turbulence in the ICM.

Type Ia supernovae are one such cosmological probe to study dark energy, for which the dominant source of systematic uncertainties is the accuracy of the photometric calibration. To address this, recent advancements introduce Collimated Beam Projectors (CBP), aiming to enhance calibration by precisely measuring a telescope's throughput as a function of wavelength. This work describes the performance of a prototype portable CBP. The experimental setup consists of a broadband Xenon light source replacing a more customary but much more demanding high-power laser source, coupled with a monochromator emitting light inside an integrating sphere monitored with a photodiode and a spectrograph. Light is injected at the focus of the CBP telescope projecting a collimated beam onto a solar cell whose quantum efficiency has been obtained by comparison with a NIST-calibrated photodiode. The throughput and signal-to-noise ratio achieved by comparing the photocurrent signal in the CBP photodiode to the one in the solar cell are computed. We prove that the prototype, in its current state of development, is capable of achieving 1.2 per cent and 2.3 per cent precision on the integrated g and r bands of the ZTF photometric filter system respectively, in a reasonable amount of integration time. Central wavelength determination accuracy is kept below ~0.91 nm and ~0.58 nm for g and r bands, respectively. The expected photometric uncertainty caused by filter throughput measurement is approximately 5 mmag on the zero-point magnitude. Several straightforward improvement paths are discussed to upgrade the current setup.

We describe the AMReX-Astrophysics framework for exploring the sensitivity of astrophysical simulations to the details of a nuclear reaction network, including the number of nuclei, choice of reaction rates, and approximations used. This is explored by modeling a simple detonation with the Castro simulation code. The entire simulation methodology is open-source and GPU-enabled.

The so called magnetars are young neutron stars with extremely high magnetic fields ($B \sim 10^{14}-10^{15}$ gauss) which usually accompanied by X-ray radiation. Soft Gamma-ray Repeating sources (SGRs), as a type of magnetar, occasionally produce giant flares (GFs) with energies ranging from 10$^{44}$ to 10$^{46}$ erg. In reality, some Gamma-Ray Bursts (e.g., GRBs 051103, 070201, 200415A) have been considered to be GFs. They have similar characteristics to short GRBs, such as spike-like light curves and hard spectra. Recently observed GRB 231115A can be categorized as one of GFs with a high probability to associated with M82. In this work, we conduct a detailed analysis of its prompt emission observed by Fermi-GBM, and compare relevant features (e.g., the $E_{\rm p,z}$--$E_{\gamma,\rm iso}$ relation) with existing observations. We find its features are almost consistent with previous GFs. We notice, however, the possibility of being a short GRB of this burst cannot be simply ruled out based on the upper limit of existing observations and the modeling of its multi-wavelength afterglow. Additionally, such events are likely to be detected by existing and future facilities, which is crucial for the physics of transient sources related to magnetars.

The origin of the Jupiter Trojan asteroids has long been a mystery. Dynamically, the population, which is considerably smaller than the main asteroid belt, librates around Jupiter's stable L4 and L5 Lagrange points, 60 deg ahead and behind Jupiter. It is thought that these bodies were captured into these orbits early in solar system history, but any capture mechanism must also explain why the Trojans have an excited inclination distribution, with some objects reaching inclinations of 35 deg. The Trojans themselves, individually and in aggregate, also have spectral and physical properties that appear consistent with many small bodies found in the outer solar system (e.g., irregular satellites, Kuiper belt objects). In this review, we assemble what is known about the Trojans and discuss various models for their origin and collisional evolution. It can be argued that the Trojans are unlikely to be captured planetesimals from the giant planet zone, but instead were once denizens of the primordial Kuiper belt, trapped by the events taking place during a giant planet instability. The Lucy mission to the Trojans is therefore well positioned to not only answer questions about these objects, but also about their place in planet formation and solar system evolution studies.

We present an analysis of nine bright spectroscopic binaries (HD 1585, HD 6613, HD 12390, HD 39923, HD 55201, HD 147430, HD 195543, HD 202699, HD 221643), which have orbital periods of P > 500 days. These well-separated binaries are the last stars of our sample that we observed with the TIGRE telescope obtaining intermediate-resolution spectra of R = 20,000. We applied the same method as described in our previous publication of this series. For the analysis of the radial velocity curves, we used the toolkit RadVel, which allowed us to determine all orbital parameters. Recently published orbital solutions of some systems from Gaia DR3 agree with our results. However, our solutions have much smaller uncertainties. We determined the basic stellar parameters of the primary stars with our automatic script using iSpec. The parameter determination allowed us to place all nine stars in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. We found that all stars have already evolved to the giant phase. A comparison with stellar evolution tracks of the Eggleton code was applied to determine the stellar masses and ages. As a result of our analysis, we were able to estimate the masses of the secondary stars and the orbital inclinations of the binary systems.

We present the first deep learning model for segmenting galactic spiral arms and bars. In a blinded assessment by expert astronomers, our predicted spiral arm masks are preferred over both current automated methods (99% of evaluations) and our original volunteer labels (79% of evaluations). Experts rated our spiral arm masks as `mostly good' to `perfect' in 89% of evaluations. Bar lengths trivially derived from our predicted bar masks are in excellent agreement with a dedicated crowdsourcing project. The pixelwise precision of our masks, previously impossible at scale, will underpin new research into how spiral arms and bars evolve.

We identify rare and visually distinctive galaxy populations by searching for structure within the learned representations of pretrained models. We show that these representations arrange galaxies by appearance in patterns beyond those needed to predict the pretraining labels. We design a clustering approach to isolate specific local patterns, revealing groups of galaxies with rare and scientifically-interesting morphologies.

We shortly summarize the standard current knowledge on the structure of the accretion flow onto black holes in galactic binary systems and in active galactic nuclei. We stress the similarities and differences between the two types of systems, and we highlight the complementarity of the data caused by these differences. We highlight some new developments and list the unsolved problems.

We present the evolution and the explosion of two massive stars, 15 and 25 M$_{\odot}$, spanning a wide range of initial rotation velocities (from 0 to 800 km/s) and three initial metallicities: Z=0 ([Fe/H]=$-\infty$), $3.236\times10^{-7}$ ([Fe/H]=-5), and $3.236\times10^{-6}$ ([Fe/H]=-4). A very large nuclear network of 524 nuclear species extending up to Bi has been adopted. Our main findings may be summarized as follows: a) rotating models above Z=0 are able to produce nuclei up to the neutron closure shell at N=50, and in a few cases up to N=82; b) rotation drastically inhibits the penetration of the He convective shell in the H rich mantle, phenomenon often found in zero metallicity non rotating massive stars; c) vice versa rotation favors the penetration of the O convective shell in the C rich layers with the consequence of altering significantly the yields of the products of the C, Ne, and O burning; d) none of the models that reach the critical velocity while in H burning, loses more the 1 M$_{\odot}$ in this phase; e) conversely, almost all models able to reach their Hayashi track exceed the Eddington luminosity and lose dynamically almost all their H rich mantle. These models suggest that rotating massive stars may have contributed significantly to the synthesis of the heavy nuclei in the first phase of enrichment of the interstellar medium, i.e., at early times.

The delensing of cosmic microwave background (CMB) maps will be increasingly valuable for extracting as much information as possible from future CMB surveys. Delensing provides many general benefits, including sharpening of the acoustic peaks, more accurate recovery of the damping tail, and reduction of lensing-induced $B$-mode power. In this paper we present several applications of delensing focused on testing theories of early-universe inflation with observations of the CMB. We find that delensing the CMB results in improved parameter constraints for reconstructing the spectrum of primordial curvature fluctuations, probing oscillatory features in the primordial curvature spectrum, measuring the spatial curvature of the universe, and constraining several different models of isocurvature perturbations. In some cases we find that delensing can recover almost all of the constraining power contained in unlensed spectra, and it will be a particularly valuable analysis technique to achieve further improvements in constraints for model parameters whose measurements are not expected to improve significantly when utilizing only lensed CMB maps from next-generation CMB surveys. We also quantify the prospects of testing the single-field inflation tensor consistency condition using delensed CMB data; we find it to be out of reach of current and proposed experimental technology and advocate for alternative detection methods.

Modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND) is a promising alternative to dark matter. To further test the theory, there is a need for fluid- and particle-dynamics simulations. The force in MOND is not a direct particle-particle interaction, but derives from a potential for which a nonlinear partial differential equation (PDE) needs to be solved. Normally, this makes the problem of simulating dynamical evolution computationally expensive. We intend to develop a fast particle-mesh (PM) code for MOND (the AQUAL formalism). We transformed the nonlinear equation for MOND into a system of linear PDEs plus one algebraic equation. An iterative scheme with the fast Fourier transform (FFT) produces successively better numerical approximations. The algorithm was tested for dynamical systems in MOND where analytical solutions are known: the two-body problem, a body with a circular ring, and a spherical distribution of particles in thermal equilibrium in the self-consistent potential. The PM code can accurately calculate the forces at subpixel scale and reproduces the analytical solutions. Four iterations are required for the potential, but when the spatial steps are small compared to the kernel width, one iteration is suffices. The use of a smoothing kernel for the accelerations is inevitable in order to eliminate the self-gravity of the point particles. Our PDE solver is $15$ to $42$ times as slow as a standard Poisson solver. However, the smoothing and particle propagation takes up most of the time above one particle per $10^3$ pixels. The FFTs, the smoothing, and the propagation part in the code can all be parallelized.

Cosmological parameter inference has been dominated by the Bayesian approach for the past two decades, primarily due to its computational efficiency. However, the Bayesian approach involves integration of the posterior probability and therefore depends on both the choice of model parametrisation and the choice of prior on the model parameter space. In some cases, this can lead to conclusions which are driven by choice of parametrisation and priors rather than by data. The profile likelihood method provides a complementary frequentist tool which can be used to investigate this effect. In this paper, we present the code PROSPECT for computing profile likelihoods in cosmology. We showcase the code using a phenomenological model for converting dark matter into dark radiation that suffers from large volume effects and prior dependence. PROSPECT is compatible with both cobaya and MontePython, and is publicly available at https://github.com/AarhusCosmology/prospect_public.

The process whereby the supermassive black holes populating the centers of galaxies have been assembled remains to be established, with the relative importance of seeds provided by collapsed Population-III stars, black holes formed in nuclear star clusters via repeated mergers, or direct collapses of protogalactic disks yet to be determined. In this paper we study the prospects for casting light on this issue by future measurements of gravitational waves emitted during the inspirals and mergers of pairs of intermediate-mass black holes, discussing in particular the roles of prospective measurements by LISA and the proposed atom interferometers AION and AEDGE. We find that, the expected number of detectable IMBH binaries is $O(100)$ for LISA and AEDGE and $O(10)$ for AION in low-mass seeds scenarios and goes down to $O(10)$ for LISA and below one for AEDGE and AION in high-mass seed scenarios. This allows all of these observatories to probe the parameters of the seed model, in particular if at least a fraction of the SMBHs arise from a low-mass seed population. We also show that the measurement accuracy of the binary parameters is, in general, best for AEDGE that sees very precisely the merger of the binary.

[Abridged abstract] Large Language Models (LLMs) can solve some undergraduate-level to graduate-level physics textbook problems and are proficient at coding. Combining these two capabilities could one day enable AI systems to simulate and predict the physical world. We present an evaluation of state-of-the-art (SOTA) LLMs on PhD-level to research-level computational physics problems. We condition LLM generation on the use of well-documented and widely-used packages to elicit coding capabilities in the physics and astrophysics domains. We contribute $\sim 50$ original and challenging problems in celestial mechanics (with REBOUND), stellar physics (with MESA), 1D fluid dynamics (with Dedalus) and non-linear dynamics (with SciPy). Since our problems do not admit unique solutions, we evaluate LLM performance on several soft metrics: counts of lines that contain different types of errors (coding, physics, necessity and sufficiency) as well as a more "educational" Pass-Fail metric focused on capturing the salient physical ingredients of the problem at hand. As expected, today's SOTA LLM (GPT4) zero-shot fails most of our problems, although about 40\% of the solutions could plausibly get a passing grade. About $70-90 \%$ of the code lines produced are necessary, sufficient and correct (coding \& physics). Physics and coding errors are the most common, with some unnecessary or insufficient lines. We observe significant variations across problem class and difficulty. We identify several failure modes of GPT4 in the computational physics domain. Our reconnaissance work provides a snapshot of current computational capabilities in classical physics and points to obvious improvement targets if AI systems are ever to reach a basic level of autonomy in physics simulation capabilities.

Physically relevant solutions in general relativity often contain spacetime singularities, which are typically interpreted as a sign of breakdown of the theory at high densities/curvatures. Hence, there has been a growing interest in exploring phenomenological scenarios that describe singularity-free black holes, gravitational collapses, and cosmological models. We examine the metric put forth by Mazza, Franzin \& Liberati for a rotating regular black hole and estimate the regularization parameter $l$ based on existing X-ray and gravitational wave data for black holes. When $l=0$, the solution corresponds to the singular Kerr solution of general relativity, while a non-zero value of $l$ yields a regular black hole or a regular wormhole. The analysis reveals that the available data support a value of $l$ that is close to zero.

We investigate the kinematical regions that are important for producing prompt neutrinos in the atmosphere and in the forward region of the LHC, as probed by different experiments. We illustrate the results as a function of the center-of-mass nucleon-nucleon collision energies and rapidities of neutrinos and of the parent heavy-flavoured hadrons. We find overlap in part of the kinematic space.

General relativity has been very successful since its proposal more a century ago. However, various cosmological observations and theoretical consistency still motivate us to explore extended gravity theories. Horndeski gravity stands out as one attractive theory by introducing only one scalar field. Here we formulate the post-Newtonian effective field theory of Horndeski gravity and investigate the conservative dynamics of the inspiral compact binary systems. We calculate the leading effective Lagrangian for a compact binary and obtain the periastron advance per period. In particular, we apply our analytical calculation to two binary systems, PSR B 1534+12 and PSR J0737-3039, and constrain the relevant model parameters. The theoretical framework can also be extended to higher order systematically.

We investigate the potential of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) in detecting synchrotron radiation emitted from the decay of sub-GeV dark matter (dark matter with masses below the GeV scale) in the presence of strong magnetic fields. As a concrete setup, we consider scenarios where the magnetosphere of a magnetic white dwarf overlaps with dense dark matter environments, such as those surrounding a primordial black hole. Our study reveals that the encounters of compact objects such as white dwarfs and black holes offer a promising avenue for upcoming radio telescopes to probe the properties of light dark matter, which has been less explored compared with more conventional heavier (masses above the GeV scale) dark matter.

In the context of the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), the laser subsystems exhibit frequency fluctuations that introduce significant levels of noise into the measurements, surpassing the gravitational wave signal by several orders of magnitude. Mitigation is achieved via time-shifting individual measurements in a data processing step known as time-delay interferometry (TDI). The suppression performance of TDI relies on accurate knowledge and consideration of the delays experienced by the interfering lasers. While considerable efforts have been dedicated to the accurate determination of inter-spacecraft ranging delays, the sources for onboard delays have been either neglected or assumed to be known. Contrary to these assumptions, analog delays of the phasemeter front end and the laser modulator are not only large but also prone to change with temperature and heterodyne frequency. This motivates our proposal for a novel method enabling a calibration of these delays on-ground and in-space, based on minimal functional additions to the receiver architecture. Specifically, we establish a set of calibration measurements and elucidate how these measurements are utilized in data processing, leading to the mitigation of the delays in the TDI Michelson variables. Following a performance analysis of the calibration measurements, proposed calibration scheme is assessed through numerical simulations. We find that in the absence of the calibration scheme, the assumed drifts of the analog delays increase residual laser noise at high frequencies of the LISA measurement band. A single, on-ground calibration of the analog delays leads to an improvement by roughly one order of magnitude, while re-calibration in space may improve performance by yet another order of magnitude. Towards lower frequencies, ranging error is always found to be the limiting factor for which countermeasures are discussed.

In this work, we propose a model of Einstein--Gauss-Bonnet gravity coupled with two scalar fields. The two scalar fields are considered to be ``frozen'' or they become non-dynamical by employing appropriate constraints in terms of Lagrange multiplier fields. We show that, even in the case that the arbitrary spherically symmetric spacetime is dynamical, we can construct a model where the wormhole spacetime is a stable solution in this framework. We especially concentrate on the model reproducing the dynamical wormhole, where the wormhole appears in a finite-time interval. We investigate the propagation of the gravitational wave in the wormhole spacetime background and we show that the propagation speed is different from that of light $\to$ light in general, and there is a difference in the speeds between the incoming propagating wave and the outgoing propagating gravitational wave.