Papers for Monday, Jan 22 2024

In this paper, we presented a detailed single pulse and polarization study of PSR J0614+2229 based on the archived data observed on 2019 August 15 (MJD 58710) and September 12 (MJD 58738) using the Ultra-wideband Low-frequency Receiver on the Parkes radio telescope. The single-pulse sequences show that this pulsar switches between two emission states, in which the emission of state A occurs earlier than that of state B in pulse longitude. We found that the variation in relative brightness between the two states is related to time and both states follow a simple power law very well. Based on the phase-aligned multi-frequency profiles, we found that there is a significant difference in the distributions of spectral index across the emission regions of the two states. Furthermore, we obtained the emission height evolution for the two emission states and found that, at a fixed frequency, the emission height of state A is higher than that of state B. What is even more interesting is that the emission heights of both states A and B have not changed with frequency. Our results suggest that the mode switching of this pulsar is possibly caused by changes in the emission heights that alter the distributions of spectral index across the emission regions of states A and B resulting in the frequency-dependent behaviors, i.e., intensity and pulse width.

In this paper, we study the impact of anisotropy on neutron stars with different equations of state, which have been modeled by a piecewise polytropic function with continuous sound speed. Anisotropic pressure in neutron stars is often attributed to interior magnetic fields, rotation, and the presence of exotic matter or condensates. We quantify the presence of anisotropy within the star by assuming a quasi-local relationship. We find that the radial and tangential sound velocities constrain the range of anisotropy allowed within the star. As expected, the anisotropy affects the macroscopic properties of stars, and it can be introduced to reconcile them with astrophysical observations. For instance, the maximum mass of anisotropic neutron stars can be increased by up to 15\% compared to the maximum mass of the corresponding isotropic configuration. This allows neutron stars to reach masses greater than $2.5M_\odot$, which may explain the secondary compact object of the GW190814 event. Additionally, we propose a universal relation for the binding energy of an anisotropic neutron star as a function of the star's compactness and the degree of anisotropy.

In this article we analyze the reconstruction of inflation in the framework of a non-canonical theory. In this sense, we study the viability of reconstructing the background variables assuming a non-lineal kinetic term given by $K(X,\phi)=X+g(\phi)X^2$, with $X$ the standard kinetic term associated to the scalar field $\phi$ and $g(\phi)$ an arbitrary coupling function. In order to achieve this reconstruction in the context of inflation, we assume the slow-roll approximation together with the parametrization of the scalar spectral index $n_s$ and the speed of sound $c_s$ as a function of the number of $e-$folds $N$. By assuming the simplest parametrizations for $n_s-1=-2/N$ and $c_s\propto N^{-\beta}$ with $\beta$ a constant, we find the reconstruction of the effective potential $V(\phi)$ and the coupling function $g(\phi)$ in terms of the scalar field. Besides, we study the reheating epoch by considering a constant equation of state parameter, where we determine the temperature and number of $e-$folds during the reheating epoch in terms of the reconstructed variables and the observational parameters. In this way, the parameter-space related to the reconstructed inflationary model are constrained during the epochs of inflation and reheating by assuming the current astronomical data from Planck and BICEP/Keck results.

The abundance of faint dwarf galaxies is determined by the underlying population of low-mass dark matter (DM) halos and the efficiency of galaxy formation in these systems. Here, we quantify potential galaxy formation and DM constraints from future dwarf satellite galaxy surveys. We generate satellite populations using a suite of Milky Way (MW)-mass cosmological zoom-in simulations and an empirical galaxy--halo connection model, and assess sensitivity to galaxy formation and DM signals when marginalizing over galaxy--halo connection uncertainties. We find that a survey of all satellites around one MW-mass host can constrain a galaxy formation cutoff at peak virial masses of $M_{50}=10^8~M_{\mathrm{\odot}}$ at the $1\sigma$ level; however, a tail toward low $M_{50}$ prevents a $2\sigma$ measurement. In this scenario, combining hosts with differing bright satellite abundances significantly reduces uncertainties on $M_{50}$ at the $1\sigma$ level, but the $2\sigma$ tail toward low $M_{50}$ persists. We project that observations of one (two) complete satellite populations can constrain warm DM models with $m_{\mathrm{WDM}}\approx 10~\mathrm{keV}$ ($20~\mathrm{keV}$). Subhalo mass function (SHMF) suppression can be constrained to $\approx 70\%$, $60\%$, and $50\%$ that in CDM at peak virial masses of $10^8$, $10^9$, and $10^{10}~M_{\mathrm{\odot}}$, respectively; SHMF enhancement constraints are weaker ($\approx 20$, $4$, and $2$ times that in CDM, respectively) due to galaxy--halo connection degeneracies. These results motivate searches for faint dwarf galaxies beyond the MW and indicate that ongoing missions like Euclid and upcoming facilities including the Vera C. Rubin Observatory and Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will probe new galaxy formation and DM physics.

The spectra of high-redshift ($z\gtrsim 6$) quasars contain valuable information on the progression of the Epoch of Reionization (EoR). At redshifts $z<6$, the observed Lyman-series forest shows that the intergalactic medium (IGM) is nearly ionized, while at $z>7$ the observed quasar damping wings indicate high neutral gas fractions. However, there remains a gap in neutral gas fraction constraints at $6\lesssim z \lesssim 7$ where the Lyman series forest becomes saturated but damping wings have yet to fully emerge. In this work, we use a sample of 18 quasar spectra at redshifts $6.0<z<7.1$ to close this gap. We apply neural networks to reconstruct the quasars' continuum emission around the partially absorbed Lyman $\alpha$ line to normalize their spectra, and stack these continuum-normalized spectra in three redshift bins. To increase the robustness of our results, we compare the stacks to a grid of models from two hydrodynamical simulations, ATON and CROC, and we measure the volume-averaged neutral gas fraction, $\bar{x}_{\rm HI}$, while jointly fitting for the mean quasar lifetime, $t_{\rm Q}$, for each stacked spectrum. We chronicle the evolution of neutral gas fraction using the ATON (CROC) models as follows: $\bar{x}_{\rm HI} = 0.21_{-0.07}^{+0.17}$ ($\bar{x}_{\rm HI} = 0.10_{<10^{-4}}^{+0.73}$) at $\langle z \rangle =6.10$, $\bar{x}_{\rm HI} = 0.21_{-0.07}^{+0.33}$ ($\bar{x}_{\rm HI} =0.57_{-0.47}^{+0.26}$) at $\langle z \rangle =6.46$, and $\bar{x}_{\rm HI} = 0.37_{-0.17}^{+0.17}$ ($\bar{x}_{\rm HI} =0.57_{-0.21}^{+0.26}$) at $\langle z \rangle =6.87$. At the same time we constrain the average quasar lifetime to be $t_{\rm Q} \lesssim 7\ {\rm Myr}$ across all redshift bins, in good agreement with previous studies.

Early studies of the AMS-02 antiproton ratio identified a possible excess over the expected astrophysical background that could be fit by the annihilation of a weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP). However, recent efforts have shown that uncertainties in cosmic-ray propagation, the antiproton production cross-section, and correlated systematic uncertainties in the AMS-02 data, may combine to decrease or eliminate the significance of this feature. We produce an advanced analysis using the DRAGON2 code which, for the first time, simultaneously fits the antiproton ratio along with multiple secondary cosmic-ray flux measurements to constrain astrophysical and nuclear uncertainties. Compared to previous work, our analysis benefits from a combination of: (1) recently released AMS-02 antiproton data, (2) updated nuclear fragmentation cross-section fits, (3) a rigorous Bayesian parameter space scan that constrains cosmic-ray propagation parameters. We find no statistically significant preference for a dark matter signal and set strong constraints on WIMP annihilation to $b\bar{b}$, ruling out annihilation at the thermal cross-section for dark matter masses below $\sim200$~GeV. We do find a positive residual that is consistent with previous work, and can be explained by a $\sim70$~GeV WIMP annihilating below the thermal cross-section. However, our default analysis finds this excess to have a local significance of only 2.8$\sigma$, which is decreased to 1.8$\sigma$ when the look-elsewhere effect is taken into account.

We study the dynamical evolution of quasi-circular equal mass massive black hole binaries embedded in circumbinary discs from separations of $\sim 100R_{\rm g}$ down to the merger, following the post merger evolution. The binary orbit evolves owing to the presence of the gaseous disc and the addition of Post-Newtonian (PN) corrections up to the 2.5 PN order, therefore including the dissipative gravitational wave back-reaction. We investigate two cases of a relatively cold and warm circumbinary discs, with aspect ratios $H/R=0.03,\,0.1$ respectively, employing 3D hyper-Lagrangian resolution simulations with the {\sc gizmo}-MFM code. We extract spectral energy distributions and light curves in different frequency bands (i.e. X-ray, optical and UV) from the simulations. We find a clear two orders of magnitude drop in the X-ray flux right before merger if the disc is warm while we identify a significant increase in the UV flux regardless of the disc temperature. The optical flux shows clear distinctive modulations on the binary orbital period and on the cavity edge period, regardless of the disc temperature. We find that the presence of a cold disc can accelerate the coalescence of the binary by up to 130 seconds over the last five days of inspiral, implying a phase shift accumulation of about $\pi\,$radians compared to the binary evolution in vacuum. These differences are triggered by the presence of the gaseous disc and might have implications on the waveforms that can be in principle detected. We discuss the implications that these distinctive signatures might have for existing and upcoming time domain surveys and for multimessenger astronomy.

Recently, Heller & Hippke argued that the exomoon candidates Kepler-1625 b-i and Kepler-1708 b-i were allegedly 'refuted'. In this Matters Arising, we address these claims. For Kepler-1625 b, we show that their Hubble light curve is identical to that previously published by the same lead author, in which the moon-like dip was recovered. Indeed, our fits of their data again recover the moon-like dip with improved residuals than that obtained by Heller & Hippke. Their fits therefore appear to have somehow missed this deeper likelihood maximum, as well producing apparently unconverged posteriors. Consequently, their best-fitting moon is the same radius as the planet, Kepler-1625 b; a radically different signal from that which was originally claimed. The authors then inject this solution into the Kepler data and remark, as a point of concern, how retrievals obtain much higher significances than originally reported. However, this issue stems from the injection of a fundamentally different signal. We demonstrate that their Hubble light curve exhibits ~20% higher noise and discards 11% of the useful data, which compromises its ability to recover the subtle signal of Kepler-1625 b-i. For Kepler-1708 b-i it was claimed that the exomoon model's Bayes factor is highly sensitive to detrending choices, yielding reduced evidence with a biweight filter versus the original claim. We use their own i) detrended light curve and ii) biweight filter code to investigate these claims. For both, we recover the original moon signal, to even higher confidence than before. The discrepancy is explained by comparing to their quoted fit metrics, where we again demonstrate that the Heller & Hippke regression definitively missed the deeper likelihood maximum corresponding to Kepler-1708 b-i. We conclude that both candidates remain viable but certainly demand further observations.

Many of the satellites of galactic-mass systems such as the Miky Way, Andromeda and Centaurus A show evidence of coherent motions to a larger extent than most of the systems predicted by the standard cosmological model. It is an open question if correlations in satellite orbits are present in systems of different masses. Here , we report an analysis of the kinematics of satellite galaxies around massive galaxy groups. Unlike what is seen in Milky Way analogues, we find an excess of diametrically opposed pairs of satellites that have line-of-sight velocity offsets from the central galaxy of the same sign. This corresponds to a $\pmb{6.0\sigma}$ ($\pmb{p}$-value $\pmb{=\ 9.9\times10^{-10}}$) detection of non-random satellite motions. Such excess is predicted by up-to-date cosmological simulations but the magnitude of the effect is considerably lower than in observations. The observational data is discrepant at the $\pmb{4.1\sigma}$ and $\pmb{3.6\sigma}$ level with the expectations of the Millennium and the Illustris TNG300 cosmological simulations, potentially indicating that massive galaxy groups assembled later in the real Universe. The detection of velocity correlations of satellite galaxies and tension with theoretical predictions is robust against changes in sample selection. Using the largest sample to date, our findings demonstrate that the motions of satellite galaxies represent a challenge to the current cosmological model.

Carbonaceous chondrites are among the most important meteorite types and have played a vital role in deciphering the origin and evolution of our solar system. They have been linked to low-albedo C-type asteroids, but due to subdued absorption bands, definitive asteroid-meteorite linkages remain elusive. A majority of these existing linkages rely on fine-grained (typically < 45 micron) powders across a limited wavelength range in the visible to near-infrared (0.35-2.5 microns). While this is useful in interpreting the fine-grained regolith of larger main-belt objects like Ceres, recent spacecraft missions to smaller near-Earth asteroids (NEAs), such as Bennu and Ryugu, have shown that their surfaces are dominated by larger grain size material. To better interpret the surfaces of these smaller, carbonaceous NEAs, we obtained laboratory reflectance spectra of seven carbonaceous chondrite meteorite groups (CI, CM, CO, CV, CR, CK, C2-ungrouped) over the ultraviolet to mid-infrared range (0.2-14 microns). Each meteorite contained five grain size bins (45-1000 microns) to help constrain spectral grain size effects. We find a correlation between grain size and absolute reflectance, spectral slope, band depth, and the Christiansen feature band center. Principal component analysis of grain size variation illustrates a similar trend to lunar-style space weathering. We also show that the Bus-DeMeo asteroid taxonomic classification of our samples is affected by grain size, specifically shifting CM2 Aguas Zarcas from a Ch-type to B-type with increasing grain size. This has implications for the parent body of the OSIRIS-REx target, Bennu. With Aguas Zarcas, we present results from Hapke modeling.

Craters are probes of planetary surface and interior properties. Here we measure depths, widths, and spacing of circumferential ring-graben surrounding the two largest multiring impact structures on Europa, Tyre and Callanish. We estimate formation conditions including the ice shell structure. The radial extension necessary to form these graben is thought to be caused by asthenospheric drag of warmer, more ductile ice and/or water flowing toward the excavated center of the crater, under a brittle-elastic lithospheric lid. Measurements of graben depths from stereo-photoclinometric digital elevation models result in estimates of displacement, strain, and stress experienced by the ice shell. Graben widths are used to estimate the intersection depth of the bounding normal faults, a quantity related to the brittle-ductile transition depth that approximates elastic shell thickness during crater collapse. Heat flows at the time of crater formation as well as ice lithosphere and total shell thickness are thus also constrained. Average widths and depths tend to decrease with increasing distance from the structure center, while inter-graben spacing generally increases. Varied assumptions yield plausible total conductive ice shell thickness estimates between 4-8 and 2.5-5 km for Tyre and Callanish, respectively, and heat flows of ~70-115 (+/-30) mW m^-2 for realistic thermal conductivities, consistent with other geophysical estimates for Europa. Higher heat flows are consistent with thin (<10 km), conductive ice shells and impact breaching, or penetration of the stagnant lid for a convecting ice shell. Callanish, geologically younger, formed in a time or region of greater heat flow than Tyre.

We consider a binary stellar system, in which a low-mass, of 0.6 Msun, carbon-oxygen white dwarf (WD) mergers with a degenerate helium core of 0.4 Msun of a red giant. We analyse the outcome of a merger within a common envelope (CE). We predict the observational properties of the resulting transient. We find that the double detonation of the WD, being a pure thermonuclear explosion and embedded into the hydrogen-rich CE, has a light curve with the distinct plateau shape, i.e. looks like a supernova (SN) Type IIP, with a duration of about 40 days. We find five observed SNe IIP: SN 2004dy, SN 2005af, SN 2005hd, SN 2007aa, and SN 2008bu, that match the V-band light curve of our models. Hence, we show that a thermonuclear explosion within a CE might be mistakenly identified as a SN IIP, which are believed to be an outcome of a core-collapse neutrino-driven explosion of a massive star. We discuss a number of diagnostics, that may help to distinguish this kind of a thermonuclear explosion from a core-collapse SN.

The streaming instability, a promising mechanism to drive planetesimal formation in dusty protoplanetary discs, relies on aerodynamic drag naturally induced by the background radial pressure gradient. This gradient should vary in disks, but its effect on the streaming instability has not been sufficiently explored. For this purpose, we use numerical simulations of an unstratified disc to study the non-linear saturation of the streaming instability with mono-disperse dust particles and survey a wide range of gradients for two distinct combinations of the particle stopping time and the dust-to-gas mass ratio. As the gradient increases, we find most kinematic and morphological properties increase but not always in linear proportion. The density distributions of tightly-coupled particles are insensitive to the gradient whereas marginally-coupled particles tend to concentrate by more than an order of magnitude as the gradient decreases. Moreover, dust-gas vortices for tightly-coupled particles shrink as the gradient decreases, and we note higher resolutions are required to trigger the instability in this case. In addition, we find various properties at saturation that depend on the gradient may be observable and may help reconstruct models of observed discs dominated by streaming turbulence. In general, increased dust diffusion from stronger gradients can lower the concentration of dust filaments and can explain the higher solid abundances needed to trigger strong particle clumping and the reduced planetesimal formation efficiency previously found in vertically-stratified simulations.

Data obtained from Parker Solar Probe (PSP) since 2021 April have shown the first in situ observation of the solar corona, where the solar wind is formed and accelerated. Here we investigate the alpha-proton differential flow and its characteristics across the critical Alfv\'en surface (CAS) using data from PSP during encounters 8-10 and 12-13. We first show the positive correlation between the alpha-proton differential velocity and the bulk solar wind speed at PSP encounter distances. Then we explore how the characteristics of the differential flow vary across the CAS and how they are affected by Alfv\'enic fluctuations including switchbacks. We find that the differential velocity below the CAS is generally smaller than that above the CAS, and the local Alfv\'en speed well limits the differential speed both above and below the CAS. The deviations from the alignment between the differential velocity and the local magnetic field vector are accompanied by large-amplitude Alfv\'enic fluctuations and decreases in the differential speed. Moreover, we observe that $V_{\alpha p}$ increases from $M_A < 1$ to $M_A \simeq 2$ and then starts to decrease, which suggests that alphas may remain preferentially accelerated well above the CAS. Our results also reveal that in the sub-Alfv\'enic solar wind both protons and alphas show a strong correlation between their velocity fluctuations and magnetic field fluctuations, with a weaker correlation for alphas. In contrast, in the super-Alfv\'enic regime the correlation remains high for protons, but is reduced for alphas.

The process of the Sun's polar field cancellation reversal commences with the emergence of new cycle Hale's polarity active regions. Once the Sun undergoes polarity reversal, typically occurring near the peak of solar activity, it begins the process of accumulating the seed field for the forthcoming solar cycle. In recent years, the Advective Flux Transport (AFT) model has proven highly effective in forecasting the progression of polar fields by leveraging observations of surface flows and magnetic flux emergence. In this study, we make use of the predictive capability of the AFT model to simulate the evolution of the polar fields and estimate the timing of the Solar Cycle 25 polarity reversal in both hemispheres of the Sun. We use the statistical properties of active regions along with Solar Cycle~13, which closely resembles the current solar cycle (Cycle~25), to generate synthetic active regions in order to simulate future magnetic flux emergence in AFT to predict the evolution of the polar field. Based on our simulations, we anticipate that the Northern hemisphere of the Sun will undergo a polarity reversal between June 2024 and November 2024, with the center of our distribution at August 2024. In the Southern hemisphere, we anticipate a polarity reversal between November 2024 and July 2025, centered around February 2025. Additionally, assuming that the reversal of the axial dipole moment coincides with the peak of the solar cycle, our findings indicate that Cycle 25 is expected to peak in 2024 (likely between April to August 2024).

In this letter, we propose an improved cosmological model-independent method to measure cosmic curvature, combining the recent measurements of transverse and line-of-sight directions in the baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) with cosmic chronometers (CC) datasets. Considering that the CC dataset is discrete and includes only 32 $H(z)$ measurements, we apply Gaussian process (GP) regression to fit the CC dataset and reconstruct them. Our methodology, which does not need the calibration or selection of any cosmological model, provide multiple measurements of spatial curvature ($\Omega_K$) at different redshifts (depending on the redshift coverage of BAO dataset). For combination of all BAO data, we find that the constraint result on cosmic curvature is $\Omega_K=-0.096^{+0.190}_{-0.195}$ with $1\sigma$ observational uncertainty. Although the measured $\Omega_K$ is in good agreement with zero cosmic curvature within 1$\sigma$ confidence level, our result revels the fact of a closed universe. More importantly, our results show that the obtained $\Omega_K$ measurements are almost unaffected by different priors of the Hubble constant. This could help solve the issue of the Hubble tension that may be caused by inconsistencies in the spatial curvature between the early and late universes.

Blazars are the brightest and most abundant persistent sources in the extragalactic gamma-ray sky. Due to their significance, they are often observed across various energy bands to explore potential correlations between emissions at different energies, yielding valuable insights into the emission processes of their powerful jets. In this study we utilised infrared (IR) data at 3.4 and 4.6 microns from the Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer Reactivation Mission (NEOWISE), spanning eight years of observations, Swift X-ray data collected throughout the satellite lifetime, and twelve years of gamma-ray measurements from the Fermi Large Area Telescope's all-sky survey. Our analysis reveals that the IR spectral slope reliably predicts the peak frequency and maximum intensity of the synchrotron component of blazars spectral energy distributions, provided it is uncontaminated by radiation unrelated to the jet. A notable correlation between the IR and gamma-ray fluxes was observed, with the BL Lac subclass of blazars displaying a strong correlation coefficient of r = 0.80. Infrared band variability is more pronounced in flat spectrum radio quasars than in BL Lacs, with mean fractional variability values of 0.65 and 0.35, respectively. We also observed that the synchrotron peak intensity of intermediate-high-energy-peaked objects blazars can forecast their detectability at very high energy gamma-ray, energies. We used this predicting power to identify objects in current catalogues that could meet the detection threshold of the Cerenkov telescope array extragalactic survey, which should encompass approximately 180 blazars.

We demonstrate that the X-ray iron line fitting technique can be leveraged as a powerful probe of the cosmic censorship conjecture. We do this by extending existing emission line models to arbitrary spin parameters of the Kerr metric, no longer restricted to black hole metrics with $|a_\bullet |< 1$. We show that the emission lines from naked singularity metrics ($|a_\bullet| > 1$) show significant differences to their black hole counterparts, even for those metrics with identical locations of the innermost stable circular orbit, i.e., emission line fitting does not suffer from the degeneracy which affects continuum fitting approaches. These differences are entirely attributable to the disappearance of the event horizon for $|a_\bullet| > 1$. We highlight some novel emission line features of naked singularity metrics, such as ``inverted'' emission lines (with sharp red wings and extended blue wings) and ``triple lines''. The lack of detection of any of these novel features provides support of the cosmic censorship conjecture. We publicly release {\tt XSPEC} packages {\tt skline} and {\tt skconv} which can now be used to probe the cosmic censorship conjecture in Galactic X-ray binaries and Active Galactic Nuclei. The inclusion of super-extremal spacetimes can be alternatively posed as a way of stress-testing conventional models of accretion.

The recent local measurements of the Hubble constant $H_0$, indicate a significant discrepancy of over 5$\sigma$ compared to the value inferred from \textit{Planck} observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). In this paper, we try to understand the origin of this tension by testing the consistency of early and late cosmological parameters in the same observed data. In practice, we simultaneously derive the early and late parameters using baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) measurements, which provide both low and high-redshift information. To resolve parameter degeneracy, the complementary data from CMB observations are included in the analysis. By using the parameter $\omega_m = \Omega_mh^2$, we introduce ${\rm ratio}(\omega_m)$, defined as the ratio of $\omega_m$ which are constrained from high and low-redshift measurements respectively, to quantify the consistency between early and late parameters. We obtained a value of ${\rm ratio}(\omega_m) = 1.0069\pm0.0070$, indicating there is no tension between early parameters and late parameters in the framework of $\Lambda$CDM model. As a result, the Hubble tension may arise from the differences of datasets or unknown systematic errors in the current data. In addition, we forecast the future BAO measurements of ${\rm ratio}(\omega_m)$, using several galaxy redshift surveys and 21 cm intensity mapping surveys, and find that these measurements can significantly improve the precision of cosmological parameters.

We discuss applications of the study of the new and barely explored class of changing-look (CL) narrow-line Seyfert 1 (NLS1) galaxies and comment on their detection with the space mission SVOM (Space Variable Objects Monitor). We highlight the case of NGC 1566, which is outstanding in many respects, for instance as one of the nearest known CL AGN undergoing exceptional outbursts. Its NLS1 nature is discussed, and we take it as a nearby prototype for systems that could be discovered and studied in the near future, including with SVOM. Finally, we briefly examine the broader implications and applications of CL events in NLS1 galaxies and show that such systems, once discovered in larger numbers, will greatly advance our understanding of the physics of the environment of rapidly growing supermassive black holes. This White Paper is part of a sequence of publications which explore aspects of our understanding of (CL) NLS1 galaxy physics with future missions.

This project is focused on evaluating the slowly-varying ground layer seeing component at the optical telescopes of ARIES. To achieve this, we assembled the instrument, consisting of a filter wheel, a CCD camera, and a tip-tilt enabled transparent glass plate integrated within an off-the-shelf unit termed as the AO (Adaptive Optics) unit. The instrument developed by us was deployed on the 1.04-m f/13 Sampurnanand telescope at Manora Peak and the 1.3-m f/4 telescope at Devasthal. This instrument measures the average instantaneous slope (tip/tilt) of the incoming wavefront over the telescope aperture via a fast (within the atmospheric coherence time) sampled image and corrects it via a software-controlled oscillating (tipping/tilting) single thin glass plate. The night observations revealed that the slowly-varying seeing component is significant at both observatories and can be effectively controlled to enhance the sharpness of the celestial images at the two sites. The most significant improvement was measured from 5 arcsec of uncorrected FWHM of a star to 3.4 arcsec of corrected FWHM in the 1.04-m telescope. in the evening hours.

The occurrence of the first significant digits from real world sources is usually not equally distributed, but is consistent with a logarithmic distribution instead, known as Benford's law. In this work, we perform a comprehensive investigation on the first digit distributions of the duration, fluence, and energy flux of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) for the first time. For a complete GRB sample, we find that the first digits of the duration and fluence adhere to Benford's law. However, the energy flux shows a significant departure from this law, which may be due to the fact that a considerable part of the energy flux measurements are restricted by lack of spectral information. Based on the conventional duration classification scheme, we also check if the durations and fluences of long and short GRBs (with duration $T_{90}>2$ s and $T_{90}\leq2$ s, respectively) obey Benford's law. We find that the fluences of both long and short GRBs still agree with the Benford distribution, but their durations do not follow Benford's law. Our results hint that the long--short GRB classification scheme does not directly represent the intrinsic physical classification scheme.

Sulphur depletion in the interstellar medium (ISM) is a long-standing issue, as only 1% of its cosmic abundance is detected in dense molecular clouds (MCs), while it does not appear to be depleted in other environments. In addition to gas phase species, MCs also contain interstellar dust grains, which are irregular, micron-sized, solid aggregates of carbonaceous materials and/or silicates. Grains provide a surface where species can meet, accrete, and react. Although freeze-out of sulphur onto dust grains could explain its depletion, only OCS and, tentatively, SO$_2$ were observed on their surfaces. Therefore, it is our aim to investigate the interaction between sulphur-containing species and the exposed mineral core of the grains at a stage prior to when sulphur depletion is observed. Here, the grain core is represented by olivine nanoclusters, one of the most abundant minerals in the ISM, with composition Mg$_4$Si$_2$O$_8$ and Mg$_3$FeSi$_2$O$_8$. We performed a series of quantum mechanical calculations to characterize the adsorption of 9 S-bearing species, both neutral and charged, onto the nanoclusters. Our calculations reveal that the Fe-S interaction is preferred to Mg-S, causing sometimes the chemisorption of the adsorbate. These species are more strongly adsorbed on the bare dust grain silicate cores than on water ice mantles, and hence therefore likely sticking on the surface of grains forming part of the grain core. This demonstrates that the interaction of bare grains with sulphur species in cloud envelopes can determine the S-depletion observed in dense molecular clouds.

The 2nd generation VLTI instrument GRAVITY is a two-field infrared interferometer operating in the K band between 1.97 and 2.43 $\mu$m with either the four 8 m or the four 1.8 m telescopes of the Very Large Telescope (VLT). Beams collected by the telescopes are corrected with adaptive optics systems and the fringes are stabilized with a fringe-tracking system. A metrology system allows the measurement of internal path lengths in order to achieve high-accuracy astrometry. High sensitivity and high interferometric accuracy are achieved thanks to (i) correction of the turbulent phase, (ii) the use of low-noise detectors, and (iii) the optimization of photometric and coherence throughput. Beam combination and most of the beam transport are performed with single-mode waveguides in vacuum and at low temperature. In this paper, we present the functions and performance achieved with weakly birefringent standard single-mode fiber systems in GRAVITY. Fibered differential delay lines (FDDLs) are used to dynamically compensate for up to 6 mm of delay between the science and reference targets. Fibered polarization rotators allow us to align polarizations in the instrument and make the single-mode beam combiner close to polarization neutral. The single-mode fiber system exhibits very low birefringence (less than 23{\deg}), very low attenuation (3.6-7 dB/km across the K band), and optimized differential dispersion (less than 2.04 $\mu$rad cm2 at zero extension of the FDDLs). As a consequence, the typical fringe contrast losses due to the single-mode fibers are 6% to 10% in the lowest-resolution mode and 5% in the medium- and high-resolution modes of the instrument for a photometric throughput of the fiber chain of the order of 90%. There is no equivalent of this fiber system to route and modally filter beams with delay and polarization control in any other K-band beamcombiner.

A fraction of the extreme horizontal branch stars of globular clusters exhibit a periodic light variability that has been attributed to rotational modulation caused by surface spots. These spots are believed to be connected to inhomogeneous surface distribution of elements. However, the presence of such spots has not been tested against spectroscopic data. We analyzed the phase-resolved ESO X-shooter spectroscopy of three extreme horizontal branch stars that are members of the globular cluster $\omega$ Cen and also display periodic light variations. The aim of our study is to understand the nature of the light variability of these stars and to test whether the spots can reproduce the observed variability. Our spectroscopic analysis of these stars did not detect any phase-locked abundance variations that are able to reproduce the light variability. Instead, we revealed the phase variability of effective temperature and surface gravity. In particular, the stars show the highest temperature around the light maximum. This points to pulsations as a possible cause of the observed spectroscopic and photometric variations. However, such an interpretation is in a strong conflict with Ritter's law, which relates the pulsational period to the mean stellar density. The location of the $\omega$ Cen variable extreme horizontal branch stars in HR diagram corresponds to an extension of PG 1716 stars toward lower temperatures or blue, low-gravity, large-amplitude pulsators toward lower luminosities, albeit with much longer periods. Other models of light variability, namely, related to temperature spots, should also be tested further. The estimated masses of these stars in the range of $0.2-0.3\,M_\odot$ are too low for helium-burning objects.

As part of an ongoing search for hypervelocity stars (HVS) I found seventeen two micron all sky survey (2MASS) sources with Gaia G magnitudes less than 16.0 and radial velocities less than -600 km/sec. All these stars are brighter in the K band when compared with their V and G magnitudes. Ten of these (including three carbon stars) are long period variable stars (LPV) of Mira type. One is a relatively nearby high proper motion star and one is a very high galactic latitude chemically peculiar metal-poor star. It may be a galactic halo star. One star is a Kepler red giant, two stars may be cluster members and two are in the star forming region (probably YSOs). It is not clear how these stars acquired such high radial velocities. Further study of these seventeen stars is needed.

Transient quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) are extremely interesting observational phenomena. However, the precise physical mechanisms leading to their generation are still hotly debated. We performed a systematic search for transient QPO signals using Weighted Wavelet Z-transforms on the gamma-ray light curves of 134 bright blazars with peak flux exceeding $1\times10^{-6}$~ph~cm$^{-2}$~s$^{-1}$ as monitored by Fermi-LAT. Artificial light curves were generated from the power spectral density and probability distribution functions of the original light curves to assess the significance level of transient QPO. We discuss several physical mechanisms that produce transient QPOs, with the helical jet model providing the best explanation. This study identified four new transient QPO events. Interestingly, repetitive transient QPOs are observed in PKS 0537-441, and nested transient QPOs are detected in PKS 1424-41. Additionally, we find that transient QPOs tend to occur in the flare state of the blazar. Finally, we estimate the incidence of transient QPO events to be only about 3\%.

The propagation of meridional circulation below the base of the convection zone of low-mass stars may play a crucial role in the transport of angular momentum and also significantly contribute to the transport of chemical species and magnetic fields within their stable radiative zone. We systematically study these large-scale mean flows by performing three-dimensional (3D) global numerical simulations in a spherical shell that consists of a convection zone (CZ) overlying a stably stratified region. We find that the meridional flows can penetrate distances as large as $\sim 0.21r_o$ (where $r_o$ is the outer radius) below the base of the convection zone, provided that the Eddington-Sweet timescale $t_{ES}$ is much shorter than the viscous timescale $t_{\nu}$ as measured by the parameter $\sigma=(t_{ES}/t_{\nu})^{1/2}$. In the solar-like regime where $\sigma\lesssim 1$ in the upper radiative zone (RZ), we find that the angular momentum transport in the deep RZ is determined primarily by the action of the Coriolis force on meridional flows. In contrast, in models run in the $\sigma> 1$ regime, the meridional flows become weaker and the viscous effects dominate. We find that the penetration lengthscale $\delta_{MC}$ of these mean flows when $\sigma\lesssim 1$ is proportional to $\sigma^{-0.22}$. Our findings may provide a better understanding of the role of the meridional flows in the dynamics of the solar interior and inform future numerical studies that are focused on capturing solar-like dynamics self-consistently.

The search for pulsars in monitoring data obtained at the radio telescope Large Phased Array (LPA) at a frequency of 111 MHz was carried out. Daily round-the-clock observations were carried out for about 3,000 days. The duration of the observation session for each direction in the sky was 3.5 minutes per day. The search for pulsars was carried out using power spectra. To search for weak pulsars, power spectra were summed up. The expected increase in sensitivity was 35-40 times compared to observations in one session. In a blind search, 330 pulsars with regular radiation were detected, with periods (P) from 0.0333 to 3.7455 s and dispersion measures (DM) up to 249 pc/cm3. 39 pulsars turned out to be new. Average profiles were obtained for 6 pulsars. The DM for 7 pulsars previously detected on the LPA have been clarified.

Open clusters (OCs) are common in the Milky Way, but most of them remain undiscovered. There are numerous techniques, including some machine-learning algorithms, available for the exploration of OCs. However, each method has its own limitations and therefore, different approaches to discovering OCs hold significant value. We develop a comprehensive approach method to automatically explore the data space and identify potential OC candidates with relatively reliable membership determination. This approach combines the techniques of HDBSCAN, GMM, and a novel cluster member identification technique, 2-color constraint. The new method exhibits efficiency in detecting OCs while ensuring precise determination of cluster memberships. Because the main feature of this technique is to add an extra constraint for the members of cluster candidates using the homogeneity of color excess, comparing to typical blind search codes, it is called Blind Search-Extra Constraint (BSEC) method. It is successfully applied to the Gaia Data Release 3, and 83 new OCs with CMDs similar to stellar isochrones are found. In addition, this study reports 621 new OC candidates including at least the main sequence or red giant branch. It is shown that BSEC technique can discard some false negatives of previous works, which takes about 3 percentage of known clusters. It shows that color excess (or 2-color) constraint is useful for removing fake cluster member stars and getting more precise CMDs. It makes the CMDs of 15 percent clusters clearer (in particular for the region near turnoff) and therefore is helpful for CMD and stellar population studies. Keywords: galaxy: stellar content, open clusters and associations; stars: fundamental parameters

We test the predictions of hadronic interaction models regarding the depth of maximum of air-shower profiles, $X_{max}$, and ground-particle signals in water-Cherenkov detectors at 1000 m from the shower core, $S(1000)$, using the data from the fluorescence and surface detectors of the Pierre Auger Observatory. The test consists in fitting the measured two-dimensional ($S(1000)$, $X_{max}$) distributions using templates for simulated air showers produced with hadronic interaction models EPOS-LHC, QGSJet II-04, Sibyll 2.3d and leaving the scales of predicted $X_{max}$ and the signals from hadronic component at ground as free fit parameters. The method relies on the assumption that the mass composition remains the same at all zenith angles, while the longitudinal shower development and attenuation of ground signal depend on the mass composition in a correlated way. The analysis was applied to 2239 events detected by both the fluorescence and surface detectors of the Pierre Auger Observatory with energies between $10^{18.5}$ to $10^{19.0}$ eV and zenith angles below $60^\circ$. We found, that within the assumptions of the method, the best description of the data is achieved if the predictions of the hadronic interaction models are shifted to deeper $X_{max}$ values and larger hadronic signals at all zenith angles. Given the magnitude of the shifts and the data sample size, the statistical significance of the improvement of data description using the modifications considered in the paper is larger than $5\sigma$ even for any linear combination of experimental systematic uncertainties.

Cosmic dawn represents critical juncture in cosmic history when the first population of stars emerged. The astrophysical processes that govern this transformation need to be better understood. The detection of redshifted 21-cm radiation emitted from neutral hydrogen during this era offers a direct window into the thermal and ionization state of the universe. This emission manifests as differential brightness between spin temperature and the cosmic microwave background (CMB). SARAS experiment aims to detect the sky-averaged signal in the frequency range 40-200 MHz. SARAS's unique design and operation strategy to float the antenna over a water body minimizes spectral features that may arise due to stratified ground beneath the antenna. However, the antenna environment can be prone to configuration changes due to variations in critical design parameters such as conductivity and antenna tilts. In this paper, we connect the variations in antenna properties to signal detection prospects. By using realistic simulations of a direction and frequency-dependent radiation pattern of the SARAS antenna and its transfer function, we establish critical parameters and estimate bias in the detectability of different models of the global 21-cm signal. We find a correlation between the nature of chromaticity in antenna properties and the bias in the recovered spectral profiles of 21-cm signals. We also find stringent requirements for transfer function corrections, which can otherwise make detection prospects prohibitive. We finally explore a range of critical parameters that allow robust signal detection.

The sulfur dimer (S$_2$) is an important molecular constituent in cometary atmospheres and volcanic plumes on Jupiter's moon Io. It is also expected to play an important role in the photochemistry of exoplanets. The UV spectrum of S$_2$ contains transitions between vibronic levels above and below the dissociation limit, giving rise to a distinctive spectral signature. By using spectroscopic information from the literature, and the spectral simulation program PGOPHER, a UV line list of S$_2$ is provided. This line list includes the primary $B\,^{3}\Sigma^{-}_{u}-X\,^{3}\Sigma^{-}_{g}$ ($v'$=0-27, $v''$=0-10) electronic transition, where vibrational bands with $v'$$\geq$10 are predissociated. Intensities have been calculated from existing experimental and theoretical oscillator strengths, and semi-empirical strengths for the predissociated bands of S$_2$ have been derived from comparisons with experimental cross-sections. The S$_2$ line list also includes the $B''\,^{3}\Pi_{u}-X\,^{3}\Sigma^{-}_{g}$ ($v'$=0-19, $v''$=0-10) vibronic bands due to the strong interaction with the $B$ state. In summary, we present the new HITRAN-formatted S$_2$ line list and its validation against existing laboratory spectra. The extensive line list covers the spectral range 21700$-$41300~cm$^{-1}$ ($\sim$242$-$461~nm) and can be used for modeling both absorption and emission.

The unprecedented precision of Gaia has led to a paradigm shift in membership determination of open clusters where a variety of machine learning (ML) models can be employed. In this paper, we apply the unsupervised Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) to a sample of thirteen clusters with varying ages ($log \ t \approx$ 6.38-9.64) and distances (441-5183 pc) from Gaia DR3 data to determine membership. We use ASteca to determine parameters for the clusters from our revised membership data. We define a quantifiable metric Modified Silhouette Score (MSS) to evaluate its performance. We study the dependence of MSS on age, distance, extinction, galactic latitude and longitude, and other parameters to find the particular cases when GMM seems to be more efficient than other methods. We compared GMM for nine clusters with varying ages but we did not find any significant differences between GMM performance for younger and older clusters. But we found a moderate correlation between GMM performance and the cluster distance, where GMM works better for closer clusters. We find that GMM does not work very well for clusters at distances larger than 3~kpc.

Previous work has shown that interactions between a central binary system and a circumbinary disc (CBD) can lead to the binary orbit either shrinking or expanding, depending on the properties of the disc. In this work, we perform two-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations of CBDs surrounding equal mass binary systems that are on fixed circular orbits, using the Athena++ code in Cartesian coordinates. Previous studies have focused on discs where viscosity drives angular momentum transport. The aim of this work is to examine how the evolution of a binary system changes when angular momentum is extracted from the disc by a magnetised wind. In this proof-of-concept study, we mimic the effects of a magnetic field by applying an external torque that results in a prescribed radial mass flux through the disc. For three different values of the radial mass flux, we compare how the binary system evolves when the disc is either viscous or wind-driven. In all cases considered, our simulations predict that the binary orbit should shrink faster by a factor of a few when surrounded by a wind-driven circumbinary disc compared to a corresponding viscous circumbinary disc. In-spiral timescales of $\sim 10^6$-$10^7$yr are obtained for circular binaries surrounded by CBDs with masses typical of protoplanetary discs, indicating that significant orbital shrinkage can occur through binary-disc interactions during Class I/II pre-main sequence phases.

We are developing the Cryogenic AntiCoincidence detector (CryoAC) of the ATHENA X-IFU spectrometer. It is a TES-based particle detector aimed to reduce the background of the instrument. Here, we present the result obtained with the last CryoAC single-pixel prototype. It is based on a 1 cm2 silicon absorber sensed by a single 2mm x 1mm Ir/Au TES, featuring an on-chip heater for calibration and diagnostic purposes. We have illuminated the sample with 55Fe (6 keV line) and 241Am (60 keV line) radioactive sources, thus studying the detector response and the heater calibration accuracy at low energy. Furthermore, we have operated the sample in combination with a past-generation CryoAC prototype. Here, by analyzing the coincident detections between the two detectors, we have been able to characterize the background spectrum of the laboratory environment and disentangle the primary (i.e. cosmic muons) and secondaries (mostly secondary photons and electrons) signatures in the spectral shape.

Only 3-4 per cent of galactic O stars are observed to display the emission features representative of the OBe phenomenon, compared to galactic B stars, which display these characteristics in 25-35 per cent of B0 and B1 stars. We present new observations of the high-mass O star, VES 735, which confirms its classification as one of these rare emission-line stars. These are its first recorded observations that display strong spectroscopic variations in nearly 30 years of monitoring, with the H$\alpha$ profile exhibiting a tenfold increase in emission compared to observations taken between 1996 and 2014 and having variations which show episodes of inflowing and outflowing material. These observations, coupled with photometric variations in the visible and infrared, show behavior that is consistent with the mass reservoir effect for viscous decretion discs. We propose that in 2015 VES 735 began an approximately three year event in which mass was being injected into the circumstellar environment followed by re-accretion towards the star. We also find evidence that the re-accretion may have been interrupted with another, smaller, mass-injection event based on observations in 2022 and 2023. Observational cadences ranging from hours to months show no evidence that VES 735 is part of a binary system, making it an ideal candidate for future observations to further investigate the evolution of high-mass stars and the OBe phenomenon as it pertains to their circumstellar environment.

The upcoming galactic core-collapse supernova is expected to produce a considerable number of neutrino events within terrestrial detectors. By using Bayesian inference techniques, we address the feasibility of distinguishing among various neutrino flavor conversion scenarios in the supernova environment, using such a neutrino signal. In addition to the conventional MSW, we explore several more sophisticated flavor conversion scenarios, such as spectral swapping, fast flavor conversions, flavor equipartition caused by non-standard neutrino interactions, magnetically-induced flavor equilibration, and flavor equilibrium resulting from slow flavor conversions. Our analysis demonstrates that with a sufficiently large number of neutrino events during the supernova accretion phase (exceeding several hundreds), there exists a good probability of distinguishing among feasible neutrino flavor conversion scenarios in the supernova environment.

We present a study of three highly non-radial solar wind events when the azimuthal solar wind flow angle exceeds > 6 degrees for one day or more. None of the events are associated with coronal mass ejections and co-rotating interaction regions observed at 1 AU. For all events, the solar wind outflows at 1 AU have low solar wind velocity and solar wind density. Based on the significant increase in the Oxygen charge state ratio of O7+/O6+ at 1 AU for all of the events, we have traced them back to the Sun and found that their source regions originated in an active region and coronal hole (AR-CH) pairs mainly located at the central meridian. Further, examining the dynamical evolutions in their source regions using both the Extreme ultra-violet Imaging Telescope and Michelson Doppler Imager, it is found that the changes taking place in AR-CH boundaries eventually disturbed the stable CH configurations, resulting in a reduction of the CH area and finally its disappearance, leaving only with the AR. Our study provides a possible explanation to discuss the origin of the prolonged and highly non-radial solar wind flows.

Surveys of exoplanet host stars are valuable tools for assessing population level trends in exoplanets, and their outputs can include stellar ages, activity, and rotation periods. We extracted chromospheric activity measurements from the California-Kepler Survey (CKS) Gaia survey spectra in order to probe connections between stellar activity and fundamental stellar properties. Building on the California Kepler Survey's legacy of 1189 planet host star stellar properties including temperature, surface gravity metallicity and isochronal age, we add measurements of the Ca II H and K lines as a proxy for chromospheric activity for 879 planet hosting stars. We used these chromospheric activity measurements to derive stellar rotation periods. We find a discrepancy between photometrically derived and activity-derived rotation periods for stars on the Rossby Ridge. These results support the theory of weakened magnetic braking. We find no evidence for metallicity-dependent activity relations, within the metallicity range of -0.2 to +0.3 dex. With our single epoch spectra we identify stars that are potentially in Maunder Minimum like state using a combination of log (R'HK) and position below the main-sequence. We do not yet have the multi-year time series needed to verify stars in Maunder Minimum like states. These results can help inform future theoretical studies that explore the relationship between stellar activity, stellar rotation, and magnetic dynamos.

Reconstructing an image from sparsely sampled Fourier data is an ill-posed inverse problem that occurs in a variety of subjects within science, including the data analysis for Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) and the Spectrometer/Telescope for Imaging X-rays (STIX) for solar observations. Despite ongoing parallel developments of novel imaging algorithms, synergies remain unexplored. We study the synergies between the data analysis for the STIX instrument and VLBI, compare the methodologies and evaluate their potential. In this way, we identify key trends in the performance of several algorithmic ideas and draw recommendations for the future. To this end, we organized a semi-blind imaging challenge with data sets and source structures that are typical for sparse VLBI, specifically in the context of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), and for STIX observations. 17 different algorithms from both communities, from 6 different imaging frameworks, participated in the challenge, marking this work the largest scale code comparisons for STIX and VLBI to date. Strong synergies between the two communities have been identified, as can be proven by the success of the imaging methods proposed for STIX in imaging VLBI data sets and vice versa. Novel imaging methods outperform the standard CLEAN algorithm significantly in every test-case. Improvements over the performance of CLEAN make deeper updates to the inverse modeling pipeline necessary, or consequently replacing inverse modeling with forward modeling. Entropy-based and Bayesian methods perform best on STIX data. The more complex imaging algorithms utilizing multiple regularization terms (recently proposed for VLBI) add little to no additional improvements for STIX, but outperform the other methods on EHT data. This work demonstrates the great synergy between the STIX and VLBI imaging efforts and the great potential for common developments.

There has been a recent resurgence in hydroxyl (OH) megamaser research driven by Square Kilometre Array (SKA) precursor/pathfinder telescopes. This will continue in the lead-up to the SKA mid-frequency array, which will greatly expand our view of OH megamasers and their cosmic evolution over $\gtrsim80$ per cent of the age of the universe. This is expected to yield large scientific returns as OH megamasers trace galaxy mergers, extreme star formation, high molecular gas densities, and potentially binary/dual supermassive black hole systems. In this paper, we predict the distortion to the OH luminosity function that a magnification bias will inflict, and in turn, predict the distortion on the OH megamaser number counts as a function of redshift. We identify spectral flux density thresholds that will enable efficient lensed OH megamaser selection in large spectral line surveys with MeerKAT and SKA. The surface density of lensed galaxies that could be discovered in this way is a strong function of the redshift evolution of the OH megamaser luminosity function, with predictions as high as $\sim$1 lensed OH source per square degree at high redshifts ($z \gtrsim 1$) for anticipated SKA spectral line survey designs. This could enable efficient selection of some of the most highly-obscured galaxies in the universe. This high-redshift selection efficiency, in combination with the large survey speed of the SKA at $\lesssim$1 GHz frequencies and the high magnifications possible with compact OH emission regions ($\mu_{\rm OH} \gg 10$), will enable a transformational view of OH in the universe.

Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) waves are thought to be the propagating footprint of the shock on the solar surface. One of the key questions in SEP research is the timing of the SEP release with respect to the time when the EUV wave magnetically connects with an observer. Taking advantage of close-to-the-Sun measurements by Parker Solar Probe (PSP) and Solar Orbiter (SolO), we investigate an SEP event that occurred on 2021 September 28 and was observed at different locations by SolO, PSP, STEREO-A, and near-Earth spacecraft. During this time, SolO, PSP and STEREO-A shared similar nominal magnetic footpoints relative to the SEP source region but were at different heliocentric distances. We find that the SEP release times estimated at these four locations were delayed compared to the times when the EUV wave intercepted the footpoints of the nominal magnetic fields connecting to each spacecraft by around 30 to 60 minutes. Combining observations in multiple wavelengths of radio, white-light, and EUV, with a geometrical shock model, we analyze the associated shock properties, and discuss the acceleration and delayed release processes of SEPs in this event as well as the accuracy and limitations of using EUV waves to determine the SEP acceleration and release times.

We address in this article the criticism in a recently submitted article by Clement and Noiucer (arXiv:2312.17662 [gr-qc]) on "Cotton Gravity" (CG), a gravity theory alternative to General Relativity. These authors claim that CG is "not predictive" for producing "too many" spherically symmetric vacuum solutions, while taking the Bianchi I vacuum as test case they argue that geometric constraint on the Cotton tensor lead to an undetermined problem, concluding in the end that CG "is not a physical theory". We provide arguments showing that this critique is incorrect and misrepresents the theory.

We present novel numerical schemes for ideal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations aimed at enhancing stability against numerical shock instability and improving the accuracy of low-speed flows in multidimensions. Stringent benchmark tests confirm that our scheme is more robust against numerical shock instability and is more accurate for low-speed, nearly incompressible flows than conventional shock-capturing schemes. Our scheme is a promising tool for tackling MHD systems, including both high and low Mach number flows.

Synthetic turbulence is a relevant tool to study complex astrophysical and space plasma environments inaccessible by direct simulation. However, conventional models lack intermittent coherent structures, which are essential in realistic turbulence. We present a novel method, featuring coherent structures, conditional structure function scaling and fieldline curvature statistics comparable to magnetohydrodynamic turbulence. Enhanced transport of charged particles is investigated as well. This method presents significant progress towards physically faithful synthetic turbulence.

There exists in literature an increasing interest in the study of mass distributions surrounding black holes as describing dark matter halo in spiral galaxies. Motivated by this interest, we study a very recent new class of rotating solutions that are suitable to build anisotropic matter sources surrounding rotating black holes. Contrary to the mainstream approach, instead of use the so called regular black holes as central objects, we perform a smooth matching between the aforementioned anisotropic matter and a central vacuum Kerr black hole. In this framework, we study in full generality energy conditions near the matching surface. As a result, we found that, after imposing the vanishing of the energy density $E$ at the matching surface, if weak and dominant energy conditions (WEC,DEC) are satisfied, then unavoidable strong energy conditions is violated, i.e. near the event horizon only matter with dark energy-like features is allowed. As an application, we present two solutions everywhere satisfying DEC. The first one is asymptotically flat and equipped with a non vanishing electric charge, while the second solution presented is equipped with a non-vanishing energy flow around the symmetry axis and it is not asymptotically flat

The Hellings and Downs correlation curve describes the correlation of the timing residuals from pairs of pulsars as a function of their angular separation on the sky and is a smoking-gun signature for the detection of an isotropic stochastic background of gravitational waves. We show that it can be easily obtained from realizing that Lorentz transformations are conformal transformations on the celestial sphere and from the conformal properties of the two-point correlation of the timing residuals. This result allows several generalizations, e.g. the calculation of the three-point correlator of the time residuals and the inclusion of additional polarization modes (vector and/or scalar) arising in alternative theories of gravity.

Prompted by the relevant problem of temperature inversion (i.e. gradient of density anti-correlated to the gradient of temperature) in solar physics, we introduce a novel method to model a gravitationally confined multi-component collisionless plasma in contact with a fluctuating thermostat. The dynamics is described via a set of effective partial differential equations for the coarse-grained versions of the distribution functions of the plasma components and a temporally coarse-grained energy reservoir. We derive a stationary solution of this system naturally predicting the inverted density-temperature profiles of the two-species as observed in systems of astrophysical interest such as the solar corona. We validate our method by comparing the analytical results with kinetic numerical simulations of the plasma dynamics in the context of the two-species Hamiltonian mean-field model (HMF). Finally, we apply our theoretical framework to the problem of the temperature inversion in the solar corona obtaining density and temperature profiles in remarkably good agreement with the observations.

We compute the static density and spin structure factors in the long wavelength limit for pure neutron matter at subsaturation densities relevant to core-collapse supernovae within the Brueckner-Hartree-Fock (BHF) approach. The BHF results are reliable at high densities, extending beyond the validity of the virial expansion. Motivated by the similarities between the dilute neutron gas and a unitary gas, we propose a phenomenological approach to derive the static structures with finite momentum transfer as well as the dynamic ones with simple analytical expressions, based on the computed static structures in the long wavelength limit. We also compare the in-medium neutrino-neutron scattering cross sections using different structure factors. Our study emphasizes the importance of accurately computing the static structure factors theoretically and utilizing the full dynamic structure factors in core-collapse supernova simulations.

Accurate modeling of astrophysical jets is critical for understanding accretion systems and their impact on the interstellar medium. While astronomical observations can validate models, they have limitations. Controlled laboratory experiments offer a complementary approach for qualitative and quantitative demonstration. Laser experiments offer a complementary approach. This article introduces a new platform on the OMEGA laser facility for high-velocity (1500 km/s), high-aspect-ratio ($\sim$36) jet creation with strong cylindrical symmetry. This platform s capabilities bridge observational gaps, enabling controlled initial conditions and direct measurements