Papers for Tuesday, Jun 11 2024

The short-term rapid CR flux depressions, generally referred to as Forbush decreases (FDs), are the most spectacular time-intensity CR variation. The need for analytical transformation of the observational CR time series data, to account for FDs and other recurrence tendencies such as periodicities and cycles, was noted since the 1930s'. Nevertheless, it has been recently observed that harmonic analysis, which is capable of transforming raw CR data into different frequencies, is rarely exploited. Predominant in the literature are the ordinary Fourier and power spectral analyses, generally used to calculate the positive vectors (amplitude and phase) of the periodic diurnal CR anisotropy. In the two approaches, the days immediately connected with FDs are frequently removed to minimize unusual changes in the amplitude of the vectors as well as a spurious time of maximum. However, there is a paucity of publications that adjust for the influence of enhanced CR diurnal anisotropy on the magnitude and timing of FDs. Recently, in an attempt to test the global FD event simultaneity, a combination of numerical filtering and fast Fourier transform techniques was deployed to account for these superposition tendencies in daily CR data, including the intractable CR diurnal anisotropy. However, an extremely sensitive version of the software would be required to analyze high-resolution CR hourly averages. As a way of achieving accurate detection and precise timing of FD signals, the computer algorithms were technically improved and employed in a long-term statistical investigation. To appreciate the implemented extremely sensitive statistical technique, several validation analyses, including FD-based solar-terrestrial correlation, comparison of FD catalogues, and Frobush event simultaneity test were conducted.

We have used public JWST/NIRSpec and JWST/NIRCam observations from the CEERS and JADES surveys in order to analyze the star-forming main sequence (SFMS) over the redshift range $1.4 \leq z < 7$. We calculate the star-formation rates (SFRs) of the galaxy sample using three approaches: Balmer line luminosity, spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting, and UV luminosity. We find a larger degree of scatter about the SFMS using the Balmer-based SFRs compared to the UV-based SFRs. Because these SFR indicators are sensitive to star formation on different time scales, the difference in scatter may be evidence of bursty star-formation histories in the early universe. We additionally compare the H$\alpha$-to-UV luminosity ratio (L(H$\alpha$)/$\nu$L$_{\nu,1600}$) for individual galaxies in the sample and find that 29\%$-$52\% of the ratios across the sample are poorly described by predictions from a smooth star-formation history. Measuring the burstiness of star formation in the early universe has multiple significant implications, such as deriving accurate physical parameters from SED fitting, explaining the evolution of the UV luminosity function, and providing constraints for sub-grid models of feedback in simulations of galaxy formation and evolution.

Tidal interactions between galaxies often give rise to tidal tails, which can harbor concentrations of stars and interstellar gas resembling dwarf galaxies. Some of these tidal dwarf galaxies (TDGs) have the potential to detach from their parent galaxies and become independent entities, but their long-term survival is uncertain. In this study, we conducted a search for detached TDGs associated with a sample of 39 interacting galaxy pairs in the local Universe using infrared, ultraviolet, and optical images. We employed IR colors and UV/optical/IR spectral energy distributions (SEDs) to identify potential interlopers such as foreground stars or background quasars. Through spectroscopic observations using the Boller & Chivens spectrograph at San Pedro Mártir Observatory, we confirmed that six candidate TDGs are at the same redshift as their putative parent galaxy pairs. We identified and measured emission lines in the optical spectra and calculated nebular oxygen abundances, which range from log(O/H) = 8.10 $\pm$ 0.01 to 8.51 $\pm$ 0.02. We have serendipitously discovered an additional detached TDG candidate in Arp72 using available spectra from SDSS. Utilizing the photometric data and the CIGALE code for stellar population and dust emission fitting, we derived stellar masses, stellar population ages, and stellar metallicities for these detached TDGs. Compared to standard mass-metallicity relations for dwarf galaxies, five of the seven candidates have higher than expected metallicities, confirming their tidal origins, one of the seven remains unclear due to large uncertainties in metallicity, and another has stellar and nebular metallicities compatible with those of a pre-existing dwarf galaxy. The latter object is relatively compact in the optical relative to its stellar mass, in contrast to the other candidate TDGs [abridged].

The imaging of Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) and the supermassive black hole at the center of Messier 87 (M87*) by the Event Horizon Telescope constrains the location and nature of emission from these objects. Coupled with flux limits from the near-infrared through the ultraviolet, the attendant size constraints provide strong evidence for the absence of an accretion-powered photosphere, and therefore for the existence of an event horizon about an astrophysical black hole. Here, we demonstrate that a broad class of naked singularities are also generically excluded, regardless of the nature and unknown physical impact of singularity itself, subject to a single weak assumption about locality. While we restrict our attention to static, spherically symmetric spacetimes, we are nevertheless able to exclude a large number of commonly invoked naked singularity spacetimes in this way.

Over the past two decades, our knowledge of the high-redshift (z > 5) radio quasars has expanded, thanks to dedicated high-resolution very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) observations. Distant quasars provide unique information about the formation and evolution of the first galaxies and supermassive black holes in the Universe. Powerful relativistic jets are likely to have played an essential role in these processes. However, the sample of VLBI-observed radio quasars is still too small to allow meaningful statistical conclusions. We extend the list of the VLBI observed radio quasars to investigate how the source structure and physical parameters are related to radio loudness. We assembled a sample of 10 faint radio quasars located at 5 < z < 6 with their radio-loudness indices spanning between 0.9-76. We observed the selected targets with the European VLBI Network (EVN) at 1.7 GHz. The milliarcsecond-scale resolution of VLBI at this frequency allows us to probe the compact innermost parts of radio-emitting relativistic jets. In addition to the single-band VLBI observations, we collected single-dish and low-resolution radio interferometric data to investigate the spectral properties and variability of our sources. The detection rate of this high-redshift, low-flux-density sample is 90%, with only one target (J0306+1853) remaining undetected. The other 9 sources appear core-dominated and show a single, faint and compact radio core on this angular scale. The derived radio powers are typical of FRII radio galaxies and quasars. By extending our sample with other VLBI-detected z > 5 sources from the literature, we found that the core brightness temperatures and monochromatic radio powers tend to increase with radio loudness.

We present new photometric observations of the X-ray nova GROJ0422+32 (V518 Per) carried out in the I$_c$ band over 14 nights in 2020 -- 2023. We had to revise the orbital period of the system, the new value $P_{\rm orb}=5^{\rm h}04^{\rm m}35.50^{\rm s} \pm 0.04^{\rm s}$ is about one minute shorter than the period by Webb et al. (2000) but close to the result reported earlier by Filippenko et al. (1995). The obtained folded light curve has a regular shape with a clear ellipticity effect and signatures of a slight heating effect. The simulations of this light curve in terms of the model of an interacting binary system allowed us to estimate the orbital inclination $i = 33^\circ - 49^\circ$ of the system and derive masses of the black hole $M_x=(6.5\pm2.9)M_\odot$ and companion star $M_v=(0.47\pm0.21)M_\odot$. This range of the black hole masses overlaps with the known gap of (2--5)\,M$_\odot$ in the distribution of compact objects masses but mostly it lies above the upper boundary of this gap. To obtain more precise estimates one needs to know the degree of heating of the donor star, so synchronous X-ray/optical observations of this system are desirable.

A direct dynamical test of the sunspot-cycle is carried out which indicates that a stochastically forced non-linear oscillator characterizes its dynamics. The sunspot series is then decomposed into its eigen time-delay coordinates. The analysis of these coordinates reveals that the sunspot series exhibits bistability, and suggests the possibility of modeling the solar cycle as a stochastically and periodically forced bistable oscillator, accounting for the Poloidal and Toroidal modes of the solar magnetic field. Such a representation of the sunspot series in terms of stochastic bistable dynamical system enables us to conjecture stochastic resonance as the key mechanism in amplifying the planetary influence of Jupiter on the sun, and that extreme events, due to turbulent convection noise inside the sun, dictate crucial phases of the sunspot cycle, such as the Maunder minimum.

The observed behavior of a short gamma-ray burst (sGRB) afterglow lightcurve can reveal the angular structure of the relativistic jet and constrain the observer's viewing angle $\theta_\textrm{obs}$. Regardless of viewing angle, the afterglow emission is produced by the interaction between the relativistic jet and its surrounding environment. However, the observed deceleration time of the jet, and, therefore, the time of the afterglow peak, depends on the observer's viewing angle. A larger viewing angle leads to a later peak of the afterglow and a lower flux at peak. We use the the earliest X-ray afterglow detections of 58 cosmological sGRBs detected with the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory X-ray Telescope to set an upper limit on the ratio of the viewing angle $\theta_\textrm{obs}$ to the jet's half-opening angle $\theta_\textrm{c}$. We adopt a power-law angular jet structure in both energy $E(\theta)\propto\theta^{-a}$ and Lorentz factor $\Gamma(\theta)\propto\theta^{-b}$ beyond the core. For this structured jet scenario we find that either sGRBs are viewed within $\theta_\textrm{obs}/\theta_\textrm{c}<1$ or the initial Lorentz factor of material in their jet's core is extremely high ($\Gamma_0>500$). If we consider a tophat jet structure, we constrain 90% of our sample to be viewed within $\theta_\textrm{obs}/\theta_\textrm{c}<1.06$ and 1.15 for our canonical and conservative afterglow scenarios. For a subset of events with measurements of the jet break, under the assumption that they on-axis we can constrain $\Gamma_0\theta_\textrm{c}\gtrsim 30$. This confirmation that cosmological sGRBs are viewed either on-axis or very close to their jet's core has significant implications for the nature of the prompt gamma-ray production mechanism and for the rate of future sGRB detections coincident with gravitational waves (GWs), implying that they are extremely rare.

We report the detection of seven new galaxy candidates with redshift $z$ $>$ 11 within the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES) GOODS-S and GOODS-N fields. These new candidates are detected through meticulous analysis of NIRCam photometry in eight filters spanning a wavelength range of 0.8-5.0 $\mu$m. Photometric redshifts of these galaxy candidates are independently measured utilizing spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting techniques using \texttt{EAZY} and \texttt{BAGPIPES} codes, followed by visual scrutiny. Two of these galaxy candidates are located in GOODS-S field, while the remaining five galaxies are located in GOODS-N field. Our analysis reveals that the stellar masses of these galaxies typically range from log $M_{\ast}$/$M_{\odot}$ = 7.75--8.75. Futhermore, these galaxies are typically young with their mass-weighted ages spanning from 80 to 240 Myr. Their specific star formation rates (sSFR), quantified as $\log (\text{sSFR}/\text{Gyr}$), are measured to vary between $\sim 0.95$ to 1.46. These new galaxy candidates offer a robust sample for probing the physical properties of galaxies within the first few hundred Myr of the history of the Universe. We also analyze the relationship between star formation rate (SFR) and stellar mass ($M_\ast$) within our sample. Using linear regression, our analysis yields a slope of $0.71 \pm 0.12$, which we then compare with results from previous studies. Continued investigation through spectroscopic analysis using JWST/NIRSpec is needed to spectroscopically confirm these high-redshift galaxy candidates and investigate further into their physical properties. We plan to follow up on these candidates with future NIRSpec observations.

The Ground-based Observational Support of the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is conducted by the University of Arizona using the 2.3m Bok and 1.54m Kuiper telescopes operated by the Steward Observatory (SO). This program monitors blazar sources with spectroscopic (among others) observations. Yet, the instrumental broadenings for the different slit widths used in the spectra, are unavailable (the widths range from 2.0 to 12.7 arcsec). Using quasi-simultaneous spectroscopic observations of the blazar 3C 273 between the SO, Observatorio Astrofísico Guillermo Haro (OAGH), and Observatorio Astronómico Nacional San Pedro Mártir (OAN-SPM), we can provide an estimation of the instrumental profile for two of the slit widths. Since the instrumental broadening and the slit width are directly proportional, we were able to estimate the instrumental broadening for all six slit widths used at the SO. We found significant variations between the instrumental profiles, emphasizing the need to correct the instrumental broadening for each aperture.

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are typically classified into long and short GRBs based on their durations. However, there is a significant overlapping in the duration distributions of these two categories. In this paper, we apply the unsupervised dimensionality reduction algorithm called t-SNE and UMAP to classify 2061 Fermi GRBs based on four observed quantities: duration, peak energy, fluence, and peak flux. The map results of t-SNE and UMAP show a clear division of these GRBs into two clusters. We mark the two clusters as GRBs-I and GRBs-II, and find that all GRBs associated with supernovae are classified as GRBs-II. It includes the peculiar short GRB 200826A, which was confirmed to originate from the death of a massive star. Furthermore, except for two extreme events GRB 211211A and GRB 230307A, all GRBs associated with kilonovae fall into GRBs-I population. By comparing to the traditional classification of short and long GRBs, the distribution of durations for GRBs-I and GRBs-II do not have a fixed boundary. We find that more than 10% of GRBs-I have a duration greater than 2 seconds, while approximately 1% of GRBs-II have a duration shorter than 2 seconds.

PLATO (PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars) is ESA's M3 mission designed to detect and characterise extrasolar planets and perform asteroseismic monitoring of a large number of stars. PLATO will detect small planets (down to <2 R_(Earth)) around bright stars (<11 mag), including terrestrial planets in the habitable zone of solar-like stars. With the complement of radial velocity observations from the ground, planets will be characterised for their radius, mass, and age with high accuracy (5 %, 10 %, 10 % for an Earth-Sun combination respectively). PLATO will provide us with a large-scale catalogue of well-characterised small planets up to intermediate orbital periods, relevant for a meaningful comparison to planet formation theories and to better understand planet evolution. It will make possible comparative exoplanetology to place our Solar System planets in a broader context. In parallel, PLATO will study (host) stars using asteroseismology, allowing us to determine the stellar properties with high accuracy, substantially enhancing our knowledge of stellar structure and evolution. The payload instrument consists of 26 cameras with 12cm aperture each. For at least four years, the mission will perform high-precision photometric measurements. Here we review the science objectives, present PLATO's target samples and fields, provide an overview of expected core science performance as well as a description of the instrument and the mission profile at the beginning of the serial production of the flight cameras. PLATO is scheduled for a launch date end 2026. This overview therefore provides a summary of the mission to the community in preparation of the upcoming operational phases.

In the era of tensions, when precision cosmology is blooming, numerous new theoretical models are emerging. However, it's crucial to pause and question the extent to which the observational data we rely on are model-dependent. In this work, we study the comoving position of the acoustic peak, a cornerstone standard ruler in cosmology. We considered BAO observational datasets from two distinct teams and calculated the product $hr_d$ with the help of each BAO data set along with SN I-a data from the Pantheon Plus sample. Our conclusion at present is that 2D and 3D BAO datasets are compatible with each other. Considering, no systematics in BAO, interpreting $\Omega_{m0}-hr_d$ plane may require physics beyond $\Lambda$CDM not just while using observational BAO data but also while observing it.

The supernova remnant (SNR) IC 443 is one of the best-studied Galactic SNRs at many wavelengths. It is interacting with a very complex environment, including the SNR G189.6+3.3 and HII regions. In this paper, we observed IC 443 and G189.6+3.3 using the 1.5- and 1-m telescopes to better understand the nature of these SNRs in the optical band. We perform H_alpha images showing both filamentary and diffuse structures, and long-slit spectra from many locations with Balmer and forbidden lines detected for IC 443 and G189.6+3.3. The [SII]/ H_alpha ratios confirm the SNR nature of G189.6+3.3. The ranges of our estimated electron density and pre-shock cloud density clearly indicate the complex structure surrounding IC 443 and G189.6+3.3. We also investigated the archival HI data and newly found some shell-like distributions of HI that are possibly associated with G189.6+3.3.

Magnetic fields are the primary driver of the plasma thermodynamics in the upper solar atmosphere, especially in the corona. However, magnetic field measurements in the solar corona are sporadic, thereby limiting us from the complete understanding of physical processes occurring in the coronal plasma. In this paper, we explore the diagnostic potential of a coronal emission line in the extreme-ultraviolet (EUV), i.e., Ne VIII 770 Åto probe the coronal magnetic fields. We utilize 3D 'Magneto-hydrodynamic Algorithm outside a Sphere' (MAS) models as input to the FORWARD code to model polarization in Ne VIII line produced due to resonance scattering, and interpret its modification due to collisions and the magnetic fields through the Hanle effect. The polarization maps are synthesized both on the disk as well as off-the-limb. The variation of this polarization signal through the different phases of solar cycle 24 and the beginning phase of solar cycle 25 is studied in order to understand the magnetic diagnostic properties of this line owing to different physical conditions in the solar atmosphere. The detectability of the linear polarization signatures of the Hanle effect significantly improves with increasing solar activity, consistently with the increase in the magnetic field strength and the intensity of the mean solar brightness at these wavelengths. We finally discuss the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) requirements by considering realistic instrument designs.

MARTINI is a modular Python package that takes smoothed-particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations of galaxies as input and creates synthetic spatially- and/or spectrally-resolved observations of the 21-cm radio emission line of atomic hydrogen (data cubes). The various aspects of the mock-observing process are divided logically into sub-modules handling the data cube, source galaxy, telescope beam pattern, noise, spectral model and SPH kernel. MARTINI is object-oriented: each sub-module provides a class (or classes) which can be configured as desired. For most sub-modules, base classes are provided to allow for straightforward customization. Instances of each sub-module class are given as parameters to an instance of a main "Martini" class; a mock observation is then constructed by calling a handful of functions to execute the desired steps in the mock-observing process.

The size of a galaxy is one of the fundamental parameters that reflects its growth and assembly history. Traditionally, the size of the Milky Way has been characterized by the scale length of the disk, based on the assumption of an exponential density profile. Earlier scale length measurements suggest the Milky Way is an overly compact galaxy, compared to similar galaxies of its mass. These size measurements, however, ignore the presence of the bulge, and the assumption of a single-exponential disk profile faces growing challenges from the recent observations. The half-light radius is an alternative size measurement that is independent of the galaxy density profile and has been widely used to quantify the size of external galaxies. Here we report the half-light radius of the Milky Way, derived from a new measurement of the age-resolved Galactic surface brightness profile in an unprecedentedly wide radial range from ${\rm R=0}$ to 17~kpc. We find a broken surface brightness profile with a nearly flat distribution between 3.5 and 7.5 kpc, which results in a half-light radius of 5.75$\pm$0.38 kpc, significantly larger than the scale-length inferred from the canonical single-exponential disk profile but in good consistency with local disk galaxies of similar mass. Because our density profile can be decomposed by stellar age and extrapolated backwards in time, we can also confirm that the size history of the Milky Way is broadly consistent with high-redshift galaxies but with systematically smaller size at each look back time. Our results suggest that the Milky Way is a typical disk galaxy regarding its size and has likely experienced inefficient secular size growth.

We present the TESS and BVRcIc light curves solution of four low mass-ratio contact binary systems TIC 159102550), V1068 Her, MW Pav and TIC 321576458. Except MW Pav, all three systems have been studied for the first time. The period analysis of TIC 159102550 show anti-correlation between primary and secondary minima and no long term variation is reported. The systems V1068 Her and MW Pav show increasing orbital period trends. Data for TIC 321576458 is too few to determine any periodic variations. The light curve analysis using Wilson-Divinney model shows that systems are low mass-ratio contact binaries. Out of four targets, two systems TIC 159102550 and V1068 Her, are shallow contact binary systems with fill-out factor of 20% and 14%, respectively. The two contact binaries MW Pav and TIC 321576458 are in deep contact state with fill-out factor 63% and 61%, respectively. V1068 Her shows EB-type light curve, however the temperature difference between the primary secondary component is only 17K, which indicates that system is in thermal contact. To understand the evolutionary status of these systems, the components are plotted on the mass-luminosity diagram. The primary companions are in the ZAMS zone while the secondary components of all the systems are away from TAMS which indicates that secondary is more evolved than the primary components. V1068 Her and MW Pav are expected to evolve into a single rapidly rotating star provided that they meet the well-know Hut's criterion. Through statistical investigation of more than hundred low mass-ratio contact binary systems including our targets, we have found that all of the low mass-ratio contact binaries have undergone the mass-ratio inversion process. Based on our sample, the relationship between mass ratio and spin and orbital angular momentum ratio has been updated and proposed a new value of qmin = 0.0388 for Darwin's stability.

Quantitative analysis of the structure of star clusters is crucial for understanding their formation and evolution. In this article, we explore the application of fractal dimension analysis to study the evolution of star clusters. Fractal dimension, a concept from fractal geometry, provides a quantitative measure of the complexity and self-similarity of geometric objects. By considering star clusters as complex networks, we employ the box covering method to calculate their fractal dimension. Our methodology combines the well-established Minimum Spanning Tree (MST) and Box-Covering (BC) methods. Using these methods, the fractal structure of the clusters was determined. It was revealed that star clusters disintegrate at a fractal dimension of 1.3 and obey a power law. It should be noted that the obtained result was compared with the results of the McLuster.

Through the chemodynamical characterisation of metal-poor stars, one can efficiently probe the early history of the Milky Way. We aim at decontaminating a sample of $\sim$ 3M giant stars with Gaia DR3 XP-based \textit{Pristine-Gaia} metallicities, to investigate a subset of very metal-poor stars ([Fe/H] < -1.7) with disc-like orbits. We construct a statistically robust sample of $\sim$ 36 000 very metal-poor giants, using APOGEE and LAMOST to estimate and remove contamination from high $V_\phi$ stars. We investigate the spatial and kinematic properties of the decontaminated sample, using $V_\phi$ and the action space, both powerful to disentangle stellar populations. As in previous works, we find a pronounced asymmetry in $L_z$ and $V_\phi$ in favour of prograde stars. This excess is mostly made of prograde-planar stars (10% of the very metal-poor population), and contains stars with $V_\phi$ > 180 km s$^{-1}$ and $Z_{\text{max}}$ < 1.5 kpc, down to [Fe/H] = -2.9 at a 2$\sigma$ confidence level. While the overall orbital distributions of our sample match that of a halo, the highly prograde and planar subset (2% of the very metal-poor population) also bears characteristics classically associated with a thick disc, i.e., a spatial distribution compatible with a short-scaled thick disc, and a thick disc-like $Z_{\text{max}}$ - $R_{\text{max}}$ distribution. Additionally, assuming a stationary or prograde halo with $\overline{V_\phi}$ $\sim$ 30-40 km.s$^{-1}$ is not sufficient to suppress the kinematic signature of the highly prograde and planar subset. These results rule out any link with a thin disc, and instead, support a contribution from a \textit{metal-weak thick disc}.

We overview the history of primordial black hole (PBH) research from the first papers around 50 years ago to the present epoch. The history may be divided into four periods, the dividing lines being marked by three key developments: inflation on the theoretical front and the detection of microlensing events by the MACHO project and gravitational waves by the LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA project on the observation front. However, they are also characterised by somewhat different focuses of research. The period 1967-1980 covered the groundbreaking work on PBH formation and evaporation. The period 1980-1996 mainly focussed on their formation, while the period 1996-2016 consolidated the work on formation but also collated the constraints on the PBH abundance. In the period 2016-2024 there was a shift of emphasis to the search for evidence for PBHs and - while opinions about the strength of the purported evidence vary - this has motivated more careful studies of some aspects of the subject. Certainly the soaring number of papers on PBHs in this last period indicates a growing interest in the topic.

Highly magnetized neutron stars have quantum refraction effects on pulsar emission due to the non-linearity of the quantum electrodynamics (QED) action. In this paper, we investigate the evolution of the polarization states under the quantum refraction effects combined with the frequency dependence of pulsar emission; we solve a system of evolution equations of the Stokes vector, where the birefringent vector, in which such effects are encoded, acts on the Stokes vector. At a fixed frequency of emission, depending on the magnitude of the birefringent vector, dominated mostly by the magnetic field strength, the evolution of the Stokes vector largely exhibits three different patterns: (i) monotonic, or (ii) half-oscillatory, or (iii) highly oscillatory behaviours. These features are understood and confirmed by means of approximate analytical solutions to the evolution equations.

We analyzed images of every northern hemisphere Sd galaxy listed in the Third Reference Catalogue of Bright Galaxies (RC3) with a relatively face-on inclination ($\theta\leq30°$). Specifically, we measured the spiral arms' winding angle, $\phi$, in 85 galaxies. We applied a novel black hole mass planar scaling relation involving the rotational velocities (from the literature) and pitch angles of each galaxy to predict central black hole masses. This yielded 23 galaxies, each having at least a 50% chance of hosting a central intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH), $10^2<M_\mathrm{BH}\leq10^5\,\mathrm{M}_\odot$. These 23 nearby ($\lesssim$50 Mpc) targets may be suitable for an array of follow-up observations to check for active nuclei. Based on our full sample of 85 Sd galaxies, we estimate that the typical Sd galaxy (which tends to be bulgeless) harbors a black hole with $\log(M_\mathrm{BH}/\mathrm{M}_\odot)=6.00\pm0.14$, but with a 27.7% chance of hosting an IMBH, making this morphological type of galaxy fertile ground for hunting elusive IMBHs. Thus, we find that a $\sim$$10^6\,\mathrm{M}_\odot$ black hole corresponds roughly to the onset of bulge development and serves as a conspicuous waypoint along the galaxy-SMBH coevolution journey. Our survey suggests that $>$1.22% of bright galaxies ($B_{\rm T}\lesssim15.5$ mag) in the local Universe host an IMBH (i.e., the "occupation fraction"), which implies a number density $>$$4.96\times10^{-6}$ Mpc$^{-3}$ for central IMBHs. Finally, we observe that Sd galaxies exhibit an unexpected diversity of properties that resemble the general population of spiral galaxies, albeit with an enhanced signature of the eponymous prototypical traits (i.e., low masses, loosely wound spiral arms, and smaller rotational velocities).

POLAR-2 is a dedicated gamma-ray polarimeter currently foreseen to be launched towards the China Space Station around 2027. The design of the detector is based on the legacy of its predecessor mission POLAR which was launched in 2016. POLAR-2 aims to measure the polarization of the Gamma-ray Burst prompt emission within the 30-800 keV energy range. Thanks to its high sensitivity to gamma-ray polarization, as well as its large effective area, POLAR-2 will provide the most precise measurements of this type to date. Such measurements are key to improve our understanding of the astrophysical processes responsible for Gamma-Ray Bursts. The detector consists of a segmented array of plastic scintillator bars, each one of which is read out by a Silicon PhotoMultiplier channel. The flight model of POLAR-2 will contain a total of 6400 scintillators. These are divided into 100 groups of 64 bars each, in so-called polarimeter modules. In recent years, the collaboration has designed and produced the first prototypes of these polarimeter modules and subjected these to space qualification tests. In addition, in April 2023, the first of these modules were calibrated using fully polarized gamma-ray beams at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in France. In this work, we will present the results of this calibration campaign and compare these to the simulated performance of the POLAR-2 modules. Potential improvements to the design are also discussed. Finally, the measurements are used, in combination with the verified simulation framework, to estimate the scientific performance of the full POLAR-2 detector and compare it to its predecessor.

Extracting non-Gaussian information from the next generation weak lensing surveys will require fast and accurate full-sky simulations. This is difficult to achieve in practice with existing simulation methods: ray-traced $N$-body simulations are computationally expensive, and approximate simulation methods (such as lognormal mocks) are not accurate enough. Here, we present GANSky, an interpretable machine learning method that uses Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) to produce fast and accurate full-sky tomographic weak lensing maps. The input to our GAN are lognormal maps that approximately describe the late-time convergence field of the Universe. Starting from these lognormal maps, we use GANs to learn how to locally redistribute mass to achieve simulation-quality maps. This can be achieved using remarkably small networks ($\approx 10^3$ parameters). We validate the GAN maps by computing a number of summary statistics in both simulated and GANSky maps. We show that GANSky maps correctly reproduce both the mean and $\chi^2$ distribution for several statistics, specifically: the 2-pt function, 1-pt PDF, peak and void counts, and the equilateral, folded and squeezed bispectra. These successes makes GANSky an attractive tool to compute the covariances of these statistics. In addition to being useful for rapidly generating large ensembles of artificial data sets, our method can be used to extract non-Gaussian information from weak lensing data with field-level or simulation-based inference.

Gravitational instability is thought to be one of the main drivers of angular momentum transport in young protoplanetary discs. The disc around Elias 2-27 offers a unique example of gravitational instability at work. It is young and massive, displaying two prominent spiral arms in dust continuum emission and global non-axisymmetric kinematic signatures in molecular line data. In this work, we used archival ALMA observations of $^{13}$CO line emission to measure the efficiency of angular momentum transport in the Elias 2-27 system through the kinematic signatures generated by gravitational instability, known as 'GI wiggles'. Assuming the angular momentum is transported by the observed spiral structure and leveraging previously-derived dynamical disc mass measurements, the amount of angular momentum transport we found corresponds to an $\alpha-$viscosity of $\alpha=0.038\pm0.018$. This value implies an accretion rate onto the central star of $\log_{10}\dot{M}_\star=-6.99\pm0.17\text{M}_\odot/\text{yr, which}$ reproduces the one observed value of $\log_{10}\dot{M}_{\star,\text{obs}}=-7.2\pm0.5\text{M}_\odot/\text{yr }$ very well. The excellent agreement we have found serves as further proof that gravitational instability is the main driver of angular momentum transport acting in this system.

Understanding in which chemical forms phosphorus exists in star- and planet-forming regions and how phosphorus is delivered to planets are of great interest from the viewpoint of the origin of life on Earth. Phosphine (PH3) is thought to be a key species to understanding phosphorus chemistry, but never has been detected in star- and planet-forming regions. We performed sensitive observations of the ortho-PH3 $1_0-0_0$ transition (266.944 GHz) toward the low-mass prestellar core L1544 with the ACA stand-alone mode of ALMA. The line was not detected down to 3$\sigma$ levels in 0.07 km s$^{-1}$ channels of 18 mK. The non-detection provides the upper limit to the gas-phase PH3 abundance of $5\times10^{-12}$ with respect to H2 in the central part of the core. Based on the gas-ice astrochemical modeling, we find the scaling relationship between the gas-phase PH3 abundance and the volatile (gas and ice with larger volatility than water) P elemental abundance for given physical conditions. This characteristic and well-constrained physical properties of L1544 allow us to constrain the upper limit to the volatile P elemental abundance of $5\times10^{-9}$, which is a factor of 60 lower than the overall P abundance in the ISM. Then the majority of P should exist in refractory forms. The volatile P elemental abundance of L1544 is smaller than that in the coma of comet 67P/C-G, implying that the conversion of refractory phosphorus to volatile phosphorus could have occurred along the trail from the presolar core to the protosolar disk through e.g., sputtering by accretion/outflow shocks.

We systematically analyze the implications of statistical noise within numerical derivatives on simulation-based Fisher forecasts for large scale structure surveys. Noisy numerical derivatives resulting from a finite number of simulations, $N_{sims}$, act to bias the associated Fisher forecast such that the resulting marginalized constraints can be significantly tighter than the noise-free limit. We show the source of this effect can be traced to the influence of the noise on the marginalization process. Parameters such as the neutrino mass, $\M$, for which higher-order forward differentiation schemes are commonly used, are more prone to noise; the predicted constraints can be akin to those purely from a random instance of statistical noise even using $(1\mathrm{Gpc}/h)^{3}$ simulations with $N_{sims}=500$ realizations. We demonstrate how derivative noise can artificially reduce parameter degeneracies and seemingly null the effects of adding nuisance parameters to the forecast, such as HOD fitting parameters. We mathematically characterize these effects through a full statistical analysis, and demonstrate how confidence intervals for the true noise-free, $N_{sims} \rightarrow \infty$, Fisher constraints can be recovered even when noise comprises a consequential component of the measured signal. The findings and approaches developed here are important for ensuring simulation-based analyses can be accurately used to assess upcoming survey capabilities.

We explore the potential of detecting parity violation in primordial vector fossils using late-time galaxy spins. Utilizing $N$-body simulations, we use halo spins as a reliable proxy for galaxy spins to investigate how effectively such primordial vectorial parity asymmetry remains in galaxy spins at low redshifts. We develop a novel approach to generate initial conditions with substantial parity asymmetry, while maintaining the initial matter power spectrum unchanged. From the parity broken initial condition and halos evolved from it, we construct the initial spin and halo spin fields, respectively. Focusing on the helicity of these vector fields, we detect substantial asymmetry in the initial spin field as a consequence of parity violation in the primordial vector fossil. In addition, we discover that over $50\%$ of the primordial asymmetry in the initial spin field remains in the late-time halo spin field on a range of scales. Given the tight correlation between halo spins and observable galaxy spins, we expect to detect the current amplitude of vectorial parity asymmetry potentially up to $16\sigma$-level in observation, when utilizing galaxy samples from DESI BGS. Our findings demonstrate that the primordial imprints of vectorial parity violation persist through non-linear gravitational evolution, highlighting the reliability of galaxy spin as a sensitive probe for testing the vectorial parity-invariance in the early Universe.

When measuring the Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) scale from galaxy surveys, one typically assumes a fiducial cosmology when converting redshift measurements into comoving distances and also when defining input parameters for the reconstruction algorithm. A parameterised template for the model to be fitted is also created based on a (possibly different) fiducial cosmology. This model reliance can be considered a form of data compression, and the data is then analysed allowing that the true answer is different from the fiducial cosmology assumed. In this study, we evaluate the impact of the fiducial cosmology assumed in the BAO analysis of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) survey Data Release 1 (DR1) on the final measurements in DESI 2024 III. We utilise a suite of mock galaxy catalogues with survey realism that mirrors the DESI DR1 tracers: the bright galaxy sample (BGS), the luminous red galaxies (LRG), the emission line galaxies (ELG) and the quasars (QSO), spanning a redshift range from 0.1 to 2.1. We compare the four secondary AbacusSummit cosmologies against DESI's fiducial cosmology (Planck 2018). The secondary cosmologies explored include a lower cold dark matter density, a thawing dark energy universe, a higher number of effective species, and a lower amplitude of matter clustering. The mocks are processed through the BAO pipeline by consistently iterating the grid, template, and reconstruction reference cosmologies. We determine a conservative systematic contribution to the error of $0.1\%$ for both the isotropic and anisotropic dilation parameters $\alpha_{\rm iso}$ and $\alpha_{\rm AP}$. We then directly test the impact of the fiducial cosmology on DESI DR1 data.

We analyze the population statistics of black holes in the LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA GWTC-3 catalog using a parametric mass function derived from simulations of massive stars experiencing pulsational pair-instability supernovae (PPISN). Our formalism enables us to separate the black hole mass function into sub-populations corresponding to mergers between objects formed via different astrophysical pathways, allowing us to infer the properties of black holes formed from stellar collapse and black holes formed via prior mergers separately. Applying this formalism, we find that this model fits the data better than the powerlaw+peak model with Bayes factor $ 9.7\pm0.1$. We measure the location of the lower edge of the upper black hole mass gap to be $M_{\rm BHMG}=84.05_{-12.88}^{+17.19}{\rm M}_{\odot}$, providing evidence that the $35{\rm M}_{\odot}$ Gaussian peak detected in the data using other models is not associated with the PPISN pile-up predicted to precede this gap. Incorporating spin, we find that the normalized spins of stellar remnant black holes are close to zero while those of higher generation black holes tend to larger values. All of these results are in accordance with the predictions of stellar structure theory and black hole merger scenarios. Finally, we combine our mass function with the spectral siren method for measuring the Hubble constant to find $H_0=36.19_{-10.91}^{17.50}$ km/s/Mpc and discuss potential explanations of this low value. Our results demonstrate how astrophysically-informed mass functions can facilitate the interpretation of gravitational wave catalog data to provide information about black hole formation and cosmology. Future data releases will improve the precision of our measurements.

Faraday tomography of broadband radio polarization surveys enables us to study magnetic fields and their interaction with the interstellar medium (ISM). Such surveys include the Global Magneto-Ionic Medium Survey (GMIMS), which covers the northern and southern hemispheres at $\sim$ 300-1800 MHz. In this work, we used the GMIMS High Band South (1328-1768 MHz), also named the Southern Twenty-centimeter All-sky Polarization Survey (STAPS), which observes the southern sky at a resolution of 18$\arcmin$. To extract the key parameters of the magnetized ISM from STAPS, we computed the Faraday moments of the tomographic data cubes. These moments include the total polarized intensity, the mean Faraday depth weighted by the polarized intensity, the weighted dispersion of the Faraday spectrum, and its skewness. We compared the Faraday moments to those calculated over the same frequency range in the northern sky (using the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory, DRAO), in a strip of $360\degr \times 30\degr$ that overlaps with STAPS coverage. We find that the total polarized intensity is generally dominated by diffuse emission that decreases at longitudes of $l \leq 300\degr$. The Faraday moments reveal a variety of polarization structures. Low-intensity regions at high latitudes usually have a single Faraday depth component. Due to its insufficiently large frequency coverage, STAPS cannot detect Faraday thick structures. Comparing the Faraday depths from STAPS to total rotation measures from extragalactic sources suggests that STAPS frequencies are high enough that the intervening ISM causes depolarization to background emission at intermediate and high Galactic latitudes. Where they overlap, the STAPS and DRAO surveys exhibit broad correspondence but differ in polarized intensity by a factor of $\sim$1.8.

Real-time measurements are becoming feasible in cosmology, where the next generation of telescopes will detect the temporal change of redshifts and sky positions of individual sources with a precision that will allow a direct detection of the cosmic expansion rate. These detections of cosmic drifts of redshifts and positions are likely to become cornerstones in modern cosmology, where one has otherwise relied on the indirect inference of cosmic expansion by estimation of the slope of the fitted distance-redshift relation. Because of their ability to directly detect the cosmic time-evolution, real-time measurements are powerful as model-independent probes. We develop a cosmographic framework for analysing cosmological redshift drift and position drift signals without knowledge of the space-time geometry. The framework can be applied to analyse data from surveys such as the Gaia observatory, the Square Kilometer Array (SKA), and the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT). The drift effects are distorted by the regional kinematics and tidal effects in the cosmic neighbourhood of the observer, giving rise to non-trivial corrections to the well known Friedmann-Lema\^ıtre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) results. We discuss how one may concretely implement the framework in the statistical analysis of real-time data, along with assumptions and limitations that come with such an analysis. We also discuss the geometrical information that can ideally be extracted from ideal high-resolution data of cosmic drifts in combination with distance-redshift data.

The analysis of non-variable stars is generally neglected in the literature. However, such objects are needed for many calibration processes and for testing pulsational models. The photometric time series of the Kepler satellite mission still stand as the most accurate data available today and are excellently suited to the search for non-variable stars. We analysed all long-cadence light curves for stars not reported as a variable so far from the Kepler satellite mission. Using the known characteristics and flaws of these data sets, we defined three different frequency ranges where we searched for non-variability. We used the Lomb-Scargle periodogram and the false-alarm probability (FAP) to analyse the cleaned data sets of 138 451 light curves. We then used log FAP > -2 to define a star as "non-variable" in the ranges below 0.1 c/d, 0.1 to 2.0 c/d, and 2.0 to 25.0 c/d, respectively. Furthermore, we also calculated the standard deviation of the mean light curve to obtain another parameter. In total, we found 14 154 stars that fulfil the set

The manifestation of surface spots on magnetic chemically peculiar (mCP) stars is most commonly explained by the atomic diffusion theory, which requires a calm stellar atmosphere and only moderate rotation. While very successful and well described, this theory still needs to be revised and fine-tuned to the observations. Our study aims to enlarge the sample of known photometrically variable mCP stars (ACV variables) to pave the way for more robust and significant statistical studies. We derive accurate physical parameters for these objects and discuss our results in the framework of the atomic diffusion theory. We studied 1314 candidate ACV variables that were selected from the Zwicky Transient Factory catalogue of periodic variables based on light curve characteristics. We investigated these objects using photometric criteria, a colour-magnitude diagram, and spectroscopic data from the LAMOST and Gaia missions to confirm their status as ACV variables. We present a sample of 1232 new ACV variables, including information on distance from the Sun, mass, fractional age on the main sequence, fraction of the radius between the zero-age and terminal-age main sequence, and the equatorial velocity and its ratio to the critical velocity. Our results confirm that the employed selection process is highly effcient for detecting ACV variables. We have identified 38 stars with v(equ) in excess of 150 km/s (with extreme values up to 260 km/s). This challenges current theories that cannot explain the occurrence of such fast-rotating mCP stars.

We present the discovery with the QUIJOTE line survey of the cations HC5N+ and HC7N+ in the direction of TMC-1. Seven lines with half-integer quantum numbers from J=25/2-23/2 to 37/2-35/2 have been assigned to HC5N+ and eight lines from J=55/2-53/2 to 71/2-69/2 to HC7N+. Both species have inverted 2Pi ground electronic states with very good estimates for their B0 and AS0 constants based on optical observations. The lines with the lowest J of HC5N+ exhibit multiple components due to the hyperfine structure introduced by the H and N nuclei. However, these different components collapse for the higher J. No hyperfine structure is found for any of the lines of HC7N+. The derived effective rotational and distortion constants for HC5N+ are Beff = 1336.662+/- 0.001 MHz and Deff = 27.4+/-2.6 Hz, while for HC7N+ they are Beff = 567.85036+/-0.00037 MHz and Deff = 4.01+/-0.19 Hz. From the observed intensities, we derived Trot = 5.5+/-0.5K and N = (9.9+/-1.0)x 1010 cm-2 for HC5N+, while we obtained Trot = 8.5+/-0.5K and N = (2.3+/-0.2)x1010 cm-2 for HC7N+. The HC5N/HC5N+, C5N/HC5N+, C5N-/HC5N+, HC7N/HC7N+, HC5N+/HC7N+, and C7N-/HC7N+ abundance ratios are 670+/-80, 4.8+/-0.8, 1.2+/-0.2, 1000+/-150, 4.2+/-0.5, and 2.2+/-0.2, respectively. We have run chemical modelling calculations to investigate the formation and destruction of these new cations. We find that these species are mainly formed through the reactions of H2 and the cations C5N+ and C7N+, and by the reactions of H+ with HC5N and HC7N, while they are mostly destroyed through a reaction with H2 and a dissociative recombination with electrons. Based on the underestimation of the abundances of HC5N+ and HC7N+ by the chemical model by a factor around 20, we suggest that the rate coefficients currently assumed for the reactions of these cations with H2 could be too high by the same factor, something that will be worth investigating.

Type Ia supernova (SNIa) are excellent probes of local distance, and the increasing sample sizes of SNIa have driven an increased need to study the associated systematic uncertainties and improve the standardisation methods in preparation for the next generation of cosmological surveys into the dark energy equation-of-state $w$. We aim to probe the potential change in the SNIa standardisation parameter $c$ with redshift and the host-galaxy of the supernova. Improving the standardisation of SNIa brightnesses will require accounting for the relationship between the host and the SNIa, and potential shifts in the SNIa standardisation parameters with redshift will cause biases in the recovered cosmology. Here, we assemble a volume-limited sample of ~3000 likely SNIa across a redshift range of $z = 0.015$ to $z = 0.36$. This sample is fitted with changing mass and redshift bins to determine the relationship between intrinsic properties of SNe Ia and their redshift and host galaxy parameters. We then investigate the colour-luminosity parameter $\beta$ as a further test of the SNIa standardisation process. We find that the changing colour distribution of SNe Ia with redshift is driven by dust at a confidence of $>4\sigma$. Additionally, we show a strong correlation between the host galaxy mass and the colour-luminosity coefficient $\beta$ ($> 4\sigma$), even when accounting for the quantity of dust in a host galaxy.

Improved observational technologies have enabled the resolution of substructures and the measurement of chemical abundances in protoplanetary discs. Understanding the chemical composition of the inner disc allows us to infer the building blocks available for planet formation. Recently, the depletion of water in the inner disc has been suggested to be linked to the presence of substructures like gaps and rings further out in the disc. We investigate this hypothesis further by running 1D semi-analytical models of a protoplanetary disc with a gap to understand the combined effects of disc viscosity, gap depth, gap location and gap formation time on the composition of the inner disc. Our results show that for a specific value of disc viscosity, the simulation outcome can be classified into three regimes: shallow gap, 'traffic jam', and deep gap. While deep gaps may already be distinguishable with moderate resolution, shallow gaps remains a challenge to resolve with current capabilities. On the other hand, discs with traffic jams have a higher chance of being resolved when observed with high resolution but may appear as an intensity enhancement or even featureless when observed with moderate to low angular resolution. In this regard, information on the inner disc composition is useful because it can help to infer the existence of traffic jams or distinguish them from deep gaps: Discs with deep gaps are expected to have a low water content and thus high C/O ratio in the inner disc due to the effective blocking of pebbles, discs with shallow gaps would show the opposite trend, and discs with traffic jam would have a constant -- albeit low -- inward flux of water-rich pebbles resulting in a moderate water content and sub-stellar C/O ratios. Finally, we find that the effectiveness of gaps as pebble barriers diminishes quickly when they form late, as most of the pebbles already drifted inwards.

We revisit the problem of the positive correlation between age and Galactocentric distance seen in Galactic Classical Cepheids, which at first sight is counter-intuitive in the context of inside-out galaxy formation. To explain it, we use the Besançon Galaxy Model and a simulation of star particles in the Galactic disc coupled with stellar evolutionary models. We then select Classical Cepheids from this simulation and test in qualitative terms which ingredients are necessary to find agreement with the observational data. We show that the observed age vs. Galactocentric radius distribution in the Milky Way is a direct consequence of the disc's negative radial metallicity gradient (and, depending on the set of stellar models used, a metallicity dependence of the instability strip). The interplay of the metallicity gradient and the metallicity dependence of the Cepheids' life-time in the instability strip results in a pronounced positive age-Galactocentric distance relation. This renders a reconstruction of the recent star-formation history based on Classical Cepheids unlikely. It also has important consequences on our interpretation of the observed scatter about the radial metallicity gradient measured with Galactic Classical Cepheids.

An analysis of high-resolution ($R\sim48\,000$) optical spectrum of hot (B1Ibe) post-AGB star LS 4331 (IRAS 17381-1616) is presented. The detailed identification of the observed absorption and emission features in the wavelength range 3700-9200 Å is carried out for the first time. From non-LTE analysis of absorption lines the atmospheric parameters and chemical composition of the star are derived. We estimate $T_{\rm eff}=20~900\pm500$ K, $\log g=2.57\pm0.08$, $V_r=-51.7\pm0.8$ km s$^{-1}$, $\xi_{\rm t}=24\pm4$ km s$^{-1}$ and $v \sin i=30\pm5$ km s$^{-1}$. A abundance analysis for C, N, O, Mg, Al, S and Si reveals that the N and O abundance is close to solar while metal underabundances relative to the solar value (i.e. [Mg/H] = -1.04 dex, [Al/H] = -1.20 dex, [Si/H] = -0.46 dex) are found. We conclude that LS 4331 is a high galactic latitude metal-poor and carbon deficient hot post-AGB star. The underabundance of carbon ([C/H]= -0.64 dex) is similar to that found in other hot post-AGB stars and indicates that the star's AGB phase of evolution was terminated before the third dredge up. From the nebular emission lines the plasma diagnostics are derived. The presence of nebular emission lines in the spectrum of LS 4331 indicates that the photoionization of circumstellar envelope has already started. The nebular parameters and expansion velocity of the nebula is derived. Using the Gaia DR3 distance the absolute luminosity of the star is derived and the star's position on the post-AGB evolutionary tracks suggests that its initial main sequence mass is about 1.2$M_{\odot}$. It is also reported that fast irregular brightness variations with an amplitude of up to 0.3 mag in $V$ band have been found in the star, typical of hot post-AGB objects.

Galaxy surveys contain information on the largest scales via wide-angle and relativistic contributions. By combining two different galaxy populations, we can suppress the strong cosmic variance on ultra-large scales and thus enhance the detectability of the signals. The relativistic Doppler and Sachs-Wolfe effects are of a similar magnitude to the leading wide-angle corrections, so that it is important to treat them together, especially since they can partially cancel. The power spectra depend on the choice of line of sight for each galaxy pair and we present results for a general line of sight. Then we estimate the detection significance of the auto- and cross-power spectra for a variety of cases. We use two futuristic galaxy samples based on a `beyond-DESI' survey and a SKA Phase 2 survey, covering 15,000\,deg$^2$ up to $z=1$. We find a detection significance for the total relativistic wide-angle effects that ranges from $\sim 5\sigma$ to $>15\sigma$, depending on the line-of-sight configuration.

Since 2018, the ESPRESSO spectrograph at the VLT has been hunting for planets in the Southern skies via the RV method. One of its goals is to follow up candidate planets from transit surveys such as the TESS mission, particularly small planets. We analyzed photometry from TESS and ground-based facilities, high-resolution imaging, and RVs from ESPRESSO, HARPS, and HIRES, to confirm and characterize three new planets: TOI-260 b, transiting a late K-dwarf, and TOI-286 b and c, orbiting an early K-dwarf. We also update parameters for the known super-Earth TOI-134 b , hosted by an M-dwarf. TOI-260 b has a $13.475853^{+0.000013}_{-0.000011}$ d period, $4.23 \pm1.60 \mathrm{M_\oplus}$ mass and $1.71\pm0.08\mathrm{R_\oplus}$ radius. For TOI-286 b we find a $4.5117244^{+0.0000031}_{-0.0000027}$ d period, $4.53\pm0.78\mathrm{M_\oplus}$ mass and $1.42\pm0.10\mathrm{R_\oplus}$ radius; for TOI-286 c, a $39.361826^{+0.000070}_{-0.000081}$ d period, $3.72\pm2.22\mathrm{M_\oplus}$ mass and $1.88\pm 0.12\mathrm{R_\oplus}$ radius. For TOI-134 b we obtain a $1.40152604^{+0.00000074}_{-0.00000082}$ d period, $4.07\pm0.45\mathrm{M_\oplus}$ mass, and $1.63\pm0.14\mathrm{R_\oplus}$ radius. Circular models are preferred for all, although for TOI-260 b the eccentricity is not well-constrained. We compute bulk densities and place the planets in the context of composition models. TOI-260 b lies within the radius valley, and is most likely a rocky planet. However, the uncertainty on the eccentricity and thus on the mass renders its composition hard to determine. TOI-286 b and c span the radius valley, with TOI-286 b lying below it and having a likely rocky composition, while TOI-286 c is within the valley, close to the upper border, and probably has a significant water fraction. With our updated parameters for TOI-134 b, we obtain a lower density than previous findings, giving a rocky or Earth-like composition.

We explore the scales and the extent of disagreement between $Planck$ PR3 and Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) DR4 data. $Planck$ and ACT data have substantial overlap in the temperature anisotropy data between scales corresponding to multipoles $\ell\simeq 600-2500$ with complementing coverage of larger angular scales by $Planck$ and smaller angular scales by ACT. Since the same cosmology should govern the anisotropy spectrum at all scales, we probe this disagreement in the primordial power spectrum. We use a parametric form of power law primordial spectrum that allows changes in the spectral tilt. We also reconstruct the primordial spectrum with a non-parametric method from both $Planck$ and ACT temperature data. We find the disagreement exists within scales 0.08 - 0.16 ${\rm Mpc}^{-1}$ where ACT temperature data prefers a scale invariant/blue spectrum. At scales larger and smaller than this window, ACT data strongly prefers a red tilt, which is consistent with $Planck$. This change in the spectral tilt can be identified in the ACT data at 2$\sigma$ C.L. without using $Planck$ data, indicating that the tension is driven by different preferences for tilts within the ACT data. The addition of $Planck$ data up to intermediate scales ($\ell\le650$) increases this significance to 3$\sigma$. Given the large overlap between $Planck$ and ACT within 0.08 - 0.16 ${\rm Mpc}^{-1}$ and considering the internal consistency between different $Planck$ temperature and polarization spectra, the scope of new physics as a solution to the tension remains limited. Our results -- a strong preference for an intermediate transition in spectral tilt and the variation of this preference in different data combinations -- indicate that systematic effects can be misperceived as new physics emerging from different non-standard cosmological processes.

We present measurements of the atmospheric depth of the shower maximum $X_\mathrm{max}$, inferred for the first time on an event-by-event level using the Surface Detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory. Using deep learning, we were able to extend measurements of the $X_\mathrm{max}$ distributions up to energies of 100 EeV ($10^{20}$ eV), not yet revealed by current measurements, providing new insights into the mass composition of cosmic rays at extreme energies. Gaining a 10-fold increase in statistics compared to the Fluorescence Detector data, we find evidence that the rate of change of the average $X_\mathrm{max}$ with the logarithm of energy features three breaks at $6.5\pm0.6~(\mathrm{stat})\pm1~(\mathrm{sys})$ EeV, $11\pm 2~(\mathrm{stat})\pm1~(\mathrm{sys})$ EeV, and $31\pm5~(\mathrm{stat})\pm3~(\mathrm{sys})$ EeV, in the vicinity to the three prominent features (ankle, instep, suppression) of the cosmic-ray flux. The energy evolution of the mean and standard deviation of the measured $X_\mathrm{max}$ distributions indicates that the mass composition becomes increasingly heavier and purer, thus being incompatible with a large fraction of light nuclei between 50 EeV and 100 EeV.

We report an investigation of the mass composition of cosmic rays with energies from 3 to 100 EeV (1 EeV=$10^{18}$ eV) using the distributions of the depth of shower maximum $X_\mathrm{max}$. The analysis relies on ${\sim}50,000$ events recorded by the Surface Detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory and a deep-learning-based reconstruction algorithm. Above energies of 5 EeV, the data set offers a 10-fold increase in statistics with respect to fluorescence measurements at the Observatory. After cross-calibration using the Fluorescence Detector, this enables the first measurement of the evolution of the mean and the standard deviation of the $X_\mathrm{max}$ distributions up to 100 EeV. Our findings are threefold: (1.) The evolution of the mean logarithmic mass towards a heavier composition with increasing energy can be confirmed and is extended to 100 EeV. (2.) The evolution of the fluctuations of $X_\mathrm{max}$ towards a heavier and purer composition with increasing energy can be confirmed with high statistics. We report a rather heavy composition and small fluctuations in $X_\mathrm{max}$ at the highest energies. (3.) We find indications for a characteristic structure beyond a constant change in the mean logarithmic mass, featuring three breaks that are observed in proximity to the ankle, instep, and suppression features in the energy spectrum.

Three-dimensional (3D) magnetic nulls are abundant in the solar atmosphere, as been firmly established through contemporary observations. They are established to be important magnetic structures in, for example, jets and circular ribbon flares. While simulations and extrapolations support this, the mechanisms behind 3D null generation remain an open question. Recent magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) simulations propose that magnetic reconnection is responsible for both generating and annihilating 3D nulls, a novel concept. However, these simulations began with initial magnetic fields already supporting pre-existing nulls, raising the question of whether magnetic reconnection can create nulls in fields initially devoid of them. Previously, this question was briefly explored in a simulation with an initial chaotic magnetic field. However, the study failed to precisely identify locations, topological degrees, and natures (spiral or radial) of nulls, and it approximated magnetic reconnection without fully tracking field line in time. In this paper these findings are revisited in light of recent advancements and tools used to locate and trace nulls, along with the tracing of field lines, through which the concept of generation/annihilation of 3D nulls from chaotic fields is established in a precise manner.

Lim et al. (2023) have recently proposed that the slope ($\delta$) of the power law distribution between the energy flux and oscillation frequency could determine whether high-frequency transverse oscillations give a dominant contribution to the heating ($\delta<1$). A meta-analysis of decayless transverse oscillations revealed that high-frequency oscillations potentially play a key role in heating the solar corona. We aim to investigate how (whether) the distributions of the energy flux contained in transverse oscillations, and their slopes, depend on the coronal region in which the oscillation occurs. We analyse transverse oscillations from 41 quiet Sun (QS) loops and 22 active region (AR) loops observed by Solar Orbiter/Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (SolO/EUI) HRIEUV. The energy flux and energy are estimated using analysed oscillation parameters and loop properties, such as periods, displacement amplitudes, loop lengths, and minor radii of the loops. It is found that about 71% of QS loops and 86% of AR loops show decayless oscillations. We find that the amplitude does not change depending on different regions, but the difference in the period is more pronounced. Although the power law slope ($\delta=-1.79$) in AR is steeper than that ($\delta=-1.59$) in QS, both of them are significantly less than the critical slope of 1. Our statistical study demonstrates that high-frequency transverse oscillations can heat the QS. For ARs, the total energy flux is insufficient unless yet-unobserved oscillations with frequencies up to 0.17 Hz are present. Future EUI campaigns will be planned to confirm this.

Dark Energy Survey five-year supernovae data (DES 5YR SNe) in conjunction with Planck CMB and Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) BAO data has detected a strong dynamical dark energy deviation from the $\Lambda$CDM model. Here, we shift the focus of DES data to the pressureless matter sector in the $\Lambda$CDM model by studying the matter density parameter $\Omega_m$. Employing frequentist profile likelihoods, we demonstrate that $\Omega_m$ increases with effective redshift in the DES dataset at up to $2.5 \sigma$ level. At the highest redshifts, one encounters negative dark energy densities $\Omega_m > 1$. Our findings corroborate earlier observations in Pantheon and Pantheon+ datasets with an independent SNe dataset with a higher effective redshift. In an appendix, we confirm that curvature $\Omega_k$ decreases with effective redshift disfavouring a flat Universe in higher redshift DES SNe at $> 3 \sigma$. Our choice of $\Omega_k$ prior leads to an underestimation of the tension with a flat Universe.

We propose a Bayesian inference framework to predict the merger history of LIGO-Virgo binary black holes, whose binary components may have undergone hierarchical mergers in the past. The framework relies on numerical relativity predictions for the mass, spin, and kick velocity of the remnant black holes. This proposed framework computes the masses, spins, and kicks imparted to the remnant of the parent binaries, given the initial masses and spin magnitudes of the binary constituents. We validate our approach by performing an "injection study" based on a constructed sequence of hierarchically-formed binaries. Noise is added to the final binary in the sequence, and the parameters of the 'parent' and 'grandparent' binaries in the merger chain are then reconstructed. This method is then applied to three GWTC-3 events: GW190521, GW200220_061928, GW190426_190642. These events were selected because at least one of the binary companions lies in the putative pair-instability supernova mass gap, in which stellar processes alone cannot produce black holes. Hierarchical mergers offer a natural explanation for the formation of black holes in the pair-instability mass-gap. We use the backward evolution framework to predict the parameters of the parents of the primary companion of these three binaries. Our results indicate that at least one component of these three observed binaries was formed through a prior binary black hole merger. This approach can be readily applied to future high-mass gravitational wave events to predict their formation history under the hierarchical merger assumption.

Gravitational wave (GW) galaxy lens reconstruction is a crucial step for many GW lensing science applications. However, dark siren GW lensing (i.e. lensed GW without observed electromagnetic (EM) counterpart) suffers from similarity transformation degeneracy and mass-sheet degeneracy. We review these two degeneracies and discuss their implications on GW-based lens reconstruction and two well-known GW lensing science cases: the Hubble constant measurement and test for modified GW propagation. Building upon previous works, our conclusions are:1) GWs can only infer the scale-free lens mass model parameters, the dimensionless source position, the GW luminosity distance and the time delay scaling (a combination of Einstein radius, lens redshift, and cosmology).2) Lens reconstruction (of singular isothermal ellipsoid lens) with only two GW signals is unlikely to yield a complete lens model, while four (three) signals can measure all the above parameters accurately (with large uncertainties).3) The similarity transformation degeneracy causes the lens redshift/Einstein radius/cosmology to be degenerate in dark siren measurements. Breaking the degeneracy can be achieved by supplementing the GWs with EM observation of lens redshifts/Einstein radius (source redshift is not required).4) The mass-sheet degeneracy causes the GW luminosity distance to be entirely degenerate with a constant mass sheet.5) Contrary to expectation, the Hubble constant is degenerate with the mass-sheet even when supplemented with lens reconstruction/redshift/Einstein radius and can only be lifted with lens galaxy velocity dispersion measurement, while modified GW propagation test discussed in prior literature is unaffected by the degeneracy. These properties highlight the need for GW observations to be supplemented by EM observations, which could become accessible through a lens archival search or a rapid EM follow-up.

We present characterization results and performance of a prototype Multiple-Amplifier Sensing (MAS) silicon charge-coupled device (CCD) sensor with 16 channels potentially suitable for faint object astronomical spectroscopy and low-signal, photon-limited imaging. The MAS CCD is designed to reach sub-electron readout noise by repeatedly measuring charge through a line of amplifiers during the serial transfer shifts. Using synchronized readout electronics based on the DESI CCD controller, we report a read noise of 1.03 e- rms/pix at a speed of 26 $\mu$s/pix with a single-sample readout scheme where charge in a pixel is measured only once for each output stage. At these operating parameters, we find the amplifier-to-amplifier charge transfer efficiency (ACTE) to be $>0.9995$ at low counts for all amplifiers but one for which the ACTE is 0.997. This charge transfer efficiency falls above 50,000 electrons for the read-noise optimized voltage configuration we chose for the serial clocks and gates. The amplifier linearity across a broad dynamic range from $\sim$300--35,000 e- was also measured to be $\pm 2.5\%$. We describe key operating parameters to optimize on these characteristics and describe the specific applications for which the MAS CCD may be a suitable detector candidate.

We analyze IceCube public data from its IC86 configuration, namely PSTracks event selection, to search for pseudo-Dirac signatures in high-energy neutrinos from astrophysical sources. Neutrino flux from astrophysical sources is reduced in the pseudo-Dirac scenario due to conversion of active-to-sterile neutrinos as compared to the neutrino oscillation scenario of only three active neutrinos over astrophysical distances. We fit IceCube data using astrophysical flux models for three point-like sources in both scenarios and constrain the active-sterile mass-square-difference in the absence of any evidence for pseudo-Dirac scenario. We find that a common mass-squared-difference $\delta m^2$ for all three flavors can be constrained as $\delta m^2 \lesssim 4 \times 10^{-19}~eV^2$ for the source NGC 1068, $\delta m^2 \lesssim 8 \times 10^{-20}~eV^2$ for the source TXS 0506+056, and $\delta m^2 \lesssim 2.3 \times 10^{-21}~eV^2$ for the source PKS 1424+240 at 90% C.L. A stacking analysis gives a constrain on $\delta m^2 \le 2.3 \times 10^{-21}~eV^2$ at 90% CL which is dominated by the constraint obtained from PKS 1424+240.

We present an atmospheric retrieval analysis of the Y0 brown dwarf WISE J035934.06$-$540154.6 using the low-resolution 0.96--12 $\mu$m JWST spectrum presented in \citet{Beiler_2023}. We obtain volume number mixing ratios of the major gas-phase absorbers (H$_2$O, CH$_4$, CO, CO$_2$, PH$_3$, and H$_2$S) that are 3--5$\times$ more precise than previous work that used HST spectra. We also find an order-of-magnitude improvement in the precision of the retrieved thermal profile, a direct result of the broad wavelength coverage of the JWST data. We used the retrieved thermal profile and surface gravity to generate a grid of chemical forward models with varying metallicity, (C/O)$_\textrm{atm}$, and strengths of vertical mixing as encapsulated by the eddy diffusion coefficient $K_\textrm{zz}$. Comparison of the retrieved abundances with this grid of models suggests that the deep atmosphere of WISE 0359$-$54 shows signs of vigorous vertical mixing with $K_\textrm{zz}=10^9$ [cm$^{2}$ s$^{-1}$]. To test the sensitivity of these results to our 5-knot spline thermal profile model, we performed a second retrieval using the \citet{Madhusudhan_2009} thermal profile model. While the results of the two retrievals generally agree well, we do find differences between the retrieved values of mass and volume number mixing ratio of H$_2$S with fractional differences of the median values of $-$0.64 and $-$0.10, respectively. In addition, the 5-knot thermal profile is consistently warmer at pressure between 1 and 70 bar. Nevertheless, our results underscore the power that the broad-wavelength infrared spectra obtainable with the James Webb Space Telescope have to characterize the atmospheres of cool brown dwarfs.

Efforts to unveil the structure of the local interstellar medium and its recent star formation history have spanned the past seventy years. Recent studies utilizing precise data from space astrometry missions have revealed nearby, newly formed star clusters with connected origins. Nonetheless, mapping young clusters across the entire sky back to their natal regions has been hindered by a lack of clusters with precise radial velocity data. Here we show that 155 out of 272 (57 percent) high-quality young clusters within one kiloparsec of the Sun arise from three distinct spatial volumes. This conclusion is based upon the analysis of data from the third Gaia release and other large-scale spectroscopic surveys. Currently dispersed throughout the Solar Neighborhood, their past positions over 30 Myr ago reveal that these families of clusters each formed in one of three compact, massive star-forming complexes. One of these families includes all of the young clusters near the Sun -- the Taurus and Sco-Cen star-forming complexes. We estimate that over 200 supernovae were produced from these families and argue that these clustered supernovae produced both the Local Bubble and the largest nearby supershell GSH 238+00+09, both of which are clearly visible in modern three-dimensional dust maps.