Papers for Monday, Aug 12 2024

Stellar clusters are critical constituents within galaxies: they are the result of highest-density star formation, and through their spatially and temporally correlated feedback they regulate their host galaxy evolution. We present a novel numerical method to model star clusters as individual units of star formation using sink particles. In our method, star clusters grow via gas accretion and via merging with less massive clusters. We describe the implementation in the radiation hydrodynamics code GIZMO and run a large grid of marginally bound, turbulent clouds of $10^7~{\rm M}_{\odot}$ to explore the effect of modeling ingredients on the evolution of the clouds and the star clusters. We find both gas accretion and mergers to be critical processes to form star clusters of masses up to $\sim10^5$-$10^6~{\rm M}_{\odot}$, while ionising radiation is the main feedback mechanism regulating the growth of star clusters. The majority of our star clusters assemble their mass in $0.3$-$2.6~{\rm Myr}$, and the most massive ones take $\sim10~{\rm Myr}$. By removing high density gas by accretion, our sink-based cluster formation prescription allows the newly-formed star clusters to inject their stellar feedback in less dense environments. This makes feedback more efficient at ionising and disrupting the cloud than if we were to use a standard star formation approach, indicating that our numerical method is the missing critical step to model the interplay between star clusters and their host galaxies.

Sufficiently old white dwarfs cool down through a convective envelope that directly couples their degenerate cores to the surface. Magnetic fields may inhibit this convection by stiffening the criterion for convective instability. We consistently implemented the modified criterion in the stellar evolution code MESA, and computed the cooling of white dwarfs as a function of their mass and magnetic field $B$. In contrast to previous estimates, we find that magnetic fields can significantly change the cooling time $t$ even if they are relatively weak $B^2\ll 8\pi P$, where $P$ is the pressure at the edge of the degenerate core. Fields $B\gtrsim 1\textrm{ MG}$ open a radiative window that decouples the core from the convective envelope, effectively lowering the luminosity to that of a fully radiative white dwarf. We identified a population of observed white dwarfs that are younger by $\Delta t\sim\textrm{Gyr}$ than currently thought due to this magnetic inhibition of convection - comparable to the cooling delay due to carbon-oxygen phase separation. In volume-limited samples, the frequency and strength of magnetic fields increase with age. Accounting for magnetic inhibition is therefore essential for accurate cooling models for cosmic chronology and for determining the origin of the magnetic fields.

We present ultraviolet, optical and near-infrared photometric and optical spectroscopic observations of the luminous, fast blue optical transient (LFBOT), CSS161010:045834-081803 (CSS161010). The transient was found in a low-redshift (z=0.033) dwarf galaxy. The light curves of CSS161010 are characterized by an extremely fast evolution and blue colours. The V-band light curve shows that CSS161010 reaches an absolute peak of M$_{V}^{max}=-20.66\pm0.06$ mag in 3.8 days from the start of the outburst. After maximum, CSS161010 follows a power-law decline $\propto t^{-2.8\pm0.1}$ at all optical bands. These photometric properties are comparable to those of well-observed LFBOTs such as AT 2018cow, AT 2020mrf and AT 2020xnd. However, unlike these objects, the spectra of CSS161010 show a remarkable transformation from a blue and featureless continuum to spectra dominated by very broad, entirely blueshifted hydrogen emission lines of velocities of up to 10% of the speed of light. The persistent blueshifted emission and the lack of any emission at the rest wavelength of CSS161010 are unique features not seen in any transient before CSS161010. The combined observational properties of CSS161010 and its dwarf galaxy host favour the tidal disruption of a star by an intermediate-mass black hole as its origin.

NASA's return to the Moon presents unparalleled opportunities to advance high-impact scientific capabilities. At the cutting edge of these possibilities are extremely high-resolution interferometric observations at visible and ultraviolet wavelengths. Such technology can resolve the surfaces of stars, explore the inner accretion disks of nascent stars and black holes, and eventually enable us to observe surface features and weather patterns on nearby exoplanets. We have been awarded Phase 1 support from NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program to explore the feasibility of constructing a high-resolution, long-baseline UV/optical imaging interferometer on the lunar surface, in conjunction with the Artemis Program. A 1996 study comparing interferometers on the Moon versus free-flyers in space concluded that, without pre-existing lunar infrastructure, free-flyers were preferable. However, with the advent of the Artemis Program, it is now crucial to revisit the potential of building lunar interferometers. Our objective is to conduct a study with the same level of rigor applied to large baseline, free-flying interferometers during the 2003-2005 NASA Vision Missions Studies. This preparation is essential for timely and effective utilization of the forthcoming lunar infrastructure. In this paper, we highlight the groundbreaking potential of a lunar surface-based interferometer. This concept study will be a huge step forward to larger arrays on both the moon and free-flying in space, over a wide variety of wavelengths and science topics. Our Phase 1 study began in April 2024, and here we present a concise overview of our vision and the progress made so far.

We have studied the cosmic microwave background (CMB) map looking for features beyond cosmological isotropy. We began by tiling the CMB variance map (which are produced by different smoothing scales) with stripes of different sizes along the most prominent dipole direction. We were able to confirm previous findings regarding the significance of the dipole. Furthermore, we discovered that some of the higher multipoles exhibit significance comparable to the dipole which naturally depends on the smoothing scales. At the end, we discussed this result having an eye on look-elsewhere-effect. We believe our results may indicate an anomalous patch in the CMB sky that warrants further investigation.

Ocean salinity is known to dramatically affect the climates of Earth-like planets orbiting Sun-like stars, with high salinity leading to less ice and higher surface temperature. However, how ocean composition impacts climate under different conditions, such as around different types of stars or at different positions within the habitable zone, has not been investigated. We used ROCKE-3D, an ocean-atmosphere general circulation model, to simulate how planetary climate responds to ocean salinities for planets with G-star vs. M-dwarf hosts at several stellar fluxes. We find that increasing ocean salinity from 20 to 100 g/kg in our model results in non-linear ice reduction and warming on G-star planets, sometimes causing abrupt transitions to different climate states. Conversely, sea ice on M-dwarf planets responds more gradually and linearly to increasing salinity. Moreover, reductions in sea ice on M-dwarf planets are not accompanied by significant surface warming as on G-star planets. High salinity can modestly bolster the resilience of M-dwarf planets against snowball glaciation and allow these planets to retain surface liquid water further from their host star, but the effects are muted compared to G-star planets that experience snowball bifurcation and climate hysteresis due to the ice-albedo feedback.

In this study, we examined the late-time cosmic expansion of the universe within the framework of $f(Q, L_m)$ gravity, where $Q$ denotes the non-metricity and $L_{m}$ represents the matter Lagrangian. We analyzed a linear $f(Q, L_m)$ model of the form $f(Q, L_m) = -\alpha Q + 2 L_{m} + \beta$. Using MCMC methods, we constrained the model parameters $H_0$, $\alpha$, and $\beta$ with various datasets, including $H(z)$, Pantheon+SH0ES, and BAO data. For the $H(z)$ dataset, we found $H_0 = 67.90 \pm 0.66$, $\alpha = 0.1072_{-0.0069}^{+0.0054}$, and $\beta = -1988.2 \pm 1.0$. For the Pantheon+SH0ES dataset, $H_0 = 70.05 \pm 0.68$, $\alpha = 0.0916_{-0.0033}^{+0.0028}$, and $\beta = -1988.3 \pm 1.0$. For the BAO dataset, $H_0 = 68.1 \pm 1.0$, $\alpha = 0.1029_{-0.0052}^{+0.0041}$, and $\beta = -1988.24 \pm 0.99$. Moreover, the energy density remains positive and approaches zero in the distant future, and the deceleration parameter indicates a transition from deceleration to acceleration, with transition redshifts of $z_t = 0.60$, $z_t = 0.78$, and $z_t = 0.66$ for the respective datasets. These findings align with previous observational studies and contribute to our understanding of the universe's expansion dynamics.

The Jovian atmosphere contains a wide diversity of vortices, which have a large range of sizes, colors and forms in different dynamical regimes. The formation processes for these vortices is poorly understood, and aside from a few known, long-lived ovals, such as the Great Red Spot, and Oval BA, vortex stability and their temporal evolution are currently largely unknown. In this study, we use JunoCam data and a citizen-science project on Zooniverse to derive a catalog of vortices, some with repeated observations, through May 2018 to Sep 2021, and analyze their associated properties, such as size, location and color. We find that different colored vortices (binned as white, red, brown and dark), follow vastly different distributions in terms of their sizes and where they are found on the planet. We employ a simplified stability criterion using these vortices as a proxy, to derive a minimum Rossby deformation length for the planet of $\sim1800$ km. We find that this value of $L_d$ is largely constant throughout the atmosphere, and does not have an appreciable meridional gradient.

Local low metallicity galaxies with signatures of possible accretion activity are ideal laboratories in which to search for the lowest mass black holes and study their impact on the host galaxy. Here we present the first JWST NIRSpec IFS observations of SDSS J120122.30+021108.3, a nearby ($z=0.00354$) extremely metal poor dwarf galaxy with no optical signatures of accretion activity but identified by WISE to have extremely red mid-infrared colors consistent with AGNs. We identify over one hundred lines between $\sim$ 1.7-5.2 microns, an unresolved nuclear continuum source with an extremely steep spectral slope consistent with hot dust from an AGN ($F_\nu \approx\nu^{-1.5}$), and a plethora of H I, He I, and H$_2$ lines, with no lines from heavier elements, CO or ice absorption features, or PAHs.Our observations reveal that the red WISE source arises exclusively from a bright central unresolved source ($<$ 3pc) suggestive of an AGN, yet there are no He II lines or coronal lines identified in the spectrum, and, importantly, there is no evidence that the radiation field is harder in the nuclear source compared with surrounding regions. These observations can be explained with a young ($<$ 5 Myr) nuclear star cluster with stellar mass $\sim3\times 10^4$ M$_\odot$ and a deeply embedded AGN with bolometric luminosity $\sim$ $2\times10^{41}$ ergs $^{-1}$. The implied black hole mass is $\sim$ 1450 M$_\odot$, based on the Eddington limit, roughly consistent with that expected based on extrapolations of black hole galaxy scaling relations derived for more massive black holes. Longer wavelength observations are crucial to confirm this scenario.

We present dynamical modeling of the broad-line region (BLR) for the highly variable AGN SDSS J141041.25+531849.0 ($z = 0.359$) using photometric and spectroscopic monitoring data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping project and the SDSS-V Black Hole Mapper program, spanning from early 2013 to early 2023. We model the geometry and kinematics of the BLR in the H$\beta$, H$\alpha$, and MgII, emission lines for three different time periods to measure the potential change of structure within the BLR across time and line species. We consistently find a moderately edge-on $(i_{\rm full-state} = 53.29^{\circ} \,{}^{+7.29}_{-6.55})$ thick-disk $(\theta_{\rm opn, \; full-state} = 54.86^{\circ} \,{}^{+5.83}_{-4.74})$ geometry for all BLRs, with a joint estimate for the mass of the supermassive black hole (SMBH) for each of three time periods, yielding $\log_{10}(M_{\rm BH} / M_{\odot}) = 7.66^{+0.12}_{-0.13}$ when using the full dataset. The inferred individual virial factor $f$ $\sim 1$ is significantly smaller than the average factor for a local sample of dynamically modeled AGNs. There is strong evidence for non-virial motion, with over $80\%$ of clouds on inflowing/outflowing orbits. We analyze the change in model parameters across emission lines, finding the radii of BLRs for the emission lines are consistent with the following relative sizes $R_{\rm H\beta} \lesssim R_{\rm MgII } \lesssim R_{\rm H\alpha}$. Comparing results across time, we find $R_{\rm low-state} \lesssim R_{\rm high-state}$, with the change in BLR size for H$\beta$, being more significant than for the other two lines. The data also reveal complex, time-evolving, and potentially transient dynamics of the BLR gas over decade-long timescales, encouraging for future dynamical modeling of fine-scale BLR kinematics.

Studies of the internal mass structure of galaxies have observed a `conspiracy' between the dark matter and stellar components, with total (stars $+$ dark) density profiles showing remarkable regularity and low intrinsic scatter across various samples of galaxies at different redshifts. Such homogeneity suggests the dark and stellar components must somehow compensate for each other in order to produce such regular mass structures. We test the conspiracy using a sample of 22 galaxies from the `Middle Ages Galaxy Properties with Integral field spectroscopy' (MAGPI) Survey that targets massive galaxies at $ z \sim 0.3$. We use resolved, 2D stellar kinematics with the Schwarzschild orbit-based modelling technique to recover intrinsic mass structures, shapes, and dark matter fractions. This work is the first implementation of the Schwarzschild modelling method on a sample of galaxies at a cosmologically significant redshift. We find that the variability of structure for combined mass (baryonic and dark) density profiles is greater than that of the stellar components alone. Furthermore, we find no significant correlation between enclosed dark matter fractions at the half-light radius and the stellar mass density structure. Rather, the total density profile slope, $\gamma_{\mathrm{tot}}$, strongly correlates with the dark matter fraction within the half-light radius, as $\gamma_{\mathrm{tot}} = (1.3 \pm 0.2) f_{\mathrm{DM}} - (2.44 \pm 0.04)$. Our results refute the bulge-halo conspiracy and suggest that stochastic processes dominate in the assembly of structure for massive galaxies.

Despite its biogeneic and astrochemical importance, sulfur (S), the 10th most abundant element in the interstellar medium (ISM) with a total abundance of S/H~2.2E-5, largely remains undetected in molecular clouds. Even in the diffuse ISM where S was previously often believed to be fully in the gas phase, in recent years observational evidence has suggested that S may also be appreciably depleted from the gas. What might be the dominant S reservoir in the ISM remains unknown. Solid sulfides like MgS, FeS and SiS_2 are excluded as a major S reservoir due to the undetection of their expected infrared spectral bands in the ISM. In this work, we explore the potential role of sulfurated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) molecules -- PAHs with sulfur heterocycles (PASHs) -- as a sink for the missing S. Utilizing density function theory, we compute the vibrational spectra of 18 representative PASH molecules. It is found that these molecules exhibit a prominent, C--S stretching band at ~10 micron and two relatively weak, C--S deformation bands at 15 and 25 micron that are not mixed with the nominal PAH bands at 6.2, 7.7, 8.6, 11.3 and 12.7 micron If several parts per million of S (relative to H) are locked up in PAHs, the 10 micron C--S band would be detectable by Spitzer and JWST. To quantitatively explore the amount of S/H depleted in PASHs, detailed comparison of the infrared emission spectra of PASHs with the Spitzer and JWST observations is needed.

We study the change in the radial distribution of dark matter within haloes in response to baryonic astrophysical processes in galaxies at different epochs, investigating the role of astrophysical modeling in cosmological hydrodynamic simulations in producing the response. We find that the linear quasi-adiabatic relaxation with additional dependence on the halo-centric distance provides a good description not only at $z=0$, but also at an earlier epoch ($z=1$) in the IllustrisTNG simulation suite, with parameters being more universal across a much larger variety of haloes at $z=1$ than at $z=0$. Through systematic analysis of a large collection of simulations from the CAMELS project, we find that the baryonic prescriptions for both AGN and stellar feedbacks have a strong influence on the relaxation response of the dark matter halo. In particular, only the parameters controlling the overall feedback energy flux have an effect on the relaxation response, while the wind speed and burstiness have negligible effect on the relaxation at a fixed amount of energy flux. However, the exact role of these parameters on the relaxation depends on the redshift. We also study the role of a variety of baryonic astrophysical processes through the EAGLE physics variation simulations. While these depict a similar picture regarding the importance of feedback effects, they also reveal that the gas equation of state has one of the strongest influences on the relaxation response, consistent with the expectation from self-similar analyses.

Fast radio burst (FRB) science primarily revolves around two facets: the origin of these bursts and their use in cosmological studies. This work follows from previous redshift-dispersion measure ($z$-DM) analyses in which we model instrumental biases and simultaneously fit population parameters and cosmological parameters to the observed population of FRBs. This sheds light on both the progenitors of FRBs and cosmological questions. Previously, we have completed similar analyses with data from the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) and the Murriyang (Parkes) Multibeam system. With this manuscript, we additionally incorporate data from the Deep Synoptic Array (DSA) and the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST), invoke a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampler and implement uncertainty in the Galactic DM contributions. The latter leads to larger uncertainties in derived model parameters than previous estimates despite the additional data. We provide refined constraints on FRB population parameters and derive a new constraint on the minimum FRB energy of log$\,E_{\mathrm{min}}$(erg)=39.49$^{+0.39}_{-1.48}$ which is significantly higher than bursts detected from strong repeaters. This result may indicate a low-energy turnover in the luminosity function or may suggest that strong repeaters have a different luminosity function to single bursts. We also predict that FAST will detect 25-41% of their FRBs at $z \gtrsim 2$ and DSA will detect 2-12% of their FRBs at $z \gtrsim 1$.

With the continuous development of large optical surveys, a large number of light curves of late-type contact binary systems (CBs) have been released. Deriving parameters for CBs using the the WD program and the PHOEBE program poses a challenge. Therefore, this study developed a method for rapidly deriving light curves based on the Neural Networks (NN) model combined with the Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (HMC) algorithm (NNHMC). The neural network was employed to establish the mapping relationship between the parameters and the pregenerated light curves by the PHOEBE program, and the HMC algorithm was used to obtain the posterior distribution of the parameters. The NNHMC method was applied to a large contact binary sample from the Catalina Sky Survey, and a total of 19,104 late-type contact binary parameters were derived. Among them, 5172 have an inclination greater than 70 deg and a temperature difference less than 400 K. The obtained results were compared with the previous studies for 30 CBs, and there was an essentially consistent goodness-of-fit (R2) distribution between them. The NNHMC method possesses the capability to simultaneously derive parameters for a vast number of targets. Furthermore, it can provide an extremely efficient tool for rapid derivation of parameters in future sky surveys involving large samples of CBs.

The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) presents a unique environment for pulsar population studies due to its distinct star formation characteristics and proximity to the Milky Way. As part of the TRAPUM (TRAnsients and PUlsars with MeerKAT) Large Survey Project, we are using the core array of the MeerKAT radio telescope (MeerKAT) to conduct a targeted search of the LMC for radio pulsars at L-band frequencies, 856-1712$\,$MHz. The excellent sensitivity of MeerKAT, coupled with a 2-hour integration time, makes the survey 3 times more sensitive than previous LMC radio pulsar surveys. We report the results from the initial four survey pointings which has resulted in the discovery of seven new radio pulsars, increasing the LMC radio pulsar population by 30 per cent. The pulse periods of these new pulsars range from 278 to 1690$\,$ms, and the highest dispersion measure is 254.20$\,$pc$\,$cm$^{-3}$. We searched for, but did not find any significant pulsed radio emission in a beam centred on the SN$\,$1987A remnant, establishing an upper limit of 6.3$\,{\mu}$Jy on its minimum flux density at 1400$\,$MHz.

To estimate the hemispheric flux generation rate of the large-scale radial magnetic field in the Solar Cycles 23 and 24, we use the photospheric observations of the solar magnetic fields and results of the mean-field dynamo models. Results of the dynamo model show the strong impact of the radial turbulent diffusion on the surface evolution of the large-scale poloidal magnetic field and on the hemispheric magnetic flux generation rate. To process the observational data set we employ the parameters of the meridional circulation and turbulent diffusion from the Surface Flux-Transport (SFT) models. We find that the observed evolution of the axisymmetric vector potential contains the time--latitude patterns which can result from the effect of turbulent diffusion of the large-scale poloidal magnetic field in the radial direction. We think that, the SFT models can reconcile the observed rate of hemispheric magnetic flux generation by considering radial turbulent diffusion and lower values of the diffusion coefficient.

Determining the evolutionary stage of stars is crucial for understanding the evolution of exoplanetary systems. In this context, Red Giant Branch (RGB) and Red Clump (RC) stars, stages in the later evolution of stars situated before and after the helium flash, harbor critical clues to unveiling the evolution of planets. The first step in revealing these clues is to confirm the evolutionary stage of the host stars through asteroseismology. However, up to now, host stars confirmed to be RGB or RC stars are extremely rare. In this investigation, we present a comprehensive asteroseismic analysis of two evolved stars, HD 120084 and HD 29399, known to harbor exoplanets, using data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). We have discovered for the first time that HD 120084 is a Red Clump star in the helium-core burning phase, and confirmed that HD 29399 is a Red Giant Branch star in the hydrogen-shell burning phase. Through the precise measurement of asteroseismic parameters such as $\nu_{max}$, $\Delta\nu$ and $\Delta\Pi_{1}$ we have determined the evolutionary states of these stars and derived their fundamental stellar parameters. The significance of this study lies in the application of automated techniques to measure asymptotic period spacings in red giants, which provides critical insights into the evolutionary outcomes of exoplanet systems. We demonstrate that asteroseismology is a potent tool for probing the internal structures of stars, thereby offering a window into the past and future dynamics of planetary orbits. The presence of a long-period giant planet orbiting HD 120084, in particular, raises intriguing questions about the potential engulfment of inner planets during the host star's expansion, a hypothesis that warrants further investigation.

The determination of the full population of Resident Space Objects (RSOs) in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) is a key issue in the field of space situational awareness that will only increase in importance in the coming years. We endeavour to describe a novel method of inferring the population of RSOs as a function of orbital height and inclination for a range of magnitudes. The method described uses observations of an orbit of known height and inclination to detect RSOs on neighbouring orbits. These neighbouring orbit targets move slowly relative to our tracked orbit, and are thus detectable down to faint magnitudes. We conduct simulations to show that, by observing multiple passes of a known orbit, we can infer the population of RSOs within a defined region of orbital parameter space. Observing a range of orbits from different orbital sites will allow for the inference of a population of LEO RSOs as a function of their orbital parameters and object magnitude.

Star clusters (SCs) are potential cosmic-ray (CR) accelerators and therefore are expected to emit high-energy radiation. However, a clear detection of gamma-ray emission from this source class has only been possible for a handful of cases. This could in principle result from two different reasons: either detectable SCs are limited to a small fraction of the total number of Galactic SCs, or gamma-ray-emitting SCs are not recognized as such and therefore are listed in the ensemble of unidentified sources. In this Letter we investigate this latter scenario, by comparing available catalogs of SCs and HII regions, obtained from Gaia and WISE observations, to the gamma-ray GeV and TeV catalogs built from Fermi-LAT, H.E.S.S. and LHAASO data. The significance of the correlation between catalogs is evaluated by comparing the results with simulations of synthetic populations. A strong correlation emerges between Fermi-LAT unidentified sources and HII regions which trace massive SCs in the earliest (< 1-2 Myr) phase of their life, where no supernova explosions have happened yet, confirming that winds of massive stars can alone accelerate particles and produce gamma-ray emission at least up to GeV energies. The association with TeV-energies sources is less evident. Similarly, no significant association is found between Gaia SCs and GeV nor TeV sources. We ascribe this fact to the larger extension of these objects, but also to an intrinsic bias in the Gaia selection towards SCs surrounded by a lower target gas density, that would otherwise hinder the detection in the optical waveband.

The primordial power spectrum of curvature perturbations has been well-measured on large scales but remains fairly unconstrained at smaller scales, where significant deviations from $\Lambda$CDM may occur. Measurements of 21-cm intensity mapping in the dark ages promise to access very small scales that have yet to be probed, extending beyond the reach of CMB and galaxy surveys. In this paper, we investigate how small-scale power-law enhancements -- or blue tilts -- of the primordial power spectrum affect the 21-cm power spectrum. We consider generic enhancements due to curvature modes, isocurvature modes, and runnings of the spectral tilt. We present forecasts for Earth- and lunar-based instruments to detect a blue-tilted primordial spectrum. We find that an Earth-based instrument capable of reaching the dark ages could detect any enhancements of power on nearly all the scales it can observe, which depends on the baseline of the interferometer. The smallest scales observed by such an instrument can only detect a very strong enhancement. However, an instrument on the far side of the Moon of the same size would be able to probe shallower slopes with higher precision. We forecast results for instruments with $100 \, {\rm km} \, (3000 \, {\rm km})$ baselines and find that they can probe up to scales of order $k_{\rm max} \sim 8 \, {\rm Mpc}^{-1} \, (k_{\rm max} \sim 250 \, {\rm Mpc}^{-1})$, thereby providing invaluable information on exotic physics and testing inflationary models on scales not otherwise accessible.

A fundamental difference between "core-fed" and "clump-fed" star formation theories lies in the existence or absence of high-mass cores at the prestellar stage. However, only a handful of such cores have been observed. Here, different than previous search in distributed star formation regions in the Galactic plane, we search for high-mass prestellar cores in the Orion GMC, by observing the 7 most massive starless cores selected from previous deep continuum surveys. We present ALMA ACA Band 6 and Band 7 continuum and line observations toward the 7 cores, in which we identify 9 dense cores at both bands. The derived maximum core mass is less than 11 Msun, based on different dust temperatures. We find no high-mass prestellar cores in this sample, aligning with the results of previous surveys, thereby challenging the existence of such cores in Orion. Outside Orion, further detailed studies are needed for remaining high-mass prestellar core candidates to confirm their status as massive, starless cores.

The uncertainties in photometric redshifts and stellar masses from imaging surveys affect galaxy sample selection, their abundance measurements, as well as the measured weak lensing signals. We develop a framework to assess the systematic effects arising from the use of redshifts and stellar masses derived from photometric data, and explore their impact on the inferred galaxy-dark matter connection. We use galaxy catalogues from the UniverseMachine (UM) galaxy formation model to create Pz-mock galaxy samples that approximately follow the redshift errors in the Subaru HSC survey. We focus on galaxy stellar-mass thresholds ranging from $\log\left[M_*/(h^{-2}M_\odot)\right]$ from $8.6$ to $11.2$ in steps of 0.2 dex within two redshift bins $0.30-0.55$ and $0.55-0.80$. A comparison of the Pz-mock samples to true galaxy samples in UM shows a relatively mild sample contamination for thresholds with $\log\left[M_{*,\rm limit}/(h^{-2}M_\odot)\right]<10.6$, while an increasing contamination towards the more massive end. We show how such contamination affects the measured abundance and the lensing signal. A joint HOD modelling of the observables from the Pz-mock compared to the truth in the UM informs the systematic biases on the average halo masses of central galaxies in the HSC survey. Even with a reasonably conservative choice of photo-$z$ errors in Pz-mock, we show that the inferred halo masses deduced from the HSC galaxies for low-mass thresholds will have a systematic bias smaller than 0.05 dex. Beyond $\log\left[M_{*,\rm limit}/(h^{-2}M_\odot)\right]=10.6$, the inferred halo masses show an increasing systematic bias with stellar mass, reaching values of order $0.2$ dex, larger than the statistical error.

Parker Solar Probe (PSP) counts dust impacts in the near-solar region, but modelling effort is needed to understand the dust population's properties. We aim to constrain the dust cloud's properties based on the flux observed by PSP. We develop a forward-model for the bound dust detection rates using the formalism of 6D phase space distribution of the dust. We apply the model to the location table of different PSP's solar encounter groups. We explain some of the near-perihelion features observed in the data as well as the broader characteristic of the dust flux between 0.15 AU and 0.5 AU. We compare the measurements of PSP to the measurements of Solar Orbiter (SolO) near 1 AU to expose the differences between the two spacecraft. We found that the dust flux observed by PSP between 0.15 AU and 0.5 AU in post-perihelia can be explained by dust on bound orbits and is consistent with a broad range of orbital parameters, including dust on circular orbits. However, the dust number density as a function of the heliocentric distance and the scaling of detection efficiency with the relative speed are important to explain the observed flux variation. The data suggest that the slope of differential mass distribution ${\delta}$ is between 0.14 and 0.49. The near-perihelion observations, however, show the flux maxima, which are inconsistent with the circular dust model, and additional effects may play a role. We found indication that the sunward side of PSP is less sensitive to the dust impacts, compared to the other PSP's surfaces. Conclusions. We show that the dust flux on PSP can be explained by non-circular bound dust and the detection capabilities of PSP. The scaling of flux with the impact speed is especially important, and shallower than previously assumed.

Quasi-periodic pulsations (QPP) are often detected in solar and stellar flare lightcurves. These events may contain valuable information about the underlying fundamental plasma dynamics as they are not described by the standard flare model. The detection of QPP signals in flare lightcurves is hindered by their intrinsically non-stationary nature, contamination by noise, and the continuously increasing amount of flare observations. Hence, the creation of automated techniques for QPP detection is imperative. We implemented the Fully Convolution Network (FCN) architecture to classify the flare lightcurves whether they have exponentially decaying harmonic QPP or not. To train the FCN, 90,000 synthetic flare lightcurves with and without QPP were generated. After training, it showed an accuracy of 87.2% on the synthetic test data and did not experience overfitting. To test the FCN performance on real data, we used the subset of stellar flare lightcurves observed by Kepler, with strong evidence of decaying QPP identified hitherto with other methods. Then, the FCN was applied to find QPPs in a larger-scale Kepler flare catalogue comprised of 2274 events, resulting in a 7% QPP detection rate with a probability above 95%. The FCN, implemented in Python, is accessible through a browser application with a user-friendly graphical interface and detailed installation and usage guide. The obtained results demonstrate that the developed FCN performs well and successfully detects exponentially decaying harmonic QPP in real flare data, and can be used as a tool for preliminary sifting of the QPP events of this type in future large-scale observational surveys.

Several pulsar timing array (PTA) groups have recently claimed the detection of nanohertz gravitational wave (GW) background, but the origin of this GW signal remains unclear. Nanohertz GWs generated by supermassive binary black holes (SMBBHs) are one of the most important GW sources in the PTA band. Utilizing data from numerical cosmology simulation, we generate mock SMBBHs within the observable universe and treat them as PTA band GW sources. We present their statistical properties, and analyze the isotropic and anisotropic characteristics of the gravitational wave background (GWB) signal they produce. Specifically, we derive the characteristic amplitude and spectrum of the GWB signal, and calculate the angular power spectrum for both GW strains/energy density and the position distribution of GW sources. We predict that the angular power spectrum of GWB energy density has $C_1/C_0\approx0.40\pm0.32$, and $C_l/C_0\simeq \frac{1}{2(2l+1)}$ (for $l>1$). Furthermore, for the upcoming Chinese Pulsar Timing Array (CPTA) and Square Kilometre Array (SKA) PTA, we predict the spatial distribution, numbers and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) distribution of individual GW sources that may be detected with SNR>8, and study the anisotropy property in the spatial distribution of these individual GW sources.

We present ALMA observations of SiO, SiS, H$_2$O , NaCl, and SO line emission at ~30 to 50 mas resolution. These images map the molecular outflow and disk of Orion Source I (SrcI) on ~12 to 20 AU scales. Our observations show that the flow of material around SrcI creates a turbulent boundary layer in the outflow from SrcI which may dissipate angular momentum in the rotating molecular outflow into the surrounding medium. Additionally, the data suggests that the proper motion of SrcI may have a significant effect on the structure and evolution of SrcI and its molecular outflow. As the motion of SrcI funnels material between the disk and the outflow, some material may be entrained into the outflow and accrete onto the disk, creating shocks which excite the NaCl close to the disk surface.

We study the effect of gravitational clustering at small scales on larger scales by studying mode coupling between virialised halos. We build on the calculation by Peebles (1974) where it was shown that a virialised halo does not contribute any mode coupling terms at small wave numbers $k$. Using a perturbative expansion in wave number, we show that this effect is small and arises from the deviation of halo shapes from spherical and also on tidal interactions between halos. We connect this with the impact of finite mass resolution of cosmological N-Body simulations on the evolution of perturbations at early times. This difference between the expected evolution and the evolution obtained in cosmological N-Body simulations can be quantified using such an estimate. We also explore the impact of a finite shortest scale up to which the desired power spectrum is realised in simulations. Several simulation studies have shown that this effect is small in comparison with the effect of perturbations at large scales on smaller scales. It is nevertheless important to study these effects and develop a general approach for estimating their magnitude. This is especially relevant in the present era of precision cosmology. We provide basic estimates of the magnitude of these effects and their power spectrum dependence. We find that the impact of small scale cutoff in the initial power spectrum and discreteness increases with $(n+3)$, with $n$ being the index of the power spectrum. In general, we recommend that cosmological simulation data should be used only if the scale of non-linearity, defined as the scale where the linearly extrapolated {\it rms} amplitude of fluctuations is unity, is larger than the average inter-particle separation.

The LHS 6343 system consists of a resolved M-dwarf binary with an evolved, negligibly irradiated brown dwarf, LHS 6343 C, orbiting the primary star. Such brown dwarf eclipsing binaries present rare and unique opportunities to calibrate sub-stellar evolutionary and atmosphere models since mass, radius, temperature and luminosity can be directly measured. We update this brown dwarf's mass (62.6+/-2.2 MJup) and radius (0.788+/-0.043 RJup) using empirical stellar relations and a Gaia DR3 distance. We use Hubble Space Telescope/WFC3 observations of an LHS 6343 C secondary eclipse to obtain a NIR emission spectrum, which matches to a spectral type of T1.5+/-1. We combine this spectrum with existing Kepler and Spitzer/IRAC secondary eclipse photometry to perform atmospheric characterization using the ATMO-2020, Sonora-Bobcat and BT-Settl model grids. ATMO-2020 models with strong non-equilibrium chemistry yield the best fit to observations across all modelled bandpasses while predicting physical parameters consistent with Gaia-dependant analogs. BT-Settl predicts values slightly more consistent with such analogs but offers a significantly poorer fit to the WFC3 spectrum. Finally, we obtain a semi-empirical measurement of LHS 6343 C's apparent luminosity by integrating its observed and modelled spectral energy distribution. Applying knowledge of the system's distance yields a bolometric luminosity of log(Lbol/Lsun) = -4.77+/-0.03 and, applying the Stefan-Boltzmann law for the known radius, an effective temperature of 1303+/-29 K. We also use the ATMO-2020 and Sonora-Bobcat evolutionary model grids to infer an age for LHS 6343 C of 2.86 +0.40-0.33 Gyr and 3.11 +0.50-0.38 Gyr respectively.

The height of the Milky Way diffusion halo, above which cosmic-rays can freely escape the galaxy, is among the most critical, yet poorly known, parameters in cosmic-ray physics. Measurements of radioactive secondaries, such as $^{10}$Be or $^{26}$Al, which decay equivalently throughout the diffusive volume, are expected to provide the strongest constraints. This has motivated significant observational work to constrain their isotopic ratios, along with theoretical work to constrain the cross-section uncertainties that are thought to dominate radioactive secondary fluxes. In this work, we show that the imprecise modelling of the Milky Way spiral arms significantly affects our ability to translate $^{10}$Be and $^{26}$Al fluxes into constraints on the diffusive halo height, biasing our current results. Utilizing state-of-the-art spiral arms models we produce new predictions for the $^{10}$Be and $^{26}$Al fluxes that motivate upcoming measurements by AMS-02 and HELIX.

We investigate the primordial power spectra (PPS) of scalar and tensor perturbations, derived through the slow-roll approximation. By solving the Mukhanov-Sasaki equation and the tensor perturbation equation with Green's function techniques, we extend the PPS calculations to third-order corrections, providing a comprehensive perturbative expansion in terms of slow-roll parameters. We investigate the accuracy of the analytic predictions with the numerical solutions of the perturbation equations for a selection of single-field slow-roll inflationary models. We derive the constraints on the Hubble flow functions $\epsilon_i$ from Planck, ACT, SPT, and BICEP/Keck data. We find an upper bound $\epsilon_1 \lesssim 0.002$ at 95\% CL dominated by BICEP/Keck data and robust to all the different combination of datasets. We derive the constraint $\epsilon_2 \simeq 0.031 \pm 0.004$ at 68\% confidence level (CL) from the combination of Planck data and late-time probes such as baryon acoustic oscillations, redshift space distortions, and supernovae data at first order in the slow-roll expansion. The uncertainty on $\epsilon_2$ gets larger including second- and third-order corrections, allowing for a non-vanishing running and running of the running respectively, leading to $\epsilon_2 \simeq 0.034 \pm 0.007$ at 68\% CL. We find $\epsilon_3 \simeq 0.1 \pm 0.4$ at 95\% CL both at second and at third order in the slow-roll expansion of the spectra. $\epsilon_4$ remains always unconstrained. The combination of Planck and SPT data leads to slightly tighter constraints on $\epsilon_2$ and $\epsilon_3$. On the contrary, the combination of Planck data with ACT measurements, which point to higher values of the scalar spectral index compared to Planck findings, leads to shifts in the means and maximum likelihood values for $\epsilon_2$ and $\epsilon_3$.