Dust from core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe), specifically Type IIP SNe, has been suggested to be a significant source of the dust observed in high-redshift galaxies. CCSNe eject large amounts of newly formed heavy elements, which can condense into dust grains in the cooling ejecta. However, infrared (IR) observations of typical CCSNe generally measure dust masses that are too small to account for the dust production needed at high redshifts. Type IIn SNe, classified by their dense circumstellar medium (CSM), are also known to exhibit strong IR emission from warm dust, but the dust origin and heating mechanism have generally remained unconstrained because of limited observational capabilities in the mid-IR. Here, we present a JWST/MIRI Medium Resolution Spectrograph (MRS) spectrum of the Type IIn SN 2005ip nearly 17 years post-explosion. The Type IIn SN 2005ip is one of the longest-lasting and most well-studied SNe observed to date. Combined with a Spitzer mid-IR spectrum of SN 2005ip obtained in 2008, this data set provides a rare 15-year baseline, allowing for a unique investigation of the evolution of dust. The JWST spectrum shows a new high-mass dust component ($\gtrsim0.08$ M$_{\odot}$) that is not present in the earlier Spitzer spectrum. Our analysis shows dust likely formed over the past 15 years in the cold, dense shell (CDS), between the forward and reverse shocks. There is also a smaller mass of carbonaceous dust ($\gtrsim0.005$ M$_{\odot}$) in the ejecta. These observations provide new insights into the role of SN dust production, particularly within the CDS, and its potential contribution to the rapid dust enrichment of the early Universe.

Galaxies like the Milky Way are surrounded by complex populations of satellites at all stages of tidal disruption. In this paper, we present a dynamical study of the disrupting satellite galaxies in the Auriga simulations that are orbiting 28 distinct Milky Way-mass hosts across three resolutions. We find that the satellite galaxy populations are highly disrupted. The majority of satellites that remain fully intact at present day were accreted recently without experiencing more than one pericentre ($n_{\rm peri} \lesssim 1$) and have large apocentres ($r_{\rm apo} \gtrsim 200$ kpc) and pericentres ($r_{\rm peri} \gtrsim 50$ kpc). The remaining satellites have experienced significant tidal disruption and, given full knowledge of the system, would be classified as stellar streams. We find stellar streams in Auriga across the range of pericentres and apocentres of the known Milky Way dwarf galaxy streams and, interestingly, overlapping significantly with the Milky Way intact satellite population. We find no significant change in satellite orbital distributions across resolution. However, we do see substantial halo-to-halo variance of $(r_\text{peri}, r_\text{apo})$ distributions across host galaxies, as well as a dependence of satellite orbits on host halo mass - systems disrupt at larger pericentres and apocentres in more massive hosts. Our results suggest that either cosmological simulations (including, but not limited to, Auriga) are disrupting satellites far too readily, or that the Milky Way's satellites are more disrupted than current imaging surveys have revealed. Future observing facilities and careful mock observations of these systems will be key to revealing the nature of this apparent discrepancy.

In a hierarchically formed Universe, galaxies accrete smaller systems that tidally disrupt as they evolve in the host's potential. We present a complete catalogue of disrupting galaxies accreted onto Milky Way-mass haloes from the Auriga suite of cosmological magnetohydrodynamic zoom-in simulations. We classify accretion events as intact satellites, stellar streams, or phase-mixed systems based on automated criteria calibrated to a visually classified sample, and match accretions to their counterparts in haloes re-simulated at higher resolution. Most satellites with a bound progenitor at the present day have lost substantial amounts of stellar mass -- 67 per cent have $f_\text{bound} < 0.97$ (our threshold to no longer be considered intact), while 53 per cent satisfy a more stringent $f_\text{bound} < 0.8$. Streams typically outnumber intact systems, contribute a smaller fraction of overall accreted stars, and are substantial contributors at intermediate distances from the host centre ($\sim$0.1 to $\sim$0.7$R_\text{200m}$, or $\sim$35 to $\sim$250 kpc for the Milky Way). We also identify accretion events that disrupt to form streams around massive intact satellites instead of the main host. Streams are more likely than intact or phase-mixed systems to have experienced preprocessing, suggesting this mechanism is important for setting disruption rates around Milky Way-mass haloes. All of these results are preserved across different simulation resolutions, though we do find some hints that satellites disrupt more readily at lower resolution. The Auriga haloes suggest that disrupting satellites surrounding Milky Way-mass galaxies are the norm and that a wealth of tidal features waits to be uncovered in upcoming surveys.

We introduce the open source code PHOEBUS (phifty one ergs blows up a star) for astrophysical general relativistic radiation magnetohydrodynamic simulations. PHOEBUS is designed for, but not limited to, high energy astrophysical environments such as core-collapse supernovae, neutron star mergers, black-hole accretion disks, and similar phenomena. General relativistic magnetohydrodynamics are modeled in the Valencia formulation with conservative finite volume methods. Neutrino radiation transport is included with Monte Carlo and moment methods. PHOEBUS is built on the PARTHENON (Grete et al. 2022) performance portable adaptive mesh refinement framework, uses a GPU first development strategy, and is capable of modeling a large dynamic range in space and time. PHOEBUS utilizes KOKKOS for on-node parallelism and supports both CPU and GPU architectures. We describe the physical model employed in PHOEBUS, the numerical methods used, and demonstrate

We present an analysis of adaptive optics (AO) images from the Keck-I telescope of the microlensing event MOA-2011-BLG-262. The original discovery paper by Bennett et al. 2014 reports two distinct possibilities for the lens system; a nearby gas giant lens with an exomoon companion or a very low mass star with a planetary companion in the galactic bulge. The $\sim$10 year baseline between the microlensing event and the Keck follow-up observations allows us to detect the faint candidate lens host (star) at $K = 22.3$ mag and confirm the distant lens system interpretation. The combination of the host star brightness and light curve parameters yields host star and planet masses of $M_{\rm host} = 0.19 \pm 0.03M_{\odot}$ and $m_p = 28.92 \pm 4.75M_{\oplus}$ at a distance of $D_L = 7.49 \pm 0.91\,$kpc. We perform a multi-epoch cross reference to \textit{Gaia} DR3 and measure a transverse velocity for the candidate lens system of $v_L = 541.31 \pm 65.75$ km s$^{-1}$. We conclude this event consists of the highest velocity exoplanet system detected to date, and also the lowest mass microlensing host star with a confirmed mass measurement. The high-velocity nature of the lens system can be definitively confirmed with an additional epoch of high-resolution imaging at any time now. The methods outlined in this work demonstrate that the \textit{Roman} Galactic Exoplanet Survey (RGES) will be able to securely measure low-mass host stars in the bulge.

The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is a Milky Way (MW) satellite that is massive enough to gravitationally attract the MW disc and inner halo, causing significant motion of the inner MW with respect to the outer halo. In this work, we probe this interaction by constructing a sample of 9,866 blue horizontal branch (BHB) stars with radial velocities from the DESI spectroscopic survey out to 120 kpc from the Galactic centre. This is the largest spectroscopic set of BHB stars in the literature to date, and it contains four times more stars with Galactocentric distances beyond 50 kpc than previous BHB catalogues. Using the DESI BHB sample combined with SDSS BHBs, we measure the bulk radial velocity of stars in the outer halo and observe that the velocity in the Southern Galactic hemisphere is different by 3.7$\sigma$ from the North. Modelling the projected velocity field shows that its dipole component is directed at a point 22 degrees away from the LMC along its orbit, which we interpret as the travel direction of the inner MW. The velocity field includes a monopole term that is -24 km/s, which we refer to as compression velocity. This velocity is significantly larger than predicted by the current models of the MW and LMC interaction. This work uses DESI data from its first two years of observations, but we expect that with upcoming DESI data releases, the sample of BHB stars will increase and our ability to measure the MW-LMC interaction will improve significantly.

We present the first robust measurement of the one-dimensional Lyman alpha (Ly$\alpha$) forest bispectrum using the complete extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) quasar sample, corresponding to the sixteenth data release (DR16) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The measurement employs an FFT estimator over 12 redshift bins, ranging from $z=2.2$ to $z=4.4$, and extends to scales of $0.02 ~ (\mathrm{km/s})^{-1}$. The sample consists of 122,066 quasar spectra, although only the first six redshift bins contain sufficient data to extract a physical bispectrum. To validate and correct the bispectrum measurement, we use synthetic datasets generated from lognormal and 2LPT mocks. Additionally, we detect clear evidence of correlations between Si$_\mathrm{III}$ absorption lines and the Ly$\alpha$ forest within the bispectrum signal, which we describe with an extension of the model used for the analogue of 1d power spectrum signal. In this context, the pipeline developed for this study addresses the impact of instrumental and methodological systematics and is ready for application to larger spectroscopic datasets, such as those from the first year of DESI observations. Finally, A simple perturbation theory model provides a reasonable explanation of the eBOSS bispectrum, suggesting that higher-order one-dimensional statistics in the Ly$\alpha$ forest can complement cosmological model inference based on the power spectrum in future analyses.

The magnetar SGR 1935+2154 is the only known Galactic source of fast radio bursts (FRBs). FRBs from SGR 1935+2154 were first detected by CHIME/FRB and STARE2 in 2020 April, after the conclusion of the LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA Collaborations' O3 observing run. Here we analyze four periods of gravitational wave (GW) data from the GEO600 detector coincident with four periods of FRB activity detected by CHIME/FRB, as well as X-ray glitches and X-ray bursts detected by NICER and NuSTAR close to the time of one of the FRBs. We do not detect any significant GW emission from any of the events. Instead, using a short-duration GW search (for bursts $\leq$ 1 s) we derive 50\% (90\%) upper limits of $10^{48}$ ($10^{49}$) erg for GWs at 300 Hz and $10^{49}$ ($10^{50}$) erg at 2 kHz, and constrain the GW-to-radio energy ratio to $\leq 10^{14} - 10^{16}$. We also derive upper limits from a long-duration search for bursts with durations between 1 and 10 s. These represent the strictest upper limits on concurrent GW emission from FRBs.

The existence of a population of massive quiescent galaxies with little to no star-formation poses a challenge to our understanding of galaxy evolution. The physical process that quenched the star formation in these galaxies is debated, but the most popular possibility is that feedback from supermassive black holes lifts or heats the gas that would otherwise be used to form stars. In this paper, we evaluate this idea in two ways. First, we compare the cumulative growth in the cosmic inventory of the total stellar mass in quiescent galaxies to the corresponding growth in the amount of kinetic energy carried by radio jets. We find that these two inventories are remarkably well-synchronized, with about half of the total amounts being created in the epoch from z of 1 to 2. We also show that these agree extremely well with the corresponding growth in the cumulative number of major mergers that result in massive (over 100 billion solar masses) galaxies. We therefore argue that major mergers trigger the radio jets and also transform the galaxies from disks to spheroids. Second, we evaluate the total amount of kinetic energy delivered by jets and compare it to the baryonic binding energy of the galaxies. We find the jet kinetic energy is more than sufficient to quench star-formation, and the quenching process should be more effective in more massive galaxies. We show that these results are quantitatively consistent with recent measurements of the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect seen in massive galaxies at z of 1.

The recent discovery of tens of Jupiter-mass binary objects (JuMBOs) in the Orion Nebula Cluster with the James Webb Space Telescope has intensified the debate on the origin of free-floating planetary mass objects within star-forming regions. The JuMBOs have masses below the opacity limit for fragmentation, but have very wide separations (10s - 100s au), suggesting that they did not form in a similar manner to other substellar mass binaries. Here, we propose that the theory of photoerosion of prestellar cores by Lyman continuum radiation from massive stars could explain the JuMBOs in the ONC. We find that for a range of gas densities the final substellar mass is comfortably within the JuMBO mass range, and that the separations of the JuMBOs are consistent with those of more massive (G- and A-type) binaries, that would have formed from the fragmentation of the cores had they not been photoeroded. The photoerosion mechanism is most effective within the HII region(s) driven by the massive star(s). The majority of the observed JuMBOs lie outside of these regions in the ONC, but may have formed within them and then subsequently migrated due to dynamical evolution.

Extreme magnification of stars near the caustics of clusters allow to detect individual luminous stars at high redshift. We show how deep exposures of caustic crossing galaxies at $z\lesssim1$ with IR telescopes such as JWST, can detect non-explosive distance calibrators, such as Cepheids, carbon stars in the asymptotic giant branch or stars in the tip of the red giant branch. A large number of such detections, combined with careful modelling of the magnification affecting these stars (including microlensing), opens the door to using them as alternative standard candles to SNe in a redshift range that would extend the cosmic distance ladder two orders of magnitude for these distance calibrators. As a bonus, strongly lensed stars detected in deep exposures provide also a robust method of mapping small dark matter substructures since they cluster around the critical curves of small scale dark matter halos.

Starshade is one of the technologies that will enable the observation and characterization of small planets around nearby stars through direct imaging. The Starshade Exoplanetary Data Challenge (SEDC) was designed to validate starshade-imaging's noise budget and evaluate the capabilities of image-processing techniques, by inviting community participating teams to analyze >1000 simulated images of hypothetical exoplanetary systems observed through a starshade. Because the starshade would suppress the starlight so well, the dominant noise source and the main challenge for the planet detection becomes the exozodiacal disks and their structures. In this paper, we summarize the techniques used by the participating teams and compare their findings with the truth. With an independent component analysis to remove the background, about 70% of the inner planets (close to the inner working angle) have been detected and ~40% of the outer planet (fainter than the inner counterparts) have been identified. Planet detection becomes more difficult in the cases of higher disk inclination, as the false negative and false positive counts increase. Interestingly, we found little difference in the planet detection ability between 1e-10 and 1e-9 instrument contrast, confirming that the dominant limitations are from the astrophysical background and not due to the performance of the starshade. Finally, we find that a non-parametric background calibration scheme, such as the independent component analysis reported here, results in a mean residual of 10% the background brightness. This background estimation error leads to substantial false positives and negatives and systematic bias in the planet flux estimation, and should be included in the estimation of the planet detection signal-to-noise ratio for imaging using a starshade and also a coronagraph that delivers exozodi-limited imaging.

The Axion Dark Matter eXperiment is sensitive to narrow axion flows, given axions compose a fraction of the dark matter with a non-negligible local density. Detecting these low-velocity dispersion flows requires a high spectral resolution and careful attention to the expected signal modulation due to Earth's motion. We report an exclusion on the local axion dark matter density in narrow flows of $\rho_a \gtrsim 0.03\,\mathrm{GeV/cm^3}$ and $\rho_a \gtrsim 0.004\,\mathrm{GeV/cm^3}$ for Dine-Fischler-Srednicki-Zhitnitski and Kim-Shifman-Vainshtein-Zakharov axion-photon couplings, respectively, over the mass range $3.3-4.2\,\mu\text{eV}$. Measurements were made at selected resolving powers to allow for a range of possible velocity dispersions.

Bursty star formation at early times can explain the surprising abundance of early UV-bright galaxies revealed by JWST but can also be a reason for the delayed formation of galactic disks in high-resolution cosmological simulations. We investigate this interplay in a cosmological simulation of an early-forming Milky Way analog with detailed modeling of cold turbulent interstellar medium (ISM), star formation, and feedback. We find that the modeling of locally variable star formation efficiency (SFE) coupled with the ISM turbulence on the scales of star-forming regions is important for producing both early bursty evolution and early formation and survival of galactic disks. Such a model introduces a qualitatively new channel of the global star formation rate (SFR) burstiness caused by chaotic fluctuations in the average SFE due to changes in the ISM turbulence, which, in our simulation, dominates the short-term SFR variability. The average SFE stays low, close to $\sim 1\%$ per freefall time, and its variation decreases when the gas disk forms, leading to only mild effects of stellar feedback on the early disk, enabling its survival. By rerunning our simulation with fixed SFE values, we explicitly show that low SFEs lead to smoother SFR histories and disk survival, while high SFEs lead to bursty SFRs and hinder disk formation. The model with variable SFE switches between these two regimes at the moment of disk formation. These trends are missing in more commonly used star formation prescriptions with fixed SFE; in particular, the prescriptions tying star formation to molecular gas should be interpreted with caution because the two are decoupled at early times, as we also show in this paper.

The increasingly large number of complex organic molecules detected in the interstellar medium necessitates robust kinetic models that can be relied upon for investigating the involved chemical processes. Such models require rate constants for each of the thousands of reactions; the values of these are often estimated or extrapolated, leading to large uncertainties that are rarely quantified. We have performed a global Monte Carlo and a more local one-at-a-time sensitivity analysis on the gas-phase rate coefficients in a 3-phase dark cloud model. Time-dependent sensitivities have been calculated using four metrics to determine key reactions for the overall network as well as for the cyanonaphthalene molecule in particular, an important interstellar species that is severely under-produced by current models. All four metrics find that reactions involving small, reactive species that initiate hydrocarbon growth have large effects on the overall network. Cyanonaphthalene is most sensitive to a number of these reactions as well as ring-formation of the phenyl cation (C6H5+) and aromatic growth from benzene to naphthalene. Future efforts should prioritize constraining rate coefficients of key reactions and expanding the network surrounding these processes. These results highlight the strength of sensitivity analysis techniques to identify critical processes in complex chemical networks, such as those often used in astrochemical modeling.

The efficient release of magnetic energy in astrophysical plasmas, such as during solar flares, can in principle be achieved through magnetic diffusion, at a rate determined by the associated electric field. However, attempts at measuring electric fields in the solar atmosphere are scarce, and none exist for sites where the magnetic energy is presumably released. Here, we present observations of an energetic event using the National Science Foundation's Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, where we detect the polarization signature of electric fields associated with magnetic diffusion. We measure the linear and circular polarization across the hydrogen H-epsilon Balmer line at 397 nm at the site of a brightening event in the solar chromosphere. Our spectro-polarimetric modeling demonstrates that the observed polarization signals can only be explained by the presence of electric fields, providing conclusive evidence of magnetic diffusion, and opening a new window for the quantitative study of this mechanism in space plasmas.

The operation of a small-size Cherenkov gamma-ray telescope TAIGA-IACT with camera on SiPMs OnSemi MicroFJ-60035 has been modelled by multiparticle Monte Carlo (MC) methods. The model implies that telescope camera is equipped with two specific types of filters of 290-590 nm (visible+NUV) and 220-320 nm (MUV+UVB)-bands, each covering half of the camera pixels in some uniform order. This allows one to measure the fraction of UV-radiation in total amount of Cherenkov radiation of an extensive air shower (EAS), that can be used for efficient gamma-hadron separation. The corresponding quality factor takes values up to 5.07 in the 10-100 TeV range depending on the distance to EAS axis and camera orientation.

We present James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)-NIRCam observations of the massive star-forming molecular cloud Sagittarius C (Sgr C) in the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ). In conjunction with ancillary mid-IR and far-IR data, we characterize the two most massive protostars in Sgr C via spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting, estimating that they each have current masses of $m_* \sim 20\:M_\odot$ and surrounding envelope masses of $\sim 100\:M_\odot$. We report a census of lower-mass protostars in Sgr C via a search for infrared counterparts to mm continuum dust cores found with ALMA. We identify 88 molecular hydrogen outflow knot candidates originating from outflows from protostars in Sgr C, the first such unambiguous detections in the infrared in the CMZ. About a quarter of these are associated with flows from the two massive protostars in Sgr C; these extend for over 1 pc and are associated with outflows detected in ALMA SiO line data. An additional $\sim 40$ features likely trace shocks in outflows powered by lower-mass protostars throughout the cloud. We report the discovery of a new star-forming region hosting two prominent bow shocks and several other line-emitting features driven by at least two protostars. We infer that one of these is forming a high-mass star given an SED-derived mass of $m_* \sim 9\:M_\odot$ and associated massive ($\sim 90\:M_\odot$) mm core and water maser. Finally, we identify a population of miscellaneous Molecular Hydrogen Objects (MHOs) that do not appear to be associated with protostellar outflows.

We demonstrate how near infrared (NIR) imaging of resolved luminous asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars can be used to measure well-constrained star formation histories (SFHs) across cosmic time. Using UKIRT J and K-band imaging of M31, we first show excellent agreement over the past $\sim8$ Gyr between the PHAT SFH of M31's outer disk derived from a deep optical color-magnitude diagram (CMD; $\sim3.3\times10^{7}$ stars with $M_{F814W} \lesssim +2$), and our spatially-matched SFH based only on modeling AGB stars on a NIR CMD ($\sim2.3\times10^{4}$ stars with $M_{J} \lesssim -5$). We find that only hundreds of AGB stars are needed for reliable SFH recovery, owing to their excellent age sensitivity in the NIR. We then measure the spatially resolved SFH of M31's inner stellar halo ($D_{M31, projected} \sim20-30$ kpc) using $\sim10^5$ AGB stars. We find: (i) a dominant burst of star formation across M31's inner stellar halo from $4-5$ Gyr ago and lower level, spatially distributed star formation $\sim1-2$ Gyr ago; (ii) a younger 'quenching time' in the vicinity of NGC 205 ($\sim1$ Gyr ago) than near M32 ($\sim1.1$ Gyr ago); (iii) $M_{\star}\sim4\pm0.5\times10^9 M_{\odot}$ formed over the past $\sim8$ Gyr. We discuss some caveats and the enormous potential of resolved AGB stars in the NIR for measuring SFHs back to ancient epochs ($\sim13$ Gyr ago) in galaxies to large distances ($D\gtrsim20$ Mpc) with JWST, Roman, and Euclid.

The Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) of the Milky Way is fed by gas inflows from the Galactic disk along almost radial trajectories aligned with the major axis of the Galactic bar. However, despite being fundamental to all processes in the nucleus of the galaxy, these inflows have been studied significantly less than the CMZ itself. We present observations of various molecular lines between 215 and 230 GHz for 20 clouds with $|\ell| < 10^\circ$, which are candidates for clouds in the Galactic bar due to their warm temperatures and broad lines relative to typical Galactic disk clouds, using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) Atacama Compact Array (ACA). We measure gas temperatures, shocks, star formation rates, turbulent Mach numbers, and masses for these clouds. Although some clouds may be in the Galactic disk despite their atypical properties, nine clouds are likely associated with regions in the Galactic bar, and in these clouds, turbulent pressure is suppressing star formation. In clouds with no detected star formation, turbulence is the dominant heating mechanism, whereas photo-electric processes heat the star-forming clouds. We find that the ammonia (NH3) and formaldehyde (H2CO) temperatures probe different gas components, and in general each transition appears to trace different molecular gas phases within the clouds. We also measure the CO-to-H2 X-factor in the bar to be an order of magnitude lower than the typical Galactic value. These observations provide evidence that molecular clouds achieve CMZ-like properties before reaching the CMZ

Classical Wolf-Rayet stars are the descendants of massive OB stars that have lost their hydrogen envelopes and are burning helium in their cores prior to exploding as type Ib/c supernovae. The mechanisms for losing their hydrogen envelopes are either through binary interactions or through strong stellar winds potentially coupled with episodic mass-loss. Amongst the bright classical WR stars, the binary system WR\,137 (HD\,192641; WC7d + O9e) is the subject of this paper. This binary is known to have a 13-year period and produces dust near periastron. Here we report on interferometry with the CHARA Array collected over a decade of time and providing the first visual orbit for the system. We combine these astrometric measurements with archival radial velocities to measure masses of the stars of $M_{\rm WR} = 9.5\pm3.4 M_\odot$ and $M_{\rm O} = 17.3\pm 1.9 M_\odot$ when we use the most recent \textit{Gaia} distance. These results are then compared to predicted dust distribution using these orbital elements, which match the observed imaging from \textit{JWST} as discussed recently by Lau et al. Furthermore, we compare the system to the BPASS models, finding that the WR star likely formed through stellar winds and not through binary interactions. However, the companion O star did likely accrete some material from the WR's mass-loss to provide the rotation seen today that drives its status as an Oe star.

The Eigenvector 1 schema, or the main sequence of quasars, was introduced as an analogous scheme to the HR diagram that would allow us to understand the more complex, extended sources - active galactic nuclei (AGNs) that harbor accreting supermassive black holes. The study has spanned more than three decades and has advanced our knowledge of the diversity of Type-1 AGNs from both observational and theoretical aspects. The quasar main sequence, in its simplest form, is the plane between the FWHM of the broad H$\beta$ emission line and the strength of the optical FeII emission to the H$\beta$. While the former allows the estimation of the black hole mass, the latter enables direct measurement of the metal content and traces the accretion rate of the AGN. Together, they allow us to track the evolution of AGN in terms of the activity of the central nuclei, its effect on the line-emitting regions surrounding the AGN, and their diversity making them suitable distance indicators to study the expansion of our Universe. This mini-review aims to provide (i) a brief history leading up to the present day in the study of the quasar main sequence, (ii) introduce us to the many possibilities to study AGNs with the main sequence as a guiding tool, and (iii) highlight some recent, exciting lines of researches at the frontier of this ever-growing field.

In this work, models of rubble pile binary secondaries are simulated in different spin states in a system similar in size and scale to Didymos-Dimorphos. The numerical modeling is performed in the N-body Chrono-based software GRAINS, which simulates gravity, contact, and friction forces acting on non-spherical mass elements. Tidal dissipation successfully emerges in the simulations as an aggregate of the effects of inter-element contact and friction across thousands of simulated mass elements. We devise computational techniques for simulating and studying such systems, establishing rigorous numerical procedures for computing tidal quantities of interest. We compute $Q/k_{2} \sim 43.5^{+36.0}_{-27.2}$ for the secondary, smaller than previously predicted ranges $10^{2} < Q/k_{2} < 10^{6}$, and thus a rather dissipative result. From our simulations, we observe non-classical variation of the tidal lag angle with the topographic longitude, and dependence of $Q/k_{2}$ on the rotation rate. Further study is required to see if the enhanced dissipativity holds with other geometries and regolith properties.

The quest for radio signals from technologically-advanced extraterrestrial intelligence has traditionally concentrated on the vicinity of 1.4 GHz. In this paper, we extend the search to unprecedented territories, detailing our extensive observations at 6 GHz and initiating the first-ever survey at 18 GHz with the Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT). Our strategy entailed rigorous observation sessions, totaling 36 hours, directed towards the Galactic Center and 72 selected TESS targets-making this the most comprehensive high-frequency technosignature search to date. Our narrowband signal search found no definitive evidence of drifting signals that could suggest an extraterrestrial origin from the surveyed regions. Nevertheless, our efforts have enabled us to set new constraints on the presence of radio emissions from approximately $5\times 10^{5}$ stars, establishing an isotropic radiated power limit of $1.8\times 10^{19} W$. We also provide a comparative analysis of the 'hits' recorded across both frequencies to highlight the significance of pursuing technosignature searches at higher frequencies, where the spectral landscape is less congested and more conducive to detection.

Measuring the 3D spatial distribution of magnetic fields in the interstellar medium and the intracluster medium is crucial yet challenging. The probing of 3D magnetic field's 3D distribution, including the field plane-of-sky orientation ($\psi$), the magnetic field's inclination angle ($\gamma$) relative to the line of sight, and magnetization ($\sim$ the inverse Alfv\'en Mach number $M_A^{-1}$), at different distances from the observer makes the task even more formidable. However, the anisotropy and Faraday decorrelation effect in polarized synchrotron emission offer a unique solution. We show that due to the Faraday decorrelation, only regions up to a certain effective path length along the line of sight contribute to the measured polarization. The 3D spatial information can be consequently derived from synchrotron polarization derivatives (SPDs), which are calculated from the difference in synchrotron polarization across two wavelengths. We find that the 3D magnetic field can be estimated from the anisotropy observed in SPD: the elongation direction of the SPD structures probes $\psi$ and the degree of SPD anisotropy, along with its morphological curvature, provides insights into $M_A^{-1}$ and $\gamma$. To extract these anisotropic features and their correlation with the 3D magnetic field, we propose utilizing a machine learning approach, specifically the Vision Transformer (ViT) architecture, which was exemplified by the success of the ChatGPT. We train the ViT using synthetic synchrotron observations generated from MHD turbulence simulations in sub-Alfv\'enic and super-Alfv\'enic conditions. We show that ViT's application to multi-wavelength SPDs can successfully reconstruct the 3D magnetic fields' 3D spatial distribution.

A simple analytic model is presented to predict the near-IR H2 fluorescent line intensities emitted by diffuse interstellar clouds with a Plummer density profile. It is applicable to sightlines where (1) the column densities of H and H2 have been measured and (2) the peak gas density can be estimated from extinction maps or observations of C2 absorption.

The acceleration of the young solar wind is studied using the first 17 encounters of Parker Solar Probe. We identify wind intervals from different source regions: coronal hole (CH) interiors, streamers, and low Mach number boundary layers (LMBLs), i.e. the inner boundaries of coronal holes. We present their statistical trends in the acceleration process. Most of the observations can be reproduced by a two-fluid hydrodynamic model with realistic corona temperatures. In such a model, the solar wind is accelerated by the combined thermal pressures of protons and electrons,but it is mainly the difference in the proton pressure that leads to the difference in the solar wind speed. The proton pressure is the highest in the fastest CH wind, with a high initial proton temperature that decreases slowly. It is lower in the relatively slow LMBL wind, and the lowest in the slowest streamer wind. The proton temperature is quadratically correlated with the wind speed when scaled to the same distance. In contrast, the electron temperature shows no significant differences for different wind types or wind speeds, indicating more similar contributions from the electron pressure. The model gives reasonable locations for the sonic critical point, which is on average at 3.6-7.3 solar radii and can also extend to large distances when the proton temperature is extremely low, as in the LMBL wind. In addition to the thermal pressure, we raise the possibility that Alfv\'en waves may contribute to the solar wind acceleration, especially for the fast CH wind.

The nearby long gamma-ray burst (GRB) 190829A was observed using the HST/WFC3/IR grisms about four weeks to 500 days after the burst. We find the spectral features of its associated supernova, SN 2019oyw, are redshifted by several thousands km/s compared to the redshift of the large spiral galaxy on which it is superposed. This velocity offset is seen in several features but most clearly in Ca II NIR triplet $\lambda\lambda$ 8498, 8542, 8662 (CaIR3). We also analyze VLT/FORS and X-shooter spectra of the SN and find strong evolution with time of its P-Cygni features of CaIR3 from the blue to the red. However, comparison with a large sample of Type Ic-BL and Ic SNe shows no other object with the CaIR3 line as red as that of SN 2019oyw were it at the z = 0.0785 redshift of the disk galaxy. This implies that SN 2019oyw is either a highly unusual SN or is moving rapidly with respect to its apparent host. Indeed, using CaIR3 we find the redshift of SN 2019oyw is 0.0944 <= z <= 0.1156. The GRB-SN is superposed on a particularly dusty region of the massive spiral galaxy; therefore, while we see no sign of a small host galaxy behind the spiral, it could be obscured. Our work provides a surprising result on the origins of GRB 190829A, as well as insights into the time evolution of GRB-SNe spectra and a method for directly determining the redshift of a GRB-SN using the evolution of strong spectral features such as CaIR3.

The effects of outflow on the behavior of a viscous gaseous disc around a compact object in an advection-dominated state are examined in this paper. We suppose that the flow is steady, axisymmetric, and rotating. Also, we focus on the model in which the mass, the angular momentum, and the energy can be transported outward by outflow. Similar to the pioneering studies, we consider a power-law function for mass inflow rate as $\dot{M} \propto r^s$. We assume that the power index $s$ is proportional to the dimensionless thickness $H/R$ of disc. To analyze such a system, the hydrodynamic equations have extracted in cylindrical coordinates $(r,\varphi,z)$. Then, the flow equations were vertically integrated, and a set of self-similar solutions was got in the radial direction. Our solutions include three essential parameters: $\lambda$, $f$ and $\zeta$. The influence of the outflow on the dynamics of the disc is investigated by the $\lambda$ parameter. The degree of advection of flow is shown by the advection parameter $f$. Also, energy extraction from the disc by the outflow is showed by $\zeta$ parameter. Our findings demonstrate a significant correlation between the outflow parameters, flow advection parameter, and the temperature, thickness, and inflow-outflow rate of the disc. In addition, we explored the influence of these parameters on the power index $s$, too. The results of our study demonstrate that enhancing the outflow parameter or flow advection degree increases power index $s$, while extracting more energy through outflow decreases index $s$.

Short gamma-ray bursts (SGRBs) with extended emission (EE) are composed of initial main emission with a short-hard spike (ME) and followed by a long-lasting EE. Whether the ME and EE originated from the same origin or not, as well as the jet composition, remains an open question. In this paper, we present a systematic analysis to search for 36 GRBs in our sample, which are identified as the category of SGRBs with EE as observed by Fermi/GBM. By extracting time-integrated spectra of ME and EE with CPL or Band models for our sample, we find that 20 out of 36 SGRBs for which $\alpha$ values are exceeding the death line (e.g., -2/3) of synchrotron emission within either ME or EE phases, and suggest that the quasi-thermal component should exist in the prompt emission. Then, we extract the time-resolved spectra of our samples, but only four GRBs are bright enough to extract the time-resolved spectra. We find that both thermal and non-thermal emissions do exist in the prompt emission of those four bright GRBs, and it suggests that a hybrid jet (e.g., matter and Poynting-flux outflow) in GRB should exist. Moreover, strong positive correlations (e.g., $F_{\rm tot}-\Gamma$ and $F_{\rm tot}-kT$) in the time-resolved spectra of ME and EE for those four GRBs are discovered. It indicates that the spectral evolution of both ME and EE seem to share similar behavior, possibly from the same physical origin.

The solar coronal magnetic field is a pivotal element in the study of eruptive phenomena, and understanding its dynamic evolution has long been a focal point in solar physics. Numerical models, driven directly by observation data, serve as indispensable tools in investigating the dynamics of the coronal magnetic field. This paper presents a new approach to electric field inversion, which involves modifying the electric field derived from the DAVE4VM velocity field using ideal Ohm's law. The time series of the modified electric field is used as a boundary condition to drive a MHD model, which is applied to simulate the magnetic field evolution of active region 12673. The simulation results demonstrate that our method enhances the magnetic energy injection through the bottom boundary, as compared with energy injection calculated directly from the DAVE4VM code, and reproduce of the evolution of the photospheric magnetic flux. The coronal magnetic field structure is also in morphological similarity to the coronal loops. This new approach will be applied to the high-accuracy simulation of eruption phenomena and provide more details on the dynamical evolution of the coronal magnetic field.

The prompt emission mechanism of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) is a long-standing open question, and GRBs have been considered as potential sources of high-energy neutrinos. Despite many years of search for the neutrino events associated with GRBs from IceCube, there were no results. However, the absence of search results for neutrino provides a unique opportunity to constrain the parameter space of GRB-jet models. In this paper, we chose four peculiar GRBs with two different types of jet composition to investigate neutrino emission. It is found that only GRB 211211A could be well constrained within the dissipative photosphere model. By adopting the specific parameters of the photosphere, one can obtain \(\varepsilon _{p } \text{/} \varepsilon _{e }<8\) for \(f_{p}>0.2\) from GRB 211211A. For the ICMART model, we can effectively constrain neither GRB 230307A nor GRB 080916C. Moreover, we also investigate the detection prospects of high-energy neutrinos from GRBs, and find that it is difficult to detect at least one high-energy neutrino associated with GRBs from the ICMART model even during the IceCube-Gen2 operation. For the GRB 211211A-like events, it is possible to detect at least one neutrino coincident with the gravitational wave during the IceCube-Gen2 operation, if such an event is originated from mergers of compact stars within the photosphere dissipation.

We present results of cosmological zoom-in simulations of a massive protocluster down to redshift $z\approx4$ (when the halo mass is $\approx10^{13}$ M$_\odot$) using the SWIFT code and the EAGLE galaxy formation model, focusing on supermassive black hole (BH) physics. The BH was seeded with a mass of $10^4$ M$_\odot$ at redshift $z\approx17$. We compare the base model that uses an Eddington limit on the BH accretion rate and thermal isotropic feedback by the AGN, with one where super-Eddington accretion is allowed, as well as two other models with BH spin and jets. In the base model, the BH grows at the Eddington limit from $z=9$ to $z=5.5$, when it becomes massive enough to halt its own and its host galaxy's growth through feedback. We find that allowing super-Eddington accretion leads to drastic differences, with the BH going through an intense but short super-Eddington growth burst around $z\approx7.5$, during which it increases its mass by orders of magnitude, before feedback stops further growth (of both the BH and the galaxy). By $z\approx4$ the galaxy is only half as massive in the super-Eddington cases, and an order of magnitude more extended, with the half-mass radius reaching values of a few physical kpc instead of a few hundred pc. The BH masses in our simulations are consistent with the intrinsic BH mass$-$stellar mass relation inferred from high-redshift observations by JWST. This shows that galaxy formation models using the $\Lambda$CDM cosmology are capable of reproducing the observed massive BHs at high redshift. Allowing jets, either at super- or sub-Eddington rates, has little impact on the host galaxy properties, but leads to lower BH masses as a result of stronger self-regulation, which is itself a consequence of higher feedback efficiencies.

Beyond testing the current cosmological paradigm, cluster number counts can also be utilized to investigate the discrepancies currently affecting current cosmological measurements. In particular, cosmological studies based on cosmic shear and other large-scale structure probes routinely find a value of the amplitude of the fluctuations in the universe S8 smaller than the one inferred from the primary cosmic microwave background. In this work, we investigate this tension by measuring structure evolution across cosmic time as probed by the number counts of the massive halos with the first SRG/eROSITA All-Sky Survey cluster catalog in the Western Galactic Hemisphere complemented with the overlapping Dark Energy Survey Year-3, KiloDegree Survey, and Hyper Suprime-Cam data for weak lensing mass calibration, by implementing two different parameterizations and a model-agnostic method. In the first model, we measure the cosmic linear growth index as {\gamma} = 1.19 \pm 0.21, in tension with the standard value of {\gamma} = 0.55, but in good statistical agreement with other large-scale structures probes. The second model is a phenomenological scenario in which we rescale the linear matter power spectrum at low redshift to investigate a potential reduction of structure formation, providing similar results. Finally, in a third strategy, we consider a standard {\Lambda}CDM cosmology, but we separate the cluster catalog into five redshift bins, measuring the cosmological parameters in each and inferring the evolution of the structure formation, finding hints of a reduction. Interestingly, the S8 value inferred from eRASS1 cluster number counts, when we add a degree of freedom to the matter power spectrum, recovers the value inferred by cosmic shear studies.

We report the detection of 5 newly identifed Lyman-continuum (LyC) leaker candidates at redshifts 0.99-1.42 in the AstroSat UV Deep Field South F154W image. We derive physical properties of these galaxies using a combination of spectral-energy distribution fitting and information from publicly available spectra. The estimated escape fraction of these objects vary from 14-85\% after accounting for the IGM attenuation. With only about a dozen known leakers at these redshifts, these detections significantly raise the fraction of LyC leakers in this redshift range. High-resolution HST UV imaging reveals that a subset of the galaxies in our sample have blue star-forming structures that are likely associated with harder ionizing sources. We find tentative evidence that the LyC emission is spatially offset from the non-ionizing UV continuum centers of these galaxies. The integrated properties of these galaxies, such as the UV continuum slope, dust attenuation, stellar mass, and $[\text{O III}] \lambda 5007/ [\text{O II}] \lambda 3727$ ratios, make them atypical compared to known LyC leakers. The leakage of LyC photons from these systems presents a compelling challenge.

We present phase-connected timing ephemerides, polarization pulse profiles and Faraday rotation measurements of 12 pulsars discovered by the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) in the Commensal Radio Astronomy FAST Survey (CRAFTS). The observational data for each pulsar span at least one year. Among them, PSR J1840+2843 shows subpulse drifting, and five pulsars are detected to exhibit pulse nulling phenomena. PSR J0640$-$0139 and PSR J2031$-$1254 are isolated MSPs with stable spin-down rates ($\dot{P}$) of $4.8981(6) \times $10$^{-20}$\,s\,s$^{-1}$ and $6.01(2) \times $10$^{-21}$\,s\,s$^{-1}$, respectively. Additionally, one pulsar (PSR J1602$-$0611) is in a neutron star - white dwarf binary system with 18.23-d orbit and a companion of $\leq$ 0.65M$_{\odot}$. PSR J1602$-$0611 has a spin period, companion mass, and orbital eccentricity that are consistent with the theoretical expectations for MSP - Helium white dwarf (He - WD) systems. Therefore, we believe it might be an MSP-He WD binary system. The locations of PSRs J1751$-$0542 and J1840+2843 on the $P-\dot{P}$ diagram are beyond the traditional death line. This indicates that FAST has discovered some low $\dot{E}$ pulsars, contributing new samples for testing pulsar radiation theories. We estimated the distances of these 12 pulsars based on NE2001 and YMW16 electron density models, and our work enhances the dataset for investigating the electron density model of the Galaxy.

High velocity neutron stars, observed as rapidly moving radio-pulsars, are believed to gain high linear velocities -- kicks -- in aspherical supernova explosions. The mechanism of the kick formation is probably connected with anisotropic neutrino flash, and/or anisotropic matter ejection. In this paper, we investigate a neutron star kick origin in a magnetorotational (MR) supernova explosion model. The simulations have been done for a series of core collapse supernova models with initial equatorially asymmetric magnetic fields. We have realized 2D magnetohydrodynamic simulations, considering the protoneutron star kick and explosion properties in three different asymmetric magnetic field configurations. The simulations show, that in the MR supernova model protoneutron star kicks are formed with velocities up to ~500 km/s, due to asymmetric matter ejection in jets. It may explain the observed kick velocities of some neutron stars, formed in the MR supernovae explosions.

With the IceCube-Gen2 observatory under development and RNO-G under construction, the first detection of ultra-high-energy neutrinos is on the horizon making event reconstruction a priority. Here, we present a full reconstruction of the neutrino direction, shower energy, and interaction type (and thereby flavor) from raw antenna signals. We use a deep neural network with conditional normalizing-flows for the reconstruction. This, for the first time, allows for event-by-event predictions of the posterior distribution of all reconstructed properties, in particular, the asymmetric uncertainties of the neutrino direction. The algorithm was applied to an extensive MC dataset of 'shallow' and 'deep' detector components in South Pole ice. We present the reconstruction performance and compare the two station components. For the first time, we quantify the effect of birefringence on event reconstruction.

Despite the significance of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) in space weather, a comprehensive understanding of their interior morphology remains a scientific challenge, particularly with the advent of many state-of-the-art solar missions such as Parker Solar Probe (Parker) and Solar Orbiter (SO). In this study, we present an analysis of a complex CME as observed by the Wide-Field Imager for Solar PRobe (WISPR) heliospheric imager during Parker's seventh solar encounter. The CME morphology does not fully conform with the general three-part density structure, exhibiting a front and core not significantly bright, with a highly structured overall configuration. In particular, its morphology reveals non-concentric nested rings, which we argue are a signature of the embedded helical magnetic flux rope (MFR) of the CME. For that, we analyze the morphological and kinematical properties of the nested density structures and demonstrate that they outline the projection of the three-dimensional structure of the flux rope as it crosses the lines of sight of the WISPR imager, thereby revealing the magnetic field geometry. Comparison of observations from various viewpoints suggests that the CME substructures can be discerned owing to the ideal viewing perspective, close proximity, and spatial resolution of the observing instrument.

Simulations of the cosmic-ray (CR) anisotropy down to TeV energies are presented, using turbulence parameters consistent with those inferred from observations of the interstellar medium. We compute the angular power spectra $C_{\ell}$ of the CR anisotropy obtained from the simulations. We demonstrate that the amplitude of the large scale gradient in the CR density profile affects only the overall normalisation of the $C_{\ell}$s, without affecting the shape of the angular power spectrum. We show that the power spectrum depends on CR energy, and that it is sensitive to the location of the observer at small $\ell$. It is found to flatten at large $\ell$, and can be modelled by a broken power-law, exhibiting a break at $\ell \approx 4$. Our computed power spectrum at $\sim 10\,$TeV fits well HAWC and IceCube measurements. Moreover, we calculate all coefficients of the spherical harmonics and compute the component of the angular power spectrum projected onto the direction of the local magnetic field line. We find that deviations from gyrotropy become increasingly important at higher CR energies and larger values of $\ell$.

Several pulsar timing array (PTA) missions have reported convincing evidence of a stochastic gravitational wave background within their latest datasets. This background could originate from an astrophysical source, though there are multiple possibilities for its origin to be cosmological. Focusing on the NANOGrav signal, which was in good agreement with other PTAs, we evaluate the possibility of an inflationary source for the background. However, we'll consider a time-dependent minimal theory of massive gravity instead of standard general relativity for our analysis. We find that an inflationary interpretation will require a strongly blue spectrum, characterized by $n_T = 1.8 \, \pm \, 0.54$, while Big Bang Nucleosynthesis limits will require a low reheating scale of $T_\text{rh} \simeq 4000 \ \text{GeV}$. Though these constraints make it difficult for inflation to be the source of the NANOGrav signal, we find that the massive gravity model allows for a greater reheating temperature than standard general relativity, making an inflationary interpretation slightly less cumbersome.

It remains a mystery when our Milky Way first formed a stellar disk component that survived and maintained its disk structure from subsequent galaxy mergers. We present a study of the age-dependent structure and star formation rate of the Milky Way's disk using high-alpha stars with significant orbital angular momentum that have precise age determinations. Our results show that the radial scale length is nearly independent of age, while the vertical scale height experienced dramatic evolution. A disk-like geometry presents even for populations older than 13 Gyr, with the scale height-to-length ratio dropping below 0.5 for populations younger than 12.5 Gyr. We dub the oldest population that has maintained a disk geometry - apparently formed over 13 Gyr ago - PanGu. With an estimated present-day stellar mass of $2 \times 10^9$ $M_\odot$, PanGu is presumed to be a major stellar component of our Galaxy in the earliest epoch. The total present-day stellar mass of the whole high-alpha disk is $2 \times 10^{10}$ $M_\odot$, mostly formed during a distinct star formation rate peak of 11 $M_\odot$ per year around 11 Gyrs ago. A comparison with Milky Way analogs in the TNG50 simulations implies that our Galaxy has experienced an exceptionally quiescent dynamical history, even before the Gaia-Enceladus merger.

TianQin proposes to detect gravitational wave signals by using laser interferometry. However, laser propagation effect introduces a potential noise factor for TianQin. In this work, we used MHD simulations to obtain the space magnetic field and plasma distributions during an extremely strong solar eruption, and based on the magnetohydrodynamic simulation result, we investigate laser propagation noise for TianQin. For the extremely strong solar eruption event, we find that the laser propagation noise closely approaches 100\% of TianQin's displacement noise requirement for Michelson combination; While the laser propagation noise is still about 30\% of TianQin's displacement noise requirement for time-delay interferometry X combination. In addition, we investigate the laser propagation noise for 12 cases with different solar wind conditions. Our finding reveals a linear correlation between the laser propagation noise and several space weather parameters, e.g., solar wind dynamic pressure, Sym-H, and $D$st, where the correlation coefficients for solar wind dynamic pressure is strongest. Combining the cumulative distribution of solar wind dynamic pressure from 1999 to 2021 with the linear correlation between solar wind dynamic pressure and laser propagation noise, we have determined that the occurrence rate of the laser propagation noise to be greater than 30\% of TianQin's displacement noise requirement for Michelson combination over the entire solar activity week is about 15\%. In addition, we find that time-delay interferometry can suppress the laser propagation noise, and reduce the occurrence rate of the laser propagation noise exceeding 30\% of TianQin's requirement to less than 1\%.

We report the discovery of a second optical flare that occurred in September 2021 in IRAS F01004-2237, where the first flare occurred in 2010 has been reported, and present a detailed analysis of multi-band data. The position of the flare coincides with the galaxy centre with a precision of 650 pc. The flare peaks in $\sim50$ days with an absolute magnitude of $\sim-21$ and fades in two years roughly following $L\propto t^{-5/3}$. It maintains a nearly constant blackbody temperature of $\sim$22,000 K in the late time. Its optical and UV spectra show hydrogen and helium broad emission lines with full width at half maxima of 7,000--21,000 km s$^{-1}$ and He II/H$\alpha$ ratio of 0.3--2.3. It shows weak X-ray emission relative to UV emission, with X-ray flares lasting for $<2-3$ weeks, during which the spectrum is soft with a power-law index $\Gamma=4.4^{+1.4}_{-1.3}$. These characters are consistent with a tidal disruption event (TDE), ruling out the possibilities of a supernova or an active galactic nuclei flare. With a TDE model, we infer a peak UV luminosity of $3.3\pm0.2\times10^{44}$ erg s$^{-1}$ and an energy budget of $4.5\pm0.2\times10^{51}$ erg. The two optical flares separated by $10.3\pm0.3$ years can be interpreted as repeating partial TDEs, double TDEs, or two independent TDEs. Although no definitive conclusion can be drawn, the partial TDEs interpretation predicts a third flare around 2033, and the independent TDEs interpretation predicts a high TDE rate of $\gtrsim10^{-2}$ yr$^{-1}$ in F01004-2237, both of which can be tested by future observations.

We study the formation of a partially ionized zone behind the usual H II zone in photo-ionized gas. While Lyman continuum photons are depleted before reaching this zone, Balmer continuum photons can ionize the $n=2$ hydrogen atoms as those are pumped by scattering-trapped Ly$\alpha$ photons. Ly$\alpha$ photons need to be replenished in a steady state, but fast radiative cooling at high gas temperature makes replenishment through electron collisional excitation of $n=2$ inefficient. Independently of the temperature, Raman scattering of incident continuum photons on the Lyman-series damping wings injects Ly$\alpha$ photons in the line core and pumps the $n=2$ state, which helps realize a partially ionized equilibrium at $5000$--$7000\,$K. Since the ratio between the incident radiation flux and gas density is limited by the dynamic effects of radiation pressure, significant ionization fraction is only realized at densities $n_{\rm H} \gtrsim 10^7\,{\rm cm}^{-3}$, intermediate between ordinary H II regions and AGN Broad Line Regions. A large H$\alpha$/H$\beta$ line ratio results from such partially ionized gas as large Balmer line optical depths enhance the $n=3$ population relative to higher $n$ states. Partial ionization also provides the ideal condition for internally forming an intense and very broad Ly$\alpha$ line, which can power strong fluorescent metal emission lines observed from the Weigelt blobs of $\eta$ Carinae in the Galaxy, and from a candidate young super star cluster in the Cosmic Noon Sunburst galaxy. This phenomenon may also have implications for understanding the spectra of high-$z$ galaxies that show unusually dense ionized gas.

Disk galaxies viewed as thin planar structures resulting from the conservation of angular momentum of an initially rotating pre-galactic cloud allow merely a first-order model of galaxy formation. Still, the presence of vertically extended structures has allowed us to gather a deeper understanding of the richness in astrophysical processes (e.g., minor mergers, secular evolution) that ultimately result in the observed diversity in disk galaxies and their vertical extensions. We measure the stellar disk scale height of 46 edge-on spiral galaxies from the Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies (S$^{4}$G) project. This paper aims to investigate the radial variation of the stellar disk vertical scale height and the existence of the so-called thick disk component in our sample. The measurements were done using one-, two-, and three-dimensional profile fitting techniques using simple models. We found that two-thirds of our sample shows the presence of a thick disk, suggesting that these galaxies have been accreting gaseous material from their surroundings. We found an average thick-to-thin disk scale height ratio of 2.65, which agrees with previous studies. Our findings also support the disk flaring model, which suggests that the vertical scale height increases with radius. We further found good correlations: between the scale height $h_{z}$ and the scale length and between $h_z$ and the optical de Vaucouleurs radius $R_{25}$.

We performed a suit of three-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations with a resolution of $\sim10$ parsecs to investigate the development of multiphase galactic wind in M82. The star formation and related feedback processes are solved self-consistently using a sink particle method, rather than relying on various assumptions that were used in previous studies. Our simulations produce a starburst event lasting around 25 Myr, which has a total stellar mass of 1.62 - 3.34 $\times 10^8\, \rm{M_{\odot}}$, consistent with observational estimates. The total injected supernova energy is between $1.14\times 10^{57}$ and $2.4\times 10^{57} \rm{erg}$. Supernova (SN) feedback heats portions of the cool gas in the central disc to warm and hot phases, and then drives the gas in all three phases out, eventually forming multiphase outflows. These outflows can replicate key properties of the winds observed in M82, such as morphology, mass outflow rate, and X-ray emission flux, provided the gas return from star-forming clumps to the interstellar medium is implemented appropriately. The maximum mass outflow rate of all gas (hot) is about 6-12 (2-3)$\rm{M_{\odot}/yr}$ at $r\sim4.0\,$ kpc, corresponding to a mass loading factor of 2-4. However, the outflow velocities in our simulations are slower than observational estimates by $\sim 20\%-60\%$. The gas return process significantly influences the outflow properties, while the initial gas distribution in the nuclear region has a moderate effect. However, our results face some challenges in achieving convergence as the resolution increases. We discuss potential improvements to address these issues in future work.

During the last decade, our understanding of stellar physics and evolution has undergone a tremendous revolution thanks to asteroseismology. Space missions such as CoRoT, \kep, K2, and TESS have already been observing millions of stars providing high-precision photometric data. With these data, it is possible to study the convection of stars through the convective background in the power spectrum density of the light curves. The properties of the convective background or granulation has been shown to be correlated to the surface gravity of the stars. In addition, when we have enough resolution (so long enough observations) and a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), the individual modes can be characterized in particular to study the internal rotational splittings and magnetic field of stars. Finally, the surface magnetic activity also impacts the amplitude and hence detection of the acoustic modes. This effect can be seen as a double-edged sword. Indeed, modes can be studied to look for magnetic activity changes. However, this also means that for stars too magnetically active, modes can be suppressed, preventing us from detecting them. In this talk, I will present some highlights on what asteroseismology has allowed us to better understand the convection, rotation, and magnetism of solar-like stars while opening doors to many more questions.

This paper is an overview of studying the solar features in a complex network approach. First, we introduce the structural features of complex networks and important network parameters. Applying the detrended fluctuation and rescaled range analysis and nodes degree power-law distributions confirmed the non-randomness of the solar features complex networks. Using the HEALPix pixelization and considering all parts of the solar surface under the same conditions, as well as applying centrality parameters (the nodes with the highest connectivity, closeness, betweenness, and Pagerank) showed that the active areas on the solar surface were correctly identified and were consistent with observations. A review of the complex structure of the solar proton flux and active regions also showed that in these networks, the average clustering coefficient and Page-rank parameters are suitable criteria to use in event prediction methods. The complex network of sunspots has also shown that sunspots and sunspot groups are formed through complex nonlinear dynamics.

Relativistic jets of magnetized plasma are a common high-energy astrophysical phenomenon, observed across a wide range of spatial and energy scales. In the past, semianalytic meridionally self-similar models have proven highly successful in deciphering the intricate mechanisms which determine their acceleration, collimation and morphological characteristics. In this work, we present a modification of this formalism, based on the angular expansion of the equations of general-relativistic resistive magnetohydrodynamics in the vicinity of the jet axis, for the description of resistive relativistic spine jets. Our modified paraxial formalism allows for the inclusion of resistivity and of a realistic variable adiabatic index equation of state in the mathematical formulation. The electric potential gradient along poloidal magnetic field lines, caused by a gradient in the rotational angular velocity of the field lines, was identified as the mechanism behind the emergence of ohmic dissipation in resistive jets. Although our formalism allows for the extraction of semianalytic solutions applicable to X-ray binary, active galactic nuclei and gamma-ray burst jets, we focus on the last ultra-relativistic category of outflows. The trans-alfv\'enic solutions which we present demonstrate that ohmic dissipation is significant only over localized dissipation regions in resistive jets. Over the extent of these regions, ohmic dissipation weakens the thermal acceleration mechanism, and can even lead to the deceleration of resistive outflows. Additionally, the resistive jets display enhanced thermal collimation and a strengthening of their toroidal magnetic fields over the dissipation regions, resulting in smaller asymptotic opening angles and a more helical magnetic field structure compared to their ideal, non-resistive counterparts.

The millimeter continuum emission from galaxies provides important information about cold dust, its distribution, heating, and role in their InterStellar Medium (ISM). This emission also carries an unknown portion of the free-free and synchrotron radiation. The IRAM 30m Guaranteed Time Large Project, Interpreting Millimeter Emission of Galaxies with IRAM and NIKA2 (IMEGIN) provides a unique opportunity to study the origin of the millimeter emission on angular resolutions of <18" in a sample of nearby galaxies. As a pilot study, we present millimeter observations of two IMEGIN galaxies, NGC 2146 (starburst) and NGC 2976 (peculiar dwarf) at 1.15 mm and 2 mm. Combined with the data taken with Spitzer, Herschel, Plank, WSRT, and the 100m Effelsberg telescopes, we model the infrared-to-radio Spectral Energy Distribution (SED) of these galaxies, both globally and at resolved scales, using a Bayesian approach to 1) dissect different components of the millimeter emission, 2) investigate the physical properties of dust, and 3) explore correlations between millimeter emission, gas, and Star Formation Rate (SFR). We find that cold dust is responsible for most of the 1.15 mm emission in both galaxies and at 2 mm in NGC 2976. The free-free emission emits more importantly in NGC 2146 at 2 mm. The cold dust emissivity index is flatter in the dwarf galaxy ($\beta = 1.3\pm 0.1$) compared to the starburst galaxy ($\beta = 1.7\pm 0.1$). Mapping the dust-to-gas ratio, we find that it changes between 0.004 and 0.01 with a mean of $0.006\pm0.001$ in the dwarf galaxy. In addition, no global balance holds between the formation and dissociation of H$_2$ in this galaxy. We find tight correlations between the millimeter emission and both the SFR and molecular gas mass in both galaxies.

ALMA-IMF observed 15 massive protoclusters capturing multiple spectral lines and the continuum emission. We focus on the G351.77 protocluster ($\sim$ 2500 M$_{\odot}$, estimated from single-dish continuum observations) located at 2 kpc. We trace the dense gas emission and kinematics with N$_2$H$^+$ (1-0) at $\sim$ 4 kau resolution. We estimate an N$_2$H$^+$ relative abundance $\sim (1.7 \pm 0.5) \times 10^{-10}$. We decompose the N$_2$H$^+$ emission into up to two velocity components, highlighting the kinematic complexity in the dense gas. By examining the position-velocity (PV) diagrams on small scales, we observe clear inflow signatures (V-shapes) associated with dense cores. The most prominent V-shape has a mass inflow rate of $\sim 9.8 \times 10^{-4}$ M$_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$ and a short timescale of $\sim$ 15.6 kyr. We also observe V-shapes without associated cores. This suggests both that cores or centers of accretion exist below the 1.3 mm detection limit, and that the V-shapes may be viable tracers of very early accretion and star formation on $\sim$ 4 kau scales. The large-scale PV diagram shows that the protocluster is separated into 2 principal velocity structures. Combined with smaller scale DCN and H$_2$CO emission, we propose a scenario of larger scale slow contraction with rotation in the center based on simple toy models. This scenario leads the suggestion of outside-in evolution of the protocluster as it collapses. The gas depletion times implied by the V-shapes are short ($\sim$ 0.3 Myr), requiring either very fast cluster formation, and/or continuous mass feeding of the protocluster. The latter is possible via the Mother Filament G351.77 is forming out of. The similarities in the properties of G351.77 and the recently published work in G353.41 indicate that many of the physical conditions inferred via the ALMA-IMF N$_2$H$^+$ observations may be generic to protoclusters.

The distributed telescope array offers promise for conducting large-sky-area, high-frequency time domain surveys. Multiple telescopes can be deployed at each observation site, so intra-site observation task scheduling is crucial for enhancing observation efficiency and quality. Efficient use of observable time and rapid response to special situations are critical to maximize scientific discovery in time domain surveys. Besides, the competing scientific priorities, time-varying observation conditions, and capabilities of observation equipment, lead to a vast search space of the scheduling. So with the increasing number of telescopes and observation fields, balancing computational time with solution quality in observation scheduling poses a significant challenge. Informed by the seminal contributions of earlier studies on a multilevel scheduling model and global scheduler for time domain telescope array, this study is devoted to further exploring the site scheduler. Formulating the observation scheduling of multiple telescopes at the site as a cooperative decision-making problem, this paper proposes GRRIS, a real-time intra-site observation scheduling scheme for telescope array using graph and reinforcement learning. It employs a graph neural network to learn node features that can embed the spatial structure of the observation scheduling. An algorithm based on multi-agent reinforcement learning is designed to efficiently learn the optimum allocation policy of telescope agents to field nodes. Through numerical simulations with real-world scenarios, GRRIS can achieve up to a 22% solution improvement over the most competitive scheme. It offers better scalability and sub-second decision speed, meeting the needs of observation scheduling control for future distributed telescope arrays.

This thesis aims at discerning the effect of environment on galaxy evolution and on the properties of galaxies, using the data from the miniJPAS survey, a 1~deg$^2$ survey that uses the same photometric filter system as the incoming J-PAS survey, which is already in its scientific verification phase. This system is composed of 56 narrow-band filters that provide an spectral resolution comparable to low-resolution spectroscopy. We study the effect of environment using two approaches. First, we study the spatially resolved galaxies from miniJPAS. Secondly, we studied the galaxy population in the most massive galaxy cluster detected in the miniJPAS footprint, that is, the cluster mJPC2470-1771. We have developed a tool that automatises all the required processes for the analysis of the data. After probing the accuracy and reliability of the photmetry obtained with our tool, we apply it to a miniJPAS sample of spatially resolved galaxies, divided into four sub-samples according to their spectral-type (red/quiescent and blue/star forming), and environment (field or galaxy group). We find that redder, denser regions are usually older, more metal rich, and show lower values of the intensity of the star formation rate and the specific star formation rate than bluer and less dense regions. Regarding the mJPC2470-1771 cluster, our results point that more massive, redder and older galaxies typically populate the inner regions of the cluster. As a conclusion, our results suggest that galaxies in clusters are formed at a similar epoch, but have experienced different star formation histories. We conclude that the environment plays a role on galaxy evolution, but it is mainly reflected through the galaxy populations found in high density environments, such as galaxy clusters and groups, where the fraction of red, quiescent galaxies is larger in comparison to the field.

We investigate active galactic nuclei (AGN) feeding through the molecular gas (CO(2-1) emission) properties of the local Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 4593, using Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) observations and other multi-wavelength data. Our study aims to understand the interplay between the AGN and the interstellar medium (ISM) in this galaxy, examining the role of the AGN in steering gas dynamics within its host galaxy, evaluating the energy injected into the ISM, and determining whether gas is inflowing or outflowing from the galaxy. After reducing the ALMA CO(2-1) images, we employed two models, 3D-Barolo and DISCFIT, to construct a disc model and fit its emission to the ALMA data. Additionally, we used photometric data to build a spectral energy distribution (SED) and applied the CIGALE code to derive key physical properties of the AGN and its host. Our analysis reveals a complex interplay within NGC 4593, including a clear rotational pattern, the influence of a non-axisymmetric bar potential, and a central molecular zone (CMZ)-like ring. We observe an outflow of CO(2-1) gas along the minor axis, at a distance of approximately 220 pc from the nucleus. The total molecular gas mass is estimated to be between $1 - 5 \times 10^8 \, M_{\odot}$, with non-circular motions contributing about 10\%. Our SED analysis indicates an AGN fraction of 0.88 and a star formation rate (SFR) of 0.42 $M_{\odot} \, \text{yr}^{-1}$. These findings highlight the complex dynamics in the centre of NGC 4593, which are significantly influenced by the presence of the AGN. The overall physical properties of this system suggest that the AGN has a substantial impact on the evolution of NGC 4593.

(Abridged) Sgr A$^\star$ is the electromagnetic counterpart of the accreting supermassive black hole in the Galactic center. Its emission is variable in the near-infrared (NIR) and X-ray wavelengths on short timescales. The physical origin of NIR and X-ray flares is still under debate. We introduce a model for the production of NIR and X-ray flares from an active region in Sgr A$^\star$, where particle acceleration takes place intermittently. In contrast to other radiation models for Sgr A$^\star$ flares, the particle acceleration is not assumed to be instantaneous. We studied the evolution of the particle distribution and the emitted electromagnetic radiation from the flaring region by numerically solving the kinetic equations for electrons and photons. Our calculations took the finite duration of particle acceleration, radiative energy losses, and physical escape from the flaring region into account. To gain better insight into the relation of the model parameters, we complemented our numerical study with analytical calculations. Flares are produced when the acceleration episode has a finite duration. The rising part in the light curve of a flare is related to the particle acceleration timescale, while the decay is controlled by the cooling or escape timescale of particles. Bright X-ray flares, such as the one observed in 2014, have $\gamma$-ray counterparts that might be detected by the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory. Our model for NIR and X-ray flares favors an interpretation of diffusive nonresonant particle acceleration in magnetized turbulence. If direct acceleration by the reconnection electric field in macroscopic current sheets causes the energization of particles during flares in Sgr A$^\star$, then models considering the injection of preaccelerated particles into a blob where particles cool and/or escape would be appropriate to describe the flare.

The atmospheric characterisation of GJ1214 b has so far remained uncertain due to the observed flatness of the transit spectra of this planet that is typically attributed to the presence of hazes or clouds in its atmosphere. Here we combine for the first time transit and eclipse observations obtained with JWST to benefit from both type of constraints and advance on the atmospheric characterisation of GJ1214 b. Our results reveal that photochemical hazes can be produced at high enough mass fluxes in the atmosphere of GJ1214 b to explain both type of observations. These hazes have a drastic impact on the atmospheric thermal structure, which has further ramifications on the emitted radiation of the planet, as well as, its Bond albedo. Clouds of KCL, NaCL and ZnS composition also form in this atmosphere but their opacity is too small to explain the observed flatness of the transit spectrum. We find that metallicities in the range 2000-3000x solar provide atmospheric structures that are closest to the observations for haze mass fluxes in the range of (1-3)x1E-11 g cm-2 s-1. Correspondingly the Bond albedo is within 10-20%. Moreover, sulfur photochemistry produces abundant OCS that has a detectable signature in the transit spectra and should be seaked for in future observations. Sulfur should also participate to the haze formation in this atmosphere, therefore optical properties of such compounds are needed.

We have used the multiobject mode of the Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) on board the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to obtain low-resolution 1-5um spectra of 22 brown dwarf candidates in the Orion Nebula Cluster, which were selected with archival images from the Hubble Space Telescope. One of the targets was previously classified as a Herbig-Haro (HH) object and exhibits strong emission in H I, H2, and the fundamental band of CO, further demonstrating that HH objects can have bright emission in that CO band. The remaining targets have late spectral types (M6.5 to early L) and are young based on gravity sensitive features, as expected for low-mass members of the cluster. According to theoretical evolutionary models, these objects should have masses that range from the hydrogen burning limit to 0.003-0.007 Msun. Two of the NIRSpec targets were identified as proplyds in earlier analysis of Hubble images. They have spectral types of M6.5 and M7.5, making them two of the coolest and least massive known proplyds. Another brown dwarf shows absorption bands at 3-5um from ices containing H2O, CO2, OCN-, and CO, indicating that it is either an edge-on class II system or a class I protostar. It is the coolest and least massive object that has detections of these ice features. In addition, it appears to be the first candidate for a protostellar brown dwarf that has spectroscopy confirming its late spectral type.

In the partially ionized material of stellar interiors, the strongest forces acting on electrons and ions are the Coulomb interactions between charges. The dynamics of the plasma as a whole depend on the magnitudes of the average electrostatic interactions and the average kinetic energies of the particles that constitute the stellar material. An important question is how these interactions of real gases are related to the observable stellar properties. Specifically, the relationships between rotation, magnetic activity, and the thermodynamic properties of stellar interiors are still not well understood. In this study, we investigate the electrostatic effects within the interiors of low-mass main sequence (MS) stars. Specifically, we introduce a global quantity, a global plasma parameter, which allows us to compare the importance of electrostatic interactions across a range of low-mass theoretical models ($0.7 - 1.4 \, M_\odot$) with varying ages and metallicities. We then correlate the electrostatic properties of the theoretical models with the observable rotational trends on the MS. We use the open-source 1D stellar evolution code MESA to compute a grid of main-sequence stellar models. Our models span the $\log g - T_{\text{eff}}$ space of a set of 66 Kepler main-sequence stars. We identify a correlation between the prominence of electrostatic effects in stellar interiors and stellar rotation rates. The variations in the magnitude of electrostatic interactions with age and metallicity further suggest that understanding the underlying physics of the collective effects of plasma can clarify key observational trends related to the rotation of low-mass stars on the MS. These results may also advance our understanding of the physics behind the observed weakened magnetic braking in stars.

The increasing volume of papers and proposals undergoing peer review emphasizes the pressing need for greater automation to effectively manage the growing scale. In this study, we present the deployment and evaluation of machine learning and optimization techniques for assigning proposals to reviewers that was developed for the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) during the Cycle 10 Call for Proposals issued in 2023. By utilizing topic modeling algorithms, we identify the proposal topics and assess reviewers' expertise based on their historical ALMA proposal submissions. We then apply an adapted version of the assignment optimization algorithm from PeerReview4All (Stelmakh et al. 2021a) to maximize the alignment between proposal topics and reviewer expertise. Our evaluation shows a significant improvement in matching reviewer expertise: the median similarity score between the proposal topic and reviewer expertise increased by 51 percentage points compared to the previous cycle, and the percentage of reviewers reporting expertise in their assigned proposals rose by 20 percentage points. Furthermore, the assignment process proved highly effective in that no proposals required reassignment due to significant mismatches, resulting in a savings of 3 to 5 days of manual effort.

CDF-S XT1 and XT2 are considered two "canonical" extragalactic fast X-ray transients (FXTs). In this work, we report new constraints on both FXTs, based on recent JWST NIRCam and MIRI photometry, as well as NIRspec spectroscopy for CDF-S XT2 that allow us to improve our understanding of their distances, energetics, and host galaxy properties compared to the pre-JWST era. We use the available HST and JWST archival data to determine the host properties and constrain the energetics of each FXT based on spectral energy distribution (SED) photometric fitting. The host of CDF-S XT1 is now constrained to lie at $z_{phot}{=}2.76_{-0.13}^{+0.21}$, implying a host absolute magnitude $M_{R}=-19.14$ mag, stellar mass $M_{*}$=2.8e8 $M_\odot$, and star formation rate SFR=0.62 $M_\odot$~yr$^{-1}$. These properties lie at the upper end of previous estimates, leaving CDF-S XT1 with a peak X-ray luminosity of $L_{X,peak}$=2.8e47 erg s$^{-1}$. We argue that the best progenitor scenario for XT1 is a low-luminosity gamma-ray burst (GRB), although we do not fully rule out a proto-magnetar association or a jetted tidal disruption event involving a white dwarf and an intermediate-massive black hole. In the case of CDF-S XT2, JWST imaging reveals a new highly obscured component of the host galaxy, previously missed by HST, while NIRspec spectroscopy securely places the host at $z_{spec}{=}3.4598{\pm}0.0022$. The new redshift implies a host with $M_{R}=-21.76$ mag, $M_{*}$=5.5e10 $M_\odot$, SFR=160 $M_\odot$ yr$^{-1}$, and FXT $L_{X,peak}$=1.4e47 erg s$^{-1}$. The revised energetics, similarity to X-ray flash event light curves, small host offset, and high host SFR favor a low-luminosity collapsar progenitor for CDF-S XT2. While these HST and JWST observations shed light on the host galaxies of XT1 and XT2, and by extension, on the nature of FXTs, a unique explanation for both sources remains elusive.

Pulsar timing arrays can detect continuous nanohertz gravitational waves emitted by individual supermassive black hole binaries. The data analysis procedure can be formulated within a time-domain, state-space framework, in which the radio timing observations are related to a temporal sequence of latent states, namely the intrinsic pulsar spin frequency. The achromatic wandering of the pulsar spin frequency is tracked using a Kalman filter concurrently with the pulse frequency modulation induced by a gravitational wave from a single source. The modulation is the sum of terms proportional to the gravitational wave strain at the Earth and at every pulsar in the array. Here we generalize previous state-space formulations of the pulsar timing array problem to include the pulsar terms; that is, we copy the pulsar terms from traditional, non-state-space analyses over to the state-space framework. The performance of the generalized Kalman filter is tested using astrophysically representative software injections in Gaussian measurement noise. It is shown that including the pulsar terms corrects for previously identified biases in the parameter estimates (especially the sky position of the source) which also arise in traditional matched-filter analyses that exclude the pulsar terms. Additionally, including the pulsar terms decreases the minimum detectable strain by $14\%$. Overall, the study verifies that the pulsar terms do not raise any special extra impediments for the state-space framework, beyond those studied in traditional analyses. The inspiral-driven evolution of the wave frequency at the Earth and at the retarded time at every pulsar in the array is also investigated.

The inter-band lags among the optical broad-band continua of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) have been intensively explored over the past decade. However, the nature of the lags remains under debate. Here utilizing two distinct scenarios for AGN variability, i.e., the thermal fluctuation of accretion disk and the reprocessing of both the accretion disk and clouds in the broad line region, we show that, owing to the random nature of AGN variability, the inter-band lags of an individual AGN would vary from one campaign with a finite baseline to another. Specifically, the thermal fluctuation scenario implies larger variations in the lags than the reprocessing scenario. Moreover, the former predicts a positive correlation between the lag and variation amplitude, while the latter does not result in such a correlation. For both scenarios, averaging the lags of an individual AGN measured with repeated and non-overlapping campaigns would give rise to a stable lag, which is larger for a longer baseline and gets saturation for a sufficiently long baseline. However, obtaining the stable lag for an individual AGN is very time-consuming. Alternatively, it can be equivalently inferred by averaging the lags of a sample of AGNs with similar physical properties, thus can be properly compared with predictions of AGN models. In addition, discussed are several new observational tests suggested by our simulations as well as the role of the deep high-cadence surveys of the Wide Field Survey Telescope in enriching our knowledge of the lags.

In June 2023, multiple pulsar timing array collaborations provided evidence for the existence of a stochastic gravitational wave background. Scalar induced gravitational waves (SIGWs), as one of the most likely sources of stochastic gravitational waves, have received widespread attention. When primordial curvature perturbations on small scales are sufficiently large, \acp{PBH} inevitably form, concurrently producing SIGWs with significant observable effects. These SIGWs can serve as an additional radiation component, influencing the relativistic degrees of freedom $N_{\text{eff}}$. Taking into account primordial non-Gaussianity, we study the energy density spectrum of SIGWs up to the third order and use the current observational data of $N_{\text{eff}}$ to constrain small-scale primordial curvature perturbations and the abundance of \acp{PBH}.

Strongly lensed quasars can be used to constrain cosmological parameters through time-delay cosmography. Models of the lens masses are a necessary component of this analysis. To enable time-delay cosmography from a sample of $\mathcal{O}(10^3)$ lenses, which will soon become available from surveys like the Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) and the Euclid Wide Survey, we require fast and standardizable modeling techniques. To address this need, we apply neural posterior estimation (NPE) for modeling galaxy-scale strongly lensed quasars from the Strong Lensing Insights into the Dark Energy Survey (STRIDES) sample. NPE brings two advantages: speed and the ability to implicitly marginalize over nuisance parameters. We extend this method by employing sequential NPE to increase precision of mass model posteriors. We then fold individual lens models into a hierarchical Bayesian inference to recover the population distribution of lens mass parameters, accounting for out-of-distribution shift. After verifying our method using simulated analogs of the STRIDES lens sample, we apply our method to 14 Hubble Space Telescope single-filter observations. We find the population mean of the power-law elliptical mass distribution slope, $\gamma_{\text{lens}}$, to be $\mathcal{M}_{\gamma_{\text{lens}}}=2.13 \pm 0.06$. Our result represents the first population-level constraint for these systems. This population-level inference from fully automated modeling is an important stepping stone towards cosmological inference with large samples of strongly lensed quasars.

We report the results of the deep and wide Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) 1.2 mm mapping of the Spiderweb protocluster at $z=2.16$. The observations were divided into six contiguous fields covering a survey area of 19.3\,arcmin$^2$. With $\sim$13h on-source time, the final maps in the six fields reach the 1$\sigma$ rms noise in a range of $40.3-57.1 \mu$Jy at a spatial resolution of $0.5-0.9$ arcsec. By using different source extraction codes and careful visual inspection, we detect 47 ALMA sources at a significance higher than 4$\sigma$. We construct the differential and cumulative number counts down to $\sim0.2$ mJy after the correction for purity and completeness obtained from Monte Carlo simulations. The ALMA 1.2 mm number counts of dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs) in the Spiderweb protocluster are overall two times that of general fields, some fields/regions showing even higher overdensities (more than a factor of 3). This is consistent with the results from previous studies over a larger scale using single-dish instruments. Comparison of the spatial distributions between different populations indicates that our ALMA sources are likely drawn from the same distribution as CO(1-0) emitters from the COALAS large program, but distinct from that of H$\alpha$ emitters. The cosmic SFR density of the ALMA sources is consistent with previous results (e.g. LABOCA 870 $\mu$m observations) after accounting for the difference in volume. We show that molecular gas masses estimates from dust measurements are not consistent with the ones derived from CO(1-0) and thus have to be taken with caution. The multiplicity fraction of single-dish DSFGs is higher than that of the field. Moreover, two extreme concentrations of ALMA sources are found on the outskirts of the Spiderweb protocluster, with an excess of more than 12 times that of general fields.

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are transient radio bursts of extragalactic origin characterized by millisecond durations and high luminosities. We report on observations of FRB 20240114A conducted with the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) at frequencies ranging from 720 to 920 MHz. A total of 429 bursts were detected, with a single observation recording 359 bursts over 1.38 hours, corresponding to a burst rate of 260 bursts per hour. The average rotation measures (RMs) were $349.2 \pm 1.0$ rad m$^{-2}$ on February 23, 2024, and $360.4 \pm 0.4$ rad m$^{-2}$ on March 1, 2024. Of the 297 bursts with detected RMs, 72% have a linear polarization fraction greater than 90%, and 14% exhibit circular polarization with a signal-to-noise ratio $> 5$. Our sample also displayed polarization angle swings. We compare the linear polarization of FRB 20240114A with that of FRB 20201124A, FRB 20220912A, and non-repeating FRBs. The mean linear polarization fraction for non-repeating FRBs is 58%. In contrast, the mean linear polarization fraction for the three repeating FRBs is 94%, which is significantly higher than that of the non-repeating FRBs. Under the T-test, the three repeating FRBs have similar linear polarization distributions, but these distributions differ from those of the non-repeating FRBs. This suggests that non-repeating FRBs may have different emission mechanisms or are subject to depolarization.

Sub-Neptune planets with radii smaller than Neptune (3.9 Re) are the most common type of planet known to exist in The Milky Way, even though they are absent in the Solar System. These planets can potentially have a large diversity of compositions as a result of different mixtures of rocky material, icy material and gas accreted from a protoplanetary disk. However, the bulk density of a sub-Neptune, informed by its mass and radius alone, cannot uniquely constrain its composition; atmospheric spectroscopy is necessary. GJ 1214 b, which hosts an atmosphere that is potentially the most favorable for spectroscopic detection of any sub-Neptune, is instead enshrouded in aerosols (thus showing no spectroscopic features), hiding its composition from view at previously observed wavelengths in its terminator. Here, we present a JWST NIRSpec transmission spectrum from 2.8 to 5.1 um that shows signatures of carbon dioxide and methane, expected at high metallicity. A model containing both these molecules is preferred by 3.3 and 3.6 sigma as compared to a featureless spectrum for two different data analysis pipelines, respectively. Given the low signal-to-noise of the features compared to the continuum, however, more observations are needed to confirm the carbon dioxide and methane signatures and better constrain other diagnostic features in the near-infrared. Further modeling of the planet's atmosphere, interior structure and origins will provide valuable insights about how sub-Neptunes like GJ 1214 b form and evolve.

GJ1214b is the archetype sub-Neptune for which thick aerosols have prevented us from constraining its atmospheric properties for over a decade. In this study, we leverage the panchromatic transmission spectrum of GJ1214b established by HST and JWST to investigate its atmospheric properties using a suite of atmospheric radiative transfer, photochemistry, and aerosol microphysical models. We find that the combined HST, JWST/NIRSpec and JWST/MIRI spectrum can be well-explained by atmospheric models with an extremely high metallicity of [M/H]$\sim$3.5 and an extremely high haze production rate of $F_{\rm haze}{\sim}10^{-8}$--$10^{-7}$ g cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$. Such high atmospheric metallicity is suggested by the relatively strong CO2 feature compared to the haze absorption feature or the CH4 feature in the NIRSpec-G395H bandpass of 2.5--5 $\mu$m. The flat 5--12 $\mu$m MIRI spectrum also suggests a small scale height with a high atmospheric metallicity that is needed to suppress a prominent 6 $\mu$m haze feature. We tested the sensitivity of our interpretation to various assumptions for uncertain haze properties, such as optical constants and production rate, and all models tested here consistently suggest extremely high metallicity. Thus, we conclude that GJ1214b likely has a metal-dominated atmosphere where hydrogen is no longer the main atmospheric constituent. We also find that different assumptions for the haze production rate lead to distinct inferences for the atmospheric C/O ratio. We stress the importance of high precision follow-up observations to confirm the metal-dominated atmosphere and to constrain the C/O ratio, which provides further insights on the planet formation process. The confirmation of the metal-dominated atmosphere is particularly crucial, as it challenges the conventional understanding of interior structure and evolution of sub-Neptunes.

The extragalactic gamma-ray sky is dominated by relativistic jets aligned to the observer's line of sight, i.e., blazars. A few of their misaligned counterparts, e.g., radio galaxies, are also detected with the Fermi-Large Area Telescope (LAT) albeit in a small number ($\sim$50), indicating the crucial role played by the jet viewing angle in detecting gamma-ray emission from jets. These gamma-ray emitting misaligned active galactic nuclei (AGN) provide us with a unique opportunity to understand the high-energy emission production mechanisms from a different viewpoint than the more common blazars. With this goal in mind, we have systematically studied the radio morphology of gamma-ray emitting sources present in the fourth data release of the fourth catalog of Fermi-LAT detected gamma-ray sources to identify misaligned AGN. By utilizing the high-resolution and sensitive MHz and GHz frequency observations delivered by the Very Large Array Sky Survey, Low-Frequency Array Two-metre Sky Survey, Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, and Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey, here we present a catalog of 149 gamma-ray detected misaligned AGN, thus $\sim$tripling the number of known objects of this class. Our sample includes a variety of radio morphologies, e.g., edge-darkened and edge-brightened, hybrids, wide-angle-tailed, bent jets, and giants. Since the gamma-ray emission is thought to be highly sensitive to the jet viewing angle, such an enlarged sample of gamma-ray detected misaligned radio sources will permit us to explore the origin of high-energy emission in relativistic jets and radio lobes and study AGN unification, in general.

Observational efforts in the last decade suggest the prevalence of photochemical hazes in exoplanetary atmospheres. Recent JWST observations raise growing evidence that exoplanetary hazes tend to have reflective compositions, unlike the conventionally assumed haze analogs, such as tholin and soot. In this study, I propose a novel hypothesis: diamond formation through chemical vapor deposition (CVD) may be happening in exoplanetary atmospheres. Using an aerosol microphysical model combined with the theory of CVD diamond and soot formation established in the industry community, I study how the haze composition evolves in exoplanetary atmospheres for various planetary equilibrium temperature, atmospheric metallicity, and C/O ratio. I find that CVD diamond growth dominates over soot growth in a wide range of planetary parameters. Diamond haze formation is most efficient at $T_{\rm eq}\sim1000~{\rm K}$ and low atmospheric metallicity ([M/H]$\le2.0$), while soot could be the main haze component only if the atmosphere is hot ($T_{\rm eq}\ge1200~{\rm K}$) and carbon rich (C/O$>1$). I also compute transmission, emission, and reflected light spectra, thereby suggesting possible observational signatures of diamond hazes, including the $3.53~{\rm {\mu}m}$ feature of hydrogenated diamonds, anomalously faint thermal emission due to thermal scattering, and a drastic increase in geometric albedo. This study suggests that warm exoplanetary atmospheres may be favorable sites for forming CVD diamonds, which would be testable by future observations by JWST and Ariel as well as haze synthesis experiments under hot hydrogen-rich conditions.

BL Lac objects are a class of jetted active galactic nuclei that do not exhibit or have weak emission lines in their optical spectra. Recently, the first $\gamma$-ray emitting BL Lac beyond $z=3$, 4FGL J1219.0 +3653 (hereafter J1219), was identified, i.e., within the first two billion years of the age of the universe. Here we report the results obtained from a detailed broadband study of this peculiar source by analyzing the new $\sim$58 ksec XMM-Newton and archival observations and reproducing the multiwavelength spectral energy distribution with the conventional one-zone leptonic radiative model. The XMM-Newton~data revealed that J1219 is a faint X-ray emitter ($F_{\rm 0.3-10~keV}=8.39^{+4.11}_{-2.40}\times10^{-15}$ erg/cm2/s) and exhibits a soft spectrum (0.3$-$10 keV photon index$=2.28^{+0.58}_{-0.48}$). By comparing the broadband physical properties of J1219 with $z>3$ $\gamma$-ray detected flat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs), we have found that it has a relatively low jet power and, similar to FSRQs, the jet power is larger than the accretion disk luminosity. We conclude that deeper multiwavelength observations will be needed to fully explore the physical properties of this unique high-redshift BL Lac object.

The Stellar Abundances and Galactic Evolution Survey (SAGES) is a multi-band survey that covers the northern sky area of ~12000 deg2. Nanshan One-meter Wide-field Telescope (NOWT) of Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory (XAO) carried out observations on g/r/i bands. We present here the survey strategy, data processing, catalog construction, and database schema. The observations of NOWT started in 2016 August and was completed in 2018 January, total 17827 frames were obtained and ~4600 deg2 sky areas were covered. In this paper, we released the catalog of the data in the g/r/i bands observed with NOWT. In total, there are 109,197,578 items of the source records. The catalog is the supplement for the SDSS for the bright end, and the combination of our catalog and these catalogs could be helpful for source selections for other surveys and the Milky Way sciences, e.g., white dwarf candidates and stellar flares.

Large amplitude oscillations commonly occur in solar prominences, triggered by energetic phenomena such as jets and flares. On March 14-15, 2015, a filament partially erupted in two stages, leading to oscillations in different parts. This study explores longitudinal oscillations from the eruption, focusing on the mechanisms behind their initiation, with special attention to the large oscillation on March 15. The oscillations and jets are analyzed using the time-distance technique. For flares and their interaction with the filament, we analyze AIA channels and use the DEM technique. Initially, a jet fragments the filament, splitting it into two segments. One remains in place, while the other detaches and moves. This causes oscillations in both segments: (a) the position change causes the detached segment to oscillate with a period of $69 \pm 3$ minutes; (b) the jet flows cause the remaining filament to oscillate with a period of $62 \pm 2$ minutes. In the second phase, on March 15, another jet seemingly activates the detached filament eruption, followed by a flare. A large longitudinal oscillation occurs in the remnant segment with a period of $72 \pm 2$ minutes and velocity amplitude $73 \pm 1 \, \mathrm{km s^{-1}}$. During the oscillation trigger, bright field lines connect the flare with the filament, appearing only in the AIA 131$\r{A}$ and 94$\r{A}$ channels, indicating the presence of hot plasma. DEM analysis confirms this, showing plasma around 10 MK pushing the prominence from its southeastern side, displacing it along the field lines and starting the oscillation. From this, the flare -- not the preceding jet-triggers the oscillation. The hot plasma flows into the filament channel. We explain how flares trigger large oscillations in filaments by proposing that post-flare loops reconnect with the filament channel's magnetic field.

The Planck mission provided all-sky dust emission maps in the submm to mm range at an angular resolution of 5'. In addition, some specific sources can be observed at long wavelengths and higher resolution using ground-based telescopes. These observations are limited to small scales and require extensive data processing before they become available for scientific analysis. They also suffer from extended emission filtering. At present, we are still unable to fully understand the emissivity variations observed in different astrophysical environments at long wavelengths. It is therefore challenging to estimate any dust emission in the submm-mm at a better resolution than the 5' from Planck. In this analysis, based on supervised deep learning algorithms, we produced dust emission predictions in the two Planck bands centered at 850 mic and 1.38 mm, at the Herschel resolution (37''). Herschel data of Galactic environments, ranging from 160 to 500 mic and smoothed to 5', were used to train the neural network. Then, using Herschel data only, the model was applied to predict dust emission maps at 37''. The neural network is capable of reproducing dust emission maps of various Galactic environments. Remarkably, it also performs well for nearby extragalactic environments. This could indicate that large dust grains have similar properties in both our Galaxy and nearby galaxies, or at least that their spectral behaviors are comparable in Galactic and extragalactic environments. We provide dust emission prediction maps at 850 mic and 1.38 mm at the 37'' of several surveys: Hi-GAL, Gould Belt, Cold Cores, HERITAGE, Helga, HerM33es, KINGFISH, and VNGS. The ratio of these two wavelength brightness bands reveals a derived emissivity spectral index statistically close to 1 for all the surveys, which favors the hypothesis of a flattened dust emission spectrum for wavelengths larger than 850 mic.

AIMS: We studied fast variability of three selected AGNs, IRAS 13224-3809, 1H 0707-495 and Mrk 766, and the cataclysmic variable MV Lyr observed by XMM-Newton and Kepler spacecrafts, respectively. Our goal is to search for common origin of the variability and to test the so-called sandwich model where a geometrically thick corona is surrounding a geometrically thin disc. METHODS: We study substructures of the averaged flare profiles. The flare profile method identifies individual flares in the light curve, and averages them. Direct fitting of the profile substructures identify individual characteristic frequencies seen in standard power density spectra (PDS) as a break frequency or quasi-periodic oscillation. The credibility of flare profile substructures is demonstrated by comparison with autocorrelation function. RESULTS: We found that the flare profiles of AGNs are similar to that of the cataclysmic variable in the low state. We explain this as a consequence of a truncated inner disc in a sandwich model. The same scenario is also able to explain the presence of characteristic break frequencies in X-ray PDS, but not seen in optical. We also searched for substructures in the flare profile of IRAS 13224-3809. In addition to a permanently present main flare, we found transient side-lobe appearing before the main flare and only seen in a high flux period. This complex flare profile of this AGN suggests that an additional source of X-rays appears during the high flux period. We propose a scenario in which an accretion flow fluctuation enters the sandwich corona and propagates further to some very central part of the accretion disc.

Massive stars mainly form in close binaries, where their mutual interactions can profoundly alter their evolutionary paths. Evolved binaries consisting of a massive OB-type main-sequence star with a stripped helium star or a compact companion represent a crucial stage in the evolution towards double compact objects, whose mergers are (potentially) detectable via gravitational waves. The recent detection of X-ray quiet OB+black hole binaries and OB+stripped helium star binaries has set the stage for discovering more of these systems in the near future. In this work, based on 3670 detailed binary-evolution models and using empirical distributions of initial binary parameters, we compute the expected population of such evolved massive binaries in coeval stellar populations, including stars in star clusters and in galaxies with starburst activities, for ages up to 100 Myr. Our results are vividly illustrated in an animation that shows the evolution of these binaries in the color-magnitude diagram over time. We find that the number of OB+black hole binaries peaks around 10 Myr, and OB+neutron star binaries are most abundant at approximately 20 Myr. Both black holes and neutron stars can potentially be found in populations with ages up to 90 Myr. Additionally, we analyze the properties of such binaries at specific ages. We find that OB+helium stars and OB+black hole binaries are likely to be identifiable as single-lined spectroscopic binaries. Our research serves as a guide for future observational efforts to discover such binaries in young star clusters and starburst environments.

Understanding the evolution of galaxies cannot exclude the important role played by the central supermassive black hole and the circumgalactic medium (CGM). Simulations have strongly suggested the negative feedback of AGN Jet/wind/outflows on the ISM/CGM of a galaxy leading to the eventual decline of star formation. However, no "smoking gun" evidence exists so far where relics of feedback, observed in any band, are consistent with the time scale of a major decline in star formation, in any sample of galaxies. Relics of any AGN-driven outflows will be observed as a faint and fuzzy structure which may be difficult to characterise by automated algorithms but trained citizen scientists can possibly perform better through their intuitive vision with additional heterogeneous data available anywhere on the Internet. RAD@home, launched on 15th April 2013, is not only the first Indian Citizen Science Research (CSR) platform in astronomy but also the only CSR publishing discoveries using any Indian telescope. We briefly report 11 CSR discoveries collected over the last eleven years. While searching for such relics we have spotted cases of offset relic lobes from elliptical and spiral, episodic radio galaxies with overlapping lobes as the host galaxy is in motion, large diffuse spiral-shaped emission, cases of jet-galaxy interaction, kinks and burls on the jets, a collimated synchrotron thread etc. Such exotic sources push the boundaries of our understanding of classical Seyferts and radio galaxies with jets and the process of discovery prepares the next generation for science with the upgraded GMRT and Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO).

J-type stars are a subclass of carbon stars that are generally Li-rich, not enriched in s-elements, and have low $^{12}$C/$^{13}$C ratios. They were suggested to be the manufacturers of the pre-solar grains of type AB2 (having low $^{12}$C/$^{13}$C and supersolar $^{14}$N/$^{15}$N). In this Letter, we investigate the possibility that J-type stars are early asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars that experienced a proton ingestion event (PIE). We used the stellar evolution code STAREVOL to compute AGB stellar models with initial masses of 1, 2, and 3 $M_{\odot}$ and metallicities [Fe/H] $= -0.5$ and 0.0. We included overshooting above the thermal pulse and used a network of 1160 nuclei coupled to the transport equations. In solar-metallicity AGB stars, PIEs can be triggered if a sufficiently high overshoot is considered. These events lead to low $^{12}$C/$^{13}$C ratios, high Li abundances, and no enrichment in s-elements. We find that the $2-3$ $M_{\odot}$ AGB models experiencing a PIE can account for most of the observational features of J-type stars and AB2 grains. The remaining tensions between models and observations are (1) the low $^{14}$N/$^{15}$N ratio of some AB2 grains and of 2 out of 13 J-type stars, (2) the high $^{26}$Al/$^{27}$Al of some AB2 grains, and (3) the J-type stars with A(Li) $<2$. Extra mixing mechanisms can alleviate some of these tensions, such as thermohaline or rotation. This work highlights a possible match between AGB stellar models that undergo a PIE and J-type stars and AB2 grains. To account for other types of carbon stars, such as N-type stars, PIEs should only develop in a fraction of solar-metallicity AGB stars. Additional work is needed to assess how the occurrence of PIEs depends on mixing parameters and initial conditions, and therefore to further confirm or exclude the proposed scenario.

Blue straggler stars are unique main-sequence stars that appear more luminous, hotter, and therefore younger, than their coeval counterparts. In star clusters, these stars are located above the cluster turn-off in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram or color-magnitude diagram. First identified in the 1950s, these stars are found across diverse environments, from sparse galactic fields to dense star clusters. They are crucial for understanding stellar and binary evolution and star cluster dynamics. Despite extensive research, many challenges concerning their properties and origin mechanisms remain unresolved. This chapter delves into the properties and origins of blue stragglers, examining how theoretical tools are employed to study them and the implications of each proposed formation mechanism. We assess how contemporary observational data either support or challenge these theoretical predictions. Continued theoretical and observational efforts are essential for advancing our understanding of these enigmatic stars.

Several gamma-ray observatories have discovered photons of cosmic origin with energies in the PeV ($10^{15}\,\text{eV}$) range. Photons at these energies might be produced as by-products from particle acceleration in so-called PeVatrons, which are widely assumed to be the sources of a large part of galactic cosmic rays. Based on recent measurements of these PeV $\gamma$-sources by LHAASO and HAWC, we extrapolate the energy spectra of selected sources up to the ultra-high-energy (UHE, ${\geq}10\,\text{PeV}$) regime. The goal of this study is to evaluate if (and under what conditions) giant air-shower observatories, for example the Pierre Auger Observatory, could contribute to testing the UHE luminosity of PeV $\gamma$-sources. Possible propagation effects are investigated as well as the required discrimination power to distinguish photon- and hadron-initiated air showers. For present detector setups, it turns out to be challenging to achieve the required sensitivity due to the energy threshold being too high or the detection area too small. Dedicated detector concepts appear to be needed to explore the UHE frontier. Ultimately, this could provide complementary information on the sources of cosmic rays beyond the PeV regime -- a key objective of current efforts in multimessenger astronomy.

Accurate astrometric and photometric measurements from Gaia have led to the construction of 3D dust extinction maps which can now be used for estimating the integrated extinctions of Galactic sources located within 5 kpc. These maps based on optical observations may not be reliable for use in the ultraviolet (UV) which is more sensitive to reddening. Past studies have focused on studying UV extinction using main-sequence stars but lack comparison with 3D dust maps. White dwarfs with well-modeled hydrogen-dominated (DA) atmospheres provide an advantage over main-sequence stars affected by magnetic activity. In this work, we study the variation of UV extinction with 3D dust maps utilising HST and GALEX observations of DA white dwarfs located within 300 pc. We used HST COS spectroscopic data of 76 sight lines to calculate the optical extinction from Si II column densities and validate our results with the kinematic model predictions of the local interstellar medium. Also, we combined GALEX and Gaia photometric observations of 1158 DA white dwarfs to study UV reddening by comparing observed and modeled colour-colour relations. We calculated GALEX non-linearity corrections and derived reddening coefficients (R(NUV-G) = 6.52 +/- 1.53 and R(FUV-G) = 6.04 +/- 2.41) considering their variations with optical extinction (Av < 0.1 mag), and found them to be in good agreement with known extinction laws. HST analysis suggests a positive bias of 0.01-0.02 mag in the optical extinction from 3D maps depending on the Galactic latitude. These results independently confirm the validity of 3D dust maps to deredden the optical and UV observations of white dwarfs.

For over 25 years, the origin of long-duration gamma-ray bursts (lGRBs) has been linked to the collapse of rotating massive stars. However, we have yet to pinpoint the stellar progenitor powering these transients. Moreover, the dominant engine powering the explosions remains open to debate. Observations of both lGRBs, supernovae associated with these GRBs, such as broad-line (BL) stripped-envelope (type Ic) supernovae (hereafter, Ic-BL) supernovae (SNe) and perhaps superluminous SNe, fast blue optical transients, and fast x-ray transients, may provide clues to both engines and progenitors. In this paper, we conduct a detailed study of the tight-binary formation scenario for lGRBs, comparing this scenario to other leading progenitor models. Combining this progenitor scenario with different lGRB engines, we can compare to existing data and make predictions for future observational tests. We find that the combination of the tight-binary progenitor scenario with the black hole accretion disk (BHAD) engine can explain lGRBs, low-luminosity GRBs, ultra-long GRBs, and Ic-BL. We discuss the various progenitor properties required for these different subclasses and note such systems would be future gravitational wave merger sources. We show that the current literature on other progenitor-engine scenarios cannot explain all of these transient classes with a single origin, motivating additional work. We find that the tight-binary progenitor with a magnetar engine is excluded by existing observations. The observations can be used to constrain the properties of stellar evolution, the nature of the GRB and the associated SN engines in lGRBs and Ic-BL. We discuss the future observations needed to constrain our understanding of these rare, but powerful, explosions.

Microquasars are compact binary systems hosting collimated relativistic jets. They have long been proposed as cosmic-ray accelerators, probed via the gamma-ray emission produced by relativistic particles. However, the observational evidence is steadily increasing but limited: there are around twenty microquasars known to date, of which only three have so far been firmly detected in the GeV gamma-ray range, always in a flaring or special spectral state. Here we present Fermi-LAT observations of the region around the microquasar GRS 1915+105, which reveal the presence of previously unknown multi-GeV emission consistent with the position of the microquasar. No periodicity or variability is found, indicating a persistent source of gamma rays. The properties of the emission are consistent with a scenario in which protons accelerated in the jets interact with nearby gas and produce gamma rays. We find that if the jet has been operating at an average of 1% of the Eddington limit for 10% of the time that GRS 1915+105 spent in its current mass-transfer state, the transfer of 10% of the available power to protons is enough to reach the $\sim 3 \cdot 10^{49}$ erg required to explain the GeV signal. Therefore our results support a scenario in which microquasars with low-mass stellar companions act as hadronic accelerators, strengthening the idea that microquasars as a class contribute to at least some fraction of the observed cosmic-ray flux.

In 2022, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) obtained 1-5um images of the center of the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC). I have analyzed these data in an attempt to search for substellar members of the cluster. Using a pair of color-color diagrams, I have identified >200 brown dwarf candidates that lack spectral classifications. Some of the candidates could be protostars (either stellar or substellar) given their very red colors. Based on the age of the ONC and the photometry predicted by theoretical evolutionary models, the faintest candidates could have masses of 1-2 Mjup. This sample of candidates may prove to be valuable for studying various aspects of young brown dwarfs, including their mass function and minimum mass. However, spectroscopy is needed to confirm the membership (via signatures of youth) and late spectral types of the candidates. Finally, I note that most of the "Jupiter-mass binary objects" that have been previously identified with these JWST images are absent from my sample of candidates because their colors are indicative of reddened background sources rather than young brown dwarfs or their photometry is inadequate for assessing their nature because of very low signal-to-noise ratios and/or detections in only a few bands.

The early dark energy (EDE) model is one of the promising solutions to the Hubble tension. One of the successes of the EDE model is that it can provide a similar fit to the $\Lambda$CDM model for the CMB power spectrum. In this work, I analyze the phenomenology of the EDE and $\Lambda$CDM parameters on the CMB temperature power spectrum and notice that this cannot hold on all scales. Thus, if the real cosmology is as described by the EDE model, the $\Lambda$CDM parameters will be scale-dependent when fitting the CMB power spectrum with the $\Lambda$CDM model, which can be hints for the EDE model. I examine CMB-S4-like observations through mock data analysis and find that parameter shifts are notable. As observations include smaller scales, I find lower $H_0$, $n_s$, $\omega_b$ and higher $\omega_m$, $A_s e^{-2\tau}$, which will also constitute new tensions with other observations.

For the first time in an extragalactic source, we detect linearly polarized water maser emission associated with the molecular accretion disk of NGC 1068. The position angles of the electric polarization vectors are perpendicular to the axes of filamentary structures in the molecular accretion disk. The inferred magnetic field threading the molecular disk must lie within approximately 35 degrees of the sky plane. The orientation of the magnetic fields relative to the disk plane implies that the maser region is unstable to hydromagnetically powered outflow; we speculate that the maser region may be the source of the larger scale molecular outflow found in ALMA studies. The new VLBI observations also reveal a compact radio continuum source, NGC 1068*, aligned with the near-systemic maser spots. The molecular accretion disk must be viewed nearly edge-on, and the revised central mass is (16.6 +/- 0.1) million solar masses.

Following the wealth of new results enabled by multimessenger observations of the binary neutron star (BNS) merger GW170817, the next goal is increasing the number of detections of electromagnetic (EM) counterparts to gravitational wave (GW) events. Here, we study the detectability of the prompt emission and afterglows produced by the relativistic jets launched by BNS mergers that will be detected by LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) during their fifth observing run (O5), and by next generation (XG) GW detectors (Einstein Telescope and Cosmic Explorer). We quantify the impact of various BNS merger and jet afterglow parameters on the likelihood of detection for a wide range of telescopes, focusing on the impact of the observer's viewing angle $\theta_\textrm{v}$ and the jet's core half-opening angle $\theta_\textrm{c}$. We find that during the LVK O5 run, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is expected to reach the largest number of afterglow detections, up to $32\%$ of BNS mergers with $27\%$ detectable on timescales $>10$ d. Overall the detection of $20-30\%$ of events is possible across the EM spectrum with the available instruments, including the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, the Square Kilometer Array (SKA), and the Very Large Array (VLA). In the XG era, afterglows for $20-25\%$ of events will be detectable with AXIS, Athena, Lynx, UVEX, JWST and the next generation VLA (ngVLA), reaching beyond redshift $z \gtrsim 1$. We also find that the majority of detected afterglows are expected to accompany prompt gamma-ray emission detectable by the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, the Space-based multi-band astronomical Variable Objects Monitor (SVOM), and the Transient High-Energy Sky and Early Universe Surveyor (THESEUS), with at least $\sim 6\%$ of afterglows being orphan.

Based on astrometric measurements and spectral analysis from $Gaia$ DR3, two quiescent black hole (BH) binaries, $Gaia$ BH1 and BH2, have been identified. Their origins remain controversial, particularly for $Gaia$ BH1. By considering a rapidly rotating ($\omega/\omega_{\rm crit} = 0.8$) and strongly magnetized ($B_{\rm 0} = 5000$ G) merger product, we find that, at typical Galactic metallicity, the merger product can undergo efficient chemically homogeneous evolution (CHE). This results in the merger product having a significantly smaller radius during its evolution compared to that of a normally evolving massive star. Under the condition that the initial triple stability is satisfied, we use the Multiple Stellar Evolution (MSE) code and the MESA code to identify an initial hierarchical triple that can evolve into $Gaia$ BH1. It initially consists of three stars with masses of 9.03 $M_{\odot}$, 3.12 $M_{\odot}$, and 1 $M_{\odot}$, with inner and outer orbital periods of 2.21 days and 121.92 days, and inner and outer eccentricities of 0.41 and 0.45, respectively. This triple initially experiences triple evolution dynamics instability (TEDI) followed by Roche lobe overflow (RLOF). During RLOF, the inner orbit shrinks, and tidal effects gradually suppress the TEDI. Eventually, the inner binary undergoes a merger through contact (or collision). Finally, using models of rapidly rotating and strongly magnetic stars, along with standard core-collapse supernova (SN) or failed supernova (FSN) models, we find that a PMB consisting of an 12.11 $M_{\odot}$ merger product and a 1 $M_{\odot}$ companion star (originally an outer tertiary) can avoid RLOF. After a SN or FSN with a low ejected mass of $\sim$0.22 $M_{\odot}$ and a low kick velocity ($46^{+25}_{-33}$ ${\rm km/s}$ or $9^{+16}_{-8}$ ${\rm km/s}$), the PMB can form $Gaia$ BH1 in the Galactic disk.

The nature of the magnetic field structure throughout the Galactic Center (GC) has long been of interest. The recent Far-InfraREd Polarimetric Large-Area CMZ Exploration (FIREPLACE) Survey reveals preliminary connections between the seemingly distinct vertical and horizontal magnetic field distributions previously observed in the GC. We use the statistical techniques of the Histogram of Relative Orientation (HRO) and the Projected Rayleigh Statistic (PRS) to assess whether the CMZ magnetic field preferentially aligns with the column density gradient derived from CMZ molecular clouds or the morphology of the non-thermal emission of the GC NTF population. We find that there is a range of magnetic field orientations throughout the population of CMZ molecular clouds, ranging from parallel to perpendicular orientation. This range of orientations contrasts with what is observed in Galactic Disk star-forming regions. We also compare the magnetic field orientation from dust polarimetry with individual prominent NTFs, finding a preferred perpendicular relative orientation. This perpendicular orientation indicates that the vertical field component found in the FIREPLACE observations is not spatially confined to the NTFs, providing evidence for a more pervasive vertical field in the GC. We estimate an upper limit on the magnetic field strength for this vertical field of 4 mG. A field close to this upper limit would indicate that the NTFs are likely not local enhancements of a weaker background field and that the locations of the NTFs depend on proximity to sites of cosmic ray production.

We employ a novel framework for accelerated cosmological inference, based on neural emulators and gradient-based sampling methods, to forecast constraints on dark energy models from Stage IV cosmic shear surveys. We focus on dark scattering (DS), an interacting dark energy model with pure momentum exchange in the dark sector, and train COSMOPOWER emulators to accurately and efficiently model the DS non-linear matter power spectrum produced by the halo model reaction framework, including the effects of baryon feedback and massive neutrinos. We embed the emulators within a fully-differentiable pipeline for gradient-based cosmological inference for which the batch likelihood call is up to $O(10^5)$ times faster than with traditional approaches, producing parameter constraints from simulated Stage IV cosmic shear data running on a single graphics processing unit (GPU). We also perform model comparison on the output chains from the inference process, employing the learnt harmonic mean estimator implemented in the software HARMONIC. We investigate degeneracies between dark energy and systematics parameters and assess the impact of scale cuts on the final constraints. Assuming a DS model for the mock data vector, we find that a Stage IV survey cosmic shear analysis can constrain the DS amplitude parameter $A_{\mathrm{ds}}$ with an uncertainty roughly an order of magnitude smaller than current constraints from Stage III surveys, even after marginalising over baryonic feedback, intrinsic alignments and redshift distribution uncertainties. These results show great promise for constraining DS with Stage IV data; furthermore, our methodology can be straightforwardly extended to a wide range of dark energy and modified gravity models.

Cosmological simulations are a powerful tool to advance our understanding of galaxy formation and many simulations model key properties of real galaxies. A question that naturally arises for such simulations in light of high-quality observational data is: How close are the models to reality? Due to the high-dimensionality of the problem, many previous studies evaluate galaxy simulations using simplified summary statistics of physical properties. In this work, we combine simulation-based Bayesian model comparison with a novel misspecification detection technique to compare simulated galaxy images of 6 hydrodynamical models observations. Since cosmological simulations are computationally costly, we address the problem of low simulation budgets by first training a $k$-sparse variational autoencoder (VAE) on the abundant dataset of SDSS images. The VAE learns to extract informative latent embeddings and delineates the typical set of real images. To reveal simulation gaps, we then perform out-of-distribution detection (OOD) based on the logits of classifiers trained on the embeddings of simulated images. Finally, we perform amortized Bayesian model comparison using probabilistic classification, identifying the relatively best-performing model along with partial explanations through SHAP values.

We present a framework that for the first time allows Bayesian model comparison to be performed for field-level inference of cosmological models. We achieve this by taking a simulation-based inference (SBI) approach using neural likelihood estimation, which we couple with the learned harmonic mean estimator in order to compute the Bayesian evidence for model comparison. We apply our framework to mock Stage IV cosmic shear observations to assess its effectiveness at distinguishing between various models of dark energy. If the recent DESI results that provided exciting hints of dynamical dark energy were indeed the true underlying model, our analysis shows Stage IV cosmic shear surveys could definitively detect dynamical dark energy. We also perform traditional power spectrum likelihood-based inference for comparison, which we find is not able to distinguish between dark energy models, highlighting the enhanced constraining power for model comparison of our field-level SBI approach.

Strong gravitational lensing has significantly advanced the study of high-redshift galaxies, particularly those from the very early universe. However, the spectral analysis of lensed galaxies is inevitably affected by the differential magnification effect, which introduces biases into the derived properties. In this work, we investigate such biases in mock lensing systems generated with data from MaNGA survey and IllustrisTNG simulations. We study the changes of several spectral properties (stellar metallicity, age, flux of H$\alpha$ emission line and flux ratios of optical emission lines) before and after being lensed. Our result shows that all of these properties are significantly biased after being lensed and can be either over- or under-estimated, except for the consistently increasing H$\alpha$ flux. We also investigate the variations of biases with different lensing configurations and find that it always exists when part of the source galaxy falls into the strong lensing regime. Considering the prevalence of such biases, we examine two correction methods to recover the intrinsic source properties, with average magnification factor ($\bar{\mu}$) and full ray-tracing, respectively. Our findings reveal that both methods can reduce the overestimation of H$\alpha$ flux while the value corrected with $\bar{\mu}$ shows a larger discrepancy. For stellar population properties and emission line ratios, the $\bar{\mu}$ method fails to correct the biases, whereas the full ray-tracing method works effectively. The application of these two methods to a statistical sample of mock systems further shows their strong dependence on the accuracy of lens modeling. Our study indicates that spatially resolved spectroscopic observations of lensed images and precise lens modeling are crucial for the spectral analysis of strongly lensed high-redshift galaxies.

Cooling flows are common in galaxy clusters which have cool cores. The soft X-ray emission below 1 keV from the flows is mostly absorbed by cold dusty gas within the central cooling sites. Further evidence for this process is presented here through a more detailed analysis of the nearby Centaurus cluster and some additional clusters. Predictions of JWST near and mid-infrared spectra from cooling gas are presented. [NeVI] emission at 7.65 micron should be an important diagnostic of gas cooling between 6 and 1.5 times 10^5 K. The emerging overall picture of hidden cooling flows is explored. The efficiency of AGN feedback in reducing the total cooling rate in cool cores is shown to be above 50 percent for many clusters but is rarely above 90 per cent. The reduction is mostly in outer gas. Cooling dominates in elliptical galaxies and galaxy groups which have mass flow rates below about 15M/yr and in some massive clusters where rates can exceed 1000M/yr.

We used data from the Juno spacecraft to investigate both the spatial and temporal properties of Loki Patera on Io, acquired in two infrared bands between December 2022 and April 2024, at spatial resolutions ranging from 400 m to 15 km. Loki shows a thermal structure unlike other active lava lakes previously reported, with some brightening near the perimeter of the lake but lacking the continuous hot ring seen at other paterae. Modeling the slow rate of cooling suggests there is a significant volume of magma beneath the crust to provide the latent heat necessary to decelerate the cooling rate. A thermal propagation that may represent the signature of a resurfacing wave, going from the southwest of the lake to the north, was observed with a velocity of about 2-3 km per day. Data collected in 2024 may indicate the onset of a new resurfacing wave originating from a point source, rather than the foundering of a linear section of the crust. We also observed many small (about 3 km wide), closely spaced (about 10 km apart) islands that have persisted in the same locations for at least 45 years, since first being imaged by Voyager 1. The persistence of these islands challenges resurfacing models of Loki, as they have remained fixed - likely anchored to the lava lake floor - and have not noticeably changed in size, arguing against large-scale thermal erosion. The central island of Loki shows a few thermal structures associated with the fractures that cross the island, indicating that the fractures most likely contain molten lava.

We report recent observations of lava lakes within patera on Io made by the JIRAM imager/spectrometer on board the Juno spacecraft, taken during close observation occurred in the extended mission. At least 40 lava lakes have been identified from JIRAM observations. The majority (>50%) of paterae have elevated thermal signatures when imaged at sufficiently high spatial resolution (a few km/pixel), implying that lava lakes are ubiquitous on Io. The annular width of the spattering region around the margins, a characteristic of lava lakes, is of the order of few meters to tens of meters, the diameter of the observed lava lakes ranges from 10 to 100 km. The thickness of the crust in the center of some lava lakes is of the order of 5-10 m; we estimate that this crust is a few years old. Also, the bulk of the thermal emission comes from the much larger crust and not from the smaller exposed lava, so the total power output cannot be calculated from the 5-um radiance alone. Eight of the proposed lava lakes have never been reported previously as active hotspots.

Efficient multi-messenger observations of gravitational-wave candidates from compact binary coalescence (CBC) candidate events relies on data products reported in low-latency by the International Gravitational-wave Network (IGWN). While data products such as \texttt{HasNS}, the probability of at least one neutron star, and \texttt{HasRemnant}, the probability of remnant matter forming after merger, exist, these are not direct observables for a potential kilonova. Here, we present new kilonova light curve and ejecta mass data products derived from merger quantities measured in low latency, by marginalizing over our uncertainty in our understanding of the neutron star equation of state and using measurements of the source properties of the merger, including masses and spins. Two additional types of data products are proposed. The first is the probability of a candidate event having mass ejecta ($m_{\mathrm{ej}}$) greater than $10^{-3} M_\odot$, which we denote as \texttt{HasEjecta}. The second are $m_{\mathrm{ej}}$ estimates and accompanying \texttt{ugrizy} and \texttt{HJK} kilonova light curves predictions produced from a surrogate model trained on a grid of kilonova light curves from \texttt{POSSIS}, a time-dependent, three-dimensional Monte Carlo radiative transfer code. We are developing this data products in the context of the IGWN low-latency alert infrastructure, and will be advocating for their use and release for future detections.

All numerical solutions of the pulsar magnetosphere over the past 25 years show closed-line regions that end a significant distance inside the light cylinder, and manifest thick strongly dissipative separatrix surfaces instead of thin current sheets, with a tip that has a distinct pointed Y shape instead of a T shape. We need to understand the origin of these results which were not predicted by our early theories of the pulsar magnetosphere. In order to gain new intuition on this problem, we set out to obtain the theoretical steady-state solution of the 3D ideal force-free magnetosphere with zero dissipation along the separatrix and equatorial current sheets. In order to achieve our goal, we needed to develop a novel numerical method. We solve two independent non-singular magnetospheric problems in the domains of open and closed field lines, and adjust the shape of their interface (the separatrix) to satisfy pressure balance between the two regions. The solution is obtained with meshless Physics Inspired Neural Networks (PINNs) In this Letter we present preliminary results for an inclined dipole rotator using the new methodology. This is the first time the steady-state 3D problem is addressed directly, and not through a time-dependent simulation that eventually relaxes to a steady-state. Our results demonstrate the potential of the new method to generate the reference solution of the pulsar magnetosphere.

We calibrate the period-luminosity-metallicity (PLZ) relations of classical Cepheid (DCEP) in three near-infrared bands ($J$, $H$, $K_S$) and four mid-infrared bands ($W1$, $W2$, $[3.6]$ and $[4.5]$). The PLZ relations of $W1$ and $W2$ bands are calibrated for the first time. The distance moduli of the Large Magellanic Cloud estimated by these PLZ relations are in good agreement with the most accurate published value measured by geometric methods. These seven homogenous PLZ relations can aid in obtaining more robust distances for DCEPs. Applying our PLZ relations to trace the metallicity gradient of the Galactic disc, we find that the gradient for sources with logarithmic age less than 7.67 is almost fixed: $-0.056 \,\pm\, 0.002 \,\textrm{dex}\, \textrm{kpc}^{-1}$; the gradient for sources with logarithmic age greater than 7.67 is period-dependent (i.e., age-dependent): $(-0.074 \,\pm\, 0.003)+(-0.022 \,\pm\, 0.002)\log P)\,\textrm{dex}\, \textrm{kpc}^{-1}$. In addition, we find that DCEPs in the $R_{GC} \gtrsim 14.5\,\textrm{kpc}$ region tend to migrate toward the Galactic center, while DCEPs in the $10.5\,\textrm{kpc} \lesssim R_{GC} \lesssim 14.5\,\textrm{kpc}$ region tend to migrate toward the anti-Galactic center, which may be the reason for the obvious break of the metallicity gradient at $R_{GC} \thickapprox 14.5\,\textrm{kpc}$. We conclude that the evolution of the metallicity gradient of DCEPs may be related to their radial migration.

We measure the growth of cosmic density fluctuations on large scales and across the redshift range $0.3<z<0.8$ through the cross-correlation of the ACT DR6 CMB lensing map and galaxies from the DESI Legacy Survey, using three galaxy samples spanning the redshifts of $0.3 \lesssim z \lesssim 0.45$, $0.45 \lesssim z \lesssim0.6$, $0.6 \lesssim z \lesssim 0.8$. We adopt a scale cut where non-linear effects are negligible, so that the cosmological constraints are derived from the linear regime. We determine the amplitude of matter fluctuations over all three redshift bins using ACT data alone to be $S_8\equiv\sigma_8(\Omega_m/0.3)^{0.5}=0.772\pm0.040$ in a joint analysis combining the three redshift bins and ACT lensing alone. Using a combination of ACT and \textit{Planck} data we obtain $S_8=0.765\pm0.032$. The lowest redshift bin used is the least constraining and exhibits a $\sim2\sigma$ tension with the other redshift bins; thus we also report constraints excluding the first redshift bin, giving $S_8=0.785\pm0.033$ for the combination of ACT and \textit{Planck}. This result is in excellent agreement at the $0.3\sigma$ level with measurements from galaxy lensing, but is $1.8\sigma$ lower than predictions based on \textit{Planck} primary CMB data. Understanding whether this hint of discrepancy in the growth of structure at low redshifts arises from a fluctuation, from systematics in data, or from new physics, is a high priority for forthcoming CMB lensing and galaxy cross-correlation analyses.

Advances in modern technologies enable the characterisation of exoplanetary atmospheres, most efficiently exploiting the transmission spectroscopy technique. We performed visible (VIS) and near infrared (nIR) high-resolution spectroscopic observations of one transit of HD 149026b, a close-in orbit sub Saturn exoplanet. We first analysed the radial velocity data, refining the value of the projected spin-orbit obliquity. Then we performed transmission spectroscopy, looking for absorption signals from the planetary atmosphere. We find no evidence for H$\alpha$, NaI D2 - D1, MgI and LiI in the VIS and metastable helium triplet HeI(2$^3$S) in the nIR using a line-by-line approach. The non-detection of HeI is also supported by theoretical simulations. With the use of the cross-correlation technique, we do not detect TiI, VI, CrI, FeI and VO in the visible, and CH$_4$, CO$_2$, H$_2$O, HCN, NH$_3$, VO in the nIR. Our non-detection of TiI in the planetary atmosphere is in contrast with a previous detection. We performed injection-retrieval tests, finding that our dataset is sensitive to our TiI model. The non-detection supports the TiI cold-trap theory, which is valid for planets with $T_{\rm eq} <$ 2200 K like HD 149026b. Even if we do not attribute it directly to the planet, we find a possibly significant TiI signal highly redshifted ($\simeq$+20 km s$^{-1}$) with respect to the planetary restframe. Redshifted signals are also found in the FeI and CrI maps. While we can exclude an eccentric orbit to cause it, we investigated the possibility of material accretion falling onto the star, possibly supported by the presence of strong LiI in the stellar spectrum, without finding conclusive results. The analysis of multiple transits datasets could shed more light on this target.

The interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) between the Sun and Earth is an extension of the solar magnetic field carried by the solar wind into interplanetary space. Monitoring variations in the IMF upstream of the Earth would provide very important information for the prediction of space weather effects, such as effects of solar storms and the solar wind, on human activity. In this study, the IMF between the Sun and Earth was measured daily for the first time using a cosmic-ray observatory. Cosmic rays mainly consist of charged particles that are deflected as they pass through a magnetic field.Therefore, the cosmic-ray Sun shadow, caused by high-energy charged cosmic rays blocked by the Sun and deflected by the magnetic field, can be used to explore the transverse IMF between the Sun and Earth. By employing the powerful kilometer-square array at the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory, the cosmic-ray Sun shadows were observed daily with high significance for the first time. The displacement of the Sun shadow measured in 2021 correlates well with the transverse IMF component measured in situ by spacecraft near the Earth, with a time lag of 3:31 $\pm$ 0:12 days. The displacement of the Sun shadow was also simulated using Parker's classic IMF model, yielding a time lag of 2:06 $\pm$ 0:04 days. This deviation may provide valuable insights into the magnetic field structure, which can improve space weather research.

Black hole binaries with small mass ratios will be critical targets for the forthcoming Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission. They also serve as useful tools for understanding the properties of binaries at general mass ratios. In its early stages, such a binary's gravitational-wave-driven inspiral can be modeled as the smaller body flowing through a sequence of geodesic orbits of the larger black hole's spacetime. Its motion through this sequence is determined by the rate at which backreaction changes an orbit's integrals of motion $E$, $L_z$, and $Q$. Key to the motion being close to a geodesic at any moment is the idea that the effect of backreaction is small compared to a ``restoring force'' arising from the potential which governs geodesic motion. This restoring force holds the small body on a geodesic trajectory as the backreaction causes that geodesic to slowly evolve. As the inspiraling body approaches the last stable orbit (LSO), the restoring force becomes weaker and the backreaction becomes stronger. Once the small body evolves past the LSO, its trajectory converges to a plunging geodesic. This work aims to smoothly connect these two disparate regimes: the slowly evolving adiabatic inspiral and the final plunge. Past work has focused on this transition to plunge for circular systems. Here, we study the transition for binaries with eccentricity. A well-defined eccentric transition will make it possible to develop small-mass-ratio binary waveform models that terminate in a physically reasonable way, rather than abruptly terminating as an inspiral-only model ends. A model that can explore the parameter space of eccentricity may also be useful for understanding the final cycles of eccentric binaries at less extreme mass ratios, such as those likely to be observed by ground-based detectors.

We present X-ray observations of the upper atmospheric density disturbance caused by the explosive eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai (HTHH) volcano on 15 January 2022. From 14 January to 16 January, the Chinese X-ray astronomy satellite, Insight-HXMT, was observing the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A. The X-ray data obtained during Earth's atmospheric occultations allowed us to measure neutral densities in the altitude range of ~90-150 km. The density profiles above 110 km altitude obtained before the major eruption are in reasonable agreement with expectations by both GAIA and NRLMSIS 2.0 models. In contrast, after the HTHH eruption, a severe density depletion was found up to ~1,000 km away from the epicenter, and a relatively weak depletion extending up to ~7,000 km for over 8 hr after the eruption. In addition, density profiles showed wavy structures with a typical length scale of either ~20 km (vertical) or ~1,000 km (horizontal). This may be caused by Lamb waves or gravity waves triggered by the volcanic eruption.

The inner shadow of a black hole, as a projection of the event horizon, is regarded as a potential tool for testing gravitational theories and constraining system parameters. Whether this holds in the case of a tilted accretion disk warrants further investigation. In this paper, we employ a ray-tracing algorithm to simulate images of the Kerr black hole illuminated by a tilted thin accretion disk, with particular attention to the relationship between the inner shadow and system parameters. Our findings reveal that in the case of an equatorial accretion disk, the Kerr black hole exhibits a minimum inner shadow size of $S_{\textrm{min}} = 13.075$ M$^{2}$, where M denotes the black hole mass. This minimum is achieved when the viewing angle is $0^{\circ}$ and the spin parameter approaches $1$. However, with a non-zero disk tilt, the inner shadow exhibits novel configurations--taking on petal, crescent, or eyebrow shapes--significantly smaller than $S_{\textrm{min}}$ across various parameter spaces. This indicates that the inner shadow is highly sensitive to the accretion environment, suggesting that caution is needed when using it as a diagnostic tool for black holes. Notably, an observed inner shadow smaller than $S_{\textrm{min}}$ would either indicate the presence of a tilted accretion disk or support the viability of modified gravity. Moreover, in certain parameter spaces, we identify the emergence of a dual-shadow structure, which could also serve as a probe for the tilted accretion disk.

Recent multi-messenger observations suggest that high-energy neutrinos may be produced close to central black holes in active galaxies. These regions may host dark-matter (DM) spikes, where the concentration of DM particles is very high. Here we explore the contribution of the DM annihilation to the target photons for the neutrino production, proton-photon interactions, estimate the associated neutrino spectrum and figure out possible future tests of this scenario.

The successful detection of continuous gravitational waves (GWs) from spinning neutron stars (NSs) will shape our understanding of the physical properties of dense matter under extreme conditions. Binary population synthesis simulations show that forthcoming space-borne GW detectors may be capable of detecting some tight Galactic double NSs (DNSs) with 10-minute orbital periods. Successfully searching for continuous GWs from such a close DNS demands extremely precise waveform templates considering the interaction between the NS and its companion. Unlike the isolated formation channel, the DNSs from the dynamical formation channel have moderate to high orbital eccentricities. To accommodate these systems, we generalize the analytical waveforms from triaxial nonaligned NSs under spin-orbit coupling derived by Feng et al. [Phys. Rev. D 108, 063035 (2023) {https://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevD.108.063035}] to incorporate the effects of the orbital eccentricity. Our findings suggest that for DNSs formed through isolated binary evolution, the impact of eccentricity on the continuous GWs of their NSs can be neglected. In contrast, for DNSs formed through dynamical processes, it is necessary to consider eccentricity, as high-eccentricity orbits can result in a fitting factor of $\lesssim 0.97$ within approximately 0.5 to 2 years of a coherent search. Once the GWs from spinning NSs in tight binaries are detected, the relative measurement accuracy of eccentricity can reach $\Delta e / e \sim O(10^{-7})$ for a signal-to-noise ratio of $O(100)$ based on the Fisher information matrix, bearing significant implications for understanding the formation mechanisms of DNSs.

Normally a passive object launched from the Moon at less than the escape velocity orbits the Moon once and then crashes back to the launch site. We show that thanks to lunar gravity anomalies, for specific launch sites and directions, a passive projectile can remain in lunar orbit for up to 9 Earth days. We find that such sites exist at least on the lunar equator for prograde equatorial orbit launches. Three of the sites are located on the lunar nearside. We envision that this can be used to lift material from the Moon at low cost because it gives prolonged opportunities for an active spacecraft to catch the projectile. Passive projectiles can be made entirely from lunar material so that a stream of Earth-imported parts is not needed. To reduce the mass and cost of the launcher, the projectile mass can be scaled down with a corresponding increase in the launch frequency. The projectile launcher itself can be a coilgun, railgun, superconducting quenchgun, sling or any other device that can give a projectile an orbital speed of about 1.7 km/s.

This thesis explores compact objects, particularly neutron stars, focusing on their properties, classification, and stability within the framework of general relativity. Two distinct studies are presented. The first study examines the properties of compact stars, including neutron stars, using an equation of state from a core-envelope model. By solving Einstein's equations with pseudo-spheroidal and spherically symmetric geometries, the mass-radius relationship is derived, leading to the classification of compact stars into three categories: highly compact self-bound stars (radii $<$ 9 km), normal neutron stars (radii 9--12 km), and soft matter neutron stars (radii 12--20 km). Other parameters such as Keplerian frequency, surface gravity, and gravitational redshift are also computed, offering insights into highly compact neutron stars with exotic compositions. The second study investigates the impact of density perturbations and local anisotropy on stellar stability. Using the cracking concept and a core-envelope model with anisotropic pressure in the envelope, we explore the potential of these configurations as progenitors for starquakes. The buildup of strain energy in the envelope, linked to anisotropy, can reach up to $10^{50}$ erg -- comparable to energy released in giant gamma-ray bursts. This study thus contributes to understanding the relationship between starquakes and gamma-ray bursts. Overall, this work advances the understanding of neutron stars by classifying them based on their radii and investigating the stability of their matter structures, providing new insights into starquakes and their possible connections with gamma-ray bursts.

A binary extreme-mass-ratio inspiral (b-EMRI) is a hierarchical triple system consisting of a stellar-mass binary black hole (BBH) orbiting a central Kerr supermassive black hole (SMBH). Although predicted by several astrophysical models, b-EMRIs pose a challenge in waveform modeling due to their complex three-body dynamics and strong relativistic effects. Here we take advantage of the hierarchical nature of b-EMRI systems to transform the internal motion of the small binary into global trajectories around the SMBH. This allows us to use black hole perturbation theory to calculate both the low-frequency gravitational waveform due to its EMRI nature and the high-frequency waveform generated by the inner motion of the BBH. When the inner binary's separation vanishes, our calculation recovers the standard relativistic adiabatic EMRI waveform. Furthermore, by including the high-frequency perturbation, we find a correction to the waveform as large as the adiabatic order when the frequency matches the quasinormal modes (QNMs) of the SMBH, therefore supporting an earlier proof-of-concept study claiming that the small BBH can resonantly excite the QNMs of the SMBH. More importantly, we find that b-EMRIs can evolve faster than regular EMRIs due to this resonant dissipation through the high-frequency modes. These characteristics distinguish b-EMRI waveform templates from regular EMRI templates for future space-based gravitational-wave detectors.

A relativistic MOND theory, promising in reproducing cosmology as well as the MOND phenomenology in the low acceleration regime, was recently proposed. We present the post-Newtonian (PN) approximation and relativistic perturbation equations of this theory in cosmological context. The PN equations are presented to 1PN order and perturbation equations are presented in fully-nonlinear and exact forms. The gauge issues are clarified. The 1PN equations and linear perturbation equations are presented without imposing temporal gauge conditions. The MOND field can be interpreted as a fluid with specific equation of state without anisotropic stress, and the Jeans criterion is derived for the MOND field.

A dual-operation mode SNSPD is demonstrated. In the conventional Geiger SNSPD mode the sensor operates at temperatures well below the critical temperature, Tc, working as an event counter without sensitivity to the number of photons impinging the sensor. In the calorimetric mode, the detector is operated at temperatures just below Tc and displays photon-number sensitivity for wavelengths in the optical spectrum. In this energy sensitive mode, photon absorption causes Joule heating of the SNSPD that becomes partially resistive without the presence of latching. Depending on the application, by tuning the sample temperature and bias current using the same readout system, the SNSPD can readily switch between the two modes. In the calorimetric mode, SNSPD recovery times shorter than the ones in the Geiger mode are observed, reaching values as low as 580ps. Dual-mode SNSPD's may provide significant advancements in spectroscopy and calorimetry, where precise timing, photon counting and energy resolution are required.

In the search for stochastic gravitational wave backgrounds (SGWB) of cosmological origin with LISA, it is crucial to account for realistic complications in the noise and astrophysical foreground modeling that may impact the signal reconstruction. To address these challenges, we updated the $\texttt{SGWBinner}$ code to incorporate both variable noise levels across LISA arms and more complex foreground spectral shapes. Our findings suggest that, while moderate variations of the noise amplitudes have a minimal impact, poor foreground modeling (i.e., templates requiring many free parameters) significantly degrades the reconstruction of cosmological signals. This underlines the importance of accurate modeling and subtraction of the astrophysical foregrounds to characterize possible cosmological components. To perform this more challenging analysis, we have integrated the $\texttt{JAX}$ framework, which significantly improves the computational efficiency of the code, in the $\texttt{SGWBinner}$ code, enabling faster Bayesian likelihood sampling and more effective exploration of complex SGWB signals.

Ionospheric irregularities and associated scintillations under geomagnetically active/quiet conditions have detrimental effects on the reliability and performance of space- and ground-based navigation satellite systems, especially over the low-latitude region. The current work investigates the low-latitude ionospheric irregularities using the phase screen theory and the corresponding temporal Power Spectral Density (PSD) analysis to present an estimate of the outer irregularity scale sizes over these locations. The study uses simultaneous L5 signal C/N$_o$ observations of NavIC (a set of GEO and GSO navigation satellite systems) near the northern crest of EIA (Indore: 22.52$^\circ$N, 75.92$^\circ$E, dip: 32.23$^\circ$N) and in between the crest and the dip equator (Hyderabad: 17.42$^\circ$N, 78.55$^\circ$E, dip: 21.69$^\circ$N). The study period (2017-2018) covers disturbed and quiet-time conditions in the declining phase of the solar cycle 24. The PSD analysis brings forward the presence of irregularities, of the order of a few hundred meters during weak-to-moderate and quiet-time conditions and up to a few km during the strong event, over both locations. The ROTI values validate the presence of such structures in the Indian region. Furthermore, only for the strong event, a time delay of scintillation occurrence over Indore, with values of 36 minutes and 50 minutes for NavIC satellites (PRNs) 5 and 6, respectively, from scintillation occurrence at Hyderabad is observed, suggesting a poleward evolution of irregularity structures. Further observations show a westward propagation of these structures on this day. This study brings forward the advantage of utilizing continuous data from the GEO and GSO satellite systems in understanding the evolution and propagation of the ionospheric irregularities over the low-latitude region.

Among the great mysteries that physics has not yet solved are undoubtedly those of dark energy and dark matter. In this chapter we deal with the first of them. We will expound in detail the motivations that led to hypothesise the existence of dark energy, the importance of understanding its nature, its main possible theoretical explanations and a list of the many attempts at modelling it. We conclude with a description of the most recent and future missions on Earth and in space devised to shed light on this mystery.

It was recently suggested (arxiv:2410.06604) that the small value of the dark energy of the universe could be explained in terms of the scale of neutrino masses through a simple quantum field theoretic mechanism. I clarify that the quantity computed is only a threshold correction to the vacuum energy at the low $m_\nu$ scale, and therefore cannot explain the magnitude of the vacuum energy.

Research on pulsar timing arrays has provided preliminary evidence for the existence of a stochastic gravitational background, which, either being primordial or of astrophysical origin, will interact universally with matter distributions in our universe and affect their evolutions. This work, based on general relativity and stochastic dynamics theory, investigates the fluctuation-dissipation relation of isolated celestial bodies within a classical stochastic gravitational wave background. We employ the generalized Langevin model to analyze the fluctuating forces exerted on test masses by random spacetime and how energy dissipation occurs. Through the assumption of equilibrium, we derive the necessary conditions that should be satisfied by the stochastic gravitational wave background in the long wavelength limit, which, as we found, is a result of the back-reactions of the test mass system to the stochastic field. Additionally, as the establishment of the fluctuation-dissipation relation for such a system, certain thermodynamic quantities related to the statistical properties of the stochastic gravitational wave background could be defined and the characteristic of the diffusion process of test masses is obtained.