The CRESST experiment observes an unexplained excess of events at low energies. In the current CRESST-III data-taking campaign we are operating detector modules with different designs to narrow down the possible explanations. In this work, we show first observations of the ongoing measurement, focusing on the comparison of time, energy and temperature dependence of the excess in several detectors. These exclude dark matter, radioactive backgrounds and intrinsic sources related to the crystal bulk as a major contribution.

Context. Brown dwarfs and exoplanets provide unique atmospheric regimes that hold information about their formation routes and evolutionary states. Cloud particles form through nucleation, condensation, evaporation, and collisions, which affect the distribution of cloud particles in size and throughout these atmospheres. Cloud modelling plays a decisive role in understanding these regimes.
Aims: Modelling mineral cloud particle formation in the atmospheres of brown dwarfs and exoplanets is a key element in preparing for missions and instruments like CRIRES+, JWST, and ARIEL, as well as possible polarimetry missions like POLSTAR. The aim is to support the increasingly detailed observations that demand greater understanding of the microphysical cloud processes.
Methods: We extend our kinetic cloud formation model that treats nucleation, condensation, evaporation, and settling of mixed material cloud particles to consistently model cloud particle-particle collisions. The new hybrid code Hybrid moments (Ls) and Size (HYLANDS) is then applied to a grid of DRIFT-PHOENIX (T_gas, p_gas) profiles. Effective medium theory and Mie theory are used to investigate the optical properties.
Results: Turbulence proves to be the main driving process of particle-particle collisions, with collisions becoming the dominant process in the lower atmosphere (p > 10⁻⁴ bar) at the cloud base. Particle-particle collisions produce one of three outcomes for brown dwarf and gas-giant atmospheres: fragmenting atmospheres (log₁₀(g[cms⁻²])=3.0) coagulating atmospheres (log₁₀(g)=5.0), T_eff ≤1800K) or condensational growth dominated atmospheres (log₁₀(g) = 5.0, T_eff > 1800 K). Cloud particle opacity slope at optical wavelengths (Hubble) is increased with fragmentation, as are the silicate features at JWST NIRSpec, JWST MIRI, and ARIEL AIRS wavelengths.
Conclusions: The hybrid moment-bin method HYLANDS demonstrates the feasibility of combining a moment and a bin method for cloud modelling, whilst assuring element conservation. It provides a powerful and fast tool for capturing general trends of particle collisions, consistently with other microphysical growth processes. Collisions are an important process in exoplanet and brown dwarf atmospheres, but cannot be assumed to be hit-and-stick only. The spectral effects of cloud particle collisions in both optical and mid-infrared wavelengths complicate inferences of cloud particle size and material composition from observational data.

The most common predictions for rare K and B decay branching ratios in the Standard Model in the literature are based on the CKM elements | V_cb| and | V_ub| resulting from global fits, that are in the ballpark of their inclusive and exclusive determinations, respectively. In the present paper we follow another route, which to our knowledge has not been explored for Δ M_{s ,d} and rare K and B decays by anybody to date. We assume, in contrast to the prevailing inclusive expectations for | V_cb| , that the future true values of | V_cb| and | V_ub| will be both from exclusive determinations; in practice we use the most recent averages from FLAG. With the precisely known | V_us| the resulting rare decay branching ratios, ε_K, Δ M_d , Δ M_s and S_{ψ KS} depend then only on the angles β and γ in the unitarity triangle that moreover are correlated through the CKM unitarity. An unusual pattern of SM predictions results from this study with some existing tensions being dwarfed and new tensions being born. In particular using HPQCD B_s^{,d 0}-B_¯^{s ,d 0} hadronic matrix elements a 3.1 σ tension in Δ M_s independently of γ is found. For 60^∘≤γ ≤75^∘ the tension in Δ M_d between 4.0 σ and 1.1 σ is found and in the case of ε_K between 5.2 σ and 2.1 σ . Moreover, the room for new physics in K⁺→π⁺ν ν ¯ , K_L→π⁰ν ν ¯ and B →K (K^∗)ν ν ¯ decays is significantly increased. We compare the results in this EXCLUSIVE scenario with the HYBRID one in which | V_cb| in the former scenario is replaced by the most recent inclusive | V_cb| and present the dependence of all observables considered by us in both scenarios as functions of γ . As a byproduct we compare the determination of | V_cb| from Δ M_s , Δ M_d , ε_K and S_{ψ KS} using B_s^{,d 0}-B_¯^{s ,d 0} hadronic matrix elements from LQCD with 2 +1 +1 flavours, 2 +1 flavours and their average. Only for the 2 +1 +1 case values for β and γ exist for which the same value of | V_cb| is found: | V_cb|=42.6 (4 ) × 10^-3 , γ =64.6 (16^{) ∘} and β =22.2 (7^{) ∘} . This in turn implies a 2.7 σ anomaly in B_s→μ⁺μ^-.

Intermediate- and high-velocity clouds (IVCs, HVCs) are a potential source of fuel for star formation in the Milky Way (MW), but their origins and fates depend sensitively on their distances. We search for IVCs and HVCs in HST high-resolution ultraviolet spectra of 55 halo stars at vertical heights $|z|\gtrsim \,1$ kpc. We show that IVCs (40 ≤ |$v$_LSR| < 90 ${\rm km\, s}^{-1}$) have a high detection rate - the covering factor, f_c - that is about constant (f_c = 0.90 ± 0.04) from $z$ = 1.5 to 14 kpc, implying IVCs are essentially confined to |$z$| ≲ 1.5 kpc. For the HVCs (90 ≤ |$v$_LSR| ≲ 170 ${\rm km\, s}^{-1}$), we find f_c increases from f_c ≃ 0.14 ± 0.10 at |$z$| ≲ 2-3 kpc to f_c = 0.60 ± 0.15 at 6 ≲ |$z$| ≲ 14 kpc, the latter being similar to that found towards QSOs. In contrast, the covering factor of very high-velocity clouds (VHVCs; |$v$_LSR| ≳ 170 ${\rm km\, s}^{-1}$) is $f_c \lt 0.04$ in the stellar sample compared to 20 per cent towards QSOs, implying these clouds must be at d ≳ 10-15 kpc (|$z$| ≳ 10 kpc). Gas clouds with |$v$_LSR| > 40 ${\rm km\, s}^{-1}$ at |b| ≳ 15° have therefore |$v$_LSR| decreasing with decreasing |$z$|. Our findings are consistent with a Galactic rain and/or fountain origin for these clouds. In the latter scenario, VHVCs may mostly serve as fuel for the MW halo. In view of their high covering factors and since all the IVCs and some HVCs are found in the thick disc, they appear good candidates as gas reservoirs to help sustain star formation in the MW.

We complete the calculation of the three-gluon-emission contribution to the same-hemisphere part of the zero-jettiness soft function at next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order in perturbative QCD.

Modeling of strongly gravitationally lensed galaxies is often required in order to use them as astrophysical or cosmological probes. With current and upcoming wide-field imaging surveys, the number of detected lenses is increasing significantly such that automated and fast modeling procedures for ground-based data are urgently needed. This is especially pertinent to short-lived lensed transients in order to plan follow-up observations. Therefore, we present in a companion paper (submitted) a neural network predicting the parameter values with corresponding uncertainties of a Singular Isothermal Ellipsoid (SIE) mass profile with external shear. In this work, we present a newly-developed pipeline glee_auto.py to model consistently any galaxy-scale lensing system. In contrast to previous automated modeling pipelines that require high-resolution images, glee_auto.py is optimized for ground-based images such as those from the Hyper-Suprime-Cam (HSC) or the upcoming Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time. We further present glee_tools.py, a flexible automation code for individual modeling that has no direct decisions and assumptions implemented. Both pipelines, in addition to our modeling network, minimize the user input time drastically and thus are important for future modeling efforts. We apply the network to 31 real galaxy-scale lenses of HSC and compare the results to the traditional models. In the direct comparison, we find a very good match for the Einstein radius especially for systems with $\theta_E \gtrsim 2$". The lens mass center and ellipticity show reasonable agreement. The main discrepancies are on the external shear as expected from our tests on mock systems. In general, our study demonstrates that neural networks are a viable and ultra fast approach for measuring the lens-galaxy masses from ground-based data in the upcoming era with $\sim10^5$ lenses expected.

The formation and evolutionary history of M31 are closely related to its dynamical structures, which remain unclear due to its high inclination. Gas kinematics could provide crucial evidence for the existence of a rotating bar in M31. Using the position-velocity diagram of [O III] and H I, we are able to identify clear sharp velocity jump (shock) features with a typical amplitude over 100 km s^-1 in the central region of M31 (4.6 kpc × 2.3 kpc, or $20^{\prime} \times 10^{\prime} $ ). We also simulate gas morphology and kinematics in barred M31 potentials and find that the bar-induced shocks can produce velocity jumps similar to those in [O III]. The identified shock features in both [O III] and H I are broadly consistent, and they are found mainly on the leading sides of the bar/bulge, following a hallmark pattern expected from the bar-driven gas inflow. Shock features on the far side of the disk are clearer than those on the near side, possibly due to limited data coverage on the near side, as well as to obscuration by the warped gas and dust layers. Further hydrodynamical simulations with more sophisticated physics are desired to fully understand the observed gas features and to better constrain the parameters of the bar in M31.

Major mergers between galaxy clusters can produce large turbulent and bulk flow velocities in the intracluster medium (ICM) and thus imprint useful diagnostic features in X-ray spectral emission lines from heavy ions. As successfully achieved by Hitomi in observations of the Perseus cluster, measurements of gas velocities in clusters from high-resolution X-ray spectra will be achievable with upcoming X-ray calorimeters such as those on board XRISM, Athena, or a Lynx like mission. An interesting application to clusters involves detecting multiple velocity components or velocity gradients from diagnostic observations of specific interesting locations across the cluster. To explore this possibility in the case of a major head-on cluster merger, we performed velocity analyzes of a cluster-cluster merger from a hydrodynamical simulation by means of X-ray synthetic spectra with a spectral resolution on the order of a few eV. We observed the system along two extreme line-of-sight directions: (1) perpendicular to the plane of the merger and (2) along the merger axis. In these geometrical configurations, we found that clear non-Gaussian shapes of the iron He-like Kα line at 6.7 keV are expected. While the velocity dispersion predicted from the simulations can be retrieved for the brightest 100 ks pointings with XRISM Resolve, some discrepancy with respect to the expected value is noted and can be attributed to the complex non-Gaussian line shapes. Measurements in low surface brightness regions, especially when multiple velocity components are present along the line of sight, require high signal-to-noise ratio and the larger collecting area of the Athena X-IFU calorimeter is therefore required. With the latter, we also investigated the ICM temperature and velocity gradient across the merger bow shock edge, from 20″-wide annuli extracted from a single 1 Ms X-IFU observation. For both temperature and velocity dispersion, we found best-fit values that are consistent with predictions from the simulations within 1-σ. The uncertainties on the inferred velocity dispersion are, however, too large to place any stringent constraints on the shallow gradient downstream of the shock. Additionally, we present simulated images of the thermal and kinetic Sunyaev-Zeldovich effects from this merging system, using the above viewing configurations and compare the results at angular resolutions appropriate for future observatories such as CMB-S4 and the Atacama Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (AtLAST).

We study Polyakov loop as well as correlators of real and imaginary parts of the Polyakov loop in 2+1 flavor QCD at finite temperature. We use hypercubic (HYP) smearing to improve the signal in the lattice calculations and to obtain reliable results for the correlators at large distances. From the large distance behavior of the correlators we estimate the chromo-electric screening length to be (0.38-44)/T. Furthermore, we show that the short distance distortions due to HYP smearing do not affect the physics of interest

We report on the status of the analysis of the static energy in $2+1+1$-flavor QCD. The static energy is obtained by measuring Wilson line correlators in Coulomb gauge using the HISQ action, yielding the scales $r_{0}/a$, $r_{1}/a$, $r_{2}/a$, their ratios, and the string tension $\sigma r_{i}^{2}$. We put emphasis on the possible effects due to the dynamical charm-quark by comparing the lattice results to continuum results of the static energy with and without a massive flavor at two-loop accuracy. We employ gauge-field ensembles from the HotQCD and MILC Collaborations.

The heavy quark diffusion coefficient is encoded in the spectral functions of the chromoelectric and the chromomagnetic correlators that are calculable on the lattice. We study the chromoelectric and the chromomagnetic correlator in the deconfined phase of SU(3) gauge theory using Symanzik flow at two temperatures $1.5T_c$ and $10000 T_c$, with $T_c$ being the phase transition temperature. To control the lattice discretization errors and perform the continuum limit we use several temporal lattice extents $N_t=16,20,24$ and 28. We observe that the flow time dependence of the chromomagnetic correlator is quite different from chromoelectric correlator most likely due to the anomalous dimension of the former as has been pointed out recently in the literature.

Endpoint divergences in the convolution integrals appearing in

next-to-leading-power factorization theorems prevent a straightforward application of standard methods to resum large

logarithmic power-suppressed corrections in collider physics.

We study the power-suppressed configuration of the thrust

distribution in the two-jet region, where a gluon-initiated jet recoils against

a quark-antiquark pair. With the aid

of operatorial endpoint factorization conditions, we derive

a factorization formula where the individual terms are free from

endpoint divergences and can be written in

terms of renormalized hard, (anti) collinear, and soft functions in four

dimensions. This framework enables us to perform the

first resummation of the

endpoint-divergent SCET$_{\rm I}$ observables at the leading

logarithmic accuracy using

exclusively renormalization-group methods.

Understanding the quantum nature of spacetime and gravity remains one of the most ambitious goals of theoretical physics. It promises to provide key new insights into fundamental particle theory, astrophysics, cosmology and the foundations of physics. Despite this common goal, the community of quantum gravity researchers is sometimes seen as divided into sub-communities working on different, mutually exclusive approaches. In practice however, recent years have shown the emergence of common techniques, results and physical ideas arising from different sub-communities, suggesting exciting new prospects for collaboration and interaction between traditionally distinct approaches. In this White Paper we discuss some of the common themes which have seen a growing interest from various directions, and argue that focusing on them will help the quantum gravity community as a whole towards shared objectives.

The majority of astrophysical neutrinos have undetermined origins. The IceCube Neutrino Observatory has observed astrophysical neutrinos but has not yet identified their sources. Blazars are promising source candidates, but previous searches for neutrino emission from populations of blazars detected in ≳GeV gamma rays have not observed any significant neutrino excess. Recent findings in multimessenger astronomy indicate that high-energy photons, coproduced with high-energy neutrinos, are likely to be absorbed and reemitted at lower energies. Thus, lower-energy photons may be better indicators of TeV–PeV neutrino production. This paper presents the first time-integrated stacking search for astrophysical neutrino emission from MeV-detected blazars in the first Fermi Large Area Telescope low energy (1FLE) catalog using ten years of IceCube muon–neutrino data. The results of this analysis are found to be consistent with a background-only hypothesis. Assuming an E$^{−2}$ neutrino spectrum and proportionality between the blazars MeV gamma-ray fluxes and TeV–PeV neutrino flux, the upper limit on the 1FLE blazar energy-scaled neutrino flux is determined to be 1.64 × 10$^{−12}$ TeV cm$^{−2}$ s$^{−1}$ at 90% confidence level. This upper limit is approximately 1% of IceCube’s diffuse muon–neutrino flux measurement.

We present the data release of the Uchuu-SDSS galaxies: a set of 32 high-fidelity galaxy lightcones constructed from the large Uchuu 2.1 trillion particle $N$-body simulation using Planck cosmology. We adopt subhalo abundance matching to populate the Uchuu-box halo catalogues with SDSS galaxy luminosities. These cubic box galaxy catalogues generated at several redshifts are combined to create the set of lightcones with redshift-evolving galaxy properties. The Uchuu-SDSS galaxy lightcones are built to reproduce the footprint and statistical properties of the SDSS main galaxy survey, along with stellar masses and star formation rates. This facilitates direct comparison of the observed SDSS and simulated Uchuu-SDSS data. Our lightcones reproduce a large number of observational results, such as the distribution of galaxy properties, the galaxy clustering, the stellar mass functions, and the halo occupation distributions. Using the simulated and real data we select samples of bright red galaxies at $z_\mathrm{eff}=0.15$ to explore Redshift Space Distortions and Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) utilizing a full-shape analytical model of the two-point correlation function. We create a set of 5100 galaxy lightcones using GLAM N-body simulations to compute covariance errors. We report a $\sim 30\%$ precision increase on $f\sigma_8$, due to our better estimate of the covariance matrix. From our BAO-inferred $\alpha_{\parallel}$ and $\alpha_{\perp}$ parameters, we obtain the first SDSS measurements of the Hubble and angular diameter distances $D_\mathrm{H}(z=0.15) / r_d = 27.9^{+3.1}_{-2.7}$, $D_\mathrm{M}(z=0.15) / r_d = 5.1^{+0.4}_{-0.4}$. Overall, we conclude that the Planck LCDM cosmology nicely explains the observed large-scale structure statistics of SDSS. All data sets are made publicly available.

The reservoir of molecular gas (H$_{\rm 2}$) represents the fuel for the star formation (SF) of a galaxy. Connecting the star formation rate (SFR) to the available H$_{\rm 2}$ is key to accurately model SF in cosmological simulations of galaxy formation. We investigate how modifying the underlying modelling of H$_{\rm 2}$ and the description of stellar feedback in low-metallicity environments (LMF, i.e. low-metallicity stellar feedback) in cosmological, zoomed-in simulations of a Milky Way-size halo influences the formation history of the forming, spiral galaxy and its final properties. We exploit two different models to compute the molecular fraction of cold gas (f$_{\rm H_{\rm 2}}$): $i)$ the theoretical model by Krumholz et al. (2009b) and $ii)$ the phenomenological prescription by Blitz & Rosolowsky (2006). We find that the model adopted to estimate f$_{\rm H_{\rm 2}}$ plays a key role in determining final properties and in shaping the morphology of the galaxy. The clumpier interstellar medium (ISM) and the more complex H$_{\rm 2}$ distribution that the Krumholz et al. (2009b) model predicts result in better agreement with observations of nearby disc galaxies. This shows how crucial it is to link the SFR to the physical properties of the star-forming, molecular ISM. The additional source of energy that LMF supplies in a metal-poor ISM is key in controlling SF at high redshift and in regulating the reservoir of SF across cosmic time. Not only is LMF able to regulate cooling properties of the ISM, but it also reduces the stellar mass of the galaxy bulge. These findings can foster the improvement of the numerical modelling of SF in cosmological simulations.

We infer the mean optical depth of a sample of optically-selected galaxy clusters from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) via the pairwise kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (kSZ) effect. The pairwise kSZ signal between pairs of clusters drawn from the DES Year-3 cluster catalog is detected at $4.1 \sigma$ in cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature maps from two years of observations with the SPT-3G camera on the South Pole Telescope. After cuts, there are 24,580 clusters in the $\sim 1,400$ deg$^2$ of the southern sky observed by both experiments. We infer the mean optical depth of the cluster sample with two techniques. The optical depth inferred from the pairwise kSZ signal is $\bar{\tau}_e = (2.97 \pm 0.73) \times 10^{-3}$, while that inferred from the thermal SZ signal is $\bar{\tau}_e = (2.51 \pm 0.55) \times 10^{-3}$. The two measures agree at $0.6 \sigma$. We perform a suite of systematic checks to test the robustness of the analysis.

We present the luminosity functions and host galaxy properties of the Dark Energy Survey (DES) core-collapse supernova (CCSN) sample, consisting of 69 Type II and 50 Type Ibc spectroscopically and photometrically-confirmed supernovae over a redshift range $0.045<z<0.25$. We fit the observed DES $griz$ CCSN light-curves and K-correct to produce rest-frame $R$-band light curves. We compare the sample with lower-redshift CCSN samples from Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) and Lick Observatory Supernova Search (LOSS). Comparing luminosity functions, the DES and ZTF samples of SNe II are brighter than that of LOSS with significances of 3.0$\sigma$ and 2.5$\sigma$ respectively. While this difference could be caused by redshift evolution in the luminosity function, simpler explanations such as differing levels of host extinction remain a possibility. We find that the host galaxies of SNe II in DES are on average bluer than in ZTF, despite having consistent stellar mass distributions. We consider a number of possibilities to explain this -- including galaxy evolution with redshift, selection biases in either the DES or ZTF samples, and systematic differences due to the different photometric bands available -- but find that none can easily reconcile the differences in host colour between the two samples and thus its cause remains uncertain.

Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) are used as standardizable candles to measure cosmological distances, but differences remain in their corrected luminosities which display a magnitude step as a function of host galaxy properties such as stellar mass and rest-frame U−R colour. Identifying the cause of these steps is key to cosmological analyses and provides insight into SN physics. Here we investigate the effects of SN progenitor ages on their light-curve properties using a galaxy-based forward model that we compare to the Dark Energy Survey 5-yr SN Ia sample. We trace SN Ia progenitors through time and draw their light-curve width parameters from a bimodal distribution according to their age. We find that an intrinsic luminosity difference between SNe of different ages cannot explain the observed trend between step size and SN colour. The data split by stellar mass are better reproduced by following recent work implementing a step in total-to-selective dust extinction ratio () between low- and high-mass hosts, although an additional intrinsic luminosity step is still required to explain the data split by host galaxy U−R. Modelling the R_V step as a function of galaxy age provides a better match overall. Additional age versus luminosity steps marginally improve the match to the data, although most of the step is absorbed by the width versus luminosity coefficient α. Furthermore, we find no evidence that α varies with SN age.

We discuss the statistical distribution of galaxy shapes and viewing angles under the assumption of triaxiality by deprojecting observed surface brightness profiles of 56 brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) coming from a recently published large deep-photometry sample. For the first time, we address this issue by directly measuring axis ratio profiles without limiting ourselves to a statistical analysis of average ellipticities. We show that these objects are strongly triaxial, with triaxiality parameters 0.39 ≤ T ≤ 0.72, they have average axis ratios <p(r)> = 0.84 and <q(r)> = 0.68, and they are more spherical in the central regions but flatten out at large radii. Measured shapes in the outskirts agree well with the shapes found for simulated massive galaxies and their dark matter halos from both the IllustrisTNG and the Magneticum simulations, possibly probing the nature of dark matter. In contrast, both simulations fail to reproduce the observed inner regions of BCGs, producing objects that are too flattened.

In this work, we revisit five different point sources within or behind galaxy clusters to constrain the coupling constant between axion-like particles (ALPs) and photons. We use three distinct machine learning (ML) techniques and compare our results with a standard χ² analysis. For the first time, we apply approximate Bayesian computation to search for ALPs and find consistently good performance across ML classifiers. Further, we apply more realistic 3D magnetic field simulations of galaxy clusters and compare our results with previously used 1D simulations. We find constraints on the ALP-photon coupling at the level of state-of-the-art bounds with $g_{a\gamma \gamma } \lesssim 0.6 \times 10^{-12} \, \rm{GeV}^{-1}$, hence improving on previous constraints obtained from the same observations.

We present the analysis of the full shape of anisotropic clustering measurement from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) quasar sample together with the combined galaxy sample from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS), re-analysed using an updated recipe for the non-linear matter power spectrum and the non-local bias parameters. We obtain constraints for flat Lambda cold dark matter cosmologies, focusing on the cosmological parameters that are independent of the Hubble parameter h. Our recovered value for the Root Mean Square (RMS) linear perturbation theory variance as measured on the scale of $12\, {\rm Mpc}$ is σ₁₂ = 0.805 ± 0.049, while using the traditional reference scale of $8\, h^{-1}\, {\rm Mpc}$ gives σ₈ = 0.815 ± 0.044. We quantify the agreement between our measurements and the latest cosmic microwave background data from Planck using the suspiciousness metric, and find them to be consistent within 0.64 ± 0.03σ. Combining our clustering constraints with the 3 × 2pt data sample from the Dark Energy Survey Year 1 release slightly degrades this agreement to the level of 1.54 ± 0.08σ, while still showing an overall consistency with Planck. We furthermore study the effect of imposing a Planck - like prior on the parameters that define the shape of the linear matter power spectrum, and find significantly tighter constraints on the parameters that control the evolution of density fluctuations. In particular, the combination of low-redshift data sets prefers a value of the physical dark energy density ω_DE = 0.335 ± 0.011, which is 1.7σ higher than the one preferred by Planck.

The hot and dense core formed in the collapse of a massive star is a powerful source of hypothetical feebly interacting particles such as sterile neutrinos, dark photons, axionlike particles (ALPs), and others. Radiative decays such as a →2 γ deposit this energy in the surrounding material if the mean free path is less than the radius of the progenitor star. For the first time, we use a supernova (SN) population with particularly low explosion energies as the most sensitive calorimeters to constrain this possibility. These SNe are observationally identified as low-luminosity events with low ejecta velocities and low masses of ejected ⁵⁶Ni. Their low energies limit the energy deposition from particle decays to less than about 0.1 B, where 1 B (bethe)=10⁵¹ erg . For 1-500 MeV-mass ALPs, this generic argument excludes ALP-photon couplings G_{a γ γ} in the 10^-10−10^-8 GeV^-1 range.

Meteoritic studies of Solar system objects show evidence of nucleosynthetic heterogeneities that are inherited from small presolar grains ($\lt 10\,\, \mu {\mathrm{m}}$) formed in stellar environments external to our own. The initial distribution and subsequent evolution of these grains are currently unconstrained. Using 3D, gas-dust simulations, we find that isotopic variations on the order of those observed in the Solar system can be generated and maintained by drag and viscosity. Small grains are dragged radially outwards without size/density sorting by viscous expansion and backreaction, enriching the outer disc with presolar grains. Meanwhile large aggregates composed primarily of silicates drift radially inwards due to drag, further enriching the relative portion of presolar grains in the outer disc and diluting the inner disc. The late accumulation of enriched aggregates outside Jupiter could explain some of the isotopic variations observed in Solar system bodies, such as the enrichment of supernovae derived material in carbonaceous chondrites. We also see evidence for isotopic variations in the inner disc that may hold implications for enstatite and ordinary chondrites that formed closer to the Sun. Initial heterogeneities in the presolar grain distribution that are not continuously reinforced are dispersed by diffusion, radial surface flows, and/or planetary interactions over the entire lifetime of the disc. For younger, more massive discs we expect turbulent diffusion to be even more homogenizing, suggesting that dust evolution played a more central role in forming the isotopic anomalies in the Solar system than originally thought.

We study weak radiative |Δ c |=|Δ u |=1 decays of the charmed antitriplet (Λ_c, Ξ_c⁺, Ξ_c⁰) and sextet (Σ_c⁺⁺, Σ_c⁺, Σ_c⁰, Ξ_c^'+, Ξ_c^'0, Ω_c) baryons in the standard model (SM) and beyond. We work out S U (2 )- and S U (3 )_F-symmetry relations. We propose to study self-analyzing decay chains such as Ξ_c⁺→Σ⁺(→p π⁰)γ and Ξ_c⁰→Λ (→p π^-)γ , which enable new physics sensitive polarization studies. SM contributions can be controlled by a corresponding analysis of the Cabibbo-favored decays Λ_c⁺→Σ⁺(→p π⁰)γ and Ξ_c⁰→Ξ⁰(→Λ π⁰)γ . Further tests of the SM are available with initially polarized baryons including Λ_c→p γ together with Λ_c→Σ⁺γ decays, or Ω_c→Ξ⁰γ together with Ω_c→(Λ ,Σ⁰)γ . In addition, C P -violating new physics contributions to dipole operators can enhance C P asymmetries up to a few percent.

In this work, we examine the impact of our motion with respect to the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) rest frame on statistics of CMB maps by examining the one-, two-, three-, and four- point statistics of simulated maps of the CMB and Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) effects. We validate boosting codes by comparing their outcomes for temperature and polarization power spectra up to ℓ ≃ 6000. We derive and validate a new analytical formula for the computation of the boosted power spectrum of a signal with a generic frequency dependence. As an example we show how this increases the boosting correction to the power spectrum of CMB intensity measurements by ${\sim}30{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ at 150 GHz. We examine the effect of boosting on thermal and kinetic SZ power spectra from semianalytical and hydrodynamical simulations; the boosting correction is generally small for both simulations, except when considering frequencies near the tSZ null. For the non-Gaussian statistics, in general we find that boosting has no impact with two exceptions. We find that, whilst the statistics of the CMB convergence field are unaffected, quadratic estimators that are used to measure this field can become biased at the $O(1){{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ level by boosting effects. We present a simple modification to the standard estimators that removes this bias. Second, bispectrum estimators can receive a systematic bias from the Doppler induced quadrupole when there is anisotropy in the sky - in practice this anisotropy comes from masking and inhomogeneous noise. This effect is unobservable and already removed by existing analysis methods.

We carry out a search for strong-lens systems containing high-redshift lens galaxies with the goal of extending strong-lensing-assisted galaxy evolutionary studies to earlier cosmic time. Two strong-lens classifiers are constructed from a deep residual network and trained with datasets of different lens-redshift and brightness distributions. We classify a sample of 5 356 628 pre-selected objects from the Wide-layer fields in the second public data release of the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (HSC-SSP) by applying the two classifiers to their HSC gri-filter cutouts. Cutting off at thresholds that correspond to a false positive rate of 10⁻³ on our test set, the two classifiers identify 5468 and 6119 strong-lens candidates. Visually inspecting the cutouts of those candidates results in 735 grade-A or B strong-lens candidates in total, of which 277 candidates are discovered for the first time. This is the single largest set of galaxy-scale strong-lens candidates discovered with HSC data to date, and nearly half of it (331/735) contains lens galaxies with photometric redshifts above 0.6. Our discoveries will serve as a valuable target list for ongoing and scheduled spectroscopic surveys such as the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, the Subaru Prime Focus Spectrograph project, and the Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer.

Full Tables B.1 and B.2 are only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (ftp://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/A+A/662/A4

Strongly lensed quasars can provide measurements of the Hubble constant (H₀) independent of any other methods. One of the key ingredients is exquisite high-resolution imaging data, such as Hubble Space Telescope (HST) imaging and adaptive-optics (AO) imaging from ground-based telescopes, which provide strong constraints on the mass distribution of the lensing galaxy. In this work, we expand on the previous analysis of three time-delay lenses with AO imaging (RX J1131-1231, HE 0435-1223, and PG 1115+080), and perform a joint analysis of J0924+0219 by using AO imaging from the Keck telescope, obtained as part of the Strong lensing at High Angular Resolution Program (SHARP) AO effort, with HST imaging to constrain the mass distribution of the lensing galaxy. Under the assumption of a flat Λ cold dark matter (ΛCDM) model with fixed Ω_m = 0.3, we show that by marginalizing over two different kinds of mass models (power-law and composite models) and their transformed mass profiles via a mass-sheet transformation, we obtain $\Delta t_{\rm BA}=6.89\substack{+0.8\-0.7}\, h^{-1}\hat{\sigma }_{v}^{2}$ d, $\Delta t_{\rm CA}=10.7\substack{+1.6\-1.2}\, h^{-1}\hat{\sigma }_{v}^{2}$ d, and $\Delta t_{\rm DA}=7.70\substack{+1.0\-0.9}\, h^{-1}\hat{\sigma }_{v}^{2}$ d, where $h=H_{0}/100\,\rm km\, s^{-1}\, Mpc^{-1}$ is the dimensionless Hubble constant and $\hat{\sigma }_{v}=\sigma ^{\rm ob}_{v}/(280\,\rm km\, s^{-1})$ is the scaled dimensionless velocity dispersion. Future measurements of time delays with 10 per cent uncertainty and velocity dispersion with 5 per cent uncertainty would yield a H₀ constraint of ~15 per cent precision.

SN 2020cxd is a representative of the family of low-energy, underluminous Type IIP supernovae (SNe), whose observations and analysis were recently reported by Yang et al. (2021). Here we re-evaluate the observational data for the diagnostic SN properties by employing the hydrodynamic explosion model of a 9 M_⊙ red supergiant progenitor with an iron core and a pre-collapse mass of 8.75 M_⊙. The explosion of the star was obtained by the neutrino-driven mechanism in a fully self-consistent simulation in three dimensions (3D). Multi-band light curves and photospheric velocities for the plateau phase are computed with the one-dimensional radiation-hydrodynamics code STELLA, applied to the spherically averaged 3D explosion model as well as sphericized radial profiles in different directions of the 3D model. We find that the overall evolution of the bolometric light curve, duration of the plateau phase, and basic properties of the multi-band emission can be well reproduced by our SN model with its explosion energy of only 0.7 × 10⁵⁰ erg and an ejecta mass of 7.4 M_⊙. These values are considerably lower than the previously reported numbers, but they are compatible with those needed to explain the fundamental observational properties of the prototype low-luminosity SN 2005cs. Because of the good compatibility of our photospheric velocities with line velocities determined for SN 2005cs, we conclude that the line velocities of SN 2020cxd are probably overestimated by up to a factor of about 3. The evolution of the line velocities of SN 2005cs compared to photospheric velocities in different explosion directions might point to intrinsic asymmetries in the SN ejecta.

MOdified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) is an alternative to the standard Cold Dark Matter (CDM) paradigm which proposes an alteration of Newton's laws of motion at low accelerations, characterized by a universal acceleration scale a_0. It attempts to explain observations of galactic rotation curves and predicts a specific scaling relation of the baryonic and total acceleration in galaxies, referred to as the Rotational Acceleration Relation (RAR), which can be equivalently formulated as a Mass Discrepancy Acceleration Relation (MDAR). The appearance of these relations in observational data such as SPARC has lead to investigations into the existence of similar relations in cosmological simulations using the standard {\Lambda}CDM model. Here, we report the existence of an RAR and MDAR similar to that predicted by MOND in {\Lambda}CDM using a large sample of galaxies extracted from a cosmological, hydrodynamical simulation (Magneticum). Furthermore, by using galaxies in Magneticum at different redshifts, a prediction for the evolution of the inferred acceleration parameter a_0 with cosmic time is derived by fitting a MOND force law to these galaxies. In Magneticum, the best fit for a_0 is found to increase by a factor of approximately 3 from redshift z = 0 to z = 2. This offers a powerful test from cosmological simulations to distinguish between MOND and {\Lambda}CDM observationally.

The study of exoplanets and especially their atmospheres can reveal key insights on their evolution by identifying specific atmospheric species. For such atmospheric investigations, high-resolution transmission spectroscopy has shown great success, especially for Jupiter-type planets. Towards the atmospheric characterization of smaller planets, the super-Earth exoplanet 55 Cnc e is one of the most promising terrestrial exoplanets studied to date. Here, we present a high-resolution spectroscopic transit observation of this planet, acquired with the PEPSI instrument at the Large Binocular Telescope. Assuming the presence of Earth-like crust species on the surface of 55 Cnc e, from which a possible silicate-vapor atmosphere could have originated, we search in its transmission spectrum for absorption of various atomic and ionized species such as Fe , Fe ⁺, Ca , Ca ⁺, Mg, and K , among others. Not finding absorption for any of the investigated species, we are able to set absorption limits with a median value of 1.9 × R_P. In conclusion, we do not find evidence of a widely extended silicate envelope on this super-Earth reaching several planetary radii.

We present the simulation of a $2\times 10^{9}\, \mathrm{M}_{\odot }$ halo mass cosmological dwarf galaxy run to z = 0 at 4 solar mass gas resolution with resolved supernova feedback. We compare three simple subgrid implementations for the inhomogeneous chemical enrichment from Population III stars and compare them to constraints from Local Group dwarf galaxies. The employed model, LYRA, is a novel high-resolution galaxy formation model built for the moving mesh code AREPO, which is marked by a resolved multiphase interstellar medium, single stars, and individual supernova events. The resulting reionization relic is characterized by a short (<1.5 Gyr) star formation history that is repeatedly brought to a standstill by violent bursts of feedback. Star formation is reignited for a short duration due to a merger at z ≍ 4 and then again at z ≍ 0.2-0 after sustained gas accretion. Our model z = 0 galaxy matches the stellar mass, size, stellar kinematics, and metallicity relations of Local Group dwarf galaxies well. The dark matter profile does not exhibit a core in any version of the model. We show that the host halo masses of Population III stars affect the assembly history of dwarf galaxies. This manifests itself through the initial gaseous collapse in the progenitor haloes, affecting the central density of the stellar component and through the accretion of luminous substructure.

Based on the potential nonrelativistic QCD formalism, we compute the nonrelativistic QCD long-distance matrix elements (LDMEs) for inclusive production of S -wave heavy quarkonia. This greatly reduces the number of nonperturbative unknowns and brings in a substantial enhancement in the predictive power of the nonrelativistic QCD factorization formalism. We obtain improved determinations of the LDMEs and find cross sections and polarizations of J /ψ , ψ (2 S ), and excited ϒ states that agree well with LHC data. Our results may have important implications in pinning down the heavy quarkonium production mechanism.

We use a lattice simulation to study a model of axion inflation where the inflaton is coupled to a U(1) gauge field through Chern-Simons interaction. These kinds of models have already been studied with a lattice simulation in the context of reheating. In this work, we focus on the deep inflationary phase and discuss the new aspects that need to be considered in order to simulate gauge fields in this regime. Our main result is reproducing with precision the growth of the gauge field on the lattice induced by the rolling of the axion on its potential, thus recovering the results of linear perturbation theory for this model. In order to do so, we study in detail how the spatial discretization, through the choice of the spatial derivatives on the lattice, influences the dynamics of the gauge field. We find that the evolution of the gauge field is highly sensitive to the choice of the spatial discretization scheme. Nevertheless, we are able to identify a discretization scheme for which the growth of the gauge field on the lattice reproduces the one of continuous space with good precision.

EOS is an open-source software for a variety of computational tasks in flavor physics. Its use cases include theory predictions within and beyond the Standard Model of particle physics, Bayesian inference of theory parameters from experimental and theoretical likelihoods, and simulation of pseudo events for a number of signal processes. EOS ensures high-performance computations through a C++ back-end and ease of usability through a Python front-end. To achieve this flexibility, EOS enables the user to select from a variety of implementations of the relevant decay processes and hadronic matrix elements at run time. In this article, we describe the general structure of the software framework and provide basic examples. Further details and in-depth interactive examples are provided as part of the EOS online documentation.

The origin of life on Earth involves the early appearance of an information-containing molecule such as RNA. The basic building blocks of RNA could have been delivered by carbon-rich meteorites or produced in situ by processes beginning with the synthesis of hydrogen cyanide (HCN) in the early Earth's atmosphere. Here, we construct a robust physical and nonequilibrium chemical model of the early Earth's atmosphere. The atmosphere is supplied with hydrogen from impact degassing of meteorites, water evaporated from the oceans, carbon dioxide from volcanoes, and methane from undersea hydrothermal vents, and in it lightning and external UV-driven chemistry produce HCN. This allows us to calculate the rain-out of HCN into warm little ponds (WLPs). We then use a comprehensive numerical model of sources and sinks to compute the resulting abundances of nucleobases, ribose, and nucleotide precursors such as 2-aminooxazole resulting from aqueous and UV-driven chemistry within them. We find that 4.4 billion years ago the limit of adenine concentrations in ponds for habitable surfaces is 0.05 μM in the absence of seepage. Meteorite delivery of adenine to WLPs can provide boosts in concentration by 2-3 orders of magnitude, but these boosts deplete within months by UV photodissociation, seepage, and hydrolysis. The early evolution of the atmosphere is dominated by the decrease in hydrogen due to falling impact rates and atmospheric escape, and the rise of oxygenated species such as OH from H₂O photolysis. The source of HCN is predominantly from UV radiation rather than lightning. Our work points to an early origin of RNA on Earth within ~200 Myr of the Moon-forming impact.

The 1.33 mm survey of protoplanetary discs in the Taurus molecular cloud found annular gaps and rings to be common in extended sources (>~55 au), when their 1D visibility distributions were fit parametrically. We first demonstrate the advantages and limitations of nonparametric visibility fits for data at the survey's 0.12" resolution. Then we use the nonparametric model in Frankenstein ('frank') to identify new substructure in three compact and seven extended sources. Among the new features we identify three trends: a higher occurrence rate of substructure in the survey's compact discs than previously seen, underresolved (potentially azimuthally asymmetric) substructure in the innermost disc of extended sources, and a 'shoulder' on the trailing edge of a ring in discs with strong depletion at small radii. Noting the shoulder morphology is present in multiple discs observed at higher resolution, we postulate it is tracing a common physical mechanism. We further demonstrate how a super-resolution frank brightness profile is useful in motivating an accurate parametric model, using the highly structured source DL Tau in which frank finds two new rings. Finally we show that sparse (u, v) plane sampling may be masking the presence of substructure in several additional compact survey sources.

A pseudoscalar "axionlike" field, ϕ , may explain the 3 σ hint of cosmic birefringence observed in the E B power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background polarization data. Is ϕ dark energy or dark matter? A tomographic approach can answer this question. The effective mass of dark energy field responsible for the accelerated expansion of the Universe today must be smaller than m_ϕ≃10^-33 eV . If m_ϕ≳10^-32 eV , ϕ starts evolving before the epoch of reionization and we should observe different amounts of birefringence from the E B power spectrum at low (l ≲10 ) and high multipoles. Such an observation, which requires a full-sky satellite mission, would rule out ϕ being dark energy. If m_ϕ≳10^-28 eV , ϕ starts oscillating during the epoch of recombination, leaving a distinct signature in the E B power spectrum at high multipoles, which can be measured precisely by ground-based cosmic microwave background observations. Our tomographic approach relies on the shape of the E B power spectrum and is less sensitive to miscalibration of polarization angles.

Low-resolution LAMOST and Keck spectra of blue supergiant stars distributed over the disks of the Local Group spiral galaxies M31 and M33 are analyzed to determine stellar effective temperatures, gravities, metallicities, and reddening. Logarithmic metallicities at the center of the galaxies (in solar units) of 0.30 ± 0.09 and 0.11 ± 0.04 and metallicity gradients of -0.37 ± 0.13 dex/R ₂₅ and -0.36 ± 0.16 dex/R ₂₅ are measured for M31 and M33, respectively. For M33 the 2D distribution of metallicity indicates a deviation from azimuthal symmetry with an off-center peak. The flux-weighted gravity-luminosity relationship (FGLR) of blue supergiant stars is used to determine a distance modulus of 24.51 ± 0.13 mag for M31 and 24.93 ± 0.07 mag for M33. For M31 the FGLR distance agrees well with other methods. For M33 the FGLR-based distance is larger than the distances from Cepheids studies, but it is in good agreement with work on eclipsing binaries, planetary nebulae, long-period variables, and the tip of the red giant branch.

The recently developed $B$-Mesogenesis scenario predicts decays of $B$ mesons into a baryon and hypothetical dark antibaryon $\Psi$. We suggest a method to calculate the amplitude of the simplest exclusive decay mode $B^+\to p \Psi$. Considering two models of $B$-Mesogenesis, we obtain the $B\to p$ hadronic matrix elements by applying QCD light-cone sum rules with the proton light-cone distribution amplitudes. We estimate the $B^+\to p \Psi$ decay width as a function of the mass and effective coupling of the dark antibaryon.

We present cosmological constraints from the analysis of two-point correlation functions between galaxy positions and galaxy lensing measured in Dark Energy Survey (DES) Year 3 data and measurements of cosmic microwave background (CMB) lensing from the South Pole Telescope (SPT) and Planck. When jointly analyzing the DES-only two-point functions and the DES cross-correlations with SPT+Planck CMB lensing, we find $\Omega_{\rm m} = 0.344\pm 0.030$ and $S_8 \equiv \sigma_8 (\Omega_{\rm m}/0.3)^{0.5} = 0.773\pm 0.016$, assuming $\Lambda$CDM. When additionally combining with measurements of the CMB lensing autospectrum, we find $\Omega_{\rm m} = 0.306^{+0.018}_{-0.021}$ and $S_8 = 0.792\pm 0.012$. The high signal-to-noise of the CMB lensing cross-correlations enables several powerful consistency tests of these results, including comparisons with constraints derived from cross-correlations only, and comparisons designed to test the robustness of the galaxy lensing and clustering measurements from DES. Applying these tests to our measurements, we find no evidence of significant biases in the baseline cosmological constraints from the DES-only analyses or from the joint analyses with CMB lensing cross-correlations. However, the CMB lensing cross-correlations suggest possible problems with the correlation function measurements using alternative lens galaxy samples, in particular the redMaGiC galaxies and high-redshift MagLim galaxies, consistent with the findings of previous studies. We use the CMB lensing cross-correlations to identify directions for further investigating these problems.

The BV-Laplacian ∆ in quantum field theory is singular, by construction, but can be regularized by deforming the classical BV-action. Taking inspiration from string theory we describe a non-local deformation of the latter by adding stubs to the interaction vertices while keeping classical BV-invariance manifest. This is achieved using a version of homotopy transfer resulting in a non-polynomial action for which the quantum master equation is now well defined and will be satisfied by adding additional vertices at loop level. The latter can be defined with the help of standard regularization schemes and is independent of the definition of ∆. In particular, the determination of anomalies reduces to the standard text-book calculation. Finally, we describe how the deformed (quantum) action can be obtained as a canonical transformation. As an example, we illustrate this procedure for quantum electrodynamics.

We present a new approach to describe statistics of the non-linear matter density field that exploits a degeneracy in the impact of different cosmological parameters on the linear dimensionless matter power spectrum, $\Delta ^2_{\rm L}(k)$. We classify all cosmological parameters into two groups, shape parameters, which determine the shape of $\Delta ^2_{\rm L}(k)$, and evolution parameters, which only affect its amplitude at any given redshift. With this definition, the time evolution of $\Delta ^2_{\rm L}(k)$ in models with identical shape parameters but different evolution parameters can be mapped from one to the other by relabelling the redshifts that correspond to the same clustering amplitude, which we characterize by the linear mass fluctuation in spheres of radius 12 Mpc, σ₁₂(z). We use N-body simulations to show that the same evolution mapping relation gives a good description of the non-linear power spectrum, the halo mass function, or the full density field. The deviations from the exact degeneracy are the result of the different structure formation histories experienced by each model to reach the same clustering amplitude and can be accurately described in terms of differences in the suppression factor g(a) = D(a)/a. These relations can be used to drastically reduce the number of parameters required to describe the cosmology dependence of the power spectrum. We show how this can help to speed up the inference of parameter constraints from cosmological observations. We also present a new design of an emulator of the non-linear power spectrum whose predictions can be adapted to an arbitrary choice of evolution parameters and redshift.

We set out to determine stellar labels from low-resolution survey spectra of hot stars, specifically OBA stars with T_eff ≳ 7500 K. This fills a gap in the scientific analysis of large spectroscopic stellar surveys such as LAMOST, which offers spectra for millions of stars at R ~ 1800 and covers 3800 Å ≤ λ ≤ 9000 Å. We first explore the theoretical information content of such spectra to determine stellar labels via the Cramér-Rao bound. We show that in the limit of perfect model spectra and observed spectra with signal-to-noise ratio ~50-100, precise estimates are possible for a wide range of stellar labels: not only the effective temperature, T_eff, surface gravity, log g, and projected rotation velocity, vsin i, but also the micro-turbulence velocity,v_mic, helium abundance, N_He/N_tot, and the elemental abundances [C/H], [N/H], [O/H], [Si/H], [S/H], and [Fe/H]. Our analysis illustrates that the temperature regime of T_eff ~ 9500 K is challenging as the dominant Balmer and Paschen line strengths vary little with T_eff. We implement the simultaneous fitting of these 11 stellar labels to LAMOST hot-star spectra using the Payne approach, drawing on Kurucz's ATLAS12/SYNTHE local thermodynamic equilibrium spectra as the underlying models. We then obtain stellar parameter estimates for a sample of about 330 000 hot stars with LAMOST spectra, an increase by about two orders of magnitude in sample size. Among them, about 260 000 have good Gaia parallaxes (ω/σ_ω > 5), and their luminosities imply that ≳95% of them are luminous stars, mostly on the main sequence; the rest are evolved lower luminosity stars, such as hot subdwarfs and white dwarfs. We show that the fidelity of the results, particularly for the abundance estimates, is limited by the systematics of the underlying models as they do not account for nonlocal thermodynamic equilibrium effects. Finally, we show the detailed distribution of v_sin i of stars with 8000-15 000 K, illustrating that it extends to a sharp cutoff at the critical rotation velocity, v_crit, across a wide range of temperatures.

The catalog is only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (ftp://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/A+A/662/A66

We compute the two-loop mixed QCD-Electroweak corrections to q q ¯→ Hg and its crossed channels qg → Hq, q ¯g →H q ¯, limiting ourselves to the contribution of light virtual quarks. We compute the independent helicity amplitudes as well as the form factors for this process, expressing them in terms of hyperlogarithms with algebraic arguments. The Feynman integrals are computed by direct integration over Feynman parameters and the results are expressed in terms of a basis of rational prefactors.

We use stacked spectra of the host galaxies of photometrically identified type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) to search for correlations between Hubble diagram residuals and the spectral properties of the host galaxies. Utilising full spectrum fitting techniques on stacked spectra binned by Hubble residual, we find no evidence for trends between Hubble residuals and properties of the host galaxies that rely on spectral absorption features ($< 1.3{\sigma}$), such as stellar population age, metallicity, and mass-to-light ratio. However, we find significant trends between the Hubble residuals and the strengths of [OII] ($4.4{\sigma}$) and the Balmer emission lines ($3{\sigma}$). These trends are weaker than the well known trend between Hubble residuals and host galaxy stellar mass ($7.2{\sigma}$) that is derived from broad band photometry. After light curve corrections, we see fainter SNe Ia residing in galaxies with larger line strengths. We also find a trend ($3{\sigma}$) between Hubble residual and the Balmer decrement (a measure of reddening by dust) using $H{\beta}$ and $H{\gamma}$. The trend is only present in the redder SNe Ia, suggesting that bluer SNe Ia are relatively unaffected by dust in the interstellar medium of the host and that dust contributes to current Hubble diagram scatter impacting the measurement of cosmological parameters.

Finite density effects can destabilize the metastable vacua in relaxion models. Focusing on stars as nucleation seeds, we derive the conditions that lead to the formation and runaway of a relaxion bubble of a lower energy minimum than in vacuum. The resulting late-time phase transition in the universe allows us to set new constraints on the parameter space of relaxion models. We also find that similar instabilities can be triggered by the large electromagnetic fields around rotating neutron stars.

We use the small scales of the Dark Energy Survey (DES) Year-3 cosmic shear measurements, which are excluded from the DES Year-3 cosmological analysis, to constrain the baryonic feedback. To model the baryonic feedback, we adopt a baryonic correction model and use the numerical package \texttt{Baccoemu} to accelerate the evaluation of the baryonic nonlinear matter power spectrum. We design our analysis pipeline to focus on the constraints of the baryonic suppression effects, utilizing the implication given by a principal component analysis on the Fisher forecasts. Our constraint on the baryonic effects can then be used to better model and ameliorate the effects of baryons in producing cosmological constraints from the next generation large-scale structure surveys. We detect the baryonic suppression on the cosmic shear measurements with a $\sim 2 \sigma$ significance. The characteristic halo mass for which half of the gas is ejected by baryonic feedback is constrained to be $M_c > 10^{13.2} h^{-1} M_{\odot}$ (95% C.L.). The best-fit baryonic suppression is $\sim 5\%$ at $k=1.0 {\rm Mpc}\ h^{-1}$ and $\sim 15\%$ at $k=5.0 {\rm Mpc} \ h^{-1}$. Our findings are robust with respect to the assumptions about the cosmological parameters, specifics of the baryonic model, and intrinsic alignments.

In this white paper for the Snowmass process, we review the status and prospects of the field of rare decays of b and c hadrons. The role that rare decays play in the search for physics beyond the Standard Model is emphasised. We stress the complementarity of a large set of relevant processes and outline the most promising directions. The experimental opportunities at Belle II, BES III, ATLAS, CMS, LHCb, and at future machines are discussed. We also summarize the challenges that need to be addressed on the theory side to achieve theory uncertainties for rare decays that match the expected experimental sensitivities.

Cosmological analyses with type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) often assume a single empirical relation between color and luminosity ($\beta$) and do not account for varying host-galaxy dust properties. However, from studies of dust in large samples of galaxies, it is known that dust attenuation can vary significantly. Here we take advantage of state-of-the-art modeling of galaxy properties to characterize dust parameters (dust attenuation $A_V$, and a parameter describing the dust law slope $R_V$) for the Dark Energy Survey (DES) SN Ia host galaxies using the publicly available \texttt{BAGPIPES} code. Utilizing optical and infrared data of the hosts alone, we find three key aspects of host dust that impact SN Ia cosmology: 1) there exists a large range ($\sim1-6$) of host $R_V$ 2) high stellar mass hosts have $R_V$ on average $\sim0.7$ lower than that of low-mass hosts 3) there is a significant ($>3\sigma$) correlation between the Hubble diagram residuals of red SNe Ia that when corrected for reduces scatter by $\sim13\%$ and the significance of the ``mass step'' to $\sim1\sigma$. These represent independent confirmations of recent predictions based on dust that attempted to explain the puzzling ``mass step'' and intrinsic scatter ($\sigma_{\rm int}$) in SN Ia analyses. We also find that red-sequence galaxies have both lower and more peaked dust law slope distributions on average in comparison to non red-sequence galaxies. We find that the SN Ia $\beta$ and $\sigma_{\rm int}$ both differ by $>3\sigma$ when determined separately for red-sequence galaxy and all other galaxy hosts. The agreement between fitted host-$R_V$ and SN Ia $\beta$&$\sigma_{\rm int}$ suggests that host dust properties play a major role in SN Ia color-luminosity standardization and supports the claim that SN Ia intrinsic scatter is driven by $R_V$ variation.

Thermal electrons cannot directly participate in the process of diffusive acceleration at electron-ion shocks because their Larmor radii are smaller than the shock transition width: this is the well-known electron injection problem of diffusive shock acceleration. Instead, an efficient pre-acceleration process must exist that scatters electrons off of electromagnetic fluctuations on scales much shorter than the ion gyroradius. The recently found intermediate-scale instability provides a natural way to produce such fluctuations in parallel shocks. The instability drives comoving (with the upstream plasma) ion-cyclotron waves at the shock front and only operates when the drift speed is smaller than half of the electron Alfvén speed. Here we perform particle-in-cell simulations with the SHARP code to study the impact of this instability on electron acceleration at parallel nonrelativistic, electron-ion shocks. To this end, we compare a shock simulation in which the intermediate-scale instability is expected to grow to simulations where it is suppressed. In particular, the simulation with an Alfvénic Mach number large enough to quench the intermediate instability shows a great reduction (by two orders of magnitude) of the electron acceleration efficiency. Moreover, the simulation with a reduced ion-to-electron mass ratio (where the intermediate instability is also suppressed) not only artificially precludes electron acceleration but also results in erroneous electron and ion heating in the downstream and shock transition regions. This finding opens up a promising route for a plasma physical understanding of diffusive shock acceleration of electrons, which necessarily requires realistic mass ratios in simulations of collisionless electron-ion shocks.

(Abridged) Long Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) offer a promising tool to trace the cosmic history of star formation, especially at high redshift where conventional methods are known to suffer from intrinsic biases. Previous studies of GRB host galaxies at low redshift showed that high surface densities of stellar mass and star formation rate (SFR) can potentially enhance the GRB production. We assess how the size, the stellar mass and SFR surface densities of distant galaxies affect their probability to host a long GRB, using a sample of GRB hosts at $z > 1$ and a control sample of star-forming sources from the field. We gather a sample of 45 GRB host galaxies at $1 < z < 3.1$ observed with the Hubble Space Telescope WFC3 camera in the near-infrared. Using the GALFIT parametric approach, we model the GRB host light profile and derive the half-light radius for 35 GRB hosts, which we use to estimate the SFR and stellar mass surface densities of each object. We compare the distribution of these physical quantities to the SFR-weighted properties of a complete sample of star-forming galaxies from the 3D-HST deep survey at comparable redshift and stellar mass. We show that, similarly to $z < 1$, GRB hosts are smaller in size and they have higher stellar mass and SFR surface densities than field galaxies at $1 < z < 2$. Interestingly, this result is robust even when considering separately the hosts of GRBs with optically-bright afterglows and the hosts of dark GRBs. At $z > 2$ though, GRB hosts appear to have sizes and stellar mass surface densities more consistent with those characterizing the field galaxies. In addition to a possible trend toward low metallicity environment, other environmental properties such as stellar density appears to play a role in the formation of long GRBs, at least up to $z \sim 2$. This might suggest that GRBs require special environments to be produced.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) play a key role in the chemical and hydrodynamical evolution of the atmospheres of exoplanets and planet-forming discs. If they can survive the planet formation process, PAHs are likely to be involved in pre-biotic chemical reactions eventually leading to more complex molecules such as amino acids and nucleotides, which form the basis for life as we know it. However, the abundance and specific role of PAHs in these environments is largely unknown due to limitations in sensitivity and range of wavelength of current and previous space-borne facilities. Upcoming infrared space spectroscopy missions, such as Twinkle and Ariel, present a unique opportunity to detect PAHs in the atmospheres of exoplanets and planet-forming discs. In this work, we present synthetic observations based on conservative numerical modelling of typical planet-forming discs and a transiting hot Saturnian planet around solar-type star. Our models show that Twinkle and Ariel might both be able to detect the 3.3 $\mu$m PAH feature within reasonable observing time in discs and transiting planets, assuming that PAHs are present with an abundance of at least one-tenth of the interstellar medium value.

We present direct N-body simulations, carried out with NBODY6+ + GPU, of young and compact low-metallicity (Z = 0.0002) star clusters with 1.1 × 10⁵ stars, a velocity dispersion of ~15 $\mathrm{km\, s^{-1}}$, a half-mass radius R_h = 0.6 pc, and a binary fraction of $10{{\ \rm per\,cent}}$ including updated evolution models for stellar winds and (pulsation) pair-instability supernovae (PSNe). Within the first tens of megayears, each cluster hosts several black hole (BH) merger events which nearly cover the complete mass range of primary and secondary BH masses for current LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA gravitational wave detections. The importance of gravitational recoil is estimated statistically during post-processing analysis. We present possible formation paths of massive BHs above the assumed lower PSN mass-gap limit ($45\, {\rm M}_\odot$) into the intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) regime ($\gt 100\, {\rm M}_\odot$) which include collisions of stars, BHs, and the direct collapse of stellar merger remnants with low core masses. The stellar evolution updates result in the early formation of heavier stellar BHs compared to the previous model. The resulting higher collision rates with massive stars support the rapid formation of massive BHs. For models assuming a high accretion efficiency for star-BH mergers, we present a first-generation formation scenario for GW190521-like events: a merger of two BHs which reached the PSN mass-gap merging with massive stars. This event is independent of gravitational recoil and therefore conceivable in dense stellar systems with low escape velocities. One simulated cluster even forms an IMBH binary (153, 173 M_⊙) which is expected to merge within a Hubble time.

We use high-precision combined strong/weak lensing and kinematics measurements of the total mass profiles of the observed galaxy clusters MACS J1206.2-0847 and Abell S1063, to constrain the relativistic sector of the general DHOST dark energy theories, which exhibit a partial breaking of the so called Vainsthein screening mechanism, on the linear level of scalar fluctuations around a cosmological background. In particular, by using the MG-MAMMPOSST framework developed in Pizzuti et al., for the kinematics analysis of member galaxies in clusters, along with lensing mass profile reconstructions, we provide new constraints on the coupling Y₂ that governs the theory's relativistic contribution to the lensing potential. The new bound from the combination of kinematics and lensing measurements of MACS 1206, $Y_2=-0.12^{+0.66}_{-0.67}$ at 2σ, provides about a two-fold improvement on previous constraints. In the case of Abell S1063, a >2σ tension with the GR expectation arises. We discuss this in some detail, and we investigate the possible sources of systematics that can explain the tension. We further discuss why the combination of kinematics of member galaxies with lensing is capable of providing much tighter bounds compared to kinematics or lensing alone, and we explain how the number density profile of tracers, as well as the choice of the velocity anisotropy profile, affects the final results.

We investigate the final collapse of rotating and non-rotating pulsational pair-instability supernova progenitors with zero-age-main-sequence masses of 60, 80, and 115 M_⊙ and iron cores between 2.37 and 2.72 M_⊙ by 2D hydrodynamics simulations. Using the general relativistic NADA-FLD code with energy-dependent three-flavour neutrino transport by flux-limited diffusion allows us to follow the evolution beyond the moment when the transiently forming neutron star (NS) collapses to a black hole (BH), which happens within 350-580 ms after bounce in all cases. Because of high neutrino luminosities and mean energies, neutrino heating leads to shock revival within ≲ 250 ms post bounce in all cases except the rapidly rotating 60 M_⊙ model. In the latter case, centrifugal effects support a 10 per cent higher NS mass but reduce the radiated neutrino luminosities and mean energies by ~20 per cent and ~10 per cent, respectively, and the neutrino-heating rate by roughly a factor of two compared to the non-rotating counterpart. After BH formation, the neutrino luminosities drop steeply but continue on a 1-2 orders of magnitude lower level for several 100 ms because of aspherical accretion of neutrino and shock-heated matter, before the ultimately spherical collapse of the outer progenitor shells suppresses the neutrino emission to negligible values. In all shock-reviving models BH accretion swallows the entire neutrino-heated matter and the explosion energies decrease from maxima around 1.5 × 10⁵¹ erg to zero within a few seconds latest. Nevertheless, the shock or a sonic pulse moves outward and may trigger mass-loss, which we estimate by long-time simulations with the PROMETHEUS code. We also provide gravitational-wave signals.

SN 2018hti was a very nearby (z=0.0614) superluminous supernova with an exceedingly bright absolute magnitude of -21.7 mag in r-band at maximum. The densely sampled pre-maximum light curves of SN 2018hti show a slow luminosity evolution and constrain the rise time to ~50 rest-frame days. We fitted synthetic light curves to the photometry to infer the physical parameters of the explosion of SN 2018hti for both the magnetar and the CSM-interaction scenarios. We conclude that one of two mechanisms could be powering the luminosity of SN 2018hti; interaction with ~10 Msun of circumstellar material or a magnetar with a magnetic field of B_p~1.3e13 G and initial period of P_spin~1.8 ms. From the nebular spectrum modelling we infer that SN 2018hti likely results from the explosion of a ~40 Msun progenitor star.

We explicitly carry out the symplectic quantization of a family of multifield generalized Proca (GP) electrodynamics theories. In the process, we provide an independent derivation of the so-called secondary constraint enforcing relations—consistency conditions that significantly restrict the allowed interactions in multifield settings already at the classical level. Additionally, we unveil the existence of quantum consistency conditions, which apply in both single- and multifield GP scenarios. Our newly found conditions imply that not all classically well-defined (multi-)GP theories are amenable to quantization. The extension of our results to the most general multi-GP class is conceptually straightforward, albeit algebraically cumbersome.

We evaluate the leading-order hadronic vacuum polarization contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon with two light flavors in minimal hard-wall and soft-wall holographic QCD models, as well as in simple generalizations thereof, and compare it to the rather precise results available from dispersive and lattice approaches. While holographic QCD cannot be expected to shed light on the existing small discrepancies between the latter, this comparison in turn provides useful information on the holographic models, which have been used to evaluate hadronic light-by-light contributions where errors in data-driven and lattice approaches are more sizable. In particular, in the hard-wall model that has recently been used to implement the Melnikov-Vainshtein short-distance constraint on hadronic light-by-light contributions, a matching of the hadronic vacuum polarization to the data-driven approach points to the same correction of parameters that has been proposed recently in order to account for next-to-leading-order effects.

The scale-dependent bias effect on the galaxy power spectrum is a very promising probe of the local primordial non-Gaussianity (PNG) parameter $f_{\rm NL}$, but the amplitude of the effect is proportional to $f_{\rm NL}b_{\phi}$, where $b_{\phi}$ is the linear PNG galaxy bias parameter. Our knowledge of $b_{\phi}$ is currently very limited, yet nearly all existing $f_{\rm NL}$ constraints and forecasts assume precise knowledge for it. Here, we use the BOSS DR12 galaxy power spectrum to illustrate how our uncertain knowledge of $b_{\phi}$ currently prevents us from constraining $f_{\rm NL}$ with a given statistical precision $\sigma_{f_{\rm NL}}$. Assuming different fixed choices for the relation between $b_{\phi}$ and the linear density bias $b_1$, we find that $\sigma_{f_{\rm NL}}$ can vary by as much as an order of magnitude. Our strongest bound is $f_{\rm NL} = 16 \pm 16\ (1\sigma)$, while the loosest is $f_{\rm NL} = 230 \pm 226\ (1\sigma)$ for the same BOSS data. The impact of $b_{\phi}$ can be especially pronounced because it can be close to zero. We also show how marginalizing over $b_{\phi}$ with wide priors is not conservative, and leads in fact to biased constraints through parameter space projection effects. Independently of galaxy bias assumptions, the scale-dependent bias effect can only be used to detect $f_{\rm NL} \neq 0$ by constraining the product $f_{\rm NL}b_{\phi}$, but the error bar $\sigma_{f_{\rm NL}}$ remains undetermined and the results cannot be compared with the CMB; we find $f_{\rm NL}b_{\phi} \neq 0$ with $1.6\sigma$ significance. We also comment on why these issues are important for analyses with the galaxy bispectrum. Our results strongly motivate simulation-based research programs aimed at robust theoretical priors for the $b_{\phi}$ parameter, without which we may never be able to competitively constrain $f_{\rm NL}$ using galaxy data.

High-precision measurements require optimal setups and analysis tools to achieve continuous improvements. Systematic corrections need to be modeled with high accuracy and known uncertainty to reconstruct underlying physical phenomena. To this end, we present Gaussian processes for modeling experiments and usage with Bayesian optimization, on the example of an electron energy detector, achieving optimal performance. We demonstrate the method's strengths and outline stochastic variational Gaussian processes for physics applications with large data sets, enabling new solutions for current problems.

The current cosmological model requires new physics beyond the standard model of elementary particles and fields, such as dark matter and dark energy. Their nature is unknown and so is that of the initial fluctuations in the early Universe that led to the creation of the cosmic structure we see today. Polarized light of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) may hold the answer to these fundamental questions. Here, I discuss two phenomena that could be uncovered in CMB observations. First, if the physics behind dark matter and dark energy violates parity symmetry, their coupling to photons should have rotated the plane of linear polarization as the CMB photons have been travelling for more than 13 billion years. This effect is known as `cosmic birefringence'. A tantalizing hint of such a signal has been found with a statistical significance of 3σ. Second, the period of accelerated expansion in the very early Universe, called `cosmic inflation', might have produced a stochastic background of primordial gravitational waves (as yet unobserved). These might have been generated by vacuum fluctuations in spacetime or by matter fields and could be measurable in the CMB polarization. The goal of observing these two phenomena will influence how data from future CMB experiments are collected, calibrated and analysed.

This summary reviews contributions to the CKM 2021 workshop in Working Group 4. In particular, theoretical and experimental progress in determining $B$ meson mixing properties are discussed.

We study the effects of a fixed de Sitter geometry background in scenarios of false vacuum decay. It is currently understood that bubble nucleation processes associated with first order phase transitions are particularly important in cosmology. The geometry of spacetime complicates the interpretation of the decay rate of a metastable vacuum. However, the effects of curvature can still be studied in the particular case where backreaction is neglected. We compute the imaginary part of the action in de Sitter space, including the one-loop and the gradient corrections. We use two independent methodologies and quantify the size of the corrections without any assumptions on the thickness of the wall of the scalar background configuration.

While $CP$ violation has never been observed in the strong interactions, the QCD Lagrangian admits a $CP$-odd topological interaction proportional to the so called $\theta$ angle, which weighs the contributions to the partition function from different topological sectors. The observational bounds are usually interpreted as demanding a severe tuning of $\theta$ against the phases of the quark masses, which constitutes the strong $CP$ problem. Here we report on recent challenges to this view based on a careful treatment of boundary conditions in the path integral and of the limit of infinite spacetime volume, which leads to $\theta$ dropping out of fermion correlation functions and becoming unobservable, implying that $CP$ is preserved in QCD.

We revisit the joint constraints in the mixed hot dark matter scenario in which both thermally produced QCD axions and relic neutrinos are present. Upon recomputing the cosmological axion abundance via recent advances in the literature, we improve the state-of-the-art analyses and provide updated bounds on axion and neutrino masses. By avoiding approximate methods, such as the instantaneous decoupling approximation, and limitations due to the limited validity of the perturbative approach in QCD that forced to artificially divide the constraints from the axion-pion and the axion-gluon production channels, we find robust and self-consistent limits. We investigate the two most popular axion frameworks: KSVZ and DFSZ. From Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) light element abundances data we find for the KSVZ axion $\Delta N_{\rm eff}<0.31$ and an axion mass bound $m_a < 0.53 $ eV (i.e., a bound on the axion decay constant $f_a > 1.07 \times 10^7$ GeV) both at $95\%$ CL. These BBN bounds are improved to $\Delta N_{\rm eff}<0.14$ and $m_a< 0.16$ eV ($f_a > 3.56 \times 10^7$ GeV) if a prior on the baryon energy density from Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) data is assumed. When instead considering cosmological observations from the CMB temperature, polarization and lensing from the Planck satellite combined with large scale structure data we find $\Delta N_{\rm eff}<0.23$, $m_a< 0.28$ eV ($f_a > 2.02 \times 10^7$ GeV) and $\sum m_\nu < 0.16$ eV at $95\%$ CL. This corresponds approximately to a factor of $5$ improvement in the axion mass bound with respect to the existing limits. Very similar results are obtained for the DFSZ axion. We also forecast upcoming observations from future CMB and galaxy surveys, showing that they could reach percent level errors for $m_a\sim 1$ eV.

The Standard Model of particle physics covers only about 5% of the energy density of the Universe. The remaining components, Dark Matter (DM) and Dark Energy, are largely unknown. The Λ Cold Dark Matter (ΛCDM) cosmological model, postulating DM which is collisionless and non-relativistic before matter-radiation equality, is extremely successful at explaining astronomical observations at large scales; however, its predictive power fails at small (kiloparsecs) scales. In this work, three modifications of the ΛCDM model are presented which resolve the discrepancies between observations and predictions at small scales. Their common features are: a late kinetic decoupling

between the DM particles and a relativistic scattering partner, suppressing the DM power spectrum at small scales, and the introduction of self-interactions, increasing the entropy transfer between DM regions. The first model consists of a completely secluded Dark Sector with a U(1) gauge symmetry and multiple generations of fermions. The second one includes the option of a coupling between DM and neutrinos, which serve as relativistic scattering partners. The third model features a DM annihilation channel into electrons and positrons.

Irreversibility is inherent to life and all nonequilibrium processes. From a physical perspective this irreversibility has been proved to be tightly related to the entropy production, energy dissipation, and the structure of nonequilibrium fluctuations. However, we are still building our understanding of how the performance of the vital biological processes hinges upon the level of energy consumption. Similarly, it is a puzzle how the irreversibility generated by energy dissipation at the microscopic level propagates across different length scales, all the way up to our macroscopic world. Given their important role, irreversibility and dissipation have been sought after and multiple techniques and measures have been introduced to detect and quantify them.

Three-dimensional correlations of the Lyman-$\alpha$ (Ly$\alpha$) forest and cross correlations between the Ly$\alpha$ forest and quasars have been measured on large scales, allowing a precise measurement of the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) feature at redshifts $z>2$. These 3D correlations are often modelled using linear perturbation theory, but full-shape analyses to extract cosmological information beyond BAO will require more realistic models capable of describing non-linearities present at smaller scales. We present a measurement of the Ly$\alpha$ forest flux power spectrum from large hydrodynamic simulations -- the Sherwood simulations -- and compare it to different models describing the small-scale deviations from linear theory. We confirm that the model presented in Arinyo-i-Prats et al. (2015) fits the measured 3D power up to $k=10\, h\rm{Mpc^{-1}}$ with an accuracy better than 5%, and show that the same model can also describe the 1D correlations with similar precision. We also present, for the first time, an equivalent study for the cross-power spectrum of halos with the Ly$\alpha$ forest, and we discuss different challenges we face when modelling the cross-power spectrum beyond linear scales. We make all our measured power spectra public in \url{https://github.com/andreufont/sherwood_p3d}. This study is a step towards joint analyses of 1D and 3D flux correlations, and towards using the quasar-Ly$\alpha$ cross-correlation beyond BAO analyses.

Based on the Simplified Differential Equations approach, we present results for the two-loop non-planar hexa-box families of master integrals. We introduce a new approach to obtain the boundary terms and establish a one-dimensional integral representation of the master integrals in terms of Generalised Polylogarithms, when the alphabet contains non-factorisable square roots. The results are relevant to the study of NNLO QCD corrections for W, Z and Higgs-boson production in association with two hadronic jets.

In this decade one expects a very significant progress in measuring the branching ratios for several rare $K$ and $B$ decays, in particular for the decays $K^+\to\pi^+\nu\bar\nu$, $K_L\to\pi^0\nu\bar\nu$, $B_s\to\mu^+\mu^+$ and $B_d\to\mu^+\mu^+$. On the theory side a very significant progress on calculating these branching ratios has been achieved in the last thirty years culminating recently in rather precise SM predictions for them. It is then unfortunate that some papers still cite the results for $K^+\to\pi^+\nu\bar\nu$ and $K_L\to\pi^0\nu\bar\nu$ presented by us in 2015. They are clearly out of date. Similar comments apply to predictions for $B_{s,d}\to\mu^+\mu^-$. In this note I want to stress again that, in view of the tensions between various determinations of $V_{cb}$ in tree-level decays, presently, the only trustable SM predictions for the branching ratios in question can be obtained by eliminating their dependence on the CKM parameters with the help of $|\varepsilon_K|$, $\Delta M_s$, $\Delta M_d$ and $S_{\psi K_S}$, evaluated in the SM. In this context I am astonished by statements made by some computer code practitioners that setting in this strategy these four $\Delta F=2$ observables to their experimental values is an assumption. The goal of this strategy is not to make an overall SM fit but to predict the SM branching ratios. In the SM there are no new physics (NP) contributions to $\Delta F=2$ transitions and no assumption on the absence of NP is needed. Moreover, presently NP is not required to describe simultaneously the very precise data on $|\varepsilon_K|$, $\Delta M_s$, $\Delta M_d$ and $S_{\psi K_S}$. This strategy for obtaining true SM predictions for rare decay branching ratios is moreover not polluted by hadronic uncertainies and observed anomalies in semi-leptonic decays used often in global analyses.

We study gravothermal evolution of dark matter halos in the presence of differential self-scattering that has strong velocity and angular dependencies. We design controlled N-body simulations to model Rutherford and Moller scatterings in the halo, and follow its evolution in both core-expansion and -collapse phases. The simulations show the commonly-used transfer cross section underestimates the effects of dark matter self-interactions, but the viscosity cross section provides a good approximation for modeling angular-dependent dark matter scattering. We investigate thermodynamic properties of the halo, and find that the three moments of the Boltzmann equation under the fluid approximation are satisfied. We further propose a constant effective cross section, which integrates over the halo's characteristic velocity dispersion with weighting kernels motivated by kinetic theory of heat conduction. The effective cross section provides an approximation to differential self-scattering for most of the halo evolution. However, it can significantly underestimate the growth rate of the central density at late stages of the collapse phase. This indicates that constant and velocity-dependent dark matter self-interactions are fundamentally different, as for the latter the cross section evolves with the halo dynamically, boosting the collapse. This feature may help test different self-interacting dark matter models.

We perform the first calculation of form factors in the semileptonic decays B → D₁(2420)ℓν_ℓ and B → D₁^'(2430)ℓν_ℓ using QCD light-cone sum rules (LCSRs) with B-meson distribution amplitudes. In this calculation the c-quark mass is finite. Analytical expressions for two-particle contributions up to twist four are obtained. To disentangle the D₁ and D₁^' contributions in the LCSRs, we suggest a novel approach that introduces a combination of two interpolating currents for these charmed mesons. To fix all the parameters in the LCSRs, we use the two-point QCD sum rules for the decay constants of D₁ and D₁^' mesons augmented by a single experimental input, that is the B → D₁(2420)ℓν_ℓ decay width. We provide numerical results for all B → D₁ and B → D₁^' form factors. As a byproduct, we also obtain the D₁- and D₁^'-meson decay constants and predict the lepton-flavour universality ratios R(D₁) and R(D₁^').

We study gauge theories of background fields associated to BRST quantized spinning particle models and identify background-independent algebraic structures which allow to systematically reduce the spectrum of fields and subject some of them to dynamical equations of motion. More specifically, we construct a manifestly background-independent extension of the model based on N = 2 spinning particle. The resulting system describes an on-shell spin-1 field coupled to off-shell background fields including metric and dilaton. Tensoring with a given Lie algebra results in a non-abelian extension of the model.

Proteins control many vital functions in living cells, such as cell growth and cell division. Reliable coordination of these functions requires the spatial and temporal organization of proteins inside cells, which encodes information about the cell's geometry and the cell-cycle stage. The study of such protein patterns has long focused around formation in uniform environments. However, in recent years, it has become evident that spatial heterogeneities are essential for protein patterning, and various guiding cues in the cell or at the cell boundary can be exploited to reliably control protein pattern formation. We review how protein patterns are guided by cell size and shape, by other protein patterns that act as templates, and by the mechanical properties of the cell. The basic mechanisms of guided pattern formation are elucidated with reference to observations in various biological model organisms. We posit that understanding the controlled formation of protein patterns in cells will be an essential part of understanding information processing in living systems.

Context. Galaxy clusters grow through mergers and the accretion of substructures along large-scale filaments. Many of the missing baryons in the local Universe may reside in such filaments as the warm-hot intergalactic medium (WHIM).
Aims: SRG/eROSITA performance verification observations revealed that the binary cluster Abell 3391/3395 and the Northern Clump (the MCXC J0621.7-5242 galaxy cluster) are aligning along a cosmic filament in soft X-rays, similarly to what has been seen in simulations before. We aim to understand the dynamical state of the Northern Clump as it enters the atmosphere (3 × R₂₀₀) of Abell 3391.
Methods: We analyzed joint eROSITA, XMM-Newton, and Chandra observations to probe the morphological, thermal, and chemical properties of the Northern Clump from its center out to a radius of 988 kpc (R₂₀₀). We utilized the ASKAP/EMU radio data, the DECam optical image, and the Planck y-map to study the influence of the wide-angle tail (WAT) radio source on the Northern Clump's central intracluster medium. Using eROSITA data, we also analyzed the gas properties of the Northern Filament, the region between the virial radii of the Northern Clump and the A3391 cluster. From the Magneticum simulation, we identified an analog of the A3391/95 system along with an infalling group resembling the Northern Clump.
Results: The Northern Clump is a weak cool-core cluster centered on a WAT radio galaxy. The gas temperature over 0.2-0.5R₅₀₀ is k_BT₅₀₀ = 1.99 ± 0.04 keV. We employed the mass-temperature (M - T) scaling relation and obtained a mass estimate of M₅₀₀ = (7.68 ± 0.43) × 10¹³ M_⊙ and R₅₀₀ = (63 6 ± 12) kpc. Its X-ray atmosphere has a boxy shape and deviates from spherical symmetry. We identify a southern surface brightness edge, likely caused by subsonic motion relative to the filament gas in the southern direction. At ~R₅₀₀, the southern atmosphere (infalling head) appears to be 42% hotter than its northern atmosphere. We detect a downstream tail pointing toward the north with a projected length of ~318 kpc, plausibly the result of ram pressure stripping. Through a two-temperature fit, we identify a cooler component in the Northern Filament with k_BT = 0.68_{- 0.64}^{+ 0.38} keV <!--inline-formula id="FI1"><alternatives><![CDATA[{k_{B}}T = 0.68_{- 0.64}^{+ 0.38}{{keV}}]]>kBT=0.68−0.64+0.38keV<inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" id="img_eq1" mime-subtype="png" mimetype="image" xlink:href="aa41415-21-eq1.png"/></alternatives> and n_e = 1.99_-1.24^+0.88 × 10^-5cm^-3, <!--inline-formula id="FI2"><alternatives><![CDATA[{n_e}1.99_{- 1.24}^{+ 0.88} × {10^{- 5}}{{c}}{{{m}}^{- 3}}]]>ne1.99−1.24+0.88×10−5cm−3<inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" id="img_eq2" mime-subtype="png" mimetype="image" xlink:href="aa41415-21-eq2.png"/></alternatives> which are consistent within the expected ranges of WHIM properties. The analog group in the Magneticum simulation is experiencing changes in its gas properties and a shift between the position of the halo center and that of the bound gas, while approaching the main cluster pair.
Conclusions: The Northern Clump is a dynamically active system and far from being relaxed. Its atmosphere is affected by an interaction with the WAT and by gas sloshing or its infall toward Abell 3391 along the filament, consistent with the analog group-size halo in the Magneticum simulation.

The coming generation of galaxy surveys will provide measurements of galaxy clustering with unprecedented accuracy and data size, which will allow us to test cosmological models at much higher precision than achievable previously. This means that we must have more accurate theoretical predictions to compare with future observational data. As a first step towards more accurate modelling of the redshift space distortions (RSD) of small-scale galaxy clustering in modified gravity (MG) cosmologies, we investigate the validity of the so-called Skew-T (ST) probability distribution function (PDF) of halo pairwise peculiar velocities in these models. We show that, combined with the streaming model of RSD, the ST PDF substantially improves the small-scale predictions by incorporating skewness and kurtosis, for both ΛCDM and two leading MG models: f(R) gravity and the DGP braneworld model. The ST model reproduces the velocity PDF and redshift-space halo clustering measured from MG N-body simulations very well down to ~5 h^-1Mpc. In particular, we investigate the enhancements of halo pairwise velocity moments with respect to ΛCDM for a larger range of MG variants than previous works, and present simple explanations to the behaviours observed. By performing a simple Fisher analysis, we find a significnat increase in constraining power to detect modifications of General Relativity by introducing small-scale information in the RSD analyses.

We present the first results with the ROentgen Survey with an Imaging Telescope Array (eROSITA) on board the Russian Spektrum-Roentgen-Gamma mission, and we combine the new X-ray data with observations with the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). We used the SUPERBLINK proper motion catalog of nearby M dwarfs as input sample to search for eROSITA and TESS data. We extracted Gaia DR2 data for the full M dwarf catalog, which comprises ~9000 stars, and we calculated the stellar parameters from empirical relations with optical/IR colors. Then we cross-matched this catalog with the eROSITA Final Equatorial Depth Survey (eFEDS) and the first eROSITA all-sky survey (eRASS1). After a meticulous source identification in which we associated the closest Gaia source with the eROSITA X-ray detections, our sample of M dwarfs is defined by 687 stars with SpT = K5..M7 (673 from eRASS1 and 14 from eFEDS). While for eRASSl we used the data from the source catalog provided by the eROSITA_DE consortium, for the much smaller eFEDS sample, we performed the data extraction, and we analyzed the X-ray spectra and light curves. This unprecedented data base for X-ray emitting M dwarfs allowed us to place a quantitative constraint on the mass dependence of the X-ray luminosity, and to determine the change in the activity level with respect to pre-main-sequence stars. TESS observations are available for 489 of 687 X-ray detected M dwarfs. By applying standard period search methods, we were able to determine the rotation period for 180 X-ray detected M dwarfs. This is about one-forth of the X-ray sample. With the joint eROSITA and TESS sample, and combining it with our compilation of historical X-ray and rotation data for M dwarfs, we examined the mass dependence of the saturated regime of the rotation-activity relation. A first comparison of eROSITA hardness ratios and spectra shows that 65% of the X-ray detected M dwarfs have coronal temperatures of ~0.5 keV. We performed a statistical investigation of the long-term X-ray variability of M dwarfs by comparing the eROSITA measurements to those obtained ~30 yr earlier during the ROSAT all-sky survey (RASS). Evidence for X-ray flares is found in various parts of our analysis: directly from an inspection of the eFEDS light curves, in the relation between RASS and eRASSl X-ray luminosities, and in a subset of stars that displays hotter X-ray emission than the bulk of the sample according to the hardness ratios. Finally, we point out the need to obtain X-ray spectroscopy for more M dwarfs to study the coronal temperature-luminosity relation, which is not well constrained by our eFEDS results.

Full Tables 2, 3 and 5 are only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (ftp://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/A+A/661/A29

Recent subarcsecond resolution surveys of the dust continuum emission from nearby protoplanetary disks show a strong correlation between the sizes and luminosities of the disks. We aim to explain the origin of the (sub-)millimeter size-luminosity relation (SLR) between the 68% effective radius (r_eff) of disks with their continuum luminosity (L_mm), with models of gas and dust evolution in a simple viscous accretion disk and radiative transfer calculations. We use a large grid of models (10⁵ simulations) with and without planetary gaps, and vary the initial conditions of the key parameters. We calculate the disk continuum emission and the effective radius for all models as a function of time. By selecting those simulations that continuously follow the SLR, we can derive constraints on the input parameters of the models. We confirm previous results that models of smooth disks in the radial drift regime are compatible with the observed SLR (L_mm ∝ r_eff²), but only smooth disks cannot be the reality. We show that the SLR is more widely populated if planets are present. However, they tend to follow a different relation than smooth disks, potentially implying that a mixture of smooth and substructured disks are present in the observed sample. We derive a SLR (L_mm ∝ r_eff^5/4) for disks with strong substructure. To be compatible with the SLR, models need to have an initially high disk mass (≥2.5 × 10⁻² M_*) and low turbulence-parameter a values (≤10⁻³). Furthermore, we find that the grain composition and porosity drastically affects the evolution of disks in the size-luminosity diagram where relatively compact grains that include amorphous carbon are favored. Moreover, a uniformly optically thick disk with high albedo (0.9) that follows the SLR cannot be formed from an evolutionary procedure.

While protoplanetary disks are often treated as isolated systems in planet formation models, observations increasingly suggest that vigorous interactions between Class II disks and their environments are not rare. DO Tau is a T Tauri star that has previously been hypothesized to have undergone a close encounter with the HV Tau system. As part of the DESTINYS ESO Large Programme, we present new Very Large Telescope (VLT)/SPHERE polarimetric observations of DO Tau and combine them with archival Hubble Space Telescope (HST) scattered-light images and Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations of CO isotopologues and CS to map a network of complex structures. The SPHERE and ALMA observations show that the circumstellar disk is connected to arms extending out to several hundred astronomical units. HST and ALMA also reveal stream-like structures northeast of DO Tau, some of which are at least several thousand astronomical units long. These streams appear not to be gravitationally bound to DO Tau, and comparisons with previous Herschel far-IR observations suggest that the streams are part of a bridge-like structure connecting DO Tau and HV Tau. We also detect a fainter redshifted counterpart to a previously known blueshifted CO outflow. While some of DO Tau's complex structures could be attributed to a recent disk-disk encounter, they might be explained alternatively by interactions with remnant material from the star formation process. These panchromatic observations of DO Tau highlight the need to contextualize the evolution of Class II disks by examining processes occurring over a wide range of size scales.

Ultra-hot Jupiters (UHJs) are expected to possess temperature inversion layers in their dayside atmospheres. Recent thermal emission observations have discovered several atomic and molecular species along with temperature inversions in UHJs. We observed the thermal emission spectra of two UHJs (WASP-33b and WASP-189b) with the GIANO-B high-resolution near-infrared spectrograph. Using the cross-correlation technique, we detected carbon monoxide (CO) in the dayside atmospheres of both planets. The detected CO lines are in emission, which agrees with previous discoveries of iron emission lines and temperature inversions in the two planets. This is the first detection of CO lines in emission with high-resolution spectroscopy. Further retrieval work combining the CO lines with other spectral features will enable a comprehensive understanding of the atmospheric properties such as temperature structures and C/O ratios. The detected CO and iron emission lines of WASP-189b have redshifted radial velocities of several km s⁻¹, which likely originate from a dayside to nightside wind in its atmosphere. Such a redshifted velocity has not been detected for the emission lines of WASP-33b, suggesting that the atmospheric circulation patterns of the two UHJs may be different.

Context. Clusters of galaxies reside at the nodes of the cosmic web, interconnected by filamentary structures that contain tenuous diffuse gas, especially in the warm-hot phase. Galaxy clusters grow by mergers of smaller objects and gas that are mainly accreted through these large-scale filaments. For the first time, the large-scale cosmic structure and a long gas-emission filament have been captured by eROSITA on board the Spectrum-Roentgen-Gamma mission in a direct X-ray observation of the A3391/95 field.
Aims: We investigate the assembly history of an A3391/95-like system of clusters and the thermo-chemical properties of the diffuse gas in it by connecting simulation predictions to the eROSITA observations with the aim to constrain the origin and nature of the gas in the pair-interconnecting bridge.
Methods: We analysed the properties of a system resembling A3391/95, extracted from the (352 h⁻¹ cMpc)³ volume of the Magneticum Pathfinder cosmological simulations at z = 0.07. We tracked the main progenitors of the pair clusters and of surrounding groups back in time to study the assembly history of the system and its evolution.
Results: Similarly to the observed A3391/95 system, the simulated cluster pair is embedded in a complex network of gas filaments, with structures aligned over more than 20 projected Mpc, and the whole region collapses towards the central overdense node. The spheres of influence (3 × R₂₀₀) of the two main clusters already overlap at z = 0.07, but their virial boundaries are still physically separated. The diffuse gas located in the interconnecting bridge closely reflects the warm-hot intergalactic medium, with a typical temperature of ~1 keV and an overdensity δ ~ 100 with respect to the mean baryon density of the Universe, and a lower enrichment level compared to the intra-cluster medium in clusters. We find that most of the bridge gas collapsed from directions roughly orthogonal to the intra-cluster gas accretion directions, and its origin is mostly unrelated to the two cluster progenitors. We find clear signatures in the surrounding groups of infall motion towards the pair, such as significant radial velocities and a slowdown of gas compared to dark matter. These findings further support the hypothesis that the Northern Clump (MCXC J0621.7-5242) cluster infalls along a cosmic gas filament towards Abell 3391 and might be merging with it.
Conclusions: We conclude that in this configuration, the pair clusters of the A3391/95-like system are in a pre-merger phase and have not yet interacted. The diffuse gas in the interconnecting bridge is mostly warm filament gas and not tidally stripped cluster gas.

The lack of convergence of the convolution integrals appearing in next-to-leading-power (NLP) factorization theorems prevents the applications of existing methods to resum power-suppressed large logarithmic corrections in collider physics. We consider thrust distribution in the two-jet region for the flavour-nonsinglet off-diagonal contribution, where a gluon-initiated jet recoils against a quark-antiquark pair, which is power-suppressed. With the help of operatorial endpoint factorization conditions, we obtain a factorization formula, where the individual terms are free from endpoint divergences in convolutions and can be expressed in terms of renormalized hard, soft and collinear functions in four dimensions. This allows us to perform the first resummation of the endpoint-divergent SCET$_{\rm I}$ observables at the leading logarithmic accuracy using exclusively renormalization-group methods. The presented approach relies on universal properties of the soft and collinear limits and may serve as a paradigm for the systematic NLP resummation for other $1\to 2$ and $2\to 1$ collider physics processes.

Using synthetic Lyman-$\alpha$ forests from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) survey, we present a study of the impact of errors in the estimation of quasar redshift on the Lyman-$\alpha$ correlation functions. Estimates of quasar redshift have large uncertainties of a few hundred $\text{km s}^{-1}\,$ due to the broadness of the emission lines and the intrinsic shifts from other emission lines. We inject Gaussian random redshift errors into the mock quasar catalogues, and measure the auto-correlation and the Lyman-$\alpha$-quasar cross-correlation functions. We find a smearing of the BAO feature in the radial direction, but changes in the peak position are negligible. However, we see a significant unphysical correlation for small separations transverse to the line of sight which increases with the amplitude of the redshift errors. We interpret this contamination as a result of the broadening of emission lines in the measured mean continuum, caused by quasar redshift errors, combined with the unrealistically strong clustering of the simulated quasars on small scales.

Aims: The eROSITA Final Equatorial-Depth Survey (eFEDS), executed during the performance verification phase of the Spectrum-Roentgen-Gamma (SRG)/eROSITA telescope, was completed in November 2019. One of the science goals of this survey is to demonstrate the ability of eROSITA to detect samples of clusters and groups at the final depth of the eROSITA all-sky survey.
Methods: Because of the sizeable (≈26″ HEW FOV average) point-spread function of eROSITA, high-redshift clusters of galaxies or compact nearby groups hosting bright active galactic nuclei (AGN) can be misclassified as point sources by the source detection algorithms. A total of 346 galaxy clusters and groups in the redshift range of 0.1 < z < 1.3 were identified based on their red sequenc in the eFEDS point source catalog.
Results: We examine the multiwavelength properties of these clusters and groups to understand the potential biases in our selection process and the completeness of the extent-selected sample. We find that the majority of the clusters and groups in the point source sample are indeed underluminous and compact compared to the extent-selected sample. Their faint X-ray emission, well below the flux limit of the extent-selected eFEDS clusters, and their compact X-ray emission are likely to be the main reason for this misclassification. In the sample, we confirm that 10% of the sources host AGN in their brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) through optical spectroscopy and visual inspection. By studying their X-ray, optical, infrared, and radio properties, we establish a method for identifying clusters and groups that host AGN in their BCGs. We successfully test this method on the current point source catalog through the Sloan Digital Sky Survey optical spectroscopy and find eight low-mass clusters and groups with active radio-loud AGN that are particularly bright in the infrared. They include eFEDS J091437.8+024558, eFEDS J083520.1+012516, and eFEDS J092227.1+043339 at redshifts 0.3−0.4.
Conclusions: This study helps us to characterize and understand our selection process and assess the completeness of the eROSITA extent-selected samples. The method we developed will be used to identify high-redshift clusters, AGN-dominated groups, and low-mass clusters that are misclassified in the future eROSITA all-sky survey point source catalogs.

Table 3 is only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (ftp://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/A+A/661/A10

Context. Red supergiant (RSGs) are cool massive stars in a late phase of their evolution when the stellar envelope becomes fully convective. They are the brightest stars in the universe at infrared light and can be detected in galaxies far beyond the Local Group, allowing for accurate determination of chemical composition of galaxies. The study of their physical properties is extremely important for various phenomena including the final fate of massive stars as type II supernovae and gravitational wave progenitors.
Aims: We explore the well-studied nearby young stellar cluster χ Per, which contains a relatively large population of RSG stars. Using Gaia EDR3 data, we find the distance of the cluster (d = 2.260 ± 0.020 kpc) from blue main sequence stars and compare with RSG parallax measurements analysing the parallax uncertainties of both groups. We then investigate the variability of the convection-related surface structure as a source for parallax measurement uncertainty.
Methods: We use state-of-the-art three-dimensional radiative hydrodynamics simulations of convection with CO5BOLD and the post-processing radiative transfer code OPTIM3D to compute intensity maps in the Gaia G photometric system. We calculate the variabiltiy, as a function of time, of the intensity-weighted mean (or the photo-center) from the synthetic maps. We then select the RSG stars in the cluster and compare their uncertainty on parallaxes to the predictions of photocentre displacements.
Results: The synthetic maps of RSG show extremely irregular and temporal variable surfaces due to convection-related dynamics. Consequentially, the position of the photo-center varies during Gaia measurements between 0.033 and 0.130 AU (≈1 to ≈5% of the corresponding simulation stellar radius). We argue that the variability of the convection-related surface structures accounts for a substantial part of the Gaia EDR3 parallax error of the RSG sample of χ Per.
Conclusions: We suggest that the variation of the uncertainty on Gaia parallax could be exploited quantitatively using appropriate RHD simulations to extract, in a unique way, important information about the stellar dynamics and parameters of RSG stars.

Movies are available at https://www.aanda.org

Theoretical models of the co-evolution of galaxies and active galactic nuclei (AGNs) ascribe an important role in the feedback process to a short, luminous, obscured, and dust-enshrouded phase during which the accretion rate of the supermassive black hole is expected to be at its maximum and the associated AGN-driven winds are also predicted to be maximally developed. To test this scenario, we have isolated a textbook candidate from the eROSITA Final Equatorial-Depth Survey (eFEDS) obtained within the performance and verification program of the eROSITA telescope on board the Spectrum Röntgen Gamma mission. From an initial catalogue of 246 hard X-ray selected sources that are matched with the photometric and spectroscopic information available within the eROSITA and Hyper Suprime-Cam consortia, three candidates quasars in the feedback phase have been isolated applying a diagnostic proposed previously. Only one source (eFEDS J091157.4+014327) has a spectrum already available (from SDSS-DR16, z = 0.603) and it unambiguously shows abroad component (full width at half maximum ~1650 kms⁻¹) in the [OIII]5007 line. The associated observed L_[OIII] is ~2.6 × 10⁴² erg s⁻¹, one to two orders of magnitude higher than that observed in local Seyfert galaxies and comparable to those observed in a sample of z ~ 0.5 type 1 quasars. From the multi-wavelength data available, we derive an Eddington ratio (L_bol/L_Edd) of ~0.25 and a bolometric correction in the hard X-ray band of k_bol ~ 10, which is lower than the corrections observed for objects at similar bolometric luminosity. These properties, along with the outflow, the high X-ray luminosity, the moderate X-ray obscuration (L_X∽10^44.8 erg s⁻¹, N_H∽2.7 × 10²² cm⁻²), and the red optical colour, all match the prediction of quasars in the feedback phase from merger-driven models. Forecasting to the full eROSITA all-sky survey with its spectroscopic follow-up, we predict that by the end of 2024, we will have a sample of few hundred such objects at z= 0.5-2.

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) has embarked on an ambitious five-year survey to explore the nature of dark energy with spectroscopy of 40 million galaxies and quasars. DESI will determine precise redshifts and employ the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation method to measure distances from the nearby universe to z > 3.5, as well as measure the growth of structure and probe potential modifications to general relativity. In this paper we describe the significant instrumentation we developed for the DESI survey. The new instrumentation includes a wide-field, 3.2-deg diameter prime-focus corrector that focuses the light onto 5020 robotic fiber positioners on the 0.812 m diameter, aspheric focal surface. The positioners and their fibers are divided among ten wedge-shaped petals. Each petal is connected to one of ten spectrographs via a contiguous, high-efficiency, nearly 50 m fiber cable bundle. The ten spectrographs each use a pair of dichroics to split the light into three channels that together record the light from 360 - 980 nm with a resolution of 2000 to 5000. We describe the science requirements, technical requirements on the instrumentation, and management of the project. DESI was installed at the 4-m Mayall telescope at Kitt Peak, and we also describe the facility upgrades to prepare for DESI and the installation and functional verification process. DESI has achieved all of its performance goals, and the DESI survey began in May 2021. Some performance highlights include RMS positioner accuracy better than 0.1", SNR per √(Å) > 0.5 for a z > 2 quasar with flux 0.28e-17 erg/s/cm^2/A at 380 nm in 4000s, and median SNR = 7 of the [OII] doublet at 8e-17 erg/s/cm^2 in a 1000s exposure for emission line galaxies at z = 1.4 - 1.6. We conclude with highlights from the on-sky validation and commissioning of the instrument, key successes, and lessons learned. (abridged)

We model here the merger histories of the supermassive black hole (SMBH) population in the late stages of a cosmological simulation of a ~ 2 × 10¹³ M _⊙ galaxy group. The gravitational dynamics around the several tens of SMBHs (M _• > 7.5 × 10⁷ M _⊙) hosted by the galaxies in the group is computed at high accuracy using regularized integration with the KETJU code. The 11 SMBHs that form binaries and a hierarchical triplet eventually merge after hardening through dynamical friction, stellar scattering, and gravitational wave (GW) emission. The binaries form at eccentricities of e ~ 0.3-0.9, with one system evolving to a very high eccentricity of e = 0.998, and merge on timescales of a few tens to several hundred megayears. During the simulation, the merger-induced GW recoil kicks eject one SMBH remnant from the central host galaxy. This temporarily drives the galaxy off the M _•-σ _⋆ relation; however, the galaxy returns to the relation due to subsequent galaxy mergers, which bring in new SMBHs. This showcases a possible mechanism contributing to the observed scatter of the M _•-σ _⋆ relation. Finally, we show that pulsar timing arrays and LISA would be able to detect parts of the GW signals from the SMBH mergers that occur during the ~4 Gyr time span simulated with KETJU.

In this work we study possible connections between B-meson anomalies and Kaon physics observables in the context of combined solutions with the singlet and triplet scalar leptoquarks S₁ and S₃. By assuming a flavor structure for the leptoquark couplings dictated by a minimally broken U (2^{) 5} flavor symmetry we can make a sharp connection between these two classes of observables. We find that the bound on B (K⁺→π⁺ν ν ) from NA62 puts already some tension in the model, while the present limits on B (K_L→μ⁺μ^-) and μ →e conversion in nuclei can be saturated. Relaxing instead the flavor assumption we study what values for B (K⁺→π⁺ν ν ) , as well as for B (K_L→π⁰ν ν ) and B (K_{L ,S}→μ⁺μ^-) , are viable compatibly with all other phenomenological constraints.

We present spectroscopic measurements for 71 galaxies associated with 62 of the brightest high-redshift submillimetre sources from the Southern fields of the Herschel Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey (H-ATLAS), while targeting 85 sources which resolved into 142. We have obtained robust redshift measurements for all sources using the 12-m Array and an efficient tuning of ALMA to optimize its use as a redshift hunter, with 73 per cent of the sources having a robust redshift identification. Nine of these redshift identifications also rely on observations from the Atacama Compact Array. The spectroscopic redshifts span a range 1.41 < z < 4.53 with a mean value of 2.75, and the CO emission line full-width at half-maxima range between $\rm 110\, km\, s^{-1} \lt FWHM \lt 1290\, km\, s^{-1}$ with a mean value of ~500 km s^-1, in line with other high-z samples. The derived CO(1-0) luminosity is significantly elevated relative to line-width to CO(1-0) luminosity scaling relation, which is suggestive of lensing magnification across our sources. In fact, the distribution of magnification factors inferred from the CO equivalent widths is consistent with expectations from galaxy-galaxy lensing models, though there is a hint of an excess at large magnifications that may be attributable to the additional lensing optical depth from galaxy groups or clusters.

The RNA world is one of the principal hypotheses to explain the emergence of living systems on the prebiotic Earth. It posits that RNA oligonucleotides acted as both carriers of information as well as catalytic molecules, promoting their own replication. However, it does not explain the origin of the catalytic RNA molecules. How could the transition from a pre-RNA to an RNA world occur? A starting point to answer this question is to analyze the dynamics in sequence space on the lowest level, where mononucleotide and short oligonucleotides come together and collectively evolve into larger molecules. To this end, we study the sequence-dependent self-assembly of polymers from a random initial pool of short building blocks via templated ligation. Templated ligation requires two strands that are hybridized adjacently on a third strand. The thermodynamic stability of such a configuration crucially depends on the sequence context and, therefore, significantly influences the ligation probability. However, the sequence context also has a kinetic effect, since non-complementary nucleotide pairs in the vicinity of the ligation site stall the ligation reaction. These sequence-dependent thermodynamic and kinetic effects are explicitly included in our stochastic model. Using this model, we investigate the system-level dynamics inside a non-equilibrium ‘RNA reactor’ enabling a fast chemical activation of the termini of interacting oligomers. Moreover, the RNA reactor subjects the oligomer pool to periodic temperature changes inducing the reshuffling of the system. The binding stability of strands typically grows with the number of complementary nucleotides forming the hybridization site. While shorter strands unbind spontaneously during the cold phase, larger complexes only disassemble during the temperature peaks. Inside the RNA reactor, strand growth is balanced by cleavage via hydrolysis, such that the oligomer pool eventually reaches a non-equilibrium stationary state characterized by its length and sequence distribution. How do motif-dependent energy and stalling parameters affect the sequence composition of the pool of long strands? As a critical factor for self-enhancing sequence selection, we identify kinetic stalling due to non-complementary base pairs at the ligation site. Kinetic stalling enables cascades of self-amplification that result in a strong reduction of occupied states in sequence space. Moreover, we discuss the significance of the symmetry breaking for the transition from a pre-RNA to an RNA world.

Photoevaporative winds are a promising mechanism for dispersing protoplanetary discs, but so far theoretical models have been unable to agree on the relative roles that the X-ray, Extreme Ultraviolet or Far Ultraviolet play in driving the winds. This has been attributed to a variety of methodological differences between studies, including their approach to radiative transfer and thermal balance, the choice of irradiating spectrum employed, and the processes available to cool the gas. We use the MOCASSIN radiative transfer code to simulate wind heating for a variety of spectra on a static density grid taken from simulations of an EUV-driven wind. We explore the impact of choosing a single representative X-ray frequency on their ability to drive a wind by measuring the maximum heated column as a function of photon energy. We demonstrate that for reasonable luminosities and spectra, the most effective energies are at a few 100 eV, firmly in the softer regions of the X-ray spectrum, while X-rays with energies ~1000 eV interact too weakly with disc gas to provide sufficient heating to drive a wind. We develop a simple model to explain these findings. We argue that further increases in the cooling above our models - for example due to molecular rovibrational lines - may further restrict the heating to the softer energies but are unlikely to prevent X-ray heated winds from launching entirely; increasing the X-ray luminosity has the opposite effect. The various results of photoevaporative wind models should therefore be understood in terms of the choice of irradiating spectrum.

We present the median-stacked Lyman-α (Lyα) surface brightness profiles of 968 spectroscopically selected Lyα emitting galaxies (LAEs) at redshifts 1.9 < z < 3.5 in the early data of the Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment. The selected LAEs are high-confidence Lyα detections with high signal-to-noise ratios observed with good seeing conditions (point-spread function FWHM <1.″4), excluding active galactic nuclei. The Lyα luminosities of the LAEs are 10^42.4-10⁴³ erg s^-1. We detect faint emission in the median-stacked radial profiles at the level of <?CDATA $(3.6\pm 1.3)\times {10}^{-20}\,\mathrm{erg}\,{{\rm{s}}}^{-1}\,{\mathrm{cm}}^{-2}\,{\mathrm{arcsec}}^{-2}$?> from the surrounding Lyα halos out to r ≃ 160 kpc (physical). The shape of the median-stacked radial profile is consistent at r < 80 kpc with that of much fainter LAEs at 3 < z < 4 observed with the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE), indicating that the median-stacked Lyα profiles have similar shapes at redshifts 2 < z < 4 and across a factor of 10 in Lyα luminosity. While we agree with the results from the MUSE sample at r < 80 kpc, we extend the profile over a factor of two in radius. At r > 80 kpc, our profile is flatter than the MUSE model. The measured profile agrees at most radii with that of galaxies in the Byrohl et al. cosmological radiative transfer simulation at z = 3. This suggests that the surface brightness of a Lyα halo at r ≲ 100 kpc is dominated by resonant scattering of Lyα photons from star-forming regions in the central galaxy, whereas at r > 100 kpc, it is dominated by photons from galaxies in surrounding dark matter halos.

We study the evolution of dust in a cosmological volume using a hydrodynamical simulation in which the dust production is coupled with the MUPPI (MUlti Phase Particle Integrator) sub-resolution model of star formation and feedback. As for the latter, we keep as reference the model setup calibrated previously to match the general properties of Milky Way like galaxies in zoom-in simulations. However, we suggest that an increase of the star formation efficiency with the local dust to gas ratio would better reproduce the observed evolution of the cosmic star formation density. Moreover, the paucity of quenched galaxies at low redshift demands a stronger role of AGN feedback. We tune the parameters ruling direct dust production from evolved stars and accretion in the inter stellar medium to get scaling relations involving dust, stellar mass and metallicity in good agreement with observations. In low mass galaxies the accretion process is inefficient. As a consequence, they remain poorer in silicate and small grains than higher mass ones. We reproduce reasonably well the few available data on the radial distribution of dust outside the galactic region, supporting the assumption that the dust and gas dynamics are well coupled at galactic scales.

Experimental searches for pure glueball states have proven challenging and so far yielded no results. This is believed to occur because glueballs mix with the ordinary $q\bar q$ states with the same quantum numbers. We will discuss an alternative mechanism, the formation of the glueball-meson molecular states. We will argue that the wave functions of already observed excited meson states may contain a significant part due to such molecular states. We discuss the phenomenology of glueball molecules and comment on a possible charmless component of the $XYZ$ states.

We perform two distinct spatio-spectral reconstructions of the gamma-ray sky in the range of 0.56-316 GeV based on Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) data. Both describe the sky brightness to be composed of a diffuse-emission and a point-source component. The first model requires minimal assumptions and provides a template-free reconstruction as a reference. It makes use of spatial and spectral correlations to distinguish between the different components. The second model is physics-informed and further differentiates between diffuse emission of hadronic and leptonic origin. For this, we assume parametric, but spatially varying energy spectra to distinguish between the processes and use thermal Galactic dust observations to indicate the preferred sites of hadronic interactions. To account for instrumental effects we model the point-spread, the energy dispersion, and the exposure of the telescope throughout the observation. The reconstruction problem is formulated as a Bayesian inference task, that is solved by variational inference. We show decompositions of the Gamma-ray flux into diffuse and point-like emissions, and of the diffuse emissions into multiple physically motivated components. The diffuse decomposition provides an unprecedented view of the Galactic leptonic diffuse emission. It shows the Fermi bubbles and their spectral variations in high fidelity and other areas exhibiting strong cosmic ray electron contents, such as a thick disk in the inner Galaxy and outflow regions. Furthermore, we report a hard spectrum gamma ray arc in the northern outer bubble co-spatial with the reported X-ray arc by the eROSITA collaboration. All our spatio-spectral sky reconstructions and their uncertainty quantification are publicly available.

Gravitationally lensed supernovae (LSNe) are important probes of cosmic expansion, but they remain rare and difficult to find. Current cosmic surveys likely contain and 5-10 LSNe in total while next-generation experiments are expected to contain several hundreds to a few thousands of these systems. We search for these systems in observed Dark Energy Survey (DES) 5-year SN fields -- 10 3-sq. deg. regions of sky imaged in the $griz$ bands approximately every six nights over five years. To perform the search, we utilize the DeepZipper approach: a multi-branch deep learning architecture trained on image-level simulations of LSNe that simultaneously learns spatial and temporal relationships from time series of images. We find that our method obtains a LSN recall of 61.13% and a false positive rate of 0.02% on the DES SN field data. DeepZipper selected 2,245 candidates from a magnitude-limited ($m_i$ $<$ 22.5) catalog of 3,459,186 systems. We employ human visual inspection to review systems selected by the network and find three candidate LSNe in the DES SN fields.

We construct a relativistic chiral nucleon-nucleon interaction up to the next-to-next-to-leading order in covariant baryon chiral perturbation theory. We show that a good description of the np phase shifts up to Tlab=200  MeV and even higher can be achieved with a ˜χ2/d.o.f. less than 1. Both the next-to-leading-order results and the next-to-next-to-leading-order results describe the phase shifts equally well up to Tlab=200  MeV, but for higher energies, the latter behaves better, showing satisfactory convergence. The relativistic chiral potential provides the most essential inputs for relativistic ab initio studies of nuclear structure and reactions, which has been in need for almost two decades.

A dark energy-like component in the early universe, known as early dark energy (EDE), is a proposed solution to the Hubble tension. Currently, there is no consensus in the literature as to whether EDE can simultaneously solve the Hubble tension and provide an adequate fit to the data from the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and large-scale structure of the universe. In this work, we deconstruct the current constraints from the Planck CMB and the full-shape clustering data of the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey to understand the origin of different conclusions in the literature. We use two different analyses, a grid sampling and a profile likelihood, to investigate whether the current constraints suffer from volume effects upon marginalization and are biased toward some values of the EDE fraction, f _EDE. We find that the f _EDE allowed by the data strongly depends on the particular choice of the other parameters of the model, and that several choices of these parameters prefer larger values of f _EDE than in the Markov Chain Monte Carlo analysis. This suggests that volume effects are the reason behind the disagreement in the literature. Motivated by this, we use a profile likelihood to analyze the EDE model and compute a confidence interval for f _EDE, finding f _EDE = 0.072 ± 0.036 (68% C.L.). Our approach gives a confidence interval that is not subject to volume effects and provides a powerful tool to understand whether EDE is a possible solution to the Hubble tension.