The interstellar medium is characterized by an intricate filamentary network that exhibits complex structures. These show a variety of different shapes (e.g. junctions, rings, etc.) deviating strongly from the usually assumed cylindrical shape. A possible formation mechanism are filament mergers that we analyse in this study. Indeed, the proximity of filaments in networks suggests mergers to be rather likely. As the merger has to be faster than the end dominated collapse of the filament along its major axis, we expect three possible results: (a) The filaments collapse before a merger can happen, (b) the merged filamentary complex shows already signs of cores at the edges, or (c) the filaments merge into a structure which is not end-dominated. We develop an analytic formula for the merging and core-formation time-scale at the edge and validate our model via hydrodynamical simulations with the adaptive-mesh-refinement-code RAMSES. This allows us to predict the outcome of a filament merger, given different initial conditions which are the initial distance and the respective line-masses of each filament as well as their relative velocities.

The construction of catalogues of a particular type of galaxy can be complicated by interlopers contaminating the sample. In spectroscopic galaxy surveys this can be due to the misclassification of an emission line; for example in the Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX) low-redshift [O II] emitters may make up a few per cent of the observed Ly α emitter (LAE) sample. The presence of contaminants affects the measured correlation functions and power spectra. Previous attempts to deal with this using the cross-correlation function have assumed sources at a fixed redshift, or not modelled evolution within the adopted redshift bins. However, in spectroscopic surveys like HETDEX, where the contamination fraction is likely to be redshift dependent, the observed clustering of misclassified sources will appear to evolve strongly due to projection effects, even if their true clustering does not. We present a practical method for accounting for the presence of contaminants with redshift-dependent contamination fractions and projected clustering. We show using mock catalogues that our method, unlike existing approaches, yields unbiased clustering measurements from the upcoming HETDEX survey in scenarios with redshift-dependent contamination fractions within the redshift bins used. We show our method returns autocorrelation functions with systematic biases much smaller than the statistical noise for samples with at least as high as 7 per cent contamination. We also present and test a method for fitting for the redshift-dependent interloper fraction using the LAE-[O II] galaxy cross-correlation function, which gives less biased results than assuming a single interloper fraction for the whole sample.

We reconsider the complete set of four-quark operators in the Weak Effective Theory (WET) for non-leptonic ∆F = 1 decays that govern s → d and b → d, s transitions in the Standard Model (SM) and beyond, at the Next-to-Leading Order (NLO) in QCD. We discuss cases with different numbers N_f of active flavours, intermediate threshold corrections, as well as the issue of transformations between operator bases beyond leading order to facilitate the matching to high-energy completions or the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT) at the electroweak scale. As a first step towards a SMEFT NLO analysis of K → ππ and non-leptonic B-meson decays, we calculate the relevant WET Wilson coefficients including two-loop contributions to their renormalization group running, and express them in terms of the Wilson coefficients in a particular operator basis for which the one-loop matching to SMEFT is already known.

Context. Observations of young stars hosting transition disks show that several of them have high accretion rates, despite their disks presenting extended cavities in their dust component. This represents a challenge for theoretical models, which struggle to reproduce both features simultaneously.
Aims: We aim to explore if a disk evolution model, including a dead zone and disk dispersal by X-ray photoevaporation, can explain the high accretion rates and large gaps (or cavities) measured in transition disks.
Methods: We implemented a dead zone turbulence profile and a photoevaporative mass-loss profile into numerical simulations of gas and dust. We performed a population synthesis study of the gas component and obtained synthetic images and SEDs of the dust component through radiative transfer calculations.
Results: This model results in long-lived inner disks and fast dispersing outer disks that can reproduce both the accretion rates and gap sizes observed in transition disks. For a dead zone of turbulence α_dz = 10⁻⁴ and an extent r_dz = 10 AU, our population synthesis study shows that 63% of our transition disks are still accreting with Ṁ_g ≥ 10⁻¹¹ M_⊙ yr⁻¹ after opening a gap. Among those accreting transition disks, half display accretion rates higher than 5.0 × 10⁻¹⁰ M_⊙ yr⁻¹. The dust component in these disks is distributed in two regions: in a compact inner disk inside the dead zone, and in a ring at the outer edge of the photoevaporative gap, which can be located between 20 and 100 AU. Our radiative transfer calculations show that the disk displays an inner disk and an outer ring in the millimeter continuum, a feature that resembles some of the observed transition disks.
Conclusions: A disk model considering X-ray photoevaporative dispersal in combination with dead zones can explain several of the observed properties in transition disks, including the high accretion rates, the large gaps, and a long-lived inner disk at millimeter emission.

Blazars research is one of the hot topics of contemporary extragalactic astrophysics. That is because these sources are the most abundant type of extragalactic γ-ray sources and are suspected to play a central role in multimessenger astrophysics. We have used Swift$\_$xrtproc, a tool to carry out an accurate spectral and photometric analysis of the Swift-XRT data of all blazars observed by Swift at least 50 times between December 2004 and the end of 2020. We present a database of X-ray spectra, best-fit parameter values, count rates and flux estimations in several energy bands of over 31 000 X-ray observations and single snapshots of 65 blazars. The results of the X-ray analysis have been combined with other multifrequency archival data to assemble the broad-band Spectral Energy Distributions (SEDs) and the long-term light curves of all sources in the sample. Our study shows that large X-ray luminosity variability on different time-scales is present in all objects. Spectral changes are also frequently observed with a 'harder-when-brighter' or 'softer-when-brighter' behaviour depending on the SED type of the blazars. The peak energy of the synchrotron component (ν_peak) in the SED of HBL blazars, estimated from the log-parabolic shape of their X-ray spectra, also exhibits very large changes in the same source, spanning a range of over two orders of magnitude in Mrk421 and Mrk501, the objects with the best data sets in our sample.

One of the most fundamental questions in cosmology is if dark energy is related just to a constant or it is something more complex. In this work, we call the attention to the fact that, under very general conditions, dark energy can be identified with a cosmological constant. Indeed, this fact defines what we call Vacuum Frame. In general, this frame does not coincide with the Jordan or Einstein frame, defined by the invariant character of particle masses or the Newton constant, respectively. We illustrate this question by the introduction of a particular scalar-tensor model where the different hierarchies among these energy scales are dynamically generated.

We analyze in detail the angular distributions in B ¯ →D^∗ℓ ν ¯ decays, with a focus on lepton-flavour non-universality. We investigate the minimal number of angular observables that fully describes current and upcoming datasets, and explore their sensitivity to physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM) in the most general weak effective theory. We apply our findings to the current datasets, extract the non-redundant set of angular observables from the data, and compare to precise SM predictions that include lepton-flavour universality violating mass effects. Our analysis shows that the number of independent angular observables that can be inferred from current experimental data is limited to only four. These are insufficient to extract the full set of relevant BSM parameters. We uncover a ∼4 σ tension between data and predictions that is hidden in the redundant presentation of the Belle 2018 data on B ¯ →D^∗ℓ ν ¯ decays. This tension specifically involves observables that probe e -μ lepton-flavour universality. However, we find inconsistencies in these data, which renders results based on it suspicious. Nevertheless, we discuss which generic BSM scenarios could explain the tension, in the case that the inconsistencies do not affect the data materially. Our findings highlight that e -μ non-universality in the SM, introduced by the finite muon mass, is already significant in a subset of angular observables with respect to the experimental precision.

Combining laser spectroscopy in a Versatile Arc Discharge and Laser Ion Source (VADLIS) with Penning-trap mass spectrometry at the CERN-ISOLDE facility, this work reports on mean-square charge radii of neutron-rich mercury isotopes across the N =126 shell closure, the electromagnetic moments of ²⁰⁷Hg, and more precise mass values of ^Hg-208₂₀₆. The odd-even staggering (OES) of the mean square charge radii and the kink at N =126 are analyzed within the framework of covariant density functional theory (CDFT), with comparisons between different functionals to investigate the dependence of the results on the underlying single-particle structure. The observed features are defined predominantly in the particle-hole channel in CDFT, since both are present in the calculations without pairing. However, the magnitude of the kink is still affected by the occupation of the ν 1 i_{11 /2} and ν 2 g_{9 /2} orbitals with a dependence on the relative energies as well as pairing.

Aims: We present a detailed characterisation and theoretical interpretation of the broadband emission of the paradigmatic TeV blazar Mrk 421, with a special focus on the multi-band flux correlations.
Methods: The dataset has been collected through an extensive multi-wavelength campaign organised between 2016 December and 2017 June. The instruments involved are MAGIC, FACT, Fermi-LAT, Swift, GASP-WEBT, OVRO, Medicina, and Metsähovi. Additionally, four deep exposures (several hours long) with simultaneous MAGIC and NuSTAR observations allowed a precise measurement of the falling segments of the two spectral components.
Results: The very-high-energy (VHE; E > 100 GeV) gamma rays and X-rays are positively correlated at zero time lag, but the strength and characteristics of the correlation change substantially across the various energy bands probed. The VHE versus X-ray fluxes follow different patterns, partly due to substantial changes in the Compton dominance for a few days without a simultaneous increase in the X-ray flux (i.e., orphan gamma-ray activity). Studying the broadband spectral energy distribution (SED) during the days including NuSTAR observations, we show that these changes can be explained within a one-zone leptonic model with a blob that increases its size over time. The peak frequency of the synchrotron bump varies by two orders of magnitude throughout the campaign. Our multi-band correlation study also hints at an anti-correlation between UV-optical and X-ray at a significance higher than 3σ. A VHE flare observed on MJD 57788 (2017 February 4) shows gamma-ray variability on multi-hour timescales, with a factor ten increase in the TeV flux but only a moderate increase in the keV flux. The related broadband SED is better described by a two-zone leptonic scenario rather than by a one-zone scenario. We find that the flare can be produced by the appearance of a compact second blob populated by high energetic electrons spanning a narrow range of Lorentz factors, from γ'_min=2×10⁴ to γ'_max=6×10⁵.

Light curves and spectral energy distributions data 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/655/A89

Using the DIANOGA hydrodynamical zoom-in simulation set of galaxy clusters, we analyse the dynamics traced by stars belonging to the brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) and their surrounding diffuse component, forming the intracluster light (ICL), and compare it to the dynamics traced by dark matter and galaxies identified in the simulations. We compute scaling relations between the BCG and cluster velocity dispersions and their corresponding masses (i.e. $M_\mathrm{BCG}^{\star }$-$\sigma _\mathrm{BCG}^{\star }$, M₂₀₀-σ₂₀₀, $M_\mathrm{BCG}^{\star }$-M₂₀₀, and $\sigma _\mathrm{BCG}^{\star }$-σ₂₀₀), we find in general a good agreement with observational results. Our simulations also predict $\sigma _\mathrm{BCG}^{\star }$-σ₂₀₀ relation to not change significantly up to redshift z = 1, in line with a relatively slow accretion of the BCG stellar mass at late times. We analyse the main features of the velocity dispersion profiles, as traced by stars, dark matter, and galaxies. As a result, we discuss that observed stellar velocity dispersion profiles in the inner cluster regions are in excellent agreement with simulations. We also report that the slopes of the BCG velocity dispersion profile from simulations agree with what is measured in observations, confirming the existence of a robust correlation between the stellar velocity dispersion slope and the cluster velocity dispersion (thus, cluster mass) when the former is computed within 0.1R₅₀₀. Our results demonstrate that simulations can correctly describe the dynamics of BCGs and their surrounding stellar envelope, as determined by the past star formation and assembly histories of the most massive galaxies of the Universe.

We present infrared spectral indices (1.0-2.3 μm) of Galactic late-type giants and red supergiants (RSGs). We used existing and new spectra obtained at resolution power R = 2000 with SpeX on the IRTF telescope. While a large CO equivalent width (EW), at 2.29 μm ([CO, 2.29] ≳ 45 Å) is a typical signature of RSGs later than spectral type M0, $[\mathrm{CO}]$ of K-type RSGs and giants are similar. In the [CO, 2.29] versus [Mg I, 1.71] diagram, RSGs of all spectral types can be distinguished from red giants because the Mg I line weakens with increasing temperature and decreasing gravity. We find several lines that vary with luminosity, but not temperature: Si I (1.59 μm), Sr (1.033 μm), Fe+Cr+Si+CN (1.16 μm), Fe+Ti (1.185 μm), Fe+Ti (1.196 μm), Ti+Ca (1.28 μm), and Mn (1.29 μm). Good markers of CN enhancement are the Fe+Si+CN line at 1.087 μm and CN line at 1.093 μm. Using these lines, at the resolution of SpeX, it is possible to separate RSGs and giants. Contaminant O-rich Mira and S-type AGBs are recognized by strong molecular features due to water vapor features, TiO band heads, and/or ZrO absorption. Among the 42 candidate RSGs that we observed, all but one were found to be late types. Twenty-one have EWs consistent with those of RSGs, 16 with those of O-rich Mira AGBs, and one with an S-type AGB. These infrared results open new, unexplored, potential for searches at low resolution of RSGs in the highly obscured innermost regions of the Milky Way.

Astrometric precision and knowledge of the point spread function are key ingredients for a wide range of astrophysical studies including time-delay cosmography in which strongly lensed quasar systems are used to determine the Hubble constant and other cosmological parameters. Astrometric uncertainty on the positions of the multiply-imaged point sources contributes to the overall uncertainty in inferred distances and therefore the Hubble constant. Similarly, knowledge of the wings of the point spread function is necessary to disentangle light from the background sources and the foreground deflector. We analyse adaptive optics (AO) images of the strong lens system J 0659+1629 obtained with the W. M. Keck Observatory using the laser guide star AO system. We show that by using a reconstructed point spread function we can (i) obtain astrometric precision of <1 mas, which is more than sufficient for time-delay cosmography; and (ii) subtract all point-like images resulting in residuals consistent with the noise level. The method we have developed is not limited to strong lensing, and is generally applicable to a wide range of scientific cases that have multiple point sources nearby.

Following our recent work on Type II supernovae (SNe), we present a set of 1D nonlocal thermodynamic equilibrium radiative transfer calculations for nebular-phase Type Ibc SNe starting from state-of-the-art explosion models with detailed nucleosynthesis. Our grid of progenitor models is derived from He stars that were subsequently evolved under the influence of wind mass loss. These He stars, which most likely form through binary mass exchange, synthesize less oxygen than their single-star counterparts with the same zero-age main sequence (ZAMS) mass. This reduction is greater in He-star models evolved with an enhanced mass loss rate. We obtain a wide range of spectral properties at 200 d. In models from He stars with an initial mass > 6 M_⊙, the [O I] λλ 6300, 6364 is of a comparable or greater strength than [Ca II] λλ 7291, 7323 - the strength of [O I] λλ 6300, 6364 increases with the He-star initial mass. In contrast, models from lower mass He stars exhibit a weak [O I] λλ 6300, 6364, strong [Ca II] λλ 7291, 7323, and also strong N II lines and Fe II emission below 5500 Å. The ejecta density, which is modulated by the ejecta mass, the explosion energy, and clumping, has a critical impact on gas ionization, line cooling, and spectral properties. We note that Fe II dominates the emission below 5500 Å and is stronger at earlier nebular epochs. It ebbs as the SN ages, while the fractional flux in [O I] λλ 6300, 6364 and [Ca II] λλ 7291, 7323 increases with a similar rate as the ejecta recombine. Although the results depend on the adopted wind mass loss rate and pre-SN mass, we find that He-stars of 6-8 M_⊙ initially (ZAMS mass of 23-28 M_⊙) match the properties of standard SNe Ibc adequately. This finding agrees with the offset in progenitor masses inferred from the environments of SNe Ibc relative to SNe II. Our results for less massive He stars are more perplexing since the predicted spectra are not seen in nature. They may be missed by current surveys or associated with Type Ibn SNe in which interaction power dominates over decay power.

Tables A.3-A.23 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/656/A61

We report predictions for the suppression and elliptic flow of the ϒ (1 S ), ϒ (2 S ), and ϒ (3 S ) as a function of centrality and transverse momentum in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions. We obtain our predictions by numerically solving a Lindblad equation for the evolution of the heavy-quarkonium reduced density matrix derived using potential nonrelativistic QCD and the formalism of open quantum systems. To numerically solve the Lindblad equation, we make use of a stochastic unraveling called the quantum trajectories algorithm. This unraveling allows us to solve the Lindblad evolution equation efficiently on large lattices with no angular momentum cutoff. The resulting evolution describes the full 3D quantum and non-Abelian evolution of the reduced density matrix for bottomonium states. We expand upon our previous work by treating differential observables and elliptic flow; this is made possible by a newly implemented Monte Carlo sampling of physical trajectories. Our final results are compared to experimental data collected in √{s_{N N}}=5.02 TeV Pb-Pb collisions by the ALICE, ATLAS, and CMS collaborations.

We present a sample of 706, z < 1.5 active galactic nuclei (AGNs) selected from optical photometric variability in three of the Dark Energy Survey (DES) deep fields (E2, C3, and X3) over an area of 4.64 deg^2. We construct light curves using difference imaging aperture photometry for resolved sources and non-difference imaging PSF photometry for unresolved sources, respectively, and characterize the variability significance. Our DES light curves have a mean cadence of 7 d, a 6-yr baseline, and a single-epoch imaging depth of up to g ∼ 24.5. Using spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting, we find 26 out of total 706 variable galaxies are consistent with dwarf galaxies with a reliable stellar mass estimate (⁠|$M_{\ast }\lt 10^{9.5}\, {\rm M}_\odot$|⁠; median photometric redshift of 0.9). We were able to constrain rapid characteristic variability time-scales (∼ weeks) using the DES light curves in 15 dwarf AGN candidates (a subset of our variable AGN candidates) at a median photometric redshift of 0.4. This rapid variability is consistent with their low black hole (BH) masses. We confirm the low-mass AGN nature of one source with a high S/N optical spectrum. We publish our catalogue, optical light curves, and supplementary data, such as X-ray properties and optical spectra, when available. We measure a variable AGN fraction versus stellar mass and compare to results from a forward model. This work demonstrates the feasibility of optical variability to identify AGNs with lower BH masses in deep fields, which may be more ‘pristine’ analogues of supermassive BH seeds.

Neutrino telescopes are unrivaled tools to explore the Universe at its most extreme. The current generation of telescopes has shown that very high energy neutrinos are produced in the cosmos, even with hints of their possible origin, and that these neutrinos can be used to probe our understanding of particle physics at otherwise inaccessible regimes. The fluxes, however, are low, which means newer, larger telescopes are needed. Here we present the Pacific Ocean Neutrino Experiment, a proposal to build a multi-cubic-kilometer neutrino telescope off the coast of Canada. The idea builds on the experience accumulated by previous sea-water missions, and the technical expertise of Ocean Networks Canada that would facilitate deploying such a large infrastructure. The design and physics potential of the first stage and a full-scale P-ONE are discussed.

Searches for rare $ {B}_s^0 $ and B$^{0}$ decays into four muons are performed using proton-proton collision data recorded by the LHCb experiment, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 9 fb$^{−1}$. Direct decays and decays via light scalar and J/ψ resonances are considered. No evidence for the six decays searched for is found and upper limits at the 95% confidence level on their branching fractions ranging between 1.8 × 10$^{−10}$ and 2.6 × 10$^{−9}$ are set.[graphic not available: see fulltext]

The experimental detection of the CE$\nu$NS allows the investigation of neutrinos and neutrino sources with all-flavor sensitivity. Given its large content in neutrons and stability, Pb is a very appealing choice as target element. The presence of the radioisotope $^{210}$Pb (T$_{1/2}\sim$22 yrs) makes natural Pb unsuitable for low-background, low-energy event searches. This limitation can be overcome employing Pb of archaeological origin, where several half-lives of $^{210}$Pb have gone by. We present results of a cryogenic measurement of a 15g PbWO$_4$ crystal, grown with archaeological Pb (older than $\sim$2000 yrs) that achieved a sub-keV nuclear recoil detection threshold. A ton-scale experiment employing such material, with a detection threshold for nuclear recoils of just 1 keV would probe the entire Milky Way for SuperNovae, with equal sensitivity for all neutrino flavors, allowing the study of the core of such exceptional events.

The exploration of the universe has recently entered a new era thanks to the multi-messenger paradigm, characterized by a continuous increase in the quantity and quality of experimental data that is obtained by the detection of the various cosmic messengers (photons, neutrinos, cosmic rays and gravitational waves) from numerous origins. They give us information about their sources in the universe and the properties of the intergalactic medium. Moreover, multi-messenger astronomy opens up the possibility to search for phenomenological signatures of quantum gravity. On the one hand, the most energetic events allow us to test our physical theories at energy regimes which are not directly accessible in accelerators; on the other hand, tiny effects in the propagation of very high energy particles could be amplified by cosmological distances. After decades of merely theoretical investigations, the possibility of obtaining phenomenological indications of Planck-scale effects is a revolutionary step in the quest for a quantum theory of gravity, but it requires cooperation between different communities of physicists (both theoretical and experimental). This review, prepared within the COST Action CA18108 “Quantum gravity phenomenology in the multi-messenger approach”, is aimed at promoting this cooperation by giving a state-of-the art account of the interdisciplinary expertise that is needed in the effective search of quantum gravity footprints in the production, propagation and detection of cosmic messengers.

We search for the signature of shocks in stacked gas pressure profiles of galaxy clusters using data from the South Pole Telescope (SPT). Specifically, we stack the recently released Compton-y maps from the 2500 deg^2 SPT-SZ survey on the locations of clusters identified in that same dataset. The sample contains 516 clusters with mean mass <M200m> = 1e14.9 msol and redshift <z> = 0.55. We analyze in parallel a set of zoom-in hydrodynamical simulations from The Three Hundred project. The SPT-SZ data show two features: (i) a pressure deficit at R/R200m = $1.08 \pm 0.09$, measured at $3.1\sigma$ significance and not observed in the simulations, and; (ii) a sharp decrease in pressure at R/R200m = $4.58 \pm 1.24$ at $2.0\sigma$ significance. The pressure deficit is qualitatively consistent with a shock-induced thermal non-equilibrium between electrons and ions, and the second feature is consistent with accretion shocks seen in previous studies. We split the cluster sample by redshift and mass, and find both features exist in all cases. There are also no significant differences in features along and across the cluster major axis, whose orientation roughly points towards filamentary structure. As a consistency test, we also analyze clusters from the Planck and Atacama Cosmology Telescope Polarimeter surveys and find quantitatively similar features in the pressure profiles. Finally, we compare the accretion shock radius (Rsh_acc) with existing measurements of the splashback radius (Rsp) for SPT-SZ and constrain the lower limit of the ratio, Rsh_acc/Rsp > $2.16 \pm 0.59$.

Using proton-proton collision data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 9 fb$^{−1}$ collected with the LHCb detector, seven decay modes of the $ {\mathrm{B}}_{\mathrm{c}}^{+} $ meson into a J/ψ or ψ(2S) meson and three charged hadrons, kaons or pions, are studied. The decays $ {\mathrm{B}}_{\mathrm{c}}^{+} $ → (ψ(2S) → J/ψπ$^{+}$π$^{−}$)π$^{+}$, $ {\mathrm{B}}_{\mathrm{c}}^{+} $ → ψ(2S)π$^{+}$π$^{−}$π$^{+}$, $ {\mathrm{B}}_{\mathrm{c}}^{+} $ → J/ψK$^{+}$π$^{−}$π$^{+}$ and $ {\mathrm{B}}_{\mathrm{c}}^{+} $ → J/ψK$^{+}$K$^{−}$K$^{+}$ are observed for the first time, and evidence for the $ {\mathrm{B}}_{\mathrm{c}}^{+} $ → ψ(2S)K$^{+}$K$^{−}$π$^{+}$, decay is found, where J/ψ and ψ(2S) mesons are reconstructed in their dimuon decay modes. The ratios of branching fractions between the different $ {\mathrm{B}}_{\mathrm{c}}^{+} $ decays are reported as well as the fractions of the decays proceeding via intermediate resonances. The results largely support the factorisation approach used for a theoretical description of the studied decays.[graphic not available: see fulltext]

Nanotechnology often exploits DNA origami nanostructures assembled into even larger superstructures up to micrometer sizes with nanometer shape precision. However, large-scale assembly of such structures is very time-consuming. Here, we investigated the efficiency of superstructure assembly on surfaces using indirect cross-linking through low-complexity connector strands binding staple strand extensions, instead of connector strands binding to scaffold loops. Using single-molecule imaging techniques, including fluorescence microscopy and atomic force microscopy, we show that low sequence complexity connector strands allow formation of DNA origami superstructures on lipid membranes, with an order-of-magnitude enhancement in the assembly speed of superstructures. A number of effects, including suppression of DNA hairpin formation, high local effective binding site concentration, and multivalency are proposed to contribute to the acceleration. Thus, the use of low-complexity sequences for DNA origami higher-order assembly offers a very simple but efficient way of improving throughput in DNA origami design.

A short review of existing efforts to understand charge radii and related indicators on a global scale within the covariant density functional theory (CDFT) is presented. Using major classes of covariant energy density functionals (CEDFs), the global accuracy of the description of experimental absolute and differential charge radii within the CDFT framework has been established. This assessment is supplemented by an evaluation of theoretical statistical and systematic uncertainties in the description of charge radii. New results on the accuracy of the description of differential charge radii in deformed actinides and light superheavy nuclei are presented and the role of octupole deformation in their reproduction is evaluated. Novel mechanisms leading to odd-even staggering in charge radii are discussed. Finally, we analyze the role of self-consistency effects in an accurate description of differential charge radii.

Messier 15 (NGC 7078) is an old and metal-poor post core-collapse globular cluster that hosts a rich population of variable stars. We report new optical (gi) and near-infrared (NIR, JK_s) multi-epoch observations for 129 RR Lyrae, 4 Population II Cepheids (3 BL Herculis, 1 W Virginis), and 1 anomalous Cepheid variable candidate in M15 obtained using the MegaCam and the WIRCam instruments on the 3.6 m Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. Multi-band data are used to improve the periods and classification of variable stars, and determine accurate mean magnitudes and pulsational amplitudes from the light curves fitted with optical and NIR templates. We derive optical and NIR period-luminosity relations for RR Lyrae stars which are best constrained in the K_s band, ${m}_{{K}_{s}}=-2.333\,(0.054)\mathrm{log}P+13.948\,(0.015)$ with a scatter of only 0.037 mag. Theoretical and empirical calibrations of RR Lyrae period-luminosity-metallicity relations are used to derive a true distance modulus to M15: 15.196 ± 0.026 (statistical) ± 0.039 (systematic) mag. Our precise distance moduli based on RR Lyrae stars and Population II Cepheid variables are mutually consistent and agree with recent distance measurements in the literature based on Gaia parallaxes and other independent methods.

Our ordinary life changed quite a bit in March of 2020 due to the global Covid-19 pandemic. While spring time in general well awaited and regarded as a synonym for rejuvenation the spring of 2020 brought lock-down, curfew, home office and digital education to the lives of many. The particle physics community was not an exception: research institutes and universities introduced home office and digital lecturing and all workshops, conferences and summer schools were canceled, got postponed or took place online. Using publicly available data from the INSPIRE and arXiv databases we investigate the effects of this dramatic change of life to the publishing trends of the high-energy physics community with an emphasis on particle phenomenology and theory. To get insights we gather information about publishing trends in the last 20 years, and analyse it in detail.

I give a theory motivation for future measurements in quark flavour physics, trying to identify observables, which are less familiar, but nevertheless interesting and promising.

We present period-luminosity relations (PLRs) for 55 Cepheids in M31 with periods ranging from 4 to 78 days observed with the Hubble Space Telescope using the same three-band photometric system recently used to calibrate their luminosities. Images were taken with the Wide Field Camera 3 in two optical filters (F555W and F814W) and one near-infrared filter (F160W) using the Drift and Shift (DASH) mode of operation to significantly reduce overheads and observe widely separated Cepheids in a single orbit. We include additional F160W epochs for each Cepheid from the Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury and use light curves from the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System of the Andromeda galaxy project to determine mean magnitudes. Combined with a 1.28% absolute calibration of Cepheid PLRs in the Large Magellanic Cloud from Riess et al. in the same three filters, we find a distance modulus to M31 of μ₀ = 24.407 ± 0.032, corresponding to 761 ± 11 kpc and 1.49% uncertainty including all error sources, the most precise determination of its distance to date. We compare our results to past measurements using Cepheids and the tip of the red giant branch. This study also provides the groundwork for turning M31 into a precision anchor galaxy in the cosmic distance ladder to measure the Hubble constant together with efforts to measure a fully geometric distance to M31.

We show that axionlike particles that only couple to invisible dark photons can generate visible B mode signals around the reionization epoch. The axion field starts rolling shortly before reionization, resulting in a tachyonic instability for the dark photons. This generates an exponential growth of the dark photon quanta sourcing both scalar metric modes and gravitational waves that leave an imprint on the reionized baryons. The tensor modes modify the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization at reionization, generating visible B mode signatures for the next generation of CMB experiments for parameter ranges that satisfy the current experimental constraints.

Despite strong evidence for the existence of large amounts of dark matter (DM) in our Universe, there is no direct indication of its presence in our own solar system. All estimates of the local DM density rely on extrapolating results on much larger scales. We demonstrate for the first time the possibility of simultaneously measuring the local DM density and interaction cross section with a direct detection experiment. It relies on the assumption that incoming DM particles frequently scatter on terrestrial nuclei prior to detection, inducing an additional time-dependence of the signal. We show that for sub-GeV DM, with a large spin-independent DM-proton cross section, future direct detection experiments should be able to reconstruct the local DM density with smaller than 50% uncertainty.

This thesis deals with the study of properties and interactions of light mesons. Specifically, we focus on hadronic decay and scattering processes, which are dominated by effects of the strong interaction in the low-energy regime. A peculiarity of the strong interaction is that perturbative expansions fail at hadronic energy scales. Thus, genuine nonperturbative tools are essential to obtain first-principles predictions. Here we use Lattice Field Theory, and Effective Field Theories. The mathematical formulation of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) and the methods to resolve its dynamics will be addressed in Chapter 1. The research of this dissertation is divided in two parts. Chapter 2 describes our study of the 't Hooft limit of QCD using lattice simulations, while in Chapter 3 we consider processes that involve multiparticle states. The 't Hooft limit provides a simplification of nonabelian gauge theories that leads to nonperturbative predictions. We will analyze the scaling with the number of colours of various observables, such as meson masses, decay constants and weak matrix elements. A question we address is the origin of the long-standing puzzle of the $\Delta I=1/2$ rule, that is, the large hierarchy in the isospin amplitudes of the $K \to \pi\pi$ weak decay. Regarding multiparticle processes, we will discuss generalizations of the Lüscher formalism to explore three-particle processes from lattice simulations. The focus will be on our contributions, such as our implementation of the finite-volume formalism that includes higher partial waves, and the first application of the formalism to a full lattice QCD spectrum. We will also comment on the extension of the approach to generic three-pion systems. A summary in Spanish will be given in Chapter 4. The final part of the thesis (Part II) includes the peer-reviewed publications in their original published form.

We describe the survey design, calibration, commissioning, and emission-line detection algorithms for the Hobby–Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX). The goal of HETDEX is to measure the redshifts of over a million Lyα emitting galaxies between 1.88 < z < 3.52, in a 540 deg$^{2}$ area encompassing a comoving volume of 10.9 Gpc$^{3}$. No preselection of targets is involved; instead the HETDEX measurements are accomplished via a spectroscopic survey using a suite of wide-field integral field units distributed over the focal plane of the telescope. This survey measures the Hubble expansion parameter and angular diameter distance, with a final expected accuracy of better than 1%. We detail the project’s observational strategy, reduction pipeline, source detection, and catalog generation, and present initial results for science verification in the Cosmological Evolution Survey, Extended Groth Strip, and Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey North fields. We demonstrate that our data reach the required specifications in throughput, astrometric accuracy, flux limit, and object detection, with the end products being a catalog of emission-line sources, their object classifications, and flux-calibrated spectra.

The thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect contains information about the thermal history of the Universe, which is observable in maps of the Compton y parameter; however, it does not contain information about the redshift of the sources. Recent papers have utilized a tomographic approach, by cross correlating the Compton y map with the locations of galaxies with known redshift in order to deproject the signal along the line of sight. In this paper, we test the validity and accuracy of this tomographic approach to probe the thermal history of the Universe. We use the state-of-the-art, cosmological, and hydrodynamical simulation, Magneticum, for which the thermal history of the Universe is a known quantity. The key ingredient is the Compton-y -weighted halo bias, b_y, which is computed from the halo model. We find that, at redshifts currently available, the method reproduces the correct mean thermal pressure (or the density-weighted mean temperature) with high accuracy, validating and confirming the results of previous papers. At higher redshifts (z ≳2 ), there is significant disagreement between b_y from the halo model and the simulation.

We present mg-glam, a code developed for the very fast

production of full N-body cosmological simulations in modified

gravity (MG) models. We describe the implementation, numerical tests

and first results of a large suite of cosmological simulations for

three classes of MG models with conformal coupling terms: the f(R)

gravity, symmetron and coupled quintessence models. Derived from

the parallel particle-mesh code glam, mg-glam

incorporates an efficient multigrid relaxation technique to solve

the characteristic nonlinear partial differential equations of these

models. For f(R) gravity, we have included new variants to

diversify the model behaviour, and we have tailored the relaxation

algorithms to these to maintain high computational efficiency. In a

companion paper, we describe versions of this code developed for

derivative coupling MG models, including the Vainshtein- and

K-mouflage-type models. mg-glam can model the prototypes

for most MG models of interest, and is broad and versatile. The

code is highly optimised, with a tremendous speedup of a factor of

more than a hundred compared with earlier N-body codes, while

still giving accurate predictions of the matter power spectrum and

dark matter halo abundance. mg-glam is ideal for the

generation of large numbers of MG simulations that can be used in

the construction of mock galaxy catalogues and the production of

accurate emulators for ongoing and future galaxy surveys.

We present 3D calculations for dielectric haloscopes such as the currently envisioned MADMAX experiment. For ideal systems with perfectly flat, parallel and isotropic dielectric disks of finite diameter, we find that a geometrical form factor reduces the emitted power by up to 30 % compared to earlier 1D calculations. We derive the emitted beam shape, which is important for antenna design. We show that realistic dark matter axion velocities of 10^-3 c and inhomogeneities of the external magnetic field at the scale of 10 % have negligible impact on the sensitivity of MADMAX. We investigate design requirements for which the emitted power changes by less than 20 % for a benchmark boost factor with a bandwidth of 50 MHz at 22 GHz, corresponding to an axion mass of 90 μ eV. We find that the maximum allowed disk tilt is 100 μ m divided by the disk diameter, the required disk planarity is 20 μ m (min-to-max) or better, and the maximum allowed surface roughness is 100 μ m (min-to-max). We show how using tiled dielectric disks glued together from multiple smaller patches can affect the beam shape and antenna coupling.

We investigate the phenomenology of a dark matter scenario containing two generations of the dark matter particle, differing only by their mass and their couplings to the other particles, akin to the quark and lepton sectors of the Standard Model. For concreteness, we consider the case where the two dark matter generations are Majorana fermions that couple to a right-handed lepton and a scalar mediator through Yukawa couplings. We identify different production regimes in the multi-flavor dark matter scenario and we argue that in some parts of the parameter space the heavier generation can play a pivotal role in generating the correct dark matter abundance. In these regions, the strength of the dark matter coupling to the Standard Model can be much larger than in the single-flavored dark matter scenario. Correspondingly the indirect and direct detection signals can be significantly boosted. We also comment on the signatures of the model from the decay of the heavier dark matter generation into the lighter.

Evolutionary games between species are known to lead to intriguing spatiotemporal patterns in systems of diffusing agents. However, the role of interspecies interactions is hardly studied when agents are (self-)propelled, as is the case in many biological systems. Here, we combine aspects from active matter and evolutionary game theory and study a system of two species whose individuals are (self-)propelled and interact through a snowdrift game. We derive hydrodynamic equations for the density and velocity fields of both species from which we identify parameter regimes in which one or both species form macroscopic orientational order as well as regimes of propagating wave patterns. Interestingly, we find simultaneous wave patterns in both species that result from the interplay between alignment and snowdrift interactions—a feedback mechanism that we call game-induced pattern formation. We test these results in agent-based simulations and confirm the different regimes of order and spatiotemporal patterns as well as game-induced pattern formation.

Three-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=4$ supersymmetric field theories admit a natural class of chiral half-BPS boundary conditions that preserve $\mathcal{N}=(0,4)$ supersymmetry. While such boundary conditions are not compatible with topological twists, deformations that define boundary conditions for the topological theories were recently introduced by Costello and Gaiotto. Not all $\mathcal{N}=(0,4)$ boundary conditions admit such deformations. We revisit this construction, working directly in the setting of the holomorphically twisted theory and viewing the topological twists as further deformations. Properties of the construction are explained both purely in the context of holomorphic field theory and also by engineering the holomorphic theory on the worldvolume of a D-brane. Our brane engineering approach combines the intersecting brane configurations of Hanany-Witten with recent work of Costello and Li on twisted supergravity. The latter approach allows to realize holomorphically and topologically twisted field theories directly as worldvolume theories in deformed supergravity backgrounds, and we make extensive use of this.

We investigate the algebra of vector fields on the sphere. First, we find that linear deformations of this algebra are obstructed under reasonable conditions. In particular, we show that hs[λ], the one-parameter deformation of the algebra of area-preserving vector fields, does not extend to the entire algebra. Next, we study some non-central extensions through the embedding of vect(S²) into vect(ℂ^*). For the latter, we discuss a three parameter family of non-central extensions which contains the symmetry algebra of asymptotically flat and asymptotically Friedmann spacetimes at future null infinity, admitting a simple free field realization.

We perform a detailed analysis of flavour changing neutral current processes in the charm sector in the context of 331 models. As pointed out recently, in the case of Z' contributions in these models there are no new free parameters beyond those already present in the B_d,s and K meson systems analyzed in the past. As a result, definite ranges for new Physics (NP) effects in various charm observables could be obtained. While generally NP effects turn out to be small, in a number of observables they are much larger than the tiny effects predicted within the Standard Model. In particular we find that the branching ratio of the mode D⁰→ μ⁺μ⁻, despite remaining tiny, can be enhanced by 6 orders of magnitude with respect to the SM. We work out correlations between this mode and rare B_d,s and K decays. We also discuss neutral charm meson oscillations and CP violation in the charm system. In particular, we point out that 331 models provide new weak phases that are a necessary condition to have non-vanishing CP asymmetries. In the case of ∆ACP, the difference between the CP asymmetries in D⁰→ K⁺K⁻ and D⁰→ π⁺π⁻, we find that agreement with experiment can be obtained provided that two conditions are verified: the phases in the ranges predicted in 331 models and large hadronic matrix elements.

The parameter space for modelling stellar systems is vast and complicated. To find best-fitting models for a star one needs a statistically robust way of exploring this space. We present a new machine-learning approach to predict the modelling parameters for detached double-lined eclipsing binary systems, including the system age, based on observable quantities. Our method allows for the estimation of the importance of several physical effects which are included in a parametrized form in stellar models, such as convective core overshoot or stellar spot coverage. The method yields probability distribution functions for the predicted parameters which take into account the statistical and, to a certain extent, the systematic errors which is very difficult to do using other methods. We employ two different approaches to investigate the two components of the system either independently or in a combined manner. Furthermore, two different grids are used as training data. We apply the method to 26 selected objects and test the predicted best solutions with an on-the-fly optimization routine which generates full hydrostatic models. While we do encounter failures of the predictions, our method can serve as a rapid estimate for stellar ages of detached eclipsing binaries taking full account of the uncertainties in the observables.

Substructures are ubiquitous in high resolution (sub-)millimeter continuum observations of circumstellar discs. They are possibly caused by forming planets embedded in their disc. To investigate the relation between observed substructures and young planets, we perform novel 3D two-fluid (gas+1-mm-dust) hydrodynamic simulations of circumstellar discs with embedded planets (Neptune-, Saturn-, Jupiter-, 5 Jupiter-mass) at different orbital distances from the star (5.2 AU, 30 AU, 50 AU). We turn these simulations into synthetic (sub-)millimeter ALMA images. We find that all but the Neptune-mass planet open annular gaps in both the gas and the dust component of the disc. We find that the temporal evolution of the dust density distribution is distinctly different from the gas'. For example, the planets cause significant vertical stirring of the dust in the circumstellar disc which opposes the vertical settling. This creates a thicker dust disc than discs without a planet. We find that this effect greatly influences the dust masses derived from the synthetic ALMA images. Comparing the dust disc masses in the 3D simulations to the disc masses derived from the 2D ALMA synthetic images using the optically thin approximation, we find the former to be a factor of a few (up to 10) larger, pointing to the conclusion that real discs are significantly more massive than previously thought based on ALMA continuum images. Finally, we analyse the synthetic ALMA images and provide an empirical relationship between the planet mass and the width of the gap in the ALMA images, including the effects of the beam size.

We present the novel wide and deep neural network GalaxyNet, which connects the properties of galaxies and dark matter haloes and is directly trained on observed galaxy statistics using reinforcement learning. The most important halo properties to predict stellar mass and star formation rate (SFR) are halo mass, growth rate, and scale factor at the time the mass peaks, which results from a feature importance analysis with random forests. We train different models with supervised learning to find the optimal network architecture. GalaxyNet is then trained with a reinforcement learning approach: for a fixed set of weights and biases, we compute the galaxy properties for all haloes and then derive mock statistics (stellar mass functions, cosmic and specific SFRs, quenched fractions, and clustering). Comparing these statistics to observations we get the model loss, which is minimized with particle swarm optimization. GalaxyNet reproduces the observed data very accurately and predicts a stellar-to-halo mass relation with a lower normalization and shallower low-mass slope at high redshift than empirical models. We find that at low mass, the galaxies with the highest SFRs are satellites, although most satellites are quenched. The normalization of the instantaneous conversion efficiency increases with redshift, but stays constant above z ≳ 0.5. Finally, we use GalaxyNet to populate a cosmic volume of (5.9 Gpc)³ with galaxies and predict the BAO signal, the bias, and the clustering of active and passive galaxies up to z = 4, which can be tested with next-generation surveys, such as LSST and Euclid.

Starting from the one-loop divergences we obtained previously, we work out the renormalization of the Higgs-electroweak chiral Lagrangian explicitly and in detail. This includes the renormalization of the lowest-order Lagrangian, as well as the decomposition of the remaining divergences into a complete basis of next-to-leading-order counterterms. We provide the list of the corresponding beta functions. We show how our results match the one-loop renormalization of some of the dimension-6 operators in SMEFT. We further point out differences with related work in the literature and discuss them. As an application of the obtained results, we evaluate the divergences of the vacuum expectation value of the Higgs field at one loop and show that they can be appropriately removed by the corresponding renormalization. We also work out the finite renormalization required to keep the no-tadpole condition on the Higgs field at one loop.

We present results of the Relic Axion Dark-Matter Exploratory Setup (RADES), a detector which is part of the CERN Axion Solar Telescope (CAST), searching for axion dark matter in the 34.67 μeV mass range. A radio frequency cavity consisting of 5 sub-cavities coupled by inductive irises took physics data inside the CAST dipole magnet for the first time using this filter-like haloscope geometry. An exclusion limit with a 95% credibility level on the axion-photon coupling constant of g_aγ ≳ 4 × 10⁻¹³ GeV⁻¹ over a mass range of 34.6738 μeV < m_a< 34.6771 μeV is set. This constitutes a significant improvement over the current strongest limit set by CAST at this mass and is at the same time one of the most sensitive direct searches for an axion dark matter candidate above the mass of 25 μeV. The results also demonstrate the feasibility of exploring a wider mass range around the value probed by CAST-RADES in this work using similar coherent resonant cavities.

We measure the galaxy two- and three-point correlation functions at z = [0.5, 0.7] and z = [0.7, 0.9], from the Public Data Release 2 (PDR2) of the VIMOS Public Extragalactic Redshift Survey (VIPERS). We model the two statistics including a non-linear one-loop model for the two-point function and a tree-level model for the three-point function, and perform a joint likelihood analysis. The entire process and non-linear corrections are tested and validated through the use of the 153 highly realistic VIPERS mock catalogues, showing that they are robust down to scales as small as 10 $h^{-1} \, \mathrm{Mpc}$. The mocks are also adopted to compute the covariance matrix that we use for the joint two- and three-point analysis. Despite the limited statistics of the two (volume-limited) subsamples analysed, we demonstrate that such a combination successfully breaks the degeneracy existing at two-point level between clustering amplitude σ₈, linear bias b₁, and the linear growth rate of fluctuations f. For the latter, in particular, we measure $f(z=0.61)=0.64^{+0.55}_{-0.37}$ and f(z = 0.8) = 1.0 ± 1.0, while the amplitude of clustering is found to be σ₈(z = 0.61) = 0.50 ± 0.12 and $\sigma _8(z=0.8)=0.39^{+0.11}_{-0.13}$. These values are in excellent agreement with the extrapolation of a Planck cosmology.

We collected the largest spectroscopic catalog of RR Lyrae (RRLs) including ≍20,000 high-, medium-, and low-resolution spectra for ≍10,000 RRLs. We provide the analytical forms of radial velocity curve (RVC) templates. These were built using 36 RRLs (31 fundamental-split into three period bins-and five first-overtone pulsators) with well-sampled RVCs based on three groups of metallic lines (Fe, Mg, Na) and four Balmer lines (H_α, H_β, H_γ, H_δ). We tackled the long-standing problem of the reference epoch to anchor light-curve and RVC templates. For the V-band, we found that the residuals of the templates anchored to the phase of the mean magnitude along the rising branch are ~35% to ~45% smaller than those anchored to the phase of maximum light. For the RVC, we used two independent reference epochs for metallic and Balmer lines and we verified that the residuals of the RVC templates anchored to the phase of mean RV are from 30% (metallic lines) up to 45% (Balmer lines) smaller than those anchored to the phase of minimum RV. We validated our RVC templates by using both the single-point and the three phase point approaches. We found that barycentric velocities based on our RVC templates are two to three times more accurate than those available in the literature. We applied the current RVC templates to Balmer lines RVs of RRLs in the globular NGC 3201 collected with MUSE at VLT. We found the cluster barycentric RV of V_γ = 496.89 ± 8.37(error) ± 3.43 (standard deviation) km s^-1, which agrees well with literature estimates.

Expressions for the potentials appearing in the nonrelativistic effective field theory description of doubly heavy baryons are known in terms of operator insertions in the Wilson loop. However, their evaluation requires nonperturbative techniques, such as lattice QCD, and the relevant calculations are often not available. We propose a parametrization of these potentials with a minimal model dependence based on an interpolation of the short- and long-distance descriptions. The short-distance description is obtained from weakly-coupled potential NRQCD and the long-distance one is computed using an effective string theory. The effective string theory coincides with the one for pure gluodynamics with the addition of a fermion field constrained to move on the string. We compute the hyperfine contributions to the doubly heavy baryon spectrum. The unknown parameters are obtained from heavy quark-diquark symmetry or fitted to the available lattice-QCD determinations of the hyperfine splittings. Using these parameters we compute the double charm and bottom baryon spectrum including the hyperfine contributions. We compare our results with those of other approaches and find that our results are closer to lattice-QCD determinations, in particular for the excited states. Furthermore, we compute the vacuum energy in the effective string theory and show that the fermion field contribution produces the running of the string tension and a change of sign in the Lüscher term.

We present analytical results for one-loop five-point master integrals with up to three off-shell legs. The method of canonical differential equations along with the Simplified Differential Equations approach is employed. All necessary boundary terms are given in closed form, resulting to solutions in terms of Goncharov Polylogarithms of arbitrary weight. Explicit results up to weight six will be presented.

Context: Modelling satellite galaxy abundance $N_s$ in Galaxy Clusters (GCs) is a key element in modelling the Halo Occupation Distribution (HOD), which itself is a powerful tool to connect observational studies with numerical simulations. Aims: To study the impact of cosmological parameters on satellite abundance both in cosmological simulations and in mock observations. Methods: We build an emulator (HODEmu, \url{https://github.com/aragagnin/HODEmu/}) of satellite abundance based on cosmological parameters $\Omega_m, \Omega_b, \sigma_8, h_0$ and redshift $z.$ We train our emulator using \magneticum hydrodynamic simulations that span 15 different cosmologies, each over $4$ redshift slices between $0<z<0.5,$ and for each setup we fit normalisation $A$, log-slope $\beta$ and Gaussian fractional-scatter $\sigma$ of the $N_s-M$ relation. The emulator is based on multi-variate output Gaussian Process Regression (GPR). Results: We find that $A$ and $\beta$ depend on cosmological parameters, even if weakly, especially on $\Omega_m,$ $\Omega_b.$ This dependency can explain some discrepancies found in literature between satellite HOD of different cosmological simulations (Magneticum, Illustris, BAHAMAS). We also show that satellite abundance cosmology dependency differs between full-physics (FP) simulations, dark-matter only (DMO), and non-radiative simulations. Conclusions: This work provides a preliminary calibration of the cosmological dependency of the satellite abundance of high mass halos, and we showed that modelling HOD with cosmological parameters is necessary to interpret satellite abundance, and we showed the importance of using FP simulations in modelling this dependency.

Post-starburst (PSB) galaxies belong to a short-lived transition population between star-forming (SF) and quiescent galaxies. Deciphering their heavily discussed evolutionary pathways is paramount to understanding galaxy evolution. We aim to determine the dominant mechanisms governing PSB evolution in both the field and in galaxy clusters. Using the cosmological hydrodynamical simulation suite Magneticum Pathfinder, we identify 647 PSBs with z ~ 0 stellar mass $M_* \ge 5 \times 10^{10} \, \mathrm{M_{\odot }}$ . We track their galactic evolution, merger history, and black hole activity over a time-span of $3.6\,$ Gyr. Additionally, we study cluster PSBs identified at different redshifts and cluster masses. Independent of environment and redshift, we find that PSBs, like SF galaxies, have frequent mergers. At z = 0, $89{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ of PSBs have experienced mergers and $65{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ had at least one major merger within the last $2.5\,$ Gyr, leading to strong star formation episodes. In fact, $23{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ of z = 0 PSBs were rejuvenated during their starburst. Following the mergers, field PSBs are generally shutdown via a strong increase in active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback (power output $P_{\rm AGN,PSB} \ge 10^{56}\,$ erg Myr^-1). We find agreement with observations for both stellar mass functions and z = 0.9 line-of-sight phase space distributions of PSBs in galaxy clusters. Finally, we find that z ≲ 0.5 cluster PSBs are predominantly infalling, especially in high-mass clusters and show no signs of enhanced AGN activity. Thus, we conclude that the majority of cluster PSBs are shutdown via an environmental quenching mechanism such as ram-pressure stripping, while field PSBs are mainly quenched by AGN feedback.

We compute P-wave quarkonium wavefunctions at the origin in the MS ¯ scheme based on nonrelativistic effective field theories. We include nonperturbative effects from the long-distance behaviors of the potential, while the short-distance behaviors are determined from perturbative QCD. We obtain MS ¯-renormalized P-wave quarkonium wavefunctions at the origin that have the correct scale dependences that are expected from factorization formalisms, so that the dependences on the scheme and scale cancel in physical quantities. This greatly reduces the theoretical uncertainties associated with scheme and scale dependences in predictions of decay and production rates. Based on the calculation of the P-wave wavefunctions at the origin in this work, we make first-principles predictions of electromagnetic decay rates and exclusive electromagnetic production rates of P-wave charmonia and bottomonia, and compare them with measurements.

Fitting half-integer generalized Laguerre functions to the evolved, real-space dark matter and halo correlation functions provides a simple way to reconstruct their initial shapes. We show that this methodology also works well in a wide variety of realistic, assembly biased, velocity biased and redshift-space distorted mock galaxy catalogs. We use the linear point feature in the monopole of the redshift-space distorted correlation function to quantify the accuracy of our approach. We find that the linear point estimated from the mock galaxy catalogs is insensitive to the details of the biasing scheme at the subpercent level. However, the linear point scale in the nonlinear, biased, and redshift-space distorted field is systematically offset from its scale in the unbiased linear density fluctuation field by more than 1%. In the Laguerre reconstructed correlation function, this is reduced to sub-percent values, so it provides comparable accuracy and precision to methods that reconstruct the full density field before estimating the distance scale. The linear point in the reconstructed density fields provided by these other methods is likewise precise, accurate, and insensitive to galaxy bias. All reconstructions depend on some input parameters, and marginalizing over uncertainties in the input parameters required for reconstruction can degrade both accuracy and precision. The linear point simplifies the marginalization process, enabling more realistic estimates of the precision of the distance scale estimate for negligible additional computational cost. We show this explicitly for Laguerre reconstruction.

A parsec-scale dusty torus is thought to be the cause of active galactic nuclei (AGN) dichotomy in the 1/2 types, narrow/broad emission lines. In a previous work, on the basis of parsec-scale resolution infrared/optical dust maps, it was found that dust filaments, few parsecs wide and several hundred parsecs long, were ubiquitous features crossing the centre of type 2 AGN, their optical thickness being sufficient to fully obscure the optical nucleus. This work presents the complementary view for type 1 and intermediate-type AGN. The same type of narrow, collimated, dust filaments are equally found at the centre of these AGN. The difference now resides in their location with respect to the nucleus, next to it but not crossing it, as it is the case in type 2, and their reduced optical thickness towards the centre, $A_V \lesssim 1.5\, \rm {mag}$, insufficient to obscure at ultraviolet nucleus wavelengths. It is concluded that large-scale, hundred parsecs to kiloparsecs long, dust filaments and lanes, reminiscent of those seen in the Milky Way, are a common ingredient to the central parsec of galaxies. Their optical thickness changes along their structure in type 2 reaching optical depths high enough to obscure the nucleus in full. Their location with respect to the nucleus and increasing gradient in optical depth towards the centre could naturally lead to the canonical type 1/2 AGN classification, making these filaments to play the role of the torus. Dust filaments and lanes show equivalent morphologies in molecular gas. Gas kinematic in the filaments indicates mass inflows at rates ${\lt}1 \, \mathrm{M}_{\odot }~ \mathrm{yr}^{-1}$.

The Sunyaev-Zel'dolvich (SZ) effect is expected to be instrumental in measuring velocities of distant clusters in near future telescope surveys. We simplify the calculation of peculiar velocities of galaxy clusters using deep learning frameworks trained on numerical simulations to avoid the independent estimation of the optical depth. Images of distorted photon backgrounds are generated for idealized observations using one of the largest cosmological hydrodynamical simulations, the Magneticum simulations. The model is tested to determine its ability of estimating peculiar velocities from future kinetic SZ observations under different noise conditions. The deep learning algorithm displays robustness in estimating peculiar velocities from kinetic SZ effect by an improvement in accuracy of about 17 per cent compared to the analytical approach.

Precision studies at electron-positron colliders with centre-of-mass energies in the charm-tau region and below have strongly contributed to our understanding of light-meson interactions at low energies. We focus on the processes involving two or three light mesons with invariant masses below nucleon-antinucleon threshold. A prominent role is given to the interactions of the nine lightest pseudoscalar mesons (pions, kaons, η, and η^′) and the two narrow neutral isoscalar vector mesons ω and ϕ. Experimental methods used to produce the mesons are reviewed as well as theory tools to extract properties of the meson-meson interactions. Examples of recent results from the DA ΦNE, BEPCII, and VEPP-2000 colliders are presented. In the outlook we briefly discuss prospects for further studies at future super-charm-tau factories.

We present the integrated three-point shear correlation function iζ_± - a higher order statistic of the cosmic shear field - which can be directly estimated in wide-area weak lensing surveys without measuring the full three-point shear correlation function, making this a practical and complementary tool to two-point statistics for weak lensing cosmology. We define it as the one-point aperture mass statistic M_ap measured at different locations on the shear field correlated with the corresponding local two-point shear correlation function ξ_±. Building upon existing work on the integrated bispectrum of the weak lensing convergence field, we present a theoretical framework for computing the integrated three-point function in real space for any projected field within the flat-sky approximation and apply it to cosmic shear. Using analytical formulae for the non-linear matter power spectrum and bispectrum, we model iζ_± and validate it on N-body simulations within the uncertainties expected from the sixth year cosmic shear data of the Dark Energy Survey. We also explore the Fisher information content of iζ_± and perform a joint analysis with ξ_± for two tomographic source redshift bins with realistic shape noise to analyse its power in constraining cosmological parameters. We find that the joint analysis of ξ_± and iζ_± has the potential to considerably improve parameter constraints from ξ_± alone, and can be particularly useful in improving the figure of merit of the dynamical dark energy equation of state parameters from cosmic shear data.

We present observations of a giant Lyα blob (LAB) in the SSA22 protocluster at z = 3.1, SSA22-LAB1, taken with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. Dust continuum, along with [C II] 158 μm and CO(4-3) line emission have been detected in LAB1, showing complex morphology and kinematics across a ~100 kpc central region. Seven galaxies at z = 3.0987-3.1016 in the surroundings are identified in [C II] and dust continuum emission, with two of them potential companions or tidal structures associated with the most massive galaxies. Spatially resolved [C II] and infrared luminosity ratios for the widely distributed media (L_[Cɪɪ]/L_IR ≍ 10^-2-10^-3) suggest that the observed extended interstellar media are likely to have originated from star formation activity and the contribution from shocked gas is probably not dominant. LAB1 is found to harbor a total molecular gas mass M_mol = (8.7 ± 2.0) × 10¹⁰ M_⊙, concentrated in the core region of the Lyα-emitting area. While (primarily obscured) star formation activity in the LAB1 core is one of the most plausible power sources for the Lyα emission, multiple major mergers found in the core may also play a role in making LAB1 exceptionally bright and extended in Lyα as a result of cooling radiation induced by gravitational interactions.

We test the adequacy of ultraviolet (UV) spectra for characterizing the outer structure of Type Ia supernova (SN) ejecta. For this purpose, we perform spectroscopic analysis for ASASSN-14lp, a normal SN Ia showing low continuum in the mid-UV regime. To explain the strong UV suppression, two possible origins have been investigated by mapping the chemical profiles over a significant part of their ejecta. We fit the spectral time series with mid-UV coverage obtained before and around maximum light by HST, supplemented with ground-based optical observations for the earliest epochs. The synthetic spectra are calculated with the one-dimensional MC radiative transfer code TARDIS from self-consistent ejecta models. Among several physical parameters, we constrain the abundance profiles of nine chemical elements. We find that a distribution of ⁵⁶Ni (and other iron-group elements) that extends towards the highest velocities reproduces the observed UV flux well. The presence of radioactive material in the outer layers of the ejecta, if confirmed, implies strong constraints on the possible explosion scenarios. We investigate the impact of the inferred ⁵⁶Ni distribution on the early light curves with the radiative transfer code TURTLS, and confront the results with the observed light curves of ASASSN-14lp. The inferred abundances are not in conflict with the observed photometry. We also test whether the UV suppression can be reproduced if the radiation at the photosphere is significantly lower in the UV regime than the pure Planck function. In this case, solar metallicity might be sufficient enough at the highest velocities to reproduce the UV suppression.

We constrain cosmological parameters from a joint cosmic shear analysis of peak-counts and the two-point shear correlation functions, as measured from the Dark Energy Survey (DES-Y1). We find the structure growth parameter $S_8\equiv \sigma _8\sqrt{\Omega _{\rm m}/0.3} = 0.766^{+0.033}_{-0.038}$ which, at 4.8 per cent precision, provides one of the tightest constraints on S₈ from the DES-Y1 weak lensing data. In our simulation-based method we determine the expected DES-Y1 peak-count signal for a range of cosmologies sampled in four w cold dark matter parameters (Ω_m, σ₈, h, w₀). We also determine the joint covariance matrix with over 1000 realizations at our fiducial cosmology. With mock DES-Y1 data we calibrate the impact of photometric redshift and shear calibration uncertainty on the peak-count, marginalizing over these uncertainties in our cosmological analysis. Using dedicated training samples we show that our measurements are unaffected by mass resolution limits in the simulation, and that our constraints are robust against uncertainty in the effect of baryon feedback. Accurate modelling for the impact of intrinsic alignments on the tomographic peak-count remains a challenge, currently limiting our exploitation of cross-correlated peak counts between high and low redshift bins. We demonstrate that once calibrated, a fully tomographic joint peak-count and correlation functions analysis has the potential to reach a 3 per cent precision on S₈ for DES-Y1. Our methodology can be adopted to model any statistic that is sensitive to the non-Gaussian information encoded in the shear field. In order to accelerate the development of these beyond-two-point cosmic shear studies, our simulations are made available to the community upon request.

We investigate strongly gravitationally lensed type II supernovae (LSNe II) for time-delay cosmography, incorporating microlensing effects; this expands on previous microlensing studies of type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia). We use the radiative-transfer code TARDIS to recreate five spectra of the prototypical SN 1999em at different times within the plateau phase of the light curve. The microlensing-induced deformations of the spectra and light curves are calculated by placing the SN into magnification maps generated with the code GERLUMPH. We study the impact of microlensing on the color curves and find that there is no strong influence on them during the investigated time interval of the plateau phase. The color curves are only weakly affected by microlensing due to the almost achromatic behavior of the intensity profiles. However, the lack of nonlinear structure in the color curves during the plateau phase of type II-plateau supernovae makes time-delay measurements more challenging compared to SN Ia color curves, given the possible presence of differential dust extinction. Therefore, we further investigate SN phase inference through spectral absorption lines under the influence of microlensing and Gaussian noise. As the spectral features shift to longer wavelengths with progressing time after explosion, the measured wavelength of a specific absorption line provides information on the epoch of the SN. The comparison between retrieved epochs of two observed lensing images then gives the time delay of the images. We find that the phase retrieval method that uses spectral features yields accurate delays with uncertainties of ≲2 days, making it a promising approach.

Time-delay strong lensing (TDSL) is a powerful probe of the current expansion rate of the Universe. However, in light of the discrepancies between early and late-time cosmological studies, efforts revolve around the characterisation of systematic uncertainties in the methods. Here, we focus on the mass-sheet degeneracy (MSD), which is considered a significant source of systematics in TDSL, and aim to assess the constraining power provided by IFU stellar kinematics. We approximate the MSD with a cored, two-parameter extension to the lensing mass profiles (with core radius $r_{\rm c}$ and mass-sheet parameter $\lambda_{\rm int}$). In addition, we utilise mock IFU stellar kinematics of time-delay strong lenses, given the prospects of obtaining such data with JWST. We construct joint strong lensing and stellar dynamical models, where the time delays, mock imaging and IFU observations are used to constrain the mass profile of lens galaxies, and yield joint constraints on the time-delay distance ($D_{\Delta t}$) and angular diameter distance ($D_{\rm d}$) to the lens. We find that mock JWST-like stellar kinematics constrain the internal mass sheet and limit its contribution to the uncertainties of $D_{\Delta t}$ and $D_{\rm d}$, each at the < 4% level, without assumptions on the background cosmological model. These distance constraints would translate to a < 4% precision measurement on $H_{\rm 0}$ in flat $\Lambda CDM$ for a single lens. Our study shows that IFU stellar kinematics of time-delay strong lenses will be key in lifting the MSD on a per lens basis, assuming reasonable core sizes. However, even in the limit of infinite $r_{\rm c}$, where $D_{\Delta t}$ is degenerate with $\lambda_{\rm int}$, stellar kinematics of the deflector, time delays and imaging data will provide powerful constraints on $D_{\rm d}$, which becomes the dominant source of information in the cosmological inference.

A fraction of the dark matter in the solar neighborhood might be composed of non-galactic particles with speeds larger than the escape velocity of the Milky Way. The non-galactic dark matter flux would enhance the sensitivity of direct detection experiments, due to the larger momentum transfer to the target. In this note, we calculate the impact of the dark matter flux from the Local Group and the Virgo Supercluster diffuse components in nuclear and electron recoil experiments. The enhancement in the signal rate can be very significant, especially for experiments searching for dark matter induced electron recoils.

SU(2) gauge fields coupled to an axion field can acquire an isotropic background solution during inflation. We study homogeneous but anisotropic inflationary solutions in the presence of such (massless) gauge fields. A gauge field in the cosmological background may pose a threat to spatial isotropy. We show, however, that such models generally isotropize in Bianchi type-I geometry, and the isotropic solution is the attractor. Restricting the setup by adding an axial symmetry, we revisited the numerical analysis presented in [1]. We find that the reported numerical breakdown in the previous analysis is an artifact of parametrization singularity. We use a new parametrization that is well-defined all over the phase space. We show that the system respects the cosmic no-hair conjecture and the anisotropies always dilute away within a few e-folds.

Ghost-free bimetric theory describes two nonlinearly interacting spin-2 fields, one massive and one massless, thus extending general relativity. We confront bimetric theory with observations of Supernovae type 1a, Baryon Acoustic Oscillations and the Cosmic Microwave Background in a statistical analysis, utilising the recently proposed physical parametrisation. This directly constrains the physical parameters of the theory, such as the mass of the spin-2 field and its coupling to matter. We find that all models under consideration are in agreement with the data. Next, we compare these results to bounds from local tests of gravity. Our analysis reveals that all two- and three parameter models are observationally consistent with both cosmological and local tests of gravity. The minimal bimetric model (only β₁) is ruled out by our combined analysis.

Context. Deuterated molecules are good tracers of the evolutionary stage of star-forming cores. During the star formation process, deuterated molecules are expected to be enhanced in cold, dense pre-stellar cores and to deplete after protostellar birth.
Aims: In this paper, we study the deuteration fraction of formaldehyde in high-mass star-forming cores at different evolutionary stages to investigate whether the deuteration fraction of formaldehyde can be used as an evolutionary tracer.
Methods: Using the APEX SEPIA Band 5 receiver, we extended our pilot study of the J = 3 →2 rotational lines of HDCO and D₂CO to eleven high-mass star-forming regions that host objects at different evolutionary stages. High-resolution follow-up observations of eight objects in ALMA Band 6 were performed to reveal the size of the H₂CO emission and to give an estimate of the deuteration fractions HDCO/H₂CO and D₂CO/HDCO at scales of ~6″ (0.04-0.15 pc at the distance of our targets).
Results: Our observations show that singly and doubly deuterated H₂CO are detected towards high-mass protostellar objects (HMPOs) and ultracompact H II regions (UC H II regions), and the deuteration fraction of H₂CO is also found to decrease by an order of magnitude from the earlier HMPO phases to the latest evolutionary stage (UC H II), from ~0.13 to ~0.01. We have not detected HDCO and D₂CO emission from the youngest sources (i.e. high-mass starless cores or HMSCs).
Conclusions: Our extended study supports the results of the previous pilot study: the deuteration fraction of formaldehyde decreases with the evolutionary stage, but higher sensitivity observations are needed to provide more stringent constraints on the D/H ratio during the HMSC phase. The calculated upper limits for the HMSC sources are high, so the trend between HMSC and HMPO phases cannot be constrained.

Aims: The TOPGöt project studies a sample of 86 high-mass star-forming regions in different evolutionary stages from starless cores to ultra compact HII regions. The aim of the survey is to analyze different molecular species in a statistically significant sample to study the chemical evolution in high-mass star-forming regions, and identify chemical tracers of the different phases.
Methods: The sources have been observed with the IRAM 30 m telescope in different spectral windows at 1, 2, and 3 mm. In this first paper, we present the sample and analyze the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of the TOPGöt sources to derive physical parameters such as the dust temperature, T_dust, the total column density, N_H2, the mass, M, the luminosity, L, and the luminosity-to-mass ratio, L∕M, which is an indicator of the evolutionary stage of the sources. We use the MADCUBA software to analyze the emission of methyl cyanide (CH₃CN), a well-known tracer of high-mass star formation.
Results: We built the spectral energy distributions for ~80% of the sample and derived T_dust and N_H2 values which range between 9−36 K and ~3 × 10²¹−7 × 10²³ cm⁻², respectively. The luminosity of the sources spans over four orders of magnitude from 30 to 3 × 10⁵ L_⊙, masses vary between ~30 and 8 × 10³ M_⊙, and the luminosity-to-mass ratio L∕M covers three orders of magnitude from 6 × 10⁻² to 3 × 10² L_⊙∕M_⊙. The emission of the CH₃CN(5_K-4_K) K-transitions has been detected toward 73 sources (85% of the sample), with 12 nondetections and one source not observed in the frequency range of CH₃CN(5_K-4_K). The emission of CH₃CN has been detected toward all evolutionary stages, with the mean abundances showing a clear increase of an order of magnitude from high-mass starless cores to later evolutionary stages. We found a conservative abundance upper limit for high-mass starless cores of X_CH3CN < 4.0 × 10⁻¹¹, and a range in abundance of 4.0 × 10⁻¹¹ < X_CH3CN < 7.0 × 10⁻¹¹ for those sources that are likely high-mass starless cores or very early high-mass protostellar objects. In fact, in this range of abundance we have identified five sources previously not classified as being in a very early evolutionary stage. The abundance of CH₃CN can thus be used to identify high-mass star-forming regions in early phases of star-formation.

Full Tables 3-6 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/653/A87

The impact of new and highly precise neutron β decay data is reviewed. We focus on recent results from neutron lifetime, β asymmetry, and electron-neutrino correlation experiments. From these results, weak interaction parameters are extracted with unprecedented precision, which is possible also because of progress in effective field theory and lattice QCD. Limits on New Physics beyond the Standard Model derived from neutron decay data are sharper than those derived from high-energy experiments, except for processes involving right-handed neutrinos.

The 21-cm signal from the Cosmic Dawn (CD) is likely to contain large fluctuations, with the most extreme astrophysical models on the verge of being ruled out by observations from radio interferometers. It is therefore vital that we understand not only the astrophysical processes governing this signal, but also other inherent processes impacting the signal itself, and in particular line-of-sight effects. Using our suite of fully numerical radiative transfer simulations, we investigate the impact on the redshifted 21-cm from the CD from one of these processes, namely the redshift-space distortions (RSDs). When RSDs are added, the resulting boost to the power spectra makes the signal more or equally detectable for our models for all redshifts, further strengthening hopes that a power spectra measurement of the CD will be possible. RSDs lead to anisotropy in the signal at the beginning and end of the CD, but not while X-ray heating is underway. The inclusion of RSDs, however, decreases detectability of the non-Gaussianity of fluctuations from inhomogeneous X-ray heating as measured by the skewness and kurtosis. On the other hand, mock observations created from all our simulations that include telescope noise corresponding to 1000 h of observation with the Square Kilometre Array telescope show that we may be able to image the CD for all heating models considered and suggest RSDs dramatically boost fluctuations coming from the inhomogeneous Ly α background.

We discuss how LHC di-muon data collected to study B_q → μμ can be used to constrain light particles with flavour-violating couplings to b-quarks. Focussing on the case of a flavoured QCD axion, a, we compute the decay rates for B_q → μμa and the SM background process B_q → μμγ near the kinematic endpoint. These rates depend on non-perturbative B_q → γ^(*) form factors with on- or off-shell photons. The off-shell form factors — relevant for generic searches for beyond-the-SM particles — are discussed in full generality and computed with QCD sum rules for the first time. This includes an extension to the low-lying resonance region using a multiple subtracted dispersion relation. With these results, we analyse available LHCb data to obtain the sensitivity on B_q → μμa at present and future runs. We find that the full LHCb dataset alone will allow to probe axion-coupling scales of the order of 10⁶ GeV for both b → d and b → s transitions. As a spin-off application of the off-shell form factors we further analyse the case of light, Beyond the Standard Model, vectors.

Axion scenarios in which the spontaneous breaking of the Peccei-Quinn symmetry takes place before or during inflation, and in which axion dark matter arises from the misalignment mechanism, can be constrained by Cosmic Microwave Background isocurvature bounds. Dark matter isocurvature is thought to be suppressed in models with axion-inflaton interactions, for which axion perturbations are assumed to freeze at horizon crossing during inflation. However, this assumption can be an oversimplification due to the interactions themselves. In particular, non-perturbative effects during reheating may lead to a dramatic growth of axion perturbations. We perform lattice calculations in two models in which the Peccei-Quinn field participates in inflation. We find that the growth of axion perturbations is such that the Peccei-Quinn symmetry is restored for an axion decay constant fA ≲ 1016–1017 GeV, leading to an over-abundance of dark matter, unless fA ≲ 2 × 1011 GeV. For fA ≳ 1016–1017 GeV we still find a large growth of axion perturbations at low momentum, such that a naive extrapolation to CMB scales suggests a violation of the isocurvature bounds.

Numerical methods have become a powerful tool for research in astrophysics, but their utility depends critically on the availability of suitable simulation codes. This calls for continuous efforts in code development, which is necessitated also by the rapidly evolving technology underlying today's computing hardware. Here we discuss recent methodological progress in the GADGET code, which has been widely applied in cosmic structure formation over the past two decades. The new version offers improvements in force accuracy, in time-stepping, in adaptivity to a large dynamic range in timescales, in computational efficiency, and in parallel scalability through a special MPI/shared-memory parallelization and communication strategy, and a more-sophisticated domain decomposition algorithm. A manifestly momentum conserving fast multipole method (FMM) can be employed as an alternative to the one-sided TreePM gravity solver introduced in earlier versions. Two different flavours of smoothed particle hydrodynamics, a classic entropy-conserving formulation and a pressure-based approach, are supported for dealing with gaseous flows. The code is able to cope with very large problem sizes, thus allowing accurate predictions for cosmic structure formation in support of future precision tests of cosmology, and at the same time is well adapted to high dynamic range zoom-calculations with extreme variability of the particle number density in the simulated volume. The GADGET-4 code is publicly released to the community and contains infrastructure for on-the-fly group and substructure finding and tracking, as well as merger tree building, a simple model for radiative cooling and star formation, a high dynamic range power spectrum estimator, and an initial conditions generator based on second-order Lagrangian perturbation theory.

Catalytic nucleic acids, such as ribozymes, are central to a variety of origin-of-life scenarios. Typically, they require elevated magnesium concentrations for folding and activity, but their function can be inhibited by high concentrations of monovalent salts. Here we show that geologically plausible high-sodium, low-magnesium solutions derived from leaching basalt (rock and remelted glass) inhibit ribozyme catalysis, but that this activity can be rescued by selective magnesium up-concentration by heat flow across rock fissures. In contrast to up-concentration by dehydration or freezing, this system is so far from equilibrium that it can actively alter the Mg:Na salt ratio to an extent that enables key ribozyme activities, such as self-replication and RNA extension, in otherwise challenging solution conditions. The principle demonstrated here is applicable to a broad range of salt concentrations and compositions, and, as such, highly relevant to various origin-of-life scenarios.

Time-delay cosmography with gravitationally lensed quasars plays an important role in anchoring the absolute distance scale and hence measuring the Hubble constant, H₀, independent of traditional distance ladder methodology. A current potential limitation of time-delay distance measurements is the mass-sheet transformation (MST), which leaves the lensed imaging unchanged but changes the distance measurements and the derived value of H₀. In this work we show that the standard method of addressing the MST in time-delay cosmography, through a combination of high-resolution imaging and the measurement of the stellar velocity dispersion of the lensing galaxy, depends on the assumption that the ratio, D_s/D_ds, of angular diameter distances to the background quasar and between the lensing galaxy and the quasar can be constrained. This is typically achieved through the assumption of a particular cosmological model. Previous work (TDCOSMO IV) addressed the mass-sheet degeneracy and derived H₀ under the assumption of the ΛCDM model. In this paper we show that the mass-sheet degeneracy can be broken without relying on a specific cosmological model by combining lensing with relative distance indicators such as supernovae Type Ia and baryon acoustic oscillations, which constrain the shape of the expansion history and hence D_s/D_ds. With this approach, we demonstrate that the mass-sheet degeneracy can be constrained in a cosmological model-independent way. Hence model-independent distance measurements in time-delay cosmography under MSTs can be obtained.

In this paper we investigate the potential of current and upcoming cosmological surveys to constrain the mass and abundance of ultra-light axion (ULA) cosmologies with galaxy cluster number counts. ULAs, sometimes also referred to as Fuzzy Dark Matter, are well-motivated in many theories beyond the Standard Model and could potentially solve the ΛCDM small-scale crisis. Galaxy cluster counts provide a robust probe of the formation of structures in the Universe. Their distribution in mass and redshift is strongly sensitive to the underlying linear matter perturbations. In this forecast paper we explore two scenarios, firstly an exclusion limit on axion mass given a no-axion model and secondly constraints on an axion model. With this we obtain lower limits on the ULA mass on the order of m_a ≳ 10^-24 eV. However, this result depends heavily on the mass of the smallest reliably observable clusters for a given survey. Cluster counts, like many other cosmological probes, display an approximate degeneracy in the ULA mass vs. abundance parameter space, which is dependent on the characteristics of the probe. These degeneracies are different for other cosmological probes. Hence galaxy cluster counts might provide a complementary window on the properties of ultra-light axions.

We present non-radiative, cosmological zoom-in simulations of galaxy-cluster formation with magnetic fields and (anisotropic) thermal conduction of one massive galaxy cluster with M

$_{vir}$ ∼ 2 × 10$^{15}$

M

$_{⊙}$ at z ∼ 0. We run the cluster on three resolution levels (1×, 10×, 25×), starting with an effective mass resolution of 2 × 10$^{8}$

M

$_{⊙}$, subsequently increasing the particle number to reach 4 × 10$^{6}$

M

$_{⊙}$. The maximum spatial resolution obtained in the simulations is limited by the gravitational softening reaching ϵ = 1.0 kpc at the highest resolution level, allowing one to resolve the hierarchical assembly of the structures in fine detail. All simulations presented are carried out with the SPMHD code gadget3 with an updated SPMHD prescription. The primary focus of this paper is to investigate magnetic field amplification in the intracluster medium. We show that the main amplification mechanism is the small-scale turbulent dynamo in the limit of reconnection diffusion. In our two highest resolution models we start to resolve the magnetic field amplification driven by the dynamo and we explicitly quantify this with the magnetic power spectra and the curvature of the magnetic field lines, consistent with dynamo theory. Furthermore, we investigate the ∇ ·

B

= 0 constraint within our simulations and show that we achieve comparable results to state-of-the-art AMR or moving-mesh techniques, used in codes such as enzo and arepo. Our results show for the first time in a cosmological simulation of a galaxy cluster that dynamo action can be resolved with modern numerical Lagrangian magnetohydrodynamic methods, a study that is currently missing in the literature.

We find the complete set of conditions satisfied by the forward 2 →2 scattering amplitude in unitary and causal theories. These are based on an infinite set of energy dependent quantities (the arcs) which are dispersively expressed as moments of a positive measure defined at (arbitrarily) higher energies. We identify optimal finite subsets of constraints, suitable to bound effective field theories (EFTs), at any finite order in the energy expansion. At tree level arcs are in a one to one correspondence with Wilson coefficients. We establish under which conditions this approximation applies, identifying seemingly viable EFTs where it never does. In all cases, we discuss the range of validity in both energy and couplings, where the latter has to satisfy two-sided bounds. We also extend our results to the case of small but finite t . A consequence of our study is that EFTs in which the scattering amplitude in some regime grows in energy faster than E⁶ cannot be UV completed.

The differential cross section for the quasi-free photoproduction reaction $\gamma n\rightarrow K^0\Sigma^0$ was measured at BGOOD at ELSA from threshold to a center-of-mass energy of 2400 MeV. An increase in the cross section is observed at forward angles above 2000 MeV. The available statistics prevent an accurate description of this behavior, however it appears consistent with models describing a resonance of dynamically generated vector meson-baryon states, where an equivalent model predicted the $P_C$ states observed at LHCb. If proven correct, this could indicate parallels between the strange and charmed quark sectors.

Using 324 numerically modelled galaxy clusters as provided by THE THREE HUNDRED project, we study the evolution of the kinematic properties of the stellar component of haloes on first infall. We selected objects with M_star > 5 × 10¹⁰ h⁻¹ M_⊙ within 3R₂₀₀ of the main cluster halo at z = 0 and followed their progenitors. We find that although haloes are stripped of their dark matter and gas after entering the main cluster halo, there is practically no change in their stellar kinematics. For the vast majority of our `galaxies' - defined as the central stellar component found within the haloes that form our sample - their kinematic properties, as described by the fraction of ordered rotation, and their position in the specific stellar angular momentum−stellar mass plane j_star − M_star are mostly unchanged by the influence of the central host cluster. However, for a small number of infalling galaxies, stellar mergers and encounters with remnant stellar cores close to the centre of the main cluster, particularly during pericentre passage, are able to spin up their stellar component by z = 0.

We investigate the impact of different assumptions in the modeling of one-loop galaxy bias on the recovery of cosmological parameters, as a follow-up of the analysis done in the first paper of the series at fixed cosmology. To carry out these tests we focus on the real-space galaxy-power spectrum from a set of three different synthetic galaxy samples whose clustering properties are meant to match the ones of the CMASS and LOWZ catalogs of BOSS and the SDSS Main Galaxy Sample. We investigate the relevance of allowing for either short range nonlocality or scale-dependent stochasticity by fitting the real-space galaxy autopower spectrum or the combination of galaxy-galaxy and galaxy-matter power spectrum. From a comparison among the goodness of fit (χ² ), unbiasedness of cosmological parameters (FoB), and figure of merit (FoM) of the model, we find that a simple four-parameter model (linear, quadratic, cubic nonlocal bias, and constant shot noise) with fixed quadratic tidal bias provides a robust modeling choice for the autopower spectrum of the three galaxy samples, up to k_max=0.3 h Mpc^-1 and for an effective volume of 6 h^-3 Gpc³. Instead, a joint analysis of the two observables fails at larger scales, and a model extension with either higher derivatives or scale-dependent shot noise is necessary to reach a similar k_max, with the latter providing the most accurate and stable results. Throughout the majority of the paper, we fix the description of the nonlinear matter evolution using a hybrid perturbative-N-body approach, RESPRESSO, that was found in the first paper to be the closest performing to the measured matter spectrum. We also test the impact of different modeling assumptions based on perturbative approaches, such as galilean-invariant Renormalised Perturbation Theory (gRPT) and effective field theory (EFT). In all cases, we find the inclusion of scale-dependent shot noise to increase the range of validity of the model in terms of FoB and χ². Interestingly, these model extensions with additional free parameters do not necessarily lead to an increase in the maximally achievable FoM for the cosmological parameters (h ,Ω_ch²,A_s), which are generally consistent with those of the simpler model at smaller k_max.

We study the transition widths of ϒ (10753 ) and ϒ (11020 ) into standard bottomonium under the hypothesis that they correspond to the two lowest laying 1^-- hybrid bottomonium states. We employ weakly coupled potential NRQCD an effective field theory incorporating the heavy-quark and multipole expansions. We consider the transitions generated by the leading order and next-to-leading order singlet-octet operators. In the multipole expansion the heavy-quark matrix elements factorize from the production of light-quark mesons by gluonic operators. For the leading order operator we compute the widths with a single π⁰, η or η^' in the final state and for the next-to-leading operator for π⁺π^- or K⁺K^-. The hadronization of the gluonic operators is obtained, in the first case, from the axial anomaly and a standard π⁰-η -η^' mixing scheme and, in the second case, we employ a coupled-channel dispersive representation matched to chiral perturbation theory for both the S - and D -wave pieces of the gluonic operator. We compare with experimental values and semi-inclusive widths. Our results strongly suggest that ϒ (11020 ) is indeed a hybrid bottomonium state.

Manual fits to spectral times series of Type Ia supernovae have provided a method of reconstructing the explosion from a parametric model but due to lack of information about model uncertainties or parameter degeneracies direct comparison between theory and observation is difficult. In order to mitigate this important problem we present a new way to probabilistically reconstruct the outer ejecta of the normal Type Ia supernova SN 2002bo. A single epoch spectrum, taken 10 days before maximum light, is fit by a 13-parameter model describing the elemental composition of the ejecta and the explosion physics (density, temperature, velocity, and explosion epoch). Model evaluation is performed through the application of a novel rapid spectral synthesis technique in which the radiative transfer code, TARDIS, is accelerated by a machine-learning framework. Analysis of the posterior distribution reveals a complex and degenerate parameter space and allows direct comparison to various hydrodynamic models. Our analysis favors detonation over deflagration scenarios and we find that our technique offers a novel way to compare simulation to observation.

The SuperKEKB accelerator in Tsukuba, Japan is providing e$^+$e$^-$ beams for the Belle II experiment since March 2019. To deal with the aimed peak luminosity being forty times higher than the one recorded at Belle, a pixel detector based on DEPFET technology has been installed. It features a long integration time of 20 $\mu$s resulting in an expected data rate of 20 GByte/s (160 GBit/s) at a maximum occupancy of 3 %. To deal with this high amount of data, the data handling hub (DHH) has been developed. It contains all necessary functionality for the control and readout of the detector. In this paper we describe the architecture and features of the DHH system. Further we will show the key performance characteristics after one year of operation.

A free-floating planet is a planetary-mass object that orbits around a non-stellar massive object (e.g. a brown dwarf) or around the Galactic Center. The presence of exomoons orbiting free-floating planets has been theoretically predicted by several models. Under specific conditions, these moons are able to retain an atmosphere capable of ensuring the long-term thermal stability of liquid water on their surface. We model this environment with a one-dimensional radiative-convective code coupled to a gas-phase chemical network including cosmic rays and ion-neutral reactions. We find that, under specific conditions and assuming stable orbital parameters over time, liquid water can be formed on the surface of the exomoon. The final amount of water for an Earth-mass exomonoon is smaller than the amount of water in Earth oceans, but enough to host the potential development of primordial life. The chemical equilibrium time-scale is controlled by cosmic rays, the main ionization driver in our model of the exomoon atmosphere.

We present an empirical model for the number of globular clusters (GCs) in galaxies based on recent data showing a tight relationship between dark matter halo virial masses and GC numbers. While a simple base model forming GCs in low-mass haloes reproduces this relation, we show that a second formation pathway for GCs is needed to account for observed younger GC populations. We confirm previous works that reported the observed linear correlation as being a consequence of hierarchical merging and its insensitivity to the exact GC formation processes at higher virial masses, even for a dual formation scenario. We find that the scatter of the linear relation is strongly correlated with the relative amount of smooth accretion: the more dark matter is smoothly accreted, the fewer GCs a halo has compared to other haloes of the same mass. This scatter is smaller than that introduced by halo mass measurements, indicating that the number of GCs in a galaxy is a good tracer for its dark matter mass. Smooth accretion is also the reason for a lower average dark matter mass per GC in low-mass haloes. Finally, we successfully reproduce the observed general trend of GCs being old and the tendency of more massive haloes hosting older GC systems. Including the second GC formation mechanism through gas-rich mergers leads to a more realistic variety of GC age distributions and also introduces an age inversion in the halo virial mass range log M_vir/M_⊙ = 11-13.

We present a set of nonlocal thermodynamic equilibrium steady-state calculations of radiative transfer for one-year-old Type II supernovae (SNe) starting from state-of-the-art explosion models computed with detailed nucleosynthesis. This grid covers single-star progenitors with initial masses between 9 and 29 M_⊙, all evolved with the code KEPLER at solar metallicity and ignoring rotation. The [O I] λλ 6300, 6364 line flux generally grows with progenitor mass, and Hα exhibits an equally strong and opposite trend. The [Ca II] λλ 7291, 7323 strength increases at low ⁵⁶Ni mass, at low explosion energy, or with clumping. This Ca II doublet, which forms primarily in the explosively produced Si/S zones, depends little on the progenitor mass but may strengthen if Ca⁺ dominates in the H-rich emitting zones or if Ca is abundant in the O-rich zones. Indeed, Si-O shell merging prior to core collapse may boost the Ca II doublet at the expense of the O I doublet, and may thus mimic the metal line strengths of a lower-mass progenitor. We find that the ⁵⁶Ni bubble effect has a weak impact, probably because it is too weak to induce much of an ionization shift in the various emitting zones. Our simulations compare favorably to observed SNe II, including SN 2008bk (e.g., the 9 M_⊙ model), SN 2012aw (12 M_⊙ model), SN 1987A (15 M_⊙ model), or SN 2015bs (25 M_⊙ model with no Si-O shell merging). SNe II with narrow lines and a low ⁵⁶Ni mass are well matched by the weak explosion of 9-11 M_⊙ progenitors. The nebular-phase spectra of standard SNe II can be explained with progenitors in the mass range 12-15 M_⊙, with one notable exception for SN 2015bs. In the intermediate mass range, these mass estimates may increase by a few M_⊙, with allowance for clumping of the O-rich material or CO molecular cooling.

The temperatures of red supergiants (RSGs) are expected to depend on metallicity (Z) in such a way that lower Z RSGs are warmer. In this work, we investigate the Z-dependence of the Hayashi limit by analysing RSGs in the low-Z galaxy Wolf-Lundmark-Mellote, and compare with the RSGs in the higher Z environments of the Small Magellanic Cloud and Large Magellanic Cloud. We determine the effective temperature (T_eff) of each star by fitting their spectral energy distributions, as observed by VLT + SHOOTER, with MARCS model atmospheres. We find average temperatures of $T_{\textrm {eff}_{\textrm {WLM}}}=4400\pm 202$ K, $T_{\textrm {eff}_{\textrm {SMC}}}=4130\pm 103$ K, and $T_{\textrm {eff}_{\textrm {LMC}}}=4140\pm 148$ K. From population synthesis analysis, we find that although the Geneva evolutionary models reproduce this trend qualitatively, the RSGs in these models are systematically too cool. We speculate that our results can be explained by the inapplicability of the standard solar mixing length to RSGs.

Within the transport model evaluation project (TMEP) of simulations for heavy-ion collisions, the mean-field response is examined here. Specifically, zero-sound propagation is considered for neutron-proton symmetric matter enclosed in a periodic box, at zero temperature and around normal density. The results of several transport codes belonging to two families (BUU-like and QMD-like) are compared among each other and to exact calculations. For BUU-like codes, employing the test particle method, the results depend on the combination of the number of test particles and the spread of the profile functions that weight integration over space. These parameters can be properly adapted to give a good reproduction of the analytical zero-sound features. QMD-like codes, using molecular dynamics methods, are characterized by large damping effects, attributable to the fluctuations inherent in their phase-space representation. Moreover, for a given nuclear effective interaction, they generally lead to slower density oscillations, as compared to BUU-like codes. The latter problem is mitigated in the more recent lattice formulation of some of the QMD codes. The significance of these results for the description of real heavy-ion collisions is discussed.

We present Large Millimeter Telescope (LMT)/AzTEC 1.1 mm observations of ~100 luminous high-redshift dusty star-forming galaxy candidates from the $\sim 600\,$ sq.deg Herschel-ATLAS survey, selected on the basis of their SPIRE red far-infrared colours and with $S_{500\, \mu \rm m}=35-80$ mJy. With an effective $\theta _{\rm FWHM}\approx 9.5\,$arcsec angular resolution, our observations reveal that at least 9 per cent of the targets break into multiple systems with signal-to-noise ratio ≥4 members. The fraction of multiple systems increases to ~23 per cent (or more) if some non-detected targets are considered multiples, as suggested by the data. Combining the new AzTEC and deblended Herschel photometry, we derive photometric redshifts, infrared luminosities, and star formation rates. While the median redshifts of the multiple and single systems are similar (z_med ≍ 3.6), the redshift distribution of the latter is skewed towards higher redshifts. Of the AzTEC sources, ~85 per cent lie at z_phot > 3 while ~33 per cent are at z_phot > 4. This corresponds to a lower limit on the space density of ultrared sources at 4 < z < 6 of $\sim 3\times 10^{-7}\, \textrm {Mpc}^{-3}$ with a contribution to the obscured star formation of $\gtrsim 8\times 10^{-4}\, \textrm {M}_\odot \, \textrm {yr}^{-1} \, \textrm {Mpc}^{-3}$. Some of the multiple systems have members with photometric redshifts consistent among them suggesting possible physical associations. Given their angular separations, these systems are most likely galaxy over-densities and/or early-stage pre-coalescence mergers. Finally, we present 3 mm LMT/RSR spectroscopic redshifts of six red-Herschel galaxies at z_spec = 3.85-6.03, two of them (at z ~ 4.7) representing new redshift confirmations. Here, we release the AzTEC and deblended Herschel photometry as well as catalogues of the most promising interacting systems and z > 4 galaxies.

A search for charginos and neutralinos at the Large Hadron Collider using fully hadronic final states and missing transverse momentum is reported. Pair-produced charginos or neutralinos are explored, each decaying into a high-<math display="inline"><msub><mi>p</mi><mi mathvariant="normal">T</mi></msub></math> Standard Model weak boson. Fully hadronic final states are studied to exploit the advantage of the large branching ratio, and the efficient rejection of backgrounds by identifying the high-<math display="inline"><msub><mi>p</mi><mi mathvariant="normal">T</mi></msub></math> bosons using large-radius jets and jet substructure information. An integrated luminosity of <math display="inline"><mrow><mn>139</mn><mtext> </mtext><mtext> </mtext><msup><mrow><mi>fb</mi></mrow><mrow><mo>-</mo><mn>1</mn></mrow></msup></mrow></math> of proton-proton collision data collected by the ATLAS detector at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV is used. No significant excess is found beyond the Standard Model expectation. Exclusion limits at the 95% confidence level are set on wino or higgsino production with various assumptions about the decay branching ratios and the type of lightest supersymmetric particle. A wino (higgsino) mass up to 1060 (900) GeV is excluded when the lightest supersymmetry particle mass is below 400 (240) GeV and the mass splitting is larger than 400 (450) GeV. The sensitivity to high-mass winos and higgsinos is significantly extended relative to previous LHC searches using other final states.

Self-destructing dark matter (SDDM) is a class of dark sector models in which the collision of a dark sector particle with the earth induces its prompt decay into Standard Model particles, generating unique signals at neutrino detectors. The inherent fragility of SDDM makes its survival from the early Universe unlikely, implying a late time production mechanism. We present an efficient late time production mechanism for SDDM based on atomic rearrangement, the mechanism responsible for muon or antiproton capture in hydrogen. In this model, an atomic rearrangement process occurs in our Galaxy, converting dark atoms into highly excited bound states—our SDDM candidates. While the resulting SDDM is only a small fraction of the dark matter flux, its striking self-destruction signals imply a significant discovery reach in the existing data from the Super-Kamiokande experiment.

We calculate the elliptic flow of bottomonia produced in Pb<inline-formula id="IEq1"><mml:math><mml:mrow><mml:mspace width="0.166667em"></mml:mspace><mml:mo>+</mml:mo><mml:mspace width="0.166667em"></mml:mspace></mml:mrow></mml:math></inline-formula>Pb collisions at <inline-formula id="IEq2"><mml:math><mml:mrow><mml:msqrt><mml:msub><mml:mi>s</mml:mi><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">NN</mml:mi></mml:msub></mml:msqrt><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn>5.02</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:math></inline-formula> TeV. We consider temperature-dependent decay widths for the anisotropic escape of various bottomonium states and observe that the transverse momentum dependence of bottomonia elliptic flow provides a tomographic information about the QGP fireball at different stages of its evolution. For the space-time evolution of the fireball, we employ simulation results from the 3 + 1 D quasiparticle anisotropic hydrodynamic model. We find that our results for transverse momentum dependence of bottomonia elliptic flow are in reasonable agreement with experimental results from the ALICE and CMS collaborations.

Turbulence has a profound impact on the evolution of gas and dust in protoplanetary disks (PPDs), from driving the collisions and the diffusion of dust grains, to the concentration of pebbles in giant vortices, thus, facilitating planetesimal formation. The vertical shear instability (VSI) is a hydrodynamic mechanism, operating in PPDs if the local rate of thermal relaxation is high enough. Previous studies of the VSI have, however, relied on the assumption of constant cooling rates, or neglected the finite coupling time between the gas particles and the dust grains. Here, we present the results of hydrodynamic simulations of PPDs with the PLUTO code that include a more realistic thermal relaxation prescription, which enables us to study the VSI in the optically thick and optically thin parts of the disk under consideration of the thermal dust-gas coupling. We show the VSI to cause turbulence even in the optically thick inner regions of PPDs in our two- and three-dimensional simulations. The collisional decoupling of dust and gas particles in the upper atmosphere and the correspondingly inefficient thermal relaxation rates lead to the damping of the VSI turbulence. Long-lived anticyclonic vortices form in our three-dimensional simulation. These structures emerge from the turbulence in the VSI-active layer, persist over hundreds of orbits and extend vertically over the whole extent of the turbulent region. We conclude that the VSI leads to turbulence and the formation of long-lived dust traps within ±3 pressure scale heights distance from the disk midplane.

The shapes of galaxy N-point correlation functions can be used as standard rulers to constrain the distance-redshift relationship. The cosmological density fields traced by late-time galaxy formation are initially nearly Gaussian, and hence, all the cosmological information can be extracted from their two-point correlation function. Subsequent non-linear evolution under gravity, as well as halo and then galaxy formation, generates higher order correlation functions. Since the mapping of the initial to the final density field is, on large scales, invertible, it is often claimed that the information content of the initial field's power spectrum is equal to that of all the higher order functions of the final, non-linear field. This claim implies that reconstruction of the initial density field from the non-linear field renders analysis of higher order correlation functions of the latter superfluous. We show that this claim is false when the N-point functions are used as standard rulers. Constraints available from joint analysis of the two and three-point correlation functions can, in some cases, exceed those offered by the initial power spectrum. We provide a mathematical justification for this claim and demonstrate it using a large suite of N-body simulations. In particular, we show that for the z = 0 real-space matter field in the limit of vanishing shot-noise, taking modes up to k_max = 0.2 h Mpc^-1, using the bispectrum alone offers a factor of 2 reduction in the variance on the cosmic distance scale relative to that available from the linear power spectrum.

We revisit light-cone sum rules with pion distribution amplitudes to determine the full set of local B→π form factors. To this end, we determine all duality threshold parameters from a Bayesian fit for the first time. Our results, obtained at small momentum transfer q2, are extrapolated to large q2 where they agree with precise lattice QCD results. We find that a modification to the commonly used BCL parametrization is crucial to interpolate the scalar form factor between the two q2 regions. We provide numerical results for the form factor parameters -- including their covariance -- based on simultaneous fit of all three form factors to both the sum rule and lattice QCD results. Our predictions for the form factors agree well with measurements of the q2 spectrum of the semileptonic decay B¯0→π+ℓ−ν¯. From the world average of the latter we obtain |Vub|=(3.77±0.15)⋅10−3, which is in agreement with the most recent inclusive determination at the 1σ level.

We present a model for the halo-mass correlation function that explicitly incorporates halo exclusion and allows for a redefinition of the halo boundary in a flexible way. We assume that haloes trace mass in a way that can be described using a single scale-independent bias parameter. However, our model exhibits scale-dependent biasing due to the impact of halo-exclusion, the use of a 'soft' (i.e. not infinitely sharp) halo boundary, and differences in the one halo term contributions to ξ_hm and ξ_mm. These features naturally lead us to a redefinition of the halo boundary that lies at the 'by eye' transition radius from the one-halo to the two-halo term in the halo-mass correlation function. When adopting our proposed definition, our model succeeds in describing the halo-mass correlation function with $\approx 2{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ residuals over the radial range 0.1 h^-1 Mpc < r < 80 h^-1 Mpc, and for halo masses in the range 10¹³ h^-1 M_⊙ < M < 10¹⁵ h^-1 M_⊙. Our proposed halo boundary is related to the splashback radius by a roughly constant multiplicative factor. Taking the 87 percentile as reference we find r_t/R_sp ≍ 1.3. Surprisingly, our proposed definition results in halo abundances that are well described by the Press-Schechter mass function with δ_sc = 1.449 ± 0.004. The clustering bias parameter is offset from the standard background-split prediction by $\approx 10{{\ \rm per\ cent}}\!-\!15{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$. This level of agreement is comparable to that achieved with more standard halo definitions.

We study the gravitational radiation emitted during the scattering of two spinless bodies in the post-Minkowskian effective field theory approach. We derive the conserved stress-energy tensor linearly coupled to gravity and the classical probability amplitude of graviton emission at leading and next-to-leading order in the Newton's constant G . The amplitude can be expressed in compact form as one-dimensional integrals over a Feynman parameter involving Bessel functions. We use it to recover the leading-order radiated angular momentum expression. Upon expanding it in the relative velocity between the two bodies v , we compute the total four-momentum radiated into gravitational waves at leading-order in G and up to an order v^{, 8} finding agreement with what was recently computed using scattering amplitude methods. Our results also allow us to investigate the zero frequency limit of the emitted energy spectrum.

We use hydrodynamical separate universe simulations with the IllustrisTNG model to predict the local primordial non-Gaussianity (PNG) bias parameters b

$_{ϕ}$ and b

$_{ϕδ}$, which enter at leading order in the galaxy power spectrum and bispectrum. This is the first time that b

$_{ϕδ}$ is measured from either gravity-only or galaxy formation simulations. For dark matter halos, the popular assumption of universality overpredicts the b

$_{ϕδ}$(b

$_{1}$) relation in the range 1 ≲ b

$_{1}$ ≲ 3 by up to Δ b

$_{ϕδ}$ ∼ 3 (b

$_{1}$ is the linear density bias). The adequacy of the universality relation is worse for the simulated galaxies, with the relations b

$_{ϕ}$(b

$_{1}$) and b

$_{ϕδ}$(b

$_{1}$) being generically redshift-dependent and very sensitive to how galaxies are selected (we test total, stellar and black hole mass, black hole mass accretion rate and color). The uncertainties on b

$_{ϕ}$ and b

$_{ϕδ}$ have a direct, often overlooked impact on the constraints of the local PNG parameter f

$_{NL}$, which we study and discuss. For a survey with V = 100 Gpc$^{3}$/h$^{3}$ at z=1, uncertainties Δ b

$_{ϕ}$ ≲ 1 and Δ b

$_{ϕδ}$ ≲ 5 around values close to the fiducial can yield relatively unbiased constraints on f

$_{NL}$ using power spectrum and bispectrum data. We also show why priors on galaxy bias are useful even in analyses that fit for products f

$_{NL}$

b

$_{ϕ}$ and f

$_{NL}$

b

$_{ϕδ}$. The strategies we discuss to deal with galaxy bias uncertainties can be straightforwardly implemented in existing f

$_{NL}$ constraint analyses (we provide fits for some of the bias relations). Our results motivate more works with galaxy formation simulations to refine our understanding of b

$_{ϕ}$ and b

$_{ϕδ}$ towards improved constraints on f

$_{NL}$.

The properties of quasar-host galaxies might be determined by the growth and feedback of their supermassive black holes (SMBHs, 10^8−10 M_⊙). We investigate such connection with a suite of cosmological simulations of massive (halo mass ≈10^12 M_⊙) galaxies at z ≃ 6 that include a detailed subgrid multiphase gas and accretion model. BH seeds of initial mass 10^5 M_⊙ grow mostly by gas accretion, and become SMBH by z = 6 setting on the observed M_BH−M_⋆ relation without the need for a boost factor. Although quasar feedback crucially controls the SMBH growth, its impact on the properties of the host galaxy at z = 6 is negligible. In our model, quasar activity can both quench (via gas heating) or enhance (by interstellar medium overpressurization) star formation. However, we find that the star formation history is insensitive to such modulation as it is largely dominated, at least at z > 6, by cold gas accretion from the environment that cannot be hindered by the quasar energy deposition. Although quasar-driven outflows can achieve velocities |$\gt 1000~\rm km~s^{-1}$|⁠, only ≈4 per cent of the outflowing gas mass can actually escape from the host galaxy. These findings are only loosely constrained by available data, but can guide observational campaigns searching for signatures of quasar feedback in early galaxies.

We present a method to derive conservative upper limits on the coupling constants of the effective theory of dark matter-nucleon interactions, taking into account the interference among operators. The method can be applied in any basis, and can be easily particularized to any UV complete model. To illustrate our method, we use the IceCube constraints on an exotic neutrino flux from dark matter annihilations in the Sun to derive conservative upper limits on the dark matter-nucleon coupling constants of the effective theory, as well as to derive conservative upper limits on the dark matter-proton and dark matter-neutron scattering cross-sections.

In the last decade, quantum simulators, and in particular cold atoms in optical lattices, have emerged as a valuable tool to study strongly correlated quantum matter. These experiments are now reaching regimes that are numerically difficult or impossible to access. In particular they have started to fulfill a promise which has contributed significantly to defining and shaping the field of cold atom quantum simulations, namely the exploration of doped and frustrated quantum magnets and the search for the origins of high-temperature superconductivity in the fermionic Hubbard model. Despite many future challenges lying ahead, such as the need to further lower the experimentally accessible temperatures, remarkable studies have already been conducted. Among them, spin-charge separation in one-dimensional systems has been demonstrated, extended-range antiferromagnetism in two-dimensional systems has been observed, connections to modern day large-scale numerical simulations were made, and unprecedented comparisons with microscopic trial wavefunctions have been carried out at finite doping. In many regards, the field has acquired new realms, putting old ideas to a new test and producing new insights and inspiration for the next generation of physicists. In the first part of this paper, we review the results achieved in cold atom realizations of the Fermi–Hubbard model in recent years. We put special emphasis on the new probes available in quantum gas microscopes, such as higher-order correlation functions, full counting statistics, the ability to study far-from-equilibrium dynamics, machine learning and pattern recognition of instantaneous snapshots of the many-body wavefunction, and access to non-local correlators. Our review is written from a theoretical perspective, but aims to provide basic understanding of the experimental procedures. We cover one-dimensional systems, where the phenomenon of spin-charge separation is ubiquitous, and two-dimensional systems where we distinguish between situations with and without doping. Throughout, we focus on the strong coupling regime where the Hubbard interactions <math display="inline" id="d1e3228" altimg="si1.svg"><mi>U</mi></math> dominate and connections to <math display="inline" id="d1e3233" altimg="si421.svg"><mrow><mi>t</mi><mo linebreak="goodbreak" linebreakstyle="after">−</mo><mi>J</mi></mrow></math> models can be justified. In the second part of this paper, with the stage set and the current state of the field in mind, we propose a new direction for cold atoms to explore: namely mixed-dimensional bilayer systems, where the charge motion is restricted to individual layers which remain coupled through spin-exchange. These systems can be directly realized experimentally and we argue that they have a rich phase diagram, potentially including a strongly correlated BEC-to-BCS cross-over and regimes with different superconducting order parameters, as well as complex parton phases and possibly even analogs of tetraquark states. In particular, we propose a novel, strong pairing mechanism in these systems, which puts the formation of hole pairs at experimentally accessible, elevated temperatures within reach. Ultimately we propose to explore how the physics of the mixed-dimensional bilayer system can be connected to the rich phenomenology of the single-layer Hubbard model. •Comprehensive review of cold atom experiments on the Fermi–Hubbard model.•Focus on physics highlights, from a theoretical perspective.•New results for hole-pairing in bilayer and ladder systems.•Including a discussion of contemporary analysis tools: from machine-learning to ARPES.