The R³B (Reactions with Relativistic Radioactive Beams) experiment as a major instrument of the NUSTAR collaboration for the research facility FAIR in Darmstadt is designed for kinematically complete studies of reactions with high-energy radioactive beams. Part of the broad physics program of R³B is to constrain the asymmetry term in the nuclear equation-of-state and hence improve the description of highly asymmetric nuclear matter (e.g., in neutron stars). For a precise determination of the neutron-skin thickness – an observable which is directly correlated with the symmetry energy in theoretical calculations – by measuring absolute fragmentation cross sections, it is essential to quantify the uncertainty and challenge the reaction model under stable conditions. During the successful FAIR Phase-0 campaign of R³B, we precisely measured the energy dependence of total interaction cross sections in ¹²C+¹²C collisions, for a direct comparison with calculations based on the eikonal reaction theory.

Among the well-known methods to approximate derivatives of expectancies computed by Monte-Carlo simulations, averages of pathwise derivatives are often the easiest one to apply. Computing them via algorithmic differentiation typically does not require major manual analysis and rewriting of the code, even for very complex programs like simulations of particle-detector interactions in high-energy physics. However, the pathwise derivative estimator can be biased if there are discontinuities in the program, which may diminish its value for applications. This work integrates algorithmic differentiation into the electromagnetic shower simulation code HepEmShow based on G4HepEm, allowing us to study how well pathwise derivatives approximate derivatives of energy depositions in a sampling calorimeter with respect to parameters of the beam and geometry. We found that when multiple scattering is disabled in the simulation, means of pathwise derivatives converge quickly to their expected values, and these are close to the actual derivatives of the energy deposition. Additionally, we demonstrate the applicability of this novel gradient estimator for stochastic gradient-based optimization in a model example.

We study stellar core growth in simulations of merging massive (<inline-formula><tex-math id="TM0001" notation="LaTeX">$M_\star \gt 10^{11}\, \mathrm{M}_{\odot }$</tex-math></inline-formula>) elliptical galaxies by a supermassive black hole (SMBH) displaced by gravitational wave induced recoil velocity. With controlled, dense sampling of the SMBH recoil velocity, we find the core radius originally formed by SMBH binary scouring can grow by a factor of 2-3 when the recoil velocity exceeds <inline-formula><tex-math id="TM0002" notation="LaTeX">$\sim 50$</tex-math></inline-formula> per cent of the central escape velocity, and the mass deficit grows by up to a factor of <inline-formula><tex-math id="TM0003" notation="LaTeX">$\sim 4$</tex-math></inline-formula>. Using Bayesian inference we predict the distribution of stellar core sizes formed through this process to peak at <inline-formula><tex-math id="TM0004" notation="LaTeX">$\sim 1\, \mathrm{kpc}$</tex-math></inline-formula>. An orbital decomposition of stellar particles within the core reveals that radial orbits dominate over tube orbits when the recoil velocity exceeds the velocity dispersion of the core, whereas tube orbits dominate for the lowest recoil kicks. A change in orbital structure is reflected in the anisotropy parameter, with a central tangential bias present only for recoil velocities less than the local stellar velocity dispersion. Emulating current integral field unit observations of the stellar line-of-sight velocity distribution, we uncover a distinct signature in the Gauss-Hermite symmetric deviation coefficient <inline-formula><tex-math id="TM0005" notation="LaTeX">$h_4$</tex-math></inline-formula> that uniquely constrains the core size due to binary scouring. This signature is insensitive to the later evolution of the stellar mass distribution due to SMBH recoil. Our results provide a novel method to estimate the SMBH recoil magnitude from observations of local elliptical galaxies, and implies these galaxies primarily experienced recoil velocities less than the stellar velocity dispersion of the core.

Cosmic Voids are a promising probe of cosmology for spectroscopic galaxy surveys due to their unique response to cosmological parameters. Their combination with other probes promises to break parameter degeneracies. Due to simplifying assumptions, analytical models for void statistics are only representative of a subset of the full void population. We present a set of neural-based emulators for void summary statistics of watershed voids, which retain more information about the full void population than simplified analytical models. We build emulators for the void size function and void density profiles traced by the halo number density using the Quijote suite of simulations for a broad range of the $\Lambda\mathrm{CDM}$ parameter space. The emulators replace the computation of these statistics from computationally expensive cosmological simulations. We demonstrate the cosmological constraining power of voids using our emulators, which offer orders-of-magnitude acceleration in parameter estimation, capture more cosmological information compared to analytic models, and produce more realistic posteriors compared to Fisher forecasts. We find that the parameters $\Omega_m$ and $\sigma_8$ in this Quijote setup can be recovered to $14.4\%$ and $8.4\%$ accuracy respectively using void density profiles; including the additional information in the void size function improves the accuracy on $\sigma_8$ to $6.8\%$. We demonstrate the robustness of our approach to two important variables in the underlying simulations, the resolution, and the inclusion of baryons. We find that our pipeline is robust to variations in resolution, and we show that the posteriors derived from the emulated void statistics are unaffected by the inclusion of baryons with the Magneticum hydrodynamic simulations. This opens up the possibility of a baryon-independent probe of the large-scale structure.

Collective oscillations in dense neutrino gases (flavor waves) are notable for their instabilities that cause fast flavor conversion. We develop a quantum theory of interacting neutrinos and flavor wave quanta, which are analogous to plasmons, but also carry flavor. The emission or absorption of such flavor plasmons $\psi$, or flavomons, changes the neutrino flavor. When an angular crossing occurs, the process $\nu_\mu\to\nu_e+\psi$ is more rapid than its inverse along the direction of the crossing, triggering stimulated $\psi$ emission and fast instability. Calculating the rate via Feynman diagrams matches the fast instability growth rate. Our novel $\nu$ and $\psi$ kinetic equations, corresponding to quasi-linear theory, describe instability evolution without resolving the small scales of the flavomon wavelength, potentially overcoming the main challenge of fast flavor evolution.

Finding the best parametrization for cosmological models in the absence of first-principle theories is an open question. We propose a data-driven parametrization of cosmological models given by the disentangled 'latent' representation of a variational autoencoder (VAE) trained to compress cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature power spectra. We consider a broad range of $\Lambda$CDM and beyond-$\Lambda$CDM cosmologies with an additional early dark energy (EDE) component. We show that these spectra can be compressed into 5 ($\Lambda$CDM) or 8 (EDE) independent latent parameters, as expected when using temperature power spectra alone, and which reconstruct spectra at an accuracy well within the Planck errors. These latent parameters have a physical interpretation in terms of well-known features of the CMB temperature spectrum: these include the position, height and even-odd modulation of the acoustic peaks, as well as the gravitational lensing effect. The VAE also discovers one latent parameter which entirely isolates the EDE effects from those related to $\Lambda$CDM parameters, thus revealing a previously unknown degree of freedom in the CMB temperature power spectrum. We further showcase how to place constraints on the latent parameters using Planck data as typically done for cosmological parameters, obtaining latent values consistent with previous $\Lambda$CDM and EDE cosmological constraints. Our work demonstrates the potential of a data-driven reformulation of current beyond-$\Lambda$CDM phenomenological models into the independent degrees of freedom to which the data observables are sensitive.

Ultra-hot Jupiters, an extreme class of planets not found in our solar system, provide a unique window into atmospheric processes. The extreme temperature contrasts between their day- and night-sides pose a fundamental climate puzzle: how is energy distributed? To address this, we must observe the 3D structure of these atmospheres, particularly their vertical circulation patterns, which can serve as a testbed for advanced Global Circulation Models (GCM) [e.g. 1]. Here, we show a dramatic shift in atmospheric circulation in an ultra-hot Jupiter: a unilateral flow from the hot star-facing side to the cooler space-facing side of the planet sits below an equatorial super-rotational jet stream. By resolving the vertical structure of atmospheric dynamics, we move beyond integrated global snapshots of the atmosphere, enabling more accurate identification of flow patterns and allowing for a more nuanced comparison to models. Global circulation models based on first principles struggle to replicate the observed circulation pattern [3], underscoring a critical gap between theoretical understanding of atmospheric flows and observational evidence. This work serves as a testbed to develop more comprehensive models applicable beyond our Solar System as we prepare for the next generation of giant telescopes.

We use the effective field theory approach to systematically study the dynamics of classical and quantum systems in an oscillating magnetic field. We find that the fast field oscillations give rise to an effective interaction which is able to confine charged particles as well as neutral particles with a spin magnetic moment. The effect is reminiscent of the renown dynamical stabilization of charges by the oscillating electric field and provides a foundation for a new class of magnetic traps. The properties characteristic to the dynamical magnetic confinement are reviewed.

Transit spectroscopy usually relies on the integration of one or several transits to achieve the S/N necessary to resolve spectral features. Consequently, high-S/N observations of exoplanet atmospheres are essential for disentangling the complex chemistry and dynamics beyond global trends. In this study, we combined two partial 4-UT transits of the ultrahot Jupiter WASP-121 b, observed with the ESPRESSO at the VLT in order to revisit its titanium chemistry. Through cross-correlation analysis, we achieved detections of H I, Li I, Na I, K I, Mg I, Ca I, Ti I, V I, Cr I, Mn I, Fe I, Fe II, Co I, Ni I, Ba II, Sr I, and Sr II. Additionally, narrow-band spectroscopy allowed us to resolve strong single lines, resulting in significant detections of H$\alpha$, H$\beta$, H$\gamma$, Li I, Na I, K I, Mg I, Ca II, Sr I, Sr II, and Mn I. Our most notable finding is the high-significance detection of Ti I ($\sim$ 5$\sigma$ per spectrum, and $\sim$ 19$\sigma$ stacked in the planetary rest frame). Comparison with atmospheric models reveals that Ti I is indeed depleted compared to V I. We also resolve the planetary velocity traces of both Ti I and V I, with Ti I exhibiting a significant blueshift toward the end of the transit. This suggests that Ti I primarily originates from low-latitude regions within the super-rotating jet observed in WASP-121 b. Our observations suggest limited mixing between the equatorial jet and the mid-latitudes, in contrast with model predictions from GCMs. We also report the non-detection of TiO, which we attribute to inaccuracies in the line list that could hinder its detection, even if present. Thus, the final determination of the presence of TiO must await space-based observations. We conclude that the 4-UT mode of ESPRESSO is an excellent testbed for achieving high S/N on relatively faint targets, paving the way for future observations with the ELT.

Observations of molecular lines are a key tool to determine the main physical properties of prestellar cores. However, not all the information is retained in the observational process or easily interpretable, especially when a larger number of physical properties and spectral features are involved. We present a methodology to link the information in the synthetic spectra with the actual information in the simulated models (i.e., their physical properties), in particular, to determine where the information resides in the spectra. We employ a 1D gravitational collapse model with advanced thermochemistry, from which we generate synthetic spectra. We then use neural network emulations and the SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP), a machine learning technique, to connect the models' properties to the specific spectral features. Thanks to interpretable machine learning, we find several correlations between synthetic lines and some of the key model parameters, such as the cosmic-ray ionization radial profile, the central density, or the abundance of various species, suggesting that most of the information is retained in the observational process. Our procedure can be generalized to similar scenarios to quantify the amount of information lost in the real observations. We also point out the limitations for future applicability.

We report the discovery and characterization of two sub-Saturns from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) using high- resolution spectroscopic observations from the MaHPS spectrograph at the Wendelstein Observatory and the SOPHIE spectrograph at the Haute-Provence Observatory. Combining photometry from TESS, KeplerCam, LCOGT, and MuSCAT2, along with the radial velocity measurements from MaHPS and SOPHIE, we measured precise radii and masses for both planets. TOI-5108 b is a sub-Saturn, with a radius of 6.6 ± 0.1 R_⊕ and a mass of 32 ± 5 M_⊕. TOI-5786 b is similar to Saturn, with a radius of 8.54 ± 0.13 R_⊕ and a mass of 73 ± 9 M_⊕. The host star for TOI-5108 b is a moderately bright (Vmag 9.75) G-type star. TOI-5786 is a slightly dimmer (Vmag 10.2) F-type star. Both planets are close to their host stars, with periods of 6.75 days and 12.78 days, respectively. This puts TOI-5108 b just within the bounds of the Neptune desert, while TOI-5786 b is right above the upper edge. We estimated hydrogen-helium (H/He) envelope mass fractions of 38% for TOI-5108 b and 74% for TOI-5786 b. However, when using a model for the interior structure that includes tidal effects, the envelope fraction of TOI-5108 b could be much lower (~20%), depending on the obliquity. We estimated mass-loss rates between 1.0 x 10⁹ g/s and 9.8 x 10⁹ g/s for TOI-5108 b and between 3.6 x 10⁸ g/s and 3.5 x 10⁹ g/s for TOI-5786 b. Given their masses, both planets could be stable against photoevaporation. Furthermore, at these mass-loss rates, there is likely no detectable signal in the metastable helium triplet with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). We also detected a transit signal for a second planet candidate in the TESS data of TOI-5786, with a period of 6.998 days and a radius of 3.83 ± 0.16 R_⊕. Using our RV data and photodynamical modeling, we were able to provide a 3-σ upper limit of 26.5 M_⊕ for the mass of the potential inner companion to TOI-5786 b.

We transform the one-loop four-point type I open superstring gluon amplitude to correlation functions on the celestial sphere including both the (non-)orientable planar and non-planar sector. This requires a Mellin transform with respect to the energies of the scattered strings, as well as to integrate over the open-string worldsheet moduli space. After accomplishing the former we obtain celestial string integrands with remaining worldsheet integrals <mml:math altimg="si1.svg"><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">Ψ</mml:mi><mml:mrow><mml:mo stretchy="true">(</mml:mo><mml:mi>β</mml:mi><mml:mo stretchy="true">)</mml:mo></mml:mrow></mml:math>, where β is related to the conformal scaling dimensions of the conformal primary operators under consideration. Employing an alternative approach of performing an <mml:math altimg="si2.svg"><mml:msup><mml:mrow><mml:mi>α</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mo>‧</mml:mo></mml:mrow></mml:msup></mml:math>-expansion of the open superstring amplitude first and Mellin transforming afterwards, we obtain a fully integrated expression, capturing the pole structure in the β-plane. The same analysis is performed at tree-level yielding similar results. We conclude by solving <mml:math altimg="si1.svg"><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">Ψ</mml:mi><mml:mrow><mml:mo stretchy="true">(</mml:mo><mml:mi>β</mml:mi><mml:mo stretchy="true">)</mml:mo></mml:mrow></mml:math> for specific values of β, consistently reproducing the results of the <mml:math altimg="si2.svg"><mml:msup><mml:mrow><mml:mi>α</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mo>‧</mml:mo></mml:mrow></mml:msup></mml:math>-expansion ansatz. In all approaches we find that the dependence on <mml:math altimg="si2.svg"><mml:msup><mml:mrow><mml:mi>α</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mo>‧</mml:mo></mml:mrow></mml:msup></mml:math> reduces to that of a simple overall factor of <mml:math altimg="si3.svg"><mml:msup><mml:mrow><mml:mo stretchy="true">(</mml:mo><mml:msup><mml:mrow><mml:mi>α</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mo>‧</mml:mo></mml:mrow></mml:msup><mml:mo stretchy="true">)</mml:mo></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mi>β</mml:mi><mml:mo linebreak="badbreak" linebreakstyle="after">‑</mml:mo><mml:mn>3</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:msup></mml:math> at loop and <mml:math altimg="si185.svg"><mml:msup><mml:mrow><mml:mo stretchy="true">(</mml:mo><mml:msup><mml:mrow><mml:mi>α</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mo>‧</mml:mo></mml:mrow></mml:msup><mml:mo stretchy="true">)</mml:mo></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mi>β</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:msup></mml:math> at tree level, consistent with previous literature.

We performed a detailed spectroscopic analysis of three extremely metal-poor RR Lyrae stars, exploring uncharted territories at these low metallicities for this class of stars. Using high-resolution spectra acquired with HARPS-N at TNG, UVES at VLT, and PEPSI at LBT, and employing Non-Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium (NLTE) spectral synthesis calculations, we provide abundance measurements for Fe, Al, Mg, Ca, Ti, Mn, and Sr. Our findings indicate that the stars have metallicities of [Fe/H] = ‑3.40 ± 0.05, ‑3.28 ± 0.02, and ‑2.77 ± 0.05 for HD 331986, DO Hya, and BPS CS 30317-056, respectively. Additionally, we derived their kinematic and dynamical properties to gain insights into their origins. Interestingly, the kinematics of one star (HD 331986) is consistent with the Galactic disc, while the others exhibit Galactic halo kinematics, albeit with distinct chemical signatures. We compared the [Al/Fe] and [Mg/Mn] ratios of the current targets with recent literature estimates to determine whether these stars were either accreted or formed in situ, finding that the adopted chemical diagnostics are ineffective at low metallicities ([Fe/H] ≲ ‑1.5). Finally, the established horizontal branch evolutionary models, indicating that these stars arrive at hotter temperatures on the Zero-Age Horizontal Branch (ZAHB) and then transition into RR Lyrae stars as they evolve, fully support the existence of such low-metallicity RR Lyrae stars. As a consequence, we can anticipate detecting more of them when larger samples of spectra become available from upcoming extensive observational campaigns. ⋆ Based on observations acquired at the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo under program A43DDT3, on a DDT program with PEPSI at LBT (2021-2022, PI Crestani) and on VLT ESO programs 69.C-0423(A) and 165.N-0276(A).

We present constraints on the <inline-formula><mml:math display="inline"><mml:mi>f</mml:mi><mml:mo stretchy="false">(</mml:mo><mml:mi>R</mml:mi><mml:mo stretchy="false">)</mml:mo></mml:math></inline-formula> gravity model using a sample of 1005 galaxy clusters in the redshift range 0.25–1.78 that have been selected through the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect from South Pole Telescope data and subjected to optical and near-infrared confirmation with the multicomponent matched filter algorithm. We employ weak gravitational lensing mass calibration from the Dark Energy Survey Year 3 data for 688 clusters at <inline-formula><mml:math display="inline"><mml:mi>z</mml:mi><mml:mo><</mml:mo><mml:mn>0.95</mml:mn></mml:math></inline-formula> and from the Hubble Space Telescope for 39 clusters with <inline-formula><mml:math display="inline"><mml:mn>0.6</mml:mn><mml:mo><</mml:mo><mml:mi>z</mml:mi><mml:mo><</mml:mo><mml:mn>1.7</mml:mn></mml:math></inline-formula>. Our cluster sample is a powerful probe of <inline-formula><mml:math display="inline"><mml:mi>f</mml:mi><mml:mo stretchy="false">(</mml:mo><mml:mi>R</mml:mi><mml:mo stretchy="false">)</mml:mo></mml:math></inline-formula> gravity, because this model predicts a scale-dependent enhancement in the growth of structure, which impacts the halo mass function (HMF) at cluster mass scales. To account for these modified gravity effects on the HMF, our analysis employs a semianalytical approach calibrated with numerical simulations. Combining calibrated cluster counts with primary cosmic microwave background temperature and polarization anisotropy measurements from the Planck 2018 release, we derive robust constraints on the <inline-formula><mml:math display="inline"><mml:mi>f</mml:mi><mml:mo stretchy="false">(</mml:mo><mml:mi>R</mml:mi><mml:mo stretchy="false">)</mml:mo></mml:math></inline-formula> parameter <inline-formula><mml:math display="inline"><mml:msub><mml:mi>f</mml:mi><mml:mrow><mml:mi>R</mml:mi><mml:mn>0</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:msub></mml:math></inline-formula>. Our results, <inline-formula><mml:math display="inline"><mml:msub><mml:mi>log</mml:mi><mml:mn>10</mml:mn></mml:msub><mml:mo stretchy="false">|</mml:mo><mml:msub><mml:mi>f</mml:mi><mml:mrow><mml:mi>R</mml:mi><mml:mn>0</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:msub><mml:mo stretchy="false">|</mml:mo><mml:mo><</mml:mo><mml:mo>-</mml:mo><mml:mn>5.32</mml:mn></mml:math></inline-formula> at the 95% credible level, are the tightest current constraints on <inline-formula><mml:math display="inline"><mml:mi>f</mml:mi><mml:mo stretchy="false">(</mml:mo><mml:mi>R</mml:mi><mml:mo stretchy="false">)</mml:mo></mml:math></inline-formula> gravity from cosmological scales. This upper limit rules out <inline-formula><mml:math display="inline"><mml:mi>f</mml:mi><mml:mo stretchy="false">(</mml:mo><mml:mi>R</mml:mi><mml:mo stretchy="false">)</mml:mo></mml:math></inline-formula>-like deviations from general relativity that result in more than a <inline-formula><mml:math display="inline"><mml:mo>∼</mml:mo><mml:mn>20</mml:mn><mml:mo>%</mml:mo></mml:math></inline-formula> enhancement of the cluster population on mass scales <inline-formula><mml:math display="inline"><mml:mrow><mml:msub><mml:mrow><mml:mi>M</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mn>200</mml:mn><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">c</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:msub><mml:mo>></mml:mo><mml:mn>3</mml:mn><mml:mo>×</mml:mo><mml:msup><mml:mrow><mml:mn>10</mml:mn></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mn>14</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:msup><mml:msub><mml:mrow><mml:mi>M</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mo stretchy="false">⊙</mml:mo></mml:mrow></mml:msub></mml:mrow></mml:math></inline-formula>.

In the present study, we employ three distinct, physically motivated speed of sound bounds to construct hybrid models, where the high-density phase is described by the maximally stiff equation of state. In particular, we consider the bounds related to special relativity, relativistic kinetic theory, and conformality. The low-density hadronic phase is described by a state-of-the-art microscopic relativistic Brueckner-Hartree-Fock theory. This work aims to access the effect of the different speed of sound constraints on the relevant parameter space of the key parameters of first-order phase transitions by utilizing recent astronomical data. This involves a systematic analysis that also includes two distinct schemes for the construction of hybrid models (abrupt and smooth). Finally, a relevant discussion is conducted on the possible occurrence of a thermodynamic inconsistency that is related to the stability of the high-density phase over hadronic matter at large densities.

Context. The intense X-ray and UV emission of some active M stars has raised questions about the habitability of planets around M-type stars. Aims. We aim to determine the unbiased distribution of X-ray luminosities in complete, volume-limited samples of nearby M dwarfs, and compare them to those of K and G dwarfs. Methods. We constructed volume-complete samples of 205 M stars with a spectral type ≤ M6 within 10 pc of the Sun, 129 K stars within 16 pc, and 107 G stars within 20 pc. We used X-ray data from Chandra, XMM-Newton, eROSITA, and ROSAT to obtain the X-ray luminosities of the stars. Results. Our samples reach an X-ray detection completeness of 85%, 86%, and 80% for M, K, and G stars, respectively. The fractional X-ray luminosities relative to the bolometric luminosities, log(L_X/L_bol), of the M stars show a bimodal distribution, with one peak at around ‑5, mostly contributed by early M stars (M0–M4), and another peak around ‑3.5, contributed mainly by M4–M6 stars. The comparison of the different spectral classes shows that 63% of all M stars in our sample (80% of the M stars with a spectral type < M4) have L_X/L_bol values that are within the central 80% quantile of the distribution function for G stars. In addition, 55% of all M stars in our sample (and 72% of the M stars with a spectral type < M4) have L_X/L_bol less than 10 times the solar value. Conclusions. The X-ray activity levels of the majority (≳60%) of nearby M dwarfs no later than M6 are actually not higher than the typical (80% quantile) levels for G-type stars. The X-ray irradiation of habitable-zone planets around these stars should therefore not present a specific problem for their habitability.

The formation details of globular clusters (GCs) are still poorly understood due to their old ages and the lack of detailed observations of their formation. A large variety of models for the formation and evolution of GCs have been created to improve our understanding of their origins, based on GC properties observed at <inline-formula><tex-math id="TM0001" notation="LaTeX">$z=0$</tex-math></inline-formula>. We present the first side-by-side comparison of six current GC formation models with respect to their predictions for the GC ages and formation redshifts in Milky Way (MW)-like galaxies. We find that all the models are capable of forming most of the surviving GCs at more than <inline-formula><tex-math id="TM0002" notation="LaTeX">$10 \,\mathrm{G}{\rm {yr}}$</tex-math></inline-formula> ago, in general agreement with the observation that most GCs are old. However, the measured MW GC ages are still systematically older than those predicted in the galaxies of four of the models. Investigating the variation of modelled GC age distributions for general MW-mass galaxies, we find that some of the models predict that a significant fraction of MW-mass galaxies would entirely lack a GC population older than <inline-formula><tex-math id="TM0003" notation="LaTeX">$10 \,\mathrm{G}{\rm {yr}}$</tex-math></inline-formula>, whereas others predict that all MW-mass galaxies have a significant fraction of old GCs. This will have to be further tested in upcoming surveys, as systems without old GCs in that mass range are currently not known. Finally, we show that the models predict different formation redshifts for the oldest surviving GCs, highlighting that models currently disagree about whether the recently observed young star clusters at high redshifts could be the progenitors of today's GCs.

Strongly lensed supernovae (SNe) are a rare class of transient that can offer tight cosmological constraints that are complementary to methods from other astronomical events. We present a follow-up study of one recently discovered strongly lensed SN, the quadruply imaged type Ia SN 2022qmx (aka "SN Zwicky"), at z = 0.3544. We measure updated, template-subtracted photometry for SN Zwicky and derive improved time delays and magnifications. This is possible because SNe are transient, fading away after reaching their peak brightness. Specifically, we measure point-spread-function photometry for all four images of SN Zwicky in three Hubble Space Telescope WFC3/UVIS passbands (F475W, F625W, and F814W) and one WFC3/IR passband (F160W), with template images taken ∼11 months after the epoch in which the SN images appear. We find consistency to within 2σ between lens-model-predicted time delays (≲1 day) and measured time delays with HST colors (≲2 days), including the uncertainty from chromatic microlensing that may arise from stars in the lensing galaxy. The standardizable nature of SNe Ia allows us to estimate absolute magnifications for the four images, with images A and C being elevated in magnification compared to lens model predictions by about 6σ and 3σ, respectively, confirming previous work. We show that millilensing or differential dust extinction is unable to explain these discrepancies, and we find evidence for the existence of microlensing in images A, C, and potentially D that may contribute to the anomalous magnification.

We identify a chain of galaxies along an almost straight line in the nearby Universe with a projected length of ~5 Mpc. The galaxies are distributed within projected distances of only 7–105 kpc from the axis of the identified filament. They have redshifts in a very small range of z = 0.0361‑0.0370 so that their radial velocities are consistent with galaxy proper motions. The filament galaxies are mainly star forming and have stellar masses in a range of 10^9.1‑10^10.7 M_⊙. We search for systems with similar geometrical properties in the full-sky mock galaxy catalog of the MillenniumTNG simulations and find that, although such straight filaments are unusual and rare, they are predicted by ΛCDM simulations (4% incidence). We study the cold H I gas in a 1.3 Mpc section of the filament through H I 21 cm emission line observations and detect 11 H I sources, many more than expected from the H I mass function in a similar volume. They have H I masses 10^8.5‑10^9.5 M_⊙ and are mostly within ~120 kpc projected distance from the filament axis. None of these H I sources has a confirmed optical counterpart. Their darkness together with their large H I 21 cm line widths indicates that they contain gas that might not yet be virialized. These clouds must be marking the peaks of the dark matter and H I distributions over large scales within the filament. The presence of such gas clouds around the filament spines is predicted by simulations, but this is the first time that the existence of such clouds in a filament is observationally confirmed.

Observed low-mass galaxies with nuclear star clusters (NSCs) can host accreting massive black holes (MBH). We present simulations of dwarf galaxies (<inline-formula><tex-math id="TM0001" notation="LaTeX">$M_{\mathrm{baryon}} \sim 0.6\!-\!2.4 \times 10^8 \rm \, M_\odot$</tex-math></inline-formula>) at solar mass resolution (<inline-formula><tex-math id="TM0002" notation="LaTeX">$0.5\rm \, M_\odot \lt \mathit{ m}_{\mathrm{gas}} \lt 4 \rm \, M_\odot$</tex-math></inline-formula>) with a multiphase interstellar medium (ISM) and investigate the impact of NSCs on MBH growth and nuclear star formation (SF). The GRIFFIN simulation model includes non-equilibrium low temperature cooling, chemistry and the effect of H II regions and supernovae (SNe) from massive stars. Individual stars are sampled down to 0.08 <inline-formula><tex-math id="TM0003" notation="LaTeX">$\rm M_\odot$</tex-math></inline-formula> and their non-softened gravitational interactions with MBHs are computed with the regularized KETJU integrator. MBHs with masses in the range of <inline-formula><tex-math id="TM0004" notation="LaTeX">$10^2 \!-\! 10^5 \, \rm M_\odot$</tex-math></inline-formula> are represented by accreting sink particles without feedback. We find that the presence of NSCs boost nuclear SF (i.e. NSC growth) and MBH accretion by funneling gas to the central few parsecs. Low-mass MBHs grow more rapidly on <inline-formula><tex-math id="TM0005" notation="LaTeX">$\sim 600$</tex-math></inline-formula> Myr time-scales, exceeding their Eddington rates at peak accretion. MBH accretion and nuclear SF is episodic (i.e. leads to multiple stellar generations), coeval and regulated by SN explosions. On 40-60 Myr time-scales the first SN of each episode terminates MBH accretion and nuclear SF. Without NSCs, low-mass MBHs do not grow and MBH accretion and reduced nuclear SF become irregular and uncorrelated. This study gives the first insights into the possible co-evolution of MBHs and NSCs in low-mass galaxies and highlights the importance of considering dense NSCs in galactic studies of MBH growth.

Using two-dimensional general relativistic resistive magnetohydrodynamic simulations, we investigate the properties of the sheath separating the black hole jet from the surrounding medium. We find that the electromagnetic power flowing through the jet sheath is comparable to the overall accretion power of the black hole. The sheath is an important site of energy dissipation as revealed by the copious appearance of reconnection layers and plasmoid chains. About 20% of the sheath power is dissipated between 2 and 10 gravitational radii. The plasma in the dissipative sheath moves along a nearly paraboloidal surface with transrelativistic bulk motions dominated by the radial component, whose dimensionless 4-velocity is ∼1.2 ± 0.5. In the frame moving with the mean (radially dependent) velocity, the distribution of stochastic bulk motions resembles a Maxwellian with an "effective bulk temperature" of ∼100 keV. Scaling the global simulation to Cygnus X-1 parameters gives a rough estimate of the Thomson optical depth across the jet sheath, ∼0.01–0.1, and it may increase in future magnetohydrodynamic simulations with self-consistent radiative losses. These properties suggest that the dissipative jet sheath may be a viable "coronal" region, capable of upscattering seed soft photons into a hard, nonthermal tail, as seen during the hard states of X-ray binaries and active galactic nuclei.

Cosmic-ray acceleration processes in astrophysical plasmas are often investigated with fully kinetic or hybrid kinetic numerical simulations, which enable us to describe a detailed microphysics of particle energization mechanisms. Tracing of individual particles in such simulations is especially useful in this regard. However, visually inspecting particle trajectories introduces a significant amount of bias and uncertainty, making it challenging to pinpoint specific acceleration mechanisms. Here, we present a novel approach utilizing neural networks to assist in the analysis of individual particle data. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach using the dataset from our recent particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations of non-relativistic perpendicular shocks, which consists of 252 000 electrons, each characterized by their position, momentum, and electromagnetic field at particle's position, recorded in a time series of 1200 time steps. These electrons cross a region affected by the electrostatic Buneman instability, and a small percentage of them attain high energies. We perform classification, regression, and anomaly detection algorithms on the dataset by using a convolutional neural network, a multi-layer perceptron, and an autoencoder. Despite the noisy and imbalanced dataset, all methods demonstrate the capability to differentiate between thermal and accelerated electrons with remarkable accuracy. The proposed methodology may considerably simplify particle classification in large-scale PIC and hybrid simulations.

The braking torque that dictates the timing properties of magnetars is closely tied to the large-scale dipolar magnetic field on their surface. The formation of this field has been a topic of ongoing debate. One proposed mechanism, based on macroscopic principles, involves an inverse cascade within the neutron star's crust. However, this phenomenon has not been observed in realistic simulations. In this study, we provide compelling evidence supporting the feasibility of the inverse cascading process in the presence of an initial helical magnetic field within realistic neutron star crusts and discuss its contribution to the amplification of the large-scale magnetic field. Our findings, derived from a systematic investigation that considers various coordinate systems, peak wavenumber positions, crustal thicknesses, magnetic boundary conditions, and magnetic Lundquist numbers, reveal that the specific geometry of the crustal domain–with its extreme aspect ratio–requires an initial peak wavenumber from small-scale structures for the inverse cascade to occur. However, this same aspect ratio confines the cascade to structures on the scale of the crust, making the formation of a large-scale dipolar surface field unlikely. Despite these limitations, the inverse cascade remains a significant factor in the magnetic field evolution within the crust and may help explain highly magnetized objects with weak surface dipolar fields, such as low-field magnetars and central compact objects.

High-cadence high-resolution spectroscopic observations of infant Type II supernovae (SNe) represent an exquisite probe of the atmospheres and winds of exploding red-supergiant (RSG) stars. Using radiation hydrodynamics and radiative transfer calculations, we studied the gas and radiation properties during and after the phase of shock breakout, considering RSG star progenitors enshrouded within a circumstellar material (CSM) that varies in terms of the extent, density, and velocity profile. In all cases, the original, unadulterated CSM structure is probed only at the onset of shock breakout, seen in high-resolution spectra as narrow, often blueshifted emission components, possibly with an additional absorption trough. As the SN luminosity rises during breakout, radiative acceleration of the unshocked CSM starts, leading to a broadening of the "narrow" lines by several 100 (up to several 1000) km s^‑1, depending on the CSM properties. This acceleration is at its maximum close to the shock, where the radiative flux is greater and thus typically masked by optical-depth effects. Generally, the narrow-line broadening is greater for more compact, tenuous CSM because of the proximity to the shock where the flux is born; it is smaller in the denser and more extended CSM. Narrow-line emission should show a broadening that slowly increases first (the line forms further out in the original wind), then sharply rises (the line forms in a region that is radiatively accelerated), before decreasing until late times (the line forms further away in regions more weakly accelerated). Radiative acceleration is expected to inhibit X-ray emission during the early (IIn) phase. Although high spectral resolution is critical at the earliest times to probe the original slow wind, the radiative acceleration and the associated line broadening may be captured with medium resolution. This would allow for a simultaneous view of narrow, Doppler-broadened line emission, as well as extended, electron-scattering broadened emission.

Low-metallicity environments are subject to inefficient cooling. They also have low dust-to-gas ratios and therefore less efficient photoelectric (PE) heating than in solar-neighbourhood conditions, where PE heating is one of the most important heating processes in the warm neutral interstellar medium (ISM). We perform magnetohydrodynamic simulations of stratified ISM patches with a gas metallicity of 0.02 Z<inline-formula><tex-math id="TM0001" notation="LaTeX">$_\odot$</tex-math></inline-formula> as part of the SILCC project. The simulations include non-equilibrium chemistry, heating, and cooling of the low-temperature ISM as well as anisotropic cosmic-ray (CR) transport, and stellar tracks. We include stellar feedback in the form of far-ultraviolet and ionizing (FUV and extreme ultraviolet, EUV) radiation, massive star winds, supernovae, and CR injection. From the local CR energy density, we compute a CR heating rate that is variable in space and time. In this way, we can compare the relative impact of PE and CR heating on the metal-poor ISM and find that CR heating can dominate over PE heating. Models with a uniform CR ionization rate of <inline-formula><tex-math id="TM0002" notation="LaTeX">$\zeta$</tex-math></inline-formula> = 3 <inline-formula><tex-math id="TM0003" notation="LaTeX">$\times$</tex-math></inline-formula> 10<inline-formula><tex-math id="TM0004" notation="LaTeX">$^{-17}$</tex-math></inline-formula> s<inline-formula><tex-math id="TM0005" notation="LaTeX">$^{-1}$</tex-math></inline-formula> suppress or severely delay star formation, since they provide a larger amount of energy to the ISM due to CR heating. Models with a variable CR ionization rate form stars predominantly in pristine regions with low PE heating and CR ionization rates where the metal-poor gas is able to cool efficiently. Because of the low metallicity, the amount of formed stars in all runs is not enough to trigger outflows of gas from the mid-plane.

We present a complete set of physical parameters for three early-type eclipsing binary systems in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC): OGLE LMC-ECL-17660, OGLE LMC-ECL-18794, and HV 2274, together with the orbital solutions. The first and third systems comprise B-type stars, while the second has O-type components and exhibits a total eclipse. We performed a complex analysis that included modeling light and radial velocity curves, O ‑ C analysis, and additional non-LTE spectroscopic analysis for the O-type system. We found that OGLE LMC-ECL-17660 is at least a triple, and tentatively, a quadruple. A significant nonlinear period decrease was determined for HV 2274. Its origin is unclear, possibly due to a faint, low-mass companion on a wide orbit. The analyzed components have masses ranging from 11.7 M_⊙ to 22.1 M_⊙, radii from 7.0 R_⊙ to 14.2 R_⊙, and temperatures between 22,500 and 36,000 K. For HV 2274, the precision of our masses and radii is about six times higher than in previous studies. The position of the components of all six systems analyzed in this series on the mass–luminosity and mass–radius diagrams indicates they are evolutionarily advanced on the main sequence. Our sample contributes significantly to the knowledge of physical parameters of early-type stars in the mass range of 11 M_⊙–23 M_⊙. A new mass–luminosity relation for O- and B-type stars in the LMC is provided. Additionally, we used the measured apsidal motion of the systems to compare the observational and theoretical internal structure constant.

The interaction of relativistic particles with plasma, relevant to astrophysics and laboratory-based plasma wakefield accelerators, is governed by plasma instabilities leading to electromagnetic fluctuations and filamentary structures. Wakefield-driven and current-driven instabilities of particle beams with a well-defined extent are analysed through theory and particle-in-cell simulations and compared to experimental observations, providing a basis for experimental designs.

We compute analytically the three-loop correlation function of the local operator tr ϕ³ inserted into three on-shell states, in maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. The result is expressed in terms of Chen iterated integrals. We also present our result using generalised polylogarithms, and evaluate them numerically, finding agreement with a previous numerical result in the literature. We observe that the result depends on fewer kinematic singularities compared to individual Feynman integrals. Furthermore, upon choosing a suitable definition of the finite part, we find that the latter satisfies powerful symbol adjacency relations similar to those previously observed for the tr ϕ² case.

Strongly lensed quasars provide valuable insights into the rate of cosmic expansion, the distribution of dark matter in foreground deflectors, and the characteristics of quasar hosts. However, detecting them in astronomical images is difficult due to the prevalence of non-lensing objects. To address this challenge, we developed a generative deep learning model called VariLens, built upon a physics-informed variational autoencoder. This model seamlessly integrates three essential modules: image reconstruction, object classification, and lens modeling, offering a fast and comprehensive approach to strong lens analysis. VariLens is capable of rapidly determining both (1) the probability that an object is a lens system and (2) key parameters of a singular isothermal ellipsoid (SIE) mass model – including the Einstein radius (θ_E), lens center, and ellipticity – in just milliseconds using a single CPU. A direct comparison of VariLens estimates with traditional lens modeling for 20 known lensed quasars within the Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) footprint shows good agreement, with both results consistent within 2σ for systems with θ_E < 3″. To identify new lensed quasar candidates, we began with an initial sample of approximately 80 million sources, combining HSC data with multiwavelength information from Gaia, UKIRT, VISTA, WISE, eROSITA, and VLA. After applying a photometric preselection aimed at locating z > 1.5 sources, the number of candidates was reduced to 710 966. Subsequently, VariLens highlights 13 831 sources, each showing a high likelihood of being a lens. A visual assessment of these objects results in 42 promising candidates that await spectroscopic confirmation. These results underscore the potential of automated deep learning pipelines to efficiently detect and model strong lenses in large datasets, substantially reducing the need for manual inspection.

We present a computation of the one-loop QCD corrections to top-quark pair production in association with a $W$ boson, including terms up to order $\varepsilon^2$ in dimensional regularization. Providing a first glimpse into the complexity of the corresponding two-loop amplitude, this result is a first step towards a description of this process at next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in QCD. We perform a tensor decomposition and express the corresponding form factors in terms of a basis of independent special functions with compact rational coefficients, providing a structured framework for future developments. In addition, we derive an explicit analytic representation of the form factors, valid up to order $\varepsilon^0$, expressed in terms of logarithms and dilogarithms. For the complete set of special functions required, we obtain a semi-numerical solution based on generalized power series expansion.

The post-inflationary Peccei-Quinn (PQ) symmetry breaking scenario provides a unique opportunity to pinpoint the QCD axion dark matter mass, which is a crucial input for laboratory experiments that are designed for probing specific mass ranges. Predicting their mass requires a precise knowledge of how axions are produced from the decay of topological defects in the early Universe that are inevitably formed. In this contribution, we present recent results on the analysis of the spectrum of axions radiated from global strings based on large scale numerical simulations of the cosmological evolution of the PQ field on a static lattice. We highlight several systematic effects that have been overlooked in previous works, such as the dependence on the initial conditions, contaminations due to oscillations in the spectrum, and discretisation effects; some of which could explain the discrepancy in the current literature. Taking these uncertainties into account and performing the extrapolation to cosmologically relevant string tensions, we find that the dark matter mass is predicted to be in the range of $95\,\mu\text{eV} \lesssim m_a \lesssim 450 \, \mu\text{eV}$, which will be probed by some of the next generation direct detection experiments.

We have observed the late Class I protostellar source Elias 29 at a spatial resolution of 70 au with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array as part of the FAUST Large Program. We focus on the line emission of SO, while that of ³⁴SO, C¹⁸O, CS, SiO, H¹³CO⁺, and DCO⁺ are used supplementarily. The spatial distribution of the SO rotational temperature (T_rot(SO)) is evaluated by using the intensity ratio of its two rotational excitation lines. Besides in the vicinity of the protostar, two hot spots are found at a distance of 500 au from the protostar; T_rot(SO) locally rises to 53<inline-formula> </inline-formula> K at the interaction point of the outflow and the southern ridge, and 72<inline-formula> </inline-formula> K within the southeastern outflow probably due to a jet-driven bow shock. However, the SiO emission is not detected at these hot spots. It is likely that active gas accretion through the disk-like structure and onto the protostar still continues even at this evolved protostellar stage, at least sporadically, considering the outflow/jet activities and the possible infall motion previously reported. Interestingly, T_rot(SO) is as high as 20–30 K even within the quiescent part of the southern ridge apart from the protostar by 500–1000 au without clear kinematic indication of current outflow/jet interactions. Such a warm condition is also supported by the low deuterium fractionation ratio of HCO⁺ estimated by using the H¹³CO⁺ and DCO⁺ lines. The B-type star HD147889 ∼0.5 pc away from Elias 29, previously suggested as a heating source for this region, is likely responsible for the warm condition of Elias 29.

In this paper, we define absorptive Compton amplitudes, which capture the absorption factor for waves of spin-weight-<inline-formula><mml:math display="inline"><mml:mi>s</mml:mi></mml:math></inline-formula> scattering in black hole perturbation theory. At the leading order, in the <inline-formula><mml:math display="inline"><mml:mi>G</mml:mi><mml:mi>M</mml:mi><mml:mi>ω</mml:mi></mml:math></inline-formula> expansion, such amplitudes are purely imaginary and expressible as contact terms. Equipped with these amplitudes we compute the mass change in black hole scattering events via the Kosower-Maybee-O'Connell formalism, where the rest mass of a Schwarzschild/Kerr black hole is modified due to absorption of gravitational, electromagnetic, or scalar fields sourced by other compact object. We reproduced the power loss previously computed in the post-Newtonian expansion. The results presented here hold for similar mass ratios and generic spin orientation, while keeping the Kerr spin parameter to lie in the physical region <inline-formula><mml:math display="inline"><mml:mi>χ</mml:mi><mml:mo>≤</mml:mo><mml:mn>1</mml:mn></mml:math></inline-formula>.

Transit spectroscopy usually relies on the integration of one or several transits to achieve the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) necessary to resolve spectral features. Consequently, high-S/N observations of exoplanet atmospheres, where we can forgo integration, are essential for disentangling the complex chemistry and dynamics beyond global trends. In this study, we combined two partial 4-UT transits of the ultrahot Jupiter WASP-121 b, observed with the ESPRESSO at the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in order to revisit its titanium chemistry. Through cross-correlation analysis, we achieved detections of H I, Li I, Na I, K I, Mg I, Ca I, Ti I, V I, Cr I, Mn I, Fe I, Fe II, Co I, Ni I, Ba II, Sr I, and Sr II. Additionally, narrow-band spectroscopy allowed us to resolve strong single lines, resulting in significant detections of Hα, Hβ, Hγ, Li I, Na I, K I, Mg I, Ca II, Sr I, Sr II, and Mn I. Our most notable finding is the high-significance detection of Ti I (∼5σ per spectrum, and ∼19σ stacked in the planetary rest frame). Comparison with atmospheric models reveals that Ti I is indeed depleted compared to V I. We also resolve the planetary velocity traces of both Ti I and V I, with Ti I exhibiting a significant blueshift toward the end of the transit. This suggests that Ti I primarily originates from low-latitude regions within the super-rotating jet observed in WASP-121 b. Our observations suggest limited mixing between the equatorial jet and the mid-latitudes, in contrast with model predictions from General Circulation Models. We also report the non-detection of TiO, which we attribute to inaccuracies in the line list that could hinder its detection, even if present. Thus, the final determination of the presence of TiO must await space-based observations. We conclude that the 4-UT mode of ESPRESSO is an excellent testbed for achieving high S/N on relatively faint targets, paving the way for future observations with the Extremely Large Telescope.

If primordial black holes (PBHs) of asteroidal mass make up the entire dark matter, they could be detectable through their gravitational influence in the solar system. In this work, we study the perturbations that PBHs induce on the orbits of planets. Detailed numerical simulations of the solar system, embedded in a halo of PBHs, are performed. We find that the gravitational effect of the PBHs is dominated by the closest encounter. Using the Earth–Mars distance as an observational probe, we show that the perturbations are smaller than the current measurement uncertainties and thus PBHs are not directly constrained by solar system ephemerides. We estimate that an improvement in the ranging accuracy by an order of magnitude or the extraction of signals well below the noise level is required to detect the gravitational influence of PBHs in the solar system in the foreseeable future.

Context. Infall of interstellar material is a potential non-planetary origin of pressure bumps in protoplanetary disks. While pressure bumps arising from other mechanisms have been numerically demonstrated to promote planet formation, the impact of infall-induced pressure bumps remains unexplored. Aims. We aim to investigate the potential for planetesimal formation in an infall-induced pressure bump, starting with sub-micrometer-sized dust grains, and to identify the conditions most conducive to triggering this process. Methods. We developed a numerical model that integrates axisymmetric infall, dust drift, and dust coagulation, along with planetesimal formation via streaming instability. Our parameter space includes gas viscosity, dust fragmentation velocity, initial disk mass, characteristic disk radius, infall rate and duration, as well as the location and width of the infall region. Results. An infall-induced pressure bump can trap dust from both the infalling material and the outer disk, promoting dust growth. The locally enhanced dust-to-gas ratio triggers streaming instability, forming a planetesimal belt inside the central infall location until the pressure bump is smoothed out by viscous gas diffusion. Planetesimal formation is favored by a massive, narrow streamer infalling onto a low-viscosity, low-mass, and spatially extended disk containing dust with a high fragmentation velocity. This configuration enhances the outward drift speed of dust on the inner side of the pressure bump, while also ensuring the prolonged persistence of the pressure bump. Planetesimal formation can occur even if the infalling material consists solely of gas. Conclusions. A pressure bump induced by infall is a favorable site for dust growth and planetesimal formation, and this mechanism does not require a preexisting massive planet to create the bump.

Context. Chemical clocks based on [s-process element/α element] ratios are widely used to estimate the ages of Galactic stellar populations. However, the [s/α] versus age relations are not universal, varying with metallicity, location in the Galactic disc, and specific s-process elements. Moreover, current Galactic chemical evolution models struggle to reproduce the observed [s/α] increase at young ages, particularly for Ba. Aims. Our aim is to provide chemical evolution models for different regions of the Milky Way (MW) disc in order to identify the conditions required to reproduce the observed [s/H], [s/Fe], and [s/α] versus age relations. Methods. We adopted a detailed multi-zone chemical evolution model for the MW including state-of-the-art nucleosynthesis prescriptions for neutron-capture elements. The s-process elements were synthesised in asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars and rotating massive stars, while r-process elements originate from neutron star mergers and magneto-rotational supernovae. Starting from a baseline model that successfully reproduces a wide range of neutron-capture element abundance patterns, we explored variations in gas infall/star formation history scenarios, AGB yield dependencies on progenitor stars, and rotational velocity distributions for massive stars. We compared the results of our model with the open clusters dataset from the sixth data release of the Gaia-ESO survey. Results. A three-infall scenario for disc formation aligns better with the observed trends. The models capture the rise of [s/α] with age in the outer regions but fail towards the inner regions, with larger discrepancies for second s-process peak elements. Specifically, Ba production in the last 3 Gyr of chemical evolution would need to increase by slightly more than half to match the observations. The s-process contribution from low-mass (∼1.1 M_⊙) AGB stars helps reconcile predictions with data but it requires a too-strong increase that is not predicted by current nucleosynthesis calculations, even with a potential i-process contribution. Variations in the metallicity dependence of AGB yields either worsen the agreement or show inconsistent effects across elements, while distributions of massive star rotational velocities with lower velocity at high metallicities fail to improve results due to balanced effects on different elements. Conclusions. The predictions of our model confirm, as expected, that there is no single relationship [s/α] versus age and that it varies along the MW disc. However, the current prescriptions for neutron-capture element yields are not able to fully capture the complexity of evolution, particularly in the inner disc.

Aims. Mrk 421 was in its most active state around early 2010, which led to the highest TeV gamma-ray flux ever recorded from any active galactic nuclei (AGN). We aim to characterize the multiwavelength behavior during this exceptional year for Mrk 421, and evaluate whether it is consistent with the picture derived with data from other less exceptional years. Methods. We investigated the period from November 5, 2009, (MJD 55140) until July 3, 2010, (MJD 55380) with extensive coverage from very-high-energy (VHE; E > 100 GeV) gamma rays to radio with MAGIC, VERITAS, Fermi-LAT, RXTE, Swift, GASP-WEBT, VLBA, and a variety of additional optical and radio telescopes. We characterized the variability by deriving fractional variabilities as well as power spectral densities (PSDs). In addition, we investigated images of the jet taken with VLBA and the correlation behavior among different energy bands. Results. Mrk 421 was in widely different states of activity throughout the campaign, ranging from a low-emission state to its highest VHE flux ever recorded. We find the strongest variability in X-rays and VHE gamma rays, and PSDs compatible with power-law functions with indices around 1.5. We observe strong correlations between X-rays and VHE gamma rays at zero time lag with varying characteristics depending on the exact energy band. We also report a marginally significant (∼3σ) positive correlation between high-energy (HE; E > 100 MeV) gamma rays and the ultraviolet band. We detected marginally significant (∼3σ) correlations between the HE and VHE gamma rays, and between HE gamma rays and the X-ray, that disappear when the large flare in February 2010 is excluded from the correlation study, hence indicating the exceptionality of this flaring event in comparison with the rest of the campaign. The 2010 violent activity of Mrk 421 also yielded the first ejection of features in the VLBA images of the jet of Mrk 421. Yet the large uncertainties in the ejection times of these unprecedented radio features prevent us from firmly associating them to the specific flares recorded during the 2010 campaign. We also show that the collected multi-instrument data are consistent with a scenario where the emission is dominated by two regions, a compact and extended zone, which could be considered as a simplified implementation of an energy-stratified jet as suggested by recent IXPE observations.

Electroweakly interacting stable spin-1 particle in the $(1-10)$ TeV mass range can be a dark matter candidate with rich testability. In particular, one or even two gamma-ray line-like features are expected to be a smoking-gun signature for indirect detection in this scenario. The presence of large Sudakov logarithmic corrections, though, significantly complicates the theoretical prediction of the gamma-ray spectrum. We resum these corrections at the next-to-leading-log (NLL) accuracy using Soft-Collinear Effective field Theory (SCET). Rather interestingly, we find that the LL- and NLL-resummed endpoint spectra for this model are, up to an overall factor, identical to already existing calculations in the contexts of spin-$0$ and spin-$1/2$ (i.e. wino-like) scenarios. We discuss how this non-trivial "exact universality" irrespective of DM spin at these accuracies comes about despite the completely different SCET operator bases. Our resummations allow us to reduce the uncertainty, demonstrated in the energy spectrum with distinctive two peaks from annihilations into $\gamma \gamma, Z \gamma$ channel and a photon with $Z_2$-even extra heavy neutral boson $Z'$. We discuss the prospect of improving accuracy further, which is crucial for the heavier DM mass region and realistic resolution in future gamma-ray observations.

We develop a new approach to Vlasov Perturbation Theory (VPT) that solves for the hierarchy of cumulants of the phase-space distribution function to arbitrarily high truncation order in the context of cosmological structure formation driven by collisionless dark matter. We investigate the impact of higher cumulants on density and velocity power spectra as well as the bispectrum, and compare to scale-free $N$-body simulations. While there is a strong difference between truncation at the first cumulant, i.e. standard perturbation theory (SPT), and truncation at the second (i.e. including the velocity dispersion tensor), the third cumulant has a small quantitative impact and fourth and higher cumulants only have a minor effect on these summary statistics at weakly non-linear scales. We show that spurious exponential growth is absent in vector and tensor modes if scalar-mode constraints on the non-Gaussianity of the background distribution function that results from shell-crossing are satisfied, guaranteeing the screening of UV modes for all fluctuations of any type, as expected physically. We also show analytically that loop corrections to the power spectrum are finite within VPT for any initial power spectra consistent with hierarchical clustering, unlike SPT. Finally, we discuss the relation to and contrast our predictions with effective field theory (EFT), and discuss how the advantages of VPT and EFT approaches could be combined.

Worldline quantum field theory (WQFT) has proven itself a powerful tool for classical two-body scattering calculations in general relativity. In this paper we develop a new worldline action involving bosonic oscillators, which enables the use of the WQFT formalism to describe massive compact bodies to all orders in their spins. Inspired by bosonic string theory in the tensionless limit, we augment traditional trajectory variables with bosonic oscillators capturing the spin dependence. We show its equivalence to the covariant phase space description of a spinning body in curved space and clarify the role of the spin-supplementary condition in a Hamiltonian treatment. Higher-spin Hamiltonians are classified to linear and quadratic order in curvature. Finally, perturbative computations at 1PM order for arbitrary powers and orientations of spin and at 2PM up to quartic spin order are performed, recovering results from the literature.

We provide a framework for numerically computing the effects of free-streaming in scalar fields produced after inflation. First, we provide a detailed prescription for setting up initial conditions in the field. This prescription allows us to specify the power spectra of the fields (peaked on subhorizon length scales and without a homogeneous field mode), and importantly, also correctly reproduces the behaviour of density perturbations on large length scales consistent with superhorizon adiabatic perturbations. We then evolve the fields using a spatially inhomogeneous Klein-Gordon equation, including the effects of expansion and radiation-sourced metric perturbations. We show how gravity enhances, and how free streaming erases the initially adiabatic density perturbations of the field, revealing more of the underlying, non-evolving, white-noise isocurvature density contrast. Furthermore, we explore the effect of non-gravitational self-interactions of the field, including oscillon formation, on the suppression dynamics. As part of this paper, we make our code, Cosmic-Fields-Lite (CFL) , publicly available. For observationally accessible signatures, our work is particularly relevant for structure formation in light/ultralight dark matter fields.

The synthesis of life from non-living matter has captivated scientists for centuries. It is a grand challenge aimed at unraveling the fundamental principles of life and leveraging its unique features, such as resilience, sustainability, and the ability to evolve. Synthetic life holds immense potential in biotechnology, medicine, and materials science. Advancements in synthetic biology, systems chemistry, and biophysics have brought us closer to achieving this ambitious goal. Researchers have successfully assembled cellular components and synthesized biomimetic hardware for synthetic cells, while chemical reaction networks have demonstrated potential for Darwinian evolution. However, numerous challenges persist, including defining terminology and objectives, interdisciplinary collaboration, and addressing ethical aspects and public concerns. Our perspective offers a roadmap toward the engineering of life based on discussions during a two-week workshop with scientists from around the globe.

We report the application of the new elimination of Rutherford elastic scattering technique for the measurement of proton-induced reaction cross sections utilizing stored ions decelerated to astrophysical energies. This approach results in a background reduction factor of about 1 order of magnitude, enabling the first measurement of a (p,n) cross section in a storage ring. Here, the reaction channels 124Xe⁢(p,n) and 124Xe⁢(p,\gamma) have been studied just above the neutron threshold energy. The new data provide valuable constraints for Hauser-Feshbach theory and extrapolation of the (p,\gamma) cross section to lower energies. Most importantly, for nuclei of limited availability, the method represents a powerful improvement to efficiently study proton-induced reactions at energies within or close to the astrophysical Gamow window, bringing many reaction measurements within reach that were previously inaccessible in the laboratory.

Understanding the physics of planetary magma oceans has been the subject of growing efforts, in light of the increasing abundance of solar system samples and extrasolar surveys. A rocky planet harboring such an ocean is likely to interact tidally with its host star, planetary companions, or satellites. To date, however, models of the tidal response and heat generation of magma oceans have been restricted to the framework of weakly viscous solids, ignoring the dynamical fluid behavior of the ocean beyond a critical melt fraction. Here we provide a handy analytical model that accommodates this phase transition, allowing for a physical estimation of the tidal response of lava worlds. We apply the model in two settings: the tidal history of the early Earth–Moon system in the aftermath of the giant impact, and the tidal interplay between short-period exoplanets and their host stars. For the former, we show that the fluid behavior of the Earth's molten surface drives efficient early lunar recession to ~25 Earth radii within 10⁴–10⁵ yr, in contrast with earlier predictions. For close-in exoplanets, we report on how their molten surfaces significantly change their spin–orbit dynamics, allowing them to evade spin–orbit resonances and accelerating their track toward tidal synchronization from a gigayear to megayear timescale. Moreover, we reevaluate the energy budgets of detected close-in exoplanets, highlighting how the surface thermodynamics of these planets are likely controlled by enhanced, fluid-driven tidal heating, rather than vigorous insolation, and how this regime change substantially alters predictions for their surface temperatures.

The nearest spiral galaxy, M31, exhibits a kinematically hot stellar disc, a global star formation episode ~2-4 Gyr ago, and conspicuous substructures in its stellar halo, suggestive of a recent accretion event. Recent chemodynamical measurements in the M31 disc and inner halo can be used as additional constraints for N-body hydrodynamical simulations that successfully reproduce the disc age-velocity dispersion relation and star formation history, together with the morphology of the inner halo substructures. We combine an available N-body hydrodynamical simulation of a major merger (mass ratio 1:4) with a well-motivated chemical model to predict abundance distributions and gradients in the merger remnant at z=0. We computed the projected phase space and the [M/H] distributions for the substructures in the M31 inner halo, i.e. the GS, the NE-, W- Shelves. We compare these chemodynamical properties of the simulated M31 remnant with recent measurements for the M31 stars in the inner halo. This major merger model predicts (i) distinct multiple components within each of the substructure; (ii) a high mean metallicity and large spread in the GS, NE- and W- Shelves, explaining various photometric and spectroscopic metallicity measurements; (iii) simulated phase space diagrams that qualitatively reproduce various features identified in the projected phase space of the substructures in published data from the DESI; (iv) a large distance spread in the GS, as suggested by previous tip of the RGB measurements, and (v) phase space ridges caused by several wraps of the secondary, as well as up-scattered main M31 disc stars, that also have plausible counterparts in the observed phase spaces. These results provide further independent arguments for a major satellite merger in M31 ~3 Gyr ago and a coherent explanation for many of the observational results that make M31 look so different from the MW.

Cyanopolyynes are among the largest and most commonly observed interstellar Complex Organic Molecules in star-forming regions. They are believed to form primarily in the gas-phase, but their formation routes are not well understood. We present a comprehensive study of the gas-phase formation network of cyanobutadiyne, HC$_5$N, based on new theoretical calculations, kinetics experiments, astronomical observations, and astrochemical modeling. We performed new quantum mechanics calculations for six neutral-neutral reactions in order to derive reliable rate coefficients and product branching fractions. We also present new CRESU data on the rate coefficients of three of these reactions (C$_3$N + C$_2$H$_2$, C$_2$H + HC$_3$N, CN + C$_4$H$_2$) obtained at temperatures as low as 24 K. In practice, six out of nine reactions currently used in astrochemical models have been updated in our reviewed network. We also report the tentative detection of the $^{13}$C isotopologues of HC$_5$N in the L1544 prestellar core. We derived a lower limit of $^{12}$C/$^{13}$C > 75 for the HC$_5$N isotopologues, which does not allow to bring new constraints to the HC$_5$N chemistry. Finally, we verified the impact of the revised reactions by running the GRETOBAPE astrochemical model. We found good agreement between the HC$_5$N predicted and observed abundances in cold ($\sim$10 K) objects, demonstrating that HC$_5$N is mainly formed by neutral-neutral reactions in these environments. In warm molecular shocks, instead, the predicted abundances are a factor of ten lower with respect to observed ones. In this environment possessing an higher gas ionization fraction, we speculate that the contribution of ion-neutral reactions could be significant.

Analysis of pre-explosion imaging has confirmed red supergiants (RSGs) as the progenitors to Type II-P supernovae (SNe). However, extracting an RSG's luminosity requires assumptions regarding the star's temperature or spectral type and the corresponding bolometric correction, circumstellar extinction, and possible variability. The robustness of these assumptions is difficult to test since we cannot go back in time and obtain additional pre-explosion imaging. Here, we perform a simple test using the RSGs in M31, which have been well observed from optical to mid-IR. We ask the following: By treating each star as if we only had single-band photometry and making assumptions typically used in SN progenitor studies, what bolometric luminosity would we infer for each star? How close is this to the bolometric luminosity for that same star inferred from the full optical-to-IR spectral energy distribution (SED)? We find common assumptions adopted in progenitor studies systematically underestimate the bolometric luminosity by a factor of 2, typically leading to inferred progenitor masses that are systematically too low. Additionally, we find a much larger spread in luminosity derived from single-filter photometry compared to SED-derived luminosities, indicating uncertainties in progenitor luminosities are also underestimated. When these corrections and larger uncertainties are included in the analysis, even the most luminous known RSGs are not ruled out at the 3σ level, indicating there is currently no statistically significant evidence that the most luminous RSGs are missing from the observed sample of II-P progenitors. The proposed correction also alleviates the problem of having progenitors with masses below the expected lower-mass bound for core collapse.

We renormalize the soft function entering the factorization and resummation of the $qg$ parton-scattering channel of the Drell-Yan process near the kinematic threshold $\hat{s}\to Q^2$ at next-to-leading power in the expansion around $z \equiv Q^2 / \hat{s} = 1$, and solve its renormalization-group equation.

We use Gaia DR3 astrometry and photometry to analyze the spatial distribution of the young stellar populations and stellar clusters and to search for new OB star candidates in the Carina Nebula complex and the full extent of the Car OB1 association. We first performed a new census of high-mass stars in Car OB1 and compiled a comprehensive catalog of 517 stars with known spectral types that have Gaia DR3 parallaxes consistent with membership in the association. We applied the clustering algorithm DBSCAN on the Gaia data of the region to find stellar clusters, determine their distances and kinematics, and estimate ages. We also used Gaia astrometry and the additional astrophysical_parameters table to perform a spatially unbiased search for further high-mass members of Car OB1 over the full area of the association. Our DBSCAN analysis finds 15 stellar clusters and groups in Car OB1, four of which were not known before. Most clusters (80%) show signs of expansion or contraction, four of them with a >2$\sigma$ significance. We find a global expansion of the Car OB1 association and a kinematic traceback of the high-mass stars shows that the spatial extent of the association was at a minimum 3-4 Myr ago. Using astrophysical parameters by Gaia DR3, we identified 15 new O-type and 589 new B-type star candidates in Car OB1. The majority (>54%) of the high-mass stars constitute a non-clustered distributed stellar population. Based on our sample of high-mass stars, we estimate a total stellar population of at least ~8*10^4 stars in Car OB1. Our study is the first systematic astrometric analysis that covers the full spatial extent of the Car OB1 association, and it therefore substantially increases the knowledge of the distributed stellar population and spatial evolution of the entire association. Our results suggest suggests Car OB1 to be the most massive known star-forming complex in our Galaxy.

We identify a chain of galaxies along an almost straight line in the nearby Universe with a projected length of ~5 Mpc. The galaxies are distributed within projected distances of only 7-105 kpc from the axis of the identified filament. They have redshifts in a very small range of z=0.0361-0.0370 so that their radial velocities are consistent with galaxy proper motions. The filament galaxies are mainly star-forming and have stellar masses in a range of $\rm 10^{9.1}-10^{10.7}\,M_{\odot}$. We search for systems with similar geometrical properties in the full-sky mock galaxy catalogue of the MillenniumTNG simulations and find that although such straight filaments are unusual and rare, they are predicted by $\Lambda$CDM simulations (4% incidence). We study the cold HI gas in a 1.3 Mpc section of the filament through HI-21cm emission line observations and detect eleven HI sources, many more than expected from the HI mass function in a similar volume. They have HI masses $\rm 10^{8.5}-10^{9.5}\,M_{\odot}$ and are mostly within ~120 kpc projected distance from the filament axis. None of these HI sources has a confirmed optical counterpart. Their darkness together with their large HI-21cm line-widths indicate that they contain gas that might not yet be virialized. These clouds must be marking the peaks of the dark matter and HI distributions over large scales within the filament. The presence of such gas clouds around the filament spines is predicted by simulations, but this is the first time that the existence of such clouds in a filament is observationally confirmed.

We address how the interplay between the finite availability and carrying capacity of particles at different parts of a spatially extended system can control the steady-state currents and density profiles in the one-dimensional current-carrying lanes connecting the different parts of the system. To study this, we set up a minimal model consisting of two particle reservoirs of the same finite carrying capacity connected by two equally sized antiparallel totally asymmetric simple exclusion processes (TASEPs). We focus on the steady-state currents and particle density profiles in the two TASEP lanes. The ensuing phases and the phase diagrams, which can be remarkably complex, are parametrized by the model parameters defining particle exchange between the TASEP lanes and the reservoirs and the filling fraction of the particles that determine the total resources available. These parameters may be tuned to make the densities of the two TASEP lanes globally uniform or piece-wise continuous in the form of a combination of a single localized domain wall and a spatially constant density or a pair of delocalized domain walls. Our model reveals that the two reservoirs can be preferentially populated or depopulated in the steady states.

A recent evaluation of three-loop nonplanar Feynman integrals contributing to Higgs plus jet production has established their dependence on two novel symbol letters. We show that the resulting alphabet is described by a G₂ cluster algebra, enlarging the C₂ cluster algebra found to cover all previously known integrals relevant for this process. The cluster algebra connection we find reveals new adjacency relations, which significantly reduce the function space dimension of the non-planar triple ladder integral. These adjacencies may be understood in part by embedding G₂ inside higher-rank cluster algebras.

In a classical scattering problem, the classical eikonal is defined as the generator of the canonical transformation that maps in-states to out-states. It can be regarded as the classical limit of the log of the quantum S-matrix. In a classical analog of the Born approximation in quantum mechanics, the classical eikonal admits an expansion in oriented tree graphs, where oriented edges denote retarded/advanced worldline propagators. The Magnus expansion, which takes the log of a time-ordered exponential integral, offers an efficient method to compute the coefficients of the tree graphs to all orders. We exploit a Hopf algebra structure behind the Magnus expansion to develop a fast algorithm which can compute the tree coefficients up to the 12th order (over half a million trees) in less than an hour. In a relativistic setting, our methods can be applied to the post-Minkowskian (PM) expansion for gravitational binaries in the worldline formalism. We demonstrate the methods by computing the 3PM eikonal and find agreement with previous results based on amplitude methods. Importantly, the Magnus expansion yields a finite eikonal, while the naïve eikonal based on the time-symmetric propagator is infrared-divergent from 3PM on.

Cyanopolyynes are among the largest and most commonly observed interstellar Complex Organic Molecules in star-forming regions. They are believed to form primarily in the gas-phase, but their formation routes are not well understood. We present a comprehensive study of the gas-phase formation network of cyanobutadiyne, HC₅N, based on new theoretical calculations, kinetics experiments, astronomical observations, and astrochemical modeling. We performed new quantum mechanics calculations for six neutral-neutral reactions in order to derive reliable rate coefficients and product branching fractions. We also present new CRESU data on the rate coefficients of three of these reactions (C₃N + C₂H₂, C₂H + HC₃N, CN + C₄H₂) obtained at temperatures as low as 24 K. In practice, six out of nine reactions currently used in astrochemical models have been updated in our reviewed network. We also report the tentative detection of the ¹³C isotopologues of HC₅N in the L1544 prestellar core. We derived a lower limit of ¹²C/¹³C > 75 for the HC₅N isotopologues, which does not allow to bring new constraints to the HC₅N chemistry. Finally, we verified the impact of the revised reactions by running the GRETOBAPE astrochemical model. We found good agreement between the HC₅N predicted and observed abundances in cold (~10 K) objects, demonstrating that HC₅N is mainly formed by neutral-neutral reactions in these environments. In warm molecular shocks, instead, the predicted abundances are a factor of ten lower with respect to observed ones. In this environment possessing an higher gas ionization fraction, we speculate that the contribution of ion-neutral reactions could be significant.

We performed a systematic search for strong gravitational lenses using Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) imaging data, focusing on galaxy-scale lenses combined with an environment analysis resulting in the identification of lensing clusters. To identify these lens candidates, we exploited our residual neural network from HOLISMOKES VI (Cañameras et al. 2021, A&A, 653, L6), trained on realistic gri mock-images as positive examples, and real HSC images as negative examples. Compared to our previous work, where we successfully applied the classifier to around 62.5 million galaxies having an i-Kron radius of ≥0.8″, we now lowered the i-Kron radius limit to ≥0.5″. The result in an increase by around 73 million sources, amounting to a total of over 135 million images. During our visual multi-stage grading of the network candidates, we also simultaneously inspected larger stamps (80″ × 80″) to identify large, extended arcs cropped in the 10″ × 10″ cutouts and also classify their overall environment. Here, we also re-inspected our previous lens candidates with i-Kron radii of ≥0.8″ and classified their environment. Using the 546 visually identified lens candidates, we further defined various criteria by exploiting extensive and complementary photometric redshift catalogs to select the candidates in overdensities. In total, we identified 24 grade A and 138 grade B exhibit either spatially-resolved multiple images or extended, distorted arcs in the new sample. Furthermore, combining our different techniques to determine overdensities, we identified a total 231/546 lens candidates by at least one of our three identification methods for overdensities. This new sample contains only 49 group- or cluster-scale re-discoveries, while 43 systems had been identified by all three procedures. Furthermore, we performed a statistical analysis by using the neural network from HOLISMOKES IX (Schuldt et al. 2023a, A&A, 671, A147) to model these systems as singular isothermal ellipsoids with external shear and to estimate their parameter values, making this the largest uniformly modeled sample to date. We find a tendency towards larger Einstein radii for galaxy-scale systems in overdense environments, while the other parameter values as well as the uncertainty distributions are consistent between those in overdense and non-overdense environments. These results demonstrate the feasibility of downloading and applying neural network classifiers to hundreds of million cutouts, which will be needed in the upcoming era of big data from deep, wide-field imaging surveys such as Euclid and the Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time. At the same time, it offers a sample size that can be visually inspected by humans. These deep learning pipelines, with false-positive rates of ∼0.01%, are very powerful tools to identify such rare galaxy-scale strong lensing systems, while also aiding in the discovery of new strong lensing clusters.

The Hubble tension is one of the most relevant unsolved problems in cosmology today. Strongly gravitationally lensed transient objects, such as strongly lensed supernovae, are an independent and competitive probe that can be used to determine the Hubble constant. In this context, the time delay between different images of lensed supernovae is a key ingredient. We present a method to retrieve time delays and the amount of differential dust extinction between multiple images of lensed type IIP supernovae (SNe IIP) through their color curves, which display a kink in the time evolution. With several realistic mock color curves based on an observed SN (not strongly lensed) from the Carnegie Supernova Project (CSP), our results show that we can determine the time delay with an uncertainty of approximately ± 1.0 days. This is achievable with light curves with a 2-day time interval and up to 35% missing data due to weather-related losses. Accounting for additional factors such as microlensing, seeing, shot noise from the host and lens galaxies, and blending of the SN images would likely increase the estimated uncertainties. Differentiated dust extinction is more susceptible to uncertainties because it depends on imposing the correct extinction law. Further, we also investigate the kink structure in the color curves for different rest-frame wavelength bands, particularly rest-frame ultraviolet (UV) light curves from the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory (SWIFT), finding sufficiently strong kinks for our method to work for typical lensed SN redshifts that would redshift the kink feature to optical wavelengths. With the upcoming Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), hundreds of strongly lensed supernovae will be detected, and our new method for lensed SN IIP is readily applicable to provide delays.

Jet observables at hadron colliders feature "super-leading" logarithms, double-logarithmic corrections resulting from a breakdown of color coherence due to complex phases in hard-scattering amplitudes. While these effects only arise in high orders of perturbation theory and are suppressed in the large-N_c limit, they formally constitute leading logarithmic corrections to the cross sections. We present the first analysis of the corresponding contributions to a hadronic cross section, including all partonic channels and interference effects. Interestingly, some interference terms in partonic <inline-formula id="IEq1"><mml:math display="inline" id="IEq1_Math"><mml:mi>q</mml:mi><mml:mover accent="true"><mml:mi>q</mml:mi><mml:mo stretchy="true">¯</mml:mo></mml:mover></mml:math></inline-formula> → <inline-formula id="IEq2"><mml:math display="inline" id="IEq2_Math"><mml:mi>q</mml:mi><mml:mover accent="true"><mml:mi>q</mml:mi><mml:mo stretchy="true">¯</mml:mo></mml:mover></mml:math></inline-formula> scattering are only linearly suppressed in 1/N_c. Our results for the pp → 2 jets gap-between-jets cross section demonstrate the numerical importance of super-leading logarithms for small values of the veto scale Q₀, showing that these contributions should be accounted for in precision studies of such observables.

Astrophysical uncertainties in dark matter direct detection experiments are typically addressed by parametrizing the velocity distribution in terms of a few uncertain parameters that vary around some central values. Here we propose a method to optimize over all velocity distributions lying within a given distance measure from a central distribution. We discretize the dark matter velocity distribution as a superposition of streams and use a variety of information divergences to parametrize its uncertainties. With this, we bracket the limits on the dark matter–nucleon and dark matter–electron scattering cross sections, when the true dark matter velocity distribution deviates from the commonly assumed Maxwell-Boltzmann form. The methodology pursued is general and could be applied to other physics scenarios where a given physical observable depends on a function that is uncertain.

We derive the full system of canonical differential equations for all planar two-loop massless six-particle master integrals, and determine analytically the boundary conditions. This fully specifies the solutions, which may be written as Chen iterated integrals. We argue that this is sufficient information for evaluating any scattering amplitude in four dimensions up to the finite part. We support this claim by reducing, for the most complicated integral topologies, integrals with typical Yang-Mills numerators. We use the analytic solutions to the differential equations, together with dihedral symmetry, to provide the full solution space relevant for two-loop six-particle computations. This includes the relevant function alphabet, as well as the independent set of iterated integrals up to weight four. We also provide the answer for all master integrals in terms of iterated integrals that can be readily evaluated numerically. As a proof of concept, we provide a numerical implementation that evaluates the integrals in part of the Euclidean region, and validate this against numerical evaluation of the Feynman integrals. Our result removes the bottleneck of Feynman integral evaluation, paving the way to future analytic evaluations of six-particle scattering amplitudes.

RNA is an information-carrying molecule that instructs protein synthesis, but it also functions as a catalyst in so-called ribozymes. Here, we study this multifunctional character using a dynamic combinatorial library powered by chemical fuel. On the one hand, we demonstrate that RNA templates the oligomerization and inhibits deoligomerization. On the other hand, we show that RNA can be a structural element in the formation of hydrogels. Moreover, in its hydrogel, RNA degradation by nucleases is accelerated. Thus, templates have a role beyond blueprints, protectors, and selectors. Template-oligomer interactions can create new (micro)environments that might affect evolutionary dynamics.

Biological machines, such as the archaeal flagellar rotational motor, are powered by the catalytic conversion of high-energy chemicals, e.g., ATP, to perform work on the micrometer scale. Synthetic counterparts that spin and exert forces at the expense of chemical energy and operate over multiple length scales do not exist but are sought after to advance the field of nanotechnologies. Such systems would be powerful for cargo transport, pumping or mixing fluids, sensing environments, and biomaterials.

Here, we demonstrate a new mechanism by which a nanometer-sized chemical fuel powers micron-sized supramolecular nanoribbons’ directional rotation, contraction, and motion. The nanoribbons exert pN forces on their surroundings, comparable to biological machines. Although mechanistically very different than the archaeal flagellum, the forces these ribbons generate make assemblies of nanoribbons crawl on a glass surface, opening the door to micro- and nanoscale autonomous machines.

The simplified general perturbations 4 (SGP4) orbital propagation model is one of the most widely used methods for rapidly and reliably predicting the positions and velocities of objects orbiting Earth. Over time, SGP models have undergone refinement to enhance their efficiency and accuracy. Nevertheless, they still do not match the precision offered by high-precision numerical propagators, which can predict the positions and velocities of space objects in low-Earth orbit with significantly smaller errors. In this study, we introduce a novel differentiable version of SGP4, named <mml:math altimg="si29.svg" display="inline" id="d1e632"><mml:mi>∂</mml:mi></mml:math>SGP4. By porting the source code of SGP4 into a differentiable program based on PyTorch, we unlock a whole new class of techniques enabled by differentiable orbit propagation, including spacecraft orbit determination, state conversion, covariance similarity transformation, state transition matrix computation, and covariance propagation. Besides differentiability, our <mml:math altimg="si29.svg" display="inline" id="d1e637"><mml:mi>∂</mml:mi></mml:math>SGP4 supports parallel propagation of a batch of two-line elements (TLEs) in a single execution and it can harness modern hardware accelerators like GPUs or XLA devices (e.g. TPUs) thanks to running on the PyTorch backend. Furthermore, the design of <mml:math altimg="si29.svg" display="inline" id="d1e644"><mml:mi>∂</mml:mi></mml:math>SGP4 makes it possible to use it as a differentiable component in larger machine learning (ML) pipelines, where the propagator can be an element of a larger neural network that is trained or fine-tuned with data. Consequently, we propose a novel orbital propagation paradigm, ML-<mml:math altimg="si29.svg" display="inline" id="d1e649"><mml:mi>∂</mml:mi></mml:math>SGP4. In this paradigm, the orbital propagator is enhanced with neural networks attached to its input and output. Through gradient-based optimization, the parameters of this combined model can be iteratively refined to achieve precision surpassing that of SGP4. Fundamentally, the neural networks function as identity operators when the propagator adheres to its default behavior as defined by SGP4. However, owing to the differentiability ingrained within <mml:math altimg="si29.svg" display="inline" id="d1e654"><mml:mi>∂</mml:mi></mml:math>SGP4, the model can be fine-tuned with ephemeris data to learn corrections to both inputs and outputs of SGP4. This augmentation enhances precision while maintaining the same computational speed of <mml:math altimg="si29.svg" display="inline" id="d1e660"><mml:mi>∂</mml:mi></mml:math>SGP4 at inference time. This paradigm empowers satellite operators and researchers, equipping them with the ability to train the model using their specific ephemeris or high-precision numerical propagation data.

In this work, we relate two recent constructions that generalize classical (genus-zero) polylogarithms to higher-genus Riemann surfaces. A flat connection valued in a freely generated Lie algebra on a punctured Riemann surface of arbitrary genus produces an infinite family of homotopy-invariant iterated integrals associated to all possible words in the alphabet of the Lie algebra generators. Each iterated integral associated to a word is a higher-genus polylogarithm. Different flat connections taking values in the same Lie algebra on a given Riemann surface may be related to one another by the composition of a gauge transformation and an automorphism of the Lie algebra, thus producing closely related families of polylogarithms. In this paper we provide two methods to explicitly construct this correspondence between the meromorphic multiple-valued connection introduced by Enriquez in e-Print 1112.0864 and the non-meromorphic single-valued and modular-invariant connection introduced by D'Hoker, Hidding and Schlotterer, in e-Print 2306.08644.

We present a complete set of physical parameters for three early-type eclipsing binary systems in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC): OGLE LMC-ECL-17660, OGLE LMC-ECL-18794, and HV 2274, together with the orbital solutions. The first and third systems comprise B-type stars, while the second has O-type components and exhibits a total eclipse. We performed a complex analysis that included modeling light and radial velocity curves, O-C analysis, and additional non-LTE spectroscopic analysis for the O-type system. We found that OGLE LMC-ECL-17660 is at least a triple and, tentatively, a quadruple. A significant non-linear period decrease was determined for HV 2274. Its origin is unclear, possibly due to a faint, low-mass companion on a wide orbit. The analyzed components have masses ranging from 11.7 M$_\odot$ to 22.1 M$_\odot$, radii from 7.0 R$_\odot$ to 14.2 R$_\odot$, and temperatures between 22500 K and 36000 K. For HV 2274, the precision of our masses and radii is about six times higher than in previous studies. The position of the components of all six systems analyzed in this series on the mass-luminosity and mass-radius diagrams indicates they are evolutionarily advanced on the main sequence. Our sample contributes significantly to the knowledge of physical parameters of early-type stars in the mass range of 11 M$_\odot$ to 23 M$_\odot$. A new mass-luminosity relation for O and B-type stars in the LMC is provided. Additionally, we used the measured apsidal motion of the systems to compare the observational and theoretical internal structure constant.

Turbulent flows are known to produce enhanced effective magnetic and passive scalar diffusivities, which can fairly accurately be determined with numerical methods. It is now known that, if the flow is also helical, the effective magnetic diffusivity is reduced relative to the nonhelical value. Neither the usual second-order correlation approximation nor the various $\tau$ approaches have been able to capture this. Here we show that the helicity effect on the turbulent passive scalar diffusivity works in the opposite sense and leads to an enhancement. This effect has not previously been seen. We have also demonstrated that the correlation time of the turbulent velocity field increases by the kinetic helicity. This is a key point in the theoretical interpretation of the obtained numerical results. Simulations in which helicity is being produced self-consistently by stratified rotating turbulence, resulted in a turbulent passive scalar diffusivity that was found to be decreasing with increasing rotation rate.

While Bayesian inference techniques are standard in cosmological analyses, it is common to interpret resulting parameter constraints with a frequentist intuition. This intuition can fail, for example, when marginalizing high-dimensional parameter spaces onto subsets of parameters, because of what has come to be known as projection effects or prior volume effects. We present the method of informed total-error-minimizing (ITEM) priors to address this problem. An ITEM prior is a prior distribution on a set of nuisance parameters, such as those describing astrophysical or calibration systematics, intended to enforce the validity of a frequentist interpretation of the posterior constraints derived for a set of target parameters (e.g., cosmological parameters). Our method works as follows. For a set of plausible nuisance realizations, we generate target parameter posteriors using several different candidate priors for the nuisance parameters. We reject candidate priors that do not accomplish the minimum requirements of bias (of point estimates) and coverage (of confidence regions among a set of noisy realizations of the data) for the target parameters on one or more of the plausible nuisance realizations. Of the priors that survive this cut, we select the ITEM prior as the one that minimizes the total error of the marginalized posteriors of the target parameters. As a proof of concept, we applied our method to the density split statistics measured in Dark Energy Survey Year 1 data. We demonstrate that the ITEM priors substantially reduce prior volume effects that otherwise arise and that they allow for sharpened yet robust constraints on the parameters of interest.

The invisible decay of cold dark matter into a slightly lighter dark sector particle on cosmological time-scales has been proposed as a solution to the S ₈ tension. In this work we discuss the possible embedding of this scenario within a particle physics framework, and we investigate its phenomenology. We identify a minimal dark matter decay setup that addresses the S ₈ tension, while avoiding the stringent constraints from indirect dark matter searches. In our scenario, the dark sector contains two singlet fermions N _1,2, quasi-degenerate in mass, and carrying lepton number so that the heaviest state (N ₂) decays into the lightest (N ₁) and two neutrinos via a higher-dimensional operator N ₂ → N̅ _1νν . The conservation of lepton number, and the small phase-space available for the decay, forbids the decay channels into hadrons and strongly suppresses the decays into photons or charged leptons. We derive complementary constraints on the model parameters from neutrino detectors, freeze-in dark matter production via νν → N ₁ N ₂, collider experiments and blazar observations, and we show that the upcoming JUNO neutrino observatory could detect signals of dark matter decay for model parameters addressing the S ₈ tension if the dark matter mass is below ≃ 1 GeV.

A novel coalescence process is shown to take place in plasma fluid simulations, leading to the formation of large-scale magnetic islands that become dynamically important in the system. The parametric dependence of the process on the plasma <inline-formula> <mml:math display="inline" overflow="scroll"><mml:mi>β</mml:mi></mml:math></inline-formula> and the background magnetic shear is studied, and the process is broken down at a fundamental level, allowing us to clearly identify its causes and dynamics. The formation of magnetic-island-like structures at the spatial scale of the unstable modes is observed quite early in the non-linear phase of the simulation for most cases studied, as the unstable modes change their structure from interchange-like to tearing-like. This is followed by a slow coalescence process that evolves these magnetic structures toward larger and larger scales, adding to the large-scale tearing-like modes that already form by direct coupling of neighboring unstable modes, but remain sub-dominant without the contribution from the smaller scales through coalescence. The presence of the cubic non-linearities retained in the model is essential in the dynamics of this process. The zonal fields are key actors of the overall process, acting as mediators between the competitive mechanisms from which turbulence-driven magnetic islands can develop. The zonal current is found to slow down the formation of large-scale magnetic islands, acting as an inhibitor, while the zonal flow is needed to allow the system to transfer energy to the larger scales, acting as a catalyst for the island formation process.

We consider mixed strong-electroweak corrections to Higgs production via gluon fusion, in which the Higgs boson couples to the top quark. Using the method of differential equations, we compute all of the master integrals that contribute to this process at two loops through $\mathcal{O}(\epsilon^2)$ in the dimensional regularization parameter $\epsilon = (d-4)/2$, keeping full analytic dependence on the top quark, Higgs, W, and Z boson masses. We present the results for these master integrals in terms of iterated integrals whose kernels depend on elliptic curves.

Aims. The eROSITA telescope aboard the Spectrum Roentgen Gamma (SRG) satellite provides an unprecedented opportunity to explore the transient and variable extragalactic X-ray sky due to the sensitivity, sky coverage, and cadence of the all-sky survey. While previous studies showed the dominance of regular active galactic nuclei (AGN) variability, a small fraction of sources expected in such a survey arise from more exotic phenomena such as tidal disruption events (TDEs), quasi-periodic eruptions, or other short-lived events associated with supermassive black hole accretion. This paper describes the systematic selection of X-ray extragalactic transients found in the first two eROSITA all-sky surveys (eRASS) that are not associated with known AGN prior to eROSITA observations. Methods. We generated a variability sample using the data from the first and second eRASS, which includes sources with a variability significance and a fractional amplitude larger than four in the 0.2–2.3 keV energy band. The sources were discovered between December 2019 and December 2020, and are located in the Legacy Survey DR10 (LS10) footprint. When possible, transients were associated with optical LS10 counterparts. The properties of these counterparts were used to exclude stars and known active galaxies. The sample was additionally cleaned from known AGN using pre-eROSITA SIMBAD and the Million Quasars Catalog (Milliquas) classifications, archival optical spectra, and archival X-ray data. We explored archival X-ray variability, long-term (2–2.5 years) eROSITA light curves, and peak X-ray spectra to characterize the X-ray properties of the sample. Sources with radio counterparts were identified using the Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey (RACS) and the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array Sky Survey (VLASS). Results. We present a catalog of 304 extragalactic eROSITA transients and variables not associated with known AGN, called eRO- ExTra. More than 90% of sources are associated with reliable LS10 optical counterparts. For each source, we provide archival X-ray data from Swift, ROSAT, and XMM-Newton; the eROSITA long-term light curve with a light curve classification; as well as the best power law fit spectral results at the peak eROSITA epoch. Reliable spectroscopic and photometric redshifts, which are both archival and from follow-up data, are provided for more than 80% of the sample. Several sources in the catalog are known TDE candidates discovered by eROSITA. In addition, 31 sources are radio detected. The origin of radio emission needs to be further identified. Conclusions. The eRO-ExTra transients constitute a relatively clean parent sample of non-AGN variability phenomena associated with massive black holes. The eRO-ExTra catalog includes more than 95% of sources discovered in X-rays with eROSITA for the first time, which makes it a valuable resource for studying unique nuclear transients.

The vector meson-baryon interaction in a coupled channel scheme is revisited within the correlation function framework. As illustrative cases to reveal the important role played by the coupled channels, we focus on the <inline-formula><mml:math display="inline"><mml:mrow><mml:mi>ϕ</mml:mi><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">p</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula><mml:math display="inline"><mml:mrow><mml:msup><mml:mrow><mml:mi>ρ</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mn>0</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:msup><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">p</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:math></inline-formula> systems given their complex dynamics and the presence of quasibound states or resonances in the vicinity of their thresholds. We show that the <inline-formula><mml:math display="inline"><mml:mrow><mml:mi>ϕ</mml:mi><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">p</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:math></inline-formula> femtoscopic data provide novel information about a <inline-formula><mml:math display="inline"><mml:msup><mml:mi>N</mml:mi><mml:mo>*</mml:mo></mml:msup></mml:math></inline-formula> state present in the experimental region and anticipate the relevance of a future <inline-formula><mml:math display="inline"><mml:mrow><mml:msup><mml:mrow><mml:mi>ρ</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mn>0</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:msup><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">p</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:math></inline-formula> correlation function measurement in order to pin down the <inline-formula><mml:math display="inline"><mml:mi>S</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn>0</mml:mn><mml:mo>,</mml:mo><mml:mi>Q</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mo>+</mml:mo><mml:mn>1</mml:mn></mml:math></inline-formula> vector meson-baryon interaction as well as to disclose the characterizing features of the <inline-formula><mml:math display="inline"><mml:msup><mml:mi>N</mml:mi><mml:mo>*</mml:mo></mml:msup><mml:mo stretchy="false">(</mml:mo><mml:mn>1700</mml:mn><mml:mo stretchy="false">)</mml:mo></mml:math></inline-formula> state.

Cosmic-ray acceleration processes in astrophysical plasmas are often investigated with fully-kinetic or hybrid kinetic numerical simulations, which enable us to describe a detailed microphysics of particle energization mechanisms. Tracing of individual particles in such simulations is especially useful in this regard. However, visually inspecting particle trajectories introduces a significant amount of bias and uncertainty, making it challenging to pinpoint specific acceleration mechanisms. Here, we present a novel approach utilising neural networks to assist in the analysis of individual particle data. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach using the dataset from our recent particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations of non-relativistic perpendicular shocks that consists of 252,000 electrons, each characterised by their position, momentum and electromagnetic field at particle's position, recorded in a time series of 1200 time steps. These electrons cross a region affected by the electrostatic Buneman instability, and a small percentage of them attain high energies. We perform classification, regression, and anomaly detection algorithms on the dataset by using a convolutional neural network, a multi-layer perceptron, and an autoencoder. Despite the noisy and imbalanced dataset, all methods demonstrate the capability to differentiate between thermal and accelerated electrons with remarkable accuracy. The proposed methodology may considerably simplify particle classification in large-scale PIC and hybrid simulations.

We devise and demonstrate a method to search for nongravitational couplings of ultralight dark matter to standard model particles using space-time separated atomic clocks and cavity-stabilized lasers. By making use of space-time separated sensors, which probe different values of an oscillating dark matter field, we can search for couplings that cancel in typical local experiments. This provides sensitivity to both the temporal and spatial fluctuations of the field. We demonstrate this method using existing data from a frequency comparison of lasers stabilized to two optical cavities connected via a 2220 km fiber link [Schioppo et al., Nat. Commun. 13, 212 (2022)NCAOBW2041-172310.1038/s41467-021-27884-3], and from the atomic clocks on board the global positioning system satellites. Our analysis results in constraints on the coupling of scalar dark matter to electrons, <inline-formula><mml:math display="inline"><mml:msub><mml:mi>d</mml:mi><mml:msub><mml:mi>m</mml:mi><mml:mi>e</mml:mi></mml:msub></mml:msub></mml:math></inline-formula>, for masses between <inline-formula><mml:math display="inline"><mml:mrow><mml:msup><mml:mrow><mml:mn>10</mml:mn></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mo>-</mml:mo><mml:mn>19</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:msup></mml:mrow></mml:math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula><mml:math display="inline"><mml:mrow><mml:mn>2</mml:mn><mml:mo>×</mml:mo><mml:msup><mml:mrow><mml:mn>10</mml:mn></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mo>-</mml:mo><mml:mn>15</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:msup><mml:mtext> </mml:mtext><mml:mtext> </mml:mtext><mml:mi>eV</mml:mi><mml:mo>/</mml:mo><mml:msup><mml:mrow><mml:mi>c</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mn>2</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:msup></mml:mrow></mml:math></inline-formula>. These are the first constraints on <inline-formula><mml:math display="inline"><mml:msub><mml:mi>d</mml:mi><mml:msub><mml:mi>m</mml:mi><mml:mi>e</mml:mi></mml:msub></mml:msub></mml:math></inline-formula> alone in this mass range.

Despite the three-dimensional nature of core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe), simulations in spherical symmetry (1D) play an important role to study large model sets for the progenitor-remnant connection, explosion properties, remnant masses, and CCSN nucleosynthesis. To trigger explosions in 1D, various numerical recipes have been applied, mostly with gross simplifications of the complex microphysics governing stellar core collapse, the formation of the compact remnant, and the mechanism of the explosion. Here we investigate the two most popular treatments, piston-driven and thermal-bomb explosions, in comparison to 1D explosions powered by a parametric neutrino engine in the P-HOTB code. For this comparison we calculate CCSNe for eight stars and evolution times up to 10,000 s, targeting the same progenitor-specific explosion energies as obtained by the neutrino-engine results. Otherwise we employ widely-used ("classic") modelling assumptions, and alternatively to the standard contraction-expansion trajectory for pistons, we also test suitably selected Lagrangian mass shells adopted from the neutrino-driven explosions as "special trajectories." Although the 56Ni production agrees within roughly a factor of two between the different explosion triggers, neither piston nor thermal bombs can reproduce the correlation of 56Ni yields and explosion energies found in neutrino-driven explosions. This shortcoming as well as the problem of massive fallback witnessed in classical piston models, which diminishes or extinguishes the ejected nickel, can be largely cured by the special trajectories. These and the choice of the explosion energies, however, make the modelling dependent on pre-existing neutrino-driven explosion results.

Planetary nebulae (PNe) and their luminosity function (PNLF) in galaxies have been used as a cosmic distance indicator for decades, yet a fundamental understanding is still lacking to explain the universality of the PNLF among different galaxies. Models for the PNLF have generally assumed solar metallicities and artificial stellar populations. In this work, we investigate how metallicity and helium abundances affect the PNe and PNLF, and the importance of the initial-to-final mass relation (IFMR), to resolve the tension between PNLF observations and models. We introduce PICS (PNe In Cosmological Simulations), a PN model framework that accounts for metallicity and is applicable to realistic stellar populations from cosmological simulations and observations. The framework combines stellar evolution models with post-AGB tracks and PN models to obtain PNe from a parent stellar population. We find that metallicity plays an important role for the resulting PNe: old metal-rich populations can harbor much brighter PNe than old metal-poor ones. We show that the helium abundance is a vital ingredient at high metallicities and explore the impact on the PNLF of a possible saturation of the helium content at higher metallicities. We present PNLF grids for different stellar ages and metallicities, where the observed PNLF bright end can be reached even for old stellar populations of 10 Gyr at high metallicities. Finally, we find that the PNLFs of old stellar populations are very sensitive to the IFMR, allowing for the production of bright PNe. With PICS, we have laid the groundwork for studying how different models affect the PNe and PNLF. Two central ingredients for this are the metallicity and helium abundance. Future applications of PICS include modeling PNe in a cosmological framework to explain the origin of the universal PNLF bright-end cutoff and use it as a diagnostic tool for galaxy formation.

Slow flavor evolution (defined as driven by neutrino masses and not necessarily ``slow'') is receiving fresh attention in the context of compact astrophysical environments. In Part~I of this series, we have studied the slow-mode dispersion relation following our recently developed analogy to plasma waves. The concept of resonance between flavor waves in the linear regime and propagating neutrinos is the defining feature of this approach. It is best motivated for weak instabilities, which probably is the most relevant regime in self-consistent astrophysical environments because these will try to eliminate the cause of instability. We here go beyond the dispersion relation alone (which by definition applies to infinite media) and consider the group velocities of unstable modes that determines whether the instability relaxes within the region where it first appears (absolute), or away from it (convective). We show that all weak instabilities are convective so that their further evolution is not local. Therefore, studying their consequences numerically in small boxes from given initial conditions may not always be appropriate.

We investigate the redshift evolution of the concentration-mass relationship of dark matter haloes in state-of-the-art cosmological hydrodynamic simulations and their dark-matter-only (DMO) counterparts. By combining the IllustrisTNG suite and the novel MillenniumTNG simulation, our analysis encompasses a wide range of box size (<inline-formula><tex-math id="TM0002" notation="LaTeX">$50{-}740 \: \rm cMpc$</tex-math></inline-formula>) and mass resolution (<inline-formula><tex-math id="TM0003" notation="LaTeX">$8.5 \times 10^4 {-} 3.1 \times 10^7 \: \rm {\rm M}_{\odot }$</tex-math></inline-formula> per baryonic mass element). This enables us to study the impact of baryons on the concentration-mass relationship in the redshift interval <inline-formula><tex-math id="TM0004" notation="LaTeX">$0\lt z\lt 7$</tex-math></inline-formula> over an unprecedented halo mass range, extending from dwarf galaxies to superclusters (<inline-formula><tex-math id="TM0005" notation="LaTeX">$\sim 10^{9.5}{-}10^{15.5} \, \rm {\rm M}_{\odot }$</tex-math></inline-formula>). We find that the presence of baryons increases the steepness of the concentration-mass relationship at higher redshift, and demonstrate that this is driven by adiabatic contraction of the profile, due to gas accretion at early times, which promotes star formation in the inner regions of haloes. At lower redshift, when the effects of feedback start to become important, baryons decrease the concentration of haloes below the mass scale <inline-formula><tex-math id="TM0006" notation="LaTeX">$\sim 10^{11.5} \, \rm {\rm M}_{\odot }$</tex-math></inline-formula>. Through a rigorous information criterion test, we show that broken power-law models accurately represent the redshift evolution of the concentration-mass relationship, and of the relative difference in the total mass of haloes induced by the presence of baryons. We provide the best-fitting parameters of our empirical formulae, enabling their application to models that mimic baryonic effects in DMO simulations over six decades in halo mass in the redshift range <inline-formula><tex-math id="TM0007" notation="LaTeX">$0\lt z\lt 7$</tex-math></inline-formula>.

In this paper, we explore the detectability of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) under diverse planetary conditions, aiming to identify promising targets for future observations of planetary atmospheres. Our primary goal is to determine the minimum detectable mass fractions of PAHs on each studied planet. We integrate the one-dimensional self-consistent model PETITCODE with PETITRADTRANS, a radiative transfer model, to simulate the transmission spectra of these planets. Subsequently, we employ the PANDEXO noise simulator using the NIRSpec PRISM instrument aboard the JWST to assess the observability. Then, we conduct a Bayesian analysis through the MULTINEST code. Our findings illustrate that variations in C/O ratios and planet temperatures significantly influence the transmission spectra and the detectability of PAHs. Our results show that planets with [Fe/H] = 0 and 1, C/O = 0.55, and temperatures around 1200 K are the most promising for detecting PAHs, with detectable mass fractions as low as 10<inline-formula><tex-math id="TM0001" notation="LaTeX">$^{-7}$</tex-math></inline-formula>, or one thousandth of the interstellar medium abundance level. For colder planets with lower metallicities and C/O ratios, as well as hotter planets with carbon-rich atmospheres, PAHs can be detected at abundances around 10<inline-formula><tex-math id="TM0002" notation="LaTeX">$^{-6}$</tex-math></inline-formula>. These results aid our strategy for selecting targets to study PAHs in the atmospheres of exoplanets.

Mrk 421 was in its most active state around early 2010, which led to the highest TeV gamma-ray flux ever recorded from any active galactic nuclei. We aim to characterize the multiwavelength behavior during this exceptional year for Mrk 421, and evaluate whether it is consistent with the picture derived with data from other less exceptional years. We investigated the period from November 5, 2009, (MJD 55140) until July 3, 2010, (MJD 55380) with extensive coverage from very-high-energy (VHE; E$\,>\,$100$\,$GeV) gamma rays to radio with MAGIC, VERITAS, Fermi-LAT, RXTE, Swift, GASP-WEBT, VLBA, and a variety of additional optical and radio telescopes. We investigated the variability and correlation behavior among different energy bands in great detail. We find the strongest variability in X-rays and VHE gamma rays, and PSDs compatible with power-law functions. We observe strong correlations between X-rays and VHE gamma rays. We also report a marginally significant positive correlation between high-energy (HE; E$\,>\,$100$\,$MeV) gamma rays and the ultraviolet band. We detected marginally significant correlations between the HE and VHE gamma rays, and between HE gamma rays and the X-ray, that disappear when the large flare in February 2010 is excluded from the correlation study. The activity of Mrk 421 also yielded the first ejection of features in the VLBA images of the jet of Mrk 421. Yet the large uncertainties in the ejection times of these radio features prevent us from firmly associating them to the specific flares recorded during the campaign. We also show that the collected multi-instrument data are consistent with a scenario where the emission is dominated by two regions, a compact and extended zone, which could be considered as a simplified implementation of an energy-stratified jet as suggested by recent IXPE observations.

Recent observations with JWST and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array have revealed extremely massive quiescent galaxies at redshifts of z = 3 and higher, indicating both rapid onset and quenching of star formation. Using the cosmological simulation suite Magneticum Pathfinder, we reproduce the observed number densities and stellar masses, with 36 quenched galaxies of stellar mass larger than 3 × 10¹⁰ M _⊙ at z = 3.42. We find that these galaxies are quenched through a rapid burst of star formation and subsequent active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback caused by a particularly isotropic collapse of surrounding gas, occurring on timescales of around 200 Myr or shorter. The resulting quenched galaxies host stellar components that are kinematically fast rotating and alpha-enhanced, while exhibiting a steeper metallicity and flatter age gradient compared to galaxies of similar stellar mass. The gas of the galaxies has been metal enriched and ejected. We find that quenched galaxies do not inhabit the densest nodes, but rather sit in local underdensities. We analyze observable metrics to predict future quenching at high redshifts, finding that on shorter timescales <500 Myr, the ratio M _bh/M _* is the best predictor, followed by the burstiness of the preceding star formation, t ₅₀–t ₉₀ (time to go from 50% to 90% stellar mass). On longer timescales, >1 Gyr, the environment becomes the strongest predictor, followed by t ₅₀–t ₉₀, indicating that at high redshifts the consumption of old gas and lack of new gas are more relevant for long-term prevention of star formation than the presence of a massive AGN. We predict that relics of such high-z quenched galaxies should best be characterized by a strong alpha enhancement.

We report the discovery and characterization of two sub-Saturns from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (\textit{TESS}) using high-resolution spectroscopic observations from the MaHPS spectrograph at the Wendelstein Observatory and the SOPHIE spectrograph at the Haute-Provence Observatory. Combining photometry from TESS, KeplerCam, LCOGT, and MuSCAT2 with the radial velocity measurements from MaHPS and SOPHIE we measure precise radii and masses for both planets. TOI-5108 b is a sub-Saturn with a radius of $6.6 \pm 0.1$ $R_\oplus$ and a mass of $32 \pm 5$ $M_\oplus$. TOI-5786 b is similar to Saturn with a radius of $8.54 \pm 0.13$ $R_\oplus$ and a mass of $73 \pm 9$ $M_\oplus$. The host star for TOI-5108 b is a moderately bright (Vmag 9.75) G-type star. TOI-5786 is a slightly dimmer (Vmag 10.2) F-type star. Both planets are close to their host stars with periods of 6.75 days and 12.78 days respectively. This puts TOI-5108 b just inside the bounds of the Neptune desert while TOI-5786 b is right above the upper edge. We estimate hydrogen-helium envelope mass fractions of $38 \%$ for TOI-5108 b and $74 \% $ for TOI-5786 b. However, using a model for the interior structure that includes tidal effects the envelope fraction of TOI-5108 b could be much lower ($\sim 20\,\%$) depending on the obliquity. We estimate mass-loss rates between 1.0 * $10^9$ g/s and 9.8 * $10^9$ g/s for TOI-5108 b and between 3.6 * $10^8$ g/s and 3.5 * $10^9$ g/s for TOI-5786 b. Given their masses, this means that both planets are stable against photoevaporation. We also detect a transit signal for a second planet candidate in the TESS data of TOI-5786 with a period of 6.998 days and a radius of $3.83 \pm 0.16$ $R_\oplus$. Using our RV data and photodynamical modeling, we are able to provide a 3-$\sigma$ upper limit of 26.5 $M_\oplus$ for the mass of the potential inner companion to TOI-5786 b.

Context. The typically large distances, extinction, and crowding of Galactic supermassive star clusters (stellar clusters more massive than 10⁴ M_⊙) have so far hampered the identification of their very low mass members, required to extend our understanding of star and planet formation, and early stellar evolution, to the extremely energetic star-forming environment typical of starbursts. This situation has now evolved thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), and its unmatched resolution and sensitivity in the infrared. Aims. In this paper, the third of the series of the Extended Westerlund 1 and 2 Open Clusters Survey (EWOCS), we present JWST/NIRCam and JWST/MIRI observations of the supermassive star cluster Westerlund 1. These observations are specifically designed to unveil the cluster members down to the brown dwarf mass regime, and to allow us to select and study the protoplane-tary disks in the cluster and to study the mutual feedback between the cluster members and the surrounding environment. Methods. Westerlund 1 was observed as part of JWST GO-1905 for 23.6 hours. The data have been reduced using the JWST calibration pipeline, together with specific tools necessary to remove artifacts, such as the 1 /f random noise in NIRCam images. Source identification and photometry were performed with DOLPHOT. Results. The MIRI images show a plethora of different features. Diffuse nebular emission is observed around the cluster, which is typically composed of myriads of droplet-like features pointing toward the cluster center or the group of massive stars surrounding the Wolf–Rayet star W72/A. A long pillar is also observed in the northwest. The MIRI images also show resolved shells and outflows surrounding the M-type supergiants W20, W26, W75, and W237, the sgB[e] star W9 and the yellow hypergiant W4. Some of these shells have been observed before at other wavelengths, but never with the level of detail provided by JWST. The color-magnitude diagrams built using the NIRCam photometry show a clear cluster sequence, which is marked in its upper part by the 1828 NIRCam stars with X-ray counterparts. NIRCam observations using the F115W filter have reached the 23.8 mag limit with 50% completeness (roughly corresponding to a 0.06 M0 brown dwarf).

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have been detected throughout the Universe where they play essential roles in the evolution of their environments. For example, they are believed to affect atmospheric loss rates of close-in planets and might contribute to the pre-biotic chemistry and emergence of life. Despite their importance, the study of PAHs in exoplanet atmospheres has been limited. We aim to evaluate the possibility of detecting PAHs on exoplanets considering future observations using JWST's Near-Infrared Spectrograph PRISM mode. The hot Saturn WASP-6 b shows properties that are consistent with a potential PAH presence and is thus used as a case study for this work. Here, we compare the likelihoods of various synthetic haze species and their combinations with the influence of PAHs on the transmission spectrum of WASP-6 b. This is possible by applying the atmospheric retrieval code PETITRADTRANS to a collection of data from previous observations. Subsequently, by exploring synthetic, single transit JWST spectra of this planet that include PAHs, we assess whether these molecules can be detected in the near future. Previous observations support the presence of cloud/haze species in the spectrum of WASP-6 b. While this may include PAHs, the current data do not confirm their existence unambiguously. Our research suggests that utilizing the JWST for future observations could lead to a notable advancement in the study of PAHs. Employing this telescope, we find that a PAH abundance of approximately 0.1 per cent of the interstellar medium value could be robustly detectable.

Infall of interstellar material is a potential non-planetary origin of pressure bumps in protoplanetary disks. While pressure bumps arising from other mechanisms have been numerically demonstrated to promote planet formation, the impact of infall-induced pressure bumps remains unexplored. We aim to investigate the potential for planetesimal formation in an infall-induced pressure bump, starting with sub-micrometer-sized dust grains, and to identify the conditions most conducive to triggering this process. We developed a numerical model that integrates axisymmetric infall, dust drift, and dust coagulation, along with planetesimal formation via streaming instability. Our parameter space includes gas viscosity, dust fragmentation velocity, initial disk mass, characteristic disk radius, infall rate and duration, as well as the location and width of the infall region. An infall-induced pressure bump can trap dust from both the infalling material and the outer disk, promoting dust growth. The locally enhanced dust-to-gas ratio triggers streaming instability, forming a planetesimal belt inside the central infall location until the pressure bump is smoothed out by viscous gas diffusion. Planetesimal formation is favored by a massive, narrow streamer infalling onto a low-viscosity, low-mass, and spatially extended disk containing dust with a high fragmentation velocity. This configuration enhances the outward drift speed of dust on the inner side of the pressure bump, while also ensuring the prolonged persistence of the pressure bump. Planetesimal formation can occur even if the infalling material consists solely of gas. A pressure bump induced by infall is a favorable site for dust growth and planetesimal formation, and this mechanism does not require a preexisting massive planet to create the bump.

Redshift-space distortions (RSD), caused by the peculiar velocities of galaxies, are a key modelling challenge in galaxy clustering analyses, limiting the scales from which cosmological information can be reliably extracted. Unlike dynamical or galaxy bias effects, RSD imprint features that are sensitive to non-linearities across all scales. Yet, no distinction between these effects is made by the state-of-the-art analytical approach - the effective field theory (EFT) - which applies the same perturbative expansion to each of them. This paper explores an alternative approach, where the non-perturbative nature of RSD is partially preserved, and compares its effectiveness against the EFT in analysing power spectrum and bispectrum multipoles from synthetic samples of luminous red galaxies, using the projected sensitivity of a Stage-IV galaxy survey. Our results demonstrate that this distinct treatment of RSD improves the robustness of model predictions for both statistics, extending the validity range of the EFT from approximately $0.2\,h\,\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$ to $0.35\,h\,\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$ for the one-loop power spectrum and from $0.1\,h\,\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$ to $0.14\,h\,\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$ for the tree-level bispectrum. This leads to a significant enhancement in the precision of cosmological parameter constraints, with uncertainties on the Hubble rate, matter density, and scalar amplitude of fluctuations reduced by $20$-$40\,\%$ for the power spectrum multipoles alone compared to the EFT, and by $25$-$50\,\%$ for joint analyses with the bispectrum. The RSD treatment proposed here may thus play a crucial role in maximising the scientific return of current and future galaxy surveys. To support this advancement, all models for the power spectrum and bispectrum used in this work are made available through an extended version of the Python package COMET.

We address the analytic computation of the two-loop scattering amplitudes for the production of two photons in parton-parton scattering, mediated by loops of heavy quarks. Due to the presence of integrals of elliptic type, both partonic channels have been previously computed using semi-numerical methods. In this paper, leveraging new advances in the theory of differential equations for elliptic Feynman integrals, we derive a canonical basis for all integrals involved and compute them in terms of independent iterated integrals over elliptic and polylogarithmic differential forms. We use this representation to showcase interesting cancellations in the physical expressions for the scattering amplitudes. Furthermore, we address their numerical evaluation by producing series expansion representations for the whole amplitudes, which we demonstrate to be fast and numerically reliable across a large region of the phase space.

For the spinning superparticle we construct the pull-back of the world-line path integral to super moduli space in the Hamiltonian formulation. We describe the underlying geometric decomposition of super moduli space. Algebraically, this gives a realization of the cyclic complex. The resulting space-time action is classically equivalent to Yang-Mills theory up to boundary terms and additional non-local interactions.

Context. General circulation models of gas giant exoplanets predict equatorial jets that drive inhomogeneities in the atmospheric physical parameters across the planetary surface. Aims. We studied the transmission spectrum of the hot Jupiter WASP-127 b during one transit in the K band with CRIRES⁺. Methods. Telluric and stellar signals were removed from the data using SYSREM and the planetary signal was investigated using the cross-correlation technique. After detecting a spectral signal indicative of atmospheric inhomogeneities, we employed a Bayesian retrieval framework with a two-dimensional modelling approach tailored to address this scenario. Results. We detected strong signals of H₂O and CO, which exhibited not one but two distinct cross-correlation peaks. The doublepeaked signal can be explained by a supersonic equatorial jet and muted signals at the planetary poles, with the two peaks representing the signals from the planet's morning and evening terminators. We calculated an equatorial jet velocity of 7.7 ± 0.2 km s^‑1 from our retrieved overall equatorial velocity and the planet's tidally locked rotation, and derive distinct atmospheric properties for the two terminators as well as the polar region. Our retrieval yields a solar C/O ratio and metallicity, and shows that the muted signals from the poles can be explained by either significantly lower temperatures or a high cloud deck. It provides tentative evidence for the morning terminator to be cooler than the evening terminator by ‑175_‑117⁺¹³³ K. Conclusions. Our detection of CO challenges previous non-detections of this species in WASP-127b's atmosphere. The presence of a clear double-peaked signal highlights the importance of taking planetary three-dimensional structure into account during interpretation of atmospheric signals. The measured supersonic jet velocity and the lack of signal from the polar regions, representing a detection of latitudinal inhomogeneity in a spatially unresolved target, showcases the power of high-resolution transmission spectroscopy for the characterisation of global circulation in exoplanet atmospheres.

We have observed the late Class I protostellar source Elias~29 at a spatial-resolution of 70~au with the Atacama~Large~Millimeter/submillimeter~Array (ALMA) as part of the FAUST Large Program. We focus on the line emission of SO, while that of $^{34}$SO, C$^{18}$O, CS, SiO, H$^{13}$CO$^{+}$, and DCO$^{+}$ are used supplementally. The spatial distribution of the SO rotational temperature ($T_{\rm rot}$(SO)) is evaluated by using the intensity ratio of its two rotational excitation lines. Besides in the vicinity of the protostar, two hot spots are found at a distance of 500 au from the protostar; $T_{\rm rot}$(SO) locally rises to 53$^{+25}_{-15}$~K at the interaction point of the outflow and the southern ridge, and 72$^{+66}_{-29}$~K within the southeastern outflow probably due to a jet-driven bow shock. However, the SiO emission is not detected at these hot spots. It is likely that active gas accretion through the disk-like structure and onto the protostar still continues even at this evolved protostellar stage, at least sporadically, considering the outflow/jet activities and the possible infall motion previously reported. Interestingly, $T_{\rm rot}$(SO) is as high as 20$-$30~K even within the quiescent part of the southern ridge apart from the protostar by 500$-$1000~au without clear kinematic indication of current outflow/jet interactions. Such a warm condition is also supported by the low deuterium fractionation ratio of HCO$^+$ estimated by using the H$^{13}$CO$^{+}$ and DCO$^{+}$ lines. The B-type star HD147889 $\sim$0.5 pc away from Elias~29, previously suggested as a heating source for this region, is likely responsible for the warm condition of Elias~29.

Numerous theories have postulated the existence of exotic spin-dependent interactions beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. Spin-based quantum sensors, which utilize the quantum properties of spins to enhance measurement precision, emerge as powerful tools for probing these exotic interactions. These sensors encompass a wide range of technologies, such as optically pumped magnetometers, atomic comagnetometers, spin masers, nuclear magnetic resonance, spin amplifiers, and nitrogen-vacancy centers. These technologies stand out for their ultrahigh sensitivity, compact tabletop design, and cost-effectiveness, offering complementary approaches to the large-scale particle colliders and astrophysical observations. This article reviews the underlying physical principles of various spin sensors and highlights the recent theoretical and experimental progress in the searches for exotic spin-dependent interactions with these quantum sensors. Investigations covered include the exotic interactions of spins with ultralight dark matter, exotic spin-dependent forces, electric dipole moment, spin-gravity interactions, and among others. Ongoing and forthcoming experiments using advanced spin-based sensors to investigate exotic spin-dependent interactions are discussed.

We performed a detailed spectroscopic analysis of three extremely metal-poor RR Lyrae stars, exploring uncharted territories at these low metallicities for this class of stars. Using high-resolution spectra acquired with HARPS-N at TNG, UVES at VLT, and PEPSI at LBT, and employing Non-Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium (NLTE) spectral synthesis calculations, we provide abundance measurements for Fe, Al, Mg, Ca, Ti, Mn, and Sr. Our findings indicate that the stars have metallicities of [Fe/H] = -3.40 \pm 0.05, -3.28 \pm 0.02, and -2.77 \pm 0.05 for HD 331986, DO Hya, and BPS CS 30317-056, respectively. Additionally, we derived their kinematic and dynamical properties to gain insights into their origins. Interestingly, the kinematics of one star (HD 331986) is consistent with the Galactic disc, while the others exhibit Galactic halo kinematics, albeit with distinct chemical signatures. We compared the [Al/Fe] and [Mg/Mn] ratios of the current targets with recent literature estimates to determine whether these stars were either accreted or formed in situ, finding that the adopted chemical diagnostics are ineffective at low metallicities ([Fe/H] $\lesssim -$1.5). Finally, the established horizontal branch evolutionary models, indicating that these stars arrive at hotter temperatures on the Zero-Age Horizontal Branch (ZAHB) and then transition into RR Lyrae stars as they evolve, fully support the existence of such low-metallicity RR Lyrae stars. As a consequence, we can anticipate detecting more of them when larger samples of spectra become available from upcoming extensive observational campaigns.

We investigate ultra slow-roll inflation with a seed black hole in a de Sitter background. By numerically tracking transitions from slow-roll to ultra slow-roll inflation, we find that quasi-normal mode solutions of the scalar field are excited following the decay of the slow-roll attractor, depending on the mass of the black hole. For small black holes, the picture is similar to standard inflation with the usual damping of the scalar field; with a large black hole, we find that the ringing modes dominate. It is believed that the transition to ultra slow-roll in the pure inflationary case enhances the peak of the primordial power spectrum, thereby increasing the likelihood of primordial black hole formation. We comment on how the novel ringing behaviour due to the seed black hole might impact on cosmological perturbations.

Our understanding of the $\gamma$-ray sky has improved dramatically in the past decade, however, the unresolved $\gamma$-ray background (UGRB) still has a potential wealth of information about the faintest $\gamma$-ray sources pervading the Universe. Statistical cross-correlations with tracers of cosmic structure can indirectly identify the populations that most characterize the $\gamma$-ray background. In this study, we analyze the angular correlation between the $\gamma$-ray background and the matter distribution in the Universe as traced by gravitational lensing, leveraging more than a decade of observations from the Fermi-Large Area Telescope (LAT) and 3 years of data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES). We detect a correlation at signal-to-noise ratio of 8.9. Most of the statistical significance comes from large scales, demonstrating, for the first time, that a substantial portion of the UGRB aligns with the mass clustering of the Universe as traced by weak lensing. Blazars provide a plausible explanation for this signal, especially if those contributing to the correlation reside in halos of large mass ($\sim 10^{14} M_{\odot}$) and account for approximately 30-40 % of the UGRB above 10 GeV. Additionally, we observe a preference for a curved $\gamma$-ray energy spectrum, with a log-parabolic shape being favored over a power-law. We also discuss the possibility of modifications to the blazar model and the inclusion of additional $gamma$-ray sources, such as star-forming galaxies or particle dark matter.

Context. Massive stars are one of the most important and investigated astrophysical production sites of ²⁶Al, a short-lived radioisotope with an ~1 Myr half-life. Its short lifetime prevents us from observing its complete chemical history, and only the ²⁶Al that was recently produced by massive stars can be observed. Hence, it is considered a tracer of star formation rate (SFR). However, important contributions to ²⁶Al come from nova systems that pollute the interstellar medium with a large delay, thus partly erasing the correlation between ²⁶Al and SFR. Aims. In this work, we aim to describe the 2D distribution of the mass of ²⁶Al as well as that of massive stars and nova systems in the Milky Way (MW), to investigate their relative contributions to the production of ²⁶Al. Methods. We used a detailed 2D chemical evolution model where the SFR is azimuthally dependent and is required to reproduce the spiral arm pattern observed in the MW. We tested two different models, one where the ²⁶Al comes from massive stars and novae, and one with massive stars only. We then compared the predictions to the ~2 M_⊙ of ²⁶Al mass observed by the surveys of the Compton Telescope (COMPTEL) and International Gamma-Ray Laboratory (INTEGRAI). Results. The results show that novae do not trace SFR and, in the solar vicinity, they concentrate in its minima. The effect of novae on the map of the ²⁶Al mass consists in damping the spiral pattern by a factor of five. Regarding the nucleosynthesis, we find that ~75% of the ²⁶Al is produced by novae and the ~25% by massive stars. Conclusions. We conclude that novae cannot be neglected as ²⁶Al producers since the observations can only be reproduced by including their contribution. Moreover, we suggest that bulge novae should eject around six times more material than the disc ones to well reproduce the observed mass of ²⁶Al.

Testing gravity and the concordance model of cosmology, <inline-formula><tex-math id="TM0002" notation="LaTeX">$\Lambda$</tex-math></inline-formula>CDM, at large scales is a key goal of this decade's largest galaxy surveys. Here we present a comparative study of dark matter power spectrum predictions from different numerical codes in the context of three popular theories of gravity that induce scale-independent modifications to the linear growth of structure: nDGP, Cubic Galileon, and K-mouflage. In particular, we compare the predictions from N-body simulations solving the full scalar field equation, two N-body codes with approximate time integration schemes, a parametrized modified N-body implementation, and the analytic halo model reaction approach. We find the modification to the <inline-formula><tex-math id="TM0006" notation="LaTeX">$\Lambda$</tex-math></inline-formula>CDM spectrum is in 2 per cent agreement at <inline-formula><tex-math id="TM0007" notation="LaTeX">$z\le 1$</tex-math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula><tex-math id="TM0008" notation="LaTeX">$k\le 1~h\,{\rm Mpc}^{-1}$</tex-math></inline-formula> over all gravitational models and codes, in accordance with many previous studies, indicating these modelling approaches are robust enough to be used in forthcoming survey analyses under appropriate scale cuts. We further make public the new code implementations presented, specifically the halo model reaction K-mouflage implementation and the relativistic Cubic Galileon implementation.

We investigate how the strength of the Lorentz force alters stellar convection zone dynamics in a suite of buoyancy-dominated, three-dimensional, spherical shell convective dynamo models. This is done by varying only the magnetic Prandtl number, $Pm$, the non-dimensional form of the fluid's electrical conductivity $\sigma$. Because the strength of the dynamo magnetic field and the Lorentz force scale with $Pm$, it is found that the fluid motions, the pattern of convective heat transfer, and the mode of dynamo generation all differ across the $0.25 \leq Pm \leq 10$ range investigated here. For example, we show that strong magnetohydrodynamic effects cause a fundamental change in the surface zonal flows: differential rotation switches from solar-like (prograde equatorial zonal flow) for larger electrical conductivities to an anti-solar differential rotation (retrograde equatorial zonal flow) at lower electrical conductivities. This study shows that the value of the bulk electrical conductivity is important not only for sustaining dynamo action, but can also drive first-order changes in the characteristics of the magnetic, velocity, and temperature fields. It is also associated with the relative strength of the Lorentz force in the system as measured by the local magnetic Rossby number, $Ro_\ell^M$, which we show is crucial in setting the characteristics of the large-scale convection regime that generates those dynamo fields.

Feynman integrals are very often computed from their differential equations. It is not uncommon that the $\varepsilon$-factorised differential equation contains only dlog-forms with algebraic arguments, where the algebraic part is given by (multiple) square roots. It is well-known that if all square roots are simultaneously rationalisable, the Feynman integrals can be expressed in terms of multiple polylogarithms. This is a sufficient, but not a necessary criterium. In this paper we investigate weaker requirements. We discuss under which conditions we may use different rationalisations in different parts of the calculation. In particular we show that we may use different rationalisations if they correspond to different parameterisations of the same integration path. We present a non-trivial example -- the one-loop pentagon function with three adjacent massive external legs involving seven square roots -- where this technique can be used to express the result in terms of multiple polylogarithms.

The planar three-gluon form factor for the chiral stress tensor operator in planar maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory is an analog of the Higgs-to-three-gluon scattering amplitude in QCD. The amplitude (symbol) bootstrap program has provided a wealth of high-loop perturbative data about this form factor, with results up to eight loops available. The symbol of the form factor at $L$ loops is given by words of length $2L$ in six letters with associated integer coefficients. In this paper, we analyze this data, describing patterns of zero coefficients and relations between coefficients. We find many sequences of words whose coefficients are given by closed-form expressions which we expect to be valid at any loop order. Moreover, motivated by our previous machine-learning analysis, we identify simple recursion relations that relate the coefficient of a word to the coefficients of particular lower-loop words. These results open an exciting door for understanding scattering amplitudes at all loop orders.

Context. The extreme temperature gradients from day- to nightside in the atmospheres of hot Jupiters generate fast winds in the form of equatorial jets or day-to-night flows. Observations of blue-shifted and red-shifted signals in the transmission and dayside spectra of WASP-189 b have sparked discussions about the nature of winds on this planet. Aims. To investigate the structure of winds in the atmosphere of the ultra-hot Jupiter WASP-189 b, we studied its dayside emission spectrum with CRIRES⁺ in the spectral K band. Methods. After removing stellar and telluric lines, we used the cross-correlation method to search for a range of molecules and detected emission signals of CO and Fe. Subsequently, we employed a Bayesian framework to retrieve the atmospheric parameters relating to the temperature–pressure structure and chemistry, and incorporated a numerical model of the line profile influenced by various dynamic effects to determine the wind structure. Results. The cross-correlation signals of CO and Fe showed a velocity offset of ~6 km s^‑1, which could be caused by a fast day-tonight wind in the atmosphere of WASP-189 b. The atmospheric retrieval showed that the line profile of the observed spectra is best fitted by the presence of a day-to-night wind of 4.4_‑2.2^+1.8 km s^‑1, while the retrieved equatorial jet velocity of 1.0_‑1.8^+0.9 km s^‑1 is consistent with the absence of such a jet. Such a wind pattern is consistent with the observed line broadening and can explain the majority of the velocity offset, while uncertainties in the ephemerides and the effects of a hot spot could also contribute to this offset. We further retrieved an inverted temperature-pressure profile, and under the assumption of equilibrium chemistry we retrieved a C/O ratio of 0.32_‑0.14^+0.41 and a metallicity of M/H = 1.40_‑0.60^+1.39. Conclusions. We showed that red-shifts of a few km s^‑1 in the dayside spectra could be explained by day-to-night winds. Further studies combining transmission and dayside observations could advance our understanding of WASP-189 b's atmospheric circulation by improving the uncertainties in the velocity offset and wind parameters.