In this series of papers, we present an emulator-based halo model for the non-linear clustering of galaxies in modified gravity cosmologies. In the first paper, we present emulators for the following halo properties: the halo mass function, concentration-mass relation and halo-matter cross-correlation function. The emulators are trained on data extracted from the FORGE and BRIDGE suites of N-body simulations, respectively, for two modified gravity (MG) theories: f(R) gravity, and the DGP model, varying three standard cosmological parameters Ω_m0, H₀, σ₈, and one MG parameter, either $\bar{f}_{R0}$ or r_c. Our halo property emulators achieve an accuracy of ${\lesssim}1\ \hbox{per cent}$ on independent test data sets. We demonstrate that the emulators can be combined with a galaxy-halo connection prescription to accurately predict the galaxy-galaxy and galaxy-matter correlation functions using the halo model framework.

Methyl cyanide (CH₃CN) is one of the most abundant and widely spread interstellar complex organic molecules (iCOMs). Several studies found that, in hot corinos, methyl cyanide and methanol abundances are correlated suggesting a chemical link, often interpreted as a synthesis of them on the interstellar grain surfaces. In this article, we present a revised network of the reactions forming methyl cyanide in the gas phase. We carried out an exhaustive review of the gas-phase CH₃CN formation routes, propose two new reactions, and performed new quantum mechanics calculations of several reactions. We found that 13 of the 15 reactions reported in the databases KIDA and UDfA have incorrect products and/or rate constants. The new corrected reaction network contains 10 reactions leading to methyl cyanide. We tested the relative importance of those reactions in forming CH₃CN using our astrochemical model. We confirm that the radiative association of CH₃⁺ and HCN, forming CH₃CNH⁺, followed by the electron recombination of CH₃CNH⁺, is the most important CH₃CN formation route in both cold and warm environments, notwithstanding that we significantly corrected the rate constants and products of both reactions. The two newly proposed reactions play an important role in warm environments. Finally, we found a very good agreement between the CH₃CN predicted abundances with those measured in cold (~10 K) and warm (~90 K) objects. Unexpectedly, we also found a chemical link between methanol and methyl cyanide via the CH$_{3}^{+}$ ion, which can explain the observed correlation between the CH₃OH and CH₃CN abundances measured in hot corinos.

The upcoming ByCycle project on the VISTA/4MOST multi-object spectrograph will offer new prospects of using a massive sample of ~1 million high spectral resolution (R = 20 000) background quasars to map the circumgalactic metal content of foreground galaxies (observed at R = 4000-7000), as traced by metal absorption. Such large surveys require specialized analysis methodologies. In the absence of early data, we instead produce synthetic 4MOST high-resolution fibre quasar spectra. To do so, we use the TNG50 cosmological magnetohydrodynamical simulation, combining photo-ionization post-processing and ray tracing, to capture Mg II (λ2796, λ2803) absorbers. We then use this sample to train a convolutional neural network (CNN) which searches for, and estimates the redshift of, Mg II absorbers within these spectra. For a test sample of quasar spectra with uniformly distributed properties ($\lambda _{\rm {Mg\, {\small II},2796}}$, $\rm {EW}_{\rm {Mg\, {\small II},2796}}^{\rm {rest}} = 0.05\!-\!5.15$ Å, $\rm {SNR} = 3\!-\!50$), the algorithm has a robust classification accuracy of 98.6 per cent and a mean wavelength accuracy of 6.9 Å. For high signal-to-noise (SNR) spectra ($\rm {SNR \gt 20}$), the algorithm robustly detects and localizes Mg II absorbers down to equivalent widths of $\rm {EW}_{\rm {Mg\, {\small II},2796}}^{\rm {rest}} = 0.05$ Å. For the lowest SNR spectra ($\rm {SNR=3}$), the CNN reliably recovers and localizes EW$_{\rm {Mg\, {\small II},2796}}^{\rm {rest}}$ ≥0.75 Å absorbers. This is more than sufficient for subsequent Voigt profile fitting to characterize the detected Mg II absorbers. We make the code publicly available through GitHub. Our work provides a proof-of-concept for future analyses of quasar spectra data sets numbering in the millions, soon to be delivered by the next generation of surveys.

We study supermassive black hole (SMBH) binary eccentricity of equal-mass galaxy mergers in N-body simulations with the KETJU code, which combines the GADGET-4 fast multipole gravity solver with accurate regularized integration and post-Newtonian corrections around SMBHs. In simulations with realistic, high-eccentricity galactic merger orbits, the hard binary eccentricity is found to be a non-linear function of the deflection angle in the SMBH orbit during the final, nearly radial close encounter between the SMBHs before they form a bound binary. This mapping between the deflection angle and the binary eccentricity has no apparent resolution dependence in our simulations spanning the resolution range of 1 × 10⁵ to 8 × 10⁶ particles per galaxy. The mapping is also captured using a simple model with an analytical potential, indicating that it is driven by the interplay between a smooth asymmetric stellar background potential and dynamical friction acting on the SMBHs. Due to the non-linearity of this mapping, in eccentric major merger configurations, small, parsec-scale variations in the merger orbit can result in binary eccentricities varying in nearly the full possible range between e = 0 and e = 1. In idealized simulations, such variations are caused by finite resolution effects, and convergence of the binary eccentricity can be achieved with increasing resolution. However, in real galaxies, other mechanisms such as nuclear gas and substructure that perturb the merger orbit are likely to be significant enough for the binary eccentricity to be effectively random. Our results indicate that the distribution of these effectively random eccentricities can be studied using even moderate resolution simulations.

We present the RASS-MCMF catalogue of 8449 X-ray selected galaxy clusters over 25 000 deg² of extragalactic sky. The accumulation of deep multiband optical imaging data, the development of the Multi-Component Matched Filter (MCMF) cluster confirmation algorithm, and the release of the DESI Legacy Survey DR10 catalogue makes it possible - for the first time, more than 30 yr after the launch of the ROSAT X-ray satellite - to identify the majority of the galaxy clusters detected in the second ROSAT All-Sky-Survey (RASS) source catalogue (2RXS). The resulting 90 per cent pure RASS-MCMF catalogue is the largest intracluster medium (ICM)-selected cluster sample to date. RASS-MCMF probes a large dynamic range in cluster mass spanning from galaxy groups to the most massive clusters. The cluster redshift distribution peaks at $z$ ~ 0.1 and extends to redshifts $z$ ~ 1. Out to $z$ ~ 0.4, the RASS-MCMF sample contains more clusters per redshift interval (dN/dz) than any other ICM-selected sample. In addition to the main sample, we present two subsamples with 6912 and 5506 clusters, exhibiting 95 per cent and 99 per cent purity, respectively. We forecast the utility of the sample for a cluster cosmological study, using realistic mock catalogues that incorporate most observational effects, including the X-ray exposure time and background variations, the existence likelihood selection and the impact of the optical cleaning with the algorithm MCMF. Using realistic priors on the observable-mass relation parameters from a DES-based weak lensing analysis, we estimate the constraining power of the RASS-MCMF×DES sample to be of 0.026, 0.033, and 0.15 (1σ) on the parameters Ω_m, σ₈, and $w$, respectively.

Spatial proton gradients create energy in biological systems and are likely a driving force for prebiotic systems. Due to the fast diffusion of protons, they are however difficult to create as steady state, unless driven by other non-equilibria such as thermal gradients. Here, we quantitatively predict the heat-flux driven formation of pH gradients for the case of a simple acid-base reaction system. To this end, we (i) establish a theoretical framework that describes the spatial interplay of chemical reactions with thermal convection, thermophoresis, and electrostatic forces by a separation of timescales, and (ii) report quantitative measurements in a purpose-built microfluidic device. We show experimentally that the slope of such pH gradients undergoes pronounced amplitude changes in a concentration-dependent manner and can even be inverted. The predictions of the theoretical framework fully reflect these features and establish an understanding of how naturally occurring non-equilibrium environmental conditions can drive pH gradients.

We study the excitation spectrum of light and strange mesons in diffractive scattering. We identify different hadron resonances through partial wave analysis, which inherently relies on analysis models. Besides statistical uncertainties, the model dependence of the analysis introduces dominant systematic uncertainties. We discuss several of their sources for the $\pi^-\pi^-\pi^+$ and $K^0_S K^-$ final states and present methods to reduce them. We have developed a new approach exploiting a-priori knowledge of signal continuity over adjacent final-state-mass bins to stably fit a large pool of partial-waves to our data, allowing a clean identification of very small signals in our large data sets. For two-body final states of scalar particles, such as $K^0_S K^-$, mathematical ambiguities in the partial-wave decomposition lead to the same intensity distribution for different combinations of amplitude values. We will discuss these ambiguities and present solutions to resolve or at least reduce the number of possible solutions. Resolving these issues will allow for a complementary analysis of the $a_J$-like resonance sector in these two final states.

We propose extensions of the anti-k_t and Cambridge/Aachen hierarchical jet clustering algorithms that are designed to retain the exact jet kinematics of these algorithms, while providing an infrared-and-collinear-safe definition of jet flavor at any fixed order in perturbation theory. Central to our approach is a new technique called interleaved flavor neutralization (IFN), whereby the treatment of flavor is integrated with, but distinct from, the kinematic clustering. IFN allows flavor information to be meaningfully accessed at each stage of the clustering sequence, which enables a consistent assignment of flavor both to individual jets and to their substructure. We validate the IFN approach using a dedicated framework for fixed-order tests of infrared and collinear safety, which also reveals unanticipated issues in earlier approaches to flavored jet clustering. We briefly explore the phenomenological impact of IFN with anti-k_t jets for benchmark tasks at the Large Hadron Collider.

JEM--EUSO is an international program for the development of space-based Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Ray observatories. The program consists of a series of missions which are either under development or in the data analysis phase. All instruments are based on a wide-field-of-view telescope, which operates in the near-UV range, designed to detect the fluorescence light emitted by extensive air showers in the atmosphere. We describe the simulation software ESAFin the framework of the JEM--EUSO program and explain the physical assumptions used. We present here the implementation of the JEM--EUSO, POEMMA, K--EUSO, TUS, Mini--EUSO, EUSO--SPB1 and EUSO--TA configurations in ESAF. For the first time ESAF simulation outputs are compared with experimental data.

The onset of star formation is set by the collapse of filaments in the interstellar medium. From a theoretical point of view, an isolated cylindrical filament forms cores via the edge effect. Due to the self-gravity of a filament, the strong increase in acceleration at both ends leads to a pile-up of matter which collapses into cores. However, this effect is rarely observed. Most theoretical models consider a sharp density cut-off at the edge of the filament, whereas a smoother transition is more realistic and would also decrease the acceleration at the ends of the filament. We show that the edge effect can be significantly slowed down by a density gradient, although not completely avoided. However, this allows perturbations inside the filament to grow faster than the edge. We determine the critical density gradient for which the time-scales are equal and find it to be of the order of several times the filament radius. Hence, the density gradient at the ends of a filament is an essential parameter for fragmentation and the low rate of observed cases of the edge effect could be naturally explained by shallow gradients.

Turbulence in protoplanetary discs, when present, plays a critical role in transporting dust particles embedded in the gaseous disc component. When using a field description of dust dynamics, a diffusion approach is traditionally used to model this turbulent dust transport. However, it has been shown that classical turbulent diffusion models are not fully self-consistent. Several shortcomings exist, including the ambiguous nature of the diffused quantity and the non-conservation of angular momentum. Orbital effects are also neglected without an explicit prescription. In response to these inconsistencies, we present a novel Eulerian turbulent dust transport model for isotropic and homogeneous turbulence on the basis of a mean-field theory. Our model is based on density-weighted averaging applied to the pressureless fluid equations and uses appropriate turbulence closures. Our model yields novel dynamic equations for the turbulent dust mass flux and recovers existing turbulent transport models in special limiting cases, thus providing a more general and self-consistent description of turbulent particle transport. Importantly, our model ensures the conservation of global angular and linear momentum unconditionally and implicitly accounts for the effects of orbital dynamics in protoplanetary discs. Furthermore, our model correctly describes the vertical settling-diffusion equilibrium solutions for both small and large particles. Hence, this work presents a generalized Eulerian turbulent dust transport model, establishing a comprehensive framework for more detailed studies of turbulent dust transport in protoplanetary discs.

We present MGLENS, a large series of modified gravity lensing simulations tailored for cosmic shear data analyses and forecasts in which cosmological and modified gravity parameters are varied simultaneously. Based on the FORGE and BRIDGEN-body simulation suites presented in companion papers, we construct 100 × 5000 deg² of mock Stage-IV lensing data from two 4D Latin hypercubes that sample cosmological and gravitational parameters in f(R) and nDGP gravity, respectively. These are then used to validate our inference analysis pipeline based on the lensing power spectrum, exploiting our implementation of these modified gravity models within the COSMOSIS cosmological inference package. Sampling this new likelihood, we find that cosmic shear can achieve 95 per cent CL constraints on the modified gravity parameters of log$_{10}[f_{R_0}] \lt $ -4.77 and log₁₀[H₀r_c] > 0.09, after marginalizing over intrinsic alignments of galaxies and including scales up to ℓ = 5000. We also investigate the impact of photometric uncertainty, scale cuts, and covariance matrices. We finally explore the consequences of analysing MGLENS data with the wrong gravity model, and report catastrophic biases for a number of possible scenarios. The Stage-IV MGLENS simulations, the FORGE and BRIDGE emulators and the COSMOSIS interface modules will be made publicly available upon journal acceptance.

The differential cross section for the quasi-free photoproduction reaction γ n →K⁰Σ⁰ was measured at BGOOD at ELSA from threshold to a centre-of-mass energy of 2400 MeV . Close to threshold the results are consistent with existing data and are in agreement with partial wave analysis solutions over the full measured energy range, with a large coupling to the Δ (1900 ) 1 /2^- evident. This is the first dataset covering the K^∗ threshold region, where there are model predictions of dynamically generated vector meson-baryon resonance contributions.

Some He-rich hot subdwarf stars (He-sdOBs) present high abundances of trans-iron elements, such as Sr, Y, Zr and Pb. Diffusion processes are important in hot subdwarf stars, and it is thought that the high abundances of heavy elements in these stars are due to the action of radiative levitation. However, during the formation of He-sdOBs, hydrogen can be ingested into the convective zone driven by the He-core flash. It is known that episodes in which protons are being ingested into He-burning convective zones can lead to neutron-capture processes and the formation of heavy elements. In this work we aim to explore for the first time if neutron-capture processes can occur in late He-core flashes happening in the cores of the progenitors of He-sdOBs. We compute a detailed evolutionary model of a stripped red-giant star with a stellar evolution code with a nuclear network comprising 32 isotopes. Then we post-process the stellar models in the phase of He and H burning with a post-processing nucleosynthesis code with a nuclear network of 1190 species that allows us to follow the neutron-capture processes in detail. We find the occurrence of neutron-capture processes in our model, with neutron densities reaching a value of $\sim5\times10^{12}\,{\rm cm}^{-3}$. We find that the trans-iron elements are enhanced in the surface by 1 to 2 dex as compared to initial compositions. Moreover, the relative abundance pattern $[{\rm X}_i/\rm{Fe}]$ produced by neutron-capture processes closely resembles those observed in some He-sdOBs, hinting at a possible self-synthesized origin of the heavy elements in these stars. We conclude that intermediate neutron-capture processes can occur during a proton ingestion event in the He-core flash of stripped red-giant stars. This mechanism offers a natural channel to produce the heavy elements observed in some of the He-sdOBs.

Gaia BH1, the first quiescent black hole (BH) detected from Gaia data, poses a challenge to most binary evolution models: its current mass ratio is ≈0.1, and its orbital period seems to be too long for a post-common envelope system and too short for a non-interacting binary system. Here, we explore the hypothesis that Gaia BH1 formed through dynamical interactions in a young star cluster (YSC). We study the properties of BH-main sequence (MS) binaries formed in YSCs with initial mass 3 × 10²-3 × 10⁴ M_⊙ at solar metallicity, by means of 3.5 × 10⁴ direct N-body simulations coupled with binary population synthesis. For comparison, we also run a sample of isolated binary stars with the same binary population synthesis code and initial conditions used in the dynamical models. We find that BH-MS systems that form via dynamical exchanges populate the region corresponding to the main orbital properties of Gaia BH1 (period, eccentricity, and masses). In contrast, none of our isolated binary systems match the orbital period and MS mass of Gaia BH1. Our best-matching Gaia BH1-like system forms via repeated dynamical exchanges and collisions involving the BH progenitor star, before it undergoes core collapse. YSCs are at least two orders of magnitude more efficient in forming Gaia BH1-like systems than isolated binary evolution.

Radio relics are typically found to be arc-like regions of synchrotron emission in the outskirts of merging galaxy clusters, bowing out from the cluster center. In most cases they show synchrotron spectra that steepen toward the cluster center, indicating that they are caused by relativistic electrons being accelerated at outward traveling merger shocks. A number of radio relics break with this ideal picture and show morphologies that are bent the opposite way and show spectral index distributions that do not follow expectations from the ideal picture. We propose that these "wrong way" relics can form when an outward traveling shock wave is bent inward by an infalling galaxy cluster or group. We test this in an ultra-high-resolution zoom-in simulation of a massive galaxy cluster with an on-the-fly spectral cosmic-ray model. This allows us to study not only the synchrotron emission at colliding shocks, but also their synchrotron spectra to address the open question of relics with strongly varying spectral indices over the relic surface.

Photoevaporation from high-energy stellar radiation has been thought to drive the dispersal of protoplanetary discs. Different theoretical models have been proposed, but their predictions diverge in terms of the rate and modality at which discs lose their mass, with significant implications for the formation and evolution of planets. In this paper, we use disc population synthesis models to interpret recent observations of the lowest accreting protoplanetary discs, comparing predictions from EUV-driven, FUV-driven, and X-ray-driven photoevaporation models. We show that the recent observational data of stars with low accretion rates (low accretors) point to X-ray photoevaporation as the preferred mechanism driving the final stages of protoplanetary disc dispersal. We also show that the distribution of accretion rates predicted by the X-ray photoevaporation model is consistent with observations, while other dispersal models tested here are clearly ruled out.

We report high-quality Hα/CO imaging spectroscopy of nine massive (log median stellar mass = 10.65 M _⊙) disk galaxies on the star-forming main sequence (henceforth SFGs), near the peak of cosmic galaxy evolution (z ~ 1.1-2.5), taken with the ESO Very Large Telescope, IRAM-NOEMA, and Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. We fit the major axis position-velocity cuts with beam-convolved, forward models with a bulge, a turbulent rotating disk, and a dark matter (DM) halo. We include priors for stellar and molecular gas masses, optical light effective radii and inclinations, and DM masses from our previous rotation curve analysis of these galaxies. We then subtract the inferred 2D model-galaxy velocity and velocity dispersion maps from those of the observed galaxies. We investigate whether the residual velocity and velocity dispersion maps show indications for radial flows. We also carry out kinemetry, a model-independent tool for detecting radial flows. We find that all nine galaxies exhibit significant nontangential flows. In six SFGs, the inflow velocities (v _r ~ 30-90 km s^-1, 10%-30% of the rotational component) are along the minor axis of these galaxies. In two cases the inflow appears to be off the minor axis. The magnitudes of the radial motions are in broad agreement with the expectations from analytic models of gravitationally unstable, gas-rich disks. Gravitational torques due to clump and bar formation, or spiral arms, drive gas rapidly inward and result in the formation of central disks and large bulges. If this interpretation is correct, our observations imply that gas is transported into the central regions on ~10 dynamical timescales.

Accurately understanding the equation of state (EOS) of high-density, zero-temperature quark matter plays an essential role in constraining the behavior of dense strongly interacting matter inside the cores of neutron stars. In this Letter, we study the weak-coupling expansion of the EOS of cold quark matter and derive the complete, gauge-invariant contributions from the long-wavelength, dynamically screened gluonic sector at next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order (N3LO) in the strong coupling constant α_s. This elevates the EOS result to the O (α_s³ln α_s) level, leaving only one unknown constant from the unscreened sector at N3LO, and places it on par with its high-temperature counterpart from 2003.

Phase transitions in a non-perturbative regime can be studied by ab initio Lattice Field Theory methods. The status and future research directions for LFT investigations of Quantum Chromo-Dynamics under extreme conditions are reviewed, including properties of hadrons and of the hypothesized QCD axion as inferred from QCD topology in different phases. We discuss phase transitions in strong interactions in an extended parameter space, and the possibility of model building for Dark Matter and Electro-Weak Symmetry Breaking. Methodological challenges are addressed as well, including new developments in Artificial Intelligence geared towards the identification of different phases and transitions.

Context. The general prediction that more than half of all cataclysmic variables (CVs) have evolved past the period minimum is in strong disagreement with observational surveys, which show that the relative number of these objects is just a few percent.
Aims: Here, we investigate whether a large number of post-period minimum CVs could detach because of the appearance of a strong white dwarf magnetic field potentially generated by a rotation- and crystallization-driven dynamo.
Methods: We used the MESA code to calculate evolutionary tracks of CVs incorporating the spin evolution and cooling as well as compressional heating of the white dwarf. If the conditions for the dynamo were met, we assumed that the emerging magnetic field of the white dwarf connects to that of the companion star and incorporated the corresponding synchronization torque, which transfers spin angular momentum to the orbit.
Results: We find that for CVs with donor masses exceeding ∼0.04 M_⊙, magnetic fields are generated mostly if the white dwarfs start to crystallize before the onset of mass transfer. It is possible that a few white dwarf magnetic fields are generated in the period gap. For the remaining CVs, the conditions for the dynamo to work are met beyond the period minimum, when the accretion rate decreased significantly. Synchronization torques cause these systems to detach for several gigayears even if the magnetic field strength of the white dwarf is just one MG.
Conclusions: If the rotation- and crystallization-driven dynamo - which is currently the only mechanism that can explain several observational facts related to magnetism in CVs and their progenitors - or a similar temperature-dependent mechanism is responsible for the generation of magnetic field in white dwarfs, most CVs that have evolved beyond the period minimum must detach for several gigayears at some point. This reduces the predicted number of semi-detached period bouncers by up to ∼60 − 80%.

Strong gravitational lensing is a powerful tool to provide constraints on galaxy mass distributions and cosmological parameters, such as the Hubble constant, H₀. Nevertheless, inference of such parameters from images of lensing systems is not trivial as parameter degeneracies can limit the precision in the measured lens mass and cosmological results. External information on the mass of the lens, in the form of kinematic measurements, is needed to ensure a precise and unbiased inference. Traditionally, such kinematic information has been included in the inference after the image modeling, using spherical Jeans approximations to match the measured velocity dispersion integrated within an aperture. However, as spatially resolved kinematic measurements become available via IFU data, more sophisticated dynamical modeling is necessary. Such kinematic modeling is expensive, and constitutes a computational bottleneck that we aim to overcome with our Stellar Kinematics Neural Network (SKiNN). SKiNN emulates axisymmetric modeling using a neural network, quickly synthesizing from a given mass model a kinematic map that can be compared to the observations to evaluate a likelihood. With a joint lensing plus kinematic framework, this likelihood constrains the mass model at the same time as the imaging data. We show that SKiNN's emulation of a kinematic map is accurate to a considerably better precision than can be measured (better than 1% in almost all cases). Using SKiNN speeds up the likelihood evaluation by a factor of ~200. This speedup makes dynamical modeling economical, and enables lens modelers to make effective use of modern data quality in the JWST era.

NGC 7793, NGC 300, M 33, and NGC 2403 are four nearby undisturbed and bulgeless low-mass spiral galaxies whose morphology and stellar mass are similar. They are ideal laboratories for studying disc formation scenarios and the histories of stellar mass growth. We constructed a simple chemical evolution model by assuming that discs grow gradually with continuous metal-free gas infall and metal-enriched gas outflow. By means of the classical χ² method, applied to the model predictions, the best combination of free parameters capable of reproducing the corresponding present-day observations was determined, that is, the radial dependence of the infall timescale τ = 0.1r/R_d + 3.4 Gyr (R_d is the disc scale length) and the gas outflow efficiency b_out = 0.2. The model results agree excellently with the general predictions of the inside-out growth scenario for the evolution of spiral galaxies. About 80% of the stellar mass of NGC 7793 was assembled within the last 8 Gyr, and 40% of the mass was assembled within the last 4 Gyr. By comparing the best-fitting model results of the three other galaxies, we obtain similar results: 72% (NGC 300), 66% (NGC 2403), and 79% (M 33) of the stellar mass were assembled within the last ∼8 Gyr (i.e. z = 1). These four disc galaxies simultaneously increased their sizes and stellar masses in time, and they grew in size at ∼0.30 times the rate at which they grew in mass. The scale lengths of these four discs now are 20%-25% larger than at z = 1. Our best-fitting model predicted the stellar mass-metallicity relation and the metallicity gradients, constrained by the observed metallicities from HII-region emission line analysis, agree well with the observations measured from individual massive red and blue supergiant stars and population synthesis of Sloan Digital Sky Survey galaxies.

The inference of astrophysical and cosmological properties from the Lyman-$\alpha$ forest conventionally relies on summary statistics of the transmission field that carry useful but limited information. We present a deep learning framework for inference from the Lyman-$\alpha$ forest at field-level. This framework consists of a 1D residual convolutional neural network (ResNet) that extracts spectral features and performs regression on thermal parameters of the IGM that characterize the power-law temperature-density relation. We train this supervised machinery using a large set of mock absorption spectra from Nyx hydrodynamic simulations at $z=2.2$ with a range of thermal parameter combinations (labels). We employ Bayesian optimization to find an optimal set of hyperparameters for our network, and then employ a committee of ten neural networks for increased statistical robustness of the network inference. In addition to the parameter point predictions, our machine also provides a self-consistent estimate of their covariance matrix with which we construct a pipeline for inferring the posterior distribution of the parameters. We compare the results of our framework with the traditional summary (PDF and power spectrum of transmission) based approach in terms of the area of the 68% credibility regions as our figure of merit (FoM). In our study of the information content of perfect (noise- and systematics-free) Ly$\alpha$ forest spectral data-sets, we find a significant tightening of the posterior constraints -- factors of 5.65 and 1.71 in FoM over power spectrum only and jointly with PDF, respectively -- that is the consequence of recovering the relevant parts of information that are not carried by the classical summary statistics.

Subsonic turbulence plays a major role in determining properties of the intracluster medium (ICM). We introduce a new meshless finite mass (MFM) implementation in OPENGADGET3 and apply it to this specific problem. To this end, we present a set of test cases to validate our implementation of the MFM framework in our code. These include but are not limited to: the soundwave and Kepler disc as smooth situations to probe the stability, a Rayleigh-Taylor and Kelvin-Helmholtz instability as popular mixing instabilities, a blob test as more complex example including both mixing and shocks, shock tubes with various Mach numbers, a Sedov blast wave, different tests including self-gravity such as gravitational freefall, a hydrostatic sphere, the Zeldovich-pancake, and a 10¹⁵ M_⊙ galaxy cluster as cosmological application. Advantages over smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) include increased mixing and a better convergence behaviour. We demonstrate that the MFM-solver is robust, also in a cosmological context. We show evidence that the solver preforms extraordinarily well when applied to decaying subsonic turbulence, a problem very difficult to handle for many methods. MFM captures the expected velocity power spectrum with high accuracy and shows a good convergence behaviour. Using MFM or SPH within OPENGADGET3 leads to a comparable decay in turbulent energy due to numerical dissipation. When studying the energy decay for different initial turbulent energy fractions, we find that MFM performs well down to Mach numbers $\mathcal {M}\approx 0.01$. Finally, we show how important the slope limiter and the energy-entropy switch are to control the behaviour and the evolution of the fluids.

The apparent tension between the luminosity functions of red supergiant (RSG) stars and of RSG progenitors of Type II supernovae (SNe) is often referred to as the RSG problem and it motivated some to suggest that many RSGs end their life without a SN explosion. However, the luminosity functions of RSG SN progenitors presented so far were biased to high luminosities, because the sensitivity of the search was not considered. Here, we use limiting magnitudes to calculate a bias-corrected RSG progenitor luminosity function. We find that only $(36\pm11)\%$ of all RSG progenitors are brighter than a bolometric magnitude of $-7\,\text{mag}$, a significantly smaller fraction than $(56\pm5)\%$ quoted by Davies & Beasor (2020). The larger uncertainty is due to the relatively small progenitor sample, while uncertainties on measured quantities such as magnitudes, bolometric corrections, extinction, or SN distances, only have a minor impact, as long as they fluctuate randomly for different objects in the sample. When comparing the luminosity function of RSG SN progenitors to Type M supergiants in the Large Magellanic cloud, we find that they are consistent, due to the flatter shape of the progenitor luminosity function. The RSG progenitor luminosity function, hence, does not imply the existence of failed SNe. The presented statistical method is not limited to progenitor searches, but applies to any situation in which a measurement is done for a sample of detected objects, but the probed quantity or property can only be determined for part of the sample.

We analyze TYPHOON long slit absorption line spectra of the starburst barred spiral galaxy NGC 1365 obtained with the Progressive Integral Step Method covering an area of 15 square kpc. Applying a population synthesis technique, we determine the spatial distribution of ages and metallicity of the young and old stellar population together with star formation rates, reddening, extinction and the ratio R$_V$ of extinction to reddening. We detect a clear indication of inside-out growth of the stellar disk beyond 3 kpc characterized by an outward increasing luminosity fraction of the young stellar population, a decreasing average age and a history of mass growth, which was finished 2 Gyrs later in the outermost disk. The metallicity of the young stellar population is clearly super solar but decreases towards larger galactocentric radii with a gradient of -0.02 dex/kpc. On the other hand, the metal content of the old population does not show a gradient and stays constant at a level roughly 0.4 dex lower than that of the young population. In the center of NGC 1365 we find a confined region where the metallicity of the young population drops dramatically and becomes lower than that of the old population. We attribute this to infall of metal poor gas and, additionally, to interrupted chemical evolution where star formation is stopped by AGN and supernova feedback and then after several Gyrs resumes with gas ejected by stellar winds from earlier generations of stars. We provide a simple model calculation as support for the latter.

Context. Recent observations of close detached eclipsing M and K dwarf binaries have provided substantial support for magnetic saturation when stars rotate sufficiently fast, leading to a magnetic braking (MB) torque proportional to the spin of the star. Aims. We investigated here how strong MB torques need to be to reproduce the observationally-inferred relative numbers of white dwarf plus M dwarf post-common-envelope binaries under the assumption of magnetic saturation. Methods. We carried out binary population simulations with the BSE code adopting empirically-derived inter-correlated main-sequence binary distributions as initial binary populations and compared the simulation outcomes with observations. Results. We found that the dearth of extreme mass ratio binaries in the inter-correlated initial distributions is key to reproduce the large fraction of post-common-envelope binaries hosting low-mass M dwarfs (${\sim0.1-0.2}$ M$_\odot$). In addition, orbital angular momentum loss rates due to MB should be high for M dwarfs with radiative cores and orders of magnitude smaller for fully convective stars to explain the observed dramatic change of the fraction of short-period binaries at the fully convective boundary. Conclusions. We conclude that saturated but disrupted, that is, dropping drastically at the fully convective boundary, MB can explain the observations of both close main-sequence binaries containing M and K dwarfs and post-common-envelope binaries. Whether a similar prescription can explain the spin down rates of single stars and of binaries containing more massive stars needs to be tested.

We analyse synthetic ¹²CO, ¹³CO, and [C II] emission maps of molecular cloud (MC) simulations from the SILCC-Zoom project. We present radiation, magnetohydrodynamic zoom-in simulations of individual clouds, both with and without radiative stellar feedback, forming in a turbulent multiphase interstellar medium following on-the-fly the evolution of e.g. H₂, CO, and C⁺. We introduce a novel post-processing routine based on CLOUDY which accounts for higher ionization states of carbon due to stellar radiation in H II regions. Synthetic emission maps of [C II] in and around feedback bubbles show that the bubbles are largely devoid of [C II], as recently found in observations, which we attribute to the further ionization of C⁺ into C²⁺. For both ¹²CO and ¹³CO, the cloud-averaged luminosity ratio, $L_\rm {CO}/L_\rm {[C\, \small {II}]}$, can neither be used as a reliable measure of the H₂ mass fraction nor of the evolutionary stage of the clouds. We note a relation between the $I_\rm {CO}/I_\rm {[C\, \small {II}]}$ intensity ratio and the H₂ mass fraction for individual pixels of our synthetic maps. The scatter, however, is too large to reliably infer the H₂ mass fraction. Finally, the assumption of chemical equilibrium overestimates H₂ and CO masses by up to 150 and 50 per cent, respectively, and $L_\rm {CO}$ by up to 60 per cent. The masses of H and C⁺ would be underestimated by 65 and 30 per cent, respectively, and $L_\rm {[C\, \small {II}]}$ by up to 35 per cent. Hence, the assumption of chemical equilibrium in MC simulations introduces intrinsic errors of a factor of 2 in chemical abundances, luminosities, and luminosity ratios.

The large-scale gaseous shocks in the bulge of M31 can be naturally explained by a rotating stellar bar. We use gas dynamical models to provide an independent measurement of the bar pattern speed in M31. The gravitational potentials of our simulations are from a set of made-to-measure models constrained by stellar photometry and kinematics. If the inclination of the gas disk is fixed at $i = 77^{\circ}$, we find that a low pattern speed of $16-20\;\rm km\;s^{-1}\;kpc^{-1}$ is needed to match the observed position and amplitude of the shock features, as shock positions are too close to the bar major axis in high $\Omega_{b}$ models. The pattern speed can increase to $20-30\;\rm km\;s^{-1}\;kpc^{-1}$ if the inner gas disk has a slightly smaller inclination angle compared with the outer one. Including sub-grid physics such as star formation and stellar feedback has minor effects on the shock amplitude, and does not change the shock position significantly. If the inner gas disk is allowed to follow a varying inclination similar to the HI and ionized gas observations, the gas models with a pattern speed of $38\;\rm km\;s^{-1}\;kpc^{-1}$, which is consistent with stellar-dynamical models, can match both the shock features and the central gas features.

Context. Photoevaporation and dust-trapping are individually considered to be important mechanisms in the evolution and morphology of protoplanetary disks. However, it is not yet clear what kind of observational features are expected when both processes operate simultaneously.
Aims: We studied how the presence (or absence) of early substructures, such as the gaps caused by planets, affects the evolution of the dust distribution and flux in the millimeter continuum of disks that are undergoing photoevaporative dispersal. We also tested if the predicted properties resemble those observed in the population of transition disks.
Methods: We used the numerical code Dustpy to simulate disk evolution considering gas accretion, dust growth, dust-trapping at substructures, and mass loss due to X-ray and EUV (XEUV) photoevaporation and dust entrainment. Then, we compared how the dust mass and millimeter flux evolve for different disk models.
Results: We find that, during photoevaporative dispersal, disks with primordial substructures retain more dust and are brighter in the millimeter continuum than disks without early substructures, regardless of the photoevaporative cavity size. Once the photoevaporative cavity opens, the estimated fluxes for the disk models that are initially structured are comparable to those found in the bright transition disk population (F_mm > 30 mJy), while the disk models that are initially smooth have fluxes comparable to the transition disks from the faint population (F_mm < 30 mJy), suggesting a link between each model and population.
Conclusions: Our models indicate that the efficiency of the dust trapping determines the millimeter flux of the disk, while the gas loss due to photoevaporation controls the formation and expansion of a cavity, decoupling the mechanisms responsible for each feature. In consequence, even a planet with a mass comparable to Saturn could trap enough dust to reproduce the millimeter emission of a bright transition disk, while its cavity size is independently driven by photoevaporative dispersal.

The canonical undestanding of stellar convection has recently been put under doubt due to helioseismic results and global 3D convection simulations. This "convective conundrum" is manifested by much higher velocity amplitudes in simulations at large scales in comparison to helioseismic results, and the difficulty in reproducing the solar differential rotation and dynamo with global 3D simulations. Here some aspects of this conundrum are discussed from the viewpoint of hydrodynamic Cartesian 3D simulations targeted at testing the rotational influence and surface forcing on deep convection. More specifically, the dominant scale of convection and the depths of the convection zone and the weakly subadiabatic -- yet convecting -- Deardorff zone are discussed in detail.

Cryogenic phonon detectors with transition-edge sensors achieve the best sensitivity to light dark matter-nucleus scattering in current direct detection dark matter searches. In such devices, the temperature of the thermometer and the bias current in its readout circuit need careful optimization to achieve optimal detector performance. This task is not trivial and is typically done manually by an expert. In our work, we automated the procedure with reinforcement learning in two settings. First, we trained on a simulation of the response of three CRESST detectors used as a virtual reinforcement learning environment. Second, we trained live on the same detectors operated in the CRESST underground setup. In both cases, we were able to optimize a standard detector as fast and with comparable results as human experts. Our method enables the tuning of large-scale cryogenic detector setups with minimal manual interventions.

Upcoming large galaxy surveys will subject the standard cosmological model, Lambda Cold Dark Matter, to new precision tests. These can be tightened considerably if theoretical models of galaxy formation are available that can predict galaxy clustering and galaxy-galaxy lensing on the full range of measurable scales, throughout volumes as large as those of the surveys, and with sufficient flexibility that uncertain aspects of the underlying astrophysics can be marginalized over. This, in particular, requires mock galaxy catalogues in large cosmological volumes that can be directly compared to observation, and can be optimized empirically by Monte Carlo Markov Chains or other similar schemes, thus eliminating or estimating parameters related to galaxy formation when constraining cosmology. Semi-analytic galaxy formation methods implemented on top of cosmological dark matter simulations offer a computationally efficient approach to construct physically based and flexibly parametrized galaxy formation models, and as such they are more potent than still faster, but purely empirical models. Here, we introduce an updated methodology for the semi-analytic L-GALAXIES code, allowing it to be applied to simulations of the new MillenniumTNG project, producing galaxies directly on fully continuous past lightcones, potentially over the full sky, out to high redshift, and for all galaxies more massive than $\sim 10^8\, {\rm M}_\odot$. We investigate the numerical convergence of the resulting predictions, and study the projected galaxy clustering signals of different samples. The new methodology can be viewed as an important step towards more faithful forward-modelling of observational data, helping to reduce systematic distortions in the comparison of theory to observations.

In this second study of the `Resolving supermAssive Black hole Binaries In galacTic hydrodynamical Simulations' (RABBITS) series, we focus on the hardening and coalescing process of supermassive black hole (SMBH) binaries in galaxy mergers. For simulations including different galaxy formation processes (i.e. gas cooling, star formation, SMBH accretion, stellar and AGN feedback), we systematically control the effect of stochastic eccentricity by fixing it to similar values during the SMBH hardening phase. We find a strong correlation between the SMBH merger time-scales and the presence of nuclear star formation. Throughout the galaxy merging process, gas condenses at the centre due to cooling and tidal torques, leading to nuclear star formation. These recently formed stars, which inherit low angular momenta from the gas, contribute to the loss cone and assist in the SMBH hardening via three-body interactions. Compared to non-radiative hydrodynamical runs, the SMBH merger time-scales measured from the runs including cooling, stellar and SMBH physical processes tend to be shortened by a factor of ${\sim}1.7$. After fixing the eccentricity to the range of $e \sim 0.6$--$0.8$ during the hardening phase, the simulations with AGN feedback reveal merger time-scales of ${\sim} 100$--$500$ Myr for disc mergers and ${\sim} 1$--$2$ Gyr for elliptical mergers. With a semi-analytical approach, we find that the torque interaction between the binary and its circumbinary disc has minimal impact on the shrinking of the binary orbit in our retrograde galaxy merger. Our results are useful in improving the modelling of SMBH merger time-scales and gravitational wave event rates.

The radioactive isotopes ⁴⁴Ti and ⁵⁶Ni are important products of explosive nucleosynthesis, which play a key role in supernova (SN) diagnostics and have been detected in several nearby young SN remnants. However, most SN models based on nonrotating single stars predict yields of ⁴⁴Ti that are much lower than the values inferred from observations. We present, for the first time, the nucleosynthesis yields from a self-consistent three-dimensional SN simulation of a ~19 M _⊙ progenitor star that reaches an explosion energy comparable to that of SN 1987A and that covers the evolution of the neutrino-driven explosion until more than 7 s after core bounce. We find a significant enhancement of the Ti/Fe yield compared to recent spherically symmetric (1D) models and demonstrate that the long-time evolution is crucial to understanding the efficient production of ⁴⁴Ti due to the nonmonotonic temperature and density history of the ejected material. Additionally, we identify characteristic signatures of the nucleosynthesis in proton-rich ejecta, in particular high yields of ⁴⁵Sc and ⁶⁴Zn.

We present the morphological parameters and global properties of dust-obscured star formation in typical star-forming galaxies at z=4-6. Among 26 galaxies composed of 20 galaxies observed by the Cycle-8 ALMA Large Program, CRISTAL, and six galaxies from archival data, we have individually detected rest-frame 158$\mu$m dust continuum emission from 19 galaxies, nine of which are reported for the first time. The derived far-infrared luminosities are in the range $\log_{10} L_{\rm IR}\,[L_{\odot}]=$10.9-12.4, an order of magnitude lower than previously detected massive dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs). The average relationship between the fraction of dust-obscured star formation ($f_{\rm obs}$) and the stellar mass is consistent with previous results at z=4-6 in a mass range of $\log_{10} M_{\ast}\,[M_{\odot}]\sim$9.5-11.0 and show potential evolution from z=6-9. The individual $f_{\rm obs}$ exhibits a significant diversity, and it shows a correlation with the spatial offset between the dust and the UV continuum, suggesting the inhomogeneous dust reddening may cause the source-to-source scatter in $f_{\rm obs}$. The effective radii of the dust emission are on average $\sim$1.5 kpc and are $\sim2$ times more extended than the rest-frame UV. The infrared surface densities of these galaxies ($\Sigma_{\rm IR}\sim2.0\times10^{10}\,L_{\odot}\,{\rm kpc}^{-2}$) are one order of magnitude lower than those of DSFGs that host compact central starbursts. On the basis of the comparable contribution of dust-obscured and dust-unobscured star formation along with their similar spatial extent, we suggest that typical star-forming galaxies at z=4-6 form stars throughout the entirety of their disks.

Cosmologists aim to uncover the underlying cosmological model governing the formation and evolution of the Universe. One approach is through studying the large-scale structure (LSS) traced by galaxy redshift surveys. In this paper, we explore clustering and covariance errors of BOSS and eBOSS surveys in configuration and Fourier space with a new generation of galaxy lightcones. We create 16 lightcones using the UCHUU simulation: a 2$h^{-1}$Gpc $N$-body simulation tracking 2.1 trillion dark matter particles within a Planck-$\Lambda$CDM cosmology. Simulation's (sub)halos are populated with Luminous red galaxies (LRGs) using the subhalo abundance matching. For estimating covariance errors, we generate 5,040 GLAM-UCHUU LRG lightcones based on GLAM $N$-body simulations. LRGs are included using halo occupation distribution. Our simulated lightcones reproduce BOSS/eBOSS clustering statistics on scales from redshifts 0.2 to 1.0, from 2 to 150$h^{-1}$Mpc, and from 0.005 to 0.7$h$Mpc$^{-1}$, in configuration and Fourier space, respectively. We analyse stellar mass and redshift effects on clustering and bias, revealing consistency with data and noting an increasing bias factor with redshift. Our investigation leads us to the conclusion that the Planck-$\Lambda$CDM cosmology accurately explains the observed LSS. Furthermore, we compare our GLAM-UCHUU LRG lightcones with MD-PATCHY and EZMOCK, identifying large deviations from observations within 20$h^{-1}$Mpc. We examine covariance matrices, finding that our data estimated errors are higher than those previously reported, carrying significant implications for cosmological parameter inferences. Lastly, we explore cosmology's impact on galaxy clustering. Our results suggest that, given the current level of uncertainties, we are unable to distinguish models with and without massive neutrino effects on LSS.

The evolved stages of massive stars are poorly understood, but invaluable constraints can be derived from spatially resolved observations of nearby red supergiants, such as Betelgeuse. ALMA observations of Betelgeuse showing a dipolar velocity field have been interpreted as evidence for a rotation rate of $v\sin i \sim 5\, \mathrm{km\, s^{-1}}$. This is two orders of magnitude larger than predicted by single-star evolution, leading to the suggestion that Betelgeuse is a binary merger product. We propose instead that the velocity field could be due to large-scale convective motions. The resulting surface velocity maps can sometimes be mistaken for rotation, especially when the turbulent motions are only partially resolved, as is the case for the current ALMA beam. We support this claim with 3D CO5BOLD simulations of non-rotating red supergiants post-processed to predict synthetic ALMA images and SiO spectra to compare with observed radial velocity maps. Our simulations show a $\sim 50\%$ chance to be interpreted as evidence for a rotation rate as high as claimed for Betelgeuse. We conclude that we need at least another ALMA observation to firmly establish whether Betelgeuse is indeed rapidly rotating. Such observations would also provide insight into the role of angular momentum and binary interaction in the late evolutionary stages. The data will further probe the structure and complex physical processes in the atmospheres of red supergiants, which are immediate progenitors of supernovae and are believed to be essential in the formation of gravitational wave sources.

We address the issue of the compositeness of hadronic states and demonstrate that starting with a genuine state of nonmolecular nature, but which couples to some meson-meson component to be observable in that channel, if that state is blamed for a bound state appearing below the meson-meson threshold it gets dressed with a meson cloud and it becomes pure molecular in the limit case of zero binding. We discuss the issue of the scales, and see that if the genuine state has a mass very close to threshold, the theorem holds, but the molecular probability goes to unity in a very narrow range of energies close to threshold. The conclusion is that the value of the binding does not determine the compositeness of a state. However, in such extreme cases we see that the scattering length gets progressively smaller and the effective range grows indefinitely. In other words, the binding energy does not determine the compositeness of a state, but the additional information of the scattering length and effective range can provide an answer. We also show that the consideration of a direct attractive interaction between the mesons in addition to having a genuine component, increases the compositeness of the state. Explicit calculations are done for the T_cc (3875) state, but are easily generalized to any hadronic system.

Recently Lian et al. (2023), thanks to Gaia-ESO data, studied the chemical evolution of neutron-capture elements in the regime [Fe/H]>-1. We aim here to complement this study down to [Fe/H]=-3, and focus on Ba, Y, Sr, and abundance ratios of [Ba/Y] and [Sr/Y], which give comprehensive views on s-process nucleosynthesis channels. We measured LTE and NLTE abundances of Ba, Y, and Sr in 323 Galactic metal-poor stars using high-resolution optical spectra with high S/N. We used the spectral fitting code TSFitPy, together with 1D model atmospheres using previously determined LTE and NLTE atmospheric parameters. The NLTE effects are on the order of -0.1 to ~0.2dex depending on the element. T he ratio between heavy and light s-process elements [Ba/Y] varies weakly with [Fe/H] even in the metal-poor regime, consistently with the behavior in the metal-rich regime. The [Ba/Y] scatter at a given metallicity is larger than the abundance measurement uncertainties. Homogeneous chemical evolution models with different yields prescriptions are unable to accurately reproduce the [Ba/Y] scatter at low-[Fe/H]. Adopting the stochastic chemical evolution model by Cescutti & Chaippini (2014) allows to reproduce the observed scatter in the abundance pattern of [Ba/Y] and [Ba/Sr]. With our observations, we rule out the need for an arbitrary scaling of the r-process contribution as previously suggested by the model authors. We have showed how important it is to properly include NLTE effects when measuring chemical abundances, especially in the metal-poor regime. This work shows that the choice of the Galactic chemical evolution model (stochastic vs. 1-zone) is key when comparing models to observations. The upcoming surveys such as 4MOST and WEAVE will deliver high quality spectra of many thousands of metal-poor stars, and this work gives a typical case study of what could be achieved with such surveys.

We describe an algorithm to organize Feynman integrals in terms of their infrared properties. Our approach builds upon the theory of Landau singularities, which we use to classify all configurations of loop momenta that can give rise to infrared divergences. We then construct bases of numerators for arbitrary Feynman integrals, which cancel all singularities and render the integrals finite. Through the same analysis, one can also classify so-called evanescent and evanescently finite Feynman integrals. These are integrals whose vanishing or finiteness relies on properties of dimensional regularization. To illustrate the use of these integrals, we display how to obtain a simpler form for the leading-color two-loop four-gluon scattering amplitude through the choice of a suitable basis of finite integrals. In particular, when all gluon helicities are equal, we show that with our basis the most complicated double-box integrals do not contribute to the finite remainder of the scattering amplitude.

We introduce the `Resolving supermAssive Black hole Binaries In galacTic hydrodynamical Simulations' (RABBITS) series of studies to investigate the orbital evolution of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) during galaxy mergers. We simulate both disc and elliptical galaxy mergers using the KETJU code, which can simultaneously follow galaxy (hydro-)dynamics and small-scale SMBH dynamics with post-Newtonian corrections. With our SMBH binary subgrid model, we show how active galactic nuclei (AGNs) feedback affects galaxy properties and SMBH coalescence. We find that simulations without AGN feedback exhibit excessive star formation, resulting in merger remnants that deviate from observed properties. Kinetic AGN feedback proves more effective than thermal AGN feedback in expelling gas from the centre and quenching star formation. The different central galaxy properties, which are a result of distinct AGN feedback models, lead to varying rates of SMBH orbital decay. In the dynamical friction phase, galaxies with higher star formation and higher SMBH masses possess denser centres, become more resistant to tidal stripping, experience greater dynamical friction, and consequently form SMBH binaries earlier. As AGN feedback reduces gas densities in the centres, dynamical friction by stars dominates over gas. In the SMBH hardening phase, compared to elliptical mergers, disc mergers exhibit higher central densities of newly formed stars, resulting in accelerated SMBH hardening and shorter merger time-scales (i.e. $\lesssim 500$ Myr versus $\gtrsim 1$ Gyr). Our findings highlight the importance of AGN feedback and its numerical implementation in understanding the SMBH coalescing process, a key focus for low-frequency gravitational wave observatories.

Rotation matters for the life of a star. It causes a multitude of dynamical phenomena in the stellar interior during a star's evolution and its effects accumulate until the star dies. All stars rotate at some level but those born with a mass above about 1.3 times the mass of the Sun rotate rapidly during more than 90% of their nuclear lifetime. Internal rotation guides the angular momentum and chemical element transport throughout the stellar interior. These transport processes change over time as the star evolves. The cumulative effects of stellar rotation and its induced transport processes determine the helium content of the core by the time it exhausts its hydrogen isotopes. The amount of helium at that stage also guides the heavy element yields at the end of the star's life. A proper theory of stellar evolution and any realistic models for the chemical enrichment of galaxies, must be based on observational calibrations of stellar rotation and of the induced transport processes. Since a few years, asteroseismology offers such calibrations, for single and binary stars. We review the current status of asteroseismic modelling of rotating stars for different stellar mass regimes, in an accessible way for the non-expert. While doing so, we describe exciting opportunities sparked by asteroseismology for various domains in astrophysics, touching upon topics from exoplanetary science to galactic structure and evolution towards gravitational wave physics. Along the way, we provide ample sneak-previews for future 'industrialised' applications of asteroseismology to slow and rapid rotators, from exploitation of combined Kepler, TESS, PLATO, Gaia, and spectroscopy surveys. We end the review with a list of take away messages and achievements of asteroseismology, which are of relevance for many fields of astrophysics.

In the most extreme astrophysical environments, such as core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe) and neutron star mergers (NSMs), neutrinos can undergo fast flavor conversions (FFCs) on exceedingly short scales. Intensive simulations have demonstrated that FFCs can attain equilibrium states in certain models. In this study, we utilize physics-informed neural networks (PINNs) to predict the asymptotic outcomes of FFCs, by specifically targeting the first two moments of neutrino angular distributions. This makes our approach suitable for state-of-the-art CCSN and NSM simulations. Through effective feature engineering and the incorporation of customized loss functions that penalize discrepancies in the predicted total number of $\nu_e$ and $\bar\nu_e$, our PINNs demonstrate remarkable accuracies, with an error margin of $\lesssim3\%$. Our study represents a substantial leap forward in the potential incorporation of FFCs into simulations of CCSNe and NSMs, thereby enhancing our understanding of these extraordinary astrophysical events.

In this work we compare the predictions for the scattering length and effective range of the channels $K^0 \Sigma^+, K^+ \Sigma^0 , K^+ \Lambda$ and $\eta p$, assuming the $N^*(1535)$ state as a molecular state of these channels, or an original genuine state, made for instance from three quarks. Looking at very different scenarios, what we conclude is that the predictions of these two pictures are drastically different, to the point that we advise the measurement of these magnitudes, accessible for instance by measuring correlation functions, in order to gain much valuable information concerning the nature of this state.

Gravity is the driving force of star formation. Although gravity is caused by the presence of matter, its role in complex regions is still unsettled. One effective way to study the pattern of gravity is to compute the accretion it exerts on the gas by providing gravitational acceleration maps. A practical way to study acceleration is by computing it using 2D surface density maps, yet whether these maps are accurate remains uncertain. Using numerical simulations, we confirm that the accuracy of the acceleration maps a_2D(x, y) computed from 2D surface density are good representations for the mean acceleration weighted by mass. Due to the underestimations of the distances from projected maps, the magnitudes of accelerations will be overestimated $|\mathbf {a}_{\rm 2D}(x,y)| \approx 2.3 \pm 1.8 \,\, |\mathbf {a}_{\rm 3D}^{\rm proj}(x,y)|$, where $\mathbf {a}_{\rm 3D}^{\rm proj}(x,y)$ is mass-weighted projected gravitational acceleration, yet a_2D(x, y) and $\mathbf {a}_{\rm 3D}^{\rm proj}(x,y)$ stay aligned within 20°. Significant deviations only occur in regions where multiple structures are present along the line of sight. The acceleration maps estimated from surface density provide good descriptions of the projection of 3D acceleration fields. We expect this technique useful in establishing the link between cloud morphology and star formation, and in understanding the link between gravity and other processes such as the magnetic field. A version of the code for calculating surface density gravitational potential is available at github.com/zhenzhen-research/phi_2d.

We present the dust properties of 125 bright Herschel galaxies selected from the z-GAL NOEMA spectroscopic redshift survey. All the galaxies have precise spectroscopic redshifts in the range 1.3 < z < 5.4. The large instantaneous bandwidth of NOEMA provides an exquisite sampling of the underlying dust continuum emission at 2 and 3 mm in the observed frame, with flux densities in at least four sidebands for each source. Together with the available Herschel 250, 350, and 500 μm and SCUBA-2 850 μm flux densities, the spectral energy distribution (SED) of each source can be analyzed from the far-infrared to the millimeter, with a fine sampling of the Rayleigh-Jeans tail. This wealth of data provides a solid basis to derive robust dust properties, in particular the dust emissivity index (β) and the dust temperature (T_dust). In order to demonstrate our ability to constrain the dust properties, we used a flux-generated mock catalog and analyzed the results under the assumption of an optically thin and optically thick modified black body emission. The robustness of the SED sampling for the z-GAL sources is highlighted by the mock analysis that showed high accuracy in estimating the continuum dust properties. These findings provided the basis for our detailed analysis of the z-GAL continuum data. We report a range of dust emissivities with β ∼ 1.5 − 3 estimated up to high precision with relative uncertainties that vary in the range 7%−15%, and an average of 2.2 ± 0.3. We find dust temperatures varying from 20 to 50 K with an average of T_dust ∼ 30 K for the optically thin case and T_dust ∼ 38 K in the optically thick case. For all the sources, we estimate the dust masses and apparent infrared luminosities (based on the optically thin approach). An inverse correlation is found between T_dust and β with β ∝ T_dust^−0.69, which is similar to what is seen in the local Universe. Finally, we report an increasing trend in the dust temperature as a function of redshift at a rate of 6.5 ± 0.5 K/z for this 500 μm-selected sample. Based on this study, future prospects are outlined to further explore the evolution of dust temperature across cosmic time.

Full Tables A.1 and B.1 are available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr (ftp://130.79.128.5) or via https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/A+A/678/A27

We report on our study of the supernova (SN) 2022xxf based on observations obtained during the first four months of its evolution. The light curves (LCs) display two humps of similar maximum brightness separated by 75 days, unprecedented for a broad-lined (BL) Type Ic supernova (SN IcBL). SN 2022xxf is the most nearby SN IcBL to date (in NGC 3705, z = 0.0037, at a distance of about 20 Mpc). Optical and near-infrared photometry and spectroscopy were used to identify the energy source powering the LC. Nearly 50 epochs of high signal-to-noise ratio spectroscopy were obtained within 130 days, comprising an unparalleled dataset for a SN IcBL, and one of the best-sampled SN datasets to date. The global spectral appearance and evolution of SN 2022xxf points to typical SN Ic/IcBL, with broad features (up to ~14 000 km s⁻¹) and a gradual transition from the photospheric to the nebular phase. However, narrow emission lines (corresponding to ~ 1000-2500 km s⁻¹) are present in the spectra from the time of the second rise, suggesting slower-moving circumstellar material (CSM). These lines are subtle, in comparison to the typical strong narrow lines of CSM-interacting SNe, for example, Type IIn, Ibn, and Icn, but some are readily noticeable at late times, such as in Mg I λ5170 and [O I] λ5577. Unusually, the near-infrared spectra show narrow line peaks in a number of features formed by ions of O and Mg. We infer the presence of CSM that is free of H and He. We propose that the radiative energy from the ejecta-CSM interaction is a plausible explanation for the second LC hump. This interaction scenario is supported by the color evolution, which progresses to blue as the light curve evolves along the second hump, and by the slow second rise and subsequent rapid LC drop. SN 2022xxf may be related to an emerging number of CSM-interacting SNe Ic, which show slow, peculiar LCs, blue colors, and subtle CSM interaction lines. The progenitor stars of these SNe likely experienced an episode of mass loss consisting of H/He-free material shortly prior to explosion.

Photometric and spectroscopic data are available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr (ftp://130.79.128.5) or via https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/A+A/678/A209

Using the IRAM NOrthern Extended Millimetre Array (NOEMA), we conducted a Large Programme (z-GAL) to measure redshifts for 126 bright galaxies detected in the Herschel Astrophysical Large Area Survey (H-ATLAS), the HerMES Large Mode Survey (HeLMS), and the Herschel Stripe 82 (HerS) Survey. We report reliable spectroscopic redshifts for a total of 124 of the Herschel-selected galaxies. The redshifts are estimated from scans of the 3 and 2-mm bands (and, for one source, the 1-mm band), covering up to 31 GHz in each band, and are based on the detection of at least two emission lines. Together with the Pilot Programme, where 11 sources had their spectroscopic redshifts measured, our survey has derived precise redshifts for 135 bright Herschel-selected galaxies, making it the largest sample of high-z galaxies with robust redshifts to date. Most emission lines detected are from ¹²CO (mainly from J = 2-1 to 5-4), with some sources seen in [CI] and H₂O emission lines. The spectroscopic redshifts are in the range 0.8 < z < 6.55 with a median value of z = 2.56 ± 0.10, centred on the peak epoch of galaxy formation. The linewidths of the sources are large, with a mean value for the full width at half maximum ΔV of 590 ± 25 km s⁻¹ and with 35% of the sources having widths of 700 km s⁻¹ < ΔV < 1800 km s⁻¹. Most of the sources are unresolved or barely resolved on scales of ∼2 to 3″ (or linear sizes of ∼15 − 25 kpc, unlensed). Some fields reveal double or multiple sources in line emission and the underlying dust continuum and, in some cases, sources at different redshifts. Taking these sources into account, there are, in total, 165 individual sources with robust spectroscopic redshifts, including lensed galaxies, binary systems, and over-densities. This paper presents an overview of the z-GAL survey and provides the observed properties of the emission lines, the derived spectroscopic redshifts, and a catalogue of the entire sample. The catalogue includes, for each source, the combined continuum and emission lines' maps together with the spectra for each of the detected emission lines. The data presented here will serve as a foundation for the other z-GAL papers in this series reporting on the dust emission, the molecular and atomic gas properties, and a detailed analysis of the nature of the sources. Comparisons are made with other spectroscopic surveys of high-z galaxies and future prospects, including dedicated follow-up observations based on these redshift measurements, are outlined.

Parton showers which can efficiently incorporate quantum interference effects have been shown to be run efficiently on quantum computers. However, so far these quantum parton showers did not include the full kinematical information required to reconstruct an event, which in classical parton showers requires the use of a veto algorithm. In this work, we show that adding one extra assumption about the discretization of the evolution variable allows to construct a quantum veto algorithm, which reproduces the full quantum interference in the event, and allows to include kinematical effects. We finally show that for certain initial states the quantum interference effects generated in this veto algorithm are classically tractable, such that an efficient classical algorithm can be devised.

Diamond operated as a cryogenic calorimeter is an excellent target for direct detection of low-mass dark matter candidates. Following the realization of the first low-threshold cryogenic detector that uses diamond as absorber for astroparticle physics applications, we now present the resulting exclusion limits on the elastic spin-independent interaction cross-section of dark matter with diamond. We measured two 0.175 g CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition) diamond samples, each instrumented with a W-TES. Thanks to the energy threshold of just 16.8 eV of one of the two detectors, we set exclusion limits on the elastic spin-independent interaction of dark matter particles with carbon nuclei down to dark matter masses as low as 0.122 GeV/c2. This work shows the scientific potential of cryogenic detectors made from diamond and lays the foundation for the use of this material as target for direct detection dark matter experiments.

Context. Recent JWST observations of the Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) 2021aefx in the nebular phase have paved the way for late-time studies covering the full optical to mid-infrared (MIR) wavelength range, and with it the hope to better constrain SN Ia explosion mechanisms.
Aims: We investigate whether public SN Ia models covering a broad range of progenitor scenarios and explosion mechanisms (Chandrasekhar-mass, or M_Ch, delayed detonations, pulsationally assisted gravitationally confined detonations, sub-M_Ch double detonations, and violent mergers) can reproduce the full optical-MIR spectrum of SN 2021aefx at ∼270 days post explosion.
Methods: We consider spherically averaged 3D models available from the Heidelberg Supernova Model Archive with a ⁵⁶Ni yield in the range 0.5-0.8 M_⊙. We performed 1D steady-state non-local thermodynamic equilibrium simulations with the radiative-transfer code CMFGEN, and compared the predicted spectra to SN 2021aefx.
Results: The models can explain the main features of SN 2021aefx over the full wavelength range. However, no single model, or mechanism, emerges as a preferred match, and the predicted spectra are similar to each other despite the very different explosion mechanisms. We discuss possible causes for the mismatch of the models, including ejecta asymmetries and ionisation effects. Our new calculations of the collisional strengths for Ni III have a major impact on the two prominent lines at 7.35 μm and 11.00 μm, and highlight the need for more accurate collisional data for forbidden transitions. Using updated atomic data, we identify a strong feature due to [Ca IV] 3.21 μm, attributed to [Ni I] in previous studies. We also provide a tentative identification of a forbidden line due to [Ne II] 12.81 μm, whose peaked profile indicates the presence of neon all the way to the innermost region of the ejecta, as predicted for instance in violent merger models. Contrary to previous claims, we show that the [Ar III] 8.99 μm line can be broader in sub-M_Ch models compared to near-M_Ch models. Last, the total luminosity in lines of Ni is found to correlate strongly with the stable nickel yield, although ionisation effects can bias the inferred abundance.
Conclusions: Our models suggest that key physical ingredients are missing from either the explosion models, or the radiative-transfer post-processing, or both. Nonetheless, they also show the potential of the near- and MIR to uncover new spectroscopic diagnostics of SN Ia explosion mechanisms.

Full Tables F.1 and F.2 are available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr (ftp://130.79.128.5) or via https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/A+A/678/A170

Liquid-liquid phase separation yields spherical droplets that eventually coarsen to one large, stable droplet governed by the principle of minimal free energy. In chemically fueled phase separation, the formation of phase-separating molecules is coupled to a fuel-driven, non-equilibrium reaction cycle. It thus yields dissipative structures sustained by a continuous fuel conversion. Such dissipative structures are ubiquitous in biology but are poorly understood as they are governed by non-equilibrium thermodynamics. Here, we bridge the gap between passive, close-to-equilibrium, and active, dissipative structures with chemically fueled phase separation. We observe that spherical, active droplets can undergo a morphological transition into a liquid, spherical shell. We demonstrate that the mechanism is related to gradients of short-lived droplet material. We characterize how far out of equilibrium the spherical shell state is and the chemical power necessary to sustain it. Our work suggests alternative avenues for assembling complex stable morphologies, which might already be exploited to form membraneless organelles by cells.

We describe the formalism to analyze the mathematical ambiguities arising in partial-wave analysis of two spinless mesons produced with a linearly polarized photon beam. We show that partial waves are uniquely defined when all accessible observables are considered, for a wave set which includes S and D waves. The inclusion of higher partial waves does not affect our results, and we conclude that there are no mathematical ambiguities in partial-wave analysis of two mesons produced with a linearly polarized photon beam. We present Monte Carlo simulations to illustrate our results.

Dark matter self-interactions may have the capability to solve or at least mitigate small-scale problems of the cosmological standard model, {\Lambda}CDM. There are a variety of self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) models that lead to distinguishable astrophysical predictions and hence varying success in explaining observations. Studies of dark matter (DM) density cores on various mass scales suggest a velocity-dependent scattering cross-section. In this work we investigate how a velocity dependence alters the evolution of the DM distribution for frequent DM scatterings and compare to the velocity-independent case. We demonstrate that these cases are qualitatively different using a test problem. Moreover, we study the evolution of the density profile of idealised DM haloes and find that a velocity dependence can lead to larger core sizes and different time scales of core formation and core collapse. In cosmological simulations, we investigate the effect of velocity-dependent self-interaction on haloes and satellites in the mass range of $\approx 10^{11} - 10^{14}$ M$_\odot$. We study the abundance of satellites, density and shape profiles and try to infer qualitative differences between velocity-dependent and velocity-independent scatterings as well as between frequent and rare self-interactions. We find that a strongly velocity-dependent cross-section can significantly amplify the diversity of rotation curves, independent of the angular dependence of the differential cross-section. We further find that the abundance of satellites in general depends on both the velocity dependence and the scattering angle, although the latter is less important for strongly velocity-dependent cross-sections.

Strong non-relativistic shocks are known to accelerate particles up to relativistic energies. However, for Diffusive Shock Acceleration electrons must have a highly suprathermal energy, implying a need for very efficient pre-acceleration. Most published studies consider shocks propagating through homogeneous plasma, which is an unrealistic assumption for astrophysical environments. Using 2D3V particle-in-cell simulations, we investigate electron acceleration and heating processes at non-relativistic high-Mach-number shocks in electron-ion plasma with a turbulent upstream medium. For this purpose slabs of plasma with compressive turbulence are separately simulated and then inserted into shock simulations, which requires matching of the plasma slabs at the interface. Using a novel procedure of matching electromagnetic fields and currents, we perform simulations of perpendicular shocks setting different intensities of density fluctuations ($\lesssim 10\%$) in the upstream. The new simulation technique provides a framework for studying shocks propagating in turbulent media. We explore the impact of the fluctuations on electron heating, the dynamics of upstream electrons, and the driving of plasma instabilities. Our results indicate that while the presence of the turbulence enhances variations in the upstream magnetic field, their levels remain too low to influence significantly the behavior of electrons at perpendicular shocks.

We analyze the impact of positivity conditions on static spherically symmetric deformations of the Schwarzschild space-time. The metric is taken to satisfy, at least asymptotically, the Einstein equation in the presence of a nontrivial stress-energy tensor, on which we impose various physicality conditions. We systematically study and compare the impact of these conditions on the space-time deformations. The universal nature of our findings applies to both classical and quantum metric deformations with and without event horizons. We further discuss minimal realizations of the asymptotic stress energy tensor in terms of physical fields. Finally, we illustrate our results by discussing concrete models of quantum black holes.

An outstanding question is whether the α/Fe bimodality exists in disk galaxies other than in the Milky Way. Here we present a bimodality using our state-of-the-art galactic chemical evolution models that can explain various observations in the Andromeda galaxy (M31) disks, namely, elemental abundances both of planetary nebulae and of red giant branch stars recently observed with the James Webb Space Telescope. We find that in M31 a high-α thicker-disk population out to 30 kpc formed by a more intense initial starburst than that in the Milky Way. We also find a young low-α thin disk within 14 kpc, which is formed by a secondary star formation M31 underwent about 2-4.5 Gyr ago, probably triggered by a wet merger. In the outer disk, however, the planetary nebula observations indicate a slightly higher-α young (~2.5 Gyr) population at a given metallicity, possibly formed by secondary star formation from almost pristine gas. Therefore, an α/Fe bimodality is seen in the inner disk (≲14 kpc), while only a slight α/Fe offset of the young population is seen in the outer disk (≳18 kpc). The appearance of the α/Fe bimodality depends on the merging history at various galactocentric radii, and wide-field multiobject spectroscopy is required for unveiling the history of M31.

I highlight a few thoughts on the contribution to the dipole moments from the so-called θ parameter. The dipole moments are known can be generated by θ . In fact, the renowned strong CP problem was formulated as a result of nonobservation of the dipole moments. What is less known is that there is another parameter of the theory, the θ_QED which becomes also a physical and observable parameter of the system when some conditions are met. This claim should be contrasted with conventional (and very naive) viewpoint that the θ_QED is unphysical and unobservable. A specific manifestation of this phenomenon is the so-called Witten effect when the magnetic monopole becomes the dyon with induced electric charge e^'=-e θ/QE_D 2 π . We argued that the similar arguments suggest that the electric magnetic dipole moment μ of any microscopical configuration in the background of θ_QED generates the electric dipole moment ⟨d_ind⟩ proportional to θ_QED, i.e., ⟨d_ind⟩=-θ/QE_D.α π μ . We also argue that many CP odd correlations such as ⟨B_{→ ext}.E → ⟩=-α/θ_QED π B_→^{ext 2} will be generated in the background of an external magnetic field B_→ext as a result of the same physics.

Accurately estimating the C/O ratio of hot Jupiter atmospheres is a promising pathway towards understanding planet formation and migration, as well as the formation of clouds and the overall atmospheric composition. The atmosphere of the hot Jupiter WASP-43b has been extensively analysed using low-resolution observations with HST and Spitzer, but these previous observations did not cover the K band, which hosts prominent spectral features of major carbon-bearing species such as CO and CH₄. As a result, the ability to establish precise constraints on the C/O ratio was limited. Moreover, the planet has not been studied at high spectral resolution, which can provide insights into the atmospheric dynamics. In this study, we present the first high-resolution dayside spectra of WASP-43b with the new CRIRES⁺ spectrograph. By observing the planet in the K band, we successfully detected the presence of CO and provide evidence for the existence of H₂O using the cross-correlation method. This discovery represents the first direct detection of CO in the atmosphere of WASP-43b. Furthermore, we retrieved the temperature-pressure profile, abundances of CO and H₂O, and a super-solar C/O ratio of 0.78 by applying a Bayesian retrieval framework to the data. Our findings also shed light on the atmospheric characteristics of WASP-43b. We found no evidence for a cloud deck on the dayside, and recovered a line broadening indicative of an equatorial super-rotation corresponding to a jet with a wind speed of ~5kms⁻¹, matching the results of previous forward models and low-resolution atmospheric retrievals for this planet.

How can a self-organized cellular function evolve, adapt to perturbations, and acquire new sub-functions? To make progress in answering these basic questions of evolutionary cell biology, we analyze, as a concrete example, the cell polarity machinery of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This cellular module exhibits an intriguing resilience: it remains operational under genetic perturbations and recovers quickly and reproducibly from the deletion of one of its key components. Using a combination of modeling, conceptual theory, and experiments, we propose that multiple, redundant self-organization mechanisms coexist within the protein network underlying cell polarization and are responsible for the module's resilience and adaptability. Based on our mechanistic understanding of polarity establishment, we hypothesize that scaffold proteins, by introducing new connections in the existing network, can increase the redundancy of mechanisms and thus increase the evolvability of other network components. Moreover, our work gives a perspective on how a complex, redundant cellular module might have evolved from a more rudimental ancestral form.

We explore the features of interpolating gauge for QCD. This gauge, defined by Doust and by Baulieu and Zwanziger, interpolates between Feynman gauge or Lorenz gauge and Coulomb gauge. We argue that it could be useful for defining the splitting functions for a parton shower beyond order α_s or for defining the infrared subtraction terms for higher order perturbative calculations.

We discover analytic equations that can infer the value of Ω_m from the positions and velocity moduli of halo and galaxy catalogs. The equations are derived by combining a tailored graph neural network (GNN) architecture with symbolic regression. We first train the GNN on dark matter halos from Gadget N-body simulations to perform field-level likelihood-free inference, and show that our model can infer Ω_m with ~6% accuracy from halo catalogs of thousands of N-body simulations run with six different codes: Abacus, CUBEP³M, Gadget, Enzo, PKDGrav3, and Ramses. By applying symbolic regression to the different parts comprising the GNN, we derive equations that can predict Ω_m from halo catalogs of simulations run with all of the above codes with accuracies similar to those of the GNN. We show that, by tuning a single free parameter, our equations can also infer the value of Ω_m from galaxy catalogs of thousands of state-of-the-art hydrodynamic simulations of the CAMELS project, each with a different astrophysics model, run with five distinct codes that employ different subgrid physics: IllustrisTNG, SIMBA, Astrid, Magneticum, SWIFT-EAGLE. Furthermore, the equations also perform well when tested on galaxy catalogs from simulations covering a vast region in parameter space that samples variations in 5 cosmological and 23 astrophysical parameters. We speculate that the equations may reflect the existence of a fundamental physics relation between the phase-space distribution of generic tracers and Ω_m, one that is not affected by galaxy formation physics down to scales as small as 10 h ^-1 kpc.

The recently reported observation of VFTS 243 is the first example of a massive black-hole binary system with negligible binary interaction following black-hole formation. The black-hole mass ($\approx 10\ M_{\odot}$) and near-circular orbit ($e\approx 0.02$) of VFTS 243 suggest that the progenitor star experienced complete collapse, with energy-momentum being lost predominantly through neutrinos. VFTS 243 enables us to constrain the natal kick and neutrino-emission asymmetry during black-hole formation. At 68% C.L., the natal kick velocity (mass decrement) is $\lesssim 10$ km/s ($\lesssim 1.0\ M_{\odot}$). Most likely $\approx 0.3\ M_{\odot}$ were ejected, presumably in neutrinos, and the black hole experienced a natal kick of $4$ km/s. The neutrino-emission asymmetry is $\lesssim 4$%, with best fit values of $\sim$0-0.2%. Such a small neutrino natal kick accompanying black-hole formation is in agreement with theoretical predictions.

Scattering experiments with three free nucleons in the ingoing channel are extremely challenging in terrestrial laboratories. Recently, the ALICE Collaboration has successfully measured the scattering of three protons indirectly, by using the femtoscopy method in high-energy proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider. In order to establish a connection with current and future measurements of femtoscopic three-particle correlation functions, we analyse the scenarios involving $nnn$ and $ppp$ systems using the hyperspherical adiabatic basis. The correlation function is a convolution of the source function and the corresponding scattering wave function. The finite size of the source allows for the use of the free scattering wave function in most of the adiabatic channels except the lowest ones. The scattering wave function has been computed using two different potential models: $(i)$ a spin-dependent Gaussian potential with parameters fixed to reproduce the scattering length and effective range and $(ii)$ the Argonne $v_{18}$ nucleon-nucleon interaction. Moreover, in the case of three protons, the Coulomb interaction has been considered in its hypercentral form. The results presented here have to be considered as a first step in the description of three-particle correlation functions using the hyperspherical adiabatic basis, opening the door to the investigation of other systems, such as the $pp\Lambda$ system. For completeness, the comparison with the measurement by the ALICE Collaboration is shown assuming different values of the source radius.

We present a Lagrangian approach to counting degrees of freedom in first-order field theories. The emphasis is on the systematic attainment of a complete set of constraints. In particular, we provide the first comprehensive procedure to ensure the functional independence of all constraints and discuss in detail the possible closures of the constraint algorithm. We argue degrees of freedom can but need not correspond to physical modes. The appendix comprises fully worked out, physically relevant examples of varying complexity.

Neutrinos in dense environments like core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe) and neutron star mergers (NSMs) can undergo fast flavor conversions (FFCs) once the angular distribution of neutrino lepton number crosses zero along a certain direction. Recent advancements have demonstrated the effectiveness of machine learning (ML) in detecting these crossings. In this study, we enhance prior research in two significant ways. Firstly, we utilize realistic data from CCSN simulations, where neutrino transport is solved using the full Boltzmann equation. We evaluate the ML methods' adaptability in a real-world context, enhancing their robustness. In particular, we demonstrate that when working with artificial data, simpler models outperform their more complex counterparts, a noteworthy illustration of the bias-variance tradeoff in the context of ML. We also explore methods to improve artificial datasets for ML training. In addition, we extend our ML techniques to detect the crossings in the heavy-leptonic channels, accommodating scenarios where $\nu_x$ and $\bar\nu_x$ may differ. Our research highlights the extensive versatility and effectiveness of ML techniques, presenting an unparalleled opportunity to evaluate the occurrence of FFCs in CCSN and NSM simulations.

We compute the first moments of the $q^2$ distribution in inclusive semileptonic $B$ decays as functions of the lower cut on $q^2$, confirming a number of results given in the literature and adding the $O(\alpha_s^2\beta_0)$ BLM contributions. We then include the $q^2$-moments recently measured by Belle and Belle II in a global fit to the moments. The new data are compatible with the other measurements and slightly decrease the uncertainty on the nonperturbative parameters and on $|V_{cb}|$. Our updated value is $|V_{cb}|=(41.97\pm 0.48)\times 10^{-3}$.

Self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) has been proposed to solve small-scale problems in $\Lambda$CDM cosmology. In previous work, constraints on the self-interaction cross-section of dark matter have been derived assuming that the self-interaction cross-section is independent of velocity. However, a velocity-dependent cross-section is more natural in most theories of SIDM. Using idealized $N$-body simulations, we study merging clusters, with velocity-dependent SIDM. In addition to the usual rare scattering in the isotropic limit, we also simulate these systems with anisotropic, small-angle (frequent) scatterings. We study the qualitative features of the mergers and we find that the effects of velocity-dependent cross-sections are observed when comparing early-time and late-time oscillation amplitude of the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG). Finally, we also extend the existing upper bounds on the velocity-independent, isotropic self-interaction cross-section to the parameter space of rare and frequent velocity-dependent self-interactions by studying the central densities of dark matter only isolated haloes. For these upper-bound parameters, we find that the offsets just after the first pericentre to be $\leq$ 10 kpc. On the other hand, because of BCG oscillations, we speculate that the distribution of BCG offsets in relaxed cluster to be a statistically viable probe. Therefore, this motivates further studies of BCG off-centering in cosmological simulations.

Protoplanetary disks exhibit a vertical gradient in angular momentum, rendering them susceptible to the Vertical Shear Instability (VSI). The most important condition for the onset of this mechanism is a short timescale of thermal relaxation ($\lesssim 0.1$ orbital timescales). Simulations of fully VSI active disks are characterized by turbulent, vertically extended dust layers. This is in contradiction with recent observations of the outer regions of some protoplanetary disks, which appear highly settled. In this work, we demonstrate that the process of dust coagulation can diminish the cooling rate of the gas in the outer disk and extinct the VSI activity. Our findings indicate that the turbulence strength is especially susceptible to variations in the fragmentation velocity of the grains. A small fragmentation velocity of $\approx 100 \mathrm{\, cm \,s^{-1}}$ results in a fully turbulent simulation, whereas a value of $\approx 400 \mathrm{\, cm \,s^{-1}}$ results in a laminar outer disk, being consistent with observations. We show that VSI turbulence remains relatively unaffected by variations in the maximum particle size in the inner disk regions. However, we find that dust coagulation can significantly suppress the occurrence of VSI turbulence at larger distances from the central star.

One of the main scientific goals of the TESS mission is the discovery of transiting small planets around the closest and brightest stars in the sky. Here, using data from the CARMENES, MAROON-X, and HIRES spectrographs together with TESS, we report the discovery and mass determination of aplanetary system around the M1.5 V star GJ 806 (TOI-4481). GJ 806 is a bright (V ≈ 10.8mag, J ≈ 7.3 mag) and nearby (d = 12 pc) M dwarf that hosts at least two planets. The innermost planet, GJ 806 b, is transiting and has an ultra-short orbital period of 0.93 d, a radius of 1.331 ± 0.023 R_⊕, a mass of 1.90 ± 0.17 M_⊕, a mean density of 4.40 ± 0.45 g cm⁻³, and an equilibrium temperature of 940 ± 10 K. We detect a second, non-transiting, super-Earth planet in the system, GJ 806 c, with an orbital period of 6.6 d, a minimum mass of 5.80 ± 0.30 M_⊕, and an equilibrium temperature of 490 ± 5 K. The radial velocity data also shows evidence for a third periodicity at 13.6 d, although the current dataset does not provide sufficient evidence to unambiguously distinguish between a third super-Earth mass (M sin i = 8.50 ± 0.45 M_⊕) planet or stellar activity. Additionally, we report one transit observation of GJ 806 b taken with CARMENES in search of a possible extended atmosphere of H or He, but we can only place upper limits to its existence. This is not surprising as our evolutionary models support the idea that any possible primordial H/He atmosphere that GJ 806 b might have had would be long lost. However, the bulk density of GJ 806 b makes it likely that the planet hosts some type of volatile atmosphere. With transmission spectroscopy metrics (TSM) of 44 and emission spectroscopy metrics (ESM) of 24, GJ 806 b is to date the third-ranked terrestrial planet around an M dwarf suitable for transmission spectroscopy studies using JWST, and the most promising terrestrial planet for emission spectroscopy studies. GJ 806b is also an excellent target for the detection of radio emission via star-planet interactions.

Context. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, largely known as PAHs, are widespread in the Universe and have been identified in a vast array of astronomical observations, from the interstellar medium to protoplanetary disks. They are likely to be associated with the chemical history of the Universe and the emergence of life on Earth. However, their abundance on exoplanets remains unknown.
Aims: We aim to investigate the feasibility of PAH formation in the thermalized atmospheres of irradiated and non-irradiated hot Jupiters around Sun-like stars.
Methods: To this aim, we introduced PAHs in the 1D, self-consistent forward modeling code petitCODE. We simulated a large number of planet atmospheres with different parameters (e.g., carbon to oxygen ratio, metallicity, and effective planetary temperature) to study PAH formation. By coupling the thermochemical equilibrium solution from petitCODE with the 1D radiative transfer code, petitRADTRANS, we calculated the synthetic transmission and emission spectra for irradiated and non-irradiated planets, respectively, and explored the role of PAHs in planet spectra.
Results: Our models show strong correlations between PAH abundance and the aforementioned parameters. In thermochemical equilibrium scenarios, an optimal temperature, elevated carbon to oxygen ratio, and increased metallicity values are conducive to the formation of PAHs, with the carbon to oxygen ratio having the largest effect.

We explore the Emergence Proposal for the moduli metric and the gauge couplings in a concrete model with 7 saxionic and 7 axionic moduli fields, namely the compactification of the type IIA superstring on a 6-dimensional toroidal orbifold. We show that consistency requires integrating out precisely the 12 towers of light particle species arising from KK and string/brane winding modes and one asymptotically tensionless string up to the species scale. After pointing out an issue with the correct definition of the species scale in the presence of string towers, we carry out the emergence computation and find that the KK and winding modes indeed impose the classical moduli dependence on the one-loop corrections, while the emergent string induces moduli dependent logarithmic suppressions. The interpretation of these results for the Emergence Proposal are discussed revealing a couple of new and still not completely settled aspects.

Context. Classical Cepheids (CCs) are solid distance indicators and tracers of young stellar populations. Dating back to the beginning of the 20th century, they have been safely adopted to trace the rotation, kinematics, and chemical enrichment history of the Galactic thin disk.
Aims: The main aim of this investigation is to provide iron, oxygen, and sulfur abundances for the largest and most homogeneous sample of Galactic CCs analyzed so far (1118 spectra of 356 objects). The current sample, containing 70 CCs for which spectroscopic metal abundances are provided for the first time, covers a wide range in galactocentric distances, pulsation modes, and pulsation periods.
Methods: Optical high-resolution spectra with a high signal-to-noise ratio that were collected with different spectrographs were adopted to provide homogeneous estimates of the atmospheric parameters (effective temperature, surface gravity, and microturbulent velocity) that are required to determine the abundance. Individual distances were based either on trigonometric parallaxes by the Gaia Data Release 3 (Gaia DR3) or on distances based on near-infrared period-luminosity relations.
Results: We found that iron and α-element radial gradients based on CCs display a well-defined change in the slope for galactocentric distances larger than ~12 kpc. We also found that logarithmic regressions account for the variation in [X/H] abundances from the inner to the outer disk. Radial gradients for the same elements, but based on open clusters covering a wide range in cluster ages, display similar trends. This means that the flattening in the outer disk is an intrinsic feature of the radial gradients because it is independent of age. Empirical evidence indicates that the S radial gradient is steeper than the Fe radial gradient. The difference in the slope is a factor of two in the linear fit (−0.081 vs. −0.041 dex kpc⁻¹) and changes from −1.62 to −0.91 in the logarithmic distance. Moreover, we found that S (explosive nucleosynthesis) is underabundant on average when compared with O (hydrostatic nucleosynthesis). The difference becomes clearer in the metal-poor regime and for the [O/Fe] and [S/Fe] abundance ratios. We performed a detailed comparison with Galactic chemical evolution models and found that a constant star formation efficiency for galactocentric distances larger than 12 kpc accounts for the flattening observed in both iron and α-elements. To further constrain the impact of the predicted S yields for massive stars on radial gradients, we adopted a toy model and found that the flattening in the outermost regions requires a decrease of a factor of four in the current S predictions.
Conclusions: CCs are solid beacons for tracing the recent chemical enrichment of young stellar populations. Sulfur photospheric abundances, when compared with other α-elements, have the key advantage of being a volatile element. Therefore, stellar S abundances can be directly compared with nebular sulfur abundances in external galaxies.

The full versions of Tables 1-3 are available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr (ftp://130.79.128.5) or via https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/A+A/678/A195

Partly based on observations made with ESO Telescopes at the La Silla/Paranal Observatories under program IDs: 072.D-0419, 073.D-0136, and 190.D-0237 for HARPS spectra; 084.B-0029, 087.A-9013, 074.D-0008, 075.D-0676, and 60.A-9120 for FEROS spectra; 081.D-0928, 082.D-0901, 089.D-0767, and 093.D-0816 for UVES spectra.

Partly based on data obtained with the STELLA robotic telescopes in Tenerife, a facility of The Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) jointly operated by the AIP and by the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC).

We introduce an observable relevant for the determination of the W-boson mass m_W at hadron colliders. This observable is defined as an asymmetry around the jacobian peak of the charged-lepton transverse-momentum distribution in the charged-current Drell-Yan process. We discuss the observable's theoretical prediction, presenting results at different orders in QCD, and showing its perturbative stability. Its definition as a single scalar number and its linear sensitivity to m_W allow a clean extraction of the latter and a straightforward discussion of the associated theoretical systematics: a perturbative QCD uncertainty of O (±5 ) MeV on m_W can be established by means of this observable, relying solely on charged-current Drell-Yan information. Owing to its relatively inclusive nature, the observable displays desirable properties also from the experimental viewpoint, especially for the unfolding of detector effects. We show that a measurement of this observable can lead to a competitive experimental error on m_W at the LHC.

Context. The distance to the Whirlpool galaxy, M 51, is still debated, even though the galaxy has been studied in great detail. Current estimates range from 6.02 to 9.09 Mpc, and different methods yield discrepant results. No Cepheid distance has been published for M 51 to date.
Aims: We aim to estimate a more reliable distance to M 51 through two independent methods: Cepheid variables and their period-luminosity relation, and an augmented version of the expanding photosphere method (EPM) on the type IIP supernova SN 2005cs, which exploded in this galaxy.
Methods: For the Cepheid variables, we analysed a recently published Hubble Space Telescope catalogue of stars in M 51. By applying filtering based on the light curve and colour-magnitude diagram, we selected a high-quality sample of M 51 Cepheids to estimate the distance through the period-luminosity relation. For SN 2005cs, an emulator-based spectral fitting technique was applied, which allows for the fast and reliable estimation of the physical parameters of the supernova atmosphere. We augmented the established framework of EPM with these spectral models to obtain a precise distance to M 51.
Results: The two resulting distance estimates are D_Cep = 7.59 ± 0.30 Mpc and D_2005cs = 7.34 ± 0.39 Mpc using the Cepheid period-luminosity relation and the spectral modelling of SN 2005cs, respectively. This is the first published Cepheid distance for this galaxy. The obtained values are precise to 4-5% and are fully consistent within 1σ uncertainties. Because these two estimates are completely independent, they can be combined for an even more precise estimate, which yields D_{M 51} = 7.50 ± 0.24 Mpc (3.2% uncertainty).
Conclusions: Our distance estimates agree with most of the results obtained previously for M 51, but they are more precise than the earlier counterparts. However, they are significantly lower than the TRGB estimates, which are often adopted for the distance to this galaxy. The results highlight the importance of direct cross-checks between independent distance estimates so that systematic uncertainties can be quantified. Because of the large discrepancy, this finding can also affect distance-sensitive studies and their discussion for objects within M 51, as well as the estimation of the Hubble constant through the type IIP standardizable candle method, for which SN 2005cs is a calibrator object.

The Cepheid catalogue shown in Table B.1 is available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr (ftp://130.79.128.5) or via https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/A+A/678/A44

The data produced in this work, such as the final M 51 Cepheid catalogue and the flux calibrated spectral time series of SN 2005cs are available at the GitHub page of the author (https://github.com/Csogeza/M51).

We present a simple parton-shower model that replaces the explicit angular ordering of the coherent branching formalism with a differentially accurate simulation of soft-gluon radiation by means of a non-trivial dependence of the splitting functions on azimuthal angles. We introduce a global kinematics mapping and provide an analytic proof that it satisfies the criteria for next-to leading logarithmic accuracy. In the new algorithm, initial and final state evolution are treated on the same footing. We provide an implementation for final-state evolution in the numerical code ALARIC and present a first comparison to experimental data.

Aims: Detecting diffuse synchrotron emission from the cosmic web is still a challenge for current radio telescopes. We aim to make predictions for the detectability of cosmic web filaments from simulations. Methods: We present the first cosmological MHD simulation of a 500 $h^{-1} c$Mpc volume with an on-the-fly spectral cosmic ray (CR) model. This allows us to follow the evolution of populations of CR electrons and protons within every resolution element of the simulation. We model CR injection at shocks, while accounting for adiabatic changes to the CR population and high energy loss processes of electrons. The synchrotron emission is then calculated from the aged electron population, using the simulated magnetic field, as well as different models for origin and amplification of magnetic fields. We use constrained initial conditions, which closely resemble the local Universe and compare the results of the cosmological volume to zoom-in simulation of the Coma cluster, to study the impact of resolution and turbulent re-acceleration of CRs on the results. Results: We find consistent injection of CRs at accretion shocks onto cosmic web filaments and galaxy clusters. This leads to diffuse emission from filaments of the order $S_\nu \approx 0.1 \: \mu$Jy beam$^{-1}$ for a potential LOFAR observation at 144 MHz, when assuming the most optimistic magnetic field model and the inclusion of an on-the-fly treatment of re-acceleration of electrons by turbulence. The flux can be increased by up-to two orders of magnitude for different choices of CR injection parameters. This can bring the flux within a factor of 10 of the current limits for direct detection. We find a spectral index of the simulated synchrotron emission from filaments of {\alpha} {\approx} 1.0 - 1.5.

Quasars experiencing strong lensing offer unique viewpoints on subjects related to the cosmic expansion rate, the dark matter profile within the foreground deflectors, and the quasar host galaxies. Unfortunately, identifying them in astronomical images is challenging since they are overwhelmed by the abundance of non-lenses. To address this, we have developed a novel approach by ensembling cutting-edge convolutional networks (CNNs) - for instance, ResNet, Inception, NASNet, MobileNet, EfficientNet, and RegNet - along with vision transformers (ViTs) trained on realistic galaxy-quasar lens simulations based on the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) multiband images. While the individual model exhibits remarkable performance when evaluated against the test dataset, achieving an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of >97.3% and a median false positive rate of 3.6%, it struggles to generalize in real data, indicated by numerous spurious sources picked by each classifier. A significant improvement is achieved by averaging these CNNs and ViTs, resulting in the impurities being downsized by factors up to 50. Subsequently, combining the HSC images with the UKIRT, VISTA, and unWISE data, we retrieve approximately 60 million sources as parent samples and reduce this to 892 609 after employing a photometry preselection to discover z > 1.5 lensed quasars with Einstein radii of θ_E < 5″. Afterward, the ensemble classifier indicates 3080 sources with a high probability of being lenses, for which we visually inspect, yielding 210 prevailing candidates awaiting spectroscopic confirmation. These outcomes suggest that automated deep learning pipelines hold great potential in effectively detecting strong lenses in vast datasets with minimal manual visual inspection involved.

We propose a new strategy to probe the Z boson couplings to bottom and charm quarks at the LHC. In this work we mainly focus on the case of bottom quarks. Here, the Z boson is produced in association with two b-jets and decays to electrons or muons. In this final state, tagging the charge of the b-jets allows us to measure the charge asymmetry and thus to directly probe the Zb b ¯ couplings. The leptonic final state not only allows us to cleanly reconstruct the Z boson but also to mitigate the otherwise overwhelming backgrounds. Furthermore, while LEP could only scan a limited range of dilepton invariant masses, there is no such limitation at the LHC. Consequently, this allows us to make full use of the interference between the amplitudes mediated by a Z boson and a photon. Using the full high-luminosity LHC dataset of 3 ab⁻¹ and with the current flavor and charge-tagging capabilities would allow us to reject the wrong-sign right-handed coupling solution by 4σ. Further improving the charge-tagging efficiency would disfavor it by 6σ.

The accuracy of parton-shower simulations is often a limiting factor in the interpretation of data from high-energy colliders. We present the first formulation of parton showers with accuracy 1 order beyond state-of-the-art next-to-leading logarithms, for classes of observables that are dominantly sensitive to low-energy (soft) emissions, specifically nonglobal observables and subjet multiplicities. This represents a major step toward general next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy for parton showers.

During the public Kaggle competition "IceCube -- Neutrinos in Deep Ice", thousands of reconstruction algorithms were created and submitted, aiming to estimate the direction of neutrino events recorded by the IceCube detector. Here we describe in detail the three ultimate best, award-winning solutions. The data handling, architecture, and training process of each of these machine learning models is laid out, followed up by an in-depth comparison of the performance on the kaggle datatset. We show that on cascade events in IceCube above 10 TeV, the best kaggle solution is able to achieve an angular resolution of better than 5 degrees, and for tracks correspondingly better than 0.5 degrees. These performance measures compare favourably to the current state-of-the-art in the field.

Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the supermassive black hole at the heart of our galaxy, provides unique opportunities to study black hole accretion, jet formation, and gravitational physics. The rapid structural changes in Sgr A*'s emission pose a significant challenge for traditional imaging techniques. We present dynamic reconstructions of Sgr A* using Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) data from April 6th and 7th, 2017, analyzed with a one-minute temporal resolution with the Resolve framework. This Bayesian approach employs adaptive Gaussian Processes and Variational Inference for data-driven self-regularization. Our results not only fully confirm the initial findings by the EHT Collaboration for a time-averaged source but also reveal intricate details about the temporal dynamics within the black hole environment. We find an intriguing dynamic feature on April 6th that propagates in a clock-wise direction. Geometric modelling with ray-tracing, although not fully conclusive, indicates compatibility with high-inclination configurations of about $\theta_o = 160^\circ$, as seen in other studies.

The origin of obscuration in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) is still an open debate. In particular, it is unclear what drives the relative contributions to the line-of-sight column densities from galaxy-scale and torus-linked obscuration. The latter source is expected to play a significant role in Unification Models, while the former is thought to be relevant in both Unification and Evolutionary Models. In this work, we make use of a combination of cosmological semi-analytic models and semi-empirical prescriptions for the properties of galaxies and AGN, to study AGN obscuration. We consider a detailed object-by-object modelling of AGN evolution, including different AGN light curves (LCs), gas density profiles, and also AGN feedback-induced gas cavities. Irrespective of our assumptions on specific AGN LC or galaxy gas fractions, we find that, on the strict assumption of an exponential profile for the gas component, galaxy-scale obscuration alone can hardly reproduce the fraction of log (N_H/cm^-2) ≥ 24 sources at least at z ≲ 3. This requires an additional torus component with a thickness that decreases with luminosity to match the data. The torus should be present in all evolutionary stages of a visible AGN to be effective, although galaxy-scale gas obscuration may be sufficient to reproduce the obscured fraction with 22 < log (N_H/cm^-2) < 24 (Compton-thin, CTN) if we assume extremely compact gas disc components. The claimed drop of CTN fractions with increasing luminosity does not appear to be a consequence of AGN feedback, but rather of gas reservoirs becoming more compact with decreasing stellar mass.

Context. The study of protoplanetary disks is fundamental to understand their evolution and interaction with the surrounding environment, and to constrain planet formation mechanisms. Aims. We aim at characterising the young binary system HD 34700 A, which shows a wealth of structures. Methods. Taking advantage of the high-contrast imaging instruments SPHERE at the VLT, LMIRCam at the LBT, and of ALMA observations, we analyse this system at multiple wavelengths. We study the rings and spiral arms morphology and the scattering properties of the dust. We discuss the possible causes of all the observed features. Results. We detect for the first time, in the H${\alpha}$ band, a ring extending from $\sim$65 au to ${\sim}$120 au, inside the ring already known from recent studies. These two have different physical and geometrical properties. Based on the scattering properties, the outer ring may consist of grains of typical size $a_{out} > 4 {\mu}m$, while the inner ring of smaller grains ($a_{in} <= 0.4 {\mu m}$). Two extended logarithmic spiral arms stem from opposite sides of the disk. The outer ring appears as a spiral arm itself, with a variable radial distance from the centre and extended substructures. ALMA data confirm the presence of a millimetric dust substructure centred just outside the outer ring, and detect misaligned gas rotation patterns for HD 34700 A and B. Conclusions. The complexity of HD 34700 A, revealed by the variety of observed features, suggests the existence of one or more disk-shaping physical mechanisms. Possible scenarios, compatible with our findings, involve the presence inside the disk of a yet undetected planet of several Jupiter masses and the system interaction with the surroundings by means of gas cloudlet capture or flybys. Further observations with JWST/MIRI or ALMA (gas kinematics) could shed more light on these.

The z-GAL survey observed 137 bright Herschel-selected targets with the IRAM Northern Extended Millimeter Array, with the aim to measure their redshift and study their properties. Several of them have been resolved into multiple sources. Consequently, robust spectroscopic redshifts have been measured for 165 individual galaxies in the range 0.8 < z < 6.5. In this paper we analyse the millimetre spectra of the z-GAL sources, using both their continuum and line emission to derive their physical properties. At least two spectral lines are detected for each source, including transitions of ¹²CO, [CI], and H₂O. The observed ¹²CO line ratios and spectral line energy distributions of individual sources resemble those of local starbursts. In seven sources the para-H₂O (2₁₁−2₀₂) transition is detected and follows the IR versus H₂O luminosity relation of sub-millimetre galaxies. The molecular gas mass of the z-GAL sources is derived from their ¹²CO, [CI], and sub-millimetre dust continuum emission. The three tracers lead to consistent results, with the dust continuum showing the largest scatter when compared to ¹²CO. The gas-to-dust mass ratio of these sources was computed by combining the information derived from ¹²CO and the dust continuum and has a median value of 107, similar to star-forming galaxies of near-solar metallicity. The same combined analysis leads to depletion timescales in the range between 0.1 and 1.0 Gyr, which place the z-GAL sources between the `main sequence' of star formation and the locus of starbursts. Finally, we derived a first estimate of stellar masses - modulo possible gravitational magnification - by inverting known gas scaling relations: the z-GAL sample is confirmed to be mostly composed by starbursts, whereas ∼25% of its members lie on the main sequence of star-forming galaxies (within ±0.5 dex).

High-velocity stellar collisions driven by a supermassive black hole (BH) or BH-driven disruptive collisions, in dense, nuclear clusters can rival the energetics of supergiant star explosions following gravitational collapse of their iron core. Here, starting from a sample of red-giant star collisions simulated with the hydrodynamics code AREPO, we generate photometric and spectroscopic observables using the nonlocal thermodynamic equilibrium time-dependent radiative transfer code CMFGEN. Collisions from more extended giants or stronger collisions (higher velocity or smaller impact parameter) yield bolometric luminosities on the order of 1e43 erg/s at 1d, evolving on a timescale of a week to a bright plateau at ~1e41 erg/s, before plunging precipitously after 20-40d at the end of the optically-thick phase. This luminosity falls primarily in the UV in the first days, thus when it is at its maximum, and shifts to the optical thereafter. Collisions at lower velocity or from less extended stars produce ejecta that are fainter but may remain optically thick for up to 40d if they have a small expansion rate. These collision debris show a similar spectral evolution as that observed or modeled for blue-supergiant star explosions of massive stars, differing only in the more rapid transition to the nebular phase. Such BH-driven disruptive collisions should be detectable by high-cadence surveys in the UV like ULTRASAT.

The BL Lac 1ES 2344+514 is known for temporary extreme properties (e.g., a shift of the synchrotron SED peak energy $\nu_{synch,p}$ above 1keV). While those extreme states were so far observed only during high flux levels, additional multi-year observing campaigns are required to achieve a coherent picture. Here, we report the longest investigation of the source from radio to VHE performed so far, focusing on a systematic characterisation of the intermittent extreme states. While our results confirm that 1ES 2344+514 typically exhibits $\nu_{synch,p}>$1keV during elevated flux periods, we also find periods where the extreme state coincides with low flux activity. A strong spectral variability thus happens in the quiescent state, and is likely caused by an increase of the electron acceleration efficiency without a change in the electron injection luminosity. We also report a strong X-ray flare (among the brightest for 1ES 2344+514) without a significant shift of $\nu_{synch,p}$. During this particular flare, the X-ray spectrum is among the softest of the campaign. It unveils complexity in the spectral evolution, where the common harder-when-brighter trend observed in BL Lacs is violated. During a low and hard X-ray state, we find an excess of the UV flux with respect to an extrapolation of the X-ray spectrum to lower energies. This UV excess implies that at least two regions contribute significantly to the infrared/optical/ultraviolet/X-ray emission. Using the simultaneous MAGIC, XMM-Newton, NuSTAR, and AstroSat observations, we argue that a region possibly associated with the 10 GHz radio core may explain such an excess. Finally, we investigate a VHE flare, showing an absence of simultaneous variability in the 0.3-2keV band. Using a time-dependent leptonic modelling, we show that this behaviour, in contradiction to single-zone scenarios, can instead be explained by a two-component model.

Recent observations with JWST and ALMA 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 3e10Msun at z=3.42. We find that these galaxies are quenched through a rapid burst of star-formation and subsequent AGN feedback caused by a particularly isotropic collapse of surrounding gas, occurring on timescales of around 200Myr or shorter. The resulting quenched galaxies host stellar components which 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 <500Myr the ratio M_bh/M_* is the best predictor, followed by the burstiness of the preceding star-formation, t50-t90 (time to go from 50% to 90% stellar mass). On longer timescales, >1Gyr, the environment becomes the strongest predictor, followed by t50-t90, indicating that at high redshifts the consumption of old 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 present a high resolution numerical study of the sinking and merging of massive black holes (MBHs) with masses in the range of $10^3 - 10^7 \, \mathrm{M}_\odot$ in multiple minor mergers of low mass dark matter halos without and with galaxies ($4\times 10^8 \, \mathrm{M}_\odot \lesssim \mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{halo}} \lesssim 2\times 10^{10} \, \mathrm{M}_\odot)$. The Ketju simulation code, a combination of the Gadget tree solver with accurate regularised integration, uses unsoftened forces between the star/dark matter components and the MBHs for an accurate treatment of dynamical friction and scattering of dark matter/stars by MBH binaries or multiples. Post-Newtonian corrections up to order 3.5 for MBH interactions allow for coalescence by gravitational wave emission and gravitational recoil kicks. Low mass MBHs ($\lesssim 10^5 \, \mathrm{M}_\odot$) hardly sink to the centre or merge. Sinking MBHs have various complex evolution paths - binaries, triplets, free-floating MBHs, and dynamically or recoil ejected MBHs. Collisional interactions with dark matter alone can drive MBHs to coalescence. The highest mass MBHs of $\gtrsim 10^6 M_\odot$ mostly sink to the centre and trigger the scouring of dark matter and stellar cores. The scouring can transform a centrally baryon dominated system to a dark matter dominated system. Our idealized high-resolution study highlights the difficulty to bring in and keep low mass MBHs in the centres of low mass halos/galaxies - a remaining challenge for merger assisted MBH seed growth mechanisms.

We present the first results of the eXtreme UV Environments (XUE) James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) program, that focuses on the characterization of planet forming disks in massive star forming regions. These regions are likely representative of the environment in which most planetary systems formed. Understanding the impact of environment on planet formation is critical in order to gain insights into the diversity of the observed exoplanet populations. XUE targets 15 disks in three areas of NGC 6357, which hosts numerous massive OB stars, among which some of the most massive stars in our Galaxy. Thanks to JWST we can, for the first time, study the effect of external irradiation on the inner ($< 10$ au), terrestrial-planet forming regions of proto-planetary disks. In this study, we report on the detection of abundant water, CO, CO$_2$, HCN and C$_2$H$_2$ in the inner few au of XUE 1, a highly irradiated disk in NGC 6357. In addition, small, partially crystalline silicate dust is present at the disk surface. The derived column densities, the oxygen-dominated gas-phase chemistry, and the presence of silicate dust are surprisingly similar to those found in inner disks located in nearby, relatively isolated low-mass star-forming regions. Our findings imply that the inner regions of highly irradiated disks can retain similar physical and chemical conditions as disks in low-mass star-forming regions, thus broadening the range of environments with similar conditions for inner disk rocky planet formation to the most extreme star-forming regions in our Galaxy.

A puzzling population of extremely massive quiescent galaxies at redshifts beyond z=3 has recently been revealed by JWST and ALMA, some of them with stellar ages that show their quenching times to be as high as z=6, while their stellar masses are already above 5e10Msun. These extremely massive yet quenched galaxies challenge our understanding of galaxy formation at the earliest stages. Using the hydrodynamical cosmological simulation suite Magneticum Pathfinder, we show that such massive quenched galaxies at high redshifts can be successfully reproduced with similar number densities as observed. The stellar masses, sizes, formation redshifts, and star formation histories of the simulated quenched galaxies match those determined with JWST. Following these quenched galaxies at z=3.4 forward in time, we find 20% to be accreted onto a more massive structure by z=2, and from the remaining 80% about 30% rejuvenate up to z=2, another 30% stay quenched, and the remaining 40% rejuvenated on a very low level of star formation. Stars formed through rejuvenation are mostly formed on the outer regions of the galaxies, not in the centres. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the massive quenched galaxies do not reside in the most massive nodes of the cosmic web, but rather live in side-nodes of approximately Milky-Way halo mass. Even at z=0, only about 10% end up in small-mass galaxy clusters, while most of the quenched galaxies at z=3.4 end up in group-mass halos, with about 20% actually not even reaching 1e13Msun in halo mass.

The Euclid photometric survey of galaxy clusters stands as a powerful cosmological tool, with the capacity to significantly propel our understanding of the Universe. Despite being sub-dominant to dark matter and dark energy, the baryonic component in our Universe holds substantial influence over the structure and mass of galaxy clusters. This paper presents a novel model to precisely quantify the impact of baryons on galaxy cluster virial halo masses, using the baryon fraction within a cluster as proxy for their effect. Constructed on the premise of quasi-adiabaticity, the model includes two parameters calibrated using non-radiative cosmological hydrodynamical simulations and a single large-scale simulation from the Magneticum set, which includes the physical processes driving galaxy formation. As a main result of our analysis, we demonstrate that this model delivers a remarkable one percent relative accuracy in determining the virial dark matter-only equivalent mass of galaxy clusters, starting from the corresponding total cluster mass and baryon fraction measured in hydrodynamical simulations. Furthermore, we demonstrate that this result is robust against changes in cosmological parameters and against varying the numerical implementation of the sub-resolution physical processes included in the simulations. Our work substantiates previous claims about the impact of baryons on cluster cosmology studies. In particular, we show how neglecting these effects would lead to biased cosmological constraints for a Euclid-like cluster abundance analysis. Importantly, we demonstrate that uncertainties associated with our model, arising from baryonic corrections to cluster masses, are sub-dominant when compared to the precision with which mass-observable relations will be calibrated using Euclid, as well as our current understanding of the baryon fraction within galaxy clusters.

We study weak gravitational lensing convergence maps produced from the MILLENNIUMTNG simulations by direct projection of the mass distribution on the past backwards lightcone of a fiducial observer. We explore the lensing maps over a large dynamic range in simulation mass and angular resolution, allowing us to establish a clear assessment of numerical convergence. By comparing full physics hydrodynamical simulations with corresponding dark-matter-only runs, we quantify the impact of baryonic physics on the most important weak lensing statistics. Likewise, we predict the impact of massive neutrinos reliably far into the non-linear regime. We also demonstrate that the 'fixed & paired' variance suppression technique increases the statistical robustness of the simulation predictions on large scales not only for time slices but also for continuously output lightcone data. We find that both baryonic and neutrino effects substantially impact weak lensing shear measurements, with the latter dominating over the former on large angular scales. Thus, both effects must explicitly be included to obtain sufficiently accurate predictions for stage IV lensing surveys. Reassuringly, our results agree accurately with other simulation results where available, supporting the promise of simulation modelling for precision cosmology far into the non-linear regime.

Merging of galaxy clusters are some of the most energetic events in the Universe, and they provide a unique environment to study galaxy evolution. We use a sample of 84 merging and relaxed SPT galaxy clusters candidates, observed with the Dark Energy Camera in the 0.11 < z < 0.88 redshift range, to build colour-magnitude diagrams to characterize the impact of cluster mergers on the galaxy population. We divided the sample between relaxed and disturbed, and in two redshifts bin at z = 0.55. When comparing the high-z to low-z clusters we find the high-z sample is richer in blue galaxies, independently of the cluster dynamical state. In the high-z bin, we find that disturbed clusters exhibit a larger scatter in the red sequence, with wider distribution and an excess of bluer galaxies compared to relaxed clusters, while in the low-z bin we find a complete agreement between the relaxed and disturbed clusters. Our results support the scenario in which massive cluster halos at z < 0.55 galaxies are quenched as satellites of another structure, i.e. outside the cluster, while at z ≥ 0.55 the quenching is dominated by in situ processes.

We present the first systematic follow-up of Planck Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect (SZE) selected candidates down to signal-to-noise (S/N) of 3 over the 5000 deg² covered by the Dark Energy Survey. Using the MCMF cluster confirmation algorithm, we identify optical counterparts, determine photometric redshifts, and richnesses and assign a parameter, f_cont, that reflects the probability that each SZE-optical pairing represents a random superposition of physically unassociated systems rather than a real cluster. The new PSZ-MCMF cluster catalogue consists of 853 MCMF confirmed clusters and has a purity of 90 per cent. We present the properties of subsamples of the PSZ-MCMF catalogue that have purities ranging from 90 per cent to 97.5 per cent, depending on the adopted f_cont threshold. Halo mass estimates M₅₀₀, redshifts, richnesses, and optical centres are presented for all PSZ-MCMF clusters. The PSZ-MCMF catalogue adds 589 previously unknown Planck identified clusters over the DES footprint and provides redshifts for an additional 50 previously published Planck-selected clusters with S/N>4.5. Using the subsample with spectroscopic redshifts, we demonstrate excellent cluster photo-z performance with an RMS scatter in Δz/(1 + z) of 0.47 per cent. Our MCMF based analysis allows us to infer the contamination fraction of the initial S/N>3 Planck-selected candidate list, which is ~50 per cent. We present a method of estimating the completeness of the PSZ-MCMF cluster sample. In comparison to the previously published Planck cluster catalogues, this new S/N>3 MCMF confirmed cluster catalogue populates the lower mass regime at all redshifts and includes clusters up to z~1.3.

We describe a new table-top electrostatic storage ring concept for 30 keV polarized ions with fixed spin orientation. The device will ultimately be capable of measuring magnetic fields with a resolution of 10⁻²⁰ T with sub-mHz bandwidth. With the possibility to store different kinds of ions or ionic molecules and access to prepare and probe states of the systems using lasers and SQUIDs, it can be used to search for electric dipole moments (EDMs) of electrons and nucleons, as well as axion-like particle dark matter and dark photon dark matter. Its sensitivity potential stems from several hours of storage time, comparably long spin coherence times, and the possibility to trap up to 10⁹ particles in bunches with possibly different state preparations for differential measurements. As a dark matter experiment, it is most sensitive in the mass range of 10⁻¹⁰ to 10⁻¹⁹ eV, where it can potentially probe couplings orders of magnitude below current and proposed laboratory experiments.

Cosmological simulations predict that during the evolution of galaxies, the specific star formation rate continuously decreases. In a previous study we showed that generally this is not caused by the galaxies running out of cold gas but rather a decrease in the fraction of gas capable of forming stars. To investigate the origin of this behavior, we use disk galaxies selected from the cosmological hydrodynamical simulation Magneticum Pathfinder and follow their evolution in time. We find that the mean density of the cold gas regions decreases with time. This is caused by the fact that during the evolution of the galaxies the star-forming regions move to larger galactic radii, where the gas density is lower. This supports the idea of inside-out growth of disk galaxies.

Milky Way Cepheid variables with accurate Hubble Space Telescope photometry have been established as standards for primary calibration of the cosmic distance ladder to achieve a percent-level determination of the Hubble constant (H ₀). These 75 Cepheid standards are the fundamental sample for investigation of possible residual systematics in the local H ₀ determination due to metallicity effects on their period-luminosity relations. We obtained new high-resolution (R ~ 81,000), high-signal-to-noise (S/N ~ 50-150) multiepoch spectra of 42 out of 75 Cepheid standards using the ESPaDOnS instrument at the 3.6 m Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. Our spectroscopic metallicity measurements are in good agreement with the literature values with systematic differences up to 0.1 dex due to different metallicity scales. We homogenized and updated the spectroscopic metallicities of all 75 Milky Way Cepheid standards and derived their multiwavelength (GVIJHK _s ) period-luminosity-metallicity and period-Wesenheit-metallicity relations using the latest Gaia parallaxes. The metallicity coefficients of these empirically calibrated relations exhibit large uncertainties due to low statistics and a narrow metallicity range (Δ[Fe/H] = 0.6 dex). These metallicity coefficients are up to 3 times better constrained if we include Cepheids in the Large Magellanic Cloud and range between -0.21 ± 0.07 and -0.43 ± 0.06 mag dex^-1. The updated spectroscopic metallicities of these Milky Way Cepheid standards were used in the Cepheid-supernovae distance ladder formalism to determine H ₀ = 72.9 ± 1.0 km s^-1 Mpc^-1, suggesting little variation (~0.1 km s^-1 Mpc^-1) in the local H ₀ measurements due to different Cepheid metallicity scales.