Table of contents

In late 2016 and early 2017, the flat spectrum radio quasar CTA 102 exhibited a very strong and long-lasting outburst. The event can be described by a roughly two-month long increase of the baseline flux in the monitored energy bands (optical to γ-rays) by a factor 8, and a subsequent decrease over another two months back to pre-flare levels. The long-term trend was superseded by short but very strong flares, resulting in a peak flux that was a factor 50 above pre-flare levels in the γ-ray domain and almost a factor 100 above pre-flare levels in the optical domain. In this paper, we explain the long-term evolution of the outburst by the ablation of a gas cloud penetrating the relativistic jet. The slice-by-slice ablation results in a gradual increase of the particle injection until the center of the cloud is reached, after which the injected number of particles decreases again. With reasonable cloud parameters, we obtain excellent fits of the long-term trend.

We perform a spatially resolved spectroscopic analysis of X-ray emission from the supernova remnant (SNR) IC 443 with Suzaku. All of the spectra are well reproduced by a model consisting of a collisional ionization equilibrium (CIE) and two recombining plasma (RP) components. Although previous X-ray studies found an RP in the northeastern region, this is the first report on RPs in the other parts of the remnant. The electron temperature, kT_e, of the CIE component is almost uniform at ∼0.2 keV across the remnant. The CIE plasma has metal abundances consistent with solar and is concentrated toward the rim of the remnant, suggesting that it is of shocked interstellar medium origin. The two RP components have different kT_e: one in the range of 0.16–0.28 keV and the other in the range of 0.48–0.67 keV. The electron temperatures of both RP components decrease toward the southeast, where the SNR shock is known to be interacting with a molecular cloud. We also find the normalization ratio of the lower-kT_e RP to higher-kT_e RP components increases toward the southeast. Both results suggest the X-ray emitting plasma in the southeastern region is significantly cooled by some mechanism. One of the plausible cooling mechanisms is a thermal conduction between the hot plasma and the molecular cloud. If the cooling proceeds faster than the recombination timescale of the plasma, the same mechanism can account for the recombining plasma as well.

It has recently been recognized that the convective velocities achieved in current solar convection simulations might be overestimated. The newly revealed effects of the prevailing small-scale magnetic field within the convection zone may offer possible solutions to this problem. The small-scale magnetic fields can reduce the convective amplitude of small-scale motions through the Lorentz-force feedback, which concurrently inhibits the turbulent mixing of entropy between upflows and downflows. As a result, the effective Prandtl number may exceed unity inside the solar convection zone. In this paper, we propose and numerically confirm a possible suppression mechanism of convective velocity in the effectively high-Prandtl number regime. If the effective horizontal thermal diffusivity decreases (the Prandtl number accordingly increases), the subadiabatic layer which is formed near the base of the convection zone by continuous depositions of low entropy transported by adiabatically downflowing plumes is enhanced and extended. The global convective amplitude in the high-Prandtl thermal convection is thus reduced, especially in the lower part of the convection zone via the change in the mean entropy profile, which becomes more subadiabatic near the base and less superadiabatic in the bulk.

In the core of the Fornax cluster, on the west side of NGC 1399, we have detected a previously unknown region of intracluster light (ICL). It is made up by several faint (${\mu }_{r}\simeq 28\mbox{--}29$ mag arcsec⁻²) patches of diffuse light. The bulk of the ICL is located in between the three bright galaxies in the core, NGC 1387, NGC 1379, and NGC 1381, at $10\leqslant R\leqslant 40$ arcmin (∼58–230 kpc) from the central galaxy NGC 1399. We show that the ICL is the counterpart in the diffuse light of the known over-density in the population of blue globular clusters (GCs). The total g-band luminosity of the ICL is ${L}_{g}\simeq 8.3\times {10}^{9}$L_⊙, which is ∼5% of the total luminosity of NGC 1399. This is consistent with the fraction of the blue GCs in the same region of the cluster. The ICL has $g-r\sim 0.7$ mag, which is similar to the colors in the halo of the bright galaxies in the cluster core. The new findings were compared with theoretical predictions for the ICL formation and they support a scenario in which the intracluster population detected in the core of the Fornax cluster is build up by the tidal stripping of material (stars and GCs) from galaxy outskirts in a close passage with the central brightest galaxy (cD). Moreover, the diffuse form of the ICL and its location close to the core of the cluster is expected in a dynamically evolved cluster like Fornax.

Centaurus A, with its gas-rich elliptical host galaxy, NGC 5128, is the nearest radio galaxy at a distance of 3.8 Mpc. Its proximity allows us to study the interaction among an active galactic nucleus, radio jets, and molecular gas in great detail. We present ALMA observations of low-J transitions of three CO isotopologues, HCN, HCO⁺, HNC, CN, and CCH toward the inner projected 500 pc of NGC 5128. Our observations resolve physical sizes down to 40 pc. By observing multiple chemical probes, we determine the physical and chemical conditions of the nuclear interstellar medium of NGC 5128. This region contains molecular arms associated with the dust lanes and a circumnuclear disk (CND) interior to the molecular arms. The CND is approximately 400 pc by 200 pc and appears to be chemically distinct from the molecular arms. It is dominated by dense gas tracers while the molecular arms are dominated by ¹²CO and its rare isotopologues. The CND has a higher temperature, elevated CN/HCN and HCN/HNC intensity ratios, and much weaker ¹³CO and C¹⁸O emission than the molecular arms. This suggests an influence from the AGN on the CND molecular gas. There is also absorption against the AGN with a low velocity complex near the systemic velocity and a high velocity complex shifted by about 60 km s⁻¹. We find similar chemical properties between the CND in emission and both the low and high velocity absorption complexes, implying that both likely originate from the CND. If the HV complex does originate in the CND, then that gas would correspond to gas falling toward the supermassive black hole.

The signatures of planets hosted by M dwarfs are more readily detected with transit photometry and radial velocity methods than those of planets around larger stars. Recently, transit photometry was used to discover seven planets orbiting the late-M dwarf TRAPPIST-1. Three of TRAPPIST-1's planets fall in the Habitable Zone, a region where liquid water could exist on the planetary surface given appropriate planetary conditions. We aim to investigate the habitability of the TRAPPIST-1 planets by studying the star's activity and its effect on the planets. We analyze previously published space- and ground-based light curves and show the photometrically determined rotation period of TRAPPIST-1 appears to vary over time due to complicated, evolving surface activity. The dramatic changes of the surface of TRAPPIST-1 suggest that rotation periods determined photometrically may not be reliable for this and similarly active stars. While the activity of the star is low, we use the premise of the "cosmic shoreline" to provide evidence that the TRAPPIST-1 environment has potentially led to the erosion of possible planetary atmospheres by extreme ultraviolet stellar emission.

Hard X-ray (HXR) spectral breaks are explained in terms of a one-dimensional model with a cospatial return current. We study 19 flares observed by the Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager with strong spectral breaks at energies around a few deka-keV, which cannot be explained by isotropic albedo or non-uniform ionization alone. We identify these breaks at the HXR peak time, but we obtain 8 s cadence spectra of the entire impulsive phase. Electrons with an initially power-law distribution and a sharp low-energy cutoff lose energy through return-current losses until they reach the thick target, where they lose their remaining energy through collisions. Our main results are as follows. (1) The return-current collisional thick-target model provides acceptable fits for spectra with strong breaks. (2) Limits on the plasma resistivity are derived from the fitted potential drop and deduced electron-beam flux density, assuming the return current is a drift current in the ambient plasma. These resistivities are typically 2–3 orders of magnitude higher than the Spitzer resistivity at the fitted temperature, and provide a test for the adequacy of classical resistivity and the stability of the return current. (3) Using the upper limit of the low-energy cutoff, the return current is always stable to the generation of ion-acoustic and electrostatic ion-cyclotron instabilities when the electron temperature is nine times lower than the ion temperature. (4) In most cases, the return current is most likely primarily carried by runaway electrons from the tail of the thermal distribution rather than by the bulk drifting thermal electrons. For these cases, anomalous resistivity is not required.

We have investigated temporal and spectral properties of a large sample of thermonuclear bursts with oscillations from eight different sources with spin frequencies varying from 270 to 620 Hz. For our sample, we chose those bursts for which the oscillation is sufficiently strong and of relatively long duration. The emission from the hot-spot that is formed during a thermonuclear burst is modulated by several physical processes and the burst oscillation profiles unavoidably carry signatures of these. In order to probe these mechanisms, we examined the amplitude and phase lags of the burst oscillations with energy. We also studied the frequency variation of oscillations during these thermonuclear bursts. We observed that the frequency drifts are more frequent in the cases where the spin frequency is lower. We found that the phase lag of the burst oscillations shows no systematic evolution with energy between the bursts, and also in between different sources. In seven cases, we do indeed observe lag of soft energy photons, while there is a significant number of cases for which hard lag or no lag is observed.

We present a method for measuring internal stellar structure based on asteroseismology that we call "inversions for agreement." The method accounts for imprecise estimates of stellar mass and radius as well as the relatively limited oscillation mode sets that are available for distant stars. By construction, the results of the method are independent of stellar models. We apply this method to measure the isothermal sound speeds in the cores of the solar-type stars 16 Cyg A and B using asteroseismic data obtained from Kepler observations. We compare the asteroseismic structure that we deduce against best-fitting evolutionary models and find that the sound speeds in the cores of these stars exceed those of the models.

We present a high-resolution dissection of the two-dimensional total mass distribution in the core of the Hubble Frontier Fields galaxy cluster MACS J0416.1−2403, at z = 0.396. We exploit HST/WFC3 near-IR (F160W) imaging, VLT/Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer spectroscopy, and Chandra data to separate the stellar, hot gas, and dark-matter mass components in the inner 300 kpc of the cluster. We combine the recent results of our refined strong lensing analysis, which includes the contribution of the intracluster gas, with the modeling of the surface brightness and stellar mass distributions of 193 cluster members, of which 144 are spectroscopically confirmed. We find that, moving from 10 to 300 kpc from the cluster center, the stellar to total mass fraction decreases from 12% to 1% and the hot gas to total mass fraction increases from 3% to 9%, resulting in a baryon fraction of approximatively 10% at the outermost radius. We measure that the stellar component represents ∼30%, near the cluster center, and 15%, at larger clustercentric distances, of the total mass in the cluster substructures. We subtract the baryonic mass component from the total mass distribution and conclude that within 30 kpc (∼3 times the effective radius of the brightest cluster galaxy) from the cluster center the surface mass density profile of the total mass and global (cluster plus substructures) dark-matter are steeper and that of the diffuse (cluster) dark-matter is shallower than an NFW profile. Our current analysis does not point to a significant offset between the cluster stellar and dark-matter components. This detailed and robust reconstruction of the inner dark-matter distribution in a larger sample of galaxy clusters will set a new benchmark for different structure formation scenarios.

We present laboratory spectra of the 3p–3d transitions in Fe¹⁴⁺ and Fe¹⁵⁺ excited with a mono-energetic electron beam. In the energy-dependent spectra obtained by sweeping the electron energy, resonant excitation is confirmed as an intensity enhancement at specific electron energies. The experimental results are compared with theoretical cross sections calculated based on fully relativistic wave functions and the distorted wave approximation. Comparisons between the experimental and theoretical results show good agreement for the resonance strength. A significant discrepancy is, however, found for the non-resonant cross section in Fe¹⁴⁺. This discrepancy is considered to be the fundamental cause of the previously reported inconsistency of the model with the observed intensity ratio between the ${}^{3}{P}_{2}\mbox{--}{}^{3}{D}_{3}$ and ${}^{1}{P}_{1}\mbox{--}{}^{1}{D}_{2}$ transitions.

We present a high angular resolution ($\sim 0\buildrel{\prime\prime}\over{.} 2$), high-sensitivity ($\sigma \sim 0.2$ mJy) survey of the 870 μm continuum emission from the circumstellar material around 49 pre-main-sequence stars in the ρ Ophiuchus molecular cloud. Because most millimeter instruments have resided in the northern hemisphere, this represents the largest high-resolution, millimeter-wave survey of the circumstellar disk content of this cloud. Our survey of 49 systems comprises 63 stars; we detect disks associated with 29 single sources, 11 binaries, 3 triple systems, and 4 transition disks. We present flux and radius distributions for these systems; in particular, this is the first presentation of a reasonably complete probability distribution of disk radii at millimeter wavelengths. We also compare the flux distribution of these protoplanetary disks with that of the disk population of the Taurus–Auriga molecular cloud. We find that disks in binaries are both significantly smaller and have much less flux than their counterparts around isolated stars. We compute truncation calculations on our binary sources and find that these disks are too small to have been affected by tidal truncation and posit some explanations for this. Lastly, our survey found three candidate gapped disks, one of which is a newly identified transition disk with no signature of a dip in infrared excess in extant observations.

We present a coupled 3D atmospheric dynamics and radiative transfer model to predict the disk-integrated thermal emission spectra of transiting exoplanets in edge-on orbits. We calculate spectra at high resolution to examine the extent to which high-resolution emission spectra are influenced by 3D atmospheric dynamics and planetary rotation and to determine whether and how we can constrain thermal structures and atmospheric dynamics through high-resolution spectroscopy. This study represents the first time that the line-of-sight geometry and resulting Doppler shifts from winds and rotation have been treated self-consistently in an emission spectrum radiative transfer model, which allows us to assess the impact of the velocity field on thermal emission spectra. We apply our model to predict emission spectra as a function of orbital phase for three hot Jupiters: HD 209458b, WASP-43b, and HD 189733b. We find net Doppler shifts in modeled spectra due to a combination of winds and rotation at a level of 1–3 km s⁻¹. These Doppler signatures vary in a quasi-sinusoidal pattern over the course of the planets' orbits as the hot spots approach and recede from the observer's viewpoint. We predict that WASP-43b produces the largest Doppler shift due to its fast rotation rate. We find that the net Doppler shift in an exoplanet's disk-integrated thermal emission spectrum results from a complex combination of winds, rotation, and thermal structure. However, we offer a simple method that estimates the magnitude of equatorial wind speeds in hot Jupiters through measurements of net Doppler shifts and lower-resolution thermal phase curves.

We present detailed modeling of the spatial distributions of gas and dust in 57 circumstellar disks in the Upper Scorpius OB Association observed with ALMA at submillimeter wavelengths. We fit power-law models to the dust surface density and CO J = 3–2 surface brightness to measure the radial extent of dust and gas in these disks. We found that these disks are extremely compact: the 25 highest signal-to-noise disks have a median dust outer radius of 21 au, assuming an ${R}^{-1}$ dust surface density profile. Our lack of CO detections in the majority of our sample is consistent with these small disk sizes assuming the dust and CO share the same spatial distribution. Of seven disks in our sample with well-constrained dust and CO radii, four appear to be more extended in CO, although this may simply be due to the higher optical depth of the CO. Comparison of the Upper Sco results with recent analyses of disks in Taurus, Ophiuchus, and Lupus suggests that the dust disks in Upper Sco may be approximately three times smaller in size than their younger counterparts, although we caution that a more uniform analysis of the data across all regions is needed. We discuss the implications of these results for disk evolution.

The paper presents for the first time observations of unusual reconnection events in the solar wind. In all solar wind types, we identify magnetic reconnection exhausts accompanied by one or two side jets. This complex structure is created around a single current sheet and the jet(s) oriented in the same direction as the main exhaust is (are) spatially separated from it. A statistical analysis of reconnection exhausts in Wind observations (422 events) revealed that about 12% of exhausts is accompanied with one side jet and 3% of exhausts is bounded by two side jets, one on each side. Multispacecraft observations of events allow us to conclude that these structures are not consistent with a folding of the reconnection exhaust boundary. A source of these side jets is probably multiple or patchy reconnection at or close to the heliospheric current sheet. We suggest a scenario based on multiple reconnection that would lead to the presence of two side jets. A single jet is caused by a broken X-line consisting of two or more spatially separated parts.

We present Chandra and XMM-Newton X-ray, Very Large Array (VLA) radio, and optical observations of three candidate compact steep spectrum (CSS) radio galaxies. CSS sources are of a galactic scale and are presumably driving a shock through the interstellar medium (ISM) of their host galaxy. B3 1445+410 is a low-excitation emission line CSS radio galaxy with possibly a hybrid Fanaroff–Riley FRI/II (or fat double) radio morphology. The Chandra observations reveal a point-like source that is well fit with a power law consistent with the emission from a Doppler boosted core. 3C 268.3 is a CSS broad-line radio galaxy (BLRG) whose Chandra data are consistent spatially with a point source centered on the nucleus and spectrally with a double power-law model. PKS B1017–325 is a low-excitation emission line radio galaxy with a bent double radio morphology. While from our new spectroscopic redshift, PKS B1017−325 falls outside the formal definition of a CSS, the XMM-Newton observations are consistent with ISM emission with either a contribution from hot shocked gas or non-thermal jet emission. We compile selected radio and X-ray properties of the nine bona fide CSS radio galaxies with X-ray detections so far. We find that two out of the nine show X-ray spectroscopic evidence for hot shocked gas. We note that the counts in the sources are low and that the properties of the two sources with evidence for hot shocked gas are typical of the other CSS radio galaxies. We suggest that hot shocked gas may be typical of CSS radio galaxies due to their propagation through their host galaxies.

We study the internal structure of the circumgalactic medium (CGM), using 29 spectra of 13 gravitationally lensed quasars with image separation angles of a few arcseconds, which correspond to 100 pc to 10 kpc in physical distances. After separating metal absorption lines detected in the spectra into high ions with ionization parameter (IP) > 40 eV and low ions with IP < 20 eV, we find that (i) the fraction of absorption lines that are detected in only one of the lensed images is larger for low ions (∼16%) than high ions (∼2%), (ii) the fractional difference of equivalent widths ($\mathrm{EWs}$) between the lensed images is almost the same ($\mathrm{dEW}$ ∼ 0.2) for both groups although the low ions have a slightly larger variation, and (iii) weak low-ion absorbers tend to have larger $\mathrm{dEW}$ compared to weak high-ion absorbers. We construct simple models to reproduce these observed properties and investigate the distribution of physical quantities such as size and location of absorbers, using some free parameters. Our best models for absorbers with high ions and low ions suggest that (i) an overall size of the CGM is at least ∼500 kpc, (ii) a size of spherical clumpy cloud is ∼1 kpc or smaller, and (iii) only high-ion absorbers can have a diffusely distributed homogeneous component throughout the CGM. We infer that a high ionization absorber distributes almost homogeneously with a small-scale internal fluctuation, while a low ionization absorber consists of a large number of small-scale clouds in the diffusely distributed higher ionized region. This is the first result to investigate the internal small-scale structure of the CGM, based on the large number of gravitationally lensed quasar spectra.

Recent submillimeter observations show nonaxisymmetric brightness distributions with a horseshoe-like morphology for more than a dozen transition disks. The most-accepted explanation for the observed asymmetries is the accumulation of dust in large-scale vortices. Protoplanetary disks' vortices can form by the excitation of Rossby wave instability in the vicinity of a steep pressure gradient, which can develop at the edges of a giant planet–carved gap or at the edges of an accretionally inactive zone. We studied the formation and evolution of vortices formed in these two distinct scenarios by means of two-dimensional locally isothermal hydrodynamic simulations. We found that the vortex formed at the edge of a planetary gap is short-lived, unless the disk is nearly inviscid. In contrast, the vortex formed at the outer edge of a dead zone is long-lived. The vortex morphology can be significantly different in the two scenarios: the vortex radial and azimuthal extensions are ∼1.5 and ∼3.5 times larger for the dead-zone edge compared to gap models. In some particular cases, the vortex aspect ratios can be similar in the two scenarios; however, the vortex azimuthal extensions can be used to distinguish the vortex formation mechanisms. We calculated predictions for vortex observability in the submillimeter continuum with ALMA. We found that the azimuthal and radial extent of the brightness asymmetry correlates with the vortex formation process within the limitations of α-viscosity prescription.

We characterize the influence that inclination has on the shape and normalization in average dust attenuation curves derived from a sample of ∼10,000 local star-forming galaxies. To do this, we utilize aperture-matched multiwavelength data from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope, and the Two Micron All-sky Survey. We separate our sample into groups according to axial ratio (b/a) and obtain an estimate of their average total-to-selective attenuation $k(\lambda )$. The attenuation curves are found to be shallower at UV wavelengths with increasing inclination, whereas the shape at longer wavelengths remains unchanged. The highest inclination subpopulation ($b/a\lt 0.42$) exhibits an NUV excess in its average selective attenuation, which, if interpreted as a 2175 Å feature, is best fit with a bump strength of 17%–26% of the MW value. No excess is apparent in the average attenuation curve of lower inclination galaxies. The differential reddening between the stellar continuum and ionized gas is found to decrease with increasing inclination. We find that higher inclination galaxies have slightly higher values of R_V, although this is poorly constrained given the uncertainties. We outline possible explanations for these trends within a two component dust model (dense cloud+diffuse dust) and find that they can be naturally explained if carriers of the 2175 Å feature are preferentially destroyed in star-forming regions (UV-bright regions).

Recently, many superflares on solar-type stars have been discovered as white-light flares (WLFs). The statistical study found a correlation between their energies (E) and durations (τ): $\tau \propto {E}^{0.39}$, similar to those of solar hard/soft X-ray flares, $\tau \propto {E}^{0.2\mbox{--}0.33}$. This indicates a universal mechanism of energy release on solar and stellar flares, i.e., magnetic reconnection. We here carried out statistical research on 50 solar WLFs observed with Solar Dynamics Observatory/HMI and examined the correlation between the energies and durations. As a result, the E–τ relation on solar WLFs ($\tau \propto {E}^{0.38}$) is quite similar to that on stellar superflares ($\tau \propto {E}^{0.39}$). However, the durations of stellar superflares are one order of magnitude shorter than those expected from solar WLFs. We present the following two interpretations for the discrepancy: (1) in solar flares, the cooling timescale of WLFs may be longer than the reconnection one, and the decay time of solar WLFs can be elongated by the cooling effect; (2) the distribution can be understood by applying a scaling law ($\tau \propto {E}^{1/3}{B}^{-5/3}$) derived from the magnetic reconnection theory. In the latter case, the observed superflares are expected to have 2–4 times stronger magnetic field strength than solar flares.

We report the results from our analysis of eight years of the data for the γ-ray binary LS I +61°303, obtained with the Large Area Telescope on board the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope. We find a significant dip around the binary's periastron in the superorbital light curves, and by fitting the light curves with a sinusoidal function, clear phase shifts are obtained. The superorbital modulation seen in the binary has been long known and different scenarios have been proposed. Based on our results, we suggest that the circumstellar disk around the Be companion of this binary may have a non-axisymmetric structure, which rotates at the superorbital period of 1667 days. As a result, the density of the ambient material around the compact star of the binary changes along the binary orbit over the superorbital period, causing the phase shifts in the modulation, and around periastron, the compact star probably enters the Be disk or switches the mode of its emission due to the intereaction with the disk, causing the appearance of the dip. We discuss the implications of this possible scenario to the observed superorbital properties at multiple frequencies.

We present an implementation of an adaptive ray-tracing (ART) module in the Athena hydrodynamics code that accurately and efficiently handles the radiative transfer involving multiple point sources on a three-dimensional Cartesian grid. We adopt a recently proposed parallel algorithm that uses nonblocking, asynchronous MPI communications to accelerate transport of rays across the computational domain. We validate our implementation through several standard test problems, including the propagation of radiation in vacuum and the expansions of various types of H ii regions. Additionally, scaling tests show that the cost of a full ray trace per source remains comparable to that of the hydrodynamics update on up to $\sim {10}^{3}$ processors. To demonstrate application of our ART implementation, we perform a simulation of star cluster formation in a marginally bound, turbulent cloud, finding that its star formation efficiency is 12% when both radiation pressure forces and photoionization by UV radiation are treated. We directly compare the radiation forces computed from the ART scheme with those from the M₁ closure relation. Although the ART and M₁ schemes yield similar results on large scales, the latter is unable to resolve the radiation field accurately near individual point sources.

We explore the occurrence and detectability of planet–planet occultations (PPOs) in exoplanet systems. These are events during which a planet occults the disk of another planet in the same system, imparting a small photometric signal as its thermal or reflected light is blocked. We focus on the planets in TRAPPIST-1, whose orbital planes we show are aligned to $\lt 0\buildrel{\circ}\over{.} 3$ at 90% confidence. We present a photodynamical model for predicting and computing PPOs in TRAPPIST-1 and other systems for various assumptions of the planets' atmospheric states. When marginalizing over the uncertainties on all orbital parameters, we find that the rate of PPOs in TRAPPIST-1 is about 1.4 per day. We investigate the prospects for detection of these events with the James Webb Space Telescope, finding that ∼10–20 occultations per year of b and c should be above the noise level at 12–15 μm. Joint modeling of several of these PPOs could lead to a robust detection. Alternatively, observations with the proposed Origins Space Telescope should be able to detect individual PPOs at high signal-to-noise ratios. We show how PPOs can be used to break transit timing variation degeneracies, imposing strong constraints on the eccentricities and masses of the planets, as well as to constrain the longitudes of nodes and thus the complete three-dimensional structure of the system. We further show how modeling of these events can be used to reveal a planet's day/night temperature contrast and construct crude surface maps. We make our photodynamical code available on github (https://github.com/rodluger/planetplanet).

We analyze recent magnetar light-curve modeling of 38 hydrogen-poor superluminous supernovae (SLSNe) and find that the energies of the explosions themselves, which take place before the magnetar energy is released, are more than what the neutrino-driven explosion mechanism can supply for about half of the systems. These SLSNe must have been exploded by a different process than the delayed neutrino mechanism, most likely the jet feedback mechanism. The conclusion for magnetar modeling of SLSNe is that jets launched at magnetar birth cannot be ignored, not at the explosion itself and not later when mass fall-back might occur. More generally, the present analysis strengthens the call for a paradigm shift from neutrino-driven to jet-driven explosion models of all core collapse supernovae.

Coronal magnetic flux ropes are closely related to large-scale solar activities. Using a 2.5-dimensional time-dependent ideal magnetohydrodynamic model in Cartesian coordinates, we carry out numerical simulations to investigate the evolution of a magnetic system consisting of a flux rope embedded in a fully closed quadrupolar magnetic field with different photospheric flux distributions. It is found that when the photospheric flux is not concentrated too much toward the polarity inversion line and the constraint exerted by the background field is not too weak, the equilibrium states of the system are divided into two branches: the rope sticks to the photosphere for the lower branch and levitates in the corona for the upper branch. These two branches are connected by an upward catastrophe (from the lower branch to the upper) and a downward catastrophe (from the upper branch to the lower). Our simulations reveal that there exist both upward and downward catastrophes in quadrupolar fields, which may be either force-free or non-force-free. The existence and the properties of these two catastrophes are influenced by the photospheric flux distribution, and a downward catastrophe is always paired with an upward catastrophe. Comparing the decay indices in catastrophic and noncatastrophic cases, we infer that torus unstable may be a necessary but not sufficient condition for a catastrophic system.

Many varying speed of light (VSL) theories have been developed recently. Here we address the issue of their observational verification in a fully comprehensive way. By using the most updated cosmological probes, we test three different candidates for a VSL theory (Barrow & Magueijo, Avelino & Martins, and Moffat). We consider many different Ansätze for both the functional form of c(z) and the dark energy dynamics. We compare these results using a reliable statistical tool such as the Bayesian evidence. We find that the present cosmological data are perfectly compatible with any of these VSL scenarios, but for the Moffat model there is a higher Bayesian evidence ratio in favor of VSL rather than the c = constant ΛCDM scenario. Moreover, in such a scenario, the VSL signal can help to strengthen constraints on the spatial curvature (with indication toward an open universe), to clarify some properties of dark energy (exclusion of a cosmological constant at $2\sigma$ level), and is also falsifiable in the near future owing to peculiar issues that differentiate this model from the standard one. Finally, we apply an information prior and entropy prior in order to put physical constraints on the models, though still in favor Moffat's proposal.

We report the discovery of an infrared (IR)-bright dust-obscured galaxy (DOG) that shows a strong ionized-gas outflow but no significant molecular gas outflow. Based on detailed analysis of their optical spectra, we found some peculiar IR-bright DOGs that show strong ionized-gas outflow ([O iii] λ5007) from the central active galactic nucleus (AGN). For one of these DOGs (WISE J102905.90+050132.4) at z_spec = 0.493, we performed follow-up observations using ALMA to investigate their CO molecular gas properties. As a result, we successfully detected ¹²CO(J = 2–1) and ¹²CO(J = 4–3) lines and the continuum of this DOG. The intensity-weighted velocity map of both lines shows a gradient, and the line profile of those CO lines is well-fitted by a single narrow Gaussian, meaning that this DOG has no sign of strong molecular gas outflow. The IR luminosity of this object is log (L_IR/L_☉) = 12.40, which is classified as an ultraluminous IR galaxy (ULIRG). We found that (i) the stellar mass and star formation rate relation and (ii) the CO luminosity and far-IR luminosity relation are consistent with those of typical ULIRGs at similar redshifts. These results indicate that the molecular gas properties of this DOG are normal despite the fact that its optical spectrum shows a powerful AGN outflow. We conclude that a powerful ionized-gas outflow caused by the AGN does not necessarily affect the cold interstellar medium in the host galaxy, at least for this DOG.

We study the stability of large-amplitude, circularly polarized Alfvén waves in an anisotropic plasma described by the double-adiabatic/CGL closure, and in particular the effect of a background thermal pressure anisotropy on the well-known properties of Alfvén wave parametric decay in magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). Anisotropy allows instability over a much wider range of values of parallel plasma beta (β_∥) when ξ = p_0⊥/p_0∥ > 1. When the pressure anisotropy exceeds a critical value, ξ ≥ ξ* with ξ* ≃ 2.7, there is a new regime in which the parametric instability is no longer quenched at high β_∥, and in the limit β_∥ ≫ 1, the growth rate becomes independent of β_∥. In the opposite case of ξ < ξ*, the instability is strongly suppressed with increasing parallel plasma beta, similarly to the MHD case. We analyze marginal stability conditions for parametric decay in the (ξ, β_∥) parameter space and discuss possible implications for Alfvénic turbulence in the solar wind.

We report the first high-significance GeV γ-ray detections of supernova remnants HESS J1731−347 and SN 1006, both of which have been previously detected by imaging atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes above 1 TeV. Using 8 years of Fermi-LAT Pass 8 data at energies between 1 GeV and 2 TeV, we detect emission at the position of HESS J1731−347 with a significance of $\sim 5\sigma$ and a spectral index of ${\rm{\Gamma }}=1.66\pm {0.16}_{\mathrm{stat}}\pm {0.12}_{\mathrm{syst}}$. The hardness of the index and the good connection with the TeV spectrum of HESS J1731−347 support an association between the two sources. We also confirm the detection of SN 1006 at $\sim 6\sigma$ with a spectral index of ${\rm{\Gamma }}=1.79\pm {0.17}_{\mathrm{stat}}\pm {0.27}_{\mathrm{syst}}$. The northeast (NE) and southwest (SW) limbs of SN 1006 were also fit separately, resulting in the detection of the NE region (${\rm{\Gamma }}=1.47\pm {0.26}_{\mathrm{stat}}$) and the non-detection of the SW region. The significance of different spectral components for the two limbs is $3.6\sigma$, providing first indications of an asymmetry in the GeV γ-ray emission.

We present observations of a small-scale extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) wave that was associated with a mini-filament eruption and a GOES B1.9 micro-flare in the quiet-Sun region. The initiation of the event was due to the photospheric magnetic emergence and cancellation in the eruption source region, which first caused the ejection of a small plasma ejecta, then the ejecta impacted a nearby mini-filament and thereby led to the filament's eruption and the associated flare. During the filament eruption, an EUV wave at a speed of $182\mbox{--}317\,\mathrm{km}\,{{\rm{s}}}^{-1}$ was formed ahead of an expanding coronal loop, which propagated faster than the expanding loop and showed obvious deceleration and reflection during the propagation. In addition, the EUV wave further resulted in the transverse oscillation of a remote filament whose period and damping time are 15 and 60 minutes, respectively. Based on the observational results, we propose that the small-scale EUV wave should be a fast-mode magnetosonic wave that was driven by the expanding coronal loop. Moreover, with the application of filament seismology, it is estimated that the radial magnetic field strength is about 7 Gauss. The observations also suggest that small-scale EUV waves associated with miniature solar eruptions share similar driving mechanisms and observational characteristics with their large-scale counterparts.

Previously, we showed that ³He is enhanced in the ion population accelerated in large solar flares, with a ³He/⁴He ratio of >0.1; i.e., several orders of magnitude larger than the accepted coronal value. We also showed that when ³He is enhanced, its nuclear reactions with elements of the solar atmosphere can significantly impact both positron production (and the subsequent positron-annihilation line) and the gamma-ray de-excitation-line spectrum. Both the 2.223 MeV neutron-capture line and escaping neutrons are important additional flare observables. Neutron production from reactions of ³He with heavy elements of the solar atmosphere are not currently included in our neutron-production code, and the reliable and consistent analysis of all available solar-flare data requires that neutron-production calculations include these reactions. We evaluate the neutron-production cross sections for these reactions and include them in the code. We then explore how the neutron observables (the escaping-neutron yield and spectrum and the flux of the neutron-capture line) are affected by ³He reactions. We find that neutron production by accelerated ³He reactions with heavy elements is similar to that by accelerated ⁴He and so will be significant only for accelerated ³He/⁴He ratios greater than 1.

We present a spectral and timing study of the NuSTAR and Swift observations of the black hole candidate IGR J17091–3624 in the hard state during its outburst in 2016. Disk reflection is detected in each of the NuSTAR spectra taken in three epochs. Fitting with relativistic reflection models reveals that the accretion disk is truncated during all epochs with ${R}_{\mathrm{in}}\gt 10\,{r}_{{\rm{g}}}$, with the data favoring a low disk inclination of ∼30°–40°. The steepening of the continuum spectra between epochs is accompanied by a decrease in the high energy cutoff: the electron temperature ${{kT}}_{{\rm{e}}}$ drops from ∼64 to ∼26 keV, changing systematically with the source flux. We detect type-C QPOs in the power spectra with frequency varying between 0.131 and 0.327 Hz. In addition, a secondary peak is found in the power spectra centered at about 2.3 times the QPO frequency during all three epochs. The nature of this secondary frequency is uncertain; however, a non-harmonic origin is favored. We investigate the evolution of the timing and spectral properties during the rising phase of the outburst and discuss their physical implications.

Hydrogen, being the most abundant element, is the driver of many if not most reactions occurring on interstellar dust grains. In hydrogen atom addition reactions, the rate is usually determined by the surface kinetics of the hydrogen atom instead of the other reaction partner. Three mechanisms exist to explain hydrogen addition reactions on surfaces: Langmuir–Hinshelwood, Eley–Rideal, and hot-atom. In gas-grain models, the mechanism that is assumed greatly affects the simulation results. In this work, we quantify the temperature dependence of the rates of atomic hydrogen addition reactions by studying the reaction of H+O₃$\to$O₂+OH on the surface of a film of non-porous amorphous solid water (np-ASW) in the temperature range from 10 to 50 K. The reaction rate is found to be temperature independent. This disagrees with the results of simulations with a network of rate equations that assume Langmuir–Hinshelwood mechanism through either thermal diffusion or tunneling diffusion; the reaction rates assuming such a mechanism possesses a strong temperature dependence, either explicitly or implicitly, that is not seen experimentally. We suggest that the Eley–Rideal and/or hot-atom mechanism play a key role in hydrogen atom addition reactions, and should be included in gas-grain models. We also suggest that our newly developed time-resolved reactive scattering can be utilized to measure the chemical desorption efficiency in grain surface reactions.

The neutron excess at the time of explosion provides a powerful discriminant among models of Type Ia supernovae. Recent calculations of the carbon simmering phase in single degenerate progenitors have disagreed about the final neutron excess. We find that the treatment of mixing in convection zones likely contributes to the difference. We demonstrate that in Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics models, heating from exothermic weak reactions plays a significant role in raising the temperature of the white dwarf. This emphasizes the important role that the convective Urca process plays during simmering. We briefly summarize the shortcomings of current models during this phase. Ultimately, we do not pinpoint the difference between the results reported in the literature, but show that the results are consistent with different net energetics of the convective Urca process. This problem serves as an important motivation for the development of models of the convective Urca process suitable for incorporation into stellar evolution codes.

We present an analysis of the first Chandra observation of PSO J334.2028+01.4075 (PSO J334), targeted as a binary-AGN candidate based on periodic variations of the optical flux. With no prior targeted X-ray coverage for PSO J334, our new 40 ks Chandra observation allows for the opportunity to differentiate between a single- or binary-AGN system, and if a binary, can characterize the mode of accretion. Simulations show that the two expected accretion disk morphologies for binary-AGN systems are (i) a "cavity," where the inner region of the accretion disk is mostly empty and emission is truncated blueward of the wavelength associated with the temperature of the innermost ring, or (ii) "minidisks," where there is substantial accretion from the circumbinary disk onto one or both of the members of the binary, each with their own shock-heated thin-disk accretion system. We find the X-ray emission to be well-fit with an absorbed power law, which is incompatible with the simple cavity scenario. Furthermore, we construct an SED of PSO J334 by combining radio through X-ray observations and find that the SED agrees well with that of a normal AGN, which is most likely incompatible with the minidisk scenario. Other analyses, such as those locating the quasar on IR color–color diagrams and analyzing the quasar mass predicted by the fundamental plane of black hole activity, further highlight the similarity of PSO J334 with respect to normal AGNs. On the multi-wavelength fronts we investigated, we find no evidence supporting PSO J334 as a binary-AGN system, though our analysis remains insensitive to some binary configurations.

Wide-field surveys are discovering a growing number of rare transients whose physical origin is not yet well understood. Here we present optical and UV data and analysis of intermediate Palomar Transient Factory (iPTF) 16asu, a luminous, rapidly evolving, high-velocity, stripped-envelope supernova (SN). With a rest-frame rise time of just four days and a peak absolute magnitude of ${M}_{{\rm{g}}}=-20.4$ mag, the light curve of iPTF 16asu is faster and more luminous than that of previous rapid transients. The spectra of iPTF 16asu show a featureless blue continuum near peak that develops into an SN Ic-BL spectrum on the decline. We show that while the late-time light curve could plausibly be powered by ⁵⁶Ni decay, the early emission requires a different energy source. Nondetections in the X-ray and radio strongly constrain the energy coupled to relativistic ejecta to be at most comparable to the class of low-luminosity gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). We suggest that the early emission may have been powered by either a rapidly spinning-down magnetar or by shock breakout in an extended envelope of a very energetic explosion. In either scenario a central engine is required, making iPTF 16asu an intriguing transition object between superluminous SNe, SNe Ic-BL, and low-luminosity GRBs.

We study the coronal mass ejection (CME) with a complex acceleration profile. The event occurred on 2009 April 23. It had an impulsive acceleration phase, an impulsive deceleration phase, and a second impulsive acceleration phase. During its evolution, the CME showed signatures of different acceleration mechanisms: kink instability, prominence drainage, flare reconnection, and a CME–CME collision. The special feature of the observations is the usage of the TESIS EUV telescope. The instrument could image the solar corona in the Fe 171 Å line up to a distance of 2 ${R}_{\odot }$ from the center of the Sun. This allows us to trace the CME up to the LASCO/C2 field of view without losing the CME from sight. The onset of the CME was caused by kink instability. The mass drainage occurred after the kink instability. The mass drainage played only an auxiliary role: it decreased the CME mass, which helped to accelerate the CME. The first impulsive acceleration phase was caused by the flare reconnection. We observed the two-ribbon flare and an increase of the soft X-ray flux during the first impulsive acceleration phase. The impulsive deceleration and the second impulsive acceleration phases were caused by the CME–CME collision. The studied event shows that CMEs are complex phenomena that cannot be explained with only one acceleration mechanism. We should seek a combination of different mechanisms that accelerate CMEs at different stages of their evolution.

Electron capture (EC) isotopes are known to provide constraints on the low-energy behavior of cosmic rays (CRs), such as reacceleration. Here, we study the EC isotopes within the framework of the dynamic spiral-arms CR propagation model in which most of the CR sources reside in the galactic spiral arms. The model was previously used to explain the B/C and sub-Fe/Fe ratios. We show that the known inconsistency between the ⁴⁹Ti/⁴⁹V and ⁵¹V/⁵¹Cr ratios remains also in the spiral-arms model. On the other hand, unlike the general wisdom that says the isotope ratios depend primarily on reacceleration, we find here that the ratio also depends on the halo size (Z_h) and, in spiral-arms models, also on the time since the last spiral-arm passage (${\tau }_{\mathrm{arm}}$). Namely, EC isotopes can, in principle, provide interesting constraints on the diffusion geometry. However, with the present uncertainties in the lab measurements of both the electron attachment rate and the fragmentation cross sections, no meaningful constraint can be placed.

The Magellanic Stream, a gaseous tail that trails behind the Magellanic Clouds, could replenish the Milky Way (MW) with a tremendous amount of gas if it reaches the Galactic disk before it evaporates into the halo. To determine how the Magellanic Stream's properties change along its length, we have conducted an observational study of the Hα emission, along with other optical warm ionized gas tracers, toward 39 sight lines. Using the Wisconsin Hα Mapper telescope, we detect Hα emission brighter than 30–50 mR in 26 of our 39 sight lines. This Hα emission extends over $2^\circ$ away from the H i emission. By comparing ${I}_{{\rm{H}}\alpha }$ and ${I}_{[{\rm{O}}{\rm{I}}]}$, we find that regions with $\mathrm{log}{N}_{{\rm{H}}{\rm{I}}}/{\mathrm{cm}}^{-2}\approx 19.5\mbox{--}20.0$ are 16%–67% ionized. Most of the ${I}_{{\rm{H}}\alpha }$ along the Magellanic Stream are much higher than expected if the primary ionization source is photoionization from Magellanic Clouds, the MW, and the extragalactic background. We find that the additional contribution from self ionization through a "shock cascade" that results as the Stream plows through the halo might be sufficient to reproduce the underlying level of Hα emission along the Stream. In the sparsely sampled region below the South Galactic Pole, there exists a subset of sight lines with uncharacteristically bright emission, which suggest that gas is being ionized further by an additional source that could be a linked to energetic processes associated with the Galactic center.

Since 2010 May 1, we have been able to study (almost) continuously the vector magnetic field in the Sun, thanks to two space-based observatories: the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and Hinode. Both are equipped with instruments able to measure the Stokes parameters of Zeeman-induced polarization of photospheric line radiation. But the observation modes; the spectral lines; the spatial, spectral, and temporal sampling; and even the inversion codes used to recover magnetic and thermodynamic information from the Stokes profiles are different. We compare the vector magnetic fields derived from observations with the HMI instrument on board SDO with those observed by the SP instrument on Hinode. We have obtained relationships between components of magnetic vectors in the umbra, penumbra, and plage observed in 14 maps of NOAA Active Region 11084. Importantly, we have transformed SP data into observables comparable to those of HMI, to explore possible influences of the different modes of operation of the two instruments and the inversion schemes used to infer the magnetic fields. The assumed filling factor (fraction of each pixel containing a Zeeman signature) produces the most significant differences in derived magnetic properties, especially in the plage. The spectral and angular samplings have the next-largest effects. We suggest to treat the disambiguation in the same way in the data provided by HMI and SP. That would make the relationship between the vector magnetic field recovered from these data stronger, which would favor the simultaneous or complementary use of both instruments.

Wave-like features recently observed in some coronal mass ejections (CMEs) have been associated with the presence of Kelvin–Helmholtz instability (KHI) in the low corona. Previous works found observational evidence of KHI in a CME; this was followed by numerical simulations in order to determine the magnetic field strength allowing for its existence. Here, we present the first discussion of KHI formation in the outer corona at heliocentric distances from $4\,{R}_{\odot }$ to $30\,{R}_{\odot }$. We study separately the CME–sheath and sheath–solar-wind (Sh–SW) interfaces of two CMEs that propagated in the slow and fast SWs. Mapping the velocities, densities, and magnetic field strengths of the CMEs, sheaths, and SWs in the CME's flanks, we solve the Chandrasekhar condition for KHI formation. Calculations show that KHI formation is more likely in a CME propagating in a slow SW (CME 1) than that propagating in a fast SW due to the large shear flow between the CME and the slow SW. Comparing the interfaces for both CME cases, we note that the Sh–SW interface of CME 1 is more conducive to the instability because of the similar strengths of the magnetic field necessary for KHI formation and of the SW magnetic field.

Derived here is a more conceptually intuitive means of interpreting magnetic-field diagnostics from circularly polarized lines in a wide array of astrophysical applications. The method applies to individual "Stokes V" profile snapshots and complements standard Zeeman Doppler imaging techniques by providing the explicit form of the averaging kernel for the magnetic field that the polarization diagnostic is sensitive to. This new perspective centers on the antiderivative, or cumulative integral with respect to frequency, of the Stokes V profile. The new approach would not yield different answers for magnetic field determinations, but rather presents a more directly conceptual means of understanding the connection between what is observed and what types of fields produce it. In particular, it elucidates how lateral and line-of-sight field gradients affect the Zeeman profile. This approach is especially useful when the Zeeman shift varies in a way that correlates with the Doppler shift, as then spectral resolution serves as a proxy for spatial imaging in each polarization snapshot. Hence, the perspective is particularly useful for rapidly rotating stars, hypersonic winds, galactic rotation, and large-amplitude turbulence, when the longitudinal field varies across the source or with depth. The approach also generates an improved unsigned mean-field diagnostic that suffers less polarity cancellation than the commonly used center-of-gravity diagnostic. Reduced cancellation produces a better estimate of the field magnitude in toroidal, spotty, or dipolar fields, and a complementary comparison with the current unsigned diagnostic can help characterize the degree of field polarity reversal concealed within integrated diagnostics.

I present an optical characterization of the Galactic X-ray transient source MAXI J1957+032. This system flares by a factor of ≳10⁴ every few hundred days, with each flare lasting ∼5 days. I identify its quiescent counterpart to be a late-K/early-M dwarf star at a distance of 5 ± 2 kpc. This implies that the peak $0.5\mbox{--}10\,\mathrm{keV}$ luminosity of the system is ${10}^{36.4\pm 0.4}$ erg s⁻¹. As found by Mata Sanchez et al. the outburst properties of MAXI J1957+032 are most consistent with the sample of accreting millisecond pulsars. However, the low inferred accretion rate, and the lack of evidence for a hydrogen-rich accretion flow, are difficult to reconcile with the late-K/early-M dwarf counterpart being the mass donor. Instead, the observations are best described by a low-mass hydrogen- and possibly helium-poor mass donor, such as a carbon–oxygen white dwarf, forming a tight interacting binary with a neutron star. The observed main-sequence counterpart would then likely be in a wide orbit around the inner binary.

With the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) routinely operating science flights, we demonstrate that observations with the Faint Object infraRed CAmera for the SOFIA Telescope (FORCAST) can provide reliable estimates of the internal luminosities, L_int, of protostars. We have developed a technique to estimate L_int using a pair of FORCAST filters: one "short-wavelength" filter centered within 19.7–25.3 μm, and one "long-wavelength" filter within 31.5–37.1 μm. These L_int estimates are reliable to within 30%–40% for 67% of protostars and to within a factor of 2.3–2.6 for 99% of protostars. The filter pair comprised of F 25.3 μm and F 37.1 μm achieves the best sensitivity and most constrained results. We evaluate several assumptions that could lead to systematic uncertainties. The OH5 dust opacity matches observational constraints for protostellar environments best, although not perfectly; we find that any improved dust model will have a small impact of 5%–10% on the L_int estimates. For protostellar envelopes, the TSC84 model yields masses that are twice those of the Ulrich model, but we conclude that this mass difference does not significantly impact results at the mid-infrared wavelengths probed by FORCAST. Thus, FORCAST is a powerful instrument for luminosity studies targeting newly discovered protostars or suspected protostars lacking detections longward of 24 μm. Furthermore, with its dynamic range and greater angular resolution, FORCAST may be used to characterize protostars that were either saturated or merged with other sources in previous surveys using the Spitzer Space Telescope or the Herschel Space Observatory.

Photometry from the Kepler mission is optimized to detect small, short-duration signals like planet transits at the expense of long-term trends. This long-term variability can be recovered in photometry from the full-frame images (FFIs), a set of calibration data collected approximately monthly during the Kepler mission. Here we present f3, an open-source package to perform photometry on the Kepler FFIs in order to detect changes in the brightness of stars in the Kepler field of view over long time baselines. We apply this package to a sample of 4000 Sun–like stars with measured rotation periods. We find that ≈10% of these targets have long-term variability in their observed flux. For the majority of targets, we find that the luminosity variations are either correlated or anticorrelated with the short-term variability due to starspots on the stellar surface. We find a transition between anticorrelated (starspot-dominated) variability and correlated (facula-dominated) variability between rotation periods of 15 and 25 days, suggesting the transition between the two modes is complete for stars at the age of the Sun. We also identify a sample of stars with apparently complete cycles, as well as a collection of short-period binaries with extreme photometric variation over the Kepler mission.

A theoretical model that describes the evolution of the power anisotropy in the energy-containing and inertial ranges throughout the heliosphere is developed for three possibilities: (i) no in situ sources of turbulence; (ii) stream-shear sources of 2D and slab turbulence; and (iii) a fully driven turbulence model that includes both stream-shear driving and a pickup ion source of slab turbulence. At the inner boundary (1 au), we assume that the ratios of the 2D to slab fluctuating magnetic energy variances in the energy-containing range are 80:20, 70:30, 60:40, and 55:45. For case (i), $\langle {B}_{2{\rm{D}}}^{2}\rangle /\langle {b}_{\mathrm{slab}}^{2}\rangle$ in the energy-containing range increases monotonically throughout the heliosphere, whereas the inertial range ratio increases until ∼20 au and then decreases. For case (ii), the energy-containing range ratio increases initially and then remains approximately constant and ordered beyond ∼2 au, according to the inner boundary assumptions. The inertial range ratio for the 80:20 case increases with heliocentric distance, whereas for the 70:30, 60:40, and 55:45 cases, the rations increase between ∼2 to ∼10–20 au, and then generally decrease at larger heliocentric distances. For case (iii), the energy-containing and inertial range ratios increase initially, remain approximately constant and increase slightly, respectively, and then decrease more rapidly between ∼8 and 30 au, and more gradually thereafter, approaching a ratio of ∼1 at 75 au. We present preliminary results that show the power anisotropy in magnetic field fluctuations observed by Ulysses spacecraft increasing with heliocentric distance from ∼1.5 to 4.5 au.

In the color–magnitude diagrams of globular clusters, when the locus of stars on the horizontal branch extends to hot temperatures, discontinuities are observed at colors corresponding to ∼12,000 and ∼18,000 K. The former is the "Grundahl jump" that is associated with the onset of radiative levitation in the atmospheres of hot subdwarfs. The latter is the "Momany jump" that has remained unexplained. Using the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope, we have obtained ultraviolet and blue spectroscopy of six hot subdwarfs straddling the Momany jump in the massive globular cluster ω Cen. By comparison to model atmospheres and synthetic spectra, we find that the feature is due primarily to a decrease in atmospheric Fe for stars hotter than the feature, amplified by the temperature dependence of the Fe absorption at these effective temperatures.

We study infrared emission of 17 isolated, diffuse clouds with masses of order ${10}^{2}\,{M}_{\odot }$ to test the hypothesis that grain property variations cause the apparently low gas-to-dust ratios that have been measured in those clouds. Maps of the clouds were constructed from Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) data and directly compared with the maps of dust optical depth from Planck. The mid-infrared emission per unit dust optical depth has a significant trend toward lower values at higher optical depths. The trend can be quantitatively explained by the extinction of starlight within the clouds. The relative amounts of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon and very small grains traced by WISE, compared with large grains tracked by Planck, are consistent with being constant. The temperature of the large grains significantly decreases for clouds with larger dust optical depth; this trend is partially due to dust property variations, but is primarily due to extinction of starlight. We updated the prediction for molecular hydrogen column density, taking into account variations in dust properties, and find it can explain the observed dust optical depth per unit gas column density. Thus, the low gas-to-dust ratios in the clouds are most likely due to "dark gas" that is molecular hydrogen.

There is considerable observational evidence of implosion of magnetic loop systems inside solar coronal active regions following high-energy events like solar flares. In this work, we propose that such collapse can be modeled in three dimensions quite accurately within the framework of ideal magnetohydrodynamics. We furthermore argue that the dynamics of loop implosion is only sensitive to the transmitted disturbance of one or more of the system variables, e.g., velocity generated at the event site. This indicates that to understand loop implosion, it is sensible to leave the event site out of the simulated active region. Toward our goal, a velocity pulse is introduced to model the transmitted disturbance generated at the event site. Magnetic field lines inside our simulated active region are traced in real time, and it is demonstrated that the subsequent dynamics of the simulated loops closely resemble observed imploding loops. Our work highlights the role of plasma β in regards to the rigidity of the loop systems and how that might affect the imploding loops' dynamics. Compressible magnetohydrodynamic modes such as kink and sausage are also shown to be generated during such processes, in accordance with observations.

In this study, we investigate the formation and properties of tangential discontinuities (TDs) in compressive magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence. By detecting sharp interfaces of magnetic and thermal pressure, TDs are seen to separate distinct plasma and magnetic field regions, behaving as the walls of different flux tubes. Across an identified TD, the temperature, with an enhancement, experiences an evident variation. The temporal evolution of its 3D structure indicates that the mutual approaching, squeezing, and separating of two clumps of the turbulent results in the formation and collapse of the identified TD, with its lifetime of about 4.5 hr for typical solar wind parameters. Through isolating each of the formed TDs from the background, and tracking each of them through time, it is found that the TDs display a multiscale nature. Their length can be as long as 2.50 L₀, their width comes to an average of about 0.16 L₀, their volume has a maximum of about 0.01 ${L}_{0}^{3}$, and, for most of the TDs, the energy dissipative rate is below 0.51 ${\rho }_{0}{V}_{A}^{3}/{L}_{0}$, with L₀, ${\rho }_{0}$, and V_A being characteristic length, characteristic density, and characteristic Alfvén speed. The lifetimes of the TDs extend from about 0.16 ${L}_{0}/{V}_{A}$ to about 2.20 ${L}_{0}/{V}_{A}$, with fewer TDs surviving longer lifetimes. For typical solar wind parameters, their lifetimes are far shorter than the time the solar wind takes from the Sun to 1 au, which indicates that TDs observed by in situ satellites at 1 au are more likely to be generated by local turbulence.

Phobos and Deimos are the two small Martian moons, orbiting almost on the equatorial plane of Mars. Recent works have shown that they can accrete within an impact-generated inner dense and outer light disk, and that the same impact potentially forms the Borealis basin, a large northern hemisphere basin on the current Mars. However, there is no a priori reason for the impact to take place close to the north pole (Borealis present location), nor to generate a debris disk in the equatorial plane of Mars (in which Phobos and Deimos orbit). In this paper, we investigate these remaining issues on the giant impact origin of the Martian moons. First, we show that the mass deficit created by the Borealis impact basin induces a global reorientation of the planet to realign its main moment of inertia with the rotation pole (True Polar Wander). This moves the location of the Borealis basin toward its current location. Next, using analytical arguments, we investigate the detailed dynamical evolution of the eccentric inclined disk from the equatorial plane of Mars that is formed by the Martian-moon-forming impact. We find that, as a result of precession of disk particles due to the Martian dynamical flattening J₂ term of its gravity field and particle–particle inelastic collisions, eccentricity and inclination are damped and an inner dense and outer light equatorial circular disk is eventually formed. Our results strengthen the giant impact origin of Phobos and Deimos that can finally be tested by a future sample return mission such as JAXA's Martian Moons eXploration mission.

We compare the magnetic helicity in the 2013 March 17–18 interplanetary coronal mass ejection (ICME) flux rope at 1 au and in its solar counterpart. The progenitor coronal mass ejection (CME) erupted on 2013 March 15 from NOAA active region 11692 and is associated with an M1.1 flare. We derive the source region reconnection flux using the post-eruption arcade (PEA) method that uses the photospheric magnetogram and the area under the PEA. The geometrical properties of the near-Sun flux rope is obtained by forward-modeling of white-light CME observations. Combining the geometrical properties and the reconnection flux, we extract the magnetic properties of the CME flux rope. We derive the magnetic helicity of the flux rope using its magnetic and geometric properties obtained near the Sun and at 1 au. We use a constant-α force-free cylindrical flux rope model fit to the in situ observations in order to derive the magnetic and geometric information of the 1 au ICME. We find a good correspondence in both amplitude and sign of the helicity between the ICME and the CME, assuming a semi-circular (half torus) ICME flux rope with a length of π au. We find that about 83% of the total flux rope helicity at 1 au is injected by the magnetic reconnection in the low corona. We discuss the effect of assuming flux rope length in the derived value of the magnetic helicity. This study connecting the helicity of magnetic flux ropes through the Sun–Earth system has important implications for the origin of helicity in the interplanetary medium and the topology of ICME flux ropes at 1 au and hence their space weather consequences.

We discuss the possibility of obtaining fast radio bursts (FRBs) from the interior of supernovae, in particular SN 1986J. Young neutron stars are involved in many of the possible scenarios for the origin of FRBs, and it has been suggested that the high dispersion measures observed in FRBs might be produced by the ionized material in the ejecta of associated supernovae. Using VLA and VLBI measurements of the Type IIn SN 1986J, which has a central compact component not seen in other supernovae, we can directly observe for the first time radio signals, which originate in the interior of a young (∼30 year old) supernova. We show that at an age of 30 years, any FRB signal at ∼1 GHz would still be largely absorbed by the ejecta. By the time the ejecta have expanded so that a 1 GHz signal would be visible, the internal dispersion measure due to the SN ejecta would be below the values typically seen for FRBs. The high dispersion measures seen for the FRBs detected so far could of course be due to propagation through the intergalactic medium provided that the FRBs are at distances much larger than that of SN 1986J, which is 10 Mpc. We conclude that if FRBs originate in Type II SNe/SNRs, they would likely not become visible until 60 ∼ 200 years after the SN explosion.

We investigate the influence of collective self-gravity forces on the nonlinear, large-scale evolution of the viscous overstability in Saturn's rings. We numerically solve the axisymmetric nonlinear hydrodynamic equations in the isothermal and non-isothermal approximation, including radial self-gravity and employing transport coefficients derived by Salo et al. We assume optical depths $\tau =1.5\mbox{--}2$ to model Saturn's dense rings. Furthermore, local N-body simulations, incorporating vertical and radial collective self-gravity, are performed. Vertical self-gravity is mimicked through an increased frequency of vertical oscillations, while radial self-gravity is approximated by solving the Poisson equation for an axisymmetric thin disk with a Fourier method. Direct particle–particle forces are omitted, which prevents small-scale gravitational instabilities (self-gravity wakes) from forming, an approximation that allows us to study long radial scales and to compare directly the hydrodynamic model and the N-body simulations. Our isothermal and non-isothermal hydrodynamic model results with vanishing self-gravity compare very well with results of Latter & Ogilvie and Rein & Latter, respectively. In contrast, for rings with radial self-gravity we find that the wavelengths of saturated overstable waves settle close to the frequency minimum of the nonlinear dispersion relation, i.e., close to a state of vanishing group velocities of the waves. Good agreement is found between non-isothermal hydrodynamics and N-body simulations for moderate and strong radial self-gravity, while the largest deviations occur for weak self-gravity. The resulting saturation wavelengths of viscous overstability for moderate and strong self-gravity ($\lambda \sim 100\mbox{--}300\,{\rm{m}}$) agree reasonably well with the length scales of axisymmetric periodic microstructure in Saturn's inner A ring and the B ring, as found by Cassini.

We present high angular resolution multiwavelength data of the 3C 298 radio-loud quasar host galaxy (z = 1.439) taken using the W.M. Keck Observatory OSIRIS integral field spectrograph (IFS) with adaptive optics, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) WFC3, and the Very Large Array (VLA). Extended emission is detected in the rest-frame optical nebular emission lines Hβ, [O iii], Hα, [N ii], and [S ii], as well as in the molecular lines CO (J = 3−2) and (J = 5−4). Along the path of the relativistic jets of 3C 298, we detect conical outflows in ionized gas emission with velocities of up to 1700 $\mathrm{km}\,{{\rm{s}}}^{-1}$ and an outflow rate of 450–1500 ${M}_{\odot }\,{\mathrm{yr}}^{-1}$ extended over 12 kpc. Near the spatial center of the conical outflow, CO (J = 3−2) emission shows a molecular gas disk with a rotational velocity of ±150 $\mathrm{km}\,{{\rm{s}}}^{-1}$ and total molecular mass (${M}_{{{\rm{H}}}_{2}}$) of $6.6\pm 0.36\times {10}^{9}\,{M}_{\odot }$. On the blueshifted side of the molecular disk, we observe broad extended emission that is due to a molecular outflow with a rate of 2300 ${M}_{\odot }\,{\mathrm{yr}}^{-1}$ and depletion timescale of 3 Myr. We detect no narrow Hα emission in the outflow regions, suggesting a limit on star formation of 0.3 ${M}_{\odot }\,{\mathrm{yr}}^{-1}\,{\mathrm{kpc}}^{-2}$. Quasar-driven winds are evacuating the molecular gas reservoir, thereby directly impacting star formation in the host galaxy. The observed mass of the supermassive black hole is ${10}^{9.37\mbox{--}9.56}\,{M}_{\odot }$, and we determine a dynamical bulge mass of ${M}_{\mathrm{bulge}}=1\mbox{--}1.7\times {10}^{10}\tfrac{R}{1.6\,\mathrm{kpc}}\,{M}_{\odot }$. The bulge mass of 3C 298 lies 2–2.5 orders of magnitude below the expected value from the local galactic bulge—supermassive black hole mass (${M}_{\mathrm{bulge}}\mbox{--}{M}_{\mathrm{BH}}$) relationship. A second galactic disk observed in nebular emission is offset from the quasar by 9 kpc, suggesting that the system is an intermediate-stage merger. These results show that galactic-scale negative feedback is occurring early in the merger phase of 3C 298, well before the coalescence of the galactic nuclei and assembly on the local ${M}_{\mathrm{bulge}}\mbox{--}{M}_{\mathrm{BH}}$ relationship.

Lorentz invariance violation (LIV) can manifest itself by an energy-dependent vacuum dispersion of light, which leads to arrival time differences of photons with different energies originating from the same astronomical source. The spectral lags of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have been widely used to investigate the possible LIV effect. However, all current investigations used lags extracted in the observer frame only. In this work, we present, for the first time, an analysis of the LIV effect and its redshift dependence in the cosmological rest frame. Using a sample of 56 GRBs with known redshifts, we obtain a robust limit on LIV by fitting their rest-frame spectral lag data using both a maximization of the likelihood function and a minimum χ² statistic. Our analysis indicates that there is no evidence of LIV. Additionally, we test the LIV in different redshift ranges by dividing the full sample into four redshift bins. We also find no evidence for the redshift variation of the LIV effect.

We present a measurement of the proper motion of the presumed pulsar in the evolved composite supernova remnant (SNR) MSH 15-56 whose pulsar wind nebula (PWN) has been disrupted by the supernova (SN) reverse shock. Using Chandra X-ray observations acquired over a baseline of 15 years, we measure a pulsar velocity of ${720}_{-215}^{+290}\,\mathrm{km}\,{{\rm{s}}}^{-1}$ and a direction of motion of 14° ± 22° west of south. We use this measurement to constrain a hydrodynamical (HD) model for the evolution of this system, and find that its morphology is well-described by an SNR expanding in an ambient density gradient that increases from east to west. The effect of the density gradient and the pulsar's motion is an asymmetric interaction between the SN reverse shock and the PWN that displaces the bulk of the PWN material away from the pulsar toward the northeast. The simulation is consistent with an SNR age of 11,000 years, an SN ejecta mass of 10 M_⊙, and an average surrounding density of 0.4 cm⁻³, but a combination of a higher SN ejecta mass and ambient density can produce a similar SNR morphology at a later age.

We present the results of the theoretical analysis and numerical simulations of the Weibel instability in two counterstreaming hot relativistic plasma flows, for instance the flows of electron–proton plasmas with rest-mass densities $\rho \sim {10}^{-4}\,{\rm{g}}\,{\mathrm{cm}}^{-3}$, Lorentz factors ${\rm{\Gamma }}\sim 10$, and proper temperatures $T\sim {10}^{13}\ {\rm{K}}$. The instability growth rate and the filament size at the linear stage are found analytically and are in qualitative agreement with the results of three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. In the simulations, incoherent synchrotron emission and pair photoproduction in electromagnetic fields are taken into account. If the plasma flows are dense, fast, and hot enough, the overall energy of the synchrotron photons can be much higher than the energy of the generated electromagnetic fields. Furthermore, a sizable number of positrons can be produced due to the pair photoproduction in the generated magnetic field. We propose a rough criterion to judge copious pair production and considerable synchrotron losses. By means of this criterion, we conclude that the incoherent synchrotron emission and the pair production during the Weibel instability can have implications for the collapsar model of gamma-ray bursts.

We have carried out a statistical study of the average orientation of the magnetic field in solar filaments with respect to their axes for more than 400 samples, based on data taken with daily full-Sun, full-Stokes spectropolarimetric observations using the He i 1083.0 nm line. The major part of the samples are the filaments in the quiet areas, but those in the active areas are included as well. The average orientation of the magnetic field in filaments shows a systematic property depending on the hemisphere; the direction of the magnetic field in filaments in the northern (southern) hemisphere mostly deviates clockwise (counterclockwise) from their axes, which run along the magnetic polarity inversion line. The deviation angles of the magnetic field from the axes are concentrated between 10° and 30°. This hemispheric pattern is consistent with that revealed for chirality of filament barbs, filament channels, and for other solar features found to possess chirality. For some filaments, it was confirmed that their magnetic field direction is locally parallel to their structure seen in Hα images. Our results for the first time confirmed this hemispheric pattern with the direct observation of the magnetic field in filaments. Interestingly, the filaments which show the opposite magnetic field deviation to the hemispheric pattern, are in many cases found above the polarity inversion line whose ambient photospheric magnetic field has the polarity alignment being opposite to that of active regions following the Hale–Nicholson law.

Compact stellar binaries are expected to survive in the dense environment of the Galactic center. The stable binaries may undergo Kozai–Lidov oscillations due to perturbations from the central supermassive black hole (Sgr A*), yet the general relativistic precession can suppress the Kozai–Lidov oscillations and keep the stellar binaries from merging. However, it is challenging to resolve the binary sources and distinguish them from single stars. The close separations of the stable binaries allow higher eclipse probabilities. Here, we consider the massive star SO-2 as an example and calculate the probability of detecting eclipses, assuming it is a binary. We find that the eclipse probability is ∼30%–50%, reaching higher values when the stellar binary is more eccentric or highly inclined relative to its orbit around Sgr A*.

We present spatially and spectrally resolved Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations of gas and dust orbiting the pre-main-sequence hierarchical triple-star system GW Ori. A forward modeling of the ¹³CO and C¹⁸O J = 2–1 transitions permits a measurement of the total stellar mass in this system, $5.29\pm 0.09\,{M}_{\odot }$, and the circumtriple disk inclination, $137\buildrel{\circ}\over{.} 6\pm 2\buildrel{\circ}\over{.} 0$. Optical spectra spanning a 35 yr period were used to derive new radial velocities and, coupled with a spectroscopic disentangling technique, revealed that the A and B components of GW Ori form a double-lined spectroscopic binary with a period of 241.50 ± 0.05 days; a tertiary companion orbits that inner pair with a period of 4218 ± 50 days. Combining the results from the ALMA data and the optical spectra with three epochs of astrometry in the literature, we constrain the individual stellar masses in the system (${M}_{{\rm{A}}}\approx 2.7\,{M}_{\odot }$, ${M}_{{\rm{B}}}\approx 1.7\,{M}_{\odot }$, ${M}_{{\rm{C}}}\approx 0.9\,{M}_{\odot }$) and find strong evidence that at least one of the stellar orbital planes (and likely both) is misaligned with the disk plane by as much as 45°. A V-band light curve spanning 30 yr reveals several new ∼30-day eclipse events 0.1–0.7 mag in depth and a 0.2 mag sinusoidal oscillation that is clearly phased with the AB–C orbital period. Taken together, these features suggest that the A–B pair may be partially obscured by material in the inner disk as the pair approaches apoastron in the hierarchical orbit. Lastly, we conclude that stellar evolutionary models are consistent with our measurements of the masses and basic photospheric properties if the GW Ori system is ∼1 Myr old.

In this work, we analyze the initial eruptive process of an extremely long duration C7.7-class flare that occurred on 2011 June 21. The flare had a 2 hr long rise time in soft X-ray emission, which is much longer than the rise time of most solar flares, including both impulsive and gradual ones. Combining the facts that the flare occurred near the disk center as seen by the Solar Dynamic Observatory (SDO) but near the limb as seen by two Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft, we are able to track the evolution of the eruption in 3D in a rare slow-motion manner. The time sequence of the observed large-scale EUV hot channel structure in the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) high-temperature passbands of 94 and 131 Å clearly shows the process of how the sigmoid structure prior to the eruption was transformed into a near-potential post-eruption loop arcade. We believe that the observed sigmoid represents the structure of a twisted magnetic flux rope (MFR), which has reached a height of about 60 Mm at the onset of the eruption. We argue that the onset of the flare precursor phase is likely triggered by the loss of the magnetohydrodynamic equilibrium of a preexisting MFR, which leads to the slow rise of the flux rope. The rising motion of the flux rope leads to the formation of a vertical current sheet underneath, triggering the fast magnetic reconnection that in turn leads to the main phase of the flare and fast acceleration of the flux rope.

Recent X-ray observations of merger shocks in galaxy clusters have shown that the postshock plasma has two temperatures, with the protons hotter than the electrons. By means of two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, we study the physics of electron irreversible heating in low-Mach-number perpendicular shocks, for a representative case with sonic Mach number of 3 and plasma beta of 16. We find that two basic ingredients are needed for electron entropy production: (1) an electron temperature anisotropy, induced by field amplification coupled to adiabatic invariance; and (2) a mechanism to break the electron adiabatic invariance itself. In shocks, field amplification occurs at two major sites: at the shock ramp, where density compression leads to an increase of the frozen-in field; and farther downstream, where the shock-driven proton temperature anisotropy generates strong proton cyclotron and mirror modes. The electron temperature anisotropy induced by field amplification exceeds the threshold of the electron whistler instability. The growth of whistler waves breaks the electron adiabatic invariance and allows for efficient entropy production. For our reference run, the postshock electron temperature exceeds the adiabatic expectation by $\simeq 15 \%$, resulting in an electron-to-proton temperature ratio of $\simeq 0.45$. We find that the electron heating efficiency displays only a weak dependence on mass ratio (less than $\simeq 30 \%$ drop, as we increase the mass ratio from ${m}_{i}/{m}_{e}=49$ up to ${m}_{i}/{m}_{e}=1600$). We develop an analytical model of electron irreversible heating and show that it is in excellent agreement with our simulation results.

We present optical spectroscopy secured at the 10 m Gran Telescopio Canarias of the counterparts of 20 extragalactic γ-ray sources detected by the Fermi satellite. The observations allow us to investigate the nature of these sources and to determine their redshift. We find that all optical counterparts have a spectrum that is consistent with a BL Lac object nature. We are able to determine the redshift for 11 objects and set spectroscopic redshift limits for five targets. The optical spectrum is found featureless for only four sources. In the latter cases, we can set lower limits on the redshift based on the assumption that they are hosted by a typical massive elliptical galaxy whose spectrum is diluted by the nonthermal continuum. The observations allow us to unveil the nature of these gamma-ray sources and provide a sanity check of a tool to discover the counterparts of γ-ray emitters/blazars based on their multiwavelength emission.

The age and evolutionary status of MWC 349A, the unique emission-line star with maser and laser radiation in hydrogen recombination lines, remain unknown, because the spectrum of the star is veiled by bright emission from the ionized disk and wind. The major argument for this massive (>10 M_⊙) star being evolved is its association with a close-by (2.4 arcsec) companion, MWC 349B, whose B0III spectrum implies an age of a few million years. However, newly obtained high-resolution spectra of MWC 349B reveal a difference of ≈35 km s⁻¹ in the radial velocities of the two stars, which makes their being gravitationally bound highly improbable. An estimate of the relative proper motion of the two stars seems to confirm this conclusion. This reopens the previously suggested possibility that MWC 349A is a young massive star in a region of active star formation close to Cyg OB2 association. MWC 349B, which moves with a speed ≥35 km s⁻¹ relative to Cyg OB2, may be a runaway star from this association.

In the canonical model of a pulsar, rotational energy is transmitted through the surrounding plasma via two electrical circuits, each connecting to the star over a small region known as a "polar cap." For a dipole-magnetized star, the polar caps coincide with the magnetic poles (hence the name), but in general, they can occur at any place and take any shape. In light of their crucial importance to most models of pulsar emission (from radio to X-ray to wind), we develop a general technique for determining polar cap properties. We consider a perfectly conducting star surrounded by a force-free magnetosphere and include the effects of general relativity. Using a combined numerical-analytical technique that leverages the rotation rate as a small parameter, we derive a general analytic formula for the polar cap shape and charge-current distribution as a function of the stellar mass, radius, rotation rate, moment of inertia, and magnetic field. We present results for dipole and quadrudipole fields (superposed dipole and quadrupole) inclined relative to the axis of rotation. The inclined dipole polar cap results are the first to include general relativity, and they confirm its essential role in the pulsar problem. The quadrudipole pulsar illustrates the phenomenon of thin annular polar caps. More generally, our method lays a foundation for detailed modeling of pulsar emission with realistic magnetic fields.

We show how dense, compact, discrete shells of circumstellar gas immediately outside of red supergiants affect the optical light curves of Type II-P/II-L supernovae (SNe), using the example of SN 2013ej. Earlier efforts in the literature had used an artificial circumstellar medium (CSM) stitched to the surface of an evolved star that had not gone through a phase of late-stage heavy mass loss, which, in essence, is the original source of the CSM. In contrast, we allow enhanced mass-loss rate from the modeled star during the ¹⁶O and ²⁸Si burning stages and construct the CSM from the resulting mass-loss history in a self-consistent way. Once such evolved pre-SN stars are exploded, we find that the models with early interaction between the shock and the dense CSM reproduce light curves far better than those without that mass loss and, hence, having no nearby dense CSM. The required explosion energy for the progenitors with a dense CSM is reduced by almost a factor of two compared to those without the CSM. Our model, with a more realistic CSM profile and presupernova and explosion parameters, fits observed data much better throughout the rise, plateau, and radioactive tail phases as compared to previous studies. This points to an intermediate class of supernovae between Type II-P/II-L and Type II-n SNe with the characteristics of simultaneous UV and optical peak, slow decline after peak, and a longer plateau.

The unprecedented depth and area surveyed by the Subaru Strategic Program with the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC-SSP) have enabled us to construct and publish the largest distant cluster sample out to $z\sim 1$ to date. In this exploratory study of cluster galaxy evolution from z = 1 to z = 0.3, we investigate the stellar mass assembly history of brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs), the evolution of stellar mass and luminosity distributions, the stellar mass surface density profile, as well as the population of radio galaxies. Our analysis is the first high-redshift application of the top N richest cluster selection, which is shown to allow us to trace the cluster galaxy evolution faithfully. Over the 230 deg² area of the current HSC-SSP footprint, selecting the top 100 clusters in each of the four redshift bins allows us to observe the buildup of galaxy population in descendants of clusters whose $z\approx 1$ mass is about $2\times {10}^{14}\,{M}_{\odot }$. Our stellar mass is derived from a machine-learning algorithm, which is found to be unbiased and accurate with respect to the COSMOS data. We find very mild stellar mass growth in BCGs (about 35% between z = 1 and 0.3), and no evidence for evolution in both the total stellar mass–cluster mass correlation and the shape of the stellar mass surface density profile. We also present the first measurement of the radio luminosity distribution in clusters out to $z\sim 1$, and show hints of changes in the dominant accretion mode powering the cluster radio galaxies at $z\sim 0.8$.

We investigate the star formation processes operating in a mid-infrared bubble N49 site that harbors an O-type star in its interior, an ultracompact H ii region, and a 6.7 GHz methanol maser at its edges. The ¹³CO line data reveal two velocity components (at velocity peaks ∼88 and ∼95 km s⁻¹) in the direction of the bubble. An elongated filamentary feature (length >15 pc) is investigated in each molecular cloud component, and the bubble is found at the interface of these two filamentary molecular clouds. The Herschel temperature map traces all these structures in a temperature range of ∼16–24 K. In the velocity space of ¹³CO, the two molecular clouds are separated by ∼7 km s⁻¹, and are interconnected by a lower-intensity intermediate velocity emission (i.e., a broad bridge feature). A possible complementary molecular pair at [87, 88] km s⁻¹ and [95, 96] km s⁻¹ is also observed in the velocity channel maps. These observational signatures are in agreement with the outcomes of simulations of the cloud–cloud collision process. There are also noticeable embedded protostars and Herschel clumps distributed toward the filamentary features including the intersection zone of the two molecular clouds. In the bubble site, different early evolutionary stages of massive star formation are also present. Together, these observational results suggest that in the bubble N49 site, the collision of the filamentary molecular clouds appears to be operated about 0.7 Myr ago, and may have triggered the formation of embedded protostars and massive stars.

Understanding the effect of sunspot activities on the variations in the total solar irradiance (TSI) is essential for the interpretation of the variability of TSI as well as its reconstruction. Phase relations between the sunspot numbers (SN) and two TSI composite data are investigated. It is found that TSI and SN are positively correlated, and the former lags the latter by about 29 days, which is approximately a solar rotation period; analyses of the data sets in the four individual cycles show that in cycles 21, 23, and 24, TSI lags SN by 28.9–30.3 days, while in cycle 22, the lag is only 21.8–22.3 days. The abnormality in cycle 22 is probably caused by its stronger magnetic field in sunspots compared with its adjacent cycles. The nonlinearity between TSI and SN is confirmed and explained with the different behavior and effect of spots, faculae, and magnetic network. Based on the cross-wavelet transform and wavelet coherence analysis, a common periodicity between TSI and SN at the timescale of the solar cycle is clearly revealed; at timescales longer than about four years, high values of coherence above the 95% confidence level together with a strong phase synchronization feature are exhibited. At timescales shorter than three rotational periods, the relation between TSI and SN indicates low correlations and a noisy behavior with strong phase mixing due to the lifetime of spots and faculae; moreover, if the short-term effect of spots and faculae is smoothed out, then their coherence reaches high values in partial areas at periods from three rotations to about four years.

The recent prolonged activity minimum has led to the question of whether there is a base level of the solar magnetic field evolution that yields a "floor" in activity levels and also in the solar wind magnetic field strength. Recently, a flux transport model coupled with magneto-frictional simulations has been used to simulate the continuous magnetic field evolution in the global solar corona for over 15 years, from 1996 to 2012. Flux rope eruptions in the simulations are estimated (Yeates), and the results are in remarkable agreement with the shape of the SOlar Heliospheric Observatory/Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph Experiment coronal mass ejection (CME) rate distribution. The eruption rates at the two recent minima approximate the observed-corrected CME rates, supporting the idea of a base level of solar magnetic activity. In this paper, we address this issue by comparing annual averages of the CME occurrence rates during the last four solar cycle minima with several tracers of the global solar magnetic field. We conclude that CME activity never ceases during a cycle, but maintains a base level of 1 CME every 1.5 to ∼3 days during minima. We discuss the sources of these CMEs.

AR Scorpii is an intermediate polar binary system composed of a magnetic white dwarf (WD) and an M-type star and shows nonthermal, pulsed, and highly linearly polarized emission. The radio/optical emission modulates with the WD's spin and shows the double-peak structure in the light curves. In this paper, we discuss a possible scenario for the radiation mechanism of AR Scorpii. The magnetic interaction on the surface of the companion star produces an outflow from the companion star, the heating of the companion star surface, and the acceleration of electrons to a relativistic energy. The accelerated electrons, whose typical Lorentz factor is ∼50–100, from the companion star move along the magnetic field lines toward the WD surface. The electrons injected with the pitch angle of $\sin {\theta }_{p,0}\gt 0.05$ are subject to the magnetic mirror effect and are trapped in the closed magnetic field line region. We find that the emission from the first magnetic mirror points mainly contributes to the observed pulsed emission and the formation of the double-peak structure in the light curve. For the inclined rotator, the pulse peak in the calculated light curve shifts the position in the spin phase, and a Fourier analysis exhibits a beat frequency feature, which are consistent with the optical/UV observations. The pulse profile also evolves with the orbital phase owing to the effect of the viewing geometry. The model also interprets the global features of the observed spectral energy distribution in radio to X-ray energy bands. We also discuss the curvature radiation and the inverse-Compton scattering process in the outer gap accelerator of the WD in AR Scorpii and the possibility of the detection by future high-energy missions.

Black holes, anywhere in the stellar-mass to supermassive range, are often associated with relativistic jets. Models suggest that jet production may be a universal process common in all black hole systems regardless of their mass. Although in many cases observations support such hypotheses for microquasars and Seyfert galaxies, little is known regarding whether boosted blazar jets also comply with such universal scaling laws. We use uniquely rich multi-wavelength radio light curves from the F-GAMMA program and the most accurate Doppler factors available to date to probe blazar jets in their emission rest frame with unprecedented accuracy. We identify for the first time a strong correlation between the blazar intrinsic broadband radio luminosity and black hole mass, which extends over ∼9 orders of magnitude down to microquasar scales. Our results reveal the presence of a universal scaling law that bridges the observing and emission rest frames in beamed sources and allows us to effectively constrain jet models. They consequently provide an independent method for estimating the Doppler factor and for predicting expected radio luminosities of boosted jets operating in systems of intermediate or tens of solar mass black holes, which are immediately applicable to cases such as those recently observed by LIGO.

We present spectroscopic follow-up observations of CR7 with ALMA, targeted at constraining the infrared (IR) continuum and [C ii]${}_{158\mu {\rm{m}}}$ line-emission at high spatial resolution matched to the HST/WFC3 imaging. CR7 is a luminous Lyα emitting galaxy at z = 6.6 that consists of three separated UV-continuum components. Our observations reveal several well-separated components of [C ii] emission. The two most luminous components in [C ii] coincide with the brightest UV components (A and B), blueshifted by $\approx 150$ km s⁻¹ with respect to the peak of Lyα emission. Other [C ii] components are observed close to UV clumps B and C and are blueshifted by $\approx 300$ and ≈80 km s⁻¹ with respect to the systemic redshift. We do not detect FIR continuum emission due to dust with a 3σ limiting luminosity ${L}_{\mathrm{IR}}({T}_{d}=35\,{\rm{K}})\lt 3.1\times {10}^{10}\,{L}_{\odot }$. This allows us to mitigate uncertainties in the dust-corrected SFR and derive SFRs for the three UV clumps A, B, and C of 28, 5, and 7 ${M}_{\odot }$ yr⁻¹. All clumps have [C ii] luminosities consistent within the scatter observed in the local relation between SFR and ${L}_{[{\rm{C}}{\rm{II}}]}$, implying that strong Lyα emission does not necessarily anti-correlate with [C ii] luminosity. Combining our measurements with the literature, we show that galaxies with blue UV slopes have weaker [C ii] emission at fixed SFR, potentially due to their lower metallicities and/or higher photoionization. Comparison with hydrodynamical simulations suggests that CR7's clumps have metallicities of $0.1\lt {\rm{Z}}/{{\rm{Z}}}_{\odot }\lt 0.2$. The observed ISM structure of CR7 indicates that we are likely witnessing the build up of a central galaxy in the early universe through complex accretion of satellites.

Radio-bright regions near the solar poles are frequently observed in Nobeyama Radioheliograph (NoRH) maps at 17 GHz, and often in association with coronal holes. However, the origin of these polar brightenings has not been established yet. We propose that small magnetic loops are the source of these bright patches, and present modeling results that reproduce the main observational characteristics of the polar brightening within coronal holes at 17 GHz. The simulations were carried out by calculating the radio emission of the small loops, with several temperature and density profiles, within a 2D coronal hole atmospheric model. If located at high latitudes, the size of the simulated bright patches are much smaller than that of the beam size and they present the instrument beam size when observed. The larger bright patches can be generated by a great number of small magnetic loops unresolved by the NoRH beam. Loop models that reproduce bright patches contain denser and hotter plasma near the upper chromosphere and lower corona. On the other hand, loops with increased plasma density and temperature only in the corona do not contribute to the emission at 17 GHz. This could explain the absence of a one-to-one association between the 17 GHz bright patches and those observed in extreme ultraviolet. Moreover, the emission arising from small magnetic loops located close to the limb may merge with the usual limb brightening profile, increasing its brightness temperature and width.

A critical constraint on solar system formation is the high ${}^{26}\mathrm{Al}$/²⁷Al abundance ratio of $5\times {10}^{-5}$ at the time of formation, which was about 17 times higher than the average Galactic ratio, while the ⁶⁰Fe/⁵⁶Fe value was about $2\times {10}^{-8}$, lower than the Galactic value. This challenges the assumption that a nearby supernova (SN) was responsible for the injection of these short-lived radionuclides into the early solar system. We show that this conundrum can be resolved if the solar system was formed by a triggered star formation at the edge of a Wolf–Rayet (W–R) bubble. ²⁶Al is produced during the evolution of the massive star, released in the wind during the W–R phase, and condenses into dust grains that are seen around W–R stars. The dust grains survive passage through the reverse shock and the low-density shocked wind, reach the dense shell swept-up by the bubble, detach from the decelerated wind, and are injected into the shell. Some portions of this shell subsequently collapse to form the dense cores that give rise to solar-type systems. The subsequent aspherical SN does not inject appreciable amounts of ${}^{60}\mathrm{Fe}$ into the proto–solar system, thus accounting for the observed low abundance of ${}^{60}\mathrm{Fe}$. We discuss the details of various processes within the model and conclude that it is a viable model that can explain the initial abundances of ${}^{26}\mathrm{Al}$ and ${}^{60}\mathrm{Fe}$. We estimate that 1%–16% of all Sun-like stars could have formed in such a setting of triggered star formation in the shell of a W–R bubble.

We present results of multiband optical photometry of the black hole X-ray binary system V404 Cyg obtained using Wheaton College Observatory's 0.3 m telescope, along with strictly simultaneous INTEGRAL and Swift observations during 2015 June 25.15–26.33 UT, and 2015 June 27.10–27.34 UT. These observations were made during the 2015 June outburst of the source when it was going through an epoch of violent activity in all wavelengths ranging from radio to γ-rays. The multiwavelength variability timescale favors a compact emission region, most likely originating in a jet outflow, for both observing epochs presented in this work. The simultaneous INTEGRAL/Imager on Board the Integral Satellite (IBIS) 20–40 keV light curve obtained during the June 27 observing run correlates very strongly with the optical light curve, with no detectable delay between the optical bands as well as between the optical and hard X-rays. The average slope of the dereddened spectral energy distribution was roughly flat between the ${I}_{C}$- and V-bands during the June 27 run, even though the optical and X-ray flux varied by >25× during the run, ruling out an irradiation origin for the optical and suggesting that the optically thick to optically thin jet synchrotron break during the observations was at a frequency larger than that of V-band, which is quite extreme for X-ray binaries. These observations suggest that the optical emission originated very close to the base of the jet. A strong ${\rm{H}}\alpha$ emission line, probably originating in a quasi-spherical nebula around the source, also contributes significantly in the R_C-band. Our data, in conjunction with contemporaneous data at other wavelengths presented by other groups, strongly suggest that the jet-base was extremely compact and energetic during this phase of the outburst.

Stellar feedback created by radiation and winds from massive stars plays a significant role in both physical and chemical evolution of molecular clouds. This energy and momentum leaves an identifiable signature ("bubbles") that affects the dynamics and structure of the cloud. Most bubble searches are performed "by eye," which is usually time-consuming, subjective, and difficult to calibrate. Automatic classifications based on machine learning make it possible to perform systematic, quantifiable, and repeatable searches for bubbles. We employ a previously developed machine learning algorithm, Brut, and quantitatively evaluate its performance in identifying bubbles using synthetic dust observations. We adopt magnetohydrodynamics simulations, which model stellar winds launching within turbulent molecular clouds, as an input to generate synthetic images. We use a publicly available three-dimensional dust continuum Monte Carlo radiative transfer code, hyperion, to generate synthetic images of bubbles in three Spitzer bands (4.5, 8, and 24 μm). We designate half of our synthetic bubbles as a training set, which we use to train Brut along with citizen-science data from the Milky Way Project (MWP). We then assess Brut's accuracy using the remaining synthetic observations. We find that Brut's performance after retraining increases significantly, and it is able to identify yellow bubbles, which are likely associated with B-type stars. Brut continues to perform well on previously identified high-score bubbles, and over 10% of the MWP bubbles are reclassified as high-confidence bubbles, which were previously marginal or ambiguous detections in the MWP data. We also investigate the influence of the size of the training set, dust model, evolutionary stage, and background noise on bubble identification.

This paper presents a detailed hydrostatic model of the upper atmosphere of HD 189733b, with the goal of constraining its temperature, particle densities, and radiation field over the pressure range 10^–4 to 10 μbar, where the observed Hα transmission spectrum is produced. The atomic hydrogen level population is computed including both collisional and radiative transition rates. The Lyα resonant scattering is computed using a Monte Carlo simulation. The model transmission spectra are in broad agreement with the data. Excitation of the H(2ℓ) population is mainly by Lyα radiative excitation due to the large Lyα intensity. The density of H(2ℓ) is nearly flat over two decades in pressure and is optically thick to Hα. Additional models computed for a range of the stellar Lyman continuum (LyC) flux suggest that the variability in Hα transit depth may be due to the variability in the stellar LyC. Since metal lines provide the dominant cooling of this part of the atmosphere, the atmosphere structure is sensitive to the density of species such as Mg and Na, which may themselves be constrained by observations. Since the Hα and Na D lines have comparable absorption depths, we argue that the centers of the Na D lines are also formed in the atomic layer where the Hα line is formed.

We present low-frequency (80–240 MHz) radio imaging of type III solar radio bursts observed by the Murchison Widefield Array on 2015 September 21. The source region for each burst splits from one dominant component at higher frequencies into two increasingly separated components at lower frequencies. For channels below ∼132 MHz, the two components repetitively diverge at high speeds (0.1c–0.4c) along directions tangent to the limb, with each episode lasting just ∼2 s. We argue that both effects result from the strong magnetic field connectivity gradient that the burst-driving electron beams move into. Persistence mapping of extreme-ultraviolet jets observed by the Solar Dynamics Observatory reveals quasi-separatrix layers (QSLs) associated with coronal null points, including separatrix dome, spine, and curtain structures. Electrons are accelerated at the flare site toward an open QSL, where the beams follow diverging field lines to produce the source splitting, with larger separations at larger heights (lower frequencies). The splitting motion within individual frequency bands is interpreted as a projected time-of-flight effect, whereby electrons traveling along the outer field lines take slightly longer to excite emission at adjacent positions. Given this interpretation, we estimate an average beam speed of 0.2c. We also qualitatively describe the quiescent corona, noting in particular that a disk-center coronal hole transitions from being dark at higher frequencies to bright at lower frequencies, turning over around 120 MHz. These observations are compared to synthetic images based on the MHD algorithm outside a sphere (MAS) model, which we use to flux-calibrate the burst data.

The survey for DUST in Nearby Galaxies with Spitzer (DUSTiNGS) identified several candidate Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars in nearby dwarf galaxies and showed that dust can form even in very metal-poor systems (${\boldsymbol{Z}}\sim 0.008\,{Z}_{\odot }$). Here, we present a follow-up survey with WFC3/IR on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), using filters that are capable of distinguishing carbon-rich (C-type) stars from oxygen-rich (M-type) stars: F127M, F139M, and F153M. We include six star-forming DUSTiNGS galaxies (NGC 147, IC 10, Pegasus dIrr, Sextans B, Sextans A, and Sag DIG), all more metal-poor than the Magellanic Clouds and spanning 1 dex in metallicity. We double the number of dusty AGB stars known in these galaxies and find that most are carbon rich. We also find 26 dusty M-type stars, mostly in IC 10. Given the large dust excess and tight spatial distribution of these M-type stars, they are most likely on the upper end of the AGB mass range (stars undergoing Hot Bottom Burning). Theoretical models do not predict significant dust production in metal-poor M-type stars, but we see evidence for dust excess around M-type stars even in the most metal-poor galaxies in our sample ($12+\mathrm{log}({\rm{O}}/{\rm{H}})=7.26\mbox{--}7.50$). The low metallicities and inferred high stellar masses (up to ∼10 ${M}_{\odot }$) suggest that AGB stars can produce dust very early in the evolution of galaxies (∼30 Myr after they form), and may contribute significantly to the dust reservoirs seen in high-redshift galaxies.