Table of contents

Einstein's theory of general relativity (GR) has been precisely tested on solar system scales, but extragalactic tests are still poorly performed. In this work, we use a newly compiled sample of galaxy-scale strong gravitational lenses to test the validity of GR on kiloparsec scales. In order to solve the circularity problem caused by the presumption of a specific cosmological model based on GR, we employ the distance sum rule in the Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker metric to directly estimate the parameterized post-Newtonian (PPN) parameter γ_PPN and the cosmic curvature Ω_k by combining observations of strong lensing and Type Ia supernovae. This is the first simultaneous measurement of γ_PPN and Ω_k without any assumptions about the contents of the universe or the theory of gravity. Our results show that ${\gamma }_{\mathrm{PPN}}={1.11}_{-0.09}^{+0.11}$ and ${{\rm{\Omega }}}_{k}={0.48}_{-0.71}^{+1.09}$, indicating a strong degeneracy between the two quantities. The measured γ_PPN, which is consistent with the prediction of 1 from GR, provides a precise extragalactic test of GR with a fractional accuracy better than 9.0%. If a prior of the spatial flatness (i.e., Ω_k = 0) is adopted, the PPN parameter constraint can be further improved to ${\gamma }_{\mathrm{PPN}}={1.07}_{-0.07}^{+0.07}$, representing a precision of 6.5%. On the other hand, in the framework of GR (i.e., γ_PPN = 1), our results are still marginally compatible with zero curvature (${{\rm{\Omega }}}_{k}=-{0.12}_{-0.36}^{+0.48}$), supporting no significant deviation from a flat universe.

Forty-four years of Wilcox Solar Observatory, 14 years of Michelson Doppler Imager on the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, and 11 years of Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager on the Solar Dynamics Observatory magnetic field data have been studied to determine the east–west inclination—the toroidal component—of the magnetic field. Maps of the zonal averaged inclination show that each toroidal field cycle begins at around the same time at high latitudes in the northern and southern hemispheres, and ends at the equator. Observation of these maps also shows that each instance of a dominant toroidal field direction starts at high latitudes near sunspot maximum and is still visible near the equator well past the minimum of its cycle, indicating that the toroidal field cycle spans approximately two sunspot cycles. The length of the extended activity cycle is measured to be approximately 16.8 yr.

Very long baseline interferometric (VLBI) localizations of repeating fast radio bursts (FRBs) have demonstrated a diversity of local environments: from nearby star-forming regions to globular clusters. Here we report the VLBI localization of FRB 20201124A using an ad hoc array of dishes that also participate in the European VLBI Network (EVN). In our campaign, we detected 18 bursts from FRB 20201124A at two separate epochs. By combining the visibilities from both epochs, we were able to localize FRB 20201124A with a 1σ uncertainty of 2.7 mas. We use the relatively large burst sample to investigate astrometric accuracy and find that for ≳20 baselines (≳7 dishes) we can robustly reach milliarcsecond precision even using single-burst data sets. Subarcsecond precision is still possible for single bursts, even when only ∼6 baselines (four dishes) are available. In such cases, the limited uv coverage for individual bursts results in very high side-lobe levels. Thus, in addition to the peak position from the dirty map, we also explore smoothing the structure in the dirty map by fitting Gaussian functions to the fringe pattern in order to constrain individual burst positions, which we find to be more reliable. Our VLBI work places FRB 20201124A 710 ± 30 mas (1σ uncertainty) from the optical center of the host galaxy, consistent with originating from within the recently discovered extended radio structure associated with star formation in the host galaxy. Future high-resolution optical observations, e.g., with Hubble Space Telescope, can determine the proximity of FRB 20201124A's position to nearby knots of star formation.

A sample of 60,410 bona fide optical quasars with astrometric proper motions in Gaia Early Data Release 3 and spectroscopic redshifts above 0.5 in an oval 8400 square degree area of the sky is constructed. Using orthogonal Zernike functions of polar coordinates, the proper motion fields are fitted in a weighted least-squares adjustment of the entire sample and of six equal bins of sorted redshifts. The overall fit with 37 Zernike functions reveals a statistically significant pattern, which is likely to be of instrumental origin. The main feature of this pattern is a chain of peaks and dips mostly in the R.A. component with an amplitude of 25 μas yr⁻¹. This field is subtracted from each of the six analogous fits for quasars grouped by redshifts covering the range 0.5 through 7.03, with median values of 0.72, 1.00, 1.25, 1.52, 1.83, 2.34. The resulting residual patterns are noisier, with formal uncertainties up to 8 μas yr⁻¹ in the central part of the area. We detect a single high-confidence Zernike term for the R.A. proper motion components of quasars with redshifts around 1.52 representing a general gradient of 30 μas yr⁻¹ over 150° on the sky. We do not find any small- or medium-scale systemic variations of the residual proper motion field as functions of redshift above the 2.5σ significance level.

We present a near-infrared transmission spectrum of the long-period (P = 542 days), temperate (T_eq = 294 K) giant planet HIP 41378 f obtained with the Wide-Field Camera 3 instrument aboard the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). With a measured mass of 12 ± 3 M_⊕ and a radius of 9.2 ± 0.1 R_⊕, HIP 41378 f has an extremely low bulk density (0.09 ± 0.02 g cm⁻³). We measure the transit depth with a median precision of 84 ppm in 30 spectrophotometric channels with uniformly sized widths of 0.018 μm. Within this level of precision, the spectrum shows no evidence of absorption from gaseous molecular features between 1.1 and 1.7 μm. Comparing the observed transmission spectrum to a suite of 1D radiative-convective-thermochemical-equilibrium forward models, we rule out clear, low-metallicity atmospheres and find that the data prefer high-metallicity atmospheres or models with an additional opacity source, such as high-altitude hazes and/or circumplanetary rings. We explore the ringed scenario for HIP 41378 f further by jointly fitting the K2 and HST light curves to constrain the properties of putative rings. We also assess the possibility of distinguishing between hazy, ringed, and high-metallicity scenarios at longer wavelengths with the James Webb Space Telescope. HIP 41378 f provides a rare opportunity to probe the atmospheric composition of a cool giant planet spanning the gap in temperature, orbital separation, and stellar irradiation between the solar system giants, directly imaged planets, and the highly irradiated hot Jupiters traditionally studied via transit spectroscopy.

Using the JVLA, we explored the Galactic center (GC) with a resolution of 005 at 33.0 and 44.6 GHz. We detected 64 hypercompact radio sources (HCRs) in the central parsec. The dense group of HCRs can be divided into three spectral types: 38 steep-spectrum (α ≤ −0.5) sources, 10 flat-spectrum (−0.5 < α ≤ 0.2) sources, and 17 inverted-spectrum sources having α > 0.2, assuming S ∝ ν^α. The steep-spectrum HCRs are likely to represent a population of massive stellar remnants associated with nonthermal compact radio sources powered by neutron stars and stellar black holes. The surface-density distribution of the HCRs as a function of radial distance (R) from Sgr A* can be described as a steep power law Σ(R) ∝ R^−Γ, with Γ = 1.6 ± 0.2, along with the presence of a localized order-of-magnitude enhancement in the range 0.1–0.3 pc. The steeper profile of the HCRs relative to that of the central cluster might result from the concentration of massive stellar remnants by mass segregation at the GC. The GC magnetar SGR J1745−2900 belongs to the inverted-spectrum subsample. We find two spectral components present in the averaged radio spectrum of SGR J1745−2900, separated at ν ∼ 30 GHz. The centimeter component is fitted to a power law with α_cm = −1.5 ± 0.6. The enhanced millimeter component shows a rising spectrum α_mm = 1.1 ± 0.2. Based on the ALMA observations at 225 GHz, we find that the GC magnetar is highly variable on a day-to-day timescale, showing variations up to a factor of 6. Further JVLA and ALMA observations of the variability, spectrum, and polarization of the HCRs are critical for determining whether they are associated with stellar remnants.

Circumbinary gas disks are often observed to be misaligned with the binary orbit, suggesting that planet formation may proceed in a misaligned disk. With n-body simulations, we consider the formation of circumbinary terrestrial planets from a particle disk that is initially misaligned. We find that if terrestrial planets form in this way, in the absence of gas, they can only form close to coplanar or close to polar to the binary orbit. Planets around a circular binary form coplanar while planets around an eccentric binary can form coplanar or polar depending on the initial disk misalignment and the binary eccentricity. The more massive a terrestrial planet is, the more aligned it is (to coplanar or polar) because it has undergone more mergers that lead on average to smaller misalignment angles. Nodal precession of particle disks with very large initial inclinations lead to high mutual inclinations between the particles. This produces high relative velocities between particles that lead to mass ejections that can completely inhibit planet formation. Misaligned terrestrial circumbinary planets may be able to form in the presence of a misaligned circumbinary gas disk that may help to nodally align the particle orbits and maintain the inclination of the planets during their formation.

We used New Horizons LORRI images to measure the optical-band (0.4 ≲ λ ≲ 0.9μm) sky brightness within a high-galactic-latitude field selected to have reduced diffuse scattered light from the Milky Way galaxy (DGL), as inferred from the IRIS all-sky 100 μm map. We also selected the field to significantly reduce the scattered light from bright stars (SSL) outside the LORRI field. Suppression of DGL and SSL reduced the large uncertainties in the background flux levels present in our earlier New Horizons cosmic optical background (COB) results. The raw total sky level, measured when New Horizons was 51.3 au from the Sun, is 24.22 ± 0.80 nW m⁻² sr⁻¹. Isolating the COB contribution to the raw total required subtracting scattered light from bright stars and galaxies, faint stars below the photometric detection limit within the field, and the hydrogen plus ionized-helium two-photon continua. This yielded a highly significant detection of the COB at 16.37 ± 1.47 nW m⁻² sr⁻¹ at the LORRI pivot wavelength of 0.608 μm. This result is in strong tension with the hypothesis that the COB only comprises the integrated light of external galaxies (IGL) presently known from deep HST counts. Subtraction of the estimated IGL flux from the total COB level leaves a flux component of unknown origin at 8.06 ± 1.92 nW m⁻² sr⁻¹. Its amplitude is equal to the IGL.

Gravitational waves from binary neutron star mergers can be used as alerts to enable prompt follow-up observations. In particular, capturing prompt electromagnetic and astroparticle emissions from the moment of a binary merger presents unique constraints on the timescale and sky localization for online gravitational-wave detection. Here we present the expected performance of the SPIIR online detection pipeline that is designed for this purpose in the upcoming international LIGO–Virgo's 4th Science Run (O4). Using simulated Gaussian data for the two LIGO observatories with expected O4 sensitivity, we demonstrate that there is a nonnegligible opportunity to deliver premerger warnings at least 10 s before the final plunge. These alerts are expected to be issued at a nominal rate of one binary neutron star coalescence per year and localized within a median searched area of 300 deg². We envision such detection to be extremely useful for follow-up observatories with a large field of view such as the Murchison Widefield Array radio facility in Western Australia.

Multiple stellar populations (MPs) representing star-to-star light-element abundance variations are common in nearly all ancient Galactic globular clusters (GCs). Here we provide the strongest evidence yet that the populous, ∼1.7 Gyr old Large Magellanic Cloud cluster NGC 2173 also exhibits light-element abundance variations. Thus, our results suggest that NGC 2173 is the youngest cluster for which MPs have been confirmed to date. Our conclusion is based on the distinct bifurcation at the tip of its red giant branch in high-quality color–magnitude diagrams generated from Hubble Space Telescope imaging observations. Our results are further supported by a detailed analysis of "pseudo-UBI" maps, which reveal clear evidence of a bimodality in the cluster's red giant branch color distribution. Young clusters in the Magellanic Clouds can provide critical insights into galaxy evolution histories. Our discovery of MPs in NGC 2173 suggests that ancient Galactic GCs and young massive clusters might share a common formation process.

Accurate tracers of the stellar magnetic field and rotation are cornerstones for the study of M dwarfs and for reliable detection and characterization of their exoplanetary companions. Such measurements are particularly challenging for old, slowly rotating, fully convective M dwarfs. To explore the use of new activity and rotation tracers, we examined multiyear near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopic monitoring of two such stars—GJ 699 (Barnard's Star) and Teegarden's Star—carried out with the Habitable-zone Planet Finder spectrograph. We detected periodic variations in absorption line widths across the stellar spectrum, with higher amplitudes toward longer wavelengths. We also detected similar variations in the strength and width of the 12435.67 Å neutral potassium (K i) line, a known tracer of the photospheric magnetic field. Attributing these variations to rotational modulation, we confirm the known 145 ± 15 day rotation period of GJ 699, and measure the rotation period of Teegarden's Star to be 99.6 ± 1.4 days. Based on simulations of the K i line and the wavelength dependence of the line-width signal, we argue that the observed signals are consistent with varying photospheric magnetic fields and the associated Zeeman effect. These results highlight the value of detailed line profile measurements in the NIR for diagnosing stellar magnetic field variability. Such measurements may be pivotal for disentangling activity and exoplanet-related signals in spectroscopic monitoring of old, low-mass stars.

We study the formation and gravitational collapse of supersonically induced gas objects (SIGOs) in the early universe. We run cosmological hydrodynamics simulations of SIGOs, including relative streaming motions between baryons and dark matter. Our simulations also follow nonequilibrium chemistry and molecular hydrogen cooling in primordial gas clouds. A number of SIGOs are formed in the run with fast-streaming motions of 2 times the rms of the cosmological velocity fluctuations. We identify a particular gas cloud that condensates by H₂ cooling without being hosted by a dark matter halo. The SIGO remains outside the virial radius of its closest halo, and it becomes Jeans unstable when the central gas-particle density reaches ∼100 cm⁻³ with a temperature of ∼200 K. The corresponding Jeans mass is ∼10⁵M_⊙, and thus the formation of primordial stars or a star cluster is expected in the SIGO.

Post-asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars are exquisite probes of AGB nucleosynthesis. However, the previous lack of accurate distances jeopardized comparison with theoretical AGB models. The Gaia Early Data Release 3 (Gaia EDR3) has now allowed for a breakthrough in this research landscape. In this study, we focus on a sample of single Galactic post-AGBs for which chemical abundance studies were completed. We combined photometry with geometric distances to carry out a spectral energy distribution (SED) analysis and derive accurate luminosities. We subsequently determined their positions on the Hertzsprung-Russell (HR) diagram and compared this with theoretical post-AGB evolutionary tracks. While most objects are in the post-AGB phase of evolution, we found a subset of low-luminosity objects that are likely to be in the post-horizontal branch phase of evolution, similar to AGB-manqué objects found in globular clusters. Additionally, we also investigated the observed bimodality in the s-process enrichment of Galactic post-AGB single stars of similar T_eff and metallicities. This bimodality was expected to be a direct consequence of luminosity with the s-process rich objects having evolved further on the AGB. However, we find that the two populations, the s-process enriched and non-enriched, have similar luminosities (and hence initial masses), revealing an intriguing chemical diversity. For a given initial mass and metallicity, AGB nucleosynthesis appears inhomogeneous and sensitive to other factors, which could be mass loss, along with convective and non-convective mixing mechanisms. Modeling individual objects in detail will be needed to investigate which parameters and processes dominate the photospheric chemical enrichment in these stars.

Eruptions of solar filaments often show rotational motion about their rising direction, but the mechanism governing such rotation, and how the rotation is related to the initial morphology of the preeruptive filament (and cospatial sigmoid), filament chirality, and magnetic helicity, remains elusive. The conventional view of rotation as a result of a magnetic flux rope (MFR) undergoing ideal kink instability still has difficulty explaining these relationships. Here we propose an alternative explanation for the rotation during eruptions by analyzing a magnetohydrodynamic simulation in which magnetic reconnection initiates an eruption from a sheared arcade configuration, and an MFR is formed during eruption via reconnection. The simulation reproduces a reverse-S-shaped MFR with dextral chirality, and the axis of this MFR rotates counterclockwise while rising, which compares favorably with a typical filament eruption observed from dual viewing angles. By calculating the twist and writhe numbers of the modeled MFR during its eruption, we found that, accompanied by the rotation, the nonlocal writhe of the MFR's axis decreases while the twist of its surrounding field lines increases, and this is distinct from kink instability, which converts magnetic twist into the writhe of the MFR axis.

Perihelion passes on Parker Solar Probe orbits 6–9 have been studied to show that solar wind core electrons emerged from 15 solar radii with a temperature of 55 ± 5 eV, independent of the solar wind speed, which varied from 300 to 800 km s⁻¹. After leaving 15 solar radii and in the absence of triggered ion acoustic waves at greater distances, the core electron temperature varied with radial distance, R, in solar radii, as 1900R^−4/3 eV because of cooling produced by the adiabatic expansion. The coefficient, 1900, reproduces the minimum core electron perpendicular temperature observed during the 25 days of observation. In the presence of triggered ion acoustic waves, the core electrons were isotropically heated as much as a factor of two above the minimum temperature, 1900R^−4/3 eV. Triggered ion acoustic waves were the only waves observed in coincidence with the core electron heating. They are the dominant wave mode at frequencies greater than 100 Hz at solar distances between 15 and 30 solar radii.

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are energetic eruptions of organized magnetic structures from the Sun. Therefore, the reconnection of the magnetic field during ejection can excite periodic speed oscillations of CMEs. A previous study showed that speed oscillations are frequently associated with CME propagation. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory mission's white-light coronagraphs have observed about 30,000 CMEs from 1996 January to the end of 2019 December. This period of time covers two solar cycles (23 and 24). In the present study, the basic attributes of speed oscillations during this period of time were analyzed. We showed that the oscillation parameters (period and amplitude) significantly depend not only on the phase of a given solar cycle but also on the intensity of individual cycles as well. This reveals that the basic attributes of speed oscillation are closely related to the physical conditions prevailing inside the CMEs as well as in the interplanetary medium in which they propagate. Using this approximation, we estimated that, on average, the CME internal magnetic field varies from 18 up to 25 mG between minimum and maximum solar activity. The obtained results show that a detailed analysis of speed oscillations can be a very efficient tool for studying not only the physical properties of the ejections themselves but also the condition of the interplanetary medium in which they expand. This creates completely new perspectives for studying the physical parameters of CMEs shortly after their eruption in the Sun's environment (space seismology).

For the first ∼3 yrs after the binary neutron star merger event GW 170817, the radio and X-ray radiation has been dominated by emission from a structured relativistic off-axis jet propagating into a low-density medium with n < 0.01 cm⁻³. We report on observational evidence for an excess of X-ray emission at δt > 900 days after the merger. With L_x ≈ 5 × 10³⁸ erg s⁻¹ at 1234 days, the recently detected X-ray emission represents a ≥3.2σ (Gaussian equivalent) deviation from the universal post-jet-break model that best fits the multiwavelength afterglow at earlier times. In the context of JetFit afterglow models, current data represent a departure with statistical significance ≥3.1σ, depending on the fireball collimation, with the most realistic models showing excesses at the level of ≥3.7σ. A lack of detectable 3 GHz radio emission suggests a harder broadband spectrum than the jet afterglow. These properties are consistent with the emergence of a new emission component such as synchrotron radiation from a mildly relativistic shock generated by the expanding merger ejecta, i.e., a kilonova afterglow. In this context, we present a set of ab initio numerical relativity binary neutron star (BNS) merger simulations that show that an X-ray excess supports the presence of a high-velocity tail in the merger ejecta, and argues against the prompt collapse of the merger remnant into a black hole. Radiation from accretion processes on the compact-object remnant represents a viable alternative. Neither a kilonova afterglow nor accretion-powered emission have been observed before, as detections of BNS mergers at this phase of evolution are unprecedented.

Gravitational wave (GW) emissions from extreme-mass-ratio inspirals (EMRIs) are promising sources for low-frequency GW detectors. They result from a compact object, such as a stellar-mass black hole (BH), captured by a supermassive BH (SMBH). Several physical processes have been proposed to form EMRIs. In particular, weak two-body interactions over a long timescale (i.e., relaxation processes) have been proposed as a likely mechanism to drive the BH orbit to high eccentricity. Consequently, it is captured by the SMBH and becomes an EMRI. Here we demonstrate that EMRIs are naturally formed in SMBH binaries. Gravitational perturbations from an SMBH companion, known as the eccentric Kozai–Lidov (EKL) mechanism, combined with relaxation processes, yield a significantly more enhanced rate than any of these processes operating alone. Because EKL is sensitive to the orbital configuration, two-body relaxation can alter the orbital parameters, rendering the system in a more EKL-favorable regime. As SMBH binaries are expected to be prevalent in the universe, this process predicts a substantially high EMRI rate.

Tidal disruption events (TDEs) are valuable probes of the demographics of supermassive black holes as well as the dynamics and population of stars in the centers of galaxies. In this Letter, we focus on studying how debris disk formation and circularization processes can impact the possibility of observing prompt flares in TDEs. First, we investigate how the efficiency of disk formation is determined by the key parameters, namely, the black hole mass M_BH, the stellar mass m_⋆, and the orbital penetration parameter β that quantifies how close the disrupted star would orbit around the black hole. Then we calculate the intrinsic differential TDE rate as a function of these three parameters. Combining these two results, we find that the rates of TDEs with prompt disk formation are significantly suppressed around lighter black holes, which provides a plausible explanation for why the observed TDE host black hole mass distribution peaks between 10⁶ and 10⁷M_⊙. Therefore, the consideration of disk formation efficiency is crucial for recovering the intrinsic black hole demographics from TDEs. Furthermore, we find that the efficiency of the disk formation process also impacts the distributions of both stellar orbital penetration parameter and stellar mass observed in TDEs.

We present the analysis of archival XMM-Newton European Photon Imaging Camera (EPIC) X-ray observations of the symbiotic star R Aquarii. We used the Extended Source Analysis Software package to disclose diffuse soft X-ray emission extending up to 22 (≈0.27 pc) from this binary system. The depth of these XMM-Newton EPIC observations reveals in unprecedented detail the spatial distribution of this diffuse emission, with a bipolar morphology spatially correlated with the optical nebula. The extended X-ray emission shares the same dominant soft X-ray-emitting temperature as the clumps in the jet-like feature resolved by Chandra in the vicinity of the binary system. The harder component in the jet might suggest that the gas cools down; however, the possible presence of nonthermal emission produced by the presence of a magnetic field collimating the mass ejection cannot be discarded. We propose that the ongoing precessing jet creates bipolar cavities filled with X-ray-emitting hot gas that feeds the more extended X-ray bubble as they get disrupted. These EPIC observations demonstrate that the jet feedback mechanism produced by an accreting disk around an evolved, low-mass star can blow hot bubbles, similar to those produced by jets arising from the nuclei of active galaxies.