Subjects: Astronomy >> Astrophysical processes submitted time 2023-02-19
Abstract： We measure for the first time the outermost edges of the Milky Way (MW) halo in terms of the depletion and turnaround radii. The inner depletion radius, $r_\mathrm{id}$, identified at the location of maximum infall velocity, separates a growing halo from the draining environment, while the turnaround radius, $r_\mathrm{ta}$, marks the outermost edge of infalling material towards the halo, both of which are located well outside the virial radius. Using the motions of nearby dwarf galaxies within $3\mathrm{Mpc}$, we obtain a marginal detection of the infall zone around the MW with a maximum velocity of $v_\mathrm{inf, max}=-46_{-39}^{+24}\mathrm{km s^{-1}}$. This enables us to measure $r_\mathrm{id}=559\pm 107 \mathrm{kpc}$ and $r_\mathrm{ta}=839\pm 121 \mathrm{kpc}$. The measured depletion radius is about 1.5 times the MW virial radius ($R_\mathrm{200m}$) measured from internal dynamics. Compared with halos in the cosmological simulation Illustris TNG100, the factor 1.5 is consistent with that of halos with similar masses and dynamical environments to the MW but slightly smaller than typical values of Local Group analogs, potentially indicating the unique evolution history of the MW. These measurements of halo edges directly quantify the ongoing evolution of the MW outer halo and provide constraints on the current dynamical state of the MW that are independent from internal dynamics.
Peer Review Status:
Awaiting Review
Subjects: Astronomy >> Astrophysical processes submitted time 2023-02-19
Abstract： The Solar System's orbital structure is thought to have been sculpted by an episode of dynamical instability among the giant planets. However, the instability trigger and timing have not been clearly established. Hydrodynamical modeling has shown that while the Sun's gaseous protoplanetary disk was present the giant planets migrated into a compact orbital configuration in a chain of resonances. Here we use dynamical simulations to show that the giant planets' instability was likely triggered by the dispersal of the gaseous disk. As the disk evaporated from the inside-out, its inner edge swept successively across and dynamically perturbed each planet's orbit in turn. The associated orbital shift caused a dynamical compression of the exterior part of the system, ultimately triggering instability. The final orbits of our simulated systems match those of the Solar System for a viable range of astrophysical parameters. The giant planet instability therefore took place as the gaseous disk dissipated, constrained by astronomical observations to be a few to ten million years after the birth of the Solar System. Terrestrial planet formation would not complete until after such an early giant planet instability; the growing terrestrial planets may even have been sculpted by its perturbations, explaining the small mass of Mars relative to Earth.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Astronomy >> Astrophysical processes submitted time 2023-02-19
Abstract： A general covariant local field theory of the holographic dark energy model is presented. It turns out the low energy effective theory of the holographic dark energy is the massive gravity theory whose graviton has 3 polarisations, including one scalar mode and two tensor modes. The Compton wavelength is the size of the future event horizon of the universe. The UV-IR correspondence in the holographic dark energy model stems from the scalar graviton's strong coupling at the energy scale that marks the breaking down of the effective field theory.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Astronomy >> Astrophysical processes submitted time 2023-02-19
Abstract： Thermoelastic loss is one of the main energy dissipation mechanisms in resonant systems. A careful analysis of the thermoelastic loss is critical to design low-noise resonators for high-precision applications, such as gravitational-wave detectors. This paper presents an analytical solution to the thermoelastic loss in multimaterial coated finite substrates with realistic assumptions on the model structure and the elastic fields. The mechanism responsible for thermoelastic loss is taken as a function of material properties, operating temperature and frequency, and other design parameters. We calculate the thermoelastic loss for specific applications over a wide range of frequencies (1 Hz to 10 GHz) and temperatures (1 K to 300 K), and for a variety of substrate and coating materials. The result is relevant for gravitational-wave detectors and for experiments sensitive to mechanical dissipation.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Astronomy >> Astrophysical processes submitted time 2023-02-19
Abstract： Building accurate and predictive models of the underlying mechanisms of celestial motion has inspired fundamental developments in theoretical physics. Candidate theories seek to explain observations and predict future positions of planets, stars, and other astronomical bodies as faithfully as possible. We use a data-driven learning approach, extending that developed in Lu et al. ($2019$) and extended in Zhong et al. ($2020$), to a derive stable and accurate model for the motion of celestial bodies in our Solar System. Our model is based on a collective dynamics framework, and is learned from the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab's development ephemerides. By modeling the major astronomical bodies in the Solar System as pairwise interacting agents, our learned model generate extremely accurate dynamics that preserve not only intrinsic geometric properties of the orbits, but also highly sensitive features of the dynamics, such as perihelion precession rates. Our learned model can provide a unified explanation to the observation data, especially in terms of reproducing the perihelion precession of Mars, Mercury, and the Moon. Moreover, Our model outperforms Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation in all cases and performs similarly to, and exceeds on the Moon, the Einstein-Infeld-Hoffman equations derived from Einstein's theory of general relativity.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Astronomy >> Astrophysical processes submitted time 2023-02-19
Abstract： Presolar grains are microscopic dust grains that formed in the stellar winds or explosions of ancient stars that died before the formation of the solar system. The majority (~90% in number) of presolar silicon carbide (SiC) grains, including types mainstream (MS), Y, and Z, came from low-mass C-rich asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars, which is supported by the ubiquitous presence of SiC dust observed in the circumstellar envelope of AGB stars and the signatures of slow neutron-capture process preserved in these grains. Here, we review the status of isotope studies of presolar AGB SiC grains with an emphasis on heavy-element isotopes and highlight the importance of presolar grain studies for nuclear astrophysics. We discuss the sensitives of different types of nuclei to varying AGB stellar parameters and how their abundances in presolar AGB SiC grains can be used to provide independent, detailed constraints on stellar parameters, including 13C formation, stellar temperature, and nuclear reaction rates.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Astronomy >> Astrophysical processes submitted time 2023-02-19
Abstract： The Messenger Interface Monte-Carlo Mappings V (M^3) is a photoionization code adopting the fully self-consistent Monte-Carlo radiative transfer technique, which presents a major advance over previous photoionization models with simple geometries. M^3 is designed for modeling nebulae in arbitrary three-dimensional geometries. In this paper, we describe the Monte-Carlo radiative transfer technique and the microphysics implemented in M^3, including the photoionization, collisional ionization, the free-free and free-bound recombination, and two-photon radiation. We put M^3 through the Lexington/Meudon benchmarks to test the reliability of the new code. We apply M^3 to three HII region models with fiducial geometries, demonstrating that M^3 is capable of dealing with nebulae with complex geometries. M^3 is a promising tool for understanding emission-line behavior in the era of SDSS-V/LVM and JWST, which will provide high-quality data of spatially-resolved nearby HII regions and highly turbulent local and high-redshift HII regions.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Astronomy >> Astrophysical processes submitted time 2023-02-19
Abstract： The exchange of a pair of neutrinos between two objects, seperated by a distance $r$, leads to a long-range effective potential proportional to $1/r_{}^5$, assuming massless neutrinos and four-fermion contact interactions. In this paper, we investigate how this known form of neutrino-mediated potentials might be altered if the distance $r$ is sufficiently short, corresponding to a sufficiently large momentum transfer which could invalidate the contact interactions. We consider two possible scenarios to open up the contact interactions by introducing a $t$-channel or an $s$-channel mediator. We derive a general formula that is valid to describe the potential in all regimes as long as the external particles remain non-relativistic. In both scenarios, the potential decreases as $1/r_{}^5$ in the long-range limit as expected. In the short-range limit, the $t$-channel potential exhibits the Coulomb-like behavior (i.e. proportional to $1/r$), while the $s$-channel potential exhibits $1/r_{}^4$ and $1/r_{}^2$ behaviors.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Astronomy >> Astrophysical processes submitted time 2023-02-19
Abstract： We show that the gravitational wave signals from primordial black hole (PBH) binaries at high redshift can be detected. The detectability of PBH binaries is enhanced by redshift bias and more PBH binaries at high redshift. The initial clustering of PBHs is also included and enhances the effectively detectable mass ranges of PBHs at high redshift. Future observations on the gravitational wave at high redshift by space-based detectors such as LISA and SKA can constrain the fraction of PBHs in dark matter and PBHs initial distribution.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Astronomy >> Astrophysical processes submitted time 2023-02-19
Baiyang Bi
Miquel Barcelo
Christian Bauer
Faical Ait Benkhali
Jacqueline Catalano
Sebastian Diebold
Christian Föhr
Stefan Funk
Gianluca Giavitto
German Hermann
Jim Hinton
Ira Jung-Richardt
Oleg Kalekin
Ruben Kankanyan
Thomas Kihm
Fabian Leuschner
Marc Pfeifer
Gerd Pühlhofer
Olaf Reimer
Simon Sailer
Abstract： In October 2019, the central 28 m telescope of the H.E.S.S. experiment has been upgraded with a new camera. The camera is based on the FlashCam design which has been developed in view of a possible future implementation in the Medium-Sized Telescopes of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), with emphasis on cost and performance optimization and on reliability. The fully digital design of the trigger and readout system makes it possible to operate the camera at high event rates and to precisely adjust and understand the trigger system. The novel design of the front-end electronics achieves a dynamic range of over 3,000 photoelectrons with only one electronics readout circuit per pixel. Here we report on the performance parameters of the camera obtained during the first year of operation in the field, including operational stability and optimization of calibration algorithms.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Astronomy >> Astrophysical processes submitted time 2023-02-19
Abstract： Inverse mass cascade is a key feature of statistically steady state for self-gravitating collisionless dark matter flow (SG-CFD). Continuous mass transfer from small to large mass scales (inverse) is formulated. Direct effect of mass cascade on halo mass function is presented. Mass cascade is local, two-way, and asymmetric in mass space. Halos inherit/pass their mass from/to halos of similar size. Two regimes are identified: a propagation range with scale-independent rate of mass transfer and a deposition range with cascaded mass consumed to grow halos. Dimensional analysis leads to a power-law mass function in propagation range with a geometry exponent ${\lambda}$. A fundamental merging frequency $f_0{\sim}m_p^{\lambda-1}a^{-1}$ is identified, where $a$ is scale factor. Particle mass $m_p$ can be determined if that frequency is known. Rate of mass transfer ${\epsilon}_m{\sim}a^{-1}$ is independent of halo mass, a key feature of propagation range. Typical halos grow as $m_h{\sim}a^{3/2}$ and halo lifespan scales as ${\sim}m_h^{-\lambda}$. Chain reaction of mass cascade provides non-equilibrium dark matter flow a mechanism to continuously release energy and maximize entropy. Continuous injection of mass ("free radicals") at the smallest scale is required to sustain the everlasting inverse mass cascade such that total halo mass $M_h$ increases as $a^{1/2}$. These "radicals" might be directly generated at the smallest Planck scale or by a direct cascade from large to small scales. Entire mass cascade can be formulated by random walk in mass space, where halos migrate with an exponential distribution of waiting time. This results in a heterogeneous diffusion model, where Press-Schechter mass function can be fully derived without relying on any specific collapse models. A double-$\lambda$ mass function is proposed with different $\lambda$ for two ranges and agrees with N-body simulations.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Astronomy >> Astrophysical processes submitted time 2023-02-19
Abstract： We simulate the gravitational dynamics of a massive object interacting with Ultralight / Fuzzy Dark Matter (ULDM/FDM), non-relativistic quantum matter described by the Schrodinger-Poisson equation. We first consider a point mass moving in a uniform background, and then a supermassive black hole (SMBH) moving within a ULDM soliton. After replicating simple dynamical friction scenarios to verify our numerical strategies, we demonstrate that the wake induced by a moving mass in a uniform medium may undergo gravitational collapse that dramatically increases the drag force, albeit in a scenario unlikely to be encountered astrophysically. We broadly confirm simple estimates of dynamical friction timescales for a black hole at the center of a halo but see that a large moving point mass excites coherent "breathing modes" in a ULDM soliton. These can lead to "stone skipping" trajectories for point masses which do not sink uniformly toward the center of the soliton, as well as stochastic motion near the center itself. These effects will add complexity to SMBH-ULDM interactions and to SMBH mergers in a ULDM universe.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Astronomy >> Astrophysical processes submitted time 2023-02-19
Abstract： To quantitatively study the driving mechanisms of magnetospheric convection in the magnetotail lobes on a global scale, we utilize data from the ARTEMIS spacecraft in the deep tail and the Cluster spacecraft in the near tail. Previous work demonstrated that, in the lobes near the Moon, we can estimate the convection by utilizing ARTEMIS measurements of lunar ions velocity. In this paper, we analyze these datasets with machine learning models to determine what upstream factors drive the lobe convection in different magnetotail regions and thereby understand the mechanisms that control the dynamics of the tail lobes. Our results show that the correlations between the predicted and test convection velocities for the machine learning models (>0.75) are much better than those of the multiple linear regression model (~ 0.23 - 0.43). The systematic analysis reveals that the IMF and magnetospheric activity play an important role in influencing plasma convection in the global magnetotail lobes.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Astronomy >> Astrophysical processes submitted time 2023-02-19
Abstract： Measuring the Cosmic X-ray Background (CXB) is a key to understand the Active Galactic Nuclei population, their absorption distribution and their average spectra. However, hard X-ray instruments suffer from time-dependent backgrounds and cross-calibration issues. The uncertainty of the CXB normalization remain of the order of 20%. To obtain a more accurate measurement, the Monitor Vsego Neba (MVN) instrument was built in Russia but not yet launched to the ISS (arXiv:1410.3284). We follow the same ideas to develop a CXB detector made of four collimated spectrometers with a rotating obturator on top. The collimators block off-axis photons below 100 keV and the obturator modulates on-axis photons allowing to separate the CXB from the instrumental background. Our spectrometers are made of 20 mm thick CeBr$_{3}$ crystals on top of a SiPM array. One tube features a $\sim$20 cm$^2$ effective area and more energy coverage than MVN, leading to a CXB count rate improved by a factor of $\sim$10 and a statistical uncertainty $\sim$0.5% on the CXB flux. A prototype is being built and we are seeking for a launch opportunity.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Astronomy >> Astrophysical processes submitted time 2023-02-19
Abstract： Correlated red noise recently reported from pulsar timing observations may be an indication of stochastic gravitational waves emitted by cosmic strings that formed during a primordial phase transition near the Grand Unification energy scale. Unfortunately, known probes of cosmic strings, namely the Cosmic Microwave Background anisotropies and string lensing of extragalactic galaxies, are not sensitive enough for low string tensions of $G\mu = 10^{-10}-10^{-7}$ that are needed to explain this putative signal. We show that strong gravitational lensing of Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) by cosmic strings is a potentially unambiguous avenue to probe that range of string tension values. The image pair of string lensing are expected to have identical magnification factor and parity, and have a typical time delay of $\sim 10^2\,\,(G\,\mu/10^{-8})^2$ seconds. The unique spectral fingerprint of each FRB, as well as the possibility to detect correlations in the time series of the electric field of the radio waves, will enable verification of the string lensing interpretation. Very-Long-Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observations can spatially resolve the image pair and provide a lower bound on the string tension based on the image separation. We calculate the FRB lensing rate as a function of FRB detection number for several different models of the FRB redshift distribution. We find that a survey detecting $\sim 10^5$ FRBs, in line with estimates for the detection rate of the forthcoming survey CHORD, can uncover a strong lensing event for a string tension of $G\mu \simeq 10^{-7}$. Larger FRB surveys, such as Phase 2 of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), have the potential to significantly improve the sensitivity on the string tension to $G\mu \simeq 10^{-9}$.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Astronomy >> Astrophysical processes submitted time 2023-02-19
Salvatore Ferrone
Paola Di Matteo
Alessandra Mastrobuono-Battisti
Misha Haywood
Owain N. Snaith
Marco Montouri
Sergey Khoperskov
David Valls-Gabaud
Abstract： We present the e-TidalGCs Project which aims at modeling and predicting the extra-tidal features surrounding all Galactic globular clusters for which 6D phase space information, masses and sizes are available (currently 159 globular clusters). We focus the analysis and presentation of the results on the distribution of extra-tidal material on the sky, and on the different structures found at different heliocentric distances. We emphasize the wide variety of morphologies found: beyond the canonical tidal tails, our models reveal that the extra-tidal features generated by globular clusters take a wide variety of shapes, from thin and elongated shapes, to thick, and complex halo-like structures. We also compare some of the most well studied stellar streams found around Galactic globular clusters to our model predictions, namely those associated to the clusters NGC 3201, NGC 4590, NGC 5466 and Pal 5. Additionally, we investigate how the distribution and extension in the sky of the simulated streams vary with the Galactic potential by making use of three different models, containing or not a central spheroid, or a stellar bar. Overall, our models predict that the mass lost by the current globular cluster population in the field from the last 5 Gyrs is between $0.3-2.1\times10^{7}M_{\odot}$, an amount comparable between 7-55 % of current mass. Most of this lost mass is found in the inner Galaxy, with the half-mass radius of this population being between 4-6 kpc. The outputs of the simulations will be publicly available, at a time when the ESA Gaia mission and complementary spectroscopic surveys are delivering exquisite data to which these models can be compared.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Astronomy >> Astrophysical processes submitted time 2023-02-19
Abstract： Dark radiation (DR) is generally predicted in new physics scenarios that address fundamental puzzles of the Standard Model or tensions in the cosmological data. Cosmological data has the sensitivity to constrain not only the energy density of DR, but also whether it is interacting. In this paper, we present a systematic study of five types of interacting DR (free-streaming, fluid, decoupling, instantaneous decoupling, and recoupling DR) and their impact on cosmological observables. We modify the Boltzmann hierarchy to describe all these types of interacting DR under the relaxation time approximation. We, for the first time, robustly calculate the collision terms for recoupling scalar DR and provide a better estimation of the recoupling transition redshift. We demonstrate the distinct features of each type of DR on the CMB and matter power spectra. We perform MCMC scans using the Planck 2018 data and BAO data. Assuming no new physics in the SM neutrino sector, we find no statistically significant constraints on the couplings of DR, although there is a slight preference for a late transition redshift for instantaneous decoupling DR around recombination, and for the fluid-like limit of all the cases. The $\Delta N_{\rm eff}$ constraint varies marginally depending on the type of DR.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Astronomy >> Astrophysical processes submitted time 2023-02-19
Abstract： Compact Obscured Nuclei (CONs) account for a significant fraction of the population of luminous and ultraluminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs and ULIRGs). These galaxy nuclei are compact, with radii of 10-100~pc, with large optical depths at submm and far-infrared wavelengths, and characterized by vibrationally excited HCN emission. It is not known what powers the large luminosities of the CON host galaxies because of the extreme optical depths towards their nuclei. CONs represent an extreme phase of nuclear growth, hiding either a rapidly accreting supermassive black hole or an abnormal mode of star formation. Here we apply principal component analysis (PCA) tomography to high-resolution (0.06$^{\prime\prime}$) ALMA observations at frequencies 245 to 265~GHz of the nearby CON (59~Mpc) IC~860. PCA is a technique to unveil correlation in the data parameter space, and we apply it to explore the morphological and chemical properties of species in our dataset. The leading principal components reveal morphological features in molecular emission that suggest a rotating, infalling disk or envelope, and an outflow analogous to those seen in Galactic protostars. One particular molecule of astrochemical interest is methanimine (CH$_2$NH), a precursor to glycine, three transitions of which have been detected towards IC 860. We estimate the average CH$_2$NH column density towards the nucleus of IC~860 to be $\sim10^{17}$cm$^{-2}$, with an abundance exceeding $10^{-8}$ relative to molecular hydrogen, using the rotation diagram method and non-LTE radiative transfer models. This CH$_2$NH abundance is consistent with those found in hot cores of molecular clouds in the Milky Way. Our analysis suggests that CONs are an important stage of chemical evolution in galaxies, that are chemically and morphologically similar to Milky Way hot cores.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Astronomy >> Astrophysical processes submitted time 2023-02-19
Christopher J. White
Patrick D. Mullen
Yan-Fei Jiang
Shane W. Davis
James M. Stone
Viktoriya Morozova
Lizhong Zhang
Abstract： We extend the general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (GRMHD) capabilities of Athena++ to incorporate radiation. The intensity field in each finite-volume cell is discretized in angle, with explicit transport in both space and angle properly accounting for the effects of gravity on null geodesics, and with matter and radiation coupled in a locally implicit fashion. Here we describe the numerical procedure in detail, verifying its correctness with a suite of tests. Motivated in particular by black hole accretion in the high-accretion-rate, thin-disk regime, we demonstrate the application of the method to this problem. With excellent scaling on flagship computing clusters, the port of the algorithm to the GPU-enabled AthenaK code now allows the simulation of many previously intractable radiation-GRMHD systems.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Astronomy >> Astrophysical processes submitted time 2023-02-19
Abstract： We present a novel mechanism of using solar neutrinos to speed up dark matter, inspired by the fact that neutrinos are the most energetic particles from the Sun with a well-understood spectrum. In a neutrino portal dark sector model, we show that dark matter with sub-GeV mass could be accelerated by the $pp$ neutrinos to velocities well above $10^{-3}c$ and capable of depositing large enough energy at direct detection experiments. A crucial ingredient of this mechanism is the dissociation of stable dark matter bound states that exist in Nature. The resulting dark matter velocity distribution bears a strong resemblance in shape to the solar neutrino spectrum. As an application, we derive a leading limit on light dark matter interaction by reinterpreting a recent PICO experiment result.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
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