Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The delay-time distribution of Type Ia supernovae: a comparison between theory and observation

Aims. We investigate the contribution of different formation scenarios for type Ia supernovae in elliptical galaxies. The single-degenerate scenario (a white dwarf accreting from a late main-sequence or red giant companion) is tested against the double-degenerate scenario (the spiral-in and merging of two white dwarfs through the emission of gravitational wave radiation). Methods. We use a population-number synthesis code that incorporates the latest physical results in binary evolution and allows us to differentiate between certain physical scenarios (e.g. description of common-envelope evolution) and evolutionary parameters (e.g. mass-transfer efficiency during Roche-lobe overflow). The obtained theoretical distributions of the delay times of type Ia supernovae are compared, both in morphological shape and in absolute number of events, to those which are observed. The critical dependency of these distributions on certain parameters is used to constrain the values of the latter. Results. We find that the single-degenerate scenario alone cannot explain the morphological shape of the observational delay-time distribution, while the double-degenerate scenario (or a combination of both) can. Most of these double-degenerate type Ia supernovae are created through a normal quasi-conservative Roche-lobe overflow followed by a common-envelope phase, not through two successive common-envelope phases. This may cast doubt on the use in other studies of analytical formalisms to determine delay times. In terms of absolute number, theoretical supernova Ia rates in old elliptical galaxies lie a factor of at least three below the observed ones. We propose a solution involving the effect of rotation on the evolution of intermediate mass binaries.
Towards online triggering for the radio detection of air showers using deep neural networks

The detection of air-shower events via radio signals requires the development of a trigger algorithm for clean discrimination between signal and background events in order to reduce the data stream coming from false triggers. In this contribution we will describe an approach to trigger air-shower events on a single-antenna level aswell as performing an online reconstruction of the shower parameters using neural networks.
Pyramid Attention Based Early Forest Fire Detection Using UAV Imagery

Early forest fire detection using unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imagery is widely implemented in recent years. However, as the size of moving object in UAV imagery changes dramatically, the issues of focusing more informative areas of an image, large-scale variation as well as temporal consistency preservation have yet to be resolved due to the wide field of vision of UAVs in flight. To address these issues, in this work, we concerned the visual characteristics of early stage forest fire in UAV imagery and employ pyramid attention mechanism. We engineered a novel convolutional neural network (CNN) based on the state-of-the-art backbone by stacking our proposed PyrAtten blocks. We built a large dataset of early stage forest fire, including real world aerial photographs shot using our UAV prototype. Extensive evaluation of PyrAtten demonstrates its efficiency and effectiveness in detecting multi-scale objects of fire and smoke in UAV imagery, even if the object takes up a very small proportion of the whole image. Compared with existing similarly-sized networks, average detecting accuracy of PyrAtten-ResNet-50 reaches 97.5%, with negligible increase in computational overhead.
Fermionic condensate and Casimir densities in the presence of compact dimensions with applications to nanotubes

We investigate the fermionic condensate and the vacuum expectation value of the energymomentum tensor for a massive fermionic field in the geometry of two parallel plate on the background of Minkowski spacetime with an arbitrary number of toroidally compactified spatial dimensions, in the presence of a constant gauge field. Bag boundary conditions are imposed on the plates and periodicity conditions with arbitrary phases are considered along the compact dimensions. The nontrivial topology of the background spacetime leads to an Aharonov-Bohm effect for the vacuum expectation values induced by the gauge field. The fermionic condensate and the expectation value of the energy-momentum tensor are periodic functions of the magnetic flux with period equal to the flux quantum. The boundary induced parts in the fermionic condensate and the vacuum energy density are negative, with independence of the phases in the periodicity conditions and of the value of the gauge potential. Interaction forces between the plates are thus always attractive. However, in physical situations where the quantum field is confined to the region between the plates, the pure topological part contributes as well, and then the resulting force can be either attractive or repulsive, depending on the specific phases encoded in the periodicity conditions along the compact dimensions, and on the gauge potential, too. Applications of the general formulas to cylindrical carbon nanotubes are considered, within the framework of a Dirac-like theory for the electronic states in graphene. In the absence of a magnetic flux, the energy density for semiconducting nanotubes is always negative. For metallic nanotubes the energy density is positive for long tubes and negative for short ones. The resulting Casimir forces acting on the edges of the nanotube are attractive for short tubes with independence of the tube chirality. The sign of the force for long nanotubes can be controlled by tuning the magnetic flux. This opens the way to the design of efficient actuators driven by the Casimir force at the nanoscale.
Empirical photometric calibration of the Gaia Red Clump: colours, effective temperature and absolute magnitude

Gaia Data Release 1 allows to recalibrate standard candles such as the Red Clump stars. To use those, they first need to be accurately characterised. In particular, colours are needed to derive the interstellar extinction. As no filter is available for the first Gaia data release and to avoid the atmosphere model mismatch, an empirical calibration is unavoidable. The purpose of this work is to provide the first complete and robust photometric empirical calibration of the Gaia Red Clump stars of the solar neighbourhood, through colour-colour, effective temperature-colour and absolute magnitude-colour relations, from the Gaia, Johnson, 2MASS, Hipparcos, Tycho-2, APASS-SLOAN and WISE photometric systems, and the APOGEE DR13 spectroscopic temperatures. We used a 3D extinction map to select low reddening red giants. To calibrate the colour-colour and the effective temperature-colour relations, we developed a MCMC method which accounts for all variable uncertainties and selects the best model for each photometric relation. We estimate the Red Clump absolute magnitude through the mode of a kernel-based distribution function. We provide 20 colour vs G-Ks relations and the first Teff vs G-Ks calibration. We obtained the Red Clump absolute magnitudes for 15 photometric bands with, in particular, M_Ks = -1.606 +/- 0.009 and M_G = (0.495 +/- 0.009) + (1.121 +/- 0.128) (G-Ks-2.1). We present an unreddened Gaia-TGAS HR diagram and use the calibrations to compare its Red Clump and its Red Giant Branch Bump with the Padova isochrones.
Electrically charged matter in rigid rotation around magnetized black hole

We study charged-fluid toroidal structures surrounding a non-rotating charged black hole immersed in a large-scale, asymptotically uniform magnetic field. In continuation of our former study on electrically charged matter in approximation of zero conductivity, we demonstrate existence of orbiting structures in permanent rigid rotation in the equatorial plane, and charged clouds hovering near the symmetry axis. We constrain the range of parameters that allow stable configurations and derive the geometrical shape of equi-pressure surfaces. Our simplified analytical study suggests that these regions of stability may be relevant for trapping electrically charged particles and dust grains in some areas of the black hole magnetosphere, being thus important in some astrophysical situations.
Automated period detection from variable stars' time series database

The exact period determination of a multi-periodic variable star based on its luminosity time series data is believed a task requiring skill and experience. Thus the majority of available time series analysis techniques require human intervention to some extent. The present work is dedicated to establish an automated method of period (or frequency) determination from the time series database of variable stars. Relying on the SigSpec method (Reegen 2007), the technique established here employs a statistically unbiased treatment of frequency-domain noise and avoids spurious (i. e. noise induced) and alias peaks to the highest possible extent. Several add-on's were incorporated to tailor SigSpec to our requirements. We present tests on 386 stars taken from ASAS2 project database. From the output file produced by SigSpec, the frequency with maximum spectral significance is chosen as the genuine frequency. Out of 386 variable stars available in the ASAS2 database, our results contain 243 periods recovered exactly and also 88 half periods, 42 different periods etc. SigSpec has the potential to be effectively used for fully automated period detection from variable stars' time series database. The exact detection of periods helps us to identify the type of variability and classify the variable stars, which provides a crucial information on the physical processes effective in stellar atmospheres.
Signatures of massive collisions in debris discs A self-consistent numerical model

Context. Violent stochastic collisional events have been invoked as a possible explanation for some debris discs displaying pronounced azimuthal asymmetries or having a luminosity excess exceeding that expected for systems at collisional steady-state. So far, no thorough modelling of the consequences of such stochastic events has been carried out, mainly because of the extreme numerical challenge of coupling the dynamical and collisional evolution of the released dust.Aims. We perform the first fully self-consistent modelling of the aftermath of massive breakups in debris discs. We follow the collisional and dynamical evolution of dust released after the breakup of a Ceres-sized body at 6 AU from its central star. We investigate the duration, magnitude, and spatial structure of the signature left by such a violent event, as well as its observational detectability. Methods. We use the recently developed LIDT-DD code, which handles the coupled collisional and dynamical evolution of debris discs. The main focus is placed on the complex interplay between destructive collisions, Keplerian dynamics, and radiation pressure forces. We use the GRaTer package to estimate the system’s luminosity at different wavelengths.Results. The breakup of a Ceres-sized body at 6 AU creates an asymmetric dust disc that is homogenized by the coupled action of collisions and dynamics on a timescale of a few 105 years. After a transient period where it is very steep, the particle size distribution in the system relaxes to a collisional steady-state law after ~104 years. The luminosity excess in the breakup’s aftermath should be detectable by mid-IR photometry, from a 30 pc distance, over a period of ~106 years that exceeds the duration of the asymmetric phase of the disc (a few 105 years). As for the asymmetric structures, we derive synthetic images for the VLT/SPHERE and JWST/MIRI instruments, showing that they should be clearly visible and resolved from a 10 pc distance. Images at 1.6 μm (marginally), 11.4, and 15.5 μm show the inner disc structures, while 23 μm images display the outer disc asymmetries.
Dynamical ejecta and nucleosynthetic yields from eccentric binary neutron-star mergers

With the recent advent of multi-messenger gravitational-wave astronomy and in anticipation of more sensitive, next-generation gravitational-wave detectors, we investigate the dynamics, gravitational-wave emission, and nucleosynthetic yields of numerous eccentric binary neutron-star mergers having different equations of state. For each equation of state we vary the orbital properties around the threshold of immediate merger, as well as the binary mass ratio. In addition to a study of the gravitational-wave emission including $f$-mode oscillations before and after merger, we couple the dynamical ejecta output from the simulations to the nuclear-reaction network code \texttt{SkyNet} to compute nucleosynthetic yields and compare to the corresponding results in the case of a quasi-circular merger. We find that the amount and velocity of dynamically ejected material is always much larger than in the quasi-circular case, reaching maximal values of $M_{\rm ej, max} \sim 0.1 \, M_{\odot}$ and $v_{\rm max}/c \sim 0.75$. At the same time, the properties of this material are rather insensitive to the details of the orbit, such as pericenter distance or post-encounter apoastron distance. Furthermore, while the composition of the ejected matter depends on the orbital parameters and on the equation of state, the relative nucleosynthetic yields do not, thus indicating that kilonova signatures could provide information on the orbital properties of dynamically captured neutron-star binaries.
Design Method of DC Bus Capacitor for Two-Stage AC/DC Converter

In the single-phase two-stage AC/DC converter system, the inherent power fluctuation of double frequency will lead to the double frequency fluctuation of DC bus voltage, which will affect the stable operation of the converter. In addition, this fluctuation will also raise the current stress of the double active bridge. This makes it more difficult to design DC bus capacitance parameters. In this paper, a design method of DC bus capacitors based on high ripple operation is proposed, and the theoretical limit of DC bus voltage ripple is analyzed. On the premise of considering stable operation and current stress of converter, the capacitance of DC bus is reduced to improve the power density of the system. The design of capacitance parameters has a theoretical basis to follow. Finally, the correctness and effectiveness of the method are verified by examples.
ANGULAR POWER SPECTRA OF THE MILLIMETER-WAVELENGTH BACKGROUND LIGHT FROM DUSTY STAR-FORMING GALAXIES WITH THE SOUTH POLE TELESCOPE

We use data from the first 100 deg2 field observed by the South Pole Telescope (SPT) in 2008 to measure the angular power spectrum of temperature anisotropies contributed by the background of dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs) at millimeter wavelengths. From the auto- and cross-correlation of 150 and 220 GHz SPT maps, we significantly detect both Poisson distributed and, for the first time at millimeter wavelengths, clustered components of power from a background of DSFGs. The spectral indices of the Poisson and clustered components are found to be and αC150−220 = 3.8 ± 1.3, implying a steep scaling of the dust emissivity index β ∼ 2. The Poisson and clustered power detected in SPT, BLAST (at 600, 860, and 1200 GHz), and Spitzer (1900 GHz) data can be understood in the context of a simple model in which all galaxies have the same graybody spectrum with dust emissivity index of β = 2 and dust temperature Td = 34 K. In this model, half of the 150 GHz background light comes from redshifts greater than 3.2. We also use the SPT data to place an upper limit on the amplitude of the kinetic Sunyaev–Zel'dovich power spectrum at ℓ = 3000 of 13 μK2 at 95% confidence.
Light-cone wavefunction representations of the Sivers and the Boer-Mulders distribution functions

We find the light-cone wavefunction representations of the Sivers and the Boer-Mulders distribution functions. A necessary condition for the existence of these representations is that the light-cone wavefunctions have complex phases. We induce the complex phases by incorporating the final-state interactions into the light-cone wavefunctions. For the scalar and the axial-vector diquark models for a nucleon, we calculate explicitly the Sivers and the Boer-Mulders distribution functions from the light-cone wavefunction representations. We obtain the results that the Sivers distribution function has opposite signs with a factor of 3 difference in magnitude for the two models, whereas the Boer-Mulders distribution function has the same sign and magnitude. We can understand these results from the properties of the light-cone wavefunction representations of the Sivers and the Boer-Mulders distribution functions.
α clusters and collective flow in ultrarelativistic carbon-heavy-nucleus collisions

We investigate ultrarelativistic collisions of the 12C nucleus with heavy targets and show that the harmonic flow measures based on ratios of cumulant moments are particularly suited to study the intrinsic deformation of the 12C wave function. That way one can probe the expected alpha clusterization in the ground state, which leads to large initial triangularity in the shape of the fireball in the transverse plane. We show that the clusterization effect results in very characteristic behavior of the ratios of the cumulant moments as functions of the number of participant nucleons, both for the elliptic and triangular deformations. Thus the experimental event-by-event studies of harmonic flow in ultrarelativistic light-heavy collisions may offer a new window to look at the ground-state structure of light nuclei.
THINK OUTSIDE THE COLOR BOX: PROBABILISTIC TARGET SELECTION AND THE SDSS-XDQSO QUASAR TARGETING CATALOG

We present the SDSS-XDQSO quasar targeting catalog for efficient flux-based quasar target selection down to the faint limit of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) catalog, even at medium redshifts (2.5 ≲ z ≲ 3) where the stellar contamination is significant. We build models of the distributions of stars and quasars in flux space down to the flux limit by applying the extreme-deconvolution method to estimate the underlying density. We convolve this density with the flux uncertainties when evaluating the probability that an object is a quasar. This approach results in a targeting algorithm that is more principled, more efficient, and faster than other similar methods. We apply the algorithm to derive low-redshift (z < 2.2), medium-redshift (2.2 ⩽ z ⩽ 3.5), and high-redshift (z>3.5) quasar probabilities for all 160,904,060 point sources with dereddened i-band magnitude between 17.75 and 22.45 mag in the 14,555 deg2 of imaging from SDSS Data Release 8. The catalog can be used to define a uniformly selected and efficient low- or medium-redshift quasar survey, such as that needed for the SDSS-III's Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey project. We show that the XDQSO technique performs as well as the current best photometric quasar-selection technique at low redshift, and outperforms all other flux-based methods for selecting the medium-redshift quasars of our primary interest. We make code to reproduce the XDQSO quasar target selection publicly available.
A Quantitative Investigation of CO2 Sequestration by Mineral Carbonation

Anthropogenic activities have led to a substantial increase in carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas (GHG), contributing to heightened concerns of global warming. In the last decade alone CO2 emissions increased by 2.0 ppm/yr. globally. In the year 2009, United States and China contributed up to 43.4% of global CO2 emissions. CO2 capture and sequestration have been recognized as promising solutions to mitigate CO2 emissions from fossil fuel based power plants. Typical techniques for carbon capture include post-combustion capture, pre-combustion capture and oxy-combustion capture, which are under active research globally. Mineral carbonation has been investigated as a suitable technique for long term storage of CO2. Sequestration is a highly energy intensive process and the additional energy is typically supplied by the power plant itself. This leads to a reduction in net amount of CO2 captured because of extra CO2 emitted. This paper presents a quantitative analysis of the energy consumption during sequestration process for a typical 1GW pulverized coal and a 1GW natural gas based power plant. Furthermore, it has been established that the present day sequestration methods and procedures are not viable to achieve the goal of carbon sequestration.
Age and phenology control photosynthesis and leaf traits in the understory woody species, Rhamnus cathartica and Prunus serotina

Abstract Understory plants are often inadequately represented or neglected within analyses of forest ecosystem productivity. Further, the potential impacts of the biological factors of age class and growth form on carbon cycling physiology, and how it may vary across the growing season and amongst species of different native/non-native status, have not been thoroughly considered. Our study examines photosynthesis and associated physical leaf traits in two understory woody species, Rhamnus cathartica, introduced and invasive in North America, and Prunus serotina, a common subcanopy species native to North America. We estimated leaf-level photosynthesis as measured through light and carbon dioxide response curves, dark-adapted chlorophyll fluorescence and leaf traits (leaf mass per area and stomatal density) for each combination of species and age class at plots in the understory of a temperate deciduous research forest in the US Upper Midwest at two time points during the growing season, late spring (late May) and mid-summer (mid-July). Carbon assimilation rates from light response curves (Asat, A400) and fluorescence capacity estimate Fv/Fm all increased between the two measurement points in both species and age class. Estimates of carbon reaction capacity (Vcmax and Jmax) exhibited a different directional response to seasonal development, declining in seedlings of both species and P. serotina trees (~8–37 % reduction in Vcmax, ~9–34 % reduction in Jmax), though increased in trees of R. cathartica (+24 % in Vcmax, +9 % in Jmax). Divergent responses in photosynthetic parameters amongst these factors may be explained by species differences in leaf mass per area and stomatal density, which together are likely influenced by both growth form, canopy position and ontogeny. Overall, we believe our findings suggest complex, varied influences on photosynthesis that indicate environmental and biological plasticity which may contribute to the historic and continued expansion of R. cathartica in the US Upper Midwest region.