adsabs/SciX_UAT_keywords huggingface dataset:
Three-dimensional Global Hybrid Simulations of Flux Transfer Event Showers at Mercury

One of the important MESSENGER observations is the formation of flux transfer event (FTE) showers, where tens of FTEs are observed in a short time interval of about 1-2 minutes, at Mercury's magnetopause. In this paper, we investigate the interactions between the solar wind and Mercury's magnetosphere using three-dimensional global hybrid simulations. When the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) is purely southward, we can observe FTE showers at the low-latitude dayside magnetopause, and these FTEs can propagate northward or southward with a speed of about 90 km s-1. When the IMF is purely northward, FTE showers can be produced in both the northward and southward hemispheres of the high-latitude nightside magnetopause, and these FTEs propagate toward the magnetotail with a speed of about 250 km s-1. The typical FTEs have a duration of 1-2 s, and reoccur in 5-6 s. Our simulations provide a good explanation for FTE showers observed by MESSENGER.

Keywords: planetary magnetospheres; mercury (planet); solar magnetic reconnection; planetary boundary layers; solar-planetary interactions
Exploring Trans-Neptunian Space with TESS: A Targeted Shift-stacking Search for Planet Nine and Distant TNOs in the Galactic Plane

We present results from a new pipeline custom-designed to search for faint, undiscovered solar system bodies using full-frame image data from the NASA Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission. This pipeline removes the baseline flux of each pixel before aligning and coadding frames along plausible orbital paths of interest. We first demonstrate the performance of the pipeline by recovering the signals of three trans-Neptunian objects—90377 Sedna (V = 20.64), 2015 BP519 (V = 21.81), and 2007 TG422 (V = 22.32)—both through shift-stacking along their known sky-projected paths and through a blind recovery. We then apply this blind-search procedure in a proof-of-concept survey of TESS Sectors 18 and 19, which extend through a portion of the Galactic plane in the Northern Hemisphere. We search for dim objects at geocentric distances d = 70-800 au in a targeted search for Planet Nine and any previously unknown detached Kuiper Belt objects that may shed light on the Planet Nine hypothesis. With no input orbital information, our present pipeline can reliably recover the signals of distant solar system bodies in the Galactic plane with V < 21 and current distances d ≲ 150 au, and we elaborate on paths forward to push these limits in future optimizations. The methods described in this paper will serve as a foundation for an all-sky shift-stacking survey of the distant solar system with TESS.

Keywords: trans-neptunian objects; detached objects; minor planets; small solar system bodies; solar system; planetary science; planetary theory; sky surveys; natural satellites (solar system); solar system planets; solar system astronomy; surveys
Milliarcsecond Astrometry for the Galilean Moons Using Stellar Occultations

A stellar occultation occurs when a Solar System object passes in front of a star for an observer. This technique allows the sizes and shapes of the occulting body to be determined with kilometer precision. In addition, this technique constrains the occulting body's positions, albedos, densities, and so on. In the context of the Galilean moons, these events can provide their best ground-based astrometry, with uncertainties in the order of 1 mas (~3 km at Jupiter's distance during opposition). We organized campaigns and successfully observed a stellar occultation by Io (JI) in 2021, one by Ganymede (JIII) in 2020, and one by Europa (JII) in 2019, with stations in North and South America. We also re-analyzed two previously published events: one by Europa in 2016 and another by Ganymede in 2017. We then fit the known 3D shape of the occulting satellite and determine its center of figure. This resulted in astrometric positions with uncertainties in the milliarcsecond level. The positions obtained from these stellar occultations can be used together with dynamical models to ensure highly accurate orbits of the Galilean moons. These orbits can help when planning future space probes aiming at the Jovian system, such as JUICE by ESA and Europa Clipper by NASA. They also allow more efficient planning of flyby maneuvers.

Keywords: occultation; galilean satellites; astrometry
The NANOGrav 15 yr Data Set: Search for Transverse Polarization Modes in the Gravitational-wave Background

Recently we found compelling evidence for a gravitational-wave background with Hellings and Downs (HD) correlations in our 15 yr data set. These correlations describe gravitational waves as predicted by general relativity, which has two transverse polarization modes. However, more general metric theories of gravity can have additional polarization modes, which produce different interpulsar correlations. In this work, we search the NANOGrav 15 yr data set for evidence of a gravitational-wave background with quadrupolar HD and scalar-transverse (ST) correlations. We find that HD correlations are the best fit to the data and no significant evidence in favor of ST correlations. While Bayes factors show strong evidence for a correlated signal, the data does not strongly prefer either correlation signature, with Bayes factors ∼2 when comparing HD to ST correlations, and ∼1 for HD plus ST correlations to HD correlations alone. However, when modeled alongside HD correlations, the amplitude and spectral index posteriors for ST correlations are uninformative, with the HD process accounting for the vast majority of the total signal. Using the optimal statistic, a frequentist technique that focuses on the pulsar-pair cross-correlations, we find median signal-to-noise ratios of 5.0 for HD and 4.6 for ST correlations when fit for separately, and median signal-to-noise ratios of 3.5 for HD and 3.0 for ST correlations when fit for simultaneously. While the signal-to-noise ratios for each of the correlations are comparable, the estimated amplitude and spectral index for HD are a significantly better fit to the total signal, in agreement with our Bayesian analysis.

Keywords: gravitational waves; pulsars; scalar-tensor-vector gravity
Mapping the Galactic Disk with the LAMOST and Gaia Red Clump Sample. I. Precise Distances, Masses, Ages, and 3D Velocities of ∼140,000 Red Clump Stars

We present a sample of ∼140,000 primary red clump (RC) stars of spectral signal-to-noise ratios higher than 20 from the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fibre Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) Galactic spectroscopic surveys, selected based on their positions in the metallicity-dependent effective temperature-surface gravity and color-metallicity diagrams, supervised by high-quality Kepler asteroseismology data. The stellar masses and ages of those stars are further determined from the LAMOST spectra, using the kernel principal component analysis method and are trained with thousands of RCs in the LAMOST-Kepler fields with accurate asteroseismic mass measurements. The purity and completeness of our primary RC sample are generally higher than 80%. For the mass and age, a variety of tests show typical uncertainties of 15% and 30%, respectively. Using over 10,000 primary RCs with accurate distance measurements from the parallaxes of Gaia Data Release 2 (DR2), we recalibrate the Ks absolute magnitudes of primary RCs by, for the first time, considering both the metallicity and age dependencies. With the the new calibration, distances are derived for all the primary RCs, with a typical uncertainty of 5-10%, which is even better than the values yielded by the Gaia parallax measurements for stars beyond 3-4 kpc. The sample covers a significant volume of the Galactic disk of 4 ≤ R ≤ 16 kpc, $| Z| \leqslant 5\,\mathrm{kpc}$ , and -20 ≤ φ ≤ 50°. Stellar atmospheric parameters, line-of-sight velocities, and elemental abundances derived from the LAMOST spectra and proper motions of Gaia DR2 are also provided for the sample stars. Finally, the selection function of the sample is carefully evaluated in the color-magnitude plane for different sky areas. The sample is publicly available at 10.5281/zenodo.3875974.

Keywords: distance indicators; red giant clump; galaxy abundances; stellar ages; milky way disk; stellar masses; galaxy structure
Asymmetric Lunar Magnetic Perturbations Produced by Reflected Solar Wind Particles

Magnetic perturbations characterize the solar wind interaction of the Moon. The solar wind plasma absorption on the dayside surface produces large-scale field perturbations behind, I.e., the field enhancement in the central wake and reduction on the wake boundary. The solar wind repellence over local lunar magnetic anomalies (LMAs) leads to small-scale magnetic compressions ahead. In this study, the magnetic perturbations around the Moon are examined by using the observations from a near-Moon satellite mission, the Lunar Prospector, and they exhibit a clear left-right asymmetry in a coordinate system related to the solar wind convection electric field ( ${{\boldsymbol{E}}}_{\mathrm{SW}}$ ). The magnetic field is observed to enhance before the left terminator that ${{\boldsymbol{E}}}_{\mathrm{SW}}$ points to, while on the opposite side, it is not. The test particle simulations show that ${{\boldsymbol{E}}}_{\mathrm{SW}}$ can divert the particles reflected over the LMAs to the left and then the solar wind pickup of these particles leads to the field enhancement observed before the left terminator. Behind the lunar terminator, the wake field reduction is also asymmetric. On the left, the field reduction is more remarkable and located closer to the central wake. The denser plasma, consisting of the background as well as the reflected solar wind particles, may produce a stronger diamagnetic current and thus more significant field reduction there. The asymmetric plasma and magnetic perturbations associated with the reflected particles may be a common and nonnegligible element during the solar wind interaction of a small-scale magnetic field, such as that of an asteroid or a comet.

Keywords: solar wind; lunar magnetic fields; pickup ions
Cosmic-CoNN: A Cosmic-Ray Detection Deep-learning Framework, Data Set, and Toolkit

Rejecting cosmic rays (CRs) is essential for the scientific interpretation of CCD-captured data, but detecting CRs in single-exposure images has remained challenging. Conventional CR detectors require experimental parameter tuning for different instruments, and recent deep-learning methods only produce instrument-specific models that suffer from performance loss on telescopes not included in the training data. We present Cosmic-CoNN, a generic CR detector deployed for 24 telescopes at the Las Cumbres Observatory, which has been made possible by the three contributions in this work: (1) We build a large and diverse ground-based CR data set leveraging thousands of images from a global telescope network. (2) We propose a novel loss function and a neural network optimized for telescope imaging data to train generic CR-detection models. At 95% recall, our model achieves a precision of 93.70% on Las Cumbres imaging data and maintains a consistent performance on new ground-based instruments never used for training. Specifically, the Cosmic-CoNN model trained on the Las Cumbres CR data set maintains high precisions of 92.03% and 96.69% on Gemini GMOS-N/S 1 × 1 and 2 × 2 binning images, respectively. (3) We build a suite of tools including an interactive CR mask visualization and editing interface, console commands, and Python APIs to make automatic, robust CR detection widely accessible by the community of astronomers. Our data set, open-source code base, and trained models are available at https://github.com/cy-xu/cosmic-conn.

Keywords: astronomy data reduction; ccd observation; neural networks; cosmic rays; classification
A Fast Radio Burst Discovered in FAST Drift Scan Survey

We report the discovery of a highly dispersed fast radio burst (FRB), FRB 181123, from an analysis of ∼1500 hr of drift scan survey data taken using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST). The pulse has three distinct emission components, which vary with frequency across our 1.0-1.5 GHz observing band. We measure the peak flux density to be >0.065 Jy and the corresponding fluence >0.2 Jy ms. Based on the observed dispersion measure of 1812 cm-3 pc, we infer a redshift of ∼1.9. From this, we estimate the peak luminosity and isotropic energy to be ≲2 × 1043 erg s-1 and ≲2 × 1040 erg, respectively. With only one FRB from the survey detected so far, our constraints on the event rate are limited. We derive a 95% confidence lower limit for the event rate of 900 FRBs per day for FRBs with fluences >0.025 Jy ms. We performed follow-up observations of the source with FAST for four hours and have not found a repeated burst. We discuss the implications of this discovery for our understanding of the physical mechanisms of FRBs.

Keywords: radio transient sources; radio astronomy; astronomical object identification; radio bursts
Has JWST Already Falsified Dark-matter-driven Galaxy Formation?

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) discovered several luminous high-redshift galaxy candidates with stellar masses of M * ≳ 109 M ⊙ at photometric redshifts z phot ≳ 10, which allows to constrain galaxy and structure formation models. For example, Adams et al. identified the candidate ID 1514 with ${\mathrm{log}}_{10}({M}_{* }/{M}_{\odot })={9.8}_{-0.2}^{+0.2}$ located at ${z}_{\mathrm{phot}}={9.85}_{-0.12}^{+0.18}$ and Naidu et al. found even more distant candidates labeled as GL-z11 and GL-z13 with ${\mathrm{log}}_{10}({M}_{* }/{M}_{\odot })={9.4}_{-0.3}^{+0.3}$ at ${z}_{\mathrm{phot}}={10.9}_{-0.4}^{+0.5}$ and ${\mathrm{log}}_{10}({M}_{* }/{M}_{\odot })={9.0}_{-0.4}^{+0.3}$ at ${z}_{\mathrm{phot}}={13.1}_{-0.7}^{+0.8}$ , respectively. Assessing the computations of the IllustrisTNG (TNG50-1 and TNG100-1) and EAGLE projects, we investigate if the stellar mass buildup as predicted by the ΛCDM paradigm is consistent with these observations assuming that the early JWST calibration is correct and that the candidates are indeed located at z ≳ 10. Galaxies formed in the ΛCDM paradigm are by more than an order of magnitude less massive in stars than the observed galaxy candidates implying that the stellar mass buildup is more efficient in the early universe than predicted by the ΛCDM models. This in turn would suggest that structure formation is more enhanced at z ≳ 10 than predicted by the ΛCDM framework. We show that different star formation histories could reduce the stellar masses of the galaxy candidates alleviating the tension. Finally, we calculate the galaxy-wide initial mass function (gwIMF) of the galaxy candidates assuming the integrated galaxy IMF theory. The gwIMF becomes top-heavy for metal-poor star-forming galaxies decreasing therewith the stellar masses compared to an invariant canonical IMF.

Keywords: cold dark matter; initial mass function; stellar mass functions; stellar masses; galaxy evolution; galaxy formation; galaxy mass distribution; galaxy properties; high-redshift galaxies; early universe; cosmology; james webb space telescope
Observations of Twist, Current Helicity, and Writhe in the Magnetic Knots of δ-sunspots Consistent with the Kink Instability of a Highly Twisted Flux Rope

We measure current helicity (H r c ) as well as proxies for twist (α r ) and writhe (W) in the isolated magnetic knots of three delta (δ)-sunspots and report that the observations are consistent with a kink instability acting on a highly twisted flux tube. δ-spots are active regions (ARs) in which positive and negative umbrae share a penumbra. We identify and isolate "magnetic knots," i.e., opposite polarity umbrae that are in close proximity and forming the δ-configuration, in ARs NOAA 11158, 11267, and 11476 as observed with data from the Solar Dynamic Observatory Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager. We find that H r c , α r , and W have the same sign for each magnetic knot, as predicted in simulations of a kink instability acting on highly twisted flux tubes. The deformed flux tube causing the δ-formation, the magnetic knot, is only a portion of the entire AR and demonstrates the potential for the kink instability to act on a smaller spatial scale within the AR. Each magnetic footpoint contains a single sign of the radial current, J r , which suggests that we are observing the core of the flux rope without return currents. As a counterexample, we analyze one β-spot that shows H r c and α r have the opposite signs of W. While our observations support the formation mechanism of the magnetic knots in δ-spots being the kink instability, a much larger sample is needed to determine confidently the prevalence of the kink instability as the cause of flux tube deformation.

Keywords: delta sunspots; solar flares; solar physics; sunspots
Formation Conditions of Titan's and Enceladus's Building Blocks in Saturn's Circumplanetary Disk

The building blocks of Titan and Enceladus are believed to have formed in a late-stage circumplanetary disk (CPD) around Saturn. Evaluating the evolution of the abundances of volatile species in this disk as a function of the migration, growth, and evaporation of icy grains is then of primary importance to assess the origin of the material that eventually formed these two moons. Here we use a simple prescription of Saturn's CPD in which the location of the centrifugal radius is varied, to investigate the time evolution of the icelines of water ice, ammonia hydrate, methane clathrate, carbon monoxide, and dinitrogen pure condensates. To match their compositional data, the building blocks of both moons would have had to form in a region of the CPD situated between the icelines of carbon monoxide and dinitrogen at their outer limit, and the iceline of methane clathrate as their inner limit. We find that a source of dust at the location of centrifugal radius does not guarantee the replenishment of the disk in the volatiles assumed to be primordial in Titan and Enceladus. Only simulations assuming a centrifugal radius in the range 66-100 Saturnian radii allow for the formation and growth of solids with compositions consistent with those measured in Enceladus and Titan. The species are then able to evolve in solid forms in the system for longer periods of time, even reaching an equilibrium, thus favoring the formation of Titan and Enceladus's building blocks in this region of the disk.

Keywords: saturnian satellites; natural satellite formation
The Dark Matter Tidal Stripping History of the Sagittarius Core with N-body Simulations

The infall of the Sagittarius (Sgr) dwarf spheroidal galaxy in the Milky Way halo is an unique opportunity to understand how the different components of a dwarf galaxy could be tidally removed. In this work, we reconstruct the Sgr core morphology and kinematics on the basis of a model that has already successfully reproduced the Sgr stream. Here we use a very high resolution model that almost resolves individual stars in the Sgr core. It reproduces most of the observed morphology and kinematic properties, without specific fine tuning. We also show that the dark matter may have been almost entirely stripped by Milky Way tides after two passages at the pericenter. Finally the model predicts that the Sgr core will be fully disrupted within the next 2 Gyr.

Keywords: sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy; milky way disk
GeV Variability Properties of TeV Blazars Detected by Fermi-LAT

Variability is a prominent observational feature of blazars. The high-energy radiation mechanism of jets has always been important but is still unclear. In this work, we performed a detailed analysis using Fermi-LAT data across 15 yr and obtained GeV light-curve information for 78 TeV blazars detected by Fermi. We provided annual GeV fluxes and corresponding spectral indices for the 78 TeV blazars and thorough monthly GeV fluxes for a subsample of 41 bright blazars. Our results suggest a strong correlation between the γ-ray photon index and $\mathrm{log}{L}_{\gamma }$ for the flat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) and high-energy peaked BL Lacs. Fourteen sources in our sample show significant GeV outbursts/flares above the relatively stable, low-flux light curve, with six of them showing a clear sharp peak profile in their 5 day binned light curves. We quantified the variability utilizing the fractional variability parameter F var, and found that the flux of the FSRQs showed significantly stronger variability than that of the BL Lacs. The 41 bright blazars in this work are best fit by a log-normal flux distribution. We checked the spectral behavior and found 11 out of the 14 sources show a bluer-when-brighter trend, suggesting this spectral behavior for these TeV blazars at the GeV band arises from the mechanism in which the synchrotron-self Compton process dominates the GeV emission. Our research offers a systematic analysis of the GeV variability properties of TeV blazars and serves as a helpful resource for further associated blazar studies.

Keywords: relativistic jets; active galactic nuclei; gamma-ray observatories
Impact Disruption of Bjurböle Porous Chondritic Projectile

The ∼200 m s‑1 impact of a single 400 kg Bjurböle L/LL ordinary chondrite meteorite onto sea ice resulted in the catastrophic disruption of the projectile. This resulted in a significant fraction of decimeter-sized fragments that exhibit power-law cumulative size and mass distributions. This size range is underrepresented in impact experiments and asteroid boulder studies. The Bjurböle projectile fragments share similarities in shape (sphericity and roughness at small and large scales) with asteroid boulders. However, the mean aspect ratio (3D measurement) and apparent aspect ratio (2D measurement) of the Bjurböle fragments is 0.83 and 0.77, respectively, indicating that Bjurböle fragments are more equidimensional compared to both fragments produced in smaller-scale impact experiments and asteroid boulders. These differences may be attributed either to the fragment source (projectile versus target), to the high porosity and low strength of Bjurböle, to the lower impact velocity compared with typical asteroid collision velocities, or potentially to fragment erosion during sea sediment penetration or cleaning.

Keywords: planetary geology; meteorites; chondrites; impact phenomena; asteroids
Li-rich Giants in LAMOST Survey. III. The Statistical Analysis of Li-rich Giants

The puzzle of the Li-rich giant is still unsolved, contradicting the prediction of the standard stellar models. Although the exact evolutionary stages play a key role in the knowledge of Li-rich giants, a limited number of Li-rich giants have been observed with high-quality asteroseismic parameters to clearly distinguish the stellar evolutionary stages. Based on the LAMOST Data Release 7 (DR7), we applied a data-driven neural network method to derive the parameters for giant stars, which contain the largest number of Li-rich giants. The red giant stars are classified into three stages of Red Giant Branch (RGB), Primary Red Clump (PRC), and Secondary Red Clump (SRC) relying on the estimated asteroseismic parameters. In the statistical analysis of the properties (i.e., stellar mass, carbon, nitrogen, Li-rich distribution, and frequency) of Li-rich giants, we found that (1) most of the Li-rich RGB stars are suggested to be the descendants of Li-rich pre-RGB stars and/or the result of engulfment of planet or substellar companions; (2) the massive Li-rich SRC stars could be the natural consequence of Li depletion from the high-mass Li-rich RGB stars; and (3) internal mixing processes near the helium flash can account for the phenomenon of Li richness on PRC that dominated the Li-rich giants. Based on the comparison of [C/N] distributions between Li-rich and normal PRC stars, the Li-enriched processes probably depend on the stellar mass.

Keywords: chemically peculiar giant stars; giant stars; stellar abundances; stellar evolution; classification