adsabs/SciX_UAT_keywords huggingface dataset:
A Detailed View of Low-frequency Quasi-periodic Oscillation in the Broadband 0.2-200 keV with Insight-HXMT and NICER

We report the X-ray timing results of the black hole candidate MAXI J1820+070 during its 2018 outburst using the Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (Insight-HXMT) and Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer Mission (NICER) observations. Low-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations (LFQPOs) are detected in the low/hard state and the hard intermediate state, which lasted for ~90 days. Thanks to the large effective area of Insight-HXMT at high energies and NICER at low energies, we are able to present the energy dependence of the LFQPO characteristics and phase lags from 0.2 to 200 keV, which has never been explored by previous missions. We find that the centroid frequency of the LFQPOs does not change significantly with energy, while the full width at half maximum and fractional rms show a complex evolution with energy. The LFQPO phase lags at high energies and low energies show consistent energy-dependence relations taking the ~2 keV as reference. Our results suggest that the LFQPOs from high energy come from the LT precession of the relativistic jet, while the low-energy radiation is mainly from the perpendicular innermost regions of the accretion disk.

Keywords: black hole physics
Testing EMRI Models for Quasi-periodic Eruptions with 3.5 yr of Monitoring eRO-QPE1

Quasi-periodic eruptions (QPEs) are luminous X-ray outbursts recurring on hour timescales, observed from the nuclei of a growing handful of nearby low-mass galaxies. Their physical origin is still debated, and usually modeled as (a) accretion disk instabilities or (b) interaction of a supermassive black hole (SMBH) with a lower mass companion in an extreme mass-ratio inspiral (EMRI). EMRI models can be tested with several predictions related to the short- and long-term behavior of QPEs. In this study, we report on the ongoing 3.5 yr NICER and XMM-Newton monitoring campaign of eRO-QPE1, which is known to exhibit erratic QPEs that have been challenging for the simplest EMRI models to explain. We report (1) complex, non-monotonic evolution in the long-term trends of QPE energy output and inferred emitting area; (2) the disappearance of the QPEs (within NICER detectability) in 2023 October, and then the reappearance by 2024 January at a luminosity of ∼100× fainter (and temperature of ∼3× cooler) than the initial discovery; (3) radio non-detections with MeerKAT and Very Large Array observations partly contemporaneous with our NICER campaign (though not during outbursts); and (4) the presence of a possible ∼6 day modulation of the QPE timing residuals, which aligns with the expected nodal precession timescale of the underlying accretion disk. Our results tentatively support EMRI–disk collision models powering the QPEs, and we demonstrate that the timing modulation of QPEs may be used to jointly constrain the SMBH spin and disk density profile.

Keywords: supermassive black holes; x-ray transient sources
Low-J CO Line Ratios from Single-dish CO Mapping Surveys and PHANGS-ALMA

We measure the low-J CO line ratios R 21 ≡ CO (2-1)/CO (1-0), R 32 ≡ CO (3-2)/CO (2-1), and R 31 ≡CO (3-2)/CO (1-0) using whole-disk CO maps of nearby galaxies. We draw CO (2-1) from PHANGS-ALMA, HERACLES, and follow-up IRAM surveys; CO (1-0) from COMING and the Nobeyama CO Atlas of Nearby Spiral Galaxies; and CO (3-2) from the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope Nearby Galaxy Legacy Survey and Atacama Pathfinder Experiment Large APEX Sub-Millimetre Array mapping. All together, this yields 76, 47, and 29 maps of R 21, R 32, and R 31 at 20″ ~ 1.3 kpc resolution, covering 43, 34, and 20 galaxies. Disk galaxies with high stellar mass, $\mathrm{log}({M}_{\star }/{M}_{\odot })=10.25\mbox{--}11$ , and star formation rate (SFR) = 1-5 M ⊙ yr-1, dominate the sample. We find galaxy-integrated mean values and a 16%-84% range of R 21 = 0.65 (0.50-0.83), R 32 = 0.50 (0.23-0.59), and R 31 = 0.31 (0.20-0.42). We identify weak trends relating galaxy-integrated line ratios to properties expected to correlate with excitation, including SFR/M ⋆ and SFR/L CO. Within galaxies, we measure central enhancements with respect to the galaxy-averaged value of ~ ${0.18}_{-0.14}^{+0.09}$ dex for R 21, ${0.27}_{-0.15}^{+0.13}$ dex for R 31, and ${0.08}_{-0.09}^{+0.11}$ dex for R 32. All three line ratios anticorrelate with galactocentric radius and positively correlate with the local SFR surface density and specific SFR, and we provide approximate fits to these relations. The observed ratios can be reasonably reproduced by models with low temperature, moderate opacity, and moderate densities, in good agreement with expectations for the cold interstellar medium. Because the line ratios are expected to anticorrelate with the CO (1-0)-to-H2 conversion factor, ${\alpha }_{\mathrm{CO}}^{1-0}$ , these results have general implications for the interpretation of CO emission from galaxies.

Keywords: galaxies; interstellar molecules; interstellar medium; molecular gas
Assuming Ionization Equilibrium and the Impact on the Lyα Forest Power Spectrum during the End of Reionization at 8 ≥ z ≥ 5

We explore how the assumption of ionization equilibrium modulates the modeled intergalactic medium at the end of the hydrogen epoch of reionization using the cosmological radiation hydrodynamic TECHNICOLOR DAWN simulation. In neutral and partially ionized regions where the metagalactic ultraviolet background is weak, the ionization timescale t ion ≡ Γ-1 exceeds the Hubble time. Assuming photoionization equilibrium in such regions artificially boosts the ionization rate, accelerating reionization. By contrast, the recombination time t rec < t ion in photoionized regions, with the result that assuming photoionization equilibrium artificially increases the neutral hydrogen fraction. Using snapshots in the range 8 ≥ z ≥ 5, we compare the predicted Lyα forest (LAF) flux power spectrum with and without the assumption of ionization equilibrium. Small scales (k > 0.1 rad s km-1) exhibit reduced power from 7 ≤ z ≤ 5.5 in the ionization equilibrium case, while larger scales are unaffected. This occurs for the same reasons: ionization equilibrium artificially suppresses the neutral fraction in self-shielded gas and boosts ionizations in voids, suppressing small-scale fluctuations in the ionization field. When the volume-averaged neutral fraction drops below 10-4, the signature of nonequilibrium ionizations on the LAF disappears. Comparing with recent observations indicates that these nonequilibrium effects are not yet observable in the LAF flux power spectrum.

Keywords: cosmology; intergalactic medium; reionization; quasar absorption line spectroscopy
New Theoretical Period-Luminosity-Metallicity Relations for RR Lyrae in the Rubin-LSST Filters

The revolutionary power of future Rubin-LSST observations will allow us to significantly improve the physics of pulsating stars, including RR Lyrae. In this context, an updated theoretical scenario predicting all the relevant pulsation observables in the corresponding photometric filters is mandatory. The bolometric light curves are based on a recently computed extensive set of nonlinear convective pulsation models for RR Lyrae stars, covering a broad range of metal content, and have been transformed into the Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (Rubin-LSST) photometric system. Predicted Rubin-LSST mean magnitudes and pulsation amplitudes have been adopted to build the Bailey diagrams (luminosity amplitude versus period) and the color-color diagrams in these bands. The current findings indicate that the g LSST-r LSST and r LSST-i LSST colors obey to a well-defined linear relation with the metal content. Moreover, the period-luminosity relations display in the reddest filters (r LSST, i LSST, z LSST, y LSST) a significant dependence on the assumed metal abundance. In particular, more metal-rich RR Lyrae are predicted to be fainter at a fixed period. Metal-dependent period-Wesenheit relations for different combinations of optical and near-infrared filters are also provided. These represent powerful tools to infer individual distances independently of reddening uncertainties, once the metal abundance is known and no relevant deviations from the adopted extinction law occur. Finally, we also derived new linear and quadratic absolute magnitude metallicity relations (g LSST versus [Fe/H]) and the metallicity coefficient is consistent with previous findings concerning the B and the V band.

Keywords: rr lyrae variable stars
Upper Limits on the Radio Pulses from Magnetars and a Central Compact Object with FAST

Magnetars and central compact objects (CCOs) are subgroups of neutron stars that show a number of properties distinguished from canonical radio pulsars. We performed radio observations of three magnetars, SGR 0418+5729, 1E 2259+586, and 4U 0142+61, and a CCO, PSR J1852+0040, with the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope at 1.25 GHz, aiming to search for radio pulsations in their quiescent states. During two observation epochs, no radio pulses have been detected toward any target above a significance of signal-to-noise ratio = 7 from either the direct folding or blind search. We provided the most stringent upper limit of radio flux (≲2–4 μJy) for the magnetars and the CCO. For the magnetars with long periods, the real upper limits are likely 1 order of magnitude larger due to the red noise. The deep radio observations suggest that these magnetars and the CCO are indeed radio-quiet sources or unfavorably beamed.

Keywords: pulsars; neutron stars; magnetars
Reconstructing the Extreme Ultraviolet Emission of Cool Dwarfs Using Differential Emission Measure Polynomials

Characterizing the atmospheres of planets orbiting M dwarfs requires understanding the spectral energy distributions of M dwarfs over planetary lifetimes. Surveys like MUSCLES, HAZMAT, and FUMES have collected multiwavelength spectra across the spectral type's range of Teff and activity, but the extreme ultraviolet (EUV, 100-912 Å) flux of most of these stars remains unobserved because of obscuration by the interstellar medium compounded with limited detector sensitivity. While targets with observable EUV flux exist, there is no currently operational facility observing between 150 and 912 Å. Inferring the spectra of exoplanet hosts in this regime is critical to studying the evolution of planetary atmospheres because the EUV heats the top of the thermosphere and drives atmospheric escape. This paper presents our implementation of the differential emission measure technique to reconstruct the EUV spectra of cool dwarfs. We characterize our method's accuracy and precision by applying it to the Sun and AU Mic. We then apply it to three fainter M dwarfs: GJ 832, Barnard's star, and TRAPPIST-1. We demonstrate that with the strongest far-ultraviolet (FUV, 912-1700 Å) emission lines, observed with the Hubble Space Telescope and/or Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer, and a coarse X-ray spectrum from either the Chandra X-ray Observatory or XMM-Newton, we can reconstruct the Sun's EUV spectrum to within a factor of 1.8, with our model's formal uncertainties encompassing the data. We report the integrated EUV flux of our M dwarf sample with uncertainties of a factor of 2-7 depending on available data quality.

Keywords: m dwarf stars; solar extreme ultraviolet emission; ultraviolet astronomy; stellar chromospheres; stellar coronae; stellar atmospheres; stellar activity; low mass stars
AGB Interlopers in YSO Catalogs Hunted out by NEOWISE

Asymptotic giant branch stars (AGBs) and young stellar objects (YSOs) often share the same domains in infrared (IR) color-magnitude or color-color diagrams leading to potential misclassification. We extracted a list of AGB interlopers from the published YSO catalogs using the periodogram analysis on the Near-Earth Object Wide Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) time series data. YSO IR variability is typically stochastic and linked to episodic mass accretion. Furthermore, most variable YSOs are at an early evolutionary stage, with significant surrounding envelope and/or disk material. In contrast, AGBs are often identified by a well-defined sinusoidal variability with periods of a few hundreds days. From our periodogram analysis of all known low-mass YSOs in the Gould Belt, we find 85 AGB candidates, out of which 62 were previously classified as late-stage Class III YSOs. Most of these new AGB candidates have similar IR colors to O-rich AGBs. We observed 73 of these AGB candidates in the H2O, CH3OH, and SiO maser lines to further reveal their nature. The SiO maser emission was detected in 10 sources, confirming them as AGBs because low-mass YSOs, especially Class III YSOs, do not show such maser emission. The H2O and CH3OH maser lines were detected in none of our targets.

Keywords: asymptotic giant branch stars
A Search for In Situ Field OB Star Formation in the Small Magellanic Cloud

Whether any OB stars form in isolation is a question central to theories of massive star formation. To address this, we search for tiny, sparse clusters around 210 field OB stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) from the Runaways and Isolated O-Type Star Spectroscopic Survey of the SMC (RIOTS4), using friends-of-friends and nearest neighbors algorithms. We also stack the target fields to evaluate the presence of an aggregate density enhancement. Using several statistical tests, we compare these observations with three random-field data sets, and we also compare the known runaways to nonrunaways. We find that the local environments of nonrunaways show higher aggregate central densities than for runaways, implying the presence of some "tips of icebergs" (TIB) clusters. We find that the frequency of these tiny clusters is low, ∼4%-5% of our sample. This fraction is much lower than some previous estimates, but is consistent with field OB stars being almost entirely runaway and walkaway stars. The lack of TIB clusters implies that such objects either evaporate on short timescales or do not form, implying a higher cluster lower-mass limit and consistent with a relationship between maximum stellar mass (mmax) and the mass of the cluster (Mcl). On the other hand, we also cannot rule out that some OB stars may form in highly isolated conditions. Our results set strong constraints on the formation of massive stars in relative isolation.

Keywords: massive stars; field stars; small magellanic cloud; star clusters; open star clusters; star formation; runaway stars; galaxy stellar content; initial mass function; multiple star evolution; ob associations; ob stars
Globular Cluster UVIT Legacy Survey (GlobULeS). III. Omega Centauri in Far-ultraviolet

We present the first comprehensive study of the most massive globular cluster, Omega Centauri, in the far-ultraviolet (FUV), extending from the center to ~28% of the tidal radius using the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope on board AstroSat. A comparison of the FUV-optical color-magnitude diagrams with available canonical models reveals that horizontal branch (HB) stars bluer than the knee (hHBs) and the white dwarfs (WDs) are fainter in the FUV by ~0.5 mag than model predictions. They are also fainter than their counterparts in M13, another massive cluster. We simulated HB with at least five subpopulations, including three He-rich populations with a substantial He enrichment of Y up to 0.43 dex, to reproduce the observed FUV distribution. We find the He-rich younger subpopulations to be radially more segregated than the He-normal older ones, suggesting an in situ enrichment from older generations. The ω Cen hHBs span the same T eff range as their M13 counterparts, but some have smaller radii and lower luminosities. This may suggest that a fraction of ω Cen hHBs are less massive than those of M13, similar to the result derived from earlier spectroscopic studies of outer extreme HB stars. The WDs in ω Cen and M13 have similar luminosity-radius-T eff parameters, and 0.44-0.46 M ⊙ He-core WD model tracks evolving from progenitors with Y = 0.4 dex are found to fit the majority of these. This study provides constraints on the formation models of ω Cen based on the estimated range in age, [Fe/H], and Y (in particular) for the HB stars.

Keywords: globular star clusters; horizontal branch stars; ultraviolet photometry; white dwarf stars; hertzsprung russell diagram; extreme horizontal branch stars; late stellar evolution; helium-rich stars
Size Limit of Superparamagnetic Inclusions in Dust Grains and Difficulty of Magnetic Grain Alignment in Protoplanetary Disks

Alignment of nonspherical grains with magnetic fields is an important problem, as it lays the foundation of probing magnetic fields with polarized dust thermal emissions. In this paper, we investigate the feasibility of magnetic alignment in protoplanetary disks (PPDs). We use an alignment condition that Larmor precession should be fast compared with the damping timescale. We first show that the Larmor precession timescale is some 3 orders of magnitude longer than the damping time for millimeter-sized grains under conditions typical of PPDs, making the magnetic alignment unlikely. The precession time can be shortened by superparamagnetic inclusions (SPIs), but the reduction factor strongly depends on the size of the SPI clusters, which we find is limited by the so-called "Néel's relaxation process." In particular, the size limit of SPIs is set by the so-called "anisotropic energy constant" of the SPI material, which describes the energy barrier needed to change the direction of the magnetic moment of an SPI. For the most common iron-bearing materials, we find maximum SPI sizes corresponding to a reduction factor of the Larmor precession timescale of order 103. We also find that reaching this maximum reduction factor requires fine-tuning on the SPI sizes. Lastly, we illustrate the effects of the SPI size limits on magnetic alignment of dust grains with a simple disk model, and we conclude that it is unlikely for relatively large grains of order 100 μm or more to be aligned with magnetic fields, even with SPIs.

Keywords: protoplanetary disks; interplanetary dust; magnetic fields
TOI-5375 B: A Very Low Mass Star at the Hydrogen-burning Limit Orbiting an Early M-type Star

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission detected a companion orbiting TIC 71268730, categorized it as a planet candidate, and designated the system TOI-5375. Our follow-up analysis using radial-velocity data from the Habitable-zone Planet Finder, photometric data from Red Buttes Observatory, and speckle imaging with NN-EXPLORE Exoplanet Stellar Speckle Imager determined that the companion is a very low mass star near the hydrogen-burning mass limit with a mass of 0.080 ± 0.002M ☉ (83.81 ± 2.10M J ), a radius of ${0.1114}_{-0.0050}^{+0.0048}{R}_{\odot }$ (1.0841 ${}_{0.0487}^{0.0467}{R}_{J}$ ), and brightness temperature of 2600 ± 70 K. This object orbits with a period of 1.721553 ± 0.000001 days around an early M dwarf star (0.62 ± 0.016M ☉). TESS photometry shows regular variations in the host star's TESS light curve, which we interpreted as an activity-induced variation of ~2%, and used this variability to measure the host star's stellar rotation period of ${1.9716}_{-0.0083}^{+0.0080}$ days. The TOI-5375 system provides tight constraints on stellar models of low-mass stars at the hydrogen-burning limit and adds to the population in this important region. *Based on observations obtained with the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET), which is a joint project of the University of Texas at Austin, the Pennsylvania State University, Ludwig-Maximillians-Universitaet Muenchen, and Georg-August Universitaet Goettingen. The HET is named in honor of its principal benefactors, William P. Hobby and Robert E. Eberly. †The WIYN Observatory is a joint facility of the NSF's National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory, Indiana University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Pennsylvania State University, the University of Missouri, the University of California-Irvine, and Purdue University.

Keywords: binary stars; low mass stars
New Metrics to Probe the Dynamical State of Galaxy Clusters

We present new diagnostic metrics to probe the dynamical state of galaxy clusters. These novel metrics rely on the computation of the power spectra of the matter and gas distributions and their cross-correlation derived from cluster observations. This analysis permits us to cross-correlate the fluctuations in the matter distribution, inferred from high-resolution lensing mass maps derived from Hubble Space Telescope (HST) data, with those derived from the emitted X-ray surface brightness distribution of the hot intracluster medium from the Chandra X-ray Observatory. These methodological tools allow us to quantify with unprecedented resolution the coherence with which the gas traces the mass and interrogate the assumption that the gas is in hydrostatic equilibrium with the underlying gravitational potential. We characterize departures from equilibrium as a function of scale with a new gas-mass coherence parameter. The efficacy of these metrics is demonstrated by applying them to the analysis of two representative clusters known to be in different dynamical states: the massive merging cluster A2744, from the HST Frontier Fields sample, and the dynamically relaxed cluster A383, from the Cluster Lensing and Supernova Survey with the Hubble sample. Using lensing mass maps in combination with archival Chandra data, and simulated cluster analogs available from the OMEGA500 suite, we quantify the fluctuations in the mass and X-ray surface brightness and show that new insights into the dynamical state of the clusters can be obtained from our gas-mass coherence analysis.

Keywords: observational cosmology; large-scale structure of the universe; dark matter distribution
Comptonization as an Origin of the Continuum in Intermediate Polars

In this paper we test if the ∼0.3-15 keV XMM-Newton EPIC pn spectral continuum of IPs can be described by the thermal Comptonization COMPTT model. We used publicly observations of 12 IPs (AE Aqr, EX Hya, V1025 Cen, V2731 Oph, RX J2133.7+5107, PQ Gem, NY Lup, V2400 Oph, IGR J00234+6141, IGR J17195-4100, V1223 Sgr, and XY Ari). We find that our modeling is capable of fitting well the average spectral continuum of these sources. In this framework, UV/soft X-ray seed photons (with ⟨kTs⟩ of 0.096 ± 0.013 keV) coming presumably from the star surface are scattered off by electrons present in an optically thick plasma (with ⟨kTe⟩ of 3.05 ± 0.16 keV and optical depth ⟨τ⟩ of 9.5 ± 0.6 for plane geometry) located nearby (on top) to the more central seed photon emission regions. A soft blackbody (BBODY) component is observed in 5 out of the 13 observations analyzed, with a mean temperature ⟨kTbb⟩ of 0.095 ± 0.004 keV. We observed that the spectra of IPs show in general two photon indices Γ, which are driven by the source luminosity and optical depth. Low luminosity IPs show ⟨Γ⟩ of 1.83 ± 0.19, whereas high luminosity IPs show lower ⟨Γ⟩ of 1.34 ± 0.02. Moreover, the good spectral fits of PQ Gem and V2400 Oph indicate that the polar subclass of CVs may be successfully described by the thermal Comptonization as well.

Keywords: x-ray binary stars