adsabs/SciX_UAT_keywords huggingface dataset:
Dusty, Self-obscured Transients from Stellar Coalescence

We discuss the central role that dust condensation plays in shaping the observational appearance of outflows from coalescing binary systems. As binaries begin to coalesce, they shock-heat and expel material into their surroundings. Depending on the properties of the merging system, this material can expand to the point where molecules and dust form, dramatically increasing the gas opacity. We use the existing population of luminous red novae to constrain the thermodynamics of these ejecta, then apply our findings to the progressive obscuration of merging systems in the lead up to their coalescence. Compact progenitor stars near the main sequence or in the Hertzsprung gap along with massive progenitor stars have sufficiently hot circumstellar material to remain unobscured by dust. By contrast, more extended, low-mass giants should become completely optically obscured by dust formation in the circumbinary environment. We predict that 30%-50% of stellar-coalescence transients for solar-mass stars will be dusty, infrared-luminous sources. Of these, the optical transients may selectively trace complete merger outcomes while the infrared transients trace common envelope ejection outcomes.

Keywords: common envelope evolution; stellar mergers; circumstellar dust; circumstellar matter; transient sources
Temporal Variation of the Rotation in the Solar Transition Region

The temporal variations of solar rotation in the photosphere, chromosphere, and corona have been widely investigated, whereas the rotation of the solar transition region is rarely studied. Here, we perform a primary study about the long-term variation of the rotation in the transition region using Lyα irradiance from 1947 February 14 to 2023 February 20. Correlation techniques are used, and the main results are as follows. (1) The sidereal rotation period of the solar transition region varies between 22.24 and 31.49 days, and the mean sidereal rotation period is 25.50 days for the studied time interval 1947-2022. (2) The rotation period of the transition region exhibits a clear downward trend during 1947-2022, which might be caused by the reduced heliospheric pressure and the weaker solar global magnetic fields. (3) Significant periodic signal of the quasi-Schwabe cycle is found in the rotation periods of the transition region. (4) The cross-correlation between the rotation periods of the solar transition region and sunspot activity corroborates a strong correlation with the Schwabe cycle. Possible mechanisms responsible for these results are discussed.

Keywords: solar transition region; solar cycle; solar rotation
RELICS: Small-scale Star Formation in Lensed Galaxies at z = 6-10

Detailed observations of star-forming galaxies at high redshift are critical to understanding the formation and evolution of the earliest galaxies. Gravitational lensing provides an important boost, allowing observations at physical scales unreachable in unlensed galaxies. We present three lensed galaxies from the RELICS survey at z phot = 6-10, including the most highly magnified galaxy at z phot ~ 6 (WHL 0137-zD1, dubbed the Sunrise Arc), the brightest known lensed galaxy at z phot ~ 6 (MACS 0308-zD1), and the only spatially resolved galaxy currently known at z phot ~ 10 (SPT 0615-JD). The Sunrise Arc contains seven star-forming clumps with delensed radii as small as 3 pc, the smallest spatial scales yet observed in a z > 6 galaxy, while SPT 0615-JD contains features measuring a few tens of parsecs. MACS 0308-zD1 contains an r ~ 30 pc clump with a star formation rate (SFR) of ~3 M ⊙ yr-1, giving it an SFR surface density of ΣSFR ~ 103 M ⊙ yr-1 kpc-2. These galaxies provide a unique window into small-scale star formation during the epoch of reionization. They will be excellent targets for future observations with JWST, including one approved program targeting the Sunrise Arc.

Keywords: gravitational lensing; young massive clusters; galaxy evolution
Spin Doctors: How to Diagnose a Hierarchical Merger Origin

Gravitational-wave observations provide the unique opportunity of studying black hole formation channels and histories—but only if we can identify their origin. One such formation mechanism is the dynamical synthesis of black hole binaries in dense stellar systems. Given the expected isotropic distribution of component spins of binary black holes in gas-free dynamical environments, the presence of antialigned or in-plane spins with respect to the orbital angular momentum is considered a tell-tale sign of a merger's dynamical origin. Even in the scenario where birth spins of black holes are low, hierarchical mergers attain large component spins due to the orbital angular momentum of the prior merger. However, measuring such spin configurations is difficult. Here, we quantify the efficacy of the spin parameters encoding aligned-spin (χ eff) and in-plane spin (χ p ) at classifying such hierarchical systems. Using Monte Carlo cluster simulations to generate a realistic distribution of hierarchical merger parameters from globular clusters, we can infer mergers' χ eff and χ p . The cluster populations are simulated using Advanced LIGO-Virgo sensitivity during the detector network's third observing period and projections for design sensitivity. Using a "likelihood-ratio"-based statistic, we find that ∼2% of the recovered population by the current gravitational-wave detector network has a statistically significant χ p measurement, whereas no χ eff measurement was capable of confidently determining a system to be antialigned with the orbital angular momentum at current detector sensitivities. These results indicate that measuring spin-precession through χ p is a more detectable signature of hierarchical mergers and dynamical formation than antialigned spins.

Keywords: stellar mass black holes; gravitational waves; star clusters; bayesian statistics
Inner Boundary Condition in Quasi-Lagrangian Simulations of Accretion Disks

In simulations of viscously evolving accretion disks, the inner boundary condition is particularly important. If treated incorrectly, it induces incorrect behavior very quickly, because the viscous time is shortest near the inner boundary. Recent work has determined the correct inner boundary in Eulerian simulations. But in quasi-Lagrangian simulations (e.g., SPH, moving mesh, and meshless), where the inner boundary is modeled by removing mass within a finite zone, the inner density profile typically becomes anomalously depleted. Here we show how the boundary condition should be applied in such codes, via a simple modification of the usual approach: when one removes mass, one must speed up the remaining material so that the disk's angular momentum is unchanged. We show with both 1D and 2D moving-mesh (AREPO) simulations that this scheme works as desired in viscously evolving disks. It produces no spurious density depletions and is independent of the mass removal rate, provided that the disk is adequately resolved and that the mass removal rate is not so extreme as to trigger instabilities. This "torque-free" mass removal technique permits the use of quasi-Lagrangian codes to simulate viscously evolving disks, while including a variety of additional effects. As an example, we apply our scheme to a 2D simulation of an accretion disk perturbed by a very massive planet, in which the disk is evolved to viscous steady state.

Keywords: computational methods; stellar accretion disks; protoplanetary disks; planet formation; circumstellar disks; planetary system formation
Predicting Solar Flares with Machine Learning: Investigating Solar Cycle Dependence

A deep learning network, long short-term memory (LSTM), is used to predict whether an active region (AR) will produce a flare of class Γ in the next 24 hr. We consider Γ to be ≥M (strong flare), ≥C (medium flare), and ≥A (any flare) class. The essence of using LSTM, which is a recurrent neural network, is its ability to capture temporal information on the data samples. The input features are time sequences of 20 magnetic parameters from the space weather Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager AR patches. We analyze ARs from 2010 June to 2018 December and their associated flares identified in the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite X-ray flare catalogs. Our results produce skill scores consistent with recently published results using LSTMs and are better than the previous results using a single time input. The skill scores from the model show statistically significant variation when different years of data are chosen for training and testing. In particular, 2015-2018 have better true skill statistic and Heidke skill scores for predicting ≥C medium flares than 2011-2014, when the difference in flare occurrence rates is properly taken into account.

Keywords: solar flares; solar activity
Influence of Crustal Magnetic Fields on Horizontal Plasma Transport and Ion Escape on Mars

Owing to its unevenly distributed crustal fields, Mars acts as a unique obstacle to the solar wind. In the presence of the crustal fields, the transport of the planetary ions on the dayside ionosphere exhibits north-south asymmetry. Additionally, the heavy-ion loss in the magnetotail is affected by the crustal fields. In this paper, a three-dimensional multispecies magnetohydrodynamic model is employed to simulate Mars-solar wind interactions. Numerical results indicate that the meridional transport is dominant in most areas on the dayside ionosphere. In the presence of the crustal fields, the meridional transport on the southern hemisphere (southward transport) is reduced by more than 70% above the strong crustal sources, and the zonal velocity shows local changes inside strong and weak crustal field regions. These effects result in an increase or decrease in the number density of the heavy ions reaching the terminator, thereby influencing the thickness of the ionosphere. Decreased southward velocity leads to a reduction in the heavy-ion loss on the southern magnetotail. The radial outward flux is reduced by more than 30% for O2 + and CO2 + and by 10% for O+. This study shows that in addition to the zonal transport, the meridional transport is important for the day-to-night transport on the dayside of Mars. Collectively, the horizontal plasma transport, controlled by crustal fields, is associated with the altered ionosphere structure and reduced heavy-ion loss in the magnetotail.

Keywords: mars; magnetohydrodynamical simulations; magnetic anomalies
Feasibility of Ion-cyclotron Resonant Heating in the Solar Wind

Wave-particle interactions are believed to be one of the most important kinetic processes regulating the heating and acceleration of solar wind plasma. One possible explanation for the observed preferential heating of alpha (He+2) ions relies on a process similar to a second-order Fermi acceleration mechanism. In this model, heavy ions are able to resonate with multiple counter-propagating ion-cyclotron waves, while protons can encounter only single resonances, resulting in the subsequent preferential energization of minor ions. In this work, we address and test this idea by calculating the number of plasma particles that are resonating with ion-cyclotron waves propagating parallel and antiparallel to an ambient magnetic field ${{\boldsymbol{B}}}_{0}$ in a proton/alpha plasma with cold electrons. Resonances are calculated through the proper kinetic multispecies dispersion relation of Alfvén waves. We show that 100% of the alpha population can resonate with counter-propagating waves below a threshold $| {\rm{\Delta }}{U}_{\alpha p}/{v}_{A}| \lt {U}_{0}+a{({\beta }_{p}+{\beta }_{0})}^{b}$ in the differential streaming between protons and He+2 ions, where U0 = -0.532, a = 1.211, β0 = 0.0275, and b =0.348 for isotropic ions. This threshold seems to match with constraints of the observed ΔUαp in the solar wind for low values of the plasma beta (βp). Finally, it is also shown that this process is limited by the growth of plasma kinetic instabilities, a constraint that could explain alpha-to-proton temperature ratio observations in the solar wind at 1 au.

Keywords: solar wind; alfven waves; plasma physics
Rise of the Titans: Gas Excitation and Feedback in a Binary Hyperluminous Dusty Starburst Galaxy at z ∼ 6

We report new observations toward the hyperluminous dusty starbursting major merger ADFS-27 (z = 5.655), using the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). We detect CO (J = 2 → 1), CO (J = 8 → 7), CO (J = 9 → 8), CO (J = 10 → 9), and H2O (312 → 221) emission, and a P Cygni-shaped OH+ (11 → 01) absorption/emission feature. We also tentatively detect H2O (321 → 312) and OH+ (12 → 01) emission and CH+ (J = 1 → 0) absorption. We find a total cold molecular mass of Mgas = (2.1 ± 0.2) × 1011 (αCO/1.0) M⊙. We also find that the excitation of the star-forming gas is overall moderate for a z > 5 dusty starburst, which is consistent with its moderate dust temperature. A high-density, high kinetic temperature gas component embedded in the gas reservoir is required to fully explain the CO line ladder. This component is likely associated with the "maximum starburst" nuclei in the two merging galaxies, which are separated by only 140 ± 13 km s-1 along the line of sight and 9.0 kpc in projection. The kinematic structure of both components is consistent with galaxy disks, but this interpretation remains limited by the spatial resolution of the current data. The OH+ features are only detected toward the northern component, which is also the one that is more enshrouded in dust and thus remains undetected up to 1.6 μm even in our sensitive new Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 imaging. The absorption component of the OH+ line is blueshifted and peaks near the CO and continuum emission peak, while the emission is redshifted and peaks offset by 1.7 kpc from the CO and continuum emission peak, suggesting that the gas is associated with a massive molecular outflow from the intensely star-forming nucleus that supplies 125 M⊙ yr-1 of enriched gas to its halo.

Keywords: active galaxies; starburst galaxies; high-redshift galaxies; infrared excess galaxies; galaxy evolution; interstellar line emission; submillimeter astronomy; millimeter astronomy
Physical and Optical Properties of Ultra-black Nickel-Phosphorus for a Total Solar Irradiance Measurement

The total solar irradiance at the top of the atmosphere is the primary source of energy of the Earth's highly coupled atmosphere-land-ocean system. Small fluctuations of the solar flux density in scales from years to millennia could impact the energy balance of this system due to nonlinear effects. The quantification of this variability depends on absolute radiometers on board of space-based platforms. Although there has been significant improvement in the design and calibration of absolute radiometers during the last decades, the uncertainties in the measurements have not allowed us to untangle the natural and anthropogenic drivers of the observed changes of the climatic patterns appropriately. One of the critical components of the absolute radiometers is the coating of the sensor elements, which should absorb the radiation efficiently. Here we discuss the optical characteristics of ultra-black Nickel-Phosphorus (Ni-P) and its relations with the surface morphology. The ultra-black Ni-P has important unique properties such as low reflectance and uniformity of deposition in complex geometries. Ni-P multilayer was deposited by electroless on aluminum substrates. The surface was etched by oxidizing acid to produce ultra-black Ni-P. Characterization techniques were used to describe the properties of the material. We describe the directional reflectance employing the bidirectional reflectance distribution function. Additionally, we used reflectance maps to show the influence of the pores on the reflectance. Ultra-black Ni-P exhibited a high absorptance and dependence with the light incidence angle. Based on the results, the material demonstrated the opportunity of many terrestrial and space applications as a black coating absorber.

Keywords: astronomical instrumentation; solar instruments; telescopes
High-resolution, Mid-infrared Color Temperature Mapping of the Central 10″ of the Galaxy

The neighborhood of the Galactic black hole boasts a plethora of extended interstellar gas and dust features, as well as populations of compact (unresolved or marginally resolved) features such as the G objects. Most are well manifested in the infrared. To disentangle and characterize the infrared structure of the extended features and identify compact sources, we used 3.8 μm (L' filter) data from the NIRC2 imager at the Keck Observatory and 8.6 μm (PAH1 filter) data from the VISIR imager at the Very Large Telescope to produce the highest-resolution mid-IR color temperature map of the inner half-parsec of the Galactic center to date. From this map, we compile a catalog of features that stand out from their background. In particular, we identify 33 compact sources that stand out against the local background temperature, 11 of which are newly identified and candidates for being members of the G object population. Additionally, we resolve and newly characterize the morphology of several known extended features. These results prepare the way for ongoing and future JWST studies that have access to a greater range of mid-infrared wavelengths and thus will allow for refined estimation of the trends of dust temperatures.

Keywords: interstellar medium; galactic center; infrared astronomy
A Pair of TESS Planets Spanning the Radius Valley around the Nearby Mid-M Dwarf LTT 3780

We present the confirmation of two new planets transiting the nearby mid-M dwarf LTT 3780 (TIC 36724087, TOI-732, V = 13.07, Ks = 8.204, Rs = 0.374 R⊙, Ms = 0.401 M⊙, d = 22 pc). The two planet candidates are identified in a single Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite sector and validated with reconnaissance spectroscopy, ground-based photometric follow-up, and high-resolution imaging. With measured orbital periods of Pb = 0.77, Pc = 12.25 days and sizes rp,b = 1.33 ± 0.07, rp,c = 2.30 ± 0.16 R⊕, the two planets span the radius valley in period-radius space around low-mass stars, thus making the system a laboratory to test competing theories of the emergence of the radius valley in that stellar mass regime. By combining 63 precise radial velocity measurements from the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) and HARPS-N, we measure planet masses of ${m}_{p,b}={2.62}_{-0.46}^{+0.48}$ and ${m}_{p,c}={8.6}_{-1.3}^{+1.6}$ M⊕, which indicates that LTT 3780b has a bulk composition consistent with being Earth-like, while LTT 3780c likely hosts an extended H/He envelope. We show that the recovered planetary masses are consistent with predictions from both photoevaporation and core-powered mass-loss models. The brightness and small size of LTT 3780, along with the measured planetary parameters, render LTT 3780b and c as accessible targets for atmospheric characterization of planets within the same planetary system and spanning the radius valley.

Keywords: transit photometry; m dwarf stars; radial velocity; exoplanet systems
Solar Filaments and Interplanetary Magnetic Field Bz

The direction of the axis of an interplanetary coronal mass ejection (ICME) plays an important role in determining if it will cause a geomagnetic disturbance in the Earth's magnetosphere upon impact. Long period southward-pointing ICME fields are known to cause significant space weather impacts and thus geomagnetic storms. We present an extensive analysis of CME-ICME directionality using 86 halo-CMEs observed between 2007 and 2017 to compare the direction of the source filament axial magnetic field on the Sun and the direction of the interplanetary magnetic field near the Earth at the L1 Lagrangian point. Excluding 12 cases that were too ambiguous to determine, for the remaining 74 ICMEs, we find an agreement in terms of the northward/southward orientation of Bz between ICMEs and their CME source regions in 85% of cases. Some of the previous studies discussed here have obtained an agreement of 77% and 55%. We therefore suggest that our method can be meaningful as a first step in efficiently predicting geoeffective ICMEs by observing and analyzing the source regions of CMEs on the Sun.

Keywords: space weather; solar coronal mass ejections; solar filaments
2016 UU121: An Active Asteroid Discovery via AI-enhanced Citizen Science

We report the discovery of an active asteroid, 2016 UU121, for the first time via artificial intelligence-enhanced classification, informed by our NASA Partner program Active Asteroids, a Citizen Science project hosted on the Zooniverse platform. The early version of our deep neural network, TailNet, identified potential activity associated with 2016 UU121 in 40 Dark Energy Camera (DECam) images from UT 2021 September 10 to 11. The discovery was vetted and confirmed by our Active Asteroids core science team. In total, 66 DECam images of this object showed clear activity in the form of a tail. 2016 UU121 has a Tisserand parameter with respect to Jupiter of 3.161, thus we classify the object as an active asteroid. Moreover, the activity occurred near perihelion, so 2016 UU121 is also a candidate Main-belt comet.

Keywords: asteroid belt; asteroids; convolutional neural networks; comet tails; comet dynamics; short period comets
Secular Dynamics of Compact Three-planet Systems

The secular Laplace–Lagrange orbital solution, decomposing eccentricities into a set of uniformly precessing eigenmodes, is a classical result that is typically solved numerically. However, in the limit where orbits are closely spaced, several simplifications make it possible to make analytical progress. We derive simple expressions for the eccentricity eigenmodes in a coplanar three-planet system where the middle planet is much less massive than its neighbors, and we show that these approximate the true eigenmodes of more general systems with three massive planets in various limits. These results provide intuition for the secular dynamics of real systems, and have applications for understanding the stability boundary for compact multiplanet systems.

Keywords: exoplanet dynamics; perturbation methods; exoplanets
Formation of NH2CHO and CH3CHO upon UV Photoprocessing of Interstellar Ice Analogs

Complex organic molecules (COMs) can be produced by energetic processing of interstellar ice mantles accreted on top of dust grains. Two COMs with proposed energetic ice formation pathways are formamide and acetaldehyde. Both have been detected in solar system comets and in different circumstellar and interstellar environments. In this work, we study the NH2CHO and CH3CHO formation upon UV photoprocessing of CO:NH3 and CO:CH4 ice samples. The conversion from ${\mathrm{NH}}_{\dot{2}}$ radicals to NH2CHO is 2-16 times higher than the conversion from ${\mathrm{CH}}_{\dot{3}}$ radicals to CH3CHO under the explored experimental conditions, likely because the formation of the latter competes with the formation of larger hydrocarbons. In addition, the conversion of ${\mathrm{NH}}_{\dot{2}}$ into NH2CHO at 10 K increases with the NH3 abundance in the ice, and also with the temperature in CO-dominated CO:NH3 ices. This is consistent with the presence of a small ${\mathrm{NH}}_{\dot{2}}$ and HCO. reorientation barrier for the formation of NH2CHO, which is overcome with an increase in the ice temperature. The measured NH2CHO and CH3CHO formation efficiencies and rates are similar to those found during electron irradiation of the same ice samples under comparable conditions, suggesting that both UV photons and cosmic rays would have similar contributions to the solid-state formation of these species in space. Finally, the measured conversion yields (up to one order of magnitude higher for NH2CHO) suggest that in circumstellar environments, where the observed NH2CHO/CH3CHO abundance ratio is ∼0.1, there are likely additional ice and/or gas-phase formation pathways for CH3CHO.

Keywords: interstellar molecules; ice formation; laboratory astrophysics