adsabs/SciX_UAT_keywords huggingface dataset:
Parker Solar Probe In Situ Observations of Magnetic Reconnection Exhausts during Encounter 1

Magnetic reconnection in current sheets converts magnetic energy into particle energy. The process may play an important role in the acceleration and heating of the solar wind close to the Sun. Observations from Parker Solar Probe (PSP) provide a new opportunity to study this problem, as it measures the solar wind at unprecedented close distances to the Sun. During the first orbit, PSP encountered a large number of current sheets in the solar wind through perihelion at 35.7 solar radii. We performed a comprehensive survey of these current sheets and found evidence for 21 reconnection exhausts. These exhausts were observed in heliospheric current sheets, coronal mass ejections, and regular solar wind. However, we find that the majority of current sheets encountered around perihelion, where the magnetic field was strongest and plasma β was lowest, were Alfvénic structures associated with bursty radial jets, and these current sheets did not appear to be undergoing local reconnection. We examined conditions around current sheets to address why some current sheets reconnected while others did not. A key difference appears to be the degree of plasma velocity shear across the current sheets: the median velocity shear for the 21 reconnection exhausts was 24% of the Alfvén velocity shear, whereas the median shear across 43 Alfvénic current sheets examined was 71% of the Alfvén velocity shear. This finding could suggest that large, albeit sub-Alfvénic, velocity shears suppress reconnection. An alternative interpretation is that the Alfvénic current sheets are isolated rotational discontinuities that do not undergo local reconnection.

Keywords: space plasmas; plasma astrophysics; solar magnetic reconnection; solar magnetic fields; alfven waves; solar wind
A VLA Census of the Galactic H II Region Population

The Milky Way contains thousands of H II region candidates identified by their characteristic mid-infrared morphology, but lacking detections of ionized gas tracers such as radio continuum or radio recombination line emission. These targets thus remain unconfirmed as H II regions. With only ∼2500 confirmed H II regions in the Milky Way, Galactic surveys are deficient by several thousand nebulae when compared to external galaxies with similar star formation rates. Using sensitive 9 GHz radio continuum observations with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array, we explore a sample of H II region candidates in order to set observational limits on the actual total population of Galactic H II regions. We target all infrared-identified "radio-quiet" sources from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer Catalog of Galactic H II regions between 245° ≥ ℓ ≥ 90° with infrared diameters less than 80''. We detect radio continuum emission from 50% of the targeted H II region candidates, providing strong evidence that most of the radio-quiet candidates are bona fide H II regions. We measure the peak and integrated radio flux densities and compare the inferred Lyman continuum fluxes using models of OB stars. We conclude that stars of approximately spectral type B2 and earlier are able to create H II regions with similar infrared and radio continuum morphologies as the more luminous H II regions created by O stars. From our 50% detection rate of "radio-quiet" sources, we set a lower limit of ∼7000 for the H II region population of the Galaxy. Thus the vast majority of the Milky Way's H II regions remain to be discovered.

Keywords: h ii regions; very large array; star formation; massive stars; interstellar medium; galaxy structure
HD 219134 Revisited: Planet d Transit Upper Limit and Planet f Transit Nondetection with ASTERIA and TESS

HD 219134 is a K3V dwarf star with six reported radial-velocity discovered planets. The two innermost planets b and c show transits, raising the possibility of this system to be the nearest (6.53 pc), brightest (V = 5.57) example of a star with a compact multiple transiting planet system. Ground-based searches for transits of planets beyond b and c are not feasible because of the infrequent transits, long transit duration (∼5 hr), shallow transit depths (<1%), and large transit time uncertainty (∼half a day). We use the space-based telescopes the Arcsecond Space Telescope Enabling Research in Astrophysics (ASTERIA) and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) to search for transits of planets f (P = 22.717 days and $M\sin i=7.3\pm 0.04{M}_{\oplus }$ ) and d (P = 46.859 days and $M\sin i=16.7\pm 0.64{M}_{\oplus }$ ). ASTERIA was a technology demonstration CubeSat with an opportunity for science in an extended program. ASTERIA observations of HD 219134 were designed to cover the 3σ transit windows for planets f and d via repeated visits over many months. While TESS has much higher sensitivity and more continuous time coverage than ASTERIA, only the HD 219134 f transit window fell within the TESS survey's observations. Our TESS photometric results definitively rule out planetary transits for HD 219134 f. We do not detect the Neptune-mass HD 219134 d transits and our ASTERIA data are sensitive to planets as small as 3.6 R⊕. We provide TESS updated transit times and periods for HD 219134 b and c, which are designated TOI 1469.01 and 1469.02 respectively.

Keywords: exoplanet astronomy; broad band photometry
Decoding the Bifurcated Red Giant Branch as a Tracer of Multiple Stellar Populations in the Young Large Magellanic Cloud Cluster NGC 2173

Multiple stellar populations (MPs) representing star-to-star light-element abundance variations are common in nearly all ancient Galactic globular clusters (GCs). Here we provide the strongest evidence yet that the populous, ~1.7 Gyr old Large Magellanic Cloud cluster NGC 2173 also exhibits light-element abundance variations. Thus, our results suggest that NGC 2173 is the youngest cluster for which MPs have been confirmed to date. Our conclusion is based on the distinct bifurcation at the tip of its red giant branch in high-quality color-magnitude diagrams generated from Hubble Space Telescope imaging observations. Our results are further supported by a detailed analysis of "pseudo-UBI" maps, which reveal clear evidence of a bimodality in the cluster's red giant branch color distribution. Young clusters in the Magellanic Clouds can provide critical insights into galaxy evolution histories. Our discovery of MPs in NGC 2173 suggests that ancient Galactic GCs and young massive clusters might share a common formation process.

Keywords: star clusters; hertzsprung russell diagram; stellar populations; large magellanic cloud; red giant branch; red giant stars
The Poissonian Origin of Power Laws in Solar Flare Waiting Time Distributions

In this study we aim for a deeper understanding of the power-law slope, α, of waiting time distributions. Statistically independent events with linear behavior can be characterized by binomial, Gaussian, exponential, or Poissonian size distribution functions. In contrast, physical processes with nonlinear behavior exhibit spatiotemporal coherence (or memory) and "fat tails" in their size distributions that fit power-law-like functions, as a consequence of the time variability of the mean event rate, as demonstrated by means of Bayesian block decomposition in the work of Wheatland et al. In this study we conduct numerical simulations of waiting time distributions N(τ) in a large parameter space for various (polynomial, sinusoidal, Gaussian) event rate functions λ(t), parameterized with an exponent p that expresses the degree of the polynomial function λ(t) ∝ tp. We derive an analytical exact solution of the waiting time distribution function in terms of the incomplete gamma function, which is similar to a Pareto type II function and has a power-law slope of α = 2 + 1/p, in the asymptotic limit of large waiting times. Numerically simulated random distributions reproduce this theoretical prediction accurately. Numerical simulations in the nonlinear regime (p ≥ 2) predict power-law slopes in the range of 2.0 ≤ α ≤ 2.5. The self-organized criticality model yields a prediction of α = 2. Observations of solar flares and coronal mass ejections (over at least a half solar cycle) are found in the range of αobs ≈ 2.1-2.4. Deviations from strict power-law functions are expected due to the variability of the flare event rate λ(t), and deviations from theoretically predicted slope values α occur due to the Poissonian weighting bias of power-law fits.

Keywords: astrostatistics distributions; solar flares; solar x-ray flares
Stellar Neutrino Emission across the Mass-Metallicity Plane

We explore neutrino emission from nonrotating, single-star models across six initial metallicities and 70 initial masses from the zero-age main sequence to the final fate. Overall, across the mass spectrum, we find metal-poor stellar models tend to have denser, hotter, and more massive cores with lower envelope opacities, larger surface luminosities, and larger effective temperatures than their metal-rich counterparts. Across the mass-metallicity plane we identify the sequence (initial CNO → 14N → 22Ne → 25Mg → 26Al → 26Mg → 30P → 30Si) as making primary contributions to the neutrino luminosity at different phases of evolution. For the low-mass models we find neutrino emission from the nitrogen flash and thermal pulse phases of evolution depend strongly on the initial metallicity. For the high-mass models, neutrino emission at He-core ignition and He-shell burning depends strongly on the initial metallicity. Antineutrino emission during C, Ne, and O burning shows a strong metallicity dependence with 22Ne(α, n)25Mg providing much of the neutron excess available for inverse-β decays. We integrate the stellar tracks over an initial mass function and time to investigate the neutrino emission from a simple stellar population. We find average neutrino emission from simple stellar populations to be 0.5-1.2 MeV electron neutrinos. Lower metallicity stellar populations produce slightly larger neutrino luminosities and average β decay energies. This study can provide targets for neutrino detectors from individual stars and stellar populations. We provide convenient fitting formulae and open access to the photon and neutrino tracks for more sophisticated population synthesis models.

Keywords: neutrino astronomy; nuclear astrophysics; stellar physics; stellar evolutionary tracks; high energy astrophysics
Kepler-discovered Multiple-planet Systems near Period Ratios Suggestive of Mean-motion Resonances Are Young

Before the launch of the Kepler Space Telescope, models of low-mass planet formation predicted that convergent type I migration would often produce systems of low-mass planets in low-order mean-motion resonances. Instead, Kepler discovered that systems of small planets frequently have period ratios larger than those associated with mean-motion resonances and rarely have period ratios smaller than those associated with mean-motion resonances. Both short-timescale processes related to the formation or early evolution of planetary systems and long-timescale secular processes have been proposed as explanations for these observations. Using a thin disk stellar population's Galactic velocity dispersion as a relative age proxy, we find that Kepler-discovered multiple-planet systems with at least one planet pair near a period ratio suggestive of a second-order mean-motion resonance have a colder Galactic velocity dispersion and are therefore younger than both single-transiting and multiple-planet systems that lack planet pairs consistent with mean-motion resonances. We argue that a nontidal secular process with a characteristic timescale no less than a few hundred Myr is responsible for moving systems of low-mass planets away from second-order mean-motion resonances. Among systems with at least one planet pair near a period ratio suggestive of a first-order mean-motion resonance, only the population of systems likely affected by tidal dissipation inside their innermost planets has a small Galactic velocity dispersion and is therefore young. We predict that period ratios suggestive of mean-motion resonances are more common in young systems with 10 Myr ≲ τ ≲ 100 Myr and become less common as planetary systems age.

Keywords: exoplanet dynamics; exoplanet tides; exoplanet evolution; exoplanet systems; exoplanets; stellar ages; stellar kinematics; tidal interaction
Thermal Creep on Mars: Visualizing a Soil Layer under Tension

At low ambient pressure, temperature gradients in porous soil lead to a gas flow called thermal creep. In this regard, Mars is unique as the conditions for thermal creep to occur in natural soil only exist on this planet in the solar system. Known as a Knudsen compressor, thermal creep induces pressure variations. In the case of Mars, there might be a pressure maximum below the very top dust particle layers of the soil, which would support particle lift and might decrease threshold wind velocities necessary to trigger saltation or reduce angles of repose on certain slopes. In laboratory experiments, we applied diffusing wave spectroscopy (DWS) to trace minute motions of grains on the nanometer scale in an illuminated simulated soil. This way, DWS visualizes pressure variations. We observe a minimum of motion, which we attribute to the pressure maximum ~2 mm below the surface. The motion above but especially below that depth characteristically depends on the ambient pressure with a peak at an ambient pressure of about 3 mbar for our sample. This is consistent with earlier work on the ejection of particle layers and is in agreement with a thermal creep origin. It underlines the supporting nature of thermal creep for particle lift, which might be especially important on Mars.

Keywords: mars
GalCEM. I. An Open-source Detailed Isotopic Chemical Evolution Code

This is the first of a series of papers that will introduce a user-friendly, detailed, and modular Galactic Chemical Evolution Model, GalCEM, that tracks isotope masses as a function of time in a given galaxy. The list of tracked isotopes automatically adapts to the complete set provided by the input yields. The present iteration of GalCEM tracks 86 elements broken down into 451 isotopes. The prescription includes massive stars, low-to-intermediate-mass stars, and Type Ia supernovae as enrichment channels. We have developed a preprocessing tool that extracts multidimensional interpolation curves from the input yield tables. These interpolation curves improve the computation speeds of the full convolution integrals, which are computed for each isotope and for each enrichment channel. We map the integrand quantities onto consistent array grids in order to perform the numerical integration at each time step. The differential equation is solved with a fourth-order Runge-Kutta method. We constrain our analysis to the evolution of all light and intermediate elements from carbon to zinc, and lithium. Our results are consistent up to the extremely metal-poor regime with Galactic abundances. We provide tools to track the mass rate change of individual isotopes on a typical spiral galaxy with a final baryonic mass of 5 × 1010 M ⊙. Future iterations of the work will extend to the full periodic table by including the enrichment from neutron-capture channels as well as spatially dependent treatments of galaxy properties. GalCEM is publicly available at https://github.com/egjergo/GalCEM.

Keywords: publicly available software; galaxy chemical evolution; chemical enrichment; stellar nucleosynthesis
The 100 pc White Dwarf Sample in the SDSS Footprint

We present follow-up spectroscopy of 711 white dwarfs within 100 pc, and we present a detailed model atmosphere analysis of the 100 pc white dwarf sample in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey footprint. Our spectroscopic follow-up is complete for 83% of the white dwarfs hotter than 6000 K, where the atmospheric composition can be constrained reliably. We identify 1508 DA white dwarfs with pure hydrogen atmospheres. The DA mass distribution has an extremely narrow peak at 0.59 M⊙ and reveals a shoulder from relatively massive white dwarfs with M = 0.7-0.9 M⊙. Comparing this distribution with binary population synthesis models, we find that the contribution from single stars that form through mergers cannot explain the overabundance of massive white dwarfs. In addition, the mass distribution of cool DAs shows a near absence of M > 1 M⊙ white dwarfs. The pile-up of 0.7-0.9 M⊙ and the disappearance of M > 1 M⊙ white dwarfs is consistent with the effects of core crystallization. Even though the evolutionary models predict the location of the pile-up correctly, the delay from the latent heat of crystallization by itself is insufficient to create a significant pile-up, and additional cooling delays from related effects like phase separation are necessary. We also discuss the population of infrared-faint (ultracool) white dwarfs and demonstrate for the first time the existence of a well-defined sequence in color and magnitude. Curiously, this sequence is connected to a region in the color-magnitude diagrams where the number of white dwarfs with a helium-dominated atmosphere is low. This suggests that the infrared-faint white dwarfs likely have mixed H/He atmospheres.

Keywords: white dwarf stars; fundamental parameters of stars; galaxy stellar content; spectrophotometry; stellar mass functions; stellar properties
The Galaxy "Missing Dark Matter" NGC 1052-DF4 is Undergoing Tidal Disruption

The existence of long-lived galaxies lacking dark matter represents a challenge to our understanding of how galaxies form. Here, we present evidence that explains the lack of dark matter in one such galaxy: NGC 1052-DF4. Deep optical imaging of the system has detected tidal tails in this object caused by its interaction with its neighboring galaxy NGC 1035. As stars are more centrally concentrated than dark matter, tidal stripping will remove a significant percentage of dark matter before affecting the stars of the galaxy. Only $\sim 7 \% $ of the stellar mass of the galaxy is in the tidal tails, suggesting that the stars of NGC 1052-DF4 are only now starting to be affected by the interaction, while the percentage of remaining dark matter is $\lesssim 1 \% $ . This naturally explains the low content of dark matter inferred for this galaxy and reconciles these types of galaxies with our current models of galaxy formation.

Keywords: dark matter; galaxy formation; galaxy interactions
NGTS-11 b (TOI-1847 b): A Transiting Warm Saturn Recovered from a TESS Single-transit Event

We report the discovery of NGTS-11 b (=TOI-1847b), a transiting Saturn in a 35.46 day orbit around a mid K-type star ( ${T}_{\mathrm{eff}}$ = 5050 ± 80 K). We initially identified the system from a single-transit event in a TESS full-frame image light curve. Following 79 nights of photometric monitoring with an NGTS telescope, we observed a second full transit of NGTS-11 b approximately one year after the TESS single-transit event. The NGTS transit confirmed the parameters of the transit signal and restricted the orbital period to a set of 13 discrete periods. We combined our transit detections with precise radial-velocity measurements to determine the true orbital period and measure the mass of the planet. We find NGTS-11 b has a radius of $0.817{\pm }_{0.032}^{0.028}$ ${R}_{\mathrm{Jup}}$ , a mass of $0.344{\pm }_{0.073}^{0.092}$ ${M}_{\mathrm{Jup}}$ , and an equilibrium temperature of just $435{\pm }_{32}^{34}$ K, making it one of the coolest known transiting gas giants. NGTS-11 b is the first exoplanet to be discovered after being initially identified as a TESS single-transit event, and its discovery highlights the power of intense photometric monitoring in recovering longer-period transiting exoplanets from single-transit events.

Keywords: exoplanet astronomy; exoplanet detection methods; exoplanets; extrasolar gaseous giant planets; photometry; high resolution spectroscopy
When "Boring" Stars Flare: The Ultraviolet Activity of GJ 887, a Bright M Star Hosting Newly Discovered Planets

GJ 887 has been spotlighted for the apparently gentle space environment it provides to its recently discovered planets. In 27 days of optical monitoring by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), the star exhibited no detectable flares. Ultraviolet observations reveal a different story. Two high-contrast flares occurred in just 2.8 hr of far-ultraviolet monitoring by the Hubble Space Telescope. Solar scalings indicate these flares were X-class or larger events, generally associated with coronal mass ejections on the Sun. Hundreds of events of equal or greater energy likely occurred during the TESS monitoring, but produced optical contrasts too small to be detected. Strong yet optically undetectable ultraviolet flares like these could dominate the high energy emission of all M stars throughout their lives, impacting the photochemistry and erosion of atmospheres on orbiting planets. * Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute. STScI is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS 5-26555.

Keywords: stellar flares; m stars; exoplanets; ultraviolet astronomy
Alfvén Wave Mode Conversion in Pulsar Magnetospheres

The radio emission anomaly coincident with the 2016 glitch of the Vela pulsar may be caused by a starquake that launches Alfvén waves into the magnetosphere, disturbing the original radio emitting region. To quantify the lifetime of the Alfvén waves, we investigate a possible energy loss mechanism, the conversion of Alfvén waves into fast magnetosonic waves. Using axisymmetric force-free simulations, we follow the propagation of Alfvén waves launched from the stellar surface with small amplitude into the closed zone of a force-free dipolar pulsar magnetosphere. We observe mode conversion happening in the ideal force-free regime. The conversion efficiency during the first passage of the Alfvén wave through the equator can be large, for waves that reach large amplitudes as they travel away from the star, or propagate on the field lines passing close to the Y point. However, the conversion efficiency is reduced due to dephasing on subsequent passages and considerable Alfvén power on the closed field lines remains. Thus while some leakage into the fast mode happens, we need detailed understanding of the original quenching in order to say whether mode conversion alone can lead to reactivation of the pulsar on a short timescale.

Keywords: alfven waves; magnetic fields; pulsars; magnetars
Spectral Transfer and Kármán-Howarth-Monin Equations for Compressible Hall Magnetohydrodynamics

We derive two new forms of the Kármán-Howarth-Monin (KHM) equation for decaying compressible Hall magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence. We test them on results of a weakly compressible, 2D, moderate-Reynolds-number Hall MHD simulation and compare them with an isotropic spectral transfer (ST) equation. The KHM and ST equations are automatically satisfied during the whole simulation owing to the periodic boundary conditions and have complementary cumulative behavior. They are used here to analyze the onset of turbulence and its properties when it is fully developed. These approaches give equivalent results characterizing the decay of the kinetic + magnetic energy at large scales, the MHD and Hall cross-scale energy transfer/cascade, the pressure dilatation, and the dissipation. The Hall cascade appears when the MHD one brings the energy close to the ion inertial range and is related to the formation of reconnecting current sheets. At later times, the pressure dilatation energy exchange rate oscillates around zero, with no net effect on the cross-scale energy transfer when averaged over a period of its oscillations. A reduced 1D analysis suggests that all three methods may be useful to estimate the energy cascade rate from in situ observations.

Keywords: interplanetary turbulence; solar wind