adsabs/SciX_UAT_keywords huggingface dataset:
A New View of the Lunar South Pole from the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA)

Upcoming missions to the lunar south pole require detailed maps over large areas to fully characterize landing sites locally and regionally and to place their data into proper geologic context. To that end, we enhanced the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter altimetry data set for the south polar region, from which we produced new maps of topography, topographic roughness, and permanently shadowed regions (PSRs). The roughness maps reveal a diversity of terrains characterized by hectometer-scale roughness that is controlled in this region primarily by cratering and downslope mass transport. The south polar region is littered with linear roughness features of order ~1-10 km wide and approximately tens to hundreds of kilometers long hypothesized to be secondary impacts within extended ejecta rays. Nonuniformities in these features could reflect variations in secondary impactor properties and/or target terrain properties. Poleward of 80° S, the PSR cumulative size-frequency distribution (CSFD) shows an approximately power-law behavior whose exponent has a spatial variation of ~10%. PSRs with areas <1 km2 contain 15% ± 5% of the total PSR area. Finally, we studied the effect of false positives and false negatives on the accuracy of the measured PSR CSFD and on the area for any individual PSR. The new maps presented here have many applications in the science and exploration of the lunar south polar region, such as geologic mapping and traverse planning.

Keywords: lunar surface; lunar regolith; lunar science; lunar impacts; lunar geodesy; lunar features; lunar craters
Inconsistency of the Rh = ct Cosmology from the Viewpoint of the Redshift of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation

The redshift of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation in the Rh = ct cosmology (Melia & Shevchuk 2012) is inferred from nearly model-independent measurements of the angular baryon acoustic oscillations and the first acoustic peak location of the CMB power spectrum, based on the assumption that the two phenomena occur at the same comoving scale in the Rh = ct model (Melia & López-Corredoira 2017). The derived redshift, z* ≈ 23, which corresponds to the radiation temperature T* ≈ 65 K, is inconsistent with the standard interpretation of the CMB as the relic radiation of the Big Bang.

Keywords: cosmological models; expanding universe; friedmann universe; baryon acoustic oscillations; cosmic microwave background radiation
On the Classification and Feature Relevance of Multiband Light Curves

With an expected torrent of data from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), the need for automated identification of noisy and sparse light curves will increase drastically. In this paper, we performed classification of multiband astronomical light curves from the Photometric LSST Astronomical Time-series Classification Challenge (PLAsTiCC) data set via boosted neural nets, boosted decision trees, and a voted classifier for 14 astronomical categories. In order to deal with noisy features, we used wavelet decomposition together with feature selection. We also performed a feature ranking method using a neural network. Our method may be considered an alternative to random forests, which is known to favor features with more categories as relevant. We also investigated the class importance with neural nets using a one-versus-all approach which reduces the multiclass problem to a binary class problem.

Keywords: astronomy data analysis; light curve classification; wavelet analysis
Carbon Chain Chemistry in Hot-core Regions around Three Massive Young Stellar Objects Associated with 6.7 GHz Methanol Masers

We have carried out observations of CCH (N = 1 - 0), CH3CN (J = 5 - 4), and three 13C isotopologues of HC3N (J = 10 - 9) toward three massive young stellar objects (MYSOs), G12.89+0.49, G16.86-2.16, and G28.28-0.36, with the Nobeyama 45 m radio telescope. Combined with previous results on HC5N, the column density ratios of N(CCH)/N(HC5N), hereafter the CCH/HC5N ratios, in the MYSOs are derived to be ∼15. This value is lower than that in a low-mass warm carbon chain chemistry (WCCC) source by more than one order of magnitude. We compare the observed CCH/HC5N ratios with hot-core model calculations. The observed ratios in the MYSOs can be best reproduced by models when the gas temperature is ∼85 K, which is higher than in L1527, a low-mass WCCC source (∼35 K). These results suggest that carbon-chain molecules detected around the MYSOs exist at least partially in higher temperature regions than those in low-mass WCCC sources. There is no significant difference in column density among the three 13C isotopologues of HC3N in G12.89+0.49 and G16.86-2.16, while HCC13CN is more abundant than the others in G28.28-0.36. We discuss carbon-chain chemistry around the three MYSOs based on the CCH/HC5N ratio and the 13C isotopic fractionation of HC3N.

Keywords: astrochemistry; interstellar molecules; massive stars
Spectroscopy of Broad Absorption Line Quasars at 3 ≲ Z ≲ 5. I. Evidence for Quasar Winds Shaping Broad/Narrow Emission Line Regions

We present an observational study of 22 broad absorption line quasars (BAL QSOs) at $3\lesssim z\lesssim 5$ based on optical/near-IR spectroscopy, aiming to investigate quasar winds and their effects. The near-IR spectroscopy covers the Hβ and/or Mg II broad emission lines (BELs) for these quasars, allowing us to estimate their central black hole (BH) masses in a robust way. We found that our BAL QSOs, on average, do not have a higher Eddington ratio than that from non-BAL QSOs matched in redshift and/or luminosity. In a subset consisting of seven strong BAL QSOs possessing subrelativistic BAL outflows, we see the prevalence of large C IV BEL blueshift (∼3100 km s-1) and weak [O III] emission (particularly the narrow [O III] λ5007 component), indicative of nuclear outflows affecting the narrow emission line (NEL) regions. In another subset consisting of 13 BAL QSOs having simultaneous observations of Mg II and Hβ, we found a strong correlation between 3000 and 5000 Å monochromatic luminosity, consistent with that from non-BAL QSOs matched in redshift and luminosity; however, there is no correlation between Mg II and Hβ in FWHM, likely due to nuclear outflows influencing the BEL regions. Our spectroscopic investigations offer strong evidence that the presence of nuclear outflows plays an important role in shaping the BEL/NEL regions of these quasars and, possibly, regulating the growth of central supermassive BHs. We propose that BEL blueshift and BALs could be different manifestations of the same outflow system viewed at different sight lines and/or phases.

Keywords: quasars; broad-absorption line quasar; supermassive black holes
Coronagraphic Data Post-processing Using Projections on Instrumental Modes

Directly observing exoplanets with coronagraphs is impeded by the presence of speckles from aberrations in the optical path, which can be mitigated in hardware with wave front control, as well as in post-processing. This work explores using an instrument model in post-processing to separate astrophysical signals from residual aberrations in coronagraphic data. The effect of wave front error (WFE) on the coronagraphic intensity consists of a linear contribution and a quadratic contribution. When either of the terms is much larger than the other, the instrument response can be approximated by a transfer matrix mapping WFE to detector plane intensity. From this transfer matrix, a useful projection onto instrumental modes that removes the dominant error modes can be derived. We apply this approach to synthetically generated Roman Space Telescope hybrid Lyot coronagraph data to extract "robust observables," which can be used instead of raw data for applications such as detection testing. The projection improves planet flux ratio detection limits by about 28% in the linear regime and by over a factor of 2 in the quadratic regime, illustrating that robust observables can increase sensitivity to astrophysical signals and improve the scientific yield from coronagraphic data. While this approach does not require additional information such as observations of reference stars or modulations of a deformable mirror, it can and should be combined with these other techniques, acting as a model-informed prior in an overall post-processing strategy.

Keywords: coronagraphic imaging; exoplanet detection methods; exoplanet astronomy; direct imaging
Milliarcsecond Localization of the Repeating FRB 20201124A

Very long baseline interferometric (VLBI) localizations of repeating fast radio bursts (FRBs) have demonstrated a diversity of local environments: from nearby star-forming regions to globular clusters. Here we report the VLBI localization of FRB 20201124A using an ad hoc array of dishes that also participate in the European VLBI Network (EVN). In our campaign, we detected 18 bursts from FRB 20201124A at two separate epochs. By combining the visibilities from both epochs, we were able to localize FRB 20201124A with a 1σ uncertainty of 2.7 mas. We use the relatively large burst sample to investigate astrometric accuracy and find that for ≳20 baselines (≳7 dishes) we can robustly reach milliarcsecond precision even using single-burst data sets. Subarcsecond precision is still possible for single bursts, even when only ~6 baselines (four dishes) are available. In such cases, the limited uv coverage for individual bursts results in very high side-lobe levels. Thus, in addition to the peak position from the dirty map, we also explore smoothing the structure in the dirty map by fitting Gaussian functions to the fringe pattern in order to constrain individual burst positions, which we find to be more reliable. Our VLBI work places FRB 20201124A 710 ± 30 mas (1σ uncertainty) from the optical center of the host galaxy, consistent with originating from within the recently discovered extended radio structure associated with star formation in the host galaxy. Future high-resolution optical observations, e.g., with Hubble Space Telescope, can determine the proximity of FRB 20201124A's position to nearby knots of star formation.

Keywords: radio astrometry; radio transient sources; very long baseline interferometry
Disentangling Dust Components in SN 2010jl: The First 1400 Days

The luminous Type IIn SN 2010jl shows strong signs of interaction between the SN ejecta and dense circumstellar material. Dust may be present in the unshocked ejecta; the cool, dense shell (CDS) between the shocks in the interaction region; or in the circumstellar medium (CSM). We present and model new optical and infrared photometry and spectroscopy of SN 2010jl from 82 to 1367 days since explosion. We evaluate the photometric and spectroscopic evolution using the radiative transfer codes MOCASSIN and DAMOCLES, respectively. We propose an interaction scenario and investigate the resulting dust formation scenarios and dust masses. We find that SN 2010jl has been continuously forming dust based on the evolution of its infrared emission and optical spectra. There is evidence for preexisting dust in the CSM as well as new dust formation in the CDS and/or ejecta. We estimate that 0.005-0.01 M⊙ of predominantly carbon dust grains has formed in SN 2010jl by ∼1400 days post-outburst.

Keywords: core-collapse supernovae; type ii supernovae; circumstellar dust; dust continuum emission; dust nebulae; astronomical models; radiative transfer; extinction; circumstellar shells; dust shells
Particle Accelerations in a 2.5-dimensional Reconnecting Current Sheet in Turbulence

Electric field induced in magnetic reconnection is an efficient mechanism for generating energetic particles, but the detailed role it plays is still an open question in solar flares. In this work, accelerations of particles in an evolving reconnecting current sheet are investigated via the test-particle approach, and the electromagnetic field is taken in a self-consistent fashion from a 2.5D numerical experiment for the magnetic reconnection process in the corona. The plasma instabilities like the tearing mode in the current sheet produce magnetic islands in the sheet, and island merging occurs as well. For the motion of the magnetic island, it yields the occurrence of the opposite electric field at both endpoints of the island; hence, tracking the accelerated particles around magnetic islands suggests that the parallel acceleration does not apparently impact the energy gain of particles, but the perpendicular acceleration does. Furthermore, our results indicate that the impact of the guide field on the trajectory of accelerated particles in a more realistic electromagnetic configuration works only on those particles that are energetic enough. The energy spectra of both species show a single power-law shape. The higher-energy component of the power-law spectrum results from the particles that are trapped in the current sheet, while the escaped and partly trapped particles contribute to the lower-energy component of the spectrum. The evolution of the spectrum shows a soft-hard-soft pattern that has been observed in flares.

Keywords: solar energetic particles; solar flares; solar particle emission; solar magnetic reconnection; magnetohydrodynamical simulations; plasma astrophysics
Photometric and Spectroscopic Observations of GRB 210104A: Bright Reverse-shock Emission and Dense Circumburst Environment

Early afterglow observations of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are valuable for exploring the properties of their jets and ambient medium. We report our photometric and spectroscopic observations of GRB 210104A and discuss its jet properties with multiwavelength data. Our spectroscopic observation reveals several absorption features and a tentative redshift of 0.46 is identified. A bright optical flare that has a peak brightness of R = 13 mag at 112 ± 7 s was observed in the R band during 67 ~ 165 s post the GRB trigger. The flux of the R-band afterglow decays with a slope of α O = - 0.91 ± 0.03 at t > 650 s. The early X-ray afterglow lightcurve is a smooth bump, and it decays with a slope of α X = -1.18 ± 0.01 at late epoch. Our joint spectral fit to the optical-X-ray afterglows during (1.1-1.3) × 104 s yields a photon index ΓO,X = -1.82 ± 0.04. The derived host galaxy extinction is A R = 0.87. Attributing the early optical flare to the reverse-shock (RS) emission and the late optical-X-ray emission to the forward shock emission, the optical and X-ray lightcurves at t < 3 × 104 s can be well fit adopting a Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithm. Comparing the properties of GRB 210104A with other GRBs that have detection of bright RS emission, we show that its jet is mildly magnetized (R B = 28), with high radiation efficiency (77%), is subenergetic (E k,iso = 4.5 × 1051 erg), and moderately relativistic (Γ0 ~ 35) in a density medium (n 0 ~ 417 cm-3). It follows the tight L γ,iso-E p,z-Γ0 relation as with typical GRBs.

Keywords: gamma-ray bursts
Detection of Tm II Lines in the Spectra of Two s-process Rich Stars

Thulium abundance is unknown in the atmospheres of low and medium-mass evolved stars. The reason is the weakness of lines and the crowded spectra. We examined the spectra of two late-type stars in a broad wavelength region to search for thulium lines. Thulium abundance was estimated in the atmospheres of barium star HD 204075 and post-asymptotic giant branch star HD 235858 for the first time, $\mathrm{log}\,\epsilon (\mathrm{Tm})\simeq 0.1$ and ≲1.3, respectively.

Keywords: late-type giant stars; post-asymptotic giant branch stars; barium stars; stellar atmospheres; high resolution spectroscopy; spectral line identification; stellar abundances
Testing Algorithms for Identifying Source Confusion in the H I-MaNGA Survey

Astronomical observations of neutral atomic hydrogen (H I) are an important tracer of several key processes of galaxy evolution, but face significant difficulties with terrestrial telescopes. Among these is source confusion, or the inability to distinguish between emission from multiple nearby sources separated by distances smaller than the telescope's spatial resolution. Confusion can compromise the data for the primary target if the flux from the secondary galaxy is sufficient. This paper presents an assessment of the confusion-flagging methods of the H I-MaNGA survey, using higher-resolution H I data from the Westorbork Synthesis Radio Telescope-Apertif survey. We find that removing potentially confused observations using a confusion probability metric-calculated from the relationship between galaxy color, surface brightness, and H I content-successfully eliminates all significantly confused observations in our sample, although roughly half of the eliminated observations are not significantly confused.

Keywords: h i line emission; radio telescopes
FRB131104 Swift/BAT Data Revisited: No Evidence of a Gamma-Ray Counterpart

We present a reanalysis of the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) data around the radio detection of FRB 131104. Possible evidence of a gamma-ray counterpart was presented by DeLaunay et al. However, based on our analysis using all the available BAT data, no significant emission is found in either the temporal or the image domain. We place a 5σ fluence upper limit of 3.3 × 10-6 erg cm-2 and 2.7 × 10-6 erg cm-2 (15-150 keV) with an integration time of 300 s assuming a simple power-law spectrum with photon index of -1.2 and -2.0, respectively. Our result does not support the association of this FRB with a high-energy counterpart, in agreement with growing observational evidence that most FRBs are not associated with catastrophic events such as gamma-ray bursts.

Keywords: radio transient sources
Improved Tomographic Binning of 3 × 2 pt Lens Samples: Neural Network Classifiers and Optimal Bin Assignments

Large imaging surveys, such as the Legacy Survey of Space and Time, rely on photometric redshifts and tomographic binning for 3 × 2 pt analyses that combine galaxy clustering and weak lensing. In this paper, we propose a method for optimizing the tomographic binning choice for the lens sample of galaxies. We divide the CosmoDC2 and Buzzard simulated galaxy catalogs into a training set and an application set, where the training set is nonrepresentative in a realistic way, and then estimate photometric redshifts for the application sets. The galaxies are sorted into redshift bins covering equal intervals of redshift or comoving distance, or with an equal number of galaxies in each bin, and we consider a generalized extension of these approaches. We find that bins of equal comoving distance produce the highest dark energy figure of merit of the initial binning choices, but that the choice of bin edges can be further optimized. We then train a neural network classifier to identify galaxies that are either highly likely to have accurate photometric redshift estimates or highly likely to be sorted into the correct redshift bin. The neural network classifier is used to remove poor redshift estimates from the sample, and the results are compared to the case when none of the sample is removed. We find that the neural network classifiers are able to improve the figure of merit by ~13% and are able to recover ~25% of the loss in the figure of merit that occurs when a nonrepresentative training sample is used.

Keywords: dark energy; observational cosmology; large-scale structure of the universe
Return Currents in Collisionless Shocks

Collisionless shocks tend to send charged particles into the upstream, driving electric currents through the plasma. Using kinetic particle-in-cell simulations, we investigate how the background thermal plasma neutralizes such currents in the upstream of quasi-parallel non-relativistic electron–proton shocks. We observe distinct processes in different regions: the far upstream, the shock precursor, and the shock foot. In the far upstream, the current is carried by nonthermal protons, which drive electrostatic modes and produce suprathermal electrons that move toward upstream infinity. Closer to the shock (in the precursor), both the current density and the momentum flux of the beam increase, which leads to electromagnetic streaming instabilities that contribute to the thermalization of suprathermal electrons. At the shock foot, these electrons are exposed to shock-reflected protons, resulting in a two-stream type instability. We analyze these processes and the resulting heating through particle tracking and controlled simulations. In particular, we show that the instability at the shock foot can make the effective thermal speed of electrons comparable to the drift speed of the reflected protons. These findings are important for understanding both the magnetic field amplification and the processes that may lead to the injection of suprathermal electrons into diffusive shock acceleration.

Keywords: plasma astrophysics; high energy astrophysics; cosmic rays; magnetic fields; shocks; plasma physics
Abundance Analysis of Stars at Large Radius in the Sextans Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy

We present the stellar parameters and chemical abundances of 30 elements for five stars located at large radii (3.5-10.7 times the half-light radius) in the Sextans dwarf spheroidal galaxy. We selected these stars using proper motions, radial velocities, and metallicities, and we confirm them as metal-poor members of Sextans with -3.34 ≤ [Fe/H] ≤ -2.64 using high-resolution optical spectra collected with the Magellan Inamori Kyocera Echelle spectrograph. Four of the five stars exhibit normal abundances of C (-0.34 ≤ [C/Fe] ≤ + 0.36), mild enhancement of the α elements Mg, Si, Ca, and Ti ([α/Fe] = +0.12 ± 0.03), and unremarkable abundances of Na, Al, K, Sc, V, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, and Zn. We identify three chemical signatures previously unknown among stars in Sextans. One star exhibits large overabundances ([X/Fe] > +1.2) of C, N, O, Na, Mg, Si, and K, and large deficiencies of heavy elements ([Sr/Fe] = -2.37 ± 0.25, [Ba/Fe] = -1.45 ± 0.20, [Eu/Fe] < + 0.05), establishing it as a member of the class of carbon-enhanced metal-poor stars with no enhancement of neutron-capture elements. Three stars exhibit moderate enhancements of Eu (+0.17 ≤ [Eu/Fe] ≤ + 0.70), and the abundance ratios among 12 neutron-capture elements are indicative of r-process nucleosynthesis. Another star is highly enhanced in Sr relative to heavier elements ([Sr/Ba] = +1.21 ± 0.25). These chemical signatures can all be attributed to massive, low-metallicity stars or their end states. Our results, the first for stars at large radius in Sextans, demonstrate that these stars were formed in chemically inhomogeneous regions, such as those found in ultra-faint dwarf galaxies. *This paper includes data gathered at the 6.5 m Magellan Telescopes located at Las Campanas Observatory, Chile. Other observations reported here were obtained at the MMT Observatory, a joint facility of the Smithsonian Institution and the University of Arizona. This paper is also based on archival observations collected at the European Southern Observatory under ESO program(s) 0102.B-0786(C).

Keywords: dwarf spheroidal galaxies; nucleosynthesis; stellar abundances