The impact of UV variability on the abundance of bright galaxies at $z \geq 9$ [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.05679


JWST observations have revealed a population of galaxies bright enough that potentially challenge standard galaxy formation models in the $\Lambda$CDM cosmology. Using a minimal empirical framework, we investigate the influence of variability on the rest-frame ultra-violet (UV) luminosity function (UVLF) of galaxies at $z\geq 9$. Our study differentiates between the $\textit{median UV radiation yield}$ and the $\textit{variability of UV luminosities}$ of galaxies at a fixed dark matter halo mass. We primarily focus on the latter effect, which depends on halo assembly and galaxy formation processes and can significantly increase the abundance of UV-bright galaxies due to the upscatter of galaxies in lower-mass haloes. We find that a relatively low level of variability, $\sigma_{\rm UV} \approx 0.75$ mag, matches the observational constraints at $z\approx 9$. However, increasingly larger $\sigma_{\rm UV}$ is necessary when moving to higher redshifts, reaching $\sigma_{\rm UV} \approx 2.0\,(2.5)\,{\rm mag}$ at $z\approx 12$ ($16$). This implied variability is consistent with expectations of physical processes in high-redshift galaxies such as bursty star formation and cycles of dust clearance. Photometric constraints from JWST at $z\gtrsim 9$ therefore can be reconciled with a standard $\Lambda$CDM-based galaxy formation model calibrated at lower redshifts without the need for adjustments to the median UV radiation yield.

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X. Shen, M. Vogelsberger, M. Boylan-Kolchin, et. al.
Thu, 11 May 23
6/55

Comments: 6 pages, 3 figures. To be submitted. Comments are welcome

A 3D physico-chemical model of a pre-stellar core. I. Environmental and structural impact on the distribution of CH$_3$OH and $c$-C$_3$H$_2$ [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.05932


Pre-stellar cores represent the earliest stage of the star- and planet-formation process. By characterizing the physical and chemical structure of these cores we can establish the initial conditions for star and planet formation and determine to what degree the chemical composition of pre-stellar cores is inherited to the later stages. A 3D MHD model of a pre-stellar core embedded in a dynamic star-forming cloud is post-processed using sequentially continuum radiative transfer, a gas-grain chemical model, and a line-radiative transfer model. Results are analyzed and compared to observations of CH$_3$OH and $c$-C$_3$H$_2$ in L1544. Nine different chemical models are compared to the observations to determine which initial conditions are compatible with the observed chemical segregation in the prototypical pre-stellar core L1544. The model is able to reproduce several aspects of the observed chemical differentiation in L1544. Extended methanol emission is shifted towards colder and more shielded regions of the core envelope while $c$-C$_3$H$_2$ emission overlaps with the dust continuum, consistent with the observed chemical structure. Increasing the strength of the interstellar radiation field or the cosmic-ray ionization rate with respect to the typical values assumed in nearby star-forming regions leads to synthetic maps that are inconsistent with the observed chemical structure. Our model shows that the observed chemical dichotomy in L1544 can arise as a result of uneven illumination due to the asymmetrical structure of the 3D core and the environment within which the core has formed. This highlights the importance of the 3D structure at the core-cloud transition on the chemistry of pre-stellar cores.

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S. Jensen, S. Spezzano, P. Caselli, et. al.
Thu, 11 May 23
11/55

Comments: Accepted for publication in A&A

NGC 1436: the making of a lenticular galaxy in the Fornax cluster [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.05709


We study the evolutionary path of the Fornax cluster galaxy NGC$~$1436, which is known to be currently transitioning from a spiral into a lenticular morphology. This galaxy hosts an inner star-forming disc and an outer quiescent disc, and we analyse data from the MeerKAT Fornax Survey, ALMA, and the Fornax3D survey to study the interstellar medium and the stellar populations of both disc components. Thanks to the combination of high resolution and sensitivity of the MeerKAT data, we find that the $\textrm{H}\scriptstyle\mathrm{I}$ is entirely confined within the inner star-forming disc, and that its kinematics is coincident with that of the CO. The cold gas disc is now well settled, which suggests that the galaxy has not been affected by any environmental interactions in the last $\sim1~$Gyr. The star formation history derived from the Fornax3D data shows that both the inner and outer disc experienced a burst of star formation $\sim5$ Gyr ago, followed by rapid quenching in the outer disc and by slow quenching in the inner disc, which continues forming stars to this day. We claim that NGC$~$1436 has begun to effectively interact with the cluster environment 5$~$Gyr ago, when a combination of gravitational and hydrodynamical interactions caused the temporary enhancement of the star-formation rate. Furthermore, due to the weaker gravitational binding $\textrm{H}\scriptstyle\mathrm{I}$ was stripped from the outer disc, causing its rapid quenching. At the same time, accretion of gas onto the inner disc stopped, causing slow quenching in this region.

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A. Loni, P. Serra, M. Sarzi, et. al.
Thu, 11 May 23
13/55

Comments: N/A

Obscured AGN enhancement in galaxy pairs at cosmic noon: evidence from a probabilistic treatment of photometric redshifts [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.05692


Observations of the nearby universe reveal an increasing fraction of active galactic nuclei (AGN) with decreasing projected separation for close galaxy pairs, relative to control galaxies. This implies galaxy interactions play a role in enhancing AGN activity. However, the picture at higher redshift is less established, partly due to limited spectroscopic redshifts. We combine spectroscopic surveys with photometric redshift probability distribution functions for galaxies in the CANDELS and COSMOS surveys, to produce the largest ever sample of galaxy pairs used in an AGN fraction calculation for cosmic noon ($0.5<z<3$). We present a new technique for assessing galaxy pair probability (based on line-of-sight velocities +/-1000 km/s) from photometric redshift posterior convolutions and use these to produce weighted AGN fractions. Over projected separations 5-100kpc we find no evidence for enhancement, relative to isolated control galaxies, of X-ray (L_X > 10^42 erg/s) or infrared-selected AGN in major (mass ratios up to 4:1) or minor (4:1 to 10:1) galaxy pairs. However, defining the most obscured AGN as those detected in the infrared but not in X-rays, we observe a trend of increasing obscured AGN enhancement at decreasing separations. The peak enhancement, relative to isolated controls, is a factor of 2.08+/-0.61 for separations <25kpc. Our simulations with mock data, indicates this could be a lower limit of the true enhancement. If confirmed with improved infrared imaging (e.g., with JWST) and redshifts (e.g., with forthcoming multi-object spectrograph surveys), this would suggest that galaxy interactions play a role in enhancing the most obscured black hole growth at cosmic noon.

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S. Dougherty, C. Harrison, D. Kocevski, et. al.
Thu, 11 May 23
17/55

Comments: Accepted for publication in MNRAS

Characterizing cool, neutral gas and ionized metals in the outskirts of low-z galaxy clusters [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.05698


We present the first statistical detection of cool, neutral gas in the outskirts of low-z galaxy clusters using a sample of 3191 z $\approx$0.2 background quasar – foreground cluster pairs with a median cluster mass of $\sim 10^{14.2}$ M_sun by cross-matching the Hubble Spectroscopic Legacy Archive quasar catalog with optically- and SZ-selected cluster catalogs. We detect significant Lya, marginal CIV, but no OVI absorption in the median stacked spectra with rest-frame equivalent widths (REWs) of 0.043$\pm$0.006A, 0.020$\pm$0.007A, and <0.006A (3$\sigma$) for our sample with a median impact parameter ($\rho_{cl}$) of $\approx$5 Mpc (median $\rho_{cl}$/$R_{500}$ $\approx$7 ). The Lya REW shows a declining trend with increasing $\rho_{cl}$ ($\rho_{cl}$ / $R_{500}$) which is well explained by a power-law with a slope of -0.74 (-0.60). The covering fractions measured for Lya, CIV and OVI in cluster outskirts are significantly lower compared to the circumgalatic medium (CGM). We find that the CGM of galaxies residing in cluster outskirts is considerably deficient in neutral gas compared to their field counterparts. This effect is more pronounced for galaxies that are closer to cluster centers or that are in massive clusters. We argue that the cool gas detected in cluster outskirts arises from the circumgalactic gas stripped from cluster galaxies and to large-scale filaments feeding the clusters with cool gas.

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S. Mishra, S. Muzahid, S. Dutta, et. al.
Thu, 11 May 23
22/55

Comments: 17 pages, 4 tables, 9 figures. Submitted to MNRAS

A Bayesian chemical evolution model of the DustPedia Galaxy M74 [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.05680


We introduce a new, multi-zone chemical evolution model of the DustPedia galaxy M74, calibrated by means of MCMC methods.
We take into account the observed stellar and gas density profiles and use Bayesian analysis to constrain two fundamental parameters characterising the gas accretion and star formation timescale, i.e. the infall timescale tau and the SF efficiency nu, respectively, as a function of galactocentric radius R. Our analysis supports an infall timescale increasing with R and a star formation efficiency decreasing with R, thus supporting an ‘Inside-Out’ formation for M74. For both tau and nu, we find a weaker radial dependence than in the Milky Way.
We also investigate the dust content of M74, comparing the observed dust density profile with the results of our chemical evolution models. Various prescriptions have been considered for two key parameters, i.e. the typical dust accretion timescale and the mass of gas cleared out of the dust by a supernova remnant, regulating the dust growth and destruction rate, respectively. Two models with a different current balance between destruction and accretion, i.e. with equilibrium and dominion of accretion over destruction, can equally reproduce the observed dust profile of M74. This outlines the degeneracy between these parameters in shaping the interstellar dust content in galaxies. Our methods will be extended to more DustPedia galaxies to shed more light on the relative roles of dust production and destruction.

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F. Calura, M. Palla, L. Morselli, et. al.
Thu, 11 May 23
27/55

Comments: MNRAS, accepted for publication, 19 pages, 14 figures

Case A or Case B? The effective recombination coefficient in gas clouds of arbitrary optical thickness [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.05764


In calculations of the ionization state, one is often forced to choose between the Case A recombination coefficient $\alpha_{\rm A}$ (sum over recombinations to all hydrogen states) or the Case B recombination coefficient $\alpha_{\rm B}$ (sum over all hydrogen states except the ground state). If the cloud is optically thick to ionizing photons, $\alpha_{\rm B}$ is usually adopted on the basis of the “on-the-spot” approximation, wherein recombinations to the ground state are ignored because they produce ionizing photons absorbed nearby. In the opposite case of an optically thin cloud, one would expect the Case A recombination coefficient to better describe the effective recombination rate in the cloud. In this paper, I derive an analytical expression for the effective recombination coefficient in a gas cloud of arbitrary optical thickness which transitions from $\alpha_{\rm A}$ to $\alpha_{\rm B}$ as the optical thickness increases. The results can be readily implemented in numerical simulations and semi-analytical calculations.

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O. Nebrin
Thu, 11 May 23
31/55

Comments: 4 pages, 1 figure. Accepted for publication in RNAAS

Physics and Chemistry of Radiation Driven Cloud Evolution. [C II] Kinematics of IC 59 and IC 63 [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.05719


We used high-resolution [C II] 158 $\mu$m mapping of two nebulae IC 59 and IC 63 from SOFIA/upGREAT in conjunction with ancillary data on the gas, dust, and polarization to probe the kinematics, structure, and magnetic properties of their photo-dissociation regions (PDRs). The nebulae are part of the Sh 2-185 H II region illuminated by the B0 IVe star $\gamma$ Cas. The velocity structure of each PDR changes with distance from $\gamma$ Cas, consistent with driving by the radiation. Based on previous FUV flux measurements of, and the known distance to $\gamma$ Cas along with the predictions of 3D distances to the clouds, we estimated the FUV radiation field strength (G0) at the clouds. Assuming negligible extinction between the star and clouds, we find their 3D distances from $\gamma$ Cas. For IC 63, our results are consistent with earlier estimates of distance from Andersson et al. (2013), locating the cloud at 2 pc from $\gamma$ Cas, at an angle of 58 to the plane of the sky, behind the star. For IC 59, we derive a distance of 4.5 pc at an angle of 70 in front of the star. We do not detect any significant correlation between the orientation of the magnetic field (Soam et al. 2017) and the velocity gradients of [C II] gas, indicating a moderate magnetic field strength. The kinetic energy in IC 63 is estimated to be order of ten higher than the magnetic energies. This suggests that kinetic pressure in this nebula is dominant.

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M. Caputo, A. Soam, B. Andersson, et. al.
Thu, 11 May 23
51/55

Comments: N/A

The LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey Deep Fields Data Release 1: V. Survey description, source classifications and host galaxy properties [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.05782


Source classifications, stellar masses and star formation rates are presented for 80,000 radio sources from the first data release of the Low Frequency Array Two-metre Sky Survey (LoTSS) Deep Fields, which represents the widest deep radio survey ever undertaken. Using deep multi-wavelength data spanning from the ultraviolet to the far-infrared, spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting is carried out for all of the LoTSS-Deep host galaxies using four different SED codes, two of which include modelling of the contributions from an active galactic nucleus (AGN). Comparing the results of the four codes, galaxies that host a radiative AGN are identified, and an optimised consensus estimate of the stellar mass and star-formation rate for each galaxy is derived. Those galaxies with an excess of radio emission over that expected from star formation are then identified, and the LoTSS-Deep sources are divided into four classes: star-forming galaxies, radio-quiet AGN, and radio-loud high-excitation and low-excitation AGN. Ninety-five per cent of the sources can be reliably classified, of which more than two-thirds are star-forming galaxies, ranging from normal galaxies in the nearby Universe to highly-starbursting systems at z>4. Star-forming galaxies become the dominant population below 150-MHz flux densities of about 1 mJy, accounting for 90 per cent of sources at a 150-MHz flux density of 100 microJy. Radio-quiet AGN comprise around 10 per cent of the overall population. Results are compared against the predictions of the SKADS and T-RECS radio sky simulations, and improvements to the simulations are suggested.

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P. Best, R. Kondapally, W. Williams, et. al.
Thu, 11 May 23
54/55

Comments: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. Catalogues available at www.lofar-surveys.org/deepfields.html. 27 pages

Metal-poor stars observed with the Magellan Telescope. IV. Neutron-capture element signatures in 27 main-sequence stars [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.05363


Based on high-resolution spectra obtained with Magellan/MIKE, we present a chemo-dynamical analysis for 27 near main-sequence turnoff metal-poor stars, including 20 stars analyzed for the first time. The sample spans a range in [Fe/H] from -2.5 to -3.6, with 44% having [Fe/H] <-2.9. We derived chemical abundances for 17 elements, including strontium and barium. We derive Li abundances for the sample, which are in good agreement with the “Spite Plateau” value. A dozen of stars are carbon-enhanced. The lighter elements (Z<30) generally agree well with those of other low-metallicity halo stars. This broadly indicates chemically homogeneous gas at the earliest times. Of the neutron-capture elements, we only detected strontium and barium. We used the [Sr/Ba] vs. [Ba/Fe] diagram to classify metal-poor stars into five populations based on their observed ratios. We find HE0232-3755 to be a likely main r-process star, and HE2214-6127 and HE2332-3039 to be limited-r stars. CS30302-145, HE2045-5057, and CD-24 17504 plausibly originated in long-disrupted early dwarf galaxies as evidenced by their [Sr/Ba] and [Ba/Fe] ratios. We also find that the derived [Sr/H] and [Ba/H] values for CD-24 17504 are not inconsistent with the predicted yields of the s-process in massive rotating low-metallicity stars models. Further theoretical explorations will be helpful to better understand the earliest mechanisms and time scales of heavy element production for comparison with these and other observational abundance data. Finally, we investigate the orbital histories of our sample stars. Most display halo-like kinematics although three stars (CS29504-018, HE0223-2814, and HE2133-0421) appear to be disk-like in nature. This confirms the extragalactic origin for CS30302-145, HE2045-5057, and, in particular, CD-24 17504 which likely originated from a small accreted stellar system as one of the oldest stars.

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M. Mardini, A. Frebel, L. Betre, et. al.
Wed, 10 May 23
4/65

Comments: N/A

A high-redshift calibration of the [OI]-to-HI conversion factor in star-forming galaxies [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.05213


The assembly and build-up of neutral atomic hydrogen (HI) in galaxies is one of the most fundamental processes in galaxy formation and evolution. Studying this process directly in the early universe is hindered by the weakness of the hyperfine 21-cm HI line transition, impeding direct detections and measurements of the HI gas masses ($M_{\rm HI}$). Here we present a new method to infer $M_{\rm HI}$ of high-redshift galaxies using neutral, atomic oxygen as a proxy. Specifically, we derive metallicity-dependent conversion factors relating the far-infrared [OI]-$63\mu$m and [OI]-$145\mu$m emission line luminosities and $M_{\rm HI}$ in star-forming galaxies at $z\approx 2-6$ using gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) as probes. We substantiate these results by observations of galaxies at $z\approx 0$ with direct measurements of $M_{\rm HI}$ and [OI]-$63\mu$m and [OI]-$145\mu$m in addition to hydrodynamical simulations at similar epochs. We find that the [OI]${\rm 63\mu m}$-to-HI and [OI]${\rm 145\mu m}$-to-HI conversion factors universally appears to be anti-correlated with the gas-phase metallicity. The high-redshift GRB measurements further predict a mean ratio of $L_{\rm [OI]-63\mu m} / L_{\rm [OI]-145\mu m}=1.55\pm 0.12$ and reveal generally less excited [CII]. The $z \approx 0$ galaxy sample also shows systematically higher $\beta_{\rm [OI]-63\mu m}$ and $\beta_{\rm [OI]-145\mu m}$ conversion factors than the GRB sample, indicating either suppressed [OI] emission in local galaxies or more extended, diffuse HI gas reservoirs traced by the HI 21-cm. Finally, we apply these empirical calibrations to the few high-redshift detections of [OI]-$63\mu$m and [OI]-$145\mu$m line transitions from the literature and further discuss the applicability of these conversion factors to probe the HI gas content in the dense, star-forming ISM of galaxies at $z\gtrsim 6$, well into the epoch of reionization.

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S. Wilson, K. Heintz, P. Jakobsson, et. al.
Wed, 10 May 23
16/65

Comments: Submitted to A&A. Comments welcome

The Dragonfly Galaxy. III. Jet-brightening of a High-redshift Radio Source Caught in a Violent Merger of Disk Galaxies [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.05564


The Dragonfly Galaxy (MRC 0152-209), the most infrared-luminous radio galaxy at redshift z~2, is a merger system containing a powerful radio source and large displacements of gas. We present kpc-resolution data from ALMA and the VLA of carbon monoxide (6-5), dust, and synchrotron continuum, combined with Keck integral-field spectroscopy. We find that the Dragonfly consists of two galaxies with rotating disks that are in the early phase of merging. The radio jet originates from the northern galaxy and brightens when it hits the disk of the southern galaxy. The Dragonfly Galaxy therefore likely appears as a powerful radio galaxy because its flux is boosted into the regime of high-z radio galaxies by the jet-disk interaction. We also find a molecular outflow of (1100 $\pm$ 550) M${\odot}$/yr associated with the radio host galaxy, but not with the radio hot-spot or southern galaxy, which is the galaxy that hosts the bulk of the star formation. Gravitational effects of the merger drive a slower and longer lived mass displacement at a rate of (170 $\pm$ 40) M${\odot}$/yr, but this tidal debris contain at least as much molecular gas mass as the much faster outflow, namely M(H2) = (3 $\pm$ 1) x 10$^9$ (alpha(CO)/0.8) M$_{\odot}$. This suggests that both the AGN-driven outflow and mass transfer due to tidal effects are important in the evolution of the Dragonfly system. The Keck data show Ly$\alpha$ emission spread across 100 kpc, and CIV and HeII emission across 35 kpc, confirming the presence of a metal-rich and extended circumgalactic medium previously detected in CO(1-0).

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S. Lebowitz, B. Emonts, D. Terndrup, et. al.
Wed, 10 May 23
17/65

Comments: Accepted for publication in ApJ (15 pages, 9 figures)

ALMA High-Level Data Products: Submillimetre counterparts of SDSS quasars in the ALMA footprint [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.05173


The Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (ALMA) is the world’s most advanced radio interferometric facility, producing science data with an average rate of about 1 TB per day. After a process of calibration, imaging and quality assurance, the scientific data are stored in the ALMA Science Archive (ASA), along with the corresponding raw data, making the ASA an invaluable resource for original astronomical research. Due to their complexity, each ALMA data set has the potential for scientific results that go well beyond the ideas behind the original proposal that led to each observation. For this reason, the European ALMA Regional Centre initiated the High-Level Data Products initiative to develop science-oriented data products derived from data sets publicly available in the ASA, that go beyond the formal ALMA deliverables. The first instance of this initiative is the creation of a catalogue of submillimetre (submm) detections of Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) quasars from the SDSS Data Release 14 that lie in the aggregate ALMA footprint observed since ALMA Cycle 0. The ALMA fluxes are extracted in an automatic fashion, using the ALMA Data Mining Toolkit. All extractions above a signal-to-noise cut of 3.5 are considered, they have been visually inspected and the reliable detections are presented in a catalogue of 376 entries, corresponding to 275 unique quasars. Interesting targets found in the process, i.e. lensed or jetted quasars as well as quasars with nearby submm counterparts are highlighted, to facilitate further studies or potential follow up observations.

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A. Wong, E. Hatziminaoglou, A. Borkar, et. al.
Wed, 10 May 23
20/65

Comments: N/A

Exploring the nature of UV-bright $z \gtrsim 10$ galaxies detected by JWST: star formation, black hole accretion, or a non universal IMF? [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.04944


We use the Cosmic Archaeology Tool (CAT) semi-analytical model to explore the contribution of Population (Pop) III/II stars and active galactic nuclei (AGNs) to the galaxy UV luminosity function (LF) evolution at $4 \leq z \leq 20$. We compare in particular with recent JWST data in order to explore the apparent tension between observations and theoretical models in the number density of bright galaxies at $z \gtrsim 10$. The model predicts a star formation history dominated by UV faint ($M_{\rm UV} > – 18$) galaxies, with a Pop III contribution of $\lesssim 10\%$ ($\lesssim 0.5\%$) at $z \simeq 20$ ($z \simeq 10$). Stars are the primary sources of cosmic reionization, with $5 – 10 \%$ of ionizing photons escaping into the intergalatic medium at $5 \leq z \leq 10$, while the contribution of unobscured AGNs becomes dominant only at $z \lesssim 5$. The predicted stellar and AGN UV LFs reproduce the observational data at $5 \lesssim z \lesssim 9 – 10$. At higher redshift, CAT predicts a steeper evolution in the faint-end slope ($M_{\rm UV} > – 18$), and a number density of bright galaxies ($M_{\rm UV} \simeq -20$) consistent with data at $z \sim 10 – 11$, but smaller by 0.8 dex at $z \sim 12 – 13$, and 1.2 dex at $z \sim 14 – 16$, when compared to the values estimated by recent studies. Including the AGN emission does not affect the above findings, as AGNs contribute at most to $\lesssim 10 \%$ of the total UV luminosity at $M_{\rm UV} < – 19$ and $z \gtrsim 10$. Interestingly, considering a gradual transition in the stellar IMF, modulated by metallicity and redshift as suggested by recent simulations, the model agrees with JWST data at $z \sim 12 – 13$, and the disagreement at $z \sim 14 – 16$ is reduced to 0.5 dex.

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A. Trinca, R. Schneider, R. Valiante, et. al.
Wed, 10 May 23
24/65

Comments: 18 pages, 9 figures. Submitted to MNRAS. Comments are welcome

CLEAR: The Morphological Evolution of Galaxies in the Green Valley [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.04953


Quiescent galaxies having more compact morphologies than star-forming galaxies has been a consistent result in the field of galaxy evolution. What is not clear is at what point this divergence happens, i.e. when do quiescent galaxies become compact, and how big of a role does the progenitor effect play in this result? Here we aim to model the morphological and star-formation histories of high redshift (0.8 $<$ z $<$ 1.65) massive galaxies (log(M/M$\odot$) $>$ 10.2) with stellar population fits using HST/WFC3 G102 and G141 grism spectra plus photometry from the CLEAR (CANDELS Lyman-alpha Emission at Reionization) survey, constraining the star-formation histories for a sample of $\sim$ 400 massive galaxies using flexible star-formation histories. We develop a novel approach to classifying galaxies by their formation activity in a way that highlights the green valley population, by modeling the specific star-formation rate distributions as a function of redshift and deriving the probability that a galaxy is quiescent (PQ). Using PQ and our flexible star-formation histories we outline the evolutionary paths of our galaxies in relation to stellar mass, Sersic index, $R_{eff}$, and stellar mass surface density. We find that galaxies show no appreciable stellar mass growth after entering the green valley (a net decrease of 4$\%$) while their stellar mass surface densities increase by $\sim$ 0.25 dex. Therefore galaxies are becoming compact during the green valley and this is due to increases in Sersic index and decreases in $R_{eff}$.

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V. Estrada-Carpenter, C. Papovich, I. Momcheva, et. al.
Wed, 10 May 23
26/65

Comments: 17 pages, 10 figures, submitted to ApJ

Implementation of chemistry in the Athena++ code [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.04965


Chemistry plays a key role in many aspects of astrophysical fluids. Atoms and molecules are agents for heating and cooling, determine the ionization fraction, serve as observational tracers, and build the molecular foundation of life. We present the implementation of a chemistry module in the publicly available magneto-hydrodynamic code Athena++. We implement several chemical networks and heating and cooling processes suitable for simulating the interstellar medium (ISM). A general chemical network framework in the KIDA format is also included, allowing the user to easily implement their own chemistry. Radiation transfer and cosmic-ray ionization are coupled with chemistry and solved with the simple six-ray approximation. The chemical and thermal processes are evolved as a system of coupled ODEs with an implicit solver from the CVODE library. We perform and present a series of tests to ensure the numerical accuracy and convergence of the code. Many tests combine chemistry with gas dynamics, including comparisons with analytic solutions, 1D problems of the photo-dissociation regions and shocks, and realistic 3D simulations of the turbulent ISM. We release the code with the new public version of Athena++, aiming to provide a robust and flexible code for the astrochemical simulation community.

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M. Gong, K. Ho, J. Stone, et. al.
Wed, 10 May 23
27/65

Comments: N/A

HSC-CLAUDS survey: The star formation rate functions since z ~ 2 and comparison with hydrodynamical simulations [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.05504


Star formation rate functions (SFRFs) give an instantaneous view of the distribution of star formation rates (SFRs) in galaxies at different epochs. They are a complementary and more stringent test for models than the galaxy stellar mass function, which gives an integrated view of the past star formation activity. However, the exploration of SFRFs has been limited thus far due to difficulties in assessing the SFR from observed quantities and probing the SFRF over a wide range of SFRs. We overcome these limitations thanks to an original method that predicts the infrared luminosity from the rest-frame UV/optical color of a galaxy and then its SFR over a wide range of stellar masses and redshifts. We applied this technique to the deep imaging survey HSC-CLAUDS combined with near-infrared and UV photometry. We provide the first SFR functions with reliable measurements in the high- and low-SFR regimes up to $z=2$ and compare our results with previous observations and four state-of-the-art hydrodynamical simulations.

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V. Picouet, S. Arnouts, E. Floch, et. al.
Wed, 10 May 23
29/65

Comments: 29 pages, 19 figures

Constraining The Milky Way Bar Length using Hercules and Gaia DR3 [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.04981


The distribution of moving groups in the solar neighborhood has been used to constrain dynamical properties of the Milky Way for decades. Unfortunately, the unique bimodality between the main mode (Hyades, Pleiades, Coma Berenices, and Sirius) and Hercules can be explained by two different bar models — via the outer Lindblad resonance of a short, fast bar, or via the corotation resonance of a long, slow bar. In this work, we break this degeneracy by using Gaia DR3 to explore the variation of Hercules across Galactic azimuth. We find that Hercules increases in $V_\phi$ and becomes stronger as we move towards the minor axis of the bar, and decreases in $V_\phi$ and becomes weaker as we move towards the major axis of the bar. This is in direct agreement with theoretical predictions of a long, slow bar model in which Hercules is formed by the corotation resonance with stars orbiting the bar’s L4/L5 Lagrange points.

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S. Lucchini, E. D’Onghia and J. Aguerri
Wed, 10 May 23
37/65

Comments: 5 pages, 4 figures, submitted

Stellar Collisions in Galactic Nuclei: Impact on Destructive Events Near a Supermassive Black Hole [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.04997


Centers of galaxies host both a supermassive black hole and a dense stellar cluster. Such an environment should lead to stellar collisions, possibly at very high velocities so that the total energy involved is of the same order as supernovae explosions. We present a simplified numerical analysis of the destructive stellar collision rate in a cluster similar to that of the Milky Way. The analysis includes an effective average two-body relaxation Monte-Carlo scheme and general relativistic effects, as used by Sari and Fragione (2019), to which we added explicit tracking of local probabilities for stellar collisions. We also consider stars which are injected into the stellar cluster after being disrupted from a binary system by the supermassive black hole. Such stars are captured in the vicinity of the black hole and enhance the expected collision rate. In our results we examine the rate and energetic distribution function of high velocity stellar collisions, and compare them self-consistently with the other destructive processes which occur in the galactic center, namely tidal disruptions and extreme mass ratio inspirals.

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S. Balberg and G. Yassur
Wed, 10 May 23
38/65

Comments: 18 pages, 10 figures; submitted to ApJ

Identification of interstellar cyanamide towards the hot molecular core G358.93-0.03 MM1 [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.05578


The amide-related molecules are essential for the formation of the other complex bio-molecules and an understanding of the prebiotic chemistry in the interstellar medium (ISM). We presented the first detection of the rotational emission lines of the amide-like molecule cyanamide (NH${2}$CN) towards the hot molecular core G358.93$-$0.03 MM1 using the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA). Using the rotational diagram model, the derived column density of NH${2}$CN towards the G358.93$-$0.03 MM1 was (5.9$\pm$2.5)$\times$10$^{14}$ cm$^{-2}$ with a rotational temperature of 100.6$\pm$30.4 K. The derived fractional abundance of NH${2}$CN towards the G358.93$-$0.03 MM1 with respect to H${2}$ was (4.72$\pm$2.0)$\times$10$^{-10}$, which is very similar to the existent three-phase warm-up chemical model abundances of NH${2}$CN. We compare the estimated abundance of NH${2}$CN towards G358.93$-$0.03 MM1 with other sources, and we observe the abundance of NH${2}$CN towards G358.93$-$0.03 MM1 is nearly similar to that of the sculptor galaxy NGC 253 and the low-mass protostars IRAS 16293-2422 B and NGC 1333 IRAS4A2. We also discussed the possible formation mechanisms of NH${2}$CN towards the hot molecular cores and hot corinos, and we find that the NH${2}$CN molecule was created in the grain-surfaces of G358.93-0.03 MM1 via the neutral-neutral reaction between NH${2}$ and CN.

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A. Mannna and S. Pal
Wed, 10 May 23
40/65

Comments: Published in Astrophysics and Space Science

Globular clusters in the central region of the Milky Way galaxy I. Bar influence on the orbit parameters according to Gaia EDR3 [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.05012


The work is devoted to the analysis of the influence of the galactic bar on the orbital motion of globular clusters in the central region of the Galaxy. For this task, 45 globular clusters were selected, 34 of which belong to the bulge/bar and 11 to the disk. The most accurate astrometric data from the Gaia satellite (Vasiliev and Baumgardt, 2021), as well as new refined average distances (Baumgardt and Vasiliev, 2021), were used to form the 6D-phase space required for orbit integration. The orbits of globular clusters are obtained both in an axisymmetric potential and in a potential including a bar. In this case, the mass, rotation velocity, shape and scale length of the bar were varied. A comparison is made of such orbital parameters as apocentric and pericentric distances, eccentricity and maximum distance from the galactic plane. It is shown that the mass of the bar exerts the greatest influence on the orbital motion, which is expressed mainly in an increase in both the apocentric and pericentric distances in the vast majority of globular clusters. The eccentricities of the orbits in the overwhelming majority also change significantly, and there is a change both upward and downward, especially in the range of values from 0.2 to 0.8. The greatest changes in parameters are observed in globular clusters with high radial velocities and small pericentric distances. The change in orbital parameters depending on the bar rotation velocity is less pronounced. The influence of the geometric parameters of the bar is insignificant in the accepted range of their changes. Several examples show that globular clusters in the bulge are more affected by the bar than those belonging to the disk.

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A. Bajkova, A. Smirnov and V. Bobylev
Wed, 10 May 23
42/65

Comments: 29 pages, 10 figures, 6 tables

The HI gas fraction scaling relation of the Green Pea galaxies [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.05167


Green Pea galaxies are compact galaxies with high star formation rates. However, limited samples of Green Pea galaxies have HI 21 cm measurements. Whether the HI gas fraction f_{HI} = M_{HI}/M_{} of Green Pea galaxies follows the existing scaling relations between the f_{HI} and NUV-r color or linear combinations of color and other physical quantities needs checking. Using archival data of HI 21cm observations, we investigate the scaling relation of the NUV-r color with the M_{HI}/M_{} of 38 Green Pea galaxies, including 17 detections and 21 non-detections. The HI to stellar mass ratios (f_{HI}) of Green Pea galaxies deviate from the polynomial form, where a higher HI gas fraction is predicted given the current NUV-r color, even with the emission lines removed. The blue sources (NUV-r<1) from the comparison sample (ALFALFA-SDSS) follow a similar trend. The HI gas fraction scaling relations with linear combination forms of -0.34(NUV-r) – 0.64 log(mu_{,z}) + 5.94 and -0.77 log mu_{,i} + 0.26 log SFR/M_{*}+8.53, better predict the HI gas fraction of the Green Pea galaxies. In order to obtain accurate linear combined forms, higher-resolution photometry from space-based telescopes is needed.

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S. Liu, A. Luo, W. Zhang, et. al.
Wed, 10 May 23
43/65

Comments: 15 pages, 7 figures, to be published in RAA

Low-Temperature Kinetics for the N + NO reaction: Experiment Guides the Way [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.05305


The reaction N(4S) + NO -> O(3P) + N2 plays a pivotal role in the conversion of atomic to molecular nitrogen in dense interstellar clouds and in the atmosphere. Here we report a joint experimental and computational investigation of the N + NO reaction with the aim of providing improved constraints on its low temperature reactivity. Thermal rates were measured over the 50 to 296 K range in a continuous supersonic flow reactor coupled with pulsed laser photolysis and laser induced fluorescence for the production and detection of N(4S) atoms, respectively. With decreasing temperature, the experimentally measured reaction rate was found to monotonously increase up to a value of (6.6 +- 1.3) x 10-11 cm3 s-1 at 50 K. To confirm this finding, quasi-classical trajectory simulations were carried out on a previously validated, full-dimensional potential energy surface (PES). However, around 50 K the computed rates decreased which required re-evaluation of the reactive PES in the long-range part due to a small spurious barrier with height 40 K in the entrance channel. By exploring different correction schemes the measured thermal rates can be adequately reproduced, displaying a clear negative temperature dependence over the entire temperature range. The possible astrochemical implications of an increased reaction rate at low temperature are also discussed.

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K. Hickson, J. Veliz, D. Koner, et. al.
Wed, 10 May 23
45/65

Comments: 28 pages, 6 figures and 2 tables in the main article. 3 figures and 1 table in the supplementary information. Accepted for publication in PCCP

First observations of warm and cold methanol in Class 0/I proto-brown dwarfs [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.04991


We present results from the first molecular line survey to search for the fundamental complex organic molecule, methanol (CH${3}$OH), in 14 Class 0/I proto-brown dwarfs (proto-BDs). IRAM 30-m observations over the frequency range of 92-116 GHz and 213-280 GHz have revealed emission in 14 CH${3}$OH transition lines, at upper state energy level, E${upper}\sim$7-49 K, and critical densities, $n{crit}$ of 10$^{5}$ to 10$^{9}$ cm$^{-3}$. The most commonly detected lines are at E${upper} <$ 20 K, while 11 proto-BDs also show emission in the higher excitation lines at E${upper}\sim$21-49 K and $n_{crit}\sim$10$^{5}$ to 10$^{8}$ cm$^{-3}$. In comparison with the brown dwarf formation models, the high excitation lines likely probe the warm ($\sim$25-50 K) corino region at $\sim$10-50 au in the proto-BDs, while the low-excitation lines trace the cold ($<$ 20 K) gas at $\sim$50-150 au. The column density for the cold component is an order of magnitude higher than the warm component. The CH${3}$OH ortho-to-para ratios range between $\sim$0.3-2.3. The volume-averaged CH${3}$OH column densities show a rise with decreasing bolometric luminosity among the proto-BDs, with the median column density higher by a factor of $\sim$3 compared to low-mass protostars. Emission in high-excitation (E${upper}>$ 25 K) CH${3}$OH lines together with the model predictions suggest that a warm corino is present in $\sim$78\% of the proto-BDs in our sample. The remaining show evidence of only the cold component, possibly due to the absence of a strong, high-velocity jet that can stir up the warm gas around it.

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B. Riaz, W. Thi and M. Machida
Wed, 10 May 23
48/65

Comments: Accepted in MNRAS

Measuring Dust Attenuation Curves of SINGS/KINGFISH Galaxies Using Swift/UVOT Photometry [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.05650


We present Swift/Ultraviolet Optical Telescope (UVOT) integrated light photometry of the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxies Survey (SINGS) and the Key Insights on Nearby Galaxies: A Far-Infrared Survey with Herschel (KINGFISH) samples of nearby galaxies. Combining the Swift/UVOT data with archival photometry, we investigate a variety of dust attenuation curves derived using MCSED, a flexible spectral energy distribution fitting code. We fit the panchromatic data using three different star formation history (SFH) parameterizations: a decaying exponential, a double power law, and a piecewise function with breaks at physically motivated ages. We find that the average attenuation law of the sample changes slightly based on the SFH assumed. Specifically, the exponential SFH leads to the shallowest attenuation curves. Using simulated data, we also find the exponential SFH fails to outperform the more complex SFHs. Finally, we find a systematic offset in the derived bump strength between SED fits with and without UVOT data, where the inclusion of UVOT data leads to smaller bump strengths, highlighting the importance of the UVOT data. This discrepancy is not seen in fits to mock photometry. Understanding dust attenuation in the local universe is key to understanding high redshift objects where rest-frame far-infrared data is unavailable.

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A. Belles, M. Decleir, W. Bowman, et. al.
Wed, 10 May 23
56/65

Comments: 30 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

More relaxed intracluster gas than galaxies in clusters in quasi-equilibrium [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.05250


During cluster mergers, the intracluster gas and member galaxies undergo dynamic evolution, but at different timescales and reach different states. We collect 24 galaxy clusters in quasi-equilibrium state as indicated by the X-ray image, and calculate the cluster orientations and three kinds of dynamical parameters, i.e., the normalized centroid offset, the sphere index and the ellipticity, for these clusters from the distributions of member galaxies and also the intracluster gas. We find consistent alignments for the orientations estimated from the two components. However, the three kinds of dynamical parameters indicated by member galaxies are systematically larger than those derived from the gas component, suggesting that the gas component is more relaxed than member galaxies. Differences of dynamical features between the intracluster gas and member galaxies are independent of cluster mass and concentration. We conclude that the intracluster gas reaches the dynamic equilibrium state earlier than the almost collisionless member galaxies.

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Z. Yuan, J. Han, H. Böhringer, et. al.
Wed, 10 May 23
59/65

Comments: 9 pages, 5 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in MNRAS

XQR-30: the ultimate XSHOOTER quasar sample at the reionization epoch [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.05053


The final phase of the reionization process can be probed by rest-frame UV absorption spectra of quasars at z>6, shedding light on the properties of the diffuse intergalactic medium within the first Gyr of the Universe. The ESO Large Programme “XQR-30: the ultimate XSHOOTER legacy survey of quasars at z~5.8-6.6” dedicated ~250 hours of observations at the VLT to create a homogeneous and high-quality sample of spectra of 30 luminous quasars at z~6, covering the rest wavelength range from the Lyman limit to beyond the MgII emission. Twelve quasar spectra of similar quality from the XSHOOTER archive were added to form the enlarged XQR-30 sample, corresponding to a total of ~350 hours of on-source exposure time. The median effective resolving power of the 42 spectra is R~11400 and 9800 in the VIS and NIR arm, respectively. The signal-to-noise ratio per 10 km/s pixel ranges from ~11 to 114 at $\lambda \simeq 1285$ \AA rest frame, with a median value of ~29. We describe the observations, data reduction and analysis of the spectra, together with some first results based on the E-XQR-30 sample. New photometry in the H and K bands are provided for the XQR-30 quasars, together with composite spectra whose characteristics reflect the large absolute magnitudes of the sample. The composite and the reduced spectra are released to the community through a public repository, and will enable a range of studies addressing outstanding questions regarding the first Gyr of the Universe.

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V. D’Odorico, E. Banados, G. Becker, et. al.
Wed, 10 May 23
60/65

Comments: 21 pages, 10 figures. Revised version resubmitted to MNRAS after minor referee report

An analysis of the isomers HCN and HNC in the evolution of high-mass star-forming regions [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.05073


The study of molecules and their chemistry in star-forming regions is fundamental to understand the physical process occurring in such regions. The HCN and HNC J=1-0 emissions were used to derive their integrated line intensities (I), to probe a relation recently appeared in the literature between the kinetic temperatures (T${K}$) and the isomeric (I) ratio, and to obtain the isomers abundances (X) in 55 high-mass star-forming regions. These last ones are classified, according to the evolutive stage, as infrared dark clouds, high-mass protostellar objects, hot molecular cores, and ultracompact HII regions. It is inferred that the T${K}$ obtained from the isomeric integrated intensity ratio (I$^{HCN/HNC}$) are underestimated, and hence we suggest that this relation cannot be employed as an universal thermometer in the interstellar medium. The isomers abundances show a behavior that can be explained from the chemistry occurring as the temperature and the UV radiation increase according to the evolutive stage. We found that the abundance ratio (X$^{HCN/HNC}$) hardly could be used as a chemical clock, and we suggest that it can be approximated by I$^{HCN/HNC}$. This work is part of an on-going study of multiple molecules that stand in the sample of analyzed regions which intends to contribute in the chemical knowledge of high-mass star formation.

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N. Martinez and S. Paron
Wed, 10 May 23
62/65

Comments: to appear in Bolet\’in de la Asociaci\’on Argentina de Astronom\’ia

Revisiting the Dragonfly Galaxy I. High-resolution ALMA and VLA Observations of the Radio Hotspots in a Hyper-luminous Infrared Galaxy at $z=1.92$ [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.03979


Radio-loud active galactic nuclei (RLAGNs) are rare among AGN populations. Lacking high-resolution and high-frequency observations, their structure and evolution stages are not well understood at high redshifts. In this work, we report ALMA 237 GHz continuum observation at $0.023”$ resolution and VLA 44 GHz continuum observation at $0.08”$ resolution of the radio continuum emission from a high-redshift radio and hyper-luminous infrared galaxy at $z=1.92$. The new observations confirm the South-East (SE) and North-West (NW) hotspots identified by previous low-resolution VLA observations at 4.7 and 8.2 GHz and identify a radio core undetected in all previous observations. The SE hotspot has a higher flux density than the NW one does by a factor of 6, suggesting that there can be a Doppler boosting effect in the SE one. In this scenario, we estimate the advance speed of the jet head, ranging from $\sim$0.1c — 0.3c, which yields a mildly relativistic case. The projected linear distance between the two hotspots is $\sim13$ kpc, yielding a linear size ($\leq20$ kpc) of a Compact-Steep-Spectrum (CSS) source. Combined with new \black{high-frequency ($\nu_\text{obs}\geq44$ GHz) and archived low-frequency observations ($\nu_\text{obs}\leq8.2$ GHz)}, we find that injection spectra of both NW and SE hotspots can be fitted with a continuous injection (CI) model. Based on the CI model, the synchrotron ages of NW and SE hotspots have an order of $10^5$ yr, consistent with the order of magnitude $10^3 – 10^5$ yr observed in CSS sources associated with radio AGNs at an early evolution stage. The CI model also favors the scenario in which the double hotspots have experienced a quiescent phase, suggesting that this RLAGN may have transient or intermittent activities.

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Y. Zhong, A. Inoue, Y. Sugahara, et. al.
Tue, 9 May 23
2/88

Comments: Accepted for publication in MNRAS

Diverse Chemo-Dynamical Properties of Nitrogen-Rich Stars Identified From Low-Resolution Spectra [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.04025


The second generation of stars in the GCs of the MW exhibit unusually high N, Na, or Al, compared to typical Galactic halo stars at similar metallicities. The halo field stars enhanced with such elements are believed to have originated in disrupted GCs or escaped from existing GCs. We identify such stars in the metallicity range -3.0 < [Fe/H] < 0.0 from a sample of ~ 36,800 giant stars observed in the SDSS and LAMOST survey, and present their dynamical properties. The N-rich population and N-normal population among our giant sample do not exhibit similarities in either in their metallicity distribution function or dynamical properties. We find that, even though the MDF of the NRP looks similar to that of the MW’s GCs in the range of [Fe/H] < -1.0, our analysis of the dynamical properties does not indicate similarities between them in the same metallicity range, implying that the escaped members from existing GCs may account for a small fraction of our N-rich stars, or the orbits of the present GCs have been altered by the dynamical friction of the MW. We also find a significant increase in the fraction of N-rich stars in the halo field in the very metal-poor (VMP; [Fe/H] < -2.0) regime, comprising up to ~ 20% of the fraction of the N-rich stars below [Fe/H] = -2.5, hinting that partially or fully destroyed VMP GCs may have in some degree contributed to the Galactic halo. A more detailed dynamical analysis of the NRP reveals that our sample of N-rich stars do not share a single common origin. Although a substantial fraction of the N-rich stars seem to originate from the GCs formed in situ, more than 60% of them are not associated with those of typical Galactic populations, but probably have extragalactic origins associated with GSE, Sequoia, and Sagittarius dwarf galaxies, as well as with presently unrecognized progenitors.

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C. Kim, Y. Lee, T. Beers, et. al.
Tue, 9 May 23
5/88

Comments: 16 pages, 6 figures, 1 table

Faint Galaxy Number Counts in the Durhamand SDSS Catalogues [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.04308


Galaxy number counts in the $K$-, $H$-, $I$-, $R$-, $B$- and $U$-bands from the Durham Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology catalogue could be well-fitted over their whole range using luminosity function (LF) parameters derived from the SDSS at the bright region and required only modest luminosity evolution with the steepening of the LF slope ($\alpha$), except for a sudden steep increase in the $B$-band and a less steep increase in the $U$-band at faint magnitudes that required a starburst evolutionary model to account for the excess faint number counts. A cosmological model treating Hubble expansion as an Einstein curvature required less correction at faint magnitudes than a standard $\Lambda$CDM model, without requiring dark matter or dark energy. Data from DR17 of the SDSS in the $g$, $i$, $r$, $u$ and $z$ bands over two areas of the sky centred on the North Galactic Cap (NGC) and above the South Galactic Cap (SGC), with areas of 5954 and 859 sq. deg., respectively, and a combined count of 622,121 galaxies, were used to construct bright galaxy number counts and galaxy redshift/density plots within the limits of redshift $\leq0.4$ and mag $\leq20$. Their comparative densities confirmed an extensive void in the Southern sky with a deficit of 26\% out to a redshift $z$$\leq$0.15. Although not included in the number count data set because of its incompleteness at fainter magnitudes, extending the SDSS redshift-number count survey to fainter and more distant galaxies with redshift $\leq1.20$ showed a secondary peak in the number counts with many QSOs, bright X-ray and radio sources, and evolving irregular galaxies with rapid star formation rates. This sub-population at redshifts of 0.45–0.65 may account for the excess counts observed in the $B$-band.

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J. Marr
Tue, 9 May 23
7/88

Comments: 19 pages, 10 figures

Vivisecting galaxies with BANG: an automated morpho-kinematical decomposition of the SDSS-DR17 MaNGA survey [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.03762


From a purely photometric perspective galaxies are generally decomposed into a bulge+disc system, with bulges being dispersion-dominated and discs rotationally-supported. However, recent observations have demonstrated that such framework oversimplifies complexity, especially if one considers galaxy kinematic.To address this issue we introduced with the GPU-based code \textsc{bang} a novel approach that employs analytical potential-density pairs as galactic components, allowing for a computationally fast, still reliable fit of the morphological and kinematical properties of galaxies. Here we apply \textsc{bang} to the SDSS-MaNGA survey, estimating key parameters such as mass, radial extensions, dynamics, for both bulges and discs of +10,000 objects. We test our methodology against a smaller subsample of galaxies independently analysed with an orbit-based algorithm, finding agreement in the recovered total stellar mass. We also manage to reproduce well-established scaling relations, demonstrating how a proper dynamical modelling can result in tighter correlations and provide corrections to standard approaches. Finally, we propose a more general way of decomposing galaxies into “hot” and “cold” components, showing a correlation with orbit-based approaches and visually determined morphological type. Unexpected tails in the “hot-to-total” mass-ratio distribution are present for galaxies of all morphologies, possibly due to visual morphology misclassifications.

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F. Rigamonti, M. Dotti, S. Covino, et. al.
Tue, 9 May 23
9/88

Comments: 13 pages, 10 figures

Exploring the environment, magnetic fields, and feedback effects of massive high-redshift galaxies with [CII] [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.03812


Massive galaxies are expected to grow through different transformative evolutionary phases where high-redshift starburst galaxies and quasars are examples of such phases. The physical mechanisms driving these phases include companion galaxy interactions, active galactic nuclei feedback, and magnetic fields. Our aim is to characterize the physical properties and the environment of the submillimeter galaxy AzTEC-3 at z = 5.3 and the lensed quasar BRI 0952-0115 at z = 4.4, to set a limit on the polarization properties, as well as placing both in the broader context of galaxy evolution. We used full polarization, sub-arcsecond-resolution, ALMA band-7 observations of both BRI 0952-0115 and AzTEC-3 and detect [CII] line emission towards both galaxies, along with companions in each field. We present an updated gravitational lensing model for BRI 0952-0115. We present infrared luminosities, star-formation rates, and [CII] line to infrared luminosity ratios for each source. The [CII] emission line profile for both BRI 0952-0115 and AzTEC-3 exhibit a broad, complex morphology, indicating the possible presence of outflows. We present evidence of a ‘gas bridge’ between AzTEC-3 and a companion source. Using a simple dynamical mass estimate for the sources, we suggest that both systems are undergoing minor or major mergers. No polarization is detected for the [CII], placing an upper limit below that of theoretical predictions. Our results show that high-velocity wings are detected, indicating possible signs of massive outflows; however, the presence of companion galaxies can affect the final interpretation. Furthermore, the results provide additional evidence in support of the hypothesis that massive galaxies form in overdense regions, growing through interactions. Finally, strong, ordered magnetic fields are unlikely to exist at the kiloparsec scale in the two studied sources.

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K. Kade, K. Knudsen, W. Vlemmings, et. al.
Tue, 9 May 23
10/88

Comments: N/A

Evolution of radioactive elements in the LMC: predictions for future gamma-ray surveys [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.04753


Short-lived radionuclides, such as 26Al and 60Fe, are tracers of star formation. Therefore, their abundances can unravel the recent star formation history of the host galaxy. In view of future gamma-ray surveys, we predict the masses and fluxes of these two elements in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) using new chemical evolution models. Our best model reproduces the abundance patterns of alpha/Fe ratios, the gas mass, the average metallicity, the present time supernova and nova rates observed in LMC. We show three main results: i) the best model for the LMC suggests a star formation rate very mild at the beginning with a recent burst, and a Salpeter-like initial mass function. ii) The predicted mass of 26Al is 0.33 M_Sun, 2/3 produced by massive stars and 1/3 by novae. iii) The predicted mass of 60Fe is 0.44 M_Sun, entirely produced by massive stars. This result suggests a larger fraction of 60Fe, at variance with the Milky Way. The explanation for this lies in the adopted initial mass function, that for the LMC contains more massive stars than for the Milky Way. These predictions can be useful for the COSI-SMEX mission planned for launch in 2027. The expected gamma-ray line fluxes for the 1.809 MeV line of 26Al and the 1.173 and 1.332 MeV lines of 60Fe are in the range of (0.2-2.7)x10^-6 ph cm^-2 s^-1 and (0.7-2.8)x10^-7 ph cm^-2 s^-1, respectively. This new instrument could have the sensitivity to detect the upper end of the predicted 1.8 MeV flux within its nominal two-year mission.

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A. Vasini, F. Matteucci, E. Spitoni, et. al.
Tue, 9 May 23
13/88

Comments: 11 pages, 2 figures, 4 tables, accepted for publication by MNRAS

Neutral outflows in high-z QSOs [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.04098


OH+ absorption is a powerful tracer of inflowing and outflowing gas in the predominantly atomic diffuse and turbulent halo surrounding galaxies. In this letter, we present observations of OH+(1_1-1_0), CO(9-8) and the underlying dust continuum in 5 strongly lensed z~2-4 QSOs, using ALMA to detect outflowing neutral gas. Blue-shifted OH+ absorption is detected in 3/5 QSOs and tentatively detected in a 4th. Absorption at systemic velocities is also detected in one. OH+ emission is observed in 3/5 QSOs at systemic velocities and CO(9-8) is detected in all 5 QSOs at high S/N, providing information on the dense molecular gas within the host galaxy. We compare our sample to high-z far-infrared (FIR) luminous star-forming and active galaxies from the literature. We find no difference in OH+ absorption line properties between active and star-forming galaxies with both samples following the same optical depth-dust temperature relation, suggesting that these observables are driven by the same mechanism in both samples. Similarly, star-forming and active galaxies both follow the same OH+ emission-FIR relation. Obscured QSOs display broader (>800 km/s) emission than the unobscured QSOs and all but one of the high-z star-forming galaxies, likely caused by the warm molecular gas reservoir obscuring the accreting nucleus. Broader CO(9-8) emission (>500 km/s) is found in obscured versus unobscured QSOs, but overall cover a similar range in line widths as the star-forming galaxies and follow the CO(9-8)-FIR luminosity relation found in low-z galaxies. We find that outflows traced by OH+ are only detected in extreme star-forming galaxies (broad CO emission) and in both types of QSOs, which, in turn, display no red-shifted absorption. This suggests that diffuse neutral outflows in galaxy halos may be associated with the most energetic evolutionary phases leading up to and following the obscured QSO phase.

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K. Butler, P. Werf, A. Omont, et. al.
Tue, 9 May 23
15/88

Comments: 8 pages, 3 figures, 4 tables, accepted to A&A letters

SDSS-IV MaNGA: The Incidence of Major Mergers in type I and II AGN Host Galaxies in the DR15 sample [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.03834


We present a study on the incidence of major mergers and their impact on the triggering of nuclear activity in 47 type I and 236 type II optically-selected AGN from the MaNGA DR15 sample. From an estimate of non-parametric image predictors ($Gini$, M$_{20}$, concentration (C), asymmetry (A), clumpiness (S), S\’ersic index (n), and shape asymmetry($A_S$)) using the SDSS images, in combination with a Linear Discriminant Analysis Method, we identified major mergers and merger stages. We reinforced our results by looking for bright tidal features in our post-processed SDSS and DESI legacy images. We find a statistically significant higher incidence of major mergers of 29\% $\pm$ 3\% in our type I+II AGN sample compared to 22\% $\pm$ 0.8\% for a non-AGN sample matched in redshift, stellar mass, color and morphological type, finding also a prevalence of post-coalescence (51\% $\pm$ 5\%) over pre-coalescence (23\% $\pm$ 6\%) merger stages. The levels of AGN activity among our massive major mergers are similar to those reported in other works using \oiii\ tracers. However, similar levels are produced by our AGN-galaxies hosting stellar bars, suggesting that major mergers are important promoters of nuclear activity but are not the main nor the only mechanism behind the AGN triggering. The tidal strength parameter $Q$ was considered at various scales looking for environmental differences that could affect our results on the merger incidence, finding non-significant differences. Finally, the H-H$\beta$ diagram could be used as an empirical predictor for the flux coming from an AGN source, useful to correct photometric quantities in large AGN samples emerging from surveys.

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H. Hernández-Toledo, E. Cortes-Suárez, J. Vázquez-Mata, et. al.
Tue, 9 May 23
19/88

Comments: 23 pages, 13 figures, 10 tables

The lively accretion disc in NGC 2992. III. Tentative evidence of rapid Ultra Fast Outflow variability [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.03754


We report on the 2019 XMM-Newton+NuSTAR monitoring campaign of the Seyfert galaxy NGC 2992, observed at one of its highest flux levels in the X-rays. The time-averaged spectra of the two XMM-Newton orbits show Ultra Fast Outflows (UFOs) absorbing structures above 9 keV with $> 3 \sigma$ significance. A detailed investigation of the temporal evolution on a $\sim$5 ks time scale reveals UFO absorption lines at a confidence level $>$95% (2$\sigma$) in 8 out of 50 XMM-Newton segments, estimated via Monte Carlo simulations. We observe a wind variability corresponding to a length scale of 5 Schwarzschild radii $r_S$. Adopting the novel Wind in the Ionised Nuclear Environment (WINE) model, we estimate the outflowing gas velocity ($v=0.21-0.45 c$), column density ($N_H=4-8\cdot 10^{24} cm^{-2}$) and ionisation state ($\log(\xi_0/erg\ cm\ s^{-1})=3.7-4.7$), taking into account geometrical and special relativity corrections. These parameters lead to instantaneous mass outflow rates $\dot{M}{out}\simeq0.3-0.8 M{\odot} yr^{-1}$, with associated outflow momentum rates $\dot{p}{out}\simeq 20-90 L{Bol}/c$ and kinetic energy rates $\dot{E}K \simeq 2-25 L{Bol}$. We estimate a wind duty cycle $\approx$ 12% and a total mechanical power $\approx$ 2 times the AGN bolometric luminosity, suggesting the wind may drive significant feedback effects between the AGN and the host galaxy. Notably, we also provide an estimate for the wind launching radius and density $\approx 5 r_S, 10^{11} {cm}^{-3}$, respectively.

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A. Luminari, A. Marinucci, S. Bianchi, et. al.
Tue, 9 May 23
22/88

Comments: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. 21 pages, 11 figures

Radial velocities and stellar population properties of 56 MATLAS dwarf galaxies observed with MUSE [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.04593


Dwarf galaxies have been extensively studied in the Local Group, in nearby groups, and selected clusters, giving us a robust picture of their global stellar and dynamical properties in particular locations in the Universe. Intense study of these properties has revealed correlations between them, including the well known universal stellar mass-metallicity relation. However, since dwarfs play a role in a vast range of different environments, much can be learned about galaxy formation and evolution through extending the study of these objects to various locations. We present MUSE spectroscopy of a sample of 56 dwarf galaxies as a follow-up to the MATLAS survey in low-to-moderate density environments beyond the Local Volume. The dwarfs have stellar masses in the range of $M_{*}/M_{\odot}$ = 10$^{6.1}$-10$^{9.4}$ and show a distance range of D = 14-148 Mpc, the majority (75%) of which are located in the range targeted by the MATLAS survey (10-45 Mpc). We thus report a 75% (79% for dwarf ellipticals) success rate for the semi-automatic identification of dwarf galaxies in the MATLAS survey on the here presented subsample. Using pPXF full spectrum fitting, we determine their line-of-sight velocity and can match the majority of them with their massive host galaxy. Close inspection of their spectra reveals that ~30% show clear emission lines and thus star formation activity. We estimate their stellar population properties (age and metallicity) and compare our results with other works investigating Local Volume and cluster dwarf galaxies. We find that the dwarf galaxies presented in this work show a systematic offset from the stellar mass-metallicity relation towards lower metallicities at the same stellar mass. A similar deviation is present in other works in the stellar mass range probed in this work and might be attributed to the use of different methodologies for deriving the metallicity.

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N. Heesters, O. Müller, F. Marleau, et. al.
Tue, 9 May 23
28/88

Comments: 19 pages, 15 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics, Abstract shortened due to arxiv abstract length requirements

Efficient NIRCam Selection of Quiescent Galaxies at 3 < z < 6 in CEERS [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.04662


The substantial populations of massive quiescent galaxies at $z\ge3$ challenge our understanding of rapid galaxy growth and quenching over short timescales. In order to piece together this evolutionary puzzle, more statistical samples of these objects are required. Established techniques for identifying massive quiescent galaxies are increasingly inefficient and unconstrained at $z> 3$. As a result, studies report that as much as 70\% of quiescent galaxies at $z> 3$ may be missed from existing surveys. In this work, we propose a new empirical color selection technique designed to select massive quiescent galaxies at $3\lesssim z \lesssim 6$ using JWST NIRCam imaging data. We use empirically-constrained galaxy SED templates to define a region in the $F277W-F444W$ vs. $F150W-F277W$ color plane that appears unique in capturing quiescent galaxies at $z> 3$ and minimizes contamination from other red galaxy populations. We apply this color selection criteria to the Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) Survey and filter out $> 99\%$ of sources. We identify 44 candidate $z\gtrsim3$ quiescent galaxies and derive volume density estimates of $n\sim1-4\times10^{-5}$ Mpc$^{-3}$ at $3< z< 5$, finding excellent agreement with existing reports on similar populations in the CEERS field. Thanks to NIRCam’s wavelength coverage and sensitivity, this technique provides an efficient filter that aids in the search for these rare galaxies.

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A. Long, J. Antwi-Danso, E. Lambrides, et. al.
Tue, 9 May 23
32/88

Comments: 11 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables, submitted to ApJ

Radiation pressure acting on the neutral He atoms in the Heliosphere [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.04510


The Interstellar Neutral Helium (ISN He) is an important source of information on the physical state of the Local Interstellar Medium. Radiation pressure acting on the neutral helium atoms in the heliosphere has always been neglected, its effect has been considered insignificant compared to gravitational force. The most advanced numerical models of ISN He take into account more and more subtle effects, therefore it is important to check if the effect of radiation pressure is still negligible. In this paper, we use the most up-to-date version of the Warsaw Test Particle Model (WTPM) to calculate the expected helium distribution in the heliosphere, and simulate the flux of ISN He observed by the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) and in the future by the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP). We compare results calculated with and without radiation pressure during low and high solar activity. The results show that in the analysis of IBEX-Lo observations the radiation pressure acting on typical helium causes flux differences at a level of 1-4% and is comparable to the observational errors. For the more sensitive IMAP-Lo instrument, there are some regions in the considered observations configurations where radiation pressure causes potentially statistically significant changes in the calculated fluxes. The effect can be up to 9% for the indirect beam and is likely to be higher than the estimated errors. Therefore, we claim that in the future analysis of the IMAP-Lo observations radiation pressure acting on ISN He should be considered.

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I. Kowalska-Leszczynska, M. Kubiak and M. Bzowski
Tue, 9 May 23
34/88

Comments: Accepted to ApJ

Breakdown of the Newton-Einstein Standard Gravity at Low Acceleration in Internal Dynamics of Wide Binary Stars [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.04613


A gravitational anomaly is found at weak gravitational acceleration $g_{\rm{N}} < 10^{-9}$ m s$^{-2}$ from analyses of the dynamics of wide binary stars selected from the Gaia EDR3 database that have accurate distances, proper motions, and reliably inferred stellar masses. Implicit high-order multiplicities are required and the multiplicity fraction is calibrated so that binary internal motions agree statistically with Newtonian dynamics at a high enough acceleration of $10^{-8}$ m s$^{-2}$. The observed sky-projected motions and separation are deprojected to the three-dimensional relative velocity $v$ and separation $r$ through a Monte Carlo method, and a statistical relation between the Newtonian acceleration $g_{\rm{N}} \equiv GM/r^2$ (where $M$ is the total mass of the binary system) and a kinematic acceleration $g \equiv v^2/r$ is compared with the corresponding relation predicted by Newtonian dynamics. The empirical acceleration relation at $< 10^{-9}$ m s$^{-2}$ systematically deviates from the Newtonian expectation. A gravitational anomaly parameter $\delta_{\rm{obs-newt}}$ between the observed acceleration at $g_{\rm{N}}$ and the Newtonian prediction is measured to be: $\delta_{\rm{obs-newt}}= 0.034\pm 0.007$ and $0.109\pm 0.013$ at $g_{\rm{N}}\approx10^{-8.91}$ and $10^{-10.15}$ m s$^{-2}$, from the main sample of 26,615 wide binaries within 200 pc. These two deviations in the same direction represent a $10\sigma$ significance. The deviation represents a direct evidence for the breakdown of standard gravity at weak acceleration. At $g_{\rm{N}}=10^{-10.15}$ m s$^{-2}$, the observed to Newton predicted acceleration ratio is $g_{\rm{obs}}/g_{\rm{pred}}=10^{\sqrt{2}\delta_{\rm{obs-newt}}}=1.43\pm 0.06$. This systematic deviation agrees with the boost factor that the AQUAL theory predicts for kinematic accelerations in circular orbits under the Galactic external field.

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K. Chae
Tue, 9 May 23
38/88

Comments: 31 pages, 28 figures, submitted to ApJ

${\rm H_2CN}$/${\rm H_2NC}$ abundance ratio: a new potential temperature tracer for the interstellar medium [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.04611


The ${\rm H_2NC}$ radical is the high-energy metastable isomer of ${\rm H_2CN}$ radical, which has been recently detected for the first time in the interstellar medium towards a handful of cold galactic sources, besides a warm galaxy in front of the PKS 1830-211 quasar. These detections have shown that the ${\rm H_2CN}$/${\rm H_2NC}$ isomeric ratio, likewise the HCN/HNC ratio, might increase with the kinetic temperature ($T_{\rm kin}$), but the shortage of them in warm sources still prevents us to confirm this hypothesis and shed light about their chemistry. In this work, we present the first detection of ${\rm H_2CN}$ and ${\rm H_2NC}$ towards a warm galactic source, the G+0.693-0.027 molecular cloud (with $T_{\rm kin} > 70 \, {\rm K}$), using IRAM 30m observations. We have detected multiple hyperfine components of the $N_{K_\text{a}K_\text{c}} = 1_{01} – 0_{00}$ and $2_{02} – 1_{01}$ transitions. We derived molecular abundances with respect to ${\rm H_2}$ of (6.8$\pm$1.3)$\times 10^{-11}$ for ${\rm H_2CN}$ and of (3.1$\pm$0.7)$\times 10^{-11}$ for ${\rm H_2NC}$, and a ${\rm H_2CN}$/${\rm H_2NC}$ abundance ratio of 2.2$\pm$0.5. These detections confirm that the ${\rm H_2CN}$/${\rm H_2NC}$ ratio is $\gtrsim$2 for sources with $T_{\rm kin} > 70 \, {\rm K}$, larger than the $\sim$1 ratios previously found in colder cores ($T_{\rm kin}\sim10 \, {\rm K}$). This isomeric ratio dependence with temperature cannot be fully explained with the currently proposed gas-phase formation and destruction pathways. Grain surface reactions, including the ${\rm H_2NC} \rightarrow {\rm H_2CN}$ isomerization, deserve consideration to explain the higher isomeric ratios and ${\rm H_2CN}$ abundances observed in warm sources, where the molecules can be desorbed into the gas phase through thermal and/or shock-induced mechanisms.

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D. Andrés, L. Colzi, V. Rivilla, et. al.
Tue, 9 May 23
41/88

Comments: 12 pages, 5 figures, 3 tables, 2 appendix – Accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Precise Masses, Ages of ~1.0 million RGB and RC stars observed by the LAMOST [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.04528


We construct a catalogue of stellar masses and ages for 696,680 red giant branch (RGB) stars, 180,436 primary red clump (RC) stars, and 120,907 secondary RC stars selected from the LAMOST\,DR8. The RGBs, primary RCs, and secondary RCs are identified with the large frequency spacing ($\Delta \nu$) and period spacing ($\Delta P$), estimated from the LAMOST spectra with spectral SNRs $> 10$ by the neural network method supervised with the seismologic information from LAMOST-Kepler sample stars. The purity and completeness of both RGB and RC samples are better than 95\% and 90\%, respectively. The mass and age of RGBs and RCs are determined again with the neural network method by taking the LAMOST-Kepler giant stars as the training set. The typical uncertainties of stellar mass and age are, respectively, 10\% and 30\% for the RGB stellar sample. For RCs, the typical uncertainties of stellar mass and age are 9\% and 24\%, respectively. The RGB and RC stellar samples cover a large volume of the Milky Way (5 $< R < 20$\,kpc and $|Z| <$\,5\,kpc), which are valuable data sets for various Galactic studies.

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C. Wang, Y. Huang, Y. Zhou, et. al.
Tue, 9 May 23
43/88

Comments: 13 pages, 16 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in A&A

KURVS: The outer rotation curve shapes and dark matter fractions of $z \sim 1.5 $ star-forming galaxies [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.04382


We present first results from the KMOS Ultra-deep Rotation Velocity Survey (KURVS), aimed at studying the outer rotation curves shape and dark matter content of 22 star-forming galaxies at $z\sim1.5$. These galaxies represent `typical’ star-forming discs at $z \sim 1.5$, being located within the star-forming main sequence and stellar mass-size relation with stellar masses $9.5\leqslant$log$(M_{\star}/\mathrm{M_{\odot}})\leqslant11.5$. We extract individual rotation curves out to 4 times the effective radius, on average, or $\sim 10-15$ kpc. Most rotation curves are flat or rising between three- and six-disc scale radii. Only three objects with dispersion-dominated dynamics ($v_{\rm rot}/\sigma_0\sim0.2$) have declining outer rotation curves at more than 5$\sigma$ significance. After accounting for seeing and pressure support, the nine rotation-dominated discs with $v_{\rm rot}/\sigma_0\geqslant1.5$ have average dark matter fractions of $50 \pm 20\%$ at the effective radius, similar to local discs. Together with previous observations of star-forming galaxies at cosmic noon, our measurements suggest a trend of declining dark matter fraction with increasing stellar mass and stellar mass surface density at the effective radius. Simulated EAGLE galaxies are in quantitative agreement with observations up to log$(M_{\star}R_{\rm eff}^{-2}/\mathrm{M_{\odot}kpc^{-2}}) \sim 9.2$, and over-predict the dark matter fraction of galaxies with higher mass surface densities by a factor of $\sim 3$. We conclude that the dynamics of typical rotationally-supported discs at $z \sim 1.5$ is dominated by dark matter from effective radius scales, in broad agreement with cosmological models. The tension with observations at high stellar mass surface density suggests that the prescriptions for baryonic processes occurring in the most massive galaxies (such as bulge growth and quenching) need to be reassessed.

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A. Puglisi, U. Dudzevičiūtė, M. Swinbank, et. al.
Tue, 9 May 23
45/88

Comments: 23 pages, 9 figures. Resubmitted to MNRAS after addressing the referee’s comments. Abstract slightly modified to compile with the arXiv formatting

Infall and Outflow Towards High-mass Starless Clump Candidates [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.04256


The evolutionary sequence for high-mass star formation starts with massive starless clumps that go on to form protostellar, young stellar objects and then compact HII regions. While there are many examples of the three later stages, the very early stages have proved to be elusive. We follow-up a sample of 110 mid-infrared dark clumps selected from the ATLASGAL catalogue with the IRAM telescope in an effort to identify a robust sample of massive starless clumps. We have used the HCO+ (1-0) and HNC (1-0) transitions to identify clumps associated with infall motion and the SiO (2-1) transition to identity outflow candidates. We have found blue asymmetric line profile in 65% of the sample, and have measured the infall velocities and mass infall rates (0.6-$36 \times 10^{-3}$ Msun/yr) for 33 of these clumps. We find a trend for the mass infall rate decreasing with an increase of bolometric luminosity to clump mass i.e. star formation within the clumps evolves. Using the SiO 2-1 line, we have identified good outflow candidates. Combining the infall and outflow tracers reveals that 67% of quiescent clumps are already undergoing gravitational collapse or are associated with star formation; these clumps provide us with our best opportunity to determined the initial conditions and study the earliest stages of massive star formation. Finally, we provide an overview of a systematic high-resolution ALMA study of quiescent clumps selected that allows us to develop a detailed understanding of earliest stages and their subsequent evolution.

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T. Pillai, J. Urquhart, S. Leurini, et. al.
Tue, 9 May 23
46/88

Comments: 10 pages and 7 figures

Weakly-Supervised Anomaly Detection in the Milky Way [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.03761


Large-scale astrophysics datasets present an opportunity for new machine learning techniques to identify regions of interest that might otherwise be overlooked by traditional searches. To this end, we use Classification Without Labels (CWoLa), a weakly-supervised anomaly detection method, to identify cold stellar streams within the more than one billion Milky Way stars observed by the Gaia satellite. CWoLa operates without the use of labeled streams or knowledge of astrophysical principles. Instead, we train a classifier to distinguish between mixed samples for which the proportions of signal and background samples are unknown. This computationally lightweight strategy is able to detect both simulated streams and the known stream GD-1 in data. Originally designed for high-energy collider physics, this technique may have broad applicability within astrophysics as well as other domains interested in identifying localized anomalies.

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M. Pettee, S. Thanvantri, B. Nachman, et. al.
Tue, 9 May 23
48/88

Comments: N/A

First evidence of multi-iron sub-populations in the Bulge Fossil Fragment candidate Liller 1 [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.04595


In the context of a project aimed at characterizing the properties of the so-called Bulge Fossil Fragments (the fossil remnants of the bulge formation epoch), here we present the first determination of the metallicity distribution of Liller 1. For a sample of 64 individual member stars we used ESO- MUSE spectra to measure the equivalent width of the CaII triplet and then derive the iron abundance. To test the validity of the adopted calibration in the metal-rich regime, the procedure was first applied to three reference bulge globular clusters (NGC 6569, NGC 6440, and NGC 6528). In all the three cases, we found single-component iron distributions, with abundance values fully in agreement with those reported in the literature. The application of the same methodology to Liller 1 yielded, instead, a clear bimodal iron distribution, with a sub-solar component at $\text{[Fe/H]}= -0.48\,$dex ($\sigma = 0.22$) and a super-solar component at $\text{[Fe/H]}= +0.26\,$dex ($\sigma = 0.17$). The latter is found to be significantly more centrally concentrated than the metal-poor population, as expected in a self-enrichment scenario and in agreement with what found in another bulge system, Terzan 5. The obtained metallicity distribution is astonishingly similar to that predicted by the reconstructed star formation history of Liller 1, which is characterized by three main bursts and a low, but constant, activity of star formation over the entire lifetime. These findings provide further support to the possibility that, similar to Terzan 5, also Liller 1 is a Bulge Fossil Fragment.

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C. Crociati, E. Valenti, F. Ferraro, et. al.
Tue, 9 May 23
50/88

Comments: Accepted for publication in the ApJ, 15 pages, 9 figures

Ram pressure stripping in the EAGLE simulation [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.03758


Ram pressure stripping of satellite galaxies is thought to be a ubiquitous process in galaxy clusters, and a growing number of observations reveal satellites at different stages of stripping. However, in order to determine the fate of any individual galaxy, we turn to predictions from either simulations or analytic models. It is not well-determined whether simulations and analytic models agree in their predictions, nor the causes of disagreement. Here we investigate the ram pressure stripping of galactic gas in the reference EAGLE hydrodynamical cosmological simulation, and compare the results to predictions from analytic models. We track the evolution of galaxies with stellar mass $M_{*} > 10^{9} \mathrm{M_{\odot}}$ and initial bound gas mass $M_{\mathrm{gas}} > 10^{9} \mathrm{M_{\odot}}$ that fall into galaxy clusters ($M_{\mathrm{200c}} > 10^{14} \mathrm{M_{\odot}}$) between $z = 0.27$ and $z = 0$. We divide each galaxy into its neutral gas disk and hot ionized gas halo and compare the evolution of the stripped gas fraction in the simulation to that predicted by analytic formulations for the two gas phases, as well as to a toy model that computes the motions of gas particles under the combined effects of gravity and a spatially uniform ram pressure. We find that the deviations of the analytic models from the simulation are primarily the result of opposing effects: the enhancement of ram pressure stripping by stellar feedback, and the suppression of stripping due to compaction of the galactic gas.

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A. Kulier, B. Poggianti, S. Tonnesen, et. al.
Tue, 9 May 23
55/88

Comments: 28 pages, 12 figures, plus 1 appendix. Submitted to ApJ

RIOJA I. The core of the highest redshift galaxy overdensity at $z= 7.88$ confirmed by NIRSpec/JWST [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.04741


The proto-clusters in the epoch of reionization, traced by galaxies overdensity regions, are ideal laboratories to study the process of stellar assembly and cosmic reionization. We present the spectroscopic confirmation of the core of the most distant proto-cluster at $z = 7.88$, A2744-z7p9OD, with the James Webb Space Telescope NIRSpec integral field unit spectroscopy. The core region includes as many as 4 galaxies detected in [O III] 4960 A and 5008 A in a small area of $\sim 3″ \times 3″$, corresponding to $\sim$ 11 kpc $\times$ 11 kpc. Three member galaxies are also tentatively detected in dust continuum in ALMA Band 6, which is consistent with their red ultraviolet continuum slopes, $\beta \sim -1.3$. The member galaxies have stellar masses in the range of log($M_{*}/M_{\rm \odot}$) $\sim 7.6-9.2$ and star formation rates of $\sim 3-50$ $M_{\rm \odot}$ yr$^{-1}$, showing a diversity in their properties. FirstLight cosmological simulations reproduce the physical properties of the member galaxies including the stellar mass, [OIII] luminosity, and dust-to-stellar mass ratio, and predict that the member galaxies are on the verge of merging in a few to several tens Myr to become a large galaxy with $M_{\rm *}\sim 6\times10^{9} M_{\rm \odot}$. The presence of a multiple merger and evolved galaxies in the core region of A2744-z7p9OD indicates that environmental effects are already at work 650 Myr after the Big Bang.

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T. Hashimoto, J. Álvarez-Márquez, Y. Fudamoto, et. al.
Tue, 9 May 23
57/88

Comments: 10 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, submitted to ApJL

A Census of WISE-selected Dual and Offset AGN Across the Sky: New Constraints on Merger-Driven Triggering of Obscured AGN [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.03760


Pairs of galaxies hosting active galactic nuclei (AGN) are powerful probes of merger-driven supermassive black hole (SMBH) growth as they can resolve individual AGN and trace mergers over a large range of physical separations. To exploit this on a large scale for the first time for both obscured and unobscured AGN, we use photometric redshifts of AGN selected by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) to find probabilistic pairs (<100 kpc separations) across the sky, along with a comparison sample of inactive galaxy pairs. Our final sample of integrated pair probabilities yields 198 AGN-AGN pairs (dual AGN) and 2767 AGN-galaxy pairs (offset AGN) with uniformly measured AGN and host galaxy physical properties. We find the fraction of galaxy pairs hosting WISE AGN is dominated by offset AGN and significantly elevated above that of inactive galaxies for large host stellar masses. We show how the AGN merger fraction directly increases with AGN extinction for both offset and dual AGN, with up to ~40% of heavily obscured AGN found in galaxy pairs. Elevated AGN merger fractions coincide with increased host specific star formation rates that suggest merger-driven co-evolution of galaxies and SMBHs. Among dual AGN, the most rapid SMBH growth may occur within the less massive galaxy. Relative to stochastic mechanisms, mergers produce an excess of AGN at increasingly smaller separations, especially for obscured AGN (up to a factor of ~5), and augmented by correlated triggering. Finally, this excess is stronger than for lower luminosity optically-selected AGN, regardless of AGN obscuration level.

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R. Barrows, J. Comerford, D. Stern, et. al.
Tue, 9 May 23
58/88

Comments: 19 pages, 16 figures. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal

Advanced life peaked billions of years ago according to black holes [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.04033


The link between black holes and star formation allows us to draw a connection between black holes and the places and times extraterrestrial intelligences (ETIs) had a greater chance of emerging. Within the context of the gap paradigm for black holes, we show that denser cluster environments that led to gas rich mergers and copious star formation were places less compatible on average with the emergence of ETIs compared to isolated elliptical galaxies by almost two orders of magnitude. The probability for ETIs peaked in these isolated environments around 6 billion years ago and cosmic downsizing shifted the likelihood of ETIs emerging to galaxies with weak black hole feedback, such as in spiral galaxies, at late times.

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D. Garofalo
Tue, 9 May 23
62/88

Comments: Galaxies MDPI

The variability of the broad-line Balmer decrement for quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.04637


Based on the spectral decomposition through a code of PrepSpec, the light curves (spanning 6.5 years in the observed frame) of the broad-line Balmer decrement, i.e., the flux ratio of the broad \ha to the broad \hb line, are calculated for a sample of 44 Sloan Digital Sky Survey reverberation-mapped quasars ($z<0.53$). It is found that the logarithm of the mean broad-line Balmer decrement is 0.62 with a standard deviation of 0.15 dex. The relations between the mean Balmer decrement and the SMBH accretion properties (the luminosity, black hole mass, Eddington ratio, accretion rate) are investigated and no obvious correlations are found. It is found that there are 27 quasars ($61\%$) showing strong negative correlations between the Balmer decrement variance and the continuum variance, i.e., the Balmer decrement would be smaller with larger continuum flux. Assuming that the dust obscuration leads to the variance in the Balmer decrement and the continuum, an expected slope is $-1/3$, which is not consistent with most of measured slopes. Using the interpolated cross-correlation function, the time delays between the inverse Balmer decrement and the continuum are measured for 14 quasars with the maximum correlation coefficient larger the 0.6. It suggests that the size corresponding to the Balmer decrement lag extends from the BLR size to the torus size.

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Y. Ma, S. Li, C. Gu, et. al.
Tue, 9 May 23
78/88

Comments: 10 pages, 10 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRAS

High-redshift metallicity calibrations for JWST spectra: insights from line emission in cosmological simulations [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.03753


Optical emission-line ratios are traditionally used to estimate gas metallicities from observed galaxy spectra. While such estimators have been calibrated primarily at low redshift, they are commonly used to study high-redshift galaxies, where their applicability may be questioned. We use comprehensive emission-line catalogues of galaxies from the IllustrisTNG simulation including ionization by stars, active nuclei and shocks to reassess the calibrations of both optical and ultraviolet metallicity estimators at redshifts $0 \geq z \geq 8$. For present-day galaxies, the predicted optical-line calibrations are consistent with previously published ones, while we find different ultraviolet-line ratios, such as HeII$\lambda$1640/CIII]$\lambda$1908, to provide powerful metallicity diagnostics. At fixed metallicity, most emission-line ratios are predicted to strongly increase or decrease with redshift (with the notable exception of N2O2=[NII]$\lambda$6584/[OII]$\lambda$3727), primarily because of a change in ionization parameter. The predicted dependence of R3=[OIII]$\lambda$5007/H$\beta$ and R23=([OII]$\lambda$3727+[OIII]$\lambda\lambda$4959,5007)/H$\beta$, and to a slightly lesser extent R2=[OII]$\lambda$3727/H$\beta$ and O32=[OIII]$\lambda$5007/[OII]$\lambda$3727, on O abundance for galaxies at $z=4-8$ agrees remarkably well with T$_e$-based measurements in 14 galaxies observed with JWST. This success leads us to provide new calibrations of optical and ultraviolet metallicity estimators specifically designed for galaxies at z $>$ 4, to guide interpretations of future, high-redshift spectroscopic surveys. We further demonstrate that applying classical z = 0 calibrations to high-redshift galaxies can bias O-abundance estimates downward by up to 1 dex, leading to the conclusion of a stronger evolution of the mass-metallicity relation than the actual one.

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M. Hirschmann, S. Charlot and R. Somerville
Tue, 9 May 23
79/88

Comments: 16 pages, 5 figures, submitted to MNRAS

Unveiling the initial conditions of open star cluster formation [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.04415


Open clusters (OCs) are infrequent survivors of embedded clusters gestated in molecular clouds. Up to now, little is known about the initial conditions for the formation of OCs. Here, we studied this issue using high-precision astrometric parameters provided by Gaia data release 3. The statistics show that the peculiar motion velocities of OCs vary little from infancy to old age, providing a remarkable opportunity to use OCs to trace their progenitors. Adopting a dynamical method, we derived the masses of the progenitor clumps where OCs were born, which have statistical characteristics comparable to previously known results for clumps observed in the Galaxy. Moreover, the masses of the progenitor clumps of OCs indicate they should be capable of gestating massive O-type stars. In fact, after inspecting the observed OCs and O-type stars, we found that there are many O-type stars in OCs. The destructive stellar feedback from O-type stars may disintegrate the vast majority of embedded clusters, and only those sufficiently dense ones can survive as OCs.

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C. Hao, Y. Xu, L. Hou, et. al.
Tue, 9 May 23
83/88

Comments: 8 figures, 1 table, Accepted for publication in RAA

ATLASGAL: 3-mm class I methanol masers in high-mass star formation regions [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.04264


We analyzed the 3-mm wavelength spectral line survey of 408 ATLASGAL clumps observed with the IRAM 30m-telescope, focusing on the class I methanol masers with frequencies near 84, 95 and 104.3 GHz. We detect narrow, maser-like features towards 54, 100 and 4 sources in the maser lines near 84, 95 and 104.3 GHz, respectively. Among them, fifty 84 GHz masers, twenty nine 95 GHz masers and four rare 104.3 GHz masers are new discoveries. The new detections increase the number of known 104.3 GHz masers from 5 to 9. The 95 GHz class I methanol maser is generally stronger than the 84 GHz maser counterpart. We find 9 sources showing class I methanol masers but no SiO emission, indicating that class I methanol masers might be the only signpost of protostellar outflow activity in extremely embedded objects at the earliest evolutionary stage. Class I methanol masers that are associated with sources that show SiO line wings are more numerous and stronger than those without such wings. The total integrated intensity of class I methanol masers is well correlated with the integrated intensity and velocity coverage of the SiO (2–1) emission. The properties of class I methanol masers are positively correlated with the bolometric luminosity, clump mass, peak H$_2$ column density of their associated clumps but uncorrelated with the luminosity-to-mass ratio, dust temperature, and mean H$_2$ volume density. We suggest that the properties of class I masers are related to shocks traced by SiO. Based on our observations, we conclude that class I methanol masers at 84 and 95 GHz can trace a similar evolutionary stage as H$_2$O maser, and appear prior to 6.7 and 12.2 GHz methanol and OH masers. Despite their small number, the 104.3 GHz class I masers appear to trace a short and more evolved stage compared to the other class I masers. [abridged]

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W. Yang, Y. Gong, K. Menten, et. al.
Tue, 9 May 23
84/88

Comments: 23 pages, 27 figures, 8 tables, accepted for publication in A&A

Resolving supermassive black hole feeding and feedback: multiphase flows down to sub-parsec [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.03993


Mass accretion is a fundamental process for the growth of supermassive black holes and activating the central engine. However, detailed accretion properties have not been observationally identified at the central ~10 parsec of active galaxies due to its compactness. Here we for the first time ever report the direct detection of parsec-scale (i.e., 0.01% scale of the host galaxy) dense molecular inflow in the active nucleus of the Circinus galaxy. Only a tiny portion (< 3%) of this inflow is consumed in the actual black hole growth but a bulk portion is blown-out by multiphase outflows. The dense gas disk is gravitationally unstable and drives accretion down to the central ~1 parsec, but another process will be required for the final subparsec-scale accretion.

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T. Izumi, K. Wada, M. Imanishi, et. al.
Tue, 9 May 23
87/88

Comments: Main = 10 pages (4 figures), Supplementary Materials = 15 pages (6 figures, 2 tables). Submitted to Science on 27 Sept 2022. This manuscript is the original submitted version (i.e., before peer review ver.)

Steady states of the Parker instability: the effects of rotation [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.03318


We model the Parker instability in vertically stratified isothermal gas using non-ideal MHD three-dimensional simulations. Rotation, especially differential, more strongly and diversely affects the nonlinear state than the linear stage (where we confirm the most important conclusions of analytical models), and stronger than any linear analyses predict. Steady state magnetic fields are stronger and cosmic ray energy density higher than in comparable nonrotating systems. Transient gas outflows induced by the nonlinear instability persist longer, of order 2 Gyr, with rotation. Stratification combined with (differential) rotation drives helical flows, leading to mean-field dynamo. Consequently, the nonlinear state becomes oscillatory (while both the linear instability and the dynamo are non-oscillatory). The horizontal magnetic field near the midplane reverses its direction propagating to higher altitudes as the reversed field spreads buoyantly. The spatial pattern of the large-scale magnetic field may explain the alternating magnetic field directions in the halo of the edge-on galaxy NGC 4631. Our model is unique in producing a large-scale magnetic structure similar to such observation. Furthermore, our simulations show that the mean kinetic helicity of the magnetically driven flows has the sign opposite to that in the conventional non-magnetic flows. This has profound consequences for the nature of the dynamo action and large-scale magnetic field structure in the coronae of spiral galaxies which remain to be systematically explored and understood. We show that the energy density of cosmic rays and magnetic field strength are not correlated at scales of order a kiloparsec.

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D. Tharakkal, A. Shukurov, F. Gent, et. al.
Mon, 8 May 23
4/63

Comments: N/A

Mildly Relativistic Motion in the Radio Quiet Quasar PG 1351+640 [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.03470


Measuring the proper motion of the emission component in radio-quiet quasars (RQQs) could help to distinguish between the origins of the radio emission and to understand whether the jet production mechanism is the same in radio-loud quasars (RLQs) and RQQs. PG 1351+640 is one of the few RQQs suitable for proper motion studies: it has two compact components on milli-arcsecond scales, a flat-spectrum core and a steep-spectrum jet; both components are >2 mJy at 5 GHz and are well suited for Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) observations. We compare recent VLBA observations with that made seventeen years ago and find no significant change in the core-jet separation between 2005 and 2015 (a proper motion of 0.003 mas yr-1). However, the core-jet separation increased significantly between 2015 and 2022, inferring a jet proper motion velocity of 0.063 mas yr-1, which corresponds to an apparent transverse velocity of 0.37c. The result suggests that the jet of the RQQ PG 1351+640 is mildly relativistic and oriented at a relatively small viewing angle.

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A. Wang, T. An, S. Guo, et. al.
Mon, 8 May 23
6/63

Comments: The article has been published by Oxford University Press: this https URL&utm_campaign=mnrasl&utm_medium=email

Anisotropic Star Clusters around Recoiling Supermassive Black Holes [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.03054


Gravitational wave recoil kicks from merging supermassive black hole binaries can have a profound effect on the surrounding stellar population. In this work, we study the dynamic and kinematic properties of nuclear star clusters following a recoil kick. We show that these post-kick structures present unique signatures that can provide key insight to observational searches for recoiling supermassive black holes. In Akiba & Madigan (2021), we showed that an in-plane recoil kick turns a circular disk into a lopsided, eccentric disk such as the one we observe in the Andromeda nucleus. Building on this work, here we explore many recoil kick angles as well as initial stellar configurations. For a circular disk of stars, an in-plane kick causes strong apsidal alignment with a significant fraction of the disk becoming retrograde at large radii. If initial orbits are highly eccentric, an in-plane kick forms a bar-like structure made up of two anti-aligned lopsided disks. An out-of-plane kick causes clustering in the argument of periapsis, $\omega$, regardless of the initial eccentricity distribution. Initially isotropic configurations form anisotropies in the form of a torus of eccentric orbits oriented perpendicular to the recoil kick. Post-kick surface density and velocity maps are presented in each case to highlight the distinct, observable structures of these systems.

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T. Akiba and A. Madigan
Mon, 8 May 23
7/63

Comments: 43 pages, 29 figures, submitted to ApJ

The isotropic center of NGC 5419 — A core in formation? [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.03078


With its cored surface brightness profile, the elliptical galaxy NGC 5419 appears as a typical high-mass early-type galaxy (ETG). However, the galaxy hosts two distinct nuclei in its center. We use high-signal MUSE (Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer) spectral observations and novel triaxial dynamical orbit models to reveal a surprisingly isotropic central orbit distribution in NGC 5419. Recent collisionless simulations of merging massive ETGs suggest a two-phase core formation model, in which the low-density stellar core forms rapidly by supermassive black holes (SMBHs) sinking into the center due to dynamical friction. Only afterwards the SMBHs form a hard binary and the black hole scouring process slowly changes the central orbit distribution from isotropic to tangential. The observed cored density profile, the double nucleus and the isotropic center of NGC 5419 together thus point to an intermediate evolutionary state where the first phase of the core formation has taken place, yet the scouring process is only beginning. This implies that the double nucleus is a SMBH binary. Our triaxial dynamical models indicate a total mass of the two SMBHs in the center of NGC 5419 of MBH = (1.0 +/- 0.08) 10^10 Msol. Moreover, we find that NGC 5419’s complex kinematically distinct core (KDC) can be explained by a coherent flip of the orbital rotation direction of stars on tube orbits at ~3kpc distance from the galaxy center together with projection effects. This is also in agreement with merger simulations hosting SMBHs in the same mass regime.

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B. Neureiter, J. Thomas, A. Rantala, et. al.
Mon, 8 May 23
13/63

Comments: N/A

Ionised gas outflows over the radio AGN life cycle [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.03725


Feedback from AGN is known to affect the host galaxy’s evolution. In radio AGN, one manifestation of feedback is seen in gas outflows. However, it is still not well understood whether the effect of feedback evolves with the radio AGN life cycle. In this study, we investigate this link using the radio spectral shape as a proxy for the evolutionary stage of the AGN. We used [OIII] emission line spectra to trace the presence of outflows on the ionised gas. Using a sample of uniformly selected 129 radio AGN with $L_\textrm{1.4GHz}\approx10^{23}-10^{26}$ W Hz$^{-1}$, and a mean stacking analysis of the [OIII] profile, we conclude that the ionised gas outflow is linked to the radio spectral shape, and it evolves with the evolution of the radio source. We find that sources with a peak in their radio spectra (optically thick), on average, drive a broad outflow ($FWHM\approx1330\pm418$ km s$^{-1}$) with a velocity $v_\textrm{out}\approx 240$ km s$^{-1}$. However, we detect no outflow in the stacked [OIII] profile of sources without a peak in their radio spectrum. In addition, we find that individual outflow detections are kinematically more extreme in peaked than non-peaked sources. We conclude that radio jets are most effective at driving gas outflows when young, and the outflow is typically short lived. Our stacking analysis shows no significant dependence of the presence of ionised gas outflows on the radio morphology, 1.4 GHz luminosity, optical luminosity and Eddington ratio of these sources. We also identify candidate restarted AGN in our sample, whose [OIII] profiles suggest that they have more disturbed gas kinematics than their evolved counterparts, although the evidence for this is tentative. Our findings support the picture where the impact of AGN feedback changes as the source evolves, and young radio jets interact with the ambient medium, clearing a channel of gas as they expand.

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P. Kukreti, R. Morganti, C. Tadhunter, et. al.
Mon, 8 May 23
20/63

Comments: 20 pages, 12 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics

Resequencing the Hubble sequence and the quadratic (black hole mass)-(spheroid stellar mass) relation for elliptical galaxies [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.03242


One of the most protracted problems in astronomy has been understanding the evolution of galaxy morphology. Much discussion has surrounded how lenticular galaxies may form a bridging population between elliptical and spiral galaxies. However, with recourse to a galaxy’s central black hole mass, accretion-built spiral galaxies have emerged as the bridging population between low-mass lenticular galaxies and the dusty merger-built lenticular galaxies contiguous with elliptical galaxies and brightest cluster galaxies' in the black hole/galaxy mass diagram. Spiral galaxies, including the Milky Way, appear built from gas accretion and minor mergers onto what were initially lenticular galaxies. These connections are expressed as a new morphology sequence, dubbed theTriangal’, which subsumes elements of the Hubble sequence and the van den Bergh trident and reveals the bridging nature of the often overlooked ellicular galaxies. Furthermore, a quadratic black hole/galaxy mass relation is found to describe ordinary elliptical galaxies. The relation is roughly parallel to the quadratic-like relations observed for the central spheroidal component of spiral galaxies, dust-rich lenticular galaxies, and old dust-poor lenticular galaxies. The brightest cluster galaxies are offset according to expectations from an additional major merger. The findings have implications for feedback from active galactic nuclei, mapping morphology into simulations, and predicting gravitational wave signals from colliding supermassive black holes. A new galaxy speciation model is presented. It disfavours the monolithic collapse' scenario for spiral, dusty lenticular, and elliptical galaxies. It reveals substantial orbital angular momentum in the Universe's first galaxies and unites dwarf and ordinaryearly-type’ galaxies.

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A. Graham
Mon, 8 May 23
21/63

Comments: 15 pages, 8 figures

A Catalog of Distance Determinations for the LAMOST DR8 K Giants in the Galactic Halo [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.03311


We present a catalog of distances for 19544 K giants drawn from LAMOST DR8. Most of them are located in the halo of the Milky Way up to ~120~kpc. There are 15% K giants without SDSS photometry, for which we supplements with Pan-STARRS1 (PS1) photometry calibrated to SDSS photometric system. The possible contamination of the red clumps/horizontal branch are removed according to metallicities and colors before the distance determination. Combining the LAMOST spectroscopic metallicities with the SDSS/PS1 photometry, we estimate the absolute magnitudes in SDSS $r-$band, the distance moduli, and the corresponding uncertainties through an Bayesian approach devised by Xue et al. (2014) for the SEGUE halo K-giants. The typical distance precision is about 11%. The stars in the catalog lie in a region of 4-126 kpc from the Galactic center, of which with 6, 320 stars beyond 20 kpc and 273 stars beyond 50 kpc, forming the largest spectroscopic sample of distant tracers in the Milky Way halo so far.

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L. Zhang, X. Xue, C. Yang, et. al.
Mon, 8 May 23
23/63

Comments: Accepted for publication in AJ

Clusters, Clouds, and Correlations: Relating Young Clusters to Giant Molecular Clouds in M33 and M31 [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.03618


We use young clusters and giant molecular clouds (GMCs) in the galaxies M33 and M31 to constrain temporal and spatial scales in the star formation process. In M33, we compare the PHATTER catalogue of 1214 clusters with ages measured via colour-magnitude diagram (CMD) fitting to 444 GMCs identified from a new 35 pc resolution ALMA $^{12}$CO(2-1) survey. In M31, we compare the PHAT catalogue of 1249 clusters to 251 GMCs measured from a CARMA $^{12}$CO(1-0) survey with 20 pc resolution. Through two-point correlation analysis, we find that young clusters have a high probability of being near other young clusters, but correlation between GMCs is suppressed by the cloud identification algorithm. By comparing the positions, we find that younger clusters are closer to GMCs than older clusters. Through cross-correlation analysis of the M33 cluster data, we find that clusters are statistically associated when they are $\leq$10 Myr old. Utilizing the high precision ages of the clusters, we find that clusters older than $\approx 18$ Myr are uncorrelated with the molecular ISM. Using the spatial coincidence of the youngest clusters and GMCs in M33, we estimate that clusters spend $\approx$4-6 Myr inside their parent GMC. Through similar analysis, we find that the GMCs in M33 have a total lifetime of $\approx 11$-15 Myr. We also develop a drift model and show that the above correlations can be explained if the clusters in M33 have a 5-10 km s$^{-1}$ velocity dispersion relative to the molecular ISM.

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J. Peltonen, E. Rosolowsky, L. Johnson, et. al.
Mon, 8 May 23
28/63

Comments: 14 pages, 13 figures, 1 tables, accepted for publication at MNRAS

Gas, dust, and the CO-to-molecular gas conversion factor in low-metallicity starbursts [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.03443


The factor relating CO emission to molecular hydrogen column density, XCO, is still subject to uncertainty, in particular at low metallicity. Here, to quantify XCO at two different spatial resolutions, we exploit a dust-based method together with ALMA 12-m and ACA data and HI maps of three nearby metal-poor starbursts, NGC625, NGC1705, and NGC5253. Dust opacity at 250pc resolution is derived based on dust temperatures estimated by fitting two-temperature modified blackbodies to Herschel PACS data. By using the HI maps, we are then able to estimate dust-to-gas ratios in the atomic-gas dominated regions, and infer total gas column densities and H2 column densities as the difference with HI. Finally, from the ACA CO(1-0) maps, we derive XCO. We use a similar technique with 40 pc ALMA 12-m data for the three galaxies, but instead derive dust attenuation at 40 pc resolution from reddening maps based on VLT/MUSE data. At 250 pc resolution, XCO $\sim$ 10^22 – 10^23 cm^-2 / K.km/s, 5-1000 times the Milky Way value, with much larger values than would be expected from a simple metallicity dependence. Instead at 40 pc resolution, XCO again shows large variation, but is roughly consistent with a power-law metallicity dependence, given the Z $\sim$ 1/3 Zsun metal abundances of our targets. The large scatter in both estimations could imply additional parameter dependence, that we have investigated by comparing XCO with the observed velocity-integrated brightness temperatures, ICO, as predicted by recent simulations. Indeed, larger XCO is significantly correlated with smaller ICO, but with slightly different slopes and normalizations than predicted by theory. Such behavior can be attributed to the increasing fraction of CO-faint H2 gas with lower spatial resolution. This confirms the idea the XCO is multi-variate, depending not only on metallicity but also on CO brightness temperature and beam size.

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L. Hunt, F. Belfiore, F. Lelli, et. al.
Mon, 8 May 23
30/63

Comments: A&A, submitted, revision after referee report: 16 figures, 1 appendix

The impact of HII regions on Giant Molecular Cloud properties in nearby galaxies sampled by PHANGS ALMA and MUSE [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.03650


We identify giant molecular clouds (GMCs) associated with HII regions for a sample of 19 nearby galaxies using catalogs of GMCs and H regions released by the PHANGS-ALMA and PHANGS-MUSE surveys, using the overlap of the CO and H{\alpha} emission as the key criterion for physical association. We compare the distributions of GMC and HII region properties for paired and non-paired objects. We investigate correlations between GMC and HII region properties among galaxies and across different galactic environments to determine whether GMCs that are associated with HII regions have significantly distinct physical properties to the parent GMC population. We identify trends between the H{\alpha} luminosity of an HII region and the CO peak brightness and the molecular mass of GMCs that we tentatively attribute to a direct physical connection between the matched objects, and which arise independently of underlying environmental variations of GMC and HII region properties within galaxies. The study of the full sample nevertheless hides a large variability galaxy by galaxy. Our results suggests that at the ~100 pc scales accessed by the PHANGS-ALMA and PHANGS-MUSE data, pre-supernova feedback mechanisms in HII regions have a subtle but measurable impact on the properties of the surrounding molecular gas, as inferred from CO observations.

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A. Zakardjian, J. Pety, C. Herrera, et. al.
Mon, 8 May 23
36/63

Comments: N/A

Weighing Andromeda: Mass estimates of the M~31 galaxy [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.03293


Andromeda (M 31) is the nearest giant spiral galaxy to our Milky Way, and over the past few decades, has been dubbed the most massive member of the Local Group. I explore the evolution of the measured mass of M 31 over the past ~80 years, reviewing the different observational and modelling techniques that have developed over time to measure its mass. I discuss the best present-day constraints of the mass of M 31 and the consistency of different techniques.

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S. Bhattacharya
Mon, 8 May 23
39/63

Comments: 9 pages, 1 figure, 1 table, Proceedings of the IAUS 379: Dynamical Masses of Local Group Galaxies, Potsdam, March 20-24, 2023

A Census of the TW Hya Association with Gaia [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.03557


I have used high-precision photometry and astrometry from the third data release of Gaia to perform a survey for members of the TW Hya association (TWA). I have identified candidate members that appear to share similar kinematics and ages with bona fide members compiled by Gagne et al. (2017) and I have assessed their membership using radial velocities and spectroscopic diagnostics of age from various sources. My new catalog of adopted members contains 67 Gaia sources in 55 systems. The histogram of spectral types for TWA peaks near M5 (~0.15 Msun), resembling the distributions measured for other nearby young associations. The UVW velocities of its members indicate that the association is expanding. The rate of expansion corresponds to an age of 9.6+0.9/-0.8 Myr. In a Gaia color-magnitude diagram, the members of TWA exhibit well-defined sequences of single stars and unresolved binary stars. The combined sequence of low-mass stars in TWA is indicative of an age of 11.4+1.3/-1.2 Myr when compared to the sequence for Upper Centaurus-Lupus/Lower Centaurus-Crux, for which an age of 20 Myr is assumed. Based on these expansion and isochronal ages, I have adopted an age of 10+/-2 Myr for TWA. Finally, I have used mid-infrared photometry from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer to check for excess emission from circumstellar disks among the TWA members. Fourteen members have detected disks, all of which have been reported in previous studies. The fraction of members at <=M6 (>=0.1 Msun) that have full, transitional, or evolved disks is 10/52=0.19+0.08/-0.06. That value is similar to the fraction previously measured for the Upper Sco association, which is roughly coeval with TWA.

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K. Luhman
Mon, 8 May 23
41/63

Comments: The Astronomical Journal, in press

A giant thin stellar stream in the Coma Galaxy Cluster [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.03073


The study of dynamically cold stellar streams reveals information about the gravitational potential where they reside and provides important constraints on dark matter properties. However, their intrinsic faintness makes detection beyond Local environments highly challenging. Here we report the detection of an extremely faint stellar stream (mu_g,max = 29.5 mag arcsec-2) with an extraordinarily coherent and thin morphology in the Coma Galaxy Cluster. This Giant Coma Stream spans 510 kpc in length and appears as a free-floating structure located at a projected distance of 0.8 Mpc from the center of Coma. We do not identify any potential galaxy remnant or core, and the stream structure appears featureless in our data. We interpret the Giant Coma Stream as being a recently accreted, tidally disrupting dwarf of M* ~ 10^8 Msun, and report a case with similar characteristics within the Illustris-TNG50 simulation. Our work shows the presence of free-floating, extremely faint and thin stellar streams in galaxy clusters, widening the environmental context for their promising future applications in the study of dark matter properties.

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J. Román, R. Rich, N. Ahvazi, et. al.
Mon, 8 May 23
57/63

Comments: Submitted to A&A. Comments welcome

Star Formation History of the Small Magellanic Cloud: the shell substructure [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02755


We present the spatially resolved star formation history (SFH) of a shell-like structure located in the northeastern Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). We quantitatively obtain the SFH using unprecedented deep photometric data (g~24 magnitude) from the SMASH survey and colour-magnitude diagram (CMD) fitting techniques. We consider, for the first time, the SMC’s line-of-sight depth and its optical effects on the CMDs. The SFH presents higher accuracy when a line-of-sight depth of ~3 Kpc is simulated. We find young star formation enhancements at ~150 Myr, ~200 Myr, ~450 Myr, ~650 Myr, and ~1 Gyr. Comparing the shell’s SFH with the Large Magellanic Cloud’s (LMC) northern arm SFH we show strong evidence of synchronicity from at least the past ~2.8 Gyr and, possibly, the past ~3.5 Gyr. Our results place constraints on the orbital history of the Magellanic Clouds which, potentially, have implications on their dynamical mass estimates.

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J. Sakowska, N. Noël, T. Ruiz-Lara, et. al.
Fri, 5 May 23
2/67

Comments: 4 pages, 3 figures. Submitted to the Proceedings of IAU Symposium 379: Dynamical Masses of Local Group Galaxies

Over-massive Central Black Holes in the Cosmological Simulations ASTRID and Illustris TNG50 [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02335


Recent dynamical measurements indicate the presence of a central SMBH with mass $\sim 3\times 10^6 \, \rm M_\odot$ in the dwarf galaxy Leo I, placing the system $\sim50$ times above the standard, local $M_{BH} – M_\star$ relation. While a few over-massive central SMBHs are reported in nearby isolated galaxies, this is the first detected in a Milky Way satellite. We used the ASTRID and Illustris TNG50 LCDM cosmological simulations to investigate the assembly history of galaxies hosting over-massive SMBHs. We estimate that, at the stellar mass of Leo I, $\sim15\%$ of galaxies above the $M_{BH} – M_\star$ relation lie $>10$ times above it. Leo I-like systems are rare but exist in LCDM simulations: they occur in $\sim0.005\%$ of all over-massive systems. Examining the properties of simulated galaxies harboring over-massive central SMBHs, we find that: (i) stars assemble more slowly in galaxies above the $M_{BH} – M_\star$ relation; (ii) the gas fraction in these galaxies experiences a significantly steeper decline over time; and (iii) $>95\%$ of satellite host galaxies in over-dense regions are located above the $M_{BH} – M_\star$ relation. This suggests that massive satellite infall and consequent tidal stripping in a group/dense environment can drive systems away from the $M_{BH} – M_\star$ relation, causing them to become over-massive. As the merging histories of over-massive and under-massive systems do not differ, we conclude that additional environmental effects, such as being in overdense regions, must play a crucial role. In the high-$z$ Universe, central over-massive SMBHs are a signature of heavy black hole seeds; we demonstrate, in contrast, that low-$z$ over-massive systems result from complex environmental interactions.

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E. Weller, F. Pacucci, P. Natarajan, et. al.
Fri, 5 May 23
12/67

Comments: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 9 pages, 8 figures

Evidence of First Stars-enriched Gas in High-redshift Absorbers [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02346


The first stars were born from chemically pristine gas. They were likely massive, and thus they rapidly exploded as supernovae, enriching the surrounding gas with the first heavy elements. In the Local Group, the chemical signatures of the first stellar population were identified among low-mass, long-lived, very metal-poor ([Fe/H]<-2) stars, characterized by high abundances of carbon over iron ([C/Fe]>+0.7): the so-called carbon-enhanced metal-poor stars. Conversely, a similar carbon excess caused by first-star pollution was not found in dense neutral gas traced by absorption systems at different cosmic time. Here we present the detection of 14 very metal-poor, optically thick absorbers at redshift z~3-4. Among these, 3 are carbon-enhanced and reveal an overabundance with respect to Fe of all the analyzed chemical elements (O, Mg, Al, and Si). Their relative abundances show a distribution with respect to [Fe/H] that is in very good agreement with those observed in nearby very metal-poor stars. All the tests we performed support the idea that these C-rich absorbers preserve the chemical yields of the first stars. Our new findings suggest that the first-star signatures can survive in optically thick but relatively diffuse absorbers, which are not sufficiently dense to sustain star formation and hence are not dominated by the chemical products of normal stars.

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A. Saccardi, S. Salvadori, V. D’Odorico, et. al.
Fri, 5 May 23
15/67

Comments: N/A

Dynamical hotness, star formation quenching and growth of supermassive black holes [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02910


A stellar system is dynamically hot when its kinetic energy is dominated by random motion represented by the velocity dispersion $\sigma_{\rm hot} (M_*)$. We use MaNGA data to obtain inner and outer dispersion of a galaxy, $\sigma_{\rm in}$ and $\sigma_{\rm out}$, to characterize its dynamical status and study its connection with star formation quenching and the growth of supermassive black hole (SMBH). We divide galaxies into fully quenched (FQGs), partially quenched (PQGs) and fully star-forming (FSGs) populations, and identify quenched central cores (QCCs) in PQGs. The galaxy distribution in $\sigma_{\rm in}/\sigma_{\rm hot}$-$\sigma_{\rm out}/\sigma_{\rm hot}$ diagram is L-shaped, consisting of a horizontal sequence ($\sigma_{\rm out}/\sigma_{\rm hot}\sim0$) and a vertical sequence ($\sigma_{\rm in}/\sigma_{\rm hot}\sim1$). FQGs and QCCs are located at the top of vertical sequence, $\sigma_{\rm out}/\sigma_{\rm hot}\sim1$, therefore they are dynamically hot over their entire bodies. PQGs reside along vertical sequence, so they have hot center but cold outskirt. FSGs are diverse and can be found in both sequences. Galaxy structural properties, star formation and AGN activities make a transition along horizontal sequence at $\log(\sigma_{\rm in}/\sigma_{\rm hot})\sim-0.3$, and along vertical sequence at $\log(\sigma_{\rm out}/\sigma_{\rm hot})\sim-0.3$. The fractions of optical AGNs and barred galaxies increase rapidly in the first transition and decline rapidly in the second; radio galaxies are located at the top of vertical sequence. Our results demonstrate that star formation quenching and SMBH growth are effective only in dynamically hot systems. A simple model along this line can reproduce the observed SMBH scaling relations. We discuss how secular processes and strong interactions can make a system dynamically hot, and lead to the SMBH growth and star formation quenching.

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H. Hong, H. Wang, H. Mo, et. al.
Fri, 5 May 23
16/67

Comments: 24 pages, 19 figures, submitted to ApJ

HYPerluminous quasars at the Epoch of ReionizatION (HYPERION). A new regime for the X-ray nuclear properties of the first quasars [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02347


The existence of luminous quasars (QSO) at the Epoch of Reionization (EoR; i.e. z>6) powered by supermassive black holes (SMBH) with masses $\gtrsim10^9~M_\odot$ challenges models of early SMBH formation. To shed light on the nature of these sources we started a multiwavelength programme based on a sample of 18 HYPerluminous quasars at the Epoch of ReionizatION (HYPERION). These are the luminous QSOs whose SMBH must have had the most rapid mass growth during the Universe first Gyr. In this paper we present the HYPERION sample and report on the first of the 3 years planned observations of the 2.4 Ms XMM-Newton Multi-Year Heritage programme on which HYPERION is based. The goal of this programme is to accurately characterise the X-ray nuclear properties of QSOs at the EoR. Through a joint X-ray spectral analysis of 10 sources, covering the rest-frame $\sim2-50$ keV range, we report a steep average photon index ($\Gamma\sim2.4\pm0.1$) which is inconsistent at $\geq4\sigma$ level with the value measured in QSO at z<6. This spectral slope is also significantly steeper than that reported in lower-z QSOs with similar luminosity or accretion rate, thus suggesting a genuine redshift evolution. Alternatively, we can interpret this result as the presence of an unusually low-energy cutoff $E_{cut}\sim20$ keV on a standard $\Gamma=1.9$ power-law. We also report on mild indications that HYPERION QSOs show higher soft X-ray emission at 2 keV compared to the UV one at 2500A than expected by lower-z luminous AGN. We speculate that a redshift-dependent coupling between the X-ray corona and accretion disc or intrinsically different coronal properties may account for the steep spectral slopes, especially in the presence of powerful winds. The reported slopes, if confirmed at lower luminosities, may have an important impact on the design of future X-ray facilities and surveys aimed at the early Universe.

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L. Zappacosta, E. Piconcelli, F. Fiore, et. al.
Fri, 5 May 23
28/67

Comments: 21 pages (including appendix), 12 figures, 4 tables. Submitted to A&A

Computed microwave spectra of C$_{70}^+$ [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02331


The apolar fullerenes C60 and C70 are not accessible for radio astronomy. Upon ionization static Jahn-Teller effects occur in C70+ that distort the D5h neutral symmetry to Cs. This point group is polar thus ionization induces a permanent electric dipole moment in C70. The goal of the present calculations is to compute the equilibrium geometry and dipole moment of the C70+ cation by various DFT methods and to simulate microwave spectra. Using quantum chemistry rotational constants, Cartesian dipole moment components and the resultant dipole, as well as Jahn-Teller stabilization energies and HOMO-LUMO gaps were obtained. Microwave rotational spectrum simulations for the slightly asymmetric top ion were carried out for gas phase temperatures 2.73 K and 10 K. These spectra may serve as starting point for laboratory microwave measurements and as screening guide in radio astronomical searches. In addition it was found that the static Jahn-Teller effect in C70+ is the consequence of the mixing of the two highest ground state occupied orbitals, thus it is a pseudo Jahn-Teller effect.

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L. Nemes
Fri, 5 May 23
35/67

Comments: 15 pages, 8 figures, to be published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Oxford, UK

Carbon Stars as Standard Candles: An Empirical Test for the Reddening, Metallicity, and Age Sensitivity of the J-region Asymptotic Giant Branch (JAGB) Method [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02453


The J-region Asymptotic Giant Branch (JAGB) method is a standard candle based on the intrinsic luminosities of carbon stars in the near infrared. For the first time, we directly constrain the impact of metallicity, age, and reddening on the JAGB method. We assess how the mode, skew, and scatter of the JAGB star luminosity function change throughout diverse stellar environments in M31’s NE disk from 13<d<18 kpc using data from the Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury (PHAT). As expected, the mode is found to be fainter in higher-reddening regions. To cross-check this result, we also measure a fiducial J-band ground-based JAGB distance using data from the UKIRT/WFCam in M31’s outermost disk (18<d<40 kpc) where internal reddening is minimal. We find that this J-band distance modulus agrees well with the F110W distance moduli measured in the lowest reddening regions of the PHAT data, demonstrating the JAGB method is most accurate if measured in the low-reddening outer disks of galaxies. On the other hand, the mode of the JAGB star luminosity function appears empirically to show no dependence on metallicity and age, disputing theoretical predictions that the average luminosity of metal-rich carbon stars is brighter than for metal-poor carbon stars. In conclusion, the JAGB method proves to be a robust standard candle capable of calibrating the luminosities of type Ia supernovae and therefore providing a high-accuracy, high-precision measurement of the Hubble constant.

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A. Lee
Fri, 5 May 23
38/67

Comments: 15 pages, 9 figures 1 tables, submitted to AAS Journals

A complete catalogue of broad-line AGNs and double-peaked emission lines from MaNGA integral-field spectroscopy of 10K galaxies: stellar population of AGNs, supermassive black holes, and dual AGNs [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02676


We analyse the integral-field spectroscopy data for the $\approx10,000$ galaxies in final data release of the MaNGA survey. We identify 188 galaxies for which the emission lines cannot be described by single Gaussian components. These galaxies can be classified into (1) 38 galaxies with broad $H\alpha$ and [OIII] $\lambda$5007 lines, (2) 101 galaxies with broad $H\alpha$ lines but no broad [OIII] $\lambda$5007 lines, and (3) 49 galaxies with double-peaked narrow emission lines. Most of the broad line galaxies are classified as Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) from their line ratios. The catalogue helps us further understand the AGN-galaxy coevolution through the stellar population of broad-line region host galaxies and the relation between broad lines’ properties and the host galaxies’ dynamical properties. The stellar population properties (including mass, age and metallicity) of broad-line host galaxies suggest there is no significant difference between narrow-line Seyfert-2 galaxies and Type-1 AGN with broad $H\alpha$ lines. We use the broad-$H\alpha$ line width and luminosity to estimate masses of black hole in these galaxies, and test the $M_{BH}-\sigma_{e}$ relation in Type-1 AGN host galaxies. Furthermore we find three dual AGN candidates supported by radio images from the VLA FIRST survey. This sample may be useful for further studies on AGN activities and feedback processes.

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Y. Fu, M. Cappellari, S. Mao, et. al.
Fri, 5 May 23
39/67

Comments: 20 pages, 17 figures, LaTeX. Submitted to MNRAS

The Long and the Short of It: The Benefits and Leverage of Ultraviolet-Radio Galaxy Fitting [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02443


Traditionally, the far ultraviolet (FUV) to far-infrared (FIR) and radio spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of galaxies have been considered separately despite the common physical process shaping them. In this work, we explore the utility of simultaneously fitting FUV-radio SEDs using an extended version of the ProSpect SED fitting code considering contributions from both free-free and synchrotron emission. We use a small sample of galaxies from the Deep Extragalactic VIsible Legacy Survey (DEVILS) and the Key Insights on Nearby Galaxies: a Far-Infrared Survey with Herschel (KINGFISH) where high-quality and robust FUV-radio data are available to provide an ideal sample for testing a radio extension of ProSpect. As the parameterisation of the radio extension links the radio continuum to the FIR emission, we explore the benefit of using radio continuum measurements as a constraint on the energy balance between dust attenuation and emission. We find that for situations where MIR-FIR photometry is unavailable, including a 1.4 GHz continuum measurement allows for improved accuracy in recovered star formation rates and dust luminosities of galaxies reducing the median uncertainty by 0.1 and 0.2 dex respectively. We also demonstrate that incorporating 3 and 10 GHz measurements allows for further constraint on the energy balance and therefore the star formation rate and dust luminosity. This demonstrates the advantage of extending FUV-FIR SED fitting techniques to radio frequencies, especially as we move into an era where FIR surveys will remain limited and radio data become abundant (i.e. with the SKA and precursors).

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J. Thorne, A. Robotham, S. Bellstedt, et. al.
Fri, 5 May 23
41/67

Comments: Accepted for publication in MNRAS

JWST NIRSpec spectroscopy of the triply-lensed $z = 10.17$ galaxy MACS0647$-$JD [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.03042


We present JWST/NIRSpec prism spectroscopy of MACS0647-JD, the triply-lensed $z \sim 11$ candidate discovered in HST imaging and spatially resolved by JWST imaging into two components A and B. Spectroscopy of component A yields a spectroscopic redshift $z=10.17$ based on 7 detected emission lines: CIII] $\lambda\lambda$1907,1909, [OII] $\lambda$3727, [NeIII] $\lambda$3869, [NeIII] $\lambda$3968, H$\delta$ $\lambda$4101, H$\gamma$ $\lambda$4340, and [OIII] $\lambda$4363. These are the second-most distant detections of these emission lines to date, in a galaxy observed just 460 million years after the Big Bang. Based on observed and extrapolated line flux ratios we derive a gas-phase metallicity $Z =$ log(O/H) = $7.5 – 8.0$, or $(0.06 – 0.2)$ $Z_\odot$, ionization parameter log($U$) $\sim -1.9\pm0.2$, and an ionizing photon production efficiency ${\rm log}(\xi_{\rm ion})=25.2\pm0.2\,$erg$^{-1}$ Hz. The spectrum has a softened Lyman-$\alpha$ break, evidence for a strong Ly$\alpha$ damping wing, suggesting that MACS0647-JD was unable to ionize its surroundings beyond its immediate vicinity ($R_{\text{HII}} \ll 1$ pMpc). The Ly$\alpha$ damping wing also suppresses the F150W photometry, explaining the slightly overestimated photometric redshift $z = 10.6 \pm 0.3$. MACS0647-JD has a stellar mass log($M/M_\odot$) = $8.1 \pm 0.3$, including $\sim$ 6$\times 10^7 M_\odot$ in component A, most of which formed recently (within $\sim$ 20 Myr) with a star formation rate $2\pm1 M_\odot$ / yr, all within an effective radius $70\pm24\,$pc. The smaller component B ($r \sim 20$) pc is likely older ($\sim$100 Myr) with more dust ($A_V \sim 0.1$ mag), as found previously. Spectroscopy of a fainter companion galaxy C separated by a distance of \about\ 3$\,$kpc reveals a Lyman break consistent with $z = 10.17$. MACS0647-JD is likely the most distant galaxy merger known.

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T. Hsiao, A. Abdurro’uf, D. Coe, et. al.
Fri, 5 May 23
42/67

Comments: 21 pages, 6 figures, submitted to ApJ

Evidence for Large Scale, Rapid Gas Inflows in z~2 Star Forming Disks [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02959


We report high quality H${\alpha}$/CO, imaging spectroscopy of nine massive, disk galaxies on the star forming, Main Sequence (henceforth ‘SFGs’), near the peak of cosmic galaxy evolution (z~1.1-2.5), taken with the ESO-VLT, IRAM-NOEMA and ALMA. We fit the major axis position-velocity cuts with beam-convolved, forward models with a bulge, a turbulent rotating disk, and a dark matter (DM) halo. We include priors for stellar and molecular gas masses, optical light effective radii and inclinations, and DM masses from our previous rotation curve analyses of these galaxies. We then subtract the inferred 2D model-galaxy velocity and velocity dispersion maps from those of the observed galaxies. We investigate whether the residual velocity and velocity dispersion maps show indications for radial flows. We also carry out kinemetry, a model-independent tool for detecting radial flows. We find that all nine galaxies exhibit significant non-tangential flows. In six SFG, the inflow velocities ($v_r$~30-90 km s$^{-1}$, 10-30% of the rotational component) are along the minor axis of these galaxies. In two cases the inflow appears to be off the minor axis. The magnitudes of the radial motions are in broad agreement with the expectations from analytic models of gravitationally unstable, gas rich disks. Gravitational torques due to clump and bar formation, or spiral arms, drive gas rapidly inward and result in the formation of central disks and large bulges. If this interpretation is correct, our observations imply that gas is transported into the central regions on ~10 dynamical time scales.

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R. Genzel, J. Jolly, D. Liu, et. al.
Fri, 5 May 23
45/67

Comments: 31 pages, 25 figures. Submitted to The Astrophysical Journal

Time variability of ultra-fast BAL outflows using SALT: C IV equivalent width analysis [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02352


We study the time variability (over $\le$7.3 yrs) of ultra-fast outflows (UFOs) detected in a sample of 64 C IV broad absorption line (BAL) quasars (with 80 distinct BAL components) monitored using the Southern African Large Telescope. By comparing the properties of the quasar in our sample with those of a control sample of non-BAL quasars we show that the distributions of black hole mass are different and the bolometric luminosities and optical photometric variations of UFO BAL quasars are slightly smaller compared to that of non-BAL quasars. The detection fraction of C IV equivalent width (W) variability ($\sim$95%), the fractional variability amplitude ($\frac{\Delta W}{W}$) and the fraction of highly variable" BAL (i.e., |$\frac{\Delta W}{W}$| $&gt;$0.67) components ($\sim$ 33%) are higher in our sample compared to the general BAL population. The scatter in $\frac{\Delta W}{W}$ and the fraction ofhighly variable” BALs increase with the time-scale probed. The $\frac{\Delta W}{W}$ distribution is asymmetric at large time scales. We attribute this to the BAL strengthening time scales being shorter than the weakening time scales. The BAL variability amplitude correlates strongly with the BAL properties compared to the quasar properties. BALs with low W, high-velocity, shallow profiles, and low-velocity width tend to show more variability. When multiple BAL components are present a correlated variability is seen between low- and high-velocity components with the latter showing larger amplitude variations. We find an anti-correlation between the fractional variations in the continuum flux and W. While this suggests photoionization-induced variability, the scatter in continuum flux is much smaller than that of W.

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P. Aromal, R. Srianand and P. Petitjean
Fri, 5 May 23
50/67

Comments: 22 pages, accepted for publication in MNRAS

The Andromeda Galaxy's Last Major Merger: Constraints from the survey of Planetary Nebulae [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02761


The Andromeda galaxy (M 31) has experienced a tumultuous merger history as evidenced by the many substructures present in its inner halo. We use planetary nebulae (PNe) as chemodynamic tracers to shed light on the recent merger history of M 31. We identify the older dynamically hotter thicker disc in M 31 and a distinct younger dynamically colder thin disc. The two discs are also chemically distinct with the PN chemodynamics implying their formation in a `wet’ major merger (mass ratio ~1:5) ~2.5-4.5 Gyr ago. From comparison of PN line-of-sight velocities in the inner halo substructures with predictions of a major-merger model in M 31, we find that the same merger event that formed the M 31 thick and thin disc is also responsible for forming these substructures. We thereby obtain constraints on the recent formation history of M 31 and the properties of its cannibalized satellite.

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S. Bhattacharya, M. Arnaboldi, O. Gerhard, et. al.
Fri, 5 May 23
53/67

Comments: 5 pages, 1 figure, Proceedings of the IAUS 377: Early Disk-Galaxy Formation from JWST to the Milky Way. Kuala-Lumpur, February 6-10, 2023

Tracing Pop III supernovae with extreme energies through the Sculptor dwarf spheroidal galaxy [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02829


The Sculptor dwarf spheroidal galaxy is old and metal-poor, making it ideal to study the earliest chemical enrichment in the Local Group. We followed up the most metal-poor star known in this (or any external) galaxy, AS0039, with high-resolution ESO VLT/UVES spectra. Our new analysis confirmed its low metallicity, [Fe/H]=-3.90, and that it is extremely C-poor, with A(C)=+3.60, which corresponds to [C/Fe]=-0.33 (accounting for internal mixing). This adds to the evidence of Sculptor being intrinsically C-poor at low [Fe/H]. However, here we also report a new discovery of a carbon-enhanced metal-poor star in Sculptor, DR20080, with no enhancement of Ba (CEMP-no), indicative of enrichment by zero-metallicity low-energy supernovae. This is the first evidence of a dual population of CEMP-no and C-normal stars in Sculptor at $\rm[Fe/H]\leq{-3}$. The fraction of CEMP-no stars is still low, $9^{+11}{-8}\%$ at $\rm -4\leq[Fe/H]\leq-3$, compared to the significantly higher fraction in the Milky Way halo, $\approx40\%$. In addition, we re-derive chemical abundances of light, $\alpha$-, iron peak, and neutron-capture elements in all Sculptor stars at $\rm [Fe/H]\leq-2.8$, with available high-resolution spectra. Our results show that at these low [Fe/H], Sculptor is deficient in light elements (e.g. C, Na, Al, Mg) relative to both the Milky Way halo, and ultra-faint dwarf galaxies, pointing towards significant contribution of high-energy supernovae. Furthermore, the abundance pattern of the star AS0039 is best fitted with a zero-metallicity hypernova progenitor, with a mass of $M=20$M$\odot$. Our results in Sculptor, at $\rm[Fe/H]\leq-3$, therefore suggest significant enrichment by both very low-energy supernovae and hypernovae, solidifying this galaxy as one of the benchmarks for understanding the energy distribution of the first supernova in the Universe.

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&. Skúladóttir, I. Vanni, S. Salvadori, et. al.
Fri, 5 May 23
55/67

Comments: Accepted in A&A

Are all metal-poor stars of second-generation? [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02358


Hydrodynamical cosmological simulations predict that the metal-free Population III (Pop III) stars were likely very massive and, therefore, short-lived. However, they left their chemical imprint on their descendants, which can also have masses $ < 0.8 \mathrm {M_{\odot}}$ and still be alive today. The Milky Way stellar halo is one of the oldest and most metal-poor component of the Local Group and a peculiar class of stars, the so-called Carbon-Enhanced Metal-Poor (CEMP-no) stars, seem to be directly related to Pop III stars. We aim at revealing if all metal-poor halo stars are true second-generation stars or if they have also been enriched by the subsequent generations of normal (Pop II) stars. For this purpose, we compare the measured carbon and iron abundances of the metal-poor halo stars with the ones predicted by our simple parametric model, varying the pollution level from Pop III and normal stars. We find that only the most C-enhanced and Fe-poor stars enclose in their photospheres the pure imprint of Pop III stars, while, as the [C/Fe] decreases, the probability of being also polluted by normal Pop II stars increases.

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I. Vanni, S. Salvadori and &. Skúladóttir
Fri, 5 May 23
56/67

Comments: 7 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in MemSAIt

Seen and unseen: bursty star formation and its implications for observations of high-redshift galaxies with JWST [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02713


Both observations and simulations have shown strong evidence for highly time-variable star formation in low-mass and/or high-redshift galaxies, which has important observational implications because high-redshift galaxy samples are rest-UV selected and therefore particularly sensitive to the recent star formation. Using a suite of cosmological “zoom-in” simulations at $z>5$ from the Feedback in Realistic Environments (FIRE) project, we examine the implications of bursty star formation histories for observations of high-redshift galaxies with JWST. We characterize how the galaxy observability depends on the star formation history. We also investigate selection effects due to bursty star formation on the physical properties measured, such as the gas fraction, specific star formation rate, and metallicity. We find the observability to be highly time-dependent for galaxies near the survey’s limiting flux due to the SFR variability: as the star formation rate fluctuates, the same galaxy oscillates in and out of the observable sample. The observable fraction $f_\mathrm{obs} \sim 50\%$ at $M_{*} \sim 10^{8.5}$ to $10^{9}\,M_{\odot}$ for a JWST/NIRCam survey reaching a limiting magnitude of $m^\mathrm{lim}_\mathrm{AB} \approx 29$$-$30, representative of surveys such as JADES-Medium and CEERS. JWST-detectable galaxies near the survey limit tend to have properties characteristic of galaxies in the bursty phase: they show 10$-$30% higher cold, dense gas fractions and 80$-$100% higher specific star formation rates at a given stellar mass than galaxies below the rest-UV detection threshold. Our study represents a first step in quantifying selection effects and associated biases due to bursty star formation in studying high-redshift galaxy properties.

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G. Sun, C. Faucher-Giguère, C. Hayward, et. al.
Fri, 5 May 23
58/67

Comments: 7 pages, 4 figures, submitted to MNRAS; comments welcome

Star cluster progenitors are dynamically decoupled from their parent self-gravitating molecular clouds [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02701


The formation of stellar clusters dictates the pace at which galaxies evolve, and solving the question of their formation will undoubtedly lead to a better understanding of the Universe as a whole. While it is well known that star clusters form within parsec-scale over-densities of interstellar molecular gas called clumps, it is, however, unclear whether these clumps represent the high-density tip of a continuous gaseous flow that gradually leads towards the formation of stars, or a transition within the gas physical properties. Here, we present a unique analysis of a sample of 27 infrared dark clouds embedded within 24 individual molecular clouds that combine a large set of observations, allowing us to compute the mass and velocity dispersion profiles of each, from the scale of tens of parsecs down to the scale of tenths of a parsec. These profiles reveal that the vast majority of the clouds, if not all, are self-gravitating on all scales, and that the clumps, on parsec-scale, are often dynamically decoupled from their surrounding molecular clouds, exhibiting steeper density profiles ($\rho\propto r^{-2}$) and flat velocity dispersion profiles ($\sigma\propto r^0$), clearly departing from Larson’s relations. These findings suggest that the formation of star clusters correspond to a transition regime within the properties of the self-gravitating molecular gas. We propose that this transition regime is one that corresponds to the gravitational collapse of parsec-scale clumps within stable molecular clouds.

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N. Peretto, A. Rigby, F. Louvet, et. al.
Fri, 5 May 23
60/67

Comments: submitted to MNRAS, 35 pages, 49 figures (including appendices)

Inspiraling streams of enriched gas observed around a massive galaxy 11 billion years ago [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02344


Stars form in galaxies, from gas that has been accreted from the intergalactic medium. Simulations have shown that recycling of gas-the reaccretion of gas that was previously ejected from a galaxy-could sustain star formation in the early Universe. We observe the gas surrounding a massive galaxy at redshift 2.3 and detect emission lines from neutral hydrogen, helium, and ionized carbon that extend 100 kiloparsecs from the galaxy. The kinematics of this circumgalactic gas is consistent with an inspiraling stream. The carbon abundance indicates that the gas had already been enriched with elements heavier than helium, previously ejected from a galaxy. We interpret the results as evidence of gas recycling during high-redshift galaxy assembly.

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S. Zhang, Z. Cai, D. Xu, et. al.
Fri, 5 May 23
61/67

Comments: Published in Science, 5 May 2023 (accepted version), Main text 20 pages, four figures in the main text, and 13 figures and 4 tables in the supplementary materials;

Galaxy Morphology from $z\sim6$ through the eyes of JWST [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02478


We analyze the Near Infrared ($\sim0.8-1\mu$m) rest-frame morphologies of galaxies with $\log M_/M_\odot>9$ in the redshift range $0<z<6$, compare with previous HST-based results and release the first JWST-based morphological catalog of $\sim20,000$ galaxies in the CEERS survey. Galaxies are classified into four main broad classes — spheroid, disk+spheroid, disk, and disturbed — based on imaging with four filters — $F150W$, $F200W$, $F356W$, and $F444W$ — using Convolutional Neural Networks trained on HST/WFC3 labeled images and domain-adapted to JWST/NIRCam. We find that $\sim90\%$ and $\sim75\%$ of galaxies at $z<3$ have the same early/late and regular/irregular classification, respectively, in JWST and HST imaging when considering similar wavelengths. For small (large) and faint objects, JWST-based classifications tend to systematically present less bulge-dominated systems (peculiar galaxies) than HST-based ones, but the impact on the reported evolution of morphological fractions is less than $\sim10\%$. Using JWST-based morphologies at the same rest-frame wavelength ($\sim0.8-1\mu$m), we confirm an increase in peculiar galaxies and a decrease in bulge-dominated galaxies with redshift, as reported in previous HST-based works, suggesting that the stellar mass distribution, in addition to light distribution, is more disturbed in the early universe. However, we find that undisturbed disk-like systems already dominate the high-mass end of the late-type galaxy population ($\log M_/M_\odot>10.5$) at $z\sim5$, and bulge-dominated galaxies also exist at these early epochs, confirming a rich and evolved morphological diversity of galaxies $\sim1$ Gyr after the Big Bang. Finally, we find that the morphology-quenching relation is already in place for massive galaxies at $z>3$, with massive quiescent galaxies ($\log M_*/M_\odot>10.5$) being predominantly bulge-dominated.

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M. M.Huertas-Company, K. Iyer, E. Angeloudi, et. al.
Fri, 5 May 23
63/67

Comments: Submitted to A&A, comments welcome

M92 (NGC~6341) Is a Metal-Complex Globular Cluster with an Atypical Primordial Population [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02983


We present a multiple stellar population study of the metal-poor globular cluster (GC) M92 (NGC 6341), which is long known for the substantial metallicity dispersion, using our own photometric system. We find two groups with slightly different mean metallicities, the metal-poor (MP) stars with [Fe/H] = $-$2.412$\pm$0.03, while the metal-rich (MR) ones with $-$2.282$\pm$0.002. The MP constitutes about 23\% of the total mass with a more central concentration. Our populational tagging based on the [C/Fe] and [N/Fe] provides the mean n(P):n(I):n(E) = 32.2:31.6:36.2 ($\pm$2.4), where P, I, and E denote the primordial, intermediate, and extreme populations, respectively. Our populational number ratio is consistent with those of others. However, the MP has a significantly different populational number ratio than the mean value, and the domination of the primordial population in the MP is consistent with observations of Galactic GCs that less massive GCs contain larger fractions of the primordial population. Structural and constituent differences between the MP and MR may indicate that M92 is a merger remnant in a dwarf galaxy environment, consistent with recent suggestions that M92 is a GC in a dwarf galaxy or a remnant nucleus of the progenitor galaxy. Discrepancy between our method and those widely used for the HST photometry exists in the primordial population. Significant magnesium and oxygen depletions of $-$0.8 and $-$0.3 dex, respectively, and helium enhancement of $\Delta Y$ $\gtrsim$ 0.03 are required to explain the presence of this abnormal primordial group. No clear explanation is available with limited information of detailed elemental abundances.

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J. Lee
Fri, 5 May 23
65/67

Comments: Accepted for publication to the Astrophysical Journal Letters

Detections of 21-cm absorption with a blind FAST survey at z $\leqslant$ 0.09 [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02007


We present the early science results from a blind search of the extragalactic HI 21-cm absorption lines at z $\leqslant$ 0.09 with the drift-scan observation of the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST). We carried out the search using the data collected in 643.8 hours by the ongoing Commensal Radio Astronomy FasT Survey (CRAFTS), which spans a sky area of 3155 deg$^{2}$ and covers 44827 radio sources with a flux density greater than 12 mJy. Due to the radio frequency interference (RFI), only the relatively clean data in the frequency range of 1.3-1.45 GHz are used in the present work. Under the assumption of $T_{s}/c_{f}$ = 100 K, the total completeness-corrected comoving absorption path length spanned by our data and sensitive to Damped Lyman $\alpha$ Absorbers (DLAs) are $\Delta X^{inv}$ = 8.33$\times10^3$ ($\Delta z^{inv} = 7.81\times10^{3}$) for intervening absorption. For associated absorption, the corresponding values are $\Delta X^{asc}$ = 12.8 ($\Delta z^{asc} = 11.9$). Three known HI absorbers (UGC 00613, 3C 293 and 4C +27.14) and two new HI absorbers (towards NVSS J231240-052547 and NVSS J053118+315412) are detected blindly. We fit the HI profiles with multi-components Gaussian functions and calculate the redshift (0.063, 0.066), width, flux density, optical depth and HI column densities for each absorption. Our results demonstrate the power of FAST in blindly searching HI absorbers. For absorption towards NVSS J231240-052547, the optical counterparts are faint and currently lack existing spectra. The most likely interpretation is that a radio-loud active galactic nucleus (AGN) is faint in the optical as the background source, with a faint optical absorber in between. NVSS J053118+315412 exhibits an associated absorption with a complex profile, which may suggest unsettled gas structures or gas accretion onto the supermassive black hole (SMBH).

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W. Hu, Y. Wang, Y. Li, et. al.
Thu, 4 May 23
6/60

Comments: 18 pages, 19 figures

Outlier galaxy images in the Dark Energy Survey and their identification with unsupervised machine learning [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.01720


The Dark Energy Survey is able to collect image data of an extremely large number of extragalactic objects, and it can be reasonably assumed that many unusual objects of high scientific interest are hidden inside these data. Due to the extreme size of DES data, identifying these objects among many millions of other celestial objects is a challenging task. The problem of outlier detection is further magnified by the presence of noisy or saturated images. When the number of tested objects is extremely high, even a small rate of noise or false positives leads to a very large number of false detections, making an automatic system impractical. This study applies an automatic method for automatic detection of outlier objects in the first data release of the Dark Energy Survey. By using machine learning-based outlier detection, the algorithm is able to identify objects that are visually different from the majority of the other objects in the database. An important feature of the algorithm is that it allows to control the false-positive rate, and therefore can be used for practical outlier detection. The algorithm does not provide perfect accuracy in the detection of outlier objects, but it reduces the data substantially to allow practical outlier detection. For instance, the selection of the top 250 objects after applying the algorithm to more than $2\cdot10^6$ DES images provides a collection of uncommon galaxies. Such collection would have been extremely time-consuming to compile by using manual inspection of the data.

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L. Shamir
Thu, 4 May 23
7/60

Comments: A&C, accepted

An Interferometric SETI Observation of Kepler-111 b [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02262


The application of Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) to the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) has been limited to date, despite the technique offering many advantages over traditional single-dish SETI observations. In order to further develop interferometry for SETI, we used the European VLBI Network (EVN) at $21$~cm to observe potential secondary phase calibrators in the Kepler field. Unfortunately, no secondary calibrators were detected. However, a VLBA primary calibrator in the field, J1926+4441, offset only $\sim1.88’$ from a nearby exoplanet Kepler-111~b, was correlated with high temporal $\left(0.25 \ \rm{s}\right)$ and spectral $\left(16384 \times 488\ \rm{Hz \ channels}\right)$ resolution. During the analysis of the high-resolution data, we identified a spectral feature that was present in both the auto and cross-correlation data with a central frequency of $1420.424\pm0.0002$ MHz and a width of 0.25 MHz. We demonstrate that the feature in the cross-correlations is an artefact in the data, associated with a significant increase in each telescope’s noise figure due to the presence of \ion{H}{i} in the beam. This would typically go unnoticed in data correlated with standard spectral resolution. We flag (excluded from the subsequent analysis) these channels and phase rotate the data to the location of Kepler-111~b aided by the GAIA catalogue and search for signals with $\rm{SNR}>7$. At the time of our observations, we detect no transmitters with an Equivalent Isotropically Radiated Power (EIRP) > $\sim4\times10^{15}$ W.

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K. Wandia
Thu, 4 May 23
8/60

Comments: 11 pages, 12 figures

JWST UNCOVER: Discovery of $z>9$ Galaxy Candidates Behind the Lensing Cluster Abell 2744 [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.01793


We present the results of a search for high-redshift ($z>9$) galaxy candidates in the JWST UNCOVER survey, using deep NIRCam and NIRISS imaging in 7 bands over $\sim45$ arcmin$^2$ and ancillary HST observations. The NIRCam observations reach a $5-\sigma$ limiting magnitude of $\sim 29.2$ AB. The identification of high$-z$ candidates relies on a combination of a dropout selection and photometric redshifts. We find 16 candidates at $9<z<12$ and 3 candidates at $12<z<13$, eight candidates are deemed very robust. Their lensing amplification ranges from $\mu=1.2$ to 11.5. Candidates have a wide range of (lensing-corrected) luminosities and young ages, with low stellar masses ($6.8<$ log(M${\star}$/M${\odot}$) $<9.5$) and low star formation rates (SFR=0.2-7 M$_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$), confirming previous findings in early JWST observations of $z>9$. A few galaxies at $z\sim9-10$ appear to show a clear Balmer break between the F356W and F444W/F410M bands, which helps constrain their stellar mass. We estimate blue UV continuum slopes between $\beta=-1.8$ and $-2.3$, typical for early galaxies at $z>9$ but not as extreme as the bluest recently discovered sources. We also find evidence for a rapid redshift-evolution of the mass-luminosity relation and a redshift-evolution of the UV continuum slope for a given range of intrinsic magnitude, in line with theoretical predictions. These findings suggest that deeper JWST observations are needed to reach the fainter galaxy population at those early epochs, and follow-up spectroscopy will help better constrain the physical properties and star formation histories of a larger sample of galaxies.

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H. Atek, I. Chemerynska, B. Wang, et. al.
Thu, 4 May 23
9/60

Comments: Submitted to MNRAS

AT 2021loi: A Bowen Fluorescence Flare with a Rebrightening Episode, Occurring in a Previously-Known AGN [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.01694


AT 2021loi is an optical-ultraviolet transient located at the center of its host galaxy. Its spectral features identify it as a member of the “Bowen Fluorescence Flare” (BFF) class. The first member of this class was considered to be related to a tidal disruption event, but enhanced accretion onto an already active supermassive black hole was suggested as an alternative explanation. AT 2021loi, having occurred in a previously-known unobscured AGN, strengthens the latter interpretation. Its light curve is similar to those of previous BFFs, showing a rebrightening approximately one year after the main peak (which was not explicitly identified, but might be the case, in all previous BFFs). An emission feature around 4680 A, seen in the pre-flare spectrum, strengthens by a factor of $\sim$2 around the optical peak of the flare, and is clearly seen as a double peaked feature then, suggesting a blend of NIII $\lambda 4640$ with HeII $\lambda4686$ as its origin. The appearance of OIII $\lambda$3133 and possible NIII $\lambda\lambda4097,4103$ (blended with H$\delta$) during the flare further support a Bowen Fluorescence classification. Here, we present ZTF, ATLAS, Keck, Las Cumbres Observatory, NEOWISE-R, $Swift$, AMI and VLA observations of AT 2021loi, making it one of the best observed BFFs to date. AT 2021loi thus provides some clarity on the nature of BFFs but also further demonstrates the diversity of nuclear transients.

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L. Makrygianni, B. Trakhtenbrot, I. Arcavi, et. al.
Thu, 4 May 23
12/60

Comments: Submitted to ApJ. This version addresses comments from the referee

The Halo21 Absorption Modeling Challenge: Lessons From "Observing" Synthetic Circumgalactic Absorption Spectra [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.01842


In the Halo21 absorption modeling challenge we generated synthetic absorption spectra of the circumgalactic medium (CGM), and attempted to estimate the metallicity, temperature, and density (Z, T, and nH) of the underlying gas using observational methods. We iteratively generated and analyzed three increasingly-complex data samples: ion column densities of isolated uniform clouds, mock spectra of 1–3 uniform clouds, and mock spectra of high-resolution turbulent mixing zones. We found that the observational estimates were accurate for both uniform cloud samples, with Z, T, and nH retrieved within 0.1 dex of the source value for >90% of absorption systems. In the turbulent-mixing scenario, the mass, temperature, and metallicity of the strongest absorption components were also retrieved with high accuracy. However, the underlying properties of the subdominant components were poorly constrained because the corresponding simulated gas contributed only weakly to the H I absorption profiles. On the other hand, including additional components beyond the dominant ones did improve the fit, consistent with the true existence of complex cloud structures in the source data.

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Z. Hafen, S. Sameer, C. Hummels, et. al.
Thu, 4 May 23
24/60

Comments: 16 pages, 10 figures, submitted. Data and additional figures available upon request

EMPRESS. XIII. Chemical Enrichments of Young Galaxies Near and Far at z ~ 0 and 4-10: Fe/O, Ar/O, S/O, and N/O Measurements with Chemical Evolution Model Comparisons [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02078


We present gas-phase elemental abundance ratios of 7 local extremely metal-poor galaxies (EMPGs) including our new Keck/LRIS spectroscopy determinations together with 33 JWST $z\sim 4-10$ star-forming galaxies in the literature, and compare chemical evolution models. We develop chemical evolution models with the yields of core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe), Type Ia supernovae, hypernovae (HNe), and pair-instability supernovae (PISNe), and compare the EMPGs and high-$z$ galaxies in conjunction with dust depletion contributions. We find that high Fe/O values of EMPGs can (cannot) be explained by PISN metal enrichments (CCSN/HN enrichments even with the mixing-and-fallback mechanism enhancing iron abundance), while that the observed Ar/O and S/O values are much smaller than the predictions of the PISN models. The abundance ratios of the EMPGs can be explained by the combination of Type Ia SNe and CCSNe/HNe whose inner layers of argon and sulfur mostly fallback, which are comparable with Sculptor stellar chemical abundance distribution, suggesting that early chemical enrichment is taken place in the EMPGs. Comparing our chemical evolution models with the star-forming galaxies at $z\sim 4-10$, we find that the Ar/O and S/O ratios of the high-$z$ galaxies are comparable with those of the CCSNe/HNe models, while majority of the high-$z$ galaxies do not have constraints good enough to rule out contributions from PISNe. The high N/O ratio recently reported in GN-z11 cannot be explained even by rotating PISNe, but could be reproduced by the winds of rotating Wolf Rayet stars that end up as a direct collapse.

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K. Watanabe, M. Ouchi, K. Nakajima, et. al.
Thu, 4 May 23
26/60

Comments: N/A

The PAU Survey: Close galaxy pairs identification and analysis [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.01952


Galaxy pairs constitute the initial building blocks of galaxy evolution, which is driven through merger events and interactions. Thus, the analysis of these systems can be valuable in understanding galaxy evolution and studying structure formation. In this work, we present a new publicly available catalogue of close galaxy pairs identified using photometric redshifts provided by the Physics of the Accelerating Universe Survey (PAUS). To efficiently detect them we take advantage of the high-precision photo$-z$ ($\sigma_{68} < 0.02$) and apply an identification algorithm previously tested using simulated data. This algorithm considers the projected distance between the galaxies ($r_p < 50$ kpc), the projected velocity difference ($\Delta V < 3500$ km/s) and an isolation criterion to obtain the pair sample. We applied this technique to the total sample of galaxies provided by PAUS and to a subset with high-quality redshift estimates. Finally, the most relevant result we achieved was determining the mean mass for several subsets of galaxy pairs selected according to their total luminosity, colour and redshift, using galaxy-galaxy lensing estimates. For pairs selected from the total sample of PAUS with a mean $r-$band luminosity $10^{10.6} h^{-2} L_\odot$, we obtain a mean mass of $M_{200} = 10^{12.2} h^{-1} M_\odot$, compatible with the mass-luminosity ratio derived for elliptical galaxies. We also study the mass-to-light ratio $M/L$ as a function of the luminosity $L$ and find a lower $M/L$ (or steeper slope with $L$) for pairs than the one extrapolated from the measurements in groups and galaxy clusters.

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E. Gonzalez, F. Rodriguez, D. Navarro-Gironés, et. al.
Thu, 4 May 23
29/60

Comments: 13 pages, 10 figures, accepted by MNRAS

The dust enrichment and detectability of early galaxies in the JWST and ALMA era [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.01681


Recent observations with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) are yielding tantalizing hints of an early population of massive, bright galaxies at $z > 10$, with Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) observations indicating significant dust masses in place as early as $z\sim 7$. To understand the implications of these observations, we use the DELPHI semi-analytic model that jointly tracks the assembly of dark matter halos and their constituent baryons, including the key processes of dust enrichment. Our model employs only two redshift- and mass-independent free parameters that are tuned against all available galaxy data at $z \sim 5-9$ before it is used to make predictions up to $z \sim 20$. Our key results are: (1) the model progressively under-predicts the observed ultraviolet luminosity function (UV LF) at $z > 12$; observations at $z>16$ lie close to, or even above, a “maximal” model where all available gas is turned into stars; (2) UV selection would miss 34% of the star formation rate density at $z \sim 5$, decreasing to 17% by $z \sim 10$ for bright galaxies with $\rm{M_{UV}} < -19$; (3) the dust mass ($M_d$) evolves with the stellar mass ($M_$) and redshift as $\log(M_d) = 1.194\log(M_) + 0.0975z – 5.433$; (4) the escape fraction of UV photons ($f_{\rm esc}^{\rm UV}$) decreases with increasing mass and star formation rate. At $z \sim 7$, $f_{\rm esc}^{\rm UV} \sim 0.8~(0.1)$ for $M_* \sim 10^9~ (10^{11}) \, M_\odot$ galaxies; (5) the dust temperature increases with stellar mass, ranging between $30-33$ K for $M_* \sim 10^{9-11}M_\odot$ galaxies at $z \sim 7$. Finally, we predict the far infrared (FIR) LF at $z \sim 5-20$, testable with ALMA observations, and caution that spectroscopic redshifts and dust masses must be pinned down before invoking unphysical extrema in galaxy formation models.

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V. Mauerhofer and P. Dayal
Thu, 4 May 23
36/60

Comments: N/A

Binary Formation in a 100 $μ$m-dark Massive Core [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02286


We report high-resolution ALMA observations toward a massive protostellar core C1-Sa ($\sim$30 M$\odot$) in the Dragon Infrared Dark Cloud. At the resolution of 140 AU, the core fragments into two kernels (C1-Sa1 and C1-Sa2) with a projected separation of $\sim$1400 AU along the elongation of C1-Sa, consistent with a Jeans length scale of $\sim$1100 AU. Radiative transfer modeling using RADEX indicates that the protostellar kernel C1-Sa1 has a temperature of $\sim$75 K and a mass of 0.55 M$\odot$. C1-Sa1 also likely drives two bipolar outflows, one being parallel to the plane-of-the-sky. C1-Sa2 is not detected in line emission and does not show any outflow activity but exhibits ortho-H$2$D$^+$ and N$_2$D$^+$ emission in its vicinity, thus it is likely still starless. Assuming a 20 K temperature, C1-Sa2 has a mass of 1.6 M$\odot$. At a higher resolution of 96 AU, C1-Sa1 begins to show an irregular shape at the periphery, but no clear sign of multiple objects or disks. We suspect that C1-Sa1 hosts a tight binary with inclined disks and outflows. Currently, one member of the binary is actively accreting while the accretion in the other is significantly reduced. C1-Sa2 shows hints of fragmentation into two sub-kernels with similar masses, which requires further confirmation with higher sensitivity.

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S. Kong, H. Arce, J. Tobin, et. al.
Thu, 4 May 23
39/60

Comments: 7 figures, 2 tables, accepted by ApJ

EMPRESS. XIV. Strong High Ionization Lines of Young Galaxies at $z=0-8$: Ionizing Spectra Consistent with the Intermediate Mass Black Holes with $M_{\rm BH}\sim 10^3-10^6\ M_\odot$ [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02189


We present ionizing spectra estimated at 13.6–100 eV for ten dwarf galaxies with strong high ionization lines of He {\sc {ii}}$\lambda$4686 and [Ne {\sc{v}}]$\lambda$3426 ([Ne {\sc{iv}}]$\lambda$2424) at $z=0$ ($z=8$) that are identified in our Keck/LRIS spectroscopy and the literature (the JWST ERO program). With the flux ratios of these high ionization lines and $>10$ low-ionization lines of hydrogen, helium, oxygen, neon, and sulfur, we determine ionizing spectra consisting of stellar and non-thermal power-law radiation by photoionization modeling with free parameters of nebular properties including metallicity and ionization parameter, cancelling out abundance ratio differences. We find that all of the observed flux ratios are well reproduced by the photoinization models with the power law index $\alpha_{\rm EUV}$ of $\alpha_{\rm EUV}\sim (-1)-0$ and the luminosity $L_{\rm EUV}$ of $L_{\rm EUV}\sim 10^{40}-10^{42}$ erg s$^{-1}$ at $\sim 55-100$ eV for six galaxies, while four galaxies include large systematics in $\alpha_{\rm EUV}$ caused by stellar radiation contamination. We then compare $\alpha_{\rm EUV}$ and $L_{\rm EUV}$ of these six galaxies with those predicted by the black hole (BH) accretion disk models, and find that these galaxies have moderately soft/luminous ionizing spectra whose $\alpha_{\rm EUV}$ and $L_{\rm EUV}$ are similar to those of the intermediate mass black holes (IMBHs) in BH accretion disk models. Confirming these results with a known IMBH having a mass $M_{\rm BH}$ of $M_{\rm BH}=10^{5.75} \ M_\odot$, we find that four local galaxies and one $z=7.665$ galaxy have ionizing spectra consistent with those of IMBHs with $M_{\rm BH} \sim 10^3-10^5 \ M_\odot$.

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S. Hatano, M. Ouchi, H. Umeda, et. al.
Thu, 4 May 23
41/60

Comments: 19 pages, 8 figures