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At least 199 records · Page 11

Revitalizing Iron Redox by Anion-Insertion-Assisted Ferro- and Ferri-Hydroxides Conversion at Low Alkalinity

Iron hydroxides are desirable alkaline battery electrodes for low cost and environmental beneficence. However, hydrogen evolution on charging and Fe 3 O 4 formation on discharging cause low storage capacity and poor cycling life. Here, we report that green rust (GR) (Fe 2+ 4 Fe 3+ 2 (HO – ) 12 SO 4 ), formed via sulfate insertion, promotes Fe(OH) 2 /FeOOH conversion and shows a discharge capacity of ~211 mAh g –1 in half-cells and Coulombic efficiency of 93% after 300 cycles in full-cells. Theoretical calculations show that Fe(OH) 2 /FeOOH conversion is facilitated by intercalated sulfate anions. Classical molecular dynamics simulations reveal that electrolyte alkalinity strongly impacts the energetics of sulfate solvation, and low alkalinity ensures fast transport of sulfate ions. Anion-insertion-assisted Fe(OH) 2 /FeOOH conversion, also achieved with Cl – ion, paves a pathway toward efficient utilization of Fe-based electrodes for sustainable applications.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Molecular and biochemical characterization of rice developed through conventional integration of nDart1-0 transposon gene

Mutations, the genetic variations in genomic sequences, play an important role in molecular biology and biotechnology. During DNA replication or meiosis, one of the mutations is transposons or jumping genes. An indigenous transposon nDart1-0 was successfully introduced into local indica cultivar Basmati-370 from transposon-tagged line viz., GR-7895 (japonica genotype) through conventional breeding technique, successive backcrossing. Plants from segregating populationsshowed variegated phenotypes were tagged as BM-37 mutants. Blast analysis of the sequence data revealed that the GTP-binding protein, located on the BAC clone OJ1781_H11 of chromosome 5, contained an insertion of DNA transposon nDart1-0. The nDart1-0 has “A” at position 254 bp, whereas nDart1 homologs have “G”, which efficiently distinguishes nDart1-0 from its homologs. The histological analysis revealed that the chloroplast of mesophyll cells in BM-37 was disrupted with reduction in size of starch granules and higher number of osmophillic plastoglobuli, which resulted in decreased chlorophyll contents and carotenoids, gas exchange parameters (Pn, g, E, Ci), and reduced expression level of genes associated with chlorophyll biosynthesis, photosynthesis and chloroplast development. Along with the rise of GTP protein, the salicylic acid (SA) and gibberellic acid (GA) and antioxidant contents(SOD) and MDA levels significantly enhanced, while, the cytokinins (CK), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), catalase (CAT), total flavanoid contents (TFC) and total phenolic contents (TPC) significantly reduced in BM-37 mutant plants as compared with WT plants. These results support the notion that GTP-binding proteins influence the process underlying chloroplast formation. Therefore, it is anticipated that to combat biotic or abiotic stress conditions, the nDart1-0 tagged mutant (BM-37) of Basmati-370 would be beneficial.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Death at watersheds: Galaxy quenching in low-density environments

The evolution of galaxies is influenced by their local and global environment in the cosmic web. Galaxies with very old stellar populations (VO galaxies with D n (4000) index ≥1.75) mostly lie in the centres of galaxy clusters, where they evolve under the influence of processes characteristic of high-density cluster environments. However, VO galaxies have also been found in poor groups in global low-density environments between superclusters, which we call watershed regions. Our aim is to analyse the properties of galaxies in various cosmic environments with a focus on VO galaxies in the watershed regions to understand their evolution, and the origin of the large-scale morphology–density relation. We employ the Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR10 MAIN spectroscopic galaxy sample in the redshift range 0.009 ≤ z ≤ 0.200 to calculate the luminosity–density field of galaxies, to determine groups and filaments in the galaxy distribution, and to obtain data on galaxy properties. The luminosity–density field with smoothing length 8 h -1 Mpc, D8, characterises the global environment of galaxies. We analyse the group and galaxy contents of regions with various D8 thresholds. We divide groups into low- and high-luminosity groups based on the highest luminosity of groups in the watershed region, L gr ≤ 15 × 10 12 h -2 L ⊙ . We compare the stellar masses, the concentration index, and the stellar velocity dispersions of quenched and star-forming galaxies among single galaxies, satellite galaxies, and the brightest group galaxies (BGGs) in various environments. We show that the global density is most strongly related to the richness of galaxy groups. Its influence on the overall star formation quenching in galaxies is less strong. Correlations between the morphological properties of galaxies and the global density field are the weakest. The watershed regions with D8 < 1 are populated mostly by single galaxies, constituting 70% of all galaxies there, and by low-luminosity groups. Still, approximately one-third of all galaxies in the watershed regions are VO galaxies. They have lower stellar masses, smaller stellar velocity dispersions, and stellar populations that are up to 2 Gyr younger than those of VO galaxies in other global environments. In higher density global environments (D8 > 1), the morphological properties of galaxies are very similar. Differences in galaxy properties are the largest between satellites and BGGs in groups. Our results suggest that galaxy evolution is determined by the birthplace of galaxies in the cosmic web, and mainly by internal processes which lead to the present-day properties of galaxies. This may explain the similarity of (VO) galaxies in extremely different environments.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Insulators at fractional fillings in twisted bilayer graphene partially aligned to hexagonal boron nitride

At partial fillings of its flat electronic bands, magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene (MATBG) hosts a rich variety of competing correlated phases that show sample-to-sample variations. Divergent phase diagrams in MATBG are often attributed to the sublattice polarization energy scale, tuned by the degree of alignment of the hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) substrates typically used in van der Waals devices. Unaligned MATBG exhibits unconventional superconductor and correlated insulator phases, while nearly perfectly aligned MATBG/hBN exhibits zero-field Chern insulating phases and lacks superconductivity. Here we use scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy (STM/STS) to observe gapped phases at partial fillings of the flat bands of MATBG in a new intermediate regime of sublattice polarization, observed when MATBG is only partially aligned (θ Gr-hBN ≈ 1.65°) to the underlying hBN substrate. Under this condition, MATBG hosts not only phenomena that naturally interpolate between the two sublattice potential limits, but also unexpected gapped phases absent in either of these limits. At charge neutrality, we observe an insulating phase with a small energy gap (Δ < 5 meV) likely related to weak sublattice symmetry breaking from the hBN substrate. In addition, we observe new gapped phases near fractional fillings ν = ±1/3 and ν = ±1/6, which have not been previously observed in MATBG. Importantly, energy-resolved STS unambiguously identifies these fractional filling states to be of single-particle origin, possibly a result of the super-superlattice formed by two moiré superlattices. Finally, our observations emphasize the power of STS in distinguishing single-particle gapped phases from many-body gapped phases in situations that could be easily confused in electrical transport measurements, and demonstrate the use of substrate engineering for modifying the electronic structure of a moiré flat-band material.

Physics↗

Effects of thin metal contacts on few-layer van der Waals ferrielectric CuInP 2 S 6

Out-of-plane polarized ferroelectric materials in a capacitive structure provide a key component for several technological applications. Furthermore, two-dimensional materials are expected to aid in the quest for both ultrathin and flexible electronics. Of the various two-dimensional ferroelectrics with out-of-plane polarization, CuInP 2 S 6 is special in that the Cu atoms are highly mobile and it has been shown to possess both low- and high-polarization states. Here, using density-functional-theory calculations, we explore the stabilization of the ferroelectric state for several prototypical metal contacts (Gr, Ni, Cu, Au, and Ag). In all cases, we find that the ferroelectric state can be stabilized at fewer layers than in the freestanding case. For all of the considered conventional metal contacts, we also find the existence of a quasi-ferroelectric state that stabilizes a polar phase for thicknesses greater than two layers of CIPS. In the cases of Au and Ag, interfacial alignment and strain can be used to stabilize ferroelectricity at the bilayer limit. Furthermore, we find that the strength of the interaction between the contact and CuInP 2 S 6 also leads to stabilization of the high-polarization state when ferroelectricity is stabilized. Lastly, energy-barrier calculations show that the system is still switchable in the presence of contact doping from the metal contacts.

2D materials↗

Modeling of Transport Processes in Liquid-Metal Fusion Blankets: Past, Present, and Future

The successful development of robust breeding blanket systems will strongly rely on computational tools for predicting the complex behavior of the electrically conducting liquid-metal (LM) breeder flowing in the complex-shaped blanket ducts in the presence of a strong plasma-confining magnetic field, volumetric heating, and tritium generation. Associated transport processes involve magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) flows, heat transfer, corrosion, and tritium transport. This paper is an overview of past and present efforts in the development, application, and verification and validation (V&V) of such computational tools. As a result of the ongoing campaign on V&V of computer codes for LM blankets, the international fusion community has identified several candidates that promise to become real blanket design and analysis tools in the near future. Among them are HIMAG, MHD-UCAS, COMSOL Multiphysics, ANSYS FLUENT, ANSYS CFX, and OpenFOAM. The progress, over the last decade, in the application of such codes in blanket studies is tremendous. This is illustrated with two examples for a dual-coolant lead-lithium (DCLL) blanket: (1) integrated computer modeling for the recently designed DCLL blanket in the United States and (2) application of the code MHD-UCAS to the analysis of PbLi flows and heat transfer in a generic DCLL blanket prototype at high Hartmann (Ha ~ 10 4 ) and Grashof numbers (Gr ~ 10 12 ). Here, this paper also presents an approach to the development of a new integrated computational tool called the virtual dual-coolant lead-lithium (VDCLL) blanket, which elaborates the existing U.S. MHD code HIMAG.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Adaptive mesh refinement in binary black holes simulations

Abstract We discuss refinement criteria for the Berger–Rigoutsos (block-based) refinement algorithm in our numerical relativity code GR-Athena++ in the context of binary black hole (BBH) merger simulations. We compare three different strategies: the ‘box-in-box’ approach, the ‘sphere-in-sphere’ approach and a local criterion for refinement based on the estimation of truncation error of the finite difference scheme. We extract and compare gravitational waveforms using the three different mesh refinement methods and compare their accuracy against a calibration waveform and demonstrate that the sphere-in-sphere approach provides the best strategy overall when considering computational cost and the waveform accuracy. Ultimately, we demonstrate the capability of each mesh refinement method in accurately simulating gravitational waves from BBH systems—a crucial aspect for their application in next-generation detectors. We quantify the mismatch achievable with the different strategies by extrapolating the gravitational wave mismatch to higher resolution.

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗

Classical-quantum scattering

We analyze the framework recently proposed by Oppenheim et al (2023 Nat. Commun. 14; 2023 Phys. Rev. X 13 041040; arXiv:2302.07283 [gr-qc]; 2023 J. High Energy Phys. JHEP08(2023)163) to model relativistic quantum fields coupled to relativistic, classical, stochastic fields (in particular, as a model of quantum matter coupled to ‘classical gravity’). Perhaps surprisingly, we find that we can define and calculate scattering probabilities which are Lorentz-covariant and conserve total probability, at least at tree level. As a concrete example, we analyze 2→2 scattering of quantum matter mediated by a classical Yukawa field. Mapping this to a gravitational coupling in the non-relativistic limit, and assuming that we can treat large objects as point masses, we find that the simplest possible ‘classical-quantum’ gravity theory constructed this way gives predictions for 2→2 gravitational scattering which are inconsistent with simple observations of, e.g. spacecraft undergoing slingshot maneuvers. We comment on lessons learned for attempts to couple quantum matter to ‘non-quantum’ gravity, or more generally, for attempts to couple relativistic quantum and classical systems.

Carney, Daniel↗

An accurate perturbative approach to redshift space clustering of biased tracers in modified gravity

We extend the scale-dependent Gaussian Streaming Model (GSM) to produce analytical predictions for the anisotropic redshift-space correlation function for biased tracers in modified gravity models. Employing the Convolution Lagrangian Perturbation Theory (CLPT) re-summation scheme, with a local Lagrangian bias schema provided by the peak-background split formalism, we predict the necessary ingredients that enter the GSM, the real-space halo pairwise velocity and the pairwise velocity dispersion. We further consider effective field theory contributions to the pairwise velocity dispersion in order to model correctly its large scale behavior. We apply our method on two widely-considered modified gravity models, the chameleon-screened ƒ(R) Hu-Sawicki model and the nDGP Vainshtein model and compare our predictions against state-of-the-art N-body simulations for these models. We demonstrate that the GSM approach to predict the monopole and the quadrupole of the redshift-space correlation function for halos, gives very good agreement with the simulation data, for a wide range of screening mechanisms, levels of screening and halo masses at z = 0.5 and z = 1. Our work shows the applicability of the GSM, for cosmologies beyond GR, demonstrating that it can serve as a powerful predictive tool for the next stage of cosmological surveys like DESI, Euclid, LSST and WFIRST.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

The DESI DR1 peculiar velocity survey: growth rate measurements from the maximum likelihood fields method

We present the constraint on the growth rate of structure from the combination of DESI DR1 BGS sample, Fundamental Plane, and Tully-Fisher peculiar velocity catalogues using the maximum likelihood fields method. The combined catalogue contains 415,523 galaxy redshifts and 76,616 peculiar velocity measurements. To handle the large amount of data in the DESI DR1 peculiar velocity catalogue, we significantly improve the computational efficiency by rewriting the algorithm with JAX. After removing outliers and Tully-Fisher galaxies that are affected by systematics, we find fσ 8 = 0.483 -0.043 +0.080 (stat) ± 0.018(sys), consistent within 1σ with the power spectrum and correlation function analysis using the same dataset. Combining all three measurements with appropriate correlations, the consensus measurement is fσ 8 (z eff = 0.07) = 0.450±0.055, consistent with Planck +ΛCDM cosmology (fσ 8 = 0.449±0.008). Combining with the high redshift growth rate of structure measurements from DESI ShapeFit, the constraint on the growth index is γ = 0.58±0.11, consistent with GR.

cosmic flows↗

A Morphological Model to Separate Resolved–Unresolved Sources in the DESI Legacy Surveys: Application in the LS4 Alert Stream

Separating resolved and unresolved sources in large imaging surveys is a fundamental step to enable downstream science, such as searching for extragalactic transients in wide-field time-domain surveys. Here we present our method to effectively separate point sources from the resolved, extended sources in the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) Legacy Surveys (LS). We develop a supervised machine learning model based on the Gradient Boosting algorithm XGBoost. The features input to the model are purely morphological and are derived from the tabulated LS data products. We train the model using ∼2 × 10 5 LS sources in the COSMOS field with HST morphological labels and evaluate the model performance on LS sources with spectroscopic classification from the DESI Data Release 1 (∼2 × 10 7 objects) and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 17 (∼3 × 10 6 objects), as well as on ∼2 × 10 8 Gaia stars. A significant fraction of LS sources are not observed in every LS filter, and we therefore build a “Hybrid” model as a linear combination of two XGBoost models, each containing features combining aperture flux measurements from the “blue” (gr) and “red” (iz) filters. The Hybrid model shows a reasonable balance between sensitivity and robustness, and achieves higher accuracy and flexibility compared to the LS morphological typing. With the Hybrid model, we provide classification scores for ∼3 × 10 9 LS sources, making this the largest ever machine learning catalog separating resolved and unresolved sources. The catalog has been incorporated into the real-time pipeline of the La Silla Schmidt Southern Survey (LS4), enabling the identification of extragalactic transients within the LS4 alert stream.

astrostatistics↗

Transport and stability in sustained high q min , high β N discharges on DIII-D

Abstract To address the needs for a fusion pilot plan design, DIII-D/EAST joint experiments on DIII-D have demonstrated high normalized beta β N ∼ 4.2, toroidal beta β T ∼ 3.3% with q min > 2, q 95 ⩽ 8 sustained for more than six energy confinement times in high poloidal beta regime. The excellent energy confinement quality ( H 98y2 ∼ 1.8) is achieved with an internal transport barrier at high line-averaged Greenwald density fraction f Gr > 0.9. The trapped gyro-Landau fluid (TGLF) modeling of the transport characteristics shows that the beam-driven rotation does not play an important role in the high confinement quality. The modeling also captures very well several transport features, giving us confidence in using integrated modeling to project these experimental results to future machines. The high-performance phase is terminated by fast-growing modes triggered near the n = 1 ideal-wall kink stability limit. New radio frequency (RF) capabilities for off-axis current drive could remove the residual ohmic current to achieve a fully non-inductive state, and improve the mode–wall coupling to increase the ideal-wall β N limit, enabling sustainment of the fully non-inductive high performance plasma in stationary conditions.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Insights on the cycling behavior of a highly-prelithiated silicon–graphite electrode in lithium-ion cells

Nanosized silicon materials are being developed for use in the anodes of high-energy lithium-ion batteries. However, the high surface areas of these materials increase the rate of parasitic reactions in the electrode, which consume cyclable Li + and degrade battery performance. Prelithiation offers a realistic strategy to compensate for this reactivity, by injecting additional charge into the cell to counterbalance the Li + loss. Interestingly, the benefits offered by prelithiation extend beyond its more obvious purpose. Here, by using a reference electrode in NMC532//Si–Gr cells, we show how prelithiation alters the cycling potentials experienced by the Si-containing anode and how that translates into gains in cycle life. The rate of consumption of the prelithiated charge is lower than that expected from the behavior of non-prelithiated cells. Curiously, the Si particles become partially unresponsive during the C/3 cycling apparently because of kinetic constraints. Electrochemical studies on harvested electrodes in half-cells show that capacities are intact after the long-term cycling and that most of the lithium reservoir is still present in the anode. We conclude that the high capacity retention displayed by the prelithiated cells mainly results from a higher participation of graphite particles during the extended electrochemical cycling.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Probing the role of CNTs in Pt nanoparticle/CNT/graphene nanohybrids H 2 sensors

Abstract In the carbon nanotubes film/graphene heterostructure decorated with catalytic Pt nanoparticles using atomic layer deposition (Pt-NPs/CNTs/Gr) H 2 sensors, the CNT film determines the effective sensing area and the signal transport to Gr channel. The former requires a large CNT aspect ratio for a higher sensing area while the latter demands high electric conductivity for efficient charge transport. Considering the CNT’s aspect ratio decreases, while its conductivity increases ( i.e. , bandgap decreases), with the CNT diameter, it is important to understand how quantitatively these effects impact the performance of the Pt-NPs/CNTs/Gr nanohybrids sensors. Motivated by this, this work presents a systematic study of the Pt-NPs/CNTs/Gr H 2 sensor performance with the CNT films made from different constituent CNTs of diameters ranging from 1 nm for single-wall CNTs, to 2 nm for double-wall CNTs, and to 10–30 nm for multi-wall CNTs (MWCNTs). By measuring the morphology and electric conductivity of SWCNT, DWCNT and MWCNT films, this work aims to reveal the quantitative correlation between the sensor performance and relevant CNT properties. Interestingly, the best performance is obtained on Pt-NPs/MWCNTs/Gr H 2 sensors, which can be attributed to the compromise of the effective sensing area and electric conductivity on MWCNT films and illustrates the importance of optimizing sensor design.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗

Joint analysis of 6dFGS and SDSS peculiar velocities for the growth rate of cosmic structure and tests of gravity

ABSTRACT Measurement of peculiar velocities by combining redshifts and distance indicators is a powerful way to measure the growth rate of a cosmic structure and test theories of gravity at low redshift. Here we constrain the growth rate of the structure by comparing observed Fundamental Plane peculiar velocities for 15 894 galaxies from the 6dF Galaxy Survey (6dFGS) and Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) with predicted velocities and densities from the 2M++ redshift survey. We measure the velocity scale parameter $\beta \equiv {\Omega _{\rm m}^\gamma }/b = 0.372^{+0.034}_{-0.050}$ and $0.314^{+0.031}_{-0.047}$ for 6dFGS and SDSS, respectively, where Ωm is the mass density parameter, γ is the growth index, and b is the bias parameter normalized to the characteristic luminosity of galaxies, L*. Combining 6dFGS and SDSS, we obtain β = 0.341 ± 0.024, implying that the amplitude of the product of the growth rate and the mass fluctuation amplitude is fσ8 = 0.338 ± 0.027 at an effective redshift z = 0.035. Adopting Ωm = 0.315 ± 0.007, as favoured by Planck and using γ = 6/11 for General Relativity and γ = 11/16 for DGP gravity, we get $S_8(z=0) = \sigma _8 \sqrt{\Omega _{\rm m}/0.3} =0.637 \pm 0.054$ and 0.741 ± 0.062 for GR and DGP, respectively. This measurement agrees with other low-redshift probes of large-scale structure but deviates by more than 3σ from the latest Planck CMB measurement. Our results favour values of the growth index γ > 6/11 or a Hubble constant H0 > 70 km s−1 Mpc−1 or a fluctuation amplitude σ8 < 0.8 or some combination of these. Imminent redshift surveys such as Taipan, DESI, WALLABY, and SKA1-MID will help to resolve this tension by measuring the growth rate of cosmic structure to 1 per cent in the redshift range 0 < z < 1.

Said, Khaled↗

The Completed SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: measurement of the BAO and growth rate of structure of the luminous red galaxy sample from the anisotropic power spectrum between redshifts 0.6 and 1.0

ABSTRACT We analyse the clustering of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey Data Release 16 luminous red galaxy sample (DR16 eBOSS LRG) in combination with the high redshift tail of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey Data Release 12 (DR12 BOSS CMASS). We measure the redshift space distortions (RSD) and also extract the longitudinal and transverse baryonic acoustic oscillation (BAO) scale from the anisotropic power spectrum signal inferred from 377 458 galaxies between redshifts 0.6 and 1.0, with the effective redshift of zeff = 0.698 and effective comoving volume of $2.72\, {\rm Gpc}^3$. After applying reconstruction, we measure the BAO scale and infer DH(zeff)/rdrag = 19.30 ± 0.56 and DM(zeff)/rdrag = 17.86 ± 0.37. When we perform an RSD analysis on the pre-reconstructed catalogue on the monopole, quadrupole, and hexadecapole we find, DH(zeff)/rdrag = 20.18 ± 0.78, DM(zeff)/rdrag = 17.49 ± 0.52 and fσ8(zeff) = 0.454 ± 0.046. We combine both sets of results along with the measurements in configuration space and report the following consensus values: DH(zeff)/rdrag = 19.77 ± 0.47, DM(zeff)/rdrag = 17.65 ± 0.30 and fσ8(zeff) = 0.473 ± 0.044, which are in full agreement with the standard ΛCDM and GR predictions. These results represent the most precise measurements within the redshift range 0.6 ≤ z ≤ 1.0 and are the culmination of more than 8 yr of SDSS observations.

Gil-Marín, Héctor↗

Constraining Type Ia supernova explosions and early flux excesses with the Zwicky Transient Factory

In the new era of time-domain surveys, Type Ia supernovae are being caught sooner after explosion, which has exposed significant variation in their early light curves. Two driving factors for early-time evolution are the distribution of 56 Ni in the ejecta and the presence of flux excesses of various causes. We perform an analysis of the largest young SN Ia sample to date. We compare 115 SN Ia light curves from the Zwicky Transient Facility to the turtls model grid containing light curves of Chandrasekhar mass explosions with a range of 56 Ni masses, 56 Ni distributions, and explosion energies. We find that the majority of our observed light curves are well reproduced by Chandrasekhar mass explosion models with a preference for highly extended 56 Ni distributions. We identify six SNe Ia with an early-time flux excess in our gr-band data (four ‘blue’ and two ‘red’ flux excesses). We find an intrinsic rate of 18 ± 11 percent of early flux excesses in SNe Ia at z < 0.07, based on three detected flux excesses out of 30 (10 percent) observed SNe Ia with a simulated efficiency of 57 percent. This is comparable to rates of flux excesses in the literature but also accounts for detection efficiencies. Two of these events are mostly consistent with circumstellar material interaction, while the other four have longer lifetimes in agreement with companion interaction and 56 Ni-clump models. We find a higher frequency of flux excesses in 91T/99aa-like events (44 ± 13 percent).

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

New constraints on cosmological modified gravity theories from anisotropic three-point correlation functions of BOSS DR12 galaxies

Here we report a new test of modified gravity theories using the large-scale structure of the Universe. This paper is the first attempt to (1) apply a joint analysis of the anisotropic components of galaxy two- and three-point correlation functions (2 and 3PCFs) to actual galaxy data and (2) constrain the non-linear effects of degenerate higher-order scalar-tensor (DHOST) theories on cosmological scales. Applying this analysis to the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) data release 12, we obtain the lower bounds of –1.655 < ξ t and –0.504 < ξ s at the $95{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ confidence level on the parameters characterizing the time evolution of the tidal and shift terms of the second-order velocity field. These constraints are consistent with GR predictions of ξ t = 15/1144 and ξs = 0. Moreover, they represent a 35-fold and 20-fold improvement, respectively, over the joint analysis with only the isotropic 3PCF. We ensure the validity of our results by investigating various quantities, including theoretical models of the 3PCF, window function corrections, cumulative S/N, Fisher matrices, and statistical scattering effects of mock simulation data. We also find statistically significant discrepancies between the BOSS data and the Patchy mocks for the 3PCF measurement. Finally, we package all of our 3PCF analysis codes under the name hitomi and make them publicly available so that readers can reproduce all the results of this paper and easily apply them to ongoing future galaxy surveys.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗