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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 253 records · Page 14
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DOE OSTI2014

Upper limits to the magnetic field in central stars of planetary nebulae

More than about 20 central stars of planetary nebulae (CSPNs) have been observed spectropolarimetrically, yet no clear, unambiguous signal of the presence of a magnetic field in these objects has been found. We perform a statistical (Bayesian) analysis of all the available spectropolarimetric observations of CSPN to constrain the magnetic fields in these objects. Assuming that the stellar field is dipolar and that the dipole axis of the objects is oriented randomly (isotropically), we find that the dipole magnetic field strength is smaller than 400 G with 95% probability using all available observations. The analysis introduced allows integration of future observations to further constrain the parameters of the distribution, and it is general, so that it can be easily applied to other classes of magnetic objects. We propose several ways to improve the upper limits found here.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

BANYAN. III. Radial velocity, rotation, and X-ray emission of low-mass star candidates in nearby young kinematic groups

Based on high-resolution spectra obtained with PHOENIX at Gemini-South, CRIRES at VLT-UT1, and ESPaDOnS at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, we present new measurements of the radial and projected rotational velocities of 219 low-mass stars. The target likely membership was initially established using the Bayesian analysis tool recently presented in Malo et al., taking into account only the position, proper motion, and photometry of the stars to assess their membership probability. In the present study, we include radial velocity as an additional input to our analysis, and in doing so we confirm the high membership probability for 130 candidates: 27 in β Pictoris, 22 in Tucana-Horologium, 25 in Columba, 7 in Carina, 18 in Argus and 18 in AB Doradus, and 13 with an ambiguous membership. Our analysis also confirms the membership of 57 stars proposed in the literature. A subsample of 16 candidates was observed at 3 or more epochs, allowing us to discover 6 new spectroscopic binaries. The fraction of binaries in our sample is 25%, consistent with values in the literature. Of the stars in our sample, 20% show projected rotational velocities (vsin i) higher than 30 km s{sup –1} and therefore are considered as fast rotators. A parallax and other youth indicators are still needed to fully confirm the 130 highly probable candidates identified here as new bona fide members. Finally, based on the X-ray emission of bona fide and highly probable group members, we show that for low-mass stars in the 12-120 Myr age range, the X-ray luminosity is an excellent indicator of youth and better than the more traditionally used R {sub X} parameter, the ratio of X-ray to bolometric luminosity.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Supermassive black holes with high accretion rates in active galactic nuclei. II. The most luminous standard candles in the universe

This is the second in a series of papers reporting on a large reverberation mapping (RM) campaign to measure black hole (BH) mass in high accretion rate active galactic nuclei (AGNs). The goal is to identify super-Eddington accreting massive black holes (SEAMBHs) and to use their unique properties to construct a new method for measuring cosmological distances. Based on theoretical models, the saturated bolometric luminosity of such sources is proportional to the BH mass, which can be used to obtain their distance. Here we report on five new RM measurements and show that in four of the cases, we can measure the BH mass and three of these sources are SEAMBHs. Together with the three sources from our earlier work, we now have six new sources of this type. We use a novel method based on a minimal radiation efficiency to identify nine additional SEAMBHs from earlier RM-based mass measurements. We use a Bayesian analysis to determine the parameters of the new distance expression and the method uncertainties from the observed properties of the objects in the sample. The ratio of the newly measured distances to the standard cosmological ones has a mean scatter of 0.14 dex, indicating that SEAMBHs can be use as cosmological distance probes. With their high luminosity, long period of activity, and large numbers at high redshifts, SEAMBHs have a potential to extend the cosmic distance ladder beyond the range now explored by Type Ia supernovae.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

BANYAN. V. A SYSTEMATIC ALL-SKY SURVEY FOR NEW VERY LATE-TYPE LOW-MASS STARS AND BROWN DWARFS IN NEARBY YOUNG MOVING GROUPS

We present the BANYAN All-Sky Survey (BASS) catalog, consisting of 228 new late-type (M4-L6) candidate members of nearby young moving groups (YMGs) with an expected false-positive rate of ∼13%. This sample includes 79 new candidate young brown dwarfs and 22 planetary-mass objects. These candidates were identified through the first systematic all-sky survey for late-type low-mass stars and brown dwarfs in YMGs. We cross-matched the Two Micron All Sky Survey and AllWISE catalogs outside of the galactic plane to build a sample of 98,970 potential ≥M5 dwarfs in the solar neighborhood and calculated their proper motions with typical precisions of 5-15 mas yr{sup –1}. We selected highly probable candidate members of several YMGs from this sample using the Bayesian Analysis for Nearby Young AssociatioNs II tool (BANYAN II). We used the most probable statistical distances inferred from BANYAN II to estimate the spectral type and mass of these candidate YMG members. We used this unique sample to show tentative signs of mass segregation in the AB Doradus moving group and the Tucana-Horologium and Columba associations. The BASS sample has already been successful in identifying several new young brown dwarfs in earlier publications, and will be of great interest in studying the initial mass function of YMGs and for the search of exoplanets by direct imaging; the input sample of potential close-by ≥M5 dwarfs will be useful to study the kinematics of low-mass stars and brown dwarfs and search for new proper motion pairs.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Determining neutron star properties by fitting oblate-star waveform models to X-ray burst oscillations

We describe sophisticated new Bayesian analysis methods that make it possible to estimate quickly the masses and radii of rapidly rotating, oblate neutron stars by fitting oblate-star waveform models to energy-resolved observations of the waveforms of X-ray burst oscillations produced by such stars. We find that a 25% variation of the temperature of the hot spot in the north-south direction does not significantly bias estimates of the mass M and equatorial radius R{sub eq} derived by fitting a model that assumes a uniform-temperature spot. Our results show that fits of oblate-star waveform models to waveform data can simultaneously determine M and R{sub eq} with 1σ uncertainties ≲7% if (1) the star's rotation rate is ≳ 600 Hz; (2) the spot center and observer's sightline are both within 30{sup ∘} of the star's rotational equator; and (3) ∼10{sup 7} counts are collected during burst oscillations that have a fractional rms amplitude ≳10%. A fractional amplitude of ∼10% is realistic, and the accepted NICER and proposed LOFT and AXTAR space missions could collect 10{sup 7} counts from a single star by combining data from many X-ray bursts from the star. Uncertainties ≲7% are small enough to improve substantially our understanding of cold, ultradense matter.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

STAR CLUSTER PROPERTIES IN TWO LEGUS GALAXIES COMPUTED WITH STOCHASTIC STELLAR POPULATION SYNTHESIS MODELS

We investigate a novel Bayesian analysis method, based on the Stochastically Lighting Up Galaxies (slug) code, to derive the masses, ages, and extinctions of star clusters from integrated light photometry. Unlike many analysis methods, slug correctly accounts for incomplete initial mass function (IMF) sampling, and returns full posterior probability distributions rather than simply probability maxima. We apply our technique to 621 visually confirmed clusters in two nearby galaxies, NGC 628 and NGC 7793, that are part of the Legacy Extragalactic UV Survey (LEGUS). LEGUS provides Hubble Space Telescope photometry in the NUV, U, B, V, and I bands. We analyze the sensitivity of the derived cluster properties to choices of prior probability distribution, evolutionary tracks, IMF, metallicity, treatment of nebular emission, and extinction curve. We find that slug's results for individual clusters are insensitive to most of these choices, but that the posterior probability distributions we derive are often quite broad, and sometimes multi-peaked and quite sensitive to the choice of priors. In contrast, the properties of the cluster population as a whole are relatively robust against all of these choices. We also compare our results from slug to those derived with a conventional non-stochastic fitting code, Yggdrasil. We show that slug's stochastic models are generally a better fit to the observations than the deterministic ones used by Yggdrasil. However, the overall properties of the cluster populations recovered by both codes are qualitatively similar.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

DETECTING UNSPECIFIED STRUCTURE IN LOW-COUNT IMAGES

Unexpected structure in images of astronomical sources often presents itself upon visual inspection of the image, but such apparent structure may either correspond to true features in the source or be due to noise in the data. This paper presents a method for testing whether inferred structure in an image with Poisson noise represents a significant departure from a baseline (null) model of the image. To infer image structure, we conduct a Bayesian analysis of a full model that uses a multiscale component to allow flexible departures from the posited null model. As a test statistic, we use a tail probability of the posterior distribution under the full model. This choice of test statistic allows us to estimate a computationally efficient upper bound on a p-value that enables us to draw strong conclusions even when there are limited computational resources that can be devoted to simulations under the null model. We demonstrate the statistical performance of our method on simulated images. Applying our method to an X-ray image of the quasar 0730+257, we find significant evidence against the null model of a single point source and uniform background, lending support to the claim of an X-ray jet.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

Limits on semiclassical fluctuations in the primordial universe

We place limits on semiclassical fluctuations that might be present in the primordial perturbation spectrum. These can arise if some signatures of pre-inflationary features survive the expansion, or could be created by whatever mechanism ends inflation. We study two possible models for such remnant fluctuations, both of which break the isotropy of CMB on large scales. We first consider a semiclassical fluctuation in one Fourier mode of primordial perturbations. The second scenario we analyze is a semiclassical Gaussian bump somewhere in space. These models are tested with the seven-year WMAP data using a Markov Chain Monte Carlo Bayesian analysis, and we place limits on these fluctuations. The upper bound for the amplitude of a fluctuation in a single Fourier mode is a ≤ 10{sup −4}, while for the Gaussian bump a ≤ 10{sup −3}.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

Multi-variate joint PDF for non-Gaussianities: exact formulation and generic approximations

We provide an exact expression for the multi-variate joint probability distribution function of non-Gaussian fields primordially arising from local transformations of a Gaussian field. This kind of non-Gaussianity is generated in many models of inflation. We apply our expression to the non-Gaussianity estimation from Cosmic Microwave Background maps and the halo mass function where we obtain analytical expressions. We also provide analytic approximations and their range of validity. For the Cosmic Microwave Background we give a fast way to compute the PDF which is valid up to more than 7σ for f{sub NL} values (both true and sampled) not ruled out by current observations, which consists of expressing the PDF as a combination of bispectrum and trispectrum of the temperature maps. The resulting expression is valid for any kind of non-Gaussianity and is not limited to the local type. The above results may serve as the basis for a fully Bayesian analysis of the non-Gaussianity parameter.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Bayesian reconstruction of the velocity distribution of weakly interacting massive particles from direct dark matter detection data

In this paper, we extended our earlier work on the reconstruction of the (time-averaged) one-dimensional velocity distribution of Galactic Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) and introduce the Bayesian fitting procedure to the theoretically predicted velocity distribution functions. In this reconstruction process, the (rough) velocity distribution reconstructed by using raw data from direct Dark Matter detection experiments directly, i.e. measured recoil energies, with one or more different target materials, has been used as ''reconstructed-input'' information. By assuming a fitting velocity distribution function and scanning the parameter space based on the Bayesian analysis, the astronomical characteristic parameters, e.g. the Solar and Earth's Galactic velocities, will be pinned down as the output results.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Encyclopædia curvatonis

We investigate whether the predictions of single-field models of inflation are robust under the introduction of additional scalar degrees of freedom, and whether these extra fields change the potentials for which the data show the strongest preference. We study the situation where an extra light scalar field contributes both to the total curvature perturbations and to the reheating kinematic properties. Ten reheating scenarios are identified, and all necessary formulas allowing a systematic computation of the predictions for this class of models are derived. They are implemented in the public library ASPIC, which contains more than 75 single-field potentials. This paves the way for a forthcoming full Bayesian analysis of the problem. A few representative examples are displayed and discussed.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Do joint CMB and HST data support a scale invariant spectrum?

We combine current measurements of the local expansion rate, H {sub 0}, and Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) estimates of helium abundance with the latest cosmic microwave background (CMB) data from the Planck Collaboration to discuss the observational viability of the scale invariant Harrison-Zeldovch-Peebles (HZP) spectrum. We also analyze some of its extensions, namely, HZP + Y {sub P} and HZP + N {sub eff}, where Y {sub P} is the primordial helium mass fraction and N {sub eff} is the effective number of relativistic degrees of freedom. We perform a Bayesian analysis and show that the latter model is favored with respect to the standard cosmology for values of N {sub eff} lying in the interval 3.70 ± 0.13 (1σ), which is currently allowed by some independent analyses.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Constraining the break of spatial diffeomorphism invariance with Planck data

The current most accepted paradigm for the early universe cosmology, the inflationary scenario, shows a good agreement with the recent Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and polarization data. However, when the inflation consistency relation is relaxed, these observational data exclude a larger range of red tensor tilt values, prevailing the blue ones which are not predicted by the minimal inflationary models. Recently, it has been shown that the assumption of spatial diffeomorphism invariance breaking (SDB) in the context of an effective field theory of inflation leads to interesting observational consequences. Among them, the possibility of generating a blue tensor spectrum, which can recover the specific consistency relation of the String Gas Cosmology, for a certain choice of parameters. We use the most recent CMB data to constrain the SDB model and test its observational viability through a Bayesian analysis assuming as reference an extended ΛCDM+tensor perturbation model, which considers a power-law tensor spectrum parametrized in terms of the tensor-to-scalar ratio, r , and the tensor spectral index, n {sub t} . If the inflation consistency relation is imposed, r =−8 n {sub t} , we obtain a strong evidence in favor of the reference model whereas if such relation is relaxed, a weak evidence in favor of the model with diffeomorphism breaking is found. We also use the same CMB data set to make an observational comparison between the SDB model, standard inflation and String Gas Cosmology.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2012

INSTANTANEOUS STARBURST OF THE MASSIVE CLUSTERS WESTERLUND 1 AND NGC 3603 YC

We present a new method to determine the age spread of resolved stellar populations in a starburst cluster. The method relies on a two-step process. In the first step, kinematic members of the cluster are identified based on multi-epoch astrometric monitoring. In the second step, a Bayesian analysis is carried out, comparing the observed photometric sequence of cluster members with sets of theoretical isochrones. When applying this methodology to optical and near-infrared high angular resolution Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and adaptive optics observations of the {approx}5 Myr old starburst cluster Westerlund 1 and {approx}2 Myr old starburst cluster NGC 3603 YC, we derive upper limits for the age spreads of 0.4 and 0.1 Myr, respectively. The results strongly suggest that star formation in these starburst clusters happened almost instantaneously.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

THE RISE AND FALL OF THE STAR FORMATION HISTORIES OF BLUE GALAXIES AT REDSHIFTS 0.2 < z < 1.4

Popular cosmological scenarios predict that galaxies form hierarchically from the merger of many progenitors, each with their own unique star formation history (SFH). We use a sophisticated approach to constrain the SFHs of 4517 blue (presumably star-forming) galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts in the range 0.2 < z < 1.4 from the All-Wavelength Extended Groth Strip International Survey. This consists in the Bayesian analysis of the observed galaxy spectral energy distributions with a comprehensive library of synthetic spectra assembled using realistic, hierarchical star formation, and chemical enrichment histories from cosmological simulations. We constrain the SFH of each galaxy in our sample by comparing the observed fluxes in the B, R, I, and K{sub s} bands and rest-frame optical emission-line luminosities with those of one million model spectral energy distributions. We explore the dependence of the resulting SFHs on galaxy stellar mass and redshift. We find that the average SFHs of high-mass galaxies rise and fall in a roughly symmetric bell-shaped manner, while those of low-mass galaxies rise progressively in time, consistent with the typically stronger activity of star formation in low-mass compared to high-mass galaxies. For galaxies of all masses, the star formation activity rises more rapidly at high than at low redshift. These findings imply that the standard approximation of exponentially declining SFHs widely used to interpret observed galaxy spectral energy distributions may not be appropriate to constrain the physical parameters of star-forming galaxies at intermediate redshifts.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Copacabana: a probabilistic membership assignment method for galaxy clusters

Cosmological analyses using galaxy clusters in optical/near-infrared photometric surveys require robust characterization of their galaxy content. Precisely determining which galaxies belong to a cluster is crucial. In this paper, we present the COlor Probabilistic Assignment of Clusters And BAyesiaN Analysis (Copacabana) algorithm. Copacabana computes membership probabilities for all galaxies within an aperture centred on the cluster using photometric redshifts, colours, and projected radial probability density functions. We use simulations to validate Copacabana and we show that it achieves up to 89 per cent membership accuracy with a mild dependence on photometric redshift uncertainties and choice of aperture size. We find that the precision of the photometric redshifts has the largest impact on the determination of the membership probabilities followed by the choice of the cluster aperture size. We also quantify how much these uncertainties in the membership probabilities affect the stellar mass–cluster mass scaling relation, a relation that directly impacts cosmology. Using the sum of the stellar masses weighted by membership probabilities (⁠μ * ⁠) as the observable, we find that Copacabana can reach an accuracy of 0.06 dex in the measurement of the scaling relation at low redshift for a Legacy Survey of Space and Time type survey. These results indicate the potential of Copacabana and μ * to be used in cosmological analyses of optically selected clusters in the future.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Effect of recoils on soft-drop-groomed observables in 𝛾-tagged jets in a multistage approach

We investigate medium-induced modifications to jet substructure observables that characterize hard components in central Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{𝑠_{𝑁⁢𝑁}}$ = 5.02 TeV. Using a multistage Monte Carlo simulation of in-medium jet shower evolution, we explore flavor-dependent medium effects through simulations of inclusive and 𝛾-tagged jets. The results show that quark jets undergo a nonmonotonic modification compared with gluon jets in observables such as the Pb-Pb to 𝑝−𝑝 ratio of the soft drop prong angle 𝑟 𝑔 , the relative prong transverse momentum 𝑘 𝑇,𝑔 , and the groomed mass 𝑚 𝑔 distributions. Due to this nonmonotonic modification, 𝛾-tagged jets, enriched in quark jets, provide surprisingly clear signals of medium-induced structural modifications, distinct from effects dominated by selection bias. Further systematic studies demonstrate that these effects are dominated by recoil medium response. This work highlights the potential of hard substructures in 𝛾-tagged jets as powerful tools for probing the jet-medium interactions in high-energy heavy-ion collisions, in particular by enabling detailed investigations of jet-medium parton scatterings via their associated medium response. All simulations for 𝛾-tagged jet analyses carried out in this paper used triggered events containing at least one hard photon, which highlights the utility of these observables for future Bayesian analysis.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Dark matter clumps as sources of gravitational-wave glitches in LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA data

We consider the hypothetical possibility that nonstationary glitch features in the noise of ground-based gravitational-wave detectors could be produced by small dark matter clumps that pass through the earth in the vicinity of gravitational-wave detectors. Here, we first derive the gravitational-wave strain that would be generated by the passage of such a dark matter clump. We find that the strain is primarily sourced by the Newtonian gravitational acceleration of the mirrors toward the clump and by the Shapiro time delay of the photons in the laser beams as they pass through the gravitational potential created by the dark matter clump. We also find that the Newtonian acceleration effect dominates the gravitational-wave strain for both ground and space-based interferometers. We then compare our dark matter clump, gravitational-wave strain model to 84 Koi-Fish glitches detected during the second observing run of the LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA Collaboration through a Markov chain Monte Carlo Bayesian analysis. We find that all glitches but nine can be confidently rejected as having originated from dark matter clumps. For the remaining glitches, the dark matter hypothesis cannot be excluded, and the maximum a posteriori parameters yield minimum densities of about 10 −7 g⁡/cm 3 , within the model. These results allow us to place the first direct upper limits with gravitational-wave detectors on the local over-density of dark matter in the form of clumps in the local neighborhood of Earth, namely 𝜌 DM ⁢clumps ≲ 10 −15 g⁡/cm −3 .

Astronomy and AstroPhysics↗