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At least 37 records · Page 2
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2020

The turbulence driving parameter of molecular clouds in disc galaxies

ABSTRACT Supersonic turbulence plays a pivotal role during the formation of molecular clouds and stars in galaxies. However, little is known about how the fraction of compressive and solenoidal modes in the velocity field evolves over time and how it depends on properties of the molecular cloud or the galactic environment. In this work, we carry out magnetohydrodynamical simulations of disc galaxies and study the time evolution of the turbulence driving parameter for an ensemble of clouds. We find that the time-averaged turbulence driving parameter is insensitive to the position of the cloud within the galaxy. The ensemble-averaged driving parameter is found to be rather compressive with b ∼ 0.5–0.7, indicating almost time-independent global star formation properties. However, each individual cloud shows a highly fluctuating driving parameter, which would strongly affect the cloud’s star formation rate. We find that the mode of turbulence driving can rapidly change within only a few Myr, both from solenoidal to compressive and vice versa. We attribute these changes to cloud collisions and to tidal interactions with clouds or overdensities in the environment. Last, we find no significant differences in the average driving parameter between hydrodynamic and initially strongly magnetized galaxies. However, the magnetic field tends to reduce the overall fluctuation of the driving parameter. The average driving and its uncertainty are seen to be in agreement with recent constraints on the turbulence driving mode for solar neighbourhood clouds.

Körtgen, Bastian↗
DOE OSTI2024

Simulations of the Collision between a Debris Stream and an Outer Dusty Torus: A Possible Channel for Forming a Fast-rise and Long-delay Radio Outburst in Tidal Disruption Events

A geometrically thick dusty torus structure is believed to exist in the nuclear regions of galaxies (especially in active galactic nuclei). The debris stream from a tidal disruption event (TDE) will possibly collide with the dusty torus and produce a transient flare. We perform three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations to model the dynamical evolution of the interaction between unbound debris and a dusty torus. During the continuous interaction, shocked material will be spilled out from the interaction region and form an outflow. We calculate the temporal evolution of synchrotron emission by assuming that the shock accelerates a fraction of electrons in the outflow into a nonthermal distribution. We find that radio emission from the debris–torus collision generates a steep-rise and slow-decline radio light curve due to the sharp edge and dense gas of the dusty torus, where the radio outburst is delayed relative to the main optical/X-ray outburst by several years or even several tens of years. We apply our model to a TDE that happened in a narrow-line Seyfert I galaxy (PS16dtm), where both the radio spectrum and the light curve can be roughly reproduced. Future high-sensitivity, wide-field-of-view radio surveys have the opportunity to detect more such radio flares.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Production of alternate realizations of DESI fiber assignment for unbiased clustering measurement in data and simulations

A critical requirement of spectroscopic large scale structure analyses is correcting for selection of which galaxies to observe from an isotropic target list. This selection is often limited by the hardware used to perform the survey which will impose angular constraints of simultaneously observable targets, requiring multiple passes to observe all of them. In SDSS this manifested solely as the collision of physical fibers and plugs placed in plates. In DESI, there is the additional constraint of the robotic positioner which controls each fiber being limited to a finite patrol radius. A number of approximate methods have previously been proposed to correct the galaxy clustering statistics for these effects, but these generally fail on small scales. To accurately correct the clustering we need to upweight pairs of galaxies based on the inverse probability that those pairs would be observed (Bianchi & Percival 2017). This paper details an implementation of that method to correct the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) survey for incompleteness. To calculate the required probabilities, we need a set of alternate realizations of DESI where we vary the relative priority of otherwise identical targets. These realizations take the form of alternate Merged Target Ledgers (AMTL), the files that link DESI observations and targets. We present the method used to generate these alternate realizations and how they are tracked forward in time using the real observational record and hardware status, propagating the survey as though the alternate orderings had been adopted. We detail the first applications of this method to the DESI One-Percent Survey (SV3) and the DESI year 1 data. We include evaluations of the pipeline outputs, estimation of survey completeness from this and other methods, and validation of the method using mock galaxy catalogs.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2021

Distinguishing Tidal Disruption Events from Impostors

Recent claimed detections of tidal disruption events (TDEs) in multi-wavelength data have opened potential new windows into the evolution and properties of otherwise dormant supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in the centres of galaxies. At present, there are several dozen TDE candidates, which share some properties and differ in others. The range in properties is broad enough to overlap other transient types, such as active galactic nuclei (AGN) and supernovae (SNe), which can make TDE classification ambiguous. A further complication is that “TDE signatures” have not been uniformly observed to similar sensitivities or even targeted across all candidates. This chapter both reviews those events that are unusual relative to other TDEs, including the possibility of TDEs in pre-existing AGN, and summarises those characteristics thought to best distinguish TDEs from continuously accreting AGN, strongly flaring AGN, SNe, and Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs), as well as other potential impostors like stellar collisions, “micro-TDEs,” and circumbinary accretion flows. We conclude that multiple observables should be used to classify any one event as a TDE. We also consider the TDE candidate population as a whole, which, for certain host galaxy or SMBH characteristics, is distinguishable statistically from non-TDEs, suggesting that at least some TDE candidates do in fact arise from SMBH-disrupted stars.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Stragglers of the thick disc

Young alpha-rich (YAR) stars have been detected in the past as outliers to the local age - [α/Fe] relation. These objects are enhanced in α-elements, but they are apparently younger than typical thick disc stars. Here, we study the global kinematics and chemical properties of YAR giant stars in the APOGEE DR17 survey and show that they have properties similar to those of the standard thick disc stellar population. This leads us to conclude that YAR are rejuvenated thick disc objects, and the most likely explanation is that they are evolved blue stragglers. This is confirmed by their position in the Hertzsprung–Russel diagram (HRD). Extending our selection to dwarfs allowed us to obtain the first general straggler distribution in an HRD of field stars. We also compared the elemental abundances of our sample with those of standard thick disc stars and found that our YAR stars are shifted in oxygen, magnesium, sodium, and the slow neutron-capture element cerium. Although we detected no sign of binarity for most objects, the enhancement in cerium may be a signature of a mass transfer from an asymptotic giant branch companion. The most massive YAR stars suggest that mass transfer from an evolved star may not be the only plausible formation pathway and that other scenarios, such as collision or coalescence, should be considered.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Probing the hadronic nature of the gamma-ray emission associated with Westerlund 2

ABSTRACT Star-forming regions have been proposed as potential Galactic cosmic ray accelerators for decades. Cosmic ray acceleration can be probed through observations of gamma-rays produced in inelastic proton–proton collisions at GeV and TeV energies. In this paper, we analyse more than 11 yr of Fermi–LAT data from the direction of Westerlund 2, one of the most massive and best-studied star-forming regions in our Galaxy. In particular, we investigate the characteristics of the bright pulsar PSR J1023–5746 that dominates the gamma-ray emission below a few GeV at the position of Westerlund 2 and the underlying extended source FGES J1023.3–5747. The analysis results in a clear identification of FGES J1023.3–5747 as the GeV counterpart of the TeV source HESS J1023-575, through its morphological and spectral properties. This identification provides new clues about the origin of the HESS J1023-575 gamma-ray emission, favouring a hadronic origin of the emission, powered by Westerlund 2, rather than a leptonic origin related to either the pulsar wind nebula associated with PSR J1023–5746 or the cluster itself. This result indirectly supports the hypothesis that star-forming regions can contribute to the cosmic ray sea observed in our Galaxy.

Mestre, Enrique↗
DOE OSTI2025

Thermodynamics and collisionality in firehose-susceptible high- β plasmas

We study the evolution of collisionless plasmas that, due to their macroscopic evolution, are susceptible to the firehose instability, using both analytic theory and hybrid-kinetic particle-in-cell simulations. We establish that, depending on the relative magnitude of the plasma β, the characteristic time scale of macroscopic evolution and the ion-Larmor frequency, the saturation of the firehose instability in high-β plasmas can result in three qualitatively distinct thermodynamic (and electromagnetic) states. By contrast with the previously identified ‘ultra-high-beta’ and ‘Alfvén-inhibiting’ states, the newly identified ‘Alfvén-enabling’ state, which is realised when the macroscopic evolution time τ exceeds the ion-Larmor frequency by a β-dependent critical parameter, can support linear Alfvén waves and Alfvénic turbulence because the magnetic tension associated with the plasma’s macroscopic magnetic field is never completely negated by anisotropic pressure forces. We characterise these states in detail, including their saturated magnetic-energy spectra. The effective collision operator associated with the firehose fluctuations is also described; we find it to be well approximated in the Alfvén-enabling state by a simple quasi-linear pitch-angle scattering operator. The box-averaged collision frequency is ν eff ∼ β/τ, in agreement with previous results, but certain subpopulations of particles scatter at a much larger (or smaller) rate depending on their velocity in the direction parallel to the magnetic field. Our findings are essential for understanding low-collisionality astrophysical plasmas including the solar wind, the intracluster medium of galaxy clusters and black hole accretion flows. We show that all three of these plasmas are in the Alfvén-enabling regime of firehose saturation and discuss the implications of this result.

astrophysical plasmas↗
DOE OSTI2025

Proposal from the NA61/SHINE Collaboration for update of European Strategy for Particle Physics

Building on the current program's success and driven by new physics challenges, the NA61/SHINE Collaboration proposes to continue measuring hadron production properties in reactions induced by hadron and ion beams after CERN Long Shutdown 3. These measurements are of significant interest to the heavy-ion, cosmic-ray, and neutrino physics communities and will focus on: - Investigating hadron production in the light-ion systems to explore the diagram of high-energy nuclear collisions, and to obtain new insight into the unexpected violation of isospin (flavor) symmetry recently observed by the experiment; - Measuring charm-anticharm correlations to gain unique insights into the production locality of charm and anticharm quark pairs; - Examining strangeness and multi-strangeness production to improve our understanding of the early Universe's evolution and neutron star formation; - Measuring cross sections relevant for cosmic-ray measurements, significantly boosting searches for new physics in our Galaxy; - Conducting hadron production measurements with proton, pion, and kaon beams for neutrino physics, enhancing the precision of hadron production data needed for initial neutrino flux predictions in neutrino oscillation experiments; - Measuring hadron production processes relevant for understanding the flux of atmospheric neutrinos, as well as neutrinos and muons from spallation sources. To achieve these objectives, a detector upgrade and a beam upgrade are required, with data-taking planned for the period 2029-2032 and beyond.

Adhikary, H. [Jan Kochanowski U.] (ORCID:000000025↗
DOE OSTI2024

Fireball antinucleosynthesis

The tentative identification of approximately ten relativistic antihelium ( He ¯ ) cosmic-ray events at AMS-02 would, if confirmed, challenge our understanding of the astrophysical synthesis of heavy antinuclei. We propose a novel scenario for the enhanced production of such antinuclei that is triggered by isolated, catastrophic injections of large quantities of energetic Standard Model (SM) antiquarks in our galaxy by physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM). We demonstrate that SM antinucleosynthetic processes that occur in the resulting rapidly expanding, thermalized fireballs of SM plasma can, for a reasonable range of parameters, produce the reported tentative ∼ 2 : 1 ratio of He ¯ 3 to He ¯ 4 events at AMS-02, as well as their relativistic boosts. Moreover, we show that this can be achieved without violating antideuterium or antiproton flux constraints for the appropriate antihelium fluxes. A plausible BSM paradigm for the catastrophic injections is the collision of macroscopic composite dark-matter objects carrying large net antibaryon number. Such a scenario would require these objects to be cosmologically stable, but to destabilize upon collision, promptly releasing a fraction of their mass energy into SM antiparticles within a tiny volume. We show that, in principle, the injection rate needed to attain the necessary antihelium fluxes and the energetic conditions required to seed the fireballs appear possible to obtain in such a paradigm. We leave open the question of constructing a BSM particle physics model to realize this, but we suggest two concrete scenarios as promising targets for further investigation. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Brightest cluster galaxies: the centre can(not?) hold

ABSTRACT We explore the persistence of the alignment of brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) with their local environment. We find that a significant fraction of BCGs do not coincide with the centroid of the X-ray gas distribution and/or show peculiar velocities (they are not at rest with respect to the cluster mean). Despite this, we find that BCGs are generally aligned with the cluster mass distribution even when they have significant offsets from the X-ray centre and significant peculiar velocities. The large offsets are not consistent with simple theoretical models. To account for these observations BCGs must undergo mergers preferentially along their major axis, the main infall direction. Such BCGs may be oscillating within the cluster potential after having been displaced by mergers or collisions, or the dark matter halo itself may not yet be relaxed.

De Propris, Roberto↗
DOE OSTI2021

Modifying PyUltraLight to model scalar dark matter with self-interactions

Here we introduce a modification of the pysiultralight code that models the dynamical evolution of ultralight axionlike scalar dark matter fields. Our modified code, pysiultralight, adds a quartic, self-interaction term to reflect the one which arises naturally in axionlike particle models. Using a particle mass of 10−22 eV/c 2 , we show that pysiultralight produces spatially oscillating solitons, exploding solitons, and collapsing solitons which prior analytic work shows will occur with attractive self-interactions. Using our code we calculate the oscillation frequency as a function of soliton mass and equilibrium radius in the presence of attractive self-interactions. We show that when the soliton mass is below the critical mass ($M_c$ = $\frac{\sqrt{3}}{2} M_{max}$) described by Chavanis and the initial radius is within a specific range, solitons are unstable and explode. We test the maximum mass criteria described by Chavanis and Chavanis and Delfini for a soliton to collapse when attractive self-interactions are included. We also analyze both binary soliton collisions and a soliton rotating around a central mass with attractive and repulsive self-interactions. We find that when attractive self-interactions are included, the density profiles get distorted after a binary collision. We also find that a soliton is less susceptible to tidal stripping when attractive self-interactions are included. We find that the opposite is true for repulsive self-interactions in that solitons would be more easily tidally stripped. Including self-interactions might therefore influence the survival timescales of infalling solitons.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Modeling Hydrodynamic Instabilities, Shocks, and Radiation Waves in High Energy Density Experiments [Dissertation]

This thesis presents the computational design, modeling, and analysis of three experiments in high-energy density physics (HEDP), all of them concerning fundamental radiation flows. The first experiment is a laboratory astrophysics experiment to investigate the role of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHI) in the process of galactic filaments supplying gas to galactic halos. The achieved goal was to provide a first study in which the role of the instability is maximal and predict behavior in future iterations of an experiment accessing a more radiative regime where the role of the instability is stifled. This experiment would help answer how certain galaxies are able to grow so rapidly and produce many stars as the KHI limits this process. The second experiment, COAX, is a radiation flow experiment with a novel spectroscopy diagnostic configuration, designed to spatially measure the temperature of a radiation wave as it travels down a doped foam. A key result of this work was the development of a synthetic spectroscopy application and application of modern spectroscopy comparison techniques to provide our first temperature reconstructions from the experimental data. This experimental platform serves as the launching ground for a number of new experiments that vary the basic premise and thus is foundational to our ongoing research. The final experiment is a full integration of modeling, design, and theoretical development for the Radishock experiment. This experimental platform studies the head-on collision of a radiation wave with a counter-propagating shock, and like COAX, uses spectroscopy to diagnose and detect the interaction. My research analyzes the successful shots, indicating aspects of successful detections and suggests improvements to future iterations of the design.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Directed Gas-Phase Formation of Azulene (C 10 H 8 ): Unraveling the Bottom-Up Chemistry of Saddle-Shaped Aromatics

The azulene (C 10 H 8 ) molecule, the simplest polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) carrying a fused seven- and five-membered ring, is regarded as a fundamental molecular building block of saddle-shaped carbonaceous nanostructures such as curved nanographenes in the interstellar medium. However, an understanding of the underlying gas-phase formation mechanisms of this nonbenzenoid 10π-Hückel aromatic molecule under low-temperature conditions is in its infancy. Here, by merging crossed molecular beam experiments with electronic structure calculations and molecular dynamics simulations, our investigations unravel an unconventional low-temperature, barrierless route to azulene via the reaction of the simplest organic radical, methylidyne (CH), with indene (C 9 H 8 ) through ring expansion. This reaction might represent the initial step toward to the formation of saddle-shaped PAHs with seven-membered ring moieties in hydrocarbon-rich cold molecular clouds such as the Taurus Molecular Cloud-1 (TMC-1). These findings challenge conventional wisdom that molecular mass growth processes to nonplanar PAHs, especially those containing seven-membered rings, operate only at elevated pressure and high-temperature conditions, thus affording a versatile low-temperature route to contorted aromatics in our galaxy.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2024

TeV Neutrinos and Hard X-Rays from Relativistic Reconnection in the Corona of NGC 1068

Abstract The recent discovery of astrophysical neutrinos from the Seyfert galaxy NGC 1068 suggests the presence of nonthermal protons within a compact “coronal” region close to the central black hole. The acceleration mechanism of these nonthermal protons remains elusive. We show that a large-scale magnetic reconnection layer, of the order of a few gravitational radii, may provide such a mechanism. In such a scenario, rough energy equipartition between magnetic fields, X-ray photons, and nonthermal protons is established in the reconnection region. Motivated by recent 3D particle-in-cell simulations of relativistic reconnection, we assume that the spectrum of accelerated protons is a broken power law, with the break energy being constrained by energy conservation (i.e., the energy density of accelerated protons is at most comparable to the magnetic energy density). The proton spectrum is dn p / dE p ∝ E p − 1 below the break and dn p / dE p ∝ E p − s above the break, with IceCube neutrino observations suggesting s ≃ 3. Protons above the break lose most of their energy within the reconnection layer via photohadronic collisions with the coronal X-rays, producing a neutrino signal in good agreement with the recent observations. Gamma rays injected in photohadronic collisions are cascaded to lower energies, sustaining the population of electron–positron pairs that makes the corona moderately Compton thick.

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗
DOE OSTI2023

Hydrodynamical Simulations of Black Hole Binary Formation in AGN Disks

Abstract We study close encounters between two single black holes (BHs) embedded in an AGN disk using a series of global 2D hydrodynamics simulations. We find that when the disk density is sufficiently high, bound BH binaries can be formed by the collision of their circum-single disks. Our analysis demonstrates that, after a BH pair passes the pericenter of their relative trajectory, post-collision gas drag may slow down the BHs, possibly forcing the two BHs to stay tightly bound. A binary formed by a close encounter can have a compact semimajor axis, large eccentricity, and retrograde orbital angular momentum. We provide a fitting formula that can accurately predict whether a close encounter can form a binary based on the gas mass and the incoming energy of the encounter. This fitting formula can be easily implemented in other long-term simulations that study the dynamical evolution of BHs in active galactic nucleus disks.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Exemplary Merging Clusters: Weak-lensing and X-Ray Analysis of the Double Radio Relic, Merging Galaxy Clusters MACS J1752.0+4440 and ZWCL 1856.8+6616

We report the investigation of merging galaxy clusters that exhibit radio relics is strengthening our understanding of the formation and evolution of galaxy clusters, the nature of dark matter, the intracluster medium, and astrophysical particle acceleration. Each merging cluster provides only a single view of the cluster formation process, and the variety of merging clusters is vast. Clusters hosting double radio relics are rare and extremely important because they allow tight constraints on the merger scenario. We present a weak-lensing and X-ray analysis of MACS J1752.0+4440 (z = 0.365) and ZWCL 1856.8+6616 (z = 0.304), two double radio relic clusters. Our weak-lensing mass estimates show that each cluster is a major merger with approximately 1:1 mass ratio. The total mass of MACS J1752.0+4440 (ZWCL 1856.8+6616) is M 200 =14.7 $_{-3.3}+{+3.8}$ x 10 14 M ⊙ M 200 = 2.4 $_{-0.7}^{+0.9}$ 10 14 M ⊙ ). We find that these two clusters have comparable features in their weak-lensing and gas distributions, even though the systems have vastly different total masses. From the likeness of the X-ray morphologies and the remarkable symmetry of the radio relics, we propose that both systems underwent nearly head-on collisions. However, revelations from the hot-gas features and our multiwavelength data analysis suggest that ZWCL 1856.8+6618 is likely at a later merger phase than MACS J1752.0+4440. We postulate that the SW radio relic in MACS J1752.0+4440 is a result of particle reacceleration.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

On a Critical Acceleration Scale of Dark Matter in ΛCDM and Dynamical Dark Energy

Abstract Universal acceleration a 0 emerges in various empirical laws, yet its fundamental nature remains unclear. Using Illustris and Virgo N -body simulations, we focus on the velocity and acceleration fluctuations in collisionless dark matter involving long-range gravity. For comparison, in the kinetic theory of gases, molecules undergo random elastic collisions involving short-range interactions, where only velocity fluctuations are relevant. Hierarchical structure formation proceeds through the merging of smaller halos to form larger halos, which facilitates a continuous energy cascade from small to large halos at a constant rate ε u ≈ −10 −7 m 2 s −3 . Velocity fluctuations involve a critical velocity u c ∝ (1 + z ) −3/4 . Acceleration fluctuations involve a critical acceleration a c ∝ (1 + z ) 3/4 . Two critical quantities are related by the rate of energy cascade ε u ≈ − a c u c /[2(3 π ) 2 ], where factor 3 π is from the angle of incidence during merging. With critical velocity u c on the order of 300 km s −1 at z = 0, the critical acceleration is determined to be a c 0 ≡ a c ( z = 0) ≈ 10 −10 m s −2 , suggesting a c might explain the universal acceleration a 0 ≈ 10 −10 m s −2 in the empirical Tully–Fisher relation or modified Newtonian dynamics. The redshift evolution a c ∝ (1 + z ) 3/4 is in good agreement with Magneticum and EAGLE simulations and in reasonable agreement with limited observations. This suggests a larger a 0 at a higher redshift such that galaxies of fixed mass rotate faster at a higher redshift. Note that for dark energy (DE) density ρ DE 0 ≈ a c 0 2 / G = 1 0 − 10 J m −3 , we postulate an entropic origin of the DE from acceleration fluctuations of dark matter, analogous to the gas pressure from velocity fluctuations. This leads to a dynamical DE coupled to the structure evolution involving a relatively constant DE density followed by a slow weakening phase, suggesting possible deviations from the standard ΛCDM paradigm.

N-body simulations↗
DOE OSTI2021

Landau Modes are Eigenmodes of Stellar Systems in the Limit of Zero Collisions

Abstract We consider the spectrum of eigenmodes in a stellar system dominated by gravitational forces in the limit of zero collisions. We show analytically and numerically using the Lenard–Bernstein collision operator that the Landau modes, which are not true eigenmodes in a strictly collisionless system (except for the Jeans unstable mode), become part of the true eigenmode spectrum in the limit of zero collisions. Under these conditions, the continuous spectrum of true eigenmodes in a collisionless system, also known as the Case–van Kampen modes, is eliminated. Furthermore, because the background distribution function in a weakly collisional system can exhibit significant deviations from a Maxwellian distribution function over long times, we show that the spectrum of Landau modes can change drastically even in the presence of slight deviations from a Maxwellian, primarily through the appearance of weakly damped modes that may be otherwise heavily damped for a Maxwellian distribution. Our results provide important insights for developing statistical theories to describe thermal fluctuations in a stellar system, which are currently a subject of great interest for N -body simulations as well as observations of gravitational systems.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗