The second solar spectrum is the solar spectrum of Stokes parameter Q observed in linear polarization close to the solar limb. It differs significantly of the usual intensity spectrum (Stokes parameter I). The second solar spectrum contains in the visible range a few polarized lines with Q/I > 1% (such as CaI, SrI, SrII, BaII), but most lines exhibit weak or very faint polarization rates (Q/I < 0.3%). This paper presents unpublished observations made in 2004-2006 of weak polarized lines performed with the Pic du Midi Turret Dome spectropolarimeter, such as atomic lines of Na, Al, H, He, Ti, Li, Sc as well as C2 and MgH molecules.
We present UV and X-ray observations, obtained with the Swift Observatory, of Gaia BH3 a binary system containing a 33 solar masses black hole discovered through Gaia astrometry. The system is well detected in all UV and optical filters (1700-6500 Å). We compare our results with the modeling of the non collapsed component using synthetic stellar libraries, a good agreement is found with our UV observations
We report on the first measurement of the astrophysical neutrino flux using particle showers (cascades) in IceCube data from 2010 -- 2015. Assuming standard oscillations, the astrophysical neutrinos in this dedicated cascade sample are dominated ($\sim 90 \%$) by electron and tau flavors. The flux, observed in the energy range from $16\,\mathrm{TeV} $ to $2.6\,\mathrm{PeV}$, is consistent with a single power-law as expected from Fermi-type acceleration of high energy particles at astrophysical sources. We find the flux spectral index to be $\gamma=2.53\pm0.07$ and a flux normalization for each neutrino flavor of $\phi_{astro} = 1.66^{+0.25}_{-0.27}$ at $E_{0} = 100\, \mathrm{TeV}$. This flux of electron and tau neutrinos is in agreement with IceCube muon neutrino results and with all-neutrino flavor results. Results from fits assuming more complex neutrino flux models suggest a flux softening at high energies and a flux hardening at low energies (p-value $\ge 0.06$).
This study focuses on determining the characteristics of the young open cluster NGC 6383. To achieve this, the HDBSCAN clustering algorithm is utilized to identify potential cluster members based on proper motions and parallaxes from Gaia Data Release 3. Various parameters of NGC 6383, such as tidal radius, core radius, distance through parallax and isochrone-fitting, proper motion, age, metallicity, and relevant others, are assessed. To perform this analysis, we utilize an extension of Hamiltonian Monte Carlo, the No-U-Turn Sampler. The results of this analysis point out that NGC 6383 is a very young open cluster $(\sim 1 - 4~\mathrm{Myr})$, with a distance of $\sim 1.1~\mathrm{kpc}$.
We present the third open gravitational-wave catalog (3-OGC) of compact-binary coalescences, based on the analysis of the public LIGO and Virgo data from 2015 through 2019 (O1, O2, O3a). Our updated catalog includes a population of 57 observations, including 4 binary black hole mergers that had not been previously reported. This consists of 55 binary black hole mergers and the 2 binary neutron star mergers, GW170817 and GW190425. We find no additional significant binary neutron star or neutron star–black hole merger events. The most confident new detection is the binary black hole merger GW190925_232845, which was observed by the LIGO–Hanford and Virgo observatories with astro>0.99; its primary and secondary component masses are 20.2−2.5+3.9M⊙ and 15.6−2.6+2.1M⊙ , respectively. We estimate the parameters of all binary black hole events using an up-to-date waveform model that includes both subdominant harmonics and precession effects. To enable deep follow up as our understanding of the underlying populations evolves, we make available our comprehensive catalog of events, including the subthreshold population of candidates, and the posterior samples of our source parameter estimates.
Uniform and accurate photometric calibration plays an important role in the current and next-generation wide-field imaging surveys. Herein, we review the modern photometric calibration methods, including the classic standard star method, "hardware/observation-driven" methods (such as the Ubercalibration, Hypercalibration, and Forward Global Calibration Methods), and "software/physics-driven" methods (e.g., the Stellar Locus Regression, Stellar Locus, and Stellar Color Regression Methods). Further, we discuss their advantages, limitations, and future developments toward millimagnitude precision calibration.
The aim of this review is to provide a comprehensive overview of the role of intraoperative radiation therapy with electrons (IOERT) in breast conserving therapy (BCT), both as partial breast irradiation (PBI) as well as anticipated boost ("IOERT-Boost"). For both applications, the criteria for patient selection, technical details/requirements, physical aspects and outcome data are presented. IOERT as PBI The largest evidence comes from Italian studies, especially the ELIOT randomized trial. Investigators showed that the rate of in-breast relapses (IBR) in the IOERT group was significantly greater than with whole breast irradiation (WBI), even when within the pre-specified equivalence margin. Tumour sizes > 2 cm, involved axillary nodes, Grade 3 and triple negative molecular subtypes emerged as statistically significant predictors of IBR. For patients at low risk for in-breast recurrence (ASTRO/ESTRO recommendations), full dose IOERT was isoeffective with standard WBI. Hence, several national guidelines now include this treatment strategy as one of the standard techniques for PBI in carefully selected patients. IOERT Boost The largest evidence for boost IOERT preceding WBI comes from pooled analyses performed by the European Group of the International Society of Intraoperative Radiation Therapy (ISIORT Europe), where single boost doses (mostly around 10 Gy) preceded whole-breast irradiation (WBI) with 50 Gy (conventional fractionation). At median follow-up periods up to ten years, local recurrence rates around 1% were observed for low risk tumours. Higher local relapse rates were described for grade 3 tumours, triple negative breast cancer as well as for patients treated after primary systemic therapy for locally advanced tumours. Even in this settings, long-term (> 5y) local tumour control rates beyond 95% were achieved. These encouraging results are interpreted as being attributable to utmost precision in dose delivery (by avoiding a "geographic and/or temporal miss"), and the possible radiobiological superiority of a single high dose fraction, compared to the conventionally fractionated boost. IOERT also showed favourable results in terms of cosmetic outcome, assumedly thanks to the small treated volumes combined with complete skin sparing.
A sample of 1.3 mm continuum cores in the Dragon infrared dark cloud (also known as G28.37+0.07 or G28.34+0.06) is analyzed statistically. Based on their association with molecular outflows, the sample is divided into protostellar and starless cores. Statistical tests suggest that the protostellar cores are more massive than the starless cores, even after temperature and opacity biases are accounted for. We suggest that the mass difference indicates core mass growth since their formation. The mass growth implies that massive star formation may not have to start with massive prestellar cores, depending on the core mass growth rate. Its impact on the relation between core mass function and stellar initial mass function is to be further explored.
We show that an equal-mass, temporary binary companion to the Sun in the solar birth cluster at a separation of $\sim 10^3 \; \mathrm{\; AU}$ would have increased the likelihood of forming the observed population of outer Oort cloud objects and of capturing Planet Nine. In particular, the discovery of a captured origin for Planet Nine would favor our binary model by an order of magnitude relative to a lone stellar history. Our model predicts an overabundance of dwarf planets, discoverable by LSST, with similar orbits to Planet Nine, which would result from capture by the stellar binary.
Mattis Magg, Ralf S. Klessen, Simon C. O. Glover
et al.
There is a longstanding discussion about whether low mass stars can form from pristine gas in the early Universe. A particular point of interest is whether we can find surviving pristine stars from the first generation in our local neighbourhood. We present here a simple analytical estimate that puts tighter constraints on the existence of such stars. In the conventional picture, should these stars have formed in significant numbers and have preserved their pristine chemical composition until today, we should have found them already. With the presented method most current predictions for survivor counts larger than zero can be ruled out.
When recording spectra from the ground, atmospheric turbulence causes degradation of the spatial resolution. We present a data reduction method that restores the spatial resolution of the spectra to their undegraded state. By assuming that the point spread function (PSF) estimated from a strictly synchronized, broadband slit-jaw camera is the same as the PSF that spatially degraded the spectra, we can quantify what linear combination of undegraded spectra is present in each degraded data point. The set of equations obtained in this way is found to be generally well-conditioned and sufficiently diagonal to be solved using an iterative linear solver. The resulting solution has regained a spatial resolution comparable to that of the restored slit-jaw images.
This is a manual for the MOSiC package. MOSiC is a collection of IDL programs for profile analysis and Gaussian fitting of the Mg II h/k lines along with Gaussian fitting of the C II 133.5 nm line pair, the O I 135.6, the Cl I 135.2, the Si IV 139.7 and 140.3 and the O IV 140.0 nm lines observed with the IRIS near UV and far UV spectrograph. It was tested by analyzing over a hundred different IRIS data sets (quiet Sun, sunspot, ...). It works for off limb data, although it is still experimental. MOSiC analyzes different spectral lines separately and returns line intensity, width, and velocity for each line. A few sample profiles and maps are included in this manual.
Federico Borin, Ennio Poretti, Francesco Borsa
et al.
We analysed a selected sample of exoplanets with orbital periods close to 1 year to study the effects of the spectral window on the data, affected by the 1 cycle/year aliasing due to the Earth motion around the Sun. We pointed out a few cases where a further observational effort would largely improve the reliability of the orbital solutions.
We aim to reveal the chemistry of carbon-chain molecules in high-mass star-forming regions from molecular level to chemical evolution, applying the methods established in low-mass star-forming regions. In this proceeding, we summarize the topic about the main formation pathway of HC3N. We carried out observations of three 13C isotopologues of HC3N toward a hot core G28.28-0.36 with the 45-m radio telescope of the Nobeyama Radio Observatory. From the observational results, we propose that the main formation pathway of HC3N is the neutral-neutral reaction between C2H2 and CN. We also compare the results among the different star-forming regions, from a low-mass starless core to a high-mass star-forming core.
With the much enlarged stellar sample of 55831 stars and much increased precision in distances, proper motions, provided by Gaia DR1 TGAS we have shown with the help of the wavelet analysis that the velocity distribution of stars in the Solar neighbourhood contains more kinematic structures than previously known. We detect 19 kinematic structures between scales 3-16 km/s at the 3sigma confidence level. Among them we identified well-known groups (such as Hercules, Sirius, Coma Berenices, Pleiades, and Wolf 630). We confirmed recently detected groups (such as Antoja12 and Bobylev16). In addition we report here about a new kinematic structure at (U,V)=(37, 8) km/s. Another three new groups are tentatively detected, but require confirmation.
We re-examine the properties of the star cluster population in the circumnuclear starburst ring in the face-on spiral galaxy NGC 7742, whose young cluster mass function has been reported to exhibit significant deviations from the canonical power law. We base our reassessment on the clusters' luminosities (an observational quantity) rather than their masses (a derived quantity), and confirm conclusively that the galaxy's starburst-ring clusters---and particularly the youngest subsample, $\log(t \mbox{ yr}^{-1}) \le 7.2$---show evidence of a turnover in the cluster luminosity function well above the 90\% completeness limit adopted to ensure the reliability of our results. This confirmation emphasises the unique conundrum posed by this unusual cluster population.
We construct \HI~absorption spectra for 18 planetary nebulae (PNe) and their background sources using the data from the International Galactic Plane Survey. We estimate the kinematic distances of these PNe, among which 15 objects' kinematic distances are obtained for the first time. The distance uncertainties of 13 PNe range from 10% to 50%, which is a significant improvement with uncertainties of a factor two or three smaller than most of previous distance measurements. We confirm that PN G030.2-00.1 is not a PN because of its large distance found here.