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J.P. Magué & B. Ménard

[1]
Title: A universal structural and star-forming relation since $z\sim3$: connecting compact star-forming and quiescent galaxies
Comments: Submitted to ApJ. Figure 8 summarizes the universal star-forming/structural relation. Figure 6 illustrates the possible evolutionary paths of SFGs and quiescent galaxies in surface density vs. mass. The cartoon in Figure 12 shows the change in structural properties and visual appearances for galaxies in these evolutionary paths
Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)

We study the evolution of the core (r<1 kpc) and effective (r<r_e) stellar-mass surface densities, in star-forming and quiescent galaxies. Since z=3, both populations occupy distinct, linear relations in log(Sigma_e) and log(Sigma_1) vs. log(M). These structural relations exhibit slopes and scatter that remain almost constant with time while their normalizations decline. For SFGs, the normalization declines by less than a factor of 2 from z=3, in both Sigma_e and Sigma_1. Such mild declines suggest that SFGs build dense cores by growing along these relations. We define this evolution as the structural main sequence (Sigma-MS). Quiescent galaxies follow different relations (Sigma^Q_e, Sigma^Q_1) off the Sigma-MS by having higher densities than SFGs of the same mass and redshift. The normalization of Sigma^Q_e declines by a factor of 10 since z=3, but only a factor of 2 in Sigma^Q_1. Thus, the common denominator for quiescent galaxies at all redshifts is the presence of a dense stellar core, and the formation of such cores in SFGs is the main requirement for quenching. Expressed in 2D as deviations off the SFR-MS and off Sigma^Q_1 at each redshift, the distribution of massive galaxies forms a universal, L-shaped sequence that relates two fundamental physical processes: compaction and quenching. Compaction is a process of substantial core-growth in SFGs relative to that in the Sigma-MS. This process increases the core-to-total mass and Sersic index, thereby, making compact SFGs. Quenching occurs once compact SFGs reach a maximum central density above Sigma^Q_1 > 9.5 M_sun/kpc^2. This threshold provides the most effective selection criterion to identify the star-forming progenitors of quiescent galaxies at all redshifts.

[2]
Title: The Grism Lens-Amplified Survey from Space (GLASS). I. Survey overview and first data release
Comments: Revised version, resubmitted to ApJ after referee's report. GLASS data available at this https URL . More info on GLASS available at this http URL
Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)

We give an overview of the Grism Lens Amplified Survey from Space (GLASS), a large Hubble Space Telescope program aimed at obtaining grism spectroscopy of the fields of ten massive clusters of galaxies at redshift z=0.308-0.686, including the Hubble Frontier Fields (HFF). The Wide Field Camera 3 yields near infrared spectra of the cluster cores, covering the wavelength range 0.81-1.69mum through grisms G102 and G141, while the Advanced Camera for Surveys in parallel mode provides G800L spectra of the infall regions of the clusters. The WFC3 spectra are taken at two almost orthogonal position angles in order to minimize the effects of confusion. After summarizing the scientific drivers of GLASS, we describe the sample selection as well as the observing strategy and data processing pipeline. We then utilize MACSJ0717.5+3745, a HFF cluster and the first one observed by GLASS, to illustrate the data quality and the high-level data products. Each spectrum brighter than H_AB=23 is visually inspected by at least two co-authors and a redshift is measured when sufficient information is present in the spectra. Furthermore, we conducted a thorough search for emission lines through all the GLASS WFC3 spectra with the aim of measuring redshifts for sources with continuum fainter than H_AB=23. We provide a catalog of 139 emission-line based spectroscopic redshifts for extragalactic sources, including three new redshifts of multiple image systems (one probable, two tentative). In addition to the data itself we also release software tools that are helpful to navigate the data.

[3]
Title: Radiation from a Relativistic Poynting Jet: some general considerations
Journal-ref: MNRAS (2015), vol. 453, page 1820
Subjects: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)

We provide estimates for the flux and maximum frequency of radiation produced when the magnetic field in a relativistic, highly magnetized, jet is dissipated and particles are accelerated using general considerations. We also provide limits on the jet Lorentz factor and magnetization parameter from the observed flux. Furthermore, using the Lorentz invariance of scalar quantities produced with electromagnetic tensor, we provide constraints on particle acceleration, and general features of the emergent radiation. We find that the spectrum below the peak softens with decreasing frequency. This spectral feature might be one way of identifying a magnetic jet.

[4]
Title: Connecting Massive Galaxies to Dark Matter Halos in BOSS. I: Is Galaxy Color a Stochastic Process in High Mass Halos?
Comments: 20 pages, submitted to ApJ, mock galaxy catalog is available at this http URL
Subjects: Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO); Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)

We use subhalo abundance matching (SHAM) to model the stellar mass function (SMF) and clustering of the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) "CMASS" sample at $z\sim0.5$. We introduce a novel method which accounts for the stellar mass incompleteness of CMASS as a function of redshift, and produce CMASS mock catalogs which include selection effects, reproduce the overall SMF, the projected two-point correlation function $w_{\rm p}$, the CMASS $dn/dz$, and are made publicly available. We study the effects of assembly bias above collapse mass in the context of "age matching" and show that these effects are markedly different compared to the ones explored by Hearin et al. (2013) at lower stellar masses. We construct two models, one in which galaxy color is stochastic ("AbM" model) as well as a model which contains assembly bias effects ("AgM" model). By confronting the redshift dependent clustering of CMASS with the predictions from our model, we argue that that galaxy colors are not a stochastic process in high-mass halos. Our results suggest that the colors of galaxies in high-mass halos are determined by other halo properties besides halo peak velocity and that assembly bias effects play an important role in determining the clustering properties of this sample.

[5]
Title: Mergers and Star Formation: The environment and Stellar Mass Growth of the Progenitors of Ultra-Massive Galaxies since z = 2
Authors: Benedetta Vulcani (KAVLI IPMU, University of Tokyo), Danilo Marchesini (Department of Physics and Astronomy, Tufts University), Gabriella De Lucia (INAF, OaTS), Adam Muzzin (Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge), Mauro Stefanon (Leiden Observatory, Leiden University), Gabriel B. Brammer (STSci), Ivo Labbe' (Leiden Observatory, Leiden University), Bo Milvang-Jensen (Dark Cosmology Centre, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen)
Comments: 16 pages, 14 figures, submitted to ApJ
Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA); Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO)

The growth of galaxies is a key problem in understanding the structure and evolution of the universe. Galaxies grow their stellar mass by a combination of star formation and mergers, with a relative importance that is redshift dependent. Theoretical models predict quantitatively different contributions from the two channels; measuring these from the data is a crucial constraint. Exploiting the UltraVISTA catalog and a unique sample of progenitors of local ultra massive galaxies selected with an abundance matching approach, we quantify the role of the two mechanisms from z = 2 to 0. We also compare our results to two independent incarnations of semi-analytic models. At all redshifts, progenitors are found in a variety of environments, ranging from being isolated to having 5-10 companions with mass ratio at least 1:10 within a projected radius of 500 kpc. In models, progenitors have a systematically larger number of companions, entailing a larger mass growth for mergers than in observations, at all redshifts. In observations, the total mass growth is slightly smaller than the expected growth, while in both models it agrees, within the uncertainties. Overall, our analysis confirms the model predictions, showing how the growth history of massive galaxies is dominated by in situ star formation at z = 2, both star-formation and mergers at 1 < z < 2, and by mergers alone at z < 1. Nonetheless, detailed comparisons still point out to tensions between the expected mass growth and our results, which might be due to either an incorrect progenitors-descendants selection, uncertainties on star formation rate and mass estimates, or the adopted assumptions on merger rates.

[6]
Title: Star Formation Activity in CLASH Brightest Cluster Galaxies
Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA); Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO)

The CLASH X-ray selected sample of 20 galaxy clusters contains ten brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) that exhibit significant ($>$5 $\sigma$) extinction-corrected star formation rates (SFRs). Star formation activity is inferred from photometric estimates of UV and H$\alpha$+[NII] emission in knots and filaments detected in CLASH HST observations. These measurements are supplemented with [OII], [OIII], and H$\beta$ fluxes measured from spectra obtained with the SOAR telescope. Reddening-corrected UV-derived SFRs in these BCGs are broadly consistent with H$\alpha$-derived SFRs. Five BCGs exhibit SFRs $>$10 M$_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$ and an additional two have a SFR $>$ 100 M$_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$. We confirm that photoionization from ongoing star formation powers the line emission nebulae in these BCGs, although in many BCGs there is also evidence for a LINER-like contribution.
Using Chandra X-ray measurements, we infer that the star formation occurs exclusively in low-entropy cluster cores and exhibits a correlation with properties related to the cooling. We also perform an in-depth study of the starburst history of the BCG in the cluster RXJ1532.9+3021, and compare starburst ages to the ages of X-ray cavities produced by AGN activity. We create 2D maps of the BCG stellar properties which reveal evidence for an ongoing burst occurring in elongated filaments, generally on relatively long ($\sim$ 0.5-1.0 Gyr) timescales, although some filaments are consistent with much younger ($\lesssim$ 100 Myr) burst timescales. The longer timescales for star formation exceed the timescale AGN activity, while the younger filaments may be correlated with recent activity from the AGN. The relationship between BCG SFRs and the surrounding ICM gas properties provide new support for the process of feedback-regulated cooling in galaxy clusters and is consistent with recent theoretical predictions.

[7]
Title: Wolf-Rayet content of the Milky Way
Authors: Paul A. Crowther (Sheffield)
Comments: 5 pages, 5 figures, to appear in proceedings of International Workshop on Wolf-Rayet Stars (editors W.-R. Hamann, A. Sander, and H. Todt, publisher Universit\"atsverlag Potsdam)
Subjects: Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR); Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)

An overview of the known Wolf-Rayet (WR) population of the Milky Way is presented, including a brief overview of historical catalogues and recent advances based on infrared photometric and spectroscopic observations resulting in the current census of 642 (v1.13 online catalogue). The observed distribution of WR stars is considered with respect to known star clusters, given that <20% of WR stars in the disk are located in clusters. WN stars outnumber WC stars at all galactocentric radii, while early-type WC stars are strongly biased against the inner Milky Way. Finally, recent estimates of the global WR population in the Milky Way are reassessed, with 1,200+/-100 estimated, such that the current census may be 50% complete. A characteristic WR lifetime of 0.25 Myr is inferred for an initial mass threshold of 25 Msun.

[8]
Title: The Effect of Halo Mass on the HI Content of Galaxies in Groups and Clusters
Comments: 35 pages, 11 figures, ApJ in press
Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)

We combine data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA Survey (ALFALFA) to study the cold atomic gas content of galaxies in groups and clusters in local universe. A careful cross-matching of galaxies in the SDSS, ALFALFA and SDSS group catalogs provides a sample of group galaxies with stellar masses $10^{8.4} M_{\odot} \le M_{*} \le 10^{10.6} M_{\odot}$ and group halo masses $10^{12.5} h^{-1} M_{\odot} \le M_h \le 10^{15.0} h^{-1} M_{\odot}$. Controlling our sample in stellar mass and redshift, we find no significant radial variation in the galaxy \hi\ gas-to-stellar mass ratio for the halo mass range in our sample. However, the fraction of galaxies detected in ALFALFA declines steadily towards the centers of groups with the effect being most prominent in the most massive halos. In the outskirts of massive halos a hint of a depressed detection fraction for low mass galaxies suggests pre-processing that decreases the \hi\ in these galaxies before they fall into massive clusters. We interpret the decline in the ALFALFA detection of galaxies in the context of a threshold halo mass for ram pressure stripping for a given galaxy stellar mass. The lack of an observable decrease in the galaxy \hi\ gas-to-stellar mass ratio with the position of galaxies within groups and clusters highlights the difficulty of detecting the impact of environment on the galaxy \hi\ content in a shallow \hi\ survey.

[9]
Title: A supernova distance to the anchor galaxy NGC 4258
Authors: J. Polshaw (1), R. Kotak (1), K.C. Chambers (2), S.J. Smartt (1), S. Taubenberger (3,4), M. Kromer (5), E.E.E. Gall (1), W. Hillebrandt (4), M. Huber (2), K.W. Smith (1), R.J. Wainscoat (2) ((1) Queen's University Belfast, (2) University of Hawaii, (3) European Southern Observatory, (4) Max-Planck-Institut fur Astrophysik, (5) Stockholm University)
Comments: 7 pages, 4 figures, 4 tables, published in A&A Letters
Journal-ref: A&A, 580, L15 (2015)
Subjects: Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO); Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA); High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)

The fortuitous occurrence of a type II-Plateau (IIP) supernova, SN~2014bc, in a galaxy for which distance estimates from a number of primary distance indicators are available provides a means with which to cross-calibrate the standardised candle method (SCM) for type IIP SNe. By applying calibrations from the literature we find distance estimates in line with the most precise measurement to NGC~4258 based on the Keplerian motion of masers (7.6$\pm$0.23\,Mpc), albeit with significant scatter. We provide an alternative local SCM calibration by only considering type IIP SNe that have occurred in galaxies for which a Cepheid distance estimate is available. We find a considerable reduction in scatter ($\sigma_I = 0.16$\, mag.), but note that the current sample size is limited. Applying this calibration, we estimate a distance to NGC~4258 of $7.08\pm0.86$ Mpc.

[10]
Title: Hubble Space Telescope proper motion (HSTPROMO) catalogs of Galactic globular clusters. III. Dynamical distances and mass-to-light ratios
Comments: 17 pages, 9 figures, 4 tables. Accepted for publication in ApJ
Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)

We present dynamical distance estimates for 15 Galactic globular clusters and use these to check the consistency of dynamical and photometric distance estimates. For most of the clusters, this is the first dynamical distance estimate ever determined. We extract proper-motion dispersion profiles using cleaned samples of bright stars from the Hubble Space Telescope proper-motion catalogs recently presented in Bellini et al. (2014) and compile a set of line-of-sight velocity-dispersion profiles from a variety of literature sources. Distances are then estimated by fitting spherical, non-rotating, isotropic, constant mass-to-light (M/L) dynamical models to the proper-motion and line-of-sight dispersion profiles together. We compare our dynamical distance estimates with literature photometric estimates from the Harris (1996, 2010 edition) globular cluster catalog and find that the mean fractional difference between the two types is consistent with zero at just $-1.9 \pm 1.7 \%$. This indicates that there are no significant biases in either estimation method and provides an important validation of the stellar-evolution theory that underlies photometric distance estimates. The analysis also estimates dynamical M/L ratios for our clusters; on average, the dynamically-inferred M/L ratios agree with existing stellar-population-based M/L ratios that assume a Chabrier initial mass function (IMF) to within $-8.8 \pm 6.4 \%$, implying that such an IMF is consistent with our data. Our results are also consistent with a Kroupa IMF, but strongly rule out a Salpeter IMF. We detect no correlation between our M/L offsets from literature values and our distance offsets from literature values, strongly indicating that our methods are reliable and our results are robust.

[11]
Title: Searching for TeV gamma-ray emission associated with IceCube high-energy neutrinos using VERITAS
Comments: In Proceedings of the International Cosmic Ray Conference 2015 (ICRC2015), The Hague, Netherlands
Subjects: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)

A clue to finding the long-sought sources of cosmic rays is the recent observation of an astrophysical flux of high-energy neutrinos by the IceCube detector, since these possibly originate in hadronic interactions at cosmic-ray accelerators. While the neutrino sky map shows no significant indication of point sources so far, it is possible to utilize the sensitivity of Imaging Air Cherenkov Telescope (IACT) arrays, such as VERITAS, to search for hadronic gamma-ray emission from the neutrino directions.
Over the last 2 years, the positions of neutrino events detected by IceCube have been observed using the VERITAS array. Observations have been limited to muon neutrino events, since their typical angular reconstruction uncertainty is below 1 degree, smaller than the 3.5-degree diameter of the VERITAS field of view. The location of VERITAS further constrains the neutrino event positions that can be observed to those located in the northern sky, or at moderate southern declinations. The list of observed positions was selected from published results and a set of high-energy muon tracks provided by IceCube. We present the current status and some preliminary results from this program.

[12]
Title: Measured Sensitivity of the First Mark II Phased Array Feed on an ASKAP Antenna
Comments: 5 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in Electromagnetics in Advanced applications (ICEAA), 2015 International Conference on
Subjects: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)

This paper presents the measured sensitivity of CSIRO's first Mk. II phased array feed (PAF) on an ASKAP antenna. The Mk. II achieves a minimum system-temperature-over-efficiency $T_\mathrm{sys}/\eta$ of 78 K at 1.23 GHz and is 95 K or better from 835 MHz to 1.8 GHz. This PAF was designed for the Australian SKA Pathfinder telescope to demonstrate fast astronomical surveys with a wide field of view for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).

[13]
Title: Long-term X-ray Variability of Ultraluminous X-ray Sources
Comments: 15 pages, 8 figures; accepted for publication in MNRAS
Subjects: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)

Long-term X-ray modulations on timescales from tens to hundreds of days have been widely studied for X-ray binaries located in the Milky Way and the Magellanic Clouds. For other nearby galaxies, only the most luminous X-ray sources can be monitored with dedicated observations. We here present the first systematic study of long-term X-ray variability of four ultraluminous X-ray sources (ESO 243-49 HLX-1, Holmberg IX X-1, M81 X-6, and NGC 5408 X-1) monitored with Swift. By using various dynamic techniques to analyse their light curves, we find several interesting low-frequency quasi-periodicities. Although the periodic signals may not represent any stable orbital modulations, these detections reveal that such long-term regular patterns may be related to superorbital periods and structure of the accretion discs. In particular, we show that the outburst recurrence time of ESO 243-49 HLX-1 varies over time and suggest that it may not be the orbital period. Instead, it may be due to some kinds of precession, and the true binary period is expected to be much shorter.

[14]
Title: Development of the photomultiplier tube readout system for the first Large-Sized Telescope of the Cherenkov Telescope Array
Comments: In Proceedings of the 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2015), The Hague, The Netherlands. All CTA contributions at arXiv:1508.05894
Subjects: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)

The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is the next generation ground-based very high energy gamma-ray observatory. The Large-Sized Telescope (LST) of CTA targets 20 GeV -- 1 TeV gamma rays and has 1855 photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) installed in the focal plane camera. With the 23 m mirror dish, the night sky background (NSB) rate amounts to several hundreds MHz per pixel. In order to record clean images of gamma-ray showers with minimal NSB contamination, a fast sampling of the signal waveform is required so that the signal integration time can be as short as the Cherenkov light flash duration (a few ns). We have developed a readout board which samples waveforms of seven PMTs per board at a GHz rate. Since a GHz FADC has a high power consumption, leading to large heat dissipation, we adopted the analog memory ASIC "DRS4". The sampler has 1024 capacitors per channel and can sample the waveform at a GHz rate. Four channels of a chip are cascaded to obtain deeper sampling depth with 4096 capacitors. After a trigger is generated in a mezzanine on the board, the waveform stored in the capacitor array is subsequently digitized with a low speed (33 MHz) ADC and transferred via the FPGA-based Gigabit Ethernet to a data acquisition system. Both a low power consumption (2.64 W per channel) and high speed sampling with a bandwidth of $>$300 MHz have been achieved. In addition, in order to increase the dynamic range of the readout we adopted a two gain system achieving from 0.2 up to 2000 photoelectrons in total. We finalized the board design for the first LST and proceeded to mass production. Performance of produced boards are being checked with a series of quality control (QC) tests. We report the readout board specifications and QC results.

[15]
Title: When Comets Get Old: A Synthesis of Comet and Meteor Observations of the Low Activity Comet 209P/LINEAR
Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)

It is speculated that some weakly active comets may be transitional objects between active and dormant comets. These objects are at a unique stage of the evolution of cometary nuclei, as they are still identifiable as active comets, in contrast to inactive comets that are observationally indistinguishable from low albedo asteroids. In this paper, we present a synthesis of comet and meteor observations of Jupiter-family comet 209P/LINEAR, one of the most weakly active comets recorded to-date. Images taken by the Xingming 0.35-m telescope and the Gemini Flamingo-2 camera are modeled by a Monte Carlo dust model, which yields a low dust ejection speed ($1/10$ of that of moderately active comets), dominance of large dust grains, and a low dust production of $0.4~\mathrm{kg \cdot s^{-1}}$ at 19~d after the 2014 perihelion passage. We also find a reddish nucleus of 209P/LINEAR that is similar to D-type asteroids and most Trojan asteroids. Meteor observations with the Canadian Meteor Orbit Radar (CMOR), coupled with meteoroid stream modeling, suggest a low dust production of the parent over the past few hundred orbits, although there are hints of a some temporary increase in activity in the 18th century. Dynamical simulations indicate 209P/LINEAR may have resided in a stable near-Earth orbit for $\sim 10^4$~yr, which is significantly longer than typical JFCs. All these lines of evidence imply that 209P/LINEAR as an aging comet quietly exhausting its remaining near surface volatiles. We also compare 209P/LINEAR to other low activity comets, where evidence for a diversity of the origin of low activity is seen.

[16]
Title: Whither TCAF?
Comments: 8 pages, 0 figure, in proceedings of Recent Trends of Study of Compact objects: Theory and Observations, Eds. I. Chattapadhyay, A. Nandi, S. Das, S. Mandal, ASI conference Series, vol. 12 (2015)
Subjects: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)

Two Component Advective Flow is the only complete solution that incorporates outcomes of actual theoretical solutions to explain spectral and timing properties of radiation emitted from the vicinity of black holes. It redefined the subject of black hole astrophysics by upgrading it from some sort of 'climatology' and making it a precision science. Today any good spectral and temporal data could be fitted with TCAF with ease using as few as four parameters, totally un-heard of by the plethora of models which are rat-racing to fit gross properties of data. TCAF addresses most of the issues of observations from both galactic and extra-galactic black holes while keeping the underlying framework (equations, assumptions) unchanged. We discuss some of these points in this short review. As such, it concentrates on our group's work to develop the subject till the present day. Most interestingly, these success of TCAF were accomplished without explicitly using any magnetic field. The magnetized disk solutions or simulated results in the literature till date are in the dark of how these issues could be addressed, indicating that magnetic fields in the accretion flow are either not implemented properly or may not be as important as they are thought and made out to be. Other models of hot accretion flow are either special cases of TCAF or are simply wrong and can explain some special features on special occasions. We claim that any observation that can be fitted by any of the multitude of models can be most certainly fitted with TCAF using far fewer number of parameters.

[17]
Title: Obscuring Fraction of Active Galactic Nuclei: Implications from Radiation-driven Fountain Models
Comments: 17 pages, 12 figures, accepted by ApJ
Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)

Active galactic nuclei (AGNs) are believed to be obscured by an optical thick "torus" that covers a large fraction of solid angles for the nuclei. However, the physical origin of the tori and the differences in the tori among AGNs are not clear. In a previous paper based on three-dimensional radiation-hydorodynamic calculations, we proposed a physics-based mechanism for the obscuration, called "radiation-driven fountains," in which the circulation of the gas driven by central radiation naturally forms a thick disk that partially obscures the nuclear emission. Here, we expand this mechanism and conduct a series of simulations to explore how obscuration depends on the properties of AGNs. We found that the obscuring fraction f_obs for a given column density toward the AGNs changes depending on both the AGN luminosity and the black hole mass. In particular, f_obs for N_H \geq 10^22 cm^-2 increases from ~0.2 to ~0.6 as a function of the X-ray luminosity L_X in the 10^{42-44} ergs/s range, but f_obs becomes small (~0.4) above a luminosity (~10^{45} ergs/s). The behaviors of f_obs can be understood by a simple analytic model and provide insight into the redshift evolution of the obscuration. The simulations also show that for a given L_AGN, f_obs is always smaller (~0.2-0.3) for a larger column density (N_H \geq 10^23 cm^-2). We also found cases that more than 70% of the solid angles can be covered by the fountain flows.

[18]
Title: The Si/CdTe semiconductor Compton camera of the ASTRO-H Soft Gamma-ray Detector (SGD)
Authors: Shin Watanabe (1,2), Hiroyasu Tajima (3), Yasushi Fukazawa (4), Yuto Ichinohe (1,2), Shin'ichiro Takeda (1), Teruaki Enoto (5), Taro Fukuyama (1,2), Shunya Furui (4), Kei Genba (6), Kouichi Hagino (1,2), Astushi Harayama (1), Yoshikatsu Kuroda (6), Daisuke Matsuura (6), Ryo Nakamura (4), Kazuhiro Nakazawa (2), Hirofumi Noda (2), Hirokazu Odaka (1), Masayuki Ohta, Mitsunobu Onishi (6), Shinya Saito (1,2), Goro Sato (7,1), Tamotsu Sato (1,2), Tadayuki Takahashi (1,2), Takaaki Tanaka (7), Atsushi Togo (1,2), Shinji Tomizuka (3) ((1) Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, (2) Department of Physics, The University of Tokyo, (3) Solar-Terrestrial Environment Laboratory, Nagoya University, (4) Department of Physical Science, Hiroshima University (5) Nishina Center, RIKEN, (6) Nagoya Guidance and Propulsion Systems Works, Mitsubishi Heavy Industry Ltd., (7) Research Institute for Science and Engineering, Waseda University, (8) Department of Physics, Kyoto University)
Journal-ref: Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 765 (2014) 192--201
Subjects: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM); Instrumentation and Detectors (physics.ins-det)

The Soft Gamma-ray Detector (SGD) is one of the instrument payloads onboard ASTRO-H, and will cover a wide energy band (60--600 keV) at a background level 10 times better than instruments currently in orbit. The SGD achieves low background by combining a Compton camera scheme with a narrow field-of-view active shield. The Compton camera in the SGD is realized as a hybrid semiconductor detector system which consists of silicon and cadmium telluride (CdTe) sensors. The design of the SGD Compton camera has been finalized and the final prototype, which has the same configuration as the flight model, has been fabricated for performance evaluation. The Compton camera has overall dimensions of 12 cm x 12 cm x 12 cm, consisting of 32 layers of Si pixel sensors and 8 layers of CdTe pixel sensors surrounded by 2 layers of CdTe pixel sensors. The detection efficiency of the Compton camera reaches about 15% and 3% for 100 keV and 511 keV gamma rays, respectively. The pixel pitch of the Si and CdTe sensors is 3.2 mm, and the signals from all 13312 pixels are processed by 208 ASICs developed for the SGD. Good energy resolution is afforded by semiconductor sensors and low noise ASICs, and the obtained energy resolutions with the prototype Si and CdTe pixel sensors are 1.0--2.0 keV (FWHM) at 60 keV and 1.6--2.5 keV (FWHM) at 122 keV, respectively. This results in good background rejection capability due to better constraints on Compton kinematics. Compton camera energy resolutions achieved with the final prototype are 6.3 keV (FWHM) at 356 keV and 10.5 keV (FWHM) at 662 keV, respectively, which satisfy the instrument requirements for the SGD Compton camera (better than 2%). Moreover, a low intrinsic background has been confirmed by the background measurement with the final prototype.

[19]
Title: Making the observational parsimonious richness a working mass proxy
Authors: S. Andreon (INAF-OABrera)
Subjects: Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO); Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)

Richness, i.e., the number of bright cluster galaxies, is known to correlate with the cluster mass, however, to exploit it as mass proxy we need a way to estimate the aperture in which galaxies should be counted that minimizes the scatter between mass and richness. In this work, using a sample of 39 clusters with accurate caustic masses at 0.1<z<0.22, we first show that the scatter between mass and richness derived from survey data is negligibly small, as small as best mass proxies. The scatter turns out to be smaller than in some previous works and has a 90% upper limit of 0.05 dex in mass. The current sample, adjoining 76 additional clusters analyzed in previous works, establishes an almost scatterless, minimally evolving (if at all), mass-richness scaling in the redshift range 0.03<z<0.55. We then exploit this negligible scatter to derive the reference aperture to be used to compute richness and to predict the mass of cluster samples. These predicted masses have a total 0.16 dex scatter with caustic mass, about half of which is not intrinsic to the proxy, but related to the noisiness of the caustic masses used for test proxy performances. These results make richness-based masses of best quality and available for large samples at a low observational cost.

[20]
Title: The effective field theory of K-mouflage
Subjects: Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO); General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc); High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)

We describe K-mouflage models of modified gravity using the effective field theory of dark energy. We show how the Lagrangian density $K$ defining the K-mouflage models appears in the effective field theory framework, at both the exact fully nonlinear level and at the quadratic order of the effective action. We find that K-mouflage scenarios only generate the operator $(\delta g^{00}_{(u)})^n$ at each order $n$. We also reverse engineer K-mouflage models by reconstructing the whole effective field theory, and the full cosmological behaviour, from two functions of the Jordan-frame scale factor in a tomographic manner. This parameterisation is directly related to the implementation of the K-mouflage screening mechanism: screening occurs when $K'$ is large in a dense environment such as the deep matter and radiation eras. In this way, K-mouflage can be easily implemented as a calculable subclass of models described by the effective field theory of dark energy which could be probed by future surveys.

[21]
Title: GCR intensity during the sunspot maximum phase and the inversion of the heliospheric magnetic field
Comments: 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference, The Hague, The Netherlands, 30 July - 6 August, 2015, paper ID 437, 8 pages. Proceedings of Sciences, 2015. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1411.7532
Subjects: Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)

The maximum phase of the solar cycle is characterized by several interesting features in the solar activity, heliospheric characteristics and the galactic cosmic ray (GCR) intensity. Recently the maximum phase of the current solar cycle (SC) 24, in many relations anomalous when compared with solar cycles of the second half of the 20-th century, came to the end. The corresponding phase in the GCR intensity cycle is also in progress. In this paper we study different aspects of the sunspot, heliospheric and GCR behavior around this phase. Our main conclusions are as follows: 1) The maximum phase of the sunspot SC 24 ended in 06.2014, the development of the sunspot cycle being similar to those of SC 14, 15 (the Glaisberg minimum). The maximum phase of SC 24 in the GCR intensity is still in progress. 2) The inversion of the heliospheric magnetic field consists of three stages, characterized by the appearance of the global heliospheric current sheet (HCS), connecting all longitudes. In two transition dipole stages beside the global HCS there are additional local HCSs, while the inversion stage lies between two transition dipole ones and there is no global HCS in this stage. The inversion stage of the current SC 24 is the longest when compared with those for SC 21-23. The second transition dipole stage and hence the whole inversion period of the heliospheric magnetic field in SC 24 provisionally ended in 08.2014. 3) The behavior of the GCR intensity in the period of the sunspot maximum phase and the inversion of the heliospheric magnetic fields for SC 21-23 demonstrates all the characteristic features for this period: the two-gap structure corresponding to two-peak structure in the sunspot activity, and the energy hysteresis. In the current SC 24 the GCR intensity shows rather unusual features and we should wait for one or even two years to see the whole picture.

[22]
Title: On the causes and mechanisms of the long-term variations in the GCR characteristics
Comments: 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference, The Hague, The Netherlands, 30 July - 6 August, 2015, paper ID 198, 8 pages. in Proceedings of Science, 2015
Subjects: Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR); Space Physics (physics.space-ph)

We argue that the degree of understanding the causes and mechanisms of the long-term variations (11-year and 22-year) in the galactic cosmic rays (GCR) characteristics is still insufficient and to improve it we need new approaches and methods. For the time being there is a long-lasting controversy on how these long-term variations, observed for more than 50 years in the inner heliosphere, are formed. It is widely believed that the 11-year variation is due entirely to the toroidal branch of solar activity (the area and number of sunspots, the strength of the heliospheric magnetic field etc) because of the diffusion, convection and adiabatic energy loss, while the much smaller 22-year variation is caused by the particle drifts connected with the poloidal branch of solar activity (the high-latitude solar magnetic fields). At the same time, both past and more recent numerical simulations indicate that the contribution of particle drifts could be significant for both 22- and 11-year variations in the GCR intensities. However, even those who agree on the significant influence of drifts appear to have different perceptions on the mechanisms of this influence. In this paper, we present an analysis of the possible causes of the first point of view (small role of drifts in the 11-year GCR variation) and the reasons why one can expect the significant contri- bution of the processes connected with the poloidal branch of solar activity in both types of the long-term variations of the GCR characteristics. Then we briefly discuss some numerical methods suggested in the past and recently and the approaches and perspectives for the sought-for methods are considered.

[23]
Title: Stochastic 2-D galaxy disk evolution models. Resolved stellar populations in the galaxy M33
Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)

We improved the stochastic 2-D galaxy disk models (Mineikis & Vansevi\v{c}ius 2014a) by introducing enriched gas outflows from galaxies and synthetic color-magnitude diagrams of stellar populations. To test the models, we use the HST/ACS stellar photometry data in four fields located along the major axis of the galaxy M33 (Williams et al. 2009) and demonstrate the potential of the models to derive 2-D star formation histories in the resolved disk galaxies.

[24]
Title: On the mechanisms of the quasi-biennial oscillations in the GCR intensity
Comments: 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference, The Hague, The Netherlands, 30 July - 6 August, 2015, paper ID 439, 8 pages. Proceedings of Science, 2015
Subjects: Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)

Quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) is a well-known quasi-periodical variation with characteristic time 0.5-4 years in different solar, heliospheric and cosmic ray characteristics. In this paper a hypothesis is checked on the causes of the apparent lack of correlation between solar and heliospheric QBOs, then the possible mechanisms of QBO in the GCR intensity are discussed as well as the idea of the same nature of the step-like changes and Gnevyshev Gap effects in the GCR intensity.
Our main conclusions are as follows: 1) In the first approximation the hypothesis is justified that the change in the sunspot and QBO cycles in the transition from the Sun to the heliosphere is due to 1) the different magnitude and time behavior of the large-scale and small-scale photospheric solar magnetic fields and 2) the stronger attenuation of the small-scale fields in this transition. 2) As the QBO in the HMF strength influences both the diffusion coefficients and drift velocity, it can give rise to the complex QBO in the GCR intensity with respect to the dominating HMF polarity. The description of drift velocity field for the periods of the HMF inversion is suggested, although it has drawbacks. 3) As the conditions in the heliosphere are quite different around the sunspot maximum and during the periods of low solar activity (both with respect to the HMF polarity distribution and with the presence or absence of the large-scale barriers), the suggestion that both the step-like changes of the GCR intensity and Gnevyshev Gap effect could have the same nature, looks questionable.

[25]
Title: Innovative static spectropolarimeter concept for wide spectral ranges: tolerancing study
Comments: 6 pages, Proceeding SPIE Optics and Photonics, August 2015
Subjects: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM); Optics (physics.optics); Space Physics (physics.space-ph)

Developing an efficient and robust polarimeter for wide spectral ranges and space applications is a main issue in many projects. As part of the UVMag consortium created to develop UV facilities in space (e.g. the Arago mission proposed to ESA), we are studying an innovative concept of polarimeter that is robust, simple, and efficient on a wide spectral range. The idea, based on the article by Sparks et al. (2012), is to use polarization scramblers to create a spatial modulation of the polarization. Along the height of the wedges of the scramblers, the thickness of the birefringent material crossed by the light, and thus the retardance, vary continuously. This variation creates an intensity modulation of the light related to the entrance polarization state. Analyzing this modulation with a linear polarizer, and dispersing the light spectrally in the orthogonal spatial direction, enables the measurement of the full Stokes vector over the entire spectrum. This determination is performed with a single-shot measurement and without any moving parts in the system. After a quick introduction to the concept and optical design, this article presents the tolerancing study of the optical bench using this spectropolarimeter. The impact of different error sources, such as, birefringence uncertainty or decenter of the wedges, is investigated.

[26]
Title: Simultaneously modelling far-infrared dust emission and its relation to CO emission in star forming galaxies
Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)

We present a method to simultaneously model the dust far-infrared spectral energy distribution (SED) and the total infrared - carbon monoxide (CO) integrated intensity (SIR-ICO) relationship. The modelling employs a hierarchical Bayesian (HB) technique to estimate the dust surface density, temperature (Td), and spectral index $\beta_{eff}$ locally at each pixel from the observed far-infrared (IR) maps, such as those provided by Herschel. Additionally, given the CO map, the method simultaneously estimates the slope and intercept between the total IR and CO intensities, which are global source properties. The model accounts for correlated and uncorrelated uncertainties, such as those present in Herschel maps. We simulate two synthetic datasets to verify the accuracy of the HB method, and contrast the results with commonly employed non-hierarchical fitting methods. As an initial application, we model the dust and gas on 100 pc scales in the Magellanic Clouds from Herschel IR and NANTEN CO observations. There is a stronger negative correlation between Td and $\beta_{eff}$ in the LMC, with correlation coefficient $\rho \approx -0.3$, compared to the SMC, which has $\rho \approx -0.15$, suggestive of fundamental differences in the dust properties in these galaxies. The slopes of the logSIR-logICO relationship are similar in both galaxies. Yet, in the SMC the intercept is nearly 3X higher, which can be explained by its lower metallicity resulting in a larger SIR per unit ICO compared to the LMC. The HB modelling evidences an increase in Td in regions with the highest CO intensities in the LMC. This may be due to enhanced dust heating in the densest regions, likely from newly born stars. Such simultaneous dust and gas modelling may further reveal variations in the properties of the ISM and its association with other galactic characteristics, such as the star formation rate and metallicity.

[27]
Title: High-resolution abundance analysis of HD 140283
Subjects: Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)

HD 140283 is a reference subgiant that is metal poor and confirmed to be a very old star. The abundances of this type of old star can constrain the nature and nucleosynthesis processes that occurred in its (even older) progenitors. The present study may shed light on nucleosynthesis processes yielding heavy elements early in the Galaxy. A detailed abundance analysis of a high-quality spectrum is carried out, with the intent of providing a reference on stellar lines and abundances of a very old, metal-poor subgiant. We aim to derive abundances from most available and measurable spectral lines. The analysis is carried out using high-resolution (R = 81 000) and high signal-to-noise ratio (800 < S/N/pixel < 3400) spectrum, in the wavelength range 3700 - 10475, obtained with a seven-hour exposure time, using the ESPaDOnS at the CFHT. The calculations in LTE were performed with the OSMARCS 1D atmospheric model and the spectrum synthesis code Turbospectrum, while the analysis in NLTE is based on the MULTI code. We present LTE abundances for 26 elements, and NLTE calculations for the species C I, O I, Na I, Mg I, Al I, K I, Ca I, Sr II, and Ba II lines. The abundance analysis provided an extensive line list suitable for metal-poor subgiant stars. The results for Li, CNO, alpha-, and iron peak elements are in good agreement with literature. The newly NLTE Ba abundance, along with a NLTE Eu correction and a 3D Ba correction from literature, leads to [Eu/Ba] = +0.59 +/- 0.18. This result confirms a dominant r-process contribution, possibly together with a very small contribution from the main s-process, to the neutron-capture elements in HD 140283. Overabundances of the lighter heavy elements and the high abundances derived for Ba, La, and Ce favour the operation of the weak r-process in HD 140283.

[28]
Title: The growth of helium burning cores
Authors: H.C. Spruit
Comments: Accepted for publication in A&A
Subjects: Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)

Helium burning in the convective cores of horizontal branch and red clump' stars appears to involve a process of ingestion' of unburnt helium into the core, the physics of which has not been identified yet. I show here that a limiting factor controlling the growth is the buoyancy of helium entering the denser C+O core. It yields a growth rate which scales directly with the convective luminosity of the core, and agrees with constraints on core size from current asteroseismology.

[29]
Title: Coordinated X-ray and Optical observations of Star-Planet Interaction in HD 17156
Subjects: Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR); Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)

The large number of close-in Jupiter-size exoplanets prompts the question whether star-planet interaction (SPI) effects can be detected. We focused our attention on the system HD 17156, having a Jupiter-mass planet in a very eccentric orbit. Here we present results of the XMM-Newton observations and of a five month coordinated optical campaign with the HARPS-N spectrograph. We observed HD 17156 with XMM-Newton when the planet was approaching the apoastron and then at the following periastron passage, quasi simultaneously with HARPS-N. We obtained a clear ($\approx 5.5\sigma$) X-ray detection only at the periastron visit, accompanied by a significant increase of the $R'_{\rm HK}$ chromospheric index. We discuss two possible scenarios for the activity enhancement: magnetic reconnection and flaring or accretion onto the star of material tidally stripped from the planet. In any case, this is possibly the first evidence of a magnetic SPI effect caught in action.

[30]
Title: Performance analysis of the Least-Squares estimator in Astrometry
Comments: 35 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication by PASP
Subjects: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM); Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR); Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability (physics.data-an)

We characterize the performance of the widely-used least-squares estimator in astrometry in terms of a comparison with the Cramer-Rao lower variance bound. In this inference context the performance of the least-squares estimator does not offer a closed-form expression, but a new result is presented (Theorem 1) where both the bias and the mean-square-error of the least-squares estimator are bounded and approximated analytically, in the latter case in terms of a nominal value and an interval around it. From the predicted nominal value we analyze how efficient is the least-squares estimator in comparison with the minimum variance Cramer-Rao bound. Based on our results, we show that, for the high signal-to-noise ratio regime, the performance of the least-squares estimator is significantly poorer than the Cramer-Rao bound, and we characterize this gap analytically. On the positive side, we show that for the challenging low signal-to-noise regime (attributed to either a weak astronomical signal or a noise-dominated condition) the least-squares estimator is near optimal, as its performance asymptotically approaches the Cramer-Rao bound. However, we also demonstrate that, in general, there is no unbiased estimator for the astrometric position that can precisely reach the Cramer-Rao bound. We validate our theoretical analysis through simulated digital-detector observations under typical observing conditions. We show that the nominal value for the mean-square-error of the least-squares estimator (obtained from our theorem) can be used as a benchmark indicator of the expected statistical performance of the least-squares method under a wide range of conditions. Our results are valid for an idealized linear (one-dimensional) array detector where intra-pixel response changes are neglected, and where flat-fielding is achieved with very high accuracy.

[31]
Title: ALMA images of discs: are all gaps carved by planets?
Authors: Jean-François Gonzalez (CRAL), Guillaume Laibe, Sarah T. Maddison (SWINBURNE), Christophe Pinte (LFCA, IPAG), François Ménard (LFCA, IPAG)
Comments: Accepted for publication in MNRAS Letters. 5 pages, 6 figures. MNRAS, Oxford University press, 2015, in press
Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP); Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)

Protoplanetary discs are now routinely observed and exoplanets, after the numerous indirect discoveries, are starting to be directly imaged. To better understand the planet formation process, the next step is the detection of forming planets or of signposts of young planets still in their disc, such as gaps. A spectacular example is the ALMA science verification image of HL Tau showing numerous gaps and rings in its disc. To study the observability of planet gaps, we ran 3D hydrodynamical simulations of a gas and dust disc containing a 5 M J gap-opening planet and characterised the spatial distribution of migrating, growing and fragmenting dust grains. We then computed the corresponding synthetic images for ALMA. For a value of the dust fragmentation threshold of 15 m s --1 for the collisional velocity, we identify for the first time a self-induced dust pile up in simulations taking fragmentation into account. This feature, in addition to the easily detected planet gap, causes a second apparent gap that could be mistaken for the signature of a second planet. It is therefore essential to be cautious in the interpretation of gap detections.

[32]
Title: Construction of a Medium-Sized Schwarzschild-Couder Telescope for the Cherenkov Telescope Array: Implementation of the Cherenkov-Camera Data Acquisition System
Comments: In Proceedings of the 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2015), The Hague, The Netherlands. All CTA contributions at arXiv:1508.05894
Subjects: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)

A medium-sized Schwarzchild-Couder Telescope (SCT) is being developed as a possible extension for the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). The Cherenkov camera of the telescope is designed to have 11328 silicon photomultiplier pixels capable of capturing high-resolution images of air showers in the atmosphere. The combination of the large number of pixels and the high trigger rate (> 5 kHz) expected for this telescope results in a multi-Gbps data throughput. This sets challenging requirements on the design and performance of a data acquisition system for processing and storing this data. A prototype SCT (pSCT) with a partial camera containing 1600 pixels, covering a field of view of 2.5 x 2.5 square degrees, is being assembled at the F.L. Whipple Observatory. We present the design and current status of the SCT data acquisition system.

[33]
Title: Detecting ring systems around exoplanets using high resolution spectroscopy: the case of 51Pegb
Comments: Astronomy & Astrophysics, in press
Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)

In this paper we explore the possibility that the recently detected reflected light signal of 51\,Peg\,b could be caused by a ring system around the planet. We use a simple model to compare the observed signal with the expected signal from a short-period giant planet with rings. We also use simple dynamical arguments to understand the possible geometry of such a system. We provide evidence that, to a good approximation, the observations are compatible with the signal expected from a ringed planet, assuming that the rings are non-coplanar with the orbital plane. However, based on dynamical arguments, we also show that this configuration is unlikely. In the case of coplanar rings we then demonstrate that the incident flux on the ring surface is about 2\% the value received by the planet, a value that renders the ring explanation unlikely. The results suggest that the signal observed cannot in principle be explained by a planet+ring system. We discuss, however, the possibility of using reflected light spectra to detect and characterize the presence of rings around short-period planets. Finally, we show that ring systems could have already been detected by photometric transit campaigns, but their signal could have been easily misinterpreted by the expected light curve of an eclipsing binary.

[34]
Title: Galactic cosmic rays on extrasolar Earth-like planets I. Cosmic ray flux
Comments: 10 pages, 9 figures; accepted in A&A
Journal-ref: A&A 581, A44 (2015)
Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)

(abridged abstract) Theoretical arguments indicate that close-in terrestial exoplanets may have weak magnetic fields, especially in the case of planets more massive than Earth (super-Earths). Planetary magnetic fields, however, constitute one of the shielding layers that protect the planet against cosmic-ray particles. In particular, a weak magnetic field results in a high flux of Galactic cosmic rays that extends to the top of the planetary atmosphere. We wish to quantify the flux of Galactic cosmic rays to an exoplanetary atmosphere as a function of the particle energy and of the planetary magnetic moment. We numerically analyzed the propagation of Galactic cosmic-ray particles through planetary magnetospheres. We evaluated the efficiency of magnetospheric shielding as a function of the particle energy (in the range 16 MeV $\le$ E $\le$ 524 GeV) and as a function of the planetary magnetic field strength (in the range 0 ${M}_\oplus$ $\le$ {M} $\le$ 10 ${M}_\oplus$). Combined with the flux outside the planetary magnetosphere, this gives the cosmic-ray energy spectrum at the top of the planetary atmosphere as a function of the planetary magnetic moment. We find that the particle flux to the planetary atmosphere can be increased by more than three orders of magnitude in the absence of a protecting magnetic field. For a weakly magnetized planet (${M}=0.05\,{M}_{\oplus}$), only particles with energies below 512 MeV are at least partially shielded. For a planet with a magnetic moment similar to Earth, this limit increases to 32 GeV, whereas for a strongly magnetized planet ($M=10.0\,{M}_{\oplus}$), partial shielding extends up to 200 GeV. We find that magnetic shielding strongly controls the number of cosmic-ray particles reaching the planetary atmosphere. The implications of this increased particle flux are discussed in a companion article.

[35]
Title: The structure of the X-ray absorber in Mrk 915 revealed by Swift
Authors: P. Severgnini (1), L. Ballo (1), V. Braito (1,2), A. Caccianiga (1), S. Campana (1), R. Della Ceca (1), A. Moretti (1), C. Vignali (3) ((1) INAF-OABrera, Italy, (2) University of Maryland, USA, (3) Universita' di Bologna, Italy)
Comments: 8 pages, 6 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication on MNRAS
Subjects: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)

In this paper we present the results obtained with a monitoring programme (23 days long) performed with Swift-XRT on the local Seyfert galaxy Mrk 915. The light-curve analysis shows a significant count rate variation (about a factor of 2-3) on a time-scale of a few days, while the X-ray colours show a change in the spectral curvature below 2 keV and the presence of two main spectral states. From the spectral analysis we find that the observed variations can be explained by the change of the intrinsic nuclear power (about a factor of 1.5) coupled with a change of the properties of an ionized absorber. The quality of the data prevents us from firmly establishing if the spectral variation is due to a change in the ionization state and/or in the covering factor of the absorbing medium. The latter scenario would imply a clumpy structure of the ionized medium. By combining the information provided by the light curve and the spectral analyses, we can derive some constraints on the location of the absorber under the hypotheses of either homogeneous or clumpy medium. In both cases, we find that the absorber should be located inside the outer edge of an extended torus and, in particular, under the clumpy hypothesis, it should be located near, or just outside, to the broad emission line region.

[36]
Title: Small-scale magnetic flux emergence in a sunspot light bridge
Comments: Accepted for publication in A&A: 11 pages, 11 figures, 1 movie
Subjects: Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)

We analyse a sequence of high-resolution spectropolarimetric observations of a sunspot taken at the 1-m SST, to determine the nature of flux emergence in a light bridge and the processes related to its evolution in the photosphere and chromosphere. Blueshifts of about 2 km/s are seen near the entrance of a granular light bridge on the limbward side of the spot. They lie next to a strongly redshifted patch that appeared 6 mins earlier. Both patches are seen for 25 mins until the end of the sequence. The blueshifts coincide with an elongated emerging granule, while the redshifts appear at the end of it. In the photosphere, the development of the blueshifts is accompanied by a simultaneous increase in field strength and inclination, with the field becoming nearly horizontal. In the redshifted patch, the magnetic field is equally horizontal but of opposite polarity. An intense brightening is seen in the Ca filtergrams over these features, 17 mins after they emerge in the photosphere. The brightening is due to emission in the blue wing of the Ca line, close to its knee. Non-LTE inversions reveal that the asymmetric emission is caused by a temperature enhancement of about 700 K between -5.0<log tau<-3.0 and a blueshift of 3 km/s at log tau=-2.3. The photospheric blueshifts and redshifts seem to be caused by the emergence of a small-scale, flat Omega-loop with highly inclined footpoints of opposite polarity. The gas motions detected in the two footpoints are reminiscent of a siphon flow. The rising loop is probably confined to the lower atmosphere by the overlying sunspot magnetic field and the subsequent interaction may be responsible for temperature enhancements in the upper photosphere/lower chromosphere. This is the first time that magnetic flux is observed to emerge in the strongly magnetised environment of sunspots, pushed upward by the convective flows of a granular light bridge.

[37]
Title: Extracting HI cosmological signal with Generalized Needlet Internal Linear Combination
Comments: 20 pages, 12 figures. Submitted to MNRAS
Subjects: Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO)

HI intensity mapping is a new observational technique to map fluctuations in the large-scale structure of matter using the 21 cm emission line of atomic hydrogen (HI). Sensitive radio surveys have the potential to detect Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) at low redshifts (z < 1) in order to constrain the properties of dark energy. Observations of the HI signal will be contaminated by instrumental noise and, more significantly, by astrophysical foregrounds, such as Galactic synchrotron emission, which is at least four orders of magnitude brighter than the HI signal. Foreground cleaning is recognised as one of the key challenges for future radio astronomy surveys. We study the ability of the Generalized Needlet Internal Linear Combination (GNILC) method to subtract radio foregrounds and to recover the cosmological HI signal for a general HI intensity mapping experiment. The GNILC method is a new technique that uses both frequency and spatial information to separate the components of the observed data. Our results show that the method is robust to the complexity of the foregrounds. For simulated radio observations including HI emission, Galactic synchrotron, Galactic free-free, radio sources and 0.05 mK thermal noise, we find that we can reconstruct the HI power spectrum for multipoles 30 < l < 150 with 6% accuracy on 50% of the sky for a redshift z ~ 0.25.

[38]
Title: Observations of Hierarchical Solar-Type Multiple Star Systems
Subjects: Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)

Twenty multiple stellar systems with solar-type primaries were observed at high angular resolution using the PALM-3000 adaptive optics system at the 5 m Hale telescope. The goal was to complement the knowledge of hierarchical multiplicity in the solar neighborhood by confirming recent discoveries by the visible Robo-AO system with new near-infrared observations with PALM-3000. The physical status of most, but not all, of the new pairs is confirmed by photometry in the Ks band and new positional measurements. In addition, we resolved for the first time five close sub-systems: the known astrometric binary in HIP 17129AB, companions to the primaries of HIP 33555, and HIP 118213, and the companions to the secondaries in HIP 25300 and HIP 101430. We place the components on a color-magnitude diagram and discuss each multiple system individually.

[39]
Title: Using rotation measure grids to detect cosmological magnetic fields -- a Bayesian approach
Comments: 27 pages, 14 figures, Submitted to A&A
Subjects: Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO)

Determining magnetic field properties in different environments of the cosmic large-scale structure as well as their evolution over redshift is a fundamental step toward uncovering the origin of cosmic magnetic fields. Radio observations permit the study of extragalactic magnetic fields via measurements of the Faraday depth of extragalactic radio sources. Our aim is to investigate how much different extragalactic environments contribute to the Faraday depth variance of these sources. We develop a Bayesian algorithm to distinguish statistically Faraday depth variance contributions intrinsic to the source from those due to the medium between the source and the observer. In our algorithm the Galactic foreground and the measurement noise are taken into account as the uncertainty correlations of the galactic model. Additionally, our algorithm allows for the investigation of possible redshift evolution of the extragalactic contribution. This work presents the derivation of the algorithm and tests performed on mock observations. With cosmic magnetism being one of the key science projects of the new generation of radio interferometers we have made predictions for the algorithm's performance on data from the next generation of radio interferometers. Applications to real data are left for future work.

[40]
Title: Evidence for Pebbles in Comets
Journal-ref: Icarus, Volume 262, December 2015, pp 9-13
Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)

When the EPOXI spacecraft flew by Comet 103P/Hartley 2, it observed large particles floating around the comet nucleus. These particles are likely low-density, centimeter- to decimeter-sized clumps of ice and dust. While the origin of these objects remains somewhat mysterious, it is possible that they are giving us important information about the earliest stages of our Solar System's formation. Recent advancements in planet formation theory suggest that planetesimals (or cometestimals) may grow directly from the gravitational collapse of aerodynamically concentrated small particles, often referred to as "pebbles." Here we show that the particles observed in the coma of 103P are consistent with the sizes of pebbles expected to efficiently form planetesimals in the region that this comet likely formed, while smaller pebbles are may be expected in the majority of comets, whose chemistry is often indicative of formation in the colder, outer regions of the protoplanetary disk.

[41]
Title: Small-scale magnetic and velocity inhomogeneities in a sunspot light bridge
Authors: Rohan E. Louis
Comments: Accepted for publication in Advances in Space Research : 11 pages, 3 figures, 1 table
Subjects: Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)

High resolution spectro-polarimetric observations of a sunspot light bridge by Hinode, reveal small-scale inhomogeneities in the magnetic field and velocity. These inhomogeneities arise as a consequence of a weak, secondary lobe in the Stokes V profile which have a polarity opposite that of the sunspot and very large (>5 km/s) Doppler velocities of both signs, suggesting two distinct types of magnetic anomalies. These two sets of inhomogeneities are highly time-dependent and appear exclusively in the upper half of the light bridge and only after the light bridge is completely formed. Both sets of inhomogeneities appear as patches and can be present independent of the other, next to one another, or spatially separated in a single scan. A two-component inversion of the corresponding spectral profiles indicate that the inhomogeneities occupy a very small fraction, amounting to less than 10 %, of the resolution element. These structures are likely driven by small-scale magneto-convection where they could further interact with the overlying sunspot magnetic field to produce reconnection jets in the chromosphere.

[42]
Title: Forbidden calcium lines as disc tracers
Comments: 2 pages; 1 figure; submitted to the proceedings of the Physics of Evolved Stars - A conference dedicated to the memory of Olivier Chesneau, Nice, France, June 8-12, 2015
Subjects: Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)

Forbidden emission lines are particularly valuable disc tracers, because their profiles reflect the kinematics within their formation region. Here we present a short excerpt from the results of a spectroscopic survey of evolved massive stars surrounded by high-density discs.

[43]
Title: KIC 10080943: An eccentric binary system containing two pressure and gravity mode hybrid pulsators
Comments: 22 pages including 9 pages of appendix, 10 figures, 6 tables, accepted for publication in A&A
Subjects: Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)

Gamma Doradus and delta Scuti pulsators cover the transition region between low mass and massive main-sequence stars, and are as such critical for testing stellar models. When they reside in binary systems, we can combine two independent methods to derive critical information, such as precise fundamental parameters to aid asteroseismic modelling. In the Kepler light curve of KIC10080943, clear signatures of gravity and pressure mode pulsations have been found. Ground-based spectroscopy revealed this target to be a double-lined binary system. We present the analysis of four years of Kepler photometry and high-resolution spectroscopy to derive observational constraints, which will serve to evaluate theoretical predictions of the stellar structure and evolution for intermediate-mass stars. We used the method of spectral disentangling to determine atmospheric parameters for both components and derive the orbital elements. With phoebe we modelled the ellipsoidal variation and reflection signal of the binary in the light curve and used classical Fourier techniques to analyse the pulsation modes. We show that the eccentric binary system KIC10080943 contains two hybrid pulsators with masses $M_1=2.0\pm0.1~M_\odot$ and $M_2=1.9\pm0.1~M_\odot$, with radii $R_1=2.9\pm0.1~R_\odot$ and $R_2=2.1\pm0.2~R_\odot$. We detect rotational splitting in the g modes and p modes for both stars and use them to determine a first rough estimate of the core-to-surface rotation rates for the two components, to be improved by future detailed seismic modelling.

[44]
Title: A Neural Network-Based Monoscopic Reconstruction Algorithm for H.E.S.S. II
Comments: in Proceedings of the 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2015), The Hague, The Netherlands; 8 pages
Subjects: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)

The H.E.S.S. experiment entered its phase II with the addition of a new, large telescope named CT 5 that was added to the centre of the existing array of four smaller telescopes. The new telescope is able to detect fainter air showers due to its larger mirror area, thereby lowering the energy threshold of the array from a few hundred GeV down to $\mathcal{O}(50\,\textrm{GeV})$. Due to the power-law decrease of typical {\gamma}-ray and cosmic-ray spectra of astrophysical sources a majority of detected air showers are of low energies, thus being detected by CT 5 only, which motivates the need for a reconstruction algorithm based on information from CT 5 alone. By exploiting such monoscopic events the H.E.S.S. experiment in phase II becomes sensitive in an energy range not covered by H.E.S.S. I and in which the Fermi LAT runs out of statistics. Furthermore the chance of detecting transient phenomena like {\gamma}-ray bursts is increased significantly due to the large effective area of CT 5 at low energies.
In this contribution a newly developed reconstruction algorithm for monoscopic events based on neural networks is presented. This algorithm uses multilayer perceptrons to reconstruct the direction and energy of the particle initiating the air shower and also to discriminate between gamma rays and hadrons. The performance of this algorithm is evaluated and compared to other existing reconstruction algorithms. Furthermore results of first applications of the algorithm to measured data are shown.

[45]
Title: Nebular line emission from z > 7 galaxies in cosmological simulations: rest-frame UV to Optical lines
Comments: 13 pages, 14 figures, 1 table. Submitted to MNRAS, comments welcome
Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)

We have performed very large and high resolution cosmological hydrodynamics simulations in order to investigate detectability of nebular lines in the rest-frame UV to optical wavelength range from galaxies at z>7. We use a light-cone output to select galaxies at z~7-10 by the same color and magnitude criteria as real observations (Hubble Ultra Deep Survey). The UV dust attenuation is ~ 0.5 mag for galaxies with H160 < 28 AB mag and < 0.2 mag for fainter objects in our simulation. The expected line fluxes are very well correlated with apparent UV magnitudes independent of the redshift. We find that the C IV 1549 and the C III] 1909 line of galaxies brighter than 26 AB can be detectable with current facilities such as the VLT/XShooter and the Keck/MOSFIRE. Metal lines such as C IV 1549, C III] 1909, [O II] 3727 and [O III] 4959/5007 can be good targets for the spectroscopic observation with the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT), the European Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). H$\alpha$ and H$\beta$ lines are also expected to be strong enough to be detected with these telescopes. Finally, we predict detectability of the nebular lines for z > 10 galaxies will be found with the next generation telescopes such as the JWST, the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) and Wide-field Imaging Surveyor for High-Redshift (WISH) (11<z<15). We conclude that C IV 1549, C III] 1909, [O III] 4959/5007 and H$\beta$ lines even from z ~ 15 galaxies can be strong targets for the TMT, the ELTs and the JWST. We also find that the magnification by gravitational lensing is of great help to detect such high-z galaxies. According to our model, C III] 1909 line in z > 9 galaxy candidates (MACS1149JD and MACS0647JD1) can be detectable using even the current facilities such as the VLT/X-Shooter and the Keck/MOSFIRE with high probability.

[46]
Title: Hidden Cosmic-Ray Accelerators as an Origin of TeV-PeV Cosmic Neutrinos
Subjects: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE); Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO); High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)

The latest IceCube data suggest that the all-flavor cosmic neutrino flux may be as large as 10^-7 GeV/cm^2/s/sr around 30 TeV. We show that, if astrophysical sources of the TeV-PeV neutrinos are transparent to gamma rays with respect to two-photon annihilation, a large fraction of the isotropic diffuse gamma-ray background should originate from hadronic emission of such sources, independently of the production mechanism. Strong tensions with the diffuse gamma-ray data are unavoidable especially in hadronuclear scenarios. We further show that, if the IceCube neutrinos have a photohadronic origin, the sources are expected to be opaque to 1-100 GeV gamma rays. With these general multimessenger arguments, we find that the latest data may indicate a population of CR accelerators hidden in GeV-TeV gamma rays. Searches for x-ray and MeV gamma-ray counterparts are encouraged, and TeV-PeV neutrinos themselves will serve as special probes of dense source environments.

[47]
Title: The VMC survey - XVI. Spatial variation of the cluster-formation activity in the innermost regions of the Large Magellanic Cloud
Comments: 14 pages, 10 figures, MNRAS, accepted
Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)

We present results based on $YJK_{\rm s}$ photometry of star clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), distributed throughout the central part of the galaxy's bar and the 30 Doradus region. We analysed the field-star decontaminated colour--magnitude diagrams of 313 clusters to estimate their reddening values and ages. The clusters are affected by a mean reddening of $E(B-V) \in [0.2,0.3]$ mag, where the average internal LMC reddening amounts to $\sim$ 0.1--0.2 mag. The region covering 30 Doradus includes clusters with reddening values in excess of $E(B-V)$ = 0.4 mag. Our cluster sample spans the age range $7.0 \le \log(t$ yr$^{-1}) < 9.0$, represents an increase of 30 per cent in terms of the number of clusters with robust age estimates and comprises a statistically complete sample in the LMC regions of interest here. The resulting cluster frequencies suggest that the outermost regions of the LMC bar first experienced enhanced cluster formation -- $\log(t$ yr$^{-1}) \in [8.5,9.0]$ -- before the activity proceeded, although in a patchy manner, to the innermost regions, for $\log(t$ yr$^{-1}) < 7.7$. Cluster frequencies in the 30 Doradus region show that the area is dominated by very recent cluster formation. The derived star-formation frequencies suggest that the cluster and field-star populations do not seem to have fully evolved as fully coupled systems during the last $\sim$ 100 Myr.

[48]
Title: An Ultrasoft X-ray Flare from 3XMM J152130.7+074916: a Tidal Disruption Event Candidate
Comments: 9 pages, 5 figures. ApJ, in press
Subjects: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE); Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)

We report on the discovery of an ultrasoft X-ray transient source, 3XMM J152130.7+074916. It was serendipitously detected in an XMM-Newton observation on 2000 August 23, and its location is consistent with the center of the galaxy SDSS J152130.72+074916.5 (z=0.17901 and d_L=866 Mpc). The high-quality X-ray spectrum can be fitted with a thermal disk with an apparent inner disk temperature of 0.17 keV and a rest-frame 0.24-11.8 keV unabsorbed luminosity of ~5e43 erg/s, subject to a fast-moving warm absorber. Short-term variability was also clearly observed, with the spectrum being softer at lower flux. The source was covered but not detected in a Chandra observation on 2000 April 3, a Swift observation on 2005 September 10, and a second XMM-Newton observation on 2014 January 19, implying a large variability (>260) of the X-ray flux. The optical spectrum of the candidate host galaxy, taken ~11 yrs after the XMM-Newton detection, shows no sign of nuclear activity. This, combined with its transient and ultrasoft properties, leads us to explain the source as tidal disruption of a star by the supermassive black hole in the galactic center. We attribute the fast-moving warm absorber detected in the first XMM-Newton observation to the super-Eddington outflow associated with the event and the short-term variability to a disk instability that caused fast change of the inner disk radius at a constant mass accretion rate.