Catálogo de publicaciones - revistas

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Ice in cold cosmic environments is expected to be organized in a bilayered structure of polar and apolar components. The initial water-rich layer is embedded in an icy CO envelope, which provides the feedstock for methanol formation through hydrogenation. These two components are thought to be physically segregated, unless an increase in temperature favors mobility and reactivity within the ice. We present new and robust evidence of X-ray-induced diffusion within interstellar ice analogues at very low temperatures, leading to an efficient mixing of the molecular content of the ice. The results of our study have two main implications. First, molecular mixing enhances chemical reactions from which complex organic species, including many of prebiotic interest, are formed. Second, diffusion drives the desorption of species that would otherwise remain buried near the surface of dust, thus enhancing their abundances in the gas, where they can be detected in the radio-wave domain. Such a scenario may have implications for the chemical history of ices in protoplanetary disks, in particular in the early stages of their life.</jats:p>

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>In this work, we study the information content learned by a convolutional neural network (CNN) when trained to carry out the inverse mapping between a database of synthetic Ca <jats:sc>ii</jats:sc> intensity spectra and the vertical stratification of the temperature of the atmospheres used to generate such spectra. In particular, we evaluate the ability of the neural network to extract information about the sensitivity of the spectral line to temperature as a function of height. By training the CNN on sufficiently narrow wavelength intervals across the Ca <jats:sc>ii</jats:sc> spectral profiles, we find that the error in the temperature prediction shows an inverse relationship to the response function of the spectral line to temperature, that is, different regions of the spectrum yield a better temperature prediction at their expected regions of formation. This work shows that the function that the CNN learns during the training process contains a physically meaningful mapping between wavelength and atmospheric height.</jats:p>

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>We present mid-infrared (mid-IR) spectra from our continued monitoring of R Aquarii, the nearest symbiotic Mira, using the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). New photometric and spectroscipic data were obtained with the Faint Object infraRed CAmera for the SOFIA Telescope in 2018 and 2019 after the system had started its “eclipse,” during which it became two magnitudes fainter in the visual. The mid-IR flux, in particular the 10 <jats:italic>μ</jats:italic>m silicate feature, has strengthened compared with the previous cycles. Radiative transfer models for the circumstellar dust emission were calculated for the new spectra, and recalculated for those previously obtained using more appropriate values of the near-IR magnitudes to constrain the properties of the asymptotic giant branch spectra heating the dust. The modeling shows that the luminosity dependence on pulsation phase is not affected by the onset of the eclipse, and that the increase in the mid-IR flux is due to a higher dust density. The models also confirm our earlier results that micron-size grains are present, and that no changes in the grain composition are required to explain the variations in the spectra.</jats:p>

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>In this work we investigate the nature of multiwavelength variability of blazars from a purely numerical approach. We use a time-dependent one-zone leptonic blazar emission model to simulate multiwavelength variability by introducing stochastic parameter variations in the emission region. These stochastic parameter variations are generated by Monte Carlo methods and have a characteristic power-law index of <jats:italic>α</jats:italic> = −2 in their power spectral densities. We include representative blazar test cases for a flat spectrum radio quasar and a high-synchrotron peaked BL Lacertae object for which the high-energy component of the spectral energy distribution is dominated by external-Compton and synchrotron self-Compton emission, respectively. The simulated variability is analyzed in order to characterize the distinctions between the two blazar cases and the physical parameters driving the variability. We show that the variability’s power spectrum is closely related to underlying stochastic parameter variations for both cases. Distinct differences between the different progenitor variations are present in the multiwavelength cross-correlation functions.</jats:p>

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>We performed a time-resolved spectral analysis of 53 bright gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) observed by Fermi/GBM. Our sample consists of 1117 individual spectra extracted from the finest time slices in each GRB. We fitted them with the synchrotron radiation model by considering the electron distributions in five different cases: monoenergetic, single power law, Maxwellian, traditional fast cooling, and broken power law. Our results were further qualified through the Bayesian information criterion (BIC) by comparing with the fit by empirical models, namely, the so-called Band function and cutoff power-law models. Our study showed that the synchrotron models, except for the fast-cooling case, can successfully fit most observed spectra, with the single power-law case being the most preferred. We also found that the electron distribution indices for the single power-law synchrotron fit in more than half of our spectra exhibit flux-tracking behavior, i.e., the index increases/decreases with the flux increasing/decreasing, implying that the distribution of the radiating electrons is increasingly narrower with time before the flux peaks and becomes more spreading afterward. Our results indicate that the synchrotron radiation is still feasible as a radiation mechanism of the GRB prompt emission phase.</jats:p>

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Triple-star systems exhibit a phenomenon known as triple evolution dynamical instability (TEDI), in which mass loss in evolving triples triggers short-term dynamical instabilities, potentially leading to collisions of stars, exchanges, and ejections. Previous work has shown that the TEDI is an important pathway to head-on stellar collisions in the Galaxy, significantly exceeding the rate of collisions due to random encounters in globular clusters. Here, we revisit the TEDI evolutionary pathway using state-of-the-art population synthesis methods that self-consistently take into account stellar evolution and binary interactions as well as gravitational dynamics and perturbations from passing stars in the field. We find Galactic TEDI-induced collision rates on the order of 10<jats:sup>−4</jats:sup> yr<jats:sup>−1</jats:sup>, consistent with previous studies which were based on more simplified methods. The majority of TEDI-induced collisions involve main-sequence stars, potentially producing blue straggler stars. Collisions involving more evolved stars are also possible, potentially producing eccentric post-common-envelope systems, and white dwarfs collisions leading to Type Ia supernovae (although the latter with a negligible contribution to the Galactic rate). In our simulations, the TEDI is not only triggered by adiabatic wind mass loss, but also by Roche lobe overflow in the inner binary: when the donor star becomes less massive than the accretor, the inner binary orbit widens, triggering triple dynamical instability. We find that collision rates are increased by ∼17% when flybys in the field are taken into account. In addition to collisions, we find that the TEDI produces ∼10<jats:sup>−4</jats:sup> yr<jats:sup>−1</jats:sup> of unbound stars, although none with escape speeds in excess of 10<jats:sup>3</jats:sup> km s<jats:sup>−1</jats:sup>.</jats:p>

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>The thermal Sunyaev–Zel’dovich (tSZ) effect is a powerful tool with the potential for constraining directly the properties of the hot gas that dominates dark matter halos because it measures pressure and thus thermal energy density. Studying this hot component of the circumgalactic medium (CGM) is important because it is strongly impacted by star formation and active galactic nucleus (AGN) activity in galaxies, participating in the feedback loop that regulates star and black hole mass growth in galaxies. We study the tSZ effect across a wide halo-mass range using three cosmological hydrodynamical simulations: Illustris-TNG, EAGLE, and FIRE-2. Specifically, we present the scaling relation between the tSZ signal and halo mass and the (mass-weighted) radial profiles of gas density, temperature, and pressure for all three simulations. The analysis includes comparisons to Planck tSZ observations and to the thermal pressure profile inferred from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) measurements. We compare these tSZ data to simulations to interpret the measurements in terms of feedback and accretion processes in the CGM. We also identify as-yet unobserved potential signatures of these processes that may be visible in future measurements, which will have the capability of measuring tSZ signals to even lower masses. We also perform internal comparisons between runs with different physical assumptions. We conclude (1) there is strong evidence for the impact of feedback at <jats:italic>R</jats:italic> <jats:sub>500</jats:sub>, but that this impact decreases by 5<jats:italic>R</jats:italic> <jats:sub>500</jats:sub>, and (2) the thermodynamic profiles of the CGM are highly dependent on the implemented model, such as cosmic-ray or AGN feedback prescriptions.</jats:p>

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Laboratory results of the optical properties of vapor-deposited water ice, specifically the refractive index and extinction coefficient, are available mainly for a selective set of wavelengths and a limited number of deposition temperatures. Experimental limitations are the main reason for the lack of broadband data, which is unfortunate as these quantities are needed to interpret and predict astronomical and planetary observations. The goal of this work is to address these lacking data, using an experimental broadband method that is capable of rapidly providing reliable water ice data across the entire UV–visible range. This approach combines the simultaneous use of a monochromatic HeNe laser and a broadband Xe-arc lamp to record interference fringes of water ice during deposition at astronomically relevant ice temperatures. The ice thickness is typically more than 20 <jats:italic>μ</jats:italic>m. Analyzing the period and intensity patterns combining both the monochromatic and broadband interference patterns allows the determination of the wavelength-dependent refractive index and extinction coefficient. We present accurate refractive index and extinction coefficient graphs for wavelengths between 250 and 750 nm and ices deposited between 30 and 160 K. From our data, we find a possible structural change in the ice in the 110–130 K region that has not been reported before. We also discuss that the data presented in this paper can be used to interpret astronomical observations of icy surfaces.</jats:p>

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>We present multi-epoch optical spectra of the <jats:italic>γ</jats:italic>-ray bright blazar 1156+295 (4C +29.45, Ton 599) obtained with the 4.3 m Lowell Discovery Telescope. During a multiwavelength outburst in late 2017, when the <jats:italic>γ</jats:italic>-ray flux increased to 2.5 × 10<jats:sup>−6</jats:sup> phot cm<jats:sup>−2</jats:sup> s<jats:sup>−1</jats:sup> and the quasar was first detected at energies ≥100 GeV, the flux of the Mg <jats:sc>ii</jats:sc> <jats:italic>λ</jats:italic>2798 emission line changed, as did that of the Fe emission complex at shorter wavelengths. These emission-line fluxes increased along with the highly polarized optical continuum flux, which is presumably synchrotron radiation from the relativistic jet, with a relative time delay of ≲2 weeks. This implies that the line-emitting clouds lie near the jet, which points almost directly toward the line of sight. The emission-line radiation from such clouds, which are located outside the canonical accretion-disk related broad-line region, may be a primary source of seed photons that are up-scattered to <jats:italic>γ</jats:italic>-ray energies by relativistic electrons in the jet.</jats:p>

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>In the coming decade, a new generation of massively multiplexed spectroscopic surveys, such as the Prime Focus Spectrograph Galaxy Evolution Survey (PFS), Wide Area Vista Extragalactic Survey-Deep (WAVES), and Multi-Object Optical and Near-infrared Spectrograph (MOONS) for the Very Large Telescope, will probe galaxies in the distant universe in vastly greater numbers than was previously possible. In this work, we generate mock catalogs for each of these three planned surveys to help quantify and optimize their scientific output. To assign photometry into the UniverseMachine empirical model, we develop the Calibrating Light: Illuminating Mocks By Empirical Relations procedure using Ultra Deep Survey with the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (UltraVISTA) photometry. Using the published empirical selection functions for each aforementioned survey, we quantify the mass completeness of each survey. We compare different targeting strategies by varying the area and targeting completeness, and quantify how these survey parameters affect the uncertainty of the two-point correlation function. We demonstrate that the PFS and MOONS measurements will be primarily dominated by cosmic variance, not shot noise, motivating the need for increasingly large survey areas. On the other hand, the WAVES survey, which covers a much larger area, will strike a good balance between cosmic variance and shot noise. For a fixed number of targets, a 5% increased survey area (and ∼5% decreased completeness) would decrease the uncertainty of the correlation function at intermediate scales by 0.15%, 1.2%, and 1.1% for our WAVES, PFS, and MOONS samples, respectively. Meanwhile, for a fixed survey area, 5% increased targeting completeness improves the same constraints by 0.7%, 0.25%, and 0.1%. All of the utilities used to construct our mock catalogs and many of the catalogs themselves are publicly available.</jats:p>