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The High-Resolution Multi-Object Spectrograph (HRMOS) is a facility instrument that we plan to propose for the Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), following the initial presentation at the VLT 2030 workshop held at ESO in June 2019. HRMOS provides a combination of capabilities that are essential to carry out breakthrough science across a broad range of active research areas from stellar astrophysics and exoplanet studies to Galactic and Local Group archaeology. HRMOS fills a gap in capabilities amongst the landscape of future instrumentation planned for the next decade. The key characteristics of HRMOS will be high spectral resolution (R = 60000 - 80000) combined with multi-object (20-100) capabilities and long term stability that will provide excellent radial velocity precision and accuracy (10m/s). Initial designs predict that a SNR~100 will be achievable in about one hour for a star with mag(AB) = 15, while with the same exposure time a SNR~ 30 will be reached for a star with mag(AB) = 17. The combination of high resolution and multiplexing with wavelength coverage extending to relatively blue wavelengths (down to 380\,nm), makes HRMOS a spectrograph that will push the boundaries of our knowledge and that is envisioned as a workhorse instrument in the future. The science cases presented in this White Paper include topics and ideas developed by the Core Science Team with the contributions from the astronomical community, also through the wide participation in the first HRMOS Workshop (https://indico.ict.inaf.it/event/1547/) that took place in Firenze (Italy) in October 2021., Comment: 88 pages, 39 figures. Comments and expressions of interest are welcome by contacting members of the Core Science Team

We have created an up-to-date catalogue of 214 brown dwarfs (BDs) in binaries with $P < 10^4$ d. This allows us to examine the population statistics of the brown dwarf desert. We searched $\textit{Gaia}$ DR3 NSS results for orbital inclinations of BD candidates, deriving 12 new masses. Three remain as desert BDs whereas nine candidates are found to be low-mass stars. We improved the RV solutions for three previously studied BD candidates. A further 19 BD masses with periods less than $\sim$ 1200 d were identified in the DR3 $\texttt{binary_masses}$ database. We confirm a valley in the mass distribution with a minimum around 30-35 M$_{\textrm{jup}}$, and find that periods $<$ 100 d are still under-populated in comparison to longer periods. The updated mass and eccentricity distribution of BDs still shows a marginally statistically significant split into high- and low-mass BD populations. This hints at two different parent distributions, and two potential origins $-$ either akin to planetary formation, or stellar. There are no low eccentricity BDs at periods around 100 d. The mass-metallicity distribution of BDs indicates that core accretion is not the dominant formation mechanism for BDs as they do not follow the same trends that giant exoplanets do with metallicity. We identify a diagonal envelope bounding the Gaia BDs in the mass-period plane due to the detection thresholds of the currently available NSS solutions from 34 months of data., Comment: 16 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

We present additional HARPS radial velocity observations of the highly eccentric ($e \sim 0.6$) binary system DMPP-3AB, which comprises a K0V primary and a low-mass companion at the hydrogen burning limit. The binary has a $507$ d orbital period and a $1.2$ au semi-major axis. The primary component harbours a known $2.2$ M$_{\oplus}$ planet, DMPP-3A b, with a $6.67$ day orbit. New HARPS measurements constrain periastron passage for the binary orbit and add further integrity to previously derived solutions for both companion and planet orbits. Gaia astrometry independently confirms the binary orbit, and establishes the inclination of the binary is $63.89 \pm 0.78 ^{\circ}$. We performed dynamical simulations which establish that the previously identified $\sim800$ d RV signal cannot be attributed to an orbiting body. The additional observations, a deviation from strict periodicity, and our new analyses of activity indicators suggest the $\sim800$ d signal is caused by stellar activity. We conclude that there may be long period planet 'detections' in other systems which are similar misinterpreted stellar activity artefacts. Without the unusual eccentric binary companion to the planet-hosting star we could have accepted the $\sim800$ d signal as a probable planet. Further monitoring of DMPP-3 will reveal which signatures can be used to most efficiently identify these imposters. We also report a threshold detection (0.2 per cent FAP) of a $\sim2.26$ d periodicity in the RVs, potentially attributed to an Earth-mass S-type planet interior to DMPP-3A b., Comment: 20 pages, 15 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

CLLBC(Ce) and TLYC(Ce) are novel scintillation materials capable of measuring mixed gamma ray and neutron radiation fields that have gained significant interest in the areas of space and nuclear safety/security science. To date Geant4, the world's most popular Monte Carlo radiation modelling toolkit, has yet to be effectively used to simulate the full response of these materials when coupled to near ultra-violet Silicon PhotoMultipliers (SiPMs). In this work an experimentally validated Geant4 application has been developed with optimised material composition, optical data tables, and physics transport settings that is able to accurately simulate the response of CLLBC(Ce) and TLYC(Ce) SiPM-based radiation detectors under both gamma ray and neutron irradiation. Experimental benchmarking for five different radioactive sources (Co-60, Cs-137, Eu-152, Am-241, and Cf-252) illustrated that this developed Geant4 application was able to reproduce the position and structure of all major spectral features (full energy gamma ray photo-/neutron capture peaks, X-ray escape photopeaks, Compton edge, Compton backscatter peaks, and Compton plateau) to high level of accuracy.

We present a readout scheme for CMOS image sensors that can be used to achieve arbitrarily high dynamic range (HDR) in principle. The linear full well capacity (LFWC) in high signal regions was extended 50 times from 20 ke$^{-}$ to 984 ke$^{-}$ via an interlaced row-wise readout order, whilst the noise floor remained unchanged in low signal regions, resulting in a 34 dB increase in DR. The peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) is increased in a continuous fashion from 43 dB to 60 dB. This was achieved by summing user-selected rows which were read out multiple times. Centroiding uncertainties were lowered when template-fitting a projected pattern, compared to the standard readout scheme. Example applications are aimed at scientific imaging due to the linearity and PSNR increase., Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures. Accepted to IEEE Sensors on 14/09/2022, available as a preprint as of 10/10/2022

Ariel, the Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey, was adopted as the fourth medium-class mission in ESA's Cosmic Vision programme to be launched in 2029. During its 4-year mission, Ariel will study what exoplanets are made of, how they formed and how they evolve, by surveying a diverse sample of about 1000 extrasolar planets, simultaneously in visible and infrared wavelengths. It is the first mission dedicated to measuring the chemical composition and thermal structures of hundreds of transiting exoplanets, enabling planetary science far beyond the boundaries of the Solar System. The payload consists of an off-axis Cassegrain telescope (primary mirror 1100 mm x 730 mm ellipse) and two separate instruments (FGS and AIRS) covering simultaneously 0.5-7.8 micron spectral range. The satellite is best placed into an L2 orbit to maximise the thermal stability and the field of regard. The payload module is passively cooled via a series of V-Groove radiators; the detectors for the AIRS are the only items that require active cooling via an active Ne JT cooler. The Ariel payload is developed by a consortium of more than 50 institutes from 16 ESA countries, which include the UK, France, Italy, Belgium, Poland, Spain, Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Portugal, Czech Republic, Hungary, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Estonia, and a NASA contribution., Comment: Ariel Definition Study Report, 147 pages. Reviewed by ESA Science Advisory Structure in November 2020. Original document available at: https://www.cosmos.esa.int/documents/1783156/3267291/Ariel_RedBook_Nov2020.pdf/

We analyse TESS photometry of DMPP-1 (HD 38677; TIC 66560666), a nearby F8V star hosting hot super-Earth planets and a warm Neptune. Using the Transit Least Squares algorithm and other methods we find a transit signal at $P=3.2854^{+0.0032}_{-0.0025}$ d with depth 87$^{+25}_{-30}$ ppm and false alarm probability 1.6%. This is shallower than hitherto published TESS discoveries. The 3.285 d signal is recovered for several, but not all, methods for detrending stellar astrophysical variability. Further observations are needed to improve the significance of the detection. If this transit were due to an Earth-like rocky planet it would have been detected in the RV data, but it is not. The TESS data cover seven individual transits, one of which is consistent with zero depth. The insolation of the putative planet is $990 {\rm S_{\oplus}}$, typical of fluxes experienced by the three known catastrophically disintegrating exoplanets (CDEs). The transits can be self-consistently attributed to a CDE with a mass below the RV detection threshold. We searched for transits of the known RV planets, finding null results and detection thresholds of $< 100$ ppm, which we quantify for each. The DMPP-1 planetary system was discovered as a consequence of circumstellar gas attributed to ablation of hot planets. The RV planets may have been ablated to near-pure iron cores. We place limits on the orbital inclinations of the RV planets where the expected transit depth exceeds the detection threshold. If the 3.2854 day transit detection is confirmed, e.g. with CHEOPS photometry, DMPP-1 would be a first-rate target for JWST spectroscopy., Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJL

Earth mass exoplanets are difficult to detect. The Dispersed Matter Planet Project (DMPP) identifies stars which are likely to host the most detectable low mass exoplanets. The star DMPP-3 (HD 42936) shows signs of circumstellar absorption, indicative of mass loss from ablating planets. Here we report the radial velocity (RV) discovery of a highly eccentric 507 d binary companion and a hot super-Earth planet in a 6.67 d orbit around the primary star. DMPP-3A is a solar type star while DMPP-3B is just massive enough to fuse hydrogen. The binary, with semi-major axis 1.22 $\pm$ 0.02 AU, is considerably tighter than others known to host planets orbiting only one of the component stars. The configuration of the DMPP-3 planetary system is rare and indicates dynamical interactions, though the evolutionary history is not entirely clear. DMPP-3Ab is possibly the residual core of a giant planet precursor, consistent with the inferred circumstellar gas shroud., Comment: Accepted for publication by Nature Astronomy on 12th November 2019 (Main article, Methods and Supplementary Information; 18 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables)

Some highly irradiated close-in exoplanets orbit stars showing anomalously low stellar chromospheric emission. We attribute this to absorption by circumstellar gas replenished by mass loss from ablating planets. Here we report statistics validating this hypothesis. Among ~3000 nearby, bright, main sequence stars ~40 show depressed chromospheric emission indicative of undiscovered mass-losing planets. The Dispersed Matter Planet Project uses high precision, high cadence radial velocity measurements to detect these planets. We summarise results for two planetary systems (DMPP-1 and DMPP-3) and fully present observations revealing a Mp sin i = 0.469 M$_{\rm J}$ planet in a 5.207 d orbit around the $\gamma$-Doradus pulsator HD 11231 (DMPP-2). We have detected short period planets wherever we have made more than 60 RV measurements, demonstrating that we have originated a very efficient method for detecting nearby compact planetary systems. Our shrouded, ablating planetary systems may be a short-lived phase related to the Neptunian desert: i.e. the dearth of intermediate-mass planets at short orbital periods. The circumstellar gas facilitates compositional analysis; allowing empirical exogeology in the cases of sublimating rocky planets. Dispersed Matter Planet Project discoveries will be important for establishing the empirical mass-radius-composition relationship(s) for low mass planets., Comment: Accepted for publication by Nature Astronomy on 12th November 2019 (Main article, Methods and Supplementary Information; 42 pages, 15 figures, 5 tables)

The removal of noise typically correlated in time and wavelength is one of the main challenges for using the radial velocity method to detect Earth analogues. We analyze radial velocity data of tau Ceti and find robust evidence for wavelength dependent noise. We find this noise can be modeled by a combination of moving average models and "differential radial velocities". We apply this noise model to various radial velocity data sets for tau Ceti, and find four periodic signals at 20.0, 49.3, 160 and 642 d which we interpret as planets. We identify two new signals with orbital periods of 20.0 and 49.3 d while the other two previously suspected signals around 160 and 600 d are quantified to a higher precision. The 20.0 d candidate is independently detected in KECK data. All planets detected in this work have minimum masses less than 4$M_\oplus$ with the two long period ones located around the inner and outer edges of the habitable zone, respectively. We find that the instrumental noise gives rise to a precision limit of the HARPS around 0.2 m/s. We also find correlation between the HARPS data and the central moments of the spectral line profile at around 0.5 m/s level, although these central moments may contain both noise and signals. The signals detected in this work have semi-amplitudes as low as 0.3 m/s, demonstrating the ability of the radial velocity technique to detect relatively weak signals., Comment: 28 pages, 19 figures. 5 tables, accepted for publication in AJ

Stellar oscillations appear all across the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. Recent theoretical studies support their existence also in the atmospheres of M dwarfs. These studies predict for them short periodicities ranging from 20~min to 3~h. Our Cool Tiny Beats (CTB) programme aims at finding these oscillations for the very first time. With this goal, CTB explores the short time domain of M dwarfs using radial velocity data from the HARPS-ESO and HARPS-N high-precision spectrographs. Here we present the results for the two most long-term stable targets observed to date with CTB, GJ~588 and GJ~699 (i.e. Barnard's star). In the first part of this work we detail the correction of several instrumental effects. These corrections are specially relevant when searching for sub-night signals. Results show no significant signals in the range where M dwarfs pulsations were predicted. However, we estimate that stellar pulsations with amplitudes larger than $\sim0.5\,\mathrm{m\,s}^{-1}$ can be detected with a 90% completeness with our observations. This result, along with the excess of power regions detected in the periodograms, open the possibility of non-resolved very low amplitude pulsation signals. Next generation more precise instrumentation would be required to detect such oscillations. However, the possibility of detecting pulsating M-dwarf stars with larger amplitudes is feasible due to the short size of the analysed sample. This motivates the need for completeness of the CTB survey., Comment: 16 pages, 17 figures, 2 tables, Accepted for publication in MNRAS

At a distance of 1.295 parsecs, the red-dwarf Proxima Centauri ($\alpha$ Centauri C, GL 551, HIP 70890, or simply Proxima) is the Sun's closest stellar neighbor and one of the best studied low-mass stars. It has an effective temperature of only $\sim$ 3050 K, a luminosity of $\sim$0.1 per cent solar, a measured radius of 0.14 R$_\odot$ and a mass of about 12 per cent the mass of the Sun. Although Proxima is considered a moderately active star, its rotation period is $\sim$ 83 days, and its quiescent activity levels and X-ray luminosity are comparable to the Sun's. New observations reveal the presence of a small planet orbiting Proxima with a minimum mass of 1.3~Earth masses and an orbital period of $\sim$11.2 days. Its orbital semi-major axis is $\sim0.05$ AU, with an equilibrium temperature in the range where water could be liquid on its surface., Comment: Version accepted for publication by Nature (unedited, July 7th, 2016), figures inserted in text for easier read. Article body : 10 pages, 3 figures, 1 table. Methods section : 23 pages, 9 figures, 1 table. IMPORTANT NOTE : Acknowledgment to IAA/CSIC researchers Javier Pascual Granado and Rafael Garrido added for useful discussions and feedback on the mathematical properties of time-series