Search

Using an effective Lagrangian model inspired by [1] we describe the early post-merger of a binary Neutron Star (BNS) merger event with a non-vanishing ambient fraction of dark matter. For this we mimic the dynamics of two oscillating Neutron Star (NS) masses in the gravitational potential well as they merge. We parametrize the ejected baryonic matter fraction in the coalescence event forming a surrounding debris disk containing a non-vanishing dark matter fraction. In order to analyze the dark contribution, we start from a dark-matter free modelization using Monte Carlo Markov Chain (MCMC) techniques to replicate the gravitational waveforms obtained from simulations in the CoRe database for three selected equations of state for NS matter (DD2, BHBlp, SFHo). Later, we explore the impact of a dark viscous fluid under a prescribed velocity dependent force and obtain the waveforms and spectral properties originating in the first few ms in the BNS post-merger. Finally we discuss our findings in light of the prospects of detectability of a non-vanishing fraction of dark matter arising in the waveforms and power spectral distribution in present or future experimental settings., Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures

Supernova remnants (SNRs) are believed to be capable of accelerating cosmic rays (CRs) to PeV energies. SNR G106.3+2.7 is a prime PeVatron candidate. It is formed by a head region, where the pulsar J2229+6114 and its boomerang-shaped pulsar wind nebula are located, and a tail region containing SN ejecta. The lack of observed gamma ray emission from the two regions of this SNR has made it difficult to assess which region would be responsible for the PeV CRs. We aim to characterize the very-high-energy (VHE, 0.1-100 TeV) gamma ray emission from SNR G106.3+2.7 by determining the morphology and spectral energy distribution of the region. This is accomplished using 2565 days of data and improved reconstruction algorithms from the HAWC Observatory. We also explore possible gamma ray production mechanisms for different energy ranges. Using a multi-source fitting procedure based on a maximum-likelihood estimation method, we evaluate the complex nature of this region. We determine the morphology, spectrum, and energy range for the source found in the region. Molecular cloud information is also used to create a template and evaluate the HAWC gamma ray spectral properties at ultra-high-energies (UHE, >56 TeV). This will help probe the hadronic nature of the highest-energy emission from the region. We resolve one extended source coincident with all other gamma ray observations of the region. The emission reaches above 100~TeV and its preferred log-parabola shape in the spectrum shows a flux peak in the TeV range. The molecular cloud template fit on the higher energy data reveals that the SNR's energy budget is fully capable of producing a purely hadronic source for UHE gamma rays.

HESS J1809-193 is an unidentified TeV source, first detected by the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) Collaboration. The emission originates in a source-rich region that includes several Supernova Remnants (SNR) and Pulsars (PSR) including SNR G11.1+0.1, SNR G11.0-0.0, and the young radio pulsar J1809-1917. Originally classified as a pulsar wind nebula (PWN) candidate, recent studies show the peak of the TeV region overlapping with a system of molecular clouds. This resulted in the revision of the original leptonic scenario to look for alternate hadronic scenarios. Marked as a potential PeVatron candidate, this region has been studied extensively by H.E.S.S. due to its emission extending up-to several tens of TeV. In this work, we use 2398 days of data from the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory to carry out a systematic source search for the HESS J1809-193 region. We were able to resolve emission detected as an extended component (modelled as a Symmetric Gaussian with a 1 $\sigma$ radius of 0.21 $^\circ$) with no clear cutoff at high energies and emitting photons up-to 210 TeV. We model the multi-wavelength observations for the region HESS J1809-193 using a time-dependent leptonic model and a lepto-hadronic model. Our model indicates that both scenarios could explain the observed data within the region of HESS J1809-193.

A crucial aspect in addressing the challenge of measuring the core mass function, that is pivotal for comprehending the origin of the initial mass function, lies in constraining the temperatures of the cores. We aim to measure the luminosity, mass, column density and dust temperature of star-forming regions imaged by the ALMA-IMF large program. High angular resolution mapping is required to capture the properties of protostellar and pre-stellar cores and to effectively separate them from larger features, such as dusty filaments. We employed the point process mapping (PPMAP) technique, enabling us to perform spectral energy distribution fitting of far-infrared and submillimeter observations across the 15 ALMA-IMF fields, at an unmatched 2.5" angular resolution. By combining the modified blackbody model with near-infrared data, we derived bolometric luminosity maps. We estimated the errors impacting values of each pixel in the temperature, column density, and luminosity maps. Subsequently, we employed the extraction algorithm getsf on the luminosity maps in order to detect luminosity peaks and measure their associated masses. We obtained high-resolution constraints on the luminosity, dust temperature, and mass of protoclusters, that are in agreement with previously reported measurements made at a coarser angular resolution. We find that the luminosity-to-mass ratio correlates with the evolutionary stage of the studied regions, albeit with intra-region variability. We compiled a PPMAP source catalog of 313 luminosity peaks using getsf on the derived bolometric luminosity maps. The PPMAP source catalog provides constraints on the mass and luminosity of protostars and cores, although one source may encompass several objects. Finally, we compare the estimated luminosity-to-mass ratio of PPMAP sources with evolutionary tracks and discuss the limitations imposed by the 2.5" beam., Comment: 35 pages, 19 figures, 5 tables Accepted by A&A

This article presents constraints on dark-matter-electron interactions obtained from the first underground data-taking campaign with multiple SuperCDMS HVeV detectors operated in the same housing. An exposure of 7.63 g-days is used to set upper limits on the dark-matter-electron scattering cross section for dark matter masses between 0.5 and 1000 MeV/$c^2$, as well as upper limits on dark photon kinetic mixing and axion-like particle axioelectric coupling for masses between 1.2 and 23.3 eV/$c^2$. Compared to an earlier HVeV search, sensitivity was improved as a result of an increased overburden of 225 meters of water equivalent, an anticoincidence event selection, and better pile-up rejection. In the case of dark-matter-electron scattering via a heavy mediator, an improvement by up to a factor of 25 in cross-section sensitivity was achieved., Comment: 7 pages + title and references, 4 figures, and 1 table

We report an observation of ultra-high energy (UHE) gamma rays from the Galactic Center region, using seven years of data collected by the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory. The HAWC data are best described as a point-like source (HAWC J1746-2856) with a power-law spectrum ($\mathrm{d}N/\mathrm{d}E=\phi(E/26 \,\text{TeV})^{\gamma}$), where $\gamma=-2.88 \pm 0.15_{\text{stat}} - 0.1_{\text{sys}} $ and $\phi=1.5 \times 10^{-15}$ (TeV cm$^{2}$s)$^{-1}$ $\pm\, 0.3_{\text{stat}}\,^{+0.08_{\text{sys}}}_{-0.13_{\text{sys}}}$ extending from 6 to 114 TeV. We find no evidence of a spectral cutoff up to $100$ TeV using HAWC data. Two known point-like gamma-ray sources are spatially coincident with the HAWC gamma-ray excess: Sgr A$^{*}$ (HESS J1745-290) and the Arc (HESS J1746-285). We subtract the known flux contribution of these point sources from the measured flux of HAWC J1746-2856 to exclude their contamination and show that the excess observed by HAWC remains significant ($>$5$\sigma$) with the spectrum extending to $>$100 TeV. Our result supports that these detected UHE gamma rays can originate via hadronic interaction of PeV cosmic-ray protons with the dense ambient gas and confirms the presence of a proton PeVatron at the Galactic Center.

The first TeV gamma-ray source with no lower energy counterparts, TeV J2032+4130, was discovered by HEGRA. It appears in the third HAWC catalog as 3HWC J2031+415 and it is a bright TeV gamma-ray source whose emission has previously been resolved as 2 sources: HAWC J2031+415 and HAWC J2030+409. While HAWC J2030+409 has since been associated with the \emph{Fermi-LAT} Cygnus Cocoon, no such association for HAWC J2031+415 has yet been found. In this work, we investigate the spectrum and energy-dependent morphology of HAWC J2031+415. We associate HAWC J2031+415 with the pulsar PSR J2032+4127 and perform a combined multi-wavelength analysis using radio, X-ray, and $\gamma$-ray emission. We conclude that HAWC J2031+415 and, by extension, TeV J2032+4130 are most probably a pulsar wind nebula (PWN) powered by PSR J2032+4127.

In this work, we present the results of a detailed X-ray spectral analysis of the brightest AGNs detected in the XMM-Newton 1.75 Ms Ultra Narrow Deep Field. We analyzed 23 AGNs that have a luminosity range of $\sim 10^{42} - 10^{46}\, \rm{erg}\, \rm{s}^{-1}$ in the $2 - 10\, \rm{keV}$ energy band, redshifts up to 2.66, and $\sim 10,000$ X-ray photon counts in the $0.3 - 10\, \rm{keV}$ energy band. Our analysis confirms the Iwasawa-Taniguchi effect, an anti-correlation between the X-ray luminosity ($L_x$) and the Fe-k$\alpha$ Equivalent Width ($EW_{Fe}$) possibly associated with the decreasing of the torus covering factor as the AGN luminosity increases. We investigated the relationship among black hole mass ($M_{BH}$), $L_x$, and X-ray variability, quantified by the Normalized Excess Variance ($\sigma^2_{rms}$). Our analysis suggest an anti-correlation in both $M_{BH} - \sigma^2_{rms}$ and $L_x- \sigma^2_{rms}$ relations. The first is described as $\sigma^2_{rms} \propto M^{-0.26 \pm 0.05}_{BH}$, while the second presents a similar trend with $\sigma^2_{rms} \propto L_{x}^{-0.31 \pm 0.04}$. These results support the idea that the luminosity-variability anti-correlation is a byproduct of an intrinsic relationship between the BH mass and the X-ray variability, through the size of the emitting region. Finally, we found a strong correlation among the Eddington ratio ($\lambda_{Edd}$), the hard X-ray photon index ($\Gamma$), and the illumination factor $\log(A)$, which is related to the ratio between the number of Compton scattered photons and the number of seed photons. The $\log(\lambda_{Edd})-\Gamma-\log(A)$ plane could arise naturally from the connection between the accretion flow and the hot corona., Comment: 16 pages, 14 figures, to be published in MNRAS

We provide an early assessment of the imaging capabilities of the Euclid space mission to probe deeply into nearby star-forming regions and associated very young open clusters, and in particular to check to what extent it can shed light on the new-born free-floating planet population. This paper focuses on a low-reddening region observed in just one Euclid pointing where the dust and gas has been cleared out by the hot sigma Orionis star. One late-M and six known spectroscopically confirmed L-type substellar members in the sigma Orionis cluster are used as benchmarks to provide a high-purity procedure to select new candidate members with Euclid. The exquisite angular resolution and depth delivered by the Euclid instruments allow us to focus on bona-fide point sources. A cleaned sample of sigma Orionis cluster substellar members has been produced and the initial mass function (IMF) has been estimated by combining Euclid and Gaia data. Our sigma Orionis substellar IMF is consistent with a power-law distribution with no significant steepening at the planetary-mass end. No evidence of a low-mass cutoff is found down to about 4 Jupiter masses at the young age (3 Myr) of the sigma Orionis open cluster., Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures, submitted to the A&A special issue on "Euclid on the sky"

The High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Gamma-Ray Observatory located on the side of the Sierra Negra volcano in Mexico, has been fully operational since 2015. The HAWC collaboration has recently significantly improved their extensive-air-shower reconstruction algorithms, which has notably advanced the observatory performance. The energy resolution for primary gamma rays with energies below 1~TeV was improved by including a noise-suppression algorithm. Corrections have also been made to systematic errors in direction fitting related to the detector and shower plane inclinations, $\mathcal{O}(0.1^{\circ})$ biases in highly inclined showers, as well as enhancements to the core reconstruction. The angular resolution for gamma rays approaching the HAWC array from large zenith angles ($> 37^{\circ}$) has improved by a factor of four at the highest energies ($> 70$~TeV) as compared to previous reconstructions. The inclusion of a lateral distribution function fit to the extensive air shower footprint on the array to separate gamma-ray primaries from cosmic-ray ones, based on the resulting $\chi^{2}$ values, improved the background rejection performance at all inclinations. At large zenith angles, the improvement in significance is a factor of four compared to previous HAWC publications. These enhancements have been verified by observing the Crab Nebula, which is an overhead source for the HAWC Observatory. We show that the sensitivity to Crab-like point sources ($E^{-2.63}$) with locations overhead to 30$^{\circ}$ zenith is comparable or less than 10\% of the Crab Nebula's flux between 2 and 50~TeV. Thanks to these improvements, HAWC can now detect more sources, including the Galactic Center.

Galactic PeVatrons are sources that can accelerate cosmic rays to PeV energies. The high-energy cosmic rays are expected to interact with the surrounding ambient material or radiation, resulting in the production of gamma rays and neutrinos. To optimize for the detection of such associated production of gamma rays and neutrinos for a given source morphology and spectrum, a multi-messenger analysis that combines gamma rays and neutrinos is required. In this study, we use the Multi-Mission Maximum Likelihood framework (3ML) with IceCube Maximum Likelihood Analysis software (i3mla) and HAWC Accelerated Likelihood (HAL) to search for a correlation between 22 known gamma-ray sources from the third HAWC gamma-ray catalog and 14 years of IceCube track-like data. No significant neutrino emission from the direction of the HAWC sources was found. We report the best-fit gamma-ray model and 90% CL neutrino flux limit from the 22 sources. From the neutrino flux limit, we conclude that the gamma-ray emission from five of the sources can not be produced purely from hadronic interactions. We report the limit for the fraction of gamma rays produced by hadronic interactions for these five sources.

The ALMA-IMF Large Program provides multi-tracer observations of 15 Galactic massive protoclusters at matched sensitivity and spatial resolution. We focus on the dense gas kinematics of the G353.41 protocluster traced by N$_2$H$^+$ (1$-$0), with an spatial resolution $\sim$0.02 pc. G353.41, at a distance of $\sim$2 kpc, has a mass of $\sim$2500 M$_{\odot}$ within $1.3\times1.3$ pc$^2$. We extract the N$_2$H$^+$ isolated line component and we decompose it by fitting up to 3 Gaussian velocity components. This allows us to identify velocity structures that are impossible to identify in the traditional position-velocity diagram. We identify multiple velocity gradients on large ($\sim$1 pc) and small scales ($\sim$0.2 pc). We find good agreement between the N$_2$H$^+$ velocities and the previously reported DCN core velocities, suggesting that cores are kinematically coupled to the dense gas in which they form. We measure 9 converging ``V-shaped'' velocity gradients ($\sim20$ km/s/pc), located in filaments, which are sometimes associated with cores near their point of convergence. The average inflow timescale is $\sim67$ kyr, or about twice the free-fall time of cores in the same area ($\sim33$ kyr) but substantially shorter than protostar lifetime estimates ($\sim$0.5 Myr). We derive mass accretion rates in the range of $(0.35-8.77)\,\times\,10^{-4}$ M$_{\odot}$/yr. This feeding might lead to further filament collapse and formation of new cores. We suggest that the protocluster is collapsing on large scales, but the velocity signature of collapse is slow compared to pure free-fall. These data are consistent with a comparatively slow global protocluster contraction under gravity, and faster core formation within, suggesting the formation of multiple generations of stars over the protocluster lifetime., Comment: Accepted in A&A, 22 pages, 21 figures, 1 interactive figure, 4 tables

Single phase multiferroics in which ordered magnetic and ferroelectricity coexist, are of great interest for new multifunctional devices, and among them Y-type hexaferrites are good candidates. Transverse susceptibility measurements, which have been proved to be a versatile tool to study singular properties of bulk and nanoparticle magnetic systems, have been carried out with a broadband system on polycrystalline Y type hexaferrites with composition Ba$_{0.5}$Sr$_{1.5}$Co$_2$Fe$_{12}$O${22}$, optimal to exhibit multiferroic properties. In the temperature range 80-350 K transverse susceptibility measurements with DC fields up to $\pm$5000 Oe reveal different behaviour depending on the sintering temperature. The thermal evolution of the anisotropy field peak exhibit four regions with different slopes: positive in 80-130 K, negative in 130-200 K, constant in 200-280 K and negative in 280-350 K, which can be considered a signature of spin transitions in this compound., Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2401.16146

About half of the heavy elements beyond iron are known to be produced by the rapid neutron capture process, known as r-process. However, the astrophysical site producing the r-process is still uncertain. Chemical abundances observed in several cosmic sites indicate that different mechanisms should be at play. For instance, the abundances around silver measured in a subset of metal-poor stars indicate the presence of a weak r-process. This process may be active in neutrino-driven winds of core collapse supernovae where (${\alpha}$,n) reactions dominate the synthesis of Z ~ 40 elements in the expelled materials. Scarcely measured, the rates of (${\alpha}$,n) reactions are determined from statistical Hauser-Feshbach calculations with ${\alpha}$-optical-model potentials, which are still poorly constrained. The uncertainties of the (${\alpha}$,n) reaction rates therefore make a significant contribution to the uncertainties of the abundances determined from stellar modeling. In this work, the $^{88}$Sr(${\alpha}$,n)$^{91}$Zr reaction which impacts the weak r-process abundances has been probed at astrophysics energy for the first time; directly measuring the total cross sections at astrophysical energies of 8.37 - 13.09 MeV in the center of mass (3.8 - 7.5 GK). Two measurements were performed at ATLAS with the electrically-segmented ionization chamber MUSIC, in inverse kinematics, while following the active target technique. The cross sections of this ${\alpha}$-induced reaction on $^{88}$Sr, located at the shell closure N = 50, have been found to be lower than expected, by a factor of 3, despite recent statistical calculations validated by measurements on neighboring nuclei. This result encourages more experimental investigations of (${\alpha}$,n) reactions, at N = 50 and towards the neutron-rich side, to further test the predictive power and reliability of such calculations., Comment: 9 pages, 6 conference

Recently, GaAsSb/GaAsN type II short-period superlattices (SLs) have been proposed as suitable structures to be implemented in the optimal design of monolithic multi-junction solar cells. However, due to strong surface Sb segregation, experimental Sb composition profiles differ greatly from the nominal square-wave design. In this work, the improvement of the interface quality of these SLs in terms of compositional abruptness and surface roughness has been evaluated by implementing different growth interruption times under Sb4/As4 (soaking) and As4 (desorption) overpressure conditions before and after the growth of GaAsSb layers, respectively. The combined effects of both processes enhance Sb distribution, achieving squarer compositional profiles with reduced surface roughness interfaces. It has been found that the improvement in compositional abruptness is quantitatively much higher at the lower interface, during soaking, than at the upper interface during desorption. Conversely, a larger decrease in surface roughness is achieved at the upper interface than at the lower interface. Fitting of the Sb segregation profiles using the 3-layer kinetic fluid model has shown that the increase in Sb incorporation rate is due to the decrease in segregation energy, presumably to changes in the surface reconstruction of the floating layer at the surface., Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures

We aimed to measure the CMF in the evolved W33-Main star-forming protocluster to compare it with CMF recently obtained in other Galactic star-forming regions, including the ones included in the ALMA-IMF program. We used observations from the ALMA-IMF large program: 2'x2' maps of emission from the continuum and selected lines at 1.3mm and 3mm observed by the ALMA 12m only antennas. Our angular resolution was typically 1'', that is 2400au at a distance of 2.4kpc. The lines we analysed are CO(2-1), SiO(5-4), N2H+(1-0), H41alpha as well as He41alpha blended with C41alpha. We built a census of dense cores in the region, and we measured the associated CMF based on a core-dependent temperature value. We confirmed the 'evolved' status of W33-Main by identifiying three HII regions within the field, and to a lesser extent based on the number and extension of N2H+ filaments. We produced a filtered core catalog of 94 candidates, that we refined to take into account the contamination of the continuum by free-free and line emission, obtaining 80 cores with masses that range from 0.03 to 13.2Msun. We fitted the resulting high-mass end of the CMF with a single power law of the form N(log(M)) ~ M^alpha, obtaining alpha = -1.44(+0.16)(-0.22), slightly steeper but consistent with the Salpeter index. We categorized our cores in pre- and protostellar, mostly based on outlow activity and hot core nature. We found the prestellar CMF to be steeper than a Salpeter-like distribution, and the protostellar CMF to be slightly top heavy. We found a higher proportion of cores within the HII regions and their surroundings than in the rest of the field. We also found that the cores' masses were rather low (maximum mass of 13Msun).

We here present the results of an analysis of the optical spectroscopy of 42 globular cluster (GC) candidates in the nearby spiral galaxy M81 (3.61~Mpc). The spectra were obtained using the long-slit and MOS modes of the OSIRIS instrument at the 10.4~m Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) at a spectral resolution of $\sim$1000. We used the classical H$\beta$ vs [MgFe]$'$ index diagram to separate genuine old GCs from clusters younger than 3 Gyr. Of the 30 spectra with continuum signal-to-noise ratio $>10$, we confirm 17 objects to be classical GCs (age $>10$~Gyr, $-1.4<$[Fe/H]$<-$0.4), with the remaining 13 being intermediate-age clusters (1-7.5~Gyr). We combined age and metallicity data of other nearby spiral galaxies ($\lesssim18$~Mpc) obtained using similar methodology like the one we have used here to understand the origin of GCs in spiral galaxies in the cosmological context. We find that the metal-poor ([Fe/H]<$-$1) GCs continued to form up to 6~Gyr after the first GCs were formed, with all younger systems (age $<8$~Gyr) being metal-rich., Comment: 16 pages, 13 figures, 8 tables; Accepted for publication in MNRAS

We present microscopic Molecular Dynamics simulations including the efficient Ewald sum procedure to study warm and dense stellar plasmas consisting of finite-size ion charges immerse in a relativistic neutralizing electron gas. For densities typical of Supernova matter and crust in a proto-neutron star, we select a representative single ion composition and obtain the virialized equation of state (vEoS). We scrutinize the finite-size and screening corrections to the Coulomb potential appearing in the virial coefficients $B_2, B_3$ and $B_4$ as a function of temperature. In addition, we study the thermal heat capacity at constant volume, $C_V$, and the generalized Mayer's relation i.e. the difference $C_P-C_V$ with $C_P$ being the heat capacity at constant pressure, obtaining clear features signaling the onset of the liquid-gas phase transition. Our findings show that microscopic simulations reproduce the discontinuity in $C_V$, whose value lies between that of idealized gas and crystallized configurations. We study the pressure isotherms marking the boundary of the metastable region before the gaseous transition takes place. The resulting vEoS displays a behaviour where effective virial coefficients include extra density dependence showing a generalized density-temperature form. As an application we parametrize pressure as a function of density and temperature under the form of an artificial neural network showing the potential of machine learning for future regression analysis in more refined multicomponent approaches. This is of interest to size the importance of these corrections in the liquid-gas phase transition in warm and dense plasma phases contributing to the cooling behaviour of early Supernova phases and proto-neutron stars., Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, published in MNRAS

The Galactic gamma-ray diffuse emission (GDE) is emitted by cosmic rays (CRs), ultra-relativistic protons and electrons, interacting with gas and electromagnetic radiation fields in the interstellar medium. Here we present the analysis of TeV diffuse emission from a region of the Galactic Plane over the range in longitude of $l\in[43^\circ,73^\circ]$, using data collected with the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) detector. Spectral, longitudinal and latitudinal distributions of the TeV diffuse emission are shown. The radiation spectrum is compatible with the spectrum of the emission arising from a CR population with an "index" similar to that of the observed CRs. When comparing with the \texttt{DRAGON} \textit{base model}, the HAWC GDE flux is higher by about a factor of two. Unresolved sources such as pulsar wind nebulae and TeV halos could explain the excess emission. Finally, deviations of the Galactic CR flux from the locally measured CR flux may additionally explain the difference between the predicted and measured diffuse fluxes.

Recently, the region surrounding eHWC J1842-035 has been studied extensively by gamma-ray observatories due to its extended emission reaching up to a few hundred TeV and potential as a hadronic accelerator. In this work, we use 1,910 days of cumulative data from the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory to carry out a dedicated systematic source search of the eHWC J1842-035 region. During the search we have found three sources in the region, namely, HAWC J1844-034, HAWC J1843-032, and HAWC J1846-025. We have identified HAWC J1844-034 as the extended source that emits photons with energies up to 175 TeV. We compute the spectrum for HAWC J1844-034 and by comparing with the observational results from other experiments, we have identified HESS J1843-033, LHAASO J1843-0338, and TASG J1844-038 as very-high-energy gamma-ray sources with a matching origin. Also, we present and use the multi-wavelength data to fit the hadronic and leptonic particle spectra. We have identified four pulsar candidates in the nearby region from which PSR J1844-0346 is found to be the most likely candidate due to its proximity to HAWC J1844-034 and the computed energy budget. We have also found SNR G28.6-0.1 as a potential counterpart source of HAWC J1844-034 for which both leptonic and hadronic scenarios are feasible., Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, published in ApJ

The decay or annihilation of dark matter particles may produce a steady flux of very-high-energy gamma rays detectable above the diffuse background. Nearby clusters of galaxies provide excellent targets to search for the signatures of particle dark matter interactions. In particular, the Virgo cluster spans several degrees across the sky and can be efficiently probed with a wide field-of-view instrument. The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory, due to its wide field of view and sensitivity to gamma rays at an energy scale of 300 GeV--100 TeV is well-suited for this search. Using 2141 days of data, we search for gamma-ray emission from the Virgo cluster, assuming well-motivated dark matter sub-structure models. Our results provide some of the strongest constraints on the decay lifetime of dark matter for masses above 10 TeV., Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures. Accepted for publication in Physical Review D

We report a study on the static and dynamic properties of several liquid 5$d$ transition metals at thermodynamic conditions near their respective melting points. This is performed by resorting to ab initio molecular dynamics simulations in the framework of the density functional theory. Results are presented for the static structure factors and pair distribution functions; moreover, the local short range order in the liquid metal is also analized. As for the dynamical properties, both single-particle and collective properties are evaluated. The dynamical structure shows the propagating density fluctuations, and the respective dispersion relation is obtained. Results are also obtained for the longitudinal and transverse current spectral functions along with the associated dispersion of collective excitations. For some metals, we found the existence of two branches of transverse collective excitations in the region around the main peak of the structure factor. Finally, several transport coefficients are also calculated., Comment: 20 pages, 19 figures, 5 tables

ALMA-IMF is an Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) Large Program designed to measure the core mass function (CMF) of 15 protoclusters chosen to span their early evolutionary stages. It further aims to understand their kinematics, chemistry, and the impact of gas inflow, accretion, and dynamics on the CMF. We present here the first release of the ALMA-IMF line data cubes (DR1), produced from the combination of two ALMA 12m-array configurations. The data include 12 spectral windows, with eight at 1.3mm and four at 3mm. The broad spectral coverage of ALMA-IMF (~6.7 GHz bandwidth coverage per field) hosts a wealth of simple atomic, molecular, ionised, and complex organic molecular lines. We describe the line cube calibration done by ALMA and the subsequent calibration and imaging we performed. We discuss our choice of calibration parameters and optimisation of the cleaning parameters, and we demonstrate the utility and necessity of additional processing compared to the ALMA archive pipeline. As a demonstration of the scientific potential of these data, we present a first analysis of the DCN (3-2) line. We find that DCN traces a diversity of morphologies and complex velocity structures, which tend to be more filamentary and widespread in evolved regions and are more compact in the young and intermediate-stage protoclusters. Furthermore, we used the DCN (3-2) emission as a tracer of the gas associated with 595 continuum cores across the 15 protoclusters, providing the first estimates of the core systemic velocities and linewidths within the sample. We find that DCN (3-2) is detected towards a higher percentage of cores in evolved regions than the young and intermediate-stage protoclusters and is likely a more complete tracer of the core population in more evolved protoclusters. The full ALMA 12m-array cubes for the ALMA-IMF Large Program are provided with this DR1 release., Comment: 75 pages (21 main body; 54 appendix), 37 figures. The ALMA-IMF DR1 line release is hosted at https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataverse/alma-imf

We present results from a sample of 106 high-luminosity IRAS sources observed with the Very Large Array in the B and C configurations. 96 sources were observed in the X-band and 52 in the K-band, with 42 of them observed at both wavelengths. We also used previously published observations in the C-band for 14 of them. The detection rate of sources with 3.6~cm continuum emission was $\sim25\%$, while only 10\% have emission at 1.3~cm. In order to investigate the nature of these sources, their physical parameters were calculated mainly using the 3.6~cm continuum emission, and for sources detected at two wavelengths, we used the best fit of three HII region models with different geometries. As a final result, we present a catalog of the detected sources, which includes their basic physical parameters for further analysis. The catalog contains 17 ultracompact HII regions and 3 compact HII regions., Comment: Accepted for publication in Revista Mexicana de Astronomia y Astrofisica (October 2023)

The Galactic Halo is a key target for indirect dark matter detection. The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory is a high-energy (~300 GeV to >100 TeV) gamma-ray detector located in central Mexico. HAWC operates via the water Cherenkov technique and has both a wide field of view of 2 sr and a >95% duty cycle, making it ideal for analyses of highly extended sources. We made use of these properties of HAWC and a new background-estimation technique optimized for extended sources to probe a large region of the Galactic Halo for dark matter signals. With this approach, we set improved constraints on dark matter annihilation and decay between masses of 10 and 100 TeV. Due to the large spatial extent of the HAWC field of view, these constraints are robust against uncertainties in the Galactic dark matter spatial profile., Comment: 19 pages, 14 figures

We present a short overview of the TeV-Halos objects as a discovery and a relevant contribution of the High Altitude Water \v{C}erenkov (HAWC) observatory to TeV astrophysics. We discuss history, discovery, knowledge, and the next step through a new and more detailed analysis than the original study in 2017. TeV-Halos will contribute to resolving the problem of the local positron excess observed on the Earth. To clarify the latter, understanding the diffusion process is mandatory., Comment: Work presented in the 21st International Symposium on Very High Energy Cosmic Ray Interactions(ISVHECRI 2022) as part of the Ph. D. Thesis of Ramiro Torres-Escobedo (SJTU, Shanghai, China). Accepted for publication in SciPost Physics Proceedings (ISSN 2666-4003). 11 pages, 3 Figures. Short overview of HAWC and TeV Halos objects until 2022

The High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory is a second-generation continuously operated, wide field-of-view, TeV gamma-ray observatory. The HAWC observatory and its analysis techniques build on experience of the Milagro experiment in using ground-based water Cherenkov detectors for gamma-ray astronomy. HAWC is located on the Sierra Negra volcano in M\'exico at an elevation of 4100 meters above sea level. The completed HAWC observatory principal detector (HAWC) consists of 300 closely spaced water Cherenkov detectors, each equipped with four photomultiplier tubes to provide timing and charge information to reconstruct the extensive air shower energy and arrival direction. The HAWC observatory has been optimized to observe transient and steady emission from sources of gamma rays within an energy range from several hundred GeV to several hundred TeV. However, most of the air showers detected are initiated by cosmic rays, allowing studies of cosmic rays also to be performed. This paper describes the characteristics of the HAWC main array and its hardware., Comment: Accepted for publications in Nuclear Inst. and Methods in Physics Research, A (2023) 168253 ( https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0168900223002437 ); 39 pages, 14 Figures

The title reaction is studied using a quasi-classical trajectory method for collision energies between 0.1 meV and 10 eV, considering the vibrational excitation of H$_2^+$ reactant. A new potential energy surface is developed based on a Neural Network many body correction of a triatomics-in-molecules potential, which significantly improves the accuracy of the potential up to energies of 17 eV, higher than in other previous fits.The effect of the fit accuracy and the non-adiabatic transitions on the dynamics are analyzed in detail.The reaction cross section for collision energies above 1 eV increases significantly with the increasing of the vibrational excitation of H$_2^+$($v'$), for values up to $v'$=6. The total reaction cross section (including the double fragmentation channel) obtained for $v'$=6 matches the new experimental results obtained by Savic, Schlemmer and Gerlich [Chem. Phys. Chem. 21 (13), 1429.1435(2020)]. The differences among several experimental setups, for collision energies above 1 eV, showing cross sections scattered/dispersed over a rather wide interval, can be explained by the differences in the vibrational excitations obtained in the formation of H$_2^+$ reactants. On the contrary, for collision energies below 1 eV, the cross section is determined by the long range behavior of the potential and do not depend strongly on the vibrational state of H$_2^+$. In addition in this study, the calculated reaction cross sections are used in a plasma model and compared with previous results. We conclude that the efficiency of the formation of H$_3^+$ in the plasma is affected by the potential energy surface used., Comment: 26 pages, 11 figures

The latest High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) point-like source catalog up to 56 TeV reported the detection of two sources in the region of the Galactic plane at galactic longitude 52\deg < l < 55\deg, 3HWC J1930+188 and 3HWC J1928+178. The first one is associated with a known TeV source, the supernova remnant SNR G054.1+00.3. It was discovered by one of the currently operating Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescope (IACT), the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS), detected by the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.), and identified as a composite SNR. However, the source 3HWC J1928+178, discovered by HAWC and coincident with the pulsar PSR J1928+1746, was not detected by any IACT despite their long exposure on the region, until a recent new analysis of H.E.S.S. data was able to confirm it. Moreover, no X-ray counterpart has been detected from this pulsar. We present a multicomponent fit of this region using the latest HAWC data. This reveals an additional new source, HAWC J1932+192, which is potentially associated with the pulsar PSR J1932+1916, whose gamma-ray emission could come from the acceleration of particles in its pulsar wind nebula. In the case of 3HWC J1928+178, several possible explanations are explored, in a attempt to unveil the origins of the very-high-energy gamma-ray emission.

We here study the multi-band properties of a kiloparsec-size superbubble in the late-type spiral galaxy NGC628. The superbubble is the largest of many holes seen in the early release images using JWST/MIRI filters that trace the Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (PAH) emissions. The superbubble is located in the interarm region ~3 kpc from the galactic center in the south-east direction. The shell surrounding the superbubble is detected in HI, CO, and Halpha with an expansion velocity of 12 km/s, and contains as much as 2x10^7 Msun of mass in gas that is mostly in molecular form. We find a clear excess of blue, bright stars inside the bubble as compared to the surrounding disk on the HST/ACS images. These excess blue, bright stars are part of a stellar population of 10^5 Msun mass that is formed over the last 50 Myr in different star formation episodes, as determined from an analysis of color-magnitude diagrams using a Bayesian technique. The mechanical power injected by the massive stars of these populations is sufficient to provide the energy necessary for the expansion of the shell gas. Slow and steady, rather than violent, injection of energy is probably the reason for the maintenance of the shell structure over the kiloparsec scale. The expanding shell is currently the site for triggered star formation as inferred from the JWST 21 micron (F2100W filter) and the Halpha images., Comment: 18 pages, Accepted for publication in MNRAS

We present the results of dark matter (DM) searches in a sample of 31 dwarf irregular (dIrr) galaxies within the field of view of the HAWC Observatory. dIrr galaxies are DM dominated objects, which astrophysical gamma-ray emission is estimated to be negligible with respect to the secondary gamma-ray flux expected by annihilation or decay of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs). While we do not see any statistically significant DM signal in dIrr galaxies, we present the exclusion limits ($95\%~\text{C.L.}$) for annihilation cross-section and decay lifetime for WIMP candidates with masses between $1$ and $100~\text{TeV}$. Exclusion limits from dIrr galaxies are relevant and complementary to benchmark dwarf Spheroidal (dSph) galaxies. In fact, dIrr galaxies are targets kinematically different from benchmark dSph, preserving the footprints of different evolution histories. We compare the limits from dIrr galaxies to those from ultrafaint and classical dSph galaxies previously observed with HAWC. We find that the contraints are comparable to the limits from classical dSph galaxies and $\thicksim2$ orders of magnitude weaker than the ultrafaint dSph limits., Comment: 22 pages, 11 figures, 3 tables

Extended very-high-energy (VHE; 0.1-100 TeV) $\gamma$-ray emission has been observed around several middle-aged pulsars and referred to as ``TeV halos". Their formation mechanism remains under debate. It is also unknown whether they are ubiquitous or related to certain subgroup of pulsars. With 2321 days of observation, the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Gamma-Ray Observatory detected VHE $\gamma$-ray emission at the location of the radio-quiet pulsar PSR J0359+5414 with $>6\sigma$ significance. By performing likelihood tests with different spectral and spatial models and comparing the TeV spectrum with multi-wavelength observations of nearby sources, we show that this excess is consistent with a TeV halo associated with PSR J0359+5414, though future observation of HAWC and multi-wavelength follow-ups are needed to confirm this nature. This new halo candidate is located in a non-crowded region in the outer Galaxy. It shares similar properties to the other halos but its pulsar is younger and radio-quiet. Our observation implies that TeV halos could commonly exist around pulsars and their formation does not depend on the configuration of the pulsar magnetosphere.

Among the most central open questions regarding the initial mass function (IMF) of stars is the impact of environment on the shape of the core mass function (CMF) and thus potentially on the IMF. The ALMA-IMF Large Program aims to investigate the variations in the core distributions with cloud characteristics, as diagnostic observables of the formation process and evolution of clouds. The present study focuses on the W43-MM2&MM3 mini-starburst, whose CMF has recently been found to be top-heavy with respect to the Salpeter slope. W43-MM2&MM3 harbors a rich cluster that contains a statistically significant number of cores, which was previously characterized in Paper III. We applied a multi-scale decomposition technique to the ALMA 1.3 mm and 3 mm continuum images to define six subregions. For each subregion we characterized the high column density probability distribution function, n-PDF, and the shape of the cloud gas using the 1.3 mm image. Using the core catalog, we investigate correlations between the CMF and cloud and core properties. We classify the subregions into different stages of evolution, from quiescent to burst to post-burst, based on the surface number density of cores, number of outflows, and UCHii presence. The high-mass end of the subregion CMFs varies from being close to the Salpeter slope (quiescent) to top-heavy (burst and post-burst). Moreover, the second tail of the n-PDF varies from steep, to flat like observed for the high mass star-forming clouds. We found that subregions with flat second n-PDF tails display top-heavy CMFs. The CMF may evolve from Salpeter to top-heavy throughout the star formation process from the quiescent to the burst phase. This scenario raises the question of if the CMF might revert again to Salpeter as the cloud approaches the end of its star formation stage, a hypothesis that remains to be tested., Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A (december, 5th 2022) after language editing; 25 pages, 14 figures

We report the first detection of a TeV gamma-ray flux from the solar disk (6.3$\sigma$), based on 6.1 years of data from the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory. The 0.5--2.6 TeV spectrum is well fit by a power law, dN/dE = $A (E/1 \text{ TeV})^{-\gamma}$, with $A = (1.6 \pm 0.3) \times 10^{-12}$ TeV$^{-1}$ cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ and $\gamma = -3.62 \pm 0.14$. The flux shows a strong indication of anticorrelation with solar activity. These results extend the bright, hard GeV emission from the disk observed with Fermi-LAT, seemingly due to hadronic Galactic cosmic rays showering on nuclei in the solar atmosphere. However, current theoretical models are unable to explain the details of how solar magnetic fields shape these interactions. HAWC's TeV detection thus deepens the mysteries of the solar-disk emission., Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures including supplementary material. Accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters

We present a spatially resolved spectroscopic study for the metal poor HII galaxy J084220+115000 using MEGARA Integral Field Unit observations at the Gran Telescopio Canarias. We estimated the gas metallicity using the direct method for oxygen, nitrogen and helium and found a mean value of 12+$\log$(O/H)=$8.03\pm$0.06, and integrated electron density and temperature of $\sim161$ cm$^{-3}$ and $\sim15400$ K, respectively. The metallicity distribution shows a large range of $\Delta$(O/H) = 0.72 dex between the minimum and maximum (7.69$\pm$0.06 and 8.42$\pm$0.05) values, unusual in a dwarf star-forming galaxy. We derived an integrated $\log$(N/O) ratio of $-1.51\pm0.05$ and found that both N/O and O/H correspond to a primary production of metals. Spatially resolved maps indicate that the gas appears to be photoionized by massive stars according to the diagnostic line ratios. Between the possible mechanisms to explain the starburst activity and the large variation of oxygen abundance in this galaxy, our data support a possible scenario where we are witnessing an ongoing interaction triggering multiple star-forming regions localized in two dominant clumps., Comment: 24 pages, 26 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRAS

The $^{22}$Mg($\alpha$,$p$)$^{25}$Al reaction rate has been identified as a major source of uncertainty for understanding the nucleosynthesis flow in Type-I x-ray bursts (XRBs). We report a direct measurement of the energy- and angle-integrated cross sections of this reaction in a 3.3-6.9 MeV center-of-mass energy range using the MUlti-Sampling Ionization Chamber (MUSIC). The new $^{22}$Mg($\alpha$,$p$)$^{25}$Al reaction rate is a factor of $\sim$4 higher than the previous direct measurement of this reaction within temperatures relevant for XRBs, resulting in the $^{22}$Mg waiting point of x-ray burst nucleosynthesis flow to be significantly bypassed via the ($\alpha,p$) reaction, Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, 1 table

High-energy cosmic rays that hit the Earth can be used to study large-scale atmospheric perturbations. After a first interaction in the upper parts of the atmosphere, cosmic rays produce a shower of particles that sample the atmosphere down to the detector level. The HAWC (High-Altitude Water Cherenkov) cosmic-ray observatory in Central Mexico at 4,100 m elevation detects air shower particles continuously with 300 water Cherenkov detectors with an active area of 12,500 m$^{2}$. On January 15th, 2022, HAWC detected the passage of the pressure wave created by the explosion of the Hunga volcano in the Tonga islands, 9,000 km away, as an anomaly in the measured rate of shower particles. The HAWC measurements are used to characterize the shape of four pressure wave passages, determine the propagation speed of each one, and correlate the variations of the shower particle rates with the barometric pressure changes, extracting a barometric parameter. The profile of the shower particle rate and atmospheric pressure variations for the first transit of the pressure wave at HAWC is compared to the pressure measurements at Tonga island, near the volcanic explosion. This work opens the possibility of using large particle cosmic-ray air shower detectors to trace large atmospheric transient waves., Comment: Contact about this analysis: A. Sandoval (asandoval@fisica.unam.mx), A. Lara (alara@igeofisica.unam.mx) & H. Le\'on Vargas (hleonvar@fisica.unam.mx)

In the quest for high-energy neutrino sources, the Astrophysical Multimessenger Observatory Network (AMON) has implemented a new search by combining data from the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory and the Astronomy with a Neutrino Telescope and Abyss environmental RESearch (ANTARES) neutrino telescope. Using the same analysis strategy as in a previous detector combination of HAWC and IceCube data, we perform a search for coincidences in HAWC and ANTARES events that are below the threshold for sending public alerts in each individual detector. Data were collected between July 2015 and February 2020 with a livetime of 4.39 years. Over this time period, 3 coincident events with an estimated false-alarm rate of $< 1$ coincidence per year were found. This number is consistent with background expectations., Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, 3 tables

Deuteron elastic scattering from 15C and inelastic scattering reactions to the first excited state of 15C were studied using a radioactive beam of 15C in inverse kinematics. The scattered deuterons were measured using HELIOS. The elastic scattering differential cross sections were analyzed using the optical model. A matter deformation length {\delta}d = 1.04(11) fm has been extracted from the differential cross sections of inelastic scattering to the first excited state. The ratio of neutron and proton matrix elements Mn/Mp = 3.6(4) has been determined from this quadrupole transition. Neutron effective charges and core-polarization parameters of 15C were determined and discussed. Results from ab-initio no-core configuration interaction calculations were also compared with the experimental observations. This result supports a moderate core decoupling effect of the valence neutron in 15C similarly to its isotone 17O, in line with the interpretation of other neutron-rich carbon isotopes.

The high-energy Diffuse Gamma-Ray Background (DGRB) is expected to be produced by unresolved isotropically distributed astrophysical objects, potentially including dark matter annihilation or decay emissions in galactic or extragalactic structures. The DGRB has only been observed below 1 TeV; above this energy, upper limits have been reported. Observations or stringent limits on the DGRB above this energy could have significant multi-messenger implications, such as constraining the origin of TeV-PeV astrophysical neutrinos detected by IceCube. The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory, located in central Mexico at 4100 m above sea level, is sensitive to gamma rays from a few hundred GeV to several hundred TeV and continuously observes a wide field-of-view (2 sr). With its high-energy reach and large area coverage, HAWC is well-suited to notably improve searches for the DGRB at TeV energies. In this work, strict cuts have been applied to the HAWC dataset to better isolate gamma-ray air showers from background hadronic showers. The sensitivity to the DGRB was then verified using 535 days of Crab data and Monte Carlo simulations, leading to new limits above 10 TeV on the DGRB as well as prospective implications for multi-messenger studies., Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures

HAWC is an air-shower detector designed to study TeV gamma and cosmic rays. The observatory is composed of a $22000 \, m^2$ array of $300$ water Cherenkov tanks ($4.5 \, m$ deep x $7.3 \, m$ diameter) with $4$ photomultipliers (PMT) each. The instrument registers the number of hit PMTs, the timing information and the total charge at the PMTs during the event. From these data, shower observables such as the arrival direction, the core position at ground, the lateral age and the primary energy are estimated. In this work, we study the distribution of the shower age vs the primary energy of a sample of shower data collected by HAWC from June 2015 to June 2019 and employ a shower-age cut based on predictions of QGSJET-II-04 to separate a subsample of events dominated by H and He primaries. Using these data and a dedicated analysis, we reconstruct the cosmic ray spectrum of H+He from $6$ to $158$ TeV, which shows the presence of a softening at around $24$ TeV with a statistical significance of $4.1\sigma$., Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, Submission to SciPost Phys. Proc., ISVHECRI 2022 Conference Proceedings

Many gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have been observed from radio wavelengths, and a few at very-high energies (VHEs, > 100GeV). The HAWC gamma-ray observatory is well suited to study transient phenomena at VHEs due to its large field of view and duty cycle. These features allow for searches of VHE emission and can probe different model assumptions of duration and spectra. In this paper, we use data collected by HAWC between December 2014 and May 2020 to search for emission in the energy range from 80 to 800 GeV coming from a sample 47 short GRBs that triggered the Fermi, Swift and Konus satellites during this period. This analysis is optimized to search for delayed and extended VHE emission within the first 20 s of each burst. We find no evidence of VHE emission, either simultaneous or delayed, with respect to the prompt emission. Upper limits (90% confidence level) derived on the GRB fluence are used to constrain the synchrotron self-Compton forward-shock model. Constraints for the interstellar density as low as $10^{-2}$ cm$^{-3}$ are obtained when assuming z=0.3 for bursts with the highest keV-fluences such as GRB 170206A and GRB 181222841. Such a low density makes observing VHE emission mainly from the fast cooling regime challenging., Comment: 20 pages, 8 figures

We use Molecular Dynamics simulations to study the formation and stability of single and multicomponent lattices in the outer crust of Neutron Stars. Including an improved treatment for Gaussian charge distributions of ions we obtain the expressions for the potential and forces arising from electron screened Coulomb interactions using the efficient Ewald sum procedure. %in the plasma. Our findings show that for baryon densities in the outer crust a point-like ion treatment can not fully describe the crystallization behaviour thus the Coulomb parameter, $\Gamma_C$, along with the usual screening parameter, $\kappa$, due to charge neutralizing electron polarizable background, must be complemented with an additional parameter, $\eta$, providing information on the finite size of ions. In our approach we find that including beyond point-like approaches in screened plasmas has a robust impact on calculated lattice energetic stability decreasing crystallization energies per baryon up to $\sim 40\%$ with respect to point-like interaction and, as a consequence, melting point resulting displaced to lower temperatures., Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. C

The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) gamma-ray observatory observes atmospheric showers produced by incident gamma rays and cosmic rays with energy from 300 GeV to more than 100 TeV. A crucial phase in analyzing gamma-ray sources using ground-based gamma-ray detectors like HAWC is to identify the showers produced by gamma rays or hadrons. The HAWC observatory records roughly 25,000 events per second, with hadrons representing the vast majority ($>99.9\%$) of these events. The standard gamma/hadron separation technique in HAWC uses a simple rectangular cut involving only two parameters. This work describes the implementation of more sophisticated gamma/hadron separation techniques, via machine learning methods (boosted decision trees and neural networks), and summarizes the resulting improvements in gamma/hadron separation obtained in HAWC., Comment: 35 pages, 9 figures, published in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A

A measurement with high statistics of the differential energy spectrum of light elements in cosmic rays, in particular, of primary H plus He nuclei, is reported. The spectrum is presented in the energy range from $6$ to $158$ TeV per nucleus. Data was collected with the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory between June 2015 and June 2019. The analysis was based on a Bayesian unfolding procedure, which was applied on a subsample of vertical HAWC data that was enriched to $82\%$ of events induced by light nuclei. To achieve the mass separation, a cut on the lateral age of air shower data was set guided by predictions of CORSIKA/QGSJET-II-04 simulations. The measured spectrum is consistent with a broken power-law spectrum and shows a kneelike feature at around $E = 24.0^{+3.6}_{-3.1} $ TeV, with a spectral index $\gamma = -2.51 \pm 0.02$ before the break and with $\gamma = -2.83 \pm 0.02$ above it. The feature has a statistical significance of $4.1 \, \sigma$. Within systematic uncertainties, the significance of the spectral break is $0.8 \, \sigma$., Comment: 32 pages, 24 figures, published in Physical Review D

Ground-based gamma-ray astronomy is still a rather young field of research, with strong historical connections to particle physics. This is why most observations are conducted by experiments with proprietary data and analysis software, as it is usual in the particle physics field. However in recent years, this paradigm has been slowly shifting towards the development and use of open-source data formats and tools, driven by upcoming observatories such as the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). In this context, a community-driven, shared data format (the gamma-astro-data-format or GADF) and analysis tools such as Gammapy and ctools have been developed. So far these efforts have been led by the IACT community, leaving out other types of ground-based gamma-ray instruments.We aim to show that the data from ground particle arrays, such as the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory, is also compatible with the GADF and can thus be fully analysed using the related tools, in this case Gammapy. We reproduce several published HAWC results using Gammapy and data products compliant with GADF standard. We also illustrate the capabilities of the shared format and tools by producing a joint fit of the Crab spectrum including data from six different gamma-ray experiments. We find excellent agreement with the reference results, a powerful check of both the published results and the tools involved. The data from particle detector arrays such as the HAWC observatory can be adapted to the GADF and thus analysed with Gammapy. A common data format and shared analysis tools allow multi-instrument joint analysis and effective data sharing. Given the complementary nature of pointing and wide-field instruments, this synergy will be distinctly beneficial for the joint scientific exploitation of future observatories such as the Southern Wide-field Gamma-ray Observatory and CTA., Comment: Accepted by A&A

This paper reports on the $\gamma$-ray properties of the 2018 Galactic nova V392 Per, spanning photon energies $\sim$0.1 GeV to 100 TeV by combining observations from the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and the HAWC Observatory. In one of the most rapidly evolving $\gamma$-ray signals yet observed for a nova, GeV $\gamma$ rays with a power law spectrum with index $\Gamma = 2.0 \pm 0.1$ were detected over eight days following V392 Per's optical maximum. HAWC observations constrain the TeV $\gamma$-ray signal during this time and also before and after. We observe no statistically significant evidence of TeV $\gamma$-ray emission from V392 Per, but present flux limits. Tests of the extension of the Fermi/LAT spectrum to energies above 5 TeV are disfavored by 2 standard deviations (95\%) or more. We fit V392 Per's GeV $\gamma$ rays with hadronic acceleration models, incorporating optical observations, and compare the calculations with HAWC limits., Comment: 18 pages, 14 figures; revised for referee comments; section 5 revised

Understanding the explosion mechanism of a core-collapse supernova (CCSN) is important to accurately model CCSN scenarios for different progenitor stars using model-observation comparisons. The uncertainties of various nuclear reaction rates relevant for CCSN scenarios strongly affect the accuracy of these stellar models. Out of these reactions, the $^{13}$N($\alpha$,$p$)$^{16}$O reaction has been found to affect various stages of a CCSN at varying temperatures. This work presents the first direct measurement of the $^{13}$N($\alpha$,$p$)$^{16}$O reaction performed using a 34.6 MeV beam of radioactive $^{13}$N ions and the active-target detector MUSIC (MUlti-Sampling Ionization Chamber) at Argonne National Laboratory. The resulting total $^{13}$N($\alpha$,$p$)$^{16}$O reaction cross sections from this measurement in the center-of-mass energy range of 3.26 - 6.02 MeV are presented and compared with calculations using the Hauser-Feshbach formalism. Uncertainties in the reaction rate have been dramatically reduced at CCSN temperatures., Comment: References 27 and 31 has been changed

The surface brightness profiles (SBPs) of star clusters hold invaluable information on the dynamical state of clusters. The observed SBPs of star clusters, especially that of globular clusters, are in good agreement with the SBPs expected for isothermal spheres containing stars of reduced kinetic energies. However, the SBPs of configurations that satisfy these theoretical criteria cannot be uniquely expressed by analytical formulae, which had hindered the analysis of dynamical state of observed clusters in external galaxies. To counter this shortcoming, it has become a practice to use empirical fitting formulae that best represent the core and halo characteristics of theoretical models. We here present a general purpose code, named nProFit, that allows fitting of the surface brightness profiles of extragalactic star clusters to theoretical star clusters, defined by dynamical models of King (1966) and Wilson (1975). In addition, we also incorporated theoretical models that result in power-law surface brightness profiles represented by Elson et al. 1987. The code returns the basic size parameters such as core radius, half-light radius and tidal radius, as well as dynamically relevant parameters, such as the volume and surface density profiles, velocity dispersion profile, total mass and the binding energy for a user-fixed mass-to-light ratio. The usefulness of the code in the dynamical study of extragalactic clusters has been already illustrated in Cuevas-Otahola et al. 2020. The code, which is python-based at the user end, but makes calls to advanced routines in Pyraf and Fortran, is now available for public use. We provide example scripts and mock clusters in the installation package as guide to users., Comment: 21 pages, 13 figures, Accepted to be published in PASP

The isomeric state of $^{16}$N was studied using the $^{16}$N$^{g,m}$($d$,$^3$He)~proton-removal reactions at \mbox{11.8~MeV/$u$} in inverse kinematics. The $^{16}$N beam, of which 24% was in the isomeric state, was produced using the ATLAS in-fight facility and delivered to the HELIOS spectrometer, which was used to analyze the $^{3}$He ions from the ($d$,$^{3}$He) reactions. The simultaneous measurement of reactions on both the ground and isomeric states, reduced the systematic uncertainties from the experiment and in the analysis. A direct and reliable comparison of the relative spectroscopic factors was made based on a Distorted-Wave Born Approximation approach. The experimental results suggest that the isomeric state of $^{16}$N is an excited neutron-halo state. The results can be understood through calculations using a Woods-Saxon potential model, which captures the effects of weak-binding., Comment: 8 pages, 7 figurs