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In previous work we have combined the $\pi^-\pi^0$, $2\pi^-\pi^+\pi^0$ and $\pi^-3\pi^0$ spectral data obtained from hadronic $\tau$ decays measured by the ALEPH and OPAL experiments, together with electroproduction data for several of the subleading hadronic modes and BaBar data for the $K\bar{K}$ mode to construct an inclusive non-strange vector spectral function entirely based on experimental data, with no Monte-Carlo generated input. In this paper, we include, for the first time, the Belle $\tau\to\pi^-\pi^0\nu_\tau$ high-statistics decay data to construct a new inclusive non-strange vector spectral function that combines more of the world's available data. As no Belle data are at present available for the two $4\pi$ modes, this requires a revised data analysis in comparison with our previous work. From the resulting new spectral function, we obtain a new determination of the strong coupling, $\alpha_s$, using our previously developed strategy based on finite-energy sum rules. We find, at the $Z$ mass scale, $\alpha_s(m_Z^2)=0.1159(14)$. We discuss the smaller central value and larger error of our new result compared to our previous result, showing the shifts to be due mainly to significant changes in updated HFLAV results for the $\pi^-3\pi^0$ decay mode., Comment: 43 pages, 16 figures

The discovery of quiescent, dark matter (DM)-deficient ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs) with overluminous globular clusters (GCs) has challenged galaxy formation models within the Lambda Cold Dark Matter ($\Lambda$CDM) cosmological paradigm. Previously, such galaxies were only identified in the NGC 1052 group, raising the possibility that they are the result of unique, group-specific processes, and limiting their broader significance. The recent identification of FCC 224, a putative DM-deficient UDG on the outskirts of the Fornax Cluster, suggests that such galaxies are not confined to the NGC 1052 group but rather represent a broader phenomenon. We aim to investigate the DM content of FCC 224 and to explore its similarities to the DM-free dwarfs in the NGC 1052 group, DF2 and DF4, to determine whether or not it belongs to the same class of DM-deficient UDGs. We use high-resolution Keck Cosmic Web Imager (KCWI) spectroscopy to study the kinematics, stellar populations, and GC system of FCC 224, enabling direct comparisons with DF2 and DF4. We find that FCC 224 is also DM-deficient and exhibits a distinct set of traits shared with DF2 and DF4, including slow and prolate rotation, quiescence in low-density environments, coeval formation of stars and GCs, flat stellar population gradients, a top-heavy GC luminosity function, and monochromatic GCs. These shared characteristics signal the existence of a previously unrecognized class of DM-deficient dwarf galaxies. This diagnostic framework provides a means of identifying additional examples and raises new questions for galaxy formation models within $\Lambda$CDM cosmology., Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A. 10 pages (without appendices), 6 figures

Planetary nebulae (PNe) and their luminosity function (PNLF) in galaxies have been used as a cosmic distance indicator for decades, yet a fundamental understanding is still lacking to explain the universality of the PNLF among different galaxies. Models for the PNLF have generally assumed solar metallicities and artificial stellar populations. In this work, we investigate how metallicity and helium abundances affect the PNe and PNLF, and the importance of the initial-to-final mass relation (IFMR), to resolve the tension between PNLF observations and models. We introduce PICS (PNe In Cosmological Simulations), a PN model framework that accounts for metallicity and is applicable to realistic stellar populations from cosmological simulations and observations. The framework combines stellar evolution models with post-AGB tracks and PN models to obtain PNe from a parent stellar population. We find that metallicity plays an important role for the resulting PNe: old metal-rich populations can harbor much brighter PNe than old metal-poor ones. We show that the helium abundance is a vital ingredient at high metallicities and explore the impact on the PNLF of a possible saturation of the helium content at higher metallicities. We present PNLF grids for different stellar ages and metallicities, where the observed PNLF bright end can be reached even for old stellar populations of 10 Gyr at high metallicities. Finally, we find that the PNLFs of old stellar populations are very sensitive to the IFMR, allowing for the production of bright PNe. With PICS, we have laid the groundwork for studying how different models affect the PNe and PNLF. Two central ingredients for this are the metallicity and helium abundance. Future applications of PICS include modeling PNe in a cosmological framework to explain the origin of the universal PNLF bright-end cutoff and use it as a diagnostic tool for galaxy formation., Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures, submitted to A&A

The stellar age and mass of galaxies have been suggested as the primary determinants for the dynamical state of galaxies, with environment seemingly playing no or only a very minor role. We use a sample of 77 galaxies at intermediate redshift (z~0.3) in the Middle-Ages Galaxies Properties with Integral field spectroscopy (MAGPI) Survey to study the subtle impact of environment on galaxy dynamics. We use a combination of statistical techniques (simple and partial correlations and principal component analysis) to isolate the contribution of environment on galaxy dynamics, while explicitly accounting for known factors such as stellar age, star formation histories and stellar masses. We consider these dynamical parameters: high-order kinematics of the line-of-sight velocity distribution (parametrised by the Gauss-Hermite coefficients $h_3$ and $h_4$), kinematic asymmetries $V_{\rm asym}$ derived using kinemetry and the observational spin parameter proxy $\lambda_{R_e}$. Of these, the mean $h_4$ is the only parameter found to have a significant correlation with environment as parametrised by group dynamical mass. This correlation exists even after accounting for age and stellar mass trends. Finally, we confirm that variations in the spin parameter $\lambda_{R_e}$ are most strongly (anti-)correlated with age as seen in local studies, and show that this dependence is well-established by z~0.3., Comment: 17 pages, 13 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in PASA

Frequency-bin encoding furnishes a compelling pathway for quantum information processing systems compatible with established lightwave infrastructures based on fiber-optic transmission and wavelength-division multiplexing. Yet although significant progress has been realized in proof-of-principle tabletop demonstrations, ranging from arbitrary single-qubit gates to controllable multiphoton interference, challenges in scaling frequency-bin processors to larger systems remain. In this Perspective, we highlight recent advances at the intersection of frequency-bin encoding and integrated photonics that are fundamentally transforming the outlook for scalable frequency-based quantum information. Focusing specifically on results on sources, state manipulation, and hyperentanglement, we envision a possible future in which on-chip frequency-bin circuits fulfill critical roles in quantum information processing, particularly in communications and networking.

Even after decades of usage as an extragalactic standard candle, the universal bright end of the planetary nebula luminosity function (PNLF) still lacks a solid theoretical explanation. Until now, models have modeled planetary nebulae (PNe) from artificial stellar populations, without an underlying cosmological star formation history. We present PICS (PNe In Cosmological Simulations), a novel method of modeling PNe in cosmological simulations, through which PN populations for the first time naturally occur within galaxies of diverse evolutionary pathways. We find that only by using realistic stellar populations and their metallicities is it possible to reproduce the bright end of the PNLF for all galaxy types. In particular, the dependence of stellar lifetimes on metallicity has to be accounted for to produce bright PNe in metal-rich populations. Finally, PICS reproduces the statistically complete part of the PNLF observed around the Sun, down to six orders of magnitude below the bright end., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in the proceedings of IAU Symposium 384 (Planetary Nebulae: a Universal Toolbox in the Era of Precision Astrophysics)

While autoregressive machine-learning-based emulators have been trained to produce stable and accurate rollouts in the climate of the present-day and recent past, none so far have been trained to emulate the sensitivity of climate to substantial changes in CO$_2$ or other greenhouse gases. As an initial step we couple the Ai2 Climate Emulator version 2 to a slab ocean model (hereafter ACE2-SOM) and train it on output from a collection of equilibrium-climate physics-based reference simulations with varying levels of CO$_2$. We test it in equilibrium and non-equilibrium climate scenarios with CO$_2$ concentrations seen and unseen in training. ACE2-SOM performs well in equilibrium-climate inference with both in-sample and out-of-sample CO$_2$ concentrations, accurately reproducing the emergent time-mean spatial patterns of surface temperature and precipitation change with CO$_2$ doubling, tripling, or quadrupling. In addition, the vertical profile of atmospheric warming and change in extreme precipitation rates up to the 99.9999th percentile closely agree with the reference model. Non-equilibrium-climate inference is more challenging. With CO$_2$ increasing gradually at a rate of 2% year$^{-1}$, ACE2-SOM can accurately emulate the global annual mean trends of surface and lower-to-middle atmosphere fields but produces unphysical jumps in stratospheric fields. With an abrupt quadrupling of CO$_2$, ML-controlled fields transition unrealistically quickly to the 4xCO$_2$ regime. In doing so they violate global energy conservation and exhibit unphysical sensitivities of and surface and top of atmosphere radiative fluxes to instantaneous changes in CO$_2$. Future emulator development needed to address these issues should improve its generalizability to diverse climate change scenarios., Comment: 31 pages, 13 figures

Context. Binary star systems allow us to study the planet formation process under extreme conditions. In the early stages, these systems contain a circumbinary disk and a disk around each star. To model the interactions between these disks in the frame of one of the stars, strong fictitious forces must be included in the simulations. The original Fargo and the Fargo3D codes fail to correctly simulate such systems if the indirect term becomes too strong. Aims. We present a different way to compute the indirect term which, together with a tensor artificial viscosity prescription, allows the Fargo code to simulate the circumbinary disks in a non-inertial frame of reference. In this way, the Fargo code can be used to study interactions between circumstellar and circumbinary disks. Results. We find that updating the indirect term becomes relevant when the indirect term becomes stronger than the direct gravitational forces, which occurs for mass ratios of $q > 5\%$. The default artificial viscosity used in the Fargo code inherently produces artificial pressure in a non-inertial frame of reference even in the absence of shocks. This leads to artificial mass ejection from the Hill sphere, starting at brown dwarf masses ($q > 1\%$). These problems can be mitigated by using a tensor artificial viscosity formulation. For high mass ratios, $q > 1\%$, it is also becomes important to initialize the disk in the center-of-mass frame. We expect our proposed changes to be relevant for other grid-based hydrodynamic codes where strong indirect terms occur, or for codes that use artificial viscosity., Comment: 13 pages, 13 figures, accepted by A&A

We investigate the internal and external mechanisms that regulate and quench star formation (SF) in galaxies at $z \sim 0.3$ using MAGPI observations and the EAGLE, Magneticum, and IllustrisTNG cosmological simulations. Using SimSpin to generate mock observations of simulated galaxies, we match detection/resolution limits in star formation rates and stellar mass, along with MAGPI observational details including the average point spread function and pixel scale. While we find a good agreement in the slope of the global star-forming main sequence (SFMS) between MAGPI observations and all three simulations, the slope of the resolved SFMS does not agree within 1 $-$ 2$\sigma$. Furthermore, in radial SF trends, good agreement between observations and simulations exists only for galaxies far below the SFMS, where we capture evidence for inside-out quenching. The simulations overall agree with each other between $\sim1.5-4 \ R_{\rm e}$ but show varying central suppression within $R \sim 1.5 \ R_{\rm e}$ for galaxies on and below the SFMS, attributable to different AGN feedback prescriptions. All three simulations show similar dependencies of SF radial trends with environment. Central galaxies are subject to both internal and external mechanisms, showing increased SF suppression in the centre with increasing halo mass, indicating AGN feedback. Satellite galaxies display increasing suppression in the outskirts as halo mass increases, indicative of environmental processes. These results demonstrate the power of spatially resolved studies of galaxies; while global properties align, radial profiles reveal discrepancies between observations and simulations and their underlying physics., Comment: 20 pages, 10 figures, submitted to MNRAS

A quantitative spectroscopic study of blue supergiant stars in the Hubble constant anchor galaxy NGC 4258 is presented. The non-LTE analysis of Keck I telescope LRIS spectra yields a central logarithmic metallicity (in units of the solar value) of [Z] = -0.05\pm0.05 and a very shallow gradient of -(0.09\pm0.11)r/r25 with respect to galactocentric distance in units of the isophotal radius. Good agreement with the mass-metallicity relationship of star forming galaxies based on stellar absorption line studies is found. A comparison with HII region oxygen abundances obtained from the analysis of strong emission lines shows reasonable agreement when the Pettini & Pagel (2004) calibration is used, while the Zaritsky et al. (1994) calibration yields values that are 0.2 to 0.3 dex larger. These results allow to put the metallicity calibration of the Cepheid Period--Luminosity relation in this anchor galaxy on a purely stellar basis. Interstellar reddening and extinction are determined using HST and JWST photometry. Based on extinction-corrected magnitudes, combined with the stellar effective temperatures and gravities we determine, we use the Flux-weighted Gravity--Luminosity Relationship (FGLR) to estimate an independent spectroscopic distance. We obtain a distance modulus m-M = 29.38\pm0.12 mag, in agreement with the geometrical distance derived from the analysis of the water maser orbits in the galaxy's central circumnuclear disk., Comment: accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal

The formation details of globular clusters (GCs) are still poorly understood due to their old ages and the lack of detailed observations of their formation. A large variety of models for the formation and evolution of GCs have been created to improve our understanding of their origins, based on GC properties observed at z=0. We present the first side-by-side comparison of six current GC formation models with respect to their predictions for the GC ages and formation redshifts in Milky Way (MW)-like galaxies. We find that all the models are capable of forming most of the surviving GCs at more than 10 Gyr ago, in general agreement with the observation that most GCs are old. However, the measured MW GC ages are still systematically older than those predicted in the galaxies of four of the models. Investigating the variation of modelled GC age distributions for general MW-mass galaxies, we find that some of the models predict that a significant fraction of MW-mass galaxies would entirely lack a GC population older than 10 Gyr, whereas others predict that all MW-mass galaxies have a significant fraction of old GCs. This will have to be further tested in upcoming surveys, as systems without old GCs in that mass range are currently not known. Finally, we show that the models predict different formation redshifts for the oldest surviving GCs, highlighting that models currently disagree about whether the recently observed young star clusters at high redshifts could be the progenitors of today's GCs., Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, submitted to MNRAS

We demonstrate spectral shaping of entangled photons with a six-channel microring-resonator-based silicon photonic pulse shaper. Through precise calibration of thermal phase shifters in a microresonator-based pulse shaper, we demonstrate line-by-line phase control on a 3~GHz grid for two frequency-bin-entangled qudits, corresponding to Hilbert spaces of up to $6\times 6$ ($3\times 3$) dimensions for shared (independent) signal-idler filters. The pulse shaper's fine spectral resolution enables control of nanosecond-scale temporal features, which are observed by direct coincidence detection of biphoton correlation functions that show excellent agreement with theory. This work marks, to our knowledge, the first demonstration of biphoton pulse shaping using an integrated spectral shaper and holds significant promise for applications in quantum information processing.

Schwarzschild dynamical models are now regularly employed in large surveys of galaxies in the local and distant Universe to derive information on galaxies' intrinsic properties such as their orbital structure and their (dark matter and stellar) mass distribution. Comparing the internal orbital structures and mass distributions of galaxies in the distant Universe with simulations is key to understanding what physical processes are responsible for shaping galaxy properties. However it is first crucial to understand whether observationally derived properties are directly comparable with intrinsic ones in simulations. To assess this, we build Schwarzschild dynamical models for MUSE-like IFS cubes (constructed to be like those obtained by the MAGPI survey) of 75 galaxies at z ~ 0.3 from the Eagle simulations. We compare the true particle-derived properties with the galaxies' model-derived properties. In general, we find that the models can recover the true galaxy properties qualitatively well, with the exception of the enclosed dark matter, where we find a median offset of 48%, which is due to the assumed NFW profile not being able to reproduce the dark matter distribution in the inner region of the galaxies. We then compare our model-derived properties with Schwarzschild models-derived properties of observed MAGPI galaxies and find good agreement between MAGPI and Eagle: the majority of our galaxies (57%) have non-oblate shapes within 1 effective radius. More triaxial galaxies show higher fractions of hot orbits in their inner regions and tend to be more radially anisotropic., Comment: 22 pages. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

We measure the ionised gas velocity dispersions of star-forming galaxies in the MAGPI survey ($z\sim0.3$) and compare them with galaxies in the SAMI ($z\sim0.05$) and KROSS ($z\sim1$) surveys to investigate how the ionised gas velocity dispersion evolves. For the first time, we use a consistent method that forward models galaxy kinematics from $z=0$ to $z=1$. This method accounts for spatial substructure in emission line flux and beam smearing. We investigate the correlation between gas velocity dispersion and galaxy properties to understand the mechanisms that drive gas turbulence. We find that in both MAGPI and SAMI galaxies, the gas velocity dispersion more strongly correlates with the star-formation rate surface density ($\Sigma_{\rm SFR}$) than with a variety of other physical properties, and the average gas velocity dispersion is similar, at the same $\Sigma_{\rm SFR}$, for SAMI, MAGPI and KROSS galaxies. The results indicate that mechanisms related to $\Sigma_{\rm SFR}$ could be the dominant driver of gas turbulence from $z\sim1$ to $z\sim0$, for example, stellar feedback and/or gravitational instability. The gas velocity dispersion of MAGPI galaxies is also correlated with the non-rotational motion of the gas, illustrating that in addition to star-formation feedback, gas transportation and accretion may also contribute to the gas velocity dispersion for galaxies at $z\sim 0.3$. KROSS galaxies only have a moderate correlation between gas velocity dispersion and $\Sigma_{\rm SFR}$ and a higher scatter of gas velocity dispersion with respect to $\Sigma_{\rm SFR}$, in agreement with the suggestion that other mechanisms, such as gas transportation and accretion, are relatively more important at higher redshift galaxies., Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

JWST provides new opportunities to cross-check the HST Cepheid/SNeIa distance ladder, which yields the most precise local measure of H0. We analyze early JWST subsamples (~1/4 of the HST sample) from the SH0ES and CCHP groups, calibrated by a single anchor (N4258). We find HST Cepheid distances agree well (~1 sigma) with all 8 combinations of methods, samples, and telescopes: JWST Cepheids, TRGB, and JAGB by either group, plus HST TRGB and Miras. The comparisons explicitly include the measurement uncertainty of each method in N4258, an oft-neglected but dominant term. Mean differences are ~0.03 mag, far smaller than the 0.18 mag "Hubble tension." Combining all measures produces the strongest constraint yet on the linearity of HST Cepheid distances, 0.994+-0.010, ruling out distance-dependent bias or offset as the source of the tension at ~7 sigma. Yet, measurements of H0 from current JWST subsamples produce large sampling differences whose size and direction we can directly estimate from the full HST set. We show that Delta(H0)~2.5 km/s/Mpc between the CCHP JWST program and the full HST sample is entirely consistent with differences in sample selection. Combining all JWST samples produces a new, distance-limited set of 16 SNeIa at D<25 Mpc and more closely resembles the full sample thanks to "reversion to the mean" of larger samples. Using JWST Cepheids, JAGB, and TRGB, we find 73.4+-2.1, 72.2+-2.2, and 72.1+-2.2 km/s/Mpc, respectively. Explicitly accounting for SNe in common, the combined-sample three-method result from JWST is H0=72.6+-2.0, similar to H0=72.8 expected from HST Cepheids in the same galaxies. The small JWST sample trivially lowers the Hubble tension significance due to small-sample statistics and is not yet competitive with the HST set (42 SNeIa and 4 anchors), which yields 73.2+-0.9. Still, the joint JWST sample provides important crosschecks which the HST data passes., Comment: ApJ accepted, version replaced with accepted version

The Hubble Tension, a >5 sigma discrepancy between direct and indirect measurements of the Hubble constant (H0), has persisted for a decade and motivated intense scrutiny of the paths used to infer H0. Comparing independently-derived distances for a set of galaxies with different standard candles, such as the tip of the red giant branch (TRGB) and Cepheid variables, can test for systematics in the middle rung of the distance ladder. The I band is the preferred filter for measuring the TRGB due to constancy with color, a result of low sensitivity to population differences in age and metallicity supported by stellar models. We use James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) observations with the maser host NGC 4258 as our geometric anchor to measure I-band (F090W vs F090W-F150W) TRGB distances to 8 hosts of 10 Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) within 28 Mpc: NGC 1448, NGC 1559, NGC 2525, NGC 3370, NGC 3447, NGC 5584, NGC 5643, and NGC 5861. We compare these with Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Cepheid-based relative distance moduli for the same galaxies and anchor. We find no evidence of a difference between their weighted means, 0.01 +/- 0.04 (stat) +/- 0.04 (sys) mag. We produce fourteen variants of the TRGB analysis, altering the smoothing level and color range used to measure the tips to explore their impact. For some hosts, this changes the identification of the strongest peak, but this causes little change to the sample mean difference producing a full range of 0.01 to 0.03 mag, all consistent at 1 sigma with no difference. The result matches past comparisons of I-band TRGB and Cepheids when both use HST. SNe and anchor samples observed with JWST are too small to yield a measure of H0 that is competitive with the HST sample of 42 SNe Ia and 4 anchors; however, they already provide a vital systematic crosscheck to HST measurements of the distance ladder., Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, 4 tables, Accepted by ApJ

Previous simulations of cataclysmic variables studied either the quiescence, or the outburst state in multiple dimensions or they simulated complete outburst cycles in one dimension using simplified models for the gravitational torques. We self-consistently simulate complete outburst cycles of normal and superoutbursts in cataclysmic variable systems in two dimensions. We study the effect of different $\alpha$ viscosity parameters, mass transfer rates, and binary mass ratios on the disk luminosities, outburst occurrence rates, and superhumps. We simulate non-isothermal, viscous accretion disks in cataclysmic variable systems using a modified version of the FARGO code with an updated equation of state and a cooling function designed to reproduce s-curve behavior. Our simulations can model complete outburst cycles using the thermal tidal instability model. We find higher superhump amplitudes and stronger gravitational torques than previous studies, resulting in better agreement with observations., Comment: Accepted in A&A. 21 pages, 27 figures

The inflationary and pre-inflationary evolution of scalar modes of cosmological perturbations in a closed universe is analyzed for a loop quantum cosmology model with an inflationary regime consistent with the constraints on inflation derived from observations of the cosmic microwave background. The effective background dynamics includes a bounce induced by quantum gravity effects. Initial conditions for the perturbations are set before the bounce, and the perturbations are numerically evolved until the end of inflation, allowing the determination of the primordial power spectrum for comoving curvature perturbations. The power spectrum includes corrections due to the presence of spatial curvature and excitations produced before the onset of slow-roll inflation. The deviations from the usual power-law spectrum can be significant for observable modes even for spatial curvatures much smaller than the observational limit obtained without considering the pre-inflationary evolution of the perturbations., Comment: Minor changes, references added, matches published version

We present the results of an investigation of a highly variable CIV broad absorption-line feature in the quasar SBS 1408+544 (z=2.337) that shows a significant shift in velocity over time. This source was observed as a part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping Project and the SDSS-V Black Hole Mapper Reverberation Mapping Project, and has been included in two previous studies, both of which identified significant variability in a high-velocity CIV broad absorption line (BAL) on timescales of just a few days in the quasar rest frame. Using ~130 spectra acquired over eight years of spectroscopic monitoring with SDSS, we have determined that this BAL is not only varying in strength, but is also systematically shifting to higher velocities. Using cross-correlation methods, we measure the velocity shifts (and corresponding acceleration) of the BAL on a wide range of timescales, measuring an overall velocity shift of delta v = -683 (+89, -84) km s-1 over the 8-year monitoring period. This corresponds to an average rest-frame acceleration of a=1.04 (+0.14, -0.13) cm s-2, though the magnitude of the acceleration on shorter timescales is not constant throughout. We place our measurements in the context of BAL-acceleration models and examine various possible causes of the observed velocity shift., Comment: Published in the Astrophysical Journal

We use the `Middle Ages Galaxy Properties with Integral field spectroscopy' (MAGPI) survey to investigate whether galaxies have evolved in the distribution of their stellar angular momentum in the past 3-4 Gyr, as probed by the observational proxy for spin, $\lambda_{R}$. We use 2D stellar kinematics to measure $\lambda_{R}$ along with detailed photometric models to estimate galaxy ellipticity. The combination of these measurements quantifies the kinematic classes of `fast rotators' and the rarer `slow rotators', which show no regular rotation in their line-of-sight velocity fields. We compare 51 MAGPI galaxies with $\log_{10} (M_{\star}/\mathrm{M}_\odot) > 10$ to carefully drawn samples of MaNGA galaxies in the local Universe, selected to represent possible descendants of the MAGPI progenitors. The EAGLE simulations are used to identify possible evolutionary pathways between the two samples, explicitly accounting for progenitor bias in our results and the varied evolutionary pathways a galaxy might take between the two epochs. We find that the occurrence of slow rotating galaxies is unchanged between the MAGPI ($z \sim 0.3$) and MaNGA ($z \sim 0$) samples, suggesting the massive slow rotator population was already in place $\sim 4$ Gyr ago and has not accumulated since. There is a hint of the MAGPI sample having an excess of high $\lambda_{R}$ galaxies compared to the MaNGA sample, corresponding to more ordered rotation, but statistically the samples are not significantly different. The large-scale stellar kinematics, as quantified through the $\lambda_{R}$ parameter, of galaxies at $z \sim 0.3$ have already evolved into the diversity of structures seen today in the local Universe., Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

Inspired by recent progress in dynamic programming approaches for weighted model counting, we investigate a dynamic-programming approach in the context of boolean realizability and synthesis, which takes a conjunctive-normal-form boolean formula over input and output variables, and aims at synthesizing witness functions for the output variables in terms of the inputs. We show how graded project-join trees, obtained via tree decomposition, can be used to compute a BDD representing the realizability set for the input formulas in a bottom-up order. We then show how the intermediate BDDs generated during realizability checking phase can be applied to synthesizing the witness functions in a top-down manner. An experimental evaluation of a solver -- DPSynth -- based on these ideas demonstrates that our approach for Boolean realizabilty and synthesis has superior time and space performance over a heuristics-based approach using same symbolic representations. We discuss the advantage on scalability of the new approach, and also investigate our findings on the performance of the DP framework., Comment: 32 pages including appendices and bibliography, 5 figures, paper is to be published in CAV 2024, but this version is inclusive of the Appendix

Using adaptive optics with the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) on the Very Large Telescope (VLT), the Middle Ages Galaxy Properties with Integral Field Spectroscopy (MAGPI) survey allows us to study the spatially resolved Universe at a crucial time of ~4 Gyr ago ($z$ ~ 0.3) when simulations predict the greatest diversity in evolutionary pathways for galaxies. We investigate the radial trends in the star formation (SF) activity and luminosity-weighted stellar ages as a function of offset from the star-forming main sequence (SFMS) for a total of 294 galaxies. Using both H$\alpha$ emission and the 4000 Angstrom break (i.e., D4000) as star formation rate (SFR) tracers, we find overall flat radial profiles for galaxies lying on and above the SFMS, suggestive of physical processes that enhance/regulate SF throughout the entire galaxy disc. However, for galaxies lying below the SFMS, we find positive gradients in SF suggestive of inside-out quenching. Placing our results in context with results from other redshift regimes suggests an evolution in radial trends at $z$ ~ 0.3 for SF galaxies above the SFMS, from uniformly enhanced SF at $z$ ~ 1 and $z$ ~ 0.3 to centrally enhanced SF at $z$ ~ 0 (when averaged over a wide range of mass). We also capture higher local SFRs for galaxies below the SFMS compared to that of $z$ ~ 0, which can be explained by a larger population of quenched satellites in the local Universe and/or different treatments of limitations set by the D4000-sSFR relation., Comment: 19 pages, 15 figures, 4 tables, accepted for publication in MNRAS

We present phase-corrected photometric measurements of 88 Cepheid variables in the core of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), the first sample obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope's (HST) Wide Field Camera 3, in the same homogeneous photometric system as past measurements of all Cepheids on the SH0ES distance ladder. We limit the sample to the inner core and model the geometry to reduce errors in prior studies due to the nontrivial depth of this cloud. Without crowding present in ground-based studies, we obtain an unprecedentedly low dispersion of 0.102 mag for a period-luminosity (P-L) relation in the SMC, approaching the width of the Cepheid instability strip. The new geometric distance to 15 late-type detached eclipsing binaries in the SMC offers a rare opportunity to improve the foundation of the distance ladder, increasing the number of calibrating galaxies from three to four. With the SMC as the only anchor, we find H$_0\!=\!74.1 \pm 2.1$ km/s/Mpc. Combining these four geometric distances with our HST photometry of SMC Cepheids, we obtain H$_0\!=\!73.17 \pm 0.86$ km/s/Mpc. By including the SMC in the distance ladder, we also double the range where the metallicity ([Fe/H]) dependence of the Cepheid P-L relation can be calibrated, and we find $\gamma = -0.234 \pm 0.052$ mag/dex. Our local measurement of H$_0$ based on Cepheids and Type Ia supernovae shows a 5.8$\sigma$ tension with the value inferred from the cosmic microwave background assuming a Lambda cold dark matter ($\Lambda$CDM) cosmology, reinforcing the possibility of physics beyond $\Lambda$CDM., Comment: Accepted to ApJ. Data Tables are available at: https://github.com/lbreuval/SMC_Cepheids_HST

Despite being a fundamental property of galaxies that dictates the form of the potential, the 3D shape is intrinsically difficult to determine from observations. The improving quality of triaxial modeling methods in recent years has made it possible to measure these shapes more accurately. This study provides a comprehensive understanding of the stellar and dark matter (DM) shapes of galaxies and the connections between them as well as with other galaxy properties. Using the hydrodynamical cosmological simulation Magneticum Box4, we computed the stellar and DM shapes of galaxies at different radii. We determined their morphologies, their projected morphological and kinematic parameters, and their fractions of in-situ formed stars. The DM follows the stellar component in shape and orientation at $3R_{1/2}$, indicating that DM is heavily influenced by the baryonic potential in the inner parts of the halo. The outer DM halo is independent of the inner properties such as morphology, however, and is more closely related to the large-scale anisotropy of the gas inflow. The stellar shapes of galaxies are correlated with morphology: ellipticals feature more spherical and prolate shapes than disk galaxies. Galaxies with more rotational support are flatter, and the stellar shapes are connected to the mass distribution. In particular, more extended elliptical galaxies have larger triaxialities. Finally, the shapes can be used to constrain the in-situ fraction of stars when combined with the stellar mass. The found relations show that shapes depend on the details of the accretion history. The similarities between the inner DM and stellar shapes signal the importance of baryonic matter for DM in galaxies and will help improve dynamical models in the future. At large radii the DM shape is completely decoupled from the central galaxy and is coupled more to the large-scale inflow., Comment: 22 pages, 20 figures, accepted for publication in A&A

Floating-point arithmetic performance determines the overall performance of important applications, from graphics to AI. Meeting the IEEE-754 specification for floating-point requires that final results of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and square root are correctly rounded based on the user-selected rounding mode. A frustrating fact for implementers is that naive rounding methods will not produce correctly rounded results even when intermediate results with greater accuracy and precision are available. In contrast, our novel algorithm can correct approximations of reciprocal, division and square root, even ones with slightly lower than target precision. In this paper, we present a family of algorithms that can both increase the accuracy (and potentially the precision) of an estimate and correctly round it according to all binary IEEE-754 rounding modes. We explain how it may be efficiently implemented in hardware, and for completeness, we present proofs that it is not necessary to include equality tests associated with round-to-nearest-even mode for reciprocal, division and square root functions, because it is impossible for input(s) in a given precision to have exact answers exactly midway between representable floating-point numbers in that precision. In fact, our simpler proofs are sometimes stronger.

Within the $\Lambda$CDM cosmology, dark matter haloes are expected to deviate from spherical symmetry. Constraining the halo shapes at large galactocentric distances is challenging due to the low density of luminous tracers. The well-studied early-type galaxy NGC 5128 (Centaurus A - CenA), has a large number of radial velocities for globular clusters (GCs) and planetary nebulae (PNe) of its extended stellar halo. In this work, we aim to determine the deviation from spherical symmetry of the dark matter halo of CenA at 5 $R_{\rm e}$ using its GCs as kinematic tracers. We used the largest photometric catalogue of GC candidates to accurately characterise the spatial distribution of the relaxed population and investigated the presence of non-relaxed structures in the kinematic catalogue of GCs using the relaxed point-symmetric velocity field as determined by the host's PNe population. We used anisotropic Jeans modelling under axisymmetric assumptions together with the Gaussian likelihood and GCs as discrete tracers. The gravitational potential is generated by flattened stellar and dark matter distributions. We leveraged different orbital properties of the blue and red GCs to model them separately. We find that discrete kinematics of the GCs are consistent with being drawn from an underlying relaxed velocity field determined from PNe. The best-fit parameters of the gravitational potential recovered from the blue and red GCs separately agree well and the joint results are: $M_{200} = 1.86^{1.61}_{-0.69}\times 10^{12}$ M$_\odot$, $M_\star/L_{\rm B} = 2.98^{+0.96}_{-0.78}$ and the flattening $q_{\rm DM} = 1.45^{+0.78}_{-0.53}$. Both GC populations show mild rotation, with red having a slightly stronger rotational signature and radially biased orbits, and blue GCs preferring negative velocity anisotropy. An oblate or a spherical dark matter halo of CenA is strongly disfavoured by our modelling., Comment: 22 pages, 17 figures, 8 tables, accepted for publication in A&A

Optical pulse shaping stands as a formidable technique in ultrafast optics, radio-frequency photonics, and quantum communications. While existing systems rely on bulk optics or integrated platforms with planar waveguide sections for spatial dispersion, they face limitations in achieving finer (few- or sub-GHz) spectrum control. These methods either demand considerable space or suffer from pronounced phase errors and optical losses when assembled to achieve fine resolution. Addressing these challenges, we present a foundry-fabricated six-channel silicon photonic shaper using microresonator filter banks with inline phase control and high spectral resolution. Leveraging existing comb-based spectroscopic techniques, we devise a novel system to mitigate thermal crosstalk and enable the versatile use of our on-chip shaper. Our results demonstrate the shaper's ability to phase-compensate six comb lines at tunable channel spacings of 3, 4, and 5 GHz. Specifically, at a 3 GHz channel spacing, we showcase the generation of arbitrary waveforms in the time domain. This scalable design and control scheme holds promise in meeting future demands for high-precision spectral shaping capabilities., Comment: 21 pages, 12 figures

We calculated the spectral properties of two related families of non-Hermitian free-particle quantum chains with $N$-multispin interactions ($N=2,3,\ldots$). The first family have a $Z(N)$ symmetry and are described by free parafermions. The second one has a $U(1)$ symmetry and are generalizations of $XX$ quantum chains described by free fermions. The eigenspectra of both free-particle families are formed by the combination of the same pseudo-energies. The models have a multicritical point with dynamical critical exponent $z=1$. The finite-size behavior of their eigenspectra, as well as the entanglement properties of their ground state wave function, indicate the models are conformally invariant. The models with open and periodic boundary conditions show quite distinct physics due to their non-Hermiticity. The models defined with open boundaries have a single conformal invariant phase while the $XX$ multispin models show multiple phases with distinct conformal central charges in the periodic case. The critical exponents of the models are calculated for $N=3,4,5$ and $6$., Comment: 16 pages, 12 figures

We showcase a fully on-chip CMOS-fabricated silicon photonic integrated circuit employing a bidirectionally pumped microring and polarization splitter-rotators tailored for the generation of ultrabroadband ($>$9 THz), high-fidelity (90-98%) polarization-entangled photons. Spanning the optical C+L-band and producing over 116 frequency-bin pairs on a 38.4 GHz-spaced grid, this source is ideal for flex-grid wavelength-multiplexed entanglement distribution in multiuser networks.

Recent observations of galaxy mergers inside galaxy cluster environments report high star formation rates in the ejected tidal tails, which point towards currently developing tidal dwarf galaxies. We test whether these dwarf objects could get stripped from the galaxy potential by the galaxy cluster and thus populate it with dwarf galaxies. To this end, we perform three high-resolution hydrodynamical simulations of mergers between spiral galaxies in a cluster environment, varying the initial orbit of the infalling galaxies with respect to the cluster center. We demonstrate that cluster environments are indeed capable of stripping tidal dwarf galaxies from the host potential in all tested setups. In the three orbit scenarios, we find 3, 7, and 8 tidal dwarf galaxies per merger, respectively, which survive longer than 1 Gyr after the merger event. Exposed to ram pressure, these gas dominated dwarf galaxies exhibit high star formation rates while also losing gas to the environment. Experiencing a strong headwind due to their motion through the intracluster medium, they quickly lose momentum and start spiraling towards the cluster center, reaching distances on the order of ~Mpc from their progenitor. About 4 Gyr after the merger event, we still find several intact dwarf galaxies, demonstrating that such objects can prevail for a significant fraction of the Hubble time. Comparing their contribution to the observed galaxy mass function in clusters, our results indicate that ~30% of dwarf galaxies in clusters could have been formed by stripping from galaxy mergers., Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in A&A. Fig. 3 contains a snapshot of a merger movie, which can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQyEK1qQAhU

We address in this work the nature and evolution of the long-period compact star sources, which has recently added several unexpected members. The central hypothesis is that particle winds drive their evolution, being an important factor for these relatively old sources. We show the consistency of this picture and remark some unsolved problems and caveats within it., Comment: 22 pp., 2 Figs, to appear in the special volume "Pulsar Astronomy with China's Facilities", Eds. R.X.Xu, Z. Gao, J.E. Horvath anbd C.A.Z. Vasconcellos (World Scientifica, Singapore, 2024)

Slow rotator galaxies are distinct amongst galaxy populations, with simulations suggesting that a mix of minor and major mergers are responsible for their formation. A promising path to resolve outstanding questions on the type of merger responsible, is by investigating deep imaging of massive galaxies for signs of potential merger remnants. We utilise deep imaging from the Subaru-Hyper Suprime Cam Wide data to search for tidal features in massive ($\log_{10}(M_*/M_{\odot}) > 10$) early-type galaxies (ETGs) in the SAMI Galaxy Survey. We perform a visual check for tidal features on images where the galaxy has been subtracted using a Multi-Gauss Expansion (MGE) model. We find that $31\pm 2$ percent of our sample show tidal features. When comparing galaxies with and without features, we find that the distributions in stellar mass, light-weighted mean stellar population age and H$\alpha$ equivalent width are significantly different, whereas spin ($\lambda_{R_e}$), ellipticity and bulge to total ratio have similar distributions. When splitting our sample in age, we find that galaxies below the median age (10.8 Gyr) show a correlation between the presence of shells and lower $\lambda_{R_e}$, as expected from simulations. We also find these younger galaxies which are classified as having "strong" shells have lower $\lambda_{R_e}$. However, simulations suggest that merger features become undetectable within $\sim 2-4$ Gyr post-merger. This implies that the relationship between tidal features and merger history disappears for galaxies with older stellar ages, i.e. those that are more likely to have merged long ago., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 22 pages, 14 figures

Context: Planet-disk interactions play a crucial role in the understanding of planet formation and disk evolution. There are multiple numerical tools available to simulate these interactions, including the often-used FARGO code and its variants. Many of the codes were extended over time to include additional physical processes with a focus on their accurate modeling. Aims: We introduce FargoCPT, an updated version of FARGO incorporating other previous enhancements to the code, to provide a simulation environment tailored to study interactions between stars, planets, and disks, ensuring accurate representation of planet systems, hydrodynamics, and dust dynamics with a focus on usability. Methods: The radiation-hydrodynamics part of FargoCPT uses a second-order upwind scheme in 2D polar coordinates supporting multiple equations of state, radiation transport, heating and cooling, and self-gravity. Shocks are considered using artificial viscosity. Integration of the N-body system is achieved by leveraging the REBOUND code. The dust module utilizes massless tracer particles, adapting to drag laws for the Stokes and Epstein regimes. Moreover, FargoCPT provides mechanisms to simulate accretion onto the stars and planets. Results: The code has been tested in practice by its use in various publications. Additionally, it comes with an automated test suite to test the physics modules. Conclusions: FargoCPT offers a unique set of simulation capabilities within the current landscape of publicly available planet-disk interaction simulation tools. Its structured interface and underlying technical updates are intended to assist researchers in the ongoing exploration of planet formation., Comment: 31 pages, 18 figures; accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics (A&A)

Gravitational-wave astronomy has developed enormously over the last decade with the first detections across different frequency bands, but has yet to access $0.1-10$ $\mathrm{Hz}$ gravitational waves. Gravitational waves in this band are emitted by some of the most enigmatic sources, including intermediate-mass binary black hole mergers, early inspiralling compact binaries, and possibly cosmic inflation. To tap this exciting band, we propose the construction of a detector based on pulsar timing principles, the Artificial Precision Timing Array (APTA). We envision APTA as a solar system array of artificial "pulsars"$-$precision-clock-carrying satellites that emit pulsing electromagnetic signals towards Earth or other centrum. In this fundamental study, we estimate the clock precision needed for APTA to successfully detect gravitational waves. Our results suggest that a clock relative uncertainty of $10^{-17}$, which is currently attainable, would be sufficient for APTA to surpass LISA's sensitivity in the decihertz band and observe $10^3-10^4$ $\mathrm{M}_\odot$ black hole mergers. Future atomic clock technology realistically expected in the next decade would enable the detection of an increasingly diverse set of astrophysical sources, including stellar-mass compact binaries that merge in the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA band, extreme-mass-ratio inspirals, and Type Ia supernovae. This work opens up a new area of research into designing and constructing artificial gravitational-wave detectors relying on the successful principles of pulsar timing., Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures

The tip of the red giant branch (TRGB) allows for the measurement of precise and accurate distances to nearby galaxies, based on the brightest ascent of low-mass red giant branch stars before they undergo the helium flash. With the advent of JWST, there is great promise to utilize the technique to measure galaxy distances out to at least 50 Mpc, significantly further than HST's reach of 20 Mpc. However, with any standard candle, it is first necessary to provide an absolute reference. Here we use Cycle 1 data to provide an absolute calibration in the F090W filter. F090W is most similar to the F814W filter commonly used for TRGB measurements with HST, which had been adopted by the community due to minimal dependence from the underlying metallicities and ages of stars. The imaging we use was taken in the outskirts of NGC 4258, which has a direct geometrical distance measurement from the Keplerian motion of its water megamaser. Utilizing several measurement techniques, we find $M_{TRGB}^{F090W}$ = -4.362 $\pm$ 0.033 (stat) $\pm$ 0.045 (sys) mag (Vega) for the metal-poor TRGB. We also perform measurements of the TRGB in two Type Ia supernova hosts, NGC 1559, and NGC 5584. We find good agreement between our TRGB distances and previous distance determinations to these galaxies from Cepheids ($\Delta$ = 0.01 $\pm$ 0.06 mag), with these differences being too small to explain the Hubble tension ($\sim$0.17 mag). As a final bonus, we showcase the serendipitous discovery of a faint dwarf galaxy near NGC 5584., Comment: 20 pages, 12 figures, accepted to ApJ

We present high-definition observations with the James Webb Space Telescope of >1000 Cepheids in a geometric anchor of the distance ladder, NGC4258, and in 5 hosts of 8 SNe~Ia, a far greater sample than previous studies with JWST. These galaxies individually contain the largest samples of Cepheids, an average of >150 each, producing the strongest statistical comparison to those previously measured with the Hubble Space Telescope in the NIR. They also span the distance range of those used to determine the Hubble constant with HST, allowing us to search for a distance-dependent bias in HST measurements. The superior resolution of JWST negates crowding noise, the largest source of variance in the NIR Cepheid Period-Luminosity relations (Leavitt laws) measured with HST. Together with the use of two-epochs to constrain Cepheid phases and three filters to remove reddening, we reduce the dispersion in the Cepheid PL relations by a factor of 2.5. We find no significant difference in the mean distance measurements determined from HST and JWST, with a formal difference of -0.01+/-0.03 mag. This result is independent of zeropoints and analysis variants including metallicity dependence, local crowding, choice of filters, and relation slope. We can reject the hypothesis of unrecognized crowding of Cepheid photometry from HST that grows with distance as the cause of the ``Hubble Tension'' at 8.2 sigma, i.e., greater confidence than that of the Hubble Tension itself. We conclude that errors in photometric measurements of Cepheids across the distance ladder do not significantly contribute to the Tension., Comment: ApJ Letters, accepted

Matter at ultra-high densities finds a physical realization inside neutron stars. One key property is their maximum mass, which has far-reaching implications for astrophysics and the equation of state of ultra dense matter. In this work, we employ Bayesian analysis to scrutinize the mass distribution and maximum mass threshold of galactic neutron stars. We compare two distinct models to assess the impact of assuming a uniform distribution for the most important quantity, the cosine of orbital inclination angles ($i$), which has been a common practice in previous analyses. This prevailing assumption yields a maximum mass of $2.25$~$M_\odot$ (2.15--3.32~$M_\odot$ within $90\%$ confidence), with a strong peak around the maximum value. However, in the second model, which indirectly includes observational constraints of $i$, the analysis supports a mass limit of $2.56^{+0.87}_{-0.58}~M_\odot$ ($2\sigma$ uncertainty), a result that points in the same direction as some recent results gathered from gravitational wave observations, although their statistics are still limited. This work stresses the importance of an accurate treatment of orbital inclination angles, and contributes to the ongoing debate about the maximum neutron star mass, further emphasizing the critical role of uncertainties in the individual neutron star mass determinations., Comment: 23 pages, 3 figures. Accepted by Universe

The giant spiral galaxy M101 is host to the nearest recent Type Ia Supernova (SN 2011fe) and thus has been extensively monitored in the near-infrared to study the late-time lightcurve of the supernova. Leveraging this existing baseline of observations, we derive the first Mira-based distance to M101 by discovering and classifying a sample of 211 Miras with periods ranging from 240 to 400 days in the supernova field. Combined with new HST WFC3/IR channel observations, our dataset totals 11 epochs of F110W (HST $YJ$) and 13 epochs of F160W (HST $H$) data spanning $\sim$2900 days. We adopt absolute calibrations of the Mira Period-Luminosity Relation based on geometric distances to the Large Magellanic Cloud and the water megamaser host galaxy NGC 4258, and find $\mu_{\rm M101} = $ 29.10 $\pm$ 0.06 mag. This distance is in 1$\sigma$ agreement with most other recent Cepheid and Tip of the Red Giant Branch distance measurements to M101. Including the previous Mira-SNIa host, NGC 1559 and SN 2005df, we determine the fiducial SN Ia peak luminosity, $M^0_B = -19.27 \pm 0.09$ mag. With the Hubble diagram of SNe Ia, we derive $H_0 = 72.37 \pm 2.97 $ km s$^{-1}$Mpc$^{-1}$, a $4.1\%$ measurement of $H_0$ using Miras. We find excellent agreement with recent Cepheid distance ladder measurements of $H_0$ and confirm previous indications that the local universe value of $H_0$ is higher than the early-universe value at $\sim$ $95\%$ confidence. Currently, the Mira-based $H_0$ measurement is still dominated by the statistical uncertainty in the SN Ia peak magnitude., Comment: 22 pages, 11 figures, accepted to ApJ

Optically pumped magnetometers (OPMs) are revolutionising the task of magnetic-field sensing due to their extremely high sensitivity combined with technological improvements in miniaturisation which have led to compact and portable devices. OPMs can be based on spin-oriented or spin-aligned atomic ensembles which are spin-polarized through optical pumping with circular or linear polarized light, respectively. Characterisation of OPMs and the dynamical properties of their noise is important for applications in real-time sensing tasks. In our work, we experimentally perform spin noise spectroscopy of an alignment-based magnetometer. Moreover, we propose a stochastic model that predicts the noise power spectra exhibited by the device when, apart from the strong magnetic field responsible for the Larmor precession of the spin, white noise is applied in the perpendicular direction aligned with the pumping-probing beam. By varying the strength of the noise applied as well as the linear-polarisation angle of incoming light, we verify the model to accurately predict the heights of the Larmor-induced spectral peaks and their corresponding line-widths. Our work paves the way for alignment-based magnetometers to become operational in real-time sensing tasks., Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures, published version

Spiral structures are important drivers of the secular evolution of disc galaxies, however, the origin of spiral arms and their effects on the development of galaxies remain mysterious. In this work, we present two three-armed spiral galaxies at z~0.3 in the Middle Age Galaxy Properties with Integral Field Spectroscopy (MAGPI) survey. Taking advantage of the high spatial resolution (~0.6'') of the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Unit (MUSE), we investigate the two-dimensional distributions of different spectral parameters: Halpha, gas-phase metallicity, and D4000. We notice significant offsets in Halpha (~0.2 dex) as well as gas-phase metallicities (~0.05 dex) among the spiral arms, downstream and upstream of MAGPI1202197197 (SG1202). This observational signature suggests the spiral structure in SG1202 is consistent with arising from density wave theory. No azimuthal variation in Halpha or gas-phase metallicities is observed in MAGPI1204198199 (SG1204), which can be attributed to the tighter spiral arms in SG1204 than SG1202, coming with stronger mixing effects in the disc. The absence of azimuthal D4000 variation in both galaxies suggests the stars at different ages are well-mixed between the spiral arms and distributed around the disc regions. The different azimuthal distributions in Halpha and D4000 highlight the importance of time scales traced by various spectral parameters when studying 2D distributions in spiral galaxies. This work demonstrates the feasibility of constraining spiral structures by tracing interstellar medium (ISM) and stellar population at z~0.3, with a plan to expand the study to the full MAGPI survey., Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in MNRAS

Recent observations with JWST and ALMA have revealed extremely massive quiescent galaxies at redshifts of z=3 and higher, indicating both rapid onset and quenching of star formation. Using the cosmological simulation suite Magneticum Pathfinder we reproduce the observed number densities and stellar masses, with 36 quenched galaxies of stellar mass larger than 3e10Msun at z=3.42. We find that these galaxies are quenched through a rapid burst of star-formation and subsequent AGN feedback caused by a particularly isotropic collapse of surrounding gas, occurring on timescales of around 200Myr or shorter. The resulting quenched galaxies host stellar components which are kinematically fast rotating and alpha-enhanced, while exhibiting a steeper metallicity and flatter age gradient compared to galaxies of similar stellar mass. The gas of the galaxies has been metal enriched and ejected. We find that quenched galaxies do not inhabit the densest nodes, but rather sit in local underdensities. We analyze observable metrics to predict future quenching at high redshifts, finding that on shorter timescales <500Myr the ratio M_bh/M_* is the best predictor, followed by the burstiness of the preceding star-formation, t50-t90 (time to go from 50% to 90% stellar mass). On longer timescales, >1Gyr, the environment becomes the strongest predictor, followed by t50-t90, indicating that at high redshifts the consumption of old and lack of new gas are more relevant for long-term prevention of star-formation than the presence of a massive AGN. We predict that relics of such high-z quenched galaxies should best be characterized by a strong alpha enhancement., Comment: 22 pages, 13 figures, Submitted to ApJ, Comments welcome

In this work, we describe a procedure for synthesizing racetrack resonators with large quality factors and apply it to realize a multi-channel wavelength-selective switch (WSS) on a silicon photonic chip. We first determine the contribution of each component primitive to propagation loss in a racetrack resonator and use this data to develop a model for the frequency response of arbitrary order, coupled-racetrack channel dropping filters. We design second-order racetrack filters based on this model and cascade multiple such filters to form a 1x7 WSS. We find good agreement between our model and device performance with second-order racetrack that have ~1 dB of drop-port loss, ~2 GHz FWHM linewidth, and low optical crosstalk due to the quick filter roll-off of ~ 5.3 dB/GHz. Using a control algorithm, we show three-channel operation of our WSS with a channel spacing of only 10 GHz. Owing to the high quality factor and quick roll-off of our filter design, adjacent channel crosstalk is measured to be <-25 dB for channels spaced on a 10 GHz grid. As a further demonstration, we use five of seven WSS channels to perform a demultiplexing operation on both an 8 GHz and a 10 GHz grid. These results suggest that a low-loss WSS with fine channel resolution can be realized in a scalable manner using the silicon photonics platform.

Precursor emission has been observed seconds to minutes before some short gamma-ray bursts. While the origins of these precursors remain unknown, one potential explanation relies on the resonance of neutron star pulsational modes with the tidal forces during the inspiral phase of a compact binary merger. In this paper, we present a model for short gamma-ray burst precursors which relies on tidally resonant neutron star oceans. In this scenario, the onset of tidal resonance in the crust-ocean interface mode corresponds to the ignition of the precursor flare, possibly through the interaction between the excited neutron star ocean and the surface magnetic fields. From just the precursor total energy, the time before the main event, and a detected quasi-periodic oscillation frequency, we may constrain the binary parameters and neutron star ocean properties as never before. Our model can immediately distinguish neutron star-black hole mergers from binary neutron star mergers without gravitational wave detection. We apply our model to GRB 211211A, the recently detected long duration short gamma-ray burst with a quasi-periodic precursor, and explore the parameters of this system within its context. The precursor of GRB 211211A is consistent with a tidally resonant neutron star ocean explanation that requires an extreme-mass ratio NSBH merger and a high mass neutron star. While difficult to reconcile with the gamma-ray burst main emission and associated kilonova, our results constrain the possible precursor generating mechanisms in this system. A systematic study of short gamma-ray burst precursors with the model presented here can test precursor origin and could probe the possible connection between gamma-ray bursts and neutron star-black hole mergers., Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures, accepted in MNRAS

Identifying past wet merger activity in galaxies has been a longstanding issue in extragalactic formation history studies. Gaia's 6D kinematic measurements in our Milky Way (MW) have vastly extended the possibilities for Galactic archaeology, leading to the discovery of early mergers in the MW's past. As recent work has established a link between young globular clusters (GCs) and wet galaxy merger events, the MW provides an ideal laboratory for testing how GCs can be used to trace galaxy formation histories. To test the hypothesis that GCs trace wet mergers, we relate the measured GC age distributions of the MW and three nearby galaxies to their merger histories and interpret the connection with wet mergers through an empirical model for GC formation. For the MW, we cross-match the GCs with their associated progenitor host galaxies to disentangle the connection to the GC age distribution. We find that the MW GC age distribution is bimodal, mainly caused by younger GCs associated with Gaia-Sausage/Enceladus (GSE) and in part by unassociated high-energy GCs. The GSE GC age distribution also appears to be bimodal. We propose that the older GSE GCs were accreted together with GSE, while the younger ones formed through the merger. For the nearby galaxies, we find that peaks in the GC age distributions coincide with early gas-rich mergers. Even small signatures in the GC age distributions agree well with the formation histories of the galaxies inferred through other observed tracers. From the models, we predict that the involved cold gas mass can be estimated from the number of GCs found in the formation burst. Multimodal GC age distributions can trace massive wet mergers as a result of GCs being formed through them. From the laboratory of our own MW and nearby galaxies we conclude that the ages of younger GC populations of galaxies can be used to infer the wet merger history of a galaxy., Comment: 18 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in A&A

Milky Way Cepheid variables with accurate {\it Hubble Space Telescope} photometry have been established as standards for primary calibration of the cosmic distance ladder to achieve a percent-level determination of the Hubble constant ($H_0$). These 75 Cepheid standards are the fundamental sample for investigation of possible residual systematics in the local $H_0$ determination due to metallicity effects on their period-luminosity relations. We obtained new high-resolution ($R\sim81,000$), high signal-to-noise ($S/N\sim50-150$) multi-epoch spectra of 42 out of 75 Cepheid standards using ESPaDOnS instrument at the 3.6-m Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. Our spectroscopic metallicity measurements are in good agreement with the literature values with systematic differences up to $0.1$ dex due to different metallicity scales. We homogenized and updated the spectroscopic metallicities of all 75 Milky Way Cepheid standards and derived their multiwavelength ($GVIJHK_s$) period-luminosity-metallicity and period-Wesenheit-metallicity relations using the latest {\it Gaia} parallaxes. The metallicity coefficients of these empirically calibrated relations exhibit large uncertainties due to low statistics and a narrow metallicity range ($\Delta\textrm{[Fe/H]}=0.6$~dex). These metallicity coefficients are up to three times better constrained if we include Cepheids in the Large Magellanic Cloud and range between $-0.21\pm0.07$ and $-0.43\pm0.06$ mag/dex. The updated spectroscopic metallicities of these Milky Way Cepheid standards were used in the Cepheid-Supernovae distance ladder formalism to determine $H_0=72.9~\pm 1.0$\textrm{~km~s$^{-1}$~Mpc$^{-1}$}, suggesting little variation ($\sim 0.1$ ~km~s$^{-1}$~Mpc$^{-1}$) in the local $H_0$ measurements due to different Cepheid metallicity scales., Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures, Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters

The accretion of material from protoplanetary disks onto their central stars is a fundamental process in the evolution of these systems and a key diagnostic in constraining the disk lifetime. We analyze the relationship between the stellar accretion rate and the disk mass in 32 intermediate-mass Herbig Ae/Be systems and compare them to their lower-mass counterparts, T Tauri stars. We find that the $\dot{M}$--$M_{\rm{disk}}$ relationship for Herbig Ae/Be stars is largely flat at $\sim$10$^{-7}$ M$_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$ across over three orders of magnitude in dust mass. While most of the sample follows the T Tauri trend, a subset of objects with high accretion rates and low dust masses are identified. These outliers (12 out of 32 sources) have an inferred disk lifetime of less than 0.01 Myr and are dominated by objects with low infrared excess. This outlier sample is likely identified in part by the bias in classifying Herbig Ae/Be stars, which requires evidence of accretion that can only be reliably measured above a rate of $\sim$10$^{-9}$ M$_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$ for these spectral types. If the disk masses are not underestimated and the accretion rates are not overestimated, this implies that these disks may be on the verge of dispersal, which may be due to efficient radial drift of material or outer disk depletion by photoevaporation and/or truncation by companions. This outlier sample likely represents a small subset of the larger young, intermediate-mass stellar population, the majority of which would have already stopped accreting and cleared their disks., Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures, accepted to AJ

We calculate epidemic thresholds and investigate the dynamics of a disease in a networked metapopulation model. To study the specific role of mobility levels and network geometry, we utilize the SIR-Network model and consider a range of geometric structures. For \emph{star-shaped} networks where all nodes only connect to a center, we obtain the same epidemic threshold formula as previously found for fully connected networks in the case where all nodes have the same infection rate except one. Next, we analyze \emph{cycle-shaped} networks that yield different epidemic thresholds than star-shaped ones. We then analyze more general classes of networks by combining the star, cycle, and other structures, obtaining classes of networks with the same epidemic threshold formulas. We present some conjectures on even more flexible networks and complete our analysis by presenting simulations to explore the epidemic dynamics for the different geometries.

High-resolution JWST observations can test confusion-limited HST observations for a photometric bias that could affect extragalactic Cepheids and the determination of the Hubble constant. We present JWST NIRCAM observations in two epochs and three filters of >330 Cepheids in NGC4258 (which has a 1.5% maser-based geometric distance) and in NGC5584 (host of SNIa 2007af), near the median distance of the SH0ES HST SNIa host sample and with the best leverage among them to detect such a bias. JWST provides far superior source separation from line-of-sight companions than HST in the NIR to largely negate confusion or crowding noise at these wavelengths, where extinction is minimal. The result is a remarkable >2.5x reduction in the dispersion of the Cepheid P-L relations, from 0.45 to 0.17 mag, improving individual Cepheid precision from 20% to 7%. Two-epoch photometry confirmed identifications, tested JWST photometric stability, and constrained Cepheid phases. The P-L relation intercepts are in very good agreement, with differences (JWST-HST) of 0.00+/-0.03 and 0.02+/-0.03 mag for NGC4258 and NGC5584, respectively. The difference in the determination of H_0 between HST and JWST from these intercepts is 0.02+/-0.04 mag, insensitive to JWST zeropoints or count-rate non-linearity thanks to error cancellation between rungs. We explore a broad range of analysis variants (including passband combinations, phase corrections, measured detector offsets, and crowding levels) indicating robust baseline results. These observations provide the strongest evidence yet that systematic errors in HST Cepheid photometry do not play a significant role in the present Hubble Tension. Upcoming JWST observations of >12 SNIa hosts should further refine the local measurement of the Hubble constant., Comment: submitted to ApJ, comments welcome

We investigate the impact of environment on the internal mass distribution of galaxies using the Middle Ages Galaxy Properties with Integral field spectroscopy (MAGPI) survey. We use 2D resolved stellar kinematics to construct Jeans dynamical models for galaxies at mean redshift $z \sim 0.3$, corresponding to a lookback time of $3-4$ Gyr. The internal mass distribution for each galaxy is parameterised by the combined mass density slope $\gamma$ (baryons $+$ dark matter), which is the logarithmic change of density with radius. We use a MAGPI sample of 28 galaxies from low-to-mid density environments and compare to density slopes derived from galaxies in the high density Frontier Fields clusters in the redshift range $0.29

The BayesMortalityPlus package provides a framework for modelling and predicting mortality data. The package includes tools for the construction of life tables based on Heligman-Pollard laws, and also on dynamic linear smoothers. Flexibility is available in terms of modelling so that the response variable may be modeled as Poisson, Binomial or Gaussian. If temporal data is available, the package provides a Bayesian implementation for the well-known Lee-Carter model that allows for estimation, projection of mortality over time, and assessment of uncertainty of any linear or nonlinear function of parameters such as life expectancy. Illustrations are considered to show the capability of the proposed package to model mortality data.