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The probability that life spontaneously emerges in a suitable environment (abiogenesis) is one of the major unknowns in astrobiology. Assessing its value is impeded by the lack of an accepted theory for the origin of life, and is further complicated by the existence of selection biases. Appealing uncritically to some version of the 'Principle of Mediocrity' – namely, the supposed typicality of what transpired on Earth – is problematic on empirical or logical grounds. In this paper, we adopt a Bayesian statistical approach to put the inference of lower bounds for the probability of abiogenesis on a rigorous footing, based on current and future evidence. We demonstrate that the single datum that life has appeared at least once on Earth merely sets weak constraints on the minimal probability of abiogenesis. In fact, the a priori probability assigned to this event (viz. optimistic, pessimistic, or agnostic prior) exerts the strongest influence on the final result. We also show that the existence of a large number of habitable worlds does not necessarily imply, by itself, a high probability that life should be common in the universe. Instead, as delineated before, the choice of prior, which is subject to uncertainty (i.e. admits multiple scenarios), strongly influences the likelihood of life being common. If habitable worlds are uncommon, for an agnostic prior, a deterministic scenario for the origin of life might be favoured over one where abiogenesis is a fluke event. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Earth currently experiences rich tidal modulations by virtue of the fact that the tidal forces generated by the Sun and the Moon are approximately a factor of 2 removed from each other. This datum has been adduced by some scientists as one of the major drivers of the origin and evolution of (complex) life on the Earth (e.g. evolution of tetrapods). In this paper, we investigate the conditions under which terrestrial planets in the habitable zone can undergo strong tidal modulations akin to those documented on the Earth. By using an analytical model, we show that higher mass stars are more conducive to hosting potentially habitable planets with such moons, and that late-type M-dwarfs with masses |$\lesssim 0.1\, {\rm M}_\odot$| might not host temperate Earth-analogues that fulfil the aforementioned criterion regarding tidal modulations. We also find that the Moon may perhaps be close to the maximal allowed mass limit compatible with producing large tidal modulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aquatic biospheres reliant on oxygenic photosynthesis are expected to play an important role on Earth-like planets endowed with large-scale oceans insofar as carbon fixation (i.e. biosynthesis of organic compounds) is concerned. We investigate the properties of aquatic biospheres comprising Earth-like biota for habitable rocky planets orbiting Sun-like stars and late-type M dwarfs such as TRAPPIST-1. In particular, we estimate how these characteristics evolve with the available flux of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) and the ambient ocean temperature (TW), the latter of which constitutes a key environmental variable. We show that many salient properties, such as the depth of the photosynthesis zone and the net primary productivity (i.e. the effective rate of carbon fixation), are sensitive to PAR flux and TW and decline substantially when the former is decreased or the latter is increased. We conclude by exploring the implications of our analysis for exoplanets around Sun-like stars and M dwarfs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We show that planets around M-dwarfs with M ⋆ ≲ 0.2 M⊙ may not receive enough photons in the photosynthetically active range of 400–750 nm to sustain Earth-like biospheres. As a result of the lower biological productivity, it is likely that biotic molecular oxygen would not build-up to detectable levels in the atmospheres of habitable planets orbiting low-mass stars, consistent with prior work by Lehmer et al. We also estimate the minimum flaring rate for sustaining biospheres with Earth-like productivity and permitting the build-up of atmospheric oxygen, and find that the overwhelming majority of M-dwarfs are unlikely to exceed this threshold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Langevin equation is set up to model the dynamics of a supermassive black hole (massive particle) in a rotating environment (of light particles), typically the inner region of the galaxy, under the influence of dynamical friction, gravity and stochastic forces. The formal solution is derived, and the displacement and velocity two-point correlation functions are computed. The correlators perpendicular to the axis of rotation are equal to one another and different from those parallel to the axis. By computing this difference, it is suggested that one can, perhaps, observationally determine the magnitude of the rotation. In the case with sufficiently fast rotation, it is suggested that this model can lead to an ejection. If either one of dynamical friction and Eddington accretion is included, it is shown that a near-identical Langevin equation follows, allowing us to treat the two cases in a unified manner. The limitations of the model are also presented and compared against previous results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the Shakura-Sunyaev α viscosity prescription has been highly successful in characterizing myriad astrophysical environments, it has proven to be partly inadequate in modelling turbulent stresses driven by the magnetorotational instability (MRI). Hence, we adopt the approach employed by Ogilvie, but in the context of Hall magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), to study MRI turbulence. We utilize the exact evolution equations for the stresses, and the non-linear terms are closed through the invocation of dimensional analysis and physical considerations. We demonstrate that the inclusion of the Hall term leads to non-trivial results, including the modification of the Reynolds and Maxwell stresses, as well as the (asymptotic) non-equipartition between the kinetic and magnetic energies; the latter issue is also addressed via the analysis of non-linear waves. The asymptotic ratio of the kinetic to magnetic energies is shown to be independent of the choice of initial conditions, but it is governed by the Hall parameter. We contrast our model with an altered version of the Kazantsev prescription from small-scale dynamo theory, and the Hall term does not generally contribute in the latter approach, illustrating the limitations of this formalism. We indicate potential astrophysical applications of our model, including the solar wind where a lack of equipartition has been observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We model the process of panspermia by adopting two different approaches. The first method conceives it as a self-replication process, endowed with non-local creation and extinction. We show that some features suggestive of universal behaviour emerge, such as exponential decay or growth, and a power spectral density that displays a power-law behaviour in a particular regime. We also present a special case wherein the number density of the planets seeded through panspermia approaches a finite asymptotic distribution. The power spectral density for the independent and spontaneous emergence of life is investigated in conjunction with its counterpart for panspermia. The former exhibits attributes characteristic of a noise spectrum, including the resemblance to white noise in a certain regime. These features are absent in panspermia, suggesting that the power spectral density could be utilized as a future tool for differentiating between the two processes. Our second approach adopts the machinery of Markov processes and diffusion, and we show that the power spectral density exhibits a power-law tail in some domains, as earlier, suggesting that this behaviour may be fairly robust. We comment on a generalization of the diffusive model, and also indicate how the methods and results developed herein could be used to analyse other phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unified dynamo-reverse dynamo (Dy-RDy) mechanism, capable of simultaneously generating large-scale outflows and magnetic fields from an ambient microscopic reservoir, is explored in a broad astrophysical context. The Dy-RDy mechanism is derived via the Hall magnetohydrodynamics, which unifies the evolution of magnetic field and fluid vorticity. It also introduces an intrinsic length-scale, the ion skin depth, allowing for the proper normalization and categorization of microscopic and macroscopic scales. The large-scale Alfven Mach number MA, defining the relative 'abundance' of the flow field to the magnetic field is shown to be tied to a microscopic scalelength that reflects the characteristics of the ambient short-scale reservoir. The dynamo (Dy), preferentially producing the large-scale magnetic field, is the dominant mode when the ambient turbulence is mostly kinetic, while the outflow producing reverse dynamo (RDy) is the principal manifestation of a magnetically dominated turbulent reservoir. It is conjectured that an efficient RDy may be the source of many observed astrophysical outflows that have MA ≫ 1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Veltmann models, which include the Plummer and Hernquist models as special cases, are studied in the presence of a cosmological constant. Physically relevant quantities such as the velocity dispersion profiles and the anisotropy parameter are computed through the use of the self-consistent approach. The cut-off radii for these models and the mass contained within this volume are also calculated. It is shown that the inclusion of a cosmological constant leads to many observable quantities such as the surface density, dispersion profiles and the anisotropy parameter becoming increasingly modified. In some scenarios, they are easily distinguished from the case where the cosmological constant is absent, as a result of their non-monotonic behaviour. The effects of neighbouring gravitational systems on the central system are also studied, and compared against the effects arising from the cosmological constant. Consequently, it is suggested that the effects of a cosmological constant can prove to be quite important when modelling dilute collisionless systems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]