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MAORY is the adaptive optics module for ELT providing two gravity invariant ports with the same optical quality for two different client instruments. It enable high angular resolution observations in the near infrared over a large field of view (~1 arcmin2 ) by real time compensation of the wavefront distortions due to atmospheric turbulence. Wavefront sensing is performed by laser and natural guide stars while the wavefront sensor compensation is performed by an adaptive deformable mirror in MAORY which works together with the telescope's adaptive and tip tilt mirrors M4 and M5 respectively., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures

MAVIS (MCAO-Assisted Visible Imager and Spectrograph) is an instrument proposed for the VLT Adaptive Optics Facility (AOF), which is currently in the phase-A conceptual design study. It will be the first instrument performing Multi-conjugate adaptive optics at visible wavelengths, enabling a new set of science observations. MAVIS will be installed at the Nasmyth platform of VLT UT-4 taking advantage of the already operational Adaptive Optics Facility that consists of 4 LGS and an adaptive secondary mirror with 1170 actuators. In addition, two post-focal deformable mirrors and 3 Natural Guide Stars (NGS) are foreseen for the tomographic reconstruction and correction of atmospheric turbulence. The MAVIS AO module is intended to feed both an imager and a spectrograph that will take advantage of the increased resolution and depth with respect to current instrumentation. In this paper we present the trade-off study for the optical design of the MAVIS AO module, highlighting the peculiarities of the system and the requirements imposed by AO. We propose a set of possible optical solutions able to provide a compact and efficient implementation of the different subsystems and we compare them in terms of delivered optical quality, overall throughput, encumbrance, ease of alignment and residual distortion., Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, AO4ELT6 conference proceedings, http://ao4elt6.copl.ulaval.ca/proceedings.html

Determining the architecture of multi-planetary systems is one of the cornerstones of understanding planet formation and evolution. Resonant systems are especially important as the fragility of their orbital configuration ensures that no significant scattering or collisional event has taken place since the earliest formation phase when the parent protoplanetary disc was still present. In this context, TOI-178 has been the subject of particular attention since the first TESS observations hinted at a 2:3:3 resonant chain. Here we report the results of observations from CHEOPS, ESPRESSO, NGTS, and SPECULOOS with the aim of deciphering the peculiar orbital architecture of the system. We show that TOI-178 harbours at least six planets in the super-Earth to mini-Neptune regimes, with radii ranging from 1.152(-0.070/+0.073) to 2.87(-0.13/+0.14) Earth radii and periods of 1.91, 3.24, 6.56, 9.96, 15.23, and 20.71 days. All planets but the innermost one form a 2:4:6:9:12 chain of Laplace resonances, and the planetary densities show important variations from planet to planet, jumping from 1.02(+0.28/-0.23) to 0.177(+0.055/-0.061) times the Earth's density between planets c and d. Using Bayesian interior structure retrieval models, we show that the amount of gas in the planets does not vary in a monotonous way, contrary to what one would expect from simple formation and evolution models and unlike other known systems in a chain of Laplace resonances. The brightness of TOI-178 allows for a precise characterisation of its orbital architecture as well as of the physical nature of the six presently known transiting planets it harbours. The peculiar orbital configuration and the diversity in average density among the planets in the system will enable the study of interior planetary structures and atmospheric evolution, providing important clues on the formation of super-Earths and mini-Neptunes.

The Ingot wavefront sensor is a novel pupil-plane wavefront sensor, specifically designed to cope with the elongation typical of the extended nature of the Laser Guide Star (LGS). In the framework of the ELT, we propose an optical solution suitable for a Laser launch telescope, located outside the telescope pupil. In this paper, we present the current optical design, based on a reflective roof-shaped prism, which, at the level of the focal plane, splits the light from an LGS producing three beams. The three images of the telescope pupils can be then used for the retrieval of the first derivative of the wavefront. The 3D nature of such a device requires new alignment techniques to be determined theoretically and verified in the real world. A possible fully automated procedure, relying solely on the illumination observed at the three pupils, to align the prism to the image of the LGS is discussed. Careful attention needs to be put both on the telecentricity of the system and on the reference systems of the Ingot adjustments in the 3D space. This is crucial in order to disentangle all the possible misalignment effects. In this context, we devised a test-bench able to reproduce, in a scaled manner, the 3D illumination that the Ingot will face at the ELT, in order to validate the design and to perform preliminary tests of phase retrieval., Comment: 6 pages, 8 figures, AO4ELT6 conference proceeding, http://ao4elt6.copl.ulaval.ca/proceedings.html

The detection of a super-Earth and three mini-Neptunes transiting the bright ($V$ = 9.2 mag) star HD 108236 (also known as TOI-1233) was recently reported on the basis of TESS and ground-based light curves. We perform a first characterisation of the HD 108236 planetary system through high-precision CHEOPS photometry and improve the transit ephemerides and system parameters. We characterise the host star through spectroscopic analysis and derive the radius with the infrared flux method. We constrain the stellar mass and age by combining the results obtained from two sets of stellar evolutionary tracks. We analyse the available TESS light curves and one CHEOPS transit light curve for each known planet in the system. We find that HD 108236 is a Sun-like star with $R_{\star}=0.877\pm0.008 R_{\odot}$, $M_{\star}=0.869^{+0.050}_{-0.048} M_{\odot}$, and an age of $6.7_{-5.1}^{+4.0}$ Gyr. We report the serendipitous detection of an additional planet, HD 108236 f, in one of the CHEOPS light curves. For this planet, the combined analysis of the TESS and CHEOPS light curves leads to a tentative orbital period of about 29.5 days. From the light curve analysis, we obtain radii of $1.615\pm0.051$, $2.071\pm0.052$, $2.539_{-0.065}^{+0.062}$, $3.083\pm0.052$, and $2.017_{-0.057}^{+0.052}$ $R_{\oplus}$ for planets HD 108236 b to HD 108236 f, respectively. These values are in agreement with previous TESS-based estimates, but with an improved precision of about a factor of two. We perform a stability analysis of the system, concluding that the planetary orbits most likely have eccentricities smaller than 0.1. We also employ a planetary atmospheric evolution framework to constrain the masses of the five planets, concluding that HD 108236 b and HD 108236 c should have an Earth-like density, while the outer planets should host a low mean molecular weight envelope., Comment: 20 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication by A&A

The Ingot WFS, a Pyramid-like WFS, has been proposed as a relief to the LGS spot elongation. Actually, the artificial sources are confined in an excited cigar-shaped region in the sodium layer and portions of the telescope aperture have a corresponding different perspective. This diversity generates a variation of the WFS response depending on the illuminated sub-aperture position. The feasibility study of the INGOT WFS is developing within the MAORY project. In this work we present the numerical simulator built in order to investigate the performance of the IngotWFS in terms of Strehl Ratio, obtained reconstructing the incoming turbulent wavefront with a modal approach, in a closed-loop fashion. We also discuss the assumptions and tests we made in order to explore the range of parameters that play key roles in the game. Finally, we report on the overall results of the simulations of the performance expected by the Ingot WFS, under different conditions and input aberrations, with the aim to also compare the measured AO loop residuals with the Shack-Hartmann WFS ones, obtained working under the same assumptions., Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures, AO4ELT6 conference proceeding: http://ao4elt6.copl.ulaval.ca/proceedings.html

Deep observations of the Universe, usually as a part of sky surveys, are one of the symbols of the modern astronomy because they can allow big collaborations, exploiting multiple facilities and shared knowledge. The new generation of extremely large telescopes will play a key role because of their angular resolution and their capability in collecting the light of faint sources. Our simulations combine technical, tomographic and observational information, and benefit of the Global-Multi Conjugate Adaptive Optics (GMCAO) approach, a well demonstrated method that exploits only natural guide stars to correct the scientific field of view from the atmospheric turbulence. By simulating K-band observations of 6000 high redshift galaxies in the Chandra Deep Field South area, we have shown how an ELT can carry out photometric surveys successfully, recovering morphological and structural parameters. We present here a wide statistics of the expected performance of a GMCAO-equipped ELT in 22 well-known surveys in terms of SR., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, AO4ELT6 conference proceeding: http://ao4elt6.copl.ulaval.ca/proceedings.html

The basic outline of a pupil plane WaveFront Sensor is reviewed taking into account that the source to be sensed could be different from an unresolved source, i.e. it is extended, and that it could deploy also in a 3D fashion, enough to exceed the field's depth of the observing telescope. Under these conditions it is pointed out that the features of the reference are not invariant for different position on the pupil and it is shown that the INGOT WFS is the equivalent of the Pyramid for a Laser Guide Star. Under these conditions one can imagine to use a Dark WFS approach to improve the SNR of such a WFS, or to use a corrected upward beam in order to achieve a better use of the LGS photons with respect to an ideal Shack-Hartmann WFS., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, AO4ELT6 conference proceeding: http://ao4elt6.copl.ulaval.ca/proceedings.html

The ingot wavefront sensor (I-WFS) has been proposed, for ELT-like apertures, as a possible pupil plane WFS, to cope with the geometrical characteristics of a laser guide star (LGS). Within the study and development of such a WFS, on-going in the framework of the MAORY project, the final purpose of the I-WFS simulation is to estimate its performance in terms of wavefront aberration measurement capability. The first step of this analysis is to translate incoming wavefronts into the three pupil images, produced by the optical system. The intrinsic geometrical characteristics of the ingot optical element, designed to be coupled with the LGS elongated image, make the system conceptually different with respect to other pupil WFSs (like the Pyramid WFS, P-WFS) also in terms of the simulation technique to be selected, within the ones which can be found in literature. In this paper, we aim to report the considerations and derivations which led to the selection of a ray-tracing method for ingot pupil images simulation, and the geometrical assumptions and approach made to optimize the computing time., Comment: AO4ELT6 conference proceeding, http://ao4elt6.copl.ulaval.ca/proceedings.html

Several Extreme Adaptive Optics (XAO) systems dedicated to the detection and characterisation of the exoplanets are currently in operation for 8-10 meter class telescopes. Coronagraphs are commonly used in these facilities to reject the diffracted light of an observed star and enable direct imaging and spectroscopy of its circumstellar environment. SHARK-NIR is a coronagraphic camera that will be implemented at the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT). After an extensive simulation campaign, SHARK-NIR team selected a suite of coronagraphic techniques to be implemented in the instrument in order to fulfil the scientific requirements. In summary, the Gaussian Lyot coronagraph is the option to serve all those science cases requiring field-stabilization and moderate contrast. Observations in pupil-stabilized mode to search for exoplanets can take advantage of three Shaped Pupil masks (SPC) and a Four-Quadrant Phase Mask (FQPM) coronagraph. The SPC are designed for high contrast on a small field close to the star and are robust to image and pupil jitter. The FQPM allows to access the entire scientific FoV (18''x18'') and delivers excellent performance in ideal conditions (high Strehl ratios), but performance is still good, both close and further away from the star, even at lower Strehl and with moderate vibrations. After the procurement phase, the coronagraphic masks were delivered to our labs and we started to test their performance on the optical bench and define the alignment procedures that will be employed in the final integration of the instrument in our cleaning room. In this article, we describe the tests that we performed in the lab with SHARK-NIR coronagraphs. We measured the contrast achievable with each technique in very-high Strehl conditions and defined the alignment-integration procedures.

The CHEOPS space mission dedicated to exoplanet follow-up was launched in December 2019, equipped with the capacity to perform photometric measurements at the 20 ppm level. As CHEOPS carries out its observations in a broad optical passband, it can provide insights into the reflected light from exoplanets and constrain the short-wavelength thermal emission for the hottest of planets by observing occultations and phase curves. Here, we report the first CHEOPS observation of an occultation, namely, that of the hot Jupiter WASP-189b, a $M_P \approx 2 M_J$ planet orbiting an A-type star. We detected the occultation of WASP-189 b at high significance in individual measurements and derived an occultation depth of $dF = 87.9 \pm 4.3$ppm based on four occultations. We compared these measurements to model predictions and we find that they are consistent with an unreflective atmosphere heated to a temperature of $3435 \pm 27$K, when assuming inefficient heat redistribution. Furthermore, we present two transits of WASP-189b observed by CHEOPS. These transits have an asymmetric shape that we attribute to gravity darkening of the host star caused by its high rotation rate. We used these measurements to refine the planetary parameters, finding a $\sim25\%$ deeper transit compared to the discovery paper and updating the radius of WASP-189b to $1.619\pm0.021 R_J$. We further measured the projected orbital obliquity to be $\lambda = 86.4^{+2.9}_{-4.4}$deg, a value that is in good agreement with a previous measurement from spectroscopic observations, and derived a true obliquity of $\Psi = 85.4\pm4.3$deg. Finally, we provide reference values for the photometric precision attained by the CHEOPS satellite: for the V=6.6 mag star, and using a one-hour binning, we obtain a residual RMS between 10 and 17ppm on the individual light curves, and 5.7ppm when combining the four visits., Comment: In press at Astronomy and Astrophysics

The CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite (CHEOPS) was selected in 2012, as the first small mission in the ESA Science Programme and successfully launched in December 2019. CHEOPS is a partnership between ESA and Switzerland with important contributions by ten additional ESA Member States. CHEOPS is the first mission dedicated to search for transits of exoplanets using ultrahigh precision photometry on bright stars already known to host planets. As a follow-up mission, CHEOPS is mainly dedicated to improving, whenever possible, existing radii measurements or provide first accurate measurements for a subset of those planets for which the mass has already been estimated from ground-based spectroscopic surveys and to following phase curves. CHEOPS will provide prime targets for future spectroscopic atmospheric characterisation. Requirements on the photometric precision and stability have been derived for stars with magnitudes ranging from 6 to 12 in the V band. In particular, CHEOPS shall be able to detect Earth-size planets transiting G5 dwarf stars in the magnitude range between 6 and 9 by achieving a photometric precision of 20 ppm in 6 hours of integration. For K stars in the magnitude range between 9 and 12, CHEOPS shall be able to detect transiting Neptune-size planets achieving a photometric precision of 85 ppm in 3 hours of integration. This is achieved by using a single, frame-transfer, back-illuminated CCD detector at the focal plane assembly of a 33.5 cm diameter telescope. The 280 kg spacecraft has a pointing accuracy of about 1 arcsec rms and orbits on a sun-synchronous dusk-dawn orbit at 700 km altitude. The nominal mission lifetime is 3.5 years. During this period, 20% of the observing time is available to the community through a yearly call and a discretionary time programme managed by ESA., Comment: Submitted to Experimental Astronomy

The Global-Multi Conjugated Adaptive Optics (GMCAO) approach offers an alternative way to correct an adequate scientific Field of View (FoV) using only natural guide stars (NGSs) to extremely large ground-based telescopes. Thus, even in the absence of laser guide stars, a GMCAO-equipped ELT-like telescope can achieve optimal performance in terms of Strehl Ratio (SR), retrieving impressive results in studying star-poor fields, as in the cases of the deep field observations. The benefits and usability of GMCAO have been demonstrated by studying 6000 mock high redshift galaxies in the Chandra Deep Field South region. However, a systematic study simulating observations in several portions of the sky is mandatory to have a robust statistic of the GMCAO performance. Technical, tomographic and astrophysical parameters, discussed here, are given as inputs to GIUSTO, an IDL-based code that estimates the SR over the considered field, and the results are analyzed with statistical considerations. The best performance is obtained using stars that are relatively close to the Scientific FoV; therefore, the SR correlates with the mean off-axis position of NGSs, as expected, while their magnitude plays a secondary role. This study concludes that the SRs correlate linearly with the galactic latitude, as also expected. Because of the lack of natural guide stars needed for low-order aberration sensing, the GMCAO confirms as a promising technique to observe regions that can not be studied without the use of laser beacons. It represents a robust alternative way or a risk mitigation strategy for laser approaches on the ELTs., Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication on PASP

Cells are constantly exposed to DNA damaging insults. To protect the organism, cells developed a complex molecular response coordinated by P53, the master regulator of DNA repair, cell division and cell fate. DNA damage accumulation and abnormal cell fate decision may represent a pathomechanism shared by aging-associated disorders such as cancer and neurodegeneration. Here, we examined this hypothesis in the context of tauopathies, a neurodegenerative disorder group characterized by Tau protein deposition. For this, the response to an acute DNA damage was studied in neuroblastoma cells with depleted Tau, as a model of loss-of-function. Under these conditions, altered P53 stability and activity result in reduced cell death and increased cell senescence. This newly discovered function of Tau involves abnormal modification of P53 and its E3 ubiquitin ligase MDM2. Considering the medical need with vast social implications caused by neurodegeneration and cancer, our study may reform our approach to disease-modifying therapies., Comment: 36 pages, 8 figures, 11 supplementary figures

Over the last few years, the many uses of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have captured the interest of both the scientific and the industrial communities. A typical scenario consists in the use of UAVs for surveillance or target-search missions over a wide geographical area. In this case, it is fundamental for the command center to accurately estimate and track the trajectories of the UAVs by exploiting their periodic state reports. In this work, we design an ad hoc tracking system that exploits the Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) standard for communication and an extended version of the Constant Turn Rate and Acceleration (CTRA) motion model to predict drone movements in a 3D environment. Simulation results on a publicly available dataset show that our system can reliably estimate the position and trajectory of a UAV, significantly outperforming baseline tracking approaches., Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, in review for IEEE WISARN 2020 (INFOCOM WORKSHOP) 2020 : IEEE WiSARN 2020 (INFOCOM WORKSHOP) 2020: 13th International Workshop on Wireless Sensor, Robot and UAV Networks

LoRaWAN is a Low Power Wide Area Network technology featuring long transmission ranges and a simple MAC layer, which can support sensor data collection, control applications and reliable services thanks to the flexibility offered by a large set of configurable system parameters. However, the impact of such parameters settings on the system's performance is often difficult to predict, depending on several factors. To ease this task, in this paper, we provide a mathematical model to estimate the performance of a LoRaWAN gateway serving a set of devices that may or may not employ confirmed traffic. The model features a set of parameters that can be adjusted to investigate different gateway and end-device configurations, making it possible to carry out a systematic analysis of various trade-offs. The results given by the proposed model are validated through realistic ns-3 simulations that confirm the ability of the model to predict the system performance with high accuracy, and assess the impact of the assumptions made in the model for tractability.

We aim to refine the sample of isolated early-type galaxies in the AMIGA catalogue via high resolution imaging. Here we report the result from a pilot study investigating two candidates, KIG 685 and KIG 895, in K-band with the laser guide star and wavefront sensing facility ARGOS} at LBT. Observations, obtained during commissioning time, achieved a PSF of ~0.25". We present the data reduction and the PSF analysis from the best closed loop exposures to investigate the galaxies' morphological structure, including their nuclear region. We used PROFILER for the decomposition of the azimuthal 1D light distribution and GALFIT for the 2D analysis, accounting for ARGOS's PSF. KIG 685 was found to be a S0 galaxy and has been modeled with two Sersic components representing a pseudo-bulge (n_{1D}=2.87+-0.21, n_{2D}=2.29+-0.10) and a disk (n_{1D}=0.95+-0.16, n_{2D}=0.78+-0.10). Nearly symmetric ring/shell-like structures emerge after subtracting the GALFIT model from the image. KIG 895 shows a clear irregular arm-like structure, in which the northern outer arm is reminiscent of a tail. The galaxy body is a disk, best fitted by a single Sersic profile (n_{1D}=1.22+-0.1; n_{2D}=1.32+-0.12), i.e. KIG 895 is a bulge-less very late-type spiral. ARGOS high resolution images clearly revealed interaction signatures in KIG 895. We suggest that the ring/shell like residuals in KIG 685, a "bona fide" early-type galaxy, point towards a past accretion event., Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures, accepted by Astronomical Notes