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1. A synergy of the velocity gradients technique and the probability density functions for identifying gravitational collapse in self-absorbing media

   https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stab087  

   Hu, Yue; Lazarian, A (February 2021, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society)

   null (Ed.)

   ABSTRACT The velocity gradients technique (VGT) and the probability density functions (PDFs) of mass density are tools to study turbulence, magnetic fields, and self-gravity in molecular clouds. However, self-absorption can significantly make the observed intensity different from the column density structures. In this work, we study the effects of self-absorption on the VGT and the intensity PDFs utilizing three synthetic emission lines of CO isotopologues 12CO (1–0), 13CO (1–0), and C18O (1–0). We confirm that the performance of VGT is insensitive to the radiative transfer effect. We numerically show the possibility of constructing 3D magnetic fields tomography through VGT. We find that the intensity PDFs change their shape from the pure lognormal to a distribution that exhibits a power-law tail depending on the optical depth for supersonic turbulence. We conclude the change of CO isotopologues’ intensity PDFs can be independent of self-gravity, which makes the intensity PDFs less reliable in identifying gravitational collapsing regions. We compute the intensity PDFs for a star-forming region NGC 1333 and find the change of intensity PDFs in observation agrees with our numerical results. The synergy of VGT and the column density PDFs confirms that the self-gravitating gas occupies a large volume in NGC 1333. 

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2. The Most Obscured AGNs in the XMM-SERVS Fields

   https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/accea6  

   Yan, Wei; Brandt, W. N.; Zou, Fan; Zhu, Shifu; Chen, Chien-Ting J.; Hickox, Ryan C.; Luo, Bin; Ni, Qingling; Alexander, David M.; Bauer, Franz E.; et al (June 2023, The Astrophysical Journal)

   Abstract We perform X-ray spectral analyses to derive the characteristics (e.g., column density, X-ray luminosity) of ≈10,200 active galactic nuclei (AGNs) in the XMM-Spitzer Extragalactic Representative Volume Survey, which was designed to investigate the growth of supermassive black holes across a wide dynamic range of cosmic environments. Using physical torus models (e.g., Borus02) and a Bayesian approach, we uncover 22 representative Compton-thick (CT;N_H> 1.5 × 10²⁴cm⁻²) AGN candidates with good signal-to-noise ratios as well as a large sample of 136 heavily obscured AGNs. We also find an increasing CT fraction (f_CT) from low (z< 0.75) to high (z> 0.75) redshift. Our CT candidates tend to show hard X-ray spectral shapes and dust extinction in their spectral energy distribution fits, which may shed light on the connection between AGN obscuration and host-galaxy evolution. 

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3. Interactions of πK, ππK and KKπ systems at maximal isospin from lattice QCD

   https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP05(2023)137  

   Draper, Zachary T.; Hanlon, Andrew D.; Hörz, Ben; Morningstar, Colin; Romero-López, Fernando; Sharpe, Stephen R. (May 2023, Journal of High Energy Physics)

   A<sc>bstract</sc> We study the interactions of systems of two and three nondegenerate mesons composed of pions and kaons at maximal isospin using lattice QCD, specificallyπ⁺K⁺,π⁺π⁺K⁺andK⁺K⁺π⁺. Utilizing the stochastic LapH method, we determine the spectrum of these systems on two CLSN_f= 2 + 1 ensembles with pion masses of 200 MeV and 340 MeV, and include many levels in different momentum frames. We constrain the K matrices describing two- and three-particle interactions by fitting the spectrum to the results predicted by the finite-volume formalism, including up topwaves. This requires also results for theπ⁺π⁺andK⁺K⁺spectrum, which have been obtained previously on the same configurations. We explore different fitting strategies, comparing fits to energy shifts with fits to energies boosted to the rest frame, and also comparing simultaneous global fits to all relevant two- and three-particle channels to those where we first fit two-particle channels and then add in the three-particle information. We provide the first determination of the three-particle K matrix inπ⁺π⁺K⁺andK⁺K⁺π⁺systems, finding statistically significant nonzero results in most cases. We includesandpwaves in the K matrix forπ⁺K⁺scattering, finding evidence for an attractivep-wave scattering length. We compare our results to Chiral Perturbation Theory, including an investigation of the impact of discretization errors, for which we provide the leading order predictions obtained using Wilson Chiral Perturbation Theory. 

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4. The Macroporosity of Rubble Pile Asteroid Ryugu and Implications for the Origin of Chondrules

   https://doi.org/10.3847/PSJ/abf7c0  

   Herbst, William; Greenwood, James P.; Yap, Teng Ee (June 2021, The Planetary Science Journal)

   Abstract We use the known surface boulder-size distribution of the C-type rubble pile asteroid Ryugu (NEA 162173) to determine its macroporosity, assuming it is a homogeneous granular aggregate. We show that the volume-frequency distribution of its boulders, cobbles, and pebbles, is well-represented by a lognormal function withσ= 2.4 ± 0.1 andμ= 0.2 ± 0.05. Application of linear-mixture packing theory yields a value for the macroporosity ofϕ= 0.14 ± 0.04. Given its low bulk density of 1.19 gm cm⁻³, this implies an average density for Ryugu’s rocks of 1.38 ± 0.07 gm cm⁻³throughout its volume, consistent with a recent determination for surface boulders based on their thermal properties. This supports the spectrum-based argument that interplanetary dust particles may be the best analog material available on Earth, and it suggests that high-density, well-lithified objects such as chondrules and chondrule-bearing chondrites may be rare on Ryugu. Implications of this result for the origin of chondrules, a long-standing problem in cosmochemistry, are discussed. We propose that chondrules and most chondrites formed together in rare lithification events, which occurred during the accretion of chondritic envelopes to large, differentiated planetesimals at a time when they were still hot from²⁶Al decay. 

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5. Reconstruction of Past Antarctic Temperature Using Present Seasonal δ18O–Inversion Layer Temperature: Unified Slope Equations and Applications

   https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-22-0012.1  

   Liu, Z.; He, C.; Yan, M.; Buizert, C.; Otto-Bliesner, B. L.; Lu, F.; Zeng, C. (May 2023, Journal of Climate)

   Abstract Reconstructing the history of polar temperature from ice core water isotope (δ¹⁸O) calibration has remained a challenge in paleoclimate research, because of our incomplete understanding of various temperature–δ¹⁸O relationships. This paper resolves this classical problem in a new framework called the unified slope equations (USE), which illustrates the general relations among spatial and temporalδ¹⁸O–surface temperature slopes. The USE is applied to the Antarctica temperature change during the last deglaciation in model simulations and observations. It is shown that the comparable Antarctica-mean spatial slope with deglacial temporal slope inδ¹⁸O–surface temperature reconstruction is caused, accidentally, by the compensation responses between theδ¹⁸O–inversion layer temperature relation and the inversion layer temperature itself. Furthermore, in light of the USE, we propose that the present seasonal slope ofδ¹⁸O–inversion layer temperature is an optimal paleothermometer that is more accurate and robust than the spatial slope. This optimal slope suggests the possibility of reconstructing past Antarctic temperature changes using present and future instrumental observations. Significance StatementThis paper develops a new framework called the unified slope equations (USE) to provide, for the first time, a general relation among various spatial and temporal water isotope–temperature slopes. The application of the USE to Antarctic deglacial temperature change shows that the optimal paleothermometer is the seasonal slope of the inversion layer temperature. 

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