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  1. Abstract

    We present a detailed compilation and analysis of the X-ray phase space of low- to intermediate-redshift (0 ≤z≤ 1) transients that consolidates observed light curves (and theory where necessary) for a large variety of classes of transient/variable phenomena in the 0.3–10 keV energy band. We include gamma-ray burst afterglows, supernovae, supernova shock breakouts and shocks interacting with the environment, tidal disruption events and active galactic nuclei, fast blue optical transients, cataclysmic variables, magnetar flares/outbursts and fast radio bursts, cool stellar flares, X-ray binary outbursts, and ultraluminous X-ray sources. Our overarching goal is to offer a comprehensive resource for the examination of these ephemeral events, extending the X-ray duration–luminosity phase space (DLPS) to show luminosity evolution. We use existing observations (both targeted and serendipitous) to characterize the behavior of various transient/variable populations. Contextualizing transient signals in the larger DLPS serves two primary purposes: to identify areas of interest (i.e., regions in the parameter space where one would expect detections, but in which observations have historically been lacking), and to provide initial qualitative guidance in classifying newly discovered transient signals. We find that while the most luminous (largely extragalactic) and least luminous (largely Galactic) part of the phase space is well populated att> 0.1 days, intermediate-luminosity phenomena (LX= 1034–1042erg s−1) represent a gap in the phase space. We thus identifyLX= 1034–1042erg s−1andt= 10−4to 0.1 days as a key discovery phase space in transient X-ray astronomy.

     
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  2. Abstract

    Two ultra-diffuse galaxies in the same group, NGC1052-DF2 and NGC1052-DF4, have been found to have little or no dark matter and to host unusually luminous globular cluster populations. Such low-mass diffuse objects in a group environment are easily disrupted and are expected to show evidence of tidal distortions. In this work, we present deep new imaging of the NGC1052 group, obtained with the Dragonfly Telephoto Array, to test this hypothesis. We find that both galaxies show strong position-angle twists and are significantly more elongated at their outskirts than in their interiors. The group’s central massive elliptical NGC1052 is the most likely source of these tidal disturbances. The observed distortions imply that the galaxies have a low total mass or are very close to NGC1052. Considering constraints on the galaxies’ relative distances, we infer that the dark matter halo masses of these galaxies cannot be much greater than their stellar masses. Calculating pericenters from the distortions, we find that the galaxies are on highly elliptical orbits, with a ratio of pericenter to present-day radiusRperi/R0∼ 0.1 if the galaxies are dark matter–free andRperi/R0∼ 0.01 if they have a normal dark halo. Our findings provide strong evidence, independent of kinematic constraints, that both galaxies are dark matter–deficient. Furthermore, the similarity of the tidal features in NGC1052-DF2 and NGC1052-DF4 strongly suggests that they arose at comparable distances from NGC1052. In Appendix A, we describesbcontrast, a robust method for determining the surface brightness limits of images.

     
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  3. Abstract

    We present a detection of 21 cm emission from large-scale structure (LSS) between redshift 0.78 and 1.43 made with the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment. Radio observations acquired over 102 nights are used to construct maps that are foreground filtered and stacked on the angular and spectral locations of luminous red galaxies (LRGs), emission-line galaxies (ELGs), and quasars (QSOs) from the eBOSS clustering catalogs. We find decisive evidence for a detection when stacking on all three tracers of LSS, with the logarithm of the Bayes factor equal to 18.9 (LRG), 10.8 (ELG), and 56.3 (QSO). An alternative frequentist interpretation, based on the likelihood ratio test, yields a detection significance of 7.1σ(LRG), 5.7σ(ELG), and 11.1σ(QSO). These are the first 21 cm intensity mapping measurements made with an interferometer. We constrain the effective clustering amplitude of neutral hydrogen (Hi), defined asHI103ΩHIbHI+fμ2, where ΩHiis the cosmic abundance of Hi,bHiis the linear bias of Hi, and 〈fμ2〉 = 0.552 encodes the effect of redshift-space distortions at linear order. We findHI=1.510.97+3.60for LRGs (z= 0.84),HI=6.763.79+9.04for ELGs (z= 0.96), andHI=1.680.67+1.10for QSOs (z= 1.20), with constraints limited by modeling uncertainties at nonlinear scales. We are also sensitive to bias in the spectroscopic redshifts of each tracer, and we find a nonzero bias Δv= − 66 ± 20 km s−1for the QSOs. We split the QSO catalog into three redshift bins and have a decisive detection in each, with the upper bin atz= 1.30 producing the highest-redshift 21 cm intensity mapping measurement thus far.

     
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  4. Abstract

    We identify a ∼600 pc wide region of active star formation located within a tidal streamer of M82 via Hαemission (FHα∼ 6.5 × 10−14erg s−1cm−2), using a pathfinder instrument based on the Dragonfly Telephoto Array. The object is kinematically decoupled from the disk of M82 as confirmed via Keck/LRIS spectroscopy and is spatially and kinematically coincident with an overdensity of Hiand molecular hydrogen within the “northern Histreamer” induced by the passage of M81 several hundred Myr ago. From Hidata, we estimate that ∼5 × 107Mof gas is present in the specific overdensity coincident with the Hαsource. The object’s derived metallicity (12+log(O/H)8.6), position within a gas-rich tidal feature, and morphology (600 pc diameter with multiple star-forming clumps), indicate that it is likely a tidal dwarf galaxy in the earliest stages of formation.

     
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  5. Abstract

    We present DELIGHT, or Deep Learning Identification of Galaxy Hosts of Transients, a new algorithm designed to automatically and in real time identify the host galaxies of extragalactic transients. The proposed algorithm receives as input compact, multiresolution images centered at the position of a transient candidate and outputs two-dimensional offset vectors that connect the transient with the center of its predicted host. The multiresolution input consists of a set of images with the same number of pixels, but with progressively larger pixel sizes and fields of view. A sample of 16,791 galaxies visually identified by the Automatic Learning for the Rapid Classification of Events broker team was used to train a convolutional neural network regression model. We show that this method is able to correctly identify both relatively large (10″ <r< 60″) and small (r≤ 10″) apparent size host galaxies using much less information (32 kB) than with a large, single-resolution image (920 kB). The proposed method has fewer catastrophic errors in recovering the position and is more complete and has less contamination (<0.86%) recovering the crossmatched redshift than other state-of-the-art methods. The more efficient representation provided by multiresolution input images could allow for the identification of transient host galaxies in real time, if adopted in alert streams from new generation of large -etendue telescopes such as the Vera C. Rubin Observatory.

     
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  6. Abstract

    We present a beam pattern measurement of the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) made using the Sun as a calibration source. As CHIME is a pure drift-scan instrument, we rely on the seasonal north–south motion of the Sun to probe the beam at different elevations. This semiannual range in elevation, combined with the radio brightness of the Sun, enables a beam measurement that spans ∼7200 square degrees on the sky without the need to move the telescope. We take advantage of observations made near solar minimum to minimize the impact of solar variability, which is observed to be <10% in intensity over the observation period. The resulting data set is highly complementary to other CHIME beam measurements—both in terms of angular coverage and systematics—and plays an important role in the ongoing program to characterize the CHIME primary beam.

     
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  7. Abstract

    The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) is a drift scan radio telescope operating across the 400–800 MHz band. CHIME is located at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory near Penticton, BC, Canada. The instrument is designed to map neutral hydrogen over the redshift range 0.8–2.5 to constrain the expansion history of the universe. This goal drives the design features of the instrument. CHIME consists of four parallel cylindrical reflectors, oriented north–south, each 100 m × 20 m and outfitted with a 256-element dual-polarization linear feed array. CHIME observes a two-degree-wide stripe covering the entire meridian at any given moment, observing three-quarters of the sky every day owing to Earth’s rotation. An FX correlator utilizes field-programmable gate arrays and graphics processing units to digitize and correlate the signals, with different correlation products generated for cosmological, fast radio burst, pulsar, very long baseline interferometry, and 21 cm absorber back ends. For the cosmology back end, theNfeed2correlation matrix is formed for 1024 frequency channels across the band every 31 ms. A data receiver system applies calibration and flagging and, for our primary cosmological data product, stacks redundant baselines and integrates for 10 s. We present an overview of the instrument, its performance metrics based on the first 3 yr of science data, and we describe the current progress in characterizing CHIME’s primary beam response. We also present maps of the sky derived from CHIME data; we are using versions of these maps for a cosmological stacking analysis, as well as for investigation of Galactic foregrounds.

     
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