First author: Ji-Hoon Ha
Cosmology models predict that external accretion shocks form in the outer region of galaxy clusters due to supersonic gas infall from filaments and voids in the cosmic web. They are characterized by high sonic and Alfv'enic Mach numbers, $M_s\sim10-10^2$ and $M_A\sim10^2-10^3$, and propagate into weakly magnetized plasmas of $\beta\equiv P_g/P_B\gtrsim10^2$. Although strong accretion shocks are expected to be efficient accelerators of cosmic rays (CRs), nonthermal signatures of shock-accelerated CRs around clusters have not been confirmed, and detailed acceleration physics at such shocks has yet to be understood.
First author: Yujie Lian
Observations of galaxy-scale strong gravitational lensing (SGL) systems have enabled unique tests of nonlinear departures from general relativity (GR) on the galactic and supergalactic scales. One of the most important cases of such tests is constraints on the gravitational slip between two scalar gravitational potentials. In this paper, we use a newly compiled sample of strong gravitational lenses to test the validity of GR, focusing on the screening effects on the apparent positions of lensed sources relative to the GR predictions.
First author: Isaac Noel
The low-redshift mass-metallicity relation (MZR) is well studied, but the high-redshift MZR remains difficult to observe. To study the early MZR further, we analyze the Cosmic Reionization on Computers (CROC) simulations with a focus on the MZR from redshifts 5 to 10. We find that, across all redshifts, CROC galaxies exhibit similar stellar-phase and gas-phase MZRs that flatten with higher stellar mass. We attribute this flattening to the inaccurate star formation and feedback modeling in CROC (star formation is overly suppressed in massive CROC galaxies).
First author: Debanjan Sarkar
The fluctuations in the dark matter-baryon relative velocity field are imprinted as acoustic oscillations in the 21-cm power spectrum during cosmic dawn (CD). These velocity acoustic oscillations (VAOs) keep the imprints of the comoving sound horizon scale. In a previous work by Mu~noz, it has been demonstrated that these VAOs can be treated as standard rulers to measure the cosmic expansion rate at high redshifts by considering a variety of Lyman-Werner feedback strengths and foreground contamination scenarios.
First author: Adam F. Kowalski
White-light stellar flares are now reported by the thousands in long-baseline, high precision, broad-band photometry from missions like Kepler, K2, and TESS. These observations are crucial inputs for assessments of biosignatures in exoplanetary atmospheres and surface ultraviolet radiation dosages for habitable zone planets around low-mass stars. A limitation of these assessments, however, is the lack of near-ultraviolet spectral observations of stellar flares. To motivate further empirical investigation, we use a grid of radiative-hydrodynamic simulations with an updated treatment of the pressure broadening of hydrogen lines to predict the $\lambda \approx 1800-3300$ \AA
First author: Vladimir Zhdankin
We demonstrate using linear theory and particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations that a synchrotron-cooling collisionless plasma acquires pressure anisotropy and, if the plasma beta is sufficiently high, becomes unstable to the firehose instability, in a process that we dub the synchrotron firehose instability (SFHI). The SFHI channels free energy from the pressure anisotropy of the radiating, relativistic electrons (and/or positrons) into small-amplitude, kinetic-scale magnetic-field fluctuations, which pitch-angle scatter the particles and bring the plasma to a near-thermal state of marginal instability.
First author: Di Wen
We examine the flux density ratio anomaly in the quadruply-imaged strong gravitational lens, B1422+231, and consider the contribution of $10-10^3M_{\odot}$ primordial black holes (PBHs) as a potential dark matter constituent. We describe the first flux density ratio measurement of B1422+231 in the millimeter-wave band using the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA). This fills an important multi-wavelength gap in our knowledge of this key lensed system. The flux density of the quasar at 233 GHz is dominated by synchrotron emission and the source size is estimated to be 66.
First author: Anthony J. Pahl
The connection between the escape fraction of ionizing radiation ($f_{esc}$) and the properties of galaxies, such as stellar mass (M*), age, star-formation rate (SFR), and dust content, are key inputs for reionization models, but many of these relationships remain untested at high redshift. We present an analysis of a sample of 96 z~3 galaxies from the Keck Lyman Continuum Spectroscopic Survey (KLCS). These galaxies have both sensitive Keck/LRIS spectroscopic measurements of the Lyman continuum (LyC) region, and multi-band photometry that places constraints on stellar population parameters.
First author: Philippe Z. Yao
We report the detection of a long-timescale negative lag, where the blue bands lag the red bands, in the nearby Seyfert 1 galaxy Fairall 9. Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) light curves show variability over a wide range of timescales. By measuring time lags between different wavelengths, the otherwise inaccessible structure and kinematics of the accretion disk can be studied. One common approach, reverberation mapping, quantifies the continuum and line lags moving outwards through the disk at the light-travel time, revealing the size and temperature profile of the disk.
Pascale Berner
The analysis of cosmological galaxy surveys requires realistic simulations for their interpretation. Forward modelling is a powerful method to simulate galaxy clustering without the need for an underlying complex model. This approach requires fast cosmological simulations with a high resolution and large volume, to resolve small dark matter halos associated to single galaxies. In this work, we present fast halo and subhalo clustering simulations based on the Lagrangian perturbation theory code PINOCCHIO, which generates halos and merger trees.
