Search

The first source catalog of the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) reported the detection of a very high energy gamma-ray source, 1LHAASO J1219+2915. This Letter presents a further detailed study of the spectral and temporal behavior of this pointlike source. The best-fit position of the TeV source (R.A. = 185.°05 ± 0.°04, decl. = 29.°25 ± 0.°03) is compatible with NGC 4278 within ∼0.°03. Variation analysis shows an indication of variability on a timescale of a few months in the TeV band, which is consistent with low-frequency observations. Based on these observations, we report the detection of TeV γ -ray emissions from this low-luminosity active galactic nucleus. The observation by LHAASO's Water Cherenkov Detector Array during the active period has a significance level of 8.8 σ with a best-fit photon spectral index Γ = 2.56 ± 0.14 and a flux f _1–10 TeV = (7.0 ± 1.1 _sta ± 0.35 _syst ) × 10 ^−13 photons cm ^−2 s ^−1 , or approximately 5% of the Crab Nebula. The discovery of VHE gamma-ray emission from NGC 4278 indicates that compact, weak radio jets can efficiently accelerate particles and emit TeV photons.

We present the properties of two candidate massive ( M _⋆ ∼ 10 ^11 M _⊙ ) and dusty ( A _v > 2.5 mag) galaxies at z = 5–7 in the first 0.28 deg ^2 of the COSMOS-Web survey. One object is spectroscopically confirmed at z _spec = 5.051, while the other has a robust z _phot = 6.7 ± 0.3. Thanks to their extremely red colors (F277W–F444W ∼ 1.7 mag), these galaxies satisfy the nominal color selection for the widely studied “little red dot” (LRD) population with the exception of their spatially resolved morphologies. The morphology of our targets allows us to conclude that their red continuum is dominated by highly obscured stellar emission and not by reddened nuclear activity. Using a variety of spectral energy distribution fitting tools and star formation histories, we estimate the stellar masses to be $\mathrm{log}({M}_{\star })={11.32}_{-0.15}^{+0.07}\,{M}_{\odot }$ and $\mathrm{log}({M}_{\star })={11.2}_{-0.2}^{+0.1}\,{M}_{\odot }$ , respectively, with a red continuum emission dominated by a recent episode of star formation. We then compare their number density to the halo mass function to infer stellar baryon fractions of ϵ _⋆ ∼ 0.25 and ϵ _⋆ ∼ 0.5. Both are significantly higher than what is commonly observed in lower- z galaxies or more dust-obscured galaxies at similar redshifts. With very bright ultra-high- z Lyman-Break Galaxies and some non-AGN-dominated LRDs, such “extended” LRDs represent another population that may require very efficient star formation at early times.

The systematic properties are largely unknown for the black hole X-ray binary Swift J151857.0–572147 newly discovered in the 2024 outburst. The nature of a black hole can be completely defined by specifying the mass and dimensionless spin parameter. Therefore, accurate measurement of the two fundamental parameters is important for understanding the nature of black holes. The joint spectral fitting of a reflection component with simultaneous observations from Insight-HXMT, NICER, and NuSTAR reveals for the first time a black hole dimensionless spin of ${0.84}_{-0.26}^{+0.17}$ and an inclination angle of ${21.1}_{-3.6}^{+4.5}$ degrees for this system. Monitoring of the soft state by NICER results in disk flux and temperature following ${F}_{\mathrm{disk}}\propto {T}_{\mathrm{in}}^{3.83\pm 0.17}$ . For the standard thin disk, ${L}_{\mathrm{disk}}\approx 4\pi {R}_{\mathrm{in}}^{2}\sigma {T}_{\mathrm{in}}^{4}$ , so the relationship between the flux and temperature of the disk we measured indicates that the inner radius of the disk is stable and the disk is in the innermost stable circular orbit. With an empirical relation built previously between the black hole outburst profile and the intrinsic power output, the source distance is estimated as 5.8 ± 2.5 kpc according to the outburst profile and peak flux observed by Insight-HXMT and NICER. Finally, a black hole mass of 3.67 ± 1.79–8.07 ± 4.20 M _⊙ can be inferred from a joint diagnostic of the aforementioned parameters measured for this system. This system is also consistent with most black hole X-ray binaries with high spin and a mass in the range of 5–20 M _⊙ .

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are believed to launch relativistic jets, which generate prompt emission by internal processes, and produce long-lasting afterglows by driving external shocks into the surrounding medium. However, how the jet powers the external shock is poorly known. The unprecedented observations of the keV–MeV emission with Gravitational wave high-energy Electromagnetic Counterpart All-sky Monitor and the TeV emission with LHAASO of the brightest-of-all-time GRB 221009A offer a great opportunity to study the prompt-to-afterglow transition and the impact of jet on the early dynamics of external shock. In this Letter, we find that the cumulative light curve of keV–MeV emission could well fit the rising stage of the TeV light curve of GRB 221009A, with a time delay, ${4.45}_{-0.26}^{+0.26}$ s, of TeV emission. Moreover, both the rapid increase in the initial stage and the excess from about T _ref + 260 s to 270 s in the TeV light curve are tracking the light-curve bumps in the prompt keV–MeV emission. The close relation between the keV–MeV and TeV emission reveals the continuous energy injection into the external shock. Assuming an energy injection rate exactly following the keV–MeV flux of GRB 221009A, including the very early precursor, we build a continuous energy injection model where the jet Lorentz factor is derived from the TeV time delay, and the TeV data are well fitted, with the TeV excesses interpreted by inverse-Compton scatterings of the inner-coming prompt emission by the energetic electrons in external shock.

Lunar igneous activities, including intrusive magmatism and extrusive volcanism, and their products contain significant information about the lunar interior and its thermal state. Their distribution is asymmetrical on the nearside and farside, reflecting the global dichotomy. Samples from the South Pole–Aitken (SPA) basin on the farside hold the key to disclosing the dichotomy conundrum and rebalancing the asymmetrical understandings of the Moon, in addition to previously returned nearside samples (Apollo, Luna, Chang’e-5). For the first time, the Chang’e-6 mission obtained ∼1935.5 g of lunar soils from the farside in the southern Apollo basin, northeast of SPA, opening a window to solve this long-standing question. However, compared with the well-known mare/cryptomare volcanism in SPA, intrusive activity has a much more obscure presence and origin, due to its unclear surface expression, thus impeding the ongoing Chang’e-6 sample analysis, which is therefore emphasized here. We found evidence that intrusive magmatism is extensive across SPA, including Mg-suite intrusions, floor-modified craters, and linear/ring dikes, consistent with its intermediate crustal thickness, where dike intrusion is favored. Intrusive magmatism is abundant in the Apollo basin, where Chang’e-6 landed. Two obscure craters were discovered (Apollo X and Q) with evidence for subsurface intrusions, strongly suggesting the intensive intrusion in the region. Plutonic materials are very likely to be obtained by Chang’e-6, especially the Mg-suite from the western peak ring of the Apollo basin that delivered and mixed in the soils by the Chaffee S crater, whose components might provide critical new insights into their petrogenesis, early lunar evolution, and the origin of dichotomy.

Magnetic reconnection and current disruption are two key processes in driving energy conversion and dissipation in planetary magnetospheres. At the Earth, the two processes usually occur at different locations: the current disruption process occurs more frequently in the near-Earth magnetotail ∼10 R _E , while the magnetotail reconnection process is expected to take place in the more distant region where the current sheet is thinner. Occasionally, under very intense solar wind perturbations, reconnection could be located closer to the Earth where current disruption processes usually operate. But it is unclear what the situation is at giant planets, in which the plasma environment is very different from the Earth. In this study, we investigate a middle-Jupiter reconnection event at ∼43 R _J . During the event, the inferred integrated cross-field currents were substantially reduced, which we argue is a signature of current disruption. In this case, we suggest that magnetic reconnection could be colocated with a current disruption process in the Jovian magnetosphere, which is roughly analogous to the situation in the extremely perturbed Earth’s magnetosphere.

We report accretion-powered pulsations for the first time during thermonuclear bursts in hard X-rays, which were observed with Insight-HXMT in 2022 during the outburst of the accreting X-ray millisecond pulsar MAXI J1816-195. By stacking 73 bursts, we detected pulse profiles in 8–30 and 30–100 keV during bursts, which are identical to those obtained from the persistent (nonburst) emission. On average, no significant phase lag was observed between burst and persistent pulse profiles. In addition, we suggest that the interaction with burst photons can be used as a direct diagnostic to distinguish contributions from the hot plasma near polar caps and the corona around the accretion disk, which are highly degenerate in their spectral shapes.

We study the spectral and temporal properties of the black hole (BH) X-ray transient binary SLX 1746–331 during the 2023 outburst with NICER, NuSTAR, and Insight-HXMT observations. Through the joint fitting of the spectra from NICER, NuSTAR, and Insight-HXMT, the spin and inclination angles are measured for the first time as 0.85 ± 0.03 and 53° ± 0.°5, respectively. Accordingly, the mass of the compact star is updated from the previous lower limit of 3.3 ± 2.1 M _⊙ to 5.5 ± 3.6 M _⊙ , which is consistent with 5.2 ± 4.5 M _⊙ measured with an empirical mass–luminosity correlation of BH samples. With more NICER observations covering the later decay of the outburst, we confirm that the entire outburst was dominated by the disk emissions, and the thermal spectrum follows $F\propto {T}_{\mathrm{in}}^{3.974\pm 0.003}$ , until a luminosity of over 2 magnitudes lower than the maximum of the outburst.

High-cadence, multiwavelength observations have continuously revealed the diversity of tidal disruption events (TDEs), thus greatly advancing our knowledge and understanding of TDEs. In this work, we conducted an intensive optical-UV and X-ray follow-up campaign of TDE AT 2023lli and found a remarkable month-long bump in its UV/optical light curve nearly 2 months prior to maximum brightness. The bump represents the longest separation time from the main peak among known TDEs to date. The main UV/optical outburst declines as t ^−4.10 , making it one of the fastest-decaying optically selected TDEs. Furthermore, we detected sporadic X-ray emission 30 days after the UV/optical peak, accompanied by a reduction in the period of inactivity. It is proposed that the UV/optical bump could be caused by the self-intersection of the stream debris, whereas the primary peak is generated by the reprocessed emission of the accretion process. In addition, our results suggest that episodic X-ray radiation during the initial phase of decline may be due to the patched obscurer surrounding the accretion disk, a phenomenon associated with the inhomogeneous reprocessing process. The double TDE scenario, in which two stars are disrupted in sequence, is also a possible explanation for producing the observed early bump and main peak. We anticipate that the multicolor light curves of TDEs, especially in the very early stages, and the underlying physics can be better understood in the near future with the assistance of dedicated surveys such as the deep high-cadence survey of the 2.5 m Wide Field Survey Telescope.

Very recently, a particularly long gamma-ray burst (GRB) 230307A was reported and proposed to originate from a compact binary merger based on its host galaxy property, kilonova, and heavy elements. More intriguingly, a very early plateau followed by a rapid decline in the soft X-ray band was detected in its light curve by the Lobster Eye Imager for Astronomy, indicating strong evidence of the existence of a magnetar as the merger product. This Letter explores the magnetar wind internal gradual magnetic dissipation model, in which the radiative efficiency evolves over time, and successfully fits it to the observed data. Our results reinforce the notion that the X-ray plateau serves as a powerful indicator of a magnetar and imply that an evolving efficiency is likely to be a common feature in X-ray plateaus of GRB afterglows. In addition, we also discuss the explanations for the prompt emission, GRB afterglows, as well as kilonova, and predict possible kilonova afterglows in a magnetar central engine.

AT2018cow is the most extensively observed and widely studied fast blue optical transient to date; its unique observational properties challenge all existing standard models. In this paper, we model the luminosity evolution of the optical, soft X-ray, and hard X-ray emission, as well as the X-ray spectrum of AT2018cow with a magnetar-centered engine model. We consider a two-zone model with a striped magnetar wind in the interior and an expanding ejecta outside. The soft and hard X-ray emission of AT2018cow can be explained by the leakage of high-energy photons produced by internal gradual magnetic dissipation in the striped magnetar wind, while the luminous thermal UV/optical emission results from the thermalization of the ejecta by the captured photons. The two-component energy spectrum yielded by our model with a quasi-thermal component from the optically thick region of the wind superimposed on an optically thin synchrotron component well reproduces the X-ray spectral shape of AT2018cow. The Markov Chain Monte Carlo fitting results suggest that in order to explain the very short rise time to peak of the thermal optical emission, a low ejecta mass M _ej ≈ 0.1 M _⊙ and high ejecta velocity ${v}_{\mathrm{SN}}\approx 0.17c$ are required. A millisecond magnetar with P _0 ≈ 3.7 ms and B _p ≈ 2.4 × 10 ^14 G is needed to serve as the central engine of AT2018cow.

We present the first polarimetric analysis of quasiperiodic oscillations (QPOs) in a black hole binary utilizing IXPE data. Our study focuses on Swift J1727.8–1613, which experienced a massive outburst that was observed by various telescopes across different wavelengths. The IXPE observation we studied was conducted during the hard-intermediate state. The polarization degree (PD) and polarization angle (PA) were measured at 4.28% ± 0.20% and 1.°9 ± 1.°4, respectively. Remarkably, significant QPO signals were detected during this observation, with a QPO frequency of approximately 1.34 Hz and a fractional rms amplitude of about 12.3%. Furthermore, we conducted a phase-resolved analysis of the QPO using the Hilbert–Huang transform technique. The photon index showed a strong modulation with respect to the QPO phase. In contrast, the PD and PA exhibit no modulations in relation to the QPO phase, which is inconsistent with the expectation of the Lense–Thirring precession of the inner flow. Further theoretical studies are needed to conform with the observational results.

Swift J1727.8–1613 is a black hole X-ray binary newly discovered in 2023. We perform spectral analysis with simultaneous Insight-HXMT, NICER, and NuSTAR observations when the source was approaching the hard intermediate state. Such a joint view reveals an additional hard component apart from the normally observed hard component with reflection in the spectrum, to be distinguished from the usual black hole X-ray binary systems. By including this extra component in the spectrum, we have measured a high spin of ${0.98}_{-0.07}^{+0.02}$ and an inclination of around ${40}_{-0.8}^{+1.2}$ °, which is consistent with NICER results reported before. However, we find that the additional spectral component cannot be exclusively determined due to the model degeneracy. Accordingly, a possible jet/corona configuration is adjusted to account for the spectral fitting with different model trials. The extra component may originate either from a relativistic jet or a jet base/corona underneath a slow jet.

Cavity optomechanical systems have received widespread attentions because they provide a novel platform for metrology, sensing, hybrid systems and quantum information processing. Their nonlinear dynamics has rich physics and plays an important role in the application scenarios. Previous works devoted to this subject have usually focused on the self-induced oscillation and chaos, whereas other parts of the rich nonlinear-dynamics picture are almost uncharted waters. In this study, we fill this gap and report the first experimental observation of limit-torus attractor, whose dynamics exhibits a torus-like trajectory in phase space. Moreover, we investigate the sharp decrease of oscillating amplitude along the up scanning transmission spectrum, referred to as catastrophe point, for the first time. The location of catastrophe point is independent of the pump power and the coupling distance. Our findings enrich the nonlinear dynamics in optomechanical systems, and open up new ways towards exploiting these systems as versatile building blocks in various applications including communication, quantum information processing, sensing and metrology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cavity optomechanical systems have received widespread attentions because they provide a novel platform for metrology, sensing, hybrid systems and quantum information processing. Their nonlinear dynamics has rich physics and plays an important role in the application scenarios. Previous works devoted to this subject have usually focused on the self-induced oscillation and chaos, whereas other parts of the rich nonlinear-dynamics picture are almost uncharted waters. In this study, we fill this gap and report the first experimental observation of limit-torus attractor, whose dynamics exhibits a torus-like trajectory in phase space. Moreover, we investigate the sharp decrease of oscillating amplitude along the up scanning transmission spectrum, referred to as catastrophe point, for the first time. The location of catastrophe point is independent of the pump power and the coupling distance. Our findings enrich the nonlinear dynamics in optomechanical systems, and open up new ways towards exploiting these systems as versatile building blocks in various applications including communication, quantum information processing, sensing and metrology.

The J-TEXT capability is enhanced compared to two years ago with several upgrades of its diagnostics and the increase of electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) power to 1 MW. With the application of electron cyclotron wave (ECW), the ECW assisted plasma startup is achieved; the tearing mode is suppressed; the toroidal injection of 300 kW ECW drives around 24 kA current; fast electrons are generated with toroidal injected ECW and the runaway current conversion efficiency increases with ECRH power. The mode coupling between 2/1 and 3/1 modes are extensively studied. The coupled 2/1 and 3/1 modes usually lead to major disruption. Their coupling can be either suppressed or avoided by external resonant magnetic perturbation fields and hence avoids the major disruption. It is also found that the 2/1 threshold of external field is significantly reduced by a pre-excited 3/1 mode, which can be either a locked island or an external kink mode. The disruption control is studied by developing prediction methods capable of cross tokamak application and by new mitigation methods, such as the biased electrode or electromagnetic pellet injector. The high-density operation and related disruptions are studied from various aspects. Approaching the density limit, the collapse of the edge shear layer is observed and such collapse can be prevented by applying edge biasing, leading to an increased density limit. The density limit is also observed to increase, if the plasma is operated in the poloidal divertor configuration or the plasma purity is increased by increasing the pre-filled gas pressure or ECRH power during the start-up phase.

In order to explore how the ubiquitous stochastic low-frequency (SLF) variability of O-type stars is related to various stellar characteristics, we compiled a sample of 150 O-type stars observed via ground-based spectroscopic surveys, alongside photometric data obtained from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). We analyzed 298 light curves obtained from TESS Sectors 1–65 for the stars in our sample. Leveraging the spectroscopic parameters, we used Bonnsai to determine masses, radii, fractional main-sequence ages, and mass-loss rates for stars of our sample. Subsequently, we identified possible correlations between the fitted parameters of SLF variability and stellar properties. Our analysis unveiled four significant correlations between the amplitude and stellar parameters, including mass, radius, fractional main-sequence ages, and mass-loss rate. For stars with ≳30 M _⊙ , we observed a decrease in characteristic frequency and steepness with increasing radius. Finally, we compared various physical processes that may account for the SLF variability with our results. The observed SLF variability may arise from the combined effects of the iron convection zone (FeCZ) and internal gravity waves (IGWs), with IGWs potentially more dominant in the early stages of stellar evolution, and the contribution of FeCZ becoming more significant as stars evolve. Meanwhile, our results indicate that the SLF variability of O-type stars bears certain signatures of the line-driven wind instability and granulation.

The edge coherent mode (ECM) is considered a highly attractive pedestal mode because it extends the duration of edge-localized modes and increases particle and impurity transport without significantly affecting energy transport. Moreover, it operates compatibly with high-performance plasma discharges. The ECM can also be detected using Langmuir probes on the divertor target plate, indicating that it extends from the pedestal region into the SOL and resulting in a connection to the divertor target plate via magnetic field lines. In this work, the distribution of ECM on divertor target plates is investigated by analyzing 215 upper single null discharges on the EAST tokamak. The coherence analysis of plasma fluctuations between the electron cyclotron emission signal in the pedestal region of the outer midplane and the ion saturation current measured by Langmuir probes in the divertor region reveals that the ECM is hardly detected by the divertor probe close to the outer strike point but can be observed at far SOL. This finding indicates the presence of an ECM quiescent region near the SOL on the divertor plate, and the extent of the quiescent region in the poloidal flux coordinate (Δ) has been statistically analyzed. A pronounced relationship between Δ and triangularity ( δ ) has been observed, that is Δ increasing with δ . Further analysis reveals that this relationship can be attributed to the average magnetic shear in the SOL. This result is consistent with the physical picture, which states that strong magnetic shear close to X -point significantly squeezes the cross-section of flux tubes down to scales dominated by collisions.

We present the Sloan Digital Sky Survey V Local Volume Mapper (LVM). The LVM is an integral-field spectroscopic survey of the Milky Way, Magellanic Clouds, and a sample of local volume galaxies, connecting resolved parsec-scale individual sources of feedback to kiloparsec-scale ionized interstellar medium (ISM) properties. The 4 yr survey covers the southern Milky Way disk at spatial resolutions of 0.05–1 pc, the Magellanic Clouds at 10 pc resolution, and nearby large galaxies at larger scales totaling >4300 deg ^2 of sky and more than 55M spectra. It utilizes a new facility of alt–alt mounted siderostats feeding 16 cm refractive telescopes, lenslet-coupled fiber optics, and spectrographs covering 3600–9800 Å at R ∼ 4000. The ultra-wide-field integral-field unit has a diameter of 0.°5 with 1801 hexagonally packed fibers of 35.″3 apertures. The siderostats allow for a completely stationary fiber system, avoiding instability of the line-spread function seen in traditional fiber feeds. Scientifically, LVM resolves the regions where energy, momentum, and chemical elements are injected into the ISM at the scale of gas clouds, while simultaneously charting where energy is being dissipated (via cooling, shocks, turbulence, bulk flows, etc.) to global scales. This combined local and global view enables us to constrain physical processes regulating how stellar feedback operates and couples to galactic kinematics and disk-scale structures, such as the bar and spiral arms, as well as gas in- and outflows.

We present a comprehensive study based on multiwavelength observations from the NuSTAR, NICER, Swift, Fermi, NEOWISE, and ATCA telescopes during the 2022 outburst of the black-hole X-ray binary IGR J17091–3624. Our investigation concentrates on the heartbeat-like variability in the X-ray emission, with the aim of using it as a tool to unravel the origin of the nonthermal emission during the heartbeat state. Through X-ray timing and spectral analysis, we observe that the heartbeat-like variability correlates with changes in the disk temperature, supporting the disk radiation pressure instability scenario. Moreover, in addition to a Comptonization component, our time-averaged and phase-resolved spectroscopy reveal the presence of a power-law component that varies independently from the disk component. Combined with the radio–X-ray spectral energy distribution fitting, our results suggest that the power-law component could originate from synchrotron self-Compton radiation in the jet, which requires a strong magnetic field of about B = (0.3–3.5) × 10 ^6 G. Additionally, assuming that IGR J17091-3624 and GRS 1915 + 105 share the same radio–X-ray correlation coefficient during both the hard and the heartbeat states, we obtain a distance of 13.7 ± 2.3 kpc for IGR J17091–3624.

Operation in the quiescent regime with abundant trapped energetic electrons (EEs) has been achieved during the current flattop in EAST low-density Ohmic plasmas. This was facilitated by increasing the electron density to a specified level and subsequently reducing it slowly, resulting in the accumulation of a sufficient number of trapped EEs within the energy range of 150–250 keV. During the phase of decreasing electron density, toroidal Alfvén eigenmodes (TAEs) were observed to be excited by these EEs, with frequencies falling within the range of about 100–300 kHz. The experimental parameters were carefully set to satisfy the resonance conditions for TAE excitation by EEs, aligning well with predictions from ideal MHD theory. Statistical analysis indicated different density dependencies between the frequencies of TAEs and the Alfvén frequencies, due to their different radial excitation positions. The radial positions of the TAEs were found to be influenced by the energy distribution and the evolution of trapped EEs, which in turn were affected by the decay rate of electron density and loop voltage. Measurements of Hard x-rays confirmed an energy distribution characterized by a ‘bump-on-tail’ shape, with the TAEs observed near the energy bump. Theoretical considerations also demonstrate the possibility that the e-TAE can be driven unstable under this experiment condition even if the mode does not rotate in the electron-diamagnetic drift direction.