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We present paper II comprising a 35 arcmin$^2$ JWST/NIRCam imaging and wide-field slitless spectroscopy mosaic centered on J0305$-$3150, a luminous quasar at $z=6.61$. The F356W grism data reveals 124 [OIII]+H$\beta$ emitters at $5.3

ASPIRE (A SPectroscopic survey of bIased halos in the Reionization Era) is a quasar legacy survey primarily using JWST to target a sample of 25 $z>6$ quasars with NIRCam slitless spectroscopy and imaging. The first study in this series found evidence of a strong overdensity of galaxies around J0305-3150, a luminous quasar at $z=6.61$, within a single NIRCam pointing obtained in JWST Cycle 1. Here, we present the first results of a JWST Cycle 2 mosaic that covers 35 arcmin$^2$ with NIRCam imaging/WFSS of the same field to investigate the spatial extent of the putative protocluster. The F356W grism data targets [OIII]+H$\beta$ at $5.310$ cMpc., Comment: submitted to ApJ june 2024. 18 pages, 7 figures. companion paper II by Champagne+24b is also available on arXiv today

James Webb Space Telescope opens a new window to directly probe luminous quasars powered by billion solar mass black holes in the epoch of reionization and their co-evolution with massive galaxies with unprecedented details. In this paper, we report the first results from the deep NIRSpec integral field spectroscopy study of a quasar at $z = 7.5$. We obtain a bolometric luminosity of $\sim$$1.8\times10^{47}$ erg s$^{-1}$ and a black hole mass of $\sim$0.7--2.5$\times10^{9}$ M$_{\odot}$ based on H$\beta$ emission line from the quasar spectrum. We discover $\sim$2 kpc scale, highly blueshifted ($\sim$$-$870 km/s) and broad ($\sim$1400 km/s) [O III] line emission after the quasar PSF has been subtracted. Such line emission most likely originates from a fast, quasar-driven outflow, the earliest one on galactic-scale known so far. The dynamical properties of this outflow fall within the typical ranges of quasar-driven outflows at lower redshift, and the outflow may be fast enough to reach the circumgalactic medium. Combining both the extended and nuclear outflow together, the mass outflow rate, $\sim$300 M$_{\odot}$yr, is $\sim$60%--380% of the star formation rate of the quasar host galaxy, suggesting that the outflow may expel a significant amount of gas from the inner region of the galaxy. The kinetic energy outflow rate, $\sim$3.6$\times10^{44}$ erg s$^{-1}$, is $\sim$0.2% of the quasar bolometric luminosity, which is comparable to the minimum value required for negative feedback based on simulation predictions. The dynamical timescale of the extended outflow is $\sim$1.7 Myr, consistent with the typical quasar lifetime in this era.

Understanding the rapid formation of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in the early universe requires an understanding of how stellar mass grows in the host galaxies. Here, we perform an analysis of rest-frame optical spectra and imaging from JWST of two quasar host galaxies at z>6 which exhibit Balmer absorption lines. These features in the stellar continuum indicate a lack of young stars, similar to low-redshift post-starburst galaxies whose star formation was recently quenched. We find that the stellar mass (log(M_* / M_sun) > 10.6) of each quasar host grew in a starburst episode at redshift 7 or 8. One of the targets exhibits little ongoing star formation, as evidenced by the photometric signature of the Balmer break and a lack of spatially resolved H-alpha emission, placing it well below the star formation main sequence at z = 6. The other galaxy is transitioning to a quiescent phase; together, the two galaxies represent the most distant massive post-starburst galaxies known. The maturity of these two galaxies is further supported by the stellar velocity dispersions of their host galaxies, placing them slightly above the upper end of the local M_BH - sigma_* relation. The properties of our two post-starburst galaxies, each hosting an active SMBH with log(M_BH / M_sun) > 9, suggests that black holes played a major role in shaping the formation of the first massive galaxies in the Universe., Comment: 24 pages, 7 figures, submitted to a Nature journal

The James Webb Space telescope has discovered an abundant population of broad line emitters, typical signposts for Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). Many of these sources have red colors and a compact appearance that has led to naming them `Little Red Dots'. In this paper we develop a detailed framework to estimate the photometry of AGN embedded in galaxies extracted from the Obelisk cosmological simulation to understand the properties of color-selected Little Red Dots (cLRDs) in the context of the full AGN and massive black hole population. We find that using realistic spectral energy distributions (SEDs) and attenuation for AGN we can explain the shape of the cLRD SED as long as galaxies host a sufficiently luminous AGN that is not too much or too little attenuated. When attenuation is too low or too high, AGN do not enter the cLRD selection, because the AGN dominates over the host galaxy too much in blue filters, or it does not contribute to photometry anywhere, respectively. cLRDs are also characterized by high Eddington ratios, possibility super-Eddington, and/or high ratios between black hole and stellar mass., Comment: Submitted to A&A

The AGORA Cosmorun (arXiv:2106.09738) is a set of hydrodynamical cosmological zoom-in simulations carried out within the AGORA High-resolution Galaxy Simulations Comparison Project (arXiv:1308.2669,arXiv:1610.03066). These simulations show the formation and evolution of a Milky Way-sized galaxy using eight of the most widely used numerical codes in the community (Art-I, Enzo, Ramses, Changa, Gadget-3, Gear, Gizmo, and Arepo). In this short report, we describe the public release of the raw output data from all of these simulations at z = 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 (plus at z=1, 0 when available), and several metadata files containing the halo centers, virial quantities, and merger trees. The data from even thinner timesteps will be released as soon as the upcoming collaboration papers (VII-IX) are submitted and accepted., Comment: ArXiv Data Release from the AGORA Collaboration. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2001.04354

Low-luminosity AGNs with low-mass black holes (BHs) in the early universe are fundamental to understanding the BH growth and their co-evolution with the host galaxies. Utilizing JWST NIRCam Wide Field Slitless Spectroscopy (WFSS), we perform a systematic search for broad-line ${\rm H\alpha}$ emitters (BHAEs) at $z\approx 4-5$ in 25 fields of the ASPIRE (A SPectroscopic survey of biased halos In the Reionization Era) project, covering a total area of 275 arcmin$^2$. We identify 16 BHAEs with FWHM of the broad components spanning from $\sim$ 1000 km s$^{-1}$ to 3000 km s$^{-1}$. Assuming the broad linewidths arise due to Doppler broadening around BHs, the implied BH masses range from $10^7$ to $10^{8}~M_\odot$, with broad ${\rm H\alpha}$-converted bolometric luminosity of $10^{44.5}-10^{45.5}$ erg s$^{-1}$ and Eddington ratios of $0.07-0.47$. The spatially extended structure of the F200W stacked image may trace the stellar light from the host galaxies. The ${\rm H\alpha}$ luminosity function indicates an increasing AGN fraction towards the higher ${\rm H\alpha}$ luminosities. We find possible evidence for clustering of BHAEs: two sources are at the same redshift with a projected separation of 519 kpc; one BHAE appears as a composite system residing in an overdense region with three close companion ${\rm H\alpha}$ emitters. Three BHAEs exhibit blueshifted absorption troughs indicative of the presence of high-column-density gas. We find the broad-line and photometrically selected BHAE samples exhibit different distributions in the optical continuum slopes, which can be attributed to their different selection methods. The ASPIRE broad-line ${\rm H\alpha}$ sample provides a good database for future studies of faint AGN populations at high redshift., Comment: 19 pages, 13 figures, 4 tables. Accepted by the ApJ

Oxygen deficient titanium dioxide (TiO$_{2-x}$) is a very attractive material for several applications ranging from photocatalysis to resistive switching. Oxygen vacancies turn insulating anatase titanium dioxide into a polaronic conductor, while creating a defect state band below the ultraviolet semiconducting gap. Here we employ a combination of broadband infrared (IR) reflectivity and THz-pump/IR-probe measurements to investigate the relationship between localized defect states and delocalized conducting polaronic states. We show that the THz pump allows to convert deeply localized electrons into metastable polarons with a lifetime in the ns range. These long-lived metastable states may find application in novel opto-electronic applications exploiting the interplay of dc resistivity, with terahertz and infrared signals.

According to the hierarchical formation paradigm, galaxies form through mergers of smaller entities and massive black holes (MBHs), if lurking at their centers, migrate to the nucleus of the newly formed galaxy, where they form binary systems. The formation and evolution of MBH binaries, and in particular their coalescence timescale, is very relevant for current and future facilities aimed at detecting the gravitational-wave signal produced by the MBH close to coalescence. While most of the studies targeting this process are based on hydrodynamic simulations, the high computational cost makes a complete parameter space exploration prohibitive. Semi-analytic approaches represent a valid alternative, but they require ad-hoc prescriptions for the mass loss of the merging galaxies in minor mergers due to tidal stripping, which is not commonly considered or at most modelled assuming very idealised geometries. In this work, we propose a novel, effective model for the tidal stripping in axisymmetric potentials, to be implemented in semi-analytic models. We validate our semi-analytic approach against N-body simulations considering different galaxy sizes, inclinations, and eccentricities, finding only a moderate dependence on the orbit eccentricity. In particular, we find that, for almost circular orbits, our model mildly overestimates the mass loss, and this is due to the adjustment of the stellar distribution after the mass is removed. Nonetheless, the model exhibits a very good agreement with simulations in all the considered conditions, and thus represents an extremely powerful addition to semi-analytic calculations., Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables. Accepted for publication on A&A

Observations by the James Webb Space Telescope of the Universe at $z\gtrsim 4$ have shown that massive black holes (MBHs) appear extremely overmassive compared to the local correlation for active galactic nuclei. In some cases, these objects might even reach half the stellar mass inferred for the galaxy. Understanding how such objects formed and grew to this masses has then become a big challenge for theoretical models, with different ideas ranging from heavy seed to super-Eddington accretion phases. Here, we take a different approach, and try to infer how accurate these MBH mass estimates are and whether we really need to revise our physical models. By considering how the emerging spectrum (both the continuum and the broad lines) of an accreting MBH changes close to and above the Eddington limit, we infer a much larger uncertainty in the MBH mass estimates relative to that of local counterparts, up to an order of magnitude, and a potential preference for lower masses and higher accretion rates, which i) move them closer to the local correlations, and ii) might indicate that we are witnessing for the first time a widespread phase of very rapid accretion., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, submitted to A&A

More than 300 supermassive black holes have been detected at redshifts larger than 6, and they are abundant in the centers of local galaxies. Their formation mechanisms, however, are still rather unconstrained. A possible origin of these supermassive black holes could be through mergers in dense black hole clusters, forming as a result of mass segregation within nuclear star clusters in the center of galaxies. In this study, we present the first systematic investigation of the evolution of such black hole clusters where the effect of an external potential is taken into account. Such a potential could be the result of gas inflows into the central region, for example as a result of galaxy mergers. We show here that the efficiency for the formation of a massive central object is mostly regulated by the ratio of cluster velocity dispersion divided by the speed of light, potentially reaching efficiencies of 0.05-0.08 in realistic systems. Our results show that this scenario is potentially feasible and may provide seeds black hole of at least 10^3 solar masses. We conclude that the formation of seed black holes via this channel should be taken into account in statistical assessments of the black hole population., Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication with A&A

We present JWST/NIRSpec Integral Field Spectroscopy in the rest-frame optical bands of the system PJ308-21, a quasar at $z=6.2342$ caught as its host galaxy interacts with companion galaxies. We detect spatially extended emission of several emission lines (H$\alpha$, H$\beta$, [OIII], [NII], [SII], HeII), which we use to study the properties of the ionized phase of the interstellar medium: the source and hardness of the photoionizing radiation field, metallicity, dust reddening, electron density and temperature, and star formation. We also marginally detect continuum starlight emission associated with the companion sources. We find that at least two independent satellite galaxies are part of the system. While the quasar host appears highly enriched and obscured, with AGN-like photoionization conditions, the western companion shows minimal dust extinction, low metallicity ($Z\sim0.4$ Z$_\odot$), and star-formation driven photoionization. The eastern companion shows higher extinction and metallicity ($Z\sim0.8$ Z$_\odot$) compared to the western companion, and it is at least partially photoionized by the nearby quasar. We do not find any indication of AGN in the companion sources. Our study shows that while the quasar host galaxy is already very massive ($M_{\rm dyn}>10^{11}$ M$_\odot$), it is still rapidly building up by accreting two relatively massive ($M_{\rm star}\sim 10^{10}$ M$_\odot$) companion sources. This dataset showcases the power of JWST in exposing the build-up of massive galaxies in the first Gyr of the Universe., Comment: 15 pages, 16 figures. Accepted for publication in A&A

We present JWST/NIRSpec integral field data of the quasar PJ308-21 at $z=6.2342$. As shown by previous ALMA and HST imaging, the quasar has two companion sources, interacting with the quasar host galaxy. The high-resolution G395H/290LP NIRSpec spectrum covers the $2.87-5.27\ \rm \mu m$ wavelength range and shows the rest-frame optical emission of the quasar with exquisite quality ($S/N\sim 100-400$ per spectral element). Based on the H$\beta$ line from the broad line region, we obtain an estimate of the black hole mass $M_{\rm BH,H\beta}\sim 2.7\times 10^{9}\ \rm M_{\odot}$. This value is within a factor $\lesssim 1.5$ of the H$\alpha$-based black hole mass from the same spectrum ($M_{\rm BH, H\alpha}\sim 1.93\times 10^{9}\ \rm M_{\odot}$) and is consistent with a previous estimate relying on the MgII $\lambda 2799$ ($M_{\rm BH, MgII}\sim 2.65\times 10^{9}\ \rm M_{\odot}$). All these $M_{\rm BH}$ are within the $\sim 0.5$ dex intrinsic scatter of the adopted mass calibrations. The high Eddington ratio of PJ308-21 $\lambda_{\rm Edd,H\beta}\sim 0.67$ ($\lambda_{\rm Edd,H\alpha}\sim 0.96$) is in line with the overall quasar population at $z \gtrsim 6$. The relative strengths of the [OIII], FeII and H$\beta$ lines are consistent with the empirical "Eigenvector 1" correlations as observed for low redshift quasars. We find evidence for blueshifted [OIII] $\lambda 5007$ emission with a velocity offset $\Delta v_{\rm [OIII]}=-1922\pm 39$ km s$^{-1}$ from the systemic velocity and a $\rm FWHM([OIII])=2776^{+75}_{-74}$ km s$^{-1}$. This may be the signature of an outflow from the nuclear region, despite the true values of $\Delta v_{\rm [OIII]}$ and $\rm FWHM([OIII])$ are likely more uncertain due to the blending with H$\beta$ and FeII lines. Our study demonstrates the unique capabilities of NIRSpec in capturing quasar spectra at cosmic dawn and studying their properties in unprecedented detail., Comment: 17 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in A&A

We have performed numerical calculations of a binary interacting with a gas disk, using eleven different numerical methods and a standard binary-disk setup. The goal of this study is to determine whether all codes agree on a numerically converged solution, and to determine the necessary resolution for convergence and the number of binary orbits that must be computed to reach an agreed-upon relaxed state of the binary-disk system. We find that all codes can agree on a converged solution (depending on the diagnostic being measured). The zone spacing required for most codes to reach a converged measurement of the torques applied to the binary by the disk is roughly 1% of the binary separation in the vicinity of the binary components. For our disk model to reach a relaxed state, codes must be run for at least 200 binary orbits, corresponding to about a viscous time for our parameters, $0.2 (a^2 \Omega_B /\nu)$ binary orbits, where $\nu$ is the kinematic viscosity. We did not investigate dependence on binary mass ratio, eccentricity, disk temperature, or disk viscosity; therefore, these benchmarks may act as guides towards expanding converged solutions to the wider parameter space but might need to be updated in a future study that investigates dependence on system parameters. We find the most major discrepancies between codes resulted from the dimensionality of the setup (3D vs 2D disks). Beyond this, we find good agreement in the total torque on the binary between codes, although the partition of this torque between the gravitational torque, orbital accretion torque, and spin accretion torque depends sensitively on the sink prescriptions employed. In agreement with previous studies, we find a modest difference in torques and accretion variability between 2D and 3D disk models. We find cavity precession rates to be appreciably faster in 3D than in 2D., Comment: ApJ Accepted

Cosmic rays (CRs) heavily impact the chemistry and physics of cold and dense star-forming regions. However, characterising their ionisation rate is still challenging from an observational point of view. In the past, a few analytical formulas have been proposed to infer the cosmic-ray ionization rate $\zeta_2$ from molecular line observations. These have been derived from the chemical kinetics of the involved species, but they have not been validated using synthetic data processed with a standard observative pipeline. We aim to bridge this gap. We perform the radiative transfer on a set of three-dimensional magneto-hydrodynamical simulations of prestellar cores, exploring different initial $\zeta_2$, evolutionary stages, types of radiative transfer (e.g. assuming local-thermodynamic-equilibrium conditions), and telescope responses. We then compute the column densities of the involved tracers to determine $\zeta_2$, using, in particular, the equation proposed by Bovino et. al (2020) and by Caselli et al. (1998) both used nowadays. Our results confirm that the method of Bovino et al. (2020) accurately retrieves the actual $\zeta_2$ within a factor of $2-3$, in the physical conditions explored in our tests. Since we also explore a non-local thermodynamic equilibrium radiative transfer, this work indirectly offers insights into the excitation temperatures of common transitions at moderate volume densities ($n\approx 10^5 \, \rm cm^{-3}$). We have also performed a few tests using the formula proposed by Caselli et al. (1998), which overestimates the actual $\zeta_2$ by at least two orders of magnitudes. We also consider a new derivation of this method, which, however, still leads to large overestimates., Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A (15th Feb.)

In this fourth paper from the AGORA Collaboration, we study the evolution down to redshift $z=2$ and below of a set of cosmological zoom-in simulations of a Milky Way mass galaxy by eight of the leading hydrodynamic simulation codes. We also compare this CosmoRun suite of simulations with dark matter-only simulations by the same eight codes. We analyze general properties of the halo and galaxy at $z=4$ and 3, and before the last major merger, focusing on the formation of well-defined rotationally-supported disks, the mass-metallicity relation, the specific star formation rate, the gas metallicity gradients, and the non-axisymmetric structures in the stellar disks. Codes generally converge well to the stellar-to-halo mass ratios predicted by semi-analytic models at $z\sim$2. We see that almost all the hydro codes develop rotationally-supported structures at low redshifts. Most agree within 0.5 dex with the observed MZR at high and intermediate redshifts, and reproduce the gas metallicity gradients obtained from analytical models and low-redshift observations. We confirm that the inter-code differences in the halo assembly history reported in the first paper of the collaboration also exist in CosmoRun, making the code-to-code comparison more difficult. We show that such differences are mainly due to variations in code-dependent parameters that control the time-stepping strategy of the gravity solver. We find that variations in the early stellar feedback can also result in differences in the timing of the low-redshift mergers. All the simulation data down to $z=2$ and the auxiliary data will be made publicly available., Comment: Submitted to ApJ. Visit the AGORA Collaboration website (www.agorasimulations.org ) for more information

We analyze and compare the satellite halo populations at $z\sim2$ in the high-resolution cosmological zoom-in simulations of a $10^{12}\,{\rm M}_{\odot}$ target halo ($z=0$ mass) carried out on eight widely-used astrophysical simulation codes ({\sc Art-I}, {\sc Enzo}, {\sc Ramses}, {\sc Changa}, {\sc Gadget-3}, {\sc Gear}, {\sc Arepo-t}, and {\sc Gizmo}) for the {\it AGORA} High-resolution Galaxy Simulations Comparison Project. We use slightly different redshift epochs near $z=2$ for each code (hereafter ``$z\sim2$') at which the eight simulations are in the same stage in the target halo's merger history. After identifying the matched pairs of halos between the {\it CosmoRun} simulations and the DMO simulations, we discover that each {\it CosmoRun} halo tends to be less massive than its DMO counterpart. When we consider only the halos containing stellar particles at $z\sim2$, the number of satellite {\it galaxies} is significantly fewer than that of dark matter halos in all participating {\it AGORA} simulations, and is comparable to the number of present-day satellites near the Milky Way or M31. The so-called ``missing satellite problem' is fully resolved across all participating codes simply by implementing the common baryonic physics adopted in {\it AGORA} and the stellar feedback prescription commonly used in each code, with sufficient numerical resolution ($\lesssim100$ proper pc at $z=2$). We also compare other properties such as the stellar mass$-$halo mass relation and the mass$-$metallicity relation. Our work highlights the value of comparison studies such as {\it AGORA}, where outstanding problems in galaxy formation theory are studied simultaneously on multiple numerical platforms., Comment: Accepted for publication to the ApJ, 19 pages, 10 figures. Visit the AGORA Collaboration website (www.agorasimulations.org) for more information. For summary video, please see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HShRJYvPe1k

We analyze the circumgalactic medium (CGM) for eight commonly-used cosmological codes in the AGORA collaboration. The codes are calibrated to use identical initial conditions, cosmology, heating and cooling, and star formation thresholds, but each evolves with its own unique code architecture and stellar feedback implementation. Here, we analyze the results of these simulations in terms of the structure, composition, and phase dynamics of the CGM. We show properties such as metal distribution, ionization levels, and kinematics are effective tracers of the effects of the different code feedback and implementation methods, and as such they can be highly divergent between simulations. This is merely a fiducial set of models, against which we will in the future compare multiple feedback recipes for each code. Nevertheless, we find that the large parameter space these simulations establish can help disentangle the different variables that affect observable quantities in the CGM, e.g., showing that abundances for ions with higher ionization energy are more strongly determined by the simulation's metallicity, while abundances for ions with lower ionization energy are more strongly determined by the gas density and temperature., Comment: 32 pages, 17 figures. Published in ApJ

We study spectral and time variability of accreting massive black hole binaries (MBHBs) at milli-pc separations surrounded by a geometrically thin circumbinary disc. We present the first computed spectral energy distribution (SED) and light curves (LCs) from 3D hyper-Lagrangian resolution hydrodynamic simulations of these systems. We model binaries with mass of $10^6$ M$_\odot$, eccentricities e=0, 0.9 and mass ratio q=0.1,1. The circumbinary disc has initial aspect ratio of 0.1, features an adiabatic equation of state, and evolves under the effect of viscous heating, black body cooling and self gravity. To compute the SED, we consider black body emission from each disc element and we add an X-ray corona with luminosity proportional to that of the mini-discs around each black hole. We find significant variability of the SED, especially at high energies, which translates into LCs displaying modulations of a factor of ~ 2 in optical and of ~ 10 in UV and X-rays. We focus on flux variability in the optical band which will be probed by the Vera Rubin Observatory (VRO). Modulations on the orbital period and half of the orbital period are evident in all systems. In equal mass binaries, we find another longer timescale modulation, linked to an over-density forming at the inner edge of the disc. Considering the VRO properties, we find that equal mass, circular binaries are unlikely to be identified, due to the lack of prominent peaks in their Fourier spectra. Conversely, unequal mass and/or eccentric binaries can be singled out up to z ~ 0.5 (for systems with $L_{\rm bol}\approx10^{42}$ erg s$^{-1}$) and z ~ 2 (for systems with $L_{\rm bol}\approx10^{44}$ erg s$^{-1}$). Identifying electromagnetic signatures of MBHBs at separations $\sim 10^{-4}-10^{-2}$ pc is crucial for understanding the physics of the future Laser Interferometer Space Antenna sources and the origin of the GW background., Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures, A&A submitted

We study the dynamical evolution of quasi-circular equal mass massive black hole binaries embedded in circumbinary discs from separations of $\sim 100R_{\rm g}$ down to the merger, following the post merger evolution. The binary orbit evolves owing to the presence of the gaseous disc and the addition of Post-Newtonian (PN) corrections up to the 2.5 PN order, therefore including the dissipative gravitational wave back-reaction. We investigate two cases of a relatively cold and warm circumbinary discs, with aspect ratios $H/R=0.03,\,0.1$ respectively, employing 3D hyper-Lagrangian resolution simulations with the {\sc gizmo}-MFM code. We extract spectral energy distributions and light curves in different frequency bands (i.e. X-ray, optical and UV) from the simulations. We find a clear two orders of magnitude drop in the X-ray flux right before merger if the disc is warm while we identify a significant increase in the UV flux regardless of the disc temperature. The optical flux shows clear distinctive modulations on the binary orbital period and on the cavity edge period, regardless of the disc temperature. We find that the presence of a cold disc can accelerate the coalescence of the binary by up to 130 seconds over the last five days of inspiral, implying a phase shift accumulation of about $\pi\,$radians compared to the binary evolution in vacuum. These differences are triggered by the presence of the gaseous disc and might have implications on the waveforms that can be in principle detected. We discuss the implications that these distinctive signatures might have for existing and upcoming time domain surveys and for multimessenger astronomy., Comment: 10 pages, A&A submitted

The social cost of carbon (SCC) serves as a concise gauge of climate change's economic impact, often reported at the global and country level. SCC values are disproportionately high for less-developed, populous countries. Assessing the contributions of urban and non-urban areas to the SCC can provide additional insights for climate policy. Cities are essential for defining global emissions, influencing warming levels and associated damages. High exposure and concurrent socioenvironmental problems exacerbate climate change risks in cities. Using a spatially explicit integrated assessment model, the SCC is estimated at USD$137-USD$579/tCO2, rising to USD$262-USD$1,075/tCO2 when including urban heat island (UHI) warming. Urban SCC dominates, with both urban exposure and the UHI contributing significantly. A permanent 1% reduction of the UHI in urban areas yields net present benefits of USD$484-USD$1,562 per urban dweller. Global cities have significant leverage and incentives for a swift transition to a low-carbon economy, and for reducing local warming.

Observations of $z \gtrsim 6$ quasars provide information on the early evolution of the most massive black holes (MBHs) and galaxies. Current observations, able to trace both gas and stellar properties, reveal a population of MBHs that is significantly more massive than expected from the local MBH-stellar mass relation. The population lies on, but mostly above, the relation observed in the nearby Universe. This suggests that these objects grew very rapidly. To explain their presence when the Universe was less than 1~Gyr old and to assess the physical conditions for their rapid growth, we explored whether episodes of accretion above the Eddington limit can occur across cosmic epochs. By employing state-of-the-art high-resolution cosmological zoom-in simulations of a $z\sim 7$ quasar, where different accretion regimes are included consistently, together with their associated radiative and kinetic feedback, we show that super-Eddington phases can be sustained for relatively long timescales (tens of millions of years). This allows the MBH to rapidly grow by up to three orders of magnitude, depending on the strength of the kinetic feedback. We also show by means of a semianalytic calculation that the MBH spin remains moderate and does not take on extremely high values during the super-Eddington phases. This results in a lower feedback efficiency, which may allow the rapid growth required to explain over-massive high-redshift MBHs., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, matches the published version

This study analyses the main characteristics of the fully developed laminar pulsatile flow in a toroidal pipe as the governing parameters vary. A novel computational technique is developed to obtain time-periodic solutions of the Navier$\unicode{x2013}$Stokes equations. They are computed as fixed points of the system in the frequency domain via a Newton$\unicode{x2013}$Raphson method. Advantages and drawbacks of the adopted methodology with respect to a time-stepping technique are discussed. The unsteady component of the driving pressure gradient is found to change linearly with the pulsation amplitude, with a proportionality coefficient dependent on the pulsation frequency. Although the time-averaged streamwise wall shear stress is very close to the value in the steady case, significant fluctuations are observed within the period. Flow reversal occurs during certain time intervals in the period for high pulsation amplitudes. The analysis of the spatial structure of the unsteady component of the velocity field shows that three different flow regimes can be identified, depending on the pulsation frequency, termed quasi-steady, intermediate and plug-flow regimes., Comment: To be submitted

This paper explores anomaly detection through temporal network analysis. Unlike many conventional methods, relying on rule-based algorithms or general machine learning approaches, our methodology leverages the evolving structure and relationships within temporal networks, that can be used to model financial transactions. Focusing on minimal changes in stable ecosystems, such as those found in large international financial institutions, our approach utilizes network centrality measures to gain insights into individual nodes. By monitoring the temporal evolution of centrality-based node rankings, our method effectively identifies abrupt shifts in the roles of specific nodes, prompting further investigation by domain experts. To demonstrate its efficacy, our methodology is applied in the Anti-Financial Crime (AFC) domain, analyzing a substantial financial dataset comprising over 80 million cross-country wire transfers. The goal is to pinpoint outliers potentially involved in malicious activities, aligning with financial regulations. This approach serves as an initial stride towards automating AFC and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) processes, providing AFC officers with a comprehensive top-down view to enhance their efforts. It overcomes many limitations of current prevalent paradigms, offering a holistic interpretation of the financial data landscape and addressing potential blindness to phenomena that cannot be effectively estimated through single-node or narrowly focused transactional approaches.

Lignocellulosic biomass is an abundant renewable resource that can be upgraded to chemical and fuel products through a range of thermal conversion processes. Fast pyrolysis is a promising technology that uses high temperatures and fast heating rates to convert lignocellulose into bio-oils in high yields in the absence of oxygen. Hemicellulose is one of three major components of lignocellulosic biomass and is a highly branched heteropolymer structure made of pentose, hexose sugars, and sugar acids. In this study, $\beta$-D-xylopyranose is proposed as a model structural motif for the essential chemical structure of hemicellulose. The gas-phase pyrolytic reactivity of $\beta$-D-xylopyranose is thoroughly investigated using computational strategies rooted in quantum chemistry. In particular, its thermal degradation potential energy surfaces are computed employing Minnesota global hybrid functional M06-2X in conjunction with 6-311++G(d,p) Pople basis set. Electronic energies are further refined by performing DLPNO-CCSD(T)-F12 single point calculations on top of M06-2X geometries using cc-pVTZ-F12 basis set. Key thermodynamic quantities (free energies, barrier heights, enthalpies of formation, and heat capacities) are computed. Rate coefficients for the initial steps of thermal decomposition are computed by means of reaction rate theory. For the first time, a detailed elementary reaction kinetic model for $\beta$-D-xylopyranose is developed by utilizing the thermodynamic and kinetic information acquired from the aforementioned calculations. This model specifically targets the initial stages of $\beta$-D-xylopyranose pyrolysis, aiming to gain a deeper understanding of its reaction kinetics. This approach establishes a systematic strategy for exploring reactive pathways, evaluating competing parallel reactions, and selectively accepting or discarding pathways based on the analysis., Comment: 37 pages, 7 figures, 5 tables

We present a novel implementation for active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback through ultra-fast winds in the code gizmo. Our feedback recipe accounts for the angular dependence of radiative feedback upon black hole spin. We self-consistently evolve in time i) the gas accretion process from resolved scales to an unresolved AGN disc, ii) the evolution of the spin of the massive black hole (MBH), iii) the injection of AGN-driven winds into the resolved scales, and iv) the spin-induced anisotropy of the overall feedback process. We test our implementation by following the propagation of the wind-driven outflow into a homogeneous medium, and we compare the results against simple analytical models. Then, we consider an isolated galaxy setup and there we study the impact of the AGN feedback on the evolution of the MBH and the of the host galaxy. We find that: i) AGN feedback limits the gas inflow that powers the MBH, with a consequent weak impact on the host galaxy characterized by a star formation (SF) suppression of about a factor of two in the nuclear region; ii) the impact of AGN feedback on the host galaxy and on MBH growth is primarily determined by the AGN luminosity, rather than by its angular pattern set by the MBH spin; iii) the imprint of the angular pattern of the AGN radiation emission manifest in a more clear way at high accretion rates. At such high rates the more isotropic angular patterns, proper to higher spin values, sweep away gas in the nuclear region more easily, hence causing a slower MBH mass and spin growths and a higher quenching of the SF. We argue that the influence of spin-dependent anisotropy of AGN feedback on MBH and galaxy evolution is likely to be relevant in those scenarios characterized by high and prolonged MBH accretion episodes and by high AGN wind-galaxy coupling. Such conditions are more frequently met in galaxy mergers and/or high redshift galaxies.

Massive black holes are key inhabitants of the nuclei of galaxies. Moreover, their astrophysical relevance has gained significant traction in recent years, thanks especially to the amazing results that are being (or will be) delivered by instruments such as the James Webb Space Telescope, Pulsar Timing Array projects and LISA. In this Chapter, we aim to detail a broad set of aspects related to the astrophysical nature of massive black holes embedded in galactic nuclei, with a particular focus on recent and upcoming advances in the field. In particular, we will address questions such as: What shapes the relations connecting the mass of massive black holes with the properties of their host galaxies? How do massive black holes form in the early Universe? What mechanisms keep on feeding them so that they can attain very large masses at z = 0? How do binaries composed of two massive black holes form and coalesce into a single, larger black hole? Here we present these topics from a mainly theoretical viewpoint and discuss how present and upcoming facilities may enhance our understanding of massive black holes in the near future., Comment: All authors equally contributed to the Chapter writing. To appear as Chapter 3 in the book "Black Holes in the Era of Gravitational Wave Astronomy", ed. Arca Sedda, Bortolas, Spera, pub. Elsevier

Thanks to its tunable infrared band-gap and to its anisotropic conduction properties, black phosphorus represents a very unique 2D material, whose potential in the engineering of new devices still needs to be fully explored. We investigate here the nonlinear terahertz (THz) electrodynamics of black phosphorus along the more conducting armchair direction. Similarly to the case of other 2D systems like graphene and topological insulators, the THz saturable absorption properties of black phosphorus can be understood within a thermodynamic model by assuming a fast thermalization of the electron bath. While black phosphorus does not display the presence of massless fermions at ambient pressure and temperature, our analysis shows that its anomalous THz nonlinear properties can be accounted for by a relativistic massive Dirac dispersion, provided the Fermi temperature is low enough. An optimal tuning of the Fermi level therefore represents a strategy to engineer strong THz nonlinear response in other massive Dirac materials as in transition metal dichalchogenides or high-temperature superconductors., Comment: Accepted for publication in Physical Review Applied

In this work, we introduce the novel application of the adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) technique in the global stability analysis of incompressible flows. The design of an accurate mesh for transitional flows is crucial. Indeed, an inadequate resolution might introduce numerical noise that triggers premature transition. With AMR, we enable the design of three different and independent meshes for the non-linear base flow, the linear direct and adjoint solutions. Each of those is designed to reduce the truncation and quadrature errors for its respective solution, which are measured via the spectral error indicator. We provide details about the workflow and the refining procedure. The numerical framework is validated for the two-dimensional flow past a circular cylinder, computing a portion of the spectrum for the linearised direct and adjoint Navier-Stokes operators., Comment: To be submitted ICOSAHOM2023

We use zoom-in, hydrodynamical, cosmological $N$-body simulations tracing the formation of the first stellar clumps from the SImulating the Environments where Globular clusters Emerged (SIEGE) project, to study key structural properties of dark matter haloes when the Universe was only $0.92$ Gyr old. The very high-resolution (maximum physical resolution 0.3 h$^{-1}$ pc at $z=6.14$, smallest dark-matter particle mass $164\,M_{\odot}$) allows us to reach the very low mass end of the stellar-to-halo mass relation ($M_{\rm vir}=10^{7.5-9.5}\,M_{\odot}$) to study the processes that mould dark matter haloes during the first stages of structure formation. We investigate the role of baryonic cooling and stellar feedback, modeled from individual stars, in shaping haloes, and of environmental effects as accretion of dark matter along cosmic filaments and mergers. We find that the onset of star formation (typically for $\log M_{\rm vir}/M_{\odot}\simeq7.6$) causes the inner cusp in the haloes density profile to flatten into a core with constant density and size proportionally to the halo virial mass. Even at these mass scales, we confirm that baryons make haloes that have formed stars rounder in the central regions than haloes that have not formed stars yet, with median minor-to-major $\langle q \rangle$ and intermediate-to-major $\langle s \rangle$ axes 0.66 and 0.84, respectively. Our morphological analysis shows that, at $z=6.14$, haloes are largely prolate in the outer parts, with the major axis aligned along filaments of the cosmic web or towards smaller sub-haloes, with the degree of elongation having no significant dependence on the halo mass., Comment: 20 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

Heterostacks formed by combining two-dimensional materials show novel properties which are of great interest for new applications in electronics, photonics and even twistronics, the new emerging field born after the outstanding discoveries on twisted graphene. Here, we report the direct growth of tin nanosheets at the two-dimensional limit via molecular beam epitaxy on chemical vapor deposited graphene on Al2O3(0001). The mutual interaction between the tin nanosheets and graphene is evidenced by structural and chemical investigations. On the one hand, Raman spectroscopy indicates that graphene undergoes compressive strain after the tin growth, while no charge transfer is observed. On the other hand, chemical analysis shows that tin nanosheets interaction with sapphire is mediated by graphene avoiding the tin oxidation occurring in the direct growth on this substrate. Remarkably, optical measurements show that the absorption of tin nanosheets show a graphene-like behavior with a strong absorption in the ultraviolet photon energy range, therein resulting in a different optical response compared to tin nanosheets on bare sapphire. The optical properties of tin nanosheets therefore represent an open and flexible playground for the absorption of light in a broad range of the electromagnetic spectrum and technologically relevant applications for photon harvesting and sensors., Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures

We present the first results from the JWST ASPIRE program (A SPectroscopic survey of biased halos In the Reionization Era). This program represents an imaging and spectroscopic survey of 25 reionization-era quasars and their environments by utilizing the unprecedented capabilities of NIRCam Wide Field Slitless Spectroscopy (WFSS) mode. ASPIRE will deliver the largest ($\sim280~{\rm arcmin}^2$) galaxy redshift survey at 3-4 $\mu$m among JWST Cycle-1 programs and provide extensive legacy values for studying the formation of the earliest supermassive black holes (SMBHs), the assembly of galaxies, early metal enrichment, and cosmic reionization. In this first ASPIRE paper, we report the discovery of a filamentary structure traced by the luminous quasar J0305-3150 and ten [OIII] emitters at $z=6.6$. This structure has a 3D galaxy overdensity of $\delta_{\rm gal}=12.6$ over 637 cMpc$^3$, one of the most overdense structures known in the early universe, and could eventually evolve into a massive galaxy cluster. Together with existing VLT/MUSE and ALMA observations of this field, our JWST observations reveal that J0305-3150 traces a complex environment where both UV-bright and dusty galaxies are present, and indicate that the early evolution of galaxies around the quasar is not simultaneous. In addition, we discovered 31 [OIII] emitters in this field at other redshifts, $5.3

Studies of rest-frame optical emission in quasars at $z>6$ have historically been limited by the wavelengths accessible by ground-based telescopes. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) now offers the opportunity to probe this emission deep into the reionization epoch. We report the observations of eight quasars at $z>6.5$ using the JWST/NIRCam Wide Field Slitless Spectroscopy, as a part of the ''A SPectroscopic survey of biased halos In the Reionization Era (ASPIRE)" program. Our JWST spectra cover the quasars' emission between rest frame $\sim$ 4100 and 5100 \r{A}. The profiles of these quasars' broad H$\beta$ emission lines span a FWHM from 3000 to 6000 $\rm{km~s^{-1}}$. The H$\beta$-based virial black hole (BH) masses, ranging from 0.6 to 2.1 billion solar masses, are generally consistent with their MgII-based BH masses. The new measurements based on the more reliable H$\beta$ tracer thus confirm the existence of billion solar-mass BHs in the reionization epoch. In the observed [OIII] $\lambda\lambda$4960,5008 doublets of these luminous quasars, broad components are more common than narrow core components ($\le~1200~\rm{km~s^{-1}}$), and only one quasar shows stronger narrow components than broad. Two quasars exhibit significantly broad and blueshifted [OIII] emission, thought to trace galactic-scale outflows, with median velocities of $-610~\rm{km~s^{-1}}$ and $-1430~\rm{km~s^{-1}}$ relative to the [CII] $158\,\mu$m line. All eight quasars show strong optical FeII emission, and follow the Eigenvector 1 relations defined by low-redshift quasars. The entire ASPIRE program will eventually cover 25 quasars and provide a statistical sample for the studies of the BHs and quasar spectral properties., Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in ApJL

The shrinking of a binary orbit driven by the interaction with a gaseous circumbinary disc, initially advocated as a potential way to catalyze the binary merger, has been recently debated in the case of geometrically thick (i.e. with $H/R\gtrsim 0.1$) discs. However, a clear consensus is still missing mainly owing to numerical limitations, such as fixed orbit binaries or lack of resolution inside the cavity carved by the binary in its circumbinary disc. In this work, we asses the importance of evolving the binary orbit by means of hydrodynamic simulations performed with the code {\sc gizmo} in meshless-finite-mass mode. In order to model the interaction between equal mass circular binaries and their locally isothermal circumbinary discs, we enforce hyper-Lagrangian resolution inside the cavity. We find that fixing the binary orbit ultimately leads to an overestimate of the gravitational torque that the gas exerts on the binary, and in an underestimate of the torque due to the accretion of material onto the binary components. Furthermore, we find that the modulation of the accretion rate on the binary orbital period is strongly suppressed in the fixed orbit simulation, while it is clearly present in the live binary simulations. This has potential implications for the prediction of the observable periodicities in massive black hole binary candidates., Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

X-ray quasi-periodic eruptions (QPEs) represent a recently discovered example of extreme X-ray variability associated with supermassive black holes. These are high-amplitude bursts recurring every few hours that are detected in the soft X-ray band from the nuclei of nearby galaxies whose optical spectra lack the broad emission lines typically observed in unobscured active galaxies. The physical origin of this new X-ray variability phenomenon is still unknown and several theoretical models have been presented. However, no attempt has been made so far to account for the varying QPE recurrence time and luminosity in individual sources, nor for the diversity of the QPE phenomenology in the different known erupters. We present a semi-analytical model based on an extreme mass-ratio inspiral (EMRI) system where the secondary intersects, along its orbit, a rigidly precessing accretion disc surrounding the primary. We assume that QPEs result from emission from an adiabatically expanding, initially optically thick gas cloud expelled from the disc plane at each impact. We produced synthetic X-ray light curves, which we then compared with X-ray data from four QPE sources: GSN 069, eRO-QPE1, eRO-QPE2, and RX J1301.9+2747. Our model aptly reproduces the diversity of QPE properties between the considered objects and it is also able to naturally account for the varying QPE amplitudes and recurrence times in individual sources. Future implementations will enable us to refine the match with the data and to estimate the system parameters precisely, making additional use of multi-epoch QPE data. We briefly discuss the nature of the secondary object, as well as the possible implications of our findings for the EMRI population at large., Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in A&A