Search

We categorized clumps, embedded clusters, and open clusters and conducted a comparative analysis of their physical properties. Overall, the radii of open clusters are significantly larger than those of embedded clusters and clumps. The radii of embedded clusters are larger than those of clumps, which may be due to the expansion of embedded clusters. The open clusters have significantly higher masses than embedded clusters, by about one order of magnitude. Given the current mass distribution of clumps in the Milky Way, the evolutionary sequence from a single clump evolving into an embedded cluster and subsequently into an open cluster cannot account for the observed open clusters with old ages and high masses, which is also supported by N-body simulations of individual embedded clusters. To explain the mass and radius distributions of the observed open clusters, initial embedded clusters with masses higher than 3000 M$_{\odot}$ are necessary. However, the upper limit of the embedded cluster sample is less than 1000 M$_{\odot}$, and only a few ATLASGAL clumps have a mass higher than 3000 M$_{\odot}$. Thus, the currently observed clumps cannot be the "direct" precursors of the currently observed open clusters. If the Milky Way has a burst-like and time-dependent star formation history, the currently observed open clusters with old ages and high masses may come from massive clumps in the past. There is also a very real possibility that these open clusters originate from post-gas expulsion coalescence of multiple embedded clusters. We compared the separation of open clusters and the typical size of molecular clouds, and find that most molecular clouds may only form one open cluster, which supports the scenario of post-gas expulsion coalescence. Further study is necessary to distinguish between the different scenarios., Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A, 8 pages, 6 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2409.20271

We decomposed the molecular gas in the spiral galaxy NGC 628 (M74) into multi-scale hub-filament structures using the CO (2-1) line by the dendrogram algorithm. All leaf structures as potential hubs were classified into three categories, i.e. leaf-HFs-A, leaf-HFs-B and leaf-HFs-C. leaf-HFs-A exhibit the best hub-filament morphology, which also have the highest density contrast, the largest mass and the lowest virial ratio. We employed the FILFINDER algorithm to identify and characterize filaments within 185 leaf-HFs-A structures, and fitted the velocity gradients around the intensity peaks. Measurements of velocity gradients provide evidence for gas inflow within these structures. The numbers of the associated 21 $\mu$m and H$_{\alpha}$ structures and the peak intensities of 7.7 $\mu$m, 21 $\mu$m and H$_{\alpha}$ emissions decrease from leaf-HFs-A to leaf-HFs-C. The spatial separations between the intensity peaks of CO and 21 $\mu$m structures of leaf-HFs-A are larger than those of leaf-HFs-C. These evidence indicate that leaf-HFs-A are more evolved than leaf-HFs-C. There may be an evolutionary sequence from leaf-HFs-C to leaf-HFs-A. Currently, leaf-HFs-C lack a distinct gravitational collapse process that would result in a significant density contrast. The density contrast can effectively measure the extent of the gravitational collapse and the depth of the gravitational potential of the structure which, in turn, shapes the hub-filament morphology. Combined with the kinematic analysis presented in previous studies, a picture emerges that molecular gas in spiral galaxies is organized into network structures through the gravitational coupling of multi-scale hub-filament structures. Molecular clouds, acting as knots within these networks, serve as hubs, which are local gravitational centers and the main sites of star formation., Comment: 11 pages, 14 figures. Accepted for publication

1226 ATLASGAL clumps with HII regions were matched with radio sources in the CORNISH-North/South surveys, and 392 of them have corresponding radio sources. We determined the stellar luminosity according to the Lyman continuum flux. When the bolometric luminosity of HII-clumps is less than $\approx$ 10$^{3.7}$ L$_{\odot}$, corresponding to a clump mass $\approx$ 10$^{2.55}$ M$_{\odot}$, the stellar luminosities derived from the Lyman continuum flux overestimate the actual stellar luminosities, because the accretion onto the protostars contributes significantly to the radio emission. After subtracting the accretion luminosity, we obtained reasonable estimates of the stellar luminosity. Using the 0.5 Myr isochrone, we calculated the stellar masses according to the stellar luminosities, and found that they roughly follow the $m_{\rm max}-M_{\rm ecl}$ relation of embedded clusters, consistent with the ionizing sources representing the most massive stars in the embedded clusters of HII-clumps. We also studied the contribution of the possible flaring activity to the observed stellar luminosity and found that they can be neglected. We further studied the change of SFE with the clump mass. According to the derived mass of the most massive star in each HII-clump, using the theoretical $m_{\rm max}-M_{\rm ecl}$ relation, we calculated the mass of the corresponding embedded cluster and then the SFE of the clump. The SFE decreases with increasing clump mass, with a median value of $\approx$0.3. We also independently derived the SFE for each HII-clump based on the model developed in our previous work. The SFEs of HII-clumps derived from the observation and the model are in good agreement. Concerning the star formation histories of the ATLASGAL clumps, low-mass clumps may reach the peak of star formation earlier than high-mass clumps, consistent with the shorter free-fall time of low-mass clumps., Comment: 9 pages, 14 figures, Accepted for publication

Using the optimal sampling model, we synthesized the embedded clusters of ATLASGAL clumps with HII regions (HII-clumps). The 0.1 Myr isochrone was used to estimate the bolometric luminosity of each star in an embedded cluster, we also added the accretion luminosity of each star in the embeded cluster. The total bolometric luminosity of synthetic embedded clusters can well fit the observed bolometric luminosity of HII-clumps. More realistically, we considered the age spread in the young star and protostar populations in embedded clusters of HII-clumps by modeling both constant and time-varying star formation histories (SFHs). According to the age distribution of the stellar population, we distributed the appropriate isochrones to each star, and sorted out the fraction of stellar objects that are still protostars (Class 0 and Class I phases) to properly add their accretion luminosities. Compared to a constant SFH, burst-like and time-dependent SFHs can better fit the observational data. We found that as long as 20\% of the stars within the embedded cluster are still accreting, the contribution of accretion luminosity will be significant to the total bolometric luminosity of low-mass HII-clumps with mass log$_{10}$(M$_{\rm cl}$/M$_{\odot}$) $<$ 2.8. Variations in the accretion rate, the SFE and the initial mass function (IMF) and more physical processes like the external heating from HII regions and the flaring from pre-main sequence (PMS) stars and protostars need to be investigated to further explain the excess luminosity of low-mass HII-clumps., Comment: 7 pages, 10 figures, Accepted for publication

We used the dendrogram algorithm to decompose the surface density distributions of stars into hierarchical structures. These structures were tied to the multiscale structures of star clusters. A similar power-law for the mass-size relation of star clusters measured at different scales suggests a self-similar structure of star clusters. We used the minimum spanning tree method to measure the separations between clusters and gas clumps in each massive star-forming region. The separations between clusters, between clumps, and between clusters and clumps were comparable, which indicates that the evolution from clump to embedded cluster proceeds in isolation and locally, and does not affect the surrounding objects significantly. By comparing the mass functions of the ATLASGAL clumps and the identified embedded clusters, we confirm that a constant star formation efficiency of $\approx$ 0.33 can be a typical value for the ATLASGAL clumps., Comment: 6 pages, 8 figures, Accepted for publication in A&A

Star formation estimates based on the counting of YSOs is commonly applied to nearby star-forming regions in the Galaxy. With this method, the SFRs are measured using the counts of YSOs in a particular protostellar Class, a typical protostellar mass, and the lifetime associated with this Class. However, the assumptions underlying the validity of the method such as that of a constant star formation history (SFH) and whether the method is valid for all protostellar Classes has never been fully tested. In this work, we use Monte Carlo models to test the validity of the method. We build synthetic clusters in which stars form at times that are randomly drawn from a specified SFH. The latter is either constant or time-dependent with a burst like behavior. The masses of the protostars are randomly drawn from an IMF which can be either similar to that of the Milky Way field or be variable . For each star in every cluster, the lifetimes associated with the different protostellar classes are also randomly drawn from Gaussian distribution functions centered around their most likely value as suggested by the observations. We find that only the SFR derived using the Class 0 population can reproduce the true SFR at all epochs, and this is true irrespective of the shape of the SFH. For a constant SFH, the SFR derived using the more evolved populations of protostars (Classes I, F, II, and III) reproduce the real SFR only at later epochs which correspond to epochs at which their numbers have reached a steady state. For a time-dependent burst-like SFH, all SFR estimates based on the number counts of the evolved populations fail to reproduce the true SFR. We also show how the offsets between Class I and Class II based SFRs and the true SFR plotted as a function of the number ratios of Class I and Class II versus Class III YSOs can be used in order to constrain the SFH of observed molecular clouds., Comment: Submitted. Comments are welcome

We set a generalised non-linear Lagrangian, encompassing Born-Infeld and Heisenberg-Euler theories among others. The Lagrangian reduces to the Maxwell Lagrangian at lowest order. The field is composed by a propagating light-wave in an electro-magnetic background. The wave exhibits energy variation when the background is space-time dependent. In the photon description, this implies a red or a blue shift, like what we obtained in massive theories, as the de Broglie-Proca or effective mass theories as the Standard-Model Extension under Lorentz symmetry violation. The two results, photon energy-conservation and the frequency shift are instead new for non-linear electro-magnetism. We conclude by discussing how these static frequency shifts when added to the expansion red shift allow new interpretations in cosmology or for atomic spectra. We finally consider the consequences on the Poincar\'e symmetry.

In this work we revisit the problem of the dynamical stability of hierarchical triple systems with applications to circumbinary planetary orbits. We carry out more than 3 10^8 numerical simulations of planets between the size of Mercury and the lower fusion boundary (13 Jupiter masses) which revolve around the center of mass of a stellar binary over long timescales. For the first time, three dimensional and eccentric planetary orbits are considered. We explore systems with a variety of binary and planetary mass ratios, binary and planetary eccentricities from 0 to 0.9 and orbital mutual inclinations ranging from 0 to 180 degrees. The simulation time is set to 10^6 planetary orbital periods. We classify the results of those long term numerical integrations into three categories: stable, unstable and mixed. We provide empirical expressions in the form of multidimensional, parameterized fits for the two borders that separate the three dynamical domains . In addition, we train a machine learning model on our data set in order to have an alternative tool of predicting the stability of circumbinary planets. Both the empirical fits and the machine learning model are tested against randomly generated circumbinary systems with very good results regarding the predictions of orbital stability. The empirical formulae are also applied to the Kepler and TESS circumbinary systems, confirming the stability of the planets in these systems. Finally, we present a REST API with a web based application for convenient access of our simulation data set., Comment: Accepted for publication in AJ

In this work, we explore an extension of the Standard Model designed to elucidate the fermion mass hierarchy, account for the dark matter relic abundance, and explain the observed matter-antimatter asymmetry in the universe. Beyond the Standard Model particle content, our model introduces additional scalars and fermions. Notably, the light active neutrinos and the first two generations of charged fermions acquire masses at the one-loop level. The model accommodates successful low-scale leptogenesis, permitting the mass of the decaying heavy right-handed neutrino to be as low as 10 TeV. We conduct a detailed analysis of the dark matter phenomenology and explore various interesting phenomenological implications. These include charged lepton flavor violation, muon and electron anomalous magnetic moments, constraints arising from electroweak precision observables, and implications for collider experiments., Comment: 22 pages, 11 captioned figures, added more references and improved discussions, matches published version

The massive star-forming region G332.83-0.55 contains at least two levels of hub-filament structures. The hub-filament structures may form through the "gravitational focusing" process. High-resolution LAsMA and ALMA observations can directly trace the gas inflows from cloud to core scales. We investigated the effects of shear and tides from the protocluster on the surrounding local dense gas structures. Our results seem to deny the importance of shear and tides from the protocluster. However, for a gas structure, it bears the tidal interactions from all external material, not only the protocluster. To fully consider the tidal interactions, we derived the tide field according to the surface density distribution. Then, we used the average strength of the external tidal field of a structure to measure the total tidal interactions that are exerted on it. For comparison, we also adopted an original pixel-by-pixel computation to estimate the average tidal strength for each structure. Both methods give comparable results. After considering the total tidal interactions, the slope of the $\sigma-N*R$ relation changes from 0.20 to 0.52, close to 0.5 of the pure free-fall gravitational collapse, and the correlation also becomes stronger. Thus, the deformation due to the external tides can effectively slow down the pure free-fall gravitational collapse of gas structures. The external tide tries to tear up the structure, but the external pressure on the structure prevents this process. The counterbalance between the external tide and external pressure hinders the free-fall gravitational collapse of the structure, which can also cause the pure free-fall gravitational collapse to be slowed down. These mechanisms can be called "tide-regulated gravitational collapse.", Comment: 11 pages, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics

Panic-induced herding in individuals often leads to social disasters, resulting in people being trapped and trampled in crowd stampedes triggered by panic. We introduce a novel approach that offers fresh insights into studying the phenomenon of asymmetrical panic-induced escape. Our approach is based on the concept of Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking (SSB), a fundamental governing mechanism in the Physical Sciences. By applying the principles of SSB, we elucidate how asymmetrical panic-induced herding in individuals occurs. We highlight that understanding panic escape and preventing catastrophic situations can be achieved through two crucial parameters: "population density" control and "communication (or information transfer)" among individuals in a crowd. The interplay of these two parameters is responsible for either breaking or restoring the symmetry of a system. We describe how these parameters are set by design conditions as well as crowd control. Based on these parameters, we discuss strategies for preventing potential social disasters caused by asymmetrical panic escape., Comment: 24 pages, 6 figures

In this report, we introduce the Gemini 1.5 family of models, representing the next generation of highly compute-efficient multimodal models capable of recalling and reasoning over fine-grained information from millions of tokens of context, including multiple long documents and hours of video and audio. The family includes two new models: (1) an updated Gemini 1.5 Pro, which exceeds the February version on the great majority of capabilities and benchmarks; (2) Gemini 1.5 Flash, a more lightweight variant designed for efficiency with minimal regression in quality. Gemini 1.5 models achieve near-perfect recall on long-context retrieval tasks across modalities, improve the state-of-the-art in long-document QA, long-video QA and long-context ASR, and match or surpass Gemini 1.0 Ultra's state-of-the-art performance across a broad set of benchmarks. Studying the limits of Gemini 1.5's long-context ability, we find continued improvement in next-token prediction and near-perfect retrieval (>99%) up to at least 10M tokens, a generational leap over existing models such as Claude 3.0 (200k) and GPT-4 Turbo (128k). Finally, we highlight real-world use cases, such as Gemini 1.5 collaborating with professionals on completing their tasks achieving 26 to 75% time savings across 10 different job categories, as well as surprising new capabilities of large language models at the frontier; when given a grammar manual for Kalamang, a language with fewer than 200 speakers worldwide, the model learns to translate English to Kalamang at a similar level to a person who learned from the same content.

One common approach for solving collisions between protoplanets in simulations of planet formation is to employ analytical scaling laws. The most widely used one was developed by Leinhardt & Stewart (2012) from a catalog of ~ 180 N-body simulations of rubble-pile collisions. In this work, we use a new catalogue of more than 20,000 SPH simulations to test the validity and the prediction capability of Leinhardt & Stewart (2012) scaling laws. We find that these laws overestimate the fragmentation efficiency in the merging regime and they are not able to properly reproduce the collision outcomes in the super-catastrophic regime. In the merging regime, we also notice a significant dependence between the collision outcome, in terms of the largest remnant mass, and the relative mass of the colliding protoplanets. Here, we present a new set of scaling laws that are able to better predict the collision outcome in all regimes and it is also able to reproduce the observed dependence on the mass ratio. We compare our new scaling laws against a machine learning approach and obtain similar prediction efficiency., Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in A&A

In a transport network, the onboard occupancy is key for gaining insights into travelers' habits and adjusting the offer. Traditionally, operators have relied on field studies to evaluate ridership of a typical workday. However, automated fare collection (AFC) and automatic passenger counting (APC) data, which provide complete temporal coverage, are often available but underexploited. It should be noted, however, that each data source comes with its own biases: AFC data may not account for fraud, while not all vehicles are equipped with APC systems. This paper introduces the unified occupancy method, a geostatistical model to extrapolate occupancy to every course of a public transportation network by combining AFC and APC data with partial coverage. Unified occupancy completes missing APC information for courses on lines where other courses have APC measures, as well as for courses on lines where no APC data is available at all. The accuracy of this method is evaluated on real data from several public transportation networks in France., Comment: Accepted in this version to ITSC 2023

A reliable and accurate knowledge of the ridership in public transportation networks is crucial for public transport operators and public authorities to be aware of their network's use and optimize transport offering. Several techniques to estimate ridership exist nowadays, some of them in an automated manner. Among them, Automatic Passenger Counting (APC) systems detect passengers entering and leaving the vehicle at each station of its course. However, data resulting from these systems are often noisy or even biased, resulting in under or overestimation of onboard occupancy. In this work, we propose a denoising algorithm for APC data to improve their robustness and ease their analyzes. The proposed approach consists in a constrained integer linear optimization, taking advantage of ticketing data and historical ridership data to further constrain and guide the optimization. The performances are assessed and compared to other denoising methods on several public transportation networks in France, to manual counts available on one of these networks, and on simulated data., Comment: Accepted in this version to ITSC 2023

Reconstructing an avatar from a portrait image has many applications in multimedia, but remains a challenging research problem. Extracting reflectance maps and geometry from one image is ill-posed: recovering geometry is a one-to-many mapping problem and reflectance and light are difficult to disentangle. Accurate geometry and reflectance can be captured under the controlled conditions of a light stage, but it is costly to acquire large datasets in this fashion. Moreover, training solely with this type of data leads to poor generalization with in-the-wild images. This motivates the introduction of MoSAR, a method for 3D avatar generation from monocular images. We propose a semi-supervised training scheme that improves generalization by learning from both light stage and in-the-wild datasets. This is achieved using a novel differentiable shading formulation. We show that our approach effectively disentangles the intrinsic face parameters, producing relightable avatars. As a result, MoSAR estimates a richer set of skin reflectance maps, and generates more realistic avatars than existing state-of-the-art methods. We also introduce a new dataset, named FFHQ-UV-Intrinsics, the first public dataset providing intrinsic face attributes at scale (diffuse, specular, ambient occlusion and translucency maps) for a total of 10k subjects. The project website and the dataset are available on the following link: https://ubisoft-laforge.github.io/character/mosar/, Comment: https://ubisoft-laforge.github.io/character/mosar/

[Abridged abstract] Large Language Models (LLMs) can solve some undergraduate-level to graduate-level physics textbook problems and are proficient at coding. Combining these two capabilities could one day enable AI systems to simulate and predict the physical world. We present an evaluation of state-of-the-art (SOTA) LLMs on PhD-level to research-level computational physics problems. We condition LLM generation on the use of well-documented and widely-used packages to elicit coding capabilities in the physics and astrophysics domains. We contribute $\sim 50$ original and challenging problems in celestial mechanics (with REBOUND), stellar physics (with MESA), 1D fluid dynamics (with Dedalus) and non-linear dynamics (with SciPy). Since our problems do not admit unique solutions, we evaluate LLM performance on several soft metrics: counts of lines that contain different types of errors (coding, physics, necessity and sufficiency) as well as a more "educational" Pass-Fail metric focused on capturing the salient physical ingredients of the problem at hand. As expected, today's SOTA LLM (GPT4) zero-shot fails most of our problems, although about 40\% of the solutions could plausibly get a passing grade. About $70-90 \%$ of the code lines produced are necessary, sufficient and correct (coding \& physics). Physics and coding errors are the most common, with some unnecessary or insufficient lines. We observe significant variations across problem class and difficulty. We identify several failure modes of GPT4 in the computational physics domain. Our reconnaissance work provides a snapshot of current computational capabilities in classical physics and points to obvious improvement targets if AI systems are ever to reach a basic level of autonomy in physics simulation capabilities., Comment: Accepted for publication in Physica Scripta. Abridged abstract. 15 pages + appendix, 1 figure. Comments are welcome

A total of 64 ATOMS sources at different evolutionary stages were selected to investigate the kinematics and dynamics of gas structures under feedback. We identified dense gas structures based on the integrated intensity map of H$^{13}$CO$^+$ J=1-0 emission, and then extracted the average spectra of all structures to investigate their velocity components and gas kinematics. For the scaling relations between velocity dispersion $\sigma$, effective radius $R$ and column density $N$ of all structures, $\sigma-N*R$ always has a stronger correlation compared to $\sigma-N$ and $\sigma-R$. There are significant correlations between velocity dispersion and column density, which may imply that the velocity dispersion originates from gravitational collapse, also revealed by the velocity gradients. The measured velocity gradients for dense gas structures in early-stage sources and late-stage sources are comparable, indicating gravitational collapse through all evolutionary stages. We quantitatively estimated the velocity dispersion generated by the outflows, inflows, ionized gas pressure and radiation pressure, and found that the ionized gas feedback is stronger than other feedback mechanisms. However, although feedback from HII regions is the strongest, it does not significantly affect the physical properties of the embedded dense gas structures. Combining with the conclusions in Zhou+2023 on cloud-clump scales, we suggest that although feedback from cloud to core scales will break up the original cloud complex, the substructures of the original complex can be reorganized into new gravitationally governed configurations around new gravitational centers. This process is accompanied by structural destruction and generation, and changes in gravitational centers, but gravitational collapse is always ongoing., Comment: 15 pages, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics

We have recently presented observational evidence which suggests that the origin of the second generation (G2) stars in globular clusters (GCs) is due to the binary-mediated collision of primordial (G1) low-mass main-sequence (MS) stars. This mechanism avoids both the mass budget problem and the need of external gas for dilution. Here, we report on another piece of evidence supporting this scenario: (1) the fraction of MS binaries is proportional to the fraction of G1 stars in GCs and, at the same time, (2) the smaller the fraction of G1 stars is, the more deficient binaries of higher mass ratio (q$>0.7$) are. They are, on average, harder than their smaller mass-ratio counterparts due to higher binding energy at a given primary mass. Then (2) implies that (1) is due to the merging\slash collisions of hard binaries rather than to their disruption. These new results complemented by the present-day data on binaries lead to the following conclusions: (i) the mass-ratio distribution of binaries, particularly short-period ones, with low-mass primaries, $M_{\rm P} < 1.5$ M$_{\sun}$, is strongly peaked close to q$=1.0$, whereas (ii) dynamical processes at high stellar density tend to destroy softer binaries and make hard (nearly) twin binaries to become even harder and favor their mergers and collisions. G2 stars formed this way gain mass that virtually doubles the primary one, $2M_{\rm P}$, at which the number of G1 stars is $\sim5$ times smaller than at $M_{\rm P}$ according to the slope of a Milky Way-like IMF at $M_{\rm MS} < 1.0$ M$_{\sun}$., Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure, 1 table; Accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

The detection of gravitational waves from a binary neutron star merger by Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo (GW170817), along with the discovery of the electromagnetic counterparts of this gravitational wave event, ushered in a new era of multimessenger astronomy, providing the first direct evidence that BNS mergers are progenitors of short gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Such events may also produce very-high-energy (VHE, > 100GeV) photons which have yet to be detected in coincidence with a gravitational wave signal. The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is a next-generation VHE observatory which aims to be indispensable in this search, with an unparalleled sensitivity and ability to slew anywhere on the sky within a few tens of seconds. New observing modes and follow-up strategies are being developed for CTA to rapidly cover localization areas of gravitational wave events that are typically larger than the CTA field of view. This work will evaluate and provide estimations on the expected number of of gravitational wave events that will be observable with CTA, considering both on- and off-axis emission. In addition, we will present and discuss the prospects of potential follow-up strategies with CTA., Comment: Presented at the 38th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC 2023), 2023 (arXiv:2309.08219)

We present observational evidence of the correlation between the high-mass slope of the stellar initial mass function (IMF) in young star clusters and their stellar surface density, $\sigma_{*}$. When the high-mass end of the IMF is described by a power law of the form $dN/d{\rm log}{M_{*}}\propto M_{*}^{-\Gamma}$, the value of $\Gamma$ is seen to weakly decrease with increasing $\sigma_{*}$, following a $\Gamma=1.31~\sigma_{*}^{-0.095}$ relation. We also present a model that can explain these observations. The model is based on the idea that the coalescence of protostellar cores in a protocluster forming clump is more efficient in high density environments where cores are more closely packed. The efficiency of the coalescence process is calculated as a function of the parental clump properties and in particular the relation between its mass and radius as well as its core formation efficiency. The main result of this model is that the increased efficiency of the coalescence process leads to shallower slopes of the IMF in agreement with the observations of young clusters, and the observations are best reproduced with compact protocluster forming clumps. These results have significant implications for the shape of the IMF in different Galactic and extragalactic environments and have very important consequences for galactic evolution., Comment: Accepted to ApJ

Stars are likely to form or to be captured in AGN disks. Their mass reaches an equilibrium when their rate of accretion is balanced by that of wind. If the exchanged gas is well mixed with the stellar core, this metabolic process would indefinitely sustain an "immortal" state on the main sequence (MS) and pollute the disk with He byproducts. This theoretical extrapolation is inconsistent with the super-solar {\alpha} element and Fe abundances inferred from the broad emission lines in active AGNs with modest He concentration. We show this paradox can be resolved with a highly-efficient retention of the He ashes or the suppression of chemical blending. The latter mechanism is robust in the geometrically-thin, dense, sub-pc regions of the disk where the embedded-stars' mass is limited by the gap-formation condition. These stars contain a radiative zone between their mass-exchange stellar surface and the nuclear-burning core. Insulation of the core lead to the gradual decrease of its H fuel and the stars' equilibrium masses. These stars transition to their post-main-sequence (PostMS) tracks on a chemical evolution time scale of a few Myr. Subsequently, the triple-{\alpha} and {\alpha}-chain reactions generate {\alpha} and Fe byproducts which are released into their natal disks. These PostMS stars also undergo core collapse, set off type II supernova, and leave behind a few solar-mass residual black holes or neutron stars, Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRAS

We investigate several panchromatic scaling relations (SRs) for the dwarf irregular galaxy NGC 1569 using IFU data from the Metal-THINGS Survey. Among the spatially resolved properties analyzed, we explore SRs between the stellar mass, SFR, molecular gas, total gas, baryonic mass, gas metallicity, gas fraction, SFE and effective oxygen yields. Such multiwavelength SRs are analyzed at a spatial resolution of 180 pc, by combining our IFU observations with data from the surveys THINGS, CARMA, and archival data from DustPedia. Although we recover several known relations, our slopes are different to previously reported ones. Our star formation main sequence, Kennicutt-Schmidt (KS) and molecular KS relations show higher SFRs, lower scatter, and higher correlations, with steeper (1.21), and flatter slopes (0.96, 0.58) respectively. The shape of the SRs including metallicity, stellar mass, and gas fraction are flat, with an average value of 12+log(O/H) $\sim$ 8.12 dex. The baryonic mass vs effective oxygen yields, and the stellar, gas and baryonic mass vs SFE show higher dispersions and lower correlations. Since we use the dust mass as a tracer of gas mass, we derive the Dust-to-Gas Ratio and the CO luminosity-to-molecular gas mass conversion factors, showing differences of 0.16 and 0.95 dex for the total and molecular gas surface density, respectively, in comparison to previously reported values. We use a self regulated feedback model to conclude that stellar feedback plays an important role generating outflows in NGC 1569.

The Southern Wide-field Gamma-ray Observatory (SWGO) is a project by scientists and engineers from 14 countries and 78 institutions to design and build the first wide-field, ground-based gamma-ray observatory in the Southern Hemisphere, with high duty cycle and covering an energy range rom hundreds of GeV to the PeV scale. The observatory will cover the Southern sky and aims to map the Galaxy's large-scale emission, as well as detecting transient and variable phenomena. The host sites under consideration are at a minimum altitude of 4400 m.a.s.l. and comprise two types: flat plateaus of at least 1 km$^{2}$ for the installation of an array of tank-based water Cherenkov detectors (WCD), or large natural lakes for the direct deployment of WCD units. Four South American countries proposed excellent sites to host the observatory meeting these requirements. Argentina proposed two locations in the Salta province, Bolivia presented one site in Chacaltaya, Chile two locations within the Atacama Astronomical Park, and Peru two ground-based locations in the Arequipa district as well as lakes in the Cuzco region. The SWGO collaboration is currently conducting a site characterization study, gathering all the necessary information for site shortlisting and final site selection by the end of 2023. The process has reached the shortlisting phase, in which primary and backup sites for each country have been identified. The primary sites were visited by a team of experts from the collaboration, to investigate and validate the proposed site characteristics. Here we present an update on these site selection activities., Comment: In Proceedings of the 2023 ICRC, Nagoya, Japan