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Aims: This paper aims to demonstrate the importance of short-exposure extreme ultraviolet (EUV) observations of solar flares in the study of particle acceleration, heating and energy partition in flares. This work highlights the observations now available from the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) instrument suite onboard Solar Orbiter while operating in short exposure mode. Methods: A selection of noteworthy flares observed simultaneously by the Spectrometer Telescope for Imaging X-rays (STIX) and the Full Sun Imager of EUI (EUI/FSI) are detailed. New insights are highlighted and potential avenues of investigation are demonstrated, including forward modelling the atmospheric response to a non-thermal beam of electrons using the RADYN 1D hydrodynamic code, in order to compare the predicted and observed EUV emission. Results: The examples given in this work demonstrate that short exposure EUI/FSI observations are providing important diagnostics during flares. A dataset of more than 9000 flares observed by STIX (from November 2022 until December 2023) with at least one short exposure EUI/FSI 174 \r{A} image is currently available. The observations reveal that the brightest parts of short-exposure observations consist of substructure in flaring ribbons which spatially overlap with the hard X-ray emission observed by STIX in the majority of cases. We show that these observations provide an opportunity to further constrain the electron energy flux required for flare modelling, among other potential applications., Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, accepted by A&A

The Sun's chromosphere is a critical region to understand when considering energy and mass deposition into the transition region and corona, but many of the smaller, faster events which transport a portion of this mass and energy are still difficult to observe, identify and model. Solar Spicules are small, spike-like events in the solar chromosphere that have the potential to transfer energy and mass to the transition region, but whose energetic origins are still being researched. Chromospheric spicule activity on-disk can be identified by observing temporary excursions in the red and blue wings of chromospheric emission lines. Researchers have demonstrated this in Hydrogen~Alpha (H{\alpha}, 6563 {\AA}), Ca II (8542 {\AA}, k 3934 {\AA}), Mg II (h 2803 {\AA}, k 2796 {\AA}), and Si IV (1394 {\AA}, 1405 {\AA}) spectral observations, with the vast majority of identification efforts focused on lower chromospheric observations of H$\alpha$ and Ca II. Because any spicules which deposit mass and energy into the transition region must necessarily pass through the upper chromosphere, observations from this region such as Mg II or Hydrogen Lyman Alpha (Ly$\alpha$ 1216 {\AA}) in enough quantity to perform proper statistics will be critical to fully characterizing spicules' impact on mass and energy transfer in the Sun. This research proposes a definition with numerical limits for how spicules appear in Mg II wavelengths, tunes an algorithm for automatically detecting spicules in Mg II spectral observations, and uses K Means Clustering to identify and display the full range of spicule spectrum shapes. This work will help allow statistical studies on spicules in the upper chromosphere to be as thorough as those of the lower chromosphere, allowing researchers to better understand the physical nature of spicules and their role in energy transfer and deposition in the solar atmosphere., Comment: Associated video file

The definition of generalized random processes in Gel'fand sense allows to extend well-known stochastic models, such as the fractional Brownian motion, and study the related fractional pde's, as well as stochastic differential equations in distributional sense. By analogy with the construction (in the infinite-dimensional white-noise space) of the latter, we introduce two processes defined by means of Hadamard-type fractional operators. When used to replace the time derivative in the governing p.d.e.'s, the Hadamard-type derivatives are usually associated with ultra-slow diffusions. On the other hand, in our construction, they directly determine the memory properties of the so-called Hadamard fractional Brownian motion (H-fBm) and its long-time behaviour. Still, for any finite time horizon, the H-fBm displays a standard diffusing feature. We then extend the definition of the H-fBm from the white noise space to an infinite dimensional grey-noise space built on the Le Roy measure, so that our model represents an alternative to the generalized grey Brownian motion. In this case, we prove that the one-dimensional distribution of the process satisfies a heat equation with non-constant coefficients and fractional Hadamard time-derivative. Finally, once proved the existence of the distributional derivative of the above defined processes and derived an integral formula for it, we construct an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck type process and evaluate its distribution., Comment: 30 pages

We consider a discrete-time Markovian random walk with resets on a connected undirected network. The resets, in which the walker is relocated to randomly chosen nodes, are governed by an independent discrete-time renewal process. Some nodes of the network are target nodes, and we focus on the statistics of first hitting of these nodes. In the non-Markov case of the renewal process, we consider both light- and fat-tailed inter-reset distributions. We derive the propagator matrix in terms of discrete backward recurrence time PDFs and in the light-tailed case we show the existence of a non-equilibrium steady state. In order to tackle the non-Markov scenario, we derive a defective propagator matrix which describes an auxiliary walk characterized by killing the walker as soon as it hits target nodes. This propagator provides the information on the mean first passage statistics to the target nodes. We establish sufficient conditions for ergodicity of the walk under resetting. Furthermore, we discuss a generic resetting mechanism for which the walk is non-ergodic. Finally, we analyze inter-reset time distributions with infinite mean where we focus on the Sibuya case. We apply these results to study the mean first passage times for Markovian and non-Markovian (Sibuya) renewal resetting protocols in realizations of Watts-Strogatz and Barab\'asi-Albert random graphs. We show non trivial behavior of the dependence of the mean first passage time on the proportions of the relocation nodes, target nodes and of the resetting rates. It turns out that, in the large-world case of the Watts-Strogatz graph, the efficiency of a random searcher particularly benefits from the presence of resets.

Real-time robot actuation is one of the main challenges to overcome in human-robot interaction. Most visual sensors are either too slow or their data are too complex to provide meaningful information and low latency input to a robotic system. Data output of an event camera is high-frequency and extremely lightweight, with only 8 bytes per event. To evaluate the hypothesis of using event cameras as data source for a real-time robotic system, the position of a waving hand is acquired from the event data and transmitted to a collaborative robot as a movement command. A total time delay of 110 ms was measured between the original movement and the robot movement, where much of the delay is caused by the robot dynamics., Comment: The 5th IFToMM ITALY Conference, IFIT 2024

The excess broadening of high-temperature spectral lines, long observed near the tops of flare arcades, is widely considered to result from magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence. According to different theories, plasma turbulence is also believed to be a candidate mechanism for particle acceleration during solar flares. However, the degree to which this broadening is connected to the acceleration of non-thermal electrons remains largely unexplored outside of recent work, and many observations have been limited by limited spatial resolution and cadence. Using the Interface Region Imaging Spectrometer (IRIS), we present spatially resolved observations of loop-top broadenings using hot (11MK) Fe XXI 1354.1 \r{A} line emission at ~9s cadence during the 2022 March 30 X1.3 flare. We find non-thermal velocities upwards of 65km/s that decay linearly with time, indicating the presence and subsequent dissipation of plasma turbulence. Moreover, the initial Fe XXI signal was found to be co-spatial and co-temporal with microwave emission measured by the Expanded Owens Valley Solar Array (EOVSA), placing a population of non-thermal electrons in the same region as the loop-top turbulence. Evidence of electron acceleration at this time is further supported by hard X-ray measurements from the Spectrometer/Telescope for Imaging X-rays (STIX) aboard Solar Orbiter. Using the decay of non-thermal broadenings as a proxy for turbulent dissipation, we found the rate of energy dissipation to be consistent with the power of non-thermal electrons deposited into the chromosphere, suggesting a possible connection between turbulence and electron acceleration.

The Solar eruptioN Integral Field Spectrograph (SNIFS) is a solar-gazing spectrograph scheduled to fly in the summer of 2025 on a NASA sounding rocket. Its goal is to view the solar chromosphere and transition region at a high cadence (1s) both spatially (0.5") and spectrally (33 m{\AA}) viewing wavelengths around Lyman Alpha (1216 {\AA}), Si iii (1206 {\AA}) and O v (1218 {\AA}) to observe spicules, nanoflares, and possibly a solar flare. This time cadence will provide yet-unobserved detail about fast-changing features of the Sun. The instrument is comprised of a Gregorian-style reflecting telescope combined with a spectrograph via a specialized mirrorlet array that focuses the light from each spatial location in the image so that it may be spectrally dispersed without overlap from neighboring locations. This paper discusses the driving science, detailed instrument and subsystem design, and pre-integration testing of the SNIFS instrument., Comment: 22 pages (not including references), 7 figures, submitting to Solar Physics

The recent detection of gravitational waves (GWs) by pulsar timing array (PTA) collaborations spurred a variety of questions regarding the origin of the signal and the properties of its sources. The amplitude of a GW background produced by inspiralling supermassive black holes (SMBHs) can be predicted in a relatively robust manner from the present-day merged remnants, observed as single SMBHs at the centers of galaxies, but falls short of the signal measured by PTAs by a significant amount, requiring equal mass mergers, extremely short delay times, and no accretion in order to achieve a modest consistency. In this work, we revisit NANOGrav's 15-yr data set and reassess the aforementioned discrepancy using the full spectral information captured by PTA data. As previously noted in the literature, the discrete number of point sources contributing to the background may lead to deviations in the observed spectrum relative to the average ($h^2_c \propto f^{-4/3}$) due to Poisson fluctuations, providing additional information about the source population beyond the background amplitude. We derive a simple expression for the characteristic strain distribution given a SMBH model, which is generally applicable regardless of the method used to model the black hole population. We then refit the NANOGrav free spectrum using a minimal model based on the local mass function, showing that the current GW measurement requires roughly $\sim 10$ times more black holes than suggested by local observations and disfavors mass functions dominated by few very heavy sources, with the typical mass that contributes to the background $\lesssim 10^{10}M_{\odot}$. Given the range of SMBH models found to be consistent with the isotropic background, we address what is the typical number sources that would be individually detectable, given the current sensitivity., Comment: 21 pages, 13 figures

Solar flare ribbon fronts appear ahead of the bright structures that normally characterise solar flares, and can persist for an extended period of time in spatially localised patches before transitioning to `regular' bright ribbons. They likely represent the initial onset of flare energy deposition into the chromosphere. Chromospheric spectra (e.g. He I 10830A and the Mg II near-UV lines) from ribbon fronts exhibit properties rather different to typical flare behaviour. In prior numerical modelling efforts we were unable to reproduce the long lifetime of ribbon fronts. Here we present a series of numerical experiments that are rather simple but which have important implications. We inject a very low flux of nonthermal electrons ($F = 5\times10^{8}$ erg s$^{-1}$ cm$^{-2}$) into the chromosphere for 100 s before ramping up to standard flare energy fluxes $(F = 10^{10-11}$ erg s$^{-1}$ cm$^{-2}$). Synthetic spectra not only sustained their ribbon front-like properties for significantly longer, in the case of harder nonthermal electron spectra the ribbon front behaviour persisted for the entirety of this weak-heating phase. Lengthening or shortening the duration of the weak-heating phase commensurately lengthened or shortened the ribbon front lifetimes. Ribbon fronts transitioned to regular bright ribbons when the upper chromosphere became sufficiently hot and dense, which happened faster for softer nonthermal electron spectra. Thus, the lifetime of flare ribbon fronts are a direct measure of the duration over which a relatively low flux of high energy electrons precipitates to the chromosphere prior to the bombardment of a much larger energy flux., Comment: Accepted in the Astrophysical Journal

The power spectrum and voxel intensity distribution (VID) are two summary statistics that can be applied to condense the information encoded in line-intensity maps. The information contained in both summary statistics is highly complementary, and their combination allows for a major increase in precision of parameter estimation from line-intensity mapping (LIM) surveys. Until recently, combination of these statistics required simulation-based estimations of their covariance. In this work we leverage an analytical model of covariance between these observables to run a joint Fisher forecast focusing on the CO(1-0) rotational line targeted by the COMAP survey and a wider, shallower hypothetical iteration. We consider a generalized phenomenological non-CDM model, models with axion dark matter, and local primordial non-Gaussianity, to highlight where a combined analysis of the power spectrum and VID can be most useful. Our results demonstrate improvements in sensitivity to beyond-$\Lambda$CDM physics over analyses using either the power spectrum or VID on their own, by factors ranging from 2 to 50, showcasing the potential of joint analyses in unlocking new insights into fundamental physics with LIM surveys., Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures; comments welcome

We present a class of positive discrete random variables extending the Conway--Maxwell-Poisson distribution. This class emerges in a natural way from an application in queueing theory and contains distributions exhibiting quite different features. Some of these distributions are characterized by the presence of Bernstein and inverse Bernstein functions. As a byproduct, we give some results on these inverses for which the existing literature is limited. Moreover, we investigate dispersion properties for these count data models, giving necessary and/or sufficient conditions to obtain both over and underdispersion. We also provide neat expressions for the factorial moments of any order. This furnishes us with a compact form also in the case of the Conway--Maxwell-Poisson.

We consider three kinds of discrete-time arrival processes: transient, intermediate and recurrent, characterized by a finite, possibly finite and infinite number of events, respectively. In this context, we study renewal processes which are stopped at the first event of a further independent renewal process whose inter-arrival time distribution can be defective. If this is the case, the resulting arrival process is of an intermediate nature. For non-defective absorbing times, the resulting arrival process is transient, i.e.\ stopped almost surely. For these processes we derive finite time and asymptotic properties. We apply these results to biased and unbiased random walks on the d-dimensional infinite lattice and as a special case on the two-dimensional triangular lattice. We study the spatial propagator of the walker and its large time asymptotics. In particular, we observe the emergence of a superdiffusive (ballistic) behavior in the case of biased walks. For geometrically distributed stopping times, the propagator converges to a stationary non-equilibrium steady state (NESS), which is universal in the sense that it is independent of the stopped process. In dimension one, for both light- and heavy-tailed step distributions, the NESS has an integral representation involving alpha-stable distributions.

Aims: This work aims to identify the mechanism driving pulsations in hard X-ray (HXR) and microwave emission during solar flares. Here, by using combined HXR and microwave observations from Solar Orbiter/STIX and EOVSA we investigate an X1.3 GOES class flare, 2022-03-30T17:21:00, which displays pulsations on timescales evolving from ~ 7 s in the impulsive phase to ~ 35 s later in the flare. Methods: The temporal, spatial and spectral evolution of the HXR and microwave pulsations during the impulsive phase of the flare are analysed. Images are reconstructed for individual peaks in the impulsive phase and spectral fitting is performed at high cadence throughout the first phase of pulsations. Results: Imaging analysis demonstrates that the HXR and microwave emission originates from multiple sites along the flare ribbons. The brightest sources and the location of the emission changes in time. Through HXR spectral analysis, the electron spectral index is found to be anti-correlated with the HXR flux showing a "soft-hard-soft" spectral index evolution for each pulsation. The timing of the associated filament eruption coincides with the early impulsive phase. Conclusions: Our results indicate that periodic acceleration and/or injection of electrons from multiple sites along the flare arcade is responsible for the pulsations observed in HXR and microwave. The evolution of pulsation timescales is likely a result of changes in the 3D magnetic field configuration in time related to the associated filament eruption., Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, accepted by A&A

We consider the open problem concerning the possible lack of concentration of the degree distribution in preferential attachment graphs with random initial degree, when its distribution is characterized by extremely heavy tails of power-law type. We show that the addition of such a large number of edges causes a significant upset of the degree distribution, leading to its non-concentration. Furthermore, we show that the smallest value of the exponent for which the degree distribution exhibits concentration is 2.

Multiple pulsar timing array (PTA) collaborations have recently reported the first detection of gravitational waves (GWs) of nanohertz frequencies. The signal is expected to be primarily sourced by inspiralling supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs) and these first results are broadly consistent with the expected GW spectrum from such a population. Curiously, the measured amplitude of the GW background in all announced results is a bit larger than theoretical predictions. In this work, we show that the amplitude of the stochastic gravitational wave background (SGWB) predicted from the present-day abundance of SMBHs derived from local scaling relations is significantly smaller than that measured by the PTAs. We demonstrate that this difference cannot be accounted for through changes in the merger history of SMBHs and that there is an upper limit to the boost to the characteristic strain from multiple merger events, due to the fact that they involve black holes of decreasing masses. If we require the current estimate of the black hole mass density -- equal to the integrated quasar luminosity function through the classic Soltan argument -- to be preserved, then the currently measured PTA result would imply that the typical total mass of SMBHs contributing to the background should be at least $\sim 3 \times 10^{10} M_\odot$, a factor of $\sim 10$ larger than previously predicted. The required space density of such massive black holes corresponds to order $10$ $3 \times 10^{10} M_\odot$ SMBHs within the volume accessible by stellar and gas dynamical SMBH measurements. By virtue of the GW signal being dominated by the massive end of the SMBH distribution, PTA measurements offer a unique window into such rare objects and complement existing electromagnetic observations., Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures

Pulsar-timing collaborations have recently reported evidence for the detection of an isotropic stochastic gravitational-wave background consistent with one sourced by a population of inspiralling supermassive black hole binaries. However, a certain degree of anisotropy and polarization may be present. Thus, the characterization of the energy density and polarization of the background at different angular scales is important. In this paper, we describe the signatures of linear polarization in the stochastic gravitational-wave background on the timing residuals obtained with pulsar-timing arrays. We expand the linear polarization map in terms of spin-weighted spherical harmonics and recast it into the $E$-mode (parity even) and $B$-mode (parity odd) basis. We provide expressions for the minimum-variance estimators for the coefficients of that expansion and evaluate the smallest detectable signal as a function of the signal-to-noise ratio with which the isotropic GW signal is detected and the number of pulsars in the survey. We evaluate the covariance between the estimators for the spherical-harmonic coefficients of the linear polarization $E$-modes and those for the intensity anisotropy. We also show that there is no covariance between the spherical-harmonic coefficients for the $B$-modes of the linear polarization and those for the circular polarization, even though both have the same parity. Our approach results in simple, elegant, and easily evaluated expressions for the overlap reduction functions for linear polarization., Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures. All comments are welcome

Here we present the study of a compact emission source during an X1.3 flare on 2022-March-30. Within a $\sim41$~s period (17:34:48 UT to 17:35:29 UT), IRIS observations show spectral lines of Mg II, C II and Si IV with extremely broadened, asymmetric red-wings. This source of interest (SOI) is compact, $\sim$ 1\arcsec.6, and is located in the wake of a passing ribbon. Two methods were applied to measure the Doppler velocities associated with these red wings: spectral moments and multi-Gaussian fits. The spectral moments method considers the averaged shift of the lines, which are 85 km s$^{-1}$, 125 km s$^{-1}$ and 115 km s$^{-1}$ for the Mg II, C II and Si IV lines respectively. The red-most Gaussian fit suggests a Doppler velocity up to $\sim$160 km s$^{-1}$ in all of the three lines. Downward mass motions with such high speeds are very atypical, with most chromospheric downflows in flares on the order 10-100 km s$^{-1}$. Furthermore, EUV emission is strong within flaring loops connecting two flare ribbons located mainly to the east of the central flare region. The EUV loops that connect the SOI and its counterpart source in the opposite field are much less brightened, indicating that the density and/or temperature is comparatively low. These observations suggest a very fast downflowing plasma in transition region and upper chromosphere, that decelerates rapidly since there is no equivalently strong shift of the O I chromospheric lines. This unusual observation presents a challenge that models of the solar atmosphere's response to flares must be able to explain., Comment: accepted, ApJ

In object-oriented languages, method visibility modifiers hold a key role in separating internal methods from the public API. Protected visibility modifiers offer a way to hide methods from external objects while authorizing internal use and overriding in subclasses. While present in main statically-typed languages, visibility modifiers are not as common or mature in dynamically-typed languages. In this article, we present ProtDyn, a self-send-based visibility model calculated at compile time for dynamically-typed languages relying on name-mangling and syntactic differentiation of self vs non self sends. We present #Pharo, a ProtDyn implementation of this model that is backwards compatible with existing programs, and its port to Python. Using these implementations we study the performance impact of ProtDyn on the method lookup, in the presence of global lookup caches and polymorphic inline caches. We show that our name mangling and double method registration technique has a very low impact on performance and keeps the benefits from the global lookup cache and polymorphic inline cache. We also show that the memory overhead on a real use case is between 2% and 13% in the worst-case scenario. Protected modifier semantics enforces encapsulation such as private but allow developers to still extend the class in subclasses. ProtDyn offers a VM-agnostic and backwards-compatible design to introduce protected semantics in dynamically-typed languages.

Anisotropies in the nanohertz gravitational-wave background are a compelling next target for pulsar timing arrays (PTAs). Measurements or informative upper limits to the anisotropies are expected in the near future and can offer important clues about the origin of the background and the properties of the sources. Given that each source is expected (in the simplest scenario of circular inspirals) to emit at a fixed frequency, the anisotropy will most generally vary from one frequency to another. The main result presented in this work is an analytical model for the anisotropies produced by a population of inspiralling supermassive black-hole binaries (SMBHBs). This model can be immediately connected with parametrizations of the SMBHB mass function and can be easily expanded to account for new physical processes taking place within the PTA frequency band. We show that a variety of SMBHB models predict significant levels of anistropy at the highest frequencies accessible to PTA observations and that measurements of anisotropies can offer new information regarding this population beyond the isotropic component. We also model the impact of additional dynamical effects driving the binary towards merger and show that, if these processes are relevant within the PTA band, the detectability of anisotropies relative to the isotropic background will be enhanced. Finally, we use the formalism presented in this work to predict the level anisotropy of the circular and linear polarizations of the SGWB due to the distribution of binary orientation angles with respect to the line of sight., Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures

The Slow Solar Wind Connection Solar Orbiter Observing Plan (Slow Wind SOOP) was developed to utilise the extensive suite of remote sensing and in situ instruments on board the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter mission to answer significant outstanding questions regarding the origin and formation of the slow solar wind. The Slow Wind SOOP was designed to link remote sensing and in situ measurements of slow wind originating at open-closed field boundaries. The SOOP ran just prior to Solar Orbiter's first close perihelion passage during two remote sensing windows (RSW1 and RSW2) between 2022 March 3-6 and 2022 March 17-22, while Solar Orbiter was at a heliocentric distance of 0.55-0.51 and 0.38-0.34 au from the Sun, respectively. Coordinated observation campaigns were also conducted by Hinode and IRIS. The magnetic connectivity tool was used, along with low latency in situ data, and full-disk remote sensing observations, to guide the target pointing of Solar Orbiter. Solar Orbiter targeted an active region complex during RSW1, the boundary of a coronal hole, and the periphery of a decayed active region during RSW2. Post-observation analysis using the magnetic connectivity tool along with in situ measurements from MAG and SWA/PAS, show that slow solar wind, with velocities between 210 and 600 km/s, arrived at the spacecraft originating from two out of the three of the target regions. The Slow Wind SOOP, despite presenting many challenges, was very successful, providing a blueprint for planning future observation campaigns that rely on the magnetic connectivity of Solar Orbiter., Comment: 24 pages, 10 figures

Line-intensity mapping (LIM) is an emerging technique to probe the large-scale structure of the Universe. By targeting the integrated intensity of specific spectral lines, it captures the emission from all sources and is sensitive to the astrophysical processes that drive galaxy evolution. Relating these processes to the underlying distribution of matter introduces observational and theoretical challenges, such as observational contamination and highly non-Gaussian fields, which motivate the use of simulations to better characterize the signal. In this work we present SkyLine, a computational framework to generate realistic mock LIM observations that include observational features and foreground contamination, as well as a variety of self-consistent tracer catalogs. We apply our framework to generate realizations of LIM maps from the MultiDark Planck 2 simulations coupled to the UniverseMachine galaxy formation model. We showcase the potential of our scheme by exploring the voxel intensity distribution and the power spectrum of emission lines such as 21 cm, CO, CII, and Lyman-$\alpha$, their mutual cross-correlations, and cross-correlations with galaxy clustering. We additionally present cross-correlations between LIM and sub-millimeter extragalactic tracers of large-scale structure such as the cosmic infrared background and the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect, as well as quantify the impact of galactic foregrounds, line interlopers and instrument noise on LIM observations. These simulated products will be crucial in quantifying the true information content of LIM surveys and their cross-correlations in the coming decade, and to develop strategies to overcome the impact of contaminants and maximize the scientific return from LIM experiments., Comment: 16+1 pages, 12 figures. Code and fiducial lightcones available at https://github.com/kokron/skyLine . Reflects published version