Search

JWST observations of the young Galactic supernova remnant Cassiopeia A revealed an unexpected structure seen as a green emission feature in colored composite MIRI F1130W and F1280W images—hence dubbed the Green Monster—that stretches across the central parts of the remnant in projection. Combining the kinematic information from NIRSpec and the MIRI Medium Resolution Spectrograph with the multiwavelength imaging from NIRCam and MIRI, we associate the Green Monster with circumstellar material (CSM) that was lost during an asymmetric mass-loss phase. MIRI images are dominated by dust emission, but their spectra show emission lines from Ne, H, and Fe with low radial velocities indicative of a CSM nature. An X-ray analysis of this feature in a companion paper supports its CSM nature and detects significant blueshifting, thereby placing the Green Monster on the nearside, in front of the Cas A supernova remnant. The most striking features of the Green Monster are dozens of almost perfectly circular 1″–3″ sized holes, most likely created by interaction between high-velocity supernova ejecta material and the CSM. Further investigation is needed to understand whether these holes were formed by small 8000–10,500 km s ^−1 N-rich ejecta knots that penetrated and advanced out ahead of the remnant’s 5000–6000 km s ^−1 outer blast wave or by narrow ejecta fingers that protrude into the forward-shocked CSM. The detection of the Green Monster provides further evidence of the highly asymmetric mass loss that Cas A’s progenitor star underwent prior to its explosion.

We present initial results from a James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) survey of the youngest Galactic core-collapse supernova remnant, Cassiopeia A (Cas A), made up of NIRCam and MIRI imaging mosaics that map emission from the main shell, interior, and surrounding circumstellar/interstellar material (CSM/ISM). We also present four exploratory positions of MIRI Medium Resolution Spectrograph integral field unit spectroscopy that sample ejecta, CSM, and associated dust from representative shocked and unshocked regions. Surprising discoveries include (1) a weblike network of unshocked ejecta filaments resolved to ∼0.01 pc scales exhibiting an overall morphology consistent with turbulent mixing of cool, low-entropy matter from the progenitor’s oxygen layer with hot, high-entropy matter heated by neutrino interactions and radioactivity; (2) a thick sheet of dust-dominated emission from shocked CSM seen in projection toward the remnant’s interior pockmarked with small (∼1″) round holes formed by ≲0.″1 knots of high-velocity ejecta that have pierced through the CSM and driven expanding tangential shocks; and (3) dozens of light echoes with angular sizes between ∼0.″1 and 1′ reflecting previously unseen fine-scale structure in the ISM. NIRCam observations place new upper limits on infrared emission (≲20 nJy at 3 μ m) from the neutron star in Cas A’s center and tightly constrain scenarios involving a possible fallback disk. These JWST survey data and initial findings help address unresolved questions about massive star explosions that have broad implications for the formation and evolution of stellar populations, the metal and dust enrichment of galaxies, and the origin of compact remnant objects.

Supernova (SN) 1987A is one of the best candidates to exploit the capabilities of the freshly launched XRISM satellite. This celestial object offers the unique opportunity to study the evolution of an SN into a young supernova remnant. To date, the X-ray emission has been dominated by the shocked circumstellar medium, with no shocked ejecta firmly detected. However, recent studies provide compelling evidence that in the forthcoming years, the X-ray emission from SN 1987A will increasingly stem from the ejecta. Our aim is to assess the proficiency of the XRISM-Resolve high-resolution spectrometer in pinpointing signatures of the shocked ejecta in SN 1987A. Taking advantage of a self-consistent state-of-the-art magneto-hydrodynamic simulation that describes the evolution from SN 1987A to its remnant, we synthesized the XRISM-Resolve spectrum of SN 1987A, as it would be collected in the allocated observation during the performance verification phase, which is foreseen for 2024. Our predictions clearly show the leading role of shocked ejecta in shaping the profile of the emission lines. The Doppler broadening associated with the bulk motion along the line of sight of the rapidly expanding ejecta is shown to increase the line widths well above the values observed so far. The quantitative comparison between our synthetic spectra and the XRISM spectra will enable us to establish a strong connection between the broadened line emission and the freshly shocked ejecta. This, in turn, will allow us to retrieve the ejecta dynamics and chemical composition from the X-ray emission.

Il contributo introduce i primi risultati di una ricerca sullo sviluppo e la pratica dell’abilità di scrittura nell’ambito dei manuali di italiano L2 che hanno per destinatario un pubblico di adulti e giovani adulti. L’obiettivo è quello di evidenziare come e in quale misura i manuali rispondano ai bisogni linguistico-comunicativi degli apprendenti e li aiutino a imparare a produrre testi scritti in L2, abilità che spesso viene posta in secondo piano in seno ai più moderni approcci e metodi glottodidattici, maggiormente focalizzati sull’oralità e sulla comprensione scritta. Dopo la ricostruzione del quadro teorico delle diverse interpretazioni della scrittura in L2 e delle conseguenti ricadute didattiche, viene presentata la scheda SAMIL2-Scrittura, uno strumento di indagine validato da un gruppo di docenti esperti di italiano L2, finalizzato all’analisi dei manuali, in particolare dei modelli testuali, delle riflessioni metalinguistiche, delle attività proposti per la scrittura. Il campione di manuali analizzato, dal livello A1 al C2, ha consentito di mettere in evidenza alcuni elementi chiave come i generi testuali più ricorrenti, i tipi di compiti di scrittura richiesti all’apprendente, la collocazione delle attività di scrittura nell’unità didattica e lo spazio a loro riservato, la congruenza dei task rispetto al livello di competenza del QCER e ai sillabi di italiano L2. Learning and performing writing: the tasks of textbooks of Italian as L2 to develop the writing skill The paper presents the first results of a research on the development and practice of writing skills in the Italian as L2 textbooks addressed to adults. The goal is to highlight how and to what extent textbooks are able to respond to the linguistic and communicative needs of learners and if they help them to learn to write a text in a second language, skill that is often overlooked in modern approaches and methods, focused mainly on oral skills and reading comprehension. After an introduction to the theoretical framework of different interpretations of writing in L2 and of the teaching consequences, SAMIL2-Scrittura will be introduced, a research tool validated by a group of skilled teachers of Italian L2, created to analyze textbooks, in particular text models, explanations, and tasks to develop and practice writing. The sample of textbooks analyzed, from A1 to C2 level, will let us point out a few key elements, such as the main textual genres, the kinds of writing tasks, the position of the writing tasks in the unit and their role, the consistency of the tasks with the levels of the CEFR and the syllabuses of Italian L2.

The evolution of aircraft wing development has seen significant progress since the early days of aviation, with static testing emerging as a crucial aspect for ensuring safety and reliability. This study focused specifically on the engineering phase of static testing for the Clean Sky 2 T-WING project, which is dedicated to testing the innovative composite wing of the Next-Generation Civil Tiltrotor Technology Demonstrator. During the design phase, critical load cases were identified through shear force/bending moment (SFBM) and failure mode analyses. To qualify the wing, an engineering team designed a dedicated test rig equipped with hydraulic jacks to mirror the SFBM diagrams. Adhering to specifications and geometric constraints due to several factors, the jacks aimed to minimize the errors (within 5%) in replicating the diagrams. An effective algorithm, spanning five phases, was employed to pinpoint the optimal configuration. This involved analyzing significant components, conducting least square linear optimizations, selecting solutions that met the directional constraints, analyzing the Pareto front solutions, and evaluating the external jack forces. The outcome was a test rig setup with a viable set of hydraulic jack forces, achieving precise SFBM replication on the wing with minimal jacks and overall applied forces.

This study addresses the crucial role of post-buckling behavior analysis in the structural design of composite aeronautical structures. Traditional engineering practices tend to result in oversized composite components, increasing structural weight. EASA AMC 20-29’s Building Block Approach suggests phased testing, but its time and cost challenges necessitate a shift to high-fidelity post-buckling analyses, exemplified by MSC NASTRAN SOL 400. This approach, showcased in the analysis of the Next Generation Civil Tilt Rotor Technology Demonstrator’s wing (NGTCTR-TD), effectively de-risks static tests, contributing to a more efficient certification process. The study demonstrates how advanced simulations provide detailed insights into local buckling phenomena, allowing precise stress distribution analysis. These analyses eliminate the risk of structural failure, paving the way for safer, more efficient, and cost-effective airframe structures. Future developments aim to validate numerical analyses with experimental data, further emphasizing the reliability and benefits of high-fidelity simulations.

L’a. analizza le disposizioni della direttiva copyright nel mercato unico digitale (direttiva (UE) 2019/790: CDSMD) relative alla c.d. eccezione di Text and Data Mining al fine di stabilire se per consentire le attività tecniche implicate dalle operazioni di “estrazione di testi e di dati” (TDM) ci sia sempre e necessariamente bisogno o di una eccezione o di una licenza come contemplato dagli artt. 3 e 4 CDSMD. Sulla base di una interpretazione in linea con la più recente giurisprudenza della Corte di Giustizia dell’Unione europea sulla nozione di riproduzione (in particolare il caso Pelham), l’a. argomenta per la conclusione negativa, affermando che la riproduzione di dati leggibili solo dagli elaboratori (machine readable data) non comporta un’attività di riproduzione o di estrazione riservata dai diritti menzionati negli artt. 3 e 4 CDSMD. L’a. osserva dunque che le attività di analisi automatizzata di testi e di dati in formato digitale (ossia le attività di TDM, secondo la relativa definizione), avendo ad oggetto normalmente dati leggibili solo dagli elaboratori non comportano nemmeno ordinariamente un problema di interferenza con i diritti considerati dagli artt. 3 e 4 della direttiva (UE) 2019/790. L’a. ulteriormente argomenta che nel diritto della UE i “dati” non formano oggetto dei diritti di riproduzione ed estrazione menzionati nella direttiva in commento né di altri diritti di proprietà intellettuale. Su queste basi, l’a. conclude affermando l’inesistenza di un diritto esclusivo di TDM.

The ranking pipelines of modern search platforms commonly exploit complex machine-learned models and have a significant impact on the query response time. In this paper, we discuss several techniques to speed up the document scoring process based on large ensembles of decision trees without hindering ranking quality. Specifically, we study the problem of document early exit within the framework of a cascading ranker made of three components: 1) an efficient but sub-optimal ranking stage; 2) a pruner that exploits signals from the previous component to force the early exit of documents classified as not relevant; and 3) a final high-quality component aimed at finely ranking the documents that survived the previous phase. To maximize speedup and preserve effectiveness, we aim to increase the accuracy of the pruner in identifying non-relevant documents without early exiting documents that are likely to be ranked among the final top- $k$ results. We propose an in-depth study of heuristic and machine-learning techniques for designing the pruner. While the heuristic technique only exploits the score/ranking information supplied by the first sub-optimal ranker, the machine-learned solution named LEAR uses these signals as additional features along with those representing query-document pairs. Moreover, we study alternative solutions to implement the first ranker, either a small prefix of the original forest or an auxiliary machine-learned ranker explicitly trained for this purpose. We evaluated our techniques through reproducible experiments using publicly available datasets and state-of-the-art competitors. The experiments confirm that our early-exit strategies achieve speedups ranging from $3\times $ to $10\times $ without statistically significant differences in effectiveness.

The maximum energy of electrons in supernova remnant (SNR) shocks is typically limited by radiative losses, where the synchrotron cooling time equals the acceleration time. The low speed of shocks in a dense medium increases the acceleration time, leading to lower maximum electron energies and fainter X-ray emissions. However, in Kepler’s SNR, an enhanced electron acceleration, which proceeds close to the Bohm limit, occurs in the north of its shell, where the shock is slowed by a dense circumstellar medium (CSM). To investigate whether this scenario still holds at smaller scales, we analyzed the temporal evolution of the X-ray synchrotron flux in filamentary structures using the two deepest Chandra/ACIS X-ray observations, performed in 2006 and 2014. We examined spectra from different filaments, measured their proper motion, and calculated the acceleration to synchrotron timescale ratios. The interaction with the turbulent and dense northern CSM induces competing effects on electron acceleration: on one hand, turbulence reduces the electron mean free path enhancing the acceleration efficiency, and on the other hand, lower shock velocities increase the acceleration timescale. In most filaments, these effects compensate each other, but in one region, the acceleration timescale exceeds the synchrotron timescale, resulting in a significant decrease in nonthermal X-ray emission from 2006 to 2014, indicating fading synchrotron emission. Our findings provide a coherent understanding of the different regimes of electron acceleration observed in Kepler’s SNR through various diagnostics.

By using surface brightness maps of Tycho’s supernova remnant (SNR) in radio and X-rays, along with the properties of thermal and synchrotron emission, we have derived the postshock density and magnetic field (MF) strength distributions over the projection of this remnant. Our analysis reveals a density gradient oriented toward the northwest, while the MF strength gradient aligns with the Galactic plane, pointing eastward. Additionally, utilizing this MF map, we have derived the spatial distributions of the cutoff frequency and maximum energy of electrons in Tycho’s SNR. We further comment on the implications of these findings for interpreting the gamma-ray emission from Tycho’s SNR.

Based on our Chandra imaging-spectroscopic observations, we present the latest evolution of the X-ray remnant of SN 1987A. Recent changes in the electron temperatures and volume emission measures suggest that the blast wave in SN 1987A is moving out of the dense inner ring structure, also called the equatorial ring (ER). The 0.5–2.0 keV X-ray light curve shows a linearly declining trend (by ∼4.5% yr ^−1 ) between 2016 and 2020 as the blast wave heats the hitherto unknown circumstellar medium (CSM) outside the ER. While the peak X-ray emission in the latest 0.3–8.0 keV image is still within the ER, the radial expansion rate in the 3.0–8.0 keV images suggests an increasing contribution of the X-ray emission from less dense CSM since 2012, at least partly from beyond the ER. It is remarkable that, since 2020, the declining soft X-ray flux has stabilized around ∼7 × 10 ^−12 erg s ^−1 cm ^−2 , which may signal a contribution from the reverse-shocked outer layers of ejecta as predicted by the three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic models. In the latest ACIS spectrum of supernova remnant 1987A in 2022 we report a significant detection of the Fe K line at ∼6.7 keV, which may be due to changing thermal conditions of the X-ray emitting CSM and/or the onset of reverse shock interactions with the Fe ejecta.

To investigate the impact of matter mixing on the formation of molecules in the ejecta of SN 1987A, time-dependent rate equations for chemical reactions are solved for one-zone and one-dimensional (1D) ejecta models of SN 1987A. The latter models are based on the 1D profiles obtained by angle-averaging of the three-dimensional (3D) hydrodynamical models, which effectively reflect the 3D matter mixing; the impact is demonstrated, for the first time, based on 3D hydrodynamical models. The distributions of initial seed atoms and radioactive ^56 Ni influenced by the mixing could affect the formation of molecules. By comparing the calculations for spherical cases and for several specified directions in the bipolar-like explosions in the 3D hydrodynamical models, the impact is discussed. The decay of ^56 Ni, practically ^56 Co at later phases, could heat the gas and delay the molecule formation. Additionally, Compton electrons produced by the decay could ionize atoms and molecules and could destroy molecules. Several chemical reactions involved with ions such as H ^+ and He ^+ could also destroy molecules. The mixing of ^56 Ni plays a nonnegligible role in both the formation and destruction of molecules through the processes above. The destructive processes of carbon monoxide and silicon monoxide due to the decay of ^56 Ni generally reduce the amounts. However, if the molecule formation is sufficiently delayed under a certain condition, the decay of ^56 Ni could locally increase the amounts through a sequence of reactions.

It is known that cosmic rays could be accelerated by shock waves in supernova (SN) remnants. Here, the authors show that SN 1006 remnant is an efficient source of cosmic rays, providing observational support for the quasi-parallel acceleration mechanism.

Abstract Machine learning algorithms, however effective, are known to be vulnerable in adversarial scenarios where a malicious user may inject manipulated instances. In this work, we focus on evasion attacks, where a model is trained in a safe environment and exposed to attacks at inference time. The attacker aims at finding a perturbation of an instance that changes the model outcome.We propose a model-agnostic strategy that builds a robust ensemble by training its basic models on feature-based partitions of the given dataset. Our algorithm guarantees that the majority of the models in the ensemble cannot be affected by the attacker. We apply the proposed strategy to decision tree ensembles, and we also propose an approximate certification method for tree ensembles that efficiently provides a lower bound of the accuracy of a forest in the presence of attacks on a given dataset avoiding the costly computation of evasion attacks.Experimental evaluation on publicly available datasets shows that the proposed feature partitioning strategy provides a significant accuracy improvement with respect to competitor algorithms and that the proposed certification method allows ones to accurately estimate the effectiveness of a classifier where the brute-force approach would be unfeasible.

Observations collected with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and analysis of broadband X-ray spectra have recently suggested the presence of a central compact object (CCO) in SN 1987A. However, no direct evidence of the CCO has been found yet. Here we analyze Chandra X-ray observations of SN 1987A collected in 2007 and 2018, and synthesize 2027 Chandra and 2037 Lynx spectra of the faint inner region of SN 1987A. We estimate the temporal evolution of the upper limits of the intrinsic luminosity of the putative CCO in three epochs (2018, 2027, and 2037). We find that these upper limits are higher for higher neutron star (NS) kick velocities due to increased absorption from the surrounding cold ejecta. We compare NS cooling models with both the intrinsic luminosity limits obtained from the X-ray spectra and the ALMA constraints with the assumption that the observed blob of SN 1987A is primarily heated by thermal emission. We find that the synthetic Lynx spectra are crucial to constrain the physical properties of the CCO, which will be confirmed by future observations in the 2040s. We draw our conclusions based on two scenarios, namely the nondetection and detection of the NS by Lynx. If the NS is not detected, its kick velocity should be ≃700 km s ^−1 . Furthermore, nondetection of the NS would suggest rapid cooling processes at the age of 40 yr, implying strong crust superfluidity. Conversely, in the case of NS detection, the mass of the NS envelope must be high.

Topic modeling algorithms are statistical methods that aim to discover the topics running through the text documents. Using topic models in machine learning and text mining is popular due to its applicability in inferring the latent topic structure of a corpus. In this paper, we represent an enriching document approach, using state-of-the-art topic models and data fusion methods, to enrich documents of a collection with the aim of improving the quality of text clustering and cluster labeling. We propose a bi-vector space model in which every document of the corpus is represented by two vectors: one is generated based on the fusion-based topic modeling approach, and one simply is the traditional vector model. Our experiments on various datasets show that using a combination of topic modeling and fusion methods to create documents’ vectors can significantly improve the quality of the results in clustering the documents.

The tiltrotor wing structure is one of the most critical and heavily investigated structures in design due to the fundamental need to consider the interactions between the wing, pylon, and rotor systems to achieve aircraft aeroelastic stability. Indeed, in high-speed forward flight, wing flexural and torsional stiffness have fundamental roles in pitch-whirl stability. Another specific concern of tiltrotors is dynamic mode placement; it is necessary to properly place wing bending modes away from prop-rotor forcing frequencies. The main aeroelastic stability and dynamics requirements and the wing design process flow for the next generation civil tiltrotor are presented in this work. In this context, the use of composite materials plays a fundamental role in the attempt to satisfy the requirements, with the perpetual aim of minimizing the structural weight. An overview of the idealized and adopted models for strength, aeroelasticity, and whirl flutter analysis is provided. The primary focus was on the aeroelastic tailoring process. To satisfy, at the same time, all of the structural dynamic and aeroelastic stability requirements, the best compromise, with an acceptable weight penalty, was the mixture of two methodological solutions: adding unidirectional tape in the zones of the upper and lower skins for flexural out-of-plane frequency and adding a proper number of ±45° fabric layers at the locations of the skin with the highest value of strain energy for in-plane torsional modes. The results show that the proposed method based on modal strain energy analysis enables a tiltrotor aeroelastic tailored wing design. It can be easily employed in similar applications (e.g., vehicle scale-up/down) with the advantage of using the stiffness requirements derived directly from the aeroelastic ones (i.e., structural frequencies). The specific wing achieved aeroelastic clearance by adding only 2.7% of extra mass.

The main objective of this paper is to describe a methodology to be applied in the preliminary design of a tiltrotor wing based on previously developed conceptual design methods. The reference vehicle is the Next-Generation Civil Tiltrotor Technology Demonstrator (NGCTR-TD) developed by Leonardo Helicopters within the Clean Sky research program framework. In a previous work by the authors, based on the specific requirements (i.e., dynamics, strength, buckling, functional), the first iteration of design was aimed at finding a wing structure with a minimized structural weight but at the same time strong and stiff enough to comply with sizing loads and aeroelastic stability in the flight envelope. Now, the outcome from the first design loop is used to build a global Finite Element Model (FEM), to be used for a multi-objective optimization performed by using a commercial software environment. In other words, the design strategy, aimed at finding a first optimal solution in terms of the thickness of composite components, is based on a two-level optimization. The first-level optimization is performed with engineering models (non-FEA-based), and the second-level optimization, discussed in this paper, within an FEA environment. The latter is shown to provide satisfactory results in terms of overall wing weight, and a zonal optimization of the composite parts, which is the starting point of an engineered model and a detailed FEM (beyond the scope of the present work), which will also take into account manufacturing, assembly, installation, accessibility and maintenance constraints.

In the framework of fast rotorcraft, smoothness and flushness of external aerodynamic surfaces present challenges for high-speed conditions, where aerodynamics is the driver of helicopter performance. For AIRBUS-RACER helicopter the main landing gear trap doors are parts of the lower wing skins (in retracted configuration) affecting helicopter performance by minimizing the drag. Flushness requirements must not be in contrast with the functionally of the Landing gear system that must open and close the doors during the landing gear retraction-extension phases at moderately low velocity. To manage these goals, a novel design logic has been identified to support the trap doors development phase. The identified way to proceed needs of relevant numerical method and tool as well. This method is aimed at identifying the main landing gear composite compartment doors in pre-shaped configuration to match the smoothness and door-stopper engagements over each aerodynamic conditions. The authors propose a detailed non-linear Finite Element method, based on MSC Nastran (MSC Software, Newport Beach, US) SOL-400 solver in which the structure is modelled with deformable contact bodies in a multiple load step sequence, open door condition and pre-shaped, deformed under actuator pre-load, under flight load conditions. The method includes the entire pre-stressed field due to the preload and the actual door stiffness, considering the achieved large displacement to verify the most representative strain field during loads application. The paper defines a robust methodology to predict the deformation and ensure the most appropriate door “pre-bow” and pre-load, in order to achieve the desiderated structural shape that matches aerodynamic requirements. The main result is the identification of a pre-shaped doors configuration for the Airbus RACER Fast Rotorcraft.

According to the magnetospheric accretion scenario, young low-mass stars are surrounded by circumstellar disks which they interact with through accretion of mass. The accretion builds up the star to its nal mass and is also believed to power the mass out ows, which may in turn have a signicant role in removing the excess angular momentum from the star-disk system. Although the process of mass accretion is a critical aspect of star formation, some of its mechanisms are still to be fully understood. On the other hand, strong aring activity is a common feature of young stellar objects (YSOs). In the Sun, such events give rise to perturbations of the interplanetary medium. Similar but more energetic phenomena occur in YSOs and may in uence the circumstellar environment. In fact, a recent study has shown that an intense flaring activity close to the disk may strongly perturb the stability of circumstellar disks, thus inducing mass accretion episodes (Orlando et al. 2011). Here we review the main results obtained in the eld and the future perspectives.