Galaxies — Open Access Journal of Cosmology, Astronomy & Astrophysics

We report on the observations of the circumstellar envelope of the AGB star II Lup in the near- and mid-infrared with the use of direct imaging and interferometric techniques. Our findings indicate that the circumstellar envelope is not spherically symmetric and that the majority of the emission originates within 0.5 arcsec from the star. Full article

We analyze constraints on the anomalous growth of the black hole radius or the black hole spin from the X-rays spectrum data of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) in NGC 5506. The anomalous growth of the mass or of the spin of a black hole may be unveiled within the framework of models of alternative gravity, including $f\left(R\right)$-gravity. Our phenomenological analysis is based on an effective parametrization for the black hole Kerr metric, which is inspired by the antievaporating solutions discovered by Nojiri and Odintsov. We find tight constraints on the parameter space of anomalous metrics. Intriguingly, we find that a more than secularly growing solution can better fit current data. Our result opens a pathway towards a new phenomenological approach for testing predictions of general relativity and alternative theories of gravity. Full article

We investigated the spectral properties of the prompt emission for short- and long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) using the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor data. In particular, we focused on comparing the spectral properties of short GRBs and the initial 2 s of long GRBs, motivated by the previous study of Ghirlanda et al. (2009). We confirmed the similarity in the low energy photon index $\alpha$ between short GRBs and the initial 2 s of long GRBs. Since about a quarter of our spectra of both short GRBs and the initial 2 s of long GRBs show $\alpha$ to be shallower than $-2/3$, it is difficult to understand in the context standard synchrotron emission. Full article

VAMDC bridged the gap between atomic and molecular (A&M) producers and users through providing an interoperable e-infrastructure connecting A&M databases, as well as tools to extract and manipulate those data. The current paper highlights the usage of the VAMDC Portal, recalls how data citation is implemented within VAMDC and provides insights about usage of VAMDC that will increase the impact factor of A&M producers and will offer a more reliable citation of A&M datasets included in application fields. Full article

In galaxy clusters, modern radio interferometers observe non-thermal radio sources with unprecedented spatial and spectral resolution. For the first time, the new data allows to infer the structure of the intra-cluster magnetic fields on small scales via Faraday tomography. This leap forward demands new numerical models for the amplification of magnetic fields in cosmic structure formation—the cosmological magnetic dynamo. Here we present a novel numerical approach to astrophyiscal MHD simulations aimed to resolve this small-scale dynamo in future cosmological simulations. As a first step, we implement a fifth order WENO scheme in the new code WOMBAT. We show that this scheme doubles the effective resolution of the simulation and is thus less expensive than common second order schemes. WOMBAT uses a novel approach to parallelization and load balancing developed in collaboration with performance engineers at Cray Inc. This will allow us scale simulation to the exaflop regime and achieve kpc resolution in future cosmological simulations of galaxy clusters. Here we demonstrate the excellent scaling properties of the code and argue that resolved simulations of the cosmological small scale dynamo within the whole virial radius are possible in the next years. Full article

We investigate the expected radio emission from the reverse shock of short GRBs, using the fitted afterglow parameters. In light of recent results suggesting that in some cases the radio afterglow is due to emission from the reverse shock, we examine the extent to which this component is detectable for short GRBs. In some GRBs, the standard synchrotron shock model predicts detectable radio emission from the reverse shock when none was seen. Many physical parameters play a role in these estimates, and our results highlight the need to explore the fundamental processes involved in GRB particle acceleration and emission more deeply. However, with a more rapid follow-up, we can test our standard model of GRBs, which predicts an early, radio bright reverse shock in many cases. Full article

It is widely believed that the dramatic transformation of the spherical outflows of AGB stars into the extreme aspherical geometries seen during the planetary nebula (PN) phase is linked to binarity and driven by the associated production of fast jets and central disks/torii. The key to understanding the engines that produce these jets and the jet-shaping mechanisms lies in the study of objects in transition between the AGB and PN phases. I discuss the results of our recent studies with high-angular-resolution (with ALMA and HST) and at high-energies (with GALEX, XMM-Newton and Chandra) of several such objects, which reveal new details of close binary interactions and high-speed outflows. These include two PPNe (the Boomerang Nebula and IRAS 16342-3814), and the late carbon star, V Hya. The Boomerang Nebula is notable for a massive, high-speed outflow that has cooled below the microwave background temperature, making it the coldest object in the Universe. IRAS 16342-3814 is the prime example of the class of water-fountain pre-planetary nebulae or PPNe (very young PPNe with high-velocity H₂O masers) and shows the signature of a precessing jet. V Hya ejects high-speed bullets every 8.5 years associated with the periastron passage of a companion in an eccentric orbit. I discuss our work on AGB stars with strongly-variable high-energy (FUV, X-ray) emission, suggesting that these objects are in the early stages of binary interactions that result in the formation of accretion disks and jets. Full article

In the last decade, fullerenes have been detected in a variety of astrophysical environments, with the majority being found in planetary nebulae. Laboratory experiments have provided us with insights into the conditions and pathways that can lead to fullerene formation, but it is not clear precisely what led to the formation of astrophysical fullerenes in planetary nebulae. We review some of the available evidence, and propose a mechanism where fullerene formation in planetary nebulae is the result of a two-step process where carbonaceous dust is first formed under unusual conditions; then, the fullerenes form when this dust is being destroyed. Full article

Modeling emission lines from the millimeter to the UV and producing synthetic spectra is crucial for a good understanding of observations, yet it is an art filled with hazards. This is the proceedings of “Walking the Line”, a 3-day conference held in 2018 that brought together scientists working on different aspects of emission line simulations, in order to share knowledge and discuss the methodology. Emission lines across the spectrum from the millimeter to the UV were discussed, with most of the focus on the interstellar medium, but also some topics on the circumgalactic medium. The most important quality of a useful model is a good synergy with observations and experiments. Challenges in simulating line emission are identified, some of which are already being worked upon, and others that must be addressed in the future for models to agree with observations. Recent advances in several areas aiming at achieving that synergy are summarized here, from micro-physical to galactic and circum-galactic scale. Full article

During the last decades, observations, mostly with the Hubble Space Telescope, have revealed that round Planetary Nebulae were the exception rather than rule. A huge variety of features are observed, such as jets, discs, tori, showing that the ejection of material is not due to isotropic radiation pressure on a spherical shell and that more physics is involved. This shaping process certainly occur early in the evolution of these low and intermediate mass stars and must leave imprints in the evolutionary stages prior the PN phase. Thanks to news instruments on the most advanced telescopes (e.g., the VLTI, SPHERE/VLT and ALMA), high angular resolution observations are revolutionising our view of the ejection of gas and dust during the AGB and post-AGB phases. In this review I will present the newest results concerning the mass loss from AGB stars, post-AGB stars and related objects. Full article

The stellar winds of the central stars of planetary nebulae play an essential role in the shaping of planetary nebulae. In the interacting stellar winds model, the fast stellar wind injects energy and momentum, which are transferred to the nebular envelope through an X-ray-emitting hot bubble. Together with other physical processes, such as the ionization of the nebular envelope, the asymmetrical mass-loss in the asymptotic giant branch (AGB), and the action of collimated outflows and magnetic fields, the pressurized hot gas determines the expansion and evolution of planetary nebulae. Chandra and XMM-Newton have provided us with detailed information of this hot gas. Here in this talk I will review our current understanding of the effects of the fast stellar wind in the shaping and evolution of planetary nebulae and give some hints of the promising future of this research. Full article

Post-asymptotic giant branch (post-AGB) stars with discs are all binaries. Many of these binaries have orbital periods between 100 and $1000\mathrm{days}$ so cannot have avoided mass transfer between the AGB star and its companion, likely through a common-envelope type interaction. We report on preliminary results of our project to model circumbinary discs around post-AGB stars using our binary population synthesis code binary_c. We combine a simple analytic thin-disc model with binary stellar evolution to estimate the impact of the disc on the binary, and vice versa, fast enough that we can model stellar population and hence explore the rather uncertain parameter space involved with disc formation. We find that, provided the discs form with sufficient mass and angular momentum, and have an inner edge that is relatively close to the binary, they can both prolong the life of their parent post-AGB star and pump the eccentricity of orbits of their inner binaries. Full article

We study the grazing envelope evolution (GEE), where a secondary star, which orbits the surface of a giant star, accretes mass from the giant envelope and launches jets. We conduct simulations of the GEE with different half-opening angles and velocities, and simulate the onset phase and the spiralling-in phase. We discuss the resulting envelope structure and the outflow geometry. We find in the simulations of the onset phase with narrow jets that a large fraction of the ejected mass outflows along the polar directions. The mass ejected at these directions has the fastest velocity and the highest angular momentum magnitude. In the simulations of the spiralling-in phase, a large fraction of the ejected mass concentrates around the orbital plane. According to our findings, the outflow with the highest velocity is closer to the poles as we launch narrower jets. The outflow has a toroidal shape accompanied by two faster rings, one ring at each side of the equatorial plane. The interaction of the jets with the giant envelope causes these outflow structures, as we do not include in our simulations the secondary star gravity and the envelope self-gravity. Full article

Automated quantification of galaxy morphology is necessary because the size of upcoming sky surveys will overwhelm human volunteers. Existing classification schemes are inadequate because (a) their uncertainty increases near the boundary of classes and astronomers need more control over these uncertainties; (b) galaxy morphology is continuous rather than discrete; and (c) sometimes we need to know not only the type of an object, but whether a particular image of the object exhibits visible structure. We propose that regression is better suited to these tasks than classification, and focus specifically on determining the extent to which an image of a spiral galaxy exhibits visible spiral structure. We use the human vote distributions from Galaxy Zoo 1 (GZ1) to train a random forest of decision trees to reproduce the fraction of GZ1 humans who vote for the “Spiral” class. We prefer the random forest model over other black box models like neural networks because it allows us to trace post hoc the precise reasoning behind the regression of each image. Finally, we demonstrate that using features from SpArcFiRe—a code designed to isolate and quantify arm structure in spiral galaxies—improves regression results over and above using traditional features alone, across a sample of 470,000 galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Full article

We present recent Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA)-based studies of circumstellar envelopes (CSEs) around Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars and pre-Planetary Nebulae (pPNe). In only a few years of operation, ALMA is revolutionising the field of AGB-to-PN research by providing unprecedentedly detailed information on the complex nebular architecture (at large but also on small scales down to a few ∼10 AU from the centre), dynamics and chemistry of the outflows/envelopes of low-to-intermediate mass stars in their late stages of the evolution. Here, we focus on continuum and molecular line mapping studies with high angular resolution and sensitivity of some objects that are key to understanding the complex PN-shaping process. In particular, we offer (i) a brief summary of ALMA observations of rotating disks in post-AGB objects and (ii) report on ALMA observations of OH 231.8+4.2 providing the most detailed and accurate description of the global nebular structure and kinematics of this iconic object to date. Full article

Vienna Atomic Line Database (VALD) contains data on atomic and molecular energy levels and parameters of spectral lines required for stellar spectra analysis. Hundreds of millions of lines for fine spectral synthesis and for opacity calculations are collected in the present version of VALD (VALD3). Critical evaluation of the data and the diversity of extraction tools support the high popularity of VALD among users. The data model of VALD3 incorporates obligatory links to the bibliography making our database more attractive as a publishing platform for data producers. The VALD data quality and completeness are constantly improving allowing better reproduction of stellar spectra. To illustrate continuous evolution of the data content we present a comparative analysis of the recent experimental and theoretical atomic data for Fe-group elements, which will be included in the next VALD release. This release will also include a possibility for extracting the line data with full isotopic and hyperfine structures. Full article

Recently, many studies indicate that the GeV gamma ray excess signal from the central Milky Way can be best explained by ∼40–50 GeV dark matter annihilating via the $b\overline{b}$ channel. However, this model appears to be disfavored by the recent Fermi-LAT data for dwarf spheroidal galaxies and the constraint from synchrotron radiation. In this article, we describe a consistent picture to relieve the tensions between the dark matter annihilation model and the observations. We show that a baryonic feedback process is the key to alleviate the tensions and the ∼40–50 GeV dark matter model is still the best one to account for the GeV gamma ray excess in the Milky Way. Full article

The rich emission and absorption line spectra of Fe I may be used to extract crucial information on astrophysical plasmas, such as stellar metallicities. There is currently a lack, in quality and quantity, of accurate level-resolved effective electron-impact collision strengths and oscillator strengths for radiative transitions. Here, we discuss the challenges in obtaining an accurate model of the neutral iron atom and compare our theoretical fine-structure energy levels with observation for several increasingly large models. Radiative data is presented for several transitions for which the atomic data is accurately known. Full article

The spectra currently emerging from modern ground- and space-based astronomical instruments are of exceptionally high quality and resolution. To meaningfully analyse these spectra, researchers utilise complex modelling codes to replicate the observations. The main inputs to these codes are atomic data such as excitation and photoionisation cross sections, as well as radiative transition probabilities, energy levels, and line strengths. In this publication, the current capabilities of the numerical methods and computer packages used in the generation of these data are discussed. Particular emphasis is given to Fe-peak species and the heavy systems of tungsten and molybdenum. Some of the results presented to highlight certain issues and/or advances have already been published in the literature, while other sections present new recently evaluated atomic data for the first time. Full article