TY  - JOUR
A1  - Vafin, Sergei
A1  - Rafighi, Iman
A1  - Pohl, Martin
A1  - Niemiec, Jacek
T1  - The Electrostatic Instability for Realistic Pair Distributions in Blazar/EBL Cascades
JF  - The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics
N2  - This work revisits the electrostatic instability for blazar-induced pair beams propagating through the intergalactic medium (IGM) using linear analysis and PIC simulations. We study the impact of the realistic distribution function of pairs resulting from the interaction of high-energy gamma-rays with the extragalactic background light. We present analytical and numerical calculations of the linear growth rate of the instability for the arbitrary orientation of wave vectors. Our results explicitly demonstrate that the finite angular spread of the beam dramatically affects the growth rate of the waves, leading to the fastest growth for wave vectors quasi-parallel to the beam direction and a growth rate at oblique directions that is only a factor of 2-4 smaller compared to the maximum. To study the nonlinear beam relaxation, we performed PIC simulations that take into account a realistic wide-energy distribution of beam particles. The parameters of the simulated beam-plasma system provide an adequate physical picture that can be extrapolated to realistic blazar-induced pairs. In our simulations, the beam looses only 1% of its energy, and we analytically estimate that the beam would lose its total energy over about 100 simulation times. An analytical scaling is then used to extrapolate the parameters of realistic blazar-induced pair beams. We find that they can dissipate their energy slightly faster by the electrostatic instability than through inverse-Compton scattering. The uncertainties arising from, e.g., details of the primary gamma-ray spectrum are too large to make firm statements for individual blazars, and an analysis based on their specific properties is required.
KW  - gamma rays: general
KW  - instabilities
KW  - magnetic fields
KW  - relativistic processes
KW  - waves
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aab552
SN  - 0004-637X
SN  - 1538-4357
VL  - 857
IS  - 1
PB  - IOP Publ. Ltd.
CY  - Bristol
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Mendez, Vicenc
A1  - Maso-Puigdellosas, Axel
A1  - Sandev, Trifce
A1  - Campos, Daniel
T1  - Continuous time random walks under Markovian resetting
JF  - Physical review : E, Statistical, nonlinear and soft matter physics
N2  - We investigate the effects of Markovian resetting events on continuous time random walks where the waiting times and the jump lengths are random variables distributed according to power-law probability density functions. 
We prove the existence of a nonequilibrium stationary state and finite mean first arrival time. 
However, the existence of an optimum reset rate is conditioned to a specific relationship between the exponents of both power-law tails. 
We also investigate the search efficiency by finding the optimal random walk which minimizes the mean first arrival time in terms of the reset rate, the distance of the initial position to the target, and the characteristic transport exponents.
Y1  - 2021
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.103.022103
SN  - 2470-0045
SN  - 2470-0053
VL  - 103
IS  - 2
PB  - American Physical Society
CY  - College Park
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Kitzmann, Niklas H.
A1  - Romanczuk, Pawel
A1  - Wunderling, Nico
A1  - Donges, Jonathan
T1  - Detecting contagious spreading of urban innovations on the global city network
JF  - European physical journal special topics
N2  - Only a fast and global transformation towards decarbonization and sustainability can keep the Earth in a civilization-friendly state. As hotspots for (green) innovation and experimentation, cities could play an important role in this transition. They are also known to profit from each other's ideas, with policy and technology innovations spreading to other cities. In this way, cities can be conceptualized as nodes in a globe-spanning learning network. The dynamics of this process are important for society's response to climate change and other challenges, but remain poorly understood on a macroscopic level. In this contribution, we develop an approach to identify whether network-based complex contagion effects are a feature of sustainability policy adoption by cities, based on dose-response contagion and surrogate data models. We apply this methodology to an exemplary data set, comprising empirical data on the spreading of a public transport innovation (Bus Rapid Transit Systems) and a global inter-city connection network based on scheduled flight routes. Although our approach is not able to identify detailed mechanisms, our results point towards a contagious spreading process, and cannot be explained by either the network structure or the increase in global adoption rate alone. Further research on the role of a city's abstract "global neighborhood" regarding its policy and innovation decisions is thus both needed and promising, and may connect with research on social tipping processes. The methodology is generic, and can be used to compare the predictive power for innovation spreading of different kinds of inter-city network connections, e.g. via transport links, trade, or co-membership in political networks.
Y1  - 2022
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1140/epjs/s11734-022-00470-4
SN  - 1951-6355
SN  - 1951-6401
VL  - 231
IS  - 9
SP  - 1609
EP  - 1624
PB  - Springer
CY  - Heidelberg
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Archambault, S.
A1  - Archer, A.
A1  - Benbow, W.
A1  - Bird, Ralph
A1  - Bourbeau, E.
A1  - Bouvier, A.
A1  - Buchovecky, M.
A1  - Bugaev, V.
A1  - Cardenzana, J. V.
A1  - Cerruti, M.
A1  - Ciupik, L.
A1  - Connolly, M. P.
A1  - Cui, W.
A1  - Daniel, M. K.
A1  - Errando, M.
A1  - Falcone, A.
A1  - Feng, Q.
A1  - Finley, J. P.
A1  - Fleischhack, H.
A1  - Fortson, L.
A1  - Furniss, A.
A1  - Gillanders, G. H.
A1  - Griffin, S.
A1  - Hanna, D.
A1  - Hervet, O.
A1  - Holder, J.
A1  - Hughes, G.
A1  - Humensky, T. B.
A1  - Hutten, M.
A1  - Johnson, C. A.
A1  - Kaaret, P.
A1  - Kar, P.
A1  - Kertzman, M.
A1  - Kieda, D.
A1  - Krause, M.
A1  - Lang, M. J.
A1  - Lin, T. T. Y.
A1  - Maier, G.
A1  - McArthur, S.
A1  - Moriarty, P.
A1  - Mukherjee, R.
A1  - Nieto, D.
A1  - Ong, R. A.
A1  - Otte, A. N.
A1  - Park, N.
A1  - Pohl, Martin
A1  - Popkow, A.
A1  - Pueschel, Elisa
A1  - Quinn, J.
A1  - Ragan, K.
A1  - Reynolds, P. T.
A1  - Richards, G. T.
A1  - Roache, E.
A1  - Rulten, C.
A1  - Sadeh, I.
A1  - Sembroski, G. H.
A1  - Shahinyan, K.
A1  - Staszak, D.
A1  - Telezhinsky, Igor O.
A1  - Trepanier, S.
A1  - Wakely, S. P.
A1  - Weinstein, A.
A1  - Wilcox, P.
A1  - Williams, D. A.
A1  - Zitzer, B.
T1  - Gamma-ray observations under bright moonlight with VERITAS
JF  - Astroparticle physics
N2  - Imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs) are equipped with sensitive photomultiplier tube (PMT) cameras. Exposure to high levels of background illumination degrades the efficiency of and potentially destroys these photo-detectors over time, so IACTs cannot be operated in the same configuration in the presence of bright moonlight as under dark skies. Since September 2012, observations have been carried out with the VERITAS IACTs under bright moonlight (defined as about three times the night-sky-background (NSB) of a dark extragalactic field, typically occurring when Moon illumination > 35%) in two observing modes, firstly by reducing the voltage applied to the PMTs and, secondly, with the addition of ultra-violet (UV) bandpass filters to the cameras. This has allowed observations at up to about 30 times previous NSB levels (around 80% Moon illumination), resulting in 30% more observing time between the two modes over the course of a year. These additional observations have already allowed for the detection of a flare from the 1ES 1727 + 502 and for an observing program targeting a measurement of the cosmic-ray positron fraction. We provide details of these new observing modes and their performance relative to the standard VERITAS observations. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
KW  - Instrumentation
KW  - Moonlight
KW  - Observing methods
KW  - VERITAS
KW  - IACT
Y1  - 2017
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.astropartphys.2017.03.001
SN  - 0927-6505
SN  - 1873-2852
VL  - 91
SP  - 34
EP  - 43
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Amsterdam
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Meyer, Dominique M.-A.
A1  - Velazquez, Pablo F.
A1  - Petruk, Oleh
A1  - Chiotellis, Alexandros
A1  - Pohl, Martin
A1  - Camps-Farina, Artemi
A1  - Petrov, Miroslav
A1  - Reynoso, Estela M.
A1  - Toledo-Roy, Juan C.
A1  - Schneiter, E. Matias
A1  - Castellanos-Ramirez, Antonio
A1  - Esquivel, Alejandro
T1  - Rectangular core-collapse supernova remnants
BT  - application to Puppis A
JF  - Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
N2  - Core-collapse supernova remnants are the gaseous nebulae of galactic interstellar media (ISM) formed after the explosive death of massive stars. Their morphology and emission properties depend both on the surrounding circumstellar structure shaped by the stellar wind-ISM interaction of the progenitor star and on the local conditions of the ambient medium. In the warm phase of the Galactic plane (n approximate to 1 cm(-3), T approximate to 8000 K), an organized magnetic field of strength 7 mu G has profound consequences on the morphology of the wind bubble of massive stars at rest. In this paper, we show through 2.5D magnetohydrodynamical simulations, in the context of a Wolf-Rayet-evolving 35 M 0 star, that it affects the development of its supernova remnant. When the supernova remnant reaches its middle age (15-20 kyr), it adopts a tubular shape that results from the interaction between the isotropic supernova ejecta and the anisotropic, magnetized, shocked stellar progenitor bubble into which the supernova blast wave expands. Our calculations for non-thermal emission, i.e. radio synchrotron and inverse-Compton radiation, reveal that such supernova remnants can, due to projection effects, appear as rectangular objects in certain cases. This mechanism for shaping a supernova remnant is similar to the bipolar and elliptical planetary nebula production by wind-wind interaction in the low-mass regime of stellar evolution. If such a rectangular core-collapse supernova remnant is created, the progenitor star must not have been a runaway star. We propose that such a mechanism is at work in the shaping of the asymmetric core-collapse supernova remnant Puppis A.
KW  - stars: evolution
KW  - stars: massive
KW  - ISM: supernova remnants
KW  - methods: MHD
Y1  - 2022
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac1832
SN  - 0035-8711
SN  - 1365-2966
VL  - 515
IS  - 1
SP  - 594
EP  - 605
PB  - Oxford Univ. Press
CY  - Oxford
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Archer, A.
A1  - Benbow, W.
A1  - Bird, R.
A1  - Brose, Robert
A1  - Buchovecky, M.
A1  - Buckley, J. H.
A1  - Bugaev, V.
A1  - Connolly, M. P.
A1  - Cui, W.
A1  - Daniel, M. K.
A1  - Feng, Q.
A1  - Finley, J. P.
A1  - Fortson, L.
A1  - Furniss, A.
A1  - Gillanders, G.
A1  - Huetten, M.
A1  - Hanna, D.
A1  - Hervet, O.
A1  - Holder, J.
A1  - Hughes, G.
A1  - Humensky, T. B.
A1  - Johnson, C. A.
A1  - Kaaret, P.
A1  - Kar, P.
A1  - Kelley-Hoskins, N.
A1  - Kertzman, M.
A1  - Kieda, D.
A1  - Krause, M.
A1  - Krennrich, F.
A1  - Kumar, S.
A1  - Lang, M. J.
A1  - Lin, T. T. Y.
A1  - Maier, G.
A1  - McArthur, S.
A1  - Moriarty, P.
A1  - Mukherjee, R.
A1  - Ong, R. A.
A1  - Otte, A. N.
A1  - Petrashyk, A.
A1  - Pohl, M.
A1  - Pueschel, Elisa
A1  - Quinn, J.
A1  - Ragan, K.
A1  - Reynolds, P. T.
A1  - Richards, G. T.
A1  - Roache, E.
A1  - Rulten, C.
A1  - Sadeh, I.
A1  - Santander, M.
A1  - Sembroski, G. H.
A1  - Staszak, D.
A1  - Sushch, I.
A1  - Wakely, S. P.
A1  - Wells, R. M.
A1  - Wilcox, P.
A1  - Wilhelm, Alina
A1  - Williams, D. A.
A1  - Williamson, T. J.
A1  - Zitzer, B.
T1  - Measurement of cosmic-ray electrons at TeV energies by VERITAS
JF  - Physical review : D, Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology
N2  - Cosmic-ray electrons and positrons (CREs) at GeV-TeV energies are a unique probe of our local Galactic neighborhood. CREs lose energy rapidly via synchrotron radiation and inverse-Compton scattering processes while propagating within the Galaxy, and these losses limit their propagation distance. For electrons with TeV energies, the limit is on the order of a kiloparsec. Within that distance, there are only a few known astrophysical objects capable of accelerating electrons to such high energies. It is also possible that the CREs are the products of the annihilation or decay of heavy dark matter (DM) particles. VERITAS, an array of imaging air Cherenkov telescopes in southern Arizona, is primarily utilized for gamma-ray astronomy but also simultaneously collects CREs during all observations. We describe our methods of identifying CREs in VERITAS data and present an energy spectrum, extending from 300 GeV to 5 TeV, obtained from approximately 300 hours of observations. A single power-law fit is ruled out in VERITAS data. We find that the spectrum of CREs is consistent with a broken power law, with a break energy at 710 +/- 40(stat) +/- 140(syst) GeV.
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.98.062004
SN  - 2470-0010
SN  - 2470-0029
VL  - 98
IS  - 6
PB  - American Physical Society
CY  - College Park
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Dineva, Ekaterina Ivanova
A1  - Pearson, Jeniveve
A1  - Ilyin, Ilya
A1  - Verma, Meetu
A1  - Diercke, Andrea
A1  - Strassmeier, Klaus
A1  - Denker, Carsten
T1  - Characterization of chromospheric activity based on Sun-as-a-star spectral and disk-resolved activity indices
JF  - Astronomische Nachrichten = Astronomical notes
N2  - The strong chromospheric absorption lines Ca ii H & K are tightly connected to stellar surface magnetic fields. Only for the Sun, spectral activity indices can be related to evolving magnetic features on the solar disk. The Solar Disk-Integrated (SDI) telescope feeds the Potsdam Echelle Polarimetric and Spectroscopic Instrument (PEPSI) of the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) at Mt. Graham International Observatory, Arizona, U.S.A. We present high-resolution, high-fidelity spectra that were recorded on 184 & 82 days in 2018 & 2019 and derive the Ca ii H & K emission ratio, that is, the S-index. In addition, we compile excess brightness and area indices based on full-disk Ca ii K-line-core filtergrams of the Chromospheric Telescope (ChroTel) at Observatorio del Teide, Tenerife, Spain and full-disk ultraviolet (UV) 1600 angstrom images of the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). Thus, Sun-as-a-star spectral indices are related to their counterparts derived from resolved images of the solar chromosphere. All indices display signatures of rotational modulation, even during the very low magnetic activity in the minimum of Solar Cycle 24. Bringing together different types of activity indices has the potential to join disparate chromospheric datasets yielding a comprehensive description of chromospheric activity across many solar cycles.
KW  - astronomical databases
KW  - miscellaneous
KW  - methods
KW  - data analysis
KW  - activity
KW  - Sun
KW  - atmosphere
KW  - chromosphere
KW  - techniques
KW  - spectroscopic
Y1  - 2022
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1002/asna.20223996
SN  - 0004-6337
SN  - 1521-3994
VL  - 343
IS  - 5
PB  - Wiley-VCH
CY  - Weinheim
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Bohdan, Artem
A1  - Niemiec, Jacek
A1  - Pohl, Martin
A1  - Matsumoto, Yosuke
A1  - Amano, Takanobu
A1  - Hoshino, Masahiro
T1  - Kinetic Simulations of Nonrelativistic Perpendicular Shocks of Young Supernova Remnants. II. Influence of Shock-surfing Acceleration on Downstream Electron Spectra
JF  - The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics
N2  - We explore electron preacceleration at high-Mach-number nonrelativistic perpendicular shocks at, e.g., young supernova remnants, which are a prerequisite of further acceleration to very high energies via diffusive shock acceleration. Using fully kinetic particle-in-cell simulations of shocks and electron dynamics in them, we investigate the influence of shock-surfing acceleration (SSA) at the shock foot on the nonthermal population of electrons downstream of the shock. The SSA is followed by further energization at the shock ramp where the Weibel instability spawns a type of second-order Fermi acceleration. The combination of these two processes leads to the formation of a nonthermal electron population, but the importance of SSA becomes smaller for larger ion-to-electron mass ratios in the simulation. We discuss the resulting electron spectra and the relevance of our results to the physics of systems with real ion-to-electron mass ratios and fully three-dimensional behavior.
KW  - Shocks
KW  - Space plasmas
KW  - Supernova remnants
KW  - Interstellar medium
Y1  - 2019
U6  - https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ab43cf
SN  - 0004-637X
SN  - 1538-4357
VL  - 885
IS  - 1
PB  - IOP Publ. Ltd.
CY  - Bristol
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Benbow, W.
A1  - Bird, R.
A1  - Brill, A.
A1  - Brose, Robert
A1  - Chromey, A. J.
A1  - Daniel, M. K.
A1  - Feng, Q.
A1  - Finley, J. P.
A1  - Fortson, L.
A1  - Furniss, A.
A1  - Gillanders, G. H.
A1  - Giuri, C.
A1  - Gueta, O.
A1  - Hanna, D.
A1  - Halpern, J. P.
A1  - Hassan, Tarek
A1  - Holder, J.
A1  - Hughes, G.
A1  - Humensky, T. B.
A1  - Joyce, Amy M.
A1  - Kaaret, P.
A1  - Kar, P.
A1  - Kelley-Hoskins, N.
A1  - Kertzman, M.
A1  - Kieda, D.
A1  - Krause, M.
A1  - Lang, M. J.
A1  - Lin, T. T. Y.
A1  - Maier, Gernot
A1  - Matthews, N.
A1  - Moriarty, P.
A1  - Mukherjee, R.
A1  - Nieto, D.
A1  - Nievas-Rosillos, M.
A1  - Ong, R. A.
A1  - Park, N.
A1  - Petrashyk, A.
A1  - Pohl, Martin
A1  - Pueschel, Elisa
A1  - Quinn, John
A1  - Ragan, K.
A1  - Reynolds, P. T.
A1  - Richards, G. T.
A1  - Roache, E.
A1  - Rulten, C.
A1  - Sadeh, Iftach
A1  - Santander, M.
A1  - Sembroski, G. H.
A1  - Shahinyan, K.
A1  - Sushch, Iurii
A1  - Wakely, S. P.
A1  - Wells, R. M.
A1  - Wilcox, P.
A1  - Wilhelm, Alina
A1  - Williams, David A.
A1  - Williamson, T. J.
T1  - Direct measurement of stellar angular diameters by the VERITAS Cherenkov telescopes
JF  - Nature astronomy
N2  - The angular size of a star is a critical factor in determining its basic properties1. Direct measurement of stellar angular diameters is difficult: at interstellar distances stars are generally too small to resolve by any individual imaging telescope. This fundamental limitation can be overcome by studying the diffraction pattern in the shadow cast when an asteroid occults a star2, but only when the photometric uncertainty is smaller than the noise added by atmospheric scintillation3. Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes used for particle astrophysics observations have not generally been exploited for optical astronomy due to the modest optical quality of the mirror surface. However, their large mirror area makes them well suited for such high-time-resolution precision photometry measurements4. Here we report two occultations of stars observed by the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS)5 Cherenkov telescopes with millisecond sampling, from which we are able to provide a direct measurement of the occulted stars’ angular diameter at the ≤0.1 mas scale. This is a resolution never achieved before with optical measurements and represents an order of magnitude improvement over the equivalent lunar occultation method6. We compare the resulting stellar radius with empirically derived estimates from temperature and brightness measurements, confirming the latter can be biased for stars with ambiguous stellar classifications.
Y1  - 2019
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-019-0741-z
SN  - 2397-3366
VL  - 3
IS  - 6
SP  - 511
EP  - 516
PB  - Nature Publ. Group
CY  - London
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Meyer, Dominique M.-A.
A1  - Petrov, Mykola
A1  - Pohl, Martin
T1  - Wind nebulae and supernova remnants of very massive stars
JF  - Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
N2  - A very small fraction of (runaway) massive stars have masses exceeding 60-70 M-circle dot and are predicted to evolve as luminous blue variable and Wolf-Rayet stars before ending their lives as core-collapse supernovae. Our 2D axisymmetric hydrodynamical simulations explore how a fast wind (2000 km s(-1)) and high mass-loss rate (10(-5)M(circle dot) yr(-1)) can impact the morphology of the circumstellar medium. It is shaped as 100 pc-scale wind nebula that can be pierced by the driving star when it supersonically moves with velocity 20-40 km s(-1) through the interstellar medium (ISM) in the Galactic plane. The motion of such runaway stars displaces the position of the supernova explosion out of their bow shock nebula, imposing asymmetries to the eventual shock wave expansion and engendering Cygnus-loop-like supernova remnants. We conclude that the size (up to more than 200 pc) of the filamentary wind cavity in which the chemically enriched supernova ejecta expand, mixing efficiently the wind and ISM materials by at least 10 per cent in number density, can be used as a tracer of the runaway nature of the very massive progenitors of such 0.1Myr old remnants. Our results motivate further observational campaigns devoted to the bow shock of the very massive stars BD+43 degrees 3654 and to the close surroundings of the synchrotron-emitting Wolf-Rayet shell G2.4+1.4.
KW  - shock waves
KW  - methods: numerical
KW  - circumstellar matter
KW  - stars: massive
Y1  - 2020
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa554
SN  - 0035-8711
SN  - 1365-2966
VL  - 493
IS  - 3
SP  - 3548
EP  - 3564
PB  - Oxford Univ. Press
CY  - Oxford
ER  -