The formation of the first galaxies in the Universe is the new frontier of both galaxy formation and reionization studies. This creates a fierce new challenge, i.e. to simultaneously understand in a unique and coherent picture the processes of galaxy formation and reionization, and – crucially – their connection. To this end, we present the thesan suite of cosmological radiation-magneto-hydrodynamical simulations. They are unique since they: (i) cover a very broad range of spatial and temporal scales; (ii) include an unprecedentedly-broad range of physical processes for simulations of such scales and resolution; (iii) exploit knowledge accumulated at low redshift to minimize the number of free parameters in the physical model; (iv) use a variance-suppression technique in the production of initial conditions to increase their statistical fidelity. Finally, the thesan suite includes multiple runs of the same initial conditions, exploring current unknowns in the physics of dark matter and ionizing sources.

Most of a star’s mass is bound in a hydrostatic equilibrium in which pressure balances gravity. But if at some near-surface layer additional outward forces overcome gravity, this can transition to a supersonic, outflowing wind, with the sonic point, where the outward force cancels gravity, marking the division between hydrostatic atmosphere and wind outflow. This talk will review general issues with such transonic initiation of a stellar wind outflow, and how this helps set the wind mass loss rate. The main discussion contrasts the flow initiation in four prominent classes of steady-state winds: (1) the pressure-driven coronal wind of the sun and other cool stars; (2) line-driven winds from OB stars; (3) a two-stage initiation model for the much denser winds from Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars; and (4) the slow “overflow” mass loss from highly evolved giant stars. A follow on discussion briefly reviews eruptive mass loss, with particular focus on the giant eruption of η Carinae.

Continuous gravitational Waves (CWs) are a very promising, not yet detected, and interesting class of persistent and semi-periodic signals. They are emitted mainly by rapidly rotating asymmetric neutron stars, with frequencies that are well covered by the [10-3 000] Hz range of the advanced LIGO-Virgo detectors. Due to the expected small degree of asymmetry of a neutron star, the search for this kind of signals is extremely challenging, and can be very computationally expensive when the source parameters are not known or not well constrained. CW detection from a spinning neutron star will allow us to characterize its structure and properties, making this source an unparalleled laboratory for studying several key issues in fundamental physics and relativistic astrophysics, in conditions that cannot be reproduced on Earth. The most recent methodologies used in CW searches will be discussed, and the latest results from the third advanced LIGO-Virgo observational run will be presented. A summary of future prospects to feasibly detect such feeble signals as the detector performance improves, and ever-more-sensitive and robust data-analysis algorithms are implemented, will be also outlined.

The mechanisms driving mass loss from massive stars in late stages of their evolution is still very much unknown. Stellar evolution models indicate that the last stage before going supernova for many massive stars is the Wolf-Rayet (WR) phase, characterized by a strong, optically thick stellar wind. Stellar models show that these stars exceed the Eddington limit already in deep sub-surface layers around the so-called ‘iron-opacity’ bump, and so should launch a supersonic outflow from there. However, if the outward force does not suffice to accelerate the gas above the local escape speed, the initiated flow will stagnate and start raining down upon the stellar core. In previous, spherically symmetric, WR wind models, this has been circumvented by artificially increasing either clumping or the line force. Here, we present pioneering 3D time-dependent radiation-hydrodynamic simulations of WR winds. In these models, computed without any ad-hoc force enhancement, the stagnated flow leads to co-existing regions of up- and down-flows, which dynamically interact with each other to form a multi-dimensional and complex outflow. These density structures, and the resulting highly non-monotonic velocity field, can have important consequences for mass-loss rates and the interpretation of observed Wolf-Rayet spectra.

Self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) is promising to solve or at least mitigate small-scale problems of cold collisionless dark matter. N-body simulations have proven to be a powerful tool to study SIDM within the astrophysical context. However, it turned out to be difficult to simulate dark matter (DM) models that typically scatter about a small angle, for example, light mediator models. We developed a novel numerical scheme for this regime of frequent self-interactions that allows for N-body simulations of systems like galaxy cluster mergers or even cosmological simulations. We have studied equal and unequal mass mergers of galaxies and galaxy clusters and found significant differences between the phenomenology of frequent self-interactions and the commonly studied large-angle scattering (rare self-interactions). For example, frequent self-interactions tend to produce larger offsets between galaxies and DM than rare self-interactions.

The dense matter equation of state (EoS), describing the state of matter under the extreme conditions found in neutron stars, is not accurately known. However, significant process has been made in recent years through the emergence of new observational avenues of neutron stars. Firstly, the X-ray timing telescope NICER has delivered two joint mass-radius measurements, for pulsars PSR J0030+0451 and PSR J0740+6620, using pulse profile modeling. Secondly, gravitational wave detections of binary neutron star (BNS) mergers allow for a measurement of the EoS-dependent tidal deformability, as demonstrated in the first detected BNS merger GW170817. Additionally, electromagnetic radiation from the subsequent ultraviolet-optical-infrared transient (the kilonova) originating from the ejected material in GW170817 further probes the binary system and the EoS. We demonstrate how the joint analysis of these multi-messenger observations of neutron stars significantly constrains the dense matter EoS. We then describe, in more detail, a framework to jointly analyse a gravitational wave signal and the accompanying kilonova light curves, focusing on possible future black hole–neutron star (BHNS) mergers. We highlight the potential for multimessenger BHNS to constrain the tidal deformability of the neutron star, thereby increasing our understanding of the dense matter EoS.

Classical Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars mark an important stage in the late evolution of massive stars. As hydrogen-poor massive stars, these objects have lost their outer layers, while still losing further mass through strong winds indicated by their prominent emission line spectra. Wolf-Rayet stars have been detected in a variety of different galaxies. Their strong winds are a major ingredient of stellar evolution and population synthesis models. Yet, a coherent theoretical picture of their strong mass-loss is only starting to emerge. In particular, the occurrence of WR stars as a function of metallicity (Z) is still far from being understood.

To uncover the nature of the complex and dense winds of Wolf-Rayet stars, we employ a new generation of model atmospheres including a consistent solution of the wind hydrodynamics in an expanding non-LTE situation. With this technique, we can dissect the ingredients driving the wind and predict the resulting mass-loss for hydrogen-depleted massive stars. Our modelling efforts reveal a complex picture with strong, non-linear dependencies on the luminosity-to-mass ratio and Z with a steep, but not totally abrupt onset for WR-type winds in helium stars. With our findings, we provide a theoretical motivation for a population of helium stars at low Z, which cannot be detected via WR-type spectral features. Our study of massive He-star atmosphere models yields the very first mass-loss recipe derived from first principles in this regime. Implementing our first findings in stellar evolution models, we demonstrate how traditional approaches tend to overpredict WR-type mass loss in the young Universe.

The convection-enhanced neutrino-driven supernova engine’s success in explaining a myriad of supernova properties has set it as the standard engine behind supernova. However, due to the success of rotationally-powered engines in explaining astrophysical transients like gamma-ray bursts, these engines have been revived as possible drivers of normal supernovae, competing with this standard engine. In this paper, these competing engines, and the constraints placed by compact remnant observations on these engines, are reviewed. We find that, with these constraints, such rotationally-powered engines can explain less than 1% of the current supernova remnants. In addition, we find that the remnant mass distribution can be used to constrain properties of the convection-enhanced neutrino-driven engine, helping astronomers understand the nature of convection in this engine.

The progress of cosmic reionization depends on the presence of over-dense regions that act as photon sinks. Such sinks may slow down ionization fronts as compared to a uniform intergalactic medium (IGM) by increasing the clumping factor. We present simulations of reionization in a clumpy IGM resolving even the smallest sinks. The simulations use a novel, spatially adaptive and efficient radiative transfer implementation in the SWIFT SPH code, based on the two-moment method. We find that photon sinks can increase the clumping factor by a factor of ∼10 during the first ∼100 Myrs after the passage of an ionization front. After this time, the clumping factor decreases as the smaller sinks photoevaporate. Altogether, photon sinks increase the number of photons required to reionize the Universe by a factor of η ∼2, as compared to the homogeneous case. The value of η also depends on the emissivity of the ionizing sources.

Recent observations of the various phases in the lives of neutron star binaries across different messengers have led to major discoveries and raised new exciting questions about the environments of these systems. We will overview the current observational constraints on the formation rates and environments of neutron star binaries, as well as theoretical predictions that will be confronted with future observations.

Massive stars are amongst the rarest but also most intriguing stars. Their extreme, magnetised stellar winds induce, by wind-ISM interaction, famous multi-wavelengths circumstellar gas nebulae of various morphologies, spanning from large-scale wind bubbles to stellar wind bow shocks, rings and bipolar shapes. We present two- and three-dimensional magneto-hydrodynamical (MHD) simulations of the circumstellar medium of such massive stars at different phase of their evolution. Particularly, we investigate the stability properties of 3D MHD bow shock nebulae around the runaway red supergiant stars IRC-10414 and Betelgeuse. Our results show that their astrospheres are stabilised by an organised, non-parallel ambient magnetic field. These findings suggest that Betelgeuse’s bar is of interstellar origin. Last, we explore the circular aspect of the young nebula around the Wolf-Rayet stars. It is found that Wolf-Rayet nebulae are not affected by the ISM gas distribution in which the stellar objects lie, even in the case of fast stellar motion: as testifies the ring-like surroundings of the Milky Way’s fastest Wolf-Rayet star, WR124. The morphology of these nebulae is tightly related to their pre-Wolf-Rayet wind geometry and to their phase evolution transition properties, which can generate bipolar shapes. We will further discuss their diffuse projected emission by means of radiative transfer calculations and show that the projected diffuse emission can appear as bipolar structures as in NGC6888.

We provide analysis of the baryon asymmetry generated in the Scalar Field Condensate (SFC) baryogenesis model obtained in new inflation, chaotic inflation, Starobinsky inflation, MSSM inflation, quintessential inflation, considering both cases of efficient thermalization after inflation and also delayed thermalization. We have found that baryon asymmetry generated in SFC baryogenesis model is considerably bigger than the observed one for the new inflation, new inflation model by Shafi and Vilenkin, MSSM inflation, chaotic inflation with high reheating temperature and the simplest Shafi-Vilenkin chaotic inflationary model. Therefore, strong diluting mechanisms are needed to reduce the baryon excess to its observational value today for these models. We have shown that for the SFC baryogenesis model a successful generation of the observed baryon asymmetry is possible in Modified Starobinsky inflation, chaotic inflation with low reheating temperature, chaotic inflation in SUGRA and quintessential inflationary model.

The late-time effect of primordial non-Gaussianity offers a window into the physics of inflation and the very early Universe. In this work we study the consequences of a particular class of primordial non-Gaussianity that is fully characterized by initial density fluctuations drawn from a non-Gaussian probability density function, rather than by construction of a particular form for the primordial bispectrum. We numerically generate multiple realisations of cosmological structure and use the late-time matter polyspectra to determine the effect of these modified initial conditions. In this non-Gaussianity has only a small imprint on the first polyspectra, when compared to a standard Gaussian cosmology. Furthermore, some of our models present an interesting scale-dependent deviation from the Gaussian case in the bispectrum and trispectrum, although the signal is at most at the percent level.

The hosts of binary neutron star (BNS) mergers and hence short GRBs are not only galaxies with old stellar populations, infact most short GRB hosts are at least mildly star-forming galaxies. According to theoretical studies of merger populations, both short and long merging time-scales are expected. The immediate environments of BNS mergers are not as directly related to the property of the progenitor system as for long GRBs, since the system usually travelled a significant distance from their birth place. However, studying the stellar population properties across the host can still give us vital information on the contribution of formation channels and on merger timescales. Here we review the properties of NS merger hosts in emission using integrated-light and resolved observations. The afterglows of short GRBs furthermore serve to study the interstellar medium in their host galaxies in absorption. We present our best example to date, GRB 160410A at z = 1.7, one of the highest redshift short GRBs.

Understanding the nucleosynthetic origin of nitrogen and the evolution of the N/O ratio in the interstellar medium is crucial for a comprehensive picture of galaxy chemical evolution at high-redshift because most observational metallicity (O/H) estimates are implicitly dependent on the N/O ratio. The observed N/O at high-redshift shows an overall constancy with O/H, albeit with a large scatter. We show that these heretofore unexplained features can be explained by the pre-supernova wind yields from rotating massive stars (M≳10M⊙,ν/νcrit≳0.4). Our models naturally produce the observed N/O plateau, as well as the scatter at low O/H. We find the scatter to arise from varying star formation efficiency. However, the models that have supernovae dominated yields produce a poor fit to the observed N/O at low O/H. This peculiar abundance pattern at low O/H suggests that dwarf galaxies are most likely to be devoid of SNe yields and are primarily enriched by pre-supernova wind abundances.

Progenitors of Type Ib and Ic supernovae (SNe) are stripped envelope stars and provide important clues on the mass-loss history of massive stars. Direct observations of the progenitors before the supernova explosion would provide strong constraints on the exact nature of SN Ib/Ic progenitors. Given that stripped envelope massive stars can have an optically thick wind as in the case of Wolf-Rayet stars, the influence of the wind on the observational properties needs to be properly considered to correctly infer progenitor properties from pre-SN observations. Non-LTE stellar atmosphere models indicate that the optical brightness could be greatly enhanced with an optically thick wind because of lifting-up of the photosphere from the stellar surface to the wind matter, and line and free-free emissions. So far, only a limited number of SN Ib/Ic progenitor candidates have been reported, including iPTF13bvn, SN 2017ein and SN 2019yvr. We argue that these three candidates are a biased sample, being unusually bright in the optical compared to what is expected from typical SN Ib/Ic progenitors, and that mass-loss enhancement during the final evolutionary stage can explain their optical properties.

We present here self-consistent zoom-in simulations of massive galaxies forming in a full cosmological setting. The simulations are run with an updated version of the KETJU code, which is able to resolve the gravitational dynamics of their supermassive black holes, while simultaneously modelling the large-scale astrophysical processes in the surrounding galaxies, such as gas cooling, star formation and stellar and AGN feedback. The KETJU code is able to accurately model the complex behaviour of multiple SMBHs, including dynamical friction, stellar scattering and gravitational wave emission, and also to resolve Lidov–Kozai oscillations that naturally occur in hierarchical triplet SMBH systems. In general most of the SMBH binaries form at moderately high eccentricities, with typical values in the range of , meaning that the circular binary models that are commonly used in the literature are insufficient for capturing the typical binary evolution.

Neutron stars have shown diverse characteristics, leading us to classify them into different classes. In this proceeding, I review the observational properties of isolated neutron stars: from magnetars, the strongest magnets we know of, to central compact objects, the so-called anti-magnetars, stopping by the rotation-powered pulsars and X-ray dim isolated neutron stars. Finally, I highlight a few sources that have exhibited features straddling those of different groups, blurring the apparent diversity of the neutron star zoo.

One of the primary foci of research in astrophysics is on developing a rigorous understanding of the first galaxies. This entails studying the physical processes such as accretion, cooling and star formation in first galaxies, and also investigating the consequences of these processes in the present day Universe. We investigate the star formation in the early galaxies and its subsequent evolution using the eagle simulation and find that the star formation has a smooth evolutionary behaviour at low redshifts leading to a main sequence of star formation that can be explained by deterministic models using accretion history as an input. In contrast, at high redshift (>6), most of the galaxies are bursty. At high redshift, instead of exhibiting a main sequence in SFR – Mh plane, they bunch-up around a halo mass of ≈ 109 Mȯ and SFR ≈0.1 Mȯ yr−1. As a consequence, the reionization of the Universe is led by low mass haloes hosting brighter galaxies that are undergoing intense bursts. Furthermore, the bursts in the infant galaxies lead to a poorly mixed interstellar medium in which the stars can form from gas enriched predominantly by a single nucleosynthetic channel. The lower mass subset of the stars formed in first galaxies resemble the carbon enhanced metal poor stars in our Galaxy while the higher mass ones reionized the Universe.

Situation with highly magnetized neutron stars in binary systems is not yet certain. On the one hand, all best studied magnetars seem to be isolated objects. On the other, there are many claims based on model-dependent analysis of spin properties or/and luminosity of neutron stars in X-ray binaries in favour of large fields. In addition, there are a few results suggesting a magnetar-like activity of neutron stars in close binary systems. Most of theoretical considerations do not favour even existence, not speaking about active decay, of magnetar-scale fields in neutron stars older than ∼106 yrs. However, alternative scenarios of the field evolution exist. I provide a brief review of theoretical and observational results related to the presence of neutron stars with large magnetic field in binaries and discuss perspectives of future studies.