ALMA observations with angular resolution in the range ∼20–200 mas demonstrate that emission at 268.149 and 262.898 GHz in the (0,2,0) and (0,1,0) vibrationally excited states of water are widespread in the inner envelope of O-rich AGB stars and red supergiants. These transitions are either quasi-thermally excited, in which case they can be used to estimate the molecular column density, or show signs of maser emission with a brightness temperature of ∼103–107 K in a few stars. The highest spatial resolution observations probe the inner few stellar radii environment, up to ∼10–12 R* in general, while the mid resolution data probe more thermally excited gas at larger extents. In several stars, high velocity components are observed at 268.149 GHz which may be caused by the kinematic perturbations induced by a companion. Radiative transfer models of water are revisited to specify the physical conditions leading to 268.149 and 262.898 GHz maser excitation.

Water is a ubiquitous molecule in circumstellar envelopes (CSEs). Its emission has been detected at a wide range of distances from the central oxygen-rich evolved star. In particular, the water maser transition at 22 GHz, typically extending from about 5–20 stellar radii to as far as several hundred stellar radii from the star, has been commonly used to probe the structure and dynamics of the intermediate regions of the CSE where dust is condensing and the inner wind is being accelerated. The advent of ALMA has opened the door to high-angular resolution mapping of much higher excitation transitions of water, probing the inner regions of the CSEs, some of which are anticipated to exhibit maser action. The ALMA ATOMIUM large program observed many such transitions towards a sample of AGB stars & red supergiants. The preliminary results show that while some transitions depart only slightly from LTE, others clearly show signs of maser action. The Gaussian fitting of the non-diffuse/compact part of some of the (quasi) thermal & maser transitions reveal interesting velocity gradients, signatures of outflowing and infalling motions hence providing important constraints for stellar wind models.

While predominantly dipolar, large-scale magnetic fields are usually assumed in most studies involving neutron stars, there are multiple observational, theoretical hints and numerical simulations highlightening the importance of non-dipolar components. I review here the most important observational facts and numerical studies pointing towards the existence of magnetospheric currents and internal small-scale structures, arising from multipoles of poloidal and toroidal fields. This holds for all neutron star stages: at birth, during their lifetime and after a merger.

Recent mid-infrared (MIR) observations of nearby active galactic nuclei (AGN), revealed that their dust emission appears prominently extended in the polar direction, at odds with the expectations from the canonical dusty torus. This polar dust, tentatively associated with dusty winds driven by radiation pressure, is found to have a major contribution to the MIR flux from a few to hundreds of parsecs. One such source with a clear detection of polar dust is a nearby, well-known AGN in the Circinus galaxy. We proposed a phenomenological model consisting of a compact, thin dusty disk and a large-scale polar outflow in the form of a hyperboloid shell and demonstrated that such a model is able to explain the peculiar MIR morphology on large scales seen by VLT/VISIR and the interferometric data from VLTI/MIDI that probe the small scales. Our results call for caution when attributing dust emission of unresolved sources entirely to the torus and warrant further investigation of the MIR emission in the polar regions of AGN.

We address the effect of orientation of the accretion disk plane and the geometry of the broad line region (BLR) in the context of understanding the distribution of quasars along their Main Sequence. We utilize the photoionization code CLOUDY to model the BLR, incorporating the ‘un-constant’ virial factor. We show the preliminary results of the analysis to highlight the co-dependence of the Eigenvector 1 parameter, RFeII on the broad HβFWHM (i.e. the line dispersion) and the inclination angle (θ), assuming fixed values for the Eddington ratio (Lbol/ LEdd), black hole mass (MBH), spectral energy distribution (SED) shape, cloud density (nH) and composition.†

The interpretation of the main sequence of quasars has become a frontier subject in the last years. This considers the effect of a highly flattened, axially symmetric geometry for the broad line region (BLR) on the parameters related to the distribution of quasars along their main sequence. We utilize the photoionization code CLOUDY to model the BLR, assuming ‘un-constant’ virial factor with a strong dependence on the viewing angle. We show the preliminary results of the analysis to highlight the co-dependence of the Eigenvector 1 parameter, RFeii on the broad Hβ FWHM (i.e. the line dispersion) and the inclination angle (θ), assuming fixed values for the Eddington ratio (Lbo1/LEdd), black hole mass (MBH) and spectral energy distribution (SED) shape. We consider four cases with changing cloud density (nH) and composition. Understanding the emitting region is crucial as this knowledge can be extended to the use of quasars as distance indicators for Cosmology.‡

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array offers regular observations of our Sun since 2016. After an extended period of further developing and optimizing the post-processing procedures, first scientific results are now produced. While the first observing cycles mostly provided mosaics and time series of continuum brightness temperature maps with a cadence of 1-2s, additional receiver bands and polarization capabilities will be offered in the future. Currently, polarization capabilities are offered for selected receiver bands but not yet for solar observing. An overview of the recent development, first scientific results and potential of solar magnetic field measurements with ALMA will be presented.

Massive stars lose a considerable amount of mass during their lifetime. When the star explodes as a supernova (SN), the resulting shock wave expands in the medium created by the stellar mass-loss. Thermal X-ray emission from the SN depends on the square of the density of the ambient medium, which in turn depends on the mass-loss rate (and velocity) of the progenitor wind. The emission can therefore be used to probe the stellar mass-loss in the decades or centuries before the star’s death.

We have aggregated together data available in the literature, or analysed by us, to compute the X-ray lightcurves of almost all young supernovae detectable in X-rays. We use this database to explore the mass-loss rates of massive stars that collapse to form supernovae. Mass-loss rates are lowest for the common Type IIP supernovae, but increase by several orders of magnitude for the highest luminosity X-ray SNe.

Numerous numerical studies suggest that magnetic fields influence the transport of dust and gas, the disk chemistry, the migration of planetesimals within the disk, and above all the accretion of matter onto the star. In short: Magnetic fields are crucial for the evolution of planet-forming disks. First indirect comparisons of theory and observations support this picture (Flock et al. 2017); however, profound observational constraints are still pending. Recent studies show that the intrinsically polarized continuum emission, the classical tracer of magnetic fields, might trace other physics as well (radiation field or dust grain size). The nearly face-on protoplanetary disk HD 142527 shows predominantly radial polarization vectors consistent with aspherical grains aligned by a toroidal magnetic field (Fig. 1; Bertrang et al. 2017a,b; Ohashi et al. 2018). However, the number of cutting-edge polarization observations presenting inconclusive data, for which these three different origins of polarization are not clearly distinguishable, increases continuously. We present a solution to this polarized ambiguity: observations and simulations of the most direct tracer of magnetic fields, polarized gas emission, in combination with multi-wavelength continuum polarization observations will disentangle the sources of continuum polarimetry with ALMA (Bertrang et al. 2017a,b; Bertrang & Cortés in prep.).

Several cool-core clusters are known to host a radio mini-halo, a diffuse, steep-spectrum radio source located in their cores, thus probing the presence of non-thermal components as magnetic field and relativistic particles on scales not directly influenced by the central AGN. The nature of the mechanism that produces a population of radio-emitting relativistic particles on the scale of hundreds of kiloparsecs is still unclear. At the same time, it is still debated if the central AGN may play a role in the formation of mini-halos by providing the seed of the relativistic particles. We aim to investigate these open issues by studying the connection between thermal and non-thermal components of the intra-cluster medium. We performed a point-to-point analysis of the radio and the X-ray surface brightness of a compilation of mini-halos. We find that mini-halos have super-linear scalings between radio and X-rays, with radio brightness declining more steeply than the X-ray brightness. This trend is opposite to that generally observed in giant radio halos, thus marking a possible difference in the physics of the two radio sources. Finally, using the scalings between radio and X-rays and assuming a hadronic origin of mini-halos we derive constraints on the magnetic field in the core of the hosting clusters.

In the last decades, numerous observational and computational studies have shown that the global flare distribution is a power-law with a slope less than 2. In these studies, active regions are treated as statistically indistinguishable. To test this, we identify and separately analyze the flares produced by ten individual active regions (2006-2016). In five regions, we find a single power-law distribution, with a slope of a < 2. In the other five, we find a broken double power-law distribution, with slopes a1 < 2 and a2 > 2.

Supernova remnants are the site of a number of physical processes (shock-heating, non-equilibrium ionization, hydrodynamic instabilities, particle acceleration, magnetic field amplification). Their related emission processes provide us with a large set of observational data. Supernova remnants result from the interaction of high-velocity material ejected by the supernova explosion with the medium surrounding the progenitor star. This interaction gives rise to a double-shock structure that lasts for hundreds of years, with a forward shock and a reverse shock compressing and heating to tens million of degrees the surrounding medium and the ejecta, respectively. It is mostly in this phase that young supernova remnants provide information on their explosion mechanism through spectro-imaging observations of the ejected nucleosynthesis products and their dynamics, notably in the X-ray domain. I will review these observations and their implications for our current understanding of the dynamics of supernova remnants. I will conclude on the prospects with future facilities.

In this work, we investigate the thermophysical properties, including thermal inertia, roughness fraction and surface grain size of OSIRIS-REx target asteroid (101955) Bennu by using a thermophysical model with the recently updated 3D radar-derived shape model (Nolan et al., 2013) and mid-infrared observations (Müller et al. 2012, Emery et al., 2014). We find that the asteroid bears an effective diameter of 510+6−40 m, a geometric albedo of 0.047+0.0083−0.0011, a roughness fraction of 0.04+0.26−0.04, and thermal inertia of 240+440−60 Jm−2s−0.5K−1 for our best-fit solution. The best-estimate thermal inertia suggests that fine-grained regolith may cover a large portion of Bennu's surface, where a grain size may vary from 1.3 to 31 mm. Our outcome suggests that Bennu is suitable for the OSIRIS-REx mission to return samples to Earth.

We explore the temporal evolution of flare plasma parameters including temperature (T) - differential emission measure (DEM) relationship by analyzing high spectral and temporal cadence of X-ray emission in 1.6-8.0 keV energy band, recorded by SphinX (Polish) and Solar X-ray Spectrometer (SOXS; Indian) instruments, during a B8.3 flare which occurred on July 04, 2009. SphinX records X-ray emission in 1.2-15.0 keV energy band with the temporal and spectral cadence as good as 6 μs and 0.4 keV, respectively. On the other hand, SOXS provides X-ray observations in 4-25 keV energy band with the temporal and spectral resolution of 3 s and 0.7 keV, respectively. We derive the thermal plasma parameters during impulsive phase of the flare employing well-established Withbroe-Sylwester DEM inversion algorithm.

We review the most standard impact monitoring techniques. Linear methods are the fastest approach but their applicability regime is limited because of the chaotic dynamics of near-Earth asteroids. Among nonlinear methods, Monte Carlo algorithms are the most reliable ones but also most computationally intensive and so unpractical for routine impact monitoring. In the last 15 years, the Line of Variations method has been the most successful technique thanks to its computational efficiency and capability of detecting low probability events deep in the nonlinear regime. We also present some more recent techniques developed to deal with the new challenges arising in the impact hazard assessment problem. In particular, we describe keyhole maps as a tool to go beyond strongly scattering encounters and how to account for nongravitational perturbations, especially the Yarkovsky effect, when their contribution is the main source of prediction uncertainty. Finally, we discuss systematic ranging to deal with the short-term hazard assessment problem for newly discovered asteroids, when only a short observed arc is available thus leading to severe degeneracies in the orbit estimation process.

The unification model of active galactic nuclei postulates an accreting supermassive black hole as the central engine, surrounded by a putative dusty torus. This dust absorbs the incoming radiation, re-emits it in the infrared and obscures our view of the central region at certain inclinations. We present a new set of AGN models, in which the torus is modelled as a 3D multiphase medium. These new models can explain the observed spectral energy distribution of AGNs over the entire infrared domain, including the observed silicate feature strength and the level of near-infrared continuum. A new generation of multi-phase models, based on hydrodynamical simulations, is being constructed. We will compute the polarisation structure of these physically motivated 3D torus models, and compare them to simpler smooth torus models and to the available observational data.

Optical and X-ray spectroscopy indicate that the X-ray pulsar GX 1+4 is seen through a cloud of gravitationally bound matter. We discuss an unstable negative feedback mechanism (originally proposed by Kotani et al. 1999), based on X-ray heating of this matter which controls the accretion rate when the source is in a low X-ray luminosity state. A deep minimum lasting ∼6 hours occurred during observations with the RXTE satellite over 1996 July 19–21. The shape of the X-ray pulses changed remarkably from before to after the minimum. These changes may be related to the transition from neutron star spin-down to spin-up which occurred at about the same time. Smoothed particle hydrodynamic simulations of the effect of adding matter with opposite angular momentum to an existing disk, show that it is possible for a number of concentric rings with alternating senses of rotation to co-exist in a disk. This could provide an explanation for the step-like changes in Ṗ which are observed in GX 1+4. Changes at the inner boundary of the disk occur at the same timescale as that imposed at the outer boundary. Reversals of material torque on the neutron star occur at a minimum in LX.

During the last few years, overionized (recombining) plasmas were unexpectedly discovered in a few supernova remnants, but the origin is still unclear. In this contribution, we present a preliminary spectroscopic analysis of the X-ray emission from the north central region of IC443, one of the “recombining” remnants. An overionized NEI plasma model can reproduce well the Ly-alpha lines and the recombination edges in the spectrum. The ionization temperatures for the metals Mg, Si and S are much higher than the electron temperatures. which is a strong indication of overionization of these elements. The different spectral features of the recombining plasma are characterized on scales of a few arcmin, such as the increasing trend of the pre-cooling temperature and the ionization time from south to north, which may imply a pre-heating direction.

The effect of magnetic field decay on the chemical heating and thermal evolution of neutron stars is discussed. Our main goal is to study how chemical heating mechanisms and thermal evolution are changed by field decay and how magnetic field decay is modified by the thermal evolution. We show that the effect of chemical heating is suppressed by the star spin-down through decaying magnetic field at a later stage; magnetic field decay is delayed significantly relative to stars cooling without heating mechanisms; compared to typical chemical heating, the decay of the magnetic field can even cause the temperature to turn down at a later stage.

Photospheric thermal radiation components from gamma-ray burst (GRB) jets are estimated based on relativistic hydrodynamic simulations of jet propagation. The light curves and spectra are derived, considering viewing angle effects. The light curves exhibit several seconds time variability and the luminosity is as large as that of GRB prompt emission. For observers at a viewing angle of several degrees the spectra below the peak energy are much softer than that of Planck distribution and close to typical GRB spectrum. Whereas the spectra for observers at small viewing angle are hard and close to Planck distribution. Numerical Amati and Yonetoku relations are reproduced.