Among Neptunian mass exoplanets (20-50 M-circle plus), puffy hot Neptunes are extremely rare, and their unique combination of low mass and extended radii implies very low density (rho < 0.3 g cm(-3)). Over the last decade, only a few puffy planets have been detected and precisely characterized with both transit and radial velocity observations, most notably including WASP-107 b, TOI-1420 b, and WASP-193 b. In this paper, we report the discovery of TOI-1173 A b, a low-density ( rho=0.195-0.017+0.018 g cm(-3)) super-Neptune with P = 7.06 days in a nearly circular orbit around the primary G-dwarf star in the wide binary system TOI-1173 A/B. Using radial velocity observations with the MAROON-X and HIRES spectrographs and transit photometry from TESS, we determine a planet mass of M p = 27.4 +/- 1.7 M circle plus and radius of R p = 9.19 +/- 0.18 R circle plus. TOI-1173 A b is the first puffy super-Neptune planet detected in a wide binary system (projected separation similar to 11,400 au). We explore several mechanisms to understand the puffy nature of TOI-1173 A b and show that tidal heating is the most promising explanation. Furthermore, we demonstrate that TOI-1173 A b likely has maintained its orbital stability over time and may have undergone von-Zeipel-Lidov-Kozai migration followed by tidal circularization, given its present-day architecture, with important implications for planet migration theory and induced engulfment into the host star. Further investigation of the atmosphere of TOI-1173 A b will shed light on the origin of close-in low-density Neptunian planets in field and binary systems, while spin-orbit analyses may elucidate the dynamical evolution of the system.

We present Augustus, a catalog of distance, extinction, and stellar parameter estimates for 170 million stars from 14 mag < r < 20 mag and with divided by b divided by > 10 degrees drawing on a combination of optical to near-infrared photometry from Pan-STARRS, 2MASS, UKIDSS, and unWISE along with parallax measurements from Gaia DR2 and 3D dust extinction maps. After applying quality cuts, we find 125 million objects have "high-quality" posteriors with statistical distance uncertainties of less than or similar to 10% for objects with well-constrained stellar types. This is a substantial improvement over the distance estimates derived from Gaia parallaxes alone and in line with the recent results from Anders et al. We find the fits are able to reproduce the dereddened Gaia color-magnitude diagram accurately, which serves as a useful consistency check of our results. We show that we are able to detect large, kinematically coherent substructures in our data clearly relative to the input priors, including the Monoceros Ring and the Sagittarius Stream, attesting to the quality of the catalog. Our results are publicly available at doi:10.7910/DVN/WYMSXV. An accompanying interactive visualization can be found at http://allsky.s3-website.us-east-2.amazonaws.com.

Leaf carbon isotope ratios and leaf mineral composition (Ca, K, Mg, Mn, N, and P) were measured on the dominant species along an irradiance cline in a subtropical monsoon forest of southern China. This irradiance cline resulted from disturbance caused by fuel-harvesting. Leaf carbon isotope ratios increased from undisturbed to disturbed sites for all species, indicating that leaf intercellular CO2 concentrations decreased and leaf water use efficiencies increased along this cline. Nitrogen and magnesium levels were lower in leaves of species on the disturbed sites, but there were no clear patterns for calcium, potassium, phosphorus or manganese.

Carbon isotope ratios were used to survey the distribution of photosynthetic pathways among taxa, the relationship between photosynthetic pathway and habitat light levels, and the relationship between intercellular CO2 levels of C3 plants and habitat light levels within a subtropical monsoon forest in southern China. Of 128 species, most (94) possessed the C3 photosynthetic pathway; 33 species possessed the C4 pathway and all of these were restricted to high light locations. There was one epiphytic CAM species. The C3 species were classified as occurring in open, intermediate, and closed canopy sites. Among C3 species, carbon isotope ratios tended to become more negative with decreasing light availability in the habitat.

Silicon nanowires (Si NWs), one-dimensional single crystalline, have recently drawn extensive attention, thanks to their robust applications in electrical and optical devices as well as in the strengthening of diamond/SiC superhard composites. Here, we conducted high-pressure synchrotron diffraction experiments in a diamond anvil cell to study phase transitions and compressibility of Si NWs. Our results revealed that the onset pressure for the Si I-II transformation in Si NWs is approximately 2.0 GPa lower than previously determined values for bulk Si, a trend that is consistent with the analysis of misfit in strain energy. The bulk modulus of Si-l NWs derived from the pressure-volume measurements is 123 GPa, which is comparable to that of Si-V NWs but 25% larger than the reported values for bulk silicon. The reduced compressibility in Si NWs indicates that the unique wire-like structure in nanoscale plays vital roles in the elastic behavior of condensed matter.

The effect of pressure on the superconductivity of "111"-type Na1-xFeAs is investigated through temperature-dependent electrical-resistance measurements in a diamond anvil cell. The superconducting transition temperature (T-c) increases from 26 K to a maximum of 31 K as the pressure increases from ambient pressure to 3 GPa. Further increasing pressure suppresses T-c drastically. The behavior of pressure-tuned T-c in Na1-xFeAs is much different from that in LixFeAs, although they have the same Cu2Sb-type structure. Copyright (C) EPLA, 2009

We investigate the compressibility of nanocrystalline tungsten carbide (nano-WC) using synchrotron x-ray diffraction. Nano-WC displays a bulk modulus (452 GPa) comparable to that of diamond; it is 10%-15% larger than previously reported values for bulk WC. This finding is consistent with a generalized model of nanocrystal with a compressed surface layer. The linear bulk moduli of nano-WC along a- and c-axes were determined to be 407 and 546 GPa, respectively. First-principles density functional theory (DFT) calculations confirm the experimental observations of an anisotropic linear compressibility and a lower bulk modulus for microsized WC.

The crystal structure of NH3BH3 was investigated using synchrotron high pressure X-ray diffraction (HPXRD) up to 27 GPa and neutron diffraction up to 5 GPa. Density functional theoretical (DFT) calculations were carried out simultaneously for comparison. The results confirm a pressure induced phase transition from the tetragonal I4mm phase to a high pressure orthorhombic Cmc21 phase around 1.22 GPa. Further increase of pressure above 8 GPa, we observed a second structural transition from Cmc21 to a tri-clinic P1 phase which are reversible with small hysteresis. The transition pressures and the bulk modulus obtained experimentally are in good agreement with theory. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Compressibility of periodically twinned silicon carbide nanowires is studied using in situ high pressure X-ray diffraction. Twinned SiC nanowires displayed a bulk modulus of 316 GPa, similar to 20-40% higher than previously reported values for SiC of other morphologies. This finding provides direct evidence of a significant effect of twinned structures on the elastic properties of SiC on the nano scale and supports previous molecular dynamics simulations of twin boundary/stacking fault-induced strengthening. Both experiments and simulations indicate that nanoscale twinning is an effective pathway by which to tailor the mechanical properties of nanostructures. (C) 2010 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

We report on a comprehensive study of thermodynamic and mechanical properties as well as a bond-deformation mechanism on ultra-incompressible Re(2)N and Re(3)N. The introduction of nitrogen into the rhenium lattice leads to thermodynamic instability in Re(2)N at ambient conditions and enhanced incompressibility and strength for both rhenium nitrides. Rhenium nitrides, however, show substantially lower ideal shear strength than hard ReB(2) and superhard c-BN, suggesting that they cannot be intrinsically superhard. An intriguing soft "ionic bond mediated plastic deformation" mechanism is revealed to underline the physical origin of their unusual mechanical strength. These results suggest a need to reformulate the design concept of intrinsically superhard transition-metal nitrides, borides, and carbides.