Prompt rho proportional to r-1.5 density cusps are the densest and most abundant dark matter systems. If the dark matter is a weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP), recent studies have shown that prompt cusps dominate the aggregate dark matter annihilation rate. This article explores whether individual prompt cusps could be detected as gamma-ray sources. At the Fermi Telescope's point-source sensitivity, WIMPs with the canonical annihilation cross section could form detectable prompt cusps if the particle mass is of order 10 GeV. These objects could be 10-100 pc away and weigh under a solar mass; they would subtend around 0.1 degrees on the sky. For GeV-scale dark matter particles with below-canonical cross sections, searches for individual prompt cusps can be more sensitive than searches for the annihilation signals from galactic dark matter halos.

Aims. We explore different scenarios to explain the chemical difference found in the remarkable giant-giant binary system HD 138202 + CD-30 12303. For the first time, we suggest how to distinguish these scenarios by taking advantage of the extensive convective envelopes of giant stars. Methods. We carried out a high-precision determination of stellar parameters and abundances by applying a full line-by-line differential analysis on GHOST high-resolution spectra. We used the FUNDPAR program with ATLAS12 model atmospheres and specific opacities calculated for an arbitrary composition through a doubly iterated method. Physical parameters were estimated with the isochrones package and evolutionary tracks were calculated via MIST models. Results. We found a significant chemical difference between the two stars (Delta[Fe/H] similar to 0.08 dex), which is largely unexpected considering the insensitivity of giant stars to planetary ingestion and diffusion effects. We tested the possibility of engulfment events by using several different combinations of stellar mass, ingested mass, metallicity of the engulfed object and different convective envelopes. However, the planetary ingestion scenario does not seem to explain the observed differences. For the first time, we distinguished the source of chemical differences using a giant-giant binary system. By ruling out other possible scenarios such as planet formation and evolutionary effects between the two stars, we suggest that primordial inhomogeneities might explain the observed differences. This remarkable result implies that the metallicity differences that were observed in at least some main-sequence binary systems might be related to primordial inhomogeneities rather than engulfment events. We also discuss the important implications of finding primordial inhomogeneities, which affect chemical tagging and other fields such as planet formation. We strongly encourage the use of giant-giant pairs. They are a relevant complement to main-sequence pairs for determining the origin of the observed chemical differences in multiple systems.

Excursion set theory is a powerful and widely used tool for describing the distribution of dark matter haloes, but it is normally applied with simplifying approximations. We use numerical sampling methods to study the mass functions predicted by the theory without approximations. With a spherical top-hat window and a constant delta = 1.5 threshold, the theory accurately predicts mass functions with the M-200 mass definition, both unconditional and conditional, in simulations of a range of matter-dominated cosmologies. For Lambda cold dark matter at the present epoch, predictions lie between the M-200m and M-200c mass functions. In contrast, with the same window function, a non-constant threshold based on ellipsoidal collapse predicts uniformly too few haloes. This work indicates a new way to simply and accurately evaluate halo mass functions, clustering bias, and assembly histories for a range of cosmologies. We provide a fitting function that accurately represents the predictions of the theory for a wide range of parameters.

The scaling of the specific Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) rate with host galaxy stellar mass (N) over dot(Ia)/M-star similar to M-star(-0.3) as measured in ASAS-SN and DES strongly suggests that the number of SNe Ia produced by a stellar population depends inversely on its metallicity. We estimate the strength of the required metallicity dependence by combining the average star formation histories (SFHs) of galaxies as a function of their stellar mass with the mass-metallicity relation (MZR) for galaxies and common parametrizations for the SN Ia delay-time distribution. The differences in SFHs can account for only similar to 30 per cent of the increase in the specific SN Ia rate between stellar masses of M-star = 10(10) and 10(7.2) M-circle dot. We find that an additional metallicity dependence of approximately similar to Z(-0.5) is required to explain the observed scaling. This scaling matches the metallicity dependence of the close binary fraction observed in APOGEE, suggesting that the enhanced SN Ia rate in low-mass galaxies can be explained by a combination of their more extended SFHs and a higher binary fraction due to their lower metallicities. Due to the shape of the MZR, only galaxies below M-star approximate to 3 x 10(9) M-circle dot are significantly affected by the metallicity-dependent SN Ia rates. The (N) over dot(Ia)/M-star similar to M-star(-0.3) scaling becomes shallower with increasing redshift, dropping by factor of similar to 2 at 10(7.2) M-circle dot between z = 0 and 1 with our similar to Z(-0.5) scaling. With metallicity-independent rates, this decrease is a factor of similar to 3. We discuss the implications of metallicity-dependent SN Ia rates for one-zone models of galactic chemical evolution.

Observations of pulsar scintillation are among the few astrophysical probes of very small-scale (less than or similar to au) phenomena in the interstellar medium (ISM). In particular, characterization of scintillation arcs, including their curvature and intensity distributions, can be related to interstellar turbulence and potentially overpressurized plasma in local ISM inhomogeneities, such as supernova remnants, H II regions, and bow shocks. Here we present a survey of eight pulsars conducted at the Five-hundred-metre Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST), revealing a diverse range of scintillation arc characteristics at high sensitivity. These observations reveal more arcs than measured previously for our sample. At least nine arcs are observed toward B1929+10 at screen distances spanning similar to 90 per cent of the pulsar's 361 pc path length to the observer. Four arcs are observed toward B0355+54, with one arc yielding a screen distance as close as similar to 10(5) au ( <1 pc) from either the pulsar or the observer. Several pulsars show highly truncated, low-curvature arcs that may be attributable to scattering near the pulsar. The scattering screen constraints are synthesized with continuum maps of the local ISM and other well-characterized pulsar scintillation arcs, yielding a three-dimensional view of the scattering media in context.

Observations of pulsar scintillation are among the few astrophysical probes of very small-scale (less than or similar to au) phenomena in the interstellar medium (ISM). In particular, characterization of scintillation arcs, including their curvature and intensity distributions, can be related to interstellar turbulence and potentially overpressurized plasma in local ISM inhomogeneities, such as supernova remnants, H ii regions, and bow shocks. Here we present a survey of eight pulsars conducted at the Five-hundred-metre Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST), revealing a diverse range of scintillation arc characteristics at high sensitivity. These observations reveal more arcs than measured previously for our sample. At least nine arcs are observed toward B1929+10 at screen distances spanning similar to 90 per cent of the pulsar's 361 pc path length to the observer. Four arcs are observed toward B0355+54, with one arc yielding a screen distance as close as similar to 10(5) au (<1 pc) from either the pulsar or the observer. Several pulsars show highly truncated, low-curvature arcs that may be attributable to scattering near the pulsar. The scattering screen constraints are synthesized with continuum maps of the local ISM and other well-characterized pulsar scintillation arcs, yielding a three-dimensional view of the scattering media in context.

From the formation mechanisms of stars and compact objects to nuclear physics, modern astronomy frequently leverages surveys to understand populations of objects to answer fundamental questions. The population of dark and isolated compact objects in the Galaxy contains critical information related to many of these topics, but is only practically accessible via gravitational microlensing. However, photometric microlensing observables are degenerate for different types of lenses, and one can seldom classify an event as involving either a compact object or stellar lens on its own. To address this difficulty, we apply a Bayesian framework that treats lens type probabilistically and jointly with a lens population model. This method allows lens population characteristics to be inferred despite intrinsic uncertainty in the lens class of any single event. We investigate this method's effectiveness on a simulated ground-based photometric survey in the context of characterizing a hypothetical population of primordial black holes (PBHs) with an average mass of 30M circle dot. On simulated data, our method outperforms current black hole (BH) lens identification pipelines and characterizes different subpopulations of lenses while jointly constraining the PBH contribution to dark matter to approximate to 25%. Key to robust inference, our method can marginalize over population model uncertainty. We find the lower mass cutoff for stellar origin BHs, a key observable in understanding the BH mass gap, particularly difficult to infer in our simulations. This work lays the foundation for cutting-edge PBH abundance constraints to be extracted from current photometric microlensing surveys.

Stellar ages are elusive to measure, albeit being very important for understanding stellar evolution. We investigate the impact of photospheric activity on 2-min cadence light curves from the TESS/NASA mission of a selected sample of 30 solar-twins with well-determined ages. The photometric variability, A(T ESS), of the light curves due to rotational modulations by the presence of activ e re gions was estimated and correlated with chromospheric activity (Ca II H&K lines from an e xtensiv e High Accurac y Radial velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) at the European Southern Observ atory (ESO) HARPS/ESO acti vity time series) and ages. Moreo v er, these results were compared with the total solar irradiance amplitude behaviour during the solar magnetic cycles 23 and 24, validating our findings for solar-twins. Our results show the photometric amplitude to be strongly correlated to the av erage lev el of chromospheric activity for the star sample. Also, we found a good correlation of A(T ESS) with stellar age (in Gyr) described by log t = + 12 . 239 - 0 . 894 log A(T ESS). In conclusion, stellar photometric variability A(T ESS )may be used as a simple age diagnostic for solar-twins.

It has been suggested that small chemical anomalies observed in planet-hosting wide binary systems could be due to planet signatures, where the role of the planetary mass is still unknown. We search for a possible planet signature by analysing the T-C trends in the remarkable binary system HD 196067-HD 196068. At the moment, only HD 196067 is known to host a planet that is near the brown dwarf regime. We take advantage of the strong physical similarity between both stars, which is crucial to achieving the highest possible precision in stellar parameters and elemental chemical abundances. This system gives us a unique opportunity to explore whether a possible depletion of refractories in a binary system could be inhibited by the presence of a massive planet. We performed a line-by-line chemical differential study, employing the non-solar-scaled opacities, in order to reach the highest precision in the calculations. After differentially comparing both stars, HD 196067 displays a clear deficiency in refractory elements in the T-C plane, a lower iron content (0.051 dex), and also a lower Li I content (0.14 dex) than its companion. In addition, the differential abundances reveal a T-C trend. These targets represent the first cases of an abundance difference around a binary system hosting a super-Jupiter. Although we explored several scenarios to explain the chemical anomalies, none of them can be entirely ruled out. Additional monitoring of the system as well as studies of larger sample of wide binary systems hosting massive planets are needed to better understand the chemical abundance trend observed in HD 196067-68.