The Astronomy and Astrophysics Review最新文献

Since the expansion of the universe was first established by Edwin Hubble and Georges Lemaître about a century ago, the Hubble constant (H_0) which measures its rate has been of great interest to astronomers. Besides being interesting in its own right, few properties of the universe can be deduced without it. In the last decade, a significant gap has emerged between different methods of measuring it, some anchored in the nearby universe, others at cosmological distances. The SH0ES team has found (H_0 = 73.2 pm 1.3 ; ;,hbox {kms}^{-1} ,hbox {Mpc}^{-1}) locally, whereas the value found for the early universe by the Planck Collaboration is (H_0 = 67.4 pm 0.5 ; ;,hbox {kms}^{-1} ,hbox {Mpc}^{-1}) from measurements of the cosmic microwave background. Is this gap a sign that the well-established ({varLambda} {text{CDM}}) cosmological model is somehow incomplete? Or are there unknown systematics? And more practically, how should humble astronomers pick between competing claims if they need to assume a value for a certain purpose? In this article, we review results and what changes to the cosmological model could be needed to accommodate them all. For astronomers in a hurry, we provide a buyer’s guide to the results, and make recommendations.

Ultra-light dark matter is a class of dark matter models (DM), where DM is composed by bosons with masses ranging from (10^{-24}, mathrm {eV}< m < mathrm {eV}). These models have been receiving a lot of attention in the past few years given their interesting property of forming a Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) or a superfluid on galactic scales. BEC and superfluidity are some of the most striking quantum mechanical phenomena that manifest on macroscopic scales, and upon condensation, the particles behave as a single coherent state, described by the wavefunction of the condensate. The idea is that condensation takes place inside galaxies while outside, on large scales, it recovers the successes of (varLambda )CDM. This wave nature of DM on galactic scales that arise upon condensation can address some of the curiosities of the behaviour of DM on small-scales. There are many models in the literature that describe a DM component that condenses in galaxies. In this review, we are going to describe those models, and classify them into three classes, according to the different non-linear evolution and structures they form in galaxies: the fuzzy dark matter (FDM), the self-interacting fuzzy dark matter (SIFDM), and the DM superfluid. Each of these classes comprises many models, each presenting a similar phenomenology in galaxies. They also include some microscopic models like the axions and axion-like particles. To understand and describe this phenomenology in galaxies, we are going to review the phenomena of BEC and superfluidity that arise in condensed matter physics, and apply this knowledge to DM. We describe how ULDM can potentially reconcile the cold DM picture with the small-scale behaviour. These models present a rich phenomenology that is manifest in different astrophysical consequences. We review here the astrophysical and cosmological tests used to constrain those models, together with new and future observations that promise to test these models in different regimes. For the case of the FDM class, the mass where this model has an interesting phenomenology on small-scales ( sim 10^{-22}, mathrm {eV}), is strongly challenged by current observations. The parameter space for the other two classes remains weakly constrained. We finalize by showing some predictions that are a consequence of the wave nature of this component, like the creation of vortices and interference patterns, that could represent a smoking gun in the search of these rich and interesting alternative class of DM models.

Much of the progress in astronomy has been driven by instrumental developments, from the first telescopes to fiber fed spectrographs. In this review, we describe the field of astrophotonics, a combination of photonics and astronomical instrumentation that is gaining importance in the development of current and future instrumentation. We begin with the science cases that have been identified as possibly benefiting from astrophotonic devices. We then discuss devices, methods and developments in the field along with the advantages they provide. We conclude by describing possible future perspectives in the field and their influence on astronomy.