Related papers: The Case for Astrons
In this work, we consider the possible presence of a large population of millisecond pulsars in the Galactic Centre. Their direct detection would be challenging due to severe pulse broadening caused by scattering of radiation. We propose a…
We address in this work the general features of a possible compact stars composed by elementary fermions beyond the quark level. The {\it locus} of these hypothetic objects in the mass-radius plane is constructed for the maximum mass…
Derived from first physical principles, a few simple rules are presented that can help in both the planning and interpretation of CCD and IR-array camera observations of resolvable stellar populations. These rules concern the overall size…
In the past four decades a new type of astronomy has emerged, where instead of looking up into the sky "telescopes" are buried miles underground or deep under water or ice and search not for photons (that is, light), but rather for…
Among the few ways that allow or could allow us to probe the early Universe from the observation of a flux of primordial particles, there is one possibility which has been little studied: the observation today of high energy neutrinos which…
We review the expected properties of the first stellar generations in the Universe. In particular, we consider and discuss the diagnostics, based on the emission from associated HII regions, that permit one to discern bona fide primeval…
We investigate our knowledge of early universe cosmology by exploring how much additional energy density can be placed in different components beyond those in the $\Lambda$CDM model. To do this we use a method to separate early- and…
Galaxy protoclusters, which will eventually grow into the massive clusters we see in the local universe, are usually traced by locating overdensities of galaxies. Large spectroscopic surveys of distant galaxies now exist, but their…
We measure the stellar populations as a function of radius for 90 early-type galaxies (ETGs) in the MASSIVE survey, a volume-limited integral-field spectroscopic (IFS) galaxy survey targeting all northern-sky ETGs with absolute K-band…
Probing gravity in its strongest regime is a central goal of modern physics, as the nature of the most compact objects reflects fundamental aspects of Einstein's theory of general relativity (GR). In GR, black holes are regarded as the most…
We present a new constraint on the effective number of relativistic species in the early universe, $N_{\rm eff}$, by combining recent primordial helium abundance measurements from the Large Binocular Telescope $Y_p$ Project with primordial…
Abundance observations indicate the presence of often surprisingly large amounts of neutron capture (i.e., s- and r-process) elements in old Galactic halo and globular cluster stars. These observations provide insight into the nature of the…
We review recent theoretical results on the formation of the first stars in the universe, and emphasize related open questions. In particular, we discuss the initial conditions for Population III star formation, as given by variants of the…
One of the key phases of stellar evolution that remains poorly understood is stellar death. We lack a predictive model for how a star of a given mass explodes and what kind of remnant it leaves behind (i.e. the initial-final mass relation,…
The positron fraction in cosmic rays was found to be steadily increasing in function of energy, above $\sim$10 GeV. This behaviour contradicts standard astrophysical mechanisms, in which positrons are secondary particles, produced in the…
The chemical abundances of metal-poor stars provide a great deal of information regarding the individual nucleosynthetic processes that created the observed elements and the overall process of chemical enrichment of the galaxy since the…
The extreme conditions found near black holes and neutron stars provide a unique opportunity for testing physical theories. Observations of both types of compact objects can be used to probe regions of strong gravity, allowing for tests of…
The positron fraction in cosmic rays was found to be a steadily increasing in function of energy, above $\sim$ 10 GeV. This behaviour contradicts standard astrophysical mechanisms, in which positrons are secondary particles, produced in the…
Trace charge imbalances can explain puzzling cosmological observations such as the large `missing' fraction of electrons in cosmic rays and their contrast to the charge-neutral solar wind, the extreme energy sources that sustain pulsars,…
Old neutron stars (ONSs) which have radiated away their internal and rotational energy may still shine if accreting the interstellar medium. Rather stringent limits from the analysis of ROSAT surveys indicate that most optimistic…