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We use the largest catalog of open clusters in the post-Gaia era to provide an observational view of the Galactic disk. By compiling physical parameters such as age, distance, and kinematic information, we investigate the spatial distribution of open clusters and revisit the spiral arms and other asymmetries in the Galactic disk. Using young open clusters as a tracer of spiral arms, we map the spiral structure of the Galaxy and find that most of the clusters start migrating away from the spiral arms in about 10–20 Myr and fill the interarm regions as they age. Using the 3D kinematic information on 371 open star clusters, we derive different individual pattern speeds for spiral arms that closely follow the rotation curve of the Milky Way, hence favoring the transient nature of spiral arms in the Milky Way. The pattern rotation speeds of each spiral arm suggest that the spiral arms have not accelerated in the last 80 Myr. Based on the distribution of open clusters younger than 700 Myr above or below the Galactic plane, we found a solar offset of z ⊙ = 17.0 ± 0.9 pc north of the Galactic plane and estimated the scale height z h = 91.7 ± 1.9 pc from the Galactic plane.

Taking the quantum electrodynamics (QED) effect into account, we investigate the geometrical-optics appearance of the Euler–Heisenberg (EH) black hole (BH) under the different accretion flows context, which depends on the BH space-time structure and different sources of light. The more significant magnetic charge leads to the smaller shadow radius for the EH BH, while the different values of the EH parameter do not ruin it. Different features of the corresponding two-dimensional shadow images are derived for the three optically thin accretion flow models. It is shown that the total observed intensity in the static spherical accretion flow scenario leads than that of the infalling spherical accretion flow under same parameters, but the size and position of the EH BH shadows do not change in both of these accretions flows, implying that the BH shadow size depends on the geometric space-time and the shadows luminosities rely on the accretion flow morphology. Of particular interest is that a thin disk accretion model illuminated the BH, we found that the contribution of the lensing ring to the total observed flux is less than 5%, and the photon ring is less than 2%, indicating that the direct emission dominates the optical appearance of the EH BH. It is also believed that the optical appearance of the BH image depends on the accretion disk radiation position in this scenario, which can serve as a probe for the disk structure around the active galactic nucleus (AGN) of M87∗ like.

The evolution of the Milky Way disk, which contains most of the stars in the Galaxy, is affected by several phenomena. For example, the bar and the spiral arms of the Milky Way induce radial migration of stars 1 and can trap or scatter stars close to orbital resonances 2 . External perturbations from satellite galaxies can also have a role, causing dynamical heating of the Galaxy 3 , ring-like structures in the disk 4 and correlations between different components of the stellar velocity 5 . These perturbations can also cause ‘phase wrapping’ signatures in the disk 6 – 9 , such as arched velocity structures in the motions of stars in the Galactic plane. Some manifestations of these dynamical processes have already been detected, including kinematic substructure in samples of nearby stars 10 – 12 , density asymmetries and velocities across the Galactic disk that differ from the axisymmetric and equilibrium expectations 13 , especially in the vertical direction 11 , 14 – 16 , and signatures of incomplete phase mixing in the disk 7 , 12 , 17 , 18 . Here we report an analysis of the motions of six million stars in the Milky Way disk. We show that the phase-space distribution contains different substructures with various morphologies, such as snail shells and ridges, when spatial and velocity coordinates are combined. We infer that the disk must have been perturbed between 300 million and 900 million years ago, consistent with estimates of the previous pericentric passage of the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy. Our findings show that the Galactic disk is dynamically young and that modelling it as time-independent and axisymmetric is incorrect. An analysis of the motions of six million stars in the Milky Way disk reveals substructures such as snail shells and ridges, indicating that our Galaxy has been recently perturbed.

The past decade has brought impressive advances in the astrophysics of cosmic rays (CRs) and multiwavelength astronomy, thanks to the new instrumentation launched into space and built on the ground. Modern technologies employed by those instruments provide measurements with unmatched precision, enabling searches for subtle signatures of dark matter and new physics. Understanding the astrophysical backgrounds to better precision than the observed data is vital in moving to this new territory. A state-of-the-art CR propagation code, called GalProp, is designed to address exactly this challenge. Having 25 yr of development behind it, the GalProp framework has become a de facto standard in the astrophysics of CRs, diffuse photon emissions (radio to γ-rays), and searches for new physics. GalProp uses information from astronomy, particle physics, and nuclear physics to predict CRs and their associated emissions self-consistently, providing a unifying modeling framework. The range of its physical validity covers 18 orders of magnitude in energy, from sub-keV to PeV energies for particles and from μeV to PeV energies for photons. The framework and the data sets are public and are extensively used by many experimental collaborations and by thousands of individual researchers worldwide for interpretation of their data and for making predictions. This paper details the latest release of the GalProp framework and updated cross sections, further developments of its initially auxiliary data sets for models of the interstellar medium that grew into independent studies of the Galactic structure—distributions of gas, dust, radiation, and magnetic fields—as well as the extension of its modeling capabilities. Example applications included with the distribution illustrating usage of the new features are also described.

It is commonly accepted that radio-loud active galactic nuclei are hosted exclusively by giant elliptical galaxies. We analyze high-resolution optical Hubble Space Telescope images of a sample of radio galaxies with extended double-lobed structures associated with disk-like optical counterparts. After systematically evaluating the probability of chance alignment between the radio lobes and the optical counterparts, we obtain a sample of 18 objects likely to have genuine associations. The host galaxies have unambiguous late-type morphologies, including spiral arms, large-scale dust lanes among the edge-on systems, and exceptionally weak bulges, as judged by the low global concentrations, small global Sérsic indices, and low bulge-to-total light ratios (median B/T = 0.13). With a median Sérsic index of 1.4 and low effective surface brightnesses, the bulges are consistent with being pseudobulges. The majority of the hosts have unusually large stellar masses (median M * = 1.3 × 1011 M ⊙) and red optical colors (median g − r = 0.69 mag), consistent with massive, quiescent galaxies on the red sequence. We suggest that the black hole mass (stellar mass) plays a fundamental role in launching large-scale radio jets, and that the rarity of extended radio lobes in late-type galaxies is the consequence of the steep stellar mass function at the high-mass end. The disk radio galaxies have mostly Fanaroff–Riley type II morphologies yet lower radio power than sources of a similar type traditionally hosted by ellipticals. The radio jets show no preferential alignment with the minor axis of the galactic bulge or disk, apart from a possible mild tendency for alignment among the most disk-dominated systems.

Kinematic and spectroscopic studies in the past few years have revealed coherent azimuthal metallicity variations across the disk of the Milky Way (MW) that may be the result of dynamical process associated with nonaxisymmetric features of the Galaxy. At the same time, stellar kinematics from Gaia have uncovered ridgelike features in the velocity space, raising the question of whether these chemical and dynamical substructures share a common origin. Using a sample of disk stars from Gaia Data Release 3, we find that azimuthal metallicity variations are correlated with kinematic ridges in the Vϕ–R plane, suggesting a shared origin. We utilize a suite of MW test-particle simulations to assess the role of transient spiral arms, the bar, and interactions with a Sagittarius (Sgr)-like dwarf galaxy in simultaneously shaping both chemical and kinematic substructures. Among the physical mechanisms explored, bar and spiral arm interactions are the ones that consistently reproduce both the chemokinematic features and alignment observed in the Gaia data. While our model of an interaction with a Sgr-like dwarf galaxy can also induce kinematic and metallicity substructure, the amplitude of the azimuthal metallicity variations is too weak, suggesting this is likely not the dominant influence. Although additional contributing processes cannot be ruled out, the azimuthal metallicity variations observed in Gaia are best explained by a dynamical origin. Our results support the view that azimuthal metallicity variations in the Galaxy are driven by similar dynamical mechanisms responsible for generating the kinematic ridges and comoving groups.

We report high-quality Hα/CO imaging spectroscopy of nine massive (log median stellar mass = 10.65 M ⊙) disk galaxies on the star-forming main sequence (henceforth SFGs), near the peak of cosmic galaxy evolution (z ∼ 1.1–2.5), taken with the ESO Very Large Telescope, IRAM-NOEMA, and Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. We fit the major axis position–velocity cuts with beam-convolved, forward models with a bulge, a turbulent rotating disk, and a dark matter (DM) halo. We include priors for stellar and molecular gas masses, optical light effective radii and inclinations, and DM masses from our previous rotation curve analysis of these galaxies. We then subtract the inferred 2D model-galaxy velocity and velocity dispersion maps from those of the observed galaxies. We investigate whether the residual velocity and velocity dispersion maps show indications for radial flows. We also carry out kinemetry, a model-independent tool for detecting radial flows. We find that all nine galaxies exhibit significant nontangential flows. In six SFGs, the inflow velocities (v r ∼ 30–90 km s−1, 10%–30% of the rotational component) are along the minor axis of these galaxies. In two cases the inflow appears to be off the minor axis. The magnitudes of the radial motions are in broad agreement with the expectations from analytic models of gravitationally unstable, gas-rich disks. Gravitational torques due to clump and bar formation, or spiral arms, drive gas rapidly inward and result in the formation of central disks and large bulges. If this interpretation is correct, our observations imply that gas is transported into the central regions on ∼10 dynamical timescales.

The secular evolution of disk galaxies is largely driven by resonances between the orbits of “particles” (stars or dark matter) and the rotation of non-axisymmetric features (spiral arms or a bar). Such resonances may also explain kinematic and photometric features observed in the Milky Way and external galaxies. In simplified cases, these resonant interactions are well understood: for instance, the dynamics of a test particle trapped near a resonance of a steadily rotating bar is easily analyzed using the angle-action tools pioneered by Binney, Monari, and others. However, such treatments do not address the stochasticity and messiness inherent to real galaxies—effects that have, with few exceptions, been previously explored only with complex N-body simulations. In this paper, we propose a simple kinetic equation describing the distribution function of particles near an orbital resonance with a rigidly rotating bar, allowing for diffusion of the particles’ slow actions. We solve this equation for various values of the dimensionless diffusion strength Δ, and then apply our theory to the calculation of bar–halo dynamical friction. For Δ = 0, we recover the classic result of Tremaine and Weinberg that friction ultimately vanishes, owing to the phase mixing of resonant orbits. However, for Δ > 0, we find that diffusion suppresses phase mixing, leading to a finite torque. Our results suggest that stochasticity—be it physical or numerical—tends to increase bar–halo friction, and that bars in cosmological simulations might experience significant artificial slowdown, even if the numerical two-body relaxation time is much longer than a Hubble time.

Many of the stars in the Galaxy are members of binary systems, the widest of which can eventually become disrupted due to a combination of kicks from passing objects and the Galactic tidal field. If the Galactic disk were purely axisymmetric, the stars from a disrupted binary system would slowly drift apart on nearly identical orbits. We study how the existence of nonaxisymmetric structures, such as a rigidly rotating bar, can greatly alter this picture. In particular, we show how the orbital dynamics near the resonances sourced by these nonaxisymmetric perturbations create local fluctuations in the distribution of disrupted binary separations. We simulate the evolution of wide binary systems embedded in a gravitational potential with a rotating galactic bar, and show how features and fluctuations in the distribution of disrupted binaries can be used to locate bar resonances and constrain the bar’s pattern speed and amplitude.

Recent observations of high-redshift galaxies (z ≲ 7) reveal that a substantial fraction have turbulent, gas-rich disks with well-ordered rotation and elevated levels of star formation. In some instances, disks show evidence of spiral arms, with bar-like structures. These remarkable observations have encouraged us to explore a new class of dynamically self-consistent models using our agama/Ramses hydrodynamic N-body simulation framework that mimic a plausible progenitor of the Milky Way at high redshift. We explore disk gas fractions of f gas = 0%, 20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, and 100% and track the creation of stars and metals. The high gas surface densities encourage vigorous star formation, which in turn couples with the gas to drive turbulence. We explore three distinct histories: (i) there is no ongoing accretion and the gas is used up by the star formation, (ii) the star-forming gas is replenished by cooling in the hot halo gas, and (iii) in a companion paper, we revisit these models in the presence of a strong perturbing force. At low f disk (≲0.3), where f disk is the baryon mass fraction of the disk relative to dark matter within 2.2 R disk, a bar does not form in a stellar disk; this remains true even when gas dominates the inner disk potential. For a dominant baryon disk (f disk ≳ 0.5) at all gas fractions, the turbulent gas forms a strong radial shear flow that leads to an intermittent star-forming bar within about 500 Myr; turbulent gas speeds up the formation of bars compared to gas-free models. For f gas ≲ 60%, all bars survive, but for higher gas fractions, the bar devolves into a central bulge after 1 Gyr. The star-forming bars are reminiscent of recent discoveries in high-redshift Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array observations of gaseous disks.