Jianchao Xue, Li Feng, Hui Li, Ping Zhang, Jun Chen, Guanglu Shi, Kaifan Ji, Ye Qiu, Chuan Li, Lei Lu, Beili Ying, Ying Li, Yu Huang, Youping Li, Jingwei Li, Jie Zhao, Dechao Song, Shuting Li, Zhengyuan Tian, Yingna Su, et al (14) Sympathetic eruptions of solar prominences have been studied for decades, however, it is usually difficult to identify their causal links. Here we present two failed prominence eruptions on 26 October 2022 and explore their connections. Using stereoscopic observations, the south prominence (PRO-S) erupts with untwisting motions, flare ribbons occur underneath, and new connections are formed during the eruption. The north prominence (PRO-N) rises up along with PRO-S, and its upper part disappears due to catastrophic mass draining along an elongated structure after PRO-S failed eruption. We suggest that the eruption of PRO-S initiates due to a kink instability, further rises up, and fails to erupt due to reconnection with surrounding fields. The elongated structure connecting PRO-N overlies PRO-S, which causes the rising up of PRO-N along with PRO-S and mass drainage after PRO-S eruption. This study suggests that a prominence may end its life through mass drainage forced by an eruption underneath.
Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are major drivers of geomagnetic storms, which may cause severe space weather effects. Automating the detection, tracking, and three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of CMEs is important for operational predictions of CME arrivals. The COR1 coronagraphs on board the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory spacecraft have facilitated extensive polarization observations, which are very suitable for the establishment of a 3D CME system. We have developed such a 3D system comprising four modules: classification, segmentation, tracking, and 3D reconstructions. We generalize our previously pretrained classification model to classify COR1 coronagraph images. Subsequently, as there are no publicly available CME segmentation data sets, we manually annotate the structural regions of CMEs using Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph C2 observations. Leveraging transformer-based models, we achieve state-of-the-art results in CME segmentation. Furthermore, we improve the tracking algorithm to solve the difficult separation task of multiple CMEs. In the final module, tracking results, combined with the polarization ratio technique are used to develop the first single-view 3D CME catalog without requiring manual mask annotation. Our method provides higher precision in automatic 2D CME catalog and more reliable physical parameters of CMEs, including 3D propagation direction and speed. The aforementioned 3D CME system can be applied to any coronagraph data with the capability of polarization measurements.
Filamentary structure is important for the ISM and star formation. Galactic distribution of filaments may regulate the star formation rate in the Milky Way. However, interstellar filaments are intrinsically complex, making it difficult to study quantitatively. Here, we focus on linear filaments, the simplest morphology that can be treated as building blocks of any filamentary structure. We present the first catalog of 42 ``straight-line'' filaments across the full Galactic plane, identified by clustering of far-IR Herschel HiGAL clumps in position-position-velocity space. We use molecular line cubes to investigate the dynamics along the filaments; compare the filaments with Galactic spiral arms; and compare ambient magnetic fields with the filaments' orientation. The selected filaments show extreme linearity ($>$10), aspect ratio (7-48), and velocity coherence over a length of 3-40 pc (mostly $>$10 pc). About 1/3 of them are associated with spiral arms, but only one is located in arm center, a.k.a. ``bones'' of the Milky Way. A few of them extend perpendicular to the Galactic plane, and none is located in the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) near the Galactic center. Along the filaments, prevalent periodic oscillation (both in velocity and density) is consistent with gas flows channeled by the filaments and feeding the clumps which harbor diverse star formation activities. No correlation is found between the filament orientations with Planck measured global magnetic field lines. This work highlights some of the fundamental properties of molecular filaments and provides a golden sample for follow-up studies on star formation, ISM structure, and Milky Way structure.
Qiao Li, Ying Li, Yang Su, Dechao Song, Hui Li, Li Feng, Yu Huang, Youping Li, Jingwei Li, Jie Zhao, Lei Lu, Beili Ying, Jianchao Xue, Ping Zhang, Jun Tian, Xiaofeng Liu, Gen Li, Zhichen Jing, Shuting Li, Guanglu Shi, et al (10) Solar white-light flares are characterized by an enhancement in the optical continuum, which are usually large flares (say X- and M-class flares). Here we report a small C2.3 white-light flare (SOL2022-12-20T04:10) observed by the \emphAdvanced Space-based Solar Observatory and the \emphChinese H$\alpha$ Solar Explorer. This flare exhibits an increase of $\approx$6.4\% in the photospheric Fe \textsci line at 6569.2\u2009Å and $\approx$3.2\% in the nearby continuum. The continuum at 3600\u2009Å also shows an enhancement of $\approx$4.7\%. The white-light brightening kernels are mainly located at the flare ribbons and co-spatial with nonthermal hard X-ray sources, which implies that the enhanced white-light emissions are related to nonthermal electron-beam heating. At the brightening kernels, the Fe \textsci line displays an absorption profile that has a good Gaussian shape, with a redshift up to $\approx$1.7 km s$^{-1}$, while the H$\alpha$ line shows an emission profile though having a central reversal. The H$\alpha$ line profile also shows a red or blue asymmetry caused by plasma flows with a velocity of several to tens of km s$^{-1}$. It is interesting to find that the H$\alpha$ asymmetry is opposite at the conjugate footpoints. It is also found that the CHASE continuum increase seems to be related to the change of photospheric magnetic field. Our study provides comprehensive characteristics of a small white-light flare that help understand the energy release process of white-light flares.
Zhichen Jing, Ying Li, Li Feng, Hui Li, Yu Huang, Youping Li, Yang Su, Wei Chen, Jun Tian, Dechao Song, Jingwei Li, Jianchao Xue, Jie Zhao, Lei Lu, Beili Ying, Ping Zhang, Yingna Su, Qingmin Zhang, Dong Li, Yunyi Ge, et al (9) Solar white-light flares (WLFs) are those accompanied by brightenings in the optical continuum or integrated light. The White-light Solar Telescope (WST), as an instrument of the Lyman-alpha Solar Telescope (LST) on the Advanced Space-based Solar Observatory (ASO-S), provides continuous solar full-disk images at 360 nm, which can be used to study WLFs. We analyze 205 major flares above M1.0 from October 2022 to May 2023 and identify 49 WLFs at 360 nm from WST observations, i.e. with an occurrence rate of 23.9%. The percentages of WLFs for M1 - M4 (31 out of 180), M5 - M9 (11 out of 18), and above X1 (7 for all) flares are 17.2%, 61.1%, and 100%, respectively, namely the larger the flares, the more likely they are WLFs at 360 nm. We further analyze 39 WLFs among the identified WLFs and investigate their properties such as white-light enhancement, duration, and brightening area. It is found that the relative enhancement of the white-light emission at 360 nm is mostly (>90%) less than 30% and the mean enhancement is 19.4%. The WLFs' duration at 360 nm is mostly (>80%) less than 20 minutes and its mean is 10.3 minutes. The brightening area at 360 nm is mostly (>75%) less than 500 arcsecond2 and the median value is 225. We find that there exist good correlations between the white-light enhancement/duration/area and the peak soft X-ray (SXR) flux of the flare, with correlation coefficients of 0.68, 0.58, and 0.80, respectively. In addition, the white-light emission in most WLFs peaks around the same time as the temporal derivative of SXR flux as well as the hard X-ray emission at 20 - 50 keV, indicative of Neupert effect. It is also found that the limb WLFs are more likely to have a greater enhancement, which is consistent with numerical simulations.
Fengwei Xu, Ke Wang, Tie Liu, Mengyao Tang, Neal J. Evans II, Aina Palau, Kaho Morii, Jinhua He, Patricio Sanhueza, Hong-Li Liu, Amelia Stutz, Qizhou Zhang, Xi Chen, Pak Shing Li, Gilberto C. Gómez, Enrique Vázquez-Semadeni, Shanghuo Li, Xiaofeng Mai, Xing Lu, Meizhu Liu, et al (23) The ALMA Survey of Star Formation and Evolution in Massive Protoclusters with Blue Profiles (ASSEMBLE) aims to investigate the process of mass assembly and its connection to high-mass star formation theories in protoclusters in a dynamic view. We observed 11 massive (Mclump>1000 Msun), luminous (Lbol>10,000 Lsun), and blue-profile (infall signature) clumps by ALMA with resolution of 2200-5500 au at 350 GHz (870 um) in continuum and line emission. 248 dense cores were identified, including 106 cores showing protostellar signatures and 142 prestellar core candidates. Compared to early-stage infrared dark clouds (IRDCs) by ASHES, the core mass and surface density within the ASSEMBLE clumps exhibited significant increment, suggesting concurrent core accretion during the evolution of the clumps. The maximum mass of prestellar cores was found to be 2 times larger than that in IRDCs, indicating evolved protoclusters have the potential to harbor massive prestellar cores. The mass relation between clumps and their most massive core (MMCs) is observed in ASSEMBLE but not in IRDCs, which is suggested to be regulated by multiscale mass accretion. The mass correlation between the core clusters and their MMCs has a steeper slope compared to that observed in stellar clusters, which can be due to fragmentation of the MMC and stellar multiplicity. We observe a decrease in core separation and an increase in central concentration as protoclusters evolve. We confirm primordial mass segregation in the ASSEMBLE protoclusters, possibly resulting from gravitational concentration and/or gas accretion.
Y. Ge, K. Wang, A. Duarte-Cabral, A. R. Pettitt, C. L. Dobbs, Á. Sánchez-Monge, K. R. Neralwar, J. S. Urquhart, D. Colombo, E. Durán-Camacho, H. Beuther, L. Bronfman, A. J. Rigby, D. Eden, S. Neupane, P. Barnes, T. Henning, A. Y. Yang Context. Filamentary structures in the interstellar medium are closely related to star formation. Dense gas mass fraction (DGMF) or clump formation efficiency in large-scale filaments possibly determine their hosting star formation activities. Aims. We aim to automatically identify large-scale filaments, characterize them, investigate their association with Galactic structures, and study their DGMFs. Methods. We use a modified minimum spanning tree (MST) algorithm to chain parsec-scale 13CO clumps previously extracted from the SEDIGISM (Structure, Excitation, and Dynamics of the Inner Galactic InterStellar Medium) survey. The MST connects nodes in a graph such that the sum of edge lengths is minimum. Modified MST also ensures velocity coherence between nodes, so the identified filaments are coherent in position-position-velocity (PPV) space. Results. We generate a catalog of 88 large-scale ($>10pc$) filaments in the inner Galactic plane (with $-60^\circ < l < 18^\circ and $|b| < 0.5^∘$). These SEDIGISM filaments are larger and less dense than MST filaments previously identified from the BGPS and ATLASGAL surveys. We find that eight of the filaments run along spiral arms and can be regarded as "bones" of the Milky Way. We also find three bones associated with the Local Spur in PPV space. By compiling 168 large-scale filaments with available DGMF across the Galaxy, an order of magnitude more than previously investigated, we find that DGMFs do not correlate with Galactic location, but bones have higher DGMFs than other filaments.
The interstellar medium has a highly filamentary and hierarchical structure, which may play a significant role in star formation. A systematical study on the large-scale filaments towards their physical parameters, distribution, structures and kinematics will inform us of what kind of filaments have potential to form stars, how the material feed protostars through filaments, and the connection between star formation and Galactic spiral arms. Unlike the traditional "by eyes" searches, we use a customized minimum spanning tree algorithm to identify filaments by linking Galactic clumps from the APEX Telescope Large Area Survey of the Galaxy catalogue. In the inner Galactic plane ($|l| < 60^\circ$), we identify 163 large-scale filaments with physical properties derived, including dense gas mass fraction, and compare them with an updated spiral arm model in position-position-velocity space. Dense gas mass fraction is found not to differ significantly in various Galactic position, neither does it in different spiral arms. We also find that most filaments are inter-arm filaments after adding a distance constraint, and filaments in arm differ a little with those not in. One surprising result is that clumps on and off filaments have no significant distinction in their mass at the same size.
Charlotte Götz, Herber Gunell, Martin Volwerk, Arnaud Beth, Anders Eriksson, Marina Galand, Pierre Henri, Hans Nilsson, Cyril Simon Wedlund, Markku Alho, Laila Andersson, Nicolas Andre, Johan De Keyser, Jan Deca, Yasong Ge, Karl-Heinz Glaßmeier, Rajkumar Hajra, Tomas Karlsson, Satoshi Kasahara, Ivana Kolmasova, et al (10) Comets hold the key to the understanding of our solar system, its formation and its evolution, and to the fundamental plasma processes at work both in it and beyond it. A comet nucleus emits gas as it is heated by the sunlight. The gas forms the coma, where it is ionised, becomes a plasma and eventually interacts with the solar wind. Besides these neutral and ionised gases, the coma also contains dust grains, released from the comet nucleus. As a cometary atmosphere develops when the comet travels through the solar system, large-scale structures, such as the plasma boundaries, develop and disappear, while at planets such large-scale structures are only accessible in their fully grown, quasi-steady state. In situ measurements at comets enable us to learn both how such large-scale structures are formed or reformed and how small-scale processes in the plasma affect the formation and properties of these large scale structures. Furthermore, a comet goes through a wide range of parameter regimes during its life cycle, where either collisional processes, involving neutrals and charged particles, or collisionless processes are at play, and might even compete in complicated transitional regimes. Thus a comet presents a unique opportunity to study this parameter space, from an asteroid-like to a Mars- and Venus-like interaction. Fast flybys of comets have made many new discoveries, setting the stage for a multi-spacecraft mission to accompany a comet on its journey through the solar system. This white paper reviews the present-day knowledge of cometary plasmas, discusses the many questions that remain unanswered, and outlines a multi-spacecraft ESA mission to accompany a comet that will answer these questions by combining both multi-spacecraft observations and a rendezvous mission, and at the same time advance our understanding of fundamental plasma physics and its role in planetary systems.
Xilei Sun, Junguang Lu, Tao Hu, Li Zhou, Jun Cao, Yifang Wang, Liang Zhan, Boxiang Yu, Xiao Cai, Jian Fang, Yuguang Xie, Zhenghua An, Zhigang Wang, Zhen Xue, Qiwen Lu, Feipeng Ning, Yongshuai Ge, Yingbiao Liu The luminescent properties of CsI(Na) crystals are studied in this report. By using a TDS3054C oscilloscope with a sampling frequency of 5 GS/s, we find out that nuclear recoil signals are dominated by very fast light pulse with a decay time of ~20 ns, while \gamma-ray signals have a decay time of ~600 ns. The wavelength of nuclear recoil and \gamma-ray signals are also different. The study of n/\gamma separation shows that the rejection factor can reach an order of 10-7 with signal efficiency more than 80% at an equivalent electron recoil energy of 20 keV or more. Such a property makes CsI(Na) an ideal candidate for dark matter searches.