Absolute Luminosity Research Articles

Classification Of Flat Spectrum Radio Quasars By Optical Activity Types

We have carried out a spectral classification by the activity types for a subsample of blazars from the BZCAT v.5 Catalogue, namely the Flat Spectrum Radio Quasars (FSRQ) candidates, designated in the catalogue as BZQ subtype objects. The classification is based on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) homogeneous medium-resolution optical spectroscopy and along with the standard BPT-type diagnostic diagrams, we have applied our newly introduced fine classification scheme with subtypes of quasars and considering many more features. Out of 1909 BZQ objects, 618 having SDSS spectra were classified, resulting in 445 broad-line QSOs, 19 narrow-line QSOs, 138 broad-line Seyferts, 8 narrow-line Seyferts, and 2 Emission-line galaxies without a proper classification. We have calculated the absolute magnitudes and luminosities for all objects to distinguish QSOs from Seyferts, as defined by the Catalogue of QSOs and Active Galaxies, -22m.25 separation limit. This way 148 objects changed their BZCAT subtypes between BZQ to BZG, and also 6 BZQ objects to BZU.

Impact of beam–beam effects on absolute luminosity calibrations at the CERN Large Hadron Collider

At the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), absolute luminosity calibrations obtained by the van der Meer (vdM) method are affected by the mutual electromagnetic interaction of the two beams. The colliding bunches experience relative orbit shifts, as well as optical distortions akin to the dynamic-β\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\\beta $$\\end{document} effect, that both depend on the transverse beam separation and must therefore be corrected for when deriving the absolute luminosity scale. In the vdM regime, the beam–beam parameter is small enough that the orbit shift can be calculated analytically. The dynamic-β\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\\beta $$\\end{document} corrections to the luminometer calibrations, however, had until the end of Run 2 been estimated in the linear approximation only. In this report, the influence of beam–beam effects on the vdM-based luminosity scale is quantified, together with the associated systematic uncertainties, by means of simulations that fully take into account the non-linearity of the beam–beam force, as well as the resulting non-Gaussian distortions of the transverse beam distributions. Two independent multiparticle simulations, one limited to the weak-strong approximation and one that models strong-strong effects in a self-consistent manner, are found in excellent agreement; both predict a percent-level shift of the absolute pp-luminosity values with respect to those assumed until recently in the physics publications of the LHC experiments. These results also provide guidance regarding further studies aimed at reducing the beam–beam-related systematic uncertainty on beam–beam corrections to absolute luminosity calibrations by the van der Meer method.

Luminosity determination in pp collisions at sqrt{s}=13 TeV using the ATLAS detector at the LHC

The luminosity determination for the ATLAS detector at the LHC during Run 2 is presented, with pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy sqrt{s}=13 TeV. The absolute luminosity scale is determined using van der Meer beam separation scans during dedicated running periods in each year, and extrapolated to the physics data-taking regime using complementary measurements from several luminosity-sensitive detectors. The total uncertainties in the integrated luminosity for each individual year of data-taking range from 0.9% to 1.1%, and are partially correlated between years. After standard data-quality selections, the full Run 2 pp data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 140.1pm 1.2 hbox {fb}^{-1}, i.e. an uncertainty of 0.83%. A dedicated sample of low-pileup data recorded in 2017–2018 for precision Standard Model physics measurements is analysed separately, and has an integrated luminosity of 338.1pm 3.1 hbox {pb}^{-1}.

An extremely metal-poor star complex in the reionization era: Approaching Population III stars with JWST

We present JWST/Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) integral field spectroscopy (IFS) of a lensed Population III candidate stellar complex (dubbed Lensed And Pristine 1, LAP1), with a lensing-corrected stellar mass of ≲104 M⊙ and an absolute luminosity of MUV > −11.2 (mUV > 35.6), confirmed at redshift 6.639 ± 0.004. The system is strongly amplified (μ ≳ 100) by straddling a critical line of the Hubble Frontier Field galaxy cluster MACS J0416. Although the stellar continuum is currently not detected in the Hubble and JWST/Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS) imaging, arclet-like shapes of Lyman and Balmer lines, Lyα, Hγ, Hβ and Hα are detected with NIRSpec IFS with signal-to-noise ratios (S/N) of approximately 5 − 13 and large equivalent widths (> 300 − 2000 Å), along with a remarkably weak [O III]λλ4959, 5007 at S/N ≃ 4. LAP1 shows a large ionizing photon production efficiency, log(ξion[erg Hz−1]) > 26. From the metallicity indexes R23 = ([O III] + [O II])/Hβ ≲ 0.74 and R3 = ([O III]/Hβ) = 0.55 ± 0.14, we derive an oxygen abundance of 12 + log(O/H)≲6.3. Intriguingly, the Hα emission is also measured in mirrored subcomponents where no [O III] is detected, providing even more stringent upper limits on the metallicity if in situ star formation is ongoing in this region (12 + log(O/H) < 6). The formal stellar mass limit of the subcomponents would correspond to ∼103 M⊙ or MUV fainter than −10. Alternatively, this metal-free, pure line-emitting region could be the first case of a fluorescing H I gas region induced by transverse escaping ionizing radiation from a nearby star complex. The presence of large equivalent-width hydrogen lines and the deficiency of metal lines in such a small region make LAP1 the most metal-poor star-forming region currently known in the reionization era and a promising site that may host isolated, pristine stars.

Evolutionary Status of Selected Post-AGB Stars Based on Gaia DR3

The evolutionary status of 24 post-AGB stars is presented based on Gaia DR3 data. All 24 stars have parallaxes accurate to better than 3σ and have RUWE values <1.4. Based on the Gaia DR3 distances the absolute luminosities are derived. For 14 of the stars, the luminosities confirm their post-AGB evolutionary stage. However, V1027 Cyg, which was previously classified as a post-AGB star, is found to have a higher luminosity than would be expected if it was truly a post-AGB star; thus it may be an evolved, massive, pulsating semi-regular variable star of type G7Ia. For 9 of the stars, the luminosities are lower than 1000 L ⊙, indicating that some are post-HB stars and some are post-RGB stars.

Hot subdwarfs in close binaries observed from space

Context. About a third of the hot subdwarfs of spectral type B (sdBs), which are mostly core-helium-burning objects on the extreme horizontal branch, are found in close binaries with cool, low-mass stellar, substellar, or white dwarf companions. They can show light variations due to different phenomena. Aims. Many hot subdwarfs now have space-based light curves with a high signal-to-noise ratio available. We used light curves from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite and the K2 space mission to look for more sdB binaries. Their light curves can be used to study the hot subdwarf primaries and their companions, and obtained orbital, atmospheric, and absolute parameters for those systems, when combined with other analysis methods. Methods. By classifying the light variations and combining these with the fit of the spectral energy distribution, the distance derived by the parallaxes obtained by Gaia, and the atmospheric parameters, mainly from the literature, we could derive the nature of the primaries and secondaries in 122 (75%) of the known sdB binaries and 82 newly found reflection effect systems. We derived absolute masses, radii, and luminosities for a total of 39 hot subdwarfs with cool, low-mass companions, as well 29 known and newly found sdBs with white dwarf companions. Results. The mass distribution of hot subdwarfs with cool, low-mass stellar and substellar companions, differs from those with white dwarf companions, implying they come from different populations. By comparing the period and minimum companion mass distributions, we find that the reflection effect systems all have M dwarf or brown dwarf companions, and that there seem to be several different populations of hot subdwarfs with white dwarf binaries – one with white dwarf minimum masses around 0.4 M⊙, one with longer periods and minimum companion masses up to 0.6 M⊙, and at the shortest period, another with white dwarf minimum masses around 0.8 M⊙. We also derive the first orbital period distribution for hot subdwarfs with cool, low-mass stellar or substellar systems selected from light variations instead of radial velocity variations. It shows a narrower period distribution, from 1.5 h to 35 h, compared to the distribution of hot subdwarfs with white dwarfs, which ranges from 1 h to 30 days. These period distributions can be used to constrain the previous common-envelope phase.

Evolutionary Status of Selected Post-AGB Single and Binary Stars in Gaia DR3

Gaia data is helping to further understand the evolutionary status of post-AGB and related stars. In this paper we present an analysis of Gaia DR3 data of post-AGB stars and post-AGB binaries with accurate parallaxes. Gaia DR3 data of 44 post-AGB candidates are analyzed, including 16 post-AGB binary candidates. Of these, 19 stars have RUWE values >1.4. For several stars, the calculated absolute luminosities confirm that they are indeed in post-AGB evolutionary stage. We find that 12 stars have relatively lower luminosities; some of them may be post-RGB stars and some may be post-HB stars. We find that IRAS 01427+4633 (BD+46 442), IRAS 16230–3410, and IRAS 19199+3950 (HP Lyr) are evolved high velocity stars.

A Uniform Type Ia Supernova Distance Ladder with the Zwicky Transient Facility: Absolute Calibration Based on the Tip of the Red Giant Branch Method

The current Cepheid-calibrated distance ladder measurement of H 0 is reported to be in tension with the values inferred from the cosmic microwave background (CMB), assuming standard cosmology. However, some tip of the red giant branch (TRGB) estimates report H 0 in better agreement with the CMB. Hence, it is critical to reduce systematic uncertainties in local measurements to understand the Hubble tension. In this paper, we propose a uniform distance ladder between the second and third rungs, combining Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) observed by the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) with a TRGB calibration of their absolute luminosity. A large, volume-limited sample of both calibrator and Hubble flow SNe Ia from the same survey minimizes two of the largest sources of systematics: host-galaxy bias and nonuniform photometric calibration. We present results from a pilot study using the existing TRGB distance to the host galaxy of ZTF SN Ia SN 2021rhu (aka ZTF21abiuvdk) in NGC7814. Combining the ZTF calibrator with a volume-limited sample from the first data release of ZTF Hubble flow SNe Ia, we infer H 0 = 76.94 ± 6.4 km s−1 Mpc−1, an 8.3% measurement. The error budget is dominated by the single object calibrating the SN Ia luminosity in this pilot study. However, the ZTF sample includes already five other SNe Ia within ∼20 Mpc for which TRGB distances can be obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope. Finally, we present the prospects of building this distance ladder out to 80 Mpc with James Webb Space Telescope observations of more than 100 ZTF SNe Ia.

Nothing to see here: failed supernovae are faint or rare

ABSTRACT The absence of Type IIP core-collapse supernovae arising from progenitors above 17 solar masses suggests the existence of another evolutionary path by which massive stars end their lives. The direct collapse of a stellar core to a black hole without the production of a bright, explosive transient is expected to produce a long-lived, dim, red transient known as a failed supernova. Despite the detection of a number of candidates for disappearing massive stars in recent years, conclusive observational evidence for failed supernovae remains elusive. A custom-built pipeline designed for the detection of faint transients is used to re-analyse 10 yr of observations of 231 nearby galaxies from the PTF/ZTF surveys. This analysis recovers known supernovae, and yields a number of interesting transients. However, none of these are consistent with a failed supernova. Through Monte Carlo tests the recovery efficiency of our pipeline is quantified. By assuming failed supernovae occur as a Poissonian process with zero detections in the data set, 95 per cent upper limits to the rate of failed supernovae are calculated as a function of failed supernova absolute magnitude. We estimate failed supernovae to be less than 0.61, 0.33, 0.26, or 0.23 of the core-collapse SN rate for absolute magnitudes of −11, −12, −13, and −14, respectively. Finally, we show that if they exist, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory will find 1.7–3.7 failed SNe per year for an absolute bolometric luminosity of ∼6 × 1039 erg s−1 out to distances of 33–43 Mpc, depending on their assumed spectral energy distribution.

The Brightest Stars of Irregular and Low-Mass Spiral Galaxies

A search for a correlation between the luminosities of the brightest stars and luminosities of their host galaxies was carried out on archived Hubble Space Telescope (HST) F606W or F555W (V) and F814W (I) images of about 150 nearby galaxies. The sample contains only galaxies with on-going star formation (SF) and with known distances we derived with the TRGB-method. We correlated the average absolute luminosities of the three brightest blue and the three brightest red stars with the luminosity of a host. We found a linear relation for both the blue and the red stars in irregular and low-mass spiral galaxies. Their scatters are sufficiently small (0.m4) to make this relations useful for distance determination for low-mass galaxies. We found that all 31 dwarf galaxies (M_B>-13m) in our sample lack bright stars (M_V(BS)< -7.m0), probably due to the physical conditions that prevent their birth. For galaxies with higher luminosity in the range -18m<M_B<-13m, there is an asymmetry in the distribution of the number of galaxies relative to the linear dependence, indicating an increase in the fraction of galaxies with bright stars.

StelNet: Hierarchical Neural Network for Automatic Inference in Stellar Characterization

Abstract Characterizing the fundamental parameters of stars from observations is crucial for studying the stars themselves, their planets, and the galaxy as a whole. Stellar evolution theory predicting the properties of stars as a function of stellar age and mass enables translating observables into physical stellar parameters by fitting the observed data to synthetic isochrones. However, the complexity of overlapping evolutionary tracks often makes this task numerically challenging, and with a precision that can be highly variable, depending on the area of the parameter space the observation lies in. This work presents StelNet, a Deep Neural Network trained on stellar evolutionary tracks that quickly and accurately predicts mass and age from absolute luminosity and effective temperature for stars with close-to-solar metallicity. The underlying model makes no assumption on the evolutionary stage and includes the pre-main-sequence phase. We use bootstrapping and train many models to quantify the uncertainty of the model. To break the model’s intrinsic degeneracy resulting from overlapping evolutionary paths, we also built a hierarchical model that retrieves realistic posterior probability distributions of the stellar mass and age. We further test and train StelNet using a sample of stars with well-determined masses and ages from the literature.

Faint polarised sources in the Lockman Hole field at 1.4 GHz

Context. In the context of structure formation and galaxy evolution, the contribution of magnetic fields is not well understood. Feedback processes originating from active galactic nucleus (AGN) activity and star formation can be actively influenced by magnetic fields, depending on their strength and morphology. One of the best tracers of magnetic fields is polarised radio emission. Tracing this emission over a broad redshift range therefore allows an investigation of these fields and their evolution. Aims. We aim to study the nature of the faint, polarised radio source population whose source composition and redshift dependence contain information about the strength, morphology, and evolution of magnetic fields over cosmic timescales. Methods. We use a 15-pointing radio continuum L-band mosaic of the Lockman Hole, observed in full polarisation, generated from archival data of the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope. The data were analysed using the rotation measure synthesis technique. We achieved a noise of 7 μJy beam−1 in polarised intensity, with a resolution of 15″. Using infrared and optical images and source catalogues, we were able to cross-identify and determine redshifts for one-third of our detected polarised sources. Results. We detected 150 polarised sources, most of which are weakly polarised with a mean fractional polarisation of 5.4%. No source was found with a fractional polarisation higher than 21%. With a total area of 6.5 deg2 and a detection threshold of 6.25σ, we find 23 polarised sources per deg2. Based on our multi-wavelength analysis, we find that our sample consists of AGN only. We find a discrepancy between archival number counts and those present in our data, which we attribute to sample variance (i.e. large-scale structures). Considering the absolute radio luminosity, we find a general trend of increased probability of detecting weak sources at low redshift and strong sources at high redshift. We attribute this trend to a selection bias. Further, we find an anti-correlation between fractional polarisation and redshift for our strong-source sample at z ≥ 0.6. Conclusions. A decrease in the fractional polarisation of strong sources with increasing redshift cannot be explained by a constant magnetic field and electron density over cosmic scales; however, the changing properties of cluster environments over cosmic time may play an important role. Disentangling these two effects requires deeper and wider polarisation observations as well as better models of the morphology and strength of cosmic magnetic fields.

Challenging luminosity measurements at the Electron-Ion Collider

A precise determination of absolute luminosity, using the bremsstrahlung process, at the future Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) will be very demanding, and its three major challenges are discussed herein. First, the bremsstrahlung rate suppression due to the so-called beam size effect has to be well controlled. Secondly, the impact of huge synchrotron radiation fluxes should be mitigated. Thirdly, enormous bremsstrahlung event rates, in excess of 10 GHz, have to be coped with. A basic layout of the luminosity measurement setup at the EIC, addressing these issues, is proposed, including preliminary detector technology choices. Finally, the uncertainties of three proposed methods are also discussed.

Precision luminosity measurement in proton\u2013proton collisions at sqrt{s} = 13,hbox {TeV} in 2015 and 2016 at CMS

The measurement of the luminosity recorded by the CMS detector installed at LHC interaction point 5, using proton–proton collisions at sqrt{s}=13,{text {TeV}} in 2015 and 2016, is reported. The absolute luminosity scale is measured for individual bunch crossings using beam-separation scans (the van der Meer method), with a relative precision of 1.3 and 1.0% in 2015 and 2016, respectively. The dominant sources of uncertainty are related to residual differences between the measured beam positions and the ones provided by the operational settings of the LHC magnets, the factorizability of the proton bunch spatial density functions in the coordinates transverse to the beam direction, and the modeling of the effect of electromagnetic interactions among protons in the colliding bunches. When applying the van der Meer calibration to the entire run periods, the integrated luminosities when CMS was fully operational are 2.27 and 36.3 ,text {fb}^{-1} in 2015 and 2016, with a relative precision of 1.6 and 1.2%, respectively. These are among the most precise luminosity measurements at bunched-beam hadron colliders.

Luminosity Measurements at the LHC at CERN Using Medipix, Timepix and Timepix3 Devices

The precise determination of the luminosity is essential for many analyses in physics based on the data from the particle accelerator Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. There are different types of detectors used for the luminosity measurements. The focus of this review is on luminosity measurements with hybrid-pixel detectors and the progress made over the past decade. The first generations of detectors of the Medipix and Timepix families had frame-based readout, while Timepix3 has a quasi-continuous readout. The applications of the detectors are manifold, and in particular, the detectors have been operated in the harsh environment of the LHC. The excellent performance in detecting high fluxes of elementary particles made these detectors ideal tools to measure the delivered luminosity resulting from proton–proton collisions. Important aspects of this review are the performance improvements in relative luminosity measurements from one detector generation to another, the long-term stability of the measurements, absolute luminosity measurements, material activation (radiation-induced) corrections, and the measurement of luminosity from neutron counting. Rather than bunch-average luminosity provided by previous detector generations, owing to the excellent time-resolution, Timepix3 measured the luminosity of individual proton bunches that are 25 ns apart. This review demonstrates the large progress in the precision of luminosity measurements during LHC Run-1 and Run-2 operations using hybrid-pixel detectors, and thus their importance for luminosity measurements in the future of LHC operations.

Chandra observations of nova KT Eridani in outburst

ABSTRACT We analyze here four observations of nova KT Eri (Nova Eri 2009) done with the Chandra High-Resolution Camera Spectrometer (HRC-S) and the Low-Energy Transmission Grating (LETG) in 2010, from day 71 until day 159 after the optical maximum, in the luminous supersoft X-ray phase. The spectrum presents many absorption features with a large range of velocity, from a few hundred km s−1 to 3100 km s−1 in the same observation, and a few prominent emission features, generally redshifted by more than 2000 km s−1. Although the uncertainty on the distance and the WD luminosity from the approximate fit do not let us rule out a larger absolute luminosity than our best estimate of ≃5 × 1037 erg s−1, it is likely that we observed only up to ≃40 per cent of the surface of the white dwarf, which may have been partially hidden by clumpy ejecta. Our fit with atmospheric models indicates a massive white dwarf in the 1.15–1.25 M⊙ range. A thermal spectrum originating in the ejecta appears to be superimposed on the white dwarf spectrum. It is complex, has more than one component, and may be due to a mixture of photoionized and shock-ionized outflowing material. We confirm that the ≃35-s oscillation that was reported earlier was detected in the last observation done on day 159 of the outburst.

SN 2019hcc: a Type II supernova displaying early O ii lines

ABSTRACT We present optical spectroscopy together with ultraviolet, optical, and near-infrared photometry of SN 2019hcc, which resides in a host galaxy at redshift 0.044, displaying a sub-solar metallicity. The supernova spectrum near peak epoch shows a ‘w’ shape at around 4000 Å which is usually associated with O ii lines and is typical of Type I superluminous supernovae. SN 2019hcc post-peak spectra show a well-developed H α P-Cygni profile from 19 d past maximum and its light curve, in terms of its absolute peak luminosity and evolution, resembles that of a fast-declining Hydrogen-rich supernova (SN IIL). The object does not show any unambiguous sign of interaction as there is no evidence of narrow lines in the spectra or undulations in the light curve. Our tardis spectral modelling of the first spectrum shows that carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen (CNO) at 19 000 K reproduce the ‘w’ shape and suggests that a combination of non-thermally excited CNO and metal lines at 8000 K could reproduce the feature seen at 4000 Å. The Bolometric light-curve modelling reveals that SN 2019hcc could be fit with a magnetar model, showing a relatively strong magnetic field (B &amp;gt; 3 × 1014 G), which matches the peak luminosity and rise time without powering up the light curve to superluminous luminosities. The high-energy photons produced by the magnetar would then be responsible for the detected O ii lines. As a consequence, SN 2019hcc shows that a ‘w’ shape profile at around 4000 Å, usually attributed to O ii, is not only shown in superluminous supernovae and hence it should not be treated as the sole evidence of the belonging to such a supernova type.

Accurate distances to Galactic globular clusters through a combination of Gaia EDR3, HST, and literature data

ABSTRACT We have derived accurate distances to Galactic globular clusters by combining data from the Gaia Early Data Release 3 (EDR3) with distances based on Hubble Space Telescope (HST) data and literature-based distances. We determine distances either directly from the Gaia EDR3 parallaxes, or kinematically by combining line-of-sight velocity dispersion profiles with Gaia EDR3 and HST-based proper motion velocity dispersion profiles. We furthermore calculate cluster distances from fitting nearby subdwarfs, whose absolute luminosities we determine from their Gaia EDR3 parallaxes, to globular cluster main sequences. We finally use HST-based stellar number counts to determine distances. We find good agreement in the average distances derived from the different methods down to a level of about 2 per cent. Combining all available data, we are able to derive distances to 162 Galactic globular clusters, with the distances to about 20 nearby globular clusters determined with an accuracy of 1 per cent or better. We finally discuss the implications of our distances for the value of the local Hubble constant.

W−M phantom transition at zt&lt;0.1 as a resolution of the Hubble tension

A rapid phantom transition of the dark energy equation of state parameter $w$ at a transition redshift ${z}_{t}&lt;0.1$ of the form $w(z)=\ensuremath{-}1+\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}w\text{ }\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Theta}}({z}_{t}\ensuremath{-}z)$ with $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}w&lt;0$ can lead to a higher value of the Hubble constant while closely mimicking a $\mathrm{Planck}18/\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}\mathrm{CDM}$ form of the comoving distance $r(z)={\ensuremath{\int}}_{0}^{z}\frac{d{z}^{\ensuremath{'}}}{H({z}^{\ensuremath{'}})}$ for $z&gt;{z}_{t}$. Such a transition however would imply a significantly lower value of the SnIa absolute magnitude $M$ than the value ${M}_{C}$ imposed by local Cepheid calibrators at $z&lt;0.01$. Thus, in order to resolve the ${H}_{0}$ tension it would need to be accompanied by a similar transition in the value of the SnIa absolute magnitude $M$ as $M(z)={M}_{C}+\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}M\text{ }\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Theta}}(z\ensuremath{-}{z}_{t})$ with $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}M&lt;0$. This is a late $w\ensuremath{-}M$ phantom transition ($LwMPT$). It may be achieved by a sudden reduction of the value of the normalized effective Newton constant $\ensuremath{\mu}={G}_{\mathrm{eff}}/{G}_{\mathrm{N}}$ by about 6% assuming that the absolute luminosity of SnIa is proportional to the Chandrasekhar mass which varies as ${\ensuremath{\mu}}^{\ensuremath{-}3/2}$. We demonstrate that such an ultra low $z$ abrupt feature of $w\ensuremath{-}M$ provides a better fit to cosmological data compared to smooth late time deformations of $H(z)$ that also address the Hubble tension. For ${z}_{t}=0.02$ we find $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}w\ensuremath{\simeq}\ensuremath{-}4$, $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}M\ensuremath{\simeq}\ensuremath{-}0.1$. This model also addresses the growth tension due to the predicted lower value of $\ensuremath{\mu}$ at $z&gt;{z}_{t}$. A prior of $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}w=0$ (no $w$ transition) can still resolve the ${H}_{0}$ tension with a larger amplitude $M$ transition with $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}M\ensuremath{\simeq}\ensuremath{-}0.2$ at ${z}_{t}\ensuremath{\simeq}0.01$. This implies a larger reduction of $\ensuremath{\mu}$ for $z&gt;0.01$ (about 12%). The $LwMPT$ can be generically induced by a scalar field nonminimally coupled to gravity with no need of a screening mechanism since in this model $\ensuremath{\mu}=1$ at $z&lt;0.01$.

Viewing Angle Effects in Quasar Application to Cosmology

Abstract The symmetry axes of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) are randomly distributed in space, but highly inclined sources are heavily obscured and are not seen as quasars with broad emission lines. The obscuring torus geometry determines the average viewing angle, and if the torus geometry changes with the redshift, this average viewing angle will also change. Thus, the ratio between the isotropic luminosity and observed luminosity may change systematically with redshift. Therefore, if we use quasars to measure the luminosity distance by evaluating the isotropic absolute luminosity and measuring the observed flux, we can have a redshift-dependent bias that can propagate to cosmological parameters. We propose a toy model for testing the effect of viewing angle uncertainty on the measurement of the luminosity distance. The model is based on analytical description of the obscuring torus applied to one-parameter observational data. It illustrates the possible change of the torus covering factor between the two chosen redshift ranges. We have estimated the possible errors in specific cosmological parameters (H 0, Ω m ) for the flat Lambda cold dark matter cosmology if a method is calibrated at low redshift and applied to the higher redshift. The errors in the cosmological parameters due to potential dependence of the viewing angle on redshift are found to be potentially significant, and the effect will have to be accommodated in the future in all quasar-based cosmological methods. A careful systematic study of AGNs means that a viewing angle across the redshift is necessary, with the use of appropriate samples and models that uniquely determine the inclination of each source.