Large-scale Structure Research Articles

A strong blend in the morning: studying the circumgalactic medium before cosmic noon with strong, blended Ly α forest systems

ABSTRACT We study of the properties of a new class of circumgalactic medium absorbers identified in the Ly α forest: ‘Strong, Blended Lyman-α’ (or SBLA) absorption systems. We study SBLAs at 2.4 < z < 3.1 in SDSS-IV/eBOSS spectra by their strong extended Ly α absorption complexes covering 138 $\, \, {\rm km}\, {\rm s}^{-1}$ with an integrated $\log (N_{\rm H\, {\small I}}/\mathrm{cm}^{-2}) =16.04$$\substack{+0.05 \\ -0.06}$ and Doppler parameter b = 18.1$\substack{+0.7 \\ -0.4}$$\, \, {\rm km}\, {\rm s}^{-1}$. Clustering with the Ly α forest provides a large-scale structure bias of b = 2.34 ± 0.06 and halo mass estimate of $M_h \approx 10^{12}\, h^{-1}\, {\rm M_{\odot }}$ for our SBLA sample. We measure the ensemble mean column densities of 22 metal features in the SBLA composite spectrum and find that no single-population multiphase model for them is viable. We therefore explore the underlying SBLA population by forward modelling the SBLA absorption distribution. Based on covariance measurements and favoured populations we find that ≈25 per cent of our SBLAs have stronger metals. Using silicon only we find that our strong metal SBLAs trace gas with a log (nH/cm−3) > −2.40 for T = 103.5 K and show gas clumping on <210 parsec scales. We fit multiphase models to this strong subpopulation and find a low ionization phase with nH = 1 cm−3, T = 103.5 K, and [X/H] = 0.8, an intermediate ionization phase with log (nH/cm−3) = −3.05, T = 103.5 K and [X/H] = −0.8, and a poorly constrained higher ionization phase. We find that the low ionization phase favours cold, dense super-solar metallicity gas with a clumping scale of just 0.009 parsecs.

The characteristics of flows past a circular cylinder with heat transfer in the proximity to the wall at different gap ratios

In this study, two-dimensional laminar flows past a circular cylinder under isothermal and non-isothermal conditions over a flat-plate were investigated numerically at Re = 200. The gap ratio G / D ranges from 0.5 to 3.0, with G representing the distance between the lower surface of the cylinder and the wall. The effects of G / D on the flow dynamics were explored. For G / D = 0.5 , the vortex shedding of the lower cylinder surface is suppressed and there is a large recirculation region on the wall. For G / D = 1.0 , the recirculation region is small and the lower vortex begins to shed. For G / D ⩾ 1.5 , the flow exhibits similarities to that of an unbounded cylinder. The heat transfer characteristics was evaluated. When the cylinder temperature T c is higher than the air temperature T a , the mean drag coefficient C D ¯ is reduced and the root-mean-square lift coefficient C L ′ is increased. The temperature field is reconstructed using the proper orthogonal decomposition method, which is influenced by the large-scale vortical structures.

CAVITY, Calar Alto Void Integral-field Treasury surveY and project extension

We have learnt in the last decades that the majority of galaxies belong to high density regions interconnected in a sponge-like fashion. This large-scale structure is characterised by clusters, filaments, and walls, where most galaxies concentrate, but also under-dense regions called voids. The void regions and the galaxies within represent an ideal place for the study of galaxy formation and evolution, as they are largely unaffected by the complex physical processes that transform galaxies in high-density environments. The void galaxies may hold the key to answer current challenges to the Lambda CDM paradigm as well. The CAVITY survey is a Legacy project approved by the Calar Alto Observatory to obtain spatially resolved spectroscopic information of $ void galaxies in the Local Universe (0.005 < z < 0.050), covering -17.0 to -21.5 in $ r$ band absolute magnitude. It officially started in January 2021 and has been awarded 110 useful dark observing nights at the 3.5 m telescope using the PMAS spectrograph. Complementary follow-up projects, including deep optical imaging, integrated as well as resolved CO data, and integrated HI spectra, have joined the PMAS observations and naturally complete the scientific aim of characterising galaxies in cosmic voids. The extension data has been named CAVITY+. The data will be available to the whole community in different data releases, the first of which is planned for July 2024, and it will provide the community with PMAS datacubes for around 100 void galaxies through a user friendly and well documented database platform. Here, we present the survey, sample selection, data reduction, quality control schemes, science goals, and some examples of the scientific power of the CAVITY and CAVITY+ data.

Efficient Large-Scale Many-Body Quantum Dynamics via Local-Information Time Evolution

During time evolution of many-body systems entanglement grows rapidly, limiting exact simulations to small-scale systems or small timescales. Quantum information tends, however, to flow towards larger scales without returning to local scales, such that its detailed large-scale structure does not directly affect local observables. This allows for the removal of large-scale quantum information in a way that preserves all local observables and gives access to large-scale and large-time quantum dynamics. To this end, we use the recently introduced to organize quantum information into different scales, allowing us to define and that we employ to systematically discard long-range quantum correlations in a controlled way. Our approach relies on decomposing the system into subsystems up to a maximum scale and time evolving the subsystem density matrices by solving the subsystem von Neumann equations in parallel. Importantly, the information flow needs to be preserved during the discarding of large-scale information. To achieve this without the need to make assumptions about the microscopic details of the information current, we introduce a second scale at which information is discarded, while using the state at the maximum scale to accurately obtain the information flow. The resulting algorithm, which we call local-information time evolution, is highly versatile and suitable for investigating many-body quantum dynamics in both closed and open quantum systems with diverse hydrodynamic behaviors. We present results for the energy transport in the mixed-field Ising model and the magnetization transport in the XX spin chain with onsite dephasing where we accurately determine the power-law exponent and the diffusion coefficients. Furthermore, the information lattice framework employed here promises to offer insightful results about the spatial and temporal behavior of entanglement in many-body systems. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

A critical transition of two-dimensional flow in toroidal geometry

We investigate two-dimensional (2-D) axisymmetric flow in toroidal geometry, with a focus on a transition between 2-D three-component flow and 2-D two-component flow. This latter flow state allows a self-organization of the system to a quiescent dynamics, characterized by long-living coherent structures. When these large-scale structures orient in the azimuthal direction, the radial transport is reduced. Such a transition, if it can be triggered in toroidally confined fusion plasmas, is beneficial for the generation of zonal flows and should consequently result in a flow field beneficial for confinement.

Nucleation regions in the Large-Scale Structure I. A catalogue of cores in nearby rich superclusters

Abstract We applied a Density-Based Clustering algorithm on samples of galaxies and galaxy systems belonging to 53 rich superclusters from the Main SuperCluster Catalogue (MSCC) to identify the presence of “central regions”, or cores, in these large-scale structures. Cores are defined here as large gravitationally bound galaxy structures, comprised of two or more clusters and groups, with sufficient matter density to survive cosmic expansion and virialize in the future. We identified a total of 105 galaxy structures classified as cores, which exhibit a high density contrast of mass and galaxies. The Density-based Core Catalogue (DCC), presented here, includes cores that were previously reported in well-known superclusters of the Local Universe, and also several newly identified ones. We found that 83% of the rich superclusters in our sample have at least one core. While more than three cores with different dynamical state are possible, the presence of a single core in the superclusters is more common. Our work confirms the existence of nucleation regions in the internal structure of most rich superclusters and points to the fact that these cores are the densest and most massive features that can be identified in the cosmic web with high probability for future virialization.

Turbulence and particle energization in twisted flux ropes under solar-wind conditions

Context. The mechanisms regulating the transport and energization of charged particles in space and astrophysical plasmas are still debated. Plasma turbulence is known to be a powerful particle accelerator. Large-scale structures, including flux ropes and plasmoids, may contribute to confining particles and lead to fast particle energization. These structures may also modify the properties of the turbulent, nonlinear transfer across scales. Aims. We aim to investigate how large-scale flux ropes are perturbed and, simultaneously, how they influence the nonlinear transfer of turbulent energy toward smaller scales. We then intend to address how these structures affect particle transport and energization. Methods. We adopted magnetohydrodynamic simulations perturbing a large-scale flux rope in solar-wind conditions and possibly triggering turbulence. Then, we employed test-particle methods to investigate particle transport and energization in the perturbed flux rope. Results. The large-scale helical flux rope inhibits the turbulent cascade toward smaller scales, especially if the amplitude of the initial perturbations is not large (∼5%). In this case, particle transport is inhibited inside the structure. Fast particle acceleration occurs in association with phases of trapped motion within the large-scale flux rope.

The Role of Surface Potential Vorticity in the Vertical Structure of Mesoscale Eddies in Wind-Driven Ocean Circulations

Abstract The vertical structure of ocean eddies is generally surface-intensified, commonly attributed to the dominant baroclinic modes arising from the boundary conditions (BCs). Conventional BC considerations mostly focus on either flat- or rough-bottom conditions. The impact of surface buoyancy anomalies—often represented by surface potential vorticity (PV) anomalies—has not been fully explored. Here, we study the role of the surface PV in setting the vertical distribution of eddy kinetic energy (EKE) in an idealized adiabatic ocean model driven by wind stress. The simulated EKE profile in the extratropical ocean tends to peak at the surface and have an e-folding depth typically smaller than half of the ocean depth. This vertical structure can be reasonably represented by a single surface quasigeostrophic (SQG) mode at the energy-containing scale resulting from the large-scale PV structure. Due to isopycnal outcropping and interior PV homogenization, the surface meridional PV gradient is substantially stronger than the interior PV gradient, yielding surface-trapped baroclinically unstable modes with horizontal scales comparable to or smaller than the deformation radius. These surface-trapped eddies then grow in size both horizontally and vertically through an inverse energy cascade up to the energy-containing scale, which dominates the vertical distribution of EKE. As for smaller horizontal scales, the EKE distribution decays faster with depth. Guided by this interpretation, an SQG-based scale-aware parameterization of the EKE profile is proposed. Preliminary offline diagnosis of a high-resolution simulation shows the proposed scheme successfully reproducing the dependence of the vertical structure of EKE on the horizontal grid resolution.

Spatial dependence of the growth factor in scalar-tensor cosmology

Scalar-tensor theories have taken on a key role in attempts to confront the growing open questions in standard cosmology. It is important to understand entirely their dynamics at perturbative level including any possible spatial dependence in their growth of large scale structures. In this work, we investigate the spatial dependence of the growth rate of scalar-tensor theories through the Mészáros equation. We confirm that at subhorizon level this dependence does not play a major role for viable models. However, we establish conditions on which this criterion is met which may be important for developing new models. In our work, we consider three specific models that exhibit spatial dependence of the growth rate at subhorizon modes, which may also be important for early Universe models.

Impact of low-frequency fluctuations on loads of a fixed-bottom offshore reference wind turbine

Marine atmospheric turbulence is predominantly characterized by large-scale structures associated with low-frequency wind turbulence. However, conventional turbulence models for assessing wind turbine loads often fall short of adequately integrating these low-frequency wind fluctuations. In this study, we used a model for low-frequency wind fluctuations to generate wind fields representative of offshore wind conditions in the North Sea. The IEA 15 MW reference wind turbine was subjected to three distinct incoming wind fields: high-frequency (3D) turbulence, low-frequency (2D) turbulence combined with high-frequency (3D) turbulence, and 3D turbulence scaled by target or measured standard deviation of wind components. We found that increased damage equivalent loads by incorporating the low-frequency wind fields are only significant for the tower base fore-aft and blade root fore-aft moments. The impact of low-frequency wind turbulence on the damage equivalent loads was more pronounced for below-rated wind speeds. The scaled 3D turbulence yielded the highest lifetime damage equivalent loads, i.e., in the range of 8-18% more than the unscaled 3D turbulence and combined 2D +3D turbulence. This method leads to an overestimation of loads and, hence, more expensive turbines. Incorporating 2D+3D turbulence in wind fields resulted in a 3.8% increase in lifetime damage equivalent loads for the tower base fore-aft and blade root flapwise moments compared to unscaled 3D turbulence. These findings underscore the importance of considering low-frequency wind fluctuations in the turbine design process, especially for a more accurate estimation of loads.

Luminous giants populate the dense Cosmic Web

Context. Giant radio galaxies (GRGs, giant RGs, or giants) are megaparsec-scale, jet-driven outflows from accretion disks of supermassive black holes, and represent the most extreme pathway by which galaxies can impact the Cosmic Web around them. A long-standing but unresolved question is why giants are so much larger than other radio galaxies. Aims. It has been proposed that, in addition to having higher jet powers than most RGs, giants might live in especially low-density Cosmic Web environments. In this work, we aim to test this hypothesis by pinpointing Local Universe giants and other RGs in physically principled, Bayesian large-scale structure reconstructions. Methods. More specifically, we localised a LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey (LoTSS) DR2–dominated sample of luminous (lν(ν = 150 MHz)≥1024 W Hz−1) giants and a control sample of LoTSS DR1 RGs, both with spectroscopic redshifts up to zmax = 0.16, in the BORG SDSS Cosmic Web reconstructions. We measured the Cosmic Web density on a smoothing scale of ∼2.9 Mpc h−1 for each RG; for the control sample, we then quantified the relation between RG radio luminosity and Cosmic Web density. With the BORG SDSS tidal tensor, we also measured for each RG whether the gravitational dynamics of its Cosmic Web environment resemble those of clusters, filaments, sheets, or voids. Results. For both luminous giants and general RGs, the Cosmic Web density distribution is gamma distribution–like. Luminous giants populate large-scale environments that tend to be denser than those of general RGs. This result is corroborated by gravitational dynamics classification and a cluster catalogue crossmatching analysis. We find that the Cosmic Web density around RGs with 150 MHz radio luminosity lν is distributed as 1 + ΔRG | Lν = lν ∼ Γ(k, θ), where k = 4.8 + 0.2 · √, θ = 1.4 + 0.02 · √, and √:= log10(lν (1023 W Hz−1)−1). Conclusions. This work presents more than a thousand inferred megaparsec-scale densities around radio galaxies, which may be correct up to a factor of order unity – except in clusters of galaxies, where the densities can be more than an order of magnitude too low. We pave the way to a future in which megaparsec-scale densities around RGs are common inferred quantities, which help to better understand their dynamics, morphology, and interaction with the enveloping Cosmic Web. Our data demonstrate that luminous giants inhabit denser environments than general RGs. This shows that – at least at high jet powers – low-density environments are no prerequisite for giant growth. Using general RGs, we quantified the relation between radio luminosity at 150 MHz and Cosmic Web density on a smoothing scale of ∼2.9 Mpc h−1. This positive relation, combined with the discrepancy in radio luminosity between known giants and general RGs, reproduces the discrepancy in Cosmic Web density between known giants and general RGs. Our findings are consistent with the view that giants are regular, rather than mechanistically special, members of the radio galaxy population.

DISCO-DJ I: a differentiable Einstein-Boltzmann solver for cosmology

We present the Einstein-Boltzmann module of the Disco-Dj (DIfferentiable Simulations for COsmology — Done with J ax) software package. This module implements a fully differentiable solver for the linearised cosmological Einstein-Boltzmann equations in the Jax framework, and allows computing Jacobian matrices of all solver output with respect to all input parameters using automatic differentiation. This implies that along with the solution for a given set of parameters, the tangent hyperplane in parameter space is known as well, which is a key ingredient for cosmological inference and forecasting problems as well as for many other applications. We discuss our implementation and demonstrate that our solver agrees at the per-mille level with the existing non-differentiable solvers Camb and Class, including massive neutrinos and a dark energy fluid with parameterised equation of state. We illustrate the dependence of various summary statistics in large-scale structure cosmology on model parameters using the differentiable solver, and finally demonstrate how it can be easily used for Fisher forecasting, with a forecast for Euclid as an example. Since the implementation is significantly shorter and more modular than existing solvers, we believe it will be more straightforward to extend our solver to include additional physics, such as additional dark energy and dark matter models, modified gravity, or other non-standard physics in the future.

Constraining f(R) gravity with cross-correlation of galaxies and cosmic microwave background lensing

We look for signatures of the Hu-Sawicki f(R) modified gravity theory proposed to explain the observed accelerated expansion of the Universe in observations of the galaxy distribution, the cosmic microwave background (CMB), and gravitational lensing of the CMB. We study constraints obtained using observations of only the CMB primary anisotropies before adding the galaxy power spectrum and its cross-correlation with CMB lensing. We show that cross-correlation of the galaxy distribution with lensing measurements is crucial in order to break parameter degeneracies, placing tighter constraints on the model. In particular, we set a strong upper limit on log|fR0|< − 4.61 at 95% confidence level. This means that while the model may explain the accelerated expansion, its impact on large-scale structure closely resembles general relativity (GR). This analysis is the first to make use of the galaxy clustering, CMB lensing, and their cross-correlation power spectra to constrain Hu-Sawicki f(R) gravity. Restricting the analysis to the linear regime, we place a robust constraint that is competitive with other cosmological studies whilst using fewer probes. This study can be seen as a precursor to cross-correlation analyses of f(R) gravity and can be repeated with next-stage surveys, which will benefit from lower noise and hence probe smaller potential deviations from GR.

LCP-Based Low-Cost Base Station Antenna for 3.7 GHz 5G Band

This paper presents a large-scale base station antenna assembly structure that is low-cost, reliable, and easy to manufacture. The antenna element is composed of a low-loss liquid crystal polymer based on a plastic molded module and a modified wideband stacked patch antenna. The base station antenna consists of a 4 × 8 antenna module, with each module comprising 3 × 1 subarrays along with dual-polarized antenna elements. The antenna element achieved an efficiency of 91% and an impedance bandwidth of 1.14 GHz within a height of 10 mm at 3.7 GHz. Furthermore, the fabricated array antenna structure was tested and verified to have an effective isotropic radiated power of 75.6 dBm at boresight and a steering range of less than ±60°. Therefore, the proposed structure meets the required antenna and beam-forming performance for commercial 5G active antenna systems.

Euclid preparation. XLIV. Modelling spectroscopic clustering on mildly nonlinear scales in beyond-LCDM models

The space satellite mission will measure the large-scale clustering of galaxies at an unprecedented precision, providing a unique probe of modifications to the Lambda CDM model. We investigated the approximations needed to efficiently predict the large-scale clustering of matter and dark matter halos in the context of modified gravity and exotic dark energy scenarios. We examined the normal branch of the Dvali--Gabadadze--Porrati model, the Hu--Sawicki $f(R)$ model, a slowly evolving dark energy model, an interacting dark energy model, and massive neutrinos. For each, we tested approximations for the perturbative kernel calculations, including the omission of screening terms and the use of perturbative kernels based on the Einstein--de Sitter universe; we explored different infrared-resummation schemes, tracer bias models and a linear treatment of massive neutrinos; we investigated various approaches for dealing with redshift-space distortions and modelling the mildly nonlinear scales, namely the Taruya--Nishimishi--Saito prescription and the effective field theory of large-scale structure. This work provides a first validation of the various codes being considered by for the spectroscopic clustering probe in beyond-Lambda CDM scenarios. We calculated and compared the $ statistic to assess the different modelling choices. This was done by fitting the spectroscopic clustering predictions to measurements from numerical simulations and perturbation theory-based mock data. We compared the behaviour of this statistic in the beyond-Lambda CDM cases, as a function of the maximum scale included in the fit, to the baseline Lambda CDM case. We find that the Einstein--de Sitter approximation without screening is surprisingly accurate for the modified gravity cases when comparing to the halo clustering monopole and quadrupole obtained from simulations and mock data. Further, we find the same goodness-of-fit for both cases -- the one including and the one omitting non-standard physics in the predictions. Our results suggest that the inclusion of multiple redshift bins, higher-order multipoles, higher-order clustering statistics (such as the bispectrum), and photometric probes such as weak lensing, will be essential to extract information on massive neutrinos, modified gravity and dark energy. Additionally, we show that the three codes used in our analysis, namely PBJ Pybird and MG-Copter exhibit sub-percent agreement for $k Mpc $ across all the models. This consistency underscores their value as reliable tools.

A fast analysis algorithm for structural vibration modal sensitivity

Vibration modal sensitivity analysis has a wide range of applications in structural optimization design, model correction, fault detection, and reliability analysis. The existing methods for calculating modal sensitivity mainly include modal superposition method, Nelson’s method, and some improved algorithms derived from them. However, the existing algorithms have the drawback of low computational efficiency when applied to modal sensitivity analysis of the large-scale structures. In view of this, the objective of this work is to develop a fast modal sensitivity analysis method that can more efficiently calculate the modal sensitivity of the large structures with thousands of degrees of freedom. This new sensitivity analysis technique integrates Sherman-Morrison-Woodbury formula, subspace iteration and forward-difference to achieve the goal of fast calculation. The innovations of the proposed method mainly include the following aspects. Firstly, the Sherman-Morrison-Woodbury formula is used to quickly calculate the perturbed flexibility matrix due to the minor modification in the structure. Then, the perturbed flexibility matrix is introduced into the subspace iteration method to calculate the perturbed modal parameters. Finally, the forward-difference algorithm is used to calculate the modal sensitivity. Two numerical examples are used to verify the superiority of the proposed modal sensitivity algorithm. Taking the 1952-bar structure as an example, the calculation time of the proposed algorithm is only 8.3 % and 18.2 % of that of the existing approximate modal superposition method and the improved Nelson’s method, respectively. In terms of calculation accuracy, the results obtained by the proposed method are exactly the same as the exact solution when the perturbation scale is set to 10−5. It is found that the proposed method significantly reduces computation time compared to the existing methods on the premise that the calculation accuracy is basically unchanged.

Galaxy cluster virial-shock sources in eROSITA catalogs

Virial shocks around galaxy clusters and groups are being mapped, thus tracing accretion onto large-scale structure. Following the recent identification of discrete ROSAT and radio sources associated with the virial shocks of MCXC clusters and groups, we examined the eROSITA-DE Early Data Release (EDR) to see whether it shows virial-shock X-ray sources within its $140$ deg$^2$ field. EDR catalog sources were stacked and radially binned around EDR catalog clusters and groups. The properties of the excess virial-shock sources were inferred statistically by comparing the virial-shock region to the field. We find an excess of X-ray sources narrowly localized at the $2.0<r/R_ <2.25$ normalized radii, just inside the anticipated virial shocks, of the resolved 532 clusters, for samples of both extended sources ($3 for 534 sources) and bright sources ($3.5 for 5820 sources; $4 excluding the low cluster-mass quartile). The excess sources are on average extended ($ luminous ($L_X scriptsize-- $ erg s$^ $), and hot (keV scales), consistent with infalling gaseous halos crossing the virial shock. The results agree with the stacked ROSAT--MCXC signal, showing the higher $L_X$ expected at EDR redshifts and a possible dependence on host mass. Localized virial-shock spikes in the distributions of discrete radio, X-ray, and possibly also sources are new powerful probes of accretion from the cosmic web.\ We expect that data from future all-sky catalogs will allow us to place strong constraints on virial shock physics.

Do galaxy mergers prefer under-dense environments?

Context. Galaxy mergers play a crucial role in galaxy evolution. However, the correlation between mergers and the local environment of galaxies is not fully understood. Aims. We aim to address the question of whether galaxy mergers prefer denser or less dense environments by quantifying the spatial clustering of mergers and non-mergers. We use two different indicators to classify mergers and non-mergers – classification based on a deep learning technique (f) and non-parametric measures of galaxy morphology, Gini-M20 (g). Methods. We used a set of galaxy samples in the redshift range 0.1 < z < 0.15 from the Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey with a stellar mass cut of log(M⋆/M⊙) > 9.5. We measured and compared the two-point correlation function (2pCF) of the mergers and non-mergers classified using the two merger indicators f and g. We measured the marked correlation function (MCF), in which the galaxies were weighted by f to probe the environmental dependence of galaxy mergers. Results. We do not observe a statistically significant difference between the clustering strengths of mergers and non-mergers obtained using 2pCF. However, using the MCF measurements with f as a mark, we observe an anti-correlation between the likelihood of a galaxy being a merger and its environment. Our results emphasise the advantage of MCF over 2pCF in probing the environmental correlations. Conclusions. Based on the MCF measurements, we conclude that the galaxy mergers prefer to occur in the under-dense environments on scales > 50 h−1 kpc of the large-scale structure (LSS). We attribute this observation to the high relative velocities of galaxies in the densest environments that prevent them from merging.

Meta-Meshing and Triangulating Lattice Structures at a Large Scale

Lattice structures have been widely used in applications due to their superior mechanical properties. To fabricate such structures, a geometric processing step called triangulation is often employed to transform them into the STL format before sending them to 3D printers. Because lattice structures tend to have high geometric complexity, this step usually generates a large amount of triangles, a memory and compute-intensive task. This problem manifests itself clearly through large-scale lattice structures that have millions or billions of struts. To address this problem, this paper proposes to transform a lattice structure into an intermediate model called meta-mesh before undergoing real triangulation. Compared to triangular meshes, meta-meshes are very lightweight and much less compute-demanding. The meta-mesh can also work as a base mesh reusable for conveniently and efficiently triangulating lattice structures with arbitrary resolutions. A CPU+GPU asynchronous meta-meshing pipeline has been developed to efficiently generate meta-meshes from lattice structures. It shifts from the thread-centric GPU algorithm design paradigm commonly used in CAD to the recent warp-centric design paradigm to achieve high performance. This is achieved by a new data compression method, a GPU cache-aware data structure, and a workload-balanced scheduling method that can significantly reduce memory divergence and branch divergence. Experimenting with various billion-scale lattice structures, the proposed method is seen to be two orders of magnitude faster than previously achievable.

Source of the Fe Kalpha emission in T Tauri stars. Radiation induced by relativistic electrons during flares. An application to RY Tau

T Tauri stars (TTSs) are magnetically active stars that accrete matter from the inner border of the surrounding accretion disk; plasma becomes trapped into the large-scale magnetic structures and falls onto the star, heating the surface through the so-called accretion shocks. The X-ray spectra of the TTSs show prominent Fe Kalpha fluorescence emission at 6.4 keV (hereafter, Fe Kalpha emission) that cannot be explained in a pure accretion scenario because its excitation requires significantly more energy than the maximum available through the well-constrained free-fall velocity. Neither can it be produced by the hot coronal plasma. TTSs display all signs of magnetic activity, and magnetic reconnection events are expected to occur frequently. In these events, electrons may become accelerated to relativistic speeds, and their interaction with the environmental matter may result in Fe Kalpha emission. It is the aim of this work to evaluate the expected Fe Kalpha emission in the context of the TTS research and compare it with the actual Fe Kalpha measurements obtained during the flare detected while monitoring RY Tau with the XMM-Newton satellite. The propagation of high-energy electrons in dense gas generates a cascade of secondary particles that results in an electron shower of random nature, whose evolution and radiative throughput was simulated in this work using the Monte Carlo code PENELOPE. A set of conditions representing the environment of the TTSs where these showers may impinge was taken into account to generate a grid of models that can aid the interpretation of the data. The simulations show that the electron beams produce a hot spot at the point of impact; strong Fe Kalpha emission and X-ray continuum radiation are produced by the spot. This emission is compatible with RY Tau observations. The Fe Kalpha emission observed in TTSs could be produced by beams of relativistic electrons accelerated in magnetic reconnection events during flares.