arXiv subjects

Nicola Locatelli

Publications and source records attributed to Nicola Locatelli.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

X-ray luminous late-type giants: an overlooked population contributing to the Galactic ridge iron line emission

The origin of the highly ionized iron emission (Fe XXV at $6.7\,\mathrm{keV}$) characterizing the Galactic ridge X-ray emission (GRXE) remains a fundamental puzzle in high-energy astrophysics. Although the GRXE continuum is largely resolved into discrete populations of cataclysmic variables and coronally active stars, these sources exhibit Fe XXV equivalent widths significantly lower than that of the total GRXE, leaving the intense iron line emission unexplained. In this work, we cross-correlated the XMM-Newton survey of the inner Galactic disk with Gaia DR3 astrometry to identify and characterize hard X-ray sources ($>2\,\mathrm{keV}$) with reliable stellar counterparts. We selected 107 X-ray sources located within the red giant branch of the color-magnitude diagram, many of which are verified long-period variables. These sources exhibit high X-ray luminosities ($L_{\mathrm{X}} \approx 10^{31}$--$10^{33}\,\mathrm{erg~s^{-1}}$), significantly exceeding the typical coronal saturation levels of single giants. Their X-ray spectra are notably harder than those of quiescent stellar coronae, with plasma temperatures reaching up to $kT \approx 6\,\mathrm{keV}$ and a prominent emission feature at $\sim 6.7\,\mathrm{keV}$. The combination of high $L_{\mathrm{X}}$, hard spectra, and intense Fe XXV emission identifies this population as accretion-powered binaries associated with late-type giants. Our analysis demonstrates that this population contributes $\sim 20\%$ of the total GRXE continuum and $\sim 40\%$ of its iron line emission, providing a key component to resolving the Galactic X-ray background puzzle.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2026

The average X-ray spectrum of the volume-complete M-, F-, G-, and K-type star sample within 10 pc of the Sun

F, G, K and M type stars are the most abundant stellar population in the Milky Way and are expected to contribute to its diffuse X-ray emission. Yet their intrinsic average X-ray spectrum remains poorly constrained due to their faint X-ray luminosities, leaving their collective role in the X-ray background of the Milky Way uncertain. We analysed the volume-complete sample of M- (M0--M6) and FGK-type stars within 10 pc of the Sun using data from eROSITA all-sky survey aboard the Spectrum-Roentgen-Gamma (SRG) mission (eRASS:4). Individual spectra were normalized by exposure and distance and stacked to produce representative averages. The distance-normalized emission measures yield an average X-ray luminosity of $(2.6 \pm0.1)\times 10^{27}$ erg/s for M-type stars, and $(15\pm3)\times 10^{27}$ erg/s for F, G and K-type stars in 0.2--2.0 keV. The average spectra could be well described by a sum of three and two thermal models. Fitted temperatures and abundances remain consistent across M-star subgroups, while early-M stars are surprisingly on average less luminous than mid/late-M types. These results offer new insights into the collective X-ray properties of nearby stars, and provide motivation to explore the link with the unresolved soft X-ray background of the Galaxy.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2026

Retrieving the hot circumgalactic medium physics from the X-ray radial profile from eROSITA with an IlustrisTNG-based forward model

Recent eROSITA measurements of the radial profiles of the hot CGM in the Milky-Way stellar mass (MW-mass) regime provide us with a new benchmark to constrain the hot gas around MW-mass central and satellite galaxies and their halo mass distributions. Modelling this rich data set with state-of-the-art hydrodynamical simulations is required to further our understanding of the shortcomings in the current paradigm of galaxy formation and evolution models. We develop forward models for the stacked X-ray radial surface brightness profile measured by eROSITA around MW-mass galaxies. Our model contains two emitting components: hot gas (around central galaxies and satellite galaxies hosted by more massive halos) and X-ray point sources (X-ray binaries and Active Galactic Nuclei). We model the hot gas profile using the TNG300-based products. We generate mock observations with our TNG300-based model (matching stellar mass and redshift with observations) with different underlying halo mass distributions. We show that for the same mean stellar mass, a factor 2x increase in the mean value of the underlying halo mass distribution results in a ~4x increase in the stacked X-ray luminosity from the hot CGM. The point sources are described by a simple point-spread-function (PSF) of eROSITA, and we fit their normalization in this work. Using empirical models to derive a permissible range of AGN and XRB luminosities in the MW-mass X-ray galaxy stack, we choose our forward model best describing the hot CGM for the eROSITA observations. We find that at < 40 kpc from the galaxy centre, the hot CGM from central galaxies and the X-ray point sources emission each account for 40-50% of the total X-ray emission budget. In summary, we show that the gas physics driving the shape of the observed hot CGM (in stellar-mass-selected samples) is tightly correlated by the underlying halo-mass distribution (abridged).

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2025

The X-ray luminosity function of stars observed with SRG/eROSITA

Background diffuse X-ray emission is contributed in large part by the emission of point sources not individually resolved. While this is established since decades for the contribution of quasars to the diffuse emission above 1 keV energies, the possible contribution of undetected stars in the Milky Way to the softer band (0.5-1 keV) background emission is still poorly constrained. The overall unresolved X-ray flux from the stars is the product between the stellar spatial distribution in the Milky Way and the underlying X-ray luminosity function (XLF). In this work, we build the XLF of the stars and study its structure with respect to a set of main-sequence spectral types (F, G, K, M) and evolutionary stages (giants and white dwarfs). We build the XLF in volume-limited subsamples of increasing maximum distance and corresponding minimum X-ray luminosity using the HamStar catalog of X-ray emitting stars detected in the Western Galactic hemisphere with the extended ROentgen Survey with an Imaging Telescope Array (eROSITA) on board the Spectrum-Roentgen-Gamma (SRG) space observatory. We build an extinction-corrected Gaia color-magnitude diagram and decompose the XLF into the relative contribution of different groups of stars. We provide an empirical polynomial description of the XLF for the total sample and for the different stellar subgroups that can be used to estimate the unresolved contribution from the stars to the soft X-ray background of the Milky Way in a flux-limited survey.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2025

A magnetised Galactic halo from inner Galaxy outflows

Magnetic halos of galaxies are crucial for understanding galaxy evolution, galactic-scale outflows, and feedback from star formation activity. Identifying the magnetised halo of the Milky Way is challenging because of the potential contamination from foreground emission arising in local spiral arms. Additionally, it is unclear how our magnetic halo is influenced by recently revealed large-scale structures such as the X-ray emitting eROSITA Bubbles. Here we report the identification of several kpc-scale magnetised structures based on their polarized radio emission and their gamma-ray counterparts, which can be interpreted as the radiation of relativistic electrons in the Galactic magnetic halo. These non-thermal structures extend far above and below the Galactic plane and are spatially coincident with the thermal X-ray emission from the eROSITA Bubbles. The morphological consistency of these structures suggests a common origin, which can be sustained by Galactic outflows driven by active star-forming regions located in the Galactic Disc at 3-5 kpc from the Galactic Centre. These results reveal how X-ray-emitting and magnetised halos of spiral galaxies can be related to intense star formation activities and suggest that the X-shaped coherent magnetic structures observed in their halos can stem from galaxy outflows.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2024

The hot circumgalactic medium in the eROSITA All-Sky Survey III. Star-forming and quiescent galaxies

The circumgalactic medium (CGM), as the gas repository for star formation, might contain the answer to the mysterious galaxy quenching and bimodal galaxy population origin. We measured the X-ray emission of the hot CGM around star-forming and quiescent galaxies. We detect extended X-ray emission from the hot CGM around star-forming galaxies with $\log(M_*/M_\odot)>11.0$ and quiescent galaxies with $\log(M_*/M_\odot)>10.5$, extending out to $R_{\rm 500c}$. $L_{\rm X, CGM}$ of star-forming galaxies with median stellar masses $\log(M_{\rm *,med}/M_\odot) = 10.7, 11.1, 11.3$ are approximately $0.8\,, 2.3\,, 4.0 \times 10^{40}\,\rm erg/s$, while for quiescent galaxies with $\log(M_{\rm *,med}/M_\odot) = 10.8, 11.1, 11.4$, they are $1.1\,, 6.2\,, 30 \times 10^{40}\,\rm erg/s$. Notably, quiescent galaxies with $\log(M_{\rm *,med}/M_\odot) > 11.0$ exhibit brighter hot CGM than their star-forming counterparts. In halo mass bins, we detect similar X-ray emission around star-forming and quiescent galaxies with $\log(M_{\rm 200m}/M_\odot) > 12.5$, suggesting that galaxies in the same mass dark matter halos host equally bright hot CGM. We emphasize the observed $L_{\rm X, CGM} - M_{\rm 500c}$ relations of star-forming and quiescent galaxies are sensitive to the stellar-to-halo mass relation (SHMR). A comparison with cosmological hydrodynamical simulations (EAGLE, TNG100, and SIMBA) reveals varying degrees of agreement, contingent on the simulation and the specific stellar or halo mass ranges considered. Either selected in stellar mass or halo mass, the star-forming galaxies do not host brighter stacked X-ray emission from the hot CGM than their quiescent counterparts at the same mass range. The result provides useful constraints on the extent of feedback's impacts as a mechanism for quenching star formation as implemented in current cosmological simulations.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2024

The SRG/eROSITA diffuse soft X-ray background. I. The local hot bubble in the western Galactic hemisphere

The SRG/eROSITA All-Sky Surveys (eRASSs) combine the advantages of complete sky coverage and the energy resolution provided by the charge couple device and offer the most holistic and detailed view of the diffuse soft X-ray background (SXRB) to date. The first eRASS (eRASS1) was completed at solar minimum, when solar wind charge exchange emission was minimal, providing the clearest view of the SXRB. We aim to extract spatial and spectral information from each constituent of the SXRB in the western Galactic hemisphere, focusing on the local hot bubble (LHB). We extracted and analysed eRASS1 spectra from almost all directions in the western Galactic hemisphere by dividing the sky into equal signal-to-noise bins. We fitted all bins with fixed spectral templates of known background constituents. We find the temperature of the LHB exhibits a north-south dichotomy at high latitudes ($|b|>30^{\circ}$), with the south being hotter, with a mean temperature at $kT=121.8\pm0.6\,$eV and the north at $kT=100.8\pm0.5\,$eV. At low latitudes, the LHB temperature increases towards the Galactic plane, especially towards the inner Galaxy. The LHB emission measure (${\rm EM_{LHB}}$) enhances approximately towards the Galactic poles. The ${\rm EM_{LHB}}$ map shows clear anti-correlation with the local dust column density. In particular, we found tunnels of dust cavities filled with hot plasma, potentially forming a wider network of hot interstellar medium. We also constructed a three-dimensional LHB model from ${\rm EM_{LHB}}$, assuming constant density. The average thermal pressure of the LHB is $P_{\rm thermal}/k=10100^{+1200}_{-1500}\,{\rm cm^{-3}\,K}$, a lower value than typical supernova remnants and wind-blown bubbles. This could be an indication of the LHB being open towards high Galactic latitudes.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2024

The hot circumgalactic medium in the eROSITA All-Sky Survey I. X-ray surface brightness profiles

The circumgalactic medium (CGM) provides the material needed for galaxy formation and influences galaxy evolution. The hot ($T>10^6K$) CGM is poorly detected around galaxies with stellar masses ($M_*$) lower than $3\times10^{11}M_\odot$ due to the low surface brightness. We used the X-ray data from the first four SRG/eROSITA All-Sky Surveys (eRASS:4). Based on the SDSS spectroscopic survey and halo-based group finder algorithm, we selected central galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts of $z_{\rm spec}<0.2$ and stellar masses of $10.0<\log(M_*/M_\odot)<11.5$ (85,222 galaxies) -- or halo masses of $11.5<\log(M_{\rm 200m}/M_\odot)<14.0$ (125,512 galaxies). By stacking the X-ray emission around galaxies, masking the detected X-ray point sources and carefully modeling the X-ray emission from the unresolved active galactic nuclei (AGN) and X-ray binaries (XRB), we obtain the X-ray emission from the hot CGM. We detected the X-ray emission around MW-mass and more massive central galaxies extending up to the virial radius ($R_{\rm vir}$). We used a $β$ model to describe the X-ray surface brightness profile and found $β=0.43^{+0.10}_{-0.06}\,(0.37^{+0.04}_{-0.02})$ for MW-mass (M31-mass) galaxies.We estimated the baryon budget of the hot CGM and obtained a value that is lower than the prediction of $Λ$CDM cosmology, indicating significant gas depletion in these halos. We extrapolated the hot CGM profile measured within $R_{\rm vir}$ to larger radii and found that within $\approx 3 R_{\rm vir}$, the baryon budget is close to the $Λ$CDM cosmology prediction. Our results set a firm footing for the presence of the hot CGM around such galaxies. These measurements constitute a new benchmark for galaxy evolution models and possible implementations of feedback processes therein.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2024

The hot circumgalactic medium in the eROSITA All-Sky Survey II. Scaling relations between X-ray luminosity and galaxies' mass

Understanding how the properties of galaxies relate to the properties of the hot circum-galactic medium (CGM) around them can constrain galaxy evolution models. We measured the X-ray luminosity of the hot CGM based on the surface brightness profiles of central galaxy samples measured from Spectrum Roentgen Gamma (SRG)/eROSITA all-sky survey data. We related the X-ray luminosity to the galaxies' stellar and halo mass, and we compared the observed relations to the self-similar model and intrinsic (i.e., not forward-modeled) output of the IllustrisTNG, EAGLE, and SIMBA simulations. The average hot CGM X-ray luminosity ($L_{\rm X,CGM}$) correlates with the galaxy's stellar mass ($M_*$). It increases from $(1.6 \pm 2.1)\times10^{39} \rm erg\,s^{-1}$ to $(3.4 \pm 0.3)\times10^{41} \rm erg\,s^{-1}$, when $\log(M_*)$ increases from 10.0 to 11.5. A power law describes the correlation as $\log(L_{\rm X,CGM})= (2.4\pm 0.1)\times \log(M_*)+(14.6\pm1.5)$. The hot CGM X-ray luminosity as a function of halo mass is measured within $\log(M_{\rm 500c})=11.3-13.7$, extending our knowledge of the scaling relation by more than two orders of magnitude. $L_{\rm X,CGM}$ increases with $M_{\rm 500c}$ from $(3.0 \pm 1.6)\times10^{39}\ \rm erg\,s^{-1}$ at $\log(M_{\rm 500c})=11.3$ to $(1.3 \pm 0.1)\times10^{42}\ \rm erg\,s^{-1}$ at $\log(M_{\rm 500c})=13.7$. The relation follows a power law of $\log(L_{\rm X,CGM})= (1.32\pm 0.05)\times \log(M_{\rm 500c})+(24.1\pm0.7)$. Our observations highlight the necessity of non-gravitational processes at the galaxy group scale while suggesting these processes are sub-dominant at the galaxy scale. We show that the outputs of current cosmological galaxy simulations generally align with the observational results uncovered here but with possibly important deviations in selected mass ranges.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2024

Morphological Evidence for the eROSITA Bubbles Being Giant and Distant Structures

There are two contradictory views of the eROSITA bubbles: either a 10 kpc-scale pair of giant bubbles blown by the Galactic center (GC), or a 100 pc-scale local structure coincidentally located in the direction of GC. A key element of this controversy is the distance to the bubbles. Based on the 3D dust distribution in the Galactic plane, we found three isolated, distant (500-800 pc) clouds at intermediate Galactic latitudes. Their projected morphologies perfectly match the X-ray shadows on the defining features of the north eROSITA bubble, i.e., the North Polar Spur (NPS) and the Lotus Petal Cloud (LPC), indicating that both the NPS and LPC are distant with a distance lower limit of nearly 1kpc. In the X-ray dark region between the NPS and LPC, we found a few polarized radio arcs and attributed them to the bubble's shock front. These arcs match up perfectly with the outer border of the NPS and LPC and provide a way to define the bubble's border. The border defined in this way can be well described by the line-of-sight tangent of a 3D skewed cup model rooted in the GC. We conclude that, instead of being two independent, distant features, NPS and LPC compose a single, giant bubble, which, therefore, is most plausibly a 10-kpc scale bubble rooted at the GC.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2024

eROSITA narrowband maps at the energies of soft X-ray emission lines

[abridged] Hot plasma plays a crucial role in regulating the baryon cycle within the Milky Way, flowing from the energetic sources in the Galactic center and disc, to the corona and the halo. This hot plasma represents an important fraction of the Galactic baryons, plays a key role in galactic outflows and is an important ingredient in galaxy evolution models. Taking advantage of the Spectrum-Roentgen-Gamma (SRG))/eROSITA first all-sky survey (eRASS1), in this work, we aim to provide a panoramic view of the hot circumgalactic medium (CGM) of the Milky Way. Here we present the eROSITA eRASS1 half sky maps in narrow energy bands corresponding to the most prominent soft X-ray lines: OVII and OVIII, which allow us to constrain the distribution of the hot plasma within and surrounding the Milky Way. We corrected the maps by removing the expected contribution associated with the cosmic X-ray background, the time-variable solar wind charge exchange, and the local hot bubble. We applied corrections to mitigate the effect of absorption, therefore highlighting the emission from the CGM of the Milky Way. We use the line ratio of the oxygen lines as a proxy to constrain the temperature of the warm-hot CGM, and we define a pseudo-temperature $\mathcal{T}$ map. The map highlights how different regions are dominated by different thermal components. Towards the outer halo, the temperature distribution of the CGM on angular scales of 2-20 deg is consistent with being constant $Δ\mathcal{T} / \langle \mathcal{T}\rangle \leq 4\%$, with a marginal detection of $Δ\mathcal{T} / \langle \mathcal{T}\rangle = 2.7 \% \pm 0.2\%$ (statistical) $\pm 0.6\%$ (systematic) in the southern hemisphere. Instead, significant variations $\sim 12\%$ are observed on many tens of degrees scales when comparing the northern and southern hemispheres.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2024

Discovery of the Goat Horn complex: a $\sim 1000$ deg$^2$ diffuse X-ray source connected to radio loop XII

A dozen of patches of polarized radio emission spanning tens of degrees in the form of coherent and stationary loops are observed at radio frequencies across the sky. Their origin is usually associated to nearby shocks, possibly arising from close supernovae explosions. The origin of the radio Loop XII remains so far unknown. We report an anti-correlation of the radio polarized emission of loop XII with a large patch of soft X-ray emission found with SRG/eROSITA in excess of the background surface brightness, in the same region. The soft X-ray seemingly coherent patch in excess of the background emission, which we dub as the Goat Horn complex, extends over a remarkable area of $\sim 1000$ deg$^2$ and includes an arc-shaped enhancement potentially tracing a cold front. An anti-correlation of the X-ray intensity with the temperature of the plasma responsible for the X-ray emission is also observed. The X-ray bright arc seems to anticipate the radio loop XII by some degrees on the sky. This behavior can be recast in terms of a correlation between X-ray surface brightness and radio depolarization. We explore and discuss different possible scenarios for the source of the diffuse emission in the Goat Horn complex: a large supernova remnant; an outflow from active star formation regions in nearby Galactic spiral arms; a hot atmosphere around the Large Magellanic Cloud. In order to probe these scenarios further, a more detailed characterization on the velocity of the hot gas is required.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2023

Broadband maps of eROSITA and their comparison with the ROSAT survey

By June of 2020, the extended ROentgen Survey with an Imaging Telescope Array (eROSITA) on board the Spectrum Roentgen Gamma observatory had completed its first of the planned eight X-ray all-sky survey (eRASS1). The large effective area of the X-ray telescope makes it ideal for a survey of the faint X-ray diffuse emission over half of the sky with an unprecedented energy resolution and position accuracy. In this work, we produce the X-ray diffuse emission maps of the eRASS1 data with a current calibration, covering the energy range from 0.2 to 8.0 keV. We validated these maps by comparison with X-ray background maps derived from the ROSAT All Sky Survey (RASS). We generated X-ray images with a pixel area of 9 arcmin$^2$ using the observations available to the German eROSITA consortium. The contribution of the particle background to the photons was subtracted from the final maps. We also subtracted all the point sources above a flux threshold dependent on the goal of the subtraction, exploiting the eRASS1 catalog that will soon be available. The accuracy of the eRASS1 maps is shown by a flux match to the RASS X-ray maps, obtained by converting the eROSITA rates into equivalent ROSAT count rates in the standard ROSAT energy bands R4, R5, R6, and R7, within 1.25$σ$. We find small residual deviations in the R4, R5, and R6 bands, where eROSITA tends to observe lower flux than ROSAT (~11%), while a better agreement is achieved in the R7 band (~1%). The eRASS maps exhibit lower noise levels than RASS maps at the same resolution above 0.3 keV. We report the average surface brightness and total flux of different large sky regions as a reference. The detection of faint emission from diffuse hot gas in the Milky Way is corroborated by the consistency of the eRASS1 and RASS maps shown in this paper and by their comparable flux dynamic range.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2022

disnht: modeling X-ray absorption from distributed column densities

Collecting and analysing X-ray photons over either spatial or temporal scales encompassing varying optical depth values requires knowledge about the optical depth distribution. In the case of sufficiently broad optical depth distribution, assuming a single column density value leads to a misleading interpretation of the source emission properties, nominally its spectral model. We present a model description for the interstellar medium absorption in X-ray spectra at moderate energy resolution, extracted over spatial or temporal regions encompassing a set of independent column densities. The absorption model (named disnht) approximates the distribution with a lognormal one and is presented in table format. The solution table and source code are made available and can be further generalized or tailored for arbitrary optical depth distributions encompassed by the extraction region. The disnht absorption model presented and its generalized solution are expected to be relevant for present and upcoming large angular scale analyses of diffuse X-ray emission, such as the ones from the extended ROentgen Survey with an Imaging Telescope Array (eROSITA) and the future Athena missions.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2021

Magnetogenesis and the Cosmic Web: a joint challenge for radio observations and numerical simulations

The detection of the radio signal from filaments in the cosmic web is crucial to distinguish possible magnetogenesis scenarios. We review the status of the different attempts to detect the cosmic web at radio wavelengths. This is put into the context of the advanced simulations of cosmic magnetism carried out in the last few years by our {\magcow} project. While first attempts of imaging the cosmic web with the MWA and LOFAR have been encouraging and could discard some magnetogenesis models, the complexity behind such observations makes a definitive answer still uncertain. A combination of total intensity and polarimetric data at low radio frequencies that the SKA and LOFAR2.0 will achieve is key to removing the existing uncertainties related to the contribution of many possible sources of signal along deep lines of sight. This will make it possible to isolate the contribution from filaments, and expose its deep physical connection with the origin of extragalactic magnetism.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2021

Discovery of Magnetic Fields Along Stacked Cosmic Filaments as Revealed by Radio and X-Ray Emission

Diffuse filaments connect galaxy clusters to form the cosmic web. Detecting these filaments could yield information on the magnetic field strength, cosmic ray population and temperature of intercluster gas, yet, the faint and large-scale nature of these bridges makes direct detections very challenging. Using multiple independent all-sky radio and X-ray maps we stack pairs of luminous red galaxies as tracers for cluster pairs. For the first time, we detect an average surface brightness between the clusters from synchrotron (radio) and thermal (X-ray) emission with $\gtrsim 5σ$ significance, on physical scales larger than observed to date ($\geq 3\,$Mpc). We obtain a synchrotron spectral index of $α\simeq -1.0$ and estimates of the average magnetic field strength of $ 30 \leq B \leq 60 \,$nG, derived from both equipartition and Inverse Compton arguments, implying a 5 to 15$\,$per cent degree of field regularity when compared with Faraday rotation measure estimates. While the X-ray detection is inline with predictions, the average radio signal comes out higher than predicted by cosmological simulations and dark matter annihilation and decay models. This discovery demonstrates that there are connective structures between mass concentrations that are significantly magnetised, and the presence of sufficient cosmic rays to produce detectable synchrotron radiation.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2021

New constraints on the magnetic field in filaments of the cosmic web

Strong accretion shocks are expected to illuminate the warm-hot inter-galactic medium encompassed by the filaments of the cosmic web, through synchrotron radio emission. Given their high sensitivity, low-frequency large radio facilities may already be able to detect signatures of this extended radio emission from the region in between two close and massive galaxy clusters. In this work we exploit the non-detection of such diffuse emission by deep observations of two pairs of relatively close ($\simeq 10$ Mpc) and massive ($M_{500}\geq 10^{14}M_\odot$) galaxy clusters using the LOw-Frequency ARray (LOFAR). By combining the results from the two putative inter-cluster filaments, we derive new independent constraints on the median strength of inter-galactic magnetic fields: $B_{\rm 10 Mpc}< 2.5\times 10^2\,\rm nG\,(95\%\, \rm CL)$. Based on cosmological simulations and assuming a primordial origin of the B-fields, these estimates can be used to limit the amplitude of primordial seed magnetic fields: $B_0\leq10\,\rm nG$. We advise the observation of similar cluster pairs as a powerful tool to set tight constraints on the amplitude of extragalactic magnetic fields.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2019

The luminosity--volume test for cosmological Fast Radio Bursts

We perform the luminosity--volume test, also known as $\langle V/V_{MAX}\rangle$, to Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs). We compare the 23 FRBs, recently discovered by ASKAP, with 20 of the FRBs found by Parkes. These samples have different flux limits and correspond to different explored volumes. We assume that their dispersion measure indicates their redshift and apply the appropriate cosmological corrections to the spectrum and rate in order to compute the $\langle V/V_{MAX}\rangle$ for the ASKAP and Parkes samples. For a radio spectrum of FRBs $F_ν\propto ν^{-1.6}$, we find $\langle V/V_{MAX}\rangle=0.66\pm 0.05$ for the ASKAP sample, that includes FRBs up to $z=0.7$, and 0.52$\pm 0.04$ for Parkes, that extends up to $z=2.1$. The ASKAP value suggests that the population of FRB progenitors evolves faster than the star formation rate, while the Parkes value is consistent with it. Even a delayed (as a power law or gaussian) star formation rate cannot reproduce the $\langle V/V_{MAX}\rangle$ of both samples. If FRBs do not evolve in luminosity, the $\langle V/V_{MAX}\rangle$ values of ASKAP and Parkes sample are consistent with a population of progenitors whose density strongly evolves with redshift as $\sim z^{2.8}$ up to $z \sim 0.7$. We discuss possible scenarios accounting for our results.

astro-ph.HE↗