arXiv subjects

Priyanka Chakraborty

Publications and source records attributed to Priyanka Chakraborty.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2025

XRISM insights for interstellar Sulfur

The X-ray Imaging Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) provides the best spectral resolution with which to study Sulfur (S) K-shell photoabsorption features from the interstellar medium (ISM). For the first time, we demonstrate the high-signal detection of interstellar atomic SII K-beta absorption in the spectrum of X-ray binaries (XRBs) 4U 1630-472 and GX 340+0. The persistence of this feature across multiple instruments, targets, and flux states implies that it is interstellar in nature. We measure the SII Kbeta line centroid at 2470.8 +/- 1.1 eV after including systematic uncertainties. We also find that the most recently published high resolution SII absorption template requires a systematic energy scale shift of +7-8 eV, which is comparable to the level of disagreement among various atomic modeling procedures. The XRISM 300 ks observation of GX 340+0 provides unprecedented signal-to-noise in the S K region, and we find evidence of residual absorption from solid S in the spectra of GX 340+0. Absorption templates from three Fe-S compounds, troilite (FeS), pyrrhotite (Fe_7S_8) and pyrite (FeS_2), provide equally good fits to the residuals. Even though we are not able to distinguish among these three compounds, they provide equal estimates for the abundance of S locked in dust grains. Having accounted for both the gaseous and solid S in the GX 340+0 sightline provides us with a direct measurement of S depletion, which is 40% +/- 15%. Our depletion measurement provides an upper limit to the fraction of interstellar Fe bound in Fe-S compounds of < 25%, which is consistent with prior studies of Fe-S compounds via Fe L-shell absorption. Both XRBs in this study are at a distance of approximately 11 kpc and on the opposite side of the Galactic disk, suggesting that this value could represent the average S depletion of the Milky Way when integrated across all phases of the ISM.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2025

The eROSITA Final Equatorial Depth Survey (eFEDS): SDSS spectroscopic observations of X-ray sources

We present one of the largest uniform optical spectroscopic surveys of X-ray selected sources to date that were observed as a pilot study for the Black Hole Mapper (BHM) survey. The BHM program of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)-V is designed to provide optical spectra for hundreds of thousands of X-ray selected sources from the SRG/eROSITA all-sky survey. This significantly improves our ability to classify and characterise the physical properties of large statistical populations of X-ray emitting objects. Our sample consists of 13079 sources in the eROSITA eFEDS performance verification field, 12011 of which provide reliable redshifts from 0 6.5x10^-15 erg/s/cm^2) and were observed for about 20 years with fibre-fed SDSS spectrographs. After including all available redshift information for the eFEDS sources from the dedicated SDSS-V plate programme and archival data, we visually inspected the SDSS optical spectra to verify the reliability of these redshift measurements and the performance of the SDSS pipeline. The visual inspection allowed us to recover reliable redshifts (for 99% of the spectra with a signal-to-noise ratio of >2) and to assign classes to the sources, and we confirm that the vast majority of our sample consists of active galactic nuclei (AGNs). Only ~3% of the eFEDS/SDSS sources are Galactic objects. We also show the diversity of the optical spectra of the X-ray selected AGNs and provide spectral stacks with a high signal-to-noise ratio in various sub-samples with different redshift and optical broad-band colours. Our AGN sample contains optical spectra of (broad-line) quasars, narrow-line galaxies, and optically passive galaxies. It is considerably diverse in its colours and in its levels of nuclear obscuration.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2025

Constraints on Non-Thermal Pressure at galaxy cluster outskirts from a Joint SPT and XMM-Newton Analysis

We present joint South Pole Telescope (SPT) and XMM-Newton observations of 8 massive galaxy clusters (0.8--1.7$\times$10$^{15}$ M$_{\odot}$) spanning a redshift range of 0.16 to 0.35. Employing a novel SZ+X-ray fitting technique, we effectively constrain the thermodynamic properties of these clusters out to the virial radius. The resulting best-fit electron density, deprojected temperature, and deprojected pressure profiles are in good agreement with previous observations of massive clusters. For the majority of the cluster sample (5 out of 8 clusters), the entropy profiles exhibit a self-similar behavior near the virial radius. We further derive hydrostatic mass, gas mass, and gas fraction profiles for all clusters up to the virial radius. Comparing the enclosed gas fraction profiles with the universal gas fraction profile, we obtain non-thermal pressure fraction profiles for our cluster sample at $>$$R_{500}$, demonstrating a steeper increase between $R_{500}$ and $R_{200}$ that is consistent with the hydrodynamical simulations. Our analysis yields non-thermal pressure fraction ranges of 8--28% (median: 15 $\pm$ 11%) at $R_{500}$ and 21--35% (median: 27 $\pm$ 12%) at $R_{200}$. Notably, weak-lensing mass measurements are available for only four clusters in our sample, and our recovered total cluster masses, after accounting for non-thermal pressure, are consistent with these measurements.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2025

Outflowing photoionized plasma in Circinus X-1 using the high-resolution X-ray spectrometer Resolve onboard XRISM and the radiative transfer code cloudy

High-resolution X-ray spectroscopy is a key to understanding the mass inflow and outflow of compact objects. Spectral lines carry information about the ionization, density, and velocity structures through their intensity ratios and profiles. They are formed in non-local thermodynamic equilibrium conditions under the intense radiation field from the compact objects, thus radiative transfer (RT) calculation is a requisite for proper interpretations. We present such a study for a low-mass X-ray binary, Circinus X-1, from which the P Cygni profile was discovered using the X-ray grating spectrometer onboard Chandra. We observed the source using the X-ray microcalorimeter onboard XRISM at an orbital phase of 0.93-0.97 and revealed many spectral features unidentified before; the higher series transitions (n to 1; n > 2) of highly-ionized (H- and He-like) S, Ca, Ar, and Fe in emission and absorption, the Fe Kα and K\b{eta} inner-shell excitation absorption of mildly-ionized (O- to Li-like) Fe, and resolved fine-structure level transitions in the Fe Lyα and Heα complexes. They blend with each other at different velocity shifts on top of apparently variable continuum emission that changed its flux by an order of magnitude within a 70 ks telescope time. Despite such complexity in the observed spectra, most of them can be explained by a simple model consisting of the photoionized plasma outflowing at ~300 km s-1 and the variable blocking material in the line of sight of the incident continuum emission from the accretion disk. We demonstrate this with the aid of the RT code cloudy for the line ratio diagnostics and spectral fitting. We further constrain the physical parameters of the outflow and argue that the outflow is launched close to the outer edge of the accretion disk and can be driven radiatively by being assisted by the line force calculated using the RT simulation.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2024

Detection of the Temperature Dependence of the White Dwarf Mass-Radius Relation with Gravitational Redshifts

Models predict that the well-studied mass-radius relation of white dwarf stars depends on the temperature of the star, with hotter white dwarfs having larger masses at a given radius than cooler stars. In this paper, we use a catalog of 26,041 DA white dwarfs observed in Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Releases 1-19. We measure the radial velocity, effective temperature, surface gravity, and radius for each object. By binning this catalog in radius or surface gravity, we average out the random motion component of the radial velocities for nearby white dwarfs to isolate the gravitational redshifts for these objects and use them to directly measure the mass-radius relation. For gravitational redshifts measured from binning in either radius or surface gravity, we find strong evidence for a temperature-dependent mass-radius relation, with warmer white dwarfs consistently having greater gravitational redshifts than cool objects at a fixed radius or surface gravity. For warm white dwarfs, we find that their mean radius is larger and mean surface gravity is smaller than those of cool white dwarfs at 5.2σ and 6.0σ significance, respectively. Selecting white dwarfs with similar radii or surface gravities, the significance of the difference in mean gravitational redshifts between the warm and cool samples is >6.1σ and >3.6σ for measurements binned in radius and surface gravity, respectively, in the direction predicted by theory. This is an improvement over previous implicit detections, and our technique can be expanded to precisely test the white dwarf mass-radius relation with future surveys.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2024

Unveiling the Cosmic Chemistry: Revisiting the Mass-Metallicity Relation with JWST/NIRSpec at 4 < z < 10

We present star formation rates (SFR), the mass-metallicity relation (MZR), and the SFR-dependent MZR across redshifts 4 to 10 using 81 star-forming galaxies observed by the JWST NIRSpec employing both low-resolution PRISM and medium-resolution gratings, including galaxies from the JADES GOODS-N and GOODS-S fields, the JWST-PRIMAL Legacy Survey, and additional galaxies from the literature in Abell 2744, SMACS-0723, RXJ2129, BDF, COSMOS, and MACS1149 fields. These galaxies span a 3 dex stellar mass range of $10^7 < M_{\ast}/M_{\odot} < 10^{10}$, with an average SFR of $7.2 \pm 1.2 M_{\odot} {\rm yr}^{-1}$ and an average metallicity of $12+{\rm log(O/H)} = 7.91 \pm 0.08$. Our findings align with previous observations up to $z=8$ for the MZR and indicate no deviation from local universe FMR up to this redshift. Beyond $z=8$, we observe a significant deviation $\sim 0.27$ dex) in FMR, consistent with recent JWST findings. We also integrate CEERS (135 galaxies) and JADES (47 galaxies) samples with our data to study metallicity evolution with redshift in a combined sample of 263 galaxies, revealing a decreasing metallicity trend with a slope of $0.067 \pm 0.013$, consistent with IllustrisTNG and EAGLE, but contradicts with FIRE simulations. We introduce an empirical mass-metallicity-redshift (MZ-$z$ relation): $12+{\rm log(O/H)}=6.29 + 0.237 \times{\rm log}(M_{\ast}/M_{\odot}) - 0.06 \times (1+z)$, which accurately reproduces the observed trends in metallicity with both redshift and stellar mass. This trend underscores the ``Grand Challenge'' in understanding the factors driving high-redshift galactic metallicity trends, such as inflow, outflow, and AGN/stellar feedback -- and emphasizes the need for further investigations with larger samples and enhanced simulations.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2024

The SDSS-V Black Hole Mapper Reverberation Mapping Project: A Kinematically Variable Broad-Line Region and Consequences for Masses of Luminous Quasars

We present a velocity-resolved reverberation mapping analysis of the hypervariable quasar RM160 (SDSS J141041.25+531849.0) at z = 0.359 with 153 spectroscopic epochs of data representing a ten-year baseline (2013-2023). We split the baseline into two regimes based on the 3x flux increase in the light curve: a 'low state' phase during the years 2013-2019 and a 'high state' phase during the years 2022-2023. The velocity-resolved lag profiles (VRLP) indicate that gas with different kinematics dominates the line emission in different states. The H\b{eta} VRLP begins with a signature of inflow onto the BLR in the 'low state', while in the 'high state' it is flatter with less signature of inflow. The Hα VRLP begins consistent with a virialized BLR in the 'low state', while in the 'high state' shows a signature of inflow. The differences in the kinematics between the Balmer lines and between the 'low state' and the 'high state' suggests complex BLR dynamics. We find that the BLR radius and velocity (both FWHM and σ) do not obey a constant virial product throughout the monitoring period. We find that BLR lags and continuum luminosity are correlated, consistent with rapid response of the BLR gas to the illuminating continuum. The BLR kinematic profile changes in unpredictable ways that are not related to continuum changes and reverberation lag. Our observations indicate that non-virial kinematics can significantly contribute to observed line profiles, suggesting caution for black-hole mass estimation in luminous and highly varying quasars like RM160.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2024

The SDSS-V Black Hole Mapper Reverberation Mapping Project: Multi-Line Dynamical Modeling of a Highly Variable Active Galactic Nucleus with Decade-long Light Curves

We present dynamical modeling of the broad-line region (BLR) for the highly variable AGN SDSS J141041.25+531849.0 ($z = 0.359$) using photometric and spectroscopic monitoring data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping project and the SDSS-V Black Hole Mapper program, spanning from early 2013 to early 2023. We model the geometry and kinematics of the BLR in the H$β$, H$α$, and MgII, emission lines for three different time periods to measure the potential change of structure within the BLR across time and line species. We consistently find a moderately edge-on $(i_{\rm full-state} = 53.29^{\circ} \,{}^{+7.29}_{-6.55})$ thick-disk $(θ_{\rm opn, \; full-state} = 54.86^{\circ} \,{}^{+5.83}_{-4.74})$ geometry for all BLRs, with a joint estimate for the mass of the supermassive black hole (SMBH) for each of three time periods, yielding $\log_{10}(M_{\rm BH} / M_{\odot}) = 7.66^{+0.12}_{-0.13}$ when using the full dataset. The inferred individual virial factor $f$ $\sim 1$ is significantly smaller than the average factor for a local sample of dynamically modeled AGNs. There is strong evidence for non-virial motion, with over $80\%$ of clouds on inflowing/outflowing orbits. We analyze the change in model parameters across emission lines, finding the radii of BLRs for the emission lines are consistent with the following relative sizes $R_{\rm Hβ} \lesssim R_{\rm MgII } \lesssim R_{\rm Hα}$. Comparing results across time, we find $R_{\rm low-state} \lesssim R_{\rm high-state}$, with the change in BLR size for H$β$, being more significant than for the other two lines. The data also reveal complex, time-evolving, and potentially transient dynamics of the BLR gas over decade-long timescales, encouraging for future dynamical modeling of fine-scale BLR kinematics.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2024

Active Galaxy Science with the Line Emission Mapper: The Case for High-Resolution Soft X-ray Spectroscopy

This white paper discusses the breadth of science related to active galactic nuclei (AGN) and associated phenomena to be enabled by a mission with microcalorimeter energy resolution in the soft X-ray band, a large collecting area, and wide-field imaging. Such a mission, the Line Emission Mapper (LEM), has been proposed to NASA's 2023 Astrophysics Probe Explorer call. While the science pillars of the PI-led part of the mission focus on galaxy evolution, the PI-led LEM All-Sky Survey (LASS) and General Observer/Investigator opportunities will enable vital discoveries for AGN science in the critical soft X-ray band.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2024

Mapping the imprints of stellar and AGN feedback in the circumgalactic medium with X-ray microcalorimeters

The Astro2020 Decadal Survey has identified the mapping of the circumgalactic medium (CGM, gaseous plasma around galaxies) as a key objective. We explore the prospects for characterizing the CGM in and around nearby galaxy halos with a future, large grasp X-ray microcalorimeter. We create realistic mock observations from hydrodynamical simulations (EAGLE, IllustrisTNG, and Simba) that demonstrate a wide range of potential measurements, which will address the open questions in galaxy formation and evolution. By including all background and foreground components in our mock observations, we show why it is impossible to perform these measurements with current instruments, such as X-ray CCDs, and only microcalorimeters will allow us to distinguish the faint CGM emission from the bright Milky Way (MW) foreground emission lines. We find that individual halos of MW mass can, on average and depending on star formation rate, be traced out to large radii, around R500, and for larger galaxies even out to R200, using prominent emission lines, such as OVII, or OVIII. Furthermore, we show that emission line ratios for individual halos can reveal the radial temperature structure. Substructure measurements show that it will be possible to relate azimuthal variations to the feedback mode of the galaxy. We demonstrate the ability to construct temperature, velocity, and abundance ratio maps from spectral fitting for individual galaxy halos, which reveal rotation features, AGN outbursts, and enrichment.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2024

Probing extreme black-hole outflows on short timescales via high spectral-resolution X-ray imagers

We investigate outflows and the physics of super-Eddington versus sub-Eddington regimes in black hole systems. Our focus is on prospective science using next-generation high-resolution soft X-ray instruments. We highlight the properties of black hole ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) systems in particular. Owing to scale invariance in accreting black holes, ULX accretion properties including their outflows, inform our understanding not only of the closely-related population of (similar-mass) X-ray binary systems, but also of tidal disruption events (TDEs) around supermassive black holes. A subsample of TDEs are likely to transcend super-Eddington to sub-Eddington regimes as they evolve, offering an important unifying analog to ULXs and sub-Eddington X-ray binaries. We demonstrate how next-generation soft X-ray observations with resolving power > 1000 and collecting area > 1000 cm^2 can simultaneously identify ultrafast and more typical wind components, distinguish between different wind mechanisms, and constrain changing wind properties over characteristic variability timescales.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2024

On the Particle Acceleration Mechanisms in a Double Radio Relic Galaxy Cluster, Abell 1240

We present a 368 ks deep Chandra observation of Abell~1240, a binary merging galaxy cluster at a redshift of 0.195 with two Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs) may have passed each other 0.3 Gyr ago. Building upon previous investigations involving GMRT, VLA, and LOFAR data, our study focuses on two prominent extended radio relics at the north-west (NW) and south-east (SE) of the cluster core. By leveraging the high-resolution Chandra imaging, we have identified two distinct surface brightness edges at $\sim$ 1 Mpc and 1.2 Mpc NW and SE of the cluster center, respectively, coinciding with the outer edges of both relics. Our temperature measurements hint the edges to be shock front edges. The Mach numbers, derived from the gas density jumps, yield $\cal{M}_{\rm SE}$ = 1.49$^{+0.22}_{-0.24}$ for the South Eastern shock and $\cal{M}_{\rm NW}$ = 1.41$^{+0.17}_{-0.19}$ for the North Western shock. Our estimated Mach numbers are remarkably smaller compared to those derived from radio observations ($\cal{M}_{\rm SE}$ = 2.3 and $\cal{M}_{\rm NW}$ = 2.4), highlighting the prevalence of a re-acceleration scenario over direct acceleration of electrons from the thermal pool. Furthermore, we compare the observed temperature profiles across both shocks with that of predictions from collisional vs. collisionless models. Both shocks favor the Coulomb collisional model, but we could not rule out a purely collisionless model due to pre-shock temperature uncertainties.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2023

Investigating the impact of atomic data uncertainties on measured physical parameters of the Perseus galaxy cluster

Accurate atomic data and plasma models are essential for interpreting the upcoming high-quality spectra from missions like XRISM and Athena. Estimating physical quantities, like temperature, abundance, turbulence, and resonance scattering factor, is highly dependent on the underlying atomic data. We use the AtomDB tool variableapec to estimate the impact of atomic data uncertainties in Einstein A coefficients, collisional rate coefficient, ionization and recombination rates in H-, He- and Li-like iron in modeling the spectrum of Perseus observed by Hitomi. The best-fit temperature, abundance, resonance scattering factor, and turbulence including atomic data uncertainties, varied approximately 17%, 35%, 30%, and 3%, respectively, from the best-fit temperature, abundance, resonance scattering factor, and turbulence estimated without atomic data uncertainties. This indicates that, approximately 32%, 35%, and 25% of the best-fit temperatures, abundances, and resonance scattering factors, including uncertainties lie outside the 3$σ$ error regions of their corresponding best-fit values computed with zero atomic data error. Expanding the energy range to 1.8-20.0 keV shows less variability, with 26% of the abundances and 22% of the resonance scattering factors lying outside the 3$σ$ error of the best-fit values. We also studied correlations between physical parameters and atomic rate uncertainties to identify key atomic quantities requiring precise lab measurements. We report negative correlations between best-fit temperature and z (1s.2s $^{3}\rm S_{1}\rightarrow 1s^{2}$) collisional rate coefficient, abundance and y (1s.2p $^{3}\rm P_{1}\rightarrow 1s^{2}$) collisional rate coefficient, abundance and z collisional rate coefficient, and positive correlation between resonance scattering factor and w (1s.2p $^{1}\rm P_{1}\rightarrow 1s^{2}$) collisional rate coefficient.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2023

Exploring chemical enrichment of the intracluster medium with the Line Emission Mapper

Synthesized in the cores of stars and supernovae, most metals disperse over cosmic scales and are ultimately deposited well outside the gravitational potential of their host galaxies. Since their presence is well visible through their X-ray emission lines in the hot gas pervading galaxy clusters, measuring metal abundances in the intracluster medium (ICM) offers us a unique view of chemical enrichment of the Universe as a whole. Despite extraordinary progress in the field thanks to four decades of X-ray spectroscopy using CCD (and gratings) instruments, understanding the precise stellar origins of the bulk of metals, and when the latter were mixed on Mpc scales, requires an X-ray mission capable of spatial, non-dispersive high resolution spectroscopy covering at least the soft X-ray band over a large field of view. In this White Paper, we demonstrate how the Line Emission Mapper (LEM) probe mission concept will revolutionize our current picture of the ICM enrichment. Specifically, we show that LEM will be able to (i) spatially map the distribution of ten key chemical elements out to the virial radius of a nearby relaxed cluster and (ii) measure metal abundances in serendipitously discovered high-redshift protoclusters. Altogether, these key observables will allow us to constrain the chemical history of the largest gravitationally bound structures of the Universe. They will also solve key questions such as the universality of the initial mass function (IMF) and the initial metallicity of the stellar populations producing these metals, as well as the relative contribution of asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars, core-collapse, and Type Ia supernovae to enrich the cosmic web over Mpc scales. Concrete observing strategies are also briefly discussed.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2023

New resonance scattering model in AtomDB: application to line suppression in galaxy clusters and elliptical galaxies

In this paper, we present a simple, one-step, self-consistent, and fast resonance scattering model rsapec based on the AtomDB database. This model can be used as an alternative to the commonly used APEC model for fitting such X-ray spectra with optically thick lines. The current model is intended, in general, for verifying the presence of the effect and for spectral modeling of galaxy clusters and elliptical galaxies under applicable assumptions. We test rsapec to derive the line suppression in the elliptical galaxy NGC 4636 and the Perseus cluster of galaxies and obtain resonance suppression of ~ 1.24 and ~ 1.30, respectively.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2023

Mapping the Intracluster Medium in the Era of High-resolution X-ray Spectroscopy

High-resolution spectroscopy in soft X-rays will open a new window to map multiphase gas in galaxy clusters and probe physics of the intracluster medium (ICM), including chemical enrichment histories, circulation of matter and energy during large-scale structure evolution, stellar and black hole feedback, halo virialization, and gas mixing processes. An eV-level spectral resolution, large field-of-view, and effective area are essential to separate cluster emissions from the Galactic foreground and efficiently map the cluster outskirts. Several mission concepts that meet these criteria have been proposed recently, e.g., LEM, HUBS, and SuperDIOS. This theoretical study explores what information on ICM physics could be recovered with such missions and the associated challenges. We emphasize the need for a comprehensive comparison between simulations and observations to interpret the high-resolution spectroscopic observations correctly. Using Line Emission Mapper (LEM) characteristics as an example, we demonstrate that it enables the use of soft X-ray emission lines (e.g., O VII/VIII and Fe-L complex) from the cluster outskirts to measure the thermodynamic, chemical, and kinematic properties of the gas up to $r_{200}$ and beyond. By generating mock observations with full backgrounds, analysing their images/spectra with observational approaches, and comparing the recovered characteristics with true ones from simulations, we develop six key science drivers for future missions, including the exploration of multiphase gas in galaxy clusters (e.g., temperature fluctuations, phase-space distributions), metallicity, ICM gas bulk motions and turbulence power spectra, ICM-cosmic filament interactions, and advances for cluster cosmology.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2023

X-ray metal line emission from the hot circumgalactic medium: probing the effects of supermassive black hole feedback

We derive predictions from state-of-the-art cosmological galaxy simulations for the spatial distribution of the hot circumgalactic medium (CGM, ${\rm [0.1-1]R_{200c}}$) through its emission lines in the X-ray soft band ($[0.3-1.3]$ keV). In particular, we compare IllustrisTNG, EAGLE, and SIMBA and focus on galaxies with stellar mass $10^{10-11.6}\, \MSUN$ at $z=0$. The three simulation models return significantly different surface brightness radial profiles of prominent emission lines from ionized metals such as OVII(f), OVIII, and FeXVII as a function of galaxy mass. Likewise, the three simulations predict varying azimuthal distributions of line emission with respect to the galactic stellar planes, with IllustrisTNG predicting the strongest angular modulation of CGM physical properties at radial range ${\gtrsim0.3-0.5\,R_{200c}}$. This anisotropic signal is more prominent for higher-energy lines, where it can manifest as X-ray eROSITA-like bubbles. Despite different models of stellar and supermassive black hole (SMBH) feedback, the three simulations consistently predict a dichotomy between star-forming and quiescent galaxies at the Milky-Way and Andromeda mass range, where the former are X-ray brighter than the latter. This is a signature of SMBH-driven outflows, which are responsible for quenching star formation. Finally, we explore the prospect of testing these predictions with a microcalorimeter-based X-ray mission concept with a large field-of-view. Such a mission would probe the extended hot CGM via soft X-ray line emission, determine the physical properties of the CGM, including temperature, from the measurement of line ratios, and provide critical constraints on the efficiency and impact of SMBH feedback on the CGM.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2023

The 2023 release of Cloudy

We describe the 2023 release of the spectral synthesis code Cloudy. Since the previous major release, migrations of our online services motivated us to adopt git as our version control system. This change alone led us to adopt an annual release scheme, accompanied by a short release paper, the present being the inaugural. Significant changes to our atomic and molecular data have improved the accuracy of Cloudy predictions: we have upgraded our instance of the Chianti database from version 7 to 10; our H- and He-like collisional rates to improved theoretical values; our molecular data to the most recent LAMDA database, and several chemical reaction rates to their most recent UDfA and KiDA values. Finally, we describe our progress on upgrading Cloudy's capabilities to meet the requirements of the X-ray microcalorimeters aboard the upcoming XRISM and Athena missions, and outline future development that will make Cloudy of use to the X-ray community.

astro-ph.GA↗