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Xiaowei Liu

Publications and source records attributed to Xiaowei Liu.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

Early-phase simultaneous multiband observations of the Type II supernova SN 2024ggi with Mephisto

We present early-phase good-cadence (hour-to-day) simultaneous multiband ($ugi$ and $vrz$ bands) imaging of the nearby supernova SN~2024ggi, which exploded in the nearby galaxy, NGC 3621. A quick follow-up was conducted within less than a day after the explosion and continued $\sim$23 days. The $uvg$ band light curves display a rapid rise ($\sim$1.4 mag day$^{-1}$) to maximum in $\sim$4 days and absolute magnitude $M_{g}\sim$--17.75 mag. The post-peak decay rate in redder bands is $\sim$0.01 mag day$^{-1}$. Different colors (e.g., $u-g$ and $v-r$) of SN~2024ggi are slightly redder than SN 2023ixf. A significant rise ($\sim$12.5 kK) in black-body temperature (optical) was noticed within $\sim$2 days after the explosion, which successively decreased, indicating shock break out inside a dense circumstellar medium (CSM) surrounding the progenitor. Using semianalytical modeling, the ejecta mass and progenitor radius were estimated as 1.2 $M_\odot$ and $\sim$550 $R_\odot$. The archival deep images ($g,r,i and z$ bands) from the Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey were examined, and a possible progenitor was detected in each band ($\sim$22--22.5 mag) and had a mass range of 14--17 $M_\odot$.

astro-ph.HE↗

The size of the Milky Way galaxy

The size of a galaxy is one of the fundamental parameters that reflects its growth and assembly history. Traditionally, the size of the Milky Way has been characterized by the scale length of the disk, based on the assumption of an exponential density profile. Earlier scale length measurements suggest the Milky Way is an overly compact galaxy, compared to similar galaxies of its mass. These size measurements, however, ignore the presence of the bulge, and the assumption of a single-exponential disk profile faces growing challenges from the recent observations. The half-light radius is an alternative size measurement that is independent of the galaxy density profile and has been widely used to quantify the size of external galaxies. Here we report the half-light radius of the Milky Way, derived from a new measurement of the age-resolved Galactic surface brightness profile in an unprecedentedly wide radial range from ${\rm R=0}$ to 17~kpc. We find a broken surface brightness profile with a nearly flat distribution between 3.5 and 7.5 kpc, which results in a half-light radius of 5.75$\pm$0.38 kpc, significantly larger than the scale-length inferred from the canonical single-exponential disk profile but in good consistency with local disk galaxies of similar mass. Because our density profile can be decomposed by stellar age and extrapolated backwards in time, we can also confirm that the size history of the Milky Way is broadly consistent with high-redshift galaxies but with systematically smaller size at each look back time. Our results suggest that the Milky Way is a typical disk galaxy regarding its size and has likely experienced inefficient secular size growth.

astro-ph.GA↗

Multiband Simultaneous Photometry of Type II SN 2023ixf with Mephisto and the Twin 50-cm Telescopes

SN 2023ixf, recently reported in the nearby galaxy M101 at a distance of $6.85~{\rm Mpc}$, was one of the closest and brightest core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe) in the last decade. In this work, we present multi-wavelength photometric observation of SN 2023ixf with the Multi-channel Photometric Survey Telescope (Mephisto) in $uvgr$ bands and with the twin 50-cm telescopes in $griz$ bands. We find that the bolometric luminosity reached the maximum value of $3\times10^{43}~{\rm erg~s^{-1}}$ at 3.9 days after the explosion and fully settled onto the radioactive tail at $\sim90$ days. The effective temperature decreased from $3.2\times10^4~{\rm K}$ at the first observation and approached to a constant of $\sim(3000-4000)~{\rm K}$ after the first two months. The evolution of the photospheric radius is consistent with a homologous expansion with a velocity of $8700~{\rm km~s^{-1}}$ in the first two months, and it shrunk subsequently. Based on the radioactive tail, the initial nickel mass is about $M_{\rm Ni}\sim 0.098M_\odot$. The explosion energy and the ejecta mass are estimated to be $E\simeq(1.0-5.7)\times10^{51}~{\rm erg}$ and $M_{\rm ej}\simeq(3.8-16)M_\odot$, respectively. The peak bolometric luminosity is proposed to be contributed by the interaction between the ejecta and the circumstellar medium (CSM). We find a shocked CSM mass of $M_{\rm CSM}\sim0.013M_\odot$, a CSM density of $ρ_{\rm CSM}\sim2.5\times10^{-13}~{\rm g~cm^{-3}}$ and a mass loss rate of the progenitor of $\dot M\sim0.022M_\odot~{\rm yr^{-1}}$.

astro-ph.HE↗

On the chemical and kinematic signatures of the resonances of the Galactic bar as revealed by the LAMOST-APOGEE red clump stars

The Milky Way is widely considered to exhibit features of a rotational bar or quadrupole bar. In either case, the feature of the resonance of the Galactic bar should be present in the properties of the chemistry and kinematics, over a large area of the disk. With a sample of over 170,000 red clump (RC) stars from LAMOST-APOGEE data, we attempt to detect the chemical and kinematic signatures of the resonances of the Galactic bar, within 4.0 $\leq$ $R$ $\leq$ 15.0 kpc and $|Z|$ $\leq$ 3.0 kpc. The measurement of the $Δ$[Fe/H]/$Δ|Z|$ $-$ $R$ with subtracted the global profiles trends, shows that the thin and thick disks values are Cor_$Δ$[Fe/H]/$Δ|Z|$ = 0.010 $\mathrm{sin}$ (1.598 $R$ + 2.551) and Cor_$Δ$[Fe/H]/$Δ|Z|$ = 0.006 $\mathrm{sin}$ (1.258 $R$ $-$ 0.019), respectively. The analysis of the tilt angle of the velocity ellipsoid indicates that the thin and thick disks are accurately described as $α$ = $α_{0}$ arctan (Z/R), with $α_{0}$ = 0.198 $\mathrm{sin}$ (0.853 $R$ + 1.982) + 0.630 and $α_{0}$ = 0.220 $\mathrm{sin}$ (0.884 $R$ + 2.012) + 0.679 for thin and thick disks, respectively. These periodic oscillations in Cor_$Δ$[Fe/H]/$Δ|Z|$ and $α_{0}$ with $R$ appear in both thin and thick disks, are the most likely chemical and kinematic signatures of the resonance of the Galactic bar. The difference in the phase of the functions of the fitted periodic oscillations for the thin and thick disks may be related to the presence of a second Galactic bar.

astro-ph.GA↗

Nanophotonic inspection of deep-subwavelength integrated optoelectronic chips

Artificial nanostructures with ultrafine and deep-subwavelength feature sizes have emerged as a paradigm-shifting platform to advanced light field management, becoming a key building block for high-performance integrated optoelectronics and flat optics. However, direct optical inspection of such integrated chips with densely packed complex and small features remains a missing metrology gap that hinders quick feedback between design and fabrications. Here, we demonstrate that photothermal nonlinear scattering microscopy can be utilized for direct imaging and resolving of integrated optoelectronic chips beyond the diffraction limit. We reveal that the inherent coupling among deep-subwavelength nanostructures supporting leaky resonances allows for the pronounced heating effect to access reversible nonlinear modulations of the confocal reflection intensity, leading to optical resolving power down to 80 nm (~lambda/7). The versatility of this approach has been exemplified by direct imaging of silicon grating couplers and metalens with a minimum critical dimension of 100 nm, as well as central processing unit (CPU) chip with 45 nm technology, unfolding the long-sought possibility of in-situ, non-destructive, high-throughput optical inspection of integrated optoelectronic chips and nanophotonic chips.

physics.optics↗

Mapping the Chemo-dynamics of the Galactic disk using the LAMOST and APOGEE red clump stars

A detailed measurement is made of the metallicity distributions, kinematics and dynamics of the thin and thick disks, across a large disk volume (5.0 $\leq$ $R$ $\leq$ 15.0 kpc and $|Z|$ $\leq$3.0 kpc), by using the LAMOST-APOGEE red clump stars. The metallicity distributions results show that the radial metallicity gradient $Δ$[Fe/H]/$Δ$R of the thin disk weakens with $|Z|$ from $-$0.06 dex kpc$^{-1}$ at around $|Z|$ $<$ 0.25 kpc to $-$0.02 dex kpc$^{-1}$ at around $|Z|$ $>$ 2.75 kpc, while the thick disk displays a global weak positive $Δ$[Fe/H]/$Δ$R, generally weaker than 0.01 dex kpc$^{-1}$. The vertical metallicity gradient $Δ$[Fe/H]/$Δ|Z|$ weakened steadily from $-$0.36 dex kpc$^{-1}$ at $R$ $\sim$ 5.5 kpc to $-$0.05 dex kpc$^{-1}$ at around R $>$ 11.5 kpc for the thin disk, while the thick disk presents an almost constant value (nearly $-$0.06 $\sim$ $-$0.08 dex kpc$^{-1}$) for all the $R$ bins. These results indicate the contribution of the radial migration to the disk evolution, and the obvious north-south asymmetry in [Fe/H] may be linked to the disk warp and/or the disk perturbation events. The oscillations of the corrected $Δ$[Fe/H]/$Δ|Z|$ with $R$ are likely because of the resonances with the Galactic Bar. Our detailed measurements of $Δ$V$_ϕ$/$Δ$[Fe/H] indicate an "inside-out" and "upside-down" star formation scenario for the thick disk. The results of eccentricity distributions and [$α$/Fe]--velocity dispersion relations are likely to suggest that the thick disk stars require an obvious contribution from other heating mechanisms such as merger and accretion, or born in the chaotic mergers of gas-rich systems and/or turbulent interstellar medium.

astro-ph.GA↗

Mapping the Galactic disk with the LAMOST and Gaia Red clump sample: VIII: Mapping the kinematics of the Galactic disk using mono-age and mono-abundance stellar populations

We present a comprehensive study of the kinematic properties of the different Galactic disk populations, as defined by the chemical abundance ratios and stellar ages, across a large disk volume (4.5 $\leq$ R $\leq$ 15.0 kpc and $|Z|$ $\leq$ 3.0 kpc), by using the LAMOST-Gaia red clump sample stars. We determine the median velocities for various spatial and population bins, finding large-scale bulk motions, such as the wave-like behavior in radial velocity, the north-south discrepancy in azimuthal velocity and the warp signal in vertical velocity, and the amplitudes and spatial-dependences of those bulk motions show significant variations for different mono-age and mono-abundance populations. The global spatial behaviors of the velocity dispersions clearly show a signal of spiral arms and, a signal of the disk perturbation event within 4 Gyr, as well as the disk flaring in the outer region (i.e., $R \ge 12$ kpc) mostly for young or alpha-poor stellar populations. Our detailed measurements of age/[$α$/Fe]-velocity dispersion relations for different disk volumes indicate that young/$α$-poor populations are likely originated from dynamically heated by both giant molecular clouds and spiral arms, while old/$α$-enhanced populations require an obvious contribution from other heating mechanisms such as merger and accretion, or born in the chaotic mergers of gas-rich systems and/or turbulent interstellar medium.

astro-ph.GA↗

3D orientation super-resolution spatial-frequency-shift microscopy

Super-resolution mapping of the 3D orientation of fluorophores reveals the alignment of biological structures where the fluorophores are tightly attached, and thus plays a vital role in studying the organization and dynamics of bio-complexes. However, current super-resolution imaging techniques are either limited to 2D orientation mapping or suffer from slow speed and the requirement of special labels in 3D orientation mapping. Here, we propose a novel polarized virtual spatial-frequency-shift effect to overcome these restrictions to achieve a universal 3D orientation super-resolution mapping capability. To demonstrate the mechanism, we simulate the imaging process and reconstruct the spatial-angular information for sparsely distributed dipoles with random 3D orientations and microfilament-like structures decorated with fluorophores oriented parallel to them. The 3D orientation distribution can be recovered with a doubled spatial resolution and an average angular precision of up to 2.39 degrees. The performance of the approach with noise has also been analyzed considering real implementation.

physics.optics↗

A manometric feature descriptor with linear-SVM to distinguish esophageal contraction vigor

n clinical, if a patient presents with nonmechanical obstructive dysphagia, esophageal chest pain, and gastro esophageal reflux symptoms, the physician will usually assess the esophageal dynamic function. High-resolution manometry (HRM) is a clinically commonly used technique for detection of esophageal dynamic function comprehensively and objectively. However, after the results of HRM are obtained, doctors still need to evaluate by a variety of parameters. This work is burdensome, and the process is complex. We conducted image processing of HRM to predict the esophageal contraction vigor for assisting the evaluation of esophageal dynamic function. Firstly, we used Feature-Extraction and Histogram of Gradients (FE-HOG) to analyses feature of proposal of swallow (PoS) to further extract higher-order features. Then we determine the classification of esophageal contraction vigor normal, weak and failed by using linear-SVM according to these features. Our data set includes 3000 training sets, 500 validation sets and 411 test sets. After verification our accuracy reaches 86.83%, which is higher than other common machine learning methods.

cs.LG↗

The Pre-explosion Environments and The Progenitor of SN 2023ixf from the Hobby Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX)

Supernova (SN) 2023ixf was discovered on May 19th, 2023. The host galaxy, M101, was observed by the Hobby Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX) collaboration over the period April 30, 2020 -- July 10, 2020, using the Visible Integral-field Replicable Unit Spectrograph (VIRUS; $3470\lesssimλ\lesssim5540$ Å) on the 10-m Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET). The fiber filling factor within $\pm$ 30 arcsec of SN 2023ixf is 80% with a spatial resolution of 1 arcsec. The r<5.5 arcsec surroundings are 100% covered. This allows us to analyze the spatially resolved pre-explosion local environments of SN 2023ixf with nebular emission lines. The 2-dimensional (2D) maps of the extinction and the star-formation rate (SFR) surface density ($Σ_{\rm SFR}$) show weak increasing trends in the radial distributions within the r<5.5 arcsec regions, suggesting lower values of extinction and SFR in the vicinity of the progenitor of SN 2023ixf. The median extinction and that of the surface density of SFR within r<3 arcsec are $E(B-V)=0.06\pm0.14$, and $Σ_{\rm SFR}=10^{-5.44\pm0.66}~\rm M_{\odot}\cdot yr^{-1}\cdot arcsec^{-2}$. There is no significant change in extinction before and after the explosion. The gas metallicity does not change significantly with the separation from SN 2023ixf. The metal-rich branch of the $R_{23}$ calculations indicates that the gas metallicity around SN 2023ixf is similar to the solar metallicity ($\sim Z_{\odot}$). The archival deep images from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey (CFHTLS) show a clear detection of the progenitor of SN 2023ixf in the $z$-band at $22.778\pm0.063$ mag, but non-detections in the remaining four bands of CFHTLS ($u,g,r,i$). The results suggest a massive progenitor of $\approx$ 22 $M_\odot$.

astro-ph.GA↗

The tilt of the velocity ellipsoid of different Galactic disk populations

The tilt of the velocity ellipsoid is a helpful tracer of the gravitational potential of the Milky Way. In this paper, we use nearly 140,000 RC stars selected from the LAMOST and Gaia to make a detailed analysis of the tilt of the velocity ellipsoid for various populations, as defined by the stellar ages and chemical information, within 4.5 $\leq$ $R$ $\leq$ 15.0 kpc and $|Z|$ $\leq$ 3.0 kpc. The tilt angles of the velocity ellipsoids of the RC sample stars are accurately described as $α$ = $α_{0}$ $\mathrm{arctan}$ ($Z$/$R$) with $α_{0}$ = (0.68 $\pm$ 0.05). This indicates the alignment of velocity ellipsoids is between cylindrical and spherical, implying that any deviation from the spherical alignment of the velocity ellipsoids may be caused by the gravitational potential of the baryonic disk. The results of various populations suggest that the $α_{0}$ displays an age and population dependence, with the thin and thick disks respectively values $α_{0}$ = (0.72 $\pm$ 0.08) and $α_{0}$ = (0.64 $\pm$ 0.07), and the $α_{0}$ displays a decreasing trend with age (and [$α$/Fe]) increases, meaning that the velocity ellipsoids of the kinematically relaxed stars are mainly dominated by the gravitational potential of the baryonic disk. We determine the $α_{0} - R$ for various populations, finding that the $α_{0}$ displays oscillations with $R$ for all the different populations. The oscillations in $α_{0}$ appear in both kinematically hot and cold populations, indicating that resonances with the Galactic bar are the most likely origin for these oscillations.

astro-ph.GA↗

A 12.4 day periodicity in a close binary system after a supernova

Neutron stars and stellar-mass black holes are the remnants of massive star explosions. Most massive stars reside in close binary systems, and the interplay between the companion star and the newly formed compact object has been theoretically explored, but signatures for binarity or evidence for the formation of a compact object during a supernova explosion are still lacking. Here we report a stripped-envelope supernova, SN 2022jli, which shows 12.4-day periodic undulations during the declining light curve. Narrow H$α$ emission is detected in late-time spectra with concordant periodic velocity shifts, likely arising from hydrogen gas stripped from a companion and accreted onto the compact remnant. A new Fermi/LAT $γ$-ray source is temporally and positionally consistent with SN 2022jli. The observed properties of SN 2022jli, including periodic undulations in the optical light curve, coherent H$α$ emission shifting, and evidence for association with a $γ$-ray source, point to the explosion of a massive star in a binary system leaving behind a bound compact remnant. Mass accretion from the companion star onto the compact object powers the light curve of the supernova and generates the $γ$-ray emission.

astro-ph.HE↗

Spatial metallicity variations of mono-temperature stellar populations revealed by early-type stars in LAMOST

We investigate the radial metallicity gradients and azimuthal metallicity distributions on the Galactocentric $X$--$Y$ plane using mono-temperature stellar populations selected from LAMOST MRS young stellar sample. The estimated radial metallicity gradient ranges from $-$0.015\,dex/kpc to $-$0.07\,dex/kpc, which decreases as effective temperature decreases (or stellar age increases) at $7500 < T_{\rm eff} < 12500$\,K ($τ< $1.5 Gyr). The azimuthal metallicity excess (metallicity after subtracting radial metallicity gradient, $Δ$\,[M/H]) distributions exhibit inhomogeneities with dispersions of 0.04\,dex to 0.07\,dex, which decrease as effective temperature decreases. We also identify five potential metal-poor substructures with large metallicity excess dispersions. The metallicity excess distributions of these five metal-poor substructures suggest that they contain a larger fraction of metal-poor stars compared to other control samples. These metal-poor substructures may be associated with high-velocity clouds that infall into the Galactic disk from the Galactic halo, which are not quickly well-mixed with the pre-existing ISM of the Galactic disk. As a result, these high-velocity clouds produce some metal-poor stars and the observed metal-poor substructures. The variations of metallicity inhomogeneities with different stellar populations indicate that high-velocity clouds are not well mixed with the pre-existing Galactic disk ISM within 0.3\,Gyr.

astro-ph.GA↗

Hydrogels enable negative pressure in water for efficient heat utilization and transfer

Metastable water in negative pressure can provide giant passive driving pressure up to several megapascals for efficient evaporation-driven flow, however, the practical applications with negative pressure are rare due to the challenges of generating and maintaining large negative pressure. In this work, we report a novel structure with thin hydrogel films as evaporation surfaces and robust porous substrates as the supports, and obtain a high negative pressure of -1.61 MPa through water evaporation. Molecular dynamics simulations elucidate the essential role of strong interaction between water molecules and polymer chains in generating the negative pressure. With such a large negative pressure, we demonstrate a streaming potential generator that spontaneously converts environmental energy into electricity and outputs a voltage of 1.06 V. Moreover, we propose a "negative pressure heat pipe" for the first time, which achieves a high heat transfer density of 11.2 kW cm-2 with a flow length of 1 m, showing the potential of negative pressure in efficient heat utilization and transfer.

physics.chem-ph↗

Cascadable in-memory computing based on symmetric writing and read out

The building block of in-memory computing with spintronic devices is mainly based on the magnetic tunnel junction with perpendicular interfacial anisotropy (p-MTJ). The resulting asymmetric write and read-out operations impose challenges in downscaling and direct cascadability of p-MTJ devices. Here, we propose that a new symmetric write and read-out mechanism can be realized in perpendicular-anisotropy spin-orbit (PASO) quantum materials based on Fe3GeTe2 and WTe2. We demonstrate that field-free and deterministic reversal of the perpendicular magnetization can be achieved by employing unconventional charge to z-spin conversion. The resulting magnetic state can be readily probed with its intrinsic inverse process, i.e., z-spin to charge conversion. Using the PASO quantum material as a fundamental building block, we implement the functionally complete set of logic-in-memory operations and a more complex nonvolatile half-adder logic function. Our work highlights the potential of PASO quantum materials for the development of scalable energy-efficient and ultrafast spintronic computing.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Fast GPU-Based Two-Way Continuous Collision Handling

Step-and-project is a popular way to simulate non-penetrated deformable bodies in physically-based animation. First integrating the system in time regardless of contacts and post resolving potential intersections practically strike a good balance between plausibility and efficiency. However, existing methods could be defective and unsafe when the time step is large, taking risks of failures or demands of repetitive collision testing and resolving that severely degrade performance. In this paper, we propose a novel two-way method for fast and reliable continuous collision handling. Our method launches the optimization at both ends of the intermediate time-integrated state and the previous intersection-free state, progressively generating a piecewise-linear path and finally reaching a feasible solution for the next time step. Technically, our method interleaves between a forward step and a backward step at a low cost, until the result is conditionally converged. Due to a set of unified volume-based contact constraints, our method can flexibly and reliably handle a variety of codimensional deformable bodies, including volumetric bodies, cloth, hair and sand. The experiments show that our method is safe, robust, physically faithful and numerically efficient, especially suitable for large deformations or large time steps.

cs.GR↗

Overview of the LAMOST survey in the first decade

The Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST), also known as the Guoshoujing Telescope, is a major national scientific facility for astronomical research located in Xinglong, China. Beginning with a pilot survey in 2011, LAMOST has been surveying the night sky for more than 10 years. The LAMOST survey covers various objects in the Universe, from normal stars to peculiar ones, from the Milky Way to other galaxies, and from stellar black holes and their companions to quasars that ignite ancient galaxies. Until the latest data release 8, the LAMOST survey has released spectra for more than 10 million stars, ~220,000 galaxies, and ~71,000 quasars. With this largest celestial spectra database ever constructed, LAMOST has helped astronomers to deepen their understanding of the Universe, especially for our Milky Way galaxy and the millions of stars within it. In this article, we briefly review the characteristics, observations, and scientific achievements of LAMOST. In particular, we show how astrophysical knowledge about the Milky Way has been improved by LAMOST data.

astro-ph.GA↗

A large catalogue of molecular clouds in the southern sky

We present a large catalogue of molecular clouds with accurate distance estimates in the southern sky. Based on the three-dimensional (3D) dust extinction map and the best-fit extinction and distance information of over 17 million stars presented in Guo et al., we have identified 250 dust/molecular clouds in the southern sky using a hierarchical structure identification algorithm. Amongst them, 71 clouds locating at high Galactic latitudes ($b < -10^\circ$). We have estimated the distances to the clouds by fitting the extinction versus distance profiles of the lines of sight overlapping with the clouds using a simple Gaussian dust distribution model. The typical uncertainties of the distances are less than 7 per$\,$cent. We also provide the physical properties of the individual clouds, including the linear radius, mass and surface mass density.

astro-ph.GA↗