[en] An analytical solution to the three-dimensional telegraph equation is presented. This equation has recently received some attention but so far the treatment has been one-dimensional. By using the structural similarity to the Klein-Gordon equation, the telegraph equation can be solved in closed form. Illustrative examples are used to discuss the qualitative differences from the diffusion solution. A comparison with a numerical test-particle simulation reveals that some features of an intensity profile can be better explained using the telegraph approach. (paper)

[en] This paper describes a numerical simulation of the rigid rotation of the Moon in a relativistic framework. Following a resolution passed by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in 2000, we construct a kinematically non-rotating reference system named the Selenocentric Celestial Reference System (SCRS) and give the time transformation between the Selenocentric Coordinate Time (TCS) and Barycentric Coordinate Time (TCB). The post-Newtonian equations of the Moon's rotation are written in the SCRS, and they are integrated numerically. We calculate the correction to the rotation of the Moon due to total relativistic torque which includes post-Newtonian and gravitomagnetic torques as well as geodetic precession. We find two dominant periods associated with this correction: 18.6yr and 80.1 yr. In addition, the precession of the rotating axes caused by fourth-degree and fifth-degree harmonics of the Moon is also analyzed, and we have found that the main periods of this precession are 27.3d, 2.9 yr, 18.6 yr and 80.1 yr. (paper)

[en] By using the Lunar-based Ultraviolet Telescope (LUT) from 2014 December 2 to December 4, the first near-UV light curve of the well-known Algol-type binary TW Dra is reported, which is analyzed with the 2013 version of the W-D code. Our solutions confirmed that TW Dra is a semi-detached binary system where the secondary component fills its Roche lobe. The mass ratio and a high inclination are obtained ( q = 0.47, i = 86.68°). Based on 589 available data spanning more than one century, the complex period changes are studied. Secular increase and three cyclical changes are found in the corresponding orbital period analysis. The secular increase changes reveal mass transfer from the secondary component to the primary one at a rate of 6.8 × 10⁻⁷ M _⊙ yr⁻¹. One large cyclical change of 116.04 yr may be caused by disturbance of visual component ADS 9706B orbiting TW Dra (ADS 9706A), while the other two cyclical changes with shorter periods of 22.47 and 37.27 yr can be explained as the result of two circumbinary companions that are orbiting around TW Dra, where the two companions are in simple 3 : 5 orbit-rotation resonances. TW Dra itself is a basic binary in a possible sextuple system with the configuration (1 + 1) + (1 + 1) + (1 + 1), which further suggests that multiplicity may be a fairly common phenomenon in close binary systems. (paper)

[en] Mirror seeing will be one of the key factors influencing image quality of an extremely large ground-based optical telescope (ELT). Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) can be used to estimate the mirror seeing and the effects of ventilation. In this paper, we present a simplified approach to simulation of mirror seeing for the Chinese Future Giant Telescope (CFGT, 30 m in diameter) with the CFD software ANSYS Icepak. We get the FWHM of the image and the distribution of refractive index structure function ( C ² _N) above the mirror. We demonstrate that thermal control and ventilation are effective ways to improve the image quality. Our simulation results agree with those of other authors for the ELT. To reduce the mirror seeing to a level of 0.5″, the suggested temperature excess of the primary mirror above the ambient air for thermal control of the CFGT is 0 – 2 K according to the present results of weakly forced convection. The limitations of the method are also discussed. (paper)

[en] We analyse ALMA observations of the ¹²CO(3-2) emission of the circumstellar envelope (CSE) of the Mira variable binary star W Aql. These provide, for the first time, spatially resolved Doppler velocity spectra of the CSE up to angular distances to the central star of ∼ 5″ (meaning some 2000 AU). The exploratory nature of the observations (only five minutes in each of two different configurations) does not allow for a detailed modelling of the properties of the CSE but provides important qualitative information on its morphology and kinematics. Emission is found to be enhanced along an axis moving from east/west to north-east/south-west when the angular distance from the central star projected on the plane of the sky increases from zero to four arcseconds. In parallel, the Doppler velocity distribution displays asymmetry along an axis moving from east/west to north-west/south-east. The results are discussed in the context of earlier observations, in particular of the dust morphology. (paper)

[en] A subreflector adjustment system for the Tianma 65 m radio telescope, administered by Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, has been installed to compensate for gravitational deformation of the main reflector and the structure supporting the subreflector. The position and attitude of the subreflector are variable in order to improve the efficiency at different elevations. The subreflector model has the goal of improving the antenna's performance. A new fitting formulation which is different from the traditional formulation is proposed to reduce the fitting error in the Y direction. The only difference in the subreflector models of the 65m radio telescope is the bias of a constant term in the Z direction. We have investigated the effect of movements of the subreflector on the pointing of the antenna. The results of these performance measurements made by moving the antenna in elevation show that the subreflector model can effectively improve the efficiency of the 65 m radio telescope at each elevation. An antenna efficiency of about 60% at the Ku band is reached in the whole angular range of elevation. (paper)

[en] Constraining neutrino mass remains an elusive challenge in modern physics. Precision measurements are expected from several upcoming cosmological probes of large-scale structure. Achieving this goal relies on an equal level of precision from theoretical predictions of neutrino clustering. Numerical simulations of the non-linear evolution of cold dark matter and neutrinos play a pivotal role in this process. We incorporate neutrinos into the cosmological N-body code CUBEP³M and discuss the challenges associated with pushing to the extreme scales demanded by the neutrino problem. We highlight code optimizations made to exploit modern high performance computing architectures and present a novel method of data compression that reduces the phase-space particle footprint from 24 bytes in single precision to roughly 9 bytes. We scale the neutrino problem to the Tianhe-2 supercomputer and provide details of our production run, named TianNu, which uses 86% of the machine (13 824 compute nodes). With a total of 2.97 trillion particles, TianNu is currently the world’s largest cosmological N-body simulation and improves upon previous neutrino simulations by two orders of magnitude in scale. We finish with a discussion of the unanticipated computational challenges that were encountered during the TianNu runtime. (paper)

[en] Warm Absorbers (WAs), as an important form of AGN outflows, show absorption in both the UV and X-ray bands. Using XSTAR generated photoionization models, for the first time we present a joint fit to the simultaneous observations of HST/COS and Chandra/HETG on NGC 3783. A total of five WAs explain well all absorption features from the AGN outflows, which are spread over a wide range of parameters: ionization parameter logξ from 0.6 to 3.8, column density log $N_{\mathrm{H}}$ from 19.5 to 22.3 cm⁻², velocity v from 380 to 1060 km s⁻¹, and covering factor from 0.33 to 0.75. Not all the five WAs are consistent in pressure. Two of them are likely different parts of the same absorbing gas, and two of the other WAs may be smaller discrete clouds that are blown out from the inner region of the torus at different periods. The five WAs suggest a total mass outflowing rate within the range of 0.22–4.1 solar mass per year. (paper)

[en] A conservative constraint on the rest mass of the photon can be estimated under the assumption that the frequency dependence of dispersion from astronomical sources is mainly contributed by the nonzero photon mass effect. Photon mass limits have been set earlier through the optical emissions of the Crab Nebula pulsar, but we demonstrate that these limits can be significantly improved with the dispersion measure (DM) measurements of radio pulsars in the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. The combination of DM measurements of pulsars and distances of the Magellanic Clouds provides a strict upper limit on the photon mass as low as $m_{\mathrm{\gamma <!--\; ??\; -->}}\le <!--\; ???\; -->2.0\times <!--\; ??\; -->{10}^{-<!--\; ???\; -->45}\mathrm{g}$, which is at least four orders of magnitude smaller than the constraint from the Crab Nebula pulsar. Although our limit is not as tight as the current best result ($\sim <!--\; ???\; -->{10}^{-<!--\; ???\; -->47}\mathrm{g}$) from a fast radio burst (FRB 150418) at a cosmological distance, the cosmological origin of FRB 150418 remains under debate; and our limit can reach the same high precision of FRB 150418 when it has an extragalactic origin ($\sim <!--\; ???\; -->{10}^{-<!--\; ???\; -->45}\mathrm{g}$). (paper)

[en] Pulsar glitches, i.e. the sudden spin-ups of pulsars, have been detected for most known pulsars. The mechanism giving rise to this kind of phenomenon is uncertain, although a large data set has been built. In the framework of the starquake model, based on Baym and Pines, the glitch sizes (the relative increases of spin-frequencies during glitches) ΔΩ/Ω depend on the released energies during glitches, with less released energies corresponding to smaller glitch sizes. On the other hand, as one of the dark matter candidates, our Galaxy might be filled with so called strange nuggets (SNs) which are relics from the early Universe. In this case collisions between pulsars and SNs are inevitable, and these collisions would lead to glitches when enough elastic energy has been accumulated during the spin-down process. The SN-triggered glitches could release less energy, because the accumulated elastic energy would be less than that in the scenario of glitches without SNs. Therefore, if a pulsar is hit frequently by SNs, it would tend to have more small glitches, whose values of ΔΩ/Ω are smaller than those in the standard starquake model (with larger amounts of released energy). Based on the assumption that in our Galaxy the distribution of SNs is similar to that of dark matter, as well as on the glitch data in the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue and Jodrell Bank glitch table, we find that in our Galaxy the incidences of small glitches exhibit tendencies consistent with the collision rates between pulsars and SNs. Further testing of this scenario is expected by detecting more small glitches (e.g., by the Square Kilometre Array). (paper)