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    The eROSITA X-ray telescope on SRG
    (Les Ulis : EDP Sciences, 2021) Predehl, P.; Andritschke, R.; Arefiev, V.; Babyshkin, V.; Batanov, O.; Becker, W.; Böhringer, H.; Bogomolov, A.; Boller, T.; Borm, K.; Bornemann, W.; Bräuninger, H.; Brüggen, M.; Brunner, H.; Brusa, M.; Bulbul, E.; Buntov, M.; Burwitz, V.; Burkert, W.; Clerc, N.; Churazov, E.; Coutinho, D.; Dauser, T.; Dennerl, K.; Doroshenko, V.; Eder, J.; Emberger, V.; Eraerds, T.; Finoguenov, A.; Freyberg, M.; Friedrich, P.; Friedrich, S.; Fürmetz, M.; Georgakakis, A.; Gilfanov, M.; Granato, S.; Grossberger, C.; Gueguen, A.; Gureev, P.; Haberl, F.; Hälker, O.; Hartner, G.; Hasinger, G.; Huber, H.; Ji, L.; Kienlin, A. v.; Kink, W.; Korotkov, F.; Kreykenbohm, I.; Lamer, G.; Lomakin, I.; Lapshov, I.; Liu, T.; Maitra, C.; Meidinger, N.; Menz, B.; Merloni, A.; Mernik, T.; Mican, B.; Mohr, J.; Müller, S.; Nandra, K.; Nazarov, V.; Pacaud, F.; Pavlinsky, M.; Perinati, E.; Pfeffermann, E.; Pietschner, D.; Ramos-Ceja, M. E.; Rau, A.; Reiffers, J.; Reiprich, T. H.; Robrade, J.; Salvato, M.; Sanders, J.; Santangelo, A.; Sasaki, M.; Scheuerle, H.; Schmid, C.; Schmitt, J.; Schwope, A.; Shirshakov, A.; Steinmetz, M.; Stewart, I.; Strüder, L.; Sunyaev, R.; Tenzer, C.; Tiedemann, L.; Trümper, J.; Voron, V.; Weber, P.; Wilms, J.; Yaroshenko, V.
    eROSITA (extended ROentgen Survey with an Imaging Telescope Array) is the primary instrument on the Spectrum-Roentgen-Gamma (SRG) mission, which was successfully launched on July 13, 2019, from the Baikonour cosmodrome. After the commissioning of the instrument and a subsequent calibration and performance verification phase, eROSITA started a survey of the entire sky on December 13, 2019. By the end of 2023, eight complete scans of the celestial sphere will have been performed, each lasting six months. At the end of this program, the eROSITA all-sky survey in the soft X-ray band (0.2-2.3 keV) will be about 25 times more sensitive than the ROSAT All-Sky Survey, while in the hard band (2.3-8 keV) it will provide the first ever true imaging survey of the sky. The eROSITA design driving science is the detection of large samples of galaxy clusters up to redshifts z > 1 in order to study the large-scale structure of the universe and test cosmological models including Dark Energy. In addition, eROSITA is expected to yield a sample of a few million AGNs, including obscured objects, revolutionizing our view of the evolution of supermassive black holes. The survey will also provide new insights into a wide range of astrophysical phenomena, including X-ray binaries, active stars, and diffuse emission within the Galaxy. Results from early observations, some of which are presented here, confirm that the performance of the instrument is able to fulfil its scientific promise. With this paper, we aim to give a concise description of the instrument, its performance as measured on ground, its operation in space, and also the first results from in-orbit measurements.
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    Gaia Early Data Release 3: Gaia photometric science alerts
    (Les Ulis : EDP Sciences, 2021) Hodgkin, S.T.; Harrison, D.L.; Breedt, E.; Wevers, T.; Rixon, G.; Delgado, A.; Yoldas, A.; Kostrzewa-Rutkowska, Z.; Wyrzykowski, Ł.; van Leeuwen, M.; Blagorodnova, N.; Serraller, I.; Steeghs, D.; Sullivan, M.; Szabados, L.; Szegedi-Elek, E.; Tisserand, P.; Tomasella, L.; van Velzen, S.; Whitelock, P.A; Wilson, R.W.; Campbell, H.; Young, D.R.; Eappachen, D.; Fraser, M.; Ihanec, N.; Koposov, S.E.; Kruszyńska, K.; Marton, G.; Rybicki, K.A.; Brown, A.G.A.; Burgess, P. W.; Busso, G.; Cowell, S.; De Angeli, F.; Diener, C.; Evans, D.W.; Gilmore, G.; Holland, G.; Jonker, P.G.; van Leeuwen, F.; Mignard, F.; Osborne, P.J.; Portell, J.; Prusti, T.; Richards, P.J.; Riello, M.; Seabroke, G.M.; Walton, N.A.; Ábrahám, Péter; Altavilla, G.; Baker, S.G.; Bastian, U.; O'Brien, P.; de Bruijne, J.; Butterley, T.; Carrasco, J.M.; Castañeda, J.; Clark, J.S.; Clementini, G.; Copperwheat, C.M.; Cropper, M.; Damljanovic, G.; Davidson, M.; Davis, C.J.; Dennefeld, M.; Dhillon, V.S.; Dolding, C.; Dominik, M.; Esquej, P.; Eyer, L.; Fabricius, C.; Fridman, M.; Froebrich, D.; Garralda, N.; Gomboc, A.; González-Vidal, J.J.; Guerra, R.; Hambly, N.C.; Hardy, L.K.; Holl, B.; Hourihane, A.; Japelj, J.; Kann, D.A.; Kiss, C.; Knigge, C.; Kolb, U.; Komossa, S.; Kóspál, Á.; Kovács, G.; Kun, M.; Leto, G.; Lewis, F.; Littlefair, S.P.; Mahabal, A.A.; Mundell, C.G.; Nagy, Z.; Padeletti, D.; Palaversa, L.; Pigulski, A.; Pretorius, M.L.; van Reeven, W.; Ribeiro, V.A.R.M.; Roelens, M.; Rowell, N.; Schartel, N.; Scholz, A.; Schwope, A.; Sipőcz, B.M.; Smartt, S.J.; Smith, M.D.
    Context. Since July 2014, the Gaia mission has been engaged in a high-spatial-resolution, time-resolved, precise, accurate astrometric, and photometric survey of the entire sky. Aims. We present the Gaia Science Alerts project, which has been in operation since 1 June 2016. We describe the system which has been developed to enable the discovery and publication of transient photometric events as seen by Gaia. Methods. We outline the data handling, timings, and performances, and we describe the transient detection algorithms and filtering procedures needed to manage the high false alarm rate. We identify two classes of events: (1) sources which are new to Gaia and (2) Gaia sources which have undergone a significant brightening or fading. Validation of the Gaia transit astrometry and photometry was performed, followed by testing of the source environment to minimise contamination from Solar System objects, bright stars, and fainter near-neighbours. Results. We show that the Gaia Science Alerts project suffers from very low contamination, that is there are very few false-positives. We find that the external completeness for supernovae, CE = 0.46, is dominated by the Gaia scanning law and the requirement of detections from both fields-of-view. Where we have two or more scans the internal completeness is CI = 0.79 at 3 arcsec or larger from the centres of galaxies, but it drops closer in, especially within 1 arcsec. Conclusions. The per-Transit photometry for Gaia transients is precise to 1% at G = 13, and 3% at G = 19. The per-Transit astrometry is accurate to 55 mas when compared to Gaia DR2. The Gaia Science Alerts project is one of the most homogeneous and productive transient surveys in operation, and it is the only survey which covers the whole sky at high spatial resolution (subarcsecond), including the Galactic plane and bulge. © S. T. Hodgkin et al. 2021.
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    The Gaia -ESO Survey: Lithium measurements and new curves of growth
    (Les Ulis : EDP Sciences, 2022) Franciosini, E.; Randich, S.; de Laverny, P.; Biazzo, K.; Feuillet, D.K.; Frasca, A.; Lind, K.; Prisinzano, L.; Tautvaišiene, G.; Lanzafame, A.C.; Smiljanic, R.; Gonneau, A.; Magrini, L.; Pancino, E.; Guiglion, G.; Sacco, G.G.; Sanna, N.; Gilmore, G.; Bonifacio, P.; Jeffries, R.D.; Micela, G.; Prusti, T.; Alfaro, E.J.; Bensby, T.; Bragaglia, A.; François, P.; Korn, A.J.; Van Eck, S.; Bayo, A.; Bergemann, M.; Carraro, G.; Heiter, U.; Hourihane, A.; Jofré, P.; Lewis, J.; Martayan, C.; Monaco, L.; Morbidelli, L.; Worley, C.C.; Zaggia, S.
    Context. The Gaia-ESO Survey (GES) is a large public spectroscopic survey that was carried out using the multi-object FLAMES spectrograph at the Very Large Telescope. The survey provides accurate radial velocities, stellar parameters, and elemental abundances for ~115 000 stars in all Milky Way components. Aims. In this paper, we describe the method adopted in the final data release to derive lithium equivalent widths (EWs) and abundances. Methods. Lithium EWs were measured using two different approaches for FGK and M-type stars, to account for the intrinsic differences in the spectra. For FGK stars, we fitted the lithium line using Gaussian components, while direct integration over a predefined interval was adopted for M-type stars. Care was taken to ensure continuity between the two regimes. Abundances were derived using a new set of homogeneous curves of growth that were derived specifically for GES, and which were measured on a synthetic spectral grid consistently with the way the EWs were measured. The derived abundances were validated by comparison with those measured by other analysis groups using different methods. Results. Lithium EWs were measured for ~40 000 stars, and abundances could be derived for ~38 000 of them. The vast majority of the measures (80%) have been obtained for stars in open cluster fields. The remaining objects are stars in globular clusters, or field stars in the Milky Way disc, bulge, and halo. Conclusions. The GES dataset of homogeneous lithium abundances described here will be valuable for our understanding of several processes, from stellar evolution and internal mixing in stars at different evolutionary stages to Galactic evolution.
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    A self-consistent dynamical model of the Milky Way disc adjusted to Gaia data
    (Les Ulis : EDP Sciences, 2022) Robin, A.C.; Bienaymé, O.; Salomon, J.B.; Reylé, C.; Lagarde, N.; Figueras, F.; Mor, R.; Fernández-Trincado, J.G.; Montillaud, J.
    Context. Accurate astrometry achieved by Gaia for many stars in the Milky Way provides an opportunity to reanalyse the Galactic stellar populations from a large and homogeneous sample and to revisit the Galaxy gravitational potential. Aims. This paper shows how a self-consistent dynamical model can be obtained by fitting the gravitational potential of the Milky Way to the stellar kinematics and densities from Gaia data. Methods. We derived a gravitational potential using the Besancon Galaxy Model, and computed the disc stellar distribution functions based on three integrals of motion (E, Lz, I3) to model stationary stellar discs. The gravitational potential and the stellar distribution functions are built self-consistently, and are then adjusted to be in agreement with the kinematics and the density distributions obtained from Gaia observations. A Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) is used to fit the free parameters of the dynamical model to Gaia parallax and proper motion distributions. The fit is done on several sets of Gaia data, mainly a subsample of the GCNS (Gaia catalogue of nearby stars to 100 pc) with G< 17, together with 26 deep fields selected from eDR3, widely spread in longitudes and latitudes. Results. We are able to determine the velocity dispersion ellipsoid and its tilt for subcomponents of different ages, both varying with R and z. The density laws and their radial scale lengths for the thin and thick disc populations are also obtained self-consistently. This new model has some interesting characteristics that come naturally from the process, such as a flaring thin disc. The thick disc is found to present very distinctive characteristics from the old thin disc, both in density and kinematics. This lends significant support to the idea that thin and thick discs were formed in distinct scenarios, as the density and kinematics transition between them is found to be abrupt. The dark matter halo is shown to be nearly spherical. We also derive the solar motion with regards to the Local Standard of Rest (LSR), finding U· = 10.79 ± 0.56 km s-1, V· = 11.06 ± 0.94 km s-1, and W· = 7.66 ± 0.43 km s-1, in close agreement with recent studies. Conclusions. The resulting fully self-consistent gravitational potential, still axisymmetric, is a good approximation of a smooth mass distribution in the Milky Way and can be used for further studies, including finding streams, substructures, and to compute orbits for real stars in our Galaxy.
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    The SEDIGISM survey: first data release and overview of the Galactic structure
    (Oxford : Oxford Univ. Press, 2021) Schuller, F.; Urquhart, J.S.; Csengeri, T.; Colombo, D.; Duarte-Cabral, A.; Mattern, M.; Ginsburg, A.; Pettitt, A.R.; Wyrowski, F.; Anderson, L.; Azagra, F.; Barnes, P.; Beltran, M.; Beuther, H.; Billington, S.; Bronfman, L.; Cesaroni, R.; Dobbs, C.; Eden, D.; Lee, M.-Y.; Medina, S.-N.X.; Menten, K.M.; Moore, T.; Montenegro-Montes, F.M.; Ragan, S.; Rigby, A.; Riener, M.; Russeil, D.; Schisano, E.; Sanchez-Monge, A.; Traficante, A.; Zavagno, A.; Agurto, C.; Bontemps, S.; Finger, R.; Giannetti, A.; Gonzalez, E.; Hernandez, A.K.; Henning, T.; Kainulainen, J.; Kauffmann, J.; Leurini, S.; Lopez, S.; Mac-Auliffe, F.; Mazumdar, P.; Molinari, S.; Motte, F.; Muller, E.; Nguyen-Luong, Q.; Parra, R.; Perez-Beaupuits, J.-P.; Schilke, P.; Schneider, N.; Suri, S.; Testi, L.; Torstensson, K.; Veena, V.S.; Venegas, P.; Wang, K.; Wienen, M.
    The SEDIGISM (Structure, Excitation and Dynamics of the Inner Galactic Interstellar Medium) survey used the APEX telescope to map 84 deg2 of the Galactic plane between ℓ = −60° and +31° in several molecular transitions, including 13CO (2 – 1) and C18O (2 – 1), thus probing the moderately dense (∼103 cm−3) component of the interstellar medium. With an angular resolution of 30 arcsec and a typical 1σ sensitivity of 0.8–1.0 K at 0.25 km s−1 velocity resolution, it gives access to a wide range of structures, from individual star-forming clumps to giant molecular clouds and complexes. The coverage includes a good fraction of the first and fourth Galactic quadrants, allowing us to constrain the large-scale distribution of cold molecular gas in the inner Galaxy. In this paper, we provide an updated overview of the full survey and the data reduction procedures used. We also assess the quality of these data and describe the data products that are being made publicly available as part of this First Data Release (DR1). We present integrated maps and position–velocity maps of the molecular gas and use these to investigate the correlation between the molecular gas and the large-scale structural features of the Milky Way such as the spiral arms, Galactic bar and Galactic Centre. We find that approximately 60 per cent of the molecular gas is associated with the spiral arms and these appear as strong intensity peaks in the derived Galactocentric distribution. We also find strong peaks in intensity at specific longitudes that correspond to the Galactic Centre and well-known star-forming complexes, revealing that the 13CO emission is concentrated in a small number of complexes rather than evenly distributed along spiral arms.