We have performed smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations for the response of the gaseous disk to the imposed moderately strong non-axisymmetric potentials. The model galaxies are composed of the three stellar components (disk, bulge and bar) and two dark ones (supermassive black hole and halo) whose gravitational potentials are assumed to be invariant in time in the frame corotating with the bar. We found that the torques alone generated by the moderately strong bar that gives the maximum of tangential-to-radial force ratio as $(F_{Tan}/F_{Rad})_{max}= 0.3$ are not sufficient to drive the gas particles close to the center due to the barrier imposed by the inner Lindblad resonances (ILRs). In order to transport the gas particles towards the nucleus ($r<100$ pc), a central supermassive black hole (SMBH) and high sound speed of the gas are required to be present. The former is required to remove the inner inner Lindblad resonance (IILR) that prevents gas inflow close to the nucleus, while the latter provides favourable conditions for the gas particles to lose their angular momentum and to spiral in. Our models that have no IILR show the trailing nuclear spirals whose innermost parts reach close to the center in a curling way when the gas sound speed is $ c_{s} \gtrsim 15$ km s$^{-1}$. They resemble the symmetric two-armed nuclear spirals observed in the central kiloparsec of spiral galaxies. We found that the symmetric two-armed nuclear spirals are formed by the hydrodynamic spiral shocks caused by the gravitational torque of the bar in the presence of a central SMBH that can remove IILR when the sound speed of gas is high enough to drive a large amount of gas inflow deep inside the ILR. However, the detailed morphology of nuclear spirals depends on the sound speed of gas.Comment: 38 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

We present 12 new transit light curves of the hot-Jupiter TrES-3b observed during 2012−2018 to probe the transit timing variation (TTV). By combining the midtransit times determined from these 12 transit data with those reestimated through uniform procedure from 71 transit data available in the literature, we derive new linear ephemeris and obtain the timing residuals that suggest the possibility of TTV in the TrES-3 system. However, the frequency analysis shows that the possible TTV is unlikely to be periodic, indicating the absence of an additional body in this system. To explore the other possible origins of TTV, the orbital decay and apsidal precession ephemeris models are fitted to the transit time data. We find the decay rate of TrES-3b to be ms yr−1, and the corresponding estimated modified stellar tidal quality factor of is consistent with the theoretically predicted values for the stars hosting the hot-Jupiters. The shift in the transit arrival time of TrES-3b after 11 years is expected to be T shift ∼ 69.55 s, which is consistent with the rms of the timing residuals. Besides, we find that the apsidal precession ephemeris model is statistically less probable than the other considered ephemeris models. It is also discussed that despite the fact that the linear ephemeris model appears to be the most plausible model to represent the transit time data, the possibility of the orbital decay cannot be completely ruled out in the TrES-3 system. To confirm this, further high-precision and high-cadence follow-up observation of transits of TrES-3b would be important.

Five newly observed transit light curves of the TrES-3 planetary system are presented. Together with other light curve data from literature, 23 transit light curves in total, which cover an overall timescale of 911 epochs, have been analyzed through a standard procedure. From these observational data, the system's orbital parameters are determined and possible transit timing variations are investigated. Given that a null transit-timing-variation produces a fit with reduced χ 2 =1.52, our results agree with previous work, that transit timing variations might not exist in these data. However, a 1-frequency oscillating transit-timingvariation model, giving a fit with a reduced χ 2 =0.93, does possess a statistically higher probability. It is, thus, concluded that future observations and dynamical simulations for this planetary system will be very important.

We report the detection of a type C quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) along with an upper harmonic in the commensurate ratio of 1:2 in two observations of the low-mass black hole transient H 1743–322 jointly observed by XMM-Newton and NuSTAR during the 2016 outburst. We find that the QPO and the upper harmonic exhibit shifts in their centroid frequencies in the second observation with respect to the first one. The hardness intensity diagram implies that in contrast to the 2008 and 2014 failed outbursts, the 2016 outburst was a successful one. We also detect the presence of a broad iron Kα line at ∼6.5 keV and a reflection hump in the energy range 15–30 keV in both of the observations. Along with the shape of the power density spectra, the nature of the characteristic frequencies and the fractional rms amplitude of the timing features imply that the source stayed in the low/hard state during these observations. Moreover, the photon index and other spectral parameters also indicate the low/hard state behavior of the source. Unlike the soft lag detected in this source during the 2008 and 2014 failed outbursts, we observe hard time lags of 0.40 ± 0.15 s and 0.32 ± 0.07 s in the 0.07–0.4 Hz frequency range in the two observations during the 2016 outburst. The correlation between the photon index and the centroid frequency of the QPO is consistent with the previous results. Furthermore, the high value of the Comptonized fraction and the weak thermal component indicate that the QPO is being modulated by the Comptonization process.

We have performed smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations to study the response of the central kiloparsec region of a gaseous disk to the imposition of nonaxisymmetric bar potentials. The model galaxies are composed of the three axisymmetric components (halo, disk, and bulge) and a non-axisymmetric bar. These components are assumed to be invariant in time in the frame corotating with the bar. The potential of spherical γ-models of Dehnen is adopted for the bulge component whose density varies as r −γ near the center and r −4 at larger radii and hence, possesses a central density core for γ = 0 and cusps for γ > 0. Since the central mass concentration of the model galaxies increases with the cusp parameter γ, we have examined here the effect of the central mass concentration by varying the cusp parameter γ on the mechanism responsible for the formation of the symmetric two-armed nuclear spirals in barred galaxies. Our simulations show that the symmetric two-armed nuclear spirals are formed by hydrodynamic spiral shocks driven by the gravitational torque of the bar for the models with γ = 0 and 0.5. On the other hand, the symmetric two-armed nuclear spirals in the models with γ = 1 and 1.5 are explained by gas density waves. Thus, we conclude that the mechanism responsible for the formation of the symmetric two-armed nuclear spirals in barred galaxies changes from the hydrodynamic shocks to the gas density waves when the central mass concentration increases from γ = 0 to 1.5.