Papers for Tuesday, Jan 06 2026

Subatomic particles can interact with target nuclei in matter or decay in flight, and an individual high-energy particle can induce a particle shower composed of numerous, lower-energy secondaries. These particle showers broadly exhibit universality across diverse media, including air, water, ice, and other materials, with their development governed by the Standard Model. Full Monte Carlo simulation of particle showers, where each secondary is individually tracked and propagated, can be a computational challenge to perform at scale. Experiments thus resort to parametrized approximations when efficient simulation becomes necessary. Here, we construct distributions of parameters capable of describing the Cherenkov light yield from particle showers in ice, and extensible to other, similar media. Sampling from the distributions allows for a much improved description of event-to-event fluctuations, in amplitude and shape, along the shower axis. Including these effects is essential for a more accurate simulation of signal and background events in current and next-generation neutrino telescopes.

We present JWST/NIRSpec high-cadence infrared spectroscopy of three long-period, eclipsing AM CVn binaries, Gaia14aae, SRGeJ0453, and ZTFJ1637. These systems have orbital periods of 50-62 minutes and cool donors that are undetectable in the optical. The data cover a wavelength range of 1.6-5.2 $\mu$m at resolution $R=1000-2000$. We obtained 150-200 spectra of each system over two orbits, split between the G235M and G395M gratings. All three systems show strong, double-peaked He I emission lines dominated by an accretion disk. These lines are nearly stationary but contain radial velocity (RV) variable sub-components that trace stream-disk interactions. In Gaia14aae and SRGeJ0453, we detect two Na I doublets in emission whose RVs track the irradiated face of the donor, marking the first direct detection of the donors of long-period AM CVns. No absorption lines from the donors are detected, implying that the IR excesses observed in many long-period AM CVns primarily trace disks, not donors. The He I emission profiles in all systems lack high-velocity wings and show no emission beyond $\approx 1500,\rm km,s^{-1}$. The morphology of the disk eclipses and Doppler tomograms are best reproduced by models in which the disk is truncated well outside the white dwarf and only material at $r \gtrsim 0.07,R_{\odot}$ contributes to the disk emission. We interpret this as possible evidence of magnetized white dwarf accretors. For plausible mass transfer rates, the truncation radii imply surface magnetic fields of $B = 30-100$ kG, consistent with recent constraints based on X-ray periodicity. The absence of cyclotron humps out to 5 $\mu$m rules out stronger MG-level fields. We make the data from the program publicly available to the community.

The SMC orbits within the LMC's dark matter (DM) halo in a $\sim$1:10 mass-ratio encounter. The LMC:Milky Way (MW) interaction is also $\sim$1:10, and is expected to perturb the MW's DM distribution. However, no framework exists to quantify the severity of these perturbations over multiple pericenters and longer periods of time, such as the LMC-SMC interaction history. We construct basis function expansions of a high-resolution N-body simulation of the Clouds interacting in isolation and analyze their DM distributions at an epoch approximating the time of infall to the MW. Our goal is to quantify how the Clouds distort each other's DM distributions without the MW. The LMC halo's response to the SMC includes a $\sim 20$ kpc-long dynamical friction wake and the displacement of the LMC's density center during each SMC pericenter, which produces two overdensities in the LMC halo (at $\sim$60 and $\sim$100 kpc) at MW infall. The SMC's tidal radius at infall is just $\sim4$ kpc, at which point the SMC has lost two-thirds of its initial DM mass to the LMC. The distortions to the Clouds' halos produce a highly asymmetric acceleration field. Accurate orbit integration in the LMC-SMC system must account for the time-dependent shapes of both halos. The SMC-induced perturbations in the LMC DM halo resemble the MW-LMC system, and persist over multiple SMC pericenters. We conclude that 1:10 satellite:host encounters induce characteristic deformations in both DM halos across all host mass scales, with implications for merger rates and tests of DM models.

Featureless optical and ultraviolet (UV) spectra are a puzzling signature to emerge from recent observations of luminous fast blue optical transients (LFBOTs) and some tidal disruption events (TDEs). We describe the landscape of source and gas properties that are expected to form H, He I and He II emission lines, and map spectral types to the parameter space of luminosity and system radius. Using one-dimensional radiative transfer calculations, we show that high source luminosities ($L > 10^{44}\,\rm erg~s^{-1}$) and compact ejecta radii ($r < 10^{14}\,\rm cm$) produce featureless spectra due to the high temperature and ionization state of the emitting medium. Intermediate luminosities and moderately compact systems can generate He II-dominated spectra, while lower luminosities and more extended atmospheres result in conspicuous H and He I emission. Large expansion velocities ($v \geq 0.1c$) can further broaden lines such that they blend into the continuum. Featureless UV spectra may require even more extreme ionization conditions or velocities to suppress the many intrinsically strong metal lines at those wavelengths. Applying this framework to understand the absence of features observed in LFBOTs and featureless TDEs, we find that non-homologous, compact outflows are likely necessary for featurelessness to persist in optical and UV spectra.

The engulfment of planets by their host stars is an expected outcome of various dynamical processes and has been invoked to explain a variety of observed stellar properties, such as rapid rotation, chemical abundance abnormalities, and other transient phenomena. Recent observations support engulfment as the cause of such signatures; however, many engulfment process details remain uncertain. Here, we present a model for determining the chemical signatures produced due to the pollution of main sequence stars by rocky planets, a common engulfment scenario due to the high frequency of observed short-period rocky exoplanets. A key novel element of our model is that we calculate the gradual evaporation of the planet due to drag interactions with the stellar envelope, which can lead to observable pollution on the stellar surface even if the bulk of the planet is only destroyed below the star's outer convective zone. Our results indicate that rocky planet pollution is most easily measurable for stars in the $1.0$ to $1.4$ M$_\odot$ range and that elements such as aluminium, calcium, and vanadium, in addition to lithium, are most suited to detect pollution. We predict that it is also possible to differentiate between the engulfment of one large planet versus several small planets, for the same total pollution mass, for some stellar hosts. We find that rocky planet engulfment events generally take years to decades for most stars. Our results can guide future observational campaigns that may search for sites of past or current engulfment events.

Matter ejected from the neutron star crust during a magnetar giant flare will undergo $r$-process nucleosynthesis during decompression. Ultra heavy ions ($Z \gg 26$) can be accelerated to cosmic ray energies by the reverse shock as the ejecta decelerates by interacting with the ambient environment. We investigate the contribution of magnetars to the local ultra heavy cosmic ray flux using semi-analytic Galactic transport calculations, demonstrating that they may be significant contributors throughout Galactic history depending on the giant flare rate and ion acceleration efficiency. Although neutron star mergers inject orders of magnitude more energy into cosmic rays, they rarely occur within the spallation-limited propagation horizon for ultra heavy species, reducing their local contributions. As compared to lighter nuclei which are dominantly accelerated by supernovae, the SuperTIGER experiment has presented tentative evidence for a distinct contribution to the cosmic ray abundances near and above the first $r$-process peak ($Z \approx 35\text{--}56$). We argue that current abundance data are consistent with either a magnetar giant flare or neutron star merger origin for these species. Measurements with single element resolution through the third $r$-process peak, expected from the upcoming TIGERISS experiment, may discriminate between these sources for the heaviest cosmic rays.

Integral field spectroscopy allows for spectral mapping of extended sources in a time efficient manner. An integral field unit (IFU) in the ultraviolet on Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) could be used to quickly map extended objects like supernova remnants or galaxies and their surroundings, but there are technical challenges to an ultraviolet IFU. The INtegral Field Ultraviolet Spectrographic Experiment (INFUSE), a sounding rocket project, is the first static configuration far ultraviolet integral field spectrograph. INFUSE features an f/16, 0.49m Cassegrain telescope and a 26-element image slicer feeding 26 replica holographic gratings, with spectra imaged by the largest cross-strip microchannel plate detector flown in space. The first launch of INFUSE occurred from White Sands Missile Range on October 29th, 2023, and demonstrated spectral multiplexing, successfully detecting ionizing gas emission in the XA region of the Cygnus Loop. INFUSE will launch again in fall 2025 to observe NGC 2366, a local analog for Green Pea type galaxies, with several enhancements including a xenon-enhanced lithium fluoride + aluminum coated grating, testing the leading flight coating for HWO for the first time. The INFUSE IFU is designed as a pathfinder for a potential IFU mode on HWO, enabling rapid 3D spectroscopy of extended sources.

Recent ALMA observations reveal diffuse [CII] emission (``[CII] halos") extending to $\sim 10\,$kpc in galaxies at $4 < z < 6$. These measurements provide new insights into high-redshift galactic ecosystems and processes that drive metal enrichment on circumgalactic scales. To better understand the nature of [CII] halos, we analyze a suite of high-redshift FIRE-2 simulations at $5 \leq z \leq 6$ in the stellar mass range of $10^{9}$--$10^{10.5}\,M_{\odot}$. By post-processing these simulations with three-dimensional dust radiative transfer and photoionization modeling, we generate synthetic images of [CII] and UV continuum emission, from which we extract one-dimensional surface brightness profiles. Our results reproduce both the galaxy-integrated and spatial distribution of [CII] and UV emission, capturing in particular the more extended profile of [CII] emission. Comparing the time evolution of [CII] halos with bursty star formation histories of the simulated galaxies, we find that [CII] emission becomes more spatially extended following the decline of star formation rate in recent starburst episodes. This implies a strong correlation between extended [CII] emission and bursty star formation, consistent with a key role for star formation-driven outflows in producing [CII] halos -- though the kinematics of [CII]-emitting gas suggest that inflows and turbulent motions are also significant contributors. We also find a modest contribution from satellite galaxies to extended [CII] emission. Our framework can be readily applied to predict the observability of [CII] halos at higher redshifts and extended to create spatially resolved synthetic observations of other important emission lines, such as [OIII] and H$\alpha$.

Massive quenched galaxies at z>3 challenge models of early galaxy evolution, as their rapid formation and abrupt quenching require efficient feedback, often linked to active galactic nuclei (AGN). The quiescent galaxy GS10578 at z=3.1 is a key example of this population. Previous JWST/NIRSpec IFU data revealed an AGN outflow and uncovered a compact pair of AGN separated by ~5 kpc. In addition, VLT/MUSE spectroscopy has identified a third AGN candidate at a projected distance of ~30 kpc, associated with a luminous Lya emitter (LAE2) characterised by high-ionisation UV lines, although rest-frame optical diagnostics were not previously available. We aim to confirm the nature of LAE2 using rest-frame optical diagnostics enabled by new JWST data, and to characterise the physical and ionisation properties of both LAE2 and a distinct nearby Lya emitter (LAE1) that lacks any detectable continuum counterpart. We analyse new NIRSpec IFU observations targeting the optical nebular lines of LAE1 and LAE2, complemented with MUSE data, as part of the GA-NIFS project. We extract integrated and spatially resolved spectra, construct emission-line maps, and use standard diagnostic diagrams to determine ionisation sources and kinematics. LAE2 exhibits line ratios fully consistent with an embedded AGN. Its optical lines display a clumpy morphology and irregular kinematics on sub-kpc scales. Except for Lya, LAE1 remains undetected in all nebular lines and in JWST imaging. The similarity of the LAE1 and LAE2 Lya profiles in both velocity and flux suggests that LAE1 traces resonantly scattered emission rather than in-situ star formation. Our analysis reveals that the environment of GS10578 contains both multi-black-hole activity and gas structures on tens-of-kpc scales, offering new insights into how feedback and satellite interactions influence the late evolutionary stages of quenched massive galaxies.

The giant planet-metallicity correlation revealed that planetary formation depends on the stellar properties. There is growing evidence that it is also valid for smaller hot planets, but it is not clear whether elements other than iron also influence the properties of planetary systems. To investigate this, we determined the abundances of 13 chemical elements (Na, Mg, Al, Si, Ca, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni and Cu) for a sample of 561 Kepler exoplanet-hosting stars using high-resolution Keck/HIRES spectra. We find that stars in systems having only large or hot planets are enriched in some elements relative to those having only small or warm planets, respectively, with this signature being related to the underlying stellar metallicity. This Kepler sample is composed of stars belonging to the Galactic low- and high-$\alpha$ sequences, corresponding to the chemical thin and thick disks. Our results reveal that stars enhanced in $\alpha$-elements may facilitate the formation of large planets in metal-poor environments although the iron abundance is still a limiting factor. We also investigated chemical abundances as a function of elemental condensation temperatures and found that there is a diversity of slopes of regardless of the exoplanetary systems hosted by the star. We confirmed that the Sun is depleted in refractory elements relative to the solar twins in our sample, all of which host a diversity of exoplanets, suggesting that this depletion is caused by processes not related to planet formation.

Light curves represent astronomical time series of flux measured across one or more photometric bands. With the rapid growth of large-scale sky surveys, time-domain astronomy has become an essential area of modern astrophysical research. Interactive visualization of extensive light-curve datasets plays a key role in exploring transient phenomena and in planning large follow-up campaigns. In this work, we introduce two web-based platforms designed for interactive light-curve visualization: Fulu, for transient event studies, and VALC, for investigations of low-mass active galactic nuclei (AGNs). These tools provide a user-friendly interface for examining, comparing, and interpreting vast collections of astronomical light curves, supporting scientific discovery.

We present neutrino-transport algorithms implemented in the toolkit for high-order neutrino-radiation hydrodynamics (thornado) and their coupling to self-gravitating hydrodynamics within the adaptive mesh refinement (AMR)-based multiphysics simulation framework Flash-X. thornado, developed primarily for simulations of core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe), employs a spectral, six-species two-moment formulation with algebraic closure and special-relativistic observer corrections accurate to $O(v/c)$, and uses discontinuous Galerkin (DG) methods for phase-space discretization combined with implicit-explicit time stepping. A key development is a nonlinear neutrino-matter coupling algorithm based on nested fixed-point iteration with Anderson acceleration, enabling fully implicit treatment of collisional processes, including energy-coupling interactions such as neutrino-electron scattering and pair production. Coupling to finite-volume (FV) hydrodynamics is achieved with a hybrid DG-FV representation of the fluid variables and operator-split evolution in Flash-X. The implementation is verified using basic transport tests with idealized opacities and relaxation and deleptonization problems with tabulated microphysics. Spherically symmetric CCSN simulations demonstrate accuracy and robustness of the coupled scheme, including close agreement with the CCSN simulation code Chimera. An axisymmetric CCSN simulation further demonstrates the viability of DG-based neutrino transport for multidimensional supernova modeling within Flash-X. thornado's neutrino-transport solver is GPU-enabled using OpenMP offloading or OpenACC, and all CCSN applications included in this work use the GPU implementation. Together, these results establish a foundation for future enhancements in physics fidelity, numerical algorithms, and computational performance, for increasingly realistic large-scale CCSN simulations.

The accreting millisecond pulsar SAX J1808.4-3658 went into outburst from July to November in 2019 and August to October in 2022, which were observed by \textit{NICER} and \textit{NuSTAR}. In this paper, we first present the light curve for both outbursts using \textit{NICER} data. Several thermonuclear bursts occurred during these outbursts. We analyze the evolution of the spectra of two thermonuclear bursts that took place during the 2019 \textit{NuSTAR} observation. We proceed by analyzing the combined broad-band spectrum using \textit{NICER} and \textit{NuSTAR} for the first time for this source. We jointly modeled the combined quiescent spectra of both outbursts with a self-consistent reflection component. In our best-fit model, we find evidence of reflection, consistently constrain the inclination to 72°$^{+1°}_{-4°}$\, considering this reflection, and identify a 1 keV feature during persistent emission.

The detection and characterization of post-merger gravitational wave signals from binary neutron star mergers remains challenging with current ground-based detectors. We present a convolutional neural network framework designed for real-time detection and multi-mode frequency extraction of post-merger signals, achieving an inference latency of 3.0 ms and a frequency accuracy of 48.6 Hz on the direct-comparison subsets (53 Hz on the comprehensive test set). The framework is validated on realistic LIGO O4 detector noise including authentic GravitySpy glitch morphologies, demonstrating ROC AUC of 0.999999 and 99.998% detection efficiency at 1% false alarm rate. These exceptional performance metrics arise from an aggressive training augmentation strategy that exposes the network to artificially challenging conditions, enabling robust generalization to our synthetic O4 detector noise model. We compare performance against a simplified matched filtering baseline using Lorentzian templates (23x more accurate despite a 4.7x computational overhead) and Bayesian parameter estimation (1.2 million times faster), establishing complementary trade-offs in the analysis landscape. While current O4 sensitivity limits post-merger detections to ~20 Mpc (~1 detection per century), this methodology provides essential infrastructure for third-generation detectors (Einstein Telescope, Cosmic Explorer) where post-merger detection will become routine with annual detection rates exceeding 100 events. Our validation framework identifies expected behavior in uncertainty scaling that reflects realistic training constraints rather than idealized Fisher information limits, demonstrating honest assessment practices for machine learning applications in gravitational wave astronomy.

Context. The local (<200 pc away) young (<50 Myr old) stellar associations (LYSA) provide fundamental evidence for the study of the star formation process in the local neighbourhood. Aims. We aim at exploring robust statistical correlations in the internal kinematics of LYSAs and of these with age. Methods. We analyse a public data set containing the linear velocity field parameters and expansion ages of 18 LYSAs. We identify the most robust correlations using frequentist and Bayesian methods. Results. Among the 45 correlations, we identify only four that passed both frequentist and Bayesian criteria, with these four related to radial motions in the Galactic Z direction. We hypothesise several origins for these four correlations and identify the gravitational potential of the Galactic disk as the most likely driving element. It imprinted the observed motions in the parent molecular clouds, and once the stars were formed, it also damped these motions on a timescale shorter than the LYSAs' ages. Conclusions. The internal kinematics of local young stellar associations contain fundamental information about the star-formation process that is not fully addressed by star-formation theories, in particular, rotation and shear. Although the Galactic potential appears to be the driving force of these correlations, we urge the theoretical community to provide predictions about the internal motions of expansion, rotation, and shear of stellar associations.

Next-generation ground-based gravitational wave (GW) detectors are expected to observe millions of binary black hole mergers, a fraction of which will be strongly lensed by intervening galaxies or clusters, producing multiple images with characteristic distribution of time delay. Importantly, the predicted rate and properties of such events are sensitive to the abundance and distribution of strong lensing objects which directly depends on cosmological models. One such scenario posits the existence of supermassive primordial black holes (SMPBHs) in the early universe, which would enhance the formation of dark matter halos. This mechanism has been proposed to explain the abundance of high-redshift galaxies observed by James Webb Space Telescope. Crucially, the same cosmological model with SMPBHs would also leave a distinct imprint on the population of strongly lensed GWs. It predicts both an increased event rate and a modified distribution of time delays between the multiple images. Therefore, we propose statistical measurements of the rate and time delay distribution of strong lensing GW events as a powerful probe to directly constrain the abundance of SMPBHs. Considering $\Lambda$CDM cosmology with (non-)clustered SMPBHs, we find that the abundance of SMPBHs $f_{\rm PBH}$ with masses above $10^8~M_{\odot}$ is constrained to be $\sim10^{-4}$ at $95\%$ confidence level. It will be comparable and complementary to the currently available constraint from large scale structure observations.

Galaxy clusters provide an ideal laboratory for investigating the chemical enrichment history of the universe because they host the hot intracluster medium (ICM), which contains various chemical elements. The X-ray observations have constituted a unique way to measure the element abundance and composition of the ICM due to their prominent emission lines in the 0.1-10 keV range. We explore the metal abundances and chemical enrichment in the cool-core galaxy cluster, Ophiuchus, by using a 217 ks XRISM data set. The abundances of Si, S, Ar, Ca, Cr, Mn, Fe, and Ni are accurately determined using high-resolution spectroscopy. We find that the average uncertainties of chemical composition, which are reported as X/Fe ratios, are only 10-20%. The X/Fe abundance pattern of the Ophiuchus centre is remarkably consistent with solar, which is reminiscent of the Hitomi constraint on the Perseus core. The observed abundance pattern can be replicated globally by linear combination models of core-collapse, including massive progenitors, and Type Ia supernovae. While nucleosynthesis models typically underestimate the Ca/Fe ratio, a substantial contribution of Ca-rich gap transients may help improve the deficit of Ca. High-resolution spectroscopic data can enable us to estimate the underlying impact on the chemical enrichment from subclasses of Type Ia supernovae.

Fluctuation dynamos provide a robust mechanism for amplifying weak seed magnetic fields in turbulent astrophysical plasmas. However, their behaviour in the highly compressible regimes characteristic of the interstellar medium (ISM) remains incompletely understood. Using high-resolution 3D magnetohydrodynamic simulations of supersonic turbulence with rms Mach number $\mathcal{M}_{\rm rms} \approx 11$, we explore fluctuation dynamos across magnetic Prandtl numbers ${\rm Pm} = 1-10$. At ${\rm Pm} = 1$, dynamo growth is slower and saturates at lower magnetic-to-kinetic energy ratios, with amplification in the kinematic phase dominated by compression rather than line stretching. In contrast, at ${\rm Pm} = 10$, vortical stretching emerges as the dominant mechanism, yielding faster growth, higher saturation levels, and stronger suppression of density-magnetic field correlations by magnetic pressure. This transition is reflected in the correlation coefficient between density and magnetic field strength, which is strongly positive at ${\rm Pm} = 1$ but decreases significantly at higher ${\rm Pm}$. Across all runs, the ratio of velocity-to-magnetic integral scales is $\sim 3.4$, independent of ${\rm Pm}$, while the ratio of viscous to resistive dissipation scales increase with the increase in ${\rm Pm}$. Synthetic Faraday rotation measures (RM) reveal coherence lengths of $\sim (1/4-1/3)$ of the forcing scale across the range of ${\rm Pm}$ explored. Using these coherence scales, we discuss the potential contribution of fluctuation dynamos to Faraday rotation expected from turbulent, gas rich young disk galaxies.

We investigate induced Compton scattering of a circularly polarized Alfvén wave propagating in a magnetized electron-positron pair plasma using one-dimensional Particle-in-Cell (PIC) simulations. In this system, two distinct modes of density fluctuations, referred to as the charged mode and the neutral mode, are theoretically expected to arise through parametric instabilities. Our simulations confirm these predictions: in the charged mode, the electron and positron densities fluctuate oppositely (Langmuir-like), while in the neutral mode, the charge is Debye-screened and both species fluctuate in phase (acoustic-like). The linear growth rates obtained from the simulations are in good agreement with analytical estimates for both modes. We also find that, in some cases, the linear growth saturates before full scattering occurs, allowing the incident wave to propagate without significant attenuation. Our results allow us to determine whether induced Compton scattering grows linearly in magnetized pair plasmas, offering a foundation for studies of fast radio bursts and laser-plasma experiments.

This article reviews the emerging field of exo-geoscience, focusing on the geological and geophysical processes thought to influence the evolution and (eu)habitability of rocky exoplanets. We examine the possible roles of planetary interiors, tectonic regimes, continental coverage, volatile cycling, magnetic fields, and atmospheric composition and evolution in shaping long-term climate stability and biospheric potential. Comparisons with Earth and other planets in the Solar System highlight the diversity of planetary conditions and the rarity of conditions relevant to life. We also discuss contingency and convergence in planetary and biological evolution as they relate to the spread of life in the universe. The observational limits of current and planned missions are assessed, emphasizing the need for models that connect internal dynamics to detectable atmospheric and surface signatures as well as the need for laboratory measurements of planetary properties under a wide range of conditions. The large number of exoplanets promises opportunities for empirical and statistical studies of processes that may have occurred earlier in Earth's history, as well as of the other pathways rocky planets and biospheres may take. Thus, exo-geoscience provides a framework for interpreting exoplanet diversity and refining strategies for detecting life beyond the Solar System.

We present results from a seven-season (2018-2024) monitoring campaign of the gravitationally lensed quasar system PS J2305+3714 using the 1.5-m Maidanak Telescope in the optical R-band. From these data, the amplitude of possible microlensing variability does not exceed 10 mmag on a 7-yr timescale. Additionally, we measure a time delay of $t_{AB}$ = 52.2$\pm$2.5 days, with the brighter image A leading. Long-slit \WHT spectroscopy refines the quasar redshift to $z_s$ = 1.791 and provides the first measurement of the lens redshift, $z_d$ = 0.473. The flux ratios of the quasar images in the MgII $\lambda$2800 emission line and in the adjacent continuum are nearly identical, indicating minimal microlensing effects in the spectral domain, which is consistent with the very weak microlensing signal in the time domain. Using precise astrometry from recent HST imaging and the MgII flux ratio, we also built two simple mass models for the lens system. The close agreement between the measured delay and those predicted by the mass models, measured redshifts, and a concordance $\Lambda$CDM cosmology, confirms the robustness of our results and highlights PS J2305+3714 as a promising system for future time-delay cosmography.

Comprehensive cosmological analysis of an effective non-standard dark matter(NSDM) model, characterized by an equation of state $w_{\mathrm{dm}} = w_2 a^2$, which allows for mild deviations from the previously assumed pressureless cold dark matter, is elaborated in the present work. This effective description framework is the scenarios that matter contents coupled to three distinct single-parameter dynamical dark energy models: i.e, the thawing scalar field, the Modified Emergent Dark Energy(MEDE) scenario, and the constant-$w$ model. We constrain these frameworks by using the latest cosmological probes, including the Planck 2018 Cosmic Microwave Background(CMB) distance priors, the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation(BAO) measurements from the Data Release 2 of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument(DESI), and three compilations of Type Ia Supernovae(SN Ia) namely the Dark Energy Survey Year 5 (DESY5) compilation, the Union3 compilation, and the PantheonPlus (PP) sample. Across all three dark energy scenarios and all dataset combinations, we find a consistent preference for negative values of the parameter $w_2$. Furthermore, this result is robust against the choice of dark energy parametrization, suggesting a model-independent deviation from "standard" cold dark matter. This result indicates that the dark matter fluid possesses a small but non-vanishing negative pressure, meaning a non-cold nature. While the inferred Hubble constant $H_0$ remains consistent with the Planck $\Lambda$CDM value and does not fully alleviate the $H_0$ tension with local measurements, the persistent detection of $w_2 < 0$ across a wide range of independent cosmological probes provides compelling evidence for new physics in the dark matter sector -- suggesting that dark matter may be better described as an effective fluid endowed with a mild negative pressure, rather than as a perfectly cold, pressureless substance.

Ejecta from core-collapse supernovae interact with the circumstellar medium shed by the progenitor star, producing X-ray emission. Previous studies analyzed the X-ray spectrum of the Type IIb supernova SN 2011dh up to 500 days after explosion. Long-term monitoring of X-ray emission provides valuable constraints on supernova evolution and progenitor systems, yet such studies remain rare for Type IIb events due to limited data. Here we present the most comprehensive X-ray light curve of SN 2011dh to date, combining all available Chandra and XMM-Newton data with previously published and newly released Swift observations, extending coverage to 5100 days. We measure a luminosity decline proportional to t$^{-0.74 \pm 0.04}$ and infer a mass-loss rate of $(1.0-2.2) \times 10^{-6}$ solar masses per year for $v_w = 10$ km/s, or $(2.0-4.4) \times 10^{-6} $ solar masses per year for $v_w = 20$ km/s. These estimates agree with earlier results, supporting the interpretation that the X-ray emission has been dominated by an adiabatic reverse shock. The consistency of our late-time results with previous studies demonstrates that SN 2011dh has evolved steadily for nearly 14 years.

The detection and reconstruction of gravitational waves from core-collapse supernovae (CCSN) present significant challenges due to the highly stochastic nature of the signals and the complexity of detector noise. In this work, we introduce a deep learning framework utilizing a ResNet-50 encoder pre-trained via supervised contrastive learning to classify CCSN signals and distinguish them from instrumental noise artifacts. Our approach explicitly optimizes the feature space to maximize intra-class compactness and inter-class separability. Using a simulated four-detector network (LIGO Hanford, LIGO Livingston, Virgo, and KAGRA) and realistic datasets injecting magnetorotational and neutrino-driven waveforms, we demonstrate that the contrastive learning paradigm establishes a superior metric structure within the embedding space, significantly enhancing detection efficiency. At a false positive rate of $10^{-4}$, our method achieves a true positive rate (TPR) of nearly $100\%$ for both rotational and neutrino-driven signals within a distance range of $10$--$200$~kpc, while maintaining a TPR of approximately $80\%$ at $1200$~kpc. In contrast, traditional end-to-end methods yield a TPR below $20\%$ for rotational signals at distances $\geq 200$~kpc, and fail to exceed $60\%$ for neutrino-driven signals even at a close proximity of $10$~kpc.

Heavy Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) remain a prominent yet less constrained dark matter (DM) candidate, with the Galactic Centre (GC) serving as a prime target for indirect detection via gamma-ray signals. Extending our previous work that highlighted the significance of secondary inverse Compton (IC) emission from annihilation-produced electrons, we expand the analysis to a broader range of WIMP masses and introduce a more realistic spatially-dependent modelling framework for the GC environment. This approach incorporates complexities such as the three-dimensional DM distribution, spatially varying radiation and magnetic fields, and electron transport mechanisms like Galactic winds and diffusion. We assess the impact of these environmental factors on both the spatial and spectral characteristics of the resulting secondary emissions. Our results demonstrate the robustness and necessity of incorporating this emission, and highlight its role in enhancing the prospects for detecting heavy WIMPs through observations of the inner Galaxy. We provide the resulting data products to the community to support future analyses and observational studies.

Neutron star mergers hold the key to several grand challenges of contemporary (astro-)physics. In view of the upcoming next generation of ground-based detectors, it is crucial to keep improving theoretical predictions to harvest the full scientific returns from these investments. We introduce here a substantial update of our Lagrangian numerical relativity code SPHINCS_BSSN. Apart from changing our unit system, we add constraint damping terms to the BSSN spacetime evolution equations. We demonstrate that this measure reduces, without noteworthy computational cost, the Hamiltonian constraint violations by more than an order of magnitude. We further implement contributions to thermal energy and pressure that are based on Fermi liquid theory and contain a parametrization of the Dirac effective mass. These terms can be combined with any cold equation of state, and they enhance the physical realism of our simulations and introduce a physics-based concept of a temperature. In a set of merger simulations, we demonstrate good agreement with other temperature-dependent numerical relativity simulations. We find that different parametrizations of the Dirac effective mass can translate into shifts of $\sim 150$ Hz in the dominant post-merger gravitational wave peak frequency.

The life-cycle, structure, and dynamics of the interstellar medium (ISM) is regulated by turbulence. Complex physical processes, including supernova (SN) explosions, shear, and gravitational collapse, drive and maintain turbulence, but it is still an open question what turbulence driving mode is primarily excited by these different mechanisms. The turbulence driving parameter, b, can be used to quantify the ratio of solenoidal to compressive modes in the acceleration field that drives the turbulence. Compressive driving is characterised by b ~ 1, while purely solenoidal driving gives b ~ 0.3. To quantify the turbulence in the galactic ISM, we investigate the time evolution of b, as well as the turbulent Mach number, and plasma beta (thermal-to-magnetic pressure ratio), and its correlation with star formation in the magnetised warm neutral medium (WNM) of the TIGRESS shearing-box simulations of a kpc-sized patch of a Milky-Way-like galaxy, over a 100 Myr time period (~ half an orbital time). In this simulation the turbulence is driven by a combination of shear, gravitational collapse, and star formation feedback in the form of radiation and SNe. We find that the turbulence driving parameter fluctuates in time between b ~ 0.4 and b ~ 1. We find a time-dependent correlation of b with star formation activity, such that high star formation rates follow about one turbulent turnover time (~ 10 Myr) after phases of highly compressive driving (b > 0.5). About 20 Myr after the peak in star formation, type-B SN feedback drives up the WNM fraction and turbulent Mach numbers, and reduces plasma beta and the driving to b ~ 0.4-0.5.

The rapid depletion of dust particles in protoplanetary disks limits the time available for planetesimal formation, as solids are typically accreted onto the central star before dust particles can undergo substantial growth. Dust traps formed at sharp viscosity transitions $-$ such as at the edges of the accretionally inactive dead zones $-$ can halt radial drift and enhance dust coagulation. In this study, dust dynamics is investigated using \texttt{RAPID}, a one-dimensional Lagrangian-Eulerian simulation code that tracks representative particle trajectories over time. In order to explore the effect of physical parameters on dust evolution, a grid of 243 models was run. The simulation grid covers a range of parameters such as viscosity, width of the transition region at the edges of the dead zone, disk surface density exponent, and the collisional fragmentation velocity of the dust particles. The computational domain extends from 1 to 50 AU and covers $5\times10^5$ years of disk evolution, assuming a disk mass of $\sim 0.005\,M_\odot$. The results show that pressure maxima can trap up to $3-10\,M_\oplus$ of dust, depending on the local disk conditions. However, increasing the fragmentation velocity, decreasing the viscosity, or widening the dead zone transition width tends to reduce the effectiveness of dust trapping. The simulation results with \texttt{RAPID} reveal that dust evolution is highly sensitive to the physical conditions of the disk, which governs the early stages of planetesimal growth.

Context: Quantitative spectroscopy of luminous blue stars relies on detailed non-LTE model atmospheres whose increasing physical realism makes direct, iterative analyses computationally demanding. Aims: We introduce MAUI (Machine-learning Assisted Uncertainty Inference), a statistical framework designed for efficient Bayesian inference of stellar parameters using emulator-based spectral models. Methods: MAUI employs Gaussian-process-based emulators trained on a limited set of non-LTE simulations, combined with Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling to explore posterior distributions. We validate the approach with recovery experiments and demonstrate it on Galactic late-type O dwarf and early-type B dwarf/subgiant stars. Results: The emulator reproduces the predictions of full atmosphere models within quoted uncertainties while reducing computational cost by orders of magnitude. Posterior distributions are well calibrated, with conservative coverage across all stellar parameters. Conclusions: Emulator-driven Bayesian inference retains the accuracy of classical analyses at a fraction of the computational expense, enabling posterior sampling that would be prohibitive with direct model evaluations. This positions emulators as a practical tool for high-fidelity spectroscopy of massive stars as atmosphere models grow more demanding.

We present a systematic investigation of X-ray spectral variability of Seyfert 1 galaxies using a ``spectral-ratio model fitting'' technique, which we developed to estimate contribution of the putative clumpy absorbers to the spectral variations. Archival XMM-Newton observations of 12 active galactic nuclei were analyzed to constrain properties of these absorbers. Our analysis demonstrates that the soft X-ray variability is primarily governed by fluctuation of the partial covering fraction of mildly ionized clumpy clouds. In particular, for Mrk 335, PDS 456, and 1H 0707-495, outflow velocities of the clumpy absorbers are constrained from the blue-shifts of the Fe-L edge structure. The blue-shifted Fe-L edge successfully reproduces the well-known complex spectral feature near 1 keV in 1H 0707--495, which was often explained by invoking an ad hoc absorption structure. Notably, the inferred outflow velocities of the clumpy absorbers are comparable to, or even exceed, those associated with the Ultra-Fast Outflows (UFOs). Furthermore, we found a positive correlation between the outflow velocities and the intrinsic X-ray fluxes in two of four data sets, and the remaining two datasets also agree with this positive correlation, which supports a radiative-driven wind scenario that the X-ray/UV emission from the central black holes is causing the UFOs and the outflowing clumpy absorbers. In addition, the line-driven acceleration is likely playing a significant role, since the line opacities of the clumpy absorbers are highly sensitive to the flux changes. These findings provide a robust observational support for the ``hot inner and clumpy outer wind'' paradigm, suggesting a common origin for both the UFOs and the clumpy absorbers.

The numerical calculation of optical properties (extinction, absorption, scattering and polarisation efficiencies) is often time-consuming for non-spherical and inhomogeneous particles. Where possible analytical methods are therefore to be preferred. We provide an analytical tool to derive the optical properties of mantled spheroidal particles, of arbitrary axis ratio, in the long wavelength limit (a << lambda), where the mantle form may be confocal, co-axial or of constant depth with respect to the particle core. We have developed an analytical approach to spheroidal core/mantle particle optical property calculations. The analytical method compares well with DDSCAT numerical calculations and, under limited circumstances, with those made using the Bruggemann effective medium theory (EMT).The analytical method presented here provides a useful tool to explore the optical and polarisation properties of core/mantle spheroidal particles at long wavelengths (lambda >~ 8mu) and is simpler and faster to implement than corresponding numerical methods. We caution against the use of EMT methods in approximating the optical properties of core/mantle particles.

Cosmology has entered an era of unprecedented precision, yet increasing accuracy has revealed cracks in the standard $\Lambda$CDM paradigm. Although the model remains highly successful when confronted with individual datasets, joint analyses expose a network of tensions involving the Hubble constant, CMB lensing, curvature, neutrino masses, and the nature of dark energy. In this contribution to the 3rd General Meeting of the COST Action COSMIC WISPers (CA21106), within the context of Working Group~2, we critically assess these discrepancies, emphasizing the role of model assumptions, parameter degeneracies, and dataset consistency. We review proposed early- and late-time solutions, discuss how recent DESI BAO results alter the viability of late-time extensions, and explore interacting dark-sector scenarios. Our analysis highlights the need for caution in interpreting cosmological measurements and underscores the importance of internal consistency among cosmological probes before claiming percent-level accuracy or invoking new physics.

IceCube observations point to Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) as promising contributors to the observed astrophysical neutrino flux. Close to the central black hole, protons can be accelerated through magnetic reconnection to very high energies and subsequently interact with abundant X-ray photons in the source, leading to neutrino production. We investigate whether the diffuse neutrino flux observed by IceCube can originate, via proton acceleration, in reconnection-powered coronae of non-jetted AGN. We create a library of neutrino spectral templates, over a large grid of values for the three key model parameters: the proton plasma magnetization of the corona $\sigma_{\rm p}$, the X-ray coronal luminosity, and the black hole mass. Synchrotron cooling of pions and muons plays a significant role due to the large coronal magnetic fields. We couple the single-source model with a mock AGN catalog, consistent with the observed X-ray and mid-infrared AGN samples at redshifts $z=0-4$, to infer the diffuse neutrino flux. Coronal emission satisfactorily explains the most recent IceCube measurements of the diffuse neutrino flux up to energies of $\sim 1$~PeV, provided that $\sim$10\% of the AGN coronae have $\sigma_{\rm p} \sim 10^5$, while the rest are distributed over a range of lower magnetizations. Coronal emission is suppressed at higher energies by pion and muon cooling, so that another population is required, with jetted AGN being strong candidates.

We report the discovery of giant pulse (GP) emission from the transitional millisecond pulsar (tMSP) PSR J1227$-$4853, using 174 hours of single-pulse data from the upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (uGMRT). This marks the first detection of GPs from a transitional MSP and adds to the small number of millisecond pulsars known to exhibit such extreme variability. A total of 235 GPs were detected across observations at 550-750 MHz, with widths as narrow as $1.28~\mu s$ and flux densities up to $\sim 10^4$ times the pulsar's mean flux density. The GPs are strongly localized in pulse phase, originating predominantly from the second and third main-pulse components, and are absent in the inter-pulse region. The arrival times of the GPs deviate significantly from Poisson statistics, with the waiting-time distribution well described by a Weibull model having a shape parameter of $k = 0.30$, indicative of strong temporal clustering. During an epoch of enhanced activity, the GP rate increased by nearly two orders of magnitude to $124~\mathrm{hr}^{-1}$, with a corresponding shape parameter of $k = 0.47$. This value is similar to that reported for a burst storm from the repeating fast radio burst FRB 20200120E, suggesting possible phenomenological parallels between GPs from compact binary systems and repeating FRBs.

Plateau features are frequently observed in the afterglows of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), yet their physical origins remain under debate. In this work, we compile a sample of 124 GRBs with known redshifts and simultaneous X-ray and optical afterglow observations. We categorize them into four subsets based on the existence of plateaus and the bands in which they appear. Namely, Dataset 1: plateaus are detected simultaneously in both X-ray and optical bands (75 bursts); Dataset 2: plateaus are only in X-rays (15 bursts); Dataset 3: plateaus appear only in the optical (17 bursts); Dataset 4: no plateaus in either band (17 bursts). We employ these datasets to test the applicability of the energy-injection model by examining whether the temporal decay index $\alpha$ and the spectral index $\beta$ of GRB afterglows simultaneously satisfy the closure relations in X-ray and optical bands. We find that 47 bursts of Dataset 1 simultaneously obey the closure relations in both bands under the conditions of the electron spectral index $p>2$ and the injection parameter $q\in (0, 0.5)$, and 69 of the dataset for $p>1$ and $q\in (0, 0.8)$, providing a strong support for the energy-injection interpretation. However, for Datasets 2 and 3, although $\alpha$ and $\beta$ of the plateaus mostly satisfy the closure relations, those in the other band show significant deviations, which implies that bursts with a single-band plateau are inconsistent with the interpretation of energy injection. Furthermore, we also compare the isotropic X-ray energy of plateaus with the rotational energy budget of millisecond magnetars.

In gravitational lensing, the Mass-Sheet Transformation (MST)-or mass-sheet degeneracy-leaves image positions unchanged while scaling magnifications and time delays. The transformation scales the lens mass distribution and superposes a uniform mass sheet, but this formulation offers no clear physical interpretation. Here I show that the MST follows directly from a scaling symmetry that becomes apparent when the ray-trace relation is written in proper-distance coordinates. In this form, the ray-trace relation isolates a geometric focusing term. Subtracting this term from the deflection law defines the Image-Selection Relation (ISR), which determines image positions, magnifications, and differential time delays. The ISR exhibits a scaling symmetry that leaves image positions unchanged while scaling magnifications and time delays. Restoring the geometric focusing term then gives a ray-trace relation related to the original one by the Mass-Sheet Transformation.

Correctly interpreting JWST spectra of close-in exoplanets requires a measurement of the X-ray and ultraviolet light that the planets receive from their host stars. Here we provide spectral energy distributions (SEDs) covering the range $\approx5-1\times10^7$A for 20 transiting exoplanet host stars observed in JWST Cycle 1. The SEDs are constructed out of new and archival Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory and/or XMM-Newton data combined with spectra from models or stars with similar properties (proxies) filling in unobserved gaps. We have also constructed SEDs of likely Habitable Worlds Observatory targets $\kappa^1$ Ceti, $\tau$ Ceti, $\epsilon$ Indi and 70 Oph B for use as proxies. We find that the JWST target planets almost all experience much stronger ultraviolet fluxes than the Earth, especially in the extreme ultraviolet, even for planets with similar overall instellation. Strong ongoing or past atmospheric escape is possible for a majority of these planets. We also assess the now considerable sample of panchromatic stellar SEDs and its applicability for current JWST observations and beyond.

We present theoretical predictions for solar-like oscillators in the pre-main sequence phase of stellar evolution. Our pre-main sequence models start from a stellar seed of 0.01 solar masses that gains mass through accretion, offering an alternative description to the classical approach segmented into the Hayashi and Henyey tracks. Evolutionary models are calculated using the \mesa stellar evolution code with a custom accretion routine and pulsation properties are investigated using the \GYRE oscillation code. We present evolutionary tracks and internal structures for accreting pre-main sequence solar-like stars in the mass range from 0.7 to 1.6 solar masses, adopting 35 mass accretion histories previously extracted from two-dimensional magneto-hydrodynamical simulations. Atmospheric parameters of our models constrain characteristic frequencies of pre-main sequence solar-like oscillators to be generally greater than 500 $\mu\text{Hz}$. We highlight the imprint of accretion on the buoyancy and Lamb profiles and illustrate the effects on the small- and large frequency separations. We additionally quantify individual frequency differences across the 35 accretion histories at the zero-age main-sequence, showcasing differences no larger than $20 \ \mu\text{Hz}$ for an exemplary model. Finally, we discuss the potential of detecting solar-like oscillations in pre-main sequence stars with the upcoming ESA PLATO mission.

We present a spectro-polarimetric re-analysis of the first IXPE observation of Cygnus X-2 which we determine to be mainly in the normal branch, from quasi-simultaneous observations with NuSTAR, NICER, and INTEGRAL. We measure the hard X-ray polarization angle and find it to be consistent with the previously measured position angle of the radio jet. Leveraging NuSTAR's detection of both the relativistic Fe K emission line and the Compton hump, we constrain the flux contribution of the reflected emission from the inner accretion disk to be 10% of the total X-ray flux in the IXPE energy band. Unlike previous studies that modeled only the Fe K emission line, we fit the full-band reflection spectrum using a fully relativistic disk model. There is strong degeneracy between the Comptonized and reflection components. Given that the Comptonized component is not expected to be highly polarized, a polarization degree of approximately 20% for the reflection component could explain the X-ray polarization data from IXPE. We also discuss the disk inclination angle inferred from our spectro-polarimetric modeling, as well as other possible explanations for the data.

We present the deepest clustering analysis of early galaxies to date, analyzing $N_{\rm{g}} \simeq 6500$ photometrically-selected Lyman Break Galaxies from JWST's Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES) to reveal how galaxies and dark matter evolved during cosmic dawn ($5 \leq z < 11$). Using halo occupation distribution (HOD) modeling of the two-point angular correlation function, we trace the galaxy-halo relationships across the first billion years of cosmic history. Our analysis reveals that galaxies at $z = 10.6$ reside in dark matter halos over an order of magnitude less massive ($M_{\rm{h}} \sim 10^{10.12} M_{\odot}$) than their counterparts at $z = 5.5$ ($M_{\rm{h}} \sim 10^{11.45} M_{\odot}$), while exhibiting correspondingly higher effective bias values ($b_{\rm{g}}^{\rm{eff}} = 8.13^{+0.04}_{-0.02}$ compared to $5.64^{+0.10}_{-0.13}$). Correspondingly, the satellite galaxy fraction hints at a declining trend with decreasing redshift, reaching $<1\%$ by $z \sim 5-6$. However, the significant systematic and random uncertainties in the data-model comparison prevent us from drawing robust conclusions on the evolution - if any - of the satellite fraction during the epoch of reionization. These results provide the first view of the coevolution between galaxies and dark matter evolved at redshift $\gtrsim 10$, offering additional and independent constraints on early galaxy formation models tuned to reproducing luminosity function evolution.

We present the spectroscopic confirmation and in-depth analysis of AURORA-LQG1, a low-mass quiescent galaxy at $z_{\rm spec}=2.0834$ with $\log(M_\star/M_\odot)=9.6$ observed with medium-resolution JWST/NIRSpec spectroscopy. The deep medium-resolution spectrum enables the measurement of its stellar velocity dispersion ($\sigma_\star = 95_{-33}^{+38}\,{\rm km\,s^{-1}}$), the smallest value recorded among spectroscopically confirmed quiescent galaxies at $z\sim2$. Coupled with a compact size ($0.41\pm0.03\, {\rm kpc}$), it yields a dynamical mass estimate of $\log(M_{\rm dyn}/M_\odot)=9.75_{-0.38}^{+0.29}$. Its star formation history suggests that half of the stellar mass was in place $\sim1\,{\rm Gyr}$ before the observed epoch, with quenching occurring $\sim0.2\,{\rm Gyr}$ prior to $z=2.08$. These results confirm that AURORA-LQG1 is genuinely quenched, rather than in a temporary phase of suppressed star formation rate. AURORA-LQG1 is consistent with the mass fundamental plane at $z\sim2$, previously constrained only by massive quiescent systems. Compared with more massive counterparts at the same epoch observed with NIRSpec grating spectroscopy, the time since quenching for AURORA-LQG1 is among the shortest observed. The galaxy resides in a possible dense group-scale ($\sim50$ kpc) environment containing one companion with tentative spectroscopic redshift and five companion candidates, and it is embedded in a known protocluster on Mpc scales. A potential environmental influence on its evolution could explain the outside-in quenching suggested by the positive gradient of size with wavelength. This study demonstrates that deep JWST/NIRSpec spectroscopy enables low-mass quiescent galaxies at Cosmic Noon to be characterized with a level of detail long reserved for massive systems, offering valuable new insights into how quenching operates in these underexplored low-mass systems. [Abridged]

Context. Different modes of oscillations are frequently observed in solar prominences/filaments, and prominence seismology helps estimate important physical parameters like the magnetic field strength. Although the simultaneous detection of longitudinal and transverse oscillations in the same filament is not common, such rare observations provide a unique opportunity to constrain the physical parameters of interest. Aims. In this study, we aim to estimate the physical parameters of prominences undergoing simultaneous longitudinal and transverse oscillations. Methods. We apply Bayesian seismology techniques to observations of longitudinal and transverse filament oscillations to infer the magnetic field strength, the length, and the number of twists in the flux tube holding the prominence plasma. We first use the observations of longitudinal oscillations and the pendulum model to infer the posterior probability density for the magnetic field strength. The obtained marginal posterior of the magnetic field, combined with the observations of the transverse oscillations, is then used to estimate the probable values of the length of the magnetic flux tube that supports the filament material using Bayesian inference. This estimated length is used to compute the number of twists in the flux tube. Results. For the prominences under study, we find that the length of the flux tubes supporting the quiescent prominences can be very large (from 100 to 1000 Mm) and the number of twists in the flux tube are not more than three. Conclusions. Our results demonstrate that Bayesian analysis offers valuable methods to perform parameter inference in the context of prominence seismology.

We aim to constrain the kinetic temperature and H$_2$ volume density of massive star-forming clumps associated with HII regions using multiple para-H$_2$CO transitions. In addition, we investigate the interplay between ionized gas, molecular gas, and dust to probe how massive stars influence their parental clumps. We observed the $J_{K_aK_c}$ transitions of para-H2CO (within its J = 3-2 and 4-3 states) with the Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment (APEX) 12 m submillimeter telescope using the nFLASH230 and SEPIA345 receivers towards a sample of 61 HII regions. Spectral line parameters are derived via multi-component Gaussian fitting, which was then used to constrain the physical conditions determined using PyRADEX, a non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) radiative transfer code in combination with Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) analysis. The non-LTE analysis yielded kinetic temperatures ($T_{kin}$) ranging from 33.7 K to 265 K and H2 densities (n(H$_2$)) between 0.8 X $10^4$ to 1.05 X $10^7$ cm$^{-3}$, providing a detailed characterization of the dense molecular gas contained in these clumps. In addition to the para-H$_2$CO emission arising from the targeted clump a large fraction (57%) of the sources exhibit multiple para-H$_2$CO components, with the secondary components being characterized by higher $T_{kin}$ and broader linewidths. Investigating the nature of the secondary component revealed its association with supersonic non-thermal motions and turbulent gas. When comparing the physical properties of the molecular gas and dust components with those of the ionizing gas, we find that parameters directly linked to the central high-mass star such as bolometric luminosity and Lyman continuum photon rate, show stronger and more systematic correlations. Emphasizing the role of the central star in governing the interplay between the molecular and ionized gas.(Abridged)

The discovery of heavy radioactive elements (e.g., $^{60}\mathrm{Fe}$) on Earth suggests that supernova explosions may have occurred near our planet within the past million years, potentially having a significant impact on the ecological environment. This finding has motivated the search for nearby neutron stars in the Solar neighborhood. In a recent study, a candidate for one of the closest neutron stars to Earth, LAMOST J235456.73+335625.9 (hereafter J2354), was reported. Based on dynamical mass measurements under different inclination angle assumptions, the inferred mass range for the unseen compact companion in the system is $1.4$--$1.6$ $M_{\odot}$. Hence, the unseen companion in J2354 is either a massive cold white dwarf or a neutron star. Here we model the flux variations of J2354 as a combination of ellipsoidal modulation and surface spots. We test both cold spot and hot spot models, setting the number of spots to two in each case, and constrain the spot properties through light curve fitting. In the cold spot scenario, the spots are mostly visible at phases $0.5$--$0.75$, whereas in the hot spot scenario, the spots appear predominantly at phases $0.25$--$0.5$. The hot spot model shows better agreement with the observed H$\alpha$ phase variation than the cold spot model. Furthermore, the thermal radiation of a massive but cold white dwarf cannot produce the level of localized heating required to explain the hot spot unless additional heating mechanisms are involved; in contrast, a neutron star can naturally provide such heating through energetic winds. Our results are consistent with the neutron star interpretation of the compact object in J2354.

AGN hosting water megamaser disks enable exceptionally precise geometric determinations of Black Hole (BH) mass, distance, inclination, and dynamical center. In anticipation of upcoming space-based very long baseline Interferometry (SVLBI) missions, megamaser disk AGN offer a uniquely valuable probe of strong-gravity regimes through black hole shadow (BHS) imaging beyond Sgr~A* and M87*. In this work, we (1) map the predicted BHS diameters of twenty-one of the most precisely characterized megamaser disk AGN to submillimeter-millimeter (submm-mm) interferometric baseline requirements, (2) estimate their respective AGN-core flux densities at submm-mm wavelengths, accounting for thermal-dust contamination, extended-jet emission, and intrinsic variability, and (3) determine the astrometric precision required to detect spin-dependent positional offsets between the BHS and the megamaser disk dynamical center. NGC~4258 stands out as the only megamaser disk AGN detectable on Earth-L2 baselines in the submm-mm regime, while other megamaser disk AGN in the sample would require baselines approaching Earth-L4/L5 distances; moreover, only a handful exhibit flux densities above $\sim$10~mJy. Our results further indicate a submillimeter excess in NGC~4258, suggesting that the accretion disk remains thin down to a transitional radius of $\lesssim 100$~Schwarzschild radii, within which the flow becomes advection dominated. For a maximally spinning supermassive black hole in NGC~4258, we show that the astrometric precision of the BHS centroid necessary to detect the BHS-dynamical center offset could, in principle, be achieved with Earth-Moon baselines; however, it would also demand astrometric precision of the water maser dynamical center roughly fifty times better than what is currently attainable.

For satellites in the cislunar space, solar radiation pressure (SRP) is the third largest perturbation, which is only less significant than the lunisolar gravity perturbations. It is the primary factor limiting the accuracy of orbit determination for such satellites. Up to now, numerous SRP models have been proposed for artificial satellites close to the Earth, but these models have their shortcomings when applied to satellites in the cislunar space. In this study, we concentrate on various scenarios of cislunar satellites in periodic or quasi-periodic orbits. We first employ the box-wing model to simulate the SRP effects and then propose an appropriate general SRP model based on these simulations, termed Empirical NJU Cislunar Model (ENCM). Additionally, several scenario-specific sub-models suited to different mission profiles are developed. Furthermore, the proposed model is verified in the orbit determination process. Comparisons with the conventional cannonball and ECOM models demonstrate that the ENCM model yields a significant improvement in orbit determination accuracy, showing promising potential for future cislunar missions.

We explore systematically the shocked gas in the first Galactic quadrant of the Milky Way using the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) Wide-field Infrared Survey for Fe+ (UWIFE). The UWIFE survey is the first imaging survey of the Milky Way in the [Fe II] 1.644 um emission line and covers the Galactic plane in the first Galactic quadrant (7 deg < l < 62 deg; |b| < 1.5 deg). We identify 204 extended ionized Fe objects (IFOs) using a combination of a manual and automatic search. Most of the IFOs are detected for the first time in the [Fe II] 1.644 um line. We present a catalog of the measured sizes and fluxes of the IFOs and searched for their counterparts by performing positional cross-matching with known sources. We found that IFOs are associated with supernova remnants (25), young stellar objects (100), H II regions (33), planetary nebulae (17), and luminous blue variables (4). The statistical and morphological properties are discussed for each of these.

Recent Sun-as-a-star studies have shown that postflare loops can manifest as a secondary peak in the H$\alpha$ light curve, suggesting that stellar postflare loops are detectable. To understand what determines the timing of such a secondary peak in the H$\alpha$ light curve associated with postflare loops, we must quantitatively identify the key physical processes controlling the appearance of H$\alpha$ postflare loops. Previous case studies have indicated that the appearance timing of H$\alpha$ postflare loops is likely governed by radiative cooling. However, the statistical characteristics of the timing of H$\alpha$ postflare loops appearance remain insufficiently investigated. In this study, we statistically investigated the appearance timing of H$\alpha$ postflare loops to quantify their cooling processes. As a result, we found a negative correlation between the time difference between the soft X-ray peak and the appearance of the H$\alpha$ postflare loops ($\Delta t$) and the soft X-ray peak flux ($F_\mathrm{X}$). This relationship is consistent with the theoretical scaling between radiative cooling timescale ($\tau_{\mathrm{rad}}$) and $F_\mathrm{X}$, where $\tau_{\mathrm{rad}} \propto~F_\mathrm{X}^{-1/2}$. This statistical result indicates that the appearance timing of H$\alpha$ postflare loops relative to the soft X-ray peak is primarily controlled by radiative cooling. Furthermore, we examined the dependence of the scaling law on flare spatial scales ($L$). Consequently, we demonstrated that spatial scale of unresolved stellar flares can be estimated using the following scaling law: $L\propto F_\mathrm{X}^{1/3}\Delta t^{2/3}$. Our results are useful for interpreting secondary peaks in the H$\alpha$ data of stellar flares and provide new method to estimate spatial scale of unresolved stellar flares.

We investigate the accretion of globular cluster stars on early cosmological timescales through detailed N-body simulations of theoretical GC models to assess the role of this mechanism in Milky Way-like galaxies. For the dynamical modelling, we used the updated parallel N-body code phi-GPU, including stellar evolution. We prepared three sets of GC models with different half-mass radii (r_hm), each consisting of 50 full N-body GC models, and integrated these models in an external, time-variable MW-like potential taken from the cosmological database IllustrisTNG-100. The simulations cover the time interval from -10 Gyr to -5 Gyr, enabling us to assess the rate of early stellar accretion onto the proto-NSC. We find that GC models with average orbital eccentricities of 0.4-0.5 and orbits oriented perpendicular to the galactic disc contribute most significantly to the mass of the proto-NSC formation. Accretion is especially efficient in the first billion years and in compact GC models with r_hm = 1 pc. In all sets, the dominant accreted stellar population consists of low-mass stars (~0.33 Msun). However, the accreted mass alone is insufficient to fully account for the current NSC mass. Based on our extended set of numerical simulations, we obtained an average lower limit of mass contribution (~6 percent) to the NSC from investigated GCs. The fraction of mass contribution from individual disrupted GCs can significantly vary from 0.1 percent up to 90 percent. Generally, we conclude that the GC stellar accretion channel alone might not be sufficient to ensure the present-day MW galaxy NSC mass budget.

We report the discovery of 19 new pulsars identified from archival observations of the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) within Galactic latitudes $|b|<5°$ and declinations ${\rm Decl.}<-5°$. The dataset was recorded using FAST's $L$-band 19-beam receiver and covered $\sim 3.6~{\rm deg}^2$ with a cumulative integration time of $\sim$ 500 hr and a total raw data volume of $\sim$ 700 TB. Our search employed fast Fourier transform (FFT)-based and fast folding algorithm (FFA)-based periodic searches, and the single-pulse search. These new pulsars have spin periods range from 0.03 to 5.54 s. Two have periods under 0.1 s, suggesting they are likely young pulsars or mildly recycled pulsars. Four pulsars exhibit dispersion measures (DMs) exceeding $1000~{\rm pc~cm^{-3}}$ with PSR J1839$-$0558t having the highest value in our sample at $\sim 1271~{\rm pc~cm^{-3}}$, providing valuable samples for pulsar studies in the high-DM regime. Two rotating radio transients, PSRs J1836$-$0552t and J1847$-$0624t, were detected by FFA and single-pulse searches but failed with the FFT-based searches. In addition, three faint pulsars that were also missed by FFT-based searches were successfully detected using FFA. These discoveries demonstrate the critical role of FFA in uncovering faint, long-period, and sporadic pulsars, and highlight the significant potential of FAST archival data, especially when combined with longer integration times and complementary search techniques, to reveal rare and weak pulsar populations.

The increasing complexity and scale of cosmological N-body simulations, driven by astronomical surveys like Euclid, call for a paradigm shift towards more sustainable and energy-efficient high-performance computing (HPC). The rising energy consumption of supercomputing facilities poses a significant environmental and financial challenge. In this work, we build upon a recently developed GPU implementation of pinocchio, a widely-used tool for the fast generation of dark matter (DM) halo catalogues, to investigate energy consumption. Using a different resource configuration, we confirmed the time-to-solution behavior observed in a companion study, and we use these runs to compare time-to-solution with energy-to-solution. By profiling the code on various HPC platforms with a newly developed implementation of the Power Measurement Toolkit (PMT), we demonstrate an 8x reduction in energy-to-solution and 8x speed-up in time-to-solution compared to the CPU-only version. Taken together, these gains translate into an overall efficiency improvement of up to 64x. Our results show that the GPU-accelerated pinocchio not only achieves substantial speed-up, making the generation of large-scale mock catalogues more tractable, but also significantly reduces the energy footprint of the simulations. This work represents an step towards ``green-aware" scientific computing in cosmology, proving that performance and sustainability can be simultaneously achieved.

The statistical tension between early and late universe measurements of the Hubble constant ($H_0$) suggests that the dark sector is dynamical rather than static. We propose that this dynamics arises from a fundamental symmetry principle: the Spontaneous Breaking of Scale Invariance. We introduce the Dilaton ($\chi$), a Pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone Boson (PNGB) associated with dilatation symmetry breaking. We demonstrate that a simple quadratic mass term in the fundamental theory transforms, via conformal coupling to gravity, into a ''thawing'' exponential potential $V(\phi) \propto e^{-\lambda\phi}$ in the Einstein frame. Using recent Bayesian reconstructions of dark energy dynamics from Planck, Pantheon+, and SH0ES data, we constrain the potential slope to be $\lambda \approx 0.056$. We show that this observational value is not arbitrary but corresponds to a fundamental non-minimal coupling strength of $\xi \approx 7.8 \times 10^{-4}$. The Dilaton mechanism naturally generates the late-time equation of state evolution ($w_0 \approx -0.85$) required to alleviate the Hubble tension while protecting the field mass $m \sim H_0$ through approximate shift symmetry.

The nature of the central engine powering short gamma-ray bursts (sGRBs) in binary neutron star (BNS) mergers remains a key open question in the era of multi-messenger astronomy. The ergostar hypothesis, that a rapidly rotating star with an ergoregion drives the relativistic jet, offers an alternative explanation to the black hole-accretion disk paradigm. However, previous studies based on conventional neutron star equations of state (EOSs) have shown that dynamically stable ergostars do not exist unless very extreme EOS or rotation are adopted, casting significant doubt on their astrophysical viability in reality. In this work, however, we examine this hypothesis using a phenomenological EOS of strangeon matter, i.e., condensed matter with nucleon-like units for three flavors of quarks. By constructing a large suite of uniformly rotating equilibrium models, we systematically investigate the parameter space of the stable ergostars and calculate their maximum extractable energy. In contrast to the case of conventional EOSs, we demonstrate that strangeon matter supports a vast and robust parameter space for dynamically stable ergostars, even without requiring differential rotation. We find that the extractable rotational energy from these configurations can be on the order of $0.01 M_\odot$, a reservoir sufficient to power a typical sGRB. Our results revitalize the ergostar as a viable central engine for sGRB, suggesting that BNS merger remnants composed of exotic matter could play a crucial, previously underestimated role in high-energy astrophysics.

We present high-resolution ($\sim$1000 AU) 3 mm observations with the NOrthern Extended Millimeter Array toward the DR21 South Filament, aiming to reveal its internal fragmentation and search for deeply embedded star-forming activities. Both the continuum and molecular line emissions align well with the filament axis traced by the low-resolution ($\sim$18$^{\prime\prime}$) column density map. The 3 mm continuum, CS (2$-$1), and HCO$^+$ (1$-$0) emissions reveal continuous and diffuse structures with measured FWHM widths of 0.054, 0.029, and 0.030 pc, respectively. In contrast, the H$^{13}$CO$^+$ (1$-$0) emission appears more clumpy and localized. The non-thermal motion in the filament is predominantly subsonic to transonic. We detect 13 dense cores in NH$_2$D (1$_{11}-1_{01}$), three of which coincide with continuum peaks; virial analysis suggests most are gravitationally bound. Using a friend-of-friend algorithm, we identify 32, 34, and 22 velocity-coherent fibers from the CS, HCO$^+$, and H$^{13}$CO$^+$ data, respectively. Compared to fibers traced by CS and HCO$^+$, H$^{13}$CO$^+$ fibers are more frequently associated with NH$_2$D cold cores and exhibit higher average mass-per-unit-length values. Differences among CS, HCO$^+$, and H$^{13}$CO$^+$ emissions likely arise from variations in effective critical densities. These results are consistent with a hierarchical structure, in which the 3.6-pc DR21SF contains velocity-coherent fibers and gravitationally bound dense cores.

Spatially extended Ly$\alpha$ nebulae, known as Ly$\alpha$ blobs (LABs), are a rare population at $z > 2$ that are thought to trace proto-groups or the progenitors of massive galaxies in the present-day universe. However, their dark matter halo properties (e.g., halo mass) are still uncertain due to their rarity and strong field-to-field variation. The One-hundred-deg$^2$ DECam Imaging in Narrowbands (ODIN) survey has discovered 103 and 112 LABs in the extended ($\sim$9~\sqdeg) COSMOS field at $z\sim2.4$ and 3.1, respectively, enabling estimation of their bias and host halo masses through clustering analysis. We measure the angular auto-correlation functions (ACFs) of LABs and derive galaxy bias factors of $b$ = $4.0\pm0.8$ and $3.8\pm0.7$, corresponding to minimum halo masses of $2.8^{+3.0}_{-1.8}$ and $0.7^{+0.8}_{-0.5}\times10^{12}~M_\odot$ and median halo masses of $4.2^{+3.8}_{-2.5}$ and $1.1^{+1.1}_{-0.7}\times10^{12}~M_\odot$ at $z\sim2.4$ and 3.1, respectively. LABs occupy $\sim$11$^{+39}_{-8}$\% and $\sim$3$^{+9}_{-2}$\% of all dark matter halos above these minimum halo masses. These findings suggest that LABs inhabit massive dark matter halos, likely tracing proto-group environments that evolve into present-day massive halos ($\sim$10$^{13}~M_\odot$), where massive elliptical galaxies or galaxy groups reside, by $z=0$.

Recent observations by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory have revealed a significant excess of high-energy neutrinos from nearby Seyfert galaxies, such as NGC~1068, without a corresponding flux of high-energy gamma-rays. This suggests that neutrinos are produced via hadronic interactions in a region opaque to gamma-rays, likely a hot corona surrounding the central supermassive black hole. However, the mechanism responsible for accelerating the parent protons to the required energies ($\sim 100$ TeV) remains an open question. In this study, we investigate diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) in active galactic nucleus (AGN) coronae using a suite of one-dimensional Particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations spanning a broad range of plasma parameters. We find that DSA is a robust and efficient mechanism for proton acceleration, consistently channeling approximately 10\% of the shock's kinetic energy into non-thermal ions, even for shocks with sonic Mach number as low as $ M_s \approx 2$. In contrast, the efficiency of electron acceleration is highly variable and less efficient ($<1\%$) in our parameter survey. These findings provide strong, first-principles support for the hadronic models of neutrino production in AGN and offer quantitative constraints that can explain the observed gamma-ray deficit.

In the past six years, Betelgeuse has been in the news and drawn significant public interest. Starting in October 2019, Betelgeuse underwent a striking dimming event, fading from magnitude 0.5 to 1.7 by mid February 2020 a threefold decrease in brightness This gave rise to a number of speculative debates that the star was on the verge of a supernova, a moment of eerie quiet before the cosmic outburst. In a previous article, the author discussed the most accepted explanation to the dimming caused by episodic mass loss that released large dust grains, which obscured Betelgeuse's light and made it appear fainter. This interpretation suggested that the dimming was not a precursor to a supernova, as Betelgeuse is likely still far from reaching that stage. On 21 July 2025, the existence of the companion star was confirmed with direct imaging, for the first time, by the alopeke instrument on the 8.1 m Gemini North telescope. The companion is 6 magnitudes fainter than Betelgeuse and orbits close to Betelgeuse itself, within the supergiant star's extended outer atmosphere. The stellar companion was detected at an angular separation of 52 mas and a position angle of 115 deg east of north. These measurements, along with its brightness, being roughly 6 magnitudes fainter than Betelgeuse at 466 nm, are in excellent agreement with dynamical predictions. Although this was only a 1.5 sigma detection, the agreement in the companion's appearance, separation, position angle, magnitude difference, and estimated mass is reasonable, making the result tentatively acceptable. The next optimum period for observations is November 2027, when we hope to get better observations. This article describes the interesting twists and turns of this study and what lies in the future for Betelgeuse and its companion, Betelbuddy or Siwarha.

What does the temporal evolution of disc winds tell us about accreting systems and the accretion process? Studies of accretion-disc outflows across all mass scales, including accreting white dwarfs, X-ray binaries, and active galactic nuclei, have shown that winds play a key role in regulating both the accretion flow and the surrounding environment. Disc winds therefore provide a common thread linking a broad range of scientific topics, from the microphysics of accretion to galaxy-scale feedback and evolution, as well as binary evolution and the predicted rates of energetic (multi-messenger) transient phenomena. Yet we still lack a comprehensive picture of the accretion-feedback process. Optical spectroscopy has revealed striking similarities across mass scales, hinting at common production mechanisms, and has shown that winds can evolve on timescales of only minutes. Progress, however, has been limited by their transient nature, sparse time coverage, and the lack of simultaneous, high-resolution spectroscopy. Time-domain facilities with high temporal and spectral resolution will allow us to track these events in high accretion-rate systems, constrain their launching mechanisms, and measure the mass, energy, and angular momentum they carry. This will provide crucial input for binary evolution models, wind feedback, and a unified view of accreting systems across mass scales.

Hydrogen-deficient stars form sequences across the HR diagram from cool R CrB stars to helium-rich hot subdwarfs and PG1159 stars, tracing multiple evolution pathways. The Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) has been used to conduct a medium-resolution spectroscopic survey of 697 helium-rich hot subdwarfs and related stars. Using 587 stars from the full SALT sample, we define an unsupervised data-led classification system based on Principal Components Analysis (PCA) and Spectral Clustering (SC), designed as a data-discovery tool to identify possible new groups and sequences within the data. Using the first 3 principal components (PCs), we identify 6 major clusters of hot subdwarf spectra, identified with the traditional spectral classes of classical sdB and sdO stars, helium-rich He-sdO stars and very hot subdwarfs. Two clusters covering large volumes of PC space include a) He-sdB and He-sdOB stars and b) intermediate iHe-sdB and iHe-sdOB stars. Most spectra in these major clusters form connected sequences in PC space. Using a second stage of PCA and SC, we identify sub-clusters within 4 major clusters, particularly in the He-sdB/OB and iHe-sdB/OB clusters. In comparison with traditional MK-like classification, we find that the PC clusters are reasonably well separated, with some overlap at cluster boundaries. For very hot sdOs, where the number of standards is small, PC classification has led to a revision of the Drilling MK-like system. Gaia DR3 measurements have been used to determine kinematic parameters for the PC-defined classes. Although disk stars account for a significant fraction of all classes, He-sdOs and Hot-sdOs include a higher fraction of halo stars.

For a long time, WOH G64 was known as the most extreme red supergiant outside our Galaxy. However, in a matter of years it has faded, its pulsations have become suppressed and the spectrum has become dominated by emission lines from ionised gas, a far cry from the Mira-like pulsation and late M-type spectrum it used to display. Around the same time, a hot dust cloud was discovered using the VLT interferometer. WOH G64 has been claimed to have turned into a yellow hypergiant, which could signal a pre-supernova post-red supergiant evolution. Here we present spectra of WOH G64 obtained with the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) between November 2024 and December 2025. Molecular absorption bands from TiO are seen at all times. This implies that WOH G64 is currently a red supergiant, and may never have ceased to be. However, the shallow, resolved bands and possible detection of VO hint at a highly extended atmosphere. The continuum appears to be varying, while the line emission shows a different behaviour, suggesting two separate components in the system. Meanwhile, atomic absorption lines are deepening. This places important constraints on scenarios for the dramatic events that are unfolding.

We investigate nonlinear structure formation in Horndeski gravity with a luminal gravitational wave speed ($c_T = 1$) using the spherical collapse model incorporating Vainshtein screening. We compute the critical and virial overdensities and use these to evaluate the halo mass function within several commonly employed formalisms. Building on the reaction method, we develop a flexible and accurate framework for computing the nonlinear matter power spectrum across a broad class of viable modified gravity models within luminal Horndeski theories. The framework interfaces seamlessly with EFTCAMB and is applicable to both covariant Horndeski models and effective field theory descriptions of dark energy, allowing for a range of background cosmologies. This approach enables systematic exploration of a wide space of theories and cosmological parameters, with the goal of informing future analyses of upcoming large-scale structure surveys.

The \(w_{\dagger}\)VCDM framework provides a theoretically well-controlled extension of \(\Lambda\)CDM within the class of minimally modified gravity theories, allowing for flexible cosmological background evolution and linear perturbation dynamics while remaining free of pathological instabilities. In this work, we have shown that this scenario remains robust when confronted with current cosmological observations, even in the presence of an extended neutrino sector. Combining \textit{Planck} CMB data with DESI DR2 BAO and DESY5 supernovae, we obtain stringent constraints on neutrino physics, including \(\sum m_\nu < 0.11~\mathrm{eV}\) (95\% CL) and \(N_{\rm eff} = 2.98^{+0.13}_{-0.14}\), fully consistent with Standard Model expectations. Crucially, the data exhibit a statistically significant preference for a late-time dark-energy transition, characterized by a robust quintessence--phantom crossing that remains stable across all dataset combinations and neutrino-sector extensions, including the presence of a sterile neutrino. The combined effects of modified late-time expansion and additional relativistic degrees of freedom systematically raise the inferred Hubble constant, substantially alleviating the \(H_0\) tension without invoking early dark energy or introducing theoretical instabilities. Overall, the \(w_{\dagger}\)VCDM scenario emerges as a compelling phenomenological framework that simultaneously accommodates current constraints on neutrino physics, provides an excellent fit to recent BAO and supernovae data, and offers a viable pathway toward resolving persistent tensions in the standard cosmological model.

In our previous paper, we developed a technique for identifying pulsar candidates in interferometric radio images using their distinctive scintillation signatures. Building on this technique, the present study simulates a pulsar population using the PsrPopPy Python module to investigate the technique's limitations and detection capabilities. Among pulsars detectable exclusively by this technique, 50% have duty cycles exceeding the mean value of 0.09 observed in time-domain detections. Our pulsar population simulations revealed a set of observational parameters that optimize pulsar detection. An observation frequency of ~ 1420 MHz and a channel width of ~10 kHz emerge as the optimal configuration to maximize the pulsar detection efficiency. By applying a scintillation-based technique to future radio telescopes like DSA-2000, we can detect 56% of normal pulsars and 84% of MSPs in addition to those detected using non-imaging, time-domain surveys. These detected pulsars cannot be verified by time-domain searches.

We suggest a formation scenario of black holes with intermediate mass $\sim 10^3 M_\odot$, by post recombination Bondi-Hoyle-Lyttleton accretion into ultra dense dark matter halos (UDMH) of $\sim 10^5 M_\odot$, which have formed around the recombination epoch. Such UDMH can result from rare curvature fluctuations on small scales whose amplitude is still well below the current Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) spectral distortion limits. Gas accreted by the UDMH is heated to virial temperatures above which atomic cooling is efficient, cools rapidly to about $\sim 8000$ K and collapses on the free fall time of few $10^4$ yr to the halo core, until supported by rotation. Further fragmentation due to molecular cooling is prevented by the suppression of $H_2$ molecule formation by the CMB photons at redshifts $z> 200-400$. We find that the rotationally supported gas disk will be compact and massive enough to undergo self-gravitational instability in some cases, plausibly where accretion is into a nearly spherical UDMH which has formed from a rare peak in the density field. This results in a further, rapid transfer of mass inwards due to viscous forces and gravitational torques leading to the formation of a supermassive star and/or black hole of about $10^3 M_\odot$ at redshifts of a few hundred, with abundances comparable to galaxies. Such intermediate mass black holes formed at high redshifts can seed the first super massive black holes and help explain the abundance of active galaxies detected now at increasingly larger redshifts by the James Webb Space Telescope.

The recent asteroseismic observations constitute a great challenge for rotating stellar evolution models, which predict too fast internal rotation rates when only hydrodynamic processes are included. This suggests the absence of one or several unidentified angular momentum transport processes in these models. Transport by large-scale and strong magnetic fields in the radiative zone is a promising candidate to explain the observations. While these fields may have a fossil origin, a dynamo driven by the Tayler instability in a shear flow constitute a primary mechanism to form the necessary magnetic fields. Despite recent numerical studies, this mechanism remains poorly known. Motivated by this, we investigate the Tayler-Spruit dynamo through a new set of three-dimensional direct numerical simulations. We model the radiative zone as a Boussinesq stably stratified fluid whose differential rotation is maintained by a volumetric body force. We report for the first time the existence of two bistable dynamo branches, which mainly differ by the magnetic field location (near the equator and the polar axis). While the equatorial branch is driven by the magnetorotational instability, we mainly investigate the newly identified polar branch, which is driven by the Tayler instability. We show that this branch can still operate and transport angular momentum efficiently in a very strong stratification regime. We extract new scaling laws for the different magnetic field components, transports processes, and the minimum shear to trigger the Tayler instability-driven dynamo. Finally, we roughly constrain the signature of the generated magnetic fields on asteroseismic modes propagating in main-sequence and evolved stars. Thus, our results fosters new studies using stellar evolution models including our prescriptions and the search of asteroseismic signals impacted by large-scale azimuthal magnetic fields.

Binaries of supermassive black holes (MBHBs) represent the primary sources of the gravitational wave background (GWB) detectable by Pulsar Timing Arrays (PTAs). The eccentricity with which binaries form in galactic mergers is the key parameter determining their evolutionary timescale from pairing to coalescence. However, accurately determining the binary eccentricity at formation is difficult in simulations due to stochastic effects. We present a numerical study of the formation and evolution of MBHBs that are potential PTA sources. We simulate mergers of equal-mass galaxies on different initial orbits and follow the dynamics of the MBHBs through the hardening phase. We find that low-resolution simulations are affected by stochasticity due to torques from the stellar distribution acting at pericentre passages. The dispersion in binary eccentricity decreases with increasing central resolution, as expected for a Poisson process. We provide a fitting formula for the resolution requirement of an N-body simulation of MBHB formation and evolution as a function of the initial eccentricity of the merger, e0, and the required accuracy in the binary eccentricity, eb. We find that binaries experience a torque at first pericentre that is approximately independent of initial eccentricity, producing a general trend in which the binary eccentricity decreases above sufficiently large initial orbital eccentricities. While this behaviour is generic, the precise cross-over eccentricity (e0~0.97 in our models) and the sharpness of the drop-off depend on the galaxy initial conditions. We provide a fitting formula for eb(e0) that can be used in semi-analytical models to determine the merger timescales of MBHBs as well as the amplitude and slope of the GWB.

Frequencies of low-degree solar p modes are sensitive to activity over the entire Sun, including the unobservable far-side hemisphere. When frequency shifts extracted from week-long BiSON datasets are fitted to a linear combination of observed near-side activity and a far-side proxy made from the near-side measures shifted by half the solar rotation period, the solution favours a slightly higher weighting from the far-side contribution. Here, we demonstrate that this unphysical mismatch is due to the inherent inaccuracy of the far-side proxy, which fails to capture active regions that evolve fully on the solar far side, or that evolve (or have evolved) significantly as they rotate off (or onto) the visible disc. By simulating the evolution of sunspot group areas over time, which act as a suitable measure of solar activity, we show that the solution is sensitive to the lifetime of the activity. Assuming an underlying mapping from maximum group areas $A_{\rm max}$ (measured in millionths of the solar hemispheric area, MSH) to group lifetimes $\tau$ (measured in days) of the form $\tau = \alpha A_{\rm max}$, we find that $\alpha \simeq 0.025^{+0.055}_{-0.016}\,\rm d\,MSH^{-1}$ gives results consistent with the BiSON finding. This is to be compared with the value of $\alpha = 0.1\,\rm d\,MSH^{-1}$ implied by the well-known Gnevyshev-Waldmeier rule. While our best-fitting $\alpha$ maps to an average group lifetime of $\tau \simeq 5^{+10}_{-3}\,\rm d$, the best-fitting distribution includes a reasonable fraction of groups with lifetimes longer than the solar rotation period, which is essential to reproducing the mismatch.

Optical aberrations and instrument resolution can affect the observed morphological properties of features in the solar atmosphere. However, little work has been done to study the effects of spatial resolution on the dynamical processes occurring in the Sun's atmosphere. In this work, owing to the availability of high-resolution observations of a magnetic pore captured with the Interferometric BIdimensional Spectrometer mounted at the Dunn Solar Telescope, we studied the impact of the diffraction limit and the sampling of an instrument on line-of-sight Doppler velocity oscillations. We reported a noticeable shift in the dominant frequency band from $5$ to $3$ mHz, as both the angular and detector resolutions of the instruments were degraded. We argue that the observed behaviour is a result of the increased contamination of straylight from neighbouring quiet Sun regions, masking the true behaviour of umbral oscillations. These results suggest that the wave energy contributions reported in the literature and based on low-resolution instrumentation may be fundamentally underestimated. As we move into the era of high-resolution instrumentation such as DKIST and MUSE, this work will offer a critical baseline for interpreting new observations, especially in terms of distinguishing true dynamic behaviours from artefacts introduced by instrument-related limitations.

Over the past decade, ALMA has uncovered a range of substructures within exoKuiper belts, pointing to a population of undetected planets. With JWST's sensitivity, we now have the opportunity to identify these planets thought to be responsible for the observed substructures in debris discs. We present Cycle 1 JWST/MIRI 11.4 {\mu}m coronagraphic observations of three exoKuiper belts that exhibit gaps in their radial structures: HD 92945, HD 107146, and HD 206893, to determine whether planets are responsible for carving these structures, as seen in our Solar System with the gas giants. We reduce the JWST/MIRI data using spaceKLIP, and introduce new routines to mitigate the Brighter-Fatter effect and persistence. We do not detect any planet candidates, and all detected objects in the field-of-view are consistent with background stars or galaxies. However, by combining JWST mass limits, archival observational constraints, and astrometric accelerations, we rule out a significant portion of planet parameter space, placing tight constraints on the planets possibly responsible for these gaps. To interpret these results, we explore multiple gap-carving scenarios in discs, either massless or with non-zero mass, including clearing by in-situ planet(s), as well as shaping by inner planets through mean-motion or secular apsidal resonances. Finally, we conclude that the planets causing the proper motion anomaly in these systems must reside within the inner 20 au.

We present a comprehensive analysis of TOI 864.01, a transit-like signal associated with the M-dwarf TIC 231728511. Utilizing the full baseline of TESS photometry (54 sectors), we recover a periodic signal with $P = 0.52067$ d and a shallow depth of $\sim$158 ppm. To assess the planetary nature of the candidate, we performed a rigorous vetting process combining centroid analysis, Bayesian model comparison, and false-positive probability calculations. While the low signal-to-noise ratio of the sub-Earth candidate yielded inconclusive formal statistical validation metrics (FPP) and Bayesian evidence ($\Delta \ln Z$), we demonstrate the planetary nature of the system through physical exclusion of false positive scenarios. The TRICERATOPS Nearby False Positive Probability (NFPP) of 0.0000, combined with centroid stability, rules out background contamination. Furthermore, we calculate that a stellar-mass companion at the derived orbital separation ($a \approx 5 R_\star$) would induce ellipsoidal variations of order $\gtrsim 5000$ ppm. The absence of such variations in the TESS photometry ($< 200$ ppm limit) physically precludes stellar binary scenarios. We derive a planetary radius of $R_p \approx 0.55 R_\oplus$, confirming TOI 864.01 as a physically vetted ultra-short-period sub-Earth.

Astrophysical dynamos feature various spatial structures and dynamical regimes, ranging from hemispherical magnetic fields to the random reversals of the geodynamo. The recently observed Tayler-Spruit dynamo has been invoked to explain angular momentum transport in stellar radiative zones and magnetar formation in a proto-neutron star spun-up by fallback accretion. Whether this dynamo mechanism can lead to different dynamical regimes remains an open question. Using three-dimensional direct numerical simulations, we model the dynamics of a stably stratified spherical Couette flow, with the outer sphere rotating faster than the inner one. While the generation of strong stationary and hemispherical dynamos has been observed in our previous studies, we report for the first time the existence of reversals and complex temporal dynamics. We observe that the dynamics is strongly correlated with the equatorial symmetry breaking of the flow. Focusing on a fiducial dynamo simulation, we propose a simple interpretation of its dynamics, which consists in the coupling of two large-scale magnetic modes with two opposite equatorial symmetries by the flow symmetry breaking. While this interpretation captures the simplest observed dynamics, the nonlinear interaction between a higher number of magnetic modes is certainly required to describe some of the more complex regimes. The wide diversity of dynamical regimes generated by the Tayler-Spruit dynamo may have interesting implications for the geometry of the neutron star magnetic fields, and therefore neutron star emissions.

Chromospheric heating is an important ingredient in the energy budget of the solar atmosphere, which is challenging to quantify from observations. By using 3D radiative magnetohydrodynamic simulations of the solar atmosphere combined with non-LTE spectral synthesis, we estimated chromospheric heating from synthetic spectra and studied the spectral and temporal signatures of heating events. We performed k-means clustering on the Mg II h, Ca II H, and Ca II 8542 Å lines to identify representative profiles associated with elevated chromospheric heating and studied their atmospheric stratification. We find that locations with the strongest chromospheric heating show spectral signatures with strong emission. Profiles with strong emission in the blue wing of the lines (blue grains) are created by upward-propagating shock waves and have an order of magnitude higher heating in the chromosphere than the ambient heating. Profiles with strong emission in the red wing (red grains) also display heating that is an order of magnitude stronger than the baseline, but these spectra do not show a characteristic atmospheric stratification. Spectra classified as blue grains have a consistent temporal evolution, which is an oscillating sawtooth pattern in the line core and emission in the blue wing. However, spectra classified as red grains did not show a consistent temporal signature: Red wing emission from the simulations can appear spontaneously or be associated with an oscillation. While red and blue grain profiles account for around 3% of our synthetic spectra, they account for more than 12% of the total chromospheric heating in these simulations. By comparing two quiet Sun simulations, we find that the prevalence of bright grains is influenced by the magnetic field configuration, with a unipolar configuration showing fewer bright grains and consequently a lower share of heating from such events.

We present the Parallel Application of Slitless Spectroscopy to Analyze Galaxy Evolution (PASSAGE) spectroscopic redshift catalog in the COSMOS field. PASSAGE is a JWST Cycle 1 Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS) wide-field slitless spectroscopy (WFSS) pure-parallel survey, obtaining near-infrared spectra of thousands of extragalactic sources. 15 out of 63 PASSAGE fields fall within the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) COSMOS footprint, of which 11 overlap with COSMOS-Web, a JWST treasury survey providing additional space-based photometry. We present our custom line-finding algorithm and visual inspection effort used to identify emission lines and derive the spectroscopic redshifts for line-emitting sources in PASSAGE. The line-finding algorithm identifies between ~200 and 950 line-emitting candidates per field, of which typically 47% were identified as true emission lines post visual inspection. We identify 2183 emission line sources at 0.08<z<4.7, 1896 of which have available COSMOS photometric redshifts. We find excellent redshift agreement between the COSMOS photometric redshifts and the PASSAGE spectroscopic redshifts for strong (S/N>5), multi-line emitting sources. This agreement weakens for PASSAGE single-line emitters with ambiguous identities. These single-line emitters are likely mis-identified around 18% of the time based on comparisons to photometric redshifts. We derive stellar masses using PASSAGE photometry and spectroscopic redshifts, in broad agreement with existing COSMOS-Web stellar masses, but with some discrepancy driven by redshift disagreements. We publicly release this spectroscopic redshift catalog, which will enable community-led science in prime extragalactic fields and serve as a crucial dataset for validating Euclid and Roman spectroscopy.

We present a quantitative spectroscopic and kinematic analysis of a volume-complete sample of hot subluminous stars within 500 pc of the Sun, assembled using accurate parallax measurements from Gaia Data Release 3 (DR3). In total, 3226 spectra of 253 hot subdwarf stars were analysed to derive atmospheric parameters (effective temperature, surface gravity, and helium abundance) and radial velocities. Spectral energy distributions (SEDs) combined with Gaia parallaxes were used to measure stellar radii, luminosities, and masses. The derived atmospheric parameters reveal a consistent alignment between sdB and sdO stars in the Kiel diagram when compared to theoretical evolutionary models. We identify a population (about 10%) of hot subdwarfs located below the 0.45 Msun zero-age EHB in both the Kiel and Hertzsprung-Russell diagrams, which likely originate from intermediate-mass progenitors (1.8-8 Msun). The overall mass distribution peaks at 0.48 pm 0.12 Msun, while hot subdwarfs below the EHB peak at 0.43 pm 0.10 Msun, supporting non- or semi-degenerate helium ignition characteristic of intermediate-mass stars. Interpolation of EHB and post-EHB tracks yields mass distributions consistent with those derived from SEDs and parallaxes. Assuming a mass range between 0.40 and 0.50 Msun, we find that the post-EHB birthrate is 2-3 times higher than the EHB birthrate, suggesting overestimated EHB lifetimes or contamination from additional formation channels. Our kinematic analysis shows that 86 pm 2% of the stars belong to the Galactic thin disk, with 13 pm 1% and 1 pm 1% associated with the thick disk and halo. The below-EHB population is found exclusively in the thin disk, the only Galactic component young enough to host intermediate-mass progenitors. Its absence from other large samples suggests that non-degenerate formation channels play a more prominent role in the Galactic disk.

Stellar winds are a major source of uncertainty in understanding the life and deaths of massive stars. Across studies in the field, prescriptions for stellar winds differ substantially in both their physical assumptions and implementation, making them a dominant contributor to model-to-model variation. In this work, we present a systematic analysis of the physical assumptions underlying commonly adopted wind prescriptions for optically thin and optically thick winds of hot stars, as well as the winds of cool supergiants. Our analysis reveals substantial discrepancies across all regimes: predicted mass-loss rates for optically thin winds differ by more than an order of magnitude, while rates for cool supergiants vary by several orders of magnitude, with even wider uncertainties arising in extrapolation regimes beyond the Humphreys-Davidson limit. These disparities introduce significant ambiguity into the predicted formation of Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars, a problem further compounded by the inconsistent application of transition criteria. A central issue is the "cool Wolf-Rayet problem", a temperature regime where the classical electron-scattering Eddington factor ($\Gamma_{\rm e}$) loses physical consistency. Because this factor is widely used to determine WR mass-loss rates, its failure forces models to rely on uncertain extrapolations and ad-hoc corrections. We conclude that the dominant stellar wind uncertainties arise from a mismatch between the physical assumptions in stellar wind models and the structure of the stars to which they are applied. Our framework clarifies the origins of current theoretical discrepancies and identifies the key physical bottlenecks that must be addressed to improve mass-loss modeling for massive stars.

We investigate the presence and origin of neutral gas outflows and inflows in 13 post-starburst (PSB) and quiescent galaxies at redshifts 1.8 $\leq$ z $\leq$ 4.6, using JWST NIRSpec spectroscopy from the EXCELS survey. NaD absorption profiles reveal that 3 out of 13 exhibit blueshifted absorption indicative of outflows, and a further 2 objects show signs of inflowing gas. Outflow velocities range from $\approx$ 300 - 1200 kms$^{-1}$, and we find gas flows are detected exclusively in objects that quenched $\lt$ 600 Myr ago. This result holds when we include comparable objects from recent literature. We derive mass outflow rates over two orders of magnitude higher than current levels of star formation in our sample, indicating that the winds are unlikely to be driven by supernovae, and likely play a significant role in keeping the galaxies quenched. The majority of the outflow sample have anomalously high energy and momentum outflow rates compared to those predicted for current levels of star formation or AGN activity. We conclude that we are likely observing fossil outflows driven by previous, more luminous AGN activity which has since faded. We then compare with the EAGLE simulation to explore a potential 'outflow cycle', finding that our observations are consistent with a model in which z $\sim$ 3 quiescent galaxies undergo short $\simeq$ 5 Myr periods of AGN activity strong enough to drive outflows, which occur every $\simeq$ 40 Myr on average. This AGN activity drives observable outflows that persist for up to $\simeq$ 10 Myr after the AGN fades, followed by a $\simeq$ 20 Myr lull, and a subsequent short inflow, which eventually re-ignites AGN activity, and the cycle repeats.

We study the late-time cosmological dynamics of a two-field dark energy model consisting of a canonical quintessence scalar field and a phantom scalar field in a spatially flat FLRW universe. The fields are minimally coupled to gravity and uncoupled at the level of the potential, with the quintessence sector governed by an exponential potential and the phantom sector by an inverse power-law potential. By reformulating the background equations as a five-dimensional autonomous dynamical system, we identify and analyze the fixed points and their stability properties, revealing stable late-time attractors corresponding to phantom-dominated accelerated expansion. We confront the model with observations through a Bayesian parameter estimation performed using the \textsc{Cobaya} framework, employing several combinations of recent cosmological data sets, including Pantheon+ supernovae, compressed cosmic microwave background distance priors, DESI DR2 baryon acoustic oscillation measurements, and DES Year-5 supernova data. The observational constraints favor a dynamical dark energy sector moderately and are consistent with deviations from a cosmological constant at the present epoch. The regions of parameter space preferred by the data are compatible with the stable accelerating solutions identified in the dynamical analysis, establishing a direct connection between phase-space stability and observational viability. A notable feature of the model is that the effective dark energy equation of state undergoes phantom divide crossing in a gradual and asymptotic manner, rather than as a sharp transition.

We perform a comprehensive search for high-velocity X-ray sources with large X-ray/optical flux ratios ($F_\mathrm{X}/F_\mathrm{G}$), identifying candidates for interacting black hole or neutron star binaries potentially accelerated by supernova natal kicks. We cross-match X-ray points sources from a variety of catalogues (Chandra, XMM-Newton, Swift and eROSITA) with Gaia DR3. Using Gaia coordinates, parallaxes, and proper motions, we compute peculiar velocities ($\upsilon_\mathrm{pec}$) relative to Galactic disc rotation. Remaining agnostic about radial velocities (RVs), we vary RVs to find the minimum possible $\upsilon_\mathrm{pec}$ values ($\upsilon_\mathrm{pec, min}$). Uncertainties on $\upsilon_\mathrm{pec, min}$ are estimated via Monte Carlo resampling, and we select X-ray sources that have $1\,\sigma$ lower limits on $\upsilon_\mathrm{pec, min}\geq 200\,\mathrm{km~s^{-1}}$ and high $F_\mathrm{X}/F_\mathrm{G}$ values. We show that this velocity threshold excludes most contaminants (e.g., cataclysmic variables and active binaries) while retaining a sensible fraction of compact object binaries, demonstrating that $\upsilon_\mathrm{pec}$ could serve as an effective indicator for the presence of a neutron star or black hole companion. Our selection yields a sample of 2372 sources, from which we construct a gold sample of 7 sources that have relatively well-constrained astrometry and confident optical counterparts. Follow-up is necessary to confirm and characterise their high-energy emission, as well as a Galactic disc vs. halo origin.

Context. A lot of recent studies have focused on the observables associated with near merger binary black-holes (BBHs) embedded in a circumbinary disk (CBD) but we still we lack knowledge of observables of BBHs in their early stage. In that stage the separation between the two black holes is so large that both black holes could potentially retain their individual accretion disk existing before the creation of the BBH. For such early BBH systems, it is interesting to look for observables originating in those individual disks whose structure is likely to differ from mini-disks often observed in simulations of later stages of BBHs. Aims. In a companion paper we presented a set of hydrodynamical simulations of an individual disk surrounding a primary black hole while being impacted by the presence of a secondary black-hole in an early BBH system, leading to the creation of three well-known characteristic features in the disk's structure. Here we explore the imprints of these three features on the observables associated with the thermal emission of the pre-existing black hole disk. The aim is two-fold, first to see which observables are best suited for detecting those early systems and, secondly, what could be extrapolated about these systems from observations. Methods. We used general relativistic ray-tracing in order to produce synthetic observations of the thermal emission emitted by early BBHs with different mass ratio and separations in order to search for distinctive observational features of early systems. Results. We found that in the case of early BBH with pre-existing disk(s) a necessary, although not unique, observational feature is the truncation of their disk(s). Conclusions. Such observable could be used for automated search of potential BBHs and discriminate some existing candidates.

We identify and correct for small but coherent instrumental drifts in seven years of radial velocity data from the EXtreme PREcision Spectrograph (EXPRES). The systematics are most notable for the six months before and after 2022 January, when EXPRES experienced larger temperature variations, and we see a systematic trough-to-peak amplitude of 2.8 m/s in the radial velocities. This is large enough to mimic or obscure planetary signatures. To isolate and correct these effects, we develop a suite of diagnostics that track two-dimensional échellogram shifts, scalings, and rotation, as well as line bisector spans (LBS) derived from laser frequency comb (LFC) lines. By combining these empirical tracers with instrument telemetry in a multi-dimensional regression, we reduce the EXPRES instrument trend traced with solar RVs from an RMS of 1.32 m/s to 0.43 m/s, a 67% improvement, and the aggregate of twelve chromospherically quiet stars show a 26% reduction in velocity scatter. Our injection-recovery simulations further demonstrate a doubling in sensitivity to low-amplitude planetary signals after correction. When applied to the stellar time series of $\rho$ Coronae Borealis ($\rho$CrB), the correction removes a spurious planet d signal, restoring the integrity of the data. These results highlight the need for long-term monitoring and multi-dimensional calibration diagnostics on the path toward true centimeter-per-second precision in next-generation EPRV instruments.

The unique Galactic Center non-thermal filaments (NTFs) have been a focus of investigations for over 40 years. The most prominent manifestation of the NTFs is a bundle of parallel filaments known as the Radio Arc. Radio polarimetric observations made with the Very Large Array (VLA) at 10 GHz have revealed an alternating magnetic field pattern in the Radio Arc that could either be a result of multiple field systems being encountered along the line of sight or an intrinsic feature of the Radio Arc. These VLA observations were not able to distinguish between these possibilities due to the large rotation measures encountered towards the source. We present ALMA 100 GHz observations of the Radio Arc that are not impacted by significant Faraday effects. The observations reported here represent both the first time that ALMA has been used to study the NTFs and the first time 100 GHz polarimetric observations have been conducted on the Radio Arc. We find a uniformly rotated magnetic field with respect to the NTF filament orientation, with the angle of rotation being constant along the length of each filament. However, we find a systematically different magnetic field orientation in different Radio Arc filaments. We use this field pattern to update our understanding of the line-of-sight structures local to the Radio Arc. We find that the magnetic field inferred from our ALMA observations is likely a result either of confusion from multiple magnetic field systems or because the polarization is centrally concentrated within the NTF filaments.

In a recent paper we pointed out that supermassive black holes, with masses ranging from $10^5$ to $10^{10} M_\odot$ form naturally at cosmic dawn if the dark matter is QCD axions or axion-like particles with mass $m > 10^{-16}\, \mathrm{eV}/c^2$. No additional assumptions are required. Here we answer in detail the most commonly raised questions regarding our work.

This study explores the application of autoencoder-based machine learning techniques for anomaly detection to identify exoplanet atmospheres with unconventional chemical signatures using a low-dimensional data representation. We use the Atmospheric Big Challenge (ABC) database, a publicly available dataset with over 100,000 simulated exoplanet spectra, to construct an anomaly detection scenario by defining CO2-rich atmospheres as anomalies and CO2-poor atmospheres as the normal class. We benchmarked four different anomaly detection strategies: Autoencoder Reconstruction Loss, One-Class Support Vector Machine (1 class-SVM), K-means Clustering, and Local Outlier Factor (LOF). Each method was evaluated in both the original spectral space and the autoencoder's latent space using Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves and Area Under the Curve (AUC) metrics. To test the performance of the different methods under realistic conditions, we introduced Gaussian noise levels ranging from 10 to 50 ppm. Our results indicate that anomaly detection is consistently more effective when performed within the latent space across all noise levels. Specifically, K-means clustering in the latent space emerged as a stable and high-performing method. We demonstrate that this anomaly detection approach is robust to noise levels up to 30 ppm (consistent with realistic space-based observations) and remains viable even at 50 ppm when leveraging latent space representations. On the other hand, the performance of the anomaly detection methods applied directly in the raw spectral space degrades significantly with increasing the level of noise. This suggests that autoencoder-driven dimensionality reduction offers a robust methodology for flagging chemically anomalous targets in large-scale surveys where exhaustive retrievals are computationally prohibitive.

The evolution of planet-forming regions in protoplanetary disks is of fundamental importance to understanding planet formation. Disks with a central deficit in dust emission, a "cavity", have long attracted interest as potential evidence for advanced disk clearing by protoplanets and/or winds. Before JWST, infrared spectra showed that these disks typically lack the strong molecular emission observed in full disks. In this work, we combine a sample of 12 disks with millimeter cavities of a range of sizes ($\sim2$-70 au) and different levels of millimeter and infrared continuum deficits. We analyze their molecular spectra as observed with MIRI on JWST, homogeneously reduced with the new JDISCS pipeline. This analysis demonstrates a stark dichotomy in molecular emission where "molecule-rich" (MR) cavities follow global trends between water, CO, and OH luminosity and accretion luminosity as in full disks, while "molecule-poor" (MP) cavities are significantly sub-luminous in all molecules except sometimes OH. Disk cavities generally show sub-luminous organic emission, higher OH/H$_2$O ratios, and suggest a lower water column density. The sub-thermal excitation of CO and water vibrational lines suggests a decreased gas density in the emitting layer in all cavities, supporting model expectations for C$_2$H$_2$ photodissociation. We discover a bifurcation in infrared index (lower in MR cavities) suggesting that the molecular dichotomy is linked to residual $\mu$m-size dust within millimeter disk cavities. Put together, these results suggest a feedback process between dust depletion, gas density decrease, and molecule dissociation. Disk cavities may have a common evolutionary sequence where MR switch into MP over time.

Understanding the thermodynamic properties of the circumgalactic medium (CGM) is key to uncovering the baryon cycle in galaxies. Here we present spatial and kinematic relationships between Mg II and O VI as representatives for low and high ion-bearing gas, in the cosmological zoom-in galaxy simulation suite FOGGIE, a set of Milky-way-like galaxy simulations with high CGM resolution. We find the O VI-bearing gas exists as a diffuse halo around the galactic disk, while the Mg II-bearing gas is more centrally located. We investigate the covering fraction, probability of co-observation, co-kinematic correspondence of these ions using two different analysis methods. We make both mock sightlines using two-dimensional projections of our simulations treating these cells as integrated lines of sight and we create one-dimensional ray objects and use the SALSA (Boyd et al. 2020) code to investigate individual gas structures that contribute most to the line of sight column densities, which we call mock absorbers. We explore the relative kinematics of these mock absorbers and find Mg II and O VI appear to have a co-kinematic relationship when looking at absorber pairs with the closest relative velocity like in Werk et al. (2016). However, this does not necessarily correspond with a close spatial separation meaning many O VI and Mg II absorber pairs only appear to be co-kinematic but are physically unrelated. Taking a more holistic look at Mg II and O VI absorber pairs reveals a much weaker correlation between these two ions.

We quantify the physical memory of the cosmic density field using mutual information between $N$-body snapshots at different redshifts, removing a random baseline to isolate gravitational correlations. The shared mutual information rises with scale, peaks near $\simeq L/8$ (where $L$ is the simulation box size), and declines thereafter. This behaviour is robust to box size and discretization, and identifies the largest coherently retained modes unaffected by missing long-wavelength power, establishing a finite-volume limit on the coherence of cosmic structure with direct implications for homogeneity studies.

We introduce a streamlined method for evaluating in-in loop integrals using dimensional regularization for diagrams with an arbitrary number of external legs and vertices, which complements earlier work and facilitates the extraction of the ultraviolet contributions. The method leads us to identify an apparent difficulty to renormalize with Hamiltonian counterterms within the in-in formalism. We also discuss the importance of the finite parts of loop corrections that can be distinguished from their associated counterterm contributions. As an application, we examine the one-loop primordial bispectrum in the context of the effective field theory of inflation, considering a specific set of interactions, and identifying a contribution distinguishable from its tree-level counterpart.

Both abiotic self-organization and biological mechanisms have been put forward as the origin of a number of geological patterns. It is important to comprehend the formation mechanisms of such structures both to understand geological self-organization and in order to differentiate them from biological patterns -- fossils and bio-influenced structures -- seen in geological systems. Being able to distinguish the traces of biological activity from geological self-organization is fundamental both for understanding the origin of life on Earth and for the search for life beyond Earth.

During inflation gravitational waves are produced in the superhorizon regime, which form stochastic background in the present universe with very wide range of frequencies. Higher frequency gravitational waves never experience superhorizon regime, but they are also amplified after inflation due to the inflaton oscillation. Taking account of the inflaton dynamics after inflation, the spectrum of primordial gravitational waves may extend to much higher frequencies than previously thought. In this paper we calculate the spectrum of high frequency gravitational waves produced during and after inflation in detail, in particular focusing on the connection between the low and high frequency regime, and show that the detailed spectrum can distinguish inflation models.

We study equal-time in-in correlators of massless scalar fields in flat space at one loop. Using the time-ordered decomposition of correlators together with a cosmological analogue of the Baikov representation, we systematically construct relatively simple loop integrals and make manifest why, in this setting, loop corrections to correlators are simpler than those of wavefunction coefficients. As benchmark examples, we analyse the bubble and triangle diagrams. The bubble exhibits a UV divergence that can be removed by a local counterterm, while the triangle yields a finite result, which we evaluate explicitly in terms of dilogarithms using an integral transform for the Laplacian Green's function. We classify the kinematic singularities of these diagrams using Landau analysis, identifying novel types of singular behaviour, and validate this analysis against the explicit results. Finally, we derive a factorisation property of one-loop cosmological correlators at singular kinematics, relating them to flat-space loop amplitudes and lower-point tree-level correlators.

The local solar gravitational potential forms a basin for ultralight dark matter (ULDM), with discrete energy levels. Even if barely populated, it introduces a new characteristic timescale in DM dynamics. This necessitates a generalization of the notion of coherence time. We find that, at long times, the phenomenon of recoherence emerges, whereby a subcomponent of ULDM exhibits a formally divergent coherence time. The fact that this generalized coherence time can significantly exceed the naive estimate implies an enhanced sensitivity for dark matter searches that accumulate data over extended observation periods.

In black hole perturbation theory, the difficulty in separating electromagnetic and gravitational sectors of the coupled Teukolsky equations has prevented a general treatment of scattering processes involving both electromagnetic waves and gravitational waves in presence of a Kerr-Newman black hole. We present the first computation of the gauge-invariant, low-frequency scattering amplitude for graviton photoproduction by a Kerr-Newman black hole at tree level up to $\mathcal{O}\big((\omega/m)^2\big)$ or $\mathcal{O}(S^2)$ and linear in $\kappa$, using the worldline effective field theory. The relevant Wilson coefficients are determined by matching the graviton and photon one-point functions to the Kerr-Newman solution. We obtain the full angular dependence of the conversion cross section in the presence of spin and comment on the factorization relation between the graviton photoproduction amplitude and the photon Compton amplitude for a classical spinning source. The result provides a benchmark for future analyses of coupled gravitoelectromagnetic scattering in spinning charged compact object backgrounds.

We estimate the parameters of several astrophysical black holes hosted at the core of active galactic nuclei by studying the kinematics of test objects in their accretion disk. We derive an expression for the redshift of photons emitted by a massive particle circularly orbiting a Schwarzschild-de Sitter black hole, and detected by a distant receding observer. The redshift depends on the mass and distance of the black hole, the orbital radius of the photon source, as well as the Hubble constant, directly relating these quantities to astrophysical observables, namely, the redshift and the angular position of the test particle on the sky. We apply for the first time this theoretical model, which accounts for the universe expansion through the Schwarzschild-de Sitter metric, to real astrophysical systems using megamaser galaxies within the Hubble flow. Bayesian inference based on Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods is employed to estimate the black hole mass, its distance, the angular position of the emitter, and the Hubble constant, for which a Gaussian prior is assumed. Our results introduce a general relativistic framework to take the contribution of cosmic expansion into account that differs from the standard empirical Hubble law.

Both the Wavefunction of the Universe and the Schwinger-Keldysh in-in formalism are central tools for analyzing primordial cosmological observables, such as equal-time correlation functions. While their conceptual equivalence is well established, a systematic and explicit map between their diagrammatic expansions has remained elusive. In this article, I construct such a map by analyzing the relation between the two frameworks at the diagrammatic level. I show that diagrams contributing to correlation functions in the Wavefunction of the Universe approach can be uniquely reorganized into Schwinger-Keldysh diagrams. This correspondence holds to all orders in perturbation theory, including arbitrary numbers of interaction vertices and loops.

We analytically and numerically study the ground state and collective dynamics of Bose-Einstein condensates in two traps: a Newtonian potential and a logarithmic potential inspired by Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND). In the ground state, the MOND potential supports bound states only in the deep-MOND regime, where the condensate becomes significantly larger than its Newtonian counterpart. The size increases with repulsive coupling parameter $\beta$ in both potentials. A clear scaling law of the size with $\beta^{1/3}$ emerges in the MOND case and is confirmed numerically over a wide parameter range, while for the Newtonian potential no simple scaling law exists as the Thomas-Fermi approximation ceases to be valid. For the dynamics, we derive and solve equations for the monopole collective mode. The larger MOND-bound condensate oscillates at a lower frequency, which scales as $\beta^{-1/3}$ in the strong-interaction limit. These scaling laws provide insights for quantum-simulation experiments aiming to probe modified-gravity scenarios with cold atoms.

This paper presents an adaptive multi-model framework for jointly estimating spacecraft attitude and star-tracker misalignments in GPS-denied deep-space CubeSat missions. A Multiplicative Extended Kalman Filter (MEKF) estimates attitude, angular velocity, and gyro bias, while a Bayesian Multiple-Model Adaptive Estimation (MMAE) layer operates on a discrete grid of body-to-sensor misalignment hypotheses. In the single-misalignment case, the MEKF processes gyroscope measurements and TRIAD-based attitude observations, and the MMAE updates a three-dimensional grid over the misalignment vector. For a dual-misalignment configuration, the same MEKF dynamics are retained, and the MMAE bank is driven directly by stacked line-of-sight measurements from two star trackers, forming a six-dimensional grid over the two misalignment quaternions without augmenting the continuous-state dimension. A novel diversity metric, $\Psi$, is introduced to trigger adaptive refinement of the misalignment grid around a weighted-mean estimate, thereby preventing premature collapse of the model probabilities and concentrating computation in the most likely region of the parameter space. Monte Carlo simulations show arcsecond-level misalignment estimation and sub-degree attitude errors for both estimation problems, with estimation errors remaining well-bounded, proving robustness and consistency. These results indicate that the proposed MEKF--MMAE architecture enables accurate, autonomous, and computationally efficient in-flight calibration for resource-constrained spacecraft, and establishes dual star-tracker misalignment estimation as a practical option for deep-space CubeSat missions.

In this paper we study the properties of Kasner cosmological solutions in Lovelock gravity. Recent progress in the investigation of flat cosmological models in Lovelock gravity unveiled the fact that in quadratic (Gauss--Bonnet) and cubic Lovelock gravities, the higher-order power-law solutions could play the role of both future and past asymptotes, and under some conditions, there could exist a smooth transition between them. So it is natural to question if this feature is unique to Gauss--Bonnet and cubic Lovelock gravities, or if it is a general feature of Lovelock gravity. Our analysis suggests that starting from quartic and in all higher-order Lovelock gravities, the high-order Kasner solution cannot play the role of a past asymptote, not only preventing the abovementioned transition from happening, but also potentially hindering the possibility of reaching viable compactification.

Surface thermodynamics of minerals influence their properties and occurrence in both terrestrial and planetary systems. Using high-temperature oxide melt solution calorimetry, we report the first direct measurement of the surface energy of enstatite, MgSiO$_3$. Enstatite nanoparticles of different sizes were synthesized using the sol-gel method, characterized with X-ray diffraction, thermal analysis, infrared spectroscopy, surface area measurements, and electron microscopy. The materials consist of crystallites with sizes of $\sim $10 - 20 nm, which are agglomerated into larger nanoparticles. Thus, both surface and interface terms contribute to the measured enthalpies. Analysis based on calorimetry and calculated surface and interface areas gives the surface enthalpy of enstatite as 4.79 $\pm$ 0.45 J m$^{-2}$. This value is comparable to that of forsterite (Mg$_2$SiO$_4$) and larger than those of many nonsilicate oxide materials. This large surface energy may present a barrier to the nucleation of enstatite in planetary atmospheres and other geochemical and planetary environments. The interfacial energy of enstatite appears to be close to zero. The transition enthalpy from bulk orthoenstatite to bulk clinoenstatite is 0.34 $\pm$ 0.93 kJ mol$^{-1}$, which is in agreement with earlier reports. The methodology developed here can be extended to other materials having complex structures and morphologies to separate surface and interfacial contributions to energetics.

This paper introduces a novel technique to preserve spectral features in lossy compression based on a novel fast Fourier correction algorithm\added{ for regular-grid data}. Preserving both spatial and frequency representations of data is crucial for applications such as cosmology, turbulent combustion, and X-ray diffraction, where spatial and frequency views provide complementary scientific insights. In particular, many analysis tasks rely on frequency-domain representations to capture key features, including the power spectrum of cosmology simulations, the turbulent energy spectrum in combustion, and diffraction patterns in reciprocal space for ptychography. However, existing compression methods guarantee accuracy only in the spatial domain while disregarding the frequency domain. To address this limitation, we propose an algorithm that corrects the errors produced by off-the-shelf ``base'' compressors such as SZ3, ZFP, and SPERR, thereby preserving both spatial and frequency representations by bounding errors in both domains. By expressing frequency-domain errors as linear combinations of spatial-domain errors, we derive a region that jointly bounds errors in both domains. Given as input the spatial errors from a base compressor and user-defined error bounds in the spatial and frequency domains, we iteratively project the spatial error vector onto the regions defined by the spatial and frequency constraints until it lies within their intersection. We further accelerate the algorithm using GPU parallelism to achieve practical performance. We validate our approach with datasets from cosmology simulations, X-ray diffraction, combustion simulation, and electroencephalography demonstrating its effectiveness in preserving critical scientific information in both spatial and frequency domains.

A hybrid PIC-fluid model is proposed for three dimensional numerical simulation of laser-plasma interaction. Ions are treated kinetically, electrons as a ten-moment fluid, capturing ion-scale dynamics, pressure anisotropy, and non-Maxwellian distributions efficiently. A laser-envelope model handles energy deposition and ponderomotive heating without resolving optical oscillations. Collisional and ionisation processes ensure self-consistent evolution of energy and charge states. The model is implemented in the AKAM code, providing a scalable framework that bridges fully kinetic and fluid approaches for high-energy-density and laboratory plasma applications.

We apply Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) and Verlinde's emergent gravity separately to calculate the radial accelerations in 23 dwarf spheroidals. Then, we compare them with the observed radial accelerations. In our earlier work, we determined that, when the data set is considered in its entirety without isolating individual dwarf spheroidal, Verlinde's emergent gravity is in close agreement with the observed values. In the present work, we additionally confirm that, for 21 of the 23 samples examined, Verlinde's emergent gravity follows the trend of the observed values within each dwarf spheroidal more closely than MOND. Combining the statistical significance of all the 23 samples, ranging from $-0.25\sigma$ to 3.41$\sigma$, we conclude that Verlinde's emergent gravity is favored over MOND at 5.2$\sigma$.

We investigate a novel type of asymmetric dark matter (ADM) model in which the dark matter asymmetry and the baryon asymmetry in our universe (BAU) are produced simultaneously via low-scale spontaneous leptogenesis, where the mass scale of right-handed neutrino is much lower than the Davidson-Ibarra bound $M_1 \ll 10^{9}~\rm{GeV}$. In our scenario, both asymmetries are predominantly sourced by a dynamical $CP$ phase, namely the majoron. Its kinetic misalignment provides a sufficiently large, time-dependent effective $CP$ phase, allowing efficient asymmetry production even for low-scale right-handed neutrinos. In our framework, the sources of $CP$ violation responsible for the BAU and ADM are correlated with each other, leading to a predictive relation for the dark matter mass. In particular, when the dark matter asymmetry reaches its equilibrium value before freeze-out, the dark matter mass is typically predicted to lie in the range $\mathcal{O}(0.1)~\mathrm{GeV} \lesssim m_{\chi} \lesssim \mathcal{O}(100)~\mathrm{GeV}$, which lies within the sensitivity of direct detection experiments. On the other hand, if the dark matter asymmetry does not reach its equilibrium value due to weak coupling, the allowed mass range extends over a broader interval, $\mathcal{O}(0.1)~\mathrm{GeV} \lesssim m_{\chi} \lesssim \mathcal{O}(10)~\rm{TeV}$.

Wave propagation in a coherently oscillating background is intrinsically a periodically driven problem. We show that photon propagation through an axion dark matter background in the presence of a magnetic field is governed by Floquet physics, distinct from conventional static or adiabatic mixing paradigms. Coherent photon-axion mode conversion occurs when the mismatch between the photon and axion dispersion relations is compensated by integer harmonics of the axion oscillation frequency, $\Delta_\gamma - \Delta_a \approx n m_a$ ($n \in \mathbb{Z}$) with the axion mass $m_a$, even far from the standard level-crossing condition $\Delta_\gamma \approx \Delta_a$. Crucially, this resonance disappears entirely if the axion oscillations are averaged over, and is therefore systematically missed in conventional static or adiabatic treatments. This driven resonance represents a unitary Floquet mode-mixing process and is fundamentally distinct from parametric instability or stimulated axion decay, preserving the axion dark matter number density. We develop a general Floquet framework for photon propagation in oscillating axion backgrounds, revealing that resonant mixing generates robust polarization effects during propagation. As an astrophysical application, we apply this mechanism to the realistic environment of the blazar 3C 279 to derive concrete constraints on the axion-photon coupling. While the observational manifestation depends on environmental conditions, the underlying driven mixing mechanism is generic to coherent axion dark matter, revealing a previously overlooked regime of photon-axion conversion.

Understanding real-time dynamics of interacting quantum fields in curved spacetime remains a major theoretical challenge. We employ tensor network methods to study such dynamics using interacting scalar and gauge theories in 1+1 spacetime dimensions, subject to a quench modeling a homogeneously expanding gravitational background. The models considered are the scalar $\lambda\phi^4$ theory and the Schwinger model, i.e. a Dirac fermion coupled to a $U(1)$ gauge field which is equivalent via bosonization to a scalar field with a cosine self-interaction. In the free scalar limit, both theories reproduce known analytical results, providing a nontrivial numerical validation of bosonization in curved spacetime for the Schwinger model. Our central finding is that self-interactions lead to a suppression of gravitational particle production compared to the free-field case, as evidenced by two-point functions and the spectra of produced particles. We further examine the behavior of entanglement generation and find that interactions suppress entanglement growth in the $\lambda\phi^4$ theory, while in the Schwinger model, the interplay between suppressed particle production and enhanced inter-particle correlations leads to more complex entanglement behavior. Our results pave the way for further explorations of nonperturbative quantum real-time dynamics of interacting scalar and gauge theories in arbitrary gravitational backgrounds.

Sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) methods have recently been applied to gravitational-wave inference as a powerful alternative to standard sampling techniques, such as Nested Sampling. At the same time, gradient-based Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithms, most notably the No-U-Turn Sampler (NUTS), provide an efficient way to explore high-dimensional parameter spaces. In this work we present SHARPy, a Bayesian inference framework that combines the parallelism and evidence-estimation capabilities of SMC with the state-of-the-art sampling performance of NUTS. Moreover, SHARPy exploits the local geometric structure of the posterior to further improve efficiency. Built on JAX and accelerated on GPUs, SHARPy performs gravitational-wave inference on binary black-hole events in around ten minutes, yielding posterior samples and Bayesian evidence estimates that are consistent with those obtained through Nested Sampling. This work sets a new milestone in GW inference with likelihood-based methods and paves the way for model comparison tasks to be accomplished in minutes.