Terraforming Mars is an age old science fiction concept now worth revisiting through the lens of modern science and technology. This document serves as a summary of contemporary ideas about Mars terraforming, prepared for attendees of the 2025 Green Mars Workshop. It presents one illustrative story of how Mars might be transformed into a habitable world. The story is told in reverse, beginning with possible planetary endpoints and tracing backward to the steps required to reach them. Along the way, it highlights alternative approaches, critical unknowns and research priorities, and the near term applications and benefits of terraforming research for planetary science, climate engineering, and sustainable technologies on Earth.

How do habitable environments arise and evolve within the context of their planetary systems? This is one fundamental question, and it can be addressed partly by identifying how planets in habitable zones obtain water. Historically, astronomers considered that water was delivered to the Earth via dynamical shake-up by Jupiter, which took place during the formation and post-formation eras (e.g., $\lesssim 100$ Myr). This hypothesis has recently been challenged by a more dynamic view of planet formation; planet-forming materials move in protoplanetary disks via various physical processes such as pebble drift and planetary migration. \textit{Habitable Worlds Observatory} (HWO) will open a new window to address this important, but difficult question by discovering and characterizing Earth-like exoplanets around G-type stars. In this article, we consider two possible working hypotheses: (1) the abundance of water on planets in habitable zones has \textit{any} correlation with the presence of outer planets; and (2) the abundance of water on planets in habitable zones has \textit{no} correlation with the presence of outer planets. We discuss what physical parameters need to be measured to differentiate these two hypotheses and what observational capabilities are desired for HWO to reliably constrain these physical parameters.

We present a large spectroscopic survey with \textit{JWST}'s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) Low Resolution Spectrometer (LRS) targeting $37$ infrared-bright galaxies between $z=0.65-2.46$ with infrared luminosities $\log L_{\rm IR}/L_\odot>11.5$ and $\log M_*/M_\odot=10-11.5$. Targets were taken from a \textit{Spitzer} $24\,\mu$m-selected sample with archival spectroscopy from the Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) and include a mix of star-forming galaxies and dust-obscured AGN. By combining IRS with the increased sensitivity of LRS, we expand the range of spectral features observed between $5-30\,\mu$m for every galaxy in our sample. In this paper, we outline the sample selection, \textit{JWST} data reduction, 1D spectral extraction, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) feature measurements from $\lambda_{rest}=3.3-11.2\,\mu$m. In the \textit{JWST} spectra, we detect PAH emission features at $3.3-5.3\,\mu$m, as well as Paschen and Brackett lines. The $3.3\,\mu$m feature can be as bright as $1\%$ of the $8-1000\,\mu$m infrared luminosity and exhibits a tight correlation with the dust-obscured star-formation rate. We detect absorption features from CO gas, CO$_2$ ice, H$_2$O ice, and aliphatic dust. From the joint \textit{JWST} and \textit{Spitzer} analysis we find that the $11.3/3.3\,\mu$m PAH ratios are on-average three times higher than that of local luminous, infrared galaxies. This is interpreted as evidence that the PAH grains are larger at $z\sim1-2$. The size distribution may be affected by coagulation of grains due to high gas densities and low temperatures. These conditions are supported by the observation of strong water ice absorption at $3.05\,\mu$m, and can lower stellar radiative feedback as large PAHs transmit less energy per photon into the interstellar medium.

Sub-Neptunes with substantial atmospheres may possess magma oceans in contact with the overlying gas, with chemical interactions between the atmosphere and magma playing an important role in shaping atmospheric composition. Early JWST observations have found high abundances of carbon- and oxygen-bearing molecules in a number of sub-Neptune atmospheres, which may result from processes including accretion of icy material at formation or magma-atmosphere interactions. Previous work examining the effects of magma-atmosphere interactions on sub-Neptunes has mostly been limited to studying conditions at the atmosphere-mantle boundary, without considering implications for the upper atmosphere which is probed by spectroscopic observations. In this work, we present a modeling architecture to determine observable signatures of magma-atmosphere interactions. We combine an equilibrium chemistry code which models reactions between the core, mantle and atmosphere with a radiative-convective model that determines the composition and structure of the observable upper atmosphere. We examine how different conditions at the atmosphere-mantle boundary and different core and mantle compositions impact the upper atmospheric composition. We compare our models to JWST NIRISS+NIRSpec observations of the sub-Neptune TOI-270 d, finding that our models can provide a good fit to the observed transmission spectrum with little fine-tuning. This suggests that magma-atmosphere interactions may be sufficient to explain high abundances of molecules such as H$_2$O, CH$_4$ and CO$_2$ in sub-Neptune atmospheres, without additional accretion of icy material from the protoplanetary disk. Although other processes could lead to similar compositions, our work highlights the need to consider magma-atmosphere interactions when interpreting the observed atmospheric composition of a sub-Neptune.

Major mergers of galaxies are likely to trigger bursty star formation activities. The accumulation of dense gas and the boost of star formation efficiency (SFE) are considered to be the two main drivers of the starbursts. However, it is still unclear how each process operates on the scale of individual star-forming clouds. Here, we present a high-resolution (2 Msun) RHD simulation of a gas-rich dwarf galaxy merger using the RIGEL model to investigate how mergers affect the properties of the structure of dense star-forming gas and the cloud-scale SFE. We track the evolution of sub-virial dense clouds in the simulation by mapping them across successive snapshots taken at intervals of 0.2 Myr. We found that the merger triggers a 130 times higher SFR and shortens the galaxy-wide gas-depletion time by two orders of magnitude compared to those of two isolated galaxies. However, the depletion time of individual clouds and their lifetime distribution remained unchanged over the simulation period. The cloud life cycles and cloud-scale SFE are determined by the local stellar feedback rather than environmental factors regardless of the merger process, and the integrated SFE ($\epsilon_{\rm int}$) of clouds in complex environments is still well described by an $\epsilon_{\rm int}-\Sigma_{\rm tot}$ relation found in idealized isolated-cloud experiments. During the peak of the starburst, the median integrated SFE only changed by 0.17-0.33 dex lower compared to the value when the galaxies are not interacting. The merger boosts the SFR primarily through the accumulation and compression of dense gas fueling star formation. Strong tidal torques assemble $>10^ 5$ Msun clouds that seed massive star clusters. The average separation between star-forming clouds decreases during the merger, which in turn decreases the cloud--cluster spatial decorrelation from >1 kpc to 0.1 kpc depicted by tuning fork diagrams.

Wide-field slitless spectroscopy (WFSS) is a powerful tool for studying large samples of galaxies across cosmic times. With the arrival of JWST, and its NIRCAM grism mode, slitless spectroscopy can reach a medium spectral resolution of $(R\sim 1600)$, allowing it to spatially resolve the ionised-gas kinematics out to $z\sim 9$. However, the kinematic information is convolved with morphology along the dispersion axis, a degeneracy that must be modelled to recover intrinsic properties. We present the Grism Emission-line Kinematics tOol ($\texttt{geko}$), a Python package that forward-models NIRCam grism observations and infers emission-line morphologies and kinematics within a Bayesian framework. $\texttt{geko}$ combines Sérsic surface-brightness models with arctangent rotation curves, includes full point-spread function (PSF) and line-spread function (LSF) convolution, and leverages gradient-based sampling via $\texttt{jax}$/$\texttt{numpyro}$ for efficient inference. It recovers parameters such as effective radius, velocity dispersion, rotational velocity, rotational support, and dynamical mass, with typical run times of $\sim$20 minutes per galaxy on GPUs. We validate performance using extensive mock data spanning position angle, S/N, and morphology, quantifying where degeneracies limit recovery. Finally, we demonstrate applications to real FRESCO H$\alpha$ emitters at $z\approx 4-6$, recovering both rotation- and dispersion-dominated systems. $\texttt{geko}$ opens the way to statistical studies of galaxy dynamics in the early Universe and is publicly available at this https URL.

We present the first systematic analysis of photometric redshifts (photo-z) estimated from the Rubin Observatory Data Preview 1 (DP1) data taken with the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) Commissioning Camera. Employing the Redshift Assessment Infrastructure Layers (RAIL) framework, we apply eight photo-z algorithms to the DP1 photometry, using deep ugrizy coverage in the Extended Chandra Deep Field South (ECDFS) field and griz data in the Rubin_SV_38_7 field. In the ECDFS field, we construct a reference catalog from spectroscopic redshift (spec-z), grism redshift (grism-z), and multiband photo-z for training and validating photo-z. Performance metrics of the photo-z are evaluated using spec-zs from ECDFS and Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Data Release 1 samples. Across the algorithms, we achieve per-galaxy photo-z scatter of $\sigma_{\rm NMAD} \sim 0.03$ and outlier fractions around 10% in the 6-band data, with performance degrading at faint magnitudes and z>1.2. The overall bias and scatter of our machine-learning based photo-zs satisfy the LSST Y1 requirement. We also use our photo-z to infer the ensemble redshift distribution n(z). We study the photo-z improvement by including near-infrared photometry from the Euclid mission, and find that Euclid photometry improves photo-z at z>1.2. Our results validate the RAIL pipeline for Rubin photo-z production and demonstrate promising initial performance.

Observations of the redshifted 21-cm line during the Epoch of Reionization will open a new window to probe the intergalactic medium during the formation of the first stars, galaxies, and black holes. A particularly promising route to an initial detection is to cross-correlate tomographic 21-cm maps with spectroscopically confirmed Lyman-$\alpha$ emitters (LAEs). High-redshift LAEs preferentially reside in ionized bubbles that are strongly anticorrelated with the surrounding neutral regions traced by 21-cm observations. In this work, we study the prospect of detecting such a cross-correlation signal by stacking 21-cm image cubes around LAEs using a current-generation 21-cm instrument -- the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA). Our forecast adopts a realistic mapping pipeline to generate foreground-free 21-cm image cubes. The statistical properties of these images, arising from the complex instrumental response, are carefully accounted for. We further introduce a physically motivated signal template calibrated on the THESAN radiation-hydrodynamic simulations, which connects the cross-correlation amplitude to the global neutral fraction. Our results show that a sample of ~50 spectroscopically confirmed LAEs is sufficient to begin constraining the reionization history. These results represent an important preparatory step toward joint analyses of 21-cm experiments with upcoming wide-area, high-redshift galaxy surveys from Euclid and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.

Control variates have seen recent interest as a powerful technique to reduce the variance of summary statistics measured from costly cosmological $N$-body simulations. Of particular interest are the class of control variates which are analytically calculable, such as the recently introduced 'Zeldovich control variates' for the power spectrum of matter and biased tracers. In this work we present the construction of perturbative control variates in Eulerian and Lagrangian perturbation theory, and adopt the matter bispectrum as a case study. Eulerian control variates are analytically tractable for all $n$-point functions, but we show that their correlation with the $N$-body $n$-point function decays at a rate proportional to the sum-of-squared wavenumbers, hampering their utility. We show that the Zeldovich approximation, while possessing an analytically calculable bispectrum, is less correlated at low-$k$ than its Eulerian counterpart. We introduce an alternative -- the 'shifted control variate' -- which can be constructed to have the correct tree-level $n$-point function, is Zeldovich-resummed, and in principle has an analytically tractable bispectrum. We find that applying this shifted control variate to the $z=0.5$ matter bispectrum is equivalent to averaging over $10^4$ simulations for the lowest-$k$ triangles considered. With a single $V=1({\rm Gpc}/h)^3$ $N$-body simulation, for a binning scheme with $N\approx 1400$ triangles from $k_{\rm min} = 0.04 h {\rm Mpc}^{-1}$ to $k_{\rm \max} = 0.47 h {\rm Mpc}^{-1}$, we obtain sub-2% precision for every triangle configuration measured. This work enables the development of accurate bispectrum emulators -- a probe of cosmology well-suited to simulation-based modeling -- and lays the theoretical groundwork to extend control variates for the entire $n$-point hierarchy.

JWST has identified a large population of faint, broad-line active galactic nuclei (AGN) in the early universe that are powered by black holes (BHs) that often appear overmassive relative to their host galaxies. In this study, we examine the relationship between BH mass and galaxy stellar mass at $3<z<7$ using a sample of 70 broad-line AGN identified using NIRSpec/G395M spectroscopy from the CEERS, JADES, and RUBIES surveys. Roughly half (43\%) of our sample appear heavily reddened and are classified as little red dots (LRDs). We estimate BH masses ($M_{\rm BH}$) using single-epoch virial techniques, while host stellar masses ($M_{\star}$) are inferred using a combination of two-dimensional surface brightness profile fitting and spectral energy distribution modeling. We find that a majority of our sources (50/70) have $M_{\rm BH}/M_{\star}$ ratios that are 1-2 dex higher than that observed in AGN locally. Using a forward-modeling Bayesian framework that accounts for uncertainties, intrinsic scatter, and selection effects, we infer a $M_{\rm BH}-M_{\star}$ relationship that is $>3\sigma$ above the relationship measured for local broad-line AGN. We derive an intrinsic scatter in this relationship of $0.9$ dex, which does not vary over the redshift range of our sample. We also find that the $M_{\rm BH}/M_{\star}$ ratio increases by $2.3$ dex from $z = 3.5$ and $z = 6.5$ with a confidence level of $ > 3\sigma$. We attribute this trend with the increasing fraction of LRDs in our sample at $z>4$ as their host masses are $\sim1$ dex lower than the non-LRD AGN in our sample. These results support a picture in which the BHs powering JWST's broad-line AGN are genuinely overmassive and become increasingly so with redshift. We discuss the implications of our findings on early BH growth relative to that of their host galaxies and the constraints it places on BH seeding models.

H$_2$-dominated terrestrial exoplanets are highly accessible to atmospheric characterization via transmission spectroscopy, but such atmospheres are generally thought to be unstable to escape. Here, we propose that close-in, eccentric terrestrial exoplanets can sustain H$_2$-dominated atmospheres due to intense tidally-driven volcanic degassing. We develop an interior-atmosphere framework to assess whether volcanic outgassing can sustain \ch{H2}-dominated atmospheres over geologic timescales ($\geq$1 Gyr). We incorporate interior redox state, tidal heating, volatile inventory, and planetary parameters to compute outgassing fluxes and confront them with energy-limited hydrodynamic escape. We demonstrate that to sustain an H$_2$-dominated atmosphere, a terrestrial exoplanet must have a water-rich basal magma ocean and reduced melts, in addition to high eccentricity. We additionally demonstrate that detection of a specifically thin H$_2$-dominated atmosphere is a sign of current magmatic outgassing. We delineate an "outgassing zone" (OZ) most favorable to the existence of such planets, and identify the most observationally compelling targets. We propose combining precise mass-radius-eccentricity measurements with JWST constraints on atmospheric mean molecular mass $\mu$ to search for thin H$_2$-dominated atmospheres. Inversely, we argue that robust atmospheric non-detections on OZ exoplanets can constrain the planetary interior, including melt redox state, mantle melt fraction and volatile inventory, and tidal heat flux.

Structure on sub-galactic scales provides important tests of galaxy formation models and the nature of dark matter. However, such objects are typically too faint to provide robust mass constraints. Here, we report the discovery of an extremely low-mass object detected via its gravitational perturbation to a thin lensed arc observed with milli-arcsecond-resolution very long baseline interferometry (VLBI). The object was identified using a non-parametric gravitational imaging technique and confirmed using independent parametric modelling. It contains a mass of $m_{\rm 80}=(1.13 \pm 0.04)\times 10^6{M_\odot}$ within a projected radius of 80 parsecs at an assumed redshift of 0.881. This detection is extremely robust and precise, with a statistical significance of 26$\sigma$, a 3.3 per cent fractional uncertainty on $m_{\rm 80}$, and an astrometric uncertainty of 194 $\mu$as. This is the lowest-mass object known to us, by two orders of magnitude, to be detected at a cosmological distance by its gravitational effect. This work demonstrates the observational feasibility of using gravitational imaging to probe the million-solar-mass regime far beyond our local Universe.

Compact symmetric objects (CSOs) are thought to be short-lived radio sources with two lobes of emission that are separated by less than a kpc in projection. However, studies of such systems at high redshift is challenging due to the limited resolution of present-day telescopes, and can be biased to the most luminous objects. Here we report imaging of a gravitationally lensed CSO at a redshift of 2.059 using very long baseline interferometry at 1.7 GHz. The data are imaged using Bayesian forward modelling deconvolution, which reveals a spectacularly extended and thin gravitational arc, and several resolved features within the lensed images. The surface brightness of the lensing-corrected source shows two mini-lobes separated by 642 pc in projection, with evidence of multiple hotspots that have brightness temperatures of 10^8.6 to 10^9.2 K, and a total luminosity density of 10^26.3 W / Hz. By combining the well-resolved radio source morphology with previous multi-wavelength studies, we conclude that this object is likely a CSO of type 2, and that the properties are consistent with the bow-shock model for compact radio sources. Our analysis highlights the importance of combining high quality data sets with sophisticated imaging and modelling algorithms for studying the high redshift Universe.

Intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) occupy the $ 10^2 - 10^5\,M_\odot $ range, but their existence remains poorly constrained. Only a few candidates have been suggested in dwarf galaxies, globular clusters, and LIGO-Virgo-Kagra detections. To investigate their formation and demographics, we adopt two complementary approaches. We first analyze the \textsc{dragonii} direct $N$-body simulations, which follow clusters with up to $ 10^6 $ stars, capture IMBHs growth. We then employ the semi-analytic code \textsc{bpop}, calibrated on \textsc{dragonii}, to explore a broad range of cluster and cosmological conditions. Our models reproduce merger rates consistent with GWTC-3, with $\sim30 - 60\%$ of BBHs forming dynamically, mainly in globular and nuclear clusters. About 2-3\% of mergers involve an IMBH, producing intermediate-mass ratio inspirals. The IMBH mass distribution spans $2.5 \times 10^2 - 4 \times 10^4\,M_\odot $, with rare growth beyond $10^6\,M_\odot$. Formation efficiency rises with initial binary fraction but declines in metal-rich environments. IMBHs thus emerge as a distinct population bridging stellar and supermassive black holes.

Turbulence in the interstellar medium (ISM) plays an important role in many physical processes, including forming stars and shaping complex ISM structures. In this work, we investigate the HI turbulent properties of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) to reveal what physical mechanisms drive the turbulence and at what scales. Using the high-resolution HI data of the Galactic ASKAP (GASKAP) survey and multi-point structure functions (SF), we perform a statistical analysis of HI turbulence in 34 subregions of the SMC. Two-point SFs tend to show a linear trend, and their slope values are relatively uniform across the SMC, suggesting that large-scale structures exist and are dominant in the two-point SFs. On the other hand, seven-point SF enables us to probe small-scale turbulence by removing large-scale fluctuations, which is difficult to achieve with the two-point SFs. In the seven-point SFs, we find break features at scales of 34-84 pc, with a median scale of $\sim$50 pc. This result indicates the presence of small-scale turbulent fluctuations in the SMC and quantifies its scale. In addition, we find strong correlations between slope values of the seven-point SFs and the stellar feedback-related quantities (e.g., H$\alpha$ intensities, the number of young stellar objects, and the number of HI shells), suggesting that stellar feedback may affect the small-scale turbulent properties of the HI gas in the SMC. Lastly, estimated sonic Mach numbers across the SMC are subsonic, which is consistent with the fact that the HI gas of the SMC primarily consists of the warm neutral medium.

Molecular clouds are active sites of star formation in galaxies, and their formation and evolution are largely affected by stellar feedback. This includes outflows and winds from newly formed stars, radiation from young clusters, and supernova explosions. High-resolution molecular line observations allow for the identification of individual star-forming regions and the study of their integrated properties. Moreover, simulations are now capable of accurately replicating the evolution of MCs including all key stellar feedback processes. We present 13CO(2-1) synthetic observations of the STARFORGE simulations produced using the radiative transfer code RADMC-3D, matching the observational setup of the SEDIGISM survey. From these, we identified the population of MCs using hierarchical clustering and analysed them to provide insights into the interpretation of observed MCs as they evolve. The flux distributions of the post-processed synthetic observations and the properties of the MCs, namely radius, mass, velocity dispersion, virial parameter and surface density, are consistent with those of SEDIGISM. Both samples of MCs occupy the same regions in the scaling relation plots; however, the average distributions of MCs at different evolutionary stages do not overlap on the plots. This highlights the reliability of our approach in modelling SEDIGISM and suggests that MCs at different evolutionary stages contribute to the scatter in observed scaling relations. We study the trends in MC properties over time to analyse their physical structure as they evolve. MCs appear as small, diffuse cloudlets in early stages, followed by their evolution to filamentary structures, before being shaped by stellar feedback into 3D bubbles and getting dispersed. These trends in the observable properties of MCs provide strong evidence that clouds exhibit distinct morphologies over the course of their evolution.

Analyses of IFU data are typically performed on a per-spaxel basis, with each spectrum modelled independently. For low signal-to-noise (S/N) features such as weak emission lines, estimating properties is difficult and imprecise. Arbitrary binning schemes boost S/N at the cost of resolution, and risk introducing biases. We present a general forward-modelling approach that assumes spectra close on the sky are more similar than distant ones, and so can be modelled jointly. These "spectrospatial" models exploit spatial correlation to provide robust inferences, while simultaneously providing continuous predictions of line properties like strength and kinematics across the sky. Instrumental and calibration systematics are straightforward to include and infer. The model provides a natural trade-off between spatial resolution and S/N in a data-driven way. We apply this to Sloan Digital Sky Survey V (SDSS-V) Local Volume Mapper (LVM) data of the Rosette Nebula, producing continuous maps of fluxes and kinematics for Balmer, nebular, and auroral lines, as well as weak C II and N II recombination lines, demonstrating the approach across three orders of magnitude in S/N, including in the very low-S/N regime. The method recovers identical morphologies across different lines tracing similar ionisation volumes, at varying resolutions set by the S/N. We additionally provide a general framework for building and fitting such models in JAX, suitable for many applications. The implementation is fast and memory efficient, scales to large data volumes as in LVM, and can be deployed on hardware accelerators.

Neutrinos are produced during stellar evolution by means of thermal and thermonuclear processes. We model the cumulative neutrino flux expected at Earth from all stars in the Milky Way: the Galactic stellar neutrino flux (GS$\nu$F). We account for the star formation history of our Galaxy and reconstruct the spatial distribution of Galactic stars by means of a random sampling procedure based on Gaia Data Release 2. We use the stellar evolution code $\texttt{MESA}$ to compute the neutrino emission for a suite of stellar models with solar metallicity and zero-age-main-sequence mass between $0.08M_\odot$ and $100\ M_\odot$, from their pre-main sequence phase to their final fates. We then reconstruct the evolution of the neutrino spectral energy distribution for each stellar model in our suite. The GS$\nu$F lies between $\mathcal{O}(1)$ keV and $\mathcal{O}(10)$ MeV, with thermal (thermonuclear) processes responsible for shaping neutrino emission at energies smaller (larger) than $0.1$ MeV. Stars with mass larger than $\mathcal{O}(1\ M_\odot)$, located in the thin disk of the Galaxy, provide the largest contribution to the GS$\nu$F. Moreover, most of the GS$\nu$F originates from stars distant from Earth about $5-10$ kpc, implying that a large fraction of stellar neutrinos can reach us from the Galactic Center. Solar neutrinos and the diffuse supernova neutrino background have energies comparable to those of the GS$\nu$F, challenging the detection of the latter. However, directional information of solar neutrino and GS$\nu$F events, together with the annual modulation of the solar neutrino flux, could facilitate the GS$\nu$F detection; this will kick off a new era for low-energy neutrino astronomy, also providing a novel probe to discover New Physics.

We investigate the evolution of the bar fraction and length using an extended JWST NIRCam imaging dataset of galaxies in the $1 \leq z \leq 4$ redshift range. We assess the wavelength dependence of the bar fraction in disc galaxies and bar length evolution by selecting a nearly mass-complete CEERS disc sample and performing independent visual classifications on the short (F200W) and long (F356W+F444W) wavelength channels. A similar bar fraction is observed for both samples, and combined we find a declining trend in the bar fraction: $0.16^{+0.03}_{-0.03}$ at $1 \leq z < 2$; $0.08^{+0.02}_{-0.01}$ at $2 \leq z < 3$; $0.07^{+0.03}_{-0.01}$ at $3 \leq z \leq 4$. This corroborates our previous work and other recent studies, suggesting that dynamically cold and rotationally supported massive discs are present at Cosmic Noon. No evolution in the F356W+F444W bar length is measured from $z = 4$ to $z = 1$, which has a mean of 3.6\,kpc, but a slight increase of about 1\,kpc towards $z = 1$ is measured in the F200W sample, which has a mean of 2.9\,kpc. The bar sample is shorter in the short-wavelength channel due to the better physical spatial resolution; however, we also suggest that dust obscuration plays a role. We find that the correlation between bar length and galaxy mass for massive galaxies observed at $z < 1$ is not seen at $z > 1$. By adding samples of barred galaxies at $z<1$, we show that there is a modest increase in the bar length ($\approx 2$\,kpc) towards $z=0$, but bars longer than $\approx8$\,kpc are only found at $z<1$. We show that bars and discs grow in tandem, for the bar length normalised by disc size does not evolve from $z = 4$ to $z = 0$. Not only is a significant population of bars forming beyond $z = 1$, but our results also show that some of these bars are as long and strong as the average bar at $z\approx0$.

Liller 1 is a stellar system orbiting within the inner 0.8kpc of the Galactic centre, characterised by a wide spread in age and metallicity, indicating a high mass. Liller 1 has been proposed to be a major contributor to the stellar mass of the Galactic bulge, yet its origin is subject to debate. We employ Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV (SDSS-IV) data from the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) to test scenarios proposed to explain the nature of Liller 1. Using a random sampling technique, we contrast the chemical compositions of Liller 1 stellar members with those of the bulge, inner disc, outer disk and solar neighbourhood. The chemistry of Liller 1 deviates from that of the bulge population at the 2-3$\sigma$ level for $\alpha$-elements Mg, Si, and Ca. We conclude that the progenitor of Liller 1 was not a major contributor of stellar mass to the bulge. Furthermore, we find the abundance pattern of Liller 1 to deviate at the 2$\sigma$ level from that of inner disk stars, ruling out the cluster rejuvenation scenario. Finally, we find that Liller 1 is chemically distinct from solar and outer disc populations, suggesting that the progenitor of Liller 1 is unlikely to be an in-situ massive clump formed at high redshift, from disc gravitational instabilities, that migrated inwards and coalesced with others into the bulge. Finally, we suggest that Liller 1 is a minor contributor to the stellar mass of the inner Galaxy, possibly of extragalactic origin.

When a giant planet forms in a protoplanetary disks, it carves a gap around its orbit separating the disk into two parts: inner disk and outer disk. Traditional disk accretion models, which assume material transport is driven by viscosity, reveal that the planet-induced gap acts like a filter which blocks large dust grains from flowing into the inner disk. However, there is growing evidence that material transport may be driven by magnetically-driven winds instead. By carrying out a suite of two-dimensional multi-fluid hydrodynamic simulations where wind is implemented with a parameterized model, we explored how dust filtration efficiency and the size of dust grains filtered change in disks where gas accretion is dominated by magnetically-driven winds. We found that the inward gas flow driven by the wind can enable dust to overcome the pressure bump at the outer gap edge and penetrate the planet-induced gap. The maximum size of dust grains capable of penetrating the gap increasing with the wind strength. Notably, we found that when wind is strong (mass loss rate = 1e-7 M_sun/yr), mm-sized grains can penetrate the gap opened by a multi-Jovian-mass planet. Our results suggest that magnetically driven winds can significantly enhance pebble drift and impact planet formation in the inner protoplanetary disk.

We investigate the environmental dependence of galaxy properties at $z\sim2.5$ using the Ly$\alpha$ Tomography IMACS Survey (LATIS), which provides high-resolution three-dimensional maps of intergalactic medium (IGM) overdensity via Ly$\alpha$ forest tomography. Our analysis focuses on a UV-selected spectroscopic sample of 2185 galaxies from LATIS and a complementary set of 1157 galaxies from heterogeneous spectroscopic surveys in the COSMOS field. We compare these datasets to forward-modeled mock catalogs constructed from the IllustrisTNG300-1 simulation, incorporating realistic selection functions to match both LATIS and the literature sample. While the mass-complete simulation predicts strong environmental trends--more massive and quiescent galaxies preferentially occupy overdense regions--we find that such trends are significantly weaker or absent in the observed samples. The LATIS galaxies show no measurable correlation between specific star formation rate (sSFR) and IGM overdensity, a result reproduced by LATIS-like mock catalogs, confirming that UV selection systematically excludes passive and dusty galaxies in dense environments. The literature compilation, despite improved high-mass coverage, remains incomplete and affected by similar biases. We also analyze a mass-complete photometric sample from the COSMOS-Web catalog at $z\sim2.5$ and find no detectable sSFR-environment relation, a null result that our simulations indicate can be explained by photometric redshift uncertainties. In particular, we find no evidence for a reversal of the sSFR-density relation at cosmic noon. These results demonstrate that observed correlations can be heavily shaped by selection effects, and caution against inferring physical trends from incomplete spectroscopic samples. Deeper, more representative spectroscopic surveys are needed to robustly characterize environmental effects at this epoch.

Close to Earth the solar wind is usually super-Alfvénic, i.e. the speed of the solar wind is much larger than the Alfvén speed. However, in the lower coronal regions, the solar wind is mostly sub-Alfvénic. With the Parker Solar Probe (PSP) crossing the boundary between the sub- and super-Alfvénic flow, Bandyopadhyay et al. (2022) performed a turbulence characterization of the sub-Alfvénic solar wind with initial data from encounters 8 and 9. In this study, we re-examine the turbulence properties such as turbulence amplitude, anisotropy of the magnetic field variance, intermittency and switchback strength extending with PSP data for encounters 8-19. The later orbits probe lower altitudes and experience sub-Alfvénic conditions more frequently providing a greater statistical coverage to contrast sub- and super-Alfvénic solar wind. Also, by isolating the intervals where the solar wind speed is approximately equal to the Alfvén speed, we explore the transition in more detail. We show that the amplitude of the normalized magnetic field fluctuation is smaller for the sub-Alfvénic samples. While solar wind turbulence in general is shown to be anisotropic, the sub-Alfvénic samples are more anisotropic than the super-Alfvénic samples, in general. Further, we show that the sub- and super-Alfvénic samples do not show much distinction in terms of intermittency strength. Finally, consistent with prior results, we find no evidence for polarity reversing > 90 degrees switchbacks in the sub-Alfvénic solar wind

Observations of density variations in stellar streams are a promising probe of low-mass dark matter substructure in the Milky Way. However, survey systematics such as variations in seeing and sky brightness can also induce artificial fluctuations in the observed densities of known stellar streams. These variations arise because survey conditions affect both object detection and star-galaxy misclassification rates. To mitigate these effects, we use Balrog synthetic source injections in the Dark Energy Survey (DES) Y3 data to calculate detection rate variations and classification rates as functions of survey properties. We show that these rates are nearly separable with respect to survey properties and can be estimated with sufficient statistics from the synthetic catalogs. Applying these corrections reduces the standard deviation of relative detection rates across the DES footprint by a factor of five, and our corrections significantly change the inferred linear density of the Phoenix stream when including faint objects. Additionally, for artificial streams with DES like survey properties we are able to recover density power spectra with reduced bias. We also find that uncorrected power-spectrum results for LSST-like data can be around five times more biased, highlighting the need for such corrections in future ground based surveys.

We review the state of the evidence for the existence and observational appearance of supermassive black hole binaries. Such objects are expected from standard hierarchical galaxy evolution to form after two galaxies, each containing a supermassive black hole, have merged, in the centre of the merger remnant. A complex interaction is predicted to take place with stars and gas in the host galaxy, leading to observable signatures in weakly as well as actively accreting phases. Direct observational evidence is available and shows examples of dual active galactic nuclei from kpc scales down to parsec scales. Signatures of possibly closer supermassive black hole binaries may be seen in jetted black holes. The interaction with stars and gas in a galaxy significantly affects the hardening of the binary and hence contributes to uncertainties of the expected gravitational wave signal. The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) should in the future detect actual mergers. Before the launch of LISA, pulsar timing arrays may have the best chance to detect a gravitational wave signal from supermassive black hole binaries. The first signs of the combined background of inspiralling objects might have been seen already.

The bar pattern speed of the LMC has been measured using Gaia data, suggesting the presence of a slow pattern, perhaps not rotating at all. Numerical simulations of interacting LMC-SMC systems were able to reproduce a bar stoppage. Here, we report on the first measurement of the bar pattern speed of the LMC as a function of the evolutionary phase of its stellar populations. Astrometric and photometric data of 11 million LMC stars from Gaia DR3 were used to build five evolutionary phases, from less to more evolved stars. The Dehnen method, a new procedure to derive bar pattern speeds from kinematics of particles in N-body simulations, is applied to the LMC stellar populations. We observe a modulation of the bar pattern speed with the evolutionary phase, meaning that different LMC stellar populations exhibit different pattern speeds, ranging from -0.9 to 6.6 km/s/kpc. Moreover, less evolved stars have a lower pattern speed while the bar of more evolved phases tends to rotate faster. The LMC bar is thus extremely slow, ruling out the presence of bar corotation within the disc, in agreement with a previous claim, but this time observed with various stellar populations. It is the first time that a pattern speed is measured separately for different stellar populations in any galaxy. The LMC pattern speed cannot be simply resumed to a singular value, but instead is an overlay of different patterns depending on the evolutionary phase of the stars. Future Gaia releases will be crucial to investigate more deeply the relations of the pattern speed with important astrophysical parameters of stars, like their age and metallicity, which will be helpful to constrain the chemo-dynamical evolution of the LMC bar.

The latest GWTC-4 release from the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) collaboration nearly doubles the known population of double compact object mergers and reveals a new trimodal structure in the chirp-mass distribution of merging binary black holes (BBHs) below 30 Msun. Recent detailed stellar evolution models show that features in the pre-collapse cores of massive stars produce a bimodal black hole (BH) mass distribution, which naturally extends to a trimodal BBH chirp-mass distribution. Both distributions depend only weakly on metallicity, implying universal structural features which can be tested with LVK observations. Using a new compact-remnant mass prescription derived from these models, we perform rapid population synthesis simulations to test the robustness of the predicted chirp-mass structure against uncertainties in binary evolution and cosmic star formation history, and compare these results with the current observational data. The trimodal chirp-mass distribution emerges as a robust outcome of the new remnant-mass model, persisting across variations in binary and cosmic physics. In contrast, traditional BH formation models lacking a bimodal BH mass spectrum fail to reproduce the observed trimodality. The updated models also predict lower BBH merger rates by a factor of a few, in closer agreement with LVK constraints. Intriguingly, the central chirp-mass peak, dominated by unequal-mass BBHs, originates from a previously underappreciated formation pathway in which strong luminous blue variable winds suppress binary interaction before the first BH forms. If isolated binary evolution dominates BBH formation below 30 Msun, the relative heights of the three chirp-mass peaks offer powerful observational constraints on core collapse, BH formation, binary evolution, and cosmic star formation. These universal structural features may also serve as standard sirens for precision cosmology.

We present an automated and probabilistic method to make prediscovery detections of near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) in archival survey images, with the goal of reducing orbital uncertainty immediately after discovery. We refit Minor Planet Center astrometry and propagate the full six-parameter covariance to survey epochs to define search regions. We build low-threshold source catalogs for viable images and evaluate every detected source in a search region as a candidate prediscovery. We eliminate false positives by refitting a new orbit to each candidate and probabilistically linking detections across images using a likelihood ratio. Applied to Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) imaging, we identify approximately 3000 recently discovered NEAs with prediscovery potential, including a doubling of the observational arc for about 500. We use archival ZTF imaging to make prediscovery detections of the potentially hazardous asteroid 2021 DG1, extending its arc by 2.5 years and reducing future apparition sky-plane uncertainty from many degrees to arcseconds. We also recover 2025 FU24 nearly 7 years before its first known observation, when its sky-plane uncertainty covers hundreds of square degrees across thousands of ZTF images. The method is survey-agnostic and scalable, enabling rapid orbit refinement for new discoveries from Rubin, NEO Surveyor, and NEOMIR.

White dwarf stars with high abundances of heavy elements in their atmospheres and infrared excesses are believed to be accreting planetary material. GD 362 is one of the most heavily polluted white dwarfs and has an exceptionally strong mid-infrared excess, reprocessing 2.4% of the star's light into the mid-infrared. We present a high signal-to-noise, medium-resolution spectrum of GD 362 obtained with JWST, covering 0.6 to 17 microns, along with photometry out to 25.5 microns. The mid-infrared spectrum is dominated by an exceptionally strong 9 to 11 micron silicate feature, which can be explained by a combination of olivine and pyroxene silicate minerals. Grains such as carbon, hotter than silicates, are required to explain the near-infrared emission. The silicates and carbon reside in a disk from 140 to 1400 stellar radii, and the disk scale height is greater than half the stellar radius. The elemental abundances of the solid material, relative to Si, are within a factor of 2 of meteoritic (CI chondrites) for C, O, Mg, Al, and Fe, with Al elevated and O slightly depleted. A similar pattern is observed for the abundances of accreted material in the stellar photosphere. Hydrogen is an exception, because no significant H-bearing minerals or water were detected in the disk, despite a large H abundance in the photosphere.

Context: Rotational CO transitions, while acting as a foreground for [C II] line-intensity mapping (LIM) experiments, trace the physical conditions of cold gas in galaxies at lower redshifts. Studying these transitions is also crucial for improving component-separation methods as LIM sensitivity increases. Aims: Galaxy-evolution models have so far predicted only the total CO LIM signal. We explore the potential of cross-correlating millimeter-wave LIM data with spectroscopic galaxy surveys to constrain individual CO-line contributions, measure the CO-background spectral line energy distribution (SLED), and derive the cosmic molecular gas density, $\rho_{\mathrm{H2}}(z)$, up to $z = 3$. Methods: We built 12 light cones of $9~\mathrm{deg}^2$ from the Simulated Infrared Extragalactic Sky (SIDES) simulation. By analyzing cross-power spectra between different CO transitions and the galaxy density field, we recovered the CO background SLED. Combining it with bias-weighted line intensities yielded $\rho_{\mathrm{H2}}(z)$. We also assessed the detectability of the CO(4--3) cross-power spectrum with a CONCERTO-like experiment. Results: For a realistic spectroscopic depth, the CO background SLED is accurately recovered up to $J_{\mathrm{up}} = 6$ with $\leq 20%$ uncertainties. Reconstructing $\rho_{\mathrm{H2}}$ from millimeter LIM data requires an excitation correction relative to CO(1--0). Interloper-induced variance does not prevent precise $\rho_{\mathrm{H2}}$ estimation. In the two-star-formation-mode SIDES model, starbursts dominate the SLED at $J_{\mathrm{up}} \geq 6$ but do not bias $\rho_{\mathrm{H2}}$ estimates from $2 \leq J_{\mathrm{up}} \leq 6$. However, CONCERTO lacks the sensitivity to detect the CO$\times$galaxy cross-power on relevant scales, even under ideal conditions.

X-ray binary accretion disk winds can carry away a significant fraction of the originally infalling matter and hence strongly affect the accretion flow and the long-term evolution of the binary system. However, accurate measurements of their mass outflow rates are challenging due to uncertainties in our understanding of the 3D wind structure. Most studies employ absorption line spectroscopy that only gives us a single sightline through the wind streamlines. Hercules X-1 is a peculiar X-ray binary which allows us to avoid this issue, as its warped, precessing accretion disk naturally presents a range of sightlines through the vertical structure of its disk wind. Here we present the first results from a large, coordinated campaign on Her X-1 led by the new XRISM observatory and supported by XMM-Newton, NuSTAR and Chandra. We perform a time-resolved analysis and constrain the properties of the wind vertical structure. Thanks to the precision spectroscopy of XRISM/Resolve, we directly detect the Her X-1 orbital motion in the evolution of the outflow velocity. After correcting for this effect, we observe an increase in velocity from 250 km/s to 600 km/s as the wind rises to greater heights above the disk. The wind column density decreases with height, as expected, but its ionization parameter only evolves weakly, and is consistent with freezing out as the wind expands away. Additionally, we detect a new orbital dependence of the wind properties, revealing a likely second wind component that appears only briefly after the eclipse of Her X-1 by the secondary star.

Supernova H0pe is a multiply-imaged Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) and the second lensed SN to yield a measurement of the Hubble constant by the time-delay cosmography method, finding $H_0 = 75.4^{+8.1}_{-5.5} \text{km s}^{-1} \text{Mpc}^{-1}$. We investigate the seven lens modeling approaches used to derive $H_0$, assessing their agreement with $\Lambda \text{CDM}$ constraints from SN Ia surveys through a purely observational comparison. While photometrically derived magnifications yield distance moduli in line with $\Lambda \text{CDM}$ expectations, our comparison reveals that lens model predictions, even the most precise ones, consistently overestimate the magnification, with a offset of $ \Delta \mu > 1$ mag. This known bias, already appreciated by modeling teams, is independently confirmed through our analysis and highlights the value of lensed SNe as a tool to test model accuracy. If unaccounted for, such magnification biases can propagate into uncertainties in derived cosmological parameters, including $H_0$, and affect the interpretation of future precision measurements. These findings highlight a critical challenge for precision cosmology using strongly lensed transients. With next-generation surveys such as LSST, Roman, and Euclid poised to discover many more gravitationally lensed supernovae, the development and validation of robust, accurate lens models will be essential for using these rare events to probe cosmology.

The peculiar velocities of supernovae and their host galaxies are correlated with the large-scale structure of the Universe, and can be used to constrain the growth rate of structure and test the cosmological model. In this work, we measure the correlation statistics of the large-scale structure traced by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Bright Galaxy Survey Data Release 1 sample, and magnitude fluctuations of type Ia supernova from the Pantheon+ compilation across redshifts z < 0.1. We find a detection of the cross-correlation signal between galaxies and type Ia supernova magnitudes. Fitting the normalised growth rate of structure f sigma_8 to the auto- and cross-correlation function measurements we find f sigma_8 = 0.384 +0.094 -0.157, which is consistent with the Planck LambdaCDM model prediction, and indicates that the supernova magnitude fluctuations are induced by peculiar velocities. Using a large ensemble of N-body simulations, we validate our methodology, calibrate the covariance of the measurements, and demonstrate that our results are insensitive to supernova selection effects. We highlight the potential of this methodology for measuring the growth rate of structure, and forecast that the next generation of type Ia supernova surveys will improve f sigma_8 constraints by a further order of magnitude.

We present a multi-modal foundation model for astrophysical galaxy data, designed to map between simulation- and observation-based galactic features. Our encoder-only transformer flexibly ingests scalar quantities (e.g., redshifts, galaxy masses) and vectors (e.g., star formation histories, spectra), supporting multi-task training that includes within-modality reconstruction and cross-modality prediction. With a dynamic masking strategy, the model can query arbitrary galaxy properties from partial inputs -- including predicting spectra from redshift and mass, or estimating photometric redshifts from broadband magnitudes -- while also recovering missing segments within a modality. Trained on 185,000 simulated galaxies from a gigaparsec-scale Cosmology simulation, the model yields a 50% improvement in redshift estimation when combining LSST and SPHEREx photometry over LSST photometry alone, and a 63% improvement in stellar mass inference when combining late-time SFH with LSST photometry over early-time SFH with LSST photometry. The model demonstrates strong generalization across multi-modal tasks and lays the groundwork for future integration of higher-dimensional and structured data such as images, merger trees, and 3D fields. This approach provides a unified framework for connecting simulations and observations, advancing the development of generalizable astrophysical foundation models.

RR Lyrae (RRL) variable stars are cornerstone distance indicators. In particular, double-mode RR Lyrae (RRd) stars enable period--luminosity relations (PLRs) that are less sensitive to metallicity, reducing systematic biases in distance measurements. However, their utility has been limited by a global sample of only $\sim$3,000 objects. We develop an automated RRd-screening pipeline and apply it to a cross-matched sample between the Gaia DR3 RRL catalog and ZTF DR22 time-series photometry. The workflow combines Lomb--Scargle period searches, iterative pre-whitening, period-ratio constraints that suppress $\sim$1-day sampling aliases, and amplitude-based quality cuts, enabling large-scale RRd star screening. We produce two ZTF-based catalogs: (i) 39,322 reliable single-mode RRL (40.5\% of the cross-matched set) and (ii) 969 RRd stars. Among the RRd stars, 614 objects are newly identified, substantially enlarging this previously scarce sample; the catalog achieves an estimated completeness of 47.7\%. The PLR derived from the newly discovered RRd stars agrees with the LMC-based relation, though with larger uncertainties. Incorporating these stars will help tighten the RRd PLR and improve distance measurements. Looking ahead, systematic RRd searches with upcoming surveys such as the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) and the China Space Station Telescope (CSST) should further extend high-accuracy distances across the Local Group and strengthen their cosmological applications.

We present a comprehensive photometric and spectroscopic analysis of the Algol-type binary \textit{Gaia} DR3 1892576067672499328. We identified the system as a spectroscopic binary based on medium-resolution LAMOST spectra. Combined with \textit{TESS} photometry, we determine an orbital period of \( P = 2.47757 (1) \) days, a low mass ratio of \( q = 0.098 \pm 0.002 \), and an orbital inclination of \( i = 46.934^{+2.613}_{-1.11} \) degrees. The orbit is consistent with being circular (\( e = 0 \)). The binary comprises a \( M_1 = 1.817 ^{ +0.106}_{-0.202} \,M_\odot \), \( R_1 = 1.265^{+0.121}_{-0.160}\,R_\odot \) A-type primary and a Roche-lobe-filling secondary of \( M_2 = 0.179 ^{ +0.011}_{-0.020} \,M_\odot \), \( R_2 = 1.994 ^{ +0.041}_{-0.077} \,R_\odot \). The double-peak H$\alpha$ emission line indicates the possible existence of a Keplerian accretion disc. We established a simple standard accretion disc model and modeled the geometric and dynamical properties of the accretion disc. The obtained outer disc radius $R_{\mathrm{out}} \approx 3.36 \pm 0.43\,R_\odot$ is consistent with the values inferred from the emission velocity of H$\alpha$. Systemic velocity variations observed over time suggest the possible presence of a tertiary companion, with a minimum mass of $M_3 > 0.369 \pm 0.024 \,M_\odot$. Given the low mass ratio, the secondary may evolve into a proto-helium white dwarf, forming an \text{EL CVn}-type system in the future. This system offers valuable insights into accretion dynamics and the formation of binaries.

JWST's exquisite data have opened the doors to new possibilities in detecting broad classes of astronomical objects, but also to new challenges in classifying those objects. In this work, we introduce SESHAT, the Stellar Evolutionary Stage Heuristic Assessment Tool for the identification of Young Stellar Objects, field stars (main sequence through asymptotic giant branch), brown dwarfs, white dwarfs, and galaxies, from any JWST observation. This identification is done using the machine learning method XGBoost to analyze thousands of rows of synthetic photometry, modified at run-time to match the filters available in the data to be classified. We validate this tool on real data of both star-forming regions and cosmological fields, and find we are able to reproduce the observed classes of objects to a minimum of 80\% recall across every class, without additional information on the ellipticity or spatial distribution of the objects. Furthermore, this tool can be used to test the filter choices for JWST proposals, to verify whether the chosen filters are sufficient to identify the desired class of objects. SESHAT is released as a Python package to the community for general use.

X-ray emission is generally believed to be one of the major heating sources for the optical modulation in redback pulsar binaries as we have seen similar phenomena in many low mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs). While, e.g., MeV/GeV gamma-rays from the neutron stars are also possible heating sources, X-ray observations are currently much more sensitive, and therefore, joint optical--X-ray data are observationally unique on the irradiation mechanism investigation. Using 18 X-ray/B-band simultaneous XMM-Newton observations (717 ks in total) of the redback system PSR J1023+0038 taken during the LMXB state, we find a general trend that the amplitude of the B-band orbital modulation was lower when the observed X-ray flux was higher. Depending on the analysis method adopted, the statistical significance of the anti-correlation can be from 1.7sigma to 3.1sigma. We also extended the analysis to the GeV gamma-ray band using the Fermi-LAT data, but the result is insignificant to claim any relations. Moreover, another X-ray/optical correlation regarding the low modes of the system was found in some of the \textit{XMM-Newton} observations, and the astrophysical reason behind is currently unclear yet. These anti-correlations likely suggest that the irradiation is generally stronger when the X-ray flux is in a fainter state, indicating that there is a more dominant irradiation source than the X-ray emission.

Pulse-profile modeling (PPM) of thermal X-ray emission from rotation-powered millisecond pulsars enables simultaneous constraints on the mass $M$, radius $R$, and hence the equation of state of cold, dense matter. However, Bayesian PPM has faced a hard accuracy-speed bottleneck: current production resolutions used to keep inference tractable can under-resolve extreme hotspot geometries and bias the waveform computation, whereas the higher resolutions that remove this bias push forward models to minutes per evaluation, making inference impractical. We break this trade-off with, to our knowledge, the first public GPU-accelerated X-ray PPM framework that matches established benchmarks to within $\sim10^{-3}$ relative accuracy even for extreme geometries, while collapsing minutes-long high-fidelity computations to $2$--$5$ ms on an RTX 4080 ($10^{3}$--$10^{4}\times$ speedups), enabling posterior exploration at resolutions and complexities previously out of reach. We further uncover a bias near the interpolation boundaries of atmosphere lookup tables, demonstrate it with two diagnostic tests, and counter it with a mixed-order interpolator. Together, these advances enlarge the feasible hotspot model space and reduce key systematics in PPM, strengthening inferences for current and future X-ray missions.

Gravitational lensing is one of the most powerful probes of dark matter, yet creating high-fidelity lensed images at scale remains a bottleneck. Existing tools rely on ray-tracing or forward-modeling pipelines that, while precise, are prohibitively slow. We introduce FlowLensing, a Diffusion Transformer-based compact and efficient flow-matching model for strong gravitational lensing simulation. FlowLensing operates in both discrete and continuous regimes, handling classes such as different dark matter models as well as continuous model parameters ensuring physical consistency. By enabling scalable simulations, our model can advance dark matter studies, specifically for probing dark matter substructure in cosmological surveys. We find that our model achieves a speedup of over 200$\times$ compared to classical simulators for intensive dark matter models, with high fidelity and low inference latency. FlowLensing enables rapid, scalable, and physically consistent image synthesis, offering a practical alternative to traditional forward-modeling pipelines.

In this work, we construct foreground-marginalised versions of the SPT-3G D1 and SPTpol cosmic microwave background (CMB) B-mode polarisation likelihoods. The compression is performed using the CMB-lite framework and we use the resulting data sets to constrain anisotropic cosmic birefringence, parametrised by the amplitude of a scale-invariant anisotropic birefringence spectrum, $A_{\rm CB}$. Using the new SPT-3G data we report a $95\%$ upper limit on $A_{\rm CB}$ of $ 1.2\times 10^{-4}$, which tightens to $0.53\times 10^{-4}$ when imposing a prior on the amplitude of gravitational lensing based on CMB lensing reconstruction analyses. These are the tightest constraints on anisotropic birefringence from BB power spectrum measurements to-date, demonstrating the constraining power of the South Pole Telescope. The likelihoods used in this work are made publicly available at this https URL

Recent observations have revealed a remarkably rapid buildup of cosmic dust in the interstellar medium (ISM) of high redshift galaxies, with complex dust compositions and large abundances already appearing at redshifts $z>6$. Here we present a comprehensive, joint analysis of observations taken with the {\em James Webb Space Telescope} (JWST) and the Atacama Large Millimetre/sub-millimetre Array (ALMA) of the highly magnified, dusty `normal' galaxy, A1689-zD1 at $z=7.13$. We perform detailed spectro-photometric modeling of the rest-frame UV to far-infrared spectral energy distribution (SED) based on archival photometry of the source and report new rest-frame optical strong-line measurements and metallicity estimates from recent JWST/NIRSpec IFU data. We find that despite its substantial dust mass, $M_{\rm dust}\sim 1.5\times 10^{7}\,M_\odot$, A1689-zD1 has remarkably low dust-to-gas and dust-to-metal mass ratios, ${\rm DTG} = (5.1^{+3.0}_{-1.9})\times 10^{-4}$ and ${\rm DTM} = (6.1^{+3.6}_{-2.3})\times 10^{-2}$, respectively, due to its high metallicity $12+\log({\rm O/H}) = 8.36\pm 0.10$ and substantial gas mass, $M_{\rm gas} = (2.8^{+0.2}_{-1.7})\times 10^{10}\,M_\odot$. The DTG and DTM mass ratios are an order of magnitude lower than expected for galaxies in the local universe with similar chemical enrichment. These low relative measurements are also corroborated by the deficit observed in the $A_V/N_{\rm HI}$ ratio of A1689-zD1 in the line-of-sight. We find that this deviation in the DTG and DTM mass ratios appears to be ubiquitous in other metal-rich galaxies at similar redshifts, $z\gtrsim 6$. This suggests that the processes that form and destroy dust at later times, or the dust emissivity itself, are drastically different for galaxies in the early Universe.

The disks of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) provide a natural environment where stellar-mass black holes (BHs) can dynamically pair, undergo repeated interactions, and eventually merge. It is commonly assumed that gas accretion will both efficiently spin up disk-embedded black holes and align the orbits of embedded binaries with the disk plane, leading to mergers with preferentially positive effective spin parameters ($\chi_{\mathrm{eff}}$). Such predictions have motivated the use of $\chi_{\mathrm{eff}}$ as a diagnostic for identifying candidate AGN-embedded mergers in the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA gravitational-wave catalog. In this work, we perform post-Newtonian $N$-body simulations of nearly planar binary-single encounters and apply an empirically motivated, gas-driven alignment prescription to characterize the expected $\chi_{\mathrm{eff}}$-eccentricity correlations of AGN-embedded mergers. By comparing the alignment and gravitational-wave inspiral timescales, we identify the regions of parameter space, across both disk location and binary properties, where full disk-spin-orbit alignment is effective and where it is not. We find that quasi-circular binaries typically align by the time they merge, supporting the standard picture of spin-orbit aligned orientations. By contrast, eccentric binaries (with in-band eccentricity $e_{10\mathrm{Hz}}\gtrsim 0.1$) typically inspiral too quickly for gas torques to act, preserving the post-encounter spin-orbit misalignments and yielding more isotropic $\chi_{\mathrm{eff}}$ distributions when disk densities and torque efficiencies are modest. This interplay naturally establishes a correlation between binary eccentricity and $\chi_{\mathrm{eff}}$ in AGN disks, highlighting a new key observable of the AGN channel and a potential explanation for massive events such as GW190521 and GW231123.

We present ALMA CO observations of 14 HI-detected galaxies from the CHILES survey found in a cosmic over-density at z~0.12. This is the largest collection of spatially resolved CO + HI observations beyond the local Universe (z>0.05) to date. While the HI-detected parent sample spans a range of stellar masses, star formation rates (SFR), and environments, we only directly detect CO in the highest stellar mass galaxies, log(M_*/M_Sun)>10.0, with SFRs greater than ~2 M_Sun/yr. The detected CO has the kinematic signature of a rotating disk, consistent with the HI. We stack the CO non-detections and find a mean H_2 mass of log(M_H2/M_Sun) = 8.46 in galaxies with a mean stellar mass of log(M_*/M_Sun) = 9.35. In addition to high stellar masses and SFRs, the systems detected in CO are spatially larger, have redder overall colors, and exhibit broader (stacked) line widths. The CO emission is spatially coincident with both the highest stellar mass surface density and star forming region of the galaxies, as revealed by the 1.4 GHz continuum emission. We interpret the redder colors as the molecular gas being coincident with dusty regions of obscured star formation. The 14 HI detections show a range of morphologies, but the HI reservoir is always more extended than the CO. Finally, we compare with samples in the literature and find mild evidence for evolution in the molecular gas reservoir and H_2-to-HI gas ratio with redshift in HI flux-limited samples. We show that the scatter in the HI, and HI-to-stellar mass ratio is too great to conclusively measure evolution below z=0.2, and is even extremely difficult below z=0.4. Detections from CHILES are likely to be the only individual galaxies detected in HI between 0.1<z<0.23 for the foreseeable future due to the severity of satellite radio frequency interference, and its preferential impact on short baselines which dominate contemporary HI surveys.

The equatorial jets dominating the dynamics of the Jovian planets exhibit two distinct types of zonal flows: strongly eastward in the gas giants (superrotation) and strongly westward in the ice giants (subrotation). Existing theories propose different mechanisms for these patterns, but no single mechanism has successfully explained both. However, the planetary parameters of the four Solar System giant planets suggest that a fundamentally different mechanism is unlikely. In this study, we show that convection-driven columnar structures can account for both eastward and westward equatorial jets, framing the phenomenon as a bifurcation. Consequently, both superrotation and subrotation emerge as stable branches of the same mechanistic solution. Our analysis of these solutions uncovers similarities in the properties of equatorial waves and the leading-order momentum balance. This study suggests that the fundamental dynamics governing equatorial jet formation may be more broadly applicable across the Jovian planets than previously believed, offering a unified explanation for their two distinct zonal wind patterns.

Astrophysical processes can contribute to magnetic fields within cosmic voids either through magnetized outflows from the astrophysical large-scale structure or through superposition of dipolar contributions from individual galaxies. Such astrophysical magnetic fields represent a foreground to possible space-filling primordial magnetic fields seeded in the early Universe. In this paper, we provide a qualitative description of the screening of magnetic fields by intergalactic plasmas. We find that contributions from superposition of static dipoles are highly suppressed and cannot explain indications for lower bounds based on observations of $\gamma$-ray cascades from high energy sources such as blazars.

Two extreme events in the universe, fast radio bursts (FRBs) and cosmic rays (CRs), could be corelated, where FRBs with extreme field strength near their sources may contribute to CRs. This study investigates localized particle acceleration driven by FRB-like ultra-relativistic electromagnetic pulses. It is found ultra-high energy neutral plasma sheets form constantly via the front erosion of an FRB pulse. There are two ion acceleration regimes depending upon the field strength and the plasma density: the wakefield regime dominated by charge separation fields, and the piston regime driven by the $\mathbf{V}\times\mathbf{B}$ force of the pulses. The predicted energy scalings align well with particle-in-cell simulations. A power-law energy spectrum naturally arises with an index close to the CRs during FRB diffusion outward. Joint observations of FRBs and CRs may provide an opportunity to understand these extreme events and advance the development of multi-messenger astronomy.

Methanol is a seed species of complex organic molecules that is of fundamental importance in astrochemistry. Although various isotopologues of CH$_3$OH have been detected in the interstellar medium (ISM), CH$_{3}$$^{17}$OH is only tentatively detected in Sgr~B2. To confirm the presence of CH$_{3}$$^{17}$OH in the ISM and to investigate its abundance, we search for its emission lines in the Orion~KL region. We have obtained image cubes covering the frequency ranges 236.40~GHz-236.65~GHz and 231.68~GHz-231.88~GHz using ALMA archival data observed toward the Orion~KL region. The column densities of CH$_3$$^{17}$OH and CH$_3$$^{18}$OH are estimated under the assumption of local thermodynamic equilibrium condition with fixed excitation temperatures at the two CH$_3$$^{18}$OH peaks, MeOH1 and MeOH2,. We have identified six emission lines of CH$_{3}$$^{17}$OH in MeOH1 and MeOH2 and confirmed that the line profiles and spatial distributions are consistent with those of CH$_3$$^{18}$OH. The abundance ratios of CH$_3$$^{18}$OH/CH$_3$$^{17}$OH are evaluated to be $\sim 3.4-3.5$ and are similar to the canonical value of $^{18}$O/$^{17}$O $\sim 3-4$ derived from CO observations in the Orion~KL region. We have compared the results with the previous study of CH$_3$OH and evaluated CH$_3$$^{16}$OH/CH$_3$$^{17}$OH ratios to be $\sim 2300-2500$ at a resolution of $\sim 4$~arcsec. The ratios are close to the $^{16}$O/$^{17}$O ratio in the local ISM. This result indicates that the CH$_3$OH isotopologues can serve as new tracers of oxygen isotope ratios in star-forming regions because the opacity of CH$_3$OH can be evaluated using transition lines spanning a wide range of line intensities. Moreover, this method enables us to study the star-formation history of our Galaxy with the aid of the Galactic chemical evolution models.

On 29 March 2006, a total solar eclipse was observed in the Manavgat district of Antalya, Turkey. During the event, the solar corona was observed using an 8-inch mirrored telescope. White-light polarization observations were carried out at three distinct angles using a polarizing filter placed in front of the camera system. To calibrate the intensity of the roll film, photographs of the eclipse and the solar disk were taken with a traditional 35mm manual camera. Using the solar disk images obtained during the eclipse, an intensity calibration curve for the roll film was created. This curve was then used to calculate various physical properties of the solar corona, including intensity, degree of polarization, electron density, and mean temperature. The results of these calculations were compared with the corona models developed by \cite{VDH1950} and \cite{SK1970}, as well as with findings from other researchers. Except for the degree of polarization, the measured physical parameters closely match the values given in the literature.

Sulfur and its isotopic ratios play a crucial role in understanding astrophysical environments, providing insights into nucleosynthesis, ISM processes, star formation, planetary evolution, and galactic chemistry. We investigate the distribution of sulfur bearing species $\rm{SO_2}$, $\rm{^{34}SO_2}$, SO, and $\rm{^{34}SO}$ towards five oxygen rich Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars ($o$ Ceti, R Dor, W Hya, R Leo, and EP Aqr), along with their excitation temperatures, column densities, and isotopic ratios. Using ALMA Band 6,7,8 data and CASSIS, we detect these species and estimate excitation temperature and column density via the rotational diagram and MCMC methods under LTE. Line imaging of various transitions is used to infer spatial distributions. The excitation temperatures of $\rm{SO_2}$ range from $\sim$200-600 K with column densities of $\rm{1-7\times10^{16}\ cm^{-2}}$, while $\rm{^{34}SO_2}$ shows comparable or slightly lower values and about an order of magnitude lower column densities. The $\rm{^{32}S/^{34}S}$ ratios for R Dor and W Hya are near solar, slightly higher for $o$ Ceti, and lower for EP Aqr and R Leo. Most detected lines exhibit centralized emission: high excitation $\rm{SO_2}$ traces compact hot gas in inner CSEs, whereas low-excitation lines trace more extended structures. Morphological differences, irregular emission in $o$ Ceti, circular in R Leo and W Hya, clumpy in R Dor, and unresolved in EP Aqr may arise from variations in physical conditions, multiplicity, outflows, rotation, desorption processes, UV or cosmic ray effects, or observational resolution. Overall, the centralized SO and $\rm{SO_2}$ emissions support previous findings for low mass-loss rate AGB stars, and the $\rm{^{32}S/^{34}S}$ ratios likely reflect natal cloud composition, with deviations linked to metallicity or excitation conditions.

Weak-line quasars (WLQs) are a subset of type 1 quasars with remarkably weak high-ionization broad emission lines but normal optical/UV continua. Using 371,091 quasars from SDSS DR16, we define WLQs by analyzing outliers in three relations: the L1350-CIV blueshift, the Baldwin effect, and the logL2500-alpha_ox. We find two CIV EW thresholds: $8.9\pm0.2$Å and $19.3\pm0.3$Å. WLQs (EW(CIV)<$8.9\pm0.2$Å) have enhanced CIV blueshifts, deviate from the Baldwin effect, and include many X-ray weak objects (nearly half). Normal quasars (EW(CIV)>$19.3\pm0.3$Å) show typical properties, while bridge quasars (intermediate EW) are transitional. WLQs show a positive correlation between line attenuation and ionization energy: high-ionization lines (e.g., HeII, CIV) are suppressed by ~3-4{\sigma} compared to low-ionization lines (e.g., MgII, OI). This supports the shielding gas model, where a thick inner accretion disk obscures high-energy photons, suppressing high-ionization lines, while low-ionization lines are less affected. We suggest that WLQs and normal quasars correspond to slim and thin disk regimes, respectively, with bridge quasars as a transitional phase. This work provides a unified criterion for WLQs and highlights the role of accretion-driven shielding gas in their spectral features.

Radiative feedback from massive stars plays a central role in the evolution of molecular clouds and the interstellar medium. This paper presents a multi-wavelength analysis of the bright-rimmed cloud, BRC 44, which is located at the periphery of the Hii region Sh2-145 and is excited by the massive stars in the region. We use a combination of archival and newly obtained infrared data, along with new optical observations, to provide a census of young stellar objects (YSOs) in the region and to estimate stellar parameters such as age, mass etc. The spatial distribution of YSOs visible in the optical wavelength suggests that they are distributed in separate clumps compared to the embedded YSOs and are relatively older. Near-Infrared (NIR) spectroscopy of four YSOs in this region using the TANSPEC mounted on the 3.6m Devasthal Optical Telescope (DOT) confirms their youth. From Spectral Energy Distribution (SED) fitting, most of the embedded YSO candidates are in their early stage of evolution, with the majority of them in their Class II and some in Class I stage. The relative proper motions of the YSOs with respect to the ionizing source are indicative of the rocket effect in the BRC. The 12CO, 13CO, and C18O observations with the Purple Mountain Observatory are used to trace the distribution of molecular gas in the region. A comparison of the cold molecular gas distribution with simple analytical model calculations shows that the cloud is in the compression stage, and massive stars may be influencing the formation of young embedded stars in the BRC region due to radiative feedback.

Gravitational wave detectors are observing an increasing number of binary black hole (BBH) mergers, revealing a bimodal mass distribution of BBHs, which hints at diverse formation histories for these systems. Using the rapid binary population synthesis code MOBSE, we simulate a series of population synthesis models that include chemically homogeneous evolution (CHE). By considering metallicity-specific star formation and selection effects, we compare the intrinsic merger rates and detection rates of each model with observations. We find that the observed peaks in the mass distribution of merging BBHs at the low-mass end (10\msun) and the high-mass end (35\msun) are contributed by the common envelope channel or stable mass transfer channel (depending on the stability criteria for mass transfer) and the CHE channel, respectively, in our model. The merger rates and detection rates predicted by our model exhibit significant sensitivity to the choice of physical parameters. Different models predict merger rates ranging from 15.4 to $96.7\,\rm{Gpc^{-3}yr^{-1}}$ at redshift $z$ = 0.2, and detection rates ranging from 22.2 to 148.3$\mathrm{yr^{-1}}$ under the assumption of a detectable redshift range of $z \le$ 1.0.

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are one of the main targets for the observations of the MAGIC telescopes. As a result of the effort in improving the sensitivity of the instrument and the automatic follow-up strategy, MAGIC detected two GRBs in the very-high-energy (VHE, $E>100$ GeV) range, namely GRB 190114C and GRB 201216C. In GRB 190114C ($z=0.42$), the data collected by MAGIC revealed a new emission component at sub-TeV energies in the afterglow of the GRB. The very rich multi-wavelength dataset, spanning 17 orders of magnitude in energy, allowed to perform a detailed modelling of the broadband emission. The multi-wavelength data could be modelled within a one-zone synchrotron-self Compton scenario with internal $\gamma-\gamma$ absorption, where the model parameters are compatible with those found in previous GRB afterglow studies below GeV energies. Similarly, GRB 201216C broadband emission could be explained using the same model, although the amount of simultaneous multi-wavelength data is reduced with respect to GRB 190114C. In particular, GRB 201216C challenged the current MAGIC detection potential, as its redshift was determined to be $z=1.1$, strongly reducing the observed gamma-ray flux but making it the most distant source detected at VHE. These two detections, accompanied by evidence of VHE emission from a few more GRBs, opened up new questions such as the presence of sub-TeV emission in different classes and phases of GRBs. In this contribution we will present the status of the MAGIC GRB follow-up program, with an highlight on its detected GRBs. Moreover we will show the results on the GRBs observed by MAGIC from 2013 to 2019 with no evidence of VHE emission, in particular for those with simultaneous X-ray observations and redshift $z<2$. We will discuss the implications of these results for GRB physics and the challenges and prospects for future GRB observations with MAGIC.

We present high-resolution, phase-resolved spectroscopic observations of the polar EF Eri, obtained with SALT and the SAAO 1.9-m telescope during its recent emergence from a three-decade-long low state. The average spectrum shows strong emission from the Balmer lines (H$\alpha$ and H$\beta$) and He~\textsc{ii} 4686 Å, along with weaker emission from the He~\textsc{i} lines and the Bowen fluorescence (C~\textsc{iii}/N~\textsc{iii}) blend at 4650 Å. The emission lines redward of 5500 Å transition to pure absorption at orbital phases $\sim$0.75--0.95, which we attribute to obscuration of the line-emitting region by the accretion stream. Trailed spectra of the emission lines reveal multicomponent structures consistent with other polars. In this first Doppler study of EF Eri, tomograms of the strongest lines (He~\textsc{ii} 4686 Å and the Balmer lines), using both the standard and inside-out projections, identify three key emission regions: the irradiated face of the secondary star, the ballistic and threading regions of the accretion stream, and the magnetically confined flow. Our Doppler maps show not only the ballistic stream but also two unambiguous magnetic accretion flows, which is consistent with the presence of multiple magnetic accretion regions.

The composition and internal structure of gas giant exoplanets encode key information about their formation and subsequent evolution. We investigate how different interior structure assumptions affect the inferred bulk metallicity and its correlation with planetary mass. For a sample of 44 giant exoplanets (0.12-5.98 MJ), we compute evolutionary models with CEPAM and retrieve their bulk metallicities under three structural hypotheses: Core+Envelope (CE), Dilute Core (DC), and Fully Mixed (FM). Across all structures, we recover a significant positive correlation between total heavy-element mass (M_Z) and planetary mass (M), and a negative correlation between metallicity (Z) and M (also for Z/Z_star vs. M). DC structures yield metallicities comparable to CE models, regardless of the assumed gradient extent. Increasing atmospheric metallicity raises the inferred bulk metallicity, as enhanced opacities slow planetary cooling. Non-adiabatic DC models can further increase the retrieved metallicity by up to 35%. Sensitivity analyses show that the mass-metallicity anti-correlation is primarily driven by low-mass, metal-rich planets, while massive planets exhibit unexpectedly high metallicities. Improved constraints on convective mixing, combined with upcoming precise measurements of planetary masses, radii, and atmospheric compositions from missions such as PLATO and Ariel, will enable more robust inferences of interior structures and formation pathways for gas giant planets.

We show that host cold dark matter (CDM) haloes cluster in a manner that depends upon the anisotropy/planarity of their subhaloes, indicating an environmental dependence to subhalo anisotropy/planarity. The spatial distribution of satellite galaxies about central galaxies and correspondingly, the spatial distribution of subhaloes about host haloes have been subjects of interest for two decades. Important questions include the degree to which satellites are distributed anisotropically about their hosts or exhibit planarity in their distributions and the degree to which this anisotropy depends upon the environment of the host-satellite system. We study the spatial distributions of subhaloes in a cosmological N-body simulation. We find that CDM subhaloes are distributed in a manner that is strongly anisotropic/planar, in agreement with prior work, though our presentation is complementary. The more novel result is that this anisotropy has an environmental dependence. Systems which exhibit less (more) anisotropy and less (more) planarity cluster more strongly (weakly). Systems in which subhaloes reside further from their host centres cluster more weakly. None of these clustering effects are caused by a correlation between subhalo anisotropy/planarity and other properties on which host halo clustering is known to depend, such as concentration, spin parameter, host halo shape, or subhalo count. We discuss the impact of this result on the anisotropy of satellites as predicted by CDM, its testability, and its possible relation to anisotropy observed about the large galaxies of the Local Group.

In this work, we present the program MOLLId (MOLecular Line Identification) for automated molecular lines approximation with gaussian profile. Molecular identification was performed using multi-level comparison of the lines' center frequencies and rest frequencies from the spectroscopic database. The program was tested using identification of the molecular lines in observational spectra of young stellar objects RCW 120 YSO S1 and RCW 120 YSO S2, located near the border of the RCW 120 PDR. In the spectra of the RCW 120 YSO S1 source, 100 lines of 41 molecules were identified over the level of 4-6 sigma. In the spectra of the RCW 120 YSO S2 source, 407 lines of 79 molecules were identified over the level 3-5 sigma. Using Intel Core i7-12700K CPU, identification time is equal to 6 and 8 minutes per spectral range for the YSOs S1 and S2, respectively. From the analysis of CH3OH, CH3CN, CH3CCH molecules identified in RCW 120 YSO S2 we found a two-component structure and estimated the physical parameters in the LTE approximation for each of the components.

We present and describe a new version of the spot oscillation and planet code, SOAPv4. Our aim is to demonstrate its capabilities in modeling stellar activity in the context of RV measurements and its effects on transmission spectra. To do this, we employed solar observations alongside synthetic spectra and compared the resulting simulations. We used SOAPv4 to simulate photospheric active regions and planetary transits for a Sun-like star hosting a hot Jupiter. By varying the input spectra, we investigated their impact on the resulting absorption spectra and compared the corresponding simulations. We then assessed how stellar activity deforms these absorption profiles. Finally, we explored the chromatic signatures of stellar activity across different wavelength ranges and discussed how such effects have been employed in the literature to confirm planet detections in radial-velocity measurements. We present the latest updates to SOAP, a tool developed to simulate active regions on the stellar disk while accounting for wavelength-dependent contrast. This functionality enables a detailed study of chromatic effects on radial-velocity measurements. In addition, SOAPv4 models planet-occulted line distortions and quantifies the influence of active regions on absorption spectra. Our simulations indicate that granulation can introduce line distortions that mimic planetary absorption features, potentially leading to misinterpretations of atmospheric dynamics. Furthermore, comparisons with ESPRESSO observations suggest that models incorporating non-local thermodynamic equilibrium effects provide an improved match to the absorption spectra of HD 209458 b, although they do not fully reproduce all observed distortions.

We present high-contrast direct spectroscopy of the low-mass, cool exoplanet 51 Eridani b (2-4 M$_\textrm{Jup}$, $\sim$750 K) using JWST / NIRSpec in a fixed-slit configuration (F290LP / G395H, $3-5\,\mu$m, R$\sim$2,700). A cross correlation analysis between the continuum-subtracted data and atmospheric forward models indicates a detection of molecular signals of planetary origin at $4.8\sigma$ at the expected position and velocity of the planet. The detection of the planetary signal is driven primarily by molecular features from methane and carbon monoxide, providing the first direct confirmation of these two molecules coexisting in chemical disequilibrium in the atmosphere of 51 Eridani b. A new comprehensive atmospheric model analysis shows consistency between the ground-based IFU spectroscopy and the NIRSpec data, with the best-fit model parameters: $T_\mathrm{eff}$ = 800$^{+21.5}_{-55.5}$ K, $\log g$ = 3.75$^{+0.09}_{-0.37}$, $[\mathrm{M}/\mathrm{H}]$ = 0.7$^{+0.07}_{-0.21}$, $\textrm{C}/\textrm{O}$ = 0.458$^{+0.08}_{-0.09}$, $\log K_\mathrm{zz}$ = 3$^{+0.47}_{-0.73}$, $R_\mathrm{P}$ = 1.36$^{+0.07}_{-0.03}$ $R_\mathrm{Jup}$, $f_\mathrm{hole}$ = 0.3$^{+0.10}_{-0.07}$, and the NIRSpec errorbar inflation parameter: $\hat{e}$ = 1.74$^{+0.02}_{-0.03}$. We conclude with a discussion on the lessons learned between the fixed slit and IFU-based high contrast spectroscopic methods from our observing program, including some possibilities to improve the analysis method.

Combinations of galaxy surveys and cosmic microwave background secondaries, such as the thermal Sunyaev Zeldovich (tSZ) effect, are increasingly being used to jointly constrain cosmology and astrophysical properties of the gas within and beyond halos. Standard cross-correlations measure a directionless correlation between the microwave maps and galaxy catalogs. However, more information about the cosmic web structure can be captured by summary statistics which include environmental constraints and measure oriented correlations along axes of structure, such as filaments or superclusters. This work studies the sensitivity of multipole moments of constrained oriented stacks, a directional and environmentally-dependent statistic, to variations in cosmological and astrophysical parameters. We run nine different 2.4 Gpc-per-side simulations with the Websky algorithm, varying the dark matter energy density within flat $\Lambda$CDM, and create mock tSZ maps with each. We also apply six different gas prescriptions, imitating AGN feedback variations, to the fiducial cosmology. We analyze oriented stacks of the tSZ signal in supercluster regions in each simulation, focusing on signal out to $\sim20$ transverse Mpc from massive ($M>5\times10^{13}~M_\odot$) halos. The cosmology variations affect anisotropic and isotropic measurements similarly, while the halo-pasted gas variations mostly affect the isotropic signal. Our results suggest it is worthwhile to incorporate directional information into SZ-galaxy cross-correlations to increase cosmological sensitivity and help break degeneracies with gas physics.

Observational data play a pivotal role in identifying cosmological models that are both theoretically consistent and empirically viable. In this work, we investigate whether the standard $\Lambda$CDM model exhibits significant departure with current late time datasets, including Cosmic Chronometers, Baryon Acoustic Oscillations from DESI DR2, and various Type Ia supernova compilations (Pantheon$^+$, DES-SN5Y, Union3). We analyze several dynamical dark energy models, including $\omega$CDM, o$\omega$CDM, $\omega_0\omega_a$CDM, Logarithmic, Exponential, JBP, BA, and GEDE. While CC + DESI DR2 data show mild deviations from $\Lambda$CDM ($\lesssim 2\sigma$), adding supernova samples (DES-SN5Y or Union3) increases deviations, with BA, JBP, and Logarithmic models reaching $3-3.5\sigma$, and CC + DESI DR2 + DES-SN5Y producing the largest deviations. We find consistent evidence for $\omega_0 > -1$ and $\omega_a < 0$ in all dark energy models, indicating that the cosmological constant faces a potential crisis and that dynamical dark energy models could provide a possible solution, characterized by a Quintom-B type scenario. The $\Lambda$CDM model has long served as the cornerstone of modern cosmology, successfully shaping our understanding of the Universe from its earliest epochs to the present day. However, in light of DESI DR2 and other recent measurements, emerging cracks in this paradigm suggest that a complete understanding of the cosmos may require moving beyond the cosmological constant and exploring new physics governing the dark sector.

We demonstrate that measurements of the gravitational tidal field made with spectroscopic redshifts can be improved with information from imaging surveys. The average orientation of small groups of galaxies, or "multiplets" is correlated with large-scale structure and is used to measure the direction of tidal forces. Previously, multiplet intrinsic alignment has been measured in DESI using galaxies that have spectroscopic redshifts. The DESI Legacy Imaging catalog can be used to supplement multiplet catalogs. Our findings show that galaxy positions from the imaging catalog produce a measurement similar to the measurements made with only spectroscopic data. This demonstrates that imaging can improve our signal-to-noise ratio for multiplet alignment in DESI.

Astronomical research has long relied on human expertise to interpret complex data and formulate scientific hypotheses. In this study, we introduce Mephisto -- a multi-agent collaboration framework powered by large language models (LLMs) that emulates human-like reasoning for analyzing multi-band galaxy observations. Mephisto interfaces with the CIGALE codebase (a library of spectral energy distribution, SED, models) to iteratively refine physical models against observational data. It conducts deliberate reasoning via tree search, accumulates knowledge through self-play, and dynamically updates its knowledge base. Validated across diverse galaxy populations -- including the James Webb Space Telescope's recently discovered "Little Red Dot" galaxies -- we show that Mephisto demonstrates proficiency in inferring the physical properties of galaxies from multi-band photometry, positioning it as a promising research copilot for astronomers. Unlike prior black-box machine learning approaches in astronomy, Mephisto offers a transparent, human-aligned reasoning process that integrates seamlessly with existing research practices. This work underscores the possibility of LLM-driven agent-based research for astronomy, establishes a foundation for fully automated, end-to-end artificial intelligence (AI)-powered scientific workflows, and unlocks new avenues for AI-augmented discoveries in astronomy.

We present Effelsberg 100-m telescope observations of the hyperactive repeating fast radio burst source FRB 20240110A, discovered by CHIME/FRB in January 2024. Using the Ultra BroadBand (UBB) receiver, spanning 1.3-6.0 GHz, we detected over 700 unique bursts across four observing epochs. A comprehensive analysis of their temporal and spectral properties reveals four distinct spectro-temporal morphologies, including simple, complex and frequency-drifting structures. No bursts were detected across the full UBB band, confirming the band-limited emission typical of repeating FRBs. We find modest frequency evolution in burst widths but constant fractional bandwidths, and strong variability in burst rates that may be influenced by scintillation. The waiting-time distributions indicate predominantly independent burst events, with occasional clustering suggesting a characteristic emission timescale of $\sim$10 ms. Additionally, this study presents a multi-frequency analysis of waiting-time distributions, offering new insights into the complex frequency drifts commonly observed in repeating FRBs. These broadband observations provide a detailed view of the frequency-dependent burst behavior of FRB 20240110A and offer insights into the variability and temporal structure of repeating FRB emission.

Classical Cepheids (CCs) in Galactic open clusters (OCs) provide essential observational constraints for calibrating the period-age relation (PAR) and the period-Wesenheit relation (PWR) of CCs. However, distant and long-period OC Cepheids remain limited, while the confirmed samples still require more precise determinations of their physical properties, such as ages and extinctions. In this work, we present a comprehensive census of OC Cepheids based on an extensive sample of distant OCs from Gaia Data Release 3 (DR3). By combining astrometric and photometric membership analyses, we identified 110 CCs associated with 102 OCs, of which 41 CCs across 37 OCs were classified as OC Cepheids, while the remaining cases were considered candidate or rejected associations. Our results are consistent with previous studies, while 4 of the 41 OC Cepheids are newly reported here. Using updated cluster parameters derived from manual isochrone fitting, we primarily refined the PAR to log Age = (-0.595 $\pm$ 0.044) log P + (8.430 $\pm$ 0.042) and recalibrated the PWR to WG = (-3.615 $\pm$ 0.083) log P + (-2.379 $\pm$ 0.096). This study expands the sample of confirmed and candidate OC Cepheids. The newly longest-period confirmed OC Cepheid is BM Per (CWNU 3123) with log P = 1.36, and two newly discovered OC Cepheid candidates have distances exceeding 6 kpc. Moreover, the PAR and PWR are improved by incorporating refined OC ages and updated parallaxes, respectively.

Galaxies falling into galaxy clusters can leave imprints on both the corona of galaxies and the intracluster medium (ICM) of galaxy clusters. Throughout this infall process, the galaxy's atmosphere is subjected to ram pressure from a headwind, leading to the stripping morphology observed in its tail. The morphological evolution is affected by the properties of the surrounding ICM such as magnetic fields and viscosity. In this Letter, we perform 3D Braginskii-magnetohydrodynamic simulations using the FLASH code with varied ICM viscosity models. Specifically, we explore four models: an inviscid case, unsuppressed isotropic viscosity, unsuppressed anisotropic viscosity, and anisotropic viscosity suppressed by plasma instabilities. Our findings indicate that the isotropic viscosity case effectively suppresses hydrodynamic instabilities and shows strong viscous heating and the least mixing with the ICM, enabling the formation of long, coherent tails. The inviscid model has the shortest tail due to vigorous mixing, and the models with anisotropic viscosity are in between. The model with suppressed anisotropic viscosity due to plasma instabilities exhibits enhanced turbulence in the galactic tail and a concurrent limitation in viscous heating compared to the model neglecting plasma instabilities. These findings highlight the significant impact of ICM plasma physics on the processes of ram pressure stripping of galaxies.

Spectroscopy represents the ideal observational method to maximally extract information from galaxies regarding their star formation and chemical enrichment histories. However, absorption spectra of galaxies prove rather challenging at high redshift or in low mass galaxies, due to the need to spread the photons into a relatively large set of spectral bins. For this reason, the data from many state-of-the-art spectroscopic surveys suffer from low signal-to-noise (S/N) ratios, and prevent accurate estimates of the stellar population parameters. In this paper, we tackle the issue of denoising an ensemble by the use of unsupervised Deep Learning techniques trained on a homogeneous sample of spectra over a wide range of S/N. These methods reconstruct spectra at a higher S/N and allow us to investigate the potential for Deep Learning to faithfully reproduce spectra from incomplete data. Our methodology is tested on three key line strengths and is compared with synthetic data to assess retrieval biases. The results suggest a standard Autoencoder as a very powerful method that does not introduce systematics in the reconstruction. We also note in this work how careful the analysis needs to be, as other methods can -- on a quick check -- produce spectra that appear noiseless but are in fact strongly biased towards a simple overfitting of the noisy input. Denoising methods with minimal bias will maximise the quality of ongoing and future spectral surveys such as DESI, WEAVE, or WAVES.

The Conditional Luminosity Function (CLF) is an effective and flexible way of characterizing the galaxy-halo connection. However, it is subject to a particular choice for its parametrization, which acts as a prior assumption. Most studies have been restricted to what has become a standard CLF parametrization with little to no variation. The goal of this paper is to investigate whether this model is sufficient to fully characterize the small-scale data extracted from spectroscopic surveys and to gauge how adding or removing degrees of freedom impact the inference regarding the galaxy-halo connection. After extensive validation with realistic mock data, we use Basilisk, a highly constraining Bayesian hierarchical tool to model the kinematics and abundance of satellite galaxies, to test the standard CLF model against a slew of more flexible variants. In particular, we test whether the SDSS data favour any of these variants in terms of a goodness-of-fit improvement, and identify the models that are sufficiently flexible, beyond which additional model freedom is not demanded by the data. We show that some of these additional degrees of freedom, which have hitherto not been considered, result in a drastic improvement of the fit and cause significant changes in the inferred galaxy-halo connection. This highlights that an empirical model comes with an implicit prior about the parametrization form, which needs to be addressed to ensure that it is sufficiently flexible to capture the complexity of the data and to safeguard against a biased inference.

Measuring starspot temperatures is crucial for understanding stellar magnetic activity, as it affects stellar brightness variations, influences exoplanet transit measurements, and provides constraints on the physical conditions and energy transport in active regions, offering insights into stellar dynamos. Our goal is to determine the temperature of starspots on the active star CoRoT-2 to enhance our understanding of magnetic activity in young, solar-like stars. Multiwavelength observations were conducted using the SPARC4 instrument on the 1.6-m telescope at Pico dos Dias Observatory (Brazil), capturing simultaneous transit data in four photometric bands (g, r, i, and z). The ECLIPSE model, combined with MCMC fitting, was used to model spot characteristics during the planetary transit of CoRoT-2 b. The spot intensities were analyzed considering three different methods: the assumption of blackbody emission, the PHOENIX atmospheric model, and multiwavelength fitting assuming the same spot parameters for all wavelengths. Two starspots were detected in the residuals of the light curve, yielding temperature estimates of 5040 - 5280 K based on the three different methods. These values align more closely with the temperatures of solar penumbrae than with typical umbral temperatures, suggesting relatively moderate magnetic activity. The radius of the spots ranged from 0.34 - 0.61 the planetary radius, or equivalently (38 - 69)$\times10^6$m, much larger than sunspots. This study provides a method to estimate spot temperatures on active stars using multiband photometry, with results indicating penumbral-like temperatures on CoRoT-2. The methodology enhances precision in starspot temperature estimation, beneficial for studies of stellar activity and exoplanet characterization.

We present JWST observations of the environments surrounding two high-redshift quasars -- J0252$-$0503 at $z = 7.0$ and J1007$+$2115 at $z = 7.5$ -- which enable the first constraints on quasar-galaxy clustering at $z \sim 7.3$. Galaxies in the vicinity of the quasars are selected through ground-based and JWST/NIRCam imaging and then spectroscopically confirmed with JWST/NIRSpec using the multi-shutter assembly (MSA). Over both fields, we identify 51 $z>5$ galaxies, of which eight are found within a $\Delta v_{\textrm{LOS}}=\pm1500 \rm{km} \rm{s}^{-1}$ line-of-sight velocity window from the quasars and another eight in the background. The galaxy J0252\_8713, located just $7\,\rm{pkpc}$ and $\Delta v_{\textrm{LOS}} \approx 360\,\rm{km}\,\rm{s}^{-1}$ from quasar J0252$-$0503, emerges as a compelling candidate for one of the most distant quasar-galaxy mergers. Combining the galaxy discoveries over the two fields, we measure the quasar-galaxy cross-correlation and obtain a correlation length of $r_0^{\rm{QG}}\approx7.6_{-1.6}^{+1.7}\,h^{-1}\,\rm{cMpc}$, based on a power-law model with a fixed slope of $\gamma_{\rm{QG}} = 2.0$. Under the assumption that quasars and galaxies trace the same underlying dark matter density fluctuations, we infer a minimum dark matter halo mass for $z\simeq7.3$ quasars of $\log_{10}(M_{\textrm{halo, min}}/\textrm{M}_{\odot})= 11.6\pm0.6$ in a halo model framework. Compared to measurements from EIGER at $\langle z \rangle = 6.25$ and ASPIRE at $\langle z \rangle = 6.7$ (where $\log_{10}(M_{\textrm{halo, min}}/\textrm{M}_{\odot}) \gtrsim 12.3$), our clustering results provide tentative evidence for a non-monotonic redshift evolution of quasar clustering properties. We further estimate a quasar duty cycle of $f_{\rm{duty}}\approx0.1\%$, consistent with constraints from quasar proximity zones and IGM damping wings. (abridged)

In the present work, we study a subclass of Horndeski gravity characterized by a non-minimal derivative coupling between a scalar field and the Einstein tensor, as a possible alternative to alleviate the observational tension associated with estimates of the Hubble constant $H_{0}$. Two scenarios within a flat FRW spacetime were considered. In the first case, the scalar field mimics cold dark matter, whereas in the second case, it acts as dark energy. We derive the dynamical equations and perform a statistical analysis using observational data of $H(z)$, obtaining constraints for the cosmological parameters. The results indicate that the model can effectively fit the cosmic expansion rate at late epochs, providing values of $H_{0}$ that are more compatible with local measurements. These results suggest that the non-minimal coupling sector in the Horndeski context constitutes a viable and promising approach to alleviate the $H_{0}$ tension and investigate scenarios beyond the standard cosmological model.

The Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transient (LFBOT) AT 2018cow is the prototype of its class with an extensive set of multi-wavelength observations. Despite a rich data set there is, still, no consensus about the physical nature and origin of this event. AT 2018cow remained UV bright 2-4 years after the explosion, which points at an additional energy injection source, most likely from an accretion disk. We present additional late time UV data obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope, to show there is no significant fading in the optical since the last epoch and only marginal fading in the UV. The new UV data points match the predictions of previously published accretion disk models, where the disk is assumed to form from the tidal disruption of a low mass star by an intermediate mass black hole. This consistency provides evidence that AT 2018cow could indeed be a tidal disruption event. The marginal decay is in contrast with the predictions of light curves produced by interacting supernovae. The difference between expectations for disc emission and interacting supernovae will further increase with time, making data at even later times a route to robustly rule out interaction between supernova ejecta and circumstellar material.

In the context of maximum-likelihood parametric component separation for next-generation full-sky CMB polarization experiments, we study the impact of fitting different spectral parameters of Galactic foregrounds in distinct subsets of pixels on the sky, with the goal of optimizing the search for primordial B modes. Using both simulations and analytical arguments, we highlight how the post-component separation uncertainty and systematic foreground residuals in the cleaned CMB power spectrum depend on spatial variations in the spectral parameters. We show that allowing spectral parameters to vary across subsets of the sky pixels is essential to achieve competitive S/N on the reconstructed CMB after component separation while keeping residual foreground bias under control. Although several strategies exist to define pixel subsets for the spectral parameters, each with its advantages and limitations, we show using current foreground simulations in the context of next-generation space-borne missions that there are satisfactory configurations in which both statistical and systematic residuals become negligible. The exact magnitude of these residuals, however, depends on the mission's specific characteristics, especially its frequency coverage and sensitivity. We also show that the post-component separation statistical uncertainty is only weakly dependent on the properties of the foregrounds and propose a semi-analytical framework to estimate it. On the contrary, the systematic foreground residuals highly depend on both the properties of the foregrounds and the chosen spatial resolution of the spectral parameters.

The radioactive decay of unstable nuclei created in the rapid neutron capture process release a large amount of $\gamma$-rays. When the ejecta is optically thick, these $\gamma$-rays may contribute to an associated kilonova. Once transparent, prominent spectral features will be directly observable in current and future $\gamma$-ray detectors. In this work, we study and compare the $\gamma$-ray spectra of a limited, weak, strong, and extended $r$-process across a broad timescale, identifying the nuclei which significantly contribute. We discuss these findings in the context of observability, noting that there are several practical challenges to connecting observed signatures to specific nuclei. However, if these challenges can be overcome, direct observation of $\gamma$-rays from $r$-process sites can provide insight into the fundamental physics underpinning the $r$-process.

We construct a neural network to perform regression on the local dark-matter density field given line-of-sight peculiar velocities of dark-matter halos, biased tracers of the dark matter field. Our architecture combines a convolutional U-Net with a point-cloud DeepSets. This combination enables efficient use of small-scale information and improves reconstruction quality relative to a U-Net-only approach. Specifically, our hybrid network recovers both clustering amplitudes and phases better than the U-Net on small scales.

Super-thermal gas giant planets or their progenitor cores are known to open deep gaps in protoplanetary disks, which stop large, drifting dust particles on their way to the inner disk. The possible separation of the disk into distinct reservoirs and the resulting dust depletion interior to the gap have important implications for planetesimal formation and the chemical and isotopic composition of the inner regions of protoplanetary disks. Dust fragmentation, however, maintains a reservoir of small grains which can traverse the gap. Dust evolution models are thus instrumental for studies of a gap's filtration efficiency. We present 2D multifluid hydrodynamic simulations of planet-disk systems with dust coagulation and fragmentation. For the first time, we evolve a series of 2D simulation with dust coagulation over 45000 planetary orbits and track the dust's size evolution and origin by using the TriPoD dust coagulation method. We investigate the effects of different planetary masses, fragmentation velocities, and viscosities on the inner disk's dust mass budget and composition, and highlight the advantages of multi-dimensional simulations over 1D models. Filtering can only be efficient for high planetary masses, high fragmentation velocities, and low diffusivities. Clear compositional distinctions between the inner and outer disk could not have been maintained by Jupiter's core if the fragmentation velocity was low, even if $\alpha \lesssim 5 \times 10^{-4}$. Significant "contamination" of the inner disk by outer-disk dust occurs in much less than $2 \times 10^5$ yr in this case and even for more massive objects. This either places tight constraints on the physical conditions in the Solar nebula or mandates consideration of alternative explanations for the NC-CC dichotomy. Astrophysical constraints on the parameters could discriminate between these possibilities.

We show that gravitational leptogenesis with dynamical $CPT$ breaking in an expanding universe can be reconciled with the exponential $f(R)$ gravity model, which introduces only one additional parameter $\beta$ compared to the standard $\Lambda$CDM cosmology. This model incorporated axions as cold dark matter. For $L$ violating interactions, we consider both a non-supersymmetric model with heavy right-handed neutrino decay and a supersymmetric model with sneutrino decay. For both cases, we have shown that the required baryonic asymmetry could be obtained. We have also shown the variation of decoupling temperature for lepton number violating interactions with the $\beta$ parameter in exponential $f(R)$ gravity. Lepton number-violating model parameters are constrained with the $\beta$ through the decoupling temperature. An upper bound on the $\beta$ parameter of the exponential $f(R)$ gravity is also obtained.

I demonstrate that soft graviton modes in de Sitter spacetimes are the Goldstone modes of the spontaneously broken asymptotic symmetry group of de Sitter space. I then show that any local measurement, including the effects of the environment, will collapse the symmetric state onto the broken state in the large volume limit. In any discussion involving observers, de Sitter spacetimes are, therefore, best described globally by the broken phase, while local observers, in the small volume limit, can not discriminate between different degenerate global vacuum states and are therefore best described by the symmetric state. As a consequence, a small Hubble-sized local region initially in the symmetric state will, after a time scale corresponding to the Page time of de Sitter space, have expanded to a large region in the broken state. This illuminates the physical nature of soft graviton modes in de Sitter spacetimes.

Cosmological data provides us two key constraints on dark matter (DM): it must have a particular abundance, and it must have an adiabatic spectrum of density perturbations in the early universe. Many different cosmological scenarios have been proposed that establish the abundance of axion DM in qualitatively different ways. In this paper we emphasize that, despite this variety of backgrounds, the perturbations in axion DM can be understood from universal principles. How does a feebly interacting axion field acquire perturbations proportional to those of photons? How do the isocurvature power spectrum and non-Gaussianity depend on the background evolution of the universe? We answer these questions for a completely general choice of cosmological background and temperature-dependent axion potential. We show that the most general solution to the axion field equation on super-horizon scales is entirely determined by the family of background solutions for different initial field values $\theta_{\rm ini}$. This holds for both the component in the field perturbation solution contributing to the DM isocurvature perturbation (enhanced at late times by the sensitivity of the DM abundance to the initial condition, $\partial \Omega_a / \partial \theta_{\rm ini}$, which can be large for initial conditions near the hilltop), and the other component that contributes to the DM curvature perturbation. In particular, we explain that an unperturbed axion field in the early universe evolving into one with nontrivial adiabatic perturbations is guaranteed by Weinberg's theorem on adiabatic modes. These results have been derived before with various assumptions, such as a radiation dominated background or a quadratic potential. Our aim is to give a clear, simple derivation that is manifestly independent of those assumptions, and thus can be applied to any cosmological axion scenario.

Stars orbiting Sgr A* at the Milky Way's center provide a unique laboratory to test gravity and dark matter (DM). We demonstrate that DM interactions in stellar interiors induce a novel momentum transfer force, altering orbits beyond gravitational effects. Using S2's 2000-2019 orbital data we derive the first astrophysical constraints on DM-nucleon scattering, excluding new sub-GeV parameter space. Stellar lifetime constraints over Myr timescales complement these, surpassing some direct detection and cosmological limits. This establishes stellar dynamics as a novel probe of DM interactions.

In a recent paper we discussed when it is possible to define reference frames nonrotating with respect to distant inertial reference objects (extension of the IAU reference systems to exact general relativity), and how to construct them. We briefly review the construction, illustrating it with further examples, and caution against the recent misuse of zero angular momentum observers (ZAMOs).

We show that, contrary to some recent claims, relativistic effects cannot mimic dark matter in the galactic rotation curves and gravitational lensing.

Disformal couplings to fermions lead to a unique derivative coupling to the axial fermionic current, which contains higher derivatives in general. We derive general conditions on consistent disformal couplings by requiring the absence of higher time derivatives, as they typically lead to ghost degrees of freedom. For a two-scalar field disformal transformation, we show that the consistent disformal coupling must have a degenerate field space metric. This allows us to explore consistent, new two-scalar field modified gravity models. We show that the transformation of the Einstein-Hilbert action leads to two-field Horndeski or two-field DHOST theories. Our formalism also applies to disformal transformations with higher derivatives. We derive the consistent subclasses of disformal transformations that include second derivatives of a scalar field and first derivatives of a vector field that lead to generalized U-DHOST and degenerate beyond generalized Proca theories.

In this article, we investigate the phenomenological aspects of a feebly interacting sterile neutrino dark matter in a low-scale seesaw setup. The Type-I seesaw framework is augmented by a second complex scalar doublet ($\Phi_{\nu}$), which couples exclusively with the heavy right-handed neutrinos and the lepton doublet, thereby forming the neutrino Dirac mass term, while the first doublet is responsible for the mass generation of the remaining Standard Model particles. The lightest sterile neutrino ($N_1$) serves as a feebly interacting massive particle (FIMP), produced primarily through W and Z boson decays -a previously overlooked dominant contribution that solely determines the relic abundance. Owing to the small vev ($v_{\nu}\sim 10$ MeV) of the second Higgs doublet, an enhancement in the available parameter space of the sterile neutrino masses is observed, spanning from sub-keV to $0.2$ GeV. After incorporating the latest Lyman-$\alpha$ forest observations it is found that the setup is able to accommodate both warm and cold dark matter options.

The gravitational fields of astrophysical bodies bend the light around them, creating multiple paths along which light from a distant source can arrive at Earth. Measuring the difference in photon arrival time along these different paths provides a means of determining the mass of the lensing system, which is otherwise difficult to constrain. This is particularly challenging in the case of microlensing, where the images produced by lensing cannot be individually resolved; existing proposals for detecting time delays in microlensed systems are significantly constrained due to the need for large photon flux and the loss of signal coherence when the angular diameter of the light source becomes too large. In this work, we propose a novel approach to measuring astrophysical time delays. Our method uses exponentially fewer photons than previous schemes, enabling observations that would otherwise be impossible. Our approach, which combines a quantum-inspired algorithm and quantum information processing technologies, saturates a provable lower bound on the number of photons required to find the time delay. Our scheme has multiple applications: we explore its use both in calibrating optical interferometric telescopes and in making direct mass measurements of ongoing microlensing events. To demonstrate the latter, we present a fiducial example of microlensed stellar flares sources in the Galactic Bulge. Though the number of photons produced by such events is small, we show that our photon-efficient scheme opens the possibility of directly measuring microlensing time delays using existing and near-future ground-based telescopes.

The existence of cosmic fields made from yet unknown light bosons is predicted in many extensions to the Standard Model. They are especially of interest as possible constituents of dark matter. To detect such light and weakly interacting fields, atomic precision measurements offer one of the most sensitive platforms. In this work, we derive which atomic observables are sensitive to what kind of cosmic field couplings. For this we consider fields that couple either through scalar, pseudoscalar, vector, axial vector, or tensor couplings. We derive the corresponding non relativistic atomic potentials. Based on their symmetry properties, these can induce direct energy shifts or induce atomic electric dipole, magnetic dipole, electric quadrupole as well as nuclear Schiff and anapole moments.

In studies of binary black hole (BBH) mergers in eccentric orbits, the mean anomaly, traditionally regarded as less significant than eccentricity, has been thought to encode only the orbital phase, leading to the assumption that it exerts minimal influence on the dynamics of eccentric mergers. In a previous investigation, we identified consistent oscillations in dynamical quantities peak luminosity $L_{\text{peak}}$, remnant mass $M_{\text{rem}}$, spin $\alpha_{\text{rem}}$, and recoil velocity $V_{\text{rem}}$ in relation to the initial eccentricity $e_0$. These oscillations are associated with integer orbital cycles within a phenomenological framework. In this paper, we aim to explore the underlying physical nature of these oscillations through gravitational waveforms. Our examination of remnant mass and spin reveals that while the initial ADM mass $M_{\mathrm{ADM}}$ and orbital angular momentum $L_0$ exhibit gradual variations with $e_0$, the radiated energy $E_{\text{rad}}$ and angular momentum $L_{\text{rad}}$ display oscillatory patterns akin to those observed in $M_{\text{rem}}$ and $\alpha_{\text{rem}}$. By decomposing the waveforms into three distinct phases inspiral, late inspiral to merger, and ringdown, we demonstrate that these oscillations persist across all phases, suggesting a common origin. Through a comparative analysis of $E_{\text{rad}}$ and $L_{\text{rad}}$ derived from numerical relativity (NR), post-Newtonian (PN) waveforms, and orbital-averaged PN fluxes during the inspiral phase, we identify the initial mean anomaly $l_0$ as the source of the observed oscillations. ...

Symbolic regression (SR), the automated discovery of mathematical expressions from data, is a cornerstone of scientific inquiry. However, it is often hindered by the combinatorial explosion of the search space and a tendency to overfit. Popular methods, rooted in genetic programming, explore this space syntactically, often yielding overly complex, uninterpretable models. This paper introduces IdeaSearchFitter, a framework that employs Large Language Models (LLMs) as semantic operators within an evolutionary search. By generating candidate expressions guided by natural-language rationales, our method biases discovery towards models that are not only accurate but also conceptually coherent and interpretable. We demonstrate IdeaSearchFitter's efficacy across diverse challenges: it achieves competitive, noise-robust performance on the Feynman Symbolic Regression Database (FSReD), outperforming several strong baselines; discovers mechanistically aligned models with good accuracy-complexity trade-offs on real-world data; and derives compact, physically-motivated parametrizations for Parton Distribution Functions in a frontier high-energy physics application. IdeaSearchFitter is a specialized module within our broader iterated agent framework, IdeaSearch, which is publicly available at this https URL.

Limits on the dark matter fraction of small mass primordial black holes from Hawking radiation are predominantly derived from the assumption of a Schwarzschild black hole evaporating. However, astrophysical black holes are usually much more realistically modelled by the rotating Kerr black hole solution. Meanwhile, electromagnetically charged black holes are astrophysically of little importance due to their fast neutralisation in the present universe. Dark matter is not just a possible solution to issues of astrophysics and cosmology, but also to issues of the standard model of particle physics. Extensions of this model thus can lead to charges present in the early universe which remain preserved in the charge of primordial black holes - even when the corresponding particles have disappeared from the particle content of the present epoch of the universe. Here, we report on a thorough proof-of-concept that such charges can greatly change evaporation limits for primordial black hole dark matter. Special emphasis is placed on (near-)extremal black holes, for which this effect is especially pronounced.

The final-parsec problem has long posed a central challenge in understanding the merger of supermassive black hole binaries. In this paper, we investigate a scenario in which a dark scalar or vector field is sourced by eccentric binaries, leading to accelerated mergers through additional dipole radiation, and thereby extending the range of masses for which the binary merges within a Hubble time. The radiation fluxes from an eccentric charged Keplerian binary are derived using general results for localized periodic sources in flat spacetime. We find that dipole radiation, although insufficient to fully resolve the final-parsec problem, can alter the low-frequency spectrum of the stochastic gravitational-wave background from supermassive black hole binary inspirals. We construct a simplified model for the spectrum and perform a Bayesian analysis using the current pulsar timing array data.

In this work we use a template method to extract the scale associated with the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) signal in 21cm neutral hydrogen intensity maps. We then forecast the constraints on the standard deviations of cosmological parameters using a Fisher matrix analysis. In order to test this method, we choose the survey configuration for the BINGO telescope. We then estimate the constraints on the BAO shift parameter $\alpha$, which we extract from the 21cm angular power spectrum (APS). In addition, we translate those results into constraints on the final cosmological parameters. As BAO data alone can only constrain the product of the Hubble constant and the sound horizon $H_0r_s$, degeneracies between the variables mean that we can't get useful constraints with BAO data alone. We break these degeneracies by combining the 21cm intensity mapping BAO results with the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) covariances obtained by the Planck satellite. In particular, we find that the best forecasts we can get with this combination are on the standard deviations of the Hubble parameter $\sigma_h$, and the dark energy parameters $\sigma_{w_0}$ and $\sigma_{w_a}$. We find $\sigma_h = 0.0055\;(0.8\%)$ in the $\Lambda$CDM model. For the $w$CDM model, we find $\sigma_h = 0.020\;(2.9\%)$ and $\sigma_{w_0} = 0.075\;(7.5\%)$. In the CPL parameterization, we find $\sigma_h = 0.029\;(4.4\%)$, $\sigma_{w_0} = 0.40\;(40\%)$, and $\sigma_{w_a} = 1.7$. Finally, we observe that using the full APS provides stronger constraints than the BAO only, however, it is more susceptible to systematic effects.

We present a novel approach to investigating axions and axion-like particles (ALPs) by studying their potential conversion into X-rays within the Sun's atmospheric magnetic field. Utilizing high-sensitivity data from the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) collected during the 2020 solar minimum, along with advanced solar atmospheric magnetic field models, we establish a new limit on the axion-photon coupling strength $g_{a\gamma}\lesssim 7.3\times 10^{-12}$~GeV$^{-1}$ at 95\% CL for axion masses $m_a\lesssim 4\times 10^{-7}$\,eV. This constraint surpasses current ground-based experimental limits, studying previously unexplored regions of the axion-photon coupling parameter space up to masses of $m_a\lesssim 3.4\times 10^{-4}$\,eV. These findings mark a significant advancement in our ability to probe axion properties and strengthen indirect searches for dark matter candidates.

Our ability to extract cosmological information from galaxy surveys is limited by uncertainties in the galaxy-dark matter halo relationship for a given galaxy population, which are governed by the intricacies of galaxy formation. To quantify these uncertainties, we examine quenched and star-forming galaxies using two distinct approaches to modeling galaxy formation: UniverseMachine, an empirical semianalytic model, and the IllustrisTNG hydrodynamical simulation. We apply a second-order hybrid N-body perturbative bias expansion to each galaxy sample, enabling direct comparison of modeling approaches and revealing how uncertainties in the galaxy-halo connection affect bias parameters and non-Poisson noise across number densities and redshifts. Notably, we find that quenched and star-forming galaxies occupy distinct parts of the bias parameter space, and that the scatter induced from these different galaxy formation models is small when conditioned on similar selections of galaxies. We also detect the signature of assembly bias in our samples; this leads to small but significant deviations from analytic bias predictions, while assembly bias-removed samples match these predictions well. This work indicates that galaxy samples from a spectrum of reasonable, physically motivated models for galaxy formation give a relatively small range of field-level galaxy bias parameters. We estimate a set of priors from these models that should be useful in extracting cosmological constraints from luminous red galaxy- and emission line galaxy-like samples. Looking forward, careful estimates of the range of impacts of galaxy formation, for a given sample and cosmological analysis, will be an essential ingredient for extracting the most precise cosmological information from current and future large galaxy surveys.

We introduce the THESAN-ZOOM project, a comprehensive suite of high-resolution zoom-in simulations of $14$ high-redshift ($z>3$) galaxies selected from the THESAN simulation volume. This sample encompasses a diverse range of halo masses, with $M_\mathrm{halo} \approx 10^8 - 10^{13}~\mathrm{M}_\odot$ at $z=3$. At the highest-resolution, the simulations achieve a baryonic mass of $142~\mathrm{M}_\odot$ and a gravitational softening length of $17~\mathrm{cpc}$. We employ a state-of-the-art multi-phase interstellar medium (ISM) model that self-consistently includes stellar feedback, radiation fields, dust physics, and low-temperature cooling through a non-equilibrium thermochemical network. Our unique framework incorporates the impact of patchy reionization by adopting the large-scale radiation field topology from the parent THESAN simulation box rather than assuming a spatially uniform UV background. In total, THESAN-ZOOM comprises $60$ simulations, including both fiducial runs and complementary variations designed to investigate the impact of numerical and physical parameters on galaxy properties. The fiducial simulation set reproduces a wealth of high-redshift observational data such as the stellar-to-halo-mass relation, the star-forming main sequence, the Kennicutt-Schmidt relation, and the mass-metallicity relation. While our simulations slightly overestimate the abundance of low-mass and low-luminosity galaxies they agree well with observed stellar and UV luminosity functions at the higher mass end. Moreover, the star-formation rate density closely matches the observational estimates from $z=3-14$. These results indicate that the simulations effectively reproduce many of the essential characteristics of high-redshift galaxies, providing a realistic framework to interpret the exciting new observations from JWST.

The mature Jovian planet $\varepsilon$ Eridani b orbits one of the closest sun-like stars at a moderate separation of 3.5 AU, presenting one of the best opportunities to image a true analog to a solar system planet. We perform a thorough joint reanalysis and cross-validation of all available archival radial velocity and astrometry data, combining data from eight radial velocity instruments and four astrometric sources (Hipparcos, Hubble FGS, Gaia DR2, and Gaia DR3). We incorporate methodological advances that impact our findings including a principled treatment of correlation between Gaia DR2 and DR3 velocity and corrections for the changing light-travel time to this high proper motion system. We revise the planet's mass upward to $0.98 \pm 0.09 \, \mathrm{M_{jup}}$ and find that its orbit is nearly circular and close to coplanar with the outer debris disk. We further present one of the first models of an exoplanet orbit exclusively from absolute astrometry and independently confirm the planet's orbital period. We make specific predictions for the planet's location at key imaging epochs from past and future observing campaigns. We discuss and resolve tensions between previous works regarding the eccentricity, inclination, and mass. Our results further support that $\varepsilon$ Eridani b is one of the closest analogs to a Solar System planet yet detected around a nearby star.

We investigate the relationships between the cool circumgalactic medium (CGM), traced by Ca II absorption lines, and galaxy properties at $z<0.4$ using $\sim900{,}000$ galaxy-quasar pairs within $200\,\rm kpc$ from the Year 1 data of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). This large data set enables us to obtain composite spectra with sensitivity reaching to the $\text{mÅ}$ level and to explore the Ca II absorption as a function of stellar mass, star formation rate (SFR), redshift, and galaxy types, including active galactic nuclei (AGNs). Our results show a positive correlation between the absorption strength and stellar mass of star-forming galaxies with $\langle W_{0}^{\rm Ca\ II}\rangle \propto M_{*}^{0.5}$ over 3 orders of magnitude in stellar mass from $\sim 10^{8}$ to $10^{11} \, M_{\odot}$, while such a mass dependence is weaker for quiescent galaxies. At a fixed mass, Ca II absorption is stronger around star-forming galaxies than quiescent ones especially within impact parameters $<30\,\rm kpc$. Among star-forming galaxies, the Ca II absorption further correlates with SFR, following $\propto \mathrm{SFR^{0.3}}$. However, in contrast to the results at higher redshifts, stronger absorption is not preferentially observed along the minor axis of star-forming galaxies, indicating a possible redshift evolution of CGM dynamics resulting from galactic feedback. Moreover, no significant difference between the properties of the cool gas around AGNs and galaxies is detected. Finally, we measure the absorption profiles with respect to the virial radius of dark matter halos and show that the total Ca II mass in the CGM is comparable to the Ca mass in the ISM of galaxies.

We present baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) measurements from more than 14 million galaxies and quasars drawn from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) Data Release 2 (DR2), based on three years of operation. For cosmology inference, these galaxy measurements are combined with DESI Lyman-$\alpha$ forest BAO results presented in a companion paper. The DR2 BAO results are consistent with DESI DR1 and SDSS, and their distance-redshift relationship matches those from recent compilations of supernovae (SNe) over the same redshift range. The results are well described by a flat $\Lambda$CDM model, but the parameters preferred by BAO are in mild, $2.3\sigma$ tension with those determined from the cosmic microwave background (CMB), although the DESI results are consistent with the acoustic angular scale $\theta_*$ that is well-measured by Planck. This tension is alleviated by dark energy with a time-evolving equation of state parametrized by $w_0$ and $w_a$, which provides a better fit to the data, with a favored solution in the quadrant with $w_0>-1$ and $w_a<0$. This solution is preferred over $\Lambda$CDM at $3.1\sigma$ for the combination of DESI BAO and CMB data. When also including SNe, the preference for a dynamical dark energy model over $\Lambda$CDM ranges from $2.8-4.2\sigma$ depending on which SNe sample is used. We present evidence from other data combinations which also favor the same behavior at high significance. From the combination of DESI and CMB we derive 95% upper limits on the sum of neutrino masses, finding $\sum m_\nu<0.064$ eV assuming $\Lambda$CDM and $\sum m_\nu<0.16$ eV in the $w_0w_a$ model. Unless there is an unknown systematic error associated with one or more datasets, it is clear that $\Lambda$CDM is being challenged by the combination of DESI BAO with other measurements and that dynamical dark energy offers a possible solution.

Gravitational waves from binary neutron star mergers provide critical insights into dense matter physics and strong-field gravity, yet accurate waveform modeling remains computationally intensive. We present a deep generative model for gravitational waveforms from binary neutron star mergers that captures the late inspiral, merger, and ringdown phases while incorporating spin precession and tidal effects. Using a conditional autoencoder architecture, the model efficiently produces high-fidelity waveforms across a broad parameter space, including component masses (m1, m2), spin components (S1x, S1y, S1z, S2x, S2y, S2z), and tidal deformabilities (Lambda1, Lambda2). Trained on 1*10^6 waveforms generated by the IMRPhenomXP_NRTidalv2 model, our network achieves a mean mismatch of 2.13*10^-3. The generation time for a single waveform is 0.12 s, compared to 0.66 s for IMRPhenomXP_NRTidalv2, representing a speedup of about fivefold. When generating 1000 waveforms, the model completes the task in 0.75 s, roughly ten times faster than the baseline. This significant acceleration facilitates rapid parameter estimation and real-time gravitational-wave searches. With improved precision and efficiency, the model can support low-latency detection and broader applications in multi-messenger astrophysics.

Due to the short gravitational timescale of Sgr A*, variable emissions near the galactic center are expected in the Very-long-baseline interferometry observations. Phenomenologically, the high-flux variable emissions could be interpreted as occasional events from hotspots within accretion disks. It provides a probe of black hole (BH) geometry and accretion matter in the strong-field regime of gravity. In this study, we find that light curve profile alone is not proper for distinguishing BH geometries, as our results show that the profiles, even including those from higher-order images, are dependent on hotspot shapes, which are known in practice as amorphous. To alleviate this situation, we examine the spatial-temporal correlations between multiple images of the corotating hotspots. Our results find that the correlations, particularly those from higher-order images, could serve as a robust observable to reflect the inclination angles and BH geometries, because i) the correlated band structure is independent of the hotspot shapes, and ii) the correlations from higher-order images could encode BH geometries and exhibit no overlap with observational signatures from the lower-order ones. We present a comprehensive study on correlations from primary the eighth-order images with various orbital configurations and inclination angles, and show its observational signatures. It is expected that BH geometries can be inferred via the spatial-temporal correlation analysis.

Tidal disruption events (TDEs) occur when stars pass close enough to supermassive black holes to be torn apart by tidal forces. Traditionally, these events are studied with computationally intensive hydrodynamical simulations. In this paper, we present a fast, physically motivated two-stage model for TDEs. In the first stage, we model the star's tidal deformation using linear stellar perturbation theory, treating the star as a collection of driven harmonic oscillators. When the tidal energy exceeds a fraction $\gamma$ of the star's gravitational binding energy (with $\gamma \sim \mathcal O(1)$), we transition to the second stage, where we model the disrupted material as free particles. The parameter $\gamma$ is determined with a one-time calibration to the critical impact parameter obtained in hydrodynamical simulations. This method enables fast computation of the energy distribution ${\rm d} M/{\rm d}E$ and fallback rate ${\rm d} M/{\rm d} T$, while offering physical insight into the disruption process. We apply our model to MESA-generated profiles of middle-age main-sequence stars. Our code is available on GitHub.

Recent observations indicate that the progenitors of globular clusters (GCs) at high redshifts had high average stellar surface densities above $10^5\, \mathrm{M}_\odot\, \mathrm{pc}^{-2}$. The internal structure and kinematics of the clusters, however, remain out of reach. Numerical simulations are necessary to decipher the origin of spatio-kinematic features in present-day GCs. Here we study star cluster formation in a star-by-star hydrodynamical simulation of a low-metallicity starburst in a merger of two gas-rich dwarf galaxies. The simulation accounts for the multiphase interstellar medium, stellar radiation, winds and supernovae, and the accurate small-scale gravitational dynamics near massive stars. We also include prescriptions for stellar collisions and tidal disruption events by black holes. Gravitationally bound star clusters up to $\sim2\times10^5\, \mathrm{M}_\odot$ form dense with initial half-mass radii of $\sim0.1\unicode{x2013}1\, \mathrm{pc}$. The most massive cluster approaches the observed high-redshift surface densities throughout its hierarchical and dissipative assembly. The cluster also hosts a collisionally growing very massive star of $\sim1000\, \mathrm{M}_\odot$ that will eventually collapse, forming an intermediate mass black hole. The assembly leaves an imprint in the spatio-kinematic structure of the cluster. The youngest stars are more centrally concentrated, they show significant bulk rotation and have radially biased velocity components at outer radii. The older population is more round in shape, rotates slowly, its velocity distribution is isotropic and exhibits higher dispersion. If chemically enriched star formation proceeds mainly in the later stages of cluster assembly, these results provide a possible explanation for some of the multiple population features observed in dynamically young GCs.

In the first part of this work, we provide a curated overview of the theoretical framework necessary for incorporating dephasing due to environmental effects (EE) in gravitational wave (GW) templates. We focus in particular on the relationship between orbital perturbations in the time-domain and the resulting dephasing in both time and frequency domain, elucidating and resolving some inconsistencies present in the literature. We discuss how commonly studied binary environments often result in several sources of dephasing that affect the GW signal at the same time. This work synthesizes insights from two decades of literature, offering a unified conceptual narrative alongside a curated reference of key formulas, illustrative examples and methodological prescriptions. It can serve both as a reference for researchers in the field as well as a modern introduction for those who wish to enter it. In the second part, we derive novel aspects of dephasing for eccentric GW sources and lay the foundations for consistently treating the full problem. Importantly, we demonstrate that the detectability of EEs can be significantly enhanced in the presence of eccentricity, even for $e_\mathrm{10Hz}\lesssim0.2$, substantially increasing the prospects for detection in ground based detectors. Our results highlight the unique potential of modeling and searching for EE in eccentric binary sources of GWs.

We measure the projected two-point correlation functions of emission-line galaxies (ELGs) from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) One-Percent Survey and model their dependence on stellar mass and [OII] luminosity. We select $\sim$180,000 ELGs with redshifts of $0.8 < z < 1.6$ and define 27 samples according to cuts in redshift and both galaxy properties. Following a framework that describes the conditional [OII] luminosity-stellar mass distribution as a function of halo mass, we simultaneously model the clustering measurements of all samples at fixed redshift. Based on the modeling result, most ELGs in our samples are classified as central galaxies, residing in halos of a narrow mass range with a typical median of $\sim$10$^{12.2-12.4}$ $h^{-1} M_\odot$. We observe a weak dependence of clustering amplitude on stellar mass, which is reflected in the model constraints and is likely a consequence of the 0.5 dex measurement uncertainty in the stellar mass estimates. The model shows a trend between galaxy bias and [OII] luminosity at high redshift ($1.2 < z < 1.6$) that is otherwise absent at lower redshifts.

Line intensity mapping (LIM) is an emerging technique for probing the aggregate emission of a spectral line from all sources, without requiring individual detections. Through the wavelength-redshift relation, one can map the line-of-sight evolution of the line emission that traces the underlying large-scale structure in a spectral-imaging survey. In this work, we present a new technique -- feature intensity mapping -- as an extension of the LIM formalism to map broad spectral features in 3D, rather than the narrow emission lines typically targeted by LIM. By accounting for the convolution of spectral features with the instrument's spectral response across redshift, our technique enables simultaneous constraints on the redshift-dependent emission from multiple features. This approach enables 3D intensity mapping with some of the brightest features in the infrared spectra of galaxies: the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission bands. We forecast the detectability of PAH signals using feature intensity mapping with the ongoing SPHEREx mission in the near-infrared and the proposed PRIMA mission in the far-infrared. We find that $S/N$ of $\gtrsim 10$ per redshift bin of widths $\Delta z = 0.1$ and $0.5$ can be achieved at $z < 0.5$ and $1 < z < 5$ with SPHEREx and PRIMA, respectively, for multiple PAH features, suggesting a promising prospect for mapping the aggregate PAH emission at cosmological distances with upcoming datasets.

During the Cosmic Dawn (CD), the HI 21-cm optical depth ($\tau$ ) in the intergalactic medium can become significantly large. Consequently, the second and higher-order terms of $\tau$ appearing in the Taylor expansion of the HI 21-cm differential brightness temperature ($\delta T_{\rm b}$ ) become important. This introduces additional non-Gaussianity into the signal. We study the impact of large $\tau$ on statistical quantities of HI 21-cm signal using a suite of standard numerical simulations that vary X-ray heating efficiency and the minimum halo mass required to host radiation sources. We find that the higher order terms suppress statistical quantities such as skewness, power-spectrum and bispectrum. However, the effect is found to be particularly strong on the non-Gaussian signal. We find that the change in skewness can reach several hundred percent in low X-ray heating scenarios, whereas for moderate and high X-ray heating models changes are around $\sim40\%$ and $60\%$, respectively, for $M_{\rm h,min}=10^{9}\, {\rm M}_{\odot}$. This change is around $\sim 75\%$, $25\%$ and $20\%$ for low, moderate and high X-ray heating models, respectively, for $M_{\rm h,min}=10^{10}\, {\rm M}_{\odot}$. The change in bispectrum in both the halo cutoff mass scenarios ranges from $\sim 10\%$ to $\sim 300\%$ for low X-ray heating model. However, for moderate and high X-ray heating models the change remains between $\sim 10\%$ to $\sim 200\%$ for both equilateral and squeezed limit triangle configuration. Finally, we find that up to third orders of $\tau$ need to be retained to accurately model $\delta T_{\rm b}$, especially for capturing the non-Gaussian features in the HI 21-cm signal.

The recent detection of the ultra-high-energy neutrino event KM3-230213A ($\sim$220 PeV) by KM3NeT telescope poses a challenge to conventional astrophysical models, particularly in light of the absence of similar $\gtrsim$100 PeV events in IceCube data, despite its larger exposure. We propose a novel mechanism in which binary black hole mergers act as transient neutrino sources via gravitationally induced electroweak vacuum instability. In this scenario, the extreme spacetime curvature near the horizons during the final inspiral phase destabilizes the Higgs vacuum, triggering nucleation of true-vacuum bubbles. Collisions between these bubbles produce microscopic black holes that rapidly evaporate via Hawking radiation, emitting intense, short-lived bursts of neutrinos with energies exceeding 100 PeV. The resulting neutrino fluence follows a heavy-tailed distribution, allowing rare but highly luminous sources to account for events like KM3-230213A while remaining consistent with IceCube's non-detections. This framework links gravitational wave sources to ultra-high-energy neutrino production and suggests that future multi-messenger observations may detect electromagnetic signatures from microscopic black hole evaporation.

In this paper, we apply Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to experimental data recorded by the KASCADE experiment to reconstruct the mass composition of cosmic rays around the \textit{knee} region. A set of four extensive air shower parameters sensitive to the primary particle mass ($LCm$, $N_{\mu}$, $N_{e}$, and lateral shower $age$) was considered, whose coordinates were transformed into a new orthogonal basis that maximally captures the data variance. Based on the experimental distributions of the first two principal components (PCA0 vs.\ PCA1) and full Monte Carlo simulations of the KASCADE array considering five types of primary particles (p, He, C, Si, and Fe) and three hadronic interaction models (EPOS-LHC, QGSjet-II-04, and SIBYLL~2.3d), we obtained the evolution of the abundance of each primary species as a function of energy, as well as the evolution of the mean logarithmic mass with energy. We found that the reconstruction of the mass composition resulting from this comprehensive analysis significantly reduces dependence on the hadronic interaction model used in the simulation process, even though the initial input parameters are model-dependent. Moreover, the results support the idea that around the \textit{knee} region, the abundance of the light component (protons) decreases, while the heavy component shows a slight increase. The evolution of $\langle \ln (A) \rangle$ as a function of energy derived from this analysis shows excellent agreement with recent results from the LHAASO--KM2A experiment and aligns very well with the predictions of the data-driven GSF model.

Over the past decade, an abundance of information from neutron-star observations, nuclear experiments and theory has transformed our efforts to elucidate the properties of dense matter. However, at high densities relevant to the cores of neutron stars, substantial uncertainty about the dense matter equation of state (EoS) remains. In this work, we present a semiparametric EoS framework aimed at better integrating knowledge across these domains in astrophysical inference. We use a Meta-model at low densities, and Gaussian Process extensions at high densities. Comparisons between our semiparametric framework to fully nonparametric EoS representations show that imposing nuclear theoretical and experimental constraints through the Meta-model up to nuclear saturation density results in constraints on the pressure up to twice nuclear saturation density. We show that our Gaussian Process trained on EoS models with nucleonic, hyperonic, and quark compositions extends the range of EoS explored at high density compared to a piecewise polytropic extension schema, under the requirements of causality of matter and of supporting the existence of heavy pulsars. We find that maximum TOV masses above $3.2 M_{\odot}$ can be supported by causal EoS compatible with nuclear constraints at low densities. We then combine information from existing observations of heavy pulsar masses, gravitational waves from binary neutron star mergers, and X-ray pulse profile modeling of millisecond pulsars within a Bayesian inference scheme using our semiparametric EoS prior. With current astrophysical observations, we find a favored pressure at two times nuclear saturation density of $P(2\rho_{\rm nuc}) = 1.98^{+2.13}_{-1.08}\times10^{34}$ dyn/cm$^{2}$, a radius of a $1.4 M_{\odot}$ neutron star value of $R_{1.4} = 11.4^{+0.98}_{-0.60}$\;km, and $M_{\rm max} = 2.31_{-0.23}^{+0.35} M_{\odot}$ at the 90\% credible level.

Cosmologically coupled black holes (CCBHs) are alternative black hole models whose masses evolve as $M \propto a^3$ on cosmological scales. This characteristic suggests that CCBHs could contribute to the accelerated expansion of the Universe. In this paper, I consider a CCBH model in which the cosmological constant is effectively induced, while the baryonic mass is conserved within conventional black holes. This model is motivated by the theoretical framework of Schwarzschild - de Sitter black holes. Assuming that the accelerated cosmic expansion is caused by CCBHs, I perform a cosmological parameter estimation using datasets including Planck 2018 CMB, CMB lensing, BAO, and supernovae. The analysis reveals notable shifts in cosmological parameters, such as $H_0 = 72.24^{+0.34}_{-0.35} \mathrm{km/s/Mpc}$, compared to the standard $\Lambda \mathrm{CDM}$. My $H_0$ constraint is consistent with the value $H_0 = 73.04 \pm 1.04 \mathrm{km/s/Mpc}$ reported by SH0ES within $1 \sigma$. However, the overall fit to the data worsens, with a total $\chi^2 = 2884.12$ for the CCBH model, compared to $\chi^2 = 2836.12$ for the $\Lambda$CDM model. I show that the effect of cosmological coupling is suppressed by a factor of $10^{-16}$ at $\sim$pc scales, rendering it negligible compared to the standard black hole mass in local astrophysical phenomena, although the CCBH model can explain the accelerated expansion.

Despite extensive efforts, discovery of high-energy astrophysical neutrino sources remains elusive. We present an event-level simultaneous maximum likelihood analysis of tracks and cascades using IceCube data collected from 04/06/2008 to 05/23/2022 to search the whole sky for neutrino sources and, using a source catalog, for coincidence of neutrino emission with gamma-ray emission. This is the first time a simultaneous fit of different detection channels is used to conduct a time-integrated all-sky scan with IceCube. Combining all-sky tracks, with superior pointing-power and sensitivity in the northern sky, with all-sky cascades, with good energy-resolution and sensitivity in the southern sky, we have developed the most sensitive point-source search to date by IceCube which targets the entire sky. The most significant point in the northern sky aligns with NGC 1068, a Seyfert II galaxy, which, from the catalog search, shows a 3.5$\sigma$ excess over background after accounting for trials. The most significant point in the southern sky does not align with any source in the catalog and is not significant after accounting for trials. A search for the single most significant Gaussian flare at the locations of NGC 1068, PKS 1424+240, and the southern highest significance point shows results consistent with expectations for steady emission. Notably, this is the first time that a flare shorter than four years has been excluded as being responsible for NGC 1068's emergence as a neutrino source. Our results show that combining tracks and cascades when conducting neutrino source searches improves sensitivity and can lead to new discoveries.

Supernovae (SNe) associated with X-Ray Flashes (XRFs) are extremely rare. Therefore, the discovery of each new object in this class offers a unique opportunity to improve our understanding about their origins and potential connection with other high-energy phenomena. SN 2025kg is one of the most recent events discovered in this category, and exhibits a double-peaked light curve, with an initial cooling phase followed by the main peak. Here, we investigate the possible mechanisms powering its bolometric light curve and expansion velocities, using numerical calculations to simulate the explosion. We found that low ejecta masses (Mej ~ 2 Msun) and moderate explosion energies (E ~ 2e51 erg) are required to reproduce the data. Our models also show that a large amount of nickel (M_Ni = 0.85 Msun) is needed to achieve the high luminosity of SN 2025kg, which makes this scenario difficult to sustain. As an alternative, we explore a model in which a millisecond magnetar serves as the primary energy source. A magnetar with a spin period of 3 ms, approximately, and a magnetic field of 28e14 G gives an adequate match to the data. To account for the early cooling phase, we assume the presence of a dense circumstellar material surrounding the progenitor, with a mass of 0.27 Msun and an extension of 500 Rsun. A comparison and modeling of a select group of SNe--SN 2006aj, SN 2020bvc and SN 2023pel--is also presented. A remarkable similarity emerges between SN 2025kg and SN 2023pel. As SN 2023pel was recently proposed to be powered by a magnetar, this further supports the magnetar scenario for SN 2025kg.

Cosmological hydrodynamical simulations have become an indispensable tool to understand galaxies. However, computational constraints still severely limit their numerical resolution. This not only restricts the sampling of the stellar component and its direct comparison to detailed observations, but also the precision with which it is evolved. To overcome these problems we introduce the \emph{Superstars} method. This method increases the stellar mass resolution in cosmological galaxy simulations in a computationally inexpensive way for a fixed dark matter and gas resolution without altering any global properties of the simulated galaxies. We demonstrate the \emph{Superstars} method for a Milky Way-like galaxy of the Auriga project, improving the stellar mass resolution by factors of $8$ and $64$ at an additional cost of only $10\%$ and $500\%$, respectively. We show and quantify that this improves the sampling of the stellar population in the disc and halo without changing the properties of the central galaxy or its satellites, unlike simulations that change the resolution of all components (gas, dark matter, stars). Moreover, the better stellar mass resolution reduces numerical heating of the stellar disc in its outskirts and keeps substructures in the stellar disc and inner halo more coherent. It also makes lower mass and lower surface brightness structures in the stellar halo more visible. The \emph{Superstars} method is straightforward to incorporate in any cosmological galaxy simulation that does not resolve individual stars.

We present a general analytic framework to assess whether impact ejecta launched from the surface of a satellite can escape the gravitational influence of the planet--satellite system and enter heliocentric orbit. Using a patched-conic approach and defining the transition to planetocentric space via the Hill sphere or sphere of influence, we derive thresholds for escape in terms of the satellite-to-planet mass ratio and the ratio of the satellite's orbital speed to its escape speed. We identify three dynamical regimes for ejecta based on residual speed and launch direction. We complement this analysis with the circular restricted three-body problem (CR3BP), deriving a necessary escape condition from the Jacobi integral at $\mathrm{L_{2}}$ and showing that it is consistent with the patched-conic thresholds. Applying our model to the Earth--Moon system reveals that all three outcomes--bound, conditional, and unbound--are accessible within a narrow range of launch speeds. This behavior is not found in other planetary satellite systems, but may occur in some binary asteroids. The framework also shows that the Moon's tidal migration has not altered its propensity to produce escaping ejecta, reinforcing the plausibility of a lunar origin for some near-Earth asteroids.

Accurate estimation of dark matter halo masses for galaxy groups is central to studies of galaxy evolution and for leveraging group catalogues as cosmological probes. We present a calibration and evaluation of two complementary halo mass estimators: a dynamical estimator based on the virial theorem, and an empirical relation between the sum of the stellar masses of the three most massive group galaxies and the halo mass (SHMR). Using state-of-the-art semi-analytic models (SHARK, SAGE, and GAEA) to generate mock light-cone catalogues, we quantify the accuracy, uncertainty, and model dependence of each method. The calibrated virial theorem achieves negligible systematic bias (mean $\Delta$ = -0.01 dex) and low scatter (mean $\sigma$ = 0.20 dex) with no sensitivity to baryonic physics. The calibrated SHMR yields the highest precision (mean $\Delta$ = 0.02 dex, mean $\sigma$ = 0.14 dex) but shows greater model dependence due to sensitivity to baryonic physics across the models. We demonstrate applications to observational catalogues, including the empirical halo mass function and mapping quenched fractions in the stellar mass-halo mass plane. We provide guidance: the virial theorem is recommended for GAMA-like surveys (i < 19.2) at z < 0.1 where minimal model dependence is required, while the SHMR is optimal for high-precision halo mass estimates across diverse catalogues with limits of z < 0.3. These calibrated estimators will aid upcoming wide-area spectroscopic surveys in probing the connection between galaxies and their host dark matter halos.

Interstellar objects provide a direct window into the environmental conditions around stars other than the Sun. The recent discovery of 3I/ATLAS, a new interstellar comet, offers a unique opportunity to investigate the physical and chemical properties of interstellar objects and to compare them with those of comets in our own Solar System. In this Letter we present the results of a 10-night spectroscopic and photometric monitoring campaign with the 2.4 m Hiltner and 1.3 m McGraw-Hill telescopes at the MDM Observatory. The campaign was conducted between August 8 and 17 while 3I/ATLAS was inbound at heliocentric distances of 3.2 - 2.9 au. Our observations captured the onset of optical gas activity. Nightly spectra reveal a weak CN emission feature in the coma of 3I/ATLAS, absent during the first nights but steadily strengthening thereafter. We measure a CN production rate of $Q$(CN)$\sim6\times$10$^{24}$ s$^{-1}$, towards the lower end of activity observed in Solar System comets. Simultaneous photometry also indicates a small but measurable increase in the coma's radial profile and increasing $r$-band $Af\rho$ with values in the order of $\sim300$ cm. We derived a gas-to-dust production ratio of $\log Q (\mathrm{CN})/Af\rho\sim22.4$. Our upper limit on the C$_2$-to-CN ratio ($\log Q(\mathrm{C}_2)/Q(\mathrm{CN})\lesssim-0.8$) indicates that 3I/ATLAS is a strongly carbon-chain depleted comet. Further observations of 3I/ATLAS are required to verify the apparent carbon-chain depletion and to explore whether such composition represents a recurring trait of the interstellar comet population.

We present and analyze follow-up, higher resolution ($R$ $\sim$ 70) $H$ and $K$ band integral field spectroscopy of the superjovian exoplanet HIP 99770 b with SCExAO/CHARIS. Our new data recover the companion at a high signal-to-noise ratio in both bandpasses and more than double the astrometric baseline for its orbital motion. Jointly modeling HIP 99770 b's position and the star's astrometry from Hipparcos and Gaia yields orbital parameters consistent with those from the discovery paper, albeit with smaller errors, and a slight preference for a smaller semimajor axis ($\sim$15.7--15.8 au)and a larger eccentricity ($\sim$0.28--0.29), disfavoring a circular orbit. We revise its dynamical mass slightly downwards to 15.0$_{-4.4}^{+4.5}$ $M_{\rm Jup}$ for a flat prior and 13.1$_{-5.2}^{+4.8}$ $M_{\rm Jup}$ for a more standard log-uniform mass prior, where the inclusion of its relative radial-velocity measurement is primarily responsible for these changes. We find consistent results for HIP 99770 b's dynamical mass including recent VLTI/GRAVITY astrometry, albeit with a slightly smaller, better constrained eccentricity of $e$ $\sim$ 0.22$^{+0.10}_{-0.13}$. HIP 99770 b is a $\sim$ 1300 K object at the L/T transition with a gravity intermediate between that of the HR 8799 planets and older, more massive field brown dwarfs with similar temperatures but with hints of equilibrium chemistry. HIP 99770 b is particularly well suited for spectroscopic follow up with Roman CGI during the technology demonstration phase at 730 nm to further constrain its metallicity and chemistry; JWST thermal infrared observations could likewise explore the planet's carbon chemistry, metallicity, and clouds.

Adaptive binning is a crucial step in the analysis of large astronomical datasets, such as those from integral-field spectroscopy, to ensure a sufficient signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) for reliable model fitting. However, the widely used Voronoi-binning method and its variants suffer from two key limitations: they scale poorly with data size, often as O(N^2), creating a computational bottleneck for modern surveys, and they can produce undesirable non-convex or disconnected bins. I introduce PowerBin, a new algorithm that overcomes these issues. I frame the binning problem within the theory of optimal transport, for which the solution is a Centroidal Power Diagram (CPD), guaranteeing convex bins. Instead of formal CPD solvers, which are unstable with real data, I develop a fast and robust heuristic based on a physical analogy of packed soap bubbles. This method reliably enforces capacity constraints even for non-additive measures like S/N with correlated noise. I also present a new bin-accretion algorithm with O(N log N) complexity, removing the previous bottleneck. The combined PowerBin algorithm scales as O(N log N), making it about two orders of magnitude faster than previous methods on million-pixel datasets. I demonstrate its performance on a range of simulated and real data, showing it produces high-quality, convex tessellations with excellent S/N uniformity. The public Python implementation provides a fast, robust, and scalable tool for the analysis of modern astronomical data.

Tidal disruption events (TDEs) in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) mark a regime where traditional vacuum models fail to capture the full dynamics, especially due to interaction between stellar debris and pre-existing accretion disks. We perform meshless hydrodynamic simulations incorporating both general relativistic (GR) effects and radiative cooling to study TDEs in AGNs with different orbital inclinations ($\theta_{\rm inc}$) of the disrupted star, ranging from projected prograde to retrograde orbits. We post-process the simulations to derive multi-wavelength light curves and identify several distinct features in the light curves, including a precursor flare from early debris-disk collision and a major flare driven by fallback. The dynamics of the stellar debris and accretion disk, and subsequently the light curve features, are strongly affected by $\theta_{\rm inc}$ and GR effects. Retrograde orbits ($\theta_{\rm inc}=135^\circ$) yield a more luminous, shorter major flare and a more prominent precursor than prograde ones ($\theta_{\rm inc}=22.5^\circ$). During fallback, prograde cases ($\theta_{\rm inc} = 22.5^\circ$, $45^\circ$) develop a central cavity with spirals in the inner region of the AGN disk, leading to transient UV/X-ray suppression accompanied by oscillations, while higher inclinations ($\theta_{\rm inc}=90^\circ$, $135^\circ$) form a gradually tilting inner disk, potentially causing UV/X-ray dips via geometric effects at certain viewing angles. Relativistic apsidal precession alters stream collisions, producing structural differences in the inner disk, outer disk, and debris compared to Newtonian cases, and drives quasi-periodic signals in prograde configurations. These results provide predictive diagnostics for identifying AGN TDEs and interpreting observed light-curve diversity.

Gravitational wave detection requires sophisticated signal processing to identify weak astrophysical signals buried in instrumental noise. Traditional matched filtering approaches face computational challenges with diverse signal morphologies and non-stationary noise. This work presents an unsupervised deep learning methodology integrating Continuous Wavelet Transform (CWT) preprocessing with Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) autoencoder architecture for template-free gravitational wave detection. We train and evaluate our model on LIGO H1 data from Observing Run 4 (O4, 2023-2024), comprising 126 confirmed gravitational wave events from the GWTC-4.0 catalog and 1991 noise segments. During development, we discovered that reconstruction errors from multi-run training (O1-O4) clustered by observing run rather than astrophysical parameters, revealing systematic batch effects from GWOSC's evolving calibration procedures. Following LIGO's established practice of per-run optimization, we adopted single-run (O4) training, which eliminated these batch effects and improved recall from 52% to 96% while maintaining 97% precision. The final model achieves 97.0% precision, 96.1% recall, F1-score 96.6%, and ROC-AUC 0.994 on 102 test signals and 399 noise segments. The reconstruction error distribution shows clean separation between noise (mean 0.48) and signals (mean 0.77). This unsupervised, template-free approach demonstrates that anomaly detection can achieve performance competitive with supervised methods while enabling discovery of signals with unexpected morphologies. Our identification and resolution of cross-run batch effects provides methodological guidance for future machine learning applications to multi-epoch gravitational wave datasets.

In this work we examine the 2025 DESI analysis of dark energy, which suggests that dark energy is evolving in time with an increasing equation of state $w$. We explore a wide range of quintessence models, described by a potential function $V(\varphi)$, including: quadratic potentials, quartic hilltops, double wells, cosine functions, Gaussians, inverse powers. We find that while some provide improvement in fitting to the data, compared to a cosmological constant, the improvement is only modest. We then consider non-minimally coupled scalars which can help fit the data by providing an effective equation of state that temporarily obeys $w<-1$ and then relaxes to $w>-1$. Since the scalar is very light, this leads to a fifth force and to time evolution in the effective gravitational strength, which are both tightly constrained by tests of gravity. For a very narrow range of carefully selected non-minimal couplings we are able to evade these bounds, but not for generic values.

Polarization observations of the Milky Way and many other spiral galaxies have found a close correspondence between the orientation of spiral arms and magnetic field lines on scales of hundreds of parsecs. This paper presents polarization measurements at 214 $\mu$m toward ten filamentary candidate ``bones" in the Milky Way using the High-resolution Airborne Wide-band Camera (HAWC+) on the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). These data were taken as part of the Filaments Extremely Long and Dark: A Magnetic Polarization Survey (FIELDMAPS) and represent the first study to resolve the magnetic field in spiral arms at parsec scales. We describe the complex yet well-defined polarization structure of all ten candidate bones, and we find a mean difference and standard deviation of $-74^{\circ} \pm 32^{\circ}$ between their filament axis and the plane-of-sky magnetic field, closer to a field perpendicular to their length rather than parallel. By contrast, the 850 $\mu$m polarization data from \textit{Planck} on scales greater than 10 pc show a nearly parallel mean difference of $3^{\circ} \pm 21^{\circ}$. These findings provide further evidence that magnetic fields can change orientation at the scale of dense molecular clouds, even along spiral arms. Finally, we use a power law to fit the dust polarization fraction as a function of total intensity on a cloud-by-cloud basis and find indices between $-0.6$ and $-0.9$, with a mean and standard deviation of $-0.7 \pm 0.1$. The polarization, dust temperature, and column density data presented in this work are publicly available online.

Most M dwarfs show higher chromospheric activity, often exceeding solar levels. Characterizing stellar activity is essential, particularly since these stars are prime targets in the search for habitable exoplanets. We investigate the stellar activity of active M dwarfs using TESS photometry combined with spectroscopic observations. We explore relations between flare occurrence rate (FOR), flare energies, rotation period, starspot filling factor, and chromospheric indicators. We also examine correlations between flare amplitude, duration, and cumulative flare frequency distributions to probe the mechanisms behind magnetic activity. We find that FOR is flat across spectral types M0-M4 but declines for cooler M dwarfs. Rapid rotators ($P_{\rm rot} < 1$ day) display significantly higher FOR and flare activity. M dwarfs with higher FOR tend to have lower flare amplitudes, suggesting that frequent flares are generally less energetic. For stars with 0.15--0.76 $M_\odot$, the median $L_{H\alpha}/L_{\rm bol}$ varies by a factor of 2.5 across mass bins of 0.1 $M_\odot$, while $\Delta$EW decreases by 92\%. The cumulative flare frequency distributions show a decrease in the power-law slope from M0 to M5, with $\alpha$ ranging from 1.68 to 1.95. Our results indicate a transition in stellar activity near M4, where stronger H$\alpha$ emission coincides with higher FOR. We confirm that chromospheric and flare activity follow a power-law relation, highlighting the interplay between magnetic fields and flaring in M dwarfs. We also find that fast rotators sustain frequent flaring through strong dynamos, and that highly active stars dissipate magnetic energy via numerous low-energy flares rather than rare high-energy ones.

We present a web-based application designed to simulate rotational light curves of small airless Solar System bodies under user-defined geometrical and physical conditions. The tool integrates both physical and empirical photometric models and enables users to input custom shape models, surface properties, and viewing geometries. A dedicated module also computes projected silhouettes at the epoch of stellar occultations, allowing direct comparison with observed chords. The application, developed in Python and Django, has been validated using well-characterized targets such as (136108) Haumea, (101955) Bennu, and (433) Eros, showing excellent agreement between synthetic and observed light curves and silhouettes. Beyond standard light curve simulations, the tool supports scenarios including surface heterogeneity, non-principal axis rotation (tumbling), and phase-angle effects. This flexible and accessible platform provides a powerful resource for interpreting photometric data, supporting ongoing observation campaigns, and aiding future mission planning.

There is increasing observational evidence for a failed galaxy formation pathway for some ultradiffuse galaxies (UDGs) at low redshift however they currently lack simulated counterparts. We attempt to identify dark matter halos at high redshift within the MAGNETICUM cosmological simulations that could plausibly be their progenitors. We build a toy model of passive galaxy evolution within the stellar mass-halo mass relation to trace z = 0 observations of UDGs back to their z = 2 locations. We identify a population of 443 galaxies that match these parameter space positions within the simulation. We build two comparison samples within the simulation that follow the stellar mass-halo mass relationship at z = 2, one of which is stellar mass matched (with varying smaller halo masses) and the other is halo mass matched (with varying larger stellar masses) to our sample. We identify that our failed galaxy progenitor candidates have 1) flatter, cored dark matter halos; 2) more extended stellar bodies; 3) a larger fraction of their gas in the outskirts of their halos; 4) lower metallicities and 5) higher star formation rates than the control samples. Findings 1) and 2) are similar to low redshift observations of UDGs. Finding 3) will aid the removal of gas and permanent quenching of star formation which is a requirement of the failed galaxy formation scenario. The low metallicities of finding 4) match those observed in low redshift failed galaxy UDGs. Comparing the high star formation rates of finding 5) to recent JWST observations suggests that a starburst would naturally explain the high globular cluster richness of the UDGs. Many of the properties we find for these failed galaxy progenitors can be explained by an assembly bias of their dark matter halo to later formation times. We conclude by proposing that the fraction of failed galaxy UDGs is expected to increase with environmental density.

Low-frequency radio data improve the sensitivity of pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) to propagation effects such as dispersion measure (DM) variations, enabling better noise characterization essential for detecting the stochastic gravitational wave background (GWB). We combined LOFAR (100-200 MHz) and NenuFAR (30-90 MHz) observations with the recent European and Indian PTA release (DR2new+) into a new dataset, DR2low, spanning ~11 years for 12 pulsars. DR2low allows updated noise models, increasing PTA sensitivity to the GWB. Using Libstempo and Enterprise, we applied standard noise models including red noise (RN) and time-variable DM (DMv) as power laws, and performed Bayesian model selection over RN, DMv, and an additional chromatic noise term (CN4). Compared to DR2new+, DR2low improves DM constraints and separates DM and RN contributions. We found that the RN is required in the final model for 10 out of 12 pulsars, compared to only 5 in the DR2new+ dataset. The improved sensitivity to plasma effects provided by DR2low also favors the identification of significant CN4 in eight pulsars, while none showed such evidence in DR2new+. The analysis also reveals unmodelled solar wind effects, particularly near solar conjunction, with residual delays absorbed into the DM component, highlighting the importance of accurately modelling the solar wind in PTA datasets.

We announce V. 2025-08-08 of the Chroma+ suite of stellar atmosphere and spectrum modelling codes for fast, approximate, effectively platform-independent stellar spectrum synthesis, written in a number of free well-supported programming languages. The Chroma+ suite now computes the emergent surface intensity and flux distributions and the hydrostatic pressure structure assuming a spherical atmosphere rather than local flatness by implementing the analytic formal solution of the 1D spherical radiative transfer equation of Chapman (1966} based on an integration factor. We present our adaptation and discretization of the solution and demonstrate the resulting impact of our sphericity treatment on a number of computed observables, including exo-planet transit light-curves. All codes are available from the OpenStars www site: this http URL.

Very-high energy (VHE; $>$100 GeV) $\gamma$-ray emission originates via some of the most extreme particle acceleration processes in the universe. Considering beamed active galactic nuclei, i.e., blazars, only a small fraction, mainly high synchrotron peak BL Lacs, have been detected in the VHE band with the ground-based Cherenkov telescopes. We utilized $\sim$16 years of Fermi-Large Area Telescope (LAT) observations in the 0.1$-$2 TeV energy range to systematically search for potential VHE emitters in a sample of high synchrotron peaked ($\nu^{\rm peak}_{\rm syn}>10^{15}$ Hz) BL Lac sources. We identified, for the first time, 92 VHE emitting blazars at $\geq 5\sigma$ confidence level. A significant VHE emission was also detected from 52 objects, which have been previously reported to be a VHE blazar. Comparing with the general blazar population, these VHE emitting blazars are found to be located at low redshifts (mean $z=0.2 \pm 0.1$) and exhibit bright synchrotron emission ($\log F^{\rm peak}_{\rm syn}=-11.2 \pm 0.4$, in erg cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$). We also investigated the coincidence of VHE photon arrivals with the source activity states and found that Fermi-LAT has detected VHE photons during both quiescent and elevated activity epochs. These VHE emitting blazars represent promising targets for current and next-generation ground-based Cherenkov telescopes, and provide valuable laboratories for probing particle acceleration in relativistic jets, testing multi-messenger connections, and constraining extragalactic background light models.

The delay time distribution (DTD) of binary black hole (BBH) mergers encodes the evolutionary link between the formation history and gravitational-wave (GW) emission. We present a non-parametric reconstruction of the mass-dependent DTD using the BBHs from the GWTC-4 that avoids restrictive assumptions of only power-law forms. Our analysis reveals for the first time the signature for mass-dependent evolutionary pathways: lower-mass systems ($20$-$40\,M_\odot$) are consistent with a scale-invariant DTD, whereas higher-mass BBHs ($40$-$100\,M_\odot$) provide the first direct tentative evidence of DTD that deviate from simple power laws, with a pronounced preference for rapid mergers around $2-6$ Gyrs. These findings reveal the advantage of the non-parametric technique in reconstructing the mass-dependent DTD and discovering for the first-time the presence of a potential time-scale associated with high-mass GW events.

We extend the classical Keplerian framework of existing analytic TDE models by incorporating the gravitational potential of a spherically symmetric galactic mass distribution. We then demonstrate that this broader structure imprints light curve features beyond the predictive scope of traditional models, such as phases of shallower-than-standard decay and late-time rebrightening episodes. Importantly, our framework predicts the occurrence of environment-induced rebrightenings but only on very long timescales, unless the host environment is unrealistically ultra-compact. This means the early evolution of TDEs occurring in typical galaxies is essentially untouched by the host potential, which explains why Keplerian models have been so successful in describing the first few years after disruption. To illustrate, we applied our model to the TDE candidate eRASSt J133157.9-324321 (J1331), the event with the longest reported rebrightening interval, and find that even matching its ${\sim}$30-year rebrightening would demand an implausibly dense host. This demonstrates the limits of environmental effects as an explanation for early rebrightenings reported in the literature. More broadly, our work shows that while the host galaxy leaves TDEs nearly Keplerian at early times, it actively shapes their long-term evolution and can drive departures from the canonical $t^{-5/3}$ decay law. These delayed signals give us a testable way to see how the host galaxy shapes the event, and they may even offer clues about the galaxy's underlying structure.

Time-domain surveys such as the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) have opened a new frontier in the discovery and characterization of transients. While photometric light curves provide broad temporal coverage, spectroscopic observations remain crucial for physical interpretation and source classification. However, existing spectral analysis methods -- often reliant on template fitting or parametric models -- are limited in their ability to capture the complex and evolving spectra characteristic of such sources, which are sometimes only available at low resolution. In this work, we introduce SpectraNet, a deep convolutional neural network designed to learn robust representations of optical spectra from transients. Our model combines multi-scale convolution kernels and multi-scale pooling to extract features from preprocessed spectra in a hierarchical and interpretable manner. We train and validate SpectraNet on low-resolution time-series spectra obtained from the Spectral Energy Distribution Machine (SEDM) and other instruments, demonstrating state-of-the-art performance in classification. Furthermore, in redshift prediction tasks, SpectraNet achieves a root mean squared relative redshift error of 0.02, highlighting its effectiveness in precise regression tasks as well.

Black hole (BH) superradiance can provide strong constraints on the properties of ultralight bosons (ULBs). While most of the previous work has focused on the theoretical predictions, here we investigate the most suitable statistical framework to constrain ULB masses and self-interactions using BH spin measurements. We argue that a Bayesian approach based on a simple timescales analysis provides a clear statistical interpretation, deals with limitations regarding the reproducibility of existing BH analyses, incorporates the full information from BH data, and allows us to include additional nuisance parameters or to perform hierarchical modelling with BH populations in the future. We demonstrate the feasibility of our approach using mass and spin posterior samples for the X-ray binary BH M33 X-7 and, for the first time in this context, the supermassive BH IRAS 09149-6206. We explain the differences to existing ULB constraints in the literature and illustrate the effects of various assumptions about the superradiance process (equilibrium regime vs cloud collapse, higher occupation levels). As a result, our procedure yields the most statistically rigorous ULB constraints available in the literature, with important implications for the QCD axion and axion-like particles. We encourage all groups analysing BH data to publish likelihood functions or posterior samples as supplementary material to facilitate this type of analysis, and for theory developments to compress their findings to effective timescale modifications.

The prospect of detecting/constraining deviations from general relativity by studying gravitational waves (GWs) from merging black holes has been one of the primary motivations of GW interferometers like LIGO/Virgo. Within pure gravity, the only possible way deviations can arise is from the existence of higher order derivative corrections, namely higher powers of the Riemann curvature tensor, in the effective action. Any observational bounds imply constraints on the corresponding Wilson coefficients. At the level of the action, one can imagine the coefficients are sufficiently large so as to be in principle detectable. However, from the point of view of some fundamental principles, namely causality and unitarity, this is much less clear, as we examine here. We begin by reviewing certain known bounds on these coefficients, which together imply a low cut off on the effective theory. We then consider a possible mechanism to generate such terms, namely in the form of many scalars, minimally coupled to only gravity, that can be integrated out to give these higher order operators. We show that a by product of this is the generation of quantum corrections to Newton's potential, whose observable consequences are already ruled out by solar system tests. We point out that over 7 orders of magnitude of improvement in interferometer sensitivity would be required to avoid such solar system constraints. We also mention further constraints from Hawking radiation from black holes.

We study the performances of a world-wide network made by a European third-generation gravitational-wave (GW) detector, together with a 40km Cosmic Explorer detector in the US, considering three scenarios for the European detector: (1) Einstein Telescope (ET) in its 10km triangle configuration; (2) ET in its configuration featuring two 15km L-shaped detectors in different sites, still taken to have all other ET characteristics (underground, and with each detector made of a high-frequency interferometer and a cryogenic low-frequency interferometer); (3) A single L-shaped underground interferometer with the ET sensitivity curve, either with 15km or with 20km arm length. Overall, we find that, if a configuration with two widely separated L-shaped detectors ("2L") should be retained for ET, the network made by a single-L European underground detector together with CE-40km could already provide a very interesting intermediate step toward the construction of a full 2L+CE network, and is in any case superior to a 10km triangle not inserted in an international network. We also study the performance of a network made by a single L-shaped underground interferometer with the ET sensitivity curve together with a single 40km CE and with LIGO-India (taken at A# sensitivity), and we find that it also has very interesting performances.

Formulating a quantum theory of gravity lies at the heart of fundamental theoretical physics. This collection of lecture notes encompasses a selection of topics that were covered in six mini-courses at the Nordita PhD school "Towards Quantum Gravity". The scope was to provide a coherent picture, from its foundation to forefront research, emphasizing connections between different areas. The lectures begin with perturbative quantum gravity and effective field theory. Subsequently, two ultraviolet-complete approaches are presented: asymptotically safe gravity and string theory. Finally, elements of quantum effects in black hole spacetimes are discussed.

To deepen our understanding of Quantum Gravity and its connections with black holes and cosmology, building a common language and exchanging ideas across different approaches is crucial. The Nordita Program "Quantum Gravity: from gravitational effective field theories to ultraviolet complete approaches" created a platform for extensive discussions, aimed at pinpointing both common grounds and sources of disagreements, with the hope of generating ideas and driving progress in the field. This contribution summarizes the twelve topical discussions held during the program and collects individual thoughts of speakers and panelists on the future of the field in light of these discussions.

Large-scale astronomical image data processing and prediction are essential for astronomers, providing crucial insights into celestial objects, the universe's history, and its evolution. While modern deep learning models offer high predictive accuracy, they often demand substantial computational resources, making them resource-intensive and limiting accessibility. We introduce the Cloud-based Astronomy Inference (CAI) framework to address these challenges. This scalable solution integrates pre-trained foundation models with serverless cloud infrastructure through a Function-as-a-Service (FaaS). CAI enables efficient and scalable inference on astronomical images without extensive hardware. Using a foundation model for redshift prediction as a case study, our extensive experiments cover user devices, HPC (High-Performance Computing) servers, and Cloud. Using redshift prediction with the AstroMAE model demonstrated CAI's scalability and efficiency, achieving inference on a 12.6 GB dataset in only 28 seconds compared to 140.8 seconds on HPC GPUs and 1793 seconds on HPC CPUs. CAI also achieved significantly higher throughput, reaching 18.04 billion bits per second (bps), and maintained near-constant inference times as data sizes increased, all at minimal computational cost (under $5 per experiment). We also process large-scale data up to 1 TB to show CAI's effectiveness at scale. CAI thus provides a highly scalable, accessible, and cost-effective inference solution for the astronomy community. The code is accessible at this https URL.

We investigate tidal heating associated with the binary inspiral of strange quark stars and its impact on the resulting gravitational wave signal. Tidal heating during the merger of neutron stars composed of nuclear matter may be considered negligible, but it has been demonstrated recently that the presence of hyperons at high densities could significantly enhance the dissipation during inspiral. In this work, we evaluate the bulk viscosity arising from non-leptonic weak processes involving quarks and show that it can be several orders of magnitude higher than the viscosity of nuclear matter at temperatures relevant to the inspiral phase of the merger of strange stars. We model strange quark matter in the normal phase using a non-ideal bag model including electrons and ensure compatibility with astrophysical constraints. By analysing equal-mass binary systems with component masses ranging from 1.4 to 1.8 $\, M_{\odot}$, we find that temperatures close to 0.1 MeV are reached by the end of the inspiral phase. We also estimate the effect on the gravitational waveform and conclude that the additional phase shift could range from $0.1$ to $0.5$ radians for strange quark masses of 200 MeV, making it potentially detectable by next-generation gravitational wave detectors. Given that tidal heating from hyperons is dominant only for very massive neutron stars having masses 1.8 to 2.0 $\, M_{\odot}$, a successful detection of this phase shift during the inspiral of binary systems with relatively low masses of 1.4 to 1.6 $\, M_{\odot}$ could be a smoking gun signature for the existence of strange quark stars.

The momentum-dependent interaction (MDI) model, which has been widely used in microscopic transport models for heavy-ion collisions (HICs), is extended to include three different momentum-dependent terms and three zero-range density-dependent terms, dubbed as MDI3Y model. Compared to the MDI model, the single-nucleon potential in the MDI3Y model exhibits more flexible momentum-dependent behaviors. Furthermore, the inclusion of three zero-range density-dependent interactions follows the idea of Fermi momentum expansion, allowing more flexible variation for the largely uncertain high-density behaviors of nuclear matter equation of state (EOS), especially the symmetry energy. Moreover, we also obtain the corresponding Skyrme-like energy density functional through density matrix expansion of the finite-range exchange interactions. Based on the MDI3Y model, we construct four interactions with the same symmetry energy slope parameter $L=35$ MeV but different momentum dependence of $U_{\mathrm{sym}}$, by fitting the empirical nucleon optical potential, the empirical properties of symmetric nuclear matter, the microscopic calculations of pure neutron matter EOS and the astrophysical constraints on neutron stars. In addition, two interactions with $L=55$ and $75$ MeV are also constructed for comparison. Using these MDI3Y interactions, we study the properties of nuclear matter and neutron stars. These MDI3Y interactions, especially those with non-monotonic momentum dependence of $U_{\mathrm{sym}}$, will be potentially useful in transport model analyses of HICs data to extract nuclear matter EOS and the isospin splitting of nucleon effective masses.

We study tidal Love numbers of static black holes in four-dimensional quadratic theory of gravity, extending the result of GR. We use worldline effective field theory (WEFT) methods to compute metric perturbations from one-point functions, treating the higher-derivative terms perturbatively. We show that insertions of scalar fields on the worldline induce non-zero tidal tails, and the corresponding Love number displays no RG running. The same conclusion holds for the insertions of tensor fields. Furthermore, for scalar dipole perturbations, we derive a Yukawa-deformed Frobenius solution and match the asymptotic behavior to fix the UV charge, finding agreement with EFT predictions of Wilson coefficients. Our work demonstrates that quadratic higher-curvature corrections induce non-zero but scale-independent tidal responses, offering a robust EFT framework to test deviations from GR in gravitational wave observations.

Accurate and reliable calibration of the Advanced LIGO detectors has enabled a plethora of gravitational-wave discoveries in the detectors' first decade of operation, starting with the ground-breaking discovery, GW150914. In the first decade of operation, the calibrated strain data from Advanced LIGO detectors has become available at a lower latency and with more reliability. In this paper, we discuss the relevant history of Advanced LIGO calibration and introduce new tools that have been developed to enable faster and more robust calibrated strain data products in the fourth observing run (O4). We discuss improvements to the robustness, reliability, and accuracy of the low-latency calibration pipeline as well as the development of a new tool for monitoring the LIGO detector calibration in real time.

Introduction to the theoretical foundations of gravitational waves: from general relativity to detection and binary system waveforms. Lecture notes prepared for the MaNiTou summer school on gravitational waves. Draft chapter for the CNRS contemporary Encyclopaedia Sciences to be published by ISTE.

We investigate the tidal disruption of a neutron star (NS) near a black hole (BH), and for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, near a naked singularity (NaS). For a BH with a mass greater than about $10 M_{\odot}$, the tidal disruption of NS should occur within the event horizon, and hence neither can the stellar material escape nor a distant observer observe the disruption. Since NaS does not have an event horizon, a significant portion of the NS's material can escape, and the tidal disruption can be observed by a distant observer. One could identify such an event from the observed emission from the disrupted NS's material and the decay of the light curve of the disruption event. The escape of a significant fraction of the NS's material may also have implications for the heavy elements in the universe. Moreover, observing such an event can be useful for confirming a NaS, probing its spacetime, and studying the motion of matter in such a geometry. This may help constrain the NS parameters and equation of state models. As a first step in this direction, we calculate here the tidal disruption radius and other parameters for a specific type (Joshi-Malafarina-Narayan type 1) of NaS and compare our results with observations.