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Physics Astrophysics Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

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Wednesday 16 September

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Cross-listed from astro-ph.GA

Galactic archaeology meets exoplanets: linking stellar birth radii to exoplanet demographics

Stars observed in the solar vicinity were not necessarily born there. Radial mixing can redistribute stellar populations across the Galactic disc, decoupling their present-day locations from the environments in which they formed. We summarise a framework that combines Galactic chemical evolution models with a generalised additive model to infer stellar birth radii. We apply it to 1327 predominantly thin-disc planet hosts with homogeneous ages, Gaia DR3 astrometry, and SWEET-Cat atmospheric parameters. We find that giant-planet systems preferentially trace metal-rich inner-disc birth environments, whereas rocky-only systems are less centrally concentrated; and no clear relation between radial displacement and detected planet multiplicity. Planet-host stars that migrate towards the inner parts of the Galaxy have systems with larger orbital separations; however, this may partly reflect the known dependence of planetary orbital properties on host-star metallicity rather than a causal effect of Galactic stellar migration. These results illustrate how Galactic archaeology can complement exoplanet demographics by linking planetary systems to their probable birth environments.
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All authors M. L. L. Dantas, J. J. García-Delgado, I. Rebollido, R. Smiljanic

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Stellar companions sculpt hot Jupiter formation and spin-orbit evolution

Stellar companions can drive hot-Jupiter (HJ) migration and spin-orbit misalignment, but their role in HJ formation remains uncertain. We construct a homogeneous census of resolved stellar companions to $147$ northern HJs with measured projected obliquities. We obtain uniform adaptive-optics imaging and combine these observations with Gaia common proper-motion pairs to identify 8 new companion candidates, bringing the observed companion fraction to $71/147=48\%$. Modeling the full survey selection function yields an intrinsic companion fraction of $62\pm5\%$ for mass ratios $q_\star=0.1$-$1$ and projected separations $s=50$-$50{,}000$~au, roughly 3-4$\times$ enhanced relative to field stars. Including white-dwarf companions would increase this fraction further. HJs with resolved companions at $50$-$2{,}000$~au are nearly twice as likely to be misaligned compared to systems without detected companions: $46\%$ compared to $24\%$ ($p=0.009$). The misaligned fraction rises steadily from $5\%$ among the coolest hosts to $80\%$ among the hottest, without a sharp transition at the Kraft Break, while the intrinsic companion fraction remains roughly constant across the temperature range. These trends are consistent with HJs beginning with a broad obliquity distribution, followed by progressively weaker tidal realignment at higher stellar temperatures. Contrary to previous work, we find that most stellar companions in our sample are capable of driving eccentric Kozai-Lidov (EKL) oscillations to the tidal limit under suitable orbital configurations, making high-eccentricity migration dynamically promising. Taken together, these results indicate that stellar companions sculpt HJ formation and spin–orbit architectures.
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All authors Cheyanne Shariat, Kareem El-Badry, Songhu Wang, Xian-Yu Wang, Malena Rice, Jerry W. Xuan, David R. Ciardi

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Cross-listed from physics.geo-ph

Period-Inverted Blast-Radius Normalization for a Non-Ablating Hypersonic Reentry Source Using OSIRIS-REx Capsule Infrasound

Cylindrical blast wave theory relates infrasound from hypersonic sources to energy deposition through a characteristic blast radius R_0, yet the normalization constant k in the scaling R_0 = k (E_0/p_0)^(1/2) differs by up to 40% across the formulations examined here. This uncertainty affects period-based source characterization for elevated atmospheric sources relevant to infrasound monitoring. Using infrasound from the OSIRIS-REx Sample Return Capsule reentry on 24 September 2023, observed periods at 39 stations spanning source altitudes of 44-62 km are inverted through a weak-shock propagation model to obtain period-inverted blast radii R_0,obs without prescribing a blast-wave normalization. Combining R_0,obs with aerodynamic drag energy yields a median k = 0.396, with a modified-bootstrap 95% interval of 0.378-0.474 when the reported period-measurement uncertainties are included. This result is consistent with the Sakurai (1965) and Jones et al. (1968)/Plooster (1970) normalizations, while Few (1969) lies outside the reference confidence interval. However, station-level k values exhibit significant along-trajectory structure (Spearman r_s = -0.84, p < 0.001), indicating that k_med is an ensemble-effective normalization rather than a station-invariant constant. The Mach-diameter approximation R_0 ~ M d_m overestimates R_0 by a factor of ~3.4 for this effectively non-ablating source. A period-based relation, R_0 = 23.99 tau - 0.73 (R^2 = 0.991, MAPE = 2.3%), provides a rapid blast-radius estimator whose residuals show no detectable altitude dependence. These results provide inverse calibration constraints and practical period-based source-characterization relations for OSIRIS-REx-like non-ablating hypersonic entries, while highlighting the need for multi-event validation before broader application.
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Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

A Binary Flux Calibrator Reveals the Scientific Potential of Short-integration JWST MIRI Imaging to Directly Detect sub-Jupiter Exoplanets

We report the direct imaging detection of a stellar companion to HD 101452 (HIP 56925; Gaia DR3 5384905720847544192), an A star historically used as an infrared flux calibrator. The companion was identified from an asymmetry in the stellar PSF using short-integration (<1 min), noncoronagraphic JWST MIRI imaging from 15 - 25.5$\mu$m that was obtained as part of the absolute flux calibration program CAL 4496. We detect the stellar companion in four MIRI imaging filters at a projected separation of 1.3 arcsec with a mid-infrared flux ratio of approximately $27\times$ warranting its removal from the ensemble of JWST flux calibrator systems. This detection also demonstrates that noncoronagraphic MIRI imaging can recover companions at separations below $3\lambda/D$ when a reference star with a closely matched flux level to the science target is available. Using the measured contrast curves from the calibration data, we evaluate the predicted sensitivity achievable with similar short MIRI observations for nearby stars (<30 pc) that are of interest to the direct-imaging community with comparable brightness to HD 101452 (W4 ~ 6.8 mag). We find that integrations of only 17-42 s are be capable of detecting sub-Jupiter-mass planets at solar system-like separations around a subset of neighboring systems if the PSF subtraction is conducted with closely flux-matched references. These results demonstrate that minutes-length, noncoronagraphic MIRI observations can provide a powerful and efficient new avenue for exploring the cold giant planet population around nearby stars.
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All authors Rachel Bowens-Rubin, Mary Anne Limbach, Alexander Venner, Kyle Franson, Emily K. Pass, Andrew Vanderburg, Kevin B. Stevenson, Logan Pearce, Taylor L. Tobin, Elisabeth Matthews, Aiza Kenzhebekova, Beth Biller, Ben J. Sutlieff, Klaus Subbotina Stephenson

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

An Updated Model for Epsilon Eridani b and Prospects for Imaging with the Roman Coronagraph

Epsilon Eridani b, the nearest known Jupiter analog, has its orbit and mass constrained from radial velocity (RV) and absolute astrometry, and its atmosphere from JWST/NIRCam imaging upper limits in Sanghi et al. 2026. Here we follow up that work with a self-consistent model of Epsilon Eridani b that treats all available data within a single Bayesian framework. We extend the RV data with new measurements, update the treatment of the astrometry data with a new model, and include the NIRCam observations with a grid of evolutionary and atmospheric models. We find a mass of 0.91+-0.06 M_Jup and an orbit consistent with previous work. The imaging data helps constrain planet effective temperature, atmospheric metallicity and surface gravity. The constraints are dependent on model assumptions: for an atmosphere in chemical equilibrium, an otherwise low statistically significant feature in one of the epochs is recovered as the planet at high confidence. When assuming chemical disequilibrium, the posteriors exhibit a bimodal distribution, with one mode consistent with zero flux and the other coinciding with the flux of the tentative feature. Consistent with previous work, the clear atmosphere models are found to be viable at very enhanced metallicity, whereas the cloudy models yield more moderate values. Applying these models to the Roman Coronagraph, we find that the predicted reflected-light fluxes place every cloudy atmosphere our fit allows within the instrument's expected sensitivity. A non-detection would be very constraining: a final contrast sensitivity of 2e-9 would rule out all cloudy atmospheres under our model assumptions.
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All authors Jorge Llop-Sayson, Andre Fogal, James Mang, William Thompson, Clarissa R. Do Ó, Aniket Sanghi, Isabela G. Huckabee, Laurent Pueyo, Charles Beichman, Geoffrey Bryden, Marie Ygouf, András Gáspár, Schuyler Wolff, Jarron Leisenring, Dimitri Mawet, Tiffany Meshkat, Caroline V. Morley, Jean-Baptiste Ruffio

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Characterisation of chaos in meteoroid streams. Application to the Taurids

Aims. We explore the dynamics of the Northern and Southern Taurid meteoroid streams to identify major mechanisms structuring the evolution of the streams. Methods. We use chaos maps and numerical simulations to explore the dynamics of the streams. We also perform some semi-analytical analysis to confirm the mechanisms we identified in the maps. Results. We show how Northern Taurids are structured by the von Zeipel-Lidov-Kozai mechanism and how it interacts with several mean-motion resonances with Jupiter. This mechanism is visible as an increase in inclination for most particles, which is less prominent for those trapped in mean-motion resonances. It is especially strong for larger initial semi-major axis within the stream. We specifically study the 7:2 mean-motion resonance with Jupiter to confirm it leads to observable swarms. Furthermore, we explore the influence of non-gravitational forces, showing that they blur the influence of mean-motion resonances but not the von Zeipel-Lidov-Kozai mechanism. We also show that the dynamics of the Southern Taurids are very similar to the Northern Taurids.
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All authors Ariane Courtot, Melaine Saillenfest, Marc Fouchard, Jérémie Vaubaillon

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Bridging magnetothermal winds and photoevaporation to model discs dispersal

Protoplanetary disc dispersal is driven by two processes usually modelled separately: photoevaporative and magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) disc winds. Global simulations indicate that in the inner disc these are not distinct outflows but a single magnetothermal wind. We assemble a closed-form, two-phase model that respects it. A single-field-line wind, whose base is fixed by the irradiated temperature and penetration column, supplies the launch and feeds a secular evolution, with photoevaporation convolved on as a sink. The flux closure $B_z\propto\Sigma^q$ is self-limiting: for $q\le1/2$ depletion alone cannot demagnetise the disc, so dispersal requires independent flux loss, parameterised by the magnetic Reynolds number $\mathcal{R}_m$. Integrating the coupled system yields two regimes. Efficient flux loss ($\mathcal{R}_m\lesssim1$) lets the magnetisation front recede by over an order of magnitude and opens a photoevaporative gap. Flux retention ($\mathcal{R}_m\gg1$) drives the front outward, sustains accretion, and defers dispersal by $\approx2.7$~Myr. Deriving the base from stellar irradiation instead of prescribing it, we find that the cold-launch approximation is valid during the early stages of disc evolution: anchoring the base at plasma equipartition ($\beta_{\rm base} \sim 1$) confines irradiation's influence on the magnetic lever arm to the magnetothermal annulus, decoupling the peak accretion rate from the incident flux. Both regimes clear the disc inside-out, through either a photoevaporatively amplified cavity wall or an expanding magnetothermal front.
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Tuesday 15 September

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Cross-listed from astro-ph.SR

Host-star metallicities and kinematics of directly imaged brown-dwarf companions

Brown dwarfs are common as free-floating objects but rare as close companions to Sun-like stars, a disparity known as the "brown-dwarf desert". Host-star metallicity can constrain whether these companions form mainly through metal-sensitive core accretion or through less metal-dependent disc or cloud fragmentation. We extend our homogeneous spectroscopic analysis of directly imaged planet hosts into the brown-dwarf regime and compare their metallicities with those of planet hosts and close-in brown-dwarf hosts. We compiled 54 unique directly imaged brown-dwarf systems selected over an inclusive 13-80 M_Jup interval and projected separations from about 5 au to several thousand au. Objects near the model-dependent 70-75 M_Jup hydrogen-burning boundary may instead be very-low-mass stars. For 31 hosts with archival high-resolution spectra, we derived atmospheric parameters and metallicities using Bayesian spectral synthesis. Literature companion masses and projected separations are heterogeneous and are used only for demographic context. Galactic velocities were calculated for 46 hosts solely to characterise the youth-biased imaging sample. The host stars have a broadly solar metallicity distribution, with a median [Fe/H] of +0.06 dex and a median absolute deviation of 0.11 dex, and show no strong metal-rich bias. No statistically significant metallicity difference is detected between the lower- and higher-mass directly imaged subsamples. The hosts are kinematically cold, as expected from the youth-biased selection of direct-imaging surveys. The absence of a strong metal-rich bias suggests that classical core accretion does not dominate the wide-orbit brown-dwarf population. Disc instability and cloud fragmentation remain plausible, but the current sample and heterogeneous companion properties do not permit object-by-object discrimination between these channels.
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All authors C. Swastik, R. K. Banyal, M. Muduli, S. Soni, A. Jino, S. Facchini, Z. Wahhaj, G. Lodato, P. Saraf, A. Choudhary, A. K. Bhavya, M. P. Navaneeth, B. Banerjee, S. Biswas, T. Sivarani, G. Maheswar, A. Surya

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Cross-listed from astro-ph.IM

Graph neural networks for exoplanet atmospheres

Calculating disequilibrium chemistry in exoplanet atmospheres remains a significant computational bottleneck in atmospheric retrievals. The increasing observational precision from facilities such as JWST and the Ariel mission requires including disequilibrium chemistry in these analyses. Previous studies have demonstrated that neural networks can emulate kinetic chemistry, although their spatial inductive bias does not align with the topology of chemical reaction networks. This study introduces a graph neural network surrogate that represents chemical species as nodes and temperature-dependent reaction rates as edges, thereby enabling information propagation along physically meaningful chemical pathways. The model is trained on atmospheres generated using the Venot+2020 chemical scheme and Guillot temperature-pressure profiles. The GNN accurately reconstructs disequilibrium abundances across the sampled parameter space and reduces the mean abundance error by a factor of approximately 3 compared to the previous U-Net model. When applied to transmission spectra, most predictions fall within the observational precision expected for JWST and Ariel, with only about 7% of test atmospheres exceeding a 20 ppm mean spectral error. Performance variations are primarily observed in chemically transitional regimes near a carbon-to-oxygen ratio of one and at low temperatures. An evaluation of the boundary-case planet WASP-39b demonstrates effective performance under a moderate domain shift. Perturbation analysis indicates that disturbances propagate along chemical connectivity rather than spatial adjacency, confirming that the architecture captures the structure of reaction networks. These results suggest that GNN surrogates provide accurate, computationally efficient predictions of disequilibrium chemistry, facilitating integration into the atmospheric retrieval pipeline.
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All authors Antonia Vojtekova, Kai Hou Yip, Ingo P. Waldmann, Nikolaos Nikolaou, Olivia Venot, Ahmed Faris Al-Refaie, Bruno Merín

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Cross-listed from astro-ph.IM

Quantifying the temperature-dependent yields of N$_2$ and N$_2$H$_4$ formation in vacuum-ultraviolet-irradiated NH$_3$ ice

Gas–grain astrochemical models predict that a substantial fraction of elemental nitrogen in dense cores and protoplanetary disks is locked in molecular nitrogen (N$_2$), in the gas or ice phase, although interstellar N$_2$ ice has not been directly identified. Rosetta measurements at comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko showed strong N$_2$ depletion relative to CO, while NH$_3$ was the dominant detected nitrogen-bearing ice. We experimentally quantify the conversion of NH$_3$ ice into N$_2$ and N$_2$H$_4$ under astronomically relevant conditions by studying its temperature- and fluence-dependent VUV photochemistry. Experiments were performed under ultra-high vacuum using 40-monolayer NH$_3$ ice at 15, 25, and 70 K irradiated at 115–170 nm to a total fluence of $3.8\times10^{18}$ photons cm$^{-2}$. Laser desorption with post-ionization reflection time-of-flight mass spectrometry (ReTOF-MS) was used to monitor N$_2$ and N$_2$H$_4$ simultaneously. VUV photolysis efficiently forms both products, with formation kinetics and product ratios depending on temperature and photon fluence. Initial-growth fits gave the highest apparent ice-retained N$_2$ formation yield at 15 K, approximately an order of magnitude above those at 25 and 70 K. The N$_2$/NH$_3$ column-density ratio was determined as a function of fluence and compared with astronomical constraints. These results suggest that NH$_3$ ice photochemistry may provide an additional pathway to N$_2$ ice in cold outer planetary environments.
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All authors P. Samarth, G. Fedoseev, S. Ioppolo, L. Hornekær, E. F. van Dishoeck, K.-J. Chuang

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Uncovering temperate worlds: an updated look at the K2-3 system with ESPRESSO

The K2-3 system is one of the most unique planetary systems as it features three transiting sub-Neptunes in decreasing order of radii, spanning the radius valley. In addition to that, the two outer planets are temperate in nature making this system a perfect laboratory for investigating the nature and formation of small potentially habitable worlds. We present new radial velocity data obtained during the ESPRESSO-GTO programme to add to the archival HARPS, HARPS-N and HIRES data for a total time span of 8 years. This combined dataset significantly improves the masses of the K2-3 planets. We analyse the spectroscopic data with the line-by-line algorithm. We coupled this timeseries with a multi-dimensional Gaussian process framework to disentangle the 40.5-days stellar rotation from the Keplerian signals. We tested models using two activity indicators to ensure the retrieved semi-amplitudes of the planets are not biased by the choice of activity indicator. The multi-dimensional Gaussian process framework, with either activity indicator, yields the following masses: Mb=6.61+/-0.47Me; Mc=2.23+/-0.68Me; Md=2.12+/-1.27Me. Compared to previous works, our detection significance of K2-3b has increased by a factor of two, the mass of K2-3c has slightly decreased and we now have a marginal detection for K2-3d. The positions of the planets in the mass-radius diagram suggest either a H/He-rich or volatile-rich composition for both K2-3b and c, while the nature of K2-3d is ambiguous. A forward atmospheric model suggests that a single visit with JWST can distinguish between a H/He-rich atmosphere from a water-world scenario. This dataset exemplifies the capability of ESPRESSO to detect sub-metre-per-second radial velocity signals for the detection of temperate exoplanets.
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All authors Avidaan Srivastava, Emma Pimentel, Amélie Gressier, René Doyon, Melissa J. Hobson, Alessandro Sozzetti, Mario Damasso, Yann Alibert, Susana C. C. Barros, François Bouchy, Amadeo Castro-González, Olivier D. S. Demangeon, Xavier Dumusque, Jonay I. González Hernández, Baptiste Lavie, Jorge Lillo-Box, Christophe Lovis, Giuseppina Micela, Enric Palle, Francesco Pepe, Rafael Rebolo, José Rodrigues, Nuno C. Santos, Sérgio G. Sousa, Alejandro Suárez Mascareño, Stéphane Udry, María R. Zapatero-Osorio

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Cross-listed from astro-ph.SR

The Solar Neighborhood LVI: The RMSTAR Catalog of the Nearest 3352 M Dwarf Systems and 305 of their Wide Companions

We present the RMSTAR (RECONS M STAR) catalog, a 25 pc volume-limited and effectively volume-complete sample of the nearest 3352 M dwarf systems and their 305 wide stellar and 9 brown dwarf companions. RMSTAR has been created using only results from Gaia Data Releases 3 (GDR3) and 2 (GDR2), Hipparcos, and ground-based discoveries of M dwarf systems that are not available in the space-based results. The wide companions are identified using only results from GDR3 and GDR2, and have separations $\rho\ge0.''46$. There are 291 primaries with stellar companions, yielding a multiplicity rate of 8.68$\pm$0.49% for these widely separated systems, with a rate of 6.86$\pm$0.44% for projected separations $s\geq30$ au, where the sample of stellar companions is complete except perhaps for a few fringe cases. It is shown that the rate of stellar companions increases from the search limit of 30,000 au down to separations of 30 au, with a large set of companions to be characterized at closer separations in future work. We determine luminosity and mass functions for all stellar red dwarfs and their wide secondaries, finding that the luminosity function displays a classic turnover at $M_G\sim11$, whereas the mass function is described by an exponential function that rises from 0.60 M$_{\odot}$ to the end of the stellar main sequence at 0.075 M$_{\odot}$. We assess the large population of close, unresolved companions to M dwarfs by analyzing several Gaia parameters, identifying 1089 (30%) individual sources as having at least one of these elevated unresolved companion indication parameters.
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All authors Madison R. LeBlanc, Tim M. Johns, Todd J. Henry, Kenneth J. Slatten, Jennifer G. Winters, Wei-Chun Jao, Aman Kar, Michele L. Silverstein, Eliot Halley Vrijmoet, Casey Rush, Andrew A. Couperus

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Cross-listed from astro-ph.SR

Can Auroral Heating Explain Brown Dwarf Thermal Inversions?

Recent modeling of the JWST spectra of the Y-dwarf CWISEPJ193518.59-154620.3 (Faherty et al. 2024; Suárez et al. 2025) and the T-dwarf SIMPJ013656.5+093347.3 (Nasedkin et al. 2025) indicates the presence of a thermal inversion in their atmospheres, implying an additional source of heating. Auroral energy deposition has been proposed as a potential mechanism. In this work, we model auroral energy deposition processes and the resulting atmospheric response to assess whether physically motivated auroral electron beam energy spectra can reproduce the inferred thermal inversions. We simulate the effects of several auroral electron beam energy spectra consistent with observations of the Jovian population of auroral electrons and scale them to the total electron flux expected for brown dwarfs. We find that auroral energy deposition alone cannot reproduce both the magnitude and pressure level of the inferred inversion in either object. While inversions are produced in our models, they occur at pressures that are too low compared to those required by the observations. These results suggest that the actual population of auroral electrons includes a stronger high-energy component than considered here, that additional heating mechanisms contribute to the observed thermal inversions, and/or that heterogeneous heating of the atmosphere is important for determining the observed emission.
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All authors Anna Zuckerman, James Mang, J. Sebastian Pineda, Caroline V. Morley, David Brain

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Cross-listed from astro-ph.SR

Predicting Macroturbulence in F/G/K Dwarfs to 100 m/s Precision

We leverage the high resolution and spectral stability of the Keck Planet Finder (KPF) spectrograph to investigate macroturbulence broadening via the stellar cross-correlation function (CCF). As our calibration sample, we use main sequence benchmark slow-rotators v$\sin$i < 4 km/s where rotation rates were derived from the most robust asteroseismic mode splitting measurements, independent from spectral line broadening. We fit a linear relationship for macroturbulence as a function of derived $\nu_{max}$, the frequency of maximum power due to stellar oscillations, with an RMS scatter of 90 m/s. Previous studies have calibrated macroturbulence against T$_{eff}$, but we find $\nu_{max}$ to be a lower dispersion predictor by a factor of 4 indicating a deeper relationship between $\nu_{max}$and convective motions.
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All authors Jack Lubin, Erik Petigura, Kento Masuda, Samuel Halverson, Isabel Angelo, Daniel Huber, Michael L. Palumbo III, Songhu Wang, Xian-Yu Wang

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Evidence for an Extended Hydrogen Outflow on WASP-12 b

Recent observations of atmospheric escape from planets orbiting early-type stars indicate that planets with higher Roche filling factors have significantly higher mass loss rates. For three of these planets, full-orbit observations have revealed the presence of large leading and trailing tails of escaping planetary material. These 3D outflow geometries encode information about the underlying outflow physics, and can also be used to constrain their stellar wind properties and to predict their long-term orbital evolution. We present new evidence for extended H$\alpha$ and H$\beta$ absorption from escaping hydrogen for a fourth planet, WASP-12 b. We observed WASP-12 b with the Keck Planet Finder on Keck I over a period of approximately eight hours centered on the transit. We find a H$\alpha$ and H$\beta$ absorption signal in the stellar rest frame that is strongest during the transit (H$\alpha$ amplitude: $2.66\pm0.25\%$, H$\beta$ amplitude: $2.88\pm0.43\%$), with evidence of both pre- and post-transit absorption. This measurement is consistent with outflow models where the escaping gas overflows the planet's Roche lobe and is advected into the stellar rest frame before being tidally sheared into extended tails. This outflow behavior is qualitatively similar to previous H$\alpha$ observations of this planet as well as observations of extended outflows from other gas giants orbiting early-type stars.
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All authors Morgan Saidel, Shreyas Vissapragada, Heather A. Knutson, Aaron Householder, Morgan MacLeod, Adam Jensen, Howard Isaacson, Judah Van Zandt, Fei Dai

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Secular evolution of viscous and self-gravitating protoplanetary discs with magnetic winds

Traditionally, the disc is believed to evolve under the influence of turbulent viscosity, although the importance of this mechanism has recently been questioned. Alternatively, magnetic disc wind or gravitational instability could be considered, but which of these three mechanisms contributes the most at a given evolutionary stage remains an open question. We present global numerical hydrodynamic simulations of protoplanetary disc evolution in the thin-disc limit on disc lifetime timescales, including all three mechanisms of mass and angular momentum transport. We calculate the gravitational, viscous, and magnetic torques to assess the contribution of each mechanism. We found that these transport mechanisms occupy distinct zones of influence in the disc depending on the stage of evolution: the dominance of disc self-gravity during the early phase is replaced by the prevalence of magnetic disc wind and viscosity, with the latter being especially relevant at the disc periphery. We show that a noticeable decrease in disc mass occurs only after the termination of the embedded phase. The suppression of disc viscous spreading is achieved only for the most intense wind; otherwise, the disc continues to grow in size till the end of simulations. The spiral structure contributes to the temporary retention of dust in the disc. However, this is insufficient to prevent the depletion of dust on long timescales. The results emphasize the importance of a comprehensive approach to long-term simulations of protoplanetary discs with no single mechanism of mass and angular momentum transport regarded as exclusive.
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All authors Evgenii R. Redkin, Eduard I. Vorobyov, Paola Pinilla, Fabiola A. Gerosa, Konstanze Zwintz

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Stellar Ages of M Dwarf Hosts of Temperate Sub-Neptunes

Measuring M dwarf ages is a central challenge in stellar astrophysics. These stars evolve so slowly that isochrone fitting gives little constraint, requiring alternative methods based on rotation, activity, and kinematics. Reliable ages help constrain the formation and evolution of planetary systems around M dwarfs, including the temperate sub-Neptunes now being characterised with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). We present an age analysis of six nearby M dwarf planet hosts (TOI-732, TOI-736, TOI-270, TOI-1468, TOI-1231, and K2-18) using lithium absorption at 6708 Å, rotation periods, and Galactic kinematics. The Li I 6708 Åfeature is absent above 3$\sigma$ in all targets, implying substantial depletion and ages exceeding 200 Myr. Rotation periods of 39-145 days yield ages of 2.8-8.6 Gyr, calibrated against open cluster M dwarfs and including the intrinsic dispersion of the rotation-age relation. Kinematic ages span 0.8-13 Gyr with uncertainties of 4-6 Gyr. These are less precise per star but help identify outliers such as TOI-1231 (~13 Gyr) and K2-18 ( ~1-2 Gyr) and place the stars in Galactic context. Rotation yields age constraints 2-6 times tighter than kinematics where periods are measured, and comparable constraints where periods must be inferred from chromospheric activity. Combining multiple indicators enables more secure classification of these stars' evolutionary states, providing reference points for future comparative studies.
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Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

DewTwin-Coin: an onboard autonomous framework for lunar water-ice prospecting using Chandrayaan-3 LIBS and ChaSTE data

It is important to locate water-ice in the lunar regolith to build futuristic, sustainable bases there. But communication delays from Earth, limited bandwidth, and power constraints demand an onboard, autonomous, time-efficient decision-making framework for locating volatiles such as water-ice in the lunar regolith. In this work, we present a framework, DewTwin-Coin, that can locate potential water-ice sites in real time without drilling. Its decision-making principle is based on a find-S learning algorithm that uses surface temperature and the Hydrogen-to-Oxygen intensity ratio at a location. The core idea is a physics-based rule $-$ water-ice is stable only if the temperature is below 110 K and the Hydrogen-to-Oxygen intensity ratio is between 1.7 and 2.3. We validate DewTwin-Coin on Chandrayaan-3's 3165 laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) elemental data with 387 Chandra's surface thermophysical experiment (ChaSTE) data. On a 16 GB RAM system, it classified all 3165 locations within 615 seconds, yielding no strong signatures of water-ice, which matches the Chandrayaan-3 in-situ analysis. This framework is very important for future lunar and other planetary missions in which an onboard rover can autonomously determine feasible drilling locations for water-ice without issuing false drilling commands in warm terrains. Thus, the mission's onboard setup can stretch its technical limits in both power and memory capacity.
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Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Cross-listed from astro-ph.SR

A self-consistent orbital architecture for GG Tau A. I. Simultaneous orbital fitting of the hierarchical triple

GG Tau $A$ is a young triple system with the close pair, $Ab_1$–$Ab_2$, and $Aa$, surrounded by a massive circumtriple disk with a large inner cavity difficult to explain in a binary framework. We aim to determine the orbital architecture and individual stellar masses of GG Tau $A$ and assess how the available astrometric and disk-based constraints restrict the range of admissible solutions. We performed a joint fit using Oracle, developed specifically for hierarchical stellar systems. All astrometric measurements were placed in a common reference frame, since the historical wide-orbit astrometry is given relative to the unresolved photocenter of the $Ab$ subsystem. The fit included one new wide-orbit astrometric epoch and a prior on the total stellar mass derived from disk kinematics. We then applied, in post-processing, an additional geometrical constraint based on the observed center of the circumtriple disk. The fit yields orbital solutions compatible with the available astrometric and disk-based constraints and provides estimates of the individual stellar masses. The additional wide-orbit epoch only marginally reduces the range of admissible solutions. By contrast, the disk-center constraint leaves the favored orbital architectures largely unchanged but significantly tightens the stellar-mass partition. This yields posterior masses of $0.521^{+0.069}_{-0.051}$, $0.106^{+0.017}_{-0.013}$, and $0.79^{+0.10}_{-0.10}$ $M_\odot$ for $Ab_1$, $Ab_2$, and $Aa$, respectively. The reported values are posterior medians with 16th–84th percentile intervals. A joint treatment of the two orbital levels is required to recover a physically meaningful architecture and constrain the individual stellar masses. The resulting solutions provide a basis for future dynamical modeling of the circumtriple disk and for testing whether the observed cavity can further constrain the system architecture.
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All authors A. Lacquement, H. Beust, G. Duchêne, C. Lawlor, C. Ginski, E. Di Folco, A. Dutrey

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Cross-listed from astro-ph.IM

PyExoCross 2.0: A Python Framework for LTE and non-LTE Spectra, Cross Sections, and Spectroscopic Post-processing of Atomic and Molecular Line Lists

PyExoCross is a Python-based spectroscopic post-processing framework for converting large atomic and molecular line lists into scientifically useful quantities, including partition function, specific heats, cooling functions, lifetimes, oscillator strengths, line intensities, stick spectra, and absorption and emission cross sections. It is intended for applications in astrophysics, planetary atmospheres, laboratory spectroscopy, and other high-temperature environments where large modern databases require efficient and reproducible computational treatment. The new release provides both a configuration-file-driven command-line interface (CLI) and a Python application programming interface (API) within a unified computational framework. The original input file workflow is retained, while the Python API enables direct use in scripts, notebooks, and automated pipelines. The version PyExoCross 2.0 also adds explicit support for non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (non-LTE) calculations, including two-temperature models and user-defined density and population treatments for both absorption and emission spectra. In addition, database compatibility has been expanded beyond ExoMol, HITRAN, and HITEMP line lists to include high-resolution molecular database ExoMolHR and atomic database ExoAtom. GPU acceleration is also introduced for computationally intensive intensity and cross-section calculations and is available for all currently supported database formats. These developments improve workflow flexibility, reproducibility, and integration with modern data-analysis environments, while extending the physical modelling capabilities of the code. PyExoCross therefore provides a more general and extensible platform for large-scale spectroscopic simulations based on modern atomic and molecular databases.
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Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

No statistically significant evidence for a correlation between stellar and planetary composition

The chemical compositions of planets and their hosts stars are intrinsically linked, having formed from the same protostellar material. Characterising this relationship provides key constraints on the processes governing planetary formation and evolution. Focusing on host stars with near-solar chemical abundances limits our understanding of how planetary composition varies across a broader chemical parameter space. Expanding the sample to include stars with compositions markedly different from the Sun is therefore essential for building a complete picture of star–planet compositional connections. Here, we focus specifically on iron-poor hosts since they are more likely to be alpha-enhanced and represent some of the most chemically distinct stars relative to the Sun (i.e., thick disc stars). We present a sample of 45 stars hosting 64 planets across the super-Earth and sub-Neptune regimes, for which we homogeneously obtain new stellar parameters including abundances, re-derive planetary mass and radius, and model the bulk interior compositions of their planetary companions. No statistically significant evidence for a correlation between stellar and planetary composition was found in our sample. We suggest that this null result is primarily driven by the large uncertainties inherent to both compositional proxies, which may obscure an underlying relationship. Quantifying these uncertainties is therefore a critical step that previous studies have not fully addressed. Furthermore, even with improved precision, uncovering such a relation may require a higher-dimensional treatment that accounts for additional parameters such as planetary equilibrium temperature.
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All authors Daisy A. Turner, Annelies Mortier, James G. Rogers, Jo Ann Egger, Alix V. Freckelton, Tim Lichtenberg, Anjali A. A. Piette

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Determining elemental composition in laboratory meteorite ablation spectra through radiative transfer modeling

Laboratory simulations of meteor ablation provide a critical quantitative link between the chemical composition of meteoroids and their observed spectral features. In this work, we analyzed high-resolution Echelle spectra (wavelength range 380-780 nm) of 22 diverse meteorites from the dataset presented in our previous work (Matlovič et al., 2024), representing the largest collection of laboratory meteor analogs to date. Using a radiative transfer model assuming local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) and accounting for self-absorption in optically thick plasma, we derived plasma parameters and elemental abundances for both major (Fe, Mg, Cr, Mn, Si, Na, Ni, Li, and K) and minor (Co, Cu, and V) species. Comparison with known bulk meteorite compositions allowed us to validate the modeling approach and assess chemical biases resulting from laboratory-induced ablation. Our analysis suggested plasma temperatures between 5220 and 5810 K and revealed systematic discrepancies in the elemental abundances compared to the original chemical composition. Specifically, we observed a significant enhancement of volatile species (Na, K) relative to Fe, accompanied by a depletion of the moderately volatile element Mg, while refractory elements (Al, Ca, Ti) remained undetected in the plasma radiation. These trends are consistent with the equilibrium vaporization model and demonstrate that under the simulated entry conditions ($\sim$12 km/s at $\sim$80 km altitude), the ablation process is dominated by incomplete and fractional vaporization. We conclude that while laboratory spectra of plasma from ablated meteorites do not fully reflect the original bulk composition, radiative transfer modeling effectively characterizes the state of the radiating plasma, offering a more robust approach for interpreting compositional properties from meteor observations.
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Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Cross-listed from astro-ph.SR

Stellar age is not disk age

Disk fractions in star-forming clusters decline with stellar age, and are routinely read as the lifetime distribution of primordial protoplanetary disks. We argue that this reading is not warranted, because late infall can replenish or reform disks after collapse. To formalize this, we model the disk fraction as a superposition of primordial and environmentally replenished components, with region-to-region dispersion in the supply rate. Disk fractions cannot distinguish a long-lived disk from a short-lived one that is repeatedly replenished. In Sco–Cen both reproduce the data, the replenished model marginally better. Stellar age therefore need not equal disk age, and stars can host successive disk generations with distinct mass, orientation, and chemistry. A key test is whether regions of the same stellar age show a genuine spread in disk fractions, as environmental variation in the replenishment supply predicts.
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All authors M. Kuffmeier, A. Winter, A. Kuznetsova, M. Vioque, A. Gupta

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Saturns Are Not Large Neptunes: The effect of removing inflated giants from empirical mass-radius relations

Empirical mass-radius relations have long been used in exoplanetology to study planet demographics and to predict masses and radii for objects where only one of these is known. Inferred transitions between planet classes can also provide empirical evidence in support of theory. However, mass-radius relations fitted in two-dimensions can be complicated when additional factors influence the planetary parameters, as is the case with the radius inflation of giant planets. In this work, we present an empirical mass-radius relation derived by fitting a broken power-law to a cleaned PlanetS sample from which inflated giants have been removed. We find that when inflated giants are excluded, the preferred model contains three breakpoints and four segments, showing the emergence of a distinct Saturnian regime between $54\pm3~{\rm M_\oplus} <M< 258\pm11~{\rm M_\oplus}$. In this regime, planets are still growing but at a lower rate than the Neptunian regime, consistent with the onset of gravitational self-compression. We also update the irradiation threshold for giant planet inflation, $S_{\rm thr}=99~\rm S_\oplus$ ($1.3~\rm ergs\,s^{-1}\,cm^{-2}$); below $S_{\rm thr}$, 90% of giant planets have a radius excess $\Delta \log{R}<2\sigma$.
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Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Cross-listed from astro-ph.SR

The evolution of discs and the epoch of formation of giant planets around solar type stars

Disc evolution dictates the time for planet formation providing the raw material to build the planets' cores. Dynamical stellar masses derived from the kinematics of the gas in discs provide constraints on the ages of very young stars, offering a powerful approach to studying disc evolution and the epoch of giant-planet formation. We investigated a sample of 33 solar-type stars with bright protoplanetary discs and ages between 1 and 9\,Myr. We modeled the spectral energy distributions and ALMA dust continuum images simultaneously to constrain the stellar radius and effective temperature, accretion rate, disc dust mass, the radii of the inner and outer disc regions (roughly separated at the ice line), and the maximum grain size in the inner disc. Combining the stellar masses and radii with stellar evolutionary models, we derived individual stellar ages. We found that the accretion rate and the dust mass of the inner disc evolve with time. The dust mass of the inner disc correlates with the observed accretion rates for stars younger than 2\, Myr. A depletion of centimetre-sized grains in the inner disc is observed in more than half of the analysed stars with ages between 2 and 5\, Myr indicating the action of a mechanism that inhibits the inward drift of large grains, potentially associated with the progressive growth of giant-planet cores more massive than 30 \MEarth, although the exact mass threshold remains uncertain. In addition, three discs exhibiting strong asymmetries in their ALMA continuum emission are associated with stars with ages of $\sim$2\, Myr. The results provide observational indications of significant changes in the dust distribution during the epoch when giant planets may be forming.
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Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Around the water snowline: I. Effects of dynamical and chemical interplay on mid-infrared water spectra of protoplanetary discs

Protoplanetary discs' infrared water spectra (e.g. as observed by JWST) encode information about the underlying water distribution and physical conditions. In this work, we examine and quantify the imprint of various dynamical processes (operating alone or in unison) on water abundances and emerging spectra using a new 2D model called Molecular emission Affected by Gas, Pebble, and Ice Evolution (MAGPIE). This model combines diffusion and advection for water (and associated species) and dust grains with aerodynamically decoupled pebbles, and photodissociation and a gas-phase water formation prescription. In general, we find that transport processes have a major impact on the inner disc's water content and can (re)plenish the layer above the ice reservoir which in static models is water-poor due to photodissociation. In particular, adding diffusion to a chemical model can result in strong changes in the spectrum (e.g. a flux increases of colder compared to warmer water lines) that recent work has associated with pebble drift. Adding pebble drift dramatically increases the inner disc water abundance but, surprisingly, does not readily lead to a further increase of cold water tracers as (1) efficient outward transport of water vapour is inhibited by a conveyor belt effect of incoming pebbles, and (2) the increase in hot water line fluxes overshadows smaller increases of colder lines. We conclude that dynamical processes have a significant but complex impact on water spectra. Future work should explore a range in stellar (e.g. UV irradiation) and disc properties to comprehensively understand the observed diversity of water emission.
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All authors Till Kaeufer, Sebastiaan Krijt, Edwin A. Bergin, Andrea Banzatti, Joe Williams

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

The asymmetric limbs of HD 209458 b observed with JWST NIRCam F322W2/F444W

We present a reanalysis of JWST NIRCam F322W2/F444W transit observations of the hot Jupiter HD 209458 b to extract morning and evening transmission spectra. To determine whether asymmetries in the transit light curves arise from atmospheric structure, we refine the HD 209458 system parameters through a reanalysis of archival transit and radial velocity data. We then extract limb-resolved spectra using two independent light curve modelling frameworks, Harmonica and catwoman,which yield consistent results. We interpret the transmission spectra using both 1D and 1.5D (i.e.,retrievals in which each limb of the planet is modelled independently) atmospheric retrievals. From our 1.5D free-chemistry retrievals, we find a strong preference (Delta ln Z = 2.81 +/- 0.49) for a model in which the morning and evening limbs are retrieved independently over one in which they share atmospheric parameters, despite the additional free parameters this requires. This asymmetry is most pronounced in the retrieved cloud properties, consistent with 3D atmospheric circulation models that predict longitudinally varying cloud distributions, and to a lesser extent in the CH4 and CO abundances. In contrast, the H2O and CO2 abundances and the isothermal temperature structure remain largely consistent between limbs. Similarly, our 1.5D equilibrium chemistry retrieval reveals a uniform composition between the limbs, alongside a marginally hotter evening limb relative to the morning limb. While the retrieved temperatures, chemical abundances, metallicities and carbon-to-oxygen ratios (C/O) are uniform across both limbs, they exhibit significant differences from our 1D retrieval results, highlighting the importance of multidimensional modelling in mitigating 1D retrieval biases.
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All authors Cathal Maguire, Eva-Maria Ahrer, Charlotte Fairman, Hannah R. Wakeford, Duncan Christie, James Kirk, Elspeth K. Lee, Evert Nasedkin, Michael Radica

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

H$_2$O emission as tracer of pebble drift: insights from coupling transport and thermochemical models

(Abridged) The composition of the inner regions of protoplanetary disks is known to change with time due to the delivery of icy grains. Cold H$_2$O emission seen with JWST-MIRI is often hypothesized to be a tracer of this pebble drift. However, it is unclear to what extent processes such as photodissociation or the co-delivery of dust may impede such detections. We aim to obtain an improved, 2D view of transport in disks, to better understand how these processes can be traced by H$_2$O emission as seen with JWST-MIRI. We combine the 1D transport code DiscEvolution with the 2D thermochemical code DALI to create several grids of models in which the gas-phase abundances, dust properties, or both are varied according to the transport model. We consider scenarios with and without a traffic jam inside the H$_2$O snowline. The transport of both gas and dust leads to significant temperature changes within the disk, which strongly influence line fluxes and ratios. When a traffic jam is present, the delivery of H$_2$O can proceed unnoticed due to the co-delivery of dust. In addition, the relative strength of cold H$_2$O lines is not found to be sensitive to this delivery of gas-phase H$_2$O. Instead, the cold H$_2$O lines can be greatly enhanced by the delivery of only dust to the inner disk when a traffic jam is present, and one can create a spectrum with strong cold H$_2$O emission solely through the delivery of dust rather than H$_2$O. Recent work has used the 1500/6000 K H$_2$O line ratio as a proxy to determine the pebble mass flux crossing the H$_2$O snowline, but we find that this line ratio is rather sensitive to the temperature and dust distribution of the disk, and is often influenced not only by the cold H$_2$O mass, but also by the hot H$_2$O mass. This introduces complexities and trends as a function of time that do not match the true evolution of the pebble flux.
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Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Discovery of radio emission from the exoplanet $\beta$ Pictoris b

Planetary magnetic fields shape atmospheric escape, mediate interactions with stellar winds, and encode information about planetary interiors, yet they have not been directly measured for planets beyond the Solar System. A direct observable signature is auroral radio emission produced by the electron cyclotron maser instability, whose highest emitted frequency is set by the magnetic field strength at its source. Although auroral radio bursts are observed in Solar System planets and in some ultracool dwarfs, no radio detection has previously been unambiguously localized to an extrasolar planet rather than its host star. Here, we report the first direct detection of auroral radio emission from an exoplanet, the giant planet $\beta$ Pictoris b, with the MeerKAT array. We detect rapid, recurring, and highly circularly polarized bursts, as well as persistent emission, at frequencies of 0.85 to 3.5 GHz. We identify the emission as electron cyclotron maser radiation, which implies a magnetic field of $\gtrsim 1.25$ kG at the planet, the first such direct field strength measurement for an exoplanet.
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Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Multi-wavelength Constraints on Dust Dynamics and Size Evolution in Protoplanetary Disk Rings. II. Observational Implications

Spatially resolved dust rings in protoplanetary disks are widely used to infer disk and dust physics from multi-wavelength continuum observations. Their interpretation, however, often neglects grain growth and the evolution of the size distribution, limiting the connection between observed ring profiles and dust-evolution parameters. Building on a physical dust-ring model that includes coagulation and fragmentation, we develop a Bayesian inference framework that jointly incorporates radiative transfer and finite angular resolution. When applied to two rings in HD 163296 and two in LkCa 15, our framework yields gas-dependent estimates of the key dust-evolution parameters such as turbulence strength $\alpha$ and the fragmentation velocity $v_{\rm frag}$ in a self-consistent way. Most rings admit both a low-$\alpha$, low-$v_{\rm frag}$ branch with small grains, and a higher-$\alpha$, higher-$v_{\rm frag}$ branch with larger grains. Typical low-$\alpha$ branches have $\alpha\sim10^{-5}$–$10^{-4}$ and fragmentation velocities of order cm s$^{-1}$ level, whereas the higher-$\alpha$ branches reach $\alpha\sim10^{-3}$–$10^{-2}$ and fragmentation velocities of a few to $20$ m s$^{-1}$. The observed broad and wavelength-dependent profiles near the ring peaks can be reproduced by intrinsically narrow dust rings. This new framework offers a more direct route from multi-wavelength continuum data to the microphysics of dust growth and trapping—a connection that can be robustly tested with future high-resolution observations at longer wavelengths.
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All authors Linhan Yang, Ya-Ping Li, Ruobing Dong, Yinhao Wu, Hauyu Baobab Liu, Kiyoaki Doi, Anibal Sierra, Greta Guidi, Pinghui Huang