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Physics Astrophysics Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

astro-ph.EP Watch Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Tuesday 6 October

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Blinding Lights: Simulation-Based Evidence for Terrestrial Giant Impacts as Astronomically Observable Events

Lucy Taylor, Simon J. Lock, Philip J. Carter et al. (+1 more)

Giant impacts (collisions between planet-sized bodies) are violent events that fundamentally alter the properties of planets and the structure of planetary systems. Observations of these events provide important constraints on the role of giant impacts in the formation of planetary systems. However, relating such observations to the specifics of the impact responsible is challenging, since numerical simulations struggle to resolve the expected extreme low densities of observable material at the edge of ongoing impact structures. In particular, lower limits on density are often enforced in SPH codes for computational efficiency. Here, we present a method of post-processing output from smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations of giant impacts, that emulates realistic physical properties in multi-phase and multi-material collisions, in order to better understand these low-density outer regions. We apply our novel post-processing pipeline to determine the direct thermal emission and potential observational signatures of giant impacts, and obtain consistent photic surface geometries for an example impact simulated for a range of resolutions and code parameters. We find that during the first days after this terrestrial giant impact event, the emission from hot, unbound ejecta can be comparable in temperature and luminosity to that of an M-Dwarf star, and as such can be astronomically observable. Our work begins to bridge the gap between observations and theoretical models, and could allow high cadence, large-sky surveys, such as that to be carried out by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, to place constraints on the frequency and properties of giant impacts in our local neighbourhood.
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All authors Lucy Taylor, Simon J. Lock, Philip J. Carter, Zoë M. Leinhardt

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Ariel Tier 3 Observations: An Opportunity to Explore both Stellar and Planetary Variability through Broad Wavelength Time-domain Spectroscopy

Alexandra H. Thompson, Quentin Changeat, Theresa Luftinger et al. (+1 more)

Ariel's Tier 3 observing strategy offers a unique opportunity to explore planetary and stellar variability in the spectral and time domain. However, without the correct toolkit, temporal variability of the host star may complicate combined analysesof observations obtained at different epochs. We investigate the impact of stellar variability on Ariel Tier 3 observations and establish three different mitigation approaches of increasing physical complexity. Using simulated repeated observations of a favourable system contaminated by different spot and facula configurations, we compare a naive, unmodified stacking approach, separate analysis of the infrared region through progressive removal of the most strongly contaminated optical wavelengths, and the correction of individual visits using combined star-planet retrievals. We find that stacking inconsistent visits can produce substantial biases in the retrieved planetary properties under strong stellar variability, although a single activity correction can still recover the planetary parameters reasonably well. Applying progressive optical data cuts substantially improves the accuracy of retrievals up to a point, without requiring any in-retrieval correction and causing only a modest loss of precision. Correcting individual visits prior to stacking produces more consistent spectra and generally smaller uncertainties, but requires greater computational effort. These results demonstrate that stellar variability should be considered when interpreting repeated Ariel observations, but need not preclude atmospheric characterisation of active systems. A flexible suite of mitigation approaches, supported by preparatory and contemporaneous stellar monitoring, can allow the treatment of stellar variability to be adapted to individual targets while maintaining the efficiency required to maximise Ariel's scientific return.
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All authors Alexandra H. Thompson, Quentin Changeat, Theresa Luftinger, Giovanna Tinetti

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

HD 715 b, a Warm Jupiter Orbiting a Massive Subgiant Discovered from a Single TESS Transit

Alexander Venner, Robert A. Wittenmyer, Andrew Vanderburg et al. (+23 more)

Transiting Warm Jupiters orbiting bright stars are scarcely known, but a substantial number of these planets have been uncovered by the TESS mission. In this work we report the discovery and confirmation of a transiting Warm Jupiter orbiting the bright ($V$ = 8.70) subgiant star HD 715 (TOI-6893). HD 715 b was originally identified from a single transit event in TESS Sector 70. We acquired two seasons of radial velocity follow-up using the PFS, TRES, and MINERVA-Australis spectrographs, which clearly detect the planetary orbit. At $M_*=1.60\pm0.04 M_\odot$, HD 715 thus becomes one of the most massive stars known to host a transiting Warm Jupiter. From a joint fit to the TESS transit and our RVs, we find that HD 715 b has a $56.40^{+0.19}_{-0.23}$ day orbital period and measure a precise mass and radius of $0.635\pm0.056 M_J$ and $1.07\pm0.04 R_J$, rendering it a relatively typical member of the Warm Jupiter population. The moderate orbital eccentricity of $0.21^{+0.07}_{-0.08}$ contrasts with the higher eccentricities of other similar Warm Jupiters orbiting evolved stars, indicating a greater diversity in orbital eccentricities than previously known. The absence of additional transits in preceding TESS observations in Sectors 42 and 43 allows us to further refine the range of possible orbital periods to $[56.01, 56.35]$ days. Though the ephemeris uncertainty remains substantial, future photometric observations may nonetheless allow for recovery of the transit of HD 715 b.
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All authors Alexander Venner, Robert A. Wittenmyer, Andrew Vanderburg, Karen A. Collins, David W. Latham, Allyson Bieryla, Tyler R. Fairnington, Chelsea X. Huang, Timothy R. Bedding, Samuel Grunblatt, Sydney Jenkins, R. Paul Butler, Jeffrey D. Crane, Jhon Yana Galarza, Jonathan Horner, Steve B. Howell, Marc Huten, Stephen R. Kane, David Osip, Marcelo Said Tala Pinto, Samuel N. Quinn, Johanna Teske, Steve Shectman, Shreyas Vissapragada, Duncan Wright, George Zhou

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

COSMOS-3D: Spectro-photometric Confirmation of Shabgard, a Cool, Metal-poor Brown Dwarf in the COSMOS Field

Bahareh S. Salmasi, Priyanka Jalan, Tomotsugu Goto et al. (+19 more)

Brown dwarfs are unique laboratories for studying cool atmospheres, the low-mass end of star formation, and the transition between stars and giant planets. Identifying and characterizing the coldest brown dwarfs remains challenging, particularly at faint magnitudes in deep extragalactic surveys. We investigate COSMOS2025 ID639188, hereafter Shabgard, a compact source previously selected as a brown-dwarf candidate from COSMOS-Web photometry. We use serendipitous JWST/NIRCam F444W wide-field slitless spectroscopy from COSMOS-3D, combined with COSMOS2025 NIRCam photometry and multi-epoch imaging. We extract a local-background-subtracted, profile-weighted $4.05$-$4.85\mu{\rm m}$ spectrum and compare the data with six atmosphere-model families. The LOWZ atmosphere-grid fit, using PCA interpolation and MCMC sampling, gives $T_{\rm eff}=718.6^{+10.6}_{-10.2}$ K and $[{\rm M/H}]=-1.00^{+0.07}_{-0.08}$, favoring a cool, subsolar-metallicity atmosphere near the late-T/Y transition. A fixed-atmosphere molecular-opacity test strongly favors a contribution from CH$_4$ to the observed $4$-$5 \mu{\rm m}$ spectral shape, although the restricted wavelength coverage prevents a molecule-by-molecule abundance determination. Model-dependent physical estimates span approximately $23$-$52 {\rm M_{\rm Jup}}$ and $140$-$180$ pc. We measure a proper motion of $|\mu|=89.2\pm0.4$ mas yr$^{-1}$, while the LOWZ MCMC flux scaling gives a distance of $176.2^{+18.4}_{-17.8}$pc. Together, these results support the classification of Shabgard as a cool, metal-poor Galactic brown dwarf and demonstrate the ability of JWST deep-field surveys to discover and characterize faint substellar objects.
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All authors Bahareh S. Salmasi, Priyanka Jalan, Tomotsugu Goto, Tetsuya Hashimoto, Feige Wang, Tayyaba Zafar, Koki Kakiichi, Ece Kilerci, Srivardini Ayyappan, Romain A. Meyer, Anilkumar Mailvaganam, Tamal Mukherjee, Xuanyi Lyu, Imam Uzma Aalia, Arihant Raidani, Samuel Carlson, Jose Luis Carrillo Martinez, Andreas L. Faisst, Marko Shuntov, Hollis B. Akins, Zihao Li, the COSMOS-3D Collaboration

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Hubble Space Telescope Observations of Active Asteroid (101955) Bennu

David jewitt, Max Mutchler and Yoonyoung Kim

Measurements from NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft revealed (101955) Bennu as a member of the active asteroid class. These objects exhibit transient, comet-like activity, commonly producing particle trails best observed from a vantage point close to the projected orbit plane. Accordingly, we obtained deep, high resolution observations of Bennu at orbit plane crossing in 2023, using the Hubble Space Telescope. We find no evidence for ejected material, and place model-dependent limits to the mass loss of dM/dt < 0.12 kg/s from an analysis of the near-nucleus surface brightness profiles and dM/dt < 6e-3 kg/s from the absence of a measurable particle trail. These limits are one to two orders of magnitude smaller than rates of mass loss measured remotely in other active asteroids and raise the possibility that low activity in many or most asteroids might fall beneath the prevailing thresholds offered by remote observations. Taking a still smaller mass loss rate estimated from OSIRIS-REx data, we calculate a specific rate L = 1e-7 kg/km2/s and extrapolate to the entire main-belt asteroid population. We estimate a cumulative dust production rate 850/r_min**1/2 [kg/s], where r_min is the minimum asteroid radius in meters. For r_min > 1 m, this is <1% to 10% of the rate needed to sustain the Zodiacal cloud in steady state.
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Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Discovery of 2 km ultra-fast rotating asteroid in Rubin DP2 catalog via varying Fourier order method

Dmitrii E. Vavilov, Siegfried Eggl and Sarah Greenstreet

Time-resolved photometry from large surveys can yield rotation periods for huge numbers of asteroids, but only if the reliability of each period is assessed automatically, since sparse and irregular sampling produces many false periodogram minima. We present an improved method that determines asteroid rotation periods with a Fourier series whose order is chosen for each object individually. This has substantial advantages over lower order methods, especially when unique solutions for the spin period cannot be reliably determined. In such cases, the method reports the set of alternative periods together with the corresponding probability estimates. We apply the improved spin period determination method to the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory Data Preview 2 (DP2) catalog of solar system objects and determine reliable periods for a large sample of asteroids. Among them we find 66 super-fast rotators, which spin faster than the classical 2.2 h spin barrier. Two of them are remarkable: asteroids 491384 and 566130 are both larger than 2 km, yet they complete a full rotation in only about five minutes. To survive such a fast spin, they must have significant internal cohesion. At a diameter of about 2.5 km, asteroid 491384 is the largest ultra-fast rotator known so far.
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Monday 5 October

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Tracing the main belt origins of S-complex near-Earth objects: From space mission targets to meteorite sources

P. N. Simon, P. Vernazza, M. Marsset et al. (+5 more)

Context. Space missions to near-Earth objects (NEOs) provide unique opportunities to study and characterise their physical and compositional properties. Interpreting these results requires knowledge of their provenance, i.e. their source family in the main asteroid belt. Aims. We aim to identify the family sources of six S-complex NEOs visited or soon to be visited by space missions, and to investigate the size-dependent orbital behaviour of the broader S-complex NEO population using the MITHNEOS dataset. Methods. We combine near-infrared spectral fitting with ordinary chondrite (OC) analogues reddened by a space-weathering model, using reduced $\chi^2$ minimisation, and cross-validation with probabilistic dynamical maps of the main NEO source families. Results. We identify LL6-7 chondrites and the Flora family for Eros, Itokawa, Apophis, and Torifune; LL3 chondrites and the Nysa family for Toutatis; L chondrites and the Massalia family for Didymos-Dimorphos. Where in situ observations exist (Itokawa and Eros), the classifications are consistent. Applied to the broader S-complex NEO population, the spectral classification and orbital properties distributions are broadly consistent with dynamical models. Accounting for observational biases, we find that at small diameters ($\leq$100 m), the fractions of H- and L-type objects increase at the expense of LL6-7 types, with low-inclination orbits consistent with origins in the Massalia (L) and Koronis (H) families. Conclusions. Combining spectral fitting with OC analogues and dynamical probability maps robustly identifies the source families of individual NEOs. Below $D\sim$100 m, the compositional distribution of S-complex NEOs approaches that of meteorite falls, providing direct observational evidence, based on spectroscopic measurements of S-complex NEOs, of the emergence of the source regions of OC meteorites.
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All authors P. N. Simon, P. Vernazza, M. Marsset, M. Brož, R. P. Binzel, F. DeMeo, C. A. Thomas, L. Jorda

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Exploring the ultrahot Neptune LTT 9779 b with CRIRES+. Non-detection of helium transmission spectra and detection of H$_2$O on the dayside

S. Liu, F. Yan, L. Nortmann et al. (+15 more)

Ultrahot Neptunes reside in the most extreme irradiation regime of the hot Neptune desert and remain challenging targets for atmospheric characterization because of their low planet-to-star flux ratios. We present high-resolution transit and dayside thermal emission spectroscopy of the ultrahot Neptune LTT 9779 b obtained with CRIRES$^+$, to probe atmospheric escape and dayside molecular emission. No significant absorption is detected in the metastable He I $\lambda 1083$ nm triplet during transit, yielding a $3\sigma$ upper limit of 0.45% on the excess helium absorption depth and supporting previous non-detections that suggest weak ongoing atmospheric escape. For the dayside emission spectra in the $K$ band, our cross-correlation analysis reveals an $\mathrm{H_2O}$ absorption signal and a tentative $\mathrm{CO}$ feature, with the combined signal reaching a detection significance of $4.8\sigma$. Both the CRIRES$^+$ and previous JWST data favor a non-inverted temperature structure, providing no evidence of a thermal inversion on the planetary dayside. We further perform a joint atmospheric retrieval combining the CRIRES$^+$ high-resolution spectra with JWST/NIRISS SOSS secondary-eclipse observations. The joint retrieval yields a low $\mathrm{H_2O}$ abundance, while the $\mathrm{CO}$ abundance remains weakly constrained. The inferred planetary equatorial rotational velocity, $v_{\rm eq}=4.9^{+4.4}_{-3.0}~\mathrm{km\,s^{-1}}$, is consistent within $1\sigma$ with the synchronous rotation velocity expected for a tidally locked planet ($\sim2.8~\mathrm{km\,s^{-1}}$). However, the large uncertainties prevent us from placing strong constraints on the planet's rotation state. Future phase-resolved CRIRES$^+$ observations with broader orbital-phase coverage and higher signal-to-noise ratios would improve the abundance constraints and probe the atmospheric dynamics of this rare ultrahot Neptune.
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All authors S. Liu, F. Yan, L. Nortmann, B. Guo, D. Cont, F. Lesjak, D. Shulyak, A. Reiners, N. Piskunov, A. P. Hatzes, U. Seemann, A. Lavail, A. D. Rains, H. L. Ruh, L. Boldt-Christmas, M. Rengel, O. Kochukhov, T. Marquart

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Enhancing the Interpretability of Radial Velocity Analysis Using Leave-one-out Cross-validation

Matthew C. Nixon, Ritvik Basant, Rafael Luque et al. (+2 more)

Radial velocity (RV) observations are reaching increasingly high precision, enabling the targeting of low-amplitude signals. Assessing results obtained at the limits of our capabilities requires understanding the relationship between data, models and inference. Leave-one-out cross-validation (LOO-CV) has become an increasingly popular tool for interpretable model criticism in astronomical data analysis. In this work, we demonstrate how LOO-CV can provide insight into the RV analysis of exoplanetary systems through three case studies. We first investigate the anomalously high mass of HD 119130 b inferred from CARMENES RVs, later revised significantly downward after follow-up observations with other instruments. We show that this high mass was strongly driven by two individual measurements, whose removal significantly reduces the tension between data sets. Next, we use LOO-CV as a model selection tool for the GJ 4276 system. Here, LOO-CV prefers an eccentric single-planet model over a two-planet model, and identifies the orbital phases at which follow-up observations would best discriminate between them. Finally, we extend LOO-CV to models with correlated noise, applying it to the GJ 357 system, whose RVs are modeled with a Gaussian process. We find no predictive support for a fourth planetary signal that is moderately favored by the Bayesian evidence, strengthening the interpretation of a three-planet architecture previously reported in the literature. We provide practical guidance for implementing LOO-CV in RV analysis, together with an online tutorial. Such methods will become ever more important as future RV surveys push the limits of planet detection and characterization.
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All authors Matthew C. Nixon, Ritvik Basant, Rafael Luque, Luis Welbanks, Pierrot Lamontagne

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

Molecular hydrogen formation on dust: The impact of gas-dust drift on formation efficiency

Stefan Reissl, Simon C. O. Glover, Ralf S. Klessen et al. (+2 more)

Molecular hydrogen is predominantly formed on dust-grain surfaces in the interstellar medium, where relative gas-dust motion can arise in dynamically active environments. While the dependence of H$_2$ formation on grain temperature and surface properties is well studied, the impact of gas-dust drift has received little attention. We investigate how gas-dust drift modifies H$_2$ formation, focusing on the competition between the drift-enhanced H-atom collision rate and reduced sticking at higher impact energies. We use an event-driven kinetic Monte Carlo model that follows individual H atoms on spherical silicate and carbonaceous grains, including adsorption, surface migration, thermal desorption, and Langmuir-Hinshelwood (LH) and Eley-Rideal (ER) reactions. Drift is described by a shifted Maxwellian velocity distribution, and we compare constant and impact-energy-dependent sticking probabilities. Drift produces increasingly anisotropic distributions of adsorbed H and H$_2$ formation across the grain surface. Assuming constant sticking, increasing drift enhances H$_2$ formation through the higher collision rate, with efficiencies up to $\epsilon=0.3-0.4$. With energy-dependent sticking, strong drift instead suppresses formation on both materials, reducing efficiencies to $\epsilon=0.01-0.03$. Carbonaceous grains remain efficient to higher dust temperatures than silicate grains. ER reactions dominate over most of the investigated parameter space and become increasingly important at strong drift as the reduced surface population suppresses LH reactions. Thus, enhanced collision rates under gas-dust drift do not necessarily increase H$_2$ formation. Models of dynamically active environments should account for both relative gas-dust velocities and their effects on sticking.
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All authors Stefan Reissl, Simon C. O. Glover, Ralf S. Klessen, Liam S. Morrissey, Mordecai-Mark Mac Low

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Discovery of a second-generation planet candidate accreting onto a white dwarf

Jamie T. Williams, Boris T. Gänsicke, Nicholas C. Stone et al. (+10 more)

Many white dwarfs accrete the debris of disrupted planetary bodies, detected in the form of metal-enrichment in their atmospheres, dusty or gaseous circumstellar discs, and photometric transits from debris. The composition of accreted debris has been shown to be diverse yet overall closely resembles Solar System bodies. We report the discovery of a white dwarf accreting material that is unlike any Solar System object. The atmosphere of HS 0209+0832 is strongly enriched in trans-iron elements including zinc, copper, and niobium but depleted in the canonical rock-forming elements silicon and iron. The composition of the accreted object is consistent with a candidate second-generation planet, formed from the stellar material ejected during the giant phase. The key abundance signature which differentiates it from a first-generation planet is the high enrichment of s-process elements. Photospheric helium and the absence of terrestrial rock-forming elements implies the white dwarf is accreting from the escaped atmosphere of a photo-evaporating giant planet candidate. This is further supported by the detection of a sinusoidal photometric period of 4.399+/-0.026 days at an amplitude of 0.120+/-0.018 %, which we attribute to thermal emission phase variability from a planetary day-night cycle or a transiting cometary tail of an evaporating gas giant.
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All authors Jamie T. Williams, Boris T. Gänsicke, Nicholas C. Stone, Detlev Koester, Benjamin D. R. Davies, Christopher Tong, David J. Wilson, Snehalata Sahu, Andrew Swan, Thomas G. Beatty, Sergio H. Ramírez, Tim Cunningham, Knox S. Long

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Detecting multiple planets in Gaia data using Bayesian model selection

Emmanuel J. Greenfield and James E. Owen

Gaia will soon provide a census of cold giant planets. However, an astrometric signal contains the superimposed reflex motion of all companions, so planetary signals cannot be treated individually. We therefore investigate Gaia's planet-detection capabilities for 1-planet and 2-planet systems, with special attention to systems near 2:1 mean-motion resonance. Gaia can detect 2-planet systems, although the lower-S/N planet requires a higher S/N threshold, especially when the outer planet is more massive and near 2:1 commensurability. When fitting a 1-planet model to a circular 2-planet resonant system, the resulting fit shows biases in eccentricity (up to e = 0.8), mass (up to 100%), and inclination (up to 50 deg). The bias is maximised when the planets' astrometric signatures are similar, since the combined orbital signal deviates most from a single Keplerian orbit. Many of these systems can be identified as having 2 planets using Bayesian model selection. Still, in some cases the second planet is hidden and undetectable due to its S/N, leading to these biases for the outer planet's orbital parameters. When the outer planet is roughly over three times as massive as the inner planet, orbital approximations allow us to recover the astrometric resoeccentric degeneracy from the bias. When the planets are in dynamical resonance, apsidal precession observed over a long enough baseline (e.g. DR5) can contribute to breaking the degeneracy at short orbital periods. Overall, these biases might significantly affect constraints on planet formation, migration, and evolution models from Gaia population-wide demographics.
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Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

First Direct Identification of a Multi-Star Microlens System Hosting a Planet

Sean K. Terry, David P. Bennett, Jean-Philippe Beaulieu et al. (+11 more)

Nearly 25 years have passed since gravitational microlensing delivered its first exoplanet discoveries. The relative proper motion between lens and source systems allows them to be resolved as they separate on the sky over many years. This enables scientists to study light coming directly from the lenses and place tight constraints on the physical properties of these planetary systems. In this paper we present an analysis of high angular resolution images of the microlensing target OGLE-2006-BLG-284 using Keck adaptive optics and HST data taken more than 15 years after the event. We clearly detect the lens system and measure its motion across the Keck and HST epochs. We measure a lens-source relative proper motion of $5.80 \pm 0.15$ mas yr$^{-1}$. A combination of the light curve parameters and the host star(s) brightnesses in $V,\, I$, and $K$ passbands gives primary and secondary host star masses of $M_{\rm 1} = 0.43 \pm 0.05\,M_{\odot}$ and $M_{\rm 2} = 0.12 \pm 0.02\,M_{\odot}$, and a planetary companion mass of $m_p = 165^{+40}_{-33}\,M_{\oplus}$. Although we are unable to determine if the planet orbits one or both stars in the system, our analysis motivates next-generation high-precision RV measurements that can distinguish these two possibilities. This is the first direct detection of flux coming from a two-star microlensing system which hosts a planet.
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All authors Sean K. Terry, David P. Bennett, Jean-Philippe Beaulieu, T. Dex Bhadra, Aparna Bhattacharya, Joshua W. Blackman, Ian A. Bond, Andrew A. Cole, Przemek Mróz, Kansuke Nunota, Clément Ranc, Natalia E. Rektsini, Daisuke Suzuki, Aikaterini Vandorou

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

Production of White Dwarf Debris Disks from Planetary Collisions and Poynting-Robertson Drag

Fred C. Adams and Konstantin Batygin

This paper explores the production of debris disks around white dwarfs, which are observed to experience frequent pollution events. In this scenario, planetary collisions occur just outside the surface of a highly evolved AGB star, after the end of its mass loss phase, as it starts its transition into a white dwarf. The collisions vaporize a fraction of the planetary material, which subsequently expands, cools, nucleates droplets, and condenses into rocky bodies with characteristic size of order $s\sim1$ cm. The rocky debris disk evolves through the action of Poynting-Robertson drag, driven by the stellar luminosity, which is initially large but steadily decreases with time. This scenario provides an alternate channel for delivering rocky material to the immediate vicinity of a white dwarf.
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Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Dynamics around non-spherical symmetric bodies - III. The case of a spherical body with a crater

P. V. S. Soares, G. Madeira, S. M. Giuliatti Winter et al. (+2 more)

Motivated by the peculiar features of the trans-Neptunian object (TNO) Máni and the discovery of ring systems around Centaurs and trans-Neptunian bodies, we investigate the stability of particles around a small irregular body hosting a deep equatorial crater. This study is the third contribution in a sequence devoted to the dynamics around non-spherically symmetric bodies. Using Máni as a reference model, whose crater depth exceeds 10% of its radius, we map the system stability through complementary methods: Poincaré surfaces of section (PSS), survival maps, and the finite-time Lyapunov exponent (FTLE). In the nominal case, the $1\!:\!1$, $2\!:\!1$, $3\!:\!1$, and $4\!:\!1$ spin-orbit resonances (SORs) are consistently identified by all techniques. The prominent $3\!:\!1$ SOR exhibits a bifurcated structure at high eccentricities, matching structural transitions observed at lower Jacobi constant values in the PSSs. Increasing the rotation rate ($\lambda$) and crater mass ratio ($\mu$) enlarges resonance widths and promotes overlap, making the $2\!:\!1$ and $4\!:\!1$ SORs progressively dominant. Lower rotation rates allow stable trajectories to persist at higher eccentricities, whereas the $1\!:\!1$ SOR is highly sensitive to stronger perturbations and disappears in the most extreme cases. In contrast to mass-anomaly models, which can clear the region interior to the $2\!:\!1$ SOR, the crater configuration considered here preserves stable regions in this vicinity, suggesting alternative scenarios for the formation and maintenance of debris structures around irregular minor bodies.
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All authors P. V. S. Soares, G. Madeira, S. M. Giuliatti Winter, T. Ribeiro, O. C. Winter

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Shadows cast by precessing annuli as evidence for an inclined planet in HD 139614

Katie L. Milsom, Tim J. Harries, Evan A. Rich et al. (+3 more)

We analyse scattered-light images at multiple epochs of the protoplanetary disc HD139614 taken with GPI and SPHERE instruments. We show that the azimuthal distribution of the surface brightness of the inner bright ring ($13-21$au) varies with time (likely caused by a structure in the inner-disc at $\sim1$au) and constrain the timescale of this variation to be $<11$months. We show that inner arc ($31-44$au) is likely a spiral and tightly wound, measuring a pitch angle of $6.1\pm1.2^\circ$. Additionally, we construct a physical model to explain the broad shadow across $\sim2/3$ of the outer disc and the azimuthally asymmetric bright ring (which has a shadow not aligned with the broad shadow). We model the disc using 1D warp equations with a fast radiative transfer code to produce scattered-light images. We setup the disc as three annuli separated by gaps with an inclined perturbing planet between the inner two annuli. The planet causes the inner annuli to tilt and precess independently casting broad shadows across the outer (un-tilted) annulus. These shadows combine to produce a shadow across $\sim2/3$ of the outer disc and an asymmetric bright ring which matches the observations of HD139614. The precession of the annuli is periodic (so the model matches the observations multiple times) with long precession time-scales ($8.4\times10^3$ and $7.2\times10^4$years for the inner and middle annulus respectively) so the shadows are effectively static over accessible observational time-scales.
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All authors Katie L. Milsom, Tim J. Harries, Evan A. Rich, John D. Monnier, Anna S. E. Laws, Benjamin R. Setterholm

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Cross-listed from eess.SY

Fast and Stable Nonlinear Emulation of TIEGCM Using an Autoregressive SINDy Framework

Daniele Sicoli, Sriram Narayanan and Piyush M. Mehta

The ever-growing number of satellites and resident space objects in low Earth orbit keeps increasing the risk of collision between these objects. To mitigate this risk, the development of new space situational awareness tools and a new generation of probabilistic emulators of the thermosphere is increasingly felt by the community of operators and scientists. We previously built a Reduced Order Probabilistic Emulator based on 3 steps: dimensionality reduction, dynamic modeling, and uncertainty quantification. Here we further develop the dynamic modeling side within ROPE using a class of stable and autoregressive nonlinear models inspired by SINDy, a framework for the identification of the nonlinear dynamics. We use this framework, which we call SINDy-AR, to emulate the thermospheric density simulated by TIEGCM. This is also the first time a SINDy-AR framework is applied to such a high dimensional system as the thermospheric emulation because of its complexity. The dynamical emulators are selected on stability and accuracy criteria, so that they can be relied on in operations and space situational awareness applications. Building surrogate models with SINDy-AR can show dynamical differences between the learned emulations. The state-dependent structure of the TIEGCM emulation shows compatibility with the presence of terdiurnal, 27-day linked to solar rotation, semiannual, and annual tidal waves. The execution speedup of the whole SINDy-AR pipeline with respect to TIEGCM 2.0 is about 90,000 times, which makes the new framework capable of being deployed on board a satellite given the low computational constraints it would be subjected to.
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Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Spins and shapes of asteroids reconstructed from photometry from surveys

Josef Ďurech and Josef Hanuš

Modern asteroid surveys routinely acquire sparse photometric measurements for hundreds of thousands of asteroids. These data can be exploited to reconstruct asteroid spin states and shapes, providing statistical constraints on the rotational evolution of different dynamical populations.Our goal is to derive spin-state and shape models from publicly available survey photometry and use the enlarged sample to investigate the distributions of asteroid physical properties across the Solar System. We combined sparse photometry from Catalina, Mt. Lemmon, Pan-STARRS, ZTF, USNO, ATLAS, ASAS-SN, TESS, and Gaia and applied convex light-curve inversion to determine sidereal rotation periods, spin-axis orientations, convex shapes, phase-function parameters, and colors. The extensive parameter-space search was performed using the distributed-computing project Asteroids@home.We derived approximately 30000 asteroid models, including about 22000 unique spin-state solutions and almost 10000 partial pole solutions, tripling the number of available asteroid models. The enlarged sample confirms the dependence of the rotation-period distribution on taxonomic class, reveals a pronounced lack of elongated asteroids near the spin barrier, and shows that slow rotators exhibit systematically larger photometric residuals, supporting the interpretation that many are in non-principal-axis rotation. We derived spin-state distributions for 47 near-Earth asteroids, 247 Jupiter Trojans, and 157 Hildas. The expanded Trojan sample no longer shows a statistically significant excess of prograde rotators. The combination of modern survey photometry and large-scale light-curve inversion enables population studies based on tens of thousands of asteroid models. The resulting database provides improved constraints on the rotational evolution of asteroids
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Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Giant impacts preferentially remove low-mass atmospheres: a generalised scaling law for impact-driven atmospheric loss

Matthew J. Roche, Simon J. Lock, Philip J. Carter et al. (+1 more)

Impact-driven atmospheric loss plays a key role in shaping the diversity of planetary atmospheres. However, existing prescriptions for calculating loss from a given impact neglect the critical role of atmospheric mass on loss, and thus often severely miscalculate the extent of loss. Using 3D smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations, we quantify atmospheric loss during giant impacts onto planets with 1-20% mass fraction atmospheres and show that less massive (lower-pressure) atmospheres are significantly easier to remove. We derive a new scaling law for atmospheric loss that includes the effects of atmospheric mass and is applicable to collisions between volatile-poor planetary embryos through to super-Earths and sub-Neptunes. Applying our scaling law to $N$-body simulations of solar system formation, we show that including the coupling between atmospheric mass and loss efficiency results in significantly more atmosphere removal. Substantial atmospheric loss events are common for smaller planets ($\lesssim$0.6 M$_{\oplus}$), whilst even roughly Earth mass bodies lose 30-100% of their atmospheres through multiple impacts. We also show that atmospheric loss during the Moon-forming impact strongly depends on both the pre-impact atmospheric mass and impact style. For a representative $\sim$100 bar pre-impact atmosphere, Earth could have lost between 20-80% of its atmosphere. In any system that undergoes a phase of giant impacts, the atmospheres of its host planets will be unavoidably shaped by the stochasticity of impacts. Our new scaling law can be readily incorporated into models of planet formation and system-wide evolution, offering new insights into the origins of planetary diversity.
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All authors Matthew J. Roche, Simon J. Lock, Philip J. Carter, Zoë M. Leinhardt

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

SPIRou near-infrared spectropolarimetry of the ultra-hot Jupiter KELT-9b: tentative detection of the planet magnetic field

Alexis Lavail, Florian Debras, David Rogé Royo et al. (+23 more)

Exoplanetary magnetic fields govern atmospheric escape and circulation but have eluded detection in close-in planets. In the ultra-hot Jupiter KELT-9b, atmospheric dynamo is predicted to generate atmospheric fields of 400–4000 G. We search for the circular polarization in atomic lines that a magnetic field would imprint, through the Zeeman effect, on the transmission spectrum of KELT-9b. We observed three transits with SPIRou at the CFHT, on 07 September 2025 and 03 and 06 July 2026, and applied least squares deconvolution to 1398 atomic lines to map the transit-averaged Stokes $V$ and null spectra against orbital semi-amplitude $K_{\rm p}$ and systemic velocity $v_{\rm sys}$. The 2025 transit shows a Stokes $V$ signature of $V/I_c = 9.3 \times 10^{-5}$ at $K_{\rm p} = 219 \pm 11$ km s$^{-1}$, $v = -34.0 \pm 1.2$ km s$^{-1}$, close to the expected planetary velocity. Its false-alarm probability is $1.9 \times 10^{-4}$, formally a marginal detection. Both 2026 transits are of comparable sensitivity but neither exhibits a signal at that location, setting $3\sigma$ limits of $4.9$ and $6.0 \times 10^{-5}$; the 2025 amplitude would have been recovered at $4.9\sigma$ and $4.0\sigma$. The 2025 signature is robust to the tests we applied to it, but qualifies as a marginal detection at best. Spurious signals of comparable strengths occur elsewhere in our Stokes $V$ and null maps, and we cannot exclude that our marginal detection is excess noise. It is not reproduced ten months later.
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All authors Alexis Lavail, Florian Debras, David Rogé Royo, Arturo López Ariste, Nicholas W. Borsato, Jean-François Donati, Pascal Petit, Julian D. Alvarado Gómez, Laurène Jouve, Claire Moutou, Andres Carmona, Baptiste Klein, Julia V. Seidel, Luc Arnold, Etienne Artigau, Clément Baruteau, Estelle Chabrol, Ryan Cloutier, Neil J. Cook, Nicolas B. Cowan, Xavier Delfosse, Neda Heidari, Eder Martioli, Adrien Masson, Joost P. Wardenier, Vincent Yariv

Sunday 4 October

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

What Caused the Orbital Decay of the Twin Van Allen Probes to Diverge?

Ayisha M Ashruf, Ankush Bhaskar, C Vineeth et al. (+1 more)

The Van Allen Probes were launched into nearly identical orbits and experienced the same solar and geomagnetic environment, yet their post-mission lifetimes diverged dramatically. Probe A underwent rapidly accelerating orbital decay and reentered the atmosphere in March 2026, while Probe B remains in orbit. We investigate the cause of this divergence using reconstructed orbital trajectories, modeled thermospheric densities, and measures of low-altitude residence and atmospheric drag. We find that small differences in orbital evolution progressively increased Probe A residence time in the lower thermosphere, where the steep density gradient made additional low-altitude exposure increasingly important. Enhanced thermospheric density during periods of geomagnetic activity further amplified this difference, leading to greater drag and accelerating orbital decay of Probe A. Our results show how small differences in orbital evolution can be amplified through the coupled effects of thermospheric drag and space weather, producing substantially different orbital lifetimes even for twin spacecraft sharing nearly identical initial orbits.
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All authors Ayisha M Ashruf, Ankush Bhaskar, C Vineeth, Tarun Kumar Pant

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

Astronomia Ova: Kepler's Laws, Ptolemy's Equant, and Legendre's Polynomials

Cristopher Moore, Malcolm Smith and Stephan Mertens

Motivated by Kepler's long battle with the orbit of Mars, we present a family of orbits that satisfy his second law, conserving angular momentum around a central mass, and also fulfill Ptolemy's belief in an equant — a point around which the angular speed is constant. For specific values of the angular momentum, these orbits can be written in terms of Legendre polynomials and functions of the second kind. They are analytic except at perihelion where they are twice differentiable. They resemble the "ovoid" (egg-shaped) or "metopoid" (face-shaped) orbits that Kepler considered on his way to the ellipse.
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Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Irradiated Atmospheres VII. Effect of Mixing Energy Flux on Atmosphere-Interior Coupling

Wei Zhong, Zhen-Tai Zhang, Mei Ting Mak et al. (+5 more)

Highly irradiated, underdense rocky planets such as puffy Venuses may host strong coupling between their atmospheres and magma-ocean interiors. Previous studies have mainly treated this coupling through radiative transfer and chemical equilibrium, leaving the role of vertical mixing unclear. Here we quantify how energy transport associated with vertical mixing modifies the thermal structure, volatile chemistry, and emission spectra of puffy Venuses. Atmospheric circulation and gravity-wave breaking are possible dynamical sources of such transport. We show that this energy transport provides an additional greenhouse-like heating pathway by warming the deep atmosphere, thereby increasing the pressure and temperature at the magma-ocean surface. The resulting thermal changes also reshape the atmospheric composition, especially the abundances of \ce{CO} and \ce{H2O}, and change the partitioning of C-, H-, and O-bearing volatiles between the atmosphere and the magma ocean. Moreover, these changes reshape the mid-infrared planet–star flux ratio, especially at low equilibrium temperatures and in higher-mass planets. Under high C/O, it slightly increases the flux near $3.5$–$4.0\,\mu$m, but more broadly reduces atmospheric transparency and suppresses the flux. This may affect radius estimates for puffy Venuses over a limited temperature range.
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All authors Wei Zhong, Zhen-Tai Zhang, Mei Ting Mak, Xiang-Xing Chen, Bo Ma, Xian-Yu Tan, Cong Yu, Dong-dong Ni

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Candidate O I 7774 Å\ Absorption from an Escaping Rock-Vapor Outflow of BD+05 4868 Ab

Kody M. Walker and James C. Wallace II

Disintegrating rocky planets provide a rare opportunity to probe material escaping directly from intensely irradiated planetary surfaces. We present time-resolved, low-resolution ($R\simeq600$) optical spectroscopy and complementary ground-based photometry of BD+05 4868 Ab. The in-transit spectra exhibit an additional unresolved absorption feature near the O I triplet at 7771.94, 7774.17, and 7775.39 Angstroms relative to the out-of-transit baseline. The feature has an equivalent width of $W_\lambda\simeq1.4\pm0.2$ Angstroms, a maximum differential depth of approximately 9%, and an apparent width of 13-16 Angstroms, comparable to the instrumental resolution. We interpret the feature as candidate O I absorption from an oxygen-bearing mineral-vapor outflow. The $3s\,{}^5S^\circ_2$ lower level of the triplet lies 9.146 eV above the ground state and cannot be appreciably populated in LTE at the reported planetary temperature, requiring non-LTE excitation. A one-zone forward model in which photoionization, O$^+$ recombination, radiative cascade, and radiative trapping populate the excited state reproduces the measured equivalent width and instrumentally broadened line profile. The model favors an atomic component with a projected extent larger than the narrow condensed-dust layer and permits gas-to-dust mass-loss ratios of order a few for representative ionizing irradiation. Stellar O I line-profile variations remain the principal alternative at the present spectral resolution. We therefore identify escaping O I as the preferred physical interpretation while retaining the designation candidate O I. High-resolution, phase-resolved spectroscopy can directly test this interpretation by resolving the individual triplet components.
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Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Spectral Energy Distribution and Polarimetric Properties of Dust in the Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS

Seungwon Choi, Masateru Ishiguro, Hiroyuki Naito et al. (+13 more)

The interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS exhibits unusual polarimetric properties compared with Solar System comets, while constraints on its fundamental physical properties, such as dust albedo and grain-size distribution, remain limited. We obtained new optical polarimetry near opposition with the Pirka Telescope, combined it with previously reported polarimetric measurements, and constructed a visible-to-mid-infrared spectral energy distribution (SED) from HST, VLT, SPHEREx, and JWST observations. The SED indicates that the coma is dominated by dark, absorbing dust, with an effective V-band albedo of $p_{\rm eff}\sim0.04$. Modeling the SED with a power-law grain-size distribution yields a size index of $q=3.0$–$3.3$. The mid-infrared spectral structure is better reproduced by adding a minor amorphous-silicate component. The combined polarimetric data further favor a highly porous scattering structure. Despite its unusual polarimetric behavior, the dust of 3I/ATLAS has an albedo and grain-size distribution within the range found for Solar System comets.
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All authors Seungwon Choi, Masateru Ishiguro, Hiroyuki Naito, Yoonsoo P. Bach, Jooyeon Geem, Bumhoo Lim, Moonkuk Hur, Sihu Ahn, Sunho Jin, Hisayuki Kubota, Seiko Takagi, Tatsuharu Ono, Max Mahlke, Carey Lisse, Tomohiko Sekiguchi, Makoto Watanabe

Saturday 3 October

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

Xenia: A Table-Driven Code for Astrophysical Multi-Fluid Hydrodynamics

Lei Xing

Models of escaping planetary atmospheres require neutral and ion species with distinct velocities and thermal pressures, coupled by photoionization, recombination, radiation, and collisions. Implementing and extending such coupled models is often hindered when species definitions and stiff interactions are embedded in solver-specific kernels. We present Xenia, a table-driven code for astrophysical multi-fluid hydrodynamics designed to lower this barrier. Species, coupling channels, chemistry, heating and cooling, and radiation channels are declared in Python, compiled to symbolic tapes, and passed through a versioned interface to shared C/Kokkos kernels; changing a problem therefore changes data rather than kernel code. For ionized configurations, electrons provide a pressure-only quasi-neutral closure: electron density follows from ion populations, electron mass and momentum are not advanced, and only electron pressure is transported. Stiff coupling is treated by operator splitting into a radial radiation scan, hyperbolic transport, and a cell-local implicit source solve. The same symbolic tapes yield an analytic finite-difference-free Jacobian for a direct dense LU solve. The public v0.1 release is validated with acoustic convergence, dustybox drag relaxation, conservation and closure contracts, two-fluid cloud-shock coupling, curvilinear geometry bookkeeping, three escape chains, and 394 passing tests. Conservation and positivity are not claimed to match mature production codes; radiation uses a radial Beer-Lambert prefix product rather than a general solver; escape chains are reproducibility checks rather than new science predictions; and backend evidence is limited to functional deployment and equivalence fingerprints. Xenia is released under GPLv2 at https://github.com/YFG-tec/xenia.
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Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Stellar magnetic activity and rocky planets in cool dwarf stars

A. K. Stefanov

Exoplanetary astronomy has entered its Golden Age, with humanity having found over 6000 exoplanets to date. The majority of these discoveries have been achieved through transit-photometry and radial-velocity (RV) techniques. While transit surveys lead in discovery numbers, the RV method persists as a vital and indispensable technique in exoplanetary science, particularly in the most prevalent stellar population – M dwarfs. Their low masses make them the theoretical favourites for RV detections, since exoplanet signals are stronger over the same period, and are therefore easier to detect and measure accurately. Nevertheless, the stellar activity M dwarfs exhibit introduces significant challenges, particularly when seeking RV semi-amplitudes to the order of 1 m$\,$s$^{-1}$, or lower. Stellar activity is known to mimic or suppress planetary signals, and its effects manifest across all time scales: from short-lived signals due to convective motion (lasting minutes to days), through active regions on the stellar surface (days to months), to long-term magnetic cycles (years to decades). These issues highlight the urgent need for robust methodologies that are capable of reliably disentangling stellar variability from genuine planetary signals. This doctoral dissertation explores these challenges through the application of Gaussian-process (GP) modelling. I present three distinct but interconnected publications that integrate high-precision spectroscopy and photometry with a unified GP-based approach in two cases, and that enable robust disentanglement of planetary signals from stellar activity. Together, these three studies illustrate how observations of different origin can be combined with appropriate statistical machinery for the sake of detecting exoplanets, with the possibility of interpreting stellar activity.
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Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

How dust particles orbiting white dwarfs can reveal undetected co-orbiting exoplanets II. Exoplanets on elliptic orbits

Kyriaki I. Antoniadou and Dimitri Veras

Abridged. We aim to extend Paper I to the eccentric secondary orbit case and now analyse the elliptic restricted three-body problem (ERTBP). Our secondary masses include Ceres, Mercury, Earth, and Neptune so that we can help infer the presence of both large asteroids and planets through our analysis. We study dust particles on both planar (2D-ERTBP) and non-coplanar (3D-ERTBP) orbits. We computed families of 1/1 resonant symmetric and asymmetric periodic orbits in the 2D-ERTBP and 3D-ERTBP. Doing so produces novel results in their own right and diagnostic tools for precise guidance for our next steps. Based on them, we generated detailed phase portraits. Finally, we run suitably seeded $N$-body simulations to compare with the periodic orbits, and to provide observational links with debris close to WDs. New families of asymmetric periodic orbits, called $E^A_{41}$, $E^A_{42}$, and $E^A_{43}$ in the high-eccentricity 2D-ERTBP regime were discovered. They are generated by the new bifurcation point, $B_T^4$, along the new $A_2$ family, showcased in Paper I. Moreover, new isolated families of asymmetric periodic orbits, namely $E^A_{44}$, $E^A_{45}$, and $E^A_{46}$ were discovered. Families of short- and long- period asymmetric orbits starting from $L_4$, called $E^A_S$ and $E^A_L$, were also computed. In both the 2D- and 3D-ERTBP regimes, highly eccentric motion is exhibited for the dust particles in the majority of the families of either symmetric or asymmetric periodic orbits. The $N$-body simulations reveal that over ten years, the orbital period deviations of the dust are higher than in the circular restricted three-body problem (Paper I); in some architectures, Mercury-mass planets can regularly generate deviations exceeding $\sim$100 s, which potentially aids observational inferences of hidden asteroids or planets orbiting WDs.
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Friday 2 October

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Closing the Gap: A Test of the Streaming Instability Using Simulations and Observations of the Cold-Classical Kuiper Belt Size Distribution

Weston Hall, Jacob B. Simon, Jeonghoon Lim et al. (+2 more)

How planetesimals form is a major open question in studies of planet formation, as the growth of smaller solids must overcome barriers such as radial drift, fragmentation, and bouncing. The leading model is that planetesimals form by the gravitational collapse of dense particle clumps that have been aerodynamically collected via a process known as the streaming instability (SI). While the SI has passed several observational tests, a critical test remains: a successful comparison with the size distribution of Solar System planetesimals. In this work, we conducted a series of SI simulations for a range of input parameters and combine a more careful accounting of initial planetesimal mass with more advanced statistical techniques compared to previous studies in order to compare the simulation outcomes against observations of the most primordial population in the solar system: the Cold Classical Kuiper Belt (CCKB). Using both cumulative distribution function (CDF) model parameters and distribution comparison methods like the Kolomogorov-Smirnov test, we show that, when planetesimal masses are measured at formation and analyzed with modern statistical methods, the SI-predicted size distributions can quantitatively reproduce the high-mass end of the observed CCKB size distribution, though the extent of the agreement depends on the physical parameters chosen, providing further support for the SI theory of planetesimal formation.
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All authors Weston Hall, Jacob B. Simon, Jeonghoon Lim, Daniel Carrera, Matthew Small

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

AEGIS: Differentiable Mars Climate Model with Neural Closures

Sameera S Kashyap, Victor Cruz, Angel Yepez et al. (+1 more)

General circulation models (GCMs) are the primary tool for simulating planetary atmospheres. They play a vital role in understanding Mars's atmosphere, as forecasting its unique weather is mission-critical for operations such as entry, descent, and landing. Mars poses unusual challenges for these models, as observations are sparse compared to Earth. In addition, a thin \co{} atmosphere alongside a radiatively active dust cycle creates a volatile atmosphere with large diurnal temperature swings and no true terrestrial analog for validation. Existing Mars GCMs, including the LMD PCM, the NASA Ames Mars GCM, and PlanetWRF, are mature and physically detailed but are implemented in legacy Fortran with finite-difference or finite-volume solvers, and they do not expose gradients for calibration or machine learning. Here we present AEGIS, a modular differentiable Mars climate model that couples Mars's unique atmospheric physics to the Dinosaur dynamical core, with interfaces for neural closures. We showcase stable ten-Mars-year simulations that reproduce the seasonal \co{} cycle while conserving the total \co{} inventory, capture realistic large-scale surface-temperature structure, and produce surface pressure that follows Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) topography. Gradients through coupled trajectories agree with finite differences and support physical calibration and neural training. We compare with conventional GCMs, highlighting the framework's computational efficiency and differentiability.
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All authors Sameera S Kashyap, Victor Cruz, Angel Yepez, Razvan Marinescu