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Physics Astrophysics High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

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High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Cross-listed from hep-ph

Transient PULSE: Code for the Transient Propagation of UltraLight (pseudo)Scalars to Earth

Jason Arakawa, Charles Cheung, Muhammad Hani Zaheer et al. (+2 more)

We present Transient PULSE, a software package that numerically implements a previously developed source-to-detector framework for transient ultralight bosonic signals from astrophysical bursts. Predicting these signals relies on connecting the source emission spectrum to its evolution during propagation and the resulting observables at a terrestrial detector. The package discretizes a user supplied energy spectrum into momentum modes, propagates them through a specified matter density profile and constructs the time-frequency energy density distribution at Earth, accounting for dispersion and in-medium screening effects. This treatment accommodates non-Gaussian source spectra and provides inputs for detector specific analyses. A complementary analytical module estimates coupling sensitivities, arrival time delays and screening thresholds from parameterized source and detector properties.
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All authors Jason Arakawa, Charles Cheung, Muhammad Hani Zaheer, Volodymyr Takhistov, Marianna Safronova

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

GRB 181201A: Spectropolarimetric Constraints on Prompt Emission and Magnetic Field Structure

Dhruv S. Bal, Nikita S. Khatiya, Philippe Laurent et al. (+3 more)

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have served as testbeds for high-energy astrophysical phenomena since their discovery over 50 years ago. GRB detections reveal diverse properties across events, complicating efforts to constrain their emission mechanisms, magnetic fields, jet structures, and compositions. Spectropolarimetry is a powerful tool utilized to disentangle these properties. INTEGRAL/IBIS has previously detected three polarized GRBs 041219A ($65\pm 26$%), 061122 ($>$33%) and 140206A ($>$28%). We present the time-integrated and time-resolved analyses of the fourth-polarized GRB 181201A. This GRB exhibits high polarization ($81.5^{+17.2}_{-15.7}$%) over three time bins with the highest signal-to-noise ratio, and the polarization angle (PA) shows a modest temporal evolution. The photon index does not cross the synchrotron line-of-death and shows a hard-to-soft evolution. A high degree of polarization (PD) tends to disfavor a photospheric emission model, as previous studies indicate that this model yields PD $<$ 20%. A modest evolution in the PA points towards a non-axisymmetric jet with a multi-patch emission. Our results indicate that under standard synchrotron conditions, the magnetic field is coherent but lacks global structure. Moreover, the field has multiple patches, but only one or a few dominate due to high degrees of polarization, which overlap with the intrinsic maximum of synchrotron emission within 3$\sigma$ errors. The high PD is also indicative of the Compton Drag scenario, but only under certain conditions, such as viewing the relativistic jet near its edge. However, given our error bars and the scope for improvement in our pipeline, we cannot strongly favor either scenario; both may remain viable.
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All authors Dhruv S. Bal, Nikita S. Khatiya, Philippe Laurent, Diego Götz, Dieter H. Hartmann, Ramandeep Gill

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Can bosenovae deplete the galactic dark matter?

Samuel Gómez Gómez and Joshua Eby

No: neither through the bosenovae of gravitational atoms formed around stars and compact objects, nor through those of boson stars formed in the galactic dark-matter halo. We assume that all the dark matter consists of ultralight bosons with attractive self-interactions, which can be captured in the gravitational potential of astrophysical objects or condense into self-gravitating configurations. When these systems collapse in a bosenova, part of their mass is turned into relativistic radiation that escapes the galaxy. We bound the mass that a single object can eject and sum it over realistic models of the Milky Way and of other types of galaxies. For gravitational atoms, with realistic stellar populations and stellar evolution, the stars of the Milky Way deplete at most $\epsilon^{\rm GA}_\star\simeq3\times10^{-9}$ of its halo, and the pump is equally negligible in other galaxies. The central black hole, Sgr A$^*$, could reach $\epsilon^{\rm GA}\sim10^{-3}$, but only for a boson mass disfavoured by ultrafaint dwarf galaxies and beyond the validity of the perturbative treatment, where only a geometric bound on the dark matter flux is available. For boson stars feeding on the rest of the halo, these would radiate at most $\sim3\times10^{-5}$ of the Milky-Way halo and $0.1\%$ of a DF2-like one.
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High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

A Parsec-Scale Transient High-Frequency-Peaked Radio Source in the Very Large Array Sky Survey Brightening and Fading over a Decadal Timescale

Yuyang Chen, B. M. Gaensler, Maria R. Drout et al. (+10 more)

A subset of active galactic nuclei (AGN) manifests as compact radio sources with peaked radio spectra, commonly referred to as peaked-spectrum (PS) sources. Generally, PS sources are interpreted as young radio jets, but the early evolution of the jet is rarely observed and not fully understood. Here, we present VT J182357-234511 (VT J1823-2345), a radio transient in the Very Large Array Sky Survey (VLASS) that resembles a PS source. Notable properties of VT J1823-2345 include: (i) brightening by a factor of 3 between 1996 and 2021 at 1.4 GHz, (ii) peaked spectra with high frequency peaks at $\nu_{\mathrm{p,obs}}\gtrsim6\,\mathrm{GHz}$, (iii) a peaked 3 GHz light curve that has been fading since 2023, (iv) a resolved Gaussian (major-axis) size of 0.4 mas in 2024, and (v) a linear polarization fraction $p_{\mathrm{L}}\simeq0.73\%$ at 8.8 GHz with an extreme Faraday rotation measure $\mathrm{RM_{\mathrm{obs}}} \sim +12,000\,\mathrm{rad}\,\mathrm{m}^{-2}$. On the sky, VT J1823-2345 coincides with a supernova remnant and an F-type star, but no background galaxy is seen. Based on the multi-wavelength properties, we disfavor Galactic transients, explosive extragalactic transients, and blazar variability as plausible explanations. We argue that VT J1823-2345 is consistent with a "short-lived" parsec-scale PS source with a decades-old jet that does not grow into a large-scale radio galaxy. From comparing the full VLASS light curves, we speculate that VT J1823-2345 is similar to many VLASS nuclear transients reported in the literature, which may represent an emerging class of transient radio jets, perhaps related to episodic AGN activity or jetted tidal disruption events.
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All authors Yuyang Chen, B. M. Gaensler, Maria R. Drout, Dillon Z. Dong, Emmanuel Momjian, Tracy Clarke, Wendy Peters, Emil Polisensky, Ariel D. Amaral, Katie Auchettl, Ylva Götberg, Kovi Rose, Peter Senchyna

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

LHAASO Constraints on New-Source Cosmic Rays:Abundance Scenarios and Injection Spectral Indices

Xu-Lin Dong, Pei-Pei Zhang, Qi-Ling Chen et al. (+2 more)

Recent LHAASO observations indicate that microquasars and massive star clusters contribute to Galactic cosmic rays, and likely also to the pre-knee spectral hardening. Their markedly different astrophysical environments, compared with supernova remnants (SNRs), may imprint distinct cosmic-ray abundances. We investigate the spectra and composition of new-source cosmic rays under two abundance scenarios: Case-1, the SNR-like composition with enhanced heavy nuclei, and Case-2, the surface abundances of microquasar companion stars. We constrain injection spectral indices using LHAASO proton, helium, and all-particle spectra, and use their <lnA> data for model discrimination. Under the assumption of a unified heavy-element injection spectrum, Case-2 fits the <lnA> data significantly better than Case-1, but at the cost of large, physically unmotivated differences between heavy-element and He injection indices. This suggests the need to either relax the unified heavy-element injection-index assumption or explore alternative abundance patterns. We predict that if the new-source composition follows Case-1, the individual elemental spectral indices before the knee should remain nearly consistent; if it follows Case-2, the Mg, Si, and Fe spectra will be significantly softer than those of He, C, and O. Future element-resolved energy-spectrum measurements by HERD and LHAASO will provide a decisive test of this discriminating feature.
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All authors Xu-Lin Dong, Pei-Pei Zhang, Qi-Ling Chen, Shu-Wang Cu, Yi-Qing Guo

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Rotochemical heating of neutron stars in 2D

Mikhail V. Beznogov, Jerome Novak, Dany Page et al. (+1 more)

The matter inside a spinning-down neutron star (NS) undergoes a slow compression that may drive it out of chemical equilibrium and, consequently, trigger non-equilibrium nuclear reactions that can heat up the star. This phenomenon is called rotochemical heating, and it is relatively well-investigated in the literature. Historically, it has been studied almost exclusively via 1D spherically symmetric models. However, rapidly rotating NSs are not spherically symmetric. We present pioneering simulations of rotochemical heating in full General Relativity in 2D axially symmetric models without relying on the slow rotation approximation. We explicitly follow thermal, mechanical, and chemical evolution of rotating NSs as they spin down taking into account both radial and angular distributions of temperature, composition, and mechanical structure. The simplest model is employed: only nucleonic composition, only the non-equilibrium modified Urca process as the main heating/cooling mechanism, and no superfluidity. We analyze the impact of the magnetic field strength as well as the effects of the heat blanketing envelope, initial rotation frequency, NS mass, and core EOS. Most of our conclusions coincide with the results of previous works on this topic, with one important exception. We have found a strong dependence of the cooling curves during the rotochemical heating phases on the core EOS, whereas in the literature it was regarded as very weak. The most likely explanation for this discrepancy is that the authors of the previous works have not considered EOSs with wide enough range of variation of the symmetry energy as a function of density.
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All authors Mikhail V. Beznogov, Jerome Novak, Dany Page, Adriana R. Raduta

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Cross-listed from gr-qc

Biases in Ringdown Tests of General Relativity from Gravitational-Wave Microlensing

Sreelakshmi Mundakkal Dasan, Anuj Mishra and Apratim Ganguly

Gravitational-wave (GW) ringdown signals provide a powerful probe of the strong-field regime of general relativity (GR) through black hole spectroscopy and tests of the Kerr hypothesis. However, unmodeled propagation effects can bias the inference of remnant properties and the interpretation of ringdown features. We investigate the impact of gravitational lensing on ringdown inference and tests of GR using GW150914-like simulated signals spanning the long-wavelength, wave-optics, and geometric-optics regimes. We perform complementary time-domain post-merger and frequency-domain full inspiral–merger–ringdown analyses using unlensed waveform models. We find that lensing in the wave-optics regime can produce substantial biases in the inferred remnant mass and spin and can strongly affect the inferred modal content of the ringdown. In particular, it can spuriously favor the presence of the first overtone, with $\log_{10}\mathcal{B}^{221}_{220}\sim40$, even though the injected signal has no support for it. Parameterized ringdown tests can likewise yield strong apparent support for deviations from the Kerr quasinormal mode (QNM) spectrum, with $\log_{10}\mathcal{B}^{\rm modGR}_{\rm GR}\sim8$. In contrast, the evidence for higher-order modes remains largely unchanged for the simulated signals considered here. The parameterized analysis using the entire signal further shows that microlensing can bias the inferred frequency of the dominant $(2,2,0)$ QNM. These results demonstrate that unmodeled microlensing can produce systematic biases and spurious signatures in ringdown analyses, potentially affecting precision tests of the Kerr hypothesis.
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High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Search for High-Energy Neutrinos from Infrared Flares

R. Abbasi, M. Ackermann, J. Adams et al. (+415 more)

IceCube has detected a diffuse flux of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos. While its astrophysical origin is unknown, a significant neutrino emission has been observed from the gamma-ray blazar TXS 0506+056 and the Seyfert galaxy NGC 1068. This suggests accretion by supermassive black holes as one of the candidate mechanisms of the diffuse neutrino flux. Indeed, external studies that made use of IceCube data identified candidate sources, including AT2019dsg, likely a stellar tidal disruption event (TDE), and AT2019fdr, associated with an active galactic nucleus (AGN). An additional study using an optically detected sample of 63 accretion flares revealed another candidate as a potential high-energy neutrino counterpart: AT2019aalc. All of these candidate transients exhibit strong dust echoes, characterized by delayed infrared (IR) emission relative to the initial optical outburst. We look for correlations between the most comprehensive catalog of infrared flares and 10 years of IceCube archival data. We perform a time-dependent stacking analysis testing 393 sources in the Northern Sky against 10 years of through-going tracks. No significant neutrino emission is observed, and we derive upper limits to constrain neutrino emission from this catalog. These limits are subsequently extrapolated to a population-level study. We find that the contribution of IR flares to the IceCube diffuse neutrino flux at 100 TeV is below 2.7% for a spectral index of 2.5.
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All authors R. Abbasi, M. Ackermann, J. Adams, J. A. Aguilar, M. Ahlers, J.M. Alameddine, S. Ali, N. M. Amin, K. Andeen, C. Argüelles, S. Athanasiadou, S. N. Axani, R. Babu, X. Bai, A. Balagopal V., S. W. Barwick, V. Basu, R. Bay, J. J. Beatty, J. Becker Tjus, J. Beise, C. Bellenghi, S. Benkel, S. BenZvi, D. Berley, E. Bernardini, D. Z. Besson, E. Blaufuss, L. Bloom, S. Blot, F. Bontempo, J. Y. Book Motzkin, C. Boscolo Meneguolo, S. Böser, O. Botner, J. Braun, B. Brinson, Z. Brisson-Tsavoussis, L. Brusa, R. T. Burley, D. Butterfield, K. Carloni, J. Carpio, N. Chau, Y. C. Chen, Z. Chen, D. Chirkin, S. Choi, A. Chubarov, B. A. Clark, D. A. Coloma Borja, A. Connolly, J. M. Conrad, D. F. Cowen, C. De Clercq, J. J. DeLaunay, D. Delgado, T. Delmeulle, S. Deng, P. Desiati, K. D. de Vries, G. de Wasseige, T. DeYoung, J. C. Díaz-Vélez, S. DiKerby, T. Ding, M. Dittmer, A. Domi, L. Draper, L. Dueser, D. Durnford, K. Dutta, M. A. DuVernois, T. Ehrhardt, L. Eidenschink, A. Eimer, C. Eldridge, P. Eller, E. Ellinger, D. Elsässer, R. Engel, H. Erpenbeck, W. Esmail, S. Eulig, J. Evans, P. A. Evenson, K. L. Fan, K. Fang, K. Farrag, A. Fattorini, A. R. Fazely, A. Fedynitch, N. Feigl, C. Finley, D. Fox, A. Franckowiak, S. Fukami, P. Fürst, J. Gallagher, A. Garcia, M. Garcia, E. Genton, L. Gerhardt, A. Ghadimi, C. Glaser, T. Glüsenkamp, J. G. Gonzalez, S. Goswami, A. Granados, D. Grant, S. J. Gray, S. Griffin, S. Griswold, K. M. Groth, D. Guevel, C. Günther, P. Gutjahr, C. Ha, A. Hallgren, F. Halzen, M. Handt, K. Hanson, J. Hardin, A. A. Harnisch, P. Hatch, A. Haungs, J. Häußler, K. Helbing, J. Hellrung, B. Henke, L. Hennig, F. Henningsen, L. Heuermann, R. Hewett, N. Heyer, S. Hickford, A. Hidvegi, C. Hill, G. C. Hill, R. Hmaid, K. D. Hoffman, A. Hollnagel, D. Hooper, S. Hori, K. Hoshina, M. Hostert, W. Hou, M. Hrywniak, T. Huber, K. Hultqvist, K. Hymon, A. Ishihara, W. Iwakiri, M. Jacquart, S. Jain, O. Janik, M. Jansson, M. Jin, N. Kamp, D. Kang, W. Kang, A. Kappes, L. Kardum, T. Karg, A. Karle, A. Katil, M. Kauer, J. L. Kelley, B. Kern, M. Khanal, A. Khatee Zathul, A. Kheirandish, T. Kim, H. Kimku, F. Kirchner, J. Kiryluk, C. Klein, S. R. Klein, Y. Kobayashi, S. Koch, A. Kochocki, R. Koirala, H. Kolanoski, T. Kontrimas, L. Köpke, C. Kopper, D. J. Koskinen, P. Koundal, M. Kowalski, A. Kravka, N. Krieger, T. Krishnan, K. Kruiswijk, E. Krupczak, E. Kun, N. Kurahashi, C. Lagunas Gualda, L. Lallement Arnaud, M. J. Larson, F. Lauber, J. P. Lazar, K. Leonard DeHolton, A. Leszczyńska, C. Li, J. Liao, C. Lin, Q. R. Liu, Y. T. Liu, M. Liubarska, C. Love, L. Lu, F. Lucarelli, W. Luszczak, Y. Lyu, M. Macdonald, F. Machingal, E. Magnus, Y. Makino, E. Manao, S. Mancina, A. Mand, I. C. Mariş, S. Marka, Z. Marka, I. Martinez-Soler, R. Maruyama, J. Mauro, F. Mayhew, F. McNally, K. Meagher, A. Medina, M. Meier, Y. Merckx, L. Merten, J. M. Mitchell, S. Mondal, T. Montaruli, R. W. Moore, Y. Morii, A. Mosbrugger, D. Mousadi, E. Moyaux, T. Mukherjee, M. Nakos, U. Naumann, R. Neshat, L. Neste, M. Neumann, M. U. Nisa, K. Noda, A. Noell, A. Novikov, A. Obertacke, V. O'Dell, A. Olivas, R. Orsoe, J. Osborn, E. O'Sullivan, B. Owens, V. Palusova, H. Pandya, A. Parenti, C. Parisel, N. Park, V. Parrish, E. N. Paudel, L. Paul, C. Pérez de los Heros, T. Pernice, T. C. Petersen, J. Peterson, S. Pick, M. Plum, A. Pontén, V. Poojyam, B. Pries, R. Procter-Murphy, G. T. Przybylski, L. Pyras, C. Raab, J. Rack-Helleis, N. Rad, M. Ravn, K. Rawlins, Z. Rechav, A. Rehman, R. Reimann, I. Reistroffer, E. Resconi, C. D. Rho, W. Rhode, L. Ricca, B. Riedel, A. Rifaie, E. J. Roberts, S. Rodan, M. Rongen, A. Rosted, C. Rott, T. Ruhe, L. Ruohan, D. Ryckbosch, J. Saffer, D. Salazar-Gallegos, P. Sampathkumar, A. Sandrock, G. Sanger-Johnson, M. Santander, S. Sarkar, M. Scarnera, M. Schaufel, H. Schieler, S. Schindler, L. Schlickmann, B. Schlüter, F. Schlüter, N. Schmeisser, T. Schmidt, F. Schmitt, A. Scholz, F. G. Schröder, S. Schwirn, S. Sclafani, D. Seckel, L. Seen, M. Seikh, S. Seunarine, P. A. Sevle Myhr, R. Shah, S. Shah, A. Sharma, S. Shefali, N. Shimizu, M. Shin, R. Singh, B. Skrzypek, R. Snihur, J. Soedingrekso, D. Soldin, P. Soldin, G. Sommani, D. Song, C. Spannfellner, G. M. Spiczak, C. Spiering, J. Stachurska, M. Stamatikos, T. Stanev, T. Stezelberger, T. Stürwald, T. Stuttard, G. W. Sullivan, I. Taboada, S. Ter-Antonyan, A. Terliuk, A. Thakuri, P. Thelen, M. Thiesmeyer, W. G. Thompson, J. Thwaites, W. Tian, S. Tilav, K. Tollefson, J. A. Torres, S. Toscano, D. Tosi, K. Upshaw, A. Vaidyanathan, N. Valtonen-Mattila, J. Valverde, J. Vandenbroucke, T. Van Eeden, N. van Eijndhoven, L. Van Rootselaar, J. van Santen, J. Vara, F. Varsi, M. Velazquez, M. Venugopal, M. Vereecken, S. Vergara Carrasco, S. Verpoest, A. Vijai, J. Villarreal, C. Walck, A. Wang, E. H. S. Warrick, C. Weaver, P. Weigel, A. Weindl, J. Weldert, A. Y. Wen, C. Wendt, J. Werthebach, M. Weyrauch, N. Whitehorn, C. H. Wiebusch, D. R. Williams, L. Witthaus, J. Woodward, G. Wrede, X. W. Xu, J. P. Yanez, Y. Yao, E. Yildizci, S. Yoshida, F. Yu, S. Yu, T. Yuan, S. Yun-Cárcamo, A. Zander Jurowitzki, A. Zegarelli, S. Zhang, Z. Zhang, P. Zhelnin, P. Zilberman, C. Zilleruelo Cañas, M. Zimmermann

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Optical constraints on intranight variability in TeV HBLs from a two-year Asiago Schmidt monitoring campaign

Domenico Impiombato, Giacomo Bonnoli, Elisa Prandini et al. (+2 more)

We present a two-year homogeneous optical monitoring campaign of three TeV-emitting high-synchrotron-peaked BL Lac objects, 1ES 1959+650, H 1426+428, and PG 1553+113, carried out with the Asiago Schmidt 67/92 cm telescope. TeV blazars are key targets in high-energy astrophysics, relevant for relativistic jet physics, particle acceleration, multiwavelength variability studies, and, in selected cases, multimessenger programmes. In this context, dense optical monitoring provides a low-energy synchrotron tracer of jet activity over temporal baselines that are difficult to cover continuously with high-energy facilities. The dataset consists of more than 17,000 R- and I-band photometric measurements obtained over 957 source-filter observing sessions between 2024 February 1 and 2026 January 31, for a total monitoring time of about 420 h. We applied a uniform differential-photometry and classical F-test framework based on two independent comparison-star pairs. Robust IDV is detected only in H 1426+428, with 15 out of 43 analysed sessions classified as variable in the R band and 5 out of 40 in the I band. No significant IDV is detected in 1ES 1959+650 or PG 1553+113 within the adopted statistical framework. For H 1426+428, the corresponding duration-weighted duty cycles, computed using only variable sessions with a measured local characteristic timescale, are 28.0% in the R band and 7.0% in the I band. The inferred local extrapolated doubling/halving timescales are of the order of 5-15 min in the observer frame. These results indicate that rapid optical synchrotron variability in TeV HBLs is intermittent and state-dependent. They also show that robotic small- and medium-aperture optical facilities can provide valuable long-term support for high-energy monitoring programmes by supplying dense, uniform, and repeatable optical coverage.
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All authors Domenico Impiombato, Giacomo Bonnoli, Elisa Prandini, Luca Zampieri, Irene Albanese

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Cross-listed from astro-ph.SR

Flares and flux ropes: an entangled story

Rony Keppens, Yang Guo and Wenzhi Ruan

Solar flares serve as standard candles for all magnetic-reconnection-based energy releases, and their consequences into the heliosphere can be modeled from first principles. This review presents the latest developments in modeling solar flares and their associated flux rope expulsions with state-of-the-art multidimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) descriptions. Observationally established ingredients beyond a single-fluid, thermal plasma evolution have been incorporated to varying degrees, and we highlight self-consistent efforts realized in "standard flare" setups.
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High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Cross-listed from gr-qc

Testing Charged Black Holes Embedded in Anisotropic Matter and Surrounded by Plasma through Gravitational Lensing: Bounds from the Sloan Lens ACS Survey

Ritesh Pandey, Shubham Kala, Amare Abebe et al. (+2 more)

We investigate weak gravitational lensing by a charged black hole surrounded by anisotropic matter, described by the two-component Kiselev metric, and immersed in a homogeneous plasma. We first examine the black hole geometry and horizon structure and then derive the weak-deflection angle from the Hamiltonian description of light propagation in plasma, using an expansion with a fixed turning point that we verify against direct numerical integration. Using the gravitational lens equation, we obtain the Einstein-ring angle, the image positions, the total magnification and the fractional magnifications of the primary and secondary images. We then confront the model with the Einstein radii of two galaxy-scale lenses of the Sloan Lens ACS Survey, J0008$-$0004 and J0029$-$0055. Because the Einstein angle cannot be smaller than the reduced deficit deflection, the observed radii give the mass-independent bounds $K<6.5\times10^{-6}$ and $K<4.2\times10^{-6}$, respectively. The charge correction to the Einstein radius is suppressed by $r_s/R_E\approx 5\times10^{-6}$ and is unobservable, while the plasma parameter at the optical wavelengths of the SLACS imaging is of order $10^{-22}$ and cannot be constrained. Our results show that galaxy-scale strong lensing data place stringent limits on anisotropic matter surrounding the lens, whereas plasma effects can be probed only at low radio frequencies.
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All authors Ritesh Pandey, Shubham Kala, Amare Abebe, Hemwati Nandan, G. G. L. Nashed

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Cross-listed from astro-ph.SR

Stationary Resistive MHD Solutions Near an Isolated Three-Dimensional Magnetic Null

Kuljeet Singh Saddal, Dieter H. Nickeler, Rodrigo Meneses Pacheco et al. (+1 more)

Magnetic null points define the magnetic field topology in stellar coronae, planetary magnetospheres, and astrospheres, and are commonly associated with magnetic reconnection. We investigate the local structure of stationary three-dimensional (3D) resistive, incompressible magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) flows in the vicinity of an isolated magnetic null and an isolated velocity stagnation point, assuming that the two nulls are colocated. The governing MHD equations are solved self-consistently using a first-order local expansion of the magnetic and velocity fields about the null. For any given magnetic-null configuration, the equations admit a two-parameter family of stationary solutions, comprising multiple solution branches with distinct velocity topologies. Along these families, the velocity-null polarity can change at bifurcation points where the flow becomes effectively 2.5D. A single magnetic null can therefore support positive-radial, negative-radial, and spiral stagnation flows, with qualitatively different inflow, outflow, and rotational properties. The associated pressure and resistivity distributions are likewise determined self-consistently and vary across the solution family, demonstrating that they are coupled to the flow topology rather than prescribed independently. The generic solutions do not require the velocity and magnetic separatrices to coincide, allowing plasma to cross the magnetic fan separatrix and providing a local reconnective flow. These results demonstrate that, in the presence of nonuniform resistivity, the magnetic topology alone does not uniquely determine the associated stationary flow, pressure, or resistivity structure around a 3D magnetic null, revealing the nonlinear feedback between all macroscopic variables and resistivity. The constant-resistivity field-aligned and spiral field-crossing solutions identified previously are recovered as special cases.
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All authors Kuljeet Singh Saddal, Dieter H. Nickeler, Rodrigo Meneses Pacheco, Michaela Kraus

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Black Hole Binary Mergers in Galactic Nuclei: Combined Effects of Secular Dynamics and Stellar Flybys

Hao Wang, Bin Liu and Johan Samsing

Galactic nuclei, with the central supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and surrounding dense star clusters, serve as natural laboratories for studying gravitational dynamics in extreme gravitational environments. In this work, we model the long term evolution of black hole binaries (BHBs) in these environments by incorporating the tidal influence of the central SMBH, the potential of the nuclear star cluster, SMBH induced relativistic precession, and stochastic perturbations from stellar flybys. Our numerical simulations show that the long term evolution of BHBs is predominantly governed by the SMBH-driven ZLK mechanism. However, once stellar flybys are included, they can modify both the binary angular momentum and energy. The cumulative effect of repeated flyby encounters substantially reshapes the long term dynamical evolution, eventually leading systems toward either merger or disruption. Based on a population synthesis study, we find that this combined secular and non-secular channel produces a merger rate of approximately $\mathcal{R}\simeq16\mathrm{Gpc^{-3}yr^{-1}}$, which is significantly higher than the rates predicted by dynamical channels that neglect stellar flybys. Furthermore, we predict that a non-negligible fraction of merging systems would retain detectable eccentricities at low frequencies around 5 Hz, thus providing a distinctive observational signature for next generation ground based GW detectors. Our results demonstrate that the stochastic perturbations from the surrounding environment are essential for modeling BHB evolution in galactic nuclei, and that this channel may contribute a major fraction of observed mergers.
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High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Linear Polarization of Synchrotron Radiation from Very-small-pitch-angle Electrons

Meng Nie and Jirong Mao

For synchrotron radiation with pitch angle $\alpha \ll 1/\gamma$ where $\gamma$ is the electron Lorentz factor, referred to as very-small-pitch-angle synchrotron radiation, the polarization properties differ significantly from those of conventional synchrotron radiation ($\alpha \gg 1/\gamma$). In this work, we investigate the linear polarization characteristics of very-small-pitch-angle synchrotron radiation from relativistic thermal and nonthermal electrons. We calculate the linear polarization by applying power-law and Maxwellian electron energy distributions. Moreover, some synchrotron sources exhibit a hybrid distribution of nonthermal and thermal electrons, and we also calculate the polarization degree for a hybrid electron energy distribution. The calculations are performed in the radio, optical, X-ray, and $\gamma$-ray bands. Our results show that the linear polarization degree of very-small-pitch-angle synchrotron radiation is generally lower than that of conventional synchrotron radiation. Very-small-pitch-angle synchrotron radiation from both nonthermal and thermal electrons can produce significant linear polarization. However, the polarization exhibits diverse behaviors across different physical parameters. The general scenario provided in this work can be considered for the application to all kinds of synchrotron sources, as we suggest that the very-small-pitch-angle case is crucial for the study of synchrotron polarization.
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High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Constraint on particle mass of dark matter based on XTE J1814-338 observation and DANS model

Lin Wang and Dehua Wen

The small observed radius of neutron star XTE J1814-338 (with mass of $1.21_{-0.05}^{+0.05}$ $M_{\odot}$ and radius of $7_{-0.4}^{+0.4}$ $\rm{km}$) poses a great challenge to the traditional neutron star model composed of normal nuclear matter. The dark matter admixed neutron star (DANS) model provides a clue to solve this challenge. By employing the self-interacting fermionic dark matter model, we investigate the effects of dark matter parameters including the particle mass, self-interaction strength, and mass fraction of dark matter on the properties of DANSs. Our results indicate that the joint constraints from the observation of XTE J1814-338 and the astrophysical limits on the dark matter self-interaction cross section derived from observations of different colliding galaxy clusters can provide effective constraints on the particle mass of dark matter. Specifically, to simultaneously satisfy the small radius of XTE J1814-338 and the self-interaction limit, the particle mass of self-interacting fermionic dark matter is constrained to the range from sub-GeV to a few GeV.
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High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Correlation of galactic very-high-energy gamma-ray sources detected by LHAASO with high-energy neutrinos

Long-Yu Zhang and Kai Wang

We conducted an investigation into the possible correlation between very-high-energy (VHE, $E>$ 0.1 TeV) gamma-ray sources, as identified by the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO), and high-energy neutrino events captured by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. For this analysis, we utilized the First LHAASO catalog, which comprises 90 VHE gamma-ray sources, and the IceCube Event Catalog of Alert Tracks (IceCat-1), which includes 348 track-like neutrino events. Through Monte Carlo simulations, we assessed the correlations between the neutrino events and LHAASO sources, achieving the best p-values of 0.237, 0.312, and 0.115, respectively, for all LHAASO sources, KM2A sources, and WCDA sources. These findings imply that the spatial coincidence between LHAASO sources and neutrino alerts is relatively weak. Furthermore, under the assumption that gamma-rays are exclusively generated through hadronic interactions, we estimated the most optimistic theoretical neutrino fluxes from LHAASO sources and compared them with the IceCube observed fluxes. The results indicate that the majority of these sources are improbable counterparts to the detected neutrinos. In conclusion, LHAASO sources could be potential galactic neutrino emitters but currently do not exhibit compelling evidence, thereby underscoring the necessity for elevated sensitivity levels in forthcoming detection instruments like IceCube-Gen2.
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High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

A possible evolutionary connection between high-mass X-ray binary pulsars and isolated rotation-powered pulsars

Jun Yang

We investigate the long-term spin evolution of high-mass X-ray binary (HMXB) pulsars in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) using archival measurements of spin periods and period derivatives from XMM-Newton, Chandra, and RXTE. In the P-|dP/dt| plane, the HMXB pulsars follow an approximately linear relation in log-log space with a slope of 1.02 +/- 0.11, similar to the trend shown by the youngest isolated rotation-powered pulsars (RPPs; e.g., Manchester et al., 2005; Lorimer and Kramer, 2005). For comparison, young RPPs from the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue give slopes that depend strongly on the characteristic-age cut: 1.10 +/- 0.16 for characteristic ages below 10,000 years and 0.72 +/- 0.08 for characteristic ages below 100,000 years. The full non-recycled population shows no significant correlation. The HMXB pulsars lie in the same characteristic-age range (approximately 1,000-10,000 years) as the youngest RPPs, but at spin periods two to three orders of magnitude longer. Reference characteristic-age contours in the HMXB P-|dP/dt| plane are roughly parallel to this relation, consistent with a continuous evolutionary sequence.
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High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Cross-listed from hep-ph

Radion/Dilaton portal freeze-in dark matter in extra-dimensional theories

Amrita Mukherjee, George Sanamyan and Dipan Sengupta

We perform a comprehensive analysis of a radion/dilaton portal freeze-in dark matter in models of stabilized warped extra-dimensions. We show that the relic abundance of a generic dark matter particle (scalars, vectors, or fermions) is obtained via the conformal coupling of the radial mode in a consistent model stabilized warped extra- dimensions; our calculations show that in scenarios where the reheating temperature is much smaller than the radion mass, keV-TeV scale dark matter particles can saturate the relic density. We perform a comprehensive analysis of a radion/dilaton portal freeze-in dark matter in models of stabilized warped extra-dimensions. We show that the relic abundance of a generic dark matter particle (scalars, vectors, or fermions) is obtained via the conformal coupling of the radial mode in a consistent model stabilized warped extra- dimensions; our calculations show that in scenarios where the reheating temperature is much smaller than the radion mass, keV-TeV scale dark matter particles can saturate the relic density. Furthermore, we show that the model is subject to Lyman-alpha constraints in the keV-GeV range, providing a unique, model-independent probe of this sector. Our calculations extend previous attempts to calculate the freeze-in relic abundance in extra-dimensional portals by providing a consistent theoretical calculation of matrix elements, clearly laying out the underlying motivation and assumptions and providing a comprehensive account of the cosmological constraints on the model.
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High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Search for Sub-Solar Mass Binaries in the First and Second Part of LIGO's Fourth Observing Run O4a-O4b

Keisi Kacanja, Kanchan Soni and Alexander H. Nitz

The observation of sub-solar mass neutron stars and black holes would signify a new class of astrophysical objects since these systems are not expected to form via standard stellar evolution. We present the first sub-solar mass search for binaries consisting of neutron star or black holes that uses the data from both the second part (O4b) and first part (O4a) of the fourth observing run of the Advanced LIGO detectors. The search covers primary masses 0.1 to 2 $M_\odot$ and secondary masses 0.1 to 1 $M_\odot$. Tidal effects up to $7\times10^5$ are accounted for in extremely low-mass neutron stars. No statistically significant candidates are identified. We place a $90\%$ confidence upper limit on the merger rate $\mathcal{R}_{90}$ for sub-solar mass black holes and neutron stars to be $< 5.2\times10^{2}\,\textrm{Gpc}^{-3}\,\textrm{yr}^{-1}$ for a chirp mass of 0.5 $M_\odot$, a factor $2.2 \times$ lower compared to previous O1-O4a searches. We constrain the effective local dark matter fraction to be $\tilde{f}_\textrm{PBH}<0.6\%$ for $M_{\textrm{PBH}}=0.8 \,M_\odot$, approximately $1.5$ factor improvement to previous O1-O4a constraints. Given our model assumptions, our local dark matter fraction constraints are $2-7$ times lower than the OGLE microlensing survey for $M_{\textrm{PBH}}\ge{0.6}~M_\odot$.
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Tuesday 13 October · still arriving

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Cross-listed from astro-ph.GA

Deep X-ray View of a Distant Protocluster Anchored by a Quasar at $z=6.63$: No Evidence for Enhanced X-ray AGN Activity

Shouyi Wang, Feige Wang, Jinyi Yang et al. (+22 more)

Whether dense environments accelerate SMBH growth during cosmic reionization remains uncertain because X-ray constraints on $z>6$ protoclusters are rare. We analyze $\sim865$ ks of Chandra observations of J0910-0414 quasar field, a massive protocluster at $z=6.63$. We construct a catalog of 251 X-ray sources and search for AGN among 21 spectroscopically confirmed members, excluding the central quasar. This is the first systematic X-ray AGN census in a $z>6$ protocluster; none of the members is individually detected. Stacking all members ($\sim17$ Ms total exposure) yields no significant signal and limits the average rest-frame 2-10 keV luminosity to $\langle L_{\rm 2-10~keV}\rangle\leq9.54\times10^{42}~\rm erg~s^{-1}$. The null result gives a central 90% Jeffreys upper bound of $f_{\rm AGN}<0.09$. After accounting for the spatially varying sensitivity, the field Compton-thin X-ray luminosity function predicts $N_{\rm exp,field}=0.0356$ AGN in the surveyed volume. Assuming the overdensity profile of AGNs in this protocluster is the same as that of galaxies determined by Wang et al. (2024), the expected AGN count becomes $N_{\rm exp}=0.131$. Zero detections then imply a one-sided 90% upper limit of $\eta_{\rm rel}<17.5$ on any additional X-ray AGN enhancement beyond that associated with the galaxy overdensity. Although $\eta_{\rm rel}<17.5$ permits more than an order-of-magnitude enhancement, the data show no significant excess of X-ray-detectable AGN in J0910-0414 protocluster. The present X-ray data may miss heavily obscured, intrinsically X-ray-weak, or intermittently accreting SMBHs; the non-detection therefore does not rule out AGNs among the member galaxies.
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All authors Shouyi Wang, Feige Wang, Jinyi Yang, Bin Luo, Xiangyu Jin, Fan Zou, Jaclyn B. Champagne, Xiaohui Fan, Elaina Malczewski, Fabio Vito, Xue-Bing Wu, Eduardo Bañados, Fuyan Bian, Thomas Connor, Tiago Costa, Anna-Christina Eilers, Emanuele Paolo Farina, Joseph F. Hennawi, Hyunsung D. Jun, Jiang-Tao Li, Chiara Mazzucchelli, Klaudia Protušová, Fabian Walter, Zhibo Yu, Minghao Yue

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Cross-listed from astro-ph.SR

A Distinct Type of Standstill in Ultra-Compact White Dwarf Binaries

Jan Kára, Liliana Rivera Sandoval, Iwona Kotko et al. (+3 more)

AM CVn stars are ultra-compact, semi-detached binaries consisting of a white dwarf primary and a hydrogen-poor secondary. In this work, we analyse the AM CVn-type systems MGAB-V270, ZTF18aaxuusk and ASASSN-19ct, which have similar properties and show unusual post-superoutburst behaviour. We focus on the occurrence of standstill-like phases. In MGAB-V270, superoutbursts are followed by a series of echo outbursts that evolves into a standstill-like phase before the system returns to quiescence. ZTF18aaxuus shows similar post-superoutburst activity, with one echo-outburst series also developing into a standstill-like phase. ASASSN-19ct exhibits comparable echo outbursts but no standstill-like phases. Periodicity analysis using TESS data shows that superhumps can persist during both echo outbursts and standstill-like phases. Although standstills have previously been observed in AM CVn stars, the standstill-like phases we observe appear to represent a distinct phenomenon associated with post-superoutburst activity. We compare our results to other AM CVns that may exhibit similar behaviour.
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All authors Jan Kára, Liliana Rivera Sandoval, Iwona Kotko, Jean-Marie Hameury, Luis E. Salazar Manzano, Ryan J. Oelkers

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Cross-listed from gr-qc

The WDM time-frequency transform in gravitational-wave data analysis II: Evolutionary spectrum and noise covariance

Aaron D. Johnson, Katerina Chatziioannou and Robert Rosati

Noise cannot be treated as stationary over the timescales required for upcoming gravitational-wave detectors, minutes for ground-based and months for space-based detectors. Nonstationarity leads to a non-diagonal frequency-domain noise covariance matrix, thus motivating a shift to the time-frequency domain. We introduce evolutionary power spectra for describing nonstationary noise in the Wilson-Daubechies-Meyer time-frequency basis. Under the framework of oscillatory processes, we show that, to leading order in the ratio of the Meyer filter and the nonstationarity timescales, the evolutionary spectrum is a power-frequency distribution that can be estimated from a single noise realization. We derive the corresponding noise covariance matrix and show that it is band tri-diagonal, like its stationary counterpart. The exact covariance to all orders is positive semi-definite by construction and dense depending on the noise. We further derive the optimal tiling of the time-frequency plane that minimizes the error of a diagonal covariance approximation and show that coarse-graining the plane suppresses correlations quadratically. Using simulated data with a LISA Galactic foreground and a drifting powerlaw spectrum, we show that the stationarity approximation leads to signal-to-noise ratio loss and severely biases inference. For realistic LISA data, approximating the covariance as diagonal in the Wilson-Daubechies-Meyer domain is accurate for the narrow-band analysis of a single resolved Galactic binary, but insufficient for a broad-band analysis. Finally, we provide mitigation strategies for the wraparound correlations induced across the data time edges whenever the spectrum differs between the start and the end of the data.
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High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Cross-listed from gr-qc

Black Hole Fine Structure

Adrian Ka-Wai Chung, Richard Dyer, Tomasz Kinowski et al. (+1 more)

In General Relativity, axial and polar black-hole perturbations share identical quasinormal-mode spectra, a property known as isospectrality. New physics can break this degeneracy, producing a spectral splitting analogous to atomic fine structure. We perform a theory-agnostic search for such splitting in gravitational-wave observations. We find no evidence for isospectrality breaking and place a combined $90\%$ upper limit of $<28.5\%$ on the relative frequency splitting. We map these constraints onto several modified-gravity theories, constraining the coupling-lengths to be $\lesssim 28\,\mathrm{km}$.
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All authors Adrian Ka-Wai Chung, Richard Dyer, Tomasz Kinowski, Christopher J. Moore

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Cross-listed from gr-qc

Strong-Field Gravitational-Wave Lensing from Ray-Traced Arrival-Time Surfaces

Luka Vujeva, João S. Santos and Brian C. Seymour

The diffraction integral formalism has been greatly successful in describing gravitational wave lensing effects in scenarios where the wavelength of the signal is comparable to the characteristic length scale of the lens, known as the wave optics regime. However, the assumptions required to construct its integrand break down as the source approaches the strong gravity region of a black hole lens. In particular, we are interested in the lensed signal from a binary (the source) near a massive black hole (the lens). We present a new formalism for obtaining low frequency corrections to sources being lensed in the strong field regime of gravity by leveraging the fact that null geodesics obey the Hamilton–Jacobi equations. In doing so, we are able to construct a time delay surface without relying on the thin lens approximation, and solve the diffraction integral for the resulting surface directly. For a stationary source at $10M$, deep in the strong field regime, when comparing the results with a relativistic wave scattering model, we find $6.5\%$ and $0.3\%$ agreement in the peak amplification and first diffractive fringe, respectively. Furthermore, we find a $< 1\%$ agreement with the amplitude of the point mass lens with a source at $10^4 M$ in the weak field, but noticeable dephasing between the peaks of the amplification function at higher frequencies. This work allows for clean interpolation between otherwise separate regimes, valid for sources from $\sim 6M \to \infty$. It provides a transparent, physically motivated framework for computing beyond-geometric optics lensing effects in the strong field regime.
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High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Cross-listed from gr-qc

Spinformation: do gravitational-wave events carry information beyond effective spins?

Cailin Plunkett, Jack Heinzel, Noah E. Wolfe et al. (+2 more)

While the spin vectors of binary black holes offer insight into the astrophysical formation channels of these systems, individual spins are less precisely measured through gravitational-wave observations than the effective inspiral spin $\chi_\mathrm{eff}$ and the effective precession spin $\chi_\mathrm{p}$. Reducing to effective parameters discards information in the data, but how much information is lost has yet to be demonstrated. Here we show how to quantify whether individual mergers carry information about component spins beyond the constraints implied by effective parameters (a.k.a. spinformation) and apply the technique to GWTC-5. Thresholding on information loss $\gtrsim 0.25$ bits, over $80\%$ of gravitational-wave events in GWTC-5 have component spin posteriors described by $\chi_\mathrm{eff}$ alone. Only $\sim3\%$ of gravitational-wave events have substantial spin information not explained by $\chi_\mathrm{eff}$ and $\chi_\mathrm{p}$. The catalog's component spin information is effectively two-dimensional in $\chi_\mathrm{eff}$ and $\chi_\mathrm{p}$. Using simulated signals, we find the noise realization can create or destroy over a bit of beyond-$\chi_\mathrm{eff}$ information: the structure in real data may therefore be driven by noise. At current sensitivity, component spins provide interpretive\textemdash rather than informational\textemdash advantage over effective parameters.
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All authors Cailin Plunkett, Jack Heinzel, Noah E. Wolfe, Davide Gerosa, Salvatore Vitale

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

The Second Catalog of Low-Energy Fermi-LAT Sources

The Fermi-LAT Collaboration

We used 14 years of Fermi-Large Area Telescope (LAT) data to derive a catalog of sources detected between 20 MeV and 200 MeV. For each source we provide localization, spectral, and association information. The Second Catalog of Low-Energy Fermi-LAT sources (2FLE) contains 450 sources detected at $TS>25$, with median energy flux of $F_{20-200 \, \text{MeV}} = 1.9\times10^{-11}$ erg cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$. Using a Bayesian and likelihood-ratio method, we associate 377 2FLE sources with a known counterpart. Of the 325 objects associated with extragalactic sources, the dominant source class represented in the 2FLE are flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQ). Additionally, 52 sources are associated with Galactic sources. Three associated sources have not been previously detected in any $\gamma$-ray catalog and represent new $\gamma$-ray sources of known origin. We find that 387 2FLE sources have a positional cross-match with the 4FGL-DR4 sources. For the sources with a 4FGL counterpart, we compare the spectrum of the 2FLE source to the 4FGL spectral energy distributions. Of the 73 2FLE sources without multi-wavelength associations, 13 have a 4FGL counterpart that lacks classification, while 60 are newly discovered $\gamma$-ray sources. Among these 60 sources, 51 are found at high latitudes ($|b|>10^{\circ}$), and 38 are detected at $>10\sigma$. Additionally, we find that out of the 450 2FLE sources 45 are TeV emitters, and 6 are spatially coincident with a 1LHAASO source. The 2FLE helps us pave the way for reducing the “MeV gap", and provides the most sensitive catalog between 20-200 MeV to date.
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High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Cross-listed from astro-ph.GA

The Dance of the Little Red Dots: Spectroscopy of Two Blue Companions at z = 3.9 and 5.5 Reveals Young, Metal-Poor Starbursts Merging with Their LRDs within a Few Hundred Myr

Fabio Pacucci and Pierluigi Rinaldi

The Little Red Dots (LRDs) are compact, red sources, abundant at $4 \lesssim z \lesssim 9$ and likely powered by massive black holes. Photometric studies have found blue companions around them, but none has yet been confirmed spectroscopically. This Letter presents the only two LRD-companion pairs with spectroscopy of both members in the literature: "Waltz" at $z = 3.9$ and "Tango" at $z = 5.5$, with projected separations of $3.6$ and $2.5$ kpc. Both companions lie at the redshift of their LRD, within $132 \, \rm km \, s^{-1}$ and $57 \, \rm km \, s^{-1}$, and are physically identical, but $524$ Myr apart: starbursts $\lesssim 50$ Myr old, metal-poor ($0.2 \, \rm Z_\odot$), dust-free, dynamically cold, and as bright as the LRDs themselves in the rest-frame UV. The LRD in Waltz hosts a $\approx 3 \times 10^{6} \, \rm M_\odot$ black hole accreting at half the Eddington rate, a factor of a few above the birth mass of a direct collapse black hole, and is embedded in gas as metal-poor as its companion. Orbital modeling shows that Tango is bound in $81\%$ of the allowed orbits and that Waltz is bound if its host halo exceeds $5 \times 10^{10} \, \rm M_\odot$. Both blue companions then merge with their respective LRD within a few hundred Myr. We conclude that we are observing what heavy seeding requires: a young black hole beside the metal-poor starburst that the synchronized-pair scenario predicts, in the last steps of a cosmic dance that ends in a merger, and in a galaxy seeded by its black hole.
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High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Cross-listed from astro-ph.GA

EMRIs in Kerr Spacetime: The Role of Inclination Diffusion

Yael Alush, Nicholas C. Stone and Scott A. Hughes

Extreme mass ratio inspirals (EMRIs) are expected to be a major source of gravitational waves (GWs) for the future Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). An EMRI occurs when a compact object, driven by the emission of gravitational radiation, slowly inspirals into a massive black hole (MBH). The classical formation channel involves repeated two-body interactions within dense nuclear star clusters. However, both EMRI event rates and the expected distribution of their orbital parameters remain highly uncertain. A major source of this uncertainty is the poorly constrained ratio between gradually inspiraling EMRIs and direct plunges, which do not produce detectable GWs. While most studies of astrophysical EMRI production focus on the Schwarzschild limit, previous work examining the Kerr metric found that the spin of the central MBH can significantly affect the EMRI-to-plunge ratio. This enhancement depends sensitively on orbital inclination, yet earlier studies held inclination fixed. In this work, we develop the mathematical framework describing inclination evolution driven by two-body encounters evolving along Kerr geodesics. By implementing 3D diffusion into Monte Carlo simulations, we show that initially prograde orbits may evolve into retrograde states, thereby converting potential EMRIs into plunges or vice versa. We estimate the EMRI-to-plunge ratio and find that substantial MBH spin enhances the EMRI rate by a factor of $\sim 2.5$. Additionally, even for a non-spinning MBH, modeling the orbits as relativistic geodesics rather than Newtonian trajectories increases the number of EMRIs by a similar factor of $\sim 2.5$. The distribution of Kerr EMRI inclinations has a substantial prograde bias that may aid in identifying the subset of loss cone EMRIs within large future EMRI samples.
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High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Identity Crisis: Untangling Mass-Ordering Artifacts from Compact-Object Pairing in Gravitational-Wave Populations

Soumendra Kishore Roy, Asad Hussain, L. A. C. van Son et al. (+3 more)

Mass distributions of binary black hole mergers inferred from gravitational-wave observations offer clues to how binaries form. These distributions conventionally label the heavier component as the primary, with mass $m_1$, and the lighter as the secondary, with mass $m_2$, such that $m_1 \geq m_2$. This ordering folds the physically labeled mass distribution along the equal-mass line, potentially reshaping the underlying population structure. In this Letter, we determine which population features can arise from mass ordering and which require genuine astrophysical structure. We show that ordering alone can produce (1) an $m_2$ distribution that declines more rapidly than the $m_1$ distribution, without intrinsic differences between the physically labeled components, and (2) an apparent concentration along equal masses, without correlations that preferentially pair black holes of equal mass. Moreover, different physically labeled populations can produce the same ordered mass distribution. Crucially, however, a preferred companion mass that remains constant as $m_1$ increases requires a characteristic mass scale already present in the physically labeled population. Applied to binary black hole mergers in the fifth Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog, our model recovers such a scale near $m_2 \simeq 50\,\mathrm{M}_\odot$. Around this scale, the merger-rate density declines much more rapidly toward higher $m_2$ than toward lower $m_2$, ruling out an equal or weaker high-$m_2$ decline at 99.45% credibility. This structure therefore requires a characteristic mass scale in at least one physically labeled component, but masses alone cannot determine which component carries it. Any formation model reproducing the observed high-mass binary black hole merger population must contain such a scale.
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All authors Soumendra Kishore Roy, Asad Hussain, L. A. C. van Son, Maya Fishbach, Carl L. Rodriguez, Will M. Farr

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Cross-listed from gr-qc

Nonlinear Perturbations of Relativistic Stars

K. J. Kwon, Abhishek Hegade K. R., Tejaswi Venumadhav et al. (+2 more)

We extend the general relativistic Lagrangian perturbation formalism of Friedman and Schutz [Astrophys. J. 200, 204 (1975)] beyond linear order, retaining full time dependence of the perturbations. We provide general formulae to relate the Lagrangian and Eulerian perturbations to any general perturbative order. As a proof of principle, we apply the framework to tidally perturbed relativistic stars in Regge-Wheeler gauge and reduce the second-order field and conservation equations to master equations with a nonlinear source. Projecting the source onto the star's eigenmodes, we obtain a nonlinear equation of motion for the mode amplitudes and the coupling coefficients, which describe the interactions among the eigenmodes and with the external tidal field. Approximating the tidal field and the coupling coefficients, we compute the static quadratic Love number from the quadrupolar fundamental mode alone and find that it reproduces the direct metric-matching value to a reasonable accuracy of $4\%$, up to a further correction arising from the Hamiltonian and momentum constraints of the second-order tidal field.
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All authors K. J. Kwon, Abhishek Hegade K. R., Tejaswi Venumadhav, Hang Yu, Nicolás Yunes