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Physics Astrophysics High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

astro-ph.HE Watch High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Thursday 20 August

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Discovery of Three Glitches in the previously quiet pulsar PSR J1637$-$4642

Zhaoyi Wang, Chuwen Zheng, Yuhong Zhuang et al. (+4 more)

We present the discovery and analysis of three rotational glitches in the young pulsar PSR J1637$-$4642. The timing observations span from 19 February 2009 to 6 October 2024 (MJD 54881$-$60589) from the Murriyang radio telescope of the Parkes Observatory. The first and strongest glitch occurred around MJD 58352 with a fractional frequency change of $\Delta\nu/\nu \sim 2.7 \times 10^{-6}$, while two additional smaller glitches were detected at MJD 59443 and MJD 60445 with fractional changes of $2.2 \times 10^{-9}$ and $2.8 \times 10^{-8}$, respectively. Prior to this, the pulsar had shown no glitch activity since its discovery in the Parkes Multibeam survey. Only the first glitch exhibits detectable exponential recovery, with a decay timescale of $\sim$100 days and a small recovery fraction $\approx 0.015$, accompanied by a permanent increase in the magnitude of the spin-down rate. Modeling the post-glitch evolution of $\dot{\nu}$ within the vortex-creep framework using Bayesian inference gives a superfluid moment-of-inertia fraction $\approx 0.0187$, consistent with the inner-crust superfluid. These results reinforce the standard superfluid glitch paradigm and demonstrate that even “quiet” pulsars can still host substantial glitch activity.
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All authors Zhaoyi Wang, Chuwen Zheng, Yuhong Zhuang, Hanyu Zhang, Peng Liu, Zhonghao Tu, Ang Li

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Outflows in steep density gradients: diversity of behavior and implications for tidal disruption events and luminous fast blue optical transients

Benjamin Amend, Michael Camilo, Eric R. Coughlin et al. (+2 more)

Powerful explosions may undergo sustained energy injection as a central engine launches a wind into the surrounding gas, generating a forward and a reverse shock separated by a contact discontinuity. During the adiabatic phase, the dynamics depend strongly on the wind-to-ambient density ratio $f \equiv \rho_{\rm w} / \rho_{\rm a}$. For $f << 1$, the reverse shock lies well inside the contact discontinuity, and the mechanical energy deposited by the wind is retained in a radially extended, approximately isobaric shocked-wind region whose pressure drives the swept-up ambient shell. For $f \gg 1$, the reverse shock remains close to the contact, and the expansion is governed by the ram-pressure interaction between the freely expanding wind and the swept-up ambient gas. We use analytic scalings and one-dimensional shock-capturing hydrodynamic simulations to determine how outflows in these two limits evolve in ambient density profiles $\rho_{\rm a} \propto r^{-n}$, where $2 \leq n \leq 3$, and whether their shock structures accelerate or coast at constant velocity. For $n > 2$, initially underdense outflows produce accelerating forward shocks whose radii evolve as $R_{\rm s} \propto t^{3/(5-n)}$. Because $\rho_{\rm w} \propto r^{-2}$, f increases with radius, causing the reverse-shocked wind region to contract relative to the contact position as the forward shock transitions toward constant-velocity expansion. This occurs when $f \sim$ a few at $t_{\rm dec} \propto f_0^{1/(2-n)}$, where $f_0$ is the initial wind-to-ambient density ratio. By contrast, outflows initialized with $f_0 \gg 1$ do not develop an extended accelerating phase and remain approximately coasting throughout their adiabatic evolution. We discuss applications to tidal disruption event outflows and luminous fast blue optical transients, whose environments are often inferred to have steep density profiles with $n > 2$.
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All authors Benjamin Amend, Michael Camilo, Eric R. Coughlin, Anna Y. Q. Ho, Jonathan Zrake

Wednesday 19 August

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Modeling Relativistic Tidal Disruptions of MESA Stars

Liam M. Wang, Giovanni Maria Tomaselli and Zihan Zhou

Tidal disruption events (TDEs) occur when a star passes so close to a black hole that its self-gravity is overcome by the external tidal field. As the star passes, it initially deforms, then is ripped apart, and some of its material eventually falls back on bound orbits, forming an accretion disk around the black hole. A Newtonian model of TDEs, based on stellar perturbation theory of MESA stars, was recently introduced as an alternative to computationally intensive hydrodynamical simulations. In this work, we add relativistic corrections to the model, incorporating equatorial Kerr geodesics, relativistic tidal fields, and relativistic fallback times. Compared to the Newtonian case, we find that stars are disrupted earlier in their orbit, which gives them less time to accumulate physical deformations. Additionally, we find that the increased distance from the black hole at the time of disruption makes the fallback time longer. However, the black hole spin has a negligible impact on fallback time, except for orbits with exceptionally close pericenter. Our results allow for a more accurate calculation of fallback rates than the Newtonian model, while also remaining computationally cheap. The code is available on GitHub.
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High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Cross-listed from physics.plasm-ph

Informing spectral models for dense plasmas with K-edge absorption measurements of warm dense copper

T. Cordova, E. V. Marley, D. A. Chin et al. (+14 more)

Warm dense matter remains a challenging regime to characterize experimentally and to model with predictive accuracy. Recent experimental platforms have been developed to generate, characterize, and diagnose uniform warm dense matter, enabling detailed comparisons with models. Here, we present experiments conducted at the OMEGA laser facility that compress and heat a buried layer target to warm dense matter conditions, where the targets are heated to temperatures of approximately 20 eV and compressed to densities of 25 g/cm^3. We probe the warm dense plasma using x-ray absorption spectroscopy, using the K-edge and bound-bound absorption features to constrain the temperature and charge state distribution of the plasma. We compare these measurements with two types of models: collisional-radiative models with detailed electronic structure and ad-hoc density effects, and a multi-ion model based on density functional theory in combination with excited-state projector augmented-wave potentials. Neither approach fully reproduces the observed data, We show that the broad structure and position of the K-edge region can be modeled using density functional theory in combination with excited-state projector augmented-wave potentials. The density functional theory results are contrasted with a collisional-radiative model approach that incorporates ad-hoc density effects, which show incomplete agreement with the experimental observations, highlighting a need for improved density-dependent atomic modeling in warm dense plasmas.
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All authors T. Cordova, E. V. Marley, D. A. Chin, R. A. London, S. B. Hansen, S. M. Vinko, J. E. Pask, H. A. Scott, H. P. Le, D. Aberg, M. K. G. Kruse, T. Döppner, F. N. Beg, J. Emig, P. M. Nilson, P. Sterne, M. J. MacDonald

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

The intrinsic luminosity-decay correlation in subsamples of GRB X-ray afterglows

S. P. R. Shilling, S. R. Oates, J. L. Racusin et al. (+6 more)

The intrinsic luminosity-decay correlation in gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows, between the early-time luminosity and the average rate of decay past this time, has previously been observed in the radio, optical/UV, X-ray and GeV wavebands and quantitatively shows that more luminous afterglows tend to have higher average rates of decay. We have compiled an updated sample of 427 X-ray afterglows with measured redshifts, observed with Swift/XRT over 20 years. For each GRB, we measure the luminosity at 200 seconds in the rest frame, $L_{\mathrm{X,200s}}$, and the average rate of decay from this time, $\alpha_{X,>200s}$. We find these parameters are correlated with a Spearman's rank coefficient ($R_\mathrm{sp}$) of $0.54\pm0.04$ at a significance of $\geq3\sigma$ and a linear regression slope of $0.18\pm0.02$. We separate our sample into subsamples, including 395 long GRBs (LGRBs) and 32 short GRBs (SGRBs) and find evidence of the $L_{\mathrm{X,200s}}$-$\alpha_{X,>200s}$ correlation at a significance of $\geq3\sigma$ in LGRBs but not in SGRBs, consistent with previous studies. In a subsample of 102 LGRBs with well-sampled light curves and late end times, we find that scatter in the correlation is significantly reduced and the strength increases to $R_\mathrm{sp}=0.80\pm0.04$ whilst the slope remains consistent with the full sample. We discuss our results and, briefly, their potential implications on constraining the cause of the correlation. Possible causes include geometric effects due to the angle between the observer and the jet-axis, or some mechanism that regulates the rate at which energy is released by the GRB central engine.
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All authors S. P. R. Shilling, S. R. Oates, J. L. Racusin, B. Cenko, R. Gupta, P. Nuessle, M. Smith, G. P. Lamb, C. Turnbull

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

Real-Time RFI Mitigation in SPOTLIGHT: A Two-Stage Approach for Transient Searches

Raghav Wani, Jayanta Roy, Harshavardhan Reddy et al. (+10 more)

Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) remains one of the primary challenges limiting the sensitivity and reliability of modern radio transient surveys, particularly for real-time searches of fast radio transients. The SPOTLIGHT system is a commensal real-time transient search backend operating at the upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (uGMRT), where robust and computationally efficient RFI mitigation is essential for sustained operations. We present the real-time two-stage RFI mitigation framework developed for SPOTLIGHT, comprising an antenna-level voltage-filtering module (VOLT) operating prior to correlation beamforming and the SPOTLIGHT Time-domain RFI Processing Engine (STRIPE), a statistical RFI-filtering framework applied to beamformed data. Together, these complementary techniques mitigate a broad spectrum of RFI, ranging from broadband impulsive interference mitigated by VOLT to narrowband spectrally confined spurious signals mitigated by STRIPE, while remaining computationally efficient enough to satisfy the stringent requirements of real-time processing. The framework is evaluated using routine commensal GMRT observations, controlled 76 pulsar observations, and benchmarking against PRESTO's rfifind. The deployed system reduced the false detection rate by 98%. The recovered astrophysical pulses exhibit a 2.7x improvement in S/N after the two-stage filtering compared with the unfiltered data. These improvements enhance SPOTLIGHT's detection efficiency, sensitivity, and operational reliability, strengthening its capability to discover radio transients with the uGMRT.
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All authors Raghav Wani, Jayanta Roy, Harshavardhan Reddy, Sanjay Kudale, Ujjwal Panda, Karel Adamek, Wesley Armour, Kshitij Bane, Kaushal Buch, Jayaram Chengalur, Jyotirmoy Das, Sridhar Gajendran, SPOTLIGHT Collaboration

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

The Ultrafast Line-Driven Wind from the Double-Degenerate Merger Remnant WD J005311

Kazuma Kato and Kazumi Kashiyama

We systematically construct steady-state wind solutions for double-degenerate merger remnants consisting of a degenerate oxygen-neon core and an optically thick expanding envelope powered by carbon-shell burning, with winds accelerated by radiation pressure including line driving. For a given envelope composition, each solution is characterized by two eigenvalues: the degenerate core mass, $M_{\rm WD}$, and the total envelope and wind mass, $\Delta M$. We find that wind solutions exist for $M_{\rm WD} \gtrsim 1.0\,M_\odot$. For a given $M_{\rm WD}$, the solutions transition with decreasing $\Delta M$ from slow, continuum-driven winds to ultrafast, line-driven winds, forming a sequence that can be interpreted as the temporal evolution of a merger remnant. We apply these solutions to WD J005311, a Galactic double-degenerate merger-remnant candidate with an ultrafast wind of $v_{\rm w} \sim 0.05\,c$. Its luminosity, effective temperature, and mass-loss rate are consistently reproduced with $M_{\rm WD} \sim 1.15-1.25\,M_\odot$ and $\Delta M \sim (1.8-5.7)\times 10^{-3}\,M_\odot$. Combining our evolutionary analysis with observations of the surrounding nebula Pa 30 and historical records of SN 1181, we argue that WD J005311 began launching a continuum-driven wind $400-650$ yr after the putative merger and transitioned to the ultrafast-wind phase approximately $100$ yr ago. This phase is expected to continue for another $\sim 1000$ yr, during which the WD will remain below the Chandrasekhar mass and avoid collapse into a neutron star. Before the continuum-driven wind phase, the remnant may have passed through a more bloated, hydrostatic giant phase with a slower but more massive wind. Future observations of the wind nebula could test this scenario by revealing signatures of interactions between the slow, massive wind and the ultrafast wind.
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High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Quantifying uncertainty in the neutron-star equation of state using point estimates and posterior distributions

André Gonçalves da Silva and Ricardo Luciano Sonego Farias

We investigate uncertainty quantification for the neutron-star equation of state (EOS) by comparing point-estimation and distributional inference approaches using the same Chebyshev and piecewise-linear parameterizations. We combine neutron-star mass–radius and gravitational-wave tidal-deformability information within Bayesian, multilayer-perceptron (MLP), and normalizing-flow frameworks. Although the methods yield similar mean EOS behavior, the deterministic MLP produces substantially narrower uncertainty bands at high densities. We show that this behavior is associated with the point-estimation objective, which maps degenerate solutions toward the conditional mean rather than representing the full parameter posterior. By contrast, the normalizing flow yields distributions more consistent with the Bayesian inference. Our results demonstrate that reliable uncertainty quantification of the high-density EOS requires methods that represent conditional probability distributions rather than only point estimates.
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High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Constraining Cosmic-Ray Acceleration and Escape in Middle-Aged Supernova Remnants with GeV-TeV Gamma-Ray Observations

Siyu Chen, Bing Theodore Zhang, Yi Xing et al. (+2 more)

In this work, we perform a systematic, time-dependent study of the gamma-ray emission from four representative middle-aged SNRs (W51C, IC~443, W44, W28), incorporating both CRs within the remnant shells and escaped CRs interacting with surrounding molecular clouds. We compare our results with GeV–TeV gamma-ray observations from Fermi-LAT, H.E.S.S., MAGIC, and LHAASO, including a dedicated analysis of the Fermi-LAT data for regions A and B associated with W28. We find that the observed spectra favor steeper CR injection spectra with indices of \(\alpha\sim4.2\)–\(4.3\), maximum proton energies of $\sim$ \(100\)–\(300\) TeV, diffusion coefficients below the Galactic average, and CR acceleration efficiencies from a few to tens of percent. In particular, the VHE emission detected by LHAASO from W51C is more naturally explained by escaped CRs interacting with a nearby molecular cloud. We also investigate the contribution of escaped CRs to the VHE emission from IC~443, W44, and W28. We further demonstrate that escaped CRs can substantially enhance the TeV neutrino flux from middle-aged SNRs, improving their prospects as potential neutrino sources. These results provide new constraints on CR acceleration and escape in middle-aged SNRs and highlight the important role of escaped CRs in shaping their high-energy gamma-ray and neutrino emission.
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All authors Siyu Chen, Bing Theodore Zhang, Yi Xing, Siming Liu, Xunxiu Zhou

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

The efficient star-forming regions of stripped-envelope supernovae

M. Solar, M. J. Michałowski, J. Nadolny et al. (+13 more)

Massive stars ($> 8~\rm{M}_{\odot}$) play a key role in shaping the interstellar medium of galaxies through stellar feedback. However, how these stars form and evolve before exploding as core-collapse supernovae (SNe) remains elusive. We compute for the first time the star-formation efficiencies (SFEs) at the locations of hydrogen-rich (H-rich) SNe and stripped-envelope SNe (SESNe) to constrain their progenitor properties. We used VLT/MUSE and ALMA observations of H$\alpha$/H$\beta$ and CO(2-1) emission lines to trace the components of the warm ionised gas and cold molecular gas, respectively. Both observations resolve individual H II regions and giant molecular clouds at spatial resolutions on cloud-scales ($\sim$100 pc). This combined data allows us to compute the SFE from the star formation rate (SFR) and the molecular gas mass (M$_{\rm{mol}}$) as SFE = SFR/M$_{\rm{mol}}$. We find that SESNe explode in environments that are currently forming stars eight times more efficiently than those of H-rich SNe (higher SFR for SESNe with similar M$_{\rm{mol}}$). On one hand, this is consistent with the scenario in which the majority of SESNe are produced from very massive stars ($> 20~\rm{M}_{\odot}$) if the initial mass function is top-heavy. On the other hand, most of SESN progenitor channels are formed from interacting binaries ($< 20~\rm{M}_{\odot}$) if an increased binary system formation rate is connected with turbulences and, in turn, with the boost to SFE. Then, an increased binary fraction could explain the enhanced H$\alpha$ luminosities. In summary, SESNe preferentially occur in regions of intense, efficient star formation rather than simply higher gas content.
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All authors M. Solar, M. J. Michałowski, J. Nadolny, L. Galbany, J. P. Anderson, J. Sollerman, T. Pessi, E. Zapartas, B. Šlaus, J. Alexander, O. Ryzhov, J. Hjorth, C. Jiménez-Palau, P. Nowaczyk, D. Somawanshi, A. Leśniewska

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Simulation of advective accretion flows around black holes under various outer boundary conditions

Rajiv Kumar and Seong-Jae Lee

We simulated various accretion disc structures with viscous hydrodynamic (HD) flow around a black hole (BH). We found that the structure of the accretion disc is significantly influenced by changes in the physical parameters of the initial inflowing gases. These physical parameters can be called outer boundary conditions (OBCs) at the outer-accretion boundary and represented on an OBC plane, which is primarily divided into hot-mode and cold-mode inflowing gases. We found smooth and shocked flows in the simulation, which follow the semi-analytical solutions with their OBCs. Interestingly, we observed that certain types of OBCs can produce shocks with jet-like features in the accretion flow. However, other OBCs can produce smooth or shock-free accretion flow, which may or may not have outflows. The smooth flows can display both the lowest and highest angular momentum distributions among the advective flows, depending on the OBCs. Additionally, the nature of the accretion flows can be either steady or quasi-steady, also influenced by the OBCs. We also observed that solutions corresponding to hot-mode gases have a greater tendency to generate outflows compared to those with the cold-mode. Therefore, this qualitative study of OBCs is crucial for understanding accretion physics, which can aid in modeling accretion discs, similar to the quantitative studies (which involve only changing mass accretion rates) of the inflowing gases. Thus, we assert that an accretion model should be based on both the qualitative and quantitative aspects of the initial inflowing gases.
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High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Automatically distinguishing Rubin transients from AGN using variability metrics

Dylan Magill, Matt Nicholl, Philip Wiseman et al. (+7 more)

Stochastic variability of active galactic nuclei (AGN) can produce contaminants in the search for explosive extragalactic transients (such as supernovae and tidal disruption events). In the new era of the Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), previously uncatalogued AGN, especially those with luminosity near the survey detection limits, are expected to produce a flood of detections that have the potential to contaminate surveys targeting other transients, leading to inefficient use of spectroscopic follow-up time. For surveys aiming to statistically characterise transient demographics, it is advantageous to use easily modelled and reproducible selection criteria to distinguish AGN from other transients, rather than machine learning. We test enacting cuts based on simple data-driven photometric variability parameters to distinguish non-AGN extragalactic transients from standard AGN variability on both Zwicky Transient Facility photometry and simulated LSST photometry from the MALLORN data set. We also investigate the impact of light curve history availability, redshift range and filter selection on selection efficiency. We find that a two-dimensional cut incorporating the ratio of detection flux and pre-detection standard deviation and the ratio of detection flux to pre-detection mean flux is the most effective cut. This approach is easily scalable as these values are included in the LSST alert packets. We provide estimates of the completeness and purity of the sample produced by enacting this cut, and gauge the AGN contamination avoided. The parameters utilised in this approach could also be implemented as features for identifying AGN in a photometric classifier.
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All authors Dylan Magill, Matt Nicholl, Philip Wiseman, Charlotte R. Angus, Paige Ramsden, Christopher Frohmaier, Sjoert van Velzen, Vysakh Anilkumar, Jaimee Greenwood, Joshua G. Weston

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Multi-zone Modeling of Blazar Jets: Constraints from GeV-Optical Correlation and Short-Timescale Variability

Arit Bala, Kaustav Mitra and Ritaban Chatterjee

We have developed a multi-zone model of blazar jet emission, in which the emission region contains many cells with individual magnetic fields and electron energy distributions. Nonthermal emission from radio to $\gamma$-rays is generated by electrons accelerated by shocks passing through the region via synchrotron and inverse-Compton (IC) processes. The optical and GeV variability at days-to-months time-scale simulated from our model are strongly correlated with no significant time lag, as observed in most blazars and indicated by the standard shock-in-jet model. However, the mechanism of the shorter time-scale variability has been less explored, although such fluctuations at X-rays, $\gamma$-rays and optical bands have been observed regularly in recent years. In our model, the hr time-scale variability of the synchrotron radiation is due to the spatial fluctuation of the magnetic field in the emission region. We found that to reproduce the short-timescale variability of the observed synchrotron emission in blazars, the required fluctuations of the magnetic field are in the range $1-2\%$ to $25-30\%$. Similar variability of the IC emission, which does not depend on the magnetic field, may be reproduced in our model by implementing equipartition of energy between the magnetic field and particles. We found that orphan flares in the optical or GeV band, or optical-GeV correlation with a significant time delay, as observed occasionally, may be reproduced in certain special conditions related to the orientation of the magnetic field in the cells.
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High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Hybrid disc geometry for shocked accretion flows: Unveiling QPOs in black hole X-ray binaries

Monu Singh, Sudip Kumar Garain and Santabrata Das

We investigate the efficacy of semi-analytical global accretion solutions in capturing the flow properties observed in two-dimensional numerical simulations of shocked accretion onto black holes. A comparative analysis reveals that no single disc geometry adequately matches the simulation profiles across the entire radial domain. The pre-shock region exhibits closer agreement with the conical disc geometry, while the post-shock region is better described by the vertical equilibrium disc, where enhanced thermal pressure leads to substantial vertical expansion. Motivated by these complementary behaviours, we introduce a hybrid disc geometry in which the pre-shock flow follows the conical solution and the post-shock flow attains vertical equilibrium. This hybrid model satisfactorily reproduces both dynamical and thermodynamical properties of shocked accretion flows with the predicted Mach number and temperature profiles closely matching the simulations and the inferred shock location differing by $\sim10\%$. Within this framework, we delineate the shock parameter space spanned by the energy ($\mathcal{E}$) and angular momentum ($\lambda$) of the flow for weakly and rapidly rotating black holes and investigate the possible origin of Quasi-periodic Oscillations (QPOs) in black hole X-ray binaries (BH-XRBs). We constrain flow parameters that reproduce observed QPO centroid frequencies ($\nu_{\rm QPO}$) demonstrating that oscillations of the shock front provide a self-consistent mechanism for both low and high frequency QPOs. Extending the analysis to ten Galactic BH-XRBs, we demonstrate that the observed $\nu_{\rm QPO}$ are reproduced within physically plausible parameter ranges, which establishes shocked global accretion solutions as a potentially compelling framework for interpreting accretion driven temporal variability.
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High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

On coordinate frames relevant for pulsar physics

Jyotijwal Debnath and Manjari Bagchi

Pulsars can be either isolated or binary (or even in triple) systems. Observational features of pulsars are used to probe various aspects of fundamental physics, including emission mechanism, gravitational physics, etc. Theoretical models of various phenomena need different coordinate frames. Often different physical processes affect each other and we need to use multiple coordinate frames and relations between those. This short review presents an extensive set of coordinate frames and relations between those.
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High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Time-dependent Evolution of Proton Spectra in Supernova Remnants and Their Contribution to Galactic Cosmic Rays

Jun-Yu Shen, Hou-Dun Zeng and Qiang Yuan

Recent $\gamma$-ray observations indicate that the proton spectra of supernova remnants (SNRs) are well described by broken power laws, with both the spectral break energy, $E_{\mathrm{br}}$, and the low-energy spectral index, $\alpha$, exhibiting systematic evolution with SNR age. The physical origin of these evolutionary trends and their implications for the Galactic cosmic-ray (CR) population remain poorly understood. In this work, we develop the temporal evolution model for protons in SNRs by extending the semi-analytical framework of Zhang & Fang, in which both the maximum acceleration energy and the injection spectral index evolve with the dynamical evolution of the remnant. The calculated proton spectra reproduce the age-dependent trends of both $E_{\mathrm{br}}$ and $\alpha$ inferred from observations. We adopt the proton spectrum at the onset of the radiative phase as the source spectrum for Galactic CR propagation and incorporate the intrinsic dispersion of source spectral indices among SNRs. The resulting cumulative Galactic proton spectrum is then calculated within a diffusion model. The propagated spectrum agrees well with the observed CR proton flux over a broad energy range, particularly above several tens of GeV. Our results provide a self-consistent framework linking the time-dependent evolution of proton acceleration in individual SNRs to the Galactic CR proton spectrum observed at Earth, and further support the long-standing hypothesis that SNRs are the dominant sources of Galactic CR protons below the knee.
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High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Cross-listed from astro-ph.GA

A model for the enhanced production rate of early-type hypervelocity stars in the Galactic halo

Chunyang Cao, F.K. Liu, Xian Chen et al. (+1 more)

About twenty late B-type hypervelocity stars (HVSs) traveling faster than the Galactic escape velocity have been discovered in the Galactic halo, many of which were ejected from the Galactic center (GC). Recently, we have advocated that these HVSs most likely formed in the nuclear star cluster (NSC) $150$–$500\, \rm{Myr}$ ago and were predominantly ejected via the gravitational slingshot of a past intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) orbiting the supermassive black hole (SMBH) Sgr~A$^{*}$. Here we explore the constraints of the production rate of young HVSs on the star formation region of the NSC. We propose that the young HVS progenitors are born in a lopsided eccentric disk that is comparable in radius to the NSC. By numerically tracking the orbital evolution of disk stars, we find that they undergo rapid angular momentum relaxation at formation due to eccentric disk instability, and that their slingshot interactions with the SMBH-IMBH binary at distances $\simeq 100\, \rm{au}$ produce HVSs at a rate of $10^{-5}$–$10^{-4}\, \rm{yr}^{-1}$. The rate is expected to trace the disk formation history, increasing with the accumulation of disk stars and dropping rapidly after the star formation stopped at $150\, \rm{Myr}$ ago. The rate is consistent with the observation and orders of magnitude higher than that expected for an old relaxed population in the literature, enhanced due to the gravitational torque from the non-spherical GC potential and radial velocity anisotropies of the disk stars. Our results imply that young HVSs should have a distinct radial and angular distribution from old ones.
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All authors Chunyang Cao, F.K. Liu, Xian Chen, Shuo Li

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

An invariant energy release hierarchy in a repeating fast radio burst

X. Yang, S. B. Zhang, Y. Li et al. (+9 more)

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are luminous millisecond radio transients whose physical origin remains unsettled. A key diagnostic is whether their burst-energy distributions retain characteristic physical scales that are intrinsic and temporally stable within an individual engine. Here we report a 3.2-year monitoring campaign of the hyperactive repeater FRB~20220529 with FAST and Parkes, yielding more than 1,300 bursts spanning nearly five orders of magnitude in spectral energy density. The cumulative burst-rate distribution is described by an exponential-plus-power-law (EXP+PL) form, linking a low-energy exponential component with characteristic scale (E_0) to a scale-free bright-end tail. This scale remains invariant despite the burst rate declining by more than an order of magnitude, revealing a stable dissipation scale decoupled from the source's macroscopic trigger activity. Within a magnetar interpretation, this phenomenology is consistent with localized sub-critical reconnection episodes coexisting with plasmoid-mediated magnetic avalanches in a twisted magnetosphere. The invariant (E_0) constrains the dissipation region to the inner-to-middle magnetosphere and reveals a robust energy-release hierarchy beneath the variable activity of repeating FRBs, providing an observational benchmark for relativistic reconnection in an ultra-magnetized neutron-star environment.
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All authors X. Yang, S. B. Zhang, Y. Li, D. Xiao, W. L. Zhang, J.-J. Wei, J.-J. Geng, J.-S. Wang, Y. P. Yang, F. Y. Wang, X. F. Wu, Z. G. Dai

Tuesday 18 August

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Modeling the Gravitational Wave Signal from the X-ray Pulsar Her X-1

I. D. Markozov, G. K. Pimenov and A. A. Mushtukov

The paper is devoted to modeling the gravitational waves from the X-ray pulsar Her X-1. The neutron star is considered as a freely precessing ellipsoid. The gravitational wave signal is calculated in the quadrupole approximation. The $h_{\times}$ and $h_{+}$ polarization profiles are constructed for the precession parameters of the neutron star in Her X-1 measured in up-to-date works. The possibility of signal detection with the DECIGO telescope is assessed. The formulas for the semi-analytical modeling of the gravitational wave signal from precessing neutron stars by the method of perturbations in the small neutron star ellipticity parameter are deduced.
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High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

High-Redshift Type Ia Supernovae Exhibit Enhanced Calcium Abundances

Xingzhuo Chen, Ulisses Braga-Neto and Lifan Wang

Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) are major contributors to cosmic chemical enrichment, and their elemental abundances provide a probe of progenitor properties and explosion physics across cosmic time. We employ an artificial intelligence-assisted inversion technique to analyze spectra of high-redshift SNe Ia from the Supernova Legacy Survey and of gravitationally lensed SNe Ia observed by the James Webb Space Telescope, extending the sample to redshift 2.05. We find a positive correlation between SN Ia calcium abundance and redshift. The redshift-dependent variation in calcium abundance exceeds that predicted by SN Ia nucleosynthesis simulations with varying progenitor metallicities, suggesting that high-redshift SNe Ia may undergo different explosion mechanisms from nearby SNe Ia.
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High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Cross-listed from astro-ph.GA

Accretion of AGN Stars under Influence of Disk Geometry II: The Adiabatic Regime and Runaway Collapse Induced by Self-gravity

Yi-Xian Chen, Yan-Fei Jiang and Jeremy Goodman

Accretion onto massive stars embedded in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) disks around supermassive black holes (SMBHs) is regulated to the stellar Eddington rate in the fast-diffusion or radiatively-efficient limit, $c/\tau > c_s$, where $\tau$ is the optical depth of the accretion flow and $c_s$ the sound speed. However, when the ambient density is sufficiently high, the opposite slow-diffusion limit applies. In this regime, accretion proceeds quasi-adiabatically and forms a hydrostatic circumstellar envelope (CSE) that stalls further mass inflow in the absence of self-gravity. We perform 3D hydrodynamic simulations in the adiabatic limit to investigate the structure and evolution of such envelopes. For low thermal mass ratios, $q_{\rm th} \equiv M_\star/M_{\rm th}$ where $M_{\rm th}=c_s^3/(G\Omega)$ is the thermal mass, the CSE boundary smoothly matches the ambient disk entropy and density without forming a shock. In contrast, when $q_{\rm th} \gg 1$, a strong shock develops at the envelope boundary, substantially increasing the entropy of the envelope and thereby regulating its structure and mass, $M_{\rm env}$. In marginally self-gravitating disks with Toomre parameter $Q \sim 1$, we find that at sufficiently large $q_{\rm th}$ the envelope mass satisfies $M_{\rm env}/M_\star \gtrsim 1$. This condition is equivalent to stating that the post-shock material entering the envelope possesses lower radiation entropy than the characteristic stellar value, which triggers dynamical runaway growth on a dynamical timescale once envelope self-gravity is included in our simulations. In realistic AGN disk environments with SMBH mass $\sim 10^8M_\odot$, runaway may occur close to the minimum self-gravitating radii and produce supermassive stars of $\sim 10^5M_\odot$.
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High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

A deep learning algorithm for black hole spin estimation using hot-spot secondary images

Aristomenis I. Yfantis and Rami Al-Belmpeisi

Sagittarius A* exhibits frequent flaring activity across the electromagnetic spectrum that is often associated with a localized region of strong emission known as a hot spot. We aim to train a deep learning model to provide a link between key parameters of this phenomenon - hot-spot emission radius, and black hole inclination and spin - to the observed angle difference between the primary and secondary image ($\Delta PA$) that present and future interferometric arrays could resolve. Using the general relativistic radiative transfer code IPOLE, we generated a library of $\sim100.000$ models with varying system parameters and computed the position angle difference on the image plane between the primary and secondary images of the hot spot. We explore equatorial and non-equatorial circular orbits and evaluate our models against approximate observational constraints, including partial-orbit visibility and observational errors. Our algorithm STIHOS shows remarkable accuracy in calculating spin and inclination from the majority of the observational tests we perform ($\sigma_{a_*}=0.04,\,\sigma_i=2^{\circ}$), even in extreme conditions where only half of the orbit is visible. The off-equatorial estimation provides softer constraints in the absence of prior information. Our results demonstrate the importance of hot-spot observations for spacetime estimations. Given the increasing efforts to detect the photon-ring, our framework could prove valuable in interpreting the first observations of lensed emission.
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High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

The fraction of periodic SN Ib/c light curves

Asaf Horowicz, Eran O. Ofek and Avishay Gal-Yam

Periodic luminosity modulations have been recently identified for the stripped-envelope supernovae SN 2022jli and SN 2022esa, motivating a systematic search for a similar behavior in a larger sample. Such modulations may indicate the explosions arise in binary progenitor systems. We perform the first systematic search for periodic modulation in a sample of 34 Type Ib/c supernovae with high quality photometry from the Zwicky Transient Facility. We develop and apply a statistically rigorous pipeline for detecting periodic modulation in light curves. The pipeline successfully recovers the previously reported periodic undulations of SN 2022jli and SN 2022esa, and identifies SN 2020sgf as an additional promising periodic candidate. Injection-recovery simulations are used to quantify the survey sensitivity as a function of period and modulation amplitude. Comparing the observed detections with recent population synthesis models shows that, under the adopted assumptions, models predicting intrinsic periodic fractions of order ~20% are consistent with the observations. Our results suggest that periodically modulated SN 2022jli-like events may represent a significant sub-population of stripped-envelope supernovae rather than being exceptionally rare events, while demonstrating a methodology suitable for future wide-field transient surveys.
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High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

The impact of recombination during tidal disruption events

Simona Pacuraru, Clément Bonnerot and Martin E. Pessah

During a tidal disruption event, the resulting debris stream cools down adiabatically due to the tidal stretching. As the temperature drops, the gas is expected to undergo chemical processes, which can release thermal energy into the stream, potentially affecting the subsequent gas evolution. For the first time, we investigate in detail this effect and its dynamical impact on the early-time evolution of the stream by making use of three dimensional hydrodynamic simulations coupled with a realistic equation of state. We find that a few days after disruption, the energy injected by hydrogen recombination and molecular hydrogen formation causes the stream thickness to grow much more rapidly. In the bound debris, this effect stops the stream's confinement by self-gravity before the gas reaches apocentre. As a result, the maximum stream thickness increases by a factor that ranges from a few, for the most bound gas, to a few tens for the near-parabolic gas, reaching $\approx 30 \, R_{\star} $ around the peak of the mass fallback rate. We discuss how this accelerated stream expansion may affect the subsequent evolution of the gas, estimate the luminosity powered by recombination in the unbound debris, and evaluate the potential influence of non-ideal magneto-hydrodynamic effects. By characterizing the thermodynamic and hydrodynamic properties of the stream before its return near pericentre, our results provide physically motivated initial conditions to self-consistently model the later stages of tidal disruption events, offering a promising pathway to unveiling the physical origins of their observed emission.
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High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Heating Up the Black Hole X-ray Binary Accretion Disk by Superradiance

Antonios Kyriazis, Fengwei Yang and Siyu Zhou

A superradiant cloud of ultralight axions around a black hole, that is part of an X-ray binary system, can heat up its accretion disk and be detected by the thermal X-ray spectrum emitted by the disk. We consider a derivative coupling of the axions to the plasma fermions and calculate the emissivity of the inverse bremsstrahlung process that results in a temperature fluctuation of the disk. Based on the thin-disk model and the multicolor disk model, we derive the thermal spectrum with axion heating, which shows an enhanced thermal photon flux and a red-/blue- shifted peak spectral frequency. A single bump hunting search of the axion heating signature in the thermal spectrum of a $10M_\odot$ black hole X-ray binary with a spectral measurement sensitivity of 10% (1%) can derive the constraint on axion-electron coupling $|g_{ae}|\gtrsim7.5\times 10^{-12} ~(2.4 \times 10^{-12})$ for axion mass $m_a=5.2\times 10^{-12}\,$eV in a saturated $|211\rangle$ state, and $|g_{ae}|\gtrsim4.5\times 10^{-12} ~(1.4 \times 10^{-12})$ for axion mass $m_a=1.0\times10^{-11}\,$eV in a saturated $|322\rangle$ state. The projected sensitivities are competitive with those from XENONnT. A detailed continuum fitting can further improve the detectability and provide a complementary bound to the black hole spin-down measurement.
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High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

The Mass Function of Neutron Stars from Core-Collapse Supernova Simulations

Waly M Z Karim, Adam Burrows, David Vartanyan et al. (+2 more)

Using the mapping between progenitor core structure and the gravitational mass of neutron stars derived from sophisticated 3D supernova simulations, we determine the theoretical mass distribution of neutron stars at birth and compare it with neutron star mass function measurements. In the process, we explore the effects of islands of black hole formation and subsequent mass accretion. We show that supernova theory can explain the observed neutron star mass function from its lower-mass peak near $\sim$1.35 $M_{\odot}$ to its higher-mass tail. Moreover, the lower predicted kick speeds expected during the birth of lower-mass neutron stars and the higher expected kick speeds expected on average for higher mass neutron stars both sculpt the observed mass function in desired directions. The upshot of all these influences is to imprint upon the measured neutron star mass function features that reflect the varied physics of both neutron star origins and the neutron-star/black-hole dichotomy. Very approximately, we derive a black hole birth fraction of $\sim$21%. In summary, we suggest that supernova theory can now be used to explain, however provisionally, various measured attributes of the population of compact objects and that an era of productive engagement between supernova theory and observation is at hand.
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All authors Waly M Z Karim, Adam Burrows, David Vartanyan, Anthony Fisher, James Burry

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Supernova remnant 0509-67.5 is consistent with an explosion inside an old planetary nebula (SNIP)

Noam Soker

I critically examine claims in the paper arXiv:2608.11978 that the double-detonation (DDet) scenario explains the type Ia supernova (SN Ia) remnant (SNR Ia) SNR 0509-67.5, and find the arguments supporting the DDet scenario weak; hence, I reiterate my claim that the core-degenerate (CD) scenario, where a lonely white dwarf (WD), which is the merger product of a lower-mass WD and the core of an asymptotic giant branch star, exploded inside an old planetary nebula, i.e., an SNIP, best explains SNR 0509-67.5. I find that the flat edge of the SNR in the north-northeast, which in the DDet scenario is due to a shadow by the companion to the WD that exploded, is not unique in this SNR, and that the circumstellar matter, i.e., an old planetary nebula, shaped this edge, as well as other structures on the edge of this SNR. I emphasize that analyses of SNRs Ia and SNe Ia at late stages must consider the claim that most normal SNe Ia are SNIPs, implying that old planetary nebulae can heavily shape their morphologies. The bulk velocity inferred from an iron emission line in SNR 0509-67.5, which the DDet explosion attributes to the orbital motion of the exploding WD around its companion, can be an outcome of the explosion of a near-Chandrasekhar lonely WD; an off-center delayed-detonation transition explosion can form asymmetrical nucleosynthesis, while leading to a bulk motion of nickel that decays to iron. I repeat my claim that the CD scenario of a SNIP is the most likely scenario for SNR 0509-67.5.
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High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Generalized Non-linear Bayesian Pulsar Timing with Enterprise

Andrew R. Kaiser, Jeffrey S. Hazboun, Maura A. McLaughlin et al. (+56 more)

In this study, we use the Bayesian methods in the Enterprise package to examine the fully general parameterization of pulsar timing models in tandem with noise. We investigate four pulsars, PSR J1600$-$3053, PSR J2043+1711, PSR J0740+6620, and PSR J1640+2224, through the lens of Bayesian timing. These four are selected as they are well-studied, but exhibit interesting characteristics under the lens of Bayesian timing. Our new pulsar mass constraints (medians and 68% confidence intervals) for our fully general non-linear Bayesian timing models are $m_{\mathrm{p}}=1.6(1)~\mathrm{M}_{\odot}$ for PSR J2043+1711 and $m_{\mathrm{p}}=2.3^{+0.9}_{-0.7}~\mathrm{M}_{\odot}$ for PSR J1600$-$3053 both using the NANOGrav 12.5-yr data release, and $m_{\mathrm{p}}=2.06(6)~\mathrm{M}_{\odot}$ for PSR J0740+6620 using the data from Fonseca, et al., 2021. We investigate the effects on placing physical priors on timing model parameters, including restricting the upper limit on the pulsar mass for PSR J1640+2224, which has a mass often estimated to be greater than $3~\mathrm{M}_{\odot}$. We find \ark{that restricting the allowed sampling space of the pulsar mass for PSR J1640+2224 to} $m_{\mathrm{p}}<3~\mathrm{M}_{\odot}$ results in a pulsar mass of $m_{\mathrm{p}}=2.2(5)~\mathrm{M}_{\odot}$ for PSR J1640+2224 using the NANOGrav 12.5-yr data release. For the first time, we find evidence for intrinsic red noise in PSR J2043+1711. We show how fully general Bayesian timing can better model the interplay of the intrinsic noise and the timing parameters.
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All authors Andrew R. Kaiser, Jeffrey S. Hazboun, Maura A. McLaughlin, H. Thankful Cromartie, Emmanuel Fonseca, Joseph Simon, Stephen R. Taylor, Michele Vallisneri, Sarah J. Vigeland, Zaven Arzoumanian, Paul T. Baker, Harsha Blumer, Paul R. Brook, Ismael Cognard, Megan E. DeCesar, Paul B. Demorest, Timothy Dolch, F. Adam Dong, Justin A. Ellis, Robert D. Ferdman, Elizabeth C. Ferrara, William Fiore, Nate Garver-Daniels, Peter A. Gentile, Deborah C. Good, Lucas Guillemot, Ross J. Jennings, Megan L. Jones, David L. Kaplan, Victoria M. Kaspi, Matthew Kerr, Aida Yu. Kirichenko, Michael T. Lam, Duncan R. Lorimer, Jing Luo, Ryan S. Lynch, Alexander McEwen, James W. McKee, Natasha McMann, Bradley W. Meyers, Arun Naidu, Cherry Ng, David J. Nice, Aditya Parthasarathy, Timothy T. Pennucci, Benetge B. P. Perera, Nihan S. Pol, Henri A. Radovan, Scott M. Ransom, Paul S. Ray, Brent J. Shapiro-Albert, Renée Spiewak, Ingrid H. Stairs, Kevin Stovall, Joseph K. Swiggum, Chia Min Tan, Shriharsh P. Tendulkar, Haley M. Wahl, WeiWei Zhu

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

The Spin Angular Momentum and Black Hole Mass Components of Sagittarius A*

Ruth A. Daly

The dimensionless spin angular momentum, dimensionless spin function, and blackhole mass components of Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) were obtained by Daly et al. (2024) by applying the outflow method to six independent sets of simultaneously or contemporaneously obtained X-ray and radio data. Here, results obtained for Sgr A* with the outflow method are reviewed. Consistent results were obtained with each data set. Set I (the preferred data set) indicates that Sgr A* has a dimensionless spin angular momentum $a_* = (0.90 ~\pm~ 0.06)$ and a dimensionless spin function $F = (0.62 ~\pm~ 0.10)$. The results are consistent with the value of $a_* = (0.93~\pm~ 0.15)$ obtained with the outflow method applied to an independent data set (Daly 2019). The application of the outflow method to a weak compact radio source such as Sgr A* in its current state is most accurately determined with simultaneous or contemporaneous radio and X-ray measurements.
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High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Evidence of self-organized criticality in the prompt emission of a bright gamma-ray burst

Wen-Long Zhang, Wen-Jun Tan, Hao-Tian Lan et al. (+18 more)

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the most energetic explosive events in the Universe, yet the physical mechanism of their prompt emission remains a mystery. Especially, it is unclear whether the energy dissipation mechanism in the GRB jet is dominated by kinetic energy or magnetic energy. Here, we studied the pulses in the prompt emission of the second brightest GRB to date, GRB 230307A, which was accurately measured by the Gravitational wave high-energy electromagnetic counterpart all-sky monitor (GECAM), with focus on the cumulative distributions of peak counts and duration of pulses as well as the waiting time between pulses. We find that these cumulative distributions show scale-invariant behavior, well consistent with the prediction of the self-organized criticality (SOC) theory. This is the first robust evidence of an SOC feature in the prompt emission of a single GRB. Moreover, the statistical properties of pulses in the prompt emission of GRB 230307A are very similar to those of solar flares. Our findings suggest that the prompt emission of GRB is powered by the dissipation of magnetic energy in the ultra-relativistic jet, supporting the Poynting-flux-dominated prompt models.
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All authors Wen-Long Zhang, Wen-Jun Tan, Hao-Tian Lan, Shuang-Xi Yi, Shao-Lin Xiong, Chen-Wei Wang, Shuang-Nan Zhang, C. Guidorzi, R. Maccary, R. Moradi, Cheng-Kui Li, Sheng-Lun Xie, Wang-Chen Xue, Jia-Cong Liu, Zheng-Hang Yu, Yue Wang, Peng Zhang, Yan-Qiu Zhang, Chao Zheng, Jin-Peng Zhang, Fa-Yin Wang