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Physics Astrophysics

astro-ph Watch Astrophysics

Wednesday 22 October

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Radiation Hydrodynamics of Self-gravitating Protoplanetary Disks: I. Direct Formation of Gas Giants via Disk Fragmentation

Yang Ni, Hongping Deng and Xue-Ning Bai

Gravitational instability (GI) has long been considered a viable pathway for giant planet formation in protoplanetary disks (PPDs), especially at wide orbital separations or around low-mass stars where core accretion faces significant challenges. However, a primary drawback is that disk fragmentation from GI was generally found to produce over-massive clumps, typically in the mass range of brown dwarfs, although most numerical studies adopted simplified cooling prescriptions or with limited numerical resolution. We conduct a suite of global three-dimensional radiation hydrodynamics (RHD) simulations of self-gravitating PPDs using the meshless finite-mass (MFM) method. By implementing radiation transport via the M1 closure and systematically varying disk mass and opacity, we show that increasing disk mass and lowering opacity promote fragmentation by enhancing radiative cooling. Non-fragmenting disks settle into a gravito-turbulent state with low-order spiral structures and effective angular momentum transport characterized by $\alpha \sim \beta_\mathrm{cool}^{-1}$. In fragmenting disks, a subset of gravitationally bound clumps survives as long-lived fragments. Their initial masses form a consistent distribution around $\Sigma \cdot\lambda_\mathrm{T} \cdot 2 (c_s/\Omega_\mathrm{K})$ (with $\lambda_T$ the Toomre wavelength), corresponding to $\sim 0.3 - 10\,M_\mathrm{J}$ in our simulations, consistent with being gas giants. These results demonstrate that GI can produce planet-mass fragments under more realistic conditions, reinforcing it as a viable gas giant formation pathway and motivating further studies of fragment evolution and observational signatures.
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Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Cross-listed from gr-qc

Detecting White Dwarf Binary Mergers with Gravitational Waves

Giona Sala, Chiara Brandenstein, Sebastian Baum et al. (+1 more)

Mergers of white dwarf binaries are a possible progenitor channel for Type Ia supernovae. While white dwarfs are abundant in the universe and relatively well understood, their gravitational wave signals have not yet been directly observed. In order to detect gravitational waves from merging white dwarf binaries, a detector in the mid-band between LVK and LISA appears necessary. In this paper, we compute and discuss the gravitational waves emitted by inspiraling and merging white dwarf binaries, and assess their detectability with proposed space-based atom-interferometer detectors such as MAGIS Space and AEDGE. Gravitational waves from massive white dwarf binaries can be observed for many years before merger, offering a unique early warning of their final explosion. Our projections suggest that MAGIS Space could detect signals from Type Ia supernova progenitors at least once every four years, while AEDGE could observe at least a few hundred such events annually. The prolonged gravitational wave emission captured by atom-interferometers provides precise sky localisation and can allow observation of the final explosion with electromagnetic telescopes. The combined observation with electromagnetic radiation from the white dwarf binary coalescence could open a new pathway for multi-messenger astronomy involving some of the brightest transient events in the universe.
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All authors Giona Sala, Chiara Brandenstein, Sebastian Baum, Peter W. Graham

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics

Systematics mitigation for catalogue-based angular power spectra

Thomas Cornish, David Alonso, Boris Leistedt et al. (+1 more)

Recent work has developed a formalism for computing angular power spectra directly from catalogues containing field values at discrete positions on the sky, thereby circumventing the need to create pixelised maps of the fields, as well as avoiding aliasing and finite-resolution effects. We adapt this formalism to incorporate template deprojection for mitigating systematic biases in the measured angular power spectra. We also introduce an alternative method of mitigating the `deprojection bias' - the loss of modes induced by deprojection - employing simple simulations to compute a transfer function. We find that this approach performs at least as well as existing methods, and is relatively insensitive to how well one can guess the true power spectrum of the observed field, except at the largest scales ($\ell \lesssim 3$). Additionally, we develop exact expressions for the bias introduced by deprojection in the shot-noise component, which further improves the accuracy of this approach. We test our formalism on simulated datasets, demonstrating its applicability both to discretely sampled fields, and to the special case of galaxy clustering, with the survey selection function defined in terms of a random catalogue or as a continuous sky map. After removing the bias in the shot noise and correcting for the remaining mode loss using a transfer function, our formalism produces unbiased measurements of the angular power spectrum in all scenarios tested here. Finally, we apply our formalism to real data and show it produces results consistent with the standard map-based pseudo-$C_\ell$ formalism. We implement our method in the public code NaMaster.
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All authors Thomas Cornish, David Alonso, Boris Leistedt, Kevin Wolz

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics

On-sky Demonstration of Subdiffraction-limited Astronomical Measurement Using a Photonic Lantern

Yoo Jung Kim, Michael P. Fitzgerald, Sébastien Vievard et al. (+18 more)

Resolving fine details of astronomical objects provides critical insights into their underlying physical processes. This drives in part the desire to construct ever-larger telescopes and interferometer arrays and to observe at shorter wavelength to lower the diffraction limit of angular resolution. Alternatively, one can aim to overcome the diffraction limit by extracting more information from a single telescope's aperture. A promising way to do this is spatial mode-based imaging, which projects focal-plane field onto a set of spatial modes before detection, retaining focal-plane phase information crucial at small angular scales but typically lost in intensity imaging. However, the practical implementation of mode-based imaging in astronomy from the ground has been challenged by atmospheric turbulence. Here, we present the first on-sky demonstration of a subdiffraction-limited, mode-based measurement using a photonic lantern (PL)-fed spectrometer installed on the SCExAO instrument at the Subaru Telescope. We introduce a novel calibration strategy that mitigates time-varying wavefront error and misalignment effects, leveraging simultaneously recorded focal-plane images and using a spectral-differential technique that self-calibrates the data. Observing the classical Be star $\beta$ CMi, we detected spectral-differential spatial signals and reconstructed images of its H$\alpha$-emitting disk. We achieved an unprecedented H$\alpha$ photocenter precision of 50$\mu$as in about 10-minute observation with a single telescope, measuring the disk's near-far side asymmetry for the first time. This work demonstrates the high precision, efficiency, and practicality of photonic mode-based imaging techniques to recover subdiffraction-limited information, opening new avenues for high angular resolution spectroscopic studies in astronomy.
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All authors Yoo Jung Kim, Michael P. Fitzgerald, Sébastien Vievard, Jonathan Lin, Yinzi Xin, Miles Lucas, Olivier Guyon, Julien Lozi, Vincent Deo, Elsa Huby, Sylvestre Lacour, Manon Lallement, Rodrigo Amezcua-Correa, Sergio Leon-Saval, Barnaby Norris, Mathias Nowak, Steph Sallum, Jehanne Sarrazin, Adam Taras, Stephanos Yerolatsitis, Nemanja Jovanovic

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Limits on Stellar Flybys in the Solar Birth Cluster

Amir Siraj, Christopher F. Chyba and Scott Tremaine

The orbits of small bodies in the outer solar system are particularly sensitive to gravitational perturbations, including stellar flybys. Stellar clusters, with low velocity dispersions and high number densities, can be the source of strong and frequent flybys. As a result, we can infer what properties of the solar birth environment would be incompatible with the structure of the outer solar system observed today. Here, we explore with $n-$body simulations the implications of the low inclinations ($i < 20^{\circ}$) of the distant sednoids (objects with perihelia $q > 40 \mathrm{\; AU}$ and semimajor axes $a > 400 \mathrm{\; AU}$) for the properties of the solar birth cluster. We find that the existence of these orbits, if they were in place in the Sun's birth cluster phase, would limit the product of the stellar number density and the Sun's residence time in the birth cluster to $\lesssim 5 \times 10^3 \mathrm{\; Myr \; pc^{-3}}$, as compared to the weaker limit $\lesssim 5 \times 10^4 \mathrm{\; Myr \; pc^{-3}}$ implied by the low inclinations of the cold classical Kuiper belt.
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Astrophysics of Galaxies

The Sagittarius C Complex in the Mid-Infrared with SOFIA/FORCAST

Roy J. Zhao, Mark R. Morris, Matthew J. Hankins et al. (+2 more)

We present an analysis of high-resolution mid-infrared observations at 25 and 37 $\mu m$ of the Sagittarius C Complex (Sgr C) in the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ), based on data from the SOFIA/FORCAST Galactic Center Legacy Survey. Enabled by the high bright-source limit of the FORCAST instrument, we perform a map-level dust temperature and optical depth analysis with a focus on the Sgr C HII region, which has an average dust temperature of 61 K and an average 37 $\mu m$ optical depth of 0.05. We find that the Sgr C HII region contains several high-density dust emission ridges, with lengths of up to several parsecs. Noting prior evidence for nonthermal radio emission from these density ridges, we postulate that there is an enhancement of relativistic electrons within them, possibly attributable to diffusive shock acceleration induced by the wind of a known nearby Wolf-Rayet (WR) star impacting the density ridges and the ambient gas in the surrounding photo-dissociation region. Additionally, the tangential magnetic field in the outskirts of the Sgr C HII region may serve to confine the electrons within this region. We examined the heating effect of the WR star by calculating its heating profile and performing a spectral energy distribution modelling of the HII region. We found an integrated MIR luminosity of $(1.40\pm0.19)\times10^{6} L_\odot$, which implies that presently unidentified massive stars must be present in the HII region in addition to the WR star. We also present a brief analysis of adjacent regions, such as a mid-infrared/radio source denoted "Source C" and the G359.43+0.02 young stellar object cluster near the northern end of the prominent Sgr C non-thermal filament (NTF).
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All authors Roy J. Zhao, Mark R. Morris, Matthew J. Hankins, Angela S. Cotera, Janet P. Simpson

Astrophysics of Galaxies

The role of galactic winds fueling central starbursts and quasars in the FIRE cosmological simulations

Jonathan Mercedes-Feliz, Daniel Anglés-Alcázar, Boon Kiat Oh et al. (+7 more)

Central starbursts and Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are thought to be fueled by either galaxy interactions or secular processes in gravitationally unstable discs. We employ cosmological hydrodynamic simulations from the Feedback in Realistic Environments (FIRE) project to propose a new nuclear fueling scenario based on the transition that galaxies undergo from bursty to smooth star formation and from prominent global galactic winds to inefficient stellar feedback as they grow above $M_{\star}\sim 10^{10-10.5}\,{\rm M}_{\odot}$: the last major galactic wind event shuts down star formation, evacuates gas from the galaxy, and slows down gas accretion from the circumgalactic medium (CGM), creating a $\sim$$10^{10}\,{\rm M}_{\odot}$ pileup of gas in the inner CGM which later accretes coherently onto the galaxy, achieving a tenfold increase in inflow rate over pre-outflow conditions. We explicitly track the accumulation of gas along the outflow pathway owing to hydrodynamic interactions and show that $\sim$50% of gas fueling the central $\sim$10-100$\,{\rm pc}$ over the subsequent $\sim$15$\,{\rm Myr}$ can be traced back to pileup gas having experienced $>$50% change in infall velocity owing to the wind interaction. This galactic wind pileup effect may thus represent a significant fueling mode for compact starbursts and luminous AGN. Galactic winds at earlier times or AGN-driven outflows can have qualitatively similar effects, but the pileup of gas driven by the last major galactic wind event refuels the galaxy precisely when the deepening stellar potential prevents further gas evacuation by stellar feedback, providing the ideal conditions for quasar fueling at the time when AGN feedback is most needed to regulate central star formation in massive galaxies at their peak of activity.
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All authors Jonathan Mercedes-Feliz, Daniel Anglés-Alcázar, Boon Kiat Oh, Rachel K. Cochrane, Sarah Wellons, Alexander J. Richings, Jorge Moreno, Claude-André Faucher-Giguère, Philip F. Hopkins, Dušan Kereš

Astrophysics of Galaxies

The Synthetic Absorption Line Spectral Almanac (SALSA)

Dylan Nelson, Celine Peroux, Philipp Richter et al. (+10 more)

We create the first large-scale mock spectroscopic survey of gas absorption sightlines traversing the interstellar medium (ISM), circumgalactic medium (CGM), and intergalactic medium (IGM) surrounding galaxies of virtual Universes. That is, we create mock, or synthetic, absorption spectra by drawing lines-of-sight through cosmological hydrodynamical simulations, using a new mesh-free Voronoi ray-tracing algorithm. The result is the Synthetic Absorption Line Spectral Almanac (SALSA), which is publicly released on our online science platform. It spans a diverse range of ions, transitions, instruments, observational characteristics, modeling assumptions, redshifts, and numerical simulations. These include, but are not limited to: (ions) HI, OI, CI, MgI, MgII, FeII, SiII, CaII, ZnII, SiIII, SiIV, NV, CII, CIV, OVI; (instruments) SDSS-BOSS, KECK-HIRES, UVES, COS, DESI, 4MOST, WEAVE, XSHOOTER; (model choices) with/without dust depletion, noise, quasar continua, foregrounds; (redshift) from z=0 to z~6; (ancillary data) integrated equivalent widths, column densities, distances and properties of nearby galaxies; (simulations) IllustrisTNG including TNG50, TNG-Cluster, EAGLE, and SIMBA. We also provide Faraday rotation measure (RM) probing magnetic fields, and dispersion measure (DM) as traced by fast radio bursts (FRBs). The resulting dataset is generic and broadly applicable, enabling diverse science goals such as: (i) studies of the underlying physical gas structures giving rise to particular absorption signatures, (ii) galaxy-absorber and halo-absorber correlations, (iii) virtual surveys and survey strategy optimization, (iv) stacking experiments and the identification of weak absorption features, (v) assessment of data reduction methods and completeness calculations, (vi) inference of physical properties from observables, and (vii) apples-to-apples comparisons between simulations and data.
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All authors Dylan Nelson, Celine Peroux, Philipp Richter, Matthew M. Pieri, Sebastian Lopez, Rongmon Bordoloi, Siwei Zou, Joseph N. Burchett, Rebecca L. Davies, Rahul Ramesh, Matthew C. Smith, Sanchayeeta Borthakur, Christopher W. Churchill

Astrophysics of Galaxies

The long-term effects of gas removal from hydrodynamic simulations of star formation

Aleksandra Calovic, Katerina S. Klos, Robert B. Hudson et al. (+2 more)

The removal of gas left over from star formation has long been thought to dominate the dynamical evolution, and dissolution of star-forming regions. Feedback from massive stars from their stellar winds, photoionising radiation and supernovae is postulated to expel significant amounts of gas, altering the gravitational potential energy of the star-forming region and causing a supervirial expansion, which disperses the stars into the Galaxy on rapid timescales (<10Myr). The majority of previous work has utilised N-body simulations with a background potential to model the effects of gas removal. Here, we adopt a different approach where we take the end point of hydrodynamic simulations of star formation in which stars form with and without feedback from massive stars and then evolve the stars as N-body simulations. We also scale the velocities of the stars to various virial ratios, to mimic slower or faster removal of gas, and evolve these as additional N-body simulations. We find that the simulations where the stars inherit the velocities of the sink particles from the hydrodynamic simulations predominantly evolve more like a simulation in virial equilibrium, rather than the supervirial behaviour we would expect after gas removal. We see no significant differences in the dynamical evolution between the simulations where the stars inherit velocities directly from the hydrodynamical simulations and the simulations with (sub)virial velocities. This strongly suggests that gas removal by feedback processes does not lead to rapid expansion of star-forming regions, beyond the expansion caused by dynamical relaxation in star-forming regions.
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All authors Aleksandra Calovic, Katerina S. Klos, Robert B. Hudson, James E. Dale, Richard J. Parker

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Cross-listed from hep-ph

Warped Dimensions at the Cosmological Collider

Soubhik Kumar and Michael Nee

Extra dimensions are present in many beyond the Standard Model scenarios, most notably in string theory. However, direct signatures of extra dimensions are difficult to observe in many cases. This is the situation, for example, if the energy scales associated with extra dimensions are close to the string or Grand Unification scale. The energetic early universe provides an exciting opportunity to overcome this challenge, since the heavy states associated with high-scale extra dimensions, such as scalar moduli and Kaluza-Klein (KK) gravitons, could have been produced on-shell at early epochs. In this work, we illustrate this by focusing on how such states can be produced during inflation and leave signatures in primordial non-Gaussianity (NG). Specifically, we consider a 5D spacetime with a warped extra dimension that remains stabilized as inflation proceeds in the four non-compact dimensions. By discussing an explicit stabilization mechanism, we compute the masses and couplings of the radion modulus and the KK graviton modes. Being gravitational degrees of freedom, these unavoidably couple to the field(s) generating curvature perturbation, and can lead to observable NG with a distinctive oscillatory shape and characteristic angular dependence. We give example benchmarks which can already be probed by the Planck data and identify targets for the future. Our study shows that cosmological surveys have the potential to observe on-shell imprints of extra dimensions in the coming years.
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Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics

Ly{\alpha}NNA II: Field-level inference with noisy Ly{\alpha} forest spectra

Parth Nayak, Michael Walther and Daniel Gruen

Deep learning (DL) has been shown to outperform traditional, human-defined summary statistics of the Ly{\alpha} forest in constraining key astrophysical and cosmological parameters owing to its ability to tap into the realm of non-Gaussian information. An understanding of the impact of nuisance effects such as noise on such field-level frameworks, however, still remains elusive. In this work we conduct a systematic investigation into the efficacy of DL inference from noisy Ly{\alpha} forest spectra. Building upon our previous, proof-of-concept framework (Nayak et al. 2024) for pure spectra, we constructed and trained a ResNet neural network using labeled mock data from hydrodynamical simulations with a range of noise levels to optimally compress noisy spectra into a novel summary statistic that is exclusively sensitive to the power-law temperature-density relation of the intergalactic medium. We fit a Gaussian mixture surrogate with 23 components through our labels and summaries to estimate the joint data-parameter distribution for likelihood free inference, in addition to performing inference with a Gaussian likelihood. The posterior contours in the two cases agree well with each other. We compared the precision and accuracy of our posterior constraints with a combination of two human defined summaries (the 1D power spectrum and PDF of the Ly{\alpha} transmission) that have been corrected for noise, over a wide range of continuum-to-noise ratios (CNR) in the likelihood case. We found a gain in precision in terms of posterior contour area with our pipeline over the said combination of 65% (at a CNR of 20 per 6 km/s) to 112% (at 200 per 6 km/s). While the improvement in posterior precision is not as large as in the noiseless case, these results indicate that DL still remains a powerful tool for inference even with noisy, real-world datasets.
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Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Cross-listed from physics.ao-ph

Characterising the properties of the atmospheric emission at Teide Observatory in the 10-20 GHz range with QUIJOTE data

Apolline Chappard, José Alberto Rubiño-Martín and Ricardo Tanausú Génova Santos

QUIJOTE is a CMB experiment composed of two telescopes, QT1 and QT2, located at the Teide Observatory in Tenerife, Spain. The MFI instrument (2012-2018), installed on QT1, observed the sky at four frequency bands (11, 13, 17, and 19 GHz) with one degree angular resolution. Its successor, MFI2, began operations in 2024 and operates in the same bands. This paper has two main goals: first, to characterise the atmospheric conditions at Teide Observatory to improve existing models at these frequencies, and second, to empirically characterise atmospheric turbulence using QUIJOTE MFI and MFI2 observations. This work has implications for both atmospheric physics and CMB studies and can support future reanalyses of MFI data or the preparation of upcoming instruments such as the Tenerife Microwave Spectrometer. We used data from GPS antennas, the STELLA observatory, and radio soundings to derive median profiles and distributions of key atmospheric parameters for 2012-2018. MFI data were analysed to compute atmospheric structure functions at 17 and 19 GHz and to study the correlation properties of the atmospheric signal through cross-correlation between horns at the same frequency. MFI2 observations were used to estimate the atmospheric power spectrum and compare it with the structure function derived from MFI data. The water vapour density profile follows an exponential decay with a characteristic half-height of about 1000 m. Median PWV in 2012-2018 is 3.3 mm. For high PWV conditions, the structure function agrees with the Kolmogorov turbulence model. The slope of the power spectrum also matches the model prediction, within the frequency range limited by the outer scale and instrument noise. Finally, from the correlation function, we find that atmospheric conditions remain stable for about 1-2 hours.
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Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Cross-listed from gr-qc

Tracing Inflationary Imprints Through the Dark Ages: Implications for Early Stars and Galaxies Formation

K. El Bourakadi, M. Yu. Khlopov, M. Krasnov et al. (+2 more)

We explore how inflationary features shape the early stages of cosmic structure formation. Using the transfer function formalism, we trace the evolution of primordial perturbations, showing how causal physics and oscillatory signatures from inflation influence the matter power spectrum. The variance of smoothed density fields is then applied to model the collapse of overdense regions and predict dark matter halo abundances through the Press-Schechter framework. Extending to the baryonic sector, we analyze primordial gas collapse in minihalos, emphasizing molecular hydrogen cooling and the thermochemical pathways leading to Population III star formation. Finally, we examine primordial black holes as potential seeds for early galaxies, connecting their accretion-driven growth to the stellar masses and disk properties of high-redshift systems. Our results indicate that oscillatory features from inflation can leave measurable imprints on halo abundances and early galaxy properties, providing a testable link between high-energy physics and astrophysical observations with JWST
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All authors K. El Bourakadi, M. Yu. Khlopov, M. Krasnov, H. Chakir, M. Bennai

Astrophysics of Galaxies

Supermassive Black Hole Growth in Massive Galaxies at Cosmic Dawn

James Sunseri, Zachary L. Andalman and Romain Teyssier

Among the emerging excess of massive, bright galaxies at Cosmic Dawn $z \gtrsim 9$ seen by the James Webb Space Telescope, several exhibit spectral features associated with active galactic nuclei (AGN). These AGN candidates suggest that supermassive black holes (SMBHs) grow rapidly in the early Universe. In a series of numerical experiments, we investigate how SMBHs grow within and influence the most massive galaxies at Cosmic Dawn using cosmological hydrodynamic zoom-in simulations run with the adaptive mesh refinement code ramses. Our suite of simulations explore how super-Eddington accretion, seed mass, and the strength of feedback influence SMBH-galaxy co-evolution in the most massive galaxies ($M_\star \gtrsim 10^8 M_\odot$) of the early Universe ($z \sim 15 - 9$). The environment which our numerical experiments reside in is an overdensity that collapses into a $\sim 10^{11} M_\odot$ halo by $z \sim 9$. Within this type of environment we find that SMBH growth is sensitive to stellar feedback which generates a turbulent-multiphase interstellar medium (ISM) that stochastically starves the SMBH. In the absence of AGN feedback, we find that the SMBH is starved $\sim 50\%$ of the time after the onset of star formation in the galaxy. SMBH growth can become self-regulated by AGN feedback if the SMBH becomes massive enough, either by accretion or seeding, for its feedback to dominate the surrounding nuclear region. We find no evidence of galaxy-scale, AGN-driven quenching in the star formation rate (SFR) across all simulations in our suite.
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Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

A Census of Chemically Peculiar Stars in Stellar Associations

Lukas Kueß and Ernst Paunzen

The pre-main-sequence evolution of the chemically peculiar (CP) stars on the upper main sequence is still a vast mystery and not well understood. Our analysis of young associations and open clusters aims to find (very) young CP stars to try to put a lower boundary on the age of such objects. Using three catalogues of open clusters and associations, we determined membership probabilities using HDBSCAN. The hot stars from this selection were submitted to synthetic $\Delta a$ photometry, spectral, and light curve classification to determine which ones are CP stars and candidates. Subsequently, we used spectral energy distribution fitting and emission line analysis to check for possible PMS CP stars. The results were compared to the literature. We detected 971 CP stars and candidates {in 217 clusters and associations}. A relatively large fraction, $\sim$10% of those, show characteristics of PMS CP stars. This significantly expands the known list of candidate PMS CP stars, bringing us closer to solving the mystery of their origin.
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Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics

The richest clusters in the Coma and Leo superclusters: Properties and evolution

Maret Einasto, Peeter Tenjes, Rain Kipper et al. (+6 more)

We study the substructure, connectivity, and galaxy content of galaxy clusters A1656 and 1367 in the Coma supercluster and of A1185 in the Leo supercluster with the aim of understanding the evolution of clusters from turnaround to virialisation. We used data from the SDSS DR10 MAIN galaxy sample and from DESI cluster catalogues. The projected phase space diagram and the distribution of mass were used to identify regions of various infall stages (early and late infall, and regions of ongoing infall, i.e. regions of influence), their characteristic radii, embedded mass, and density contrasts in order to study the evolution of clusters with the spherical collapse model. We determined the substructure of clusters using normal mixture modelling and their connectivity by counting filaments in the cluster's regions of influence, analysed galaxy content of clusters, and derived scaling relations between cluster masses. All three clusters have a substructure with two to five components and up to six filaments connected to them. The radii of regions of influence are $R_\mathrm{inf} \approx 4$ Mpc, and the density contrast at their borders is $\Delta\rho_{inf} \approx 50 - 60$. The scaling relations between the masses of clusters have a very small scatter. The galaxy content of the clusters and of their regions of influence vary from cluster to cluster. In superclusters the percentage of quiescent galaxies is higher than in low-density regions between superclusters. The collapse of the regions of influence of clusters started at redshifts $z \approx 0.4 - 0.5$. Clusters will be virialised in $\approx 3.3$ Gyrs. Clusters in superclusters will not merge, and their present-day turnaround regions will be virialised in $\approx 10$ Gyrs. The large variety of properties of clusters suggests that they have followed different paths during evolution.
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All authors Maret Einasto, Peeter Tenjes, Rain Kipper, Pekka Heinämäki, Elmo Tempel, Lauri Juhan Liivamägi, Michael J. West, Boris Deshev, Jaan Einasto

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

Chromospherically active stars: Lithium and CNO abundances in northern RS CVn stars

B. Bale, G. Tautvaisiene, R. Minkeviciute et al. (+4 more)

Aims: We carried out a detailed investigation of Lithium and CNO abundances, including carbon isotope ratios, in RS CVn stars to assess the role of magnetic activity in the mixing of stellar atmospheres. Methods: We obtained high-resolution spectra at the Moletai Astronomical Observatory. Lithium abundances were determined by spectral synthesis of the 6707 A line and the CNO abundances using the C2 band heads at 5135 and 5635.5 A CN bands at 6470- 6490 A and 7980 to 8005 A, and the [O I] line at 6300 A. By fitting the 13CN band at 8004.7 A, we determined the carbon isotope ratios.Results. We determined the main atmospheric parameters and investigated the chemical composition of 32 RS CVn stars. Lithium abundances were determined for 13 additional stars using archival spectra. We report that *iot Gem and HD 179094 have carbon isotope ratios already affected by extra-mixing, even though they are in the evolutionary stage below the red giant branch luminosity bump. About half of the low-mass giants, for which the lithium abundance was determined, follow the first dredge-up predictions; however, other stars show reduced Lithium abundances, as predicted by thermohaline-induced mixing. The intermediate-mass stars show reduced Lithium abundances reduced, as predicted by rotation-induced mixing. Conclusions. In low-mass, chromospherically active RS CVn stars, extra-mixing of lithium and carbon isotopes may begin earlier than in normal giants. The Li-rich RS CVn giant V*OP And has large C/N and carbon isotope ratios and raises questions about the origin of its lithium enhancement.
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All authors B. Bale, G. Tautvaisiene, R. Minkeviciute, A. Drazdauskas, S. Mikolaitis, E. Stonkute, M. Ambrosch

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics

Detecting gravitational lensing by matter currents

C. Murray, R. Kou and J. G. Bartlett

We explore the observational prospects for detecting gravitational lensing induced by cosmological matter currents, a relativistic correction to the standard density lensing effect arising from the motion of matter. We propose to isolate this contribution by cross-correlating the weak-lensing convergence field with a reconstructed cosmic momentum field inferred from galaxy redshift surveys. Using numerical simulations, we demonstrate that this reconstructed momentum field is uncorrelated with the density lensing signal, enabling a clean separation of the gravitomagnetic component. We then forecast the detectability of this signal for upcoming wide-field galaxy and weak-lensing surveys, showing that a statistically significant detection may be achievable under realistic observational conditions. Such a measurement would provide the first direct probe of the large-scale cosmic momentum field, offering a novel test of general relativity and Lorentz invariance on cosmological scales.
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Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Exoplanetary radio emission predictions and detectability in the SKA era

Mahdiyar Mousavi-Sadr, Fatemeh S. Tabatabaei, Alexander Wolszczan et al. (+1 more)

Radio observations provide a window into a planet's interior and play a crucial role in studying its atmosphere and surface, key factors to find potential habitability. The discovery of thousands of exoplanets, together with advances in radio astronomy through the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), motivates the search for planetary-scale radio emissions. Here, we employ the radiometric Bode's law (RBL) to analyze a data set of 1027 confirmed exoplanets orbiting F-M main-sequence dwarf stars to estimate their potential auroral radio emission. Permutation Importance (PI) and SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) analyses indicate that planetary radius, orbital semi-major axis, stellar age, and distance from Earth are sufficient to dependably forecast a planet's radio flux density. Considering observational constraints, we find that 15 exoplanets could generate signals detectable by the SKA, nine of which remain observable in the intermediate AA* deployment. Among these, WASP-14 Ab stands out with a predicted flux of 40.064 mJy at 57.5 MHz, making it an excellent SKA-Low target. Meanwhile, HD 141937 b, with a flux of 0.084 mJy peaking at 733.1 MHz, is the most promising candidate for SKA-Mid. These results show that the SKA can detect gas giants, such as WASP-14 Ab (SNR>245) and HD 141937 b (SNR>19), within feasible integration times. Additionally, we identify one candidate (TOI-4515 b) that is likely affected by radio quenching, highlighting the importance of considering this effect in target selection for observation campaigns.
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All authors Mahdiyar Mousavi-Sadr, Fatemeh S. Tabatabaei, Alexander Wolszczan, Ghassem Gozaliasl

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Coupling of neutrino beam-driven MHD waves and resonant instabilities in rotating magnetoplasmas with neutrino two-flavor oscillations

Jyoti Turi and Amar P. Misra

We present an analysis of neutrino-driven magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) waves and instabilities in a rotating magnetoplasma with weak neutrino interactions. We show that neutrino-driven shear Alfvén and oblique magnetosonic waves can be coupled by the Coriolis force, forming new wave modes affected by this force, as well as neutrino beam and two neutrino flavor oscillations. Our work extends previous theories by demonstrating that shear Alfvén waves are influenced by neutrino effects and by identifying instabilities resulting from resonant interactions with both a streaming neutrino beam and flavor oscillations. We find that the Coriolis force, plasma density, and magnetic field strength significantly affect the profiles of instability growth rates. Such a growth rate for magnetosonic waves appears much higher than the Alfvén wave, implying that magnetosonic waves provide a superior mechanism for energy extraction from the neutrino beam. For typical parameters relevant to the protoneutron star surface, the instability time for magnetosonic waves may vary in the range 0.09-0.14 s, which is within the predicted time of the neutrino-driven explosion (0.3 s after bounce) reported in the recent three-dimensional MHD simulations of core-collapse supernovae. Our findings may shed new light on the physical mechanisms underlying core-collapse supernovae.
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Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

The magnetic sensitivity of the Ca II resonance and subordinate lines in the solar atmosphere

I. Juanikorena Berasategi, E. Alsina Ballester, T. del Pino Alemán et al. (+1 more)

Aims: The polarization of the Ca II resonant doublet (H and K lines) and the subordinate infrared triplet lines are key observables for diagnosing solar chromospheric magnetism. It is thus necessary to understand the physical mechanisms that shape their Stokes profiles in magnetic environments. Methods: Using the spectral synthesis module of the HanleRT-TIC code, we study the effects of anisotropic radiation pumping with partial frequency redistribution (PRD) and J-state interference (JSI) in a plane-parallel semi-empirical static solar atmospheric model. We also analyze the sensitivity of these lines to magnetic fields of varying strengths and orientations, accounting for the combined action of the Hanle and Zeeman effects. Results: Including PRD is crucial to model the polarization in the core regions of the resonant lines, while JSI strongly affects their far wings. The metastable lower levels of the subordinate lines also influence the scattering polarization of the K line. With horizontal magnetic fields, the resonant lines respond to field strengths from sub-gauss to tens of gauss, whereas the infrared triplet scattering polarization is mainly sensitive to milligauss fields. At a near-limb line of sight (LOS) with $\mu = 0.1$, the Hanle effect modifies the scattering polarization via a depolarization and a rotation in the plane of linear polarization. At disk center, horizontal fields generate linear polarization in the 1D model: for the K line, the Hanle effect dominates from sub-gauss to a few tens of gauss, and the Zeeman effect dominates in stronger fields. For vertical fields, the Hanle effect vanishes, but magneto-optical effects affect the linear polarization wings. Finally, atomic level polarization impacts the outer circular polarization lobes of the resonant lines, and the weak-field approximation overestimates the LOS magnetic component in this frequency range.
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All authors I. Juanikorena Berasategi, E. Alsina Ballester, T. del Pino Alemán, J. Trujillo Bueno

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Compositional characterisation of asteroid (84) Klio with JWST

Tania Le Pivert-Jolivet, Julia de León, Javier Licandro et al. (+8 more)

The analysis of the composition of primitive C$-$complex asteroids is essential to understand the distribution of volatiles in the Solar System since its formation. Primitive low-albedo families within the inner main asteroid belt are of particular interest because they are a significant source of carbonaceous near-Earth asteroids, such as Ryugu and Bennu. This study, part of the JWST SAMBA3 project (Spectral Analysis of Main Belt Asteroids in the 3 $\mu$m region), report the first spectroscopic analysis of asteroid (84) Klio in the 3 $\mu$m region, in order to better constrain its composition. We analysed the infrared (0.97$-$5.10 $\mu$m) Spectrum of Klio measured by the NIRSpec instrument on board JWST. We used the NEATM thermal model to extract the reflectance spectrum of the asteroid. Several spectral features were then analysed in the 2.8, 3.4, and 3.9 $\mu$m regions by different Gaussian fitting. The Spectrum of Klio shows an absorption band at 2.776 $\pm$ 0.001 $\mu$m that we attributed to phyllosilicates. We compared the position and shape of the feature with that observed in primitive materials such as carbonaceous chondrites and returned samples from Ryugu and Bennu. The position and shape of the 2.8 $\mu$m band, as well as the presence of a 0.7 $\mu$m band in the visible, suggest that Klio's spectrum is similar to certain CM2 meteorites. We observed an absorption band around 3.9 $\mu$m, with a depth of $0.020 \pm 0.001$ that could be attributed to carbonates. We could not clearly detect any absorption associated with organics at 3.4 $\mu$m.
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All authors Tania Le Pivert-Jolivet, Julia de León, Javier Licandro, Bryan Holler, Noemí Pinilla-Alonso, Mário De Prá, Joshua Emery, Brittany Harvison, Joseph Masiero, Lucas McClure, Driss Takir

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Cross-listed from gr-qc

Effects of dynamical capture on two equal-mass nonspinning black holes

Jorge L. Rodríguez-Monteverde, Santiago Jaraba and Juan García-Bellido

Dynamical captures of black holes are unique events that provide an exceptional opportunity to probe the strong-field regime of gravitational physics. In this article, we perform numerical relativity simulations to study the events of dynamical capture of two equal-mass nonspinning black holes. We consider a suite of scenarios within a range of initial linear momenta ($p/M=0.095-0.75$) and incidence angles ($\theta=6.36^\circ-2.83^\circ$), and study the emitted Weyl scalar ($\Psi_4$) of each case, as well as the spins and masses of the black holes before and after they merge. We provide a simple analytical model which accurately fits the gravitational-wave emission. We study the dependence of the time interval between the capture and the merger emissions with respect to the incidence angle, which can be well parametrized by a first-order divergent behavior, allowing us to find the angle that separates a scattering event from a dynamical capture. We also find that, in general, the parameters that model the first emission can be well described by linear or exponentially decaying functions in terms of the incidence angle, while others display more complex behaviors that offer valuable insights into the nature of these events.
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Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

Collisional Excitation in Space: Recent Advances and Future Challenges in the JWST Era

Francesca Tonolo

This perspective offers a viewpoint on how the challenges of molecular scattering investigations of astrophysical interest have evolved in recent years. Computational progress has steadily expanded collisional databases and provided essential tools for modeling non-LTE astronomical regions. However, the observational leap enabled by the JWST and new observational facilities has revealed critical gaps in these databases. In this framework, two major frontiers emerge: the characterization of collisional processes involving heavy projectiles, and the treatment of ro-vibrational excitation. The significant computational effort of these investigations emphasizes the need to test and develop robust theoretical methods and approximations, capable of extending the census of collisional coefficients required for reliable astrophysical modeling. Recent developments in these directions are outlined, with particular attention to their application and their potential to broaden the coverage of molecular systems and physical environments.
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Astrophysics of Galaxies

Beyond single tracers: CNN-based inference of galaxy mass profiles from combined gas and stellar kinematics

Julen Expósito-Márquez, Arianna Di Cintio, Chris Brook et al. (+2 more)

We investigate whether combining gas and stellar kinematic maps provides measurable advantages in recovering galaxy mass profiles, compared to using single-component maps alone. While traditional methods struggle to integrate multi-tracer data effectively, we test whether deep learning models can leverage this joint information. We develop a probabilistic convolutional neural network (CNN) framework trained and tested on mock galaxy kinematic maps from multiple cosmological simulation suites. Our model is trained on gas-only, stars-only, and combined gas+stellar velocity maps, allowing direct comparison of performance across tracers. To assess robustness, we include simulations with differing feedback models and galaxy properties. Combining gas and stellar maps reduces the dispersion in the inferred mass profiles by up to a factor of $\sim$1.5 compared to models using either tracer independently. The CNN architecture effectively captures complementary information from the two components. However, we find limitations in generalizing between simulation suites, with reduced performance when applying models trained on one suite to galaxies from another.
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All authors Julen Expósito-Márquez, Arianna Di Cintio, Chris Brook, Jorge Sarrato-Alós, Andrea V. Macciò

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

On the origin of ~ 100 TeV neutrinos from the Seyfert galaxy NGC 7469

Qi-Rui Yang, Xiao-Bin Chen, Ruo-Yu Liu et al. (+2 more)

The origin of TeV-PeV neutrinos detected by IceCube remains largely unknown. The most significant individual neutrino source is the close-by Seyfert galaxy NGC 1068 at 4.2$\sigma$ level with a soft spectral index. Another notable candidate is the Seyfert galaxy NGC 7469, which has been recently proposed as a potential neutrino emitter. The likelihood fit of the IceCube data for this source returned a very hard spectral index of ~ 1.9 and the excess is dominated by two high-energy events, issued as two neutrino alerts IC220424A and IC230416A. The energies of the two neutrinos are estimated to be 100-200 TeV, implying a maximum proton energy > 2 PeV, significantly higher than that in NGC 1068. The lack of lower-energy neutrinos from NGC 7469 also suggests a neutrino spectrum harder than that of NGC 1068. In this paper, we analyze the Fermi-LAT observations of NGC 7469, which yield non-detection. By requiring the cascade flux accompanying neutrino production not to exceed the upper limit of the GeV flux, the size of the neutrino-emitting region can be constrained when the neutrino flux takes a high value of the allowed range. We suggest that protons are accelerated to PeV energies via turbulence or magnetic reconnection in the corona of NGC 7469 and interact with OUV photons from the accretion disk and X-rays from the corona through the $p\gamma$ process, producing neutrinos with energy of 100-200 TeV. In the turbulence acceleration scenario, the required maximum proton energy can be achieved with a magnetization parameter close to unity ($\sigma\sim 1$), while in the reconnection scenario, a magnetization parameter with $\sigma\sim 10$ is needed. In both scenarios, a pair dominated composition for the corona is preferred. The difference in the neutrino spectrum between NGC 7469 and NGC 1068 could be due to a different magnetization despite that they belong to the same type of AGN.
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All authors Qi-Rui Yang, Xiao-Bin Chen, Ruo-Yu Liu, Xiang-Yu Wang, Martin Lemoine

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics

The Impact of Population III.1 Flash Reionization for CMB Polarization and Thomson Scattering Optical Depth

Jonathan C. Tan and Eiichiro Komatsu

The Population III.1 theory for supermassive black hole (SMBH) formation predicts a very early ($z\sim20-25$) transient phase, the “Pop III.1 Flash”, of cosmic reionization powered by supermassive stars that are SMBH progenitors. The universe then quickly recombined to become mostly neutral, with this state persisting until galaxies begin to reionize intergalactic gas again at $z\sim 10$. The overall Thomson scattering optical depth, $\tau$, from the Pop III.1 Flash has been shown to be $\tau_{\rm PopIII.1}\sim0.03$, leading to a total $\tau\sim0.08-0.09$. Such a value, while significantly larger than that previously inferred from Planck observations of the low-$l$ $EE$ polarization power spectrum of the CMB, can help relieve several “tensions” faced by the standard $\Lambda$CDM cosmological model, especially the preference for negative neutrino masses and dynamic dark energy. Here we compute $EE$ power spectra of example models of the Pop III.1 Flash. We find that, because of its very high redshift, the contribution to $l\lesssim\:$6 modes is dramatically reduced compared to usual low-$z$ reionization models for the same value of $\tau$, while the power at $l\gtrsim\:$6 is boosted. Thus the Pop III.1 reionization scenario provides a natural way to increase $\tau$, while remaining closer to the latest CMB low-$l$ polarization observations.
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Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

FAUST. XXVIII. High-Resolution ALMA Observations of Class 0/I Disks: Structure, Optical Depths, and Temperatures

M.J. Maureira, J.E. Pineda, H. B. Liu et al. (+22 more)

We present high-resolution (~7.5 au) ALMA observations at 1.3 and 3 mm of 16 disks around Class 0/I protostars across multiple star-forming regions and a variety of multiplicities, showing a range of disk sizes (~2-100 au) and including circumbinary disks (CBDs) in binaries with separations <100 au. The disk properties show similarities to Class II disks, including (a) low spectral index (SI) values (alpha=2.1) that increase with disk radius, (b) 3 mm disk sizes only marginally smaller than at 1.3 mm (<10%), and (c) radial intensity profiles well described by modified self-similar profiles. We also find key differences: (i) SI values increasing with radius, but exceeding 2 only at the disk edge (ii) higher brightness temperatures Tb, in some cases higher than the predicted temperatures due to irradiation, and (iii) ~10x higher luminosity at a given size compared to the Class II disks. These results confirm significant optical depth in the observed Class 0/I disks, at both 1.3 and 3 mm, helping to explain their higher luminosities, but higher temperatures are also required for the most compact (< 40 au) disks, suggesting additional viscous heating. Considering optical depth, most disk dust masses are estimated in the range 30-900 Mearth (0.01-0.3 Msun in gas), resulting in some disks reaching marginal gravitational instability. The median location of the water iceline is ~3 au, but it can extend beyond 10-20 au for the hottest disks. CBDs exhibit lower optical depths at both wavelengths and hence higher SI values (alpha=3.0), dust masses of 100 Mearth, and beta~1.5 (2 Class 0 CBDs) and beta~1 (1 Class I CBD), suggesting substantial grain growth only in the more evolved CBD. The inferred high optical depths provide a compelling explanation for the apparent scarcity of dust substructures in the younger disks at ~ 1 mm, despite mounting evidence for early planet formation (ABRIDGED).
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All authors M.J. Maureira, J.E. Pineda, H. B. Liu, P. Caselli, C. Chandler, L. Testi, D. Johnstone, D. Segura-Cox, L. Loinard, E. Bianchi, C. Codella, A. Miotello, L. Podio, L. Cacciapuoti, Y. Oya, A. Lopez-Sepulcre, N. Sakai, Z. Zhang, N. Cuello, S. Ohashi, Y. Aikawa, G. Sabatini, Y. Zhang, C. Ceccarelli, S. Yamamoto

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics

Beyond Standard Model equation of state and primordial black holes

Xavier Pritchard, Matthew Starbuck and Wingfung Leung

The Standard Model of particle physics successfully describes all known fundamental particles and their interactions; however, it leaves several unanswered questions. Theories beyond the Standard Model typically introduce new particles and symmetries to address these issues. In the early universe, when such particles become non-relativistic, or the symmetries are broken, there are associated reductions in the equation of state of the primordial plasma. These reductions lead to an exponential enhancement in the formation rate of primordial black holes. In this paper, we calculate the equation of state for several supersymmetric and composite Higgs models, which naturally predict a large number of additional degrees of freedom. Using these equations of state, we compute some example primordial black hole abundances, which we find can be enhanced by up to 20 orders of magnitude.
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High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Distortions in Periodicity Analysis of Blazars II: The Impact of Gaps

P. Peñil, N. Torres-Albà, A. Rico et al. (+4 more)

Time series analysis is fundamental to characterizing the variability inherent in multi-wavelength emissions from blazars. However, a major observational challenge lies in the need for well-sampled, temporally uniform data, which is often hindered by irregular sampling and data gaps. These gaps can significantly affect the reliability and accuracy of methods used to probe source variability. This paper investigates the impact of such observational gaps on time series analysis of blazar emissions. To do so, we systematically evaluate how these gaps alter observed variability patterns, mask genuine periodic signals, and introduce false periodicity detections. This evaluation is conducted using both simulated and real observational data. We assess a range of widely used time series analysis methods, including the Lomb-Scargle periodogram, Phase Dispersion Minimization, and the recently proposed Singular Spectrum Analysis (SSA). Our results demonstrate a clear and significant degradation in period detection reliability when the percentage of gaps exceeds 50%. In such cases, the period-significance relationship becomes increasingly distorted, often leading to misleading results. Among the tested methods, SSA stands out for its ability to yield consistent and robust detections despite high data incompleteness. Additionally, the analyzed methods tend to identify artificial periodicities of around one year, likely due to seasonal sampling effects, which can result in false positives if not carefully recognized. Finally, the periods detected with $\geq$3$\sigma$ confidence are unlikely to result from stochastic processes or from the presence of gaps in the analyzed time series.
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All authors P. Peñil, N. Torres-Albà, A. Rico, S. Buson, M. Ajello, A. Domínguez, S. Adhikari