Peer Revenue Impact factor: volatile

Papers

Fresh from arXiv, typeset properly. Highlighted words trade on the market.

Physics Astrophysics

astro-ph Watch Astrophysics

Thursday 23 October

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

Bound State Perturbations in the Interior of Black Holes

Hassan Firouzjahi

We revisit our earlier work and investigate the bound state perturbations in the interior of the Schwarzschild black hole. The bound sates are defined as the perturbations in the interior of the black hole with an imaginary spectrum which are regular at the center of black hole while their time-dependent profile falls off exponentially on the event horizon. Using the scale factor in the expanding direction in the interior of the black hole as the clock, we rewrite the corresponding Regge-Wheeler equation and solve it semi-analytically as well as numerically. We confirm that the bound state solutions exist for scalar, vector and axial tensor perturbations. It is shown that for a given value of $\ell >s$, there are total $\ell-s$ such bound states. We obtain the universal lower bound $2 G M \omega_I >1$ for the spectrum of bound state which is asymptotically saturated in the large $\ell$ limit. Furthermore, we obtain an upper bound on the spectrum of axial perturbations which for large $\ell$ scales like $2 G M \omega_I \lesssim 0.04\, \ell^4 $. As observed recently, these bound states have the curious property that the profile of the total wave function has a non-zero magnitude near the future event horizon.
Read the full abstract

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics

Satellite Underflight Utility for Thermal Sensor Harmonization

Sarah E. Kay and Brian N. Wenny

Underflight maneuvers provide a unique opportunity to harmonize calibration of on-orbit sensors. Due to their similar sensor technologies, their near-identical transmission profiles, orbital properties and platform operations, the underflight data of Landsat 8 and 9 instruments stand out as a qualifier to test proposed metrics, methods, and the extent over which to compare two independently calibrated sensors across their similar operating bandpasses. This study performed a pixel-to-pixel comparison of thermal imagery of TIRS and TIRS-2 (aboard Landsat 8 and 9, respectively) during their five-day underflight maneuver in November 2021, with the ultimate goal of identifying the key site/scene-selection criteria for a subset of images that are suitable for radiative calibration validation purposes. If a group of near-coincidentally observed images by two identical underflying sensors fail to show consistent Top-of-Atmosphere (TOA) Brightness Temperatures for the same exact geographical locations, then the scenes with those shared properties and/or observing conditions will prove unreliable for cross calibration validation of less-similar underflying sensor pairs. This study demonstrates that near-coincidental images with Root Mean Square Deviations (RMSDs) of less than 5% between their TOA radiances are optimum candidates for cross-validation of radiative calibration between two independently calibrated sensors. This criterion is shown to be reliable for coincidental acquisitions with a wide range of overlapping area, terrain type, land-to-water fraction and cloud coverage. Important considerations include any time gap between near-coincident acquisitions as well as the application of pixel quality masks. The analysis of the selected underflight scenes demonstrated an agreement between the TIRS on Landsat 8 and 9 to within 0.123 K and 0.066 K for the 10.9um and 12.0um bands respectively.
Read the full abstract

Astrophysics of Galaxies

The chemodynamical memory of a major merger in a NIHAO-UHD Milky Way analogue – II. Were Splash stars heated or already born hot?

Sven Buder, Tobias Buck, Ása Skúladóttir et al. (+3 more)

One of the most debated consequences of the Milky Way's last major merger is the so-called $Splash$: stars with disc-like chemistry but halo-like kinematics, often interpreted as evidence for the violent heating of an early protodisc. Using the same high-resolution NIHAO-UHD cosmological simulation analysed in Paper I, we test whether, and if so how, a $Splash$-like population arises in the Milky Way analogue. By tracing stellar birth positions, ages, and present-day orbits, we find that protodisc stars were already born on dynamically hot orbits, with only limited additional dynamical $splashing$ of these particular in-situ stars despite a 1:5 stellar mass merger. A subset of stars, particularly those that end up in the Solar neighbourhood, shows evidence for merger-driven angular-momentum redistribution, but the overall kinematic distribution of stars with $Splash$-like chemistry remains largely unchanged. The observed $Splash$ may therefore primarily reflect the already turbulent early disc, subsequently intermixed with accreted stars and those formed from merger-driven gas inflows, rather than a distinct merger-heated population. When selecting stars with similar chemistry and age as the $Splash$-like ones, we find their azimuthal velocity distribution to be broad and positively skewed, with $V_\varphi = 73_{-59}^{+74}\,\mathrm{km\,s^{-1}}$. The transition to a rotation-supported disc with large azimuthal velocities occurs only during or after the merger. Our results suggest an alternative to the proposed $splashing$ scenario and highlight the need to disentangle the relative contributions of merger-induced heating and intrinsically hot disc formation to clarify the nature of $Splash$-like stars and their role in shaping the early Milky Way.
Read the full abstract

All authors Sven Buder, Tobias Buck, Ása Skúladóttir, Melissa Ness, Madeleine McKenzie, Stephanie Monty

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Discovery of a Debris Disk Around TWA 20

Skyler Palatnick, Maxwell A. Millar-Blanchaer, Jingwen Zhang et al. (+20 more)

We report the discovery of a debris disk surrounding the M3 star, TWA 20, revealed by JWST coronagraphic observations using the Near-infrared Camera (NIRCam). With reference-star differential imaging (RDI), we resolve the disk in scattered light in the F200W filter at a high signal-to-noise ratio and in the F444W filter at a low signal-to-noise ratio. The disk morphology and orientation are characterized via a forward modeling approach, where we determine a radius of 64.7-6.5+6.2 AU and an inclination of 70.1-3.3+2.5 deg. Utilizing our forward model, we improve the fidelity of the debris disk image using model-constrained RDI (MCRDI). The newly discovered disk is one of only 6 disks detected in scattered light that orbit M dwarf stars; it is the third largest of the 6 resolved M dwarf disks and orbits the third faintest host star. The detection of this disk exemplifies the sensitivity of JWST to debris disks around low-luminosity host stars, which have historically been difficult to detect because these disks are cool and dim. We identify a nebulous structure that cannot be explained by an axisymmetric disk. A search for companions in the TWA 20 system yields no candidates.
Read the full abstract

All authors Skyler Palatnick, Maxwell A. Millar-Blanchaer, Jingwen Zhang, Kellen Lawson, Briley L. Lewis, Katie A. Crotts, Aarynn L. Carter, Beth Biller, Julien H. Girard, Sebastian Marino, Raphael Bendahan-West, Giovanni M. Strampelli, Andrew D. James, Klaus Subbotina Stephenson, Rodrigo Ferrer-Chavez, Mark Booth, Ben J. Sutlieff, Aniket Sanghi, Clemence Fontanive, Emily Rickman, Isabel Rebollido, Kielan Hoch, William O. Balmer

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics

Exploring Joint Observation of the CSST Shear and clustering of astrophysical gravitational wave source measurements

Pengfei Su, Yan Gong, Qi Xiong et al. (+4 more)

We present a comprehensive forecast for cosmological constraints using the joint observation of the cosmic shear signal from the Chinese Space Station Survey Telescope (CSST) and the clustering signal from the next-generation gravitational wave (GW) detector networks, e.g. Einstein Telescope (ET) and Cosmic Explorer (CE). By leveraging the angular clustering of astrophysical gravitational wave sources (AGWS) from the third-generation detectors and CSST's weak lensing surveys, we develop a theoretical framework to compute auto- and cross-angular power spectra of AGWS clustering, cosmic shear, and their cross-correlation. Mock datasets are generated by considering the detector-specific selection functions, uncertainties in luminosity distance, and weak lensing systematics. We employ the Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods to constrain the $\Lambda \mathrm{CDM}$ cosmological parameters, AWGS bias parameters, and star formation rate (SFR) parameters under three detector configurations. Our results demonstrate that the joint observation can achieve sub-$5\%$ precision on $H_0$ ($2.19\%$) and $w$ ($5.7\%$). Besides, the AGWS clustering bias parameters can be constrained to the precision of $4\%-5\%$, enabling the differentiation between stellar-origin compact binaries and primordial black hole scenarios. This multi-messenger approach can also be helpful to resolve mass-redshift degeneracies in the dark siren methods, providing independent validation for the Hubble tension. Our work indicates that the joint observation of the third-generation GW detectors and the CSST can be a powerful probe of the large-scale structure and the cosmic expansion history.
Read the full abstract

All authors Pengfei Su, Yan Gong, Qi Xiong, Dingao Hu, Hengjie Lin, Furen Deng, Xuelei Chen

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics

Performance analysis of a Hadamard Transform Spectral Imaging system

John Nijim, Zoran Ninkov, Dmitry Vorobiev et al. (+1 more)

Hadamard Transform Spectral Imaging (HTSI) is a multiplexing technique used to recover spectra via encoding with multi-slit masks, and is particularly useful in low photon flux applications where signal-independent noise is the dominant noise source. This work focuses on the procedure that is used to recover spectra encoded with multi-slit masks generated from a Hadamard matrix; the decoding process involves multiplying the output encoded spectral images by the inverse of the Hadamard matrix, which separates any spectra that were overlapping in the target object. The output from HTSI is compared to direct measurement methods, such as single-slit scanning, to evaluate its performance and identify under which conditions it can provide an advantage or disadvantage. HTSI resulted in an increase in the average signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio of spectra when signal-independent noise, such as detector read noise, is present, and has no average net effect when signal dependent-noise, such as Poisson photon noise, is the only noise source present. The SNR of emission lines was found to be greater with HTSI than with single-slit scanning under both signal-independent and signal-dependent noise, and increases as the ratio of read-to-shot noise increases.
Read the full abstract

All authors John Nijim, Zoran Ninkov, Dmitry Vorobiev, Kevin Kearney

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Unexpected Near-Resonant and Metastable States of Young Multi-Planet Systems

Zhecheng Hu, Fei Dai, Wei Zhu et al. (+4 more)

Recent observations suggest that the incidence of near-resonant planets declines as planetary systems age, making young planetary systems key signposts of early dynamical evolution. Here we investigate the dynamical states of three of the youngest multi-transiting planetary systems: AU Mic (3-planet, $\sim$20-Myr-old), V1298 Tau (4-planet, $\sim$23-Myr-old), and TOI-2076 (4-planet, $\sim$200-Myr-old). We find that most planet pairs in these systems lie near resonance with circulating rather than librating resonant angles. As a result, they are more susceptible to dynamical chaos than systems that are either securely locked in resonance or far removed from it. Even modest eccentricities of 0.04 to 0.08 may drive them to instability on timescales of tens to hundreds of Myr. Moreover, the observed orbital architectures are vulnerable to eccentricity excitation through mechanisms such as divergent resonance crossing triggered by planetesimal scattering. The observed near-resonant state may represent a transitional phase between a librating resonant chains and a mature non-resonant planetary system. Finally, we briefly discuss mechanisms that could give rise to the observed near-resonant configurations, including overstable libration, disk turbulence, and receding disk inner edge.
Read the full abstract

All authors Zhecheng Hu, Fei Dai, Wei Zhu, Mu-Tian Wang, Max Goldberg, Caleb Lammers, Kento Masuda

Astrophysics of Galaxies

Photometrically Selected Protocluster Candidates at z~9-10 in the JWST COSMOS-Web field

Cossas K.-W. Wu, Chih-Teng Ling, Tomotsugu Goto et al. (+8 more)

High-redshift protoclusters are crucial for understanding the formation of galaxy clusters and the evolution of galaxies in dense environments. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), with its unprecedented near-infrared sensitivity, enables the first exploration of protoclusters beyond $z>$10. Among JWST surveys, COSMOS-Web Data Release 0.5 offers the largest area $\sim$0.27 deg$^2$, making it an optimal field for protocluster searches. In this study, we searched for protoclusters at $z\sim$9-10 using 366 F115W dropout galaxies. We evaluated the reliability of our photometric redshift by validation tests with the JADES DR3 spectroscopic sample, obtaining the likelihood of falsely identifying interlopers as $\sim25\%$. Overdensities ($\delta$) are computed by weighting galaxy positions with their photometric redshift probability density functions (PDF), using a 2.5 cMpc aperture and a redshift slice of $\pm$0.5. We selected the most promising core galaxies of protocluster candidate galaxies with an overdensity greater than the 95th percentile of the distribution of 366 F115W dropout galaxies. The member galaxies are then linked within an angular separation of 7.5 cMpc to the core galaxies, finding seven protocluster candidates. These seven protocluster candidates have inferred halo masses of $M_{\text{halo}} \sim 10^{11} M_{\odot}$. The detection of such overdensities at these redshifts provides a critical test for current cosmological simulations. However, confirming these candidates and distinguishing them from low-redshift dusty star-forming galaxies or Balmer-break galaxies will require follow-up near-infrared spectroscopic observations.
Read the full abstract

All authors Cossas K.-W. Wu, Chih-Teng Ling, Tomotsugu Goto, Amos Y.-A. Chen, Tetsuya Hashimoto, Seong Jin Kim, Simon C.-C. Ho, Ece Kilerci, Tiger Yu-Yang Hsiao, Yuri Uno, Terry Long Phan

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics

MG-NECOLA: Fast Neural Emulators for Modified Gravity Cosmologies

J. Bayron Orjuela-Quintana, Mauricio Reyes, Elena Giusarma et al. (+3 more)

Observations of the large-scale structure (LSS) provide a powerful test of gravity on cosmological scales, but high-resolution N-body simulations of modified gravity (MG) are prohibitively expensive. We present MG-NECOLA, a convolutional neural network that enhances fast MG-PICOLA simulations to near-N-body fidelity at a fraction of the cost. MG-NECOLA reproduces QUIJOTE-MG N-body results in the power spectrum and bispectrum with better than 1% accuracy down to non-linear scales ($k \simeq 1~h~\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$), while reducing computational time by several orders of magnitude. Importantly, although trained only on $f(R)$ models with massless neutrinos, the network generalizes robustly to scenarios with massive neutrinos, preserving accuracy to within 5% at non-linear scales. This combination of precision and robustness establishes MG-NECOLA as a practical emulator for producing large ensembles of high-fidelity simulations, enabling efficient exploration of modified gravity and beyond-$\Lambda$CDM cosmologies in upcoming surveys.
Read the full abstract

All authors J. Bayron Orjuela-Quintana, Mauricio Reyes, Elena Giusarma, Francisco Villaescusa-Navarro, Neerav Kaushal, César A. Valenzuela-Toledo

Wednesday 22 October

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

XRISM/Resolve Spectroscopy of the Central Engine in the Seyfert-1 AGN Mrk 279

Jon M. Miller, Xin Xiang, Doyee Byun et al. (+9 more)

High-resolution X-ray spectroscopy with XRISM gives an unprecedented view of the “central engine” in active galactic nuclei, providing unique insights into black hole accretion and feedback. We present an analysis of the first XRISM/Resolve spectrum of the Seyfert-1 galaxy Mrk 279, known for its complex line profiles and variability. The data reveal velocity components within the Fe K$_{\alpha}$ emission line that can be associated with the inner face of the molecular torus ($r \geq 10^{4}~GM/c^{2})$, the broad line region (BLR; $r = 1650^{+5780}_{-1480}~GM/c^{2}$), and the inner accretion disk ($r = 81^{+280}_{-75}~GM/c^{2}$). We find evidence of low-velocity, highly ionized gas that contributes an H-like Fe XXVI emission line at 6.97 keV, confirming suggestions from prior low-resolution spectra. The data do not show slow winds in absorption, but two pairs of lines - consistent with He-like and H-like Fe shifted by $v\simeq 0.22c$ and $v\simeq 0.33c$ - improve the fit, and could represent an ultra-fast outflow (UFO). Their addition to the model only reduces the Akaike Information Criterion by 3.6 and 3.5, respectively, signaling modest support. Additional observations are needed to definitively test for the presence of fast X-ray winds in Mrk 279. We discuss these results in the context of the geometry of the central engine in AGN, emerging trends in XRISM studies of AGN, and the nature of the potential UFOs.
Read the full abstract

All authors Jon M. Miller, Xin Xiang, Doyee Byun, Ehud Behar, Laura Brenneman, Edward Cackett, Elisa Costantini, Luigi Gallo, Keith Horne, Elias Kammoun, Chen Li, Abderahmen Zoghbi

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Impact of the nuclear equation of state on the explodability of massive stars

Jade Powell and Bernhard Müller

In recent years, astrophysical observations have placed tight constraints on key properties of the nuclear equation of state (EoS). Using 93 two-dimensional simulations for three different EoS compatible with the current tight constraints, we show that the EoS remains a major uncertainty for the outcome of core-collapse supernovae. Whereas explosions are obtained in most cases for the SFHo and SFHx EoS, for the CMF EoS, which includes a crossover from nucleonic matter to a quark phase, explosions occur only for 2 out of 15 progenitors. Less favourable conditions for neutrino-driven explosions arise for the CMF EoS due to lower neutrino luminosities and mean energies and slightly weaker contraction of the warm proto-neutron star. Our results suggest that the explodability of massive stars cannot yet be predicted based on first principles without better knowledge of the nuclear EoS. Conversely, observational constraints on stellar explodability may help further constrain the EoS.
Read the full abstract

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

Discovery of 79 $\delta$ Scuti Stars in NGC 3532 Suggests a Decrease of Pulsator Occurrence with Age

Ian Berry, Daniel Huber, Yaguang Li et al. (+3 more)

Many A-F type stars do not display $\delta$ Scuti pulsations, despite being located within the instability strip. Open clusters provide a unique opportunity to study $\delta$ Scuti pulsations among coeval populations with uniform chemical composition. Here we use data from the TESS Mission to discover 79 $\delta$ Scuti pulsators in the 300 Myr old open cluster NGC 3532, the largest number found within a single open cluster to-date. We report a $50\pm5\%$ pulsator fraction in NGC 3532, considerably lower than in younger stellar populations, such the Pleiades (110 Myr), NGC 2516 (100 Myr), and the Cep-Her Complex ($\leq\,$80 Myr), and similar to the pulsator fraction found among field star samples. We introduce the concept of pulsator occurrence, which corrects for incompleteness, and find it to be $63\pm6\%$. For the stars that do pulsate, we find that the hotter stars occupy a distinct branch in the color-magnitude diagram (CMD) due to faster rotation ($>\,$150 km/s) than their non-pulsating counterparts. These results suggest that pulsator occurrence decreases with age and that rapid rotation is important in maintaining $\delta$ Scuti pulsations over time. We also investigate the Period-Luminosity (P-L) relation and the $\nu_{\rm max}$–$T_{\rm eff}$ relation of $\delta$ Scuti stars in NGC 3532. We find much scatter in the P-L relation of the dominant mode and two distinct branches in the $\nu_{\rm max}$–$T_{\rm eff}$ relation, similar to the Cep-Her Complex.
Read the full abstract

All authors Ian Berry, Daniel Huber, Yaguang Li, Daniel Hey, Timothy R. Bedding, Simon J. Murphy

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

Dephasing in binary black hole mergers surrounded by scalar wave dark matter clouds

Cheng-Hsin Cheng, Giuseppe Ficarra and Helvi Witek

Scalar fields of masses between $10^{-21}\rm{eV}/c^2$ and $10^{-11} \rm{eV}/c^2$ can exhibit enhanced gravitational interactions with black holes, and form scalar clouds around them. Such a cloud modifies the dynamics of a coalescing black-hole binary, and the resulting gravitational waves may provide a new channel to detect light scalar fields, such as axion-like particles or wave-like dark matter candidates. In this work we simulate a series of black-hole mergers with mass ratios $q=1$ and $q=1/2$, immersed in an scalar field overdensity with masses in the range $M\mu_{\rm{S}} \in[0,1.0]$. To do so, we implemented a constraint-satisfying initial data solver based on the puncture method, we improved the accuracy of our open-source software Canuda to eighth order finite differences, and we reduced the initial orbital eccentricity. We investigate the impact of the scalar mass on the gravitational and scalar radiation. We find that binaries can undergo a delayed or an accelerated merger with respect to the vacuum. Our study highlights the challenge and importance of accurately modeling black-hole binaries in dark matter environments.
Read the full abstract

Astrophysics of Galaxies

Understanding Interstellar Metals during Reionization with Radiative SPH Simulation: Metallicity and Emission Lines from the ISM at $10 \geq z \geq 5$

Samir Kusmic, Kristian Finlator, Ezra Huscher et al. (+1 more)

We compare the Technicolor Dawn cosmological simulations with recent observations of galactic nebular line emission during the Epoch of Reionization, providing stringent tests of the predicted ionization and metal enrichment levels. We validate the simulated population with the UVLF and $M_{\mathrm{UV}}-M_*$ relation and see that the simulated results are consistent with observations at lower masses. We extract local gas volumetric grids of density and mass-weighted metallicity, then we use Cloudy to produce synthetic emission spectra of \species{H}{ii} regions. The mass-metallicity relation does not evolve, which is also consistent with observations. The predicted oxygen abundance exceeds observational inferences by about 0.5 dex, suggesting either overly efficient enrichment or weak feedback. However, applying the O32 diagnostic directly to our synthetic spectra shows an offset of 1 dex from the correct outputted gas-phase metallicity. This suggests that O32 is biased high at a level that is more than sufficient to account for the simulation-observation offset. The simulated galaxies' line diagnostics show mostly weaker [\species{O}{iii}] lines and lower diagnostic values of O3 and Ne3O2 compared to observations. This suggests higher ionization parameters within the simulated galactic population in general.
Read the full abstract

All authors Samir Kusmic, Kristian Finlator, Ezra Huscher, Maya Steen

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics

Living on the edge: Testing for compact population features at the edges of parameter space

Asad Hussain, Maximiliano Isi and Aaron Zimmerman

Many astrophysical population studies involve parameters that exist on a bounded domain, such as the dimensionless spins of black holes or the eccentricities of planetary orbits, both of which are confined to $[0, 1]$. In such scenarios, we often wish to test for distributions clustered near a boundary, e.g., vanishing spin or orbital eccentricity. Conventional approaches – whether based on Monte Carlo, kernel density estimators, or machine-learning techniques – often suffer biases at the boundaries. These biases stem from sparse sampling near the edge, kernel-related smoothing, or artifacts introduced by domain transformations. We introduce a truncated Gaussian mixture model framework that substantially mitigates these issues, enabling accurate inference of narrow, edge-dominated population features. While our method has broad applications to many astronomical domains, we consider gravitational wave catalogs as a concrete example to demonstrate its power. In particular, we maintain agreement with published constraints on the fraction of zero-spin binary black hole systems in the GWTC-3 catalog – results originally derived at much higher computational cost through dedicated reanalysis of individual events in the catalog. Our method can achieve similarly reliable results with a much lower computational cost. The method is publicly available in the open-source packages gravpop and truncatedgaussianmixtures.
Read the full abstract

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics

Eppur non si trovano: Comments on the Primordial Black Hole Limits in the Galactic Halo

P. Mróz, A. Udalski, M.K. Szymański et al. (+13 more)

In a recent arXiv post, Hawkins & Garcia-Bellido raised doubts on the results of 20-yr long OGLE photometric monitoring, which did not find a large number of gravitational microlensing events in the direction of the Magellanic Clouds. These results implied that primordial black holes and other compact objects with masses from 10^{-8} to 10^3 M_solar cannot comprise a substantial fraction of the Milky Way dark matter halo. Unfortunately, the Hawkins & Garcia-Bellido post contained a number of scientific misrepresentations of our work. Here, we demonstrate that their arguments lack a solid basis or are simply incorrect. As we show below, "and yet they are not found" - compact objects (including primordial black holes) in the dark halo of the Milky Way remain undetected, despite extensive searches.
Read the full abstract

All authors P. Mróz, A. Udalski, M.K. Szymański, I. Soszyński, Ł. Wyrzykowski, P. Pietrukowicz, S. Kozłowski, R. Poleski, J. Skowron, D. Skowron, K. Ulaczyk, M. Gromadzki, K. Rybicki, P. Iwanek, M. Wrona, M. Ratajczak

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

The late formation of chondrites as a consequence of Jupiter-induced gaps and rings

Baibhav Srivastava and André Izidoro

The accretion ages of the first planetesimals-the parent bodies of magmatic iron meteorites-suggest they formed within the first 0.5-1 Myr of Solar System history. Yet, planetesimal formation appears to have occurred in at least two distinct phases. A temporal offset separates early-forming bodies from later-forming chondrite parent bodies, which accreted 2-3 Myr after the Solar System onset - an unresolved aspect of Solar System formation. Here we use numerical simulations to show that Jupiter's early formation reshaped its natal protoplanetary disk. Jupiter's rapid growth depleted the inner disk gas and generated pressure bumps and dust traps that manifested as rings. These structures caused dust to accumulate and led to a second-generation planetesimal population, with ages matching those of non-carbonaceous chondrites. Meanwhile, the evolving gas structure suppressed terrestrial embryos' inward migration, preventing them from reaching the innermost regions. Jupiter likely played a key role in shaping the inner Solar System, consistent with structures observed in Class II and transition disks.
Read the full abstract

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

Magnetic flux cancellation in the solar atmosphere through 3D realistic numerical modeling

F. Moreno-Insertis, V. H. Hansteen and D. Nóbrega-Siverio

We present a radiation-magnetohydrodynamics (RMHD) simulation of a magnetic cancellation event. The model is calculated with the Bifrost code and spans from the uppermost convection zone to the corona. The cancellation occurs between the positive polarity of an emerged magnetic bipole and a preexisting negative polarity. We try both to understand the RMHD aspects as well as to carry out comparison to observations, in part via spectral synthesis of optically thick photospheric and chromospheric lines using the RH1.5D code, and optically thin coronal ones. The reconnection between the opposite flux systems takes place at chromospheric heights through a quasi-separatrix layer without null points. Sharp V-shaped upward-moving field lines and highly warped downward-moving post-reconnection loops are created. The chromospheric reconnection is in full swing when the colliding magnetic patches are still separated by a granular cell at the photosphere. In a later phase, photospheric cancellation takes place with submergence of the closed magnetic loops linking the opposite polarities. We carry out comparisons with the observations of the photospheric magnetic flux loss rates, as well as of the horizontal magnetic field and vertical velocity at the polarity inversion line. The reconnection outflows cause intensity brightenings, jets and different spectral features in the synthesized chromospheric spectral lines, strongly reminiscent of those found in recent observations. Coherent, twisted magnetic flux ropes are created by the flows associated with the process. Including coronal levels is crucial for proper modeling, even if no major ejection or brightening is produced in the corona in this event.
Read the full abstract

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

A comprehensive grid of massive binary evolution models for the Galaxy - Surface properties of post-mass transfer stars

Harim Jin, Norbert Langer, Andrea Ercolino et al. (+1 more)

Massive stars often evolve in binary systems, in which binary interactions significantly affect their evolution. Massive stars in the Galaxy serve as valuable testbeds for this due to their proximity. We computed the evolution of more than 38000 galactic binary systems with initial primary star masses of 5...100 Msun. In this paper, we aim to investigate the surface properties of post-mass transfer mass donor and mass gainer stars through core hydrogen burning, core helium burning, and for the pre-supernova stage. The models are computed with MESA, incorporating detailed stellar and binary physics, including internal differential rotation, magnetic angular momentum transport, mass-dependent overshooting, stellar wind mass-loss, mass and angular momentum transfer and tidal interaction. They incorporate a new extensive nuclear network for hydrogen burning, which allows us to track the full range of hydrogen burning nucleosynthesis products, from the light elements to aluminum. The widest, non-interacting binary models in our grid effectively serve as single star models. We find that mass gainers and mass donors may evolve through long-lived blue and yellow supergiant stages during core helium burning where single stars of the same mass remain red supergiants. Furthermore, some of our gainers evolve into more luminous yellow and blue supergiants prior to core collapse than single stars, while some donors end their life as red or yellow supergiants, showing a rich diversity in supernova progenitors. We show that the surface elemental and isotopic abundances carry valuable information about a star's evolutionary history and can be used to distinguish binary interaction products from single stars. Our binary model grid may serve as a tool for identifying post-mass transfer stars and supernovae, and holds potential for population studies, supernova modeling, and guidance of future observations.
Read the full abstract

All authors Harim Jin, Norbert Langer, Andrea Ercolino, Selma E. de Mink

Astrophysics of Galaxies

Rapid, out of equilibrium metal enrichment indicated by a flat mass-metallicity relation at z~6 from NIRCam grism spectroscopy

Gauri Kotiwale, Jorryt Matthee, Daichi Kashino et al. (+17 more)

We aim to characterise the mass-metallicity relation (MZR) and the 3D correlation between stellar mass, metallicity and star-formation rate (SFR) known as the fundamental metallicity relation (FMR) for galaxies at $5<z<7$. Using $\sim800$ [O III] selected galaxies from deep NIRCam grism surveys, we present our stacked measurements of direct-$T\rm_e$ metallicities, which we use to test recent strong-line metallicity calibrations. Our measured direct-$T\rm_e$ metallicities ($0.1$-$0.2\,\rm Z_\odot$ for M$_\star$ $\approx5\times10^{7-9}$ M$_{\odot}$, respectively) match recent JWST/NIRSpec-based results. However, there are significant inconsistencies between observations and hydrodynamical simulations. We observe a flatter MZR slope than the SPHINX$^{20}$ and FLARES simulations, which cannot be attributed to selection effects. With simple models, we show that the effect of an [O III] flux-limited sample on the observed shape of the MZR is strongly dependent on the FMR. If the FMR is similar to the one in the local Universe, the intrinsic high-redshift MZR should be even flatter than observed. In turn, a 3D relation where SFR correlates positively with metallicity at fixed mass would imply an intrinsically steeper MZR. Our measurements indicate that metallicity variations at fixed mass show little dependence on the SFR, suggesting a flat intrinsic MZR. This could indicate that the low-mass galaxies at these redshifts are out of equilibrium and that metal enrichment occurs rapidly in low-mass galaxies. However, being limited by our stacking analysis, we are yet to probe the scatter in the MZR and its dependence on SFR. Large carefully selected samples of galaxies with robust metallicity measurements can put tight constraints on the high-redshift FMR and, help to understand the interplay between gas flows, star formation and feedback in early galaxies.
Read the full abstract

All authors Gauri Kotiwale, Jorryt Matthee, Daichi Kashino, Aswin P. Vijayan, Alberto Torralba, Claudia Di Cesare, Edoardo Iani, Rongmon Bordoloi, Joel Leja, Michael V. Maseda, Sandro Tacchella, Irene Shivaei, Kasper E. Heintz, A. Lola Danhaive, Sara Mascia, Ivan Kramarenko, Benjamín Navarrete, Ruari Mackenzie, Rohan P. Naidu, David Sobral

Astrophysics of Galaxies

Targeting cluster galaxies for the 4MOST CHANCES Low-z sub-survey with photometric redshifts

Hugo Méndez-Hernández, Ciria Lima-Dias, Antonela Monachesi et al. (+54 more)

The evolution of galaxies is shaped by both internal processes and their external environments. Galaxy clusters and their surroundings provide ideal laboratories to study these effects, particularly mechanisms such as quenching and morphological transformation. The Chilean Cluster galaxy Evolution Survey (CHANCES) Low-z sub-survey is part of the CHileAN Cluster galaxy Evolution Survey, a 4MOST community survey designed to uncover the relationship between the formation and evolution of galaxies and hierarchical structure formation as it happens, through deep and wide multi-object spectroscopy. We present the target selection strategy followed to select galaxy cluster candidate members for the CHANCES low-z sub-survey, in and around 50 clusters and two superclusters at z<0.07, out to (5XR200) and down to mr= 20.4. Combining public photometric redshift estimates from the DESI Legacy Imaging Survey and T80S/S-PLUS iDR5, with custom photometric redshifts, we identify likely galaxy cluster candidate members whose photometric redshifts are consistent with being at the known redshift of the cluster and measure the average deviations of their photometric redshifts with respect to the spectroscopic redshift measurements {\sigma}NMAD. We have successfully compiled our CHANCES-low-redshift catalogues, split into three different sub-surveys: low-z bright (mr<18.5), low-z faint (18.5<=mr<20.4) and low-z faint supplementary, by selecting>= 500,000 galaxy cluster candidate members and including confirmed spectroscopic galaxy cluster members, from which we expect to obtain 4MOST low-resolution (R~6500) spectra for ~320,000 galaxies. The CHANCES Low-z target catalogues form a statistically robust sample for spectroscopic follow-up, allowing studies of galaxy evolution and environmental effects in nearby cluster and supercluster environments.
Read the full abstract

All authors Hugo Méndez-Hernández, Ciria Lima-Dias, Antonela Monachesi, Yara L. Jaffé, Christopher P. Haines, Gabriel S. M. Teixeira, Elismar Lösch, Raúl Baier-Soto, Erik V. R. Lima, Amrutha B. M., C. R. Bom, Giuseppe D'Ago, Ricardo Demarco, Alexis Finoguenov, Rodrigo F. Haack, Amanda R. Lopes, C. Mendes de Oliveira, Paola Merluzzi, Franco Piraino-Cerda, Analía V. Smith Castelli, Cristobal Sif'on, Laerte Sodré Jr, Nicolás Tejos, Sergio Torres-Flores, Maria Argudo-Fernández, Jacob P. Crossett, E. Ibar, Ulrike Kuchner, Ivan Lacerna, Vitor H. Lopes-Silva, Sebastián Lopez, Sean McGee, Lorenzo Morelli, Julie Nantais, Patricio Olivares V., Diego Pallero, Bianca M. Poggianti, Emanuela Pompei, V. M. Sampaio, Benedetta Vulcani, Alfredo Zenteno, F. Almeida-Fernandes, Maciej Bilicki, M.S. Carvalho, Cheng Cheng, A. L. Figueiredo, L. A. Gutiérrez-Soto, F. R. Herpich, A. Kanaan, E A. D. Lacerda, L. Nakazono, G.B. Oliveira Schwarz, T. Ribeiro, Boudewijn F. Roukema, Marília J. Sartori, Thaís Santos-Silva, W. Schoenell

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Discovery of a Nearby Habitable Zone Super-Earth Candidate Amenable to Direct Imaging

Corey Beard, Paul Robertson, Jack Lubin et al. (+31 more)

We present the discovery of GJ 251 c, a candidate super-Earth orbiting in the Habitable Zone (HZ) of its M dwarf host star. Using high-precision Habitable-zone Planet Finder (HPF) and NEID RVs, in conjunction with archival RVs from the Keck I High Resolution Echelle Spectrometer (HIRES), the Calar Alto high-Resolution search for M dwarfs with Exoearths with Near-infrared and optical Echelle Spectrograph (CARMENES), and the SPectropolarimètre InfraROUge (SPIRou), we improve the measured parameters of the known planet, GJ 251 b ($P_{b}$ = 14.2370 days; $m \sin(i)$ = 3.85$^{+0.35}_{-0.33}$ M$_{\oplus}$), and we significantly constrain the minimum mass of GJ 251 c, placing it in a plausibly terrestrial regime (P$_{c}$ = 53.647 $\pm$ 0.044 days; $ m \sin i_{c}$ = 3.84 $\pm$ 0.75 M$_{\oplus}$). Using activity mitigation techniques that leverage chromatic information content, we perform a color-dependent analysis of the system and a detailed comparison of more than 50 models that describe the nature of the planets and stellar activity in the system. Due to GJ 251's proximity to Earth (5.5 pc), next generation, thirty meter class telescopes will likely be able to image terrestrial planets in GJ 251's HZ. In fact, GJ 251 c is currently the best candidate for terrestrial, HZ planet imaging in the Northern Sky.
Read the full abstract

All authors Corey Beard, Paul Robertson, Jack Lubin, Eric B. Ford, Suvrath Mahadevan, Gudmundur Stefansson, Jason T. Wright, Eric Wolf, Vincent Kofman, Vidya Venkatesan, Ravi Kopparapu, Roan Arendtsz, Rae Holcomb, Raquel A. Martinez, Stephanie Sallum, Jacob K. Luhn, Chad F. Bender, Cullen H. Blake, William D. Cochran, Megan Delamer, Scott A. Diddams, Michael Endl, Samuel Halverson, Shubham Kanodia, Daniel M. Krolikowski, Andrea S.J. Lin, Sarah E. Logsdon, Michael W. McElwain, Andrew Monson, Joe P. Ninan, Jayadev Rajagopal, Arpita Roy, Christian Schwab, Ryan C. Terrien

Astrophysics of Galaxies

Tidally-induced radial migration waves in LMC-like galaxies

Dylan Hebrail, Óscar Jiménez-Arranz and Santi Roca-Fàbrega

Stellar radial migration has predominantly been examined in isolated disc galaxies where non-axisymmetric structures drive the process. By contrast, while tidal interactions are known for having an influence, their contribution remains comparatively under explored. The LMC, the nearest disc galaxy to the Milky Way (MW) and currently interacting with the SMC, provides a unique laboratory to investigate this interplay. We aim to quantify the impact of tidal interactions on radial migration and metallicity distribution in high-resolution simulations of LMC-like disc galaxies. We leverage a subsample of KRATOS, a suite of 28 pure $N$-body simulations of the LMC-SMC-MW system. Specifically, we use 6 simulations of both isolated and interacting LMC-like galaxies, exploring different values of the Toomre stellar parameter $Q$. These simulations allow to map the evolution of the stars' guiding radii $R_g(t)$ and compute radial migration fluxes in interacting systems and compare with their isolated counterparts, allowing to quantify the link between tidal interactions, radial migration, non-axisymmetric patterns, disc internal stability, and radial metallicity distribution. We present tidally-triggered wave-like radial migration fluxes reaching up to $\sim40\%$ of disc stellar mass per Gyr. This wave-like migration appears during the satellite's pericentre passages, almost independently of $Q$ and induces a metallicity drop of $\sim$3-5% of the isolated galaxy's maximum metallicity in the inner disc. Additionally, in the isolated simulations, the extent of variation in the bar's resonance region coincides with the mixing zones in the metallicity distribution. We propose a novel description of a wave-like radial migration flux as a dynamical response of a galaxy undergoing tidal interactions and sketch its impact on the galaxy's metallicity distribution.
Read the full abstract

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics

Confirming the uniformity of the Hubble flow with Pantheon+ Supernovae

Xiaoyun Shao and Carlos A. P. Bengaly

According to the perturbed Friedmann model, the difference between Hubble constant measurements in two rest frames, at leading order in velocity, is determined solely by the relative motion of the observers and remains unaffected by the peculiar velocities of the sources. This implies that, when averaging over a sufficiently large and distant set of sources where local nonlinear inhomogeneities are diminished, such a difference should vanish, so that the Hubble flow is statistically uniform, as predicted by the Cosmological Principle – a core assumption of the standard cosmological paradigm. In previous works, distance measurement compilations, e.g. the CosmicFlows-3 catalogue, were used for this purpose, as it comprises a large number ($\sim 10^4$) of sources of different types. Due to the increasing amount of precise luminosity distance measurements of Type Ia Supenovae (SNe) in the last few years, in this work we investigate whether we can confirm the uniformity of the Hubble flow with low-$z$ SN distances only. By means of the Pantheon+ and SH0ES compilation, we find that the results align well with previous works based on the CF3 catalogue, and are in good agreement with the expected Hubble variance in the standard model across cosmic scales of $20-150$ Mpc. Notably, the Hubble constant difference $\Delta H_0 \approx 0$ is observed at around $85$ Mpc. Despite the smaller sample size ($\sim 10^2$ versus $\sim 10^4$) relative to CF3 at those scales, our analysis show that the Pantheon+ and SH0ES dataset supports the standard model paradigm, which indicates that the Hubble flow becomes statistically uniform at around $70-100$ Mpc, which is compatible with independent determinations of the homogeneity scale based on galaxy number counts.
Read the full abstract

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics

Determining the Hubble Constant through Cross-Correlation of Galaxies and Gravitational Waves

Jiaming Pan, Dragan Huterer, Camille Avestruz et al. (+4 more)

Gravitational wave (GW) standard sirens have the potential to measure the Hubble constant $H_0$ in the local universe independently of the distance ladder, and thus offer unique new insights into the Hubble tension. A key challenge with standard sirens is detecting their electromagnetic counterparts, and therefore assigning redshifts to the measured distances. One promising way to proceed is to utilize GW `dark sirens' – events without an identified electromagnetic counterpart – and cross-correlate their angular distribution with that of galaxies. We present a quantitative study of how precisely the Hubble constant can be measured using tomographic cross-correlation between galaxies and GW sources. Overall, we find that the constraints on $H_0$ will be limited by the quality and quantity of GW data. We find that percent-level constraints on $H_0$ will primarily depend on achieving small distance uncertainties ($\sigma_{d_L}=0.1\,d_L$), obtaining a large number of GW dark sirens ($\gtrsim$$5{,}000$), and accurate sky localization in the tomographic analysis.
Read the full abstract

All authors Jiaming Pan, Dragan Huterer, Camille Avestruz, Damon H. T. Cheung, Emery Trott, Neal Dalal, Donghui Jeong

Astrophysics of Galaxies

An accurate measure of the size of dark matter halos using the size of galaxies

Claudio Dalla Vecchia and Ignacio Trujillo

The physically motivated definition of galaxy size proposed recently, linked to the farther location of the in situ star formation, considerably reduces the scatter of the galaxy mass-size relation and provides a viable method to infer the galaxy stellar mass from its size. We provide a similar relation correlating the size of galaxies with the size of their dark matter haloes by leveraging the small scatter of the aforementioned relation. We analysed the simulated galaxies of the two main cosmological volumes of the EAGLE simulations and computed the size of the galaxies and their mass when mimicking the observational analysis. For central galaxies, we computed the relation between galaxy size and halo size. We show that the simulated galaxies reproduce the observed stellar mass-size relation's normalisation and slope. The scatter of this relation, 0.06 dex, matches the intrinsic scatter measured in observation. We then computed the correlation between galaxy size and halo size and found that the relation is steeper than when using the half-mass radius as a measure of size, with the scatter (0.1 dex) being a factor of two smaller than the observed relation. As well, the galaxy-to-halo mass relation derived from the simulations provides a factor of two better scatter than the observed scatter. This opens the possibility of measuring the size of dark matter haloes with greater accuracy (less than 50%, i.e. around six times better than using the effective radius) by using only deep imaging data.
Read the full abstract

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

On the Evolution of Disk-Embedded Binaries: Framing Local Models in Global Context

Philip Kirkeberg, Rixin Li and Martin E. Pessah

The disks of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) have in recent years been recognized as possible sites for gravitational wave sources, leading to a series of numerical studies on the evolution of disk-embedded black hole binaries. The majority of these works have been carried out so far using the shearing box, a local Cartesian domain co-rotating with the binary center-of-mass around the supermassive black hole. The local nature of this framework allows for focusing computational power close to the binary at the expense of detaching the gas flow around the binary from the global dynamics. In this paper, we provide a framework to assess the applicability of the shearing box for studying the long-term evolution of the orbital elements of the embedded binary in viscous hydrodynamic disks. We accomplish this by identifying the conditions under which relevant global timescales are longer than the gas-induced evolution timescale of the embedded binary across various AGN disk models. For black hole masses of interest, we report the existence of radii beyond which the global influence of the disk may be reasonably neglected, supporting the use of the shearing box. More generally, we introduce a systematic approach to link local simulations with the global problem they aim to approximate while providing a way to gauge their accuracy. This will prove to be essential as we seek to add additional physics, such as magnetic fields and radiative transport, to develop more realistic models for black hole binary mergers and their potential electromagnetic signatures in AGN disks.
Read the full abstract

Astrophysics of Galaxies

Introducing RAFIKI: Refining AGN Feedback in Kinetic Implementations

Skylar Grayson, Evan Scannapieco, Romeel Davé et al. (+2 more)

Modern cosmological simulations have now matured to the point of reproducing the evolution of realistic galaxy populations across cosmic time. These simulations rely on feedback from active galactic nuclei (AGN) to quench massive galaxies, yet the details of this process remain poorly understood. To address this issue, we introduce RAFIKI (Refining AGN Feedback In Kinetic Implementations), a novel suite of simulations built upon SIMBA-C that vary the mass loading of AGN-driven winds. Unlike the fiducial SIMBA-C simulation, RAFIKI separates the efficiencies of the two kinetic feedback modes, enabling a detailed study of their impact on galaxies, black holes, and the circumgalactic medium. We explore a range of galaxy and baryon properties in the RAFIKI runs and find that even with enhanced mass loading, the lower-velocity, quasar-type mode cannot quench massive galaxies. However, it plays a significant role in regulating black hole growth and star formation in intermediate-mass galaxies. We also uncover degeneracies in the parameter space that highlight the limited current constraints on AGN feedback. RAFIKI provides a controlled framework to disentangle these degeneracies using current and upcoming observations.
Read the full abstract

All authors Skylar Grayson, Evan Scannapieco, Romeel Davé, Arif Babul, Renier T. Hough

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Pristine ices in a planet-forming disk revealed by heavy water

Margot Leemker, John J. Tobin, Stefano Facchini et al. (+4 more)

Water is essential to our understanding of the planet-formation process and habitability on Earth. Although trace amounts of water are seen across all phases of star and planet formation, the bulk of the water reservoir often goes undetected, hiding crucial parts of its journey from giant molecular clouds to planets. This raises the question of whether water molecules in comets and (exo-)planets is largely inherited from the interstellar medium or if the water molecules are destroyed and then reformed in the disk. Water isotopologue ratios involving doubly deuterated water (D$_2$O) are a sensitive tracer to answer this question. We present strong evidence of inheritance through an enhancement of D$_2$O in the outbursting V883 Ori disk. The high D$_2$O/H$_2$O ratio of $(3.2 \pm 1.2) \times 10^{-5}$ is consistent with values seen in protostellar envelopes and a comet and is two orders of magnitude higher than expected if water is reprocessed. The high deuteration of the heaviest isotopologues D$_2$O/HDO = $(2.3 \pm 1.0) \times $HDO/H$_2$O further establishes the inheritance of water. We conclude that water ice in disks originates from the earliest phases of star formation, providing the missing link between cold dark clouds and (exo-)comets.
Read the full abstract

All authors Margot Leemker, John J. Tobin, Stefano Facchini, Pietro Curone, Alice S. Booth, Kenji Furuya, Merel L. R. van 't Hoff

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

Constraining the Swift Memory Burden Effect with GW250114-like Events

Chen Yuan and Richard Brito

Black hole spectroscopy allows to infer the properties of the remnant of a binary black hole coalescence. Motivated by the recent proposal that a black hole's information load can alter its classical response to small perturbations, an effect known as the swift memory burden (SMB), we develop a minimal phenomenological framework to analyze the ringdown of a binary black hole merger and confront it with the data from the GW250114 event. In particular, we model the SMB imprint through a suppression factor derived as an upper bound and adopt the least-suppressive form. We perform a Bayesian analysis combining the frequencies of the (220) and (440) quasi-normal modes and obtain a lower bound $\log_{10}p \gtrsim 2$, where $p$ controls how the gaps reopen when the black hole's master mode occupation departs from the critical value. Moreover, using a Fisher information matrix (high signal-to-noise ratio) approximation, we forecast the lower bound $\log_{10}p \gtrsim 3$ for a GW250114-like event observed with Cosmic Explorer or Einstein Telescope. Within this minimal, weak-effect framework, our results disfavour rapid gap reopening, shedding light on how the swift memory burden effect can be probed with current and next-generation detectors.
Read the full abstract