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Physics Astrophysics

astro-ph Watch Astrophysics

Tuesday 28 October

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Sculpting protoplanetary discs – modelling circumbinary cavities at observable scales with radiation hydrodynamics

Anna B.T. Penzlin, Alexandros Ziampras, Nicolas T. Kurtovic et al. (+2 more)

Observations of circumbinary discs reveal inner cavities, with their shape and size varying strongly between different systems. The structure of the cavity is determined by the complex interplay between spirals induced by tidal forcing from the binary and the viscous and radiative damping of the spirals at the cavity edge. To fully understand what determines the properties of observed cavities, it is therefore necessary to capture the effect of radiative processes in modelling. To this end, we run 27 simulations of circumbinary discs in 2D using the PLUTO code. These simulations include various size scales, binary eccentricities and thermodynamic models. We find that the diverse cavity shapes are a natural outcome of the radially-varying cooling timescale, as different radiative processes mediate cooling at different disc size regimes. For binaries with separation of a few au, where the cooling timescale is comparable to the orbital timescale at the cavity edge, we recover much more circular cavities than for quickly- or slowly-cooling discs. Our results show that the cavity structure around several binary systems such as Cs Cha and GG Tau can be explained with one physical model, and highlight the importance of radiative cooling in modelling the dynamical evolution of circumbinary discs.
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All authors Anna B.T. Penzlin, Alexandros Ziampras, Nicolas T. Kurtovic, Marcelo Barraza-Alfaro, Paola Pinilla

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Micro-Doppler signatures and object characterisation of space debris with radio telescopes

Guifré Molera Calvés, Shinji Horiuchi, Edwin Peters et al. (+2 more)

This study presents a novel multi-static radar technique for space debris characterisation using micro-Doppler signatures, developed within the Southern Hemisphere Asteroid Radar Programme (SHARP). The method employs C-band continuous waveforms transmitted from NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) Canberra station, with reflected signals captured by distributed ground-based telescopes converted from astronomical to radar operations. From March 2021 to September 2025, we conducted systematic observations of 20 distinct rocket bodies at various orbital altitudes and object sizes. Micro-Doppler analysis of axial rotation signatures enabled extraction of rotation periods, object dimensions, surface characteristics, and mass distribution parameters with enhanced accuracy in orbital refinement. We implemented advanced imaging reconstruction techniques to generate morphology data of the targets. Results demonstrate successful determination of debris rotation periods with second-level precision, dimensional estimates within 10% accuracy compared to known specifications, and improved orbital parameter determination reducing position uncertainties by up to 30%. The technique provides a cost-effective approach for space situational awareness, leveraging existing astronomical infrastructure to enhance Australia's sovereign capabilities in tracking both near-Earth objects and space debris. This multi-static configuration offers significant advantages over traditional monostatic radar systems for geostationary and highly elliptical orbit debris monitoring.
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All authors Guifré Molera Calvés, Shinji Horiuchi, Edwin Peters, Ed Kruzins, Nick Stacy

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Pulse profile variations in the accreting X-ray pulsar Vela X-1

V. Madurga-Favieres, A. Martin-Carrillo, C. M. Diez et al. (+7 more)

Vela X-1 is a well-studied accreting X-ray pulsar, with a distinctive pulse profile that has been found to be very similar in different observations spread out over decades. On the other hand, significant variations down to the timescale of individual pulses have been observed. The physical mechanisms leading to the energy-resolved pulse profile and its variations are not fully understood. Long, uninterrupted observations of Vela X-1 with XMM-Newton in 2000, 2006 and 2019 at different orbital phases allow us to study variations of the pulse properties in the soft X-ray range on all timescales in detail. We aim to characterize and quantify the variations of pulse profiles and individual pulse cycles on all timescales probed, and to identify possible factors driving the observed variations on these timescales. We generated consistent energy-resolved pulse profiles for each observation, as well as profiles built from subsets of individual pulse cycles selected by time, flux, or similarity to the mean profiles. We identified five pulsed phases based on the profile morphology and hardness, and examined the relative contributions over time. To quantify short-timescale variability, we compared individual pulse cycles with synthetic light curves derived from scaled versions of the average profiles. The pulse profile of Vela X-1, when averaged over many pulse cycles, remains remarkably stable, as expected. The most prominent variations between epochs are attributable to changes in absorption. Residual systematic differences are primarily flux-dependent, with profiles showing less variability at higher flux levels. On shorter timescales, most individual pulse cycles resemble the average profile, even though significant, sporadic deviations are also present.
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All authors V. Madurga-Favieres, A. Martin-Carrillo, C. M. Diez, F. Fürst, S. Martínez-Núñez, V. Grinberg, L. Abalo, I. El Mellah, P. Tzanavaris, P. Kretschmar

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

XRISM/Resolve reveals the complex iron structure of NGC 7213: Evidence for radial stratification between inner disk and broad-line region

E. Kammoun, T. Kawamuro, K. Murakami et al. (+49 more)

We present the first high-resolution X-ray spectrum of NGC 7213 obtained with XRISM/Resolve, supported by simultaneous XMM-Newton, NuSTAR, and SOAR optical data. The XRISM spectrum resolves the neutral Fe\,K$\alpha$ into two components: a narrow core ($\rm FWHM = 650_{-220}^{+240}\,\rm km\,s^{-1}$) consistent with emission at the dust sublimation radius, and a broader, asymmetric line best described by disk-like emission from $\sim 100\,\rm R_{g}$. This disk component mirrors the profile of the double-peaked H$\alpha$ line observed in the optical. In addition, we detect broadened Fe XXV and Fe XXVI emission lines whose inferred locations bridge the gap between the inner disk and the optical broad-line region. The weak narrow Fe K$\alpha$ equivalent width ($\rm EW = 32 \pm 6\,eV$) and absence of a Compton hump imply a low-covering-fraction, Compton-thin torus. Together, these results reveal a radially stratified structure in NGC 7213, spanning nearly four orders of magnitude in radius, and place the source in an intermediate accretion state ($\rm \lambda_{Edd} = 0.001-0.01$) where the inner disk and BLR remain, while the torus shows signs of dissipation.
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All authors E. Kammoun, T. Kawamuro, K. Murakami, S. Bianchi, F. Nicastro, A. Luminari, E. Aydi, M. Eracleous, O. K. Adegoke, E. Bertola, P. G. Boorman, V. Braito, G. Bruni, A. Comastri, P. Condò, M. Dadina, T. Enoto, J. A. García, V. E. Gianolli, F. A. Harrison, G. Lanzuisi, M. Laurenti, A. Marinucci, G. Mastroserio, H. Matsumoto, G. Matt, G. Matzeu, R. Middei, E. Nardini, H. Noda, H. Odaka, S. Ogawa, F. Panessa, E. Piconcelli, C. Pinto, J. M. Piotrowska, G. Ponti, C. Ricci, R. Ricci, R. Serafinelli, F. Shi, D. Stern, A. Tanimoto, Y. Terashima, R. Tomaru, F. Tombesi, A. Tortosa, Y. Ueda, F. Ursini, C. Vignali, S. Yamada, S. Yamada

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

An Extreme Scattering Event Toward PSR J2313+4253

Zachary C. Zelensky, Jacob E. Turner, Juan G. Lebron Medina et al. (+7 more)

We present evidence of an extreme scattering event (ESE) toward PSR J2313+4253 using high-cadence observations taken with the Green Bank Observatory 20m telescope. The high density of observations in time allow for detailed tracking of the event. We observe a pair of spikes along with the characteristic drop in scintillation bandwidth that is expected during an ESE. This pattern implies that the structures predominantly responsible for scattering occur at different distances than those from previous and subsequent epochs. A secondary spectrum processed during the event shows a detached feature similar to those found in double lensing events from previously observed ESEs. We measure this event as originating from a scattering region with a distance of 1.04(1) kpc, a transverse size of 15 AU, and a duration of approximately 220 days. These rare events provide opportunities to study the properties of small-scale structures in the ISM.
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All authors Zachary C. Zelensky, Jacob E. Turner, Juan G. Lebron Medina, Daniel E. Reichart, Joshua B. Haislip, Vladimir V. Kouprianov, Steve White, Frank Ghigo, Sue Ann Heatherly, Maura A. McLaughlin

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Characterization of the Three-Flavor Composition of Cosmic Neutrinos with IceCube

R. Abbasi, M. Ackermann, J. Adams et al. (+429 more)

Neutrinos oscillate over cosmic distances. Using 11.4 years of IceCube data, the flavor composition of the all-sky neutrino flux from 5\,TeV–10\,PeV is studied. We report the first measurement down to the $\mathcal{O}$(TeV) scale using events classified into three flavor-dependent morphologies. The best fit flavor ratio is $f_e:f_{\mu}:f_{\tau}\,=\,0.30:0.37:0.33$, consistent with the standard three-flavor neutrino oscillation model. Each fraction is constrained to be $>0$ at $>$ 90% confidence level, assuming a broken power law for cosmic neutrinos. We infer the flavor composition of cosmic neutrinos at their sources, and find production via neutron decay lies outside the 99% confidence interval.
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All authors R. Abbasi, M. Ackermann, J. Adams, S. K. Agarwalla, J. A. Aguilar, M. Ahlers, J.M. Alameddine, S. Ali, N. M. Amin, K. Andeen, C. Argüelles, Y. Ashida, S. Athanasiadou, S. N. Axani, R. Babu, X. Bai, J. Baines-Holmes, A. Balagopal V., S. W. Barwick, S. Bash, V. Basu, R. Bay, J. J. Beatty, J. Becker Tjus, P. Behrens, J. Beise, C. Bellenghi, B. Benkel, S. BenZvi, D. Berley, E. Bernardini, D. Z. Besson, E. Blaufuss, L. Bloom, S. Blot, I. Bodo, F. Bontempo, J. Y. Book Motzkin, C. Boscolo Meneguolo, S. Böser, O. Botner, J. Böttcher, J. Braun, B. Brinson, Z. Brisson-Tsavoussis, R. T. Burley, D. Butterfield, M. A. Campana, K. Carloni, J. Carpio, S. Chattopadhyay, N. Chau, Z. Chen, D. Chirkin, S. Choi, B. A. Clark, A. Coleman, P. Coleman, G. H. Collin, D. A. Coloma Borja, A. Connolly, J. M. Conrad, D. F. Cowen, C. De Clercq, J. J. DeLaunay, D. Delgado, T. Delmeulle, S. Deng, P. Desiati, K. D. de Vries, G. de Wasseige, T. DeYoung, J. C. Díaz-Vélez, S. DiKerby, T. Ding, M. Dittmer, A. Domi, L. Draper, L. Dueser, D. Durnford, K. Dutta, M. A. DuVernois, T. Ehrhardt, L. Eidenschink, A. Eimer, P. Eller, E. Ellinger, D. Elsässer, R. Engel, H. Erpenbeck, W. Esmail, S. Eulig, J. Evans, P. A. Evenson, K. L. Fan, K. Fang, K. Farrag, A. R. Fazely, A. Fedynitch, N. Feigl, C. Finley, L. Fischer, D. Fox, A. Franckowiak, S. Fukami, P. Fürst, J. Gallagher, E. Ganster, A. Garcia, M. Garcia, G. Garg, E. Genton, L. Gerhardt, A. Ghadimi, T. Glüsenkamp, J. G. Gonzalez, S. Goswami, A. Granados, D. Grant, S. J. Gray, S. Griffin, S. Griswold, K. M. Groth, D. Guevel, C. Günther, P. Gutjahr, C. Ha, C. Haack, A. Hallgren, L. Halve, F. Halzen, L. Hamacher, M. Ha Minh, M. Handt, K. Hanson, J. Hardin, A. A. Harnisch, P. Hatch, A. Haungs, J. Häußler, K. Helbing, J. Hellrung, B. Henke, L. Hennig, F. Henningsen, L. Heuermann, R. Hewett, N. Heyer, S. Hickford, A. Hidvegi, C. Hill, G. C. Hill, R. Hmaid, K. D. Hoffman, D. Hooper, S. Hori, K. Hoshina, M. Hostert, W. Hou, M. Hrywniak, T. Huber, K. Hultqvist, K. Hymon, A. Ishihara, W. Iwakiri, M. Jacquart, S. Jain, O. Janik, M. Jansson, M. Jeong, M. Jin, N. Kamp, D. Kang, W. Kang, A. Kappes, L. Kardum, T. Karg, M. Karl, A. Karle, A. Katil, M. Kauer, J. L. Kelley, M. Khanal, A. Khatee Zathul, A. Kheirandish, H. Kimku, J. Kiryluk, C. Klein, S. R. Klein, Y. Kobayashi, A. Kochocki, R. Koirala, H. Kolanoski, T. Kontrimas, L. Köpke, C. Kopper, D. J. Koskinen, P. Koundal, M. Kowalski, T. Kozynets, A. Kravka, N. Krieger, J. Krishnamoorthi, T. Krishnan, K. Kruiswijk, E. Krupczak, A. Kumar, E. Kun, N. Kurahashi, N. Lad, C. Lagunas Gualda, L. Lallement Arnaud, M. Lamoureux, M. J. Larson, F. Lauber, J. P. Lazar, K. Leonard DeHolton, A. Leszczyńska, J. Liao, C. Lin, Q. R. Liu, Y. T. Liu, M. Liubarska, C. Love, L. Lu, F. Lucarelli, W. Luszczak, Y. Lyu, M. Macdonald, J. Madsen, E. Magnus, Y. Makino, E. Manao, S. Mancina, A. Mand, I. C. Mariş, S. Marka, Z. Marka, L. Marten, I. Martinez-Soler, R. Maruyama, J. Mauro, F. Mayhew, F. McNally, J. V. Mead, K. Meagher, S. Mechbal, A. Medina, M. Meier, Y. Merckx, L. Merten, J. Mitchell, L. Molchany, S. Mondal, T. Montaruli, R. W. Moore, Y. Morii, A. Mosbrugger, M. Moulai, D. Mousadi, E. Moyaux, T. Mukherjee, R. Naab, M. Nakos, U. Naumann, J. Necker, L. Neste, M. Neumann, H. Niederhausen, M. U. Nisa, K. Noda, A. Noell, A. Novikov, A. Obertacke, V. O'Dell, A. Olivas, R. Orsoe, J. Osborn, E. O'Sullivan, V. Palusova, H. Pandya, A. Parenti, N. Park, V. Parrish, E. N. Paudel, L. Paul, C. Pérez de los Heros, T. Pernice, T. C. Petersen, J. Peterson, M. Plum, A. Pontén, V. Poojyam, Y. Popovych, M. Prado Rodriguez, B. Pries, R. Procter-Murphy, G. T. Przybylski, L. Pyras, C. Raab, J. Rack-Helleis, N. Rad, M. Ravn, K. Rawlins, Z. Rechav, A. Rehman, I. Reistroffer, E. Resconi, S. Reusch, C. D. Rho, W. Rhode, L. Ricca, B. Riedel, A. Rifaie, E. J. Roberts, M. Rongen, A. Rosted, C. Rott, T. Ruhe, L. Ruohan, D. Ryckbosch, J. Saffer, D. Salazar-Gallegos, P. Sampathkumar, A. Sandrock, G. Sanger-Johnson, M. Santander, S. Sarkar, M. Scarnera, P. Schaile, M. Schaufel, H. Schieler, S. Schindler, L. Schlickmann, B. Schlüter, F. Schlüter, N. Schmeisser, T. Schmidt, F. G. Schröder, L. Schumacher, S. Schwirn, S. Sclafani, D. Seckel, L. Seen, M. Seikh, S. Seunarine, P. A. Sevle Myhr, R. Shah, S. Shah, S. Shefali, N. Shimizu, B. Skrzypek, R. Snihur, J. Soedingrekso, A. Søgaard, D. Soldin, P. Soldin, G. Sommani, C. Spannfellner, G. M. Spiczak, C. Spiering, J. Stachurska, M. Stamatikos, T. Stanev, T. Stezelberger, T. Stürwald, T. Stuttard, G. W. Sullivan, I. Taboada, S. Ter-Antonyan, A. Terliuk, A. Thakuri, M. Thiesmeyer, W. G. Thompson, J. Thwaites, S. Tilav, K. Tollefson, S. Toscano, D. Tosi, A. Trettin, A. K. Upadhyay, K. Upshaw, A. Vaidyanathan, N. Valtonen-Mattila, J. Valverde, J. Vandenbroucke, T. Van Eeden, N. van Eijndhoven, L. Van Rootselaar, J. van Santen, J. Vara, F. Varsi, M. Venugopal, M. Vereecken, S. Vergara Carrasco, S. Verpoest, D. Veske, A. Vijai, J. Villarreal, C. Walck, A. Wang, E. H. S. Warrick, C. Weaver, P. Weigel, A. Weindl, J. Weldert, A. Y. Wen, C. Wendt, J. Werthebach, M. Weyrauch, N. Whitehorn, C. H. Wiebusch, D. R. Williams, L. Witthaus, M. Wolf, G. Wrede, X. W. Xu, J. P. Yanez, Y. Yao, E. Yildizci, S. Yoshida, R. Young, F. Yu, S. Yu, T. Yuan, S. Yun-Cárcamo, A. Zander Jurowitzki, A. Zegarelli, S. Zhang, Z. Zhang, P. Zhelnin, P. Zilberman

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

The Fate of Hydrogen and Helium: From Planetary Embryos to Earth- and Neptune-like Worlds

Akash Gupta, Haiyang Luo, Jie Deng et al. (+1 more)

Hydrogen, helium, silicates, and iron are key building blocks of rocky and gas-rich planets, yet their chemical interactions remain poorly constrained. Using first-principles molecular dynamics and thermodynamic integration, we quantify hydrogen and helium partitioning between molten silicate mantles and metallic cores for Earth-to-Neptune-mass planets. Hydrogen becomes strongly siderophilic above $\sim$25 GPa but weakens beyond $\sim$200 GPa, whereas helium remains lithophilic yet increasingly soluble in metal with pressure. Incorporating these trends into coupled structure-chemistry models suggests that majority of hydrogen and helium reside in planetary interiors, not atmospheres, with abundances strongly depending on planet mass. Such volatile exchange may influence the redox states of secondary atmospheres, longevity of primordial envelopes, predicted CHNOPS abundances, and emergence of helium-enriched atmospheres, while He 1083 nm and H Lyman-$\alpha$ lines provide potential probes of atmosphere-interior exchange. These findings link atomic-scale interactions to planetary-scale observables, providing new constraints on the origins of Earth-to-Neptune-sized worlds.
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All authors Akash Gupta, Haiyang Luo, Jie Deng, Adam Burrows

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

Statistical Overview of Long-Lived Active Regions Observed Across Multiple Carrington Rotations

Emily I. Mason and Kara L. Kniezewski

The study of solar active regions (ARs) is of central importance to a range of fundamental science, as well as the practical applications of space weather. Active region emergence and life cycles are two areas of particular interest, yet the lack of consistent full-Sun observations has made long-term studies of active regions difficult. Here, we present results from a study to identify and characterize long-lived active regions (LLARs), defined as those which were observed during at least two consecutive Carrington rotations and which did not undergo significant successive flux emergence once the decay phase began. Such active regions accounted for 13% of all NOAA-identified ARs between 2011 and 2019, and their distribution closely follows the annual sunspot number. This implies that LLARs are produced by the same basic driving processes as regular ARs. LLAR areas tend to be significantly larger and contain more magnetic flux compared to other ARs, but the two categories have similar magnetic complexity distributions. The most striking result, however, is that LLARs are 3-6 times more likely than other ARs to be the source of a solar flare of GOES class C or greater. This highlights the importance of studying what makes a LLAR and how to identify them at emergence with a view towards improved space weather forecasting. The further implications of these findings for AR heating spatial and temporal patterns will be explored in an upcoming study.
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Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics

Astronomical Optical Interferometry from the Lunar Surface

Gerard van Belle, Tabetha Boyajian, Michelle Creech-Eakman et al. (+28 more)

The lunar surface is a compelling location for large, distributed optical facilities, with significant advantages over orbital facilities for high spatial resolution astrophysics. The serious development of mission concepts is timely because of the confluence of multiple compelling factors. Lunar access technology is maturing rapidly, in the form of both US-based crewed and uncrewed landers, as well as international efforts. Associated with this has been a definitive maturation of astronomical optical interferometry technologies at Earth-based facilities over the past three decades, enabling exquisitely sharp views on the universe previously unattainable, though limited at present by the Earth's atmosphere. Importantly, the increasing knowledge and experience base about lunar surface operations indicates it is not just suitable, but highly attractive for lunar telescope arrays.
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All authors Gerard van Belle, Tabetha Boyajian, Michelle Creech-Eakman, John Elliott, Kimberly Ennico-Smith, Dan Hillsberry, Kevin Hubbard, Takahiro Ito, Shri Kulkarni, Connor Langford, Laura Lee, David Leisawitz, Eric Mamajek, May Martin, Taro Matsuo, Dimitri Mawet, John Monnier, Jon Morse, Dave Mozurkewich, Paul Niles, Mark Panning, Lori Pigue, Aniket Sanghi, Gail Schaefer, Jeremy Scott, Stuart Shaklan, Locke Spencer, Aaron Tohuvavohu, Peter Tuthill, Karel Valenta, Jordan Wachs

Astrophysics of Galaxies

Revisiting the structure of galactic disks with deep imaging

Samane Raji, Ignacio Trujillo, Fernando Buitrago et al. (+2 more)

Thanks to new advances in astronomical imaging, we can now routinely explore disk galaxy profiles about two magnitudes deeper than the data available 20 years ago. In this regard, it is an opportune time to reevaluate the past classifications of different surface brightness Types. In this paper, we explore the stellar mass profiles of a sample of disk galaxies with similar stellar masses ($\sim$10$^{10}$ M$_{\odot}$) using IAC Stripe82 Legacy Project data. We find that Type I, II-CT, and III-d galaxies exhibit edges at surface brightnesses $\mu_g$(R$_{edge}$)$\sim$26.5 mag/arcsec$^2$ and surface mass densities $\Sigma$(R$_{edge}$)$\sim$0.5-1 M$_{\odot}$/pc$^2$. These surface brightnesses were outside the range of typical SDSS images and, therefore, unstudied. The present data suggest (although the statistics are inconclusive) that the main difference between the previous profile Types is the presence of either a more or a less intense bulge. Half of the Type II-CT galaxies are Sc, whereas half of the Type III-d galaxies are Sb. Finally, Type III-d galaxies have low mass surface density disks ($\Sigma$($\Delta$ $R_{\mathrm{exp}}$)$\sim$0.5 M$_{\odot}$/pc$^2$) and are bluer $(g-r)_0$=0.32$\pm$0.02 than the other Types ($(g-r)_0$=0.42$\pm$0.02 for Type I and II-CT), suggesting that their disks probably formed later in time.
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All authors Samane Raji, Ignacio Trujillo, Fernando Buitrago, Giulia Golini, Ignacio Ruiz Cejudo

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Cross-listed from gr-qc

Observable signature of magnetic tidal coupling in hierarchical triple systems

Marta Cocco, Gianluca Grignani, Troels Harmark et al. (+3 more)

We study hierarchical triple systems formed by a compact binary orbiting a supermassive black hole (SMBH), focusing on the role of relativistic magnetic tidal interactions. Extending previous analyses of precession resonances to 0.5 post-Newtonian order, we incorporate quadrupolar magnetic tidal moments, which have no Newtonian counterpart. We find that magnetic tides introduce new resonances absent at lower order, leading to additional eccentricity excitations and significantly modifying the binary's long-term evolution. Numerical solutions of the Lagrange Planetary Equations confirm these analytical predictions and reveal how resonance strength depends on orbital eccentricity and inclination. The resulting dynamics accelerates the binary merger and imprints distinctive signatures on gravitational waves, potentially observable by LISA. Our findings identify magnetic tidal coupling as a novel strong-gravity effect and establish its importance for the resonant dynamics of compact-object binaries near SMBHs.
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All authors Marta Cocco, Gianluca Grignani, Troels Harmark, Marta Orselli, Davide Panella, Daniele Pica

Astrophysics of Galaxies

Dissecting the mass quenching in TNG50: Galaxy size determines the quenching mode

Haochen Jiang, Enci Wang, Kai Wang et al. (+2 more)

The diminishing of star formation is accompanied by size differentiating, as quiescent galaxies are more compact than star-forming galaxies at fixed stellar mass. In order to understand how galaxy quenching is related to galaxy sizes, we performed a demographic study of 46 massive quiescent central galaxies with stellar mass from $10^{10.5}\rm M_\odot$ to $10^{11}\rm M_\odot$ in the TNG50 simulation. We found that, in addition to the triggering active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback, galaxy size is also a major determinant of the quenching process, as small and compact galaxies are immediately quenched by the kinetic AGN feedback, while galaxies with large sizes are still active until strangulated by the cutoff of new gas replenishment. Further spatially resolved inspection reveals that this short and intense kinetic AGN feedback can only suppress the star formation within 1-2 kpc, resulting in this size-dependent effect of quenching. We also identify a long-term effect of a few Gyr timescale that the gas inflow rate is progressively suppressed after triggering kinetic feedback, which appears to effectively quench large galaxies entirely. We conclude that kinetic AGN feedback has two key roles in quenching: a short-term, intense effect that quenches the central 2 kpc region, and a long-term effect that suppresses the gas inflow rate and further quenches the entire galaxy.
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All authors Haochen Jiang, Enci Wang, Kai Wang, Chengyu Ma, Xu Kong

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics

The cosmological analysis of DES 3$\times$2pt data from the Effective Field Theory of Large-Scale Structure

Guido D'Amico, Alexandre Refregier, Leonardo Senatore et al. (+1 more)

We analyze the Dark Energy Survey (DES) Year 3 data using predictions from the Effective Field Theory of Large-Scale Structure (EFTofLSS). Specifically, we fit three two-point observables (3$\times$2pt), galaxy clustering, galaxy-galaxy lensing, and cosmic shear, using the one-loop expressions for the projected angular correlation functions. We validate our pipeline against numerical simulations and we check for several internal consistencies before applying it to the observational data. Fixing the spectral tilt and the baryons abundance, we measure $S_8=0.833\pm 0.032$, $\Omega_m = 0.272\pm 0.022$, and $h = 0.773\pm 0.049$, to about $3.8\%$, $8.1\%$, and $6.3\%$, at $68\%$CL, respectively. Our results are consistent at the $\sim 1.5-2\sigma$ level with those from Planck and the BOSS full-shape analyses, as well as with those from DES collaboration 3$\times$2pt analysis combined with a Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis prior and a Planck prior on $n_s$. The shift in the posterior compared to DES collaboration results highlights the impact of modeling, scale cuts, and choice of prior. The theory code and likelihood used for our analyses, PyFowl, is made publicly available.
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All authors Guido D'Amico, Alexandre Refregier, Leonardo Senatore, Pierre Zhang

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

The White Dwarf Initial-Final Mass Relation from Open Clusters in Gaia DR3

David R. Miller, Ilaria Caiazzo, Jeremy Heyl et al. (+6 more)

The initial-final mass relation (IFMR) links a star's birth mass to the mass of its white dwarf (WD) remnant, providing key constraints on stellar evolution. Open clusters offer the most straightforward way to empirically determine the IFMR, as their well-defined ages allow for direct progenitor lifetime estimates. We construct the most comprehensive open cluster WD IFMR to date by combining new spectroscopy of 22 WDs with an extensive literature review of WDs with strong cluster associations. To minimize systematics, we restrict our analysis to spectroscopically confirmed hydrogen-atmosphere (DA) WDs consistent with single-stellar origins. We separately analyze a subset with reliable Gaia-based astrometric membership assessments, as well as a full sample that adds WDs with strong cluster associations whose membership cannot be reliably assessed with Gaia. The Gaia-based sample includes 69 spectroscopically confirmed DA WDs, more than doubling the sample size of previous Gaia-based open cluster IFMRs. The full sample, which includes 53 additional literature WDs, increases the total number of cluster WDs by over $50\%$ relative to earlier works. We provide functional forms for both the Gaia-based and full-sample IFMRs. The Gaia-based result useful for $M_i \geq 2.67\,\mathrm{M}_\odot$ is $$M_f = \left[0.179 - 0.100 H(M_i-3.84\,\mathrm{M}_\odot) \right ] \times (M_i-3.84\,\mathrm{M}_\odot)+0.628\,\mathrm{M}_\odot$$ where $H(x)$ is the Heaviside step function. Comparing our IFMR to recent literature, we identify significant deviations from best-fit IFMRs derived from both Gaia-based volume limited samples of field WDs and double WD binaries, with the largest discrepancy occurring for initial masses of about $5\,\mathrm{M}_\odot$.
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All authors David R. Miller, Ilaria Caiazzo, Jeremy Heyl, Harvey B. Richer, Mark A. Hollands, Pier-Emmanuel Tremblay, Kareem El-Badry, Antonio C. Rodriguez, Zachary P. Vanderbosch

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Fast-Cooling Synchrotron Prompt Emission from Internal Shocks in GRB 241030A

Varun, Bin-Bin Zhang, Xiao-Hong Zhao et al. (+3 more)

We present a time-resolved, joint Swift-Fermi spectral study of GRB 241030A (z=1.411) that cleanly isolates the synchrotron origin of its prompt emission and favors a matter-dominated, internal-shock scenario. The light curve shows two episodes separated by a quiescent gap. Episode I (0-45 s) is well described by a single power law with photon index $\simeq -3/2$, consistent with the fast-cooling synchrotron slope below the peak. Episode II (100-200 s), exhibits two robust spectral breaks: a low-energy break at $E_{b}$$\sim$$2-3$ keV that remains nearly constant in time, and a spectral peak $E_{p}$ that tracks the flux within pulses but steps down between them. The photon indices below and above $E_{b}$ cluster around -2/3 and -3/2, respectively, as expected for fast-cooling synchrotron emission. The burst displays an unusually small (consistent with zero) spectral lag across GBM bands. At later times ($\geq 230$ s), the spectrum softens toward $\sim-2.7$, as expected when the observing band lies above both $\nu_m$ and $\nu_c$. These behaviors are difficult to reconcile with a globally magnetized outflow with a decaying field, which naturally produces hard-to-soft Ep evolution, growing $\nu_c$, and appreciable lags. By contrast, internal shocks with a roughly steady effective magnetic field and a time-variable minimum electron Lorentz factor (equivalently, e.g., a varying fraction of accelerated electrons simultaneously account for (i) the stable $E_{b}$, (ii) the intensity-tracking yet step-down $E_{p}$, (iii) the canonical -2/3 and -3/2 slopes, and (iv) the near-zero lag.
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All authors Varun, Bin-Bin Zhang, Xiao-Hong Zhao, Jun Yang, Run-Chao Chen, Vikas Chand

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

PEARLS: NuSTAR and XMM-Newton Extragalactic Survey of the JWST North Ecliptic Pole Time-domain Field III

Ross Silver, Francesca Civano, Xiurui Zhao et al. (+28 more)

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) North Ecliptic Pole (NEP) Time-Domain Field (TDF) has been monitored by NuSTAR and XMM-Newton with a regular cadence for five years starting in 2019. The survey has accumulated 3.5Ms of NuSTAR exposure and 228 ks quasi-simultaneous XMM-Newton observations covering 0.31 deg^2. This paper presents the results from the most recent two-years' 2Ms NuSTAR and 166 ks XMM observations in NuSTAR cycles 8 and 9. These observations reached a 20%-area flux of 2.20 x 10^-14 erg cm^-2 s^-1 in the 8-24 keV band. 75 NuSTAR sources and 274 XMM-Newton sources are detected at 99% reliability level. The logN-logS measured in cycles 8+9 are consistent with those measured in the previous cycle 5+6 NuSTAR NEP survey, but in a larger area (0.3 deg^2 compared with 0.19 deg^2). The slope of the cycles 8+9 8-24 keV logN-logS curve is flatter than other works ({\alpha}89 = 1.13 +/- 0.46), but is consistent with the Euclidean value of {\alpha} = 1.50. In addition, we found ~36% of the NuSTAR sources to be heavily obscured (NH >= 10^23 cm^-2). The Compton-thick (NH >= 10^24 cm^-2) (CT-) AGN fraction is 9+18-8% in the NEP-TDF, which is consistent with the measurements in previous surveys.
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All authors Ross Silver, Francesca Civano, Xiurui Zhao, Samantha Creech, Christopher N. A. Willmer, S. P. Willner, Rogier A. Windhorst, Haojing Yan, Anton M. Koekemoer, Rosalia O'Brien, Rafael Ortiz III, Rolf A. Jansen, W. Peter Maksym, Nico Cappelluti, Francesca Fornasini, Timothy Carleton, Seth H. Cohen, Rachel Honor, Jake Summers, Jordan C. J. D'Silva, Sibasish Laha, Dan Coe, Christopher J. Conselice, Jose M. Diego, Simon P. Driver, Brenda Frye, Norman A. Grogin, Madeline A. Marshall, Nor Pirzkal, Aaron Robotham, Russell E. Ryan Jr

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics

Bias from small-scale leakage in Pulsar Timing Array maps

Federico Semenzato, Nicola Bellomo, Alvise Raccanelli et al. (+1 more)

Pulsar Timing Array experiments are rapidly approaching the era of gravitational wave background anisotropy detection. The timing residuals of each pulsar are an integrated measure of the gravitational-wave power across all angular scales. However, due to the limited number of monitored pulsars, current analyses are only able to reconstruct the angular structure of the background at large scales. We show analytically that this mismatch between the integrated all-sky signal and the truncated reconstruction introduces a previously unaccounted source of systematic bias in the anisotropic background angular power spectrum. The source of this systematic error, that we call “small-scale leakage”, is the intrinsic presence of unaccounted gravitational wave power at scales smaller than the reconstructed scales. This unmodeled power leaks into large-scale modes, artificially increasing the recovered value of the inferred angular power spectrum by at least one order of magnitude in a wide range of scales. Importantly, this effect is fundamentally independent of the geometry of the pulsar configuration, the anisotropy reconstruction method, the use of different regularization schemes, and the presence of pulsar noise. As the quality of pulsar timing array experiments improves, a robust understanding of small-scale leakage will become paramount for reliable detection and characterization of the gravitational wave background. Thus, the theoretical formalism developed here will be essential to estimate the magnitude of this systematic uncertainty in anisotropy searches.
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All authors Federico Semenzato, Nicola Bellomo, Alvise Raccanelli, Chiara M. F. Mingarelli

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

From Underground Oceans to Continents: A Glimpse into the Water Inventory on Rocky Planets using Host Star Abundances

Kiersten M. Boley, Wendy R. Panero, Francesca Miozzi et al. (+2 more)

The amount of surface water is thought to be critical for a planet's climate stability and thus habitability. However, the probability that a rocky planet may exhibit surface water at any point its evolution is dependent on multiple factors, such as the initial water mass, geochemical evolution, and interior composition. To date, studies have examined the influence of interior composition on the water inventory of the planet or how surface oceans may be impacted by planet topography individually. Here, we provide the first exploration on the impact of interior composition, topography, and planet radius on the water inventory of rocky planets using a sample of 689 rocky planets with spectroscopically derived stellar abundances from APOGEE and GALAH. We find that the oxidation state of the mantle (FeO content) significantly impacts the mantle water storage capacity and potential for surface flooding. For an FeO ~11 wt%, the water storage capacity of a 1 M$_\oplus$ is 2 times that of Earth, indicating that the oxidation state may reduce the amount of surface water. We quantify the impact of topography on seafloor pressures, showing that flat topographies are more likely to be flooded for all planet compositions and radii. We also find that Mars-like topographies are more likely to have seafloor pressures that may form high-pressure ice, reducing seafloor weathering. Thus, for the first time, we show that the composition and topography of the mantle influence the water inventory of rocky planets.
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All authors Kiersten M. Boley, Wendy R. Panero, Francesca Miozzi, Ashika Capirala, Johanna K. Teske

Astrophysics of Galaxies

The Proper Motion of Draco II with HST using Multiple Reference Frames and Methodologies

Jack T. Warfield, Kevin A. McKinnon, Sangmo Tony Sohn et al. (+13 more)

We present proper motion (PM) measurements for Draco II, an ultra-faint dwarf satellite of the Milky Way. These PMs are measured using two epochs of Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys (HST/ACS) imaging separated by a 7 year time baseline. Measuring PMs of low-luminosity systems is difficult due to the low number of member stars, requiring a precise inertial reference frame. We construct reference frames using three different sets of external sources: 1) stars with Gaia DR3 data, 2) stationary background galaxies, and 3) a combination of the two. We show that all three reference frames give consistent PM results. We find that for this sparse, low-luminosity regime including background galaxies into the reference frame improves our measurement by up to $\sim2\times$ versus using only Gaia astrometric data. Using 301 background galaxies as a reference frame, we find that Draco II's systemic PM is $(\mu_{\alpha}^*, \mu_{\delta}) = (1.043\pm0.029, 0.879\pm0.028)$ mas/yr, which is the most precise measurement of the three we present in this paper.
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All authors Jack T. Warfield, Kevin A. McKinnon, Sangmo Tony Sohn, Nitya Kallivayalil, Alessandro Savino, Roeland P. van der Marel, Andrew B. Pace, Christopher T. Garling, Niusha Ahvazi, Paul Bennet, Roger E. Cohen, Matteo Correnti, Mark A. Fardal, Kristen B. W. McQuinn, Max J. B. Newman, Eduardo Vitral

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Emission and Absorption Features of Magnetically Driven Disk Winds in Black Hole X-Ray Binaries

Atsushi Tanimoto, Keigo Fukumura, Shoji Ogawa et al. (+5 more)

We investigate accretion disk winds commonly observed in galactic black hole (BH) X-ray binaries (XRB), which manifest as blueshifted absorption features in X-ray spectra. We model these winds as ideal magnetohydrodynamic outflows of hot plasma driven by global magnetic fields threading the accretion disk around the BH. Using Monte Carlo simulations with MONACO, we solve three-dimensional radiative transfer equations to determine the large-scale ionization structure that produces the observed ionic column densities. Focusing on the high/soft state of the BH XRB, where disk emission provides the dominant source of ionizing X-rays, we calculated synthetic spectra showing resonance absorption and scattered emission from ions in various charge states. Our results demonstrate that systems viewed at high polar angles exhibit prominent multi-ion absorption lines with asymmetric profiles, accompanied by P-Cygni-like emission features that partially reproduce the characteristics seen in the observed spectra. This further implies that even a dense disk wind with a high polar angle is unlikely to be saturated due to effective scattering.
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All authors Atsushi Tanimoto, Keigo Fukumura, Shoji Ogawa, Hirokazu Odaka, Francesco Tombesi, Marco Laurenti, Pierpaolo Condo, Alfredo Luminari

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics

The Binary Ballet: Mapping Local Expansion Around M81 & M82

Jenny Wagner, David Benisty and Igor D. Karachentsev

This study of the M81 complex and its Hubble flow delivers new and improved Tip of the Red Giant Branch (TRGB)-based distances for nine member galaxies, yielding a total of 58 galaxies with high-precision TRGB distances. With those, we perform a systematic analysis of the group's dynamics in the core and its embedding in the local cosmic environment. Our analysis confirms that the satellite galaxies of the M81 complex exhibit a flattened, planar distribution almost perpendicular to the supergalactic pole and thus aligned with a larger-scale filamentary structure in the Local Universe. We demonstrate that the properties of the group's barycentre are robustly constrained by the two brightest members, M81 and M82, and that correcting heliocentric velocities for the solar motion in the Local Group decreases the velocity dispersion of the group. Then applying minor and major infall models, we fit the local Hubble flow to constrain the Hubble Constant and the total mass of the M81 complex. The joint best-fit parameters from both models yield $H_0 = \left(63 \pm 6 \right)$ km/s/Mpc and total mass of $(2.28\pm 0.49) \times 10^{12} M_{\odot}$. We thus arrive at an increased mass estimate compared to prior work but reach a higher consistency with virial, $(2.74 \pm 0.36)\times 10^{12}\,M_\odot$, and projected-mass estimates, $(3.11 \pm 0.69)\times 10^{12} M_\odot$. Moreover, our $H_0$ estimate shows an agreement with Planck, consistent with other TRGB-based Local-Universe inferences of $H_0$ and still within a 2-$\sigma$ agreement with Cepheid-based Local-Universe probes.
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Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Non-linear spiral waves in accretion discs

Joshua J. Brown and Gordon I. Ogilvie

We derive a simple, accurate, non-linear, global equation governing spiral density waves in thin, non-self-gravitating, inviscid accretion discs. These discs may have any slowly varying surface density or temperature profile. For specific 'self-similar' disc profiles, solutions to our equation match (novel) smooth non-linear exact spiral solutions derived via a separate method, which highlight that non-linear spiral waves need not shock. Indeed, at low amplitudes, we find that dispersion can overcome wave steepening, and may prevent the inner spiral wakes excited by low mass planets (below roughly 1% of a thermal mass) embedded in protoplanetary discs from shocking. At high amplitudes, we find a simple universal description of non-linear spiral waves with shocks, as well as caps on the possible amplitude and wave action flux of non-linear spirals both with and without shocks, depending on how many arms they have. We further find that highly non-linear spirals are far more loosely wound than their linear counterparts. These developments shed light on why two-armed spirals are prevalent across a range of astrophysical systems which don't necessarily possess an intrinsic twofold symmetry, and why they appear surprisingly loosely wound in observations. These results are supported by very high-resolution numerical simulations.
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Astrophysics of Galaxies

The dwarf stellar mass function in different environments and the lack of a generic missing dwarfs problem in {\Lambda}CDM

Ilin Lazar, Sugata Kaviraj, Garreth Martin et al. (+9 more)

We combine deep photometric data in the COSMOS and XMM-LSS fields with high-resolution cosmological hydrodynamical simulations to explore two key questions: (1) how does the galaxy stellar mass function, particularly in the dwarf (Mstar < 10^9.5 MSun ) regime, vary with environment, defined as distance from the large-scale structure (LSS) traced by nodes and filaments in the cosmic web? (2) is there a generic 'missing dwarfs' problem in LambdaCDM predictions when all environments - and not just satellites around Milky Way like galaxies - are considered? The depth of the observational data used here enables us to construct complete, unbiased samples of galaxies, down to Mstar ~ 10^7 MSun and out to z ~ 0.4. Strong environmental differences are found for the galaxy stellar mass function when considering distance from LSS. As we move closer to LSS, the dwarf mass function becomes progressively flatter and the knee of the mass function shifts to larger stellar masses, both of which result in a higher ratio of massive to dwarf galaxies. While the stellar mass functions from the three simulations (NewHorizon, TNG50 and FIREbox) considered here do not completely agree across the dwarf regime, there is no evidence of a generic missing dwarfs problem in the context of LambdaCDM, akin to the results of recent work that demonstrates that there is no missing satellites problem around Galactic analogues.
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All authors Ilin Lazar, Sugata Kaviraj, Garreth Martin, Aaron Watkins, Darshan Kakkad, Brian Bichang'a, Katarina Kraljic, Sukyoung K. Yi, Yohan Dubois, Julien E. G. Devriendt, Sebastien Peirani, Christophe Pichon

Astrophysics of Galaxies

A stellar stream around the spiral galaxy Messier 61 in Rubin First Look imaging

Aaron J. Romanowsky, David Martínez-Delgado, Giuseppe Donatiello et al. (+2 more)

We present the first stellar stream discovered with the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, around spiral galaxy M61 (NGC 4303) in Virgo First Look imaging. The stream is narrow, radially-oriented in projection, and ~50 kpc long. It has g-band surface brightness (SB) mu_g ~ 28 AB mag arcsec^-2, color g-z ~ 1.0, and stellar mass M_* ~ 2x10^8 M_Sun. This dwarf galaxy interaction may have provoked the M61 starburst, and foreshadows the bounty of accretion features expected in the ten-year Rubin Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST).
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All authors Aaron J. Romanowsky, David Martínez-Delgado, Giuseppe Donatiello, Juan Miró-Carretero, Seppo Laine

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Horizontal and vertical exoplanet thermal structure from a JWST spectroscopic eclipse map

Ryan C. Challener, Megan Weiner Mansfield, Patricio E. Cubillos et al. (+33 more)

Highly-irradiated giant exoplanets known as "ultra-hot Jupiters" are anticipated to exhibit large variations of atmospheric temperature and chemistry as a function of longitude, latitude, and altitude. Previous observations have hinted at these variations, but the existing data have been fundamentally restricted to probing hemisphere-integrated spectra, thereby providing only coarse information on atmospheric gradients. Here we present a spectroscopic eclipse map of an extrasolar planet, resolving the atmosphere in multiple dimensions simultaneously. We analyze a secondary eclipse of the ultra-hot Jupiter WASP-18b observed with the NIRISS instrument on JWST. The mapping reveals weaker longitudinal temperature gradients than were predicted by theoretical models, indicating the importance of hydrogen dissociation and/or nightside clouds in shaping global thermal emission. Additionally, we identify two thermally distinct regions of the planet's atmosphere: a "hotspot" surrounding the substellar point and a "ring" near the dayside limbs. The hotspot region shows a strongly inverted thermal structure due to the presence of optical absorbers and a water abundance marginally lower than the hemispheric average, in accordance with theoretical predictions. The ring region shows colder temperatures and poorly constrained chemical abundances. Similar future analyses will reveal three-dimensional thermal, chemical, and dynamical properties of a broad range of exoplanet atmospheres.
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All authors Ryan C. Challener, Megan Weiner Mansfield, Patricio E. Cubillos, Anjali A. A. Piette, Louis-Philippe Coulombe, Hayley Beltz, Jasmina Blecic, Emily Rauscher, Jacob L. Bean, Björn Benneke, Eliza M.-R. Kempton, Joseph Harrington, Thaddeus D. Komacek, Vivien Parmentier, S. L. Casewell, Nicolas Iro, Luigi Mancini, Matthew C. Nixon, Michael Radica, Maria E. Steinrueck, Luis Welbanks, Natalie M. Batalha, Claudio Caceres, Ian J.M. Crossfield, Nicolas Crouzet, Jean-Michel Désert, Karan Molaverdikhani, Nikolay K. Nikolov, Enric Palle, Benjamin V. Rackham, Everett Schlawin, David K. Sing, Kevin B. Stevenson, Xianyu Tan, Jake D. Turner, Xi Zhang

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

How Flat is a Plateau? Evolution of Late-Time TDE Disks

Yael Alush, Nicholas C. Stone and Sjoert van Velzen

Late-time light curve plateaus in tidal disruption events (TDEs) are often approximated as flat and time-independent. This simplification is motivated by theoretical modeling of spreading late time TDE disks, which predicts slow light curve evolution. However, if time evolution can be detected, late-time light curves yield more information than previously accessible. In this work, we re-examine late-time TDE data to test how well the flat plateau assumption holds. We use Markov Chain Monte Carlo to estimate the maximum likelihood for a family of theory-agnostic models and apply the Akaike information criterion to find that roughly one third of our sample favors evolving plateaus, one third favors truly flat plateaus, and one third shows no statistically significant evidence for any plateau. Next, we refit the TDEs that exhibit statistically significant plateaus using a magnetically elevated $\alpha$-disk model, motivated by the lack of clear thermal instability in late time TDE light curves. From these model-dependent fits, we obtain estimates for the supermassive black hole (SMBH) mass, the mass of the disrupted star, and $\alpha$. Fitted $\alpha$ values have a mean $\alpha=10^{-1.5}$, with scatter of 1 dex, broadly consistent with results from magnetohydrodynamic simulations, albeit with some outliers. Finally, we estimate the timescales of disk precession in magnetically elevated TDE models. Theoretically, we find that disk precession times may be orders of magnitude shorter than in unmagnetized Shakura-Sunyaev disks, and grow in time as $T_{\rm prec}\propto t^{35/36}$; empirically, by using fitted $\alpha$ parameters, we estimate that late time disks may experience $\sim$few-10 precession cycles.
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Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics

Harrison-Zeldovich attractor: From Planck to ACT results

Chengjie Fu, Di Lu and Shao-Jiang Wang

In the era of Planck cosmology, the inflationary paradigm is best fitted toward the cosmological attractor scenarios, including the induced inflation, universal attractors, conformal attractors, and special attractors that are cataloged as $\xi$-models and $\alpha$-models. The recent hint from the ACT results pushes the scalar spectral index closer to the scale-invariant Harrison-Zeldovich spectrum, calling for a theoretical paradigm shift toward a Harrison-Zeldovich attractor, which is difficult to realize in the standard single-field slow-roll inflationary scenario. In this work, we achieve the Harrison-Zeldovich attractor scenario via nonminimal derivative coupling, attracting the monomial inflation, hilltop inflation, and $\alpha$-attractor E-model toward the Harrison-Zeldovich spectrum.
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Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics

Towards constraining cosmological parameters with SPT-3G observations of 25% of the sky

A. Vitrier, K. Fichman, L. Balkenhol et al. (+103 more)

The South Pole Telescope (SPT), using its third-generation camera, SPT-3G, is conducting observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) in temperature and polarization across approximately 10 000 deg$^2$ of the sky at 95, 150, and 220 GHz. This comprehensive dataset should yield stringent constraints on cosmological parameters. In this work, we explore its potential to address the Hubble tension by forecasting constraints from temperature, polarization, and CMB lensing on early dark energy (EDE) and the variation in electron mass in spatially flat and curved universes. For this purpose, we investigate first whether analyzing the distinct SPT-3G observation fields independently, as opposed to as a single, unified region, results in a loss of information relevant to cosmological parameter estimation. We develop a realistic temperature and polarization likelihood pipeline capable of analyzing these fields in these two ways, and subsequently forecast constraints on cosmological parameters. Our findings indicate that any loss of constraining power from analyzing the fields separately is primarily concentrated at low multipoles ($\ell$ < 50) and the overall impact on the relative uncertainty on standard $\Lambda$ cold dark matter parameters is minimal (< 3%). Our forecasts suggest that SPT-3G data should improve by more than a factor of 90 and 190 the figure of merit of the EDE and the varying electron mass models, respectively, when combined with Planck data. The likelihood pipeline developed and used in this work is made publicly available online.
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All authors A. Vitrier, K. Fichman, L. Balkenhol, E. Camphuis, F. Guidi, A. R. Khalife, A. J. Anderson, B. Ansarinejad, M. Archipley, D. R. Barron, K. Benabed, A. N. Bender, B. A. Benson, F. Bianchini, L. E. Bleem, S. Bocquet, F. R. Bouchet, L. Bryant, M. G. Campitiello, J. E. Carlstrom, J. Carron, C. L. Chang, P. Chaubal, P. M. Chichura, A. Chokshi, T.-L. Chou, A. Coerver, T. M. Crawford, C. Daley, T. de Haan, K. R. Dibert, M. A. Dobbs, M. Doohan, A. Doussot, D. Dutcher, W. Everett, C. Feng, K. R. Ferguson, N. C. Ferree, A. Foster, S. Galli, A. E. Gambrel, A. K. Gao, R. W. Gardner, F. Ge, N. Goeckner-Wald, R. Gualtieri, S. Guns, N. W. Halverson, E. Hivon, A. Y. Q. Ho, G. P. Holder, W. L. Holzapfel, J. C. Hood, A. Hryciuk, N. Huang, T. Jhaveri, F. Kéruzoré, L. Knox, M. Korman, K. Kornoelje, C.-L. Kuo, K. Levy, Y. Li, A. E. Lowitz, C. Lu, G. P. Lynch, T. J. Maccarone, A. S. Maniyar, E. S. Martsen, F. Menanteau, M. Millea, J. Montgomery, Y. Nakato, T. Natoli, G. I. Noble, Y. Omori, A. Ouellette, Z. Pan, P. Paschos, K. A. Phadke, A. W. Pollak, K. Prabhu, W. Quan, M. Rahimi, A. Rahlin, C. L. Reichardt, M. Rouble, J. E. Ruhl, E. Schiappucci, A. C. Silva Oliveira, A. Simpson, J. A. Sobrin, A. A. Stark, J. Stephen, C. Tandoi, B. Thorne, C. Trendafilova, C. Umilta, J. D. Vieira, A. G. Vieregg, Y. Wan, N. Whitehorn, W. L. K. Wu, M. R. Young, J. A. Zebrowski

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

The largest ground-based catalogue of M-dwarf flares

A.D. Lavrukhina, B. Demkov, K. Malanchev et al. (+2 more)

We present the largest ground-based catalogue of M-dwarf flares to date, comprising 1,229 time-resolved events identified in Zwicky Transient Facility Data Release 17. Using high-cadence ZTF observations collected between April 2018 and September 2020, we analyzed over 93 million variable light curves containing 4.1 billion photometric measurements. Flare candidates were identified through a machine-learning pipeline trained on simulated light curves generated by injecting TESS-based flare templates into ZTF data and then refined through an extensive post-filtering stage combining an additional classifier, metadata checks, and human inspection. For 655 flares with reliable Gaia-based distances and well-sampled light curves, we derived bolometric energies ranging from 10^31 to 10^35 erg. A clear correlation is observed between flare frequency and spectral subtype, with a sharp increase toward later M dwarfs, particularly near M4-M5, coinciding with the transition to full convection. Using 680 flaring stars with known vertical distances from the Galactic plane, we find that the fraction of flaring stars decreases with increasing Galactic height. The resulting catalogue provides the most comprehensive ground-based sample of M-dwarf flares and establishes a framework for flare detection and classification in upcoming wide-field surveys such as the Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time.
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All authors A.D. Lavrukhina, B. Demkov, K. Malanchev, M.V. Pruzhinskaya, E.E.O. Ishida

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

Higgs Inflation: Particle Factory

Tammi Chowdhury, Leah Jenks, Edward W. Kolb et al. (+1 more)

We study cosmological gravitational particle production (CGPP) in Higgs inflation, wherein the inflaton is a scalar field with quartic self-coupling $\lambda$ and a nonminimal coupling to gravity $\xi$, and which may, but need not be, the Higgs boson of the Standard Model (SM). We find an explosive particle production peaked on a characteristic comoving wavenumber $k\sim \xi^{2/3} a H$ with a peak occupation number that scales with $\xi$. This new peak in production can easily dominate over the conventional (minimally coupled inflation) CGPP even for modest values of $\xi$. The results apply for a wide range of $\xi$, e.g., as low as $\xi=10$, which can be realized for the Standard Model Higgs given suitable RG flow of the quartic coupling. We discuss implications for late time relics such as dark matter.
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All authors Tammi Chowdhury, Leah Jenks, Edward W. Kolb, Evan McDonough