Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Measuring Dust Masses of Protoplanetary Disks in Serpens and L1641/L1647 with ALMA
Luisa F. Zamudio-Ruvalcaba, Catherine C. Espaillat, Álvaro Ribas et al. (+1 more)
Protoplanetary disks are an essential component of the
planet-formation process. The amount of
dust and gas in the disk constrains the number and size of
planets that can form in a system. We analyze 178 T-Tauri
stars, 18 in Serpens and 160 in L1641/L1647, and measure their disk
dust masses using spectral energy distribution (SED) modeling and multiwavelength data, including 1.3 mm (ALMA band 6) fluxes from the literature. The disk masses calculated in this work are up to $\sim$2 times higher than those previously reported. We conclude that this is because disks may be partially optically thick at millimeter wavelengths while most calculations of the disk mass assume that the disk is optically thin at 1.3 mm. We calculate optical depths at 1.3 and 7 mm for a subset of the Serpens and L1641/L1647 disk sample and show that the vast majority of disks become optically thin at longer millimeter wavelengths; thus, observations at 7 mm (i.e., ALMA band 1) are vital to better characterize disk
dust masses.
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All authors Luisa F. Zamudio-Ruvalcaba, Catherine C. Espaillat, Álvaro Ribas, Enrique Macías
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
An empirical view of the extended atmosphere and inner envelope of the asymptotic giant branch star R Doradus. II. Constraining the dust properties with radiative transfer modelling
Thiebaut Schirmer, Theo Khouri, Wouter Vlemmings et al. (+6 more)
Mass loss in oxygen-rich asymptotic
giant branch (AGB)
stars remains poorly understood, as the
dust detected around them appears too transparent to drive winds through absorption alone. The current paradigm invokes
outflows driven by
photon scattering on relatively large grains ($\sim0.3\,\mu$m), but whether such grains exist in sufficient quantities remains uncertain. We test whether the
dust around the oxygen-rich AGB
star R~Doradus can drive its wind by combining polarimetric constraints, elemental abundance limits, and force-balance calculations. We examine Fe-free silicates (MgSiO$_3$), alumina (Al$_2$O$_3$), and Fe-bearing silicates (MgFeSiO$_4$) to evaluate whether any species can produce enough radiative pressure under realistic conditions. Using high-angular-resolution polarimetric observations from SPHERE/ZIMPOL at the VLT, we model the circumstellar
dust with RADMC-3D and explore a broad parameter space in grain size, density structure, and wavelength-dependent
stellar radius. For models consistent with the observations, we assess wind feasibility using updated gas-density profiles, elemental depletion constraints, and radiation-pressure thresholds. Although several
dust configurations reproduce the observed scattering patterns, none generate sufficient radiative force at realistic gas-to-
dust ratios, even under maximal elemental depletion. Our results for R~Doradus indicate that
photon scattering on
dust cannot by itself launch the wind, implying that additional mechanisms must contribute.
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All authors Thiebaut Schirmer, Theo Khouri, Wouter Vlemmings, Gunnar Nyman, Matthias Maercker, Ramlal Unnikrishnan, Behzad Bojnordi Arbab, Kirsten K. Knudsen, Susanne Aalto
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Tracking the Activity of the Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS through its Perihelion
T. Marshall Eubanks, Craig E. DeForest, Kevin J. Walsh et al. (+10 more)
In order to facilitate interplanetary spacecraft observationsof 3I/ATLAS, we have monitored and predicted the optical properties of its coma using both ground and space-based observations. Here, we describe how the data from space-based
solar coronagraphs and the PUNCH mission enabled tracking of 3I/ATLAS's optical magnitude throughout its entire perihelion passage, including the period between October 8 and 30, 2025, when it was not visible from Earth.
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All authors T. Marshall Eubanks, Craig E. DeForest, Kevin J. Walsh, Simon Porter, Thomas Lehmann, Bruce G. Bills, Adam Hibberd, W. Paul Blase, Andreas M. Hein, Robert G. Kennedy III, Adrien Coffinet, Pierre Kervella, Carlos Gomez de Olea Ballester
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Elisa A. Tau, Antonela Monachesi, Facundo A. Gómez et al. (+5 more)
We aim to analyse the
metallicity and the ages of the
stellar halos of low-mass
galaxies to better understand their formation history. We use 17 simulated low-mass
galaxies from the Auriga Project ($\sim 3 \times 10^8 \, M_\odot \leq M_* \lesssim 2 \times 10^{10} \, M_\odot$). We study the
metallicity and the ages of these
galaxies and their
stellar halos, as well as the relation between these two properties. We find that all
galaxies have negative radial [Fe/H] gradients, and that the centres of less massive
dwarfs are generally more metal poor than those of more massive
dwarfs. We find no correlation between the
metallicity gradients in dex/R$_h$ and intrinsic
galaxy properties, such as
stellar mass or accreted
stellar mass, suggesting that these gradients are not a simple byproduct of
galaxy evolution in the low-mass regime. We also find that the dispersion in the mass-
metallicity relation found in the
stellar halos of low-mass
galaxies can be explained with the infall time of their most dominant satellite: at a fixed accreted
stellar halo mass,
dwarf galaxies that accreted this satellite at later times have more metal-rich accreted
stellar halos. Regarding the ages of the analysed
galaxies, we find a prominent U shape in the radial mean age profiles of $\sim 65\%$ of them, which is mainly driven by the in situ
stellar material. This presence of a U shape in the age profiles is due to the combination of the cessation of recent
star formation at large radial distances and the merger events these
galaxies undergo, which redistribute the
stellar material to their outer regions. When focusing on the ages of the
stellar halos, we find that more massive ones are older than less massive ones. Our results show a wide variety in ages and
metallicities of low-mass
galaxies and their
stellar halos, reflecting the complex and non-uniform evolutionary pathways these systems can follow.
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All authors Elisa A. Tau, Antonela Monachesi, Facundo A. Gómez, Robert J. J. Grand, Rüdiger Pakmor, Freeke van de Voort, Federico Marinacci, Rebekka Bieri
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Ashes of Creation: JWST Uncovers Silicate Dust in Massive Star Clusters
Daniel Maschmann, Bradley C. Whitmore, David A. Thilker et al. (+35 more)
Dust production is a fundamental aspect of the baryonic cycle of
star formation. It is known that
dust is injected into the interstellar medium during early
star formation by
supernovae and later on by evolved
stars. From individual objects, these mechanisms are well understood, but the overall
dust production in
star clusters at different evolutionary stages is still challenging to quantify. We present 22 massive (> 105M$_{\odot}$) extra
galactic star clusters with ages between 3 and 100 Myr exhibiting a compact
dust morphology seen with JWST-MIRI. We only find PAH features associated with one
star cluster and nineteen have already cleared themselves from their natal
dust. Their main characteristic is a significant enhancement at 10${\mu}$m, which is likely due to silicate emission and cannot be explained by ionized gas. We discuss several possible explanations including
dust production from evolved
stars such as red super
giants, more exotic
star types like yellow hypergiants and luminous blue variable
stars.
Stochastic dust injection from
supernovae or a single
supernova in dense gas can also create significant silicate emission. However, for this scenario secondary tracers such as a X-ray signal are expected which we only observe in three
star clusters. We find the most luminous 10${\mu}$m emitter to be the three most massive
star clusters (> 106M$_{\odot}$) which is at least a magnitude stronger than any known
stellar sources indicating a rare mechanism that only appears at extreme masses and a short lifetime.
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All authors Daniel Maschmann, Bradley C. Whitmore, David A. Thilker, Ivan Gerasimov, Simon C. O. Glover, B. T. Draine, Bret Lehmer, Varun Bajaj, Sumit Sarbadhicary, Médéric Boquien, G. C. Sloan, Tony D. Weinbeck, Daniel A. Dale, Kiana Henny, Kirsten L. Larson, M. Jimena Rodríguez, Robert Kennicutt, Amirnezam Amiri, Ashley. T. Barnes, Torsten Böker, Martha Boyer, Daizhong Liu, Oleg V. Egorov, Hwihyun Kim, Ralf S. Klessen, Thomas S.-Y. Lai, Janice C. Lee, Adam K. Leroy, Sean T. Linden, Julia Roman-Duval, Karin Sandstrom, Eva Schinnerer, J. D. Smith, Leonardo Úbeda, Stefanie Walch, E. Watkins, Thomas G. Williams, Yixian Cao
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
The Effect of the Fast-Flavor Instability on Core-Collapse Supernova Models: II. Quasi-Equipartition and the Impact of Various Angular Reconstruction Methods
Tianshu Wang and Adam Burrows
In this work, we explore in a consistent fashion the effects of fast
flavor conversion (FFC) in 1D and 2D core-collapse
supernova (CCSN) simulations. In addition, we investigate the impact of various angular reconstruction methods and compare the “3-species” and “4-species”
neutrino transport schemes. We find that the FFC effects are insensitive to the different methods tested and that the FFC alters
supernova hydrodynamics is only minor ways. We also present a “quasi-equipartition” approximation which can be used to estimate the FFC-altered
neutrino properties by post-processing the
neutrino signals extracted from no-oscillation CCSN simulations. The relative errors in
neutrino number and energy luminosities of this phenomenological method are less than 2% for 1D models, and less than 10% for 2D models. This method provides a simple way to include the effects of FFC on
neutrino signals without implementing a complex and expensive FFC scheme or redoing simulations.
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Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
TriPoDPy: 1D Tri-Population size distributions forDust evolution in protoplanetary disks
Nicolas Leo Kaufmann, Thomas Pfeil, Sebastian Stammler et al. (+3 more)
TriPoDPy is a code simulating the
dust evolution, including
dust growth and dynamics in protoplanetary disks using the parametric
dust model presented in (Pfeil et al., 2024). The simulation evolves a
dust distribution in a one-dimensional grid in the radial direction. It's written in Python and the core routines are implemented in Fortran90. The code not only solves for the
evolution of the
dust but also the gas disk with the canonical alpha-description (Shakura & Sunyaev, 1973). In addition to the original model, we added descriptions of tracers for the
dust and gas, which could be used for compositional tracking of additional components.
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All authors Nicolas Leo Kaufmann, Thomas Pfeil, Sebastian Stammler, Anna Penzlin, Sandro Christian Paetzold, Til Birnstiel
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
A Direct Calibration Algorithm for ADC Interleaving
Chi-kwan Chan, Hina Suzuki, David Forbes et al. (+4 more)
We introduce a novel direct calibration
algorithm to address phase delay, gain, and offset mismatches in Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) time interleaving systems. These mismatches, common in high-speed data acquisition, degrade system performance and signal integrity, particularly in applications such as
radio astronomy and very long baseline interferometry (VLBI). Our proposed
algorithm uses a sinusoidal reference signal and
Fourier analysis to isolate and correct each type of mismatch, providing a computationally efficient solution. Extensive numerical simulations validate the
algorithm's effectiveness and demonstrate its ability to significantly enhance signal reconstruction accuracy compared to existing methods. This work provides a robust and scalable solution for maintaining signal fidelity in interleaved ADC systems and has broad applications in fields that require high-speed data acquisition.
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All authors Chi-kwan Chan, Hina Suzuki, David Forbes, Andrew Thomas West, Arash Roshanineshat, Daniel P. Marrone, Amy Lowitz
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Caustic crossings in giant arcs with extended dark matter objects
Djuna Croon, Benedict Crossey, Jose Maria Diego et al. (+2 more)
Caustic-crossing
stars observed in
giant arcs behind
galaxy clusters provide a powerful probe of dark matter substructure. While previous work has focused on point-like lenses such as
primordial black holes, we extend this framework to extended dark objects (EDOs), including ultracompact minihalos formed from the collapse of
primordial overdensities. We develop an analytic model of microlensing by EDOs embedded in a macrolensing cluster potential and derive the resulting caustics and light curves. Depending on the EDO size relative to the effective Einstein radius, we show that they may generate additional narrow caustics, leading to novel features in the light curve. Applying our framework to the MACS J1149 LS1 “Icarus” event, we constrain EDOs with radii up to $10^7 R_\odot$. Our results demonstrate that caustic-crossing events complement
galactic microlensing searches, as they can probe EDOs with larger physical size. We discuss the implications for current and future observations, which promise to deliver a statistical sample of caustic transients and correspondingly sharper constraints on dark objects.
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All authors Djuna Croon, Benedict Crossey, Jose Maria Diego, Bradley J. Kavanagh, Jose Maria Palencia
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Reanalyzing DESI DR1: 2. Constraints on Dark Energy, Spatial Curvature, and Neutrino Masses
Anton Chudaykin, Mikhail M. Ivanov and Oliver H. E. Philcox
We carry out an independent re-analysis of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) public
dataset, focusing on extensions to the standard cosmological model, $\Lambda$CDM. Utilizing the
dataset and Effective Field Theory (EFT)-based pipeline described in Paper 1, we constrain cosmological models with massive
neutrinos ($\Lambda$CDM+$M_\nu$), spatial
curvature ($o\Lambda$CDM), dynamical dark energy ($w_0w_a$CDM), and their combinations using the power spectrum and bispectrum of DESI
galaxies and
quasars. Our work also presents the first measurements of relevant non-minimal cosmological parameters from the combination of
cosmic microwave background (CMB) and DESI full-shape (FS) data, which are made possible thanks to carefully chosen priors on EFT parameters. We find that the addition the FS likelihood to DESI's
baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) data improves the limits on the spatial
curvature by a factor of two over the BAO only results, though the improvements are less significant with the CMB data. The dark energy equation of state figure-of-merit increases both with and without the
supernovae data (SNe), by $\approx30\%$ and $\approx20\%$ relative to the CMB+BAO and CMB+BAO+SNe results, respectively. Our FS likelihood also yields the strongest CMB-independent constraint on the total
neutrino mass $M_\nu<0.32\,{\rm eV}$, with the $30\%$ improvement due to the bispectrum. In combination with the CMB, we find a $14\%$ improvement assuming the $\Lambda$CDM+$M_\nu$ model (yielding $M_\nu<0.059\,{\rm eV}$), but this increases to $22\%$ when using non-minimal backgrounds: $M_\nu<0.097\,{\rm eV}$ in $o\Lambda$CDM+$M_\nu$ and $M_\nu<0.13\,{\rm eV}$ in $w_0w_a$CDM+$M_\nu$. Overall, our work illustrates that robust and substantial gains in constraining power can be obtained by incorporating the FS power spectrum and bispectrum measurements in analyses of non-minimal cosmological models.
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High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
High-Order Photon Rings around Kerr Naked Singularities
Hina Suzuki, Yosuke Mizuno, Akhil Uniyal et al. (+3 more)
We present a detailed study of higher-order
photon rings of an accreting Kerr naked singularity (KNS) with dimensionless
spin parameter $a=1.01$; i.e., a horizonless, overly spinning compact object. Motivated by horizon-scale very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) including Event Horizon
Telescope (EHT) and future missions such as the Black Hole Explorer (BHEX), we analyze image morphology and interferometric visibilities to identify observational signatures that differentiate KNS from Kerr black holes. We find that higher-order
photon rings are tightly concentrated within the nominal “shadow” region and that the shadow develops a pronounced gap at sufficiently large observer inclination. These morphological differences produce measurable deviations in the complex visibilities relative to Kerr black hole predictions. Our results indicate that
photon-ring structure and visibility-domain diagnostics at horizon-resolving baselines can provide a direct observational test of the presence (or absence) of an event horizon and thus offer a concrete avenue to test general relativity with future horizon-scale observations.
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All authors Hina Suzuki, Yosuke Mizuno, Akhil Uniyal, Indu Kalpa Dihingia, Tintin Nguyen, Chi-kwan Chan
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
From Observations to Simulations: A Neural-Network Approach to Intracluster Medium Kinematics
E. Gatuzz, J. ZuHone, J. S. Sanders et al. (+4 more)
We present a systematic comparison between XMM-Newton velocity maps of the Virgo, Centaurus, Ophiuchus and A3266 clusters and synthetic velocity maps generated from the Illustris TNG-300 simulations. Our goal is to constrain the physical conditions and dynamical states of the intracluster medium (ICM) through a data-driven approach. We employ a Siamese Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) designed to identify the most analogous simulated cluster to each observed system based on the morphology of their line-of-sight velocity maps. The model learns a high-dimensional similarity metric between observations and simulations, allowing us to capture subtle kinematic and structural patterns beyond traditional statistical tests. We find that the best-matching simulated
halos reproduce the observed large-scale velocity gradients and local kinematic substructures, suggesting that the ICM motions in these clusters arise from a combination of gas sloshing, AGN feedback, and minor merger activity. Our results demonstrate that deep learning provides a powerful and objective framework for connecting X-ray observations to cosmological simulations, offering new insights into the dynamical
evolution of
galaxy clusters and the mechanisms driving
turbulence and bulk flows in the hot ICM.
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All authors E. Gatuzz, J. ZuHone, J. S. Sanders, A. Fabian, A. Liu, C. Pinto, S. Walker
Astrophysics of Galaxies
The galactic chemical evolution of carbon: Implications for stellar nucleosynthesis
Daniel A. Boyea, James W. Johnson and David H. Weinberg
Carbon (C) is thought to be produced by both core collapse
supernovae (CCSN) and asymptotic
giant branch (AGB)
stars, but the relative contributions of these two sources are uncertain. We investigate the astrophysical origin of C using models of
Galactic chemical
evolution (GCE) appropriate for the Milky Way disk. We
benchmark our results against APOGEE subgiant abundances. The trend between [C/Mg] and [Mg/H] is set by the total C yield as a function of
metallicity. Observations indicate a gently rising [C/Mg] with [Mg/H], but AGB C production is predicted to decline with
metallicity. Our sample therefore favours a scenario in which CCSN yields rise with
metallicity to offset declining AGB C yields and drive a subtle increase in [C/Mg] with [Mg/H]. This result is consistent with massive
star nucleosynthesis models incorporating rotation. The [C/Mg]-[Mg/Fe] trend is sensitive to delayed enrichment and therefore constrains the amount of AGB C production. Given the slope of this relation, we find that AGB
stars likely account for 10-40 per cent of C at
solar metallicity. Artificially shifting the AGB C yields towards lower mass
stars with longer lifetimes also improves agreement with the observed [C/Mg]-[Mg/Fe] trend, possibly indicating a discrepancy with
stellar evolution predictions or our assumed Fe production rate.
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Astrophysics of Galaxies
ECOGAL I. Project design and the first catalogue
Minju M. Lee, Georgios Magdis, Gabriel Brammer et al. (+10 more)
We present ECOlogy for
Galaxies using ALMA archive and Legacy surveys (ECOGAL), an ALMA data mining project. Using the footprints of the James Webb Space
Telescope (JWST) and the Hubble Space
Telescope (HST), we query and uniformly reprocess ALMA data to produce continuum images and two complementary source catalogues: (i) a prior-based catalogue anchored to optical/near-infrared detections, and (ii) a blind catalogue based on significant ALMA detections. Detection thresholds are established through peak signal-to-noise-ratio statistics and analysis of inverted maps. In this paper, we focus on the ALMA-accessible CANDELS fields (COSMOS, GOODS-S, and UDS), covering $\sim$130,000 optical/NIR-selected
galaxies spanning $0.0<z<15.0$. We identify 1288 detections (622 unique) with optical/NIR counterparts across the two methods, of which 832 detections (395 unique) appear in both. Among the 622 unique sources, 307 have spectroscopic
redshifts from $0.12<z<6.85$. ECOGAL expands the parameter space previously explored by A3COSMOS and A3GOODS-S by incorporating the UDS field and integrating publicly available JWST
datasets from the DAWN JWST Archive (DJA). We also highlight several science cases enabled by ECOGAL, including studies of gas fractions inferred from
dust continuum emission in
galaxies across different environments, the obscured fraction of
star formation, and optically dark systems. ECOGAL provides science-ready
datasets for the community and showcases the power of combining over a decade of accumulated public data with other legacy
datasets. The data product is made publicly available and accompanies a post demonstrating the usage of the catalogue on the DJA webpage.
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All authors Minju M. Lee, Georgios Magdis, Gabriel Brammer, Daizhong Liu, Benjamin Magnelli, Steven Gillman, Bitten Gullberg, Kei Ito, Nikolaj Sillassen, Francesco Valentino, Rashmi Gottumukkala, Chandana Chandrashekhar, Thomas R. Greve
Astrophysics of Galaxies
ALMA Lensing Cluster Survey: Molecular Gas Properties of Line-Emitting Galaxies from a Blind Survey
Kanako Narita, Bunyo Hatsukade, Seiji Fujimoto et al. (+16 more)
We present results of a blind search for line-emitting
galaxies using ALMA
Lensing Cluster Survey data. We detected seven line emitters, one of which is [C\,ii] at $z = 6.071$, four are CO at $z = 0.8$–1.1, and the remaining two are possibly CO or [C\,i] within photometric
redshift ranges. Three of the four CO emitters are multiple images of the same
galaxy. Compared to previous line-emitter searches in ALMA deep fields, our sample probes molecular gas masses $\sim$1 dex below the lower bound, thanks to gravitational
lensing (typically $\mu \sim 4$, up to $\sim$30 in extreme cases). Most emitters are located in a region similar to normal
star-forming
galaxies in the
star formation rate (SFR) versus molecular gas mass plane. To reduce dependence on SFR and
stellar mass, we analyzed the molecular gas fraction and depletion timescale as a function of distance from the
star-formation main sequence. We found that most emitters broadly follow the scaling relations from previous studies, consistent within the intrinsic scatter. In addition, we serendipitously detected the CH $N = 1$, $J = 3/2 \rightarrow 1/2$ $\Lambda$-doublet transition from one CO emitter at $z = 1.142$, representing the first detection of CH from an individual
galaxy at cosmological distances through a blind survey. The CH/CO column density ratio of $\sim$$10^{-4}$ is comparable to that of local AGN-host
galaxies, suggesting that CH traces molecular gas associated with AGN activity, possibly irradiated by X-rays.
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All authors Kanako Narita, Bunyo Hatsukade, Seiji Fujimoto, Jorge González-López, Kotaro Kohno, Francesco Valentino, Ryosuke Uematsu, Masamune Oguri, Vasily Kokorev, Daniel Espada, Hideki Umehata, Anton M. Koekemoer, Jean Baptiste Jolly, Fengwu Sun, Karina Caputi, Miroslava Dessauges-Zavadsky, Neil Nagar, Akiyoshi Tsujita, Wei-Hao Wang
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Neural Deprojection of Galaxy Stellar Mass Profiles
M. J. Yantovski-Barth, Hengyue Zhang, Nolan Smyth et al. (+4 more)
We introduce a neural approach to dynamical modeling of
galaxies that replaces traditional imaging-based deprojections with a differentiable mapping. Specifically, we train a neural network to translate Nuker profile parameters into analytically deprojectable Multi Gaussian Expansion components, enabling physically realistic
stellar mass models without requiring optical observations. We integrate this model into SuperMAGE, a differentiable dynamical modelling pipeline for
Bayesian inference of supermassive black hole masses. Applied to ALMA data, our approach finds results consistent with state-of-the-art models while extending applicability to
dust-obscured and active
galaxies where optical data analysis is challenging.
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All authors M. J. Yantovski-Barth, Hengyue Zhang, Nolan Smyth, Connor Stone, Martin Bureau, Yashar Hezaveh, Laurence Perreault-Levasseur
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Game Theory in Cosmology
Oem Trivedi and Venkat Venkatsubramanian
We present a game-theoretic statistical framework for cosmology, which we term Cosmological Teleodynamics. We recast the dark sector,
cosmic acceleration, large-scale structure, and
cosmic tensions as emergent consequences of nonlocal
memory and intrinsically persistent organization in a self-gravitating Universe. By introducing a maximum-caliber weight on
cosmic histories and a bias functional encoding structural
memory, we derive modified Friedmann, Boltzmann, and Poisson equations that naturally generate dark energy-like acceleration, dark matter-like clustering, and scale-dependent growth suppression. We also show how this approach can naturally help alleviate the $H_0$ and $S_8$ tensions, can produce anisotropic velocity fields, and predict environment-dependent
halo signatures that cannot arise from particle dark matter or scalar-field dark energy. We also derive a generalized horizon
entropy and temperature, revealing a nonequilibrium statistical origin for
cosmic acceleration and formulating a Law of Universal Arbitrage
Equilibrium that governs the
evolution of the Universe, showing that it is expanding towards a continuous form of Nash
equilibrium. Cosmological Teleodynamics therefore offers a unified, emergent, and testable alternative to the conventional dark sector, rooted not in new particles but in the intrinsic statistical and systemic structure of
cosmic memory, and shows that the universe itself operates like a
giant potential game.
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Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
StarEstate: A Python Package for Galactic Population Synthesis
Amedeo Romagnolo
I present StarEstate, an open-source Python package for producing rapid, statistically robust
galactic population synthesis models. By utilizing optimized pre-calculated inverse-cumulative distribution function samplers, the tool generates synthetic populations from pre-generated grids of
stellar tracks orders of magnitude faster than traditional numerical integration methods. A key morphological feature is the probabilistic assignment of
stars to spiral arms based on age-dependent dynamical temperature, reproducing the observation that young tracers tightly confine to arms while older populations disperse. The software combines statistical generation with
stellar physics by mapping synthetic populations to MESA or rapid SSE/BSE evolutionary tracks. Users can inspect specific evolutionary stages through automatic hierarchical classification, distinguishing evolutionary phases and spectral classes like Wolf-Rayet, O-type, or red supergiant
stars across different
metallicity environments. StarEstate's features allow the user to predict spatial distributions of diverse
stellar objects, providing a flexible resource for interpreting
galactic surveys.
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Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics · Cross-listed from gr-qc
Denoising gravitational wave with deep learning in the time-frequency domain
Yi-De Lee and Hwei-Jang Yo
Gravitational wave denoising is an ongoing task for revealing the events of compact binary objects in the universe. Recently, with the aid of deep learning, gravitational waves have been efficiently and delicately extracted from the noisy data compared with the traditional match-filtering. While most of the relevant studies adopt the data in the time series only, the time-frequency data processing is also in progress due to its several advantages for the waveform denoising. Here, we target the gravitational waves events emitted by binary black hole (BBH) mergers, with their total mass larger than 30
solar masses. For denoising, we propose a deep learning model utilizing the Griffin-Lim
algorithm, an existing numerical approach to restore the phase information from the related amplitude spectrogram. This design allows extra
attention on the phase recovery by using a priorly denoised amplitude spectrogram. The denoising results fit well in both the amplitude and the phase
alignments of the mock injected waveforms. We also apply our model to the real detected events and discover a nice consistency with the simulated template waveforms, especially the high accuracy around the merger stage. Our work suggests the possibility of a better methodological design for gravitational wave data analysis.
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Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Inferring the Impacts of Baryonic Feedback from Kinetic Sunyaev-Zeldovich Cross-Correlations
Alex Laguë, Mathew S. Madhavacheril, Josh Borrow et al. (+4 more)
The complex processes of baryonic feedback associated with
galaxy evolution are still poorly understood, and their impact on the clustering of matter on small scales remains difficult to quantify. While many fitting functions and emulators exist to model the matter power spectrum, their input parameters are not directly observable. However, recent studies using hydrodynamical simulations have identified a promising correlation between the gas content of
halos and changes to the matter power spectrum from feedback. Building on these findings, we create the first fully data-driven power spectrum emulator. We utilize the kinematic Sunyaev-Zeldovich (kSZ) effect, a secondary anisotropy in the
cosmic microwave background, as a tracer of free electrons in and around
halos. We train a neural network to learn the mapping between the suppression of the matter power spectrum and the shape of the kSZ power spectrum extracted with a radial velocity template. We train and validate our
algorithm using the FLAMINGO suite of hydrodynamical simulations, which encompasses a wide range of feedback models. Our emulator can reconstruct the matter power spectrum at the sub-percent level for scales $k\leq 5\;h/$Mpc and $0.2\leq z \leq 1.25$ directly from the data. Our model is robust and retains percent-level accuracy even for feedback models and cosmological parameter values not seen during training (except in a few extreme cases drastically different from the fiducial model). Due to its robustness, our
algorithm offers a new way to identify the sources of suppression in the matter power spectrum, breaking the degeneracies between baryonic feedback and new physics. Finally, we present a forecast for reconstruction of the matter power spectrum combining maps of the microwave background anisotropies from a Simons Observatory-like experiment and
galaxy catalogs from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument.
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All authors Alex Laguë, Mathew S. Madhavacheril, Josh Borrow, Kendrick M. Smith, Xinyi Chen, Matthieu Schaller, Joop Schaye
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Evidence of an Energetic Magnetar Powering 1LHAASO J0500$+$4454
J. A. J. Alford, J. D. Gelfand, M. Abdelmaguid et al. (+1 more)
We investigate the origin of unidentified, extended TeV source 1LHAASO J0500$+$4454, considering three possible origins:
cosmic rays interacting with a molecular cloud (MC), particles accelerated in a currently undetected
supernova remnant (SNR), and an energetic
outflow powered by a
pulsar. Upper limits on the CO and X-ray emission from the $\gamma$-ray emitting region disfavor the MC and SNR scenarios, respectively. If a nebula of inverse Compton scattering $e^{\pm}$ powers 1LHAASO J0500$+$4454, then SED modeling indicates that the current particle energy in the nebula is $\sim 4 \times 10^{48}$ erg. If the coincident magnetar SGR 0501$+$4516's rotational energy powered 1LHAASO J0500$+$4454, then a conservative energy budget calculation requires an initial magnetar
spin period $P_{0} \lesssim 5$ ms and a
spin-down timescale $\tau_{\rm sd} \lesssim 30$ yr, which has implications for the origins of magnetars.
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All authors J. A. J. Alford, J. D. Gelfand, M. Abdelmaguid, P. Slane
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Hurst exponent and planetary rings
Horacio Salomone and Nicolás Grandi
We test on Saturn's rings whether the Hurst exponent is a "robust" observable, in the sense that it returns consistent values for different observations of the same object. We calculate the exponent of the series corresponding to the optical depth as a function of the radius, as obtained from the grayscale value of Cassini pictures, as well as from
stellar occultation data from Voyager missions.
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Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
An improved time delay from VLA and ATCA monitoring of the gravitational lens system PKS 1830-211
A. D. Biggs
We have measured a time delay of 25.3 +/- 2.0 d (1-sigma confidence) in the Einstein ring gravitational lens system PKS 1830-211 from an analysis of archival VLA and ATCA monitoring data observed between 1997 and 2004. A small portion of the ATCA data was previously used to determine a time delay and our result is consistent with the previous value, but with an uncertainty that is smaller by more than a factor of two. The long time-baseline of the monitoring reveals that the flux density ratio is smoothly varying on a time-scale of years, an effect which we attribute to millilensing by massive objects (>>1 M_sun) in the
lensing galaxy. Image A is unpolarized in the VLA monitoring, but VLBI observations show that this is partly due to beam dilution by an unpolarized counter-jet that is only present in that image. Based on the identification of this feature as a counter-jet, we conclude that its unexpected prominence in image A is a consequence of
lensing and that more detailed modelling is required in order to reconcile the VLBI morphology of each image.
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Astrophysics of Galaxies
Multi-Resonant-Line Radiative Transfer: Lyman-Alpha Fine Structure and Deuterium Coupling
Ethan Stace, Aaron Smith, Kevin Lorinc et al. (+1 more)
Resonance lines encode rich information about astrophysical sources and their environments, yet fully analytic treatments of multi-line radiative transfer remain almost entirely unexplored. We present exact, closed-form solutions for steady-state resonant-line radiative transfer in "V-shaped" atomic networks, where a single ground state couples to multiple transitions. Starting from the full angle-dependent transfer equation, we generalize absorption and emission coefficients to an arbitrary number of lines, derive a modified Fokker-Planck expansion of the frequency-redistribution COLT Monte Carlo radiative transfer code and find excellent agreement with the analytic predictions across a wide range of line separations, optical depths, and damping parameters, establishing our solutions as stringent validation
benchmarks. For concrete applications related to the Lyman-alpha transition of neutral hydrogen, we examine how fine-structure splitting and deuterium injection modify the emergent spectra, internal radiation field, and radiative force multiplier. We show that these effects leave previous conclusions about Lyman-alpha feedback in the early universe essentially unchanged. Even when direct observational diagnostics are subtle, our framework provides novel analytic and numerical insights into coupled resonance-line transport and facilitates progress in general modeling of multi-line radiative transfer in diverse astrophysical settings.
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All authors Ethan Stace, Aaron Smith, Kevin Lorinc, Olof Nebrin
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
The origin of B-type runaway stars based on kinematics
Yanjun Guo, Chao Liu, ZhiCun Liu et al. (+5 more)
Runaway
stars depart their birthplaces with high peculiar velocities. Two mechanisms are commonly invoked to explain their origin, the binary
supernova scenario (BSS) and the dynamical ejection scenario (DES). Investigating the kinematic properties of runaway
stars is key to understanding their origins.We intend to investigate the origins of 39 B-type runaway
stars from LAMOST using orbital traceback analysis. From the catalog of LAMOST, we selected 39 B-type runaway
stars and determined their spectral subtypes from key absorption lines. We then derived atmospheric parameters for each
star using the
Stellar Label Machine (SLAM), which is trained on TLUSTY synthetic spectra computed under the non-local thermodynamic
equilibrium (NLTE) assumption. Using the derived atmospheric parameters as input, we estimated
stellar masses and ages with a machine learning model trained on PARSEC evolutionary tracks. We finally performed orbital traceback with GALPY to analyze their origins. Through orbital traceback, we find that 29
stars have trajectories entirely within the
Galactic disk, whereas 10 are disk-passing yet still trace back to the disk. Two
stars have trajectories that intersect those of known clusters. Their orbits show similar morphologies in both the $X-Y$ and $R-Z$ planes, and their [M/H] values are comparable, suggesting possible cluster origins. However, definitive confirmation will require additional evidence. In addition, the $V_{\rm Sp} - v\sin{i}$ plane shows that runaway
stars with low peculiar space velocities but high $v\sin{i}$ remain on the
Galactic disk, whereas those with high peculiar space velocities but low $v\sin{i}$ pass through the disk, possibly reflecting two distinct origins.
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All authors Yanjun Guo, Chao Liu, ZhiCun Liu, Chunyan Li, Qida Li, Kun Chen, Zhanwen Han, XueFei Chen
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
On-sky demonstration of second-stage wavefront control with a photonic lantern
Aditya R. Sengupta, Jordan Diaz, Matthew DeMartino et al. (+14 more)
Ground-based direct imaging of
exoplanets at high contrast requires precise correction of atmospheric
turbulence using adaptive optics (AO). The
planet-to-
star contrast ratio at small angular separations from the host
star is often limited by non-common-path aberrations (NCPAs) seen only in the science plane. The photonic lantern (PL) can be used to sense aberrations at the final science imaging plane. This enables a two-stage wavefront control architecture, in which the first-stage wavefront sensor senses atmospheric
turbulence and the PL senses NCPAs and other aberrations not seen by the first stage. We demonstrate closed-loop control of residual wavefront errors using a non-dispersed PL after first-stage AO correction on the Shane 3m
telescope at Lick Observatory. Our results show that non-dispersed PLs can be used for second-stage wavefront sensing, enabling performance improvements via minimally invasive retrofits to existing AO systems.
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All authors Aditya R. Sengupta, Jordan Diaz, Matthew DeMartino, Rebecca Jensen-Clem, Sylvain Cetre, Elinor Gates, Kevin Bundy, Daren Dillon, Philip Hinz, Maïssa Salama, Nour Skaf, Olivier Guyon, Tara Crowe, Caleb Dobias, Stephen S. Eikenberry, Rodrigo Amezcua-Correa, Stephanos Yerolatsitis
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Cross-listed from gr-qc
Natural inflation in Palatini $F(R)$
N. Bostan, R.H. Dejrah, C. Dioguardi et al. (+1 more)
$F(R)$ Palatini
gravity provides a robust framework for constructing viable inflationary potentials. In this study, we examine natural inflation and show that its consistency with observational data can be restored when the model is embedded within $F(R)$ Palatini
gravity, specifically for $F(R) = R + \alpha R^n$ with $7/4 \lesssim n \leq 2$. For completeness, we also demonstrate that models with $n > 2$ do not yield comparable improvements, achieving partial agreement with the data only in the limit $n \rightarrow 2$.
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All authors N. Bostan, R.H. Dejrah, C. Dioguardi, A. Racioppi
Astrophysics of Galaxies
H II regions and supernova remnants associated with molecular clouds: A pilot study with the SARAO MeerKAT Galactic Plane Survey
Moses O. Langa, Mark A. Thompson, Andrew J. Rigby et al. (+5 more)
Massive
stars (mass beyond 8 solMass) release vast amounts of energy into the interstellar medium through their
stellar winds, photoionising radiation and
supernova explosions. These processes may compress nearby regions, triggering further
star formation, but the significance of triggered
star formation across the
Galactic disc is not well understood. This pilot study combines 1.3 GHz continuum data from the South African
Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) MeerKAT
Galactic Plane Survey (SMGPS) with 13CO (2-1) data from the Structure, Excitation, and Dynamics of the Inner
Galactic Interstellar Medium (SEDIGISM) survey to identify and examine molecular clouds associated with H II regions and
supernovae remnants (SNRs). We focus on their physical properties and massive
star formation potential. We identify 268 molecular clouds from the SEDIGISM tile covering the
Galactic plane region between 341 and 343 longitude deg and latitude deg equal to or less 0.5, of which 90 clouds (34 per cent) are associated with SMGPS extended sources. Compared to unassociated clouds, we find that associated clouds exhibit significantly higher mean mass (9600 solMass vs. 2500 solMass ) and average gas surface density (104 solMass / pc^2 vs. 67 solMass / pc^2 ), and slightly elevated but comparable virial parameters. We also find that the size-linewidth scaling relation is steeper for associated clouds compared to unassociated clouds. In addition,
radio luminosity shows a positive correlation with total complex mass, and the ratio L_
radio/L_complex increases with source size, consistent with an evolutionary sequence where expanding H II regions progressively disrupt their natal molecular environment. These findings suggest an enhanced dynamical activity for the associated clouds and support the hypothesis that feedback from massive
stars influences molecular cloud properties and may trigger
star formation.
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All authors Moses O. Langa, Mark A. Thompson, Andrew J. Rigby, Gwenllian M. Williams, Mubela Mutale, Paul O. Baki, James O. Chibueze, Willice O. Obonyo
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
The miniJPAS and J-NEP surveys: Machine learning for star-galaxy separation
Ana Paula Jeakel, Gabriel Vieira dos Santos, Valerio Marra et al. (+27 more)
We present a supervised machine learning classification of sources from the Javalambre Physics of the Accelerating Universe Astrophysical Survey (J-PAS) Pathfinder
datasets: miniJPAS and J-NEP. Leveraging crossmatches with spectroscopic and photometric catalogs, we construct a robust labeled
dataset comprising 14594 sources classified into extended (
galaxies) and point-like (
stars and
quasars) objects. We assess
dataset representativeness using UMAP analysis, confirming broad and consistent coverage of feature space. An XGBoost classifier, with hyperparameters tuned using automated optimization, is trained using purely photometric data (60-band J-PAS magnitudes) and combined photometric and morphological features, with performance thoroughly evaluated via ROC and purity-completeness metrics. Incorporating morphology significantly improves classification, outperforming the baseline classifications available in the catalogs. Permutation importance analysis reveals morphological parameters, particularly concentration, normalized peak surface brightness, and PSF, alongside photometric features around 4000 and 6900 A, as crucial for accurate classifications. We release a value-added catalog with our models for
star-
galaxy classification, enhancing the utility of miniJPAS and J-NEP for subsequent cosmological and astrophysical analyses.
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All authors Ana Paula Jeakel, Gabriel Vieira dos Santos, Valerio Marra, Rodrigo von Marttens, Siddhartha Gurung-López, Raul Abramo, Jailson Alcaniz, Narciso Benitez, Silvia Bonoli, Javier Cenarro, David Cristóbal-Hornillos, Simone Daflon, Renato Dupke, Alessandro Ederoclite, Rosa M. González Delgado, Antonio Hernán-Caballero, Carlos Hernández-Monteagudo, Jifeng Liu, Carlos López-Sanjuan, Antonio Marín-Franch, Claudia Mendes de Oliveira, Mariano Moles, Fernando Roig, Laerte Sodré Jr., Keith Taylor, Jesús Varela, Héctor Vázquez Ramió, José M. Vilchez, Christopher Willmer, Javier Zaragoza-Cardiel
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Considerations on the process of target selection for the Comet Interceptor mission
C. Snodgrass, E. Mazzotta Epifani, C. Tubiana et al. (+27 more)
Comet Interceptor is an ESA science mission with payload contributions from ESA Member States and with an international participation by JAXA. It is the first mission that is being designed, built, and potentially launched before its target is known. This approach will enable the spacecraft to perform the first mission to a Long Period Comet from the Oort Cloud, as these comets have fleeting visits to the inner
Solar System lasting only months to years from first discovery, too short for the usual process of mission development to be followed. In this paper we describe a number of factors that need to be considered in selecting a target for the mission, including scientific, orbital, spacecraft and instrument constraints, and discussion of different prioritisation strategies. We find that, in the case where we have a choice of targets, our decisions will mostly be driven by orbital information, which we will have relatively early on, with information on the activity level of the comet an important but secondary consideration. As cometary activity levels are notoriously hard to predict based on early observations alone, this prioritisation / decision approach based more on orbits gives us confidence that a good comet that is compatible with the spacecraft constraints will be selectable with sufficient warning time to allow the mission to intercept it.
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All authors C. Snodgrass, E. Mazzotta Epifani, C. Tubiana, J. P. Sánchez, N. Biver, L. Inno, M. M. Knight, P. Lacerda, J. De Keyser, A. Donaldson, N. J. T. Edberg, M. Galand, A. Guilbert-Lepoutre, P. Henri, S. Kasahara, H. Kawakita, R. Kokotanekova, M. Kueppers, M. Micheli, M. Pajusalu, M. Rubin, N. Sakatani, K. Yoshioka, V. Della Corte, A. I. Eriksson, M. Fulle, C. Holt, L. Lara, A. Rotundi, E. Jehin