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Physics Astrophysics

astro-ph Watch Astrophysics

Thursday 11 December

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics

Enhancing evidence estimation through informed probability density approximation

El Mehdi Zahraoui, Patricio Maturana-Russel, Avi Vajpeyi et al. (+3 more)

We introduce the Morph approximation, a class of product approximations of probability densities that selects low-order disjoint parameter blocks by maximizing the sum of their total correlations. We use the posterior approximation via Morph as the importance distribution in optimal bridge sampling. We denote this procedure by MorphZ, which serves as a post-processing estimator of the marginal likelihood. The MorphZ estimator requires only posterior samples, and is fully agnostic regarding the choice of sampler. We evaluate MorphZ's performance across statistical benchmarks, pulsar timing array (PTA) models, compact binary coalescence (CBC) gravitational-wave (GW) simulations and the GW150914 event. Across these applications, spanning low to high dimensionalities, MorphZ yields accurate evidence estimates at substantially reduced computational cost relative to standard approaches. We have found that when these approaches fail to provide accurate estimates, MorphZ has proven to either resolve the estimation failure or significantly improve the results. Its bridge sampling relative error diagnostic provides conservative uncertainty estimates. Because MorphZ operates directly on posterior draws, it complements exploration-oriented samplers by enabling fast and reliable evidence estimation, while it can be seamlessly integrated into existing inference workflows.
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All authors El Mehdi Zahraoui, Patricio Maturana-Russel, Avi Vajpeyi, Willem van Straten, Renate Meyer, Sergei Gulyaev

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Detectability of Atmospheric Biosignatures in Earth Analogs with Varying Surface Boundary Conditions: Prospects for Characterization in the UV, Visible, Near-Infrared, and Mid-Infrared Regions

Dibya Bharati Pradhan, Priyankush Ghosh, Oommen P. Jose et al. (+1 more)

The search for potentially habitable exoplanets centers on detecting biosignature molecules in Earth-like atmospheres, which makes it essential to understand their detectability under biologically and geologically influenced conditions. In this study, we model the reflection and thermal emission spectra of such atmospheres across the UV/VIS/NIR and mid-IR regions and simulate their detectability with future mission concepts such as the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) and the Large Interferometer for Exoplanets (LIFE). We employ Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) model data, based on Earth's atmosphere, to derive temperature pressure profiles and couple them with a 1D photochemical model to assess the detectability of these molecules in Earth analogs located 10 parsecs away. We investigate the dominant reaction pathways and their contributions to the atmospheric composition of an Earth analog, with a focus on how they shape the resulting molecular signatures. We also examine the role of surface boundary conditions, which indirectly trace the effects of biological and geological processes, on the detectability of these molecules using HWO- and LIFE-type mission concepts. Our findings indicate that O3 is detectable with both mission concepts, while H2O requires specific surface humidity levels for detection with LIFE and shows only potential detectability with HWO. CO2 is detectable with LIFE. Both N2O and CH4 require continuous surface outgassing for potential detection with LIFE, and CH4 further requires low surface humidity to prevent masking by water features. Our work highlights the feasibility of characterizing the atmospheres of Earth analogs in the UV/VIS/NIR and mid-IR domains using HWO- and LIFE-type mission concepts and offers guidance for the development of future missions operating in these spectral regions.
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All authors Dibya Bharati Pradhan, Priyankush Ghosh, Oommen P. Jose, Liton Majumdar

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Hybrid corona and transient soft X-ray lags in Fairall 9

K. Khanthasombat, P. Chainakun, W. Luangtip et al. (+2 more)

Fairall 9 is among the most massive Seyfert galaxies exhibiting a strong soft X-ray excess, but it is challenging to probe soft X-ray reverberation lags (if any) due to the long intrinsic timescales expected from its large black hole mass of $\sim 2.55 \times 10^8 M_\odot$. We fit five XMM-Newton spectra of Fairall 9 using the hybrid reXcor model taking into account both hot and warm corona. The soft excess is explained by a combination of a physically motivated warm corona and the disc reflection. Then, we perform a wavelet coherence analysis of the light curves between 0.3 - 1 and 1 - 4 keV bands. The spectral fits are consistent with a rapidly spinning black hole ($a = 0.99$), a warm corona with optical depth $\sim$10 - 30, and a hot lamp-post corona located at either 5 or $20~r_{\rm g}$. This configuration supports a coexisting hot and warm corona scenario, allowing the disc to extend almost to the event horizon. Our wavelet analysis on combined observations reveals signatures of transient soft X-ray lags, confined to specific time-frequency intervals. The earlier observations exhibit more variable and transient lag behavior. In contrast, the later observations display more persistent soft X-ray lags at the frequencies of $\sim 9\times 10^{-6}$ - $2.5 \times 10^{-5}$ Hz, with amplitudes reaching $\sim$1000 s. The results indicate a progressively stable disc-corona configuration in later observations. Given the mass and geometry of Fairall 9, the observed soft lags appears plausibly consistent in both size and timescales with expectations from X-ray reverberation.
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All authors K. Khanthasombat, P. Chainakun, W. Luangtip, J. Jiang, A. J. Young

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Relaxation of time-variable neutron-loaded relativistic jets across the photosphere and their GeV-TeV neutrino counterparts

Kanako Nakama, Kazumi Kashiyama and Nobuhiro Shimizu

Both observational and theoretical studies indicate that the central engine of a gamma-ray burst (GRB) is intrinsically time-variable, implying jet inhomogeneity. A jet with an inhomogeneous Lorentz factor distribution develops internal shocks both below and above the photosphere, relaxing toward homologous expansion. Below the photosphere, neutrons, whose mean free paths are much longer than those of charged particles, play an essential role in the dissipation process. Using neutron-inclusive shell simulations with initial conditions based on the collapsar scenario, we link the statistical inhomogeneity of the jet at the breakout of the progenitor to the dissipation that occurs inside and outside the photosphere, and calculate the GeV-TeV neutrino counterpart originated from inelastic neutron-proton interactions consistently with the prompt gamma-ray emission. We find that the peak energy of the GeV-TeV neutrinos is in 10-30 GeV irrespective to the baryon loading factor of the jet, with the high-energy tail extending into the TeV range as the amplitude of the time variability becomes stronger. When gamma-ray emission is efficient as in typical GRBs (i.e., the gamma-ray radiation efficiency with respect to the total jet power is approximately 100%, the radiative efficiency of GeV-TeV neutrinos remains 0.1-10%. By contrast, when the gamma-ray radiation efficiency is relatively low (< 10%) for jets where a large fraction of the energy is dissipated below the photosphere, the neutrino efficiency can increase up to 20%. This suggests that GRBs with relatively low gamma-ray luminosities, as well as X-ray-rich transients, can be promising targets for ongoing and future GeV-TeV neutrino transient searches.
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High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Irregularity in Active Fast Radio Burst Repeaters and Magnetar Periodic Radio Pulses: Time, Energy, and Frequency Analyses

Ellen C.C. Lin, Shotaro Yamasaki, Tomotsugu Goto et al. (+1 more)

Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) are millisecond-duration radio pulses with largely unknown origins, with a subset exhibiting repeating behavior. Magnetars highly magnetized neutron stars and a leading progenitor candidate for FRBs also produce similar but much fainter millisecond radio pulses, suggesting a possible connection between the two phenomena. The irregularity of the time series of repeating FRBs and magnetar pulses may provide insight into the underlying progenitor activity. In this study, we analyze time-series data from three repeating FRB sources (four datasets) and the Galactic magnetar SGR J1935+2154 to investigate potential patterns in burst arrival times, energy fluctuations, and peak-frequency shifts. We quantify the degree of randomness (Pincus Index; PI) and chaos (Largest Lyapunov Exponent; LLE) for these three parameters. We find that waiting times across all repeating FRBs exhibit high PI (high randomness) and low LLE (low chaos), consistent with the behavior of magnetar radio pulses. This similarity suggests that both may share a common triggering mechanism. In contrast, the energy fluctuations of both repeating FRBs and magnetar pulses occupy the same region in PI-LLE phase space but display much larger scatter than the other two domains. We discuss the possibility that beaming effects or strong variability in radio-emission efficiency may explain their distinct behavior in the energy domain.
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All authors Ellen C.C. Lin, Shotaro Yamasaki, Tomotsugu Goto, Tetsuya Hashimoto

Astrophysics of Galaxies

$^{12}$CO $J$=3–2 Observations of Tycho's supernova remnant: constraints on the environmental gas properties

Sendi Bo, Yu Huang, Ping Zhou et al. (+5 more)

Recent observations suggest that Tycho's supernova remnant (SNR; SN 1572) is expanding into a cavity wall of molecular clouds (MCs), which decelerate the SNR and influence its multi-wavelength morphology. To constrain the physical properties of environmental MCs and search for heated gas, we perform a JCMT $^{12}$CO $J$=3–2 observation and compare with previous $^{12}$CO $J$=2–1, $^{12}$CO $J$=1–0 and $^{13}$CO $J$=1–0 data. We present the $^{12}$CO $J$=3–2 map toward Tycho and show that the $^{12}$CO $J$=3–2 spatial distribution and line profiles are similar to those of the lower-$J$ CO lines. By comparing the multiple transitions of CO and the RADEX (Radiative transfer code in non-Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium) models, we constrain the physical properties of molecular gas surrounding Tycho: the northern cloud has a molecular column density of $N({\rm H}_{2})=0.5$ – $4.5\times 10^{22}$ cm$^{-2}$, while other regions have $N({\rm H}_{2})=0.2$ – $3.9\times10^{21}$ cm$^{-2}$; the kinetic temperatures $T_{\rm k}$ of these clouds are in the range of 9 – 22 K and the volume densities $n({\rm H}_{2})$ are 20 – $700$ cm$^{-3}$. We also discuss the difficulty in finding hot molecular gas shocked by such a young SNR. We estimate that the shocked molecular layer can be as thin as 0.003 pc, corresponding to $0.2''$ at the distance of 2.5 kpc, which is 2 orders of magnitude smaller than the angular resolution of current CO observations. Therefore, our molecular observations are largely insensitive to the thin shocked gas layer; instead, they detect the environmental gas.
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All authors Sendi Bo, Yu Huang, Ping Zhou, Tian-Yu Tu, Samar Safi-Harb, Zhi-Yu Zhang, Yang Chen, Hidetoshi Sano

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

EP250827b/SN 2025wkm: An X-ray Flash-Supernova Powered by a Central Engine and Circumstellar Interaction

Gokul P. Srinivasaragavan, Dongyue Li, Xander J. Hall et al. (+100 more)

We present the discovery of EP250827b/SN 2025wkm, an X-ray Flash (XRF) discovered by the Einstein Probe (EP), accompanied by a broad-line Type Ic supernova (SN Ic-BL) at $z = 0.1194$. EP250827b possesses a prompt X-ray luminosity of $\sim 10^{45} \, \rm{erg \, s^{-1}}$, lasts over 1000 seconds, and has a peak energy $E_{\rm{p}} < 1.5$ keV at 90% confidence. SN 2025wkm possesses a double-peaked optical light curve (LC), though its bolometric luminosity plateaus after its initial peak for $\sim 20$ days, consistent with a central engine injecting additional energy into the explosion. Its spectrum transitions from a blue to red continuum with clear blueshifted broad absorption features consistent with a SN Ic-BL classification. We do not detect any transient radio emission and rule out the existence of an on-axis, energetic jet $\gtrsim 10^{50}~$erg assuming a typical LGRB circumburst constant density ($n \approx 10^{-3}$–$10^{-1}~{\rm cm}^{-3}$) and microphysical parameters ($\epsilon_{\rm e} = 0.1$ and $\epsilon_{\rm B} = 0.01$). In the model we invoke, the collapse gives rise to a long-lived magnetar, potentially surrounded by an accretion disk. Magnetically–driven winds from the magnetar and the disk mix together and break out with a velocity $\sim 0.35c$ and interact with an extended circumstellar medium with radius $\sim 10^{13}$ cm, generating X-ray breakout emission through non-thermal free-free processes. The disk outflows and magnetar winds power blackbody photospheric emission as they cool adiabatically and thermalize, producing the first SN peak. The spin-down luminosity of the magnetar and radioactive decay of $^{56}$Ni powers the late-time emission. We end by discussing the landscape of XRF-SNe within the context of EP's recent discoveries.
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All authors Gokul P. Srinivasaragavan, Dongyue Li, Xander J. Hall, Ore Gottlieb, Genevieve Schroeder, Heyang Liu, Brendan O'Connor, Chichuan Jin, Mansi Kasliwal, Tomás Ahumada, Qinyu Wu, Christopher L. Fryer, Annabelle E. Niblett, Dong Xu, Maria Edvige Ravasio, Grace Daja, Wenxiong Li, Shreya Anand, Anna Y. Q. Ho, Hui Sun, Daniel A. Perley, Lin Yan, Eric Burns, S. Bradley Cenko, Jesper Sollerman, Nikhil Sarin, Anthony L. Piro, Amar Aryan, M. Coleman Miller, Jie An, Tao An, Moira Andrews, Jule Augustin, Eric C. Bellm, Aleksandra Bochenek, Malte Busmann, Krittapas Chanchaiworawit, Huaqing Chen, Maria D. Caballero-García, Alberto J. Castro-Tirado, Ali Esamdin, Jennifer Faba-Moreno, Joseph Farah, Emilio Fernández-García, Shaoyu Fu, Johan P.U. Fynbo, Julius Gassert, Estefania Padilla Gonzalez, Ignacio Pérez-García, Matthew Graham, Maria Gritsevich, Daniel Gruen, Sergiy Guziy, D. Andrew Howell, Linbo He, Jingwei Hu, You-Dong Hu, Abdusamatjan Iskandar, Joahan Castaneda Jaims, Ji-An Jiang, Ning Jiang, Shuaijiao Jiang, Runduo Liang, Zhixing Ling, Jialian Liu, Xing Liu, Yuan Liu, Frank J. Masci, Curtis McCully, Megan Newsome, Kanthanakorn Noysena, Shashi B. Pandey, Kangrui Ni, Antonella Palmese, Han-Long Peng, Josiah Purdum, Yu-Jing Qin, Sam Rose, Ben Rusholme, Rubén Sánchez-Ramírez, Cassie Sevilla, Roger Smith, Yujia Song, Niharika Sravan, Robert Stein, Constantin Tabor, Giacomo Terreran, Samaporn Tinyanont, Pablo Vega, Letian Wang, Tinggu Wang, Xiaofeng Wang, Siyu Wu, Xuefeng Wu, Kathryn Wynn, Yunfei Xu, Shengyu Yan, Weimin Yuan, Binbin Zhang, Chen Zhang, Zipei Zhu, Xiaoxiong Zuo, Gursimran Bhullar

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

FEADME: Fast Elliptical Accretion Disk Modeling Engine

Nicholas Earl, K. Decker French, Jason T. Hinkle et al. (+5 more)

We present FEADME (Fast Elliptical Accretion Disk Modeling Engine), a GPU-accelerated Python framework for modeling broad Balmer-line emission with a relativistic elliptical accretion-disk formalism. Using JAX and NumPyro for differentiable forward modeling and Bayesian inference, FEADME enables reproducible analyses of large samples of disk-dominated emission-line profiles. We apply the framework to 237 double-peaked emitters (DPEs) and five tidal disruption events (TDEs) with disk-like H$\alpha$ emission, fitting three model families per spectrum and selecting the preferred model using the widely applicable information criterion (WAIC). After posterior-quality filtering, the disk-bearing active galactic nuclei (AGN) sample contains 165 sources and the TDE sample contains 27 usable epochs. Within the common elliptical-disk model, AGN occupy a broad, continuous distribution of disk geometries and kinematics summarized by five phenomenological Gaussian-mixture morphology bins, while TDE and AGN parameters overlap in radial scale, local broadening, and emissivity slope. The TDE epochs tend toward lower fitted eccentricities and broader non-disk Gaussian components. Comparison with published circular-disk plus spiral-arm fits to the same AGN spectra produces substantially different distributions of inclination, radii, emissivity slope, and local broadening, demonstrating that these inferred parameters depend strongly on the treatment of profile asymmetry. Most AGN and TDEs favor models containing a disk and an additional broad-line component, suggesting that disk emission commonly coexists with more isotropic or wind-driven gas. These results demonstrate FEADME's utility for population studies and the importance of a consistent asymmetry prescription when comparing disk structures across accretion environments.
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All authors Nicholas Earl, K. Decker French, Jason T. Hinkle, Yashasvi Moon, Margaret Shepherd, Margaret E. Verrico, Samaresh Mondal, Ferdinand

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics

Galaxy Phase-Space and Field-Level Cosmology: The Strength of Semi-Analytic Models

Natalí S. M. de Santi, Francisco Villaescusa-Navarro, Pablo Araya-Araya et al. (+8 more)

Semi-analytic models are a widely used approach to simulate galaxy properties within a cosmological framework, relying on simplified yet physically motivated prescriptions. They have also proven to be an efficient alternative for generating accurate galaxy catalogs, offering a faster and less computationally expensive option compared to full hydrodynamical simulations. In this paper, we demonstrate that using only galaxy $3$D positions and radial velocities, we can train a graph neural network coupled to a moment neural network to obtain a robust machine learning based model capable of estimating the matter density parameters, $\Omega_{\rm m}$, with a precision of approximately 10%. The network is trained on ($25 h^{-1}$Mpc)$^3$ volumes of galaxy catalogs from L-Galaxies and can successfully extrapolate its predictions to other semi-analytic models (GAEA, SC-SAM, and Shark) and, more remarkably, to hydrodynamical simulations (Astrid, SIMBA, IllustrisTNG, and SWIFT-EAGLE). Our results show that the network is robust to variations in astrophysical and subgrid physics, cosmological and astrophysical parameters, and the different halo-profile treatments used across simulations. This suggests that the physical relationships encoded in the phase-space of semi-analytic models are largely independent of their specific physical prescriptions, reinforcing their potential as tools for the generation of realistic mock catalogs for cosmological parameter inference.
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All authors Natalí S. M. de Santi, Francisco Villaescusa-Navarro, Pablo Araya-Araya, Gabriella De Lucia, Fabio Fontanot, Lucia A. Perez, Manuel Arnés-Curto, Violeta Gonzalez-Perez, Ángel Chandro-Gómez, Rachel S. Somerville, Tiago Castro

Astrophysics of Galaxies

The Narrow Emission Lines of Seyfert 1 Galaxies: Comparisons with a Large SDSS Sample

Matthew Malkan, Lisbeth Jensen and Lei Hao

We analyzed a large sample of SDSS spectra of Seyfert galaxies, subdividing Seyfert 1s based on their narrow-to-broad Halpha components. Comparing their narrow-lines (NL) to Seyfert2s in line-ratio diagrams, most of the NL of strong Sy 1.0 and Sy 1.2s (with dominant broad lines) are the same as those of pure Sy2s. In contrast, only 25-30 percent of the Sy1.8 and Sy1.9 nuclei (with weak broad lines) are located in the pure Sy2 region, with the rest falling in the composite-star-forming region. We explain these Seyfert-plus-star-formation spectra with a simple model. It shows that 85 percent of NL in Sy1.9 are from HII-regions, while 88 percent of the NL in Sy 1.0 arise from the same NLR as in pure Sy2. About 6 percent of the strong and weak Sy1's have NL dominated by LINER emission, while 15 percent of intermediate Seyferts (Sy 1.5 and Sy 1.6) do. To confirm this Seyfert 1 AGN plus star formation combination, we used stellar absorption-lines to compare their stellar populations. Their Hdelta strengths show that LINERs, pure Sy2s, and also the broad-line dominated Sy1s have old stellar populations. The weak Sy 1s show stronger Hdelta absorption, indicating larger proportions of young stars. About one third of the u band light in Sy1.0 and 1.2 is blended Balmer lines and continuum from the BLR. The NL gas reddening increases as the BLR strength decreases, from Sy1.0 (0.13 mag), to Sy1.9 (0.40 mag), to Sy2s and LINERs both with 0.50 mag. Our data do not support the simplest version of Seyfert 1 and 2 unification, where both AGN classes have identical NL.
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Wednesday 10 December

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Spectrally Resolved Gas Kinematics in Cygnus A: XRISM Detects AGN Jet-induced Velocity Dispersion in Multi-temperature Gas

Anwesh Majumder, T. Heckman, J. Meunier et al. (+8 more)

We report spectral analysis on a 170 ks XRISM Resolve exposure of the core of Cygnus A. Analyzing the full field of view spectrum in the $1.7-12.0$ keV band, we find evidence for two-temperature cluster gas. The hotter ($kT = 5.53 \pm 0.13$ keV) gas has a velocity dispersion of $261 \pm 13$ km s$^{-1}$ and a bulk velocity of $120 \pm 20$ km s$^{-1}$ with respect to the central galaxy. The cooler gas ($kT = 2.0^{+0.4}_{-0.3}$ keV) has an even broader velocity dispersion of $440 \pm 130$ km s$^{-1}$, with a systematic uncertainty of $120$ km s$^{-1}$. The relative line-of-sight velocity between the hotter and cooler gas can be as high as $450 \pm 140$ km s$^{-1}$. We interpret the high velocity dispersions as a combination of turbulence and bulk motion due to the cocoon shock. The upper limit on the non-thermal pressure fraction for the hotter gas is $7.7 \pm 0.7\%$. We associate the cooler gas with the central region ($<35$ kpc) and the hotter phase with the gas surrounding it ($35-100$ kpc). The total energy due to the kinetic motion is $5.1 \times 10^{60}$ erg, consistent with the energy associated with the central radio source. The kinetic energy injection rate is $6.9 \times 10^{44}-7.4 \times 10^{45}$ erg s$^{-1}$ under varying assumptions of injection timescales. The range of injection power is higher than the cooling luminosity, and thus the heating and cooling rates in Cygnus A are unbalanced.
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All authors Anwesh Majumder, T. Heckman, J. Meunier, A. Simionescu, B.R. McNamara, L. Gu, A. Ptak, E. Hodges-Kluck, M. Yukita, M.W. Wise, N. Roy

Astrophysics of Galaxies

Strong Bars, Strong Inflow: The Effect of Bar Strength on Gas Inflow

Maelle Magnan, Tobias Geron, Izzy L. Garland et al. (+5 more)

Stellar bars are elongated structures in disk galaxies that can torque and funnel gas inward, influencing galaxy evolution. While strong bars are known to induce rapid inflow, the impact of weaker bars remains less certain. We collected spectroscopic data using the Isaac Newton Telescope to analyze 18 nearby galaxies (strongly barred, weakly barred, and unbarred) drawn from Galaxy Zoo DESI. We obtained spatial profiles of equivalent width (EW) and ionized gas velocity dispersion by fitting Gaussian profiles to the H{\alpha} emission line. Strongly barred galaxies exhibit a distinctive three-peaked EW[H{\alpha}] structure, consistent with inward funneling of gas. Weakly barred systems lack this pattern, which suggests limited inflow. Velocity dispersion distributions further distinguish the bar types, with strongly barred galaxies showing significantly higher values than weakly barred and unbarred systems. These results suggest that strong bars drive gas inflow, while weak bars exert a limited dynamical influence.
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All authors Maelle Magnan, Tobias Geron, Izzy L. Garland, Chris J. Lintott, Jason Shingirai Makechemu, David O Ryan, Brooke D. Simmons, Rebecca J. Smethurst

Astrophysics of Galaxies

Discovery of Weak O VI Absorption in Underdense Regions of the Low-Redshift Intergalactic Medium

Sapna Mishra, Vikram Khaire, Romeo Pallikkara et al. (+2 more)

We search for weak O VI absorption in the low-redshift intergalactic medium (IGM) using 82 high signal-to-noise quasar spectra from the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope. From this dataset we compile a clean sample of 396 intervening Lyman-alpha (Lya) lines with H I column densities log N (HI))< 14.5 and no individual O VI detections. Stacking at the location of the O VI doublet reveals absorption at $>5\sigma$ significance, with equivalent width of 1.7 $\pm$ 0.3 mA, corresponding to log N (O VI) = 12.14 $\pm$ 0.08. The stacked O VI signal associated with strong Lya (13.5 <= log N (HI) < 14.5) absorbers is significantly stronger than that associated with weaker Lya (12.5 <= log N (HI) < 13.5) absorbers. For the subset of 81 broad Lya absorbers (BLAs; b(HI) > 45 km/s), we obtain a marginal $\sim4\sigma$ O VI detection. Other than Si III, detected at 5$\sigma$, no metal lines are found. Cross-correlation with galaxies shows that 93% of Lya absorbers lack an associated bright galaxy ($>3L^\ast$) within 1~Mpc. A more complete low-redshift ($z<0.25$) search shows 66% Lya lack galaxies down to $L^\ast$. This suggests the O VI arises mainly from the diffuse IGM, not the circumgalactic medium. The stacked O VI signal suggests characteristic metallicities of $\approx 0.01Z_\odot$ under photoionisation and $\approx 0.001Z_\odot$ under collisional ionisation, though these estimates are model-dependent and assume O VI and H I trace the same phase. This study provides the first observational evidence for metal absorption in low-column-density Lya systems that individually show no detectable metals, placing important constraints on metal enrichment of the underdense IGM.
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All authors Sapna Mishra, Vikram Khaire, Romeo Pallikkara, Anand Narayanan, Andrew J. Fox

Astrophysics of Galaxies

Deuterium fractionation and CO depletion in Barnard 5

Igor Petrashkevich, Anna Punanova, Paola Caselli et al. (+3 more)

Deuterium fractionation provides a key diagnostic of the physical and chemical evolution of prestellar and protostellar cores, where it is strongly linked to CO depletion in cold, dense gas. We present the first spatially resolved maps of deuterium fraction and CO depletion in the Barnard 5 (B5) region of the Perseus molecular cloud, covering both a starless core and the protostellar core hosting the Class 0/I source IRAS 03445+3242. Using IRAM 30~m observations of N$_2$H$^+$(1–0), N$_2$D$^+$(1–0), H$^{13}$CO$^+$(1–0), and DCO$^+$(2–1), complemented by C$^{18}$O(2–1) data, we derive column density, deuterium fraction, and CO depletion maps. We find that the deuterium fraction in both mentioned nitrogen- and carbon-bearing species increases from the protostellar to the starless core, reaching $R_D^{\rm N_2H^+}=0.43\pm0.10$ and $R_D^{\rm HCO^+}=0.09\pm0.02$ in the starless core, compared with $0.15\pm0.03$ and $0.05\pm0.01$, respectively, in the protostellar core. The CO depletion factor also rises from $4.1\pm0.1$ to $5.0\pm0.1$ across the same transition. While the embedded YSO reduces deuteration in the dense inner gas, the less dense envelope traced by HCO$^+$ is only slightly affected at our resolution. Our analysis confirms that CO freeze-out and the presence of a protostar jointly regulate deuterium chemistry in star-forming regions.
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All authors Igor Petrashkevich, Anna Punanova, Paola Caselli, Jaime E. Pineda, Olli Sipila, Anton I. Vasyunin

Astrophysics of Galaxies

The AURORA Survey: Constraining Chemical Enrichment Pathways at Cosmic Noon with Argon Abundances

Jack Foley, Alice Shapley, Ryan Sanders et al. (+11 more)

We present argon abundances from a sample of 46 star-forming galaxies at $z=2-3.5$ from the Assembly of Ultradeep Rest-Optical Observations Revealing Astrophysics (AURORA) program. Although argon is an $\alpha-$element produced by Core Collapse Supernovae (CCSNe), the latest supernova yield models suggest additional argon production and enrichment by Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), unlike other $\alpha-$elements such as oxygen. To study the relationship between argon and oxygen abundances, we construct two median-stacked composite spectra for separate $z=2.0-2.6$ and $z=2.8-3.5$ redshift bins, presenting more representative measurements than previous samples that require individual detection of faint lines. Abundance ratios were determined using an empirical calibration based on the strength of the [ArIII]$\lambda7137$ emission line relative to the [OIII]$\lambda5008$ emission line. With this calibration, we estimate argon abundances (Ar/O) of $0.42^{+0.12}_{-0.10}\mbox{(Ar/O)}_{\odot}$ for the $\langle z \rangle = 2.26$ bin and $0.42^{+0.12}_{-0.11}\mbox{(Ar/O)}_{\odot}$ for the $\langle z \rangle = 3.15$ bin, suggesting minimal SNe Ia and dominant CCSNe enrichment in this sample. Comparison of our abundance measurements of $z\sim 2-3$ AURORA galaxies with chemical evolution modeling of Milky Way stars shows consistency with the Milky Way Bulge component, suggesting a rapid star-formation timescale. However, even larger samples of actively star-forming galaxies with available argon abundances, as well as comparisons between argon abundance and other critical galaxy properties (e.g., sSFR) and models (e.g., one tuned specifically to this redshift range) are needed to draw stronger conclusions on the role of argon in galactic chemical enrichment at Cosmic Noon.
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All authors Jack Foley, Alice Shapley, Ryan Sanders, Naveen A. Reddy, Michael W. Topping, Thomas M. Stanton, Max Pettini, Fergus Cullen, Richard S. Ellis, N. M. Förster Schreiber, Tucker Jones, Anthony J. Pahl, Leonardo Clarke, Natalie Lam

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

Hipparcos, Gaia, and RVs reveal that the radio emitting F star HD 220242 has an M dwarf companion, a likely source of the radio emission

Megan Delamer, Gu{\dh}mundur Stefánsson, Suvrath Mahadevan et al. (+18 more)

The detection of circularly polarized, low frequency radio emission offers the tantalizing possibility of the observation of interactions between stars and their possible substellar companions, as well as direct emission from exoplanets. Additional follow up of systems with radio emission is key to understanding the true origin of the emission, since multiple astrophysical mechanisms can plausibly lead to such signals. While nineteen M dwarfs were detected by LOFAR in circular polarization as part of the V-LoTSS survey, HD~220242 is the only F star to have a circularly polarized low frequency radio detection in the same survey. We conducted radial velocity follow up with the Habitable-zone Planet Finder and combined these observations with additional archival RVs and Hipparcos-Gaia proper motion accelerations to determine that HD~220242 has a stellar companion with P=16.79$\pm$0.04\,yrs and a mass of $0.619\pm0.014$\,M$_\odot$. We use Spectral Energy Distribution fitting and lack of any UV excess to rule out a co-evolved white dwarf companion and confirm that the companion is an M dwarf star. Given that F stars lack the coronal properties to produce such coherent emission, and the companion mass and lack of UV excess are consistent with an M dwarf, the radio emission is most plausibly associated with the companion.
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All authors Megan Delamer, Gu{\dh}mundur Stefánsson, Suvrath Mahadevan, Caleb I. Cañas, Harish K. Vedantham, Arvind F. Gupta, Joseph R. Callingham, Juan Bautista Climent Oliver, William Cochran, Rachel B. Fernandes, Evan Fitzmaurice, Jose Carlos Guirado, Michael Hartmann, Artie P. Hatzes, Elise Koo, Jessica E. Libby-Roberts, Joe P. Ninan, Miguel Pérez-Torres, Paul Robertson, Arpita Roy, Christian Schwab

Astrophysics of Galaxies

High-energy astrochemistry in the molecular interstellar medium

Brandt A. L. Gaches and Serena Viti

In the past decade, there has been a significant shift in astrochemistry with a renewed focus on the role of non-thermal processes on the molecular interstellar medium, in particular energetic particles (such as cosmic ray particles and fast electrons) and X-ray radiation. This has been brought about in large part due to new observations of interstellar complex organic molecules (iCOMS) in environments that would inhibit their formation, such as cold, dense gas in prestellar cores or in the highly energetic environments in galactic centers. In parallel, there has been a plethora of new laboratory investigations on the role of high-energy radiation and electrons on the chemistry of astrophysical ices, demonstrating the ability of this radiation to induce complex chemistry. In recent years, theoretical models have also begun to include newer cosmic-ray-driven processes in both the gas and ice phases. In this review, we unify aspects of the chemistry driven by X-ray radiation and energetic particles into a “high-energy astrochemistry”, defining this term and reviewing the underlying chemical processes. We conclude by examining various laboratories where high-energy astrochemistry is at play and identify future issues to be tackled.
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Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

Stellar properties and chemical features of the Gaia Catalogue of Nearby Stars observed by GALAH DR4

P. H. R. de Andrade, M. L. L. Dantas and A. C. Soja

The Gaia Catalogue of Nearby Stars (GCNS) comprises approximately 330 000 stars within 100 pc of the Sun, as observed by Gaia data release 3 (Gaia DR3). Meanwhile, the GALAH DR4 survey has spectroscopically characterised nearly one million stars, delivering detailed chemical abundances (up to 30 elements). We present a joint analysis of the $\sim$ 6 000 stars common to both catalogues, offering initial insights into the stellar and chemical properties of the solar neighborhood. Our preliminary results indicate that the majority of these stars are FGK main-sequence objects, with some A-type interlopers (with effective temperatures ranging between 3 000 and 8 000 K), with median ages of $\sim$ 1.6 Gyr (ranging from 0.10 to 14.79 Gyr), and metal-poorer when compared to the Sun: [Fe/H] $\approx$ -0.19 dex. Additionally, most of the stars are disc members, with some local halo (high-velocity) stars identified. Building on this foundation, future work will deeper exploit the full spectroscopic information and orbital parameters from value-added catalogues to refine Galactic component classifications (thin-thick disc versus halo membership), perform detailed chemical profiling, and deliver a comprehensive chemo-dynamical characterisation of the solar neighborhood. This will provide new insights into the formation and evolution of nearby stellar populations.
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High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Classification of a New X-ray Catalog of Likely Counterparts to 4FGL-DR4 Unassociated Gamma-ray Sources Using a Neural Network

Kyle D. Neumann, Abraham D. Falcone, Stephen DiKerby et al. (+5 more)

Our survey of the fourth $\mathit{Fermi}$ Large Area Telescope catalog (4FGL) unassociated gamma-ray source regions using the X-Ray Telescope (XRT) and Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT) aboard the Neil Gehrels $\mathit{Swift}$ Observatory ($\mathit{Swift}$) provides new XRT and UVOT source detections and localizations to help identify potential low-energy counterparts to unassociated $\mathit{Fermi}$ gamma-ray sources. We present a catalog of 218 singlet and 70 multiplet $\mathit{Swift}$ X-ray sources detected within the positional uncertainty ellipses of 244 unassociated $\mathit{Fermi}$ gamma-ray sources from the 4FGL-DR4 catalog, 144 of which are not previously cataloged by Kerby et al. (2021b). For each X-ray source, we derive its X-ray flux and photon index, then use simultaneous UVOT observations with optical survey data to estimate its $V$-band magnitude. We use these parameters as inputs for a multi-layer perceptron (MLP) neural network classifier (NNC) trained to classify sources as blazars, pulsars, or ambiguous gamma-ray sources. For the 213 singlet sources with X-ray and optical data, we classify 173 as likely blazars ($P_\mathrm{bzr} > 0.99$) and 6 as likely pulsars ($P_\mathrm{bzr} < 0.01$), with 34 sources yielding ambiguous results. Including 70 multiplet X-ray sources, we increase the number of $P_\mathrm{bzr} > 0.99$ to 227 and $P_\mathrm{bzr} < 0.01$ to 16. For the subset of these classifications that have been previously studied, a large majority agree with prior classifications, supporting the validity of using this NNC to classify the unknown and newly detected gamma-ray sources.
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All authors Kyle D. Neumann, Abraham D. Falcone, Stephen DiKerby, Sierra Deppe, Elizabeth C. Ferrara, Jamie A. Kennea, Brad Cenko, Eric Grove

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

Beyond prewhitening: detection of gravity modes and their period spacings in slowly pulsating B stars using the multitaper F-test

Aarya A. Patil, Conny Aerts, Nikki Y. N. Wang et al. (+2 more)

Gravity modes in main-sequence stars have traditionally been studied using a prewhitening approach, which iteratively identifies modes in the Fourier domain and subsequently tunes their frequencies, amplitudes, and phases through time-domain regression. While effective, this method becomes inefficient when analysing large volumes of long time-series data and often relies on subjective stopping criteria to determine the number of iterations. We aim to perform frequency extraction of gravity modes in slowly pulsating B (SPB) stars using a statistically robust, data-driven approach based on advanced power spectrum and harmonic analysis techniques. Our approach employs the multitaper non-uniform fast Fourier transform, mtNUFFT, a power spectrum estimator that addresses several statistical limitations of traditional methods such as the Lomb-Scargle periodogram. We apply its extension, the multitaper F-test, to extract coherent gravity modes from 4-year Kepler light curves of SPB stars and to search for period spacing patterns among the extracted modes. The multitaper F-test enables fast and accurate extraction of the properties of gravity modes with quasi-infinite lifetimes, preferentially selecting modes that exhibit purely periodic behaviour. Although the method typically extracts fewer frequencies than conventional prewhitening, it recovers most known modes and, in some cases, reveals new ones. We also find evidence for gravity modes with long but finite lifetimes, and detect more than one period spacing pattern in some of the studied SPB stars. Overall, the multitaper F-test offers a more objective and statistically sound alternative to prewhitening. It scales efficiently to large datasets containing thousands of pulsators, and has the potential to facilitate mode identification and to distinguish between the different excitation mechanisms operating in SPB stars.
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All authors Aarya A. Patil, Conny Aerts, Nikki Y. N. Wang, Jordan Van Beeck, May G. Pedersen

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Formation of circumstellar material during double-white-dwarf mergers and the early excess emissions in Type Ia supernovae

Yusuke Inoue, Keiichi Maeda, Takashi Nagao et al. (+1 more)

Early excess emission observed in Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) within $\sim1$ day of explosion provides a critical window into their progenitor systems. In the present study, we investigate formation of the circumstellar matter (CSM) in double white-dwarf (WD) mergers. We further study the interaction between the CSM and the SN ejecta. We first model the orbital evolution and super-Eddington mass transfer/ejection in the double WD systems. We then conduct hydrodynamical and light-curve (LC) simulations of the SN-CSM interaction, assuming a prompt SN Ia explosion in a context of the carbon-ignited violent merger (C-ignited VM). Our simulations show that at the moment of the merger, the binary system has the CSM distribution following $\rho_{\mathrm{CSM}}\simeq D(r/10^{14}\ \mathrm{cm})^{-3.5}\ (D\simeq 10^{-14}\text{--}10^{-13}\ \rm g\ cm^{-3})$. The simulated LCs reproduce the early flux excesses across optical to UV bands, as well as their color evolution, observed in the VM candidates, i.e., 03fg/02es-like SNe Ia. This supports that 03fg/02es-like objects originate from the VM explosions. We also discuss the case of the helium-ignited VM, which might be realized in some WD-WD mergers depending on the He content in the system. Focused here is the timing when the explosion is initiated, and we find that the explosion is initiated after the companion WD is, at least partially, tidally disrupted also in this case; we thus expect the formation of the CSM through the mass transfer phase also for the helium-ignited VM scenario.
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All authors Yusuke Inoue, Keiichi Maeda, Takashi Nagao, Tatsuya Matsumoto

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics

The SPace-based InterFerometer Feasibility (SPIFF) Project: Enabling Future High-Resolution Astronomy Across the EM Spectrum

Berke Vow Ricketti, Victoria Yankelevich, Chris Benson et al. (+19 more)

A plethora of astronomical science cases can only be achieved with high angular resolution observations, and we can expect the number of these to grow as astronomers are constrained by the size limitations of single-aperture space telescopes, making space-based interferometry inevitable. However, the enabling technologies do not have flight heritage at the system level, and the concept remains immature to much of the community, meaning no direct-detection synthetic-aperture space-based interferometer has yet flown and an opportunity exists for the UK to take a world leading role. Here we propose the SPace-based InterFerometry Feasibility (SPIFF) Project as a program to address both issues simultaneously by: 1) completing a thorough survey of the science cases across the EM spectrum that would directly benefit from, or be impossible without, space-based interferometry; 2) down selecting key requirements via a Science Traceability Matrix mapping exercise; 3) host a workshop for the UK astronomical community to consolidate these findings; 4) build a technology demonstration mission to raise TRL and achieve flight heritage of critical technologies. Such a program positions the UK as the partner of choice for any future NASA or ESA space-based interferometry mission, allowing the UK to lead groundbreaking scientific discoveries, while also directly benefiting the UK industrial base by advancing domestic exportable technologies and building direct synergy with other UK space priorities. Indeed, the UK is uniquely positioned to lead in space-based interferometry, possessing a rare trifecta of domestic strengths: world-class expertise in ground-based interferometry and space-based instrumentation; commercial entities developing mission-critical technologies; and scientists whose research spans the full range of science cases that would benefit directly from space-based interferometry.
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All authors Berke Vow Ricketti, Victoria Yankelevich, Chris Benson, Renske Smit, Sebastian Kamann, Ettore Pedretti, Sebastian Marino, Gerard van Belle, Stephen Eales, Chris Bee, Mark Wyatt, Matthew Smith, Tim D. Pearce, Emily Williams, Rebecca Harwin, David Pearson, Andy Vick, Giorgio Savini, Taro Matsuo, Hiroshi Matsuo, Locke Spencer, David T. Leisawitz

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Validation of a Third Earth-sized Planet in the TOI-2267 Binary System

Michael Greklek-McKeon, Jonathan Gomez Barrientos, Heather A. Knutson et al. (+13 more)

We report the validation of a third terrestrial exoplanet in the nearby (22 pc) TOI-2267 system. TOI-2267 is a binary system with stellar components TOI-2267A (M5, 3030 K) and TOI-2267B (M6, 2930 K), with an on-sky separation of 0.$^{\prime\prime}$384 (8 au projected separation). TOI-2267 hosts two Earth-sized planets (TOI-2267 b, $1.00\pm0.11 R_{\oplus}$, and TOI-2267 c, $1.14\pm0.13 R_{\oplus}$, if orbiting the primary star; or $1.22\pm0.29 R_{\oplus}$ and $1.36\pm0.33 R_{\oplus}$, respectively, if orbiting the secondary star) with orbital periods of 2.3 and 3.5 days. This system also contains a third Earth-sized planet candidate with an orbital period of 2.0 days that was previously identified as a likely planet with a low false-positive probability, but could not be firmly validated due to the lack of independent observations beyond TESS data. We combine two new transit observations from the 5.1m Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory with archival TESS data and high-resolution imaging to statistically validate the planetary nature of TOI-2267 d ($0.98\pm0.09 R_{\oplus}$ if orbiting the primary star, or $1.77\pm0.43 R_{\oplus}$ if orbiting the secondary star) using the updated TRICERATOPS+ pipeline. We attempt to determine the host star for TOI-2267 d using transit shape stellar density analysis, but are unable to conclusively assign a host. Our validation of TOI-2267 d suggests that TOI-2267 is either the first known double transiting M dwarf binary system, or hosts three planets in an extremely compact orbital configuration.
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All authors Michael Greklek-McKeon, Jonathan Gomez Barrientos, Heather A. Knutson, Sebastián Zúñiga-Fernández, Francisco J. Pozuelos, Morgan Saidel, W. Garrett Levine, Renyu Hu, Fei Dai, Tansu Daylan, John P. Doty, David R. Rodriguez, Joseph D. Twicken, David W. Latham, Jon M. Jenkins, Richard P. Schwarz

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

Detailed Chemical Abundance Analysis of the Brightest Stars in the Turranburra and Willka Yaku Stellar Streams

Kaitlin B. Webber, Terese T. Hansen, Jennifer L. Marshall et al. (+20 more)

We present a detailed chemical abundance analysis of the three brightest known stars from each of the Turranburra and Willka Yaku stellar streams using high-resolution Magellan/MIKE spectra. Abundances for 27 elements, ranging from carbon to dysprosium, were derived. Our results support the original classification that Turranburra, with a low average metallicity of $\mathrm{[Fe/H]=-2.45} \pm 0.07$, likely originates from a dwarf-galaxy progenitor. Willka Yaku has a low average metallicity of $\mathrm{[Fe/H]=-2.35 \pm 0.03}$ with a small scatter in the abundances, consistent with a globular cluster progenitor as suggested by previous studies. Both streams exhibit mild enhancements in neutron-capture elements, with averages of $\mathrm{[Eu II/Fe]}=$ $0.47 \pm{0.09}$ for Turranburra and $0.44 \pm{0.05}$ for Willka Yaku, consistent with enrichment from an $r$-process event. A similar enrichment is observed in other stellar streams, and we further discuss this signature as it relates to the potential enrichment histories of these two streams.
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All authors Kaitlin B. Webber, Terese T. Hansen, Jennifer L. Marshall, Alexander P. Ji, Ting S. Li, Gary S. Da Costa, Lara R. Cullinane, Denis Erkal, Sergey E. Koposov, Kyler Kuehn, Geraint F. Lewis, Dougal Mackey, Sarah L. Martell, Andrew B. Pace, Nora Shipp, Jeffrey D. Simpson, Zhen Wan, Daniel B. Zucker, Victor A. Alvarado, Joss Bland-Hawthorn, Guilherme Limberg, Gustavo E. Medina, Sam A. Usman

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

The Space-Based Time-Domain Revolution in Astrophysics

Daniel Huber

Space-based time-domain telescopes such as CoRoT, Kepler/K2 and TESS have profoundly impacted astrophysics over the past two decades. Continuous light curves with high cadence and high photometric precision are now available for millions of sources within our galaxy and beyond. In addition to revolutionizing exoplanet science, the data have enabled breakthroughs ranging from the solar system to stellar interiors, the transient universe, and active galaxies. The key summary points of this review are: (1) Stellar astrophysics has been transformed by the ability to probe the internal structures of stars, test the physics of stellar convection, connect stellar rotation and magnetic activity, and reveal complex variability in young stars. (2) Ages of stellar populations probe the formation history of our Milky Way, and binary star variability enables the detection of "dark" galactic populations such as stellar-mass black holes and neutron stars. (3) Early-time observations of explosive transients provide new insights into the progenitors of supernovae, while the quasi-periodic variability of galaxies probes the physics of accretion processes onto supermassive black holes and the tidal disruption of stars. (4) Observations of solar system objects reveal asteroid compositions through their rotation periods and amplitudes, constrain the cloud structure of ice giants, and allow the discovery of new objects in the outer solar system. (5) Open data policies and software have contributed to remarkable scientific productivity and enabled discoveries by citizen scientists, including new exoplanets and exotic variability in mature Sun-like stars.
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Astrophysics of Galaxies

Transient protostellar cores in high mass star forming regions revealed by time-resolved synthetic imaging of dust emission

Camilo H. Peñaloza, Rowan J. Smith, Claudia J. Cyganowski et al. (+4 more)

The connection between dense gas cores and their infant protostars is key to understanding how stars form in molecular clouds. In this paper we investigate the properties, persistence, and protostellar content of cores that would be identified by a dendrogram analysis of 1.3 mm ALMA images. We use a time series of synthetic images produced by post-processing a simulation of star formation in a massive globally collapsing clump, with polaris to calculate dust radiative transfer and CASA to generate synthetic ALMA data. Identifying sinks in the simulation with protostars, we find that most dendrogram-identified cores do not contain any protostars, with many cores being transient features associated with clumpy flow along feeder filaments. Cores with protostars generally host <4, and protostellar mass is not strongly correlated with the mass of the parent cores due to their transience and shifting boundaries. Calculating observationally-relevant intensity-weighted average temperatures for all cores, we find that even at early times the core temperature distribution spans tens of Kelvin, and its width increases with time. The 1.3 mm peak and integrated intensity of the brightest mm core do not increase monotonically as the most massive associated protostar grows, indicating it cannot be assumed that brighter mm sources host more massive protostars. Leveraging the time domain, we test observational properties that have been proposed as potential evolutionary indicators and find that only the total 1.3 mm flux density of the region, the total 1.3 mm flux density in cores, and the number of cores show strong, statistically significant correlation with time.
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All authors Camilo H. Peñaloza, Rowan J. Smith, Claudia J. Cyganowski, Gwenllian M. Williams, Michael C. Logue, Todd R. Hunter, Jiancheng Feng

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

Constraining Gravitational Dark Matter with LHAASO and Fermi-LAT

Basabendu Barman, Arindam Das, Prantik Sarmah et al. (+1 more)

We use diffuse Galactic high energy gamma ray data from LHAASO and Fermi-LAT to constrain gravitationally produced decaying dark matter (DM). Focusing on four benchmark candidates: a dark photon, a heavy right-handed neutrino (RHN), a pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson (pNGB), and a non-minimally coupled scalar we derive bounds on the DM mass and its couplings to the visible sector. For dark photons, RHNs, and pNGBs, the combined data constrain the relevant interaction strength to $\lesssim\mathcal{O}(10^{-30})$ for DM masses $\gtrsim\mathcal{O}$(TeV), while the non-minimally coupled scalar is limited to $\lesssim\mathcal{O}(10^{-10})$. Moreover, photon-dark photon oscillations yield strong constraints for massive dark photon beyond 10 GeV, closing a region of parameter space previously left unconstrained.
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All authors Basabendu Barman, Arindam Das, Prantik Sarmah, Rakesh Kumar SivaKumar

Astrophysics of Galaxies

GA-NIFS: Powerful and frequent outflows in moderate-luminosity active galactic nuclei at $z\sim3-6$

Giacomo Venturi, Stefano Carniani, Elena Bertola et al. (+18 more)

The period between z ~ 3-6, a key transformational phase in galaxy evolution preceding 'cosmic noon' (z ~ 1-3), is very poorly explored in terms of feedback from AGN acting through gas outflows. In this work, we study the properties of outflows in AGN (mostly X-ray-selected) from the GOODS-S field, exploiting JWST NIRSpec IFU observations as part of the GA-NIFS GTO survey. Together with its twin subsample from COSMOS reported in a previous GA-NIFS work, this constitutes the largest spatially resolved sample of AGN outflows at these redshifts to date, comprising 16 targets with outflows (out of a total of 19 AGN), and probes the unexplored regime of AGN at z ~ 3-6 with bolometric luminosities ~$10^{45-46}$ erg/s. We mapped the rest-optical ionised gas emission lines at sub-kpc scales and spectrally isolated the broad wing tracing fast outflows from the gas at rest in the host galaxies. The incidence of ionised outflows in the GOODS-S + COSMOS GA-NIFS sample is high (>75%), among the highest at any redshift. We inferred outflow velocities between ~600-2000 km/s, maximum radii of <1-4 kpc, and ionised gas mass outflow rates of ~0.1-100 $M_\odot$/yr, which in some cases can exceed the host galaxy star formation rate (SFR). We find that the outflow properties inferred for the GOODS-S + COSMOS GA-NIFS AGN sample and their relations to $L_{\rm bol}$ and SFR generally align with those observed for other spatially resolved literature samples of AGN outflows across different redshifts and AGN luminosities. Nonetheless, after accounting for any luminosity bias, our analysis suggests a cosmic evolution of the outflow properties, with higher median mass outflow rates (and possibly also mass loading factors) at higher redshifts, especially at z>3, which indicates that AGN outflows were stronger in the early Universe than at later times, and thus potentially more capable of affecting their host galaxy.
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All authors Giacomo Venturi, Stefano Carniani, Elena Bertola, Chiara Circosta, Eleonora Parlanti, Michele Perna, Santiago Arribas, Torsten Böker, Andrew Bunker, Stéphane Charlot, Francesco D'Eugenio, Roberto Maiolino, Bruno Rodríguez del Pino, Hannah Übler, Giovanni Cresci, Gareth C. Jones, Nimisha Kumari, Isabella Lamperti, Madeline A. Marshall, Jan Scholtz, Sandra Zamora

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics

Characterizing the Roman Grism Redshift Efficiency of Type Ia Supernova Host Galaxies for the High-Latitude Time-Domain Survey

R. C. Chen, Z. Guo, D. Scolnic et al. (+8 more)

The High-Latitude Time-Domain Survey (HLTDS) for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (Roman) will discover thousands of high redshift Type Ia supernovae (SNeIa) to make generation-defining cosmological constraints on dark energy. To construct the Roman SN Hubble diagram, a strategy to obtain redshifts must be determined. While the nominal HLTDS will use only the Roman prism, in this work we consider the utility of the Roman grism observations from overlap with the High-Latitude Wide-Area Survey for SNIa cosmology. We determine a galaxy grism redshift recovery rate by simulating dispersed grism images and measuring redshifts with the Grizli software, obtaining an $H$-band 50% redshift recovery at magnitude 20.61 and 90% recovery at magnitude 19.27. To estimate the total number of spectroscopic redshifts expected for Roman SN cosmology, we also consider a Roman prism SN redshift efficiency and a ground-based telescope redshift efficiency for host-galaxies. We apply these redshift efficiencies to SNIa catalog level simulations and predict that $\sim$6800 SNe will have a SN or host spectroscopic redshift. Second, we evaluate the size of potential systematics related to modeling the grism redshift efficiency by considering the impact of additional dependencies on stellar mass and host galaxy color. We estimate the largest potential size of this systematic to be 0.0066$\pm$0.002 and -0.0266$\pm$0.007, roughly 42.9 and 49.6% of the statistical uncertainty for $w_0$ and $w_a$ respectively. Lastly, we consider the effects of assuming different redshift sources on the HLTDS survey strategy optimization by measuring relative changes to the dark energy Figure of Merit.
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All authors R. C. Chen, Z. Guo, D. Scolnic, B. Joshi, R. Kessler, L. Galbany, R. Hounsell, D. M. Markoff, B. M. Rose, D. Rubin, the Roman Supernova Cosmology Project Infrastructure team

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics

Observational constraints on 3-forms dark energy

Mariam Bouhmadi-López, Hsu-Wen Chiang, Carlos G. Boiza et al. (+1 more)

3-forms are natural candidates for describing the late-time accelerated expansion of the Universe, as they can inherently reproduce a positive cosmological constant when lacking an evolving potential. When such a potential is present, a 3-form field may exhibit either quintessence-like or phantom-like behaviour. In this paper, we consider a late-time effective dark energy model described by a 3-form with a Gaussian potential, stable during the dark-energy-dominated era. We constrain this model observationally by performing a Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) analysis employing a comprehensive cosmological dataset, including Planck PR4 cosmic microwave background (CMB) data, DESI DR1 baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) measurements, Pantheon+ Type Ia supernovae data, low-$z$ Cepheid calibrators, and DES Y1 large-scale structure observations. We demonstrate that the 3-form model successfully increases the predicted Hubble parameter of CMB and BAO data from $67.89\pm0.36{\rm km/s/Mpc}$ of $\Lambda$CDM model to $68.29^{+0.56}_{-0.61}{\rm km/s/Mpc}$ by approaching the potential peak at the right time, thus mildly reducing the tension with the late-time observation. Overall, the 3-form field serves as a promising candidate of phantom-like dark energy from both theoretical and observational points of view.
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All authors Mariam Bouhmadi-López, Hsu-Wen Chiang, Carlos G. Boiza, Pisin Chen