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Physics Astrophysics

astro-ph Watch Astrophysics

Thursday 15 January

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Multimessenger Prospects for Low-Luminosity Gamma-Ray Bursts: Joint Neutrino and X-Ray Observations

Wenkang Lian, He Gao, Shunke Ai et al. (+1 more)

Low–luminosity gamma-ray bursts (LLGRBs) are promising candidates for high-energy neutrinos, yet no coincident neutrino events have been detected so far. Recent advances in X-ray time-domain astronomy, together with the development of next-generation neutrino telescopes, open new opportunities for joint X-ray and neutrino observations of these transients. We calculate the jet dynamical evolution and the associated neutrino production for both non-magnetized and magnetized outflows. For individual events, joint X-ray and neutrino detection is generally limited to nearby LLGRBs or sources with high luminosities. Thus, we consider a next-generation neutrino telescope with an effective area enhanced by a factor of $\sim30$ relative to IceCube. In the non-magnetized scenario, joint detection of individual events is enabled for sources with typical isotropic luminosities of $L_{\mathrm{iso}}\sim10^{47}\,\mathrm{erg\,s^{-1}}$ out to luminosity distances of $D_L\sim1.6\times10^{2}\,\mathrm{Mpc}$, corresponding to an expected detection rate of order $1$ per year. In contrast, for the magnetized scenario at the same luminosity, the accessible distance is significantly reduced, with joint observations confined to sources within $D_L\sim6.5\times10^{1}\,\mathrm{Mpc}$ and an expected detection rate of order $0.5$ per year. For stacked samples of $\sim100$ magnetized LLGRBs, stacking substantially enlarges the accessible distance range, enabling joint observations for sources with representative luminosities of $L_{\mathrm{iso}}\sim1\times10^{47}\,\mathrm{erg\,s^{-1}}$ out to $D_L\lesssim7.0\times10^{2}\,\mathrm{Mpc}$ and corresponding to an expected detection rate of order $2$ per year. These results demonstrate that joint X-ray and next-generation neutrino observations enable a practical multimessenger probe of LLGRBs.
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All authors Wenkang Lian, He Gao, Shunke Ai, B. Theodore Zhang

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics

Extracting intrinsic alignments in the Dark Energy Survey's year 1 data, using the self-calibration method and LSST-DESC tools

Eske M. Pedersen, Leonel Medina-Varela, Emily Phillips Longley et al. (+4 more)

We present the implementation of a Self-Calibration of Intrinsic Alignments of galaxies as an extension to the Vera C. Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) Dark Energy Science Collaboration (DESC)'s weak lensing 3x2pt pipeline (TXPipe). As a demonstration, we have run this pipeline on the Dark Energy Survey (DES) year one data set. We find indications of a non-zero intrinsic alignment signal in the higher redshift bins, while in the lower bins our results look more uncertain. We believe this is caused by known issues with the individual galaxies photo-z estimation. This effect is particularly harmful for the self-calibration method, since it has high requirements for reliable estimation of the photo-$z$s, and the need for individual galaxy point estimates and tomographic binning to match. We show how different methods of recreating the redshift probability distribution can affect the detection of intrinsic alignment.
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All authors Eske M. Pedersen, Leonel Medina-Varela, Emily Phillips Longley, Mustapha Ishak, Joe Zuntz, Chihway Chang, C. Danielle Leonard

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics

Effect of Primordial Black Holes on the global 21-cm signal

Atrideb Chatterjee

The 21-cm global signal, a treasure trove of information about the nature of the first luminous sources of the Universe, has traditionally been modelled assuming that these early sources were predominantly star-forming galaxies. However, recent observations by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have revealed several AGNs as early as z ~ 10 - 10.4 . In light of this, it is important to investigate the contribution of such AGNs to the 21-cm signal. Assuming that these AGNs are seeded by Primordial Black Holes (PBHs) and employing an analytical PBH model, consistent with existing cosmological and astrophysical constraints, we show that these exotic objects can have a significant impact on the redshift evolution of the global signal.
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High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Cross-listed from gr-qc

Effects of spontaneous Lorentz Symmetry breaking on Letelier-AdS charged black holes within Kalb-Ramond gravity

Faizuddin Ahmed, Ahmad Al-Badawi and İzzet Sakall{\i}

In this study, we investigate the geodesic motion of massless particles – specifically photons – in the spacetime of a charged anti-de Sitter (AdS) black hole (BH) surrounded by a cloud of strings (CoS) within the framework of Kalb-Ramond (KR) gravity. We analyze the effective potential that governs photon trajectories, explore the properties and location of the photon sphere (PS), and examine the effective radial force acting on photons. The resulting BH shadow is also studied, highlighting the roles of both the CoS parameter $\alpha$ and the KR field parameter $\ell$ in shaping its geometry. We constrain these parameters using observational data from M87* and Sgr A* obtained by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). Furthermore, we extend our investigation to the motion of neutral test particles in the same gravitational background. By examining the impact of the CoS and KR field, we show how these additional fields modify the dynamics relative to standard charged BH scenarios. Finally, we study the fundamental frequencies associated with quasiperiodic oscillations (QPOs) of test particles, demonstrating how these frequencies are affected by the presence of the CoS and KR field. Our results reveal the rich structure of AdS-BH spacetimes influenced by string clouds and antisymmetric tensor fields, with potential observational consequences in gravitational wave and BH imaging astronomy.
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Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Cross-listed from hep-th

The recipe for the degrees of freedom

Anamaria Hell, Elisa G. M. Ferreira, Dieter Lust et al. (+1 more)

We consider the question of counting the degrees of freedom in theoretical models, with an emphasis on theories of fields and gravity. Among the possible approaches, the Hamiltonian formulation remains one of the most systematic and robust tools. However, it can easily become long and technically involved. In this work, we present a broadly applicable recipe to find the degrees of freedom directly, based on the Lagrangian formulation. We compare it to the standard approaches, highlight the challenges that may arise in the latter, and demonstrate that the proposed method leads to transparent insights about the dynamical nature of theory in a quick, simple, and straight-forward way.
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All authors Anamaria Hell, Elisa G. M. Ferreira, Dieter Lust, Misao Sasaki

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

How disc initial conditions sculpt the atmospheric composition of giant planets

Angie Daniela Guzmán Franco, Sofia Savvidou and Bertram Bitsch

Past studies have revealed the dependency of the disc parameters (mass, radius, viscosity, grain fragmentation velocity, dust-to-gas ratio) on the formation of giant planets, where more massive discs seem beneficial for giant planet formation. It is unclear how the different disc properties influence the composition of forming giant planets. The idea that the atmospheric abundances can trace directly the formation location of planets is put into question, due to the chemical evolution of the disc, caused by inward drifting and evaporating pebbles. This complicates the idea of a relation between atmospheric abundances and planet formation locations. We use planet formation simulations that include the effects of pebble drift and evaporation and investigate how the different disc parameters influence the atmospheric composition of giant planets. We focus on the atmospheric C/O, C/H, O/H and S/H ratios allowing us to probe tracers for volatiles and refractories and thus different accretion pathways of giant planets. We find that most of the disc parameters have only a limited influence on the atmospheric abundances of gas giants, except for the dust-to-gas ratio, where a larger value results in higher atmospheric abundances. However the atmospheric abundances are determined by the planetary formation location, even in the pebble drift and evaporation scenario. Our study suggests that volatile-rich giant exoplanets predominantly form in the inner disc regions, where they can accrete large fractions of vapour-enhanced gas. Our study shows that simulations that try to trace the origin of giant planets via their atmospheric abundances do not have to probe all disc parameters, as long as the disc parameters allow the formation of giant planets. Our study thus suggests that the diversity of observed planetary compositions is a direct consequence of their formation location and migration history.
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Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

Cycle dependence of helioseismic oscillations above the acoustic cut-off frequency

Dmitrii Kolotkov, Anne-Marie Broomhall, Laura Jade Millson et al. (+1 more)

Helioseismic and recent asteroseismic observations reveal fine structure in the power spectrum with alternating peaks and troughs above the acoustic cut-off frequency. This structure is interpreted as the interference patterns of high-frequency acoustic waves excited in the solar interior and propagating into the atmosphere, known as pseudomodes. Pseudomodes exhibit clear solar-cycle variability, with frequency shifts that occur predominantly in anti-phase with the activity cycle, although the underlying mechanism remains uncertain. This work investigates how the subsurface excitation source location and the photospheric acoustic cut-off frequency influence the formation, frequency distribution, and solar-cycle variability of pseudomodes. We employ an analytical Klein-Gordon subsurface cavity model, which is shown to act as an effective Fabry-Pérot interferometer for high-frequency waves that experience constructive and destructive interference between the source location and the lower turning point. We derive an effective dispersion relation isolating the effects of the source location and photospheric cut-off on the pseudomode frequency. The model reproduces the observed peak-trough pseudomode spectrum for reasonable parameter values constrained by Bayesian MCMC best-fitting to GONG observations. We also find that solar-cycle-associated 11-year modulations of the source location result in anti-phase pseudomode frequency shifts, whereas similar cyclic variations in the cut-off frequency produce harmonic-dependent behaviour, yielding both in-phase and anti-phase shifts. As the acoustic cut-off and mode excitation relate to stratification and flows in the solar interior, the results highlight pseudomodes as a powerful diagnostic tool for changes in subsurface solar and stellar structure through the solar cycle.
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All authors Dmitrii Kolotkov, Anne-Marie Broomhall, Laura Jade Millson, Sergey Belov

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics

Large-scale time-series spectroscopy for stellar ages

David Gruner, Sydney A. Barnes, Ansgar Reiners et al. (+16 more)

To date, Galactic Astronomy has largely concerned itself with astrophysical processes, and with the locations, space motions and compositions of objects. Consider, for example, the elucidation of the components of the Galaxy over the past decades, its mapping as enabled by Gaia and its predecessors, the photometric and spectroscopic characterization of innumerable astrophysical objects in various wavelength ranges, both from the ground and from space, and the expanding discovery and characterization of exoplanets; all focused on the current, static Galaxy. This White Paper proposes a dedicated program to derive stellar ages from time-series spectroscopy to hasten the transformation of this static conception into a dynamical one with age-labeled objects and events.
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All authors David Gruner, Sydney A. Barnes, Ansgar Reiners, Klaus G. Strassmeier, Cristina Chiappini, Jörg Weingrill, Michael Weber, Ilya Ilyin, Thomas Granzer, Özgün Adebali, Jean-Michel Désert, Marica Valentini, Dario Fritzewski, Paolo Ventura, Alfio Bonanno, Jose-Dias do Nascimento, Jorge Melendez, Santosh Joshi, Yong-Cheol Kim

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

A Highly Magnetic Ultra Massive White Dwarf with a 23-minute Rotation Period

Jincheng Guo, Xiaofeng Wang, Qichun Liu et al. (+17 more)

We present a physical characterization of TMTS J00063798+3104160 (J0006), a rapidly rotating,ultra-massive white dwarf (WD) identified in high-cadence light curves from the Tsinghua University-Ma Huateng Telescope for Survey (TMTS). A coherent 23-minute periodicity is detected in TMTS, TESS, and ZTF photometry. A time series of low-resolution spectra with the Keck-I 10 m telescope reveals broad, shallow hydrogen absorption features indicative of an extreme magnetic field and shows no evidence for radial-velocity variations. Atmospheric modeling yields a magnetic field strength of $\sim$ 250 MG, while Gaia astrometry and photometry imply a mass of 1.06 $\pm$ 0.01 M$_{\odot}$. A significant infrared excess is detected in the WISE W1 band and is well fitted by a 550 K blackbody, likely arising from residual material of a merger. We interpret the 23-minute photometric modulation as the rotation period of an isolated, massive WD formed likely through the merger of a double WD binary. With one of the shortest rotation periods known among candidate merger remnants and with constraints from a deep Einstein Probe X-ray nondetection, J0006 provides a rare and important observational window into the poorly explored intermediate stages of post-merger evolution.
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All authors Jincheng Guo, Xiaofeng Wang, Qichun Liu, Alexei V. Filippenko, Thomas G. Brink, Jingkun Zhao, WeiKang Zhang, Yi Yang, Jie Lin, Haowei Peng, Hailiang Chen, Davron O. Mirzaqulov, Shuhrat A. Ehgamberdiev, Bin Ma, Jun Mo, Cheng Liu, Gaobo Xi, Xiaojun Jiang, Danfeng Xiang, Jicheng Zhang

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Cross-listed from cs.LG

Reinforcement Learning to Discover a North-East Monsoon Index for Rainfall Prediction in Thailand

Kiattikun Chobtham

Accurately predicting long-term rainfall is challenging. Global climate indices, such as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, are standard input features for machine learning. However, a significant gap persists regarding local-scale indices capable of improving predictive accuracy in specific regions of Thailand. This paper introduces a novel North-East monsoon climate index calculated from sea surface temperature to reflect the climatology of the boreal winter monsoon. To optimise the calculated areas used for this index, a Deep Q-Network reinforcement learning agent explores and selects the most effective rectangles based on their correlation with seasonal rainfall. Rainfall stations were classified into 12 distinct clusters to distinguish rainfall patterns between southern and upper Thailand. Experimental results show that incorporating the optimised index into Long Short-Term Memory models significantly improves long-term monthly rainfall prediction skill in most cluster areas. This approach effectively reduces the Root Mean Square Error for 12-month-ahead forecasts.
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Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics

The BINGO project X. Cosmological parameter constraints from HI Intensity Mapping lognormal simulations

Pablo Motta, Filipe B. Abdalla, Camila P. Novaes et al. (+12 more)

Context. Building on the transformative success of optical redshift surveys, the emerging technique of neutral hydrogen (HI) intensity mapping (IM) offers a novel probe of large-scale structure (LSS) growth and the late-time accelerated expansion of the universe. Aims. We present cosmological forecasts for the Baryon Acoustic Oscillations from Integrated Neutral Gas Observations (BINGO), a pioneering HI IM experiment, quantifying its potential to constrain the Planck-calibrated $\Lambda$CDM cosmology and extensions to the $w_0w_a$CDM dark energy model. Methods. For BINGO's Phase~1 configuration, we simulate the HI IM signal using a lognormal model and incorporate three dominant systematics: foreground residuals, thermal noise, and beam resolution effects. Using Bayesian inference, we derive joint constraints on six cosmological parameters ($\Omega_b h^2$, $\Omega_c h^2$, $100\theta_s$, $n_s$, $\ln 10^{10} A_s$, and $\tau_r$) alongside 60 HI parameters ($b_{\rm HI}^i$, $\Omega_{\rm HI}^i b_{\rm HI}^i$) across 30 frequency channels. Results. Our results demonstrate that combining BINGO with the Planck 2018 CMB dataset tightens the confidence regions of cosmological parameters to $\sim$40% the size of those from Planck alone, significantly improving the precision of parameter estimation. Furthermore, BINGO constrains the redshift evolution of HI density and delivers competitive measurements of the dark energy equation of state parameters ($w_0$, $w_a$). Conclusions. These results demonstrate BINGO's potential to extract significant cosmological information from the HI distribution and provide constraints competitive with current and future cosmological surveys.
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All authors Pablo Motta, Filipe B. Abdalla, Camila P. Novaes, Elcio Abdalla, Jiajun Zhang, Gabriel A. Hoerning, Alessandro Marins, Eduardo J. de Mericia, Luiza O. Ponte, Amilcar R. Queiroz, Thyrso Villela, Bin Wang, Carlos A. Wuensche, Chang Feng, Edmar C. Gurjão

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

Direct Detection of Type II-P Supernova Progenitors with the $\textit{Euclid}$ and CSST Surveys

Junjie Wu, Ning-Chen Sun, Zexi Niu et al. (+14 more)

Identifying and characterizing supernova (SN) progenitor stars remains a central yet difficult goal in SN research, limited by archival images lacking sufficient depth or spatial resolution and circumstellar dust biasing intrinsic parameter estimates. This field will be revolutionized by $\textit{Euclid}$ and the upcoming Chinese Space-station Survey Telescope (CSST), which conduct deep, wide-field, high-resolution and multi-band imaging surveys. We evaluate their detection capability by comparing model magnitudes of RSG progenitors with detection limits, finding their optical and near-infrared filters highly effective. Monte-Carlo simulations predict that completed $\textit{Euclid}$ and CSST surveys will enable $\lesssim$13 (or 24) progenitor detections per year within the mass range of 8–16 (or 8–25)\,$M_\odot$, an order of magnitude higher than the current detection rate of $\sim$1 per year (primarily based on HST). With the circumstellar dust, the emerging spectral energy distribution (SED) of the SN progenitor is mainly affected by the optical depth and is almost independent of dust temperature in their survey filters. Mock tests demonstrate that the progenitor mass and dust optical depth can be derived simultaneously by fitting the observed SED over 11 survey filters while fixing dust temperature to a typical value. $\textit{Euclid}$ and CSST will significantly enlarge the sample of direct progenitor detections with accurate mass measurements, crucial for resolving the long-standing RSG problem.
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All authors Junjie Wu, Ning-Chen Sun, Zexi Niu, Tianmang Zhang, Chun Chen, Xiaohan Chen, Nancy Elias-Rosa, Morgan Fraser, Xinyi Hong, Justyn Maund, César Rojas-Bravo, Anyu Wang, Beichuan Wang, Ziyang Wang, Qiang Xi, Linxi Zhang, Yinuo Zhang

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

Using rapid rotators as tracers of multiplicity statistics as a function of stellar density

Priyanka Cingirikonda, Marina Kounkel and Joseph Mullen

Recent works have identified that rapidly rotating stars are predominantly binaries with separations of a few to a few tenths of au. This is a crucial range of separation that is often inaccessible to searches of binary stars, providing a unique opportunity to examine their statistical properties. In particular, we have performed an analysis of rapid rotators in young moving groups. We examined their fraction as a function of the stellar density of the population in which they are found. We find that there is a deficit of rapid rotators in dense clusters such as the Orion Nebula in comparison to the more diffuse parts of the Orion Complex, as intracluster interactions with neighboring stars likely dissolve binaries with intermediate separations before they had a chance to fully form. In contrast, in older populations with an age of $\sim100$ Myr, mass segregation redistributes binaries relative to single stars, thus in such older regions, rapid rotators are predominantly found in the regions of higher stellar density. This work sheds light on both the conditions that lead to the formation of binary stars and their dynamical evolution.
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Astrophysics of Galaxies

Caught in Swallowtails: Discovery of Two Swallowtail Image Formations in MS 0451.6-0305

Ashish K. Meena, Wenlei Chen, Lukas J. Furtak et al. (+6 more)

We report the discovery of two swallowtail image formations at $z=2.91$ and $z=6.70$ behind the galaxy cluster MS 0451.6-0305 in JWST-NIRCam imaging. We find that in both of the above lensed systems, the complex image morphology cannot be reproduced by simple fold/cusp caustics, and detailed lens modeling reveals higher-order swallowtail caustic configurations. In the $z=2.91$ lens system, a small part of the source galaxy (which itself is part of a galaxy group) containing atleast two compact knots sits inside the swallowtail caustic, producing a quadruply imaged arc. At two of the image positions of these knots, we infer point source magnifications of $\gtrsim 300$, implying lensing-corrected effective radii of $\lesssim 0.8-1.5$ pc. The $z=6.70$ system exhibits even more complex image formation. We therefore only use the most confidently identified counter-images of knots in this system as constraints in our lens modeling. The resulting model predicts magnifications $\sim20-200$ and lensing-corrected effective radii of $\lesssim 0.8-18.5$ pc for various knots. Together, these two systems represent the first example of observations of multiple swallowtail image formations in a single galaxy cluster and demonstrate the ability of swallowtail caustics to magnify individual substructures at sub-parsec scales, from intermediate redshifts to the first billion years of the Universe.
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All authors Ashish K. Meena, Wenlei Chen, Lukas J. Furtak, Johan Richard, Adi Zitrin, Jose M. Diego, Mathilde Jauzac, Patrick L. Kelly, Rogier A. Windhorst

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics

What Understanding Means in AI-Laden Astronomy

Yuan-Sen Ting, André Curtis-Trudel and Siyu Yao

Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming astronomical research, yet the scientific community has largely treated this transformation as an engineering challenge rather than an epistemological one. This perspective article argues that philosophy of science offers essential tools for navigating AI's integration into astronomy–conceptual clarity about what "understanding" means, critical examination of assumptions about data and discovery, and frameworks for evaluating AI's roles across different research contexts. Drawing on an interdisciplinary workshop convening astronomers, philosophers, and computer scientists, we identify several tensions. First, the narrative that AI will "derive fundamental physics" from data misconstrues contemporary astronomy as equation-derivation rather than the observation-driven enterprise it is. Second, scientific understanding involves more than prediction–it requires narrative construction, contextual judgment, and communicative achievement that current AI architectures struggle to provide. Third, because narrative and judgment matter, human peer review remains essential–yet AI-generated content flooding the literature threatens our capacity to identify genuine insight. Fourth, while AI excels at well-defined problem-solving, the ill-defined problem-finding that drives breakthroughs appears to require capacities beyond pattern recognition. Fifth, as AI accelerates what is feasible, pursuitworthiness criteria risk shifting toward what AI makes easy rather than what is genuinely important. We propose "pragmatic understanding" as a framework for integration–recognizing AI as a tool that extends human cognition while requiring new norms for validation and epistemic evaluation. Engaging with these questions now may help the community shape the transformation rather than merely react to it.
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2601.10038 · 15 Jan · Published in Nature Astronomy (8 pages). Based on the "Philosophy Sees the Algorithm" workshop held 11-12 December 2025 at The Ohio State University. Workshop page: https://tingyuansen.github.io/Philosophy_in_AI_Based_Science/

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Astrophysics of Galaxies

Beyond UV: Rest-frame B-band and Apparent Luminosity Functions of z=5-9 Galaxies

Nicha Leethochawalit, Takahiro Morishita, Tirawut Worrakitpoonpon et al. (+1 more)

We present new measurements of galaxy luminosity functions (LFs) from JWST/NIRCam imaging over the redshift range z=4.5-9.7, using photometric catalogs from JADES and public extragalactic fields. Our analysis includes rest-frame UV and B-band LFs, as well as apparent LFs in F090W, F115W, F200W, F356W, and F444W. We present the first constraints on the rest-frame B-band LF at z~7-8 and extend existing measurements at z~5 to M(B) = -18 mag. The B-band LFs evolve more strongly with redshift than UV LFs, though both decline more gradually than predicted by simulations at z>5. No single existing simulation reproduces all observed trends, with discrepancies likely driven by assumptions about binary evolution and stellar population synthesis models. The apparent LFs in F356W and F444W show hints of a bright-end excess at all redshifts, extending to fainter magnitudes at higher redshift. While extreme emission line galaxies may partially account for it, the excess may also indicate a population of moderately red, optically bright sources - potentially dusty star-forming galaxies or obscured AGNs. Finally, we find that rest-frame B-band luminosity correlates more tightly with stellar mass than UV, making it a powerful tracer of mass assembly and reinforcing the diagnostic value of rest-frame optical LFs in uncovering the physical processes that drive early galaxy formation.
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All authors Nicha Leethochawalit, Takahiro Morishita, Tirawut Worrakitpoonpon, Michele Trenti

Wednesday 14 January

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Thermodynamic characteristics of a Fermi gas with an invariant energy scale and its astrophysical implications

Tiyasa Kar, Atul Kedia and Ramkumar Radhakrishnan

We investigate the thermodynamics of a relativistic Fermi gas governed by a modified dispersion relation in the Magueijo Smolin (MS) formulation of Doubly Special Relativity (DSR), characterized by the presence of an invariant ultraviolet energy (deformation) scale. We study the system in two physically distinct regimes: the near degenerate low-temperature limit, and the high-temperature regime. In the low-temperature regime, we derive the thermodynamic quantities using the standard Sommerfeld expansion. In the high-temperature regime, we evaluate all thermodynamic quantities numerically from the exact grand canonical potential and demonstrate that the thermodynamics of the Fermi gas reduces to the standard relativistic ideal gas behavior. We apply the resulting low-temperature equation of state to study compact astrophysical objects, namely, non-rotating white dwarfs and neutron stars. Helium white dwarfs exhibit a strong dependence on the deformation scale, while white dwarfs composed of heavier elements are less affected. For neutron stars, the modified equation of state leads to configurations that are smaller in radius and lower in mass than that is produced by nucleonic equations of state. Our results highlight how modified relativity theories can be probed by studying astrophysical objects.
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Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics

DeepInflation: an AI agent for research and model discovery of inflation

Ze-Yu Peng, Hao-Shi Yuan, Qi Lai et al. (+4 more)

We present DeepInflation, an AI agent designed for research and model discovery in inflationary cosmology. Built upon a multi-agent architecture, DeepInflation integrates Large Language Models (LLMs) with a symbolic regression (SR) engine and a retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) knowledge base. This framework enables the agent to automatically explore and verify the vast landscape of inflationary potentials while grounding its outputs in established theoretical literature. We demonstrate that DeepInflation can successfully discover simple and viable single-field slow-roll inflationary potentials consistent with the latest observations (with the ACT DR6 results taken as an example) or any given $n_s$ and $r$, and provide accurate theoretical context for obscure inflationary scenarios. DeepInflation serves as a prototype for a new generation of autonomous scientific discovery engines in cosmology, which enables researchers and non-experts alike to explore the inflationary landscape using natural language. This agent is available at https://github.com/pengzy-cosmo/DeepInflation.
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All authors Ze-Yu Peng, Hao-Shi Yuan, Qi Lai, Jun-Qian Jiang, Gen Ye, Jun Zhang, Yun-Song Piao

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics

Monitoring of Continuous-Wave Hardware Injections in LIGO Interferometers during the O4 Observing Run

Preet Baxi, Jessica Leviton, Eilam Morag et al. (+2 more)

Although there have now been hundreds of transient gravitational-wave detections of merging compact stars by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) detector network, no continuous-wave (CW) signals have yet been discovered. To ensure that such signals, expected to be exceedingly weak, can be detected in the ongoing O4 observing run by coherent integration over years, simulated waveforms ('hardware injections') are injected directly into the LIGO data by continuously modulating the positions of the interferometer mirrors so as to mimic nearly sinusoidal signals from fast-spinning galactic neutron stars. A set of 18 such simulated CW sources are injected with signal frequencies spanning much of the LIGO detection band and with varying sky locations. By verifying the successful recovery of the simulated signals, including preservation of absolute phase over as many as 10^{11} signal cycles, we validate our understanding of detector response and end-to-end search pipelines, including data cleaning. Daily and weekly monitoring of the signal reconstruction is meant to catch any unexpected sudden changes in interferometer response, to verify that signal-to-noise ratio increases as expected and to verify that simulated source parameters are recovered correctly. We describe three methods of monitoring: 1) a highly templated matched filter to extract signal amplitude and phase precisely; 2) a frequentist Fstatistic evaluation that marginalizes over amplitude, phase and orientation of the star; and 3) a Bayesian reconstruction of the source parameters together with noise characterization. Results from each method are shown, with emphasis on the new templated method, which yields precise measurement of the critical phase offset parameter and therefore validates understanding of absolute timing delays in the detector response and data stream.
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All authors Preet Baxi, Jessica Leviton, Eilam Morag, Matthew Pitkin, Keith Riles

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Dynamics of Apsidal Motion in Non-Synchronous Binary Pulsars Coupled Orbit and Spin Evolution

Ali Taani

The apsidal motion of a non-synchronous binary pulsar serves as a valuable probe of relativistic gravity, stellar stricture, and dynamical evolution of close binary systems, In this study, we investigate the combined influence of general relativity, stellar oblateness and tidal interaction on the apsidal motion of three binary pulsars: 1913+16, J0737-3039A/B, and J0621+1002. Zahn's tidal equations \cite{1977A&A....57..383Z, 1989A&A...220..112Z} were employed for numerical integrations to describe tidal effects and their role in orbital and spin evolution. We estimated the timescales for tidal synchronization and orbital circularization for each system. The results indicate that tidal effects play only a minor role in orbital decay compared with energy loss due to gravitational wave emission. This is evident in the compact system PSR 1913+16, where the orbital period decreases by approximately 76.5 $\mu$s/yr as a result of gravitational radiation. The double pulsar J0737-3039A/B exhibits faster orbital evolution, with synchronization occurring in about 8.4$\times10{^3}$ years, whereas the wider system J0621+1002 shows negligible orbital change over timescales exceeding 10$^{10}$ years. The simulations demonstrate clear trends of decreasing semi-major axis and eccentricity, accompanied by an increase in spin rate among the binary pulsars studied. The derived apsidal motion constants [$k\simeq0.1$] are consistent with theoretical expected values, and the corresponding tidal friction times (between a few hours to several days) agree well with theoretical predication. These results emphasize the dominant role of relativistic effects in neutron star binaries and highlight the importance of including gravitational-wave terms long-term orbital evolution
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High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Gravitational Wave Strain and Orbital Dynamics of Binary Pulsars from LIGO-Virgo to LISA

Ali Taani

We summarize the current state of the art and calculate gravitational wave strain amplitudes for known binary pulsars, using data from current ground-based detectors (LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA) and the upcoming space-based missions (LISA). We present detailed calculations of the characteristic gravitational wave strain values, ranging from 3.0 to 73 $\times10^{-22}$, across frequencies between 0.66 and 5.87 $\times10^{-4}$ Hz. Our post-Newtonian approximation analysis yields predicted periastron advance rates from 1.6 to 80.5 deg/yr and orbital period decay rates between -5 and -176 $\mu$s/yr for the binary pulsar population. We derive common envelope efficiency parameters ($\alpha_{CE}$) for representative progenitor scenarios within our sample, finding values between 0.63 and 1.16, with notable sensitivity to the binding energy parameter $\lambda$. Binary neutron star merger rates are estimated at $22.77^{+6.83}_{-6.83}$ Myr$^{-1}$ for the Milky Way, corresponding to a volumetric rate of $227.71^{+68.31}_{-68.31}$ Gpc$^{-3}$ yr$^{-1}$, consistent with the latest LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA observational constraints. Our results illustrate how multi-band gravitational wave observations, from LIGO/Virgo to LISA, can contribute to precise measurements of binary pulsar strain and orbital evolution histories, improving merger time predictions and constraining neutron star physics and common envelope processes
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Astrophysics of Galaxies

Are Recently Quenched Ellipticals Truly Isolated Centrals?

Deepak K. Deo

Recently Quenched Ellipticals (RQEs) provide a valuable test case for disentangling intrinsic and environmental quenching, particularly because they are commonly classified as isolated central galaxies in low-mass halos. However, central/satellite assignments and isolation labels can vary across group catalogs, and such misclassifications can strongly bias physical interpretations. We present a uniform, physically motivated reassessment of the environments of 155 RQEs previously identified as centrals in an SDSS-based group catalog. We construct value-added neighbor catalogs via KD-tree searches and apply consistent thresholds in projected separation and line-of-sight velocity to (i) verify centrality, (ii) quantify isolation using a mass-ratio-based companion criterion, and (iii) identify potential pseudo-centrals via proximity to massive clusters. We find that 132/155 (85.2%) RQEs remain true centrals, while 23/155 (14.8%) are better interpreted as misidentified centrals with a more massive neighbor within $R_{\rm proj}\leq0.8$~Mpc and $\Delta V\leq250$~km~s$^{-1}$. Among the true centrals, 110/132 (83.3%) satisfy our isolation criterion, and only one system meets our pseudo-central definition, indicating that direct cluster-scale preprocessing is rare for RQE centrals. Using projected number density and surface stellar mass density, we show that misidentified and non-isolated systems occupy systematically denser regimes than isolated true centrals. These results imply that while most RQEs ($\sim$71%) are consistent with predominantly internal quenching in genuinely isolated centrals, a non-negligible minority ($\sim$29%) likely experienced environmentally influenced pathways at group scales.
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Astrophysics of Galaxies

The formation of periodic three-body orbits for Newtonian systems

Simon Portegies Zwart, Arjen Doelman and Jelmer Sein

Braids are periodic solutions to the general N-body problem in gravitational dynamics. These solutions seem special and unique, but they may result from rather usual encounters between four bodies. We aim at understanding the existence of braids in the Galaxy by reverse engineering the interactions in which they formed. We simulate self-gravitating systems of N particles, starting with the constructing of a specific braid, and bombard it with a single object. We study how frequently the bombarded braid dissolves in four singles, a triple and a single, a binary and 2 singles, or 2 binaries. The relative proportion of those events gives us insight into how easy it is to generate a braid through the reverse process. It turns out that braids are easily generated from encounters between 2 binaries, or a triple with a single object, independent on the braid's stability. We find that 3 of the explored braids are linearly stable against small perturbations, whereas one is unstable and short-lived. The shortest-lived braid appears the least stable and the most chaotic. nonplanar encounters also lead to braid formation, which, in our experiments, themselves are planar. The parameter space in azimuth and polar angle that lead to braid formation via binary-binary or triple-single encounters is anisotropic, and the distribution has a low fractal dimension. Since a substantial fraction of ~9% of our calculations lead to periodic 3-body systems, braids may be more common than expected. They could form in multi-body interactions. We do not expect many to exist for time, but they may be common as transients, as they survive for tens to hundreds of periodic orbits. We argue that braids are common in relatively shallow-potential background fields, such as the Oort cloud or the Galactic halo. If composed of compact objects, they potentially form interesting targets for gravitational wave detectors.
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Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

A Robust Launching Mechanism for Freely-Floating Planets from Host Stars with Close-in Planets

Xiaochen Zheng, Zhuoya Cao, Shigeru Ida et al. (+2 more)

Secular perturbations from binary stars and distant massive planets can drive cold planets onto nearly parabolic orbits with pericenter passages extremely close to their host stars. Meanwhile, short-period super-Earths are frequently observed around nearby stars. Gravitational scattering between these two distinct populations can lead to substantial orbital energy exchange, liberating some intruders from the gravitational confinement of their host systems. This process offers a robust formation channel for a subset of the abundant freely floating planet population. It may also significantly perturb the original orbits of close-in planets, induce collisional trajectories between close-in planets and their host stars, and disrupt the dynamical evolution of cold planets toward close stellar encounters.
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All authors Xiaochen Zheng, Zhuoya Cao, Shigeru Ida, Douglas N.C. Lin, Shude Mao

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

Very-High-Frequency Gravitational Waves from Multi-Monodromy Inflation

Guido D'Amico, Andrew A. Geraci, Nemanja Kaloper et al. (+1 more)

We show that in multi-stage axion monodromy inflation an interruption near the end of the penultimate stage can lead to a spike in the gravitational wave background. These gravitational waves are in the frequency range and with an amplitude accessible to proposed terrestrial detectors such as the Einstein Telescope, Cosmic Explorer, and future Levitated Sensor Detector experiments.
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All authors Guido D'Amico, Andrew A. Geraci, Nemanja Kaloper, Alexander Westphal

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

Multibanded Reduced Order Quadrature Techniques for Gravitational Wave Inference

Murdoc Newell, Alexis Boudon and Hong Qi

Reduced-order quadrature (ROQ) is commonly used to accelerate parameter estimation in gravitational wave astronomy; however, constructing ROQ bases can be computationally costly, particularly for longer-duration signals. We propose a modified construction strategy based on PyROQ that accelerates this process by performing the basis search using multiband waveforms, without compromising the desired likelihood accuracy. We use this altered method to construct a set of ROQs in the sub-solar mass (SSM) range using the IMRPhenomXAS_NRTidalV3 waveform. Compared to PyROQ's standard ROQ method, we find a decrease in basis size of 20% to 30% and observe a decrease in basis construction time by 5 to 20 times, reducing from two weeks to a couple of days. We verify the bases built with this method by injecting simulated gravitational waves into LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA design noise and recovering the parameters, and we find that they preserve the likelihood accuracy and maintain consistent parameter estimation results.
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Astrophysics of Galaxies

Calibrating Mid-Infrared Emission Features As Diagnostics of Star Formation in Infrared-Luminous Galaxies via Radiative Transfer Modeling

L. Robinson, D. Farrah, A. Efstathiou et al. (+13 more)

Luminous infrared galaxies are key sites of obscured stellar mass assembly at z > 0.5. Their star formation rates (SFRs) are often estimated using the luminosities of the 6.2 micron and 11.2 micron polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) features, or those of the [Ne II] and [Ne III] fine-structure lines, as they are minimally affected by obscuration. It is uncertain whether the calibration of these features as SFR tracers depends on the starburst bolometric luminosity or the level of Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) activity. We here investigate the relationship between the luminosities of PAH and Neon lines with star formation rate for highly luminous objects using radiative transfer modeling and archival observations of 42 local Ultraluminous (>= 10^12 L_sun) Infrared Galaxies (ULIRGs). We find that PAH and [Ne II] features arise mainly in star-forming regions, with small contributions from the AGN or host, but that the [Ne III] line has a mixed contribution from both star formation and AGN activity. We present relations between L_PAH and L_NeII, and both starburst luminosity and SFR. We find relations for lower luminosity (L_IR ~= 10^10-10^12 L_sun) systems underestimate the SFRs in local ULIRGs by up to ~1 dex. The 6.2 micron and 11.2 micron PAH features, and the [Ne II] line, are thus good tracers of SFR in ULIRGs. We do not find that a more luminous AGN affects the relationship between SFR and PAH or Neon luminosity, but that it can make PAH emission harder to discern. Our results and derived relations are relevant to studies of star-forming and composite galaxies at z < 3 with the James Webb Space Telescope.
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All authors L. Robinson, D. Farrah, A. Efstathiou, A. Engholm, E. Hatziminaoglou, M. Joyce, V. Lebouteiller, S. Petty, L. K. Pitchford, J. Afonso, D. Clements, M. Lacy, C. Pearson, D. Rigopoulou, M. Rowan-Robinson, L. Wang

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Magnetic Pumping: Plasma Heating to Particle Acceleration

Mikhail Malkov and Immanuel Jebaraj

One of the earliest mechanisms proposed for plasma heating was magnetic pumping (MP). However, its significance for astrophysical phenomena, including particle acceleration, has yet to be appreciated. MP-energized particles tap energy from magnetic-field oscillations. A particle's momentum component perpendicular to the local B-field increases during field growth by virtue of the adiabatic invariant $p_{\perp}^{2}/B=const$. The gained $p_{\perp}$ is then partially scattered elastically into the parallel momentum, $p_{\parallel}$, with $p^{2}=p_{\parallel}^{2}+p_{\perp}^{2}=const$, thereby retaining some fraction of the gained energy before the field decreases to its minimum. This scattering breaks the reversibility of energy exchange between particles and oscillating magnetic fields, thereby increasing the particle energy after each MP cycle. Field oscillations are often assumed to be sinusoidal, and the resulting MP is treated perturbatively. These simplifications restrict astrophysical applications, leaving objects with strong magnetic perturbations outside the scope of adequate treatment. We develop a nonperturbative approach to MP that is suitable for a broad spectrum of magnetic turbulence. The treatment comprises two steps. The first step is common: converting a kinetic equation into an infinite hierarchy of moments of the particle distribution function. The second step is new in MP treatments: we find an exact closure at an arbitrary level of the moment system. The heating is treated exactly at the second-moment closure. Particle acceleration generally requires a higher-level closure to determine the power-law index and the maximum energy of accelerated particles. We propose a method for extracting these crucial acceleration data from the second moment for a broadband random field.
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Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

Simulating the photospheric to coronal plasma using magnetohydrodynamic characteristics III: validation including gravity, flux emergence, and an eruption

Lucas A. Tarr, N. Dylan Kee, James E. Leake et al. (+2 more)

Solar eruptions arise from instabilities or loss of equilibria in the solar atmosphere, but routinely inferring the precise magnetic and plasma properties that lead to eruptions is not currently practical using synoptic solar observations. Data driven simulations offer an appealing alternative. We test our boundary data-driven magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) approach, based on the method of characteristics, on a simulation that includes full MHD, a stratified atmosphere, and the emergence of a model solar magnetic active region, from the photosphere upwards. The driven simulation is tested against a larger, ab initio “Ground Truth” simulation that extends downward into the convection zone. Our driven simulation accurately reproduces the dynamic emergence of the active region above the photosphere, the formation of key topological features throughout the corona, and the subsequent eruption of mass and magnetic field. The total emerged energy matches to better than one percent, the ratio of emerged to eruptive energy is $\approx2\%$, and the actual values of each energy term agree to within $10\%$ between the two cases. Crucially, the data injection cadence, when properly scaled, matches the cadence of synoptic observations of the Sun's surface magnetic field, and is three to four orders of magnitude longer than the inherent CFL time step of the simulations. The stability of the code and fidelity of the results over an entire active region lifetime, from emergence to eruption, strongly suggests that our method will produce reliable results when driven using solar synoptic observations from existing and anticipated ground and spaced based observatories.
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All authors Lucas A. Tarr, N. Dylan Kee, James E. Leake, Mark G. Linton, Peter W. Schuck

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics

Dark energy driven by an oscillating generalised axion-like quintessence field

Mariam Bouhmadi-López and Carlos G. Boiza

Generalised axion-like scalar fields provide a well-motivated framework for describing the late-time acceleration of the Universe. As the field evolves, it rolls down its potential and, depending on its mass and initial conditions, it may either still be approaching the minimum or already oscillating around it. These two dynamical regimes require distinct treatments of cosmological perturbations. In this work, we perform a detailed analysis of linear cosmological perturbations in the regime where the dark-energy scalar field undergoes coherent oscillations about the minimum of its potential. We show that the standard effective fluid description breaks down in this phase and develop a consistent field-based perturbation framework, which we use to assess the impact of oscillatory dark energy on the growth of cosmic structures.
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