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Physics Astrophysics

astro-ph Watch Astrophysics

Saturday 18 July

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics

Continuous Ultra-Low-Frequency Solar Radio Monitoring with ALBATROS from the High Arctic

Aman Chokshi, Mohan Agrawal, Christopher Barbarie et al. (+18 more)

In the Canadian High Arctic, nearly five months of continuous daylight enable uninterrupted low-frequency solar monitoring. We present the first solar science results from the Array of Long Baseline Antennas for Taking Radio Observations from Seventy-Ninth Parallel (ALBATROS). This broadband radio array is designed to explore the largely uncharted radio sky below 30 MHz, where polar ionospheric conditions permit access to frequencies rarely accessible from ground-based sites. Using observations spanning 1-125 MHz, we detect bright solar radio bursts exhibiting complex spectral and polarised structure. The bursts are observed simultaneously by all eight autonomous stations, demonstrating the stability and consistency of the array. Comparison with concurrent soft X-ray measurements reveals a strong temporal correlation between the radio and X-ray emission. These observations establish ALBATROS as a new facility for ultra-low-frequency solar monitoring, opening a new window on solar radio bursts, space weather, and the dynamic heliosphere.
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All authors Aman Chokshi, Mohan Agrawal, Christopher Barbarie, Joëlle-Marie Bégin, Benjamin Cheung, Hsin Cynthia Chiang, Cherie K. Day, Eamon Egan, Stephen Fay, Nivek Ghazi, Maya Goss, Lawrence Herman, Jack Hickish, Michael Hétu, Ronniy Joseph, Marc-Olivier R. Lalonde, Tristan Ménard, John Orlowski-Scherer, Jonathan Sievers, Will Tyndall, Anthony B. Zerafa

Astrophysics of Galaxies

Temporal Correlations Between Fuzzy Dark Matter and Baryonic Matter in Virialized Core-Halo Structures

Ivan Alvarez-Rios and Francisco S. Guzman

Fuzzy Dark Matter (FDM) predicts the existence of virialized halos with interference-driven granular structure generated by the wave nature of ultralight bosons. Since these fluctuations produce time-dependent gravitational fields, they can be proposed as a potential source of observable dynamical effects on baryonic matter. In this work we test whether such fluctuations generate measurable temporal correlations between FDM and a coupled gas component. We evolve coupled FDM-gas configurations with the Schrödinger-Poisson-Euler system in three dimensions. The FDM component is initialized through multimerger configurations that relax toward core-halo structures, while the baryonic component is modeled as an ideal gas. After virialization, we analyze the temporal fluctuations of both components through correlation functions and spectral diagnostics. The FDM density field shows fluctuations with significant high-frequency content, whereas the gas develops smoother and longer-lived coherent structures. Although the gas dynamically responds to the gravitational potential generated by the FDM halo, we find no strong temporal correlation between the interference-driven fluctuations of FDM and the gas dynamics. This behavior persists across the explored range of gas temperatures. Our results indicate that baryonic matter reacts to the global gravitational potential of the virialized halo rather than to the detailed phase-dependent granular structure of FDM. This weak temporal coupling may limit the possibility of directly detecting FDM granularity through local baryonic temporal fluctuations.
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High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Electromagnetic Emission from a Black Hole Evaporating in External Magnetic Field

Soumya Samrat Mandal and Maxim Lyutikov

We describe a classical (non-quantum) radiation process: additional (to Hawking) emission by a black hole evaporating in an external magnetic field in vacuum. The electromagnetic radiation process is completely electric charge-free and bears some resemblance to the Gertsenshtein-Zel'dovich effect. The time evolution of the spacetime metric perturbs a static background magnetic field, inducing a radiative field that acts as an effective electromagnetic source even in the absence of physical charges or currents. To isolate the dynamic effects of the time-dependent spacetime on the external magnetic field, we approximate Hawking radiation as a spherically symmetric outflow of null fluid governed by the prescribed time-dependence of the central mass $M(t)$. We employ Laplace transform, which selects the retarded outgoing branch of the electromagnetic response, producing fields proportional to $\Theta(t-r)$ and thereby fixing a causal radiative arrow of emission. The emitted spectral energy is red-dominated, scaling as $d\mathcal{E}_B/d\omega \propto B_0^2 m_0^2 \tau_H^{-2/3} \omega^{-8/3}$, where $\tau_H$ is the Hawking evaporation timescale, and corresponds to a pure Transverse Electric (TE) mode. There is no final bright burst at the end of the evaporation. We offer classical analogues for this mechanism as transmission-line emission and, separately, as the displacement current emission from a medium with time-varying dielectric permittivity.
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Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

Escaped White Dwarf Candidates from Open Clusters

Huahui Yan, David R. Miller, Jingkun Zhao et al. (+2 more)

Observations reveal a pronounced deficit of white dwarfs (WDs) in open clusters (OCs) relative to theoretical expectations, suggesting that a significant fraction of WDs may have escaped from their parent clusters after formation. In this work, we perform a systematic search for escaped WD candidates from OCs by back-tracing the motions of WDs and star clusters from Gaia DR3 catalogs. We identify 476 candidate WDs with kinematics consistent with having escaped from one of 175 OCs. A control-field Monte Carlo (MC) test yields a contamination rate of 87.6% +/- 4.3%. Given this high contamination rate, we filter the candidates by ensuring each WD's total age is consistent with its host cluster age, thereby establishing a more reliable follow-up sample of 109 stars. The excluded candidates with anomalous ages are more likely field interlopers or products of accelerated binary evolution. Among these, the low-mass regime exhibits a clear excess over expected field binary merger rates, whereas the high-mass regime remains broadly consistent with binary population synthesis predictions. Finally, comparing escaped WDs with cluster properties, absolute escape counts appear limited by Gaia's distance-dependent incompleteness. The normalized escape fraction shows little dependence on cluster age, possibly favouring WD loss near formation over gradual evaporation, but is strongly anticorrelated with cluster mass, plausibly because deeper potential wells of massive clusters retain more of their WDs.
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All authors Huahui Yan, David R. Miller, Jingkun Zhao, Jincheng Guo, Chengyuan Li

Astrophysics of Galaxies

Machine learning prediction of binary formation in three-body gravitational encounters

Ahmad Farhani Asl

Three-body encounters are frequent events in stellar systems, intrinsically chaotic, and computationally costly to model with direct N-body integration. Predicting whether such encounters lead to binary formation is therefore challenging, particularly in large-scale simulations. We aim to develop an accurate and physically interpretable machine-learning model that predicts binary formation from the initial conditions of three-body encounters, to assess its reliability, and to identify the physical parameters that most strongly determine the outcome. We trained an XGBoost binary classifier on a balanced dataset of three-body scattering experiments computed with the REBOUND code and the IAS15 integrator. The input to the model consists of 30 physically motivated features describing the masses, energies, and kinematics of the initial configuration. The classifier achieves excellent performance on a balanced test set, with accuracy, precision, recall, and F1-score all above 0.94, and with ROC-AUC and PR-AUC values of 0.99. Feature-importance analysis shows that the outcome is governed primarily by the mass hierarchy and hardness ratio of the encounter, followed by velocity fraction and mass entropy. The predicted probabilities are well calibrated, with an expected calibration error (ECE) of 0.02. Inference is approximately 400 times faster than direct N-body integration. The model also generalizes well across encounter radii, although its performance decreases in the weak-interaction regime where binary formation becomes intrinsically rare. These results show that machine learning can provide fast, accurate, and physically interpretable predictions of binary formation in three-body encounters. Such models offer a practical complement to direct N-body simulations and may enable efficient probability estimates in large-scale simulations of stellar systems.
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Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

Determination of [Fe/H] in Fundamental mode Classical Cepheids from Gaia DR3 light curve Fourier parameters

Roberto Molinaro, Vincenzo Ripepi, Marcella Marconi et al. (+9 more)

Estimating the iron abundance ([Fe/H]) of Classical Cepheids (CCs) is crucial both for validating the cosmic distance scale through the Period-Luminosity relation and for tracing the chemical evolution of young stellar populations. However, standard spectroscopic determinations are highly time-consuming, limiting their application to large or distant samples. This work delivers a practical, multi-band alternative by investigating whether light-curve Fourier parameters derived from Gaia mission photometry can serve as reliable proxies for [Fe/H]. Our reference sample comprises 398 fundamental-mode CCs from Gaia DR3 with high-resolution spectroscopic metallicities available in the literature, spanning a wide range of pulsation periods. Light curves in the G, G_BP, and G_RP bands were modeled with a truncated Fourier series to extract characteristic amplitudes, amplitude ratios, and phase differences. We implemented a replicated Random Forest algorithm as a feature selection tool to isolate the most predictive parameters based on their total increase in node purity. Using the selected features, we calibrated an empirical, multi-variable relation via linear regression, incorporating higher-order polynomial terms to capture complex morphological dependencies. The primary unweighted OLS model yields a residual rms of 0.213 dex and a Pearson correlation of 0.61. As an external validity check, we applied this calibration to large target samples of CCs in the Milky Way, LMC, and SMC. The resulting photometric metallicity distributions correctly reproduce the expected chemical enrichment history and peak values of the three galaxies, proving the reliability of this relation for population studies in the Gaia DR4 era.
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All authors Roberto Molinaro, Vincenzo Ripepi, Marcella Marconi, Massimiliano Gatto, Erasmo Trentin, Mami Deka, Giulia De Somma, Ilaria Musella, Teresa Sicignano, Francesco Ficara, Silvio Leccia, Emnuela Luongo

Astrophysics of Galaxies

Predicting the final states of binary-single scattering with machine learning

Ahmad Farhani Asl, David Fonseca Mota, Dennis Fremstad et al. (+1 more)

Context. Binary-single encounters are particularly frequent in dense stellar environments, where they play a central role in shaping the dynamical evolution of their host systems. However, predicting their final outcomes remains an open question due to the intrinsic chaotic nature of the three-body problem. This challenge motivates the adoption of data-driven machine learning (ML) methods. Aims. We investigate whether ML can predict the final outcomes of binary-single encounters from initial conditions alone. Methods. We generated 5.8 million binary-single scattering simulations using the REBOUND N-body package with the IAS15 integrator. A cascaded binary classification strategy, comprising four sequential XGBoost classifiers, and a single multi-class model were trained on the synthetic dataset and compared. Results. The cascaded strategy outperforms the single multi-class model across all metrics. F1-scores for the cascaded models exceed 0.92, with precision-recall area under the curve (PR-AUC) values reaching 0.99, compared to 0.95 for the multi-class model. Feature importance analysis identifies encounter timescale, binary hardness, and mass ratio as key predictors. Misclassification analysis shows that prediction failures concentrate near chaotic boundaries where the outcome is sensitive to small perturbations. Speed benchmarks demonstrate that the cascaded models are up to 300 times faster than direct N-body integrations. However, all models fail to generalize to new datasets, highlighting a key limitation. Conclusions. This study demonstrates that, for any specific environment and data distribution, the proposed cascaded ML strategy provides a robust and rapid framework for predicting binary-single scattering outcomes.
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All authors Ahmad Farhani Asl, David Fonseca Mota, Dennis Fremstad, Fatemeh Rahimi

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Fermi-LAT Detection of a Gamma-ray Excess toward the Radio-quiet Narrow-line Seyfert 1 Galaxy 1H 1934-063

Yangji Li, Jinming Bai, Xiong Jiang et al. (+1 more)

We report a $\gamma$-ray excess toward the radio-quiet narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy 1H 1934-063 using data collected by the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and taking into account the LAT 16-year Source List (FL16Y). During the flare interval, the excess is detected in the 1–500 GeV band at a significance of $\sim 5.2\sigma$ (TS = 27.12), with a photon flux of $(4.94\pm2.33)\times10^{-10}$ ph cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ and a hard photon index of $\Gamma=1.50\pm0.25$. The best-fit $\gamma$-ray position is consistent with the radio position of 1H 1934-063, while the nearby source FL16Y J1936.9-0552 is not significantly detected during the same interval. In the absence of contemporaneous multiwavelength data, the broadband interpretation cannot be tightly constrained. A compact nonthermal component can produce the hard GeV emission, but the present data do not allow a unique physical interpretation. The excess therefore provides an interesting case for probing high-energy activity in radio-quiet NLS1 galaxies, although the underlying physical mechanism remains uncertain.
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All authors Yangji Li, Jinming Bai, Xiong Jiang, Kaixing Lu

Astrophysics of Galaxies

Molecule-dependent Abundance Behavior of Oxygen-bearing Complex Organics in High-Mass Star-Forming Regions: A Uniform 50-source Survey

Xuefang Xu, Mingwei He, Qian Gou et al. (+10 more)

We present a uniform IRAM-30\,m survey analysis of four oxygen-bearing complex organic molecules (COMs), methanol (CH$_3$OH), acetaldehyde (CH$_3$CHO), methyl formate (CH$_3$OCHO), and dimethyl ether (CH$_3$OCH$_3$), toward 50 high-mass star-forming regions (HMSFRs) associated with 6.7\,GHz methanol masers. Column densities were derived through a homogeneous rotation-diagram approach, with CH$_3$CN used as a proxy excitation-temperature reference when needed. In CH$_3$OH-normalized abundance-ratio space, CH$_3$OCHO/CH$_3$OH and CH$_3$OCH$_3$/CH$_3$OH show the strongest pairwise correlation, whereas the correlations involving CH$_3$CHO are weaker. No clear monotonic trends are found with Galactocentric distance or beam-averaged H$_2$ column density. Comparison with previous observations places the CH$_3$OCHO–CH$_3$OCH$_3$ behavior within the range of earlier abundance-ratio measurements, while CH$_3$CHO shows larger inter-study variation. A representative warm-up chemical model is used only for qualitative comparison with the observed abundance ranges, which are most closely matched during the decline from the post-desorption abundance peaks in the model. These results provide homogeneous beam-averaged abundance-ratio constraints for common O-bearing COMs in high-mass star-forming regions and show that their source-to-source behavior is molecule-dependent rather than fully described by a single common abundance pattern.
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All authors Xuefang Xu, Mingwei He, Qian Gou, Jiao He, Junzhi Wang, Donghui Quan, Di Li, Laurent Pagani, Juan Li, Guoming Zhao, Chunguo Duan, Yang Lu, Luyao Zou

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Resolving core-envelope degeneracies in giant planets and sub-Neptunes: constraining the equivalence in the presence of dilute gradients

Christian Wilkinson, Benjamin Charnay, Stéphane Mazevet et al. (+3 more)

The widespread recognition of dilute, "fuzzy" cores in giant planets and massive volatile mantles in sub-Neptunes has made interior modelling a highly degenerate, multi-dimensional problem. To map these degeneracies, we present fuzzycore, an open-source static structural integrator with a unified layered architecture spanning rock-water-envelope sub-Neptunes through volatile-rich gas giants. The framework supports dense parameter sweeps over compositional gradients at fixed observed $(M_p, R_p, Z_{atm})$, enabling consistent forward-model exploration across the radius valley and the warm-giant population. It solves hydrostatic equilibrium across phase-separated iron, rock, and water layers beneath a gaseous envelope, using a highly resolved adaptive grid to model arbitrary heavy-element gradients and parameterising the dilution width to evaluate the structural impact of varying core-envelope boundaries. We benchmark fuzzycore against an evolution-derived Jupiter profile, demonstrating that when envelope boundary metallicities and integrated heavy-element budgets are matched, the macroscopic radius is robust to the exact functional topology of the gradient to within 2.3%, allowing smooth parameterisations to densely map interior degeneracies. Applying this to the sub-Neptune regime, we generate a water-world degeneracy atlas, quantifying how the required envelope metallicity and dilution width trade off against assumed water-mass fractions to reproduce a fixed planetary radius. By decoupling structural profiling from time-dependent energy transport and convective mixing, fuzzycore maps static degeneracies at resolutions that complement, rather than replace, fully evolutionary Henyey treatments, and serves as a forward-model backend for linking atmospheric metallicity priors from JWST and Ariel to deep interior architectures.
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All authors Christian Wilkinson, Benjamin Charnay, Stéphane Mazevet, Baptiste Perrier, Anne-Marie Lagrange, Lukas Delaye

Astrophysics of Galaxies

Asymmetries in spatially unresolved 21-cm emission line profiles of isolated galaxies

Aditya Manuwal, H. M. Hernández-Toledo, J. A. Vázquez-Mata et al. (+4 more)

The origin of asymmetry in the ${\rm H}\,{\scriptsize{\rm I}}$ of galaxies remains an elusive problem, largely due to the difficulties associated with distinguishing between its secular and external contributors. We have compiled a sample of local isolated galaxies from the UNAM-KIAS and the latest AMIGA samples with near-complete beam coverage and robust estimates of ${\rm H}\,{\scriptsize{\rm I}}$ line asymmetry. The ${\rm H}\,{\scriptsize{\rm I}}$ measurements are based on single-dish spectra sourced from five surveys: ${\rm H}\,{\scriptsize{\rm I}}$-MaNGA, NIBLES, KLUN, ALFALFA, and xGASS. Our galaxies tend to be late-type, star-forming centrals at all masses but exhibit slightly lower specific star formation rates (sSFRs) and higher ${\rm H}\,{\scriptsize{\rm I}}$ contents than expected. The latter is likely driven by lower star formation efficiency, weaker outflows, and additionally, higher accretion rate of gas onto the galaxy at $M_\star\lesssim 10^{10.3}\,\mathrm{M}_\odot$. AMIGA, however, shows systematically higher ${\rm H}\,{\scriptsize{\rm I}}$ masses than UNAM-KIAS, which we attribute to higher local densities probed by the latter. Furthermore, both samples show bar frequencies similar to normal spirals, indicating that the gravitational instabilities leading to bars predominantly stem from internal processes, as suggested by recent works. Our galaxies show unexpectedly high merger fractions, possibly due to sampling bias and/or the inability of the classification method to distinguish between flybys and encounters leading to coalescence. We also find higher sSFRs for asymmetric galaxies below $M_\star\sim 10^{10.3}\,\mathrm{M}_\odot$, in agreement with the predictions for centrals from the ${\scriptsize{\rm EAGLE}}$ simulation. We release the ${\rm H}\,{\scriptsize{\rm I}}$ measurements along with ancillary galaxy and halo properties for public use.
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All authors Aditya Manuwal, H. M. Hernández-Toledo, J. A. Vázquez-Mata, Diana Serrato Barrajas, Aldo Rodríguez-Puebla, Vladimir Ávila-Reese, A. R. Calette

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Distribution of Chemically-Processed Dust in a Viscously Evolving Protoplanetary Disk: Application to Crystalline Silicates in Comets

Lily Ishizaki, Shogo Tachibana and Shigeru Ida

Dust particles undergo chemical reactions in protoplanetary disks according to their environments, producing compositional diversity in planetary materials. Extraterrestrial records of irreversible reactions, such as crystallization of amorphous silicates, provide particularly strong constraints on the early evolution of the protosolar disk. In this study, we investigate such irreversible reactions and the spatiotemporal distribution of reacted dust in a viscously evolving disk using Monte Carlo particle-tracking simulations. We extend a predictive formula for the temperature at which irreversible reactions proceed efficiently ("reaction line"), originally developed for steady accretion disks, to viscously expanding disks. The spatiotemporal distribution of reacted dust is governed by the relative locations of the reaction line and the stagnation line, which separates inward and outward advection in the disk. The reaction line moves inward as the disk cools, while the stagnation line moves outward owing to the radial viscous spreading of the disk. When the reaction line lies far inside the stagnation line, the reacted dust remains inside the reaction line. On the other hand, when the reaction line lies near or beyond the stagnation line, the reacted dust located near the stagnation line or between the two lines is transported outward efficiently. It results in a radially broad distribution of reacted dust throughout the disk, including the outer regions where the temperatures remain too low for reactions. We assessed the disk conditions consistent with the crystalline silicates observed in Solar System comets and found that the protosolar disk was likely compact, moderately massive, and not strongly turbulent.
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Astrophysics of Galaxies

Tidal Structures Around Edge-On Galaxies in Deep Imaging Surveys

Kyle R. Adams, Aleksandr Mosenkov, Jonah Seguine et al. (+3 more)

We present a statistical study of low-surface-brightness (LSB) tidal structures in two large samples of edge-on disk galaxies. Our primary sample comprises 5606 galaxies from the Edge-on Galaxies In SDSS (EGIS) catalog, analyzed using imaging from the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys, supplemented by Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (HSC-SSP) data and deep Apache Point Observatory (APO) follow-up observations for selected objects. To assess the robustness of our results, we also examine an independent sample of 14,237 galaxies from the Edge-on Galaxies in the Pan-STARRS survey (EGIPS) catalog. All images were processed using a homogeneous procedure optimized for the detection of faint diffuse emission. Tidal structures were identified through visual inspection and classified into established morphological categories, with careful treatment of imaging artifacts and galactic cirrus contamination. We detected tidal features in 324 EGIS galaxies and 690 EGIPS galaxies, corresponding to incidence rates of 5.8% and 4.8%, respectively. Restricting the analysis to completeness-limited subsamples yields consistent fractions of 6.4% and 6.2%. At a typical DESI $r$-band surface-brightness depth of 28.6 mag arcsec$^{-2}$ these values are consistent with previous observational studies but lower than predictions from many cosmological simulations. Recent high-resolution simulations, however, produce incidence rates much closer to those measured here, suggesting that numerical resolution, realistic modeling of observational and instrumental effects, and galaxy formation physics are all critical for accurately predicting the abundance of LSB tidal structures.
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All authors Kyle R. Adams, Aleksandr Mosenkov, Jonah Seguine, Lydia Stacey, Thea Spigarelli, Jonah George

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

Effective temperatures estimation of low-mass stars and identification of T Tauri stars in LAMOST DR10 using machine learning

C. D. Millan-Valderrama, J. Hernandez, B. Sabogal et al. (+1 more)

We present effective temperature (Teff) estimates of low-mass stars and T Tauri stars (TTS) candidate detections derived from automated spectroscopic measurements and low-complexity machine-learning models applied to the LAMOST DR10 V2 survey. Equivalent widths of key diagnostic spectral features, including the atomic lines Halpha, LiI 6708 AA and TiO/VO molecular bands, are automatically measured for all stars within 1 kpc observed by LAMOST. Using nine spectral features as inputs, we train a Gradient Boosting Machine tree-based regression model, calibrated with synthetic spectra from the PHOENIX library, to predict Teff over the range 2,500 - 5,100 K. We apply a logistic regression model to the principal components derived from the measured spectral features, enabling efficient identification of TTS candidates. Both models exhibit strong performance in validation tests. Finally, a Monte Carlo framework is employed to propagate input uncertainties and estimate Teff and its associated uncertainties for low-mass stars from 1,733,802 spectra and to identify 2,534 candidate TTS from 3,121 spectra.
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All authors C. D. Millan-Valderrama, J. Hernandez, B. Sabogal, J. Muñoz

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

A Four-Dimensional Gaussian Random Field Generator for Modeling Spatiotemporal Variability in Astrophysical Sources

Alejandro Cárdenas-Avendaño, Diego Rubiera-Garcia and Frederic H. Vincent

Semi-analytic models of black-hole movies require both an emitting flow prescription and a time-dependent source variability. Existing prescriptions are often limited to either equatorial emission or time-independent sources. In this work we present a unified model for these two ingredients. First, we prescribe an off-equatorial, nongeodesic Kerr fluid rotation law by lifting an equatorial specific-angular-momentum profile to cylindrical surfaces, setting the polar component of the four-velocity to zero, normalizing the flow with the full Kerr metric at the spacetime point, and retaining the option to recover a geodesic-like plunging prescription when needed. Second, we use this velocity as the disk advection field in a four-dimensional inhomogeneous, anisotropic Matérn-like Gaussian random field. We provide a parametrized model for a torus-like disk and a central jet through a single composite correlation tensor. The resulting effective model is an implementation-ready prescription for time-dependent thick-disk and disk-jet emission for relativistic studies.
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Friday 17 July

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Cross-listed from physics.space-ph

Electron Temperature Gradients Regulate the Duration of Two-Stage Plasmasphere Refilling

Jaden Fitzpatrick, Kausik Chatterjee, Naomi Maruyama et al. (+5 more)

After geomagnetic storms erode the plasmasphere, cold ionospheric plasma flows along magnetic field lines to refill the depleted flux tubes. Previous studies have suggested that refilling undergoes two stages characterized by their distinct refilling rates; however, not all observations or models exhibit this feature, and a recent analysis indicates that only a subset of refilling events display two clear stages. In this study, we show that the magnitude of the field-aligned electron temperature gradient and initial/boundary temperature regulate the durations of both the early and late stages. Performing multivariate regressions from the results of simulating early and late-time refilling demonstrated that the length of each stage uniquely depends on the temperature gradient and initial/boundary temperature. These results suggest that variations in the temperature profile may explain why some refilling events appear single-staged in observations.
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All authors Jaden Fitzpatrick, Kausik Chatterjee, Naomi Maruyama, Xiangning Chu, Jacob Bortnik, Jerry Goldstein, Lauren Blum, Tyler Bishop

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Gas Motions in Hydra-A: XRISM Constraints on ICM Kinematics Across Jet-Inflated Cavities

Anwesh Majumder, B.R. McNamara, P.E.J. Nulsen et al. (+8 more)

We report on two deep XRISM observations of the central and northern regions of Hydra-A's X-ray atmosphere, covering the bubbles inflated by jets from the central galaxy's active galactic nucleus. We use spatial-spectral mixing, combining Chandra's high spatial resolution with XRISM's high spectral resolution, to investigate atmospheric kinematics. The velocity dispersion in the northern region, $\sigma_v = 140^{+30}_{-20}$ km s$^{-1}$, is comparable to that in the central region ($\sigma_v = 162 \pm 10$ km s$^{-1}$). We show that motion of the large-scale cocoon shock front could be responsible for the large dispersion toward the north. The dispersion in the northeast quarter of the central pointing, $\sigma_v = 260 \pm 50$ km s$^{-1}$, is among the highest measured. This region contains an X-ray-bright feature previously identified as metal-rich, possibly gas uplifted in the wake of previous-generation cavities. Dispersions in all other quarter regions are low ($\sigma_v \leq 180$ km s$^{-1}$) and consistent with previous XRISM results from other objects. The kinetic energy at the center is comparable to the enthalpies of the cavities, while in the north it is roughly an order of magnitude smaller. The jet thus drives gas motion efficiently at smaller scales ($r < 95$ kpc) and inefficiently at larger scales ($95-317$ kpc toward the north along the jet). A bulk flow toward our line of sight of $-100 \pm 30$ km s$^{-1}$ in the southwest quarter of the central pointing, measured with respect to the central galaxy, is also observed, possibly due to sloshing. No significant bulk motion was detected in any other region.
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All authors Anwesh Majumder, B.R. McNamara, P.E.J. Nulsen, H. Russell, T. Rose, T. Heckman, A. Simionescu, A. Fabian, M.W. Wise, N. Werner, M. McDonald

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Planet-wide, Concentric Density Waves in Venus's Upper Atmosphere Revealed through Polarimetry?

Gourav Mahapatra, Michiel Rodenhuis, Frans Snik et al. (+3 more)

We report observations of faint ($10^{-6}$), concentric, planet-wide rings in the polarized flux of sunlight that is reflected by Venus, obtained during a serendipitous, 36-minute run in 2010, with the highly sensitive Extreme Polarimeter (ExPo) on the William Herschel Telescope. The rings appear to be centered slightly downwind of the sub-solar point, are visible in different filters across the visible, and are not obvious in the simultaneous total flux observations. ExPo's dual-beam exchange and double-differencing design strongly suppresses first-order instrumental polarization, and we could not identify an instrumental cause of the observed pattern. Because ExPo was dismantled before the rings were identified in the data, this is the only set of observations of these rings. We are therefore careful in claiming the detection of a new atmospheric phenomenon on Venus. However, numerical radiative transfer simulations show that planet-wide rings in polarization can arise due to density variations of 5 to 10% in the gas above the clouds, consistent with a gravity wave. Our simulations also show that such density variations would not show up in total flux observations. By presenting our observations and numerical simulations, we hope to motivate new polarimetric observations of Venus that could confirm or refute the presence of such planet-wide waves.
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All authors Gourav Mahapatra, Michiel Rodenhuis, Frans Snik, Daphne M. Stam, Loïc Rossi, Christoph Keller

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics · Cross-listed from physics.ed-ph

A First Africa Wide Amateur Radio Contact Experiment with the International Space Station

Domingos Barbosa, Miracle Chibuzor Marcel, Declan Kirrane et al. (+7 more)

The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program is recognized by its great Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) impact: it brings space science to education and outreach initiatives by enabling direct contact with astronauts in orbit and other space savvy professionals. Strategic partnerships between ARISS and digital platforms for citizen science act as a powerful real-world STEM motivator and can overcome logistical barriers, demonstrating a scalable model for inclusive outreach, sparking curiosity in space exploration and STEM careers among underrepresented communities. As a case study, this article focus on the impact of an historic milestone: on April 18$^{th}$ 2025 the Pan-African Citizen Science e-Laboratory (PACS e-Lab) orchestrated the first Africa-wide ARISS contact experiment and connected 300 students, educators, and STEM enthusiasts from 38 African nations and beyond with NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers aboard the ISS Expedition 72. Within the African context, this initiative not only inspired a new generation of African scientists, but it also set a precedent for wider collaboration on space science education across the continent. Strategic partnership between ARISS and PACs e-LAB promotes capacity building through international and regional cooperation on space science and adds a new "New Space" narrative that emphasizes the interconnectedness of space with our daily lives and the possibility that everyone has to be a part of it.
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All authors Domingos Barbosa, Miracle Chibuzor Marcel, Declan Kirrane, Miguel Avillez, Amare Abebe Gidelew, Carla Sharpe Mitchell, Vidvuds Beldavs, Claudio Ariotti, Stefan Dombrowski, Peter Kofler

Astrophysics of Galaxies

Fragmentation of massive clumps: constant mass fraction and growing mass inequality of cores

Zu-Jia Lu and Qi-Tian Chen

The fragmentation of massive molecular clumps into dense cores sets the initial conditions for stellar clusters, yet how core mass distributions evolve remains unclear. Using the ALMAGAL survey (1,013 clumps and 6,348 cores), we analyze the Gini coefficient of core mass distributions for the 514 clumps containing at least four cores ($N_{\rm frag} \ge 4$), which host 5,728 cores in total. We find that the most massive core consistently accounts for $\sim 38\%$ of the total core mass ($f_{\rm core,max} \approx 0.38$), with no systematic trend with the total mass of the core per clump $M_{\rm core,tot}$. The Gini coefficient increases with total core mass ($M_{\rm core,tot}$, $r=0.55$) and evolutionary stage ($L/M$, $r=0.38$). Clumps with $L/M > 6.0$ have significantly higher Gini values (median $0.62$) than those with $L/M \le 6.0$ (median $0.49$; $p = 4.23\times10^{-15}$). These results demonstrate that while the mass fraction of the most massive core is constant, overall mass inequality among cores grows systematically as clumps evolve.
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Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

The Polana-Eulalia Complex with JWST NIRSpec: Connections to Bennu, Ryugu, and Outer Solar System Bodies

Lucas McClure, Joshua Emery, Driss Takir et al. (+8 more)

Carbon rich [C complex] asteroids provide insight into the early Solar System, and families of C complex asteroids serve as robust samples for learning about the internal structure of planetesimals and the materials of the protoplanetary disk. This work investigates the compositions of asteroids within the Polana Eulalia Complex [PEC] through analyses of JWST NIRSpec. Obtained as part of the Spectral Analysis of Main Belt Asteroids in the 3 um Region [SAMBA3] project. NIRSpec observations were conducted for the namesake asteroid of the Eulalia family, [495] Eulalia, as well as three members from the Polana family: [2441] Hibbs, [6712] Hornstein, and [6769] Brokoff. Analyses of the 2.7 um region demonstrate that PEC asteroids exhibit absorptions associated with Mg rich phyllosilicates, in turn underscoring high, though incomplete, degrees of aqueous alteration in the past for both PEC families. Although consistent in regard to composition, [142] Polana and [495] Eulalia show deeper 2.7 um bands than the Polana family asteroids, suggesting slight differences in the degrees of aqueous alteration between large and small PEC asteroids. Minor absorptions from 3.0 to 4.0 um indicate that [495] Eulalia's surface may contain more carbonates than [142] Polana, which potentially highlights slight differences between each family's formation and evolution. Additionally, PEC asteroids also show spectral consistency with Bennu and Ryugu, reinforcing their shared origin in the PEC. Minor absorptions in PEC asteroid spectra also connect to small bodies within and beyond the Main Belt, providing further evidence of outer Solar System formation for the PEC parent bodies.
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All authors Lucas McClure, Joshua Emery, Driss Takir, Julia de Leon, Mario de Pra, Brittany Harvison, Bryan Holler, Javier Licandro, Tania Le Pivert-Jolivet, Joseph Masiero, Noemi Pinilla-Alonso

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics

Origin of the Sloshing Spiral in the Abell 2107 Galaxy Cluster

Muhammed K{\i}yami Erdim

We present a detailed thermodynamic analysis of a sloshing spiral discovered in the intracluster medium (ICM) of the galaxy cluster Abell 2107, based on deep Chandra X-ray Observatory observations. Spectral analysis reveals that the spiral arm is significantly cooler and exhibits lower entropy and higher metallicity compared to the surrounding ICM, consistent with an origin in the cool, dense cluster core. We detect three cold fronts at the edges of the spiral, roughly aligned along an east-west axis. This alignment is consistent with predictions from numerical simulations of off-axis merger events. Subregion analysis of the spiral shows that the coldest and lowest-entropy gas is concentrated in the central part of the arm, while the side regions show evidence of mixing and interaction with the ambient medium. Among the examined thermodynamic quantities, entropy provides the most robust contrast between the sloshing gas and its surroundings. Notably, no optical or X-ray counterpart to a potential perturber is detected, suggesting that the responsible perturber may currently be below the detection limit or otherwise difficult to identify, while a dark matter-dominated or dark matter-only subhalo remains one possible scenario. Our findings provide new insights into the dynamical history of A2107 and demonstrate the importance of deep X-ray exposures for revealing subtle ICM structures in apparently relaxed clusters.
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Astrophysics of Galaxies

The size of the HI disk across different environments: isolated, compact groups, clusters, and pairs

R. Ianjamasimanana, L. Verdes-Montenegro, K. M. Hess et al. (+8 more)

The 21 cm line of atomic hydrogen (HI) is a sensitive tracer of the outer disk of galaxies, where environmental signatures are most apparent. The relative extent of HI disks compared to optical disks ($D_{\rm HI}$ vs $D_{25}$) is thought to provide a quantitative measure of such imprint, yet systematic comparisons between extreme environments remain scarce. We quantify the relative extent of HI disks in Hickson Compact Groups (HCGs) and in the Analysis of the interstellar Medium in Isolated GAlaxies (AMIGA) sample, using AMIGA as a control sample that captures secular evolution with minimal external influence. We calculate HI diameters by directly fitting an ellipse to the $1\,M_{\odot}\,{\rm pc}^{-2}$ iso-density contour. Because $D_{\rm HI}$ and $D_{25}$ are nonlinearly related, we avoid the traditional $D_{\rm HI}/D_{25}$ ratio, which carries a size-dependent bias, and instead quantify truncation as the residual from the isolated-galaxy $D_{\rm HI}$-$D_{25}$ baseline, which we establish for AMIGA via Bayesian analysis. The full analysis is provided as a reproducible Python package and Snakemake workflow. HCG galaxies lie systematically below the isolated-galaxy baseline in the $D_{\rm HI}$-$D_{25}$ plane. When members with HI nondetections are included as upper limits, HCGs have HI disks at least ~71% smaller than expected for isolated galaxies of the same optical diameter. The truncation increases monotonically along the HCG evolutionary sequence, from Phase 1 to Phase 3. A comparison with literature samples places HCGs at the most-truncated end, statistically indistinguishable from the Virgo cluster sample (VIVA). Compared to AMIGA, HI disks are typically smaller relative to the optical disk in loose groups, compact groups, and cluster infall/field environments, and are most strongly truncated in HCGs and in the Virgo cluster sample.
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All authors R. Ianjamasimanana, L. Verdes-Montenegro, K. M. Hess, P. Kamphuis, M. G. Jones, J. Garrido, S. H. A. Rajohnson, A. Sorgho, B. Namumba, S. Sánchez-Expósito, M. Korsaga

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

Biases in Tests of General Relativity from Microlensed Gravitational-Wave Signals

Anirban Kopty, Apratim Ganguly, N. V. Krishnendu et al. (+1 more)

Gravitational-wave (GW) observations of compact binary mergers enable precision tests of general relativity (GR) in the strong-field regime, but their reliability depends on accurate waveform modeling. Unmodeled physical effects can induce systematic biases that mimic deviations from GR. Here we study the impact of GW microlensing on standard LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA tests of GR using GW150914-like simulated signals lensed by isolated point-mass objects with masses in the range $10-10^{5}M_\odot$. We perform Bayesian parameter estimation with unlensed waveform templates and quantify biases in parameterized tests, modified dispersion relation tests, the inspiral-merger-ringdown consistency test (IMRCT) and the meta-IMRCT framework. To compare these tests with a common discriminator, we introduce a unified GR-deviation significance statistic based on the GR quantile, applicable to both one- and multi-dimensional deviation parameters. We find that microlensing-induced waveform distortions can produce significant false deviations from GR, reaching $\sim4\sigma$ in one-dimensional tests and $\sim4.5\sigma$ in two-dimensional consistency tests, despite the injected signals being fully GR-compatible. These false deviations arise mainly in the wave-optics regime, where diffraction induces frequency-dependent amplitude and phase modulations, while signals in the long-wavelength and geometric-optics regimes remain largely consistent with GR. We also find that the significance of these apparent deviations does not correlate strongly with microlensing detectability as measured by Bayes factors, showing that GR tests probe waveform projections not captured by global lensing diagnostics. Our results establish wave-optics gravitational lensing as an important astrophysical systematic for present and future precision tests of GR and highlight the need to model propagation effects in next-generation GW analyses.
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All authors Anirban Kopty, Apratim Ganguly, N. V. Krishnendu, Anuj Mishra

Astrophysics of Galaxies

VAR-PZnn: A machine-learning framework for AGN photometric redshifts using color and variability-based features

S. Satheesh-Sheeba, P. Sánchez-Sáez, R. J. Assef et al. (+39 more)

Photometric redshift estimation for active galactic nuclei (AGNs) remains a fundamental challenge for current and upcoming large-scale photometric surveys. Traditional spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting suffers from color-redshift degeneracies, particularly for AGNs whose power-law continua hide the strong spectral features required to anchor redshift estimates. While AGN variability provides additional constraining power, existing frameworks require multi-band light curves that are not always available. This work presents VAR-PZnn, a fully connected mixture density network that integrates 26 variability features extracted from ZTF g-band light curves with optical photometry from Pan-STARRS1, mid-infrared (MIR) photometry from CatWISE, and, for a subsample, NIR photometry from UKIDSS. The model is trained and tested on 72,728 spectroscopically confirmed AGNs/QSOs spanning 0.01 < z < 4.5 and g-band magnitudes from 17 to 21.5. For the main sample, we achieve \sigma_{NMAD} = 0.058 and an outlier fraction of \eta = 8.2%, which reduces to 5.4% when the 10% of sources with the highest predicted uncertainty are excluded. An ablation study demonstrates that MIR photometry provides the dominant constraint for photo-z accuracy, while variability features serve as a secondary refiner. Using UKIDSS NIR data as a proxy for future synergies between LSST and space-based missions like Euclid and Roman, we obtain \eta = 13.3% without MIR data and \eta = 4.6% when MIR is available. We benchmark against Low-Resolution Templates (LRT) SED fitting (\eta = 28.7%) and the VAR-PZ framework; applying single-band VAR-PZ priors worsens LRT performance to \eta = 39.4% due to single-band light-curve degeneracies, confirmed via simulations (\eta = 27.6% to 28.1%). This framework provides a scalable approach for the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST).
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All authors S. Satheesh-Sheeba, P. Sánchez-Sáez, R. J. Assef, T. Anguita, R. Shirley, M. Salvato, P. Arévalo, T T. Ananna, F. E. Bauer, C. G. Bornancini, W.N. Brandt, D. De Cicco, M. Espinoza-Ortiz, J. Fagin, M. Fatović, A. W. Graham, H. Guo, L. Hernandez-García, D. Ilić, A. B. Kovačević, P. Lira, A. I. Malz, M. Marculewicz, D. Marsango, C. Mazzucchelli, T. Mkrtchyan, S. Panda, A. Peca, V. Petrecca, B. Rani, C. Ricci, G. T. Richards, R. A. Riffel, A. Rojas-Lilayú, E. Saremi, D. P. Schneider, B. Sotomayor, M. J. Temple, A. Viitanen, I. Yoon, Z. Yu, F. Zou

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Simultaneous radio, optical and X-ray monitoring of hard X-ray selected AGN: a variability study

L. Hernández-García, F. Panessa, D. Williams-Baldwin et al. (+2 more)

AGN emission is intrinsically variable across the electromagnetic spectrum. Mapping the coupling between the accretion disk, the X-ray corona, and ejection flows is key to understanding the energy flow within the central engine. We characterize the multi-wavelength variability of 14 hard X-ray selected AGN from the INTEGRAL/IBIS catalog in the radio, optical, and X-ray bands, to determine the coupling between these frequencies and how variability relates to the physical properties of the central engine, with emphasis on the radio band. We analyzed multi-epoch observations from AMI-LA at 15 GHz, ZTF in the g and r bands, and Swift/XRT over 2018–2020. Variability was quantified using the normalized excess variance, the fractional variability amplitude, and the Mexican Hat filter at 70- and 200-day timescales. We also characterized the radio-loudness of the sample and evaluated the impact of variability on the Fundamental Plane of black hole activity by comparing time-averaged with strictly simultaneous data. Significant variability is detected in 86% of the sample, with a clear amplitude stratification: the fractional rms amplitude is highest in X-rays, with a median of 30% (11-67%), followed by the optical g and r bands at 19% (2-33%) and 8.5% (0.2-24%), and the radio band at 10% (4-23%). The Mexican Hat analysis reveals a red-noise power spectrum dominated by long-term fluctuations. The sample follows the expected Fundamental Plane scaling; although individual sources shift within the relation due to stochastic fluctuations, this dispersion accounts for only ~3% of the total scatter. Our findings support a core-dominated origin for the 15 GHz emission, likely a compact jet base or a magnetized corona, while differences in variability patterns, radio-loudness, and Fundamental Plane location point toward distinct accretion/ejection processes and degrees of corona-jet coupling.
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All authors L. Hernández-García, F. Panessa, D. Williams-Baldwin, P. Arévalo, A. M. Muñoz Arancibia

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

Dynamical friction in stratified stellar envelopes

Damien Gagnier

Dynamical friction prescriptions used for common-envelope and planetary engulfment inspirals often assume a homogeneous medium and/or rectilinear perturber motion. A gravitating object embedded in a giant-star envelope instead excites an orbit-scale wake while moving on a curved orbit through a finite, radially stratified medium. We formulate the linear barotropic acoustic response of a weak point perturber on a circular orbit in a hydrostatic, spherically stratified gaseous medium. We apply the formulation to single perturbers in power-law density profiles and giant-star envelope models, and to double perturbers in power-law density backgrounds. We find that stratification affects dynamical friction through the global structure of the wake. The radial component is set by the low-order, orbit-scale wake and can strongly differ in amplitude and sign from the homogeneous-medium result. The azimuthal component is also modified by stratification, but in the supersonic regime it retains the Coulomb-logarithmic sensitivity of the homogeneous problem. In double-perturber systems, the companion wake can substantially change the radial force and reduce the azimuthal drag on a given component, but, unlike the perturber's own wake, it has no local Coulomb-logarithmic contribution. For the adopted giant-star envelope profiles, the azimuthal drag exerted by the stratified wake gives shorter inspiral times than uniform-medium prescriptions evaluated with the same local background quantities. The formulation provides a flexible tool for computing embedded-perturber wakes in prescribed radial stratifications and is a first step toward computationally efficient, self-consistent models of common-envelope and planetary-engulfment inspirals.
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High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Detectability of Gravitational-wave counterparts of EP-FXTs observed during the O4b LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Observing Run

Ansh Chopra, Samuele Ronchini, Biswajit Banerjee et al. (+5 more)

Fast X-ray transients (FXTs) detected by the Einstein Probe mission have emerged as a rapidly growing class of extragalactic transients, whose physical origin remains uncertain. Compact binary coalescence (CBC) systems have been proposed as one possible progenitor for at least a subset of these events, making FXTs promising targets for multi-messenger studies with gravitational-wave (GW) observations. This work presents the first systematic investigation of GW counterparts to FXTs observed by Einstein Probe and assesses the detectability of associated CBC. We focus on FXTs detected during the second half of the fourth observing run (O4b) of the Advanced LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA detector network by searching for temporal coincidences with GW candidates from the fifth Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog (GWTC-5). We analyze a sample of 47 FXTs, including 11 with measured redshifts, and assess the significance of the association between FXTs and GW candidates using a ranking statistic. We find no significant GW counterpart associated with any FXT in our sample. In the absence of a detection, we place 90% exclusion-distance constraints under the assumptions of binary neutron star and neutron star-black hole progenitor scenarios. For observations with the full LIGO and Virgo detector network, the typical median exclusion distances are $\sim$178 Mpc and $\sim$349 Mpc, respectively. These constraints disfavor a nearby compact-binary merger origin. Longer periods of joint observations by the LVK and Einstein Probe, combined with improved GW detector sensitivity, will enhance the prospects for identifying genuine GW-FXT associations and place tighter constraints on the progenitor scenarios of these events.
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All authors Ansh Chopra, Samuele Ronchini, Biswajit Banerjee, Marica Branchesi, Stefano Ascenzi, Maria Edvige Ravasio, Peter Jonker, Andrew Levan

Astrophysics of Galaxies

LoVoCCS. III. Third Generation Pipeline & The Hercules Supercluster

Anthony M. Englert, Shenming Fu, Ian Dell'Antonio et al. (+29 more)

The Local Volume Complete Cluster Survey (LoVoCCS) is a volume-complete survey of over one-hundred nearby ($0.03 < z < 0.12$), X-ray luminous ($L_{500} > 10^{44} \text{ erg s}^{-1}$) galaxy clusters in the southern sky. Observations for the survey concluded in December 2025, reaching Vera C. Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) Year 1-2 depth in each field and providing observations with $\lesssim 1"$ seeing for weak lensing science. In this paper, we present the latest pipeline for reducing observations using the third-generation of the LSST Science Pipelines. We use recent observations of the Hercules Supercluster to validate the pipeline's data-products and conduct an extensive multi-plane weak-lensing analysis of a $\sim 16 \text{ deg}^2$ complex covering Abell 2147, 2151, 2152, and several additional structures. We confirm that the dynamical mass of the complex is biased due to the dynamical state of Abell 2147, which is consistent with being $\sim 0.2-0.4 \text{ Gyr}$ out-of periapsis, and estimate that the total mass of the supercluster is $8.9^{+1.7}_{-1.4} \times 10^{14}~M_{\odot}$.
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All authors Anthony M. Englert, Shenming Fu, Ian Dell'Antonio, Mohamed H. Abdullah, Shrouk Abdulshafy, Eddie Aljamal, William K. Black, Nicole Chidester, Doug Clowe, M. C. Cooper, Megan Donahue, Zacharias Escalante, August Evrard, Eric Habjan, Soren Helhoski, Binyang Liu, Jacqueline McCleary, Hironao Miyatake, Mireia Montes, Priyamvada Natarajan, Jessica Nelson, Michelle Ntampaka, Elena Pierpaoli, Marc Postman, Rahul Shinde, Jubee Sohn, Fuyuko Tanaka, David Turner, Keiichi Umetsu, Yousuke Utsumi, Ray Wang, Gillian Wilson

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Case Study of a Super-eccentric Warm Jupiter Migrating via Equilibrium and Dynamical Tides

Donald Liveoak, Sarah Millholland and Michelle Vick

A leading theory for hot Jupiter formation is high-eccentricity migration, in which planets are born at large separations and excited to near-unity eccentricities, creating extreme tidal dissipation that shrinks and circularizes their orbits. The most direct evidence for this scenario is the detection of highly eccentric planets caught in the act of migrating. Although such planets are rare, the recent discovery of TIC 241249530 b - a super-eccentric ($e = 0.94$) and retrograde hot Jupiter progenitor - presents an ideal case study to explore high-eccentricity migration and the accompanying tidal physics. In this paper, we examine the migration history of TIC 241249530 b and test two different models of tidal dissipation: equilibrium tides and chaotic dynamical tides. We show that TIC 241249530 b's properties can be explained by high-eccentricity migration triggered by von Zeipel-Lidov-Kozai oscillations induced by the observed distant binary star in the system, but only if the dominant tidal dissipation takes the form of equilibrium tides. Chaotic dynamical tides fail to explain the system because they require the planet to have migrated substantially closer to its star.
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