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Tuesday 28 July

Astrophysics of Galaxies

The Twentieth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First All-Sky BOSS Spectra, eROSITA-SDSS-V Mapper Coordinated Observations, and a Preview of the Local Volume Mapper

SDSS Collaboration, Mojgan Aghakhanloo, David Aguilar et al. (+272 more)

This paper presents the twentieth data release (DR20) from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the third data release of its fifth generation (SDSS-V). SDSS-V is a panoptic spectroscopy survey that is mapping the stars, gas, and galaxies through three scientific programs: the Milky Way Mapper (MWM), the Local Volume Mapper (LVM), and the Black Hole Mapper (BHM). DR20 presents the first optical (BOSS) SDSS-V spectra from southern hemisphere for the MWM and BHM surveys; new optical MWM and BHM data from the northern hemisphere are also available, for a total over 3 million spectra of 1.5 million stars and half a million galaxies and quasars, with galactic and extragalactic x-ray targets coordinate with eROSITA DR2. DR20 includes integral field spectroscopy maps from LVM of six targets and 169 tiles, spanning Galactic HII regions, planetary nebulae, and nearby galaxies. Additionally, eighteen value added catalogs are also released with DR20, based on SDSS-V MWM and BHM data, and we present a new LVM visualization tool including an RGB HiPS map as a value added product.
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All authors SDSS Collaboration, Mojgan Aghakhanloo, David Aguilar, James Aird, Andrés Almeida, Bella Abigail Sanabria Alonso, Hillary Diane Andales, Scott F. Anderson, Stefan Arseneau, Consuelo González Ávila, Shir Aviram, Catarina Aydar, Carles Badenes, Carolina Andonie, Jorge K. Barrera-Ballesteros, Franz E. Bauer, Chad Bender, Michelle A. Berg, F. Besser, Binod Bhattarai, Christian Moni Bidin, Jonathan C. Bird, Dmitry Bizyaev, Guillermo A. Blanc, Alexandra Bonkoski, Jo Bovy, Andrea Bracamonte, W. N. Brandt, Jaco Brink, Joel R. Brownstein, Esra Bulbul, Joseph N. Burchett, Robert E. Butler, Leticia Carigi, Joleen K. Carlberg, Andrew R. Casey, Lesly Castañeda-Carlos, Fernanda Milla Castro, Priyanka Chakraborty, Julio Chanamé, Vedant Chandra, Brian Cherinka, Igor Chilingarian, Arlin Cortes, Maren Cosens, Irene Cruz-Gonzalez, Elena D'Onghia, Collin Dabbieri, Xinyu Dai, Jeremy Darling, James W. Davidson Jr., Megan C. Davis, Nathan De Lee, Niall Deacon, José Eduardo Méndez Delgado, Sebastian Demasi, Mariia Demianenko, Delvin Demke, Francesco Di Mille, Bruno Dias, Ariana Didiano, John Donor, Ethan Driscoll, Niv Drory, Liam Dubay, Moníca A Villa Durango, Tom Dwelly, Oleg Egorov, Evgeniya Egorova, Kareem El-Badry, Michael Eracleous, Xiaohui Fan, Liliana Flores, Peter Frinchaboy, Nicola Pietro Gentile Fusillo, Luis Daniel Serrano Félix, Boris T. Gänsicke, Emma Galligan, Dante Garcia, Pablo García, Junqiang Ge, Joseph Gelfand, Simon C. O. Glover, Juan Daniel Gonzalez Ruiz, Katie Grabowski, Eva K. Grebel, Paul J. Green, Catherine Grier, Emily J. Griffith, Paloma Guetzoyan, Pramod Gupta, Patrick B. Hall, Audrey Hauck, Keith Hawkins, Saskia Hekker, T. M. Herbst, J. J. Hermes, J. Hernández, Lorena Hernández-García, Thomas Hilder, Pranavi Hiremath, David W Hogg, Jon Holtzman, Keith Horne, Danny Horta, Yang Huang, Maximilian Häberle, Hector Javier Ibarra-Medel, Julie Imig, Alex Ji, Ó. Jiménez-Arranz, Paula Jofre, James W. Johnson, Jennifer Johnson, Evelyn J. Johnston, Patricio Jones, Amy M. Jones, Mary Kaldor, Amir Kalechman, Ivan Katkov, Sergey Khoperskov, Dong-Woo Kim, Jinyoung Serena Kim, Ralf Klessen, Matthias Kluge, Anton M. Koekemoer, Juna A. Kollmeier, Marina Kounkel, Kathryn Kreckel, Dhanesh Krishnarao, Mirko Krumpe, Nimisha Kumari, Thomas Kupfer, Ivan Lacerna, Sean D. Lam, Sorya Lambert, Chervin Laporte, Sebastien Lepine, Jiadong Li, Bowen Li, Jianhui Lian, Guilherme Limberg, Xin Liu, Sarah Loebman, Dan Long, Knox Long, Yuxi Lu, Madeline Lucey, Alejandra Z. Lugo-Aranda, Steven Raymond Majewski, Dan Maoz, M. L. Martínez-Aldama, Rachel Lee McClure, Madeleine McKenzie, Kevin McKinnon, Timothy McQuaid, Ilija Medan, Alfredo J. Mejía-Narváez, Andrea Merloni, Szabolcs Mészáros, Dante Minniti, Takamitsu Miyaji, Stephanie Monty, Leslie M. Morales, Sean Morrison, Adam Moss, Johanna Müller-Horn, Natalie R. Myers, C. Alenka Negrete, Shannon Neilson, Melissa Ness, David L. Nidever, Christian Nitschelm, Mohammed Iddrisu Nlowie, Daniel Oravetz, Audrey Oravetz, Jonah M. Otto, Gautham Adamane Pallathadka, Kaike Pan, Facundo Pérez Paolino, Ziming Peng, Leah Peterson, Marc Pinsonneault, Anastasiia Plotnikova, Moire K. M. Prescott, Adrian M. Price-Whelan, Nadiia Pulatova, M. Jordan Raddick, Amy L. Rankine, Paola Rodríguez Hidalgo, M. Katy Rodriguez Wimberly, A. Roman-Lopes, Carlos G. Román-Zúñiga, Daniela Fernández Rosso, William Roster, Serat Mahmud Saad, Mara Salvato, Sebastián F. Sánchez, Andreas A. C. Sander, Rodrigo Sandoval-Orozco, Ravi Sankrit, Saroon Sasi, Natascha Sattler, Andrew K. Saydjari, Maryum Sayeed, Conor Sayres, Fabian Scheuermann, Kevin C. Schlaufman, Donald P. Schneider, Axel Schwope, Conner Scoresby, Lucas M. Seaton, Javier Serna, Kayvon Sharifi, Allyson Sheffield, Paula Silva, Amrita Singh, Amaya Sinha, Tawny Sit, Peter J. Smith, Ying-Yi Song, Diogo Souto, Keivan Stassun, Matthias Steinmetz, Zachary Stone, Alexander Stone-Martinez, Guy S. Stringfellow, Amelia Stutz, José Sánchez-Gallego, Manuchehr Taghizadeh-Popp, Jonathan C. Tan, Emma Tasso, Jamie Tayar, Aniruddha R. Thakar, Pierre Thibodeaux, Yuan-Sen Ting, Andrew Tkachenko, Gagik Tovmasian, Benny Trakhtenbrot, José G. Fernández-Trincado, Nicholas Troup, Jonathan R. Trump, Sarah Tuttle, Natalie Ulloa, Ana Sofía Uzsoy, Ricardo López Valdivia, Greique A. Valk, Roeland P. van der Marel, Luciano Vargas-Herrera, Pablo Vera, Valentina Bonilla Villalobos, Sandro Villanova, Jaime I. Villaseñor, Zach Way, Anne-Marie Weijmans, John C. Wilson, Aida Wofford, Tony Wong, Qiaoya Wu, Dominika Wylezalek, Xiang-Xiang Xue, Renbin Yan, Qian Yang, Nadia Zakamska, Abner Zapata, Eleonora Zari, Gail Zasowski, Grisha Zeltyn, Guangquan Zeng, Jichen Zhang, Jingkun Zhao, Zezhou Zhu, Igor Zinchenko, Catherine Zucker, Rodolfo de J. Zermeño

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

The Stellar Winds Atlas II: Black Hole Formation at Solar Metallicity

Amedeo Romagnolo, Floor S. Broekgaarden, Alex C. Gormaz-Matamala et al. (+7 more)

Stellar winds are a primary source of uncertainty in predicting the masses of black holes (BHs) from massive stars. At solar metallicity, theoretical models lead to widely divergent results due to differing wind prescriptions. A key obstacle remains the lack of systematic investigations across a common parameter space. To address this, we construct a “Wind Atlas” using detailed 1D MESA stellar evolution models and population synthesis techniques to estimate the Galactic population of solar metallicity BH progenitors. We systematically investigate 14 distinct wind models, ranging from the most traditional and widespread prescriptions to the most recent. By evaluating stellar evolution across this extensive grid, we show that the final BH mass is dictated by a fundamental bifurcation: whether a star collapses as a cool supergiant or is first stripped of its envelope to become a Wolf-Rayet (WR) star. If a star enters the WR stage, its strong thick winds dominate, making the final mass sensitive to the WR wind prescription while largely erasing the memory of its prior mass-loss history. Conversely, stars that face core collapse as supergiants form significantly more massive BHs, producing a mass peak around an initial mass of 40 $M_\odot$. Rather than simply reproducing these divergent outcomes, our comprehensive evaluation demonstrates that this bifurcation is universally controlled by the highly uncertain mass loss during the cool supergiant phase. This framework strongly constrains the problem of BH mass prediction by identifying two key bottlenecks for future studies: envelope stripping efficiency and WR mass-loss rates. Our atlas provides a clear baseline for interpreting current theoretical discrepancies and testing wind models against observational constraints, such as the Galactic WR/OB population ratio.
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All authors Amedeo Romagnolo, Floor S. Broekgaarden, Alex C. Gormaz-Matamala, Lucas M. de Sá, Daniel Pauli, Avishai Gilkis, Lumen Boco, Michela Mapelli, Konstantinos Antoniadis, Laya Binu

Quantum Physics

Lindbladian quantization of mechanical systems with nonholonomic constraints

Daniel Schubring and Sriram Ganeshan

Nonholonomic mechanics describes systems subject to non-integrable velocity constraints, such as rolling bodies and skating motion. These systems generally lack a canonical Hamiltonian formulation, obstructing standard quantization methods. Here we quantize nonholonomic systems as Markovian open quantum systems, with the nonholonomic constraint appearing in a large-dissipation limit. We find explicit Lindblad superoperators that reproduce the classical dynamics of the Chaplygin sleigh and the Suslov problem in the semiclassical limit. The master equation is numerically simulated, and the covariance is shown to satisfy a relation predicted by the theory of metastability in open quantum systems.
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Quantum Physics

Contextual advantage implies limited distinguishability in any physical theory

Roberto D. Baldijão, Felipe A. Barretto and Jarosław K. Korbicz

A central question in quantum information is whether a given set of states can provide an advantage in some information-processing task. We establish a universal connection between two such questions: how well a set of states can be discriminated, and whether it can power tasks whose advantage stems from generalized contextuality. Working in the framework of generalized probabilistic theories (GPTs), which includes quantum and classical systems as special cases, we show that any set of states able to provide a nonclassical advantage in a contextuality-powered task must obey nontrivial upper bounds on the success probability of every state discrimination task using the full set. Contextual advantage therefore implies limited distinguishability, exposing a trade-off between two basic operational resources. Importantly, this is more than a statement about the idealized limit: perfect distinguishability is not needed to preclude contextuality. Our thresholds lie strictly below unity, so any set whose discrimination performance exceeds them while still imperfectly distinguishable is already guaranteed to admit a noncontextual explanation. The bounds follow from a simple geometric property, linear dependence of the state set, take a closed analytical form, and depend only on the prior of the task and the convex geometry of the states. As an illustration, we apply them to generalized parity-oblivious multiplexing, where sufficiently high success in the task implies that at least one sub-ensemble of the codebook cannot power any contextual advantage.
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High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Unchanged X-Ray Polarization During Accretion Dips in the Low Hard State of Cygnus X-1

Yu-shan Ling, Fei Xie, Alessandro Di Marco et al. (+2 more)

Cygnus X-1 serves as a foundational benchmark for studying accretion mechanisms in stellar-mass black hole X-ray binaries. While traditional X-ray timing and spectroscopy have mapped its bimodal state transitions, constraining the exact geometric configuration of its accreting plasma requires additional tools. In this letter, we present a joint spectro-polarimetric analysis of Cygnus X-1 during flux-decrease events, or “dips”, observed in its low hard state using simultaneous data from IXPE, NICER, and NuSTAR. The broadband spectral model reveals that the energy-dependent flux reduction during these dips is best described by a partial-covering absorption model, heavily impacting the softer energy bands. This absorption is consistent with obscuration by dense, cold clumps originating from the companion's stellar wind or the outer accretion disk during superior conjunction. Notably, our polarimetric analysis demonstrates that despite significant flux drops, the polarization degree and polarization angle in the 2-8 keV band remain largely consistent between dip and off-dip intervals. The stability of the polarization signature during these highly absorbed periods indicates that the obscured thermal disk emission does not significantly contribute to the total polarization. Ultimately, these results strongly support a scenario where the X-ray polarization originates from an extended, likely oblate, accretion-disk corona whose large scale renders its overall geometry unaffected by localized clumping.
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All authors Yu-shan Ling, Fei Xie, Alessandro Di Marco, Fabio La Monaca, Ming-Yu Ge

High Energy Physics (Phenomenology)

An Equilibrating Parton Shower for Jet Quenching and Medium Response

Ismail Soudi and Adam Takacs

In the weak-coupling approach, thermalization of the quark-gluon plasma and the evolution of jet-like perturbations in the medium can be described by the same underlying QCD effective kinetic theory (EKT). In this work, we show how the EKT reduces to the standard energy-loss and angular-broadening evolution of jet-quenching in the high-energy regime, while providing a consistent description near the thermal scales. Building on this, we derive a parton shower directly from EKT that reproduces the full linearized Boltzmann equation, combining elastic and inelastic collisions to capture both hard-parton energy loss and thermal equilibration on an equal footing. This shower lets us extend EKT to inhomogeneous perturbations, connecting jet evolution to the medium's hydrodynamic response, including wakes, Mach cones, and multi-particle correlations.
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Quantum Physics

State preparation and detection for quantum simulation of particle collisions

Federica Maria Surace, Sary Bseiso and John Preskill

Simulating the real-time dynamics of particle collisions is a promising application of quantum simulators, because classical methods such as tensor networks struggle to capture the highly entangled states generated in high-energy scattering. Realizing such simulations requires both the preparation of incoming wave packets and the detection of the outgoing scattering products. In this work, we propose protocols that address both challenges on programmable analog and digital quantum simulation platforms. Our state-preparation scheme uses a weakly coupled auxiliary qubit - or, more generally, a customized local quench - to inject a single quasiparticle with well-defined momentum. Because it relies only on conservation of energy, this scheme requires no fine-tuning or prior knowledge about particle eigenstates, making it robust against errors in calibration and implementation. The momenta of scattering products are then extracted, using only local measurements, from the interference pattern that arises when particles are reflected at the system's boundary. We validate our protocols through numerical simulations, first in a simple single-particle model and subsequently in two interacting many-body systems: a Rydberg atom chain and an Ising chain in a mixed field. We demonstrate how high-energy regimes, necessary to access inelastic scattering processes, can be reached through an adiabatic ramp, and how the wave packet shape can be optimized by spatially modulating the Hamiltonian. Finally, we show how the protocol can be generalized to systems with more than one spatial dimension. Our proposal provides a versatile approach to the quantum simulation of scattering phenomena, and is compatible with several quantum simulation platforms that are already experimentally available.
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General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Light propagation and intensity transport in metric-affine geometry

Antonio De Felice, Lavinia Heisenberg, Gonzalo J. Olmo et al. (+1 more)

We study electromagnetic wave propagation in metric–affine geometries, where torsion and non-metricity may be present and the coupling between electromagnetism and spacetime is no longer unique. Rather than choosing a particular coupling prescription a priori, we construct electromagnetic sectors that preserve standard $U(1)$ gauge invariance and projective invariance of the affine connection as guiding symmetry principles. We introduce two representative models, one in which the Maxwell term is dressed by a scalar prefactor built from non-Riemannian invariants, and another in which the kinetic term is modified by a rank–four constitutive tensor acting as an anisotropic medium. We derive their geometric–optics limits and show that their couplings can modify the effective light cone, change the relation between field amplitude and intensity, induce polarization-dependent propagation, and generate birefringence and mode mixing. These results thus provide the formal basis for a broader phenomenological study connecting torsion and non-metricity with electromagnetic observables in concrete metric–affine backgrounds, including black-hole imaging, birefringent lensing, polarization observables, and departures from photon-number conservation.
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All authors Antonio De Felice, Lavinia Heisenberg, Gonzalo J. Olmo, Carlos Pastor-Marcos

High Energy Physics (Theory)

CasimirRFM: A Mathematica package for Riemann-flat compactifications with Casimir energies

Bruno Valeixo Bento

CasimirRFM is a Mathematica package for the study of compactifications on Riemann-flat manifolds and the computation of one-loop Casimir energies in higher-dimensional field theories and supergravity. It implements an efficient numerical evaluation of lattice sums using Ewald summation, and computes both lower-dimensional Casimir potentials and local higher-dimensional Casimir energy densities, allowing for general massless spectra and twisted boundary conditions. The package provides tools for constructing and analysing the finite groups defining these manifolds, determining invariant metrics and cohomology bases, identifying compatible spin structures, and computing moduli-space metrics. Moreover, it evaluates the traces of holonomy elements in the graviton, $p$-form, spinor, and Rarita-Schwinger representations. We describe the mathematical formulation and numerical implementation of the package, and illustrate its use through a compactification of Type IIB supergravity on $T^6/\mathbb{Z}_8$, including the computation of the Casimir potential and the visualization of localised Casimir-brane contributions.
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Quantum Physics

Linear Algebra of Generalized Contextuality in All Prepare-Transform-Measure Scenarios

Theodoros Yianni, Nyan Raess and Farid Shahandeh

Generalized contextuality is a canonical distinguishing property of nonclassical generalized probabilistic theories, in particular quantum mechanics. Methods for certification and characterization of generalized contextuality of a given generalized probabilistic theory are well developed for prepare-measure and single-stage prepare-transform-measure scenarios. In a recent work [arXiv:2512.10000], a bottom-up, statistics-first linear-algebraic framework for contextuality in prepare-measure scenarios was introduced. We extend this approach to operational scenarios with sequential transformations with an arbitrary number of stages. We give a full decision procedure for contextuality of such scenarios within operational theories and analyze its computational complexity. In particular, our decision procedure has a complexity linearly exponential in the minimum generalized probabilistic theory (GPT) dimension, and polynomial in the number of procedures. We demonstrate our framework and approach through multiple examples, including Spekkens' toy theory and the 8-state single-qubit stabilizer theory. In particular, we construct an operational theory in which contextuality manifests itself only in the sequential structure of the transformations. Our findings thus shed new light on the significant role of compositional structures in the phenomenon of generalized contextuality.
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High Energy Physics (Phenomenology)

A multi-axion model of inflation and dark matter

Marcos A.G. Garcia, Hansel Gordillo-Ruiz, Raul Henriquez-Ortiz et al. (+1 more)

Models with extra dimensions include a tower of massive states that unavoidably contribute to cosmological dynamics. In particular, after compactification, a higher-dimensional axion gives rise to a set of states whose dynamics at early times exhibit the properties of inflation and, at late times, those of dynamical dark matter. Interestingly, natural choices of parameters imply that the inflationary trajectory in field space is approximately geodesic, meaning that inflation is effectively driven by a single inflaton corresponding to the heaviest state. In this scenario, all inflationary observables, including the emerging spectral distortions, are consistent with current observational constraints, and exact numerical solutions of the equations of motion show that reheating can consistently proceed down to temperatures of a few MeV. Furthermore, all states lighter than the inflaton only come to dominate the energy density of the Universe during the matter-dominated era, thus behaving as dark matter at late times. These states undergo a cascade of decays into radiation, while maintaining a sufficient dark-matter abundance to account for the observed relic density. The lightest dark-matter candidate remains stable on timescales far exceeding the age of the Universe, thereby satisfying even the most conservative observational constraints.
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All authors Marcos A.G. Garcia, Hansel Gordillo-Ruiz, Raul Henriquez-Ortiz, Saul Ramos-Sanchez

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

X-ray and optical decline of the intermediate mass black hole HLX-1

Roberto Soria, Maya Garbaccio Gili, Francesco Massaro et al. (+2 more)

HLX-1 is a prominent intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) candidate, historically exhibiting recurrent X-ray outbursts with spectral state transitions analogous to those observed in stellar-mass black holes. Here, we present new Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra, and Swift observations from 2018-2022 to characterise the late-time flux decline. HLX-1 has persisted in a low X-ray luminosity state (L_X ~ a few x 10^{39} erg/s) since the end of its last outburst in 2017. We observe a significant decoupling between the X-ray and optical/UV emission: while the X-rays have faded by at least two orders of magnitude from peak outburst luminosity (in 2010) to the current low state, the optical/UV flux has declined much more slowly over the same time. This results in an X-ray/optical luminosity ratio inconsistent with X-ray reprocessing in a standard accretion disk, as this would require an unphysical reprocessing fraction >100% at late times. Instead, we find that the optical/UV evolution is well-fitted by a cooling, expanding photosphere (T ~ 30,000 K), similar to the late-stage evolution seen in tidal disruption events (TDEs). The redder component of the optical emission is instead consistent with the old stellar population of a massive star cluster (IMBH host). The pre-2017 X-ray bursting phase is consistent with simulations of disk instabilities in TDE evolution: this strengthens the scenario of HLX-1 as an IMBH TDE. Furthermore, our observations resolve the morphology and flux of the mysterious far-UV emitter, seen in projection next to HLX-1, into a ring-like star-forming structure. We re-assess the possibility that HLX-1 and its host star cluster are physically associated with this starburst dwarf, perhaps via a high-speed collision.
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All authors Roberto Soria, Maya Garbaccio Gili, Francesco Massaro, Alister W. Graham, Luca Zampieri

Astrophysics of Galaxies

Identifying backsplash galaxies using machine learning

Roan Haggar, Elizaveta Sazonova, Cameron R. Morgan et al. (+5 more)

The galaxy population in the outskirts of a cluster contains members that have been pre-processed in groups and filaments, as well as backsplash galaxies – those that have recently passed through the cluster's center. However, disentangling these two pathways is challenging observationally. In this work, we present a machine-learning-powered model, trained on simulations of galaxy clusters from The Three Hundred suite of simulations, which can identify individual backsplash galaxies in astronomical observations. This model can build samples of backsplash galaxies with a purity and completeness of up to ~70%, and galaxies on their first infall with a purity and completeness of over 80%. It can be tuned to optimise either of these two metrics, and can be used with any combination of a set of observable quantities. We have also applied this model to galaxies with asymmetric HI distributions in the Virgo Cluster, and have demonstrated that these galaxies are all likely approaching the cluster for the first time. This supports the idea that cold gas is removed from these galaxies soon after entering a cluster, and demonstrates how this classifier can provide a better understanding of which properties of galaxies are caused by a previous passage through a cluster. We have made this model publicly available in the form of a web app, with a link in the Conclusions of this paper.
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All authors Roan Haggar, Elizaveta Sazonova, Cameron R. Morgan, Alexander Knebe, Rhys Jordan, Weiguang Cui, Frazer R. Pearce, James E. Taylor

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics

The FRB–Galaxy Overdensity Cross-Correlation Statistic in Dispersion Space

Ryan Raikman, Haochen Wang, Kiyoshi Masui et al. (+1 more)

Cross-correlating the dispersion of fast radio bursts (FRBs) with galaxies provides a means to study the distribution of the baryons in the Universe, even in the absence of FRB redshifts. To this end, two variants of angular cross-power spectrum statistics have been proposed: one between DM and galaxy density binned by redshift $C^{Dg}_l(z_g)$ (abbreviated $D \times g$), and one between FRB counts binned by dispersion measure (DM) and galaxy density binned by redshift $C^{fg}_l(\textrm{DM}, z_g)$ (abbreviated $f \times g$). Here we show the $D \times g$ statistic can be recovered as a DM-moment of $f \times g$, implying the latter is strictly more informative. By slicing in both DM space and galaxy redshift space, the $f\times g$ statistic separates contributions from the clustering of free electrons and from the clustering of FRB sources. We perform Fisher forecasts for FRB samples consistent with CHIME (1,600 FRBs) and the upcoming CHORD (20,000 FRBs) survey cross-correlated against the DESI Legacy Survey BGS sample and Euclid galaxy surveys, respectively. We show that, compared to the $D \times g$ statistic, the $f \times g$ statistic results in $S/N\approx 12$ for CHIME$\times$DESI(LS) and SNR $\approx 54$ for CHORD$\times$Euclid. The $f \times g$ statistics is more sensitive to the redshift distribution of FRBs with forecasted errors on a simple parameterization of order $10 \%$. It measures the logarithmic cutoff scale for clustering of baryons due to feedback $k_{cut}$ to 26% precision with CHIME and 14% precision with CHORD. Since most FRBs currently lack host identifications, and scaling optical followup to large samples will remain challenging even with precise localizations, reliable redshifts will be unavailable for most FRBs for the foreseeable future. The $f \times g$ statistic provides a means to extract maximum cosmological information in their absence.
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All authors Ryan Raikman, Haochen Wang, Kiyoshi Masui, Shion Andrew

Astrophysics of Galaxies

Stellar rotation of S301 as a macroscopic gyroscope to test general relativity

Pau Amaro Seoane, Xian Chen, Alejandro Torres-Orjuela et al. (+16 more)

Stellar trajectories around the Galactic Center provide a testing environment for general relativity. The intrinsic rotation of these stars evolves under covariant transport in curved spacetime and classical Newtonian quadrupole torques. We analyze the recently observed S301 S-star to quantify the relativistic precession of its rotational axis. Its 8.7-year period and eccentricity of $e = 0.982$ localize geodetic precession and Newtonian quadrupole torques to a step function at periapsis. We incorporate first-order post-Newtonian corrections into the orbital kinematics to calculate the spatial trajectory. Sampling an isotropic distribution of initial orientations and viewing geometries over a 40-year period across a grid of equatorial velocities and rotational ellipticities, we calculate the statistical likelihood of an absolute shift in the projected rotational line broadening, $|\Delta v \sin i|$. The relativistic geodetic shift scales linearly with $v_{\rm rot}$ and the classical quadrupole shift is independent of rotation speed, scaling with $q$. The absolute maximum velocity shift saturates at $46.1\,\kms$ for oblate stars. The absolute median shifts, driven by geodetic precession, range from $3\,\kms$ to $6.3\,\kms$. We calculate the time-domain observable $|\Delta v \sin i|$ to provide a target for infrared spectrographs testing the Schwarzschild metric around Sgr~A$^\ast$. The spin of S301 acts as a flying gyroscope whose drift, if measured, can test Einstein's theory in a regime that has not previously been accessible.
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All authors Pau Amaro Seoane, Xian Chen, Alejandro Torres-Orjuela, Reinhard Genzel, Frank Eisenhauer, Thomas Ott, Stefan Gillessen, Guillaume Bourdarot, Diogo C. Ribeiro, Matteo Sadun Bordoni, Simran Joharle, Felix Mang, Andreas Burkert, Jorge Cuadra, Diego Calderón, Hagai B. Perets, Tsvi Piran, Thorsten Naab, Re'em Sari

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Gamma-ray burst progenitors revisited

Andrew J. Levan, Jillian C. Rastinejad, Helena-Margaret S. Grabham et al. (+11 more)

Recently, several long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) associated with kilonovae have cast doubt on the traditional, dichotomous mapping between gamma-ray duration and progenitor system. Here, we investigate the rates and properties of bursts which appear to cross this dichotomy using a sample of GRBs for which progenitor constraints are possible. We first build a sample of known Swift-detected GRBs at z<0.3, finding 8 short- and 21 long-duration GRBs. Of these long GRBs, we find 9 bursts with deep limits on supernova emission, evidence for kilonova emission, or association with a quiescent galaxy (31% $\pm$ 9% of all GRBs at z<0.3), implying that a significant fraction of nearby long GRBs likely do not come from massive stars. At z<0.3, no short GRB has an observed supernova counterpart. We find comparable numbers when expanding to z<0.5 and other gamma-ray telescopes, though we obtain a decreased fraction of bursts with robust constraints on a progenitor. We further find that the long GRBs with no associated supernovae possess on-average fainter afterglows and lie in less star-forming host galaxies than those with supernovae, supporting that these events may originate in compact object mergers. We estimate approximate volumetric rates, finding similar (on-axis) rates for short GRBs and supernova-less long GRBs of $\sim 0.5-2.5$ Gpc$^{-3}$ yr$^{-1}$, although a search for possible low-redshift hosts of the complete Swift catalog suggests that our sample may be $\sim$50% complete. If supernova-less long GRBs arise from compact object mergers, this implies that $\sim$ 30-70% of all z<0.3 Swift long GRBs may arise from mergers and that the $z<0.3$ rates of mergers from long and short GRBs are comparable. These findings hold substantial implications for gravitational-wave coincidence and heavy element enrichment.
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All authors Andrew J. Levan, Jillian C. Rastinejad, Helena-Margaret S. Grabham, Daniele B. Malesani, Nial R. Tanvir, Eric Burns, Benjamin P. Gompertz, Gavin P. Lamb, Ashley A. Chrimes, Peter G. Jonker, Om Salafia, Nikhil Sarin, Ilya Mandel, Antonio Martin-Carrillo

Lattice Field Theory

Quantum Phase Diagram of the $2+1$D Untruncated SU$(2)$ Lattice Gauge Theory with Dynamical Fermions

Gabriel Rouxinol, Julian Bender, Patrick Emonts et al. (+2 more)

Non-Abelian gauge theories with dynamical matter govern the strong interaction and a broad class of strongly correlated quantum systems, yet their ground-state properties remain difficult to obtain from first principles. Using a continuous-group variational Monte Carlo approach that retains the full SU$(2)$ gauge field without truncation, we determine the ground-state behavior of the SU$(2)$ lattice gauge theory with staggered fermions on an $L\times L$ square lattice. Treating the magnetic and electric couplings $\lambda$ and $g^2$ independently, we find a magnetic-flux transition at $\lambda^\ast=-0.040\pm 0.005$, with no resolvable drift of the transition point as the electric coupling is varied. Along the physical coupling line $\lambda=4/g^2$, for $L=4,6,8$, we uncover a gauge-matter delocalization crossover from a flux-disordered regime at strong electric coupling to an ordered unity-flux regime at weak coupling. The chiral condensate, a gauge-invariant Wilson-line meson correlator, and the local color density consistently reveal the emergence of coherent gauge-assisted matter dynamics. Together, these results provide a unified physical picture of how magnetic-flux ordering and fermionic coherence develop in an untruncated non-Abelian lattice gauge theory.
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All authors Gabriel Rouxinol, Julian Bender, Patrick Emonts, Michele Grossi, Jad C. Halimeh

Lattice Field Theory

Neural quantum states for non-Abelian lattice gauge theories with dynamical fermions

Gabriel Rouxinol, Julian Bender, Michele Grossi et al. (+2 more)

Determining the ground state of non-Abelian lattice gauge theories coupled to dynamical fermions is key to understanding confinement and the phase structure of gauge–matter systems. We present a variational Monte Carlo framework for the ground state of the untruncated fully-continuous SU$(2)$ lattice gauge theory coupled to dynamical staggered fermions on an $L\times L$ square lattice. We work in the magnetic basis with a neural-network representation of the gauge wavefunction. The fermions are described by a gauge-covariant Gaussian fermionic correction built on a fixed Néel reference state where, for each sampled gauge configuration $\mathbf{U}$, the correction is generated by a Hermitian operator. This operator is constructed from short Wilson lines and the eigenvectors of the mass–hopping Hamiltonian, with number of variational parameters polynomial in the system size. This Gaussian structure also gives analytical expressions for all fermionic contributions to the energy and related observables in terms of the fermion occupation matrix. The results are validated against strong-coupling perturbation theory, where they recover the expected effective antiferromagnetic spin Hamiltonian. Using this framework, we map a coarse ground state phase diagram in the plane of independent electric and magnetic couplings $(g^2, \lambda)$ and show that a hysteresis analysis can identify the existence of phase transitions. Restoring the physical relation $\lambda=4/g^2$, we characterize how increasing the system size and changing the electric coupling $g^2$ move the state away from the reference Néel state, for lattice sizes $L=4,6,8$. More broadly, the method offers a sign-problem-free variational framework for continuous non-Abelian gauge groups with dynamical matter that should extend to other matter content and higher-dimensional lattices.
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All authors Gabriel Rouxinol, Julian Bender, Michele Grossi, Patrick Emonts, Jad C. Halimeh

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

The ultra-fast afterglow of GRB 260226A

Biswajit Banerjee, Alessio Mei, Annarita Ierardi et al. (+13 more)

Long-duration gamma-ray bursts are typically powered by relativistic jets launched after the core collapse of some rapidly rotating massive stars. Internal dissipation releases part of the jet energy as highly variable MeV prompt emission, while the remaining kinetic energy drives an external shock into the surrounding medium and produces the so-called afterglow. During the first minutes of the afterglow, the unsteady jet transfers energy to the external shock. The early afterglow emission in MeV-GeV energies is rarely observed because the emergence of afterglow can be overshined by the prompt emission. Here we report exceptional observations of GRB 260226A with the Fermi Large Area Telescope, which recorded the largest number of photons above 100 MeV from a gamma-ray burst. These data allow us to reconstruct the evolution of the bolometric flux of the afterglow from its emergence during the prompt emission phase with unprecedented detail. The afterglow component peaks near 50 MeV and fades rapidly, first as t$^{-1.5}$ and then transiting to an ultra-fast t$^{-2.8}$ decay after about one minute. This behavior cannot be explained by standard synchrotron emission from a blast wave propagating into a cold medium. We interpret it as external inverse Compton radiation from freshly heated electrons cooling on prompt photons in a dense, pair-loaded stellar wind. GRB 260226A therefore shows that MeV-GeV observations can directly reveal the formation of the external shock and the massive-star environment is significantly reshaped by the prompt emission.
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All authors Biswajit Banerjee, Alessio Mei, Annarita Ierardi, Samanta Macera, Gor Oganesyan, Shraddha Mohnani, Elias Kammoun, Pawan Tiwari, Stefano Ascenzi, Samuele Ronchini, Ansh Chopra, Alessio Ludovico De Santis, Stefano Covino, Paolo D'Avanzo, Andrea Melandri, Silvia Piranomonte

High Energy Physics (Phenomenology)

Probing Neutrino Flavor Composition with the Glashow Resonance at Tau Air-Shower Neutrino Telescopes

Tianyi Ding and Qinrui Liu

The flavor composition of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos encodes information about their production and propagation. The Glashow resonance, $\bar{\nu}_e + e^-\to W^-$, provides a unique way to distinguish antineutrinos from neutrinos and thereby extends the reach of flavor composition studies. Proposed tau air-shower neutrino telescopes target Earth-skimming and mountain-skimming $\nu_\tau$ above a PeV, but through the decay $W^-\to \bar{\nu}_\tau+\tau^-$ they are also sensitive to $\bar{\nu}_e$. These experiments can therefore measure the ratio of $\bar{\nu}_e$ to $\nu_\tau+\bar{\nu}_\tau$ fluxes. We evaluate this prospect with explicit simulations and project sensitivities for TAMBO and TRINITY, assuming 10 years of operation. We find that mountain-skimming geometries yield substantially higher $\bar{\nu}_e$ acceptance than Earth-skimming ones due to the shorter path length in rock. For standard astrophysical source scenarios, our projections show that differentiating $pp$ and $p\gamma$ production, including their muon-damped scenarios, is challenging with a standalone measurement by tau air-shower experiments in their currently designed configurations, though optimistically the flux ratio can be constrained to $\lesssim$2 at 1$\sigma$. A $\bar{\nu}_e$-rich flux, as expected from neutron-decay sources or from certain new physics models, would stand out from the standard pion-production scenarios and can otherwise be constrained.
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Astrophysics of Galaxies

From S2 to LISA: Astrometric Bounds on Extreme-Mass-Ratio Inspirals and Bursts

Andrea Caputo and Valerie Domcke

Stellar orbits around the massive black hole at the center of our galaxy provide a unique local probe of the compact-object population in the Galactic Centre and, consequently, of the sources of millihertz gravitational waves: periapse passages lead to extreme-mass-ratio bursts (EMRBs) while successful captures lead to extreme-mass ration inspirals (EMRIs). In this paper we use recent astrometric limits from the GRAVITY observatory on perturbations of the orbit of the star S2 to place upper limits on the normalisation of a stellar-mass black-hole cusp within ${\sim} \,0.02\,\mathrm{pc}$. For a benchmark $10\,M_\odot$ Bahcall–Wolf population anchored to this data, we obtain upper limits of ${\sim} \,2.4\times10^{2}\,\mathrm{Gyr}^{-1}$ on the EMRI rate and ${\sim} \, 0.2\,\mathrm{yr}^{-1}$ on the detectable EMRB rate in the Milky Way, which fall within the broad range of previous theoretical estimates. Assuming a self-similar scaling of the cusp normalisation with central black-hole mass, we extend this calibration to cosmological populations. The resulting EMRI background is detectable by LISA across all scenarios considered, whereas the flatter EMRB background can reach LISA sensitivity when mass segregation is efficient in low-mass galactic nuclei. Our results highlight the complementarity of precision stellar astrometry and millihertz gravitational-wave observations.
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High Energy Physics (Theory)

Iterative Gauging is Deconstruction

Sebastian Franco and Diego Rodriguez-Gomez

A recent construction showed that iteratively gauging symmetries of a quantum field theory can generate an emergent extra spatial dimension. Here we identify the precise mechanism underlying this phenomenon: it is dimensional deconstruction, the procedure by which an extra dimension is encoded in the structure of a quiver gauge theory. We demonstrate this by showing that the standard deconstruction action, upon dualizing the Goldstone fields on the Higgs branch, is exactly equivalent to the action produced by iterative gauging. The dictionary is transparent: quiver nodes correspond to gauge fields, and quiver links correspond to the gauge fields introduced to couple to magnetic symmetries. We further show that starting by gauging the electric rather than the magnetic symmetry produces the deconstructed theory written in the dual variables, with all coupling constants inverted.
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Astrophysics of Galaxies

Emulating the complex galactic-scale orbital dynamics of LISA massive black hole pairs with normalizing flows

Pedro R. Capelo, Carlos Moreno Martinez, Nodens Koren et al. (+6 more)

Massive black hole (MBH) pairs, formed in galaxy mergers, may coalesce in a burst of gravitational waves (GWs). Estimating the coalescence time-scales and rates is a long-standing astrophysical problem, essential to inform predictions for future GW detectors such as the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, but remains challenging: MBH orbital decay in realistic galactic environments is complex and stochastic, and non-axisymmetric structures such as stellar bars can perturb MBH pair dynamics, delaying or accelerating binary formation and undermining the assumption that dynamical friction alone sets the inspiral duration. Capturing this evolution requires simulations too expensive to run at population scale. Here we present an artificial intelligence framework that emulates the galactic-scale orbital decay of an inspiralling MBH using conditional normalizing flows trained on a large suite of semi-analytical orbital integrations. Our model captures the evolution of secondary MBHs orbiting within multi-component galactic merger remnants featuring rotating stellar discs and bars, across a broad range of MBH masses, orbital configurations, and bar properties. The trained emulator reproduces the simulations' decay-time distributions while reducing computational cost by orders of magnitude. For the first time, we apply this model to galaxy populations drawn from a cosmological simulation, exploiting morphological information on barred and non-barred galaxies to infer MBH binary formation time-scales across cosmic time. Our results show that stellar bars can alter the distribution of MBH binary formation times. More broadly, this demonstrates how simulation-based, surrogate machine learning emulators can unlock a class of astrophysical problems where the physics is well understood system-by-system but intractable at scale.
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All authors Pedro R. Capelo, Carlos Moreno Martinez, Nodens Koren, Tommaso Zana, Elisa Bortolas, Matteo Bonetti, Janis Fluri, Thomas Hofmann, Lucio Mayer

High Energy Physics (Theory)

Gravitational Waves from Multiple Cosmic Superstrings and the Overshoot Problem

Luca Brunelli, Michele Cicoli, Muhammad Hassan et al. (+2 more)

Post inflationary string cosmology can feature an initial population of multiple species of cosmic superstrings whose tension is controlled by a modulus rolling over a steep potential toward a late-time minimum. We perform a full analysis of the associated dynamical system, finding that overshooting the minimum is prevented by the friction of a radiation background of gravitational waves produced from the early decay of effective strings arising from NS5- and D3-branes wrapped around internal cycles. On the other hand, fundamental strings survive longer and decay when the modulus is oscillating around the minimum and they have about $1/3$ of the total energy density. The spectrum of gravitational waves generated by the decays of these multiple cosmic superstrings, even if diluted by a late epoch of modulus domination, can still result in a high-frequency, multi-peaked signal, offering an observational signature of generic features of string theory.
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All authors Luca Brunelli, Michele Cicoli, Muhammad Hassan, Seyed Ehsan Qoreishi, Francisco Gil Pedro

Quantum Physics

Quantum Information Decoupling Beyond Finite Dimensions

Hayata Yamasaki

Quantum information decoupling is a pillar of quantum information theory, underlying quantum communication, error correction, and information recovery. However, its existing formulations rely on random unitary operations tied to finite-dimensional assumptions on quantum systems. Here we establish a decoupling framework for arbitrary separable, possibly infinite-dimensional systems. For finite-dimensional inputs and arbitrary separable reference/output systems, we derive error bounds on one-shot decoupling for completely positive maps in terms of sandwiched Rényi conditional entropies. For partial-trace decoupling with finite-dimensional references, the error exponent is optimal up to the known critical rate. To handle infinite-dimensional inputs, we assume finite entropy of the manipulated system. We construct finite-rank projections on independent and identically distributed (IID) states to restrict randomization to a projected finite-dimensional subspace, while ensuring high success probability by including auxiliary components in the discarded subsystem at asymptotically negligible cost. This leads to an infinite-dimensional IID partial-trace decoupling protocol achieving optimal asymptotic dimension rates. As an application, we construct an infinite-dimensional quantum-state-merging protocol, a mother protocol of quantum information theory. Under finite entropy of Alice's marginal, it achieves the same quantum-communication and total-cost rates as in finite dimensions, governed by mutual information and conditional entropy. These results show that the operational interpretation of entropic quantities through these achievable rates constitutes a universal principle beyond finite dimensions. More broadly, our framework provides foundational tools for exploring quantum information regardless of whether we model the physical world using finite- or infinite-dimensional spaces.
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High Energy Physics (Phenomenology)

Qubit-qubit-qutrit quantum correlations in $H \to f \bar f V$

Michał Banacki, Misaki Ohta, Abhyoudai S. Shaleena et al. (+5 more)

We perform an extensive analysis of the quantum correlations carried by the qubit-qubit-qutrit pure state arising in the decay of a massive scalar into a fermion-antifermion pair and a massive gauge boson, $H \to f \bar f V$, specialising to the Higgs boson decay $h \to \tau^- \tau^+ Z$. Working with the exact tree-level spin state and its systematic expansion around the massless-fermion limit, we obtain analytic control over the entire phase space: the bipartite entanglement measures, the genuine $2 \otimes 2 \otimes 3$ entanglement structure (the Miyake classification), as well as the Bell-inequality violations and the non-stabiliserness (magic) are all mapped and reproduced by compact formulas. The bipartite measures exhibit a monogamy-like trade-off between the fermion pair and the fermion-boson pairs. The state is genuinely $2 \otimes 2 \otimes 3$ entangled over almost the entire phase space, most strongly in the collinear regions. We derive, for the first time, semi-analytical expressions for the tight $4 \times 4 \times 2$ Bell inequalities of the $2 \otimes 2 \otimes 3$ system, generalising the optimisation previously available only for three qubits, and find that the local-hidden-variable bound is violated over the entire phase space, reaching within a few per cent of the quantum bound at the upper endpoint of the di-tau mass spectrum. We further extend the stabiliser Rényi entropy and the non-local magic to systems with unequal local dimensions, and show that the near-endpoint state carries almost exactly one bit of non-local magic, which peaks at $\log_2 \frac{27}{7} \simeq 1.95$ in the collinear regions. The differential decay rate concentrates precisely in the most nonclassical region of the phase space.
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All authors Michał Banacki, Misaki Ohta, Abhyoudai S. Shaleena, Paweł Caban, Michał Eckstein, Kazuki Sakurai, Michael Spannowsky, Paweł Horodecki

Chemical Physics

Where to Find ICEC? - Screening 2442 Systems for Interparticle Coulombic Electron Capture

Fabian L. Hofmann, Elena M. Jahr and Elke Fasshauer

Interparticle Coulombic Electron Capture (ICEC) provides an environment-assisted pathway for electron attachment that can compete with photorecombination. Here, we present the first comprehensive survey of ICEC in atom-atom and atom-molecule systems, screening 2442 combinations in search of promising candidates for future experimental investigation. We employ the efficient asymptotic approximation to predict ICEC cross sections and electron spectra. Intramolecular nuclear motion is included, while interparticle nuclear dynamics is neglected to permit an extensive survey. We identify several classes of atom-atom and atom-molecule systems with favourable ICEC cross sections and ICEC-to-photorecombination ratios, including halogen-halide systems and systems involving a proton and diatomic molecules such as N$_2$, O$_2$, CO, and NO. These findings point to atmospheric and astrochemical environments in which ICEC may be relevant.
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High Energy Physics (Phenomenology)

SET-ANUBIS: a modular pipeline for ANUBIS long-lived particle sensitivity studies

Sofie Nordahl Erner, Anna Mullin, Théo Reymermier et al. (+2 more)

The proposed ANUBIS detector has been designed to search for Long-Lived Particle (LLP) signatures, which have become a focus for a variety of experiments within recent years. Due to the variety of possible LLP models and the need for directly comparable sensitivity results highlighting the potential coverage of ANUBIS, the SET-ANUBIS (Simulation, accEptance and sensiTivity studies framework for ANUBIS) framework has been developed. SET-ANUBIS is a flexible open-source Python framework that can perform full sensitivity studies of LLP signatures for the ANUBIS detector, allowing others to directly produce ANUBIS-like limits or even implement other geometries and detectors. It starts from a Universal FeynRules Output model or user-supplied rates; it exposes model parameters and particle content for user modification, and evaluates decay widths, branching ratios and lifetimes. MARTY can also be used to compute matrix elements, decay widths, branching ratios, and cross-sections. Then the framework prepares or runs event generation through Pythia8 or MadGraph, ingests HepMC event records, models the geometry of the ATLAS cavern and ANUBIS tracking stations, and applies a configurable sequence of geometric, kinematic and isolation requirements to select a set of surviving LLP candidates for evaluation. The implementation follows a ports-and-adapters architecture so that the core logic remains separate from external generators, persistent storage and visualisation. A scan-aware SQLite catalogue and content-addressed store preserve cards, metadata and compact selection-ready event bundles while avoiding duplicate artifacts. A pre-release version of the SET-ANUBIS framework has already been used to successfully derive the sensitivity of ANUBIS to three LLP benchmark models involving a Higgs portal and a Heavy Neutral Lepton model.
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All authors Sofie Nordahl Erner, Anna Mullin, Théo Reymermier, Paul Swallow, Oleg Brandt for the ANUBIS Collaboration

Physics and Society

The Attention-Directing Ability of Teams

Olga Kokshagina, Marc Santolini and Christoph Riedl

Why do some teams consistently mobilize collective effort and achieve superior performance while others struggle to coordinate action? We introduce Attention-Directing Ability (ADA), a latent team capability capturing how effectively members' interaction signals elicit engagement and coordinated responses from others. Extending the attention-based view, we conceptualize attention direction as an emergent coordination capability embedded in patterns of interaction rather than as a cognitive state or an outcome. Teams differ in the extent to which attention-directing signals trigger collective responses, and these differences shape how teams mobilize effort and perform. We examine ADA in a distributed innovation effort involving 2,233 participants collaborating asynchronously in 79 self-organized teams across 165 public Slack channels, generating over 30,000 messages. We model the causal responsiveness among interaction signals and derive a latent measure of ADA from teams' attention dynamics. We find that ADA strongly predicts both teams' likelihood of mobilizing engagement to sustain collective work and their performance conditional on participation. Correcting for self-selection into project submission, teams with higher ADA are more likely to submit proposals and achieve higher expert-evaluated outcomes. Causal mediation analyses show that these effects operate primarily through collective effort, indicating that attention direction functions as an upstream coordination capability. By conceptualizing attention as an emergent, measurable team capability, this study advances theories of collective attention and team coordination.
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General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Cosmological consequences of scale-dependent Barrow-Tsallis entropy

Giuseppe Gaetano Luciano, Orlando Luongo and Marco Muccino

We investigate an extended cosmological scenario based on the Barrow-Tsallis entropy, incorporating a varying (i.e., energy-scale-dependent) anomalous dimension. This behavior is reminiscent of quantum gravity and effective field theory settings, where the relevant couplings acquire a nontrivial scale dependence. By applying the gravity-thermodynamic conjecture on the apparent horizon of a flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker Universe, we derive the corresponding modified cosmological equations. The standard dynamics is recovered as a limiting case when the Barrow-Tsallis entropy reduces to the conventional Bekenstein-Hawking form. The proposed model is tested against a combination of early- and late-time datasets, including observational Hubble parameter measurements, the Pantheon+ catalog of Type~Ia supernovae, the second data release of DESI baryon acoustic oscillations and cosmic microwave background constraints. Using the Bayesian Information Criterion, we finally compare the fitting performance of our framework with that of the $\Lambda$CDM paradigm. While the latter remains mildly favored, our model is shown to be fully compatible with current observations within suitable regions of the parameter space, unveiling a richer phenomenology that points towards a possible alleviation of the Hubble tension.
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