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The cosmographic condition $j(z)=1$ provides the kinematical signature of the spatially flat $Λ$CDM model independently of any specific dark-energy or modified-gravity theory. We investigate the extent to which current observations permit departures from this condition by considering three phenomenological ``almost-$Λ$CDM'' cosmographic closures, in which the cosmic jerk differs slightly from unity through a small deformation parameter $ε$. The models are constrained using Markov Chain Monte Carlo analyses of recent DESI baryon acoustic oscillation measurements together with compressed Planck cosmic microwave background likelihoods and the Union3, Pantheon+, and DESY5 Type Ia supernova compilations. Rather than assuming a parameterized dark-energy equation of state, our cosmographic framework reconstructs the expansion history directly from observations, with the effective dark-energy equation of state emerging as a derived quantity. We find that all three closures are tightly constrained to the vicinity of the $Λ$CDM cosmographic fixed point, with Planck data driving the preferred evolution toward $j_0\simeq1$ and $w_{\rm DE,0}\simeq-1$. Despite their distinct kinematical constructions, the reconstructed dark-energy evolution consistently exhibits smooth freezing behaviour close to $w=-1$, without crossing the phantom divide. Model comparison using the Akaike and Bayesian information criteria shows that the almost-$Λ$CDM models remain statistically competitive with standard dark-energy parameterizations while requiring fewer assumptions about the functional form of $w(z)$. These results demonstrate the power of model-independent cosmography for constraining the cosmic expansion history and provide a natural framework for future studies of cosmological perturbations and structure formation.

Reticulum is an old, metal-poor, and sparsely populated globular cluster in the outer regions of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and hosts a rich population of RR Lyrae stars. Being as close as possible to a single stellar population with negligible metallicity spread and low reddening, Reticulum is an ideal laboratory for testing stellar pulsation models and calibrating population II distance indicators. We present homogeneous multi-epoch near-infrared (NIR, JHKs) observations of RR Lyrae variables in Reticulum obtained with the Flamingos-2 imager on the 8.1-m Gemini South Telescope. Using NIR light-curve templates, we derive accurate intensity-averaged magnitudes and peak-to-peak amplitudes for 32 RR Lyrae stars, including 22 fundamental-mode (RRab), 4 first-overtone (RRc), and 6 mixed-mode (RRd) pulsators. The empirical JHKs period-luminosity (PL) relations of Reticulum RR Lyrae are very tight, exhibiting dispersions (~0.05 mag) comparable to those observed in Galactic globular clusters. The derived PL slopes are shallower than those reported for Galactic cluster variables. Adopting recent empirical and theoretical period-luminosity-metallicity (PLZ) calibrations based on Galactic globular clusters and pulsation models, we derive a true distance modulus of $μ_0 = 18.472 \pm 0.035$ mag to Reticulum. This cluster distance is in excellent agreement with the precise geometric distance to the LMC and places Reticulum close to the LMC barycentric distance. The well-characterized RR Lyrae population and a precise distance make Reticulum a potential anchor for calibrating Population II distance ladder.

The bolometric luminosity ($L_{\rm bol}$) of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) is a key tracer of accretion physics, but its direct determination is often hindered by limited spectral coverage and contamination of the host galaxy. Bolometric corrections ($κ_λ = L_{\rm bol}/L_λ$) offer a practical means of estimating $L_{\rm bol}$, with the X-ray bolometric correction ($κ_{\rm 2-10}$) being crucial for exploring the coupling between the accretion disk and the X-ray corona. Here we present multi-epoch, multi-wavelength observations of five highly variable, changing-state AGNs that span more than three orders of magnitude in Eddington ratio ($-3.6\lesssim \log λ_{\rm Edd} \lesssim -0.5$). This unique data set reveals a remarkably tight relation between $κ_{\rm 2-10}$ and $λ_{\rm Edd}$, with an intrinsic scatter of only $\sim0.05$ dex. We find that while the sources show bolometric corrections following different tracks in luminosity space that depend on black hole mass, they all display the same $κ_{\rm 2-10}-λ_{\rm Edd}$ trend. This shows unambiguously that $λ_{\rm Edd}$ is the primary driver of X-ray bolometric corrections, and points to a tight underlying trend that can be used to obtain reliable estimates of bolometric output from X-ray luminosities. Our results highlight how time-domain, multi-wavelength observations of variable AGN offer unique insights into the accretion flow structure and its radiative output.

We investigate whether the observed fine structure and asymmetry of non-averaged galactic rotation curves can be reconstructed directly from the observed HI distribution within the framework of a kinetic gas transport description. Using the observed HI density profiles separately for the approaching (north-eastern) side and the receding (south-western) side of the galaxy NGC~3198, we reconstruct the corresponding rotation curves based on the equation previously derived in \citet{Lipovka2022}. It is shown that the reconstructed curves reproduce not only the approximately flat large-scale behaviour of the observed rotation curves, but also their detailed local morphology and asymmetry separately for the north-eastern and south-western sides of the galactic disk. The obtained results indicate that the local structure of galactic rotation curves is closely connected with the local HI distribution and arises naturally as a consequence of kinetic gas transport processes in galactic disks.

I report the discovery of optical filaments in H$α$, [O III], and [S II], coincident with $144\,\mathrm{MHz}$ structure, associated with the North Polar Spur (NPS) region of the eROSITA bubbles. The optical emission is identified in the Northern Sky Narrowband Survey, and contains distinct structure and potentially elevated $\text{[S II]}/\mathrm{H}α$ relative to typical high-$b$ outflows from the warm ionized medium (WIM). $Δ$-variance and power spectrum analysis of the NPS H$α$ shows a preference for filaments on the scale of lag $L\approx0.6^{\circ}$. The optical and $144\,\mathrm{MHz}$ emission peaks in intensity in an interior region of the NPS, aligned with surrounding Galactic magnetized structures, and also shows fainter signal at the eROSITA bubble edge. The required power to produce the background-subtracted $I_{\mathrm{H}α}=1.85\pm1.04\,\mathrm{R}$ emission is $P_\mathrm{req}\approx5\mathrm{-}12\times10^{41}\,\mathrm{erg\,s}^{-1}$, comfortably exceeded by AGN jet models, plausible for AGN hot accretion flow and star formation ring models, and disfavoring star formation driven winds.

Solar Type II radio bursts are manifestations of shocks produced by explosive and eruptive solar activities, such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Metric range or coronal Type II bursts are interesting because of their association with CME-driven shocks. It is therefore important to examine the correlation between the properties of Type II bursts and the associated CMEs. This, in turn, would be useful in understanding the impact of CMEs on space weather and geomagnetic activity. We conducted a statistical study of 23 coronal Type II radio bursts in the frequency range 150-20 MHz, for the period spanning 2007-2024. We correlated the frequency bandwidth of coronal Type II bursts with the angular width of the associated CMEs. Our investigation showed an anti-correlation between the two quantities with a correlation coefficient of $\approx$ -0.62. We further deduced the height of the Type II bursts (r$_{Type II}$) at the onset time of the burst and compared them with the estimated height of the associated CMEs/shocks (r$_{CME}$). With the exception of one event, for the rest of the Type II burst events, r$_{Type II}$ was $<$ r$_{CME}$. The results suggest that the CMEs with large angular widths produce narrow-band Type II emissions, and these Type II emissions could possibly be produced in the flank region of the CME-driven shock rather than at the shock front.

Measurements of high degree of optical polarization from blazars provide a strong evidence for the optically thin synchrotron radiation from the relativistic leptons in the jet. This in turn characterizes the presence of a partially ordered magnetic field in the emission region. However, the topology of magnetic field and acceleration of electrons to ultrarelativistic energies within the blazar jet are poorly understood. In this work, we investigate the decade long optical light curve of the well-known blazar 1ES 1959+650 to probe the role of jet magnetic field in the peculiar behavior of the highly varying degree of linear polarization in the wavelength band 500- 700 nm. The optical light curves in V and R-bands exhibit a strong flare without any significant change in the contemporaneous degree of linear polarization. However, the degree of linear polarization shows strong positive and negative/anti-correlations with the V and R-band fluxes measured during the epochs before and after the flare, respectively. This can be satisfactorily explained using the helical magnetic field and transverse shock under the framework of a relativistic jet with modestly varying orientations. During the flare, the fractional linear polarization is explained by the turbulent emission multi-zone model.

We examine the Repetitive Penrose Process in the rotating Simpson-Visser spacetime, whose parameter space includes regular black holes, black-bounce geometries, and traversable wormholes. Assuming that the regularization parameter remains unchanged throughout the evolution, the analysis shows that the endpoint of the repetitive process is not always determined solely by the conventional minimum spin condition. Instead, for sufficiently large values of the regularization parameter, the evolving solution may leave the parameter domain corresponding to the original two horizon black hole branch before the dynamical spin limit is reached. Within the present framework, this provides an additional geometry-induced condition that limits the continuation of the iterative sequence. The numerical results further show that the relative importance of the dynamical and geometry-induced termination mechanisms depends sensitively on the regularization parameter. For small deformations, the evolution remains qualitatively similar to that of the Kerr spacetime. As the regularization parameter increases, however, the cumulative extracted energy, the number of admissible Penrose iterations, and the efficiency of the process are progressively reduced. We also examine how the extracted energy, the final irreducible mass, and two complementary efficiency measures vary with both the regularization parameter and the particle decay radius. Overall, the present analysis indicates that, within the RSV geometry, the underlying spacetime structure influences not only the cumulative efficiency of the repetitive Penrose process but also the parameter range over which the iterative evolution remains self-consistent. These results highlight the role that spacetime geometry can play in shaping the long-term evolution of idealized Penrose-type energy extraction processes in regular rotating black-hole spacetimes.

We investigate a modified cosmological dynamics in which the Universe is composed of baryonic matter and a complex (classical) scalar field. The phase component of this field is identified with the axion field, which accounts for the dark matter contribution, while its modulus follows a $λφ^4$-like theory, associated with a dominant constant energy density and describing the dark energy component of the Universe. When the potential term of this complex scalar field is studied near its maximum, it naturally provides an interaction term between dark matter and dark energy. The cosmological model that emerges from this physical framework leads to a modified $Λ$CDM dynamics, in which the dark matter contribution is slightly and monotonically suppressed. We then construct the effective running Hubble constant associated with this revised cosmological scenario and we compare this diagnostic tool with the binned data of the Pantheon Sample of Type Ia Supernovae. As a result of the fitting procedure, we are able to provide a satisfactory interpretation of the data in terms of our theoretical conjecture that results statistically favored with respect to the $Λ$CDM model.

The redshifted 21-cm line of neutral hydrogen (HI) is a powerful tracer of large-scale structure, and post-reionization HI intensity mapping is emerging as a competitive cosmological probe whose interpretation requires a description of how HI populates galaxies and dark matter halos. We characterize the HI--halo mass relation, its redshift evolution, and its intrinsic scatter, identifying its secondary dependences. We use the updated GAlaxy Evolution and Assembly (GAEA) semi-analytic model, applied to the Millennium-I and Millennium-II simulations, to predict the HI mass function (HIMF) and the HI--halo mass relation from the present day to redshift $z\simeq5$. At $z=0$, the model reproduces the observed HIMF and its decomposition by host-halo mass. The median HI--halo mass relation rises with halo mass, peaks near $10^{11.7}\,M_\odot$, declines as central galaxies are quenched by feedback from active galactic nuclei, and rises again where satellites dominate, approaching a single power law at high redshift. We show that the substantial scatter, of about 0.5 dex, is not random but is governed by halo assembly: at fixed mass, higher-spin, later-forming, and less-concentrated halos are systematically HI-richer, with spin together with either concentration or formation time accounting for part of this scatter and leaving an intrinsic dispersion of about 0.3 dex. We encode the median relation, these secondary trends, and the intrinsic scatter in a compact, physically motivated prescription expressed entirely in terms of quantities available in dark-matter halo catalogs. This prescription reproduces the full scatter and enables the construction of large-volume 21-cm mock catalogs for interpreting ongoing intensity-mapping measurements with SKA precursor facilities, such as MeerKAT, and for preparing for forthcoming surveys with the SKA.

The aim of this work is to investigate particle acceleration by shock waves in the magnetospheres of supermassive black holes, where the magnetic field is vortex-driven. For this purpose, we investigated the first-order Fermi acceleration process at relativistic shocks in the magnetospheres of supermassive black holes. In our analysis, we considered synchrotron radiation and inverse Compton scattering as the principal energy-loss mechanisms limiting the maximum attainable particle energy. We investigated the acceleration of both protons and electrons and demonstrated that, for a typical supermassive black hole with a mass of $10^8$ solar masses, protons can be accelerated to energies of several hundred PeV, whereas electrons can attain energies of up to approximately 120 GeV.

We investigate the effect of local cosmic voids on low-redshift measurements of the Hubble rate in flat $w_0w_a$CDM cosmologies. Using a hydrodynamical model for isolated spherical inverse top-hat underdensities, we compute the void-induced Hubble shift as a function of redshift, enclosed density contrast $δ_{\rm E}$ and cosmological parameters. We find that the effect is mainly controlled by the matter sector, through $δ_{\rm E}$ and $Ω_{\rm m,0}$, while dynamical dark energy gives only subdominant late-time corrections. For a Planck-calibrated $Λ$CDM background, matching the SH0ES value requires a present-day void with $δ_{\rm E}(z=0)\simeq -0.44$, substantially deeper than the KBC-like local underdensity. A KBC-like void lowers the SH0ES-Planck discrepancy to about $2σ$, but is not deep enough to fully reconcile the two measurements. Allowing for dynamical dark energy, including regions motivated by recent DES and DESI analyses, changes this result only at the percent level. We also show that the reported redshift dependence of locally inferred $H_0$ values can be represented phenomenologically by an effective enclosed matter profile. This reconstruction should be interpreted as a consistency test of local-structure effects rather than as explanation for an evolving background value of $H_0$. Overall, local underdensities can affect low-redshift Hubble-rate inferences, but they do not resolve the Hubble tension within the spherical void setup considered here.

Modeling galaxy-galaxy strong gravitational lenses to infer the brightness of the source galaxy and the mass distribution of the foreground galaxy is computationally challenging, particularly for high-resolution, high signal-to-noise ratio observations. In this regime, high-dimensional representations of both the source and the foreground mass distribution are necessary to model the data down to the noise level. This inference problem has been challenging for both traditional and machine learning-based methods because of its high dimensionality and its non-linearity in the foreground mass distribution. We present a method to generate joint posterior samples of the source galaxy and foreground mass distribution as pixelated images conditioned on observations. The method combines diffusion-based generative modeling and recurrent inference machines. It can model realistic gravitational lensing simulations with background and foreground galaxies drawn from cosmological hydrodynamical simulations down to the noise level.

We compute quasinormal modes of the Kazakov--Solodukhin quantum-corrected black hole using a high-precision Chebyshev spectral method. After factoring out the quasinormal mode asymptotics at the event horizon and at spatial infinity, the radial problem is reduced to a quadratic matrix pencil for the dimensionless frequency $Ω=Mω$. We apply this framework to minimally coupled scalar perturbations, electromagnetic perturbations, a non-minimally coupled scalar field, and an axial effective source Regge--Wheeler-type gravitational sector. The latter is treated as an effective axial model, rather than as the full gravitational perturbation problem, because the Kazakov--Solodukhin spacetime is not Ricci flat. Our results reproduce the available WKB, time-domain, Mashhoon, and asymptotic-iteration benchmarks in their common regimes of validity, after accounting for the different normalisations used in the literature. The spectral method also resolves additional overtones and candidate purely imaginary overdamped roots. In several sectors, these roots exhibit a spacing scale close to $Mκ=1/4$, with occasional multiple gaps in the retained numerical sequence. In the near-extremal, but still subextremal, regime, the detected purely imaginary branches approach an approximately equally spaced surface-gravity-scaled ladder, while the oscillatory spectra remain sector dependent. Within the parameter ranges and resolutions considered here, all retained modes have $\ImΩ<0$, and no stable growing mode is detected.

Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) are among the most energetic solar eruptions, expelling magnetized plasma from the corona into interplanetary space. Their interplanetary counterparts, known as Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejections (ICMEs), retain distinct compositional signatures that reflect the physical conditions of their solar source regions. This study presents a statistical analysis of ICME composition dependence on solar activity during 2009--2025, covering Solar Cycle (SC) 24 and the ascending phase of SC~25 through its maximum, and compares the results with SC~23 studied by \citet{Song+etal+2021}. Using data from the Solar Wind Ion Composition Spectrometer (SWICS) aboard the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE), we examined the average iron charge state ($\langle Q_{\rm Fe}\rangle$), ionic ratios (C$^{6+}$/C$^{5+}$ and O$^{7+}$/O$^{6+}$), and the elemental abundance ratio (Fe/O) for 307 ICMEs listed in the Richardson and Cane ICME catalog. The results show strong positive correlations of $\langle Q_{\rm Fe}\rangle$ ($r$~=~0.86) and O$^{7+}$/O$^{6+}$ ($r$~=~0.85) with the annual sunspot number (SSN), whereas C$^{6+}$/C$^{5+}$ exhibits a weak correlation ($r$~=~0.17) primarily due to SWICS~2.0 upper-end saturation truncation that suppresses the solar maximum signal, and Fe/O a moderate correlation ($r$~=~0.57). The Fe/O ratio, a proxy for the First Ionization Potential (FIP) effect, displayed elevated values during the maxima of both SC~24 and SC~25, suggesting enhanced elemental fractionation during periods of increased magnetic activity. Comparing with SC~23, we find that the overall solar cycle dependence of ICME composition persists across cycles, though with notable quantitative differences attributed to the different magnetic activity levels between cycles. These findings confirm that ICME compositional signatures are strongly modulated by the solar cycle.

The redshifted 21-cm line is a promising probe of the Epoch of Reionization, during which the first generation of stars ionized the InterGalactic Medium (IGM). We aimed to constrain the IGM neutral Hydrogen fraction and spin temperature via redshifted 21-cm absorption against high-redshift radio sources. We analysed an 18-hour observation of the radio-loud quasar PSO J352.4034-15.3373 ($z = 5.84$) in the 203-222.5 MHz band. We obtained a continuum image with a $0.66$ mJy/beam rms noise and a spectrum with $3.6$ mJy/beam rms noise per 390 kHz-wide channel. We fit the quasar spectrum with a power-law continuum modified by an intervening 21-cm absorption, testing two scenarios: an island model, a residual cold neutral Hydrogen patch surviving at the end of reionization, and a global model, approximating the overall decline of the IGM HI fraction and spin temperature with redshift. Combining archival data spanning 150 MHz to 3.0 GHz with our measurements, we determined a quasar flux density of $86.8 \pm 1.1$ mJy at 200 MHz and a spectral index of $-0.88 \pm 0.02$ across the full frequency range. We found no evidence for the 21-cm absorption from intervening neutral Hydrogen at $5.38<z<5.84$. Assuming the island model, we set a 95% confidence lower limit on the IGM spin temperature of $1.73$ K in residual HI regions. Assuming the global model, we constrained the 21-cm optical depth to $τ_{21}< 0.02$ (95% C.L.). These results provide constraints on the 21-cm optical depth near the end of reionization, over the $5.38 < z < 5.84$ range, and confirm that the IGM was heated above the adiabatic cooling limit ($\sim 0.8$ K at $z = 5.68$), consistent with theoretical predictions and with 21-cm power spectrum measurements at higher redshifts. Our results also disfavour the presence of extremely cold HI regions at $z < 5.84$ and open the way to future 21-cm absorption from high-redshift sources.

In Newtonian spacetime, the canonical description of a classical $N$-particle system requires $3N$ degrees of freedom. Not all of these are physical, however, since the conservation of the net momentum implies that only $3(N-1)$ accelerations are independent. Hence, three constraints can be used to eliminate the unphysical centre-of-mass variables, at the level of the Lagrangian, leaving only the subset of observable displacements and momenta, which are relational. Imposing the constraints does not change the dynamics of these variables, at the classical level, and is analogous to a gauge-fixing procedure, which removes redundancy in the description of the system. In classical physics, therefore, the number of physical degrees of freedom equals the number of independent relational degrees of freedom. Here, we show that this is not the case in quantum mechanics. While an operator-analogue of the classical net momentum exists, it cannot be used to impose constraints that restrict the degrees of freedom in the theory, without a loss of physical information. This means that all $3N$ canonical degrees of freedom are physical, even though only $3(N-1)$ of them are relational. We explore the physical consequences of the non-relational variables and show that they give rise to generalised uncertainty relations (GURs), for the relational quantities that define the quantum reference frame (QRF). Hence, it is shown that the non-relational degrees of freedom refer to the frame itself and that the non-Heisenberg terms in the GURs define its Galilean-invariant spreads, in both real space and momentum space. The implications of this result for recent work on relational models, including the ``perspective neutral'' framework for QRFs, are discussed. Its implications for the wider relational program, and, in particular, the relevance of the latter to quantum gravity research, are also critically assessed

While modified entropy models-such as Barrow, Tsallis, Kaniadakis,Power-law, Logarithmic, and Rényi entropies-have been widely explored in cosmological contexts, their implications on galactic scales remain largely untested. These generalizations of the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy encode quantum gravitational, nonextensive, or fractal spacetime effects and can alter the gravitational entropy-area relation. In this paper, we demonstrate that the entropic force framework, when applied to galactic rotation curves and the baryonic mass of galaxy clusters, uniquely selects Tsallis entropy as the specific generalized entropy formulation. We then extend this Tsallis modified gravity to globular clusters to complete the structural hierarchy from galaxies to galaxy clusters to globular clusters and to investigate its behavior as a function of system scale. We will show that the nonextensive parameter exhibits no correlation with any of the macroscopic quantities characterizing gravitational systems, such as mass, radius, temperature, or density. Furthermore, it has previously been shown that entropy is not well-defined within the standard thermodynamic approach to gravity. The adoption of nonextensive statistics provides a foundation for entanglement, thereby enabling a consistent definition of entanglement entropy. We predict the existence of galaxy clusters with $δ= 1$ (i.e., clusters whose dynamics require no dark matter) analogous to $δ= 1$ systems already observed at galactic and globular cluster scales. This prediction provides a unique observational test to discriminate Tsallis gravity from $Λ$CDM and MOND. Therefore, for the entropic gravity paradigm to be consistent with observational data across all scales-from globular clusters to galaxies to galaxy clusters-it is inevitably required to be built upon \textit{Tsallis} entropy.

Energy-momentum tensors are foundational objects which are uniquely defined in standard physical field theories such as electrodynamics and Yang-Mills theory. In general relativity, and in particular linearized gravity where symmetries required for an energy-momentum tensor derived from Noether's first theorem are well defined, there exists a long standing non-uniqueness problem; numerous distinct energy-momentum expressions exist in the literature, and there is not consensus which, if any, is the unique expressions for the theory. Recently, the viability of the superpotential `improvement' method was shown to be insufficient for addressing the non-uniqueness problem of energy-momentum tensors in linearized gravity. In the present article, the mathematical framework for the general set of Noetherian energy-momentum tensors in linearized gravity is derived using Noether's first theorem, which consists of all possible energy-momentum tensors from the Noether current which yield the linearized Einstein field equations in the corresponding Euler-Lagrange equation of the Noether identity without introducing any `improvement' terms. This result has several advantages in addition to not requiring `improvements', such as the ability to impact the Lagrangian proportional piece of the energy-momentum tensor. Numerous common published gravitational energy-momentum expressions are then compared to these general results to assess which can be classified as Noetherian, and which cannot. Standard physical criteria such as symmetry and tracelessness are then used to prove that it is possible to directly obtain an energy-momentum tensor which is simultaneously symmetric and traceless from the Noether current; such an expression is derived from the general results. Consequences of these results and their relation to the aforementioned non-uniqueness problem are discussed.

We show that the answer is generally no, at least not immediately. Bubble collisions leave behind a highly inhomogeneous scalar field with persistent relativistic gradients, producing an equation of state between matter and radiation. Using lattice simulations in one, two and three spatial dimensions, we find that the equation of state is controlled by the wall Lorentz factor at collision $γ_\star$: walls with larger $γ_\star$ populate higher-momentum modes and drive the fluid closer to radiation. Matter domination begins only after these modes redshift, at $a/a_\star \simeq γ_\star$, or after the field thermalises through self-scattering and number-changing processes. This delay has direct implications for gravitational waves, primordial black holes and dark matter production.

JWST has revealed galaxies at $z>10$ with extremely blue UV-continuum slopes approaching $β_{\rm UV}\lesssim-2.4$, and low inferred dust contents. At similar redshifts, JWST and ALMA reveal dusty massive systems reaching $β_{\rm UV}\gtrsim-1$. We aim to explain blue monsters and red monsters at $z\gtrsim10$ as different outcomes of supernova dust retention in clustered star-forming systems and connect this bimodality to dusty massive galaxies at $z\simeq6$--7. We model dust removal in a cluster-dominated regime through cloud-scale mechanical blowout followed by breakout from stratified high-redshift disks. The shock-processed dust mass retained in the UV-attenuating layer is converted into a UV-continuum slope using absorption opacities derived from 3D hydrodynamical simulations of clustered supernovae in porous molecular clouds. In compact, gas-rich galaxies, efficient cloud blowout and disk breakout reduce the retained dust fraction to blue-monster levels, yielding $β_{\rm UV}\lesssim-2.4$. Larger stellar masses increase the retained dust column and produce red-monster-like systems with $β_{\rm UV}\gtrsim-1.5$, reaching $β_{\rm UV}\simeq-0.5$ when radiative losses weaken large-scale driving. The transition depends on whether clustered-supernova ejecta cross both the natal cloud and the galactic gas layer. Supernova dust production, shock processing, radiative losses, and mechanical venting can jointly explain UV-bright dust-poor galaxies and red dusty massive systems across $6\lesssim z\lesssim14$.

In this work, we explore the potential of anchoring the age-redshift relation across cosmic time by probing the oldest star clusters at high redshift, now observed thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope in strongly lensed fields. As a case study, we consider one of the highest-redshift systems observed, the Cosmic Gems arc at $z=9.625$. We perform image deconvolution of multi-band JWST imaging, identifying a total of 20 point sources along the arc. We derive the stellar ages through a cosmology-independent spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting framework, ensuring that these measurements can be used as unbiased cosmological anchors. By combining these high-z systems with state-of-the-art local globular cluster ages, we perform a joint Bayesian fit to the age-redshift relation in a flat $Λ$CDM model, measuring $H_0=70^{+27}_{-16}\ \rm{km\ s^{-1}\ Mpc^{-1}}$ and $Ω_m=0.33^{+0.37}_{-0.21}$. While these constraints are still loose, we show that the slope of the degeneracy, a power-law in the $Ω_m - H_0$ plane, is highly dependent on the redshift of the sources, becoming shallower as redshift increases. Leveraging this geometric rotation, we present forecasts showing that a future sample of $\sim 300$ lensed proto-globular clusters well-distributed up to $z \approx 10$ could tighten the statistical precision to $4\%$ on $H_0$ and $11\%$ on $Ω_m$, competitive with and independent of methods currently in use. The present work, therefore, represents a new avenue in cosmology and comes at a timely moment, when JWST observes high-redshift lensed star clusters routinely, Euclid and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope uncover new strong lensing fields, and close to the start of operation of the ESO Extremely Large Telescope.

A real scalar field nonminimally coupled to the curvature of an astrophysical object can develop an effective potential that supports, alongside stable oscillatory solutions, a set of tachyonic modes with purely imaginary frequencies. Focusing on constant-density Newtonian stars, we show that the tachyonic sector behaves as a collection of decoupled inverted harmonic oscillators, whose quantization is naturally addressed within the rigged Hilbert space formalism. At the quantum level, this sector is described by resonant states, with mean lifetimes determined by the associated imaginary frequencies. To probe the physical implications of this framework, we compute the transition probability of an Unruh-DeWitt detector in a circular orbit. In the presence of tachyonic modes, the detector response acquires an additional finite Lorentzian profile that modifies the standard circular Unruh-like background.

Deviations from vacuum general relativity (such as modified theories or the presence of an environment) produce small shifts in black hole quasinormal mode (QNM) spectra. These effects are becoming increasingly relevant for gravitational wave astronomy as observations of ringdown spectra become more precise. The first-order frequency shift (in a small dimensionless coupling parameter) is now well understood, but no systematic framework exists to compute higher order corrections. The major obstacle is that QNMs do not form a complete basis due to the non-self-adjointness of the system. Nevertheless, it was recently shown that QNMs are orthogonal with respect to an appropriate bilinear form. In this work, we use the bilinear form to systematically lift Schrödinger perturbation theory to the black hole setting. We obtain a formula for quasinormal frequency shifts to any order, in terms of lower order mode shifts. We also provide a spectral decomposition of the first-order mode shift, which involves projections onto unperturbed QNMs along with continuous-spectrum contributions -- making incompleteness explicit. We illustrate the framework on slowly-spinning Kerr and Pöschl-Teller examples, where we find that the QNM sum itself diverges.

We introduce a novel class of field-theory models that provide a unified description of the dark sector as a single perfect fluid with vanishing sound speed. These models also admit the interpretation of cold dark matter interacting with vacuum energy while avoiding any phantom behavior and including standard $Λ$CDM as a particular case. Built upon a single scalar field invariant under transverse diffeomorphisms, the framework naturally implements the constraints imposed in the so called mimetic models. We analyze a particular simple example exhibiting an effectively evolving dark energy and find that it can reproduce the DESI best-fit CPL evolution with the same number of free parameters.

Studies of the Solar Neighborhood require spectroscopic follow-up of stars identified in astrometric surveys to fully characterize their physical properties. The SDSS-V Solar Neighborhood Census (SNC) is a dedicated program to observe stars within 100~pc. However, due to competing observing programs and fiber assignment constraints, the resulting sample carries severe and complex selection effects. A framework is presented for characterizing the selection function of the SDSS-V SNC relative to the Gaia Catalog of Nearby Stars (GCNS), along with a forward modeling method to infer the properties of stellar subpopulations across the GCNS-defined 100 pc sample. The selection function is based on a method that models the selection probability as a function of sky position, Gaia G magnitude, and BP-RP. The resulting detection probabilities faithfully reproduce the known survey planning logic. This work further introduces the concept of a "subpopulation probability" -- a grid of posterior estimates across the Hertzsprung-Russell (HR) diagram representing the likelihood that a GCNS member belongs to a given SDSS-V defined subpopulation. The framework is validated with a mock dataset and its scientific utility is demonstrated through two applications using data from the Data Release 19: mapping H$α$ emission across the HR diagram and measuring the variation of stellar density with mass and metallicity. These results illustrate how statistically robust population studies can be conducted with an incomplete spectroscopic survey when the selection function is well characterized. The code is made publicly available with this work, which will serve as an important tool for future studies.

We investigate the repetitive Penrose process in the spacetime of a Rastall rotating black hole surrounded by a quintessence dark energy field. After reviewing the fundamental properties of the black hole geometry, we formulate the repetitive Penrose process by deriving the conservation equations governing particle splitting within the ergoregion, along with the corresponding iterative evolution equations. The physical conditions required for terminating the energy extraction iterations are established, and the minimum spin thresholds of the decay particles are analyzed to identify the critical stopping criterion. Our analysis reveals that the termination of the repetitive Penrose process is consistently governed by Particle~$0$, which possesses the highest minimum spin threshold among all decay products. Numerical results further demonstrate that the dimensionless Rastall structure parameter $\hat{N}_s$ and the Rastall coupling parameter $α$ significantly influence the evolution of the energy extraction process. At the same decay radii increasing initial values of both parameters boosts the energy utilization efficiency and energy return on investment. Specifically, smaller values of $\hat{N}_s$ enhances the energy utilization efficiency at lower decay radii, shifts the maximum extracted energy toward lower decay radii, and accelerates the depletion of the remaining extractable energy reservoir. This indicates that the repetitive Penrose process is highly favored at lower decay radii. Smaller initial values of $\hat{N}_s$ yield a larger maximum energy return on investment. Similarly, increasing $α$ enhances the energy utilization efficiency, alters the location of the peak extracted energy, and reduces the total extractable energy. But the effects of $α$ on these energetics are very small as compared to $\hat{N}_s$.

We present a recipe for simulating one-dimensional quantum systems for low and high energies with $L$ qubits within the framework of first quantisation. Assuming a minimum grid spacing $ΔL$ in the finite-difference method, the generalised uncertainty principle (GUP) is derived analytically and shows distinct properties for low- and high-energy quantum systems. In the low-energy regime, the GUP approaches to the standard Heisenberg uncertainty principle (HUP) for $ ΔL \ll \hbar$. However, for finite $ΔL \neq 0$, the GUP mathematically provides three different regions dependent on the average momentum and suggests that a wavefunction can exhibit a single-point localisation at the finite momentum uncertainty due to lack of grid resolution. We then derive a new expression for the high-energy momentum and focus on two specific cases relevant to relativistic aspects. First, if the HUP is relaxed and the high-energy momentum is matched to the special-relativistic one, the resulting GUP predicts the existence of a minimum length with non-zero mass for high energy despite the continuous limit $ΔL = 0$. Second, enforcing consistency with the HUP allows the recovery of a canonical high-energy representation with no minimum length. But this requirement brings incompatibility with the special-relativistic momentum and suggests a modified energy-momentum equation. Therefore, we believe that the proposed momentum formulation provides a novel pathway to investigate quantum gravity phenomena for high energy using quantum simulation tools.

Brown dwarfs and gas-giant planets are expected to emit coherent radio emission via the electron cyclotron maser instability (ECMI) mechanism powered by non-thermal electrons in their magnetospheres. Detection of a characteristic spectral cutoff in their cyclotron emission is likely to be the only feasible route to measure their magnetic field strengths. Previous radio measurements of a subset of cold brown dwarfs (spectral type T or methane dwarfs) have not shown such a cutoff at frequencies as high as $\gtrsim 10\,{\rm GHz}$, implying field strengths far higher than canonical expectations from dynamo scaling laws. However, it is also possible that these high-frequency emissions did not originate in the large-scale magnetic field but rather from small high-field-strength loops at the surface, which the scaling laws are not designed to predict. Here we present radio observations of a methane dwarf binary (WISEP J101905.63+652954.2) whose radio emission was first detected in an untargeted low-frequency survey, making it more likely that the emission traces the object's large-scale magnetic field. The object's spectrum shows a clear radio spectral cutoff whose location yields a polar surface field strength of around 126 gauss. Canonical dynamo scaling laws based on energy balance now over-predict the field strength for this object, but the scaling law based on Lorentz-Coriolis force balance (Elsasser number rule) is consistent with the measurement. Our results suggest that multi-frequency (MHz to GHz) monitoring of brown-dwarf electron cyclotron maser emission is essential to separately measure the `mean field' on large scales and `fluctuating' fields on smaller spatial scales in order to determine the dynamo scaling law that most accurately predicts field generation in the metallic hydrogen layer of gas giants and cold brown dwarfs.

The physical origin of cosmic acceleration remains one of the central questions in modern cosmology. The integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) and Rees-Sciama (RS) effects, which arise from the evolution of gravitational potentials, provide a dynamical test of cosmic acceleration. We measure the cross correlation between the Planck temperature map of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and a foreground-free map of the $100\,μ\mathrm{m}$ cosmic infrared background (CIB) from Y.-K. Chiang (2023), using the $k$-nearest neighbor cumulative distribution function ($k$NN-CDF). As the CIB map is reconstructed from ${\sim}600$ million Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer galaxies extending to $z\approx2.5$, the measurement is equivalent to a galaxy-CMB cross correlation. We find evidence for a positive cross correlation, rejecting the null hypothesis of no correlation at $p=0.02~(2.3σ)$ using the $χ^2$ test. We further quantify its amplitude with $A_{k\mathrm{NN}}$, defined relative to an assumed cosmological model, and obtain $A_{k\mathrm{NN}}=0.95\pm0.20~(4.8σ)$ with respect to $Λ\mathrm{CDM}$ mock data including the ISW and RS effects. The $k$NN-CDF analysis improves the detection significance by ${\sim}20\%$ over the two-point correlation function. We also explore evolving dark energy by constructing two tomographic maps from the full CIB map; the results are consistent with $Λ$CDM. Finer tomographic reconstruction of the CIB, for example from multiband data of SPHEREx, would further tighten constraints on evolving dark energy.

Recent convincing evidence is found within asteroseismology that suggests the magnetic fields exist in three red giants. Research on small-scale magnetic fields in the Sun and HD 49385 has shown that they have a certain corrective effect on the systematic discrepancies between observed and theoretical frequencies. Here we apply a similar method applied for the Sun to a red giant, KIC 9145955, to explore the impact of small-scale magnetic fields in the photosphere on its frequencies. We find that the calculated frequencies of our best-fit model, which simulates the effect of the magnetic fields by artificially modifying the Eddington $T-τ$ relation, perfectly match those of the observed l = 0, 1, and 2 modes, indicating the existence of small-scale magnetic fields with an upper strength limit of 65 G and concentrating at a height 13,100 km in the photosphere. Based on the best-fit model, we revise the stellar parameters of KIC 9145955 as: $M = 1.23\pm0.04\,M_\odot$, $R = 5.57\pm0.06\,R_\odot$, $L = 19.85\pm0.5\,L_\odot$, $Age = 3.83\pm0.5$\,Gyr, $M_{\rm He} = 0.2108\pm0.0005M_\odot$, and $R_{\rm He} = 0.0306\pm0.0001R_\odot$.

A combination of recent observations and numerical simulations has called into question whether Sun's interior is characterized by strong turbulent convection, a problem known as convective conundrum. In light of a possible absence of vigorous convective motions, we examine whether the Sun's differential rotation, previously assumed to be tightly coupled to Reynolds stresses, may instead be sustained by the presence of a background latitudinal entropy gradient in thermal wind balance. By performing global hydrodynamical simulations of a rotating spherical shell representing the bulk of the solar convection zone, we demonstrate that solar-like differential rotation can be generated under a variety of thermal stratifications. This work proposes an alternative scenario for the origin of solar differential rotation that accommodates the previously reported discrepancies.

Reentrant phase transitions of accelerating anti-de Sitter black holes are known numerically, but their apparent loss at small string tension has lacked an analytic explanation. In the single-string ensemble at fixed pressure, charge, and tension, we solve the unrestricted two-phase Maxwell-turning problem for the charged slowly accelerating C-metric. Elimination forces the two horizon coordinates to coincide and yields a closed one-parameter locus. An exhaustive enumeration of the remaining equilibria establishes global phase selection throughout the physical black-hole sector. The locus exists for $0<μ<0.202602$, with no positive lower threshold. As $μ\to0$, the pressure and temperature widths of the reentrant window contract as the fourth and third powers of the tension, while the entropy gap and latent heat diverge. A two-chart blow-up gives a parameter-free limiting profile and identifies thermodynamic-volume inversion as the turning mechanism between two distinct noncritical phases. At a Maxwell boundary with fixed sheet incidence, projective Newton data of the thermodynamic jumps determine the leading coexistence profile. Their positive simple roots fix the turn count, order, and curvature signs; the C-metric realizes the primitive binomial class.

We study the effect of viscosity on the Sunyaev-Zeldovich signal in a simulated constrained Coma cluster analog. We aim to provide alternative constraints on the amount of viscosity in the ICM. We use the Coma cluster realization with different levels of viscosity from the LOWER DECKS zoom-ins of the SLOW constrained simulations. We generate mock thermal and kinetic Sunyaev-Zeldovich maps and and analyze their statistics. We compare them to Planck observations. Viscosity shows a consistent trend in thermal SZ (tSZ) profiles, increasing the signal in the center and suppressing it in the outskirts. Viscosity also has a strong effect on the tSZ power spectrum, elevating its amplitude on all scales. Comparisons with Planck observations suggest that the effective ICM viscosity is below $5\%$ of the Spitzer value. Unsharp masking reveals an effect on small scales, which are, however, not yet detectable with current observational data. The thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect shows clear and consistent trends that allow us to probe the effective viscosity of the ICM. Our analysis suggests suppressed ICM viscosity below $5\%$ of the Spitzer value, consistent with previous X-ray analysis. Our results validate the strength of the SZ effect as an independent method to constrain ICM viscosity.

In this paper, we show that the robustness of black hole stability is not preserved when the perturbations are disposed on some critical values of the coupling constant in two non-minimally coupled scalar-tensor models, in particular for a number of regular black holes. Using an analytical demonstration in the near-horizon approximation, we obtain exact expressions for the critical coupling constant in two models for which the instability will occur. The numerical analysis show that these critical values are consistent with the threshold points in time-domain profiles of field perturbations. At that threshold value, the effective potential of the Regge-Wheeler equation exhibits an extremum exactly on the location of event horizon. We also show that the real part of the quasi-normal frequencies vanish in the near-horizon regime at critical coupling constant -- recently addressed as purely imaginary modes. Finally, we recover the general area quantization of the spherical black holes at that critical coupling without invoking to highly-damped mode approximation and the result is independent of a specific coupling model.

Be stars are massive main-sequence stars rotating close to their breakup rate. They possess a decretion disc of material built up due to mass loss from the star, however, there is not a consensus to the mechanism responsible for the formation of the disc because of their sub-breakup spin rates. We present the first 2D hydrodynamical simulations of the formation of a Be star decretion disc from a rapidly rotating star due to boundary layer effects that reduce the rotation rate of the disc close to the star. In our simulations with a disc aspect ratio of $h/r=0.1$, a decretion disc forms around a star rotating with $80 \%$ of the breakup rate, but fails when rotating at $70 \%$ of the breakup rate. For a thinner disc, a faster stellar spin may be needed to form a dynamically important decretion disc. We also demonstrate good agreement between 1D and 2D models. Although this work does not consider the presence of magnetic fields and the angular momentum transport is through viscosity, our results robustly show a Be star disc may be built up hydrodynamically through boundary layer effects, and may play an essential role in regulating the stellar spin.

We present precise radial-velocity (RV) observations of the K-type red supergiant HD~216946 (V424 Lac) obtained over approximately 22 years with the Bohyunsan Optical Astronomy Observatory Echelle Spectrograph (BOES). The RV measurements reveal a significant long-period variability with a period of 1365 days. To investigate its origin, we analyzed the RV data together with line-profile variations (LPVs), chromospheric activity indicators, and published photometric variability. The LPVs exhibit periods of approximately 1370--1380 days, while the Na~D lines show a similar periodicity near 1355 days, both comparable to the RV period. In contrast, the H-line indicators display longer periods of 2730--2800 days, approximately twice the RV period. The close correspondence between the RV variations and the activity-related diagnostics strongly suggests that the 1365-day RV signal is primarily linked to chromospheric activity and extended atmospheric variability rather than arising from purely Keplerian motion. Published photometric studies also report additional long-period variability, including a 1601-day long secondary-period (LSP)-like variation. The coexistence of multiple non-identical periods indicates that the observed variability of HD~216946 is unlikely to originate from a single physical mechanism. We therefore interpret HD~216946 as a multiperiodic red supergiant in which several intrinsic stellar processes coexist. The observed variability is most likely dominated by chromospheric activity and large-scale atmospheric dynamics, possibly accompanied by rotational modulation and LSP-like variability, although the presence of a low-mass stellar companion cannot be completely excluded.

We investigate the quasinormal modes of scalar and Maxwell field perturbations coupled to the Einstein tensor in generalized Nariai spacetimes. Our results show that, for both types of perturbations, the coupling introduces different critical values, which separate the frequency spectrum into distinct branches. Near these critical values, the square-root term that determines $ω_R^2$ may change sign, giving rise to a parameter interval in which the modes are purely imaginary. Away from this regime, the coupling affects the oscillatory parts of the two fields in opposite ways: $ω_R^2$ generally increases with the coupling constant $η$ for the scalar field, whereas it decreases with $η$ for the Maxwell field. The magnetic charge tends to enhance the oscillatory response, while increasing the spacetime dimension narrows the purely imaginary regime. This comparison shows analytically that the same curvature coupling can affect scalar and Maxwell perturbations in qualitatively different ways.

An analysis of the distribution of signs of the longitudinal magnetic field component $B_z$ is presented for a sample of 307 chemically peculiar (CP) stars with reliably measured magnetic fields. For each star, the root-mean-square field $B_{\rm rms}$ and the extreme values of $B_z$ are used to classify the field configuration as either reversive or non-reversive. Among the 173 non-reversive stars, 100 exhibit a predominantly negative $B_z$ sign, while only 73 display a positive sign, corresponding to an excess of negative polarities by a factor of about 1.37. A subsample of stars with at least five independent measurements (254 objects) yields a similar ratio of 1.38, confirming the robustness of the asymmetry. The observed predominance of negative $B_z$ values among non-reversive CP stars in the solar neighbourhood is statistically significant. Possible origins of this asymmetry remain unclear and will be addressed in future studies.

The goal of this paper is to compare the Wheeler-DeWitt approach, understood in a broad sense, with an alternative one, the so-called extended phase space approach to quantization of gravity. By "the Wheeler-DeWitt approach", I mean not only quantum geometrodynamics formulated by DeWitt in his seminal paper of 1967, but also any approach to quantization of gravity based on the Wheeler-DeWitt equation in some form. Since the Wheeler-DeWitt equation is a direct consequence of the Dirac formalism, its analysis requires examination of the latter and its application to gravity. In particular, I argue that there is a contradiction between canonical quantization and the idea put forward by founders of quantum gravity that, in this theory, all possible spacetime topologies should be taken into account. The path integral approach seems to be more adequate then the canonical approach. However, to derive the Wheeler-DeWitt equation from the path integral, most authors make the assumption about asymptotic states, that again contradicts the supposition of arbitrary spacetime topology. The extended phase space formalism is entirely based on the path integral approach. Note that if one refuses the assumption about asymptotic states, one cannot prove the gauge invariance of the path integral, and the Wheeler-DeWitt equation loses its sense. In the alternative approach, one derives the Schrodinger equation instead. Thus, the extended phase space approach is really beyond the Wheeler-DeWitt approach. The features of this alternative approach are explored with special emphasis on conclusions that cannot be obtained by using the Wheeler-DeWitt quantum geometrodynamics.

Improving sub-Hz sensitivity of gravitational wave (GW) detectors is important to detect heavier binary black hole mergers and study phenomena in stronger gravity fields. Torsion-bar-based GW detectors have been projected to focus on low-frequency GW. Among noise sources of GW detector, actuation noise induced by vibration of force sources and fluctuation of environmental magnetic fields is one that increases in low frequency. In this study, we propose photon-pressure actuator as a solution to isolate an actuator from seismic and magnetic noise. It can also be used as a photon calibrator. We designed an optical layout of the photon-pressure actuator having four beams independently controlled and applied it to CHRONOS experiment. Based on a realistic power control system, we estimated its maximum torque amplitude around yaw rotation axis as $1.0\times 10^{-8}$ N$\cdot$m and actuation efficiency as $6.6\times 10^{-13}$ rad/V, which are sufficiently large for controlling the CHRONOS torsion bar. The actuation noise was estimated as $5.3\times 10^{-19}$ rad ${\rm Hz}^{-1/2}$ at 1 Hz, lower than the target sensitivity of CHRONOS. Assuming its usage as a photon calibrator, the estimated systematic error was 1.14%.

We have conducted a near-infrared monitoring campaign at the UK InfraRed Telescope (UKIRT), of the Local Group spiral galaxy M33 (Triangulum). In this sixth paper of the series, we measure the dust and gas mass-loss rates by the pulsating Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars and red supergiants (RSGs) across the stellar disc of M33. We combined our time-averaged near-IR photometry with the multi-epoch mid-IR photometry obtained with the Spitzer Space Telescope, and employed a combination of spectral energy distribution modelling and scaling relations. We found that the mass-loss rate is approximately proportional to luminosity (birth mass), with additional weaker dependence on pulsation period and/or amplitude (reflecting stellar evolution). As a population, AGB stars contribute most to the mass return into the interstellar medium (ISM). Super-AGB stars also reach very high mass-loss rates, in excess of $10^{-4}$ M$_\odot$ yr$^{-1}$. The mass loss of RSGs appears to be subject to different modes, with rates well below, around, and well above the nuclear burning timescale. The timescale for the dominant mass loss phase is $\sim0.6$-$2\times10^5$ yr, shorter than the thermal-pulsing AGB or RSG phases. The rate at which stars return mass to the ISM, $\sim0.1$ M$_\odot$ yr$^{-1}$ is about four times lower than the star formation rate, which would deplete the current ISM mass within about a Gyr, thus requiring additional, external gas supplies to sustain the long-term future of star formation in M33.

We report on the measurement of the height-dependent time shifts of wave pulses in the lower solar atmosphere from high-resolution spectro-polarimetric observations obtained with the SUSI instrument on board the SUNRISE III balloon-borne solar observatory during its successful science flight in July 2024. The line-of-sight velocities derived from the line-core positions of 19 spectral lines in a 2 nm-wide window around the Ca II H line were used to determine the time shifts of propagating pulses at their respective formation heights. Our analysis reveals that these shifts are roughly ordered according to the computed formation heights of the respective spectral lines. A statistical analysis of the time shifts using sit-and-stare observations with a total duration of one hour reveals that wave pulses propagating upwards from near the solar surface to heights of approximately 500-700 km are most common, with average time lags of 20 s to 30 s between these heights. Also present are pulses with close-to-zero phase shifts, predominantly above intergranular lanes and areas of enhanced magnetic activity. Additionally, downward propagating wave pulses with negative time lags of 10 s to 15 s are seen, mostly above areas of enhanced magnetic activity. A common feature of all the observed pulses is that in the lower 250 km they show small time lags of zero to a few seconds, and only at higher layers do the propagating pulses become more dominant. This study demonstrates the potential of the many-line approach for investigating the height dependence of the physical conditions in the solar atmosphere.

The metric theory of spacetimes studies Lorentzian manifolds using tools of metric geometry. This is achieved via the null distance, which is a definite distance constructed from a time function on a spacetime. This enables the study of Gromov-Hausdorff-type convergence of spacetimes, a program recently initiated by Sakovich and Sormani. In this paper we study such notions of convergence for cosmological spacetimes with compact slices, i.e., $(a,b)\times M$ endowed with a Lorentzian metric $-dt^2+h_t$, where $h_t$ is a family of Riemannian metrics on the compact manifold $M$. Assuming mild extension properties of $h_t$, we first establish that these spacetimes are causally-null compactifiable and future developed. We then study monotone sequences with a uniform upper bound on the spatial diameter, obtaining uniform convergence of the null distances, as well as convergence of the associated timed metric spaces in the future developed Gromov-Hausdorff sense. Finally, we prove that causally-null compactifiable spacetimes satisfying a mild causal accessibility condition are causally-null, and relate the causally-null distance induced by the limit distance with the null distance induced by the (possibly non-smooth) limit metric tensor. Examples are provided to motivate the necessity of our hypotheses.

Detection of primordial $B$-mode polarization in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) from tensor perturbations generated during inflation is a major scientific goal of future CMB missions. Its success will strongly depend on the characterization of polarized foregrounds, a challenge that the LiteBIRD satellite aims to tackle with its 15 frequency bands ranging from 40 to 402 GHz. In this work, we forecast the ability of LiteBIRD to characterize polarized dust and synchrotron emission in the diffuse interstellar medium (ISM), at the angular power spectrum level. From simulated LiteBIRD intensity and polarization maps with different foreground complexities, we compute cross-frequency angular power spectra and fit them to dust and synchrotron spectral energy distributions, which are modeled by a modified black body and a power law, respectively. We find that LiteBIRD will be able to measure the dust temperature, dust and synchrotron spectral indices and spatial correlation with dispersions as low as $σ(T_{\rm d})\sim0.2$ K, $σ(β_{\rm d})\sim0.006$, $σ(β_{\rm s})\sim0.04$ and $σ(ρ)\sim10^{-2}$, as well as to detect and quantify deviations from the proposed parametric model due to variations of the emission properties in the three dimensions of our Galaxy. Additionally, LiteBIRD is likely to rule out the power-law model of polarized foreground angular power spectra suggested by Planck data. It will also be able to detect differences in the values of $β_{\rm d}$, $T_{\rm d}$, and $β_{\rm s}$ between $E$ modes, $B$ modes, and intensity in the diffuse ISM for the first time, highlighting the joint variations of the physical conditions and the magnetic field structure across the Galaxy. We conclude that in addition to detailed studies of CMB polarization, LiteBIRD will open a new window onto the physical conditions governing the ISM of the Milky Way.

A graviton can be converted into a phonon in a resonant bar detector. First-order perturbation theory predicts a strong enhancement of this conversion for coherent and squeezed graviton states, but the probability can exceed unity when the coherent or squeezing parameter is large. Since a conversion probability must satisfy the unitarity bound, we solve the graviton-phonon quantum dynamics exactly within the rotating-wave approximation. For an initial coherent state, we find that the conversion occurs intermittently through narrow bursts separated by intervals of strong suppression. For an initial squeezed state, the departure from perturbative behavior occurs earlier, and the conversion is strongly suppressed after its initial growth. These effects may provide signatures of quantum graviton-phonon dynamics relevant to single-graviton detection.

It is an old idea that higher-dimensional super-gravity (SuGra) is put on-shell just by imposing Bianchi identities on super-field strengths over super-spacetimes subject to super-torsion constraints. We give a modernized, rigorous account and review recent developments, pointing out how this perspective lends itself to the construction of infrared completions of SuGra by electromagnetic flux quantization in differential nonabelian cohomology theories $\mathcal{A}_{\mathrm{dff}}$ lifting the coefficient $L_\infty$-algebra $\mathfrak{l}\mathcal{A}$ of the super-Bianchi identities. After surveying necessary background, we highlight: (1.) our recent proof that solutions of 11D SuGra are equivalent to the $\mathfrak{l}S^4$-Bianchi identities on super $C$-field flux over super-torsion-free 11D super-spacetimes, (2.) how from this the nonlinearly self-dual gauge sector on 6D M5-brane worldvolumes is equivalent to the $\mathfrak{l}_{S^4}S^7$-Bianchi identity on super $B$-field flux, (3.) and the recent complete discussion of superspace dimensional reduction of this situation to 10D IIA SuGra via $\mathfrak{l}\mathrm{Cyc}(S^4)$-Bianchi identities on super NS/RR-flux, together with its extension to further reduction to 9 SuGra via $\mathfrak{l}\mathrm{Tor}(S^4)$-Bianchis on the corresponding super-fluxes. We close by indicating how this implies consistent infrared completions of 11D SuGra by $C$-field flux quantization in 4-Cohomotopy, of 10D IIA SuGra by NS/RR-field flux-quantization in a form of twisted unstable K-theory, and of M5-brane worldvolumes by $B$-field flux-quantization in twisted (twistorial) relative Cohomotopy. The latter admits geometric engineering of experimentally relevant topological quantum orders.

The gauge symmetry breaking $SU(2) \to U(1) \to Z_2 \to 1$ successively produces monopoles, strings and domain walls bounded by strings (WBS), with the elementary monopole carrying a $U(1)$ magnetic flux twice as large as the elementary string. The elementary strings and subsequently WBS emit gravitational waves, and during their decay, the WBS yield a network of composite strings that carry the same $U(1)$ flux as the monopoles. Depending on the cosmological evolution, we provide the gravitational wave spectra generated by the elementary strings and WBS, in combination with the composite strings which are either effectively stable, quasistable, or metastable. These three scenarios are also realized in the symmetry breaking chain $SU(3) \to SO(3) \to Z_2 \to 1$. Both $SU(2)$ and $SU(3)$ have appeared in the literature as flavor gauge symmetries.

The field equations of Conformal Gravity (CG) are constructed from fourth-order derivatives of the metric. While the second-order field equations of General Relativity (GR) reduce to a second-order Poisson equation in the weak-field limit, those of CG yield a fourth-order one. Despite this, works by Tanhayi, Fathi, and Takook [Mod. Phys. Lett. A 26, 2403 (2011)], Payandeh and Fathi [Int. J. Th. Phys. 51, 2227 (2012)], and Fathi, Olivares, and Villanueva [Galaxies 9, 43 (2021)] use second-order Poisson equations to generate purported solutions to CG in a weak-field limit. We demonstrate that these solutions are erroneous due to the use of second-order Poisson equations instead of appropriate fourth-order ones. We also point out other inconsistencies in the derivations of these metrics, such as the assertion that known CG (electro)vacuum solutions describe the interiors of matter distributions.

The terminal-velocity paradigm has long been used to interpret the motion and infer the distances of HVCs accreting onto the Milky Way, yet its validity under realistic Galactic conditions remains uncertain. We investigate its dynamical limits by combining analytical modelling with three-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations of clouds moving through a stratified Milky Way halo. We derive a generalized equation of motion including gravity, ram-pressure drag, a phenomenological mass-exchange model capturing mass loss and growth, and Bernoulli-driven cloud expansion. Analytical solutions for constant-property clouds provide a reference framework, while the full evolution is assessed using simulations with adiabatic physics, radiative cooling, and thermal conduction. Terminal velocity is a local equilibrium but not a global attractor: dense clouds remain quasi-ballistic over most of their trajectories and approach terminal motion only shortly before reaching the Galactic disc. Hydrodynamical effects further limit the paradigm. In adiabatic flows, instabilities rapidly disrupt the cloud, rendering the terminal-velocity description inapplicable. Radiative cooling instead promotes condensation and momentum loading, maintaining strong coupling to the background gas and restoring a terminal-velocity-like regime over extended periods, while thermal conduction mainly affects small-scale structure. Synthetic observables, including position--velocity diagrams, optical extinction, and soft X-ray emission, reproduce key features of observed HVCs such as velocity bridges and compression-driven emission. We also provide direct measurements of the effective drag coefficient for infalling clouds, finding values of order unity but strongly time-dependent. Overall, the terminal-velocity paradigm is a conditional description governed by cloud structure, mass exchange, and the ambient medium.

Pulsar glitches are thought to originate when angular momentum is transferred to the crust of the neutron star from the superfluid enclosed within, mediated by vortex avalanches. This idea has been qualitatively validated in the existing literature by simulating a star with a small number ($\sim 10^{3}$) of superfluid vortices, subject to deceleration and uniform pinning. Here, we employ the Barnes-Hut approximation to simulate up to $10^{5}$ vortices in a reasonable time. Using the new setup, we probe glitches that originate in the presence of inhomogeneous pinning. The inner crust of a neutron star is expected to crack as the star spins down, relieving stresses and resulting in rearrangements within the crustal lattice. These regions become centres for pinning with large pinning energies. Many such vortex traps are expected to exist in mature pulsars like Vela. We simulate one such star and find that the rise of the glitch is now staggered, a clear signature of the trap network. In young to middle-aged stars like PSR J0537-6910, we expect quakes which result in new traps and also unpin the vortices in existing ones. We observe that such a configuration involving the simultaneous release of several traps could introduce a bimodality in the glitch-size distribution, a feature that has previously been reported for PSR J0537-6910. Our simulations also indicate that macroscopic inhomogeneities in the distribution of vortices could spontaneously develop in a star with uniform pinning sites.

We study primordial black-hole (PBH) formation in a single-field model which passes from slow roll, through a transient ultra-slow-roll phase, into kination. Nonlinear numerical-relativity simulations are used to follow localised, initially sub-Hubble field fluctuations across the non-attractor transition, to determine the resulting super-Hubble curvature profiles, and subsequently to evolve their re-entry during kination. Within the set of initial configurations explored here, we find three qualitatively distinct outcomes, namely a patch which remains trapped in inflation, a positive-curvature overdensity, and a negative-curvature void bounded by an overdense shell. Each may form a PBH, although by a different physical mechanism. For one selected profile in each of the overdense and void channels, we measure collapse thresholds and compare them with thresholds for sinc profiles. The comparison shows that neither the central curvature nor the peak linear compaction alone provides a profile- or channel-independent collapse criterion. PBH abundances in non-attractor models must therefore be formulated in terms of the distribution of complete profiles, with the trapped, overdense, and void channels treated separately.

In this work, we investigate the quantum entanglement properties of analog Hawking radiation produced by a moving mirror. Using two detector modes defined through window functions on a quantum field, we quantify the bipartite entanglement established between these modes. Our results reveal that the amount of entanglement accessible to the detectors increases when the mirror follows trajectories with non-monotonic, time-dependent acceleration, which are accompanied by the emission of negative energy flux. This indicates that the negative energy flux acts as a channel through which information can be returned. To substantiate this perspective, we examine how the recovery or reconstruction of the associated partner modes is related to the negative energy flux emitted by the mirror.

Detecting planetary companions around evolved stars, particularly asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars, is challenging due to intrinsic stellar variability such as surface convection, pulsations, and mass loss, which can produce radial velocity (RV) signals that mimic Keplerian motion. We investigate the origin of long-period, low-amplitude RV variations observed in the AGB star HD 216595 based on high-resolution spectroscopic data spanning approximately 16 years obtained with the Bohyunsan Optical Astronomy Observatory Echelle Spectrograph (BOES) and the Las Cumbres Observatory Network of Robotic Echelle Spectrographs (NRES) instruments. The RV measurements reveal a statistically significant periodic signal at 567 days that can be described by a Keplerian model consistent with a substellar companion. However, no strong correlations are found between the RV variations and stellar activity indicators, including line bisectors, chromospheric activity, and photometric variability, although weak signals at similar timescales are present in some diagnostics. Given the stellar properties of HD 216595 and similarities to previously reported cases, the observed RV variations are likely related to intrinsic stellar processes, although a companion-induced origin cannot be definitively ruled out. Further progress will require improved diagnostics and more sophisticated modeling to disentangle stellar variability from genuine orbital signals.

We present a formulation of outer and inner boundary conditions for radial non-adiabatic pulsations in AGB/post-AGB envelopes in terms of local structure of pulsation equations. This approach provides a framework to construct classes of boundary condition selectors. We show that the pulsation spectrum is primarily determined by the choice of the outer boundary selector. Different choices of the two-dimensional subspace at the outer boundary lead to different types of pulsation spectra ranging from p-mode like spectra to ones including strongly excited and damped strange modes. Our results show that the outer boundary conditions control the degree of coupling between acoustic and entropy components in the solution. Selectors dominated by slow (non-acoustic) branches lead to strongly non-adiabatic behavior and emergence of strongly excited/damped strange modes, while selectors including acoustic branches result in weaker coupling and more classical looking spectra. At the inner boundary we found that it is sufficient to enforce that the solution resides in a two-dimensional subspace allowed by the local pulsation equations. This ensures regular behavior and compatibility with WKB asymptotics in deep parts of the envelope. Once this condition is met the detailed form of the inner boundary selector has only minor influence on the resulting pulsation spectrum. We also compare the obtained spectra with those obtained using standard boundary conditions to show that the variations in excitation rates of strange modes reported previously may be interpreted in terms of the subspaces selected by the outer boundary.

The light-cone (LC) effect introduces line-of-sight (LoS) statistical inhomogeneity into the 21-cm signal. Consequently, the traditional power spectrum (PS) fails to capture the full two-point statistical information. The evolving power spectrum (ePS), $P_e(k, z)$, offers an alternative that accounts for this LoS evolution. We compare the statistical power of three different summary statistics: the standard cylindrical PS $P(k_\perp,k_\parallel)$, slice-wise PS $P_s(k, z)$ (3D PS for small bandwidth LC slices), and ePS $P_e(k, z)$. We first demonstrate that $P_e(k,z)$ successfully recovers the benchmark 3D PS of coeval simulations across most $k$ and $z$, whereas the slice-wise PS recovers only at large $k$. To efficiently perform parameter inference, we train artificial neural network (ANN) emulators on $500$ LC 21-cm signals. Our forecasts incorporate cosmic variance, estimated using $50$ statistically independent realizations of the signal, alongside SKA-Low system noise for integration times of $1000$ and $104$ hrs. We find that ePS outperforms its peers, yielding $3$ and $1.4$ times tighter constraints than $P(k_\perp,k_\parallel)$ and $P_s(k,z)$, respectively. Our results establish the ePS as an optimal summary statistic for interpreting forthcoming data.

We present a diffusion-based generative model for constructing realistic galaxy catalogues from dark matter density fields. The model takes a three-dimensional dark matter density field as input and generates galaxies directly as a point cloud with positions and physical properties, including star formation rate (SFR), without identifying dark matter haloes or subhaloes. We train the model on galaxy catalogues from the IllustrisTNG hydrodynamical simulation. The generated catalogues reproduce the spatial correspondence between galaxies and the underlying dark matter field, preferentially populating dense regions and filamentary structures. They also accurately reproduce the one- and two-dimensional distributions of SFR and stellar mass, the galaxy auto-power spectrum, and the galaxy--dark matter cross-power spectrum. The model generates galaxies associated with structures below the nominal resolution of the input density field by marginalising over unresolved small-scale structure rather than relying on a resolved halo catalogue. With an optimised diffusion sampling schedule, it generates a catalogue with SFR $> 1 ~\rm M_\odot/yr$ over a $(151.3 ~\rm Mpc)^3$ volume in approximately 10 seconds on a single GPU. Our model therefore provides a practical engine for producing large mock ensembles for upcoming galaxy redshift surveys and line-intensity mapping experiments, and offers a path toward simulation-based inference that bypasses halo finding and directly connects field-level dark matter statistics to observable galaxy populations.

Chromosome maps (ChMs) are two-dimensional diagrams of UV/optical pseudocolours widely used to diagnose the multiple stellar populations (MPs) phenomenon in globular clusters. Their raw morphology is affected by the metallicity-dependent response of the photometric filters, preventing unbiased comparisons across clusters of different metallicities. We identify a cross-cluster ChM framework that accounts for this dependence, enabling an unbiased investigation of the physical drivers of MP diversity. We analyse ChMs for 23 Galactic globulars and devise a technique to correct the raw maps for the clusters' different metallicities. On the resulting "universal" ChM we define a new photometric enrichment index $S_{\rm ChM,z}$, validated against APOGEE spectroscopy. We compare this index with cluster masses, structural parameters, orbital quantities, and accretion-origin classifications. $S_{\rm ChM,z}$ correlates with the multivariate chemical abundance ranges of the enriched population and with the aluminium spread. Across the sample it increases with initial mass but correlates most strongly with a family of orbital-confinement quantities ($z_{\max}$, vertical action, apocentre, Galactocentric radius, orbital energy). The corrected ChMs provide a chemically meaningful, population-level measure of the enriched sequence. $S_{\rm ChM,z}$ does not trace a single abundance ratio but captures the cluster-to-cluster amplitude of the combined light-element variations, with particular sensitivity to the high-temperature Mg-Al/O component of proton-capture processing. Its dependence on both cluster potential depth and orbital confinement suggests that 2P chemical diversity is shaped by internal enrichment physics together with an environmental imprint, whether inherited at formation, modified by early evolution, or filtered by subsequent orbital survival.

We investigate the thermodynamic properties of the cosmological apparent horizon in Gauss-Bonnet quasi-dilaton massive gravity. We derive the modified Friedmann equations and reformulate them in standard form, thereby allowing us to study the first and second laws of thermodynamics for the apparent horizon. Both equilibrium and non-equilibrium states are considered. In the equilibrium description, the first law retains the conventional form with the Bekenstein-Hawking area law for the horizon entropy, and we show that the generalized second law is satisfied under the null energy condition. In the non-equilibrium description, the Wald entropy receives a correction from the Gauss-Bonnet coupling, and the first law acquires an additional term associated with using the Wald entropy representation of the Gauss-Bonnet sector. We demonstrate that the total entropy change is non-negative provided the null energy condition, the positive horizon temperature condition, and the Gauss-Bonnet positivity constraints $ξ(σ)\ge0$ are simultaneously satisfied. Furthermore, we investigate the holographic entropy bound $S_{\text{inside}} \le S_{\text{horizon}}$. We demonstrate that while the idealized local thermal equilibrium assumption leads to a formal saturation or apparent breakdown during dust-dominated eras, the bound is robustly preserved across all cosmological epochs when utilizing realistic physical fluid temperatures. The condition $ξ(σ)\ge0$ is shown to be compatible with the stability constraints derived from tensor perturbations in our previous work. Our results establish that Gauss-Bonnet quasi-dilaton massive gravity is a consistent modified gravity theory from the perspective of horizon thermodynamics and the holographic principle.

BabyIAXO, a pathfinder for the International Axion Observatory (IAXO), is designed to demonstrate all key technologies at scale while achieving an improvement in sensitivity over the recent CERN Axion Solar Telescope (CAST) experiment by approximately a factor of five. Such improvement is enabled by the X-ray optics, which allow for maintaining a high signal-to-noise ratio at the detector despite a cross-sectional area of the magnetic bore being over 250 times larger than that of CAST. The optic employs a hybrid design consisting of co-aligned inner core and outer corona optics that share a common optical axis and vacuum vessel but differ in focal length and manufacturing approach. Both are segmented glass optics, with the inner core fabricated from thermally slumped borosilicate glass and the outer corona from cold-slumped Corning Willow glass. To fabricate the inner-core optic, leveraging techniques developed for NuSTAR and HEFT optics, we reoptimized and streamlined the thermal-forming procedure. The quality of free-standing glass substrates was characterized by laser metrology, X-ray reflectometry, and atomic force microscopy. We developed a cutting technique that produces smooth edges at the micron scale. We used flat stacks of glass-epoxy-graphite layers to evaluate the performance of the epoxy bondline. The optic is expected to achieve an on-axis point spread function (PSF) with a half-power diameter (HPD) of < 90", enhancing the signal-to-noise ratio by more than 55 times.

Dark Energy (DE) and Dark Matter (DM) are among the greatest mysteries in particle physics and cosmology, since their origins remain unclear. It is intriguing to consider whether both may originate from a purely gravitational sector. We propose that they arise from degrees of freedom associated with the partners of the Brans-Dicke boson in No-Scale Gravity, a fundamental scale-invariant gravitational theory in which the Planck scale is illusional. We consider the Brans-Dicke boson, together with two scalar fields, to form a vector multiplet under an $O(3)$ symmetry, whose angular directions in the Einstein frame are identified with DM and DE. Small explicit breaking of $O(3)$ generates their masses and interaction, and we show that the resulting model reproduces the required background cosmological evolution and present-day abundances, with the lighter field providing a dynamical DE component at late times. Although the DE field remains canonical, the interacting cosmology exhibits an effective phantom-like evolution at late times, of the type suggested by DESI in combination with other cosmological probes, without introducing a fundamental phantom degree of freedom. The model provides a first-principles realization of interacting DE, in which DM, DE, and their coupling emerge from the symmetry structure of the underlying gravitational theory.

Line intensity mapping (LIM) offers a tomographic view of galaxy evolution by measuring the aggregate emission from unresolved galaxies. In the optical and near-infrared, the line emission is accompanied by much brighter continuum emission that must be removed to recover line auto- and cross-power spectra. We develop a forward-modeling framework using a $\sim2$deg$^2$ lightcone drawn from a cosmological $N$-body simulation populated with galaxies using a physics-based semi-analytic model (SAM). We construct intensity maps for the stellar continuum and for the strongest optical lines, H$α$, H$β$, [O III] $\lambda5007$, and [O II] $\lambda3727$, including nebular dust attenuation tied to galaxy properties. From these cubes, we measure cross-channel angular power spectra, $C_\ell(λ_i,λ_j)$, and the normalized correlation matrix $r_{ij}$. In line-only maps, the correlation matrices show same-redshift ridges between emission lines, demonstrating how multi-line intensity mapping (MLIM) can isolate large-scale structure and probe dust attenuation. We show that dust suppresses the line cross-power by an amount that depends on galaxy properties, wavelength, and line pair, so a single overall amplitude cannot capture its effect. In total maps, however, the continuum dominates the raw correlations and hides much of the line-ridge structure. We therefore apply principal component analysis (PCA)-based spectral cleaning and quantify the line-transfer function using the simulation truth. Removing 20 PCA modes gives the best trade-off between line recovery and continuum suppression in our mock maps. Our results demonstrate the promise and challenges of extracting dust-sensitive LIM observables from SPHEREx-like observations, and highlight the need to model continuum cleaning and its transfer function in quantitative inference pipelines.

We present a multi-redshift Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) analysis of the DESI Data Release 2 (DR2) Lyman-$α$ (Ly$α$) forest, splitting the forest auto-correlation and its cross-correlation with quasars into three redshift bins. We obtain BAO measurements at effective redshifts $z_{\rm eff} = 2.13$, $2.40$, and $2.81$ with $\sim2.0$--$2.5\%$ precision per bin in the radial and transverse directions, corresponding to $\sim1.1$--$1.2\%$ precision for the isotropic BAO measurement. Using the same data products and modeling framework as the DESI DR2 Ly$α$ BAO analysis, we validate the pipeline on $400$ synthetic datasets and find unbiased BAO recovery with well-calibrated uncertainties. The measurements show an increase in the isotropic dilation parameter $D_V/r_d$ from $30.26\pm0.39$ to $32.22\pm0.47$ and in the Alcock-Paczyński parameter $D_M/D_H$ from $3.96\pm0.15$ to to $5.63^{+0.22}_{-0.24}$. The Hubble distance $D_H/r_d$ decreases from $9.40\pm0.20$ to $7.22\pm0.17$, providing a direct measurement of the expansion history consistent with $Λ$CDM and the expected matter-dominated scaling, with $H(z)\propto(1+z)^n$ giving $n=1.34\pm0.16$. The redshift split also provides a self-consistent measurement of clustering evolution: the Ly$α$ forest bias evolves as $(1+z)^γ$ with $γ_α=3.05\pm0.16$, the RSD parameter has a redshift evolution described by $γ_β=-0.97\pm0.26$, and the quasar bias evolves with $γ_Q=1.56\pm0.23$, consistent with independent quasar clustering measurements. Combining these three-bin BAO measurements with DESI DR2 galaxy and quasar BAO measurements yields cosmological constraints consistent with the single-bin Ly$α$ BAO analysis in flat $Λ$CDM and $w_0w_a$CDM and improves curvature constraints by $\sim12\%$ in $Λ$CDM$+Ω_K$.

We characterize traversable wormholes in Unimodular Gravity (UG) and investigate what distinguishes them from their General Relativistic (GR) counterparts. For a class of static and spherically symmetric solutions, we analyze their embedding and timelike geodesics, showing that the geodesic structure is entirely determined by the metric and is therefore identical in both theories. To identify the physical origin of their differences, we compare the source sectors required to sustain the same wormhole geometry. We find that preserving a fixed UG geometry while imposing energy-momentum conservation requires restricting the equation of state, whereas relaxing this condition introduces an effective inhomogeneous vacuum contribution. We further show that the degree of exoticity is preserved even when energy-momentum is not conserved, while departures from the GR sector are encoded in an effective inhomogeneous vacuum structure whose asymptotic behavior resembles that of a cosmological constant. Our results reinforce that UG is geometrically equivalent to GR, while its distinctive features emerge in the dynamical interpretation of the source sector. More generally, our analysis illustrates that different gravitational theories may give rise to identical spacetime geometries while requiring different sources to sustain them.

Recent asteroseismic studies have shown convincing evidences that magnetic fields may exist in the interior of some pulsating red giants. Inspired by this breakthrough, we explored the effect of small-scale magnetic fields on the p-mode oscillations in an evolved star, HD 49385. {\bf We incorporate a modified Eddington $T$-$τ$ equation that phenomenologically mimics the effect of the magnetic fields in the atmosphere of HD 49385,} and calculate the frequencies of p-modes with $l=0$, 1, and 2. By comparing the calculated frequencies with the observed ones, we select two best-fit models with either GS98 or A09 chemical composition. Our best-fit models not only fit satisfactorily the observed frequencies, but also well reproduce some spectroscopically observed stellar parameters such as effective temperature and log\,$g$. Based on the two best-fit models, we have estimated that the small-scale magnetic fields possess a strength of approximately 80\,G and spread concentratively at approximately a height of 1850 km in the atmosphere. By selecting the best-fit models with special requirement on the avoided-crossing mode, we have confirmed that the frequency of the avoided-crossing mode is tightly related to the helium core of the star, and determined the size of the helium core as 0.117${\rm M}_\odot$ in mass and 0.078${\rm R}_\odot$ in radius. Based on the improvements of previous two sides, we can accurately determine the mass of HD 49385 to be $1.25\pm 0.02\,{\rm M}_\odot$ with an age of 4.1\,Gyr for GS98 composition and 4.5\,Gyr for A09 composition.

This study was motivated by the search for Planetary Nebulae (PNe) and Open Cluster (OCs) associations. Only 5 PNe are currently in Galactic OCs among the previous $\sim4,800$ OCs known. They are valuable because as cluster members their properties can be linked to their progenitor stars, something not possible for general field PNe. Since the GAIA astrometric satellite first data release, thousands of new OC candidates have been identified. This offers fresh motivation to search them as hosts for known PNe. Statistically we expect 30 OC-PN pairs to be present. We searched these GAIA candidate OCs, found by Hunt \& Reffert (2023), for known central stars of PNe (CSPNe) as a practical proxy for the PNe themselves and one suited to automated searches. We identified 1 potential CSPN (IRAS 15127-5811) of "Likely" PN [GKF2010] MN18 in the HASH database, as a claimed member of the putative cluster HSC~2686. A second cluster (Lynga~3) with similar parameters and in very close angular proximity could also be a potential host. Here we reclassify CSPN IRAS 15127-5811 as a blue supergiant with a surrounding bi-polar nebula. Nevertheless, we collected all available information on proposed member stars for both these clusters. We conclude that neither claimed cluster is real. Our results shed considerable doubt on the veracity of many newly identified OCs that have modest numbers of stellar members.

The epoch of reionization leaves detectable imprints in the thermal history of the Universe. In particular, the fast ionization fronts passing over cold gas in the cosmic web overpressurize the gas, leading to the well-established phenomenon of pressure smoothing due to the hydrodynamic response of the gas. Although the effect has been indirectly measured from the power spectra of the Lyman-$α$ forest over the past decades, very few examples exist of directly measuring the typical scale associated with this physical process. This work identifies an acoustic feature in the power spectrum of the projected peculiar velocity gradient $η$. Using toy models and linear theory, this work shows that the acoustic feature is likely strongly associated with the pressure smoothing scale. A feature at the same scale is imprinted on the small-scale flux power spectrum of the Lyman-$α$ forest at $k=0.1-1\;\mathrm{s/km}$. A methodology developed for the simulations is applied to the latest measurements of the flux power spectra at $z=4.2-5.0$ to provide the first direct measurements of the pressure smoothing scale at high redshifts, $λ_p(z=4.2) > 33.78\;\mathrm{ckpc}\;(1σ)$, $λ_p(z=4.6) = 32.36\pm8.35\;\mathrm{ckpc}$ and $λ_p(z=5.0)=31.27\pm18.28\;\mathrm{ckpc}$. This proof-of-concept study paves the way for future observational programs aimed at recovering the thermal history using small-scale observations of the Lyman-$α$ forest.

Recent detections of cyano-substituted polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (cyano-PAHs) highlight them as key tracers of nitrogen heterocycles in the interstellar medium (ISM). However, their infrared (IR) identification requires anharmonic vibrational radiative models that account for dynamic cooling across diverse environments. We provide IR cascade emission spectra for neutral, cationic, and anionic 1- and 2-cyanonaphthalene (1- and 2-CNN) under representative astrophysical conditions, investigating how charge states and substitution positions modulate anharmonic profiles and energy redistribution during IR cascades. Using B3LYP/N07D with Second-order Vibrational Perturbation Theory (VPT2), we computed anharmonic properties and applied an optimized microcanonical sampling algorithm to calculate vibrational density of states and model environment-dependent cascade spectra. Results show that charge states strongly tune the CN nitrile band: anion intensity is enhanced by an order of magnitude compared to neutrals, whereas cation intensity is slightly weaker. 1- and 2-CNN present distinct isomeric signatures: 1-CNN displays a complex "red-wing" structure in the 3.3-micron C-H stretch due to peri-hydrogen interactions, whereas 2-CNN yields a more symmetric profile. We evaluated the fractional energy emitted via the CN stretch relative to total cascade emissivity across charge states and environments. Combined with observed CN fluxes, these fractions provide a quantitative tool to constrain cyano-PAH abundances. By bridging laboratory benchmarks with dynamic interstellar emission, this work delivers accurate anharmonic fingerprints to guide JWST observational analysis.

Protoplanetary discs emerging from collapsing molecular clouds are capable of forming planetesimals at the water snowline during both the cloud collapse and Class II disc phases; such a scenario could be responsible for creating the carbonaceous/non-carbonaceous (CC/NC) heterogeneity observed in the Solar System, and bears important implications for emergent planetary compositions. We use 1D simulations of a viscously evolving disc coupled with cloud collapse and planetesimal formation to explore how planetesimal formation during disc build-up varies across the stellar mass spectrum. We find a keen sensitivity of planetesimal formation timing, location, and outcomes on stellar mass. Discs around all investigated stellar masses form planetesimals in the Class II phase, but only the disc around low-mass M-dwarfs ($M_{\star}=0.1 M_{\odot}$) fails to form them during the infall phase. There is also a clear chemical heterogeneity in planetesimal populations (water-wet and dry) in discs born from clouds of $M_{\rm{cloud}} \geq 0.3M_{\odot}$ . Discs around low-mass M-dwarfs form and undergo extremely fast pebble drift (t < 2 Myr), forming planetesimals well within the half-life of Aluminium-26. This leads to dehydrated planetesimals in all M-dwarf disc formation cases considered. We argue that the variation in disc evolution across stellar mass makes it hard to pinpoint a common t = 0 for all discs, and that exoplanets emerging from dehydrated planetesimals around low-mass M-dwarfs will be born volatile-poor - potentially explaining the lack of rocky world atmospheres seen by JWST.

We extend the polynomial construction of parity-violating spatially covariant gravity (SCG) to total derivative order $d=5$, where $d=d_{\mathrm{t}}+d_{\mathrm{s}}$ counts the total number of temporal and spatial derivatives. After organizing the monomials by $(d_{\mathrm{t}},d_{\mathrm{s}})$ and reducing them using integrations by parts, tensor symmetries, three-dimensional curvature identities, the Schouten identity, and the Cayley-Hamilton relation, we obtain a $59$-element basis: $2$, $40$, and $17$ monomials in the sectors $(0,5)$, $(2,3)$, and $(4,1)$, respectively. A direct inspection separates $35$ monomials containing neither the lapse velocity $\mathcal{L}_{\bm{u}}\ln N$ nor $\mathcal{L}_{\bm{u}}K_{ij}$ from $11$ lapse-velocity monomials and $13$ monomials containing higher normal derivatives of the spatial metric. The latter two sectors require a dedicated degeneracy analysis. For tensor perturbations about a spatially flat cosmological background, the acceleration-free part of the manifestly first-order-in-time sector contains $16$ basis elements, whose quadratic action depends on only four combinations of coefficients. These combinations generate helicity-odd corrections proportional to $k/a$ and $(k/a)^3$ in the kinetic and gradient functions. We derive two relations that enforce luminal phase velocity for both circular polarizations while still allowing helicity-dependent kinetic normalization and damping.