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Nova 2021 Cassiopeia (V1405 Cas) was an ordinary J(175) neon nova with the white dwarf mass estimated to be $M_{\rm WD}$=0.60$\pm$0.10 $M_{\odot}$. I found an orbital period of $P$=0.1884 days, and have tracked 20 times of photometric minima from 2013--2025. I measure that $P$ increased from before to after the eruption with $P_{\rm pre}$=0.1883919$\pm$0.0000018 days and $P_{\rm post}$=0.1884043$\pm$0.0000018 days, for $ΔP$/$P$=66$_{-18}^{+21}$ parts-per-million. With correction for the angular momentum loss by the binary during the eruption, I derive that the nova ejected $M_{\rm ejecta}$=7.5$\times$10$^{-4}$ $M_{\odot}$, with an extreme range of (2.9--40)$\times$10$^{-4}$ $M_{\odot}$. The mass accreted during the previous eruption cycle comes from the trigger mass, and is $M_{\rm accreted}$=(1.6$\pm$0.4)$\times$10$^{-4}$ $M_{\odot}$. V1405 Cas provides counterexamples against five claims about CV evolution that have dominated since the 1980s. First, V1405 Cas has positive $\dot{P}$, and this is contrary to the Magnetic Braking Model. Second, the $ΔP$ is 20$\times$ too small to allow the system to fade into a hibernation state. Third, $M_{\rm WD}$ is decreasing over time, as shown by $M_{\rm ejecta}$$>$$M_{\rm accreted}$ and by being a neon nova. Fourth, V1405 Cas is not a Type Ia supernova progenitor, for the same reasons. Fifth, the orbital period of V1405 Cas increased by $+$75 ppm from 2013--2025, as a counterexample to the pervasive idea that cataclysmic variables are universally declining in period from evolution. V1405 Cas is the latest of recent measures of $ΔP$ and $\dot{P}$ for 52 cataclysmic variables and 25 X-ray binaries that have together refuted all five claims.

We present optical photometric and spectroscopic observations of the Type II supernova SN2025abyc. During the optically thick phase between approximately 10 and 70 d after explosion, its light curves show strongly wavelength-dependent decline rates of approximately 2.7, 2.1, 0.9, and 0.8 mag/100d in the g, c, r, and o bands, respectively. At approximately 70 d, the light curves begin to depart from their nearly linear plateau evolution and gradually transition toward the radioactive tail. A Fermi-Dirac fit to the well-sampled ATLAS o-band light curve yields a transition midpoint of t_PT ~ 100.5d. The interval between the end of the linear plateau and this transition midpoint is approximately 30 d, indicating a prolonged plateau-to-tail transition. This timescale is comparable to those measured for SN2013by, SN2013ej, and SN2014G. Spectroscopically, at +13 d post-explosion, the Halpha profile appears weak and broad, whereas Hbeta and Hgamma display clear P-Cygni profiles. This morphology can be explained by the normal early spectroscopic evolution of SNe II, although partial filling of the Halpha absorption trough by emission associated with circumstellar interaction cannot be excluded. SN2025abyc otherwise follows the general photospheric velocity evolution of SNe II, while remaining toward the high-velocity side of the comparison distribution in Halpha, Hbeta, and FeII. Exploratory light-curve modelling suggests a synthesized Ni mass of approximately 0.03-0.04 solar mass. We suggest that the extended circumstellar environment, Ni distribution, and hydrogen-envelope structure could all play a role in shaping the observed light-curve evolution, particularly the prolonged plateau-to-tail transition.

Long-period transients are a class of periodic pulsed radio source repeating on the minute to hour timescale. Recently, an increasing number of them are being identified as binary systems, specifically white dwarfs with low-mass main-sequence companions. In this work we analyse the most luminous long-period transient discovered to date, ASKAP/DART J1832-0911, with two years of radio data, and propose that it, too, may be a white dwarf system, although in a far more compact orbit than the aforementioned. The pulses are composed of quasi-periodic components which evolve in a systematic way over days and months. The source is highly linearly or elliptically polarised and its brightness enabled very high signal-to-noise measurement of the time-resolved Faraday rotation measure, which was found to vary across pulse phase. The linear polarisation position angle, circular polarised fraction, and spectral index also varied systematically in ways not typical of pulsars and magnetars. We show that an ultra-compact asynchronous polar explains much of the phenomenology of ASKAP/DART J1832-0911, in particular the evolution of the pulse morphology, rotation measure variation, and periodic X-ray emission, although we cannot conclusively prove a binary nature. However, our model makes testable predictions.

Extending our recent work (which focussed on the even-parity quadrupolar part of the waveform), we compute the even-parity octupolar contribution, $U_3$, to the gravitational waveform $W \equiv \frac{c^4 r}{4G} \bar m^{i} \bar m^{j } h_{i j}$ emitted during the scattering of two masses. We work within the Multipolar Post-Minkowskian (MPM) formalism, and use the 3.5 Post-Newtonian (PN) accurate radiation-reacted quasi-Keplerian representation of the hyperbolic motion. We explicitly evaluate the frequency-domain value $\hat U_3(ω, θ,φ)$ of $U_3$ up to the 2-loop level, i.e. $ O(G^4)$ contributions to $h_{ij}(ω, θ,φ)$, corresponding to $O(G^3)$ contributions to $\hat U_3(ω, θ,φ)$. As a crucial partial confirmation of our result, we find that the 1-loop truncation of our 3.5 PN frequency-domain MPM waveform agrees with corresponding existing Effective Field Theory (EFT) results when taking into account exactly the {\it same} (2.5PN-level) difference in the definitions of the center-of-mass origins within the two formalisms that was deduced from our previous quadrupolar comparison.

Convolutional neural networks are increasingly used to measure source amplitudes in survey maps, often with claims of outperforming the matched filter. That filter is the best linear unbiased estimator (BLUE) for any noise of a given covariance, and minimum-variance unbiased outright when that noise is Gaussian and known, so an advantage requires a covariance that varies from image to image, or noise that is non-Gaussian. We introduce a single number, the advantage ceiling eta >= 1, that quantifies both: the Fisher information for the amplitude in units of the matched filter's, computable from noise-only simulations before any network is trained, and a bound on any marginally unbiased estimator's variance. We compute eta for a taxonomy of millimeter/submillimeter survey noise with a variational score-matching ladder whose rungs are estimator classes of increasing statistical order. With an instrumental white-noise floor, Gaussian noise gives eta = 1 to within +- 0.04; covariance mixtures give exact ceilings of 10.2 (spectral tilt, extended source), 2.1 (leaked components) and 1.1-1.8 otherwise, of which a 2000-parameter mixture matched filter attains 70-81%. Source confusion, whose non-Gaussian component is the noise itself, gives the largest advantage, eta >= 3.8 (extended) and >= 2.4 (compact), reachable only above the bispectrum rung and calibrated at ~ 0.9 against a known answer. Read as observing time, eta multiplies a survey's integration time wherever the noise integrates down, excluding confusion. Unmodelled numerical channels can manufacture spurious advantages of up to two orders of magnitude. A ResNet regressor is 6-15% less efficient than the matched filter on Gaussian noise once prior shrinkage is divided out, and realizes 1.8 of the 10.2 available on the spectral tilt; a companion paper tests such regressors against these ceilings.

Using in-situ observations from Solar Orbiter, STEREO-A, and Wind, we investigate the heliospheric evolution of an interplanetary coronal mass ejection (ICME). The magnetic ejecta (ME) shows a magnetic-cloud-like (MCL) configuration: a front region in which the magnetic field rotates and its magnitude declines, followed by a weakly rotating "back region" of nearly constant field magnitude. Near-Sun EUV and white-light observations reveal two fast CMEs launched in rapid succession and interacting at low coronal heights, providing direct evidence that an MCL ejecta can arise from interaction between two closely spaced CMEs sampled near their apex. Using near-radially aligned Solar Orbiter and STEREO-A observations, we find that the sheath expands more rapidly than the ME, consistent with the "snow-plow" effect, while the ME properties broadly follow trends reported in previous ICME studies. Comparison of STEREO-A and Wind observations, separated by only 9.2 degrees in longitude, reveals measurable mesoscale variability within both the sheath and the ME. We identify dual polytropic behavior within both substructures, consistent with the merging of two interacting CMEs to form the observed MCL ejecta. This dual behavior in the ME is most pronounced in the inner heliosphere and weakens with heliocentric distance, indicating thermodynamic homogenization during radial expansion, whereas the sheath maintains thermodynamic contrasts from the inner heliosphere to 1 au. Our findings suggest that polytropic diagnostics can help reveal thermodynamically distinct plasma populations associated with interacting CMEs, providing additional evidence for CME-CME interaction in MCL ejecta where conventional in-situ signatures show no clear evidence of such interactions.

We develop an on-shell description of low-frequency gravitational waveforms from black-hole mergers beyond leading order. Treating the strongly coupled merger as effective hard $S$-matrix data, we organize its long-wavelength response using soft theorems and the KMOC formalism. At next-to-leading order, the quantum soft theorem contains logarithmic terms absent from the classical soft theorem. We show that these extra terms cancel in the full KMOC in-in observable between the one-loop radiative amplitude and the corresponding graviton cut, leaving precisely the classical logarithmic contributions associated with gravitational drag and early-time acceleration. We also identify the $1/ω$ corrections from remnant recoil and Christodoulou non-linear memory. These results reveal a hierarchy of merger information accessible at low frequency: logarithmic tails depend only on asymptotic hard data, recoil probes total radiated momentum, while non-linear memory probes the angular distribution of the emitted radiation.

ESA's astrometric space mission Gaia is uniquely positioned for microlensing studies thanks to its all-sky coverage and simultaneous astrometric and photometric observations. In Gaia Data Release 4 (DR4), astrometric time series will be published for the first time, providing a rich dataset for isolated stellar remnant searches. In anticipation of DR4, we prepared tools for fitting photometric and 1D astrometric measurements. We tested the recovery of true event parameters and population distributions with Gaia-like observations. We created a mock survey of microlensing events mirroring Gaia DR4's design. The events were generated using dedicated Galactic simulations to provide realistic expectations on stellar and dark lens yields. For selected events, we simulated observations following Gaia's scanning law and precision, using the astromet package. Such simulations are needed to interpret forthcoming data; they also enable testing inference tools with known ground truth. We used nested sampling to infer full posterior distributions and compare them with the true lens parameters. Our simulation predicts $322 \pm 70$ microlensing events with astrometric signals above Gaia precision thresholds; $209 \pm 57$ of them have detectable photometric signals. Among those, $82 \pm 9$ and $49 \pm 7$, respectively, have remnant lenses. To assess Gaia's capabilities in constraining remnant mass distributions, we modelled $49$ events from this sample. We recovered the true Einstein times and radii for most events. Microlensing parallax measurements are consistent with true values but uncertain, limiting mass determination. We recommend focusing on events with bright sources or anomalous fits to optimize dark lens searches. We make available the mock Gaia time-series dataset, as well as a toolkit repository for working with the data format, fitting models, and visualizing results.

Origin and composition of ultra-high energy cosmic rays are still uncertain, particularly the rare events exceeding the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin cutoff and whose apparent arrival directions point to the Local Void. This work is an in-depth investigation of the possibility that such cosmic rays contain low-mass magnetic monopoles predicted in several recent theoretical models. Using a custom extension to CRPropa, a state-of-the-art code for modeling cosmic ray propagation, monopoles are tracked in the galactic environment under realistic assumptions on mass, magnetic charge, and initial phase-space distributions. Our simulations demonstrate that relic MMs follow filamentary ``Galactic magnetic funnels'', producing anisotropic arrival directions at Earth. The expected arrival directions are concentrated in a small region of the sky, which has significant implications for the design and interpretation of future searches. A comparison of the simulated arrival directions with the Pierre Auger Observatory dataset shows that the null hypothesis - no monopole contribution - is statistically preferred for the majority of cases. Using a profile-likelihood analysis that incorporates both directional and energy information, we set 90% C.L. upper limits on the integral MM flux of $< 2.1\times10^{-23}$ $\mathrm{cm^{-2}s^{-1}sr^{-1}}$.

We formulate the theoretical aspects of direct waves (DWs) in the case of extreme-mass merger. A DW is a source-driven waveform characterized by a complex frequency $ω_{\rm G}$, which reflects the orbital motion of the particle in the vicinity of the black hole, including a part of the orbit inside the ergoregion: its real part is governed by frame dragging and its imaginary part by the redshift of the source. Using the Green's function technique, we derive the source-driven frequency $ω_{\rm G}$, describe its screening by the potential barrier, and discuss its relation to dynamically excited quasinormal modes (QNMs). We also discuss the late-time decay of DW and predict that it decays with the third-order horizon mode. We then introduce a pole-splitting method, which divides the whole waveform into a QNM-pole sector and a non-QNM sector. Unlike QNM filtering, which multiplies the waveform spectrum by a filter function and thereby deforms it through a frequency-dependent time shift (i.e., group delay), our pole-splitting method merely divides the transfer function into pole and non-pole parts, separating the full waveform. Simulating a quasi-circular plunge into a Kerr black hole with medium and rapid spins, we find that the frequency and decay rate of the non-pole sector in the dominant mode, $\ell = m = 2$, evolve consistently with $ω_{\rm G}$-or with its screened counterpart $ω_{\rm screen}$-establishing the DW as a probe of the ergoregion and of the redshift effect around a black hole.

The recent 248-keV nuclear recoil candidate reported by LUX-ZEPLIN has renewed interest in endothermic inelastic dark matter, motivating us to examine its capture in primordial dark stars. Relative to the conventional elastic-capture picture in dark star evolution, endothermic capture adds two qualitative features. First, it opens only after the growing star crosses a compactness threshold, expressed as a kinematic radius $R_{\rm kin}\proptoμ_χM_\star/δ$ set by the stellar mass, the dark-matter--nucleus reduced mass and the mass splitting. The accreting growth carries the star through the threshold, and the capture rate turns on quadratically above it. Second, although newly captured particles generically begin on nonthermal bound orbits, endothermic kinematics can keep this normally transient population spatially extended, turning it into a persistent reservoir rather than an intermediate step toward a thermal core. Following complete chains of state-changing collisions, we find that the reservoir compacts sharply and then stalls, because a ground state particle below a compactness-dependent orbital energy has no allowed up-scatter anywhere in the star. A percent-level radius contraction reopens the relaxation. These kinematic results do not depend on whether the excited state decays promptly or is long-lived. As a result, inelastic capture does not replenish a thermal annihilation core. The captured population forms an evolving orbital distribution that sets up the co-evolutionary dynamics between the star and the dark matter in the core and the reservoir, which we develop in a companion paper.

XRISM has mapped gas velocities across the core of the Perseus cluster, separating the kinematic effects of mergers and AGN feedback. The physical properties of these motions remain unclear: are they a superposition of bulk flows, predominantly random/turbulent motions, or a mixture of both? Without resolving this question, constraints on the nonthermal pressure fraction and heating rate remain uncertain, as both assume predominantly random motions. Unlike emission line broadening, resonant scattering is most sensitive to small-scale, random motions rather than coherent bulk flows. Taking advantage of the extensive XRISM coverage of the Perseus cluster, we detect the full effects of resonant scattering on the Heα w line for the first time. This includes flux suppression in the cluster center, enhancement in the outer regions, and non-Gaussianity in the emission line. We employ radiative transfer simulations to constrain the amplitude of small-scale ICM velocities in the inner 60 kpc of Perseus, finding them to be consistent with the line broadening measurements within the uncertainties. This indicates the observed velocity dispersion is primarily due to small-scale random motions in the central Perseus regions rather than coherent bulk flows. We further explore potential anisotropy of these motions, showing that they are consistent with isotropic or radial motions rather than tangential ones. Longer XRISM observations are required to improve these anisotropy constraints. Finally, we explore azimuthal variations between the two complete radial arms observed by XRISM.

Primordial black holes (PBHs) are a well-motivated dark matter candidate, and their cosmic abundance is constrained by a variety of observational probes. PBHs in the mass range $10^{15}\,\text{g}\,{-}\,10^{17}\,\text{g}$ are evaporating today via Hawking radiation, a process that can heat interstellar dust and modify its thermal emission. Recent studies have used this effect to place constraints on the abundance of non-spinning PBHs. We extend this approach by investigating the influence of PBH spin on dust-heating constraints. Furthermore, we account for secondary photons that originate not only from the decay of gauge bosons but also from the decay of hadrons produced via the fragmentation of primary quarks and gluons emitted through Hawking radiation. By comparing the dust heating rate induced by spinning PBHs with the maximum cooling rate of dust, considering both silicate and graphite grains, we derive new upper limits on the fraction of dark matter in the form of PBHs, $f_{\rm PBH}$. Our results show that the constraints depend on both PBH mass and spin. Smaller PBHs with higher spin yield stronger limits. For example, in the cases we investigated, the strongest constraint is $f_{\rm PBH} \sim 1.5 \times 10^{-4}$ for $M_{\rm PBH} = 10^{15}{\rm g}$ and spin parameter $a_{*} = 0.9999$. Although these limits are less stringent than existing constraints in the same mass range, they provide a distinct and complementary approach to constraining the abundance of PBHs.

Gaussian Process Regression is a powerful nonparametric Bayesian method that provides both predictions and principled uncertainty estimates in closed form. The majority of past applications have relied on agnostic priors, but physics knowledge can be systematically encoded into Gaussian Processes through physically-motivated mean functions and kernels. We exploit this capability in the context of nuclear physics, applying physics-guided Gaussian Process Regression to three problems: nucleon-nucleon scattering phase shifts, mass excesses, and the finite-temperature equation of state of dense matter. In each case, we demonstrate that encoding known theoretical structures yields substantial and systematic improvements in interpolation accuracy, uncertainty calibration, and extrapolation reliability over agnostic baselines. Our results highlight that the design of the prior, and in particular the mean function, is key for obtaining a reliable and well-calibrated Gaussian Process Regression.

In the second half of 2017, as Solar Cycle 24 approached its minimum, a pronounced and rigidity-dependent depression in the galactic cosmic ray (GCR) proton flux was observed using AMS-02. This event was driven by a sequence of strong coronal mass ejections (CMEs). In this work, we model the modulation of GCR protons during this period using a steady-state Parker transport framework with parameters constrained by AMS-02 observations. Treating the event as a purely long-term modulation interval yields excellent agreement with the observed proton intensities, but implies an inferred rigidity dependence of particle mean free paths that is inconsistent with basic turbulence theory, corresponding to an effective inversion of the scattering regime. We argue that this behaviour arises from the ability of highly flexible transport parameterizations to reproduce integrated modulation signatures through correlated adjustments of diffusion coefficients during transient events. To address this inconsistency, we relax the commonly adopted assumption of a time-independent ratio of perpendicular to parallel diffusion coefficients and introduce a physically motivated reduction of this ratio during the CME-dominated interval. This modification preserves the quality of the spectral fits whilst restoring the expected rigidity ordering of mean free paths. Our results indicate that allowing the perpendicular-to-parallel diffusion ratio to vary in time provides an effective means of constraining transport solutions during the 2017 depression and may help to resolve similar inconsistencies reported in other GCR modulation studies.

We construct and study possible astrophysical signatures of the rotating counterparts of two charged regular black holes, namely the Ayón--Beato--García (ABG) and Balart--Panotopoulos--Rincón (BPR) spacetimes -- obtained using the Newman-Janis algorithm. After verifying the regularity of the rotating metrics, we study massless scalar perturbations, compute the quasinormal mode (QNM) spectra, and characterise their dependence on the spin and charge parameters. Grey-body factors (GBFs) are computed, and the QNM-GBF correspondence is verified. The low-frequency superradiant amplification factor is also examined via matched asymptotic expansions. The Lyapunov exponents are used to connect the eikonal QNM damping rate to photon-orbit instability. Additionally, from shadow profiles, we constrain the parameter space of rotating regular black holes using the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) observations. Across all the probes, we find that the rotating BPR and Kerr--Newman black holes behave almost indistinguishably from one another, while the rotating ABG geometry exhibits distinct perturbative, scattering, and geometric properties, particularly at larger values of spin and charge. Our analysis indicates that differentiating between charged rotating regular black hole models may be possible using gravitational wave and shadow observations.

Beginning in March 2026, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) conducted a two-month observing campaign aimed at obtaining the first time-resolved sequence of images of the black hole M87* at the center of the Virgo A galaxy. The primary scientific objectives of this campaign are to constrain the black hole spin and to investigate the temporal variability of the magnetic field and plasma properties within the horizon-scale jet-launching region. In this work, we present theoretical predictions for the spectral index maps expected from these observations. Our predictions are based on Magnetically Arrested Disk simulations performed with the EBHLIGHT code and post-processed using the IPOLE general relativistic ray-tracing code. We investigate the temporal evolution of the spectral index for a range of electron distribution models and five different black hole spin values. The analysis includes both frequency bands currently present within the EHT and neighboring frequencies proposed for future extensions of the EHT array. In addition to extending previous studies to a broader range of observing frequencies, our work systematically investigates the time variability of the predicted spectral index maps. In purely thermal electron models, the temporal variability of the spectral index maps closely traces variations in the magnetic field strength and electron temperature in the immediate vicinity of the event horizon. By contrast, models incorporating a non-thermal electron population exhibit substantially weaker spectral index variability, owing to the contribution of a power-law component with a fixed spectral slope. Our numerical results are consistent with theoretical expectations. Finally, a comparison with the recently measured integrated spectral index of the M87* enables us to place preliminary constraints on the model parameters.

The distribution of matter along the same line of sight but external to the main lens, quantified by $κ_\mathrm{ext}$, is a key source of uncertainty in time delay cosmography and other applications of strong lensing, and must be independently estimated to avoid biasing the inferred value of the Hubble constant ($H_0$). We present advancements and standardisations in the weighted number counts techniques used to constrain $κ_\mathrm{ext}$, in particular the use of the Euclid Flagship Simulation and a breakdown of the line-of-sight contributions between the observer, lens and source. As part of the TDCOSMO 2026 milestone analysis, we apply this updated method to the sample of 11 time delay lenses used in that study. Our estimates for certain systems are sensitive to these methodological changes, but are nonetheless consistent within $1σ$ for all but one of the systems which had been studied previously, with the median $κ_\mathrm{ext}$ across those systems changing from $-0.002$ to $-0.006$ following this new analysis. This work represents the first estimate of $κ_\mathrm{ext}$ values which includes the contribution of the observer-lens and lens-source terms, and largest standardised analysis of time delay lens environments to date.

We derive the local structure of the first common apparent horizon in a generic binary-black-hole merger. This event occurs in the fully nonlinear regime, outside the standard regimes of post-Newtonian inspiral theory and perturbations of a stationary black hole, yet it admits a universal description. Without assuming symmetry, we show that the stability operator of the marginally outer trapped surface must lose invertibility at formation. Outermost stability then implies that the vanishing eigenvalue is the principal one, with a strictly positive eigenfunction. Lyapunov-Schmidt reduction yields square-root branch separation with a shared linear drift. Together these terms give a tilted parabola through linear order in time. The common horizon lies on a smooth marginally outer trapped tube tangent to the formation slice, and nearby later slices intersect it in outer and inner branches whose separation scales as $(t-t_*)^{1/2}$. Horizon quantities with a nonzero first response along the zero mode inherit the square-root separation and a shared linear term. We test these predictions in three binary black hole simulations, including an eccentric, precessing, unequal-mass system. In all three, the worldtube geometry and quasilocal scalars follow the predicted scaling. With the next-order term included, free-exponent fits to the surface geometry and quasilocal functionals recover $1/2$ to within half a percent, and diagnostics agree on the formation time within $5\times10^{-5}M$. The correlation between horizon shear and gravitational-wave news suggests that common horizon formation could have a signature in a short segment of the merger waveform.

The LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) Collaboration recently reported the detection of a single nuclear recoil candidate event with a very high recoil energy. The lack of any corresponding low-energy events motivates models in which dark matter scattering with nuclei has a nontrivial momentum dependence or proceeds inelastically, suppressing the rate of low-energy recoils. In this study, we consider the constraints on inelastic dark matter, including scenarios favored by the LZ event, from the absence of an excess of high-energy neutrinos from the Sun in IceCube observations. We confirm the results of Pospelov & Ramani and show, more generally, that the lack of an excess of high-energy neutrinos from the Sun strongly constrains the parameter space in this class of models.

An eV-scale QCD axion comprising the observed dark matter (DM) abundance is expected to generate a photon line at infrared energies that would be observable or near-observable in data collected by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), as might more general axion-like particles (ALPs) over a broader range of masses and couplings. This has motivated a number of efforts to either forecast JWST sensitivities to a QCD axion or realize them through analyses of publicly available datasets. At present, no consensus exists; leading analyses disagree by as much as an order of magnitude in terms of axion-coupling sensitivity, implying an orders-of-magnitude discrepancy in raw flux density sensitivity, and consistency between the analyses and prior forecasts is unclear. We address these outstanding discrepancies with a bespoke data reduction and flexible nonparametric inference procedure that lead to well-controlled and robust limits on the decay of eV-scale axion DM, consistent with previously forecasted sensitivities. We further demonstrate that the strongest previously claimed sensitivities exceed those attainable by any analysis of the datasets from which they were derived. We exclude QCD axion DM for masses between $500\,\mathrm{meV}$ and $2.5\,\mathrm{eV}$ using NIRSpec data, while setting limits on ALP DM complementary to other astrophysical constraints at masses between $100\,\mathrm{meV}$ and $500\,\mathrm{meV}$. However, we find the sensitivities to be systematically limited, and therefore unlikely to be improved upon by ongoing data collection or re-analysis unless instrumental modeling and data reduction pipelines improve considerably.

Cosmic rays can significantly alter the abundances of certain species in the upper layers of planetary atmospheres, especially in terms of their biosignatures. To fully understand the extent of this effect, it is essential to accurately model the interactions of cosmic rays with planetary magnetic fields. We used the CosmicTransmutation code to study the effect of a planetary magnetic field on the flux of galactic cosmic rays and stellar energetic particles. We found that both particle sources are significantly affected by magnetic fields, even though the effects are different due to the varying energy ranges that characterize each source. The stellar energetic particle energy flux is significantly higher for an Earth-like planet with no magnetic field, but with a magnetic field of 30\,$μ$T or higher, the energy flux of the two sources becomes comparable. We find that the atmospheric pressures the cosmic rays reach are significantly lower than those found in previous studies using simpler models and that the effect of the atmospheric composition on this outcome is small. We found similar results using the model for the exoplanet K2-18b, even though the radius is significantly larger than Earth's. Because the two cosmic ray sources cover different energy ranges and are affected by the magnetic field in different ways as a result, both sources should be considered. Future studies should focus on combining an accurate modelling procedure of the interaction between cosmic rays and planetary magnetic fields with atmospheric chemistry models. This will require general circulation models to capture the latitudinal and longitudinal dependencies in full.

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) is expected to significantly advance the study of Milky Way stellar streams. In particular, the deep, precise photometry from LSST should greatly increase the statistical sensitivity to density fluctuations in stellar streams, which can be used to probe the small-scale distribution of dark matter. However, current forecasts generally neglect the impact of observational systematics that will be imprinted on stream density measurements. In this study, we develop a realistic forward-modeling framework to inject stellar streams into LSST-like observations including photometric uncertainties, survey depth variations, background contamination, and imperfect star-galaxy classification. We develop a likelihood-ratio analysis to assess the detectability of gaps in stellar streams in the presence of these observational systematics. In the presence of realistic survey systematics, we find that after four years of operations, LSST will be sensitive to density reductions of $\sim50\%$ for gaps with widths of $5$ deg in streams with surface brightness of $\sim33$ mag arcsec$^{-2}$. Relative to the ideal case, this corresponds to a degradation in gap depth sensitivity by a factor of $\sim5$ due to the combined impact of background contamination and observational systematics. Assuming a simplified analytical mapping between gap depth and dark matter subhalo properties, these estimates correspond to a minimum detectable subhalo mass of $\sim1\times10^7$ M$_\odot$. Observational effects shift this accessible mass scale upward by a factor of $\sim16$, with background contamination contributing a factor of $\sim5$ and survey systematics a further factor of $\sim3$, dominated by star-galaxy classification.

Two orthogonal polarization modes observed in radio pulsar signals have long been attributed to proper modes of wave oscillation in strongly magnetized plasma. Yet it has been shown recently that they show up readily for extended emission regions that produce incoherently-superposed polarization signal. In this paper we present a two-dimensional polarization model based on incoherent superposition of radio signals. The model involves a single proper mode, say the O mode, but leads to the appearance of two orthogonal polarization tracks and naturally produces the triple form of polarization mode segregation in averaged profiles (central mode flanked on boths sides by another mode), as well as the displacement of modes in latitude, previously inferred from beam mapping. In the case of conal emission regions, the modelled polarization tends to mimic general polarization properties of the rotating vector model (RVM). However, the reason for this is the symmetry of the emission region - not the usual projection of dipolar magnetic azimuths. Thus the emerging RVM parameters reveal geometry of the emission region, not of the dipolar magnetic field. The results strongly support the vital role of nonbirefringent modal effects in radio pulsar profiles. Two proper modes may not be needed to explain observations of two orthogonal polarization tracks.

Initial spatial clustering of primordial black holes (PBHs) induced by local-type non-Gaussianity (LNG) can substantially modify cosmological constraints on PBH abundance. Existing formulations of initial PBH clustering are primarily restricted to either small non-Gaussianity or specific regimes, and a unified theoretical framework has been lacking. Here, we present a general analytical formulation for the PBH two-point correlation function applicable to arbitrary LNGs. Under the assumptions that PBHs form only at the large peaks of perturbations, and that long-wavelength modes weakly modulate the local variance of short-wavelength (PBH-scale) perturbations, we derive an analytic expression for the PBH bias parameter, directly connecting initial clustering to the primordial trispectrum in the collapsed limit. We demonstrate the versatility of our formula by computing the bias parameters in the ultra-slow-roll inflation, curvaton, and modulated reheating scenarios. We also formally generalize the framework to broad power spectra to account for correlations across different PBH mass scales. Because our formulation does not rely on weak or perturbative non-Gaussianity assumptions, our result provides a universal theoretical basis for evaluating initial clustering impact on PBH observables.

Many higher-derivative theories predict stronger deviations from General Relativity for lower-mass black holes, while their nonlinear field equations often prevent reliable simulations of the full binary evolution. Here we develop a route from controlled black hole perturbation theory based on the modified Teukolsky formalism to comparable-mass waveforms, using parity-even cubic gravity as a representative example. We find that the tidal response of the secondary black hole enters at the same perturbative order as the direct higher-curvature correction and is therefore essential for a consistent leading-order waveform. The resulting strong-field fluxes and conservative dynamics produce an accumulated inspiral dephasing that grows toward merger. Embedding this test-mass information into an effective-one-body model, we construct inspiral-merger-ringdown waveforms for comparable-mass binaries and find coupling-dependent dephasing and waveform-peak shifts. Our results demonstrate how strong-field test-mass calculations can anchor waveform models for higher-derivative gravity when theory-specific numerical-relativity simulations are unavailable.

Primordial Black Holes (PBHs) with masses below $\mathcal{O}(10^9)$g occupy an interesting region of parameter space that is largely inaccessible to conventional observations. Despite evaporating before Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN), these PBHs can naturally generate a period of early matter domination in the early Universe. A primordial gravitational-wave background (GWB) provides a window onto this otherwise inaccessible regime, since the modified expansion history leaves a characteristic spectral feature associated with the onset and end of PBH domination. The locations of these characteristic frequencies can be used to reconstruct the underlying PBH parameters, in particular the PBH mass. For a freely propagating GWB, the location of these frequencies additionally allow the initial PBH abundance to be determined. We derive simple numerical relations that map these characteristic frequencies directly onto the PBH mass and initial abundance. Future GW experiments span a vast frequency range, providing sensitivity to PBH masses from the BBN bound of $\mathcal{O}(10^9)\,\mathrm{g}$ down to the lower bound of $\mathcal{O}(10)\,\mathrm{g}$. We find that the nanohertz signal reported by NANOGrav, if primordial in origin, is already probing PBH masses in the range $4$--$90\,\mathrm{Mg}$. GW observations therefore offer access to a vast region of PBH parameter space that is otherwise beyond the reach of current experiments.

Naive estimates based on Einstein gravity with Lagrangian $\frac{1}{2}M_{pl}^{2}(R-2Λ)$ suggest that, if the radiation era extended back to the Big Bang (i.e., as far back as the classical spacetime background makes sense), this would result in an over-production of dark matter and a relic cosmic background of thermal gravitons. Here we revisit these conclusions in quadratic gravity, the minimal renormalizable completion of Einstein gravity, whose Lagrangian also includes the terms $\frac{1}{6}f_0^{-2}R^2-\frac{1}{2}f_{2}^{-2}C^{2}$. Assuming the radiation era does extend back to the bang, we find a novel relation between the coefficient $f_{2}$ and the dark matter mass $m_{dm}$, needed to obtain the correct dark matter abundance. This yields a new gravitational production mechanism for dark matter (e.g., stable right-handed neutrinos). Moreover, the presence or absence of the relic graviton background (detectable by forthcoming CMB experiments via its small imprint on $N_{\rm eff}$) will place new constraints on $f_{0}, f_{2}$.

We consider 4-dimensional asymptotically flat vacuum spacetimes near future null infinity endowed with the most general allowable Carroll geometry. We show that the near-boundary radial expansion (to a certain order) can be organised in terms of connections that can be obtained by gauging the conformal Carroll algebra. The only non-vanishing curvatures in this gauging procedure are those that are associated with the special conformal generators and we will refer to these as the $K$-curvatures. The vanishing of these $K$-curvatures defines an asymptotic vacuum spacetime and we use this to construct a boundary (i.e. Carroll) covariant expression for the vacuum (soft) shear in terms of two boundary Carroll scalar fields. The $K$-curvatures transform in a hierarchical fashion into one another under Carroll boosts. This leads to a classification of 4 types of spacetimes: vacuum, strongly and weakly non-radiative, and radiative spacetimes. It is shown that the $K$-curvatures correspond to 5 of the 10 Weyl tensor components at leading order in their $1/r$ expansion. We furthermore observe that one of the $K$-curvatures is equal to the recently found Carroll boost anomaly. Finally, we show that the Bondi loss equations for the boundary energy-momentum-news complex can be cast into a form involving another energy-momentum tensor with vanishing energy flux that is traceless and whose non-conservation is entirely captured by the $K$-curvatures. The BMS currents can be obtained by contracting this latter energy-momentum tensor with a Carroll conformal Killing vector.

Violations of Bell's inequalities offer a definitive signal of non-classical (quantum) behavior in local deterministic systems. Yet, in many physical settings where quantum mechanics is expected to play an important role, one cannot construct a Bell-type test using the available observables. Cosmology offers one concrete example, where cosmic structure may have originated from quantum vacuum fluctuations yet all observations are effectively classical. Nevertheless, recent work suggests that quantum and classical time evolution may still be differentiated by the pattern of statistical correlations of these observables. In this paper, we explore and generalize the use of correlations as Bell-type test of the nature of time evolution. We show that quantum vacuum fluctuations of closed systems undergoing Hamiltonian evolution produce unique correlations that are not mimicked by classical Hamiltonian systems. Correlations in the quantum vacuum are generally time-independent and are controlled by the energy gap between the ground and exited states. Classical systems exhibit apparent poles at physical frequencies that do not arise in the quantum vacuum. As one approaches the poles, the evolution becomes dominated by a resonant Hamiltonian giving rise to time dependent correlations that eventually decay through dephasing. Finally, we show that this behavior is distinct from other signals of quantum evolution, including applications to quantum optics, quantum walks, and quantum search.

We investigate the influence of the Garfinkle-Horowitz-Strominger (GHS) dilaton black hole on different quantum resources of Dirac fields beyond the single-mode approximation. By employing the negativity to characterize quantum entanglement and the $l_1$-norm and the relative entropy of coherence to characterize quantum coherence, we demonstrate that these resources exhibit remarkably different responses to the gravitational field. Specifically, increasing the dilaton parameter continuously suppresses quantum entanglement, leaving only a finite residual amount in the strong-gravity regime, whereas quantum coherence is enhanced, indicating that the dilaton-induced spacetime affects nonlocal quantum correlations and local quantum superposition in fundamentally different ways. Furthermore, we show that an initially maximally entangled state does not always possess the largest negativity after propagating in the GHS dilaton spacetime; instead, under appropriate conditions, certain non-maximally entangled states can retain stronger entanglement than the maximally entangled one. These findings reveal the resource-dependent nature of gravitational effects in dilaton black hole backgrounds and provide new insights into the manipulation and protection of quantum resources for relativistic quantum information processing in curved spacetime.

We extend the Dark Matter-Baryon Separability Condition to show that the same framework developed for dark matter deficient galaxies naturally admits a conjugate branch describing preferential baryonic depletion. Using the recently discovered almost-dark galaxy TTT J1237327+143535 as a worked example, we derive a family of dynamical consistency relations parameterized by the unknown progenitor ratio $μ_i$, including thresholds for $σ_{\rm los}$, $M_{\rm dyn}$, the enclosed baryonic fraction and the dynamical mass to light ratio. We further connect the separability framework to the expected globular cluster population, providing an independent consistency test of the inferred halo mass. We also provide some bounds on the baryon ratio using the tidal properties of Virgo Cluster. Future measurements of stellar kinematics, gas content and globular clusters can therefore determine whether this galaxy occupies the positive separability branch and also test whether dark matter deficient and baryon depleted systems can be described within a common framework.

We present an emulator of the halo mass function (HMF) based on Gaussian-process regression, that exploits the evolution mapping framework. This framework splits cosmological parameters into shape parameters ($\mathbfΘ_\mathrm{s}$), which set the shape of the linear power spectrum, and evolution parameters ($\mathbfΘ_\mathrm{e}$), which only rescale its amplitude, with their net effect entirely captured by the clustering amplitude, $σ_{12}$. The emulation acts in two steps: first, an emulator predicts the overall shape of the HMF given $\mathbfΘ_\mathrm{s}$ and $σ_{12}$; then, a second emulator applies a small correction accounting for the residual dependence on the integrated growth history of density fluctuations. The emulator is trained on a suite of 100 simulations of flat $Λ$CDM cosmologies but, owing to evolution mapping, can be applied to predict the abundance of haloes in cosmologies with any extended space of $\mathbfΘ_\mathrm{e}$, such as curvature, quintessence and dynamical dark energy. We test the emulator against independent $Λ$CDM runs and on an additional validation suite of dynamical dark energy simulations, achieving per cent-level accuracy over a wide range of masses and redshifts, with the performance only slightly degrading at early times, where the training data points are fewer. Compared to other state-of-the-art HMF emulators, its accuracy is higher in nearly all tested cases. Our results demonstrate the broad applicability of the evolution mapping framework to build very accurate emulators of statistics of the density field. The emulator is publicly available as part of the Aletheia emulator suite.

Ultralight dark matter could be an axial vector field, a simple possibility which motivates new experiments. Couplings to fermions, through an axial vector current or a dark electric dipole moment operator, lead to enhanced spin torques compared to axion dark matter. An axial vector also has an analogue of the axion-photon coupling, though its consistent realization requires a photon mass. Under this "axial-photon" coupling, the effect of a background magnetic field is suppressed, and the strongest experimental probes involve polarimetry, electric fields in superconducting cavities, and the cosmic microwave background. Since a massive axial vector is dual to a massive two-form, our results also apply to "Kalb-Ramond" dark matter motivated by string theory.

Within the Hot Big Bang picture, as usually interpreted in the standard LCDM framework and its hierarchical scenario for elliptical galaxy assembly, the cosmic microwave background (CMB) is associated with photon decoupling near z = 1100, and the Planck angular power spectra are taken to constrain primordial 10^{-5}-level fluctuations that seeded later structure formation. We show that, in addition to the LCDM model, two cosmological models based on Milgromian gravitation are also consistent with the Planck CMB power spectra, such that the spectra do not uniquely favor dark matter. We then argue that the published CMB spectra are not direct observables, but reconstructed quantities obtained after foreground subtraction and corrections for weak lensing, photon-electron scattering, and gravitational energy redshifts along the line of sight. Because these steps depend on the assumed growth history of structure, the resulting spectra depend on the cosmological model adopted in the data reduction. We also note that the reported correlation between the hemispherical CMB asymmetry and the excess on-sky distribution of elliptical galaxies may point to matter inhomogeneities spanning large portions of the observable universe. Motivated by observational tensions in the hierarchical assembly of elliptical galaxies, we review the consequences of elliptical-galaxy formation on a downsizing timescale, which implies a significant extragalactic foreground released at 15< z < 20. Under conservative assumptions, this foreground contributes at least 1.4 percent of the observed CMB energy density and has not been included in CMB analyses. It follows that the reported 10^{-5}-level fluctuations is introduced by overly aggressive foreground cleaning.

In a broad class of inflationary models, the leading non-Gaussian bispectrum arises from one-loop rather than tree-level processes. However, realistic one-loop contributions remain largely unexplored for phenomenologically relevant masses beyond the simplest bubble diagrams. This is insufficient for observational purposes because, for generic masses and couplings, triangle contributions need not be suppressed relative to their bubble counterparts. We present a numerical method for evaluating scalar one-loop in-in diagrams contributing to the inflationary bispectrum at fully general external momenta and masses. First, the Witten-Feynman parameterization reduces de Sitter loop integrals to generalized Euler-Mellin integrals governed by Symanzik graph polynomials. Unfortunately, the exponents of the polynomials in the integrand become complex for sufficiently heavy masses, leading to sign problems when evaluating the integral using standard numerical techniques. To remedy this problem, we introduce the reduced Schwinger method, which evaluates a highly oscillatory subintegral analytically to obtain a Gauss hypergeometric kernel, leaving the remaining integrals to standard numerical quadrature. We validate the algorithm by reproducing known analytic results for the tree-level bispectrum in terms of ${}_3F_2$ functions, and then apply it to the one-loop bubble and triangle contributions at general kinematics. This yields the first direct numerical evaluation of the complete one-loop bispectrum, valid across the full kinematic range. Using these numerical results, we construct bispectrum templates and compare them with CMB data.

We study the electromagnetic radiation and wave-optical imaging of an oscillating electric dipole orbiting a Kerr black hole. We derive the effective 4-current associated with a pointlike oscillating electric dipole in curved spacetime, and use black hole perturbation theory to compute the resulting radiation field at future null infinity, from first principles. We then develop a wave-optical imaging framework for a moving electromagnetic source in curved spacetime. We obtain images of an orbiting electric dipole, displaying relativistic beaming, gravitational lensing, and Einstein rings. We study polarization-dependent scattering by comparing the images produced by spinning dipoles with opposite helicities, finding a displacement that roughly decreases with the inverse of the radiation frequency, as expected for a beyond-geometric-optics effect. Our results provide a first-principles benchmark for beyond-geometric-optics descriptions of electromagnetic radiation in Kerr spacetime.

The Sommerfeld enhancement (SE) from long-range interactions, and the related bound state formation rate, can be important non-perturbative inputs to dark matter (DM) annihilation signals. In the presence of singular interaction potentials, the conventional boundary conditions of the Schrödinger equation fail, obfuscating the computation of SE, its physical origin, and its relation to bound states in such potentials. In this work, we clarify the origin of SE in singular potentials in a two-fold manner: using the framework of velocity power counting in non-relativistic effective field theory (NREFT), and via position-space regularization of singular potentials at short distances to compute SE and bound states. We illustrate our findings through the case of pseudoscalar mediators interacting with massive Dirac DM. We find that when such a system arises from a UV-complete theory at weak coupling, no SE is generated. However, in the case of a derivatively coupled pseudoscalar, where the interaction is described by a higher-dimension operator in an effective theory, SE (and bound states) can occur for weak couplings if there is a large hierarchy between the cutoff scale of the effective theory and the dark matter mass. This SE is sensitive to the choice of the UV completion of the potential at short distances, but a non-negligible SE can persist even when the UV physics alone would not generate any SE; we elucidate the interplay of UV and IR physics in this case.

The growth of primordial black holes through the absorption of the surrounding plasma has recently been shown to exhibit a critical behavior during radiation domination. We extend this analysis to the reheating era and derive analytical solutions for general reheating histories. We show that reheating modifies the critical condition for runaway absorption, making it dependent on both the reheating dynamics and the black-hole formation time. We identify two distinct regimes: runaway growth occurring during reheating, or being triggered after the onset of radiation domination by the mass accumulated during reheating. More generally, we derive a simple composition law describing how independent mass- growth mechanisms combine across successive cosmological eras. Applying it to radiation absorption and inflaton accretion, we obtain analytical results in excellent agreement with the full numerical evolution.

We investigate the internal structure of two galaxies from the LEWIS sample: the ultra-diffuse galaxy UDG-1 and the extended dwarf LSB-6. Both show coherent stellar rotation combined with a non-negligible fraction of random motion, with no signs of ongoing disturbance. This is the first attempt to constrain the dynamics and dark matter physics of rotation-supported UDGs through integral-field stellar kinematics. We model the galaxies as stellar spheroids with typical dwarf-like thickness embedded in spherical dark matter halos, deriving two-dimensional velocity fields that we compare with the observations in a Bayesian framework. Besides cold dark matter, we test fuzzy, self-interacting, and non-minimally coupled dark matter. The data prefer a cuspy halo in UDG-1 and a cuspless one in LSB-6. All the alternative models remain viable, although current data cannot conclusively discriminate among them. For fuzzy dark matter we obtain mutually consistent boson masses, $m_α= 4.7^{+1.8}_{-1.1} \times 10^{-22}$ eV for UDG-1 and $m_α= 6.3^{+0.4}_{-0.4} \times 10^{-22}$ eV for LSB-6. For self-interacting dark matter, LSB-6 yields a robust constraint on the velocity-weighted cross section, $\langle σv\rangle/m = 14.3^{+2.0}_{-1.9}$ cm$^2$ km g$^{-1}$ s$^{-1}$. For non-minimally coupled dark matter we derive upper bounds on the coupling length, implying marginal deviations from $Λ$CDM. Regardless of the model, both galaxies exhibit a dark matter content comparable with halos of typical dwarf galaxies with similar stellar masses. Together with stellar population analyses and globular cluster information, these results support a scenario in which UDG-1 and LSB-6 originate from puffed-up dwarfs. This work is the first in a series exploiting kinematic data of extremely low-surface-brightness galaxies to test fundamental physics, from dark matter to modified theories of gravity.

Baryonic feedback is a dominant source of systematic uncertainty for upcoming weak-lensing surveys, but current tools for modeling its effect rely on spherical approximations and density profiles calibrated almost entirely on two-point statistics. We introduce BIND (Baryonic INpainting with Deep learning), a conditional flow-matching model that learns a field-level mapping from dark-matter-only halos to their hydrodynamical counterparts. BIND is trained on halos from the 1024 paired hydrodynamical and dark-matter-only simulations of the CAMELS $50\,h^{-1}\,\mathrm{Mpc}$ SB35 suite and samples dark matter, gas, and stellar mass fields over redshift across the full 35-dimensional $Λ$CDM and IllustrisTNG galaxy formation parameter space. BIND recovers dark matter, gas, and stellar masses at the percent level, reproduces azimuthally averaged profiles to $\lesssim10\%$ at all radii, and matches halo shape distributions with high fidelity. The learned parameter dependence captures the rank correlations between the generated fields and the subgrid parameters, and the field-level response to individual parameter variations is recovered in both sign and morphology. Halo mass is never supplied as conditioning, yet the baryon fraction, stellar-to-halo mass relation, inter-component scaling relations, and the joint covariance of their residuals are all reproduced. We finally show that, applied halo-by-halo to a $(50\,h^{-1}\,\mathrm{Mpc})^3$ $N$-body volume with $512^3$ particles, BIND reproduces the projected matter power spectrum suppression to the accuracy ceiling set by pasting in the hydrodynamical halos themselves, in minutes on one GPU. We release the trained BIND models and all generated halos as open-source tools. A companion paper extends BIND to thermodynamic fields and non-Gaussian weak-lensing statistics.

Recent multiwavelength observations of galaxy group and cluster gas suggest stronger baryonic feedback than our best-calibrated hydrodynamical simulations produce, while modeling this feedback remains a primary source of uncertainty in Stage-IV weak-lensing (WL) analyses. We present a suite of ray-traced maps generated with BIND (Baryonic INpainting with Deep learning), a conditional flow-matching model that paints baryonic mass and gas thermodynamics onto the halos of dark-matter-only simulations, and which was developed in a companion paper. Applied to IllustrisTNG300-Dark and ray-traced, we generate convergence, optical depth, and Compton-$y$ maps at five source redshifts, each with $1000$ pseudo-independent realizations. We build lightcones across a 256-node Sobol sequence spanning the thirty-dimensional IllustrisTNG galaxy formation prior, with individual parameter variations and at the fiducial model. In validation, the maps match those built from the IllustrisTNG300 halos to within LSST-Y10-like precision for a range of WL statistics. Across the prior, the response to feedback exceeds Stage-IV statistical precision by more than an order of magnitude on small scales, and different statistics respond to different model sectors: galactic winds control the WL power spectrum and gas auto- and cross-spectra, while the stellar initial mass function slope and AGN parameters shape the morphological statistics (PDF, peaks, minima, and Minkowski functionals). Finally, we find that the response of statistics can be compressed into seven halo properties which linearly predict a range of WL and SZ statistics. We publicly release the maps, statistics, and model tables.

We present GW Explorer: A Beginner's Guide, an outreach curriculum designed to introduce high school students to gravitational-wave (GW) astrophysics through interactive Python Jupyter notebooks. Most existing GW resources target beginning audiences and advanced students, leaving a gap at the pre-college level that we directly address. The curriculum integrates foundational physics with hands-on computation implemented through both self-directed and workshop-based instructional formats. In the self-directed format, students completed the curriculum independently on cloud-based platforms such as Google Colab. During the workshop format, students worked through the same activities under the guidance of University of Nevada, Las Vegas graduate student mentors. Topics span gravity, spacetime, GW sources, interferometric detection, and data analysis. An implementation in local high school classrooms informed the content and pacing, and survey results demonstrate gains in conceptual understanding and coding confidence. GW Explorer offers a scalable, open-access framework for authentic astrophysics research in the high school classroom.

We investigate a quantum massive scalar field in the interior of a charged and spherically-symmetric (Reissner-Nordström) black hole. We examine the behaviour for varying values of the black hole charge, field mass and coupling constant when the field is in two quantum states: Hartle-Hawking (representing a black hole in thermal equilibrium) and Unruh (representing a black hole evaporating via the emission of Hawking radiation). We show that the vacuum polarization as well as the angular components of the quantum stress-energy tensor diverge on the Cauchy horizon, in stark contrast to what happens for massless fields. We also calculate the energy fluxes in Eddington-Finkelstein coordinates $\{u,v\}$. We show that these fluxes on the Cauchy horizon do not generically vanish. This implies, in particular, that in regular, Kruskal coordinates $\{U,V\}$ the ingoing flux diverges like $V^{-2}$ on the Cauchy horizon (where $V=0$). This divergence suggests that its backreaction via the semiclassical Einstein equations would yield a strong singularity, as opposed to its weaker, classical counterpart. Interestingly, there are exceptions, in which the energy fluxes in Eddington-Finkelstein coordinates vanish: (i) in the extremal limit (where the black hole is maximally charged); (ii) certain fine-tuned regions of parameter space, where the fluxes change sign.

Bimetric theory is an extension of general relativity that perturbatively describes one massless and one massive graviton. It admits observationally viable cosmologies, passes local tests of gravity, and provides candidates for dynamical dark energy and spin-2 dark matter. Scattering amplitudes provide a complementary probe of its consistency, e.g. through analyticity, unitarity, and causality. While the tree-level $2\to2$ amplitudes of the closely related theory of massive gravity have previously been computed and analysed, the richer amplitude structure of bimetric theory has mostly been studied for selected processes and helicity sectors. We present the complete set of tree-level $2\to2$ scattering amplitudes of ghost-free bimetric theory around proportional Minkowski backgrounds. We expand the action through quartic order in the mass eigenstates and use a computer-algebra workflow to compute all of the $199$ symmetry-inequivalent helicity amplitudes. We find a clear hierarchy: amplitudes with a single massive external state vanish, those with exactly two are independent of the nonlinear bimetric parameters, and nonlinear ghost-free parameter dependence first appears with three massive external states. Taking the massive-gravity limit yields the complete set of tree-level $2\to2$ massive gravity amplitudes, which agree exactly with previous results. Finally, all amplitudes grow with energy at most as $E^6$, corresponding to the characteristic $Λ_3$ strong-coupling scale, and this maximal growth cannot be eliminated by any nontrivial choice of the theory parameters.

We examine an on-disk solar quiet region of enhanced magnetic network using Hbeta images from Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescopes (DKISTs) Visible Broadband Imager (VBI) and line-of-sight magnetograms from DKISTs Visible Spectro-Polarimeter (ViSP). We also compare the ViSP magnetograms with co-aligned co-temporal line-of-sight magnetograms from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)/Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI). We find:(i) Two types of chromospheric jet-like features: Hbeta spicules, and small-scale jets. Both are rooted near edges of magnetic network lanes. Several sit close to ViSP-detected tiny islands of either minority-polarity flux or dips in majority-polarity flux. Hence, those several plausibly stem from mixed-polarity magnetic flux, and are caused by chromospheric magnetic reconnection. For H\b{eta} spicules, the average width, length, lifetimes, and speeds are 420$\pm$400 km, 2600$\pm$1600 km, 4.3$\pm$0.25 min, and 12$\pm$4.7 kms. For small-scale jets, those are 385$\pm$100 km, 620$\pm$40 km, 5$\pm$3min, and 4.4$\pm$1.5 kms. (ii) H$β$ microflashes sit in evidently unipolar flux. Their widths, lengths, lifetimes, and speeds are 180$\pm$65 km, 365$\pm$100 km, 4.3$\pm$2.6 min, and 3.1$\pm$0.2 kms. (iii) At the base of a coronal plume, due to its higher spatial resolution than HMI, ViSP shows both some very strong (>800 G) majority-polarity flux not shown by HMI and some sub-arc-second minority-polarity-flux inclusions not shown by HMI. These sub-arcsecond chromospheric transients carry sufficient energy (10^{24}erg) to transiently heat the local chromosphere and corona and potentially contribute to solar-wind acceleration. They may represent the small-scale end of a continuum of magnetic-reconnection-driven activity, highlighting the importance of DKIST's high-resolution magnetic-field measurements for understanding small-scale chromospheric dynamics.

We present ultra-precise fundamental parameters for the detached eclipsing binary UX Men based on 31 TESS sectors ($\sim$882 d) and radial velocities from HARPS, FEROS, CORALIE, and UCLES. The light curves were detrended for spot-induced variability and modelled independently with JKTEBOP and ALLESFITTER, while radial velocities were extracted via TODCOR and fitted with a Keplerian orbit. Spectral disentangling yielded individual component spectra analysed with iSpec to determine $T_{\rm eff}$ and $\mathrm{[M/H]}$. Multi-band photometry was used to determine the fluxes, flux ratios and ultimately to measure photometric $T_{\rm eff}$. We obtain the masses $M_{\rm A}$ = $1.2300 \pm{0.0012}$ M$_{\odot}$, $M_{\rm B}$ = $1.1946\pm{0.0012}$ M$_{\odot}$ and radii $R_{\rm A}$ = $1.3605\pm{0.0031}$ R$_{\odot}$, $R_{\rm B}$ = $1.2801\pm{0.0069}$ R$_{\odot}$ with sub-percent precision. Uncertainties were found to be dominated by systematic effects coming from (weak) stellar activity. $T_{\rm eff,A}$ = $6302\pm{77}$, $T_{\rm eff,B}$ = $6292\pm65$ \& Metallicity estimates are $[M/H]_{\rm A} = 0.02\pm{0.13}$ dex and $[M/H]_{\rm B}= 0.07\pm{0.10}$ dex. Isochrone fitting yields a consistent age of $τ$ = $2.75\pm{0.13}$ Gyr. The system exhibits a $\sim$ 673-day periodicity in eclipse-timing variations, likely due to stellar activity, with no evidence for a third body. Results are independent of the modelling code used, but without proper treatment of activity-induced systematics the uncertainties would be underestimated. UX Men is a high-precision benchmark binary providing stringent tests of stellar models and a robust calibration source for PLATO. Expanding the sample of well-characterised detached eclipsing binaries will strengthen the empirical foundations for stellar physics and the calibration of future photometric missions

We carry out a search for the relative baryon-cold dark matter (CDM) density and velocity modes in the DESI full-shape (FS) data, and investigate whether DESI's preference for evolving dark energy can be affected by these relative perturbations, which are a known contaminant of the baryon acoustic oscillations. For the first time, we use a holistic effective field theory (EFT) treatment of the power spectrum and bispectrum both for the standard terms (without relative perturbations), modeled in EFT to one-loop order, and for the relative perturbations. For the latter we implement an efficient computation of the one-loop power spectrum that allows us to scan over different cosmologies. We obtain robust constraints on the relative density and velocity bias parameters $b_{δ_{bc}}$, and $b_{v^2_{bc}}$ for all the DESI DR1 tracers, finding e.g. $b_{δ_{bc}}=5 \pm 6$, $b_{v^2_{bc}}=-0.031\pm 0.023$ (at 68% CL) for the LRG2 sample in a DESI FS-only analysis within $Λ$CDM, supplemented by CMB priors on the baryon density and spectral tilt. Assuming instead a $w_0w_a$CDM cosmological model, and combining DESI FS with the CMB primary anisotropies, CMB lensing, and Pantheon+ supernovae, our LRG2 constraints read $b_{δ_{bc}}=2 \pm 5$, $b_{v^2_{bc}}=-0.032\pm 0.022$. Adding the relative velocity divergence biases we find $b_{δ_{bc}}=-17_{-17}^{+19}$, $b_{θ_{bc}}=-760_{-680}^{+700}$, $b_{v^2_{bc}}=-0.032\pm 0.024$ for the same sample. The constraints on the dark energy equation of state parameters are virtually unchanged when marginalizing over the baryon-CDM modes. We conclude that DESI's preference for evolving dark energy is robust with respect to the baryon-CDM relative perturbations.

We develop a largely automatic semi-analytic method for calculating weakly damped quasi-bound states and trapped modes supported by a local minimum of an effective potential. The real part of the frequency is obtained from an arbitrarily high-order local WKB expansion and Padé resummation, while the exponentially small imaginary part is estimated using the Gamow approximation for tunnelling through one or two potential barriers. Because the local quantization requires only derivatives of the potential at its minimum, the method applies readily to non-rational effective potentials and to different compact-object geometries. We provide a Mathematica notebook implementing the procedure. Comparisons with continued-fraction and direct numerical results for massive scalar fields around Schwarzschild and Kerr black holes and for axial trapped modes of a uniform-density star show that the method yields accurate real frequencies and useful estimates of decay rates outside the superradiant regime.

The advent of large-scale time-domain surveys provides both opportunities and challenges for understanding accretion disk evolution in cataclysmic variables (CVs). Using high-cadence photometry from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), we investigate the eclipsing SU UMa-type dwarf nova Z Cha. Leveraging eclipses as a natural probe, we examine the evolution of the accretion disk through variations in eclipse depth, O--C of eclipse minima, and positive superhump (PSH) amplitude. During superoutbursts, all three quantities exhibit quasi-periodic modulations with a common period of $\sim$2 days, consistent with the precession period of an eccentric disk. We interpret these correlated variations as evidence of an eccentric, precessing disk: O--C traces the periodic shift of the system's brightness center, while eclipse depth and PSH amplitude vary with the orientation of the disk bulge relative to the line of sight. In quiescence (Sectors 13 and 93), PSHs with periods of $\sim$0.0762 days show linearly decreasing amplitudes and periods, indicating gradual shrinkage of the eccentric disk and a slowing precession. Remarkably, a coherent signal with a period of $\sim$0.0729~days ($ε^{-}\approx-0.02$) appears in the same quiescent intervals. This signal may represent negative superhumps (NSHs) coexisting with PSHs, although an orbital sideband of the PSH cannot presently be excluded with the available data. If confirmed as NSHs, their coexistence with PSHs would challenge the classical tilted-disk model, and could be explained by retrograde apsidal precession of an eccentric disk, where the inner disk precesses retrogradely (NSHs) and the outer disk progradely (PSHs); this interpretation remains to be tested by further observations.

We present a family of plateau-type inflationary potentials, eq.~\eqref{Vgeneral}, and analyze a two-parameter $αβ$-Starobinsky specialization that interpolates continuously between a \emph{maximal} plateau ($V\!\to\!V_0$) and a \emph{submaximal} plateau ($V\!\to\!V_\infty<V_0$), where $V_0$ is the overall scale of the potential. In the $β\!\to\!0$ limit our framework reproduces the $α$-Starobinsky predictions $n_s\simeq 1-2/N_\star$ and $r\simeq 12α/N_\star^2$. For $β>0$ with $x_\star\gg 1/β$ the slow-roll scaling laws change to $n_s\simeq 1-\frac{4}{3N_\star},\, r\simeq\mathcal{C}(α,β)\,N_\star^{-4/3},$ with an explicit coefficient $\mathcal{C}(α,β)$ set by the plateau truncation. This deformation lifts $n_s$ at fixed $N_\star$ while further suppressing $r$, reconciling the Planck~2018 constraint $n_s=0.9649\pm0.0042$ (68\% CL) and BICEP/Keck18 data $r_{0.05}<0.036$ (95\% CL), with the higher central values $n_s\sim0.97$--$0.98$ preferred by ACT+DESI~DR2 (BAO), within the theoretically motivated interval $N_\star\in(50,60)$ and without exotic reheating. We provide an exact identity for $V/V'$ enabling analytic control of $N_\star$, a practical crossover criterion $β\,x_\star\ll1$ vs.\ $\gg1$, and a transparent mapping between $(α,β)$ and the observables $(n_s,r,N_\star)$. These yield sharp, testable signatures, particularly the softened $N_\star$-scaling of $r$, that distinguish a maximal from a submaximal plateau with upcoming CMB and LSS data.

Intermediate-mass (about 1.5-8 M$_{\odot}$) stars exhibit a wide range of rotation rates and have gained attention for their roles in the extended main-sequence turnoffs (eMSTO) seen in some young and intermediate-age clusters (ages $< 2$ Gyr). Although rapid rotation is expected due to their radiative envelopes, the presence of slow rotators remains puzzling. In this study, we examine disk and X-ray signatures among the intermediate-mass members of the star-forming cluster Trumpler 14. Of the 118 intermediate-mass members, 24 are considered disk-bearing on the basis of their infrared spectral indices derived from spectral energy distributions. The majority of these reside outside the heavily irradiated cluster core and are all slow rotators ($\lessapprox 100$ km s$^{-1}$) except for three fast-rotating Class III objects. Additionally, in the same sample of 118, 37 are X-ray sources, and 22 having available $v \sin i$ data show a systematically slower rotation than X-ray quiet sources. Our findings suggest that, while young stellar disks in intermediate-mass stars contribute to early spin-down, high-energy processes traced by X-ray emission during this phase could be an additional channel for angular-momentum loss in these stars.

In this work, we present a formalism to model the relativistic behavior of axions. The relativistic behavior of axions is surprisingly difficult to model precisely, as it involves oscillations on timescales much shorter than the Hubble timescale. To overcome this challenge, one typically resorts to some form of effective treatment, focusing only on the time-averaged description of the exact oscillations. Salehian, Namjoo & Kaiser provide a systematic framework for such treatment, based on the effective field theory formalism. While the aforementioned study was formulated for axion perturbations in the Newtonian gauge with no anisotropic stress, we extend the formalism to the synchronous gauge that is more conventionally used for numerical implementation in a realistic cosmological setting. Unlike their work, however, we propose a fluid interpretation in which the axion field can be identified as a perfect fluid at all times, both in the exact and effective regimes. Moreover, we present the effective field theory for the Newtonian gauge with non-zero anisotropic stress, making the original formulation more general and useful for scenarios where the matter content of the universe is multi-component. These results lay the theoretical foundation for a companion paper where we discuss how the axion field should be incorporated alongside other species in common cosmological Boltzmann solvers.

The cosmological evolution of ultralight axions typically involves rapid oscillations on the timescale of the inverse mass, making it challenging to resolve the dynamics at both the background and perturbation levels. In this study, we numerically implement a novel approach to this problem based on an effective field theory (EFT) -- that is, for the first time, capable of reconstructing the relativistic oscillations intrinsic to the axion field. Compared to other available techniques, the reconstruction of the rapid oscillations is unique to the EFT approach, which describes the axion effective field through a wavefunction representation with relativistic corrections, rather than through effective fluid variables. From a computational standpoint, our approach archives a high level of accuracy -- up to a subpercent agreement with the exact solution -- while remaining relatively fast compared to alternative methods. As such, it opens up new possibilities for high-precision predictions for axion searches with future cosmological experiments.

The aperture mass filter is a widely used tool in weak lensing studies. While previous surveys have typically relied on the flat-sky approximation, forthcoming Stage IV surveys such as Euclid will cover sufficiently large areas to require the construction of curved-sky aperture mass maps. In this paper, we extend the shear-based aperture mass formalism to the sphere and introduce a software package for a fast and precise computation of spherical aperture mass maps from the shear field, defined directly on the celestial sphere. Unlike existing approaches, our method does not rely on planar projections and does not require the reconstruction of convergence maps. The software provides four different implementations, all of which are independent of the choice of aperture mass filter function. Starting from the brute-force approach, whose computational cost renders it impractical for future surveys covering more than 10,000 deg2, we investigate alternative galaxy-grouping strategies to improve computational efficiency. We demonstrate speed-up factors of up to 40 at a resolution of NSIDE = 4096 while achieving significantly higher precision than existing state-of-the-art methods. In particular, we show that the spherical shear-based implementations using a pixel-based approach outperforms the existing methods in terms of both precision and computational time. Finally, we show that, for weak-lensing cluster detection, the cluster sample produced using the spherical shear-based aperture mass method consistently outperforms those obtained using projected shear-based approaches in the purity-completeness plane, while simplifying the resulting selection function. Our spherical mass aperture software, called SMART, is made available on GitHub.

We present a new scenario for the solar $αω$-dynamo based on the interaction of asymmetric magnetic flux tubes with the near-surface meridional flow. Standard thin flux tube simulations indicate that the radial gradient of differential rotation ($\partialΩ/\partial r > 0$) breaks the spatial symmetry of emerging $Ω$-loops. The leading (western) leg becomes nearly vertical, while the trailing (eastern) leg is heavily stretched and flattens along the longitude. Upon emergence at the photosphere, the horizontal meridional flow toward the poles acts more efficiently on the trailing leg because the efficiency of the hydrodynamic entrainment by the plasma (the ``sail effect'') is directly proportional to the total spatial length of the magnetic flux tube arc elements. This creates a differential torque that drives the trailing sunspot poleward while the leading sunspot remains anchored due to its compact spatial geometry. Our model yields a tilt angle evolution rate of $\approx 0.3^\circ\,\mathrm{day}^{-1}$ at a latitude of $20^\circ$ for a bipolar separation of $15^\circ$, reproducing Joy's law without invoking the classical Coriolis-driven twist during the rise phase.

We generalize the quasi-isotropic solution of the Einstein equations near a cosmological initial singularity to models with a varying speed of light and/or a varying gravitational 'constant'. We construct a formal asymptotic series expansion in a synchronous reference system, taking into account the additional degrees of freedom introduced by the two varying 'constants'. By applying the Landau-Lifshitz quasi-isotropic method, we go beyond the standard results of previous studies that based on the Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) model, providing a more general asymptotic analysis of varying speed of light cosmologies. We show that the resulting solutions do not contain the required number of arbitrary functions to qualify as general solutions of these theories.

We investigate slow-roll inflation in a modified cosmological framework inspired by a generalized mass-to-horizon relation (MHR), $M=γ{c^2 L^n}/{G}$, where $n$ is a real parameter and $γ$ a dimensional constant. Using Padmanabhan's emergence paradigm, we derive the modified Friedmann equations for a flat FRW universe and analyze the dynamics of a canonical scalar field (inflaton) under the slow-roll approximation. We study the resulting inflationary phenomenology for power-law and Starobinsky potentials. For power-law potentials, the MHR modification fails to reconcile these models with current CMB constraints on $r$ and $n_s$. In contrast, Starobinsky inflation exhibits significant sensitivity to deviations from $n=1$. A perturbative analysis ($n=1+Δ$) yields corrections to inflationary observables. We observe that the scalar power-spectrum normalization, under a fixed-Starobinsky prescription, imposes the stringent constraint $0.960 \lesssim n \lesssim 1.040$ for $N=60$ efolds. This is considerably tighter than spectral-index bounds. Our results establish inflation, particularly Starobinsky-like models, as a sensitive probe of generalized horizon thermodynamics and departures from standard MHR scaling.

We realize a nearly pure higgsino dark matter candidate with mass of about 1 TeV in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model coupled to the Starobinsky supergravity. The recent LUX-ZEPLIN 248 keV nuclear-recoil event has renewed interest in higgsino dark matter. In this framework, the particle spectrum, including the Higgs boson mass, the higgsino mass and its splitting, is connected to cosmic inflation observables via gravitational mediation of supersymmetry breaking and subsequent renormalization group evolution. We show that the Higgs boson mass predicted by the model agrees with the measured value within the quoted uncertainties for a broad range of bino-induced mass splittings. Wino-induced splitting leads to a Higgs mass several GeV higher and is therefore excluded.

We constrain the particle mass of the fuzzy dark matter model using globular cluster candidates in dwarf galaxies, from the Euclid Early Release Observations, within the Fornax and Perseus galaxy clusters. We model the orbital evolution of globular clusters by combining fuzzy dark matter density profiles with the corresponding dynamical friction formalism, and integrate their orbits using galpy. In the fuzzy dark matter framework, both the halo density profile and the dynamical friction force are modified by the wave-like nature of the ultra-light dark matter particle, whose mass is parameterized as $m_{22}=m_χ/10^{-22},\mathrm{eV}$ and explored over the range $0.1 \leq m_{22} \leq 100$. This framework naturally alleviates the long-standing globular cluster timing problem originally identified in the Fornax dSph. We find that globular clusters no longer experience orbital decay toward the centers of their host galaxies for $m_{22}\leq1.46^{+0.51}_{-0.32}$ in the Fornax cluster and $m_{22}\leq1.09^{+0.14}_{-0.21}$ in the Perseus cluster. Future Euclid data releases, providing substantially larger samples of globular cluster candidates, will enable significantly tighter constraints on the dark matter particle mass within the fuzzy dark matter scenario.

This is the fourth paper of a series in which we consider the possibility to use cosmological extra dimensions to explain the accelerated expansion of the Universe and the rotation curve of spiral galaxies without introducing dark matter and dark energy. Here we study gravitational lensing in this setting; we derive an expression for time delay and present a modified likelihood for the mass reconstruction procedure which takes into account the effect of the expansion or contraction of the extra dimensions.

According to the Belinski-Khalatnikov-Lifshitz (BKL) conjecture the dynamics of general relativity near singularities is highly chaotic. However, since general relativity breaks down at singularities, it is generally expected that a more fundamental theory, such as quantum gravity, is needed to describe the spacetime dynamics in regions with large spacetime curvature. In the absence of a widely accepted theory of quantum gravity, it remains unclear how exactly quantum effects may modify the classical evolution. Taking a conservative point of view, in this paper we study the classical dynamics of a gravitational collapse, starting from a strong-field (though classical) scenario up to the Planck scale to quantify how much chaos is generated during the time the Einstein equations can be trusted. Specifically, we use the Shannon entropy and Kullback-Leibler divergence, as well as Fourier analysis, to find that, when the Planck scale is reached, the chaotic features of the model remain relatively underdeveloped. This suggests that, at least during the classical regime, chaos is not strong enough to erase all information about the initial state of the universe, or about a previous classical universe in the context of bouncing cosmologies. In addition, we also characterize the final invariant phase-space distribution for the chaotic Bianchi IX dynamics in general relativity, which provides a novel description of its invariant repeller.

We develop an effective description of a two-dimensional cosmological end-of-the-world brane embedded in AdS$_3$, with a scalar field localized on the brane. Integrating out bulk degrees of freedom, especially in the small-gradient regime, the effective action reduces to a Liouville-like theory coupled to the brane scalar. We then construct brane trajectories whose induced geometry realizes slow-roll inflation and reconstruct the associated scalar profile and potential. We also study regular Euclidean brane geometries that admit a smooth continuation to Lorentzian de Sitter and inflationary universes, and evaluate the semiclassical on-shell action for the de Sitter solution. Finally, we analyze linearized inhomogeneous perturbations and find no exponentially growing mode within the regime of validity of the approximation.

We derive the equations of relativistic magnetohydrodynamics from Lorentz-violating Myers-Pospelov electrodynamics. Starting from the modified fermionic and electromagnetic equations of motion, we employ the covariant Wigner formalism to establish the semiclassical spectral constraints and distribution function, which, combined with Noether's theorem, yield the energy-momentum tensor, particle current, and corresponding conservation laws in the presence of Lorentz violation. The resulting hydrodynamic description contains Lorentz-violating corrections to the thermodynamic quantities and to the fluid currents. In the purely timelike sector, these corrections can be absorbed into effective thermodynamic quantities, preserving the isotropic structure of the fluid equations. In contrast, spacelike backgrounds introduce explicit contributions along the preferred direction, which cannot be absorbed into the standard hydrodynamic variables and give rise to anisotropic forces and torques. These effects lead to departures from standard relativistic magnetohydrodynamics and provide a direct macroscopic manifestation of the Lorentz-violating background. Our results provide a first-principles derivation of Lorentz-violating relativistic magnetohydrodynamics and establish a framework for investigating the macroscopic consequences of Lorentz violation in magnetized relativistic fluids.

Binary stars are common in the Galaxy, and understanding how stellar binarity influences the formation and evolution of planetary systems is an active area of research. In this study, we use metal-enriched white dwarfs in wide binaries as tracers of long-lived planetary systems. With Data Release 1 from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), we find that the fraction of cool metal-enriched white dwarfs in wide binaries is 9.8\,$\pm$\,2.1\%, significantly lower (4.7\,$σ$) than the 20.5\,$\pm$\,0.9\% in a control sample of single systems. Furthermore, we identify a tentative dependence of metal enrichment on projected separation and white dwarf effective temperature, where enrichment fraction decreases at smaller separations and lower temperatures. These findings indicate that, compared to single stars, binary systems either start with smaller initial planetary reservoirs due to suppressed planetesimal formation or undergo more rapid depletion of planetary material during the initial part of the white dwarf stage.

We present the first spectral analysis from the JWST Cycle 3 GO Program #6362, the Dyn-Atmo Survey of dynamical-atmospheric benchmarks, characterizing the atmospheres of directly-imaged companions with dynamical masses and measured orbits. This program has obtained moderate-resolution spectra (R$\sim$2700, 3-5$μ$m) using the NIRSpec/G395H IFU. We observe the T4-dwarf companion, HD 13724 B, companion to a G-type star at a projected angular separation of 0''2. Updated orbital monitoring constrains the mass to $38.3\pm0.6~M_{\rm{Jup}}$, which we use as a Gaussian prior when inferring the atmospheric state. We fit the continuum-subtracted spectrum using the BT-SETTL, Sonora Diamondback, Sonora Flame Skimmer, and NEWERA-PHOENIX self-consistent model grids, together with petitRADTRANS atmospheric retrievals. We adopt bulk parameter values of $T_\mathrm{eff}$=$1150\pm$195 K, $\log g$=5.1$\pm0.3$ dex, [M/H]=0.4$\pm$0.4, $\log_{10}(K_{zz})$=6.33$_{-2.22}^{+2.59}$, and C/O=$0.50\pm0.13$ using a bayesian average across model grids. We find degeneracies in the models between surface gravity, metallicity, and $K_{zz}$ for Sonora Diamondback and Flame Skimmer. The Flame Skimmer and NEWERA-PHOENIX vertical mixing strengths are incompatible, with Flame Skimmer finding a systematically lower value. The retrievals favor an atmosphere in chemical equilibrium, with enhanced metallicity and a solar C/O ratio, but with no detection of disequilibrium chemistry, and no detection of trace gases other than CH$_4$, CO$_{2}$, $^{12}$CO and H$_{2}$O. Ultimately, we identify critical challenges in forward modeling continuum-subtracted G395H spectra in the low signal-to-noise regime. We find that including independent dynamical mass measurements better constrains atmospheric parameters, but degeneracies between self-consistent model parameters limit accurate atmospheric parameter inferences.

We present new JWST/NIRSpec IFU high contrast spectroscopic observations of the brown dwarf companion GJ 758 B. Extensive radial velocity monitoring of the primary has enabled high-precision measurements of the companion mass through characterization of their joint orbital dynamics. The combination of prior space- and ground-based photometry and spectroscopic observations in concert with a spectral model-independent mass makes this target an ideal benchmark for calibrating evolutionary models with known mass-age-luminosity degeneracies. A template-matching analysis on the NIRSpec/IFU data (F290LP,G395H; $λ\in$ [2.87-5.27] $μ$m) detects the companion at the expected orbital position with incredible significance (265.2$σ$). Comprehensive spectral analysis including published datasets over a variety of different spectral model families reveal that an inference using a uniform radius prior is plagued by inaccurate posteriors. The atmospheric model degeneracy between metallicity, gravity, and clouds pull the inferred mass/gravity/radius to an unphysical portion of parameter space for all model families tested. A constrained inference with a gaussian prior on the mass can mitigate this issue but models without clouds still struggle to accurately reproduce the K-band photometry and result in mass inferences which are inconsistent with the dynamics. We explore modifying the spectral models with custom post-processed clouds and molecular abundance perturbations of ammonia and hydrogen sulfide. We find the best-fitting model includes clouds with no patchiness (hole fraction f$_\mathrm{hole}$ = 0), a small fractional depletion in ammonia and moderate enhancement in hydrogen sulfide.

What if dark energy is recurrent throughout cosmic history? In this picture, episodes of scalar-field dark energy become less surprising and more natural features of cosmic evolution. We construct a homogeneous multi-axion cosmology with a transient contribution during Big Bang nucleosynthesis, two early dark energy components before recombination, and a thawing field that supplies the present dark-energy density. As Hubble friction weakens, the fields begin to roll at successive epochs set by their potential-curvature scales. Their initial displacements affect the rolling delays and peak energy fractions. The transient fields have third-power cosine potentials, whose sextic minima allow faster-than-radiation dilution during rapid, small-amplitude oscillations. All four fields are evolved in a common Friedmann background, with their first roll and subsequent dynamics resolved numerically. With reference matter and radiation densities taken from Planck 2018, the benchmark has a nucleosynthesis-era peak fraction of approximately $0.99\%$ near $z=10^9$. The two early dark energy fields peak near $z=7.9\times10^3$ and $2.4\times10^3$, with individual fractions of $8.6\%$ and $7.8\%$; their combined fraction reaches $9.7\%$. The late-time field is normalized to supply a present fraction of approximately $0.685$, while the three transients leave a combined fraction of approximately $6.0\times10^{-7}$. An aligned two-axion example illustrates the enhanced field range available for an inflationary extension. We also outline how searches for transient contributions to the expansion rate at other epochs could constrain additional axion scales.

We investigate how quadratic torsion modifies the equilibrium structure of white dwarfs in covariant $f(T)=T+ΞT^2$ gravity. Static spherical configurations are calculated with a fixed equation of state for cold carbon matter, including relativistic electron degeneracy and Coulomb lattice corrections. The stellar interior is matched to a vacuum exterior, and the mass is determined from the asymptotic geometry. At fixed central density, negative couplings produce more massive and more compact configurations than general relativity, whereas positive couplings give smaller masses and larger radii. The deviations increase with central density and are more pronounced in mass than in radius. The first limiting feature of each sequence depends on the coupling. For $Ξ=-10^{18}\,\mathrm{cm}^{2}$, the sequence remains monotonic up to the electron capture density and reaches $1.508\,M_\odot$. General relativity and $Ξ=+10^{18}\,\mathrm{cm}^{2}$ instead reach mass turning points at $1.385\,M_\odot$ and $1.366\,M_\odot$, respectively. The positive extreme can be continued as an equilibrium solution to the capture density, where its mass decreases to $1.24\,M_\odot$, but this configuration lies beyond the turning point and is not the maximum mass along that sequence. These results identify a density dependent structural response to torsion that changes the stellar mass scale without modifying the matter equation of state.

We identify the complete set of fundamental building blocks for a 4D pre-geometric theory of gravity. Based on a gauge theory of $SO(1,4)$ or $SO(2,3)$ coupled to a Higgs-like field under the rigid constraint of general covariance in the unbroken phase, these building blocks - $\mathcal{L}_\text{MM}$, $\mathcal{L}_\text{W}$, $\mathcal{L}_{J}$, $\mathcal{L}_θ$ and $\mathcal{L}_\vartheta$ - constitute the minimal generating set of independent field monomials from which any pre-geometric action, including arbitrary functionals thereof, can be constructed. While the most general pre-geometric theory can extend beyond linear combinations, these five irreducible invariants serve as the 'atomic' constituents of all possible pre-geometric dynamics. Upon spontaneous symmetry breaking, they collectively generate an emergent gravitational theory consisting of the Einstein-Hilbert action, the cosmological constant term and all 4D topological invariants: the Gauss-Bonnet, Pontryagin, Holst and Nieh-Yan terms. The unification of gravity's dynamical and topological sectors from a common pre-geometric source represents the central result of this work. We also uncover a see-saw mechanism linking the Planck mass and the cosmological constant, as well as several novel relations for the coupling constants of the topological sector, inclusive of the Barbero-Immirzi parameter. This framework establishes the pre-geometric foundations from which all aspects of gravitation can dynamically emerge, providing a unified starting point for quantum gravity, dark energy phenomenology and the study of topological phases in gravitational theories.

We derive an entropy formula for recently proposed tensor network models which prepare diffeomorphism invariant states of topological quantum field theories with non-compact and/or continuous gauge groups. We show that our entropy formula generalizes the notion of ``topological entanglement entropy'' to incorporate the infinite number of particle-like excitations in such theories. When our networks are endowed with gauge group $\mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb{R})$, we can interpret them as models of three-dimensional gravity with small Newton's constant and possibly non-invertible metrics.

We associate a gravitational Hilbert space $\mathbf{H}_σ$ to any closed compact $(d-1)$-manifold $σ$ with real metric. A quantum state $\mathcal{J}(σ)$ is a $d$-manifold bounded by $σ$ and equipped with elliptic data. An inner product is defined by gluing states pairwise across $σ$ and evaluated by viewing the resulting closed $d$-manifold as a boundary condition on the gravitational path integral (GPI) over $(d+1)$-manifolds. If $σ$ is nonempty and the GPI is dominated by a single $(d+1)$-manifold $M$ in the $G_N\to 0$ limit, then $M$ contains a Lorentzian CRT fixed-point set, providing $\mathcal{J}(σ)$ with a classical spacetime interpretation. Conversely, given a finite Lorentzian domain with edge $σ$, a state $\mathcal{J}(σ)$ may be associated to it by deforming its initial data off the real Lorentzian section and retaining only elliptic data. This establishes a broad correspondence between non-asymptotic spacetime regions and quantum states. Assuming that $\mathbf{H}_σ$ factorizes over connected components of $σ$, our framework admits operators and partial traces. This allows us to explore the information-theoretic structure of the states we define. As an example, we construct a family of states by deforming partial Cauchy slices $Σ$ that straddle a two-sided black hole; $σ$ consists of two spheres. We construct the reduced state on one sphere and find that its Rényi entropies are positive, monotonic, and sensitive to all aspects of $Σ$ and its complex deformation. The von Neumann entropy, however, is controlled only by the maximin surface in the causal domain of $Σ$, independently of other parameters, so long as the complex deformation does not vanish. Our proposal may thus explain the efficacy of tensor network toy models of holography while transcending their limitations.

Hot Jupiters with orbital periods shorter than a few days have probably been affected by tidal orbital migration. We develop an analytical framework for constraining tidal migration from the present-day hot Jupiter period distribution, taking into account the uncertain rate and period distribution of hot Jupiters produced by mechanisms such as high-eccentricity migration or disk-driven migration. Assuming the tidal migration timescale is proportional to $P^{χ_τ}$, solutions with $χ_τ\simeq 3, 1.7,$ and 5.6 are all compatible with the present-day period distribution. The $χ_τ\simeq 3$ solution is consistent with equilibrium tides with suppression of dissipation at short periods, and implies that newly circularized hot Jupiters have periods concentrated near $3-4$ days, as predicted in some high-eccentricity migration models. The $χ_τ\simeq 1.7$ solution is also compatible with the $3-4$ day peak but has no clear counterpart in existing tidal theories and is more finely tuned. The $χ_τ\simeq 5.6$ solution is compatible with enhanced short-period equilibrium tidal dissipation or weakly nonlinear gravity-wave dissipation, but requires circularization at unexpectedly short periods. Thus, we find the model with $χ_τ\simeq 3$ most appealing. Transit timing of individual systems and observational constraints on the rate of hot Jupiter engulfment provide additional constraints, which are presently inconclusive but should improve with future data. Improved measurements of the occurrence of short-period planets as a function of planet mass and system age could also help to sharpen the constraints on tidal migration.

The axion is a promising candidate for solving the strong CP problem. To solve this problem, the global U(1) symmetry must be preserved to a high degree of accuracy. However, it is well known that global symmetries are explicitly violated by quantum gravity effects, giving rise to what is referred to as the axion quality problem. In this paper, we investigate axionic wormholes as a source of explicit U(1) violation in Metric-Affine Gravity. This framework allows for spacetime torsion and non-metricity, which accommodate additional curvature-like and topological terms, such as the Holst and Nieh--Yan terms, that are absent from the metric and Palatini formalisms. We show that non-minimal couplings to these terms modify the wormhole dynamics and enhance the Euclidean wormhole action, thereby alleviating the axion quality problem. We also find that the viable parameter space is enlarged when two of these couplings are simultaneously present. We further identify representative parameter regions where the alleviation of the axion quality problem is compatible with inflationary constraints.

We prove the black hole uniqueness conjecture in the axially symmetric, stationary, electrovacuum setting, subject to the refined asymptotic analysis of the associated singular harmonic maps, which includes an analyticity hypothesis at the axes. More precisely, it is shown that any asymptotically flat solution of the Einstein--Maxwell equations in this class, with more than one black hole horizon component is either: Majumdar--Papapetrou, up to a duality rotation, in which case all logarithmic angle defects vanish, or every finite axis rod logarithmic angle defect is strictly negative and hence every interaction force is strictly attractive. The proof extends the singular harmonic map method used for vacuum Kerr uniqueness in [18].

The quest for the origin of linear combination frequencies in pulsating stars is critical for mode identification and subsequent seismic modeling. Hybrid γ Doradus (Dor) stars provide a crucial testbed for such investigations due to their rich frequency content in both gravity (g) and pressure (p) modes. Here, we performed a comprehensive survey of 608 Kepler γ Dor stars, detecting 81,265 frequencies, and identifying 1,895 harmonics and 45,968 combinations involving two parent frequencies. Our results suggest that the proportion of linear combinations increases with the frequency number in each γ Dor star, leveling off at approximately 75%. The majority of the parent-to-child amplitude ratios are distributed between 100 and 10,000, peaking between 2,000 and 4,000. Moreover, the amplitude ratios, involving two g-mode parents, are found to escalate with increasing combination frequency. These values are at least an order of magnitude higher than those predicted by nonlinearity distortion of the light curve, whereas they align well with those of nonlinear resonant coupling. Our findings suggest that a significant portion of combination frequencies are likely intrinsic modes under resonant conditions rather than products of surface geometric distortions, offering new insights that warrant systematic investigations across other types of pulsating star.

Quantum field theory on curved and non-inertial backgrounds contains background- and foliation-dependent quantities in the canonical Lagrangian, the hypersurface inner product and bilinear form, as well as in the equal-time anti-commutation relations. In this work, we determine a local fermion-field redefinition that brings these canonical structures into their standard-Minkowski forms, i. e., the forms they assume in Cartesian inertial coordinates on Minkowski spacetime, where the zeroth world coordinate is identified as the coordinate of time. Starting from the generally covariant Dirac action minimally coupled to a spin-1 gauge field, we derive the corresponding Lagrangian, fermionic inner product, and quantization rule in an Arnowitt-Deser-Misner decomposition, formulated in arbitrary world coordinates. We identify the generalized temporal gamma matrix as the common geometric factor governing the canonical temporal structure of all three quantities. Using a field redefinition, we transform this generalized temporal gamma matrix to its standard-Minkowski form, thereby mapping the fermionic inner product and the equal-time anti-commutation relation to their standard-Minkowski expressions, while transferring the explicit background and foliation dependence to the transformed Lagrangian and fermion-field operators. We show that such a field redefinition necessarily consists of a local rescaling and a fixing of the local Lorentz frame. This procedure restores the conventional canonical normalization from standard-Minkowski spacetime used for fermionic mode quantization and occupation-number operators. The transformed Lagrangian consequently assumes a generalized first-order Schrödinger form, leading to the familiar rest-energy term and spacetime-magnetic couplings, as well as to the leading non-relativistic limit, in which temporal derivatives are separated from spatial ones.

We present a photometric analysis of the variable stars in the field of the globular cluster M22 (NGC 6656), using time-series photometry from the literature and from OGLE and Gaia-DR3 data. From a sample of 666 variable stars in the field, we identify 94 as cluster members, including 10 RRab, 17 RRc, 2 Type II Cepheids, 15 SX Phe, 15 SR stars and 22 eclipsing binaries. Fourteen of these members are not included in the Catalogue of Variable Stars in Globular Clusters. Through the Fourier decomposition of the RR Lyrae light curves, we derived $[\mathrm{Fe/H}] = -1.73 \pm 0.17$ dex and $d = 3.27 \pm 0.14$ kpc. Among the RRc stars, V15 shows an additional frequency with a frequency ratio $f_{0.61}/f_\mathrm{1O} = 0.6152$, consistent with the RR$_{0.61}$ phenomenon. Using P-L relations for member SX Phe stars, we obtained $d = 3.31 \pm 0.17$ kpc, consistent with the RR Lyrae distance. We constructed a CMD comprising only cluster members, which allows us to confirm the evolutionary status of the cluster's RR Lyrae stars. None of the fitted isochrones satisfactorily reproduces the CMD morphology, which is consistent with the presence of multiple stellar populations in M22.

As parameters are varied, the set of saddle points contributing to a (path) integral may change discontinuously, leading to a corresponding change in the asymptotic expansion of the integral. This behavior is known as the Stokes phenomenon. We explore this phenomenon in the context of the analytic continuation problem relating the AdS/CFT and dS/CFT correspondences. In this paper, we study these correspondences for three-dimensional pure gravity and two-dimensional Liouville theory, using independent calculations in bulk minisuperspace and in the boundary Liouville zero-mode. In the bulk, the dS contour selects a single saddle and yields the tunneling wave function. Upon continuation to AdS, the contour instead selects an infinite family of saddles. The boundary calculation independently reproduces the same Stokes structure at leading semiclassical order, providing a nontrivial holographic consistency check. Our construction also offers a contour prescription for the conformal factor problem in Euclidean AdS$_3$ quantum gravity within minisuperspace.

We investigate the fate of asymptotic particle states in supersymmetric quantum field theories on de Sitter backgrounds, distinguishing algebraic field content from localized LSZ-like excitations. We study how long-wavelength gravitational fluctuations may suppress pole residues and redistribute spectral weight from isolated contributions toward continuum sectors. The analysis is formulated within a Kallen-Lehmann spectral framework and is intended as a structural infrared mechanism rather than a non-perturbative proof of de Sitter quantum gravity. The paper develops three connected levels. First, we analyze residue suppression in a quasi-de Sitter setting and its possible transmission through Yukawa and gravitational interactions. Second, we formulate the spectral decomposition as a map between the full field-theoretic spectrum and the observable particle sector. Third, we examine a conditional cosmological realization of redistributed spectral weight, including possible effects on expansion, structure growth, and lensing. This cosmological layer is a downstream phenomenological test and is not used as evidence that pole loss has occurred. In the current MCMC analysis we find S8 approximately 0.803 and, when the smooth fraction is varied, fS8 = 0.0025 +/- 0.0017, consistent with the benchmark value 0.00262. These results test the internal consistency of the proposed realization but do not establish the dark-sector assignment or the underlying infrared mechanism.

The scatter in elemental abundances among stars of similar age and metallicity reflects chemical inhomogeneity in their birth environments, making abundance scatter a key observable for chemical-tagging studies of Galactic formation and evolution. Using a large sample of subgiant stars with precise ages and elemental abundances derived from LAMOST low-resolution spectra, we investigate the intrinsic chemical abundance scatter of the low-$α$ thin disk near the solar neighborhood ($7 < R < 10$ kpc). We model the abundance ratio [X/Fe], for each of the 19 elements of concern, as a function of age, [Fe/H], and [Mg/Fe], and deduce the intrinsic dispersions with a forward modelling technique. Our results confirm previous findings that the intrinsic scatters are small, typically $\lesssim0.05$~dex, for light elements (C, Al), $α$-elements (O, Mg, Si, Ca, Ti), and iron-peak elements (Mn, Ni). A dedicated analysis of M67 yields similarly small scatter values for these elements, implying limited discriminatory power from light-element abundances alone. In contrast, neutron-capture elements exhibit substantially larger scatters, typically $\gtrsim$0.1 dex, which are significantly larger than those of M67 member stars ($\sim$0.07~dex). In particular, our analysis suggests that the abundance variations of individual neutron-capture elements cannot be explained by a single tracer such as [Ba/Fe]. These findings clarify the utility of neutron-capture elements for chemical tagging and highlight the potential of low-resolution spectroscopy in such studies.