Context. Classical Cepheids (DCEPs) are among the most important distance calibrators thanks to the correlation between their period and luminosity (PL relation), and play a crucial role in the calibration as the first rung of the extragalactic distance ladder. Given their typical age, they also constitute an optimal tracer of the young population in the Galactic disc. Aims. We aim to increase the number of available DCEPs with high-resolution spectroscopic metallicities, study the galactocentric radial gradients of several chemical elements, and analyse the spatial distribution of the Galactic young population of stars in the Milky Way disc. Methods. We performed a complete spectroscopical analysis of 136 spectra obtained from three different high-resolution spectrographs, for a total of 60 DCEPs. More than half have pulsational periods longer than 15 days, up to 70 days, doubling the number of stars in our sample with P > 15d. We derived radial velocities, atmospheric parameters, and chemical abundances for up to 33 different species. Results. We present an updated list of trusted spectroscopic lines for the detection and estimation of chemical abundances. We used this new set to revisit the abundances already published in the context of the C-MetaLL (Cepheids-Metallicity in the Leavitt Law) survey and increase the number of available chemical species. For the first time (to our knowledge), we present the estimation of abundances for Cepheids for dysprosium (Dy, Z = 66), as well as a systematic estimation of erbium (Er, ZZ = 68), lutetium (Lu, Z = 71), and thorium (Th, Z = 90) abundances. Conclusions. We calculated a galactic radial gradient for [Fe/H] with a slope of −0.064 ± 0.002 dex kpc⁻¹, in good agreement with recent literature estimation. The other elements also exhibit a clear negative radial trend, with this effect diminishing and eventually disappearing for heavier neutron-capture elements. Depending on the proposed spiral arms model present in several literature sources, our most external stars agree on tracing either the Perseus, the Norma-Outer, or both the Outer and the association Outer-Scutum-Centaurus arms.

The XRISM Resolve X-ray spectrometer makes it possible to gain detailed insights into the gas motions of the intracluster medium (ICM) of galaxy clusters. Current simulation studies focus mainly on statistical comparisons, making the comparison to the currently still small number of clusters difficult due to unknown selection effects. This study aims to bridge this gap, using simulated counterparts of Coma, Virgo, and Perseus from the SLOW constrained simulations. These clusters show excellent agreement in their properties and dynamical state with observations, thus providing an ideal testbed to understand the processes shaping the properties of the ICM. We find that the simulations match the order of the amount of turbulence for the three considered clusters, Coma being the most active, followed by Perseus, while Virgo is very relaxed. Typical turbulent velocities are a few hundred km s⁻¹, very close to observed values. The resulting turbulent pressure support is ≍1% for Virgo, ≍6% for Perseus, and ≍8% for Coma within the central 1%─2% of R₂₀₀. Compared to previous simulations and observations, measured velocities and turbulent pressure support are on average lower, in line with XRISM findings, thus indicating the importance of selection effects.

We present the searches conducted with the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) in response to S250206dm, a bona fide event with an online false alarm rate of one in 25 yr, detected by the International Gravitational Wave Network. Although the event is significant, the nature of the compact objects involved remains unclear, with at least one likely neutron star. ZTF covered 68% of the last refined Bilby localization region, though we did not identify any likely optical counterpart. We describe the ZTF strategy, potential candidates, and the observations that helped rule out candidates, including sources circulated by other collaborations. Similar to Ahumada et al., we perform a frequentist analysis, using simsurvey, as well as Bayesian analysis, using nimbus, to quantify the efficiency of our searches. We find that, given the nominal up-to-date distance to this event of 373 ± 104 Mpc, our efficiencies are above 10% for KNe brighter than −17.5 absolute magnitude. Assuming the optical counterpart known as kilonova (KN) lies within the ZTF footprint, our limits constrain the brightest end of the KN parameter space. Through dedicated radiative transfer simulations of KNe from binary neutron star (BNS) and black hole─neutron star mergers, we exclude parts of the BNS KN parameter space. Up to 35% of the models with high wind ejecta mass (M_wind ≍ 0.13 M_⊙) are ruled out when viewed face-on (<inline-formula> <mml:math><mml:mi>cos</mml:mi><mml:msub><mml:mrow><mml:mi>θ</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mi>obs</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:msub><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn>1.0</mml:mn></mml:math> </inline-formula>). Finally, we present a joint analysis using the combined coverage from ZTF and the Gravitational Wave Multimessenger Dark Energy Camera Survey. The joint observations cover 73% of the Bilby localization region, and the combined efficiency has a stronger impact on rising and slowly fading models, allowing us to rule out 55% of the high-mass KN models viewed face-on.

Combining deep Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images and extensive data from the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer, we present new mass models of the cluster MACS J1149.5+2223, strongly lensing the supernova (SN) Refsdal, fully exploiting the source surface-brightness distribution of the SN host for the first time. In detail, we incorporated 77 000 HST pixels, in addition to the known 106 point-like multiple images, in our modeling. We considered four different models to explore the effect of the relative weighting of the point-like multiple image positions and flux distribution of the SN host on the model optimization. When the SN host's extended image is included, we find that the statistical uncertainties of all 34 free model parameters are reduced by factors ranging from one to two orders of magnitude compared to the statistical uncertainty of the point-like only model, irrespective of the adopted different image weights. We quantified the remarkably increased level of precision with which the cluster's total mass and the predicted time delays of the SN Refsdal multiple image positions can be reconstructed. We also show the delensed image of the SN host, a spiral galaxy at z_SN = 1.49, in multiple HST bands. In all those applications, we obtain a significant reduction of the statistical uncertainty, which is now below the level of even the small systematic uncertainty on the mass model that could be assessed by the different approaches. These results demonstrate that with extended image models of lensing clusters it is possible to measure the cluster's total mass distribution, the values of the cosmological parameters, and the physical properties of high-redshift sources with an unparalleled precision, making the typically not-quantified systematic uncertainties now crucial.

The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) will open a new observational window in the millihertz gravitational-wave band, enabling the detection of tens of thousands of compact stellar remnant binaries across the Milky Way. Most of LISA's sources will be double white dwarf (WDWD) systems, while neutron star-white dwarf (NSWD) binaries and higher-mass systems will be orders of magnitude rarer but of significant astrophysical interest. Disentangling these populations is challenging due to the strong overlap in their gravitational-wave features. In this work, we investigate the use of machine-learning techniques to classify LISA-detectable binaries based solely on LISA observables. Using mock catalogues of Galactic binaries constructed from population-synthesis studies, we evaluate a range of machine-learning classifiers. We find that ensemble-based methods-particularly gradient-boosting algorithms such as XGBoost-deliver the best performance on our highly imbalanced dataset. WDWD systems are identified with a recall of $\sim 99\%$, reflecting their dominant presence, and high-mass binaries are also classified with high recall ($\ge 85\%$). In contrast, NSWD systems remain the most challenging population to distinguish: their features overlap strongly with those of WDWD binaries, making them particularly prone to misclassification. Despite this, XGBoost correctly identifies 85.6% of NSWD systems in our simulated LISA detections, outperforming simple statistical approaches based on kernel density estimation. We further demonstrate that machine-learning classification can effectively support the interpretation of LISA data, enabling the identification of eccentric binaries and extremely rare subclasses.

Self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) models feature short-range interactions between dark matter (DM) particles that lead to larger diversity in the inner parts of galactic rotation curves and potentially unique gravitational lensing signatures. Satellite galaxies and dark subhalos provide a valuable testing ground for such models. We develop a simulation framework to explore subhalo evolution and its gravothermal collapse for velocity- and angle-dependent self-interacting cross section in these SIDM models. Our results are essential for testing these models. We perform N-body simulations, treating the host halo analytically and modelling the scattering-induced subhalo-halo interaction process using virtual host particles, a central innovation of our work. We use the Eddington inversion method to accurately model the local velocity distribution in the halo. Our approach is significantly less computationally expensive than simulations with a fully resolved host, while incorporating tidal stripping and tidal heating. We test both isotropic and forward-dominated self-scattering, which represent limiting cases for the angular dependence of the self-interaction cross section. Environmental effects, especially the scattering-induced subhalo-halo interaction, have a strong impact on the subhalo evolution and drive a complex structural evolution. As a result, SIDM subhalos have a larger range of central densities and density profile slopes compared to collisionless DM. Our cost-efficient simulation framework enables modelling of SIDM subhalos in realistic environments. Our results highlight the necessity of accurately modelling the scattering-induced subhalo-halo interaction to predict SIDM subhalo density profiles. For the SIDM models we investigate, the enhanced diversity in the mass profiles of subhalos would leave an observable imprint on strong lensing systems and satellite galaxies.

The first four all-sky surveys with eROSITA the soft X-ray instrument on board the Spektrum─Roentgen─Gamma (SRG) satellite revealed a new X-ray source, eRASSU J012422.9─724248, in the Magellanic Bridge, near the Eastern Wing of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). We performed a broad-band timing and spectral analysis using the optical and X-ray data of eRASSU J012422.9─724248. Using the X-ray observations with eROSITA, Swift, NuSTAR and optical data from the optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) and the Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO), we confirm the nature of eRASSU J012422.9─724248as a Be/X-ray binary (BeXRB) pulsar in the Magellanic Bridge. The position is coincident with that of an early-type star (OGLE ID SMC732.10.7). We detect the spin period at 341.71 s in NuSTAR data and infer a period of 63.65 d from the 15 yr monitoring with OGLE, that we interpret as the orbital period of the system. A tentative CRSF at <inline-formula><tex-math>$\sim$</tex-math></inline-formula>12.3 keV is identified in NuSTAR spectra with <inline-formula><tex-math>$\sim 1.8\sigma$</tex-math></inline-formula>. The source appears to show a persistent X-ray luminosity and an optical magnitude transition on the long timescale. We propose eRASSU J012422.9─724248is a new member of the class of persistent BeXRBs.

We present FlowSN, a statistical framework using simulation-based inference (SBI) with normalising flows to account for selection effects in observational astronomy. Failure to account for selection effects can lead to biased inference on global parameters. An example is Malmquist bias, where detection limits result in a sample skewed towards brighter objects. In Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) cosmology, these selection effects can systematically shift the inferred posterior distributions of cosmological parameters, necessitating the development of robust statistical frameworks to account for the biases. SBI enables us to implicitly learn probability distributions that are analytically intractable to calculate. In this work, we introduce a novel approach that employs a normalising flow to learn the non-analytic selected SN likelihood for a given survey from forward simulations, independent of the assumed cosmological model. The resulting likelihood approximation is incorporated into a hierarchical Bayesian framework and posterior sampling is performed using Hamiltonian Monte Carlo to obtain constraints on cosmological parameters conditioned on the observed data. The modular learnt likelihood approximation can be reused without retraining to evaluate different cosmological models, providing a key advantage over other SBI approaches. We demonstrate the performance of this methodology by training and testing the SBI technique using realistic LSST-like SNANA simulations for the first time. Our FlowSN approach yields accurate posterior estimates on cosmological parameters, including the dark energy equation of state $w_0$, that are an order of magnitude less biased than those obtained with conventional techniques and also exhibit improved frequentist calibration.

We investigate whether the effective theory for isolated, massive, and weakly interacting spin-3/2 particles is compatible with causality and unitarity — i.e., the positivity of scattering amplitudes. We find no solution to positivity constraints, except when gravitons are also present and couple in a (nearly) supersymmetric way. Gravity is thus bootstrapped from S-matrix consistency conditions for the longitudinal and transverse polarizations of massive spin-3/2 states. For two such particles forming a U(1)-charged state, a (gravi)photon gauging the symmetry is also required, with couplings characteristic of supergravity and consistent with both the no-global-symmetry and weak gravity conjectures. We further explore the EFT-hedron associated with the longitudinal polarizations, the Goldstinos, through novel t─u symmetric dispersion relations. We identify the 'extremal' UV models that lie at the corners of the allowed parameter space, recovering familiar models of supersymmetry breaking and uncovering new ones.

Dense neutrino plasmas can develop instabilities that drive collisionless flavor exchange, equivalent to the emission of flavomons, the quanta of flavor waves. We treat these waves, for the first time, as independent linear degrees of freedom and develop a quasi-linear theory (QLT), including backreaction on the neutrino distribution and nonresonant neutrino--flavomon interactions, while neglecting wave--wave processes. In a homogeneous, axisymmetric model, the saturated neutrino and flavomon distributions agree closely with periodic-box solutions of the original quantum kinetic equation. These results support the use of QLT, well established in plasma physics, to bypass nonlinear small-scale effects that challenge direct simulations.

With more than 6000 exoplanets discovered so far, about 12 percent are hot Jupiters. Their large sizes and short orbital periods make them valuable targets for studying planetary formation, atmospheres, and orbital evolution. We present a homogeneous analysis of the WASP-19 b system using a 15 year dataset to investigate both its orbital dynamics and atmospheric properties. We test whether the transit times show evidence for tidal orbital decay, apsidal precession, or periodic perturbations from an additional body, and we also construct a photometric transmission spectrum. Multi-wavelength light curves are modeled with PRISM to account for starspots, and linear, quadratic, and cubic ephemeris models are fitted to the transit timing residuals. Our dataset includes 27 new transits and reveals no statistically significant periodic signal. Although none of the tested models fully reproduces the timing scatter, the transit times show systematic deviations from a constant period and are best described by the cubic ephemeris, indicating a slow long-term trend over the full baseline. This behavior is more consistent with gradual apsidal precession than with monotonic tidal decay. A precession model yields a rate of 1.00 +/- 0.12 x 10^-4 rad per orbit and a planetary Love number k2p = 0.107 +/- 0.08. The transmission spectrum shows signatures of Na, K, and H2O, with no strong evidence for TiO or VO. These results suggest that apsidal precession may dominate the long-term orbital evolution of WASP-19 b. Continued high-precision timing and spectroscopic observations are needed to further test this scenario.

One of the major open puzzles in the Standard Model of particle physics is the strong CP problem: although Quantum Chromodynamics allows a CP-violating topological $θ$-term, experiments constrain its value to be extremely small. The Peccei--Quinn mechanism resolves this problem by promoting the $θ$-angle to a dynamical field-introducing the axion -- whose dynamics relax the effective angle $θ_\text{eff}$ to a CP-conserving minimum. Here, we investigate the resulting axion physics in a Hamiltonian lattice gauge theory (LGT) by coupling a quantized axion field to the massive Schwinger model with a topological $θ$-term. Using infinite matrix product state techniques, we compute the ground-state properties of the resulting theory and demonstrate that the axion dynamically relaxes $θ_\text{eff}$ to the minimum of the vacuum energy. Consequently, the ground-state energy becomes independent of $θ$, demonstrating the axion-mediated solution to the strong CP problem within a fully dynamical LGT. We further analyze CP restoration and extract the axion mass from the topological susceptibility and excitation spectrum. Our results provide a nonperturbative demonstration of axion dynamics in a quantum LGT amenable to investigation on modern quantum hardware.

Observations of the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS have revealed a strong production of gas and dust near perihelion, together with rapid brightening. The outgassing from the nucleus has led to a detectable non-gravitational acceleration. In this work, we combine models of the mass loss rate of water and carbon dioxide to derive the non-gravitational parameters and estimate the mass and size of 3I/ATLAS. In addition, we take into account a conservative constraint on the nucleus size from the active surface area required for sublimation. If the mass loss is dominated by the sublimation of CO$_2$, then the nucleus radius and mass are $R_{\rm 3I}=0.42\,\rm{km}$ and $M_{\rm 3I}=1.6\times10^{11}\,\rm{kg}$, assuming a density of $ρ=0.5\,\rm{g\,cm}^{-3}$ and an asymmetry factor of $ζ=0.5$. This estimate is consistent with the lower bound from the active surface and independently supported by the slight preference of the orbital fit for a $a_{\rm ng}(r)\sim 1/r^2$ scaling of the non-gravitational acceleration. Models that cover the range of reported water production near perihelion give $R_{3I}=0.74-1.15\,\rm{km}$ and $M_{\rm 3I}=8.5-32\times10^{11}\,\rm{kg}$ but require a cometary surface that is in tension with the estimate from the rocket effect. Therefore, our results indicate that a large fraction of water sublimation is occurring in the coma and that CO$_2$ dominates sublimation on the surface. The nucleus radius that we obtain is much smaller than a recent photometric estimate of $R_{\rm 3I}\sim 1.3\,\rm{km}$, which could be resolved if CO$_2$ production is larger than observed or if the density of 3I/ATLAS is significantly lower than assumed. An overall lighter nucleus of 3I/ATLAS might be favored based on its recently claimed origin from a metal-poor environment and the corresponding mass budget of interstellar objects.

Tidal disruption events (TDEs) have traditionally been discovered in optical sky surveys through targeted searches of nuclear transients. However, it is expected that some TDEs will occur outside the galaxy nucleus, arising from wandering black holes originating in galaxy mergers. Here we present observations of TDE 2025abcr, the first optical TDE discovered in the outskirts of a host galaxy. The TDE was identified by a custom 'off-nuclear' implementation of the ML classifier $\texttt{tdescore}$, which classifies new ZTF transients based on their lightcurves. Follow-up observations confirm that TDE 2025abcr is a TDE-H+He, occurring 9.5$"$ (10.3 kpc projected distance) from the nucleus of a massive galaxy ($\mathrm{M}_{\star}$ = $10^{11.18 \pm 0.03}\mathrm{M}_{\odot}$) with a central black hole mass of $10^{8.82 \pm 0.65}\mathrm{M}_{\odot}$. TDE 2025abcr itself was likely disrupted by a much lighter black hole ($10^{6.09\pm0.53}\mathrm{M}_{\odot}$, as estimated with peak luminosity scaling relations). The black hole was either dynamically ejected from the nucleus or lies at the center of a very faint tidally-stripped dwarf galaxy undergoing a minor merger. Late-time observations of TDE 2025abcr could confirm the origin of this apparent 'orphan' black hole. The rate of highly offset ($\gtrsim$3 kpc) TDEs can be constrained to $<$10% of the nuclear TDE rate, but our discovery implies that many dozens of similar sources will be detected by the Vera C. Rubin each year with resolvable offsets.

Simulation-based inference (SBI) is a powerful inference technique for cases where the exact functional form of the likelihood is not known. A prime example is the likelihood of cross-correlation power spectra of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) fields at low multipoles, $\ell\lesssim 10$. In this paper, we investigate a parity-violating cross-correlation between $E$- and $B$- mode polarization fields using SBI. The $EB$ correlation at low $\ell$ is essential to distinguish between possible axion dark energy and dark matter interpretations of `cosmic birefringence', a rotation of the plane of linear polarization of the CMB, recently reported from WMAP, Planck, and Atacama Cosmology Telescope data. We use neural likelihood estimation to infer the likelihood of the $EB$ correlation at low $\ell$ and show that it is highly non-Gaussian. We then employ neural posterior estimation to constrain the scalar field mass ($m_ϕ$), the cosmic birefringence amplitude ($gϕ_\mathrm{in}/2$), and the instrumental miscalibration angle ($α$), from simulated datasets. We find that the posterior on $m_ϕ$ shows two regimes, with a transition marked by $10^{-32}$ eV, highlighting a strong sensitivity to the scale dependence of cosmic birefringence. To quantify this behavior, we compute the probability $p(m_ϕ < 10^{-32}$ eV) for various fiducial values of $m_ϕ$. We find that $α$ and the contribution of lensed $B$ modes ultimately limit our ability to exclude the dark energy scenario fully.

We introduce a new photometric catalog of RR Lyrae (RRL) variables (∼300,000) mainly based on data available in public datasets. We also present the largest and most homogeneous spectroscopic dataset of RRLs and blue horizontal branch (BHB) stars ever collected. This includes radial velocity measurements (∼16,000) and iron abundances (∆S method for 8140 RRLs, plus 547 from literature). Elemental abundances based on high-resolution spectra are provided for 487 RRLs and 64 BHB stars. We identified candidate RRLs associated with the main Galactic components and their iron distribution function (IDF) becomes more metal rich when moving from the halo ([Fe/H] = −1.56) to the thick disk (TCD; [Fe/H] = −1.47) and thin disk (TND; [Fe/H] = −0.73). Furthermore, halo RRLs and RRLs in retrograde orbits are α enhanced ([α/Fe]=0.27, σ = 0.18), while TCD RRLs are either α enhanced ([Fe/H] ≤ −1.0) or α poor ([Fe/H] > −1.0), and TND RRLs are mainly α poor ([α/Fe] = −0.01, σ = 0.20). We also identified RRLs associated with the main stellar streams—Gaia─Sausage─Enceladus (GSE); Sequoia, Helmi, and Sagittarius—and we found that their IDFs are quite similar to halo RRLs. However, GSE RRLs lack the metal-poor/metal-rich tails and their α-element distribution is quite compact. The iron radial gradient in Galactocentric distance for TND, TCD, and halo RRLs is negative and it decreases from −0.026, to −0.010, and to −0.002 dex kpc⁻¹. The iron radial gradient based on dry halo (halo without substructures) RRLs is, within the errors, equal to the global halo. We also found a strong similarity between iron and [α/Fe] radial gradients of Milky Way RRLs and M31 globular clusters throughout the full range of galactocentric distances covered by the two samples. *Based in part on observations made with the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT): Program IDs: 2017-2-SCI-041, 2018-1-SCI-018, 2018-2-SCI-025, 2019-1-SCI-013, 2021-2-SCI-028, 2022-2-DDT-001, PI: B. Chaboyer). Based in part on data obtained in the Observatorios de Canarias del Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC) with: the STELLA robotic telescope, an AIP facility jointly operated by AIP and IAC at the Teide Observatory in Tenerife, Spain; the Italian Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG) operated by the Fundación Galileo Galilei of the INAF, the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) owned in collaboration by the University of Turku and Aarhus University and operated jointly by Aarhus University, the University of Turku and the University of Oslo, representing Denmark, Finland and Norway, the University of Iceland and Stockholm University, and the Mercator telescope operated by the Flemish Community, all at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the IAC, La Palma, Spain (Program IDs: 101-MULTIPLE-4/21B, 107-MULTIPLE-4/22A, 120-MULTIPLE-2/23B, 165-Stella12/20A, PI: M. Monelli; Program ID: 108-MULTIPLE-2/25B, PI: M. Sánchez-Benavente).

Multiply imaged supernovae (SNe) provide a novel means of constraining the Hubble constant (H₀). Such measurements require a combination of precise models of the lensing mass distribution and an accurate estimate of the relative time delays between arrival of the multiple images. Only two multiply imaged SNe, Refsdal and H0pe, have enabled measurements of H₀ thus far. Here we detail the third such measurement for SN Encore, a z = 1.95 Type Ia SN discovered in JWST/NIRCam imaging. We measure the time delay, perform simulations of additional microlensing and millilensing systematics, and combine with the mass models of Suyu et al. in a double-blind analysis to obtain our H₀ constraint. Our final time-delay measurement is <inline-formula> <mml:math><mml:mi>∆</mml:mi><mml:msub><mml:mi>t</mml:mi><mml:mrow><mml:mn>1</mml:mn><mml:mi>b</mml:mi><mml:mo>,</mml:mo><mml:mn>1</mml:mn><mml:mi>a</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:msub><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mo>−</mml:mo><mml:mn>39</mml:mn><mml:mo>.</mml:mo><mml:msubsup><mml:mn>8</mml:mn><mml:mrow><mml:mo>−</mml:mo><mml:mn>3.3</mml:mn></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mo>+</mml:mo><mml:mn>3.9</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:msubsup></mml:math> </inline-formula> days, which is combined with seven lens models weighted by the likelihood of the observed multiple image positions for a result of <inline-formula> <mml:math><mml:msub><mml:mrow><mml:mi>H</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mn>0</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:msub><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn>66</mml:mn><mml:mo>.</mml:mo><mml:msubsup><mml:mrow><mml:mn>9</mml:mn></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mo>−</mml:mo><mml:mn>8.1</mml:mn></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mo>+</mml:mo><mml:mn>11.2</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:msubsup><mml:mspace></mml:mspace><mml:mi>km</mml:mi><mml:mspace></mml:mspace><mml:msup><mml:mrow><mml:mi>s</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mo>−</mml:mo><mml:mn>1</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:msup><mml:mspace></mml:mspace><mml:msup><mml:mrow><mml:mi>Mpc</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mo>−</mml:mo><mml:mn>1</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:msup></mml:math> </inline-formula>. The uncertainty on this measurement could be improved significantly if template imaging is obtained. Remarkably, a sibling to SN Encore (SN "Requiem") was discovered in the same host galaxy, making the MACS J0138.0─2155 cluster the first system known to produce more than one observed multiply imaged SN. SN Requiem has a fourth image that is expected to appear within a few years, providing an unprecedented decade-long baseline for time-delay cosmography and an opportunity for a high-precision joint estimate of H₀.

One of the most puzzling properties of the high-redshift active galactic nucleus (AGN) population recently discovered by JWST, including both broad-line and narrow-line sources, is their X-ray weakness. With very few exceptions, and regardless of the optical classification, they are undetected at the limits of the deepest Chandra fields, even when stacking signals from tens of sources in standard observed-frame energy intervals (soft, hard, and full bands). It has been proposed that their elusive nature in the X-ray band is due to heavy absorption by dust-free gas or an intrinsic weakness, possibly due to high super-Eddington accretion. For this work we performed X-ray stacking in three customized rest-frame energy ranges (1─4, 4─7.25, and 10─30 keV) of a sample of 50 type 1 and 38 type 2 AGN identified by James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in the Chandra Deep Field South (CDFS) and Chandra Deep Field North (CDFN) fields. For the type 2 subsample, we achieve a total exposure of about 210 Ms, and report a significant detection (∼3σ) in the hardest band (10─30 keV rest frame), along with relatively tight upper limits in the rest-frame softer energy bands. The most straightforward interpretation is in terms of heavy obscuration due to gas column densities well within the Compton-thick regime (> 2 × 10²⁴ cm⁻²) with a large covering factor, approaching 4π. The same procedure applied to the type 1 subsample returns no evidence of a significant signal in about 140 Ms stacked data in any of the adopted bands. The bolometric correction k_bol to the absorption corrected 2─10 keV X-ray luminosity of type 2 AGN is consistent with the average value obtained for X-ray selected type 2 objects in the literature. The lower limit on k_bol for the type 1 sample is significantly higher and inconsistent with that of type 2 objects. Absorption in the Compton-thick regime or extreme X-ray weakness, would bring the current lower limits closer to the observed values for type 1 X-ray selected AGN. A brief comparison with the current observations and the implications for the evolution of AGN are discussed.

Mass transfer in binary systems is the key process in the formation of various classes of objects, including merging binary black holes (BBHs) and neutron stars. The orbital evolution that occurs during mass transfer depends on how much mass is accreted and how much angular momentum is lost ─ two of the main uncertainties in binary evolution. This poses a challenge for obtaining reliable predictions from binary channels. Here, we demonstrate that despite these unknowns, a fundamental limit exists to how close binary systems can become via stable mass transfer (SMT) that is robust against uncertainties in orbital evolution. Based on detailed evolutionary models of interacting systems with a BH accretor and a massive-star companion, we show that the post-interaction orbit is always wider than ∼10 R_⊙, even when extreme shrinkage due to L2 outflows is assumed. Systems evolving toward tighter orbits become dynamically unstable and result in stellar mergers. This separation limit has direct implications for the properties of BBH mergers, including long delay times (≳1 Gyr) and an absence of high BH spins from the tidal spin-up of helium stars. At high metallicity, the SMT channel may be severely quenched due to Wolf-Rayet winds. We predict BBH mergers from ∼10 M_⊙ to 90 M_⊙, with case A mass transfer dominating above 40 M_⊙. The reason for the separation limit lies in the stellar structure, not in binary physics. If the orbit becomes too narrow during mass transfer, a dynamical instability is triggered by a rapid expansion of the remaining donor envelope due to its near-flat entropy profile. The closest separations can be achieved from core-He burning (∼8−15 R_⊙) and Main Sequence donors (∼15−30 R_⊙), while Hertzsprung gap donors lead to wider orbits (≳30−50 R_⊙) and non-merging BBHs. These outcomes and mass transfer stability are determined by the entropy structures, which are governed by internal composition profiles. Consequently, the formation of BBH mergers and other compact binaries via SMT is a sensitive probe of chemical mixing in stars, and it may help address open questions of stellar astrophysics, such as the blue supergiant problem. Finally, we propose a new simplified treatment of mass transfer stability that more accurately reproduces detailed results and remains flexible under varying assumptions for orbital evolution.

Aims. We aim to evaluate how well the variation of small-scale magnetic fields on the stellar surface can be monitored with time-series observations. Further, we aim to establish to what extent the measured total unsigned magnetic field traces other activity indicators. Methods. We measured the total unsigned magnetic field on four young, Sun-like, stars using the Zeeman splitting of magnetically sensitive Ti I and Fe I lines from high-resolution time series spectra obtained with the spectropolarimeters ESPaDOnS at Canada France Hawaii Telescope and NARVAL at Bernard Lyot Telescope. We then characterised the magnetic field variations using both sinusoidal variation and Lomb-Scargle periodograms. We evaluated how the rotational variation of the total unsigned magnetic field strength correlates with the activity indicators S-index, Hα-index, Ca IRT-index, and the large-scale magnetic field obtained from Zeeman Doppler imaging maps obtained in earlier studies. Results. We find clear signals of rotational modulation of the total magnetic field on HIP 76768 and tentative detection on Mel 25-5. This is supported both by the sinusoidal fitting as well as the periodogram. For the other stars, we find no clear modulation signals of the total magnetic field. We find positive correlations between the total magnetic field and activity indices on all four stars, indicating that indirect magnetic activity indicators trace the underlying magnetic field variability. However, comparing the activity-magnetic field relationship between the stars in our sample shows a significant deviation between activity level and measured magnetic field strength. Conclusions. Small-scale magnetic field variability can evidently be traced using the Zeeman effect on magnetically sensitive lines, provided that the star is sufficiently active. It is also possible to self-consistently recover rotational periods from such measurements. The primary limit for the detection of magnetic field variations on less active stars is the precision of Zeeman broadening and intensification measurements.

Time-delay cosmography leverages strongly lensed quasars to measure the Universe's current expansion rate, H₀, independently from other methods. The latest TDCOSMO milestone measurement primarily used quadruply lensed quasars for their mass profile constraints. However, doubly lensed quasars, being more abundant and offering precise time delays, could expand the sample by a factor of 5, significantly advancing towards a 1% precision measurement of H₀. We present the first TDCOSMO analysis of a doubly imaged source, HE 1104−1805, including the measurement of the four necessary ingredients. First, by combining 17 years of data from the SMARTS, Euler, and WFI telescopes, we measured a time delay of 176.3<inline-formula> ^+11.4_−10.3 <mml:math> <mml:msubsup> <mml:mrow></mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>−</mml:mo> <mml:mn>10.3</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> <mml:mn>11.4</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msubsup> </mml:math> </inline-formula> days. Second, using MUSE data, we extracted stellar velocity dispersion measurements in three radial bins with 5% to 13% precision. Third, employing F160W HST imaging for lens modelling and marginalising over various modelling choices, we measured the Fermat potential difference between the images. Fourth, using wide-field imaging, we measured the convergence added by objects not included in the lens modelling. By combining these four ingredients, we measured the time delay distance and the angular diameter distance to the deflector, favouring a power-law mass model over a baryonic and dark matter composite model. The measurement was performed blindly to prevent experimenter bias and resulted in a Hubble constant of <inline-formula> H₀ = ^+5.8_−5.0 <mml:math> <mml:mrow> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>H</mml:mi> <mml:mn>0</mml:mn> </mml:msub> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mn>64</mml:mn> <mml:mo>.</mml:mo> <mml:msubsup> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>−</mml:mo> <mml:mn>5.0</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> <mml:mn>5.8</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msubsup> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> </inline-formula> × λ_int km s⁻¹Mpc⁻¹, where λ_int is the internal mass sheet degeneracy parameter. This is in agreement with the TDCOSMO-2025 milestone and its precision for λ_int = 1 is comparable to that obtained with the best-observed quadruply lensed quasars (4─6%). This work is a stepping stone towards a precise measurement of H₀ using a large sample of doubly lensed quasars, supplementing the current sample. The next TDCOSMO milestone paper will include this system in its hierarchical analysis, constraining λ_int and H₀ jointly with multiple lenses.

Active tissues exhibit tension fluctuations that are correlated in space and time. We study a minimal overdamped surface model in which such fluctuations enter as a zero-mean, multiplicative modulation of the local surface tension. Although the deterministic elastic dynamics (tension plus bending) stabilizes the flat state for all nonzero wave numbers, we find that sufficiently persistent active fluctuations generate positive ensemble growth rates for a finite band of Fourier modes, leading to stochastic buckling with wavelength selection. A non-Markovian theory based on the Novikov--Furutsu theorem captures the instability threshold and unstable band observed in simulations.

The success of Large Language Models (LLMs) has established that scaling compute, through joint increases in model capacity and dataset size, is the primary driver of performance in modern machine learning. While machine learning has long been an integral component of High Energy Physics (HEP) data analysis workflows, the compute used to train state-of-the-art HEP models remains orders of magnitude below that of industry foundation models. With scaling laws only beginning to be studied in the field, we investigate neural scaling laws for boosted jet classification using the public JetClass dataset. We derive compute optimal scaling laws and identify an effective performance limit that can be consistently approached through increased compute. We study how data repetition, common in HEP where simulation is expensive, modifies the scaling yielding a quantifiable effective dataset size gain. We then study how the scaling coefficients and asymptotic performance limits vary with the choice of input features and particle multiplicity, demonstrating that increased compute reliably drives performance toward an asymptotic limit, and that more expressive, lower-level features can raise the performance limit and improve results at fixed dataset size.

The inner edge of the dead zone in protoplanetary disks has been shown to periodically go unstable, leading to accretion outbursts and annular substructure within the dead zone. While dust opacities play a key role in this process, the thermal and dynamical effects of dust drift and growth have not been fully explored. We investigate the evolution of accretion outbursts in the inner disk and their impact on the formation of dust-rich substructure with a fully dynamic dust model. In doing so, we aim to highlight the importance and limitations of dust growth in forming planets in this region. We carry out radiation hydrodynamics simulations of a protoplanetary disk including prescriptions for the structure of the inner edge of the dead zone, viscous and irradiation heating, radiative cooling, dust-gas dynamics, and dust evolution. We find that accretion outbursts at the inner disk edge can lead to the formation of multiple dust rings that extend deep inside the dead zone (~1 au) and diffuse on viscous timescales (~10 kyr for alpha=1e-4). The rings contain dust masses of up to ~1.6 Earth masses, possibly kickstarting planet formation. Dynamic modeling of dust fragmentation enhances the total opacity during the burst, yielding more intense outbursts that penetrate deeper into the dead zone. Our results highlight the thermal and dynamical importance of treating dust dynamics self-consistently in models of accretion outbursts. Additional modeling is needed to characterize the inevitable nonaxisymmetric structures arising from accretion outbursts and their observational prospects.

The Hubble tension and the recently reported anomaly in data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) are considered to pose serious challenges to the standard $Λ$CDM model of cosmology. In this work, we show that resolving the Hubble tension with a scenario featuring dark radiation-matter decoupling (DRMD) predicts the presence of dark acoustic oscillations (DAO) similar in scale to baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO). Using an inference independent of large-scale structure data, relying only on Planck measurements of the cosmic microwave background and SH$0$ES-calibrated supernova data, we find evidence for a DAO signal with drag-horizon scale $r_{d,\mathrm{DAO}} \in[54,65]\,\mathrm{Mpc}/h$ ($68\%\,\mathrm{C.I.}$) and amplitude $A_\mathrm{DAO} \in [0.02,0.05]$ ($68\%\,\mathrm{C.I.}$). These predictions provide a concrete target for current and upcoming large-scale structure surveys, including DESI, Euclid, and the Roman Space Telescope. Remarkably, the predicted DAO properties are consistent with those required to explain the DESI anomaly, offering both an alternative to evolving dark energy and a preliminary validation of the relevance of a dark radiation-matter decoupling scenario for addressing the Hubble tension.

Virtually all extragalactic use cases of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) require the use of galaxy redshift information, yet the vast majority of its sample of tens of billions of galaxies will lack high-fidelity spectroscopic measurements thereof, instead relying on photometric redshifts (photo- z) subject to systematic imprecision and inaccuracy best encapsulated by photo- z probability density functions (PDFs). We present the version 1 release of Redshift Assessment Infrastructure Layers (RAIL), an open source Python library for at-scale probabilistic photo- z estimation, initiated by the LSST Dark Energy Science Collaboration (DESC) with contributions from the LSST Interdisciplinary Network for Collaboration and Computing (LINCC) Frameworks team. RAIL's three subpackages provide modular tools for end-to-end stress-testing, including a forward modeling suite to generate realistically complex photometry, a unified API for estimating per-galaxy and ensemble redshift PDFs by an extensible set of algorithms, and built-in metrics of both photo- z PDFs and point estimates. RAIL serves as a flexible toolkit enabling the derivation and optimization of photo- z data products at scale for a variety of science goals and is not specific to LSST data. We thus describe to the extragalactic science community, including and beyond Rubin the design and functionality of the RAIL software library so that any researcher may have access to its wide array of photo- z characterization and assessment tools.

Context. Jetted active galactic nuclei aligned with our line of sight known as blazars are promising high-energy neutrino source candidates. However, leptohadronic models face challenges in describing neutrino emission within a viable energy budget and their predictive power are limited by the commonly used single-zone approximation and reliance on phenomenological parameters. Aims. We tested the scenario where energetic protons are continuously accelerated up to ultra-high energies in inner blazar jets, while accounting for the source energetics and jet dynamics. Methods. We present a new leptohadronic model, where a sub-Eddington jet evolves from being magnetically to kinetically dominated. A constant fraction of 10⁻⁶─10⁻⁸ of the electrons and protons picked up by the jet are continuously accelerated to a power-law spectrum. We can estimate their normalization and maximum energies based on the local magnetic field strength, turbulence, and medium density, for which we assumed power-law profiles. The model parameters are thus directly tied to the jet physics and are comparable in number to a single-zone model. We then calculate the emission along the jet, including neutrinos and electromagnetic cascades. Results. Applying the model to IceCube candidate TXS 0506+056, we find that protons accelerated in the inner jet produce a neutrino flux up to ∼100 PeV that is consistent with the public IceCube ten-year point-source data. Proton emission at 0.1 pc describes the X-ray and γ-ray data, while electron emission at the parsec scale describes the optical data. Protons carry a power of about 1% of the Eddington luminosity. The particle spectra follow E^−1.8, with diffusion scaling as E^0.3, ruling out Bohm-like diffusion. Additional particle injection near the broad line region can reproduce the 2017 flare associated to a high-energy neutrino. We also applied the model to the blazar PKS 0605-085, which could be associated with a recent neutrino detected by KM3NeT above 100 PeV. Conclusions. Magnetic acceleration in blazar jets can describe multimessenger observations with viable energetics. Our model constrains jet properties such as the energy-dependent particle diffusion and predicts the spatial distribution of the multiwavelength and neutrino emission along the jet. The results suggest that blazars are efficient neutrino emitters at ultra-high energies, making them prime candidates for future experiments targeting this challenging energy range.

The organisation of living systems into cellular structures is a characteristic that enables differentiation from the environment. A pivotal step in the development of life is compartmentalisation, achieved through the formation of vesicle-like structures. Fatty acids - or phospholipids - have been used to simulate prebiotic vesicle and protocell formation. However, a process by which amphiphiles are formed from small prebiotically plausible molecules, which spontaneously self-assemble to protocells, is unknown. Here, we demonstrate that an organocatalytic reaction cascade starting from acetaldehyde with prebiotic imidazolidine-4-thione rapidly yields poly(hydroxy)alkenyl aldehydes that spontaneously self-assemble to protocells. In this process, lipid-like molecules (up to C20) develop a membrane, which additionally incorporates the organocatalyst at the liquid-lipid interface. These catalytically active protocells (11 nm ─ 7 μm) tolerate external influences such as pH value, temperature and salts. This finding unveils an organocatalytic pathway to selective lipid formation and spontaneous compartmentalisation without the necessity of preformed amphiphiles.

We report the discovery of complex flaring activity from the galactic nucleus hosting the five-year-old tidal disruption event eRASSt J234402.9−352640 (J2344). With Einstein Probe and XMM-Newton observations, we detected highly structured soft X-ray variability. Through temporal decomposition of the XMM-Newton light curve and time-resolved spectral analysis, we identified broad, thermal flares recurring every ∼12 hours and lasting ∼2 hours, consistent with quasi-periodic eruptions (QPEs). Remarkably, these QPEs are accompanied by an unprecedented crest of hotter shorter flares, each lasting between 5 and 30 minutes. These flares are predominantly found in the rising phases of the QPEs, although they also appear throughout the quiescence. These findings establish J2344 as a new member of the QPE emitter population and uncover a previously unobserved phenomenology that challenges current models of QPEs. In this letter we present the phenomenological properties of this unique source and discuss possible interpretations within the framework of extreme mass ratio inspirals.

Context. The eROSITA instrument on board the Spectrum Roentgen Gamma (SRG) satellite performed its first all-sky survey between December 2019 and June 2020. This paper presents the resulting hard X-ray (2.3─5 keV) sample, the first created from an all-sky imaging survey in this energy range, for sources within the western galactic sky (eROSITA-DE). Aims. We produced a large uniform sample of hard-X-ray selected active galactic nuclei (AGN), and characterised them with supporting multi-wavelength astrometry, photometry, and spectroscopy. For the 2863 sources within the sky coverage of the DESI imaging Legacy Survey Data Release 10 (LS10; >15 000 deg²), counterparts were identified and classified. We also performed comparisons with the Swift BAT sample and HEAO-1 AGN sample to attempt to better understand the effectiveness and sensitivity of eROSITA in the hard band. Methods. The 5466 hard X-ray selected sources detected with eROSITA are presented and discussed here. The Bayesian statistics-based code NWAY was used to identify the counterparts for the X-ray sources. These sources were classified based on their multi-wavelength properties, and the literature was searched to identify spectroscopic redshifts, which further inform the source classification. A total of 2547 sources were found to have good-quality counterparts, and 111 of these have been detected only in the hard band. The median redshift of the extragalactic sources is ~0.19. Results. Compared with other hard X-ray selected surveys, the eROSITA hard sample covers a larger redshift range and probes dimmer sources, providing a complementary and expanded sample as compared to Swift BAT. Examining the column density distribution of missed and detected eROSITA sources present in the follow-up catalogue of Swift BAT 70 month sources, it is demonstrated that eROSITA can detect obscured sources with column densities >10²³ cm⁻² corresponding to ~14% of the full sample, but that the completeness drops rapidly thereafter. A sample of hard-only sources, many of which are likely to be obscured AGN with column densities ~10²³ cm⁻², is also presented and discussed. We caution that a large number of hard-only sources are believed to be spurious, based on simulations, and that additional cuts on counterpart quality or requiring spectroscopic redshifts should be applied to use this sample. X-ray spectral fitting reveals that these sources have extremely faint soft X-ray emission and their optical images suggest that they are found in more edge-on galaxies with lower b/a. Conclusions. The first eROSITA all-sky survey provided the first imaging survey above 2 keV, and the resulting X-ray catalogue has been demonstrated to be a powerful tool for understanding AGN, in particular the heavily obscured AGN found in the hard-only sample.

Multi-planet systems are excellent laboratories for studying the formation and evolution of exoplanets inside the same stellar environment. The number of known multi-planet systems is expected to skyrocket with the advent of PLATO and the Roman space telescope. The spin─orbit angle is a key context information for the systems' dynamical history, and in recent years a growing number of planets had their spin─orbit angles measured, revealing a large diversity in orbital configurations, from well-aligned to polar, and even retrograde, orbits. Still, observers lack a robust tool with which to compare the dynamical state of different systems and to select the most suitable ones for future avenues of exploration, such as investigating the evolutionary pathways and their links to the atmospheric composition. Here, we present ExoNAMD, an open source code aimed at evaluating the dynamical state of multi-planet systems via the Normalized Angular Momentum Deficit (NAMD) metric. The NAMD measures the deficit in angular momentum with respect to circular, co-planar orbits. It is normalized to compare systems with different architectures and provides a lower limit on the past dynamical excitation of the system. We find that using the spin─orbit angle parameter in the NAMD calculation (A-NAMD) improves the dynamical state's description, compared to using only the relative inclinations (R-NAMD). Comparison of A-NAMD and R-NAMD also yields powerful insights into the interplay between eccentricity and spin─orbit angle. ExoNAMD is a timely tool for easy and fast comparison of the myriad of exoplanetary systems to be discovered by PLATO and Roman and to optimize the target selection and scientific output for future atmospheric characterization using ELTs, JWST, and Ariel.

Context. The shape of the initial mass function (IMF) remains a fundamental yet contentious topic in the study of stellar formation and evolution. It is imperative to understand the potential variability of the IMF across different young regions. This study examines the IMF within the young massive cluster RCW 36 situated in the Vela Molecular Ridge, comparable with the Orion Nebula Cluster in terms of stellar surface density. Aims. The primary objective of this research is to construct the most comprehensive census of the stellar population in RCW 36 to date and determine the first ever IMF and star to brown dwarf (BD) ratio for the cluster. Methods. We used state-of-the art observational techniques, drawing on new GLAO observations conducted with HAWK-I/VLT in addition to archival data from 2MASS, SOFI/NTT, and new kinematics from Gaia DR3. To enhance photometric accuracy and source extraction, we employed DENEB, an advanced deep learning algorithm capable of removing the complex filamentary nebula in our images. Statistical comparisons of color-magnitude diagrams were performed between RCW 36 and a control field, also obtained using HAWK-I under the same mode, to assign membership weights for the sources in our field. Mass estimates to individual sources were also derived through comparison with model isochrones in order to determine the IMF using the membership weights. Results. We found a new distance of 954 ± 40 pc. We determined the IMF for RCW 36 down to ~0.03 M_⊙, characterized by a broken power law (dN/d M ∝ M^−α) with α = 1.62 ± 0.03 (0.20 M_⊙ −20 M_⊙) and α = 0.46 ± 0.14 (0.03 M_⊙─0.20 M_⊙). We also determined the star-BD ratio to be 2─5, in agreement with other Galactic clusters. Lastly, through a study of the differences in the IMF within and outside 0.2 pc and the cumulative mass distributions for low-mass and intermediate to high-mass sources, we also detected signs of possible mass segregation within RCW 36, which should be primordial. Conclusions. RCW 36 shares many characteristics with other young massive clusters, such as a shallower than Salpeter high-mass slope and the possibility of mass segregation. The flatter lower-mass regime of the IMF is similar to most Galactic clusters. The star-BD ratio is also in line with the observed values in other clusters, independent of their inherent properties.

Massive red supergiants (RSGs) are known to become hydrodynamically unstable before they explode. Still, the vast majority of supernova (SN) models assume RSG progenitors in hydrostatic equilibrium. Here we follow the hydrodynamic evolution of RSGs with different masses and the development of radial envelope pulsations. Pulsations significantly alter the observable pre- and post-SN properties, and their importance increases substantially as a function of initial mass. We demonstrate that inferring core masses, let alone initial masses, from a single pre-SN luminosity and effective temperature of high-mass RSGs is inadvisable, as these can vary by an order of magnitude during the pulsation. We find that pulsations can naturally lead to "early-excess" emission in SN light curves and to variations in early photospheric velocities, which can help break degeneracies in Type II SNe. We compare to SN 2023ixf and SN 2024ggi, for which pulsating RSG progenitors were reported. We demonstrate that the pre- and post-SN characteristics of SN 2023ixf agree very well with our exploding pulsating RSG model and exhibit meaningful differences from hydrostatic models. The data coverage is insufficient to break all degeneracies. We find insufficient evidence for the claimed pulsation period of the SN 2024ggi progenitor, as it matches Spitzer's orbital period. This study underscores the importance of hydrodynamical pre-SN stellar models, in particular for massive stars from ≳15 M_⊙. It implies an important shift in our understanding of the last stages of massive star evolution, the interpretation of pre-SN properties, the connection between SNe and their progenitors, and the missing RSG problem.

Context. Classical Cepheids are fundamental primary distance indicators and crucial tracers of the young stellar population in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies. While most chemical abundance studies of Cepheids have been carried out in the optical domain, near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy offers unique advantages in terms of reduced extinction and access to new elemental tracers. Aims. Our goal is to validate NIR abundance determinations against well-established optical results and to explore the diagnostic power of previously unexplored NIR lines. NIR spectroscopy is far less hampered by interstellar extinction than optical observations, which allows us to probe Cepheids at larger distances and in highly obscured regions of the Galaxy. Moreover, the H and K bands provide access to diagnostic lines of elements (e.g., P, K, and Yb) that are not available in the optical domain. Methods. We acquired high-resolution (R ≍ 45 000) spectra of 21 Galactic and 2 Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) classical Cepheids with the high-resolution Immersion Grating Infrared Spectrometer (IGRINS) in the H and K bands. Effective temperatures were derived from a photometric approach and line-depth ratios, and the gravities and microturbulent velocities were estimated using empirical calibrations and statistical constraints. The abundances of 16 elements were determined through a full spectral synthesis in local thermodynamic equilibrium. We performed an extensive error analysis and compared our results with previous optical studies of the same stars. Results. Our NIR abundances and the optical literature values agree very well (∆[Fe/H] ≤ 0.02 dex and σ ≍ 0.07 dex), which confirms the reliability of IGRINS-based measurements. The derived abundance gradients in the Galactic disk are fully consistent with previous optical determinations, with slopes of −0.06, −0.05, and −0.05 dex kpc⁻¹ for Fe, Mg, and Si, respectively. We provide homogeneous determinations of P, K, and Yb abundances from NIR lines for classical Cepheids for the first time, and we report trends that are consistent with Galactic chemical evolution models. Moreover, the two LMC Cepheids included in our sample that were previously analyzed in the optical provide a direct benchmark that confirms the accuracy of NIR abundance determinations in extragalactic metal-poor environments. Conclusions. Our study demonstrates that high-resolution NIR spectroscopy of Cepheids yields robust abundances that are fully compatible with optical results and provides access to additional elements of nucleosynthetic interest. These results pave the way for future large-scale NIR surveys of Cepheids with facilities such as MOONS, ELT, and JWST, which are crucial for tracing the chemical evolution of the Milky Way and nearby galaxies in heavily obscured regions.

Light-mass nuclear reactions can play a significant role in r-process nucleosynthesis in core-collapse supernovae (SNe) and collapsars. We investigate the sensitivity of both weak and main r-process nucleosyntheses, which are responsible for the production of the first and second plus third r-process peak nuclei, respectively, to the light-mass nuclear reactions up to oxygen isotopes. We extend the reaction network to include more neutron-rich isotopes and update reaction rates using recent experimental results. For the explosion mechanisms, the sensitivity studies have previously been done in ν-driven wind SNe assuming relatively high initial neutron-to-proton ratio with high entropy. We here consider magnetohydrodynamic jet SNe and collapsars in addition to the ν-driven winds. We use a simple exponential decay model for slowly expanding disk outflows, which manifest themselves in various disk winds from collapsars, magnetohydrodynamic jets, binary neutron star mergers, as well as ν-driven winds. We study the competition between the dynamical expansion timescale of the system and the collision timescales for various nuclear reactions and β-decays in order to identify the main reaction flow paths. We find the sensitivities of the main r-process to ¹⁴C(n, γ)¹⁵C, ¹⁸O(n, γ)¹⁹O, and ⁸Li(α, n)¹¹B, which are as large as 16%, 24%, and 0.6%, respectively, for the magenetohydrodynamic jet SN environment, and for the weak r-process to (n, γ) and (α, n) reactions, which depend on different astrophysical sites.

In RNA world scenarios, pools of RNA oligomers form strongly interacting, dynamic systems, which enable molecular evolution. In such pools, RNA oligomers hybridize and dehybridize, ligate, and break, ultimately generating longer RNA molecules, which may fold into catalytically active ribozymes. A key process for the elongation of RNA oligomers is templated ligation, which can occur when two RNA strands are adjacently hybridized onto a template strand. Detailed simulations of the dynamics in RNA pools involve a large variety of possible sequences and reactions. Here we develop a reduced description of these complex dynamics within the space of sequence motifs. We then explore to what extent our reduced description can capture the behavior of detailed simulations that account for the full dynamics in the space of RNA strands. Towards this end, we project the dynamics into a motif space, which accounts only for the abundance of all possible four-nucleotide motifs. A system of ordinary differential equations describes the dynamics of those motifs. Its control parameters are effective rate constants for reactions in motif space, which we obtain from the rate constants for the processes underlying the full dynamics in the space of RNA strands. We find that these reduced motif space dynamics indeed capture important aspects of the informational dynamics of RNA pools in sequence space. This approach could also provide a framework to rationalize and interpret features of the sequence dynamics observed in experimental systems.

Context. Galaxies whose images overlap in the focal plane of a telescope, commonly referred to as blends, are often located at different redshifts. Blending introduces a challenge to weak-lensing cosmology probes since such blends are subject to shear signals from multiple redshifts. Aims. This effect can be described by joining shear bias and redshift characterisation in the effective redshift distribution, n_γ(z), which includes the response of apparent shapes of detected objects to shear of galaxies at redshift, z. In this work, we propose a novel method to correct n_γ(z) for redshift-mixed blending by emulating the shear response to neighbouring galaxies. Methods. We designed a 'half-sky-shearing' simulation with Subaru Hyper Suprime Cam (HSC) wide-like specifications, which allowed us to extract the response of a detected object's measured ellipticity to the shearing of neighbouring galaxies among numerous galaxy pairs. Results. We demonstrate the feasibility of accurately emulating these pairwise responses and validate the robustness of our approach under varying observing conditions and galaxy population uncertainties. We find that the effective redshift of sources at the high-redshift tail of the distribution is about 0.05 lower than expected when the effect is not modelled. Conclusions. Given adequately processed image simulations, our correction method can be readily incorporated into future cosmological analyses to mitigate this source of systematic error.

Motivated by recent progress in the spurion analysis of non-invertible selection rules (NISRs) arising from near-group fusion algebras, we further generalize the framework to a class of NISRs obtained from ℤ₂ orbifolding of a ℤ_M symmetry, denoted as ℤ_M/ℤ₂. Many structural features are carried over: for instance, our labeling scheme enables systematic tracking of all couplings when constructing composite amplitudes from simpler building blocks at arbitrary loop orders in perturbation theory. Our analysis provides a transparent understanding of both low-order and all-order zeros of couplings under radiative corrections. Furthermore, we examine the fate of low-order zeros when the fusion algebra is not faithfully realized — a situation not captured by the vanilla argument of "loop-induced groupification" — and formulate a conjecture on the related aspects of particle decoupling and effective theory. Finally, we discuss the low-order versus all-order zeros in Yukawa textures from the perspective of spurion analysis.

Triboson production processes play a crucial role in probing the electroweak sector of the Standard Model, as they involve quartic gauge-boson couplings already at the tree level. With these measurements entering the precision era at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), accurate theoretical predictions become indispensable. We present the computation of the next-to-next-to-leading-order (NNLO) QCD radiative corrections to the production of a W boson in association with two photons (<inline-formula><mml:math><mml:mrow><mml:mi>W</mml:mi><mml:mi>γ</mml:mi><mml:mi>γ</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:math></inline-formula>) at the LHC. The calculation is exact, except for the finite part of the two-loop contribution, which is included in the leading-colour approximation. Predictions for the fiducial cross section and selected kinematic distributions are provided at a centre-of-mass energy of <inline-formula><mml:math><mml:mrow><mml:msqrt><mml:mi>s</mml:mi></mml:msqrt><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn>13</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:math></inline-formula> TeV, under standard experimental selection cuts. In line with observations for other multiboson processes involving direct photons, we find sizable NNLO corrections that enhance the next-to-leading-order predictions by about <inline-formula><mml:math><mml:mrow><mml:mn>23</mml:mn><mml:mo>%</mml:mo></mml:mrow></mml:math></inline-formula>, with residual perturbative uncertainties that can be roughly estimated to be at the <inline-formula><mml:math><mml:mrow><mml:mn>5</mml:mn><mml:mo>%</mml:mo></mml:mrow></mml:math></inline-formula> level.

Ground-based high-resolution spectroscopic observations have identified various chemical species in the atmosphere of numerous ultra-hot Jupiters (UHJs), including neutral and ionized metals. These detections have offered valuable insights into planet formation mechanisms via abundance measurements of refractory elements. We observed the dayside thermal emission spectrum of UHJ HAT-P-70b using the high-resolution spectrographs CARMENES and PEPSI. Through our cross-correlation analysis, we detected emission signals for Al I, AlH, Ca II, Cr I, Fe I, Fe II, Mg I, Mn I, and Ti I, marking the first detection of Al I and AlH in an exoplanetary atmosphere. Tentative signals of C I, Ca I, Na I, NaH, and Ni I were also identified. Based on those detections, we were able to perform atmospheric retrievals to constrain the thermal profile and elemental abundances of the planet's dayside hemisphere. The retrieved temperature-pressure profile reveals a strong temperature inversion layer. The chemical free retrieval yielded a metallicity of [Fe/H] = 0.38_−1.11^+0.74, while the chemical equilibrium retrieval resulted in [Fe/H] = 0.23_−0.98^+1.08, with both values consistent with the solar metallicity. We also tentatively found an enriched abundance of Ni, which could result from the accretion of Ni-rich planetesimals during the planet's formation. On the other hand, elements with condensation temperatures above 1400 K(e.g., Ca, Ti, and V) appear to be slightly depleted, possibly due to cold-trapping on the planet's nightside. However, Al, with the highest condensation temperature at 1653 K, displays a solar-like abundance, which might reflect the formation-related enrichment of Al. Our retrieval indicates extremely high volume mixing ratios of metal ions (Fe II and Ca II), which are significantly inconsistent with predictions from chemical equilibrium models. This disequilibrium suggests that the atmosphere is likely undergoing significant hydrodynamic escaping, which enhances the atmospheric density at high altitudes where the ionic lines are formed.

Scattering amplitudes are expected to admit a factorised structure in special kinematic limits, such as the Regge, soft and collinear limits. However, less is known about the precise mechanisms through which factorisation of n-particle scattering amplitudes is realised at high perturbative orders, where more complex structures arise. Starting with the soft anomalous dimension, in this work we investigate the multi-particle collinear limits of massless amplitudes at three- and four-loop orders. Using colour conservation and rescaling symmetry, we show how strict collinear factorisation of multiple massless final-state coloured particles is realised, and provide results for the corresponding splitting amplitude soft anomalous dimensions. In particular, we demonstrate through four loops that the conditions on the structure of the massless soft anomalous dimension that are required by strict collinear factorisation in all two-particle collinear limits, are sufficient to guarantee such factorisation also in any multiple collinear limit. Then, assuming that strict collinear factorisation of massless partons holds also for amplitudes containing massive coloured particles, we derive new constraints on the soft anomalous dimension from multi-collinear limits.

We present a deep-learning-based approach for identifying dark matter haloes in cosmological N-body simulations. Our framework consists of a volumetric Convolutional Neural Network to classify individual simulation particles as either halo or non-halo members, followed by a highly optimised and parallelised Friends-of-Friends clustering algorithm that groups the classified halo members into distinct haloes. The training data comprise simulations generated using GADGET-4, with labels obtained with the ROCKSTAR halo finder. Our models incorporate two main halo mass definitions, $M_{200\mathrm{b}}$ and $M_{\text{vir}}$, with similar performance. For haloes defined by the ROCKSTAR $M_{200\mathrm{b}}$ criterion, the classification network demonstrated stable performance across multiple simulation resolutions. For the highest resolution, it achieved over $98\%$ across all primary performance metrics when identifying halo particles. Furthermore, the FoF algorithm yielded halo catalogues with a purity generally exceeding $95\%$ and a stable completeness of $93\%$ for masses above $5\times10^{11} \, M_\odot$. Our pipeline recovered the centre-of-mass positions, velocities and halo masses with high fidelity, yielding a halo mass function consistent to within $5\%$ of the reference while faithfully reconstructing the internal density profiles. The primary objective of this study is to offer a faster and scalable alternative to conventional halo finders, achieving a speed-up of approximately one order of magnitude relative to ROCKSTAR, offering a promising pathway for modern simulation-based inference methods that rely on rapid and accurate structure identification.

In this work, we relate two recent constructions that generalize classical (genus-zero) polylogarithms to higher-genus Riemann surfaces. A flat connection valued in a freely generated Lie algebra on a punctured Riemann surface of arbitrary genus produces an infinite family of homotopy-invariant iterated integrals associated to all possible words in the alphabet of the Lie algebra generators. Each iterated integral associated to a word is a higher-genus polylogarithm. Different flat connections taking values in the same Lie algebra on a given Riemann surface may be related to one another by the composition of a gauge transformation and an automorphism of the Lie algebra, thus producing closely related families of polylogarithms. In this paper we provide two methods, which are inverses of one another, to explicitly relate in this way the meromorphic multiple-valued connection introduced by Enriquez in e-Print 1112.0864 and the non-meromorphic single-valued and modular-invariant connection introduced by D'Hoker, Hidding and Schlotterer, in e-Print 2306.08644.

Context. The Milky Way's (MW's) star formation history (SFH) offers insights into the chronology of its assembly and the mechanisms driving its structural development. Aims. In this study, we present an inference and analysis of the spatially resolved SFH and the MW disc growth. Methods. Our approach leverages both stellar birth radii estimates and the complete reconstruction of the MW stellar disc using a novel orbit superposition method from APOGEE data, allowing us to trace the orbit-mass weighted SFH based on formation sites, while taking into account stellar mass loss. Results. We find that the MW is a typical disc galaxy exhibiting inside-out formation: it was compact at z > 2 (R_eff ≍ 2 kpc), had a peak in its star formation rate (SFR) 9─10 Gyr ago, and grew to a present-day size of R_eff ≍ 4.3 kpc. A secondary peak in the SFR ~4 Gyr ago is responsible for the onset of the outer disc, which comprises the metal-poor, low-α population. We find that in situ star formation in the solar neighbourhood started 8─9 Gyr ago. The MW disc is characterised by a negative mean age gradient, as the result of the inside-out growth, with additional flattening induced by stellar radial migration. Conclusions. Our work showcases the importance of accounting for radial migration and the stellar sample selection function when inferring the SFH and build-up of the MW disc.

In 2013 April, the TeV blazar Markarian 421 underwent one of its most powerful emission outbursts recorded to date. An extensive multi-instrument campaign featuring MAGIC, VERITAS, and NuSTAR provided comprehensive very high-energy (VHE; E > 100 GeV) and X-ray coverage over nine consecutive days. The VHE flux peaked at approximately 15 times that of the Crab Nebula, with rapid variability detected on timescales down to 15 minutes in both X-ray and VHE bands. This rich data set, characterized by its dense temporal coverage and high photon statistics, offers an unparalleled opportunity to probe the broadband emission dynamics in blazars. In this work, we perform a detailed spectral analysis of the X-ray and VHE emissions on subhour timescales throughout the flare. We identify several clockwise spectral hysteresis loops in the X-rays, revealing a spectral evolution more complex than a simple harder-when-brighter trend. The VHE spectrum extends beyond 10 TeV, and its temporal evolution closely mirrors the behavior in the X-rays. Crucially, we report the first evidence of VHE spectral hysteresis occurring simultaneously with the X-ray loops. To interpret these findings, we apply a time-dependent leptonic model to 240 broadband spectral energy distributions (SEDs) binned on a 15 minute scale, allowing us to self-consistently track the particle distribution's history. Our modeling shows that the majority of the subhour flux and spectral variations are driven by changes in the luminosity and slope of the injected electron distribution. The required variations in the electron slope are difficult to reconcile with magnetic reconnection, but they are consistent with a shock-acceleration scenario where the shock compression ratio evolves by a factor of ∼2. The model also points to a relatively stable magnetic field and emitting region size, favoring a scenario where the emission originates from a stationary feature in the jet, such as a recollimation shock. However, this scenario requires a jet Lorentz factor that significantly exceeds values from VLBI measurements to account for the high minimum electron energy implied by the lack of variability in the optical band.

Precise predictions for Higgs decays are a crucial ingredient of the search for beyond the standard model physics and the standard model effective field theory (SMEFT) is a valuable tool for quantifying deviations from the standard model. We present the complete set of predictions for the two- and three-body Higgs decays at next-to-leading order, considering QCD and electroweak corrections and including all contributions from the dimension-6 SMEFT operators and with an arbitrary flavor structure. Including the next-to-leading-order SMEFT results for Higgs decays greatly increases the sensitivity to beyond the standard model physics of the <inline-formula><mml:math><mml:mrow><mml:msup><mml:mrow><mml:mi>e</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mo>+</mml:mo></mml:mrow></mml:msup><mml:msup><mml:mrow><mml:mi>e</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mo>-</mml:mo></mml:mrow></mml:msup><mml:mo>→</mml:mo><mml:mi>Z</mml:mi><mml:mi>h</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:math></inline-formula> process at FCC-ee, as compared with that obtained using only the total cross section.

We describe a novel mechanism of charged particles confinement by a rapidly oscillating magnetic field. It relies on the renowned dynamical stabilization phenomenon and provides a foundation for a new class of the magnetic traps. The dynamical magnetic confinement of charges and spin magnetic moments has a number of remarkable properties which make it a promising alternative to the existing techniques in a wide range of physical problems.

This is a pedagogical review of some recent progress in rigorously proving chiral symmetry breaking (χSB) in a class of QCD-like theories that closely resemble the real-world QCD — the SU(Nc) Yang-Mills theory coupled to Nf flavors of massless quarks in the fundamental representation. Based on ’t Hooft anomaly matching and persistent mass conditions, a general no-go theorem is formulated: assuming that the theory flows in the infrared (IR) to a fully color-screened, IR-free phase described by color-singlet hadrons, symmetry and anomaly constraints necessarily imply spontaneous χSB; conversely, any phase with unbroken chiral symmetry must retain unscreened color charges, thereby ruling out a fully color-singlet hadron description in the IR. While these results have been widely assumed, the recent developments reviewed here establish them with a new level of rigor. The persistent mass condition, carefully formulated here, plays a central role — just as it does in the Vafa-Witten theorem on unbroken vectorlike symmetries.

In dense neutrino environments, the mean field of flavor coherence can develop instabilities. A necessary condition is that the flavor lepton number changes sign as a function of energy and/or angle. Whether such a crossing is also sufficient has been a longstanding question. We construct an explicit counterexample: a spectral crossing without accompanying flavor instability, with an even number of crossings being key. This failure is physically understood as Cherenkov-like emission of flavor waves. If flipped-lepton-number neutrinos never dominate among those kinematically allowed to decay, the waves cannot grow.

Cosmological correlators are important observables in cosmology. They are often approximated by de Sitter space correlators. In this paper, we give a first precise diagrammatical computation of higher loop diagrams to all orders for a conformally coupled scalar in four dimensions. We show that, in contrast to flat space, diagrams of necklace topology do not resum using the natural application of de Sitter-invariant regularization and are thus hard to evaluate. We propose a modification to the UV-regularization of the loops, compatible with de Sitter invariance, but much easier to work with. The modified diagrams can be resummed to give a glimpse at non-perturbative effects for de Sitter correlators. Furthermore, they fit nicely with recently proposed cosmological dressing rules.

We use the Born--Oppenheimer effective field theory factorization to compute the inclusive production cross sections of the $χ_{c1}(3872)$ and its partner in the bottomonium sector. In the same framework, we compute the production cross sections of the pentaquark states $P_{c\bar{c}}(4312)^+$, $P_{c\bar{c}}(4457)^+$, $P_{c\bar{c}}(4380)^+$ and $P_{c\bar{c}}(4440)^+$ within two possible scenarios for the Born--Oppenheimer potentials. Also for pentaquarks, we extend the results to the bottomonium sector. All our results are genuine predictions that do not involve fits to prompt hadroproduction data.

We investigate whether photoevaporation alone can open and sustain gaps in protoplanetary discs by coupling the evolving disc structure with the photoevaporative flow in two-dimensional radiation─hydrodynamical simulations. Our results show that once a density depression forms, the local mass-loss rate decreases sharply, suppressing further gap deepening. Viscous inflow and radial mass transport along the disc surface act to partially refill the depleted region, preventing complete clearing. The resulting configuration is a persistent, partially depleted zone whose evolution is largely insensitive to the initial disc morphology. This behaviour challenges the standard paradigm that photoevaporation efficiently carves clean inner cavities and directly produces transition discs. However, the pressure maximum at the outer edge of the depression may still trap dust grains, giving rise to transition-disc-like observational signatures. We also present a first-order prescription to approximate this behaviour in one-dimensional disc evolution models, suitable for use in planet formation and population synthesis studies. Although the prescription improves upon static mass-loss treatments, it remains approximate, underscoring the need for further multidimensional simulations and parameter-space exploration to derive robust recipes for global disc and planet population models.

We develop a geometric framework in Feynman-parameter space to determine constraints on the sequential discontinuities of Feynman integrals. Our method is based on tracking the deformation of the integration contour as external kinematics are analytically continued. This procedure imposes powerful constraints on the analytic structure of Feynman integrals, providing crucial inputs for their bootstrap. We demonstrate the usefulness of this framework by applying it to integrals in dimensional regularization, with higher propagator powers, and to examples with non-uniform transcendental weight. The method is illustrated with several one- and two-loop calculations.

Low-energy cosmic and solar radiation serves as a probe for investigations in astrophysics and heliophysics, and at the same time constitutes a risk to the spacecraft and crew of deep-space exploration missions. We present compact tracking calorimeters made from scintillating-plastic fibers and silicon photomultipliers that can determine the charge and energy of individual cosmic-ray nuclei with energies in the MeV-to-GeV range. Their comprehensive particle-identification capabilities allow to accurately determine the radiation exposure of astronauts and have potential applications in the indirect detection of dark matter.

The R3B experiment at FAIR studies nuclear reactions using high-energy radioactive beams. One key detector in R3B is the CALIFA calorimeter consisting of 2544 CsI(Tl) scintillator crystals designed to detect light charged particles and gamma rays with an energy resolution in the per cent range after Doppler correction. Precise cluster reconstruction from sparse hit patterns is a crucial requirement. Standard algorithms typically use fixed cluster sizes or geometric thresholds. To enhance performance, advanced machine learning techniques such as agglomerative clustering were implemented to use the full multi-dimensional parameter space including geometry, energy and time of individual interactions. An Edge Detection Neural Network exhibited significant differences. This study, based on Geant4 simulations, demonstrates improvements in cluster reconstruction efficiency of more than 30%, showcasing the potential of machine learning in nuclear physics experiments.

At any given scale, 3 <inline-formula><tex-math>$\times$</tex-math></inline-formula> 2-point statistics extract only three numbers from the joint distribution of the cosmic matter density and galaxy density fluctuations: their variances and their covariance. It is well known that the full shape of the probability distribution function (PDF) of those fluctuations contains significantly more information than can be accessed through these three numbers. But the study of the PDF of cosmic density fluctuations in real observational data is still in its infancy. Here we present COSMOMENTUM, a public software toolkit for calculating theoretical predictions for the full shape of the joint distribution of a line-of-sight-projected tracer density and the gravitational lensing convergence. We demonstrate that an analysis of this full shape of the PDF can indeed disentangle complicated tracer bias and stochasticity relations from signatures of cosmic structure growth. Our paper also provides back-drop for an upcoming follow-up study, which prepares PDF analyses for application to observational data by incorporating the impact of realistic weak lensing systematics.

A Very Large Telescope/MUSE population synthesis study of metallicities in the nuclear star-forming rings of four disk galaxies (NGC 613, NGC 1097, NGC 3351, NGC 7552) is presented. Disentangling the spectral contributions of young and old stellar populations, we find a large spread of ages and metallicities of the old stars in the nuclear rings. This indicates a persistent infall of metal-poor gas and ongoing episodic star formation over many Gyr. The young stars have metallicities a factor two to three higher than solar in all galaxies except NGC 3351, where the range is from half to twice solar. Previously reported detections of extremely metal-poor regions at young stellar age on the rings of these four galaxies are a methodological artifact of the average over all stars, young and old. In addition, it is important to include contributions of very young stars (<6 Myr) in this environment. For each of the four galaxies, the extinction maps generated through our population synthesis analysis provide support for the infall scenario. They reveal dust lanes along the leading edges of the stellar bars, indicating the flow of interstellar material toward the circumnuclear zone. Prominent stellar clusters show little extinction, most likely because of the onset of stellar winds. Inside and on the nuclear rings, regions that are largely free of extinction are detected.

At any given scale, 3 <inline-formula><tex-math>$\times$</tex-math></inline-formula> 2-point statistics extract only three numbers from the joint distribution of the cosmic matter density and galaxy density fluctuations: their variances and their covariance. It is well known that the full shape of the probability distribution function (PDF) of those fluctuations contains significantly more information than can be accessed through these three numbers. But the study of the PDF of cosmic density fluctuations in real observational data is still in its infancy. Here we present COSMOMENTUM, a public software toolkit for calculating theoretical predictions for the full shape of the joint distribution of a line-of-sight-projected tracer density and the gravitational lensing convergence. We demonstrate that an analysis of this full shape of the PDF can indeed disentangle complicated tracer bias and stochasticity relations from signatures of cosmic structure growth. Our paper also provides back-drop for an upcoming follow-up study, which prepares PDF analyses for application to observational data by incorporating the impact of realistic weak lensing systematics.

We combine spectral- and split representations to factorize multi-loop momentum space diagrams, in the Schwinger-Keldysh formulation for cosmological correlators, with massive scalars in the loop. This allows us to extend the resummation of loop contributions from flat to de Sitter space. Furthermore, in our split representation the signal part of the correlators can be identified directly on the integrand level from the spectral function. We apply this to describe the non-perturbative flow of the EFT background and the cosmological collider signals in a large-N model.

The Magellanic Clouds, the closest star-forming galaxies to the Milky Way, offer an excellent environment to study high-mass X-ray binaries. While the Small Magellanic Cloud has been thoroughly investigated with over 120 systems identified, the Large Magellanic Cloud has lacked a complete survey due to its large angular size. Most prior studies targeted central or high-star-formation regions. The SRG/eROSITA all-sky surveys now enable a comprehensive coverage of the LMC, particularly due to its close vicinity to the south ecliptic pole. This work aims to improve our understanding of the HMXB population in the LMC by building a flux-limited catalogue. This allows us to compare sample properties with those of HMXB populations in other nearby galaxies. Using detections during the first eROSITA all-sky survey, we cross-matched X-ray positions with optical and infrared catalogues to identify candidate HMXBs. We assigned flags based on multi-wavelength follow-up observations and archival data, using properties of known LMC HMXBs. These flags defined confidence classes for our candidates. We detect sources down to X-ray luminosities of a few $10^{34}$ erg s$^{-1}$, resulting in a catalogue of 53 objects, including 28 confirmed HMXBs and 21 new eROSITA detections. We identify several likely supergiant systems, including a candidate supergiant fast X-ray transient with phase-dependent flares. We find three Be stars with likely white dwarf companions. Two of the Be/WD candidates show steady luminosities across four eROSITA scans, unlike the post-nova states seen in the majority of previous Be/WD reports. Our catalogue is the first to cover the entire LMC since the ROSAT era, providing a basis for statistical population studies. Using the HMXB population, we estimate the LMC star-formation rate to be $(0.22^{+0.06}_{-0.07})$ M$_{\odot}$yr$^{-1}$, which is in agreement with other tracers.

Core-collapse supernovae (SNe) are sources of gravitational waves (GWs) produced by hydrodynamical instabilities and highly time-dependent anisotropies of the neutrino radiation. In this work we analyze both contributions to the GW signal for two state-of-the-art three-dimensional (3D) SN models computed with the Prometheus-Vertex neutrino-hydrodynamics code. In contrast to the far majority of models analyzed for GWs so far, our core-collapse simulations were started with 12.28 M_sun (18.88 M_sun) progenitors, whose final hour (7 min) of convective oxygen-shell burning was computed in 3D and featured a vigorous oxygen-neon shell merger. The corresponding large-scale asymmetries in the oxygen layer are conducive to buoyancy-aided neutrino-driven explosions. The models were continuously evolved in 3D from the pre-collapse evolution until 5.11 s (1.68 s) after the core bounce. The GW signals result from the well-known dynamical phenomena in the SN core such as prompt postshock convection, neutrino-driven convection, the standing accretion shock instability, proto-neutron star oscillations, and anisotropic ejecta expansion. They do not exhibit any new or specific features that can be unambiguously connected to the powerful pre-collapse activity in the progenitors, but we identify interesting differences compared to results in the literature. We also discuss measurement prospects by interferometers, confirming that GW signals from future Galactic SNe will be detectable with existing and next-generation experiments working in the frequency range f ~ 1-2000 Hz.

A system of classical interacting spins can develop collective instabilities which, in the nonlinear regime, mimic the motion of a gyroscopic pendulum. Known as the flavor pendulum, this behavior appears among the collective modes of a dense neutrino plasma after a strong reduction of phase space through symmetry assumptions. It has been identified in homogeneous slow and fast flavor systems and, most recently, in single-wave solutions of the fast system. We explain the reasons for its ubiquitous appearance. We show that a system of three classical spins must always be pendular, or only two in the presence of an external field. Furthermore, such a system always defines a continuum of vectors with time-independent length. If these are identified as interacting spins, they immediately lead to the continuum cases of slow and fast flavor pendula. As another new insight, any of these spins can be chosen as the pendulum, periodically exchanging flavor with the rest of the system.

Protoplanetary disk substructures are thought to play a crucial role in disk evolution and planet formation. Population studies of disks large-sample size surveys show that substructures, and their rapid formation, are needed to reproduce the observed spectral indices. Moreover, they enable the simultaneous reproduction of the observed spectral index and size-luminosity distributions. This study aims to investigate the necessity of substructures and predict their characteristics to reproduce gas-to-dust size ratios observed in the Lupus star-forming region. We performed a population synthesis study of gas and dust evolution in disks using a two-population model (two-pop-py) and the DustPy code. We considered the effects of viscous evolution, dust growth, fragmentation, transport, and external photoevaporation. The simulated population distributions were obtained by post-processing the resulting disk profiles of surface density, maximum grain size, and disk temperature. Although substructures help reduce the discrepancy between simulated and observed disk gas-to-dust size ratios; even when accounting for external photoevaporation, they do not fully resolve it. Only specific initial conditions in disks undergoing viscous evolution with external photoevaporation can reproduce the observations, highlighting a fine-tuning problem. While substructured disks reproduce dust size and spectral index, they tend to overestimate gas radii. The results ultimately highlight the main challenge of simultaneously reproducing gas and dust sizes. One possible explanation is that the outermost substructure is linked to the disk truncation radius, which determines the gas radius, or that substructures are frequent enough to always be near the gas outer radius.

We present a systematic study of the environments of 25 luminous quasars at $z > 6.5$ from the ASPIRE program. Using JWST/NIRCam WFSS data, we identified 487 galaxies at $5.3 \lesssim z \lesssim 7.0$ exhibiting [OIII] emission. Among these, 122 [OIII] emitters lie within $|∆v_{\rm los}| < 1000~{\rm km~s^{-1}}$ of the quasars, corresponding to a $\sim9.4$-fold enhancement relative to the average galaxy density at other redshifts. Furthermore, we identified 16 [CII]-emitting galaxies at the quasar redshifts from ALMA mosaic observations. A cross-correlation function (CCF) analysis between quasars and [OIII]+[CII] emitters yields a cross-correlation length of $r_0^{\rm QG} = 8.68^{+0.51}_{-0.55}~h^{-1}~\mathrm{cMpc}$ and a auto-correlation of $r_0^{\rm{QQ}}=15.76^{+2.48}_{-2.70}~h^{-1}~{\rm cMpc}$, indicating that $z \sim 7$ quasars reside in dark matter halos with $M_{\rm halo} = 10^{12.27^{+0.21}_{-0.26}}~M_\odot$. Notably, the number of [OIII]-emitting galaxies at quasar redshifts varies significantly from field to field, ranging from zero to twenty, highlighting a diverse quasar environment. Remarkably, seven quasars trace significant galaxy overdensities (i.e., protoclusters), with $δ_{\rm gal} > 5$ within a volume of $V \sim 500~{\rm cMpc^3}$. We also find that $|∆v_{\rm los}|$ increases rapidly toward smaller galaxy-quasar separations in protocluster fields, consistent with galaxy kinematics around extremely massive halos in cosmological simulations. By combining JWST and ALMA data, we reveal the complex and diverse environments of these early quasars, providing robust evidence that the earliest luminous quasars are effective tracers of galaxy overdensities, albeit with substantial field-to-field variation.

Although half-wave plates (HWPs) are becoming a popular choice of polarization modulators for cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments, their non-idealities can introduce systematic effects that should be carefully characterized and mitigated. One possible mitigation strategy is to incorporate information about the non-idealities at the map-making level, which helps to reduce the HWP-induced distortions of the reconstructed CMB. Nevertheless, the non-idealities can only be known with finite precision. In this paper we investigate the consequences of discrepancies between their true frequency profiles and those assumed by the map-maker. We present an end-to-end framework, including a blind component-separation step, and use it to translate these discrepancies into a bias on the tensor-to-scalar ratio, $r$, for the LiteBIRD satellite mission. We subsequently derive realistic and conservative measurement requirements for accurately characterizing the HWP non-idealities to ensure they do not compromise LiteBIRD's ambitious scientific goals. We find that the obtained results are robust against sky models with varying complexity.

We introduce a simulation-based inference framework to constrain the origins of individual ultra-high-energy cosmic rays by combining realistic three-dimensional propagation modeling with Bayesian parameter estimation. Our method integrates CRPropa 3 simulations, including all relevant interactions and magnetic deflections in both Galactic and extragalactic fields, with approximate Bayesian computation to infer posterior distributions over key parameters such as source position, distance, energy, and magnetic field properties. This approach allows joint constraints from the observed energy and arrival direction to be applied simultaneously, naturally incorporating their correlations in addition to relevant modelling uncertainties. We demonstrate our method by applying it to the Amaterasu particle detected by the TA observatory, the second-highest-energy cosmic ray ever detected. The resulting posterior distributions quantify the regions of space consistent with its reconstructed properties under different energy and composition assumptions, revealing a broader set of nearby source candidates than found in previous analyses. This application highlights the framework's ability to translate individual ultra-high-energy cosmic-ray observations into directly interpretable source constraints and provides a foundation for future simulation-based analyses of cosmic rays at the highest energies.

We report the discovery of complex flaring activity from the galactic nucleus hosting the five-year-old tidal disruption event eRASSt J234402.9-352640 (J2344). With Einstein Probe and XMM-Newton observations, we detected highly structured soft X-ray variability. Through temporal decomposition of the XMM-Newton light curve and time-resolved spectral analysis, we identified broad, thermal flares recurring every $\sim$12 hours and lasting $\sim$2 hours, consistent with quasi-periodic eruptions (QPEs). Remarkably, these QPEs are accompanied by an unprecedented crest of hotter, shorter flares, each lasting between 5 and 30 minutes. These flares are predominantly found in the rising phases of the QPEs, although they also appear throughout the quiescence. These findings establish J2344 as a new member of the QPE emitter population and uncover a previously unobserved phenomenology that challenges current models of QPEs. In this letter, we present the phenomenological properties of this unique source and discuss possible interpretations within the framework of extreme-mass-ratio inspirals.

We report the multiwavelength properties of eROSITA Final Equatorial Depth Survey (eFEDS) J084222.9+001000 (hereafter ID830), a quasar at z = 3.4351, identified as the most X-ray luminous radio-loud quasar in the eFEDS field. ID830 shows a rest-frame 0.5─2 keV luminosity of <inline-formula> <mml:math><mml:mi>log</mml:mi><mml:mo>(</mml:mo><mml:msub><mml:mi>L</mml:mi><mml:mrow><mml:mn>0.5</mml:mn><mml:mo>−</mml:mo><mml:mn>2</mml:mn><mml:mspace></mml:mspace><mml:mi>keV</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:msub><mml:mo>/</mml:mo><mml:mi>erg</mml:mi><mml:mspace></mml:mspace><mml:msup><mml:mi>s</mml:mi><mml:mrow><mml:mo>−</mml:mo><mml:mn>1</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:msup><mml:mo>)</mml:mo><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn>46.20</mml:mn><mml:mo>±</mml:mo><mml:mn>0.12</mml:mn></mml:math> </inline-formula>, with a steep X-ray photon index (Γ = 2.43 ± 0.21), and a significant radio counterpart detected with the Very Large Array FIRST 1.4 GHz and Very Large Array Sky Survey 3 GHz bands. The rest-frame UV to optical spectra from Sloan Digital Sky Survey and Subaru/MOIRCS J band show a dust-reddened quasar feature with A_V = 0.39 ± 0.08 mag, and the expected bolometric active galactic nuclei luminosity from the dust-extinction-corrected UV luminosity reaches L_bol,3000Å = (7.62 ± 0.31) × 10⁴⁶ erg s⁻¹. We estimate a black hole mass of M_BH = (4.40 ± 0.72) × 10⁸ M_⊙ based on the Mg IIλ2800 emission-line width, and Eddington ratios from the dust-extinction-corrected UV continuum luminosity and X-ray luminosity that reach λ_Edd,UV = 1.44 ± 0.24 and λ_Edd,X = 12.8 ± 3.9, respectively, both indicating super-Eddington accretion. ID830 shows a high ratio of UV to X-ray luminosities, α_OX = −1.20 ± 0.07 (or α_OX = −1.42 ± 0.07 after correcting for jet-linked X-ray excess), higher than quasars and little red dots in the super-Eddington phase with similar UV luminosities, with α_OX < −1.8. Such a high α_OX suggests the coexistence of a prominent radio jet and X-ray corona in this high-Eddington-accretion phase. We propose that ID830 may be in a transitional phase after an accretion burst, evolving from a super-Eddington to a sub-Eddington state, which could naturally describe the high α_OX.

Axions and axion-like particles are compelling candidates for ultralight bosonic dark matter, forming coherent oscillating fields that can be probed by experiments known as haloscopes. A broad range of haloscope concepts has been developed, including resonant cavity haloscopes, lumped-element circuit detectors, and spin-based experiments, each sensitive to different axion couplings and mass ranges. Rather than attempting an exhaustive survey of all existing approaches, this comparative review provides a unified framework for the major haloscope classes, establishing a common language for the descriptions of signal generation, noise properties, data analysis, and scanning strategies. Key properties of ultralight bosonic dark matter relevant for detection are summarized first, including coherence time, spectral linewidth, and stochasticity under the standard halo model. The discussion then compares cavity, Earth-scale, lumped-element, and spin haloscopes, focusing on expected signal shapes, dominant noise sources, and statistical frameworks for axion searches. Particular emphasis is placed on consistent definitions of signal-to-noise ratio and on how detector bandwidth, axion coherence, and noise characteristics determine optimal scan strategies. By systematically comparing operating principles and performance metrics across these detector families, this framework clarifies shared concepts as well as the essential differences that govern sensitivity in different mass and coupling regimes. The resulting perspective synthesizes current search methodologies and offers guidance for optimizing future haloscope experiments.

Recent theoretical work has revealed that basic observables of quantum field theory in de Sitter space, known as in-in or cosmological correlators, exhibit surprisingly simple mathematical structure reminiscent of scattering amplitudes in flat space. For many theories, this simplicity can be made manifest using a set of ``cosmological dressing rules'' which uplift flat-space Feynman diagrams to in-in correlators in de Sitter space by attaching auxiliary propagators to the interaction vertices. In this paper, we show that discontinuities of cosmological correlators with respect to internal energy variables can be obtained by applying auxiliary propagators to unitarity cuts of flat space Feynman diagrams. Moreover, discontinuities with respect to external energy variables can be obtained by cutting auxiliary propagators attached to Feynman diagrams. This observation in turn implies highly non-trivial constraints on cosmological correlators in the form of simple sum rules. We illustrate these ideas in a number of examples at tree-level and 1-loop for conformally coupled scalar theories, although they hold more generally. Finally, we show how to reconstruct cosmological correlators from their discontinuities using dispersion relations, providing a powerful new approach to computing cosmological observables by systematically reconstructing them from data uplifted from flat space.

Principled Bayesian inference of galaxy properties has not previously been performed for wide-area weak lensing surveys with millions of sources. We address this gap by applying the pop-cosmos generative model to perform spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting for 4 million KiDS-1000 galaxies. Calibrated on deep COSMOS2020 photometric data, pop-cosmos specifies a physically-motivated prior over the galaxy population up to $z \simeq 6$ in stellar population synthesis (SPS) parameter space. Using the Speculator SPS emulator with GPU-accelerated MCMC sampling, we perform full posterior inference at 6.5 GPU seconds per galaxy, obtaining joint constraints on galaxy redshifts and physical properties. We validate photometric redshifts against $\sim\!185,\!000$ KiDS galaxies cross-matched to DESI DR1 spectroscopic samples, achieving low bias ($3\times10^{-3}$), scatter ($σ_{\mathrm{MAD}}=0.04$), and outlier fraction (3.7%) for the Bright Galaxy Survey, with comparable performance (bias $3\times10^{-2}$, $σ_{\mathrm{MAD}}=0.05$, 1.3% outliers) for luminous red galaxies (LRGs). Within the LRG sample, we identify massive, dusty, star-forming contaminants at $z \simeq 0.4$ satisfying standard colour selections for quenched populations. We infer trends in stellar mass, star formation, metallicity, and dust across five tomographic redshift bins consistent with established scaling relations. Using specific star formation rate constraints, we identify $\sim$10% of KiDS-1000 galaxies as quenched, versus 37% implied by conservative colour cuts. This enables the construction of weak lensing samples defined by physical properties while mitigating intrinsic alignment systematics and preserving statistical power. Our analysis validates pop-cosmos out-of-sample, establishing it as a scaleable approach for galaxy evolution and cosmological analyses in photometric surveys.

Feynman integrals whose associated geometries extend beyond the Riemann sphere, such as elliptic curves and Calabi-Yau varieties, are increasingly relevant in modern precision calculations. They arise not only in collider cross-section calculations, but also in the post-Minkowskian expansion of gravitational-wave scattering. A powerful approach to compute integrals of this type is via differential equations, particularly when cast in a canonical form, which simplifies their $\varepsilon$-expansion and makes analytic properties manifest. In these proceedings, we will present a method to systematically construct canonical differential equations even for integrals that evaluate beyond multiple polylogarithms. The discussion is kept as light as possible, focusing on the two-loop sunrise integral, deferring the technical details to the original publications.

In both observed and simulated galaxies, disk morphologies become more prevalent at higher masses and lower redshifts. To elucidate the physical origin of this trend, we develop a simple analytical model in which galaxy morphology is governed by the competition between rotational support and turbulence in a gravitational potential of a dark matter halo and the galaxy itself, and a disk forms when the potential steepens due to the accumulation of baryons in the halo center. The minimum galaxy mass required for this transition decreases with an increasing dark matter contribution within the galaxy, making more concentrated halos more prone to forming disks. Our model predicts that galaxy sizes behave qualitatively differently before and after disk formation: after disks form, sizes are governed by the halo spin, in agreement with classical models, whereas before disk formation, sizes are larger and set by the scale on which turbulent motions, which dominate over rotation, can be contained. We validate our model against the results of the TNG50 cosmological simulation and, despite the simplicity of the model, find remarkable agreement. In particular, our model explains the increase with redshift in the critical halo mass for disk formation, reported in both simulations and observations, as a consequence of the evolution of the halo mass-concentration and baryonic mass-halo mass relations. This redshift trend therefore supports the recent proposal that it is the steepening of the gravitational potential that causes disk formation, while other effects discussed in the literature, such as potential deepening and hot gaseous halo formation, can still play important roles in the transition from early turbulent to dynamically cold disks.

Exomoons around free-floating planets (FFPs) can survive their host planet's ejection. Such ejections can increase their orbital eccentricity, providing significant tidal heating in the absence of any stellar energy source. Previous studies suggested that liquid water could exist on such moons under thick CO$_2$-dominated atmospheres, but these models faced challenges with CO$_2$ condensation and atmospheric collapse, particularly in the high-pressure regimes that favoured long-term habitability. To address this, we employ a self-consistent model, including radiative transfer and equilibrium chemistry with condensation, to simulate a more stable hydrogen-dominated atmosphere for a range of initial chemical compositions, including C, O, and N. We find that such atmospheres can effectively trap heat via collision-induced absorption of H$_2$, maintaining surface temperatures suitable for liquid water for time-scales of up to 4.3 Gyr, depending on the surface pressure, while not prone to condensation-induced collapse. Wet-dry cycling caused by the strong tides together with the alkalinity of dissolved NH$_3$ could create favourable conditions for RNA polymerisation and thus support the emergence of life.

We study the correlation functions of a conformally coupled $ϕ^4$-interacting theory in AdS$_3$ and its dual CFT$_2$. The one-loop diagram is not expressible in terms of known transcendental functions, but is shown to be expressible as an infinite sum of previously well-studied tree-level diagrams, and we compute this sum using several number-theoretic conjectures. This enables us to extract recursively, the analytic expressions of anomalous dimensions of all dual double-trace operators. In the $s$-channel various consistency checks were performed against established bootstrap method, while our results in the $t$- and $u$-channel are not available in any previous literature to our knowledge.

We explore the formation of intermediate mass black holes (IMBHs), potential seeds for supermassive black holes (SMBHs), via runaway stellar collisions for a wide range of star cluster (surface) densities ($4\times10^3 M_\odot$ pc$^{-2} \lesssim Σ_\mathrm{h}$ $\lesssim 4\times10^6 M_\odot$ pc$^{-2}$) and metallicities ($0.01 Z_\odot \lesssim Z \lesssim 1.0 Z_\odot)$. Our sample of isolated $(>1400)$ and hierarchical ($30$) simulations of young, massive star clusters with up to $N=1.8\times10^6$ stars includes collisional stellar dynamics, stellar evolution, and post-Newtonian equations of motion for black holes using the BIFROST code. High stellar wind rates suppress IMBH formation at high metallicities $(Z \gtrsim 0.2 Z_\odot)$ and low collision rates prevent their formation at low densities ($Σ_\mathrm{h} \lesssim 3\times10^4 M_\odot$ pc$^{-2}$). The assumptions about stellar wind loss rates strongly affect the maximum final IMBH masses $(M_\bullet \sim 6000 M_\odot$ vs. $25000 M_\odot$). The total stellar mass loss from collisions and collisionally boosted winds before $t=3$ Myr can together reach up to 5-10% of the final cluster mass. We present fitting formulae for IMBH masses as a function of host star cluster $Σ_\mathrm{h}$ and Z, and formulate a model for the cosmic IMBH formation rate density. Depending on the cluster birth densities, the IMBH formation rates peak at $z\sim2$-$4$ at up to $\sim10^{-7}$ yr$^{-1}$cMpc$^{-3}$. As more than 50% form below $z\lesssim1.5$-$3$, the model challenges a view in which all local IMBHs are failed early Universe SMBH seeds.

We investigate whether photoevaporation alone can open and sustain gaps in protoplanetary discs by coupling the evolving disc structure with the photoevaporative flow in two dimensional radiation hydrodynamical simulations. Our results show that once a density depression forms, the local mass-loss rate decreases sharply, suppressing further gap deepening. Viscous inflow and radial mass transport along the disc surface act to partially refill the depleted region, preventing complete clearing. The resulting configuration is a persistent, partially depleted zone whose evolution is largely insensitive to the initial disc morphology. This behaviour challenges the standard paradigm that photoevaporation efficiently carves clean inner cavities and directly produces transition discs. However, the pressure maximum at the outer edge of the depression may still trap dust grains, giving rise to transition disc like observational signatures. We also present a first-order prescription to approximate this behaviour in one dimensional disc evolution models, suitable for use in planet formation and population synthesis studies. Although the prescription improves upon static mass-loss treatments, it remains approximate, underscoring the need for further multidimensional simulations and parameter-space exploration to derive robust recipes for global disc and planet population models.

Active galactic nuclei (AGNs) drive powerful, multiphase outflows that are thought to play a key role in galaxy evolution. The hot, shocked phase of these outflows (<inline-formula><tex-math>$T{\gtrsim }10^{6}{\rm {\ K}}$</tex-math></inline-formula>) is expected to dominate the energy content, but is challenging to observe due to its long cooling time and low emissivity. The cool phase (<inline-formula><tex-math>$T{\lesssim }10^{4}{\rm {\ K}}$</tex-math></inline-formula>) is easier to detect observationally, but it traces a less energetic outflow component. In prior simulations of the interaction between an energy-driven AGN outflow and a clumpy ISM, we found that mixing between hot wind and cool ISM clouds produces a new, highly radiative, phase at <inline-formula><tex-math>$T{\approx }10^{6-7}{\rm {\ K}}$</tex-math></inline-formula> which fuels the formation of a long-lived (<inline-formula><tex-math>$\ge 5\ \rm {Myr}$</tex-math></inline-formula>) cool outflow. We investigate the X-ray emission generated by thermal Bremsstrahlung and high-ionization metal line emission in this mixing phase, finding that it could contribute significantly to the X-ray output of the outflow. This mixing-induced X-ray emission is strongest in the part of the outflow propagating equatorially through the disc, and is extended on scales of <inline-formula><tex-math>$D\simeq 3\!-\!4\ \rm {kpc}$</tex-math></inline-formula>. For quasar luminosities of <inline-formula><tex-math>$L_{\rm {AGN}}{\simeq } 10^{45-46}\rm {\ erg\ s^{-1}}$</tex-math></inline-formula>, the resulting X-ray luminosity is equivalent to that expected from star formation rates <inline-formula><tex-math>$\rm {SFR}\simeq 10\!-\!200\ \rm {M_\odot \ yr^{-1}}$</tex-math></inline-formula>, showing that it could be an important source of soft X-rays in AGN host galaxies. Our results suggest that this extended emission could be resolvable in local quasars (<inline-formula><tex-math>$z\lesssim 0.11$</tex-math></inline-formula>) using high spatial-resolution X-ray observatories such as Chandra, or proposed missions such as AXIS and Lynx.

Changing-state active galactic nuclei (CSAGNs) exhibit rapid variability, with mass accretion rates that can change by several orders of magnitude in a few years. This provides us with a unique opportunity to study the evolution of the inner accretion flow almost in real time. Here, we used over 1000 observations to study the broadband X-ray spectra of a sample of five CSAGNs, spanning three orders of magnitude in Eddington ratio ($λ_{\rm Edd}$), using phenomenological models to trace the evolution of key spectral components. We derive several fundamental parameters, such as the photon index, soft excess strength, reflection strength, and luminosities of the soft excess and primary continuum. We find that the soft excess and primary continuum emissions show a very strong positive correlation ($p \ll 10^{-10}$), suggesting a common physical origin. The soft excess strength does not show any dependency on the reflection parameter, suggesting that in these objects the soft excess is not dominated by a blurred ionized reflection process. On the other hand, the strength of the soft excess is found to be strongly positively correlated with the Eddington ratio ($p \ll 10^{-10}$), and we find that the soft excess vanishes below $\log λ_{\rm Edd} \sim -2.5$. Moreover, we find a clear `V'-shaped relation for $Γ-λ_{\rm Edd}$, with a break at $\log λ_{\rm Edd} = -2.47 \pm 0.09$. Our findings indicate a change in the geometry of the inner accretion flow at low Eddington ratios, and that the soft excess is primarily produced via warm Comptonization.

Tidal features provide signatures of recent galaxy mergers, offering insights into the role of mergers in galaxy evolution. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory's upcoming Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) will allow for an unprecedented study of tidal features around millions of galaxies. We use mock images of galaxies at <inline-formula><tex-math>$z\sim 0$</tex-math></inline-formula> (<inline-formula><tex-math>$z\sim 0.2$</tex-math></inline-formula> for NEWHORIZON) from NEWHORIZON, EAGLE, ILLUSTRISTNG, and MAGNETICUM PATHFINDER simulations to predict the properties of tidal features in LSST-like images. We find that tidal features are more prevalent around blue galaxies with intrinsic colours <inline-formula><tex-math>$(g-i)\le 0.5$</tex-math></inline-formula>, compared to redder ones, at fixed stellar mass. This trend correlates with elevated specific star formation rates (<inline-formula><tex-math>$\mathrm{sSFR}&gt;10^{-10}\mathrm{\:yr}^{-1}$</tex-math></inline-formula>), suggesting that merger-induced star formation contributes to the bluer colours. Tidal feature hosts in the red sequence appear to exhibit colour profiles offset to bluer colours for galaxies with stellar masses <inline-formula><tex-math>$10^{10}&lt; M_{\star \mathrm{,\:30\:pkpc}}/\mathrm{M}_\odot &lt; 10^{11}$</tex-math></inline-formula>, similarly blue cloud tidal feature host galaxies appear to have their colour profiles offset to bluer colours for <inline-formula><tex-math>$10^{9.5}&lt; M_{\star \mathrm{,\:30\:pkpc}}/\mathrm{M}_\odot &lt; 10^{10.5}$</tex-math></inline-formula>. However, the differences in colour profiles in either the red sequence or the blue cloud are not statistically robust and larger samples are needed to test if these differences are real. The predictions across the simulations are quantitatively distinct; therefore, LSST observations will allow us to further constrain the differences between different subgrid physics models.

An asteroseismic analysis has revealed a magnetic field in the deep interior of a slowly rotating main-sequence F star KIC 9244992, which was observed by the Kepler spacecraft for 4 yr. The star shows clear asymmetry of frequency splittings of high-order dipolar gravity modes, which cannot be explained by rotation alone, but are fully consistent with a model with rotation, a magnetic field, and a discontinuous structure (glitch). Careful examination of the frequency dependence of the asymmetry allows us to put constraints on not only the radial component of the magnetic field but also its azimuthal (toroidal) component. The lower bounds of the root mean squares of the radial and azimuthal components in the radiative region within 50 per cent in radius, which have the highest sensitivity in the layers just outside the convective core with a steep gradient of chemical compositions, are estimated to be <inline-formula><tex-math>${\mathsf {B}_{\text{r}}^{\text{min}}}=3.5\pm 0.1\, \text{kG}$</tex-math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula><tex-math>${\mathsf {B}_{\phi }^{\text{min}}}= 92 \pm 7\, \text{kG}$</tex-math></inline-formula>, respectively. The much stronger azimuthal component than the radial one is consistent with the significant contribution of the differential rotation, although the star has almost uniform rotation at present. The estimated field strengths are too strong to be explained by dynamo mechanisms in the radiative zone associated with the magnetic Tayler instability. The aspherical glitch is found to be located in the innermost radiative layers where there is a steep gradient of chemical composition. The first detection of magnetic fields in the deep interior of a main-sequence star sheds new light on the problem of stellar magnetism, for which there remain many uncertainties.

In this study, we perform a comparative analysis of the properties of the H II regions located in different areas of barred galaxies, with the aim of investigating the impact of bars on the physical properties of the ionized gas. Based on integral field spectroscopy data for 17 barred galaxies covering approximately the central <inline-formula><tex-math>$6\times 6$</tex-math></inline-formula> kpc, we detect a total of 2200 <inline-formula><tex-math>${\mathrm H\, {\small II}}$</tex-math></inline-formula> regions, of which 331 are located within the nuclear disc (also known as circumnuclear regions), 661 in the bar region, and 1208 in the disc. Among the physical properties of the <inline-formula><tex-math>${\mathrm H\, {\small II}}$</tex-math></inline-formula> regions, we explore the O/H and N/O abundances, H<inline-formula><tex-math>$\alpha$</tex-math></inline-formula> luminosity, dust extinction, electron density, and H<inline-formula><tex-math>$\alpha$</tex-math></inline-formula> equivalent width. We find clear differences in the properties of the <inline-formula><tex-math>${\rm H\, {\small II}}$</tex-math></inline-formula> regions between the nuclear disc, the bar, and the disc, that could be explained by an enhancement in the molecular gas concentration in the central parts driven by bar-induced gas flows. As this gas is channelled towards the galaxy centre, the most extreme values in the analysed properties are found for the circumnuclear <inline-formula><tex-math>${\rm H\, {\small II}}$</tex-math></inline-formula> regions. Unlike the bar strength, galaxy mass does seem to affect the properties of the <inline-formula><tex-math>${\rm H\, {\small II}}$</tex-math></inline-formula> regions, with massive galaxies presenting higher values in most of the properties, possibly due to the increased amount of gas in these systems. This study provides evidence that the bar-driven redistribution of material within the galaxy inner parts causes significant differences in the <inline-formula><tex-math>${\rm H\, {\small II}}$</tex-math></inline-formula> region properties depending on their location within the galaxies.

Context. Cosmic voids are a promising probe of cosmology for spectroscopic galaxy surveys due to their unique response to cosmological parameters. Their combination with other probes promises to break parameter degeneracies. Aims. Due to simplifying assumptions, analytical models for void statistics represent only a subset of the full void population. We present a set of neural-based emulators for void summary statistics of watershed voids, which retain more information about the full void population than simplified analytical models. Methods. We built emulators for the void size function and void density profiles traced by the halo number density using the QUIJOTE suite of simulations that spans a wide range of the Λ cold dark matter (ΛCDM) parameter space. The emulators replace the computation of these statistics from computationally expensive cosmological simulations. We demonstrate the cosmological constraining power of voids using our emulators, which offer orders-of-magnitude acceleration in parameter estimation, capture more cosmological information compared to analytical models, and produce more realistic posteriors compared to Fisher forecasts. Results. In this QUIJOTE setup, we recover the parameters Ω_m and σ₈ to within 14.4% and 8.4% accuracy, respectively, using void density profiles. Incorporating additional information from the void size function improves the accuracy for σ₈ to 6.8%. We demonstrate the robustness of our approach with respect to two important variables in the underlying simulations: the resolution and the inclusion of baryons. We find that our pipeline is robust to variations in resolution, and we show that the posteriors derived from the emulated void statistics are unaffected by the inclusion of baryons in the Magneticum hydrodynamic simulations. This opens up the possibility of a baryon-independent probe of the large-scale structure.

We aim to evaluate how well the variation of small-scale magnetic fields on the stellar surface can be monitored with time-series observations. Further, we aim to establish to what extent the measured total unsigned magnetic field traces other activity indicators. We measured the total unsigned magnetic field on four young, stars using Zeeman splitting of magnetically sensitive spectral lines from high-resolution spectra obtained with the spectropolarimeters ESPaDOnS at CFHT and NARVAL at TBL. We then characterised the magnetic field variations using both sinusoidal variation and Lomb-Scargle periodograms. We evaluated how the rotational variation of the total unsigned magnetic field strength correlates with the activity indicators S-index, H$α$-index, Ca IRT-index, and the large-scale magnetic field obtained from ZDI maps obtained in earlier studies. We find clear signals of rotational modulation of the total magnetic field on HIP 76768 and tentative detection on Mel 25-5. This is supported both by the sinusoidal fitting and the periodogram. For the other stars, we find no modulation signals of the total magnetic field. We find positive correlations between the total magnetic field and activity indices on all four stars, indicating that indirect magnetic activity indicators trace the underlying magnetic field variability. However, comparing the activity-magnetic field relationship between the stars in our sample shows a significant deviation between activity level and measured magnetic field strength. Small-scale magnetic field variability can be traced using the Zeeman effect on magnetically sensitive lines, provided that the star is sufficiently active. It is also possible to self-consistently recover rotational periods from such measurements. The primary limit for the detection of magnetic field variations is the precision of Zeeman broadening and intensification measurements.

The initial mass function (IMF) is a cornerstone of star formation studies, yet its universality remains debated. We investigate the IMF in the young massive cluster RCW 36, located in the Vela Molecular Ridge and comparable to the Orion Nebula Cluster in stellar density. Our goal is to build the most complete census of RCW 36 and derive its first IMF and star-to-brown-dwarf (BD) ratio. We combine new GLAO observations from HAWK-I/VLT with archival data (2MASS, SOFI/NTT) and Gaia DR3 kinematics. Photometric accuracy and source extraction were improved using \textsc{DeNeb}, a deep-learning algorithm that removes complex nebular emission. Membership probabilities were assigned via color-magnitude diagram comparisons with a control field, and stellar masses were estimated using model isochrones. We find a revised distance of $954\pm40\,$pc and determine the IMF down to $\sim0.03\,M_{\odot}$, described by a broken power law ($dN/dM\propto M^{-α}$) with $α=1.62\pm0.03$ for $0.20$-$20\,M_{\odot}$ and $α=0.46\pm0.14$ for $0.03$-$0.20\,M_{\odot}$. The star-BD ratio is $2$-$5$, consistent with other Galactic clusters. Lastly, through a study of the differences in the IMF within and outside $0.2\,$pc and the cumulative mass distributions for low-mass and intermediate to high-mass sources, we also detected signs of possible mass segregation within RCW 36, which should be primordial. RCW 36 shares many characteristics with other young massive clusters, such as a shallower than Salpeter high-mass slope and the possibility of mass segregation. The flatter lower-mass regime of the IMF is similar to most Galactic clusters. The star-BD ratio is also in line with the observed values in other clusters, independent of their inherent properties.

We present the equation of state for two classes of new ultralight particles, a scalar field coupling to electrons and a light <inline-formula><tex-math>$\mathbb {Z}_\mathcal {N}$</tex-math></inline-formula> QCD axion field coupling to nucleons. Both are potential candidates for dark matter. Using the scalar modified equations of state, we calculate models for white dwarf stars and compare their radii and masses with observed mass─radius data. The comparison results in stringent constraints on the masses of the particles and the coupling parameters. For a wide range of particle masses and coupling parameters, constraints from the white dwarf equation of state surpass existing limits, outperforming also dedicated laboratory searches. The remarkable accuracy of modern white-dwarf mass─radius relation data, exemplified by Sirius B, now allows stringent tests of dense-matter physics and constraints on new particle scenarios.

This proceedings paper briefly reviews the status of direct experimental probes into the neutrino-mass scale, with an emphasis on recent results from the KATRIN experiment.

The calculation of precise predictions for Higgs decays is a necessary ingredient for determining Higgs properties at the LHC and future colliders. We compute all two- and three-body Higgs decays at next-to-leading order (NLO) in both QCD and electroweak interactions using the dimension-6 Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT). Results for four-body Higgs decays that are accurate to NLO QCD/electroweak order in the SMEFT are obtained using the narrow width approximation. Our results are contained in a flexible Monte Carlo program, NEWiSH, that is publicly available and we illustrate the impact of the NLO electroweak corrections for HL-LHC, Tera-Z, and Higgstrahlung projections.

We derive a general expression for the resummation of rapidity distributions for processes with a colorless final state, such as Drell-Yan or Higgs production, in the limit in which the center-of-mass energy goes on threshold, but with fixed rapidity of the Higgs or gauge boson in the partonic center-of-mass frame. The result is obtained by suitably generalizing the renormalization-group based approach to threshold resummation previously pursued by us. The ensuing expression is valid to all logarithmic orders but the resummation coefficients must be determined by comparing to fixed order results. We perform this comparison for the Drell-Yan process using the fixed-order next-to-next-to-leading (NNLO) result, thereby determining resummation coefficients up to next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic (NNLL) accuracy, for the quark-antiquark coefficient function in the quark nonsinglet channel. We provide a translation to direct QCD of a result for this resummation previously obtained using SCET methods, and we show that it agrees with our own.

Chemical reaction networks are central to all chemical models. Each rate coefficient has an associated uncertainty, which is generally not taken into account when calculating the chemistry. We performed the first uncertainty analysis of a chemical model of C- and O-rich asymptotic giant branch (AGB) outflows using the RATE22 reaction network. Quantifying the error on the model predictions enables us to determine the need for adding complexity to the model. Using a Monte Carlo sampling method, we quantified the impact of the uncertainties on the chemical kinetic data on the predicted fractional abundances and column densities. The errors are caused by a complex interplay of reactions forming and destroying each species. Parent species show an error on their envelope sizes, which is not caused by the uncertainty on their photodissociation rate, but rather the chemistry reforming the parent after its photodissociation. Using photodissociation models to estimate the envelope size might be an oversimplification. The error on the CO envelope impacts retrieved mass-loss rates by up to a factor of two. For daughter species, the error on the peak fractional abundance ranges from a factor of a few to three orders of magnitude, and is on average about 10 per cent of its value. This error is positively correlated with the error on the column density. The standard model suffices for many species, e.g. the radial distribution of cyanopolyynes and hydrocarbon radicals around IRC +10216. However, including spherical asymmetries, dust-gas chemistry, and photochemistry induced by a close-by stellar companion are still necessary to explain certain observations.

We present an implementation of radiative transfer with flux-limited diffusion (FLD) for the moving-mesh code AREPO and use the method in a physical model for the formation of protostars with non-ideal radiation-magnetohydrodynamics (RMHD). We follow previous work in splitting the additional terms to the hydrodynamical equations arising from the inclusion of radiation into terms to be integrated explicitly and implicitly, as the diffusion and coupling terms would impose very restrictive time-step criteria. We validate the scheme with standard test problems for radiation diffusion, matter─gas coupling, and radiative shocks from the literature. Our implementation is compatible with local time-stepping, which often presents problems for implicit schemes, and we found very good agreement with results obtained with global time-steps. We present an example application of the new implementation to the collapse of a <inline-formula><tex-math>$1\, {\rm M}_\odot$</tex-math></inline-formula> molecular cloud core to a second Larson core modelled with radiation non-ideal magnetohydrodynamics. A high-velocity jet with v<inline-formula><tex-math>$_{\rm rad}&gt; 10\, {\rm km\, s^{-1}}$</tex-math></inline-formula> is self-consistently launched from the second core, nested within the first core, which produces a lower-velocity magnetorotational outflow. We observe magnetic field amplification up to more than <inline-formula><tex-math>$\vert \mathbf {B}\vert _{\rm max}&gt;10^5$</tex-math></inline-formula> G in the second core, which is surrounded by a small (<inline-formula><tex-math>$&lt; 0.5$</tex-math></inline-formula> au) disc. This application demonstrates the robustness of our scheme in multiscale and high-resolution simulations on arbitrary meshes and, as such, the model can be readily used for further simulations of protostar formation at high resolution.

We provide an explicit construction of a manifestly duality invariant, interacting deformation of Maxwell theory in four dimensions in terms of mutually local, but interacting 1- and 3-forms. Interestingly, our theory is formulated directly as a BRST quantized gauge theory, while the underlying gauge invariant Lagrangian before gauge fixing is obscured. Furthermore, the underlying gauge invariance is based on an associative, rather than a Lie symmetry.

The tidal disruption of planets by their host stars represents a growing area of interest in transient astronomy, offering insights into the final stages of planetary system evolution. We model the hydrodynamic evolution and predict the multi-wavelength observational signatures of planetary TDEs around a solar-mass host, focusing on Jupiter-like and Neptune-like progenitors and examining how different eccentricities of the planet's pre-disruption orbit shape the morphology and emission of the tidal debris.We perform 2D hydrodynamic simulations using the FARGO3D code to model the formation and viscous evolution of the resulting debris disk. We employ a viscous alpha-disk prescription and include a time-dependent energy equation to compute the disk's effective temperature and subsequently derive the bolometric and multi-band photometric light curves.Our simulations show that planetary TDEs produce a diverse range of luminous transients. A Jupiter-like planet disrupted from a circular orbit at the Roche limit generates a transient peaking at $L_{bol} \approx 10^{38}$ erg s$^{-1}$ after a 12-day rise. In contrast, the same planet on an eccentric orbit (e=0.5) produces a transient of comparable peak luminosity but on a much shorter timescale, peaking in only 1 day and followed by a highly volatile light curve. We find that the effect of eccentricity is not universal, as it accelerates the event for Jupiter but delays it for Neptune. A robust "bluer-when-brighter" colour evolution is a common feature as the disk cools over its multi-year lifetime. The strong dependence of light curve morphology on the initial orbit and progenitor mass makes these events powerful diagnostics. This framework is crucial for identifying planetary TDEs in time-domain surveys.

The first four all-sky surveys with eROSITA the soft X-ray instrument on board the Spektrum-Roentgen-Gamma (SRG) satellite revealed a new X-ray source, eRASSU J012422.9-724248, in the Magellanic Bridge, near the Eastern Wing of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). We performed a broadband timing and spectral analysis using the optical and X-ray data of eRASSU J012422.9-724248. Using the X-ray observations with eROSITA, Swift, NuSTAR and optical data from the optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) and the Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO), we confirm the nature of eRASSU J012422.9-724248 as a Be/X-ray binary (BeXRB) pulsar in the Magellanic bridge. The position is coincident with that of an early-type star (OGLE ID SMC732.10.7). We detect the spin period at 341.71 s in NuSTAR data and infer a period of 63.65 days from the 15 year monitoring with OGLE, that we interpret as the orbital period of the system. A tentative CRSF at ~12.3 keV is identified in NuSTAR spectra with ~1.8-sigma. The source appears to show a persistent X-ray luminosity and an optical magnitude transition on the long timescale. We propose eRASSU J012422.9-724248 is a new member of the class of persistent BeXRBs.

For cellular functions such as division and polarization, protein pattern formation driven by NTPase cycles is a central spatial control strategy. Operating far from equilibrium, no general theory links microscopic reaction networks and parameters to the pattern type and dynamics in these protein systems. Here we discover a generic mechanism giving rise to an effective interfacial tension organizing the macroscopic structure of non-equilibrium steady-state patterns. Namely, maintaining protein-density interfaces by cyclic protein attachment and detachment produces curvature-dependent protein redistribution, which straightens the interface. We develop a non-equilibrium Neumann angle law and Plateau vertex conditions for interface junctions and mesh patterns, thus introducing the concepts of 'Turing mixtures' and 'Turing foams'. In contrast to liquid foams and mixtures, these non-equilibrium patterns can select an intrinsic wavelength by interrupting an equilibrium-like coarsening process. Data from in vitro experiments with the Escherichia coli Min protein system verify the vertex conditions and support the wavelength dynamics. Our study shows how interface laws with correspondence to thermodynamic relations can arise from distinct physical processes in active systems. It allows the design of specific pattern morphologies with potential applications as spatial control strategies in synthetic cells.

Flavor instabilities in dense neutrino media trigger exponential growth of flavor waves, yet their nonlinear saturation remains poorly understood. We examine a simple proxy for this effect in the form of a single-wave solution of an axially symmetric fast flavor system. When the angular crossing is shallow and the growth rate of the instability correspondingly small, the flavor wave primarily affects resonant neutrinos that move in phase with it. The evolution of these resonant neutrinos becomes periodic, undergoing cycles of full flavor reversal. They feed power into the unstable wave, and subsequently return to their initial state, draining power back out. This new flavor pendulum captures the dynamics of weak, nearly monochromatic fast flavor instabilities. Since weakly unstable distributions always exhibit a narrow range of unstable wavenumbers, our model likely describes the earliest development of a flavor instability when it first appears. When the instability is not weak, the linear phase of a single-wave excitation does not connect to a regular nonlinear solution, unless the angle distribution consists of only two beams.

We study the physics potential of heavy QCD axions at high-energy muon colliders. Unlike typical axion-like particles, heavy QCD axions solve the strong CP problem with phenomenology driven by the anomalous gluon <inline-formula><mml:math><mml:mfenced><mml:mrow><mml:mi>aG</mml:mi><mml:mover><mml:mi>G</mml:mi><mml:mo>~</mml:mo></mml:mover></mml:mrow></mml:mfenced></mml:math></inline-formula> couplings. Several ultraviolet scenarios are presented in which QCD axions with TeV-scale masses and decay constants arise consistently with a solution to both the strong CP problem and the axion quality problem. We perform a detailed collider analysis for both a 3 and 10 TeV muon collider, focusing on hadronic axion decays that gives rise to a dijet-resonance signature. Our projections for the axion discovery reach in the multi-TeV mass range demonstrate that a muon collider can significantly extend sensitivity to heavy QCD axions compared to existing experiments.

We present a novel multimessenger approach for probing nonstandard neutrino properties through the detection of gravitational waves (GWs) from collapsing stellar cores and associated supernova explosions. We show that neutrino flavor conversion inside the proto-neutron star (PNS), motivated by physics beyond the standard model (BSM), can significantly boost PNS convection. This effect leads to large-amplitude GW emission over a wide frequency range during an otherwise relatively quiescent GW phase shortly after core bounce. Such a signal provides a promising new avenue for exploring nonstandard neutrino phenomena and other BSM physics impacting PNS convection.

Context. Transmission spectra of Neptune-sized exoplanets are frequently observed to be featureless at low-to-mid resolutions from space; whereas high-altitude clouds can mute spectral features, high atmospheric metallicities can also result in compressed envelopes, where low scale heights may also yield undetectable signatures. Aims. We aim to study the atmospheric properties of the warm Neptune GJ 436 b by combining a set of five transit events observed with the CARMENES spectrograph with one transit from CRIRES⁺ so as to provide the most constrained results possible at high resolution. Methods. We removed telluric and stellar signals from the data using SysRem and potential planetary signals were investigated using the cross-correlation technique. Following standard procedures for undetected species, we performed injection recovery tests and Bayesian retrievals to place constraints on the detectability of the main near-infrared absorbers. In addition, we simulated ELT/ANDES observations by computing end-to-end in silico datasets with EXoPLORE. Results. No molecular signals were detected in the atmosphere of GJ 436 b, which is consistent with previous studies. Combined CARMENES-CRIRES⁺ injection-recovery and Bayesian retrieval analyses show that the atmosphere is likely covered by high-altitude clouds (~1 mbar) at low and intermediate metallicities or, alternatively, is very metal-rich (≳ 900× solar), which would suppress spectral features without invoking clouds. Simulations of ELT/ANDES observations suggest a boost by nearly an order of magnitude to the upper limit in the photon-limited regime, reaching 0.1 mbar at 10-300× solar metallicities. Conclusions. The joint analysis of all useful transit observations from CARMENES and CRIRES⁺ provides the most stringent constraints to date on the atmospheric properties of GJ 436 b. Complementary CCF-based and retrieval approaches consistently indicate that the atmosphere is either cloudy or highly metal enriched. Any weak near-infrared absorption lines, if present, are likely to be below current detection limits. However, according to our simulations, these features may be revealed with ELT/ANDES even in single-transit observations.

Various so-called anomalies have been found in both the WMAP and Planck cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature data that exert a mild tension against the highly successful best-fit 6 parameter cosmological model, potentially providing hints of new physics to be explored. That these are real features on the sky is uncontested. However, given their modest significance, whether they are indicative of true departures from the standard cosmology or simply statistical excursions due to a mildly unusual configuration of temperature anisotropies on the sky which we refer to as the "fluke hypothesis" cannot be addressed further without new information. No theoretical model of primordial perturbations has to date been constructed that can explain all of the temperature anomalies. Therefore, we focus in this paper on testing the fluke hypothesis, based on the partial correlation between the temperature and E-mode CMB polarisation signal. In particular, we compare the properties of specific statistics in polarisation, built from unconstrained realisations of the ΛCDM cosmological model as might be observed by the LiteBIRD satellite, with those determined from constrained simulations, where the part of the E-mode anisotropy correlated with temperature is constrained by observations of the latter. Specifically, we use inpainted Planck 2018 SMICA temperature data to constrain the E-mode realisations. Subsequent analysis makes use of masks defined to minimise the impact of the inpainting procedure on the E-mode map statistics. We find that statistical assessments of the E-mode data alone do not provide any evidence for or against the fluke hypothesis. However, tests based on cross-statistical measures determined from temperature and E modes can allow this hypothesis to be rejected with a moderate level of probability.