@article{21485, abstract = {Insulating oxides are among the most abundant solid materials in the universe1,2,3. Of the many ways in which they influence natural phenomena, perhaps the most consequential is their capacity to transfer electrical charge during contact4,5,6,7,8,9,10—which occurs even between samples of the same oxide—yet the symmetry-breaking parameter that causes this remains unidentified11,12. Here we show that adventitious carbonaceous molecules adsorbed from the environment are the symmetry-breaking factor in same-material oxide contact electrification (CE). We use acoustic levitation to measure charge exchange between a sphere and a plate composed of identical amorphous silicon dioxide (SiO2). Although charging polarity is random for co-prepared samples, we control it with baking or plasma treatment. Observing the charge-exchange relaxation afterwards, we see dynamics over a timescale of hours and connect this directly to the presence of adventitious carbon with time-of-flight mass spectrometry, low-energy ion scattering and infrared spectroscopy. Going further, we confirm that adventitious carbon can even determine charge exchange among different oxides. Our results identify the symmetry-breaking parameter that causes insulating oxides to exchange charge in settings ranging from desert sands4 to volcanic plumes5,6, while simultaneously highlighting an overlooked factor in CE more broadly.}, author = {Grosjean, Galien M and Ostermann, Markus and Sauer, Markus and Hahn, Michael and Pichler, Christian M. and Fahrnberger, Florian and Pertl, Felix and Balazs, Daniel and Link, Mason M. and Kim, Seong H. and Schrader, Devin L. and Blanco, Adriana and Gracia, Francisco and Mujica, Nicolás and Waitukaitis, Scott R}, issn = {1476-4687}, journal = {Nature}, number = {8106}, pages = {626--631}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Adventitious carbon breaks symmetry in oxide contact electrification}}, doi = {10.1038/s41586-025-10088-w}, volume = {651}, year = {2026}, } @article{21490, abstract = {Auxin canalization is a self-organizing process that governs the flexible formation of vasculature by reinforcing the formation of auxin transport channels. A key prerequisite is the feedback between auxin signaling and directional auxin transport, mediated by PIN transporters. Despite the developmental importance of canalization, the molecular components linking auxin perception to the regulation of PIN auxin transporters remain poorly understood. Here, we identify TOW, a novel and essential component of auxin canalization that links intracellular auxin signaling with cell surface auxin perception. TOW is regulated downstream of TIR1/AFB-Aux/IAA-WRKY23 transcriptional auxin signaling. tow mutants exhibit defects in regeneration and de novo vasculature formation, along with impaired formation of polarized, PIN-expressing auxin channels. At the subcellular level, these mutants display disrupted auxin-induced PIN polarization and altered PIN endocytic trafficking dynamics. TOW localizes predominantly to the plasma membrane, where it interacts with receptor-like kinases involved in auxin canalization, including the TMK1 auxin co-receptor and the CAMEL-CANAR complex. TOW promotes PIN interaction with these kinases and stabilizes PINs at the cell surface. Together, our findings identify TOW as a molecular link between intracellular and cell surface auxin signaling mechanisms that converge on PIN trafficking and polarity, providing new insights into how auxin signaling regulates directional auxin transport for the self-organizing formation of vasculature during flexible plant development.}, author = {Li, Mingyue and Rydza, Nikola and Mazur, Ewa and Molnar, Gergely and Nodzyński, Tomasz and Friml, Jiří}, issn = {0960-9822}, journal = {Current Biology}, number = {6}, pages = {1468--1480.e6}, publisher = {Elsevier}, title = {{Receptor-like-kinase-interacting protein TOW stabilizes PIN transporters for auxin canalization}}, doi = {10.1016/j.cub.2026.02.023}, volume = {36}, year = {2026}, } @article{21501, abstract = {Kinetically constrained models were originally introduced to capture slow relaxation in glassy systems, where dynamics are hindered by local constraints instead of energy barriers. Their quantum counterparts have recently drawn attention for exhibiting highly degenerate eigenstates at zero energy—known as zero modes—stemming from chiral symmetry. Yet, the structure and implications of these zero modes remain poorly understood. In this work, we focus on the properties of the zero mode subspace in quantum kinetically constrained models with a U(1) particle-conservation symmetry. We use the U(1) East, which lacks inversion symmetry, and the inversion-symmetric U(1) East-West models to illustrate our two main results. First, we observe that the simultaneous presence of constraints and chiral symmetry generally leads to a parametric increase in the number of zero modes due to the fragmentation of the many-body Hilbert space into disconnected sectors. Second, we generalize the concept of compact localized states from single-particle physics and introduce the notion of collective bound states, a special kind of nonergodic eigenstates that are robust to enlarging the system size. We formulate sufficient criteria for their existence, arguing that the degenerate zero mode subspace plays a central role, and demonstrate bound states in both example models and in a two-dimensional model, the U(1) North-East, and in the pairflip model, a system without particle conservation. Our results motivate a systematic study of bound states and their relation to ergodicity breaking, transport, and other properties of quantum kinetically constrained models. }, author = {Nicolau Jimenez, Eulalia and Ljubotina, Marko and Serbyn, Maksym}, issn = {2691-3399}, journal = {PRX Quantum}, publisher = {American Physical Society}, title = {{Fragmentation, zero modes, and collective bound states in constrained models}}, doi = {10.1103/sl79-1xgb}, volume = {7}, year = {2026}, } @article{21503, abstract = {Currently, pharmacogenetics relies on partially annotated star alleles, leaving novel variants and complex haplotypes uninterpretable. Computational scoring frameworks could overcome these limitations. Here, we comprehensively evaluated the ability of existing (CADD, FATHMM-XF, PROVEAN, MutationAssessor, SIFT, PhyloP100, APF, APF2) and novel (PharmGScore and PharmMLScore) variant effect predictors to assess pharmacogenetic alleles in multiple scenarios. Altogether we analyzed 541 PharmVar alleles, high‑throughput CYP2C9 and CYP2C19 mutational maps, and 200 642 UK Biobank exomes linked with health records containing antidepressant treatment outcomes. Many evaluated tools, especially ensemble frameworks, matched or exceeded star allele classifications (ROC‑AUC up to 0.85 for allele definitions, 0.95 in vitro; TPR up to 0.99 for exomes) and accurately predicted severe antidepressant adverse events for carriers of deleterious variants in CYP2C19 (OR 1.20–1.35). Our findings show that computational predictors deliver star allele accuracy while overcoming their limitations. With additional validation, computational tools could enhance clinical decision frameworks by enabling continuous scoring, incorporating previously unknown variants, and providing genome-wide applicability.}, author = {Hajto, Jacek and Piechota, Marcin and Krätschmer, Ilse and Konowalska, Paula and Boyle, Gabriel E. and Fowler, Douglas M. and Borczyk, Malgorzata and Korostynski, Michal}, issn = {1473-1150}, journal = {Pharmacogenomics Journal}, number = {2}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Computational variant predictors for pharmacogenomics: From evaluation of single alleles to assessment of adverse drug reactions to antidepressants}}, doi = {10.1038/s41397-026-00399-0}, volume = {26}, year = {2026}, } @article{21509, abstract = {Chromatin remodeling complexes mobilize nucleosomes and promote transcription factor (TF) binding. Using ensemble and single-molecule assays combined with cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), we studied the interaction between pioneer TFs OCT4–SOX2 and the human BRG1/BRM-associated factor (BAF) complex on nucleosomes. BAF engages TF-bound substrates in two orientations, placing OCT4–SOX2 at either the remodeler ENTRY or EXIT site. At the ENTRY site, OCT4–SOX2 initially coexists with BAF without structural interference. However, continued DNA translocation is expected to cause collisions with bound TFs, which can trigger remodeling direction reversals or may induce TF dissociation. To accommodate TFs at the EXIT site, BAF undergoes structural rearrangements, and ensemble assays reveal a nucleosome subpopulation translocating away from TF-binding sites. Moreover, single-molecule experiments show that nucleosome-bound BAF frequently changes remodeling direction, and we identify an ADP-bound remodeler conformation as a potential intermediate. Together, these findings reveal key aspects of the conformational dynamics and remodeling outcomes underlying BAF processing of TF-bound nucleosomes.}, author = {Weiss, Joscha and Vecchia, Luca and Domjan, David and Cavadini, Simone and Sabantsev, Anton and Kempf, Georg and Pathare, Ganesh R. and Brackmann, Klaus and Michael, Alicia and Kater, Lukas and Hietter-Pfeiffer, Eric and Haddawi, Mina and Kuber, Urja P. and Mühlhäusser, Sandra and Grand, Ralph S. and Stadler, Michael B. and Deindl, Sebastian and Thomä, Nicolas H.}, issn = {1097-2765}, journal = {Molecular Cell}, number = {4}, pages = {625--639.e8}, publisher = {Elsevier}, title = {{The human BAF chromatin remodeler processes nucleosomes bound by pioneer transcription factors OCT4–SOX2}}, doi = {10.1016/j.molcel.2026.01.021}, volume = {86}, year = {2026}, } @phdthesis{21651, abstract = {Blockchains enable distributed consensus in permissionless settings, where participants are unknown, dynamically changing, and do not trust each other. While Bitcoin, based on Proof-of-Work (PoW), was the first protocol in this model, significant research has focused on permissionless protocols using alternative physical resources, specifically Proof-of-Space (PoSpace) and Verifiable Delay Functions (VDFs). This thesis investigates the theoretical limits and design space of longest-chain protocols in the fully permissionless and dynamically available settings using these three resources. First, we address the feasibility of blockchains relying solely on storage as a resource. We prove a fundamental impossibility result: there exists no secure longest-chain protocol based exclusively on Proof-of-Space in the fully permissionless or dynamically available settings. Further, we quantify the adversarial capabilities required to execute a double-spend attack. Our result formally justifies the necessity of coupling PoSpace with time-dependent primitives (such as VDFs) or to move to less permissive settings (quasi-permissionless or permissioned) to ensure security. Second, we generalize Nakamoto-like heaviest chain consensus to protocols utilizing combinations of multiple physical resources. We analyze chain selection rules governed by a weight function Γ(S, V,W), which assigns weight to blocks based on recorded Space (S), VDF speed (V ), and Work (W). We provide a complete classification of secure weight functions, proving that a weight function is secure against private double-spend attacks if and only if it is homogeneous in the timed resources (V,W) and sub-homogeneous in S. This framework unifies existing protocols like Bitcoin and Chia under a single theoretical model and provides a powerful tool for designing new longest-chain blockchains from a mix of physical resources.}, author = {Baig, Mirza Ahad}, isbn = {978-3-99078-078-7}, issn = {2663-337X}, publisher = {Institute of Science and Technology Austria}, title = {{On secure chain selection rules from physical resources in a permissionless setting}}, doi = {10.15479/AT-ISTA-21651}, year = {2026}, } @article{21657, abstract = {We compare three global kilometer-scale models (ICON, IFS and NICAM) to clarify the advantages and challenges of high-resolution global weather and climate modeling, using different approaches to represent convection, from fully parameterized to fully explicit. Our analysis focuses on tropical precipitation characteristics spanning a wide range of spatio-temporal scales—including the diurnal cycle, extreme precipitation, convective organization, and the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO)—along with interactions between convection and the thermodynamic environment. All three models commonly show weaker convective organization with smaller precipitation cells than observed, though the strength of the bias varies by model. This diversity is introduced by differences in the representation of (a) convective initiation affected by the convective sensitivity to moisture and (b) tropospheric moistening associated with deep convection. Models with stronger thermodynamic-convection coupling increase environmental moisture near convection, thereby enhancing convective organization. This has important upscale effects on the MJO; while IFS and NICAM capture its eastward propagation well, ICON has difficulty reproducing it. The amplitudes and phases of precipitation diurnal cycles over land show much greater disagreement among the models than over ocean, influenced by how convection is initiated. Biases in rain evaporation and cold pool formation hinder the propagation of mesoscale convection, leading to errors such as the misrepresentation of nocturnal convection moving off the coast of Sumatra in IFS and ICON. These results highlight the importance of thermodynamic-convection coupling in realistically simulating tropical convection across scales. To improve this coupling, kilometer-scale models require better representation of the interaction between resolved convection and three-dimensional turbulent mixing.}, author = {Takasuka, Daisuke and Becker, Tobias and Bao, Jiawei}, issn = {1942-2466}, journal = {Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems}, number = {3}, publisher = {Wiley}, title = {{Precipitation characteristics and thermodynamic-convection coupling in global kilometer-scale simulations}}, doi = {10.1029/2025MS005343}, volume = {18}, year = {2026}, } @article{21659, abstract = {The recent detection of solar equatorial Rossby waves has renewed interest in the study of gravito-inertial waves propagating in the convective envelope of solar-type stars. In particular, the ability of these envelope gravito-inertial modes to couple with those trapped in the radiative interior could open up new opportunities for probing the deep-layer dynamics of solar-type stars. The possibility for such a coupling to occur is particularly favoured among pre-main-sequence (PMS) solar-type stars. Indeed, due to the contraction of the protostellar object, they are able to reach high rotation frequencies before nuclear reactions are ignited and magnetic braking becomes the driving mechanism for their rotational evolution. In this work, we studied the coupling between the envelope inertial waves and the radiative interior g modes in PMS stars, focussing on the case of prograde dipolar modes. We considered the cases of 0.5 M⊙ and 1 M⊙ PMS models, each with three different scenarios of rotational evolution. We show that for stars that have formed with a sufficient amount of angular momentum, this coupling can occur in frequency ranges that are accessible to space-borne photometry, creating inertial dips in the period spacing pattern. Using an asymptotic analysis, we characterised the shape of these inertial dips to show that they depend on rotation and on the stiffness of the convective-radiative interface.}, author = {Breton, S. N. and Pezzotti, C. and Mathis, S. and Bugnet, Lisa Annabelle and Di Mauro, M. P. and Joergensen, J. and Zwintz, K. and Lanza, A. F.}, issn = {1432-0746}, journal = {Astronomy & Astrophysics}, publisher = {Wiley}, title = {{Core-envelope coupling of gravito-inertial waves in pre-main-sequence solar-type stars}}, doi = {10.1051/0004-6361/202659309}, volume = {707}, year = {2026}, } @article{21660, abstract = {Kapitza-Dirac scattering, the diffraction of matter waves from a standing light field, is widely utilized in ultracold gases, but its behavior in the strongly interacting regime is an open question. Here, we develop a numerically exact two-body description of Kapitza-Dirac scattering for two contact-interacting atoms in a one-dimensional harmonic trap subjected to a pulsed optical lattice, enabling us to obtain the numerically exact dynamics. We map how interaction strength, lattice depth, lattice wave number, and pulse duration reshape the diffraction pattern, leading to an interaction-dependent population redistribution in real and momentum space. By comparing the exact dynamics to an impulsive sudden-approximation description, we delineate the parameter regimes where it remains accurate and those, notably at strong attraction and small lattice wave number, where it fails. Our results provide a controlled few-body benchmark for interacting Kapitza-Dirac scattering and quantitative guidance for Kapitza-Dirac-based probes of ultracold atomic systems.}, author = {Becker, A. and Koutentakis, Georgios and Schmelcher, P.}, issn = {2643-1564}, journal = {Physical Review Research}, publisher = {American Physical Society}, title = {{Two-body Kapitza-Dirac scattering of one-dimensional ultracold atoms}}, doi = {10.1103/rdsn-stlq}, volume = {8}, year = {2026}, } @article{21661, abstract = {Model checking undiscounted reachability and expected-reward properties on Markov decision processes (MDPs) are key for the verification of systems that act under uncertainty. Popular algorithms are policy iteration and variants of value iteration; in tool competitions, most participants rely on the latter. These algorithms generally need worst-case exponential time. However, the problem can equally be formulated as a linear programme, solvable in polynomial time. In this paper, we give a detailed overview of today’s state-of-the-art algorithms for MDP model checking with a focus on performance and correctness. We highlight their fundamental differences, and describe various optimizations and implementation variants. We experimentally compare floating-point and exact-arithmetic implementations of all algorithms on three benchmark sets using two probabilistic model checkers. Our results show that (optimistic) value iteration is a sensible default, but other algorithms are preferable in specific settings. This paper thereby provides a guide for MDP verification practitioners—tool builders and users alike.}, author = {Hartmanns, Arnd and Junges, Sebastian and Quatmann, Tim and Weininger, Maximilian}, issn = {1433-2787}, journal = {International Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer}, keywords = {Quantitative model checking, Markov decision process, Linear programming, Value iteration, Policy iteration}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{The revised practitioner’s guide to MDP model checking algorithms}}, doi = {10.1007/s10009-026-00848-y}, year = {2026}, } @unpublished{21703, abstract = {Altermagnetism has recently emerged as a distinct class of collinear antiferromagnets that break time-reversal symmetry, exhibiting a host of novel properties. Applied strain has attracted particular attention as a key tuning parameter for altermagnets. Although several experimental studies have demonstrated the preparation of single-domain states through a combination of applied strain and magnetic field, the route to such states remains unclear. Here, we use magneto-optical measurements on single crystals of MnTe under applied strain to show that, in contrast to previous reports, strain acts primarily to rotate the Néel vector L continuously. Since the orientation of L determines the magnetic point group symmetry, this continuous rotation effectively tunes the symmetry and its associated physical properties. Furthermore, we demonstrate that built-in strain in free-standing crystals is sufficient to pin L into continuous textures over millimeter length scales. Together, these results provide guidance for future device design and open the door to leveraging the Néel vector orientation as a tunable degree of freedom in spintronic applications.}, author = {Alex Liebman-Peláez, Alex Liebman-Peláez and Kruppe, Jon and Regmi, Resham Babu and Ghimire, Nirmal J. and Sun, Yue and Mazin, Igor I. and Noad, Hilary M. L. and Analytis, James and Sunko, Veronika and Orenstein, Joseph}, booktitle = {arXiv}, title = {{Strain continuously rotates the Néel vector in altermagnetic MnTe}}, doi = {10.48550/arXiv.2604.07653}, year = {2026}, } @article{21704, abstract = {How functional protein sequences are distributed in sequence space is fundamentally important for evolutionary theory and protein design, particularly if a large diversity of protein functions are hidden in evolutionarily unexplored areas of the sequence space. However, this question is understudied in part because experimental and computational studies use extant sequences as a starting point to study sequence space. Here, we study whether extant sequences are representative of the entire functional sequence space. Across thousands of protein families from vertebrates and bacteria we calculate the dimensionality and the volume of sequence space occupied by extant homologs. We find that the observed dimensionality and volume of extant sequence space are minuscule, many orders of magnitude smaller than what we estimated using a model of protein evolution. Simulating sequence evolution we then quantify the impact of phylogeny, selection, and epistasis on restricting the evolutionary exploration of sequence space. We find that sequence evolution from a single common ancestor, or a single point of origin in sequence space, is by far the largest limiting factor that reduces the dimensionality and volume of extant sequence space. These results indicate that there are vast areas of functional sequence space that have not been explored in evolution because of the excessive restrictions on natural exploration of the protein sequence space imposed by the point of origin effect. We suggest that protein design methods that rely on extant sequences may be limited in their ability to discover truly novel functions.}, author = {Isakova, Lada H. and Streltsova, Elizaveta and Bochkareva, Olga and Vlasov, Peter K. and Kondrashov, Fyodor}, issn = {1091-6490}, journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences}, number = {14}, pages = {e2532018123}, publisher = {National Academy of Sciences}, title = {{Descent from a common ancestor restricts exploration of protein sequence space}}, doi = {10.1073/pnas.2532018123}, volume = {123}, year = {2026}, } @article{21705, abstract = {We report the discovery of ATLAS J101342.5−451656.8 (hereafter ATLAS J1013−4516), an 8.56 minute orbital-period mass-transferring AM Canum Venaticorum (AM CVn) binary with a mean Gaia magnitude of G = 19.51, identified via periodic variability in light curves from the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) of Gaia white dwarf candidates. Follow-up with the Large Lenslet Array Magellan Spectrograph shows a helium-dominated accretion disk, and high-speed ULTRACAM photometry reveals pronounced primary and secondary eclipses. We construct a decade-long timing baseline leveraging light curves from the ATLAS and Gaia surveys, as well as the high-speed imagers ULTRACAM on the New Energy Telescope and proto-Lightspeed on the Magellan Clay telescope. From this timing baseline, we measure an orbital period derivative of P 1.60 0.07 10 = ± × 12 s s−1. Interpreted in the context of stable mass transfer, the magnitude and sign of P indicate that the orbital evolution is governed by the interplay between gravitationalwave-driven angular-momentum losses and mass transfer, directly probing the donor’s structural response to mass loss. We constrain the accretor and donor mass based on stable mass-transfer arguments assuming angularmomentum loss dominated by gravitational-wave emission, allowing us to infer the characteristic gravitational wave strain of the binary for future space-based GW observatories such as the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). We predict a characteristic strain corresponding to a 4 yr LISA signal-to-noise ratio ≳10, establishing ATLAS J1013−4516 as a strong prospective LISA source that will probe long-term orbital evolution in the mass-transferring regime.}, author = {Chickles, Emma T. and Chakraborty, Joheen and Burdge, Kevin B. and Dhillon, Vik S. and Draghis, Paul and El-Badry, Kareem and Green, Matthew J. and Householder, Aaron and Hughes, Sarah and Layden, Christopher and Littlefair, Stuart P. and Munday, James and Pelisoli, Ingrid and Redden, Maya S. and Tonry, John and van Roestel, Joannes C and Angile, Francesco Elio and Brown, Alex J. and Segura, Noel Castro and Dinsmore, Jack and Dyer, Martin and Furesz, Gabor and Gabutti, Michelle and Garbutt, James and García-Mejía, Juliana and Jarvis, Daniel and Kennedy, Mark R. and Kerry, Paul and Mccormac, James and Mo, Geoffrey and Osip, Dave and Parsons, Steven and Pike, Eleanor and Piotrowski, John J. and Romani, Roger W. and Sahman, David and Simcoe, Rob}, issn = {1538-4357}, journal = {The Astrophysical Journal}, number = {2}, publisher = {IOP Publishing}, title = {{An eclipsing 8.56 minutes orbital period mass-transferring binary}}, doi = {10.3847/1538-4357/ae4871}, volume = {1000}, year = {2026}, } @article{21707, abstract = {Structural and functional differences between brain hemispheres are a common feature of animal nervous systems with reduced bilateral asymmetry often linked to impaired cognitive performance. How neuronal left-right asymmetry is initiated and integrated into a bilaterally symmetrical ground pattern is poorly understood. Here, we show that the directional asymmetry of a Drosophila central brain circuit originates from axonal interactions of two types of bilateral pioneer neurons. Subsequent recruitment of neighboring neurons into the asymmetric neuropil primordium results in hemisphere-specific microcircuits. Circuit lateralization requires dynamic expression of the cell adhesion molecule Fasciclin 2 to maintain structural plasticity in axonal remodeling. Reduced circuit asymmetry following cell type–specific Fasciclin 2 manipulation affects adult brain function. These results reveal an unexpected degree of developmental plasticity of late-born Drosophila neurons in the formation of a circuit node via the lateralized recruitment of symmetric circuit components.}, author = {Markovitsch, Johann W. and Mitić, Daniel and Del Pilar Jiménez García, Alisa and Zane, Alsberga and Kainz, Sarah and Kaur, Rashmit and Hummel, Thomas}, issn = {2375-2548}, journal = {Science Advances}, number = {13}, publisher = {American Association for the Advancement of Science}, title = {{Sequential formation of Drosophila circuit asymmetry via prolonged structural plasticity}}, doi = {10.1126/sciadv.aea6020}, volume = {12}, year = {2026}, } @article{21708, abstract = {On October 4, 2023, a proglacial lake named the South Lhonak lake was the source of a catastrophic Glacier Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) in the Teesta river basin area, resulting in 24 fatalities and leaving over 70 persons missing. The GLOF also destroyed 13 bridges and a major hydropower plant in the Chungthang region. Over 60,000 individuals in four districts of Sikkim were impacted by this GLOF event. This study examines the factors that led to the GLOF event. Our study shows that the cause of this GLOF was initiated by a landslide, that dumped a substantial amount (~ 38.31 million m3) of debris into the South Lhonak Lake. Furthermore, the glacier that was connected to the lake, lost a big chunk of ice mass (~ 7 million m3) due to calving. The combination of these two processes led to the collapse of the left lateral moraine that consequently generated flood waves which breached the terminal moraine dam of the lake. We recommend monitoring land subsidence and calving events for large proglacial lakes to prevent the disastrous consequences of such GLOFs in the future.}, author = {Mohanty, Litan Kumar and Gantayat, Prateek and Dixit, Ankur and Das Adhikari, Manik and Biswas, Rahul and Singh, Vivek Kumar}, issn = {2045-2322}, journal = {Scientific Reports}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Sequence of events that led to the South Lhonak lake outburst flood in Sikkim, India}}, doi = {10.1038/s41598-026-35895-7}, volume = {16}, year = {2026}, } @article{21709, abstract = {JWST’s “little red dots” (LRDs) are increasingly interpreted as active galactic nuclei (AGN) obscured by dense thermalized gas rather than dust as evidenced by their X-ray weakness, blackbody-like continua, and Balmer line profiles. Key questions are how LRDs connect to standard UV-luminous AGN, whether transitional phases exist, and whether they are observable. We present the “X-ray dot” (XRD), a compact source at z = 3.28 observed by the NIRSpec Wide Guaranteed Time Observation survey. The XRD exhibits LRD hallmarks: a blackbody-like (Teff ≃ 6400 K) red continuum, a faint but blue rest-UV excess, falling mid-IR emission, and broad Balmer lines (FWHM ∼ 2700–3200 km s−1). Unlike LRDs, however, it is remarkably X-ray luminous (L2−10 keV = 1044.18 erg s−1) and has a continuum inflection that is blueward of the Balmer limit. We find that the red rest-optical and blue mid-IR continuum cannot be reproduced by standard dust-attenuated AGN models without invoking extremely steep extinction curves, nor can the weak mid-IR emission be reconciled with well-established X-ray–torus scaling relations. We therefore consider an alternative scenario: the XRD may be an LRD in transition, where the gas envelope dominates the optical continuum but optically thin sight lines allow X-rays to escape. The XRD may thus provide a physical link between LRDs and standard AGN, offering direct evidence that LRDs are powered by supermassive black holes and providing insight into their accretion properties.}, author = {Hviding, Raphael E. and De Graaff, Anna and Liu, Hanpu and Goulding, Andy D. and Ma, Yilun and Greene, Jenny E. and Boogaard, Leindert A. and Bunker, Andrew J. and Cleri, Nikko J. and Franx, Marijn and Hirschmann, Michaela and Leja, Joel and Matthee, Jorryt J and Naidu, Rohan P. and Setton, David J. and Übler, Hannah and Venturi, Giacomo and Wang, Bingjie}, issn = {2041-8213}, journal = {The Astrophysical Journal Letters}, number = {1}, publisher = {IOP Publishing}, title = {{The X-ray dot: Exotic dust or a late-stage Little Red Dot?}}, doi = {10.3847/2041-8213/ae4c88}, volume = {1000}, year = {2026}, } @article{21710, abstract = {Early results from JWST suggest that Epoch of Reionization (EoR) galaxies produce copious ionizing photons, which, if they escape efficiently, could cause reionization to occur too early. We study this problem using JWST imaging and prism spectroscopy for 412 galaxies at 4.5 < z < 9.0. We fit these data simultaneously with stellar population and nebular emission models that include a parameter for the fraction of ionizing photons that escape the galaxy, fesc. We find that the ionization production efficiency, ξion = Q(H0)/LUV, increases with redshift and decreasing UV luminosity, but shows significant scatter, (log ion z, MUV) 0.3 dex. The inferred escape fractions averaged over the population are low, ranging from〈fesc〉 ≃ 2.6% ± 1.4% at 6 < z < 9 to 6.5% ± 2.2% at 4.5 < z < 6, with weak or no indication of evolution with redshift. This implies that in our models most of the ionizing photons need to be absorbed to account for the nebular emission. We compute the impact of our results on reionization, including the distributions for ξion and fesc, and the evolution and uncertainty of the UV luminosity function. Considering galaxies brighter than MUV < −16 mag would produce an intergalactic medium hydrogen-ionized fraction of xe = 0.5 at 5.3 < z < 5.8, possibly too late compared to constraints from from quasistellar object (QSO) sight lines. Including fainter galaxies, MUV < −14 mag, we obtain xe = 0.5 at 6.0 < z < 8.1, fully consistent with QSO and cosmic microwave background data. This implies that EoR galaxies produce plenty of ionizing photons, but that these do not efficiently escape. This may be a result of high gas column densities combined with burstier star formation histories, which limit the time massive stars are able to clear channels through the gas for ionizing photons to escape.}, author = {Papovich, Casey and Cole, Justin W. and Hu, Weida and Finkelstein, Steven L. and Shen, Lu and Arrabal Haro, Pablo and Amorín, Ricardo O. and Backhaus, Bren E. and Bagley, Micaela B. and Bhatawdekar, Rachana and Calabrò, Antonello and Carnall, Adam C. and Cleri, Nikko J. and Daddi, Emanuele and Dickinson, Mark and Grogin, Norman A. and Holwerda, Benne W. and Jaskot, Anne E. and Koekemoer, Anton M. and Llerena, Mario and Lucas, Ray A. and Mascia, Sara and Pacucci, Fabio and Pentericci, Laura and Pérez-González, Pablo G. and Pirzkal, Nor and Raghunathan, Srinivasan and Seillé, Lise Marie and Somerville, Rachel S. and Yung, L. Y.Aaron}, issn = {1538-4357}, journal = {The Astrophysical Journal}, number = {1}, publisher = {IOP Publishing}, title = {{Galaxies in the epoch of reionization are all bark and no bite-plenty of ionizing photons, low escape fractions}}, doi = {10.3847/1538-4357/ae3b25}, volume = {1000}, year = {2026}, } @article{21711, abstract = {Background: Low-volume trapping columns are essential for sample enrichment, desalting, and injection profile focusing on nano-LC–MS-based proteomics. They enable higher sample loading, improve chromatographic performance, and protect the analytical column by removing salts and contaminants. Recently, monolithic trap columns with micropillar architecture have emerged as alternatives to conventionally packed traps. This study compares the performance of a packed and a micropillar monolithic trap column for the analysis of tryptic peptides. Methods: A tryptic digest of HeLa cell lysate was analyzed under identical LC–MS conditions using both trap types. Peptides were detected at 214 nm and analyzed by nano-ESI on a Q Exactive Plus Orbitrap. Data were searched against the human UniProt database (February 2023) using FragPipe v20.0, and statistical evaluation of MaxLFQ intensities was performed in Perseus using Welch’s t-test and clustering analysis. Results: Over 2500 proteins were identified with both setups. The packed trap column yielded more total peptides, particularly those with post-translational modifications and higher hydrophilicity, whereas the monolithic column favored peptides of intermediate hydrophobicity. Chromatographic profiles confirmed a slight reduction in the trapping efficiency of hydrophilic peptides by the monolithic trap. Conclusions: Trap column design significantly influences peptide recovery and proteome coverage.}, author = {Miletić Vukajlović, Jadranka and Ilić, Bojana and Bruszel, Bella and Panić-Janković, Tanja and Mitulović, Goran}, issn = {2227-7382}, journal = {Proteomes}, number = {1}, publisher = {MDPI}, title = {{Comparison of the trapping efficiency for tryptic peptides on particle-packed and micro-pillar trap columns for proteomics analyses}}, doi = {10.3390/proteomes14010010}, volume = {14}, year = {2026}, } @article{21712, abstract = {Supermassive black hole binary (SMBHB) systems are expected to form as a consequence of galaxy mergers. At subparsec separations, SMBHBs can be identified as quasars with periodic variability, with previous periodicity searches uncovering significant candidates. However, these searches focused primarily on sinusoidal signals, while theoretical models and hydrodynamical simulations predict that binaries produce more complex non-sinusoidal pulse shapes. Here we examine the efficacy of the Lomb–Scargle periodogram (LSP; one of the most popular tools for periodicity searches in unevenly sampled lightcurves) to detect periodicities with a sawtooth shape mimicking results of hydrodynamical simulations. We simulate idealized well-sampled lightcurves, lightcurves that mimic the data in the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) analyzed in M. Charisi et al. (2016), and lightcurves that resemble our expectations for single-band data in the upcoming Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) of the Rubin Observatory. We approximate quasar variability with a damped random walk (DRW) model, inject sinusoidal and sawtooth pulse shapes, and assess their statistical significance. We find that in the presence of red noise, the LSP detects a relatively low fraction of the sinusoidal signals (∼45%, ∼24%, and ∼23%, in the PTF-like, idealized, and LSST-like lightcurves, respectively). The fraction is significantly reduced for sawtooth periodicity (with only ∼9% in PTF-like and ∼1% in idealized and LSST-like lightcurves). These low recovery rates imply that previous searches have missed the large majority of binaries. They also have significant implications for the detection of SMBHBs in upcoming LSST necessitating the development of advanced tools that go beyond the simple LSP.}, author = {Lin, Allison and Charisi, Maria and Haiman, Zoltán}, issn = {1538-4357}, journal = {The Astrophysical Journal}, number = {2}, publisher = {IOP Publishing}, title = {{Lomb-scargle periodogram struggles with non-sinusoidal supermassive Black Hole binary signatures in quasar lightcurves}}, doi = {10.3847/1538-4357/ae29a7}, volume = {997}, year = {2026}, } @article{21713, abstract = {GW231123 represents the most massive binary–black hole merger detected to date, lying firmly within, or even above, the pair-instability mass gap. The component spins are both exceptionally high (a1 = 0.90 +0.10/-0.19, a2 = 0.80 +0.20/-0.51), which is difficult to explain with repeated mergers. Here we show that the black hole spin vectors are closely aligned with each other while significantly tilted relative to the binary’s orbital angular momentum, pointing to a common accretion-driven origin. We examine astrophysical formation channels capable of producing near-equal, high-mass, and mutually aligned spins consistent with GW231123—particularly binaries embedded in AGN disks and Population III remnants, which grew via coherent misaligned gas accretion. We further argue that other high-mass, high-spin events, e.g., GW190521, may share a similar evolutionary pathway. These findings underscore the critical role of sustained, coherent accretion in shaping the most extreme black hole binaries.}, author = {Bartos, Imre and Haiman, Zoltán}, issn = {2041-8213}, journal = {The Astrophysical Journal Letters}, number = {2}, publisher = {IOP Publishing}, title = {{Accretion is all you need: Black Hole spin alignment in merger GW231123 indicates accretion pathway}}, doi = {10.3847/2041-8213/ae2bff}, volume = {996}, year = {2026}, }