@inproceedings{22002,
  abstract     = {Topological simplification is the process of reducing complexity of a function while maintaining its essential features. Its goal is to find a new filter function, which reorders cells of the input complex in a way which eliminates some persistent homological features, without affecting the rest. We present a new approach to simplification based on the concept of forbidden regions and combinatorial dynamics. It allows us to reorder and cancel critical values, whose cancellation is not possible using existing methods because they are not consecutive in the total order. Each such cancellation takes O(c⋅n) time in the worst case, where c is the number of birth-death pairs and n is the size of the input complex.},
  author       = {Leśkiewicz, Jakub and Furmanek, Bartosz and Lipiński, Michał and Morozov, Dmitriy},
  booktitle    = {42nd International Symposium on Computational Geometry},
  isbn         = {9783959774185},
  issn         = {1868-8969},
  keywords     = {persistent homology, topological simplification, depth posets},
  location     = {New Brunswick, NJ, United States},
  publisher    = {Schloss Dagstuhl - Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik},
  title        = {{Topological simplification guided by forbidden regions}},
  doi          = {10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.72},
  volume       = {367},
  year         = {2026},
}

@article{21996,
  abstract     = {In this issue of Cell Host & Microbe, Osterman et al. discover aRES,1 a new family of bacterial immune proteins that deplete cellular NAD+, generating cleavage products that cannot be utilized by canonical phage NAD+ regeneration pathways. They identify the invader-specific trigger for aRES and characterize two distinct evolutionary countermeasures employed by phages to resist aRES.},
  author       = {Williams-Jones, Daniel and Bravo, Jack Peter Kelly},
  issn         = {1934-6069},
  journal      = {Cell Host & Microbe},
  number       = {6},
  pages        = {978--980},
  publisher    = {Elsevier},
  title        = {{NAD to the bone: How bacteria put phages under aRES-t … and how phages fight back}},
  doi          = {10.1016/j.chom.2026.05.013},
  volume       = {34},
  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{21658,
  abstract     = {Dipolar (ℓ = 1) mixed modes have revealed a surprisingly weak differential rotation between the core and the envelope of evolved solar-like stars. Quadrupolar (ℓ = 2) mixed modes also contain information regarding internal dynamics but are very rarely characterised due to their low amplitude and the challenging identification of adjacent or overlapping rotationally split multiplets affected by near-degeneracy effects. We aim to extend the broadly used asymptotic seismic diagnostics beyond ℓ = 1 mixed modes by developing an analogue asymptotic description of ℓ = 2 mixed modes while explicitly accounting for near-degeneracy effects that distort their rotational multiplets. We have derived a new asymptotic formulation of near-degenerate mixed ℓ = 2 modes that describes off-diagonal terms representing the interaction between modes of adjacent radial orders. This formalism, expressed directly in the mixed-mode basis, provides analytical expressions for the near-degeneracy effects. We implemented the formalism within a global Bayesian mode-fitting framework for a direct fit of all ℓ = 0, 1, 2 modes in the power spectrum density. We were able to asymptotically model the asymmetric rotational splitting present in various radial orders of ℓ = 2 modes observed in young red giant stars without the need for any numerical stellar modelling. We applied our formalism to the Kepler target KIC 7341231, and it yielded core and envelope rotation rates consistent with previous numerical modelling while providing improved constraints from the global and model-independent approach. We also characterised the new target, KIC 8179973, measuring its rotation rate and mixed-mode parameters for the first time. As our framework relies on a direct global fit, it allows for much better precision on the asteroseismic parameters and rotation rate estimates than standard methods, yielding better constraints for rotation inversions. We have placed the first observational constraints on the asymptotic ℓ = 2 mixed-mode parameters (ΔΠ2, q2, and εg, 2), thus paving the way towards the use of asymptotic seismology beyond ℓ = 1 mixed modes.},
  author       = {Liagre, Bastien Raymond Bernard and Desai, Aayush A and Einramhof, Lukas and Bugnet, Lisa Annabelle},
  issn         = {1432-0746},
  journal      = {Astronomy and Astrophysics},
  publisher    = {EDP Sciences},
  title        = {{Near-degeneracy effects in quadrupolar mixed modes: From an asymptotic description to data fitting}},
  doi          = {10.1051/0004-6361/202558023},
  volume       = {707},
  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},
}

@article{21714,
  abstract     = {Be stars are rapidly rotating main-sequence stars that play a crucial role in understanding stellar evolution and binary interactions. In this Letter, we propose a new formation scenario for black hole (BH) + Be star binaries (hereafter BHBe binaries), where the Be star is produced through the wind Roche lobe overflow (WRLOF) mechanism. Our analysis is based on numerical simulations of the WRLOF process in massive binaries, building on recent theoretical work. We demonstrate that the WRLOF model can efficiently form BHBe binaries under reasonable assumptions on stellar wind velocities. Using rapid binary population synthesis, we estimate the population of such systems in the Milky Way, predicting ∼1800−3200 currently existing BHBe binaries originating from the WRLOF channel. These systems are characterized by high eccentricities and exceptionally wide orbits, with typical orbital periods exceeding 1000 days and a peak distribution around ∼10,000 days. Due to their long orbital separations, these BHBe binaries are promising targets for future detection via astrometric and interferometric observations.},
  author       = {Li, Zhenwei and Jia, Shi and Wei, Dandan and Ge, Hongwei and Chen, Hailiang and Zhang, Yangyang and Chen, Xuefei and Han, Zhanwen},
  issn         = {2041-8213},
  journal      = {The Astrophysical Journal Letters},
  number       = {2},
  publisher    = {IOP Publishing},
  title        = {{Formation of Be stars via wind accretion: Case study on Black Hole + Be star binaries}},
  doi          = {10.3847/2041-8213/ae3008},
  volume       = {996},
  year         = {2026},
}

@article{21715,
  abstract     = {New populations of red active galactic nuclei (known as “little red dots”) discovered by JWST exhibit remarkable spectral energy distributions. Leveraging X-ray through far-infrared observations of two of the most luminous known little red dots, we directly measure their bolometric luminosities. We find evidence that more than half of the bolometric luminosity likely emerges in the rest-frame optical, with Lbol/L5100 = 5, roughly half the value for “standard” active galactic nuclei. Meanwhile, the X-ray emitting corona, UV-emitting blackbody, and reprocessed mid to far-infrared emission are all considerably subdominant, assuming that the far-infrared luminosity is well below current measured limits. We present new bolometric corrections that dramatically lower inferred bolometric luminosities by a factor of 10 compared to published values in the literature. These bolometric corrections are in accord with expectations from models in which gas absorption and reprocessing are responsible for the red rest-frame optical colors of little red dots. We discuss how this lowered luminosity scale suggests a lower mass scale for the population by at least an order of magnitude (e.g., ∼105–107 M⊙ black holes, and ∼108 M⊙ galaxies), alleviating tensions with clustering, overmassive black holes, and the integrated black hole mass density in the Universe.},
  author       = {Greene, Jenny E. and Setton, David J. and Furtak, Lukas J. and Naidu, Rohan P. and Volonteri, Marta and Dayal, Pratika and Labbe, Ivo and Van Dokkum, Pieter and Bezanson, Rachel and Brammer, Gabriel and Cutler, Sam E. and Glazebrook, Karl and De Graaff, Anna and Hirschmann, Michaela and Hviding, Raphael E. and Kokorev, Vasily and Leja, Joel and Liu, Hanpu and Ma, Yilun and Matthee, Jorryt J and Nanayakkara, Themiya and Oesch, Pascal A. and Pan, Richard and Price, Sedona H. and Spilker, Justin S. and Wang, Bingjie and Weaver, John R. and Whitaker, Katherine E. and Williams, Christina C. and Zitrin, Adi},
  issn         = {1538-4357},
  journal      = {The Astrophysical Journal},
  number       = {2},
  publisher    = {IOP Publishing},
  title        = {{What you see is what you get: Empirically measured bolometric luminosities of Little Red Dots}},
  doi          = {10.3847/1538-4357/ae1836},
  volume       = {996},
  year         = {2026},
}