Backlighting the Cosmic Web with Fast Radio Bursts: An Anthology of Dispersion Measure Cross-Correlations with Large-Scale Structure and Baryon Tracers

Posted by klaurent Stanford, This Week: Astrophysics

Kavli Affiliate: W. L. Kimmy Wu | Summary:Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) probe baryons permeating the cosmic web through their dispersion measures (DMs), which encode the integrated electron density along cosmological sightlines. Using 3,455 unique FRB sources from CHIME/FRB with $sim 15$ arcmin localizations, we present an anthology of DM correlations with tracers of large-scale structure […]


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The Effects of Complex Accretion Disk Geometry on Broadened Iron K$α$ Lines

Posted by klaurent Stanford, This Week: Astrophysics

Kavli Affiliate: Daniel R. Wilkins | Summary:X-rays are emitted from the corona above the orbiting matter of the accretion disk and travel either directly to us or illuminate the disk. This illumination of the inner disk is enhanced by gravitational light bending, which focuses the rays towards the black hole and therefore towards the inner […]


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Geometry, Not Calorimetry, Drives the Radio/Infrared/Gamma-Ray Correlation

Posted by klaurent Stanford, This Week: Astrophysics

Kavli Affiliate: Igor Moskalenko | Summary:We investigate whether the observed radio-infrared-$γ$-ray correlation in star-forming galaxies is a geometric effect rather than a signature of local cosmic-ray (CR) calorimetry. Using the GALPROP framework, we generate synthetic observations for external viewers from a grid of 3D Milky Way models with varied CR source, gas, interstellar radiation, and […]


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Joint Estimation of Properties of the Lunar Subsurface and Galactic Foregrounds with LuSEE-Night

Posted by klaurent Stanford, This Week: Astrophysics

Kavli Affiliate: Sven Herrmann | Summary:The Lunar Surface Electromagnetics Experiment (LuSEE-Night) is a joint NASA-DOE-ESA low-frequency radio telescope that will reach the lunar far side in 2027. The unknown dielectric properties of the subsurface at the LuSEE-Night landing site impose the most significant limitation for precision instrument calibration, as reflections from the lunar subsurface can […]


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DMRadio-Core: A new approach for GUT-scale axion searches

Posted by klaurent Stanford

Kavli Affiliate: Kent Irwin | Summary:Searches for QCD axions with masses in the neV/$c^2$ mass range are strongly motivated by new physics at the GUT scale and by well-motivated pre-inflationary axion symmetry breaking scales. This parameter space is challenging to probe due to the small axion-photon couplings, which typically require large, high-field magnets with substantial […]


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Blueshifted lines from the inner accretion disc’s rotation can explain quasar absorption “forests”

Posted by klaurent Stanford

Kavli Affiliate: Daniel R. Wilkins | Summary:Recent XRISM observations of active galactic nuclei such as PDS 456 have revealed “forests” of absorption lines best modeled by five distinct absorption zones with varying large blueshifts. We propose a model in which these relativistic blueshifts originate from the motion of the accretion disc itself, rather than from […]


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The radial component of the local Galactic magnetic field in 3D

Posted by klaurent Stanford

Kavli Affiliate: Susan Clark | Summary:We present a distance-resolved reconstruction of the local line-of-sight Galactic magnetic field, $B_$, by combining a 3D electron density ($n_e$) map derived from dust map-informed simulations and a full-sky map of Faraday rotation measure (RM). The forward model evaluates RM on the same 3D grid as the $n_e$ map and […]


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IXPE view of the Crab pulsar following the 17 July and 6 August 2025 glitches

Posted by klaurent Stanford

Kavli Affiliate: Nicola Omodei | Summary:The Crab pulsar experienced two relatively small glitches separated by only 20 days in September and October 2025. IXPE observed the source twice, with delay times since the glitch epoch ranging between 35 and 75 days, depending on the observation. We carried out a multi-method analysis to investigate whether there […]


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The Vera C. Rubin Observatory Data Preview 1

Posted by klaurent Stanford

Kavli Affiliate: Steven Kahn | Summary:We present Rubin Data Preview 1 DP1, the first data from the NSF DOE Vera C Rubin Observatory, comprising raw and calibrated single epoch images, coadds, difference images, detection catalogs, and ancillary data products. DP1 is based on 1792 optical near infrared exposures acquired over 48 distinct nights by the […]


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A Physical Model of Pulsar X-ray Filaments

Posted by klaurent Stanford

Kavli Affiliate: Roger Romani | Summary:We present a model for pulsar filaments – a class of narrow X-ray nebulae misaligned with the proper motion, powered by pulsar-generated $e^pm$. We suggest that cosmic ray-enhanced turbulence drives pitch-angle scattering and dominates $e^pm$ motion along the filament; highly amplified magnetic fields are not required. A simulation built on […]


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