This Week: Astrophysics – Kavli Institute Pre-Print Publications

Pulsar Backend for 21 CentiMeter Array: Implementation of Data Acquisition and Initial Results

Posted by klaurent July 2, 2026July 6, 2026Peking, This Week: Astrophysics

Kavli Affiliate: Kejia Lee | Summary:We implemented a data acquisition system for 21 CentiMeter Array (21CMA), enabling baseband observations targeting pulsars and fast radio bursts. Based on the Radio Frequency System-on-Chip (RFSoC) platform, the new backend is capable of instantaneously covering the effective bandwidth from 50 to 350 MHz, with multi-board synchronization achieved at the […]

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Refined Sensitivity Estimates for Single-Molecule Magnet Dark Matter Detectors

Posted by klaurent July 2, 2026July 6, 2026This Week: Astrophysics, Tokyo

Kavli Affiliate: Shigeki Matsumoto | Summary:We revisit the sensitivity of Single Molecule Magnet (SMM) crystals as detectors for low-mass dark matter. In previous work, we established the concept of the “magnetic bubble chamber”, where energy deposited by dark matter triggers a magnetic avalanche in a metastable crystal. The original sensitivity estimates relied on a conservative […]

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TESS’s First Bound Microlensing Planet: A Binary Microlensing Event Revealing a Planetary Companion toward the Galactic Plane

Posted by klaurent July 2, 2026July 6, 2026MIT, This Week: Astrophysics

Kavli Affiliate: Michael Fausnaugh | Summary:We report the discovery of Gaia23bra b, the first gravitationally bound microlensing planet detected by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Initially flagged as a single-lens event by the Gaia Science Alerts system, Gaia23bra was serendipitously observed by TESS over two consecutive sectors. During those TESS sectors, the light curve […]

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Lattice study of primordial black hole formation in bumpy axion inflation

Posted by klaurent July 2, 2026July 6, 2026This Week: Astrophysics, Tokyo

Kavli Affiliate: Masahiro Kawasaki | Summary:We study primordial black hole (PBH) formation in axion $U(1)$ inflation using lattice simulations. In axion $U(1)$ inflation with a bumpy potential, the curvature perturbations can be enhanced in a narrow range of wavenumbers, potentially leading to PBH formation. After confirming that our lattice simulations reproduced the known curvature power […]

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Galaxy Clusters Selected via the Sunyaev-Zel’dovich Effect in 5 year data from the SPT-3G Main Survey

Posted by klaurent July 1, 2026July 6, 2026Chicago, This Week: Astrophysics

Kavli Affiliate: Lindsey Bleem | Summary:We report a new galaxy cluster catalog, selected using the thermal Sunyaev-Zel’dovich (SZ) effect, from 5 years of observations of the SPT-3G Main field. Drawn from arcminute-resolution data with white noise levels of 3.2, 2.5, and 8.9 $μ$K-arcmin at 95, 150, and 220 GHz, respectively, the sample consists of 8,892 […]

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Understanding eccentric temperate giants: an in-depth study of the architecture and stellar obliquity of the TOI-2134 system

Posted by klaurent July 1, 2026July 6, 2026MIT, This Week: Astrophysics

Kavli Affiliate: Andrew Vanderburg | Summary:We revisit the TOI-2134 planetary system with three new high-cadence TESS sectors and 98 more spectra. This new analysis confirms the two orbiting planets by simultaneously modelling a total of eight sectors of corrected TESS photometry and 280 HARPS-N and SOPHIE radial velocities: an inner mini-Neptune in a near-circular $9.229198pm0.000003$ […]

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The “dark dips” phenomenon in the LSST Camera on-sky images

Posted by klaurent July 1, 2026July 6, 2026Stanford, This Week: Astrophysics

Kavli Affiliate: Andrew Rasmussen | Summary:When the commissioning camera (ComCam), and then the LSST Camera, started taking on-sky images at the Vera Rubin Observatory, some of the ITL STA3800 CCDs exhibited a previously undocumented effect. When a sufficiently bright star is superimposed over the sky background, the sensor columns that contain the star appear slightly […]

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How can we finally see the first light? Status and perspective in the search for Population III stars

Posted by klaurent June 30, 2026July 6, 2026Cambridge, This Week: Astrophysics

Kavli Affiliate: Roberto Maiolino | Summary:Finding the first (Population III or Pop III) stars is one of the fundamental quests of astronomy, aiming to deliver the missing link in how stars form at early cosmic times. Yet their initial mass function, formation sites and feedback remain highly uncertain, as well as the timing and topology […]

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Rubin M1M3 Dynamic performance : stability and actuation during operations

Posted by klaurent June 30, 2026July 6, 2026Stanford, This Week: Astrophysics

Kavli Affiliate: Kevin Reil | Summary:The Vera C. Rubin Observatory is preparing to commence the Legacy Survey of Space and Time with the fully integrated Simonyi Survey Telescope. To verify that the primary/tertiary (M1M3) mirror system is ready to meet the demanding survey requirements, dynamic tests of the 8.4 m, 53 ton M1M3 system were […]

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The filter exchange system of the LSSTCam at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory

Posted by klaurent June 30, 2026July 6, 2026Stanford, This Week: Astrophysics

Kavli Affiliate: Stuart Marshall | Summary:The Filter Exchange System of the LSSTCam at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory is a critical subsystem enabling the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) by performing rapid, repeatable exchanges among five large-format filters within a highly constrained in-camera volume. Since the start of on-sky operations in April 2025, […]

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