The search for atmospheres on rocky exoplanets is a crucial step in understanding the processes driving atmosphere formation, retention, and loss. Past studies have revealed the existence of planets interior to the radius valley with densities lower than would be expected for pure-rock compositions, indicative of the presence of large volatile inventories which could facilitate atmosphere retention. Here we present an analysis of the JWST NIRSpec/G395H transmission spectrum of the warm ($T_\mathrm{eq,{A_B}=0}$ = 569 K) super-Earth TOI-270 b ($R_\mathrm{p}$ = 1.306 $R_\oplus$), captured alongside the transit of TOI-270 d. The JWST white light-curve transit depth updates TOI-270 b's density to $\rho_\mathrm{p}$ = 3.7 $\pm$ 0.5 g/cm$^3$, inconsistent at 4.4$\sigma$ with an Earth-like composition. Instead, the planet is best explained by a non-zero, percent-level water mass fraction, possibly residing on the surface or stored within the interior. The JWST transmission spectrum shows possible spectroscopic evidence for the presence of this water as part of an atmosphere on TOI-270 b, favoring a H$_2$O-rich steam atmosphere model over a flat spectrum ($\ln\mathcal{B}$ = $0.3-3.2$, inconclusive to moderate), with the exact significance depending on whether an offset parameter between the NIRSpec detectors is included. We leverage the transit of the twice-larger TOI-270 d crossing the stellar disk almost simultaneously to rule out the alternative hypothesis that the transit-light-source effect could have caused the water feature in TOI-270 b's observed transmission spectrum. Planetary evolution modeling furthermore shows that TOI-270 b could sustain a significant atmosphere on Gyr timescales, despite its high stellar irradiation, if it formed with a large initial volatile inventory.

We present cosmological results from the measurement of clustering of galaxy, quasar and Lyman-$\alpha$ forest tracers from the first year of observations with the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI Data Release 1). We adopt the full-shape (FS) modeling of the power spectrum, including the effects of redshift-space distortions, in an analysis which has been validated in a series of supporting papers. In the flat $\Lambda$CDM cosmological model, DESI (FS+BAO), combined with a baryon density prior from Big Bang Nucleosynthesis and a weak prior on the scalar spectral index, determines matter density to $\Omega_\mathrm{m}=0.2962\pm 0.0095$, and the amplitude of mass fluctuations to $\sigma_8=0.842\pm 0.034$. The addition of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) data tightens these constraints to $\Omega_\mathrm{m}=0.3056\pm 0.0049$ and $\sigma_8=0.8121\pm 0.0053$, while further addition of the the joint clustering and lensing analysis from the Dark Energy Survey Year-3 (DESY3) data leads to a 0.4% determination of the Hubble constant, $H_0 = (68.40\pm 0.27)\,{\rm km\,s^{-1}\,Mpc^{-1}}$. In models with a time-varying dark energy equation of state, combinations of DESI (FS+BAO) with CMB and type Ia supernovae continue to show the preference, previously found in the DESI DR1 BAO analysis, for w_0>-1 and w_a<0 with similar levels of significance. DESI data, in combination with the CMB, impose the upper limits on the sum of the neutrino masses of \sum m_\nu < 0.071\,{\rm eV} at 95% confidence. DESI data alone measure the modified-gravity parameter that controls the clustering of massive particles, $\mu_0=0.11^{+0.45}_{-0.54}$, while the combination of DESI with the CMB and the clustering and lensing analysis from DESY3 constrains both modified-gravity parameters, giving $\mu_0 = 0.04\pm 0.22$ and $\Sigma_0 = 0.044\pm 0.047$, in agreement with general relativity. [Abridged.]

The current standard model of cosmology successfully describes a variety of measurements, but the nature of its main ingredients, dark matter and dark energy, remains unknown. Euclid is a medium-class mission in the Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 programme of the European Space Agency (ESA) that will provide high-resolution optical imaging, as well as near-infrared imaging and spectroscopy, over about 14,000 deg^2 of extragalactic sky. In addition to accurate weak lensing and clustering measurements that probe structure formation over half of the age of the Universe, its primary probes for cosmology, these exquisite data will enable a wide range of science. This paper provides a high-level overview of the mission, summarising the survey characteristics, the various data-processing steps, and data products. We also highlight the main science objectives and expected performance.

The Southern Photometric Local Universe Survey (S-PLUS) is a project to map $\sim9300$ sq deg of the sky using twelve bands (seven narrow and five broadbands). Observations are performed with the T80-South telescope, a robotic telescope located at the Cerro Tololo Observatory in Chile. The survey footprint consists of several large contiguous areas, including fields at high and low galactic latitudes, and towards the Magellanic Clouds. S-PLUS uses fixed exposure times to reach point source depths of about $21$ mag in the $griz$ and $20$ mag in the $u$ and the narrow filters. This paper describes the S-PLUS Data Release 4 (DR4), which includes calibrated images and derived catalogues for over 3000 sq deg, covering the aforementioned area. The catalogues provide multi-band photometry performed with the tools \texttt{DoPHOT} and \texttt{SExtractor} -- point spread function (\PSF) and aperture photometry, respectively. In addition to the characterization, we also present the scientific potential of the data. We use statistical tools to present and compare the photometry obtained through different methods. Overall we find good agreement between the different methods, with a slight systematic offset of 0.05\,mag between our \PSF and aperture photometry. We show that the astrometry accuracy is equivalent to that obtained in previous S-PLUS data releases, even in very crowded fields where photometric extraction is challenging. The depths of main survey (MS) photometry for a minimum signal-to-noise ratio $S/N = 3$ reach from $\sim19.5$ for the bluer bands to $\sim21.5$ mag on the red. The range of magnitudes over which accurate \PSF photometry is obtained is shallower, reaching $\sim19$ to $\sim20.5$ mag depending on the filter. Based on these photometric data, we provide star-galaxy-quasar classification and photometric redshift for millions of objects.

Precise measurements of black hole masses are essential to understanding the coevolution of these sources and their host galaxies. We develop a novel approach for computing black hole virial masses using measurements of continuum luminosities and emission line widths from partially overlapping, narrow-band observations of quasars; we refer to this technique as single-epoch photometry. This novel method relies on forward-modelling quasar observations for estimating emission line widths, which enables unbiased measurements even for lines coarsely resolved by narrow-band data. We assess the performance of this technique using quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) observed by the miniJPAS survey, a proof-of-concept project of the Javalambre Physics of the Accelerating Universe Astrophysical Survey (J-PAS) collaboration covering $\simeq1\,\mathrm{deg}^2$ of the northern sky using the 56 J-PAS narrow-band filters. We find remarkable agreement between black hole masses from single-epoch SDSS spectra and single-epoch miniJPAS photometry, with no systematic difference between these and a scatter ranging from 0.4 to 0.07 dex for masses from $\log(M_\mathrm{BH})\simeq8$ to 9.75, respectively. Reverberation mapping studies show that single-epoch masses present approximately 0.4 dex precision, letting us conclude that our novel technique delivers black hole masses with only mildly lower precision than single-epoch spectroscopy. The J-PAS survey will soon start observing thousands of square degrees without any source preselection other than the photometric depth in the detection band, and thus single-epoch photometry has the potential to provide details on the physical properties of quasar populations that do not satisfy the preselection criteria of previous spectroscopic surveys.

The CoRoT (Convection, Rotation, and planetary Transits) mission still holds a large trove of high-quality, underused light curves with excellent signal-to-noise and continuous coverage. This paper, the first in a series, identifies and classifies variable stars in CoRoT fields whose variability has not been analyzed in the main repositories. We combine simulations and real data to test a moving-average scheme that mitigates instrumental jumps and enhances the recovery of short-period signals (<1 day) in roughly 20-day time series. For classification, we adopt a supervised selection built on features extracted from folded light curves using the double period, and we construct template-based models that also act as a new classifier for well-sampled light curves. We report 9,272 variables, of which 6,249 are not listed in SIMBAD or VSX. Our preliminary classes include 309 Beta Cephei, 3,105 Delta Scuti, 599 Algol-type eclipsing binaries, 844 Beta Lyrae eclipsing binaries, 497 W Ursae Majoris eclipsing binaries, 1,443 Gamma Doradus, 63 RR Lyrae, and 32 T Tauri stars. The resulting catalog inserts CoRoT variables into widely used astronomical repositories. Comparing sources in the inner and outer Milky Way, we find significant differences in the occurrence of several classes, consistent with metallicity and age gradients. The ability to recover sub-day periods also points to automated strategies for detecting longer-period variability, which we will develop in subsequent papers of this series.

The presence of non-local and long-range interactions in quantum systems induces several peculiar features in their equilibrium and out-of-equilibrium behavior. In current experimental platforms control parameters such as interaction range, temperature, density and dimension can be changed. The existence of universal scaling regimes, where diverse physical systems and observables display quantitative agreement, generates a common framework, where the efforts of different research communities can be -- in some cases rigorously -- connected. Still, the application of this general framework to particular experimental realisations requires the identification of the regimes where the universality phenomenon is expected to appear. In the present review we summarise the recent investigations of many-body quantum systems with long-range interactions, which are currently realised in Rydberg atom arrays, dipolar systems, trapped ion setups and cold atoms in cavity experiments. Our main aim is to present and identify the common and (mostly) universal features induced by long-range interactions in the behaviour of quantum many-body systems. We will discuss both the case of very strong non-local couplings, i.e. the non-additive regime, and the one in which energy is extensive, but nevertheless low-energy, long wavelength properties are altered with respect to the short-range limit. Cases of competition with other local effects in the above mentioned setups are also reviewed.

Automated benthic image annotation is crucial to efficiently monitor and protect coral reefs against climate change. Current machine learning approaches fail to capture the hierarchical nature of benthic organisms covering reef substrata, i.e., coral taxonomic levels and health condition. To address this limitation, we propose to annotate benthic images using hierarchical classification. Experiments on a custom dataset from a Northeast Brazilian coral reef show that our approach outperforms flat classifiers, improving both F1 and hierarchical F1 scores by approximately 2\% across varying amounts of training data. In addition, this hierarchical method aligns more closely with ecological objectives.

We present the first set of fully-nonlinear, necessary and sufficient conditions guaranteeing causal evolution of the initial data for the Israel-Stewart hydrodynamic equations with shear and bulk viscosity coupled to a nonzero baryon current. These constraints not only provide nonlinear causality: they also (a) guarantee the existence of a locally well-posed evolution of the initial data (they enforce strong hyperbolicity) when excluding the endpoints of the bounds, (b) arise from purely algebraic constraints that make no underlying symmetry assumptions on the degrees of freedom and (c) propagate the relevant symmetries of the degrees of freedom over the entire evolution of the problem. Our work enforces a mathematically rigorous foundation for future studies of viscous relativistic hydrodynamics with baryon-rich matter including neutron star mergers and heavy-ion collisions.

Global analysis of neutrino oscillation data slightly favors normal mass ordering. In this work, we investigate an extended scalar sector that naturally gives rise to a type I + II seesaw mechanism after spontaneous symmetry breaking and explore the interplay between collider physics and lepton flavor violation, adopting normal ordering. In particular, we focus on the rare muon decays $\mu \rightarrow e \gamma$ and $\mu \rightarrow 3e$ and the same-sign dilepton searches at LHC, a canonical signature of a doubly charged scalar. We conclude that neither the precise value of the sum of the neutrino masses, taken from DESI data that favors $\sum m_\nu=0.07$~eV, nor alternative cosmological fits which prefer a more relaxed limit $\sum m_\nu=0.1$~eV, significantly changes the theoretical prediction for these rare decays. However, we observe an interesting interplay between collider physics and lepton flavor violation depending on the choices of the vacuum expectation value of the triplet scalar. In particular, we find that $\mu \rightarrow 3e$ is more constraining than $\mu \rightarrow e\gamma$, and the $\mu \rightarrow 3e$ decay can yield a lower mass limit of $3$~TeV on the doubly charged scalar, surpassing current LHC constraint.

In this study, we used geometric distances at high redshifts (both luminosity and angular) to perform a cosmographic analysis with the Padé method, which stabilizes the behaviour of the cosmographic series in this redshift regime. However, in our analyses, we did not assume the validity of the Cosmic Distance Duality Relation (CDDR), but allowed for potential violations, such as $d_L(z) = \eta(z)(1+z)^2d_A(z)$, where three different functional forms of $\eta(z)$ are considered. By incorporating updated data from supernovae (SN), baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO), and cosmic chronometers (CC), we obtained observational constraints on cosmographic models alongside possible CDDR violations. Interestingly, we found that potential CDDR violations introduce new statistical correlations among cosmographic parameters such as $H_0$, $q_0$, and $j_0$. Nonetheless, within this framework, we did not observe significant deviations from the CDDR, and our results remain consistent with the predictions of the $\Lambda$CDM model. In the same time, this work provides a novel and straightforward method for testing the CDDR by fixing the background evolution through cosmographic techniques, paving the way for new geometric observational tests of possible deviations from standard cosmology.

Stellar-mass black holes are the final remnants of stars born with more than 15 solar masses. Billions are expected to reside in the Local Group, yet only few are known, mostly detected through X-rays emitted as they accrete material from a companion star. Here, we report on VFTS 243: a massive X-ray faint binary in the Large Magellanic Cloud. With an orbital period of 10.4-d, it comprises an O-type star of 25 solar masses and an unseen companion of at least nine solar masses. Our spectral analysis excludes a non-degenerate companion at a 5-sigma confidence level. The minimum companion mass implies that it is a black hole. No other X-ray quiet black hole is unambiguously known outside our Galaxy. The (near-)circular orbit and kinematics of VFTS 243 imply that the collapse of the progenitor into a black hole was associated with little or no ejected material or black-hole kick. Identifying such unique binaries substantially impacts the predicted rates of gravitational-wave detections and properties of core-collapse supernovae across the Cosmos.

The Near-InfraRed Planet Searcher or NIRPS is a precision radial velocity spectrograph developed through collaborative efforts among laboratories in Switzerland, Canada, Brazil, France, Portugal and Spain. NIRPS extends to the 0.98-1.8 $\mu$m domain of the pioneering HARPS instrument at the La Silla 3.6-m telescope in Chile and it has achieved unparalleled precision, measuring stellar radial velocities in the infrared with accuracy better than 1 m/s. NIRPS can be used either stand-alone or simultaneously with HARPS. Commissioned in late 2022 and early 2023, NIRPS embarked on a 5-year Guaranteed Time Observation (GTO) program in April 2023, spanning 720 observing nights. This program focuses on planetary systems around M dwarfs, encompassing both the immediate solar vicinity and transit follow-ups, alongside transit and emission spectroscopy observations. We highlight NIRPS's current performances and the insights gained during its deployment at the telescope. The lessons learned and successes achieved contribute to the ongoing advancement of precision radial velocity measurements and high spectral fidelity, further solidifying NIRPS' role in the forefront of the field of exoplanets.

In this work, we use publicly available data from ATLAS collaboration collected at LHC run 2 at a center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}=13$TeV with an integrated luminosity of $139 fb^{-1}$ to derive lower mass limits on the $Z^\prime$ gauge boson associated with the B-L gauge symmetry. Using dilepton data we find that $M_{Z^\prime} > 4$TeV ($6$TeV) for $g_{BL}=0.1$ ($g_{BL}=0.5$) in the absence of invisible decays. Once invisible decays are turned on these limits are substantially relaxed. Assuming an invisible branching ratio of $BR_{inv}=0.9$, the LHC bound is loosened up to $M_{Z^\prime}> 4.8$TeV for $g_{BL}=0.5$. This analysis confirms that the LHC now imposes stricter constraints than the longstanding bounds established by LEP. We also estimate the projected HL-LHC bounds that will operate with at $\sqrt{s}=14$TeV and a planned integrated luminosity of $\mathcal{L}=3 ab^{-1}$ that will probe $Z^\prime$ masses up to $7.5$TeV.

We investigate the sensitivity of the projected TeV muon collider to the gauged $L^{}_{\mu}$-$L^{}_{\tau}$ model. Two processes are considered: $Z'$-mediated two-body scatterings $\mu^+ \mu^- \to \ell^+ \ell^-$ with $\ell = \mu$or$\tau$, and scattering with initial state photon emission,$\mu^+ \mu^- \to \gamma Z',~Z' \to \ell \overline{\ell}$, where$\ell$can be$\mu$,$\tau$ or $\nu_{\mu/\tau}$. We quantitatively study the sensitivities of these two processes by taking into account possible signals and relevant backgrounds in a muon collider experiment with a center-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s} = 3~{\rm TeV}$ and a luminosity $L=1~{\rm ab^{-1}}$. For two-body scattering one can exclude $Z'$ masses $M^{}_{Z'} \lesssim 100~{\rm TeV}$ with $\mathcal{O}(1)$ gauge couplings. When M^{}_{Z'} \lesssim 1~{\rm TeV} &lt;\sqrt{s}, one can exclude $g' \gtrsim 2\times 10^{-2}$. The process with photon emission is more powerful than the two-body scattering if M^{}_{Z'} &lt; \sqrt{s}. For instance, a sensitivity of $g' \simeq 4 \times 10^{-3}$ can be achieved at $M^{}_{Z'} = 1~{\rm TeV}$. The parameter spaces favored by the$(g-2)^{}_{\mu}$and$B$ anomalies with M^{}_{Z'} &gt; 100~{\rm GeV} are entirely covered by a muon collider.

Recent James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) observations have revealed a population of sources with a compact morphology and a `v-shaped' continuum, namely blue at rest-frame \lambda&lt;4000A and red at longer wavelengths. The nature of these sources, called `little red dots' (LRDs), is still debated, since it is unclear if they host active galactic nuclei (AGN) and their number seems to drastically drop at z<4. We utilise the 63 $deg^2$ covered by the quick Euclid Quick Data Release (Q1) to extend the search for LRDs to brighter magnitudes and to lower z than what has been possible with JWST to have a broader view of the evolution of this peculiar galaxy population. The selection is done by fitting the available photometric data (Euclid, Spitzer/IRAC, and ground-based griz data) with two power laws, to retrieve the rest-frame optical and UV slopes consistently over a large redshift range (i.e, z<7.6). We exclude extended objects and possible line emitters, and perform a visual inspection to remove imaging artefacts. The final selection includes 3341 LRD candidates from z=0.33 to z=3.6, with 29 detected in IRAC. Their rest-frame UV luminosity function, in contrast with previous JWST studies, shows that the number density of LRD candidates increases from high-z down to z=1.5-2.5 and decreases at even lower z. Less evolution is apparent focusing on the subsample of more robust LRD candidates having IRAC detections, which is affected by low statistics and limited by the IRAC resolution. The comparison with previous quasar UV luminosity functions shows that LRDs are not the dominant AGN population at z<4. Follow-up studies of these LRD candidates are key to confirm their nature, probe their physical properties and check for their compatibility with JWST sources, since the different spatial resolution and wavelength coverage of Euclid and JWST could select different samples of compact sources.

In this work we study the single-qubit quantum state transfer in uniform long-range spin XXZ systems in high-dimensional geometries. We consider prototypical long-range spin exchanges that are relevant for experiments in cold atomic platforms: Coulomb, dipolar and van der Waals-like interactions. We find that in all these cases the fidelity increases with the dimensionality of the lattice. This can be related to the emergence of a pair of bilocalized states on the sender and receiver site due to the onset of an effective weak-coupling Hamiltonian. The enhancement of the quantum state transfer fidelity is more pronounced both with the increase of the couplings interaction range and in going from a 1D to a 2D lattice. Finally, we test our predictions in the presence of temperature-induced disorder introducing a model for the thermal displacement of the lattice sites, considered as a set of local adiabatic oscillators.

Spin models are the prime example of simplified manybody Hamiltonians used to model complex, real-world strongly correlated materials. However, despite their simplified character, their dynamics often cannot be simulated exactly on classical computers as soon as the number of particles exceeds a few tens. For this reason, the quantum simulation of spin Hamiltonians using the tools of atomic and molecular physics has become very active over the last years, using ultracold atoms or molecules in optical lattices, or trapped ions. All of these approaches have their own assets, but also limitations. Here, we report on a novel platform for the study of spin systems, using individual atoms trapped in two-dimensional arrays of optical microtraps with arbitrary geometries, where filling fractions range from 60 to 100% with exact knowledge of the initial configuration. When excited to Rydberg D-states, the atoms undergo strong interactions whose anisotropic character opens exciting prospects for simulating exotic matter. We illustrate the versatility of our system by studying the dynamics of an Ising-like spin-1/2 system in a transverse field with up to thirty spins, for a variety of geometries in one and two dimensions, and for a wide range of interaction strengths. For geometries where the anisotropy is expected to have small effects we find an excellent agreement with ab-initio simulations of the spin-1/2 system, while for strongly anisotropic situations the multilevel structure of the D-states has a measurable influence. Our findings establish arrays of single Rydberg atoms as a versatile platform for the study of quantum magnetism.

We discuss the power of third-generation gravitational wave detectors to constrain cosmographic parameters in the case of electromagnetically bright standard sirens focusing on the specific case of the Einstein Telescope. We analyze the impact that the redshift source distribution, the number of detections and the observational error in the luminosity distance have on the inference of the first cosmographic parameters, and show that with a few hundreds detections the Hubble constant can be recovered at sub-percent level whereas the deceleration parameter at a few percent level, both with negligible bias.