Orbital Period Research Articles

Abstract For Galactic novae, I calculate and collect a comprehensive catalog of 208 measures of white dwarf (WD) masses ( M WD ) and 232 measures of average V magnitudes in quiescence ( V q ). These are collected into a comprehensive catalog of most fundamental properties of all 402 known Galactic novae. The nova light curve and spectral classes are determined primarily by M WD . With an apparently clean cutoff, novae with light-curve shapes in the S, P, O, and C classes have >0.95 M ⊙ , while the J, D, and F class novae have <0.95 M ⊙ . The speed class of the light curves is t 3 = 1 0 ( − 1.73 M WD ) × 1900 days. The spectral class of novae is Fe ii below 1.15 M ⊙ , is He/N above 1.15 M ⊙ , and the hybrid novae are spread around this division. Neon novae have WD masses ranging from 0.53 to 1.37 M ⊙ , with 76% being measured to be below their minimum formation mass of 1.2 M ⊙ , demonstrating that most are losing mass over each eruption cycle. The FWHM velocity of the Balmer line profiles is close to 0.23 times the WD escape velocity, or roughly 1 0 ( M WD / 2 ) × 500 km s −1 for <1.3 M ⊙ . And all the known Galactic recurrent novae are >1.2 M ⊙ . For issues involving the late expansion of the ejecta, I find that the visibility of shells is strongly biased toward novae with orbital periods <0.33 day, and that the visibility of γ -rays from the shells is strongly biased toward novae with fast declines, with t 3 as a proxy for the γ -ray luminosity.

Abstract The formation and evolution of short-period contact binaries are also open questions, and these systems are important to study the evolution of common convective envelope, investigate the mass transfer and discuss the final fate of binaries. In this paper, new light curve fitting and orbital period change analysis of nine contact binaries are presented. We found that these nine targets are shallow contact binaries, and GZ And is a totally eclipsing contact binary star. The asymmetric light curves of six targets can be explained by the starspot model.
The O-C diagrams of six binaries show long-term variations, which can be explained by the mass transfer between two components or angular momentum loss in these systems. Meanwhile, the O-C diagrams of V582 Lyr, V1172 Her and V1207 Her show possible cyclic oscillations with a period of 12.88 yr, 15.45 yr and 4.60 yr, respectively, which can be interpreted as the results of the cyclic magnetic activity or the light travel time effect due to the presence of a third body. If they are triple systems, the mass of the tertiary companion is determined to be M3sini3= 0.057 M⊙ for V582 Lyr, M3sini3 = 0.122 M⊙ for V1172 Her and M3sini3 = 0.074 M⊙for V1207 Her. In addition, the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram shows that the secondary component of BF Tri and GZ And could be a pre-main sequence star and more than half of primary components of these systems have evolved with a position above TAMS.

Abstract Planetary radii are derived for 218 exoplanets orbiting 161 M dwarf stars. Stellar radii are based on an analysis of APOGEE high-resolution near-IR spectra for a subsample of the M dwarfs; these results are used to define a stellar radius-M K s calibration that is applied to the sample of M-dwarf planet hosts. The planetary radius distribution displays a gap over R p ∼ 1.6–2.0 R ⊕ , bordered by two peaks at R p ∼ 1.2–1.6 R ⊕ (super-Earths) and 2.0–2.4 R ⊕ (sub-Neptunes). The radius gap is nearly constant with exoplanetary orbital period (a power-law slope of m = + 0.0 1 − 0.04 + 0.03 ), which is different (2 σ –3 σ ) from m ∼ −0.10 found previously for FGK dwarfs. This flat slope agrees with pebble accretion models, which include photoevaporation and inward orbital migration. The radius gap as a function of insolation is approximately constant over the range of S p ∼ 20–250 S ⊕ . The R p – P orb plane exhibits a sub-Neptune desert for P orb < 2 days, which appears at S p > 120 S ⊕ , being significantly smaller than S p > 650 S ⊕ found in the FGK planet-hosts, indicating that the appearance of the sub-Neptune desert is a function of host-star mass. Published masses for 51 exoplanets are combined with our radii to determine densities, which exhibit a gap at ρ p ∼ 0.9 ρ ⊕ , separating rocky exoplanets from sub-Neptunes. The density distribution within the sub-Neptune family itself reveals two peaks, at ρ p ∼ 0.4 ρ ⊕ and ∼0.7 ρ ⊕ . Comparisons to planetary models find that the low-density group are gas-rich sub-Neptunes, while the group at < ρ p > ∼ 0.7 ρ ⊕ likely consists of volatile-rich water worlds.

Abstract. We describe a so far unrecognized physical phenomenon of orbital forcing modifying the terrestrial physics in such a way that instead of erasing the memory of the initial conditions this memory is extended and the initial values become major governing parameters. Specifically: The dynamics of large ice sheets is fundamentally defined by the advection of mass and temperature. The timescale of these processes is critically dependent on the surface mass balance. Because of the ice-climate system's nonlinearity, its response to the orbital forcing in terms of the engagement of negative and positive feedbacks is not symmetrical. This asymmetry may reduce the effective mass influx, and the resultant advection timescale may become longer, which is equivalent to the system having a longer memory of its initial conditions. In this case the Milankovitch theory becomes an initial value problem: Depending on the initial conditions, for the same orbital forcing and for the same balance between terrestrial positive and negative feedbacks, the historical glacial rhythmicity could have been dominated either by the eccentricity period of ∼100 kyr, or by the doubled obliquity period of ∼80 kyr, or by a combination of both. In fact, empirical records demonstrate that the dominant period of the Late Pleistocene ice ages evolved from a ∼80 to ∼100 kyr rhythmicity. The quantitative similarity of this dominant-period trajectory and the one, made by the long-memory model, suggests that the records of the Late Pleistocene glacial rhythmicity could have been produced by a long-memory initial-value-dependent climate system, or, in other words, the slopes in empirical dominant-period trajectories are signatures of a long memory. The scaling law of the dominant-period trajectory provides a theoretical insight into the discovered phenomenon. It reveals that this trajectory is dependent on the memory duration that is sensitive to initial conditions. The sensitivity of the memory duration to the initial values emerges as the result of the system's incomplete similarity in two similarity parameters colliding into one conglomerate similarity parameter that is the ratio of the orbitally modified advection timescale and the orbital period. The critical dependence of this similarity parameter on poorly defined accumulation-minus-ablation mass balance as well as its dependence on the initial values makes ice ages fundamentally difficult to predict. For the same reason, the disambiguation of paleo-records is extremely challenging. The quasi-eccentricity periods produced by the long-memory system in response to pure obliquity forcing make a remarkable example of this challenge because in the time series they may be naively attributed to the eccentricity modulated precession forcing. The long-memory relaxation time series may have abrupt dominant-periodicity transitions (e.g., from ∼40 to 80 kyr) produced without any changes of parameters. This observation implies that the middle-Pleistocene transition may be a manifestation of the terrestrial long-memory response to the orbital forcing.

The origin of carbon in the Universe remains uncertain. It has been suggested that at the solar metallicity, binary-stripped massive stars -- stars that lost their envelope through a stable interaction with a companion -- produce twice as much carbon as their single-star counterparts. However, understanding the chemical evolution of galaxies over cosmic time requires examining stellar yields across a range of metallicities. Using the stellar evolution code MESA, we computed the carbon yields from wind mass loss and supernova explosions of single and binary-stripped stars across a wide range of initial masses ($10–46,M_⊙$), metallicities (Z = 0.0021, $0.0047$, $0.0142$), and initial orbital periods ($10–5000$ days). We find that metallicity is the dominant factor influencing the carbon yields of massive stars, outweighing the effects of binarity and orbital parameters. Since the chemical yields from massive binary stars are highly sensitive to metallicity, we caution that yields predicted at the solar metallicity should not be directly extrapolated to lower metallicities. At subsolar metallicities (Z=0.0021), weak stellar winds and inefficient binary stripping result in carbon yields from binary-stripped stars that closely resemble those of single stars. This suggests that binary-stripped massive stars cannot explain the presence of carbon-enhanced metal-poor stars or the carbon enrichment observed in high-redshift galaxies as probed by the James Webb Space Telescope. Our findings only cover the stripped stars in massive binaries. The impact of other paths of binary star evolution, in particular stellar mergers and accretors, remains largely unexplored; future study will be necessary for a full understanding of the role of massive binaries in nucleosynthesis.

Abstract The abundance and star-formation histories of satellites of Milky Way (MW)-like galaxies are linked to their hosts' assembly histories. To explore this connection, we use the PARADIGM suite of zoom-in hydrodynamical simulations of MW-mass haloes, evolving the same initial conditions spanning various halo assembly histories with the VINTERGATAN and IllustrisTNG models. Our VINTERGATAN simulations overpredict the number of satellites compared to observations (and to IllustrisTNG) due to a higher M* at fixed Mtot. Despite this difference, the two models show good qualitative agreement for both satellite disruption fractions and timescales, and quenching. The number of satellites rises rapidly until z = 1 and then remains nearly constant. The fraction of satellites from each epoch that are disrupted by z = 0 decreases steadily from nearly 100% to 0% during 4 > z > 0.1. These fractions are higher for VINTERGATAN than IllustrisTNG, except for massive satellites (M* > 107M⊙) at z > 0.5. This difference is largely due to varying distributions of pericentric distance, orbital period and number of orbits, in turn determined by which sub(haloes) are populated with galaxies by the two models. The time between accretion and disruption also remains approximately constant over 2 > z > 0.3 at 6 − 8 Gyr. For surviving satellites at z = 0, both models recover the observed trend of M* > 107M⊙ satellites quenching more recently (<8 Gyr ago) and within 1.5 r200c of the host, while lower mass satellites quench earlier and often outside the host. Our results provide constraints on satellite accretion, quenching and disruption timescales, while highlighting the convergent trends from two very different galaxy formation models.

TOI-282 is a bright (V,=,9.38) F8 main-sequence star known to host three transiting long-period (P_b,=,22.9 d, P_c,=,56.0 d, and P_d,=,84.3 d) small (R_p,≈,2,-,4 R_⊕) planets. The orbital period ratio of the two outermost planets, namely TOI-282,c and d, is close to the 3:2 commensurability, suggesting that the planets might be trapped in a mean motion resonance. We combined space-borne photometry from the TESS telescope with high-precision HARPS and ESPRESSO Doppler measurements to refine orbital parameters, measure the planetary masses, and investigate the architecture and evolution of the system. We performed a Markov chain Monte Carlo joint analysis of the transit light curves and radial velocity time series, and carried out a dynamical analysis to model transit timing variations and Doppler measurements along with N-body integration. In agreement with previous results, we found that TOI-282,b, c, and d have radii of R_b=2.69 ± 0.23 R_⊕, R_c=4.13^ R_⊕, and R_d=3.11 ± 0.15 R_⊕, respectively. We measured planetary masses of M_b=6.2±1.6 M_⊕, M_c=9.2±2.0 M_⊕, and M_d=5.8^ M_⊕, which imply mean densities of ̊ho_b=1.8^ g cm ̊ho_c=0.7 ± 0.2 g cm and ̊ho_d=1.1^ g cm respectively. The three planets may be water worlds, making TOI-282 an interesting system for future atmospheric follow-up observations with JWST and ELT.

Abstract BEBOP-3 is detached eclipsing binary star that shows total eclipses of a faint M dwarf every 13.2 days by a 9th-magnitude F9 V star. High precision radial velocity measurements have recently shown that this binary star is orbited by a planet with an orbital period ≈550 days. The extensive spectroscopy used to detect this circumbinary planet has also been used to directly measure the masses of the stars in the eclipsing binary. We have used light curves from the TESS mission combined with these mass measurements to directly measure the following radii and surface gravities for the stars in this system: R1 = 1.386 ± 0.010 R⊙, log g1 = 4.190 ± 0.004, R2 = 0.274 ± 0.002 R⊙, log g2 = 4.979 ± 0.002. We describe an improved version of our method to measure the effective temperatures (Teff) of stars in binary systems directly from their angular diameters and bolometric fluxes. We measure Teff, 1 = 6065 K ± 44 K and Teff, 2 = 3191 K ± 40 K for the stars in BEBOP-3 using this method. BEBOP-3 can be added to our growing sample of stars that can be used test the accuracy of spectroscopic and photometric methods to estimate Teff and log g for solar-type stars.

PSR J1928+1815, the first recycled pulsar-helium (He) star binary discovered by the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope, consists of a 10.55 ms pulsar and a companion star with mass 1-1.6,M_ in a 0.15-day orbit. Theoretical studies suggest that this system originated from a neutron star (NS) intermediate-mass or high-mass X-ray binary that underwent common envelope (CE) evolution, leading to the successful ejection of the giant envelope. The traditional view is that hypercritical accretion during the CE phase may have recycled the NS. However, the specific mechanism responsible for accelerating its spin period remains uncertain due to the complex processes involved in CE evolution. In this study, we investigate the influence of Roche lobe overflow (RLO) accretion that takes place prior to the CE phase on the spin evolution of NSs. Our primary objective is to clarify how this process affects the spin characteristics of pulsars. We utilized the stellar evolution code MESA and the binary population synthesis code BSE to model the formation and evolution of NS-He star binaries. We calculated the distributions of the orbital period, He star mass, NS spin period, and magnetic field for NS + He star systems in the Galaxy. Our results indicate that RLO accretion preceding the CE phase could spin up NSs to millisecond periods through super-Eddington accretion. Considering a range of CE efficiencies α_̊m CE from 0.3 to 3, we estimate the birthrate (total number) of NS + He star systems in our Galaxy to be 9.0times 10^ yr^-1 (626 systems) to 1.9times 10^ yr^-1 (2684 systems).

Transit and radial velocity (RV) techniques are the dominant methods for exoplanet detection, while astrometric exoplanet detections have been very limited thus far. Gaia has the potential to radically change this picture, enabling astrometric detections of substellar companions at scale that would allow us to complement the picture of exoplanet architectures given by transit and RV methods. Our primary objective in this study is to enhance the current statistics of substellar companions, particularly within regions of the orbital period–mass parameter space that remain poorly constrained by RV and transit detection methods. Using supervised learning, we trained a deep neural network (DNN) to recognise the characteristic distribution of the fit quality statistics corresponding to a Gaia Data Release 3 (DR3) astrometric solution for a non-single star. We created a deep learning model, ExoDNN, which predicts the probability of a DR3 source to host unresolved companions. Applying the predictive capability of ExoDNN to a volume-limited sample (d 100pc) of F, G, K, and M stars from Gaia DR3, we have produced a list of 7414 candidate stars hosting companions. The stellar properties of these candidates, such as their mass and metallicity, are similar to those of the Gaia DR3 non-single-star sample. We also identified synergies with future observatories, such as PLATO, and we propose a follow-up strategy with the intention of investigating the most promising candidates among those samples.

The rapid expansion of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellations such as Starlink, OneWeb, and Iridium has created new opportunities for global connectivity while introducing major challenges in orbit prediction, traffic management, and resource allocation. Traditional orbit propagation models (e.g., SGP-4) and physics-informed approaches often fail to meet accuracy requirements due to atmospheric drag, space weather, and orbital heterogeneity. Although machine learning (ML) techniques show strong potential for improving prediction accuracy, their dependence on large, high-quality datasets limits their applicability to new constellations. This paper presents a similarity-based multi-source transfer learning (MSTL) framework that leverages orbital similarities across heterogeneous constellations to enable accurate orbital period prediction with minimal target data. Unlike conventional physics-informed feature engineering, which can degrade performance by up to 461%, our method employs a minimalist feature set (altitude, inclination, and eccentricity) directly extracted from Two-Line Element (TLE) data. Through similarity-driven source selection and filtered multi-source knowledge integration, the proposed framework reduces prediction error by 88.2% (RMSE = 0.045 min, R² = 0.9972) using only 25 labeled samples from the target constellation. The findings show that domain-aware similarity filtering outperforms complex feature engineering, challenging conventional assumptions about transfer learning in physics-based domains. This work offers a scalable, efficient, and practical solution for emerging LEO operators, enabling rapid model development without extensive data collection.

Compact binaries containing hot subdwarfs and white dwarfs have the potential to evolve into a variety of explosive transients. These systems could also explain hypervelocity runaway stars such as US 708. We use the detailed binary evolution code MESA to evolve hot subdwarf and white dwarf stars interacting in binaries. We explore their evolution toward double detonation supernovae, helium novae, or double white dwarfs. We present a grid of 3120 binary evolution models that map from initial conditions, such as the orbital period and masses of the hot subdwarf and white dwarf, to these outcomes. The minimum amount of helium required to ignite the helium shell that leads to a double detonation supernova in our grid is ≈ 0.05 M_⊙ likely too large to produce spectra similar to normal Type Ia supernovae, but compatible with inferred helium shell masses from some observed peculiar Type I supernovae. We also provide the helium shell masses for our double white dwarf systems, with a maximum He shell mass of ≈ 0.18 M_⊙ . In our double detonation systems, the orbital velocity of the surviving donor star ranges from ≈ 450 to ≈ 1000 . Among the surviving donors, we also estimate the runaway velocities of proto-white dwarfs, which have higher runaway velocities than hot subdwarf stars of the same mass. Our grid will provide a first-order estimate of the potential outcomes for the observation of binaries containing hot subdwarfs and white dwarfs from future missions like Gaia, LSST, and LISA.

Abstract I introduce a diagram that combines semimajor axis, eccentricity, and stellar properties to quantify the fraction of orbital period spent within habitable zone (HZ). The diagram identifies whether an orbit lies fully within, fully outside, or partly overlaps the HZ. The diagram reveals that exoplanets sometimes classified as outside the HZ actually spend more than half of their orbit within it. Climate modeling further suggests that planetary systems may retain habitable conditions even outside formal HZ boundaries. These cases should be considered when selecting targets for biosignature searches.

The majority of massive stars are born with a close binary companion. How this affects their evolution and fate is still largely uncertain, especially at low metallicity. We derive synthetic populations of massive post-interaction binary products and compare them with corresponding observed populations in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). We analyse 53298 detailed binary evolutionary models computed with MESA. Our models include the physics of rotation, mass and angular momentum transfer, magnetic internal angular momentum transport, and tidal spin-orbit coupling. They cover initial primary masses of $5--100 initial mass ratios of 0.3--0.95, and all initial periods for which interaction is expected, 1--3162 d. They are evolved through the first mass transfer and the donor star death, and a a possible ensuing Be X-ray binary phase, and they end when the mass gainer leaves the main sequence. In our fiducial synthetic population, 8% of the OB stars in the SMC are post-mass-transfer systems, and 7% are merger products. In many of our models, the mass gainers are spun up and expected to form Oe/Be stars. While our model underpredicts the number of Be X-ray binaries in the SMC, it reproduces the main features of their orbital period distribution and the observed number of SMC binary WR stars. We further expect ∼50 OB+BH binaries below and ∼170 above the 20,d orbital period. The long-period OB+BH binaries might produce merging double black holes. However, their progenitors, the predicted long-period WR+OB binaries, are not observed. While the comparison with the observed SMC stars supports many physics assumptions in our high-mass binary models, a better match for the large number of observed OBe stars and Be X-ray binaries likely requires a lower merger rate and/or a higher mass transfer efficiency during the first mass transfer. The fate of the initially wide O, star binaries remains particularly uncertain.

Double neutron star (DNS) systems are superb laboratories for testing theories of gravity and constraining the equation of state of ultra-dense matter. PSR J1946+2052 is a particularly intriguing DNS system due to its orbital period (1h 53m), as it is the shortest among all DNS systems known in our Galaxy. We aim to conduct high-precision timing of PSR J1946+2052 to determine the masses of the two neutron stars in the system, test general relativity (GR), and assess the system’s potential for future measurement of the moment of inertia of the pulsar. We analysed seven years of timing data from the Arecibo 305-m radio telescope, the Green Bank Telescope, and the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope. The data processing accounted for dispersion measure variations and relativistic spin precession-induced profile evolution. We employed both theory-independent (DDFWHE) and GR-dependent (DDGR) binary models to measure the spin parameters, kinematic parameters, and orbital parameters. The timing campaign resulted in the precise measurement of five post-Keplerian parameters, which yield very precise masses for the system (total mass M = 2.531858(60) , ̊m M_⊙, companion mass M_ ̊m c = 1.2480(21) , ̊m M_⊙, and pulsar mass M_ ̊m p = 1.2838(21) , ̊m M_⊙), and three tests of GR. One of these tests is the second-most precise test of the radiative properties of gravity to date. The intrinsic orbital decay, dot P ̊m b,int ̊m , s, s^ represents $1.00005(91)$ of the GR prediction, indicating that the theory has passed this stringent test. The other two tests of the Shapiro delay parameters have precisions of 6% and 5%, respectively. This is caused by the moderate orbital inclination of the system, ∼ 74^ ̧irc . The measurements of the Shapiro delay parameters also agree with the GR predictions. Additionally, we analysed the higher-order contributions of dotω, including the Lense-Thirring contribution. Both the second post-Newtonian and the Lense-Thirring contributions are larger than the current uncertainty of dotω (δ ̊m deg,yr^ ), leading to the higher-order correction for the total mass.

Massive star evolution plays a crucial role in astrophysics; however, its study is subject to large uncertainties. This problem becomes more severe by the majority of massive stars being born in close binary systems, whose evolution is affected by interactions among their components. We want to constrain major uncertainties in massive binary star evolution, particularly with respect to the efficiency and the stability of the first mass transfer phase. We used the rapid population synthesis code ̧ombine to generate synthetic populations of post-interaction binaries, assuming constant mass-transfer efficiency. We employed a new merger criterion that adjusts self-consistently to any prescribed mass-transfer efficiency. We tailored our synthetic populations to be comparable to the expected binary populations in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). We find that the observed populations of evolved massive binaries cannot be reproduced with a single mass-transfer efficiency. Instead, a rather high efficiency (simgr 50%) is needed to reproduce the number of Be stars and Be/X-ray (BeXB) binaries in the SMC, while a low efficiency (∼ 10%) leads to a better agreement with the observed number of Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars. We constructed a corresponding mass-dependent mass-transfer efficiency recipe to produce our fiducial synthetic SMC post-interaction binary population. It reproduces the observed number and properties of the BeXBs and WR binaries rather well; furthermore, it is not in stark disagreement with the observed OBe star population. It predicts around 170 massive stars with neutron star companion, of which 140 are Be stars, and about 170 systems disrupted by the supernova, of which 150 are Be stars. Overall, 20% of all post-interaction systems contain a helium star. It also predicts two large, as-yet-unobserved populations of OB+BH binaries: about 100 OB+BH systems with rather small orbital periods (simle 20 and around 40 longer period OBe+BH systems. Continued searches for massive binary systems will strongly advance our understanding of their evolution.

Abstract IU Leo was first identified as a cataclysmic variable star in 2006. Based on an image data and a distance value, we derived that the circumbinary envelope of IU Leo was $\sim$3,745\,AU on the optical band. According the multi-band photometric data, we calculated a $T_{eff}$ of a few hundred Kelvin for the circumbinary envelope of IU Leo. We reviewed the physical parameters of IU Leo and simulated the evolution process using a stellar evolution code MESA with $M_{1}$=0.982\,$M_{\bigodot}$, $M_{2}$=0.835\,$M_{\bigodot}$, and an orbital period of 0.376308\,days. The evolved other parameters are basically consistent with the parameters in the literatures. Based on the quiescence Kepler Mission 2.0 light curve, the quiescence Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite light curve, and 89 Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope medium resolution spectra, we derived an orbital period of 0.376307 $\pm$ 0.000004\,days, 0.3762 $\pm$ 0.0001\,days, and 0.3763\,days for IU Leo respectively. These orbital periods are basically consistent with the results of previous studies. According to light curve of IU Leo from American Association of Variable Star Observers, we reported three new outburst spectra from the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope low resolution catalogue with part Balmer emission lines overlap on their absorption lines. Many H, He, C, N, O, Na, Mg, Si, and Ca neutral and ionized lines are identified, which are produced by different mechanisms. In the future, we will conduct more comprehensive and in-depth research on CVs based on multi-band photometric and spectroscopic data.

Resolution-Scale Relativity suggests quantum-like dynamics may emerge in chaotic macroscopic systems. In planetary systems, this would lead to orbital periods being proportional to cubed integers n. Each system is then characterized by a fundamental speed corresponding to orbital [Formula: see text]. Fitting this model to data from the NASA Exoplanet Archive for 115 planetary systems with four or more planets leads to identifying 38 systems (33%) complying with an accuracy such that the null hypothesis accidental probability is less than [Formula: see text] and 16 (14%) with less than [Formula: see text]. Additionally, 34 systems (29%) follow a pattern of consecutive quantum-like integer numbers and 101 (88%) in which at least half of the quantum-like numbers are part of consecutive sequences. The distribution of fundamental speeds extends from [Formula: see text] [Formula: see text]km/s to more than 1,200[Formula: see text]km/s and can be described in terms of a few peaks centered on integer multiple of a super-fundamental speed [Formula: see text] [Formula: see text]km/s. These results along side with other observations in turbulent fluid dynamics amount to a shift to a higher gear in the search for macro-quantization effects.

We propose that galaxy structural changes -- and the rapid rise of a population of galaxies with early-type morphologies at cosmic noon ($1<z<3$) -- can be explained with EASE - early, accelerated, secular evolution. The mechanism relies on the torques exerted by stellar spirals in late-type galaxies that are present and active at z>1.5, as revealed by JWST/NIRCam. The process is both secular --because the transformative structural changes (heating, compaction, and bulge formation) occur over many (≈10-30) orbital periods -- and accelerated, because orbital times were significantly shorter than at the present day. In a first application, we took galaxy effective radius as a proxy for galaxy structure, and using new measurements of the abundance and properties of stellar spirals observed in a collection of JWST deep fields, we show that EASE predicts a distribution of early-type sizes that is smaller than late-type galaxies and consistent with that observed. The success of EASE relies on an updated picture of the influence of spiral arms, in which transience plays a key role. We present a new calculation of the characteristic wave equation in the fluid approximation that applies to steady and nonsteady open spirals beyond the more traditional tight-winding limit. This shows open, transient spirals above the Jeans length growing and decaying on the order of a dynamical time in a wider region around and inside corotation than canonical steady spirals. We show that this transient activity spreads out angular momentum gains and losses, as well as the associated dynamical heating, giving spirals a more extended influence than a single steady spiral. The ubiquity of spirals in star-forming galaxies with stellar masses M_⋆>10^ M_⊙ across the entire redshift range where early-type galaxies appear in large numbers suggests that EASE can play an important, or even dominant, role in morphological transformations across cosmic time.

Giant stars have been shown to be rich hunting grounds for those aiming to detect giant planets orbiting beyond ∼0.5 AU. Here we present two planetary systems around bright giant stars, found by combining the radial-velocity (RV) measurements from the EXPRESS and PPPS projects, and using a Bayesian framework. HIP18606 is a naked-eye (V=5.8 mags) K0III star, and is found to host a planet with an orbital period of ∼675 days, and to have a minimum mass ( of 0.8 and a circular orbit. HIP111909 is a bright (V=7.4 mags) K1III star, and hosts two giant planets on circular orbits with minimum masses of and and orbital periods of ∼490 d and ∼890 d, for planets b and c, respectively, strikingly close to the 5:3 orbital period ratio. An analysis of the 11 known giant star planetary systems arrive at broadly similar parameters to those published, whilst adding two new worlds orbiting these stars. With these new discoveries, we have found a total of 13 planetary systems (including three multiple systems) within the 37 giant stars that comprise the EXPRESS and PPPS common sample. Periodogram analyses of stellar activity indicators present possible peaks at frequencies close to the proposed Doppler signals in at least two planetary systems, HIP24275 and HIP90988, calling for more long-term activity studies of giant stars. Even disregarding these possible false positives, extrapolation leads to a fraction of 25­-30% of low-luminosity giant stars hosting planets. We find that the mass function exponentially rises towards the lowest planetary masses; however, there exists a ∼93% probability that a second population of giant planets with minimum masses in the range 4--5 is present, worlds that could have formed by the gravitational collapse of fragmenting protoplanetary disks. Finally, our noise modelling reveals a lack of statistical evidence for the presence of correlated noise at these RV precision levels, meaning white noise models are favoured for such datasets. However, different eccentricity priors can lead to significantly different results, advocating for model grid analyses such as those applied here to be regularly performed. By using our Bayesian analysis technique to better sample the posteriors, we are helping to extend the planetary mass parameter space to below 1 M_J, building the first vanguard of a new population of super-Saturns orbiting giant stars.