Dipoles for everyone: the pseudo-$C_\ell$ approach to directional stacking

(2026)

Authors:

Lea Harscouet, Amy Wayland, David Alonso

Jets from a stellar-mass black hole are as relativistic as those from supermassive black holes

Nature Communications Springer Nature (2026)

Authors:

X Zhang, W Yu, F Carotenuto, R Fender, S Motta, A Bahramian, JCA Miller-Jones, TD Russell, S Corbel, PA Woudt, P Atri, C Knigge, GR Sivakoff, AK Hughes, J van den Eijnden, JH Matthews, MC Baglio, P Saikia

Abstract:

Relativistic jets from supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei are amongst the most powerful phenomena in the universe. Similar jets from stellar-mass black holes offer a chance to study the phenomena on accessible observation time scales. However, such comparative studies across black hole masses and time scales remain hampered by the long-standing perception that stellar-mass black hole jets are in a less relativistic regime. Here, we show the detection of two distinct, relativistic jet ejections from the Galactic black hole X-ray binary 4U 1543−47 during a single outburst, with radio interferometry monitoring observations. Our measurements reveal a likely Lorentz factor of approximately 8 and a minimum of 4.6 at launch with 95% confidence, demonstrating that stellar-mass black holes in X-ray binaries can launch jets as relativistic as those seen in active galactic nuclei.

The Homogeneous MeerKAT and Swift/XRT X-ray Binary Radio:X-ray Plane

(2026)

Authors:

Justine Crook-Mansour, Rob Fender, Andrew Hughes, Sara Motta, Patrick A Woudt, Arash Bahramian, Melania Del Santo, Zuobin Zhang, Thomas D Russell, Jakob van den Eijnden, Joe Bright, David Williams-Baldwin, Francesco Carotenuto, Stéphane Corbel, Fraser J Cowie, Alex Andersson, Noa Grollimund, James Matthews, Kelebogile Gasealahwe, Itumeleng Monaleng, Lauren Rhodes, Payaswini Saikia, Katie Savard, Evangelia Tremou, Xian Zhang

SN 2019vxm: A Shocking Coincidence between Fermi and TESS

The Astrophysical Journal American Astronomical Society 1003:1 (2026) 19

Authors:

Zachary G Lane, Ryan Ridden-Harper, Sofia Rest, Armin Rest, Conor L Ransome, Qinan Wang, Clarinda Montilla, Micaela Steed, Igor Andreoni, Patrick Armstrong, Peter J Brown, Jeffrey Cooke, David A Coulter, Ori Fox, James Freeburn, Marco Galoppo, Avishay Gal-Yam, Jared A Goldberg, Christopher Harvey-Hawes, Daichi Hiramatsu, Rebekah Hounsell, D Andrew Howell, Brayden Leicester, Klára Lelkes, Itai Linial, Stephen J Smartt, Ken W Smith

Abstract:

Shock breakout and, in some cases, jet-driven high-energy emission are increasingly recognized as key signatures of the earliest phases of core-collapse supernovae, especially in Type IIn systems due to their dense, interaction-dominated circumstellar environments. We present a comprehensive photometric analysis of SN 2019vxm, a long-duration, luminous Type IIn supernova, MV=−21.41±0.05mag , observed from X-ray to near-infrared. SN 2019vxm is the first superluminous supernovae Type IIn to be caught with well-sampled TESS photometric data on the rise and has a convincing coincident X-ray source at the time of first light. The high-cadence TESS light curve captures the early-time rise, which is well described by a broken power law with an index of n = 1.41 ± 0.04, significantly shallower than the canonical n = 2 behavior. From this, we constrain the time of first light to within 7.2 hr. We identify a spatial and temporal coincidence between SN 2019vxm and the hard X-ray/gamma-ray transient GRB 191117A, corresponding to a 3.3σ association confidence. Both the short-duration X-ray event and the lightcurve modeling are consistent with shock breakout into a dense, asymmetric circumstellar medium, indicative of a massive, compact progenitor such as a luminous blue variable transitioning to Wolf–Rayet phase embedded in a clumpy, asymmetric environment.

The Eye of Sauron in SN 2025ngs: a Short-plateau Cousin of SN 1998S with Evidence for a Ring-like Circumstellar Medium

ArXiv 2605.0538 (2026)

Authors:

Conor L Ransome, David J Sand, K Azalee Bostroem, Aravind P Ravi, Bhagya M Subrayan, Jennifer E Andrews, Zachary G Lane, Yize Dong, Anya Nugent, Stefano Valenti, Jeniveve Pearson, Manisha Shrestha, Samaporn Tinyanont, Brian Hsu, Moira Andrews, Dominik Banhidi, Imre Barna Biro, Collin Christy, Istvan Csanyi, Joseph Farah, Noah Franz, Emily T Hoang, Griffin Hosseinzadeh, D Andrew Howell, Daryl Janzen, Saurabh W Jha, Lindsey A Kwok, Chang Liu, Michael Lundquist, Aidan Martas, Curtis McCully, Darshana Mehta, Nicolas E Meza Retamal, Nathan Smith, Tamas Szalai, Sergiy Vasylyev, V Ashley Villar, Kathryn Wynn