arXiv subjects

Maxime Wavasseur

Publications and source records attributed to Maxime Wavasseur.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

A Faint Progenitor System for the Faint Supernova 2024vjm

Type Ia Supernovae (SNe Ia) are well known for their role as standardizable cosmological candles. Their uniformity is credited to their single origin as thermonuclear explosions of White dwarf (WD) stars. Nevertheless, some SNe Ia break this regularity. Prominently, the Iax subclass are less energetic and remarkably diverse, raising questions about their progenitor systems. While no progenitor system of a normal SN Ia has ever been detected, a luminous blue star was identified in pre-explosion images of the site of the bright SN Iax SN 2012Z, suggested to be a helium giant companion star acting as a mass donor to a WD SN progenitor. This is in line with models of weak mass accretion of a WD from a binary companion, producing an explosion that does not fully disrupt the star. However, these models fail to explain the properties of the faintest Type Iax explosions, suggesting either they originate from other WD binary systems, or even from massive progenitor stars. Here, we present the faint SN Iax SN 2024vjm - possibly the faintest supernova observed to date. Using a deep pre-explosion image taken by the recently launched Euclid space mission, we show that its progenitor system must be fainter than the helium giant SN Iax progenitor candidate of SN 2012Z, as well as that of the luminous red companion or remnant of the faint SN 2008ha, and may require a subdwarf helium star as a mass donor. The deep image also provides strong arguments against a massive star origin for this faint supernova. Our observations argue that SN 2024vjm is a WD explosion, but we find that remarkably faint SNe Iax fade more slowly than bright ones, i.e., they evolve in an opposite manner from the famous Phillips relation that makes regular SNe Ia cosmological candles.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2026

Radiating solutions in Entangled Relativity

The Mineur--Vaidya radiating solutions satisfy $\mathcal{L}_m ~\propto~ F^2 = 0 = R$. As a consequence, it is not only a solution in General Relativity, but also in Einstein--Maxwell--dilaton theories for all coupling constants. The specific case of Entangled Relativity is noteworthy because the additional scalar degree of freedom is defined from the ratio between $R$ and $\mathcal{L}_m$, which is ill-defined in this situation. In the present work, we embed the Mineur--Vaidya solution in a magnetic (or electric) field within the framework of Entangled Relativity, and show that the Mineur--Vaidya solution corresponds to the limit where the magnetic (respectively, electric) field vanishes. This notably allows us to demonstrate that, as in General Relativity, it is possible to dynamically form naked singularities in Entangled Relativity. This conclusion, in fact, applies to any Einstein--Maxwell--dilaton theory, although it does not seem to be widely acknowledged in the literature.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2025

A catalog to unite them all: REGALADE, a revised galaxy compilation for the advanced detector era

Many applications in transient science, gravitational wave follow-up, and galaxy population studies require all-sky galaxy catalogs with reliable distances, extents, and stellar masses. However, existing catalogs often lack completeness beyond $\sim 100$ Mpc, suffer from stellar contamination, or do not provide homogeneous stellar mass estimates and size information. Our goal is to build a high-purity, high-completeness, all-sky galaxy catalog out to 2,000 Mpc, specifically designed to support time-domain and multi-messenger astrophysics. We combined major galaxy catalogs and deep imaging surveys -- including the Legacy Surveys, Pan-STARRS, DELVE, and SDSS -- and added spectroscopic, photometric, and redshift-independent distances. We cleaned the sample using the Gaia catalog to remove stars and visually inspected all ambiguous cases below 100 Mpc through a classification platform that gathered 27,000 expert votes. Stellar masses were estimated using optical and mid-infrared profile-fit photometry, and we improved the accuracy of photometric distances by combining multiple independent estimates. The resulting catalog, REGALADE, includes nearly 80 million galaxies with distances under 2,000 Mpc. It provides stellar masses for 88% of the sample and ellipse fits for 80%. REGALADE is more than 90% complete for galaxies contributing 50% of the total $r$-band luminosity out to 360 Mpc. In science tests, it recovers 60% more known supernova hosts, doubles the number of low-luminosity transient hosts, and identifies more reliable hosts for ultraluminous and hyper-luminous X-ray sources. REGALADE is one of the most complete and reliable all-sky galaxy catalog to date for the nearby Universe, built for real-world applications in transient and multi-messenger astrophysics. The full dataset, visual classifications, and code will be released to support broad community use.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2025

Deriving Entangled Relativity

Entangled Relativity is a non-linear reformulation of Einstein's theory that cannot be defined in the absence of matter fields. It recovers General Relativity without a cosmological constant in the weak matter density limit or whenever $\Lm = T$ on-shell, and it is also more parsimonious in terms of fundamental constants and units. In this paper, we show that Entangled Relativity can be derived from a general $f(R,\Lm)$ theory by imposing a single requirement: the theory must admit all solutions of General Relativity without a cosmological constant whenever $\Lm = T \neq 0$ on-shell, though not necessarily only those solutions. An important consequence is that all vacuum solutions of General Relativity without a cosmological constant are limits of solutions of Entangled Relativity when the matter fields tend to zero. In addition, we introduce a broader class of theories featuring an \textit{intrinsic decoupling}, which, however, do not generally admit the solutions of General Relativity.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2025

Hot springs and dust reservoirs: JWST reveals the dusty, molecular aftermath of extragalactic stellar mergers

We present James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) observations of four Luminous Red Novae (LRNe): dusty, extragalactic transients from stellar mergers following common-envelope evolution (CEE) in massive binary stars. Our targets - AT2021blu, AT2021biy, AT2018bwo, and M31-LRN-2015 - span a broad range in progenitor primary masses ($\approx$3-24M$_{\odot}$) and post-merger ages ($\approx$1100-3700 days). All four were observed with the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) from 5-25$μ$m; AT2021blu and AT2021biy additionally have 5-12$μ$m spectra from the Low-Resolution Spectrometer. These spectra show strong features of oxygen-rich molecules, including water vapor, supporting the recent association of water fountain sources with CEE. Radiative transfer modeling of the spectral energy distributions yields dust masses of $\approx$4.2$\times10^{-5}$, 3$\times10^{-4}$, 7.5$\times10^{-5}$, and 7.7$\times10^{-4}$M$_{\odot}$ respectively - corresponding to $\approx10$%, 60%, 6% and 12% of median dust masses in core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe) at similar phases. Accounting for their occurrence rates, we estimate that LRNe can contribute $\sim$25% as much dust as CCSNe to the cosmic dust budget. Furthermore, the lower expansion velocities of LRNe may reduce dust destruction by reverse shocks compared to CCSNe, potentially increasing this contribution. In addition to dust masses, we use our \emph{JWST} observations to measure late-time properties such as the luminosities, temperatures, radii, and dust-to-gas ratios of the merger remnants. Our results highlight the need for broader infrared studies of LRNe to quantify their contribution to the cosmic dust budget, study the evolution of oxygen-rich molecules, and probe the final fates of CEE.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2025

Compact objects with scalar charge embedded in a magnetic or electric field in Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton theories

In this paper, we generalize the Schwarzschild-Melvin solution within Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton theories to include non-null scalar charges, while remaining embedded in a magnetic or electric field \textit{à la Melvin}. We then use this general solution to obtain the solution in the specific case of Entangled Relativity after a conformal transformation. This notably enables us to verify that the analytical solution used in [Arruga \& Minazzoli 2021] in order to represent compact objects such as neutron stars in Entangled Relativity is indeed a good approximation of the exact solutions of Entangled Relativity when the background field goes to zero.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2025

Schwarzschild black-hole immersed in an electric or magnetic background in Entangled Relativity

In this paper, we present the solution for a Schwarzschild black-hole immersed in an electric or magnetic background field à la Melvin within the framework of Entangled Relativity. Previous solutions in Entangled Relativity required black-holes to be charged for the matter field to be defined everywhere. This is because the theory precludes the existence of vacuum solutions, thereby satisfying Einstein's definition of Mach's Principle. The current black-hole solutions represent the first exact and neutral black-hole solutions of Entangled Relativity discovered to date. The Schwarzschild black-hole of General Relativity emerges as a limit of these solutions when the background field approaches zero, whereas the Melvin solution of General Relativity does not emerge as a limit when the black hole's size approaches zero. This finding suggests that astrophysical black-holes in Entangled Relativity are indistinguishable from those in General Relativity, given the generally weak interstellar density of matter fields.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2025

Slowly rotating and charged Black-holes in Entangled Relativity

Entangled Relativity is a non-linear reformulation of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity (General Relativity) that offers a more parsimonious formulation. This non-linear approach notably requires the simultaneous definition of matter fields, thus aligning more closely with Einstein's \textit{principle of relativity of inertia} than General Relativity does. Solutions for spherically charged black holes have already been identified. After exploring further some of the properties of these solutions, we present new solutions for the field equations pertaining to slowly rotating charged black holes.

gr-qc↗