arXiv subjects

Rommulus Francis Lewis

Publications and source records attributed to Rommulus Francis Lewis.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

The Research Impact of the Jodrell Bank Observatory and Other Facilities affected by the UK Science Funding Cuts in 2025

The United Kingdom Research and Innovation body and the Science and Technology Facilities Council recently announced funding cuts to facilities at the Jodrell Bank Observatory, specifically the e-MERLIN network of radio telescopes as well as a few other facilities across the world like the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. These funding cuts have been extremely disturbing to the Astronomical community, as is evident from widespread news coverage about these cuts. Here we present a short analysis of the research impact e-MERLIN and the other affected facilities had in 2025 from a dataset consisting of every Astrophysics paper submitted to the arXiv during the year. This serves to help members of the community and all stakeholders make better sense of the research output of the facilities that are not being prioritised under the new budget.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2026

The Subversive Role of Excessive External Shear in Concealing Lensing Anomalies

To best reproduce observed multiply-lensed lensed images, lens models usually incorporate shear attributed to objects unrelated to the lensing galaxy (i.e., external shear): whether it be neighbouring galaxies not explicitly included in the lens model or other cosmic structures along the sightline. When constrained solely by the positions of image counterparts, such lens models, even those utilising simple ellipsoidal mass distributions, can satisfactorily -- if not near perfectly -- reproduce the observed image positions, but often leave significant differences in flux ratios between the predicted and observed images. For the narrow-line regions (NLRs) of quasars, which are too large to be affected by micro-lensing from stars in the lensing galaxy, the flux ratio anomalies thus left are commonly attributed to small-scale structures (sub-structures) in Dark Matter associated with the lensing galaxy. Here, we show that external shear can always resolve, among the quadruply-lensed quasar NLRs studied, position anomalies in lens models constrained solely by the observed image positions, and in addition reduce although not fully resolving flux ratio anomalies when constrained by both the observed image positions and flux ratios -- provided, usually, that the external shear incorporated have strengths that far exceed (as is the common practise) those typically inferred from weak lensing along general sightlines (i.e., cosmic shear). Our work highlights the subversive role of excessive external shear in concealing lensing anomalies, undermining inferences on the characteristics of Dark Matter sub-structures -- and, correspondingly, the nature (mass and temperature) of the Dark Matter particle -- when not sensibly incorporated into lens models.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2026

Astrophysics Wrapped 2025: Year-in-Review of Every Astrophysics arXiv Paper from 2025

Astrophysics has experienced an overwhelming increase in research output, as is evident from the year-over-year increase in the number of research papers submitted to the online repository arXiv. As a result, keeping up with progress happening outside our respective sub-fields can be exhausting. While it is impossible to be informed on every single aspect of every sub-field, this paper aims to be the next best thing. We present a summary of statistics for every paper uploaded onto the Astrophysics arXiv over the past year - 2025. We analyse a host of metrics like the most used keywords, subfields and telescopes, the distribution of journals, the most studied astrophysical objects like GW, GRB, FRB events, exoplanets and much more. We also indexed the authors' affiliations to put into context the global distribution of research and collaboration. Combining this data with the citation information of each paper allows us to understand how influential different papers have been on the progress of the field this year. We also present a first of its kind Astrophysical Spectral Fingerprint showing the distribution of research across the electromagnetic spectrum as well as the distribution of research by redshift. Overall, these statistics highlight the general current state of the field, the hot topics people are working on and the different research communities across the globe and how they function. We hope that this is helpful for both students and professionals alike to adapt their current trajectories to better benefit the field.

astro-ph.IM↗