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1. AT2025ulz and S250818k: Deep X-Ray and Radio Limits on Off-axis Afterglow Emission and Prospects for Future Discovery

   https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ae16a6  

   O’Connor, Brendan; Ricci, Roberto; Troja, Eleonora; Palmese, Antonella; Yang, Yu-Han; Ryan, Geoffrey; van_Eerten, Hendrik; Yadav, Muskan; Hall, Xander J; Amsellem, Ariel; et al (December 2025, The Astrophysical Journal Letters)

   Abstract The first joint electromagentic (EM) and gravitational-wave (GW) detection, known as GW170817, marked a critical juncture in our collective understanding of compact object mergers. However, it has now been 8 yr since this discovery, and the search for a second EM-GW detection has yielded no robust discoveries. Recently, on 2025 August 18, the LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA Collaboration reported a low-significance (high-false-alarm rate) binary neutron star merger candidate S250818k. Rapid optical follow-up revealed a single optical candidate AT2025ulz (z= 0.08484) that initially appeared consistent with kilonova emission. We quickly initiated a set of observations with Swift, XMM-Newton, Chandra, and the Very Large Array to search for nonthermal afterglow emission. Our deep X-ray and radio search rules out that the optical rebrightening of AT2025ulz is related to the afterglow onset, reinforcing its classification as a stripped-envelope supernova (SN 2025ulz). We derive constraints on the afterglow parameters for a hypothetical binary neutron star merger at the distance of AT2025ulz (≈400 Mpc) based on our X-ray and radio limits. We conclude that our observational campaign could exclude a GW170817-like afterglow out to viewing angles ofθ_v≈ 12 $\stackrel{\text{°}}{.}$ 5. We briefly discuss the prospects for the future discovery of off-axis afterglows. 

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2. Probing the Environment around GW170817 with DESI: Insights on Galaxy Group Peculiar Velocities for Standard Siren Measurements

   https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ae4b37  

   Amsellem, A J; Palmese, A; Douglass, K; Howlett, C; Karp, J_S M; Magaña_Hernandez, I; Moustakas, J; Wechsler, R H; Aguilar, J; Ahlen, S; et al (April 2026, The Astrophysical Journal)

   Abstract We present a new measurement of the Hubble constant,H₀, following the gravitational-wave event GW170817 and Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) observations. A standard siren measurement with a nearby (luminosity distance ∼40 Mpc) event such as GW170817 is typically sensitive to the peculiar motion of the host galaxy owing to local dynamics. Previous measurements from this event have taken advantage of peculiar velocity measurements of nearby galaxies, including a handful of objects in the galaxy group that the host of the event, NGC 4993, has been associated with. Still, the group’s properties and NGC 4993’s membership were debated. We present DESI observations of thousands of galaxies in the vicinity of NGC 4993, resulting in 39 group galaxies and a fivefold increase in galaxies compared to previous observations, with many contributing to a peculiar velocity measurement. Examining the local dynamics, our observations support the presence of a galaxy group of which NGC 4993 is a part with a halo mass of order ∼10¹³M_⊙. Using peculiar velocity measurements from our fundamental plane galaxy observations, we find $H_0=70.9_{-8.5}^{+6.4}$  km s⁻¹ Mpc⁻¹. In addition, using a peculiar velocity measurement for NGC 4993 from surface brightness fluctuations in Cosmicflows-4, we find $H_0=73.4_{-3.9}^{+3.3}$  km s⁻¹ Mpc⁻¹. We study the impact of different galaxy selection criteria on the determination of the peculiar velocity and, in turn, on theH₀measurement. Our results demonstrate the value of multiplexed spectroscopic observations for probing the local environments of gravitational-wave events used in standard siren measurements. 

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3. On the Association of GW190425 with Its Potential Electromagnetic Counterpart FRB 20190425A

   https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ad5b4c  

   Magaña_Hernandez, Ignacio; d’Emilio, Virginia; Morisaki, Soichiro; Bhardwaj, Mohit; Palmese, Antonella (July 2024, The Astrophysical Journal Letters)

   Abstract Recent work by Moroianu et al. has suggested that the binary neutron star (BNS) merger GW190425 might have a potential fast radio burst (FRB) counterpart association, FRB20190425A, at the 2.8σlevel of confidence with a likely host galaxy association, namely UGC10667. The authors argue that the observations are consistent with a long-lived hypermassive neutron star (HMNS) that formed promptly after the BNS merger and was stable for approximately 2.5 hr before promptly collapsing into a black hole. Recently, Bhardwaj et al. conclusively associated FRB20190425A with UGC10667, potentially providing a direct host galaxy candidate for GW190425. In this work, we examine the multimessenger association based on the spacetime localization overlaps between GW190425 and the FRB host galaxy UGC10667 and find that the odds for a coincident association are $\mathcal{O}\left(5\right)$ . We validate this estimate by using a Gaussian process density estimator. Assuming that the association is indeed real, we then perform Bayesian parameter estimation on GW190425 assuming that the BNS event took place in UGC10667. We find that the viewing angle of GW190425 excludes an on-axis system atp(θ_v> 30°) ≈ 99.99%, highly favoring an off-axis system similar to GRB 170817A. We also find a slightly higher source frame total mass for the binary, namely, $m_{\mathrm{total}}={3.42}_{-0.11}^{+0.34}{M}_{\odot }$ , leading to an increase in the probability of prompt collapse into a black hole and therefore disfavors the long-lived HMNS formation scenario. Given our findings, we conclude that the association between GW190425 and FRB20190425A is disfavoured by current state-of-the-art gravitational-wave analyses. 

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4. A Population of Short-duration Gamma-Ray Bursts with Dwarf Host Galaxies

   https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad17c0  

   Nugent, Anya E; Fong, Wen-fai; Castrejon, Cristian; Leja, Joel; Zevin, Michael; Ji, Alexander P (February 2024, The Astrophysical Journal)

   Abstract We present a population of 11 of the faintest (>25.5 AB mag) short gamma-ray burst (GRB) host galaxies. We model their sparse available observations using the stellar population inference codeProspector-βand develop a novel implementation to incorporate the galaxy mass–radius relation. Assuming these hosts are randomly drawn from the galaxy population and conditioning this draw on their observed flux and size in a few photometric bands, we determine that these hosts have dwarf galaxy stellar masses of $7.0\lesssim \log \left(M_{*}/M_{\odot }\right)\lesssim 9.1$ . This is striking as only 14% of short GRB hosts with previous inferred stellar masses hadM_*≲ 10⁹M_⊙. We further show these short GRBs have smaller physical and host-normalized offsets than the rest of the population, suggesting that the majority of their neutron star (NS) merger progenitors were retained within their hosts. The presumably shallow potentials of these hosts translate to small escape velocities of ∼5.5–80 km s⁻¹, indicative of either low postsupernova systemic velocities or short inspiral times. While short GRBs with identified dwarf host galaxies now comprise ≈14% of the total Swift-detected population, a number are likely missing in the current population, as larger systemic velocities (observed from the Galactic NS population) would result in highly offset short GRBs and less secure host associations. However, the revelation of a population of short GRBs retained in low-mass host galaxies offers a natural explanation for the observedr-process enrichment via NS mergers in Local Group dwarf galaxies, and has implications for gravitational-wave follow-up strategies. 

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5. A Rare Eddington-limited, Heavily Obscured Low-mass Active Galactic Nucleus Likely Triggered by a Galaxy Merger

   https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ae6779  

   Wang, Shouyi; Zou, Fan; Chen, Chang-Hao; Brandt, W N; Gallo, Elena; Luo, Bin; Wu, Xue-Bing; Fu, Yuming; Nguyen, Dieu D; Sun, Shengxiu (May 2026, The Astrophysical Journal)

   Abstract We report a detailed analysis of GAMA 376183, a powerful, heavily obscured active galactic nucleus (AGN) hosted by a low-mass galaxy (M_⋆ ≈ 10¹⁰M_⊙) likely experiencing a galaxy merger. The source was initially identified due to its remarkably strong [Nev]λ3426 emission, exhibiting a rest-frame equivalent width of ≈48 Å. We present ∼100 ks Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (or NuSTAR) follow-up observations, confirming its heavily obscured nature with a column density (in cm⁻²) of $\log N_{\mathrm{H}}=23.3_{-1.2}^{+0.4}$ and an intrinsic 2–10 keV luminosity (in erg s⁻¹) of $\log L_{\mathrm{X},\mathrm{int}}=42.92_{-0.20}^{+0.24}$ . GAMA 376183 thus represents one of the few known heavily obscured AGNs in low-mass galaxies. Its estimated Eddington ratio isλ_Edd ≈ 0.8, indicative of rapid black hole growth. High-resolution optical images reveal a disturbed, likely merging morphology, while its multiwavelength spectral energy distribution indicates a recent starburst in its host galaxy. These pieces of evidence suggest that the ongoing merger has triggered both the heavily obscured, Eddington-limited accretion and the starburst, making GAMA 376183 a rare observed case in low-mass galaxies. Overall, this unique source demonstrates that (i) [Nev] can help identify heavily obscured low-mass AGNs, and (ii) the merger-driven coevolution framework established for massive galaxies may also extend to low-mass galaxies. 

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