Description
An annual survey of the astro-ph.SR arXiv category, covering research published from September 2025 – August 2026. Built on a close-reading set of 132 papers and organised into 37 chapters, it maps the year by the field's research sub-directions.
Book framework (share of the year's output):
- High-Resolution Observations of Protoplanetary Disks (16.1%) — Focuses on characterizing the structure, chemistry, and dust properties of protoplanetary disks using high-resolution spectroscopy and ALMA/JWST data.
- Solar Wind, Flares, and Dynamo Dynamics (15.9%) — Investigates solar magnetic activity, flare mechanisms, wind acceleration, and dynamo processes through multi-wavelength observations and theoretical modeling.
- Stellar Evolution and Young Stellar Objects (9.5%) — Examines the evolutionary tracks, kinematics, and activity indicators of young and pre-main-sequence stars, often linking them to disk dynamics.
- Star Formation and Neutron Star Physics (8.5%) — Covers the processes of massive star formation in clusters and the equation of state constraints for neutron stars derived from multi-messenger data.
- Supernova Classification and Progenitor Studies (8.5%) — Analyzes the spectral evolution, progenitor systems, and nucleosynthetic yields of various supernova types, including Type Ia and core-collapse events.
- Binary Systems and Black Hole Interactions (8.3%) — Studies the dynamics, mass transfer, and evolutionary outcomes of binary systems, including eclipsing binaries and interactions with black holes.
- Magnetic Fields and Reconnection Processes (7.0%) — Explores the generation, structure, and reconnection of magnetic fields in stellar coronae and photospheres, linking them to heating and instability.
- Coronal Mass Ejections and Mass Transfer (6.9%) — Investigates the mechanisms of coronal mass ejections, stellar winds, and mass transfer processes in binary and single star systems.
- White Dwarfs and Brown Dwarf Characterization (6.8%) — Focuses on the atmospheric properties, magnetic fields, and binary interactions of white dwarfs and brown dwarfs, including exoplanet host stars.
- Open and Globular Cluster Dynamics (6.5%) — Utilizes Gaia and other survey data to determine ages, distances, and dynamical histories of open and globular clusters.
- Massive Stars and Stellar Interiors (6.1%) — Examines the structure, rotation, and nucleosynthesis of massive stars, including neutrino emission and internal mixing processes.
Each sub-direction is covered across three chapters — how it framed its questions, the strength of its key findings, and its open debates and frontiers — so the reader gets a traceable picture of what this part of the field actually produced over the year.