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Universe

  • Congratulations to Prof. Roger Penrose, Advisory Board member of Universe, for receiving the Nobel Prize in Physics 2020.
Universe is a peer-reviewed, open access journal focused on theoretical, experimental, and observational progress in fundamental and applied physics, from circumterrestrial space to cosmological scenarios, and is published monthly online by MDPI.

Quartile Ranking JCR - Q2 (Astronomy and Astrophysics)

All Articles (3,333)

Measuring supermassive black hole (SMBH) masses is fundamental to understanding active galactic nuclei (AGN) and their coevolution with host galaxies. Among existing techniques, H2O megamaser observations with Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) provide the most direct and geometric determinations of SMBH masses by tracing molecular gas in sub-parsec Keplerian disks. Over the past two decades, the Megamaser Cosmology Project (MCP) has surveyed thousands of nearby AGNs and obtained high-sensitivity VLBI maps of dozens of maser disks that lead to accurate SMBH masses with uncertainties typically below 10%. In this paper, we present a comprehensive review that summarizes the essential elements required to obtain accurate black hole masses with the H2O megamaser technique—including the physical conditions for maser excitation, observational requirements, disk modeling, and sources of SMBH mass uncertainty—and we discuss the implications of maser-based measurements for exploring SMBH demographics. In particular, we will show that maser-derived black hole masses, largely free from the systematic biases of stellar or gas-dynamical methods, provide critical anchors at the low-mass end of the SMBH population (MBH∼107M), and reveal possible deviations from the canonical MBHσ relation. With forthcoming spectroscopic surveys and advances in millimeter/submillimeter VLBI, the maser technique promises to extend precise dynamical mass measurements to both larger local samples and high-redshift galaxies.

12 December 2025

A schematic illustration of a maser disk within the standard AGN paradigm, highlighting its location relative to the torus, broad-line region (BLR), narrow-line region (NLR), and the central black hole. Past X-ray observations suggest that a maser disk may be the inner extension of an AGN torus [29]. The inner boundary of a maser disk is typically consistent with the dust sublimation radius and has a radius of ∼1 × 105 RS [30], where RS indicates the Schwarzschild radius of the center black hole.

Toward Precision Physics Tests with Future COHERENT Detectors

  • Mattia Atzori Corona,
  • Matteo Cadeddu and
  • Nicola Cargioli
  • + 3 authors

We present a comprehensive sensitivity study of future CEνNS detectors, focusing on a cryogenic cesium iodide detector and a tonne-scale liquid argon one, currently being developed by the COHERENT Collaboration. These setups will enable precision measurements of the weak mixing angle at low energies and allow accurate extraction of the neutron nuclear distribution radius. We also demonstrate that next-generation detectors will place constraints on the neutrino charge radius comparable to or better than current global fits. In addition, we explore the sensitivity to non-standard neutrino electromagnetic properties, such as magnetic moments and millicharges, as well as new mediators. These findings reinforce the role of CEνNS experiments in the upcoming precision era, with future detectors playing a key role in advancing our understanding of neutrino interactions and electroweak physics at low energies.

16 December 2025

This review examines the role of differential forms, Pfaffian systems, and hypersurfaces in general relativity. These mathematical constructions provide the essential tools for general relativity, in which the curvature of spacetime—described by the Einstein field equations—is most elegantly formulated using the Cartan calculus of differential forms. Another important subject in this discussion is the notion of conformal geometry, where the relevant invariants of a metric are characterized by Élie Cartan’s normal conformal connection. The previous analysis is then used to develop the null surface formulation (NSF) of general relativity, a radical framework that postulates the structure of light cones rather than the metric itself as the fundamental gravitational variable. Defined by a central Pfaffian system, this formulation allows the entire spacetime geometry to be reconstructed from a single scalar function, Z, whose level surfaces are null.

11 December 2025

We study basis-independent structures in the Type-I seesaw mechanism for light Majorana neutrinos, assuming the canonical scenario with three heavy right-handed (sterile) neutrinos. Let mν denote the 3×3 mass matrix of light neutrinos, obtained at tree level from heavy Majorana singlets with a diagonal mass matrix DN=diag(M1,M2,M3) and a Dirac matrix mD. We show that all right actions F on the seesaw matrix that leave mν unchanged form the group . While oscillation data determine the PMNS matrix UPMNS and the mass-squared splittings, they do not fix the F-class within G. We classify basis-invariant quantities into those that are class-blind (e.g., det η) and class-sensitive (e.g., Trη, Trη2, an alignment measure, and CP-odd traces relevant to leptogenesis), where η denotes the non-unitarity matrix of the light sector. We provide explicit formulas and both high-scale and GeV-scale benchmark examples that illustrate these invariant fingerprints and their scaling with DN. This converts the degeneracy at fixed mν into measurable, basis-invariant fingerprints.

11 December 2025

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Universe - ISSN 2218-1997