🔬 Category

physics.space-ph

187 papers

Space physics explores the dynamic environment surrounding our planet and the wider solar system, focusing on how charged particles, magnetic fields, and solar winds interact with celestial bodies. This field helps us understand phenomena like auroras, space weather that can disrupt satellites, and the fundamental behavior of plasma in the vacuum of space. It bridges the gap between astronomy and particle physics, revealing the invisible forces that shape our cosmic neighborhood.

At Gist.Science, we process every new preprint in this category as it appears on arXiv, ensuring you get immediate access to the latest research. For each paper, we provide both a detailed technical summary for experts and a plain-language explanation that makes complex concepts understandable for everyone. Below are the latest space physics papers from arXiv, curated and simplified for your reading.

System Size Dependence of Collisionless Reconnection Rate

By performing rigorous scaling studies with particle-in-cell and Hall magnetohydrodynamic simulations, this paper challenges the paradigm of a universal, size-independent collisionless reconnection rate by demonstrating that when the initial current sheet thickness scales proportionally with the system size, the reconnection rate decreases as the system grows, thereby unifying disparate reconnection geometries under a fundamental size-dependence.

Yi-Min Huang, Naoki Bessho, Li-Jen Chen, Judith T. Karpen, Amitava Bhattacharjee2026-04-22🔬 physics

Modeling hot, anisotropic ion beams in the solar wind motivated by the Parker Solar Probe observations near perihelia

Motivated by Parker Solar Probe observations of complex, anisotropic ion velocity distributions near the Sun, this study employs nonlinear hybrid models to demonstrate that wave-particle interactions driven by ion-cyclotron and magnetosonic instabilities play a crucial role in transferring magnetic energy to particle motion, thereby heating the anisotropic solar wind plasma.

Leon Ofman, Yogesh, Scott A Boardsen, Parisa Mostafavi, Lan K Jian, Viacheslav M Sadykov, Kristopher Klein, Mihailo Martinovic2026-04-21🔭 astro-ph

Automated Classification of Plasma Regions at Mars Using Machine Learning

This study demonstrates that a convolutional neural network (CNN) trained on MAVEN SWIA ion energy spectra outperforms a multilayer perceptron in accurately and automatically classifying solar wind, magnetosheath, and induced magnetosphere regions around Mars, offering an efficient framework for large-scale plasma analysis.

Yilan Qin, Chuanfei Dong, Hongyang Zhou, Chi Zhang, Kaichun Xu, Jiawei Gao, Simin Shekarpaz, Xinmin Li, Liang Wang2026-04-21🔬 physics

Inferring lunar wake potentials from electron phase space densities

This paper introduces a Hamiltonian inversion method that overcomes challenges posed by solar wind strahl asymmetry and ion acoustic shocks to accurately infer spatial electric potential profiles in the lunar wake from electron phase space density measurements, a technique validated by simulations and applied to ARTEMIS observations.

Xin An, Shaosui Xu, Vassilis Angelopoulos, Terry Z. Liu, Andrew R. Poppe, Jasper S. Halekas, Ferdinand Plaschke2026-04-21🔬 physics

Forecasting Ionospheric Irregularities on GNSS Lines of Sight Using Dynamic Graphs with Ephemeris Conditioning

This paper introduces IonoDGNN, a dynamic graph neural network framework that models the ionosphere as a time-evolving graph of satellite pierce points and utilizes ephemeris conditioning to predict future irregularities on unseen lines of sight, achieving significant performance improvements over persistence baselines in multi-GNSS forecasting tasks.

Mert Can Turkmen, Eng Leong Tan, Yee Hui Lee2026-04-21🔬 physics

On the curlometer measurement of field-aligned and perpendicular currents in low Earth orbit: Swarm observations and whole geospace simulations

This study utilizes Swarm spacecraft observations and whole geospace simulations to demonstrate that field-aligned currents exhibit significant non-stationarity at scales below 100 km and that accurate current density measurements require high-quality four-point tetrahedral configurations to avoid spurious perpendicular currents caused by numerical instability.

R Gajewski, RT Desai, B Hnat, D Lin, MW Dunlop, M Fillion, G Hulot, Shreedevi P R, M-T Walach, E Panov, J-M Leger, T Jager, D Fischer, W Magnes, JA Blake, T Etchells2026-04-21🔬 physics

INTENTAS -- An entanglement-enhanced atomic sensor for microgravity

The INTENTAS project aims to develop a compact, all-optical atomic sensor utilizing entangled Bose-Einstein condensates in a microgravity environment to achieve high-precision quantum measurements, with a successful ground-based demonstration paving the way for future space deployment.

O. Anton, I. Bröckel, D. Derr, A. Fieguth, M. Franzke, M. Gärtner, E. Giese, J. S. Haase, J. Hamann, A. Heidt, S. Kanthak, C. Klempt, J. Kruse, M. Krutzik, S. Kubitza, C. Lotz, K. Müller, J. Pah (…)2026-04-20🔬 physics.atom-ph

Robust and compact single-lens crossed-beam optical dipole trap for Bose-Einstein condensation in microgravity

This paper presents a robust, compact single-lens crossed-beam optical dipole trap utilizing acousto-optical deflectors for dynamic three-dimensional control, which has been successfully demonstrated to generate Bose-Einstein condensates under microgravity conditions for advanced quantum sensing applications.

Jan Simon Haase, Alexander Fieguth, Igor Bröckel, Janina Hamann, Jens Kruse, Carsten Klempt2026-04-20🔬 physics.optics

Towards a Fully Automated Pipeline for Short-Term Forecasting of In Situ Coronal Mass Ejection Magnetic Field Structure

This paper presents and evaluates a fully automated pipeline that integrates remote sensing, deep learning, and iterative flux rope modeling to provide real-time, short-term forecasts of the magnetic field structure of coronal mass ejections at L1, demonstrating promising accuracy while highlighting limitations due to event complexity.

Hannah T. Rüdisser, Emma E. Davies, Ute V. Amerstorfer, Christian Möstl, Eva Weiler, Andreas J. Weiss, Justin Le Louëdec, Martin A. Reiss, Gautier Nguyen2026-04-20🔭 astro-ph