We are delighted to report that NE2025, the long-anticipated revision to the Galactic electron density distribution model, is now live on arXiv, and a Python implementation is available. The model serves as a drop-in replacement of NE2001, with updated parameters for the same model components as before.

We also draw your attention to a small collection of papers towards the end of this newsletter that grapple with the rise of AI-generated papers and AI-assisted research in astronomy.

Observational Results

• Cross-correlating galaxies and cosmic dispersion measures: Constraints on the gas-to-halo mass relation from 2MASS galaxies and 133 localized fast radio bursts; Shirasaki et al., arXiv: 2601.21336
• Extreme-Value Distribution Analysis of the Second CHIME/FRB Catalog: Assessing the Rarity of the One-off FRB 20250316A; Zhang & Wei, arXiv: 2601.21870
• A MeerKAT search for persistent radio sources towards twenty-five localised Fast Radio Bursts; Mfulwane et al., arXiv: 2602.07716
• Constraining the Evolution of the HI Spin Temperature with Fast Radio Bursts; Roxburgh et al., arXiv: 2602.10328
• A fast radio burst cyclone in technicolour: evidence of plasma lensing; Uttarkar et al., arXiv: 2602.16409

Theory and Modeling

• Towards precision astrometry of scattered images of compact radio sources: scintillometry theory and prospects; Jow & Shen, arXiv: 2601.21041
• Probing baryonic feedback with fast radio bursts: joint analyses with cosmic shear and galaxy clustering; Wayland et al., arXiv: 2602.12174
• Estimation of neutron star mass and radius of FRB 20240114A by identification of crustal oscillations; Sotani et al., arXiv: 2602.14353
• The CGM with local universe FRBs: evidence of strong AGN feedback in a massive elliptical galaxy; McCarty et al., arXiv: 2602.16781
• Testing the cosmic distance-duality relation with localized fast radio bursts: a cosmological model-independent study; Fortunato et al., arXiv: 2602.16869
• Probing the maximum energy of fast radio bursts using thousands of sources from the Second CHIME/FRB Catalog; Shah et al., arXiv: 2602.19335
• Resurgence and Hyperasymptotics in Wave Optics Astronomy; Feldbrugge et al., arXiv: 2602.21493

Algorithms, Instrumentation, and Data Access

• GBD-DART-I : Pulsars and transient source observation between 130 MHz and 350 MHz at Gauribidanur; Pandian B et al., arXiv: 2602.00677
• Astro-COLIBRI: An Innovative Platform for Real-Time Multi-Messenger Astrophysics; Avila et al., arXiv: 2602.02058
• CFHT MegaCam Two Deep Fields Imaging Survey (2DFIS) I: Overview; Liu et al., arXiv: 2602.08312
• NIAC project report: Solar system-scale VLBI to dramatically improve cosmological distance measurements; McQuinn et al., arXiv: 2602.09141
• NE2025: An Updated Electron Density Model for the Galactic Interstellar Medium; Ocker & Cordes, arXiv: 2602.11838
• CHIME/Slow overview and pilot survey: A new backend to search for second-duration radio transients with the CHIME telescope; Mate et al., arXiv: 2602.12793

Magnetars and other relevant results

• High energy neutrinos from pulsar-powered optical transients: LFBOTs as potential origin of the KM3NeT event KM3-230213A; Mukhopadhyay & Kimura, arXiv: 2601.22266
• Long-term timing evolution of four Anomalous X-Ray Pulsars; Peng et al., arXiv: 2602.03078
• The local void model for the Hubble and BAO tensions; Banik et al., arXiv: 2602.03928
• On the Deepest Search for Galactic Center Pulsars and an Examination of an Intriguing Millisecond Pulsar Candidate; Perez et al., arXiv: 2602.08922
• GECAM discovery of the second FRB-associated Magnetar X-ray Burst from SGR J1935+2154; Wang et al., arXiv: 2602.10895
• An optical transient candidate of ≲ 2-second duration captured by wide-field video observations; Arima et al., arXiv: 2602.11600
• The Interstellar Scintillation of the Radio-Loud Magnetar XTE J1810-197; Wang et al., arXiv: 2602.12051
• Modeling isolated magnetar spin-down evolution and implications for long-period radio transients; Kwong & Mori, arXiv: 2602.15024
• What does it mean to take the mean? The effect of the averaging scale on the characterization of interstellar turbulence; Konstantinou et al., arXiv: 2602.15932
• Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations of Giant Magnetar Bursts; Chatterjee et al., arXiv: 2602.17755
• Global Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations of Monster Shocks in Neutron Star Magnetospheres; Grehan et al., arXiv: 2602.21290

Other papers of possible interest

• The indiscriminate adoption of AI threatens the foundations of academia; Trotta, arXiv: 2602.10165
• Why do we do astrophysics?; Hogg, arXiv: 2602.10181
• How AI slop is causing a crisis in computer science; Gibney, Nature DOI 10.1038/d41586-025-03967-9
• Astrophysics Wrapped 2025: Year-in-Review of Every Astrophysics arXiv Paper from 2025; Lewis et al., arXiv: 2602.12303

• FRB 20121102A (the original repeating FRB!) has entered another active period, with multiple burst detections reported in observations at FAST at 1.2 GHz (ATel 17642). The active phase appears to align with the proposed ~160 day periodicity for this source.
• FRB 20251229A, and active source detected at CHIME and FAST (see previous Newsletter), has been detected at 408 MHz with observations at the Northern Cross radio telescope (ATel 17671).
• AT2026cex, a candidate luminous fast blue optical transient (LFBOT), has been observed by FAST at 1.2 GHz. No radio bursts were detected (ATel 17677).
• The NASA General Coordinates Network (GCN) is now making available prompt JSON notifications of FRB detections at CHIME and DSA-110, with latencies of ~1 minute, in order to enable prompt follow-up observations.
• Speaking of prompt follow-up, the orbit of the NASA Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory continues to decay more rapidly than anticipated, putting a planned re-boost attempt in potential jeopardy (GCN 43704).

• The early bird registration for FRB 2026 planned for July 6-10 2026 in Guiyang, China, closes on March 1 2026.
• Abstract submission for The Extragalactic Transient Universe planned for July 6-10 2026 in Marseille, France, closes on February 27 2026.
• Abstract submission for The Dynamic Radio Sky Conference planned for August 24-28 2026 in Montreal, Canada, closes on March 31 2026.

Do you have an item for future newsletters? Please send these via email to the editors (Shami and Kenzie) to be included in an upcoming issue.