The Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) (Irish: Cumann Rugbaí na hÉireann) is the body managing rugby union in the island of Ireland (both Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland). The IRFU has its head office at 10/12 Lansdowne Road and home ground at Aviva Stadium, where adult men's Irish rugby union international matches are played. In addition, the Union also owns the Ravenhill Stadium in Belfast, Thomond Park in Limerick and a number of grounds in provincial areas that have been rented to clubs.
This study aimed to explore elite male rugby union players' perceptions and lived experiences of physique development and management in relation to low energy availability risk. Semi-structured interviews (29 +/- 8 min) were conducted with 18 players (senior: n = 9; academy: n = 9; mean age: 23 +/- 3) across four professional rugby union clubs in Ireland. Through reflexive thematic analysis, the following themes were constructed. Players had limited awareness of low energy availability, yet described experiences consistent with symptoms, including fatigue, low mood and reduced libido. A pervasive physique culture, characterised by body composition 'ideals' and weight or skinfold 'norms', strongly influenced behaviours and athlete identity. Adolescence was identified as a critical period of vulnerability, where pressures to achieve body composition targets were internalised as discipline but often fostered disordered eating behaviours and negative relationships with food. While some players acknowledged the benefits of professional nutrition support in reshaping harmful beliefs, many expressed frustration towards staff practices and language that reinforced physique expectations without clear performance justification. Elite male rugby union players appear to be an at risk population for low energy availability, with risks shaped less by individual choice than by entrenched cultural norms and staff influence. Early pathway interventions should prioritise one to one nutrition and psychological support, while organisations must ensure alignment in staff beliefs, language, and practices around body composition. Developing evidence informed policies and educational initiatives is essential to foster healthier physique cultures, reduce disordered eating behaviours, and mitigate low energy availability risk in elite rugby union.
We study how to implement and transform frame perspectives for quantum processes in the process-matrix formalism. We argue that, for pure processes, the causal reference frames (CRF)and time-delocalized subsystems (TDS) formalisms should be understood as coordinate parametrizations of a single perspective-neutral higher-order object. A genuine perspective arises when one endows the process with additional frame data by choosing an operational foliation into circuit fragments (events). With this distinction, existing no-go results acquire a clear scope: they rule out unitary transformations that preserve time foliation, attempting to switch perspectives while keeping the fragment boundaries – hence the global past/future partition – fixed. Focusing on the quantum switch, we construct explicit maps that transform perspectives unitarily at the price of reshuffling the notions of past and future. We then show that unitary transformations between perspectives can also be achieved in a different way, namely by extending the process with subsystems that define quantum reference frames and provide a shared spatiotemporal scaffold. In this extended setting, complementary CRF/TDS perspectives become unitarily related while preserving global past and future. We discuss how this frame-perspectival approach informs the broader question of empirical realizability of abstract process matrices.
We calibrate the Tully-Fisher relation (TFR) with data from the DESI Peculiar Velocity (PV) Survey taken during the Survey Validation (SV) period of the DESI galaxy redshift survey. Placing spectroscopic fibers on the centers and major axes of spatially-extended spiral galaxies identified in the 2020 Siena Galaxy Atlas using the DESI Legacy Surveys, we measure the rotational velocities at 0.33R26 for 1163 (1136 + 27 dwarf) spiral galaxies observed during SV. Using 41 spiral galaxies observed in the Coma Cluster, we find a slope for the TFR of -7.96+/-0.13 AB mag in the r-band, with a scatter about the TFR of 1.07+/-0.02 AB mag. We calibrate the zero-point of the TFR using galaxies with independent distances measured using type Ia supernovae via the cosmological distance ladder. From the SN Ia distances, we measure a zero-point of -19.34(+0.30,-0.29) AB mag in the r-band. We produce a public catalog of the distances to these 1136 spiral galaxies observed during DESI SV as part of the DESI PV Survey with our calibrated TFR. This is, to our knowledge, the first catalog of TFR distances produced with velocities measured at a single point in the disk.
In November 2024, the new Grenoble hybrid magnet achieved a significant milestone, reaching 42 T as a first step in a warm bore diameter of 34 mm. First experimental runs were performed in May-June 2025 up to 42 T with flat top durations ranging from few seconds up to 6-7 hours with no time limitation detected. This allows to finalize the commissioning phase, optimize and fine-tune procedures for routine operation. The specificity of the Grenoble hybrid magnet will be summarized together with the commissioning tests performed. The maximum magnetic field that can be targeted as next steps will also be discussed knowing that the maximum available electric power of LNCMI was increased in 2024 from 12 + 12 MW to 12 + 18 MW, with the implementation of a new distribution line connected to a new dedicated 60 MVA, 225/15 kV transformer. Thanks to all these achievements, new scientific opportunities in high magnetic field science will be possible in near future at LNCMI-Grenoble whether in condensed matter physics or in chemistry, magneto-science, particle physics and cosmology. In parallel, important activities are focused on the increase of the ecological efficiency of the energy use for the production of very high magnetic fields. The objective is also to become one of the best places worldwide in terms of greenhouse gas efficiency for the use and construction of very high field magnets. The Grenoble hybrid magnet platform will be integrated in future in the European Magnetic Field Laboratory (EMFL) infrastructure consortium.
This paper explores the sensitivity of the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory to dark matter annihilation in the Galactic Center, within the frameworks of Effective Field Theory and Simplified Models. We present sensitivity forecasts, utilizing an up-to-date instrument configuration and incorporating the latest models for Galactic Diffuse Emission. A key aspect of our work is the inclusion of updated dark matter density profiles, J-factors, and velocity dispersion distributions derived from the FIRE-2 cosmological hydrodynamical simulations, which significantly impact the expected indirect detection signals. Furthermore, we update the constraints from direct detection experiments (Xenon1T and LZ) taking into account the astrophysical uncertainties informed by the FIRE-2 simulations, and also investigate limits coming from collider searches (ATLAS and CMS). Our analysis reveals improved constraints on the effective suppression scale ($M_*$) in the Effective Field Theory framework and on the mediator mass ($M_{med}$) in Simplified Models compared to previous studies, highlighting the complementarity of the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory with direct and collider searches in probing a wide range of dark matter scenarios. We discuss the implications of these results for various dark matter interaction types, including scalar, pseudoscalar, vector, and axial-vector mediators, and emphasize the importance of considering realistic astrophysical inputs in interpreting dark matter search results across different experimental fronts.
