{"paper":{"title":"Dimming and pulsation shock of the coalesced star V838 Monocerotis","license":"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/","headline":"","cross_cats":[],"primary_cat":"astro-ph.SR","authors_text":"A. A. Djupvik (NOT, Aarhus University), C. E. Woodward (Minnesota Institute of Astrophysics), I. Ilyin (Leibniz-Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam), M. R. Schmidt (CAMK Toru\\'n), T. Kami\\'nski (CAMK Toru\\'n), T. Liimets (Tartu Observatory)","submitted_at":"2026-06-09T15:16:54Z","abstract_excerpt":"V838 Mon is the remnant of a stellar merger that occurred in 2002. Twenty-four years after the merger, the remnant closely resembles a red supergiant, but its luminosity is sustained by core H burning and continued contraction toward hydrostatic equilibrium. In late 2025, the system entered the deepest dimming event observed since 2006. We characterize the 2026 dimming using multiband photometry and high-resolution spectroscopy spanning from the dimming minimum through the recovery phase. The photometric color evolution during the dimming can be well reproduced by dust extinction with $A_V=1.2"},"claims":{"count":0,"items":[],"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"source":{"id":"2606.10981","kind":"arxiv","version":1},"verdict":{"id":null,"model_set":{},"created_at":null,"strongest_claim":"","one_line_summary":"","pipeline_version":null,"weakest_assumption":"","pith_extraction_headline":""},"integrity":{"clean":true,"summary":{"advisory":0,"critical":0,"by_detector":{},"informational":0},"endpoint":"/pith/2606.10981/integrity.json","findings":[],"available":true,"detectors_run":[],"snapshot_sha256":"c28c3603d3b5d939e8dc4c7e95fa8dfce3d595e45f758748cecf8e644a296938"},"references":{"count":0,"sample":[],"resolved_work":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57","internal_anchors":0},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"author_claims":{"count":0,"strong_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1"}