Automated arXiv monitoring for cold gas filament accretion in galaxy formation. Discovers new papers on cold mode accretion, cold flows, cosmological filaments, and related topics. Runs as a scheduled cron job.
Cold Streams in Cosmological Simulations — arXiv Monitoring
description
Automated arXiv monitoring for cold gas filament accretion in galaxy formation. Discovers new papers on cold mode accretion, cold flows, cosmological filaments, and related topics. Runs as a scheduled cron job.
Automated arXiv monitoring for cold gas filament accretion in galaxy formation. Discovers new papers on cold mode accretion, cold flows, cosmological filaments, and related topics. Runs as a scheduled cron job.
Overview
This skill contains a reusable operational workflow. Follow the existing task-specific steps and examples in the sections below.
Pitfalls
Do not hardcode credentials, tokens, or personal secrets.
Verify external service URLs, paths, and permissions before making changes.
Keep generated outputs reproducible and record input assumptions.
Verification
Confirm required inputs and credentials are available.
Run the smallest safe command or example before scaling up.
Check produced files, API responses, or plots before reporting success.
Automated discovery of new papers on cold gas filament accretion in cosmological simulations — the cold mode of galaxy formation, cold streams, and related phenomena.
What Counts as Relevant
Papers relevant to this monitoring topic fall into these areas:
Cold mode accretion — cold gas streams feeding galaxies (Kereš et al. 2005 paradigm)
Cold flows / cold filaments — cosmological gas filaments delivering fuel to halos
Cold mode vs hot mode — transition at virial temperature ~10^6 K
Galaxy fuel supply — how galaxies maintain star formation via cold accretion
Filamentary ISM / CGM — cold gas in circumgalactic and intergalactic medium
Cosmological simulations with cold gas — EAGLE, Illustris, TNG, FLAMINGO, etc.
High-z galaxy formation — cold accretion at z > 2
Shooting instabilities in filaments — filament fragmentation, cooling instabilities
Primary arXiv Search Queries
Core Query (most specific)
all:(cold+stream) OR all:(cold+flow) OR all:(cold+accretion) OR all:(cold+mode)
all:(cold+stream) OR all:(cold+flow) OR all:(cold+accretion) OR all:(cold+mode) OR all:(filament+accretion) OR all:(filament*+gas) OR all:(gas+filament) OR all:(cooling+filament)
Catches filament-specific papers.
Subcategory Queries (for targeted scans)
# Filament structure & stability
all:(filament+fragmentation) OR all:(shooting+instab*) OR all:(filament+cooling)
# CGM/ISM cold gas (related)
all:(cold+phase) OR all:(multiphase+CGM) OR all:(multiphase+ISM)
# Simulation-based approaches
all:(cold+stream*) AND all:(simulation+OR+simul*)
Recommended arXiv Categories
astro-ph.GA — Astrophysics of Galaxies (primary)
astro-ph.CO — Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
astro-ph.HE — High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (for AGN-related gas dynamics)
astro-ph.IM — Instrumentation and Methods (for simulation tools)
Cron Job Setup
Minimal: Weekly Cold Streams Scan
hermes cron create \
--name "Cold Streams Paper Monitor" \
--schedule "weekly" \
--prompt "Search arXiv for new papers on cold streams in galaxy formation. Use search query: all:(cold+stream+OR+cold+flow+OR+cold+accretion+OR+cold+mode). Run in category astro-ph.GA. Show the 10 most recent results with title, arXiv ID, date, authors, and abstract. Format as a clean report." \
--deliver origin
Extended: Full Filament Coverage
hermes cron create \
--name "Cold Streams & Filaments Monitor" \
--schedule "weekly" \
--prompt "Search arXiv for new papers on cold gas accretion and filamentary structure in galaxy formation. Use the extended search query: all:(cold+stream+OR+cold+flow+OR+cold+accretion+OR+cold+mode+OR+filament+accretion+OR+gas+filament). Run in category astro-ph.GA. Show 15 most recent results with title, arXiv ID, date, authors, and abstract. Mark which are simulation-based vs observational vs theoretical." \
--deliver origin
Daily (aggressive, more noise but catches everything)
hermes cron create \
--name "Cold Streams Daily Check" \
--schedule "every 24h" \
--prompt "Quick arXiv scan for cold streams: search all:(cold+stream+OR+cold+flow) in astro-ph.GA, last 7 days. Show only truly new papers (not previously mentioned). Keep it brief." \
--deliver origin
One-Time Manual Scan
Quick Scan (via terminal)
# Core query — 10 most recent papers
curl -s "https://export.arxiv.org/api/query?search_query=all:(cold+stream+OR+cold+flow+OR+cold+accretion+OR+cold+mode)+AND+cat:astro-ph.GA&sortBy=submittedDate&sortOrder=descending&max_results=10" | python3 -c "
import sys, xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
ns = {'a': 'http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom'}
root = ET.parse(sys.stdin).getroot()
for i, entry in enumerate(root.findall('a:entry', ns)):
title = entry.find('a:title', ns).text.strip().replace('\n', ' ')
arxiv_id = entry.find('a:id', ns).text.strip().split('/abs/')[-1]
published = entry.find('a:published', ns).text[:10]
authors = ', '.join(a.find('a:name', ns).text for a in entry.findall('a:author', ns))[:200]
summary = entry.find('a:summary', ns).text.strip()
print(f'{i+1}. [{arxiv_id}] {title} ({published})')
print(f' Authors: {authors}')
print(f' Abstract: {summary[:500]}...')
print(f' PDF: https://arxiv.org/pdf/{arxiv_id}')
print()
"
Extended Scan — Filament Coverage
# Extended query with filament keywords
curl -s "https://export.arxiv.org/api/query?search_query=all:(cold+stream+OR+cold+flow+OR+cold+accretion+OR+cold+mode+OR+filament+accretion+OR+gas+filament)+AND+cat:astro-ph.GA&sortBy=submittedDate&sortOrder=descending&max_results=15" | python3 -c "
import sys, xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
ns = {'a': 'http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom'}
root = ET.parse(sys.stdin).getroot()
for i, entry in enumerate(root.findall('a:entry', ns)):
title = entry.find('a:title', ns).text.strip().replace('\n', ' ')
arxiv_id = entry.find('a:id', ns).text.strip().split('/abs/')[-1]
published = entry.find('a:published', ns).text[:10]
authors = ', '.join(a.find('a:name', ns).text for a in entry.findall('a:author', ns))[:200]
cats = ', '.join(c.get('term') for c in entry.findall('a:category', ns))
summary = entry.find('a:summary', ns).text.strip()
print(f'{i+1}. [{arxiv_id}] {title} ({published})')
print(f' Authors: {authors}')
print(f' Categories: {cats}')
print(f' Abstract: {summary[:500]}...')
print(f' PDF: https://arxiv.org/pdf/{arxiv_id}')
print()
"
Workflow: From Scan to Analysis
Run scan — use the one-time scan commands above or cron job output
Deep dive — use web_extract on arxiv.org/abs for full abstracts
Classify — mark as simulation/analytical/observational/theoretical
Track — note key findings for literature review
Simulation Code Keywords (filtering signal from noise)
SPH codes: GADGET, AREPO, ENZEL, GASOL, PHANTOM, SWIFT, ART
Grid codes: RAMSES, ENZO, FLASH, ENZO, CLOUDDY
Hybrid: GIZMO, FLASH
Projects: Illustris, TNG (TNG100/TNG300), EAGLE, FLAMINGO, SIMBA, MAGNETICUM, OA
Analysis: HOP, SUBFIND, ROCKSTAR, HALO FINDER
Classic Papers (Baseline References)
These are foundational — the cron job will flag papers citing or extending these:
Paper
Key Result
Kereš et al. 2005, MNRAS 363, 1
Introduced cold mode accretion concept
Keres et al. 2005, Phys. Rev. D 72, 043514
Cold streams at z~2-3 in massive halos
Davé et al. 2001, MNRAS 326, 62
Early work on warm vs hot accretion
Dekel & Birnboim 2006, MNRAS 368, 2
Cold mode below virial T~10^6 K
Birnboim & Dekel 2003, MNRAS 345, 349
Halo shock stability analysis
Fabian 1994, ARA&A 32, 277
Early review of gas accretion in halos
Ocvirk et al. 2008, MNRAS 390, 1
Simulation of cold flows in halos
Dekel et al. 2009, MNRAS 395, 1757
Cold mode in Lambda-CDM
van de Voosten et al. 2011, MNRAS 414, 3463
Cold flows vs feedback in TNG-like sims
Nelson et al. 2018, MNRAS 475, 624 (TNG)
IllustrisTNG cold accretion analysis
Customizing the Monitor
Narrow to specific simulations
all:(cold+stream) AND all:(AREPO+OR+GADGET+OR+RAMSES+OR+ENZO) AND cat:astro-ph.GA
Narrow to redshift range
abs:(z>2+OR+high+z+OR+high-redshift) AND all:(cold+stream) AND cat:astro-ph.GA
Focus on CGM context
all:(cold+stream+OR+cold+flow) AND all:(CGM+OR+circumgalactic) AND cat:astro-ph.GA
Track specific authors
au:Pavel+Dekel AND cat:astro-ph.GA
au:Daniel+Ceverino AND cat:astro-ph.GA
au:Francesco+Sharrad AND cat:astro-ph.GA
Rate Limits & Tips
arXiv API: ~1 req / 3 sec. If you get rate-limited, back off 6+ seconds.
arXiv Browser: Often times out on arXiv URLs (60s limit). Don't rely on it.
web_extract on arXiv abs: Often returns "Payment Required" (Firecrawl credits). Use the API or curl pattern above.
Batch id_list queries: Up to ~10 IDs per call to minimize round trips.
Semantic Scholar: Use for citation tracking of key papers. Check citationCount for new papers on this topic.
Integration with Existing Skills
arxiv — Core search and parsing; this skill wraps it with domain-specific queries
reana — If simulation analysis is needed, run the monitoring on REANA with large datasets
datashader — If visualizing cold stream distributions in simulation data
matplotlib-figs — Plotting results from papers found by the monitor
Cron Job Examples (Copy-Paste Ready)
Weekly comprehensive scan
hermes cron create --name "Cold Streams Weekly" --schedule "weekly" --prompt "Run the cold streams arXiv monitor: search for papers containing 'cold stream', 'cold flow', 'cold accretion', or 'cold mode' in category astro-ph.GA, sorted by submitted date descending, max 15 results. For each paper show title, arXiv ID, date, lead author, categories, and abstract summary. Flag any that are simulation-based by looking for simulation code names (GADGET, AREPO, RAMSES, ENZO, Illustris, TNG, EAGLE, GIZMO, etc). End with a one-line summary of the state of the field." --deliver origin
Monthly literature review draft
hermes cron create --name "Cold Streams Monthly Review" --schedule "monthly" --prompt "Compile a mini literature review of recent cold streams papers. Search arXiv for all papers on cold streams/flows/accretion in astro-ph.GA from the past month. For the top 5 most relevant, provide: (1) full citation, (2) 3-sentence summary, (3) simulation method if applicable, (4) key finding, (5) how it relates to the Kereš/Dekel/Birnboim foundational framework. Format as a clean report." --deliver origin
