Interesting Astrophysics: Feb 09 to Feb 13

Quite a large selection of papers this week, and relatively diverse. From "pure" starbursts only 3.3 Mpc away, and the metal content of the IGM at redshift 6, to strange quark stars and the mass-radius relationship of super-Earths.

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Galaxies and Starbursts

Aperture Synthesis Observations of the Nearby Spiral NGC 6503: Modeling the Thin and Thick HI Disks
Eric W. Greisen, Kristine Spekkens, Gustaaf A. van Moorsel, arXiv:0902.0989 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 29 pages, 17 figures, for actual figures see this http URL submitted following referee report to AJ

Evidence of a pure starburst nature of the nuclear region of NGC 253

A. Brunthaler, P. Castangia, A. Tarchi, C. Henkel, M. J. Reid, H. Falcke, K. M. Menten, arXiv:0902.1044 [ps, pdf, other]

Comments: Astronomy and Astrophysics (A&A), accepted, 7 pages, 2 Figures, also available at this http URL

This is potentially a big deal for people interested in local starbursts (i.e. me), as it would force a serious re-examination of the current interpretation of the X-ray data on the nucleus of NGC 253. "Pure" starbursts are experimentally useful, as one can then reject AGN activity as a possible cause of the activity one sees (e.g. in a superwind).

The energetic environment and the dense interstellar medium in ULIRGs
O. Vega, M.S. Clemens, A. Bressan, G.L. Granato, L. Silva, P. Panuzzo, arXiv:0902.1202 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 6 pages, 4 figures, Proceedings of "A Long Walk Through Astronomy: A Celebration of Luis Carrasco's 60th Birthday", Huatulco, Mexico, October 2008, ed. E. Recillas, L. Aguilar, A. Luna, and J.R. Valdes; RevMexAA (Serie de Conferencias)

The hard X-ray view of bright infrared galaxies
R. Walter, N. Cabral, arXiv:0902.1395 [pdf, other]
Comments: 6 pages, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astropohysics

A Shared Tully-Fisher Relation for Spirals and S0 Galaxies
Michael J. Williams, Martin Bureau, Michele Cappellari, arXiv:0902.1500 [pdf, other]
Comments: To appear in Galaxy Evolution: Emerging Insights and Future Challenges, ed. S. Jogee et al., Astron. Soc. Pacific, 2009

Star-Forming Galaxies at z~2: An Emerging Picture of Galaxy Dynamics and Assembly
Kristen L. Shapiro, Reinhard Genzel, Nicolas Bouché, Peter Buschkamp, Giovanni Cresci, Ric Davies, Frank Eisenhauer, Natascha Förster Schreiber, Shy Genel, Erin Hicks, Dieter Lutz, Linda Tacconi, arXiv:0902.1550 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 7 pages, to appear in the proceedings of "Galaxy Evolution: Emerging Insights and Future Challenges," Austin, TX, 11-14 Nov 2008

A downturn in intergalactic CIV as redshift 6 is approached
Emma V. Ryan-Weber, Max Pettini, Piero Madau, Berkeley J. Zych, arXiv:0902.1991 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 15 pages, 8 Figures, Accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Radio Emission from Supernova Remnants: Implications for Post-Shock Magnetic Field Amplification and the Magnetic Fields of Galaxies
Todd A. Thompson, Eliot Quataert, Norman Murray, arXiv:0902.1755 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 11 pages, 4 figures, submitted to MNRAS, revised to reflect referee's comments

The Environmental Impact of Galaxy Evolution
Jesper Rasmussen, Trevor J. Ponman, arXiv:0902.1978 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 5 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Proc. of "Galaxy Evolution: Emerging Insights and Future Challenges", eds. S. Jogee et al., ASP Conf. Series

OVI Absorption in the Milky Way Disk, and Future Prospects for Studying Absorption at the Galaxy-IGM Interface
D.V. Bowen, E.B. Jenkins, T.M. Tripp, D.G. York, arXiv:0902.1989 [pdf, other]
Comments: Invited review to appear in the proceedings of "Future Directions in Ultraviolet Spectroscopy" meeting, held Oct 20-22, 2008, Annapolis, MD. To appear as an AIP Conference Proceeding

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Black Holes and AGN

Two Physically Distinct Populations of Low-Ionization Nuclear Emission-Line Regions
J. Wang, J. Y. Wei, P. F. Xiao, arXiv:0902.1023 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 12 pages, 2 figures, accepted by ApJ Letter

The Origin of the Silicate Emission Features in the Seyfert 2 Galaxy, NGC 2110
R. E. Mason, N. A. Levenson, Y. Shi, C. Packham, V. Gorjian, K. Cleary, J. Rhee, M. Werner, arXiv:0902.1187 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: ApJL, accepted

The evolution of runaway stellar collision products
E. Glebbeek, E. Gaburov, S. E. de Mink, O. R. Pols, S. F. Portegies Zwart, arXiv:0902.1753 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 10 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in A&A

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Cosmology, in particular theoretical cosmology

Chemical enrichment in cosmological, smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations
Robert P. C. Wiersma, Joop Schaye, Tom Theuns, Claudio Dalla Vecchia, Luca Tornatore, arXiv:0902.1535 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 28 pages, 25 figures, submitted to MNRAS

Formation of Isolated Dwarf Galaxies with Feedback
Till Sawala, Cecilia Scannapieco, Simon D.M. White, arXiv:0902.1754 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 14 pages, 12 figures. submitted to MNRAS

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X-ray astronomy

Simulation and Fitting of Multi-Dimensional X-ray Data
Daniel Dewey, Michael S. Noble, arXiv:0902.1740 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: ADASS 2008 (Quebec) proceedings (4 pages, 3 figures)

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Stars, Supernovae and Planets

The Strange Prospects for Astrophysics
Irina Sagert, Matthias Hempel, Giuseppe Pagliara, Jurgen Schaffner-Bielich, Tobias Fischer, Anthony Mezzacappa, Friedrich-Karl Thielemann, Matthias Liebendorfer, arXiv:0902.2084 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 10 pages, 8 figures, invited talk given at the international conference on strangeness in quark matter (SQM2008), Beijing, October 6-10, Beijing, China

Strange matter in astrophysics, always interesting...

Discovery of New Interacting Supernova Remnants in the Inner Galaxy
John W. Hewitt, Farhad Yusef-Zadeh, arXiv:0902.1386 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: Accepted to ApJ Letters, with 2 figures and 2 tables

A Study of the Accuracy of Mass-Radius Relationships for Silicate-Rich and Ice-Rich Planets up to 100 Earth Masses
O. Grasset, J. Schneider, C. Sotin, arXiv:0902.1640 [pdf]
Comments: In press in The Astrophysical Journal