Interesting Astrophysics: Jun 15 - Jun 19

A quiet week on the journals and astro-ph. Of the papers that did strike my eye quiet a few were on moderate-to-high redshift galaxies (Hainline et al; Quider et al; Nesvadba et al) and/or the IGM (Chen & Muchaey, Cooksey et al).

There is also an interesting paper by Mellot et al re-examining the often reoccuring and always controversial claims of links between terrestrial mass extinctions and the Solar system's crossing of Milky Way spiral arms.

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Galaxies and Starbursts

Rest-Frame Optical Spectra of Three Strongly Lensed Galaxies at z~2
Kevin N. Hainline, Alice E. Shapley, Katherine A. Kornei, Max Pettini, Elizabeth Buckley-Geer, Sahar S. Allam, Douglas L. Tucker, arXiv:0906.2197 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 16 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal

The Ultraviolet Spectrum of the Gravitationally Lensed Galaxy `The Cosmic Horseshoe': A Close-up of a Star-forming Galaxy at z = 2
Anna M. Quider, Max Pettini, Alice E. Shapley, Charles C. Steidel, arXiv:0906.2412 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 17 pages, 9 Figures, Accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Dwarf Galaxies in the NGC 1023 Group
Neil Trentham, Brent Tully, arXiv:0906.2540 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: MNRAS, in press

Probing the IGM-Galaxy Connection at z < 0.5 I: A Galaxy Survey in QSO Fields and a Galaxy-Absorber Cross-Correlation Study
Hsiao-Wen Chen, John S. Mulchaey, arXiv:0906.3293 [ps, pdf, other]

Comments: 27 journal-style pages, 15 figures; ApJ in press; full-resolution version is available at this http URL

The Last Eight-Billion Years of Intergalactic CIV Evolution
Kathy L. Cooksey, Christopher Thom, J. Xavier Prochaska, Hsiao-Wen Chen, arXiv:0906.3347 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 63 pages, 18 figures, 10 tables; submitted to ApJ

Effects of Galactic fountains and delayed mixing in the chemical evolution of the Milky Way

E. Spitoni, F. Matteucci, S. Recchi, G. Cescutti, A. Pipino, arXiv:0906.3400 [ps, pdf, other]

Comments: Accepted by A&A

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The Interstellar Medium

Supershells in the Multi-Phase Milky Way: Insights from HI Synthesis Imaging and CO Surveys
J. R. Dawson, N. M. McClure-Griffiths, Y. Fukui, arXiv:0906.2630 [pdf, other]
Comments: 4 pages, to appear in conference proceedings "The Role of Disk-Halo Interaction in Galaxy Evolution, Outflow vs. Infall?" ed. M. A. de Avillez, European Astronomical Society Publications, 2009 in press

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Black Holes and AGN

Giant outflows in z~2 radio galaxies: The smoking gun of AGN feedback in the early universe
N. P. H. Nesvadba, arXiv:0906.2900 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: To appear in the proceedings of the workshop "The Interface between Galaxy Formation and AGN", Vulcano (Messina), Italy

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Stars, Supernovae and Planets

Spectral Evolution of the Extraordinary Type IIn Supernova 2006gy
Nathan Smith, Ryan Chornock, Jeffrey M. Silverman, Alexei V. Filippenko, Ryan J. Foley, arXiv:0906.2200 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: Really long. 30 pages, 26 figs, appendix. Submitted to ApJ - v2 corrected one reference

Testing the link between terrestrial climate change and Galactic spiral structure
Adrian L. Melott, Andrew C. Overholt, Martin K. Pohl, arXiv:0906.2777 [pdf]

Their abstract: "We confront past suggestions of a close link between terrestrial climate change and the Sun's transit of spiral arms in its path through the Milky Way galaxy. These links produced concrete fits, deriving the unknown spiral pattern speed from terrestrial climate correlations. We use new information on spiral structure based on CO data that does not make simplifying assumptions about symmetry and circular rotation. Comparing the times of these transits to changes in the climate of Earth, not only do the claimed correlations disappear, but also we find that they cannot be resurrected for any reasonable pattern speed."

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Other

Radio quiet, please! - protecting radio astronomy from interference
W. van Driel, arXiv:0906.2268 [pdf, other]
Comments: To appear in IAU Symposium 260 The Role of Astronomy in Society and Culture, 8 pages