Interesting Astrophysics: Mar 08 to Mar 22

I return from a much-needed holiday in the Caribbean to an energetic bunch of preprints and papers making its appearance in this edition of Interesting Astrophysics.

Galactic winds, including possible AGN-driven galactic winds, are of course my major interest, so Scannapieco & Brüggen's paper is of particular note, but note also Dadina et al, Shu et al (twice) and Jiménez-Vicente et al's papers.

X-ray emission from star forming galaxies also makes an appearance, with Wang's PNAS review, Owen & Warwick's XMM-Newton study of M33, and Anderson & Bregman's discussion of the baryon content of hot halos around galaxies. Martin Weisskopf's history of the project to build the Chandra X-ray Observatory is also well worth reading.

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Galaxies and Starbursts

X-raying Galaxies: A Chandra Legacy
Q. Daniel Wang, arXiv:1003.1282 [pdf, other]
Comments: Refereed review article to be published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

The submillimetre properties of ultraluminous infrared galaxies
D. L. Clements, L. Dunne, S. Eales, 2010, MNRAS, 403, 274
Full Text: HTML, PDF (Size: 859K)

A blue tilt in the globular cluster system of the Milky Way-like galaxy NGC 5170
Duncan A. Forbes, Lee R. Spitler, W. E. Harris, Jeremy Bailin, Jay Strader, Jean P. Brodie, S. S. Larsen, 2010, MNRAS, 403, 429
Full Text: HTML, PDF (Size: 3707K)

The likeness of a galaxy to the Milky-Way often depends greatly on whose opinion you ask. NGC 5170 has a circular rotation velocity of ~250 km/s and a star formation rate of ~0.5 Solar masses per year, making it somewhat more massive and less active than the Milky Way. Nevertheless an interesting galaxy (No X-ray halo was detected around NGC 5170 in Chandra observations, see Pedersen et al 2006 and Rasmussen et al 2009. Note that the detection of an X-ray halo around NGC 5746 claimed in Pedersen et all 2006 was effectively retracted by Rasmussen et al 2009).

Ongoing Star Formation In AGN Host Galaxy Disks: A View From Core-collapse Supernovae
J. Wang, J. S. Deng, J. Y. Wei, arXiv:1003.1358 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted by MNRAS

A Region of Violent Star Formation in the Irr Galaxy IC 10: Structure and Kinematics of Ionized and Neutral Gas
O. V. Egorov, T. A. Lozinskaya, A. V. Moiseev, arXiv:1003.1705 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 22 pages, 10 figures; accepted in Astronomy Reports

Do Hot Haloes Around Galaxies Contain the Missing Baryons?
Michael E. Anderson, Joel N. Bregman, arXiv:1003.3273 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal

As with most papers that pose a question in their title, the answer is no. A nice paper worth looking at.

On The GeV & TeV Detections of the Starburst Galaxies M82 & NGC 253
Brian C. Lacki, Todd A. Thompson, Eliot Quataert, Abraham Loeb, Eli Waxman, arXiv:1003.3257 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 14 pages, emulateapj format, submitted to ApJ.

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Black Holes and AGN

X-ray imaging of the ionisation cones in NGC 5252
M.Dadina, M.Guainazzi, M.Cappi, S.Bianchi, C. Vignali, G. Malaguti, A. Comastri, rXiv:1003.1665 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: Accepted for publication in A&A

NGC 2992 in an X-ray high state observed by XMM: Response of the Relativistic Fe K$\alpha$ Line to the Continuum
X. W. Shu, T. Yaqoob, K. D. Murphy, V. Braito, J. X. Wang, W. Zheng, arXiv:1003.1789 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 30 pages, 6 figures, Accepted to ApJ

The Cores of the Fe Kα Lines in Active Galactic Nuclei: an Extended Chandra High Energy Grating Sample
X. W. Shu, T. Yaqoob, J. X. Wang, arXiv:1003.1790 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 54 pages, 7 figures, and 4 tables, to appear in ApJ Supplement Series

Blasts and shocks in the disc of NGC 4258
J. Jiménez-Vicente, E. Mediavilla, A. Castillo-Morales, E. Battaner, arXiv:1003.3635 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 7 pages, 10 colour figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS.

Na I observations with an IFU.

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Numerical Methods

General two-dimensional least-squares image subtraction
J. L. Quinn, A. Clocchiatti and M. Hamuy, 2010, MNRAS, 403, L1
Full Text: HTML, PDF (Size: 514K)

Shape: A 3D Modeling Tool for Astrophysics
Wolfgang Steffen, Nicholas Koning, Stephan Wenger, Christophe Morisset, Marcus Magnor, arXiv:1003.2012 [pdf, other]
Comments: 13 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in the "IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics"

Simulating Supersonic Turbulence in Galaxy Outflows
Evan Scannapieco, Marcus Brüggen, arXiv:1003.3234 [pdf, other]
Comments: 22 pages, 13 figures, MNRAS, in press

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X-rays

Innovations in the Analysis of Chandra-ACIS Observations
Patrick S. Broos, Leisa K. Townsley, Eric D. Feigelson, Konstantin V. Getman, Franz E. Bauer, Gordon P. Garmire, arXiv:1003.2397 [pdf, other]
Comments: Accepted by the ApJ, 2010 Mar 10, 39 pages, 16 figures

The Making of the Chandra X-ray Observatory: the Project Scientist's Perspective
Martin C. Weisskopf, arXiv:1003.1990 [pdf]
Comments: 6 pages, 17 figures. To be published in the Proceedings of the national Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

I found this to be a really interesting article. It discusses both technical and political development with a sprinkling of dry humor. Also note the time span between the conceptual birth of AXAF/Chandra (1963, and the updated 1976 proposal) and the actual launch in 1999.

Soft X-ray emission from the inner disc of M33
R. A. Owen and R. S. Warwick, 2010, MNRAS, 403, 558
Full Text: HTML, PDF (Size: 4702K)

Interesting Astrophysics: 22 Feb to 05 Mar, 2010

Of particular interest (to me at least) are a variety of papers related to galactic winds. The AKARI observations of Kaneda et al probe dust in M82's wind; Steidel et al use absorption lines probe the distribution and kinematics gas around redshift z~2-3 LBGs at impact parameters of - to ~100 kpc; Nestor et al propose to understand ultra-strong Mg II absorbers in the context of galactic winds; Alexander et al present evidence for a galactic wind in z~2 ULIRG; Sumui et al present a theoretical mixed Cosmic-ray/thermal wind model; and Pinsonneault et al consider the effects of galactic winds anisotropy in cosmological simulations.

In a similar vein, albeit not quite galactic winds, there is a conference proceedings by Proga et al on large scale outflows from AGN, and papers on dust in HII regions (Draine) and in wind-blown bubbles (Everett & Churchwell).

Quite of a few of these papers were noted in previous editions of "Interesting Astrophysics" when they appeared as preprints on arXiv.org, but its worth noting them again with their full journal reference information.

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Galaxies and Starbursts

Large-scale distributions of mid- and far-infrared emission from the center to the halo of M82 revealed with AKARI
H. Kaneda, D. Ishihara, T.Suzuki, N. Ikeda, T. Onaka, M. Yamagishi, Y. Ohyama, T. Wada, A. Yasuda, arXiv:1002.4521 [pdf, ps, other]
Comments: 12 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in A&A

Full abstract: "The edge-on starburst galaxy M82 exhibits complicated distributions of gaseous materials in its halo, which include ionized superwinds driven by nuclear starbursts, neutral materials entrained by the superwinds, and large-scale neutral streamers probably caused by a past tidal interaction with M81. We investigate detailed distributions of dust grains and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) around M82 to understand their interplay with the gaseous components. We performed mid- (MIR) and far-infrared (FIR) observations of M82 with the Infrared Camera and Far-Infrared Surveyor on board AKARI. We obtain new MIR and FIR images of M82, which reveal both faint extended emission in the halo and very bright emission in the center with signal dynamic ranges as large as five and three orders of magnitude for the MIR and FIR, respectively. We detect MIR and FIR emission in the regions far away from the disk of the galaxy, reflecting the presence of dust and PAHs in the halo of M82. We find that the dust and PAHs are contained in both ionized and neutral gas components, implying that they have been expelled into the halo of M82 by both starbursts and galaxy interaction. In particular, we obtain a tight correlation between the PAH and H$\alpha$ emission, which provides evidence that the PAHs are well mixed in the ionized superwind gas and outflowing from the disk."

Discovery of an unusual new radio source in the star-forming galaxy M82: Faint supernova, supermassive blackhole, or an extra-galactic microquasar?
T. W. B. Muxlow, R. J. Beswick, S. T. Garrington, A. Pedlar, D. M. Fenech, M. K. Argo, J. van Eymeren, M. Ward, A. Zezas, A. Brunthaler, arXiv:1003.0994 [pdf, ps, other]
Comments: 6 pages, 3 figures (2 colour), MNRAS letters accepted

The Structure and Kinematics of the Circum-Galactic Medium from Far-UV Spectra of z~2-3 Galaxies
C. C. Steidel, D. K. Erb, A. E. Shapley, M. Pettini, N. A. Reddy, M. Bogosavljević, G. C. Rudie, O. Rakic, arXiv:1003.0679 [pdf, ps, other]
Comments: Submitted to ApJ, 22 February 2010. 32 pages, 24 figures

Full abstract: "We present new results on the kinematics and spatial distribution of metal-enriched gas within 125 kpc (physical) of Lyman Break galaxies at redshifts z~2-3. In particular, we demonstrate how rest-UV galaxy spectra can be used to obtain key spatial and spectral information more efficiently than possible with QSO sightlines. After recalibrating the measurement of galaxy systemic redshifts from their UV spectra, we investigate the kinematics of galaxy-scale outflows via the strong interstellar (IS) absorption and Lya emission lines (when present), as well as their dependence on other physical properties of the galaxies. We construct a sample of 512 close (1-15 arcsec) angular pairs of z~2-3 LBGs in which the spectra background galaxies probe the circumgalactic gas surrrounding those in the foreground. The close pairs, together with spectra of the foreground galaxies themselves, sample galactocentric impact parameters b=0-125 kpc (physical) at <z>=2.2. The ensemble provides a spatial map of cool gas as a function of galactocentric distance for a well-characterized population of galaxies. We propose a simple model that simultaneously matches the kinematics, depth, and profile shape of IS absorption and Lya emission lines, as well as the observed variation of absorption line strength (of HI, CII, CIV, SiII, SiIV) versus galactocentric impact parameter. We discuss the results of the observations in the context of "cold accretion", in which cool gas accretes via filamentary streams directly onto the central regions of galaxies. At present, we find little observational support for cool infalling material, whereas evidence supporting the large-scale effects of outflows is strong. Reconciling theory and observation on the subject of gas flows into and out of forming galaxies seems necessary."

The SAURON project – XVI. On the sources of ionization for the gas in elliptical and lenticular galaxies
Marc Sarzi, et al, 2010, MNRAS, 402, 2187
Full Text: HTML, PDF (Size: 15234K)

From their abstract: "Finally, in the most massive and slowly or non-rotating galaxies in our sample, which can retain a massive X-ray halo, the finding of a spatial correlation between the hot and warm phases of the interstellar medium (ISM) suggests that the interaction with the hot ISM provides an additional source of ionization besides old ultraviolet-bright stars."

Note that they consider the X-ray gas static, as opposed to the SN Ia-driven wind scenario favored by Wang. Of course the kinematics of the WIM should provide insight into whether there is a bulk flow or not...

AINUR: Atlas of Images of NUclear Rings
S. Comerón, J. H. Knapen, J. E. Beckman, E. Laurikainen, H. Salo, I. Martínez-Valpuesta and R. J. Buta, 2010, MNRAS, 402, 2462
Full Text: HTML, PDF (Size: 10365K)

Cosmic ray driven outflows from high-redshift galaxies
Saumyadip Samui, Kandaswamy Subramanian and Raghunathan Srianand, 2010, MNRAS, 402, 2778
Full Text: HTML, PDF (Size: 1035K)

Searching for evidence of energetic feedback in distant galaxies: a galaxy wide outflow in a z ≈ 2 ultraluminous infrared galaxy
D. M. Alexander, A. M. Swinbank, Ian Smail, R. McDermid and N. P. H. Nesvadba, MNRAS, 402, 2211
Full Text: HTML, PDF (Size: 1066K)

Anisotropic Galactic Outflows and Enrichment of the Intergalactic Medium. II. Numerical Simulations

Steeve Pinsonneault, Hugo Martel, Matthew M. Pieri, arXiv:1002.4881 [pdf, ps, other]

Comments: Submitted to ApJ. Figures 4, 5 and 6 are not included because of their large sizes. They can be downloaded from: this http URL

Large scale outflows from z ~ 0.7 starburst galaxies identified via ultra-strong MgII quasar absorption lines
Daniel B. Nestor, Benjamin D. Johnson, Vivienne Wild, Brice Ménard, David A. Turnshek, Sandhya Rao, Max Pettini, arXiv:1003.0693 [pdf, ps, other]
Comments: 14 pages, 6 figure, to be submitted to MNRAS

Their abstract: "(Abridged) Star formation-driven outflows are a critically important phenomenon in theoretical treatments of galaxy evolution, despite our limited ability to trace them across cosmological timescales. It has been suggested that the strongest QAL systems might arise in such outflows. If confirmed, "Ultra-strong" MgII (USMgII) absorbers may identify galactic winds over a huge baseline in cosmic time, independently of the luminous properties of the galaxy. To this end, we present the first detailed imaging/spectroscopic study of the fields of two USMgII absorber systems culled from a statistical absorber catalog, to investigate the physical processes leading to the large velocity spreads that define such systems. Each field contains two bright emission-line galaxies at similar redshift to that of the absorption. Their specific SFRs are among the highest for their masses at these redshifts, and their 4000A break and Balmer absorption strengths imply they have undergone recent (~ 0.01-1 Gyr) starbursts. The concomitant presence of two rare phenomena - starbursts and USMgII absorbers - strongly implies a causal connection. We consider these data and USMgII absorbers in general in the context of various models, and conclude that galactic outflows are generally necessary to account for the velocity-extent of the absorption, favouring starburst driven outflows over tidally-stripped gas from a major interaction which triggered the starburst. Unlike past discoveries of blueshifted gas in the spectra of galaxies at cosmological distances, identifying outflows in this manner unambiguously demonstrates that the material reaches the IGM. Finally, we discuss the implications of these results and speculate on the overall contribution of such systems to the global SFR density at z ~ 0.7."

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Black Holes and AGN

Large-Scale Outflows from AGN: a link between central black holes and galaxies
Daniel Proga, Ryuichi Kurosawa, Kentaro Nagamine, arXiv:1002.4896 [pdf, ps, other]
Comments: 8 pages, 2 figures. To be published in the Proceedings of IAU Symposium 267 "Co-Evolution of Central Black Holes and Galaxies"

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Cosmology

A sub-resolution multiphase interstellar medium model of star formation and SNe energy feedback
Giuseppe Murante, Pierluigi Monaco, Martina Giovalli, Stefano Borgani, Antonaldo Diaferio, arXiv:1002.4122 [pdf, ps, other]
Comments: 23 pages, 26 figures, MNRAS accepted

Note to self: I need to have a careful look at what they assume about the energy efficiency of SN feedback.

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Interstellar Medium and Hydrodynamics

On Radiation Pressure in Static, Dusty HII Regions

B. T. Draine, arXiv:1003.0474 [pdf, ps, other]

Comments: submitted to ApJ

Dusty Wind-Blown Bubbles
John E. Everett, Ed Churchwell, arXiv:1003.0838 [pdf, ps, other]
Comments: 13 pages, 14 figures, Accepted to ApJ

rpSPH: a much improved Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics Algorithm
Tom Abel, arXiv:1003.0937 [pdf, other]
Comments: 14 pages, 11 figures, submitted to MNRAS. Comments welcome

Let the flame wars among the SPH community commence!

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Stars, Supernovae and Planets

Bacterial survival in Martian conditions
Giuseppe Galletta; Giulio Bertoloni; Maurizio D'Alessandro, arXiv:1002.4077 [pdf, ps, other]
Comments: 5 pages, 3 figures, special issue of Planetary and Space science on Methane on Mars discovery. Topics: Astrobiology - Methods: laboratory - Mars - Panspermia

Full abstract: "We shortly discuss the observable consequences of the two hypotheses about the origin of life on Earth and Mars: the Lithopanspermia (Mars to Earth or viceversa) and the origin from a unique progenitor, that for Earth is called LUCA (the LUCA hypothesis). To test the possibility that some lifeforms similar to the terrestrial ones may survive on Mars, we designed and built two simulators of Martian environments where to perform experiments with different bacterial strains: LISA and mini-LISA. Our LISA environmental chambers can reproduce the conditions of many Martian locations near the surface trough changes of temperature, pressure, UV fluence and atmospheric composition. Both simulators are open to collaboration with other laboratories interested in performing experiments on many kind of samples (biological, minerals, electronic) in situations similar to that of the red planet. Inside LISA we have studied the survival of several bacterial strains and endospores. We verified that the UV light is the major responsible of cell death. Neither the low temperature, nor the pressure, nor the desiccation or the atmospheric changes were effective in this sense. We found that some Bacillus strains have a particular capability to survive for some hours in Martian conditions without being screened by dust or other shields. We also simulated the coverage happening on a planet by dust transported by the winds, blowing on the samples a very small quantity of volcanic ash grains or red iron oxide particles. Samples covered by these dust grains have shown a high percentage of survival, indicating that under the surface dust, if life were to be present on Mars in the past, some bacteria colonies or cells could still be present."

Interesting Astrophysics: Oct 12 to Oct 23

This edition of Interesting Astrophysics spans an even wide range of topics than normal, from C IV in the IGM (D'Odorico et al), X-ray emission from galaxies (Laird et al, Pietsch), a variety of supernova-related preprints, to AGN feedback/outflows and other topics I've not mentioned.

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Galaxies and Starbursts

An Anisotropic Propagation Model for Galactic Cosmic Rays
Iris Gebauer, Wim de Boer, arXiv:0910.2027 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 19 pages, 19 figures, submitted to A&amp;A

The rise of the C IV mass density at z<2.5
Valentina D'Odorico, Francesco Calura, Stefano Cristiani, Matteo Viel, arXiv:0910.2126 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: Paper accepted by MNRAS. The parameters of the C IV line fitting will be available in electronic format

The radial distribution of core-collapse supernovae in spiral host galaxies
A. A. Hakobyan, G. A. Mamon, A. R. Petrosian, D. Kunth, M. Turatto, arXiv:0910.1801 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 10 pages, 6 figures, 5 tables. Astronomy &amp; Astrophysics, in press

On the X-ray properties of submm-selected galaxies
Elise S. Laird, Kirpal Nandra, Alexandra Pope, Douglas Scott, arXiv:0910.2464 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 12 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

X-ray emission from optical novae in M 31
W. Pietsch, arXiv:0910.3865 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 6 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Aston.Nachr

Bars in Starbursts and AGNs -- A Quantitative Reexamination
Lei Hao, Shardha Jogee, Fabio D. Barazza, Irina Marinova, Juntai Shen, arXiv:0910.3960 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 8 pages, 3 figures, to be published in "Galaxy Evolution: Emerging Insights and Future Challenges", ed. S. Jogee et al., Astron. Soc. Pacific, 2009

From their abstract: "We find that AGN and star-forming galaxies have similar optical bar fractions, 47% and 50%, respectively. Both bar fractions are higher than that in inactive galaxies (29%)."

Extragalactic CS survey
E. Bayet, R. Aladro, S. Martin, S. Viti, J. Martin-Pintado, arXiv:0910.4282 [pdf, other]
Comments: 17 pages, 16 figures, 3 tables, Accepted to ApJ

From the abstract: "We present a coherent and homogeneous multi-line study of the CS molecule in nearby (D$<$10Mpc) galaxies. We include, from the literature, all the available observations from the $J=1-0$ to the $J=7-6$ transitions towards NGC 253, NGC 1068, IC 342, Henize~2-10, M~82, the Antennae Galaxies and M~83."

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Black Holes and AGN

Feeding and Feedback in nearby AGN from Integral Field Spectroscopy
Thaisa Storchi-Bergmann, arXiv:0910.3234 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 4 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the conference "The Monster's Fiery Breath", eds. Sebastian Heinz and Eric Wilcots

From the abstract: "The ionized gas, on the other hand, traces the AGN feedback. Its
kinematics shows two components: (1) one originating in the plane, and
dominated by circular rotation; (2) another outflowing along the Narrow-Line
Region (NLR) whose flux distribution and kinematics frequently correlate with
structures seen in radio maps. Mass outflow rates along the NLR range from
10^-2 to 1 M_sun yr^-1, corresponding to 10-100 times the accretion rate to the
AGN, indicating that most of the NLR gas mass has been entrained from the
galaxy plane. The average kinetic power of the NLR outflows is ~10^-4 times the
bolometric luminosity.
"

AGN Feedback: Does it work?
Smita Mathur, Rebecca Stoll, Yair Krongold, Fabrizio Nicastro, Nancy Brickhouse, Martin Elvis, arXiv:0910.3691 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: to appear in proceedings of the conference "The Monster's Fiery Breath: Feedback in Galaxies, Groups, and Clusters", June 2009, Madison, WI, Eds. S. Heinz &amp; E. Wilcots

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Interstellar Medium

PAH processing in interstellar shocks
E. R. Micelotta, A. P. Jones, A. G. G. M. Tielens, arXiv:0910.2461 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 21 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics

VLT/FLAMES-ARGUS observations of stellar wind--ISM cloud interactions in NGC 6357
M.S. Westmoquette, J.D. Slavin, L.J. Smith, J.S. Gallagher III, arXiv:0910.4191 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 9 pages, 5 figures (3 colour). Accepted for publication in MNRAS

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Stars, Supernovae and Planets

The rebrightening of planetary nebulae through ISM interaction

C J Wareing, arXiv:0910.2200 [ps, pdf, other]

Comments: Review paper accepted to PASA. 8 pages, 5 figures. High resolution images available from the author

Stellar Feedback in Molecular Clouds and its Influence on the Mass Function of Young Star Clusters
S. Michael Fall, Mark R. Krumholz, Christopher D. Matzner, arXiv:0910.2238 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 5 pages, 2 figures, emulateapj format, submitted to ApJL

Typing Supernova Remnants Using X-ray Line Emission Morphologies
Laura A. Lopez, Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz, Carles Badenes, Daniela Huppenkothen, Tesla E. Jeltema, David A. Pooley, arXiv:0910.3208 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 4 pages, 1 figure, accepted for publication in ApJL

Line-of-sight Shell Structure of the Cygnus Loop
Hiroyuki Uchida, Hiroshi Tsunemi, Satoru Katsuda, Masashi Kimura, Hiroko Kosugi, Hiroaki Takahashi, arXiv:0910.3731 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 8 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ
Journal-ref: Astrophysical Journal 705 (2009) 1152-1159

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Other

FISH: A 3D parallel MHD code for astrophysical applications
R. Kaeppeli, S. C. Whitehouse, S. Scheidegger, U.-L. Pen, M. Liebendoerfer, arXiv:0910.2854 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 27 pages, 11 figures

Astrometry.net: Blind astrometric calibration of arbitrary astronomical images
Dustin Lang, David W. Hogg, Keir Mierle, Michael Blanton, Sam Roweis, arXiv:0910.2233 [pdf, other]
Comments: submitted to AJ

A very cool idea!

Interesting Astrophysics: Sep 28 to Oct 02

A mixed bag of preprints this week. From my personal perspective I'd say the Marchili et al paper on M82' SN2008iz and Acero et al's paper on a gamma ray detection of NGC 253 are the most interesting.

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Galaxies and Starbursts

The radio lightcurve of SN 2008iz in M82 revealed by Urumqi observations
N. Marchili, I. Marti-Vidal, A. Brunthaler, T.P. Krichbaum, P. Mueller, X. Liu, H.-G. Song, U. Bach, R. Beswick, J.A. Zensus, arXiv:0909.5535 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 7 pages, 3 figures. Accepted for publication in A &amp; A

Detection of Gamma Rays From a Starburst Galaxy
The HESS Collaboration: F. Acero, et al, arXiv:0909.4651 [ps, pdf, other]

Comments: 24 pages, 8 figures, published in Science Express, see: this http URL

Reported H.E.S.S. gamma ray detection of NGC 253, F()>220 GeV) = [5.5 +/- 1.0(stat) +/- 2.8 (sys)] times 10-13 cm-2 s-1. Much of the interpretation is done under the assumption that all the activity is due to the starburst, and NOT related to any AGN, which I'm not personally sure is a robust assumption. Still its an interesting mini-paper.

Star Formation Histories within the Antennae Galaxies (Arp 244)
Hong-Xin Zhang, Yu Gao, Xu Kong, arXiv:0909.5186 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 13 pages, 7 figures, accepted by MNRAS

How ubiquitous are massive starbursts in interacting galaxies?
P. Di Matteo, F. Bournaud, M. Martig, F. Combes, A.-L. Melchior, B. Semelin, arXiv:0909.5192 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 4 pages, Proceedings of the conference "Galaxies in isolation: exploring Nature vs Nurture" (May 2009, Granada, Spain)

Comparison of H-alpha and UV Star Formation Rates in the Local Volume: Systematic Discrepancies for Dwarf Galaxies
Janice C. Lee, Armando Gil de Paz, Christy Tremonti, Robert C. Kennicutt Jr., Samir Salim, Matthew Bothwell, Daniela Calzetti, Julianne Dalcanton, Daniel Dale, Chad Engelbracht, Jose G. Funes S.J., Benjamin Johnson, Shoko Sakai, Evan Skillman, Liese van Zee, Fabian Walter, Daniel Weisz, arXiv:0909.5205 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 29 pages, 10 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in ApJ

The Far-Infrared--Radio Correlation at High Redshifts: Physical Considerations and Prospects for the Square Kilometer Array
Eric J. Murphy, arXiv:0910.0011 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 16 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

What stellar populations can tell us about the evolution of the mass-metallicity relation in SDSS galaxies
N. Vale Asari, G. Stasinska, R. Cid Fernandes, J. M. Gomes, M. Schlickmann, A. Mateus, W. Schoenell, arXiv:0910.0224 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: To appear in the proceedings of IAU symposium 262, 'Stellar Populations - Planning for the Next Decade'

From their abstract: "Our results suggest that the M-Z relation for galaxies with present-day stellar masses down to 10^10 solar masses is mainly driven by the star formation history and not by inflows or outflows." This strikes me as a bit odd for a major conclusion, as pretty much everyone agrees that M-Z is dominated by the SF history... the real argument if M-yeff, and the trends suggestive of outflow really kick in for galaxies *below* 10^10.5 solar masses.

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Theoretical Cosmology

Can galaxy outflows and re-accretion produce the downsizing in specific star formation rate of late-type galaxies?
C. Firmani, V. Avila-Reese, A. Rodriguez-Puebla, arXiv:0909.5188 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 11 pages, 4 figures. Comments are welcome. Submitted to MNRAS

The physics driving the cosmic star formation history
Joop Schaye, Claudio Dalla Vecchia, C. M. Booth, Robert P. C. Wiersma, Tom Theuns, Marcel R. Haas, Serena Bertone, Alan R. Duffy, I. G. McCarthy, Freeke van de Voort, arXiv:0909.5196 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: Submitted to MNRAS, 27 pages and 18 figures

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Numerical Astrophysics

A new radiative cooling curve based on an up to date plasma emission code
K.M. Schure, D. Kosenko, J.S. Kaastra, R. Keppens, J. Vink, arXiv:0909.5204 [ps, pdf, other]

Comments: 11 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication in A&amp;A. Tables in text format online available at this http URL

Collisional ionisation equilibrium cooling, valid above 10⁴ K.. Seems pretty straightforward.

Numerical Implementation of Streaming Down the Gradient: Application to Fluid Modeling of Cosmic Rays
Prateek Sharma, Phillip Colella, Daniel F. Martin, arXiv:0909.5426 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: submitted to SIAM J. of Scient. Comp.; 15 pages, 9 figs.; comments welcome

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Stars, Supernovae and Planets

Stellar models: firm evidence, open questions and future developments
Santi Cassisi, arXiv:0909.4629 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 10 pages, 3 figures, Keynote review talk at the IAU Symp. 262 "Stellar Populations - Planning the Next Decade" of the XXVIIth IAU General Assembly held in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Proceeding eds. G. Bruzual &amp; S. Charlot

Chandra observation of Cepheus A: The diffuse emission of HH 168 resolved
P. C. Schneider, H. M. Guenther, J. H. M. M. Schmitt, arXiv:0909.5326 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 8 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in A&A

Core collapse supernovae and starbursts
Miguel A. Perez-Torres, arXiv:0909.5578 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: Proceedings of the 8th international e-VLBI Workshop, accepted for publication, 6 pages, 1 figure,

Interesting Astrophysics: Sep 21 to Sep 25

A interesting week. Of particular note: Radio observation of young SNe/SNRs in Arp 299 (NGC 3690+IC 694) by Ulvestad and also Perez-Torres et al; empirical measures of gas consumption in galaxies by Bauermeister et al versus simulated gas accretion by Kereš et al (which makes galaxies too massive); YACRDWM (yet another cosmic ray driven wind model), this time by Samui et al; and estimates of the delay time for prompt Type Ia supernovae (Raskin et al)

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Galaxies and Starbursts

Radio Emission from Young Supernovae and Supernova Remnants in Arp 299
James S. Ulvestad, arXiv:0909.3534 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: Astronomical Journal, in press, December 2009 issue

Arp 299 = NGC 3690 + IC 694. Finds 30 point-like radio sources in the two nuclei. Also gives estimated sizes of the two regions where the young SNe/SNRs are found.

An extremely prolific supernova factory in the buried nucleus of the starburst galaxy IC 694
M.A. Perez-Torres, C. Romero-Canizales, A. Alberdi, A. Polatidis, arXiv:0909.3959 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: Under revision by A&amp;A, 6 pages, 2 figures

Makes a number of rather strong claims...

The Gas Consumption History to z ~ 4
Amber Bauermeister, Leo Blitz, Chung-Pei Ma, arXiv:0909.3840 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 10 pages, 6 figures. Submitted to ApJ

UV Continuum Slope and Dust Obscuration from z~6 to z~2: The Star Formation Rate Density at High Redshift
R.J. Bouwens, G.D. Illingworth, M. Franx, R-R. Chary, G.R. Meurer, C.J. Conselice, H. Ford, M. Giavalisco, P. van Dokkum, arXiv:0909.4074 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 30 pages, 15 figures, 7 tables, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal

HI kinematics and dynamics of Messier 31
Laurent Chemin, Claude Carignan, Tyler Foster, arXiv:0909.3846 [ps, pdf, other]

Comments: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal, 22 pages, 17 figures. For a higher resolution version of the article, see this http URL

Low Resolution Spectral Templates For AGNs and Galaxies From 0.03 -- 30 microns
R.J. Assef, C.S. Kochanek, M. Brodwin, R. Cool, W. Forman, A.H. Gonzalez, R.C. Hickox, C. Jones, E. Le Floc'h, J. Moustakas, S.S. Murray, D. Stern, arXiv:0909.3849 [ps, pdf, other]

Comments: Submitted to The Astrophysical Journal. 23 text pages + 3 tables + 18 figures. Fortran codes, templates and electronic tables available at this http URL

Cosmic ray driven outflows from high redshift galaxies
Saumyadip Samui, Kandaswamy Subramanian, Raghunathan Srianand, arXiv:0909.3854 [pdf, other]
Comments: 14 pages, 7 figures, Submitted to MNRAS

As with all CR-driven models this relies on assuming that supernovae losing the vast majority (~90%) of their initial kinetic energy in order for the energy associated with CRs to then be significant in the remaining total. This may apply to quiescently star forming galaxies, but its a bad assumption for actively star forming galaxies.

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Black Holes and AGN

Title: Characterising the Far-infrared Properties of Distant X-ray Detected AGNs: Evidence for Evolution in the Infrared--X-ray Luminosity Ratio
J. R. Mullaney, D. M. Alexander, M. Huynh, A. D. Goulding, D. Frayer, arXiv:0909.3842 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 20 pages, 11 figures, MNRAS accepted

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Theoretical Cosmology

Galaxies in a simulated ΛCDM universe - II. Observable properties and constraints on feedback
Kereš, Dušan; Katz, Neal; Davé, Romeel; Fardal, Mark; Weinberg, David H., 2009, MNRAS, 396, 2332
Full Text: HTML, PDF (1885k)

In short they find that the over-cooling problem remains, and existing (simplistic) feedback recipes do NOT fix it.

Galaxies in a simulated ΛCDM Universe - I. Cold mode and hot cores
Kereš, Dušan; Katz, Neal; Fardal, Mark; Davé, Romeel; Weinberg, David H., 2009, MNRAS, 395, 160
Full Text: HTML, PDF (44390k)

Updated version of the older stuff on the relative strengths of cold mode and hot mode accretion onto galaxies and how accretion rates onto galaxies relate to the simulated star formation rates. NB: The end up with 3 times too many baryons in galaxies, so should we still believe that accretion is being handled correctly?

The Modelling of Feedback Processes in Cosmological Simulations of Disk Galaxy Formation
Franziska Piontek, Matthias Steinmetz, arXiv:0909.4167 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 21 pages, 27 figures, submitted to MNRAS

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Stars, Supernovae and Planets

Discovery of Strong Radiative Recombination Continua from The Supernova Remnant IC 443 with Suzaku
Hiroya Yamaguchi, Midori Ozawa, Katsuji Koyama, Kuniaki Masai, Junko S. Hiraga, Masanobu Ozaki, Daisuke Yonetoku, arXiv:0909.3848 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 5 pages, 5 figures, accepted by ApJ Letter

Cosmic Origins Spectrograph Observations of the Chemical Composition of LMC N132D
Kevin France, Matthew Beasley, Brian A. Keeney, Charles W. Danforth, Cynthia S. Froning, James C. Green, arXiv:0909.4110 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 5 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to ApJL

Prompt Ia Supernovae Are Significantly Delayed
Cody Raskin, Evan Scannapieco, James Rhoads, Massimo Della Valle, arXiv:0909.4293 [pdf, other]
Comments: 6 pages, 6 figures, ApJ, in press

From their abstract: "Our approach confines the analysis only to the relevant portions of the hosts, allowing us to show that even so-called "prompt" SNe Ia that trace star-formation on cosmic timescales exhibit a significant delay time of 200-500 million years."

Radiation-Hydrodynamic Models of X-Ray & EUV Photoevaporating Protoplanetary Discs
J. E. Owen, B. Ercolano, C. J. Clarke, R. D. Alexander, arXiv:0909.4309 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 16 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

X-rays are the dominant driving mechanism for photoevaporation.

The Planetary Nebula Luminosity Function: Pieces of the Puzzle
Robin Ciardullo, arXiv:0909.4356 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 7 pages, including 7 figures; presentation at the workshop on the Legacies of the Macquarie/AAO/Strasbourg H-alpha Planetary Nebula project, accepted for publication in PASA

Note to self: Must read, as may have implications for understanding compact H-alpha point sources in M82 ACS data.

3D models of radiatively driven colliding winds in massive O+O star binaries - III. Thermal X-ray emission
J. M. Pittard, E. R. Parkin, arXiv:0909.4383 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 29 pages, 23 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

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Other

Astroinformatics: A 21st Century Approach to Astronomy
Kirk D. Borne, arXiv:0909.3892 [pdf, other]
Comments: 14 pages total: 1 cover page, 3 pages of co-signers, plus 10 pages, Astro2010 Decadal Survey State of the Profession Position Paper

Galaxies and Cladistics
Didier Fraix-Burnet, arXiv:0909.4164 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: Talk given at the "12th Evolutionary Biology Meeting" held in Marseille, France, Sept. 24-26, 2008
Journal-ref: Evolutionary Biology. Concept, Modeling, and Application, Pontarotti, Pierre (Ed.) (2009) 363-378

Interesting Astrophysics: Sep 01 to Sep 04

Of the 270 preprints that appeared on arXiv.org in the last week there were 16 that caught my eye.

Just on my favorite subject of galactic winds, Swinbank et al find evidence a galactic wind in a starburst galaxy at redshift z=4.9, Martin & Bouche present their Fe II and Mg II absorption line studies of wind in local ULIRGs, and Heesen et al present radio data on NGC 253's wind.

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Galaxies and Starbursts

Probing the Excitation of Extreme Starbursts: High Resolution Mid-IR Spectroscopy of Blue Compact Dwarfs
Lei Hao, Yanling Wu, V. Charmandaris, H. W. W. Spoon, J. Bernard-Salas, D. Devost, V. Lebouteiller, J. R. Houck, arXiv:0908.4084 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 15 pages, including 1 table and 14 figures. Accepted by ApJ

A Maximum Stellar Surface Density in Dense Stellar Systems
Philip F. Hopkins, Norman Murray, Eliot Quataert, Todd A. Thompson, arXiv:0908.4088 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 6 pages, 2 figures, submitted to MNRAS Letters

A Spatially Resolved Map of the Kinematics, Star-Formation and Stellar Mass Assembly in a Star-Forming Galaxy at z=4.9
Mark Swinbank, Tracy Webb, Johan Richard, Richard Bower, Richard Ellis, Garth Illingworth, Tucker Jones, Mariska Kriek, Ian Smail, Dan Stark, Pieter Van Dokkum, rXiv:0909.0111 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 11 pages, 7 figures

Is this the highest redshift starbursting galaxy with an identified outflow?

Quantitative determination of the AGN content in local ULIRGs through L-band spectroscopy
G. Risaliti, M. Imanishi, E. Sani, arXiv:0908.4544 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 8 Pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

Physical Conditions in the Low-Ionization Component of Starburst Outflows: The Shape of Near-Ultraviolet and Optical Absorption-Line Troughs in Keck Spectra of ULIRGs
Crystal L. Martin, Nicolas Bouche, arXiv:0908.4271 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 28 pages, 10 figures, to appear in ApJ

Very interesting and impressive work. The variation of the cloud covering fraction with velocity should prove a particularly powerful model discriminant.

The starburst-GRB connection
Jens Dreyer, Julia K. Becker, Wolfgang Rhode, arXiv:0909.0158 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 4 pages, 4 figures, contribution to the 31st ICRC, Lodz, Poland, 2009

Transport of cosmic rays in the nearby starburst galaxy NGC 253
Volker Heesen, Rainer Beck, Marita Krause, Ralf-Jürgen Dettmar, arXiv:0909.0282 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 6 pages, 9 figures, to be published in Astronomische Nachrichten (proceedings of Symposium 6 of the JENAM 2008, Vienna)

Tracing Star Formation in Cool Core Clusters with GALEX
Amalia Hicks, Richard F. Mushotzky, Megan Donahue, arXiv:0909.0257 [pdf, other]
Comments:
4 pages, 4 figures; to appear in proceedings of The Monster's Fiery
Breath: Feedback in Galaxies, Groups, and Clusters (AIP conference
series)

Local Luminous Infrared Galaxies: Spatially resolved mid-infrared observations with Spitzer/IRS
Almudena Alonso-Herrero, Miguel Pereira-Santaella, George H. Rieke, Luis Colina, Charles W. Engelbracht, Pablo Perez-Gonzalez, Tanio Diaz-Santos, J. D. T. Smith, arXiv:0909.0658 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: Accepted for publication in Advances in Space Research

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Numerical and Theoretical Astrophysics

Computational Eulerian Hydrodynamics and Galilean Invariance
Brant E. Robertson, Andrey V. Kravtsov, Nickolay Y. Gnedin, Tom Abel, Douglas H. Rudd, arXiv:0909.0513 [ps, pdf, other]

Comments: Submitted to MNRAS. Figures degraded. For high-resolution color figures and movies of the numerical simulations, please visit this http URL

From their abstract: "In this work, we critically examine recent claims [i.e. Springel 2009] that these methods violate Galilean invariance of the Euler equations. We demonstrate that Eulerian hydrodynamics methods do converge to a Galilean-invariant solution, provided a well-defined convergent solution exists. Specifically, we show that numerical diffusion, resulting from diffusion-like terms in the discretized hydrodynamical equations solved by Eulerian methods, accounts for the effects previously identified as evidence for the Galilean non-invariance of these methods."

Oct-tree Method on GPU
N.Nakasato, arXiv:0909.0541 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: Poster paper to be appeared in SC09

Turbulence and Mixing in the Intracluster Medium
P. Sharma, B. D. G. Chandran, E. Quataert, I. J. Parrish, arXiv:0909.0270 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 8 pages, 2 figs., submitted to the conference proceedings of "The Monster's Fiery Breath;" a follow up of arXiv:0901.4786 focusing on the general mixing properties of the ICM

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High Energy Astrophysics

Radial Distribution of X-ray Point Sources near the Galactic Center
Jaesub Hong, Maureen van den Berg, Jonathan E. Grindlay, Silas Laycock, arXiv:0908.4306 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 17 pages, 7 figures, 6 tables, accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal

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Stars. Supernovae and Planets

Atlas of Vega: 3850 -- 6860 Angstroms
Hyun-Sook Kim, Inwoo Han, G. Valyavin, Byeong-Cheol Lee, V. Shimansky, G.A. Galazutdinov, arXiv:0908.4081 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 9 pages, 1 table, 4 figures, accepted to be published in The Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (PASP)

Balmer-Dominated Shocks: A Concise Review
Kevin Heng, arXiv:0908.4080 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 20 pages, 7 figures (double-columned, font size 10). Submitted to PASA. Comments welcome

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Other

A Color All-Sky Panorama Image of the Milky Way
Axel Mellinger, arXiv:0908.4360 [pdf, other]
Comments: 7 figures, submitted to PASP

Interesting Astrophysics: Jul 14 to 24

This edition of Interesting Astrophysics is graced by not one, not two, but five papers on galactic winds. Matsubayashi et al present Fabry-Perot observations of the NGC 253's wind, while both Westmoquette et al and Veilleux et al present observations of M82's wind. Two papers consider theoretical models, specifically numerical simulations, of winds: Cooper et al simulate individual cloud(s) in a superwind at very high resolution, while Kapferer et al simulate clusters of galaxies including a semi-analytical prescription for mixed mode thermal/CR-driven winds.

Finally there is a very extensive discussion of Fermi's Paradox by Cirkovic, which is well worth a read by anyone interested in astrobiology, while Selvelli and Molaro discuss the nature of the telescopes in the paintings of Brueghel the Elder.

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Galaxies and Starbursts

Galactic Wind in the Nearby Starburst Galaxy NGC 253 Observed with the Kyoto3DII Fabry-Perot Mode
K. Matsubayashi, H. Sugai, T. Hattori, A. Kawai, S. Ozaki, G. Kosugi, T. Ishigaki, A. Shimono, arXiv:0907.2012 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 22 pages, 5 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in ApJ

The Optical Structure of the Starburst Galaxy M82. II. Nebular Properties of the Disk and Inner-Wind
M. S. Westmoquette, J. S. Gallagher, L. J. Smith, G. Trancho, N. Bastian, I. S. Konstantopoulos, arXiv:0907.3162 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 27 pages, 18 figures (13 in colour), accepted for publication in ApJ

WARM MOLECULAR HYDROGEN IN THE GALACTIC WIND OF M82
Sylvain Veilleux, David S. N. Rupke, and Rob Swaters, 2009, ApJ, 700, L149
PDF (1.23 MB) | HTML

Mass Loss From Planetary Nebulae in Elliptical Galaxies
Joel N. Bregman, Joel R. Parriott, arXiv:0907.3489 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 34 pages with 20 figures. Higher quality figures are in the ApJ version
Journal-ref: ApJ, 699, 2009, 923-932

Radio monitoring of NGC 7469: Late time radio evolution of SN 2000ft and the circumnuclear starburst in NGC 7469
M.A. Perez-Torres, A. Alberdi, L. Colina, J.M. Torrelles, N. Panagia, A. Wilson, E. Kankare, S. Mattila, arXiv:0907.2644 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 10 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

Integral field optical spectroscopy of a representative sample of ULIRGs: I. The Data
M. Garcia-Marin, L. Colina, S. Arribas, A. Monreal-Ibero, arXiv:0907.2408 [pdf, other]

Comments: To appear in A&A. Paper with higher quality images can be found at this http URL

Integral field optical spectroscopy of a representative sample of ULIRGs: II. Two-dimensional kpc-scale extinction structure
M. Garcia-Marin, L. Colina, S. Arribas, arXiv:0907.2218 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: To appear in A&A

Starburst-Driven Galactic Winds: Filament Formation and Emission Processes
J. L. Cooper, G. V. Bicknell, R. S. Sutherland, J. Bland-Hawthorn

Comments: Accepted to ApJ, 39 pages, 21 figures, movie file can obtained at this http URL

From their abstract, with my comments in square brackets: "The degree of fragmentation is highly dependent on the resolution of the simulation, with the number of cloudlets formed increasing as the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability is better resolved [1]. Nevertheless, there is a clear qualitative trend, with the filamentary structure still persistent at high resolution. We confirm the mechanism behind the formation of the H-alpha emitting filaments found in our global simulations of a starburst-driven wind. Based on our resolution study, we conclude that bow shocks around accelerated gas clouds, and their interaction, are the main source of the soft X-ray emission observed in these galactic-scale winds [2]."

[1] This is actually a very worrying result, and indeed is one of the primary reasons I have not pushed forward to publish our our high resolution 2-D and 3-D simulations but have instead switched to analytical theory. The characteristic size of H-alpha cloudlets in reality cannot be arbitrarily small (and if it were, there would be adverse dynamical consequences), so increasing fragmentation in the numerical simulations suggests that the results are being driven by numerics and not physics. There are reason to worry about instabilities, structure formation and mixing processes within even apparently converged grid-based simulations (as demonstrated by e.g. the Santa Barbara Cluster Comparison Project; Frenk et al 1999).

[2] Good! - that's what I've been saying for years (for very similar reasons and with similar or greater levels of quantitative justification, dare I say it).

I really would have liked to see some quantitative justification for the claims regarding both the X-ray emission and whether the H-alpha cloud complexes/filaments are really luminous enough to reproduce real winds.

The classic problem with simulating winds is that is it trivial to produce things that qualitatively reproduce wind-like structures, and adding resolution always generates more structure which makes the simulation superficially look more like real (complex, multiphase, messy) superwinds. But those same simulations can be orders of magnitude off in terms of quantitatively matching real winds. Even when you can get the models to match one particular observational parameter well quantitatively (e.g. the cloud OVI/X-ray flux ratio; Marcolini et al 2005) you often find some other observable parameter has values that tell you your beautiful simulation can't be a truly realistic model of reality (e.g. you cloud lifetime is ~1 Myr when real cloud lifetimes must be ~10 Myr, or the OVI column density through the cloud is one hundredth of the observed total line of sight OVI column density, meaning that your model implies you'd need ~100 clouds along every line of sight through a superwind).

Overall, its nice work but the very limited time scales (~ 1 Myr), the numerical issues I mentioned above, and lack of quantification in terms of luminosities make its claims seem no more strongly justified than preceding work.

Metal enrichment of the intra-cluster medium by thermally and cosmic-ray driven galactic winds
W. Kapferer, T. Kronberger, D. Breitschwerdt, S. Schindler, E. van Kampen, S. Kimeswenger, W. Domainko, M. Mair, M. Ruffert, arXiv:0907.3800 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 9 pages, 6 figures, accepted by A&A

Assumes that the terminal velocity of the (effectively single phase) wind is equal to the galactic escape velocity. Its a common assumption, and may have some semi-empirical justification for the entrained cool gas (T<10⁵ K) in starburst-driven winds, but this assumption lacks theoretical and observational justification for the hot gas (admittedly, and notably, all the observational data is on winds from starburst galaxies, which are almost certainly predominantly thermally-driven). And in thermal or even mixed-mode thermal+CR winds its the hot gas that is involved in driving the wind and holds the metals.

Numerical simulations of hot halo gas in galaxy mergers
Manodeep Sinha, Kelly Holley-Bockelmann, 2009, MNRAS, 397, 190
Full Text: HTML, PDF (Size: 46324K)

Less than 10 percent of star formation in z=0.6 massive galaxies is triggered by major interactions
Aday R. Robaina, et al, arXiv:0907.3728 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: Submitted to ApJ. 41 pages, 11 figures

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Black Holes and AGN

Optical--to--X-ray emission in low-absorption AGN: Results from the Swift-BAT 9 month catalogue
R. V. Vasudevan, R. F. Mushotzky, L. M. Winter, A. C. Fabian, arXiv:0907.2272 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 25 pages, 22 figures, 4 tables, accepted for publication in MNRAS

AGN with strong forbidden high-ionization lines selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
Jonathan M. Gelbord, James R. Mullaney, Martin J. Ward, 2009, MNRAS, 397, 172
Full Text: HTML, PDF (Size: 2513K)

Black Holes in the Galaxy
Josep M. Paredes, arXiv:0907.3602 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: Notes to a series of five Lectures given in the First La Plata International School on Astronomy and Geophysics: Compact Objects and their emission, La Plata Observatory, 10-14 March 2008, Argentina, 32 pages, 12 figures, 1 table, editors G.E. Romero and P. Benaglia; ISBN 978-987-24948-0-3

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Other

On the telescopes in the paintings of J. Brueghel the Elder
Pierluigi Selvelli, Paolo Molaro, arXiv:0907.3745 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 5 pages, 3 figures. Proceedings of 400 years of Astronomical telescopes Conference at ESA/ESTEC in Noordwijk. Brandl, Bernhard R.; Stuik, Remko; Katgert-Merkeli, J.K. (Jet) (Eds.)

Fermi's Paradox - The Last Challenge for Copernicanism?
Milan M. Cirkovic, arXiv:0907.3432 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 39 pages, 3 figures, slightly expanded in comparison to the journal version
Journal-ref: Serbian Astronomical Journal, vol. 178, pp. 1-20 (2009)

Interesting Astrophysics: Mar 18 to Mar 22

Not one but three theoretical papers with some relevance to galactic winds this week, although all quite different types of winds. Dogiel and Breitschwerdt discuss cosmic-ray -driven winds, Silich et al further explore their radiative (thermal) star cluster wind solution, and Kurosawa and Proga discuss AGN-driven winds.

In addition to this windy goodness there are also a variety of interesting papers on galaxies, LINERs, IFU spectroscopy, and gas-phase element depletion factors. Enjoy!

There will not be an edition of "Interesting Astrophysics" next week as I'll be away all week at the The Chemical Enrichment of the Intergalactic Medium meeting in Leiden.

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Galaxies and Starbursts

A Young Super Star Cluster in the Nuclear Region of NGC 253
Kornei, Katherine A., McCrady, Nate, 2009, ApJ, 697, 1180
PDF (406 KB) | HTML

A Super Bubble Candidate in the Galactic Center and a Local Enhancement G359.77-0.09
Hideyuki Mori, Yoshiaki Hyodo, Takeshi Go Tsuru, Masayoshi Nobukawa, Katsuji Koyama, arXiv:0905.2725 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 9 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in PASJ

Extragalactic chemical abundances: do HII regions and young stars tell the same story? The case of the spiral galaxy NGC 300
Fabio Bresolin, Wolfgang Gieren, Rolf-Peter Kudritzki, Grzegorz Pietrzynski, Miguel A. Urbaneja, Giovanni Carraro, arXiv:0905.2791 [pdf, other]
Comments: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

Cosmic Rays in the Disk and Halo of Galaxies
V.Dogiel, D. Breitschwerdt, arXiv:0905.3071 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: Accepeted in ESA Publication Series, 2009

Personally I disagree with attempting to lump theoretical model CR-driven galactic winds in with the winds we actually see in actively star-forming galaxies, for which we have good evidence that they're gas pressure-driven galactic winds (i.e. by supernova and stellar winds). CRs are present in starburst-driven winds, but they're not energetically dominant, and CR-driven wind solutions have quite distinctively different kinematics from observations and theory of starburst-driven winds.

On the Heating Efficiency Derived from Observations of Young Super Star Clusters in M82
Sergiy Silich, Guillermo Tenorio-Tagle, Ana Torres Campos, Casiana Munoz-Tunon, Ana Monreal-Ibero. Veronica Melo, arXiv:0905.3192 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 15 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

Ah, but the real question is how significant are the most massive clusters to the total star formation rate in M82 starburst region? Ultimately, not that significant, as least that is what we concluded (Strickland & Heckman, 2009, ApJ, 697, 2030).

Line and Continuum Emission from the Galactic Center. III. Origin of 6.4 keV Line Emission from Molecular Clouds in the Galactic Center
Vladimir Dogiel, Kwong-Sang Cheng, Dmitrii Chernyshov, Aya Bamba, Atsushi Ichimura, Hajime Inoue, Chung-Ming Ko, Motohide Kokubun, Yoshitomo Maeda, Kazuhisa Mitsuda, Noriko Y. Yamasaki, arXiv:0905.3075 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: Accepted in PASJ, to be published in PASJ Vol.61 No.5, 2009

Star formation and nuclear activity in close pairs of early-type galaxies
Ben Rogers, Ignacio Ferreras, Sugata Kaviraj, Anna Pasquali, Marc Sarzi, arXiv:0905.3386 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 11 pages, 9 figures, 1 table. Submitted for publication in MNRAS

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Black Holes and AGN

On the large-scale outflows in active galactic nuclei: consequences of coupling the mass-supply rate and accretion luminosity
Ryuichi Kurosawa, Daniel Proga, arXiv:0905.2965 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 14 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

An X-ray view of 82 LINERs with Chandra and XMM-Newton data
O. Gonzalez-Martin, J. Masegosa, I. Marquez, M. Guainazzi, E. Jimenez-Bailon, arXiv:0905.2973 [pdf]

Comments: Accepted for publications in Astronomy and Astrophysics, 49 pages, 12 figures. Catalogs only at: this http URL

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Other

The integral field spectroscopy (IFS) wiki
M.S. Westmoquette, K.M. Exter, L. Christensen, M. Maier, M. Lemoine-Busserolle, J. Turner, T. Marquart, arXiv:0905.3054 [pdf, other]

Comments: This article accompanies the opening of the IFS wiki site this http URL

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The Interstellar Medium

A Unified Representation of Gas-Phase Element Depletions in the Interstellar Medium
Edward B. Jenkins, arXiv:0905.3173 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 166 pages, 21 figures, pages 116-166 contain detailed tabulations that may not be of interest to most readers. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal

Its only 166 pages! Get reading now.

Interesting Astrophysics: Apr 13 to Apr 17

A lot of interesting galaxy-related stuff came out this week, either in the journals or on astro-ph. Of particular note there is a new radio supernova in M82 (Brunthaler et al), two papers on IR observations of star-forming galaxies (Siana et al; Weedmand and Houck) and even a paper on post-starburst galaxies (Wild et al). Everett et al expand on their work on hybrid Cosmic Ray plus Thermal galactic winds, and Maddox et al look at the X-ray emission from the N11 superbubble in the LMC.

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Galaxies and Starbursts

Discovery of a bright radio transient in M82: a new radio supernova?
A. Brunthaler, K.M. Menten, M.J. Reid, C. Henkel, G.C. Bower, H. Falcke, arXiv:0904.2388 [ps, pdf, other]

Comments: submitted to Astronomy & Astrophysics, 4 pages, 3 figures, also available at this http URL

This is pretty cool - a new bright radio source has appeared near the kinematic center of M82, possibly a radio supernova.

Post-starburst galaxies: more than just an interesting curiosity
Vivienne Wild, C. Jakob Walcher, Peter H. Johansson, Laurence Tresse, Stéphane Charlot, Agnieszka Pollo, Olivier Le Fèvre and Loic de Ravel, 2009, MNRAS, 395, 144
Full Text: HTML, PDF (Size: 1562K)

Detection of PAH and Far-Infrared Emission from the Cosmic Eye: Probing the Dust and Star Formation of Lyman Break Galaxies
Brian Siana, Ian Smail, A. Mark Swinbank, Johan Richard, Harry I. Teplitz, Kristen E. K. Coppin, Richard S. Ellis, Daniel P. Stark, Jean-Paul Kneib, Alistair C. Edge, arXiv:0904.1742 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: Accepted for publication in ApJ. 9 pages, 7 figures

Evolution of the Most Luminous Dusty Galaxies
Daniel W. Weedman, James R. Houck, arXiv:0904.2331 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

Spitzer IRS observations for a significant number of ULIRGs, tabulates the 8 micron fluxes.

Synchrotron Constraints on a Hybrid Cosmic-Ray and Thermally-Driven Galactic Wind
John E. Everett, Quintin G. Schiller, Ellen G. Zweibel, arXiv:0904.1964 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 13 pages, 8 figures; submitted to ApJ; comments and questions welcome

Hitting the Bull's-eye: The Radial Profile of Accretion and Star Formation in the Milky Way
J. E. G. Peek, arXiv:0904.2000 [pdf, other]
Comments: 9 pages, 5 figures, accepted to the ApJ

Understanding Global Galactic Star Formation
Paul A. Scowen. et al, arXiv:0904.2002 [pdf]
Comments: 8 pages - Science White Paper for the Astro2010 Decadal Survey Panel(s): Planetary Systems and Star Formation; Stars and Stellar Evolution

The evolution of the mass-metallicity relation in galaxies of different morphological types
F. Calura, A. Pipino, C. Chiappini, F. Matteucci, R. Maiolino, arXiv:0904.2180 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 20 pages, 13 figures, accepted by Astronomy & Astrophysics

Reproduces galaxy mass-metallicity (MZ) relationship using increasing SF efficiency in more massive galaxies, without the need for outflows. This is hardly surprising, as even outflow advocates acknowledge that most/much of the MZ relationship is driven by the different amount of gas consumption and thus relative degree of chemical evolution of host galaxies of different mass. Unfortunately Calura et al don't show what the galaxy mass versus effective yield (M-y_eff) relationship predicted by their model, which is annoying as the M-y_eff would take this effect out and observationally still shows apparent metal loss in low mass galaxies (although c.f. Dalcanton '07, who showed y_eff is not always an honest tracer).

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Cosmology

Big Bang Nucleosynthesis: The Strong Force meets the Weak Anthropic Principle
J. MacDonald, D. J. Mullan, arXiv:0904.1807 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 13 figures

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Numerical Methods and Numerical Astrophysics

PCA Tomography: how to extract information from data cubes
J. E. Steiner, R. B. Menezes, T. V. Ricci and A. S. Oliveira, 2009, MNRAS, 395, 64
Full Text: HTML, PDF (Size: 20939K)

The Fate of High-Velocity Clouds: Warm or Cold Cosmic Rain?
Fabian Heitsch, Mary E. Putman, arXiv:0904.1995 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 12 pages, 8 figures, accepted by ApJ

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Stars, Supernovae and Planets

Nonthermal X-ray Emission from the N11 Superbubble in the Large Magellanic Cloud
L.A. Maddox, R.M. Williams, B.C. Dunne, Y.-H Chu, arXiv:0904.1821 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 16 pages, 3 figures, submitted to ApJ

Short-term Effects of Gamma Ray Bursts on Earth
Osmel Martín, Douglas Galante, Rolando Cárdenas, J.E. Horvath, arXiv:0904.1755 [pdf]
Comments: 13 pp., to appear in Astrophysics and Space Science