These are the latest articles published in The Astrophysical Journal.

• Open/close The AGN, Star-forming, and Morphological Properties of Luminous IR-bright/optically-faint Galaxies

  J. L. Donley et al  2010 ApJ 719 1393 Tag this article

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  We present the active galactic nucleus (AGN), star-forming, and morphological properties of a sample of 13 MIR-luminous ( f ₂₄ 700 μJy) IR-bright/optically-faint galaxies (IRBGs, f ₂₄/ f _R 1000). While these z ~ 2 sources were drawn from deep Chandra fields with >200 ks X-ray coverage, only seven are formally detected in the X-ray and four lack X-ray emission at even the 2σ level. Spitzer InfraRed Spectrograph (IRS) spectra, however, confirm that all of the sources are AGN-dominated in the mid-IR, although half have detectable polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission responsible for ~25% of their mid-infrared flux density. When combined with other samples, this indicates that at least 30%-40% of luminous IRBGs have star formation rates in the ultraluminous infrared galaxy (ULIRG) range (~100-2000 M  yr ^–1). X-ray hardness ratios and MIR to X-ray luminosity ratios indicate that all members of the sample contain heavily X-ray obscured AGNs, 80% of which are candidates to be Compton thick. Furthermore, the mean X-ray luminosity of the sample, log L _{2-10 keV} (erg s ^–1) ~44.6, indicates that these IRBGs are Type 2 QSOs, at least from the X-ray perspective. While those sources most heavily obscured in the X-ray are also those most likely to display strong silicate absorption in the mid-IR, silicate absorption does not always accompany X-ray obscuration. Finally, ~70% of the IRBGs are merger candidates, a rate consistent with that of sub-mm galaxies (SMGs), although SMGs appear to be physically larger than IRBGs. These characteristics are consistent with the proposal that these objects represent a later, AGN-dominated, and more relaxed evolutionary stage following soon after the star-formation-dominated one represented by the SMGs.

• Open/close Noisy Weak-lensing Convergence Peak Statistics Near Clusters of Galaxies and Beyond

  Zuhui Fan et al  2010 ApJ 719 1408 Tag this article

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  Taking into account noise from intrinsic ellipticities of source galaxies, in this paper, we study the peak statistics in weak-lensing convergence maps around clusters of galaxies and beyond. We emphasize how the noise peak statistics is affected by the density distribution of nearby clusters, and also how cluster-peak signals are changed by the existence of noise. These are the important aspects to be thoroughly understood in weak-lensing analyses for individual clusters as well as in cosmological applications of weak-lensing cluster statistics. We adopt Gaussian smoothing with the smoothing scale θ _G = 0.5arcmin in our analyses. It is found that the noise peak distribution near a cluster of galaxies sensitively depends on the density profile of the cluster. For a cored isothermal cluster with the core radius R _c , the inner region with R ≤ R _c appears noisy containing on average ~2.4 peaks with ν ≥ 5 for R _c = 1.7arcmin and the true peak height of the cluster ν = 5.6, where ν denotes the convergence signal-to-noise ratio. For a Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW) cluster of the same mass and the same central ν, the average number of peaks with ν ≥ 5 within R ≤ R _c is ~1.6. Thus a high peak corresponding to the main cluster can be identified more cleanly in the NFW case. In the outer region with R _c < R ≤ 5 R _c , the number of high noise peaks is considerably enhanced in comparison with that of the pure noise case without the nearby cluster. For ν ≥ 4, depending on the treatment of the mass-sheet degeneracy in weak-lensing analyses, the enhancement factor f is in the range of ~5 to ~55 for both clusters as their outer density profiles are similar. The properties of the main-cluster-peak identified in convergence maps are also significantly affected by the presence of noise. Scatters as well as a systematic shift for the peak height are present. The height distribution is peaked at ν ~ 6.6, rather than at ν = 5.6, corresponding to a shift of Δν ~ 1, for the isothermal cluster. For the NFW cluster, Δν ~ 0.8. The existence of noise also causes a location offset for the weak-lensing identified main-cluster-peak with respect to the true center of the cluster. The offset distribution is very broad and extends to R ~ R _c for the isothermal case. For the NFW cluster, it is relatively narrow and peaked at R ~ 0.2 R _c . We also analyze NFW clusters of different concentrations. It is found that the more centrally concentrated the mass distribution of a cluster is, the less its weak-lensing signal is affected by noise. Incorporating these important effects and the mass function of NFW dark matter halos, we further present a model calculating the statistical abundances of total convergence peaks, true and false ones, over a large field beyond individual clusters. The results are in good agreement with those from numerical simulations. The model then allows us to probe cosmologies with the convergence peaks directly without the need of expensive follow-up observations to differentiate true and false peaks.

• Open/close Magnetic Drag on Hot Jupiter Atmospheric Winds

  Rosalba Perna et al  2010 ApJ 719 1421 Tag this article

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  Hot Jupiters, with atmospheric temperatures T 1000 K, have residual thermal ionization levels sufficient for the interaction of ions with the planetary magnetic field to result in a sizable magnetic drag on the (neutral) atmospheric winds. We evaluate the magnitude of magnetic drag in a representative three-dimensional atmospheric model of the hot Jupiter HD 209458b and find that it is a plausible mechanism to limit wind speeds in this class of atmospheres. Magnetic drag has a strong geometrical dependence, both meridionally and from the dayside to the nightside (in the upper atmosphere), which could have interesting consequences for the atmospheric flow pattern. By extension, close-in eccentric planets with transiently heated atmospheres will experience time-variable levels of magnetic drag. A robust treatment of magnetic drag in circulation models for hot atmospheres may require iterated solutions to the magnetic induction and Saha equations as the hydrodynamic flow is evolved.

• Open/close Test of a General Formula for Black Hole Gravitational Wave Kicks

  James R. van Meter et al  2010 ApJ 719 1427 Tag this article

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  Although the gravitational wave kick velocity in the orbital plane of coalescing black holes has been understood for some time, apparently conflicting formulae have been proposed for the dominant out-of-plane kick, each a good fit to different data sets. This is important to resolve because it is only the out-of-plane kicks that can reach more than 500 km s ^–1 and can thus eject merged remnants from galaxies. Using a different ansatz for the out-of-plane kick, we show that we can fit almost all existing data to better than 5%. This is good enough for any astrophysical calculation and shows that the previous apparent conflict was only because the two data sets explored different aspects of the kick parameter space.

• Open/close Fermi Large Area Telescope View of the Core of the Radio Galaxy Centaurus A

  A. A. Abdo et al  2010 ApJ 719 1433 Tag this article

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  We present γ-ray observations with the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on board the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope of the nearby radio galaxy Centaurus A (Cen A). The previous EGRET detection is confirmed, and the localization is improved using data from the first 10 months of Fermi science operation. In previous work, we presented the detection of the lobes by the LAT; in this work, we concentrate on the γ-ray core of Cen A. Flux levels as seen by the LAT are not significantly different from that found by EGRET, nor is the extremely soft LAT spectrum (Γ = 2.67 ± 0.10 _stat ± 0.08 _sys where the photon flux is Φ E ^–Γ). The LAT core spectrum, extrapolated to higher energies, is marginally consistent with the non-simultaneous HESS spectrum of the source. The LAT observations are complemented by simultaneous observations from Suzaku, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope and X-ray Telescope, and radio observations with the Tracking Active Galactic Nuclei with Austral Milliarcsecond Interferometry program, along with a variety of non-simultaneous archival data from a variety of instruments and wavelengths to produce a spectral energy distribution (SED). We fit this broadband data set with a single-zone synchrotron/synchrotron self-Compton model, which describes the radio through GeV emission well, but fails to account for the non-simultaneous higher energy TeV emission observed by HESS from 2004 to 2008. The fit requires a low Doppler factor, in contrast to BL Lac objects which generally require larger values to fit their broadband SEDs. This indicates that the γ-ray emission originates from a slower region than that from BL Lac objects, consistent with previous modeling results from Cen A. This slower region could be a slower moving layer around a fast spine, or a slower region farther out from the black hole in a decelerating flow. The fit parameters are also consistent with Cen A being able to accelerate ultra-high energy cosmic-rays, as hinted at by results from the Auger observatory.