Contribution from normal and starburst galaxies to the extragalactic gamma-ray background （EGRB）

The extragalactic diffuse emission at γ-ray energies has interesting cosmo-logical implications since these photons suffer little or no attenuation during their prop-agation from the site of origin. The emission could originate from either truly diffuse processes or from unresolved point sources such as AGNs, normal galaxies and starburst galaxies. Here, we examine the unresolved point source origin of the extragalactic γ-ray background emission from normal galaxies and starburst galaxies. γ-ray emission from normal galaxies is primarily coming from cosmic-ray interactions with interstellar mat-ter and radiation (～90%) along with a small contribution from discrete point sources (～10%). Starburst galaxies are expected to have enhanced supernovae activity which leads to higher cosmic-ray densities, making starburst galaxies sufficiently luminous at γ-ray energies to be detected by the current γ-ray mission (Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope).     

Dense molecular gas in a sample of LIRGs and ULIRGs: The low-redshift connection to the huge high-redshift starbursts and AGNs

The sample of nearby LIRGs and ULIRGs for which dense molecular gas tracers have been measured is building up, allowing for the study of the physical and chemical properties of the gas in the variety of objects in which the most intense star formation and/or AGN activity in the local universe is taking place. This characterisation is essential to understand the processes involved, discard others and help to interpret the powerful starbursts and AGNs at high redshift that are currently being discovered and that will routinely be mapped by ALMA. We have studied the properties of the dense molecular gas in a sample of 17 nearby LIRGs and ULIRGs through millimeter observations of several molecules (HCO⁺, HCN, CN, HNC and CS) that trace different physical and chemical conditions of the dense gas in these extreme objects. In this paper we present the results of our HCO⁺ and HCN observations. We conclude that the very large range of measured line luminosity ratios for these two molecules severely questions the use of a unique molecular tracer to derive the dense gas mass in these galaxies.     

Alfvén instabilities in streaming plasmas with anisotropic pressures and their relevance for the solar wind

Low frequency or Alfvén waves in streaming plasmas can become unstable when the square of the Alfvén velocity is smaller than the mean square of the bulk motion in a co-moving reference frame, (u –u )², whereu stands for the bulk velocity of each species and u is the average bulk velocity of the plasma as a whole. For these new Alfvén instabilities the streaming effects can be enhanced by a suitable pressure anisotropy. Perpendicular pressure effects are stabilizing, parallel pressure effects are destabilizing, as in the usual firehose instability. The observed velocity differences between helium and the main (hydrogen) flow in the solar wind plasma are such that the Alfvén waves are getting close to marginal instability. These new Alfvén instabilities limit the velocity differences between helium and hydrogen and thus provide a possible mechanism for accelerating the helium particles up to the order of the main flow velocity.     

Fluctuations in mid-latitude 6300 Å airglow and their relationship to F-region irregularities

Observations of fluctuations in the 6300 Å airglow emission at night have been studied using a tilting filter photometer. Spectral analysis of the fluctuations shows that at times the fluctuations are primarily due to wavelike disturbances with relatively well defined periods. At other times the spectrum of the fluctuations contains significant power only at long periods and there is a relatively sharp cut-off at the short period end. Most spectra are of these two types and are probably indicative of gravity waves. A third category is observed in which the spectra are of the form $\text{P∽?}{}^{\mathrm{?1.3}}$ Fewer spectra of this type are observed when the magnetic activity increases and the periods of spectral peaks observed changes with magnetic activity. The total power in the airglow fluctuations increases with K_p and the occurrence of spread F.     

The Q Values of the Galilean Satellites and their Tidal Contributions to the Deceleration of Jupiter''''s Rotation

The relationship between the k2/Q of the Galilean satellites and the k2J/QJ of Jupiter is derived from energy and momentum considerations. Calculations suggest that the Galilean satellites can be divided into two classes according to their Q values: Io and Ganymede have values between 10 and 50, while Europa and Callisto have values ranging from 200 to 700. The tidal contributions of the Galilean satellites to Jupiter's rotation are estimated. The main deceleration of Jupiter, which is about 99.04% of the total, comes from Io.     

Gullies and their relationships to the dust–ice mantle in the northwestern Argyre Basin,Mars

We investigated gullies and their relationships to the atmospherically derived dust–ice mantle and aeolian features in the northwestern part of the Argyre basin. A detailed morphologic map of the Argyre study region allowed us to constrain the stratigraphic relationships and relative ages of gullies. In addition, we investigated the morphologic characteristics and orientations of all gullies in the Argyre study region. Maximum absolute ages for gullies were determined with crater size–frequency distribution measurements of the dust–ice mantle, which is the source material of gullies in the study area. Gullies only evolve from this mantle probably by melting of its ice content. Two different morphologies of pristine and degraded gullies were identified, mostly occurring on pole- and equatorward-facing slopes, respectively. We conclude that the morphologies and orientations were initiated either by a more rapid and extensive erosion of equatorward-facing gullies or by at least two generations of gullies with generally older gullies on equatorward-facing slopes and younger ones on pole-facing slopes. Different intensities of solar insolation on equator- and pole-facing slopes might be responsible for the different development of pristine and degraded gullies. Gullies in the study area generally have ages ?20 Ma. Some uncratered (and thus very young) aeolian dunes are superposed by a few gullies in some locations, indicating another even younger generation of gullies with an upper limit absolute model age of about <500 ka.     

The Q Values of the Galilean Satellites and their TidalContributions to the Deceleration of Jupiter＇s Rotation

The relationship between the k2/Q of the Galilean satellites and the k2J/QJ of Jupiter is derived from energy and momentum considerations. Calculations suggest that the Galilean satellites can be divided into two classes according to their Q values: Io and Ganymede have values between 10 and 50, while Europa and Callisto have values ranging from 200 to 700. The tidal contributions of the Galilean satellites to Jupiter‘s rotation are estimated. The main deceleration of Jupiter, which is about 99.04% of the total, comes from Io.     

Sensitivity of the Calculated <Emphasis Type="Italic">g</Emphasis>-Mode Frequencies to Pulsation Codes and their Parameters

From the recent work of the Evolution and Seismic Tools Activity (ESTA: Monteiro et al., ESA, SP-1306, 363 – 371, 2006 and Lebreton et al., Astrophys. Space Sci. 316, 1 – 12, 2008), whose Task 2 is devoted to comparing pulsational frequencies computed using most of the pulsational codes available in the asteroseismic community, the dependence of the theoretical frequencies on non-physical choices is now quite well specified. To ensure that the accuracy of the computed frequencies is of the same order of magnitude or better than the observational errors, some requirements in the equilibrium models and the numerical resolutions of the pulsational equations must be followed. In particular, we have verified the numerical accuracy obtained with the Saclay seismic model, which is used to study the solar g-mode region (60 to 140 μHz). We have compared the results coming from the Aarhus adiabatic pulsation code (ADIPLS), with the frequencies computed with the Granada Code (GraCo) taking into account several possible non-physical choices and the effect of using two different outer mechanical boundary conditions. We have concluded that the present equilibrium models and the use of the Richardson extrapolation ensure an accuracy of the order of 0.01 μHz in the determination of the frequencies, which is quite enough for our purposes.