Turbulent Interstellar Medium Research Articles

Simulating the H2 content of high-redshift galaxies

We introduce a sub-grid model for the non-equilibrium abundance of molecular hydrogen in cosmological simulations of galaxy formation. We improve upon previous work by accounting for the unresolved structure of molecular clouds in a phenomenological way which combines both observational and numerical results on the properties of the turbulent interstellar medium. We apply the model to a cosmological simulation of the formation of a Milky-Way-sized galaxy at z=2, and compare the results to those obtained using other popular prescriptions that compute the equilibrium abundance of H2. In these runs we introduce an explicit link between star formation and the local H2 abundance, and perform an additional simulation in which star formation is linked directly to the density of cold gas. In better agreement with observations, we find that the simulated galaxy produces less stars and harbors a larger gas reservoir when star formation is regulated by molecular hydrogen. In this case, the galaxy is composed of a younger stellar population as early star formation is inhibited in small, metal poor dark-matter haloes which cannot efficiently produce H2. The number of luminous satellites orbiting within the virial radius of the galaxy at z=2 is reduced by 10-30 per cent in models with H2-regulated star formation.

The onset of large-scale turbulence in the interstellar medium of spiral galaxies

Turbulence is ubiquitous in the interstellar medium (ISM) of the Milky Way and other spiral galaxies. The energy source for this turbulence has been much debated with many possible origins proposed. The universality of turbulence, its reported large-scale driving, and that it occurs also in starless molecular clouds, challenges models invoking any stellar source. A more general process is needed to explain the observations. In this work we study the role of galactic spiral arms. This is accomplished by means of three-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations which follow the dynamical evolution of interstellar diffuse clouds (100cm-3) interacting with the gravitational potential field of the spiral pattern. We find that the tidal effects of the arm's potential on the cloud result in internal vorticity, fragmentation and hydrodynamical instabilities. The triggered turbulence result in large-scale driving, on sizes of the ISM inhomogeneities, i.e. as large as 100pc, and efficiencies in converting potential energy into turbulence in the range 10 to 25 percent per arm crossing. This efficiency is much higher than those found in previous models. The statistics of the turbulence in our simulations are strikingly similar to the observed power spectrum and Larson scaling relations of molecular clouds and the general ISM. The dependency found from different models indicate that the ISM turbulence is mainly related to local spiral arm properties, such as its mass density and width. This correlation seems in agreement with recent high angular resolution observations of spiral galaxies, e.g. M51 and M33.

Ram pressure stripping in elliptical galaxies – II. Magnetic field effects

We investigate the effects of magnetic fields and turbulence on ram pressure stripping in elliptical galaxies using ideal magnetohydrodynamics simulations. We consider weakly-magnetised interstellar medium (ISM) characterised by subsonic turbulence, and two orientations of the magnetic fields in the intracluster medium (ICM) - parallel and perpendicular to the direction of the galaxy motion through the ICM. While the stronger turbulence enhances the ram pressure stripping mass loss, the magnetic fields tend to suppress the stripping rates, and the suppression is stronger for parallel fields. However, the effect of magnetic fields on the mass stripping rate is mild. Nevertheless, the morphology of the stripping tails depends significantly on the direction of the ICM magnetic field. The effect of the magnetic field geometry on the tail morphology is much stronger than that of the level of the ISM turbulence. The tail has a highly collimated shape for parallel fields, while it has a sheet-like morphology in the plane of the ICM magnetic field for perpendicular fields. The magnetic field in the tail is amplified irrespectively of the orientation of the ICM field. More strongly magnetised regions in the ram pressure stripping tails are expected to have systematically higher metallicity due to the strong concentration of the stripped ISM than the less magnetised regions. Strong dependence of the morphology of the stripped ISM on the magnetic field could potentially be used to constrain the relative orientation of the ram pressure direction and the dominant component of the ICM magnetic field.

Photoionization and heating of a supernova-driven turbulent interstellar medium

The diffuse ionized gas (DIG) in galaxies traces photoionization feedback from massive stars. Through three-dimensional photoionization simulations, we study the propagation of ionizing photons, photoionization heating and the resulting distribution of ionized and neutral gas within snapshots of magnetohydrodynamic simulations of a supernova-driven turbulent interstellar medium. We also investigate the impact of non-photoionization heating on observed optical emission line ratios. Inclusion of a heating term which scales less steeply with electron density than photoionization is required to produce diagnostic emission line ratios similar to those observed with the Wisconsin Hα Mapper. Once such heating terms have been included, we are also able to produce temperatures similar to those inferred from observations of the DIG, with temperatures increasing to above 15 000 K at heights |z| ≳ 1 kpc. We find that ionizing photons travel through low-density regions close to the mid-plane of the simulations, while travelling through diffuse low-density regions at large heights. The majority of photons travel small distances (≲100 pc); however some travel kiloparsecs and ionize the DIG.

DUST SCATTERING IN TURBULENT MEDIA: CORRELATION BETWEEN THE SCATTERED LIGHT AND DUST COLUMN DENSITY

Radiative transfer models in a spherical, turbulent interstellar medium (ISM) in which the photon source is situated at the center are calculated to investigate the correlation between the scattered light and the dust column density. The medium is modeled using fractional Brownian motion structures that are appropriate for turbulent ISM. The correlation plot between the scattered light and optical depth shows substantial scatter and deviation from simple proportionality. It was also found that the overall density contrast is smoothed out in scattered light. In other words, there is an enhancement of the dust-scattered flux in low-density regions, while the scattered flux is suppressed in high-density regions. The correlation becomes less significant as the scattering becomes closer to be isotropic and the medium becomes more turbulent. Therefore, the scattered light observed in near-infrared wavelengths would show much weaker correlation than the observations in optical and ultraviolet wavelengths. We also find that the correlation plot between scattered lights at two different wavelengths shows a tighter correlation than that of the scattered light versus the optical depth.

Fermi bubble simulations: black hole feedback in the Milky Way

AbstractThe Fermi γ-ray telescope discovered a pair of bubbles at the Galactic center. These structures are spatially-correlated with the microwave emission detected by the WMAP and Planck satellites. These bubbles were likely inflated by a jet launched from the vicinity of a supermassive black hole in the Galactic center. Using MHD simulations, which self-consistently include interactions between cosmic rays and magnetic fields, we build models of the supersonic jet propagation, cosmic ray transport, and the magnetic field amplification within the Fermi bubbles. Our key findings are that: (1) the synthetic Fermi γ-ray and WMAP microwave spectra based on our simulations are consistent with the observations, suggesting that a single population of cosmic ray leptons may simultaneously explain the emission across a range of photon energies; (2) the model fits the observed centrally-peaked microwave emission if a second, more recent, pair of jets embedded in the Fermi bubbles is included in the model. This is consistent with the observationally-based suggestion made by Su & Finkbeiner (2012); (3) the radio emission from the bubbles is expected to be strongly polarized due to the relatively high level of field ordering caused by elongated turbulent vortices. This effect is caused by the interaction of the shocks driven by the jets with the preexisting interstellar medium turbulence; (4) a layer of enhanced rotation measure in the shock-compressed region could exist in the bubble vicinity but the level of this enhancement depends on the details of the magnetic topology.

Plasma Diagnostics of the Interstellar Medium with Radio Astronomy

We discuss the degree to which radio propagation measurements diagnose conditions in the ionized gas of the interstellar medium (ISM). The “signal generators” of the radio waves of interest are extragalactic radio sources (quasars and radio galaxies), as well as Galactic sources, primarily pulsars. The polarized synchrotron radiation of the Galactic non-thermal radiation also serves to probe the ISM, including space between the emitting regions and the solar system. Radio propagation measurements provide unique information on turbulence in the ISM as well as the mean plasma properties such as density and magnetic field strength. Radio propagation observations can provide input to the major contemporary questions on the nature of ISM turbulence, such as its dissipation mechanisms and the processes responsible for generating the turbulence on large spatial scales. Measurements of the large scale Galactic magnetic field via Faraday rotation provide unique observational input to theories of the generation of the Galactic field.

LOGNORMAL INTENSITY DISTRIBUTION OF THE FAR-ULTRAVIOLET CONTINUUM BACKGROUND SHORTWARD OF Lyα

The diffuse far-ultraviolet (FUV) continuum radiation "longward" of Ly-alpha (1216A) is well known to correlate with the dust emission at 100 um. However, it has been claimed that the FUV continuum background "shortward" of Ly-alpha shows very weak or no correlation with the 100 um emission. In this paper, the observational data of the diffuse FUV radiation by the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer is reexamined in order to investigate the correlation between the diffuse FUV radiation shortward of Ly-alpha and the 100 um emission. Large fluctuations were confirmed in the linear-linear correlation plots, but good correlations were found in the log-log plots. The large fluctuations in the linear-linear plots, and thus poor correlations, between the FUV and 100 um intensities were attributed to the lognormal property of the FUV intensity distribution. The standard deviation of the intensity distribution of the FUV radiation shortward of Ly-alpha was found to be sigma_log I = 0.16-0.25. The result is consistent with that obtained not only for the FUV radiation longward of 1216A, but also with the dust column density measurements of various molecular clouds. This implies that most of the diffuse FUV radiation shortward of Ly-alpha is dust-scattered light in the turbulent interstellar medium. The diffuse FUV data obtained from the Voyager missions was also investigated. However, much wider random fluctuations were found compared with the FUSE data, which is most likely due to the systematic difficulties in data reduction of the Voyager data.

Flux density variability of radio sources at declinations 10°–12°30′ (J2000) on time scales less than a month

Results of a search for and study of variability in a complete sample of flat-spectrum radio sources (83 objects) on time scales longer than a day are reported. The data were obtained in six series of daily observations on the RATAN-600 radio telescope made over 77–103 days at six frequencies from 0.97 to 21.7 GHz and at declinations of 10°–12°30′ (J2000). Variability on time scales of 3–30 days with significance levels below 1% was detected for 19 sources. The time scales, modulation indices, and spectra of the variability derived from an analysis of the light curves, structure functions, and autocorrelation functions are presented for these sources. For a number of them, intrinsic variability and extrinsic variability due to scintillations in the turbulent interstellar medium have been separated. The obtained source characteristics are compared with those for sources at declinations 4°–6° (B1950).

Synthesized grain size distribution in the interstellar medium

We examine a synthetic way of constructing the grain size distribution in the interstellar medium (ISM). First, we formulate a synthetic grain size distribution composed of three grain size distributions processed with the following mechanisms that govern the grain size distribution in the Milky Way: (i) grain growth by accretion and coagulation in dense clouds, (ii) supernova shock destruction by sputtering in diffuse ISM, and (iii) shattering driven by turbulence in diffuse ISM. Then, we examine if the observational grain size distribution in the Milky Way (called MRN) is successfully synthesized or not. We find that the three components actually synthesize the MRN grain size distribution in the sense that the deficiency of small grains by (i) and (ii) is compensated by the production of small grains by (iii). The fraction of each contribution to the total grain processing of (i), (ii), and (iii) (i.e., the relative importance of the three contributions to all grain processing mechanisms) is 30–50%, 20–40%, and 10–40%, respectively. We also show that the Milky Way extinction curve is reproduced with the synthetic grain size distributions.

Cosmic rays in the Inner Galaxy

Recent measurements of cosmic gamma ray intensities up to TeV energies have been used to estimate the spectral shape of the parent cosmic ray particles present in the interstellar medium. The case is made for the particle spectrum in the Inner Galaxy being flatter than locally and in the Outer Galaxy. Of various possible explanations we make the case for the propagation of the particles being different in the more turbulent interstellar medium of the Inner Galaxy. The characteristic parameter α for the so called anomalous diffusion is expected to be less in the Inner Galaxy than locally by about 0.2 and the corresponding power law spectral exponent of the cosmic ray particles differs from that locally by about Δγ 0.1.

Cosmic rays in the inner galaxy and the diffusion properties of the interstellar medium

Recent measurements of cosmic gamma ray intensities up to TeV energies have been used to estimate the spectral shape of the parent cosmic ray particles present in the interstellar medium. The case is made for the particle spectrum in the Inner Galaxy being flatter than locally and in the Outer Galaxy. Of various possible explanations we make the case for the propagation of the particles being different in the more turbulent interstellar medium of the Inner Galaxy. The characteristic parameter α for the so called ‘anomalous diffusion’ is expected to be less in the Inner Galaxy than that locally and the corresponding power law spectral exponent of the cosmic ray particles γ will differ from that locally. Arguments are presented favouring a value of α lower than the local one by Δα=0.2; the consequence is that Δγ∼0.1 for the parent particles.

THE COLUMN DENSITY VARIANCE IN TURBULENT INTERSTELLAR MEDIA: A FRACTAL MODEL APPROACH

Fractional Brownian motion (fBm) structures are used to investigate the dependency of column density variance ({\sigma}_{\ln N}^2) in the turbulent interstellar medium on the variance of three-dimensional density ({\sigma}_{\ln\rho}^2) and the power-law slope of the density power spectrum. We provide quantitative expressions to infer the three-dimensional density variance, which is not directly observable, from the observable column density variance and spectral slope. We also investigate the relationship between the column density variance and sonic Mach number (Ms) in the hydrodynamic (HD) regime by assuming the spectral slope and density variance as functions of sonic Mach number, as obtained from the HD turbulence simulations. They are related by the expression {\sigma}_{\ln N}^2 = A{\sigma}_{\ln\rho}^2 = Aln(1+b^2M^2), suggested by Burkhart & Lazarian for the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) case. The proportional constant A varies from ~ 0.2 to ~ 0.4 in the HD regime as the turbulence forcing parameter b increases from 1/3 (purely solenoidal forcing) to 1 (purely compressive forcing). It is also discussed that the parameter A is lowered in the presence of a magnetic field.

STAR FORMATION LAWS AND THRESHOLDS FROM INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM STRUCTURE AND TURBULENCE

We present an analytical model of the relation between the surface density of gas and star formation rate in galaxies and clouds, as a function of the presence of supersonic turbulence and the associated structure of the interstellar medium. The model predicts a power-law relation of index 3/2, flattened under the effects of stellar feedback at high densities or in very turbulent media, and a break at low surface densities when ISM turbulence becomes too weak to induce strong compression. This model explains the diversity of star formation laws and thresholds observed in nearby spirals and their resolved regions, the Small Magellanic Cloud, high-redshift disks and starbursting mergers, as well as Galactic molecular clouds. While other models have proposed interstellar dust content and molecule formation to be key ingredients to the observed variations of the star formation efficiency, we demonstrate instead that these variations can be explained by interstellar medium turbulence and structure in various types of galaxies.

Ram pressure stripping in elliptical galaxies – I. The impact of the interstellar medium turbulence

Elliptical galaxies contain X-ray emitting gas that is subject to continuous ram pressure stripping over timescales comparable to cluster ages. The gas in these galaxies is not in perfect hydrostatic equilibrium. Supernova feedback, stellar winds, or active galactic nuclei (AGN) feedback can significantly perturb the interstellar medium (ISM). Using hydrodynamical simulations, we investigate the effect of subsonic turbulence in the hot ISM on the ram pressure stripping process in early-type galaxies. We find that galaxies with more turbulent ISM produce longer, wider, and more smoothly distributed tails of the stripped ISM than those characterised by weaker ISM turbulence. Our main conclusion is that even very weak internal turbulence, at the level of <15% of the average ISM sound speed, can significantly accelerate the gas removal from galaxies via ram pressure stripping. The magnitude of this effect increases sharply with the strength of turbulence. As most of the gas stripping takes place near the boundary between the ISM and the intraclustermedium (ICM), the boost in the ISM stripping rate is due to the "random walk" of the ISM from the central regions of the galactic potential well to larger distances, where the ram pressure is able to permanently remove the gas from galaxies. The ICM can be temporarily trapped inside the galactic potential well due to the mixing of the turbulent ISM with the ICM. The galaxies with more turbulent ISM, yet still characterised by very weak turbulence, can hold larger amounts of the ICM. [Abridged]

Probing interstellar turbulence in spiral galaxies using H i power spectrum analysis

We estimate the H i intensity fluctuation power spectrum for a sample of 18 spiral galaxies chosen from THINGS. Our analysis spans a large range of length-scales from ∼300pc to ∼16kpc across the entire galaxy sample. We find that the power spectrum of each galaxy can be well fitted by a power law PHI(U)=AUα, with an index α that varies from galaxy to galaxy. For some of the galaxies the scale-invariant power-law power spectrum extends to length-scales that are comparable to the size of the galaxy’s disk. The distribution of α is strongly peaked with 50% of the values in the range α=-1.9 to 1.5, and a mean and standard deviation of −1.3 and 0.5 respectively. We find no significant correlation between α and the star formation rate, dynamical mass, H i mass or velocity dispersion of the galaxies.Several earlier studies that have measured the power spectrum within our galaxy on length-scales that are considerably smaller than 500pc have found a power-law power spectrum with α in the range ≈-2.8 to −2.5. We propose a picture where we interpret the values in the range ≈-2.8 to −2.5 as arising from three dimensional (3D) turbulence in the interstellar medium (ISM) on length-scales smaller than the galaxy’s scale-height, and we interpret the values in the range ≈-1.9 to −1.5 measured in this paper as arising from two-dimensional ISM turbulence in the plane of the galaxy’s disk. It however still remains a difficulty to explain the small galaxy to galaxy variations in the values of α measured here.

The effect of ISM turbulence on the gravitational instability of galactic discs

We investigate the gravitational instability of galactic discs, treating stars and cold interstellar gas as two distinct components, and taking into account the phenomenology of turbulence in the interstellar medium (ISM), i.e. the Larson-type scaling relations observed in the molecular and atomic gas. Besides deriving general properties of such systems, we analyse a large sample of galaxies from The H i Nearby Galaxy Survey (THINGS), and show in detail how interstellar turbulence affects disc instability in star-forming spirals. We find that turbulence has a significant effect on both the inner and the outer regions of the disc. In particular, it drives the inner gas disc to a regime of transition between two instability phases and makes the outer disc more prone to star-dominated instabilities.

A semi-analytic model of the turbulent multi-phase interstellar medium

We present a semi-analytic model for the interstellar medium that considers local processes and structures of turbulent star-forming gas. A volume element of the interstellar medium is described as a multi-phase system, comprising a cold and a warm gas phase in effective (thermal plus turbulent) pressure equilibrium and a stellar component. The cooling instability of the warm gas feeds the cold phase, while various heating processes transfer cold gas to the warm phase. The cold phase consists of clumps embedded in diffuse warm gas, where only the molecular fraction of the cold gas may be converted into stars. The fraction of molecular gas is approximately calculated, using a Strömgren-like approach and the efficiency of star formation is determined by the state of the cold gas and the turbulent velocity dispersion on the clump length-scale. Gas can be heated by supernovae and ultraviolet emission of massive stars, according to the evolutionary stages of the stellar populations and the initial mass function. Since turbulence has a critical impact on the shape of the gaseous phases, on the production of molecular hydrogen and on the formation of stars, the consistent treatment of turbulent energy – the kinetic energy of unresolved motions – is an important new feature of our model. Besides turbulence production by supernovae and the cooling instability, we also take into account the forcing by large-scale motions. We formulate a set of ordinary differential equations, which statistically describes star formation and the exchange between the different budgets of mass and energy in a region of the interstellar medium with given mean density, size, metallicity and external turbulence forcing. By exploring the behaviour of the solutions, we find equilibrium states, in which the star formation efficiencies are consistent with observations. Kennicutt–Schmidt-like relations naturally arise from the equilibrium solutions, while conventional star formation models in numerical simulations impose such relations with observed efficiency parameters as phenomenological calibrations. Beyond the semi-analytic approach, a potential application is a complete sub-grid scale model of the unresolved multi-phase structure, star formation and turbulence in simulations of galaxies or in cosmological simulations. The formulation presented in this article combines various models focusing on particular processes and yet can be adopted to specific applications, depending on the range of resolved length-scales.

Modelling H2 formation in the turbulent interstellar medium: solenoidal versus compressive turbulent forcing

We present results from high-resolution three-dimensional simulations of the turbulent interstellar medium that study the influence of the nature of the turbulence on the formation of molecular hydrogen. We have examined both solenoidal (divergence-free) and compressive (curl-free) turbulent driving, and show that compressive driving leads to faster H2 formation, owing to the higher peak densities produced in the gas. The difference in the H2 formation rate can be as much as an order of magnitude at early times, but declines at later times as the highest density regions become fully molecular and stop contributing to the total H2 formation rate. We have also used our results to test a simple prescription suggested by Gnedin et al. (2009) for modeling the influence of unresolved density fluctuations on the H2 formation rate in large-scale simulations of the ISM. We find that this approach works well when the H2 fraction is small, but breaks down once the highest density gas becomes fully molecular.

Non-equilibrium ionization modeling of the Local Bubble

Aims. We present the first high-resolution non-equilibrium ionization simulation of the joint evolution of the Local Bubble (LB) and Loop I superbubbles in the turbulent supernova-driven interstellar medium (ISM). The time variation and spatial distribution of the Li-like ions Civ ,N v ,a nd Ovi inside the LB are studied in detail. Methods. This work uses the parallel adaptive mesh refinement code EAF-PAMR coupled to the newly developed atomic and molecular plasma emission module E(A+M)PEC, featuring the time-dependent calculation of the ionization structure of H through Fe, using the latest revision of solar abundances. The finest AMR resolution is 1 pc within a grid that covers a representative patch of the Galactic disk (with an area of 1 kpc 2 in the midplane) and halo (extending up to 10 kpc above and below the midplane). Results. The evolution age of the LB is derived by the match between the simulated and observed absorption features of the Li-like ions Civ ,N v ,a nd Ovi. The modeled LB current evolution time is bracketed between 0.5 and 0.8 Myr since the last supernova reheated the cavity in order to have N(Ovi) < 8 × 10 12 cm −2 ,l og[N(Civ)/N(Ovi)] < −0.9 and log[N(Nv)/N(Ovi)] < −1 inside the simulated LB cavity, as found in Copernicus, IUE, GHRS-IST and FUSE observations.