Winds In Dwarf Galaxies Research Articles

INFERNO: Galactic winds in dwarf galaxies with star-by-star simulations including runaway stars

ABSTRACT The formation and evolution of galaxies have proved sensitive to the inclusion of stellar feedback, which is therefore crucial to any successful galaxy model. We present INFERNO, a new model for hydrodynamic simulations of galaxies, which incorporates resolved stellar objects with star-by-star calculations of when and where the injection of enriched material, momentum, and energy takes place. INFERNO treats early stellar kinematics to include phenomena such as walkaway and runaway stars. We employ this innovative model on simulations of a dwarf galaxy and demonstrate that our physically motivated stellar feedback model can drive vigorous galactic winds. This is quantified by mass and metal loading factors in the range of 10–100, and an energy loading factor close to unity. Outflows are established close to the disc, are highly multiphase, spanning almost 8 orders of magnitude in temperature, and with a clear dichotomy between mass ejected in cold, slow-moving (T ≲ 5 × 104 K, v < 100 km s−1) gas and energy ejected in hot, fast-moving (T > 106 K, v > 100 km s−1) gas. In contrast to massive disc galaxies, we find a surprisingly weak impact of the early stellar kinematics, with runaway stars having little to no effect on our results, despite exploding in diffuse gas outside the dense star-forming gas, as well as outside the galactic disc entirely. We demonstrate that this weak impact in dwarf galaxies stems from a combination of strong feedback and a porous interstellar medium, which obscure any unique signatures that runaway stars provide.

Cosmic ray feedback from supernovae in dwarf galaxies

The regulation of the baryonic content in dwarf galaxies is a long-standing problem. Supernovae (SNe) are supposed to play a key role in forming large-scale galactic winds by removing important amounts of gas from galaxies. SNe are efficient accelerators of non-thermal particles, so-called cosmic rays (CRs), which can substantially modify the dynamics of the gas and conditions to form large-scale galactic winds. We investigate how CR injection by SNe impacts the star formation and the formation of large-scale winds in dwarf galaxies, and whether it can produce galaxy star-formation rates (SFR) and wind properties closer to observations. We ran CR magneto-hydrodynamical simulations of dwarf galaxies at high resolution (9 pc) with the adaptive mesh refinement codeRAMSES. Those disc galaxies are embedded in isolated halos of mass of 1010and 1011 M⊙, and CRs are injected by SNe. We included CR isotropic and anisotropic diffusion with various diffusion coefficients, CR radiative losses, and CR streaming. The injection of CR energy into the interstellar medium smooths out the highest gas densities, which reduces the SFR by a factor of 2–3. Mass outflow rates are significantly greater with CR diffusion, by 2 orders of magnitudes for the higher diffusion coefficients. Without diffusion and streaming, CRs are inefficient at generating winds. CR streaming alone allows for the formation of winds but which are too weak to match observations. The formation of galactic winds strongly depends on the diffusion coefficient: for low coefficients, CR energy stays confined in high density regions where CR energy losses are highest, and higher coefficients, which allow for a more efficient leaking of CRs out of dense gas, produce stronger winds. CR diffusion leads to colder and denser winds than without CRs, and brings outflow rates and mass loading factors much closer to observations.

Molecular Gas in the Outflow of the Small Magellanic Cloud

Abstract We report the first evidence of molecular gas in two atomic hydrogen (H i) clouds associated with gas outflowing from the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). We used the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment to detect and spatially resolve individual clumps of 12CO(2 → 1) emission in both clouds. CO clumps are compact (∼10 pc) and dynamically cold (line widths ). Most CO emission appears to be offset from the peaks of the H i emission, some molecular gas lies in regions without a clear H i counterpart. We estimate a total molecular gas mass of in each cloud and molecular gas fractions up to 30% of the total cold gas mass (molecular + neutral). Under the assumption that this gas is escaping the galaxy, we calculated a cold gas outflow rate of and mass loading factors of at a distance larger than 1 kpc. These results show that relatively weak starburst-driven winds in dwarf galaxies like the SMC are able to accelerate significant amounts of cold and dense matter and inject it into the surrounding environment.

Magnetised winds in dwarf galaxies

The origin and the magnitude of the inter-galactic magnetic field is of primordial importance in the global picture of magnetic field evolution, as it is considered to be the missing link between galactic magnetic fields and cluster magnetic fields on much larger scales. We are testing whether dwarf galaxies are good candidates to explain the enrichment of the IGM: after their discs form and trigger galactic dynamos, supernova feedback will launch strong winds, expelling magnetic field lines in the IGM. We have performed MHD simulations of an isolated dwarf galaxy, forming self-consistently inside a cooling halo. Using the RAMSES code, we have for the first time simulated the formation of a magnetised supernova-driven galactic outflow. This simulation is an important step towards a more realistic modelling using fully cosmological simulations. Our simulations reproduce well the observed properties of magnetic fields in spiral galaxies. The formation and the evolution of our simulated disc lead to a strong magnetic field amplification: the magnetic field in the final wind bubble is one order of magnitude larger than the initial value. The magnetic field in the disc, essentially toroidal, is growing linearly with time as a consequence of differential rotation. We discuss the consequence of this simple mechanism on the cosmic evolution of the magnetic field: we propose a new scenario for the evolution of the magnetic field, with dwarf galaxies playing a key role in amplifying and ejecting magnetic energy in the IGM, resulting in what we call a "Cosmic Dynamo" that could contribute to the rather high field strengths observed in galaxies and clusters today.

Chemical enrichment and feedback in low metallicity environments: constraints on galaxy formation

AbstractChemical evolution models for dwarf metal poor galaxies, including dwarf irregulars and dwarf spheroidals will be presented. The main ingredients necessary to build detailed models of chemical evolution including stellar nucleosynthesis, supernova progenitors, stellar lifetimes and stellar feedback will be discussed. The stellar feedback will be analysed in connection with the development of galactic winds in dwarf galaxies and their effects on the predicted abundances and abundance ratios. Model results concerning α-elements (O, Mg, Si, Ca), Fe and s-and r-process elements will be discussed and compared with the most recent observational data for metal poor galaxies of the Local Group. We will show how the study of abundance ratios versus abundances can represent a very powerful tool to infer constraints on galaxy formation mechanisms. In this framework, we will discuss whether, on the basis of their chemical properties, the dwarf galaxies of the Local Group could have been the building blocks of the Milky Way.