ABSTRACT We study the formation of galactic outflows from supernova (SN) explosions with the moving-mesh code AREPO in a stratified column of gas with a surface density similar to the Milky Way disk ...at the solar circle. We compare different simulation models for SN placement and energy feedback, including cosmic rays (CRs), and find that models that place SNe in dense gas and account for CR diffusion are able to drive outflows with similar mass loading as obtained from a random placement of SNe with no CRs. Despite this similarity, CR-driven outflows differ in several other key properties including their overall clumpiness and velocity. Moreover, the forces driving these outflows originate in different sources of pressure, with the CR diffusion model relying on non-thermal pressure gradients to create an outflow driven by internal pressure and the random-placement model depending on kinetic pressure gradients to propel a ballistic outflow. CRs therefore appear to be non-negligible physics in the formation of outflows from the interstellar medium.
ABSTRACT
How, when, and where the first stars formed are fundamental questions regarding the epoch of cosmic dawn. A second-order effect in the fluid equations was recently found to make a ...significant contribution: an offset velocity between gas and dark matter, the so-called streaming velocity. Previous simulations of a limited number of low-mass dark matter haloes suggest that this streaming velocity can delay the formation of the first stars and decrease halo gas fractions and the halo mass function in the low-mass regime. However, a systematic exploration of its effects in a large sample of haloes has been lacking until now. In this paper, we present results from a set of cosmological simulations of regions of the Universe with different streaming velocities performed with the moving mesh code arepo. Our simulations have very high mass resolution, enabling us to accurately resolve minihaloes as small as 105 M⊙. We show that in the absence of streaming, the least massive halo that contains cold gas has a mass Mhalo, min = 5 × 105 M⊙, but that cooling only becomes efficient in a majority of haloes for halo masses greater than $M_{\rm halo,50{{\ \rm per\ cent}}} = 1.6 \times 10^6 \: {\rm M_{\odot }}$. In regions with non-zero streaming velocities, Mhalo, min and $M_{\rm halo,50{{\ \rm per\ cent}}}$ both increase significantly, by around a factor of a few for each one sigma increase in the value of the local streaming velocity. As a result, in regions with streaming velocities $v_\mathrm{stream} \ge 3\, \sigma _\mathrm{rms}$, cooling of gas in minihaloes is completely suppressed, implying that the first stars in these regions form within atomic cooling haloes.
ABSTRACT
We present here the first of a series of papers aimed at better understanding the evolution and properties of giant molecular clouds (GMCs) in a galactic context. We perform high-resolution, ...three-dimensional arepo simulations of an interacting galaxy inspired by the well-observed M51 galaxy. Our fiducial simulations include a non-equilibrium, time-dependent, chemical network that follows the evolution of atomic and molecular hydrogen as well as carbon and oxygen self-consistently. Our calculations also treat gas self-gravity and subsequent star formation (described by sink particles), and coupled supernova feedback. In the densest parts of the simulated interstellar medium (ISM), we reach sub-parsec resolution, granting us the ability to resolve individual GMCs and their formation and destruction self-consistently throughout the galaxy. In this initial work, we focus on the general properties of the ISM with a particular focus on the cold star-forming gas. We discuss the role of the interaction with the companion galaxy in generating cold molecular gas and controlling stellar birth. We find that while the interaction drives large-scale gas flows and induces spiral arms in the galaxy, it is of secondary importance in determining gas fractions in the different ISM phases and the overall star formation rate. The behaviour of the gas on small GMC scales instead is mostly controlled by the self-regulating property of the ISM driven by coupled feedback.
It is widely accepted that supersonic, magnetized turbulence plays a fundamental role for star formation in molecular clouds. It produces the initial dense gas seeds out of which new stars can form. ...However, the exact relation between gas compression, turbulent Mach number and magnetic field strength is still poorly understood. Here, we introduce and test an analytical prediction for the relation between the density variance and the rms Mach number
in supersonic, isothermal, magnetized turbulent flows. We approximate the density and velocity structure of the interstellar medium as a superposition of shock waves. We obtain the density contrast considering the momentum equation for a single magnetized shock and extrapolate this result to the entire cloud. Depending on the field geometry, we then make three different assumptions based on observational and theoretical constraints: B independent of ρ, B∝ρ1/2 and B∝ρ. We test the analytically derived density variance-Mach number relation with numerical simulations, and find that for B∝ρ1/2, the variance in the logarithmic density contrast,
, fits very well to simulated data with turbulent forcing parameter b= 0.4, when the gas is super-Alfvénic. However, this result breaks down when the turbulence becomes trans-Alfvénic or sub-Alfvénic, because in this regime the turbulence becomes highly anisotropic. Our density variance-Mach number relations simplify to the purely hydrodynamic relation as the ratio of thermal to magnetic pressure β0→∞.
The most usual tracer of molecular gas is line emission from CO. However, the reliability of this tracer has long been questioned in environments different from the Milky Way. We study the ...relationship between H2 and CO abundances using a fully dynamical model of magnetized turbulence coupled to a chemical network simplified to follow only the dominant pathways for H2 and CO formation and destruction, and including photodissociation using a six-ray approximation. We find that the abundance of H2 is primarily determined by the amount of time available for its formation, which is proportional to the product of the density and the metallicity, but insensitive to photodissociation. Photodissociation only becomes important at extinctions under a few tenths of a visual magnitude, in agreement with both observational and prior theoretical work. On the other hand, CO forms quickly, within a dynamical time, but its abundance depends primarily on photodissociation, with only a weak secondary dependence on H2 abundance. As a result, there is a sharp cut-off in CO abundance at mean visual extinctions A
V≲ 3. At lower values of A
V, we find that the ratio of H2 column density to CO emissivity X
CO∝A
−3.5
V. This explains the discrepancy observed in low metallicity systems between cloud masses derived from CO observations and other techniques such as infrared emission. Our work predicts that CO-bright clouds in low metallicity systems should be systematically larger or denser than Milky Way clouds, or both. Our results further explain the narrow range of observed molecular cloud column densities as a threshold effect, without requiring the assumption of virial equilibrium.
We use hydrodynamical simulations in a (256 pc)3 periodic box to model the impact of supernova (SN) explosions on the multiphase interstellar medium (ISM) for initial densities n = 0.5–30 cm−3 and SN ...rates 1–720 Myr−1. We include radiative cooling, diffuse heating, and the formation of molecular gas using a chemical network. The SNe explode either at random positions, at density peaks, or both. We further present a model combining thermal energy for resolved and momentum input for unresolved SNe. Random driving at high SN rates results in hot gas (T ≳ 106 K) filling >90 per cent of the volume. This gas reaches high pressures (104 < P/k
B < 107 K cm−3) due to the combination of SN explosions in the hot, low-density medium and confinement in the periodic box. These pressures move the gas from a two-phase equilibrium to the single-phase, cold branch of the cooling curve. The molecular hydrogen dominates the mass (>50 per cent), residing in small, dense clumps. Such a model might resemble the dense ISM in high-redshift galaxies. Peak driving results in huge radiative losses, producing a filamentary ISM with virtually no hot gas, and a small molecular hydrogen mass fraction (≪1 per cent). Varying the ratio of peak to random SNe yields ISM properties in between the two extremes, with a sharp transition for equal contributions. The velocity dispersion in H i remains ≲10 km s−1 in all cases. For peak driving, the velocity dispersion in Hα can be as high as 70 km s−1 due to the contribution from young, embedded SN remnants.
We compare the observed turbulent pressure in molecular gas, Pturb, to the required pressure for the interstellar gas to stay in equilibrium in the gravitational potential of a galaxy, PDE. To do ...this, we combine arcsecond resolution CO data from PHANGS-ALMA with multiwavelength data that trace the atomic gas, stellar structure, and star formation rate (SFR) for 28 nearby star-forming galaxies. We find that Pturb correlates with-but almost always exceeds-the estimated PDE on kiloparsec scales. This indicates that the molecular gas is overpressurized relative to the large-scale environment. We show that this overpressurization can be explained by the clumpy nature of molecular gas; a revised estimate of PDE on cloud scales, which accounts for molecular gas self-gravity, external gravity, and ambient pressure, agrees well with the observed Pturb in galaxy disks. We also find that molecular gas with cloud-scale in our sample is more likely to be self-gravitating, whereas gas at lower pressure it appears more influenced by ambient pressure and/or external gravity. Furthermore, we show that the ratio between Pturb and the observed SFR surface density, , is compatible with stellar feedback-driven momentum injection in most cases, while a subset of the regions may show evidence of turbulence driven by additional sources. The correlation between and kpc-scale PDE in galaxy disks is consistent with the expectation from self-regulated star formation models. Finally, we confirm the empirical correlation between molecular-to-atomic gas ratio and kpc-scale PDE reported in previous works.
At low temperatures, the main coolant in primordial gas is molecular hydrogen, H2. Recent work has shown that primordial gas that is not collapsing gravitationally but is cooling from an initially ...ionized state forms hydrogen deuteride, HD, in sufficient amounts to cool the gas to the temperature of the cosmic microwave background. This extra cooling can reduce the characteristic mass for gravitational fragmentation and may cause a shift in the characteristic masses of Population III stars. Motivated by the importance of the atomic and molecular data for the cosmological question, we assess several chemical and radiative processes that have hitherto been neglected: the sensitivity of the low-temperature H2 cooling rate to the ratio of ortho-H2 to para-H2, the uncertainty in the low-temperature cooling rate of H2 excited by collisions with atomic hydrogen, the effects of cooling from H2 excited by collisions with protons and electrons, and the large uncertainties in the rates of several of the reactions responsible for determining the H2 fraction in the gas.
It is shown that the most important of neglected processes is the excitation of H2 by collisions with protons and electrons. Their effect is to cool the gas more rapidly at early times, and consequently to form less H2 and HD at late times. This fact, as well as several of the chemical uncertainties presented here, significantly affects the thermal evolution of the gas. We anticipate that this may lead to clear differences in future detailed three-dimensional studies of first structure formation. In such calculations it has previously been shown that the details of the timing between cooling and merger events decide between immediate runaway gravitational collapse and a slower collapse delayed by turbulent heating.
Finally, we show that although the thermal evolution of the gas is in principle sensitive to the ortho-para ratio, in practice the standard assumption of a 3:1 ratio produces results that are almost indistinguishable from those produced by a more detailed treatment.
PDF
