The chemical evolution of local star forming galaxies: Radial profiles of ISM metallicity, gas mass, and stellar mass and constraints on galactic accretion and winds
Rolf-Peter Kudritzki, I-Ting Ho, Andreas Schruba, Andreas Burkert, H. Jabran Zahid, Fabio Bresolin, Gabriel I. Dima
The radially averaged metallicity distribution of the ISM and the young stellar population of a sample of 20 disk galaxies is investigated by means of an analytical chemical evolution model which assumes constant ratios of galactic wind mass loss and accretion mass gain to star formation rate. Based on this model the observed metallicities and their gradients can be described surprisingly well by the radially averaged distribution of the ratio of stellar mass to ISM gas mass. The comparison between observed and model predicted metallicity is used to constrain the rate of mass loss through galactic wind and accretion gain in units of the star formation rate. Three groups of galaxies are found: galaxies with either mostly winds and only weak accretion, or mostly accretion and only weak winds, and galaxies where winds are roughly balanced by accretion. The three groups are distinct in the properties of their gas disks. Galaxies with approximately equal rates of mass-loss and accretion gain have low metallicity, atomic hydrogen dominated gas disks with a flat spatial profile. The other two groups have gas disks dominated by molecular hydrogen out to 0.5 to 0.7 isophotal radii and show a radial exponential decline, which is on average steeper for the galaxies with small accretion rates. The rates of accretion (<1.0 x SFR) and outflow (<2.4 x SFR) are relatively low. The latter depend on the calibration of the zero point of the metallicity determination from the use of HII region strong emission lines.
Chemical abundance variations in the ISM provide important information about the galactic evolution, star-formation and enrichment histories. Recent observations of disk galaxies suggest that if large-scale azimuthal metallicity variations appear in the ISM, they are linked to the spiral arms. In this work, using a set of chemodynamical simulations of the Milky Way-like spiral galaxies, we quantify the impact of gas radial motions~(migration) in the presence of a pre-existing radial metallicity gradient and the local ISM enrichment on both global and local variations of the mean ISM metallicit…
The sensitive infrared telescopes, Spitzer and Herschel, have been used to target low-metallicity star-forming galaxies, allowing us to investigate the properties of their interstellar medium (ISM) in unprecedented detail. Interpretation of the observations in physical terms relies on careful modeling of those properties. We have employed a multiphase approach to model the ISM phases (HII region and photodissociation region) with the spectral synthesis code Cloudy. Our goal is to characterize the physical conditions (gas densities, radiation fields, etc.) in the ISM of the galaxies from the He…
Hydrodynamical simulations show that the ram-pressure stripping in galaxy clusters fosters a strong interaction between stripped interstellar medium (ISM) and the surrounding medium, with the possibility of intracluster medium (ICM) cooling into cold gas clouds. Exploiting the MUSE observation of three jellyfish galaxies from the GAs Stripping Phenomena in galaxies with MUSE (GASP) survey, we explore the gas metallicity of star-forming clumps in their gas tails. We find that the oxygen abundance of the stripped gas decreases as a function of the distance from the parent galaxy disk; the observ…
This paper investigate what is the main driver of the dust mass growth in the interstellar medium (ISM) by using a chemical evolution model of galaxy with metals (elements heavier than helium) in dust phase in addition to the total amount of metals. We consider asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars, type II supernovae (SNe II) and the dust mass growth in the ISM as the sources of dust, and SN shocks as the destruction mechanism of dust. Further, to describe the dust evolution precisely, our model takes into account the age and metallicity (the ratio of metal mass to ISM mass) dependence of the s…
We present a semi-empirical, largely model-independent approach for estimating Galactic birth radii, r_birth, for Milky Way disk stars. The technique relies on the justifiable assumption that a negative radial metallicity gradient in the interstellar medium (ISM) existed for most of the disk lifetime. Stars are projected back to their birth positions according to the observationally derived age and [Fe/H] with no kinematical information required. Applying our approach to the AMBRE:HARPS and HARPS-GTO local samples, we show that we can constrain the ISM metallicity evolution with Galactic radiu…
We present a spatially-resolved HII region study of the gas-phase metallicity, ionization parameter, and ISM pressure maps of 6 local star-forming and face-on spiral galaxies from the TYPHOON program. Self-consistent metallicity, ionization parameter, and pressure maps are calculated simultaneously through an iterative process to provide useful measures of the local chemical abundance and its relation to localized ISM properties. We constrain the presence of azimuthal variations in metallicity by measuring the residual metallicity offset $Δ$(O/H) after subtracting the linear fits to the radial…
We have observed a sample of 14 nearby ($z \sim 0.03$) star-forming blue compact galaxies in the rest-frame far-UV ($\sim1150-2200 Å$) using the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope. We have also generated a grid of stellar population synthesis models using the Starburst99 evolutionary synthesis code, allowing us to compare observations and theoretical predictions for the SiIV_1400 and CIV_1550 UV indices; both are comprised of a blend of stellar wind and interstellar lines and have been proposed as metallicity diagnostics in the UV. Our models and observations both demons…
We present ISM and CGM metallicities for 25 absorption systems associated with isolated star-forming galaxies (<z>=0.28) with 9.4<log(M*/Msun)<10.9 and with absorption detected within 200kpc. Galaxy ISM metallicities were measured using Ha/[NII] emission lines from Keck/ESI spectra. CGM single-phase low-ionization metallicities were modeled using MCMC and Cloudy analysis of absorption from HST/COS and Keck/HIRES or VLT/UVES quasar spectra. We find that the star-forming galaxy ISM metallicities follow the observed stellar mass metallicity relation (scatter 0.19dex). CGM metallicity shows no dep…
Recovering the birth radii of observed stars in the Milky Way is one of the ultimate goals of Galactic Archaeology. One method to infer the birth radius and the evolution of the ISM metallicity assumes a linear relation between the ISM metallicity with radius at any given look-back time. Here we test the reliability of this assumption by using 4 zoom-in cosmological hydrodynamic simulations from the NIHAO-UHD project. We find that one can infer precise birth radii only when the stellar disk starts to form, which for our modeled galaxies happens ~ 10 Gyr ago, in agreement with recent estimates …
The far-infrared (FIR) lines are key tracers of the physical conditions of the interstellar medium (ISM) and are becoming workhorse diagnostics for galaxies throughout the universe. Our goal is to explain the differences and trends observed in the FIR line emission of dwarf galaxies compared to more metal-rich galaxies. We present Herschel PACS spectroscopic observations of the CII157um, OI63 and 145um, OIII88um, NII122 and 205um, and NIII57um fine-structure cooling lines in a sample of 48 low-metallicity star-forming galaxies of the guaranteed time key program Dwarf Galaxy Survey. We correlat…
We present the first observation of cluster-scale radial metallicity gradients from star-forming galaxies. We use the DEIMOS spectrograph on the Keck II telescope to observe two CLASH clusters at z~0.35: MACS1115+0129 and RXJ1532+3021. Based on our measured interstellar medium (ISM) properties of star-forming galaxies out to a radius of 2.5 Mpc from the cluster centre, we find that the galaxy metallicity decreases as a function of projected cluster-centric distance (-0.15+/-0.08 dex/Mpc) in MACS1115+01. On the mass-metallicity relation (MZR), star-forming galaxies in MACS1115+01 are offset to …
Inside-out versus Upside-down: The Origin and Evolution of Metallicity Radial Gradients in FIRE Simulations of Milky Way-mass Galaxies and the Essential Role of Gas Mixing
We study the relationship between stellar mass, star formation rate (SFR),ionization state, and gas-phase metallicity for a sample of 41 normal star-forming galaxies at $3 \lesssim z \lesssim 3.7$. The gas-phase oxygen abundance, ionization parameter, and electron density of ionized gas are derived from rest-frame optical strong emission lines measured on near-infrared spectra obtained with Keck/MOSFIRE. We remove the effect of these strong emission lines in the broad-band fluxes to compute stellar masses via spectral energy distribution fitting, while the SFR is derived from the dust-correcte…
Comparison of the ISM properties of a wide range of metal-poor galaxies with normal metal-rich galaxies reveals striking differences. We find that the combination of the low dust abundance and the active star formation results in a very porous ISM filled with hard photons, heating the dust in dwarf galaxies to overall higher temperatures than their metal-rich counterparts. This results in photodissociation of molecular clouds to greater depths, leaving relatively large PDR envelopes and difficult-to-detect CO cores. From detailed modeling of the low-metallicity ISM, we find significant fractio…
We present a study of six far-infrared fine structure lines in the z=4.225 lensed dusty star-forming galaxy SPT0418-47 to probe the physical conditions of its InterStellar Medium (ISM). In particular, we report Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment (APEX) detections of the [OI]145um and [OIII]88um lines and Atacama Compact Array (ACA) detections of the [NII]122 and 205um lines. The [OI]145um / [CII]158um line ratio is ~5x higher compared to the average of local galaxies. We interpret this as evidence that the ISM is dominated by photo-dissociation regions with high gas densities. The line ratios, and …
Intermediate and massive stars drive fast and powerful isotropic winds that interact with the winds of nearby stars in star clusters and the surrounding interstellar medium (ISM). Wind-ISM collisions generate astrospheres around these stars that contain hot $T\sim 10^7$ K gas that adiabatically expands. As individual bubbles expand and collide they become unstable, potentially driving turbulence in star clusters. In this paper we use hydrodynamic simulations to model a densely populated young star cluster within a homogeneous cloud to study stellar wind collisions with the surrounding ISM. We …
The early stages of a galaxy's evolution leave an imprint on its metallicity distribution. We discuss the origins and evolution of radial metallicity gradients in discs of spiral galaxies using an analytical chemical evolution model. We explain how radial metallicity gradients in stellar populations are determined by three factors: the radial metallicity profile of the star-forming ISM, radial changes in the star-formation history (in particular inside-out formation), and radial mixing of stars. Under reasonable assumptions, inside-out formation steepens the negative ISM metallicity gradient, …
We present an HST Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) spectrum of the QSO SDSS J095109.12+330745.8 ($z_{em} = 0.645$) whose sightline passes through the SMC-like dwarf galaxy UGC 5282 ($M_B = -16.0$, $cz = 1577$ km s$^{-1}$ ), 1.2 kpc in projection from the central HII region of the galaxy. Damped Ly$α$ (DLA) absorption is detected at the redshift of UGC 5282 with $\log$[$N$(HI) cm$^{-2}\:$] = 20.89$^{+0.12}_{-0.21}\:\:$. Analysis of the accompanying SII, PII and OI metal lines yields a neutral gas metallicity, $Z_{HI}$, of [S/H] $\simeq$ [P/H] $= -0.80\pm0.24$. The metallicity of ionized gas fr…
Properties of the cold interstellar medium of low-metallicity galaxies are not well-known due to the faintness and extremely small scale on which emission is expected. We present deep ALMA band 6 (230GHz) observations of the nearby, low-metallicity (12 + log(O/H) = 7.25) blue compact dwarf galaxy SBS0335-052 at an unprecedented resolution of 0.2 arcsec (52 pc). The 12CO J=2-1 line is not detected and we report a 3-sigma upper limit of LCO(2-1) = 3.6x10^4 K km/s pc^2. Assuming that molecular gas is converted into stars with a given depletion time, ranging from 0.02 to 2 Gyr, we find lower limit…
The ratio of the mass of interstellar dust to the total mass of metals (the dust-to-metals/DTM ratio) tends to increase with metallicity. This can be explained by the increasing efficiency of grain growth in the interstellar medium (ISM) at higher metallicities, with a corollary being that the low DTM ratios seen at low metallicities are due to inefficient stellar dust production. This interpretation assumes that the efficiency of dust destruction in the ISM is constant, whereas it might be expected to increase at low metallicity; the decreased cooling efficiency of low-metallicity gas should …
The Launching of Galactic Winds from a Multiphase ISM
Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics(马普天体物理研究所);Astronomisches Rechen-Institut, Zentrum für Astronomie, Universität Heidelberg(海德堡大学天文学计算研究所);Hamburger Sternwarte, Universität Hamburg(汉堡大学天文台)
The Interstellar Medium (ISM) comprises gases at different temperatures and densities, including ionized, atomic, molecular species, and dust particles. The neutral ISM is dominated by neutral hydrogen and has ionization fractions up to 8%. The concentration of chemical elements heavier than helium (metallicity) spans orders of magnitudes in Galactic stars, because they formed at different times. Instead, the gas in the Solar vicinity is assumed to be well mixed and have Solar metallicity in traditional chemical evolution models. The ISM chemical abundances can be accurately measured with UV a…
We present maps tracing the fraction of dust in the form of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in IC 5332, NGC 628, NGC 1365, and NGC 7496 from JWST/MIRI observations. We trace the PAH fraction by combining the F770W ($7.7~μ$m) and F1130W ($11.3~μ$m) filters to track ionized and neutral PAH emission, respectively, and comparing the PAH emission to F2100W which traces small, hot dust grains. We find average $R{\rm_{PAH} = (F770W+F1130W)/F2100W}$ values of 3.3, 4.7, 5.1, and 3.6 in IC 5332, NGC 628, NGC 1365, and NGC 7496, respectively. We find that H II regions traced by MUSE H$α$ show a s…
We present the first observations from a large-scale survey of nearby (z < 1) long-duration gamma-ray burst (LGRB) host galaxies, which consist of eight rest-frame optical spectra obtained at Keck and Magellan. Along with two host galaxy observations from the literature, we use optical emission line diagnostics to determine metallicities, ionization parameters, young stellar population ages, and star formation rates. We compare the LGRB host environments to a variety of local and intermediate-redshift galaxy populations, as well as the newest grid of stellar population synthesis and photoioniz…
We present a new theoretical framework for using entropy to understand how outflows driven by supernovae are launched from disc galaxies: via continuous, buoyant acceleration through the circumgalactic medium (CGM). When young star clusters detonate supernovae in the interstellar medium (ISM) of a galaxy, they generate hot, diffuse bubbles that push on the surrounding ISM and evaporate that ISM into their interiors. As these bubbles reach the scale height of the ISM, they break out of the disc, rising into the CGM. Once these bubbles break out, if they have sufficiently high entropy, they will…
We present simulations of the multi-phase interstellar medium (ISM) at solar neighbourhood conditions including thermal and non-thermal ISM processes, star cluster formation, and feedback from massive stars: stellar winds, hydrogen ionising radiation computed with the novel TreeRay radiative transfer method, supernovae (SN), and the injection of cosmic rays (CR). N-body dynamics is computed with a 4th-order Hermite integrator. We systematically investigate the impact of stellar feedback on the self-gravitating ISM with magnetic fields, CR advection and diffusion and non-equilibrium chemical ev…
We present an analysis of the flow of metals through the circumgalactic medium (CGM) in the Feedback in Realistic Environments (FIRE) simulations of galaxy formation, ranging from isolated dwarfs to $L*$ galaxies. We find that nearly all metals produced in high-redshift galaxies are carried out in winds that reach $0.25 R_{\rm vir}$. When measured at $0.25 R_{\rm vir}$ the metallicity of outflows is slightly higher than the interstellar medium (ISM) metallicity. Many metals thus reside in the CGM. Cooling and recycling from this reservoir determine the metal budget in the ISM. The outflowing m…
We discuss observations of CII*/CII ratios and cooling rates due to [CII]$\,$158$μ$m emission in high-redshift intervening damped Lyman-$α$ systems towards quasars. We show that the observed bimodality in the CII cooling rates actually reflects a bimodality in the CII*/CII-metallicity plane that can be naturally explained by phase segregation of the neutral medium, without invoking differences in star-formation scenarios. Assuming realistic distributions of the physical parameters to calculate the phase diagrams, we also reproduce qualitatively the metallicity dependence of this bimodality. We…
We present numerical computations and analytic scaling relations for interstellar ion-molecule gas phase chemistry down to very low metallicities ($ 10^{-3} \times$ solar), and/or up to high driving ionization rates. Relevant environments include the cool interstellar medium (ISM) in low-metallicity dwarf galaxies, early enriched clouds at the reionization and Pop-II star formation era, and in dense cold gas exposed to intense X-ray or cosmic-ray sources. We focus on the behavior for H$_2$, CO, CH, OH, H$_2$O and O$_2$, at gas temperatures $\sim 100$ K, characteristic of a cooled ISM at low me…
We re-evaluate the roles of different dust sources in dust production as a function of metallicity in late-type dwarf galaxies, with the goal of understanding the relation between dust content and metallicity. The dust content of late-type dwarf galaxies with episodic star formation is studied with a multicomponent model of dust evolution, which includes dust input from AGB stars, type II SNe and dust mass growth by accretion of gas species in the ISM. Dust growth in the ISM becomes an important dust source in dwarf galaxies, on the timescale of 0.1 - few Gyrs. It increases the dust-to-gas rat…
We study the direct gas-phase oxygen abundance using the well-detected auroral [OIII]4363 line in the stacked spectra of a sample of local analogs of high-redshift galaxies. These local analogs share the same location as $z\sim2$ star-forming galaxies on the Baldwin-Phillips-Terlevich diagram. This type of analog has the same ionized interstellar medium (ISM) properties as high-redshift galaxies. We establish empirical metallicity calibrations between the direct gas-phase oxygen abundances ($7.8<12+\log(\rm{O/H})<8.4$) and the N2/O3N2 indices in our local analogs. We find significant systemati…
We present an analysis of spatially resolved gas-phase metallicity relations in five dwarf galaxies ($M_{halo} \approx 10^{11} M_\odot$, $M_\star \approx 10^{8.8}-10^{9.6} M_\odot$) from the FIRE-2 (Feedback in Realistic Environments) cosmological zoom-in simulation suite, which include an explicit model for sub-grid turbulent mixing of metals in gas, near $z\approx 0$, over a period of 1.4 Gyrs, and compare our findings with observations. While these dwarf galaxies represent a diverse sample, we find that all simulated galaxies match the observed mass-metallicity (MZR) and mass-metallicity gr…
Context. Massive star-formation leads to enrichment with heavy elements of the interstellar medium. On the other hand, the abundance of heavy elements is a key parameter to study the star-formation history of galaxies. Furthermore, the total molecular hydrogen mass, usually determined by converting CO or [C ii] 158 $μ$m luminosities, depends on the metallicity as well. The excitation of metallicity-sensitive emission lines, however, depends on the gas density of H ii regions, where they arise. Aims. We used spectroscopic observations from SOFIA, Herschel, and Spitzer of the nuclear region of t…
Up, Up, and Away? Quantifying ISM Fallback using Ram Pressure Stripping Simulations
Center for Computational Astrophysics, Flatiron Institute(Flatiron Institute 计算天体物理学中心);Department of Astronomy, Yale University(耶鲁大学天文学系);Department of Astronomy, Columbia University(哥伦比亚大学天文学系)
The gas-phase metallicity of low-mass galaxies increases with increasing stellar mass ($M_\ast$) and is nearly constant for high-mass galaxies. Theory suggests that this tight mass-metallicity relationship is shaped by galactic outflows removing metal-enriched gas from galaxies. Here, we observationally model the outflow metallicities of the warm outflowing phase from a sample of seven local star-forming galaxies with stellar masses between 10$^{7}$-10$^{11}$ M$_\odot$. We estimate the outflow metallicities using four weak rest-frame ultraviolet absorption lines, the observed stellar continua,…
We present results on the properties of neon emission in $z\sim2$ star-forming galaxies drawn from the MOSFIRE Deep Evolution Field (MOSDEF) survey. Doubly-ionized neon ([NeIII]3869) is detected at $\geq3σ$ in 61 galaxies, representing $\sim$25% of the MOSDEF sample with H$α$, H$β$, and [OIII]$5007$ detections at similar redshifts. We consider the neon emission-line properties of both individual galaxies with [NeIII]3869 detections and composite $z\sim2$ spectra binned by stellar mass. With no requirement of [NeIII]3869 detection, the latter provide a more representative picture of neon emissi…
The purpose of this work is the characterization of the main scaling relations between all the ISM components (dust, atomic/molecular/total gas), gas-phase metallicity, and other galaxy properties, such as Mstar and galaxy morphology, for late-type galaxies in the Local Universe. This study is performed by extracting late-type galaxies from the entire DustPedia sample and by exploiting the large and homogeneous dataset available thanks to the DustPedia project. The sample consists of 436 galaxies with morphological stage from T = 1 to 10, Mstar from 6 x 10^7 to 3 x 10^11 Msun, SFR from 6 x 10^…
The combination of gas-phase oxygen abundances and stellar metallicities can provide us with unique insights into the metal enrichment histories of galaxies. In this work, we compare the stellar and gas-phase metallicities measured within a 1$R_{e}$ aperture for a representative sample of 472 star-forming galaxies extracted from the SAMI Galaxy Survey. We confirm that the stellar and interstellar medium (ISM) metallicities are strongly correlated, with scatter $\sim$3 times smaller than that found in previous works, and that integrated stellar populations are generally more metal-poor than the…
We combine state-of-the-art models for the production of stellar radiation and its transfer through the interstellar medium (ISM) to investigate ultraviolet-line diagnostics of stars, the ionized and the neutral ISM in star-forming galaxies. We start by assessing the reliability of our stellar population synthesis modelling by fitting absorption-line indices in the ISM-free ultraviolet spectra of 10 Large-Magellanic-Cloud clusters. In doing so, we find that neglecting stochastic sampling of the stellar initial mass function in these young ($\sim10$-100 Myr), low-mass clusters affects negligibl…
We present electron temperature ($T_e$) maps for the edge-on system Mrk 1486, affording "direct-method" gas-phase metallicity measurements across $5.\!\!^{\prime\prime}8$ (4.1 kpc) along the minor axis and $9.\!\!^{\prime\prime}9$ (6.9 kpc) along the major axis. These maps, enabled by strong detections of the [OIII]$λ$4363 auroral emission line across a large spatial extent of Mrk 1486, reveal a clear negative minor axis $T_e$ gradient in which temperature decreases with increasing distance from the disk plane. We find that the lowest metallicity spaxels lie near the extremes of the major axis…
The complex structure of gas, metals, and dust in the interstellar and circumgalactic medium (ISM and CGM, respectively) in star-forming galaxies can be probed by Ly$α$ emission and absorption, low-ionization interstellar (LIS) metal absorption, and dust reddening E(B-V). We present a statistical analysis of the mutual correlations among Ly$α$ equivalent width (EW$_{Lyα}$), LIS equivalent width (EW$_{LIS}$), and E(B-V) in a sample of 157 star-forming galaxies at $z\sim2.3$. With measurements obtained from individual, deep rest-UV spectra and spectral-energy distribution (SED) modeling, we find…
The fate of metals ejected by young OB associations into the Interstellar Medium (ISM) is investigated numerically. In particular, we study the enrichment of the cold gas phase, which is the material that forms molecular clouds. Following previous work, the expansion and collision of two supershells in a diffuse ISM is simulated, in this case also introducing an advected quantity which represents the metals expelled by the young stars. We adopt the simplest possible approach, not differentiating between metals coming from stellar winds and those coming from supernovae. Even though the hot, dif…
We derive new self-consistent theoretical UV, optical, and IR diagnostics for the ISM pressure and electron density in the ionized nebulae of star-forming galaxies. Our UV diagnostics utilize the inter-combination, forbidden and resonance lines of silicon, carbon, aluminum, neon, and nitrogen. We also calibrate the optical and IR forbidden lines of oxygen, argon, nitrogen and sulfur. We show that line ratios used as ISM pressure diagnostics depend on the gas-phase metallicity with a residual dependence on the ionization parameter of the gas. In addition, the traditional electron density diagno…
Low- and intermediate-mass stars are one of the important dust sources in the interstellar medium (ISM) of galaxies. The compositions of dust ejected from these stars are likely to affect those in the ISM. We investigate dust in post-Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars, which are in a late evolutionary phase for low- and intermediate-mass stars, and which produce a wide variety of dust grains. We are particularly targeting post-AGB stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), which has about half of the solar metallicity, to investigate the effects of sub-solar metallicity on dust compositions. …
We present a model for the interstellar medium of NGC4214 with the objective to probe the physical conditions in the two main star-forming regions and their connection with the star formation activity of the galaxy. We used the spectral synthesis code Cloudy to model an HII region and the associated photodissociation region (PDR) to reproduce the emission of mid- and far-infrared fine-structure cooling lines from the Spitzer and Herschel space telescopes for these two regions. Input parameters of the model, such as elemental abundances and star formation history, are guided by earlier studies …
We use a simple one-zone model of the thermal and chemical evolution of interstellar gas to study whether molecular hydrogen (H2) is ever an important coolant of the warm, diffuse interstellar medium (ISM). We demonstrate that at solar metallicity, H2 cooling is unimportant and the thermal evolution of the ISM is dominated by metal line cooling. At metallicities below 0.1 Z_solar, however, metal line cooling of low density gas quickly becomes unimportant and H2 can become the dominant coolant, even though its abundance in the gas remains small. We investigate the conditions required in order f…
Supernova (SN) feedback plays a vital role in the evolution of galaxies. While modern cosmological simulations capture the leading structures within galaxies, they struggle to provide sufficient resolution to study small-scale stellar feedback, such as the detailed evolution of SN remnants. It is thus common practice to assume subgrid models that are rarely extended to low metallicities, and which routinely use the standard solar abundance pattern. With the aid of 1-d hydrodynamical simulations, we extend these models to consider low metallicities and non-solar abundance patterns as derived fr…
Modelling the evolution and influence of dust in cosmological simulations that include the cold phase of the interstellar medium
University of Portsmouth(朴茨茅斯大学);Leiden University(莱顿大学);University of Vienna(维也纳大学);University of Hull(赫尔大学);Lorentz Institute for Theoretical Physics, Leiden University(莱顿大学洛伦兹理论物理研究所);University of Milano-Bicocca(米兰比可卡大学);Durham University(杜伦大学)
We present cosmological, radiation-hydrodynamics simulations of galaxy formation during the epoch of reionization in an effort towards modelling the interstellar medium (ISM) and interpreting ALMA observations. Simulations with and without stellar radiation are compared at large (Mpc), intermediate (tens of kpc), and small (sub kpc) scales. At large scales, the dense regions around galaxies reionize first before UV photons penetrate the voids; however, considerable amounts of neutral gas remain present within the haloes. The spatial distribution of neutral gas is highly dynamic and is anti-cor…
Stellar winds and supernova (SN) explosions of massive stars ("stellar feedback") create bubbles in the interstellar medium (ISM) and insert newly produced heavy elements and kinetic energy into their surroundings, possibly driving turbulence. Most of this energy is thermalized and immediately removed from the ISM by radiative cooling. The rest is available for driving ISM dynamics. In this work we estimate the amount of feedback energy retained as kinetic energy when the bubble walls have decelerated to the sound speed of the ambient medium. We show that the feedback of the most massive star …