Evolution of M82-like starburst winds revisited: 3D radiative cooling hydrodynamical simulations

Author(s)

Melioli, C. ^[1] ; de Gouveia Dal Pino, E. M. ^[1] ; Geraissate, F. G. ^[1]

Affiliation

^[1] Univ Sao Paulo, IAG, Sao Paulo - Brazil

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society; v. 430, n. 4, p. 3235-3248, APR 2013.
• Web of Science Citations: 24

Abstract

In this study we present three-dimensional radiative cooling hydrodynamical simulations of galactic winds generated particularly in M82-like starburst galaxies. We have considered intermittent winds induced by supernova (SN) explosions within super star clusters randomly distributed (in space and time) in the central region of the galaxy (within a radius of R = 150 pc) and were able to reproduce the observed M82 wind conditions with its complex morphological outflow structure. We have found that the environmental conditions in the disc in the nearly recent past are crucial to determine whether the wind will develop a large-scale rich filamentary structure, as in M82 wind, or not. If a sufficiently large number of super stellar clusters are built up in a starburst mainly over a period of a few million years, then the simulations reproduce the multiphase gas observed in M82-like winds, i.e. with filaments of sizes about 20-300 pc, velocities of similar to 200-500 km s(-1), densities in the range 10(-1)-10 cm(-3), embedded in a hot, low-density gas with a density smaller than 10(-2) cm(-3) and a velocity of similar to 2000 km s(-1). Otherwise, a `superbubble-like' wind develops, with very poor or no cold filamentary structures. Also, the numerical evolution of the SN ejecta has allowed us to obtain the abundance distribution over the first similar to 3 kpc extension of the wind and we have found that the SN explosions change significantly the metallicity only of the hot, low-density wind component for which we obtained abundances similar to 5-10 Z(circle dot) in fair consistency with the observations. Moreover, we have found that the SN-driven wind transports to outside the disc large amounts of energy, momentum and gas, but the more massive high-density component reaches only intermediate altitudes smaller than 1.5 kpc. Therefore, no significant amounts of gas mass are lost to the intergalactic medium and the mass evolution of the galaxy is not much affected by the starburst events occurring in the nuclear region. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 06/50654-3 - Investigation of high energy and plasma astrophysics phenomena: theory, observation, and numerical simulations
• Grantee: Elisabete Maria de Gouveia Dal Pino
• Support type: Research Projects - Thematic Grants
• FAPESP's process: 11/22078-6 - Galaxy evolution-Star formation connection: from pc to kpc scales
• Grantee: Claudio Melioli
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctorate