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The impact of stellar feedback on the density and velocity structure of the interstellar medium

Grisdale, Kearn ; Agertz, Oscar LU ; Romeo, Alessandro B. ; Renaud, Florent and Read, Justin I. (2017) In Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 466(1). p.1093-1110
Abstract

We study the impact of stellar feedback in shaping the density and velocity structure of neutral hydrogen (H I) in disc galaxies. For our analysis, we carry out ~4.6 pc resolution N-body+adaptive mesh refinement hydrodynamic simulations of isolated galaxies, set up to mimic a Milky Way and a Large and Small Magellanic Cloud. We quantify the density and velocity structure of the interstellar medium using power spectra and compare the simulated galaxies to observedHI in local spiral galaxies from THINGS (TheHI Nearby Galaxy Survey). Our models with stellar feedback give an excellent match to the observed THINGS HI density power spectra. We find that kinetic energy power spectra in feedback-regulated galaxies, regardless of galaxy mass and... (More)

We study the impact of stellar feedback in shaping the density and velocity structure of neutral hydrogen (H I) in disc galaxies. For our analysis, we carry out ~4.6 pc resolution N-body+adaptive mesh refinement hydrodynamic simulations of isolated galaxies, set up to mimic a Milky Way and a Large and Small Magellanic Cloud. We quantify the density and velocity structure of the interstellar medium using power spectra and compare the simulated galaxies to observedHI in local spiral galaxies from THINGS (TheHI Nearby Galaxy Survey). Our models with stellar feedback give an excellent match to the observed THINGS HI density power spectra. We find that kinetic energy power spectra in feedback-regulated galaxies, regardless of galaxy mass and size, show scalings in excellent agreement with supersonic turbulence (E(k) ∝ k-2) on scales below the thickness of the HI layer. We show that feedback influences the gas density field, and drives gas turbulence, up to large (kpc) scales. This is in stark contrast to density fields generated by large-scale gravity-only driven turbulence. We conclude that the neutral gas content of galaxies carries signatures of stellar feedback on all scales.

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author
; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Galaxies: evolution, Galaxies: ISM, Galaxies: spiral, Galaxies: structure
in
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
volume
466
issue
1
pages
18 pages
publisher
Oxford University Press
external identifiers
  • wos:000398112400075
  • scopus:85018347786
ISSN
0035-8711
DOI
10.1093/mnras/stw3133
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
fe694227-8d11-4a10-975a-7c66d36d2937
date added to LUP
2017-05-23 11:45:02
date last changed
2025-02-17 17:10:41
@article{fe694227-8d11-4a10-975a-7c66d36d2937,
  abstract     = {{<p>We study the impact of stellar feedback in shaping the density and velocity structure of neutral hydrogen (H I) in disc galaxies. For our analysis, we carry out ~4.6 pc resolution N-body+adaptive mesh refinement hydrodynamic simulations of isolated galaxies, set up to mimic a Milky Way and a Large and Small Magellanic Cloud. We quantify the density and velocity structure of the interstellar medium using power spectra and compare the simulated galaxies to observedHI in local spiral galaxies from THINGS (TheHI Nearby Galaxy Survey). Our models with stellar feedback give an excellent match to the observed THINGS HI density power spectra. We find that kinetic energy power spectra in feedback-regulated galaxies, regardless of galaxy mass and size, show scalings in excellent agreement with supersonic turbulence (E(k) ∝ k<sup>-2</sup>) on scales below the thickness of the HI layer. We show that feedback influences the gas density field, and drives gas turbulence, up to large (kpc) scales. This is in stark contrast to density fields generated by large-scale gravity-only driven turbulence. We conclude that the neutral gas content of galaxies carries signatures of stellar feedback on all scales.</p>}},
  author       = {{Grisdale, Kearn and Agertz, Oscar and Romeo, Alessandro B. and Renaud, Florent and Read, Justin I.}},
  issn         = {{0035-8711}},
  keywords     = {{Galaxies: evolution; Galaxies: ISM; Galaxies: spiral; Galaxies: structure}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  pages        = {{1093--1110}},
  publisher    = {{Oxford University Press}},
  series       = {{Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society}},
  title        = {{The impact of stellar feedback on the density and velocity structure of the interstellar medium}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stw3133}},
  doi          = {{10.1093/mnras/stw3133}},
  volume       = {{466}},
  year         = {{2017}},
}