No Arabic abstract
We present three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations of magnetized gas clouds accelerated by hot winds. We initialize gas clouds with tangled internal magnetic fields and show that this field suppresses the disruption of the cloud: rather than mixing into the hot wind as found in hydrodynamic simulations, cloud fragments end up co-moving and in pressure equilibrium with their surroundings. We also show that a magnetic field in the hot wind enhances the drag force on the cloud by a factor ~(1+v_A^2/v_wind^2)$, where v_A is the Alfven speed in the wind and v_wind measures the relative speed between the cloud and the wind. We apply this result to gas clouds in several astrophysical contexts, including galaxy clusters, galactic winds, the Galactic center, and the outskirts of the Galactic halo. Our results can explain the prevalence of cool gas in galactic winds and galactic halos and how such cool gas survives in spite of its interaction with hot wind/halo gas. We also predict that drag forces can lead to a deviation from Keplerian orbits for the G2 cloud in the galactic center.
We estimate the evaporation timescale for spherical HI clouds consisting of the cold neutral medium surrounded by the warm neutral medium. We focus on clouds smaller than 1pc, which corresponds to tiny HI clouds recently discovered by Braun & Kanekar and Stanimirovi{c} & Heiles. By performing one-dimensional spherically symmetric numerical simulations of the two-phase interstellar medium (ISM), we derive the timescales as a function of the cloud size and of pressure of the ambient warm medium. We find that the evaporation timescale of the clouds of 0.01 pc is about 1Myr with standard ISM pressure, $p/k_{B}sim 10^{3.5}$ K cm$^{-3}$, and for clouds larger than about 0.1 pc it depends strongly on the pressure. In high pressure cases, there exists a critical radius for clouds growing as a function of pressure, but the minimum critical size is $sim$ 0.03 pc for a standard environment. If tiny HI clouds exist ubiquitously, our analysis suggests two implications: tiny HI clouds are formed continuously with the timescale of 1Myr, or the ambient pressure around the clouds is much higher than the standard ISM pressure. We also find that the results agree well with those obtained by assuming quasi-steady state evolution. The cloud-size dependence of the timescale is well explained by an analytic approximate formula derived by Nagashima, Koyama & Inutsuka. We also compare it with the evaporation rate given by McKee & Cowie.
We report the discovery of a $1^circ$ scale X-ray plume in the northern Galactic Center (GC) region observed with Suzaku. The plume is located at ($l$, $b$) $sim$ ($0mbox{$.!!^circ$}2$, $0mbox{$.!!^circ$}6$), east of the radio lobe reported by previous studies. No significant X-ray excesses are found inside or to the west of the radio lobe. The spectrum of the plume exhibits strong emission lines from highly ionized Mg, Si, and S that is reproduced by a thin thermal plasma model with $kT sim 0.7$ keV and solar metallicity. There is no signature of non-equilibrium ionization. The unabsorbed surface brightness is $3times10^{-14}$ erg cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ arcmin$^{-2}$ in the 1.5-3.0 keV band. Strong interstellar absorption in the soft X-ray band indicates that the plume is not a foreground source but is at the GC distance, giving a physical size of $sim$100 pc, a density of 0.1 cm$^{-3}$, thermal pressure of $1times10^{-10}$ erg cm$^{-3}$, mass of 600 $M_odot$ and thermal energy of $7times10^{50}$ erg. From the apparent association with a polarized radio emission, we propose that the X-ray plume is a magnetized hot gas outflow from the GC.
We provide mass-loss rate predictions for O stars from Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. We calculate global (unified, hydrodynamic) model atmospheres of main sequence, giant, and supergiant stars for chemical composition corresponding to Magellanic Clouds. The models solve radiative transfer equation in comoving frame, kinetic equilibrium equations (also known as NLTE equations), and hydrodynamical equations from (quasi-)hydrostatic atmosphere to expanding stellar wind. The models allow us to predict wind density, velocity, and temperature (consequently also the terminal wind velocity and the mass-loss rate) just from basic global stellar parameters. As a result of their lower metallicity, the line radiative driving is weaker leading to lower wind mass-loss rates with respect to the Galactic stars. We provide a formula that fits the mass-loss rate predicted by our models as a function of stellar luminosity and metallicity. On average, the mass-loss rate scales with metallicity as $ dot Msim Z^{0.59}$. The predicted mass-loss rates are lower than mass-loss rates derived from H$alpha$ diagnostics and can be reconciled with observational results assuming clumping factor $C_text{c}=9$. On the other hand, the predicted mass-loss rates either agree or are slightly higher than the mass-loss rates derived from ultraviolet wind line profiles. The calculated ion{P}{v} ionization fractions also agree with values derived from observations for LMC stars with $T_text{eff}leq40,000,$K. Taken together, our theoretical predictions provide reasonable models with consistent mass-loss rate determination, which can be used for quantitative study of stars from Magellanic Clouds.
The origin of supermassive black holes (with $gtrsim!10^9,M_{odot}$) in the early universe (redshift $z sim 7$) remains poorly understood. Gravitational collapse of a massive primordial gas cloud is a promising initial process, but theoretical studies have difficulty growing the black hole fast enough. We focus on the magnetic effects on star formation that occurs in an atomic-cooling gas cloud. Using a set of three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations, we investigate the star formation process in the magnetized atomic-cooling gas cloud with different initial magnetic field strengths. Our simulations show that the primordial magnetic seed field can be quickly amplified during the early accretion phase after the first protostar formation. The strong magnetic field efficiently extracts angular momentum from accreting gas and increases the accretion rate, which results in the high fragmentation rate in the gravitationally unstable disk region. On the other hand, the coalescence rate of fragments is also enhanced by the angular momentum transfer due to the magnetic effects. Almost all the fragments coalesce to the primary star, so the mass growth rate of the massive star increases due to the magnetic effects. We conclude that the magnetic effects support the direct collapse scenario of supermassive star formation.
We search for velocity changes (i.e., acceleration/deceleration) of narrow absorption lines (NALs) that are intrinsic to the quasars, using spectra of 6 bright quasars that have been observed more than once with 8-10m class telescopes. While variations in line strength and profile are frequently reported (especially in broader absorption lines), definitive evidence for velocity shifts has not been found with only a few exceptions. Direct velocity shift measurements are valuable constraints on the acceleration mechanisms. In this study, we determine velocity shifts by comparing the absorption profiles of NALs at two epochs separated by more than 10 years in the observed frame, using the cross-correlation function method and we estimate the uncertainties using Monte Carlo simulations. We do not detect any significant shifts but we obtain 3$sigma$ upper limits on the acceleration of intrinsic NALs (compared to intervening NALs in same quasars) of $sim$0.7 km s$^{-1}$ yr$^{-1}$ ($sim$0.002 cm s$^{-2}$). We discuss possible scenarios for non-detection of NAL acceleration/deceleration and examine resulting constraints on the physical conditions in accretion disk wind.