Subscribe to the gold package and get unlimited access to Shamra Academy
Register a new userPowering galactic super-winds with small-scale AGN winds
62
0
0.0
(
0
)
Ask ChatGPT about the research
No Arabic abstract
We present a new implementation for active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback through small-scale, ultra-fast winds in the moving-mesh hydrodynamic code AREPO. The wind is injected by prescribing mass, momentum and energy fluxes across a spherical boundary centred on a supermassive black hole according to available constraints for accretion disc winds. After sweeping-up a mass equal to their own, small-scale winds thermalise, powering energy-driven outflows with dynamics, structure and cooling properties in excellent agreement with those of analytic wind solutions. Momentum-driven solutions do not easily occur, because the Compton cooling radius is usually much smaller than the free-expansion radius of the small-scale winds. Through various convergence tests, we demonstrate that our implementation yields wind solutions which are well converged down to the typical resolution achieved in cosmological simulations. We test our model in hydrodynamic simulations of isolated Milky Way - mass galaxies. Above a critical AGN luminosity, initially spherical, small-scale winds power bipolar, energy-driven super-winds that break out of the galactic nucleus, flowing at speeds $> 1000 rm , km , s^{-1}$ out to $sim 10 , rm kpc$. These energy-driven outflows result in moderate, but long-term, reduction in star formation, which becomes more pronounced for higher AGN luminosities and faster small-scale winds. Suppression of star formation proceeds through a rapid mode that involves the removal of the highest-density, nuclear gas and through a slower mode that effectively halts halo gas accretion. Our new implementation makes it possible to model AGN-driven winds in a physically meaningful and validated way in simulations of galaxy evolution, the interstellar medium and black hole accretion flows.
rate research
Read More
Infrared observations of active galactic nucleus (AGN) reveal emission from the putative dusty circumnuclear torus invoked by AGN unification, that is heated up by radiation from the central accreting black hole (BH). The strong 9.7 and 18 micron silicate features observed in the AGN spectra both in emission and absorption, further indicate the presence of such dusty environments. We present detailed calculations of the chemistry of silicate dust formation in AGN accretion disk winds. The winds considered herein are magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) winds driven off the entire accretion disk domain that extends from the BH vicinity to the radius of BH influence, of order of 1 to 100 pc depending on the mass of the resident BH. Our results indicate that these winds provide conditions conducive to the formation of significant amounts of dust, especially for objects accreting close to their Eddington limit, making AGN a significant source of dust in the universe, especially for luminous quasars. Our models justify the importance of a r to the power -1 density law in the winds for efficient formation and survival of dust grains. The dust production rate scales linearly with the mass of the central BH and varies as a power law of index between 2 to 2.5 with the dimensionless mass accretion rate. The resultant distribution of the dense dusty gas resembles a toroidal shape, with high column density and optical depths along the equatorial viewing angles, in agreement with the AGN unification picture.
Observations of dwarf galaxies suggest the presence of large-scale magnetic fields. However the size and slow rotation of these galaxies appear insufficient to support a mean-field dynamo action to excite such fields. Here we suggest a new mechanism to explain large-scale magnetic fields in galaxies that are too small to support mean-field dynamo action. The key idea is that we do not identify large-scale and mean magnetic fields. In our scenario the the magnetic structures originate from a small-scale dynamo which produces small-scale magnetic field in the galactic disc and a galactic wind that transports this field into the galactic halo where the large turbulent diffusion increases the scale and order of the field. As a result, the magnetic field becomes large-scale; however its mean value remains vanishing in a strict sense. We verify the idea by numerical modelling of two distinct simplified configurations, a thin disc model using the no-$z$ approximation, and an axisymmetric model using cylindrical $r,z$ coordinates. Each of these allows reduction of the problem to two spatial dimensions. Taken together, the models support the proposition that the general trends will persist in a fully 3D model. We demonstrate that a pronounced large-scale pattern can develop in the galactic halo for a wide choice of the dynamo governing parameters. We believe that our mechanism can be relevant to explaining the presence of the fields observed in the halos of dwarf galaxies. We emphasize that detailed modelling of the proposed scenario needs 3D simulations, and adjustment to the specific dynamo governing parameters of dwarf galaxies.
Winds driven by stellar feedback are an essential part of the galactic ecosystem and are the main mechanism through which low-mass galaxies regulate their star formation. These winds are generally observed to be multi-phase with detections of entrained neutral and molecular gas. They are also thought to enrich the circum-galactic medium around galaxies with metals and dust. This ejected dust encodes information about the integrated star formation and outflow history of the galaxy. It is therefore, important to understand how much dust is entrained and driven out of the disc by galactic winds. Here we demonstrate that stellar feedback is efficient in driving dust-enriched winds and eject enough material to account for the amount of extraplanar dust observed in nearby galaxies. The amount of dust in the wind depends on the sites from where they are launched, with dustier galaxies launching more dust enriched outflows. Moreover, the outflowing cold-dense gas is significantly more dust-enriched than the volume filling hot tenuous material, naturally reproducing the complex multiphase structure of the outflowing wind observed in nearby galaxies. These results provide an important new insight into the dynamics, structure, and composition of galactic winds and their role in determining the dust content of the extragalactic gas in galaxies.
We study the evolution of Super Star Cluster (SSC) winds driven by stellar winds and supernova (SN) explosions. Time-dependent rates at which mass and energy are deposited into the cluster volume, as well as the time-dependent chemical composition of the re-inserted gas, are obtained from the population synthesis code Starburst99. These results are used as input for a semi-analytic code which determines the hydrodynamic properties of the cluster wind as a function of cluster age. Two types of winds are detected in the calculations. For the quasi-adiabatic solution, all of the inserted gas leaves the cluster in the form of a stationary wind. For the bimodal solution, some of the inserted gas becomes thermally unstable and forms dense warm clumps which accumulate inside the cluster. We calculate the evolution of the wind velocity and energy flux and integrate the amount of accumulated mass for clusters of different mass, radius and initial metallicity. We consider also conditions with low heating efficiency of the re-inserted gas or mass loading of the hot thermalized plasma with the gas left over from star formation. We find that the bimodal regime and the related mass accumulation occur if at least one of the two conditions above is fulfilled.
(Abridged) Under the hypothesis that MgII absorbers found near the minor axis of a galaxy originate in the cool phase of winds, we carry out a study to constrain the properties of large-scale outflows at redshift z >= 0.5 based on the observed relative motions of individual absorbing clouds with respect to the positions and orientations of the galaxies. We identify in the literature four highly inclined disk galaxies located within 50 kpc and with the minor axis oriented within 45 degrees of a background QSO sightline. Deep HST images of the galaxies are available for accurate morphologies of the galaxies. Echelle spectra of the QSO members are also available in public archives for resolving the velocity field of individual absorption clumps. Three galaxies in our sample are located at rho=8-34 kpc and exhibit strong associated MgII absorption feature with Wr(2796) >= 0.8 {AA}. One galaxy, located at an impact parameters rho=48 kpc, does not show an associated MgII absorber to a 3-sigma limit of Wr(2796)=0.01{AA}. Combining known inclination and orientation angles of the star-forming disks, and resolved absorption profiles of the associated absorbers at rho < 35 kpc, we explore the parameter space for the opening angle theta_0 and the velocity field of large-scale galactic outflows as a function of z-height, v(z). We find that the absorption profiles of the MgII doublets and FeII series are compatible with the gas being either accelerated or decelerated, depending on theta_0, though accelerated outflows are valid only for a narrow range of theta_0. Under an acceleration scenario, we compare the derived $v(z)$ with predictions from Murray et al. (2011) and find that if the gas is being accelerateted by the radiation and ram pressure forces from super star clusters, then the efficiency of thermal energy input from a supernova explosion is epsilon <= 0.01.
Log in to be able to interact and post comments
comments
Fetching comments
Sign in to be able to follow your search criteria
