No Arabic abstract
Magnetic fields are widely observed in the Universe in virtually all astrophysical objects, from individual stars to entire galaxies, even in the intergalactic medium, but their specific generation has long been debated. Due to the development of more realistic models of galaxy formation, viable scenarios are emerging to explain cosmic magnetism, thanks to both deeper observations and more efficient and accurate computer simulations. We present here a new cosmological high-resolution zoom-in magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulation, using the adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) technique, of a dwarf galaxy with an initially weak and uniform magnetic seed field that is amplified by a small-scale dynamo driven by supernova-induced turbulence. As first structures form from the gravitational collapse of small density fluctuations, the frozen-in magnetic field separates from the cosmic expansion and grows through compression. In a second step, star formation sets in and establishes a strong galactic fountain, self-regulated by supernova explosions. Inside the galaxy, the interstellar medium becomes highly turbulent, dominated by strong supersonic shocks, as demonstrated by the spectral analysis of the gas kinetic energy. In this turbulent environment, the magnetic field is quickly amplified via a small-scale dynamo process and is finally carried out into the circumgalactic medium by a galactic wind. This realistic cosmological simulation explains how initially weak magnetic seed fields can be amplified quickly in early, feedback-dominated galaxies, and predicts, as a consequence of the small scale dynamo process, that high-redshift magnetic fields are likely to be dominated by their small scale components.
Small-scale turbulent dynamo is responsible for the amplification of magnetic fields on scales smaller than the driving scale of turbulence in diverse astrophysical media. Most earlier dynamo theories concern the kinematic regime and small-scale magnetic field amplification. Here we review our recent progress in developing the theories for the nonlinear dynamo and the dynamo regime in a partially ionized plasma. The importance of reconnection diffusion of magnetic fields is identified for both the nonlinear dynamo and magnetic field amplification during gravitational contraction. For the dynamo in a partially ionized plasma, the coupling state between neutrals and ions and the ion-neutral collisional damping can significantly affect the dynamo behavior and the resulting magnetic field structure. We present both our analytical predictions and numerical tests with a two-fluid dynamo simulation on the dynamo features in this regime. In addition, to illustrate the astrophysical implications, we discuss several examples for the applications of the dynamo theory to studying magnetic field evolution in both preshock and postshock regions of supernova remnants, in weakly magnetized molecular clouds, during the (primordial) star formation, and during the first galaxy formation.
We investigate the disc-halo connection in massive (Mstar/Msun>5e10) disc galaxies from the cosmological hydrodynamical simulations EAGLE and IllustrisTNG, and compare it with that inferred from the study of HI rotation curves in nearby massive spirals from the Spitzer Photometry and Accurate Rotation Curves (SPARC) dataset. We find that discrepancies between the the simulated and observed discs arise both on global and on local scales. Globally, the simulated discs inhabit halos that are a factor ~4 (in EAGLE) and ~2 (in IllustrisTNG) more massive than those derived from the rotation curve analysis of the observed dataset. We also use synthetic rotation curves of the simulated discs to demonstrate that the recovery of the halo masses from rotation curves are not systematically biased. We find that the simulations predict dark-matter dominated systems with stellar-to-total enclosed mass ratios that are a factor of 1.5-2 smaller than real galaxies at all radii. This is an alternative manifestation of the `failed feedback problem, since it indicates that simulated halos hosting massive discs have been too inefficient at converting their baryons into stars, possibly due to an overly efficient stellar and/or AGN feedback implementation.
We explored the role of X-ray binaries composed by a black hole and a massive stellar companion (BHXs) as sources of kinetic feedback by using hydrodynamical cosmological simulations. Following previous results, our BHX model selects low metal-poor stars ($Z = [0,10^{-4}]$) as possible progenitors. The model that better reproduces observations assumes that a $sim 20%$ fraction of low-metallicity black holes are in binary systems which produce BHXs. These sources are estimated to deposit $sim 10^{52}$ erg of kinetic energy per event. With these parameters and in the simulated volume, we find that the energy injected by BHXs represents $sim 30%$ of the total energy released by SNII and BHX events at redshift $zsim7$ and then decreases rapidly as baryons get chemically enriched. Haloes with virial masses smaller than $sim 10^{10} ,M_{odot}$ (or $T_{rm vir} lesssim 10^5 $ K) are the most directly affected ones by BHX feedback. These haloes host galaxies with stellar masses in the range $10^7 - 10^8$ M$_odot$. Our results show that BHX feedback is able to keep the interstellar medium warm, without removing a significant gas fraction, in agreement with previous analytical calculations. Consequently, the stellar-to-dark matter mass ratio is better reproduced at high redshift. Our model also predicts a stronger evolution of the number of galaxies as a function of the stellar mass with redshift when BHX feedback is considered. These findings support previous claims that the BHXs could be an effective source of feedback in early stages of galaxy evolution.
We present non-radiative, cosmological zoom-simulations of galaxy cluster formation with magnetic fields and (anisotropic) thermal conduction of one very massive galaxy cluster with a mass at redshift zero that corresponds to $M_mathrm{vir} sim 2 times 10^{15} M_{odot}$. We run the cluster on three resolution levels (1X, 10X, 25X), starting with an effective mass resolution of $2 times 10^8M_{odot}$, subsequently increasing the particle number to reach $4 times 10^6M_{odot}$. The maximum spatial resolution obtained in the simulations is limited by the gravitational softening reaching $epsilon=1.0$ kpc at the highest resolution level, allowing to resolve the hierarchical assembly of the structures in very fine detail. All simulations presented, have been carried out with the SPMHD-code Gadget-3 with a heavily updated SPMHD prescription. The primary focus is to investigate magnetic field amplification in the Intracluster Medium (ICM). We show that the main amplification mechanism is the small scale-turbulent-dynamo in the limit of reconnection diffusion. In our two highest resolution models we start to resolve the magnetic field amplification driven by this process and we explicitly quantify this with the magnetic power-spectra and the magnetic tension that limits the bending of the magnetic field lines consistent with dynamo theory. Furthermore, we investigate the $ abla cdot mathbf{B}=0$ constraint within our simulations and show that we achieve comparable results to state-of-the-art AMR or moving-mesh techniques, used in codes such as Enzo and Arepo. Our results show for the first time in a fully cosmological simulation of a galaxy cluster that dynamo action can be resolved in the framework of a modern Lagrangian magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) method, a study that is currently missing in the literature.