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Register a new userThe X_CO conversion factor from galactic multiphase ISM simulations
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CO(J=1-0) line emission is a widely used observational tracer of molecular gas, rendering essential the X_CO factor, which is applied to convert CO luminosity to H_2 mass. We use numerical simulations to study how X_CO depends on numerical resolution, non-steady-state chemistry, physical environment, and observational beam size. Our study employs 3D magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) simulations of galactic disks with solar neighborhood conditions, where star formation and the three-phase interstellar medium (ISM) are self-consistently regulated by gravity and stellar feedback. Synthetic CO maps are obtained by post-processing the MHD simulations with chemistry and radiation transfer. We find that CO is only an approximate tracer of H_2. On parsec scales, W_CO is more fundamentally a measure of mass-weighted volume density, rather than H_2 column density. Nevertheless, $langle X_mathrm{CO} rangle=0.7-1.0times10^{20}~mathrm{cm^{-2}K^{-1}km^{-1}s}$ consistent with observations, insensitive to the evolutionary ISM state or radiation field strength if steady-state chemistry is assumed. Due to non-steady-state chemistry, younger molecular clouds have slightly lower X_CO and flatter profiles of X_CO versus extinction than older ones. The CO-dark H_2 fraction is 26-79 %, anti-correlated with the average extinction. As the observational beam size increases from 1 pc to 100 pc, X_CO increases by a factor of ~ 2. Under solar neighborhood conditions, X_CO in molecular clouds is converged at a numerical resolution of 2 pc. However, the total CO abundance and luminosity are not converged even at the numerical resolution of 1 pc. Our simulations successfully reproduce the observed variations of X_CO on parsec scales, as well as the dependence of X_CO on extinction and the CO excitation temperature.
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CO is the most widely used observational tracer of molecular gas. The observable CO luminosity is translated to H_2 mass via a conversion factor, X_CO, which is a source of uncertainty and bias. Despite variations in X_CO, the empirically-determined solar neighborhood value is often applied across different galactic environments. To improve understanding of X_CO, we employ 3D magnetohydrodynamics simulations of the interstellar medium (ISM) in galactic disks with a large range of gas surface densities, allowing for varying metallicity, far-ultraviolet (FUV) radiation, and cosmic ray ionization rate (CRIR). With the TIGRESS simulation framework we model the three-phase ISM with self-consistent star formation and feedback, and post-process outputs with chemistry and radiation transfer to generate synthetic CO(1--0) and (2--1) maps. Our models reproduce the observed CO excitation temperatures, line-widths, and line ratios in nearby disk galaxies. X_CO decreases with increasing metallicity, with a power-law slope of -0.8 for the (1--0) line and -0.5 for the (2--1) line. X_CO also decreases at higher CRIR, and is insensitive to the FUV radiation. As density increases, X_CO first decreases due to increasing excitation temperature, and then increases when the emission is fully saturated. We provide fits between X_CO and observable quantities such as the line ratio, peak antenna temperature, and line brightness, which probe local gas conditions. These fits, which allow for varying beam size, may be used in observations to calibrate out systematic biases. We also provide estimates of the CO-dark H_2 fraction at different gas surface densities, observational sensitivities, and beam sizes.
We use numerical simulations to analyze the evolution and properties of superbubbles (SBs), driven by multiple supernovae (SNe), that propagate into the two-phase (warm/cold), cloudy interstellar medium (ISM). We consider a range of mean background densities n_avg=0.1-10 cm^{-3} and intervals between SNe dt_sn=0.01-1 Myr, and follow each SB until the radius reaches (1-2)H, where H is the characteristic ISM disk thickness. Except for embedded dense clouds, each SB is hot until a time t_sf,m when the shocked warm gas at the outer front cools and forms an overdense shell. Subsequently, diffuse gas in the SB interior remains at T_h 10^6-10^7K with expansion velocity v_h~10^2-10^3km/s (both highest for low dt_sn). At late times, the warm shell gas velocities are several 10s to ~100km/s. While shell velocities are too low to escape from a massive galaxy, they are high enough to remove substantial mass from dwarfs. Dense clouds are also accelerated, reaching a few to 10s of km/s. We measure the mass in hot gas per SN, M_h/N_SN, and the total radial momentum of the bubble per SN, p_b/N_SN. After t_sf,m, M_h/N_SN 10-100M_sun (highest for low n_avg), while p_b/N_SN 0.7-3x10^5M_sun km/s (highest for high dt_sn). If galactic winds in massive galaxies are loaded by the hot gas in SBs, we conclude that the mass-loss rates would generally be lower than star formation rates. Only if the SN cadence is much higher than typical in galactic disks, as may occur for nuclear starbursts, SBs can break out while hot and expel up to 10 times the mass locked up in stars. The momentum injection values, p_b/N_SN, are consistent with requirements to control star formation rates in galaxies at observed levels.
We show that the XCO factor, which converts the CO luminosity into the column density of molecular hydrogen has similar values for dense, fully molecular gas and for diffuse, partially molecular gas. We discuss the reasons of this coincidence and the consequences for the understanding of the interstellar medium.
It has been hypothesized that photons from young, massive star clusters are responsible for maintaining the ionization of diffuse warm ionized gas seen in both the Milky Way and other disk galaxies. For a theoretical investigation of the warm ionized medium (WIM), it is crucial to solve radiation transfer equations where the ISM and clusters are modeled self-consistently. To this end, we employ a Solar neighborhood model of TIGRESS, a magnetohydrodynamic simulation of the multiphase, star-forming ISM, and post-process the simulation with an adaptive ray tracing method to transfer UV radiation from star clusters. We find that the WIM volume filling factor is highly variable, and sensitive to the rate of ionizing photon production and ISM structure. The mean WIM volume filling factor rises to ~0.15 at |z|~1 kpc. Approximately half of ionizing photons are absorbed by gas and half by dust; the cumulative ionizing photon escape fraction is 1.1%. Our time-averaged synthetic H$alpha$ line profile matches WHAM observations on the redshifted (outflowing) side, but has insufficient intensity on the blueshifted side. Our simulation matches the Dickey-Lockman neutral density profile well, but only a small fraction of snapshots have high-altitude WIM density consistent with Reynolds Layer estimates. We compute a clumping correction factor C = <n_e>/sqrt<n_e^2>~0.2 that is remarkably constant with distance from the midplane and time; this can be used to improve estimates of ionized gas mass and mean electron density from observed H$alpha$ surface brightness profiles in edge-on galaxies.
Galaxy evolution and star formation are two multi-scale problems tightly linked to each other. To understand the interstellar cycle, which triggers galaxy evolution, it is necessary to describe simultaneously the large-scale evolution widely induced by the feedback processes and the details of the gas dynamics that controls the star formation process through gravitational collapse. We perform a set of three-dimensional high-resolution numerical simulations of a turbulent, self-gravitating and magnetized interstellar medium within a $1 mathrm{kpc}$ stratified box with supernova feedback correlated with star-forming regions. In particular, we focus on the role played by the magnetic field and the feedback on the galactic vertical structure, the star formation rate (SFR) and the flow dynamics. For this purpose we vary their respective intensities. We extract properties of the dense clouds arising from the turbulent motions and compute power spectra of various quantities. Using a distribution of supernovae sufficiently correlated with the dense gas, we find that supernova explosions can reproduce the observed SFR, particularly if the magnetic field is on the order of a few $mu G$. The vertical structure, which results from a dynamical and an energy equilibrium is well reproduced by a simple analytical model, which allows us to estimate the coupling between the gas and the supernovae. We found the coupling to be rather low and on the order of 1.5$%$. Strong magnetic fields may help to increase this coupling by a factor of about 2-3. To characterize the flow we compute the power spectra of various quantities in 3D but also in 2D in order to account for the stratification of the galactic disc.
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