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Register a new userSpatial distribution of the Milky Way hot gaseous halo constrained by Suzaku X-ray observations
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The formation mechanism of the hot gaseous halo associated with the Milky Way Galaxy is still under debate. We report new observational constraints on the gaseous halo using 107 lines-of-sight of the Suzaku X-ray observations at $75^{circ}<l<285^{circ}$ and $|b|>15^{circ}$ with a total exposure of 6.4 Ms. The gaseous halo spectra are represented by a single-temperature plasma model in collisional ionization equilibrium. The median temperature of the observed fields is 0.26 keV ($3.0times10^6$ K) with a typical fluctuation of $sim30$%. The emission measure varies by an order of magnitude and marginally correlates with the Galactic latitude. Despite the large scatter of the data, the emission measure distribution is roughly reproduced by a disk-like density distribution with a scale length of $sim7$ kpc, a scale height of $sim2$ kpc, and a total mass of $sim5times10^7$ $M_{odot}$. In addition, we found that a spherical hot gas with the $beta$-model profile hardly contributes to the observed X-rays but that its total mass might reach $gtrsim10^9$ $M_{odot}$. Combined with indirect evidence of an extended gaseous halo from other observations, the hot gaseous halo likely consists of a dense disk-like component and a rarefied spherical component; the X-ray emissions primarily come from the former but the mass is dominated by the latter. The disk-like component likely originates from stellar feedback in the Galactic disk due to the low scale height and the large scatter of the emission measures. The median [O/Fe] of $sim0.25$ shows the contribution of the core-collapse supernovae and supports the stellar feedback origin.
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The circumgalactic region of the Milky Way contains a large amount of gaseous mass in the warm-hot phase. The presence of this warm-hot halo observed through $z=0$ X-ray absorption lines is generally agreed upon, but its density, path-length, and mass is a matter of debate. Here I discuss in detail why different investigations led to different results. The presence of an extended (over 100 kpc) and massive (over ten billion solar masses) warm-hot gaseous halo is supported by observations of other galaxies as well. I briefly discuss the assumption of constant density and end with outlining future prospects.
We propose a novel method to constrain the Milky Way (MW) mass $M_{rm vir}$ with its corona temperature observations. For a given corona density profile, one can derive its temperature distribution assuming a generalized equilibrium model with non-thermal pressure support. While the derived temperature profile decreases substantially with radius, the X-ray-emission-weighted average temperature, which depends most sensitively on $M_{rm vir}$, is quite uniform toward different sight lines, consistent with X-ray observations. For an Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW) total matter distribution, the corona density profile should be cored, and we constrain $M_{rm vir}=(1.19$ - $2.95) times 10^{12} M_{rm sun}$. For a total matter distribution contributed by an NFW dark matter profile and central baryons, the corona density profile should be cuspy and $M_{rm vir,dm}=(1.34$ - $5.44) times 10^{12} M_{rm sun}$. Non-thermal pressure support leads to even higher values of $M_{rm vir}$, while a lower MW mass may be possible if the corona is accelerating outward. This method is independent of the total corona mass, its metallicity, and temperature at very large radii.
In 1998 several papers claim the detection of an ubiquitous gaseous phase within the Galactic halo. Here we like to focus on the detections of X-ray emitting gas within the Galactic halo as well as the discovery of a pervasive neutral Galactic halo gas. We discuss critically the major differences between the recent publications as well as the limitations of the analyses.
Theoretical and observational arguments suggest that there is a large amount of hot ($sim 10^6$ K), diffuse gas residing in the Milky Ways halo, while its total mass and spatial distribution are still unclear. In this work, we present a general model for the gas density distribution in the Galactic halo, and investigate the gas evolution under radiative cooling with a series of 2D hydrodynamic simulations. We find that the mass inflow rate in the developed cooling flow increases with gas metallicity and the total gas mass in the halo. For a fixed halo gas mass, the spatial gas distribution affects the onset time of the cooling catastrophe, which starts earlier when the gas distribution is more centrally-peaked, but does not substantially affect the final mass inflow rate. The gravity from the Galactic bulge and disk affects gas properties in inner regions, but has little effect on the final inflow rate either. We confirm our results by investigating cooling flows in several density models adopted from the literature, including the Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW) model, the cored-NFW model, the Maller & Bullock model, and the $beta$ model. Typical mass inflow rates in our simulations range from $sim 5 M_{odot}$ yr$^{-1}$ to $sim 60 M_{odot}$ yr$^{-1}$, and are much higher than the observed star formation rate in our Galaxy, suggesting that stellar and active galactic nucleus feedback processes may play important roles in the evolution of the Milky Way (MW) and MW-type galaxies.
The halo of the Milky Way provides a laboratory to study the properties of the shocked hot gas that is predicted by models of galaxy formation. There is observational evidence of energy injection into the halo from past activity in the nucleus of the Milky Way; however, the origin of this energy (star formation or supermassive-black-hole activity) is uncertain, and the causal connection between nuclear structures and large-scale features has not been established unequivocally. Here we report soft-X-ray-emitting bubbles that extend approximately 14 kiloparsecs above and below the Galactic centre and include a structure in the southern sky analogous to the North Polar Spur. The sharp boundaries of these bubbles trace collisionless and non-radiative shocks, and corroborate the idea that the bubbles are not a remnant of a local supernova but part of a vast Galaxy-scale structure closely related to features seen in gamma-rays. Large energy injections from the Galactic centre are the most likely cause of both the {gamma}-ray and X-ray bubbles. The latter have an estimated energy of around 10$^{56}$ erg, which is sufficient to perturb the structure, energy content and chemical enrichment of the circumgalactic medium of the Milky Way.
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