Three-Dimensional Simulations of a Starburst-Driven Galactic Wind

TL;DR

This study uses three-dimensional simulations to explore how inhomogeneous interstellar media influence the formation, morphology, and X-ray emission of starburst-driven galactic winds, revealing complex filamentary structures and flow patterns.

Contribution

It introduces detailed 3D simulations of starburst winds in inhomogeneous media, highlighting the impact on wind morphology and X-ray emission, which was not fully understood before.

Findings

Wind forms from small bubbles merging and escaping through least resistance.

Filaments are created from disk gas and distributed in a biconical structure.

X-ray emission results from cloud mass-loading and bow shocks.

Abstract

We have performed a series of three-dimensional simulations of a starburst-driven wind in an inhomogeneous interstellar medium. The introduction of an inhomogeneous disk leads to differences in the formation of a wind, most noticeably the absence of the ``blow-out'' effect seen in homogeneous models. A wind forms from a series of small bubbles that propagate into the tenuous gas between dense clouds in the disk. These bubbles merge and follow the path of least resistance out of the disk, before flowing freely into the halo. Filaments are formed from disk gas that is broken up and accelerated into the outflow. These filaments are distributed throughout a biconical structure within a more spherically distributed hot wind. The distribution of the inhomogeneous interstellar medium in the disk is important in determining the morphology of this wind, as well as the distribution of the filaments. While higher resolution simulations are required in order to ascertain the importance of mixing processes, we find that soft X-ray emission arises from gas that has been mass-loaded from clouds in the disk, as well as from bow shocks upstream of clouds, driven into the flow by the ram pressure of the wind, and the interaction between these shocks.