Mass Loss From Evolved Stars in Elliptical Galaxies

TL;DR

This study models how stellar mass loss interacts with hot gas in elliptical galaxies, revealing that most ejecta heats up quickly but some cool gas persists, explaining observed features.

Contribution

First detailed hydrodynamic simulations of stellar mass loss interaction with hot ambient gas in elliptical galaxies, including effects of radiative cooling.

Findings

Most stellar ejecta heats to ambient temperature within 2 pc.

Up to 25% of mass loss remains cool with radiative cooling.

Cool gas presence depends on ambient density and stellar velocity.

Abstract

Most of the X-ray emitting gas in early-type galaxies probably originates from red giant mass loss and here we model the interaction between this stellar mass loss and the hot ambient medium. Using two-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations, we adopt a temperature for the ambient medium of 3E6 K along with a range of ambient densities and stellar velocities. When the stellar velocity is supersonic relative to the ambient medium, a bow shock occurs, along with a shock driven into the stellar ejecta, which heats only a fraction of the gas. Behind the bow shock, a cool wake develops but the fast flow of the hot medium causes Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities to grow and these fingers are shocked and heated (without radiative cooling). Along with the mixing of this wake material with the hot medium, most of the stellar ejecta is heated to approximately the temperature of the hot ambient medium within 2 pc of the star. With the addition of radiative cooling, some wake material remains cool (< 1E5 K), accounting for up to 25% of the stellar mass loss. Less cooled gas survives when the ambient density is lower or when the stellar velocity is higher than in our reference case. These results suggest that some cooled gas should be present in the inner part of early-type galaxies that have a hot ambient medium. These calculations may explain the observed distributed optical emission line gas as well as the presence of dust in early-type galaxies.