Type-Ia Supernova-driven Galactic Bulge Wind

TL;DR

This study uses 3D hydrodynamical simulations to explore how Type Ia supernovae influence hot gas dynamics, X-ray emission, and iron distribution in galactic bulges, revealing complex filamentary structures and non-uniform metallicity.

Contribution

First detailed 3D simulation of sporadic SNe effects on bulge hot gas, including iron enrichment and X-ray morphology, with a novel embedding scheme for SNR seeds.

Findings

Bulge wind has filamentary density structures and patchy ejecta.

Non-uniform gas properties significantly alter X-ray spectra compared to 1D models.

Most X-ray emission originates from low-temperature, low-abundance gas shells.

Abstract

Stellar feedback in galactic bulges plays an essential role in shaping the evolution of galaxies. To quantify this role and facilitate comparisons with X-ray observations, we conduct 3D hydrodynamical simulations with the adaptive mesh refinement code, FLASH, to investigate the physical properties of hot gas inside a galactic bulge, similar to that of our Galaxy or M31. We assume that the dynamical and thermal properties of the hot gas are dominated by mechanical energy input from SNe, primarily Type Ia, and mass injection from evolved stars as well as iron enrichment from SNe. We study the bulge-wide outflow as well as the SN heating on scales down to ~4 pc. An embedding scheme that is devised to plant individual SNR seeds, allows to examine, for the first time, the effect of sporadic SNe on the density, temperature, and iron ejecta distribution of the hot gas as well as the resultant X-ray morphology and spectrum. We find that the SNe produce a bulge wind with highly filamentary density structures and patchy ejecta. Compared with a 1D spherical wind model, the non-uniformity of simulated gas density, temperature, and metallicity substantially alters the spectral shape and increases the diffuse X-ray luminosity. The differential emission measure as a function of temperature of the simulated gas exhibits a log-normal distribution, with a peak value much lower than that of the corresponding 1D model. The bulk of the X-ray emission comes from the relatively low temperature and low abundance gas shells associated with SN blastwaves. SN ejecta are not well mixed with the ambient medium, at least in the bulge region. These results, at least partly, account for the apparent lack of evidence for iron enrichment in the soft X-ray-emitting gas in galactic bulges and intermediate-mass elliptical galaxies.[...]