The impact of feedback on the low redshift Intergalactic Medium

TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution simulations to examine how different feedback mechanisms from supernovae and black holes influence the chemical and thermal properties of the low-redshift intergalactic medium, with implications for future observations.

Contribution

It provides a detailed comparison of the effects of galactic winds and black hole feedback on the IGM's evolution, highlighting their distinct signatures in chemical and thermal history.

Findings

Feedback leaves distinct chemical and thermal signatures in the IGM.

The evolution of element ratios varies with feedback models, but converges at z=0.

WHIM properties are sensitive to feedback, aiding future detection efforts.

Abstract

We analyse the evolution of the properties of the low-redshift Intergalactic Medium (IGM) using high-resolution hydrodynamic simulations that include a detailed chemical evolution model. We focus on the effects that two different forms of energy feedback, strong galactic winds driven by supernova explosion and Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) powered by gas accretion onto super-massive black holes (BHs), have on the thermo- and chemo-dynamical properties of of the low redshift IGM. We find that feedback associated to winds (W) and BHs leave distinct signatures in both the chemical and thermal history of the baryons, especially at redshift z<3 [..] We present results for the enrichment in terms of mass and metallicity distributions for the WHIM phase, both as a function of density and temperature. Finally, we compute the evolution of the relative abundances between different heavy elements, namely Oxygen, Carbon and Iron. While both C/O and O/Fe evolve differently at high redshifts for different feedback models, their values are similar at z=0 [..]. The sensitivity of WHIM properties on the implemented feedback scheme could be important both for discriminating between different feedback physics and for detecting the WHIM with future far-UV and X-ray telescopes.