Photoionization of High Altitude Gas in a Supernova-Driven Turbulent Interstellar Medium

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that supernova-driven turbulence creates low-density pathways allowing ionizing photons from galactic midplane stars to reach and ionize gas at high altitudes, supporting the photoionization origin of diffuse ionized gas.

Contribution

It shows that hydrodynamical simulations with supernova feedback can explain the penetration of ionizing radiation to high galactic altitudes, challenging previous models that dismissed stellar photoionization.

Findings

Ionizing photons reach high altitudes via low-density paths in simulations.

Simulation fluxes exceed one-dimensional model predictions.

Discrepancies with observations likely due to absence of magnetic fields.

Abstract

We investigate models for the photoionization of the widespread diffuse ionized gas in galaxies. In particular we address the long standing question of the penetration of Lyman continuum photons from sources close to the galactic midplane to large heights in the galactic halo. We find that recent hydrodynamical simulations of a supernova-driven interstellar medium have low density paths and voids that allow for ionizing photons from midplane OB stars to reach and ionize gas many kiloparsecs above the midplane. We find ionizing fluxes throughout our simulation grids are larger than predicted by one dimensional slab models, thus allowing for photoionization by O stars of low altitude neutral clouds in the Galaxy that are also detected in Halpha. In previous studies of such clouds the photoionization scenario had been rejected and the Halpha had been attributed to enhanced cosmic ray ionization or scattered light from midplane H II regions. We do find that the emission measure distributions in our simulations are wider than those derived from Halpha observations in the Milky Way. In addition, the horizontally averaged height dependence of the gas density in the hydrodynamical models is lower than inferred in the Galaxy. These discrepancies are likely due to the absence of magnetic fields in the hydrodynamic simulations and we discuss how magnetohydrodynamic effects may reconcile models and observations. Nevertheless, we anticipate that the inclusion of magnetic fields in the dynamical simulations will not alter our primary finding that midplane OB stars are capable of producing high altitude diffuse ionized gas in a realistic three-dimensional interstellar medium.