The roles of radiation and ram pressure in driving galactic winds

TL;DR

This paper investigates how radiation and ram pressure jointly drive galactic winds, revealing their relative importance depending on galaxy mass and star formation rate, supported by observational data and theoretical modeling.

Contribution

It demonstrates that both radiation and ram pressure are necessary for driving galactic winds and quantifies their combined effects across different galaxy types.

Findings

Ram pressure dominates in low-mass, low-SFR galaxies.

Radiation pressure is more significant in high-mass, high-SFR galaxies.

The wind speed to circular speed ratio depends on SFR and galaxy rotation speed.

Abstract

We study gaseous outflows from disk galaxies driven by the combined effects of ram pressure on cold gas clouds and radiation pressure on dust grains. Taking into account the gravity due to disk, bulge and dark matter halo, and assuming continuous star formation in the disk, we show that radiation or ram pressure alone is not sufficient to drive escaping winds from disk galaxies, and that both processes contribute. We show that in the parameter space of star formation rate (SFR) and rotation speed of galaxies, the wind speed in galaxies with rotation speed $v_c\le 200$ km s$^{-1}$ and SFR $\le 100$ M$_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$, has a larger contribution from ram pressure, and that in high mass galaxies with large SFR, radiation from the disk has a greater role in driving galactic winds. The ratio of wind speed to circular speed can be approximated as ${v_w \over v_c} \sim 10^{0.7} \, [{\rm SFR\over 50 \, {\rm M}_{\odot} \, {\rm yr}^{-1}}] ^{0.4} \ [{v_c\over 120\, km/s}]^ {-1.25}$. We show that this conclusion is borne out by observations of galactic winds at low and high redshift and also of circumgalactic gas. We also estimate the mass loading factors under the combined effect of ram and radiation pressure, and show that the ratio of mass loss rate to SFR scales roughly as $v_c^{-1} \Sigma_g^{-1}$, where $\Sigma_g$ is the gas column density in the disk.