Evolution of dust and molecular hydrogen in the Magellanic System

TL;DR

This study uses chemodynamical simulations to explore dust and molecular hydrogen evolution in the Magellanic Clouds, successfully matching observed properties and revealing the importance of dust processing and tidal interactions.

Contribution

It introduces the first models to reproduce the Magellanic Stream's low metallicity and examines dust destruction timescales and their impact on ISM evolution.

Findings

Models match observed dust and H2 masses within uncertainties.

Dust destruction timescales are consistent with supernova rates.

Reproduces the Stream's low metallicity and assesses the LMC's contribution.

Abstract

We investigate the evolution of the interstellar medium (ISM) in self-consistent, chemodynamical simulations of the Magellanic Clouds (MCs) during their recent (z<0.3) past. An explicit modelling of dust and molecular hydrogen lifecycles enables the comparison of our models against the observed properties of the ISM, including elemental depletion from the gas-phase. Combining this model with a tidal-dominated paradigm for the formation for the Magellanic Stream and Bridge, we reproduce the age-metallicity relations, long gas depletion timescales, and presently observed dust and molecular hydrogen masses of the MCs to within their respective uncertainties. We find that these models' enrichment depends sensitively on the processing of dust within the ISM and the dynamical influence of external tides/stellar bars. The ratio of characteristic dust destruction timescales in our SMC and LMC models, a governing parameter of our models' evolution, is consistent with estimates based on observed supernova (SN) rates. Our reference MC models tend to exhibit the disputed universal dust-to-metal ratio, which we argue stems from the adoption of high SNe II condensation efficiencies. Our models are the first to reproduce the one-tenth solar metallicity of the Stream/Leading Arm following tidal stripping of the SMC; the hypothesis that the LMC contributes a metal-rich filament to the Stream, as implied by recent kinematic and abundance analyses, is also appraised in this study.