The onset of large scale turbulence in the interstellar medium of spiral galaxies

TL;DR

This study uses 3D hydrodynamical simulations to show that galactic spiral arms can generate large-scale turbulence in the interstellar medium, aligning well with observations and suggesting a universal, non-stellar origin for turbulence.

Contribution

It demonstrates that spiral arm tidal effects can drive large-scale turbulence in the ISM with high efficiency, providing a new explanation for turbulence origins beyond stellar sources.

Findings

Spiral arms induce turbulence with sizes up to 100 pc.

Turbulence energy conversion efficiency ranges from 10% to 25%.

Simulation results match observed turbulence spectra and scaling laws.

Abstract

Turbulence is ubiquitous in the interstellar medium (ISM) of the Milky Way and other spiral galaxies. The energy source for this turbulence has been much debated with many possible origins proposed. The universality of turbulence, its reported large-scale driving, and that it occurs also in starless molecular clouds, challenges models invoking any stellar source. A more general process is needed to explain the observations. In this work we study the role of galactic spiral arms. This is accomplished by means of three-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations which follow the dynamical evolution of interstellar diffuse clouds (100cm-3) interacting with the gravitational potential field of the spiral pattern. We find that the tidal effects of the arm's potential on the cloud result in internal vorticity, fragmentation and hydrodynamical instabilities. The triggered turbulence result in large-scale driving, on sizes of the ISM inhomogeneities, i.e. as large as 100pc, and efficiencies in converting potential energy into turbulence in the range 10 to 25 percent per arm crossing. This efficiency is much higher than those found in previous models. The statistics of the turbulence in our simulations are strikingly similar to the observed power spectrum and Larson scaling relations of molecular clouds and the general ISM. The dependency found from different models indicate that the ISM turbulence is mainly related to local spiral arm properties, such as its mass density and width. This correlation seems in agreement with recent high angular resolution observations of spiral galaxies, e.g. M51 and M33.