Spiral Density Waves in M81. II. Hydrodynamic Simulations for Gas Response to Stellar Spiral Density Waves

TL;DR

This study uses hydrodynamic simulations to analyze how gas responds to stellar spiral density waves in galaxy M81, revealing the coexistence of cold and warm media and explaining observed structures and motions.

Contribution

It demonstrates the necessity of modeling both cold and warm neutral media to accurately reproduce M81's gas structures and kinematics, advancing understanding of galaxy spiral dynamics.

Findings

Outer disk structures match cold neutral medium simulations

Inner disk spiral shocks relate to warm neutral medium

Streaming motions indicate galaxy interactions

Abstract

Gas response to the underlying stellar spirals is explored for M81 using unmagnetized hydrodynamic simulations. Constrained within the uncertainty of observations, 18 simulations are carried out to study the effects of selfgravity and to cover the parameter space comprising three different sound speeds and three different arm strengths. The results are confronted with those data observed at wavelengths of 8 $\mu$m and 21 cm. In the outer disk, the ring-like structure observed in 8 $\mu$m image is consistent with the response of cold neutral medium with an effective sound speed 7 km s$^{-1}$, while for the inner disk, the presence of spiral shocks can be understood as a result of 4:1 resonances associated with the warm neutral medium with an effective sound speed 19 km s$^{-1}$. Simulations with single effective sound speed alone cannot simultaneously explain the structures in the outer and inner disks. This justifies the coexistence of cold and warm neutral media in M81. The anomalously high streaming motions observed in the northeast arm and the outward shifted turning points in the iso-velocity contours seen along the southwest arm are interpreted as signatures of interactions with companion galaxies. The level of simulated streaming motions narrows down the uncertainty of observed arm strength toward larger amplitudes.