Do We Detect the Galactic Feedback Material in X-ray Observations of Nearby Galaxies? - A Case Study of NGC 5866

TL;DR

This study investigates whether X-ray observations can detect the metal-rich feedback material from supernovae in a nearby galaxy, NGC 5866, revealing high Fe/O ratios and the impact of cool-hot gas interactions on feedback retention.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of metal-enriched feedback detection in NGC 5866 using combined Suzaku and Chandra data, highlighting the role of cool-hot gas interactions.

Findings

NGC 5866 has a very high Fe/O abundance ratio among early-type galaxies.

The hot gas temperature increases with radius, indicating cooling processes.

The galaxy retains a significant fraction of supernova ejecta due to cool-hot gas interactions.

Abstract

One of the major sources of X-ray emitting hot gas around galaxies is the feedback from supernovae (SNe), but most of this metal-enriched feedback material is often not directly detected in X-ray observations. This missing galactic feedback problem is extremely prominent in early-type galaxy bulges where there is little cool gas to make the SNe ejecta radiate at lower temperature beyond the X-ray domain. We herein present a deep Suzaku observation of an S0 galaxy NGC5866, which is relatively rich in molecular gas as an S0 galaxy and shows significant evidence of cool-hot gas interaction. By jointly analyzing the Suzaku and an archival Chandra data, we measure the Fe/O abundance ratio to be $7.63_{-5.52}^{+7.28}$ relative to solar values. This abundance ratio is much higher than those of spiral galaxies, and even among the highest ones of S0 and elliptical galaxies. NGC5866 also simultaneously has the highest Fe/O abundance ratio and molecular gas mass among a small sample of gas-poor early-type galaxies. An estimation of the Fe budget indicates that NGC5866 could preserve a larger than usual fraction, but far from the total amount of Fe injected by Type Ia SNe. We also find that the hot gas temperature increases from inner to outer halos, with the inner halo has a temperature of ~0.25keV, clearly lower than that expected from Type Ia SNe heating. This low temperature could be most naturally explained by additional cooling processes related to the cool-hot gas interaction as being indicated by the existence of many extraplanar dusty filaments. Our results indicate that the large cool gas content and the presence of cool-hot gas interaction in the inner region of NGC5866 have significantly reduced the specific energy of the SN ejecta and so the velocity of galactic outflow. The galaxy could thus preserve a considerable fraction of metal-enriched feedback material from being blown out.