Magnetic buoyancy in simulated galactic discs with a realistic circum galactic medium

TL;DR

This study uses simulations to explore how magnetic fields influence galactic disc evolution, star formation, and the circum-galactic medium, revealing magnetic outflows and dynamo processes in different halo environments.

Contribution

It demonstrates magnetic field amplification mechanisms and their effects on star formation and gas dynamics in realistic galactic environments.

Findings

Magnetic outflows reduce star formation rates by ~40%.

Small-scale turbulence amplifies magnetic fields up to tens of microgauss.

Magnetic power spectrum indicates presence of a small-scale dynamo.

Abstract

We present simulations of isolated disc galaxies in a realistic environment performed with the Tree-SPMHD-Code Gadget-3. Our simulations include a spherical circum-galactic medium (CGM) surrounding the galactic disc, motivated by observations and the results of cosmological simulations. We present three galactic models with different halo masses between 10e10 Msol and 10e12 Msol, and for each we use two different approaches to seed the magnetic field, as well as a control simulation without a magnetic field. We find that the amplification of the magnetic field in the centre of the disc leads to a biconical magnetic outflow of gas that magnetizes the CGM. This biconical magnetic outflow reduces the star formation rate (SFR) of the galaxy by roughly 40 percent compared to the simulations without magnetic fields. As the key aspect of our simulations, we find that small scale turbulent motion of the gas in the disc leads to the amplification of the magnetic field up to tens of 10e-6 G, as long as the magnetic field strength is low. For stronger magnetic fields turbulent motion does not lead to significant amplification but is replaced by an alpha-omega dynamo. The occurance of a small scale turbulent dynamo becomes apparent through the magnetic power spectrum and analysis of the field lines' curvature. In accordance with recent observations we find an anti-correlation between the spiral structure in the gas density and in the magnetic field due to a diffusion term added to the induction equation.