Chemodynamics of dwarf galaxies under ram-pressure

TL;DR

This study uses advanced simulations to analyze how ram pressure and tidal forces influence metal distribution in dwarf galaxies, revealing that host galaxy gas halos play a more significant role than ram pressure stripping.

Contribution

The paper introduces a dynamic wind-tunnel model within a chemodynamic/hydrodynamic simulation suite to compare effects of tides and ram pressure on dwarf galaxies.

Findings

Ram pressure and tidal forces cause limited changes in metal distributions.

Host galaxy gas halos have a greater impact than ram pressure stripping.

Star formation rate variability explains differences in metallicity.

Abstract

By implementing a dynamic wind-tunnel model in a smoothed-particle chemodynamic/hydrodynamic simulation suite, we have investigated the effects of ram pressure and tidal forces on dwarf galaxies similar to the Magellanic Clouds, within host galaxies with gas and dark matter halos that are varied, to compare the relative effects of tides and ram pressure. We concentrate on how the distributions of metals are affected by interactions. We find that while ram pressure and tidal forces have some effect on dwarf galaxy outflows, these effects do not produce large differences in the metal distributions of the dwarf disks other than truncation in the outer regions in some cases, and that confinement from the host galaxy gas halo appears to be more significant than ram pressure stripping. We find that stochastic variations in the star formation rate can explain the remaining variations in disk metal properties. This raises questions on the cause of low metallicities in dwarf galaxies.