Momentum Injection by Clustered Supernovae: Testing Subgrid Feedback Prescriptions

TL;DR

This study evaluates three supernova feedback models in a controlled 1D simulation to determine their effectiveness in replicating the momentum injection observed in high-resolution clustered supernovae scenarios.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of common supernova feedback recipes in a more complex, yet controlled, setting than previous simplified models.

Findings

Delayed cooling performs well with clustered SNe at high momentum efficiency.

Momentum-energy model consistently achieves good results across tests.

Simultaneous energy injection underperforms, underestimating momentum in clustered SNe.

Abstract

Using a 1D Lagrangian code specifically designed to assess the impact of multiple, time-resolved supernovae (SNe) from a single star cluster on the surrounding medium, we test three commonly used feedback recipes: delayed cooling (e.g., used in the GASOLINE-2 code), momentum-energy injection (a resolution-dependent transition between momentum-dominated feedback and energy-dominated feedback used, e.g., in the FIRE-2 code), and simultaneous energy injection (e.g., used in the EAGLE simulations). Our work provides an intermediary test for these recipes: we analyse a setting that is more complex than the simplified scenarios for which many were designed, but one more controlled than a full galactic simulation. In particular, we test how well these models reproduce the enhanced momentum efficiency seen for an 11 SN cluster simulated at high resolution (0.6 pc; a factor of 12 enhancement relative to the isolated SN case) when these subgrid recipes are implemented in low resolution (20 pc) runs. We find that: 1) the delayed cooling model performs well -- resulting in 9 times the momentum efficiency of the fiducial isolated SN value -- when SNe are clustered and $10^{51}$ erg are injected per SN, while clearly over-predicting the momentum efficiency in the single SN test case; 2) the momentum-energy model always achieves good results, with a factor of 5 boost in momentum efficiency; and 3) injecting the energy from all SNe simultaneously does little to prevent over-cooling and greatly under-produces the momentum deposited by clustered SNe, resulting in a factor of 3 decrease in momentum efficiency on the average.