Distribution and kinematics of 26Al in the Galactic disc

TL;DR

This study uses advanced galaxy simulations to explore the distribution of radioactive isotope 26Al in the Milky Way, revealing that local supernovae likely cause the observed anomalies rather than galactic spiral structure.

Contribution

The paper demonstrates through simulations that the 26Al distribution anomalies are due to local supernova activity, not spiral arm structure, providing a new explanation for observational discrepancies.

Findings

Simulations show 26Al distribution similar to cold ISM, contradicting observations.

Foreground emission from a nearby supernova explains the 26Al anomalies.

Spiral arms in the simulation do not account for the 26Al distribution.

Abstract

26Al is a short-lived radioactive isotope thought to be injected into the interstellar medium (ISM) by massive stellar winds and supernovae. However, all-sky maps of 26Al emission show a distribution with a much larger scale height and faster rotation speed than either massive stars or the cold ISM. We investigate the origin of this discrepancy using an N-body+hydrodynamics simulation of a Milky-Way-like galaxy, self-consistently including self-gravity, star formation, stellar feedback, and 26Al production. We find no evidence that the Milky Way's spiral structure explains the 26Al anomaly. Stars and the 26Al bubbles they produce form along spiral arms, but, because our simulation produces material arms that arise spontaneously rather than propagating arms forced by an external potential, star formation occurs at arm centres rather than leading edges. As a result, we find a scale height and rotation speed for 26Al similar to that of the cold ISM. However, we also show that a synthetic 26Al emission map produced for a possible Solar position at the edge of a large 26Al bubble recovers many of the major qualitative features of the observed 26Al sky. This suggests that the observed anomalous 26Al distribution is the product of foreground emission from the 26Al produced by a nearby, recent supernova.