Evidence for supernova feedback sustaining gas turbulence in nearby star-forming galaxies

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that supernova explosions can independently sustain the gas turbulence observed in nearby star-forming galaxy discs, with only a small fraction of their energy required, especially when considering turbulence dissipation timescales.

Contribution

The paper introduces a novel approach by accounting for increased turbulence dissipation timescales in outer galaxy regions to evaluate supernova feedback effectiveness.

Findings

Supernovae can sustain gas turbulence with efficiencies around 1.5% for atomic gas.

Supernova feedback efficiency for molecular gas is approximately 0.3%.

Supernovae alone are sufficient to explain observed turbulence levels in galaxy discs.

Abstract

It is well known that gas in galaxy discs is highly turbulent, but there is much debate on which mechanism can energetically maintain this turbulence. Among the possible candidates, supernova (SN) explosions are likely the primary drivers but doubts remain on whether they can be sufficient in regions of moderate star formation activity, in particular in the outer parts of discs. In this paper, we measure the SN efficiency $\eta$, namely the fraction of the total SN energy needed to sustain turbulence in galaxies, and verify that SNe can indeed be the sole driving mechanism. The key novelty of our approach is that we take into account the increased turbulence dissipation timescale associated to the flaring in outer regions of gaseous discs. We analyse the distribution and kinematics of HI and CO in 10 nearby star-forming galaxies to obtain the radial profiles of the kinetic energy per unit area, for both the atomic gas and the molecular gas. We use a theoretical model to reproduce the observed energy with the sum of turbulent energy from SNe, as inferred from the observed star formation rate (SFR) surface density, and the gas thermal energy. We find that the observed kinetic energy is remarkably well reproduced by our model across the whole extent of the galactic discs, assuming $\eta$ constant with the galactocentric radius. Taking into account the uncertainties on the SFR surface density and on the atomic gas phase, we obtain that the median SN efficiencies for our sample of galaxies are $\langle \eta_\mathrm{atom} \rangle=0.015_{-0.008}^{+0.018}$ for the atomic gas and $\langle \eta_\mathrm{mol} \rangle = 0.003_{-0.002}^{+0.006}$ for the molecular gas. We conclude that SNe alone can sustain gas turbulence in nearby galaxies with only few percent of their energy and that there is essentially no need for any further source of energy.