Gas Dynamics in the Central Molecular Zone and its connection with the Galactic Bar

TL;DR

This study uses hydrodynamic simulations to explore how the Galactic bar influences gas dynamics and star formation in the Milky Way's central molecular zone, revealing a multi-phase ring formation process and a conveyor-belt star formation mechanism.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the formation and evolution of the CMZ ring and its connection to the Galactic bar through detailed simulation analysis.

Findings

The CMZ ring passes through formation, instability, and quasi-stationary phases.

Most star formation occurs during the ring formation stage.

Star formation is triggered after dense gas passes the apocenter in the stable x2 orbit.

Abstract

The innermost region of the Milky Way harbors the central molecular zone (CMZ). This region contains a large amount of molecular gas but a poor star formation rate considering the densities achieved by the gas in this region. We used the arepo code to perform a hydrodynamic and star formation simulation of the Galaxy, where a Ferrers bar was adiabatically introduced. During the stage of bar imposition, the bar strength excites density waves close to the inner Lindblad resonance guiding material toward the inner Galaxy, driving the formation of a ring that we qualitatively associate with the CMZ. During the simulation, we identified that the ring passes three main phases, namely: formation, instability, and quasi-stationary stages. During the whole evolution, and particularly in the quasi-stationary stage, we observe that the ring is associated with the x2 family of periodic orbits. Additionally, we found that most of the star formation occurs during the ring formation stage, while it drastically decreases in the instability stage. Finally, we found that when the gas has settled in a stable x2 orbit, the star formation takes place mostly after the dense gas passes the apocenter, triggering the conveyor-belt mechanism described in previous studies.