Modelling the non-equilibrium chemistry of the Milky Way's cold nuclear wind

TL;DR

This study models the non-equilibrium chemistry of cold gas clouds in the Milky Way's nuclear wind, revealing their potential for larger masses and different compositions than equilibrium models suggest.

Contribution

It introduces a time-dependent chemical model explaining how cold clouds survive and evolve in galactic winds, challenging equilibrium assumptions.

Findings

Cold clouds cannot be explained by chemical equilibrium models.

Rapid removal of atomic envelopes leads to large molecular reservoirs.

Mass estimates of clouds may be significantly underestimated in previous analyses.

Abstract

Cold atomic and molecular gas are commonly observed in the winds of both external galaxies and the Milky Way, yet the survival and origin of these cool phases within hot galactic winds is poorly understood. To help gain insight into these problems, we carry out time-dependent chemical modelling of cool clouds in the Milky Way's nuclear wind, which possess unusual molecularto-atomic hydrogen ratios that are inconsistent with both disc values and predictions from chemical equilibrium models. We confirm that CO and Hi emission comparable to that in the observed nuclear wind clouds cannot be produced by gas in chemical equilibrium, but that such conditions can be produced in a molecule-dominated cloud that has had its atomic envelope rapidly removed and has not yet reached a new chemical equilibrium. Clouds in this state harbour large reservoirs of molecular gas and consequently have anomalously large CO-to-H2 conversion factors, suggesting that the masses of the observed clouds may be significantly larger than suggested by earlier analyses assuming disc-like conversions. These findings provide a new framework for interpreting cold gas in galactic winds, providing strong evidence that cold outflows can originate from the galactic disc molecular clouds that survive acceleration into the wind but lose their diffuse atomic envelopes in the process, and suggesting that the Milky Way's nuclear outflow may be more heavily mass-loaded than previously thought.