The changing GMC population in galaxy interactions
arXiv:1807.09980 · doi:10.1093/mnras/sty2040
Abstract
With the advent of modern observational efforts providing extensive giant molecular cloud catalogues, understanding the evolution of such clouds in a galactic context is of prime importance. While numerous previous numerical and theoretical works have focused on the cloud properties in isolated discs, few have looked into the cloud population in an interacting disc system. We present results of the first study investigating the evolution of the cloud population in galaxy experiencing an M51-like tidal fly-by using numerical simulations including star formation, interstellar medium cooling and stellar feedback. We see the cloud population shift to large unbound clouds in the wake of the companion passage, with the largest clouds appearing as fleeting short-lived agglomerations of smaller clouds within the tidal spiral arms, brought together by large scale streaming motions. These are then sheared apart as they leave the protection of the spiral arms. Clouds appear to lead diverse lives, even within similar environments, with some being born from gas shocked by filaments streaming into the spiral arms, and others from effectively isolated smaller colliding pairs. Overall this cloud population produces a shallower mass function than the disc in isolation, especially in the arms compared to the inter-arm regions. Direct comparisons to M51 observations show similarities between cloud populations, though models tailored to the mass and orbital models of M51 appear necessary to precisely reproduce the cloud population.
21 pages, 25 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS July 25 2018
References in corpus (29)
- Physical properties of molecular clouds for the entire Milky Way disk
- Star Formation in Disk Galaxies. I. Formation and Evolution of Giant Molecular Clouds via Gravitational Instability and Cloud Collisions
- Dawes Review 4: Spiral Structures in Disc Galaxies
- Dynamically Driven Evolution of the Interstellar Medium in M51
- GMC formation by agglomeration and self gravity
- A complete 12CO 2-1 map of M51 with HERA: I. Radial averages of CO, HI, and radio continuum
- The Perils of Clumpfind: The Mass Spectrum of Sub-structures in Molecular Clouds
- The frequency and nature of `cloud-cloud collisions' in galaxies
- A Portrait of Cold Gas in Galaxies at 60pc Resolution and a Simple Method to Test Hypotheses That Link Small-Scale ISM Structure to Galaxy-Scale Processes
- Giant Molecular Clouds in M31: I - Molecular Cloud Properties
- Physical Properties of Tidal Features in Interacting Disk Galaxies
- Short GMC lifetimes: an observational estimate with the PdBI Arcsecond Whirlpool Survey (PAWS)
- Giant Molecular Clouds in the Early-Type Galaxy NGC4526
- Slowly Breaking Waves: The Longevity of Tidally Induced Spiral Structure
- Bars and spirals in tidal interactions with an ensemble of galaxy mass models
- Physical properties and scaling relations of molecular clouds: the effect of stellar feedback
- Environmental dependence of star formation induced by cloud collisions in a barred galaxy
- Properties and rotation of molecular clouds in M 33
- Evolutionary Description of Giant Molecular Cloud Mass Functions on Galactic Disks
- The evolution of Giant Molecular Filaments
- Eventful Evolution of Giant Molecular Clouds in Dynamically Evolving Spiral Arms
- Simulations of the flocculent spiral M33: what drives the spiral structure?
- ALMA CO (J=1--0) imaging of the nearby galaxy M83: Variations in the efficiency of star formation in giant molecular clouds
- A complete 12CO 2--1 map of M51 with HERA: II. Total gas surface densities and gravitational stability
- Gas and stellar spiral arms and their offsets in the grand-design spiral galaxy M51
- A statistical study of giant molecular clouds traced by CO, CO, CS, and CHOH in the disk of NGC 1068 based on ALMA observations
- Star Formation in Disk Galaxies. III. Does stellar feedback result in cloud death?
- Molecular Gas Properties in M83 from CO PDFs
- Streaming Motions and Kinematic Distances to Molecular Clouds
Cited by in corpus (12)
- Giant Molecular Cloud Catalogues for PHANGS-ALMA: Methods and Initial Results
- The SEDIGISM survey: Molecular clouds in the inner Galaxy
- Live Fast, Die Young: GMC lifetimes in the FIRE cosmological simulations of Milky Way-mass galaxies
- CHIMPS: Physical properties of molecular clumps across the inner Galaxy
- Evolution of giant molecular clouds across cosmic time
- Simulations of the star-forming molecular gas in an interacting M51-like galaxy: cloud population statistics
- How do different spiral arm models impact the ISM and GMC population?
- The formation and early evolution of embedded star clusters in spiral galaxies
- Comparing the Properties of GMCs in M33 from Simulations and Observations
- The Anatomy of a Star-Forming Galaxy II: the role of FUV heating via dust
- Cloud-cloud collisions triggering star formation in galaxy simulations
- Quantitative analysis of the molecular gas morphology in nearby disk galaxies