Simulating Gas Inflow at the Disk-Halo Interface

Abstract

The interaction between inflowing gas clouds and galactic outflows at the interface where the galactic disk transitions into the circumgalactic medium is an important process in galaxy fueling, yet remains poorly understood. Using a series of tall-box hydrodynamic ENZO simulations, we have studied the interaction between smooth gas inflow and supernovae-driven outflow at the disk-halo interface with pc-scale resolution. A realistic wind of outflowing material is generated by supernovae explosions in the disk, while inflowing gas is injected at the top boundary of the simulation box with an injection velocity ranging from $10-100\mathrm{km}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$. We find that cooling and hydrodynamic instabilities drive the injected gas to fragment into cold ($\sim 10^3$ K) cloud clumps with typical densities of $\sim 1\mathrm{c}{\mathrm{m}}^{-3}$. These clumps initially accelerate before interacting and partially mixing with the outflow and decelerating to velocities in the 50-100 $\mathrm{km}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$ range. When the gas clumps hit the disk, $10\%-50\%$ of the injected material is able to accrete (depending on the injection velocity). Clumps originating from gas injected with a higher initial velocity approach the disk with greater ram pressure, allowing them to penetrate through the disk in low density regions. We use (equilibrium) CLOUDY photoionization models to generate absorption and emission signatures of gas accretion, finding that our mock HI and H$\alpha$ observables are prominent and generally consistent with measurements in the Milky Way. We do not predict enhanced emission/absorption for higher ionization states such as OVI.

26 pages, 14 figures, 1 table, Accepted for publication in ApJ, Simulation movies available at https://doi.org/10.7916/d8-vgnn-7n73

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