paper

The Impact of Type Ia Supernovae in Quiescent Galaxies: II. Energetics and Turbulence

arXiv:1909.04204 · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ab9c22

Abstract

Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) provide unique and important feedback in quiescent galaxies, but their impact has been underappreciated. In this paper, we analyze a series of high-resolution simulations to examine the energetics and turbulence of the medium under SNe Ia. We find that when SN remnants are resolved, their effects differ distinctly from a volumetric heating term, as is commonly assumed in unresolved simulations. First, the net heating is significantly higher than expected, by 3010\% per cooling time. This is because a large fraction of the medium is pushed into lower densities which cool inefficiently. Second, the medium is turbulent; the root-mean-squared (RMS) velocity of the gas to 20-50 km s on a driving scale of tens of parsec. The velocity field of the medium is dominated by compressional modes, which are larger than the solenoidal components by a factor of 3-7. Third, the hot gas has a very broad density distribution. The ratio between the density fluctuations and the RMS Mach number, parameterized as , is 2-20. This is in contrast to previous simulations of turbulent media, which have found 1. The reason for the difference is mainly caused by the \textit{localized} heating of SNe Ia, which creates a large density contrast. Last, the typical length scale of a density fluctuation grows with time, forming increasingly larger bubbles and filamentary ridges. These underlying density fluctuations need to be included when X-ray observations are interpreted.

arXiv comment16 pages, 12 figures, accepted by ApJ. This work is part of the SMAUG project, see more information at https://www.simonsfoundation.org/flatiron/center-for-computational-astrophysics/galaxy-formation/smaug/papersplash1

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