Stellar Mass Loss-Driven Wind Models of Elliptical Galaxies?

Abstract

Recent claims in the literature (Bressan, Chiosi & Fagotto 1994) that the epoch describing the onset of galactic winds in spheroidal star systems has been severely overestimated in the past, due to the neglect of energy deposited in the interstellar medium from stellar winds, is evaluated in the light of a more conservative approach to modeling the input of thermal energy to the system from massive stars undergoing mass loss. Applying the most recent models of stellar kinetic energy deposition, coupled with reasonable assumptions regarding the efficiency of thermalisation, it is shown that contrary to the aforementioned study, the influence of stellar winds in driving the galactic winds in ellipticals of mass M_G>1e9 M_Sun is most likely negligible.

6 pages, uuencoded compressed PostScript, MNRAS in press, OUAST/94/??

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