Evolution and distribution of superbubbles in simulated Milky Way-like galaxies

Kavli Affiliate: Mark Vogelsberger

| First 5 Authors: Chengzhe Li, Hui Li, Wei Cui, Federico Marinacci, Laura V. Sales

| Summary:

Stellar feedback plays a crucial role in regulating baryon cycles of a
galactic ecosystem, and may manifest itself in the formation of superbubbles in
the interstellar medium. In this work, we used a set of high-resolution
simulations to systematically study the properties and evolution of
superbubbles in galactic environments. The simulations were based on the
SMUGGLE galaxy formation framework using the hydrodynamical moving-mesh code
Arepo, reaching a spatial resolution of $sim 4 , rm pc$ and mass resolution
of $sim 10^3 , rm M_{odot}$. We identified superbubbles and tracked their
time evolution using the parent stellar associations within the bubbles. The
X-ray luminosity-size distribution of superbubbles in the fiducial run is
largely consistent with the observations of nearby galaxies. The size of
superbubbles shows a double-peaked distribution, with the peaks attributed to
early feedback (radiative and stellar wind feedback) and supernova feedback.
The early feedback tends to suppress the subsequent supernova feedback, and it
is strongly influenced by star formation efficiency, which regulates the
environmental density. Our results show that the volume filling factor of hot
gas ($T > 10^{5.5} ~mathrm{K}$) is about $12 %$ averaged over a region of 4
kpc in height and 20 kpc in radius centered on the disk of the galaxy. Overall,
the properties of superbubbles are sensitive to the choice of subgrid galaxy
formation models and can, therefore, be used to constrain these models.

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