Cosmic Ray Mediated Thermal Fronts in the Warm-Hot Circumgalactic Medium

Kavli Affiliate: Nickolay Y. Gnedin

| First 5 Authors: Hanjue Zhu, Ellen G. Zweibel, Nickolay Y. Gnedin, ,

| Summary:

We investigate the 1D plane-parallel front connecting the warm ($10^4$ K) and
hot ($10^6$ K) phases of the circumgalactic medium (CGM), focusing on the
influence of cosmic rays (CRs) in shaping these transition layers. We find that
cosmic rays dictate the thermal balance while other fluxes (thermal conduction,
radiative cooling, and gas flow) adjust to compensate. We compute column
density ratios for selected transition temperature ions and compare them with
observational data. While most of our models fail to reproduce the
observations, a few are successful, although we make no claims for their
uniqueness. Some of the discrepancies may indicate challenges in capturing the
profiles in cooler, photoionized regions, as has been suggested for by previous
efforts to model thermal transition layers.

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