Interactions of massive stars with the interstellar medium: Bow shocks and superbubbles
Stellar winds and supernovae from massive stars carry most of the energy transferred from stars to the interstellar medium. The structures created by these processes reveal glimpses of the movement of mass between stars and the galactic ecological cycle. Two such structures are modeled bow shocks and superbubbles. Multiple supernovae and winds from OB associations carve large holes filled with hot gas in the galactic disk. These superbubbles sweep up thin, cold, dense shells that eventually grow large enough to blow out of the disk, venting hot gas into the galactic halo. To model superbubbles, the blast waves from supernovae within them are analytically described, showing they become subsonic before reaching the walls or cooling radiatively. The Kompaneets or thin-shell approximation are used to numerically model the growth of superbubbles in stratified disks until they become Raleigh-Taylor unstable. ZEUS, a two-dimensional hydrodynamics code was used to follow the breakup of the shell. The differences between the results and previous models are explained. Considering stars with strong winds leads to an explanation for ultracompact H II regions (USHRs). It was proposed that UCHRs are trapped in bow shocks swept up by the winds of massive stars moving supersonically through molecular clouds. A thin shell approximation was used to find the shape of such bow shocks. Simulated maps were produced and compared to G12.21 - 0.01, G29.96 - 0.02, G34.26 + 0.15, and G43.89 - 0.78.
- Research Organization:
- Colorado Univ., Boulder, CO (USA). Cooperative Inst. for Research in Environmental Sciences
- OSTI ID:
- 6690434
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Ph.D. Thesis
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
GENERAL PHYSICS
INTERSTELLAR SPACE
ENERGY TRANSFER
MASS TRANSFER
STARS
CLOUDS
H2 REGIONS
HYDRODYNAMICS
STAR CLUSTERS
STAR MODELS
STELLAR WINDS
SUPERNOVAE
THEORETICAL DATA
COSMIC RADIO SOURCES
DATA
ERUPTIVE VARIABLE STARS
FLUID MECHANICS
INFORMATION
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MECHANICS
NUMERICAL DATA
SPACE
STELLAR ACTIVITY
VARIABLE STARS
640102* - Astrophysics & Cosmology- Stars & Quasi-Stellar
Radio & X-Ray Sources