Shrinking galaxy disks with fountain-driven accretion from the halo
- IBM Research Division, T.J. Watson Research Center, 1101 Kitchawan Road, Yorktown Heights, NY 10598 (United States)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011 (United States)
Star formation in most galaxies requires cosmic gas accretion because the gas consumption time is short compared to the Hubble time. This accretion presumably comes from a combination of infalling satellite debris, cold flows, and condensation of hot halo gas at the cool disk interface, perhaps aided by a galactic fountain. In general, the accretion will have a different specific angular momentum than the part of the disk that receives it, even if the gas comes from the nearby halo. The gas disk then expands or shrinks over time. Here we show that condensation of halo gas at a rate proportional to the star formation rate in the fountain model will preserve an initial shape, such as an exponential, with a shrinking scale length, leaving behind a stellar disk with a slightly steeper profile of younger stars near the center. This process is slow for most galaxies, producing imperceptible radial speeds, and it may be dominated by other torques, but it could be important for blue compact dwarfs, which tend to have large, irregular gas reservoirs and steep blue profiles in their inner stellar disks.
- OSTI ID:
- 22370153
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 796, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
IDENTIFYING CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STELLAR HALO FROM ACCRETED, KICKED-OUT, AND IN SITU POPULATIONS
HST/COS observations of ionized gas accretion at the disk-halo interface of M33