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The onset of large-scale turbulence in the interstellar medium of spiral galaxies

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Goncalves_2015_MNRAS_Onset.pdf (4.601Mb)
Date
01/2015
Author
Falceta-Goncalves, D.
Bonnell, I.
Kowal, G.
Lepine, J. R. D.
Braga, C. A. S.
Keywords
Turbulence
Methods: numerical
Stars: formation
ISM: clouds
ISM: general
ISM: kinematics and dynamics
Giant molecular clouds
Star-formation
Magnetic-field
Supersonic turbulence
Velocity field
Galactic disks
Magnetohydrodynamic turbulence
2-dimensional turbulence
Numerical simulations
Wiggle instability
QB Astronomy
QC Physics
3rd-DAS
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Abstract
Turbulence is ubiquitous in the interstellar medium (ISM) of the Milky Way and other spiral galaxies. The energy source for this turbulence has been much debated with many possible origins proposed. The universality of turbulence, its reported large-scale driving, and that it occurs also in starless molecular clouds, challenges models invoking any stellar source. A more general process is needed to explain the observations. In this work, we study the role of galactic spiral arms. This is accomplished by means of three-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations which follow the dynamical evolution of interstellar diffuse clouds (similar to 100 cm-3) interacting with the gravitational potential field of the spiral pattern. We find that the tidal effects of the arm's potential on the cloud result in internal vorticity, fragmentation and hydrodynamical instabilities. The triggered turbulence results in large-scale driving, on sizes of the ISM inhomogeneities, i.e. as large as similar to 100 pc, and efficiencies in converting potential energy into turbulence in the range similar to 10-25 per cent per arm crossing. This efficiency is much higher than those found in previous models. The statistics of the turbulence in our simulations are strikingly similar to the observed power spectrum and Larson scaling relations of molecular clouds and the general ISM. The dependence found from different models indicate that the ISM turbulence is mainly related to local spiral arm properties, such as its mass density and width. This correlation seems in agreement with recent high angular resolution observations of spiral galaxies, e.g. M51 and M33.
Citation
Falceta-Goncalves , D , Bonnell , I , Kowal , G , Lepine , J R D & Braga , C A S 2015 , ' The onset of large-scale turbulence in the interstellar medium of spiral galaxies ' , Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society , vol. 446 , no. 1 , pp. 973-989 . https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stu2127
Publication
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stu2127
ISSN
0035-8711
Type
Journal article
Rights
This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society © 2014 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.
Description
DFG thanks the European Research Council (ADG-2011 ECOGAL), and Brazilian agencies CAPES (3400-13-1) and FAPESP (no.2011/12909-8) for financial support. IB acknowledges the European Research Council (ADG-2011 ECOGAL) for financial support. GK acknowledges support from FAPESP (grants no. 2013/04073-2 and 2013/18815-0).
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  • University of St Andrews Research
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/6189

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