Multi stage three-dimensional sweeping and annealing of disc galaxies in clusters

By S. Schulz, C. Struck. 2001

139 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We present new three-dimensional, hydrodynamic simulations of the ram pressure stripping of disc galaxies via interaction with a hot intracluster medium (ICM). The simulations were carried with the smoothed-particle hydrodynamics, adaptive mesh ‘HYDRA’ code (SPH-AP 3 M), with model galaxies consisting of gas and stellar disc components and dark haloes. The simulations also include radiative cooling, which is important for keeping the warm, diffuse gas of moderate density from being unrealistically heated by the ICM. We examine the role that wind velocity, density and galaxy tilt play in gas stripping. We include cases with lower ram pressures than other recent studies. In accord with previous studies, we find that low column density gas is promptly removed from the outer disc. However, we also find that not all of the gas stripped from the disc escapes immediately from the halo, some of material can linger for times of order 10 8 yr. We use a simple analytic model to demonstrate that gas elements in the ICM wind feel an effective potential with a minimum displaced downstream from the halo centre. The onset of the ICM wind has a profound effect on the disc gas that is not immediately stripped. This remnant disc is displaced relative to the halo centre and compressed. This can trigger gravitational instability and the formation of numerous flocculent spirals. These waves transport angular momentum outward, resulting in further compression of the inner disc and the formation of a prominent gas ring. This ‘annealing’ process makes the inner disc, which contains much of the total gas mass, resistant to further stripping, but presumably susceptible to global starbursts. Spirals in the outer disc stretch, shear and are eventually stripped on timescales of a few times 10 8 yr, after which time, mass and angular momentum loss effectly cease. For inclined galaxies, these effects are considerably modified over the same time-scale. The amount of mass loss is reduced. In addition, we find that a higher galaxy tilt couples the wind and the rotating disc, and produces a higher degree of angular momentum removal. Temperature and line-of-sight velocity maps from several of the simulations are presented for comparison with observation. When the mass loss and annealing processes go to completion, we find that the total amount of mass lost from a fixed target galaxy is well-fitted by a simple power-law function of a dimensionless parameter that combines the ram pressure and internal properties of the galaxy. Ramifications for the cluster galaxy evolution are discussed.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e5aa68f7a08dc0e5cb3dc009bfa18a52a81d6bca

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Citations in the corpus

On the influence of ram-pressure stripping on the star formation of simulated spiral galaxies (2008, methodology): “Further galaxy-scale numerical simulations for ram-pressure stripping were presented by Quilis et al. (2000), Mori & Burkert (2000), Toniazzo & Schindler (2001), Schulz & Struck (2001), and Roediger & Brüggen (2006,2007).”
Hα Tail, Intracluster H II Regions, and Star Formation: ESO 137-001 in Abell 3627 (2007, background): “Stripping of the galactic ISM in clusters has been extensively examined in simulations (e.g., Schulz & Struck 2001, SS01 hereafter; Roediger& Hensler 2005, RH05 hereafter), which show that stripping has significant impacts on the properties of galaxies.”
The gravitational and hydrodynamical interaction between the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Galaxy (2004, background): “As the gas is stripped out from the disc in the z-direction, the disc gravity decreases while the projection of the radial halo gravity force in the z-direction rises (Schulz & Struck 2001).”
A large H I cloud near the centre of the Virgo cluster (2005, unknown): “…(tidal interactions and ram-pressure stripping by the ICM) have been studied in detail, both theoretically (e.g. Abadi et al. 1999; Quilis et al. 2000; Schulz & Struck 2001; Vollmer et al. 2001) and observationally (e.g. Warmels 1988; Cayatte et al. 1990; Solanes et al. 2001; Kenney et al. 2004).”
MUSE sneaks a peek at extreme ram-pressure stripping events - I. A kinematic study of the archetypal galaxy ESO137-001 (2014, methodology): “In synergy with models and numerical simulations (e.g. Gunn & Gott 1972; Nulsen 1982; Moore et al. 1996; Quilis et al. 2000; Schulz & Struck 2001; Vollmer et al. 2001a; Bekki & Couch 2003; Kronberger et al. 2008; Tonnesen & Bryan 2010; Ruszkowski et al. 2014), these pculiar systems are in fact…”
Ram pressure stripping of disk galaxies. From high to low density environments (2005, methodology): “The RPS phase seems to take longer for inclined cases, but it can be suppressed completely for strict edge-on cases only (Quilis et al. 2000; Schulz & Struck 2001; Marcolini et al. 2003).”
Environmental Effects on Late‐Type Galaxies in Nearby Clusters (2006, background): “The models of Schulz & Struck (2001) also show that the displacement of the gas with respect to the disk can trigger gravitational instabilities, with the formation of flocculent spirals.”
Ram pressure stripping of disc galaxies orbiting in clusters – I. Mass and radius of the remaining gas disc (2007, methodology): “Hydrodynamical simulations of RPS presented so far (Abadi et al. 1999, Quilis et al. 2000, Schulz & Struck 2001 (SS01), Marcolini et al. 2003 (MBD03), Roediger & Hensler 2005 (RH05), Roediger & Brüggen 2006 (RB06)) suggest that this analytical estimate does indeed do a fair job as long as the…”
VLA H I Observations of Gas Stripping in the Virgo Cluster Spiral NGC 4522 (2004, methodology): “Gas pushed outwards from the disk may hang up in the halo, and some of it might fall back into the disk (Schulz & Struck 2001), especially in the case of a time variable ram pressure (Vollmer etal 2001).”
The effect of ram pressure on the star formation, mass distribution and morphology of galaxies (2009, methodology): “Further galaxy-scale numerical simulations for ram-pressure stripping were presented by Quilis et al. (2000), Mori & Burkert (2000), Toniazzo & Schindler (2001), Schulz & Struck (2001), and Roediger & Brüggen (2006, 2007).”
Simultaneous ram pressure and tidal stripping; how dwarf spheroidals lost their gas (2005, background): “…has been widely stud- ied for galaxies in clusters in a number of numerical works since the early 80s, among them Farouki & Shapiro (1980), Toyama & Ikeuchi (1980), Vollmer et al. (1999, 2000, 2001), Schulz & Struck (2001), Abadi, Moore & Bower (1999), Quilis & Moore (2001) and Vollmer (2003).”
GAS STRIPPING IN SIMULATED GALAXIES WITH A MULTIPHASE INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM (2009, background): “Schulz and Struck (2001) included cooling and found that it caused a disk instability that led to an inflow of dense gas, and that including cooling allows the disk to remain cool and thin despite ICM heating.”