The injection of turbulence in the circumgalactic medium at redshift z = 2 is investigated using the mesh-based hydrodynamic code enzo and a sub-grid-scale (SGS) model for unresolved turbulence. Radiative cooling and heating by a uniform Ultraviolet (UV) background are included in our runs and compared with the effect of turbulence modelling. Mechanisms of gas exchange between galaxies and the surrounding medium, as well as metal enrichment, are not taken into account, and turbulence is here driven solely by structure formation (mergers and shocks). We find that turbulence, both at resolved and SGS scales, impacts mostly the warm-hot intergalactic medium (WHIM), with temperature between 10(5) and 10(7) K, mainly located around collapsed and shock-heated structures, and in filaments. Typical values of the ratio of turbulent to thermal pressure is 0.1 in the WHIM, corresponding to a volume-weighted average of the SGS turbulent to thermal Doppler broadening b(t)/b(therm) = 0.26, on length scales below the grid resolution of 25 kpc h(- 1). In the diffuse intergalactic medium, defined in a range of baryon overdensity delta between 1 and 50, the importance of turbulence is smaller, but grows as a function of gas density, and the Doppler broadening ratio is fitted by the function b(t)/b(therm) = 0.023 x delta(0.58).

Turbulence driven by structure formation in the circumgalactic medium

Viel, Matteo;
2013-01-01

Abstract

The injection of turbulence in the circumgalactic medium at redshift z = 2 is investigated using the mesh-based hydrodynamic code enzo and a sub-grid-scale (SGS) model for unresolved turbulence. Radiative cooling and heating by a uniform Ultraviolet (UV) background are included in our runs and compared with the effect of turbulence modelling. Mechanisms of gas exchange between galaxies and the surrounding medium, as well as metal enrichment, are not taken into account, and turbulence is here driven solely by structure formation (mergers and shocks). We find that turbulence, both at resolved and SGS scales, impacts mostly the warm-hot intergalactic medium (WHIM), with temperature between 10(5) and 10(7) K, mainly located around collapsed and shock-heated structures, and in filaments. Typical values of the ratio of turbulent to thermal pressure is 0.1 in the WHIM, corresponding to a volume-weighted average of the SGS turbulent to thermal Doppler broadening b(t)/b(therm) = 0.26, on length scales below the grid resolution of 25 kpc h(- 1). In the diffuse intergalactic medium, defined in a range of baryon overdensity delta between 1 and 50, the importance of turbulence is smaller, but grows as a function of gas density, and the Doppler broadening ratio is fitted by the function b(t)/b(therm) = 0.023 x delta(0.58).
2013
432
3
2529
2540
Iapichino, L; Viel, Matteo; Borgani, S.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11767/12009
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