English

Neutral hydrogen in galactic fountains

Astrophysics 2012-03-19 v1

Abstract

Simulations of an isolated Milky Way-like galaxy, in which supernovae power a galactic fountain, reproduce the observed velocity and 21cm brightness statistics of galactic neutral hydrogen (HI). The simulated galaxy consists of a thin HI disk, similar in extent and brightness to that observed in the Milky Way, and extra-planar neutral gas at a range of velocities due to the galactic fountain. Mock observations of the neutral gas resemble the HI flux measurements from the Leiden-Argentine-Bonn (LAB) HI, survey, including a high-velocity tail which matches well with observations of high-velocity clouds. The simulated high-velocity clouds are typically found close to the galactic disk, with a typical line-of-sight distance of 13kpc from observers on the solar circle. The fountain efficiently cycles matter from the centre of the galaxy to its outskirts at a rate of around 0.5 M_sun/yr

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0708.0221,
  title  = {Neutral hydrogen in galactic fountains},
  author = {C. M. Booth and Tom Theuns},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0708.0221},
  year   = {2012}
}

Comments

5 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS letters

R2 v1 2026-06-21T09:04:03.952Z