Related papers: Is the Milky Way's Hot Halo Convectively Unstable?
Recent observations show that spiral galaxies are surrounded by extended gaseous halos as predicted by the hierarchical structure formation scenario. The origin and nature of extraplanar gas is often unclear since the halo is continuously…
Using X-ray constrained beta-models for the radial distribution of gas in the outskirts of galaxies, we analyze the termination of galactic winds and the formation and evolution of halo clouds by thermal instability. At low mass-loss rates,…
Observations of local X-ray absorbers, high-velocity clouds, and distant quasar absorption line systems suggest that a significant fraction of baryons may reside in multi-phase, low-density, extended, ~100 kpc, gaseous halos around normal…
Within protogalaxies, thermal instability leads to the formation of a population of cool fragments, confined by the pressure of residual hot gas. The hot gas remains in quasi-hydrostatic equilibrium, at approximately the virial temperature…
In this article I review recent observations of the gaseous halos of galaxies and the intergalactic medium at low redshift. In the first part I discuss distribution, metal content, and physical properties of the Galactic intermediate- and…
We present a spherically symmetric model for the origin and evolution of the temperature profiles in the hot plasma filling galaxy groups and clusters. We find that the gas in clusters is generically not isothermal, and that the temperature…
We have investigated steady, radial gas outflows (or winds) from galaxies and the development of thermal instability in the hot gas. In order to see the maximum influence of the instability on the global structure of the galactic outflows,…
Potential condensed clouds of gas in the Galactic halo are examined in the context of the recent models of cooling, fragmenting clouds building up the baryonic mass of the Galaxy. 582 high-velocity clouds (HVCs) are defined as the potential…
We use hydrodynamic simulations with adaptive grid refinement to study the dependence of hot gas flows in X-ray luminous giant elliptical galaxies on the efficiency of heat supply to the gas. We consider a number of potential heating…
I review studies of the hot gaseous medium in and around nearby normal disk galaxies, including the Milky Way. This medium represents a reservoir of materials required for lasting star formation, a depository of galactic feedback (e.g.,…
The distribution of shapes of galaxies' dark halos provides a basic test for models of galaxy formation. To-date, few dark halo shapes have been measured, and the results of different methods appear contradictory. Here, we add to the sample…
The thermal stability of rotating, stratified, unmagnetized atmospheres is studied by means of linear-perturbation analysis, finding stability, overstability or instability, depending on the properties of the gas distribution, but also on…
NGC 891 is a nearby edge-on galaxy that is similar to the Milky Way and has a hot X-ray emitting halo that could arise from accretion, a galactic fountain, or a combination of the two. The metallicity of the gas can help distinguish between…
We introduce the flattening equation, which relates the shape of the dark halo to the angular velocity dispersions and the density of a tracer population of stars. It assumes spherical alignment of the velocity dispersion tensor, as seen in…
We present a set of highly flattened galaxy models with asymptotically constant rotation curves. The mass density in the equatorial plane falls like (distance)$^{-1}$ at large radii. Although the inner equidensity contours may be spherical,…
(Abridged) Axisymmetric models of the Milky Way exhibit strong interrelations between the Galactic constants (R_0 and T_0), the stellar columndensity (S_*) and the shape of the dark matter (DM) halo. Here we present analytical relations…
We analyze an adaptive mesh refinement hydrodynamic cosmological simulation of a Milky Way-sized galaxy to study the cold gas in the halo. HI observations of the Milky Way and other nearby spirals have revealed the presence of such gas in…
The Milky Way appears to be missing baryons, as the observed mass in stars and gas is well below the cosmic mean. One possibility is that a substantial fraction of the Galaxy's baryons are embedded within an extended, million-degree hot…
The wealth of data in the past decades, and especially in the past 15 years has transformed our picture of the gas around the Milky Way and other spiral galaxies. There is good evidence for extraplanar gas that is a few kpc in height and is…
Halo stars orbit within the potential of the Milky Way and hence their kinematics can be used to understand the underlying mass distribution. However, the inferred mass distribution depends sensitively upon assumptions made on the density…