Nuclear Star-forming Ring of the Milky Way: Simulations

Details Nuclear Star-forming Ring of the Milky Way: Simulations Nuclear Star-forming Ring of the Milky Way: Simulations

Jul 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011apj...735l..11k&link_type=abstract

The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Volume 735, Issue 1, article id. L11 (2011).

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

2

Galaxies: Ism, Galaxies: Star Formation, Galaxy: Center, Galaxy: Nucleus, Ism: Kinematics And Dynamics

Scientific paper

We present hydrodynamic simulations of gas clouds in the central kpc region of the Milky Way that is modeled with a three-dimensional bar potential. Our simulations consider realistic gas cooling and heating, star formation, and supernova feedback. A ring of dense gas clouds forms as a result of X 1-X 2 orbit transfer, and our potential model results in a ring radius of ~200 pc, which coincides with the extraordinary reservoir of dense molecular clouds in the inner bulge, the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ). The gas clouds accumulated in the CMZ can reach high enough densities to form stars, and with an appropriate choice of simulation parameters, we successfully reproduce the observed gas mass and the star formation rate (SFR) in the CMZ, ~2 × 107 M sun and ~0.1 M sun yr-1. Star formation in our simulations takes place mostly in the outermost X 2 orbits, and the SFR per unit surface area outside the CMZ is much lower. These facts suggest that the inner Galactic bulge may harbor a mild version of the nuclear star-forming rings seen in some external disk galaxies. Furthermore, from the relatively small size of the Milky Way's nuclear bulge, which is thought to be a result of sustained star formation in the CMZ, we infer that the Galactic inner bulge probably had a shallower density profile or stronger bar elongation in the past.

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