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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 361 records · Page 20
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DOE OSTI2016

GRAVITATIONAL CONTRACTION VERSUS SUPERNOVA DRIVING AND THE ORIGIN OF THE VELOCITY DISPERSION–SIZE RELATION IN MOLECULAR CLOUDS

Molecular cloud (MC) observations show that clouds have non-thermal velocity dispersions that scale with the cloud size as σ ∝ R {sup 1/2} at a constant surface density, and for varying surface density scale with both the cloud’s size and surface density, σ {sup 2} ∝ R Σ. The energy source driving these chaotic motions remains poorly understood. We describe the velocity dispersions observed in a cloud population formed in a numerical simulation of a magnetized, stratified, supernova (SN)-driven, interstellar medium, including diffuse heating and radiative cooling, before and after we include the effects of the self-gravity of the gas. We compare the relationships between velocity dispersion, size, and surface density measured in the simulated cloud population to those found in observations of Galactic MCs. Our simulations prior to the onset of self-gravity suggest that external SN explosions alone do not drive turbulent motions of the observed magnitudes within dense clouds. On the other hand, self-gravity induces non-thermal motions as gravitationally bound clouds begin to collapse in our model, approaching the observed relations between velocity dispersion, size, and surface density. Energy conservation suggests that the observed behavior is consistent with the kinetic energy being proportional to the gravitational energy. However, the clouds in our model show no sign of reaching a stable equilibrium state at any time, even for strongly magnetized clouds. We conclude that gravitationally bound MCs are always in a state of gravitational contraction and their properties are a natural result of this chaotic collapse. In order to agree with observed star formation efficiencies, this process must be terminated by the early destruction of the clouds, presumably from internal stellar feedback.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

The unusually high halo concentration of the fossil group NGC 6482: evidence for weak adiabatic contraction

Although fossil galaxy systems are thought to be very old, and thus should possess above-average halo concentrations, typically fossils have unexceptional concentrations of their masses. We revisit the massive isolated elliptical galaxy/fossil group NGC 6482 for which previous X-ray studies of a modest Chandra observation obtained a very uncertain, but also possibly very high, halo concentration. We present new measurements of the hot gas surface brightness, temperature, and iron abundance using the modest Chandra observation and a previously unpublished Suzaku observation, the latter of which allows the measurements of the gas properties to be extended out to ∼r{sub 2500}. By constructing hydrostatic equilibrium models of the gas with separate components for the gas, the stellar mass of the large central galaxy (BCG), and the dark matter (DM), we measure c{sub 200}=32.2±7.1 and M{sub 200}=(4.5±0.6)×10{sup 12} M{sub ⊙} using a Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW) DM profile. For a halo of this mass, the measured concentration c{sub 200} exceeds the mean value (7.1) expected for relaxed ΛCDM halos by 3.5σ in terms of the observational error, and by 6σ considering the intrinsic scatter in the ΛCDM c–M relation, which situates NGC 6482 as the most extreme outlier known for a fossil system. We explored several variants of adiabatic contraction (AC) models and, while the AC models provide fits of the same quality as the uncontracted models, they do have the following advantages: (1) lower c{sub 200} that is less of an outlier in the ΛCDM c–M relation, and (2) baryon fractions (f{sub b,200}) that agree better with the mean cosmic value. While the standard AC prescriptions yield a BCG stellar mass that is uncomfortably low compared to results from stellar population synthesis (SPS) models, a weaker AC variant that artificially shuts off cooling and star formation at z = 2 yields the same stellar mass as the uncontracted models. These are probably the reasons why our X-ray analysis prefers this weaker AC variant applied to either an NFW or Einasto DM halo. Finally, the stellar mass we measure for the BCG from the hydrostatic analysis strongly favors results from SPS models with a Chabrier or Kroupa initial mass function (IMF) over a Salpeter IMF.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Contracting and Expanding Binary Black Holes in 3D Low-mass AGN Disks: The Importance of Separation

LIGO/Virgo has detected several binary black hole (BBH) merger events that may have originated in the accretion disks of active galactic nuclei (AGNs). These events require individual black hole masses that fall within the pair instability supernova mass gap, and therefore these black holes may have been grown from hierarchical mergers. AGN disks are a prime environment for hierarchical mergers and thus a potential location for the progenitors of BBH gravitational wave events. Understanding how a BBH embedded in an AGN disk interacts with the surrounding environment is thus crucial for determining whether this interaction can lead to its merger. However, there are few high-fidelity simulations of this process, and almost all are two-dimensional. We present the results from 3D, high-resolution, local shearing-box simulations of an embedded BBH interacting with an AGN disk. In these first simulations of their kind, we focus on determining the mass accretion rate and the orbital evolution rate at different BBH separations. We find that circular, equal-mass BBHs with separations greater than 10% of their Hill radius contract while accreting at a super-Eddington rate. At smaller separations, however, our 3D simulations find that BBHs expand their orbits. This result suggests that it may be difficult for an AGN disk to push a BBH to merger, but we discuss several mechanisms, including MHD turbulence and radiative and mechanical feedback, which could alleviate this difficulty.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗