Simulating Supernovae Remnants in Gas Clouds

Abstract

The Hydra $N$-body hydrodynamics code has been modified to model, from the end of the Sedov phase, the effects of supernovae on the surrounding medium. The motivation is to investigate the feedback of energy into the interstellar/intergalactic medium. We compare our results for supernova remnants (SNRs) in a uniform medium to previous detailed work on the late evolution of SNRs. The code is found to reproduce the bulk characteristics of SNRs well. Results on the effects of a single central SNR on Plummer clouds are presented. The feedback of kinetic energy and the percentage mass loss can be parameterised in terms of the cloud mass and characteristic radius in a simple way. The kinetic energy fraction returned to the ISM from a SNR is $<3$ per cent. The removal of gas from the cold, dense phase and the addition of energy due to the lowering of the potential energy of a cloud is at least as significant, if not much more so, than the kinetic energy leaving a cloud.