Explosions and Outflows during Galaxy Formation

Abstract

We consider an explosion at the center of a halo which forms at the intersection of filaments inside a cosmological pancake, a convenient test-bed model for galaxy formation. ASPH/P3M simulations reveal that such explosions are anisotropic. The energy and metals are channeled into the low density regions, away from the pancake. The pancake remains essentially undisturbed, even if the explosion is strong enough to blow away all the gas located inside the halo and reheat the IGM surrounding the pancake. Infall quickly replenishes this ejected gas and gradually restores the gas fraction as the halo continues to grow. Estimates of the collapse epoch and SN energy-release for galaxies of different mass in the CDM model can relate these results to scale-dependent questions of blow-out and blow-away and their implication for early IGM heating and metal enrichment and the creation of gas-poor dwarf galaxies.