Galaxy Formation and SN Feedback

Abstract

We present a Supernova (SN) feedback model that succeeds at describing the chemical and energetic effects of SN explosions in galaxy formation simulations. This new SN model has been coupled to GADGET-2 and works within a new multiphase scheme which allows the description of a co-spatial mixture of cold and hot interstellar medium phases. No ad hoc scale-dependent parameters are associated to these SN and multiphase models making them particularly suited to studies of galaxy formation in a cosmological framework. Our SN model succeeds not only in setting a self-regulated star formation activity in galaxies but in triggering collimated chemical-enriched galactic winds. The effects of winds vary with the virial mass of the systems so that the smaller the galaxy, the larger the fraction of swept away gas and the stronger the decrease in its star formation activity. The fact that the fraction of ejected metals exceeds 60 per cent regardless of mass, suggests that SN feedback can be the responsible mechanism of the enrichment of the intergalactic medium to the observed levels.