Zooming in on the circumgalactic medium with GIBLE: tracing the origin and evolution of cold clouds
We used the GIBLE suite of cosmological zoom-in simulations of Milky Way-like galaxies with additional super-Lagrangian refinement in the circumgalactic medium (CGM) to quantify the origin and evolution of CGM cold gas clouds. The origin of z = 0 clouds can be traced back to recent (≲2 Gyr) outflows...
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| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article (Journal) |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
July 2025
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| In: |
Astronomy and astrophysics
Year: 2025, Volume: 699, Pages: 1-22 |
| ISSN: | 1432-0746 |
| DOI: | 10.1051/0004-6361/202451303 |
| Online Access: | Verlag, kostenfrei, Volltext: https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202451303 Verlag, kostenfrei, Volltext: https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/abs/2025/07/aa51303-24/aa51303-24.html 
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| Author Notes: | Rahul Ramesh, Dylan Nelson, Drummond Fielding, and Marcus Brüggen |
| Summary: | We used the GIBLE suite of cosmological zoom-in simulations of Milky Way-like galaxies with additional super-Lagrangian refinement in the circumgalactic medium (CGM) to quantify the origin and evolution of CGM cold gas clouds. The origin of z = 0 clouds can be traced back to recent (≲2 Gyr) outflows from the central galaxy (∼45%), condensation out of the hot phase of the CGM in the same time frame (∼45%), and to a lesser degree to satellite galaxies (≲5%). We find that in situ condensation results from rapid cooling around local overdensities primarily seeded by the dissolution of the previous generation of clouds into the hot halo. About ≲10% of the cloud population is long-lived, with their progenitors having already assembled ∼2 Gyr ago. Collective cloud-cloud dynamics are crucial to their evolution, with coalescence and fragmentation events occurring frequently (≳20 Gyr−1). These interactions are modulated by non-vanishing pressure imbalances between clouds and their interface layers. The gas content of clouds is in a constant state of flux, with clouds and their surroundings exchanging mass at a rate of ≳103 M⊙ Myr−1, depending on cloud relative velocity and interface vorticity. Furthermore, we find that a net magnetic tension force acting against the density gradient is capable of inhibiting cloud-background mixing. Our results show that capturing the distinct origins of cool CGM clouds, together with their physical evolution, requires high-resolution cosmological galaxy formation simulations with both stellar and supermassive black hole feedback-driven outflows. |
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| Item Description: | Online erschienen: 25. Juni 2025 Gesehen am 24.11.2025 |
| Physical Description: | Online Resource |
| ISSN: | 1432-0746 |
| DOI: | 10.1051/0004-6361/202451303 |