Simulations of gas inflow in the Milky Way I. Stellar-Feedback-Regulated Transport from the Central Molecular Zone to the Circumnuclear disk

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Feng, Zi-Xuan, Sormani, Mattia C., Tress, Robin G., Glover, Simon C. O., Klessen, Ralf S., Petersson, Jonathan, Hirschmann, Michaela, Barnes, Ashley T., Battersby, Cara, Donati, Marco, Fiteni, Karl, Henshaw, Jonathan D., Ginsburg, Adam, Gramze, Savannah, Li, Xingchen, Lipman, Dani R., Longmore, Steven N., Mills, Elisabeth, Petkova, Maya A., Sofue, Yoshiaki, Vasini, Arianna
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
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author Feng, Zi-Xuan
Sormani, Mattia C.
Tress, Robin G.
Glover, Simon C. O.
Klessen, Ralf S.
Petersson, Jonathan
Hirschmann, Michaela
Barnes, Ashley T.
Battersby, Cara
Donati, Marco
Fiteni, Karl
Henshaw, Jonathan D.
Ginsburg, Adam
Gramze, Savannah
Li, Xingchen
Lipman, Dani R.
Longmore, Steven N.
Mills, Elisabeth
Petkova, Maya A.
Sofue, Yoshiaki
Vasini, Arianna
author_facet Feng, Zi-Xuan
Sormani, Mattia C.
Tress, Robin G.
Glover, Simon C. O.
Klessen, Ralf S.
Petersson, Jonathan
Hirschmann, Michaela
Barnes, Ashley T.
Battersby, Cara
Donati, Marco
Fiteni, Karl
Henshaw, Jonathan D.
Ginsburg, Adam
Gramze, Savannah
Li, Xingchen
Lipman, Dani R.
Longmore, Steven N.
Mills, Elisabeth
Petkova, Maya A.
Sofue, Yoshiaki
Vasini, Arianna
contents We perform hydrodynamical simulations with radially varying resolution to study the effects of stellar feedback on the radial inflow of gas from the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ, $R\sim200$ pc) to the Circumnuclear Disk (CND, $R\sim5$ pc) of the Milky Way. The simulations include a realistic Milky Way barred gravitational potential, a cooling function coupled to a non-equilibrium chemical network, gas self-gravity, star formation, supernova feedback, and radiation feedback from massive stars computed via on-the-fly radiative transfer. Our main findings are as follows: 1) Stellar feedback drives a radial inflow that decreases monotonically with decreasing Galactocentric radius. The time-averaged inflow rate in our fiducial SNRad simulation, which includes both supernova and radiation feedback, declines from $\langle \dot{M} \rangle\sim5\times10^{-3}$ Msun/yr at $R\sim100$ pc, to $\langle\dot{M}\rangle\sim10^{-4}$ Msun/yr at $R\sim10$ pc, to $\langle\dot{M}\rangle\sim10^{-6}$ Msun/yr at $R\sim1$ pc. 2) The total inflow rate can be broken down into two components driven by two distinct mechanisms. First, feedback-driven turbulence redistributes the angular momentum of gas clouds, producing a smooth (secular) transport of mass inward, similar to a Shakura-Sunyaev viscous accretion disk. This component contributes inflow rates that vary from $\dot{M}\sim5\times10^{-4}$ Msun/yr at $R\sim100$ pc to $\dot{M}\sim10^{-7}$ Msun/yr at $R\sim1$ pc. Second, episodic inflow events can transiently increase the inflow rate by several orders of magnitude, reaching $\dot{M}\sim10^{-3}$ Msun/yr over timescales of $Δt\sim3$-$5$ Myr at $R=10$ pc. 3) The stellar feedback model significantly affects the episodic inflow but has little impact on the smooth component. Simulations including radiation feedback produce substantially more episodic events than those with supernova feedback alone.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_16192
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Simulations of gas inflow in the Milky Way I. Stellar-Feedback-Regulated Transport from the Central Molecular Zone to the Circumnuclear disk
Feng, Zi-Xuan
Sormani, Mattia C.
Tress, Robin G.
Glover, Simon C. O.
Klessen, Ralf S.
Petersson, Jonathan
Hirschmann, Michaela
Barnes, Ashley T.
Battersby, Cara
Donati, Marco
Fiteni, Karl
Henshaw, Jonathan D.
Ginsburg, Adam
Gramze, Savannah
Li, Xingchen
Lipman, Dani R.
Longmore, Steven N.
Mills, Elisabeth
Petkova, Maya A.
Sofue, Yoshiaki
Vasini, Arianna
Astrophysics of Galaxies
We perform hydrodynamical simulations with radially varying resolution to study the effects of stellar feedback on the radial inflow of gas from the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ, $R\sim200$ pc) to the Circumnuclear Disk (CND, $R\sim5$ pc) of the Milky Way. The simulations include a realistic Milky Way barred gravitational potential, a cooling function coupled to a non-equilibrium chemical network, gas self-gravity, star formation, supernova feedback, and radiation feedback from massive stars computed via on-the-fly radiative transfer. Our main findings are as follows: 1) Stellar feedback drives a radial inflow that decreases monotonically with decreasing Galactocentric radius. The time-averaged inflow rate in our fiducial SNRad simulation, which includes both supernova and radiation feedback, declines from $\langle \dot{M} \rangle\sim5\times10^{-3}$ Msun/yr at $R\sim100$ pc, to $\langle\dot{M}\rangle\sim10^{-4}$ Msun/yr at $R\sim10$ pc, to $\langle\dot{M}\rangle\sim10^{-6}$ Msun/yr at $R\sim1$ pc. 2) The total inflow rate can be broken down into two components driven by two distinct mechanisms. First, feedback-driven turbulence redistributes the angular momentum of gas clouds, producing a smooth (secular) transport of mass inward, similar to a Shakura-Sunyaev viscous accretion disk. This component contributes inflow rates that vary from $\dot{M}\sim5\times10^{-4}$ Msun/yr at $R\sim100$ pc to $\dot{M}\sim10^{-7}$ Msun/yr at $R\sim1$ pc. Second, episodic inflow events can transiently increase the inflow rate by several orders of magnitude, reaching $\dot{M}\sim10^{-3}$ Msun/yr over timescales of $Δt\sim3$-$5$ Myr at $R=10$ pc. 3) The stellar feedback model significantly affects the episodic inflow but has little impact on the smooth component. Simulations including radiation feedback produce substantially more episodic events than those with supernova feedback alone.
title Simulations of gas inflow in the Milky Way I. Stellar-Feedback-Regulated Transport from the Central Molecular Zone to the Circumnuclear disk
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.16192