Exploring the making of a galactic wind in the starbursting dwarf irregular galaxy IC 10 with LOFAR
Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2018

Low-mass galaxies are subject to strong galactic outflows, in which cosmic rays may play an important role; they can be best traced with low-frequency radio continuum observations, which are less affected by spectral ageing. We present a study of the nearby starburst dwarf irregular galaxy IC 10 using observations at 140MHz with the Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR), at 1580MHz with the Very Large Array (VLA), and at 6200MHz with the VLA and the 100-m Effelsberg telescope.We find that IC 10 has a low-frequency radio halo, which manifests itself as a second component (thick disc) in the minor axis profiles of the non-thermal radio continuum emission at 140 and 1580 MHz. These profiles are then fitted with 1D cosmic ray transport models for pure diffusion and advection.We find that a diffusion model fits best, with a diffusion coefficient of D = (0.4-0.8) × 10 26 (E/GeV) 0.5 cm 2 s -1 , which is at least an order of magnitude smaller than estimates both from anisotropic diffusion and the diffusion length. In contrast, advection models, which cannot be ruled out due to the mild inclination, while providing poorer fits, result in advection speeds close to the escape velocity of ≈50 km s -1 , as expected for a cosmic ray-driven wind. Our favoured model with an accelerating wind provides a self-consistent solution, where the magnetic field is in energy equipartition with both the warm neutral and warm ionized medium with an important contribution from cosmic rays. Consequently, cosmic rays can play a vital role for the launching of galactic winds in the disc-halo interface.

Radio continuum: galaxies

Galaxies: magnetic fields

Cosmic rays

Författare

V. Heesen

Universität Hamburg

D. Rafferty

Universität Hamburg

A. Horneffer

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

R. Beck

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

A. Basu

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

Universität Bielefeld

J. Westcott

University of Hertfordshire

L. Hindson

University of Hertfordshire

E. Brinks

University of Hertfordshire

K. T. Chyy

Uniwersytet Jagiellonski w Krakowie

A. M. M. Scaife

Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics

M. Brueggen

Universität Hamburg

G. Heald

Rijksuniversiteit Groningen

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)

A. Fletcher

Newcastle University

Cathy Horellou

Chalmers, Rymd-, geo- och miljövetenskap, Astronomi och plasmafysik

F. Tabatabaei

Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias

Universidad de la Laguna

R. Paladino

Istituto di Radioastronomia

B. Nikiel-Wroczýnski

University of Hertfordshire

Uniwersytet Jagiellonski w Krakowie

M. Hoeft

Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg

R. J. Dettmar

Ruhr-Universität Bochum

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

0035-8711 (ISSN) 1365-2966 (eISSN)

Vol. 476 2 1756-1764

Ämneskategorier

Meteorologi och atmosfärforskning

Astronomi, astrofysik och kosmologi

Havs- och vattendragsteknik

DOI

10.1093/mnras/sty325

Mer information

Senast uppdaterat

2023-10-10