Role of magnetic fields in ram pressure stripped galaxies

  • Ram-pressure stripping is a crucial evolutionary driver for cluster galaxies and jellyfish galaxies characterized by very extended tails of stripped gas, and they are the most striking examples of it in action. Recently, those extended tails are found to show ongoing star formation, raising the question of how the stripped, cold gas can survive long enough to form new stars outside the stellar disk. In this study, we summarize the most recent results achieved within the GASP collaboration to provide a holistic explanation for this phenomenon. We focus on two textbook examples of jellyfish galaxies, JO206 and JW100, for which, via multi-wavelength observations from radio to X-ray and numerical simulations, we have explored the different gas phases (neutral, molecular, diffuse-ionized, and hot). Based on additional multi-phase gas studies, we now propose a scenario of stripped tail evolution including all phases that are driven by a magnetic draping sheath, where the intracluster turbulent magnetized plasma condenses onto the galaxy disk and tail and produces a magnetized interface that protects the stripped galaxy tail gas from evaporation. In such a scenario, the accreted environmental plasma can cool down and eventually join the tail gas, hence providing additional gas to form stars. The implications of our findings can shed light on the more general scenario of draping, condensation, and cooling of hot gas surrounding cold clouds that is fundamental in many astrophysical phenomena.

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Metadaten
Author:Ancla MüllerORCiDGND, Alessandro IgnestiORCiDGND, Bianca PoggiantiORCiDGND, Alessia MorettiORCiDGND, Mpati RamatsokuORCiDGND, Ralf-Jürgen DettmarORCiDGND
URN:urn:nbn:de:hbz:294-87721
DOI:https://doi.org/10.3390/galaxies9040116
Parent Title (English):Galaxies
Publisher:MDPI
Place of publication:Basel
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Date of Publication (online):2022/03/25
Date of first Publication:2021/12/11
Publishing Institution:Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universitätsbibliothek
Tag:galaxies: ISM; galaxies: evolution; galaxies: magnetic fields; polarization; radio continuum: galaxies
Volume:9
Issue:4, Article 116
First Page:116-1
Last Page:116-13
Institutes/Facilities:Astronomisches Institut
Dewey Decimal Classification:Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / Astronomie, Kartographie, Geodäsie
open_access (DINI-Set):open_access
faculties:Fakultät für Physik und Astronomie
Licence (English):License LogoCreative Commons - CC BY 4.0 - Attribution 4.0 International