Recent observations have constrained the orbit and structure of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), implying a well-constrained pericentric passage about the Milky Way (MW) ∼ 50 Myr ago. In this scenario, the LMC's gaseous disk has recently experienced stripping, suggesting the current extent of its HI disk directly probes the medium in which it is moving. From the observed stellar and HI distributions of the system we find evidence of a truncated gas profile along the windward "leading edge' of the LMC disk, despite a far more extended stellar component. We explore the implications of this ram pressure stripping signature, using both analytic prescriptions and full 3-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations of the LMC. Our simulations subject the system to a headwind whose velocity components correspond directly to the recent orbital history of the LMC. We vary the density of this headwind, using a variety of sampled parameters for a β-profile for a theoretical MW circumgalactic medium (CGM), comparing the resulting HI morphology directly to observations of the LMC HI and stellar components. This model can match the radial extent of the LMC's leading (windward) edge only in scenarios where the MW CGM density at pericentric passage is n p (R = 48.2 ± 5 kpc) = 1.1−.45 × 10 −4 cm −3 . The implied pericentric density proves insensitive to both the broader CGM structure and temperature profile, thus providing a model-independent constraint on the local gas density. This result imposes an important constraint on the density profile of the MW's CGM, and thus the total baryon content of the MW. From our work, assuming a β-profile valid to ∼ r vir , we infer a total diffuse CGM mass M (300 kpc) = 2.6 ± 1.4 × 10 10 M ⊙ or approximately 15% of a 10 12 M ⊙ MW's baryonic mass budget.

Galactic-scale winds are a generic feature of massive galaxies with high star formation rates across a broad range of redshifts. Despite their importance, a detailed physical understanding of what drives these mass-loaded global flows has remained elusive. In this paper, we explore the dynamical impact of cosmic rays by performing the first three-dimensional, adaptive mesh refinement simulations of an isolated starbursting galaxy that includes a basic model for the production, dynamics and diffusion of galactic cosmic rays. We find that including cosmic rays naturally leads to robust, massive, bipolar outflows from our 10 12 M halo, with a mass-loading factorṀ /SFR = 0.3 for our fiducial run. Other reasonable parameter choices led to mass-loading factors above unity. The wind is multiphase and is accelerated to velocities well in excess of the escape velocity. We employ a two-fluid model for the thermal gas and relativistic CR plasma and model a range of physics relevant to galaxy formation, including radiative cooling, shocks, self-gravity, star formation, supernovae feedback into both the thermal and CR gas, and isotropic CR diffusion. Injecting cosmic rays into star-forming regions can provide significant pressure support for the interstellar medium, suppressing star formation and thickening the disk. We find that CR diffusion plays a central role in driving superwinds, rapidly transferring long-lived CRs from the highest density regions of the disk to the ISM at large, where their pressure gradient can smoothly accelerate the gas out of the disk.

We explore the impact of cosmic rays (CRs) on cosmological adaptive-mesh refinement simulations of a forming 10 12 M halo, focusing on the circumgalactic medium (CGM), and its resulting low-redshift structure and composition. In contrast to a run with star formation and energetic feedback but no CRs, the CR-inclusive runs feature a CGM substantially enriched with CRs and with metals to roughly 0.1Z , thanks to robust, persistent outflows from the disk. The CR-inclusive CGMs also feature more diffuse gas at lower temperatures, down to 10 4 K, than the non-CR run, with diffuse material often receiving a majority of its pressure support from the CR proton fluid. We compare to recent observations of the CGM of L ∼ L galaxies at low redshift, including UV absorption lines within background quasar spectra. The combination of metal-enriched, CR-driven winds and large swaths of CR pressure-supported, cooler diffuse gas leads to a CGM that provides a better match to data from COS-Halos (for HI, SiIV, CIII and OVI) than the non-CR run. We also compare our models to recent, preliminary observations of diffuse gamma-ray emission in local group halos. For our lower CR-diffusion runs with κ CR ∈ {0.3, 1} × 10 28 cm 2 /s, the CR enriched CGM produces an inconsistently high level of gamma emission. But the model with a relatively high κ CR = 3 × 10 28 cm 2 /s provided a gamma-ray luminosity consistent with the "extra-galactic" gamma-ray background observed by FERMI and roughly consistent with preliminary measures of the emission from M31's CGM.

Enzo (Enzo Developers, 2019a) is a block-structured adaptive mesh refinement code that is widely used to simulate astrophysical fluid flows (primarily, but not exclusively, cosmological structure formation, star formation, and turbulence). The code is a community project with dozens of users, and has contributed to hundreds of peer-reviewed publications in astrophysics, physics, and computer science. The code utilizes a Cartesian mesh can be run in one, two, or

We investigate the dynamical impact of cosmic rays in cosmological simulations of galaxy formation using adaptive-mesh refinement simulations of a 10 12 M ⊙ halo. In agreement with previous work, a run with only our standard thermal energy feedback model results in a massive spheroid and unrealistically peaked rotation curves. However, the addition of a simple two-fluid model for cosmic rays drastically changes the morphology of the forming disk. We include an isotropic diffusive term and a source term tied to star formation due to (unresolved) supernova-driven shocks. Over a wide range of diffusion coefficients, the CRs generate thin, extended disks with a significantly more realistic (although still not flat) rotation curve. We find that the diffusion of CRs is key to this process, as they escape dense star forming clumps and drive outflows within the more diffuse ISM.