Galactic winds. I. Cosmic ray and wave-driven winds from the galaxy.
Abstract
Proceeding from the observational fact that Cosmic Rays (CRs) must eventually escape from the Galaxy and that some of the hot gas (HIM) will rise from the Galactic disk to form a gaseous halo, a study is made of the mutual interaction of these two components along with self-excited Alfven waves as they stream away from the disk. Assuming ideal coupling between the CRs and the HIM (i.e., no diffusion) beyond a reference level of, typically, 1 kpc and using a realistic gravitational field with a massive, spherically symmetric dark matter halo of radius 100 kpc, it is shown that for a variety of parameters stationary outflow solutions do exist, provided that the intergalactic pressure is low enough.
- Publication:
-
Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Pub Date:
- May 1991
- Bibcode:
- 1991A&A...245...79B
- Keywords:
-
- Cosmic Rays;
- Halos;
- Intergalactic Media;
- Magnetohydrodynamic Waves;
- Mass Flow;
- Milky Way Galaxy;
- Convective Flow;
- High Temperature Gases;
- Magnetic Fields;
- Astrophysics