Cosmological simulations of intergalactic medium enrichment from galactic outflows

We investigate models of self-consistent chemical enrichment of the intergalactic medium (IGM) from z = 6.0 1.5, based on hydrodynamic simulations of structure formation that explicitly incorporate outflows from star-forming galaxies. Our main result is that outflow parametrizations derived from observations of local starburst galaxies, in particular momentum-driven wind scenarios, provide the best agreement with observations of C IV absorption at z 2-5. Such models sufficiently enrich the high-z IGM to produce a global mass density of C IV absorbers that is relatively invariant from z = 5.5 1.5, in agreement with observations. This occurs despite continual IGM enrichment causing an increase in volumeaveraged…

• NA
  National Aeronautics and Space Administration

  Awards: NASA contract NAS5-26555, NAS5-26555
• CI
  California Institute of Technology
• UO
  University of Arizona
• NC
  National Centre for Supercomputing Applications
• ST
  Space Telescope Science Institute

  Awards: NAS5-26555, 26555
• JP
  Jet Propulsion Laboratory