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Supernovae and Molecular Clouds in Spiral Galaxies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2016

Guo-Xuan Song*
Affiliation:
Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, National Astronomical Observatories, China

Abstract

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We report N-body simulations of the birthrate and distribution of supernovae in spiral galaxies. The simulations assume that stars form in GMCs with mass greater than 105M and that a Miller-Scalo IMF results. We assume that the resulting supernovae disrupt the GMC into smaller clouds; these clouds aggregrate to form new GMCs via inelastic collisions. Imposing a spiral potential, we find that supernovae form throughout the disk, but concentrated in the spiral arms. Using conditions appropriate for the Galaxy, a set of simulations with different initial random distributions of molecular clouds predicts 755τ5 supernova remnants (SNR) should exist in the Galaxy (where τ5 is the ratio of the lifetimes of SNRs to 105 yr). The predicted number of remnants and their spatial distribution can be compared to observations.

Type
Supernovae, Pulsars, and the Interstellar Medium
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 2001 

References

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