On the Two-Phase Structure of Protogalactic Clouds

Abstract

Within protogalaxies, thermal instability leads to the formation of a population of cool fragments, confined by the pressure of residual hot gas. The hot gas remains in quasi-hydrostatic equilibrium, at approximately the virial temperature of the dark matter halo. It is heated by compression and shock dissipation and is cooled by bremsstrahlung emission and conductive losses into the cool clouds. The cool fragments are photoionized and heated by the extragalactic UV background and nearby massive stars. The smallest clouds are evaporated due to conductive heat transfer from the hot gas. All are subject to disruption due to hydrodynamic instabilities. They also gain mass due to collisions and mergers and condensation from the hot gas due to conduction. The size distribution of the fragments in turn determines the rate and efficiency of star formation during the early phase of galactic evolution. We have performed one-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations of the evolution of the hot and cool gas. The cool clouds are assumed to follow a power-law size distribution, and fall into the galactic potential, subject to drag from the hot gas. The relative amounts of the hot and cool gas is determined by the processes discussed above, and star formation occurs at a rate sufficient to maintain the cool clouds at 10$^4$ K. We present density distributions for the two phases and also for the stars for several cases, parametrized by the circular speeds of the potentials. Under some conditions, primarily low densities of the hot gas, conduction is more efficient than radiative processes at cooling the hot gas, limiting the x-ray radiation from the halo gas.