Suppression of Dwarf Galaxy Formation by Cosmic Shocks

Abstract

We carry out a numerical study of the effects of supernova-driven shocks on galaxy formation at z=9. These "cosmic explosions" can have a significant impact on galaxies forming nearby. We study such interactions in two key cases. In the first case in which the forming galaxy has already virialized, the impinging shock has only a small effect (< 1% of the gas is removed) and star formation continues relatively unimpeded. However, in the second case in which the nearby forming galaxy is at the more diffuse turn-around stage, a large fraction (~70%) of the gas is stripped away from the host dark-matter halo and ejected into the intergalactic medium. As the time spent near turn-around is much longer than the interval from virialization to galaxy formation due to strong radiative losses, we expect the second case to be more representative of the majority of outflow-galaxy interactions. Thus SN-driven pregalactic outflows may be an efficient mechanism for inhibiting the formation of neighbouring galaxies at high redshift. We briefly outline the possible cosmological consequences of this effect.