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Yohan Dubois

Publications and source records attributed to Yohan Dubois.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

Star formation history and transition epoch of cluster galaxies based on the Horizon-AGN simulation

Cluster galaxies exhibit substantially lower star formation rates than field galaxies today, but it is conceivable that clusters were sites of more active star formation in the early universe. Herein, we present an interpretation of the star formation history (SFH) of group/cluster galaxies based on the large-scale cosmological hydrodynamic simulation, Horizon-AGN. We find that massive galaxies in general have small values of e-folding timescales of star formation decay (i.e., ``mass quenching'') regardless of their environment, whilst low-mass galaxies exhibit prominent environmental dependence. In massive host halos (i.e., clusters), the e-folding timescales of low-mass galaxies are further decreased if they reside in such halos for a longer period of time. This ``environmental quenching'' trend is consistent with the theoretical expectation from ram pressure stripping. Furthermore, we define a ``transition epoch'' as where cluster galaxies become less star-forming than field galaxies. The transition epoch of group/cluster galaxies varies according to their stellar and host cluster halo masses. Low-mass galaxies in massive clusters show the earliest transition epoch of $\sim 7.6$ Gyr ago in lookback time. However, it decreases to $\sim 5.2$ Gyr for massive galaxies in low-mass clusters. Based on our findings, we can describe cluster galaxy's SFH with regard to the cluster halo-to-stellar mass ratio.

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Dipolar dark matter simulations on galaxy scales with the RAMSES code

We numerically explore on galaxy scales the Dipolar dark matter (DM) model based on the concept of gravitational polarization. This DM model has been proposed as a natural way to reproduce observed tight galactic scaling relations such as the baryonic Tully-Fisher relation and the Radial Acceleration Relation. We present a customized version of the \texttt{RAMSES} code including for the first time the dynamics of this Dipolar DM in $N$-body simulations. As a first application of this code, we check that we recover an equilibrium configuration that had been found analytically, where a low density Dipolar DM halo is at rest with respect to its central galaxy, recovering the aforementioned scaling relations. A characteristic signature of this equilibrium model is that it harbours a dynamical instability with a characteristic time depending on the Dipolar DM halo density, which we recover numerically. This represents a first step towards more involved simulations needed to test this framework, ranging from galaxy interactions to structure formation.

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Redshift and stellar mass dependence of intrinsic shapes of disc-dominated galaxies from COSMOS observations below $z = 1.0$

The high abundance of disc galaxies without a large central bulge challenges predictions of current hydrodynamic simulations of galaxy formation. We aim to shed light on the formation of these objects by studying the redshift and mass dependence of their intrinsic 3D shape distributions in the COSMOS galaxy survey below redshift $z=1.0$. This distribution is inferred from the observed distribution of 2D shapes, using a reconstruction method which we test using hydrodynamic simulations. Our tests reveal a moderate bias for the inferred average disc circularity and relative thickness, but a large bias on the dispersion of these quantities. Applying the reconstruction method on COSMOS data, we find variations of the average disc circularity and relative thickness with redshift of around $\sim1\%$ and $\sim10\%$ respectively, which is comparable to the error estimates on these quantities. The average relative disc thickness shows a significant mass dependence which can be accounted for by the scaling of disc radius with galaxy mass. We conclude that our data provides no evidence for a strong dependence of the average circularity and absolute thickness of disc-dominated galaxies on redshift and mass that is significant with respect to the statistical uncertainties in our analysis. These findings are expected in the absence of disruptive merging or feedback events that would affect galaxy shapes. They hence support a scenario where present-day discs form early ($z>1.0$) and subsequently undergo a tranquil evolution in isolation. However, more data and a better understanding of systematics are needed to reaffirm our results.

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The short ionizing photon mean free path at z=6 in Cosmic Dawn III, a new fully-coupled radiation-hydrodynamical simulation of the Epoch of Reionization

Recent determinations of the mean free path of ionising photons (mfp) in the intergalactic medium (IGM) at $\rm z=6$ are lower than many theoretical predictions. To gain insight into this issue, we investigate the evolution of the mfp in our new massive fully coupled radiation hydrodynamics cosmological simulation of reionization: Cosmic Dawn III (CoDaIII). CoDaIII's scale ($\rm 94^3 \, cMpc^3$) and resolution ($\rm 8192^3$ grid) make it particularly suitable to study the evolution of the IGM during Reionization. The simulation was performed with RAMSES-CUDATON on Summit, and used 131072 processors coupled to 24576 GPUs, making it the largest Reionization simulation, and largest RAMSES simulation ever performed. A superior agreement with global constraints on Reionization is obtained in CoDaIII over CoDaII especially for the evolution of the neutral hydrogen fraction and the cosmic photo-ionization rate, thanks to an improved calibration, later end of reionization ($\rm z=5.6$), and higher spatial resolution. Analyzing the mfp, we find that CoDaIII reproduces the most recent observations very well, from $\rm z=6$ to $\rm z=4.6$. We show that the distribution of the mfp in CoDaIII is bimodal, with short (neutral) and long (ionized) mfp modes, respectively, due to the patchiness of reionization and the co-existence of neutral versus ionized regions during Reionization. The neutral mode peaks at sub-kpc to kpc scales of mfp, while the ionized mode peak evolves from $\rm 0.1 Mpc/h$ at $\rm z=7$ to $\sim 10$ Mpc/h at $\rm z=5.2$. Computing the mfp as the average of the ionized mode provides the best match to the recent observational determinations. The distribution reduces to a single neutral (ionized) mode at $\rm z>13$ ($\rm z<5$).

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Formation and Morphology of the First Galaxies in the Cosmic Morning

We investigate the formation and morphological evolution of the first galaxies in the cosmic morning ($10 \gtrsim z \gtrsim 4$) using the Horizon Run 5 (HR5) simulation. For galaxies above the stellar mass $M_{\star, {\rm min}} = 2\times 10^9\,M_{\odot}$, we classify them into disk, spheroid, and irregular types according to their asymmetry and stellar mass morphology. We find that about 2/3 of the galaxies have a Sérsic index $< 1.5$, reflecting the dominance of disk-type morphology in the cosmic morning. The rest are evenly distributed as incidental and transient irregulars or spheroids. These fractions are roughly independent of redshift and stellar mass up to $\sim10^{10}\,M_{\odot}$. Almost all the first galaxies with $M_{\star}> M_{\star, {\rm min}}$ at $z>4$ form at initial peaks of the matter density field. Large-scale structures in the universe emerge and grow like cosmic rhizomes as the underlying matter density fluctuations grow and form associations of galaxies in rare overdense regions and the realm of the galactic world is stretched into relatively lower-density regions along evolving filaments. The cosmic web of galaxies forms at lower redshifts when most rhizomes globally percolate. The primordial angular momentum produced by the induced tidal torques on protogalactic regions is correlated with the internal kinematics of galaxies and tightly aligned with the angular momentum of the total galaxy mass. The large-scale tidal field imprinted in the initial conditions seems responsible for the dominance of disk morphology, and for the tendency of galaxies to re-acquire a disk post-distortion.

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The Obelisk simulation: galaxies contribute more than AGN to HI reionization of protoclusters

We present the Obelisk project, a cosmological radiation-hydrodynamics simulation following the assembly and reionization of a protocluster progenitor during the first two billions of years from the big bang, down to $z = 3.5$. The simulation resolves haloes down to the atomic cooling limit, and tracks the contribution of different sources of ionization: stars, active galactic nuclei, and collisions. The Obelisk project is designed specifically to study the coevolution of high redshift galaxies and quasars in an environment favouring black hole growth. In this paper, we establish the relative contribution of these two sources of radiation to reionization and their respective role in establishing and maintaining the high redshift ionizing background. Our volume is typical of an overdense region of the Universe and displays star formation rate and black hole accretion rate densities similar to high redshift protoclusters. We find that hydrogen reionization happens inside-out and is completed by $z \sim 6$ in our overdensity, and is predominantly driven by galaxies, while accreting black holes only play a role at $z \sim 4$.

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Cosmic rays and thermal instability in self-regulating cooling flows of massive galaxy clusters

One of the key physical processes that helps prevent strong cooling flows in galaxy clusters is the continued energy input from the central active galactic nucleus (AGN) of the cluster. However, it remains unclear how this energy is thermalised so that it can effectively prevent global thermal instability. One possible option is that a fraction of the AGN energy is converted into cosmic rays (CRs), which provide non-thermal pressure support, and can retain energy even as thermal energy is radiated away. By means of magneto-hydrodynamical simulations, we investigate how CR injected by the AGN jet influence cooling flows of a massive galaxy cluster. We conclude that converting a fraction of the AGN luminosity as low as 10\% into CR energy prevents cooling flows on timescales of billion years, without significant changes in the structure of the multi-phase intra-cluster medium. CR-dominated jets, by contrast, lead to the formation of an extended, warm central nebula that is supported by CR pressure. We report that the presence of CRs is not able to suppress the onset of thermal instability in massive galaxy clusters, but CR-dominated jets do significantly change the continued evolution of gas as it continues to cool from isobaric to isochoric. The CR redistribution in the cluster is dominated by advection rather than diffusion or streaming, but the heating by CR streaming helps maintain gas in the hot and warm phase. Observationally, self-regulating, CR-dominated jets produce a \gammaray~ flux in excess of current observational limits, but low CR fractions in the jet are not ruled out.

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AGN jets do not prevent the suppression of conduction by the heat buoyancy instability in simulated galaxy clusters

Centres of galaxy clusters must be efficiently reheated to avoid a cooling catastrophe. One potential reheating mechanism is anisotropic thermal conduction, which could transport thermal energy from intermediate radii to the cluster center. However, if fields are not re-randomised, anisotropic thermal conduction drives the heat buoyancy instability (HBI) which reorients magnetic field lines and shuts off radial heat fluxes. We revisit the efficiency of thermal conduction under the influence of spin-driven AGN jets in idealised magneto-hydrodynamical simulations with anisotropic thermal conduction. Despite the black hole spin's ability to regularly re-orientate the jet so that the jet-induced turbulence is driven in a quasi-isotropic fashion, the HBI remains efficient outside the central 50 kpc of the cluster, where the reservoir of heat is the largest. As a result, conduction plays no significant role in regulating the cooling of the intra-cluster medium if central active galactic nuclei are the sole source of turbulence. Whistler-wave driven saturation of thermal conduction reduces the magnitude of the HBI but does not prevent it.

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Concordance between observations and simulations in the evolution of the mass relation between supermassive black holes and their host galaxies

We carry out a comparative analysis of the relation between the mass of supermassive black holes (BHs) and the stellar mass of their host galaxies at $0.2<z<1.7$ using well-matched observations and multiple state-of-the-art simulations (e.g., Massive Black II, Horizon-AGN, Illustris, TNG and a semi-analytic model). The observed sample consists of 646 uniformly-selected SDSS quasars ($0.2 < z < 0.8$) and 32 broad-line active galactic nuclei (AGNs; $1.2<z<1.7$) with imaging from Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) for the former and Hubble Space Telescope (HST) for the latter. We first add realistic observational uncertainties to the simulation data and then construct a simulated sample in the same manner as the observations. Over the full redshift range, our analysis demonstrates that all simulations predict a level of intrinsic scatter of the scaling relations comparable to the observations which appear to agree with the dispersion of the local relation. Regarding the mean relation, Horizon-AGN and TNG are in closest agreement with the observations at low and high redshift ($z\sim$ 0.2 and 1.5, respectively) while the other simulations show subtle differences within the uncertainties. For insight into the physics involved, the scatter of the scaling relation, seen in the SAM, is reduced by a factor of two and closer to the observations after adopting a new feedback model that considers the geometry of the AGN outflow. The consistency in the dispersion with redshift in our analysis supports the importance of both quasar- and radio-mode feedback prescriptions in the simulations. Finally, we highlight the importance of increasing the sensitivity (e.g., using the James Webb Space Telescope), thereby pushing to lower masses and minimizing biases due to selection effects.

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Dual AGN in the Horizon-AGN simulation and their link to galaxy and massive black hole mergers, with an excursus on multiple AGN

The occurrence of dual active galactic nuclei (AGN) on scales of a few tens of kpc can be used to study merger-induced accretion on massive black holes (MBHs) and to derive clues on MBH mergers, using dual AGN as a parent population of precursors. We investigate the properties of dual AGN in the cosmological simulation Horizon-AGN. We create catalogs of dual AGN selected with distance and luminosity criteria, plus sub-catalogs where further mass cuts are applied. We divide the sample into dual AGN hosted in different galaxies, on the way to a merger, and into those hosted in one galaxy, after the galaxy merger has happened. We find that the relation between MBH and galaxy mass is similar to that of general AGN population and we compare the properties of dual AGN also with a control sample, discussing differences and similarities in masses and Eddington ratios. The typical mass ratio of galaxy mergers associated to dual AGN is 0.2, with mass loss in the smaller galaxy decreasing the mass ratio as the merger progresses. Between 30 and 80 per cent of dual AGN with separations between 4 and 30~kpc can be matched to an ensuing MBH merger. The dual AGN fraction increases with redshift and with separation threshold, although above 50~kpc the increase of multiple AGN limits that of duals. Multiple AGN are generally associated with massive halos, and mass loss of satellites shapes the galaxy-halo relation.

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The black hole population in low-mass galaxies in large-scale cosmological simulations

Recent systematic searches for massive black holes (BHs) in local dwarf galaxies led to the discovery of a population of faint Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). We investigate the agreement of the BH and AGN populations in the Illustris, TNG, Horizon-AGN, EAGLE, and SIMBA simulations with current observational constraints in low-mass galaxies. We find that some of these simulations produce BHs that are too massive, and that the BH occupation fraction at z=0 is not inherited from the simulation seeding modeling. The ability of BHs and their host galaxies to power an AGN depends on BH and galaxy subgrid modeling. The fraction of AGN in low-mass galaxies is not used to calibrate the simulations, and thus can be used to differentiate galaxy formation models. AGN fractions at z=0 span two orders of magnitude at fixed galaxy stellar mass in simulations, similarly to observational constraints, but uncertainties and degeneracies affect both observations and simulations. The agreement is difficult to interpret due to differences in the masses of simulated and observed BHs, BH occupation fraction affected by numerical choices, and an unknown fraction of obscured AGN. Our work advocates for more thorough comparisons with observations to improve the modeling of cosmological simulations, and our understanding of BH and galaxy physics in the low-mass regime. The mass of BHs, their ability to efficiently accrete gas, and the AGN fraction in low-mass galaxies have important implications for the build-up of the entire BH and galaxy populations with time.

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Gravitational torques dominate the dynamics of accreted gas at $z>2$

Galaxies form from the accretion of cosmological infall of gas. In the high redshift Universe, most of this gas infall is expected to be dominated by cold filamentary flows which connect deep down inside halos, and, hence, to the vicinity of galaxies. Such cold flows are important since they dominate the mass and angular momentum acquisition that can make up rotationally-supported disks at high-redshifts. We study the angular momentum acquisition of gas into galaxies, and in particular, the torques acting on the accretion flows, using hydrodynamical cosmological simulations of high-resolution zoomed-in halos of a few $10^{11}\,\rm M_\odot$ at $z=2$. Torques can be separated into those of gravitational origin, and hydrodynamical ones driven by pressure gradients. We find that coherent gravitational torques dominate over pressure torques in the cold phase, and are hence responsible for the spin-down and realignment of this gas. Pressure torques display small-scale fluctuations of significant amplitude, but with very little coherence on the relevant galaxy or halo-scale that would otherwise allow them to effectively re-orientate the gas flows. Dark matter torques dominate gravitational torques outside the galaxy, while within the galaxy, the baryonic component dominates. The circum-galactic medium emerges as the transition region for angular momentum re-orientation of the cold component towards the central galaxy's mid-plane.

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Radiation-MagnetoHydrodynamics simulations of cosmic ray feedback in disc galaxies

Cosmic rays (CRs) are thought to play an important role in galaxy evolution. We study their effect when coupled to other important sources of feedback, namely supernovae and stellar radiation, by including CR anisotropic diffusion and radiative losses but neglecting CR streaming. Using the RAMSES-RT code, we perform the first radiation-magnetohydrodynamics simulations of isolated disc galaxies with and without CRs. We study galaxies embedded in dark matter haloes of $10^{10}$, $10^{11}$ and $10^{12}\, \rm M_{\odot}$ with a maximum resolution of $9 \,\rm pc$. We find that CRs reduce star formation rate in our two dwarf galaxies by a factor 2, with decreasing efficiency with increasing galaxy mass. They increase significantly the outflow mass loading factor in all our galaxies and make the outflows colder. We study the impact of the CR diffusion coefficient, exploring values from $κ= 10^{27}$ to $\rm 3\times 10^{29}\, cm^2\, s^{-1}$. With lower $κ$, CRs remain confined for longer on small scales and are consequently efficient in suppressing star formation, whereas a higher diffusion coefficient reduces the effect on star formation and increases the generation of cold outflows. Finally, we compare CR feedback to a calibrated 'strong' supernova feedback model known to sufficiently regulate star formation in high-redshift cosmological simulations. We find that CR feedback is not sufficiently strong to replace this strong supernova feedback. As they tend to smooth out the ISM and fill it with denser gas, CRs also lower the escape fraction of Lyman continuum photons from galaxies.

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On the Viability of Determining Galaxy Properties from Observations I: Star Formation Rates and Kinematics

We explore how observations relate to the physical properties of the emitting galaxies by post-processing a pair of merging $z\sim2$ galaxies from the cosmological, hydrodynamical simulation NewHorizon using LCARS (Light from Cloudy Added to RAMSES) to encode the physical properties of the simulated galaxy into H$α$ emission line. By carrying out mock observations and analysis on these data cubes we ascertain which physical properties of the galaxy will be recoverable with the HARMONI spectrograph on the European Extremely Large Telescope (ELT). We are able to estimate the galaxy's star formation rate and dynamical mass to a reasonable degree of accuracy, with values within a factor of $1.81$ and $1.38$ of the true value. The kinematic structure of the galaxy is also recovered in mock observations. Furthermore, we are able to recover radial profiles of the velocity dispersion and are therefore able to calculate how the dynamical ratio varies as a function of distance from the galaxy centre. Finally, we show that when calculated on galaxy scales the dynamical ratio does not always provide a reliable measure of a galaxy's stability against gravity or act as an indicator of a minor merger.

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Co-evolution of massive black holes and their host galaxies at high redshift: discrepancies from six cosmological simulations and the key role of JWST

The James Webb Space Telescope will have the power to characterize high-redshift quasars at z>6 with an unprecedented depth and spatial resolution. While the brightest quasars at such redshift (i.e., with bolometric luminosity L_bol> 10^46 erg/s) provide us with key information on the most extreme objects in the Universe, measuring the black hole (BH) mass and Eddington ratios of fainter quasars with L_bol= 10^45-10^46 erg/s opens a path to understand the build-up of more normal BHs at z>6. In this paper, we show that the Illustris, TNG100, TNG300, Horizon-AGN, EAGLE, and SIMBA large-scale cosmological simulations do not agree on whether BHs at z>4 are overmassive or undermassive at fixed galaxy stellar mass with respect to the M_BH-M_star scaling relation at z=0 (BH mass offsets). Our conclusions are unchanged when using the local scaling relation produced by each simulation or empirical relations. We find that the BH mass offsets of the simulated faint quasar population at z>4, unlike those of bright quasars, represent the BH mass offsets of the entire BH population, for all the simulations. Thus, a population of faint quasars with L_bol= 10^45-10^46 erg/s observed by JWST can provide key constraints on the assembly of BHs at high redshift. Moreover, this will help constraining the high-redshift regime of cosmological simulations, including BH seeding, early growth, and co-evolution with the host galaxies. Our results also motivate the need for simulations of larger cosmological volumes down to z=6, with the same diversity of sub-grid physics, in order to gain statistics on the most extreme objects at high redshift.

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Supermassive black holes in cosmological simulations II: the AGN population and predictions for upcoming X-ray missions

In large-scale hydrodynamical cosmological simulations, the fate of massive galaxies is mainly dictated by the modeling of feedback from active galactic nuclei (AGN). The amount of energy released by AGN feedback is proportional to the mass that has been accreted onto the BHs, but the exact sub-grid modeling of AGN feedback differs in all simulations. Whilst modern simulations reliably produce populations of quiescent massive galaxies at z<2, it is also crucial to assess the similarities and differences of the responsible AGN populations. Here, we compare the AGN population of the Illustris, TNG100, TNG300, Horizon-AGN, EAGLE, and SIMBA simulations. The AGN luminosity function (LF) varies significantly between simulations. Although in agreement with current observational constraints at z=0, at higher redshift the agreement of the LFs deteriorates with most simulations producing too many AGN of L_{x, 2-10 keV}~10^43-10^44 erg/s. AGN feedback in some simulations prevents the existence of any bright AGN with L_{x, 2-10 keV}>=10^45 erg/s (although this is sensitive to AGN variability), and leads to smaller fractions of AGN in massive galaxies than in the observations at z<=2. We find that all the simulations fail at producing a number density of AGN in good agreement with observational constraints for both luminous (L_{x, 2-10 keV}~10^43-10^45 erg/s) and fainter (L_{x, 2-10 keV}~10^42-10^43 erg/s) AGN, and at both low and high redshift. These differences can aid us in improving future BH and galaxy subgrid modeling in simulations. Upcoming X-ray missions (e.g., Athena, AXIS, and LynX) will bring faint AGN to light and new powerful constraints. After accounting for AGN obscuration, we find that the predicted number density of detectable AGN in future surveys spans at least one order of magnitude across the simulations, at any redshift.

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Supermassive black holes in cosmological simulations I: M_BH-M_star relation and black hole mass function

The past decade has seen significant progress in understanding galaxy formation and evolution using large-scale cosmological simulations. While these simulations produce galaxies in overall good agreement with observations, they employ different sub-grid models for galaxies and supermassive black holes (BHs). We investigate the impact of the sub-grid models on the BH mass properties of the Illustris, TNG100, TNG300, Horizon-AGN, EAGLE, and SIMBA simulations, focusing on the M_BH-M_star relation and the BH mass function. All simulations predict tight M_BH-M_star relations, and struggle to produce the lowest (M_BH< 10^7.5 Msun) in galaxies of M_star~10^10.5-10^11.5 Msun. While the time evolution of the mean M_BH-M_star relation is mild (<1 dex in BH mass for 0 10^9 Msun in most of the simulations. The BH mass function is dominated by efficiently accreting BHs (log10 f_Edd >-2$) at high redshifts, and transitions progressively from the high-mass to the low-mass end to be governed by inactive BHs. The transition time and the contribution of active BHs are different among the simulations, and can be used to evaluate models against observations.

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Momentum deposition of supernovae with cosmic rays

The cataclysmic explosions of massive stars as supernovae are one of the key ingredients of galaxy formation. However, their evolution is not well understood in the presence of magnetic fields or cosmic rays (CRs). We study the expansion of individual supernova remnants (SNRs) using our suite of 3D hydrodynamical (HD), magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) and CRMHD simulations generated using RAMSES. We explore multiple ambient densities, magnetic fields and fractions of supernova energy deposited as CRs ($χ_{\rm CR}$), accounting for cosmic ray anisotropic diffusion and streaming. All our runs have comparable evolutions until the end of the Sedov-Taylor phase. However, our CRMHD simulations experience an additional CR pressure-driven snowplough phase once the CR energy dominates inside the SNR. We present a model for the final momentum deposited by supernovae that captures this new phase: $p_{\rm SNR} = 2.87\times 10^{5} (χ_{\text{CR}} + 1)^{4.82}\left(\frac{n}{\text{cm}^{-3}}\right)^{-0.196} M_{\odot}$ km s$^{-1}$. Assuming a 10% fraction of SN energy in CRs leads to a 50% boost of the final momentum, with our model predicting even higher impacts at lower ambient densities. The anisotropic diffusion of CRs assuming an initially uniform magnetic field leads to extended gas and cosmic ray outflows escaping from the supernova poles. We also study a tangled initial configuration of the magnetic field, resulting instead in a quasi-isotropic diffusion of CRs and earlier momentum deposition. Finally, synthetic synchrotron observations of our simulations using the POLARIS code show that the local magnetic field configuration in the interstellar medium modifies the overall radio emission morphology and polarisation.

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