Speaker
Description
Galactic winds are an important but understudied component of feedback processes. Recent studies have shown that winds are a prevalent feature in normal star-forming galaxies. However, it remains a challenge to quantify the mass, momentum, and energy they transport, and to understand their driving mechanisms.
To tackle this problem, our ongoing research makes innovative use of H I 21 cm observations to directly characterise galactic winds. This provides a more accurate approach to measure their mass, momentum, and energy in a large sample of star-forming galaxies, and to examine their dependence on galaxy properties. Our model finds that the neutral winds are modulated by gravity and the momentum injection from star formation. While most of the wind gas fails to escape the host dark matter halo and instead forms galactic fountains, only galaxies with the highest star formation rates can drive a small fraction of their wind mass beyond the halo's gravitational pull. We will discuss the implications of our results for our understanding of galactic feedback.
This research highlights the potential of H I 21 cm sky surveys as a powerful tool for studying neutral winds, providing new insights into the role of galactic winds in shaping galaxy evolution.
