CCAPP Seminar: "Properties of the Simulated Circumgalactic Medium" Cassi Lochhaas (OSU Astronomy)

The circumgalactic medium (CGM) is crucially important to galaxy evolution because all gas that flows into and out of the galaxy at its center must pass through it. However, the CGM is difficult to characterize in observations because it is very diffuse, and difficult to characterize in low-resolution cosmological simulations because it is multiphase. High-resolution simulations of isolated galaxies allow characterization of the multiphase gas in the CGM while the idealized nature of these simulations maintain a physical understanding of the processes that drive the evolution of the CGM. I will describe the characteristics of the CGM gas and its pressure profiles in high-resolution simulations, and describe how the bulk flows of winds and accretion impact the equilibrium of the CGM gas. I will show that the mass of the galaxy and its galactic wind parameters strongly affect the properties of the CGM, and will show that there is no such thing as an "average" CGM.