The Complementary Roles of Feedback and Mergers in Building the Gaseous Halo and the X-Ray Corona of Milky-Way-sized Galaxies

We use high-resolution cosmological hydrodynamical simulations of Milky-Way-sized galaxies with varying supernova feedback strengths and merger histories to investigate the formation of their gaseous halos and especially their hot (>106 K) X-ray-luminous coronae. Our simulations predict the presence of significant hot gas in the halos as early as z = 3–4, well before the halos ought to be able to sustain hot mode accretion in the conventional picture. The nascent coronae grow inside-out and initially do so primarily as a result of outflows from the central galaxies powered by merger-induced shock heating and strong supernova feedback, both of which are elemental features of today’s successful galaxy formation models. Furthermore, the outflows and the forming coronae also accelerate the transition from cold to hot mode accretion by contributing to the conditions for sustaining stable accretion shocks. They also disrupt the filamentary streams funneling cold gas onto the central galaxies by causing their mouths to fray into a broad delta, detach from the galaxies, and be pushed away to larger radii. And even though at early times the filaments repeatedly re-form, the hot gas and the outflows act to weaken the filaments and accelerate their ultimate disruption. Although galactic outflows are generally thought of as ejective feedback, we find that their action on the filaments suggests a preventive role as well. © 2018 American Astronomical Societ