Astro-Seminar: Cheryl Lau
Wednesday, 10 June 2026 at 14:00
Astrophysics seminar as part of the seminar series occurring every Wednesday at 14:00 during term time. Organised by Till Kaeufer, Vito Squicciarini, Nils de Vries. Contact: Astro-Seminar-Organiser@exeter.ac.uk
Event details
Abstract: Modelling supernovae in porous photoionized Giant Molecular Clouds
Galactic-scale simulations rely on sub-grid models to provide prescriptions for the coupling between supernova (SN) feedback and the interstellar medium (ISM). Many of these models are computed in 1-D to allow for an efficient way to account for the variability of ISM properties. However, parsec-scale simulations revealed that the release of energy from SNe within Giant Molecular Clouds (GMCs) can be highly asymmetrical. This is largely due to the presence of pre-SN feedback, such as ionizing radiation, that are able to carve channels along the paths of least resistance around the progenitors. Being partially confined, the SN energy escapes to the outer ISM preferentially through these channels, departing from the spherically symmetric descriptions. In this talk, I will present a suite of SPH simulations of feedback in GMCs, with novel analytical and numerical models that describe SNe detonating within compact environments. I will show that their behaviour largely deviates from that of the 1-D blasts, but the amount of deviation, on scales of tens of parsecs, is rather independent of the clouds’ porosity. Finally, I will propose some practical methods that may be used to incorporate the “channelling” effects into the sub-grid feedback models.
Organiser
Astrophysics
Location
Fourth floor interaction area, Physics Building, Streatham Campus