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There is a general agreement that the conspicuous extranuclear x-ray, optical-line, and radio-continuum emission of starbursts is associated with powerful galactic superwinds blowing from their centers. However, despite the significant advances in observational studies of superwinds, there is no consensus on the nature of the emitting material and even on the emission mechanisms themselves. This is to a great extent a consequence of a poor understanding of dynamical processes in the starburst superwind regions. To address this issue, we have conducted two-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations of galactic superwinds. While previous similar studies have used a single (disk) component to represent the ISM of the starburst galaxy, we analyse the interaction of the wind with a two-component disk--halo ambient interstellar medium . This two-component representation is argued to be crucial for adequate modelling of starbursts.
The emphasis of this study is on the geometry and structure of the wind region and the x-ray emission arising in the wind material and the shocked gas in the disk and the halo of the galaxy. The simulation results have shown that a clear-cut bipolar wind can easily develop under a range of very different conditions. On the other hand, a complex `filamentary' structure associated with the entrained dense disk material is found to arise within the hot bubble blown out by the wind. The flow pattern within the bubble is dominated equally by the central biconic outflow and a system of whirling motions related to the origin and development of the `filaments'. The `filament' parameters make them a good candidate for optical-emission-line filamentary gas observed in starburst halos. We find that the history of mass and energy deposition in the starburst region of the galaxy is crucial for wind dynamics . A ``mild'' early wind, which arises as a result of the cumulative effect of stellar winds from massive stars, produces a bipolar vertical cavity in the disk and halo gas without strongly affecting the gaseous disk, thus creating conditions for virtually free vertical escape of the hot gas at the later, much more violent supernova-dominated phases of the starburst.
