AAS 198th Meeting, June 2001
Session 52. The Cosmological Impact of Galactic Winds
Topical Session Oral, Wednesday, June 6, 2001, 8:30am-12:30pm, C107

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[52.03] Cosmological Enrichment and Entropy Production by Galactic Winds

W. G. Mathews (University of California, Santa Cruz)

Galactic winds are thought to have influenced both the metal enrichment and entropy of hot gas in galaxy clusters. The nearly solar metal abundance in the hot gas in rich clusters of galaxies can result from supernova-driven galactic winds during the early starburst evolution of galactic bulges. Similarly, the entropy of the hot gas in galaxy groups, which exceeds that acquired in accretion shocks, is a relic of the same supernova heating during early star formation. The number of early Type II supernovae required to account for the observed Lx - temperature and entropy - T correlations suggests an initial mass function that is somewhat flatter than Salpeter. At the present time the hot gas in most massive large elliptical galaxies is flowing inward as a cooling flow, although winds are possible in ellipticals of moderate or small mass.


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