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P. C. Fragile (UCSB), S. D. Murray (LLNL), D. N. C. Lin (UCSC)
The chemical-enrichment history of galaxies depends not only on the production of elements heavier than He in supernovae, but also on the dispersal and mixing of these elements. This is likely accomplished through the driving actions of the same supernovae that produce the enriched material, a scenario which is easily studied through direct numerical simulations. Here we present results of a series of three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations focused on the dispersal and mixing of supernova-enriched gas in galactic systems of differing sizes. For low-mass dwarf spheroidals, we find that a large fraction of the enriched gas (47-71%) is lost from the galactic potential, thereby polluting the intergalactic medium. We also find that whatever enriched gas is retained in dwarf spheroidals is generally poorly mixed. In more massive dwarf-disk galaxies, a larger fraction of the enriched gas is retained within the galaxy, although significant outflows are still present. For even more massive galaxies, outflows are less important except as a result of very concentrated bursts of star-formation. For such galaxies, we focus primarily on the mixing of enriched gas within the interstellar medium.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 5
© 2004. The American Astronomical Society.