Estimation of Fuel Rate on the Galactic Disk from High Velocity Clouds (HVCs) Infall

Abstract

Continuous accretion of metal-poor gas can explain the discrepancy between the number of observed G-Dwarfs and the number predicted by the “simple model” of galactic evolution. The maximum accretion rate estimated based upon approaching high velocity clouds (HVCs) can be up to ~0.4 M⊙yr which is comparable with the accretion rate required by many chemical evolution models that is at least ~0.45 M⊙yr . However, it is not clear to what extent the exchange of gas between the disk and the cloud can occur when a HVC collides with the galactic disk. Therefore, we examined a series of HVC-Disk collision simulations using the FLASH2.5 hydrodynamics simulation code. Our simulation results show that an HVC will more likely take away substances from the galactic disk rather than adding new material to the disk. We define this as a “negative fuel rate” event. Further outcomes in our study present that the fuel rate, which is defined as how much material is transferred to the galactic disk from the colliding HVC, can change depending on the combination among density, radius and velocity of an approaching HVC as well as the modeled galactic disk.