Title：Zoom-in simulations of Milky Way to trace gas inflow process inside Central Molecular Zone

Speaker：Zixuan Feng (University of Insubria)

Time: 10:00 am Sept. 17th (Wednesday)

Location:Middle Meeting room, 3rd floor

Abstract：

Bar dust lanes are well-known mechanisms to effectively drive gas outside disk into the central nuclear ring. Further inward, although Milky Way observations have revealed the existence of a circum-nuclear disk (CND) inside the central 2 pc around the black hole, the mechanism that drives gas moving inwards from central molecular zone (CMZ) is still uncertain. We construct Milky-way size gas simulations with zoom-in resolution and multiple stellar feedback mechanisms to better trace the gas inflow process from the central molecular zone to the circum-nuclear disk. Our preliminary models provide a picture of inflow rate as functions of galactic radius. We found that gas clouds ejected by supernova feedback on CMZ could flow into the central 2 pc with different patterns. Strong radial inflow events could perturb the CND feature and make it inclined compared to the outer disk.

CV：

Zixuan Feng is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Insubria, working with Prof. Mattia Sormani. Their research focuses on the gas dynamics in the Milky Way, including effects of star formation, supernova and radiation feedback, and the role of galactic structures such as bars and nuclear stellar clusters. He uses zoom-in resolution simulations with multiple feedback mechanisms to study how gas flows produce the circum-nuclear gas disk. Zixuan completed his PhD in 2024 at Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, where he worked on the gas features and simulations of M31.