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Publications
Last updated: July 2023
See my ORCiD and google scholar profiles, and ADS for full, updated publication list. Some recent highlighted papers are below.
2023
16. Cosmic Ray Processes in Galactic Ecosystems
Ellis R. Owen, Kinwah Wu, Yoshiyuki Inoue, H.-Y. Karen Yang, Alison M. W. Mitchell
Published in MDPI Galaxies; Volume 11, Issue 4, id. 86
Galaxy evolution is an important topic, and our physical understanding must be complete to establish a correct picture. This includes a thorough treatment of feedback. The effects of thermal–mechanical and radiative feedback have been widely considered; however, cosmic rays (CRs) are also powerful energy carriers in galactic ecosystems. Resolving the capability of CRs to operate as a feedback agent is therefore essential to advance our understanding of the processes regulating galaxies. The effects of CRs are yet to be fully understood, and their complex multi-channel feedback mechanisms operating across the hierarchy of galaxy structures pose a significant technical challenge. This review examines the role of CRs in galaxies, from the scale of molecular clouds to the circumgalactic medium. An overview of their interaction processes, their implications for galaxy evolution, and their observable signatures is provided and their capability to modify the thermal and hydrodynamic configuration of galactic ecosystems is discussed. We present recent advancements in our understanding of CR processes and interpretation of their signatures, and highlight where technical challenges and unresolved questions persist. We discuss how these may be addressed with upcoming opportunities.
15. Effects of large-scale magnetic fields on the observed composition of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays
Ellis R. Owen, Qin Han, Kinwah Wu
Published in Physical Review D; Volume 107, id. 103027
Ultrahigh-energy (UHE) cosmic rays (CRs) from distant sources interact with intergalactic radiation fields, leading to their spallation and attenuation. They are also deflected in intergalactic magnetic fields (IGMFs), particularly those associated with megaparsec-scale structures. These deflections extend the propagation times of CR particles, forming a magnetic horizon for each CR species. The cumulative cooling and interactions of a CR ensemble also modifies their spectral shape and composition observed on Earth. We construct a transport formulation to calculate the observed UHE CR spectral composition for four classes of source population. The effects on CR propagation brought about by IGMFs are modeled as scattering processes during transport, by centers associated with cosmic filaments. Our calculations demonstrate that IGMFs can have a marked effect on observed UHE CRs and that source population models are degenerate with IGMF properties. Interpretation of observations, including the endorsement or rejection of any particular source classes, thus needs careful consideration of the structural properties and evolution of IGMFs. Future observations providing tighter constraints on IGMF properties will significantly improve confidence in assessing UHE CR sources and their intrinsic CR production properties.
14. Evolution and feedback of AGN jets of different cosmic ray composition
Yen-Hsing Lin, H.-Y. Karen Yang, Ellis R. Owen
Published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society; Volume 520, Issue 1, pp. 963-975
Jet feedback from active galactic nuclei (AGN) is one of the most promising mechanisms for suppressing cooling flows in cool-core clusters. However, the composition of AGN jets and bubbles remains uncertain; they could be thermally dominated, or dominated by cosmic ray proton (CRp), cosmic ray electron (CRe), or magnetic energy. In this work, we investigate the evolution and feedback effects of CRp and CRe dominated jets by conducting 3D magnetohydrodynamic simulations of AGN jet-inflated bubbles in the intracluster medium using the FLASH code. We present the evolution of their energies, dynamics, and heating, and model their expected cavity-power versus radio-luminosity relation (Pcav-LR). We find that bubbles inflated by CRe dominated jets follow a very similar dynamical evolution to CRp dominated bubbles even though CRe within bubbles suffer significantly stronger synchrotron and inverse-Compton cooling. This is because, as CRe lose their energy, the jet-inflated bubbles quickly become thermally dominated within ~30 Myr. Their total energy stops decreasing with CR energy and evolves similarly to CRp dominated bubbles. The ability of CRe and CRp dominated bubbles to heat the intracluster medium is also comparable; the cold gas formed via local thermal instabilities is well suppressed in both cases. The CRp and CRe bubbles follow different evolutionary trajectories on the Pcav-LR plane, but the values are broadly consistent with observed ranges for FR-I sources. We also discuss observational techniques that have potential for constraining the composition of AGN jets and bubbles.
13. The secret agent of galaxy evolution
Ellis R. Owen
Published in Astronomy & Geophysics; Volume 64, Issue 1, pp. 1.29–1.35
In this introductory article, I discuss how cosmic rays can shape galaxy evolution, and the exciting opportunities to study their effects.
2022
12. Emission from hadronic and leptonic processes in galactic jet-driven bubbles
Ellis R. Owen, H.-Y. Karen Yang
Published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society; Volume 516, Issue 1, pp.1539-1556
We investigate the multiwavelength emission from hadronic and leptonic cosmic rays (CRs) in bubbles around galaxies, analogous to the Fermi bubbles of the Milky Way. The bubbles are modeled using 3D magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) simulations, and are driven by a 0.3 Myr intense explosive outburst from the nucleus of Milky Way-like galaxies. We compute their non-thermal emission properties at different stages throughout their evolution, up to 7 Myr, by post-processing the simulations. We compare the spectral and spatial signatures of bubbles with hadronic, leptonic and hybrid hadro-leptonic CR compositions. These each show broadly similar emission spectra, comprised of radio synchrotron, inverse Compton and non-thermal bremsstrahlung components. However, hadronic and hybrid bubbles were found to be brighter than leptonic bubbles in X-rays, and marginally less bright at radio frequencies, and in γ-rays between ~0.1 and a few 10s of GeV, with a large part of their emission being driven by secondary electrons formed in hadronic interactions. Hadronic systems were also found to be slightly brighter in high-energy γ-rays than their leptonic counterparts, owing to the neutral pion decay emission that dominates their emission between energies of 100s of GeV and a few TeV.
11. The extragalactic γ-ray background: imprints from the physical properties and evolution of star-forming galaxy populations
Ellis R. Owen, Albert K. H. Kong, Khee-Gan Lee
Published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society; Volume 513, Issue 2, pp.2335-2348
Star-forming galaxies (SFGs) harbour an abundant reservoir of cosmic rays (CRs). At GeV energies, these CRs undergo interactions with their environment to produce gamma-rays, and the unresolved gamma-ray emission from populations of SFGs forms a component of the isotropic extragalactic gamma-ray background (EGB). In this work, we investigate the contribution to the 0.01 - 50 GeV EGB from SFG populations located up to redshift z=3. We find this is dominated by starbursts, while the contribution from main sequence SFGs is marginal at all energies. We also demonstrate that most of the gamma-ray contribution from SFGs emanates from low mass galaxies, with over 80 per cent of the emission originating from galaxies with stellar masses below 10e8 solar masses. Many of these galaxies are located at relatively high redshift, with their peak EGB contribution arising ∼700 Myr before the noon of cosmic star-formation. We find that the precise redshift distributions of EGB sources at different energies imprint intensity signatures at different angular scales, which may allow their contribution to be distinguished using analyses of small-scale EGB intensity anisotropies, particularly if the diffuse EGB is dominated by hadronic CR-driven gamma-ray emission from SFGs. We show that the EGB is sensitive to the evolution of low mass populations of galaxies, particularly around z~2.5, and that it provides a new means to probe the engagement of CRs in these galaxies before the high noon of cosmic star-formation.
10. Multiwavelength emission from leptonic processes in ageing galaxy bubbles
Ellis R. Owen, H.-Y. Karen Yang
Published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society; Volume 510, Issue 4, pp.5834-5853
The evolutionary behaviour and multiwavelength emission properties of bubbles around galaxies, such as the Fermi bubbles of the Milky Way, is unsettled. We perform 3D magneto-hydrodynamical simulations to investigate the evolution of leptonic galaxy bubbles driven by a 0.3-Myr intense explosive outburst from the nucleus of Milky-Way-like galaxies. Adopting an ageing model for their leptonic cosmic rays, we post-process our simulations to compute the multiwavelength emission properties of these bubbles. We calculate the resulting spectra emitted from the bubbles from radio frequencies to gamma-rays, and construct emission maps in four energy bands to show the the development of the spatial emission structure of the bubbles. The simulated bubbles show a progression in their spectral properties as they age. In particular, the TeV gamma-ray emission is initially strong and dominated by inverse Compton scattering, but falls rapidly after ∼1 Myr. In contrast, the radio synchrotron emission remains relatively stable and fades slowly over the lifetime of the bubble. Based on the emission properties of our post-processed simulations, we demonstrate that gamma-ray observations will be limited in their ability to detect galaxy bubbles, with only young bubbles around nearby galaxies being within reach. However, radio observations with, e.g. the upcoming Square Kilometer Array, would be able to detect substantially older bubbles at much greater distances, and would be better placed to capture the evolutionary progression and diversity of galaxy bubble populations.
2021
9. Outflows from starburst galaxies with various driving mechanisms and their X-ray properties
B. P. Brian Yu, Ellis R. Owen, Kuo-Chuan Pan, Kinwah Wu, Ignacio Ferreras
Published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society; Volume 508, Issue 4, pp.5092-5113
Outflows in starburst galaxies driven by thermal-mechanical energy, cosmic rays, and their mix are investigated with 1D and 2D hydrodynamic simulations. We show that these outflows could reach a stationary state, after which their hydrodynamic profiles asymptotically approach previous results obtained semi-analytically for stationary outflow configurations. The X-rays from the simulated outflows are computed, and high-resolution synthetic spectra and broad-band light curves are constructed. The simulated outflows driven by thermal mechanical pressure and CRs have distinguishable spectral signatures, in particular, in the sequence of the keV K α lines of various ions and in the L-shell Fe emission complex. We demonstrate that broad-band colour analysis in X-rays is a possible alternative means to probe outflow driving mechanisms for distant galaxies, where observations may not be able to provide sufficient photons for high-resolution spectroscopic analyses.
A study investigating where the sources of the highest energy particles in our Universe originate from. We find more than half of the detected cosmic rays on Earth, at ultra high-energies originate from a large number of distant source populations. Much of the flux has been attenuated by the CMB and extra-galactic background light, but the residual still can produce a strong background component.
In this work, we modelled the contribution distant populations of star-forming galaxies could make to the isotropic gamma-ray background. We show that the dust and the extra-galactic background light are important factors in determining the spectrum observed, but can be well described by simple parameterised models. We further demonstrate how anisotropies can be used to reveal new insights into characteristics of star-forming galaxies as an unresolved source population in the gamma-ray background.
We introduce a new method to assess the propagation of cosmic rays in molecular cloud complexes, using information derived from polarised dust emission/absorption signatures from these regions (which presumably trace local magnetic field structures). We apply our method to the IC 5146 molecular cloud complex in Cygnus, to derive effective cosmic ray propagation parameters, and discuss the associated cosmic ray driving heating and ionisation patterns they may cause in this region, as well as their observational signatures.
2020
Outflows from starburst galaxies can be driven by thermal pressure, radiation, and cosmic rays. We present an analytic phenomenological model that accounts for these contributions simultaneously to investigate their effects on the hydrodynamical properties of outflows. We assess the impact of energy injection, wind opacity, magnetic field strength, and the mass of the host galaxy on flow velocity, temperature, density, and pressure profiles. For an M82-like wind, a thermally dominated driving mechanism is found to deliver the fastest and hottest wind. Radiation-driven winds in typical starburst-galaxy configurations are unable to attain the higher flow velocities and temperatures associated with thermal and cosmic ray-driven systems, leading to higher wind densities which would be more susceptible to cooling and fragmentation at lower altitudes. High opacity winds are more sensitive to radiative driving, but terminal flow velocities are still lower than those achieved by other driving mechanisms at realistic opacities. We demonstrate that variations in the outflow magnetic field can influence its coupling with cosmic rays, where stronger fields enable greater streaming but less driving near the base of the flow, instead with cosmic rays redirecting their driving impact to higher altitudes. The gravitational potential is less important in M82-like wind configurations, and substantial variations in the flow profiles only emerge at high altitude in massive haloes. This model offers a more generalized approach to examine the large-scale hydrodynamical properties for a wide variety of starburst galaxies.
Large-scale outflows from starburst galaxies are multiphase, multicomponent fluids. Charge-exchange lines that originate from the interfacing surface between the neutral and ionized components are a useful diagnostic of the cold dense structures in the galactic outflow. From the charge-exchange lines observed in the nearby starburst galaxy M82, we conduct surface-to-volume analyses and deduce that the cold dense clumps in its galactic outflow have flattened shapes, resembling a hamburger or a pancake morphology rather than elongated shapes. The observed filamentary H α features are therefore not prime charge-exchange line emitters. They are stripped material torn from the slow-moving dense clumps by the faster moving ionized fluid, which are subsequently warmed and stretched into elongated shapes. Our findings are consistent with numerical simulations that have shown that cold dense clumps in galactic outflows can be compressed by ram pressure, and also progressively ablated and stripped before complete disintegration. We have shown that some clumps could survive their passage along a galactic outflow. These are advected into the circumgalactic environment, where their remnants would seed condensation of the circumgalactic medium to form new clumps. The infall of these new clumps back into the galaxy and their subsequent re-entrainment into the galactic outflow form a loop process of galactic material recycling.
2019
Quenching of star-formation has been identified in many starburst and post-starburst galaxies, indicating burst-like star-formation histories (SFH) in the primordial Universe. Galaxies undergoing violent episodes of star-formation are expected to be rich in high energy cosmic rays (CRs). We have investigated the role of these CRs in such environments, particularly how they could contribute to this burst-like SFH via quenching and feedback. These high energy particles interact with the baryon and radiation fields of their host via hadronic processes to produce secondary leptons. The secondary particles then also interact with ambient radiation fields to generate X-rays through inverse-Compton scattering. In addition, they can thermalise directly with the semi-ionised medium via Coulomb processes. Heating at a rate of ∼10e-25 erg cm-3 s-1 can be attained by Coulomb processes in a star-forming galaxy with one core-collapse SN event per decade, and this is sufficient to cause quenching of star-formation. At high-redshift, a substantial amount of CR secondary electron energy can be diverted into inverse-Compton X-ray emission. This yields an X-ray luminosity of above 10e41 erg s-1 by redshift z = 7 which drives a further heating effect, operating over larger scales. This would be able to halt inflowing cold gas filaments, strangulating subsequent star-formation. We selected a sample of 16 starburst and post-starburst galaxies at 7 ≲ z ≲ 9 and determine the star-formation rates they could have sustained. We applied a model with CR injection, propagation and heating to calculate energy deposition rates in these 16 sources. Our calculations show that CR feedback cannot be neglected as it has the strength to suppress star-formation in these systems. We also show that their currently observed quiescence is consistent with the suffocation of cold inflows, probably by a combination of X-ray and CR heating.
We investigate the interactions of energetic hadronic particles with the media in outflows from star-forming protogalaxies. These particles undergo pion-producing interactions which can drive a heating effect in the outflow, while those advected by the outflow also transport energy beyond the galaxy, heating the circumgalactic medium. We investigate how this process evolves over the length of the outflow and calculate the corresponding heating rates in advection-dominated and diffusion-dominated cosmic ray transport regimes. In a purely diffusive transport scenario, we find the peak heating rate reaches 10e-26 erg cm-3 s-1 at the base of the outflow where the wind is driven by core-collapse supernovae at an event rate of 0.1 yr-1, but does not extend beyond 2 kpc. In the advection limit, the peak heating rate is reduced to 10e-28 erg cm-3 s-1, but its extent can reach to tens of kpc. Around 10 per cent of the cosmic rays injected into the system can escape by advection with the outflow wind, while the remaining cosmic rays deliver an important interstellar heating effect. We apply our cosmic ray heating model to the recent observation of the high-redshift galaxy MACS1149-JD1 and show that it could account for the quenching of a previous starburst inferred from spectroscopic observations. Re-ignition of later star-formation may be caused by the presence of filamentary circumgalactic inflows which are reinstated after cosmic ray heating has subsided.
2018
We investigate the interactions of energetic hadronic particles (cosmic ray protons) with photons and baryons in protogalactic environments, where the target photons are supplied by the first generations of stars to form in the galaxy and the cosmological microwave background, while the target baryons are the interstellar and circumgalactic medium. We show that pair-production and photo-pion processes are the dominant interactions at particle energies above 10e19 eV, while proton-proton (pp) interaction pion-production dominates at the lower energies in line with expectations from, for example gamma-ray observations of star-forming galaxies and dense regions of our own galaxy's interstellar medium. We calculate the path lengths for the interaction channels and determine the corresponding rates of energy deposition. We have found that protogalactic magnetic fields and their evolution can significantly affect the energy transport and energy deposition processes of cosmic rays. Within a Myr after the onset of star-formation the magnetic field in a protogalaxy could attain a strength sufficient to confine all but the highest energy particles within the galaxy. This enhances the cosmic ray-driven self-heating of the protogalaxy to a rate of around 10e-24 erg cm-3 s-1 for a galaxy with strong star-forming activity that yields one core collapse supernova event per year. This heating power exceeds even that due to radiative emission from the protogalaxy's stellar populations. However, in a short window before the protogalaxy is fully magnetized, energetic particles could stream across the galaxy freely, delivering energy into the circumgalactic and intergalactic medium.