2008/05/02 by M. Allen, Mark G. Allen, Brent Groves +5 · 6 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Bow shock (aerodynamics) #Computational physics #Emission spectrum #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Geometry #Ion #Ionization #Line (geometry) #Mechanics #Optics #Photoionization #Physics #Radiative transfer #Shock (circulatory) #Shock wave #Spectral line #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/589652
39 pages, 34 figures, accepted for publication in ApJS, April 2008
arxiv created 2008/05/02 · openalex publication_date 2008/08/25 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We present a new library of fully radiative shock models calculated with the MAPPINGS III shock and photoionization code. The library consists of grids of models with shock velocities in the range v s = 100–1000 km s −1 and magnetic parameters B / n 1/2 of 10 −4 to 10 μG cm 3/2 for five different atomic abundance sets and for a preshock density of 1.0 cm −3 . In addition, solar abundance model grids have been calculated for densities of 0.01, 0.1, 10, 100, and 1000 cm −3 with the same range in v s and B / n 1/2 . Each model includes components of both the radiative shock and its photoionized precursor, ionized by the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and soft X-ray radiation generated in the radiative gas. We present the details of the ionization structure, the column densities, and the luminosities of the shock and its precursor. Emission-line ratio predictions are separately given for the shock and its precursor as well as for the composite shock+precursor structure to facilitate comparison with observations in cases in which the shock and its precursor are not resolved. Emission-line ratio grids for shock and shock+precursor are presented on standard line ratio diagnostic diagrams, and we compare these grids to observations of radio galaxies and a sample of AGNs and star-forming galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. This library is available online, along with a suite of tools to enable the analysis of the shocks and the easy creation of emission line ratio diagnostic diagrams. These models represent a significant increase in parameter space coverage over previously available models and, therefore, provide a unique tool in the diagnosis of emission by shocks.