Influence of ISM structure on multiphase outflow content and impact

Establish how the spatial structure of the interstellar medium (e.g., clumpiness, porosity, and cloud-size distribution) affects the multiphase composition and overall impact (mass, momentum, and energy transfer) of AGN-driven outflows across galaxy environments.

Background

A central motivation of the study is that realistic ISM inhomogeneities (clumps, gaps, and porosity) may fundamentally alter outflow morphology, phase content, and energetics compared to homogeneous media. This remains uncertain observationally and theoretically, complicating interpretation of momentum boosts, kinetic coupling efficiencies, and scaling relations.

The simulations aim to probe these effects but note that broadly characterizing the dependence on ISM structure across parameter space and observational conditions is still unresolved.

References

However, the ways in which the structure of the interstellar medium (ISM) affects the multiphase content and impact of the outflow remains uncertain.

— AGN-driven outflows in clumpy media: multiphase structure and scaling relations  (2407.17593 - Ward et al., 2024) in Abstract

However, the efficiency with which those winds propagate into the resolved ionized medium remains largely unknown due to the limited number of studies.

— Super-Eddington Accretion and Early-Stage Feedback in Ton S180  (2609.04317 - Condò et al., 3 Sep 2026) in Section 6.1, “Ton S180 in the context of highly accreting NLSy1s”