AAS 201st Meeting, January, 2003
Session 14. Galaxy - Contents
Poster, Monday, January 6, 2003, 9:20am-6:30pm, Exhibit Hall AB

## [14.19] A high spatial resolution X-ray and H\alpha study of hot gas in the halos of star-forming disk galaxies -- testing feedback models

D.K. Strickland, T.M. Heckman, E.J.M. Colbert, C.G. Hoopes (JHU), K.A. Weaver (NASA/GSFC)

We present arcsecond resolution Chandra X-ray and ground-based optical H\alpha~imaging of a sample of ten edge-on star-forming disk galaxies (seven starburst and three normal'' spiral galaxies), a sample which covers the full range of star-formation intensity found in disk galaxies. The X-ray observations make use of the unprecented spatial resolution of the Chandra X-ray observatory to robustly remove X-ray emission from point sources, and hence obtain the X-ray properties of the diffuse thermal emission alone. This data has been combined with existing, comparable-resolution, ground-based H\alpha~imaging. We compare these empirically-derived diffuse X-ray properties with various models for the generation of hot gas in the halos of star-forming galaxies: supernova feedback-based models (starburst-driven winds, galactic fountains), cosmologically-motivated accretion of the IGM and AGN-driven winds. SN feedback models best explain the observed diffuse X-ray emission. We then use the data to test basic, but fundamental, aspects of wind and fountain theories, e.g. the critical energy required for disk "break-out."

DKS is supported by NASA through Chandra Postdoctoral Fellowship Award Number PF0-10012.