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Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0The Astrophysical Journal

Testing the Stellar Feedback-driven Breathing Mode in Low-mass Galaxies with Gas Kinematics

  • Yifei Luo1,2
  • Joseph Wick2
  • Alexie Leauthaud2
  • Andrew Wetzel2
  • Tucker Jones2
  • Erin Kado-Fong3
  • Song Huang4
  • Xinjun Chen2,5
  • Conghao Zhou2
  • Jiaxuan Li6
6 affiliations
  1. 1Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
  2. 2University of California
  3. 3Yale Center for Astronomy & Astrophysics
  4. 4Tsinghua University
  5. 5University of Missouri
  6. 6Princeton University
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Abstract

Hydrodynamic simulations have proposed that stellar feedback and bursty star formation can produce dark matter cores in low-mass galaxies. A key prediction is that feedback-driven gas outflow and inflow cycles can lead to “breathing modes” (rapid fluctuations in the global gravitational potential), which drive correlated variations in galaxy size, kinematics, and star formation rate (SFR). In this paper, we test the dynamical effects of feedback-driven breathing modes using a sample of 103 star-forming low-mass galaxies with stellar masses between 7.9 < log M * / M ⊙ < 9.6 and 0.02 < z < 0.19. We measure ionized gas velocity dispersions from H α emission lines and compare them to mock observations from the FIRE-2 simulations. We compare gas velocity dispersions ( σ gas ), stellar masses, and specific star formation rates (sSFRs). We find a positive correlation between gas velocity dispersion residuals at fixed stellar masses (Δ σ gas ) and sSFR in both data and simulations. However, the relation is tighter in FIRE-2 compared to the data. FIRE-2 produces more low-sSFR galaxies compared to our observational sample; however, the sSFR distributions agree after limiting both samples to a minimum sSFR. A deeper and more complete photometric sample further indicates that observed low-mass galaxies could span the full range of sSFR predicted in the FIRE-2 simulations. Our results support the existence of short-timescale dynamical effects driven by gas outflow and inflow cycles in low-mass galaxies and motivate additional tests of the breathing mode.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{luo2026testing,
  title = {{Testing the Stellar Feedback-driven Breathing Mode in Low-mass Galaxies with Gas Kinematics}},
  author = {Yifei Luo and Joseph Wick and Alexie Leauthaud and Andrew Wetzel and Tucker Jones and Erin Kado-Fong and Song Huang and Xinjun Chen and Conghao Zhou and Jiaxuan Li},
  journal = {The Astrophysical Journal},
  year = {2026},
  month = sep,
  doi = {10.3847/1538-4357/aea28f},
  url = {https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aea28f},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Testing the Stellar Feedback-driven Breathing Mode in Low-mass Galaxies with Gas Kinematics
AU  - Yifei Luo
AU  - Joseph Wick
AU  - Alexie Leauthaud
AU  - Andrew Wetzel
AU  - Tucker Jones
AU  - Erin Kado-Fong
AU  - Song Huang
AU  - Xinjun Chen
AU  - Conghao Zhou
AU  - Jiaxuan Li
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/30
JO  - The Astrophysical Journal
DO  - 10.3847/1538-4357/aea28f
UR  - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aea28f
AB  - Hydrodynamic simulations have proposed that stellar feedback and bursty star formation can produce dark matter cores in low-mass galaxies. A key prediction is that feedback-driven gas outflow and inflow cycles can lead to “breathing modes” (rapid fluctuations in the global gravitational potential), which drive correlated variations in galaxy size, kinematics, and star formation rate (SFR). In this paper, we test the dynamical effects of feedback-driven breathing modes using a sample of 103 star-forming low-mass galaxies with stellar masses between 7.9 < log M * / M ⊙ < 9.6 and 0.02 < z < 0.19. We measure ionized gas velocity dispersions from H α emission lines and compare them to mock observations from the FIRE-2 simulations. We compare gas velocity dispersions ( σ gas ), stellar masses, and specific star formation rates (sSFRs). We find a positive correlation between gas velocity dispersion residuals at fixed stellar masses (Δ σ gas ) and sSFR in both data and simulations. However, the relation is tighter in FIRE-2 compared to the data. FIRE-2 produces more low-sSFR galaxies compared to our observational sample; however, the sSFR distributions agree after limiting both samples to a minimum sSFR. A deeper and more complete photometric sample further indicates that observed low-mass galaxies could span the full range of sSFR predicted in the FIRE-2 simulations. Our results support the existence of short-timescale dynamical effects driven by gas outflow and inflow cycles in low-mass galaxies and motivate additional tests of the breathing mode.
SN  - 0004-637X
SN  - 1538-4357
ER  -