Fountain pattern of baryon cycle revealed in galaxy ecosystems
Abstract
Baryons in galaxy ecosystems are believed to undergo continuous cycles of inflow and outflow, forming fountain-like patterns that encode key information about how galaxies acquire matter from their environments and respond through feedback. The presence of such baryon cycles has been inferred from pieces of observational evidence, but a concrete understanding remains elusive because individual galaxy ecosystems are diverse and dynamic. Here we introduce a stacking method that combines baryonic fields across ensembles of individual galaxy ecosystems to suppress irregularities and reveal the underlying pattern. Applied to a cosmological hydrodynamic simulation, this approach unveils strikingly regular patterns in gas properties across the full spatial extent of galaxy ecosystems, in close agreement with those inferred from observations. This method is straightforward to implement, allowing the processes shaping the gas-cycling pattern to be fully understood within the structure-formation paradigm, and a solid framework to be constructed for linking simulated galaxy ecosystems with observations.
Related
- Dark Matter-Baryon Separability Predicts the Dynamics of an Almost-Dark Galaxy
- NERV: Neural-network Enhanced Reconstruction of the UniVerse with Application to Baryon Acoustic Oscillations in the BOSS DR12 Galaxy Sample
- Same galaxy, different CGM: how the metal loading of galactic winds regulates the baryon cycle in Milky Way-mass galaxies
- Model-Independent Measurement of Baryon Gas Fractions through Galaxy-Galaxy Lensing and the Kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect
- Little Red Dots As Super-Eddington Fountain Flows
BibTeX
@misc{ma2026fountain,
title = {{Fountain pattern of baryon cycle revealed in galaxy ecosystems}},
author = {Chengyu Ma and Yangyao Chen and Enci Wang and Houjun Mo and Huiyuan Wang and Tao Wang and Qirong Yuan and Min Du and Zhaozhou Li and Kai Wang and Cheqiu Lyu and Haoran Yu and Zeyu Chen and Xiaoxuan Chen},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.21374},
eprint = {2609.21374},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.21374},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Fountain pattern of baryon cycle revealed in galaxy ecosystems
AU - Chengyu Ma
AU - Yangyao Chen
AU - Enci Wang
AU - Houjun Mo
AU - Huiyuan Wang
AU - Tao Wang
AU - Qirong Yuan
AU - Min Du
AU - Zhaozhou Li
AU - Kai Wang
AU - Cheqiu Lyu
AU - Haoran Yu
AU - Zeyu Chen
AU - Xiaoxuan Chen
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/18
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.21374
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.21374
AB - Baryons in galaxy ecosystems are believed to undergo continuous cycles of inflow and outflow, forming fountain-like patterns that encode key information about how galaxies acquire matter from their environments and respond through feedback. The presence of such baryon cycles has been inferred from pieces of observational evidence, but a concrete understanding remains elusive because individual galaxy ecosystems are diverse and dynamic. Here we introduce a stacking method that combines baryonic fields across ensembles of individual galaxy ecosystems to suppress irregularities and reveal the underlying pattern. Applied to a cosmological hydrodynamic simulation, this approach unveils strikingly regular patterns in gas properties across the full spatial extent of galaxy ecosystems, in close agreement with those inferred from observations. This method is straightforward to implement, allowing the processes shaping the gas-cycling pattern to be fully understood within the structure-formation paradigm, and a solid framework to be constructed for linking simulated galaxy ecosystems with observations.
ER -