Dr. Judith Irwin, Dept. of Physics, Queen's University, Canada
The Disk-Halo Connection in Galaxies
In only a few hundred pc vertically, the environment of a galaxy changes from one dominated by a hot stellar population with a cool dense ISM to one dominated by a cool stellar population in a hot low density medium. The disk-halo interface is an important region which maintains this difference, yet shows evidence for small and large-scale dynamics. Disk-halo outflows and circulation have been implicated in producing observed metallicity gradients in galaxies, polluting the IGM, and accounting for the 'feedback' required in galaxy formation scenarios. Thus, understanding it in nearby systems is an important step in explaining galaxy formation and evolution. This talk will outline observational evidence for halo features in spiral galaxies and argue for an internal origin for most features. The high energies needed in some systems suggest that an additional input source besides the standard SNe may be required.