Black hole — galaxy co-evolution in FIRE: the importance of black hole location and mergers. (arXiv:2007.12185v1 [astro-ph.GA])
<a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Catmabacak_O/0/1/0/all/0/1">Onur Çatmabacak</a> (1), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Feldmann_R/0/1/0/all/0/1">Robert Feldmann</a> (1), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Angles_Alcazar_D/0/1/0/all/0/1">Daniel Anglés-Alcázar</a> (2,3), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Faucher_Giguere_C/0/1/0/all/0/1">Claude-André Faucher-Giguère</a> (4), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Hopkins_P/0/1/0/all/0/1">Philip F. Hopkins</a> (5), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Keres_D/0/1/0/all/0/1">Dušan Kereš</a> (6) ((1) Institute for Computational Science, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, (2) Department of Physics, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA, (3) Center for Computational Astrophysics, Flatiron Institute, New York, NY, USA, (4) Department of Physics and Astronomy and CIERA, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA, (5) TAPIR, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA, (6) Department of Physics, Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA)
The co-evolution of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) with their host galaxies
remains to be fully explored, especially at high redshift. While often
understood as a consequence of self-regulation via AGN feedback, it may also be
explained by alternative SMBH accretion models. Here, we expand on previous
work by studying the growth of SMBHs with the help of a large suite of
cosmological zoom-in simulations (textsc{small{MassiveFIRE}}) that are part
of the Feedback in Realistic Environments (FIRE) project. The growth of SMBHs
is modeled in post-processing with different accretion models, placements, and
merger treatments, and validated by comparing to on-the-fly calculations.
Scaling relations predicted by the gravitational torque driven accretion (GTDA)
model agree with observations at low redshift emph{without} the need for AGN
feedback, in contrast to models in which the accretion rate depends strongly on
SMBH mass. At high redshift, we find deviations from the local scaling
relations in line with previous results. In particular, SMBHs are
under-massive, presumably due to stellar feedback, but start to grow
efficiently once their host galaxies reach $M_* sim 10^{10} M_{odot}$. We
analyze and explain these findings in the context of a simple analytic model.
Finally, we show that the predicted scaling relations depend sensitively on the
efficiency of SMBH merging. These findings highlight the relevance of
understanding the evolution of SMBH-galaxy scaling relations to predict the
rate of gravitational wave signals from SMBH mergers across cosmic history.
The co-evolution of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) with their host galaxies
remains to be fully explored, especially at high redshift. While often
understood as a consequence of self-regulation via AGN feedback, it may also be
explained by alternative SMBH accretion models. Here, we expand on previous
work by studying the growth of SMBHs with the help of a large suite of
cosmological zoom-in simulations (textsc{small{MassiveFIRE}}) that are part
of the Feedback in Realistic Environments (FIRE) project. The growth of SMBHs
is modeled in post-processing with different accretion models, placements, and
merger treatments, and validated by comparing to on-the-fly calculations.
Scaling relations predicted by the gravitational torque driven accretion (GTDA)
model agree with observations at low redshift emph{without} the need for AGN
feedback, in contrast to models in which the accretion rate depends strongly on
SMBH mass. At high redshift, we find deviations from the local scaling
relations in line with previous results. In particular, SMBHs are
under-massive, presumably due to stellar feedback, but start to grow
efficiently once their host galaxies reach $M_* sim 10^{10} M_{odot}$. We
analyze and explain these findings in the context of a simple analytic model.
Finally, we show that the predicted scaling relations depend sensitively on the
efficiency of SMBH merging. These findings highlight the relevance of
understanding the evolution of SMBH-galaxy scaling relations to predict the
rate of gravitational wave signals from SMBH mergers across cosmic history.
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