Cosmological simulations of quasar fueling to sub-parsec scales using Lagrangian hyper-refinement. (arXiv:2008.12303v1 [astro-ph.GA])
<a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Angles_Alcazar_D/0/1/0/all/0/1">Daniel Angles-Alcazar</a> (1 and 2), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Quataert_E/0/1/0/all/0/1">Eliot Quataert</a> (3 and 4), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Hopkins_P/0/1/0/all/0/1">Philip Hopkins</a> (5), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Somerville_R/0/1/0/all/0/1">Rachel Somerville</a> (2 and 6), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Hayward_C/0/1/0/all/0/1">Christopher Hayward</a> (2), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Faucher_Giguere_C/0/1/0/all/0/1">Claude-Andre Faucher-Giguere</a> (7), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Bryan_G/0/1/0/all/0/1">Greg Bryan</a> (8 and 2), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Keres_D/0/1/0/all/0/1">Dusan Keres</a> (9), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Hernquist_L/0/1/0/all/0/1">Lars Hernquist</a> (10), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Stone_J/0/1/0/all/0/1">James Stone</a> (11) ((1) UConn, (2) Flatiron, (3) Berkeley, (4) Princeton, (5) Caltech, (6) Rutgers, (7) Northwestern, (8) Columbia, (9) San Diego, (10) CfA, (11) IAS)
We present cosmological hydrodynamic simulations of a quasar-mass halo
($M_{rm halo} approx 10^{12.5},{rm M}_{odot}$ at z=2) that for the first
time resolve gas transport down to the inner 0.1 pc surrounding the central
massive black hole. We model a multi-phase interstellar medium including
stellar feedback by supernovae, stellar winds, and radiation, and a
hyper-Lagrangian refinement technique increasing the resolution dynamically
approaching the black hole. We do not include black hole feedback. We show that
the sub-pc inflow rate (1) can reach ~6 M$_{odot}$yr$^{-1}$ roughly in steady
state during the epoch of peak nuclear gas density (z~2), sufficient to power a
luminous quasar, (2) is highly time variable in the pre-quasar phase, spanning
0.001-10 M$_{odot}$yr$^{-1}$ on Myr timescales, and (3) is limited to short
(~2 Myr) active phases (0.01-0.1 M$_{odot}$yr$^{-1}$) followed by longer
periods of inactivity at lower nuclear gas density and late times (z~1), owing
to the formation of a hot central cavity. Inflowing gas is primarily cool,
rotational support dominates over turbulence and thermal pressure, and star
formation can consume as much gas as provided by inflows across 1 pc – 10 kpc.
Gravitational torques from multi-scale stellar non-axisymmetries dominate
angular momentum transport over gas self-torquing and pressure gradients, with
accretion weakly dependent on black hole mass. Sub-pc inflow rates correlate
with nuclear (but decouple from global) star formation and can exceed the
Eddington rate by x10. The black hole can move ~10 pc from the galaxy center on
~0.1 Myr. Accreting gas forms pc-scale, rotationally supported, obscuring
structures often misaligned with the galaxy-scale disk. These simulations open
a new avenue to investigate black hole-galaxy co-evolution.
We present cosmological hydrodynamic simulations of a quasar-mass halo
($M_{rm halo} approx 10^{12.5},{rm M}_{odot}$ at z=2) that for the first
time resolve gas transport down to the inner 0.1 pc surrounding the central
massive black hole. We model a multi-phase interstellar medium including
stellar feedback by supernovae, stellar winds, and radiation, and a
hyper-Lagrangian refinement technique increasing the resolution dynamically
approaching the black hole. We do not include black hole feedback. We show that
the sub-pc inflow rate (1) can reach ~6 M$_{odot}$yr$^{-1}$ roughly in steady
state during the epoch of peak nuclear gas density (z~2), sufficient to power a
luminous quasar, (2) is highly time variable in the pre-quasar phase, spanning
0.001-10 M$_{odot}$yr$^{-1}$ on Myr timescales, and (3) is limited to short
(~2 Myr) active phases (0.01-0.1 M$_{odot}$yr$^{-1}$) followed by longer
periods of inactivity at lower nuclear gas density and late times (z~1), owing
to the formation of a hot central cavity. Inflowing gas is primarily cool,
rotational support dominates over turbulence and thermal pressure, and star
formation can consume as much gas as provided by inflows across 1 pc – 10 kpc.
Gravitational torques from multi-scale stellar non-axisymmetries dominate
angular momentum transport over gas self-torquing and pressure gradients, with
accretion weakly dependent on black hole mass. Sub-pc inflow rates correlate
with nuclear (but decouple from global) star formation and can exceed the
Eddington rate by x10. The black hole can move ~10 pc from the galaxy center on
~0.1 Myr. Accreting gas forms pc-scale, rotationally supported, obscuring
structures often misaligned with the galaxy-scale disk. These simulations open
a new avenue to investigate black hole-galaxy co-evolution.
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