The past 10 years have witnessed a change of perspective in the way astrophysicists think about massive black holes (MBHs), which are now considered to have a major role in the evolution of galaxies. ...This appreciation was driven by the realization that black holes of millions of solar masses and above reside in the center of most galaxies, including the Milky Way. MBHs also powered active galactic nuclei known to exist just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. Here, I summarize the current ideas on the evolution of MBHs through cosmic history, from their formation about 13 billion years ago to their growth within their host galaxies.
We analyse the demographics of black holes (BHs) in the large-volume cosmological hydrodynamical simulation Horizon-AGN. This simulation statistically models how much gas is accreted on to BHs, ...traces the energy deposited into their environment and, consequently, the back-reaction of the ambient medium on BH growth. The synthetic BHs reproduce a variety of observational constraints such as the redshift evolution of the BH mass density and the mass function. Strong self-regulation via AGN feedback, weak supernova feedback, and unresolved internal processes result in a tight BH–galaxy mass correlation. Starting at z ∼ 2, tidal stripping creates a small population of BHs over-massive with respect to the halo. The fraction of galaxies hosting a central BH or an AGN increases with stellar mass. The AGN fraction agrees better with multi-wavelength studies, than single-wavelength ones, unless obscuration is taken into account. The most massive haloes present BH multiplicity, with additional BHs gained by ongoing or past mergers. In some cases, both a central and an off-centre AGN shine concurrently, producing a dual AGN. This dual AGN population dwindles with decreasing redshift, as found in observations. Specific accretion rate and Eddington ratio distributions are in good agreement with observational estimates. The BH population is dominated in turn by fast, slow, and very slow accretors, with transitions occurring at z = 3 and z = 2, respectively.
We present a sample of 40 active galactic nucleus (AGN) in dwarf galaxies at redshifts z ≲ 2.4. The galaxies are drawn from the Chandra COSMOS-Legacy survey as having stellar masses 107 ≤ M* ≤ 3 × ...109 M⊙. Most of the dwarf galaxies are star forming. After removing the contribution from star formation to the X-ray emission, the AGN luminosities of the 40 dwarf galaxies are in the range L0.5-10 keV ∼ 1039-1044 erg s-1. With 12 sources at z > 0.5, our sample constitutes the highest-redshift discovery of AGN in dwarf galaxies. The record-holder is cid_1192, at z = 2.39 and with L0.5-10 keV ∼ 1044 erg s-1. One of the dwarf galaxies has M* = 6.6 × 107 M⊙ and is the least massive galaxy found so far to host an AGN. All the AGN are of type 2 and consistent with hosting intermediate-mass black holes (BHs) with masses ∼104-105 M⊙ and typical Eddington ratios >1 per cent. We also study the evolution, corrected for completeness, of AGN fraction with stellar mass, X-ray luminosity, and redshift in dwarf galaxies out to z = 0.7. We find that the AGN fraction for 109 < M* ≤ 3 × 109 M⊙ and LX ∼ 1041-1042 erg s-1 is ∼0.4 per cent for z ≤ 0.3 and that it decreases with X-ray luminosity and decreasing stellar mass. Unlike massive galaxies, the AGN fraction seems to decrease with redshift, suggesting that AGN in dwarf galaxies evolve differently than those in high-mass galaxies. Mindful of potential caveats, the results seem to favour a direct collapse formation mechanism for the seed BHs in the early Universe.
We present a model for the formation of massive black holes (~1000 M ) due to stellar-dynamical processes in the first stellar clusters formed at early cosmic times (z ~ 10-20). These black holes are ...likely candidates as seeds for the supermassive black holes detected in quasars and nearby quiescent galaxies. The high redshift black hole seeds form as a result of multiple successive instabilities that occur in low metallicity (Z ~ 10-5 Z ) protogalaxies. We focus on relatively massive halos at high redshift (T vir > 104 K, z 10) after the very first stars in the universe have completed their evolution. This set of assumptions ensures that (1) atomic hydrogen cooling can contribute to the gas cooling process, (2) a UV field has been created by the first stars, and (3) the gas inside the halo has been mildly polluted by the first metals. The second condition implies that at low density H 2 is dissociated and does not contribute to cooling. The third condition sets a minimum threshold density for fragmentation, so that stars form efficiently only in the very inner core of the protogalaxy. Within this core, very compact stellar clusters form. The typical star cluster masses are of order 105 M and the typical half mass radii ~1 pc. A large fraction of these very dense clusters undergoes core collapse before stars are able to complete stellar evolution. Runaway star-star collisions eventually lead to the formation of a very massive star, leaving behind a massive black hole remnant. Clusters unstable to runaway collisions are always the first, less massive ones that form. As the metallicity of the universe increases, the critical density for fragmentation decreases and stars start to form in the entire protogalactic disk so that (1) accretion of gas in the center is no longer efficient and (2) the core collapse timescale increases. Typically, a fraction ~0.05 of protogalaxies at z ~ 10-20 form black hole seeds, with masses ~1000-2000 M , leading to a mass density in seeds of a few 102 M /Mpc-3. This density allows enough room for black hole growth by accretion during the quasar epoch.
Abstract
We present a novel implementation of supermassive black hole (SMBH) formation, dynamics and accretion in the massively parallel tree+SPH code, ChaNGa. This approach improves the modelling of ...SMBHs in fully cosmological simulations, allowing for a more detailed analysis of SMBH-galaxy co-evolution throughout cosmic time. Our scheme includes novel, physically motivated models for SMBH formation, dynamics and sinking timescales within galaxies and SMBH accretion of rotationally supported gas. The sub-grid parameters that regulate star formation (SF) and feedback from SMBHs and SNe are optimized against a comprehensive set of z = 0 galaxy scaling relations using a novel, multidimensional parameter search. We have incorporated our new SMBH implementation and parameter optimization into a new set of high-resolution, large-scale cosmological simulations called Romulus. We present initial results from our flagship simulation, Romulus25, showing that our SMBH model results in SF efficiency, SMBH masses and global SF and SMBH accretion histories at high redshift that are consistent with observations. We discuss the importance of SMBH physics in shaping the evolution of massive galaxies and show how SMBH feedback is much more effective at regulating SF compared to SNe feedback in this regime. Further, we show how each aspect of our SMBH model impacts this evolution compared to more common approaches. Finally, we present a science application of this scheme studying the properties and time evolution of an example dual active galactic nucleus system, highlighting how our approach allows simulations to better study galaxy interactions and SMBH mergers in the context of galaxy-BH co-evolution.
Abstract
Black holes (BHs) are believed to be a key ingredient of galaxy formation. However, the galaxy-BH interplay is challenging to study due to the large dynamical range and complex physics ...involved. As a consequence, hydrodynamical cosmological simulations normally adopt sub-grid models to track the unresolved physical processes, in particular BH accretion; usually the spatial scale where the BH dominates the hydrodynamical processes (the Bondi radius) is unresolved, and an approximate Bondi–Hoyle accretion rate is used to estimate the growth of the BH. By comparing hydrodynamical simulations at different resolutions (300, 30, 3 pc) using a Bondi–Hoyle approximation to sub-parsec runs with non-parametrized accretion, our aim is to probe how well an approximated Bondi accretion is able to capture the BH accretion physics and the subsequent feedback on the galaxy. We analyse an isolated galaxy simulation that includes cooling, star formation, Type Ia and Type II supernovae, BH accretion and active galactic nuclei feedback (radiation pressure, Compton heating/cooling) where mass, momentum and energy are deposited in the interstellar medium through conical winds. We find that on average the approximated Bondi formalism can lead to both over- and underestimations of the BH growth, depending on resolution and on how the variables entering into the Bondi–Hoyle formalism are calculated.
Abstract
We present the first self-consistent prediction for the distribution of formation time-scales for close supermassive black hole (SMBH) pairs following galaxy mergers. Using romulus25, the ...first large-scale cosmological simulation to accurately track the orbital evolution of SMBHs within their host galaxies down to sub-kpc scales, we predict an average formation rate density of close SMBH pairs of 0.013 cMpc−3 Gyr−1. We find that it is relatively rare for galaxy mergers to result in the formation of close SMBH pairs with sub-kpc separation and those that do form are often the result of Gyr of orbital evolution following the galaxy merger. The likelihood and time-scale to form a close SMBH pair depends strongly on the mass ratio of the merging galaxies, as well as the presence of dense stellar cores. Low stellar mass ratio mergers with galaxies that lack a dense stellar core are more likely to become tidally disrupted and deposit their SMBH at large radii without any stellar core to aid in their orbital decay, resulting in a population of long-lived ‘wandering’ SMBHs. Conversely, SMBHs in galaxies that remain embedded within a stellar core form close pairs in much shorter time-scales on average. This time-scale is a crucial, though often ignored or very simplified, ingredient to models predicting SMBH mergers rates and the connection between SMBH and star formation activity.
We introduce a sub-grid force correction term to better model the dynamical friction experienced by a supermassive black hole (SMBH) as it orbits within its host galaxy. This new approach accurately ...follows an SMBH's orbital decay and drastically improves over commonly used ‘advection’ methods. The force correction introduced here naturally scales with the force resolution of the simulation and converges as resolution is increased. In controlled experiments, we show how the orbital decay of the SMBH closely follows analytical predictions when particle masses are significantly smaller than that of the SMBH. In a cosmological simulation of the assembly of a small galaxy, we show how our method allows for realistic black hole orbits. This approach overcomes the limitations of the advection scheme, where black holes are rapidly and artificially pushed towards the halo centre and then forced to merge, regardless of their orbits. We find that SMBHs from merging dwarf galaxies can spend significant time away from the centre of the remnant galaxy. Improving the modelling of SMBH orbital decay will help in making robust predictions of the growth, detectability and merger rates of SMBHs, especially at low galaxy masses or at high redshift.
Supermassive black holes are not only common in the present-day galaxies, but billion solar masses black holes also powered z ≥ 6 quasars. One efficient way to form such black holes is the collapse ...of a massive primordial gas cloud into a so-called direct collapse black hole. The main requirement for this scenario is the presence of large accretion rates of ≥ 0.1 M⊙ yr− 1 to form a supermassive star. It is not yet clear how and under what conditions such accretion rates can be obtained. The prime aim of this work is to determine the mass accretion rates under non-isothermal collapse conditions. We perform high-resolution cosmological simulations for three primordial haloes of a few times 107 M⊙ illuminated by an external UV flux, J
21 = 100–1000. We find that a rotationally supported structure of about parsec size is assembled, with an aspect ratio between 0.25 and 1 depending upon the thermodynamical properties. Rotational support, however, does not halt collapse, and mass inflow rates of ∼ 0.1 M⊙ yr− 1 can be obtained in the presence of even a moderate UV background flux of strength J
21 ≥ 100. To assess whether such large accretion rates can be maintained over longer time-scales, we employed sink particles, confirming the persistence of accretion rates of ∼ 0.1 M⊙ yr− 1. We propose that complete isothermal collapse and molecular hydrogen suppression may not always be necessary to form supermassive stars, precursors of black hole seeds. Sufficiently high inflow rates can be obtained for UV flux J
21 = 500–1000, at least for some cases. This value brings the estimate of the abundance of direct collapse black hole seeds closer to that high-redshift quasars.
Abstract
The observed massive end of the galaxy stellar mass function is steeper than its predicted dark matter halo counterpart in the standard Λ cold dark matter paradigm. In this paper, we ...investigate the impact of active galactic nuclei (AGN) feedback on star formation in massive galaxies. We isolate the impact of AGN by comparing two simulations from the HORIZON suite, which are identical except that one also includes supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and related feedback models. This allows us to cross-identify individual galaxies between simulations and quantify the effect of AGN feedback on their properties, including stellar mass and gas outflows. We find that massive galaxies (M
* ≥ 1011 M⊙) are quenched by AGN feedback to the extent that their stellar masses decrease by up to 80 per cent at z = 0. SMBHs affect their host halo through a combination of outflows that reduce their baryonic mass, particularly for galaxies in the mass range 109 M⊙ ≤ M
* ≤ 1011 M⊙, and a disruption of central gas inflows, which limits in situ star formation. As a result, net gas inflows on to massive galaxies, M
* ≥ 1011 M⊙, drop by up to 70 per cent. We measure a redshift evolution in the stellar mass ratio of twin galaxies with and without AGN feedback, with galaxies of a given stellar mass showing stronger signs of quenching earlier on. This evolution is driven by a progressive flattening of the M
SMBH–M
* relation with redshift, particularly for galaxies with M
* ≤ 1010 M⊙. M
SMBH/M
* ratios decrease over time, as falling average gas densities in galaxies curb SMBH growth.
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