Stuart McAlpine
The rapid growth phase of supermassive black holes
McAlpine, Stuart; Bower, Richard G.; Rosario, David J.; Crain, Robert A.; Schaye, Joop; Theuns, Tom
Authors
Richard G. Bower
David J. Rosario
Robert A. Crain
Joop Schaye
Professor Tom Theuns tom.theuns@durham.ac.uk
Professor
Abstract
We investigate the rapid growth phase of supermassive black holes (BHs) within the hydrodynamical cosmological EAGLE simulation. This non-linear phase of BH growth occurs within ∼L* galaxies, embedded between two regulatory states of the galaxy host: in sub L* galaxies efficient stellar feedback regulates the gas inflow on to the galaxy and significantly reduces the growth of the central BH, while in galaxies more massive than L* efficient AGN feedback regulates the gas inflow on to the galaxy and curbs further non-linear BH growth. We find evolving critical galaxy and halo mass scales at which rapid BH growth begins. Galaxies in the low-redshift Universe transition into the rapid BH growth phase in haloes that are approximately an order of magnitude more massive than their high-redshift counterparts (M200 ≈1012.4 M⊙ at z ≈ 0 decreasing to M200 ≈1011.2 M⊙ at z ≈ 6). Instead, BHs enter the rapid growth phase at a fixed critical halo virial temperature (Tvir ≈ 105.6 K). We additionally show that major galaxy–galaxy interactions ( μ≥14 , where μ is the stellar mass ratio) play a substantial role in triggering the rapid growth phase of BHs in the low-redshift Universe, whilst potentially having a lower influence at high redshift. Approximately 40 per cent of BHs that initiate the rapid BH growth phase at z ≈ 0 do so within ±0.5 dynamical times of a major galaxy–galaxy merger, a fourfold increase above what is expected from the background merger rate. We find that minor mergers ( 110≤μ<14 ) have a substantially lower influence in triggering the rapid growth phase at all epochs.
Citation
McAlpine, S., Bower, R. G., Rosario, D. J., Crain, R. A., Schaye, J., & Theuns, T. (2018). The rapid growth phase of supermassive black holes. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 481(3), 3118-3128. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/sty2489
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Sep 7, 2018 |
Online Publication Date | Sep 11, 2018 |
Publication Date | Dec 11, 2018 |
Deposit Date | Oct 18, 2018 |
Publicly Available Date | Mar 28, 2024 |
Journal | Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society |
Print ISSN | 0035-8711 |
Electronic ISSN | 1365-2966 |
Publisher | Royal Astronomical Society |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 481 |
Issue | 3 |
Pages | 3118-3128 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/sty2489 |
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Copyright Statement
This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ©: 2018 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.
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