scholarly journals Black hole feedback and the evolution of massive early-type galaxies

Author(s):  
Ignacio Martín-Navarro ◽  
Joseph N Burchett ◽  
Mar Mezcua

Abstract Observationally, constraining the baryonic cycle within massive galaxies has proven to be quite difficult. In particular, the role of black hole feedback in regulating star formation, a key process in our theoretical understanding of galaxy formation, remains highly debated. We present here observational evidence showing that, at fixed stellar velocity dispersion, the temperature of the hot gas is higher for those galaxies hosting more massive black holes in their centers. Analyzed in the context of well-established scaling relations, particularly the mass–size plane, the relation between the mass of the black hole and the temperature of the hot gas around massive galaxies provides further observational support to the idea that baryonic processes within massive galaxies are regulated by the combined effects of the galaxy halo virial temperature and black hole feedback, in agreement with the expectations from the EAGLE cosmological numerical simulation.

2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (S295) ◽  
pp. 257-260
Author(s):  
Christine Jones ◽  
William Forman ◽  
Akos Bogdan ◽  
Scott Randall ◽  
Ralph Kraft ◽  
...  

AbstractMassive galaxies harbor a supermassive black hole at their centers. At high redshifts, these galaxies experienced a very active quasar phase, when, as their black holes grew by accretion, they produced enormous amounts of energy. At the present epoch, these black holes still undergo occasional outbursts, although the mode of their energy release is primarily mechanical rather than radiative. The energy from these outbursts can reheat the cooling gas in the galaxy cores and maintain the red and dead nature of the early-type galaxies. These outbursts also can have dramatic effects on the galaxy-scale hot coronae found in the more massive galaxies. We describe research in three areas related to the hot gas around galaxies and their supermassive black holes. First we present examples of galaxies with AGN outbursts that have been studied in detail. Second, we show that X-ray emitting low-luminosity AGN are present in 80% of the galaxies studied. Third, we discuss the first examples of extensive hot gas and dark matter halos in optically faint galaxies.


Author(s):  
Joseph A O’Leary ◽  
Benjamin P Moster ◽  
Thorsten Naab ◽  
Rachel S Somerville

Abstract We explore the galaxy-galaxy merger rate with the empirical model for galaxy formation, emerge. On average, we find that between 2 per cent and 20 per cent of massive galaxies (log10(m*/M⊙) ≥ 10.3) will experience a major merger per Gyr. Our model predicts galaxy merger rates that do not scale as a power-law with redshift when selected by descendant stellar mass, and exhibit a clear stellar mass and mass-ratio dependence. Specifically, major mergers are more frequent at high masses and at low redshift. We show mergers are significant for the stellar mass growth of galaxies log10(m*/M⊙) ≳ 11.0. For the most massive galaxies major mergers dominate the accreted mass fraction, contributing as much as 90 per cent of the total accreted stellar mass. We reinforce that these phenomena are a direct result of the stellar-to-halo mass relation, which results in massive galaxies having a higher likelihood of experiencing major mergers than low mass galaxies. Our model produces a galaxy pair fraction consistent with recent observations, exhibiting a form best described by a power-law exponential function. Translating these pair fractions into merger rates results in an inaccurate prediction compared to the model intrinsic values when using published observation timescales. We find the pair fraction can be well mapped to the intrinsic merger rate by adopting an observation timescale that decreases linearly with redshift as Tobs = −0.36(1 + z) + 2.39 [Gyr], assuming all observed pairs merge by z = 0.


2020 ◽  
Vol 501 (2) ◽  
pp. 1591-1602
Author(s):  
T Parsotan ◽  
R K Cochrane ◽  
C C Hayward ◽  
D Anglés-Alcázar ◽  
R Feldmann ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The galaxy size–stellar mass and central surface density–stellar mass relationships are fundamental observational constraints on galaxy formation models. However, inferring the physical size of a galaxy from observed stellar emission is non-trivial due to various observational effects, such as the mass-to-light ratio variations that can be caused by non-uniform stellar ages, metallicities, and dust attenuation. Consequently, forward-modelling light-based sizes from simulations is desirable. In this work, we use the skirt  dust radiative transfer code to generate synthetic observations of massive galaxies ($M_{*}\sim 10^{11}\, \rm {M_{\odot }}$ at z = 2, hosted by haloes of mass $M_{\rm {halo}}\sim 10^{12.5}\, \rm {M_{\odot }}$) from high-resolution cosmological zoom-in simulations that form part of the Feedback In Realistic Environments project. The simulations used in this paper include explicit stellar feedback but no active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback. From each mock observation, we infer the effective radius (Re), as well as the stellar mass surface density within this radius and within $1\, \rm {kpc}$ (Σe and Σ1, respectively). We first investigate how well the intrinsic half-mass radius and stellar mass surface density can be inferred from observables. The majority of predicted sizes and surface densities are within a factor of 2 of the intrinsic values. We then compare our predictions to the observed size–mass relationship and the Σ1−M⋆ and Σe−M⋆ relationships. At z ≳ 2, the simulated massive galaxies are in general agreement with observational scaling relations. At z ≲ 2, they evolve to become too compact but still star forming, in the stellar mass and redshift regime where many of them should be quenched. Our results suggest that some additional source of feedback, such as AGN-driven outflows, is necessary in order to decrease the central densities of the simulated massive galaxies to bring them into agreement with observations at z ≲ 2.


2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (S235) ◽  
pp. 139-139
Author(s):  
L. Sodré ◽  
A. Mateus ◽  
R. Cid Fernandes ◽  
G. Stasińska ◽  
W. Schoenell ◽  
...  

AbstractWe revisit the bimodality of the galaxy population seen in the local universe. We address this issue in terms of physical properties of galaxies, such as mean stellar ages and stellar masses, derived from the application of a spectral synthesis method to galaxy spectra from the SDSS. We show that the mean light-weighted stellar age of galaxies presents the best description of the bimodality seen in the galaxy population. The stellar mass has an additional role since most of the star-forming galaxies present in the local universe are low-mass galaxies. Our results give support to the existence of a ‘downsizing’ in galaxy formation, where nowadays massive galaxies tend to have stellar populations older than those found in less massive objects.


2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (S295) ◽  
pp. 191-199
Author(s):  
Carlton M. Baugh

AbstractMassive galaxies with old stellar populations have been put forwards as a challenge to models in which cosmic structures grow hierarchically through gravitational instability. I will explain how the growth of massive galaxies is helped by features of hierarchical models. I give a brief outline of how the galaxy formation process is modelled in hierarchical cosmologies using semi-analytical models, and illustrate how these models can be refined as our understanding of processes such as star formation improves. I then present a brief survey of the current state of play in the modelling of massive galaxies and list some outstanding challenges.


2019 ◽  
Vol 485 (3) ◽  
pp. 4413-4422 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel J D’Orazio ◽  
Abraham Loeb ◽  
James Guillochon

ABSTRACT The rate of tidal disruption flares (TDFs) per mass of the disrupting black hole encodes information on the present-day mass function (PDMF) of stars in the clusters surrounding super massive black holes. We explore how the shape of the TDF rate with black hole mass can constrain the PDMF, with only weak dependence on black hole spin. We show that existing data can marginally constrain the minimum and maximum masses of stars in the cluster, and the high-mass end of the PDMF slope, as well as the overall TDF rate. With $\mathcal {O}(100)$ TDFs expected to be identified with the Zwicky Transient Facility, the overall rate can be highly constrained, but still with only marginal constraints on the PDMF. However, if ${\lesssim } 10 {{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ of the TDFs expected to be found by LSST over a decade ($\mathcal {O}(10^3)$ TDFs) are identified, then precise and accurate estimates can be made for the minimum stellar mass (within a factor of 2) and the average slope of the high-mass PDMF (to within $\mathcal {O}(10{{\ \rm per\ cent}})$) in nuclear star clusters. This technique could be adapted in the future to probe, in addition to the PDMF, the local black hole mass function and possibly the massive black hole binary population.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Dotti ◽  
A. Sesana ◽  
R. Decarli

The study of the dynamical evolution of massive black hole pairs in mergers is crucial in the context of a hierarchical galaxy formation scenario. The timescales for the formation and the coalescence of black hole binaries are still poorly constrained, resulting in large uncertainties in the expected rate of massive black hole binaries detectable in the electromagnetic and gravitational wave spectra. Here, we review the current theoretical understanding of the black hole pairing in galaxy mergers, with a particular attention to recent developments and open issues. We conclude with a review of the expected observational signatures of massive binaries and of the candidates discussed in literature to date.


2020 ◽  
Vol 496 (3) ◽  
pp. 3169-3181
Author(s):  
Makoto Ando ◽  
Kazuhiro Shimasaku ◽  
Rieko Momose

ABSTRACT A proto-cluster core is the most massive dark matter halo (DMH) in a given proto-cluster. To reveal the galaxy formation in core regions, we search for proto-cluster cores at z ∼ 2 in ${\sim}1.5\, \mathrm{deg}^{2}$ of the COSMOS field. Using pairs of massive galaxies [log (M*/M⊙) ≥ 11] as tracers of cores, we find 75 candidate cores, among which 54 per cent are estimated to be real. A clustering analysis finds that these cores have an average DMH mass of $2.6_{-0.8}^{+0.9}\times 10^{13}\, \mathrm{M}_{\odot }$, or $4.0_{-1.5}^{+1.8}\, \times 10^{13} \, \mathrm{M}_{\odot }$ after contamination correction. The extended Press–Schechter model shows that their descendant mass at z = 0 is consistent with Fornax-like or Virgo-like clusters. Moreover, using the IllustrisTNG simulation, we confirm that pairs of massive galaxies are good tracers of DMHs massive enough to be regarded as proto-cluster cores. We then derive the stellar mass function (SMF) and the quiescent fraction for member galaxies of the 75 candidate cores. We find that the core galaxies have a more top-heavy SMF than field galaxies at the same redshift, showing an excess at log (M*/M⊙) ≳ 10.5. The quiescent fraction, $0.17_{-0.04}^{+0.04}$ in the mass range 9.0 ≤ log (M*/M⊙) ≤ 11.0, is about three times higher than that of field counterparts, giving an environmental quenching efficiency of $0.13_{-0.04}^{+0.04}$. These results suggest that stellar mass assembly and quenching are accelerated as early as z ∼ 2 in proto-cluster cores.


2011 ◽  
Vol 20 (10) ◽  
pp. 1771-1777
Author(s):  
HOUJUN MO

Given that dark matter is gravitationally dominant in the universe, and that galaxy formation is closely related to dark matter halos, a key first step in understanding galaxy formation and evolution in the CDM paradigm is to quantify the galaxy-halo connection for galaxies of different properties. Here I will present results about the halo/galaxy connection obtained from two different methods. One is based on the conditional luminosity function, which describes the occupation of galaxies in halos of different masses, and the other is based on galaxy systems properly selected to represent dark halos.


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