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  4. The Origins of Gas Accreted by Supermassive Black Holes: The Importance of Recycled Gas
 
research article

The Origins of Gas Accreted by Supermassive Black Holes: The Importance of Recycled Gas

Choi, Ena
•
Somerville, Rachel S.
•
Ostriker, Jeremiah P.
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March 1, 2024
The Astrophysical Journal

We investigate the fueling mechanisms of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) by analyzing 10 zoom-in cosmological simulations of massive galaxies, with stellar masses 1011-12 M circle dot and SMBH masses 108.9-9.7 M circle dot at z = 0, featuring various major and minor merger events. By tracing the gas history in these simulations, we categorize the gas accreted by the central SMBHs based on its origin. Gas that belonged to a different galaxy before accretion onto the BH is labeled as (i) "external," while smoothly accreted cosmic gas is classified as (ii) "smooth." Gas produced within the primary halo through stellar evolution and subsequently accreted by the SMBH is classified as (iii) "recycled." Our analysis, which includes stellar feedback, reveals that the primary fuel source for SMBHs is the recycled gas from dying stars. This recycled gas from stars in the inner region of the galaxy readily collapses toward the center, triggering starbursts and simultaneously fueling the SMBH. Galaxy mergers also play a crucial role in fueling SMBHs in massive galaxies, as SMBHs in massive halos tend to accrete a higher fraction of external gas from mergers compared to smoothly accreted gas. However, on average, it takes approximately 1.85 Gyr for external gas to enter the main galaxy and accrete onto the SMBH. Considering the presence of various other gas triggers for active galactic nucleus (AGN) activity alongside this time delay, the association between AGNs and mergers may not always be obvious.

  • Details
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Type
research article
DOI
10.3847/1538-4357/ad245a
Web of Science ID

WOS:001184859700001

Author(s)
Choi, Ena
Somerville, Rachel S.
Ostriker, Jeremiah P.
Hirschmann, Michaela  
Naab, Thorsten
Date Issued

2024-03-01

Publisher

Iop Publishing Ltd

Published in
The Astrophysical Journal
Volume

964

Issue

1

Start page

54

Subjects

Physical Sciences

•

Active Galactic Nucleus

•

Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics

•

Driven Disk Winds

•

Cosmological Simulations

•

Star-Formation

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Radiative Feedback

•

Galaxy Interactions

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Elliptic Galaxies

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Agn Accretion

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Stellar Mass

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
GALSPEC  
FunderGrant Number

National Research Foundation of Korea - Korea government (MSIT)

RS-2023-00213322

Simons Foundation

Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF)

PR00P2 193577

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Available on Infoscience
April 3, 2024
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/206937
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