Year: 2020
Type: article
Abstract: The dense environment of a galaxy cluster can radically transform the content of in-falling galaxies. Recent observations have found a significant population of active galactic nuclei (AGN) within “jellyfish galaxies,” galaxies with trailing tails of gas and stars that indicate significant ram pressure stripping. The relationship between AGN and ram pressure stripping is not well understood. In this Letter, we investigate the connection between AGN activity and ram pressure in a fully cosmological setting for the first time using the RomulusC simulation, one of the highest resolution simulations of a galaxy cluster to date. For lower mass galaxies (with stellar masses M * ≲ 109.5 M ⊙) both star formation and black hole accretion are suppressed by ram pressure before they reach pericenter, whereas for more massive galaxies accretion onto the black hole is enhanced during pericentric passage. Our analysis also indicates that as long as the galaxy retains gas, AGN with higher Eddington ratios are more likely to be found in galaxies experiencing higher ram pressure. We conclude that prior to quenching star formation, ram pressure triggers enhanced accretion onto the black hole, which in our model then produces heating and outflows due to AGN feedback. These simulations suggest that AGN feedback may in turn serve to aid in the quenching of star formation in tandem with ram pressure.
Authors: Angelo Ricarte, Michael Tremmel, Priyamvada Natarajan, Thomas Quinn
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Awards: Leadership Class Scientific and Engineering Computing: Breaking Through the Limits, G1535609731, G2782160116, Collaborative Research: The multi-scale physics of massive black hole formation, fueling, and feedback, G2952167421, G3226045097, G3714573060, XSEDE 2.0: Integrating, Enabling and Enhancing National Cyberinfrastructure with Expanding Community Involvement, G4583108853, Sustained-Petascale In Action: Blue Waters Enabling Transformative Science And Engineering, Unified Modeling of Galaxy Populations in Clusters, G5367696895, PIRE: Black Hole Astrophysics in the Era of Distributed Resources and Expertise, CURRENT MODELS OF SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE ASSEMBLY ARE UNABLE TO EXPLAIN THE GROWTH OF THE MOST MASSIVE BLACK HOLES IN THE UNIVERSE DUBBED ULTRA-MASSIVE BLACK HOLES. WE PROPOSE TO ADDRESS THESE GAPS IN OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THEIR FORMATION FUELING AND FEEDBACK PROCESSES VIA A TWO-PRONGED APPROACH: SEMI-ANALYTIC MODELING AND HIGH-RESOLUTION HYDRODYNAMICAL SIMULATIONS OF CLUSTERS WITH THEIR LUMINOUS CENTRAL GALAXIES THAT ARE THE PUTATIVE HOSTS FOR THESE ULTRA-MASSIVE BLACK HOLES. STATE-OF-THE-ART SIMULATIONS ARE IDEAL FOR GENERATING MODELS OF BLACK HOLE GROWTH AND DYNAMICS IN A REAL COSMOLOGICAL CONTEXT WHILE SEMI-ANALYTIC MODELING ALLOWS ONE TO EXPLORE A MODEL'S PARAMETER SPACE WHILE PUSHING TOWARDS SMALLER MASSES AND LARGER VOLUMES. HERE AT THE HIGH-MASS END OF THE BLACK HOLE MASS FUNCTION SIGNATURES OF BLACK HOLE FEEDBACK SHOULD BE MOST APPARENT AND GRAVITATIONAL WAVE EVENTS SHOULD BE MOST FREQUENT. THIS WORK IS TIMELY DUE TO THE GROWING WEALTH OF OBSERVATIONAL DATA THAT IS ALREADY AVAILABLE OR JUST AROUND THE CORNER INCLUDING THE MASSIVE SURVEY OF LARGE ELLIPTICAL GALAXIES UPCOMING HIGH-REDSHIFT SURVEYS WITH JWST AND ALL-SKY TIME-DOMAIN SURVEYS.
OpenAlex ID: W3010964641