Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: The coevolution of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and their host galaxies remains one of the central open questions in cosmology, rooted in the coupling between accretion, feedback, and the multiscale physics that links the event horizon to the circumgalactic medium. Here we bridge these scales by embedding a first-principles, GRMHD-informed prescription for black hole accretion and feedback—derived from multizone simulations that self-consistently connect inflows and outflows from the horizon to the Bondi radius—within cosmological magnetohydrodynamic zoom-in simulations of ∼10 14 M ⊙ halos. These GRMHD results predict a “suppressed Bondi” regime in which magnetic stresses and relativistic winds strongly reduce effective accretion rates in a spin-dependent manner. We find that black holes cannot grow efficiently by accretion until they exceed ∼10 7 M ⊙ , regardless of the feedback strength. Beyond this threshold, systems bifurcate: low-spin ( η ∼ 0.02) black holes continue to accrete without quenching star formation, while high-spin ( η ≳ 0.3) black holes quench effectively but become starved of further growth. Early, massive seeding partially alleviates this tension through merger-driven assembly, yet an additional cold or super-Eddington accretion mode appears essential to reproduce the observed SMBH population and the empirical black hole–galaxy scaling relations. Our results demonstrate that GRMHD-informed feedback models can account for the maintenance-mode behavior of low-luminosity active galactic nuclei like M87*, but cannot by themselves explain the full buildup of SMBH mass across cosmic time. A unified, multiregime framework is required to capture the evolving interplay between spin-dependent feedback, cold inflows, and mergers in driving coevolution.
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,400
Funders: National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, John Templeton Foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Harvard University, Aspen Center for Physics, Space Telescope Science Institute, National Nuclear Security Administration, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Awards: G1274589133, G1279347439, G1838049394, Collaborative Research: CDS&E: Constraining the uncertain physics of galaxy formation: cosmic rays, black holes, and beyond, G2595738051, G3032186260, G3516546945, Toward an Accurate Model for the Gas Around Galaxies, G4811240387, G4948012193, G517611944, CAREER: The Ties that (Un)Bind: Understanding the Connection Between Galaxies, Stars, and Black Holes, G6107654830, G638484911, G6549248135, SIMULATING STAR FORMATION ACROSS COSMIC SCALES., G7038891139, Star Formation, ISM, and Winds in Bursty vs. Steady Galaxies, G770249334, Programs on Critical Problems in Physics, Astrophysics and Biophysics at the Aspen Center for Physics, Collaborative Research: CDS&E: Constraining the uncertain physics of galaxy formation: cosmic rays, black holes, and beyond, Black Hole Initiative Phase 3, G8147121837, The Black Hole Initiative: Towards a Center for Interdisciplinary Research, Competing Renewal
OpenAlex ID: W7127939968