No Arabic abstract
We incorporate a model for black hole growth during galaxy mergers into the semi-analytical galaxy formation model based on Lambda-CDM proposed by Baugh et al. (2005). Our black hole model has one free parameter, which we set by matching the observed zeropoint of the local correlation between black hole mass and bulge luminosity. We present predictions for the evolution with redshift of the relationships between black hole mass and bulge properties. Our simulations reproduce the evolution of the optical luminosity function of quasars. We study the demographics of the black hole population and address the issue of how black holes acquire their mass. We find that the direct accretion of cold gas during starbursts is an important growth mechanism for lower mass black holes and at high redshift. On the other hand, the re-assembly of pre-existing black hole mass into larger units via merging dominates the growth of more massive black holes at low redshift. This prediction could be tested by future gravitational wave experiments. As redshift decreases, progressively less massive black holes have the highest fractional growth rates, in line with recent claims of downsizing in quasar activity.
We present a simple semi-numerical model designed to explore black hole growth and galaxy evolution. This method builds on a previous model for black hole accretion that uses a semi-numerical galaxy formation model and universal Eddington ratio distribution to describe the full AGN population by independently connecting galaxy and AGN growth to the evolution of the host dark matter halos. We fit observed X-ray luminosity functions up to a redshift of z ~ 4, as well as investigate the evolution of the Eddington ratio distributions. We find that the Eddington ratio distribution evolves with redshift such that the slope of the low-Eddington accretion rate distribution increases with cosmic time, consistent with the behavior predicted in hydrodynamical simulations for galaxies with different gas fractions. We also find that the evolution of our average Eddington ratio is correlated with observed star formation histories, supporting a picture in which black holes and galaxies evolve together in a global sense. We further confirm the impact of luminosity limits on observed galaxy and halo properties by applying selection criteria to our fiducial model and comparing to surveys across a wide range of redshifts.
We use data from large surveys of the local Universe (SDSS+Galaxy Zoo) to show that the galaxy-black hole connection is linked to host morphology at a fundamental level. The fraction of early-type galaxies with actively growing black holes, and therefore the AGN duty cycle, declines significantly with increasing black hole mass. Late-type galaxies exhibit the opposite trend: the fraction of actively growing black holes increases with black hole mass.
There is mounting evidence for the coevolution of galaxies and their embedded massive black holes (MBHs) in a hierarchical structure formation paradigm. To tackle the nonlinear processes of galaxy-MBH interaction, we describe a self-consistent numerical framework which incorporates both galaxies and MBHs. The high-resolution adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) code Enzo is modified to model the formation and feedback of molecular clouds at their characteristic scale of 15.2 pc and the accretion of gas onto a MBH. Two major channels of MBH feedback, radiative feedback (X-ray photons followed through full 3D adaptive ray tracing) and mechanical feedback (bipolar jets resolved in high-resolution AMR), are employed. We investigate the coevolution of a 9.2e11 Msun galactic halo and its 1e5 Msun embedded MBH at redshift 3 in a cosmological LCDM simulation. The MBH feedback heats the surrounding ISM up to 1e6 K through photoionization and Compton heating and locally suppresses star formation in the galactic inner core. The feedback considerably changes the stellar distribution there. This new channel of feedback from a slowly growing MBH is particularly interesting because it is only locally dominant, and does not require the heating of gas globally on the disk. The MBH also self-regulates its growth by keeping the surrounding ISM hot for an extended period of time.
We describe the GALFORM semi-analytic model for calculating the formation and evolution of galaxies in hierarchical models. It improves upon, and extends, the Cole et al 1994 model. The model employs a new Monte-Carlo algorithm to follow the merging evolution of dark matter halos with arbitrary mass resolution. It incorporates realistic descriptions of the density profiles of dark matter halos and their gas content; follows the chemical evolution of gas and stars, and the associated production of dust; and includes a detailed calculation of the sizes of disks and spheroids. Wherever possible, our prescriptions for modelling individual physical processes are based on results of numerical simulations. We apply our methods to the LCDM cosmology (Omega_0=0.3, Lambda_0=0.7), and find good agreement with a wide range of properties of the local galaxy population: the B-band and K-band luminosity functions, the distribution of colours for the population as a whole, the ratio of ellipticals to spirals, the distribution of disk sizes, and the current cold gas content of disks. (Abridged)
We investigate the dependence of black-hole accretion rate (BHAR) on host-galaxy star formation rate (SFR) and stellar mass ($M_*$) in the CANDELS/GOODS-South field in the redshift range of $0.5leq z < 2.0$. Our sample consists of $approx 18000$ galaxies, allowing us to probe galaxies with $0.1 lesssim mathrm{SFR} lesssim 100 M_odot mathrm{yr}^{-1}$ and/or $10^8 lesssim M_* lesssim 10^{11} M_{odot}$. We use sample-mean BHAR to approximate long-term average BHAR. Our sample-mean BHARs are derived from the $Chandra$ Deep Field-South 7 Ms observations, while the SFRs and $M_*$ have been estimated by the CANDELS team through SED fitting. The average BHAR is correlated positively with both SFR and $M_*$, and the BHAR-SFR and BHAR-$M_*$ relations can both be described acceptably by linear models with a slope of unity. However, BHAR appears to be correlated more strongly with $M_*$ than SFR. This result indicates that $M_*$ is the primary host-galaxy property related to black-hole growth, and the apparent BHAR-SFR relation is largely a secondary effect due to the star-forming main sequence. Among our sources, massive galaxies ($M_* gtrsim 10^{10} M_{odot}$) have significantly higher BHAR/SFR ratios than less-massive galaxies, indicating the former have higher black-hole fueling efficiency and/or higher SMBH occupation fraction than the latter. Our results can naturally explain the observed proportionality between $M_{rm BH}$ and $M_*$ for local giant ellipticals, and suggest their $M_{rm BH}/M_*$ is higher than that of local star-forming galaxies. Among local star-forming galaxies, massive systems might have higher $M_{rm BH}/M_*$ compared to dwarfs.