The Blast Wave Model for AGN Feedback: Effects on AGN Obscuration

By N. Menci, Fabrizio Fiore, S. Puccetti, A. C. Inaf, Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma Universita' di Tor Vergata. 2008

146 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We compute the effect of galactic absorption on active galactic nucleus (AGN) emission in a cosmological context by including a physical model for AGN feeding and feedback in a semianalytic model of galaxy formation. This is based on galaxy interactions as triggers for AGN accretion and on expanding blast waves as a mechanism to propagate outwards the AGN energy injected into the interstellar medium at the center of galaxies. We first test our model against the observed number density of AGNs with different intrinsic luminosities as a function of redshift. The model yields a “downsizing” behavior in close agreement with the observed one for z≲ 2. At higher redshifts, the model predicts an overall abundance of AGNs (including Compton-thick sources) larger than the observed Compton-thin sources by a factor of ≈2 for z≳ 2 and LX ⩽ 1044 erg s−1. Thus, we expect that at such luminosities and redshifts, Compton-thick sources contribute to about 1/2 of the total AGN population. We then investigate the dependence of the absorbing column density NH associated with cold galactic gas (and responsible for the Compton-thin component of the overall obscuration) on AGN luminosity and redshift. We find that the absorbed fraction of AGNs with NH ⩾ 1022 cm−2 decreases with luminosity for z ⩽ 1. In addition, the total (integrated over luminosity) absorbed fraction increases with redshift up to z ≈ 2, and saturates to the value ≈0.8 at higher redshifts. Finally, we predict that the luminosity dependence of the absorbed fraction of AGNs with LX ⩽ 3 × 1044 erg s−1 will weaken with increasing redshift. We compare our results with recent observations and discuss their implications in the context of cosmological models of galaxy formation.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/4bfd209287dfdce864bbb16dcae523f08f08936c

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. D. M. Alexander
2. P. Hopkins
3. L. Hernquist
4. R. Somerville
5. E. Daddi
6. A. Koekemoer
7. R. Dav'e
8. Mara Salvato

In Nuclear and High Energy Physics

1. D. M. Alexander
2. W. N. Brandt
3. A. Merloni
4. T. Miyaji
5. H. Netzer
6. A. Comastri
7. E. Treister
8. E. Daddi

Citations in the corpus

• Ionised outflows in z $\sim$ 2.4 quasar host galaxies (2015, background): “…are believed to drive energetic outflows that expel gas at large scales from their host galaxies (e.g Granato et al. 2004, Di Matteo et al. 2005, Menci et al. 2008, King 2010, Zubovas & King 2012, Fabian 2012, FaucherGiguère & Quataert 2012, Zubovas & King 2014, Nayakshin 2014, Costa et al.…”
• The incidence of obscuration in active galactic nuclei (2013, background): “…might be (and have been widely) considered an indirect signature of AGN feedback, in that powerful sources are able to clean up their immediate gaseous environments, responsible for the nuclear obscuration, more efficiently (see e.g. Archibald et al. 2002; Hopkins et al. 2006; Menci et al. 2008).”
• Enhanced star formation rates in AGN hosts with respect to inactive galaxies from PEP-Herschel observations (2012, background): “This ‘negative AGN feedback’ is necessary for theoretical models to reproduce many observations, such as the strong suppression of SF in the most massive galaxies (e.g. Di Matteo et al. 2005; Springel et al. 2005; Bower et al. 2006; Croton et al. 2006; Menci et al. 2008; Hopkins & Elvis 2010).”
• The mean star formation rate of X-ray selected active galaxies and its evolution from z~2.5: results from PEP-Herschel (2012, background): “Luminous AGNs (LAGN>LcAGN), on the other hand, are fueled by rapid nuclear inflow of gas associated with major mergers of gas-rich galaxies (Menci et al. 2008; Volonteri et al. 2003; Hopkins & Beacom 2006; Hopkins et al. 2008b; Somerville et al. 2008).”
• Faint high-redshift AGN in the Chandra deep field south: the evolution of the AGN luminosity function and black hole demography (2011, methodology): “The SAM includes a rather detailed treatment of AGN “quasar mode” feedback (Menci et al. 2008), in terms of a blast wave carrying the AGN power outwards (Lapi et al. 2005).”
• CHASING HIGHLY OBSCURED QSOs IN THE COSMOS FIELD (2008, background): “Recently, Menci et al. (2008) introduced a new scenario, in which the absorption properties of an AGN depends both on the orientation to the line of sight and on the time needed to sweep the central regions of galaxy disks.”
• Faint AGNs at z > 4 in the CANDELS GOODS-S field: looking for contributors to the reionization of the Universe (2015, background): “…formation and evolution already described in Menci et al. (2005) and includes a physical description of the Super Massive Black Hole growth at the center of galaxies as mainly due to the inflow of cold gas destabilized by minor merger events (Cavaliere & Vittorini (2000), Menci et al. (2008)).”
• Cosmic X-ray surveys of distant active galaxies (2015, background): “AGNs of higher luminosities may be able to evacuate or destroy, via radiative feedback, circumnuclear gas and dust more effectively, leading to a so-called “receding torus” with larger opening angle (e.g., Menci et al 2008; Nenkova et al 2008).”
• Very extended cold gas, star formation and outflows in the halo of a bright QSO at z>6 (2014, unknown): “…coupling of the AGN with the galaxy ISM through fast winds originating from the accretion disk (e.g. King 2003, 2005, 2010; Lapi et al. 2005; Menci et al. 2006, 2008; Zubovas & King 2012, 2014; Faucher-Giguère & Quataert 2012; Costa et al. 2014b and references therein), and the models…”
• The many manifestations of downsizing: hierarchical galaxy formation models confront observations (2009, background): “We have also decided not to discuss here the ‘DS in AGN activity’, which depends strongly on the complicated and poorly understood physics of accretion on to black holes and on its relation with SF activity (see e.g. Menci et al. 2004, 2008; Fontanot et al. 2006).”
• Tracing the cosmic growth of supermassive black holes to z ∼ 3 with Herschel (2014, background): “…accretion scenarios have been proposed: major mergers of gas-rich galaxies (Sanders et al. 1988; Di Matteo et al. 2005; Hopkins et al. 2006; Menci et al. 2008; Hopkins & Quataert 2010); gradually varying processes (Kormendy & Kennicutt 2004), which in turn include internal secular…”
• Quasar feedback revealed by giant molecular outflows (2010, background): “…of galaxy evoluti n scenarios: the observed small number of massive galaxies relative to the prediction of models (without AGN feedback) and their red colors, indicative of old stellar populations (Granato et al. 2004, Di Matteo et al. 2005, Menci et al. 2006, Menci et al. 2008, Bower et al. 2006).”
• THE XMM-NEWTON WIDE-FIELD SURVEY IN THE COSMOS FIELD (XMM-COSMOS): DEMOGRAPHY AND MULTIWAVELENGTH PROPERTIES OF OBSCURED AND UNOBSCURED LUMINOUS ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI (2010, background): “…and shocks from the central AGN heat the interstellar medium, blowing away the dust and gas, thus cleaning the line of sight and inhibiting further star-formation (see e.g. Granato et al. 2004, Di Matteo et al. 2005; Croton et al. 2006; Sijacki et al. 2007; Menci et al. 2008; Hopkins et al. 2008).”
• Massive molecular outflows and evidence for AGN feedback from CO observations (2013, background): “…still being debated (e.g. Silk & Rees 1998; Granato et al. 2004; Lapi et al. 2005; Di Matteo et al. 2005; Springel et al. 2005; Croton et al. 2006; Hopkins et al. 2008; Menci et al. 2008; Narayanan et al. 2008; Fabian et al. 2009; King 2010; Zubovas & King 2012; Faucher-Giguère & Quataert 2012).”
• X-shooter reveals powerful outflows in z ∼ 1.5 X-ray selected obscured quasi-stellar objects (2014, background): “Indeed, in the AGN evolutionary framework described above, the obscured phase of a quasar corresponds to a time when the BH is accreting mass very rapidly, implying that the SMBH should manifest itself as an X-ray quasar.”
• The evolution of the dust and gas content in galaxies (2013, result): “These trends are in agreement with the downsizing scenario for galaxy evolution, and they are on average well reproduced by the theoretical expectations of the semianalytical model of Menci et al. (2008), despite a systematic larger gas richness compared to our data.”
• Accreting supermassive black holes in the COSMOS field and the connection to their host galaxies (2012, background): “Some of these semi-analytical models and hydrodynamical simulations (e.g. Springel et al. 2005; Hopkins et al. 2006; Menci et al. 2008) invoke major mergers of gas-rich galaxies as the main fuelling mechanism.”
• DISSECTING PHOTOMETRIC REDSHIFT FOR ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEUS USING XMM- AND CHANDRA-COSMOS SAMPLES (2011, methodology): “Most models can well describe the high-luminosity regime up to z ∼2-3 (Hopkins et al. 2008; Menci et al. 2008, and references therein).”
• The multi-phase winds of Markarian 231: from the hot, nuclear, ultra-fast wind to the galaxy-scale, molecular outflow (2015, methodology): “IRAM is supported by INSU/CNRS (France), MPG (Germany) and IGN (Spain), and with Chandra and NuSTAR observatories. massive star forming galaxies (SFG, Granato et al. 2001, 2004, Di Matteo et al. 2005, Menci et al. 2006, 2008, Bower et al. 2006, Croton et al. 2006).”