Supermassive black holes in elliptical galaxies: switching from very bright to very dim

By E. Churazov, S. Sazonov, R. Sunyaev, W. Forman, C. Jones, H. Böhringer. 2005

198 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Relativistic outflows (mainly observed in the radio) are a characteristic feature of both Galactic stellar-mass black holes and supermassive black holes (SMBHs). Simultaneous radio and X-ray observations of Galactic sources have shown that the outflow is strong at low accretion rates, but it weakens dramatically or disappears completely at high accretion rates, manifesting structural changes in the accretion flow. It is reasonable to assume that SMBHs follow the same trend. For low-luminosity SMBHs in nearby elliptical galaxies and clusters, recent observations strongly suggest that the outflows play the central role in keeping the gas hot (mechanical feedback). If the outflow is quenched in SMBHs at high accretion rates similarly to the behaviour of Galactic sources, then the straightforward consequence is a relatively weak feedback of rapidly accreting SMBHs. We argue that elliptical galaxies and their central engines should then evolve through two stages. Early on, the central SMBH rapidly grows by accreting cooling gas at a near-Eddington rate with high radiative efficiency but with weak feedback on the infalling gas. This stage terminates when the black hole has grown to a sufficiently large mass that its feedback (radiative and/or mechanical), despite the low gas heating efficiency, is able to suppress gas cooling. After that the system switches to a stable state corresponding to passively evolving ellipticals, when the accretion rate and radiative efficiency are very low, but the gas heating efficiency is high and energy input from the relativistic outflow keeps the gas hot.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/9ee735d414148118826e7cd498eceefad4605d2a

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

In Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

Citations in the corpus

A unified model for AGN feedback in cosmological simulations of structure formation (2007, background): “We are motivated by the growing theoretical and observational evidence (Fender et al., 1999; Gallo et al., 2003; Churazov et al., 2005; Heinz et al., 2005; Croton et al., 2006) that AGN feedback is composed of two modes, analogous to states of X-ray binaries.”
Theoretical Challenges in Galaxy Formation (2016, background): “…(Fabian 2012, Fabian et al. 2006) and, due to the enhanced coupling efficiency at low accretion rates, i.e. low black hole growth rates (see e.g. Churazov et al. 2005, Merloni & Heinz 2008), it helps to prevent the formation of cooling flows and nuclear star formation in massive halos (Sijacki…”
Supermassive black holes and their feedback effects in the IllustrisTNG simulation (2017, methodology): “The only parameter that enters the Eddington luminosity is the mass of the SMBH, in particular, it is independent of the radiative efficiency.”
First results from the TNG50 simulation: galactic outflows driven by supernovae and black hole feedback (2019, methodology): “We compute the bolometric luminosities of accreting black holes under the assumption of a Ṁ-dependent radiative efficiency (following Churazov et al. 2005; Weinberger et al. 2018) as Lbol = r Ṁ c2 ; λedd > 0.1 10 λ2edd LEdd ; λedd < 0.1 , (5) where λedd = Ṁ/Ṁedd is the Eddington ratio, Ledd =…”
The many lives of active galactic nuclei: cooling flows, black holes and the luminosities and colour (2005, methodology): “We follow a suggestion of Churazov et al. (2005) and use the value predicted by the ‘maximum cooling flow’ model of Nulsen & Fabian (2000) at the Bondi radius r Bondi ≡ 2GMBH/c2s = 2r BH, the conventional boundary of the sphere of influence of the black hole.”
Hot Accretion Flows Around Black Holes (2014, background): “Two reasons are invoked (e.g., Churazov et al. 2005): (1) The kinetic power of the outflow is larger than the radiative output of the disk.”
Mechanical AGN feedback: controlling the thermodynamical evolution of elliptical galaxies (2012, background): “It is likely that the efficiency depends on the ratio between the actual accretion rate and the Eddington rate, ṀEdd ≈ 22 (MBH/109 M ) M yr−1 (Churazov et al. 2005; Merloni & Heinz 2008).”
Kiloparsec-scale outflows are prevalent among luminous AGN: outflows and feedback in the context of the overall AGN population (2014, background): “…mass relationship; t e sharp cut-off in the galaxy luminosity function; colour bi-modality; metal enchrichment; X-ray temperature–luminosity relationship; e.g., Silk & Rees 1998; Churazov et al. 2005; Bower et al. 2006; Hopkins et al. 2006; McCarthy et al. 2010; Gaspari et al. 2011).”
Shaping the galaxy stellar mass function with supernova- and AGN-driven winds (2012, methodology): “Motivated by growing theoretical and observational evidence that AGN feedback is composed of two characteristic modes (see e.g. Churazov et al. 2005), we use two distinct feedback models depending on the BH accretion rate (see Sijacki et al. 2007).”
Heating Hot Atmospheres with Active Galactic Nuclei (2007, result): “This shift is qualitatively consistent with the observed behavior of low-mass X-ray binaries (Churazov et al. 2005).”
CONSTRAINTS ON BLACK HOLE GROWTH, QUASAR LIFETIMES, AND EDDINGTON RATIO DISTRIBUTIONS FROM THE SDSS BROAD-LINE QUASAR BLACK HOLE MASS FUNCTION (2010, background): “Thus, we cannot test if the Eddington ratio distribution continues to rise until L/LEdd ∼ 10−2, after which a steep decay in p(L/LEdd) might occur due to the disappearance of the broad emission lines (e.g., Churazov et al. 2005; Trump et al. 2009).”
Radiative Feedback from Massive Black Holes in Elliptical Galaxies: AGN Flaring and Central Starburst Fueled by Recycled Gas (2007, background): “…Binney& Tabor 1995; Ciotti &Ostriker 1997, hereafter CO97; Ciotti & Ostriker 2001, hereafter CO01; Omma et al. 2004; Ostriker & Ciotti 2005, hereafter OC05; Churazov et al. 2005), and the computed solutions are characterized by relaxation oscillations (Ostriker et al. 1976; Cowie et al. 1978).”
Hydrodynamical simulations of cluster formation with central AGN heating (2005, background): “Note that there are also newly emerging theoretical models (e.g. Churazov et al. 2005; Croton et al. 2006) on how both quasar activity at higher redshifts and AGN-driven radio bubbles at lower redshifts can be described within a common unified framework.”
A synthesis model for AGN evolution: supermassive black holes growth and feedback modes (2008, background): “…scaling relations with black hole X-ray binaries have thus helped to identify AGN analogues of low/hard state sources, in which the radiative efficiency of the accretion flow must be low (Churazov et al. 2005; Pellegrini 2005a; Chiaberge, Capetti & Macchetto 2005; Hardcastle, Evans & Croston 2007).”
Measuring the kinetic power of active galactic nuclei in the radio mode (2007, background): “Scaling relations with black hole X-ray binaries (BHXRB) (Merloni, Heinz & Di Matteo 2003; Falcke, Körding & Markoff 2004; Churazov et al. 2005) have also helped to identify AGN analogues of low/hard state sources, in which the radiative efficiency of the accretion flow is low (Pellegrini 2005a;…”
Black hole evolution – I. Supernova-regulated black hole growth (2015, background): “Though this quasar/radio mode matches the observed radiatively efficient/inefficient activities of AGN feedback (Churazov et al. 2005; Russell et al. 2013), it is possible that some accretion rate-driven jets become indistinguishable from large opening angle AGN-driven nuclear outflows after they…”
Radiative efficiency, variability and Bondi accretion on to massive black holes: the transition from radio AGN to quasars in brightest cluster galaxies (2012, background): “Churazov et al. 2005).”
Hot and cold gas accretion and feedback in radio-loud active galaxies (2007, background): “Churazov et al. (2005) suggest an evolutionary feedback model in which elliptical galaxies go through an e rly stage of rapid black hole growth at high accretion rates, until the black hole becomes sufficiently massive that radio-mode feedback turns on, slowing the rate of black hole growth.”