Cooling flows as a calorimeter of active galactic nucleus mechanical power

By E. Churazov, R. Sunyaev, W. Forman, H. Boehringer. 2002

286 citations recorded by the source corpus.

ABSTRA C T The assumption that radiative cooling of gas in the centres of galaxy clusters is approximately balanced by energy input from a central supermassive black hole implies that the observed X-ray luminosity of the cooling flow region sets a lower limit on active galactic nucleus (AGN) mechanical power. The conversion efficiency of the mechanical power of the AGN into gas heating is uncertain, but we argue that it can be high even in the absence of strong shocks. These arguments inevitably lead to the conclusion that the time-averaged mechanical power of AGNs in cooling flows is much higher than the bolometric luminosity of these objects observed currently. The energy balance between cooling losses and AGN mechanical power requires some feedback mechanism. We consider a toy model in which the accretion rate on to a black hole is set by the classic Bondi formula. Application of this model to the best studied case of M87 suggests that accretion proceeds at approximately the Bondi rate down to a few gravitational radii with most of the power (at the level of a few per cent of the rest mass) being carried away by an outflow.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/cc60c58fe892cef0f4209e17b8afe97aaf6dbcf4

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Citations in the corpus

STIRRING UP THE POT: CAN COOLING FLOWS IN GALAXY CLUSTERS BE QUENCHED BY GAS SLOSHING? (2009, background): “The AGN explosions blow the ubiquitous bubbles in the ICM and inject energy into the ICM in the form of relativistic particles as well as mechanical energy (Churazov et al. 2002).”
Reflections of Active Galactic Nucleus Outbursts in the Gaseous Atmosphere of M87 (2003, methodology): “In addition to the energy input from the outburst we have modeled, energy is also being supplied by the buoyantly rising features seen in the radio maps (Churazov et al. 2002).”
Heating Hot Atmospheres with Active Galactic Nuclei (2007, background): “Bondi accretion, with a rate that scales as neT −3/2, is simple, natural, and in principle easy to regulate (e.g., Churazov et al. 2002).”
Hydrodynamical simulations of cluster formation with central AGN heating (2005, methodology): “…which all employed hydrodynamical mesh codes, but which focused exclusively on highly idealized cluster models (e.g. Quilis, Bower & Balogh 2001; Churazov et al. 2001, 2002; Ruszkowski & Begelman 2002; Brüggen et al. 2002; Brüggen & Kaiser 2002; Brüggen 2003; Nulsen et al. 2003; Dalla…”
Radiative feedback from quasars and the growth of massive black holes in stellar spheroids (2004, background): “Strong evidence has accumulated over recent years that the radiative losses of hot gas in the 100 kpc-scale cores of galaxy clusters may be counteracted by the mechanical input from the central giant elliptical galaxies, which usually host a low luminosity AGN (e.g. Churazov et al. 2002).”
On the Nature of Feedback Heating in Cooling Flow Clusters (2004, background): “A Bondi accretion radius as large as the disk around the black hole of M87 further suggests that the simple Bondi accretion flow (Churazov et al. 2002; Nulsen 2004) does not hold; the accreted material has a larger angular momentum, and may come from much larger radii.”
Diffuse Radio Emission from Galaxy Clusters (2019, background): “Here the radio plasma has displaced the X-ray emitting gas, creating a low-density bubble which rises buoyantly and expands, distributing energy to the surrounding ICM (e.g., Churazov et al. 2002).”
The relation between accretion rate and jet power in X-ray luminous elliptical galaxies (2006, methodology): “Simple arguments based on the energy required to inflate the bubbles and the sound speed of the surrounding gas allow these bubbles to be used as calorimeters, measuring the power released by the jets (e.g. Churazov et al. 2002).”
Chaotic cold accretion on to black holes (2013, background): “…when the region of influence of the accretor (the Bondi radius, rB = GM•/c2s,∞) is not resolved (e.g. Reynolds et al. 1996; Loewenstein et al. 2001; Churazov et al. 2002; Baganoff et al. 2003; Di Matteo et al. 2003; Di Matteo, Springel & Hernquist 2005; Springel, Di Matteo & Hernquist 2005;…”
AGN heating and ICM cooling in the HIFLUGCS sample of galaxy clusters (2008, unknown): “In this work, we focus on the self-regulated AGN feedback as the current favored mechanism to explain the dearth of cooling by-products in galaxy clusters (e.g. Voit & Donahue 2005; Roychowdhury et al. 2004; Churazov et al. 2002; Binney & Tabor 1995).”
Models of Galaxy Clusters with Thermal Conduction (2002, background): “Heating from a central AGN is a promising possibility (Churazov et al. 2002; Brüggen & Kaiser 2002).”
The Cluster-Scale AGN Outburst in Hydra A (2004, background): “Churazov et al. (2002) pointed out that the enthalpy of a cavity (bubble) can be thermalized as it rises buoyantly, providing a heat source for the gas.”
Radio transients from stellar tidal disruption by massive black holes (2011, background): “A similar correlation between jet and accretion pwer is observed in elliptical galaxies (Churazov et al. 2002; Allen et al. 2006).”
THE RADIATIVE EFFICIENCY OF ACCRETION FLOWS IN INDIVIDUAL ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI (2010, background): “…than radiation, and may significantly affect the host galaxy evolution (e.g. McNamara & Nulsen 2007), suppress cluster cooling flows (e.g. Churazov et al. 2002; Allen et al. 2006), and may be relevant to the correlation of the black hole mass with the galaxy properties (Magorrian et al.…”
Supermassive black holes in elliptical galaxies: switching from very bright to very dim (2005, background): “The energetics of the outflows/bubbles and their evolution have been extensively discussed (e.g. Owen, Eilek & Kassim 2000; Churazov et al. 2001, 2002; Brüggen & Kaiser 2001; David et al. 2001; Nulsen et al. 2002; Fabian et al. 2003; Ruszkowski, Brüggen & Begelman 2004; Birzan et al. 2004).”
The Masses of Nuclear Black Holes in Luminous Elliptical Galaxies and Implications for the Space Density of the Most Massive Black Holes (2006, background): “Of particular relevance for BCGs is the hypothesis that cluster cooling flows are inhibited by AGN heating from the central galaxy (Binney & Tabor 1995; Churazov et al. 2002).”
RESIDUAL GAS MOTIONS IN THE INTRACLUSTER MEDIUM AND BIAS IN HYDROSTATIC MEASUREMENTS OF MASS PROFILES OF CLUSTERS (2009, background): “…scales can also be driven directly by motions of groups and galaxies (Kim 2007) and by jets and bubbles from the active galactic nuclei (AGN, Churazov et al. 2002), although the latter may not be as important energetically as mergers in contributing to gas motions and their contribution may…”
Breaking the hierarchy of galaxy formation (2005, background): “…idea that has gained popularity in recent years is that energy injected from AGN in the form of radio jets is responsible for switching off cooling at the centre of massive haloes (Quilis et al. 2001; Bruggen & Kaiser 2002; Churazov et al. 2002; Dalla Vecchia et al. 2004; Sijacki & Springel 2006).”