BLACK HOLE GROWTH AND ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI OBSCURATION BY INSTABILITY-DRIVEN INFLOWS IN HIGH-REDSHIFT DISK GALAXIES FED BY COLD STREAMS

By Frédéric Bournaud, A. Dekel, Romain Teyssier, M. Cacciato, E. Daddi, S. Juneau, F. S. I. -. T. A. Observatory, U. O. L. M. Garching. 2011

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Disk galaxies at high redshift have been predicted to maintain high gas surface densities due to continuous feeding by intense cold streams leading to violent gravitational instability, transient features, and giant clumps. Gravitational torques between the perturbations drive angular momentum out and mass in, and the inflow provides the energy for keeping strong turbulence. We use analytic estimates of the inflow for a self-regulated unstable disk at a Toomre stability parameter Q ∼ 1, and isolated galaxy simulations capable of resolving the nuclear inflow down to the central parsec. We predict an average inflow rate ∼10 M☉ yr−1 through the disk of a 1011 M☉ galaxy, with conditions representative of z ∼ 2 stream-fed disks. The inflow rate scales with disk mass and (1 + z)3/2. It includes clump migration and inflow of the smoother component, valid even if clumps disrupt. This inflow grows the bulge, while only a fraction of ≳ 10−3 of it needs to accrete onto a central black hole (BH), in order to obey the observed BH–bulge relation. A galaxy of 1011 M☉ at z ∼ 2 is expected to host a BH of ∼108 M☉, accreting on average with moderate sub-Eddington luminosity LX ∼ 1042–1043 erg s−1, accompanied by brighter episodes when dense clumps coalesce. We note that in rare massive galaxies at z ∼ 6, the same process may feed ∼109 M☉ BH at the Eddington rate. High central gas column densities can severely obscure active galactic nuclei in high-redshift disks, possibly hindering their detection in deep X-ray surveys.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

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Theoretical Challenges in Galaxy Formation (2016, background): “As the low angular momentum gas is efficiently converted into stars, some of the systems can be remarkably small (also supported by mergers, Bournaud et al. 2011a, Wuyts et al. 2010), very similar to the population of observed high-redshift compact galaxies (Oser et al. 2012, 2010, Sommer-Larsen &…”
Ionized gas outflows and global kinematics of low-z luminous star-forming galaxies (2014, background): “Indeed, there are models that expect the BH to be fed more efficiently in discs with higher turbulence, since the latter helps to remove angular momentum (e.g., Bournaud et al. 2011).”
Compaction and quenching of high-z galaxies in cosmological simulations: blue and red nuggets (2014, background): “There are already possible observational detections of such cases (Elmegreen, Elmegreen & Ferguson 2005; Bournaud et al. 2011a; Genzel et al. 2014a).”
CO excitation of normal star forming galaxies out to $z=1.5$ as regulated by the properties of their interstellar medium (2014, background): “The results from the toy model of P12 (see text) and the numericals mulations of B14 and Narayanan & Krumholz (2014) are also shown. ies, because a lower gas fraction will result in fewer/less massive clumps in the galaxies (see Salmi et al 2012; Bournaud etal 2012; Bournaud et al 2011).”
X-shooter reveals powerful outflows in z ∼ 1.5 X-ray selected obscured quasi-stellar objects (2014, background): “…such as accretion triggered gas inflows or disk instabilities likely induced by minor mergers or galaxies encounters (see Ciotti & Ostriker 2007; Bournaud et al. 2011; Cen 2012), among the most luminous sources (Lbol > 1046 erg s−1), major galaxy mergers are indicated as the culprit for such…”
The current status of galaxy formation (2012, background): “Major galaxy mergers account for the observed morphological distortions that are more common at high z, and generally lead to cloud agglomeration, angular momentum loss and cooling flows that feed star formation (Bournaud et al., 2011b).”
Four phases of angular-momentum buildup in high-z galaxies: from cosmic-web streams through an extended ring to disc and bulge (2014, background): “…central star formation in the form of a ‘blue nugget’ (Barro et al. 2013, 2014; Dekel & Burkert 2014; Zolotov et al. 2014), grow a massive rotating stellar bulge (Genzel et al. 2006, 2008; Bournaud et al. 2011; Ceverino et al. 2010, 2014b), and feed the central black hole (Bournaud et al. 2011).”
Active galactic nuclei flicker: an observational estimate of the duration of black hole growth phases of ∼105 yr (2015, background): “Similarly, Bournaud et al. (2011) and Gabor & Bournaud (2013) ﬁnd short high-Eddington AGN bursts in simulations of high redshift gas-rich disks with black holes.”
The Sydney-AAO Multi-object Integral field spectrograph (2011, background): “An alternative pathway is via violent disc instability in self gravitating discs (e.g. Bower et al. 2006; Bournaud et al. 2011).”
The Coevolution of Galaxies and Supermassive Black Holes: Insights from Surveys of the Contemporary Universe (2014, background): “First, while low-mass bulges can be built through secular processes and disk instabilities (e.g. Hopkins et al. 2012, Athanassoula 2008, Bournaud et al. 2011), it appears that major mergers are the only way to build the population of massive classical bulges and elliptical galaxies.”
Selection bias in dynamically measured supermassive black hole samples: its consequences and the quest for the most fundamental relation (2016, background): “…black hole growth over cosmic time, such as mergers or disc instabilities (e.g., Kauffmann & Haehnelt 2000; Vittorini et al. 2005; Bower et al. 2006; Fontanot et al. 2006; Lapi et al. 2006; Menci et al. 2006; Malbon et al. 2007; Shankar et al. 2009b; Bournaud et al. 2011; Fanidakis et al. 2011; ?”
Gravitational torque-driven black hole growth and feedback in cosmological simulations (2016, background): “In very gas rich systems, efficient local fragmentation may provide additional mechanisms for angular momentum transport, including the scattering of dense gas clumps and gravitational instability-driven turbulence (Levine et al. 2008; Bournaud et al. 2011; Hopkins et al. 2016).”
GASP. I. Gas Stripping Phenomena in Galaxies with MUSE (2017, background): “…gas inflow in the galaxy central regions, such as gravitational torques due to galaxy mergers or interactions (Di Matteo et al. 2005; Hopkins et al. 2006)or disk instability due, for example, to high turbulent gas surface densities maintained by cold streams at high-z (Bournaud et al. 2011).”
Physical Models of Galaxy Formation in a Cosmological Framework (2014, background): “If these clumps survive and migrate to the galaxy center, they may form a classical bulge (Bournaud et al. 2011, Dekel et al. 2009, Elmegreen et al. 2008).”