Kiloparsec-scale AGN outflows and feedback in merger-free galaxies (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Coevolution of Galaxies and Supermassive Black Holes in the Near Universe
Brazilian Journal of Physics, 2013
A fundamental role is attributed to supermassive black holes (SMBH), and the feedback they generate, in the evolution of galaxies. But theoretical models trying to reproduce the M SMBH − σ relation (between the SMBH mass and stellar velocity dispersion of the galaxy bulge) make broad assumptions about the physical processes involved. These assumptions are needed due to the scarcity of observational constraints on the relevant physical processes which occur when the SMBH is being fed via mass accretion in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). In search for these constraints, our group-AGN Integral Field Spectroscopy (AGNIFS)-has been mapping the gas kinematics as well as the stellar population properties of the inner few hundred parsecs of a sample of nearby AGN hosts. In this contribution, I report results obtained so far which show gas inflows along nuclear spirals and compact disks in the inner tens to hundreds of pc in nearby AGN hosts which seem to be the sources of fuel to the AGN. As the inflow rates are much larger than the AGN accretion rate, the excess gas must be depleted via formation of new stars in the bulge. Indeed, in many cases, we find ∼ 100 pc circumnuclear rings of recent star formation (ages ∼ 10-500 Myr) that can be interpreted as a signature of co-evolution of the host galaxy and its AGN. I also report the mapping of outflows in ionized gas, which are ubiquitous in Seyfert galaxies, and discuss mass outflow rates and powers.
Inspiralling Supermassive Black Holes: A New Signpost for Galaxy Mergers
The Astrophysical Journal, 2009
We present a new technique for observationally identifying galaxy mergers spectroscopically rather than through host galaxy imaging. Our technique exploits the dynamics of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) powering active galactic nuclei (AGNs) in merger-remnant galaxies. Because structure in the universe is built up through galaxy mergers and nearly all galaxies host a central SMBH, some galaxies should possess two SMBHs near their centers as the result of a recent merger. These SMBHs spiral to the center of the resultant merger-remnant galaxy, and one or both of the SMBHs may power AGNs. Using the DEEP2 Galaxy Redshift Survey, we have examined 1881 red galaxies, of which 91 exhibit [O III] and Hβ emission lines indicative of Seyfert 2 activity. Of these, 32 AGNs have [O III] emission-line redshifts significantly different from the redshifts of the host galaxies' stars, corresponding to velocity offsets of ∼ 50 km s −1 to ∼ 300 km s −1. Two of these AGNs exhibit doublepeaked [O III] emission lines, while the remaining 30 AGNs each exhibit a single set of velocity-offset [O III] emission lines. After exploring a variety of physical models for these velocity offsets, we argue that the most likely explanation is inspiralling SMBHs in merger-remnant galaxies. Based on this interpretation, we find that roughly half of the red galaxies hosting AGNs are also merger remnants, which implies that mergers may trigger AGN activity in red galaxies. The AGN velocity offsets we find imply a merger fraction of ∼ 30% and a merger rate of ∼ 3 mergers Gyr −1 for red galaxies at redshifts 0.34 < z < 0.82.
The Role of Mergers in Early-Type Galaxy Evolution and Black Hole Growth
The Astrophysical Journal, 2010
Models of galaxy formation invoke the major merger of gas-rich progenitor galaxies as the trigger for significant phases of black hole growth and the associated feedback that suppresses star formation to create red spheroidal remnants. However, the observational evidence for the connection between mergers and active galactic nucleus (AGN) phases is not clear. We analyze a sample of low-mass early-type galaxies known to be in the process of migrating from the blue cloud to the red sequence via an AGN phase in the green valley. Using deeper imaging from SDSS Stripe 82, we show that the fraction of objects with major morphological disturbances is high during the early starburst phase, but declines rapidly to the background level seen in quiescent early-type galaxies by the time of substantial AGN radiation several hundred Myr after the starburst. This observation empirically links the AGN activity in low-redshift early-type galaxies to a significant merger event in the recent past. The large time delay between the merger-driven starburst and the peak of AGN activity allows for the merger features to decay to the background and hence may explain the weak link between merger features and AGN activity in the literature.
arXiv (Cornell University), 2019
We investigate the prevalence of galactic-scale outflows in post-starburst (PSB) galaxies at high redshift (1 < z < 1.4), using the deep optical spectra available in the UKIDSS Ultra Deep Survey (UDS). We use a sample of ∼40 spectroscopically confirmed PSBs, recently identified in the UDS field, and perform a stacking analysis in order to analyse the structure of strong interstellar absorption features such as Mg II (λ2800 Å). We find that for massive (M * > 10 10 M) PSBs at z > 1, there is clear evidence for a strong blue-shifted component to the Mg II absorption feature, indicative of high-velocity outflows (v out ∼ 1150 ± 160 km s −1) in the interstellar medium. We conclude that such outflows are typical in massive PSBs at this epoch, and potentially represent the residual signature of a feedback process that quenched these galaxies. Using full spectral fitting, we also obtain a typical stellar velocity dispersion σ * for these PSBs of ∼ 200 km s −1 , which confirms they are intrinsically massive in nature (dynamical mass M d ∼ 10 11 M). Given that these high-z PSBs are also exceptionally compact (r e ∼ 1-2 kpc) and spheroidal (Sérsic index n ∼ 3), we propose that the outflowing winds may have been launched during a recent compaction event (e.g. major merger or disc collapse) that triggered either a centralized starburst or active galactic nuclei (AGN) activity. Finally, we find no evidence for AGN signatures in the optical spectra of these PSBs, suggesting they were either quenched by stellar feedback from the starburst itself, or that if AGN feedback is responsible, the AGN episode that triggered quenching does not linger into the post-starburst phase.
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
We describe a physical model of the outflows produced as a result of gas accretion onto a black hole, and the resultant changes to star formation rates and efficiencies in galaxies, using the Radio-SAGE semi-analytic galaxy formation model. We show that the ratio of outflow rate to SFR of galaxies is mainly driven by black hole mass and virial halo mass, and show that the SFR is higher than the outflow rate at low black hole masses. The model consistently reproduces the observed evolution of star formation rate density from z = 6 to z = 0, as well as the trend of the stellar masshalo mass relations. We show the characteristic growth of massive galaxies influenced by AGN feedback at different redshifts. We find feedback to be prevalent in the most massive galaxy halos, inhibiting the cooling catastrophe.
The Astrophysical Journal, 2011
What is the relevance of major mergers and interactions as triggering mechanisms for active galactic nuclei (AGN) activity? To answer this long-standing question, we analyze 140 XMM-Newton-selected AGN host galaxies and a matched control sample of 1264 inactive galaxies over z ∼ 0.3-1.0 and M * < 10 11.7 M ⊙ with high-resolution HST /ACS imaging from the COSMOS field. The visual analysis of their morphologies by 10 independent human classifiers yields a measure of the fraction of distorted morphologies in the AGN and control samples, i.e., quantifying the signature of recent mergers which might potentially be responsible for fueling/triggering the AGN. We find that (1) the vast majority (>85%) of the AGN host galaxies do not show strong distortions, and there is no significant difference in the distortion fractions between active and inactive galaxies. Our findings provide the best direct evidence that, since z ∼ 1, the bulk of black hole (BH) accretion has not been triggered by major galaxy mergers, therefore arguing that the alternative mechanisms, i.e., internal secular processes and minor interactions, are the leading triggers for the episodes of major BH growth. We also exclude an alternative interpretation of our results: a substantial time lag between merging and the observability of the AGN phase could wash out the most significant merging signatures, explaining the lack of enhancement of strong distortions on the AGN hosts. We show that this alternative scenario is unlikely due to: (1) recent major mergers being ruled out for the majority of sources due to the high fraction of disk-hosted AGN, (2) the lack of a significant X-ray signal in merging inactive galaxies as a signature of a potential buried AGN, and (3) the low levels of soft X-ray obscuration for AGN hosted by interacting galaxies, in contrast to model predictions.
The Coevolution of Supermassive Black Holes and Massive Galaxies at High Redshift
The Astrophysical Journal, 2014
We exploit the recent, wide samples of far-infrared (FIR) selected galaxies followed-up in X rays and of X-ray/optically selected active galactic nuclei (AGNs) followed-up in the FIR band, along with the classic data on AGN and stellar luminosity functions at high redshift z 1.5, to probe different stages in the coevolution of supermassive black holes (BHs) and host galaxies. The results of our analysis indicate the following scenario: (i) the star formation in the host galaxy proceeds within a heavily dust-enshrouded medium at an almost constant rate over a timescale 0.5 − 1 Gyr, and then abruptly declines due to quasar feedback; over the same timescale, (ii) part of the interstellar medium loses angular momentum, reaches the circum-nuclear regions at a rate proportional to the star formation and is temporarily stored into a massive reservoir/proto-torus wherefrom it can be promptly accreted; (iii) the BH grows by accretion in a self-regulated regime with radiative power that can slightly exceed the Eddington limit L/L Edd 4, particularly at the highest redshifts; (iv) for massive BHs the ensuing energy feedback at its maximum exceeds the stellar one and removes the interstellar gas, thus stopping the star formation and the fueling of the reservoir; (v) afterwards, if the latter has retained enough gas, a phase of supply-limited accretion follows exponentially declining with a timescale of about 2 e-folding times. We also discuss how the detailed properties and the specific evolution of the reservoir can be investigated via coordinated, high-resolution observations of starforming, strongly-lensed galaxies in the (sub-)mm band with ALMA and in the X-ray band with Chandra and the next generation X-ray instruments.
Evolution of the mass, size, and star formation rate in high redshift merging galaxies
Astronomy & Astrophysics, 2014
Context. In Λ-CDM models, galaxies are thought to grow both through continuous cold gas accretion coming from the cosmic web and episodic merger events. The relative importance of these different mechanisms at different cosmic epochs is nevertheless not yet well understood. Aims. We aim at addressing the questions related to galaxy mass assembly through major and minor wet merging processes in the redshift range 1 < z < 2, an epoch corresponding to the peak of the cosmic star formation history. A significant fraction of Milky Way-like galaxies are thought to have undergone an unstable clumpy phase at this early stage. We focus on the behavior of the young clumpy disks when galaxies are undergoing gas-rich galaxy mergers. Methods. Using the adaptive mesh refinement code RAMSES, we build the Merging and Isolated high-Redshift Adaptive mesh refinement Galaxies (MIRAGE) sample. It is composed of 20 mergers and 3 isolated idealized disks simulations, which sample disk orientations and merger masses. Our simulations can reach a physical resolution of 7 parsecs, and include: star formation, metal line cooling, metallicity advection, and a recent physically-motivated implementation of stellar feedback which encompasses OB-type stars radiative pressure, photo-ionization heating, and supernovae. Results. The star formation history of isolated disks shows stochastic star formation rate, which proceeds from the complex behavior of the giant clumps. Our minor and major gas-rich merger simulations do not trigger starbursts, suggesting a saturation of the star formation due to the detailed accounting of stellar feedback processes in a turbulent and clumpy interstellar medium fed by substantial accretion from the circum-galactic medium. Our simulations are globally close to the normal regime of the disk-like star formation on a Schmidt-Kennicutt diagram. The mass-size relation and its rate of evolution in the redshift range 1 < z < 2 matches observations, suggesting that the inside-out growth mechanisms of the stellar disk do not necessarily require to be achieved through a cold accretion.