English

Multiscale mass transport in z~6 galactic discs: fueling black holes

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2016-06-08 v2

Abstract

By using AMR cosmological hydrodynamic N-body zoom-in simulations, with the RAMSES code, we studied the mass transport processes onto galactic nuclei from high redshift up to z6z\sim6. Due to the large dynamical range of the simulations we were able to study the mass accretion process on scales from 50[kpc]\sim50[kpc] to \sim few 1[pc]1[pc]. We studied the BH growth on to the galactic center in relation with the mass transport processes associated to both the Reynolds stress and the gravitational stress on the disc. Such methodology allowed us to identify the main mass transport process as a function of the scales of the problem. We found that in simulations that include radiative cooling and SNe feedback, the SMBH grows at the Eddington limit for some periods of time presenting fEDD0.5\langle f_{EDD}\rangle\approx 0.5 throughout its evolution. The α\alpha parameter is dominated by the Reynolds term, αR\alpha_R, with αR1\alpha_R\gg 1. The gravitational part of the α\alpha parameter, αG\alpha_G, has an increasing trend toward the galactic center at higher redshifts, with values αG1\alpha_G\sim 1 at radii <\sim few 101[pc] 10^1[pc] contributing to the BH fueling. In terms of torques, we also found that gravity has an increasing contribution toward the galactic center at earlier epochs with a mixed contribution above 100[pc]\sim 100 [pc]. This complementary work between pressure gradients and gravitational potential gradients allows an efficient mass transport on the disc with average mass accretion rates of the order \sim few 1[M/yr]1 [M_{\odot}/yr]. These level of SMBH accretion rates found in our cosmological simulations are needed in all models of SMBH growth that attempt to explain the formation of redshift 676-7 quasars.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1512.02446,
  title  = {Multiscale mass transport in z~6 galactic discs: fueling black holes},
  author = {Joaquin Prieto and Andres Escala},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1512.02446},
  year   = {2016}
}