Supermassive Black Hole Feedback
Abstract
Understanding the processes that drive galaxy formation and shape the observed properties of galaxies is one of the most interesting and challenging frontier problems of modern astrophysics. We now know that the evolution of galaxies is critically shaped by the energy injection from accreting supermassive black holes (SMBHs). However, it is unclear how exactly the physics of this feedback process affects galaxy formation and evolution. In particular, a major challenge is unraveling how the energy released near the SMBHs is distributed over nine orders of magnitude in distance throughout galaxies and their immediate environments. The best place to study the impact of SMBH feedback is in the hot atmospheres of massive galaxies, groups, and galaxy clusters, which host the most massive black holes in the Universe, and where we can directly image the impact of black holes on their surroundings. We identify critical questions and potential measurements that will likely transform our understanding of the physics of SMBH feedback and how it shapes galaxies, through detailed measurements of (i) the thermodynamic and velocity fluctuations in the intracluster medium (ICM) as well as (ii) the composition of the bubbles inflated by SMBHs in the centers of galaxy clusters, and their influence on the cluster gas and galaxy growth, using the next generation of high spectral and spatial resolution X-ray and microwave telescopes.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1903.09686,
title = {Supermassive Black Hole Feedback},
author = {Mateusz Ruszkowski and Daisuke Nagai and Irina Zhuravleva and Corey Brummel-Smith and Yuan Li and Edmund Hodges-Kluck and Hsiang-Yi Karen Yang and Kaustuv Basu and Jens Chluba and Eugene Churazov and Megan Donahue and Andrew Fabian and Claude-André Faucher-Giguère and Massimo Gaspari and Julie Hlavacek-Larrondo and Michael McDonald and Brian McNamara and Paul Nulsen and Tony Mroczkowski and Richard Mushotzky and Christopher Reynolds and Alexey Vikhlinin and Mark Voit and Norbert Werner and John ZuHone and Ellen Zweibel},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1903.09686},
year = {2019}
}
Comments
10 pages, submitted to the Astro2020 decadal