English

Why do Black Holes Trace Bulges (& Central Surface Densities), Instead of Galaxies as a Whole?

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2022-03-18 v2 Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

Abstract

Previous studies of fueling black holes (BHs) in galactic nuclei have argued (on scales ~0.01-1000pc) accretion is dynamical with inflow rates M˙ηMgas/tdyn\dot{M}\sim\eta\,M_{\rm gas}/t_{\rm dyn} in terms of gas mass MgasM_{\rm gas}, dynamical time tdynt_{\rm dyn}, and some η\eta. But these models generally neglected expulsion of gas by stellar feedback, or considered extremely high densities where expulsion is inefficient. Studies of star formation, however, have shown on sub-kpc scales the expulsion efficiency fwind=Mejected/Mtotalf_{\rm wind}=M_{\rm ejected}/M_{\rm total} scales with the gravitational acceleration as (1fwind)/fwindaˉgrav/p˙/mΣeff/Σcrit(1-f_{\rm wind})/f_{\rm wind}\sim\bar{a}_{\rm grav}/\langle\dot{p}/m_{\ast}\rangle\sim \Sigma_{\rm eff}/\Sigma_{\rm crit} where aˉgravGMtot(<r)/r2\bar{a}_{\rm grav}\equiv G\,M_{\rm tot}(<r)/r^{2} and p˙/m\langle\dot{p}/m_{\ast}\rangle is the momentum injection rate from young stars. Adopting this as the simplest correction for stellar feedback, ηη(1fwind)\eta \rightarrow \eta\,(1-f_{\rm wind}), we show this provides a more accurate description of simulations with stellar feedback at low densities. This has immediate consequences, predicting e.g. the slope and normalization of the MσM-\sigma and MMbulgeM-M_{\rm bulge} relation, LAGNL_{\rm AGN}-SFR relations, and explanations for outliers in compact Es. Most strikingly, because star formation simulations show expulsion is efficient (fwind1f_{\rm wind}\sim1) below total-mass surface density Mtot/πr2<Σcrit3×109Mkpc2M_{\rm tot}/\pi\,r^{2}<\Sigma_{\rm crit}\sim3\times10^{9}\,M_{\odot}\,{\rm kpc^{-2}} (where Σcrit=p˙/m/(πG)\Sigma_{\rm crit}=\langle\dot{p}/m_{\ast}\rangle/(\pi\,G)), BH mass is predicted to specifically trace host galaxy properties above a critical surface brightness Σcrit\Sigma_{\rm crit} (B-band μBcrit19magarcsec2\mu_{\rm B}^{\rm crit}\sim 19\,{\rm mag\,arcsec^{-2}}). This naturally explains why BH masses preferentially reflect bulge properties or central surface-densities (Σ1kpc\Sigma_{1\,{\rm kpc}}), not 'total' galaxy properties.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2103.10444,
  title  = {Why do Black Holes Trace Bulges (& Central Surface Densities), Instead of Galaxies as a Whole?},
  author = {Philip F. Hopkins and Sarah Wellons and Daniel Angles-Alcazar and Claude-Andre Faucher-Giguere and Michael Y. Grudic},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2103.10444},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

8 pages, 3 figures, updated to match published MNRAS version