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Related papers: Tracing the AGN-Merger Connection: insights from c…

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Modelling AGN feedback in numerical simulations is both technically and theoretically challenging, with numerous approaches having been published in the literature. We present a study of five distinct approaches to modelling AGN feedback…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-15 James Wurster , Robert J. Thacker

The co-evolution of galaxies and the supermassive black holes (SMBHs) at their centers via hierarchical galaxy mergers is a key prediction of $\Lambda$CDM cosmology. As gas and dust are funneled to the SMBHs during the merger, the SMBHs…

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.…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-05-18 Kevin Schawinski , Nathan Dowlin , Daniel Thomas , C. Megan Urry , Edward Edmondson

Active galactic nuclei (AGN), particularly the most luminous AGN, are commonly assumed to be triggered through major mergers, however observational evidence for this scenario is mixed. To investigate any influence of galaxy mergers on AGN…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2017-07-05 Tim Hewlett , Carolin Villforth , Vivienne Wild , Jairo Mendez-Abreu , Milena Pawlik , Kate Rowlands

Close encounters between galaxies are expected to be a viable mechanism, as predicted by numerical simulations, by which accretion onto supermassive black holes can be initiated. To test this scenario, we construct a sample of 562 galaxies…

Major mergers between galaxies are predicted to fuel their central supermassive black holes (SMBHs), particularly after coalescence. However, determining the prevalence of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) in mergers remains a challenge,…

During galaxy mergers, gas and dust is driven towards the centers of merging galaxies, triggering enhanced star formation and supermassive black hole (SMBH) growth. Theory predicts that this heightened activity peaks at SMBH separations…

We investigate the role of galaxy mergers on supermassive black hole (SMBH) accretion and star formation quenching in three state-of-the-art cosmological simulations with contrasting physics models: EAGLE, Illustris and IllustrisTNG. We…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2022-12-28 Salvatore Quai , Shoshannah Byrne-Mamahit , Sara L. Ellison , David R. Patton , Maan H. Hani

We use zoom simulations to show how merger-driven disruption of the gas disc in a galaxy provides its central active galactic nucleus (AGN) with fuel to drive outflows that entrain and expel a significant fraction of the circumgalactic…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2022-06-29 Jonathan J. Davies , Andrew Pontzen , Robert A. Crain

Using numerical hydrodynamics code, we perform various idealized galaxy merger simulations to study the star formation (SF) of two merging disk galaxies. Our simulations include gas accretion onto supermassive black holes and active…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2017-08-30 Jongwon Park , Rory Smith , Sukyoung K. Yi

We present results from a multi-wavelength analysis searching for multiple AGN systems in nearby (z<0.077) triple galaxy mergers. Combining archival Chandra, SDSS, WISE, and VLA observations, we quantify the rate of nearby triple AGN, as…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2021-02-10 Adi Foord , Kayhan Gultekin , Jessie C. Runnoe , Michael J. Koss

Recent observations of AGN activity in massive galaxies (log Mstar / Msun > 10.4) show that: 1) at z < 1, AGN-hosting galaxies do not show enhanced merger signatures compared to normal galaxies, 2) also at z < 1, most AGNs are hosted by…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2016-08-03 Miroslav Micic , Nemanja Martinovic , Manodeep Sinha

Active galactic nuclei (AGN) are powered by accretion disks onto supermassive black holes in the the centers of galaxies. AGN are believed to play important roles in the evolution of both supermassive black holes and their host galaxies…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-06-11 K. E. Saavik Ford , Barry McKernan

Pairs of galaxies hosting active galactic nuclei (AGN) are powerful probes of merger-driven supermassive black hole (SMBH) growth as they can resolve individual AGN and trace mergers over a large range of physical separations. To exploit…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2023-07-12 R. Scott Barrows , Julia M. Comerford , Daniel Stern , Roberto J. Assef

Using parsec scale resolution hydrodynamical adaptive mesh refinement simulations we have studied the mass transport process throughout a galactic merger. The aim of such study is to connect both the peaks of mass accretion rate onto the…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2022-03-18 Joaquín Prieto , Andrés Escala , George Privon , Juan d'Etigny

Using multiwavelength surveys of active galactic nuclei across a wide range of bolometric luminosities (10^{43}<L_{bol}(erg/s<5x10^{46}) and redshifts (0<z<3), we find a strong, redshift-independent correlation between the AGN luminosity…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-11 E. Treister , K. Schawinski , C. M. Urry , B. D. Simmons

Galaxy mergers are likely to play a role in triggering active galactic nuclei (AGN), but the conditions under which this process occurs are poorly understood. In Paper I, we constructed a sample of spatially offset X-ray AGN that represent…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2017-04-12 R. Scott Barrows , Julia M. Comerford , Jenny E. Greene , David Pooley

We present an analysis of the instantaneous supermassive black hole (SMBH) accretion rates in a collection of 1563 post-merger galaxies drawn from the IllustrisTNG simulation. Our sample consists of galaxies that have experienced a merger…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2022-12-28 Shoshannah Byrne-Mamahit , Maan Hani , Sara Ellison , Salvatore Quai , David Patton