Free-free absorption effects on Eddington luminosity

In standard treatments the Eddington luminosity is calculated by assuming that the electron-photon cross section is well described by the Thomson cross section which is gray (frequency independent). Here we discuss some consequence of the introduction of free-free opacity in the Eddington luminosity computation: in particular, due to the dependence of free-free emission on the square of the gas density, it follows that the associated absorption cross section increases linearly with the gas density, so that in high density environments Eddington luminosity is correspondingly reduced. We present a summary of an ongoing exploration of the parameter space of the problem, and we conclude that Eddington luminosity in high density environments can be lowered by a factor of ten or more, making it considerably easier for black holes to accelerate and eject ambient gas.Comment: 4 pages, to appear in "Plasmas in the Laboratory and in the Universe: new insights and new challenges", G. Bertin, D. Farina, R. Pozzoli eds., AIP Conference Proceeding

Active Galaxies and Radiative Heating

There is abundant evidence that heating processes in the central regions of elliptical galaxies has both prevented large-scale cooling flows and assisted in the expulsion of metal rich gas. We now know that each such spheroidal system harbors in its core a massive black hole weighing approximately 0.13% of the mass in stars and also know that energy was emitted by each of these black holes with an efficiency exceeding 10% of its rest mass. Since, if only 0.5% of that radiant energy were intercepted by the ambient gas, its thermal state would be drastically altered, it is worth examining in detail the interaction between the out-flowing radiation and the equilibrium or inflowing gas. On the basis of detailed hydrodynamic computations we find that relaxation oscillations are to be expected with the radiative feedback quite capable of regulating both the growth of the central black hole and also the density and thermal state of the gas in the galaxy. Mechanical input of energy by jets may assist or dominate over these radiative effects. We propose specific observational tests to identify systems which have experienced strong bursts of radiative heating from their central black holes.Comment: 16 pages, 13 figures, in press on the "Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society". (Fig1.eps is a low-resolution version). Resized figures, typos in Eq. (2.1) and (2.2) correcte

Phase mixing in MOND

Dissipationless collapses in Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) have been studied by using our MOND particle-mesh N-body code, finding that the projected density profiles of the final virialized systems are well described by Sersic profiles with index m<4 (down to m~2 for a deep-MOND collapse). The simulations provided also strong evidence that phase mixing is much less effective in MOND than in Newtonian gravity. Here we describe "ad hoc" numerical simulations with the force angular components frozen to zero, thus producing radial collapses. Our previous findings are confirmed, indicating that possible differences in radial orbit instability under Newtonian and MOND gravity are not relevant in the present context.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures. To appear in the Proceedings of the International Workshop "Collective Phenomena in Macroscopic Systems", G. Bertin, R. Pozzoli, M. Rome, and K.R. Sreenivasan, eds., World Scientific, Singapor

Feedback from Central Black Holes in Elliptical Galaxies: Two-dimensional Models Compared to One-dimensional Models

We extend the black hole (BH) feedback models of Ciotti, Ostriker, and Proga to two dimensions. In this paper, we focus on identifying the differences between the one-dimensional and two-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations. We examine a normal, isolated $L_*$ galaxy subject to the cooling flow instability of gas in the inner regions. Allowance is made for subsequent star formation, Type Ia and Type II supernovae, radiation pressure, and inflow to the central BH from mildly rotating galactic gas which is being replenished as a normal consequence of stellar evolution. The central BH accretes some of the infalling gas and expels a conical wind with mass, momentum, and energy flux derived from both observational and theoretical studies. The galaxy is assumed to have low specific angular momentum in analogy with the existing one-dimensional case in order to isolate the effect of dimensionality. The code then tracks the interaction of the outflowing radiation and winds with the galactic gas and their effects on regulating the accretion. After matching physical modeling to the extent possible between the one-dimensional and two-dimensional treatments, we find essentially similar results in terms of BH growth and duty cycle (fraction of the time above a given fraction of the Eddington luminosity). In the two-dimensional calculations, the cool shells forming at 0.1--1 kpc from the center are Rayleigh--Taylor unstable to fragmentation, leading to a somewhat higher accretion rate, less effective feedback, and a more irregular pattern of bursting compared to the one-dimensional case.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures, ApJ 237:26. Updated to match published versio

Reasoning From Fossils: Learning From the Local Black Hole Population About the Evolution of Quasars

We discuss a simple model for the growth of supermassive black holes (BHs) at the center of spheroidal stellar systems. In particular, we assess the hypotheses that (1) star formation in spheroids and BH fueling are proportional to one another, and (2) the BH accretion luminosity stays near the Eddington limit during luminous quasar phases. With the aid of this simple model, we are able to interpret many properties of the QSO luminosity function, including the puzzling steep decline of the characteristic luminosity from redshift z=2 to to z=0: indeed the residual star formation in spheroidal systems is today limited to a small number of bulges, characterized by stellar velocity dispersions a factor of 2-3 smaller those of the elliptical galaxies hosting QSOs at z > 2. A simple consequence of our hypotheses is that the redshift evolution of the QSO emissivity and of the star formation history in spheroids should be roughly parallel. We find this result to be broadly consistent with our knowledge of the evolution of both the global star formation rate, and of the evolution of the QSO emissivity, but we identify interesting discrepancies at both low and high redshifts, to which we offer tentative solutions. Finally, our hypotheses allow us to present a robust method to derive the duty cycle of QSO activity, based on the observed QSO luminosity function, and on the present-day relation between the masses of supermassive BHs and those of their spheroidal host stellar systems. The duty cycle is found to be substantially less than unity, with characteristic values in the range (3-6)x10^(-3), and we compute that the average bolometric radiative efficiency is epsilon=0.07. Finally, we find that the growth in mass of individual black holes at high redshift (z>2) can be dominated by mergers, and is therefore not necessarily limited by accretion.Comment: Submitted to ApJ, 26 preprint pages with 3 figure

What does the local black hole mass distribution tell us about the evolution of the quasar luminosity function?

We present a robust method to derive the duty cycle of QSO activity based on the empirical QSO luminosity function and on the present-day linear relation between the masses of supermassive black holes and those of their spheroidal host stellar systems. It is found that the duty cycle is substantially less than unity, with characteristic values in the range $3-6\times 10^{-3}$. Finally, we tested the expectation that the QSO luminosity evolution and the star formation history should be roughly parallel, as a consequence of the above--mentioned relation between BH and galaxy masses.Comment: 2 pages, to appear on ESO Astrophysics Symposia "The Mass of Galaxies at Low and High Redshift", R. Bender and A. Renzini, ed

A physically motivated toy model for the BH-spheroid coevolution

We present a summary of the results obtained with a time-dependent, one-zone toy model aimed at exploring the importance of radiative feedback on the co-evolution of massive black holes (MBHs) at the center of stellar spheroids and their stellar and gaseous components. We consider cosmological infall of gas as well as the mass and energy return for the evolving stellar population. The AGN radiative heating and cooling are described by assuming photoionization equilibrium of a plasma interacting with the average quasar SED. Our results nicely support a new scenario in which the AGN accretion phase characterized by a very short duty-cycle (and now common in the Universe) is due to radiative feedback. The establishment of this phase is recorded as a fossil in the Magorrian and Mbh-sigma relations.Comment: 2 pages. Proceedings of the MPA/MPE/ESO/USM Conference "Growing Black Holes: accretion in a cosmological context", ESO Astrophysics Symposia, A. Merloni, S. Nayakshin and R. Sunyaev ed

N-body simulations in modified Newtonian dynamics

We describe some results obtained with N-MODY, a code for N-body simulations of collisionless stellar systems in modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND). We found that a few fundamental dynamical processes are profoundly different in MOND and in Newtonian gravity with dark matter. In particular, violent relaxation, phase mixing and galaxy merging take significantly longer in MOND than in Newtonian gravity, while dynamical friction is more effective in a MOND system than in an equivalent Newtonian system with dark matter.Comment: 4 pages, no figures. To appear in EAS Publication Series (Proceedings of Symposium 7 of the JENAM 2008, Vienna