31 research outputs found
Quasar Clustering in Cosmological Hydrodynamic Simulations: Evidence for mergers
We examine the clustering properties of a population of quasars drawn from
fully hydrodynamic cosmological simulations that directly follow black hole
growth. We find that the black hole correlation function is best described by
two distinct components: contributions from BH pairs occupying the same dark
matter halo ('1-halo term') which dominate at scales below 300 kpc/h, and
contributions from BHs occupying separate halos ('2-halo term') which dominate
at larger scales. From the 2-halo BH term we find a typical host halo mass for
faint-end quasars (those probed in our simulation volumes) ranging from 10^11
to a few 10^12 solar masses from z=5 to z=1 respectively (consistent with the
mean halo host mass). The BH correlation function shows a luminosity dependence
as a function of redshift, though weak enough to be consistent with
observational constraints. At small scales, the high resolution of our
simulations allows us to probe the 1-halo clustering in detail, finding that
the 1-halo term follows an approximate power law, lacking the characteristic
decrease in slope at small scales found in 1-halo terms for galaxies and dark
matter. We show that this difference is a direct result of a boost in the
small-scale quasar bias caused by galaxies hosting multiple quasars (1-subhalo
term) following a merger event, typically between a large central subgroup and
a smaller, satellite subgroup hosting a relatively small black hole. We show
that our predicted small-scale excess caused by such mergers is in good
agreement with both the slope and amplitude indicated by recent small-scale
measurements. Finally, we note the excess to be a strong function of halo mass,
such that the observed excess is well matched by the multiple black holes of
intermediate mass (10^7-10^8 solar masses) found in hosts of 4-8*10^11 solar
masses, a range well probed by our simulations.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures. Submitted to MNRA
Morphological evolution of supermassive black hole merger hosts and multimessenger signatures
With projects such as Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) and Pulsar
Timing Arrays expected to detect gravitational waves from supermassive black
hole mergers in the near future, it is key that we understand what we expect
those detections to be, and maximize what we can learn from them. To address
this, we study the mergers of supermassive black holes in the Illustris
simulation, the overall rate of mergers, and the correlation between merging
black holes and their host galaxies. We find that these mergers occur in
typical galaxies along the relation, and that between LISA
and PTAs we expect to probe the full range of galaxy masses. As galaxy mergers
can trigger increased star formation, we find that galaxies hosting low-mass
black hole mergers tend to show a slight increase in star formation rates
compared to a mass-matched sample. However, high-mass merger hosts have typical
star formation rates, due to a combination of low gas fractions and powerful
AGN feedback. Although minor black hole mergers do not correlate with disturbed
morphologies, major mergers (especially at high-masses) tend to show
morphological evidence of recent galaxy mergers which survives for ~500 Myr.
This is on the same scale as the infall/hardening time of the merging black
holes, suggesting that electromagnetic followups to gravitational wave signals
may not be able to observe this correlation. We further find that incorporating
a realistic timescale delay for the black hole mergers could shift the
distribution of merger masses toward higher-masses, decreasing the rate of LISA
detections while increasing the rate of PTA detections.Comment: 14 pages, 17 figures. Published in MNRA
The Halo Occupation Distribution of Active Galactic Nuclei
Using a fully cosmological hydrodynamic simulation that self-consistently
incorporates the growth and feedback of supermassive black holes and the
physics of galaxy formation, we examine the effects of environmental factors
(e.g., local gas density, black hole feedback) on the halo occupation
distribution of low luminosity active galactic nuclei (AGN). We decompose the
mean occupation function into central and satellite contribution and compute
the conditional luminosity functions (CLF). The CLF of the central AGN follows
a log-normal distribution with the mean increasing and scatter decreasing with
increasing redshifts. We analyze the light curves of individual AGN and show
that the peak luminosity of the AGN has a tighter correlation with halo mass
compared to instantaneous luminosity. We also compute the CLF of satellite AGN
at a given central AGN luminosity. We do not see any significant correlation
between the number of satellites with the luminosity of the central AGN at a
fixed halo mass. We also show that for a sample of AGN with luminosity above
10^42 ergs/s the mean occupation function can be modeled as a softened step
function for central AGN and a power law for the satellite population. The
radial distribution of AGN inside halos follows a power law at all redshifts
with a mean index of -2.33 +/- 0.08. Incorporating the environmental dependence
of supermassive black hole accretion and feedback, our formalism provides a
theoretical tool for interpreting current and future measurements of AGN
clustering.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures, 2 Tables (Matches the MNRAS accepted version
Massive Black Hole Mergers with Orbital Information: Predictions from the ASTRID Simulation
We examine massive black hole (MBH) mergers and their associated
gravitational wave signals from the large-volume cosmological simulation
Astrid. Astrid includes galaxy formation and black hole models recently updated
with a MBH seed population between and and a sub-grid dynamical friction (DF) model to follow the MBH
dynamics down to . We calculate initial eccentricities of
MBH orbits directly from the simulation at kpc-scales, and find orbital
eccentricities above for most MBH pairs before the numerical merger.
After approximating unresolved evolution on scales below , we find that the in-simulation DF on large scales accounts
for more than half of the total orbital decay time ()
due to DF. The binary hardening time is an order of magnitude longer than the
DF time, especially for the seed-mass binaries ().
As a result, only of seed MBH pairs merge at after
considering both unresolved DF evolution and binary hardening. These
seed-mass mergers are hosted in a biased population of galaxies with the
highest stellar masses of . With the higher initial
eccentricity prediction from Astrid, we estimate an expected merger rate of
per year from the MBH population. This is a factor of
higher than the prediction using the circular orbit assumption. The LISA events
are expected at a similar rate, and comprise seed-seed mergers,
involving only one seed-mass MBH, and mergers of
non-seed MBHs.Comment: 17 pages, 13 Figures; comments are welcom
Compaction and Quenching of High-z Galaxies in Cosmological Simulations: Blue and Red Nuggets
We use cosmological simulations to study a characteristic evolution pattern
of high redshift galaxies. Early, stream-fed, highly perturbed, gas-rich discs
undergo phases of dissipative contraction into compact, star-forming systems
(blue nuggets) at z~4-2. The peak of gas compaction marks the onset of central
gas depletion and inside-out quenching into compact ellipticals (red nuggets)
by z~2. These are sometimes surrounded by gas rings or grow extended dry
stellar envelopes. The compaction occurs at a roughly constant specific
star-formation rate (SFR), and the quenching occurs at a constant stellar
surface density within the inner kpc (). Massive galaxies quench
earlier, faster, and at a higher than lower-mass galaxies, which
compactify and attempt to quench more than once. This evolution pattern is
consistent with the way galaxies populate the SFR-radius-mass space, and with
gradients and scatter across the main sequence. The compaction is triggered by
an intense inflow episode, involving (mostly minor) mergers, counter-rotating
streams or recycled gas, and is commonly associated with violent disc
instability. The contraction is dissipative, with the inflow rate >SFR, and the
maximum anti-correlated with the initial spin parameter, as
predicted by Dekel & Burkert (2014). The central quenching is triggered by the
high SFR and stellar/supernova feedback (possibly also AGN feedback) due to the
high central gas density, while the central inflow weakens as the disc
vanishes. Suppression of fresh gas supply by a hot halo allows the long-term
maintenance of quenching once above a threshold halo mass, inducing the
quenching downsizing.Comment: Resubmitted to MNRAS after responding to referee's comments; Updated
and added two figure