Feedback from super-massive black holes (SMBHs) is thought to play a key role
in regulating the growth of host galaxies. Cosmological and galaxy formation
simulations using smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH), which usually use a
fixed mass for SPH particles, often employ the same sub-grid Active galactic
nuclei (AGN) feedback prescription across a range of resolutions. It is thus
important to ask how the impact of the simulated AGN feedback on a galaxy
changes when only the numerical resolution (the SPH particle mass) changes. We
present a suite of simulations modelling the interaction of an AGN outflow with
the ambient turbulent and clumpy interstellar medium (ISM) in the inner part of
the host galaxy at a range of mass resolutions. We find that, with other things
being equal, degrading the resolution leads to feedback becoming more efficient
at clearing out all gas in its path. For the simulations presented here, the
difference in the mass of the gas ejected by AGN feedback varies by more than a
factor of ten between our highest and lowest resolution simulations. This
happens because feedback-resistant high density clumps are washed out at low
effective resolutions. We also find that changes in numerical resolution lead
to undesirable artifacts in how the AGN feedback affects the AGN immediate
environment.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA