您选择的条件: Yu Qiu
  • On the Mass Loading of AGN-Driven Outflows in Elliptical Galaxies and Clusters

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: Outflows driven by active galactic nuclei (AGN) are an important channel for accreting supermassive black holes (SMBHs) to interact with their host galaxies and clusters. Properties of the outflows are however poorly constrained due to the lack of kinetically resolved data of the hot plasma that permeates the circumgalactic and intracluster space. In this work, we use a single parameter, outflow-to-accretion mass-loading factor $m=\dot{M}_{\rm out}/\dot{M}_{\rm BH}$, to characterize the outflows that mediate the interaction between SMBHs and their hosts. By modeling both M87 and Perseus, and comparing the simulated thermal profiles with the X-ray observations of these two systems, we demonstrate that $m$ can be constrained between $200-500$. This parameter corresponds to a bulk flow speed between $4,000-7,000\,{\rm km\,s}^{-1}$ at around 1 kpc, and a thermalized outflow temperature between $10^{8.7}-10^{9}\,{\rm K}$. Our results indicate that the dominant outflow speeds in giant elliptical galaxies and clusters are much lower than in the close vicinity of the SMBH, signaling an efficient coupling with and deceleration by the surrounding medium on length scales below 1 kpc. Consequently, AGNs may be efficient at launching outflows $\sim10$ times more massive than previously uncovered by measurements of cold, obscuring material. We also examine the mass and velocity distribution of the cold gas, which ultimately forms a rotationally supported disk in simulated clusters. The rarity of such disks in observations indicates that further investigations are needed to understand the evolution of the cold gas after it forms.

  • Evolution of high-redshift quasar hosts and promotion of massive black hole seed formation

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: High-redshift luminous quasars powered by accreting supermassive black holes (SMBHs) with mass $\gtrsim 10^9 M_\odot$ constrain their formation pathways. We investigate the formation of heavy seeds of SMBHs through gas collapse in the quasar host progenitors, using merger trees to trace the halo growth in highly-biased, overdense regions of the universe. The progenitor halos are likely irradiated by intense H$_2$-photodissociating radiation from nearby star-forming galaxies and heat the interior gas by successive mergers. The kinetic energy of the gas originating from mergers as well as baryonic streaming motion prevents gas collapse and delays prior star formation. With a streaming velocity higher than the root-mean-square value, gas clouds in nearly all $10^4$ realizations of merger trees enter the atomic-cooling stage and begin to collapse isothermally with $T \simeq 8000 K$ via Ly$\alpha$ cooling. The fraction of trees which host isothermal gas collapse is $14\%$ and increases with streaming velocity, while the rest form H$_2$-cooled cores after short isothermal phases. If the collapsing gas is enriched to $Z_{crit}\sim 2\times 10^{-3} Z_\odot$, requiring efficient metal mixing, this fraction could be reduced by additional cooling via metal fine-structure lines. In the massive collapsing gas, the accretion rate onto a newly-born protostar ranges between $3 \times 10^{-3}-5 M_\odot yr^{-1}$, among which a large fraction exceeds the critical rate suppressing stellar radiative feedback. As a result, we expect a distribution of stellar mass (presumably BH mass) ranging from several hundred to above $10^5 M_\odot$, potentially forming massive BH binary mergers and yielding gravitational wave events.

  • Signature of Supersonic Turbulence in Galaxy Clusters Revealed by AGN-driven H$\alpha$ Filaments

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: The hot intracluster medium (ICM) is thought to be quiescent with low observed velocity dispersions. Surface brightness fluctuations of the ICM also suggest that its turbulence is subsonic with a Kolmogorov scaling relation, indicating that the viscosity is suppressed and the kinetic energy cascades to small scales unscathed. However, recent observations of the cold gas filaments in galaxy clusters find that the scaling relations are steeper than that of the hot plasma, signaling kinetic energy losses and the presence of supersonic flows. In this work we use high-resolution simulations to explore the turbulent velocity structure of the cold filaments at the cores of galaxy clusters. Our results indicate that supersonic turbulent structures can be "frozen" in the cold gas that cools and fragments out of a fast, $10^7$ K outflow driven by the central active galactic nucleus (AGN), when the radiative cooling time is shorter than the dynamical sound-crossing time. After the cold gas formation, however, the slope of the velocity structure function (VSF) flattens significantly over short, 10 Myr timescales. The lack of flattened VSF in observations of H$\alpha$ filaments indicates that the H$\alpha$-emitting phase is short-lived for the cold gas in galaxy clusters. On the other hand, the ubiquity of supersonic turbulence revealed by observed filaments strongly suggests that supersonic outflows are an integral part of AGN-ICM interaction, and that AGN activity plays a crucial role at driving turbulence in galaxy clusters.

  • The formation of dusty cold gas filaments from galaxy cluster simulations

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: Galaxy clusters are the most massive collapsed structures in the universe whose potential wells are filled with hot, X-ray emitting intracluster medium. Observations however show that a significant number of clusters (the so-called cool-core clusters) also contain large amounts of cold gas in their centres, some of which is in the form of spatially extended filaments spanning scales of tens of kiloparsecs. These findings have raised questions about the origin of the cold gas, as well as its relationship with the central active galactic nucleus (AGN), whose feedback has been established as a ubiquitous feature in such galaxy clusters. Here we report a radiation hydrodynamic simulation of AGN feedback in a galaxy cluster, in which cold filaments form from the warm, AGN-driven outflows with temperatures between $10^4$ and $10^7$ K as they rise in the cluster core. Our analysis reveals a new mechanism, which, through the combination of radiative cooling and ram pressure, naturally promotes outflows whose cooling time is shorter than their rising time, giving birth to spatially extended cold gas filaments. Our results strongly suggest that the formation of cold gas and AGN feedback in galaxy clusters are inextricably linked and shed light on how AGN feedback couples to the intracluster medium.

  • Dynamics and Morphology of Cold Gas in Fast, Radiatively Cooling Outflows: Constraining AGN Energetics with Horseshoes

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: Warm ionized and cold neutral outflows with velocities exceeding $100\,{\rm km\,s}^{-1}$ are commonly observed in galaxies and clusters. Theoretical studies however indicate that ram pressure from a hot wind, driven either by the central active galactic nucleus (AGN) or a starburst, cannot accelerate existing cold gas to such high speeds without destroying it. In this work we explore a different scenario, where cold gas forms in a fast, radiatively cooling outflow with temperature $T\lesssim 10^7\,{\rm K}$. Using 3D hydrodynamic simulations, we demonstrate that cold gas continuously fragments out of the cooling outflow, forming elongated filamentary structures extending tens of kiloparsecs. For a range of physically relevant temperature and velocity configurations, a ring of cold gas perpendicular to the direction of motion forms in the outflow. This naturally explains the formation of transverse cold gas filaments such as the blue loop and the horseshoe filament in the Perseus cluster. Based on our results, we estimate that the AGN outburst responsible for the formation of these two features drove bipolar outflows with velocity $>2,000\,{\rm km\,s}^{-1}$ and total kinetic energy $>8\times10^{57}\,{\rm erg}$ about $\sim10$ Myr ago. We also examine the continuous cooling in the mixing layer between hot and cold gas, and find that radiative cooling only accounts for $\sim10\%$ of the total mass cooling rate, indicating that observations of soft X-ray and FUV emission may significantly underestimate the growth of cold gas in the cooling flow of galaxy clusters.

  • Radio jet-ISM interaction and positive radio-mechanical feedback in Abell 1795

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: We present XSHOOTER observations with previous ALMA, MUSE and $HST$ observations to study the nature of radio-jet triggered star formation and the interaction of radio jets with the interstellar medium in the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) in the Abell 1795 cluster. Using $HST$ UV data we determined an ongoing star formation rate of 9.3 M$_\odot$ yr$^{-1}$. The star formation follows the global Kennicutt-Schmidt law, however, it has a low efficiency compared to circumnuclear starbursts in nearby galaxies with an average depletion time of $\sim$1 Gyr. The star formation and molecular gas are offset by $\sim1$ kpc indicating that stars have decoupled from the gas. We detected an arc of high linewidth in ionized gas where electron densities are elevated by a factor of $\sim$4 suggesting a shock front driven by radio jets or peculiar motion of the BCG. An analysis of nebular emission line flux ratios suggests that the gas is predominantly ionized by star formation with a small contribution from shocks. We also calculated the velocity structure function (VSF) of the ionized and molecular gases using velocity maps to characterize turbulent motion in the gas. The ionized gas VSF suggests that the radio jets are driving supersonic turbulence in the gas. Thus radio jets can not only heat the atmosphere on large scales and may quench star formation on longer timescales while triggering star formation in positive feedback on short timescales of a few million years.