scholarly journals Modelling a bright z = 6 galaxy at the faint end of the AGN luminosity function

2020 ◽  
Vol 494 (3) ◽  
pp. 3453-3463
Author(s):  
Maxime Trebitsch ◽  
Marta Volonteri ◽  
Yohan Dubois

ABSTRACT Recent deep surveys have unravelled a population of faint active galactic nuclei (AGNs) in the high-redshift Universe, leading to various discussions on their nature and their role during the Epoch of Reionization. We use cosmological radiation hydrodynamics simulations of a bright galaxy at z ∼ 6 (${M_\star } \gtrsim 10^{10}\, {\rm M}_{\odot }$) hosting an actively growing supermassive black hole to study the properties of these objects. In particular, we study how the black hole and the galaxy coevolve and what is the relative contribution of the AGNs and of the stellar populations to the luminosity budget of the system. We find that the feedback from the AGN has no strong effect on the properties of the galaxy, and does not increase the total ionizing luminosity of the host. The average escape fraction of our galaxy is around $f_{\rm esc} \sim 5{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$. While our galaxy would be selected as an AGN in deep X-ray surveys, most of the ultraviolet (UV) luminosity is originating from stellar populations. This confirms that there is a transition in the galaxy population from star-forming galaxies to quasar hosts, with bright Lyman-break galaxies with MUV around −22 falling in the overlap region. Our results also suggest that faint AGNs do not contribute significantly to reionizing the Universe.

2019 ◽  
Vol 486 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
R M Bielby ◽  
J P Stott ◽  
F Cullen ◽  
T M Tripp ◽  
J N Burchett ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT We present the first results from a study of O vi absorption around galaxies at z < 1.44 using data from a near-infrared grism spectroscopic Hubble Space Telescope Large Programme, the Quasar Sightline and Galaxy Evolution (QSAGE) survey. QSAGE is the first grism galaxy survey to focus on the circumgalactic medium at z ∼ 1, providing a blind survey of the galaxy population. The galaxy sample is H α flux limited (f(H α) > 2 × 10−17 erg s−1 cm−2) at 0.68 < z < 1.44, corresponding to ≳0.2–0.8 M⊙ yr−1. In this first of 12 fields, we combine the galaxy data with high-resolution STIS and COS spectroscopy of the background quasar to study O vi in the circumgalactic medium. At z ∼ 1, we find O vi absorption systems up to b ∼ 350 kpc (∼4Rvir) from the nearest detected galaxy. Further, we find ${\sim }50{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ of ≳1 M⊙ yr−1 star-forming galaxies within 2Rvir show no associated O vi absorption to a limit of at least N(O vi) = 1013.9 cm−2. That we detect O vi at such large distances from galaxies and that a significant fraction of star-forming galaxies show no detectable O vi absorption disfavours outflows from ongoing star formation as the primary medium traced by these absorbers. Instead, by combining our own low- and high-redshift data with existing samples, we find tentative evidence for many strong (N(O vi) > 1014 cm−2) O vi absorption systems to be associated with M⋆ ∼ 109.5–10 M⊙ mass galaxies (Mhalo ∼ 1011.5–12 M⊙ dark matter haloes), and infer that they may be tracing predominantly collisionally ionized gas within the haloes of such galaxies.


2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (S329) ◽  
pp. 305-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth R. Stanway

AbstractObservations of star-forming galaxies in the distant Universe (z > 2) are starting to confirm the importance of massive stars in shaping galaxy emission and evolution. Inevitably, these distant stellar populations are unresolved, and the limited data available must be interpreted in the context of stellar population synthesis models. With the imminent launch of JWST and the prospect of spectral observations of galaxies within a gigayear of the Big Bang, the uncertainties in modelling of massive stars are becoming increasingly important to our interpretation of the high redshift Universe. In turn, these observations of distant stellar populations will provide ever stronger tests against which to gauge the success of, and flaws in, current massive star models.


2020 ◽  
Vol 499 (1) ◽  
pp. 768-792 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elad Zinger ◽  
Annalisa Pillepich ◽  
Dylan Nelson ◽  
Rainer Weinberger ◽  
Rüdiger Pakmor ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) that reside at the centres of galaxies can inject vast amounts of energy into the surrounding gas and are thought to be a viable mechanism to quench star formation in massive galaxies. Here, we study the $10^{9-12.5}\, \mathrm{M_\odot }$ stellar mass central galaxy population of the IllustrisTNG simulation, specifically the TNG100 and TNG300 volumes at z = 0, and show how the three components – SMBH, galaxy, and circumgalactic medium (CGM) – are interconnected in their evolution. We find that gas entropy is a sensitive diagnostic of feedback injection. In particular, we demonstrate how the onset of the low-accretion black hole (BH) feedback mode, realized in the IllustrisTNG model as a kinetic, BH-driven wind, leads not only to star formation quenching at stellar masses $\gtrsim 10^{10.5}\, \mathrm{M_\odot }$ but also to a change in thermodynamic properties of the (non-star-forming) gas, both within the galaxy and beyond. The IllustrisTNG kinetic feedback from SMBHs increases the average gas entropy, within the galaxy and in the CGM, lengthening typical gas cooling times from $10\!-\!100\, \mathrm{Myr}$ to $1\!-\!10\, \mathrm{Gyr}$, effectively ceasing ongoing star formation and inhibiting radiative cooling and future gas accretion. In practice, the same active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback channel is simultaneously ‘ejective’ and ‘preventative’ and leaves an imprint on the temperature, density, entropy, and cooling times also in the outer reaches of the gas halo, up to distances of several hundred kiloparsecs. In the IllustrisTNG model, a long-lasting quenching state can occur for a heterogeneous CGM, whereby the hot and dilute CGM gas of quiescent galaxies contains regions of low-entropy gas with short cooling times.


2021 ◽  
Vol 503 (3) ◽  
pp. 3568-3591
Author(s):  
Sophie Koudmani ◽  
Nicholas A Henden ◽  
Debora Sijacki

ABSTRACT Contrary to the standard lore, there is mounting observational evidence that feedback from active galactic nuclei (AGN) may also play a role at the low-mass end of the galaxy population. We investigate this using the cosmological simulation suite fable, with a particular focus on the dwarf regime (Mstellar < 109.5 M⊙). We find that overmassive black holes (BHs), with respect to the mean scaling relations with their host galaxies, drive hotter and faster outflows and lead to significantly reduced gas mass fractions. They are also more likely to display a kinematically misaligned ionized gas component in our mock MaNGA velocity maps, although we caution that cosmic inflows and mergers contribute to misalignments as well. While in the local Universe the majority of AGN in dwarfs are much dimmer than the stellar component, for z ≥ 2 there is a significant population that outshines their hosts. These high-redshift overmassive BHs contribute to the quenching of dwarfs, whereas at late cosmic times supernova (SN) feedback is more efficient. While our results are overall in good agreement with X-ray observations of AGN in dwarfs, the lack of high-luminosity X-ray AGN in fable at low redshifts highlights an interesting possibility that SN feedback could be too strong in fable’s dwarfs, curtailing AGN growth and feedback. We predict that future observations may uncover many more AGN in dwarfs with lower luminosities and at higher redshifts.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (S352) ◽  
pp. 84-97
Author(s):  
E. R. Stanway ◽  
J. J. Eldridge

AbstractObservations of star-forming galaxies in the distant Universe have confirmed the importance of massive stars in shaping galaxy emission and evolution. Distant stellar populations are unresolved, and the limited data available must be interpreted in the context of stellar population models. Understanding these populations, and their evolution with age and heavy element content is key to interpreting processes such as supernovae, cosmic reionization and the chemical enrichment of the Universe. With the upcoming launch of JWST and observations of galaxies within a billion years of the Big Bang, the uncertainties in modelling massive stars - particularly their interactions with binary companions - are becoming increasingly important to our interpretation of the high redshift Universe. In turn, observations of distant stellar populations provide ever stronger tests against which to gauge the success of, and flaws in, current massive star models. Here we briefly review the current status binary stellar population synthesis.


2017 ◽  
Vol 841 (1) ◽  
pp. 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shogo Ishikawa ◽  
Nobunari Kashikawa ◽  
Jun Toshikawa ◽  
Masayuki Tanaka ◽  
Takashi Hamana ◽  
...  

2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (S277) ◽  
pp. 146-149
Author(s):  
Thiago S. Gonçalves ◽  
Roderik Overzier ◽  
Antara Basu-Zych ◽  
D. Christopher Martin

AbstractLyman Break Analogs (LBAs), characterized by high far-UV luminosities and surface brightnesses as detected by GALEX, are intensely star-forming galaxies in the low-redshift universe (z ~ 0.2), with star formation rates reaching up to 50 times that of the Milky Way. These objects present metallicities, morphologies and other physical properties similar to higher redshift Lyman Break Galaxies (LBGs), motivating the detailed study of LBAs as local laboratories of this high-redshift galaxy population. We present results from our recent integral-field spectroscopy survey of LBAs with Keck/OSIRIS, which shows that these galaxies have the same nebular gas kinematic properties as high-redshift LBGs. We argue that such kinematic studies are not an appropriate diagnostic to rule out merger events as the trigger for the observed starburst. Comparison between the kinematic analysis and morphological indices from HST imaging illustrates the difficulties of properly identifying (minor or major) merger events, with no clear correlation between the results using either of the two methods. Artificial redshifting of our data indicates that this problem becomes even worse at high redshift due to surface brightness dimming and resolution loss. Whether mergers could generate the observed kinematic properties is strongly dependent on gas fractions in these galaxies. We present preliminary results of a CARMA survey for LBAs and discuss the implications of the inferred molecular gas masses for formation models.


2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (14) ◽  
pp. 246-246
Author(s):  
Rychard J. Bouwens ◽  
Garth D. Illingworth

AbstractExtending the study of star-forming galaxies to z>6 is extremely difficult due to the faintness of the sources and the challenging nature of deep near-infrared observations. Nevertheless, current observations are now just good enough that we can begin drawing some conclusions about the nature of galaxies at z≳7. At present, deep near-infrared observations with NICMOS (reaching ≳27 AB mag at 5σ) cover more than 20arcmin2 of area with deep optical coverage and allow us to identify four strong z≃7–8 candidates. Comparing this sample with dropout samples at later times (z≃4–6), we are able to study evolution in the rest-frame UV LF over the range z≃8 to z≃4. We find strong evidence for significant evolution in the characteristic luminosity with time (brightening by ∼2 mag, from z≃8 to z≃4). The observed evolution appears to be the direct result of hierarchical growth in the galaxy population.


2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (S235) ◽  
pp. 139-139
Author(s):  
L. Sodré ◽  
A. Mateus ◽  
R. Cid Fernandes ◽  
G. Stasińska ◽  
W. Schoenell ◽  
...  

AbstractWe revisit the bimodality of the galaxy population seen in the local universe. We address this issue in terms of physical properties of galaxies, such as mean stellar ages and stellar masses, derived from the application of a spectral synthesis method to galaxy spectra from the SDSS. We show that the mean light-weighted stellar age of galaxies presents the best description of the bimodality seen in the galaxy population. The stellar mass has an additional role since most of the star-forming galaxies present in the local universe are low-mass galaxies. Our results give support to the existence of a ‘downsizing’ in galaxy formation, where nowadays massive galaxies tend to have stellar populations older than those found in less massive objects.


2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (S272) ◽  
pp. 233-241
Author(s):  
Christopher J. Evans

AbstractOne of the challenges for stellar astrophysics is to reach the point at which we can undertake reliable spectral synthesis of unresolved populations in young, star-forming galaxies at high redshift. Here I summarise recent studies of massive stars in the Galaxy and Magellanic Clouds, which span a range of metallicities commensurate with those in high-redshift systems, thus providing an excellent laboratory in which to study the role of environment on stellar evolution. I also give an overview of observations of luminous supergiants in external galaxies out to a remarkable 6.7 Mpc, in which we can exploit our understanding of stellar evolution to study the chemistry and dynamics of the host systems.


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