The coevolution of massive compact ellipticals and their black holes at high redshift

• Applicant: Dr. Thorsten Naab
• Subject Area: Astrophysics and Astronomy
• Term: from 2009 to 2012
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 125644655

• Final Report Year: 2012

Final Report Abstract

This project is aimed at studying the cosmological evolution of massive galaxies at the simultaneous formation and growth of supermassive black holes. Using a large sample of high-resolution cosmological zoom-simulations of individual massive galaxies we were able to explain the observed rapid size evolution of massive galaxies. This size growth is predominantly driven by minor mergers which are very common in hierarchical cold dark matter models of the Universe. In addition, we have developed a new model for the formation and accretion onto supermassive black holes which is currently used for a new generation of cosmological simulations in combination with a revised model for metal enrichment.

Publications

• (2011). The cosmological size and velocity dispersion evolution of massive early-type galaxies. The Astrophysical Journal, 744(1), 63
  Oser, L., Naab, T., Ostriker, J. P., & Johansson, P. H.