The impact of AGN-radiation on the evolution of galaxies and their circumgalactic medium
Final Report Abstract
Active galactic nuclei (AGNs) are powerful sources of radiation that can modify the structure of the gas phase around galaxies over large distances. In simulations, their effects are typically modelled as either thermal energy and/or momentum transfer to the surrounding gas, giving rise to so-called thermal and/or kinetic AGN feedback. Massive galaxies simulated without AGN feedback end up with too many stars for their dynamical mass at low redshifts, which is inconsistent with observations. While these implementations lead to similar statistical properties of galaxies, they lead to different properties of the Circumgalactic Medium (CGM), a difficult-to-measure multi-phase gas component that permeates the dark matter halo regions around galaxies. This project has shown that taking into account the direct photoionisation effect of AGNs on the gas, also known as AGN electromagnetic feedback, can halt the catastrophic cooling of the CGM in simulated quasar host halos, with the fraction of gas removed from this phase being a strong function of the ionisation cone opening angle. Furthermore, the CGM line emission and the covering fraction of optically thick absorbers in high redshift simulations can be brought into agreement with observations for specific combinations of supermassive black hole mass, accretion rate, and ionisation cone opening angle. AGN electromagnetic feedback provides a more natural way of coupling the supermassive black holes to their environment in simulations than the widely used isotropic thermal feedback. Importantly, this project provided the proof of concept of how CGM observations can be used to infer properties of the central AGN engine. This project also made a significant contribution to the goal of measuring CGM budgets in quasar host galaxies at high redshift, and linking the CGM emission line Lya nebulae sometimes observed around quasars to the larger Mpc scale environment of massive galaxies. In particular, we found that the orientations of the Lya emission nebulae on tens of kpc scales lie roughly along the projected long axis of their surrounding galaxy distributions on Mpc scales, as traced with submillimeter observations.
Publications
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A first estimate of the Milky Way dark matter halo spin. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 657, A15.
Obreja, Aura; Buck, Tobias & Macciò, Andrea V.
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The challenge of simultaneously matching the observed diversity of chemical abundance patterns in cosmological hydrodynamical simulations. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 508(3), 3365-3387.
Buck, Tobias; Rybizki, Jan; Buder, Sven; Obreja, Aura; Macciò, Andrea V.; Pfrommer, Christoph; Steinmetz, Matthias & Ness, Melissa
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A Multiwavelength Study of ELAN Environments (AMUSE2). Mass Budget, Satellites Spin Alignment, and Gas Infall in a Massive z ∼ 3 Quasar Host Halo. The Astrophysical Journal, 930(1), 72.
Arrigoni, Battaia Fabrizio; Chen, Chian-Chou; Liu, Hau-Yu Baobab; De Breuck, Carlos; Galametz, Maud; Fumagalli, Michele; Yang, Yujin; Zanella, Anita; Man, Allison; Obreja, Aura; Prochaska, J. Xavier; Bañados, Eduardo; Hennawi, Joseph F.; Farina, Emanuele P.; Zwaan, Martin A.; Decarli, Roberto & Lusso, Elisabeta
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Bulges in cosmological simulations, Inward bound: bulges from high redshifts to the Milky Way. Online Workshop 2-6 May, 2022
A. Obreja
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Milky Way-like galaxies: stellar population properties of dynamically defined discs, bulges and stellar haloes. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 516(1), 197-215.
Ortega-Martinez, Sara; Obreja, Aura; Dominguez-Tenreiro, Rosa; Pedrosa, Susana E.; Rosas-Guevara, Yetli & Tissera, Patricia B.
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AGN radiation imprints on the circumgalactic medium of massive galaxies. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 527(3), 8078-8102.
Obreja, Aura; Arrigoni, Battaia Fabrizio; Macciò, Andrea V. & Buck, Tobias
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Circumgalactic Lyα emission around submillimeter-bright galaxies with different quasar contributions. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 679, A41.
González, Lobos Vale; Arrigoni, Battaia Fabrizio; Chang, Seok-Jun; Gronke, Max; Kauffmann, Guinevere; Chen, Chian-Chou; Fu, Hai; Obreja, Aura & Farina, Emanuele P.
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JCMT/SCUBA-2 uncovers an excess of 850 μm counts on megaparsec scales around high-redshift quasars. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 676, A51.
Arrigoni, Battaia F.; Obreja, A.; Chen, C.-C.; Nowotka, M.; Fumagalli, M.; Prochaska, J. X.; Yang, Y.; Cai, Z.; Muñoz-Elgueta, N. & Fossati, M.
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The impact of early massive mergers on the chemical evolution of Milky Way-like galaxies: insights from NIHAO-UHD simulations. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 523(1), 1565-1576.
Buck, Tobias; Obreja, Aura; Ratcliffe, Bridget; Lu, Yuxi(Lucy); Minchev, Ivan & Macciò, Andrea V.
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The Luminosity–Area Relation of z > 2 Quasars’ Lyα Nebulae. The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 952(1), L24.
Arrigoni, Battaia Fabrizio; Obreja, Aura; Costa, Tiago; Farina, Emanuele P. & Cai, Zheng
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VizieR Online Data Catalog: SCUBA-2 obs of high-z quasars (Arrigoni Battaia+, 2023), 2023yCat..36760051A
F. Arrigoni Battaia, A. Obreja, C. C. Chen, M. Nowotka, M. Fumagalli, J. X. Prochaska, Y. Yang, Z. Cai, N. Mu˜oz-Elgueta & M. Fossati
