Equal- and unequal-mass mergers of disk and elliptical galaxies with black holes

TL;DR

This study uses galaxy merger simulations with various mass ratios and types, including gas dynamics and black hole feedback, to understand galaxy evolution and black hole growth, aligning well with observed galaxy-black hole relations.

Contribution

It provides detailed simulations of galaxy mergers with different morphologies and mass ratios, incorporating black hole feedback and gas physics, to explore their effects on galaxy and black hole co-evolution.

Findings

Black hole growth correlates with progenitor mass ratio.

Star formation suppression depends on merger type and mass ratio.

Simulated galaxy-black hole relations match observations.

Abstract

We present binary galaxy merger simulations with varying mass ratios and different progenitor morphologies. The simulations include mergers of gas-rich disks (Sp-Sp), of early-type galaxies and disks (E-Sp, mixed mergers), and mergers of early-type galaxies (E-E, dry mergers). We follow the dynamics of gas, stars and dark matter, and include radiative cooling, star formation and black hole (BH) accretion. For Sp-Sp mergers, the peak star formation rate and BH accretion rate decrease and the growth timescales of the central black holes and newly formed stars increase with higher progenitor mass ratios. The peak BH accretion rate typically occurs shortly after the time of BH merging for low progenitor mass ratios (e.g. 3:1 and lower), whereas for higher progenitor mass ratios there is no clear correlation between the peak BH accretion rate and BH merging time. The termination of star formation by BH feedback in disk mergers is significantly less important for higher progenitor mass ratios (e.g. 3:1 and higher). In addition, the inclusion of BH feedback suppresses efficiently star formation in dry E-E mergers and mixed E-Sp mergers. All merger remnants, independent of their progenitors, follow the observed relations between the central BH mass and the stellar velocity dispersion M_BH-sigma, the bulge mass M_BH-M_* and the bulge binding energy M_BH-M_{*}sigma^2, with the dominant source of scatter arising from variations in the initial gas mass fraction. The normalizations for all relations and the simulated slope of the M_BH-sigma and M_BH-M_{*}sigma^2 relations are in good agreement with the observations, whereas the simulated slope of the M_BH-M_* relation is slightly steeper compared to the observations. (abridged)