Feedback from Nuclear Star Clusters and SMBHs

TL;DR

This paper investigates how feedback from nuclear star clusters and supermassive black holes influences galaxy evolution, highlighting the importance of understanding feeding and feedback processes through numerical simulations.

Contribution

It emphasizes the significance of feeding mechanisms alongside feedback effects in galaxy formation, supported by new numerical simulation results.

Findings

Feedback from CMOs drives gas out of galaxy bulges.

Growth timescales explain the prevalence of NCs in small bulges.

Understanding feeding is as crucial as feedback in galaxy evolution.

Abstract

The observed super-massive black hole (SMBH) mass -- galaxy velocity dispersion ($M_{\rm cmo} - \sigma$) correlation, and the similar correlation for nuclear star clusters, may be established when winds/outflows from the CMO ("central massive object") drive gas out of the potential wells of classical bulges. Timescales of growth for these objects may explain why smaller bulges appear to host preferentially NCs while larger ones contain SMBHs only. Despite much recent progress, feedback processes in bulge/galaxy formation are far from being understood. Our numerical simulations show that that understanding how the CMO feeds is as important a piece of the puzzle as understanding how its feedback affects its host galaxy.