Accretion Disks in Active Galactic Nuclei: Gas Supply Driven by Star Formation

TL;DR

This paper models how star formation and supernovae feedback drive accretion disks in AGNs, explaining gas supply, metallicity, and star cluster formation near supermassive black holes.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive model including star formation feedback and supernovae-driven turbulence to explain accretion and metallicity in AGN disks.

Findings

Supernovae explosions excite turbulence, aiding angular momentum transport.

The model predicts a metallicity-luminosity relationship matching observations.

Old stellar rings form as relics of star-forming episodes.

Abstract

Self-gravitating accretion disks collapse to star-forming(SF) regions extending to the inner edge of the dusty torus in active galactic nuclei (AGNs). A full set of equations including feedback of star formation is given to describe the dynamics of the regions. We explore the role of supernovae explosion (SNexp), acting to excite turbulent viscosity, in the transportation of angular momentum in the regions within 1pc scale. We find that accretion disks with typical rates in AGNs can be driven by SNexp in the regions and metals are produced spontaneously. The present model predicts a metallicity--luminosity relationship consistent with that observed in AGNs. As relics of SF regions, a ring (or belt) consisting of old stars remains for every episode of supermassive black hole activity. We suggest that multiple stellar rings with random directions interact and form a nuclear star cluster after episodes driven by star formation.