Origin of the anti-hierarchical growth of black holes

TL;DR

This paper investigates the 'downsizing' trend in black hole growth, showing that modifications to a hierarchical galaxy formation model can reproduce observed AGN luminosity functions and growth patterns across cosmic time.

Contribution

The study introduces specific model modifications, including heavy black hole seeds and accretion rate limits, to reconcile hierarchical models with observed black hole growth downsizing.

Findings

Modified models reproduce the observed AGN luminosity functions.

Disk instabilities drive moderate-luminosity AGN at low redshift.

Major mergers trigger luminous AGN at high redshift.

Abstract

Observational studies have revealed a "downsizing" trend in black hole (BH) growth: the number densities of luminous AGN peak at higher redshifts than those of faint AGN. This would seem to imply that massive black holes formed before low mass black holes, in apparent contradiction to hierarchical clustering scenarios. We investigate whether this observed "downsizing" in BH growth is reproduced in a semi-analytic model for the formation and evolution of galaxies and black holes, set within the hierarchical paradigm for structure formation (Somerville et al. 2008; S08). In this model, black holes evolve from light seeds (\sim100M\odot) and their growth is merger-driven. The original S08 model (baseline model) reproduces the number density of AGN at intermediate redshifts and luminosities, but underproduces luminous AGN at very high redshift (z > 3) and overproduces them at low redshift (z < 1). In addition, the baseline model underproduces low-luminosity AGN at low redshift (z < 1). To solve these problems we consider several modifications to the physical processes in the model: (1) a 'heavy' black hole seeding scenario (2) a sub-Eddington accretion rate ceiling that depends on the cold gas fraction, and (3) an additional black hole accretion mode due to disk instabilities. With these three modifications, the models can explain the observed downsizing, successfully reproduce the bolometric AGN luminosity function and simultaneously reproduce galaxy and black hole properties in the local Universe. We also perform a comparison with the observed soft and hard X-ray luminosity functions of AGN, including an empirical correction for torus-level obscuration, and reach similar conclusions. Our best-fit model suggests a scenario in which disk instabilities are the main driver for moderately luminous Seyfert galaxies at low redshift, while major mergers are the main trigger for luminous AGN.