Growing supermassive black holes: sub-grid modelling and intermediate-scale processes

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new sub-grid model for black hole growth that accounts for intermediate-scale processes, enhancing accretion rates in galaxy simulations.

Contribution

It presents a novel accretion prescription and simulation results that better represent black hole growth across multiple scales.

Findings

Enhanced accretion rates due to intermediate-scale processes

A new sub-grid model for black hole growth

Improved understanding of black hole evolution in cosmological contexts

Abstract

The sheer range of scales in the Universe makes it impossible to model all at once. It is necessary, therefore, when conducting numerical experiments, that we employ sub-resolution prescriptions that can represent the scales we are unable to model directly. In this article we present a prescription for black hole growth that incorporates a different accretion regime from the standard approach used in the literature, and discuss the results of dedicated simulations of intermediate processes between small-scale accretion flows and large-scale cosmological volumes that can strongly enhance the accretion rate onto the black hole at the centre of a galaxy.