AGN Feedback models: Correlations with star formation and observational implications of time evolution

TL;DR

This study investigates how different AGN feedback models influence the correlation between star formation and black hole accretion rates over time, revealing significant model-dependent variations and implications for observational interpretations.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of SFR-BHAR correlations across multiple AGN feedback models and evolutionary stages, highlighting differences and observational implications.

Findings

SFR-BHAR correlations vary significantly among models.

Post-merger trends tend to be more linear.

Variation in black hole growth fractions can be up to a factor of three.

Abstract

We examine the correlation between the star formation rate (SFR) and black hole accretion rate (BHAR) across a suite of different AGN feedback models, using the time evolution of a merger simulation. By considering three different stages of evolution, and a distinction between the nuclear and outer regions of star formation, we consider 63 different cases. Despite many of the feedback models fitting the M-\sigma\ relationship well, there are often distinct differences in the SFR-BHAR correlations, with close to linear trends only being present after the merger. Some of the models also show evolution in the SFR-BHAR parameter space that is at times directly across the long-term averaged SFR-BHAR correlation. This suggests that the observational SFR-BHAR correlation found for ensembles of galaxies is an approximate statistical trend, as suggested by Hickox et al. Decomposing the SFR into nuclear and outer components also highlights notable differences between models and there is only modest agreement with observational studies examining this in Seyfert galaxies. For the fraction of the black hole mass growth from the merger event relative to the final black hole mass, we find as much as a factor of three variation among models. This also translates into a similar variation in the post-starburst black hole mass growth. Overall, we find that while qualitative features are often similar amongst models, precise quantitative analysis shows there can be quite distinct differences.