Active Galactic Nuclei Feedback in an Elliptical Galaxy with the Most Updated AGN Physics (I): Low-angular Momentum Case

TL;DR

This study uses advanced hydrodynamical simulations to explore how updated AGN physics influence galaxy evolution, emphasizing the roles of radiation and wind feedback in different accretion modes.

Contribution

It introduces detailed modeling of hot and cold accretion modes with updated physics, highlighting their distinct feedback effects on galaxy evolution.

Findings

Radiation and wind feedbacks have different impacts depending on the accretion mode.

Simulation results are consistent with observational data.

Neglecting either feedback mechanism leads to inaccurate galaxy evolution predictions.

Abstract

We investigate the effects of AGN feedback on the cosmological evolution of an isolated elliptical galaxy by performing two-dimensional high-resolution hydrodynamical numerical simulations. The inner boundary of the simulation is chosen so that the Bondi radius is resolved. Compared to previous works, the two accretion modes, namely hot and cold, which correspond to different accretion rates and have different radiation and wind outputs, are carefully discriminated and the feedback effects by radiation and wind in each mode are taken into account. The most updated AGN physics, including the descriptions of radiation and wind from the hot accretion flows and wind from cold accretion disks, are adopted. Physical processes like star formation, Type Ia and Type II supernovae are taken into account. We study the AGN light curve, typical AGN lifetime, growth of the black hole mass, AGN duty-cycle, star formation, and the X-ray surface brightness of the galaxy. We compare our simulation results with observations and find general consistency. Comparisons with previous simulation works find significant differences, indicating the importance of AGN physics. The respective roles of radiation and wind feedbacks are examined and it is found that they are different for different problems of interest such as AGN luminosity and star formation. We find that it is hard to neglect any of them, so we suggest to use the names of "cold feedback mode" and "hot feedback mode" to replace the currently used ones.