The Role of Black Hole Feedback on Size and Structural Evolution in Massive Galaxies

TL;DR

This study uses cosmological simulations to show that black hole feedback significantly influences the size, density, and star formation activity of massive galaxies, promoting their evolution from compact blue to extended red systems.

Contribution

It demonstrates through simulations that AGN feedback affects galaxy structure, size growth, and star formation quenching, highlighting its crucial role in galaxy evolution.

Findings

AGN feedback reduces core density by 0.3 dex since z=1

It transforms blue compact galaxies into red extended galaxies

AGN feedback suppresses star formation and promotes size growth

Abstract

We use cosmological hydrodynamical simulations to investigate the role of feedback from accreting black holes on the evolution of sizes, compactness, stellar core density and specific star-formation of massive galaxies with stellar masses of $ M_{star} > 10^{10.9} M_{\odot}$. We perform two sets of cosmological zoom-in simulations of 30 halos to z=0: (1) without black holes and Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) feedback and (2) with AGN feedback arising from winds and X-ray radiation. We find that AGN feedback can alter the stellar density distribution, reduce the core density within the central 1 kpc by 0.3 dex from z=1, and enhance the size growth of massive galaxies. We also find that galaxies simulated with AGN feedback evolve along similar tracks to those characterized by observations in specific star formation versus compactness. We confirm that AGN feedback plays an important role in transforming galaxies from blue compact galaxies into red extended galaxies in two ways: (1) it effectively quenches the star formation, transforming blue compact galaxies into compact quiescent galaxies and (2) it also removes and prevents new accretion of cold gas, shutting down in-situ star formation and causing subsequent mergers to be gas-poor or mixed. Gas poor minor mergers then build up an extended stellar envelope. AGN feedback also puffs up the central region through the fast AGN driven winds as well as the slow expulsion of gas while the black hole is quiescent. Without AGN feedback, large amounts of gas accumulate in the central region, triggering star formation and leading to overly massive blue galaxies with dense stellar cores.