The gas fractions of dark matter haloes hosting simulated $\sim L^\star$ galaxies are governed by the feedback history of their black holes

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the feedback history of black holes influences the scatter in gas fractions of dark matter haloes hosting $ ext{L}^ ext{*}$ galaxies, highlighting the role of black hole mass and halo binding energy.

Contribution

It reveals that black hole mass, driven by halo binding energy, governs gas expulsion and galaxy properties, providing new insights into galaxy-halo co-evolution.

Findings

Black hole mass correlates negatively with halo gas fraction.

Halo gas fraction impacts X-ray luminosity and Sunyaev-Zel'dovich flux.

Diversity in black hole mass explains scatter in galaxy properties.

Abstract

We examine the origin of scatter in the relationship between the gas fraction and mass of dark matter haloes hosting present-day $\sim L^\star$ central galaxies in the EAGLE simulations. The scatter is uncorrelated with the accretion rate of the central galaxy's black hole (BH), but correlates strongly and negatively with the BH's mass, implicating differences in the expulsion of gas by active galactic nucleus feedback, throughout the assembly of the halo, as the main cause of scatter. Haloes whose central galaxies host undermassive BHs also tend to retain a higher gas fraction, and exhibit elevated star formation rates (SFRs). Diversity in the mass of central BHs stems primarily from diversity in the dark matter halo binding energy, as these quantities are strongly and positively correlated at fixed halo mass, such that $\sim L^\star$ galaxies hosted by haloes that are more (less) tightly-bound develop central BHs that are more (less) massive than is typical for their halo mass. Variations in the halo gas fraction at fixed halo mass are reflected in both the soft X-ray luminosity and thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich flux, suggesting that the prediction of a strong coupling between the properties of galaxies and their halo gas fractions can be tested with measurements of these diagnostics for galaxies with diverse SFRs but similar halo masses.