Radiation hydrodynamics simulations of line-driven AGN disc winds: metallicity dependence and black hole growth

TL;DR

This study uses radiation hydrodynamics simulations to explore how metallicity influences line-driven disc winds and the growth of black holes, revealing that higher metallicity suppresses accretion and affects SMBH evolution.

Contribution

The paper introduces a semi-analytical model linking metallicity and black hole mass to wind-driven mass loss, highlighting their impact on black hole growth.

Findings

Higher metallicity leads to denser, faster disc winds.

Mass accretion is reduced to 40-60% in high-metallicity environments.

Wind mass loss is negligible at sub-solar metallicities.

Abstract

Growth of the black holes (BHs) from the seeds to supermassive BHs (SMBHs, $\sim\!10^9\,M_\odot$) is not understood, but the mass accretion must have played an important role. We performed two-dimensional radiation hydrodynamics simulations of line-driven disc winds considering the metallicity dependence in a wide range of the BH mass, and investigated the reduction of the mass accretion rate due to the wind mass loss. Our results show that denser and faster disc winds appear at higher metallicities and larger BH masses. The accretion rate is suppressed to $\sim\! 0.4$--$0.6$ times the mass supply rate to the disc for the BH mass of $M_{\rm BH}\gtrsim 10^5\,M_{\odot}$ in high-metallicity environments of $Z\gtrsim Z_\odot$, while the wind mass loss is negligible when the metallicity is sub-solar ($\sim 0.1Z_\odot$). By developing a semi-analytical model, we found that the metallicity dependence of the line force and the BH mass dependence of the surface area of the wind launch region are the cause of the metallicity dependence ($\propto\! Z^{2/3}$) and BH mass dependencies ($\propto\! M_{\rm BH}^{4/3}$ for $M_{\rm BH}\leq 10^6\,M_\odot$ and $\propto\! M_{\rm BH}$ for $M_{\rm BH}\geq 10^6\,M_\odot$) of the mass-loss rate. Our model suggests that the growth of BHs by the gas accretion effectively slows down in the regime $\gtrsim 10^{5}M_\odot$ in metal-enriched environments $\gtrsim Z_\odot$. This means that the line-driven disc winds may have an impact on late evolution of SMBHs.