The Accretion Mode in Sub-Eddington Supermassive Black Holes: Getting into the Central Parsecs of Andromeda

TL;DR

This study uses hydrodynamical simulations to explore how dust filaments feed the supermassive black hole in Andromeda, revealing the formation of a nuclear disk and the conditions necessary for stable accretion at extremely low luminosities.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed hydrodynamical model linking dust filament dynamics to accretion processes in a quiescent supermassive black hole in M31.

Findings

Filaments originate from an outer circumnuclear ring and feed the central disk.

A critical streamer mass of several 10^3 solar masses is necessary for stable inflow.

Final inflow rate matches the observed quiescent accretion rate of M31's black hole.

Abstract

The inner kiloparsec regions surrounding sub-Eddington (luminosity less than 10$^{-3}$ in Eddington units, L$_{Edd}$) supermassive black holes (BHs) often show a characteristic network of dust filaments that terminate in a nuclear spiral in the central parsecs. Here we study the role and fate of these filaments in one of the least accreting BHs known, M31 (10$^{-7}$ L$_{Edd}$) using hydrodynamical simulations. The evolution of a streamer of gas particles moving under the barred potential of M31 is followed from kiloparsec distance to the central parsecs. After an exploratory study of initial conditions, a compelling fit to the observed dust/ionized gas morphologies and line-of-sight velocities in the inner hundreds of parsecs is produced. After several million years of streamer evolution, during which friction, thermal dissipation, and self-collisions have taken place, the gas settles into a disk tens of parsecs wide. This is fed by numerous filaments that arise from an outer circumnuclear ring and spiral toward the center. The final configuration is tightly constrained by a critical input mass in the streamer of several 10$^3$ M$_{\odot}$ (at an injection rate of 10$^{-4}$ M$_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$); values above or below this lead to filament fragmentation or dispersion respectively, which are not observed. The creation of a hot gas atmosphere in the region of $\sim$10$^6$ K is key to the development of a nuclear spiral during the simulation. The final inflow rate at 1pc from the center is $\sim$1.7 $\times$ 10$^{-7}$ M$_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$, consistent with the quiescent state of the M31 BH.