FORGE'd in FIRE: Resolving the End of Star Formation and Structure of AGN Accretion Disks from Cosmological Initial Conditions

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Main Authors: Hopkins, Philip F., Grudic, Michael Y., Su, Kung-Yi, Wellons, Sarah, Angles-Alcazar, Daniel, Steinwandel, Ulrich P., Guszejnov, David, Murray, Norman, Faucher-Giguere, Claude-Andre, Quataert, Eliot, Keres, Dusan
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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author Hopkins, Philip F.
Grudic, Michael Y.
Su, Kung-Yi
Wellons, Sarah
Angles-Alcazar, Daniel
Steinwandel, Ulrich P.
Guszejnov, David
Murray, Norman
Faucher-Giguere, Claude-Andre
Quataert, Eliot
Keres, Dusan
author_facet Hopkins, Philip F.
Grudic, Michael Y.
Su, Kung-Yi
Wellons, Sarah
Angles-Alcazar, Daniel
Steinwandel, Ulrich P.
Guszejnov, David
Murray, Norman
Faucher-Giguere, Claude-Andre
Quataert, Eliot
Keres, Dusan
contents It has recently become possible to zoom-in from cosmological to sub-pc scales in galaxy simulations to follow accretion onto supermassive black holes (SMBHs). However, at some point the approximations used on ISM scales (e.g. optically-thin cooling and stellar-population-integrated star formation [SF] and feedback [FB]) break down. We therefore present the first cosmological radiation-magnetohydrodynamic (RMHD) simulation which self-consistently combines the FIRE physics (relevant on galactic/ISM scales where SF/FB are ensemble-averaged) and STARFORGE physics (relevant on small scales where we track individual (proto)stellar formation and evolution), together with explicit RMHD (including non-ideal MHD and multi-band M1-RHD) which self-consistently treats both optically-thick and thin regimes. This allows us to span scales from ~100 Mpc down to <100 au (~300 Schwarzschild radii) around a SMBH at a time where it accretes as a bright quasar, in a single simulation. We show that accretion rates up to $\sim 10-100\,{\rm M_{\odot}\,yr^{-1}}$ can be sustained into the accretion disk at $\ll 10^{3}\,R_{\rm schw}$, with gravitational torques between stars and gas dominating on sub-kpc scales until star formation is shut down on sub-pc scales by a combination of optical depth to cooling and strong magnetic fields. There is an intermediate-scale, flux-frozen disk which is gravitoturbulent and stabilized by magnetic pressure sustaining strong turbulence and inflow with persistent spiral modes. In this paper we focus on how gas gets into the small-scale disk, and how star formation is efficiently suppressed.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2309_13115
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle FORGE'd in FIRE: Resolving the End of Star Formation and Structure of AGN Accretion Disks from Cosmological Initial Conditions
Hopkins, Philip F.
Grudic, Michael Y.
Su, Kung-Yi
Wellons, Sarah
Angles-Alcazar, Daniel
Steinwandel, Ulrich P.
Guszejnov, David
Murray, Norman
Faucher-Giguere, Claude-Andre
Quataert, Eliot
Keres, Dusan
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
It has recently become possible to zoom-in from cosmological to sub-pc scales in galaxy simulations to follow accretion onto supermassive black holes (SMBHs). However, at some point the approximations used on ISM scales (e.g. optically-thin cooling and stellar-population-integrated star formation [SF] and feedback [FB]) break down. We therefore present the first cosmological radiation-magnetohydrodynamic (RMHD) simulation which self-consistently combines the FIRE physics (relevant on galactic/ISM scales where SF/FB are ensemble-averaged) and STARFORGE physics (relevant on small scales where we track individual (proto)stellar formation and evolution), together with explicit RMHD (including non-ideal MHD and multi-band M1-RHD) which self-consistently treats both optically-thick and thin regimes. This allows us to span scales from ~100 Mpc down to <100 au (~300 Schwarzschild radii) around a SMBH at a time where it accretes as a bright quasar, in a single simulation. We show that accretion rates up to $\sim 10-100\,{\rm M_{\odot}\,yr^{-1}}$ can be sustained into the accretion disk at $\ll 10^{3}\,R_{\rm schw}$, with gravitational torques between stars and gas dominating on sub-kpc scales until star formation is shut down on sub-pc scales by a combination of optical depth to cooling and strong magnetic fields. There is an intermediate-scale, flux-frozen disk which is gravitoturbulent and stabilized by magnetic pressure sustaining strong turbulence and inflow with persistent spiral modes. In this paper we focus on how gas gets into the small-scale disk, and how star formation is efficiently suppressed.
title FORGE'd in FIRE: Resolving the End of Star Formation and Structure of AGN Accretion Disks from Cosmological Initial Conditions
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.13115