The supermassive black hole merger driven evolution of high-redshift red nuggets into present-day cored early-type galaxies

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Rantala, Antti, Rawlings, Alexander, Naab, Thorsten, Thomas, Jens, Johansson, Peter H.
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2024
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author Rantala, Antti
Rawlings, Alexander
Naab, Thorsten
Thomas, Jens
Johansson, Peter H.
author_facet Rantala, Antti
Rawlings, Alexander
Naab, Thorsten
Thomas, Jens
Johansson, Peter H.
contents Very compact ($R_\mathrm{e}\lesssim1$ kpc) massive quiescent galaxies (red nuggets) are more abundant in the high-redshift Universe ($z\sim2$-$3$) than today. Their size evolution can be explained by collisionless dynamical processes in galaxy mergers which, however, fail to reproduce the diffuse low-density central cores in the local massive early-type galaxies (ETGs). We use sequences of major and minor merger N-body simulations starting with compact spherical and disk-like progenitor models to investigate the impact of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) on the evolution of the galaxies. With the KETJU code we accurately follow the collisional interaction of the SMBHs with the nearby stellar population and the collisionless evolution of the galaxies and their dark matter halos. We show that only models including SMBHs can simultaneously explain the formation of low-density cores up to sizes of $R_\mathrm{b} \sim 1.3$ kpc with mass deficits in the observed range and the rapid half-mass size evolution. In addition, the orbital structure in the core region (tangentially biased orbits) is consistent with observation-based results for local cored ETGs. The displacement of stars by the SMBHs boost the half-mass size evolution by up to a factor of two and even fast rotating progenitors (compact quiescent disks) lose their rotational support after $6$-$8$ mergers. We conclude that the presence of SMBHs is required for merger driven evolution models of high redshift red nuggets into local ETGs.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2407_18303
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The supermassive black hole merger driven evolution of high-redshift red nuggets into present-day cored early-type galaxies
Rantala, Antti
Rawlings, Alexander
Naab, Thorsten
Thomas, Jens
Johansson, Peter H.
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Very compact ($R_\mathrm{e}\lesssim1$ kpc) massive quiescent galaxies (red nuggets) are more abundant in the high-redshift Universe ($z\sim2$-$3$) than today. Their size evolution can be explained by collisionless dynamical processes in galaxy mergers which, however, fail to reproduce the diffuse low-density central cores in the local massive early-type galaxies (ETGs). We use sequences of major and minor merger N-body simulations starting with compact spherical and disk-like progenitor models to investigate the impact of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) on the evolution of the galaxies. With the KETJU code we accurately follow the collisional interaction of the SMBHs with the nearby stellar population and the collisionless evolution of the galaxies and their dark matter halos. We show that only models including SMBHs can simultaneously explain the formation of low-density cores up to sizes of $R_\mathrm{b} \sim 1.3$ kpc with mass deficits in the observed range and the rapid half-mass size evolution. In addition, the orbital structure in the core region (tangentially biased orbits) is consistent with observation-based results for local cored ETGs. The displacement of stars by the SMBHs boost the half-mass size evolution by up to a factor of two and even fast rotating progenitors (compact quiescent disks) lose their rotational support after $6$-$8$ mergers. We conclude that the presence of SMBHs is required for merger driven evolution models of high redshift red nuggets into local ETGs.
title The supermassive black hole merger driven evolution of high-redshift red nuggets into present-day cored early-type galaxies
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.18303