Misaligned external gas acquisition boosts central black hole activities

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Zhou, Yuren, Chen, Yanmei, Shi, Yong, Kauffmann, Guinevere, Wang, Junfeng, Jin, Gaoxiang, Wang, Lan, Feng, Shuai, Bao, Min
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Zhou, Yuren
Chen, Yanmei
Shi, Yong
Kauffmann, Guinevere
Wang, Junfeng
Jin, Gaoxiang
Wang, Lan
Feng, Shuai
Bao, Min
author_facet Zhou, Yuren
Chen, Yanmei
Shi, Yong
Kauffmann, Guinevere
Wang, Junfeng
Jin, Gaoxiang
Wang, Lan
Feng, Shuai
Bao, Min
contents One important question in active galactic nucleus (AGN) is how gas is brought down to the galaxy center. Both internal secular evolution (torque induced by non-axisymmetric galactic structures such as bars) and external processes (e.g. mergers or interactions) are expected to redistribute the angular momentum (AM) and transport gas inward. However, it is still under debate whether these processes can significantly affect AGN activities. Here we for the first time report that AGN fraction increases with the difference of kinematic position angles ($ΔPA\equiv|PA_{\mathrm{gas}}-PA_{\mathrm{star}}|$) between ionized gas ($PA_{\mathrm{gas}}$) and stellar disks ($PA_{\mathrm{star}}$) in blue and green galaxies, meanwhile this fraction remains roughly constant for red galaxies. Also the high luminosity AGN fraction increases with $ΔPA$ while the low luminosity AGN fraction is independent with $ΔPA$. These observational results support a scenario in which the interaction between accreted and pre-existing gas provides the AM loss mechanism, thereby the gas inflow fuels the central BH activities, and the AM loss efficiency is positively correlated with the $ΔPA$.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_00627
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Misaligned external gas acquisition boosts central black hole activities
Zhou, Yuren
Chen, Yanmei
Shi, Yong
Kauffmann, Guinevere
Wang, Junfeng
Jin, Gaoxiang
Wang, Lan
Feng, Shuai
Bao, Min
Astrophysics of Galaxies
One important question in active galactic nucleus (AGN) is how gas is brought down to the galaxy center. Both internal secular evolution (torque induced by non-axisymmetric galactic structures such as bars) and external processes (e.g. mergers or interactions) are expected to redistribute the angular momentum (AM) and transport gas inward. However, it is still under debate whether these processes can significantly affect AGN activities. Here we for the first time report that AGN fraction increases with the difference of kinematic position angles ($ΔPA\equiv|PA_{\mathrm{gas}}-PA_{\mathrm{star}}|$) between ionized gas ($PA_{\mathrm{gas}}$) and stellar disks ($PA_{\mathrm{star}}$) in blue and green galaxies, meanwhile this fraction remains roughly constant for red galaxies. Also the high luminosity AGN fraction increases with $ΔPA$ while the low luminosity AGN fraction is independent with $ΔPA$. These observational results support a scenario in which the interaction between accreted and pre-existing gas provides the AM loss mechanism, thereby the gas inflow fuels the central BH activities, and the AM loss efficiency is positively correlated with the $ΔPA$.
title Misaligned external gas acquisition boosts central black hole activities
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.00627