High-redshift AGN population in radiation-hydrodynamics simulations

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Hauptverfasser: Bulichi, Teodora-Elena, Zier, Oliver, Smith, Aaron, Vogelsberger, Mark, Eilers, Anna-Christina, Kannan, Rahul, Shen, Xuejian, Puchwein, Ewald, Garaldi, Enrico, Borrow, Josh
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Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Bulichi, Teodora-Elena
Zier, Oliver
Smith, Aaron
Vogelsberger, Mark
Eilers, Anna-Christina
Kannan, Rahul
Shen, Xuejian
Puchwein, Ewald
Garaldi, Enrico
Borrow, Josh
author_facet Bulichi, Teodora-Elena
Zier, Oliver
Smith, Aaron
Vogelsberger, Mark
Eilers, Anna-Christina
Kannan, Rahul
Shen, Xuejian
Puchwein, Ewald
Garaldi, Enrico
Borrow, Josh
contents High-redshift active galactic nuclei (AGN) have long been recognized as key probes of early black hole growth and galaxy evolution. However, modeling this population remains difficult due to the wide range of luminosities and black hole masses involved, and the high computational costs of capturing the hydrodynamic response of gas and evolving radiation fields on-the-fly. In this study, we present a new suite of simulations based on the IllustrisTNG galaxy formation framework, enhanced with on-the-fly radiative transfer, to examine AGN at high redshift (z > 5) in a protocluster environment extracted from the MillenniumTNG simulation. We focus on the co-evolution of black holes and their host galaxies, as well as the radiative impact on surrounding intergalactic gas. The model predicts that black holes form in overdense regions and lie below the local black hole-stellar mass relation, with stellar mass assembly preceding significant black hole accretion. Ionizing photons are primarily produced by stars, which shape the morphology of ionized regions and drive reionization. Given the restrictive black hole growth in the original IllustrisTNG model, we reduce the radiative efficiency from 0.2 to 0.1, resulting in higher accretion rates for massive black holes, more bursty growth, and earlier AGN-driven quenching. However, the resulting AGN remain significantly fainter than observed high-redshift quasars. As such, to incorporate this missing population, we introduce a quasar boosted model, in which we artificially boost the AGN luminosity. This results in strong effects on the surrounding gas, most notably a proximity effect, and large contributions to He ionization.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_11605
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle High-redshift AGN population in radiation-hydrodynamics simulations
Bulichi, Teodora-Elena
Zier, Oliver
Smith, Aaron
Vogelsberger, Mark
Eilers, Anna-Christina
Kannan, Rahul
Shen, Xuejian
Puchwein, Ewald
Garaldi, Enrico
Borrow, Josh
Astrophysics of Galaxies
High-redshift active galactic nuclei (AGN) have long been recognized as key probes of early black hole growth and galaxy evolution. However, modeling this population remains difficult due to the wide range of luminosities and black hole masses involved, and the high computational costs of capturing the hydrodynamic response of gas and evolving radiation fields on-the-fly. In this study, we present a new suite of simulations based on the IllustrisTNG galaxy formation framework, enhanced with on-the-fly radiative transfer, to examine AGN at high redshift (z > 5) in a protocluster environment extracted from the MillenniumTNG simulation. We focus on the co-evolution of black holes and their host galaxies, as well as the radiative impact on surrounding intergalactic gas. The model predicts that black holes form in overdense regions and lie below the local black hole-stellar mass relation, with stellar mass assembly preceding significant black hole accretion. Ionizing photons are primarily produced by stars, which shape the morphology of ionized regions and drive reionization. Given the restrictive black hole growth in the original IllustrisTNG model, we reduce the radiative efficiency from 0.2 to 0.1, resulting in higher accretion rates for massive black holes, more bursty growth, and earlier AGN-driven quenching. However, the resulting AGN remain significantly fainter than observed high-redshift quasars. As such, to incorporate this missing population, we introduce a quasar boosted model, in which we artificially boost the AGN luminosity. This results in strong effects on the surrounding gas, most notably a proximity effect, and large contributions to He ionization.
title High-redshift AGN population in radiation-hydrodynamics simulations
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.11605