Toward physically-predictive modeling of massive black hole growth and feedback in galaxy formation

对大质量黑洞生长和星系形成反馈进行物理预测建模

• 批准号: 1517491
• 负责人: Claude-Andre Faucher-Giguere
• 金额: $ 44.04万
• 依托单位: Northwestern University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-08-01 至 2019-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1517491&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Toward; physically; predictive; modeling; massive

A longstanding problem in astrophysics is to understand how galaxies form and develop throughout their lifetimes. Such understanding is necessary to uncover how our Universe evolved and to gain insight into the origin of our own Milky Way Galaxy. Nearly all galaxies appear to have massive central black holes (BHs)---many with ones much, much larger than our Milky Way's. Observations reveal close connections between galaxies and massive BHs. However, the formation of massive BHs, how they grow, and how they affect the galaxy life cycle via feedback remain poorly understood. Fundamental advances in our understanding of gas transport from galactic scales into galactic nuclei by gravitational torques and in observations of galaxy-scale winds driven by active galactic nuclei (AGN) are transforming our understanding of BH growth and feedback and are enabling definitive progress in answering these questions. This project is a multi-scale simulation program that builds on these breakthroughs and on the investigators' previous analytic modeling. The project will begin with ultra-high resolution simulations (down to about 0.01 pc) of BH growth and feedback in galaxies and galactic nuclei.The group will also produce visualizations from their simulations specifically designed to support their education and outreach efforts. The visualizations, which will include both time-dependent animations and 3-D interactive exploration modules, will be displayed at the Space Visualization Laboratory at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. The PI, the postdoc funded by this award, and graduate students in the group will volunteer once a month for "astronomy conversations" at Adler, which attract up to 300 visitors per hour of all ages. Through these astronomy conversations, the team will explain the fascinating roles of black holes in galaxy evolution to the public. They will also integrate educational materials into a year long computational astrophysics course for high school students offered through Northwestern's Center for Talent Development. In the course, students learn to code in Python and apply these skills to pursuing an independent research project using a large astronomical data set of their choosing. Videos (which will include explanations of the science behind the simulations and of how they were created) will introduce the students to a new kind of simulated data set that they can work on for their projects. The investigators will also continue to actively involve undergraduate students in their research.The project's simulations will include an explicit model for stellar feedback that self-consistently produces a multiphase interstellar medium and star-formation driven outflows. These simulations will be used to study the physics of BH accretion and the interaction of wide-angle AGN-driven outflows in a representative set of model galaxies, including the effects of AGN on gas and star formation, and to calibrate AGN fueling and feedback models for use in cosmological simulations. BHs will then be implemented in cosmological simulations (about 1 to 100 pc resolution) that will allow the PI to investigate the origin of massive BHs (seed models and the need for super-Eddington accretion), the emergence of galaxy-BH scaling relations, the role of AGN feedback in quenching star formation in massive galaxies, and the effects of AGN outflows on halo gas. A systematic approach, building up from small to larger scales, will enable the PI to resolve the main uncertainties of previous simulations of BHs on galaxy and cosmological scales. To maximize the impact of the simulations, radiative transfer calculations, which will allow a direct test of the results with a wealth of current and future observations, will be tightly incorporated in the project. The goal of this multi-scale BH study is to achieve for BHs a level of predictive power comparable to what has become possible for star formation. The sub-resolution BH models that will be developed will enable substantially more predictive BH modeling in galaxy-scale and cosmological simulations---thus alleviating arguably the largest uncertainty in current galaxy formation theories.

天体物理学的一个长期问题是了解星系在其一生中是如何形成和发展的。 这样的理解对于揭示我们的宇宙是如何演化的以及深入了解我们银河系的起源是必要的。 几乎所有的星系似乎都有巨大的中心黑洞（BH）--许多黑洞比我们的银河系大得多。 观测揭示了星系和大质量黑洞之间的密切联系。 然而，大质量黑洞的形成，它们如何生长，以及它们如何通过反馈影响星系生命周期仍然知之甚少。 在我们对引力矩作用下星系尺度的气体输运到星系核中的理解以及对活动星系核（AGN）驱动的星系尺度风的观测方面的根本性进展正在改变我们对BH增长和反馈的理解，并使我们能够在回答这些问题方面取得决定性进展。 这个项目是一个多尺度的模拟程序，建立在这些突破和研究人员以前的分析建模。 该项目将开始超高分辨率模拟（低至约0.01 pc）的BH增长和反馈的星系和星系核。该小组还将产生可视化从他们的模拟专门设计，以支持他们的教育和推广工作。 这些可视化将包括与时间相关的动画和三维交互式探索模块，将在芝加哥阿德勒天文馆的空间可视化实验室展出。 PI，由该奖项资助的博士后，以及小组中的研究生将每月在阿德勒志愿参加一次“天文学对话”，每小时吸引多达300名各年龄段的游客。 通过这些天文学对话，该团队将向公众解释黑洞在星系演化中的迷人作用。 他们还将通过西北大学人才发展中心为高中生提供为期一年的计算天体物理学课程。 在课程中，学生学习用Python编码，并将这些技能应用于使用他们选择的大型天文数据集进行独立的研究项目。 视频（包括解释模拟背后的科学以及它们是如何创建的）将向学生介绍一种新的模拟数据集，他们可以为他们的项目工作。 研究人员还将继续积极吸引本科生参与他们的研究。该项目的模拟将包括一个明确的恒星反馈模型，该模型自洽地产生多相星际介质和恒星形成驱动的外流。 这些模拟将被用来研究BH吸积的物理和在一组代表性的模型星系，包括活动星系核对气体和星星形成的影响，广角活动星系核驱动的外流的相互作用，并校准活动星系核燃料和反馈模型用于宇宙学模拟。 黑洞将在宇宙学模拟（约1至100 pc的分辨率），这将使PI调查的起源大规模黑洞（种子模型和需要超级爱丁顿吸积），星系BH标度关系的出现，在淬火星星形成在大规模星系的活动星系核反馈的作用，以及活动星系核流出的影响晕气体。 一个系统的方法，从小到大的尺度，建立将使PI解决的主要不确定性的星系和宇宙尺度上的黑洞以前的模拟。 为了最大限度地发挥模拟的影响，辐射传输计算将紧密结合在项目中，这将允许利用大量当前和未来的观测结果直接测试结果。 这个多尺度黑洞研究的目标是实现黑洞的预测能力的水平相比，什么已经成为可能的星星形成。 将开发的次分辨率BH模型将使银河系尺度和宇宙学模拟中的BH模型具有更大的预测性-从而减轻当前星系形成理论中最大的不确定性。

项目成果

Black holes on FIRE: stellar feedback limits early feeding of galactic nuclei

• DOI: 10.1093/mnrasl/slx161
• 发表时间: 2017-07
• 期刊: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
• 影响因子: 4.8
• 作者: D. Angl'es-Alc'azar;C. Faucher-Giguère;E. Quataert;P. Hopkins;R. Feldmann;P. Torrey;A. Wetzel

A Model for the Origin of Bursty Star Formation in Galaxies

• DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stx2595
• 发表时间: 2017-01
• 期刊: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
• 影响因子: 4.8
• 作者: C. Faucher-Giguère

FIRE-2 simulations: physics versus numerics in galaxy formation

• DOI: 10.1093/mnras/sty1690
• 发表时间: 2017-02
• 期刊: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
• 影响因子: 4.8
• 作者: P. Hopkins;A. Wetzel;D. Keres̆;C. Faucher-Giguère;E. Quataert;M. Boylan-Kolchin;N. Murray;C. Hayw