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整个生命的一生中如何形成和发展。 这种理解对于发现我们的宇宙如何发展并洞悉我们自己银河系的起源是必要的。 几乎所有星系似乎都有大型的中央黑洞（BHS） - 许多星系比我们的银河系大得多。 观察结果揭示了星系与大量BHS之间的密切联系。 但是，大规模BHS的形成，它们的生长方式以及它们如何通过反馈影响星系生命周期的理解仍然很差。 通过重力扭矩和观察到由活跃银河系核（AGN）驱动的星系尺度风（AGN），我们对从银河尺度到银河系核的气体转运的基本进步的基本进步正在改变我们对BH生长和反馈的理解，并在回答这些方面取得了明显的进步。问题。 该项目是一个多尺度的仿真程序，该计划基于这些突破以及研究人员以前的分析建模。 该项目将从星系和银河核中的BH增长和反馈的超高分辨率模拟（降至约0.01 pc）开始。该组还将从专门设计旨在支持其教育和外展工作的模拟中产生可视化。 可视化将包括时间依赖的动画和3D交互式探索模块，将显示在芝加哥阿德勒天文馆的太空可视化实验室中。 PI是该奖项资助的博士后，该小组的研究生将每月自愿参加Adler的“天文学对话”，该活动每小时吸引300名访客。 通过这些天文学对话，团队将向公众向公众解释黑洞在Galaxy进化中的迷人作用。 他们还将将教育材料整合到一年的计算天体物理学课程中，为西北航空人才开发中心提供的高中生。 在课程中，学生学习在Python中进行编码，并将这些技能应用于使用他们选择的大量天文数据集追求独立研究项目。 视频（其中包括对模拟背后的科学的解释以及如何创建它们）将向学生介绍一种新型的模拟数据集，他们可以为自己的项目工作。 调查人员还将继续积极地让本科生参与其研究。该项目的模拟将包括一个明确的恒星反馈模型，该模型自以为是，会产生多相星际培养基和恒星形成驱动的外流。 这些模拟将用于研究BH积聚的物理学以及在一组代表性的模型星系中广角AGN驱动流出的相互作用，包括AGN对气体和恒星形成的影响，以及校准AGN加油和反馈模型用于宇宙模拟。 然后，BHS将在宇宙学模拟（大约1至100 pc分辨率）中实施，这将使PI能够研究大规模BHS的起源（种子模型和超级 - 埃德丁顿积聚的需求），Galaxy-BH缩放关系的出现， AGN反馈在大型星系中淬灭恒星形成中的作用，以及AGN流出对光晕气的影响。 从小到较大的尺度构建的系统方法将使PI能够解决银河系和宇宙学量表上BHS的先前模拟的主要不确定性。 为了最大程度地提高模拟的影响，辐射转移计算将允许以当前和将来的大量观察结果直接测试结果，将被紧密地纳入项目中。 这项多尺度BH研究的目的是实现BHS的预测能力水平，可与恒星形成可能成为可能。 将开发的子分辨率BH模型将使在星系尺度和宇宙学模拟中实质上更具预测性的BH建模，从而可以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