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.

天体物理学中一个长期存在的问题是了解星系在其一生中如何形成和发展。 这种理解对于揭示我们的宇宙如何演化以及深入了解我们银河系的起源是必要的。 几乎所有星系似乎都有巨大的中央黑洞（BH）——许多星系的黑洞比我们银河系的黑洞大得多。 观测揭示了星系和大质量黑洞之间的密切联系。 然而，人们对大质量黑洞的形成、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。 我们对通过引力扭矩从星系尺度向星系核传输气体的理解以及对活动星系核（AGN）驱动的星系尺度风的观测的根本性进展正在改变我们对BH增长和反馈的理解，并在回答这些问题方面取得明确进展问题。 该项目是一个多尺度模拟程序，建立在这些突破和研究人员之前的分析模型的基础上。 该项目将从星系和星系核中 BH 增长和反馈的超高分辨率模拟（低至约 0.01 pc）开始。该小组还将从专门设计的模拟中生成可视化结果，以支持他们的教育和推广工作。 这些可视化内容包括随时间变化的动画和 3D 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示。 PI、由该奖项资助的博士后以及小组中的研究生将每月自愿参加一次在阿德勒举行的“天文对话”，每小时可吸引多达 300 名各个年龄段的参观者。 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。 他们还将把教育材料整合到西北大学人才发展中心为高中生提供的为期一年的计算天体物理学课程中。 在课程中，学生学习用 Python 编写代码，并将这些技能运用到使用他们选择的大型天文数据集进行独立研究项目。 视频（其中包括对模拟背后的科学原理及其创建方式的解释）将向学生介绍一种新的模拟数据集，他们可以在自己的项目中使用该数据集。 研究人员还将继续积极让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流出物。 这些模拟将用于研究 BH 吸积的物理原理以及一组代表性模型星系中广角 AGN 驱动的流出物的相互作用，包括 AGN 对气体和恒星形成的影响，并校准 AGN 燃料和反馈模型用于宇宙学模拟。 然后，BH 将在宇宙学模拟（大约 1 到 100 pc 分辨率）中实现，这将使 PI 能够研究大质量 BH 的起源（种子模型和超级爱丁顿吸积的需要）、星系-BH 尺度关系的出现、 AGN 反馈在大质量星系中猝灭恒星形成中的作用，以及 AGN 流出对晕气体的影响。 从小尺度到大尺度建立的系统方法将使 PI 能够解决先前在星系和宇宙尺度上模拟黑洞的主要不确定性。 为了最大限度地发挥模拟的影响，辐射传输计算将被紧密地纳入该项目中，这将允许通过大量当前和未来的观测来直接测试结果。 这项多尺度的黑洞洞研究的目标是使黑洞洞洞的预测能力达到与恒星形成的可能性相当的水平。 将开发的亚分辨率 BH 模型将在星系尺度和宇宙学模拟中实现更具预测性的 BH 建模，从而减轻当前星系形成理论中最大的不确定性。

项目成果

A model for the origin of bursty star formation in galaxies

星系中爆发式恒星形成的起源模型

• DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stx2595
• 发表时间: 2017-10
• 期刊: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
• 影响因子: 4.8
• 作者: Faucher

An instability of feedback-regulated star formation in galactic nuclei

星系核中反馈调节的恒星形成的不稳定性

• DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stx254
• 发表时间: 2017-02
• 期刊: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
• 影响因子: 4.8
• 作者: Torrey, Paul;Hopkins, Philip F.;Faucher;Vogelsberger, Mark;Quataert, Eliot;Kereš, Dušan;Murray, Norman
• 通讯作者: Murray, Norman

FIRE-2 simulations: physics versus numerics in galaxy formation

FIRE-2 模拟：星系形成中的物理与数值

• DOI: 10.1093/mnras/sty1690
• 发表时间: 2018-06
• 期刊: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
• 影响因子: 4.8
• 作者: Hopkins, Philip F;Wetzel, Andrew;Kereš, Dušan;Faucher;Quataert, Eliot;Boylan;Murray, Norman;Hayward, Christopher C;Garrison;Hummels, Cameron;et al
• 通讯作者: et al

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

着火的黑洞：恒星反馈限制了星系核的早期供给

• DOI: 10.1093/mnrasl/slx161
• 发表时间: 2017-10
• 期刊: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
• 作者: Anglés;Faucher;Quataert, Eliot;Hopkins, Philip F.;Feldmann, Robert;Torrey, Paul;Wetzel, Andrew;Kereš, Dušan
• 通讯作者: Kereš, Dušan