CaltechAUTHORS
Published December 10, 2024 | Version Published
Journal Article Open

Observational Signatures of AGN Feedback in the Morphology and the Ionization States of Milky Way-like Galaxies

Creators

  • 1. ROR icon Georgia Institute of Technology
  • 2. ROR icon Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
  • 3. ROR icon Harvard University
  • 4. ROR icon California Institute of Technology
  • 5. ROR icon Flatiron Institute
  • 6. ROR icon Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • 7. ROR icon Yale University
  • 8. ROR icon Northwestern University
  • 9. ROR icon University of Bologna
  • 10. ROR icon Swinburne University of Technology
  • 11. ROR icon Centre of Excellence for All-Sky Astrophysics
  • 12. ROR icon University of Cambridge
  • 13. ROR icon Pennsylvania State University

Abstract

We make an in-depth analysis of different active galactic nuclei (AGN) jet models’ signatures, inducing quiescence in galaxies with a halo mass of 1012M⊙. Three jet models, including cosmic-ray-dominant, hot thermal, and precessing kinetic jets, are studied at two energy flux levels each, compared to a jet-free, stellar feedback-only simulation. Each of our simulations is idealized isolated galaxy simulations with AGN jet powers that are constant in time and generated using GIZMO and with FIRE stellar feedback. We examine the distribution of Mg ii, O vi, and O viii ions, alongside gas temperature and density profiles. Low-energy ions, like Mg ii, concentrate in the interstellar medium (ISM), while higher energy ions, e.g., O viii, prevail at the AGN jet cocoon’s edge. High-energy flux jets display an isotropic ion distribution with lower overall density. High-energy thermal or cosmic-ray jets pressurize at smaller radii, significantly suppressing core density. The cosmic-ray jet provides extra pressure support, extending cool and warm gas distribution. A break in the ion-to-mass ratio slope in O vi and O viii is demonstrated in the ISM-to-circumgalactic medium (CGM) transition (between 10 and 30 kpc), growing smoothly toward the CGM at greater distances.

Copyright and License

© 2024. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.

Acknowledgement

It is a great pleasure to thank Daniel Eisenstein and Matthew Ashby for a very fruitful conversation that greatly improved the quality of this manuscript. N.Q. acknowledges the Harvard Smithsonian SAO REU program, which provided funding for this summer research. The SAO REU program is funded in part by the National Science Foundation REU and Department of Defense ASSURE programs under NSF grant No. AST-2050813, and by the Smithsonian Institution. R.E. acknowledges the support from grant Nos. 21-atp21-0077, NSF AST-1816420, and HST-GO-16173.001-A as well as the Institute for Theory and Computation at the Center for Astrophysics. K.-Y.S. acknowledges support from the Black Hole Initiative at Harvard University, which is funded by grants from the John Templeton Foundation and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and acknowledges ACCESS allocations TG-PHY220027 and TG-PHY220047 and Frontera allocation AST22010. K.-Y.S. also extends thanks for all the discussions with the FIRE, SMAUG, and LtU collaborations. We extend our thanks to the American Astronomical Society, to the reviewer, and to the data editor for contributions to this paper.

Data Availability

Data directly corresponding to this manuscript and the figures are available at 10.5281/zenodo.13137342.

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Additional details

Related works

Is new version of
Discussion Paper: arXiv:2312.14809 (arXiv)
Is supplemented by
Dataset: 10.0.20.161/zenodo.13137342 (DOI)

Funding

Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian
National Science Foundation
AST-2050813
Smithsonian Institution
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
21-atp21-0077
National Science Foundation
AST-1816420
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
HST-GO-16173.001-A
Harvard University
Black Hole Initiative -
John Templeton Foundation
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

Dates

Submitted
2023-12-22
Accepted
2024-10-11
Available
2024-12-03
Published online

Caltech Custom Metadata

Caltech groups
Astronomy Department, TAPIR, Walter Burke Institute for Theoretical Physics, Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy (PMA)
Publication Status
Published