The Illustris simulation: the evolving population of black holes across cosmic time
Author(s)
Sijacki, Debora; Genel, Shy; Springel, Volker; Snyder, Gregory F.; Nelson, Dylan; Hernquist, Lars; Vogelsberger, Mark; Torrey, Paul A.; ... Show more Show less
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We study the properties of black holes and their host galaxies across cosmic time in the Illustris simulation. Illustris is a large-scale cosmological hydrodynamical simulation which resolves a (106.5 Mpc)³ volume with more than 12 billion resolution elements and includes state-of-the-art physical models relevant for galaxy formation. We find that the black hole mass density for redshifts z = 0–5 and the black hole mass function at z = 0 predicted by Illustris are in very good agreement with the most recent observational constraints. We show that the bolometric and hard X-ray luminosity functions of active galactic nuclei (AGN) at z = 0 and 1 reproduce observational data very well over the full dynamic range probed. Unless the bolometric corrections are largely underestimated, this requires radiative efficiencies to be on average low, ϵr ≲ 0.1, noting however that in our model radiative efficiencies are degenerate with black hole feedback efficiencies. Cosmic downsizing of the AGN population is in broad agreement with the findings from X-ray surveys, but we predict a larger number density of faint AGN at high redshifts than currently inferred. We also study black hole–host galaxy scaling relations as a function of galaxy morphology, colour and specific star formation rate. We find that black holes and galaxies co-evolve at the massive end, but for low mass, blue and star-forming galaxies there is no tight relation with either their central black hole masses or the nuclear AGN activity.
Date issued
2015-07Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics; MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space ResearchJournal
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Citation
Sijacki, Debora; Vogelsberger, Mark; Genel, Shy; Springel, Volker; Torrey, Paul; Snyder, Gregory F.; Nelson, Dylan and Hernquist, Lars. “The Illustris Simulation: The Evolving Population of Black Holes Across Cosmic Time.” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 452, no. 1 (July 6, 2015): 575–596.
Version: Author's final manuscript
ISSN
0035-8711
1365-2966