The Scatter Matters: Circumgalactic Metal Content in the Context of the M–σ Relation
Abstract
The interaction between supermassive black hole (SMBH) feedback and the circumgalactic medium (CGM) continues to be an open question in galaxy evolution. In our study, we use smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations to explore the impact of SMBH feedback on galactic metal retention and the motion of metals and gas into and through the CGM of L* galaxies. We examine 140 galaxies from the 25 Mpc cosmological volume Romulus25, with stellar masses between log(M*/M⊙) = 9.5–11.5. We measure the fraction of metals remaining in the interstellar medium (ISM) and CGM of each galaxy and calculate the expected mass of each SMBH based on the MBH–σ relation (Kormendy & Ho 2013). The deviation of each SMBH from its expected mass, ΔMBH, is compared to the potential of its host via σ. We find that SMBHs with accreted mass above MBH–σ are more effective at removing metals from the ISM than undermassive SMBHs in star-forming galaxies. Overall, overmassive SMBHs suppress the total star formation of their host galaxies and more effectively move metals from the ISM into the CGM. However, we see little to no evacuation of gas from the CGM out of their halos, in contrast with other simulations. Finally, we predict that C iv column densities in the CGM of L* galaxies are unlikely to depend on host galaxy SMBH mass. Our results show that the scatter in the low-mass end of the MBH–σ relation may indicate how effective an SMBH is in the local redistribution of mass in its host galaxy.
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
We thank the anonymous referee whose detailed comments clarified and improved this paper. This work was supported by the FINESST19-23 grant 80NSSC19K1409 and NSF MPS-Ascend award ID 2212959. N.N.S. and J.K.W. acknowledge additional support for this work from NSF-AST 1812521, NSF-CAREER 2044303, and the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, grant ID No. 26842. Some of the predictions made in this study will inform the observational survey being carried out under HST-GO-16650, "Connecting Galaxy Black Hole Mass with the State of the Circumgalactic Medium." A collaborative visit was funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, under grant agreement No. 818085 GMGalaxies. T.R.Q. acknowledges support from Blue Waters and XSEDE, and the simulation in this study was run on NAS. Analysis was completed on NAS (under NASA award SMD-21-75544133). N.N.S. gratefully acknowledges helpful conversations with the following individuals: Andrew Pontzen, Jonathon Davies, Martin Rey, Hannah Bish, Ben Oppenheimer, Ferah Munshi, Jillian Bellovary, Anna Wright, and Julianne Dalcanton.
Files
Sanchez_2024_ApJ_967_100.pdf
Additional details
Identifiers
- ISSN
- 1538-4357
Funding
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- 80NSSC19K1409
- National Science Foundation
- AST-2212959
- National Science Foundation
- AST-1812521
- National Science Foundation
- AST-2044303
- Research Corporation for Science Advancement
- 26842
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- HST-GO-16650
- European Research Council
- 818085
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- SMD-21-75544133