Tremmel, M;
Governato, F;
Volonteri, M;
Pontzen, A;
Quinn, TR;
(2018)
Wandering Supermassive Black Holes in Milky-Way-mass Halos.
Astrophysical Journal Letters
, 857
(2)
, Article L22. 10.3847/2041-8213/aabc0a.
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Abstract
We present a self-consistent prediction from a large-scale cosmological simulation for the population of "wandering" supermassive black holes (SMBHs) of mass greater than 106 M ⊙ on long-lived, kpc-scale orbits within Milky Way (MW)-mass galaxies. We extract a sample of MW-mass halos from the Romulus25 cosmological simulation, which is uniquely able to capture the orbital evolution of SMBHs during and following galaxy mergers. We predict that such halos, regardless of recent merger history or morphology, host an average of 5.1 ± 3.3 SMBHs, including their central black hole, within 10 kpc from the galactic center and an average of 12.2 ± 8.4 SMBHs total within their virial radius, not counting those in satellite halos. Wandering SMBHs exist within their host galaxies for several Gyr, often accreted by their host halo in the early Universe. We find, with >4σ significance, that wandering SMBHs are preferentially found outside of galactic disks.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Wandering Supermassive Black Holes in Milky-Way-mass Halos |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.3847/2041-8213/aabc0a |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/aabc0a |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the version of record. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| Keywords: | Science & Technology, Physical Sciences, Astronomy & Astrophysics, Galaxy: kinematics and dynamics, quasars: supermassive black holes, EVOLUTION, SIMULATIONS, GALAXIES, NUCLEI |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Physics and Astronomy |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10050972 |
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