Simulating feedback from nuclear clusters: the impact of multiple sources

Abstract

Nuclear star clusters (NCs) are found to exist in the centres of many galaxies and appear to follow scaling relations similar to those of super-massive black holes. Previous analytical work has suggested that such relations are a consequence of feedback regulated growth. We explore this idea using high resolution hydrodynamical simulations, focusing on the validity of the simplifying assumptions made in analytical models. In particular, we investigate feedback emanating from multiple stellar sources rather than from a single source, as is usually assumed, and show that collisions betweens shells of gas swept up by feedback leads to momentum cancellation and the formation of high density clumps and filaments. This high density material is resistant both to expulsion from the galaxy potential and to disruption by feedback; if it falls back onto the NC, we expect the gas to be available for further star formation or for feeding a central black hole. We also note our results may have implications for the evolution of globular clusters and stellar clusters in high redshift dark matter halos.

5 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS Letters

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Cited by in corpus (7)

• Gas expulsion in massive star clusters? Constraints from observations of young and gas-free objects
• Virgo Redux: The Masses and Stellar Content of Nuclei in Early-Type Galaxies from Multi-Band Photometry and Spectroscopy
• Bondi-Hoyle-Lyttleton accretion in the presence of small rigid bodies around a black hole
• AGN must be very efficient at powering outflows
• The $M-\sigma$ relation between supermassive black holes and their host galaxies
• On the formation of globular clusters: comparison with observations
• Too small to succeed: the difficulty of sustaining star formation in low-mass haloes