The rapid growth phase of supermassive black holes

Abstract

We investigate the rapid growth phase of supermassive black holes (BHs) within the hydrodynamical cosmological \eagle simulation. This non-linear phase of BH growth occurs within $\sim$$L_{\ast }$ galaxies, embedded between two regulatory states of the galaxy host: in sub $L_{\ast }$ galaxies efficient stellar feedback regulates the gas inflow onto the galaxy and significantly reduces the growth of the central BH, while in galaxies more massive than $L_{\ast }$ efficient AGN feedback regulates the gas inflow onto the galaxy and curbs further non-linear BH growth. We find evolving critical galaxy and halo mass scales at which rapid BH growth begins. Galaxies in the low-redshift Universe transition into the rapid BH growth phase in haloes that are approximately an order of magnitude more massive than their high-redshift counterparts (\M{200} $\approx 10^{12.4}$~\Msol at $z\approx 0$ decreasing to \M{200} $\approx 10^{11.2}$~\Msol at $z\approx 6$). Instead, BHs enter the rapid growth phase at a fixed critical halo virial temperature ($T_{\mathrm{vir}}\approx 10^{5.6}$~K). We additionally show that major galaxy--galaxy interactions ($\hat{I}¼\ge \frac{1}{4}$, where $\hat{I}¼$ is the stellar mass ratio) play a substantial role in triggering the rapid growth phase of BHs in the low-redshift Universe, whilst potentially having a lower influence at high redshift. Approximately 40\% of BHs that initiate the rapid BH growth phase at $z\approx 0$ do so within $\pm 0.5$ dynamical times of a major galaxy--galaxy merger, a fourfold increase above what is expected from the background merger rate. We find that minor mergers ($\frac{1}{10}\le \hat{I}¼<\frac{1}{4}$) have a substantially lower influence in triggering the rapid growth phase at all epochs.

12 pages, 8 figures, accepted to MNRAS