Self-Regulated AGN Heating in Elliptical Galaxies

Abstract

We study the effect of active galactic nuclei (AGN) heating on the chemodynamical evolution of elliptical galaxies and their X-ray and optical properties using high-resolution Lambda-dominated cold dark matter cosmological simulations. Our model considers an AGN as being ``active'' when a convergent gas inflow condition exists within a galaxy's nucleus; otherwise, the AGN is assumed to remain dormant. This induces a self-regulated activity for the AGN, the result of which leads to a stable hot corona and the suppression of significant late-time star formation - characteristics not encountered in traditional chemodynamical models of ellipticals. These properties of our AGN heating model leads to a system consistent with both the X-ray and optical properties of comparable elliptical galaxies.

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