Black Hole Growth in Hierarchical Galaxy Formation

Abstract

We incorporate a model for black hole growth during galaxy mergers into the semi-analytical galaxy formation model based on Lambda-CDM proposed by Baugh et al. (2005). Our black hole model has one free parameter, which we set by matching the observed zeropoint of the local correlation between black hole mass and bulge luminosity. We present predictions for the evolution with redshift of the relationships between black hole mass and bulge properties. Our simulations reproduce the evolution of the optical luminosity function of quasars. We study the demographics of the black hole population and address the issue of how black holes acquire their mass. We find that the direct accretion of cold gas during starbursts is an important growth mechanism for lower mass black holes and at high redshift. On the other hand, the re-assembly of pre-existing black hole mass into larger units via merging dominates the growth of more massive black holes at low redshift. This prediction could be tested by future gravitational wave experiments. As redshift decreases, progressively less massive black holes have the highest fractional growth rates, in line with recent claims of "downsizing" in quasar activity.

24 pages, 16 figures. Replaced with MNRAS accepted version

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• The impact of radio feedback from active galactic nuclei in cosmological simulations: Formation of disk galaxies
• Testing the predictions of the cold dark matter model for the sizes, colours, morphologies and luminosities of galaxies with the SDSS
• Resolving Gas Dynamics in the Circumnuclear Region of a Disk Galaxy in a Cosmological Simulation
• Nuclear Black Hole Formation in Clumpy Galaxies at High Redshift
• Supermassive Black Holes and Their Environments
• Luminous Red Galaxies in hierarchical cosmologies
• Mock galaxy redshift catalogues from simulations: implications for Pan-STARRS1
• Detecting quasars at very high redshift with next generation X-ray telescopes
• Radio continuum observations of the candidate supermassive black hole in the dwarf elliptical VCC128