OBSERVABILITY OF DUAL ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI IN MERGING GALAXIES
- Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (United States)
- Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of Zuerich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-9057 Zuerich (Switzerland)
- Dipartimento di Fisica G. Occhialini, Universita degli Studi di Milano Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 3, 20126 Milano (Italy)
Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) have been detected in the centers of most nearby massive galaxies. Galaxies today are not only the products of billions of years of galaxy mergers, but also billions of years of SMBH activity as active galactic nuclei (AGNs) that is connected to galaxy mergers. In this context, detection of AGN pairs should be relatively common. Observationally, however, dual AGNs are scant, being just a few percent of all AGNs. In this Letter, we investigate the triggering of AGN activity in merging galaxies via a suite of high-resolution hydrodynamical simulations. We follow the dynamics and accretion onto the SMBHs as they move from separations of tens of kiloparsecs to tens of parsecs. Our resolution, cooling, and star formation implementation produce an inhomogeneous, multi-phase interstellar medium, allowing us to accurately trace star formation and accretion onto the SMBHs. We study the impact of gas content, morphology, and mass ratio, focusing on AGN activity and dynamics across a wide range of relevant conditions. We test when the two AGNs are simultaneously detectable, for how long and at which separations. We find that strong dual AGN activity occurs during the late phases of the mergers, at small separations (<1-10 kpc) below the resolution limit of most surveys. Much of the SMBH accretion is not simultaneous, limiting the dual AGN fraction detectable through imaging and spectroscopy to a few percent, in agreement with observational samples.
- OSTI ID:
- 22047971
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal Letters, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Letters Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 748; ISSN 2041-8205
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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