Bridging Scales in Black Hole Accretion and Feedback: Relativistic Jet Linking the Horizon to the Host Galaxy

Journal Article · Wed Dec 10 00:00:00 EST 2025 · The Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ae1fdb· OSTI ID:3021580

Cho, Hyerin 조혜린 ^[1]; Prather, Benjamin Scott ^[2]; Narayan, Ramesh ^[1]; Su, Kung-Yi ^[1]; Natarajan, Priyamvada ^[3]

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1. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA (United States); Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States)
2. Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
3. Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States); Yale Univ., New Haven, CT (United States)

Simulating black hole (BH) accretion and feedback from the BH horizon to galactic scales is extremely challenging, as it involves a vast range of scales. Recently, our multizone method has successfully achieved global dynamical steady states of hot accretion flows in 3D general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations by tracking the bidirectional interaction between a nonspinning BH and its host galaxy. In this paper, we present technical improvements to the method and apply it to spin a_* = 0.9 BHs, which power relativistic jets. We first test the new multizone setup with a smaller Bondi radius, R_B ≈ 400 r_g, where r_g is the gravitational radius. The strongly magnetized accretion launches a relativistic jet with an intermediate feedback efficiency η ∼ 30%, in between that of a prograde (η ∼ 100%) and retrograde (η ∼ 10%) torus. Interestingly, both prograde and retrograde simulations also eventually converge to the same intermediate efficiency when evolved long enough, as accumulated magnetic fields remove gas rotation. We then extend strongly magnetized simulations to larger Bondi radii, R_B ≈ 2 × 10³, 2 × 10⁴, 2 × 10⁵ r_g. We find that the BH accretion rate $$\dot{M}$$ is suppressed with respect to the Bondi rate as $$\dot{M}_{\textrm{B}}$$ as $$\dot{M}/\dot{M}_{\textrm{B}} ∝ R_{\textrm{B}}^{-1/2}$$. However, despite some variability, the time-averaged feedback efficiency remains at η ∼ 30%, independent of R_B. This suggests that BH feedback efficiency in hot accretion flows is mainly governed by the BH spin (a_*) rather than by the galactic properties (R_B). From these first-principles simulations, we provide a feedback subgrid prescription for cosmological simulations: $$\dot{E}_{\textrm{fb}} = 2$$ x $$10^{-3}[R_{\textrm{B}}/(2$$ x $$10^5 r_g)]^{-1/2}$$ $$\dot{M}_{\textrm{B}}c^2$$ for BH spin a_* = 0.9.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (GBMF); John Templeton Foundation; National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
• Grant/Contract Number: 89233218CNA000001
• Other Award/Contract Number: 2138259; 2138286; 2138307; 2137603; 2138296; 8273.01; 62286
• OSTI ID: 3021580
• Report Number(s): LA-UR--25-28436; 10.3847/1538-4357/ae1fdb; 1538-4357
• Journal Information: The Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: The Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 995; ISSN 0004-637X; ISSN 1538-4357
• Publisher: IOP Publishing
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS