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Kpc Scale (kpc + scale)
Selected AbstractsThe impact of radio feedback from active galactic nuclei in cosmological simulations: formation of disc galaxiesMONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 1 2008Takashi Okamoto ABSTRACT In this paper, we present a new implementation of feedback due to active galactic nuclei (AGN) in cosmological simulations of galaxy formation. We assume that a fraction of jet energy, which is generated by an AGN, is transferred to the surrounding gas as thermal energy. Combining a theoretical model of mass accretion on to black holes with a multiphase description of star-forming gas, we self-consistently follow evolution of both galaxies and their central black holes. The novelty in our model is that we consider two distinct accretion modes: standard radiatively efficient thin accretion discs and radiatively inefficient accretion flows which we will generically refer to as RIAFs; motivated by theoretical models for jet production in accretion discs, we assume that only the RIAF is responsible for the AGN feedback. The focus of this paper is to investigate the interplay between galaxies and their central black holes during the formation of a disc galaxy. We find that, after an initial episode of bursting star formation, the accretion rate on to the central black hole drops so that the accretion disc switches to a RIAF structure. At this point, the feedback from the AGN becomes efficient and slightly suppresses star formation in the galactic disc and almost completely halts star formation in the bulge. This suppression of the star formation regulates mass accretion on to the black hole and associated AGN feedback. As a result, the nucleus becomes a stochastically fuelled low-luminosity AGN (Seyfert galaxy) with recurrent short-lived episodes of activity after the star bursts. During the ,on' events, the AGN produces reasonably powerful jets (radio-loud state) and is less luminous than the host galaxy, while in the ,off' phase, the nucleus is inactive and ,radio quiet'. Our model predicts several properties of the low-luminosity AGN including the bolometric luminosity, jet powers, the effect on kpc scale of the radio jet and the AGN lifetime, which are in broad agreement with observations of Seyfert galaxies and their radio activity. We also find that the ratios between the central black hole mass and the mass of the host spheroid at z= 0 are ,10,3 regardless of the strength of either supernova feedback or AGN feedback because the radiation drag model directly relates the star formation activity in the Galactic Centre and the mass accretion rate on to the central black hole. [source] Coincident, 100 kpc scale damped Ly, absorption towards a binary QSO: how large are galaxies at z, 3?MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 3 2007Sara L. Ellison ABSTRACT We report coincident damped Ly, (DLA) and sub-DLA absorption at zabs= 2.66 and zabs= 2.94 towards the z, 3, 13.8 arcsec separation binary quasar SDSS 1116+4118 AB. At the redshifts of the absorbers, this angular separation corresponds to a proper transverse separation of ,110 h,170 kpc. A third absorber, a sub-DLA at zabs= 2.47, is detected towards SDSS 1116+4118 B, but no corresponding high column density absorber is present towards SDSS 1116+4118 A. We use high-resolution galaxy simulations and a clustering analysis to interpret the coincident absorption and its implications for galaxy structure at z, 3. We conclude that the common absorption in the two lines of sight is unlikely to arise from a single galaxy, or a galaxy plus satellite system, and is more feasibly explained by a group of two or more galaxies with separations ,100 kpc. The impact of these findings on single line-of-sight observations is also discussed; we show that abundances of DLAs may be affected by up to a few tenths of a dex by line-of-sight DLA blending. From a Keck Echellette Spectrograph and Imager spectrum of the two quasars, we measure metal column densities for all five absorbers and determine abundances for the three absorbers with log N(H i) > 20. For the two highest N(H i) absorbers, we determine high levels of metal enrichment, corresponding to 1/3 and 1/5 Z,. These metallicities are amongst the highest measured for DLAs at any redshift and are consistent with values measured in Lyman-break galaxies at 2 < z < 3. For the DLA at zabs= 2.94 we also infer an approximately solar ratio of ,-to-Fe peak elements from [S/Zn]=+0.05, and measure an upper limit for the molecular fraction in this particular line of sight of log f (H 2) < ,5.5. [source] The lack of large compact symmetric objectsASTRONOMISCHE NACHRICHTEN, Issue 2-3 2009P. Augusto Abstract In recent years, ,baby' (<103 yr) and ,young' (103,105 yr) radio galaxies have been found and classified, although their numbers are still small (tens). Also, they have many different names, depending on the type of survey and scientific context in which they were found: compact steep spectrum sources (CSS), giga-Hertz peaked spectrum sources (GPS) and compact-medium symmetric objects (C-MSO). The latter have the radio galaxy structure more obvious and correspond to the ,babies' (CSOs; < 1 kpc) and ,young' (MSOs; 1,15 kpc) radio galaxies. The log-size distribution of CSOs shows a sharp drop at 0.3 kpc. This trend continues through flat-spectrum MSOs (over the full 1,15 kpc size range). In order to find out if this lack of large CSOs and flat-spectrum MSOs is due to poor sampling (lack of surveys that probe efficiently the 0.3,15 kpc size range) and/or has physical meaning (e.g. if the lobes of CSOs expand as they grow and age, they might become CSSs, ,disappearing' from the flat-spectrum MSO statistics), we have built a sample of 157 flat-spectrum radio sources with structure on ,0.3,15 kpc scales. We are using new, archived and published data to produce and inspect hundreds of multi-frequency multi-instrument maps and models. We have already found 13 new secure CSO/MSOs. We expect to uncover ,30,40 new CSOs and MSOs, most on the 0.3,15 kpc size range, when our project is complete (© 2009 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [source] Interaction of radio jets with clouds in the ambient medium: Numerical simulationsASTRONOMISCHE NACHRICHTEN, Issue 2-3 2009S. JeyakumarArticle first published online: 13 FEB 200 Abstract Hydrodynamical simulations of jets interacting with clouds moving in the ambient medium of the host galaxy are presented. Clouds with sizes of the order of the jet diameter and smaller, crossing the path of the jet with different speeds are considered. In the case of slow moving clouds the jet is stopped over the brief period of time taken by the cloud to cross the jet. The jet maintains its general morphology in the case of fast moving clouds. Erosion of the clouds leads to redistribution of cloud material to large distances. Such interaction may explain the large outflow velocities observed from pc to kpc scales in the compact radio sources (© 2009 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [source] | ||||||||||