Colin DeGraf

COLD FLOWS AND THE FIRST QUASARS

Observations of the most distant bright quasars imply that billion solar mass supermassive black holes (SMBHs) have to be assembled within the first 800 million years. Under our standard galaxy formation scenario such fast growth implies large gas densities providing sustained accretion at critical or supercritical rates onto an initial black hole seed. It has been a long standing question whether and how such high black hole accretion rates can be achieved and sustained at the centers of early galaxies. Here we use our new MassiveBlack cosmological hydrodynamic simulation covering a volume (0.75 Gpc)3 appropriate for studying the rare first quasars to show that steady high density cold gas flows responsible for assembling the first galaxies produce the high gas densities that lead to sustained critical accretion rates and hence rapid growth commensurate with the existence of ~109 M ☉ black holes as early as z ~ 7. We find that under these conditions quasar feedback is not effective at stopping the cold gas from penetrating the central regions and hence cannot quench the accretion until the host galaxy reaches . This cold-flow-driven scenario for the formation of quasars implies that they should be ubiquitous in galaxies in the early universe and that major (proto)galaxy mergers are not a requirement for efficient fuel supply and growth, particularly for the earliest SMBHs.

The MassiveBlack-II simulation: the evolution of haloes and galaxies to z ∼ 0

We investigate the properties and clustering of halos, galaxies and blackholes to z = 0 in the high resolution hydrodynamical simulation MassiveBlack-II (MBII). MBII evolves a ΛCDM cosmology in a cubical comoving volume Vbox = (100Mpc/h)³. It is the highest resolution simulation of this size which includes a self-consistent model for star formation, black hole accretion and associated feedback. We provide a simulation browser web application which enables interactive search and tagging of the halos, subhalos and their properties and publicly release our galaxy catalogs to the scientific community. Our analysis of the halo mass function in MBII reveals that baryons have strong effects with changes in the halo abundance of 20–35% below the knee of the mass function (Mhalo 1013.2 M⊙ h at z = 0) when compared to dark-matter-only simulations. We provide a fitting function for the halo MF out to redshift z = 11 and discuss its limitations.

Compaction and quenching of high-z galaxies in cosmological simulations: blue and red nuggets

We use cosmological simulations to study a characteristic evolution pattern of high redshift galaxies. Early, stream-fed, highly perturbed, gas-rich discs undergo phases of dissipative contraction into compact, star-forming systems (blue nuggets) at z~4-2. The peak of gas compaction marks the onset of central gas depletion and inside-out quenching into compact ellipticals (red nuggets) by z~2. These are sometimes surrounded by gas rings or grow extended dry stellar envelopes. The compaction occurs at a roughly constant specific star-formation rate (SFR), and the quenching occurs at a constant stellar surface density within the inner kpc (

Evolution of density profiles in high-z galaxies: compaction and quenching inside-out

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Faint‐end quasar luminosity functions from cosmological hydrodynamic simulations

). Massive galaxies quench earlier, faster, and at a higher

The halo occupation distribution of active galactic nuclei

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Early black holes in cosmological simulations: luminosity functions and clustering behaviour

than lower-mass galaxies, which compactify and attempt to quench more than once. This evolution pattern is consistent with the way galaxies populate the SFR-radius-mass space, and with gradients and scatter across the main sequence. The compaction is triggered by an intense inflow episode, involving (mostly minor) mergers, counter-rotating streams or recycled gas, and is commonly associated with violent disc instability. The contraction is dissipative, with the inflow rate >SFR, and the maximum

Scaling relations between black holes and their host galaxies: comparing theoretical and observational measurements, and the impact of selection effects

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GROWTH OF EARLY SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLES AND THE HIGH-REDSHIFT EDDINGTON RATIO DISTRIBUTION

anti-correlated with the initial spin parameter, as predicted by Dekel & Burkert (2014). The central quenching is triggered by the high SFR and stellar/supernova feedback (possibly also AGN feedback) due to the high central gas density, while the central inflow weakens as the disc vanishes. Suppression of fresh gas supply by a hot halo allows the long-term maintenance of quenching once above a threshold halo mass, inducing the quenching downsizing.

The halo occupation distribution of black holes

Using cosmological simulations, we address the interplay between structure and star formation in high-redshift galaxies via the evolution of surface density profiles. Our sample consists of 26 galaxies evolving in the redshift range