Energy input from quasars regulates the growth and activity of black holes and their host galaxies

2005/02/01 by Tiziana Di Matteo, Volker Springel, Lars Hernquist · 165 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #astro-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/nature03335

published as Nature 433 (2005) 604-607 · 15 pages, 3 figures, published in Nature, February 10, 2005. For supplementary information, see http://web.phys.cmu.edu/~tiziana/NatureSI/

openalex publication_date 2005/02/01 · arxiv created 2005/02/09 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04

Abstract

In the early Universe, while galaxies were still forming, black holes as massive as a billion solar masses powered quasars. Supermassive black holes are found at the centers of most galaxies today, where their masses are related to the velocity dispersions of stars in their host galaxies and hence to the mass of the central bulge of the galaxy. This suggests a link between the growth of the black holes and the host galaxies, which has indeed been assumed for a number of years. But the origin of the observed relation between black hole mass and stellar velocity dispersion, and its connection with the evolution of galaxies have remained unclear. Here we report simulations that simultaneously follow star formation and the growth of black holes during galaxy-galaxy collisions. We find that in addition to generating a burst of star formation, a merger leads to strong inflows that feed gas to the supermassive black hole and thereby power the quasar. The energy released by the quasar expels enough gas to quench both star formation and further black hole growth. This determines the lifetime of the quasar phase (approaching 100 million years) and explains the relationship between the black hole mass and the stellar velocity dispersion.

Citations

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