2009/04/22 by S. Pellegrini, Silvia Pellegrini, Luca Ciotti +3
Physics and Astronomy · #Accretion (finance) #Astronomy #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Black hole (networking) #Cooling flow #Elliptical galaxy #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Luminosity #Optics #Physics #Radiative cooling #Radiative transfer #Spectral energy distribution #Supermassive black hole #Surface brightness #astro-ph.CO #astro-ph.HE
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.asr.2009.04.015
15 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Advances in Space Research
arxiv created 2009/04/22 · openalex publication_date 2009/04/22 · arxiv updated 2015/05/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The centers of elliptical galaxies host supermassive black holes that significantly affect the surrounding interstellar medium through feedback resulting from the accretion process. The evolution of this gas and of the nuclear emission during the galaxies' lifetime has been studied recently with high-resolution hydrodynamical simulations. These included gas cooling and heating specific for an average AGN spectral energy distribution, a radiative efficiency declining at low mass accretion rates, and mechanical coupling between the hot gas and AGN winds. Here we present a short summary of the observational properties resulting from the simulations, focussing on 1) the nuclear luminosity; 2) the global luminosity and temperature of the hot gas; 3) its temperature profile and X-ray brightness profile. These properties are compared with those of galaxies of the local universe, pointing out the successes of the adopted feedback and the needs for new input in the simulations.