Kavli Affiliate: Luis C. Ho
| First 5 Authors: Tao Wang, Ke Xu, Yuxuan Wu, Yong Shi, David Elbaz
| Summary:
Nearly every massive galaxy contains a supermassive black hole (BH) at its
center. For decades, both theory and numerical simulations have indicated that
BHs play a central role in regulating the growth and quenching of galaxies.
Specifically, BH feedback by heating or blowing out the interstellar medium
(ISM) serves as the groundwork for current models of massive galaxy formation.
However, direct evidence for such an impact on the galaxy-wide ISM from BHs has
only been found in some extreme objects. For general galaxy populations, it
remains unclear whether and how BHs impact the ISM. Here based on a large
sample of nearby galaxies with measurements of masses of both black holes and
atomic hydrogen, the major component of cold ISM, we reveal that the atomic
hydrogen content ($f_{rm HI} = M_{rm HI}/M_{star}$) is tightly and
anti-correlated with black hole mass ($M_{rm BH}$) with $f_{rm HI} propto
M^{-alpha}_{rm BH}$ ($alpha sim 0.5-0.6$). This correlation is valid across
five orders of magnitude in $M_{rm BH}$. Once this correlation is taken into
account, $f_{rm HI}$ loses dependence on other galactic parameters,
demonstrating that $M_{rm BH}$ serves as the primary driver of $f_{rm HI}$.
These findings provide critical evidence for how the accumulated energy from BH
accretion impacts galaxy-wide ISM, representing a crucial step forward in our
understanding on the role of BHs in regulating the growth and quenching of
massive galaxies.
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