Kavli Affiliate: Mark Vogelsberger
| First 5 Authors: Teodora-Elena Bulichi, Teodora-Elena Bulichi, , ,
| Summary:
High-redshift active galactic nuclei (AGN) have long been recognized as key
probes of early black hole growth and galaxy evolution. However, modeling this
population remains difficult due to the wide range of luminosities and black
hole masses involved, and the high computational costs of capturing the
hydrodynamic response of gas and evolving radiation fields on-the-fly. In this
study, we present a new suite of simulations based on the IllustrisTNG galaxy
formation framework, enhanced with on-the-fly radiative transfer, to examine
AGN at high redshift (z > 5) in a protocluster environment extracted from the
MillenniumTNG simulation. We focus on the co-evolution of black holes and their
host galaxies, as well as the radiative impact on surrounding intergalactic
gas. The model predicts that black holes form in overdense regions and lie
below the local black hole-stellar mass relation, with stellar mass assembly
preceding significant black hole accretion. Ionizing photons are primarily
produced by stars, which shape the morphology of ionized regions and drive
reionization. Given the restrictive black hole growth in the original
IllustrisTNG model, we reduce the radiative efficiency from 0.2 to 0.1,
resulting in higher accretion rates for massive black holes, more bursty
growth, and earlier AGN-driven quenching. However, the resulting AGN remain
significantly fainter than observed high-redshift quasars. As such, to
incorporate this missing population, we introduce a quasar boosted model, in
which we artificially boost the AGN luminosity. This results in strong effects
on the surrounding gas, most notably a proximity effect, and large
contributions to He ionization.
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