MAGICS. II. Seed Black Holes Stripped of Their Surrounding Stars Do Not Sink
Massive black hole (MBH) seed mergers are expected to be among the loudest sources of gravitational waves detected by the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, providing a unique window into the birth and early growth of MBHs. We present the MAGICS-II simulation suite, which consists of six galaxy mer...
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2025-01-01
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| Series: | The Astrophysical Journal |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ada283 |
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| author | Yihao Zhou Diptajyoti Mukherjee Nianyi Chen Tiziana Di Matteo Peter H. Johansson Antti Rantala Christian Partmann Ugo Niccolò Di Carlo Simeon Bird Yueying Ni |
| author_facet | Yihao Zhou Diptajyoti Mukherjee Nianyi Chen Tiziana Di Matteo Peter H. Johansson Antti Rantala Christian Partmann Ugo Niccolò Di Carlo Simeon Bird Yueying Ni |
| author_sort | Yihao Zhou |
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| description | Massive black hole (MBH) seed mergers are expected to be among the loudest sources of gravitational waves detected by the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, providing a unique window into the birth and early growth of MBHs. We present the MAGICS-II simulation suite, which consists of six galaxy mergers that result in MBH seed mergers identified in the cosmological simulation ASTRID. With the enhanced resolution (mass resolution: 500 M _⊙ ; softening length: 5 pc), improved subgrid models for the MBH dynamics and accretion, and the accurate regularized gravity integrator included in KETJU, we trace MBH seed dynamics down to 0.1 pc. After evolving all the systems for ≈1.2 Gyr in three stages (MAGICS-2000, MAGICS-500, and MAGICS-K), we find in four of the six systems that the MBHs stall at separations Δ r ≳ 200 pc. Only in two systems, the MBHs manage to sink further, and only in one of them a bound binary forms. In the sinking systems, the MBH retains a population of bound stars. The final separation between the MBH is related to the surrounding unstripped stellar (and/or dark matter) mass: if more than 90% of the surrounding stellar system is stripped away, the MBHs stall. Besides the unstripped stars from the original host galaxy, we find that newly formed stars bound to the MBH significantly contribute to its sinking. Resolving the stellar system around MBH seeds, and its induced tidal interactions and dynamical friction is key for accurately capturing MBH dynamics. For this, high-resolution simulations are required. In a companion paper (MAGICS-III), we resimulate the central regions of these systems with an increased resolution to model directly the effects of actual star clusters around MBHs. |
| format | Article |
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| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1538-4357 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
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| series | The Astrophysical Journal |
| spelling | doaj-art-1fed8c011b9c484fb3e89e2666f581162025-02-05T07:12:18ZengIOP PublishingThe Astrophysical Journal1538-43572025-01-0198017910.3847/1538-4357/ada283MAGICS. II. Seed Black Holes Stripped of Their Surrounding Stars Do Not SinkYihao Zhou0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8828-8461Diptajyoti Mukherjee1Nianyi Chen2https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6627-2533Tiziana Di Matteo3Peter H. Johansson4https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8741-8263Antti Rantala5Christian Partmann6Ugo Niccolò Di Carlo7Simeon Bird8https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5803-5490Yueying Ni9https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7899-7195McWillams Center for Cosmology, Department of Physics, Carnegie Mellon University , Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USAMcWillams Center for Cosmology, Department of Physics, Carnegie Mellon University , Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USAMcWillams Center for Cosmology, Department of Physics, Carnegie Mellon University , Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USAMcWillams Center for Cosmology, Department of Physics, Carnegie Mellon University , Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USADepartment of Physics, University of Helsinki , Gustaf Hällströmin katu 2, FI-00014, University of Helsinki, FinlandMax-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik , Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 1, D-85748, Garching, GermanyMax-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik , Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 1, D-85748, Garching, GermanySISSA-International School for Advanced Studies , via Bonomea 365, I-34136 Trieste, ItalyDepartment of Physics and Astronomy, University of California Riverside , 900 University Avenue, Riverside, CA 92521, USAHarvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics , 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USAMassive black hole (MBH) seed mergers are expected to be among the loudest sources of gravitational waves detected by the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, providing a unique window into the birth and early growth of MBHs. We present the MAGICS-II simulation suite, which consists of six galaxy mergers that result in MBH seed mergers identified in the cosmological simulation ASTRID. With the enhanced resolution (mass resolution: 500 M _⊙ ; softening length: 5 pc), improved subgrid models for the MBH dynamics and accretion, and the accurate regularized gravity integrator included in KETJU, we trace MBH seed dynamics down to 0.1 pc. After evolving all the systems for ≈1.2 Gyr in three stages (MAGICS-2000, MAGICS-500, and MAGICS-K), we find in four of the six systems that the MBHs stall at separations Δ r ≳ 200 pc. Only in two systems, the MBHs manage to sink further, and only in one of them a bound binary forms. In the sinking systems, the MBH retains a population of bound stars. The final separation between the MBH is related to the surrounding unstripped stellar (and/or dark matter) mass: if more than 90% of the surrounding stellar system is stripped away, the MBHs stall. Besides the unstripped stars from the original host galaxy, we find that newly formed stars bound to the MBH significantly contribute to its sinking. Resolving the stellar system around MBH seeds, and its induced tidal interactions and dynamical friction is key for accurately capturing MBH dynamics. For this, high-resolution simulations are required. In a companion paper (MAGICS-III), we resimulate the central regions of these systems with an increased resolution to model directly the effects of actual star clusters around MBHs.https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ada283Supermassive black holesDynamical frictionGalaxy mergersHydrodynamical simulationsAGN host galaxies |
| spellingShingle | Yihao Zhou Diptajyoti Mukherjee Nianyi Chen Tiziana Di Matteo Peter H. Johansson Antti Rantala Christian Partmann Ugo Niccolò Di Carlo Simeon Bird Yueying Ni MAGICS. II. Seed Black Holes Stripped of Their Surrounding Stars Do Not Sink The Astrophysical Journal Supermassive black holes Dynamical friction Galaxy mergers Hydrodynamical simulations AGN host galaxies |
| title | MAGICS. II. Seed Black Holes Stripped of Their Surrounding Stars Do Not Sink |
| title_full | MAGICS. II. Seed Black Holes Stripped of Their Surrounding Stars Do Not Sink |
| title_fullStr | MAGICS. II. Seed Black Holes Stripped of Their Surrounding Stars Do Not Sink |
| title_full_unstemmed | MAGICS. II. Seed Black Holes Stripped of Their Surrounding Stars Do Not Sink |
| title_short | MAGICS. II. Seed Black Holes Stripped of Their Surrounding Stars Do Not Sink |
| title_sort | magics ii seed black holes stripped of their surrounding stars do not sink |
| topic | Supermassive black holes Dynamical friction Galaxy mergers Hydrodynamical simulations AGN host galaxies |
| url | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ada283 |
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