Princeton University Astroplasmas Seminar

Supermassive black holes' (SMBHs) feeding and feedback cycles play a vital role in galaxy formation and evolution. While current state-of-the-art numerical simulations can successfully reproduce the multiphase gas at the galaxy-scale, it is not well understood how this multiphase gas is connected to the gas at the accretion-disk-scale. Such an understanding is crucial for setting up general-relativistic magneto-hydrodynamical (GRMHD) simulations of the accretion disk. Our work bridges this gap by providing theoretical explanations for the meso-scale accretion flows and their implications for galaxy evolution. To achieve this goal, we employ (M)HD simulations with Athena++, motivated by observations of the elliptical galaxy M87 at the center of the Virgo cluster. Our galaxy-scale simulations include an active-galactic-nuclei (AGN) jet feedback prescription that balances cooling on large scale. Then, we utilize a nested zoom-in technique to construct meso-scale simulations of the central parsecs of the galaxy, and model the dynamical evolution of multiphase accretion flow at this scale. These simulations ultimately provide boundary and initial conditions for future GRMHD simulations of the accretion disk at the horizon-scale, which can be directly compared to observations made with the Event Horizon Telescope. This work aims to improve our understanding of SMBH feeding, AGN jet feedback and their impact on galaxy evolution, and also to inform physically motivated sub-grid models in large-scale simulations.