Speaker

Elena Arjona-Gálvez

AGN Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias

Abstract

Recents observational studies have found that, contrary to the standard thought, feedback from

active galactic nuclei (AGN) can play an important role in the evolution of low-mass dwarf galaxies.

We investigate the effect of black hole feedback on dwarf galaxies within the AURIGA

cosmological magneto-hydrodynamical simulations. We use a set of 12 dwarf galaxies that have

been run with and without AGN feedback and the same initial conditions, which allow us to make a

direct comparison of the impact of the AGN feedback in dwarf galaxies. We show that we can

satisfactorily reproduce several scaling relations, including the Mbh-Mstar, Mbh-sigma and the

baryonic TF relation. We found differences in the star formation history of the galaxies with AGN

compared to the ones in which the AGN has been turned-off, suggesting that AGN is a viable way

of suppressing SF, even though none of our galaxies is quenched by z=0. We show, for the first

time, a tight correlation between SFR and AGN properties in dwarfs. Moreover, we find that the two

galaxies harbouring the largest BHs have suffered a considerable (up to ∼65 %) reduction in their

central dark matter density, pinpointing the role of AGNs in determining the final dark matter mass

distribution within dwarf galaxies. This pilot study highlights the importance of modelling AGN

feedback at the lowest mass scales and the impact this can have on dwarf galaxy evolution.

Scientific theme

Dwarf galaxies - AGN feedback