Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2005 Feb 10;433(7026):604-7.
doi: 10.1038/nature03335.

Energy input from quasars regulates the growth and activity of black holes and their host galaxies

Tiziana Di Matteo  1 , Volker Springel, Lars Hernquist
Affiliations

Energy input from quasars regulates the growth and activity of black holes and their host galaxies

Tiziana Di Matteo et al. Nature. .

Abstract

In the early Universe, while galaxies were still forming, black holes as massive as a billion solar masses powered quasars. Supermassive black holes are found at the centres of most galaxies today, where their masses are related to the velocity dispersions of stars in their host galaxies and hence to the mass of the central bulge of the galaxy. This suggests a link between the growth of the black holes and their host galaxies, which has indeed been assumed for a number of years. But the origin of the observed relation between black hole mass and stellar velocity dispersion, and its connection with the evolution of galaxies, have remained unclear. Here we report simulations that simultaneously follow star formation and the growth of black holes during galaxy-galaxy collisions. We find that, in addition to generating a burst of star formation, a merger leads to strong inflows that feed gas to the supermassive black hole and thereby power the quasar. The energy released by the quasar expels enough gas to quench both star formation and further black hole growth. This determines the lifetime of the quasar phase (approaching 100 million years) and explains the relationship between the black hole mass and the stellar velocity dispersion.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

  • Star formation shut down by multiphase gas outflow in a galaxy at a redshift of 2.45.
    Belli S, Park M, Davies RL, Mendel JT, Johnson BD, Conroy C, Benton C, Bugiani L, Emami R, Leja J, Li Y, Maheson G, Mathews EP, Naidu RP, Nelson EJ, Tacchella S, Terrazas BA, Weinberger R. Belli S, et al. Nature. 2024 Jun;630(8015):54-58. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07412-1. Epub 2024 Apr 22. Nature. 2024. PMID: 38648852 Free PMC article.
  • A case for a binary black hole system revealed via quasi-periodic outflows.
    Pasham DR, Tombesi F, Suková P, Zajaček M, Rakshit S, Coughlin E, Kosec P, Karas V, Masterson M, Mummery A, Holoien TW, Guolo M, Hinkle J, Ripperda B, Witzany V, Shappee B, Kara E, Horesh A, van Velzen S, Sfaradi I, Kaplan D, Burger N, Murphy T, Remillard R, Steiner JF, Wevers T, Arcodia R, Buchner J, Merloni A, Malyali A, Fabian A, Fausnaugh M, Daylan T, Altamirano D, Payne A, Ferraraa EC. Pasham DR, et al. Sci Adv. 2024 Mar 29;10(13):eadj8898. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adj8898. Epub 2024 Mar 27. Sci Adv. 2024. PMID: 38536930 Free PMC article.
  • Discovery of spectacular quasar-driven superbubbles in red quasars.
    Shen L, Liu G, He Z, Zakamska NL, Glikman E, Greene JE, Hu W, Mou G, Wylezalek D, Rupke DSN. Shen L, et al. Sci Adv. 2023 Jul 14;9(28):eadg8287. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adg8287. Epub 2023 Jul 12. Sci Adv. 2023. PMID: 37436994 Free PMC article.
  • Distant supermassive black holes spotted in galaxy merger.
    Spingola C. Spingola C. Nature. 2023 Apr;616(7955):37-38. doi: 10.1038/d41586-023-00950-0. Nature. 2023. PMID: 37020002 No abstract available.
  • Black holes up close.
    Narayan R, Quataert E. Narayan R, et al. Nature. 2023 Mar;615(7953):597-604. doi: 10.1038/s41586-023-05768-4. Epub 2023 Mar 22. Nature. 2023. PMID: 36949335 Review.
See all "Cited by" articles

LinkOut - more resources