Resolving Gas Dynamics in the Circumnuclear Region of a Disk Galaxy in a Cosmological Simulation

Simple item page
dc.creatorLevine, Robyn
dc.creatorGnedin, Nickolay Y.
dc.creatorHamilton, Andrew J. S.
dc.creatorKravtsov, Andrey V.
dc.date2007-11-21
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-07T11:54:21Z
dc.date.available2026-07-07T11:54:21Z
dc.descriptionUsing a hydrodynamic adaptive mesh refinement code, we simulate the growth and evolution of a galaxy, which could potentially host a supermassive black hole, within a cosmological volume. Reaching a dynamical range in excess of 10 million, the simulation follows the evolution of the gas structure from super-galactic scales all the way down to the outer edge of the accretion disk. Here, we focus on global instabilities in the self-gravitating, cold, turbulence-supported, molecular gas disk at the center of the model galaxy, which provide a natural mechanism for angular momentum transport down to sub-pc scales. The gas density profile follows a power-law scaling as r^-8/3, consistent with an analytic description of turbulence in a quasi-stationary circumnuclear disk. We analyze the properties of the disk which contribute to the instabilities, and investigate the significance of instability for the galaxy's evolution and the growth of a supermassive black hole at the center.
dc.description16 pages (includes appendix), submitted to ApJ. Figures here are at low resolution; for higher resolution version, download http://casa.colorado.edu/~levinerd/ms.pdf
dc.identifierhttps://arxiv.org/abs/0711.3478
dc.identifierhttp://arxiv.org/abs/0711.3478
dc.identifierAstrophys.J.678:154-167,2008
dc.identifierdoi:10.1086/529064
dc.identifier.urihttp://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/204866
dc.subjectAstrophysics
dc.titleResolving Gas Dynamics in the Circumnuclear Region of a Disk Galaxy in a Cosmological Simulation
dc.typetext

Files

Collections

arXiv