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Suppressing star formation in quiescent galaxies with supermassive black hole winds

Nature volume 533, pages 504–508 (2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

Quiescent galaxies with little or no ongoing star formation dominate the population of galaxies with masses above 2 × 1010 times that of the Sun; the number of quiescent galaxies has increased by a factor of about 25 over the past ten billion years (refs 1, 2, 3, 4). Once star formation has been shut down, perhaps during the quasar phase of rapid accretion onto a supermassive black hole5,6,7, an unknown mechanism must remove or heat the gas that is subsequently accreted from either stellar mass loss8 or mergers and that would otherwise cool to form stars9,10. Energy output from a black hole accreting at a low rate has been proposed11,12,13, but observational evidence for this in the form of expanding hot gas shells is indirect and limited to radio galaxies at the centres of clusters14,15, which are too rare to explain the vast majority of the quiescent population16. Here we report bisymmetric emission features co-aligned with strong ionized-gas velocity gradients from which we infer the presence of centrally driven winds in typical quiescent galaxies that host low-luminosity active nuclei. These galaxies are surprisingly common, accounting for as much as ten per cent of the quiescent population with masses around 2 × 1010 times that of the Sun. In a prototypical example, we calculate that the energy input from the galaxy’s low-level active supermassive black hole is capable of driving the observed wind, which contains sufficient mechanical energy to heat ambient, cooler gas (also detected) and thereby suppress star formation.

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Figure 1: Akira is the prototypical red geyser.
Figure 2: Wind model.
Figure 3: Diagnostic line-ratio maps of Akira.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Y.-Y. Chang for checks on the SED fitting and implied SFR. We thank S. Juneau, J. Newman, H. Fu, K. Nyland, and S. F. Sánchez for discussions and comments. This work was supported by the World Premier International Research Center Initiative (WPI Initiative), MEXT, Japan, and JSPS KAKENHI grant no. 15K17603. A.W. acknowledges support of a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship. S.P. acknowledges support from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS long-term invitation fellowship). M.C. acknowledges support from a Royal Society University Research Fellowship. W.R. is supported by a CUniverse Grant (CUAASC) from Chulalongkorn University. Funding for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV (SDSS-VI) has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the US Department of Energy Office of Science, and the Participating Institutions. SDSS-IV acknowledges support and resources from the Center for High-Performance Computing at the University of Utah. The SDSS website is www.sdss.org. SDSS-IV is managed by the Astrophysical Research Consortium for the Participating Institutions of the SDSS Collaboration, including the Brazilian Participation Group, the Carnegie Institution for Science, Carnegie Mellon University, the Chilean Participation Group, the French Participation Group, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, The Johns Hopkins University, Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (IPMU)/University of Tokyo, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Leibniz Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam (AIP), Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie (MPIA Heidelberg), Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik (MPA Garching), Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik (MPE), National Astronomical Observatory of China, New Mexico State University, New York University, University of Notre Dame, Observatório Nacional/MCTI, The Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, UK Participation Group, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, University of Arizona, University of Colorado Boulder, University of Oxford, University of Portsmouth, University of Utah, University of Virginia, University of Washington, University of Wisconsin, Vanderbilt University and Yale University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (World Premier International Research Center Initiative), The University of Tokyo Institutes for Advanced Study, The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, 277-8583, Chiba, Japan

    Edmond Cheung, Kevin Bundy, Sébastien Peirani, Wiphu Rujopakarn & Benedetta Vulcani

  2. Sub-department of Astrophysics, Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Denys Wilkinson Building, Keble Road, Oxford, OX1 3RH, UK

    Michele Cappellari

  3. Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris (UMR 7095, CNRS and UPMC), 98 bis Boulevard Arago, Paris, F-75014, France

    Sébastien Peirani

  4. Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, 254 Phayathai Road, Pathumwan, 10330, Bangkok, Thailand

    Wiphu Rujopakarn

  5. Institute for Cosmology and Gravitation, University of Portsmouth, Dennis Sciama Building, Burnaby Road, Portsmouth, PO1 3FX, UK

    Kyle Westfall, Karen L. Masters & Daniel Thomas

  6. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kentucky, 505 Rose Street, Lexington, 40506-0055, Kentucky, USA

    Renbin Yan & Kai Zhang

  7. Department of Astronomy, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 475 North Charter Street, Madison, 53706, Wisconsin, USA

    Matthew Bershady & David A. Wake

  8. Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, 08544, New Jersey, USA

    Jenny E. Greene

  9. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Center for Astrophysical Sciences, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, 21218, Maryland, USA

    Timothy M. Heckman

  10. Department of Astronomy, McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station, Austin, 78712-0259, Texas, USA

    Niv Drory

  11. Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, 21218, Maryland, USA

    David R. Law

  12. Department of Physical Sciences, The Open University, Milton, MK7 6AA, Keynes, UK

    David A. Wake

  13. School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, North Haugh, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9SS, UK

    Anne-Marie Weijmans

  14. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, 02138, Massachusetts, USA

    Kate Rubin

  15. Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, 19 J. J. Thomson Avenue, Cambridge, CB3 0HE, UK

    Francesco Belfiore

  16. Kavli Institute for Cosmology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB3 0HE, UK

    Francesco Belfiore

  17. Department of Astronomy, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210093, China

    Yan-mei Chen

  18. New York University Abu Dhabi, PO Box 129188, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    Joseph D. Gelfand

  19. Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics, New York University, Meyer Hall of Physics, 4 Washington Place, New York, 10003, New York, USA

    Joseph D. Gelfand

  20. Apache Point Observatory and New Mexico State University, PO Box 59, Sunspot, 88349-0059, New Mexico, USA

    Dmitry Bizyaev

  21. Sternberg Astronomical Institute, Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia

    Dmitry Bizyaev

  22. Departamento de Física y Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de La Serena, Cisternas 1200, La Serena, Chile

    A. Roman-Lopes

  23. Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, 16802, USA

    Donald P. Schneider

  24. Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, 16802, USA

    Donald P. Schneider

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  1. Edmond Cheung
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Contributions

E.C. and K.B. discovered the described sources, interpreted the observations, built the wind model, and wrote the manuscript. M.C. constructed dynamical models. S.P. carried out numerical merger simulations to model the data. W.R. obtained and reduced the JVLA data. K.W. fitted disk models. K.B., R.Y., M.B., N.D., D.R.L., D.A.W., K.Z., A.W., K.L.M. and D.T. contributed to the design and execution of the survey. F.B. provided initial velocity and line-ratio maps. B.V. provided the modelled extinction map. Y.C. and K.R. contributed to the Na D interpretation. All authors contributed to the interpretation of the observations and the writing of the paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Edmond Cheung.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Extended data figures and tables

Extended Data Figure 1 A(V) map.

The estimated A(V) map (with A(V) colour coded, see key), with contours of Na D EW >3.5 Å from Fig. 1d. The spatial overlap between regions of high extinction and the Na D EW absorption confirms that there is cool material in the foreground of Akira. Here and below, axes show offset in arcsec from map centre, marked with a cross.

Extended Data Figure 2 Na D line-of-sight measurement.

a–c, The spectrum around the Na D doublet at λ = 5,890, 5,896 Å and best-fit stellar continuum. The two vertical lines mark the locations of the Na D doublet. d–f, The residual of the spectrum and stellar continuum. Considering only the wavelength range enclosed by the green region, we calculate the residual-weighted central wavelengths of these Na D doublets, which is marked by the dashed grey vertical line and blue vertical lines. The dashed grey vertical represents the reference Na D centroid while the blue vertical lines represent the observed Na D centroid from the two spaxels of Akira. See Methods for details. The horizontal dashed line is a reference point and the Δv in e and f represents the residual-weighted velocities. Data in a from ref. 43 with permission.

Extended Data Figure 3 Merger simulation.

a–d, Evolution of the stars from t = 0 Gyr to t = 0.56 Gyr; each panel is 90 × 90 kpc. e, Composite image of stars and gas at t = 0.56 Gyr; this panel is also 90 × 90 kpc. f, The SDSS r image of Akira and Tetsuo.

Extended Data Figure 4 Vrms maps.

a, Observed Vrms map (key at top shows colour coded Vrms). b, Predicted Vrms map, assuming i = 46°. c, Predicted Vrms map, assuming i = 90°.

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Cheung, E., Bundy, K., Cappellari, M. et al. Suppressing star formation in quiescent galaxies with supermassive black hole winds. Nature 533, 504–508 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature18006

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