Winds and feedback from supermassive black holes accreting at low rates: hydrodynamical treatment

Abstract

ABSTRACT Outflows produced by a supermassive black hole (SMBH) can have important feedback effects in its host galaxy. An unresolved question is the nature and properties of winds from SMBHs accreting at low rates in low-luminosity active galactic nuclei (LLAGNs). We performed two-dimensional numerical, hydrodynamical simulations of radiatively inefficient accretion flows on to non-spinning black holes. We explored a diversity of initial conditions in terms of rotation curves and viscous shear stress prescriptions, and evolved our models for very long durations of up to 8 × 105GM/c3. Our models resulted in powerful subrelativistic, thermally driven winds originated from the corona of the accretion flow at distances 10−100 GM/c2 from the SMBH. The winds reached velocities of up to 0.01c with kinetic powers corresponding to $0.1\!-\!1 {\,{\rm per\, cent}}$ of the rest-mass energy associated with inflowing gas at large distances, in good agreement with models of the ‘radio mode’ of AGN feedback. The properties of our simulated outflows are in broad agreement with observations of winds in quiescent galaxies that host LLAGNs, which are capable of heating ambient gas and suppressing star formation.