This is the astro-ph blog of the Theoretical Modelling of Cosmic Structures group (TMoX) at the Max-Planck-Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics. We are an independent Max-Planck Research Group focusing on the various aspects in the formation and evolution of galaxies. Part of our focus is on the formation and evolution of early-type galaxies, super-massive black holes, the formation of the first structures in the universe and the enrichment history of the Universe. We are theoreticians using analytic modelling as well as numerical simulations in our work.

The CosmologyCake blog is dedicated to the discussion of research papers and current developments. We will regularly post interesting papers and comment on them. Feel free to leave your comments as well. We encourage authors of discussed papers to post replies if they wish to. Our aim is to provide a platform to discuss recent astro-ph papers within a wider audience. Please feel free to send papers you would like to be discussed to us at tmoxgroup@googlemail.com.

24 March 2011

Recoiling Black Holes in Merging Galaxies...

Link to paper here.
Authors: Laura Blecha, Thomas J. Cox, Abraham Loeb, Lars Hernquist

This proceeding paper present a parameter study of the effect of Gravitational-Wave (GW) recoil of merging supermassive black holes (SMBH). Using a suite of merger SPH simulations, the authors identify systematic trends in the behavior of recoiling BHs. The main results from this study are the following: i) as a function of the escape velocity, kicked BHs may remain confine in gas-rich galaxy merger. ii) recoil events reduce the lifetime of bright AGN, which can still be detectable either as kinematical or spatial offsets. iii) recoiling BHs may be up to 5 time less massive than their stationary counterparts. iv) the displacement of AGN feedback by a recoil causes higher central star formation, hence extending the starburst phase.

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