Suppressing star formation in quiescent galaxies with supermassive black hole winds

Edmond Cheung; Kevin Bundy; Michele Cappellari; Sébastien Peirani; Wiphu Rujopakarn; Kyle Westfall; Renbin Yan; Matthew Bershady; Jenny E. Greene; Timothy M. Heckman; Niv Drory; David R. Law; Karen L. Masters; Daniel Thomas; David A. Wake; Anne Marie Weijmans; Kate Rubin; Francesco Belfiore; Benedetta Vulcani; Yan Mei Chen; Kai Zhang; Joseph D. Gelfand; Dmitry Bizyaev; A. Roman-Lopes; Donald P. Schneider

doi:10.1038/nature18006

Suppressing star formation in quiescent galaxies with supermassive black hole winds

Edmond Cheung
, Kevin Bundy
, Michele Cappellari
, Sébastien Peirani
, Wiphu Rujopakarn
, Kyle Westfall
, Renbin Yan
, Matthew Bershady
, Jenny E. Greene
, Timothy M. Heckman
, Niv Drory
, David R. Law
, Karen L. Masters
, Daniel Thomas
, David A. Wake
, Anne Marie Weijmans
, Kate Rubin
, Francesco Belfiore
, Benedetta Vulcani
, Yan Mei Chen

Kai Zhang, Joseph D. Gelfand, Dmitry Bizyaev, A. Roman-Lopes, Donald P. Schneider

Physics And Astronomy

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

184 Scopus citations

Abstract

Quiescent galaxies with little or no ongoing star formation dominate the population of galaxies with masses above 2 × 10 10 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 hole, an unknown mechanism must remove or heat the gas that is subsequently accreted from either stellar mass loss or mergers and that would otherwise cool to form stars. Energy output from a black hole accreting at a low rate has been proposed, but observational evidence for this in the form of expanding hot gas shells is indirect and limited to radio galaxies at the centres of clusters, which are too rare to explain the vast majority of the quiescent population. 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 × 10 10 times that of the Sun. In a prototypical example, we calculate that the energy input from the galaxyâ(tm) 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.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	504-508
Number of pages	5
Journal	Nature
Volume	533
Issue number	7604
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/nature18006
State	Published - May 25 2016

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
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.

Funding

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. S\u00E1nchez 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 Astrof\u00EDsica 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 f\u00FCr Astrophysik Potsdam (AIP), Max-Planck-Institut f\u00FCr Astronomie (MPIA Heidelberg), Max-Planck-Institut f\u00FCr Astrophysik (MPA Garching), Max-Planck-Institut f\u00FCr Extraterrestrische Physik (MPE), National Astronomical Observatory of China, New Mexico State University, New York University, University of Notre Dame, Observat\u00F3rio Nacional/MCTI, The Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, UK Participation Group, Universidad Nacional Aut\u00F3noma de M\u00E9xico, 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.

Funders	Funder number
The Pennsylvania State University
MPIA Heidelberg
Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie
Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam
University of Wisconsin-Madison
The Johns Hopkins University
Leverhulme Trust
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias
Ohio Water Resources Center, Ohio State University
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, University of Arizona
Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore
IPMU
Observatório Nacional
Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik
University of Utah Health
Mellon College of Science, Carnegie Mellon University
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
University of Colorado Boulder
Notre Dame Integrated Imaging Facility, University of Notre Dame
Alfred P Sloan Foundation
Chulalongkorn University
Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe
Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik (MPE)
Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
University of Portsmouth
Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação
Yale University
National Science Foundation Office of International Science and Engineering
Royal Society of Medicine
The George Washington University
New Mexico State University, New York University
Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford
University of Tokyo
Vanderbilt Digestive Diseases Research Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Fund for the Promotion of Joint International Research	15K17603
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Fund for the Promotion of Joint International Research
Science and Technology Facilities Council	ST/K00090X/1, ST/N000668/1
Science and Technology Facilities Council
UK Industrial Decarbonization Research and Innovation Centre	53706
UK Industrial Decarbonization Research and Innovation Centre

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General

Access to Document

10.1038/nature18006

Cite this

Cheung, E., Bundy, K., Cappellari, M., Peirani, S., Rujopakarn, W., Westfall, K., Yan, R., Bershady, M., Greene, J. E., Heckman, T. M., Drory, N., Law, D. R., Masters, K. L., Thomas, D., Wake, D. A., Weijmans, A. M., Rubin, K., Belfiore, F., Vulcani, B., ... Schneider, D. P. (2016). Suppressing star formation in quiescent galaxies with supermassive black hole winds. Nature, 533(7604), 504-508. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature18006

@article{2704f550c6184311ae77856790b9a1c2,

title = "Suppressing star formation in quiescent galaxies with supermassive black hole winds",

abstract = "Quiescent galaxies with little or no ongoing star formation dominate the population of galaxies with masses above 2 {\texttimes} 10 10 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 hole, an unknown mechanism must remove or heat the gas that is subsequently accreted from either stellar mass loss or mergers and that would otherwise cool to form stars. Energy output from a black hole accreting at a low rate has been proposed, but observational evidence for this in the form of expanding hot gas shells is indirect and limited to radio galaxies at the centres of clusters, which are too rare to explain the vast majority of the quiescent population. 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 {\texttimes} 10 10 times that of the Sun. In a prototypical example, we calculate that the energy input from the galaxy{\^a}(tm) 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.",

author = "Edmond Cheung and Kevin Bundy and Michele Cappellari and S{\'e}bastien Peirani and Wiphu Rujopakarn and Kyle Westfall and Renbin Yan and Matthew Bershady and Greene, \{Jenny E.\} and Heckman, \{Timothy M.\} and Niv Drory and Law, \{David R.\} and Masters, \{Karen L.\} and Daniel Thomas and Wake, \{David A.\} and Weijmans, \{Anne Marie\} and Kate Rubin and Francesco Belfiore and Benedetta Vulcani and Chen, \{Yan Mei\} and Kai Zhang and Gelfand, \{Joseph D.\} and Dmitry Bizyaev and A. Roman-Lopes and Schneider, \{Donald P.\}",

note = "Funding Information: 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. S{\'a}nchez 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 Astrof{\'i}sica 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 f{\"u}r Astrophysik Potsdam (AIP), Max-Planck-Institut f{\"u}r Astronomie (MPIA Heidelberg), Max-Planck-Institut f{\"u}r Astrophysik (MPA Garching), Max-Planck-Institut f{\"u}r Extraterrestrische Physik (MPE), National Astronomical Observatory of China, New Mexico State University, New York University, University of Notre Dame, Observat{\'o}rio Nacional/MCTI, The Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, UK Participation Group, Universidad Nacional Aut{\'o}noma de M{\'e}xico, 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.",

year = "2016",

month = may,

day = "25",

doi = "10.1038/nature18006",

language = "English",

volume = "533",

pages = "504--508",

number = "7604",

}

Cheung, E, Bundy, K, Cappellari, M, Peirani, S, Rujopakarn, W, Westfall, K, Yan, R, Bershady, M, Greene, JE, Heckman, TM, Drory, N, Law, DR, Masters, KL, Thomas, D, Wake, DA, Weijmans, AM, Rubin, K, Belfiore, F, Vulcani, B, Chen, YM, Zhang, K, Gelfand, JD, Bizyaev, D, Roman-Lopes, A & Schneider, DP 2016, 'Suppressing star formation in quiescent galaxies with supermassive black hole winds', Nature, vol. 533, no. 7604, pp. 504-508. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature18006

TY - JOUR

T1 - Suppressing star formation in quiescent galaxies with supermassive black hole winds

AU - Cheung, Edmond

AU - Bundy, Kevin

AU - Cappellari, Michele

AU - Peirani, Sébastien

AU - Rujopakarn, Wiphu

AU - Westfall, Kyle

AU - Yan, Renbin

AU - Bershady, Matthew

AU - Greene, Jenny E.

AU - Heckman, Timothy M.

AU - Drory, Niv

AU - Law, David R.

AU - Masters, Karen L.

AU - Thomas, Daniel

AU - Wake, David A.

AU - Weijmans, Anne Marie

AU - Rubin, Kate

AU - Belfiore, Francesco

AU - Vulcani, Benedetta

AU - Chen, Yan Mei

AU - Zhang, Kai

AU - Gelfand, Joseph D.

AU - Bizyaev, Dmitry

AU - Roman-Lopes, A.

AU - Schneider, Donald P.

N1 - Funding Information: 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.

PY - 2016/5/25

Y1 - 2016/5/25

N2 - Quiescent galaxies with little or no ongoing star formation dominate the population of galaxies with masses above 2 × 10 10 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 hole, an unknown mechanism must remove or heat the gas that is subsequently accreted from either stellar mass loss or mergers and that would otherwise cool to form stars. Energy output from a black hole accreting at a low rate has been proposed, but observational evidence for this in the form of expanding hot gas shells is indirect and limited to radio galaxies at the centres of clusters, which are too rare to explain the vast majority of the quiescent population. 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 × 10 10 times that of the Sun. In a prototypical example, we calculate that the energy input from the galaxyâ(tm) 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.

AB - Quiescent galaxies with little or no ongoing star formation dominate the population of galaxies with masses above 2 × 10 10 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 hole, an unknown mechanism must remove or heat the gas that is subsequently accreted from either stellar mass loss or mergers and that would otherwise cool to form stars. Energy output from a black hole accreting at a low rate has been proposed, but observational evidence for this in the form of expanding hot gas shells is indirect and limited to radio galaxies at the centres of clusters, which are too rare to explain the vast majority of the quiescent population. 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 × 10 10 times that of the Sun. In a prototypical example, we calculate that the energy input from the galaxyâ(tm) 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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U2 - 10.1038/nature18006

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SN - 0028-0836

VL - 533

SP - 504

EP - 508

JO - Nature

JF - Nature

IS - 7604

ER -

Suppressing star formation in quiescent galaxies with supermassive black hole winds

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