The Impact of Seyfert Jets on Galaxy Evolution across Major Scaling Relations

Julianne Goddard; Isaac Shlosman; Emilio Romano-Diaz

doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ae5939

The Impact of Seyfert Jets on Galaxy Evolution across Major Scaling Relations

Julianne Goddard
, Isaac Shlosman
, Emilio Romano-Diaz

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

Abstract

We analyze a suite of high-resolution cosmological zoom-in simulations of jetted Seyfert galaxies over z < ∼10 projected on the major scaling relations, comparing trajectories of “normal” versus jet-hosting galaxies. Models include thermal and mechanical jet feedback launched from supermassive black holes (SMBHs) seeded at z ∼ 9.1 and z ∼ 3.7 with M_• ∼ 10⁶ M_⊙ in galaxies within dark matter halos of (Formula presented) logMhalo/M⊙∼11.8 at z = 0. A single parameter, the SMBH accretion efficiency, has been varied, resulting in L_jet ∼ 10⁴⁰⁻⁴² erg s⁻¹, and SMBH accretion rates range between ∼0.2 and 10⁻⁴ of the Eddington rate. We find that jet feedback (1) suppresses central star formation rates (SFRs), redistributes gas to larger radii, (2) generates long-lived expanding shocks that couple to the interstellar medium and circumgalactic medium (CGM), (3) reduces stellar mass (M_*), shifting galaxies toward lower central concentrations, and (4) alters host trajectories on the M_halo–M_*, specific SFR−M_*, M_•–σ_bulge, mass–metallicity, Kennicutt–Schmidt, and baryonic Tully–Fisher relation planes. Specifically, we find that jetted Seyferts live longer in the green valley and more frequently move to the quenched region in comparison to the nonjetted galaxies. Despite producing only transient quenching, Seyfert jets cause persistent structural, kinematic, and chemical signatures, including flatter rotation curves, elevated CGM metallicities, and reduced cold gas clumping. (5) Early SMBH seeding and stronger jets amplify these effects, yielding galaxies that lie systematically closer to some of the empirical relations, e.g., M_halo–M_*, while showing offsets for others, e.g., Kennicutt–Schmidt, and demonstrating that low-luminosity Seyfert jets can exert a significant long-term influence on galaxy evolution.

Original language	English
Journal	Astrophysical Journal
Volume	1001
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ae5939
State	Published - Apr 20 2026

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2026. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.

Funding

We thank Phil Hopkins for providing us with the latest version of the code, and we are grateful to Alessandro Lupi, D. Bi, Kung-Yi Su, Paul Torrey, Xingchen Li, Volker Springel, and Clayton Heller for their help with GIZMO. E.R.D. acknowledges support of the Collaborative Research Center 1601 (SFB 1601 subproject C5), funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation)—500700252. This work used Expanse CPU at San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) through allocation PHY230135 from the ACCESS program, which is supported by NSF grants 2138259, 2138286, 2138307, 2137603, and 2138296 (T. J. Boerner et al. ), and by the University of Kentucky Morgan Computing Cluster. We are grateful for help from Vikram Gazula at the Center for Computational Studies of the University of Kentucky. We thank Phil Hopkins for providing us with the latest version of the code, and we are grateful to Alessandro Lupi, D. Bi, Kung-Yi Su, Paul Torrey, Xingchen Li, Volker Springel, and Clayton Heller for their help with GIZMO. E.R.D. acknowledges support of the Collaborative Research Center 1601 (SFB 1601 subproject C5), funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation)—500700252. This work used Expanse CPU at San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) through allocation PHY230135 from the ACCESS program, which is supported by NSF grants 2138259, 2138286, 2138307, 2137603, and 2138296 (T. J. Boerneret al.2023), and by the University of Kentucky Morgan Computing Cluster. We are grateful for help from Vikram Gazula at the Center for Computational Studies of the University of Kentucky.

Funders	Funder number
University of Kentucky
Vikram Gazula
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft	500700252, PHY230135
National Science Foundation Arctic Social Science Program	2138286, 2138296, 2023, 2138307, 2137603, 2138259
Phil Hopkins	SFB 1601

Keywords

AGN host galaxies (2017)
Circumgalactic medium (1879)
Hydrodynamical simulations (767)
Relativistic jets (1390)
Scaling relations (2031)
Seyfert galaxies (1447)

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Astronomy and Astrophysics
Space and Planetary Science

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10.3847/1538-4357/ae5939

Cite this

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title = "The Impact of Seyfert Jets on Galaxy Evolution across Major Scaling Relations",

abstract = "We analyze a suite of high-resolution cosmological zoom-in simulations of jetted Seyfert galaxies over z < ∼10 projected on the major scaling relations, comparing trajectories of “normal” versus jet-hosting galaxies. Models include thermal and mechanical jet feedback launched from supermassive black holes (SMBHs) seeded at z ∼ 9.1 and z ∼ 3.7 with M• ∼ 106 M⊙ in galaxies within dark matter halos of (Formula presented) logMhalo/M⊙∼11.8 at z = 0. A single parameter, the SMBH accretion efficiency, has been varied, resulting in Ljet ∼ 1040−42 erg s−1, and SMBH accretion rates range between ∼0.2 and 10−4 of the Eddington rate. We find that jet feedback (1) suppresses central star formation rates (SFRs), redistributes gas to larger radii, (2) generates long-lived expanding shocks that couple to the interstellar medium and circumgalactic medium (CGM), (3) reduces stellar mass (M*), shifting galaxies toward lower central concentrations, and (4) alters host trajectories on the Mhalo–M*, specific SFR−M*, M•–σbulge, mass–metallicity, Kennicutt–Schmidt, and baryonic Tully–Fisher relation planes. Specifically, we find that jetted Seyferts live longer in the green valley and more frequently move to the quenched region in comparison to the nonjetted galaxies. Despite producing only transient quenching, Seyfert jets cause persistent structural, kinematic, and chemical signatures, including flatter rotation curves, elevated CGM metallicities, and reduced cold gas clumping. (5) Early SMBH seeding and stronger jets amplify these effects, yielding galaxies that lie systematically closer to some of the empirical relations, e.g., Mhalo–M*, while showing offsets for others, e.g., Kennicutt–Schmidt, and demonstrating that low-luminosity Seyfert jets can exert a significant long-term influence on galaxy evolution.",

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author = "Julianne Goddard and Isaac Shlosman and Emilio Romano-Diaz",

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N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2026. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.

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N2 - We analyze a suite of high-resolution cosmological zoom-in simulations of jetted Seyfert galaxies over z < ∼10 projected on the major scaling relations, comparing trajectories of “normal” versus jet-hosting galaxies. Models include thermal and mechanical jet feedback launched from supermassive black holes (SMBHs) seeded at z ∼ 9.1 and z ∼ 3.7 with M• ∼ 106 M⊙ in galaxies within dark matter halos of (Formula presented) logMhalo/M⊙∼11.8 at z = 0. A single parameter, the SMBH accretion efficiency, has been varied, resulting in Ljet ∼ 1040−42 erg s−1, and SMBH accretion rates range between ∼0.2 and 10−4 of the Eddington rate. We find that jet feedback (1) suppresses central star formation rates (SFRs), redistributes gas to larger radii, (2) generates long-lived expanding shocks that couple to the interstellar medium and circumgalactic medium (CGM), (3) reduces stellar mass (M*), shifting galaxies toward lower central concentrations, and (4) alters host trajectories on the Mhalo–M*, specific SFR−M*, M•–σbulge, mass–metallicity, Kennicutt–Schmidt, and baryonic Tully–Fisher relation planes. Specifically, we find that jetted Seyferts live longer in the green valley and more frequently move to the quenched region in comparison to the nonjetted galaxies. Despite producing only transient quenching, Seyfert jets cause persistent structural, kinematic, and chemical signatures, including flatter rotation curves, elevated CGM metallicities, and reduced cold gas clumping. (5) Early SMBH seeding and stronger jets amplify these effects, yielding galaxies that lie systematically closer to some of the empirical relations, e.g., Mhalo–M*, while showing offsets for others, e.g., Kennicutt–Schmidt, and demonstrating that low-luminosity Seyfert jets can exert a significant long-term influence on galaxy evolution.

AB - We analyze a suite of high-resolution cosmological zoom-in simulations of jetted Seyfert galaxies over z < ∼10 projected on the major scaling relations, comparing trajectories of “normal” versus jet-hosting galaxies. Models include thermal and mechanical jet feedback launched from supermassive black holes (SMBHs) seeded at z ∼ 9.1 and z ∼ 3.7 with M• ∼ 106 M⊙ in galaxies within dark matter halos of (Formula presented) logMhalo/M⊙∼11.8 at z = 0. A single parameter, the SMBH accretion efficiency, has been varied, resulting in Ljet ∼ 1040−42 erg s−1, and SMBH accretion rates range between ∼0.2 and 10−4 of the Eddington rate. We find that jet feedback (1) suppresses central star formation rates (SFRs), redistributes gas to larger radii, (2) generates long-lived expanding shocks that couple to the interstellar medium and circumgalactic medium (CGM), (3) reduces stellar mass (M*), shifting galaxies toward lower central concentrations, and (4) alters host trajectories on the Mhalo–M*, specific SFR−M*, M•–σbulge, mass–metallicity, Kennicutt–Schmidt, and baryonic Tully–Fisher relation planes. Specifically, we find that jetted Seyferts live longer in the green valley and more frequently move to the quenched region in comparison to the nonjetted galaxies. Despite producing only transient quenching, Seyfert jets cause persistent structural, kinematic, and chemical signatures, including flatter rotation curves, elevated CGM metallicities, and reduced cold gas clumping. (5) Early SMBH seeding and stronger jets amplify these effects, yielding galaxies that lie systematically closer to some of the empirical relations, e.g., Mhalo–M*, while showing offsets for others, e.g., Kennicutt–Schmidt, and demonstrating that low-luminosity Seyfert jets can exert a significant long-term influence on galaxy evolution.

KW - AGN host galaxies (2017)

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KW - Relativistic jets (1390)

KW - Scaling relations (2031)

KW - Seyfert galaxies (1447)

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JO - Astrophysical Journal

JF - Astrophysical Journal

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The Impact of Seyfert Jets on Galaxy Evolution across Major Scaling Relations

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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