Quasar Outflows and the Formation of Dwarf Galaxies
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Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 000, 000–000 (0000) Printed 2 October 2018 Quasar outflows and the formation of dwarf galaxies Priyamvada Natarajan,1, Steinn Sigurdsson1 and Joseph Silk1,2,3 1Institute of Astronomy, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA, U. K. 2Department of Astronomy and Physics, Univ. of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 97420, U. S. A. 3Center for Particle Astrophysics, Univ. of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 97420, U. S. A. 2 October 2018 ABSTRACT In this paper we propose a scenario for the formation of a population of baryon rich, dark matter deficient dwarf galaxies at high redshift from the mass swept out in the Inter-Galactic Medium (IGM) by energetic outflows from luminous quasars. We pre- dict the intrinsic properties of these galaxies, and examine the prospects for their ob- servational detection in the optical, X-ray and radio wavebands. Detectable thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich decrements on arc-minute scales in the cosmic microwave back- ground radiation maps are expected during the shock-heated expanding phase from these hot bubbles. We conclude that the optimal detection strategy for these dwarfs is via narrow-band Lyman-α imaging of regions around high redshift quasars. A scaled down (in the energetics) version of the same model is speculated upon as a possible mechanism for forming pre-galactic globular clusters. Key words: 1 INTRODUCTION sponding to the mass of dwarf galaxy size objects, akin to the explosion-driven galaxy formation scenarios proposed Galaxy formation is a complex physical process involving by McKee & Ostriker (1977), Ostriker & Cowie (1981) and several length, mass and time scales, therefore it is expected Ostriker & Ikeuchi (1983). The propagation of these cos- to proceed in a fashion that is modulated by the proper- mological blast-waves has been computed by Ostriker & ties of the local environment in which it occurs. In the con- Cowie (1981), Bertschinger (1985), Vishniac, Ostriker, & text of a hierarchical picture for structure formation in a Bertschinger (1985), Carr & Ikeuchi (1985), Tegmark, Silk, cold dark-matter dominated Universe, most massive galax- & Evrard (1993) in slightly different contexts, that of ex- ies are thought to assemble fairly recently (at z ∼ 0.5 - 1) plosion induced structure formation models or the role of arXiv:astro-ph/9710154v2 1 Jun 1998 from the agglomeration of sub-clumps that have collapsed at supernovae winds. In recent papers, Voit (1996) has exam- higher redshifts (White & Frenk 1991; Kauffmann, White, & ined the effects of quasar blown bubbles on the structure of Guiderdoni 1993; Baugh, Cole, & Frenk 1996). Recent obser- the Inter-Galactic Medium, here we focus on the fate of the vations from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and ground- gas in these bubbles. We consider the basic scaling relations based telescopes find that a significant fraction of the stellar for our proposed model in the second section of this paper. mass as traced by blue light, that constitute galaxies is in In Section 3, we outline the dynamics of quasar outflows and place by redshift ∼ 1.5 - 2.0 (Madau 1996; Lilly et al. 1996). the fate of the cold dense gas deposited in shells around the The other cosmological objects in place by these redshifts quasar, when gravitational instability causes mass clumps are quasars; and given the high bolometric luminosities of to form at the scale of dwarf galaxies. In Section 4, the pre- high redshift quasars it is natural to expect that they prob- dicted properties and prospects for detection of this popula- ably play an important role in locally modulating galaxy tion of dwarfs and the outflow in the optical and X-ray wave- formation (Efstathiou & Rees 1988; Babul & White 1991; bands are explored. We then note that the high-redshift blue Babul & Rees 1992; Silk & Rees 1998). clumps detected by HST reported by Pascarelle et al. (1996) We propose that quasars effect galaxy formation in their and the galaxies detected in the Lyman-α by Hu & McMa- vicinity via energetic outflows. The outflow powered by the hon (1996) are potential candidates (Section 5). Before con- mechanical luminosity of the quasar shocks and sweeps out cluding, we speculate on the consequences of a scaled-down mass from the IGM into a (thin) shell that propagates version of the same scenario for the formation of the pre- out on scales of the order of a few hundred kpc or so. galactic globular cluster population. The swept up matter expands adiabatically till a gravita- tional instability of the shell causes it to fragment, yield- 9 ing clumps with a typical mass-scale, ∼ 10 M⊙ corre- 2 Priyamvada Natarajan, Steinn Sigurdsson & Joseph Silk 2 QUASAR OUTFLOWS scaling as t2/5 once the QSO shuts off) until the shell of mass swept up at the shock front becomes self-gravitating. The total energy budget available from a quasar to power In this treatment we focus on the dynamics of the outflows the mechanical luminosity of the outflow is determined by during this radiative cooling dominated stage. They are the mass accreted by a black hole of mass M modulo two bh well-approximated by the family of self-similar Sedov-Taylor efficiency factors: one that determines the conversion of rest blast-wave solutions (McKee & Ostriker 1977; Bertschinger mass into the bolometric luminosity ǫ (∼ 0.1), and the effi- 1985; Voit 1994; Voit 1996) at this epoch. The swept up ciency of conversion of the bolometric luminosity into me- mass becomes dynamically important at a time t after the chanical luminosity parameterized as ǫL (∼ 0.5). Bolometric commencement of the outflow: luminosities of bright quasars at redshifts z ∼> 2 are as high 47 −1 ˙ as ∼ 10 erg s or larger. A typical outflow can therefore 7 −3/2 −1/2 M 1/2 t ∼ 5 × 10 (1 + z) ΩIGM ( 4 −1 ) (3) sweep up mass MIGM from the IGM: 4 × 10 M⊙ yr vflow −1/2 12 LQSO δt × ( −1 ) yr, MIGM ∼ 2 × 10 ( )( ) 3000 kms 1047 erg s−1 5 × 107 yr vflow −2 where M˙ is the mean outflow rate (i.e. MIGM/tQ) in units of × ( ) M⊙, (1) 4 −1 3000 km s−1 4 × 10 M⊙ yr and ΩIGM is the mass density of the IGM where δt is the duration of the wind phase/the lifetime of the (where ΩIGM << Ω0), at which time the bubble radius is: quasar, vflow the outflow velocity and LQSO the mechanical ˙ −3/2 −1/2 M 1/2 luminosity of the quasar. The outflow extends to: R ∼ 400 (1 + z) ΩIGM ( 4 −1 ) (4) 4 × 10 M⊙ yr v ǫ ǫL 1/3 Mbh 1/3 fQ −1/3 × ( flow )−1/2 kpc. R ∼ 500 ( ) ( 9 ) ( ) −1 0.05 10 M⊙ 0.01 3000 kms v /c Eventually, as the age of the bubble approaches the local × ( flow )−2/3 kpc. (2) 0.01 Hubble time, the cold shell of accumulated material frag- ments due to gravitational instability (although in principle, where fQ is the local baryon fraction in units of 0.01. Note that if the density of the ambient medium is lower, then while Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities could set in, they do not the outflow expands further out on to larger scales. All the result in the formation of gravitationally bound fragments). The boundary conditions immediately prior to fragmenta- numbers quoted in this work have been computed for H0 = −1 tion can be estimated following the treatment of Ostriker & 50 km s Mpc; Ω0 = 1.0 and Λ = 0. Cowie (1981) and Voit (1994). The radiative cooling time τcool is: 8 T 11/5 −3 3 OUTFLOW DYNAMICS τcool = 1.2 × 10 ( ) (1 + z) yr. (5) 105 K Below, we summarize the dynamical sequence before esti- Equating the radiative cooling time to the age of the bub- mating the relevant numbers. In this treatment, we ignore ble, an expression for the post-shock velocity vcool can be the detailed microphysics of the outflow from the BH, but obtained (Ostriker & Cowie 1981) in terms of the total en- assume that the flow is a mildly relativistic and directed one ergy injected into the outflow, involving only a small mass at the base of the outflow. We also ignore the time evolution of the initial stages of the out- LQSO 1/20 δt 1/20 1/3 −1 vcool ∼ 150 ( 47 −1 ) ( 7 ) (1 + z) km s . (6) flow and consider the dynamics of the outflow only at the 10 ergs 5 × 10 yr epoch when the swept up mass is comparable to or greater The shell temperature can be related to the total swept up than the mass of the BH Mbh. mass as follows, 7 During the lifetime of the quasar (tQ ∼ 5 × 10 yr), Msweep the outflow expands freely into the IGM, shock heating ma- 5 2/5 3/5 Tshell = 1.4 × 10 ( 12 ) (1 + z) K (7) terial locally to high-temperatures ∼ 108 K. During the hot 10 M⊙ phase, we expect X-ray emission from the shocked material. The maximum mass that can cool during the radiative cool- 12 9 For quasars that switch on at high redshifts (z > 7) in- ing phase is 10 M⊙ and fragments less than 10 M⊙ are not verse Compton cooling will dominate but at low redshifts, Jeans unstable at this epoch, thereby naturally providing the shocks expand adiabatically and cool radiatively. As the typical mass-scales. Fragmentation on a scale ξ can therefore 2 2 mass accumulated around the shock becomes dynamically occur if a small disk of radius ξ and mass ∼ Msweep ξ /R significant a reverse shock propagates thermalizing the gas extracted from the shell has a gravitational collapse time that is concentrated along a thin shell.