Intermediate-Mass & Supermassive Black Hole Feedback in Cosmological Hydrodynamical Simulations

<p>Intermediate-Mass Black Holes (IMBHs: with mass between 100 to 10^6 Msun) historically comprise of an elusive population in the Universe compared to the widely observed Stellar-Mass and Supermassive Black Holes. An increasing fraction of low-mass galaxies are observed to host IMBHs at their centers; some of which show signatures of activity in the form of low-luminosity AGN. In this context, a pertinent theory is that there are dormant IMBHs at the centers of Dwarf Galaxies, which we explore by performing small-volume Cosmological Hydrodynamical Simulations. The IMBHs are expected to be more prevalent in low-mass halos. We also perform medium-volume cosmological simulations to explore feedback from supermassive BHs. Our simulations employ a modified version of the SPH code GADGET-3, and include baryonic feedback models: radiative cooling, star formation, chemical enrichment, stellar evolution, supernova feedback, AGN accretion and AGN kinetic feedback. We investigate the growth of central IMBHs and SMBHs in galaxies employing the different volume simulations, as well as the resulting BH feedback. We quantify the impact of central massive BHs on their host galaxies; especially the effects on star formation and galaxy gas properties.</p>