Black holes regulate cool gas accretion in massive galaxies

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Wang, Tao; Xu, Ke; Wu, Yuxuan; Shi, Yong; Elbaz, David; Ho, Luis C.; Zhang, Zhi-Yu; Gu, Qiusheng; Wang, Yijun; Shu, Chenggang; Yuan, Feng; Xia, Xiaoyang; Wang, Kai
• 署名单位: Nanjing University; Nanjing University; Universite Paris Saclay; CEA; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS); Universite Paris Cite; Peking University; Peking University; Shanghai Normal University; Fudan University; Fudan University; Tianjin Normal University
• 刊物名称: Nature
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0028-5442
• DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07821-2
• 发表日期: 2024-08-29
• 页码: 1009-+
• 关键词: scaling relations; star-formation; stellar; quasars; coevolution; feedback

摘要

The nucleus of almost all massive galaxies contains a supermassive black hole (BH)(1). The feedback from the accretion of these BHs is often considered to have crucial roles in establishing the quiescence of massive galaxies(2-14), although some recent studies show that even galaxies hosting the most active BHs do not exhibit a reduction in their molecular gas reservoirs or star formation rates(15-17). Therefore, the influence of BHs on galaxy star formation remains highly debated and lacks direct evidence. Here, based on a large sample of nearby galaxies with measurements of masses of both BHs and atomic hydrogen (HI), the main component of the interstellar medium(18), we show that the HI gas mass to stellar masses ratio (mu(HI) = M-HI/M-star) is more strongly correlated with BH masses (M-BH) than with any other galaxy parameters, including stellar mass, stellar mass surface density and bulge masses. Moreover, once the mu(HI)-M-BH correlation is considered, mu(HI) loses dependence on other galactic parameters, demonstrating that MBH serves as the primary driver of mu(HI). These findings provide important evidence for how the accumulated energy from BH accretion regulates the cool gas content in galaxies, by ejecting interstellar medium gas and/or suppressing gas cooling from the circumgalactic medium.