AGN Jet impact in the ISM

It is believed that energy produced by SMBHs regulates star formation in high mass galaxies, but there are no comprehensive, first principles theories for the form of the emitted energy, or how it couples to the gas in and around galaxies. Harvard graduate student Olga Borodina has performed a study of the interaction between jets launched from SMBHs and turbulent, multiphase media, characteristic of the interstellar medium of massive galaxies. She has demonstrated that, depending on the turbulent energy, the density inhomogeneities in the gas, and the jet power, jets can be stalled in the inner regions of galaxies on scales \(\sim 1 - 2\) kpc and not propagate in galaxy halos. This is analogous to the description of feedback employed in IllustrisTNG, where it is assumed that the black hole energy is trapped on small scales and imparts kinetic energy and momentum into the gas, shutting down star formation in massive galaxies. Borodina’s simulations will enable us to formulate a more physical description of this process than has been the case to date and will also be used to interpret observations of systems exhibiting localized jets in the centers of galaxies, such as FR0 and Red Geyser galaxies.