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Torque-Limited Growth Of Massive Black Holes In Galaxies Across Cosmic Tim, Daniel Angles-Alcazar, Feryal Ozel, Romeel Dave, Neal S. Katz, Juna Kollmeier, Benjamin D. Oppenheimer

Neal S. Katz

We combine cosmological hydrodynamic simulations with analytic models to evaluate the role of galaxy-scale gravitational torques on the evolution of massive black holes at the centers of star-forming galaxies. We confirm and extend our earlier results to show that torque-limited growth yields black holes and host galaxies evolving on average along the M BH-M bulge relation from early times down to z = 0 and that convergence onto the scaling relation occurs independent of the initial conditions and with no need for mass averaging through mergers or additional self-regulation processes. Smooth accretion dominates the long-term evolution, with black hole mergers …