Modeling the Spectral Energy Distribution of Active Galactic Nuclei: Implications for Cosmological Simulations of Galaxy Formation

Abstract

Modeling the spectral energy distribution (SED) of active galactic nuclei (AGN) plays a very important role in constraining modern cosmological simulations of galaxy formation. Here, we utilize an advanced supermassive black hole (SMBH) accretion disk model to compute the accretion flow structure and AGN SED across a wide range of black hole mass ($M_{\rm SMBH}$) and dimensionless accretion rates $\dot{m}(\equiv \dot{M}_{\rm acc}/\dot{M}_\mathrm{Edd})$, where $\dot{M}_{\rm acc}$ is the mass flow rate through the disk and $\dot{M}_\mathrm{Edd}$ is the Eddington mass accretion rate. We find that the radiative efficiency is mainly influenced by $\dot m$, while contributions of $M_{\rm SMBH}$ and $\dot{m}$ to the bolometric luminosity are comparably important. We have developed new scaling relationships that relate the bolometric luminosity of an AGN to its luminosities in the hard X-ray, soft X-ray, and optical bands. Our results align with existing literature at high luminosities but suggest lower luminosities in the hard and soft X-ray bands for AGNs with low bolometric luminosities than commonly reported values. Combining with the semi-analytical model of galaxy formation \textsc{L-Galaxies} and Millennium dark matter simulation for the distribution of ($M_{\rm SMBH}, \dot{m}$) at different redshift, we find the model predictions align well with observational data at redshifts below 1 but deviates for higher redshifts regarding AGN detection fraction and luminosity functions. This deviation may arise from improper treatment of SMBH growth at high redshifts in the model or bias from limited observational data. This AGN SED calculation can be readily applied in other cosmological simulations.