JWST reveals how black holes are fed: kiloparsec-scale multiphase filaments feed sub-kiloparsec circumnuclear disks

Abstract

The Centaurus cluster is one of the most important archetypes of radio-mode AGN feedback, with its central galaxy, NGC 4696, launching powerful jets that inflate X-ray cavities and regulate cooling and star formation. NGC 4696 lies within a spectacular multiphase nebula of filaments extending over tens of kiloparsecs and spanning six decades in temperature, from hot (10^8 K) X-ray-emitting plasma to cold molecular gas. Owing to its proximity, Hubble Space Telescope H_alpha imaging reveals a striking S-shaped ionized-gas swirl within the black hole's sphere of influence - the first such structure identified in a cluster core. Here we present the first JWST observations of NGC 4696 with NIRSpec, probing the inner 618 pc * 618 pc at 10 pc resolution. These data reveal that the ionized swirl is a rotating, multiphase circumnuclear disk (CND) physically and kinematically connected to the larger-scale filamentary network. This provides the long-sought missing link between kiloparsec-scale cooling flows and black hole accretion on <100 pc scales. Strikingly, the observed morphology and kinematics are reproduced by tailored magnetohydrodynamic simulations, in which filamentary gas condenses from the hot atmosphere, loses angular momentum, and feeds a rotating CND that mediates accretion onto the black hole. A similar structure in NGC 1275, the Perseus cluster's central galaxy, together with our results on NGC 4696 - two prototypical radio-mode AGN feedback systems - points to a common mechanism: multiphase filaments transport gas from cluster scales down to the vicinity of the black hole via a CND, closing the AGN feedback loop and establishing a physically grounded framework for self-regulated galaxy evolution.