arXiv subjects

Masayuki Umemura

Publications and source records attributed to Masayuki Umemura.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2017

Systematic Identification of LAEs for Visible Exploration and Reionization Research Using Subaru HSC (SILVERRUSH). I. Program Strategy and Clustering Properties of ~2,000 Lya Emitters at z=6-7 over the 0.3-0.5 Gpc$^2$ Survey Area

We present the SILVERRUSH program strategy and clustering properties investigated with $\sim 2,000$ Ly$α$ emitters at $z=5.7$ and $6.6$ found in the early data of the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) Subaru Strategic Program survey exploiting the carefully designed narrowband filters. We derive angular correlation functions with the unprecedentedly large samples of LAEs at $z=6-7$ over the large total area of $14-21$ deg$^2$ corresponding to $0.3-0.5$ comoving Gpc$^2$. We obtain the average large-scale bias values of $b_{\rm avg}=4.1\pm 0.2$ ($4.5\pm 0.6$) at $z=5.7$ ($z=6.6$) for $\gtrsim L^*$ LAEs, indicating the weak evolution of LAE clustering from $z=5.7$ to $6.6$. We compare the LAE clustering results with two independent theoretical models that suggest an increase of an LAE clustering signal by the patchy ionized bubbles at the epoch of reionization (EoR), and estimate the neutral hydrogen fraction to be $x_{\rm HI}=0.15^{+0.15}_{-0.15}$ at $z=6.6$. Based on the halo occupation distribution models, we find that the $\gtrsim L^*$ LAEs are hosted by the dark-matter halos with the average mass of $\log (\left < M_{\rm h} \right >/M_\odot) =11.1^{+0.2}_{-0.4}$ ($10.8^{+0.3}_{-0.5}$) at $z=5.7$ ($6.6$) with a Ly$α$ duty cycle of 1 % or less, where the results of $z=6.6$ LAEs may be slightly biased, due to the increase of the clustering signal at the EoR. Our clustering analysis reveals the low-mass nature of $\gtrsim L^*$ LAEs at $z=6-7$, and that these LAEs probably evolve into massive super-$L^*$ galaxies in the present-day universe.

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arXiv2016

GOTHIC: Gravitational oct-tree code accelerated by hierarchical time step controlling

The tree method is a widely implemented algorithm for collisionless $N$-body simulations in astrophysics well suited for GPU(s). Adopting hierarchical time stepping can accelerate $N$-body simulations; however, it is infrequently implemented and its potential remains untested in GPU implementations. We have developed a Gravitational Oct-Tree code accelerated by HIerarchical time step Controlling named \texttt{GOTHIC}, which adopts both the tree method and the hierarchical time step. The code adopts some adaptive optimizations by monitoring the execution time of each function on-the-fly and minimizes the time-to-solution by balancing the measured time of multiple functions. Results of performance measurements with realistic particle distribution performed on NVIDIA Tesla M2090, K20X, and GeForce GTX TITAN X, which are representative GPUs of the Fermi, Kepler, and Maxwell generation of GPUs, show that the hierarchical time step achieves a speedup by a factor of around 3--5 times compared to the shared time step. The measured elapsed time per step of \texttt{GOTHIC} is 0.30~s or 0.44~s on GTX TITAN X when the particle distribution represents the Andromeda galaxy or the NFW sphere, respectively, with $2^{24} =$~16,777,216 particles. The averaged performance of the code corresponds to 10--30\% of the theoretical single precision peak performance of the GPU.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2016

Formation of globular clusters induced by external ultraviolet radiation II: Three-dimensional radiation hydrodynamics simulations

We explore the possibility of the formation of globular clusters under ultraviolet (UV) background radiation. One-dimensional spherical symmetric radiation hydrodynamics (RHD) simulations by Hasegawa et al. have demonstrated that the collapse of low-mass (10^6-10^7 solar masses) gas clouds exposed to intense UV radiation can lead to the formation of compact star clusters like globular clusters (GCs) if gas clouds contract with supersonic infall velocities. However, three-dimensional effects, such as the anisotropy of background radiation and the inhomogeneity in gas clouds, have not been studied so far. In this paper, we perform three-dimensional RHD simulations in a semi-cosmological context, and reconsider the formation of compact star clusters in strong UV radiation fields. As a result, we find that although anisotropic radiation fields bring an elongated shadow of neutral gas, almost spherical compact star clusters can be procreated from a "supersonic infall" cloud, since photo-dissociating radiation suppresses the formation of hydrogen molecules in the shadowed regions and the regions are compressed by UV heated ambient gas. The properties of resultant star clusters match those of GCs. On the other hand, in weak UV radiation fields, dark matter-dominated star clusters with low stellar density form due to the self-shielding effect as well as the positive feedback by ionizing photons. Thus, we conclude that the "supersonic infall" under a strong UV background is a potential mechanism to form GCs.

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arXiv2016

Mergers of accreting stellar-mass black holes

We present post-Newtonian $N$-body simulations on mergers of accreting stellar-mass black holes (BHs), where such general relativistic effects as the pericenter shift and gravitational wave (GW) emission are taken into consideration. The attention is concentrated on the effects of the dynamical friction and the Hoyle-Lyttleton mass accretion by ambient gas. We consider a system composed of ten BHs with initial mass of $30~M_\odot$. As a result, we show that mergers of accreting stellar-mass BHs are classified into four types: a gas drag-driven, an interplay-driven, a three body-driven, or an accretion-driven merger. We find that BH mergers proceed before significant mass accretion, even if the accretion rate is $\sim10$ Eddington accretion rate, and then all BHs can merge into one heavy BH. Using the simulation results for a wide range of parameters, we derive a critical accretion rate ($\dot{m}_{\rm c}$), below which the BH growth is promoted faster by mergers. Also, it is found that the effect of the recoil by the GW emission can reduce $\dot{m}_{\rm c}$ especially in gas number density higher than $10^8~{\rm cm}^{-3}$, and enhance the escape probability of merged BHs. Very recently, a gravitational wave event, GW150914, as a result of the merger of a $\sim 30~M_\odot$ BH binary has been detected (Abbott et al. 2016). Based on the present simulations, the BH merger in GW150914 is likely to be driven by three-body encounters accompanied by a few $M_\odot$ of gas accretion, in high-density environments like dense interstellar clouds or galactic nuclei.

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arXiv2016

Subparsec-scale dynamics of a dusty gas disk exposed to anisotropic AGN radiation with frequency-dependent radiative transfer

We explore the gas dynamics near the dust sublimation radius of active galactic nucleus (AGN). For the purpose, we perform axisymmetric radiation hydrodynamic simulations of a dusty gas disk of radius $\approx 1\,\mathrm{pc}$ around a supermassive black hole of mass $10^{7}\,\mathrm{M_{\odot}}$ taking into account (1) anisotropic radiation of accretion disk, (2) X-ray heating by corona, (3) radiative transfer of infrared (IR) photons reemitted by dust, (4) frequency dependency of direct and IR radiations, and (5) separate temperatures for gas and dust. As a result, we find that for Eddington ratio $\approx 0.77$, a nearly neutral, dense ($\approx 10^{6\operatorname{-}8}\;\mathrm{cm^{-3}}$), geometrically-thin ($h/r<0.06$) disk forms with a high velocity ($\approx 200 \sim 3000\;\mathrm{km/s}$) dusty outflow launched from the disk surface. The disk temperature is determined by the balance between X-ray heating and various cooling, and the disk is almost supported by thermal pressure. Contrary to \citet{krolik07:_agn}, the radiation pressure by IR photons is not effective to thicken the disk, but rather compresses it. Thus, it seems difficult for a radiation-supported, geometrically-thick, obscuring torus to form near the dust sublimation radius as far as the Eddington ratio is high ($\sim 1$). The mass outflow rate is $0.05$-$0.1\;\mathrm{M_{\odot}}/\mathrm{yr}$ and the column density of the outflow is $N_{\mathrm{H}}\lesssim 10^{21}\;\mathrm{cm^{-2}}$. To explain observed type-II AGN fraction, it is required that outflow gas is extended to larger radii ($r\gtrsim 10\;\mathrm{pc}$) or that a denser dusty wind is launched from smaller radii ($r\sim 10^{4}\;R_{g}$).

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2015

Statistical Properties of Diffuse Lyman-alpha Halos around Star-forming Galaxies at z~2

We present statistical properties of diffuse Lyman-alpha halos (LAHs) around high-$z$ star-forming galaxies with large Subaru samples of Lyman-alpha emitters (LAEs) at $z=2.2$. We make subsamples defined by the physical quantities of LAEs' central Lyman-alpha luminosities, UV magnitudes, Lyman-alpha equivalent widths, and UV slopes, and investigate LAHs' radial surface brightness (SB) profiles and scale lengths $r_n$ as a function of these physical quantities. We find that there exist prominent LAHs around LAEs with faint Lyman-alpha luminosities, bright UV luminosities, and small Lyman-alpha equivalent widths in cumulative radial Lyman-alpha SB profiles. We confirm this trend with the anti-correlation between $r_n$ and Lyman-alpha luminosities (equivalent widths) based on the Spearman's rank correlation coefficient that is $ρ=-0.9$ ($-0.7$) corresponding to the $96\%$ ($93\%$) confidence level, although the correlation between $r_n$ and UV magnitudes is not clearly found in the rank correlation coefficient. Our results suggest that LAEs with properties similar to typical Lyman-break galaxies (with faint Lyman-alpha luminosities and small equivalent widths) possess more prominent LAHs. We investigate scenarios for the major physical origins of LAHs with our results, and find that the cold stream scenario is not preferred, due to the relatively small equivalent widths up to $77$Å in LAHs that include LAEs' central components. There remain two possible scenarios of Lyman-alpha scattering in circum-galactic medium and satellite galaxies that cannot be tested with our observational data.

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arXiv2015

Early Cosmic Merger of Multiple Black Holes

We perform numerical simulations on the merger of multiple black holes (BHs) in primordial gas at early cosmic epochs. We consider two cases of BH mass: $M_{BH} = 30 M_{\odot}$ and $M_{BH} = 10^4 M_{\odot}$. Attention is concentrated on the effect of the dynamical friction by gas in a host object. The simulations incorporate such general relativistic effects as the pericentre shift and gravitational wave emission. As a result, we find that multiple BHs are able to merge into one BH within 100 Myr in a wide range of BH density. The merger mechanism is revealed to be categorized into three types: gas-drag-driven merger (type A), interplay-driven merger (type B), and three-body-driven merger (type C). We find the relation between the merger mechanism and the ratio of the gas mass within the initial BH orbit ($M_{gas}$) to the total BH mass ($ΣM_{BH}$). Type A merger occurs if $M_{gas} \gtrsim 10^5 ΣM_{BH}$, type B if $M_{gas} \lesssim 10^5 ΣM_{BH}$, and type C if $M_{gas} \ll 10^5 ΣM_{BH}$. Supposing the gas and BH density based on the recent numerical simulations on first stars, all the BH remnants from first stars are likely to merge into one BH through the type B or C mechanism. Also, we find that multiple massive BHs ($M_{BH} = 10^4 M_{\odot}$) distributed over several parsec can merge into one BH through the type B mechanism, if the gas density is higher than $5\times 10^6$ cm$^{-3}$. The present results imply that the BH merger may contribute significantly to the formation of supermassive BHs at high redshift epochs.

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arXiv2014

On the evolution of gas clouds exposed to AGN radiation. I. Three-dimensional radiation hydrodynamic simulations

We perform three-dimensional radiation hydrodynamic simulations of uniform dusty gas clouds irradiated by an active galactic nucleus (AGN) to investigate the dependence of evolution of clouds on the ionization parameter $\mathcal{U}$ and the Str{ö}mgren number $\mathcal{N}_{S}$. We find that the evolution can be classified into two cases depending on $\mathcal{U}$. In low $\mathcal{U}$ cases ($\mathcal{U}\approx 10^{-2}$), the evolution is mainly driven by photo-evaporation. A approximately spherically-symmetric evaporation flow with velocity of $100\operatorname{-}150\;\mathrm{km\;s^{-1}}$ is launched from the irradiated face. The cloud is compressed by a D-type shock with losing its mass due to photo-evaporation and is finally turned into a dense filament by $t\lesssim 1.5t_{\mathrm{sc}}$. In high $\mathcal{U}$ cases ($\mathcal{U}\approx 5\times 10^{-2}$), radiation pressure suppresses photo-evaporation from the central part of the irradiated face, reducing photo-evaporation rate. A evaporation flow from the outskirts of the irradiated face is turned into a high velocity ($\lesssim 500\;\mathrm{km\;s^{-1}}$) gas wind because of radiation pressure on dust. The cloud is swept by a radiation pressure-driven shock and becomes a dense gas disk by $t\approx t_{\mathrm{sweep}}$. Star formation is expected in these dense regions for both cases of $\mathcal{U}$. We discuss the influences of the AGN radiation on the clumpy torus. A simple estimate suggests that the clumps are destroyed in timescales shorter than their orbital periods. For the clumpy structure to be maintained over long period, the incident radiation field needs to be sufficiently weaken for most of the clumps, or, some mechanism that creates the clumps continuously is needed.

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arXiv2014

Diffuse Lyman-alpha Halos around Galaxies at z=2.2-6.6: Implications for Galaxy Formation and Cosmic Reionization

We present diffuse Lyman-alpha halos (LAHs) identified in the composite Subaru narrowband images of 100-3600 Lyman-alpha emitters (LAEs) at z=2.2, 3.1, 3.7, 5.7, and 6.6. First, we carefully examine potential artifacts mimicking LAHs that include a large-scale point-spread function (PSF) made by instrumental and atmospheric effects. Based on our critical test with composite images of non-LAE samples whose narrowband-magnitude and source-size distributions are the same as our LAE samples, we confirm that no artifacts can produce a diffuse extended feature similar to our LAHs. After this test, we measure the scale lengths of exponential profile for the LAHs estimated from our z=2.2-6.6 LAE samples of L(Lyman-alpha) > 2 x 10^42 erg s^-1. We obtain the scale lengths of ~ 5-10 kpc at z=2.2-5.7, and find no evolution of scale lengths in this redshift range beyond our measurement uncertainties. Combining this result and the previously-known UV-continuum size evolution, we infer that the ratio of LAH to UV-continuum sizes is nearly constant at z=2.2-5.7. The scale length of our z=6.6 LAH is larger than 5-10 kpc just beyond the error bar, which is a hint that the scale lengths of LAHs would increase from z=5.7 to 6.6. If this increase is confirmed by future large surveys with significant improvements of statistical and systematical errors, this scale length change at z > 6 would be a signature of increasing fraction of neutral hydrogen scattering Lyman-alpha photons, due to cosmic reionization.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2014

What is the physical origin of strong Lya emission? II. Gas Kinematics and Distribution of Lya Emitters

We present a statistical study of velocities of Lya, interstellar (IS) absorption, and nebular lines and gas covering fraction for Lya emitters (LAEs) at z~2. We make a sample of 22 LAEs with a large Lya equivalent width (EW) of > 50A based on our deep Keck/LRIS observations, in conjunction with spectroscopic data from the Subaru/FMOS program and the literature. We estimate the average velocity offset of Lya from a systemic redshift determined with nebular lines to be dv_Lya=234+-9 km s-1. Using a Kolmogorv-Smirnov test, we confirm the previous claim of Hashimoto et al. (2013) that the average dv_Lya of LAEs is smaller than that of LBGs. Our LRIS data successfully identify blue-shifted multiple IS absorption lines in the UV continua of four LAEs on an individual basis. The average velocity offset of IS absorption lines from a systemic redshift is dv_IS=204+-27 km s-1, indicating LAE's gas outflow with a velocity comparable to typical LBGs. Thus, the ratio, R^Lya_ IS = dv_Lya/dv_IS of LAEs, is around unity, suggestive of low impacts on Lya transmission by resonant scattering of neutral hydrogen in the IS medium. We find an anti-correlation between Lya EW and the covering fraction, f_c, estimated from the depth of absorption lines, where f_c is an indicator of average neutral hydrogen column density, N_HI. The results of our study support the idea that N_HI is a key quantity determining Lya emissivity.

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arXiv2014

Merger Criteria of Multiple Massive Black Holes and the Impact on the Host Galaxy

We perform N-body simulations on a multiple massive black hole (MBH) system in a host galaxy to derive the criteria for successive MBH merger. The calculations incorporate the dynamical friction by stars and general relativistic effects as pericentre shift and gravitational wave recoil. The orbits of MBHs are pursed down to ten Schwarzschild radii (~ 1 AU). As a result, it is shown that about a half of MBHs merge during 1 Gyr in a galaxy with mass $10^{11}M_{\odot}$ and stellar velocity dispersion 240 km/s, even if the recoil velocity is two times as high as the stellar velocity dispersion. The dynamical friction allows a binary MBH to interact frequently with other MBHs, and then the decay of the binary orbits leads to the merger through gravitational wave radiation, as shown by Tanikawa & Umemura (2011). We derive the MBH merger criteria for the masses, sizes, and luminosities of host galaxies. It is found that the successive MBH mergers are expected in bright galaxies, depending on redshifts. Furthermore, we find that the central stellar density is reduced by the sling-shot mechanism and that high-velocity stars with ~ 1000 km/s are generated intermittently in extremely radial orbits.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2014

What is the Physical Origin of Strong Lya Emission? I. Demographics of Lya Emitter Structures

We present the results of structure analyses for a large sample of 426 Lya emitters (LAEs) at z~2.2 that are observed with HST/ACS and WFC3-IR by deep extra-galactic legacy surveys. We confirm that the merger fraction and the average ellipticity of LAE's stellar component are 10-30 % and 0.4-0.6, respectively, that are comparable with previous study results. We successfully identify that some LAEs have a spatial offset between Lya and stellar-continuum emission peaks, d_Lya, by ~2.5-4 kpc beyond our statistical errors. To uncover the physical origin of strong Lya emission found in LAEs, we investigate Lya equivalent width (EW) dependences of these three structural parameters, merger fraction, d_Lya, and ellipticity of stellar distribution in the range of EW(Lya)=20-250A. Contrary to expectations, we find that merger fraction does not significantly increase with Lya EW. We reveal an anti-correlation between d_Lya and EW(Lya) by Kolmogorov-Smirnov (KS) test. There is a trend that the LAEs with a large Lya EW have a small ellipticity. This is consistent with the recent theoretical claims that Lya photons can more easily escape from face-on disks having a small ellipticity, due to less inter-stellar gas along the line of sight, although our KS test indicates that this trend is not statistically significant. Our results of Lya-EW dependence generally support the idea that an HI column density is a key quantity determining Lya emissivity.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2013

First Systematic Search for Oxygen-Line Blobs at High Redshift: Uncovering AGN Feedback and Star-Formation Quenching

We present the first systematic search for extended metal-line [OII]λλ3726,3729 nebulae, or [OII] blobs (OIIBs), at z=1.2 using deep narrowband imaging with a survey volume of 1.9x10^5 Mpc^3 on the 0.62 deg^2 sky of Subaru-XMM Deep Survey (SXDS) field. We discover a giant OIIB, dubbed 'OIIB 1', with a spatial extent over ~75 kpc at a spectroscopic redshift of z=1.18, and also identify a total of twelve OIIBs with a size of >30 kpc. Our optical spectrum of OIIB 1 presents [NeV]λ3426 line at the 6σ level, indicating that this object harbors an obscured type-2 AGN. The presence of gas outflows in this object is suggested by two marginal detections of FeIIλ2587 absorption and FeII*λ2613 emission lines both of which are blueshifted at as large as 500-600 km/s, indicating that the heating source of OIIB 1 is AGN or associated shock excitation rather than supernovae produced by starbursts. The number density of OIIB 1-type giant blobs is estimated to be ~5x10^{-6} Mpc^{-3} at z~1.2, which is comparable with that of AGNs driving outflow at a similar redshift, suggesting that giant OIIBs are produced only by AGN activity. On the other hand, the number density of small OIIBs, 6x10^{-5} Mpc^{-3}, compared to that of z~1 galaxies in the blue cloud in the same M_B range, may imply that 3% of star-forming galaxies at z~1 are quenching star formation through outflows involving extended [OII] emission.

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arXiv2012

Formation and Radiative Feedback of First Objects and First Galaxies

First, the formation of first objects driven by dark matter is revisited by high-resolution hydrodynamic simulations. It is revealed that dark matter haloes of ~10^4M_sun can produce first luminous objects with the aid of dark matter cusps. Therefore, the mass of first objects is smaller by roughly two orders of magnitude than in the previous prediction. This implies that the number of Pop III stars formed in the early universe could be significantly larger than hitherto thought. Secondly, the feedback by photo-ionization and photo-dissociation photons in the first objects is explored with radiation hydrodynamic simulations, and it is demonstrated that multiple stars can form in a 10^5M_sun halo. Thirdly, the fragmentation of an accretion disk around a primordial protostar is explored with photo-dissociation feedback. As a result, it is found that the photo-dissociation can reduce the mass accretion rate onto protostars. Also, protostars as small as 0.8M_sun may be ejected and evolve with keeping their mass, which might be detected as "real first stars" in the Galactic halo. Finally, state-of-the-art radiation hydrodynamic simulations are performed to investigate the internal ionization of first galaxies and the escape of ionizing photons. We find that UV feedback by forming massive stars enhances the escape fraction even in a halo as massive as > 6* 10^9M_sun, while it reduces the star formation rate significantly. This may have a momentous impact on the cosmic reionization.

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arXiv2012

Direct Integration of the Collisionless Boltzmann Equation in Six-dimensional Phase Space: Self-gravitating Systems

We present a scheme for numerical simulations of collisionless self-gravitating systems which directly integrates the Vlasov--Poisson equations in six-dimensional phase space. By the results from a suite of large-scale numerical simulations, we demonstrate that the present scheme can simulate collisionless self-gravitating systems properly. The integration scheme is based on the positive flux conservation method recently developed in plasma physics. We test the accuracy of our code by performing several test calculations including the stability of King spheres, the gravitational instability and the Landau damping. We show that the mass and the energy are accurately conserved for all the test cases we study. The results are in good agreement with linear theory predictions and/or analytic solutions. The distribution function keeps the property of positivity and remains non-oscillatory. The largest simulations are run on 64^6 grids. The computation speed scales well with the number of processors, and thus our code performs efficiently on massively parallel supercomputers.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2011

Sub-millimeter brightness of early star-forming galaxies

Based on a three-dimensional model of an early star-forming galaxy, we explore the evolution of the sub-millimeter brightness. The model galaxy is employed from an ultra-high-resolution chemodynamic simulation of a primordial galaxy by Mori & Umemura, where the SFR is ~ 10 Msun/yr at t<0.3 Gyr and several Msun/yr at t>0.3 Gyr. The former phase well reproduces the observed properties of LAEs and the latter does LBGs. We solve the three-dimensional radiative transfer in the clumpy interstellar media in this model galaxy, taking the size distributions of dust grains into account, and calculate the dust temperature as a function of galactic evolutionary time. We find that the clumpiness of interstellar media plays an important role for the sub-millimeter brightness. In the LAE phase, dust grains are concentrated on clumpy star-forming regions that are distributed all over the galaxy, and the grains can effectively absorb UV radiation from stars. As a result, the dust is heated up to T>35 K. In the LBG phase, the continuous supernovae drive dust grains far away from star-forming regions. Then, the grains cannot absorb much radiation from stars, and becomes into a cold state close to the CMB temperature. Consequently, the dust temperature decreases with the evolutionary time, where the mass-weighted mean temperature is T=26 K at t=0.1 Gyr and T=21 K at t=1.0 Gyr. By this analysis, it turns out that the sub-millimeter brightness is higher in the LAE phase than that in the LBG phase, although the dust-to-gas ratio increases monotonically as a function of time. We derive the spectral energy distributions by placing the model galaxy at a given redshift. The peak flux at 850 micron is found to be S_850 ~ 0.2 - 0.9 mJy if the model galaxy is placed at 6>z>2. This means that ALMA can detect an early star-forming galaxy with SFR of ~ 10 Msun/yr by less than one hour integration with 16 antennas.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2011

ARGOT: Accelerated radiative transfer on grids using oct-tree

We present two types of numerical prescriptions that accelerate the radiative transfer calculation around point sources within a three-dimensional Cartesian grid by using the oct-tree structure for the distribution of radiation sources. In one prescription, distant radiation sources are grouped as a bright extended source when the group's angular size, $θ_{\rm s}$, is smaller than a critical value, $θ_{\rm crit}$, and radiative transfer is solved on supermeshes whose angular sizes are similar to that of the group of sources. The supermesh structure is constructed by coarse-graining the mesh structure. With this method, the computational time scales with $N_{\rm m} \log(N_{\rm m}) \log(N_{\rm s})$ where $N_{\rm m}$ and $N_{\rm s}$ are the number of meshes and that of radiation sources, respectively. While this method is very efficient, it inevitably overestimates the optical depth when a group of sources acts as an extended powerful radiation source and affects distant meshes. In the other prescription, a distant group of sources is treated as a bright point source ignoring the spatial extent of the group and the radiative transfer is solved on the meshes rather than the supermeshes. This prescription is simply a grid-based version of {\scriptsize START} by Hasegawa & Umemura and yields better results in general with slightly more computational cost ($\propto N_{\rm m}^{4/3} \log(N_{\rm s})$) than the supermesh prescription. Our methods can easily be implemented to any grid-based hydrodynamic codes and are well-suited to the adaptive mesh refinement methods.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2011

Successive Merger of Multiple Massive Black Holes in a Primordial Galaxy

Using highly-accurate $N$-body simulations, we explore the evolution of multiple massive black holes (hereafter, MBHs) in a primordial galaxy that is composed of stars and MBHs. The evolution is pursed with a fourth-order Hermite scheme, where not only three-body interaction of MBHs but also dynamical friction by stars are incorporated. Initially, ten MBHs with equal mass of $10^7M_\odot$ are set in a host galaxy with $10^{11}M_\odot$. It is found that 4 - 6 MBHs merge successively within 1 Gyr, emitting gravitational wave radiation. The key process for the successive merger of MBHs is the dynamical friction by field stars, which enhances three-body interactions of MBHs when they enter the central regions of the galaxy. The heaviest MBH always composes a close binary at the galactic center, which shrinks owing to the angular momentum transfer by the third MBH and eventually merges. The angular momentum transfer by the third MBH is due to the sling-shot mechanism. We find that the secular Kozai mechanism does not work for a binary to merge if we include the relativistic pericenter shift. The simulations show that a multiple MBH system can produce a heavier MBH at the galactic center purely through $N$-body process. This merger path can be of great significance for the growth of MBHs in a primordial galaxy. The merger of multiple MBHs may be a potential source of gravitational waves for the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) and pulsar timing.

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