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Simeon Bird

Publications and source records attributed to Simeon Bird.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Fresh Look at Neutrino Self-Interactions With the Lyman-$α$ Forest: Constraints from EFT and PRIYA Simulations

We present the first search for evidence of neutrino self-interaction with two new, state-of-the-art likelihoods for eBOSS Lyman-$α$ data. These are an effective field theory (EFT) likelihood with priors from the Sherwood simulation suite, and a compressed likelihood derived from an emulator built using the PRIYA simulation suite. Previous analyses that combined Planck measurements with eBOSS Lyman-$α$ likelihoods based on earlier simulations found a preference for neutrino self-interactions. In contrast, using either of the new eBOSS Lyman-$α$ likelihoods, we find that a joint analysis with the cosmic microwave background (CMB) data from Planck prefers a negligible level of neutrino self-interaction, and derive new constraints on the neutrino self-coupling: $\mathrm{log}_{10}(G_\mathrm{eff} \ \mathrm{MeV}^2)=-5.57_{-0.58}^{+0.98}$ for Planck + EFT Lyman-$α$, and $\mathrm{log}_{10}(G_\mathrm{eff} \ \mathrm{MeV}^2)=-5.16_{-0.67}^{+1.12}$ for Planck + PRIYA Lyman-$α$, at 68% confidence. We also consider Planck in combination with DESI BAO data, and find that the latter does not provide significant constraining power for neutrino self-interactions.

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Forecasts for Broadband Intensity Mapping of the Ultraviolet-Optical Background with CASTOR and SPHEREx

Broadband tomography statistically extracts the redshift distribution of frequency dependent emission from the cross correlation of intensity maps with a reference catalog of galaxy tracers. We make forecasts for the performance of future all-sky UV experiments doing broadband tomography. We consider the Cosmological Advanced Survey Telescope for Optical-UV Research (CASTOR) and the Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx). The dominant uncertainty is from variability in the photometric zero point, which scales with limiting magnitude and so mirror size. With this scaling, and assuming a galaxy number density characteristic of future spectroscopic datasets, we find that CASTOR measures the UV background SED $2-10$ times better than existing data. The applicable redshift range will expand from the current $z < 1$ to $z \approx 0-3$ with CASTOR and $z =5-9$ with SPHEREx. We show that CASTOR can provide competitive constraints on the EBL monopole to those available from galaxy number counts and direct measurement techniques. At high redshift especially, these results will help understand galaxy formation and reionization. Our modelling code and chains are publicly available.

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Large-scale surveys of the quasar proximity effect

The UV radiation from high redshift quasars causes a local deficit in the neutral hydrogen absorption (Lyman-alpha forest) in their spectra, known as the proximity effect. Measurements from small samples of tens to hundreds of quasars have been used to constrain the global intensity of the UV background radiation, but so far the power of large-scale surveys such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) survey has not been used to investigate the UV background in more detail. We develop a CDM-based halo model of the quasar proximity effect, which accounts by construction for the fact that quasars reside in overdense regions. We test this model on quasar Lyman-alpha spectra from the ASTRID cosmological hydrodynamic simulation, which includes self-consistent formation of quasar black holes and the intergalactic medium surrounding them. Fitting the model to individual quasar spectra, we constrain two parameters, r_eq (the radius at which the local quasar radiation intensity equals the background), and the quasar bias b_q (related to host halo mass). We find that r_eq can be recovered in an unbiased fashion with a statistical uncertainty of 25-50% from a single quasar spectrum. Applying such fitting to samples of millions of spectra from e.g., DESI would allow measurement of the UVBG intensity and its evolution with redshift with high precision. We use another, larger-scale, lower resolution simulation (Uchuu) to test how such a large sample of proximity effect measurements could be used to probe the spatial fluctuations in the intergalactic radiation field. We find that the large-scale structure of the UV radiation intensity could be mapped and its power spectrum measured on 100-1000 Mpc/h scales. This could allow the large-scale radiation field to join the density field as a dataset for constraining cosmology and the sources of radiation.

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An AI super-resolution field emulator for cosmological hydrodynamics: the Lyman-α forest

We extend our super-resolution and emulation framework for cosmological dark matter simulations to include hydrodynamics. We present a two-stage deep learning model to emulate high-resolution (HR-HydroSim) baryonic fields from low-resolution (LR-HydroSim) simulations at redshift $z = 3$. The method takes as inputs an LR-HydroSim and the high-resolution initial conditions (HR-HydroICs). First, the model stochastically generates high-resolution baryonic fields from the LR-HydroSim. Second, a deterministic emulator refines these fields using HR-HydroICs to reconstruct small-scale structures including displacement, velocity, internal energy, and gas/star classification. Trained on paired low- and high-resolution simulations produced with \texttt{MP-Gadget}, the model captures small-scale structures of the intergalactic medium and %Lyman-$α$ forest observables down to the 100 kpc pressure smoothing scale relevant to the Lyman-$α$ forest. The model achieves subpercent error for overdensity, temperature, velocity, and optical depth fields, a mean relative error of 1.07\% in the large-scale flux power spectrum (\(k < 3 \times 10^{-2}\ \mathrm{s/km}\)), and less than 10\% error in the flux probability distribution function. Notably, the two-stage model reduces the compute time by a factor of $\sim$450 compared to full smoothed particle hydrodynamics at the same resolution. This work demonstrates the potential of this framework as a powerful and efficient tool for generating high-resolution fields offering fast and accurate alternatives to traditional cosmological hydrodynamic simulations and enabling large-volume mock datasets for next-generation cosmological surveys.

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LATIS: A Sample of IGM-selected Protoclusters and Protogroups at $z \sim 2.5$

The Ly$α$ Tomography IMACS Survey (LATIS) has produced large 3D maps of the intergalactic medium (IGM), providing a new window on the cosmic web at $z\sim2.5$. A key advantage of Ly$α$ tomography is that it enables the discovery of overdense regions without the need to detect their galaxy members in spectroscopic surveys, circumventing possible selection biases. We use these maps to identify 37 IGM-selected overdensities as regions of strong and spatially coherent Ly$α$ absorption. Simulations indicate that 85% of these are protoclusters, defined as the progenitors of $z=0$ halos with mass $M_{\rm desc} > 10^{14} M_{\odot}$, and that nearly all of the rest are protogroups ($10^{13.5} < M_{\rm desc} / M_{\odot} < 10^{14}$). We estimate the masses and space densities of the IGM-selected overdensities and show they are in accordance with mock surveys. We investigate the LATIS counterparts of some previously reported protoclusters, including the proto-supercluster Hyperion. We identify a new component of Hyperion beyond its previously known extent. We show that the Ly$α$ transmission of the galaxy density peaks within Hyperion is consistent with a simple physical model (the fluctuating Gunn-Peterson approximation), suggesting that active galactic nucleus feedback or other processes have not affected the large-scale gas ionization within this structure as whole. The LATIS catalog represents an order-of-magnitude increase in the number of IGM-selected protogroups and protoclusters and will enable new investigations of the connections between galaxies and their large-scale environments at cosmic noon.

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LATIS: Comparing Galaxy and IGM Tomography Maps as Tracers of Large-scale Structure and Protoclusters at $z \sim 2.5$

We investigate the consistency of intergalactic medium (IGM) tomography and galaxy surveys as tracers of the cosmic web and protoclusters at $z \sim 2.5$. We use maps from the Ly$α$ Tomography IMACS Survey (LATIS), which trace the distributions of Lyman-break galaxies (LBGs) and IGM Ly$α$ absorption on $\simeq 4$ $h^{-1}$ cMpc scales within the same large volume. Overall, the joint distribution of IGM absorption and LBG density is well constrained and accurately described by a simple physical model. However, we identify several exceptional locations exhibiting strong IGM absorption indicative of a massive protocluster, yet no coincident overdensity of LBGs. As discussed by Newman et al., whose results we revise using the complete LATIS survey data, these are candidate ultraviolet (UV)-dim protoclusters that may harbor distinct galaxy populations missed by rest-UV spectroscopic surveys. We present follow-up observations targeting one such candidate embedded within Antu, an extended region of IGM absorption at $z=2.685$ that contains five IGM-selected protoclusters and has a total mass of $3 \times 10^{15}~M_{\odot}$. Ly$α$ emitters trace the overall structure of Antu but avoid the center of the candidate UV-dim protocluster, which also appears to contain no submillimeter-selected sources. A near-infrared spectroscopic galaxy census is needed to determine whether this large region is dominated by galaxies with reduced or absent star-formation activity. This work adds to a growing and puzzling literature on discrepancies among different galaxy and IGM tracers, whose resolution promises to shed light on the early stages of environment-dependent galaxy evolution.

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Central Cluster Galaxies: A Hotspot for Detectable Gravitational Waves from Black Hole Mergers

After Pulsar Timing Arrays (PTAs) have announced the evidence for a low-frequency gravitational wave background (GWB), the continuous waves (CWs) are the next anticipated gravitational wave (GW) signals. In this work, we model CW sources detectable by PTAs based on the massive black hole (MBH) merger population in the ASTRID cosmological simulation. We evolve MBH binaries, simulate their GW emissions, and calculate their detection probability (DP) for PTAs. The most detectable CW sources are produced by MBH mergers with masses M_BH > 10^10 solarmass in the lowest frequency bins with f<10 nHz. Remarkably, these mergers occur within massive galaxies with the stellar mass larger than 10^12 solarmass located at the center of galaxy clusters. Particularly striking in ASTRID is a triple merger event, wherein two consecutive mergers occur within 500 Myr interval in the same cluster core, generating high-DP CW signals at ~ 2nHz and ~ 10nHz. We also investigate the electromagnetic (EM) signatures associated with these events: either single or dual active galactic nuclei (AGN) in the massive host galaxies that are undergoing star formation. This research provides new insights into the low-frequency GW sky and informs future multi-messenger searches for PTA CW sources.

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Gravitational Waves from Primordial Black Hole Dark Matter Spikes

The origin of the binary black hole mergers observed by LIGO--Virgo--KAGRA remains an open question. We calculate the merger rate from primordial black holes (PBHs) within the density spike around supermassive black holes (SMBHs) at the centers of galaxies. We show that the merger rate within the spike is comparable to that within the wider dark matter halo. We also calculate the extreme mass ratio inspiral (EMRI) signal from PBHs hosted within the density spike spiralling into their host SMBHs due to gravitational wave emission. We predict that LISA may detect $\sim10^4$ of these EMRIs with a signal-to-noise ratio threshold of 20 within a 4 yr observation run, if all dark matter is made up of $\sim30{\rm\,M}_\odot$ PBHs. Uncertainties in our rates come from the uncertain mass fraction of PBHs within the dark matter spike, relative to the host central SMBHs, which defines the parameter space LISA can constrain.

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Ten-parameter simulation suite for cosmological emulation beyond $Λ$CDM

We present Goku, a suite of cosmological $N$-body simulations, and the corresponding 10-dimensional emulator, GokuEmu, for the nonlinear matter power spectrum. The simulations span the base parameters of $Λ$ Cold Dark Matter ($Λ$CDM) cosmology and its extensions, including dynamical dark energy ($w_0$, $w_a$), the sum of the neutrino masses ($\sum m_ν$), the effective number of neutrinos ($N_\text{eff}$), and the running of the scalar spectral index ($α_\text{s}$), enabling tests of new physics with data from upcoming surveys like the Roman Space Telescope, Euclid, and LSST. Designed within the MF-Box framework, which integrates multi-scale and multi-fidelity simulations, the suite includes high-fidelity simulations evolving $3000^3$ particles in $1\,(\text{Gpc}/h)^3$ volumes and low-fidelity simulations with $750^3$ particles across varying box sizes. This approach achieves percent-level accuracy in high-likelihood regions and 5% accuracy across broader parameter ranges, while reducing computational costs by 94% compared to single-fidelity methods. The simulations adopt an accurate treatment of massive neutrinos, enhancing predictions of the matter power spectrum on nonlinear scales. Key innovations include an adaptive sampling strategy and the use of beam search to optimize generalization accuracy. The emulator is valid for redshifts $z \leq 3$ and scales $0.01 \lesssim k / (h \, \text{Mpc}^{-1}) \lesssim 10$. Beyond the matter power spectrum, the simulations also support analyses of other statistical measures, such as the halo mass function. The emulator and its training data are publicly available at https://github.com/astro-YYH/GokuEmu, providing a valuable resource for cosmological parameter inference and model testing.

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Hints of an Anomalous Lens Population towards the Galactic Bulge

The dark and dynamic parts of the Galaxy, including the bulk shape and movement of the Galactic Bulge and characteristics of dark compact object populations, such as a hypothetical population of primordial black holes (PBHs), are difficult to study directly by their very nature, but are critical to our understanding of the universe. Fortunately, all of these mysteries can be uniquely studied via gravitational microlensing, a method of astronomical detection that traces mass and dynamics as opposed to light. Using the OGLE-IV microlensing survey bulge fields, we apply a Bayesian hierarchical model to jointly infer properties of the Galaxy, the characteristics of compact objects, and and test PBHs with an extended mass distribution as a test PBHs as a viable explanation of dark matter, extending work focused on the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds, both with much lower event-rates. We infer a preference within the data for a lower patternspeed in the galactic model and a wider mass spectrum for compact objects. When adding a PBH component to the favored astrophysical model from our initial investigations, we find a Bayes factor of $\ln\mathcal{B} = 20.23$ preferring the PBH model. Upon further investigation of these results, we find the critical feature in the PBH model to be the velocity distribution, which is fundamentally different than the velocity distribution of astrophysical objects and uniquely able to explain a large number of low parallax, low timescale microlensing events. Noting that this effect is not unique to PBHs, we consider the implications of these results as applied to a hypothetical population of PBHs and discuss alternative explanations, including a variety of other possible astrophysical and survey or analysis systematics.

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The Effects of AGN Feedback on the Lyman-$α$ Forest Flux Power Spectrum

We study the effects of AGN feedback on the Lyman-$α$ forest 1D flux power spectrum (P1D). Using the Simba cosmological-hydrodynamic simulations, we examine the impact that adding different AGN feedback modes has on the predicted P1D. We find that, for Simba, the impact of AGN feedback is most dramatic at lower redshifts ($z<1$) and that AGN jet feedback plays the most significant role in altering the P1D. The effects of AGN feedback can be seen across a large range of wavenumbers ($1.5\times10^{-3} 2.0$), AGN feedback has a $2\%$ effect on the P1D for $k<5\times10^{-2}$ s/km and an $8\%$ effect for $k>5\times10^{-2}$ s/km. We show that the small scale effect is reduced when normalizing the simulation to the observed mean flux. On large scales, the effect of AGN feedback appears via a change in the IGM temperature and is thus unlikely to bias cosmological parameters. The strong AGN jets in the Simba simulation can reproduce the $z>2$ Lyman-$α$ forest. We stress that analyses comparing different AGN feedback models to future higher precision data will be necessary to determine the full extent of this effect.

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The evolution of galaxy morphology from redshift z=6 to 3: Mock JWST observations of galaxies in the ASTRID simulation

We present mock JWST observations for more than 250,000 different galaxies from the Astrid simulation with $3 \leq z \leq 6$. The mock observations are made using the BPASS stellar SED model, and a simple dust model. They are then viewed through NIRCam filters, convolved with a PSF, have noise added, and are drizzled together to emulate the Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) survey. We analyse this dataset by computing a number of morphological measures and find our catalog to have comparable statistics to similar mock catalogs, and the first release of CEERS data. We find that most of the Sersic indices of galaxies in our redshift range are lower than observed, with most having n less than one. Additionally, we observe the sizes of galaxies of all masses to increase from redshift z=6 to redshift z=3 consistent with other results. The number of galaxies in our catalog allows us to examine how relationships like the mass-size relation evolve with redshift, and compare the accuracy of a variety of traditional galaxy classification techniques (Sersic fit, Asymmetry-Concentration, and Gini-$M_{20}$) within our redshift range. We find the mass-size relation to be nearly flat at redshift z=6, and consistently increases as redshift decreases, and find the galaxy classification methods have minimal correlation with each other in our redshift range. We also investigate the impact that different stages of our imaging pipeline have on these morphological measures to determine how robust mock catalogs are to different choices at each step. Finally, we test the addition of incorporating light from AGNs into our pipeline and find that while the population of galaxies that have significant AGN luminosity is low, those galaxies do tend to have higher Sersic indices once the AGN luminosity is added, rectifying some of the systematic bias towards lower Sersic indices present in our dataset.

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AI-assisted super-resolution cosmological simulations IV: An emulator for deterministic realizations

Super-resolution (SR) models in cosmological simulations use deep learning (DL) to rapidly enhance low-resolution (LR) runs with statistically correct fine details. These models preserves large-scale structures by conditioning on an LR version of the simulation. On smaller scales, the generative process is inherently stochastic, producing multiple possible SR realizations with distinct small-scale structures. Validation of reconstructed SR runs from LR simulations requires ensuring that specific statistics of interest are accurately reproduced by comparing SR outputs with target high resolution (HR) runs. In this study, we develop an emulator designed to reproduce the small-scale structures of target HR simulation with high fidelity. By processing an SR realization alongside the high-resolution initial condition (HRIC), we transform the SR output to emulate the result of a full simulation with that HRIC. By comparing various metrics, from visualization to individual halo measurements, we demonstrate that the emulated SR runs closely align with the target HR simulation, even at length scales an order of magnitude smaller than the corresponding LR run. These results show the potential of this method for efficiently generating accurate simulations and mock observations for large galaxy surveys.

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The Gravitational Wave Background from Massive Black Holes in the ASTRID Simulation

Recent pulsar timing array (PTA) observations have detected nanohertz gravitational waves, likely originating from massive black hole binaries (MBHBs). The detected amplitude is unexpectedly higher than inferred from the electromagnetic measurements. We present new gravitational wave background (GWB) results from the ASTRID simulation. Its large volume and on-the-fly dynamical friction for MBHs provide new insights into the MBHB population, offering a more accurate assessment of its contribution to the observed GWB. ASTRID predicts a GWB from MBHBs of $h_c=2.8\times10^{-15}$, or $\sim45\%$ of the observed amplitude at $\sim 4\,{\rm nHz}$ and $h_c=2.5\times10^{-16}$ ($5\%$) with $h_c\propto f^{-1.6}$ at $\sim 30\,{\rm nHz}$. These predictions remain below current PTA constraints but align with previous empirical models based on the observed MBH mass functions. By comparison, TNG300 with post-processed MBH dynamics yields a range between $70-90\%$ ($20\% - 30\%$) of the observed levels at low (high) frequencies. At low frequencies, ASTRID predicts that the bulk of the GWB originates from MBHB with masses $M_{\rm tot}=1-3\times 10^9\,M_\odot$ peaking at $z\approx 0.3$, consistent with TNG300. Notably, both simulations predict significant GWB contribution from minor mergers ($q<0.2$) by up to $\sim 40\%$. By tracing the full merger trees of local MBHs in ASTRID, we show that they generate GWs at $\sim 10\%-80\%$ of the maximum signal assuming no accretion and recent equal-mass mergers. Finally, we demonstrate the importance of on-the-fly MBH dynamics, the lack of which leads to $3- 5$ times excessive mass growth by merger, and a similar boost to the GWB prediction.

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Enhanced Early Galaxy Formation in JWST from Axion Dark Matter?

We demonstrate that enhanced early galaxy formation can generically arise in axion-like particle (ALP) dark matter (DM) models with a delayed onset of axion field oscillation. In these models, the formation of localized massive objects enhances structure formation, potentially addressing the excess recently observed by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), while remaining consistent with existing constraints. We identify viable parameter space with the ALP mass in the range of $10^{-22}~{\rm eV}<m_a<10^{-19}~\rm eV$. In addition, we show that the ALP parameter regions of interest can lead to intriguing complementary signatures in the small-scale structure of DM halos and existing experimental searches for ALPs.

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z~2 dual AGN host galaxies are disky: stellar kinematics in the ASTRID Simulation

We study dual AGN host galaxy morphologies at $z=2$ using the ASTRID simulation, selecting black hole (BH) pairs with small separation ($Δr<30\rm{kpc}$), high mass ($M_{\text{BH,12}}>10^7M_\odot$), and luminosity ($L_{\text{bol,12}}>10^{43}\rm{erg/s}$). We kinematically decompose (using MORDOR) $\sim1000$ dual AGN hosts into standard components - a `disk' (thin and thick disk, pseudo-bulge) and 'bulge' (bulge and halo) and define disk-dominated galaxies by the disk-to-total $D/T\geq0.5$. In ASTRID, $60.9\pm2.1\%$ of dual AGN hosts (independent of separation) are disk-dominated, with the $D/T$ distribution peaking at $\sim0.7$. Notably, hosts of BH pairs have similar morphologies (most either both disk or bulge-dominated). In dual-AGN hosts, the $D/T$ increases from $\sim17\% $ at $M_{\rm *}\sim 10^{9} M_{\odot}$ to $ 64\% $ for $M_{\rm *} \sim 10^{11.5} M_{\odot}$, and the pseudo-bulge is the dominant component of the disk fraction at the high mass end. Moreover, dual AGN hosts exhibit a higher fraction of disk/large pseudo-bulge than single-AGN hosts. The Disk-to-Total ratio is approximately constant with BH mass or AGN luminosity. We also create mock images of dual AGN host galaxies, employing morphological fitting software Statmorph to calculate morphological parameters and compare them with our kinematic decomposition results. Around $83.3\pm2.4\%$ of galaxies display disk-like profiles, of which $\sim60.7\pm2.2\%$ are kinematically confirmed as disks. Seŕsic indices and half-mass radii of dual AGN host galaxies align with observational measurements from HST at $z\sim2$. Around $34\%$ are identified as mergers from the $\text{Gini}-M_{20}$ relation. We find two dual AGN hosted by galaxies that exhibit disk-like seŕsic index $n_{12}<1$ and $(D/T)_{12}>0.5$, which are in remarkable agreement with properties of recently discovered dual quasars in disk galaxies at $z\sim 2$.

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MAGICS II. Seed black holes stripped of their surrounding stars do not sink

MBH seed mergers are expected to be among the loudest sources of gravitational waves detected by the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), providing a unique window into the birth and early growth of SMBH. We present the MAGICS-II simulation suite, consisting of 6 galaxy mergers that result in MBH seeds mergers identified in the cosmological simulation ASTRID. With the enhanced resolution (mass resolution: 500 $\mathrm{M}_{\odot}$; softening length: $5$ pc), improved subgrid models for the MBH dynamics and accretion, and the accurate regularized gravity integrator included in KETJU, we trace MBH seeds dynamics down to 0.1 pc. After evolving all the systems for $\approx$ 1.2 Gyr in three stages (MAGICS-2000, MAGICS-500, and MAGICS-K), we find in 4 of the 6 systems the MBHs stall at separations $ Δr \gtrsim 200$ pc. Only in 2 systems, the MBHs manage to sink further, and only in one of them a bound binary forms. In the sinking systems, the MBH retains a population of bound stars. The final separation between the MBH is related to the surrounding unstripped stellar (and/or dark matter) mass: if more than 90\% of the surrounding stellar system is stripped away, the MBHs stall. Besides the unstripped stars from the original host galaxy, we find that newly formed stars bound to the MBH significantly contribute to its sinking. Resolving the stellar system around MBH seeds, and its induced tidal interactions and dynamical friction is key for accurately capturing MBH dynamics. For this, high resolution simulations are required. In a companion paper (MAGICS-III), we resimulate the central regions of these systems with increased resolution to model directly the effects of actual star clusters around MBHs.

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The Astrid Simulation: Evolution of black holes and galaxies to z=0.5 and different evolution pathways for galaxy quenching

We present new results from the ASTRID simulation from $z=3$ to $z=0.5$, covering the epoch of cosmic noon. The galaxy stellar mass function, as well as the black hole mass and luminosity functions in ASTRID, exhibit good agreement with recent observational constraints. We study the $M_{\rm BH}$-$M_*$ scaling relation and its connections to AGN luminosity, galaxy color, and star formation rate, demonstrating that AGN feedback plays a crucial role in the quenching of massive galaxies ($M_*>10^{10.5} M_{\odot}$). Although AGN feedback suppresses star formation through quenching, AGN-host galaxies still exhibit statistically higher levels of star formation compared to inactive ones, due to the positive correlation between AGN activity and star formation, both fueled by a shared gas reservoir. The fraction of quiescent galaxies in ASTRID increases with both galaxy mass and redshift evolution, aligning well with observational trends. We find that different quenching mechanisms can leave distinct morphological imprints on quenched galaxies. Massive, compact quiescent galaxies typically experience shorter quenching timescales, have younger central regions, and host overmassive black holes. This is usually due to a compaction-like quenching mechanism that funnels gas into the galaxy center, leading to starbursts and triggering AGN kinetic feedback. In contrast, quiescent galaxies with more diffuse morphologies generally experience `inside-out' quenching, which is characterized by older central regions compared to the outskirts. These galaxies typically experience longer quenching timescales due to quenching processes operating on a larger halo scale, which gradually deplete the galactic star-forming gas. Data of the \astrid simulation down to $z=0.5$ is available at \url{https://astrid.psc.edu}.

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