Equal and Unequal-Mass Mergers of Disk and Elliptical Galaxies with Black Holes

Abstract

We present binary galaxy merger simulations of gas-rich disks (Sp-Sp), of early-type galaxies and disks (E-Sp, mixed mergers), and mergers of early-type galaxies (E-E, dry mergers) including radiative cooling, star formation, black hole (BH) accretion, and the associated feedback processes. The numerical simulations include cooling, star formation, supernova feedback, and BH accretion modeled following a Bondi–Hoyle accretion parameterization. The maximum accretion rate is limited to the Eddington rate, with a total of 0.5% of the accreted rest-mass energy distributed as thermal energy to the surrounding gas.