Growing supermassive black holes: sub-grid modelling and intermediate-scale processes

Abstract

The sheer range of scales in the Universe makes it impossible to model all at once. It is necessary, therefore, when conducting numerical experiments, that we employ sub-resolution prescriptions that can represent the scales we are unable to model directly. In this article we present a prescription for black hole growth that incorporates a different accretion regime from the standard approach used in the literature, and discuss the results of dedicated simulations of intermediate processes between small-scale accretion flows and large-scale cosmological volumes that can strongly enhance the accretion rate onto the black hole at the centre of a galaxy.

8 pages, 3 figures. Published in the proceedings of 'The Central Kiloparsec in Galactic Nuclei', Astronomy at High Angular Resolution, Cologne, Germany, August 2011