近日，南京大学的汪涛及其研究团队取得一项新进展。经过不懈努力，他们发现黑洞调节大质量星系中的冷气体吸积。相关研究成果已于2024年8月14日在国际权威学术期刊《自然》上发表。

本文基于一个包含大量邻近星系的大样本，测量了其中的黑洞质量和星际介质主要成分——原子氢（HI）的质量。研究人员发现，HI气体质量与恒星质量之比（μ_HI=M_HI/M_*）与黑洞质量（M_BH）的相关性比与其他任何星系参数（包括恒星质量、恒星质量面密度和核球质量）的相关性都更强。此外，一旦考虑μ_HI与M_BH的相关性，μ_HI就会失去对其他星系参数的依赖，这表明M_BH是μ_HI的主要驱动因素。这些发现为黑洞吸积累积的能量如何通过排出星际介质气体和/或抑制星系周围介质中的气体冷却来调节星系中的冷气体含量提供了重要证据。

据悉，几乎所有大质量星系的核心都包含一个超大质量黑洞（BH）。尽管一些最新研究表明，即使是最活跃的BH所在的星系，其分子气库或恒星形成率也没有减少，但人们通常认为，这些BH的吸积反馈对维持大质量星系的静止状态起着至关重要的作用。因此，BH对星系恒星形成的影响仍存在很大争议，且缺乏直接证据。

附：英文原文

Title: Black holes regulate cool gas accretion in massive galaxies

Author: Wang, Tao, Xu, Ke, Wu, Yuxuan, Shi, Yong, Elbaz, David, Ho, Luis C., Zhang, Zhi-Yu, Gu, Qiusheng, Wang, Yijun, Shu, Chenggang, Yuan, Feng, Xia, Xiaoyang, Wang, Kai

Issue&Volume: 2024-08-14

Abstract: The nucleus of almost all massive galaxies contains a supermassive black hole (BH). The feedback from the accretion of these BHs is often considered to have crucial roles in establishing the quiescence of massive galaxies, although some recent studies show that even galaxies hosting the most active BHs do not exhibit a reduction in their molecular gas reservoirs or star formation rates. Therefore, the influence of BHs on galaxy star formation remains highly debated and lacks direct evidence. Here, based on a large sample of nearby galaxies with measurements of masses of both BHs and atomic hydrogen (HI), the main component of the interstellar medium, we show that the HI gas mass to stellar masses ratio (μ_HI=M_HI/M_*) is more strongly correlated with BH masses (M_BH) than with any other galaxy parameters, including stellar mass, stellar mass surface density and bulge masses. Moreover, once the μ_HI–M_BH correlation is considered, μHI loses dependence on other galactic parameters, demonstrating that MBH serves as the primary driver of μ_HI. These findings provide important evidence for how the accumulated energy from BH accretion regulates the cool gas content in galaxies, by ejecting interstellar medium gas and/or suppressing gas cooling from the circumgalactic medium.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07821-2

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07821-2