Mathematics – Logic
Scientific paper
Jun 1993
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1993apj...409..592a&link_type=abstract
Astrophysical Journal, Part 1 (ISSN 0004-637X), vol. 409, no. 2, p. 592-603.
Mathematics
Logic
62
Active Galactic Nuclei, Interstellar Gas, Metallicity, Quasars, Stellar Motions, Trapping, Accretion Disks, Red Shift, Supernova Remnants
Scientific paper
Recent observational evidence suggests that the metallicity in quasars within a wide range of redshifts, in particular in gas flowing out of the nuclear regions, may be approximately redshift-independent and comparable with or larger than solar. It is plausible that the nuclear metallicity can be internally generated and maintained at approximately time-stationary values in quasars. We identify and estimate efficiency of a mechanism for rapid metallicity enrichment of quasar nuclear gas (in general, in active galactic nuclei) based on star-gas interactions and equivalent to an unusual mode of massive star formation. The mechanism involves capture of low-mass stars from the host galaxy's nucleus by the assemblages of clouds or by accretion disks orbiting the central massive objects (e.g., black holes). Trapping of stars within gaseous disks/clouds occurs through resonant density and bending wave excitation, as well as by hydrodynamical drag. The time scale for trapping stars with total mass equal to that of disk fragment/cloud is of order Hubble time and is remarkably model-independent. Our results show that the described mechanism can produce features suggested by observations, for example, the (super) solar gas metallicity in the nucleus. Thus the observed metallicities in high-redshift quasars do not necessarily imply that global star formation and efficient chemical changes have occurred in their host galaxies at very early cosmological epochs.
Artymowicz Pawel
Lin Doug N. C.
Wampler Joseph E.
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