Kinetic or thermal AGN feedback in simulations of isolated and merging disc galaxies calibrated by the M- relation

We investigate two modes of coupling the feedback energy from a central active galacticnucleus (AGN) to the neighbouring gas in galaxy simulations: kinetic - velocity boost andthermal - heating. We formulate kinetic feedback models for energy-driven wind (EDW)and momentum-driven wind (MDW), using two free parameters: feedback efficiency εf and AGN wind velocity ν w. A novel numerical algorithm is implemented in the smoothed particlehydrodynamics code GADGET-3, to prevent the expansion of a hole in the gas distributionaround the black hole (BH). We perform simulations of isolated evolution and merger ofdisc galaxies, of Milky Way mass as well as lower and higher masses. We find that in theisolated galaxy BH kinetic feedback generates intermittent bipolar jet-like gas outflows. Weinfer that current prescriptions for BH subgrid physics in galaxy simulations can grow theBH to observed values even in an isolated disc galaxy. The BH growth is enhanced in agalaxy merger, which consequently requires different model parameters to fit the observationsthan an isolated case. Comparing the [MBH-σ*] relation obtained in our simulations withobservational data, we conclude that it is possible to find parameter sets for a fit in all themodels (e.g. νw = 10 000 km s-1 and εf = 0.25 for BH kinetic EDW), except for the casewith MDW feedback in a galaxy merger, in which the BH is always too massive. The BHthermal feedback implementation of Springel et al. within the multiphase star formation modelis found to have negligible impact on gas properties, and the effect claimed in all previousstudies is attributed to gas depletion around the BH by the creation of an artificial hole. TheBH mass accretion rate in our simulations exhibit heavy fluctuations. The star formation rate isquenched with feedback by removal of gas. The circumgalactic medium gas at galactocentricdistances (20-100) h-1 kpc is found to give the best metallicity observational diagnostic todistinguish between BH models