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Abstract We present spatially resolved parsec-scale measurements of nuclear conditions (gas density and kinetic temperature) relevant for black hole accretion rate predictions in the Seyfert 2 galaxy, NGC 1068. We inject these parameters into the prescription for a Bondi-like accretion model, then compare the resulting accretion rate prediction to the empirical accretion rate derived from hard X-ray observations. Cosmological simulations have spatial resolution ranging from ∼10 pc to approximately kiloparsec scales, and so for reasonable comparison we test these accretion rate predictions in pixel-sized radial steps out to 500 pc. Compared to warm H₂gas, CO gas is the dominant mass carrier close to the SMBH. We find that the Bondi accretion rate ( ${\dot{M}}_{\mathrm{Bondi}}$ ) of cold molecular gas alone (measured using CO) overestimates the true accretion rate by up to 14 dex in a small aperture (r≲5 pc) around the black hole, and by at least 8 dex inside large apertures (r≲500 pc). These results are the first in a series of direct tests of accretion rate prescriptions, and they suggest that using a Bondi accretion formalism to model supermassive black hole accretion in Seyfert 2 galaxies may lead to overestimated accretion rates in simulations. 

Abstract Understanding cosmic-ray (CR) diffusion in a partially ionized medium is both crucial and challenging. In this study, we investigate CR perpendicular superdiffusion and parallel transport in turbulent, partially ionized media using high-resolution 3D two-fluid simulations that treat ions and neutrals separately. We examine the influence of neutral-ion decoupling and the associated damping of turbulence on CR propagation in both transonic and supersonic conditions. Our simulations demonstrate that neutral-ion decoupling significantly damps velocity and magnetic field fluctuations at small scales, producing spectral slopes steeper than those of Kolmogorov and Burgers scaling. In supersonic turbulence, large-scale shock motion is not subject to damping and generates small-scale density enhancements. Moreover, the damping of magnetic field fluctuations substantially decreases pitch-angle scattering, which, however, only slightly affects the CR parallel mean free pathλ_∥, due to the nonresonant mirror interactions of CRs. In the direction perpendicular to the mean magnetic field, we identify two regimes of the perpendicular superdiffusion of CRs: a diffusive regime (λ_∥ < L_inj, whereL_injis the turbulence injection scale) with perpendicular separation of CR proportional tot^3/4and a ballistic regime (λ_∥ > L_inj) with perpendicular separation scaling ast^3/2. At initially large pitch angles, the effects of magnetic mirroring—naturally arising in magnetohydrodynamic turbulence—become significant, enhancing the confinement of CRs and resulting inλ_∥ < L_inj, despite the damping effect. These results imply that large-pitch-angle CRs can be well confined in the cold interstellar medium, such as molecular clouds. 

ABSTRACT Cosmic rays (CRs) are a pivotal non-thermal component of galaxy formation and evolution. However, the intricacies of CR physics, particularly how they propagate in the circumgalactic medium (CGM), remain largely unconstrained. In this work, we study CGM properties in FIRE-2 (Feedback In Realistic Environments) simulations of the same Milky Way (MW)–mass halo at $z=0$ with different CR transport models that produce similar diffuse $$\sim$$ GeV $$\gamma$$-ray emission, as an attempt to further constrain CR transport models. We study the gas morphology and thermal properties, and generate synthetic observations of rest-frame UV ion absorption columns and X-ray emission. CRs lower galaxy masses and star formation rates (SFRs) while supporting more cool CGM gas, which boosts the H i and O vi column densities in the CGM, bringing simulations more in line with observations, but there can be large differences between CR transport models and resolution levels. X-ray emission within and close to galaxies is consistent with thermal (free–free and metal-line) emission plus X-ray binaries, while more extended ($$\sim 100\,$$ kpc) CGM emission is potentially dominated by inverse Compton scattering (ICS), motivating future work on the spatially resolved X-ray profiles. Although comparisons with observations are sensitive to sample selection and mimicking the details of observations, and our analysis did not result in strong constraints on CR models, the differences between simulations are significant and could be used as a framework for future studies. 

We employ the high-redshift suite of FIRE-2 cosmological hydrodynamic zoom-in simulations to investigate the evolution of gas-phase metallicity radial gradients in galaxies in the epoch of reionization (EOR). Our sample consists of 22 galaxies spanning the redshift rangez ∼ 10–5. We find that galaxies atz ∼ 10 exhibit a median metallicity gradient of −0.15 dex kpc⁻¹with substantial scatter, which gradually flattens to −0.1 dex kpc⁻¹atz ∼ 6, accompanied by a reduction in scatter. In the EOR, metallicity gradients correlate positively with stellar mass: more massive galaxies display flatter gradients with smaller scatter, broadly consistent with recent JWST observations. At fixed stellar mass, galaxies with a higher star formation rate (SFR) exhibit steeper negative gradients, while the specific SFR shows a strong anticorrelation with gradient slope. Because EOR galaxies in FIRE-2 generally lack significant rotational support, we adopt the ratio of the peak-to-peak velocity shear to twice the velocity dispersion (Δv/2σ) as a proxy for the strength of gas flows. We find a strong positive correlation between metallicity gradients and Δv/2σ: galaxies with a lower Δv/2σ(i.e., weaker gas flows) tend to exhibit steeper negative gradients. Furthermore, galaxies with a steeper gradient display higher central SFR surface densities, suggesting localized star formation with inefficient interstellar medium mixing that drives inside-out chemical enrichment in galaxy evolution in the early Universe. 

Abstract The coevolution of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and their host galaxies remains one of the central open questions in cosmology, rooted in the coupling between accretion, feedback, and the multiscale physics that links the event horizon to the circumgalactic medium. Here we bridge these scales by embedding a first-principles, GRMHD-informed prescription for black hole accretion and feedback—derived from multizone simulations that self-consistently connect inflows and outflows from the horizon to the Bondi radius—within cosmological magnetohydrodynamic zoom-in simulations of ∼10¹⁴M_⊙halos. These GRMHD results predict a “suppressed Bondi” regime in which magnetic stresses and relativistic winds strongly reduce effective accretion rates in a spin-dependent manner. We find that black holes cannot grow efficiently by accretion until they exceed ∼10⁷M_⊙, regardless of the feedback strength. Beyond this threshold, systems bifurcate: low-spin (η ∼ 0.02) black holes continue to accrete without quenching star formation, while high-spin (η ≳ 0.3) black holes quench effectively but become starved of further growth. Early, massive seeding partially alleviates this tension through merger-driven assembly, yet an additional cold or super-Eddington accretion mode appears essential to reproduce the observed SMBH population and the empirical black hole–galaxy scaling relations. Our results demonstrate that GRMHD-informed feedback models can account for the maintenance-mode behavior of low-luminosity active galactic nuclei like M87*, but cannot by themselves explain the full buildup of SMBH mass across cosmic time. A unified, multiregime framework is required to capture the evolving interplay between spin-dependent feedback, cold inflows, and mergers in driving coevolution. 

Abstract While galaxy rotation curves (RCs) provide one of the most powerful methods for measuring dark matter profiles in the inner regions of rotation-supported galaxies, at the dwarf scale there are factors that can complicate this analysis. Given the expectation of a universal profile in dark-matter-only simulations, the diversity of the observed RCs has become an often-discussed issue in Lambda cold dark matter cosmology on galactic scales. We analyze a suite of Feedback in Realistic Environments simulations of 10¹⁰–10¹²M_⊙halos with standard cold dark matter and compare the true circular velocity to RC reconstructions. We find that, for galaxies with well-ordered gaseous disks, the measured RC may deviate from the true circular velocity by at most ∼10% within the radius of the disk. However, nonequilibrium behaviors, noncircular motions, and nonthermal and nonkinetic stresses may cause much larger discrepancies, of ∼50% or more. Most RC reconstructions underestimate the true circular velocity, while some reconstructions transiently overestimate it in the central few kiloparsecs, due to dynamical phenomena. We further demonstrate that the features that contribute to these failures are not always visibly obvious in HIobservations. If such dwarf galaxies are included in galaxy catalogs, they may give rise to the appearance of “artificial” RC diversity that does not reflect the true variation in underlying dark matter profiles. 

Abstract Next-generation surveys are expected to uncover thousands of globular cluster (GC) stellar streams, motivating the need for a theoretical framework that produces realistic GC streams in a fully cosmological, Milky Way–like environment. We presentCosmoGEMS, a star-by-star cosmological GC stream framework that self-consistently links small-scale cluster physics with large-scale Galactic dynamics. The initial phase-space positions of stream stars are informed by post-processed GC populations within the FIRE cosmological simulation. Escaped stars are orbit-integrated from their time of escape to the present day in a time-evolving Galactic potential extracted from the same simulation using a basis function expansion. We explore two example streams on different orbits. One forms a long, thin stream with a velocity dispersion consistent with Milky Way GC streams. However, it exhibits a clump and orbital-phase-dependent misalignments due to the evolving potential. The other stream develops both a thin component and a diffuse, shell-like structure, similar to features observed in streams like Jhelum. These results highlight the power of fully cosmological models in producing realistic stream morphologies and kinematics. Unlike idealized simulations, our models naturally incorporate time-dependent changes in the progenitor’s orbit, including orbital plane evolution, which significantly affects stream structure. This challenges common assumptions in stream-finding algorithms and interpretation.CosmoGEMSprovides a key step toward connecting future stellar stream observations with the physics of GC evolution and hierarchical galaxy formation in a cosmological context. 

Abstract We explore how a realistic surface brightness (SB) detection limit ofμ_V≈ 32.5 mag arcsec⁻²for stars at the edges of ultrafaint galaxies affects our ability to infer their underlying properties. We use a sample of 19 galaxies with stellar masses ≈400–40,000M_⊙simulated with FIRE-2 physics and baryonic mass resolution of 30M_⊙. The SB cut leads to smaller sizes, lower stellar masses, and lower stellar velocity dispersions than the values inferred without the cut. However, by imposing this realistic limit, our inferred galaxy properties lie closer to observed populations in the mass-size plane, better match observed velocity dispersions as a function of stellar mass, and better reproduce derived circular velocities as a function of half-light radius. For the most massive galaxies in our sample, the SB cut leads to higher mean [Fe/H] values, but the increase is not enough to match the observed MZR. Finally, we demonstrate that the common J. Wolf et al. dynamical mass estimator is less accurate when the SB cut is applied. For our lowest-mass galaxies, in particular, excluding the low-surface brightness outskirts causes us to overestimate their central dark-matter densities and virial masses. This suggests that attempts to use mass estimates of ultrafaint galaxies to constrain dark-matter physics or to place constraints on the low-mass threshold of galaxy formation must take into account surface brightness limits or risk significant biases.