Direct Tests of Black Hole Accretion Rate Prescriptions. I. Bondi Accretion at Different Scales. Agostino, J., Lin, M., Jones, N., Medling, A. M., Barcos-Muñoz, L., Anglés-Alcázar, D., Ricci, C., Privon, G. C., U, V., Torrey, P., Hopkins, P. F., & Max, C. The Astrophysical Journal, 1007(1):23, August, 2026. ![Direct Tests of Black Hole Accretion Rate Prescriptions. I. Bondi Accretion at Different Scales [link]](https://bibbase.org/img/filetypes/link.svg "link")
Paper doi abstract bibtex 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 H2 gas, CO gas is the dominant mass carrier close to the SMBH. We find that the Bondi accretion rate (M.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.
@article{agostino_direct_2026,
title = {Direct {Tests} of {Black} {Hole} {Accretion} {Rate} {Prescriptions}. {I}. {Bondi} {Accretion} at {Different} {Scales}},
volume = {1007},
issn = {0004-637X, 1538-4357},
url = {https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae80ca},
doi = {10.3847/1538-4357/ae80ca},
abstract = {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 H2 gas, CO gas is the dominant mass carrier close to the SMBH. We find that the Bondi accretion rate (M.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.},
language = {en},
number = {1},
urldate = {2026-08-17},
journal = {The Astrophysical Journal},
author = {Agostino, James and Lin, Ming-Yi and Jones, Natasha and Medling, Anne M. and Barcos-Muñoz, Loreto and Anglés-Alcázar, Daniel and Ricci, Claudio and Privon, George C. and U, Vivian and Torrey, Paul and Hopkins, Philip F. and Max, Claire},
month = aug,
year = {2026},
keywords = {WG: Explainable},
pages = {23},
}
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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 H2 gas, CO gas is the dominant mass carrier close to the SMBH. We find that the Bondi accretion rate (M.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). 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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 H2 gas, CO gas is the dominant mass carrier close to the SMBH. We find that the Bondi accretion rate (M.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). 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