Interplay Between Supermassive Black holes, Galaxies, and Dark Matter Halos Revealed by Discrepancies with Cosmological Simulations

Interplay Between Supermassive Black holes, Galaxies, and Dark Matter Halos Revealed by Discrepancies with Cosmological Simulations | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Interplay Between Supermassive Black holes, Galaxies, and Dark Matter Halos Revealed by Discrepancies with Cosmological Simulations Hassen Yesuf, Connor Bottrell This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-5793232/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 25 Feb, 2026 Read the published version in Nature Astronomy → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) may be crucial to stifle star formation [1–5], but understanding their effects is limited by a lack of reliable measurements for host galaxies of actively accreting SMBHs. Here we present comprehensive measurements for about 40,000 nearby active SMBHs, including star formation rates, stellar masses, and multi-scale environments, along with precise halo mass estimates for galaxies in the SDSS and GAMA surveys. We use these new benchmarks to reveal that SMBH feedback physics in three prominent cosmological simulations is overly aggressive, consistently producing too many low-mass quiescent galaxies in high-mass halos. In contrast, observed galaxies with active SMBHs are predominantly located in relatively low-mass halos and in gas-rich, star-forming galaxies, broadly consistent with simulation results. However, major discrepancies remain in the the large-scale distribution of stellar mass in galaxies and there environments as well as the number density functions for stellar mass, star formation rates, black hole mass, and accretion luminosity. Our results suggest that past, cumulative SMBH activity alters halo-scale environments over long timescales, while the impact of current SMBH activity on star formation in the host galaxy or other halo members is minimal. Physical sciences/Astronomy and planetary science/Astronomy and astrophysics Physical sciences/Physics/Astronomy and astrophysics Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 25 Feb, 2026 Read the published version in Nature Astronomy → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-5793232","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":414183598,"identity":"50150a20-7aca-41cb-b811-432888f68221","order_by":0,"name":"Hassen Yesuf","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAwklEQVRIiWNgGAWjYLCCygYbBgPStJxtSCNdy2EStBgcb38mcXDHeXtz9sMHGH7UMMibE9Ry5oyZxMEztxN39qQlMPYcYzDc2UBIy40cNumPbbcTDA7kGDDwNjAAGYS03H8OdFjbOXuD828MGP8SpeUGA9BhbQcYN9zIMWAmyhbJMznGFgfbkhM33HiWcFjmmIThBkJa+I4ff3jjYJsd0GHJBx++qbGRJ2iLArICIFuCgHogkG8grGYUjIJRMApGOgAAYjVIGwYMH+EAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"","institution":"Shanghai Astronomical Observatory","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Hassen","middleName":"","lastName":"Yesuf","suffix":""},{"id":414183599,"identity":"5d4e0087-81f6-4eb9-b73e-6045ff717590","order_by":1,"name":"Connor Bottrell","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, University of Western Australia","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Connor","middleName":"","lastName":"Bottrell","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-01-09 04:55:15","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-5793232/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-5793232/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[{"content":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-026-02792-y","type":"published","date":"2026-02-25T05:00:00+00:00"}],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":103481835,"identity":"d33d62a5-8bbc-4a8b-b218-a75d6269c55c","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-02-26 08:12:38","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":4787693,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"Article File","description":"","filename":"YesufBottrellinitialsubmission.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5793232/v1_covered_2800e02c-21e0-448b-bc37-7a8a4a91c28e.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"There is \u003cb\u003eNO\u003c/b\u003e Competing Interest.","formattedTitle":"Interplay Between Supermassive Black holes,\r\nGalaxies, and Dark Matter Halos Revealed by\r\nDiscrepancies with Cosmological Simulations","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":true,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"nature-portfolio","isNatureJournal":true,"hasQc":false,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"Nature Portfolio","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":false,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"ejp","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false},"keywords":"","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-5793232/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-5793232/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eSupermassive black holes (SMBHs) may be crucial to stifle star formation [1–5], but understanding their effects is limited by a lack of reliable measurements for host galaxies of actively accreting SMBHs. 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