X-ray signatures of black hole feedback: hot galactic atmospheres in IllustrisTNG and X-ray observations

© 2020 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society Hot gaseous atmospheres that permeate galaxies and extend far beyond their stellar distribution, where they are commonly referred to as the circumgalactic medium, imprint important information about feedback processes powered by the stellar populations of galaxies and their central supermassive black holes (SMBHs). In this work, we study the properties of this hot X-ray emitting medium using the IllustrisTNG cosmological simulations. We analyse their mock X-ray spectra, obtained from the diffuse and metal-enriched gas in TNG100 and TNG50, and compare the results with X-ray observations of nearby early-type galaxies. The simulations reproduce the observed X-ray luminosities (LX) and temperature (TX) at small (<Re) and intermediate (