Abstract

The inner kiloparsec regions surrounding sub-Eddington (luminosity less than 10(-3) in Eddington units, L-Edd) supermassive black holes (BHs) often show a characteristic network of dust filaments that terminate in a nuclear spiral in the central parsecs. Here we study the role and fate of these filaments in one of the least accreting BHs known, M31 (10(-7) L (Edd)) using hydrodynamical simulations. The evolution of a streamer of gas particles moving under the barred potential of M31 is followed from kiloparsec distance to the central parsecs. After an exploratory study of initial conditions, a compelling fit to the observed dust/ionized gas morphologies and line-of-sight velocities in the inner hundreds of parsecs is produced. After several million years of streamer evolution, during which friction, thermal dissipation, and self-collisions have taken place, the gas settles into a disk tens of parsecs wide. This is fed by numerous filaments that arise from an outer circumnuclear ring and spiral toward the center. The final configuration is tightly constrained by a critical input mass in the streamer of several 10(3) M-circle dot (at an injection rate of 10(-4) M-circle dot yr(-1) 6 K is key to the development of a nuclear spiral during the simulation. The final inflow rate at 1 pc from the center is similar to 1.7 x 10(-7) M-circle dot yr(-1), consistent with the quiescent state of the M31 BH.