  Current models of galaxy formation require strong feedback from active
galactic nuclei (AGN) to explain the observed lack of star formation in massive
galaxies since z~2 but direct evidence of this energy input is limited. We use
the SIMBA cosmological galaxy formation simulations to assess the ability of
thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (tSZ) measurements to provide such evidence, by
mapping the pressure structure of the circumgalactic medium around massive
z~0.2-1.5 galaxies. We undertake a stacking approach to calculate the total tSZ
signal and its radial profile in simulations with varying assumptions of AGN
feedback, and we assess its observability with current and future telescopes.
By convolving our predictions with the 2.1' beam of the Atacama Cosmology
Telescope (ACT), we show that current observations at z~1 are consistent with
SIMBA's fiducial treatment of AGN feedback, and inconsistent with SIMBA models
without feedback. At z~0.5, observational signals lie between SIMBA run with
and without AGN feedback, suggesting AGN in SIMBA may inject too much energy at
late times. By convolving our data with a 9.5'' beam corresponding to the
TolTEC camera on the Large Millimeter Telescope Alfonso Serrano (LMT), we
predict a unique profile for AGN feedback that can be distinguished with future
higher-resolution measurements. Finally, we explore a novel approach to
quantify the non-spherically symmetric features surrounding our galaxies by
plotting radial profiles representing the component of the stack with m-fold
symmetry.
