Determining the Properties and Evolution of Red Galaxies from the Quasar Luminosity Function

By P. Hopkins, L. Hernquist, Thomas J. Cox, Brant Robertson, Volker Springel. 2005

142 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We study the link between quasars and the red galaxy population using a model for self-regulated growth of supermassive black holes in gas-rich galaxy mergers. Using a model for quasar evolution motivated by hydrodynamic merger simulations, we deconvolve the observed quasar luminosity function at various redshifts to determine the rate of formation of black holes of a given final mass. Identifying quasar activity with the formation of spheroids in the framework of the merger hypothesis, this implies a corresponding rate of formation of spheroids with given properties as a function of redshift. This allows us to predict, for the red galaxy population, the distribution of galaxy velocity dispersions; mass functions; star formation rates; luminosity functions in many observed wave bands (NUV, U, B, V, R, I, J, H, K); the total red galaxy number, mass, and luminosity densities; color distributions as a function of magnitude and velocity dispersion for several different wave bands; the distribution of mass-to-light ratios versus mass; luminosity-size relations; and the typical ages and distribution of ages (formation redshifts) as a function of mass and luminosity. For each of these quantities, we predict the evolution from redshift z = 0-6. Each of our predictions agrees well with existing observations, without the addition of tunable parameters; the essential observational inputs come from the observed quasar luminosity function. These predictions are skewed by several orders of magnitude if we adopt simpler, traditional models of quasar lifetimes instead of the more complicated evolution implied by our simulations.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/04c3c494884103a38af57739314b0cae501cad27

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. L. Hernquist
2. P. Hopkins
3. Thomas J. Cox
4. Volker Springel
5. R. Somerville
6. R. Dav'e
7. D. Keres̆
8. A. Dekel

Citations in the corpus

• DISSIPATION AND EXTRA LIGHT IN GALACTIC NUCLEI. II. “CUSP” ELLIPTICALS (2008, methodology): “…figure is available in the online journal.) the early-type or red galaxy mass functions (Bundy et al. 2006; Borch et al. 2006; Fontana et al. 2006; Hopkins et al. 2006c, 2008b), from direct stellar population synthesis studies (Trager et al. 2000; Thomas et al. 2005; Gallazzi et al. 2005), and by…”
• The Relation between Quasar and Merging Galaxy Luminosity Functions and the Merger-driven Star Formation History of the Universe (2006, methodology): “The range implied by the QLF at z ¼ 0:7 is indicated as the diagonally hatched range, with the fits to ṅ(M ) used in Hopkins et al. (2006b, 2006c).”
• The Evolving Luminosity Function of Red Galaxies (2006, background): “…as the halo occupation distribution function (e.g., Berlind & Weinberg 2002), gas heating (e.g., Naab et al. 2006), and AGN feedback (e.g., Bower et al. 2006; Croton et al. 2006; Hopkins et al. 2006) are clearly important for understanding galaxy evolution and need to be studied in more detail.”
• A Cosmological Framework for the Co-Evolution of Quasars, Supermassive Black Holes, and Elliptical Galaxies. II. Formation of Red Ellipticals (2007, methodology): “Indeed, Hopkins & Hernquist (2006) and Hopkins et al. (2006b) have demonstrated that the outflows in the simulations caused by this phenomenon are well approximated by a generalized blast wave solution.”
• Introducing the Illustris Project: the evolution of galaxy populations across cosmic time (2014, background): “…≈1 major merger between z = 2 and 0, but that number drops to only <0.5 for the more typical SFR of ≈10 M yr−1 may suggest a close physical connection between SFR enhancements and quenching, and in particular a connection between these processes and merging (e.g. Hopkins et al. 2006a,b, 2008a,b).”
• WHAT DOES A SUBMILLIMETER GALAXY SELECTION ACTUALLY SELECT? THE DEPENDENCE OF SUBMILLIMETER FLUX DENSITY ON STAR FORMATION RATE AND DUST MASS (2010, methodology): “A principal conclusion from these analyses is that while starbursts driven by gas-rich mergers can account for many instances of unusual activity in galaxies, they provide only a minor contribution to the star formation history of the universe (Hopkins et al. 2006c).”
• The Kinematic Structure of Merger Remnants (2006, methodology): “Previously, we have described a “cosmic cycle” of galaxy formation and evolution in which gas-rich mergers drive the evolution of quasars (Hopkins et al. 2006a), induce the growth of supermassive black holes (Di Matteo et al. 2005), and produce red elliptical galaxies (Springel et al. 2005a;…”
• Red Galaxy Growth and the Halo Occupation Distribution (2008, background): “The most plausible mechanisms in the current literature are virial shock heating (e.g., Birnboim&Dekel 2003; Khochfar & Ostriker 2008; Dekel & Birnboim 2006) and feedback from AGNs (e.g., Silk & Rees 1998; Wyithe & Loeb 2003; Croton et al. 2006; Hopkins et al. 2006).”
• ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEUS HOST GALAXY MORPHOLOGIES IN COSMOS (2009, background): “…feedback (Springel et al. 2005) and reproduce the MBH-σbulge relation can recover several observed properties of quasar host descendants, including the stellar mass function of local elliptical galaxies, and the red galaxy luminosity function and its variation with redshift (Hopkins et al. 2006).”
• A Theoretical Interpretation of the Black Hole Fundamental Plane (2007, methodology): “…et al. 2005) which follow the co-formation of BHs and bulges, as well as theories which relate the evolution and statistics of BH formation and quasar activity to galaxy mergers (e.g., Hopkins et al. 2006a, 2007f, 2006e, 2007c) and to the remnant spheroid population (Hopkins et al. 2006c, 2007b).”
• A Cosmological Framework for the Co-Evolution of Quasars, Supermassive Black Holes, and Elliptical Galaxies. I. Galaxy Mergers and Quasar Activity (2007, methodology): “Following the methodology developed by Springel & Hernquist (2003) and Springel et al. (2005b), Hopkins et al. (2006a, 2006b) use a large set of several hundred hydrodynamical simulations (see Robertson et al. 2006b) of galaxy mergers, varying the relevant physics, galaxy properties, orbits, and…”
• ABSORPTION-LINE PROBES OF THE PREVALENCE AND PROPERTIES OF OUTFLOWS IN PRESENT-DAY STAR-FORMING GALAXIES (2010, background): “The most natural way to reconcile the observations with theory is to invoke feedback processes, including supernova, stellar winds (Cole et al. 2000; Benson et al. 2003; Stringer et al. 2009; Oppenheimer et al. 2009) and AGN activity (Silk & Rees 1998; Hopkins et al. 2006).”
• Four phases of angular-momentum buildup in high-z galaxies: from cosmic-web streams through an extended ring to disc and bulge (2014, background): “…include radiative stellar feedback (Krumholz & Dekel 2010; Murray, Quataert & Thompson 2010; Hopkins et al. 2012; Dekel & Krumholz 2013) or AGN feedback (Silk & Rees 1998; Hopkins et al. 2006; Ciotti & Ostriker 2007; Booth & Schaye 2009; Cattaneo et al. 2009; Fabian 2012; DeGraf et al. 2014).”
• The Fundamental Scaling Relations of Elliptical Galaxies (2005, methodology): “Using the results from Robertson et al. (2005a) and Hopkins et al. (2005a, 2006) combined the redshift-dependent properties of galaxy remnants, the MBH- relation, and the redshift-dependent black hole mass function to model the evolution of the red-galaxy luminosity function and color-magnitude…”
• The formation of massive, compact galaxies at z = 2 in the Illustris simulation (2014, background): “The same high central gas densities which produce strong star formation also feed black hole growth (Di Matteo, Springel & Hernquist 2005; Springel, Di Matteo & Hernquist 2005), so we expect more AGN activity during this period (Hopkins et al. 2006).”
• Fueling Low-Level AGN Activity through Stochastic Accretion of Cold Gas (2006, methodology): “…growth (Hopkins et al. 2005e), to be consistent with the evolution of the X-ray background (Hopkins et al. 2006a), the red galaxy age, metallicity, mass, and luminosity functions (Hopkins et al. 2006b), and merger luminosity functions and star formation rate densities (Hopkins et al. 2006e).”
• Wet Disc Contraction to Galactic Blue Nuggets and Quenching to Red Nuggets (2013, background): “Similar gas inflows are generated by wet mergers (e.g. Barnes & Hernquist 1991; Mihos & Hernquist 1996; Hopkins et al. 2006).”
• Formation of z~6 Quasars from Hierarchical Galaxy Mergers (2006, background): “This conjecture has been supported by observations of quasar hosts (e.g., Stockton 1978; Heckman et al. 1984; Hutchings & Neff 1992; Bahcall et al. 1997; Hutchings 2005) and theoretical modeling (Hopkins et al. 2006a).”