Self-regulated Growth of Supermassive Black Holes in Galaxies as the Origin of the Optical and X-Ray Luminosity Functions of Quasars

By S. Wyithe, Abraham Loeb. 2003

379 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We postulate that supermassive black holes grow in the centers of galaxies until they unbind the galactic gas that feeds them. We show that the corresponding self-regulation condition yields a correlation between black hole mass (Mbh) and galaxy velocity dispersion (σ) as inferred in the local universe and recovers the observed optical and X-ray luminosity functions of quasars at redshifts up to z ~ 6 based on the hierarchical evolution of galaxy halos in a Λ-dominated cold dark matter cosmology. With only one free parameter and a simple algorithm, our model yields the observed evolution in the number density of optically bright or X-ray-faint quasars with 2 ≲ z ≲ 6 across 3 orders of magnitude in bolometric luminosity and 3 orders of magnitude in comoving density per logarithm of luminosity. The self-regulation condition identifies the dynamical time of galactic disks during the epoch of peak quasar activity (z ~ 2.5) as the origin of the inferred characteristic quasar lifetime of ~107 yr. Since the lifetime becomes comparable to the Salpeter e-folding time at this epoch, the model also implies that the Mbh-σ relation is a product of feedback-regulated accretion during the peak of quasar activity. The mass density in black holes accreted by that time is consistent with the local black hole mass density ρbh ~ (2.3) × 105 M☉ Mpc-3, which we have computed by combining the Mbh-σ relation with the measured velocity dispersion function of Sloan Digital Sky Survey galaxies. Comparison of the local black hole mass function with that inferred from combining the feedback relation with the halo mass function suggests that most massive (>109 M☉) black holes may have already been in place by z ~ 6. Applying a similar self-regulation principle to supernova-driven winds from starbursts, we find that the local ratio between the black hole mass and the stellar mass of galactic spheroids should be ~0.001, independent of mass and in agreement with observations. This ratio increases with redshift, although the Mbh-σ relation is redshift-independent.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/93b444f64501694395976b0afe4d4f3a8eeac923

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Astronomy and Astrophysics

In Instrumentation

Citations in the corpus

Faint high-redshift AGN in the Chandra deep field south: the evolution of the AGN luminosity function and black hole demography (2011, methodology): “This class of models consists of two ingredients: a DM halo merger rate compatible with cosmological simulations, and an input AGN light curve (e.g., Wyithe & Loeb 2003; Lapi et al. 2006; Shen 2009; Shankar 2009, 2010, and references therein).”
Cosmic evolution of quasar clustering: implications for the host haloes (2004, result): “…porciani@phys.ethz.ch mated mass density in black holes and the observed evolution of the quasar luminosity function seem to be consistent with this hypothesis (Haehnelt, Natarajan & Rees 1998; Fabian & Iwasawa 1999; Salucci et al. 1999; Yu & Tremaine 2002; Wyithe & Loeb 2003; Marconi et al. 2004).”
The black hole mass–stellar velocity dispersion correlation: bulges versus pseudo-bulges (2008, neutral): “The mass density of local SMBHs calculated with theMbh-σ∗ relation (e.g. Yu & Tremaine 2002; Wyithe & Loeb 2003; Shankar et al. 2004) is consistent with the cumulative mass density of optical or X-ray selected quasar remnants expected from energy arguments (e.g. Soltan 1982; Fabian & Iwasawa 1999;…”
Formation of z~6 Quasars from Hierarchical Galaxy Mergers (2006, background): “…2004; Kazantzidis et al. 2005; Li et al. 2007a) and that the growth is self-regulated by feedback (e.g., Silk & Rees 1998; Haehnelt et al. 1998; Fabian 1999; King 2003; Wyithe & Loeb 2003; Di Matteo et al. 2005; Springel et al. 2005b; Sazonov et al. 2005; Murray et al. 2005; Wyithe & Loeb 2005).”
THE EVOLUTION OF SWIFT/BAT BLAZARS AND THE ORIGIN OF THE MeV BACKGROUND (2009, background): “An intriguing idea is that black holes are formed and fueled, and AGN activity is triggered during major galaxy mergers (Kauffmann & Haehnelt 2000; Wyithe & Loeb 2003; Croton et al. 2006).”
Black Holes in Galaxy Mergers: Evolution of Quasars (2005, background): “Semi-analytical models of supermassive black hole evolution and its correlation with galaxy structure suggest that, beyond a certain threshold, feedback energy expels nearby gas and shuts down the accretion phase (Silk & Rees 1998; Fabian 1999; Wyithe & Loeb 2003).”
QUASAR CLUSTERING FROM SDSS DR5: DEPENDENCES ON PHYSICAL PROPERTIES (2008, background): “…up SMBHs, and they interact with the host galaxies in a self-regulated way (e.g., Silk & Rees 1998; Magorrian et al. 1998; Ferrarese & Merritt 2000; Gebhardt et al. 2000; Kauffmann & Haehnelt 2000; Wyithe & Loeb 2002, 2003; King 2003; Di Matteo et al. 2005; Hopkins et al. 2006; Croton et al. 2006).”
The Evolution of the MBH-σ Relation (2005, methodology): “…2000; Kauffmann & Haehnelt 2000; Haehnelt & Kauffmann 2000; Granato et al. 2001; Menou et al. 2001; Menci et al. 2003; Di Matteo et al. 2003, 2004; Wyithe & Loeb 2003; Wyithe 2006; Hopkins et al. 2005a, 2005b, 2005c, 2005d) and the formation of normal galaxies (Volonteri et al. 2003; Cox et al.…”
Accretion-driven evolution of black holes: Eddington ratios, duty cycles and active galaxy fractions (2011, methodology): “…black holes, making black hole mergers a potentially important source of evolution in the black hole mass function (e.g., Hughes & Blandford 2003; Wyithe & Loeb 2003; Islam et al. 2004; Scannapieco & Oh 2004; Yoo & Miralda-Escudé 2004; Volonteri et al. 2005; Lapi et al. 2006; Yoo et al. 2007;…”
Supermassive black hole demography: the match between the local and accreted mass functions (2004, methodology): “…VDF, coupled with equation (3), with the same scatter = 0.3, we obtain ρ0BH = 1.2 × 105 M Mpc−3, which is consistent with the estimate derived from the LF. Wyithe & Loeb (2003) obtained a lower estimate of the total mass density mainly because they neglected the scatter of the M BH–σ relationship.”
Galaxy formation theory (2010, background): “…tofollow the process of SMBH formation within forming galaxies (Silk and Rees 1998; Monaco et al. 2000; Kauffmann and Haehnelt 2000; King 2003; Wyithe and Loeb 2003; Matteo et al. 2003; Volonteri et al. 2003; King 2005; Begelman and Nath 2005; Malbon et al. 2007; Matteo et al. 2008; Volonteri…”
The clustering of intermediate-redshift quasars as measured by the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (2012, background): “…use scaling relations or convenient functio al forms to relate the quasar properties to those of their host halos (Efstathiou & Rees 1988; Carlberg 1990; Wyithe & Loeb 2002, 2003; Haiman, Ciotti & Ostriker 2004; Marulli et al. 2006; Lidz et al. 2006; Croton 2009; Shen 2009; Booth & Schaye 2010).”
THE BULK OF THE BLACK HOLE GROWTH SINCE z ∼ 1 OCCURS IN A SECULAR UNIVERSE: NO MAJOR MERGER–AGN CONNECTION (2010, background): “…time (Peng 2007; Jahnke & Maccio 2010), these correlations have often been interpreted as the signature of coupled evolution between the BH and its host galaxy (Kauffmann & Haehnelt 2000; Volonteri et al. 2003; Wyithe & Loeb 2003; Granato et al. 2004; Hopkins et al. 2007; Somerville et al. 2008).”
Supermassive Black Holes in Galactic Nuclei: Past, Present and Future Research (2004, methodology): “The case is complicated by the fact that, as noted by Wyithe & Loeb 2003 and Ferrarese 2002a, the local SBH mass function is not defined in the high (≥ 1010 M⊙) mass range .”
The XMM-Newton Wide-Field Survey in the COSMOS Field. I. Survey Description (2006, background): “This kind of anti– hierarchical Black Hole growth scenario is not predicted by most semi–analytic galaxy evolution models based on Cold Dark Matter structure formation (e.g. Kauffmann & Haehnelt 2000; Wyithe & Loeb 2003; Croton et al. 2005).”