The cosmological evolution of quasar black hole masses

By R. McLure, J. Dunlop. 2003

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Virial black hole mass estimates are presented for 12 698 quasars in the redshift interval 0.1 ≤ z ≤ 2.1, based on modelling of spectra from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) first data release. The black hole masses of the SDSS quasars are found to lie between ≃10 7 M ○. and an upper limit of ≃3 x 10 9 M ○. , entirely consistent with the largest black hole masses found to date in the local Universe. The estimated Eddington ratios of the broad-line quasars (full width at half-maximum ≥ 2000 km s -1 ) show a clear upper boundary at L bol /L Edd ≃ 1, suggesting that the Eddington luminosity is still a relevant physical limit to the accretion rate of luminous broad-line quasars at z ≤ 2. By combining the black hole mass distribution of the SDSS quasars with the two degree field (2dF) quasar luminosity function, the number density of active black holes at z ≃ 2 is estimated as a function of mass. In addition, we independently estimate the local black hole mass function for early-type galaxies using the M bh -σ and M bh -L bulge correlations. Based on the SDSS velocity dispersion function and the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) K-band luminosity function, both estimates are found to be consistent at the high-mass end (M bh ≥ 10 8 M ○. ). By comparing the estimated number density of active black holes at z ≃ 2 with the local mass density of dormant black holes, we set lower limits on the quasar lifetimes and find that the majority of black holes with mass ≥10 8.5 M ○. are in place by ≃2.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d35695c9d1bdec5796ddbf67a7c3002e29c79bed

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THE SDSS-IV EXTENDED BARYON OSCILLATION SPECTROSCOPIC SURVEY: QUASAR TARGET SELECTION (2015, background): “…quasar spectra, rare types of quasars, and precision studies of the quasar luminosity function (e.g. Vanden Berk et al. 2001; Inada et al. 2003; McLure & Dunlop 2004; Hennawi et al. 2006; Richards et al. 2006; York et al. 2006; Netzer & Trakhtenbrot 2007; Kaspi et al. 2007; Shen et al. 2008;…”
Accretion-driven evolution of black holes: Eddington ratios, duty cycles and active galaxy fractions (2011, background): “…1– ?? ton ratio distributions of quasars and active galaxies have found evidence for time evolution of λc, and in some cases for mass-dependence (e.g., McLure & Dunlop 2004; Vestergaard 2004; Heckman et al. 2005; Ballo et al. 2007; Babić et al. 2007; Bundy et al. 2008; Rovilos & Georgantopoulos…”
A Cosmological Framework for the Co-Evolution of Quasars, Supermassive Black Holes, and Elliptical Galaxies. I. Galaxy Mergers and Quasar Activity (2007, background): “…Porciani & Norberg 2006; Myers et al. 2007a; da Angela et al. 2007; Shen et al. 2007), Eddington ratio measurements HOPKINS ET AL.374 Vol. 175 (McLure & Dunlop 2004; Kollmeier et al. 2006), active BH mass functions (Vestergaard 2004; Fine et al. 2006; Greene & Ho 2008), and cosmic background…”
COMPARING SINGLE-EPOCH VIRIAL BLACK HOLE MASS ESTIMATORS FOR LUMINOUS QUASARS (2012, methodology): “…technique, is much less expensive than RM, and hence has been applied in numerous studies to estimate quasar/AGN BH masses, notably for large statistical samples (e.g., Woo & Urry 2002; McLure & Dunlop 2004; Kollmeier et al. 2006; Greene & Ho 2007; Vestergaard et al. 2008; Shen et al. 2008, 2011).”
The Hard X-Ray Spectrum as a Probe for Black Hole Growth in Radio-Quiet Active Galactic Nuclei (2008, background): “…narrowly distributed around a value of∼0.3 (0.28 in our sample of 35 sources), with a typical dispersion of a factor of ∼5 around that value (e.g., McLure & Dunlop 2004; Kollmeier et al. 2006; Netzer et al. 2007; Shen et al. 2008), Γ values for such sources typically lie in the narrow range of…”
A Unified, Merger-driven Model of the Origin of Starbursts, Quasars, the Cosmic X-Ray Background, Supermassive Black Holes, and Galaxy Spheroids (2005, background): “Moreover, both direct observations (McLure & Dunlop 2004) and comparison of the present-day black hole mass function with radio and X-ray luminosity functions (Merloni 2004) suggest an antihierarchical scenario for the growth of supermassive black holes, in which the most massive black holes are…”
Spin, Accretion, and the Cosmological Growth of Supermassive Black Holes (2004, background): “However, the estimated Eddington ratios of the bolometric luminosities of the broad-line quasars in a Sloan Digital Sky Survey sample of 12,698 quasars in the redshift interval 0.1 ≤ z ≤ 2.1 support the value ǫL ≈ 1 as a physical upper limit (McLure & Dunlop 2004).”
Titans of the early Universe: The Prato statement on the origin of the first supermassive black holes (2018, background): “The masses of these objects are all>∼109 M , inferred from the breadth of the observed Mg II 2 798 Å line (e.g., McLure & Dunlop 2004), and consistent with their luminosities being near the Eddington limit.”
Chandra and Spitzer Unveil Heavily Obscured Quasars in the Chandra/SWIRE Survey (2006, background): “Sincemost of the quasars accrete OBSCURED QUASARS IN THE CHANDRA/SWIRE SURVEY 689No. 2, 2006 below their Eddington limit (McLure & Dunlop 2004), it would be more realistic to assume a lower Eddington ratio; however, this would imply even higher black hole masses.”
The X-Ray Spectral Properties of SCUBA Galaxies (2005, background): “…that the dynamics of the broad-line regions in these sources are dominated by the gravity of the central black hole, these comparatively narrow emission-line widths suggest typical black hole masses ofP108 M for mass accretion rates ofP1M yr 1 (Alexander et al. 2005b; e.g., McLure & Dunlop 2004).”
The GLASS-JWST Early Release Science Program. I. Survey Design and Release Plans (2022, background): “Other scenarios suggest metals should be well mixed by early feedback, then locked into steep gradients as winds lose the power to disrupt massive gas disks (McLure & Dunlop 2004; Few et al. 2012; Ma et al. 2017).”
A JWST/NIRSpec First Census of Broad-line AGNs at z = 4–7: Detection of 10 Faint AGNs with M BH ∼ 106–108 M ⊙ and Their Host Galaxy Properties (2023, unknown): “8 × L 5100 in McLure & Dunlop (2004).”
REVERBERATION MAPPING MEASUREMENTS OF BLACK HOLE MASSES IN SIX LOCAL SEYFERT GALAXIES (2010, background): “In addition, masses can be estimated for large samples of objects (e.g., McLure & Dunlop 2004; Kollmeier et al. 2006; Salviander et al. 2007; Shen et al. 2008; Vestergaard et al. 2008), facilitating studies of the BH-galaxy connection and its evolution across cosmic time (e.g., Salviander et al.…”
Gemini Near-Infrared Spectroscopy of Luminous z ∼ 6 Quasars: Chemical Abundances, Black Hole Masses, and Mg II Absorption (2007, methodology): “Strong emission lines, including H , C iv, and Mg ii, have been used to determine BH masses (e.g., Wandel et al. 1999; Dietrich & Hamann 2004; McLure & Dunlop 2004; Vestergaard & Peterson 2006).”
On the evolution of the black‐hole/spheroid mass ratio (2005, methodology): “The reliability of this assumption was the original motivation for re-calibrating the virial black-hole mass estimator for the MgII emission line (McLure & Jarvis 2002), and was demonstrated using> 1000 SDSS quasars with optical spectra covering both MgII and Hβ (McLure & Dunlop 2004).”
A New Sample of Low-Mass Black Holes in Active Galaxies (2007, background): “The flux density at 2500 Å,f2500, is calculated using the measuredLHα, the relation betweenLHα and L5100 from Greene & Ho (2005b), and an assumed spectral slope ofβ = −1.56 ( fλ ∝ λ−β ; Vanden Berk et al. 2001).”
ON THE COSMIC EVOLUTION OF THE SCALING RELATIONS BETWEEN BLACK HOLES AND THEIR HOST GALAXIES: BROAD-LINE ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI IN THE zCOSMOS SURVEY (2009, methodology): “It is worth keeping in mind, however, that the McLure and Dunlop (2004) normalization of the “virial” black hole mass estimate is based on a specific (theoretically motivated) assumption on the BLR geometry, while the V09 one is empirically calibrated with the local MBH − σ relation, i.e. it does…”
EDDINGTON-LIMITED ACCRETION AND THE BLACK HOLE MASS FUNCTION AT REDSHIFT 6 (2010, methodology): “…at z = 6 would contain such a large number of > 1010M⊙ black holes given the lack of such black holes at low redshift (Tundo et al. 2007), at z = 2 (McLure & Dunlop 2004; Vestergaard & Osmer 2009), self-regulation arguments (Natarajan & Treister 2009) and the difficulty of forming them in the…”
Cosmic evolution of quasar clustering: implications for the host haloes (2004, methodology): “This is obtained by combining the most recent bolometric corrections from the B band with an empirically determined distribution of Eddington ratios (McLure & Dunlop 2004).”
Active Galactic Nuclei in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. II. Emission-Line Luminosity Function (2005, background): “Thus, it will be interesting to explore the transition from low to high Eddington accretion rates (McLure & Dunlop 2004).”