HST WFC3/IR OBSERVATIONS OF ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEUS HOST GALAXIES AT z ∼ 2: SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLES GROW IN DISK GALAXIES

By Kevin Schawinski, E. Treister, C. Urry, C. Cardamone, B. Simmons, Sukyoung K. Yi. 2010

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We present the rest-frame optical morphologies of active galactic nucleus (AGN) host galaxies at 1.5 < z < 3, using near-infrared imaging from the Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3, the first such study of AGN host galaxies at these redshifts. The AGNs are X-ray-selected from the Chandra Deep Field South and have typical luminosities of 1042 erg s−1<LX < 1044 erg s−1. Accreting black holes in this luminosity and redshift range account for a substantial fraction of the total space density and black hole mass growth over cosmic time; they thus represent an important mode of black hole growth in the universe. We find that the majority (∼80%) of the host galaxies of these AGNs have low Sérsic indices indicative of disk-dominated light profiles, suggesting that secular processes govern a significant fraction of the cosmic growth of black holes. That is, many black holes in the present-day universe grew much of their mass in disk-dominated galaxies and not in early-type galaxies or major mergers. The properties of the AGN host galaxies are furthermore indistinguishable from their parent galaxy population and we find no strong evolution in either effective radii or morphological mix between z ∼ 2 and z ∼ 0.05.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Instrumentation

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Citations in the corpus

The green valley is a red herring: Galaxy Zoo reveals two evolutionary pathways towards quenching of star formation in early-and late-type galaxies (2014, background): “The majority of black holes growing locally and at high redshift are hosted in late-type galaxies, clearly driven by secular processes rather than major mergers (e.g. Schawinski et al. 2010a, 2011, 2012; Cisternas et al. 2011; Kocevski et al. 2012; Simmons et al. 2012; Treister et al. 2012).”
THE CHANDRA COSMOS SURVEY. III. OPTICAL AND INFRARED IDENTIFICATION OF X-RAY POINT SOURCES (2012, result): “This result is in agreement with recent findings (e.g., Gabor et al. 2009, Cisternas et al. 2010, Schawinski et al. 2011, Kocevski et al. 2011, Kriek et al. in prep.)”
CANDELS: CONSTRAINING THE AGN–MERGER CONNECTION WITH HOST MORPHOLOGIES AT z ∼ 2 (2011, background): “Schawinski et al. (2011) recently extended this work to z ∼ 2 by examining the light profiles of a relatively small number of AGNs in a portion of the GOODS-S field.”
What drives the growth of black holes (2011, background): “…there are no clear differences in the morphological properties of AGNs and comparably massive inactive galaxies, suggesting that the mechanisms that trigger distant BH growth also trigger distant galaxy growth (e.g., Cisternas et al., 2011; Kocevski et al., 2011; Schawinski et al., 2011).”
MAJOR GALAXY MERGERS ONLY TRIGGER THE MOST LUMINOUS ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI (2012, background): “This explains the conclusions of previous studies, mostly based on Xray surveys (e.g. Cisternas et al. 2011; Schawinski et al. 2011; Kocevski et al. 2012) of moderate luminosity AGN, which found that normal disk-dominated galaxies con- stitute the majority of the AGN host galaxies.”
GOODS-Herschel: the far-infrared view of star formation in active galactic nucleus host galaxies since z ≈ 3 (2011, background): “…galaxies with those of the general galaxy population, Cisternas et al. (2011) showed that the same fraction of each sample showed signs of recent or ongoing mergers, while Schawinski et al. (2011) used a subsample of 28 X-ray AGNs in the CDFS to show that this was also likely the case atz.”
Doing Science with eLISA: Astrophysics and Cosmology in the Millihertz Regime (2012, background): “The similarity between the evolution, over cosmic time, of the luminosity density of QSOs and the global star formation rate (Boyle and Terlevich, 1998, Kauffmann and Haehnelt, 2000) points to the presence of a symbiotic growth, which is still under study (Schawinski et al., 2010, 2011).”
RELATIONS BETWEEN CENTRAL BLACK HOLE MASS AND TOTAL GALAXY STELLAR MASS IN THE LOCAL UNIVERSE (2015, result): “We find that a significant fraction of local broadline AGN host galaxies are also spirals/disks, similar to what has previously been found in studies of moderate-luminosity AGN host galaxies out to z ∼ 3 (e.g., Gabor et al. 2009; Schawinski et al. 2011; Kocevski et al. 2012; Bennert et al. 2015).”
BLACK HOLE GROWTH AND ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI OBSCURATION BY INSTABILITY-DRIVEN INFLOWS IN HIGH-REDSHIFT DISK GALAXIES FED BY COLD STREAMS (2011, background): “Host galaxies of moderate-luminosity AGNs do not show an excess of majormerger signatures (Grogin et al. 2005; Gabor et al. 2009) and often have disky morphologies (Schawinski et al. 2011).”
BLACK HOLE VARIABILITY AND THE STAR FORMATION–ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEUS CONNECTION: DO ALL STAR-FORMING GALAXIES HOST AN ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEUS? (2013, background): “The weak dependence of the merger fraction on AGN luminosity at low LAGN may explain the observations that at moderate to high redshift, moderate-luminosity AGNs have indistinguishable merger fractions from normal galaxies (Cisternas et al. 2011; Schawinski et al. 2011; Kocevski et al. 2012).”
The Coevolution of Galaxies and Supermassive Black Holes: Insights from Surveys of the Contemporary Universe (2014, background): “…AGN population over the same range in redshift (e.g. Pierce et al. 2007, Gabor et al. 2009, Hickox et al. 2009, Silverman et al. 2009, 2011, Schawinski et al. 2011, Kocevski et al. 2012, Mullaney et al. 2012a,b, Aird et al. 2012, 2013, Bohm et al. 2013, Rosario et al. 2013, Juneau et al.…”
THE HIDDEN “AGN MAIN SEQUENCE”: EVIDENCE FOR A UNIVERSAL BLACK HOLE ACCRETION TO STAR FORMATION RATE RATIO SINCE z ∼ 2 PRODUCING AN MBH–M* RELATION (2012, result): “This view is consistent with recent studies of the sSFRs and morphologies of X-ray selected AGN hosts which find that the AGN population is dominated by non-mergers (e.g., Cisternas et al. 2011b; Schawinski et al. 2011; Mullaney et al. 2012; Kocevski et al. 2012; Santini et al. 2012).”
Galaxy Interactions Trigger Rapid Black Hole Growth: an unprecedented view from the Hyper Suprime-Cam Survey (2017, background): “Furthermore, at similar redshifts, AGN with more moderate luminosities (LAGN ∼ 1043 − 1044 erg s−1) also appear no more likely to show interaction signatures than non-AGN systems (e.g., Cisternas et al. 2011; Schawinski et al. 2011; Kocevski et al. 2012).”
Theoretical Challenges in Galaxy Formation (2016, background): “…at low and high redshift also provide evidence that significant black hole accretion is not solely connected to merging but also gas rich disk like galaxies can host AGN of significant luminosity (Cisternas et al. 2011, Georgakakis et al. 2009, Kocevski et al. 2012, Schawinski et al. 2011).”
Accreting supermassive black holes in the COSMOS field and the connection to their host galaxies (2012, background): “For example, major mergers are invoked to trigger bright quasars (e.g. Hopkins et al. 2008), while the role of major mergers in triggering more typical (∼L∗) AGNs is called into question (e.g. Cisternas et al. 2011; Schawinski et al. 2011; Kocevski et al. 2012).”
Enhanced star formation rates in AGN hosts with respect to inactive galaxies from PEP-Herschel observations (2012, background): “However, most low luminosity AGNs are in disks at these redshifts (Schawinski et al. 2011; Kocevski et al. 2012), so it is unlikely that they underwent a (dry) merger recently.”