Witnessing Galaxy-SMBH Co-Evolution at Redshift ~ 2
Alvio Renzini, Emanuele Daddi
备注：
6 pages, 5 figures, to appear on the proceedings of the conference "Panoramic Views of Galaxy Formation and Evolution", Hayama, Japan, December 11-16, 2007; Ed. Tadayuki Kodama, ASP Conf. Ser. New version (v2) with figure numbering corrected
In a recent multiwavelength study of galaxies at redshift ~ 2 by Daddi et al. (2007a,b) it is shown that galaxies with a Mid-IR excess most likely harbor a Compton-thick AGN, thus bringing to about 1/3 the fraction of z ~ 2 galaxies hosting an AGN. This finding opens a number of intriguing issues concerning the concomitant growth of galaxies and supermassive black holes, AGN feedback, and downsizing, at the cosmic epoch of most intense star formation and nuclear activity.
In the local universe, the masses of Super-Massive Black-Holes (SMBH) appear to correlate with physical properties of their hosts, including the mass of the dark-matter halos. At higher redshifts, we observe the growth of SMBHs indirectly through identification of high redshift quasars. However information on their hosts is difficult to obtain. In this paper we determine the masses of halos that host high redshift quasars (at z>4) by comparing the rate of growth of quasar density with that predicted by the Press-Schechter mass function. The host mass determined depends on how the ratio between…
Using deep Chandra and optical spectroscopic observations, we investigate an intriguing, young massive group, RXJ1648.7+6109, at z=0.376, and we combine these observations with previous measurements to fit the scaling relations of intermediate-redshift groups and poor clusters. RXJ1648 appears to be in an early stage of formation; while it follows X-ray scaling relations, its X-ray emission is highly elongated and it lacks a central, dominant BCG. Instead, RXJ1648 contains a central string of seven bright galaxies, which have a smaller velocity dispersion, are on average brighter, and have les…
Recent studies have shown that during their coalescence, binary supermassive black holes (SMBHs) experience a gravitational recoil with velocities of 100 km/s < v(kick) < 600 km/s. These velocities exceed the escape velocity v(esc) from typical dark matter (DM) halos at high-redshift (z>6), and therefore put constraints on scenarios in which early SMBHs grow at the centers of DM halos. Here we quantify these constraints for the most distant known SMBHs, with inferred masses in excess of 10^9 M(sun), powering the bright quasars discovered in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey at z>6. We assume that t…
In the local universe, the masses of Super-Massive Black-Holes (SMBH) appear to correlate with the physical properties of their hosts, including the mass of the dark-matter halo. Using these clues as a starting point many studies have produced models that can explain phenomena like the quasar luminosity function. The shortcoming of this approach is that working models are not unique, and as a result it is not always clear what input physics is being constrained. Here we take a different approach. We identify critical parameters that describe the evolution of SMBHs at high redshift, and constra…
We present the results of a near infrared imaging program of a sample of 19 radio galaxies with redshift between 1.7 and 3.2, using the NICMOS Camera 2 on the Hubble Space Telescope. The galaxies were observed in H-band which, for 18 of the 19 targets, samples the rest-frame optical emission longwards of the 4000 A break. The images show a wide range of morphologies, from unresolved to compact systems, to systems with substructures such as multiple emission peaks, to systems comprised of several components spread over large areas. The morphologies of 5 of the lowest redshift targets are well r…
We have obtained a new high-resolution K'-band image of the central region of the rich X-ray cluster RX J0848.9+4452 at z=1.26. We found that the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) in the cluster is clearly separated into two distinct objects. Whereas the optical to near-infrared colors of the objects are consistent with the predictions of passive evolution models for galaxies formed at high redshift, the luminosities of the two galaxies are both considerably fainter than predicted by passive evolution of BCG's in low and intermediate redshift clusters. We argue that this is evidence of an on-goin…
We investigated a sample of 15 luminous high-redshift quasars (3.3 < z < 5.1) to measure the mass of their super-massive black holes (SMBH) and compare, for the first time, results based on CIV, MgII, and Hbeta emission lines at high-redshifts. Assuming gravitationally bound orbits as dominant broad-line region gas motion, we determine black hole masses in the range of M_bh = 2 times 10^8 M_sun up to M_bh = 4 times 10^10 M_sun. While the black hole mass estimates based on CIV and Hbeta agree well, MgII typically indicates a factor of $\sim 5 \times$ lower SMBH masses. A flatter slope of the Hb…
The ubiquity of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) at the centers of nearby luminous galaxies can arise from the multiple mergers experienced by dark matter halos in hierarchical structure formation models, even if only a small fraction of these galaxies harbor SMBHs at high redshifts. We illustrate this possibility using cosmological Monte Carlo simulations of the merger history of dark matter halos and their associated SMBHs. In our most extreme models, in order to populate nearly every bright galaxy with a SMBH at z=0, only a few percent of the halos with virial temperatures above 10^4 K are …
Understanding how seed black holes grow into intermediate and supermassive black holes (IMBHs and SMBHs, respectively) has important implications for the duty-cycle of active galactic nuclei (AGN), galaxy evolution, and gravitational wave astronomy. Most studies of the cosmological growth and merger history of black holes have used semianalytic models and have concentrated on SMBH growth in luminous galaxies. Using high resolution cosmological N-body simulations, we track the assembly of black holes over a large range of final masses -- from seed black holes to SMBHs -- over widely varying dyn…
We present a new technique for observationally identifying galaxy mergers spectroscopically rather than through host galaxy imaging. Our technique exploits the dynamics of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) powering active galactic nuclei (AGNs) in merger-remnant galaxies. Because structure in the universe is built up through galaxy mergers and nearly all galaxies host a central SMBH, some galaxies should possess two SMBHs near their centers as the result of a recent merger. These SMBHs spiral to the center of the resultant merger-remnant galaxy, and one or both of the SMBHs may power AGNs. Usin…
We investigate the redshift and luminosity evolution of the galaxy colour-density relation using the data from the First Epoch VIMOS-VLT Deep Survey (VVDS) on scales of R=5 h^(-1)Mpc up to redshift z ~ 1.5. While at lower redshift we confirm the existence of a steep colour-density relation, with the fraction of the reddest(/bluest) galaxies of the same luminosity increasing(/decreasing) as a function of density, this trend progressively disappears in the highest redshift bins investigated.Our results suggest the existence of an epoch (more remote for brighter galaxies) characterized by the abs…
The supermassive black holes (SMBHs) massive enough to power the bright redshift ~6 quasars observed in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) are thought to have assembled by mergers and/or gas accretion from less massive "seed" BHs. If the seeds are the ~100 Msol remnant BHs from the first generation of stars, they must be in place well before redshift z=6, and must avoid being ejected from their parent proto-galaxies by the large (few hundred km/s) kicks they suffer from gravitational-radiation induced recoil during mergers with other BHs. We simulate the SMBH mass function at redshift z=6 usi…
We present a multiwavelength analysis of a compact group of galaxies infalling at high speed into the dynamically young cluster Abell 1367. Peculiar morphologies and unusually high Halpha emission are associated with two giant galaxies and at least ten dwarfs/extragalactic HII regions, making this group the region with the highest density of star formation activity ever observed in the local clusters. Moreover Halpha imaging observations reveal extraordinary complex trails of ionized gas behind the galaxies, with projected lengths exceeding 150 kpc. These unique cometary trails mark the gaseou…
The relationship between galaxies and supermassive black holes (SMBH) found in their cores plays a key role in the formation and evolution of both of these major constituents of the universe, as well as the evolution of the intergalactic medium. Neither can be fully understood on their own, and studies of galaxy and SMBH co-formation and co-evolution are now among the central topics of research in cosmology. Yet the very origins, and the early growth phases of the SMBH are still not firmly established. We review our current understanding of the relevant processes and their astrophysical and co…
An empirically motivated model is presented for accretion-dominated growth of the super massive black holes (SMBH) in galaxies, and the implications are studied for the evolution of the quasar population in the universe. We investigate the core aspects of the quasar population, including space density evolution, evolution of the characteristic luminosity, plausible minimum masses of quasars, the mass function of SMBH and their formation epoch distribution. Our model suggests that the characteristic luminosity in the quasar luminosity function arises primarily as a consequence of a characterist…
We investigate the constraints on models of supermassive black hole (SMBH) and quasar formation obtainable from two recent observational developments: the discovery of luminous quasars at z~6, and estimates of the local mass density of SMBHs. If ~90 per cent of this mass was accreted at redshifts z<3, as suggested by the observed quasar luminosity functions, these joint constraints pose a challenge for models, which must account for the observed luminous quasar population at z~6 within a very limited `mass budget'. We investigate a class of models based within the hierarchical structure format…
The cosmological evolution of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) seems to be intimately linked to their host galaxies. Active galactic nuclei (AGN) can be probed by deep X-ray surveys. We review results from large X-ray selected samples including first results from the XMM-Newton COSMOS survey. A new picture arises from the fact that high-luminosity AGN grow earlier than low-luminosity AGN. In particular, the space density of low-luminosity AGN exhibits a significant decline for redshifts above z=1. This 'anti--hierarchical' growth scenario of SMBHs can be explained by two modes of accretion wit…
We present a measure of the hard (2-8 keV) X-ray luminosity function (XLF) of Active Galactic Nuclei up to z~5. At high redshifts, the wide area coverage of the Chandra Multiwavength Project is crucial to detect rare and luminous (Lx > 10^44 erg s^-1) AGN. The inclusion of samples from deeper published surveys, such as the Chandra Deep Fields, allows us to span the lower Lx range of the XLF. Our sample is selected from both the hard (z < 3; f(2-8 keV) > 6.3x10^-16 erg cm^-2 s^-1) and soft (z > 3; f(0.5-2.0 keV) > 1.0x10^-16 erg cm^-2 s^-1) energy band detections. Within our optical magnitude l…
There is overwhelming evidence for the presence of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in the centers of most nearby galaxies. The mass estimates for these remnant black holes from the stellar kinematics of local galaxies and the quasar phenomenon at high redshifts point to the presence of assembled SMBHs. The accretion history of SMBHs can be reconstructed using observations at high and low redshifts as model constraints. Observations of galaxies and quasars in the submillimeter, infrared, optical, and X-ray wavebands are used as constraints, along with data from the demography of local black ho…
We use the spectra of 22,000 nearby early-type galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) to determine the age distribution of these galaxies as a function of their velocity dispersion sigma_v in the range 100 km/s < sigma_v < 280 km/s. We then combine the inferred age-distributions with the local abundance of spheroids, including early-type galaxies and late-type bulges, to predict the evolution of the quasar luminosity function (LF) in the redshift range 0<z<6. We make the following simple assumptions: (i) the formation of stars in each galaxy, at the epoch identified with the mean ma…
The most massive galaxies in the present day universe are the giant ellipticals found in the centers of rich clusters. These have old, coeval stellar populations, suggesting they formed at high redshift, and are expected to host supermassive black holes (SMBHs). The recent detection of several high-redshift radio galaxies (HzRGs) at submm wavelengths confirms that indeed some massive galaxies may have formed the bulk of their stellar populations in spectacular dust-enshrouded starbursts at high-z. In this letter we compare sensitive Chandra X-ray images - which identify actively-fueled SMBHs -…
We present a comprehensive synthesis model for the AGN evolution and the growth of supermassive black holes in the Universe. We solve the continuity equation for SMBH mass function using the locally determined one as a boundary condition, and the hard X-ray luminosity function as tracer of the AGN growth rate distribution, supplemented with a luminosity-dependent bolometric correction and an absorbing column distribution. Differently from most previous semi-analytic and numerical models, we do not assume any specific distribution of Eddington ratios, rather we determine it empirically by coupl…
The growth of supermassive black holes (SMBH) through accretion is accompanied by the release of enormous amounts of energy which can either be radiated away, as happens in quasars, advected into the black hole, or disposed of in kinetic form through powerful jets, as is observed, for example, in radio galaxies. Here, I will present new constraints on the evolution of the SMBH mass function and Eddington ratio distribution, obtained from a study of AGN luminosity functions aimed at accounting for both radiative and kinetic energy output of AGN in a systematic way. First, I discuss how a refine…
We study the demographics of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in the local and high-z universe with hard X-ray luminosity functions (HXLFs) of AGNs. First, we compare the mass accretion history at z>0 with optical luminosity functions (OLFs) and that with HXLFs. We consider the constraints on parameters of mass accretion (energy conversion efficiency and Eddington ratio) and conclude that the constraints based on HXLFs are more adequate rather than that based on OLFs. The sub-Eddington case is allowed only when we use HXLFs. Next, we estimate the upper limit of the cumulative mass density of S…
We investigate the expected gravitational wave emission from coalescing supermassive black hole (SMBH) binaries resulting from mergers of their host galaxies. When galaxies merge, the SMBHs in the host galaxies sink to the center of the new merged galaxy and form a binary system. We employ a semi-analytic model of galaxy and quasar formation based on the hierarchical clustering scenario to estimate the amplitude of the expected stochastic gravitational wave background owing to inspiraling SMBH binaries and bursts owing to the SMBH binary coalescence events. We find that the characteristic stra…
We investigate the expected gravitational wave emission from coalescing supermassive black hole (SMBH) binaries resulting from mergers of their host galaxies. We employ a semi-analytic model of galaxy and quasar formation based on the hierarchical clustering scenario to estimate the amplitude of the expected stochastic gravitational wave background owing to inspiraling SMBH binaries and bursts rates owing to the SMBH binary coalescence events. We find that the characteristic strain amplitude of the background radiation is $h_c(f) \sim 10^{-16} (f/1 μ{\rm Hz})^{-2/3}$ for $f \lesssim 1 μ{\rm Hz…
