scholarly journals First Galaxies and AGNs

2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (S235) ◽  
pp. 358-361
Author(s):  
Fabian Walter

AbstractI will discuss the search for galaxies and QSOs at the highest redshifts, out to the Epoch of Reionization. Observations in the submillimeter play a fundamental role in such searches, in particular once ALMA will become operational. I will focus on the properties of the molecular gas (the phase of the ISM out of which stars form) in the earliest systems as derived through observations in the millimetre and radio regime. These observations allow us to measure the reservoir of molecular gas and to constrain the physical properties and excitation of the gas. Resolved imaging of the host galaxies also allows us to derive first dynamical masses for these objects. Such mass determinations are critical to determine whether there is a possible evolution of the famous MBH–σbulgerelation with redshift or not. Recent measurements in the QSO redshift record holder J1148+5251 (z= 6.42) provide evidence that the black hole in this system assembled before the stellar bulge.

2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (S267) ◽  
pp. 399-399
Author(s):  
Fred Hamann ◽  
Nissem Kanekar ◽  
Jason X. Prochaska ◽  
Michael T. Murphy ◽  
Nikola Milutinovic ◽  
...  

AbstractAccretion disk outflows are an important part of the quasar phenomenon. They might play a major role in distributing metals to the galactic surroundings, halting growth of the central black hole and providing kinetic energy “feedback” to regulate star formation in the host galaxies. Some models of galaxy evolution indicate that feedback requires kinetic energy luminosities, LK, that are ~5% of the quasar bolometric; LK/L = Ṁwν2/2η:Ṁaccc2 ~ 5% is possible if Ṁw ~ Ṁacc (with ν~ 0.1c, and η ~ 0.1). Here we describe results from two studies designed to test the theoretical energetics of radiatively driven outflows and derive observational constraints on the outflow geometry and physical properties emphasizing weaker outflow features like NALs and mini-BALs.


2020 ◽  
Vol 645 ◽  
pp. A33
Author(s):  
M. Bischetti ◽  
C. Feruglio ◽  
E. Piconcelli ◽  
F. Duras ◽  
M. Pérez-Torres ◽  
...  

Context. Sources at the brightest end of the quasi-stellar object (QSO) luminosity function, during the peak epoch in the history of star formation and black hole accretion (z ∼ 2−4, often referred to as “Cosmic noon”) are privileged sites to study the cycle of feeding & feedback processes in massive galaxies. Aims. We aim to perform the first systematic study of cold gas properties in the most luminous QSOs, by characterising their host-galaxies and environment. These targets exhibit indeed widespread evidence of outflows at nuclear and galactic scales. Methods. We analyse ALMA, NOEMA and JVLA observations of the far-infrared continuum, CO and [CII] emission lines in eight QSOs (bolometric luminosity LBol ≳ 3 × 1047 erg s−1) from the WISE-SDSS selected hyper-luminous (WISSH) QSOs sample at z ∼ 2.4−4.7. Results. We report a 100% emission line detection rate and a 80% detection rate in continuum emission, and we find CO emission to be consistent with the steepest CO ladders observed so far. Sub-millimetre data reveal presence of (one or more) bright companion galaxies around ∼80% of WISSH QSOs, at projected distances of ∼6−130 kpc. We observe a variety of sizes for the molecular gas reservoirs (∼1.7−10 kpc), mostly associated with rotating disks with disturbed kinematics. WISSH QSOs typically show lower CO luminosity and higher star formation efficiency than infrared matched, z ∼ 0−3 main-sequence galaxies, implying that, given the observed SFR ∼170−1100 M⊙ yr−1, molecular gas is converted into stars in ≲50 Myr. Most targets show extreme dynamical to black-hole mass ratios Mdyn/MBH ∼ 3−10, two orders of magnitude smaller than local relations. The molecular gas fraction in the host-galaxies of WISSH is lower by a factor of ∼10−100 than in star forming galaxies with similar M*. Conclusions. Our analysis reveals that hyper-luminous QSOs at Cosmic noon undergo an intense growth phase of both the central super-massive black hole and of the host-galaxy. These systems pinpoint the high-density sites where giant galaxies assemble, where we show that mergers play a major role in the build-up of the final host-galaxy mass. We suggest that the observed low molecular gas fraction and short depletion timescale are due to AGN feedback, whose presence is indicated by fast AGN-driven ionised outflows in all our targets.


2015 ◽  
Vol 576 ◽  
pp. A32 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Gatti ◽  
A. Lamastra ◽  
N. Menci ◽  
A. Bongiorno ◽  
F. Fiore

2020 ◽  
Vol 638 ◽  
pp. A53
Author(s):  
Nastaran Fazeli ◽  
Gerold Busch ◽  
Andreas Eckart ◽  
Françoise Combes ◽  
Persis Misquitta ◽  
...  

Gas inflow processes in the vicinity of galactic nuclei play a crucial role in galaxy evolution and supermassive black hole growth. Exploring the central kiloparsec of galaxies is essential to shed more light on this subject. We present near-infrared H- and K-band results of the nuclear region of the nearby galaxy NGC 1326, observed with the integral-field spectrograph SINFONI mounted on the Very Large Telescope. The field of view covers 9″ × 9″ (650 × 650 pc2). Our work is concentrated on excitation conditions, morphology, and stellar content. The nucleus of NGC 1326 was classified as a LINER, however in our data we observed an absence of ionised gas emission in the central r ∼ 3″. We studied the morphology by analysing the distribution of ionised and molecular gas, and thereby detected an elliptically shaped, circum-nuclear star-forming ring at a mean radius of 300 pc. We estimate the starburst regions in the ring to be young with dominating ages of < 10 Myr. The molecular gas distribution also reveals an elongated east to west central structure about 3″ in radius, where gas is excited by slow or mild shock mechanisms. We calculate the ionised gas mass of 8 × 105 M⊙ completely concentrated in the nuclear ring and the warm molecular gas mass of 187 M⊙, from which half is concentrated in the ring and the other half in the elongated central structure. The stellar velocity fields show pure rotation in the plane of the galaxy. The gas velocity fields show similar rotation in the ring, but in the central elongated H2 structure they show much higher amplitudes and indications of further deviation from the stellar rotation in the central 1″ aperture. We suggest that the central 6″ elongated H2 structure might be a fast-rotating central disc. The CO(3–2) emission observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array reveal a central 1″ torus. In the central 1″ of the H2 velocity field and residual maps, we find indications for a further decoupled structure closer to a nuclear disc, which could be identified with the torus surrounding the supermassive black hole.


2021 ◽  
Vol 503 (4) ◽  
pp. 5984-5996
Author(s):  
Mark D Smith ◽  
Martin Bureau ◽  
Timothy A Davis ◽  
Michele Cappellari ◽  
Lijie Liu ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Supermassive black hole (SMBH) masses can be measured by resolving the dynamical influences of the SMBHs on tracers of the central potentials. Modern long-baseline interferometers have enabled the use of molecular gas as such a tracer. We present here Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array observations of the elliptical galaxy NGC 7052 at 0${^{\prime\prime}_{.}}$11 ($37\,$pc) resolution in the 12CO(2-1) line and $1.3\,$ mm continuum emission. This resolution is sufficient to resolve the region in which the potential is dominated by the SMBH. We forward model these observations, using a multi-Gaussian expansion of a Hubble Space Telescope F814W image and a spatially constant mass-to-light ratio to model the stellar mass distribution. We infer an SMBH mass of $2.5\pm 0.3\times 10^{9}\, \mathrm{M_\odot }$ and a stellar I-band mass-to-light ratio of $4.6\pm 0.2\, \mathrm{M_\odot /L_{\odot ,I}}$ (3σ confidence intervals). This SMBH mass is significantly larger than that derived using ionized gas kinematics, which however appears significantly more kinematically disturbed than the molecular gas. We also show that a central molecular gas deficit is likely to be the result of tidal disruption of molecular gas clouds due to the strong gradient in the central gravitational potential.


2021 ◽  
Vol 503 (3) ◽  
pp. 3629-3642
Author(s):  
Colin DeGraf ◽  
Debora Sijacki ◽  
Tiziana Di Matteo ◽  
Kelly Holley-Bockelmann ◽  
Greg Snyder ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT With projects such as Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) and Pulsar Timing Arrays (PTAs) expected to detect gravitational waves from supermassive black hole mergers in the near future, it is key that we understand what we expect those detections to be, and maximize what we can learn from them. To address this, we study the mergers of supermassive black holes in the Illustris simulation, the overall rate of mergers, and the correlation between merging black holes and their host galaxies. We find these mergers occur in typical galaxies along the MBH−M* relation, and that between LISA and PTAs we expect to probe the full range of galaxy masses. As galaxy mergers can trigger star formation, we find that galaxies hosting low-mass black hole mergers tend to show a slight increase in star formation rates compared to a mass-matched sample. However, high-mass merger hosts have typical star formation rates, due to a combination of low gas fractions and powerful active galactic nucleus feedback. Although minor black hole mergers do not correlate with disturbed morphologies, major mergers (especially at high-masses) tend to show morphological evidence of recent galaxy mergers which survive for ∼500 Myr. This is on the same scale as the infall/hardening time of merging black holes, suggesting that electromagnetic follow-ups to gravitational wave signals may not be able to observe this correlation. We further find that incorporating a realistic time-scale delay for the black hole mergers could shift the merger distribution towards higher masses, decreasing the rate of LISA detections while increasing the rate of PTA detections.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (S356) ◽  
pp. 143-143
Author(s):  
Jaya Maithil ◽  
Michael S. Brotherton ◽  
Bin Luo ◽  
Ohad Shemmer ◽  
Sarah C. Gallagher ◽  
...  

AbstractActive Galactic Nuclei (AGN) exhibit multi-wavelength properties that are representative of the underlying physical processes taking place in the vicinity of the accreting supermassive black hole. The black hole mass and the accretion rate are fundamental for understanding the growth of black holes, their evolution, and the impact on the host galaxies. Recent results on reverberation-mapped AGNs show that the highest accretion rate objects have systematic shorter time-lags. These super-Eddington accreting massive black holes (SEAMBHs) show BLR size 3-8 times smaller than predicted by the Radius-Luminosity (R-L) relationship. Hence, the single-epoch virial black hole mass estimates of highly accreting AGNs have an overestimation of a factor of 3-8 times. SEAMBHs likely have a slim accretion disk rather than a thin disk that is diagnostic in X-ray. I will present the extreme X-ray properties of a sample of dozen of SEAMBHs. They indeed have a steep hard X-ray photon index, Γ, and demonstrate a steeper power-law slope, ασx.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (S356) ◽  
pp. 376-376
Author(s):  
Ingyin Zaw

AbstractNuclear black holes in dwarf galaxies are important for understanding the low end of the supermassive black hole mass distribution and the black hole-host galaxy scaling relations. IC 750 is a rare system which hosts an AGN, found in ˜0.5% of dwarf galaxies, with circumnuclear 22 GHz water maser emission, found in ˜3–5% of Type 2 AGNs. Water masers, the only known tracer of warm, dense gas in the center parsec of AGNs resolvable in position and velocity, provide the most precise and accurate mass measurements of SMBHs outside the local group. We have mapped the maser emission in IC 750 and find that it traces a nearly edge-on warped disk, 0.2 pc in diameter. The central black hole has an upper limit mass of ˜1 × 105 M⊙ and a best fit mass of ˜8 × 104 M⊙, one to two orders of magnitude below what is expected from black hole-galaxy scaling relations. This has implications for models of black hole seed formation in the early universe, the growth of black holes, and their co-evolution with their host galaxies.


2019 ◽  
Vol 624 ◽  
pp. A81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allison W. S. Man ◽  
Matthew D. Lehnert ◽  
Joël D. R. Vernet ◽  
Carlos De Breuck ◽  
Theresa Falkendal

The objective of this work is to study how active galactic nuclei (AGN) influence star formation in host galaxies. We present a detailed investigation of the star-formation history and conditions of a z = 2.57 massive radio galaxy based on VLT/X-shooter and ALMA observations. The deep rest-frame ultraviolet spectrum contains photospheric absorption lines and wind features indicating the presence of OB-type stars. The most significantly detected photospheric features are used to characterize the recent star formation: neither instantaneous nor continuous star-formation history is consistent with the relative strength of the Si IIλ1485 and S Vλ1502 absorption. Rather, at least two bursts of star formation took place in the recent past, at 6+1-2 Myr and ≳20 Myr ago, respectively. We deduce a molecular H2 gas mass of (3.9 ± 1.0) × 1010 M⊙ based on ALMA observations of the [C I] 3P2−3P1 emission. The molecular gas mass is only 13% of its stellar mass. Combined with its high star-formation rate of (1020-170+190 M⊙ yr-1, this implies a high star-formation efficiency of (26 ± 8) Gyr−1 and a short depletion time of (38 ± 12) Myr. We attribute the efficient star formation to compressive gas motions in order to explain the modest velocity dispersions (⩽55 km s−1) of the photospheric lines and of the star-forming gas traced by [C I]. Because of the likely very young age of the radio source, our findings suggest that vigorous star formation consumes much of the gas and works in concert with the AGN to remove any residual molecular gas, and eventually quenching star formation in massive galaxies.


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