Black Hole Growth and Host Galaxy Co-Evolution Over 8 Billion Years of Cosmic Time
Abstract
Although much progress has been made in the investigation of the co-evolution of black holes and galaxies, the nature of AGN accretion triggers and AGN-host feedback remain open questions. Using samples of hard X-ray selected, moderate-luminosity AGN and their host galaxies from 0.25 < z < 2.67 in the GOODS deep multi-wavelength survey fields, this thesis assesses the growth rates and histories of these black holes, and uses their host galaxy morphologies and colors to test the applicability of established quasar-triggering models to lower-powered AGN. The analysis includes simulations of over 50,000 AGN+host galaxy images to assess the reliability of AGN-host decomposition, as well as a new technique to separate the spectral energy distribution of an obscured AGN from its dominant host galaxy. Moderate-luminosity AGN span a range of growth rates but are typically in a phase of slow growth (with ≈ 80% of the sample growing at less than 10% of the Eddington limit) with relatively high black hole masses (≈ 75% of the sample has MBH > 5 × 107 M⊙ , implying that they must have been growing at higher rates in the past in order to grow to the masses we observe. Additionally, a significant fraction of the host galaxies of moderate-luminosity AGN are disk-dominated: at the highest redshifts of the sample more than half of the host galaxies have at least 80% of their optical light from a disk. A further one-quarter to one-third of the sample (depending on redshift) has a significant disk contribution, with a stronger, but likely not dominant, bulge. Because major mergers both form bulges and destroy disks, this result indicates that models requiring major mergers to trigger the growth of black holes do not describe the majority of AGN. The range of both black hole growth rates and host galaxy colors and morphologies in the sample imply that secular processes are important to the growth of moderate-luminosity AGN, which collectively comprise a substantial fraction of the overall black hole growth in the universe.
- Publication:
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Ph.D. Thesis
- Pub Date:
- 2012
- Bibcode:
- 2012PhDT.......402S
- Keywords:
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- Physics, Astrophysics;Physics, General;Physics, Astronomy and Astrophysics