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2003MNRAS.340.1095D - Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc., 340, 1095-1135 (2003/April-3)
Quasars, their host galaxies and their central black holes.
DUNLOP J.S., McLURE R.J., KUKULA M.J., BAUM S.A., O'DEA C.P. and HUGHES D.H.
Abstract (from CDS):
Careful modelling of our images, aided by a high dynamic-range point spread function, has allowed us to determine accurately the morphology, luminosity, scalelength and axial ratio of every host galaxy in our sample. Armed with this information we have undertaken a detailed comparison of the properties of the hosts of these three types of powerful AGN, both internally and with the galaxy population in general.
We find that spheroidal hosts become more prevalent with increasing nuclear luminosity such that, for nuclear luminosities MV< -23.5, the hosts of both radio-loud and radio-quiet AGN are virtually all massive ellipticals. Moreover, we demonstrate that the basic properties of these hosts are indistinguishable from those of quiescent, evolved, low-redshift ellipticals of comparable mass. This result rules out the possibility that radio-loudness is determined by host-galaxy morphology, and also sets severe constraints on evolutionary schemes that attempt to link low-z ultraluminous infrared galaxies with RQQs.
Instead, we show that our results are as expected given the relationship between black hole and spheroid mass established for nearby galaxies, and apply this relation to estimate the mass of the black hole in each object. The results agree remarkably well with completely independent estimates based on nuclear emission-line widths; all the quasars in our sample have Mbh> 5x108 M☉, while the radio-loud objects are confined to Mbh> 109 M☉. This apparent mass-threshold difference, which provides a natural explanation for why RQQs outnumber RLQs by a factor of 10, appears to reflect the existence of a minimum and a maximum level of black hole radio output, which is a strong function of black hole mass (∝M2–2.5bh). Finally, we use our results to estimate the fraction of massive spheroids/black holes that produce quasar-level activity. This fraction is ≃0.1 per cent at the present day, rising to >10 per cent at z ≃ 2-3.
Abstract Copyright: 2003 RAS
Journal keyword(s): black hole physics - galaxies: active - galaxies: photometry - quasars: general - infrared: galaxies
Simbad objects: 35
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