The Role of the Most Luminous Obscured AGNs in Galaxy Assembly at z ∼ 2
- Department of Physics, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061 (United States)
- Green Science Policy Institute, Berkeley, CA 94709 (United States)
- Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, 3333 Burnet Avenue, Cincinnati, OH 45229 (United States)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH (United Kingdom)
- School of Sciences, European University Cyprus, Diogenes Street, Engomi, 1516 Nicosia (Cyprus)
- National Radio Astronomy Observatory, 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903 (United States)
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109 (United States)
- Physics and Astronomy Department, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095 (United States)
- Department of Astronomy, University of Cape Town, 7700 Rondebosch, Capetown 7700 (South Africa)
- Observational Cosmology Lab., Code 665, NASA at Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)
- Department of Space, Earth, and Environment, Chalmers University of Technology, Onsala Space Observatory, SE-43992 Onsala (Sweden)
- Núcleo de Astronomía de la Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad Diego Portales, Av. Ejército Libertador 441, Santiago (Chile)
- National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 20A Datun Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100012 (China)
We present Hubble Space Telescope WFC3 F160W imaging and infrared spectral energy distributions for 12 extremely luminous, obscured active galactic nuclei (AGNs) at 1.8 < z < 2.7 selected via “hot, dust-obscured” mid-infrared colors. Their infrared luminosities span (2–15) × 10{sup 13} L {sub ⊙}, making them among the most luminous objects in the universe at z ∼ 2. In all cases, the infrared emission is consistent with arising at least for the most part from AGN activity. The AGN fractional luminosities are higher than those in either submillimeter galaxies or AGNs selected via other mid-infrared criteria. Adopting the G , M {sub 20}, and A morphological parameters, together with traditional classification boundaries, infers that three-quarters of the sample are mergers. Our sample does not, however, show any correlation between the considered morphological parameters and either infrared luminosity or AGN fractional luminosity. Moreover, the asymmetries and effective radii of our sample are distributed identically to those of massive galaxies at z ∼ 2. We conclude that our sample is not preferentially associated with mergers, though a significant merger fraction is still plausible. Instead, we propose that our sample includes examples of the massive galaxy population at z ∼ 2 that harbor a briefly luminous, “flickering” AGN and in which the G and M {sub 20} values have been perturbed due to either the AGN and/or the earliest formation stages of a bulge in an inside-out manner. Furthermore, we find that the mass assembly of the central black holes in our sample leads the mass assembly of any bulge component. Finally, we speculate that our sample represents a small fraction of the immediate antecedents of compact star-forming galaxies at z ∼ 2.
- OSTI ID:
- 22663339
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 844, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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