CANDELS: Elevated Black Hole Growth in the Progenitors of Compact Quiescent Galaxies at z ∼ 2

Journal Article · Sun Sep 10 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/AA8566· OSTI ID:22875834

Kocevski, Dale D.; Young, Joshua A. ^[1]; Barro, Guillermo ^[2]; Faber, S. M. ^[3]; Dekel, Avishai ^[4]; Somerville, Rachel S. ^[5]; Williams, Christina C. ^[6]; McIntosh, Daniel H. ^[7]; Georgakakis, Antonis; Nandra, Kirpal ^[8]; Hasinger, Guenther ^[9]; Civano, Francesca ^[10]; Alexander, David M. ^[11]; Almaini, Omar; Conselice, Christopher J. ^[12]; Donley, Jennifer L. ^[13]; Ferguson, Harry C.; Grogin, Norman A.; Hathi, Nimish ^[14]; Giavalisco, Mauro ^[15] ; others, and

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1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Colby College, Waterville, ME 04961 (United States)
2. Department of Physics, University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA (United States)
3. UCO/Lick Observatory, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA (United States)
4. Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science, Racah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem (Israel)
5. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ (United States)
6. Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States)
7. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, MO (United States)
8. Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, Garching (Germany)
9. Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI (United States)
10. Department of Physics, Durham University, Durham (United Kingdom)
11. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA (United States)
12. School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham (United Kingdom)
13. Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM (United States)
14. Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD (United States)
15. Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA (United States)

We examine the fraction of massive (M{sub ∗}>10{sup 10} M{sub ⊙}) compact star-forming galaxies (cSFGs) that host an active galactic nucleus (AGN) at z∼2. These cSFGs are likely the direct progenitors of the compact quiescent galaxies observed at this epoch, which are the first population of passive galaxies to appear in large numbers in the early Universe. We identify cSFGs that host an AGN using a combination of Hubble WFC3 imaging and Chandra X-ray observations in four fields: the Chandra Deep Fields, the Extended Groth Strip, and the UKIDSS Ultra Deep Survey field. We find that 39.2{sub −3.6}{sup +3.9}% (65/166) of cSFGs at 1.4<3.0 host an X-ray detected AGN. This fraction is 3.2 times higher than the incidence of AGN in extended star-forming galaxies with similar masses at these redshifts. This difference is significant at the 6.2σ level. Our results are consistent with models in which cSFGs are formed through a dissipative contraction that triggers a compact starburst and concurrent growth of the central black hole. We also discuss our findings in the context of cosmological galaxy evolution simulations that require feedback energy to rapidly quench cSFGs. We show that the AGN fraction peaks precisely where energy injection is needed to reproduce the decline in the number density of cSFGs with redshift. Our results suggest that the first abundant population of massive quenched galaxies emerged directly following a phase of elevated supermassive black hole growth and further hints at a possible connection between AGN and the rapid quenching of star formation in these galaxies.

• OSTI ID: 22875834
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 846, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
BLACK HOLES
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
DENSITY
GALACTIC EVOLUTION
GALAXY NUCLEI
MASS
RED SHIFT
STARS
UNIVERSE
X-RAY GALAXIES