Episodic activities of supermassive black holes at redshift $z\le 2$: driven by mergers?

Abstract

It has been suggested for quite a long time that galaxy mergers trigger activities of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) on the grounds of imaging observations of individual galaxies. To quantitatively examine this hypothesis, we calculate quasar luminosity functions (LFs) by manipulating the observed galaxy LFs ($z\lesssim 2$) and theoretical merger rates from semi-analytical formulations. We find that the model reproduces the observed quasar LFs provided that the mass ratio ($q$) of the secondary galaxy to the newly formed one changes with cosmic time. The results show that the fraction of major mergers decreases from $f_{\mathrm{maj}}\sim 0.2$ at $z\sim 2$ to $f_{\mathrm{maj}}\to 0$ at $z\sim 0$. As a consequence, the newly formed SMBHs from major mergers at $z\sim 2$ may acquire a maximal spin due to the orbital angular momentum of the merging holes. Subsequently, random accretion led by minor mergers rapidly drives the SMBHs to spin down. Such an evolutionary trend of the SMBH spins is consistent with that radiative efficiency of accreting SMBHs strongly declines with cosmic time, reported by Wang et al. (2009). This suggests that minor mergers are important in triggering activities of SMBHs at low redshift while major mergers may dominate at high redshift.

arXiv comment8 pages, 3 figures, 3 tables

References in corpus (75)

• A Fundamental Relation Between Supermassive Black Holes and Their Host Galaxies
• The Demography of Massive Dark Objects in Galaxy Centres
• The many lives of active galactic nuclei: cooling flows, black holes and the luminosities and colours of galaxies
• A Relationship Between Nuclear Black Hole Mass and Galaxy Velocity Dispersion
• Energy input from quasars regulates the growth and activity of black holes and their host galaxies
• The slope of the black-hole mass versus velocity dispersion correlation
• The broken hierarchy of galaxy formation
• The Relation between Black Hole Mass, Bulge Mass, and Near-Infrared Luminosity
• On the Black Hole Mass - Bulge Mass Relation
• A Cosmological Framework for the Co-Evolution of Quasars, Supermassive Black Holes, and Elliptical Galaxies: I. Galaxy Mergers & Quasar Activity
• Local Supermassive Black Holes, Relics of Active Galactic Nuclei and the X-ray Background
• In the Beginning: The First Sources of Light and the Reionization of the Universe
• The SINS survey: SINFONI Integral Field Spectroscopy of z ~ 2 Star-forming Galaxies
• An Observational Determination of the Bolometric Quasar Luminosity Function
• Galaxy Luminosity Functions to z~1: DEEP2 vs. COMBO-17 and Implications for Red Galaxy Formation
• The Assembly and Merging History of Supermassive Black Holes in Hierarchical Models of Galaxy Formation
• Observational constraints on growth of massive black holes
• Black holes in galaxy mergers: The formation of red elliptical galaxies
• Submillimeter Galaxies at z~2: Evidence for Major Mergers & Constraints on Lifetimes, IMF and CO-H2 Conversion Factor
• From rings to bulges: evidence for rapid secular galaxy evolution at z~2 from integral field spectroscopy in the SINS survey
• Beyond the Bulge: a Fundamental Relation Between Supermassive Black Holes and Dark Matter Halos
• On the black hole - bulge mass relation in active and inactive galaxies
• Biases in Virial Black Hole Masses: An SDSS Perspective
• High-resolution Millimeter Imaging of Submillimeter Galaxies
• Self-Regulated Growth of Supermassive Black Holes in Galaxies as the Origin of the Optical and X-ray Luminosity Functions of Quasars
• Black Hole Masses and Eddington Ratios at 0.3<z<4
• The Masses of Nuclear Black Holes in Luminous Elliptical Galaxies and Implications for the Space Density of the Most Massive Black Holes
• Absorption Properties and Evolution of Active Galactic Nuclei
• The distribution and cosmic evolution of massive black hole spins
• Cosmological black hole spin evolution by mergers and accretion
• Quasar Clustering and the Lifetime of Quasars
• Excitation of Activity in Galaxies by Minor Mergers
• The Evolution of Black Hole Mass and Spin in Active Galactic Nuclei
• B-Mode contamination by synchrotron emission from 3-years WMAP data
• Fueling Low-Level AGN Activity Through the Stochastic Accretion of Cold Gas
• The Hard X-ray Spectrum as a Probe for Black-Hole Growth in Radio-Quiet Active Galactic Nuclei
• Observational Signatures of the First Quasars
• The effect of radiation pressure on virial black hole mass estimates and the case of Narrow Line Seyfert 1 galaxies
• The VIMOS-VLT Deep Survey: Evolution of the galaxy luminosity function up to z=2 in first epoch data
• The Black Hole-Bulge Relationship in QSOs
• The 2dF-SDSS LRG and QSO Survey: the QSO luminosity function at 0.4<z<2.6
• Jet directions in Seyfert galaxies
• The Redshift Evolution of Wet, Dry, and Mixed Galaxy Mergers from Close Galaxy Pairs in the DEEP2 Galaxy Redshift Survey
• Black hole mass and spin coevolution by mergers
• Massive Galaxies in COSMOS: Evolution of Black hole versus bulge mass but not versus total stellar mass over the last 9 Gyrs?
• Weighing the Black Holes in z~2 Submillimeter-Emitting Galaxies Hosting Active Galactic Nuclei
• The Black Hole Mass - Spheroid Luminosity relation
• A Hubble Space Telescope Survey of Extended [OIII]5007A Emission in a Far-Infrared Selected Sample of Seyfert Galaxies: Results
• Fuelling Active Galactic Nuclei
• Quasars Are Not Light-Bulbs: Testing Models of Quasar Lifetimes with the Observed Eddington Ratio Distribution
• Hot Disk Corona and Magnetic Turbulence in Radio-Quiet Active Galactic Nuclei: Observational Constraints
• Testing the Evolutionary Link Between Submillimetre Galaxies and Quasars: CO Observations of QSOs at z~2
• A Physical Model for the Luminosity Function of High-Redshift Quasars
• The Black Hole Mass-Bulge Luminosity Relationship for Active Galactic Nuclei from Reverberation Mapping and Hubble Space Telescope Imaging
• A Characteristic Division Between the Fueling of Quasars and Seyferts: Five Simple Tests
• Luminosity-Dependent Quasar Lifetimes: A New Interpretation of the Quasar Luminosity Function
• The Black Hole - Bulge Relationship for QSOs at High Redshift
• The black hole mass of low redshift radiogalaxies
• Less than 10 percent of star formation in z=0.6 massive galaxies is triggered by major interactions
• Host galaxy morphologies of X-ray selected AGN: assessing the significance of different black hole fueling mechanisms to the accretion density of the Universe at z~1
• The Evolution of the Optical and Near-Infrared Galaxy Luminosity Functions and Luminosity Densities to z~2
• Modeling the cosmological co-evolution of supermassive black holes and galaxies: II. The clustering of quasars and their dark environment
• Supermassive Black Holes in the Hierarchical Universe: A General Framework and Observational Tests
• The Origin of the Intrinsic Scatter in the Relation Between Black Hole Mass and Bulge Luminosity for Nearby Active Galaxies
• Radiation pressure force and black hole mass determination in low redshift type-I and type-II active galactic nuclei
• The Lopsidedness of Present-Day Galaxies: Connections to the Formation of Stars, the Chemical Evolution of Galaxies, and the Growth of Black Holes
• Galaxy Mergers at z>1 in the HUDF: Evidence for a Peak in the Major Merger Rate of Massive Galaxies
• An Atlas of the circumnuclear regions of 75 Seyfert galaxies in the near-UV with HST Advanced Camera for Surveys
• Episodic Random Accretion and the Cosmological Evolution of Supermassive Black Hole Spins
• The Minor-Merger Driven Nuclear Activity in Seyfert Galaxies: A Step toward the Simple Unified Formation Mechanism of Active Galactic Nuclei in the Local Universe
• The transverse proximity effect in the z ~ 2 Lyman-alpha forest suggests QSO episodic lifetimes of ~1 Myr
• Cosmological Evolution of the Duty Cycle of Quasars
• Active galactic nuclei and the minor merger hypothesis
• Modeling active galactic nuclei: ongoing problems for the faint-end of the luminosity function
• Multicolour Optical Imaging of IR-Warm Seyfert Galaxies. V. Morphologies and Interactions. Challenging the Orientation Model

Cited by in corpus (8)

• The bulk of the black hole growth since z~1 occurs in a secular universe: No major merger-AGN connection
• Final spins from the merger of precessing binary black holes
• Cosmological Evolution of Supermassive Black Holes. II. Evidence for Downsizing of Spin Evolution
• The chemical properties of low-redshift QSOs
• Accretion Disks in Active Galactic Nuclei: Gas Supply Driven by Star Formation
• Growth of massive black holes at their late stage
• Evolution of gaseous disk viscosity driven by supernova explosion. II. Structure and emissions from star-forming galaxies at high redshift
• Evolution of Warped Accretion Disks in Active Galactic Nuclei. I. Roles of Feeding at the Outer Boundaries