The host galaxies and black-hole:galaxy mass ratios of luminous quasars at z~4

Abstract

We present and analyse the deepest, high-quality Ks-band images ever obtained of luminous quasars at z~4, in an attempt to determine the basic properties of their host galaxies less than 1 Gyr after the first recorded appearance of black holes with Mbh > 10^9 Msol. To maximise the robustness of our results we have carefully selected two SDSS quasars at z~4. These quasars are representative of the most luminous quasars known at this epoch but they also, crucially, lie within 40 arcsec of comparably-bright foreground stars (required for accurate PSF definition), and have redshifts which ensure line-free Ks-band imaging. The data were obtained in excellent seeing (<0.4-arcsec) at the ESO VLT with integration times of ~5.5 hours per source. Via carefully-controlled separation of host-galaxy and nuclear light, we estimate the luminosities and stellar masses of the host galaxies, and set constraints on their half-light radii. The quasar host galaxies have K-band luminosities similar to radio galaxies at comparable redshifts, suggesting that these quasar hosts are also among the most massive galaxies in existence at this epoch. However, the quasar hosts are a factor ~5 smaller than the host galaxies of luminous low-redshift quasars. We estimate the stellar masses of the z~4 host galaxies to lie in the range 2-10x10^11 Msol, and use the CIV emission line in the Sloan spectra to estimate the masses of their black holes. The results imply a black-hole:host-galaxy mass ratio Mbh:Mgal~0.01-0.05. This is an order of magnitude higher than typically seen in the low-redshift Universe, and is consistent with existing evidence for a systematic growth in this mass ratio with increasing redshift, at least for objects selected as powerful AGN.

10 pages, 6 figures

References in corpus (12)

• A luminous quasar at a redshift of z = 7.085
• Size evolution of the most massive galaxies at 1.7<z<3 from GOODS NICMOS survey imaging
• Distant Radio Galaxies and their Environments
• Eddington-limited accretion and the black hole mass function at redshift 6
• The non-causal origin of the black hole-galaxy scaling relations
• Four quasars above redshift 6 discovered by the Canada-France High-z Quasar Survey
• NICMOS Imaging of DRGs in the HDF-S: A Relation Between Star-Formation and Size at z ~ 2.5
• Curvature in the scaling relations of early-type galaxies
• The Kormendy relation of massive elliptical galaxies at z~1.5. Evidence for size evolution ?
• The host galaxies of luminous quasars
• Mass Functions of the Active Black Holes in Distant Quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 3
• Imaging the Molecular Gas in a z=3.9 Quasar Host Galaxy at 0.3" Resolution: A Central, Sub-Kiloparsec Scale Star Formation Reservoir in APM 08279+5255

Cited by in corpus (56)

• Coevolution (Or Not) of Supermassive Black Holes and Host Galaxies
• Relations Between Central Black Hole Mass and Total Galaxy Stellar Mass in the Local Universe
• An ALMA [CII] survey of 27 quasars at z>5.94
• The cosmic evolution of massive black holes in the Horizon-AGN simulation
• The hidden "AGN main sequence": Evidence for a universal black hole accretion to star formation rate ratio since z~2 producing a M_BH-M* relation
• Bright [CII] and dust emission in three z>6.6 quasar host galaxies observed by ALMA
• The case for super-critical accretion onto massive black holes at high redshift
• Star formation rate and dynamical mass of 10^8 solar mass black hole host galaxies at redshift 6
• The Mean Star-Forming Properties of QSO Host Galaxies
• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping Project: No Evidence for Evolution in the M-sigma Relation to z~1
• The Coevolution of Supermassive Black Holes and Massive Galaxies at High Redshift
• The X-shooter/ALMA Sample of Quasars in the Epoch of Reionization. II. Black Hole Masses, Eddington Ratios, and the Formation of the First Quasars
• A Simple Model for Quasar Demographics
• The Most Massive Galaxies and Black Holes Allowed by $\Lambda$CDM
• The ALMA view of the high-redshift relation between supermassive black holes and their host galaxies
• Black Holes in the Early Universe
• Torque-Limited Growth of Massive Black Holes in Galaxies Across Cosmic Time
• Accounting for selection effects in the BH-bulge relations: No evidence for cosmological evolution
• The Galaxy Cluster Mid-Infrared Luminosity Function at 1.3<z<3.2
• Subaru High-z Exploration of Low-Luminosity Quasars (SHELLQs) III. Star formation properties of the host galaxies at $z\gtrsim 6$ studied with ALMA
• Resolved [CII] Emission from z>6 Quasar Host -- Companion Galaxy Pairs
• Estimating Black Hole Masses in Quasars Using Broad Optical and UV Emission Lines
• The Evolution of Chemical Abundance in Quasar Broad Line Region
• Near-Infrared Imaging of a z=6.42 Quasar Host Galaxy With the Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3
• The Contribution of Host Galaxies to the Infrared Energy Output of $z\gtrsim 5.0$ QUASARS
• Low redshift quasars in the SDSS Stripe 82. The host galaxies
• Observing the first galaxies
• Where are compact groups in the local Universe?
• A model for the repeating FRB 121102 in the AGN scenario
• The Far Infrared Emission of the First Massive Galaxies
• Constraints on the faint end of the quasar luminosity function at z~5 in the COSMOS field
• Stellar Populations of UV-Selected Active Galactic Nuclei Host Galaxies at z ~ 2 - 3
• The Black Hole Mass - Stellar Velocity Dispersion Relationship for Quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7
• Limits to Rest-Frame Ultraviolet Emission From Far-Infrared-Luminous z~6 Quasar Hosts
• Chemical Abundance of z~6 Quasar Broad-Line Regions in the XQR-30 Sample
• ALMA Observations of Quasar Host Galaxies at $z\simeq 4.8$
• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping Project: The M_BH-Host Relations at 0.2<z<0.6 from Reverberation Mapping and Hubble Space Telescope Imaging
• Black hole -- galaxy scaling relations in FIRE: the importance of black hole location and mergers
• Comparing Simple Quasar Demographics Models
• The rapid transition from star-formation to AGN dominated rest-frame UV light at z ~ 4
• A Multiwavelength Study of ELAN Environments (AMUSE${}^2$). Mass budget, satellites spin alignment and gas infall in a massive $z\sim 3$ quasar host halo
• Gas and dust in a z=2.8 obscured quasar
• Bubble mapping with the Square Kilometer Array -- I. Detecting galaxies with Euclid, JWST, WFIRST and ELT within ionized bubbles in the intergalactic medium at z>6
• On the properties of compact groups identified in different photometric bands
• Ratio of black hole to galaxy mass of an extremely red dust-obscured galaxy at z = 2.52
• The growth of typical star-forming galaxies and their super massive black holes across cosmic time since z~2
• What Does the Virial Coefficient of the \Hb Broad-Line Region Depend On?
• Alma Reveals A Gas-rich, Maximum-starburst In The Hyperluminous, Dust-obscured Quasar W0533-3401 AT $z\sim 2.9$
• Physical properties of hyperluminous, dust-obscured quasars at $z\sim 3$: multiwavelength Spectral Energy Distribution analysis and cold gas content revealed by ALMA
• Three-Dimensional Modelling of Ionized Gas. I. Did very massive stars of different metallicities drive the second cosmic reionization?
• SMBH Seeds: Model Discrimination with High Energy Emission Based on Scaling Relation Evolution
• A Closer Look at Two of the Most Luminous Quasars in the Universe
• Massive black holes in high-redshift Lyman Break Galaxies
• The relationship of SMBHs and host galaxies at $z<4$ in the deep optical variability-selected AGN sample in the COSMOS field
• Stellar and Black Hole Mass Densities as Empirical Tracers of Co-evolution Show Lock-step Growth since $z\sim 3$
• Deep Hubble Space Telescope Imaging on the Extended Ly$\alpha$ Emission of a QSO at $z=2.19$ with Damped Lyman Alpha System as a Natural Coronagraph