Dark-ages Reionization and Galaxy Formation Simulation - X. The small contribution of quasars to reionization

Abstract

Motivated by recent measurements of the number density of faint AGN at high redshift, we investigate the contribution of quasars to reionization by tracking the growth of central supermassive black holes in an update of the Meraxes semi-analytic model. The model is calibrated against the observed stellar mass function at $z\sim 0.6-7$, the black hole mass function at $z\lesssim 0.5$, the global ionizing emissivity at $z\sim 2-5$ and the Thomson scattering optical depth. The model reproduces a Magorrian relation in agreement with observations at $z<0.5$ and predicts a decreasing black hole mass towards higher redshifts at fixed total stellar mass. With the implementation of an opening angle of 80 deg for quasar radiation, corresponding to an observable fraction of $\sim 23.4$ per cent due to obscuration by dust, the model is able to reproduce the observed quasar luminosity function at $z\sim 0.6-6$. The stellar light from galaxies hosting faint AGN contributes a significant or dominant fraction of the UV flux. At high redshift, the model is consistent with the bright end quasar luminosity function and suggests that the recent faint $z\sim 4$ AGN sample compiled by Giallongo et al. (2015) includes a significant fraction of stellar light. Direct application of this luminosity function to the calculation of AGN ionizing emissivity consequently overestimates the number of ionizing photons produced by quasars by a factor of 3 at $z\sim 6$. We conclude that quasars are unlikely to make a significant contribution to reionization.

arXiv comment21 pages, 12 figures; Updated to match the published version. All results and conclusions remain unchanged

References in corpus (122)

• Galactic Stellar and Substellar Initial Mass Function
• On the variation of the Initial Mass Function
• The Global Schmidt Law in Star Forming 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
• The EAGLE project: Simulating the evolution and assembly of galaxies and their environments
• Introducing the Illustris Project: Simulating the coevolution of dark and visible matter in the Universe
• Modeling feedback from stars and black holes in galaxy mergers
• K-corrections and filter transformations in the ultraviolet, optical, and near infrared
• In the Beginning: The First Sources of Light and the Reionization of the Universe
• Radiative transfer in a clumpy universe: IV. New synthesis models of the cosmic UV/X-ray background
• From dwarf spheroidals to cDs: Simulating the galaxy population in a LCDM cosmology
• A Semi-Analytic Model for the Co-evolution of Galaxies, Black Holes, and Active Galactic Nuclei
• An Observational Determination of the Bolometric Quasar Luminosity Function
• Mass assembly in quiescent and star-forming galaxies since z=4 from UltraVISTA
• The Evolution of the Stellar Mass Functions of Star-Forming and Quiescent Galaxies to z = 4 from the COSMOS/UltraVISTA Survey
• 21cmFAST: A Fast, Semi-Numerical Simulation of the High-Redshift 21-cm Signal
• The Nature of High-Redshift Galaxies
• Black Holes in Galaxy Mergers: Evolution of Quasars
• Dwarf Galaxies with Optical Signatures of Active Massive Black Holes
• Quasars, their host galaxies, and their central black holes
• The Evolution of the Stellar Mass Function of Galaxies from z=4.0 and the First Comprehensive Analysis of its Uncertainties: Evidence for Mass-dependent Evolution
• Self-Consistent Models of the AGN and Black Hole Populations: Duty Cycles, Accretion Rates, and the Mean Radiative Efficiency
• The Canada-France High-z Quasar Survey: nine new quasars and the luminosity function at redshift 6
• Galaxy Stellar Mass Functions from ZFOURGE/CANDELS: An Excess of Low-Mass Galaxies Since z=2 and the Rapid Buildup of Quiescent Galaxies
• Self-Regulated Growth of Supermassive Black Holes in Galaxies as the Origin of the Optical and X-ray Luminosity Functions of Quasars
• Reionization after Planck: The Derived Growth of the Cosmic Ionizing Emissivity now matches the Growth of the Galaxy UV Luminosity Density
• Probing the Coevolution of Supermassive Black Holes and Galaxies Using Gravitationally Lensed Quasar Hosts
• Planck intermediate results. XLVI. Reduction of large-scale systematic effects in HFI polarization maps and estimation of the reionization optical depth
• The Birth of a Galaxy - III. Propelling reionisation with the faintest galaxies
• A Physical Model for the Origin of Quasar Lifetimes
• Cosmic Reionization after Planck: Could Quasars Do It All?
• Escape fraction of ionizing photons during reionization: effects due to supernova feedback and runaway OB stars
• The observed ionization rate of the intergalactic medium and the ionizing emissivity at z >5: Evidence for a photon starved and extended epoch of reionization
• The Reionization of the Universe by the First Stars and Quasars
• The Final SDSS High-Redshift Quasar Sample of 52 Quasars at z>5.7
• The Evolution of the Galaxy Stellar Mass Function at z= 4-8: A Steepening Low-mass-end Slope with Increasing Redshift
• Faint AGNs at z>4 in the CANDELS GOODS-S field: looking for contributors to the reionization of the Universe
• New Measurements of the Ionizing Ultraviolet Background over 2 < z < 5 and Implications for Hydrogen Reionization
• Concordance models of reionization: implications for faint galaxies and escape fraction evolution
• The mass evolution of the first galaxies: stellar mass functions and star formation rates at $4<z<7$ in the CANDELS GOODS-South field
• The galaxy stellar mass function at 3.5<z<7.5 in the CANDELS/UDS, GOODS-South, and HUDF fields
• Escape of Ionizing Radiation from High Redshift Galaxies
• Semi-Analytic Galaxy Evolution (SAGE): Model Calibration and Basic Results
• Selection bias in dynamically-measured super-massive black hole samples: its consequences and the quest for the most fundamental relation
• The 2dF-SDSS LRG and QSO Survey: the QSO luminosity function at 0.4<z<2.6
• Supermassive black holes with high accretion rates in active galactic nuclei: I. First results from a new reverberation mapping campaign
• Evolution of Galaxy Stellar Mass Functions, Mass Densities, and Mass to Light Ratios from z 7 to z 4
• The z=5 Quasar Luminosity Function from SDSS Stripe 82
• The evolution of faint AGN between z~1 and z~5 from the COMBO-17 survey
• The 2dF-SDSS LRG and QSO Survey: The z<2.1 Quasar Luminosity Function from 5645 Quasars to g=21.85
• Disk galaxies at Z=0 and at High Redshift: an explanation of the observed evolution of damped Ly-alpha systems
• Growth and activity of black holes in galaxy mergers with varying mass ratios
• The BlueTides Simulation: First Galaxies and Reionization
• Constraints on the Star Formation Efficiency of Galaxies During the Epoch of Reionization
• Inhomogeneous recombinations during cosmic reionization
• Low-mass black holes as the remnants of primordial black hole formation
• On Lyman-limit Systems and the Evolution of the Intergalactic Ionizing Background
• Faint high-redshift AGN in the Chandra Deep Field South: the evolution of the AGN luminosity function and black hole demography
• Dark matter haloes determine the masses of supermassive black holes
• Binary Stars Can Provide the "Missing Photons" Needed for Reionization
• The Bimodal Galaxy Stellar Mass Function in the COSMOS Survey to z~1: A Steep Faint End and a New Galaxy Dichotomy
• The VVDS type-1 AGN sample: The faint end of the luminosity function
• Cosmic reionization after Planck
• Luminosity-Dependent Quasar Lifetimes: A New Interpretation of the Quasar Luminosity Function
• The Supermassive Black Hole Mass - Spheroid Stellar Mass Relation for Sérsic and Core-Sérsic Galaxies
• The Faint End of the Quasar Luminosity Function at z~4: Implications for Ionization of the Intergalactic Medium and Cosmic Downsizing
• The evolving slope of the stellar mass function at 0.6 <= z < 4.5 from deep WFC3 data
• Origin and properties of dual and offset active galactic nuclei in a cosmological simulation at z=2
• Dark-ages reionization and galaxy formation simulation - III. Modelling galaxy formation and the epoch of reionization
• Evolution of the Quasar Luminosity Function Over 3 < z < 5 in the COSMOS Survey Field
• The Demographics of Broad-Line Quasars in the Mass-Luminosity Plane. I. Testing FWHM-Based Virial Black Hole Masses
• The Origin of Double-Peaked Narrow Lines in Active Galactic Nuclei I: Very Large Array Detections of Dual AGNs and AGN Outflows
• The redshift evolution of escape fraction of hydrogen ionizing photons from galaxies
• The Evolution of 21-cm Structure (EOS): public, large-scale simulations of Cosmic Dawn and Reionization
• Dual Supermassive Black Hole Candidates in the AGN and Galaxy Evolution Survey
• Mass assembly and morphological transformations since $z\sim 3$ from CANDELS
• Luminosity Function from dedicated SDSS-III and MMT data of quasars in 0.7<z<4.0 selected with a new approach
• Modeling the cosmological co-evolution of supermassive black holes and galaxies: II. The clustering of quasars and their dark environment
• A Deep Probe of the Galaxy Stellar Mass Functions at z~1-3 with the GOODS NICMOS Survey
• The CALYMHA survey: Ly$\alpha$ escape fraction and its dependence on galaxy properties at $z=2.23$
• The Host Galaxy and Central Engine of the Dwarf AGN POX 52
• The First Billion Years project - IV: Proto-galaxies reionising the Universe
• The brighter galaxies reionised the Universe
• Relative Role of Stars and Quasars in Cosmic Reionization
• Selection bias in the M_BH-sigma and M_BH-L correlations and its consequences
• Supermassive black holes, pseudobulges, and the narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies
• The faint end of the QSO luminosity function at z=3
• Growing black holes and galaxies: black hole accretion versus star formation rate
• Luminosity-Dependent Quasar Lifetimes: Reconciling the Optical and X-ray Quasar Luminosity Functions
• Offset Active Galactic Nuclei as Tracers of Galaxy Mergers and Supermassive Black Hole Growth
• Revisiting the Lyman Continuum Escape Crisis: Predictions for z > 6 from Local Galaxies
• Constraining the UV emissivity of AGN throughout cosmic time via X-ray surveys
• The systematic search for $z\gtrsim 5$ active galactic nuclei in the $Chandra$ Deep Field South
• Faint AGN and the Ionizing Background
• Dark-ages reionization & galaxy formation simulation IV: UV luminosity functions of high-redshift galaxies
• The Millennium Galaxy Catalogue: The local supermassive black hole mass function in early- and late-type galaxies
• The Millennium Galaxy Catalogue: The $M_{bh}$--$L_{spheroid}$ derived supermassive black hole mass function
• The Spectral Slope and Escape Fraction of Bright Quasars at $z\sim 3.8$: the Contribution to the Cosmic UV Background
• Black Hole Mass and Bulge Luminosity for Low-mass Black Holes
• The rest-frame optical (900nm) galaxy luminosity function at z~4-7: abundance matching points to limited evolution in the Mstar/Mhalo ratio at z>4
• Hydrogen Reionization in the Illustris universe
• On the Evolution of the Cosmic Ionizing Background
• The growth of disks and bulges during hierarchical galaxy formation. I: fast evolution vs secular processes
• The Black Hole Mass Function Derived from Local Spiral Galaxies
• Simulating the 21-cm signal from reionisation including non-linear ionisations and inhomogeneous recombinations
• Near-Infrared Imaging of a z=6.42 Quasar Host Galaxy With the Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3
• Quasar UV luminosity function evolution up to z=8
• Dark-ages Reionization & Galaxy Formation Simulation I: The dynamical lives of high redshift galaxies
• The Contribution of Host Galaxies to the Infrared Energy Output of $z\gtrsim 5.0$ QUASARS
• The M-Sigma Relation Derived from Sphere of Influence Arguments
• The Faint End of the Quasar Luminosity Function at z~4
• A low-luminosity type-1 QSO sample: I. Overluminous host spheroidals or undermassive black holes?
• The local black hole mass function derived from the M_{BH}-P and the M_{BH}-n relations
• HST Emission Line Galaxies at z ~ 2: The Ly-alpha Escape Fraction
• Chandra and MMT observations of low-mass black hole active galactic nuclei accreting at low rates in dwarf galaxies
• Low-mass galaxy formation and the ionizing photon budget during reionization
• LBQS 0103-2753: A Binary Quasar in a Major Merger
• Constraining the initial conditions of globular clusters using their radius distribution
• The black hole - host galaxy relation for very low-mass quasars
• Lyman Alpha Constraints on Very Low Luminosity AGN
• UM 625 Revisited: Multiwavelength Study of A Seyfert 1 Galaxy with a Low-mass Black Hole

Cited by in corpus (54)

• Near infrared spectroscopy and star-formation histories of 3<z<4 quiescent galaxies
• No evidence for a significant AGN contribution to cosmic hydrogen reionization
• Reionization and galaxy inference from the high-redshift Lyα forest
• The Impact of the First Galaxies on Cosmic Dawn and Reionization
• Are the ultra-high-redshift galaxies at z > 10 surprising in the context of standard galaxy formation models?
• Reionization with galaxies and active galactic nuclei
• Semi-analytic forecasts for JWST -- II. physical properties and scaling relations for galaxies at z = 4-10
• A tale of two sites -- I: Inferring the properties of minihalo-hosted galaxies from current observations
• Interpreting LOFAR 21-cm signal upper limits at z~9.1 in the context of high-z galaxy and reionisation observations
• Escape of ionizing radiation from high redshift dwarf galaxies: role of AGN feedback
• Reionization in Technicolor
• The Role of Galaxies and AGN in Reionising the IGM - I: Keck Spectroscopy of 5 < z < 7 Galaxies in the QSO Field J1148+5251
• Constraining the astrophysics and cosmology from 21cm tomography using deep learning with the SKA
• Exploring reionisation and high-z galaxy observables with recent multi-redshift MWA upper limits on the 21-cm signal
• Predictions for deep galaxy surveys with JWST from $\Lambda$CDM
• The Epoch of IGM heating by early sources of X-rays
• High-redshift galaxies and black holes in the eyes of JWST: a population synthesis model from infrared to X-rays
• Mock catalogs for the extragalactic X-ray sky: simulating AGN surveys with Athena and with the AXIS probe
• Reionization inference from the CMB optical depth and E-mode polarization power spectra
• Spectroscopically Confirmed Lyman-Alpha Emitters from Redshift 5 to 7 Behind Ten Galaxy Cluster Lenses
• The Prevalence of Galaxy Overdensities Around UV-Luminous Lyman $\alpha$ Emitters in the Epoch of Reionization
• Evaluating the QSO contribution to the 21-cm signal from the Cosmic Dawn
• The first Super Massive Black Holes: indications from models for future observations
• The mass assembly of high-redshift black holes
• Constraints on high-J CO emission lines in $z\sim 6$ quasars
• Dark-ages Reionization and Galaxy Formation Simulation XX. The Ly$\alpha$ IGM transmission properties and environment of bright galaxies during the Epoch of Reionization
• Astraeus II: Quantifying the impact of cosmic variance during the Epoch of Reionization
• The Goldilocks problem of the quasar contribution to reionization
• The Escape Fraction of Ionizing Photons During the Epoch of Reionization: observability with the Square Kilometre Array
• CosmoReionMC: A package for estimating cosmological and astrophysical parameters using CMB, Lyman-α absorption and global 21 cm data
• LIMFAST. II. Line Intensity Mapping as a Probe of High-Redshift Galaxy Formation
• Dark-ages Reionization and Galaxy Formation Simulation -- XVII. Sizes, angular momenta and morphologies of high redshift galaxies
• Ionizing photon production and escape fractions during cosmic reionization in the TNG50 simulation
• The Indirect Influence of Quasars on Reionization
• Astraeus VI: Hierarchical assembly of AGN and their large-scale effect during the Epoch of Reionization
• Dark-ages Reionization and Galaxy Formation Simulation -- XIX: Predictions of infrared excess and cosmic star formation rate density from UV observations
• Late-end reionization with ATON-HE: towards constraints from Lyman-$\alpha$ emitters observed with JWST
• Dependence of galaxy clustering on UV-luminosity and stellar mass at $z\sim 4-7$
• Dark-ages reionization and galaxy formation simulation -- XVIII. The high-redshift evolution of black holes and their host galaxies
• A model for microquasars of Population III
• Thermal and Reionisation History within a Large-Volume Semi-Analytic Galaxy Formation Simulation
• A Physical Model for the Quasar Luminosity Function Evolution between Cosmic Dawn and High Noon
• Gravitational lensing modification of the high redshift galaxy luminosity function
• Influence of mergers on LyC escape of high redshift galaxies
• Dark-ages Reionization and Galaxy Formation Simulation - XV. Stellar evolution and feedback in dwarf galaxies at high redshift
• The miniJPAS & J-NEP surveys: Identification and characterization of the Ly$\alpha$ Emitter population and the Ly$\alpha$ Luminosity Function
• The Impact of ionization Morphology and X-ray Heating on the Cosmological 21cm Skew Spectrum
• Dark-Ages Reionisation & Galaxy Formation Simulation XVI: The Thermal Memory of Reionisation
• Dark-ages Reionization and Galaxy Formation Simulation - XIV. Gas accretion, cooling and star formation in dwarf galaxies at high redshift
• Dark matter model favoured by reionization data: 7 keV sterile neutrino vs cold dark matter
• Fisher matrix forecasts on the astrophysics of galaxies during the epoch of reionisation from the 21-cm power spectra
• Cosmic Dawn II (CoDa II): a new radiation-hydrodynamics simulation of the self-consistent coupling of galaxy formation and reionization
• Ultra-fast model emulation with PRISM; analyzing the Meraxes galaxy formation model
• The Contribution of AGN Accretion Disks to Hydrogen Reionization