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

Abstract

We examine the fraction of massive ($M_{\ast }>10^{10}{M}_{\odot }$), compact star-forming galaxies (cSFGs) that host an active galactic nucleus (AGN) at $z\sim 2$. 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 $39.2_{-3.6}^{+3.9}$\% (65/166) of cSFGs at $1.4<z<3.0$ 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 $6.2\sigma$ 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.

Published in the Astrophysical Journal

References in corpus (31)

• The UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS)
• EAZY: A Fast, Public Photometric Redshift Code
• Cold streams in early massive hot haloes as the main mode of galaxy formation
• 3D-HST+CANDELS: The Evolution of the Galaxy Size-Mass Distribution since $z=3$
• A Semi-Analytic Model for the Co-evolution of Galaxies, Black Holes, and Active Galactic Nuclei
• An ultra-deep near-infrared spectrum of a compact quiescent galaxy at z=2.2
• Detection of quiescent galaxies in a bicolor sequence from z=0-2
• The All-wavelength Extended Groth Strip International Survey (AEGIS) Data Sets
• Compaction and Quenching of High-z Galaxies in Cosmological Simulations: Blue and Red Nuggets
• Structure and star formation in galaxies out to z=3: evidence for surface density dependent evolution and upsizing
• A Cosmological Framework for the Co-Evolution of Quasars, Supermassive Black Holes, and Elliptical Galaxies: II. Formation of Red Ellipticals
• The Galaxy Mass Function up to z=4 in the GOODS-MUSIC sample: into the epoch of formation of massive galaxies
• Evidence for Mature Bulges and an Inside-out Quenching Phase 3 Billion Years After the Big Bang
• Stellar masses from the CANDELS survey: the GOODS-South and UDS fields
• The Formation of Massive, Compact Galaxies at z=2 in the Illustris Simulation
• The evolution of the near-IR galaxy Luminosity Function and colour bimodality up to z ~ 2 from the UKIDSS Ultra Deep Survey Early Data Release
• The Evolution of AGN Host Galaxies: From Blue to Red and the Influence of Large-Scale Structures
• Sub-kpc ALMA imaging of compact star-forming galaxies at z~2.5: revealing the formation of dense galactic cores in the progenitors of compact quiescent galaxies
• The impact of mechanical AGN feedback on the formation of massive early-type galaxies
• Dissipation and Extra Light in Galactic Nuclei: III. 'Core' Ellipticals and 'Missing' Light
• Dense cores in galaxies out to z=2.5 in SDSS, UltraVISTA, and the five 3D-HST/CANDELS fields
• Predicting Quiescence: The Dependence of Specific Star Formation Rate on Galaxy Size and Central Density at 0.5<z<2.5
• Two Conditions for Galaxy Quenching: Compact Centres and Massive Haloes
• Bulge-forming galaxies with an extended rotating disk at z~2
• The duty cycle of local radio galaxies
• High-Velocity Outflows Without AGN Feedback: Eddington-Limited Star Formation in Compact Massive Galaxies
• Widespread and Hidden Active Galactic Nuclei in Star-Forming Galaxies at Redshift > 0.3
• Understanding the Structural Scaling Relations of Early-Type Galaxies
• A Massive Galaxy in its Core Formation Phase Three Billion Years After the Big Bang
• Low Gas Fractions Connect Compact Star-Forming Galaxies to their z ~ 2 Quiescent Descendants
• The Relationship Between Star-formation Activity and Galaxy Structural Properties in CANDELS and a Semi-analytic Model

Cited by in corpus (41)

• Evident black hole-bulge coevolution in the distant universe
• CON-quest: Searching for the most obscured galaxy nuclei
• Wet Compaction to a Blue Nugget: a Critical Phase in Galaxy Evolution
• The Sizes of Quasar Host Galaxies with the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program
• CEERS Key Paper III: The Resolved Host Properties of AGN at 3 < z < 5 with JWST
• Opening the era of quasar host studies at high redshift with JWST
• Semi-analytic forecasts for JWST -- V. AGN luminosity functions and helium reionization at z = 2-7
• CO Emission in Infrared-Selected Active Galactic Nuclei
• Star Formation Stochasticity Measured from the Distribution of Burst Indicators
• RC100: Rotation Curves of 100 Massive Star-Forming Galaxies at z=0.6-2.5 Reveal Little Dark Matter on Galactic Scales
• JADES: comprehensive census of broad-line AGN from Reionization to Cosmic Noon revealed by JWST
• AGN Selection Methods Have Profound Impacts on the Distributions of Host Galaxy Properties
• From Nuclear to Circumgalactic: Zooming in on AGN-Driven Outflows at z~2.2 with SINFONI
• Stellar feedback-regulated black hole growth: driving factors from nuclear to halo scales
• The Star-forming Main Sequence of the Host Galaxies of Low-redshift Quasars
• Compact Starburst Galaxies with Fast Outflows: Central Escape Velocities and Stellar Mass Surface Densities from Multi-band Hubble Space Telescope Imaging
• Star formation quenching imprinted on the internal structure of naked red nuggets
• Core Formation in High-z Massive Haloes: Heating by Post Compaction Satellites and Response to AGN Outflows
• Where do quasar hosts lie with respect to the size-mass relation of galaxies?
• AGN accretion and black hole growth across compact and extended galaxy evolution phases
• Stellar populations, stellar masses and the formation of galaxy bulges and discs at $z<3$ in CANDELS
• A Detailed Look at the Most Obscured Galactic Nuclei in the Mid-Infrared
• The Stellar Mass - Black Hole Mass Relation at $z\sim 2$ Down to ${\mathcal{M}}_{\mathrm{BH}}\sim 10^7{M}_{\odot }$ Determined by HETDEX
• The evolution of compact massive quiescent and starforming galaxies derived from the $R_e-R_h$ and $M_{\mathrm{star}}-M_h$ relations
• ALMA resolves the first strongly-lensed Optical/NIR-dark galaxy
• No evidence for excess AGN activity in recently quenched massive galaxies at cosmic noon
• PS J1721+8842: A gravitationally lensed dual AGN system at redshift 2.37 with two radio components
• The incidence of AGN in galaxies with different stellar population ages
• Compact Galaxies at Intermediate Redshifts Quench Faster than Normal-sized Galaxies
• The Puzzling Origin of Massive Compact Galaxies in MaNGA
• Do current X-ray observations capture most of the black-hole accretion at high redshifts?
• Surveys of the Cosmic X-ray Background
• Dust Temperature of Compact Star-forming Galaxies at $z\sim 1-3$ in 3D-{\it HST}/CANDELS
• The Origin of Massive Compact Galaxies: Lessons from IllustrisTNG
• AGN lifetimes in UV-selected galaxies: a clue to supermassive black hole-host galaxy coevolution
• The Dwarf Galaxy Population at $z\sim 0.7$: A Catalog of Emission Lines and Redshifts from Deep Keck Observations
• Extremely Low Molecular Gas Content in the Vicinity of a Red Nugget Galaxy at $z=1.91$
• Stellar populations of a sample of far-IR AGN and non-AGN green valley galaxies
• Black hole-galaxy co-evolution and the role of feedback
• Estimating lifetimes of uv-selected massive galaxies at $0.5\le z\le 2.5$ in the cosmos/ultravista field through clustering analyses
• Does the lockstep growth between black holes and bulges create their mass relation?