Extremely Massive Quasars are not Good Proxies for Dense Environments Compared to Massive Galaxies: Environments of Extremely Massive Quasars and Galaxies

Abstract

Black hole mass scaling relations suggest that extremely massive black holes (EMBHs) with $M_{\mathrm{BH}}\ge 10^{9.4}{M}_{\odot }$ are found in the most massive galaxies with $M_{\mathrm{star}}\ge 10^{11.6}{M}_{\odot }$, which are commonly found in dense environments, like galaxy clusters. Therefore, one can expect that there is a close connection between active EMBHs and dense environments. Here, we study the environments of 9461 galaxies and 2943 quasars at $0.24\le z\le 0.40$, among which 52 are extremely massive quasars with $\log (M_{\mathrm{BH}}/M_{\odot })\ge 9.4$, using Sloan Digital Sky Survey and MMT Hectospec data. We find that, on average, both massive quasars and massive galaxies reside in environments more than $\sim 2$ times as dense as those of their less massive counterparts with $\log (M_{\mathrm{BH}}/M_{\odot })\le 9.0$. However, massive quasars reside in environments about half as dense as inactive galaxies with $\log (M_{\mathrm{BH}}/M_{\odot })\ge 9.4$, and only about one third of massive quasars are found in galaxy clusters, while about two thirds of massive galaxies reside in such clusters. This indicates that massive galaxies are a much better signpost for galaxy clusters than massive quasars. The prevalence of massive quasars in moderate to low density environments is puzzling, considering that several simulation results show that these quasars appear to prefer dense environments. Several possible reasons for this discrepancy are discussed, although further investigation is needed to obtain a definite explanation.

34 pages, 26 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in the ApJ

References in corpus (119)

• Maps of Dust IR Emission for Use in Estimation of Reddening and CMBR Foregrounds
• Planck 2015 results. XIII. Cosmological parameters
• Galactic Stellar and Substellar Initial Mass Function
• The Dust Content and Opacity of Actively Star-Forming Galaxies
• The Seventh Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Simulating the joint evolution of quasars, galaxies and their large-scale distribution
• Coevolution (Or Not) of Supermassive Black Holes and Host Galaxies
• The many lives of active galactic nuclei: cooling flows, black holes and the luminosities and colours of galaxies
• Correcting for the Effects of Interstellar Extinction
• The Eleventh and Twelfth Data Releases of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Final Data from SDSS-III
• Hierarchical Galaxy Formation
• The propagation of uncertainties in stellar population synthesis modeling I: The relevance of uncertain aspects of stellar evolution and the IMF to the derived physical properties of galaxies
• On the normalisation of the cosmic star formation history
• A Cosmological Framework for the Co-Evolution of Quasars, Supermassive Black Holes, and Elliptical Galaxies: I. Galaxy Mergers & Quasar Activity
• A Catalog of Quasar Properties from SDSS DR7
• Determining Central Black Hole Masses in Distant Active Galaxies and Quasars. II. Improved Optical and UV Scaling Relationships
• Revisiting the Scaling Relations of Black Hole Masses and Host Galaxy Properties
• The Cosmic Baryon Budget
• From dwarf spheroidals to cDs: Simulating the galaxy population in a LCDM cosmology
• A Unified Model for the Evolution of Galaxies and Quasars
• An Observational Determination of the Bolometric Quasar Luminosity Function
• The Galaxy Luminosity Function and Luminosity Density at Redshift z=0.1
• A Comprehensive Analysis of Uncertainties Affecting the Stellar Mass - Halo Mass Relation for 0<z<4
• The Luminosity and Color Dependence of the Galaxy Correlation Function
• The Growth of Massive Galaxies Since z=2
• An ultra-luminous quasar with a twelve-billion-solar-mass black hole at redshift 6.30
• A Catalog of Bulge+Disk Decompositions and Updated Photometry for 1.12 Million Galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• New constraints on the evolution of the stellar-to-dark matter connection: a combined analysis of galaxy-galaxy lensing, clustering, and stellar mass functions from z=0.2 to z=1
• Self-Consistent Models of the AGN and Black Hole Populations: Duty Cycles, Accretion Rates, and the Mean Radiative Efficiency
• The Masses of Nuclear Black Holes in Luminous Elliptical Galaxies and Implications for the Space Density of the Most Massive Black Holes
• A catalog of 132,684 clusters of galaxies identified from Sloan Digital Sky Survey III
• Two ten-billion-solar-mass black holes at the centres of giant elliptical galaxies
• The HI Content of Spirals. II. Gas Deficiency in Cluster Galaxies
• On the cosmic evolution of the scaling relations between black holes and their host galaxies: Broad Line AGN in the zCOSMOS survey
• Quasi-Stellar Objects, Ultraluminous IR Galaxies, and Mergers
• Evolution of the Galaxy - Dark Matter Connection and the Assembly of Galaxies in Dark Matter Halos
• A synthesis model for AGN evolution: supermassive black holes growth and feedback modes
• A Comparison of Stellar and Gaseous Kinematics in the Nuclei of Active Galaxies
• Comparing Single-Epoch Virial Black Hole Mass Estimators for Luminous Quasars
• Grand unification of AGN activity in the LambdaCDM cosmology
• The Lick AGN Monitoring Project: The MBH - sigma Relation For Reverberation-Mapped Active Galaxies
• A catalog of bulge, disk, and total stellar mass estimates for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Quasar Clustering from SDSS DR5: Dependences on Physical Properties
• Double-Peaked Low-Ionization Emission Lines in Active Galactic Nuclei
• The Black Hole Mass - Galaxy Bulge Relationship for QSOs in the SDSS DR3
• An Over-Massive Black Hole in the Compact Lenticular Galaxy NGC1277
• The GALEX Arecibo SDSS Survey. VIII. Final Data Release -- The Effect of Group Environment on the Gas Content of Massive Galaxies
• Measures of Galaxy Environment - I. What is "Environment"?
• A Massive, Cooling-Flow-Induced Starburst in the Core of a Highly Luminous Galaxy Cluster
• On the nature of Seyfert galaxies with high [OIII]5007 blueshifts
• Massive Galaxies in COSMOS: Evolution of Black hole versus bulge mass but not versus total stellar mass over the last 9 Gyrs?
• Tracing the cosmic growth of super massive black holes to z ~ 3 with Herschel
• The Relation between Black Hole Mass and Host Spheroid Stellar Mass out to z~2
• The evolution of AGN across cosmic time: what is downsizing?
• Cosmic Evolution of Black Holes and Spheroids. I: The M_BH-sigma Relation at z=0.36
• Photometric redshifts for the SDSS Data Release 12
• On the evolution of the black hole:spheroid mass ratio
• AGES: The AGN and Galaxy Evolution Survey
• Clustering Analyses of 300,000 Photometrically Classified Quasars--I. Luminosity and Redshift Evolution in Quasar Bias
• Cosmic Evolution of Black Holes and Spheroids. III. The M-sigma relation in the last six billion years
• The quasar M_bh - M_host relation through Cosmic Time II - Evidence for evolution from z=3 to the present age
• Do quiescent and active galaxies have different M_BH-sigma relations?
• Cosmic Evolution of Black Holes and Spheroids. II: Scaling Relations at z=0.36
• Predictions for the CO emission of galaxies from a coupled simulation of galaxy formation and photon dominated regions
• The Black Hole - Bulge Relationship for QSOs at High Redshift
• Galaxy evolution in overdense environments at high redshift: passive early-type galaxies in a cluster at redshift 2
• Identifying Supermassive Black Hole Binaries with Broad Emission Line Diagnosis
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): Stellar mass functions by Hubble type
• The halo masses and galaxy environments of hyperluminous QSOs at z~2.7 in the Keck Baryonic Structure Survey
• The DEEP2 Galaxy Redshift Survey: Clustering of Galaxies as a Function of Luminosity at z=1
• The DEEP2 Galaxy Redshift Survey: Clustering of Quasars and Galaxies at z=1
• Mass Functions of the Active Black Holes in Distant Quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 3
• Cosmic Evolution of Black Holes and Spheroids. IV. The BH Mass - Spheroid Luminosity Relation
• Quasar Clustering at $25\kpch$ from a Complete Sample of Binaries
• Cross-Correlation of SDSS DR7 Quasars and DR10 BOSS Galaxies: The Weak Luminosity Dependence of Quasar Clustering at z~0.5
• The Environments of High Redshift QSOs
• The relation between black hole mass and velocity dispersion at z~0.37
• The Origin of the Intrinsic Scatter in the Relation Between Black Hole Mass and Bulge Luminosity for Nearby Active Galaxies
• The most luminous quasars do not live in the most massive dark matter haloes at any redshift
• The largest black holes and the most luminous galaxies
• The HI content of early-type galaxies from the ALFALFA survey. II. The case of low density environments
• The galaxy environment of a QSO at z ~ 5.7
• Rest-frame Optical Spectra and Black Hole Masses of 3<z<6 Quasars
• On The Robustness of z=0-1 Galaxy Size Measurements Through Model and Non-Parametric Fits
• Correlation between Galaxy Mergers and Luminous AGN
• The X-ray luminous cluster underlying the bright radio-quiet quasar H1821+643
• A Measurement of the Cosmological Constant Using Elliptical Galaxies as Strong Gravitational Lenses
• Luminous Quasars Do Not Live in the Most Overdense Regions of Galaxies at z~4
• Are z~5 QSOs found in the most massive high redshift over-densities?
• An HST/WFC3-UVIS View of the Starburst in the Cool Core of the Phoenix Cluster
• Stellar Photometric Structures of the Host Galaxies of Nearby Type 1 Active Galactic Nuclei
• The SDSS Galaxy Angular Two-Point Correlation Function
• SpecPro: An Interactive IDL Program for Viewing and Analyzing Astronomical Spectra
• Constraints on black hole fuelling modes from the clustering of X-ray AGN
• Properties of galaxies in SDSS Quasar environments at z < 0.2
• No excess of bright galaxies around the redshift 7.1 quasar ULAS J1120+0641
• The spatial clustering of ROSAT All-Sky Survey Active Galactic Nuclei IV. More massive black holes reside in more massive dark matter halos
• Massive Galaxies are Larger in Dense Environments: Environmental Dependence of Mass-Size Relation of Early-Type Galaxies
• Radio-quiet quasar environments at 0.5 < z < 0.8
• The environments of high redshift radio galaxies and quasars: probes of protoclusters
• Close supermassive binary black holes
• The Small-scale Clustering of Luminous Red Galaxies via Cross-Correlation Techniques
• Galaxy clusters at high redshift and evolution of brightest cluster galaxies
• Spectrophotometry with Hectospec, the MMT's Fiber-Fed Spectrograph
• Evolution of Star-formation Properties of High-redshift Cluster Galaxies since $z=2$
• The effect of the quasar H1821+643 on the surrounding intracluster medium: revealing the underlying cooling flow
• Merger relics of cluster galaxies
• Low redshift quasars in the SDSS Stripe 82. The local environments
• Environments of Nearby Quasars in Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• The X-ray spectrum of the cooling-flow quasar H1821+643 : A massive black hole feeding off the intracluster medium
• Quasar-Galaxy Clustering through Projected Galaxy Counts at z=0.6-1.2
• The Infrared Medium-deep Survey. IV. Low Eddington Ratio of A Faint Quasar at $z\sim 6$: Not Every Supermassive Black Hole is Growing Fast in the Early Universe
• Discovery of a Supercluster at $z\sim$0.91 and Testing the $\Lambda$CDM Cosmological Model
• A Cross-correlation Analysis of AGN and Galaxies using Virtual Observatory: Dependence on Virial Mass of Super-Massive Black Hole
• Measuring the luminosity and virial black hole mass dependence of quasar-galaxy clustering at z ~ 0.8
• Quasars as a tracer of large-scale structures in the distant universe
• The Most Massive Active Galactic Nuclei at $1\lesssim z\lesssim 2$
• Properties of Galaxies around AGNs with Most Massive Supermassive Black Hole Revealed by the Clustering Analysis
• The sizes of BLRs and BH masses of double-peaked broad low-ionization emission line objects

Cited by in corpus (11)

• Host galaxies of high-redshift quasars: supermassive black hole growth and feedback
• Direct collapse of exceptionally heavy black holes in the merger-driven scenario
• Frequency of Tidal Features Correlates with Age and Internal Structure of Early-type Galaxies
• Evidence for Impact of Galaxy Mergers on Stellar Kinematics of Early-type Galaxies
• Protocluster detection in simulations of HSC-SSP and the 10-year LSST forecast, using PCcones
• Pure Density Evolution of the Ultraviolet Quasar Luminosity Function at $2\lesssim z\lesssim 6$
• Quasars at intermediate redshift are not special; but they are often satellites
• An overdensity of red galaxies around the hyperluminous dust-obscured quasar W1835$+$4355 at $z=2.3$
• Impact of Galaxy Mergers on Stellar Population Profiles of Early-type Galaxies
• Faint Quasars Live in the Same Number Density Environments as Lyman Break Galaxies at z ~ 4
• A catalog of galaxy clusters identified from SCUSS, SDSS, and unWISE