A novel Bayesian approach for decomposing the radio emission of quasars: II. Link between quasar radio emission and black hole mass

Abstract

Whether the mass of supermassive black hole ($M_{\mathrm{BH}}$) is directly linked to the quasar radio luminosity remains a long-debated issue, and understanding the role of $M_{\mathrm{BH}}$ in the evolution of quasars is pivotal to unveiling the mechanism of AGN feedback. In this work, based on a two-component Bayesian model, we examine how $M_{\mathrm{BH}}$ affects the radio emission from quasars, separating the contributions from host galaxy star formation (SF) and AGN activity. By modelling the radio flux density distribution of Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) quasars from the LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey Data Release 2, we find no correlation between $M_{\mathrm{BH}}$ and SF rate (SFR) at any mass for quasars at a given redshift and bolometric luminosity. The same holds for AGN activity across most $M_{\mathrm{BH}}$ values; however, quasars with the top 20\% most massive SMBHs are 2 to 3 times more likely to host strong radio jets than those with lower-mass SMBHs at similar redshift and luminosity. We suggest defining radio quasar populations by their AGN and SF contributions instead of radio loudness; our new definition unifies previously divergent observational results on the role of $M_{\mathrm{BH}}$ in quasar radio emissions. We further demonstrate that this radio enhancement in quasars with the 20\% most massive SMBHs affects only the $\sim 5\%$ most radio bright quasars at a given redshift and bolometric luminosity. We discuss possible physical origins of this radio excess in the most massive and radio-bright quasar population, which remains an interest for future study.

18 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

References in corpus (24)

• A Catalog of Quasar Properties from SDSS DR7
• The Co-Evolution of Galaxies and Supermassive Black Holes: Insights from Surveys of the Contemporary Universe
• The LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey - I. Survey Description and Preliminary Data Release
• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Quasar Catalog: Sixteenth Data Release
• The LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey -- V. Second data release
• A synthesis model for AGN evolution: supermassive black holes growth and feedback modes
• The Massive Hosts of Radio Galaxies Across Cosmic Time
• Signals from the Noise: Image Stacking for Quasars in the FIRST Survey
• Correcting CIV-Based Virial Black Hole Masses
• The LOFAR Two Metre Sky Survey: Deep Fields Data Release 1 -- III. Host-galaxy identifications and value added catalogues
• Halo masses for optically-selected and for radio-loud AGN from clustering and galaxy-galaxy lensing
• Why z > 1 radio-loud galaxies are commonly located in proto-clusters
• The LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey Deep fields: The star formation rate - radio luminosity relation at low frequencies
• The MeerKAT International GHz Tiered Extragalactic Exploration (MIGHTEE) Survey
• Trapping of magnetic flux by the plunge region of a black hole accretion disk
• The LOFAR Two-Metre Sky Survey (LoTSS): VI. Optical identifications for the second data release
• The radio loudness of SDSS quasars from the LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey: ubiquitous jet activity and constraints on star formation
• Cosmic evolution of low-excitation radio galaxies in the LOFAR Two-meter Sky Survey Deep Fields
• MIGHTEE: the nature of the radio-loud AGN population
• Relation between winds and jets in radio-loud AGN
• The Mass of Quasars
• Evidence for higher black hole spin in radio-loud quasars
• A novel Bayesian approach for decomposing the radio emission of quasars: I. Modelling the radio excess in red quasars
• How does the radio enhancement of broad absorption line quasars relate to colour and accretion rate?

Cited by in corpus (1)

• X-ray selected broad absorption line quasars in SDSS-V: BALs and non-BALs span the same range of X-ray properties