Growth of supermassive black holes and metallicity in quasars

Abstract

The strong correlation between the mass of the central supermassive black hole (SMBH) and the bulge in some galaxies and quasars implies that the formation of the black hole is somehow linked to the bulge. The measurement of metallicity by NV/CIV or NV/HeII in quasars allows to discuss a possible way of formation of the black hole. In this Letter we trace the metallicity along the possible routes in Rees' diagram in order to test the ways by which SMBHs can form. We derive a relation between the metallicity and the mass of the SMBH as $Z\propto M_{BH}$ based on the numerical simulation of the evolution of star clusters. It is in good agreement with the relation determined by the metallicity measured by NV/CIV or NV/HeII in Hamann & Ferland's sample. This lends observational support to the formation of SMBHs via routes R4 or R5, namely, the evolution of dense star clusters.

Accepted by A&A Letters, 4 pages in aa.cls, no figures and no tables

References in corpus (3)

• Supermassive Black Holes in Active Galactic Nuclei. I. The Consistency of Black Hole Masses in Quiescent and Active Galaxies
• Star Formation-Regulated Growth of Black Holes in Protogalactic Spheroids
• A search for signatures of quasar evolution: Comparison of the shapes of the rest-frame optical/UV continua of quasars at z>3 and z~0.1

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Is There a Metallicity--Luminosity Relationship in AGN? The Case of Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 Galaxies
• Feedback Limits Rapid Growth of Seed Black Holes at High Redshift