Host Galaxy Evolution in Radio-Loud AGN

Abstract

We investigate the luminosity evolution of the host galaxies of radio-loud AGN through Hubble Space Telescope imaging of 72 BL Lac objects, including new STIS imaging of nine z > 0.6 BL Lacs. With their intrinsically low accretion rates and their strongly beamed jets, BL Lacs provide a unique opportunity to probe host galaxy evolution independent of the biases and ambiguities implicit in quasar studies. We find that the host galaxies of BL Lacs evolve strongly, consistent with passive evolution from a period of active star formation in the range 0.5 <~ z <~ 2.5, and inconsistent with either passive evolution from a high formation redshift or a non-evolving population. This evolution is broadly consistent with that observed in the hosts of other radio-loud AGN, and inconsistent with the flatter luminosity evolution of quiescent early types and radio-quiet hosts. This indicates that active star formation, and hence galaxy interactions, are associated with the formation for radio-loud AGN, and that these host galaxies preferentially accrete less material after their formation epoch than galaxies without powerful radio jets. We discuss possible explanations for the link between merger history and the incidence of a radio jet.

37 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ, for full PDF incl. figures see http://www.ph.unimelb.edu.au/~modowd/papers/odowdurry2005.pdf

References in corpus (53)

• Unified Schemes for Radio-Loud Active Galactic Nuclei
• Evolutionary tracks and isochrones for low- and intermediate-mass stars: from 0.15 to 7 M_sun, and from Z=0.0004 to 0.03
• High Redshift Galaxies in the Hubble Deep Field. Color Selection and Star Formation History to z=4
• New Insight on Galaxy Formation and Evolution from Keck Spectroscopy of the Hawaii Deep Fields
• Nearly 5000 Distant Early-Type Galaxies in COMBO-17: a Red Sequence and its Evolution since z~1
• A Unified Model for the Evolution of Galaxies and Quasars
• The Dust Opacity of Star-Forming Galaxies
• A standard stellar library for evolutionary synthesis: I. Calibration of theoretical spectra
• The Evolution of Early-Type Galaxies in Distant Clusters
• Quasars, their host galaxies, and their central black holes
• The CANADA-FRANCE REDSHIFT SURVEY VI: Evolution of the galaxy luminosity function to z ~ 1
• The Evolution of the Global Star Formation History as Measured from the Hubble Deep Field
• Axisymmetric Dynamical Models of the Central Regions of Galaxies
• Quasi-Stellar Objects, Ultraluminous IR Galaxies, and Mergers
• On the Relationship Between Radio Emission and Black Hole Mass in Galactic Nuclei
• The HST Survey of BL Lacertae Objects. II. Host Galaxies
• A standard stellar library for evolutionary synthesis. III. Metallicity calibration
• Radio Sources in Low-Luminosity Active Galactic Nuclei. III. "AGNs" in a Distance-Limited Sample of "LLAGNs"
• Relativistic Jets and the Fanaroff-Riley Classification of Radio Galaxies
• The radio-luminosity - black hole mass correlation for quasars from the FIRST Bright Quasar Survey, and a ``unification scheme'' for radio-loud and radio-quiet quasars
• The Redshift Evolution of the 2-8 keV X-ray Luminosity Function
• The HST Survey of BL Lacertae Objects. I. Surface Brightness Profiles, Magnitudes, and Radii of Host Galaxies
• Black hole growth and activity in a LambdaCDM Universe
• The Contribution of Late-type/Irregulars to the Faint Galaxy Counts from HST Medium Deep Survey Images
• Detection of Strong Evolution in the Population of Early-Type Galaxies
• Supermassive Black Holes in Early-Type Galaxies: Relationship with Radio Emission and Constraints on the Black Hole Mass Function
• Evidence for a Supermassive Black Hole in the S0 Galaxy NGC 3245
• SuperMassive Black Holes in Bulges
• A NICMOS imaging study of high-z quasar host galaxies
• On the Relationship between Galaxy Formation and Quasar Evolution
• An Atlas of Monte Carlo Models of Dust Extinction in Galaxies for Cosmological Applications
• The Sedentary Multi-Frequency Survey. I. Statistical Identification and Cosmological Properties of HBL BL Lacs
• NICMOS Imaging of the Host Galaxies of z ~ 2 - 3 Radio-Quiet Quasars
• Black Hole Mass Estimates of Radio Selected Quasars
• The Independence of AGN Black Hole Mass and Radio-Loudness
• Evidence of a Supermassive Black Hole in the Galaxy NGC 1023 from the Nuclear Stellar Dynamics
• HST Imaging of z > 0.4 Quasar Host Galaxies Selected by Quasar Radio and Optical Properties
• Grand Unification of AGN and the Accretion and Spin Paradigms
• Quasars and Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies: At the Limit?
• On the black-hole mass -- radio luminosity relation for flat-spectrum radio-loud quasars
• The Nuclear Dynamics of M32. I. Data and Stellar Kinematics
• The Evolution and Luminosity Function of Quasars from Complete Optical Surveys
• Massive Ellipticals at High Redshift: NICMOS Imaging of Z~1 Radio Galaxies
• The Accretion Rates and Spectral Energy Distributions of BL Lacertae Objects
• The Evolution of 3CR Radio Galaxies from z=1
• The HST Survey of BL~Lacertae Objects. IV. Infrared Imaging of Host Galaxies
• The Host Galaxies of Radio-Loud AGN: The Black Hole--Galaxy Connection
• HST Imaging of the Host Galaxies of High Redshift Radio-Loud Quasars
• The Black Hole Mass - Galaxy Age Relation
• On The Parent Population of Radio Galaxies and the FRI - FRII Dichotomy
• The Evolution of the BL Lacertae Objects
• Star-Forming AGN Host Galaxies
• H1517+656: the Birth of a BL Lac Object?

Cited by in corpus (13)

• A Population of Radio-loud Narrow Line Seyfert 1 Galaxies with Blazar-like Properties?
• Spectroscopy of The Largest Ever Gamma-ray Selected BL Lac Sample
• HST/COS Observations of the Ly alpha Forest toward the BL Lac Object 1ES1553+113
• Imaging redshifts of BL Lac objects
• Host galaxy subtraction of TeV candidate BL Lacertae objects
• Variability and stability in blazar jets on time scales of years: Optical polarization monitoring of OJ287 in 2005-2009
• Fermi Observations of the Very Hard Gamma-ray Blazar PG 1553+113
• Imaging Redshift Estimates for BL Lacertae Objects
• The connection between black hole mass and Doppler boosted emission in BL Lacertae type objects
• The debeamed luminosity, sychrotron peak frequency and black hole mass of BL Lac objects
• The host galaxies of active galactic nuclei with powerful relativistic jets
• Clustering of gamma-ray selected 2LAC Fermi Blazars
• Discovery of A Variable Broad Absorption Line in the BL Lac object PKS 0138-097