Massive quiescent galaxies at $z approx 2$ are apparently much more compact than galaxies of comparable mass today. How robust are these size measurements? We perform comprehensive simulations to determine possible biases and uncertainties in fitting
single-component light distributions to real galaxies. In particular, we examine the robustness of the measurements of the luminosity, size, and other structural parameters. We devise simulations with increasing realism to systematically disentangle effects due to the technique (specifically using GALFIT) and the intrinsic structures of the galaxies. By accurately capturing the detailed substructures of nearby elliptical galaxies and then rescaling their sizes and signal-to-noise to mimic galaxies at different redshifts, we confirm that the massive quiescent galaxies at $z approx 2$ are significantly more compact intrinsically than their local counterparts. Their observed compactness is not a result of missing faint outer light due to systematic errors in modeling. In fact, we find that fitting multi-component galaxies with a single Sersic profile, the procedure most commonly adopted in the literature, biases the inferred sizes higher by up to 10% - 20%, which accentuates the amount of size evolution required. If the sky estimation has been done robustly and the model for the point-spread function is fairly accurate, GALFIT can retrieve the properties of single-component galaxies over a wide range of signal-to-noise ratios without introducing any systematic errors.
We have obtained high spatial resolution Keck OSIRIS integral field spectroscopy of four z~1.5 ultra-luminous infrared galaxies that exhibit broad H-alpha emission lines indicative of strong AGN activity. The observations were made with the Keck lase
r guide star adaptive optics system giving a spatial resolution of 0.1, or <1 kpc at these redshifts. These high spatial resolution observations help to spatially separate the extended narrow-line regions --- possibly powered by star formation --- from the nuclear regions, which may be powered by both star formation and AGN activity. There is no evidence for extended, rotating gas disks in these four galaxies. Assuming dust correction factors as high as A(H-alpha)=4.8 mag, the observations suggest lower limits on the black hole masses of (1 - 9) x 10^8 solar masses, and star formation rates <100 solar masses per year. The black hole masses and star formation rates of the sample galaxies appear low in comparison to other high-z galaxies with similar host luminosities. We explore possible explanations for these observations including, host galaxy fading, black hole growth, and the shut down of star formation.
Observational data show that the correlation between supermassive black holes (MBH) and galaxy bulge (Mbulge) masses follows a nearly linear trend, and that the correlation is strongest with the bulge rather than the total stellar mass (Mgal). With i
ncreasing redshift, the ratio Gamma=MBH/Mbulge relative to z=0 also seems to be larger for MBH >~ 10^{8.5} Msol. This study looks more closely at statistics to better understand the creation and observations of the MBH-Mbulge correlation. It is possible to show that if galaxy merging statistics can drive the correlation, minor mergers are responsible for causing a *convergence to linearity* most evident at high masses, whereas major mergers have a central limit convergence that more strongly *reduces the scatter*. This statistical reasoning is agnostic about galaxy morphology. Therefore, combining statistical prediction (more major mergers ==> tighter correlation) with observations (bulges = tightest correlation), would lead one to conclude that more major mergers (throughout an entire merger tree, not just the primary branch) give rise to more prominent bulges. With regard to controversial findings that Gamma increases with redshift, this study shows why the luminosity function (LF) bias argument, taken correctly at face value, strengthens rather than weakens the results. However, correcting for LF bias is unwarranted because the BH mass scale for quasars is bootstrapped to the MBH-Sigma* correlation in normal galaxies at z=0, and quasar-quasar comparisons are internally consistent. In Monte-Carlo simulations, high Gamma objects are under-merged galaxies that take longer to converge to linearity via minor mergers. Another evidence that the galaxies are undermassive at z >~ 2 for their MBH is that the quasar hosts are very compact for their expected mass.
We present a two-dimensional (2-D) fitting algorithm (GALFIT, Version 3) with new capabilities to study the structural components of galaxies and other astronomical objects in digital images. Our technique improves on previous 2-D fitting algorithms
by allowing for irregular, curved, logarithmic and power-law spirals, ring and truncated shapes in otherwise traditional parametric functions like the Sersic, Moffat, King, Ferrer, etc., profiles. One can mix and match these new shape features freely, with or without constraints, apply them to an arbitrary number of model components and of numerous profile types, so as to produce realistic-looking galaxy model images. Yet, despite the potential for extreme complexity, the meaning of the key parameters like the Sersic index, effective radius or luminosity remain intuitive and essentially unchanged. The new features have an interesting potential for use to quantify the degree of asymmetry of galaxies, to quantify low surface brightness tidal features beneath and beyond luminous galaxies, to allow more realistic decompositions of galaxy subcomponents in the presence of strong rings and spiral arms, and to enable ways to gauge the uncertainties when decomposing galaxy subcomponents. We illustrate these new features by way of several case studies that display various levels of complexity.
We re-examine claims of redshift evolution in black hole-bulge scaling relations based on lensed quasars. In particular, we refine the black hole mass estimates using measurements of Balmer lines from near-infrared spectroscopy obtained with Triplesp
ec at Apache Point Observatory. In support of previous work, we find a large scatter between Balmer and UV line widths, both MgII 2796, 2803 and CIV 1548, 1550. There is tentative evidence that CIII] 1909, despite being a blend of multiple transitions, may correlate well with MgII, although a larger sample is needed for a real calibration. Most importantly, we find no systematic changes in the estimated BH masses for the lensed sample based on Balmer lines, providing additional support to the interpretation that black holes were overly massive compared to their host galaxies at high redshift.
We investigate the origin of the intrinsic scatter in the correlation between black hole mass (MBH) and bulge luminosity [L(bulge)] in a sample of 45 massive, local (z < 0.35) type~1 active galactic nuclei (AGNs). We derive MBH from published optical
spectra assuming a spherical broad-line region, and L(bulge) from detailed two-dimensional decomposition of archival optical Hubble Space Telescope images. AGNs follow the MBH-L(bulge) relation of inactive galaxies, but the zero point is shifted by an average of Delta log MBH ~ -0.3 dex. We show that the magnitude of the zero point offset, which is responsible for the intrinsic scatter in the MBH-L(bulge) relation, is correlated with several AGN and host galaxy properties, all of which are ultimately related to, or directly impact, the BH mass accretion rate. At a given bulge luminosity, sources with higher Eddington ratios have lower MBH. The zero point offset can be explained by a change in the normalization of the virial product used to estimate MBH, in conjunction with modest BH growth (~ 10%--40%) during the AGN phase. Galaxy mergers and tidal interactions appear to play an important role in regulating AGN fueling in low-redshift AGNs.
We present a high resolution dark matter reconstruction of the z=0.165 Abell 901/902 supercluster from a weak lensing analysis of the HST STAGES survey. We detect the four main structures of the supercluster at high significance, resolving substructu
re within and between the clusters. We find that the distribution of dark matter is well traced by the cluster galaxies, with the brightest cluster galaxies marking out the strongest peaks in the dark matter distribution. We also find a significant extension of the dark matter distribution of Abell 901a in the direction of an infalling X-ray group Abell 901alpha. We present mass, mass-to-light and mass-to-stellar mass ratio measurements of the structures and substructures that we detect. We find no evidence for variation of the mass-to-light and mass-to-stellar mass ratio between the different clusters. We compare our space-based lensing analysis with an earlier ground-based lensing analysis of the supercluster to demonstrate the importance of space-based imaging for future weak lensing dark matter observations.
Supermassive black hole (BH) masses (MBH) are strongly correlated with galaxy stellar bulge masses (Mbulge) and there are several ideas to explain the origin of this relationship. This study isolates the role of galaxy mergers from considerations of
other detailed physics to more clearly show how a linear BH-galaxy mass relation (MBH-Mgal) can naturally emerge regardless of how primordial BHs were seeded inside galaxies, if the galaxy mass function declines with increasing mass. Under this circumstance, the MBH-Mgal relation is a passive attractor that eventually converges to a tight linear relation because of two basic statistical effects: a central limit-like tendency for galaxy mergers which is much stronger for major mergers than minor mergers, and a convergence toward a linear relation that is due mainly to minor mergers. A curious consequence of this thought experiment is that, if galaxy bulges are formed by major mergers, then merging statistics naturally show that MBH would correlate more strongly with bulge dominated galaxies, because of stronger central-seeking tendencies, than with disk dominated galaxies. Even if some other physics is ultimately responsible for causing a linear MBH-Mbulge relationship, this thought experiment shows that, counter to intuition, random merging of galaxies that harbor random BH masses tends to strengthen rather than weaken a pre-existing, linear, correlation. This idea may be generalized to other gravitationally bound systems (dark matter halo, compact nuclear objects) that retain their physical identities after experiencing mergers.
