"The Fast Growth of Super-Massive Black Holes and their Host Galaxies at High Redshift"

Speaker: 
Benny Trakhtenbrot
Date: 
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Time: 
4:00 pm
Location: 
NS2 1201
 

 
ABSTRACT:
 
Extensive reverberation mapping campaigns of active galactic nuclei (AGN) enable us to obtain reliable estimates of the masses and accretion rates of super-massive black holes (SMBHs) out to the highest accesible redshifts (z~7). Large spectroscopic surveys (e.g., SDSS) clearly show that the most massive BHs known to date (M_BH~10^10 Msun) were already in place at z~2-3 and that the epoch of fastest growth for such extreme systems must have occurred earlier still. Smaller samples of higher-redshift SMBHs, observed in the near-IR, represent an epoch of fast, nearly Eddington-limited growth from a wide range of BH seed masses, and may produce some of the most massive black holes before z~4. 
However, any links between such fast-growing SMBHs and their host galaxies are not yet established at these high redshifts. I will focus on our team's recent results for a large sample of luminous, fast growing AGNs at z~5, which were also observed with the Herschel space observatory. The intense FIR emission in some of the sources, corresponding to SFRs of 1000-4000 Msun/yr, is comparable to that found in sub-mm galaxies. I will describe our on-going ALMA follow up campaign, which will directly test the relevance of major mergers to the fueling of these unique systems.

 
Host: 
Aaron Barth