A population of luminous accreting black holes with hidden mergers

Michael J. Koss (), Laura Blecha, Phillip Bernhard, Chao-Ling Hung, Jessica R. Lu, Benny Trakhtenbrot, Ezequiel Treister, Anna Weigel, Lia F. Sartori, Richard Mushotzky, Kevin Schawinski, Claudio Ricci, Sylvain Veilleux and David B. Sanders
Additional contact information
Michael J. Koss: Eureka Scientific Inc
Laura Blecha: University of Florida
Phillip Bernhard: Institute for Particle Physics and Astrophysics, ETH Zürich
Chao-Ling Hung: Manhattan College
Jessica R. Lu: University of California
Benny Trakhtenbrot: ETH Zürich
Ezequiel Treister: Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
Anna Weigel: Institute for Particle Physics and Astrophysics, ETH Zürich
Lia F. Sartori: Institute for Particle Physics and Astrophysics, ETH Zürich
Richard Mushotzky: University of Maryland
Kevin Schawinski: Institute for Particle Physics and Astrophysics, ETH Zürich
Claudio Ricci: Universidad Diego Portales
Sylvain Veilleux: University of Maryland
David B. Sanders: University of Hawaii at Manoa

Nature, 2018, vol. 563, issue 7730, 214-216

Abstract: Abstract Major galaxy mergers are thought to play an important part in fuelling the growth of supermassive black holes1. However, observational support for this hypothesis is mixed, with some studies showing a correlation between merging galaxies and luminous quasars2,3 and others showing no such association4,5. Recent observations have shown that a black hole is likely to become heavily obscured behind merger-driven gas and dust, even in the early stages of the merger, when the galaxies are well separated6–9 (5 to 40 kiloparsecs). Merger simulations further suggest that such obscuration and black-hole accretion peaks in the final merger stage, when the two galactic nuclei are closely separated10 (less than 3 kiloparsecs). Resolving this final stage requires a combination of high-spatial-resolution infrared imaging and high-sensitivity hard-X-ray observations to detect highly obscured sources. However, large numbers of obscured luminous accreting supermassive black holes have been recently detected nearby (distances below 250 megaparsecs) in X-ray observations11. Here we report high-resolution infrared observations of hard-X-ray-selected black holes and the discovery of obscured nuclear mergers, the parent populations of supermassive-black-hole mergers. We find that obscured luminous black holes (bolometric luminosity higher than 2 × 1044 ergs per second) show a significant (P

Keywords: Black Hole; Inactive Galaxies; Star Formation Rate (SFR); Merger Simulation; Stellar Mass (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0652-7

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