Submillimeter Evidence for the Coeval Growth of Massive Black Holes and Galaxy Bulges
M. J. Page,1*
J. A. Stevens,1
J. P. D. Mittaz,1
F. J. Carrera2
The correlation, found in nearby galaxies, between black hole mass
and stellar bulge mass implies that the formation of these two
components must be related. Here we report submillimeter photometry of
eight x-ray-absorbed active galactic nuclei that have luminosities and
redshifts characteristic of the sources that produce the bulk of the
accretion luminosity in the universe. The four sources with the highest
redshifts are detected at 850 micrometers, with flux densities between
5.9 and 10.1 millijanskies, and hence are ultraluminous infrared
galaxies. If the emission is from dust heated by starbursts, then the
majority of stars in spheroids were formed at the same time as their
central black holes built up most of their mass by accretion. This
would account for the observed demography of massive black holes in the
local universe. The skewed rate of submillimeter detection with
redshift is consistent with a high redshift epoch of star formation in
radio-quiet active galactic nuclei, similar to that seen in radio
galaxies.
1 Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University
College London, Holmbury St. Mary, Dorking, Surrey RH5 6NT, UK.
2 Instituto de Física de Cantabria (Consejo
Superior de Investigaciones Científicas-Universidad de
Cantabria), 39005 Santander, Spain.
*
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:
mjp{at}mssl.ucl.ac.uk
