Measuring the masses of high-z quasar host galaxies

Physics

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Hst Proposal Id #9085 Agn/Quasars

Scientific paper

In recent years HST has played a major role in establishing the close link between black-hole mass and spheroid mass in both quiescent and active galaxies in the local universe. Consequently black-hole and spheroid formation/growth are now viewed as intimately related processes, and establishing the mass of quasar host galaxies as a function of redshift is now seen as a key measurement in observational cosmology {eg Kauffmann & Haehnelt 2000}. From our Cycle 7 NICMOS program we have derived the best estimate to date of the mass evolution of the hosts of both radio-quiet and radio-loud quasars out to z eq 2. Under the assumption of passive stellar-population evolution our results are consistent with the black-hole/spheroid population being unchanged out to z eq 2. However, the crucial assumption of passive evolution needs to be tested, because discovery of any substantial star-formation activity would yield a reduction in luminosity-estimated host masses at z eq 1 - 2, potentially bringing our results into line with the order-of-magnitude mass reduction predicted by the hierarchical models of Kauffmann & Haenhelt {2000}. We thus propose WFPC2 imaging of our luminosity-matched quasar sub-samples at z eq 1 and z eq 2 which, when coupled with our NICMOS data, will yield the first reliable rest-frame U-V colours for high-z quasar hosts, and hence the first unbiased measurement of host-galaxy masses out to z eq 2.

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