The Fundamental Plane of Massive Gas-Rich Mergers: II. The QUEST QSOs

Details The Fundamental Plane of Massive Gas-Rich Mergers: II. The QUEST QSOs The Fundamental Plane of Massive Gas-Rich Mergers: II. The QUEST QSOs

Jul 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006hst..prop10906v&link_type=abstract

HST Proposal ID #10906. Cycle 15

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Scientific paper

We propose deep NICMOS H-band imaging of a carefully selected sample of 23 local QSOs. This program is the last critical element of a comprehensive investigation of the most luminous mergers in the nearby universe, the ultraluminous infrared galaxies ULIRGs and the quasars. This effort is called QUEST: Quasar / ULIRG Evolutionary STudy. The high-resolution HST images of the QUEST QSOs will complement an identical set of images on the ULIRG sample obtained during Cycle 12, an extensive set of ground-based data that include long-slit NIR spectra from a Large VLT Program, and a large set of mid-infrared spectra from a Cycle 1 medium-size program with Spitzer. This unique dataset will allow us to derive with unprecedented precision structual, kinematic, and activity parameters for a large unbiased sample of objects spanning the entire ULIRG/QSO luminosity function. These data will refine the fundamental plane of massive gas-rich mergers and enable us to answer the following quesitons: 1 Do ultraluminous mergers form elliptical galaxies, and in particular, giant ellipticals? 2 Do ULIRGs evolve into optical bright QSOs? The results from this detailed study of massive mergers in the local universe will be relevant to understanding the basic physical processes involved in creating massive early-type host on the one hand, and growing/feeding embedded massive black holes on the other, in major galaxy mergers. This is an important question since 50% of cosmic star formation at high-z and most of the big BHs appear to be formed in this process.

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