Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Dec 2007
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007aas...211.9724v&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #211, #97.24; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.908
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
The well-known correlation between the black hole mass and the stellar velocity dispersion in bulge-dominated galaxies has fueled numerous speculations that black hole growth and the build up of galaxies go hand in hand and that perhaps the presence of a bulge is necessary for a black hole to grow. Indeed, virtually all currently known actively growing black holes(AGN) in the local Universe are found in galaxies with prominent bulges. However, these studies are based on optical spectroscopic studies, which can be severely limited in the study of bulgeless galaxies. Since bulgeless galaxies are typically dusty late-type spirals, optical studies may likely miss out on a significant percentage of bulgeless galaxies that host deeply buried AGN, precluding us from firmly establishing whether or not a bulge is a necessary ingredient for a black hole to form and grow. To address this question, we have been conducting a mid-infrared spectroscopic investigation of all late-type optically normal galaxies observed by Spitzer to search for AGN. Remarkably many of these observations reveal the presence of high ionization lines that are not generally produced in ionized gas surrounding hot stars. Our observations suggest that these galaxies do indeed host AGN and that AGN are possibly more than 4 times more common in late-type galaxies than previously thought. This study adds to the growing evidence that black holes do form and grow in low-bulge environments and that mid-infrared spectroscopy is one of the only ways to find them.
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