Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Nov 1998
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1998astl...24..693k&link_type=abstract
Astronomy Letters, Volume 24, Issue 6, November 1998, pp.693-702; Pis'ma v Astronomicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 24, p. 803
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
1
Scientific paper
The relationship between the luminosity function of quasars and the mass function of galaxies is considered in the framework of a phenomenological model in which the birth of active galactic nuclei is associated with galaxy mergers. Quasars are taken to be short-lived objects whose luminosity is determined by the masses and angular momenta of the galaxies whose merger gave rise to the quasar, as well as by their gas content. The masses and angular momenta of the merging galaxies determine the amount of mass that loses angular momentum, and is capable of falling into the center of the system. The proposed model can explain the shape and evolution of the quasar luminosity function and is used to estimate the fraction of matter falling into the center of the merger systems eta (apparently associated with the fraction of gas in the galaxies) and the mean density contrast in the places where quasars form kappa. The resulting values for vary from ~ 4-7 at z = 0.5 to ~1-2 at z = 2. The values for eta range from several percent at z = 0.5 to tens of percent and even values approaching unity, at z = 2. In contrast to cases considered earlier, an appreciable role is played by the Eddington limit, which can apparently be exceeded in quasars.
Kontorovich Victor M.
Krivitskii D. S.
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