The black hole masses of extremely luminous radio-WISE selected galaxies

We present near-IR photometry and spectroscopy of 30 extremely luminous radio and mid-IR-selected galaxies. With bolometric luminosities exceeding ∼1013 $\rm {L_{\odot }}$ and redshifts ranging from z = 0.880 to 2.853, we use Very Large Telescope instruments X-shooter and Infrared Spectrometer and A...

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Main Authors: Ferris, Emily (Author) , Blain, A. W. (Author) , Assef, R. J. (Author) , Hatch, N. A. (Author) , Kimball, A. (Author) , Kim, M. (Author) , Sajina, A. (Author) , Silva, A. (Author) , Stern, D. (Author) , Diaz-Santos, T. (Author) , Tsai, C.-W. (Author) , Wylezalek, Dominika (Author)
Format: Article (Journal)
Language:English
Published: 11 January 2021
In: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Year: 2021, Volume: 502, Issue: 1, Pages: 1527-1548
ISSN:1365-2966
DOI:10.1093/mnras/stab048
Online Access:Verlag, lizenzpflichtig, Volltext: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stab048
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Author Notes:E.R. Ferris, A.W. Blain, R.J. Assef, N.A. Hatch, A. Kimball, M. Kim, A. Sajina, A. Silva, D. Stern, T. Diaz-Santos, C.-W. Tsai and D. Wylezalek
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Summary:We present near-IR photometry and spectroscopy of 30 extremely luminous radio and mid-IR-selected galaxies. With bolometric luminosities exceeding ∼1013 $\rm {L_{\odot }}$ and redshifts ranging from z = 0.880 to 2.853, we use Very Large Telescope instruments X-shooter and Infrared Spectrometer and Array Camera to investigate this unique population of galaxies. Broad multicomponent emission lines are detected in 18 galaxies and we measure the near-IR lines $\rm {H\,\rm {\beta }}$, $\rm{[O\,{\small III}]}\, \rm {\lambda }\rm {\lambda }4959,5007$, and $\rm {H\,\rm {\alpha }}$ in 6, 15, and 13 galaxies, respectively, with 10 $\rm {Ly\,\alpha }$ and 5 C iv lines additionally detected in the UVB arm. We use the broad $\rm{[O\,{\small III}]}\, \rm {\lambda }5007$ emission lines as a proxy for the bolometric active galactic nucleus luminosity, and derive lower limits to supermassive black hole masses of 107.9-109.4 M⊙ with expectations of corresponding host masses of 1010.4-1012.0 M⊙. We measure $\rm {\lambda }_{Edd}$ > 1 for eight of these sources at a 2σ significance. Near-IR photometry and SED fitting are used to compare stellar masses directly. We detect both Balmer lines in five galaxies and use these to infer a mean visual extinction of AV = 2.68 mag. Due to non-detections and uncertainties in our ${\rm H}\, \beta$ emission line measurements, we simulate a broad ${\rm H}\, \beta$ line of FWHM = 1480 $\rm {kms^{-1}}$ to estimate extinction for all sources with measured ${\rm H}\, \alpha$ emission. We then use this to infer a mean AV = 3.62 mag, demonstrating the highly obscured nature of these galaxies, with the consequence of increasing our estimates of black hole masses by a 0.5 orders of magnitude in the most extreme and obscured cases.
Item Description:Gesehen am 25.08.2021
Physical Description:Online Resource
ISSN:1365-2966
DOI:10.1093/mnras/stab048