Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Evidence for three accreting black holes in a galaxy at z∼1.35
T2 - a snapshot of recently formed black hole seeds?
AU - Schawinski, Kevin
AU - Urry, Meg
AU - Treister, Ezequiel
AU - Simmons, Brooke
AU - Natarajan, Priyamvada
AU - Glikman, Eilat
PY - 2011/12/20
Y1 - 2011/12/20
N2 - One of the key open questions in cosmology today pertains to understanding when, where, and how supermassive black holes form. While it is clear that mergers likely play a significant role in the growth cycles of black holes, the issue of how supermassive black holes form, and how galaxies grow around them, still needs to be addressed. Here, we present Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3/IR grism observations of a clumpy galaxy at z = 1.35, with evidence for 106-107 M ☉ rapidly growing black holes in separate sub-components of the host galaxy. These black holes could have been brought into close proximity as a consequence of a rare multiple galaxy merger or they could have formed in situ. Such holes would eventually merge into a central black hole as the stellar clumps/components presumably coalesce to form a galaxy bulge. If we are witnessing the in situ formation of multiple black holes, their properties can inform seed formation models and raise the possibility that massive black holes can continue to emerge in star-forming galaxies as late as z = 1.35 (4.8 Gyr after the big bang).
AB - One of the key open questions in cosmology today pertains to understanding when, where, and how supermassive black holes form. While it is clear that mergers likely play a significant role in the growth cycles of black holes, the issue of how supermassive black holes form, and how galaxies grow around them, still needs to be addressed. Here, we present Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3/IR grism observations of a clumpy galaxy at z = 1.35, with evidence for 106-107 M ☉ rapidly growing black holes in separate sub-components of the host galaxy. These black holes could have been brought into close proximity as a consequence of a rare multiple galaxy merger or they could have formed in situ. Such holes would eventually merge into a central black hole as the stellar clumps/components presumably coalesce to form a galaxy bulge. If we are witnessing the in situ formation of multiple black holes, their properties can inform seed formation models and raise the possibility that massive black holes can continue to emerge in star-forming galaxies as late as z = 1.35 (4.8 Gyr after the big bang).
U2 - 10.1088/2041-8205/743/2/L37
DO - 10.1088/2041-8205/743/2/L37
M3 - Journal article
VL - 743
JO - Astrophysical Journal Letters
JF - Astrophysical Journal Letters
SN - 2041-8205
IS - 2
M1 - L37
ER -