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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 - Structural decomposition of merger-free galaxies hosting luminous AGNs
AU - Fahey, Matthew J.
AU - Garland, Izzy L
AU - Simmons, Brooke D
AU - Keel, William C
AU - Shanahan, Jesse
AU - Coil, Alison
AU - Glikman, Eilat
AU - Lintott, Chris J
AU - Masters, Karen L
AU - Moran, Ed
AU - Smethurst, Rebecca J
AU - Géron, Tobias
AU - Thorne, Matthew R
PY - 2025/3/31
Y1 - 2025/3/31
N2 - Active galactic nucleus (AGN) growth in disk-dominated, merger-free galaxies is poorly understood, largely due to the difficulty in disentangling the AGN emission from that of the host galaxy. By carefully separating this emission, we examine the differences between AGNs in galaxies hosting a (possibly) merger-grown, classical bulge, and AGNs in secularly grown, truly bulgeless disk galaxies. We use Galfit to obtain robust, accurate morphologies of 100 disk-dominated galaxies imaged with the Hubble Space Telescope. Adopting an inclusive definition of classical bulges, we detect a classical bulge component in 53.3 ± 0.5 per cent of the galaxies. These bulges were not visible in Sloan Digital Sky Survey photometry, however these galaxies are still unambiguously disk-dominated, with an average bulge-to-total luminosity ratio of 0.1 ± 0.1. We find some correlation between bulge mass and black hole mass for disk-dominated galaxies, though this correlation is significantly weaker in comparison to the relation for bulge-dominated or elliptical galaxies. Furthermore, a significant fraction (≳ 90 per cent) of our black holes are overly massive when compared to the relationship for elliptical galaxies. We find a weak correlation between total stellar mass and black hole mass for the disk-dominated galaxies, hinting that the stochasticity of black hole-galaxy co-evolution may be higher in disk-dominated than bulge-dominated systems.
AB - Active galactic nucleus (AGN) growth in disk-dominated, merger-free galaxies is poorly understood, largely due to the difficulty in disentangling the AGN emission from that of the host galaxy. By carefully separating this emission, we examine the differences between AGNs in galaxies hosting a (possibly) merger-grown, classical bulge, and AGNs in secularly grown, truly bulgeless disk galaxies. We use Galfit to obtain robust, accurate morphologies of 100 disk-dominated galaxies imaged with the Hubble Space Telescope. Adopting an inclusive definition of classical bulges, we detect a classical bulge component in 53.3 ± 0.5 per cent of the galaxies. These bulges were not visible in Sloan Digital Sky Survey photometry, however these galaxies are still unambiguously disk-dominated, with an average bulge-to-total luminosity ratio of 0.1 ± 0.1. We find some correlation between bulge mass and black hole mass for disk-dominated galaxies, though this correlation is significantly weaker in comparison to the relation for bulge-dominated or elliptical galaxies. Furthermore, a significant fraction (≳ 90 per cent) of our black holes are overly massive when compared to the relationship for elliptical galaxies. We find a weak correlation between total stellar mass and black hole mass for the disk-dominated galaxies, hinting that the stochasticity of black hole-galaxy co-evolution may be higher in disk-dominated than bulge-dominated systems.
U2 - 10.1093/mnras/staf239
DO - 10.1093/mnras/staf239
M3 - Journal article
VL - 537
SP - 3511
EP - 3524
JO - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
JF - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
SN - 0035-8711
IS - 4
ER -