Deep near-infrared imaging of the HE0450-2958 system

The QSO HE0450-2958 and the companion galaxy with which it is interacting, both ultra luminous in the infrared, have been the subject of much attention in recent years, as the quasar host galaxy remained undetected. This led to various interpretations on QSO and galaxy formation and co-evolution, such as black hole ejection, jet induced star formation, dust obscured galaxy, or normal host below the detection limit. We carried out deep observations in the near-IR in order to solve the puzzle concerning the existence of any host. The object was observed with the ESO VLT and HAWK-I in the near-IR J-band for 8 hours. The images have been processed with the MCS deconvolution method (Magain, Courbin & Sohy, 1998), permitting accurate subtraction of the QSO light from the observations. The compact emission region situated close to the QSO, called the blob, which previously showed only gas emission lines in the optical spectra, is now detected in our near-IR images. Its high brightness implies that stars likely contribute to the near-IR emission. The blob might thus be interpreted as an off-centre, bright and very compact host galaxy, involved in a violent collision with its companion.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Blazars in the early Universe

We investigate the relative occurrence of radio--loud and radio-quiet quasars in the first billion years of the Universe, powered by black holes heavier than one billion solar masses. We consider the sample of high-redshfit blazars detected in the hard X-ray band in the 3-years all sky survey performed by the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) onboard the Swift satellite. All the black holes powering these blazars exceed a billion solar mass, with accretion luminosities close to the Eddington limit. For each blazar pointing at us, there must be hundreds of similar sources (having black holes of similar masses) pointing elsewhere. This puts constraints on the density of billion solar masses black holes at high redshift (z>4), and on the relative importance of (jetted) radio-loud vs radio-quiet sources. We compare the expected number of high redshift radio--loud sources with the high luminosity radio-loud quasars detected in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), finding agreement up to z~3, but a serious deficit at z>3 of SDSS radio-loud quasars with respect to the expectations. We suggest that the most likely explanations for this disagreement are: i) the ratio of blazar to misaligned radio-sources decreases by an order of magnitude above z=3, possibly as a result of a decrease of the average bulk Lorentz factor; ii) the SDSS misses a large fraction of radio-loud sources at high redshifts, iii) the SDSS misses both radio-loud and radio-quiet quasars at high redshift, possibly because of obscuration or because of collimation of the optical-UV continuum in systems accreting near Eddington. These explanations imply very different number density of heavy black holes at high redshifts, that we discuss in the framework of the current ideas about the relations of dark matter haloes at high redshifts and the black hole they host.Comment: MNRAS, in pres

Resolving the dynamical mass of a z~1.3 QSO host galaxy using SINFONI and Laser Guide Star assisted Adaptive Optics

Recent studies of the tight scaling relations between the masses of supermassive black holes and their host galaxies have suggested that in the past black holes constituted a larger fraction of their host galaxies' mass. However, these arguments are limited by selection effects and difficulties in determining robust host galaxy masses at high redshifts. Here we report the first results of a new, complementary diagnostic route: we directly determine a dynamical host galaxy mass for the z=1.3 luminous quasar J090543.56+043347.3 through high-spatial-resolution (0.47", 4kpc FWHM) observations of the host galaxy gas kinematics over 30x40 kpc using ESO/VLT/SINFONI with LGS/AO. Combining our result of M_dyn = 2.05+1.68_0.74 x 10^11 M_sun (within a radius 5.25 +- 1.05 kpc) with M_BH,MgII = 9.02 \pm 1.43 x 10^8 M_sun, M_BH,Halpha = 2.83 +1.93-1.13 x 10^8 M_sun, we find that the ratio of black hole mass to host galaxy dynamical mass for J090543.56+043347.3 matches the present-day relation for M_BH vs. M_Bulge,Dyn, well within the IR scatter, deviating at most a factor of two from the mean. J090543.56+043347.3 displays clear signs of an ongoing tidal interaction and of spatially extended star formation at a rate of 50-100 M_sun/yr, above the cosmic average for a galaxy of this mass and redshift. We argue that its subsequent evolution may move J090543.56+043347.3 even closer to the z=0 relation for M_BH vs. M_Bulge,Dyn. Our results support the picture where any substantive evolution in these relations must occur prior to z~1.3. Having demonstrated the power of this modelling approach we are currently analyzing similar data on seven further objects to better constrain such evolution.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ, 14 pages, 10 Figure

Urea Activation by an External Brønsted Acid: Breaking Self-Association and Tuning Catalytic Performance

In this work, we hypothesize that Bronsted acids can activate urea-based catalysts by diminishing its self-assembly tendency. As a proof of concept, we used the asymmetric Friedel-Crafts alkylation of indoles with nitroalkenes as a benchmark reaction. The resulting 3-substituted indole derivatives were obtained with better results due to cooperative effects of the chiral urea and a Bronsted acid additive. Such synergy has been rationalized in terms of disassembly of the supramolecular catalyst aggregates, affording a more acidic and rigid catalytic complex

Evolution of supermassive black holes

Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) are nowadays believed to reside in most local galaxies, and the available data show an empirical correlation between bulge luminosity - or stellar velocity dispersion - and black hole mass, suggesting a single mechanism for assembling black holes and forming spheroids in galaxy halos. The evidence is therefore in favour of a co-evolution between galaxies, black holes and quasars. In cold dark matter cosmogonies, small-mass subgalactic systems form first to merge later into larger and larger structures. In this paradigm galaxy halos experience multiple mergers during their lifetime. If every galaxy with a bulge hosts a SMBH in its center, and a local galaxy has been made up by multiple mergers, then a black hole binary is a natural evolutionary stage. The evolution of the supermassive black hole population clearly has to be investigated taking into account both the cosmological framework and the dynamical evolution of SMBHs and their hosts. The seeds of SMBHs have to be looked for in the early Universe, as very luminous quasars are detected up to redshift higher than z=6. These black holes evolve then in a hierarchical fashion, following the merger hierarchy of their host halos. Accretion of gas, traced by quasar activity, plays a fundamental role in determining the two parameters defining a black hole: mass and spin. A particularly intriguing epoch is the initial phase of SMBH growth. It is very challenging to meet the observational constraints at z=6 if BHs are not fed at very high rates in their infancy.Comment: Extended version of the invited paper to appear in the Proceedings of the Conference "Relativistic Astrophysics and Cosmology - Einstein's Legacy

Constraining stellar assembly and AGN feedback at the peak epoch of star formation

We study stellar assembly and feedback from active galactic nuclei (AGN) around the epoch of peak star formation (1<z<2), by comparing hydrodynamic simulations to rest-frame UV-optical galaxy colours from the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) Early-Release Science (ERS) Programme. Our Adaptive Mesh Refinement simulations include metal-dependent radiative cooling, star formation, kinetic outflows due to supernova explosions, and feedback from supermassive black holes. Our model assumes that when gas accretes onto black holes, a fraction of the energy is used to form either thermal winds or sub-relativistic momentum-imparting collimated jets, depending on the accretion rate. We find that the predicted rest-frame UV-optical colours of galaxies in the model that includes AGN feedback is in broad agreement with the observed colours of the WFC3 ERS sample at 1<z<2. The predicted number of massive galaxies also matches well with observations in this redshift range. However, the massive galaxies are predicted to show higher levels of residual star formation activity than the observational estimates, suggesting the need for further suppression of star formation without significantly altering the stellar mass function. We discuss possible improvements, involving faster stellar assembly through enhanced star formation during galaxy mergers while star formation at the peak epoch is still modulated by the AGN feedback.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS Letter

Clustering of Radio Galaxies and Quasars

We compute the cross-correlation between a sample of 14,000 radio-loud AGN (RLAGN) with redshifts between 0.4 and 0.8 selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and a reference sample of 1.2 million luminous red galaxies in the same redshift range. We quantify how the clustering of radio-loud AGN depends on host galaxy mass and on radio luminosity. Radio-loud AGN are clustered more strongly on all scales than control samples of radio-quiet galaxies with the same stellar masses and redshifts, but the differences are largest on scales less than 1 Mpc. In addition, the clustering amplitude of the RLAGN varies significantly with radio luminosity on scales less than 1 Mpc. This proves that the gaseous environment of a galaxy on the scale of its dark matter halo, plays a key role in determining not only the probability that a galaxy is radio-loud AGN, but also the total luminosity of the radio jet. Next, we compare the clustering of radio galaxies with that of radio-loud quasars in the same redshift range. Unified models predict that both types of active nuclei should cluster in the same way. Our data show that most RLAGN are clustered more strongly than radio-loud QSOs, even when the AGN and QSO samples are matched in both black hole mass and radio luminosity. Only the most extreme RLAGN and RLQSOs in our sample, with radio luminosities in excess of 10^26 W/Hz, have similar clustering properties. The majority of the strongly evolving RLAGN population at z~0.5 are found in different environments to the quasars, and hence must be triggered by a different physical mechanism.Comment: 12 pages, 13 Figures, submitted to MNRA

An ultraviolet-optical flare from the tidal disruption of a helium-rich stellar core

The flare of radiation from the tidal disruption and accretion of a star can be used as a marker for supermassive black holes that otherwise lie dormant and undetected in the centres of distant galaxies. Previous candidate flares have had declining light curves in good agreement with expectations, but with poor constraints on the time of disruption and the type of star disrupted, because the rising emission was not observed. Recently, two `relativistic' candidate tidal disruption events were discovered, each of whose extreme X-ray luminosity and synchrotron radio emission were interpreted as the onset of emission from a relativistic jet. Here we report the discovery of a luminous ultraviolet-optical flare from the nuclear region of an inactive galaxy at a redshift of 0.1696. The observed continuum is cooler than expected for a simple accreting debris disk, but the well-sampled rise and decline of its light curve follows the predicted mass accretion rate, and can be modelled to determine the time of disruption to an accuracy of two days. The black hole has a mass of about 2 million solar masses, modulo a factor dependent on the mass and radius of the star disrupted. On the basis of the spectroscopic signature of ionized helium from the unbound debris, we determine that the disrupted star was a helium-rich stellar core.Comment: To appear in Nature on May 10, 201