Herschel ATLAS: The cosmic star formation history of quasar host galaxies

We present a derivation of the star formation rate per comoving volume of quasar host galaxies, derived from stacking analyses of far-infrared to mm-wave photometry of quasars with redshifts 0 < z < 6 and absolute I-band magnitudes −22 > I > −32 We use the science demonstration observati...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: David Hughes
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2010
País:México
Institución:Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrónica
Repositorio:Repositorio Institucional del INAOE
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:inaoe.repositorioinstitucional.mx:1009/1504
Acceso en línea:http://inaoe.repositorioinstitucional.mx/jspui/handle/1009/1504
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:info:eu-repo/classification/Inspec/Galaxies: active
info:eu-repo/classification/Inspec/Infrared: galaxies
info:eu-repo/classification/Inspec/Quasars: general
info:eu-repo/classification/Inspec/Galaxies: formation
info:eu-repo/classification/Inspec/Submillimeter: galaxies
info:eu-repo/classification/Inspec/Galaxies: starburst
info:eu-repo/classification/cti/1
info:eu-repo/classification/cti/21
Descripción
Sumario:We present a derivation of the star formation rate per comoving volume of quasar host galaxies, derived from stacking analyses of far-infrared to mm-wave photometry of quasars with redshifts 0 < z < 6 and absolute I-band magnitudes −22 > I > −32 We use the science demonstration observations of the first ∼ 16 deg² from the Herschel Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey (H-ATLAS) in which there are 240 quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and a further 171 from the 2dF-SDSS LRG and QSO (2SLAQ) survey. We supplement this data with a compilation of data from IRAS, ISO, Spitzer, SCUBA and MAMBO. H-ATLAS alone statistically detects the quasars in its survey área at > 5σ at 250, 350 and 500 μm. From the compilation as a whole we find striking evidence of downsizing in quasar host galaxy formation: low-luminosity quasars with absolute magnitudes in the range −22 > I > −24 have a comoving star formation rate (derived from 100 μm rest-frame luminosities) peaking between redshifts of 1 and 2, while high-luminosity quasars with I < −26 have a maximum contribution to the star formation density at z ∼ 3. The volume-averaged star formation rate of −22 > I > −24 quasars evolves as (1 + z)²̇³⁺⁻⁰̇⁷ at z < 2, but the evolution at higher luminosities is much faster reaching (1 + z) ¹⁰⁺⁻¹at −26 > I > −28. We tentatively interpret this as a combination of a declining major merger rate with time and gas consumption reducing fuel for both black hole accretion and star formation.