Rapidly growing black holes and host galaxies in the distant Universe from the Herschel Radio Galaxy Evolution Project

G. Drouart (1) , C. de Breuck , J. Vernet , N. Seymour , M. Lehnert (1) , P. Barthel , F. E. Bauer , E. Ibar , A. Galametz , M. Haas , N. Hatch , J. R. Mullaney , N. Nesvadba , B. Rocca-Volmerange (1) , H. J. A. Röttgering , D. Stern , D. Wylezalek

1 IAP - Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris

We present results from a comprehensive survey of 70 radio galaxies at redshifts 1 tot^IR 10¹² L_⊙) or hyper-luminous (L_tot^IR 10¹³ L_⊙) infrared galaxies. We fit the infrared SEDs with a set of empirical templates which represent dust heated by a variety of starbursts (SB) and by an active galactic nucleus (AGN). We find that the SEDs of radio galaxies require the dust to be heated by both AGN and SB, but the luminosities of these two components are not strongly correlated. Assuming empirical relations and simple physical assumptions, we calculate the star formation rate (SFR), the black hole mass accretion rate (Ṁ_BH), and the black hole mass (M_BH) for each radio galaxy. We find that the host galaxies and their black holes are growing extremely rapidly, having SFR ≈ 100-5000 M_⊙ yr^-1 and Ṁ_BH ≈ 1-100 M_⊙ yr^-1. The mean specific SFRs (sSFR) of radio galaxies at z> 2.5 are higher than the sSFR of typical star forming galaxies over the same redshift range, but are similar or perhaps lower than the galaxy population for radio galaxies at z< 2.5. By comparing the sSFR and the specific Ṁ_BH (sṀ_BH), we conclude that black holes in radio loud AGN are already, or soon will be, overly massive compared to their host galaxies in terms of expectations from the local M_BH-M_Gal relation. In order to catch up with the black hole, the galaxies require about an order of magnitude more time to grow in mass at the observed SFRs compared to the time the black hole is actively accreting. However, during the current cycle of activity, we argue that this catching up is likely to be difficult because of the short gas depletion times. Finally, we speculate on how the host galaxies might grow sufficiently in stellar mass to ultimately fall onto the local M_BH-M_Gal relation.

Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA.Tables 2-4, 6 and Appendices are available in electronic form at http://www.aanda.org

Mots clés: galaxies: active; quasars: general; galaxies: high-redshift; galaxies: evolution; quasars: supermassive black holes; infrared: galaxies; Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies; Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics

Domaines: Planète et Univers [physics]

G. Drouart, C. de Breuck, J. Vernet, N. Seymour, M. Lehnert, et al.. Rapidly growing black holes and host galaxies in the distant Universe from the Herschel Radio Galaxy Evolution Project. Astronomy and Astrophysics - A&A, 2014, 566, ⟨10.1051/0004-6361/201323310⟩. ⟨insu-03645624⟩