It is well known that environment affects galaxy evolution, which is broadly related to supermassive black hole (SMBH) growth. We investigate whether SMBH evolution also depends on host-galaxy local (sub-Mpc) and global (≈1−10 Mpc) environment. We construct the surface-density field (local environment) and cosmic web (global environment) in the COSMOS field at z=0.3−3.0. The environments in COSMOS range from the field to clusters (Mhalo≲1014M⊙), covering the environments where ≈99% of galaxies in the Universe reside. We measure sample-averaged SMBH accretion rate (BHAR) from X-ray observations, and study its dependence on overdensity and cosmic-web environment at different redshifts while controlling for galaxy stellar mass (M⋆). Our results show that BHAR does not significantly depend on overdensity or cosmic-web environment once M⋆ is controlled, indicating that environment-related physical mechanisms (e.g. tidal interaction and ram-pressure stripping) might not significantly affect SMBH growth. We find that BHAR is strongly related to host-galaxy M⋆, regardless of environment.
@article{arxiv.1807.06013,
title = {Does black-hole growth depend on the cosmic environment?},
author = {Guang Yang and W. N. Brandt and B. Darvish and C. -T. J. Chen and F. Vito and D. M. Alexander and F. E. Bauer and J. R. Trump},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1807.06013},
year = {2018}
}