English

The evolution of the heaviest super-massive black-holes in jetted AGNs

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2022-02-23 v1

Abstract

We present the space density evolution, from z=1.5 up to z=5.5, of the most massive (M109\geq10^9M_{\odot}) black holes hosted in jetted Active Galactic Nuclei(AGNs). The analysis is based on a sample of 380 luminosity-selected (λ\lambdaL13501046_{1350}\geq10^{46} erg s1^{-1} and P5GHz1027_{5\text{GHz}}\geq10^{27} W Hz1^{-1}) Flat Spectrum Radio Quasars (FSRQs) obtained from the Cosmic Lens All Sky Survey (CLASS). These sources are known to be face-on jetted AGNs (i.e. blazars) and can be exploited to infer the abundance of all the (misaligned) jetted AGNs, using a geometrical argument. We then compare the space density of the most massive SMBHs hosted in jetted AGNs with those present in the total population (mostly composed by non-jetted AGNs). We find that the space density has a peak at z3z\sim3, which is significantly larger than the value observed in the total AGN population with similar optical/UV luminosities (z2.2z\sim2.2), but not as extreme as the value previously inferred from X-ray selected blazars (z4z\gtrsim4). The jetted fraction (jetted AGNs/total AGNs) is overall consistent with the estimates in the local Universe (10--20\%) and at high redshift, assuming Lorentz bulk factors Γ5\Gamma\approx5. Finally, we find a marginal decrease in the jetted fraction at high redshifts (by a factor of 2\sim2). All these evidences point toward a different evolutionary path in the jetted AGNs compared to the total AGN population.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2202.03444,
  title  = {The evolution of the heaviest super-massive black-holes in jetted AGNs},
  author = {Alessandro Diana and Alessandro Caccianiga and Alberto Moretti and Luca Ighina and Silvia Belladitta and Roberto Della Ceca},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2202.03444},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

This article has been accepted for publication in MNRAS