Supermassive black holes and Active Galactic Nuclei

Cosmic evolution of supermassive black holes


Co-moving space density of X-ray selected Active Galactic Nuclei

Silverman, J. D., Green, P. J., Barkhouse, W. et al. 2005, ApJ, 624, 630


The luminosity function of X-ray selected Active Galactic Nuclei: Evolution of Supermassive Black Holes at high redshift

Silverman, J., Green, P.J. et al. 2008, ApJ, 679, 118


The cosmic growth of the active black hole population at 1 < z < 2 in zCOSMOS, VVDS and SDSS

Schulze, A., Bongiorno, A., Gavignaud, I., Schramm, M., Silverman, J. et al. MNRAS, 447, 2085


AGN and star formation relation


The Evolution of AGN Host Galaxies: From Blue to Red and the Influence of Large-Scale Structures

Silverman, J., Mainieri, V., Lehmer, B. et al. 2008, ApJ, 675, 1025


Ongoing and Co-evolving Star Formation in zCOSMOS galaxies hosting Active Galactic Nuclei

Silverman, J. D., Lamareille, F., Maier, C., Lilly, S. et al. 2009, ApJ, 696, 396


The mean star-forming properties of QSO host galaxies

Rosario, D., Trakhtenbrot, B., Lutz, D. et al. 2014, A&A, 560, 72


Role of mergers and interactions


The Impact of Galaxy Interactions on Active Galactic Nucleus Activity in zCOSMOS

Silverman, J.D., Kampczyk, P., Jahnke, K., Andrea, R., et al. 2011, ApJ, 743,2  


Late-stage mergers in COSMOS to z ~ 1

Lackner, C., Silverman, J. et al. 2014, AJ, 148, 137


Environments


The Environments of Active Galactic Nuclei within the zCOSMOS Density Field

Silverman, J. D., Kovac, K., Knobel, C., Lilly, S. et al. 2009, ApJ, 695, 171


The X-ray Zurich Environmental Study (X-ZENS). I. Chandra and XMM-Newton observations of AGNs in galaxies in nearby groups 

Silverman, J.D., Miniati, F., Finoguenov, A. et al. 2014, ApJ, 780, 67


Changing ionization conditions in SDSS galaxies with AGN as a function of environment from pairs to clusters

Khabiboulline, E., Steinhardt, C., Silverman, J. D. et al. 2014, ApJ, 795, 62


Black hole mass - galaxy mass relations


The Black Hole-Bulge Mass Relation of Active Galactic Nuclei in the Extended Chandra Deep Field-South Survey

Schramm, M. & Silverman, J.D. 2013, ApJ, 767, 13


Accretion disk - corona connection


A statistical relation between the X-ray spectral index and Eddington ratio of active galactic nuclei in deep surveys

Brightman, M., Silverman, J., Mainieri, V., Ueda, Y., Schramm, M. et al. 2013, MNRAS, 433,2485


Discovery of the Most-Distant Double-Peaked Emitter at z=1.369

Luo, B., Brandt, W. N., Silverman, J. D., Strateva, I. V. et al. 2007, ApJ, 695, 1227


Obscured accretion


Hard X-ray emitting Active Galactic Nuclei selected by the Chandra Multi-wavelength Project

Silverman, J., Green, P., Barkhouse, W., Kim, D.-W. et al. 2005, ApJ, 618, 123


Broad emission-line region


A Comparative Analysis of Virial Black Hole Mass Estimates of

Moderate-luminosity Active Galactic Nuclei Using Subaru/FMOS

Matsuoka, K., Silverman, J.D., Schramm, M. et al. 2013, ApJ, 771, 64


Quasars with Anomalous Hβ profiles. I. Demographics

Steinhardt, C., Silverman, J. 2013, PASJ, 65, 4


SDSS 0956+5128: A broad-line quasar with extreme velocity offsets

Steinhardt, C., Schramm, M., Silverman, J.D., et al. 2012, ApJ, 759, 24


Narrow emission-line region


First Results from the FMOS-COSMOS Survey on Far-Infrared Selected

Galaxies: Observations of the Strong Nebular Emission Lines and the

Implications for the Evolving BPT Diagram

Kartaltepe, J., Sanders, D., Silverman, J. et al. 2015, ApJL, 806, 35

Three-dimensional large-scale distribution of AGN in COSMOS (Silverman et al. 2009) with respect to the zCOSMOS over-density distribution. Each panel shows a different redshift interval as labeled. X-ray-selected AGN are marked in red, while zCOSMOS galaxies that trace large scale filaments are shown by the small black dots.

Star formation rate of the host galaxies of X-ray selected AGN in COSMOS survey (Silverman et al. 2009).  Star formation rates and spectroscopic redshifts are provided by zCOSMOS, an optical spectroscopic survey using VIMOS on the VLT.  Galaxies hosting AGN are identified by their X-ray emission detected by XMM-Newton.

Black holes, over a million times the mass of our Sun, lurk in the center of most massive galaxies.  Fundamental questions in astrophysics about their nature are currently unanswered:  How are such massive compact objects formed?  What physical mechanisms (e.g., galaxy mergers, dynamical instabilities) are conducive to gas inflow to the nuclear region?  What processes are driving the global evolution of Active Galactic Nuclei and quasars that mirrors the cosmic star formation rate density?  


We are using multi-wavelength observations of deep survey fields to characterize the underlying galaxy population (e.g., stellar mass, star formation rate) and identify those hosting actively accreting black holes, primarily through their X-ray emission less susceptible to obscuration by dust.  Our focus has been on disentangling observed influences over a range of scales from local to large-scale environments.  Scientific results are listed and organized in various interrelated categories. 

X-rays (purple), detected by the Chandra Observatory, from a supermassive black hole being activated in galaxies undergoing a merger as evident from HST imaging and VLT spectroscopy.