Talk Title: Accretion onto Black Holes in the Local Universe: the SDSS View
Abstract:
Co-authors: Tim Heckman, Christy Tremonti, Jarle Brinchmann, Stephane Charlot and Simon White
We have studied the properties of the host galaxies of 22,000 optically-selected Type 2 AGN in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We have demonstrated that AGN occur only in massive (> 10^10 M_sol) galaxies and that powerful AGN occur in galaxies that are currently forming stars. In this talk, I will present the results of our most recent analysis. I will demonstrate that the level of present-day accretion onto a black hole is very strongly correlated with the environment of the galaxy. The difference between Seyferts and Liners is determined by their clustering properties. We also use multi-wavelength data to quantify the amount of material that is being accreted by the black holes and compare this to the total star formation that is occurring in the bulges of the AGN hosts in our sample. We show that the relation between these two quantities corresponds to what is expected from the well-known bulge mass/black hole mass correlation. We conclude that even at the present day, black hole growth and bulge growth are continuing hand-in-hand.
Link to talk: N/A