Search arXiv⌕ Search
Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · 2103.06289

The Diverse Morphologies and Structures of Dwarf Galaxies Hosting Optically-Selected Active Massive Black Holes

Seth J. Kimbrell·Amy E. Reines·Zachary Schutte·Jenny E. Greene·Marla Geha
View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

We present a study of 41 dwarf galaxies hosting active massive black holes (BHs) using Hubble Space Telescope observations. The host galaxies have stellar masses in the range of $M_\star \sim 10^{8.5}-10^{9.5}~M_\odot$ and were selected to host active galactic nuclei (AGNs) based on narrow emission line ratios derived from Sloan Digital Sky Survey spectroscopy. We find a wide range of morphologies in our sample including both regular and irregular dwarf galaxies. We fit the HST images of the regular galaxies using GALFIT and find that the majority are disk-dominated with small pseudobulges, although we do find a handful of bulge-like/elliptical dwarf galaxies. We also find an unresolved source of light in all of the regular galaxies, which may indicate the presence of a nuclear star cluster and/or the detection of AGN continuum. Three of the galaxies in our sample appear to be Magellanic-type dwarf irregulars and two galaxies exhibit clear signatures of interactions/mergers. This work demonstrates the diverse nature of dwarf galaxies hosting optically-selected AGNs. It also has implications for constraining the origin of the first BH seeds using the local BH occupation fraction at low masses -- we must account for the various types of dwarf galaxies that may host BHs.

Explore related subjects

astro-ph.GA

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Seth J. Kimbrell, Amy E. Reines, Zachary Schutte, Jenny E. Greene, Marla Geha. 2021-03-10. The Diverse Morphologies and Structures of Dwarf Galaxies Hosting Optically-Selected Active Massive Black Holes. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357%2Fabec40

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2026

Small hosts, big appetites: unveiling rapid and early low-mass black hole growth in cosmological zoom-in simulations of dwarf galaxies

Dwarf galaxies are ideal laboratories to probe the interplay between galaxy formation and the growth of black holes (BHs) in the early Universe. Mounting observational evidence reveals the presence of BHs in low-mass galaxies across cosmic time, with $\textit{JWST}$ uncovering a likely population of $\textit{overmassive}$ BHs at $2 \lesssim z \lesssim 11$. Simulations struggle to reproduce this high-redshift regime, motivating revisions to models of BH accretion and feedback from active galactic nuclei (AGN). To address this, we present high-resolution cosmological zoom-in simulations of a dwarf galaxy based on FABLE physics, introducing novel sink-based BH accretion models and relaxing the fiducial assumption of strong supernova feedback. BHs accrete more efficiently in the sink-based runs compared to the `traditional' Bondi-based counterparts, with AGN feedback leading to early, rapid quenching maintained by fast, hot and metal-enriched outflows. These outflows pollute the outer circumgalactic medium, yielding flat metallicity gradients down to $z=0$. We further assess the performance of two widely used virial estimators and find significant departures from the true dynamical mass, especially during the high-redshift dwarf assembly. Since our galaxy is dark-matter-dominated at all times and radii, BH growth, tied to the baryon cycle, shows no clear correlation with global dynamical properties. Efficient AGN feedback is produced by overmassive BHs relative to extrapolated local $M_\bullet - M_\star$ relations, raising the possibility that dormant, overmassive BHs in local quenched dwarfs and those probed by $\textit{JWST}$ may reflect a common mode of early and rapid BH growth in low-mass galaxies.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2026

RUBIES: The Evolution of the Ionization Parameter from 0 < z < 9

The dimensionless ionization parameter, U=q/c, where q is the ratio of the local ionizing photon flux to the local hydrogen density, is a key metric to parameterize nebular conditions. Prior to JWST, the rest-frame optical emission lines and their ratios which trace the ionization parameter (e.g., O32=[OIII]/[OII]) were inaccessible at high redshifts. Here we quantify, for the first time, the evolution of the ionization parameter in galaxies across the last 13 billion years of cosmic time by comparing JWST/NIRSpec PRISM and G395M spectroscopy of 434 galaxies at 3<z<9 from the RUBIES survey with z<3 samples from SDSS, LEGA-C, and KBSS. We leverage a large suite of photoionization models to infer U from [OIII] and [OII]. We find that U increases with redshift and specific star formation rate (sSFR), and decreases with stellar mass. Crucially, and in contrast to previous linear best-fit calibrations, our inference results in a systematic uncertainty in logU of ~0.3 dex at zero measurement uncertainty due to the wide range of models that predict the same O32 ratio without informative priors. We compare to SPHINX20 and LUMEN simulations and find that the simulated galaxies exhibit higher O32 ratios at fixed redshift and stellar mass compared to RUBIES observations. Finally, we combine the predictive power of observed and inferred quantities with multivariate relations to estimate U from redshift, stellar mass, and sSFR for use where O32 is not available. We find that U increases at fixed stellar mass and sSFR by a factor of ~4 from z=2 to z=6, demonstrating that the redshift evolution encapsulates physics beyond that traced by stellar mass and sSFR alone. Finally, we show that a toy model with the first order assumption that HII region volume is proportional to galaxy volume can explain the excess redshift dependence of logU as being consistent with observed evolution in galaxy sizes.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2026

An extreme ram-pressure stripping event in a protocluster at redshift 4.3

In the nearby Universe, the environment plays a crucial role in suppressing star formation in dense regions. In particular, ram-pressure stripping (RPS) is a major mechanism for removing gas from galaxies in clusters, occurring when galaxies travel through a dense hot atmosphere and leave trailing gaseous wakes. By depleting the cold gas reservoir, RPS can drive outside-in quenching and is therefore thought to be an important route for transforming cluster galaxies. At earlier times, however, the hot atmosphere in protoclusters is expected to be immature, so environmental effects are commonly assumed to be dominated by gravitational interactions. Here we report ALMA and JWST observations of SPT2349$-$56-C26 (hereafter C26), a massive galaxy experiencing an extreme RPS event in the SPT2349$-$56 protocluster at $z\,{=}\,4.3$. More than half of the [CII]-traced cold gas lies outside its stellar body, with the emission peak offset by 6 kpc. These observations show that RPS can remove most of the cold gas from massive galaxies in dense protocluster cores as early as $z\,{=}\,4.3$, providing a direct hydrodynamic pathway for environmental quenching at $z\,{>}\,4$.

astro-ph.GA↗