The HST-Hyperion Survey: X-ray AGN Enhancement in the Hyperion Proto-supercluster

Abstract

Dense environments can influence both galaxy evolution and supermassive black hole growth, but whether they enhance or suppress (or both) active galactic nuclei (AGN) activity at high redshift ($z\gtrsim2$) remains uncertain. As one of the most massive structures identified in the early universe, the Hyperion proto-supercluster at $z\approx2.5$ provides a unique opportunity to investigate this connection during an epoch near the peak of both cosmic star formation rate and AGN activity density. To examine the impact of galaxy environment on AGN activity, we measure the fraction of X-ray-selected AGN in Hyperion as a whole, its highly overdense peaks, and its outskirts, comparing these measurements to a coeval field sample. We identify X-ray AGN using the deep Chandra COSMOS-Legacy Survey and combine optical/near-infrared (NIR) photometry and photometric redshift information from COSMOS2020 with extensive ground-based spectroscopy and HST-grism observations. Redshift information is incorporated statistically using a Monte Carlo framework. We find a higher X-ray AGN fraction in Hyperion ($7.4^{+3.2}_{-1.8}\%$) than in the coeval field ($3.2^{+0.6}_{-0.5}\%$), corresponding to a $\sim2.3σ$ difference. Strikingly, this enhancement is concentrated in the overdense peaks, where the X-ray AGN fraction reaches $12.3^{+5.5}_{-3.4}\%$ ($15.0^{+6.9}_{-4.4}\%$ in the most massive peaks versus $6.2^{+11.9}_{-2.1}\%$ in the less massive peaks), while the lower-density Hyperion outskirts ($2.1^{+3.6}_{-1.1}\%$) show no evidence of enhancement relative to the field. These results add to the limited but growing evidence for enhanced AGN activity in high-redshift protostructures, suggesting that the dense environments at these epochs may preferentially trigger AGN during the early stages of cluster assembly.