The relation between black hole mass and host spheroid stellar mass out to z ∼ 2

Abstract

We combine Hubble Space Telescope images from the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey with archival Very Large Telescope and Keck spectra of a sample of 11 X-ray-selected broad-line active galactic nuclei in the redshift range 1 < z < 2 to study the black-hole-mass-stellar-mass relation out to a look-back time of 10Gyr. Stellar masses of the spheroidal component (M sph,*) are derived from multi-filter surface photometry. Black hole masses (MBH) are estimated from the width of the broad MgII emission line and the 3000 Å nuclear luminosity. Comparing with a uniformly measured local sample and taking into account selection effects, we find evolution in the form MBH/Msph,*(1 + z) 1.96 ± 0.55, in agreement with our earlier studies based on spheroid luminosity. However, this result is more accurate because it does not require a correction for luminosity evolution and therefore avoids the related and dominant systematic uncertainty. We also measure total stellar masses (Mhost,*). Combining our sample with data from the literature, we find M BH/Mhost,*(1 + z) 1.15 ±0.15, consistent with the hypothesis that black holes (in the range MBH ∼108-9 M⊙) pre-date the formation of their host galaxies. Roughly, one-third of our objects reside in spiral galaxies; none of the host galaxies reveal signs of interaction or major merger activity. Combined with the slower evolution in host stellar masses compared to spheroid stellar masses, our results indicate that secular evolution or minor mergers play a non-negligible role in growing both BHs and spheroids. © 2011. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.