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Host Galaxies of Obscured Quasars: Infant Starbursts Caught in Action

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2010

Xin Liu ,
Nadia L. Zakamska ,
Jenny E. Greene ,
Michael A. Strauss  and
Julian H. Krolik
Xin Liu
Affiliation:
Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Peyton Hall, Ivy Lane, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA Email: xinliu@astro.princeton.edu
Nadia L. Zakamska
Affiliation:
Institute for Advanced Study, Einstein Dr., Princeton, NJ 08540, USA Spitzer Fellow, John N. Bahcall Fellow
Jenny E. Greene
Affiliation:
Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Peyton Hall, Ivy Lane, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA Email: xinliu@astro.princeton.edu Hubble Fellow, Princeton-Carnegie Fellow
Michael A. Strauss
Affiliation:
Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Peyton Hall, Ivy Lane, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA Email: xinliu@astro.princeton.edu
Julian H. Krolik
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
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Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in the centers of massive galaxies are thought to predominantly grow in brief Eddington-rate quasar phases accompanied by starbursts, but on-going starbursts in luminous quasars are difficult to observe. Buried under the natural coronagraph, obscured quasars offer a unique window for direct, robust host-galaxy spectroscopy otherwise virtually inaccessible for luminous quasars. Our pilot study at z ~ 0.5 (Liu et al. 2009) revealed a substantial contribution from very young stellar populations with ages less than ~ 100 Myr in all of the observed host galaxy spectra. More dramatically, in three out of the nine SDSS quasars observed, we have witnessed strong infant starbursts with ages of ~ 5 Myr, clocked by the telltale Wolf–Rayet emission features.

Keywords

galaxies: activegalaxies: evolutiongalaxies: interactionsgalaxies: nucleigalaxies: starburstgalaxies: stellar contentquasars: general
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 5 , Symposium S267: Co-Evolution of Central Black Holes and Galaxies , August 2009 , pp. 118
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2010

References

Greene, J. E. & Ho, L. C. 2006, ApJ, 641, 117Google Scholar
Liu, X., Zakamska, N. L., Greene, J. E., Strauss, M. A., Krolik, J. H., & Heckman, T. M. 2009, ApJ, 702, 1098CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zakamska, N. L., et al. 2006, AJ, 132, 1496CrossRefGoogle Scholar