Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

Rapid growth of black holes in massive star-forming galaxies

Nature volume 434, pages 738–740 (2005)Cite this article

Abstract

The tight relationship between the masses of black holes and galaxy spheroids in nearby galaxies1 implies a causal connection between the growth of these two components. Optically luminous quasars host the most prodigious accreting black holes in the Universe, and can account for ≳30 per cent of the total cosmological black-hole growth2,3. As typical quasars are not, however, undergoing intense star formation and already host massive black holes (> 108M⊙, where M⊙ is the solar mass)4,5, there must have been an earlier pre-quasar phase when these black holes grew (mass range ∼(106–108)M⊙). The likely signature of this earlier stage is simultaneous black-hole growth and star formation in distant (redshift z > 1; >8 billion light years away) luminous galaxies. Here we report ultra-deep X-ray observations of distant star-forming galaxies that are bright at submillimetre wavelengths. We find that the black holes in these galaxies are growing almost continuously throughout periods of intense star formation. This activity appears to be more tightly associated with these galaxies than any other coeval galaxy populations. We show that the black-hole growth from these galaxies is consistent with that expected for the pre-quasar phase.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Black-hole mass accretion rates.
Figure 2: Cosmological black-hole accretion density.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Tremaine, S. et al. The slope of the black hole mass versus velocity dispersion correlation. Astrophys. J. 574, 740–753 (2002)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  2. Yu, Q. & Tremaine, S. Observational constraints on the growth of massive black holes. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 335, 965–976 (2002)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Barger, A. J. et al. The cosmic evolution of hard X-ray selected active galactic nuclei. Astron. J. 129, 578–609 (2005)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. McLure, R. J. & Dunlop, J. S. The cosmological evolution of quasar black hole masses. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 352, 1390–1404 (2004)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Page, M. J., Stevens, J. A., Ivison, R. J. & Carrera, F. J. The evolutionary sequence of active galactic nuclei and galaxy formation revealed. Astrophys. J. 611, L85–L88 (2004)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Smail, I., Ivison, R. J., Blain, A. W. & Kneib, J.-P. The nature of faint submillimetre-selected galaxies. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 331, 495–520 (2002)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  7. Chapman, S. C., Blain, A. W., Ivison, R. J. & Smail, I. R. A median redshift of 2.4 for galaxies bright at submillimetre wavelengths. Nature 422, 695–698 (2003)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Hughes, D. H. et al. High-redshift star formation in the Hubble Deep Field revealed by a submillimetre-wavelength survey. Nature 394, 241–247 (1998)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Chapman, S. C., Blain, A. W., Smail, I. R. & Ivison, R. J. A redshift survey of the submillimeter galaxy population. Astrophys. J. 622, 2–26 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Stevens, J. A., Page, M. J., Ivison, R. J., Smail, I. & Carrera, F. J. A filamentary structure of massive star-forming galaxies associated with an X-ray-absorbed QSO at z = 1.8. Astrophys. J. 604, L17–L20 (2004)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  11. Croom, S. M. et al. The 2dF QSO Redshift Survey – XII. The spectroscopic catalogue and luminosity function. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 349, 1397–1418 (2004)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  12. Alexander, D. M. et al. The Chandra Deep Field North Survey. XIV. X-ray-detected obscured AGNs and starburst galaxies in the bright submillimeter source population. Astron. J. 125, 383–397 (2003)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Ivison, R. J. et al. Spitzer observations of MAMBO galaxies: weeding out active nuclei in starbursting proto-ellipticals. Astrophys. J. Suppl. 154, 124–129 (2004)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Greve, T. R. et al. An interferometric CO survey of luminous submm galaxies. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. (in the press); preprint at http://arxiv.org/astro-ph/0503055 (2005)

  15. Tecza, M. et al. SPIFFI observations of the starburst SMM J14011 + 0252: Already old, fat, and rich by z = 2.565. Astrophys. J. 605, L109–L112 (2004)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Swinbank, A. M. et al. The rest-frame optical spectra of SCUBA galaxies. Astrophys. J. 617, 64–80 (2004)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Smail, I., Chapman, S. C., Blain, A. W. & Ivison, R. J. The rest-frame optical properties of SCUBA galaxies. Astrophys. J. 616, 71–85 (2004)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Alexander, D. M. et al. The Chandra Deep Field North Survey. XIII. 2 Ms point-source catalogs. Astron. J. 126, 539–574 (2003)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  19. Alexander, D. M. et al. The X-ray properties of SCUBA galaxies. Astrophys. J. (submitted)

  20. Veilleux, S., Kim, D.-C. & Sanders, D. B. Optical spectroscopy of the IRAS 1 Jy sample of ultraluminous infrared galaxies. Astrophys. J. 522, 113–138 (1999)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Steidel, C. C. et al. A survey of star-forming galaxies in the 1.4 < z < 2.5 redshift desert: Overview. Astrophys. J. 604, 534–550 (2004)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Fadda, D. et al. The AGN contribution to mid-infrared surveys. X-ray counterparts of the mid-IR sources in the Lockman Hole and HDF-N. Astron. Astrophys. 383, 838–853 (2002)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  23. Fabian, A. C. The obscured growth of massive black holes. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 308, L39–L43 (1999)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Archibald, E. N. et al. Coupled spheroid and black hole formation, and the multifrequency detectability of active galactic nuclei and submillimetre sources. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 336, 353–362 (2002)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  25. Granato, G. L., De Zotti, G., Silva, L., Bressan, A. & Danese, L. A physical model for the coevolution of QSOs and their spheroidal hosts. Astrophys. J. 600, 580–594 (2004)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. Dunlop, J. S. et al. Quasars, their host galaxies and their central black holes. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 340, 1095–1135 (2003)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  27. Conselice, C. J., Chapman, S. C. & Windhorst, R. A. Evidence for a major merger origin of high-redshift submillimeter galaxies. Astrophys. J. 596, L5–L8 (2003)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  28. Springel, V., Di Matteo, T. & Hernquist, L. Black holes in galaxy mergers: the formation of red elliptical galaxies. Astrophys. J. 620, L79–L82 (2005)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  29. Elvis, M. et al. Atlas of quasar energy distributions. Astrophys. J. Suppl. 95, 1–68 (1994)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  30. Marconi, A. et al. Local supermassive black holes, relics of active galactic nuclei and the X-ray background. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 351, 169–185 (2004)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to R. McLure, M. Page, F. Shankar and Q. Yu for providing data and scientific insight. We thank the Royal Society (D.M.A., I.S.), PPARC (F.E.B.) and NASA (S.C.C., W.N.B.) for support. Data presented here were obtained using the W.M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among Caltech, the University of California and NASA.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Astronomy, Madingley Road, CB3 0HA, Cambridge, UK

    D. M. Alexander & F. E. Bauer

  2. Institute for Computational Cosmology, University of Durham, South Road, DH1 3LE, Durham, UK

    I. Smail

  3. California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, 91125, USA

    S. C. Chapman & A. W. Blain

  4. Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pennsylvania State University, 525 Davey Laboratory, University Park, Pennsylvania, 16802, USA

    W. N. Brandt

  5. Astronomy Technology Centre, Royal Observatory, Blackford Hill, EH9 3HJ, Edinburgh, UK

    R. J. Ivison

  6. Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Blackford Hill, EH9 3HJ, Edinburgh, UK

    R. J. Ivison

Authors
  1. D. M. Alexander
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. I. Smail
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. F. E. Bauer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. S. C. Chapman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. A. W. Blain
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. W. N. Brandt
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. R. J. Ivison
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to D. M. Alexander.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Alexander, D., Smail, I., Bauer, F. et al. Rapid growth of black holes in massive star-forming galaxies. Nature 434, 738–740 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature03473

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature03473

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing