Black hole and galaxy co-evolution in radio-loud active galactic nuclei at z ∼ 0.3–4^⋆

¹ Observatoire de Paris, LERMA, PSL University, Sorbonne Université, CNRS, 75014 Paris, France
e-mail: remi.poitevineau@obspm.fr
² Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia “Augusto Righi”, Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna, Via Gobetti 93/2, 40129 Bologna, Italy
³ INAF – Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio di Bologna, via Gobetti 93/3, 40129 Bologna, Italy
⁴ Collège de France, 11 Place Marcelin Berthelot, 75231 Paris, France

Received: 21 July 2022
Accepted: 24 January 2023

Abstract

The relation between the mass of the supermassive black hole (SMBH) in the center of galaxies and their bulge mass or central velocity dispersion is well known. This suggests a coevolution between the SMBHs and their galaxy hosts. Our aim is to study this relation, specifically, for radio loud galaxies, and as a function of redshift z. We selected a sample of 42 radio galaxies and active galactic nuclei (AGN) with broad emission lines and spectroscopic redshifts between z = 0.3 − 4 by cross-matching the low radio frequency sources from Very Large Array (VLA) FIRST with spectroscopically confirmed galaxies from wide-field surveys, including Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) DR14 ugriz and Dark Energy Survey (DES) DR2 grzY in the optical, Wield Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), and the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) spectroscopic survey. We characterized the stellar mass (M_⋆), star formation, and black hole properties (mass of the central SMBH, Eddington ratio η, and jet power, Q_jet). The relation between SMBH mass, M_⋆, η, and z is placed into context by comparing them with scaling relations (M_BH–M_⋆, M_BH/M_⋆–z, M_BH–Q_jet, and Q_jet–η) from the literature. On the basis of a multiwavelength spectral energy distribution modeling, our radio sources are broadly consistent with being on the star-forming main sequence. They have sub-Eddington accretion rates, η ≃ 1% on average, as typically found in type I AGN, while higher accretion rates favor more powerful jets to be launched by the central engine. We find overmassive SMBHs in (17 ± 5)% of our radio sources, similarly to previous studies on nearby early-type galaxies. Altogether, an evolutionary scenario in which radio-mode AGN feedback regulates the accretion onto the SMBHs and the stellar mass assembly of the radio sources is discussed, which may explain the observed phenomenology. This pilot study represents a benchmark for future studies using wide-field surveys such as those with Euclid and the Vera Rubin Observatory.