Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The Cluster And Field Galaxy Active Galactic Nucleus Fraction At Z = 1-1.5: Evidence For A Reversal Of The Local Anticorrelation Between Environment And Agn Fraction, Paul Martini, E. D. Miller, M. Brodwin, S. A. Stanford, Anthony H. Gonzalez, M. Bautz, R. C. Hickox

Dartmouth Scholarship

The fraction of cluster galaxies that host luminous active galactic nuclei (AGNs) is an important probe of AGN fueling processes, the cold interstellar medium at the centers of galaxies, and how tightly black holes and galaxies co-evolve. We present a new measurement of the AGN fraction in a sample of 13 clusters of galaxies (M >= 10¹⁴ M _⊙) at 1 < z < 1.5 selected from the Spitzer/IRAC Shallow Cluster Survey, as well as the field fraction in the immediate vicinity of these clusters, and combine these data with measurements from the literature to quantify the relative evolution of cluster and field AGN from the present to z ~ 3. We estimate that the cluster AGN fraction at 1 < z < 1.5 is f_A = 3.0^{+2.4}_{-1.4}% for AGNs with a rest-frame, hard X-ray luminosity greater than L _{X, H} >= 10⁴⁴ erg s^-1. This fraction is measured relative to all cluster galaxies more luminous than M^*_{3.6}(z) + 1, where M^*_{3.6}(z) is the absolute magnitude of the break in the galaxy luminosity …