Qinxun Li

Qinxun Li

Graduate student at Department of Physics and Astronomy in University of Utah

Black Hole-Halo Mass Relation from UNIONS Weak Lensing

Published in Astrophysical Journal Letters, 2024

Qinxun Li, Martin Kilbinger, Wentao Luo, Kai Wang, Huiyuan Wang, Anna Wittje, et al. "Black Hole-Halo Mass Relation from UNIONS Weak Lensing." Astrophysical Journal Letters, 2024.

Abstract

This Letter presents, for the first time, direct constraints on the black hole─halo mass relation using weak gravitational-lensing measurements. We construct type I and type II active galactic nucleus (AGN) samples from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, with a mean redshift of 0.4 (0.1) for type I (type II) AGNs. This sample is cross correlated with weak-lensing shear from the Ultraviolet Near Infrared Optical Northern Survey. We compute the excess surface mass density of the halos associated with 36,181 AGNs from 94,308,561 lensed galaxies and fit the halo mass in bins of black hole mass. We find that more massive AGNs reside in more massive halos. The relation between halo mass and black hole mass is well described by a power law of slope 0.6 for both type I and type II samples, in agreement with models that link black hole growth to baryon feedback. We see no dependence on AGN type or redshift in the black hole─halo mass relation below a black hole mass of 108.5 M ⊙. Above that mass, we find more massive halos for the low-z type II sample compared to the high-z type I sample, but this difference may be interpreted as systematic error in the black hole mass measurements. Our results are consistent with previous measurements for non-AGN galaxies. At a fixed black hole mass, our weak-lensing halo masses are consistent with galaxy rotation curves but significantly lower than galaxy-clustering measurements. Finally, our results are broadly consistent with state-of-the-art hydrodynamical cosmological simulations, providing a new constraint for black hole masses in simulations.

Figures

Black hole–halo mass relation from SDSS single-epoch black hole mass and UNIONS weak-lensing halo masses. In all panels, the red squares and green circles are our UNIONS weak-lensing measurements for the type I and type II AGN samples, respectively. The error bars are 1σ uncertainties. The red and green line is the best-fit power-law relation for the type I and type II results, respectively. They have a substantial offset in normalization despite having similar slopes of $0.6$. In the top right panel, we show variations of the weak-lensing catalog (lensfit) in orange and an adjustment on black hole mass in navy, motivated by the GRAVITY collaboration's spectroastrometric measurement of the $r$-$L$ relation. In the bottom left panel, we compare our results with various observational results from the literature, where a tension exists among clustering vs. lensing or dynamics results. In the bottom right panel, we compare our results with hydrosimulations.
Black hole–halo mass relation from SDSS single-epoch black hole mass and UNIONS weak-lensing halo masses. In all panels, the red squares and green circles are our UNIONS weak-lensing measurements for the type I and type II AGN samples, respectively. The error bars are 1σ uncertainties. The red and green line is the best-fit power-law relation for the type I and type II results, respectively. They have a substantial offset in normalization despite having similar slopes of $0.6$. In the top right panel, we show variations of the weak-lensing catalog (lensfit) in orange and an adjustment on black hole mass in navy, motivated by the GRAVITY collaboration's spectroastrometric measurement of the $r$-$L$ relation. In the bottom left panel, we compare our results with various observational results from the literature, where a tension exists among clustering vs. lensing or dynamics results. In the bottom right panel, we compare our results with hydrosimulations.

Access paper on ADS