The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping Project: Post-Starburst Signatures in Quasar Host Galaxies at z < 1

TL;DR

This study analyzes 191 quasar host galaxies at z<1 using high-SNR spectra, revealing post-starburst signatures, stellar properties, and black hole relations, indicating recent star formation episodes followed by quenching.

Contribution

It provides the first reliable measurements of stellar properties in quasar hosts at z<1 using high-SNR spectra, confirming the presence of post-starburst features and galaxy-black hole relations.

Findings

Quasar hosts are massive galaxies with stellar ages around a billion years.

Host galaxies show low star formation rates, below the main sequence.

Black hole mass relations are consistent with no evolution from the local universe.

Abstract

Quasar host galaxies are key for understanding the relation between galaxies and the supermassive black holes (SMBHs) at their centers. We present a study of 191 broad-line quasars and their host galaxies at z < 1, using high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) spectra produced by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping project. Clear detection of stellar absorption lines allows a reliable decomposition of the observed spectra into nuclear and host components, using spectral models of quasar and stellar radiations as well as emission lines from the interstellar medium. We estimate age, mass (M*), and velocity dispersion (sigma*) of the host stars, the star formation rate (SFR), quasar luminosity, and SMBH mass (Mbh), for each object. The quasars are preferentially hosted by massive galaxies with M* ~ 10^{11} Msun characterized by stellar ages around a billion years, which coincides with the transition phase of normal galaxies from the blue cloud to the red sequence. The host galaxies have relatively low SFRs and fall below the main sequence of star-forming galaxies at similar redshifts. These facts suggest that the hosts have experienced an episode of major star formation sometime in the past billion years, which was subsequently quenched or suppressed. The derived Mbh - sigma* and Mbh - M* relations agree with our past measurements and are consistent with no evolution from the local Universe. The present analysis demonstrates that reliable measurements of stellar properties of quasar host galaxies are possible with high-SNR fiber spectra, which will be acquired in large numbers with future powerful instruments such as the Subaru Prime Focus Spectrograph.