AGN and their host galaxies in the local Universe: two mass independent Eddington ratio distribution functions characterize black hole growth

TL;DR

This study models black hole growth in the local Universe using two mass-independent Eddington ratio distribution functions, revealing that AGN activity is governed by accretion efficiency rather than galaxy mass.

Contribution

It introduces a phenomenological model with two separate ERDFs for radiatively efficient and inefficient AGN, independent of galaxy mass, fitting observed luminosity functions.

Findings

AGN activity is driven by accretion efficiency, not galaxy mass.

Mass-independent ERDFs can reproduce observed luminosity functions.

AGN hosts are randomly drawn from the galaxy population.

Abstract

We use a phenomenological model to show that black hole growth in the local Universe (z < 0.1) can be described by two separate, mass independent Eddington ratio distribution functions (ERDFs). We assume that black holes can be divided into two independent groups: those with radiatively efficient accretion, primarily hosted by optically blue and green galaxies, and those with radiatively inefficient accretion, which are mainly found in red galaxies. With observed galaxy stellar mass functions as input, we show that the observed AGN luminosity functions can be reproduced by using mass independent, broken power law shaped ERDFs. We use the observed hard X-ray and 1.4 GHz radio luminosity functions to constrain the ERDF for radiatively efficient and inefficient AGN, respectively. We also test alternative ERDF shapes and mass dependent models. Our results are consistent with a mass independent AGN fraction and AGN hosts being randomly drawn from the galaxy population. We argue that the ERDF is not shaped by galaxy-scale effects, but by how efficiently material can be transported from the inner few parsecs to the accretion disc. Our results are incompatible with the simplest form of mass quenching where massive galaxies host higher accretion rate AGN. Furthermore, if reaching a certain Eddington ratio is a sufficient condition for maintenance mode, it can occur in all red galaxies, not just the most massive ones.