The evolution of the heaviest super-massive black-holes in jetted AGNs

TL;DR

This study investigates the evolution of the most massive supermassive black holes in jetted AGNs from redshift 1.5 to 5.5, revealing a peak in their space density at z~3 and suggesting distinct evolutionary paths compared to non-jetted AGNs.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of the space density evolution of massive black holes in jetted AGNs over a broad redshift range, using a large sample of blazars and geometrical arguments.

Findings

Peak in SMBH space density at z~3.

Jetted fraction remains 10-20% across redshifts.

Marginal decrease in jetted fraction at high z.

Abstract

We present the space density evolution, from z=1.5 up to z=5.5, of the most massive (M$\geq10^9$M$_{\odot}$) black holes hosted in jetted Active Galactic Nuclei(AGNs). The analysis is based on a sample of 380 luminosity-selected ($\lambda$L$_{1350}\geq10^{46}$ erg s$^{-1}$ and P$_{5\text{GHz}}\geq10^{27}$ W Hz$^{-1}$) Flat Spectrum Radio Quasars (FSRQs) obtained from the Cosmic Lens All Sky Survey (CLASS). These sources are known to be face-on jetted AGNs (i.e. blazars) and can be exploited to infer the abundance of all the (misaligned) jetted AGNs, using a geometrical argument. We then compare the space density of the most massive SMBHs hosted in jetted AGNs with those present in the total population (mostly composed by non-jetted AGNs). We find that the space density has a peak at $z\sim3$, which is significantly larger than the value observed in the total AGN population with similar optical/UV luminosities ($z\sim2.2$), but not as extreme as the value previously inferred from X-ray selected blazars ($z\gtrsim4$). The jetted fraction (jetted AGNs/total AGNs) is overall consistent with the estimates in the local Universe (10--20\%) and at high redshift, assuming Lorentz bulk factors $\Gamma\approx5$. Finally, we find a marginal decrease in the jetted fraction at high redshifts (by a factor of $\sim2$). All these evidences point toward a different evolutionary path in the jetted AGNs compared to the total AGN population.