Tracing the origins of the relations between super-massive black holes and their host galaxies

Tue, December 15, 2015

In the local Universe, super-massive black holes (SMBHs) are observed to be closely linked to their host galaxies. In this talk I will address the co-evolution of SMBHs and their hosts, from the local Universe, out to z~4. Several observational studies suggest that SMBH growth generally precedes that of the stellar population in the host. Among these, I will present new results from a Keck campaign, that establish this picture at z~3.5. In particular, some objects show extremely BH-to-host mass ratios, more than an order of magnitude higher than in the local Universe. A rich collection of multi-wavelength data demonstrates that SMBH-related feedback does *not* necessarily affect the host galaxies. I will argue that a comprehensive understanding of the interplay between SMBHs and galaxy evolution requires high-resolution sub-mm observations with ALMA, some of which we have already obtained.