Multiwavelength Study of Massive Galaxies at<i>z</i> ∼ 2. II. Widespread Compton‐thick Active Galactic Nuclei and the Concurrent Growth of Black Holes and Bulges
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Approximately 20%-30% of 1.4 ≲ z ≲ 2.5 galaxies with K Vega < 22 detected with Spitzer MIPS at 24 μm show excess mid-IR emission relative to that expected based on the rates of star formation measured from other multiwavelength data. These galaxies also display some near-IR excess in Spitzer IRAC data, with an SED peaking longward of 1.6 μm in the rest frame, indicating the presence of warm dust emission usually absent in star-forming galaxies. Stacking Chandra data for the mid-IR excess galaxies yields a significant hard X-ray detection at rest-frame energies >6.2 keV. The stacked X-ray spectrum rises steeply at >10 keV, suggesting that these sources host Compton-thick AGNs with column densities N H ≳ 10 24 cm -2 and an average, unobscured X-ray luminosity L 2-8 keV ≈ (1-4) × 10 43 ergs s -1 . Their sky density (~3200 deg -2 ) and space density (~2.6 × 10 -4 Mpc -3 ) are twice those of X-ray-detected AGNs at z ≈ 2, and much larger than those of previously known Compton-thick sources at similar redshifts. The mid-IR excess galaxies are part of the long sought after population of distant heavily obscured AGNs predicted by synthesis models of the X-ray background. The fraction of mid-IR excess objects increases with galaxy mass, reaching ~50%-60% for M ~ 10 11 M ☉ , an effect likely connected with downsizing in galaxy formation. The ratio of the inferred black hole growth rate from these Compton-thick sources to the global star formation rate at z = 2 is similar to the mass ratio of black holes to stars in local spheroids, implying concurrent growth of both within the precursors of today's massive galaxies.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".