2026ApJ..1000...32C -
Astrophys. J., 1000, 32 (2026/March-3)
Cross-correlation of Luminous Red Galaxies with ML-selected Active Galactic Nuclei in HSC-SSP. III. HOD Parameters for Type I and Type II Quasars.
CORDOVA ROSADO R., GOULDING A.D., GREENE J.E., KOKRON N., NICOLA A., STRAUSS M.A. and HICKOX R.C.
Abstract (from CDS):
Understanding the dark matter (DM) halo environment in which galaxies that host active galactic nuclei (AGNs) reside is a window into the nature of supermassive black hole (SMBH) accretion. We apply halo occupation distribution (HOD) modeling tools to interpret the angular cross-correlation functions between 1.5 × 106 luminous red galaxies and our ∼28,500 Hyper Suprime-Cam + Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer-selected (and L6μm-limited) AGNs to infer the halo properties of distinct quasar samples at physical scales s > 0.1 Mpc, for z ∈ 0.7-1.0. We find that Type I (unobscured) and Type II (obscured) AGNs cluster differently, both on small and large physical scales. The derived HODs imply that Type I AGNs reside, on average, in substantially (∼3×) more massive halos (Mh ∼ 1013.4M⊙) than Type II AGNs (Mh ∼ 1012.9M⊙) at >5σ significance. While Type II AGNs show one-halo correlations similar to that of galaxies of their average halo mass, the Type I AGN intra-halo clustering signal is significantly shallower. We interpret this observation with HOD methods and find Type I AGNs are significantly less likely (${f}_{{\rm{sat}}}\sim 0.0{5}_{-0.05}^{+1} \% $) to be found in satellite galaxies than Type II AGNs. We find reddened + obscured AGNs have typical satellite fractions for their halo mass (Mh ∼ 1013M⊙), with ${f}_{{\rm{sat}}}\sim 2{0}_{-5}^{+10} \% $. Our results pose a significant challenge to the strict unified AGN morphological model, and instead suggest that a quasar's spectral class is strongly correlated with its host galaxy's DM halo environment. These intriguing results have provided a more complex picture of the SMBH-DM halo connection, and motivate future analyses of the intrinsic galaxy and accretion properties of AGNs.
Abstract Copyright:
© 2026. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.
Journal keyword(s):
Active galactic nuclei - Large-scale structure of the universe - Clustering - Galaxy dark matter halos
Simbad objects:
1
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