Coevolution of Black Holes and Host Galaxies
Summary
Through cosmic time, supermassive black holes and their host galaxies have developed in tandem, as evidenced by tight correlations between black hole mass and galactic bulge properties. These correlations imply a feedback loop in which the growth of central black holes via gas accretion influences star formation and structural evolution in the surrounding galaxy, while the supply of gas and its kinematics in the galactic nucleus regulates black hole feeding. Observations over a wide range of redshifts reveal that this symbiotic growth plays out differently in diverse environments: from gas-rich mergers driving rapid black hole accretion and starbursts in the early universe to more quiescent secular processes dominating at later epochs. The interplay of radiative and mechanical feedback from active galactic nuclei regulates gas cooling, shapes the stellar mass assembly, and imprints the observed scaling relations. Large-scale surveys and targeted high-resolution imaging now enable resolved mapping of host properties, elucidating how black hole feedback sculpts galaxy morphology, star formation histories and chemical enrichment. Continued advances in instrumentation and theory are refining our understanding of timing, causality and the physical mechanisms orchestrating this coevolution, with implications for galaxy formation models and the role of black holes in cosmic structure assembly.
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Coevolution of Black Holes and Host Galaxies publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in coevolution of black holes and host galaxies across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Supermassive black hole (SMBH): A black hole with mass of millions to billions of solar masses, located at a galaxy’s centre.
Active galactic nucleus (AGN): The luminous central region of a galaxy powered by accretion onto its central SMBH.
Scaling relation: An empirical correlation linking SMBH mass to host galaxy properties such as bulge mass or velocity dispersion.
Point-spread function (PSF): The spatial response of an imaging system to a point source, crucial for separating AGN light from host galaxy emission.
Reverberation mapping: A technique to estimate SMBH mass by measuring time delays between variations in continuum and emission-line fluxes in AGNs.
References
- Black hole and galaxy co-evolution in radio-loud active galactic nuclei at z ∼ 0.3–4⋆. Astronomy & Astrophysics (2023).
- Characterization of JWST NIRCam PSFs and Implications for AGN+host Image Decomposition. The Astrophysical Journal (2024).
- The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping Project: The Black Hole Mass–Stellar Mass Relations at 0.2 ≲ z ≲ 0.8. The Astrophysical Journal (2023).
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