Monday

Recent observational and theoretical studies indicate that merger-free accretion processes can fuel supermassive black hole growth up to quasar strengths and cumulatively dominate the growth of both galaxies and supermassive black holes in the Universe. We have identified a sample of nearby (z 0.25) luminous AGN growing in host galaxies whose lack of significant classical bulges indicate a growth history over the past ~10 Gyr free of significant mergers. From a Hubble Space Telescope imaging survey of 100 of these systems we have separated nuclear emission from galaxy light and determined galaxy structural parameters, including bulge- and pseudobulge-to-total ratios and bar lengths and strengths. Combining these parameters with multi-wavelength data (infrared to X-ray) and black hole mass estimates from single-epoch broad-line spectra, we examine the co-evolution of black holes and galaxies in the merger-free regime as a function of these galaxy properties and compare the results to those from galaxies with histories including major galaxy mergers. This sample offers insights into how important the dynamical history of the baryonic components of galaxies are to the co-evolution of galaxies and black holes.