Programme by Session

Ultra-luminous AGNs selected by combining mid-IR WISE and NVSS radio data, radio-WISE galaxies are a rare and extreme population of highly-obscured galaxies with young, compact radio jets exciting their ISM. Dominated by extreme mid-IR warm dust emission, they are radiatively efficient and with potentially merging morphologies, may represent an unknown and key phase in quasar evolution.

We have observed 27 of these radio-WISE galaxies using VLT instruments X-shooter and ISAAC at excellent seeing. We present NIR spectroscopy of these extremely luminous sources with bolometric luminosities of 10^47 erg/s across a wide redshift range of z = 0.88 – 2.85. Requiring multiple component models to produce acceptable fits for the emission line asymmetry, we measure 7 Hβ, 15 [OIII]λ5007 and 14 Hα lines. Using the broad [OIII]λ5007 emission lines we calculate lower limit black hole masses of log(M_BH) = 8.2 - 9.5 M_sun with corresponding host masses of log(M_Host) = 10.7 - 12.0 M_sun assuming black hole-host co-evolution. Using detected or simulated Balmer lines, we use the Cardelli (1989) extinction law to measure the visual extinction of our sources. Our results suggest these galaxies are extremely obscured and with a mean lower limit of Av = 4.7 magnitudes, extinction will increase our masses by two orders of magnitude in extreme cases.

Shown to be supermassive, ultra-luminous and highly obscured, radio-WISE galaxies are a rare and unique galaxy population. We aim to uncover a deeper understanding of the role these extreme galaxies play in wider quasar evolution.