MOIRCS Deep Survey III: Active Galactic Nuclei in Massive Galaxies at z=2-4

Abstract

We investigate the X-ray properties of the K-band-selected galaxies at redshift 2 < z < 4 by using our deep near-infrared images obtained in the MOIRCS Deep Survey project and the published Chandra X-ray source catalog. 61 X-ray sources with the 2-10 keV luminosity L_X = 10^{42}-10^{44} erg/s are identified with the K-selected galaxies and we found that they are exclusively (90%) associated with the massive objects with stellar mass larger than 10^{10.5} Msun. Our results are consistent with the idea that the M_BH/M_str ratio of the galaxies at z=2-4 is similar to the present-day value. On the other hand, the AGN detection rate among the very massive galaxies with the stellar mass larger than 10^{11} Msun is high, 33% (26/78). They are active objects in the sense that the black-hole mass accretion rate is ~ 1-50% of the Eddington limit if they indeed have similar M_BH/M_str ratio with those observed in the local universe. The active duration in the AGN duty cycle of the high-redshift massive galaxies seems large.

33 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ