Bibcode
Falomo, R.; Kotilainen, J. K.; Pagani, C.; Scarpa, R.; Treves, A.
Bibliographical reference
Multiwavelength mapping of galaxy formation and evolution, Proceedings of the ESO Workshop held at Venice, Italy, 13-16 October 2003. Edited by A. Renzini and R. Bender. Series Editor: Bruno Leibundgut, ESO, Garching, Germany. ESO astrophysics symposia. Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 2005925391. ISBN 10 3-540-25665-2; ISBN 13 978-540-25565-6; QB857.5.E96 E78 2003. Published by Springer, Berlin, 2005, p.380
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2005
Citations
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Description
Ground based and HST imaging of quasars (see, e.g., Dunlop et al. 2003;
Pagani et al. 2003 and references therein) clearly indicate that at z
< 0.5 quasars are hosted in massive galaxies dominated by the
spheroidal component. While radio loud quasars (RLQ) are exclusively
hosted by ellipticals exceeding by 2-3 mag L*, radio quiet quasars (RQQ)
are found both in ellipticals and in spirals. On the other hand there is
mounting evidence that most if not all nearby massive spheroids have
inactive supermassive BH in their centers (see e.g. Ferrarese 2002 for a
review). Taken together these findings depict a scenario where nuclear
activity may be a common phenomenon during the lifetime of a galaxy.
Understanding how the properties of the galaxies hosting quasars change
with the cosmic time is therefore a fundamental step to investigate the
link between the evolution of the galaxies and the nuclear activity.