Supermassive Black Hole Growth During The Peak Of Cosmic Star Formation

Massive galaxies in the nearby universe all show evidence of a central SupermassiveBlack Hole. The black holes are seen to grow over time by accretion of gasfrom their host galaxy, a phenomenon referred to as an Active Galactic Nucleus.This process is believed to be fundamental to the observed correlations betweenblack hole mass and properties of the host galaxies. We have a more limited andbiased understanding of the growth of supermassive black holes in more ‘typical’galaxies at z ∼ 1 − 2. In this work, we search for Active Galactic Nuclei in apopulation of star-forming galaxies spanning a mass range of M∗ ∼ 10^7−10^12 M⊙at 0.62 < z < 2.39, during the peak of cosmic star formation and massive blackhole growth. Our data are drawn from the WFC3 Infrared Spectroscopic Parallels(WISP) survey, for which we designed and implemented a suite of data analysisroutines for discovering and measuring star-forming galaxies and active galacticnuclei. We find a sample of 50 active galactic nuclei, identified by their strong,rest-frame optical, emission-line ratios. We find that growing supermassive blackholes in low-mass galaxies at z > 1 either make up a greater fraction of theirgalaxies’ masses than those in massive galaxies, or perhaps emit a greater fractionof their energy in [O III]