The Diverse Morphology, Stellar Population, and Black Hole Scaling Relations of the Host Galaxies of Nearby Quasars

Abstract

Abstract We present rest-frame B and I imaging of 35 low-redshift ( ) Palomar–Green quasars using the Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3. We perform multicomponent two-dimensional image decomposition to separate the host galaxy from its bright active nucleus, characterize its morphology, and measure its photometric properties. Special care is devoted to quantifying the structural parameters of the galaxy bulge, determining its B − I color, and estimating its stellar mass. Roughly half of the sample, comprising the less luminous ( ) but most high Eddington ratio quasars, reside in disk galaxies that are often barred and possess pseudo bulges. The large stellar masses, large effective radii, and faint surface brightnesses suggest that the host galaxies of the most luminous quasars are mostly ellipticals. Major mergers constitute only a small percentage (≲20%) of our sample. Our quasar sample roughly obeys the scaling relations between black hole mass and host galaxy (bulge, core, total) stellar mass. Hosts with black holes more massive than behave similarly to classical bulges and early-type galaxies, while those with less massive black holes, particularly the narrow-line Seyfert 1s, are consistent with pseudo bulges in late-type galaxies. The host galaxy bulges, irrespective of whether they are classical or pseudo, follow a relatively tight inverse relation between the effective radius and the mean effective surface brightness of inactive classical bulges and ellipticals. We argue that pseudo bulges experience recent or ongoing nuclear star formation.