AGN and Host Galaxies in the COSMOS Survey

Abstract

Abstract. The Cosmological Evolution Survey (COSMOS) is a unique tool for studying low level AGN activity and the co-evolution of galaxies and supermassive black holes. COSMOS involves the largest contiguous region of the sky ever imaged by HST; it includes very complete multiwavelength coverage, and the largest joint samples of galaxy and AGN redshifts in any deep survey. The result is a search for AGN with low black hole mass, low accretion rates, and levels of obscuration that can remove them from optical surveys. A complete census of intermediate mass black holes at redshifts of 1 to 3 is required to tell the story of the co-evolution of galaxies and their embedded, and episodically active, black holes.