Massive black holes

Black holes, over a million times the mass of our Sun, lurk in the center of most massive galaxies. Fundamental questions in astrophysics about their nature are currently unanswered. 
How are such massive compact objects formed?  
What physical mechanisms are conducive to accretion on massive black hole?  
What processes are driving the global evolution of Active Galactic Nuclei and star formation? 
We are using observations (e.g., JWST, Euclid, HSC, ALMA) across the electromagnetic spectrum of deep and wide survey fields to characterize the underlying galaxy population (e.g., stellar mass, star formation rate, morphology) and identify those hosting actively accreting black holes, primarily through their optical and X-ray emission less susceptible to obscuration by dust.  Our focus has been on disentangling observed influences over a range of scales from local to large-scale environments. 
Mergers
Mergers
Star formation
Star formation
Host galaxies
Host galaxies
Environment
Environment
Dust
Dust
Structure
Structure
Cosmic evolution
Cosmic evolution
Gas
Gas

Black hole - host galaxy mass relations
SHELLQs-JWST perspective on the intrinsic mass relation between supermassive black holes and their host galaxies at z > 6
Silverman, J. D., Li, J., Ding, X., Onoue, M. et al. ApJL, submitted

The ALPINE-CRISTAL-JWST Survey: revealing less massive black holes in high-redshift galaxies
Ren, W., Silverman, J.D., Faisst, A. et al., MNRAS, submitted

Tip of the iceberg: overmassive black holes at 4 < z < 7 found by JWST are not inconsistent with the local MBH - M⋆ relation
Li, J., Silverman, J. D., Shen, Y. et al. 2025, ApJ, 981, 19

Detection of stellar light from quasar host galaxies at redshifts above 6
Ding, X., Onoue, M., Silverman, J. D. et al., 2023, Nature, 621, 51

Inferences on relations between distant supermassive black holes and their hosts complemented by the galaxy fundamental plane
Silverman, J. D., Li, J. & Ding, X., 2022, ApJ, 933, 165

Concordance between observations and simulations in the evolution of the mass relation between supermassive black holes and their host galaxies
Ding, X., Silverman, J. D., Li, J. et al. 2022, ApJ, 933, 132

On the Connection between Supermassive Black Hole and Galaxy Growth in the Reionization Epoch
Li, J., Silverman, J. D. et al., 2022, ApJL, 931, 11

Synchronized Co-evolution between Supermassive Black Holes and Galaxies Over the Last Seven Billion Years as Revealed by Hyper Suprime-Cam
Li, J., Silverman, J. D., Ding, X. et al. 2021, ApJ, 922, 142

The Mass Relations between Supermassive Black Holes and Their Host Galaxies at 1 < z < 2 HST-WFC3
Ding, X., Silverman, J. D., Treu, T. et al. 2020, ApJ, 888, 37

Host galaxies
SHELLQs-JWST unveils the host galaxies of twelve quasars at z > 6
Ding, X., Onoue, M., Silverman, J.D. et al. ApJ accepted, arXiv:2505.03876

The eROSITA Final Equatorial-Depth Survey (eFEDS): Host-galaxy Demographics of X-ray AGNs with Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam
Li, J., Silverman, J. D., Merloni, A. et al. 2024, MNRAS, 527, 4690
Resolving Galactic-scale Obscuration of X-Ray AGNs at z > 1 with COSMOS-Web
Silverman, J. D., Mainieri, V., Ding, X. et al., 2023, ApJ, 951, 41

A machine learning approach to assessing the presence of substructure in quasar host galaxies using the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program
Nagele, C., Silverman, J. D., Hartwig, Tilman et al., 2023, ApJ, 947, 30

Morphological asymmetries of quasar host galaxies with Subaru HSC
Tang, S., Silverman, J. D., Yesuf, H. et al., 2023, MNRAS, 521, 5272 

Opening the Era of Quasar-host Studies at High Redshift with JWST
Ding, X., Silverman, J. D., Onoue, M., 2022, ApJL, 939, 2

The Sizes of Quasar Host Galaxies with the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program
Li,  J., Silverman, J. D., Ding, X. et al., 2021, ApJ, 918, 22

Where do quasar hosts lie with respect to the size-mass relation of galaxies?
Silverman, J. D., Treu, T., Ding, X. et al. 2019, ApJL, 887, L5

Dual quasars

Tang, S., Silverman, J. D., Ding, X. et al., 2021 ApJ, 922, 83

Dual Supermassive Black Holes at Close Separation Revealed by the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program
Silverman, J. D., Tang, S., Lee, K.-G. et al., 2020, ApJ, 899, 154 

Molecular gas and dust in AGNs
Under the glare of a luminous quasar, the FIR continuum is still an excellent tracer of the ISM down to the central kiloparsec
Silverman, J.D, Daddi, E., Tan, Q.-H., Liu, Z. et al. MNRAS, submitted
No signs of star formation being regulated in the most luminous quasars at z ∼ 2 with ALMA
Schulze, A., Silverman, J. D., Daddi, E. et al., 2019 MNRAS, 488, 1180 


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