A Sample of Active Galactic Nuclei with Intermediate-mass Black Holes Extended to <i>z</i> ≈ 0.6
Abstract We present a sample of 930 intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) active galactic nuclei (AGNs) with BH masses of M BH ≤ 2 × 10 6 M ⊙ , uniformly selected from the Seventeenth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, based on the detection of broad H α or H β emission lines. Taking advantage of the wide wavelength coverage of BOSS/eBOSS spectroscopy, our sample extends the redshift coverage of low- z IMBH AGNs to z ≤ 0.57, significantly improving upon previous studies that were generally limited to z ≤ 0.35. This sample encompasses BH masses from 10 4.0 to 10 6.3 M ⊙ , with Eddington ratios ranging from 0.01 to 1.9. Among the z > 0.3 subset, 24 sources exhibit detectable broad Mg ii λλ 2796, 2803 emission lines, including eight confirmed by independent DESI spectra. A preliminary analysis reveals a marked decline in both the maximum accretion rate ( L bol / L Edd ) and broad H α luminosity with decreasing redshift, possibly reflecting a cosmic evolution of accretion activity at the low-mass end, akin to the “downsizing” evolutionary trend seen in high-mass AGNs.
Authors
- Yi-Qing Guo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4932-9619)
- Su Yao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9728-1552)
- W.J. Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2788-0760)
- P. Lira (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1523-9164)
- Luis C. Ho
- Xiao-Bo Dong
Institutions
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Peking University (CN)
- University of Chile (CL)
- University of Missouri (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
- Published
- 2026-05-19
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4365/ae64eb
- Primary Topic
- Cosmology and Gravitation Theories
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- National Natural Science Foundation of China