Examination of the Co-evolution of Galaxies and their Central SMBHs at High Redshifts with Gravitational Lensing by QSO Host Galaxies

The $M_{BH}-{\sigma}$ relation for galaxies is a stand-out illustration of the co-evolution of galaxies and their central supermassive black holes (SMBHs); however, how this co-evolution occurs and whether this relation holds for SMBHs of the early universe is still a matter of debate. In order to study this at higher redshifts, quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) are the best targets, due to their large sample size and effective $M_{BH}$ estimation. Nevertheless, it is difficult to examine properties of their host galaxies, simply due to the sheer brightness of the QSO itself. Here, we discuss a distinctive method in studying these QSO host galaxies, via gravitational lensing (GL). GL offers a unique approach in determining the mass of the lens object, in this case the host galaxy. QSOs from the SDSS quasar catalog were searched in the Hubble Space Telescope archives, and GL features around them were visually inspected. One such candidate is SDSS J1114-00; to increase its robustness as a GL system candidate, it was observed with the Inamori-Magellan Areal Camera & Spectrograph (IMACS) on the Magellan Baade Telescope at Las Campanas Observatory, to check whether the GL features have identical colors, meaning they are likely to originate from the same source. After confirmation of such GL systems, a sufficiently large sample will enable us to examine the $M_{BH}-{\sigma}$ relation at various redshifts, and in turn, investigate the co-evolution of SMBHs and their host galaxies.