Near-IR Properties of Quasar Host Galaxies

Abstract

We have obtained deep, near-IR images of nearly 100 host galaxies of nearby quasars and Seyferts. We find the near-IR light to be a good tracer of luminous mass in these galaxies. For the most luminous quasars there is a correlation between the maximum allowed B-band nuclear luminosity and the host galaxy mass, a ``luminosity/host-mass limit''. Comparing our images with images from HST, we find that the hosts of these very luminous quasars are likely early type galaxies, even for radio-quiet objects whose lower-luminosity counterparts traditionally live in spirals. We speculate that the luminosity/host-mass limit represents a physical limit on the size of black hole that can exist in a given galaxy spheroid mass. We discuss the promises of NICMOS for detecting the hosts of luminous quasars.