Quasar Luminosity Functions from Joint Evolution of Black Holes and Host Galaxies

We show that our previously proposed antihierarchical baryon collapse scenario for the joint evolution of black holes and host galaxies predicts quasar luminosity functions at redshifts 1.5<~z<~6 and local properties in nice agreement with observations. In our model the quasar activity marks and originates the transition between an earlier phase of violent and heavily dust-enshrouded starburst activity promoting rapid black hole growth, and a later phase of almost passive evolution; the former is traced by the submillimeter-selected sources, while the latter accounts for the high number density of massive galaxies at substantial redshifts z>~1.5, the population of extremely red objects, and the properties of local elliptical galaxies.