NUCLEAR ACTIVITY IS MORE PREVALENT IN STAR-FORMING GALAXIES

Journal Article · Mon Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 2013 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/771/1/63· OSTI ID:22140190

Rosario, D. J.; Lutz, D.; Berta, S.; Popesso, P.; Genzel, R.; Saintonge, A.; Tacconi, L.; others, and

We explore the question of whether low and moderate luminosity active galactic nuclei (AGNs) are preferentially found in galaxies that are undergoing a transition from active star formation (SF) to quiescence. This notion has been suggested by studies of the UV-optical colors of AGN hosts, which find them to be common among galaxies in the so-called Green Valley, a region of galaxy color space believed to be composed mostly of galaxies undergoing SF quenching. Combining the deepest current X-ray and Herschel/PACS far-infrared (FIR) observations of the two Chandra Deep Fields with redshifts, stellar masses, and rest-frame photometry derived from the extensive and uniform multi-wavelength data in these fields, we compare the rest-frame U - V color distributions and star formation rate distributions of AGNs and carefully constructed samples of inactive control galaxies. The UV-to-optical colors of AGNs are consistent with equally massive inactive galaxies at redshifts out to z {approx} 2, but we show that such colors are poor tracers of SF. While the FIR distributions of both star-forming AGNs and star-forming inactive galaxies are statistically similar, we show that AGNs are preferentially found in star-forming host galaxies, or, in other words, AGNs are less likely to be found in weakly star-forming or quenched galaxies. We postulate that, among X-ray-selected AGNs of low and moderate accretion luminosities, the supply of cold gas primarily determines the accretion rate distribution of the nuclear black holes.

• OSTI ID: 22140190
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 771; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
BLACK HOLES
COLOR
DISTRIBUTION
EVOLUTION
FAR INFRARED RADIATION
GALAXY NUCLEI
LUMINOSITY
MASS
PERTURBED ANGULAR CORRELATION
PHOTOMETRY
QUENCHING
RED SHIFT
SPACE
STARS
WAVELENGTHS
X RADIATION
X-RAY GALAXIES