Co-Evolution of Galaxies and Central Black Holes: Observational Evidence on the Trigger of Agn Feedback

Abstract

A comprehensive analysis of the extended emission-line region (EELR) around quasars is presented. A new Subaru/Suprime-Cam observation is combined with a literature search, resulting in a compilation of 81 EELR measurements for type-1 and type-2 quasars with an associated active galactic nucleus (AGN) and host galaxy properties. It is found that the EELR phenomenon shows clear correlation with the Eddington ratio, which links EELR to the constituents of principal component 1, or eigenvector 1, of the AGN emission correlations. We also find that EELR is preferentially associated with gas-rich, massive blue galaxies. This supports the idea that the primary determinant of EELR creation is gas availability and that the gas may be brought in by galaxy merger, triggering the current star formation as well as AGN activity, and also gives an explanation for the fact that most luminous EELRs are found around radio-loud sources with low Eddington ratio. By combining all the observations, it is suggested that EELR quasars occupy the massive blue corner of the green valley, the AGN realm, on the galaxy color-stellar mass diagram. Once a galaxy is pushed to this corner, an activated AGN would create an EELR by energy injection into the interstellar gas and eventually blow it away, leading to star formation quenching. The results presented here provide a piece of evidence for the presence of such an AGN feedback process, which may play a leading role in the co-evolution of galaxies and central super-massive black holes.

OISTER optical and near-infrared monitoring observations of peculiar radio-loud active galactic nucleus SDSS J110006.07+442144.3

“…This small size of the [O III] narrow-line region itself is partly consistent with the notion that large, extended narrow-line regions are usually associated with AGN which have low Eddington ratios and/or high BH masses (Matsuoka 2012). …”

“…Therefore, we consider here whether or not this hypothesis is valid for J1100+4421. For more massive systems like quasars, the existence of extended narrow emission line regions sometimes indicates recent minor merger events and AGN triggering (Fu & Stockton 2009;Matsuoka 2012). An observational study on extended narrow-line regions in nearby Seyfert galaxies (Keel et al 2012) also shows that a significant fraction of the sample galaxies are interacting or merging systems.…”

X-shooter reveals powerful outflows in z ∼ 1.5 X-ray selected obscured quasi-stellar objects

“…The chosen apertures in our samples (corresponding to R∼ 4 kpc) contain emission from both the NLR and, when existing, the EELR. The observed line emission may be therefore broadened by bulk flow emission likely ascribed to an outflowing wind in conditions similar to those observed in EELR (see Matsuoka 2012). In this case the large FWHM observed may be directly related to the outflow velocity and the analysis of NIR integrated spectra of AGN at z>1 bring important information on the outflow properties (see for example Förster Schreiber et al 2014).…”

Observational Constraints on the Influence of Active Galactic Nuclei on the Evolution of Galaxies

“…3.4), which are often found in gas-rich systems containing luminous AGN (e.g., Colina et al 1999;Nesvadba et al 2008;Greene et al 2011;Villar-Martín et al 2011b;Matsuoka 2012). The presence of these emission-line regions enables us to trace the kinematics of the ionised gas in these galaxies.…”