High molecular gas content and star formation rates in local galaxies that host quasars, outflows, and jets

Jarvis, M.; Harrison, C. M.; Mainieri, V.; Rivera, G. Calistro; Jethwa, Prashin; Zhang, Zhi-Yu; Alexander, D. M.; Circosta, C.; Costa, Tiago; Breuck, C. De; Kakkad, D.; Kharb, P.; Lansbury, G. B.; Thomson, A. P.

doi:10.1093/mnras/staa2196

Cited by 68 publications

(94 citation statements)

References 129 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Since it is known that [O III] often over-predicts the AGN luminosity by about an order of magnitude (Schirmer et al 2013;Hainline et al 2013), this roughly corresponds to a cut of L AGN 10 45 erg s −1 , which can be verified using optical-FIR SED analyses (e.g. Jarvis et al 2019Jarvis et al , 2020. The range of luminosities covered by our sample is designed to be representative of typical AGN luminosities found during the peak epoch of cosmic black hole growth.…”

Section: Our Sample In Contextmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…In Jarvis et al (2020), we studied the CO emission and ultraviolet (UV) -far-infrared (FIR) spectral energy distributions (SEDs) for the nine Quasar Feedback Survey pilot targets. We found that, for at least seven of the targets, the host galaxies had high-molecular gas fractions and short depletion times, which are consistent with those expected for the overall galaxy population with matched stellar masses and specific star formation rates.…”

Section: Pilot Studies Summarymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We will also present spatially resolved ionized gas and molecular gas measurements for subsets of the sample to explore in more detail the multiphase outflows and ISM properties (e.g. Girdhar et al in preparation), building on the preliminary work presented in Jarvis et al (2019) and Jarvis et al (2020) on the pilot sample. As such, this paper represents a first step towards a detailed understanding of the mechanisms and impact of AGN feedback in this unique sample of quasars.…”

Section: O N C L U S I O N Smentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Much of this work was presented in a preliminary form in MEJ's PhD thesis (Jarvis 2020). The authors would like to thank the referee for the comments that improved the quality of this manuscript.…”

Section: Ac K N Ow L E D G E M E N T Smentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

The quasar feedback survey: discovering hidden Radio-AGN and their connection to the host galaxy ionized gas

Jarvis

Harrison

Mainieri

et al. 2021

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We present the first results from the Quasar Feedback Survey, a sample of 42 z < 0.2, [O iii] luminous AGN (L[O III] > 1042.1 ergs s−1) with moderate radio luminosities (i.e. L1.4GHz > 1023.4 W Hz−1; median L1.4GHz = 5.9 × 1023 W Hz−1). Using high spatial resolution (∼0.3–1 arcsec), 1.5–6 GHz radio images from the Very Large Array, we find that 67 percent of the sample have spatially extended radio features, on ∼1–60 kpc scales. The radio sizes and morphologies suggest that these may be lower radio luminosity versions of compact, radio-loud AGN. By combining the radio-to-infrared excess parameter, spectral index, radio morphology and brightness temperature, we find radio emission in at least 57 percent of the sample that is associated with AGN-related processes (e.g. jets, quasar-driven winds or coronal emission). This is despite only 9.5–21 percent being classified as radio-loud using traditional criteria. The origin of the radio emission in the remainder of the sample is unclear. We find that both the established anti-correlation between radio size and the width of the [O iii] line, and the known trend for the most [O iii] luminous AGN to be associated with spatially-extended radio emission, also hold for our sample of moderate radio luminosity quasars. These observations add to the growing evidence of a connection between the radio emission and ionised gas in quasar host galaxies. This work lays the foundation for deeper investigations into the drivers and impact of feedback in this unique sample.

show abstract

Section: Our Sample In Contextmentioning

confidence: 90%

Section: Pilot Studies Summarymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: O N C L U S I O N Smentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Ac K N Ow L E D G E M E N T Smentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The quasar feedback survey: discovering hidden Radio-AGN and their connection to the host galaxy ionized gas

Jarvis

Harrison

Mainieri

et al. 2021

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…As an example, observational signatures of high-velocity and multiphase outflows launched by AGN have been reported in the local and distant Universe (e.g., Cicone et al 2014Cicone et al , 2018Förster Schreiber et al 2014;Feruglio et al 2015;Harrison et al 2015;Jarvis et al 2019;Veilleux et al 2020), and so have pockets of warm and dense gas in AGN hosts (e.g., Weiß et al 2007;van der Werf et al 2010;Mashian et al 2015;Carniani et al 2019). Nevertheless, there is no clear evidence of strong feedback on the cold gaseous and dusty ISM in sizable samples of local galaxies, with AGN hosts showing similar global properties to purely star-forming galaxies (Saintonge et al 2012;Shangguan et al 2020;Jarvis et al 2020;Yesuf & Ho 2020). At high redshifts the situation is more controversial.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of active galactic nuclei on the cold interstellar medium in distant star-forming galaxies

Valentino

Daddi

Puglisi

et al. 2021

A&A

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In the framework of a systematic study with the ALMA interferometer of IR-selected main-sequence and starburst galaxies at z ∼ 1 − 1.7 at typical ∼1″ resolution, we report on the effects of mid-IR- and X-ray-detected active galactic nuclei (AGN) on the reservoirs and excitation of molecular gas in a sample of 55 objects. We find widespread detectable nuclear activity in ∼30% of the sample. The presence of dusty tori influences the IR spectral energy distribution of galaxies, as highlighted by the strong correlation among the AGN contribution to the total IR luminosity budget (fAGN = LIR, AGN/LIR), its hard X-ray emission, and the Rayleigh-Jeans to mid-IR (S1.2 mm/S24 μm) observed color, with evident consequences on the ensuing empirical star formation rate estimates. Nevertheless, we find only marginal effects of the presence and strength of AGN on the carbon monoxide CO (J = 2, 4, 5, 7) or neutral carbon ([C I](3P1 − 3P0), [C I](3P2 − 3P1)) line luminosities and on the derived molecular gas excitation as gauged by line ratios and the full spectral line energy distributions. The [C I] and CO emission up to J = 5, 7 thus primarily traces the properties of the host in typical IR luminous galaxies. However, our analysis highlights the existence of a large variety of line luminosities and ratios despite the homogeneous selection. In particular, we find a sparse group of AGN-dominated sources with the highest LIR, AGN/LIR, SFR ratios, ≳3, that are more luminous in CO (5−4) than what is predicted by the L′CO(5-4)−LIR, SFR relation, which might be the result of the nuclear activity. For the general population, our findings translate into AGN having minimal effects on quantities such as gas and dust fractions and star formation efficiencies. If anything, we find hints of a marginal tendency of AGN hosts to be compact at far-IR wavelengths and to display 1.8 times larger dust optical depths. In general, this is consistent with a marginal impact of the nuclear activity on the gas reservoirs and star formation in average star-forming AGN hosts with LIR > 5 × 1011 L⊙, typically underrepresented in surveys of quasars and submillimeter galaxies.

show abstract

Super

Circosta

Mainieri

Lamperti

et al. 2021

A&A

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Feedback from active galactic nuclei (AGN) is thought to be key in shaping the life cycle of their host galaxies by regulating star-formation activity. Therefore, to understand the impact of AGN on star formation, it is essential to trace the molecular gas out of which stars form. In this paper we present the first systematic study of the CO properties of AGN hosts at z ≈ 2 for a sample of 27 X-ray selected AGN spanning two orders of magnitude in AGN bolometric luminosity (log Lbol / erg s−1 = 44.7 − 46.9) by using ALMA Band 3 observations of the CO(3-2) transition (∼1″ angular resolution). To search for evidence of AGN feedback on the CO properties of the host galaxies, we compared our AGN with a sample of inactive (i.e., non-AGN) galaxies from the PHIBSS survey with similar redshift, stellar masses, and star-formation rates (SFRs). We used the same CO transition as a consistent proxy for the gas mass for the two samples in order to avoid systematics involved when assuming conversion factors (e.g., excitation corrections and αCO). By adopting a Bayesian approach to take upper limits into account, we analyzed CO luminosities as a function of stellar masses and SFRs, as well as the ratio LCO(3–2)′/M∗ (a proxy for the gas fraction). The two samples show statistically consistent trends in the LCO(3–2)′−LFIR and LCO(3–2)′−M∗ planes. However, there are indications that AGN feature lower CO(3-2) luminosities (0.4–0.7 dex) than inactive galaxies at the 2–3σ level when we focus on the subset of parameters where the results are better constrained (i.e., LFIR ≈ 1012.2 L⊙ and M* > 1011 M⊙) and on the distribution of the mean log(LCO(3–2)′/M∗). Therefore, even by conservatively assuming the same excitation factor r31, we would find lower molecular gas masses in AGN, and assuming higher r31 would exacerbate this difference. We interpret our result as a hint of the potential effect of AGN activity (such as radiation and outflows), which may be able to heat, excite, dissociate, and/or deplete the gas reservoir of the host galaxies. Better SFR measurements and deeper CO observations for AGN as well as larger and more uniformly selected samples of both AGN and inactive galaxies are required to confirm whether there is a true difference between the two populations.

show abstract

High molecular gas content and star formation rates in local galaxies that host quasars, outflows, and jets

Cited by 68 publications

References 129 publications

The quasar feedback survey: discovering hidden Radio-AGN and their connection to the host galaxy ionized gas

The quasar feedback survey: discovering hidden Radio-AGN and their connection to the host galaxy ionized gas

The effect of active galactic nuclei on the cold interstellar medium in distant star-forming galaxies

Super

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About