GOODS-Herschel: the far-infrared view of star formation in active galactic nucleus host galaxies since z ≈ 3

By James Mullaney, M. Pannella, E. Daddi, D. M. Alexander, D. Elbaz, R. Hickox, Frédéric Bournaud, B. Altieri, H. Aussel, D. Coia and 37 more. 2011

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We present a study of the infrared properties of X-ray selected, moderate-luminosity (i.e. L_X= 10^(42)–10^(44) erg s^(−1)) active galactic nuclei (AGNs) up to z ≈ 3, in order to explore the links between star formation in galaxies and accretion on to their central black holes. We use 100 and 160 μ m fluxes from GOODS-Herschel – the deepest survey yet undertaken by the Herschel telescope – and show that in the vast majority of cases (i.e. >94 per cent) these fluxes are dominated by emission from the host galaxy. As such, these far-infrared bands provide an uncontaminated view of star formation in the AGN host galaxies. We find no evidence of any correlation between the X-ray and infrared luminosities of moderate AGNs at any redshift, suggesting that global star formation is decoupled from nuclear (i.e. AGN) activity in these galaxies. On the other hand, we confirm that the star formation rates of AGN hosts increase strongly with redshift, by a factor of 43^(+27)_(−18) from z < 0.1 to z = 2–3 for AGNs with the same range of X-ray luminosities. This increase is entirely consistent with the factor of 25–50 increase in the specific star formation rates (SSFRs) of normal, star-forming (i.e. main-sequence) galaxies over the same redshift range. Indeed, the average SSFRs of AGN hosts are only marginally (i.e. ≈20 per cent) lower than those of main-sequence galaxies at all surveyed redshifts, with this small deficit being due to a fraction of AGNs residing in quiescent (i.e. low SSFR) galaxies. We estimate that 79 ± 10 per cent of moderate-luminosity AGNs are hosted in main-sequence galaxies, 15 ± 7 per cent in quiescent galaxies and <10 per cent in strongly starbursting galaxies. We derive the fractions of all main-sequence galaxies at z < 2 that are experiencing a period of moderate nuclear activity, noting that it is strongly dependent on galaxy stellar mass (M_(stars)), rising from just a few per cent at M_(stars) ∼ 10^(10) M_⊙ to ≳20 per cent at M_(stars)≥ 10^(11) M_⊙. Our results indicate that it is galaxy stellar mass that is most important in dictating whether a galaxy hosts a moderate-luminosity AGN. We argue that the majority of moderate nuclear activity is fuelled by internal mechanisms rather than violent mergers, which suggests that high-redshift disc instabilities could be an important AGN feeding mechanism.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/2b1616ec6cb4fcb3810ee9d2af59008412c5e435

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A CORRELATION BETWEEN STAR FORMATION RATE AND AVERAGE BLACK HOLE ACCRETION IN STAR-FORMING GALAXIES (2013, background): “Other studies have also obtained the BHAR to SFR ratios consistent with the values observed here (Rafferty et al. 2011; Mullaney et al. 2012b).”
Galaxy Interactions Trigger Rapid Black Hole Growth: an unprecedented view from the Hyper Suprime-Cam Survey (2017, background): “Previous observations have suggested that the AGN fraction (above some particular threshold in AGN luminosity) rises steeply as a function of stellar mass (e.g., Xue et al. 2010; Aird et al. 2012; Bongiorno et al. 2012; Mullaney et al. 2012).”
The Illustris simulation: the evolving population of black holes across cosmic time (2014, background): “For example, Mullaney et al. (2012) and Rosario et al. (2012) using a combination of far-infrared and X-ray data found no correlation between star formation rates and AGN X-ray luminosities, suggesting that they might be triggered by different physical processes.”
X-shooter reveals powerful outflows in z ∼ 1.5 X-ray selected obscured quasi-stellar objects (2014, background): “…obscured, quasars both in the local Universe and at high-z overall supports a coherent BH-SF growth (e.g. Sanders et al. 1988; Alexander et al. 2005), although at moderate luminosity the coupling is more debated (Rosario et al. 2012; Page et al. 2012; Harrison et al. 2012a; Mullaney et al. 2012).”
Cosmic X-ray surveys of distant active galaxies (2015, background): “…of galaxies hosting AGN activity above a fixed X-ray luminosity threshold rises steeply with host-galaxy mass out to at least z ≈ 2–3 (e.g., Bundy et al 2008; Brusa et al 2009b; Xue et al 2010; Georgakakis et al 2011; Bluck et al 2011; Aird et al 2012; Bongiorno et al 2012; Mullaney et al 2012b).”
The deepest Herschel-PACS far-infrared survey: number counts and infrared luminosity functions from combined PEP/GOODS-H observations (2013, background): “However, Herschel studies of X-ray AGNs (Rosario et al. 2013; Shao et al. 2010; Mullaney et al. 2012; Rosario et al. 2012) have demonstrated that in the vast majority of cases (i.e., > 94”
Clustering of intermediate redshift quasars using the final SDSS III-BOSS sample (2015, background): “…between the luminosity of Active Galactic Nuclei (henceforth AGN) luminosity and star formation in galaxies (e.g., Alexander & Hickox 2012; Mullaney et al. 2012; Ross et al. 2012b), great progress has been driven by two statistical measures of the quasar population: the luminosity…”
Cosmological simulations of black hole growth: AGN luminosities and downsizing (2013, background): “In addition, some recent observations of BH growth and star formation (SF) in individual objects appear to contradict the picture of a simple one-to-one co-evolution over time (e.g. Bongiorno 2012; Mullaney et al. 2012; Rosario 2012; Hickox et al. 2014).”
The mean star formation rate of X-ray selected active galaxies and its evolution from z~2.5: results from PEP-Herschel (2012, methodology): “Errors on the infrared luminosity were obtained by bootstrapping, in similar fashion as many current studies (Shaoet l. 2010; Mullaney et al. 2012; Santini et al. 2012).”
The incidence of obscuration in active galactic nuclei (2013, result): “Within individual redshift intervals (points of the same colour), there is little evidence of a correlation between LX and 〈SFR〉, a result consistent with previous investigations of SFR in AGN hosts from Herschel survey data (Mullaney et al. 2012; Rosario et al. 2012).”
A remarkably flat relationship between the average star formation rate and AGN luminosity for distant X-ray AGN. (2015, methodology): “This result agrees with the results of previous studies (e.g. Bongiorno et al. 2012; Harrison et al. 2012; Mullaney et al. 2012a; Lanzuisi et al. 2015).”
Accreting supermassive black holes in the COSMOS field and the connection to their host galaxies (2012, background): “Comparing with the whole galaxy population, we find that, at any redshift, AGNs are preferentially detected in massive galaxies, in agreement with previous studies (Brusa et al. 2009b; Silverman et al. 2009; Xue et al. 2010; Mullaney et al. 2012).”
Enhanced star formation rates in AGN hosts with respect to inactive galaxies from PEP-Herschel observations (2012, background): “In Shao et al. (2010), we found a substantial level of star formation in both low and high luminosity AGNs, increasing with redshift at similar rate as the star formation in inactive galaxies (see also Lutz et al. 2010; Mullaney et al. 2012 and Mullaney et al. 2010).”
Constraining the properties of AGN host galaxies with spectral energy distribution modelling (2015, methodology): “…by observational evidence that AGN hosts are typically massive and lie, at least in average sense, on the main sequence of star-formation (e.g., Mullaney et al. 2012; Santini et al. 2012; Rosario et al. 2012, 2013), we also choose the mock galaxies to sit on the main sequence of the SAM at…”
The Herschel view of the dominant mode of galaxy growth from z = 4 to the present day (2014, background): “We expect AGNs to reside in massive star-forming galaxies (Kauffmann et al. 2003; Mullaney et al. 2012; Santini et al. 2012; Juneau et al. 2013; Rosario et al. 2013).”