On the Origin of [O II] Emission in Red-Sequence and Poststarburst Galaxies

By R. Yan, J. Newman, S. Faber, N. Konidaris, D. Koo, M. Davis. 2005

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We investigate the emission-line properties of galaxies with red rest-frame colors (compared to the g - r color bimodality) using spectra from SDSS DR4. Emission lines are detected in more than half of the red galaxies. We focus on the relationship between two emission lines commonly used as star formation rate indicators: Hα and [O II] λ3727. There is a strong bimodality in [O II]/Hα ratio in the SDSS sample that closely corresponds to the bimodality in rest-frame color. Nearly all of the line-emitting red galaxies have line ratios typical of various types of AGNs—most commonly LINERs, a small fraction of transition objects, and, more rarely, Seyferts. Only ~6% of red galaxies display star-forming line ratios. A straight line in the [O II]-Hα EW diagram separates LINER-like galaxies from other categories. Quiescent galaxies with no detectable emission lines and LINER-like galaxies combine to form a single, tight red sequence in color-magnitude-concentration space. [O II] EWs in LINER- and AGN-like galaxies can be as large as those in star-forming galaxies. Thus, unless objects with AGN/LINER-like line ratios are excluded, [O II] emission cannot be used directly as a proxy for star formation rate; this is a particular issue for red galaxies. Lack of [O II] emission is generally used to indicate a lack of star formation when poststarburst galaxies are selected at high redshift. Our results imply, however, that these samples have been cut on AGN properties, as well as star formation, and therefore may provide seriously incomplete sets of poststarburst galaxies. Furthermore, poststarburst galaxies identified in SDSS by requiring minimal Hα EW generally exhibit weak but nonzero line emission with ratios typical of AGNs; few of them show residual star formation. This suggests that most poststarburst galaxies may harbor AGNs/LINERs.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/74b9bc73d9bb510ff290111cb22ba419e19e917e

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Citations in the corpus

THE RISE AND FALL OF PASSIVE DISK GALAXIES: MORPHOLOGICAL EVOLUTION ALONG THE RED SEQUENCE REVEALED BY COSMOS (2009, background): “Previous work has often relied on a single rest-frame UV-optical color to select passive galaxies, but this technique leads to possible contamination from dusty star-formers (e.g., Yan et al. 2006).”
THE DEEP2 GALAXY REDSHIFT SURVEY: DESIGN, OBSERVATIONS, DATA REDUCTION, AND REDSHIFTS (2012, background): “Red spheroidal galaxies are truly quenched, and the strong [O II] emission in some is due to AGN and/or LINER activity (Konidaris 2008, Yan et al. 2006).”
EVIDENCE FOR UBIQUITOUS COLLIMATED GALACTIC-SCALE OUTFLOWS ALONG THE STAR-FORMING SEQUENCE AT z ∼ 0.5 (2013, background): “As discussed in, e.g., Dressler & Gunn (1983), Goto et al. (2003), Yan et al. (2006), and Goto (2007), the presence of strong Balmer absorption signals a recent burst of star formation, and the simultaneous absence of nebular emission lines (e.g., [O II], Hα) indicates that the burst has been…”
The DEEP2 Galaxy Redshift Survey: the role of galaxy environment in the cosmic star formation history (2007, methodology): “The impact of such AGN activity on the galaxy sample is greatest along the red sequence; where roughly 35–45% of nearby red galaxies exhibit signatures of AGN activity (Yan et al. 2006).”
Observational evidence for AGN feedback in early-type galaxies (2007, result): “This is well consistent with the study of Yan et al. (2006), who find that many poststarburst galaxies show strong [OII] emission, but no Hα, indicating no further ongoing star formation, which they associatewith LINERs.”
Bursty stellar populations and obscured active galactic nuclei in galaxy bulges (2007, background): “…active galactic nucleus (AGN) (Kauffmann et al. 2003a; Cid Fernandes et al. 2004a; Yip et al. 2004; Bender et al. 2005; Tadhunter et al. 2005; Goto 2006; Yan et al. 2006), with direct implications for the starburst–AGN connection; it is this question which we primarily aim to address in this paper.”
The Coevolution of Galaxies and Supermassive Black Holes: Insights from Surveys of the Contemporary Universe (2014, methodology): “Based on this methodology, Kauffmann et al. (2003a) showed that high-luminosity Type 2 AGN in SDSS were more likely to have undergone a starburst within the last 109 years compared to low-luminosity AGN or normal galaxies of similar stellar mass (see also Goto 2006 and Yan et al. 2006).”
The DEEP3 Galaxy Redshift Survey: the impact of environment on the size evolution of massive early-type galaxies at intermediate redshift (2011, background): “…on the red sequence, are likely to inhabit slightly more overdense regions even relative to galaxies of like colour and luminosity (i.e. stellar mass; Yan et al. 2006, 2011; Montero-Dorta et al. 2009; Juneau et al. 2011) – though, recent work suggests that LINERs may not be the product of AGN…”
Star Formation in AEGIS Field Galaxies since z = 1.1: The Dominance of Gradually Declining Star Formation, and the Main Sequence of Star-forming Galaxies (2007, background): “Line emission in these red galaxies thus appears to be dominated by LINERs/AGNs, particularly at where they are more frequent.”
Physical properties and environments of nearby galaxies (2009, methodology): “As Yan et al. (2006) show, using [O II] λ3727 alone can easily exclude half or more of the K+A sample, which commonly have weak AGN (Yang et al. 2006).”
The DEEP2 Galaxy Redshift Survey: Color and Luminosity Dependence of Galaxy Clustering at z ∼ 1 (2007, background): “Within the red sequence, the bluer galaxies have a higher [OIII]/Hβ ratio, indicating more AGN activity, and the redder galaxies have stronger Ca H+K absorption features.”
SDSS-IV MaNGA : the impact of diffuse ionized gas on emission-line ratios, interpretation of diagnostic diagrams and gas metallicity measurements (2016, background): “Quiescent galaxies are known to show LI(N)ER emissions (Yan et al. 2006; Sarzi et al. 2006; Stasińska et al. 2008; Kehrig et al. 2012; Singh et al. 2013; Gomes et al. 2016; Belfiore et al. 2015, 2016a,b).”
Population Synthesis in the Blue. IV. Accurate Model Predictions for Lick Indices and UBV Colors in Single Stellar Populations (2007, methodology): “This value was taken from Yan et al. (2006), who studied the emission line properties of a large sample of SDSS galaxies.”
Post-starburst galaxies: more than just an interesting curiosity (2008, background): “Our selection differs primarily by not placing limits on nebular emission, as we do not want to bias our sample against narrow-line AGN which are enhanced in the PSB population (Yan et al. 2006; Wild et al. 2007; Schawinski et al. 2007).”
Stellar Population Inference with Prospector (2020, background): “The [NII]/Hα ratio is very high, as is typical of post-starburst objects (Yan et al. 2006; Yang et al. 2006; French et al. 2015).”
GMASS ultradeep spectroscopy of galaxies at $z$ ~ 2 - II. Superdense passive galaxies: how did they form and evolve? (2008, background): “For instance, Yan et al. (2006) found that a large fraction of SDSS galaxies atz < 0.1 with red rest-frame colors and emission lines display line ratios typical of various types of AGNs (LINERs, transition objects, and, more rarely, Seyferts) rather than of star-forming galaxies. is not shown…”
Nuclear Activity in Nearby Galaxies (2008, background): “Roughly 30% of the galaxies on the red sequence in SDSS exhibit LINER-like emission (Yan et al. 2006).”
THE NATURE OF LINER-LIKE EMISSION IN RED GALAXIES (2011, methodology): “As in Yan et al. (2006), the emisson line flux is measured from direct flux-summing in the continuumsubtracted spectra.”
Near infrared spectroscopy and star-formation histories of 3 ≤ z ≤ 4 quiescent galaxies (2018, background): “…low sSFR, both emission lines may be significantly contaminated by energy sources other than star-formation; an AGN, or low-ionization emission from old/intermediate-age stars (see, e.g., Cid Fernandes et al. 2010, 2011 for Balmer lines, and Yan et al. 2006 or Lemaux et al. 2010 for [O ii]).”
THE GREATER IMPACT OF MERGERS ON THE GROWTH OF MASSIVE GALAXIES: IMPLICATIONS FOR MASS ASSEMBLY AND EVOLUTION SINCE z ≃ 1 (2009, background): “For example, contamination from dusty star-forming galaxies on the red sequence is at least ∼10% (see Yan et al. 2006) and a comparison to morphological types (see below) for a subset of galaxies with 0.6 < z < 0.8 and M⊙ > 10 10 shows that ∼12% of blue galaxies are classified as spheroidal while…”