Quasi-Stellar Objects, Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies, and Mergers

By G. Canalizo, A. Stockton. 2001

308 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We test the hypothesis that QSOs are formed via strong tidal interactions or mergers, initially going through an ultraluminous infrared phase. Our approach is to look for traces of this phase in the host galaxies of QSOs. We select a sample of low-redshift bona fide QSOs that may be in a transitionary stage between ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIGs) and QSOs. These objects, which we call transition QSOs, have an intermediate position in the far-infrared color-color diagram between the regions occupied by the two classes of objects. We carry out a systematic spectroscopic and imaging study of these objects in order to determine their interaction and star-forming histories. By modeling the spectra, we obtain ages for the recent starburst events in the host galaxies and interacting companions. We have discussed the first five objects in the sample in detail in previous publications; here we present results for the remaining four objects, and discuss the sample as a whole. We find that all nine transition QSOs are undergoing tidal interactions and that eight are major mergers. Every object also shows strong recent star-forming activity, and in at least eight cases this activity is directly related to the tidal interaction. The ages we derive for the starburst populations range from currently active star formation in some objects to poststarburst ages ≲300 Myr in others. There is also a clear connection between interactions, starbursts, and QSO activity. Seven of the QSOs in the sample are also ULIGs; statistical considerations show that the two phenomena are necessarily physically related in these objects. Our results imply one of two scenarios: (1) at least some ULIGs evolve to become classical QSOs, and the transition stage lasts ≲300 Myr; or (2) at least some QSOs are born under the same conditions as ULIGs, and their lifetime as QSOs lasts ≲300 Myr. We discuss other properties and trends found in the sample, and propose a model that accounts for all of them, as well as the youth of these systems.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

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Citations in the corpus

Galaxy pairs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey - IV: Interactions trigger AGN (2011, background): “Many authors have found evidence for mergers associated with AGN hosts (e.g. Surace et al. 1998; Canalizo & Stockton 2001; Sanchez & Gonzalez-Serrano 2003; Jahnke et al. 2004; Smirnova et al. 2006; Combes et al. 2009; Villar-Martin et al. 2010, 2011), leading to an often cited connec- tion between…”
Black Holes in Galaxy Mergers: Evolution of Quasars (2005, background): “…of quasar hosts (e.g. Stockton 1978; Heckman et al. 1984; Stockton & MacKenty 1987; Stockton & Ridgway 1991; Hutchings & Neff 1992; Bahcall et al. 1994, 1995; Canalizo & Stockton 2001), the factor∼ 10 difference between the gas consumption time in ULIRGs and quasar lifetimes must be reconciled.”
On the Origin of [O II] Emission in Red-Sequence and Poststarburst Galaxies (2005, background): “Recently, much evidence has suggested a connection between AGNs and poststarbursts (Brotherton et al. 1999; Canalizo & Stockton 2001; Kauffmann et al. 2003; Heckman 2004; Ho 2005).”
A New Sample of Low-Mass Black Holes in Active Galaxies (2007, background): “While characterizing the star formation rates of broadline AGNs is notoriously challenging, evidence for ongoing star formation has been seen in some cases (e.g., Canalizo & Stockton 2001).”
UNIFICATION OF LUMINOUS TYPE 1 QUASARS THROUGH C iv EMISSION (2010, result): “…wind), coupled with the result of normal IR properties of BALQSOs (Gallagher et al. 2007) means that BALQSOs cannot, in general, be a small population of completely dust enshrouded quasars as some authors have suggested (e.g., Boroson & Meyers 1992; Canalizo & Stockton 2001; Urrutia et al. 2009).”
Colors of Active Galactic Nucleus Host Galaxies at 0.5 < z < 1.1 from the GEMS Survey (2004, unknown): “According to the currently favored view, galaxy-galaxy interactions or mergers are important mechanisms for (re-) igniting AGNs (e.g., Canalizo & Stockton 2001), except perhaps for very low level nuclear activity (e.g., Collin et al. 2003; Ho 2003).”
MERGERS AND BULGE FORMATION IN ΛCDM: WHICH MERGERS MATTER? (2009, background): “Observations have similarly linked mergers to at least some of the quasar population (Sanders et al. 1988; Canalizo & Stockton 2001; Guyon et al. 2006; Dasyra et al. 2007; Bennert et al. 2008).”
Galaxy pairs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey – IX. Merger-induced AGN activity as traced by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (2014, background): “A number of studie have found evidence for mergers in luminous quasar hosts (e.g., Canalizo & Stockton 2001; Bennert et al. 2008; Urrutia et al. 2008; Foreman, Volonteri & Dotti 2009; Ramos Almeida et al. 2011; Bessiere et al. 2012; Urrutia et al. 2012), where the link to interactions is fairly…”
Determining the Properties and Evolution of Red Galaxies from the Quasar Luminosity Function (2005, background): “…at high redshift (which should relax to become normal present ellipticals) are excessively blue, both from AGN contributions and recent starburst activity (see, e.g. Bahcall et al. 1997; Canalizo & Stockton 2001; Dunlop et al. 2003; Sánchez et al. 2004; Jahnke et al. 2004, and references therein).”
Starburst and AGN activity in ultraluminous infrared galaxies (2003, methodology): “A qualitatively similar picture was also proposed by Canalizo & Stockton (2001).”
GOODS-Herschel: the far-infrared view of star formation in active galactic nucleus host galaxies since z ≈ 3 (2011, background): “…often considered to be closely linked to major merger events – largely due to the high fractions of highly luminous, “quasar class” AGNs that appear to be associated with merging systems (e.g., Sanders et al. 1988; Sanders & Mirabel 1996; Surace et al. 1998; Canalizo & Stockton 2001; Ivison etal.”
A Combined Optical and X-ray Study of Unobscured Type 1 AGN. I. Optical Spectra and SED Modeling (2011, background): “Initial studies focused on the infrared, optical and ultraviolet (UV) continua (e.g. E-mail: chichuan.jin@durham.ac.uk Wills, Netzer & Wills 1985; Canalizo & Stockton 2001; Lacy et al. 2007).”
Evidence for Merger Remnants in Early-Type Host Galaxies of Low-Redshift QSOs (2008, background): “846 populations, in many radio-loud and radio-quiet QSOs (e.g., Martel et al. 1999; Canalizo & Stockton 2001; Evans et al. 2001; Scoville et al. 2003; Tadhunter et al. 2005; Barthel 2006).”
The Relation between Quasar and Merging Galaxy Luminosity Functions and the Merger-driven Star Formation History of the Universe (2006, background): “…of mergers (Stockton 1978; Heckman et al. 1984; Stockton & MacKenty 1987; Stockton & Ridgway 1991; Hutchings & Neff 1992; Bahcall et al. 1994, 1995, 1997; Canalizo & Stockton 2001) and starbursts (Brotherton et al. 1999, 2002; Canalizo et al. 2000; Yip et al. 2004; Vanden Berk et al. 2006).”
Fueling Low-Level AGN Activity through Stochastic Accretion of Cold Gas (2006, background): “Observations of low-redshift quasar hosts also reveal a connection between galaxy mergers and quasar activity (e.g., Heckman et al. 1984; Stockton & Ridgway 1991; Hutchings & Neff 1992; Bahcall et al. 1996, 1997; Canalizo & Stockton 2001).”
Morphologies of z ∼ 0.7 AGN host galaxies in CANDELS: no trend of merger incidence with AGN luminosity (2014, background): “Canalizo & Stockton (2001) studied a small sample of low-redshift quasars with ULIRG-like FIR SEDs and luminosities and found high levels of disturbance in their host galaxies.”
A semi-analytic model for the co-evolution of galaxies, black holes and active galactic nuclei (2008, background): “…the spectral energy distribution beneath the glare of the quasar, one always uncovers evidence of young stellar populations indicative of a recent starburst (Brotherton et al. 1999; Canalizo & Stockton 2001; Kauffmann et al. 2003b; Jahnke et al. 2004; Sánchez et al. 2004; Vanden Berk et al. 2006).”
The Relationship between Stellar Light Distributions of Galaxies and Their Formation Histories (2003, background): “The generalidea is that these galaxies are for the m ost part recentm ergers (Sanders et al. 1988;Borne et al. 2000;Canalizo & Stockton 2001)with induced starform ation and AG N activity which producesenergeticphotonsthatareabsorbed by dustand latertherm ally re-em itted in the infrared by heated…”
On-axis spectroscopy of the host galaxies of 20 optically luminous quasars at z ~ 0.3 (2006, result): “We agree with the conclusions of Canalizo & Stockton (2001) who, from a study of ultraluminous IR galaxies and QSOs, conclude that it is the merging process that triggers both star formation and activity, without finding evidence for any direct influence from one of these on to the other.”