Star formation in AGNs at the hundred parsec scale using MIR high resolution images

Abstract

It has been well established in the past decades that the central black hole masses of galaxies correlate with dynamical properties of their harbouring bulges. This notion begs the question of whether there are causal connections between the AGN and its immediate vicinity in the host galaxy. In this paper we analyse the presence of circumnuclear star formation in a sample of 15 AGN using mid-infrared observations. The data consist of a set of 11.3{\mm} PAH emission and reference continuum images, taken with ground based telescopes, with sub-arcsecond resolution. By comparing our star formation estimates with AGN accretion rates, derived from X-ray luminosities, we investigate the validity of theoretical predictions for the AGN-starburst connection. Our main results are: i) circumnuclear star formation is found, at distances as low as tens of parsecs from the nucleus, in nearly half of our sample (7/15); ii) star formation luminosities are correlated with the bolometric luminosity of the AGN ($L_{AGN}$) only for objects with $L_{AGN}\ge 10^{42}\mathrm{erg}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$; iii) low luminosity AGNs ($L_{AGN}<10^{42}\mathrm{erg}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$) seem to have starburst luminosities far greater than their bolometric luminosities.

12 pages, 10 figures

References in corpus (15)

• An XMM-Newton survey of broad iron lines in Seyfert galaxies
• AGN Dusty Tori: I. Handling of Clumpy Media
• A Close Look at Star Formation around Active Galactic Nuclei
• The Mean Star Formation Rate of X-ray selected Active Galaxies and its Evolution from z=2.5: Results from PEP-Herschel
• CAIXA: a Catalogue of AGN In the XMM-Newton Archive I. Spectral analysis
• Spitzer/IRS 5-35 um Low-Resolution Spectroscopy of the 12 um Seyfert Sample
• Nuclear 11.3$\mu$m PAH emission in local active galactic nuclei
• The Effect of Active Galactic Nuclei on the Mid-Infrared Aromatic Features
• Coevolution of Supermassive Black Holes and Circumnuclear Disks
• X-ray nature of the LINER nuclear sources
• Prevalence of High X-ray Obscuring Columns among AGN that Host H${}_2$O Masers
• The first detection of near-infrared CN bands in active galactic nuclei: signature of star formation
• Spectral Statistics and Local Luminosity Function of a Hard X-ray Complete Sample of Brightest AGNs
• Active galactic nuclei synapses: X-ray versus optical classifications using artificial neural networks
• High Spatial Resolution of the Mid-Infrared Emission of Compton-Thick Seyfert 2 Galaxy Mrk3

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Black-hole-regulated star formation in massive galaxies
• Gemini NIFS survey of feeding and feedback processes in nearby Active Galaxies: VI -- Stellar Populations
• Obscuring fraction of active galactic nuclei implied by supernova and radiative feedbacks
• Extinction in the 11.2 micron PAH band and the low L_11.2/L_IR in ULIRGs
• Uncovering the primary X-ray emission and possible starburst component in the polarized NLS1 Mrk 1239
• The Collisional and Photoionized Plasma in the Polarized NLS1 galaxy Mrk 1239
• Modeling the Vertical Structure of Nuclear Starburst Discs: A Possible Source of AGN Obscuration at $z\sim 1$
• Digging deeper into NGC\,6868 I: stellar population