ALMA observations of cold molecular gas in AGN hosts at z~1.5 - Evidence of AGN feedback?

Abstract

Similarly to the cosmic star formation history, the black hole accretion rate density of the Universe peaked at 1<z<3. This cosmic epoch is hence best suited for investigating the effects of radiative feedback from AGN. Observational efforts are underway to quantify the impact of AGN feedback, if any, on their host galaxies. Here we present a study of the molecular gas content of AGN hosts at z~1.5 using CO[2-1] line emission observed with ALMA for a sample of 10 AGNs. We compare this with a sample of galaxies without an AGN matched in redshift, stellar mass, and star formation rate. We detect CO in 3 AGNs with ${\mathrm{L}}_{\mathrm{CO}}\sim 6.3-25.1\times 10^9{\mathrm{L}}_{\odot }$ which translates to a molecular hydrogen gas mass of $2.5-10\times 10^{10}{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$ assuming conventional conversion factor of ${\alpha }_{\mathrm{CO}}\sim 3.6$. Our results indicate a >99% probability of lower depletion time scales and lower molecular gas fractions in AGN hosts with respect to the non-AGN comparison sample. We discuss the implications of these observations on the impact that AGN feedback may have on star formation efficiency of z>1 galaxies.

12 pages, 5 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in MNRAS

References in corpus (21)

• Cosmic Star Formation History
• 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
• A Highly Consistent Framework for the Evolution of the Star-Forming "Main Sequence" from z~0-6
• zCOSMOS: A Large VLT/VIMOS redshift survey covering 0 < z < 3 in the COSMOS field
• The Herschel view of the dominant mode of galaxy growth from z=4 to the present day
• Combined CO & Dust Scaling Relations of Depletion Time and Molecular Gas Fractions with Cosmic Time, Specific Star Formation Rate and Stellar Mass
• An Objective Definition for the Main Sequence of Star-Forming Galaxies
• The Mean Star Formation Rate of X-ray selected Active Galaxies and its Evolution from z=2.5: Results from PEP-Herschel
• The Current Status of Galaxy Formation
• The impact of interactions, bars, bulges, and AGN on star formation efficiency in local massive galaxies
• Blowin' in the wind: both `negative' and `positive' feedback in an obscured high-z Quasar
• X-shooter reveals powerful outflows in z~1.5 X-ray selected obscured quasi stellar objects
• The nature of the [CII] emission in dusty star-forming galaxies from the SPT survey
• Minkowski's Object: A Starburst Triggered by a Radio Jet, Revisited
• A Multiwavelength Consensus on the Main Sequence of Star-Forming Galaxies at z~2
• Galaxy-wide outflows in z$\sim$1.5 luminous obscured QSOs revealed through NIR slit-resolved spectroscopy
• Evidence of suppression of star formation by quasar-driven winds in gas-rich host galaxies at z<1?
• Evidence for feedback in action from the molecular gas content in the z~1.6 outflowing QSO XID2028
• Properties of the molecular gas in a starbursting QSO at z=1.83 in the COSMOS field
• Molecular Gas in the z=1.2 Ultraluminous Merger GOODS J123634.53+621241.3
• Gas reservoir of a hyper-luminous QSO at z=2.6

Cited by in corpus (40)

• The ALMA view of the high-redshift relation between supermassive black holes and their host galaxies
• BAT AGN Spectroscopic Survey-XX: Molecular Gas in Nearby Hard X-ray Selected AGN Galaxies
• Quasar Feedback Survey: Multi-phase outflows, turbulence and evidence for feedback caused by low power radio jets inclined into the galaxy disk
• The WISSH QSOs project IX. Cold gas content and environment of luminous QSOs at z~2.4-4.7
• High molecular gas content and star formation rates in local galaxies that host quasars, outflows and jets
• Resolved star formation and molecular gas properties of green valley galaxies: a first look with ALMA and MaNGA
• Integral field spectroscopy of nearby QSOs II. The molecular gas content and condition for star formation
• Gas Content Regulates the Lifecycle of Star Formation and Black Hole Accretion in Galaxies
• The Infrared Emission and Vigorous Star Formation of Low-redshift Quasars
• AGN feedback on molecular gas reservoirs in quasars at $z\sim$2.4
• SUPER IV. CO(J=3-2) properties of active galactic nucleus hosts at cosmic noon revealed by ALMA
• AGN Feedback in SDSS-IV MaNGA: AGNs have Suppressed Central Star Formation Rates
• The Close AGN Reference Survey (CARS): IFU survey data and the BH mass dependence of long-term AGN variability
• The Close AGN Reference Survey (CARS): No obvious signature of AGN feedback on star formation, but subtle trends
• SUPER V. ALMA continuum observations of z~2 AGN and the elusive evidence of outflows influencing star formation
• The impact of ionised outflows from z$\sim$2.5 quasars is not through instantaneous in-situ quenching: the evidence from ALMA and VLT/SINFONI
• Enhanced Star Formation Efficiency in the Central Regions of Nearby Quasars Hosts
• The molecular gas properties in local Seyfert 2 galaxies
• The Ionization and Destruction of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Powerful Quasars
• The Quasar Feedback Survey: Revealing the Interplay of Jets, Winds & Emission Line Gas in Type 2 Quasars with Radio Polarization
• Quenching by gas compression and consumption: A case study of a massive radio galaxy at z = 2.57
• Supermassive Black Hole Winds in X-rays -- SUBWAYS. III. A population study on ultra-fast outflows
• The effect of active galactic nuclei on the cold interstellar medium in distant star-forming galaxies
• SMM J04135+10277: A distant QSO-starburst system caught by ALMA
• SUPER VII. Morphology and kinematics of H$\alpha$ emission in AGN host galaxies at Cosmic noon using SINFONI
• Splitting the lentils: Clues to galaxy/black hole coevolution from the discovery of offset relations for non-dusty versus dusty (wet-merger-built) lenticular galaxies in the $M_{\mathrm{bh}}$-$M_{\ast ,\mathrm{spheroid}}$ diagram
• Physical properties of hyperluminous, dust-obscured quasars at $z\sim 3$: multiwavelength Spectral Energy Distribution analysis and cold gas content revealed by ALMA
• Probing supermassive black hole growth and its dependence on stellar mass and star-formation rate in low-redshift galaxies
• Star formation efficiency and AGN feedback in narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies with fast X-ray nuclear winds
• The molecular gas in the central region of NGC 7213
• Lack of Correlations between Cold Molecular Gas and AGN Properties in Type 1 AGNs at $z\lesssim 0.5$
• Cosmological Simulation of Galaxy Groups and Clusters-I: Global Effect of Feedback from Active Galactic Nuclei
• Circumnuclear Molecular Gas in Low-redshift Quasars and Matched Star-forming Galaxies
• The Mass of the Black Hole in NGC 5273 from Stellar Dynamical Modeling
• VLA detects CO(1-0) emission in the z=3.65 quasar SDSS J160705+533558
• Remarkably high mass and high velocity dispersion of molecular gas associated with a regular, absorption-selected type-I quasar
• Measuring the ISM Content of Nearby, Luminous, Type 1 and Type 2 QSOs through CO and [C II]
• Multiphase Powerful Outflows Detected in High-z Quasars
• Cosmological simulations predict that AGN preferentially live in gas-rich, star-forming galaxies despite effective feedback
• Molecular gas content of gravitational-lensed quasars at cosmic noon