Low-redshift quasars in the SDSS Stripe 82 II: associated companion galaxies and signature of star formation

Abstract

We present optical spectroscopy of the close companions of 22 low redshift (z<0.5) quasars (QSO) selected from a larger sample of QSO in the SDSS Stripe82 region for which both the host galaxy and the large scale environments have been investigated in our previous work. The new observations extend the number of QSO studied in our previous paper on close companion galaxies of 12 quasars. Our analysis here covers all 34 quasars from both this work and the previously published paper. We find that half of them (15 QSO; $\sim$44%) have at least one associated galaxy. Many (12 galaxies; $\sim$67%) of the associated companions exhibit [OII] 3727 A emission line as signature of recent star formation. The star formation rate (SFR) of these galaxies is modest (median SFR $\sim$ 4.3 M${}_{\odot }$ yr${}^{-1}$). For 8 QSO we are also able to detect the starlight of the host galaxy from which 3 have a typical spectrum of a post-starburst galaxy. Our results suggest that quasars do not have a strong influence on the star formation of their companion galaxies.

20 pages, 6 figures, accepted in MNRAS

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Cited by in corpus (1)

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