No evidence for excess AGN activity in recently quenched massive galaxies at cosmic noon

Abstract

We present an analysis of AGN activity within recently quenched massive galaxies at cosmic noon ($z\sim 2$), using deep Chandra X-ray observations of the Ultra-Deep Survey (UDS) field. Our sample includes over 4000 massive galaxies ($M_{\ast }>10^{10.5}$ M${}_{\odot }$) in the redshift range $1<z<3$, including more than 200 transitionary post-starburst (PSB) systems. We find that X-ray emitting AGN are detected in $6.2\pm 1.5$ per cent of massive PSBs at these redshifts, a detection rate that lies between those of star-forming and passive galaxies ($8.2\pm 0.5$ per cent and $5.7\pm 0.8$ per cent, respectively). A stacking analysis shows that the average X-ray luminosity for PSBs is comparable to older passive galaxies, but a factor of $2.6\pm 0.3$ below star-forming galaxies of similar redshift and stellar mass. The average X-ray luminosity in all populations appears to trace the star-formation rate, with PSBs showing low levels of AGN activity consistent with their reduced levels of star formation. We conclude that, on average, we see no evidence for excess AGN activity in the post-starburst phase. However, the low levels of AGN activity can be reconciled with the high-velocity outflows observed in many PSBs, assuming the rare X-ray detections represent short-lived bursts of black hole activity, visible $\sim$5 per cent of the time. Thus, X-ray AGN may help to maintain quiescence in massive galaxies at cosmic noon, but the evidence for a direct link to the primary quenching event remains elusive.

15 pages, 24 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

References in corpus (34)

• The UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS)
• EAZY: A Fast, Public Photometric Redshift Code
• Simba: Cosmological Simulations with Black Hole Growth and Feedback
• A Close Look at Star Formation around Active Galactic Nuclei
• The Discovery of 1000 km/s Outflows in Massive Post-starburst Galaxies at z=0.6
• The Subaru/XMM-Newton Deep Survey (SXDS) - II. Optical Imaging and Photometric Catalogs
• The impact of mechanical AGN feedback on the formation of massive early-type galaxies
• The evolution of post-starburst galaxies from z=2 to z= 0.5
• Discovery of Large Molecular Gas Reservoirs in Post-Starburst Galaxies
• Suppression of Star Formation in NGC 1266
• High-Velocity Outflows Without AGN Feedback: Eddington-Limited Star Formation in Compact Massive Galaxies
• X-rays across the galaxy population I: tracing the main sequence of star formation
• From Starburst to Quiescence: Testing AGN feedback in Rapidly Quenching Post-Starburst Galaxies
• The role of AGN in the colour transformation of galaxies at redshifts z~1
• The evolution of the cold interstellar medium in galaxies following a starburst
• CANDELS: Elevated Black Hole Growth in the Progenitors of Compact Quiescent Galaxies at z~2
• Star Formation Shut Down by Multiphase Gas Outflow in a Galaxy at a Redshift of 2.45
• Massive quenched galaxies at z~0.7 retain large molecular gas reservoirs
• Relationship between star formation rate and black hole accretion at z=2: The different contributions in quiescent, normal and starburst galaxies
• Massive Compact Galaxies with High-Velocity Outflows: Morphological Analysis and Constraints on AGN Activity
• JWST Reveals Widespread AGN-Driven Neutral Gas Outflows in Massive z ~ 2 Galaxies
• Evolution Through the Post-Starburst Phase: Using Post-Starburst Galaxies as Laboratories for Understanding the Processes that Drive Galaxy Evolution
• The Host Galaxies and Black Holes of Typical z~0.5-1.4 AGN
• After The Fall: Resolving the Molecular Gas in Post-Starburst Galaxies
• Co-evolution of black hole accretion and star formation in galaxies up to z=3.5
• Fading AGN in Post-Starburst Galaxies
• An exquisitely deep view of quenching galaxies through the gravitational lens: Stellar population, morphology, and ionized gas
• From starburst to quiescence: post-starburst galaxies and their large-scale clustering over cosmic time
• The role of mass and environment in the build up of the quenched galaxy population since cosmic noon
• AGN Feedback in Quiescent Galaxies at Cosmic Noon Traced by Ionized Gas Emission
• Testing the evolutionary pathways of galaxies and their supermassive black holes and the impact of feedback from Active Galactic Nuclei via large multiwavelength datasets
• High-velocity outflows persist up to 1 Gyr after a starburst in recently-quenched galaxies at z > 1
• The incidence of AGN in galaxies with different stellar population ages
• ADF22-WEB: Detection of a molecular gas reservoir in a massive quiescent galaxy located in a $z\approx 3$ proto-cluster core

Cited by in corpus (7)

• PRIMER & JADES reveal an abundance of massive quiescent galaxies at 2 < z < 5
• Radio Variability in Recently-Quenched Galaxies: The Impact of TDE or AGN Driven Outflows
• The Delay Time Distribution of Tidal Disruption Events
• Dynamically close galaxy pairs from the unWISE survey: Testing the merger-AGN-star formation connection
• The Nature of High-Redshift Massive Quiescent Galaxies -- Searching for RUBIES-UDS-QG-z7 in FLARES
• Selecting Post-Starburst Galaxies Based on Star Formation History
• The multiwavelength structure of post-starburst galaxies at 0.5 < z < 3 with JWST PRIMER: compact morphologies and residual disturbances