Extreme MgII Emission in Recently-Quenched Galaxies: A New Sample of Intermediate-Redshift Post-Starburst Quasars from the DESI Early Data Release

Abstract

Post-starburst galaxies are galaxies which have recently and rapidly shut off star formation. AGN activity is often invoked to explain this rapid quenching, but most post-starburst selection methods select against optical AGN, motivating searches for "post-starburst quasars." We present DESI observations of ten post-starburst quasars with significant MgII emission ($L_{\text{MgII}}\ge 3\times 10^{41}$ erg/s). This is the first sample of post-starburst quasars to be selected from a post-starburst galaxy parent sample rather than a quasar catalog. Quasars make up $4.6_{-1.2}^{+1.6}\%$ of the post-starburst parent sample at $0.49\le z\le 1.39$. Using multiwavelength AGN diagnostics, we find that $26_{-2.8}^{+3.0}\%$ of post-starbursts in the parent sample host AGN. We find that post-starburst selection methods are biased against AGN with ${\text{L}}_{\text{Bol}}\gtrsim 10^{45}{\text{erg s}}^{-1}$, potentially removing the quasars responsible for driving outflows that aid in quenching. Finally, we find that 9/10 post-starburst quasars in our sample have no detected broad H$\beta$, similar to so-called "MgII emitters" that may be the remnants of fading quasars; if confirmed, these objects suggest a link between post-starburst galaxies and variable AGN. Our new sample of post-starburst quasars provides a link between previously reported local and high redshift post-starburst quasars during the epoch when star formation throughout the universe was declining.

arXiv commentTo be submitted to The Astrophysical Journal