Constraints on the Star Formation Rate in Active Galaxies

Abstract

The [O II] 3727 emission line is often used as an indicator of star formation rate in extragalactic surveys, and it can be an equally effective tracer of star formation in systems containing luminous active galactic nuclei (AGNs). In order to investigate the ongoing star formation rate of the host galaxies of AGNs, we measured the strength of [O II] and other optical emission lines from a large sample (~ 3600) of broad-line (Type 1) AGNs selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We performed a set of photoionization calculations to help evaluate the relative contribution of stellar and nonstellar photoionization to the observed strength of [O II]. Consistent with the recent study of Ho (2005), we find that the observed [O II] emission can be explained entirely by photoionization from the AGN itself, with little or no additional contribution from HII regions. This indicates that the host galaxies of Type 1 AGNs experience very modest star formation concurrent with the optically active phase of the nucleus. By contrast, we show that the sample of ``Type 2'' quasars selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey does exhibit substantially stronger HII emission consistent with an elevated level of star formation, a result that presents a challenge to the simplest form of the AGN unification model.

10 pages, 7 figures, ApJ accepted, uses emulateapj5.sty

Cited by in corpus (82)

• How Do Massive Black Holes Get Their Gas?
• A New Sample of Low-mass Black Holes in Active Galaxies
• Quasar feedback and the origin of radio emission in radio-quiet quasars
• On the Origin of [OII] Emission in Red Sequence and Post-starburst Galaxies
• The Relation Between Quasar and Merging Galaxy Luminosity Functions and the Merger-Induced Star Formation Rate of the Universe
• GOODS-Herschel: The far-infrared view of star formation in AGN host galaxies since z~3
• Ongoing and co-evolving star formation in zCOSMOS galaxies hosting Active Galactic Nuclei
• The Black Hole Mass - Galaxy Bulge Relationship for QSOs in the SDSS DR3
• Enhanced star formation rates in AGN hosts with respect to inactive galaxies from PEP-Herschel observations
• Black Holes in Pseudobulges and Spheroidals: A Change in the Black Hole-Bulge Scaling Relations at Low Mass
• The Black Hole Mass Scale of Classical and Pseudo Bulges in Active Galaxies
• A Systematic Analysis of Fe II Emission in Quasars: Evidence for Inflow to the Central Black Hole
• Type 1 low z AGN. I. Emission properties
• Star formation in quasar hosts and the origin of radio emission in radio-quiet quasars
• Integral field spectroscopy of nearby QSOs: I. ENLR size-luminosity relation, ongoing star formation & resolved gas-phase metallicities
• The X-ray to [Ne V]3426 flux ratio: discovering heavily obscured AGN in the distant Universe
• The Origin of the Intrinsic Scatter in the Relation Between Black Hole Mass and Bulge Luminosity for Nearby Active Galaxies
• Starburst-AGN mixing: II. Optically-selected active galaxies
• Low-Mass Seyfert 2 Galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Mid-infrared spectroscopy of infrared-luminous galaxies at z~0.5-3
• Magellan Spectroscopy of Low-Redshift Active Galactic Nuclei
• Star formation activities in early-type brightest cluster galaxies
• Obscuring Active Galactic Nuclei with Nuclear Starburst Disks
• Properties of Active Galaxies Deduced from H I Observations
• The QUEST-La Silla AGN variability survey: connection between AGN variability and black hole physical properties
• On the large-scale outflows in active galactic nuclei: consequences of coupling the mass-supply rate and accretion luminosity
• New Estimators of Black Hole Mass in Active Galactic Nuclei with Hydrogen Paschen Lines
• An infrared-radio simulation of the extragalactic sky: from the Square Kilometer Array to Herschel
• Stellar Photometric Structures of the Host Galaxies of Nearby Type 1 Active Galactic Nuclei
• ZFOURGE catalogue of AGN candidates: an enhancement of 160μm-derived star-formation rates in active galaxies to $z$ = 3.2
• On the formation time scale of massive cluster ellipticals based on deep near-IR spectroscopy at z~2
• The Interplay Between Star Formation and Black Hole Accretion in Nearby Active Galaxies
• The Growth of Black Holes: Insights From Obscured Active Galaxies
• The Radio Properties of Type 2 Quasars
• Star formation in high-redshift quasars: excess [O II] emission in the radio-loud population
• Black Hole Accretion Correlates with Star Formation Rate and Star Formation Efficiency in Nearby Luminous Type 1 Active Galaxies
• The Black Hole Masses and Eddington Ratios of Type 2 Quasars
• The Low-mass, Highly Accreting Black Hole Associated with the Active Galactic Nucleus 2XMM J123103.2+110648
• Local starburst galaxies and their descendants
• The Infrared Emission and Vigorous Star Formation of Low-redshift Quasars
• A New H I Survey of Active Galaxies
• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping Project: Post-Starburst Signatures in Quasar Host Galaxies at z < 1
• A 3-Dimensional study of the Local Environment of Bright IRAS Galaxies: The AGN/Starburst connection
• Flat-Spectrum Radio Quasars from SDSS DR3 Quasar Catalogue
• Cosmic Evolution of Star Formation In SDSS Quasar Hosts Since z=1
• Testing the Evolutionary Link between Type 1 and Type 2 Quasars with Measurements of the Interstellar Medium
• What makes red quasars red? Observational evidence for dust extinction from line ratio analysis
• Understanding AGN-Host Connection in Partially Obscured Active Galactic Nuclei. Part I: The Nature of AGN+HII Composites
• Recalibration of [O II] $\lambda 3727$ as a Star Formation Rate Estimator for Active and Inactive Galaxies
• Fast Outflows in Hot Dust-Obscured Galaxies with Keck/NIRES
• A New Method to Measure Star Formation Rates in Active Galaxies Using Mid-infrared Neon Emission Lines
• Spectral Classification and Ionized Gas Outflows in $z\sim 2$ WISE-Selected Hot Dust-Obscured Galaxies
• The Close AGN Reference Survey (CARS): No obvious signature of AGN feedback on star formation, but subtle trends
• The QUEST-La Silla AGN Variability Survey: selection of AGN candidates through optical variability
• Seoul National University Bright Quasar Survey in Optical (SNUQSO). II. Discovery of 40 Bright Quasars Near the Galactic Plane
• The Star-forming Main Sequence of the Host Galaxies of Low-redshift Quasars
• Emission line activity in type 2 quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• The Type II AGN-host galaxy connection: insights from the VVDS and VIPERS surveys
• PSFGAN: a generative adversarial network system for separating quasar point sources and host galaxy light
• Evidence for a Young Stellar Population in Nearby Type 1 Active Galaxies
• Low-Mass Active Galactic Nuclei with Rapid X-Ray Variability
• The Relation between Morphological Asymmetry and Nuclear Activity in Low-redshift Galaxies
• The nature of the SDSS galaxies in various classes based on morphology, colour and spectral features - II. Multi-wavelength properties
• Optical spectral classification of southern ultraluminous infrared galaxies
• Evolutionary Implications from SDSSJ085338.27+033246.1: A Spectacular N arrow-Line Seyfert 1 Galaxy with Young Post-starburst
• Medium-resolution Optical and Near-Infrared Spectral Atlas of 16 2MASS-selected NIR-red Active Galactic Nuclei at $z\sim 0.3$
• A Novel Method to Identify AGNs Based on Emission Line Excess and the Nature of Low-luminosity AGNs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: II - Nature of Low-luminosity AGNs
• The Contribution of Active Galactic Nuclei to the Microjansky Radio Population
• Constraints on Two Active Galactic Nuclei in the Merger Remnant COSMOS J100043.15+020637.2
• Comparison of The UV and Optical Fe II Emission in Type 1 AGNs
• Astrophysics in 2006
• AKARI Near-Infrared Spectroscopy of SDSS-Selected Blue Early-Type Galaxies
• Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph Integral Field Unit Spectroscopy of the Double-peaked Broad Emission Line of a Red Active Galactic Nucleus
• The Young, the Old, and the Dusty: Stellar Populations of AGN Hosts
• Quasars with Anomalous Hβ Profiles I: Demographics
• Properties and Expected Number Counts of Active Galactic Nuclei and their Hosts in the Far Infrared
• Infrared spectroscopic confirmation of z~2 photometrically-selected obscured quasars
• Tracing Quasar Narrow-Line Regions Across Redshift: A Library of High S/N Optical Spectra
• Understanding the AGN-Host Connection in Broad Mgii Emission Selected AGN-Host Hybrid Qausars
• SDSS spectroscopy for blazars in the $Fermi$ LAT bright AGN sample
• A Mid-infrared Flare in the Seyfert Galaxy NGC 3786: A Changing-look Event Triggered by an Obscured Tidal Disruption Event?
• Measuring the ISM Content of Nearby, Luminous, Type 1 and Type 2 QSOs through CO and [C II]