Type 2 AGN Host Galaxies in the Chandra-COSMOS Legacy Survey: No Evidence of AGN-driven Quenching

Suh, Hyewon; Civano, Francesca; Hasinger, Günther; Lusso, Elisabeta; Lanzuisi, Giorgio; Marchesi, Stefano; Trakhtenbrot, Benny; Allevato, Viola; Cappelluti, Nico; Capak, Peter L.; Elvis, Martin; Griffiths, Richard E.; Laigle, Clotilde; Lira, Paulina; Riguccini, Laurie; Rosario, David J.; Salvato, Mara; Schawinski, Kevin; Vignali, Cristian

Abstract

We investigate the star formation properties of a large sample of ~2300 X-ray-selected Type 2 Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) host galaxies out to $z\sim 3$ in the Chandra COSMOS Legacy Survey in order to understand the connection between the star formation and nuclear activity. Making use of the existing multi-wavelength photometric data available in the COSMOS field, we perform a multi-component modeling from far-infrared to near-ultraviolet using a nuclear dust torus model, a stellar population model and a starburst model of the spectral energy distributions (SEDs). Through detailed analyses of SEDs, we derive the stellar masses and the star formation rates (SFRs) of Type 2 AGN host galaxies. The stellar mass of our sample is in the range of $9\lt \mathrm{log}\,{M}_{\mathrm{stellar}}/{M}_{\odot }\lt 12$ with uncertainties of ~0.19 dex. We find that Type 2 AGN host galaxies have, on average, similar SFRs compared to the normal star-forming galaxies with similar M stellar and redshift ranges, suggesting no significant evidence for enhancement or quenching of star formation. This could be interpreted in a scenario, where the relative massive galaxies have already experienced substantial growth at higher redshift ($z\gt 3$), and grow slowly through secular fueling processes hosting moderate-luminosity AGNs.

Citation

Suh, H., Civano, F., Hasinger, G., Lusso, E., Lanzuisi, G., Marchesi, S., …Vignali, C. (2017). Type 2 AGN Host Galaxies in the Chandra-COSMOS Legacy Survey: No Evidence of AGN-driven Quenching. Astrophysical Journal, 841(2), Article 102. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aa725c

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 8, 2017
• Online Publication Date: May 31, 2017
• Publication Date: May 31, 2017
• Deposit Date: Jul 5, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 5, 2017
• Journal: Astrophysical Journal
• Print ISSN: 0004-637X
• Electronic ISSN: 1538-4357
• Publisher: American Astronomical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 841
• Issue: 2
• Article Number: 102
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aa725c
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1354041