- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/894/24
- Title:
- Optical variability of AGN from the HSC SSP survey
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/894/24
- Date:
- 03 Dec 2021 00:44:13
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We study variability of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) by using the deep optical multiband photometry data obtained from the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (HSC SSP) survey in the COSMOS field. The images analyzed here were taken with 8, 10, 13, and 15 epochs over three years in the g, r, i, and z bands, respectively. We identified 491 robust variable AGN candidates, down to i=25mag and with redshift up to 4.26. Ninety percent of the variability-selected AGNs are individually identified with the X-ray sources detected in the Chandra COSMOS Legacy survey. We investigate their properties in variability by using structure function analysis and find that the structure function for low-luminosity AGNs (L_bol_<~10^45^erg/s) shows a positive correlation with luminosity, which is the opposite trend for the luminous quasars. This trend is likely to be caused by a larger contribution of the host galaxy light for lower-luminosity AGNs. Using the model templates of galaxy spectra, we evaluate the amount of host galaxy contribution to the structure function analysis and find that dominance of the young stellar population is needed to explain the observed luminosity dependence. This suggests that low-luminosity AGNs at 0.8<~z<~1.8 are predominantly hosted in star-forming galaxies. The X-ray stacking analysis reveals the significant emission from the individually X-ray undetected AGNs in our variability-selected sample. The stacked samples show very large hardness ratios in their stacked X-ray spectrum, which suggests that these optically variable sources have large soft X-ray absorption by dust-free gas.
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Search Results
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/489/11
- Title:
- Optical view of Abell 85 filament region
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/489/11
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present an optical investigation of the Abell 85 cluster filament (z=0.055) previously interpreted in X-rays as groups falling on to the main cluster. We compare the distribution of galaxies with the X-ray filament, and investigate the galaxy luminosity functions in several bands and in several regions. We search for galaxies where star formation may have been triggered by interactions with intracluster gas or tidal pressure due to the cluster potential when entering the cluster.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/900/58
- Title:
- Opt-IR LC compilation of DES Stripe 82 quasars
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/900/58
- Date:
- 11 Mar 2022 15:16:31
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- The size of the dust torus in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and their high-luminosity counterparts, quasars, can be inferred from the time delay between UV/optical accretion disk continuum variability and the response in the mid-infrared (MIR) torus emission. This dust reverberation mapping (RM) technique has been successfully applied to ~70 z<~0.3 AGNs and quasars. Here we present first results of our dust RM program for distant quasars covered in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Stripe 82 region combining ~20yr ground-based optical light curves with 10yr MIR light curves from the WISE satellite. We measure a high-fidelity lag between W1 band (3.4{mu}m) and g band for 587 quasars over 0.3<~z<~2 (<z>~0.8) and two orders of magnitude in quasar luminosity. They tightly follow (intrinsic scatter ~0.17dex in lag) the IR lag-luminosity relation observed for z<0.3 AGNs, revealing a remarkable size-luminosity relation for the dust torus over more than four decades in AGN luminosity, with little dependence on additional quasar properties such as Eddington ratio and variability amplitude. This study motivates further investigations in the utility of dust RM for cosmology and strongly endorses a compelling science case for the combined 10yr Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (optical) and 5yr Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope 2{mu}m light curves in a deep survey for low-redshift AGN dust RM with much lower luminosities and shorter, measurable IR lags. The compiled optical and MIR light curves for 7384 quasars in our parent sample are made public with this work.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJS/238/37
- Title:
- Opt. & NIR spectral atlas of 16 2MASS NIR-red AGNs
- Short Name:
- J/ApJS/238/37
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present medium-resolution spectra (R~2000-4000) at 0.4-1.0{mu}m and 0.7-2.5{mu}m of 16 active galactic nuclei (AGNs) selected with red color in the near-infrared (NIR) of J-K>2.0mag at z~0.3. We fit the H{beta}, H{alpha}, P{beta}, and P{alpha} lines from these spectra to obtain their luminosities and line widths. We derive the E(B-V) color excess values of the NIR-red AGNs using two methods, one based on the line-luminosity ratios and another based on the continuum slopes. The two E(B-V) values agree with each other at rms dispersion ~0.249. About half of the NIR-red AGNs have g'-K<5 magnitude, and we find that these NIR-red, but blue in optical-NIR AGNs, have E(B-V)~0, suggesting that a significant fraction of the NIR color-selected red AGNs are unobscured or only mildly obscured. After correcting for the dust extinction, we estimate the black hole (BH) masses and the bolometric luminosities of the NIR-red AGNs using the Paschen lines to calculate their Eddington ratios ({lambda}Edd). The median Eddington ratios of nine NIR-red AGNs (log({lambda}_Edd_~-0.654+/-0.176) are only mildly higher than those of unobscured type 1 AGNs (log({lambda}_Edd_~-0.961+/-0.008). Moreover, we find that the MBH-{sigma}* relation for three NIR-red AGNs is consistent with that of unobscured type 1 AGNs at similar redshift. These results suggest that the NIR-red color selection alone is not effective at picking up dusty, intermediate-stage AGNs.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJS/247/46
- Title:
- Opt. photometry of SMUDGes ultra-diffuse galaxies
- Short Name:
- J/ApJS/247/46
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present the first systematic study of the stellar populations of ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs) in the field, integrating the large area search and characterization of UDGs by the SMUDGes survey with the twelve-band optical photometry of the S-PLUS survey. Based on Bayesian modeling of the optical colors of UDGs, we determine the ages, metallicities, and stellar masses of 100 UDGs distributed in an area of ~330deg^2^ in the Stripe 82 region. We find that the stellar masses and metallicities of field UDGs are similar to those observed in clusters and follow the trends previously defined in studies of dwarf and giant galaxies. However, field UDGs have younger luminosity- weighted ages than do UDGs in clusters. We interpret this result to mean that field UDGs have more extended star formation histories, including some that continue to form stars at low levels to the present time. Finally, we examine stellar population scaling relations that show that UDGs are, as a population, similar to other low surface brightness galaxies.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/AJ/155/188
- Title:
- Origin of nuclear activity in low-power radio galaxies
- Short Name:
- J/AJ/155/188
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Using large samples containing nearly 2300 active galaxies of low radio luminosity (1.4 GHz luminosity between 2x10^23^ and 3x10^25^ W/Hz, essentially low-excitation radio galaxies) at z~<0.3, we present a self-contained analysis of the dependence of the nuclear radio activity on both intrinsic and extrinsic properties of galaxies, with the goal of identifying the best predictors of the nuclear radio activity. While confirming the established result that stellar mass must play a key role on the triggering of radio activities, we point out that for the central, most massive galaxies, the radio activity also shows a strong dependence on halo mass, which is not likely due to enhanced interaction rates in denser regions in massive, cluster-scale halos. We thus further investigate the effects of various properties of the intracluster medium (ICM) in massive clusters on the radio activities, employing two standard statistical tools, principle component analysis and logistic regression. It is found that ICM entropy, local cooling time, and pressure are the most effective in predicting the radio activity, pointing to the accretion of gas cooling out of a hot atmosphere to be the likely origin in triggering such activities in galaxies residing in massive dark matter halos. Our analysis framework enables us to logically discern the mechanisms responsible for the radio activity separately for central and satellite galaxies.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/809/91
- Title:
- Outflows in sodium excess objects
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/809/91
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Van Dokkum and Conroy (2010Natur.468..940V) revisited the unexpectedly strong NaI lines at 8200{AA} found in some giant elliptical galaxies and interpreted them as evidence for an unusually bottom-heavy initial mass function. Jeong et al. (2013, J/ApJS/208/7) later found a large population of galaxies showing equally extraordinary Na D doublet absorption lines at 5900{AA} (Na D excess objects: NEOs) and showed that their origins can be different for different types of galaxies. While a Na D excess seems to be related to the interstellar medium (ISM) in late-type galaxies, smooth-looking early-type NEOs show little or no dust extinction and hence no compelling signs of ISM contributions. To further test this finding, we measured the Doppler components in the Na D lines. We hypothesized that the ISM would have a better (albeit not definite) chance of showing a blueshift Doppler departure from the bulk of the stellar population due to outflow caused by either star formation or AGN activities. Many of the late-type NEOs clearly show blueshift in their Na D lines, which is consistent with the former interpretation that the Na D excess found in them is related to gas outflow caused by star formation. On the contrary, smooth-looking early-type NEOs do not show any notable Doppler components, which is also consistent with the interpretation of Jeong et al. that the Na D excess in early-type NEOs is likely not related to ISM activities but is purely stellar in origin.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/805/121
- Title:
- Overdensities of 0<z<3 COSMOS galaxies
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/805/121
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- It is well-known that a galaxy's environment has a fundamental influence in shaping its properties. We study the environmental effects on galaxy evolution, with an emphasis on the environment defined as the local number density of galaxies. The density field is estimated with different estimators (weighted adaptive kernel smoothing, 10th and 5th nearest neighbors, Voronoi and Delaunay tessellation) for a K_s_<24 sample of ~190000 galaxies in the COSMOS field at 0.1<z<3.1. The performance of each estimator is evaluated with extensive simulations. We show that overall there is a good agreement between the estimated density fields using different methods over ~2dex in overdensity values. However, our simulations show that adaptive kernel and Voronoi tessellation outperform other methods. Using the Voronoi tessellation method, we assign surface densities to a mass complete sample of quiescent and star-forming galaxies out to z~3. We show that at a fixed stellar mass, the median color of quiescent galaxies does not depend on their host environment out to z~3. We find that the number and stellar mass density of massive (>10^11^M_{sun}_) star-forming galaxies have not significantly changed since z~3, regardless of their environment. However, for massive quiescent systems at lower redshifts (z<~1.3), we find a significant evolution in the number and stellar mass densities in denser environments compared to lower density regions. Our results suggest that the relation between stellar mass and local density is more fundamental than the color-density relation and that environment plays a significant role in quenching star-formation activity in galaxies at z<~1.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/884/136
- Title:
- PAH features of star-forming gal. using Spitzer/IRS
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/884/136
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission has long been proposed to be a potential star formation rate indicator, as it arises from the photodissociation region bordering the Stromgren sphere of young, massive stars. We apply a recently developed technique of mid-infrared spectral decomposition to obtain a uniform set of PAH measurements from Spitzer low-resolution spectra of a large sample of star-forming galaxies spanning a wide range in stellar mass (M_*_~10^6^-10^11.4^M_{sun}_) and star formation rate (~0.1-2000M_{sun}_/yr). High-resolution spectra are also analyzed to measure [NeII]12.8{mu}m and [NeIII]15.6{mu}m, which effectively trace the Lyman continuum. We present a new relation between PAH luminosity and star formation rate based on the [NeII] and [NeIII] lines. Calibrations are given for the integrated 5-15{mu}m PAH emission, the individual features at 6.2, 7.7, 8.6, and 11.3{mu}m, as well as several mid- infrared bandpasses sensitive to PAH. We confirm that PAH emission is suppressed in low-mass dwarf galaxies, and we discuss the possible physical origin of this effect.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/658/99
- Title:
- Pairs of QSO in SDSS-DR4
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/658/99
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We study quasar clustering on small scales, modeling clustering amplitudes using halo-driven dark matter descriptions. From 91 pairs n scales <35h^-1^kpc, we detect only a slight excess in quasar clustering over our best-fit large-scale model. Integrated across all redshifts, the implied quasar bias is bQ=4.21+/-0.98 (bQ=3.93+/-0.71) at ~18h^-1^kpc (~28h^-1^kpc).
