A study AGN activity on environmental dependence in the SDSS late-type galaxies

  • Kim, Minbae (School of Space Research, Kyung Hee University) ;
  • Choi, Yun-Yung (Department of Astronomy and Space Science, Kyung Hee University) ;
  • Kim, Sungsoo S. (School of Space Research, Kyung Hee University)
  • Published : 2018.05.08

Abstract

We explore the role of various environments in triggering star formation (SF) and narrow-line active galactic nucleus (AGN) in SDSS spiral galaxies and the SF-AGN connection, using a volume-limited sample with $M_r$ < -19.5 and 0.02 < z < 0.055 selected from the SDSS Release 7. To avoid the dependency of AGN activity on bulge mass, the central velocity dispersion of the sample galaxies is limited to have a narrow range of $130{\leq}{\sigma}{\leq}200km\;s^{-1}$. We note that in gas sufficient galaxies, AGN feeding lags behind starburst, whereas as the gas exhausts, the SF slows down and AGN seems to even prevent the SF, and thus divide the high-${\sigma}$ sample into two subsamples according to their cold gas content at central region traced by fiber star formation rate, $SFR_{fib}$. We find that a high density (cluster) environment causes a significant increase in AGN activity as well as gas depletion in host galaxies. However, the finding is only noticeable in the high-${\sigma}$ and low $SFR_{fib}$ sample. It seems that a galaxy interaction with the nearest neighbor directly affects the SF of the central region. However, it is unclear whether it directly affects AGN activity.

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