Multi-wavelength Analysis of Active Galactic Nuclei and Host Galaxies Physical Properties

Multi-wavelength Analysis of Active Galactic Nuclei and Host Galaxies Physical Properties PDF Author: Mojegan Azadi
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
In this dissertation we study the properties of active galactic nuclei (AGN), which are powered by the accretion activity of supermassive black holes residing at the centers of galaxies. While observations propose that growth of AGN and galaxies are globally tied, we investigate whether this connection exists in individual galaxies. We also investigate various AGN selection techniques and star formation rate (SFR) estimates using multi-wavelength data from Chandra, Spitzer and rest-frame optical spectra from the Keck telescope. We find that combining multi-wavelength identification techniques provides a more complete AGN sample, as each selection method suffers from selection biases. In particular, all selection techniques are biased against identifying AGN in lower mass galaxies. Once stellar mass selection biases are taken into account, we find that AGN reside in galaxies with similar physical properties (i.e., SFR) as inactive galaxies. We find that while AGN are prevalent in both star-forming and quiescent galaxies, AGN of a given accretion rate are more likely to reside in star-forming galaxies. The probability of fueling an AGN does not strongly depend on SFR for a star-forming galaxy, though it decreases when star formation is shut down in quiescent galaxies. We also find no evidence for a strong correlation between SFR or stellar mass of the host galaxy and AGN luminosity. These results indicate that while both AGN and galaxy growth are reliant on the same fuel, enhanced star formation activity does not necessarily go hand-in-hand with increased AGN activity. While the star formation activity of galaxies can be traced with various indicators, our investigations indicate that extrapolations from mid-infrared data using calibrations based on local galaxies overestimates SFRs at higher redshift. We show that a combination of mid-infrared and far-infrared data provide a more reliable SFR estimation than the mid-infrared data alone. We also find that the robustness of UV-based SFRs depends on the extinction correction method used. We find a relatively small fraction of z ∼ 2 galaxies have SFRs from infrared observations that are elevated relative to other SFR tracers, and we do not find any contribution from AGN in this excess.

Multi-wavelength Analysis of Active Galactic Nuclei and Host Galaxies Physical Properties

Multi-wavelength Analysis of Active Galactic Nuclei and Host Galaxies Physical Properties PDF Author: Mojegan Azadi
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
In this dissertation we study the properties of active galactic nuclei (AGN), which are powered by the accretion activity of supermassive black holes residing at the centers of galaxies. While observations propose that growth of AGN and galaxies are globally tied, we investigate whether this connection exists in individual galaxies. We also investigate various AGN selection techniques and star formation rate (SFR) estimates using multi-wavelength data from Chandra, Spitzer and rest-frame optical spectra from the Keck telescope. We find that combining multi-wavelength identification techniques provides a more complete AGN sample, as each selection method suffers from selection biases. In particular, all selection techniques are biased against identifying AGN in lower mass galaxies. Once stellar mass selection biases are taken into account, we find that AGN reside in galaxies with similar physical properties (i.e., SFR) as inactive galaxies. We find that while AGN are prevalent in both star-forming and quiescent galaxies, AGN of a given accretion rate are more likely to reside in star-forming galaxies. The probability of fueling an AGN does not strongly depend on SFR for a star-forming galaxy, though it decreases when star formation is shut down in quiescent galaxies. We also find no evidence for a strong correlation between SFR or stellar mass of the host galaxy and AGN luminosity. These results indicate that while both AGN and galaxy growth are reliant on the same fuel, enhanced star formation activity does not necessarily go hand-in-hand with increased AGN activity. While the star formation activity of galaxies can be traced with various indicators, our investigations indicate that extrapolations from mid-infrared data using calibrations based on local galaxies overestimates SFRs at higher redshift. We show that a combination of mid-infrared and far-infrared data provide a more reliable SFR estimation than the mid-infrared data alone. We also find that the robustness of UV-based SFRs depends on the extinction correction method used. We find a relatively small fraction of z ∼ 2 galaxies have SFRs from infrared observations that are elevated relative to other SFR tracers, and we do not find any contribution from AGN in this excess.

The X-ray Background

The X-ray Background PDF Author: Xavier Barcons
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521416511
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
A review of the current observational knowledge and understanding of the cosmic X-ray background.

Multi-wavelength Population Studies of Active Galactic Nuclei and Galaxies Using PRIMUS and AEGIS

Multi-wavelength Population Studies of Active Galactic Nuclei and Galaxies Using PRIMUS and AEGIS PDF Author: Alexander John Mendez
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781321059892
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 187

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Book Description
This dissertation uses large galaxy redshift surveys and multi-wavelength imaging to place observational constraints on the evolution of galaxies and the supermassive black holes that they host since the Universe was roughly half its current age. In the first chapter, we use data from the AEGIS survey to present quantitative morphological measurements of green valley galaxies, to constrain the mechanism(s) responsible for quenching star formation in this transition population and creating elliptical galaxies. We show that green galaxies are generally massive (M.) ~ 1010·5 M/[sun]) disk galaxies with high concentrations of light. We find that major mergers are not the dominant mechanism responsible for quenching star formation, and we find that either more mild external processes or internal secular processes play a crucial role in halting star formation. In the second chapter, we use data from the PRIMUS survey to investigate Spitzer/IRAC and X-ray AGN selection techniques in order to quantify the overlap, uniqueness, contamination, and completeness of each AGN selection. For roughly similar depth IR and X-ray data, we find that ~75% of IR-selected AGN are also identified as X-ray AGN. For the deepest X-ray data, this fraction increases to ~90%, indicating that at most ~10% of IR-selected AGN may be heavily obscured. While similar overall, the IR-AGN samples preferentially contain more luminous AGN, while the X-ray AGN samples identify AGN with a wider range of accretion rates, where the host galaxy light dominates at IR wavelengths. A more complete AGN sample is created by combining both IR and X-ray selected AGN. Finally, we present a clustering study of X-ray AGN, radio AGN and IR AGN selected AGN using spectroscopic redshifts from the PRIMUS and DEEP2 redshift surveys. Using the cross-correlation of AGN with dense galaxy samples, we find differences in the clustering of AGN selected at different wavelengths. However, we find no significant differences in the clustering of each AGN sample with matched galaxy samples that have the same redshift, stellar mass, and star formation rate distributions. The differences in the clustering of AGN selected at different wavelengths can therefore be explained by the clustering differences of their host populations

Multiwavelength Analyses of Mid-Infrared Selected Active Galactic Nuclei

Multiwavelength Analyses of Mid-Infrared Selected Active Galactic Nuclei PDF Author: Anson Lam
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 211

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Book Description
Traditional methods of identifying active galactic nuclei (AGNs) rely on UV and optical color criteria, but these methods exclude AGNs that are highly optically obscured by surrounding dust. This bias causes underestimates in the number of obscured AGNs in the Universe, and is problematic for our understanding of galaxy evolution and computing luminosity functions. Since much of the radiation absorbed by dust is re-radiated in the IR, mid-IR color selection provides a much more robust method of identifying AGNs that is not biased against highly dust obscured galaxies. The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) has provided an all-sky mid-IR survey in four passbands, and the photometry from this catalog can be used to identify AGN candidates. We select AGNs from the catalog using a WISE $W1-W2>0.8$ color cut, and perform follow-up observations with the Keck DEIMOS optical spectrograph for redshift and emission line measurements. We spectroscopically confirm that mid-IR color selection does indeed identify obscured AGNs that are missed by the largest existing optical surveys, and targeted observations are necessary to find these objects. Combining WISE data with the AKARI far-IR all-sky catalog, we also perform SED analysis to characterize the physical properties of dusty AGNs and their surrounding obscuring medium. Using only photometry, we are able to extract a number of physical properties (ex. dust temperature and masses) without the need for time and resource-intensive spectroscopy. Finally, we test the effects of using different SED and color criteria to select different populations of AGNs from the 3D-HST catalog and compute their luminosity functions. We find that SED fitting can identify a large number of AGNs that are missed by traditional color selection methods, and this can potentially increase the sample size of AGNs available for analysis by several factors.

Multiwavelength Analysis of the Active Galactic Nuclei's Feedback on the Evolution of Quasar Host Galaxies

Multiwavelength Analysis of the Active Galactic Nuclei's Feedback on the Evolution of Quasar Host Galaxies PDF Author: Aishwarya Girdhar
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Exploring the Interplay Between Star Formation and Active Galactic Nuclei and the Role of Environment in Galaxy Evolution

Exploring the Interplay Between Star Formation and Active Galactic Nuclei and the Role of Environment in Galaxy Evolution PDF Author: Jonathan Florez
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Book Description
One of the central goals of extragalactic astronomy is to understand how galaxies grow their stellar mass and central black holes, the connection between star formation and active galactic nuclei (AGN), and the impact of environment on this growth. In this thesis, I utilize multiwavelength surveys that are both deep and wide, advanced computational codes that model the spectral energy distributions of galaxies with and without AGN, as well as state-of-the-art simulations of galaxy evolution in order to explore how galaxy properties are impacted by their surrounding environment and AGN activity. These studies explore galaxies over a redshift range of 0.015 z 0.023 (lookback time of ~ 0.2 to ~ 0.3 Gyr), and over a redshift range of 0.5 z 3.0 (lookback time of ~ 5 to ~ 12 Gyr). The large-area surveys used here provide some of the largest and most statistically robust samples to-date of rare massive galaxies (with stellar mass M [subscript *] 1011 M☉) and extremely luminous AGN (with X-ray luminosity L [subscript X] 1044 erg s−1) out to z ~ 3, thereby limiting the effects of cosmic variance and Poisson statistics. I analyze the observed stellar masses and star formation rates of galaxies as a function of environment and AGN activity, compare the empirical results to theoretical models of galaxy evolution, and discuss the implications of such comparisons. This work will provide significant guidance and constraints to the future development of theoretical models of galaxy growth. In Chapter 2 (Florez et al. 2021, ApJ, 906, 97) I measure the environmental dependence, where environment is defined by the distance to the third nearest neighbor, of multiple galaxy properties inside the Environmental COntext (ECO) catalog. I focus primarily on void galaxies at redshifts z = 0.015 - 0.023, which I define as the 10% of galaxies having the lowest local density. I compare the properties of void and non-void galaxies: baryonic mass, color, fractional stellar mass growth rate (FSMGR), morphology, and gas-to-stellar-mass ratio. The void galaxies typically have lower baryonic masses than galaxies in denser environments, and they display the properties expected of a lower mass population: they have more late-types, are bluer, have higher FSMGR, and are more gas rich. I also control for baryonic mass and investigate the extent to which void galaxies are different at fixed mass. I find that void galaxies are bluer, more gas-rich, and more star forming at fixed mass than non-void galaxies, which is a possible signature of galaxy assembly bias and other environmental processes. Furthermore, I show that these trends persist even at fixed mass and morphology, and I find that voids host a distinct population of early-types that are bluer and more star-forming than the typical red and quenched early-types. In addition to these empirical observational results, I also present theoretical results from mock catalogs with built-in galaxy assembly bias. I show that a simple matching of galaxy properties to (sub)halo properties, such as mass and age, can recover the observed environmental trends in the local galaxy population. In Chapter 3 (Florez et al. 2020, MNRAS, 497, 3273) I investigate the relation between AGN and star formation activity at 0.5 z 3 by analyzing 898 galaxies with high X-ray luminosity AGN (L [subscript X] 1044 erg s−1) and a large comparison sample of ~ 320,000 galaxies without such AGN. My samples are selected from a large (11.8 deg2) area in Stripe 82 that has multi-wavelength (X-ray to far-IR) data. The enormous comoving volume (~ 0.3 Gpc3) at 0.5

Probing Galaxy Evolution Through Deep Radio Continuum Observations

Probing Galaxy Evolution Through Deep Radio Continuum Observations PDF Author: Hansung Gim
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
One of the most important questions in modern astrophysics is how galaxies form and evolve. There are numerous processes involved in galaxy evolution, but the stellar mass buildup and supermassive black hole growth are two main drivers in galaxy evolution. Those activities are heavily obscured by dust, so we need another tracer without dust attenuation: low-frequency radio continuum observation. We understand the galaxy evolution through the deep radio continuum observations on the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS)-North, -South, and the COSMOS HI Large Extragalactic Survey (CHILES) fields. Exploiting the multi-wavelength dataset, we define the radio populations such as star-formation (SF) dominated, active galactic nuclei (AGN)-dominated, and passive galaxies by applying new selection criteria. Populations are defined according to the relative contributions of SF and AGN luminosities to the bolometric luminosities of host galaxies and star formation properties. We explore the physical properties of radio populations, interpret their properties in the context of galaxy evolution, and show that our results of radio populations are consistent with the galaxy evolution scenarios. These results are the same for the GOODS and CHILES fields. Our investigation of the radio spectral index and radio-FIR correlation for the GOODS fields show that the radio spectral index is characteristic of each population and the radio-FIR correlation is a robust tracer of star formation activity. The analysis of radio spectral index shows the prominence of steep spectrum sources at faint flux density first as expected in the Euclidean normalized number counts. We also show that the radio spectral index should be calculated by matching the beam sizes of images. The evolution of the radio-FIR correlation in SF-dominated galaxies is not found significantly with our data. On the other hand, the analysis of radio spectral index for the CHILES is not consistent with the result of the GOODS due to the larger difference of beam area. This inconsistency gives important implications for the future works.

The Physics and Evolution of Active Galactic Nuclei

The Physics and Evolution of Active Galactic Nuclei PDF Author: Hagai Netzer
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107021510
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
A comprehensive introduction to the theory underpinning our study of active galactic nuclei and the ways we observe them.

The Multi-wavelength Properties of Nearby Low-luminosity Active Galactic Nuclei (LLAGN) with the Legacy E-Merlin Multi-band Imaging of Nearby Galaxies Survey (LeMMINGs)

The Multi-wavelength Properties of Nearby Low-luminosity Active Galactic Nuclei (LLAGN) with the Legacy E-Merlin Multi-band Imaging of Nearby Galaxies Survey (LeMMINGs) PDF Author: David Richard Alexander Williams
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Multi-wavelength Analysis of the Physical Properties of Distant Galaxies

Multi-wavelength Analysis of the Physical Properties of Distant Galaxies PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 203

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Book Description