The impact of void environment on AGN
Abstract
We study the population of active galaxies in void environment in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We use optical spectroscopic information to analyse characteristics of the emission lines of galaxies, accomplished by WHAN and BPT diagrams. Also, we study Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer(WISE) mid-IR colours to assess active galactic nucleus (AGN) activity. We investigate these different AGN classification schemes, both optical and mid-IR, and their dependence on the spatial location with respect to the void centres. To this end, we define three regions: void, the spherical region defined by voidcentric distance relative to void radius (distance/rvoid) smaller than 0.8, comprising overdensities lesser than −0.9, an intermediate/transition shell region (namely, void-wall) 0.8 < distance/rvoid < 1.2, and a region sufficiently distant from voids, the field: distance/rvoid > 2. We find statistical evidence for a larger fraction of AGN and star-forming galaxies in the void region, regardless of the classification scheme addressed (either BPT, WHAN, or WISE). Moreover, we obtain a significantly stronger nuclear activity in voids compared to the field. We find an unusually large fraction of the most massive black holes undergoing strong accretion when their host galaxies reside in voids. Our results suggest a strong influence of the void environment on AGN mechanisms associated with galaxy evolution.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Oct 14, 2021
- Source ID
- 10.1093/mnras/stab2902
Entities
People
- Diego Garcia Lambas
- Fernanda Duplancic
- Laura Ceccarelli
Organizations
- Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
- American Museum of Natural History
- Case Western Reserve University
- Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Drexel University
- Higher Education Funding Council for England
- Institute for Advanced Study
- Instituto de Astronomía Teórica y Experimental
- Johns Hopkins University
- Los Alamos National Laboratory
- Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore
- Max Planck Society
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- National Science Foundation
- National Scientific and Technical Research Council
- National University of Córdoba
- National University of San Juan
- New Mexico State University
- Ohio State University
- Princeton University
- United States Department of Energy
- United States Naval Observatory
- University of Basel
- University of Cambridge
- University of Chicago
- University of Pittsburgh
- University of Portsmouth
- University of Washington