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A binning-free method reveals a continuous relationship between galaxies’ AGN power and offset from main sequence

Walters, K; Masoura, VA; Stanley, F; Alexander, DM; Harrison, CM; Bernhard, EP; Mullaney, JR; Grimmett, LP

A binning-free method reveals a continuous relationship between galaxies’ AGN power and offset from main sequence Thumbnail


Authors

K Walters

VA Masoura

F Stanley

CM Harrison

EP Bernhard

JR Mullaney

LP Grimmett



Abstract

Studies investigating the relationship between AGN power and the star formation rates (SFRs) of their host galaxies often rely on averaging techniques – such as stacking – to incorporate information from non-detections. However, averages, and especially means, can be strongly affected by outliers and can therefore give a misleading indication of the “typical” case. Recently, a number of studies have taken a step further by binning their sample in terms of AGN power (approximated by the 2-10keV luminosity of the AGN), and investigating how the SFR distribution differs between these bins. These bin thresholds are often weakly motivated, and binning implicitly assumes that sources within the same bin have similar (or even identical) properties. In this paper, we investigate whether the distribution of host SFRs – relative to the locus of the star-forming main sequence (i.e., RMS) – changes continuously as a function of AGN power. We achieve this by using a hierarchical Bayesian model that completely removes the need to bin in AGN power. In doing so, we find strong evidence that the RMS distribution changes with 2-10keV X-ray luminosity. The results suggest that higher X-ray luminosity AGNs have a tighter physical connection to the star-forming process than lower X-ray luminosity AGNs, at least within the 0.8 < z < 1.2 redshift range considered here.

Citation

Walters, K., Masoura, V., Stanley, F., Alexander, D., Harrison, C., Bernhard, E., …Grimmett, L. (2020). A binning-free method reveals a continuous relationship between galaxies’ AGN power and offset from main sequence. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 495(1), 1392-1402. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa1255

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date May 1, 2020
Online Publication Date May 16, 2020
Publication Date Jun 30, 2020
Deposit Date May 19, 2020
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Print ISSN 0035-8711
Electronic ISSN 1365-2966
Publisher Royal Astronomical Society
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 495
Issue 1
Pages 1392-1402
DOI https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa1255

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Copyright Statement
This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. ©: 2020 The Author(s) . Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.






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