English

Star Formation in Luminous Quasars at 2<z<3

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2016-02-17 v1 Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics

Abstract

We investigate the relation between star formation rates (M˙s\dot{M}_{s}) and AGN properties in optically selected type 1 quasars at 2<z<32<z<3 using data from Herschel and the SDSS. We find that M˙s\dot{\rm{M}}_s remains approximately constant with redshift, at 300±100 M300\pm100~\rm{M}_{\odot}yr1^{-1}. Conversely, M˙s\dot{\rm{M}}_s increases with AGN luminosity, up to a maximum of 600 M\sim600~\rm{M}_{\odot}yr1^{-1}, and with CIV FWHM. In context with previous results, this is consistent with a relation between M˙s\dot{\rm{M}}_s and black hole accretion rate (M˙bh\dot{\rm{M}}_{bh}) existing in only parts of the zM˙sM˙bhz-\dot{\rm{M}}_{s}-\dot{\rm{M}}_{bh} plane, dependent on the free gas fraction, the trigger for activity, and the processes that may quench star formation. The relations between M˙s\dot{\rm{M}}_s and both AGN luminosity and CIV FWHM are consistent with star formation rates in quasars scaling with black hole mass, though we cannot rule out a separate relation with black hole accretion rate. Star formation rates are observed to decline with increasing CIV equivalent width. This decline can be partially explained via the Baldwin effect, but may have an additional contribution from one or more of three factors; MiM_i is not a linear tracer of L2500_{2500}, the Baldwin effect changes form at high AGN luminosities, and high CIV EW values signpost a change in the relation between M˙s\dot{\rm{M}}_s and M˙bh\dot{\rm{M}}_{bh}. Finally, there is no strong relation between M˙s\dot{\rm{M}}_s and Eddington ratio, or the asymmetry of the CIV line. The former suggests that star formation rates do not scale with how efficiently the black hole is accreting, while the latter is consistent with CIV asymmetries arising from orientation effects.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1602.02755,
  title  = {Star Formation in Luminous Quasars at 2<z<3},
  author = {Kathryn Harris and Duncan Farrah and Bernhard Schulz and Evanthia Hatziminaoglou and Marco Viero and Nick Anderson and Matthieu Bethermin and Scott Chapman and David L. Clements and Asantha Cooray and Andreas Efstathiou and Anne Feltre and Peter Hurley and Eduardo Ibar and Mark Lacy and Sebastian Oliver and Mathew J. Page and Ismael Perez-Fournon and Sara M. Petty and Lura K. Pitchford and Dimitra Rigopoulou and Douglas Scott and Myrto Symeonidis and Joaquin Vieira and Lingyu Wang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1602.02755},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

MNRAS, accepted