Hubble Space Telescope Imaging of Post-Starburst Quasars
S. L. Cales, M. S. Brotherton, Zhaohui Shang, Vardha Nicola Bennert,, G. Canalizo, R. Stoll, R. Ganguly, D. Vanden Berk, C. Paul, and A., Diamond-Stanic

TL;DR
This study uses Hubble imaging to analyze 29 post-starburst quasars, revealing their host galaxy types, disturbance signs, and potential merger-driven evolution, providing insights into the AGN-starburst connection.
Contribution
It offers the first detailed HST imaging analysis of PSQ host morphologies, disturbances, and their implications for galaxy evolution and AGN triggering mechanisms.
Findings
Equal number of spiral and early-type hosts
Disturbances observed in 17 of 29 objects
Luminous disturbed early-types suggest merger activity
Abstract
We present images of 29 post-starburst quasars (PSQs) from a Hubble Space Telescope (\emph{HST}) Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) Wide Field Channel Snapshot program. These broad-lined active galactic nuclei (AGN) possess the spectral signatures of massive (), moderate-aged stellar populations (hundreds of Myrs). Thus, their composite nature provides insight into the AGN-starburst connection. We measure quasar-to-host galaxy light contributions via semi-automated two-dimensional light profile fits of PSF-subtracted images. We examine the host morphologies, as well as, model the separate bulge and disk components. The \emph{HST}/ACS-F606W images reveal an equal number of spiral (13/29) and early-type (13/29) hosts, with the remaining three hosts having indeterminate classifications. AGNs hosted by early-type galaxies have on average greater luminosity…
Peer Reviews
No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.
Videos
No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.
