The role of environment in low-level active galactic nucleus activity: no evidence for cluster enhancement

TL;DR

This study compares low-level supermassive black hole activity in early-type galaxies within clusters and in the field, finding no evidence of cluster environment enhancing nuclear activity, and suggesting environmental effects mainly quench star formation.

Contribution

It provides a controlled comparison showing that cluster environment does not increase low-level AGN activity compared to the field, highlighting the role of environmental quenching.

Findings

Field galaxies tend to have marginally higher nuclear X-ray luminosities than cluster galaxies.

Cluster environment does not significantly enhance low-level AGN activity.

Environmental effects like gas stripping mainly quench star formation, not increase AGN activity.

Abstract

We use the AMUSE-Virgo and AMUSE-Field surveys for nuclear X-ray emission in early-type galaxies to conduct a controlled comparison of low-level supermassive black hole activity within cluster and field spheroids. While both the Virgo and the Field samples feature highly sub-Eddington X-ray luminosities (log L_x/L_Edd between -8 and -4), we find that after accounting for the influence of host galaxy stellar mass, the field early-type galaxies tend toward marginally greater (0.38+/-0.14 dex) nuclear X-ray luminosities, at a given black hole mass, than their cluster counterparts. This trend is qualitatively consistent with the field black holes having access to a greater reservoir of fuel, plausibly in the form of cold gas located near the nucleus. We are able to rule out at high confidence the alternative of enhanced X-ray activity within clusters. Presuming nuclear X-ray emission correlates with the total energy and momentum output of these weakly accreting black holes, this indicates that low-level active galactic nucleus feedback is not generally stronger within typical cluster galaxies than in the field. These results confirm that for most cluster early-type galaxies (i.e., excluding brightest cluster galaxies) direct environmental effects, such as gas stripping, are more relevant in quenching star formation.