The co-evolution of galaxies and supermassive black holes in the near Universe

TL;DR

This study investigates the gas inflows and star formation in the central regions of nearby active galaxies, providing observational constraints on the processes fueling supermassive black holes and their co-evolution with host galaxies.

Contribution

It offers new observational evidence of gas inflows and recent star formation in galaxy centers, informing models of SMBH and galaxy co-evolution.

Findings

Gas inflows along nuclear spirals and disks fuel AGN.

Excess gas is converted into new stars in the bulge.

Presence of circumnuclear rings of recent star formation.

Abstract

A fundamental role is attributed to supermassive black holes (SMBH), and the feedback they generate, in the evolution of galaxies. But theoretical models trying to reproduce the relation between the SMBH mass and stellar velocity dispersion of the galaxy bulge make broad assumptions about the physical processes involved. These assumptions are needed due to the scarcity of observational constraints on the relevant physical processes which occur when the SMBH is being fed via mass accretion in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). In search for these constraints, our group -- AGN Integral Field Spectroscopy (AGNIFS) -- has been mapping the gas kinematics as well as the stellar population properties of the inner few hundred parsecs of a sample of nearby AGN hosts. In this contribution, I report results obtained so far which show gas inflows along nuclear spirals and compact disks in the inner tens to hundreds of pc in nearby AGN hosts which seem to be the sources of fuel to the AGN. As the inflow rates are much larger than the AGN accretion rate, the excess gas must be depleted via formation of new stars in the bulge. Indeed, in many cases, we find ~100 pc circumnuclear rings of recent star formation (ages ~ 10 - 500 Myr) that can be interpreted as a signature of co-evolution of the host galaxy and its AGN.