Host Galaxy Properties of Changing-look AGN Revealed in the MaNGA Survey

TL;DR

This study uses MaNGA survey data to identify and analyze host galaxy properties of changing-look AGNs, revealing common features and potential host galaxy influences on the changing-look phenomenon.

Contribution

First systematic analysis of MaNGA CL-AGNs' host galaxy properties, highlighting similarities and differences with non-changing-look AGNs and suggesting host galaxy role in CL-AGN behavior.

Findings

All CL-AGNs are in the star-forming main sequence.

80% of CL-AGNs have pseudo-bulge features.

Higher fraction of face-on orientations in CL-AGNs.

Abstract

Changing-look Active Galactic Nuclei (CL-AGNs) are a subset of AGNs in which the broad Balmer emission lines appear or disappear within a few years. We use the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey to identify five CL-AGNs. The 2-D photometric and kinematic maps reveal common features as well as some unusual properties of CL-AGN hosts as compared to the AGN hosts in general. All MaNGA CL-AGNs reside in the star-forming main sequence, similar to MaNGA non-changing-look AGNs (NCL-AGNs). The $80\% \pm 16\%$ of our CL-AGNs do possess pseudo-bulge features, and follow the overall NCL-AGNs $M_{BH}-\sigma_{*}$ relationship. The kinematic measurements indicate that they have similar distributions in the plane of angular momentum versus galaxy ellipticity. MaNGA CL-AGNs however show a higher, but not statistically significant ($20\% \pm 16\%$) fraction of counter-rotating features compared to that ($1.84\% \pm 0.61\%$) in general star-formation population. In addition, MaNGA CL-AGNs favor more face-on (axis ratio $>$ 0.7) than that of Type I NCL-AGNs. These results suggest that host galaxies could play a role in the CL-AGN phenomenon.