A search for active galactic nuclei in low-mass compact galaxies
Anna Ferre-Mateu, Mar Mezcua, Robert Scott Barrows

TL;DR
This study investigates active galactic nuclei in low-mass compact galaxies, revealing their potential origins and how they fit into black hole-galaxy scaling relations, with implications for galaxy evolution models.
Contribution
It is the largest multiwavelength survey of AGN in low-mass compact galaxies, providing new insights into their black hole activity and origins.
Findings
11 cEs host AGN based on multiwavelength diagnostics.
Low-mass compact galaxies tend to have overmassive black holes relative to their stellar mass.
Results support a stripping origin and suggest a possible flattening in scaling relations at low masses.
Abstract
Low-mass compact galaxies (ultracompact dwarfs [UCDs] and compact ellipticals [cEs]) populate the stellar size-mass plane between globular clusters and early-type galaxies. Known to be formed either in-situ with an intrinsically low mass or resulting from the stripping of a more massive galaxy, the presence of a supermassive or an intermediate-mass black hole (BH) could help discriminate between these possible scenarios. With this aim, we have performed a multiwavelength search of active BH activity, i.e. active galactic nuclei (AGN), in a sample of 937 low-mass compact galaxies (580 UCDs and 357 cEs). This constitutes the largest study of AGN activity in these types of galaxies. Based on their X-ray luminosity, radio luminosity and morphology, and/or optical emission line diagnostic diagrams, we find a total of 11 cEs that host an AGN. We also study for the first time the location of…
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