The role of AGN winds in galaxy formation: connecting AGN outflows at low redshifts to the formation/evolution of their host galaxies

TL;DR

This study investigates low-redshift AGN outflows using SDSS spectra, revealing different wind modes linked to AGN types and their host galaxy evolution, with implications for galaxy formation theories.

Contribution

It connects AGN outflow characteristics at low redshift to galaxy formation processes, distinguishing radiative and jet modes and their impact on host galaxy evolution.

Findings

Wind velocity increases with AGN luminosity across classes.

Radio-loud AGN show higher wind velocities than radio-quiet.

Host galaxies with outflows are more star-forming and morphologically later.

Abstract

Using SDSS spectra, we applied an automatic method to search for outflows (OFs) in three large samples of narrow-line AGN at low redshifts (z < 0.4), separated in three spectral activity classes: radio-loud RG, 15,793, radio-quiet, Sy2, 18,585, and LINER, 25,656. In general, the probability of detecting an OF decreases along the sequence Sy1->Sy2->LINER/RG and, independently of the AGN class, the wind velocity, traced by W80, increases with the AGN luminosity. Moreover W80 is systematically higher in RG or any of the other AGN class when detected in radio. These results support the idea that there are two main modes of production of OF, the radiative mode dominant in radio-quiet AGN and the jet mode dominant in radio-loud galaxies, although both modes could also happen simultaneously at different levels. From the spectra and SDSS photometry, the characteristics of the AGN host galaxies and their super-massive black holes (SMBHs) were also retrieved using the stellar population synthesis code STARLIGHT. This revealed that, independently of their spectral class, 1) galaxy hosts with OFs have systematically later morphological types and higher star formation rates than their counterpart without OF, 2) they occupy different positions in the specific diagnostic diagram, sSMBH vs. sSFR, which suggests they follow different evolutionary paths congruent with the morphology of their galaxy hosts, and 3) they show no evidence of AGN quenching or triggering of star formation. These results are consistent with a scenario explaining the different AGN classes as consequences of different formation processes of galaxies: early-type galaxies (LINER and RG) formed bigger bulges and more massive SMBHs, exhausting their reservoir of gas more rapidly than late-type galaxies (Sy2 and Sy1), quenching their star formation and starving their SMBHs.