Why Jet Power and Star Formation Are Uncorrelated in Active Galaxies

TL;DR

This paper presents a model explaining why jet power and star formation are uncorrelated in active galaxies, showing how different phases of jet activity influence star formation and environment characteristics.

Contribution

The study introduces a comprehensive model linking jet evolution and star formation, accounting for observed uncorrelated behavior and environmental differences in active galaxies.

Findings

Jet activity enhances star formation for hundreds of millions of years.

A phase exists where star formation is suppressed while jet power increases.

The model predicts environment richness and redshift ranges for radio AGN.

Abstract

Jet luminosity from active galaxies and the rate of star formation have recently been found to be uncorrelated observationally. We show how to understand this in the context of a model in which powerful AGN jets enhance star formation for up to hundreds of millions of years while jet power decreases in time, followed by a longer phase in which star formation is suppressed but coupled to jet power increasing with time. We also highlight characteristic differences depending on environment richness in a way that is also compatible with the observed SEDs of high redshift radio galaxies. While the absence of a direct correlation between jet power and star formation rate emerges naturally, our framework allows us to also predict the environment richness, range of excitation and redshift values of radio AGN in the jet power-star formation rate plane.