The link between star-formation and supermassive black hole properties
Abstract: It is well known that supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and their host galaxies co-evolve. AGN feedback plays an important role on this symbiosis. To study the effect of the AGN feedback on the host galaxy, a popular method is to study the star-formation rate (SFR) as a function of the X-ray luminosity (L$X$). However, hydrodynamical simulations suggest that the cumulative impact of AGN feedback on a galaxy is encapsulated in the mass of the SMBH, M${BH}$, rather than the L$X$. In this study, we compare the SFR of AGN and non-AGN galaxies as a function of L$_X$, M${BH}$, Eddington ratio (n${Edd}$) and specific black hole accretion rate ($\lambda _{sBHAR}$). For that purpose, we use 122 X-ray AGN in the XMM-XXL field and 3371 galaxies from the VIPERS survey and calculate the SFR${norm}$ parameter, defined as the ratio of the SFR of AGN to the SFR of non-AGN galaxies with similar stellar mass, M$*$, and redshift. Our datasets span a redshift range of $\rm 0.5\leq z\leq 1.2$. The results show that the correlation between SFR${norm}$ and M${BH}$ is stronger compared to that between SFR${norm}$ and L$X$. A weaker correlation is found between SFR${norm}$ and $\lambda {sBHAR}$. No correlation is detected between SFR${norm}$ and n${Edd}$. These results corroborate the idea that the M${BH}$ is a more robust tracer of the cumulative impact of the AGN feedback compared to the instantaneous accretion rate (L$_X$) and, thus, a better predictive parameter of the changes of the SFR of the host galaxy.
Paper Prompts
Sign up for free to create and run prompts on this paper using GPT-5.
Top Community Prompts
Collections
Sign up for free to add this paper to one or more collections.