Journal
ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS
Volume 661, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
EDP SCIENCES S A
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202142432
Keywords
galaxies; active; galaxies; nuclei; galaxies; evolution; galaxies; structure
Categories
Funding
- Sao Paulo Research Foundation - FAPESP [2018/24967-1]
- CNPQ [306359/2018-9]
- Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico (CNPq) [310041/2018-0]
- Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo (FAPESP) [2018/05392-8]
- Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
- National Science Foundation
- Japanese Monbukagakusho
- Max Planck Society
- Higher Education Funding Council for England
- American Museum of Natural History
- Astrophysical Institute Potsdam
- University of Basel
- Drexel University
- Fermilab
- Institute for Advanced Study
- Japan Participation Group
- Johns Hopkins University
- Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics
- Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology
- Korean Scientist Group
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (LAMOST)
- Los Alamos National Laboratory
- Max-Planck-Institute for Astronomy (MPIA)
- Max-Planck-Institute for Astrophysics (MPA)
- New Mexico State University
- Ohio State University
- University of Pittsburgh
- University of Portsmouth
- Princeton University
- United States Naval Observatory
- University of Washington
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This study explores the relationship between barred galaxies and active galactic nuclei (AGN) using a sample from SDSS. The results show that AGN are more commonly found in barred galaxies with higher accretion rates. However, there is no correlation between activity level and bar strength. These findings support theoretical predictions and suggest the presence of other mechanisms at smaller scales.
The high luminosity displayed by an active galactic nucleus (AGN) requires that gas be transported to the centre of the galaxy by some mechanism. Bar-driven processes are often pointed out in this context and a number of studies have addressed the bar-AGN connection, but with conflicting results. Some of the inconsistencies can be explained by the different spatial- and timescales involved in bar-driven gas inflows, accretion by the central black hole, and AGN emission. However, the discrepant results could also be due to sample biases, because both the AGN activity determination and the bar detection are influenced by the method employed. We revisit the bar-AGN connection in a sample of galaxies from SDSS, looking for evidence of the influence of bars on AGN activity. We determine AGN activity by emission line diagnostics and the properties of the bar were previously estimated with BUDDA, which performs 2D bulge-bar-disk decomposition. Before comparing active and inactive galaxies, we made a careful selection of the sample to minimise selection biases. We created control samples by matching them with the AGN sample using propensity score matching. This technique offers an analytical approach for creating control samples given some object parameters. We find that AGN are preferentially found in barred galaxies and that the accretion rate is higher in barred galaxies, but only when different M-sigma relations are used to estimate the black hole mass M-center dot in barred and unbarred galaxies (from the central velocity dispersion sigma). On the other hand, we find no correlation between activity level and bar strength. Altogether, our results strengthen theoretical predictions that the bar is an important mechanism in disc galaxies, creating a gas reservoir to feed AGN, but they also indicate that other mechanisms can play a major role, particularly at scales less than or similar to 100 pc.
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