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Evidence for the connection between star formation rate and the evolutionary phases of quasars

Nature Astronomy volume 6, pages 339–343 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

Both theory and observations suggest that outflows driven by an active central supermassive black hole have a feedback effect on shaping the global properties of the host galaxy1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8. However, whether feedback from the outflow is effective, and if so, whether it is positive or negative, have long been controversial. Here, using the latest catalogue from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, we use the flux ratio of the [O ii] to [Ne v] emission lines as a proxy to compare the star formation rate in the hosts of quasars with different types of broad absorption lines (BALs): low-ionization (Lo)BAL, high-ionization (Hi)BAL and non-BAL. We find that the star formation rate decreases from LoBAL to HiBAL quasars, and then increases from HiBAL to non-BAL quasars. Assuming that the sequence of LoBAL to HiBAL to non-BAL represents evolution, our results are consistent with a quenching and subsequent rebound of star formation in quasar host galaxies. This phenomenon can be explained by suppression of the star formation rate by the outflow and then rebound of the rate once the outflow disappears as the quasars evolve from HiBALs to non-BALs. Our result suggests that the quasar outflow has a negative global feedback on galaxy evolution.

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Fig. 1: The median composite spectra of quasars from SDSS DR16Q.
Fig. 2: Adopting R as a proxy to investigate the star formation at different phases of quasar evolution.

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Data availability

The datasets that support the figures within this paper are available as Supplementary Data. The SDSS sample data for different types of quasars in this work are available at http://staff.ustc.edu.cn/z̃cho/sample.html. Any additional data are available from the corresponding author. Source data are provided with this paper.

Code availability

The codes that support the figures within this paper and other findings of this study are available from the corresponding author.

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Acknowledgements

Z.C. is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (12073007), the Guangxi Natural Science Foundation (2019GXNSFFA245008, GKAD19245136 and 2018GXNSFAA050001), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (11763001) and the Scientific Research Project of Guangxi University for Nationalities (2018KJQD01). Z.H. is supported by NSFC-11903031 and 12192221 and USTC Research Funds of the Double First-Class Initiative YD 3440002001. L.C.H. is supported by the National Science Foundation of China (11721303 and 11991052) and the National Key R&D Program of China (2016YFA0400702). Funding for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, and the Participating Institutions. SDSS-IV acknowledges support and resources from the Center for High Performance Computing at the University of Utah. The SDSS website is http://www.sdss.org. SDSS-IV is managed by the Astrophysical Research Consortium for the Participating Institutions of the SDSS Collaboration including the Brazilian Participation Group, the Carnegie Institution for Science, Carnegie Mellon University, Center for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian, the Chilean Participation Group, the French Participation Group, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, The Johns Hopkins University, Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (IPMU)/University of Tokyo, the Korean Participation Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Leibniz Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam (AIP), Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie (MPIA Heidelberg), Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik (MPA Garching), Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik (MPE), National Astronomical Observatories of China, New Mexico State University, New York University, University of Notre Dame, Observatário Nacional/MCTI, The Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, United Kingdom Participation Group, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, University of Arizona, University of Colorado Boulder, University of Oxford, University of Portsmouth, University of Utah, University of Virginia, University of Washington, University of Wisconsin, Vanderbilt University and Yale University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Guangxi University for Nationalities, Nanning, China

    Zhifu Chen & Zhiwen Wang

  2. CAS Key Laboratory for Research in Galaxies and Cosmology, Department of Astronomy, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China

    Zhicheng He, Tinggui Wang & Guilin Liu

  3. School of Astronomy and Space Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China

    Zhicheng He, Tinggui Wang & Guilin Liu

  4. Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Peking University, Beijing, China

    Luis C. Ho & Mingyang Zhuang

  5. Department of Astronomy, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, China

    Luis C. Ho & Mingyang Zhuang

  6. School of Astronomy and Space Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China

    Qiusheng Gu

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Contributions

Z.C. made the calculations, wrote the manuscript and comprehensively discussed the idea. Z.H. presented the idea, discussed the calculations and wrote the main text of the manuscript. L.C.H. oversaw and revised the whole manuscript. Q.G., T.W. and M.Z. discussed the idea and calculations. G.L. and Z.W. gave comments on the revision of the manuscript. All authors discussed and gave comments on the contents of the paper.

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Correspondence to Zhicheng He.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Nature Astronomy thanks Jonathan Trump and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Extended data

Extended Data Fig. 1 The composite spectra after reddening corrections.

Using the Small Magellanic Cloud extinction curve with AV = 0.088 mag for the HiBALs (blue line) and 0.417 mag for the LoBALs (red line).

Source data

Extended Data Fig. 2 The variation of line ratio R = EW[O II]/EW[Ne v] as quasars evolve for different black hole masses.

The line ratio R significantly decreases and then increases as quasars evolve from LoBALs to HiBALs to non-BALs, for each of the three bins of black hole masses. The vertical error bars mark the 1σ uncertainty of the line ratio.

Source data

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Table 1 and Figs. 1–7.

Source data

Source Data Fig. 1

The median composite spectra of three types of quasars.

Source Data Fig. 2

The line ratio at different phases of quasar evolution.

Source Data Extended Data Fig. 1

The composite spectra after reddening corrections.

Source Data Extended Data Fig. 2

The line ratio for quasar with different black hole masses.

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Chen, Z., He, Z., Ho, L.C. et al. Evidence for the connection between star formation rate and the evolutionary phases of quasars. Nat Astron 6, 339–343 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-021-01561-3

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