2025ApJ...989..101V -
Astrophys. J., 989, 101 (2025/August-2)
Modeling Star Formation Histories of Changing-look AGN Host Galaxies with Prospector.
VERRICO M.E., FRENCH K.D., SUESS K.A., AGRAWAL T., LANZ L., LUO Y., PATIL P., ROWLANDS K., SHEPHERD M. and SKARBINSKI M.
Abstract (from CDS):
Changing-look active galactic nuclei (CL-AGNs), are AGNs that appear to transition between Seyfert Type 1 and 2 over periods of months to years. Several mechanisms to trigger these transitions have been proposed, but we have yet to conclusively determine their cause. Recent studies suggest CL-AGNs are hosted primarily in galaxies that are shutting down star formation (S. A. Dodd et al. ; W.-J. Liu et al. ; J. Wang et al. ), which may indicate a link between galaxy quenching and changing-look events. We use Prospector stellar population synthesis software (B. Johnson & J. Leja ; J. Leja et al. ; B. D. Johnson et al. ) to model nonparametric star formation histories for 39 CL-AGN host galaxies. We find that $4{3}_{-12}^{+13} \% $ of our gold sample CL-AGNs at z < 0.15 are star-forming, while $2{9}_{-10}^{+13} \% $ fall in the Green Valley of the stellar mass-specific star formation rate diagram. At z > 0.15, $5{7}_{-18}^{+13} \% $ of CL-AGNs in the gold sample are star-forming and $2{9}_{-14}^{+19} \% $ are in the Green Valley. CL-AGN hosts have similar star formation properties to the host galaxies of Seyfert 1 and 2 AGNs at z < 0.15 and to Seyfert 2 AGNs at z > 0.15. We find no statistically significant differences in the star formation properties of turn-on and turn-off CL-AGNs. We also find no evidence for rapid quenching in the Green Valley CL-AGNs. We conclude that CL-AGN state transitions are not associated with the formation history of CL-AGN host galaxies on large spatial scales, implying CL-AGN state transitions may instead result from nuclear-scale or accretion disk effects.
Abstract Copyright:
© 2025. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.
Journal keyword(s):
AGN host galaxies - Galaxy quenching - Transient sources - Time domain astronomy
Status at CDS
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