The impact of environmental effects on AGN: a decline in the incidence of ionized outflows. (arXiv:2304.04786v1 [astro-ph.GA])
<a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Pino_B/0/1/0/all/0/1">B. Rodríguez Del Pino</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Arribas_S/0/1/0/all/0/1">S. Arribas</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Chies_Santos_A/0/1/0/all/0/1">A.L. Chies-Santos</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Lamperti_I/0/1/0/all/0/1">I. Lamperti</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Perna_M/0/1/0/all/0/1">M. Perna</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Vilchez_J/0/1/0/all/0/1">J.M. Vílchez</a>
AGN have been generally considered to be less frequent in denser environments
due to the lower number of galaxy-galaxy interactions and/or the removal of
their gas-rich reservoirs by the dense intergalactic medium. However, recent
observational and theoretical works suggest that the effect of ram-pressure
stripping might reduce the angular momentum of their gas, causing it to infall
towards the super massive black hole (SMBH) at their centre, activating the AGN
phase. In this work we explore the connection between environment and nuclear
activity by evaluating the variation in the incidence of ionized outflows in
AGN across different environments. We select a sample of $sim3300$ optical AGN
from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 13 that we match with the group
catalogue from Lim et al. 2017. We further probe their environment through the
projected distance to the central galaxy of the group/cluster and the projected
surface density to the 5th neighbour ($delta_5$). We find that at lower masses
($<10^{10.3}$M$_{odot}$), the fraction of ionized outflows is significantly
lower in satellite ($sim7$%) than in isolated ($sim22$%) AGN. The fraction of
outflows in all satellite AGN decreases towards closer distances to the
central, whereas only the lower-mass ones display a significant decline with
$delta_5$. Although this study does not include AGN in the densest regions of
galaxy clusters, our findings suggest that AGN in dense environments accrete
less gas than those in the field potentially due to the removal of the gas
reservoirs via stripping or starvation, consistent with a negative connection
between environment and AGN activity. We propose that the observed change in
the incidence of outflows towards denser regions of groups and clusters could
contribute to the higher gas metallicities of cluster galaxies compared to
field ones, especially at lower masses.
AGN have been generally considered to be less frequent in denser environments
due to the lower number of galaxy-galaxy interactions and/or the removal of
their gas-rich reservoirs by the dense intergalactic medium. However, recent
observational and theoretical works suggest that the effect of ram-pressure
stripping might reduce the angular momentum of their gas, causing it to infall
towards the super massive black hole (SMBH) at their centre, activating the AGN
phase. In this work we explore the connection between environment and nuclear
activity by evaluating the variation in the incidence of ionized outflows in
AGN across different environments. We select a sample of $sim3300$ optical AGN
from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 13 that we match with the group
catalogue from Lim et al. 2017. We further probe their environment through the
projected distance to the central galaxy of the group/cluster and the projected
surface density to the 5th neighbour ($delta_5$). We find that at lower masses
($<10^{10.3}$M$_{odot}$), the fraction of ionized outflows is significantly
lower in satellite ($sim7$%) than in isolated ($sim22$%) AGN. The fraction of
outflows in all satellite AGN decreases towards closer distances to the
central, whereas only the lower-mass ones display a significant decline with
$delta_5$. Although this study does not include AGN in the densest regions of
galaxy clusters, our findings suggest that AGN in dense environments accrete
less gas than those in the field potentially due to the removal of the gas
reservoirs via stripping or starvation, consistent with a negative connection
between environment and AGN activity. We propose that the observed change in
the incidence of outflows towards denser regions of groups and clusters could
contribute to the higher gas metallicities of cluster galaxies compared to
field ones, especially at lower masses.
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