The star formation rates of QSOs
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Date
2022
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Royal Astronomical Society
Abstract
We examine the far-IR properties of a sample of 5391 optically selected QSOs in the
0.5 < z < 2.65 redshift range down to log [νLν,2500(erg/s)] > 44.7, using SPIRE data
from Herschel-ATLAS. We split the sample in a grid of 74 luminosity-redshift bins and
compute the average optical–infrared spectral energy distribution (SED) in each bin.
By normalising an intrinsic AGN template to the AGN optical power (at 5100˚A) we
decompose the total infrared emission (LIR; 8—1000µm) into an AGN (LIR,AGN) and
star-forming component (LIR,SF). We find that the AGN contribution to LIR increases
as a function of AGN power which manifests as a reduction of the ‘far-IR bump’ in
the average QSO SEDs. We note that LIR,SF does not correlate with AGN power; the
mean star formation rates (SFRs) of AGN host galaxies are a function of redshift only
and they range from ∼6 M⊙/yr at z ∼ 0 to a plateau of . 200 M⊙/yr at z ∼ 2.6.
Description
Keywords
Astrophysics, Redshift, Nuclear, AGN power
Citation
Symeonidis, M. et al. (2022). The star formation rates of QSOs. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 514(3), 4450-4464. 10.1093/mnras/stac1359