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The star formation history of nearby active galactic nuclei

Rogério Riffel
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil

Abstract
Since the pioneering studies linking the mass of supermassive black holes (SMBH) with the velocity dispersion of their host galaxies bulges it has become accepted that the products of active galactic nuclei (AGN) accretion and star-formation (SF) are somehow related. It is also accepted that nuclear SF and AGN can coexist in the inner region of galaxies, suggesting that the growth of SMBH (by gas accretion) and galaxies (by forming stars) are coupled. In terms of galaxy evolution, it is established that AGN feedback plays a fundamental role by impacting SF (quenching, suppressing, or triggering). Cosmological simulations performed without the inclusion of feedback (SNR/AGN) effects are not able to reproduce the low and high luminosity ends of the galaxy luminosity function and underestimate the ages of the stars of the most massive galaxies when compared with observations. While observations have shown that nuclear star formation is common in AGNs, properly measuring the stellar population properties in AGN hosts is particularly difficult, since the active nucleus will dilute the absorption features and contribute to a large number of ionizing photons that will make it difficult to use emission line fluxes to infer the stellar properties. In this seminar, I will discuss the results we have obtained in our group when mapping the stellar population in the inner region of active galaxies, with a special focus on the near-infrared spectral region, which allows for a better untangling of the AGN and stellar contributions for the spectral energy distribution of the galaxies.

2023 December 13, 13:30

IA/U.Porto
Centro de Astrofísica da Universidade do Porto (Auditorium)
Rua das Estrelas, 4150-762 Porto

Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa Universidade do Porto Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade de Coimbra
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia COMPETE 2020 PORTUGAL 2020 União Europeia