What Distinguishes the Host Galaxies of Radio-loud and Radio-quiet AGNs?

We compare the optical properties of the host galaxies of radio-quiet (RQ) and radio-loud (RL) Type 2 active galactic nuclei (AGNs) to infer whether the jet production efficiency depends on the host properties or is determined just by intrinsic properties of the accretion flows. We carefully select...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Astrophysical journal 2017-09, Vol.846 (1), p.42
Main Authors: Kozie -Wierzbowska, D., Asari, N. Vale, Stasi ska, G., Sikora, M., Goettems, E. I., Wójtowicz, A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Active galactic nuclei
Astrophysics
Deposition
Elliptical galaxies
Extinction
galaxies: active
galaxies: nuclei
galaxies: structure
Loudness
Matching
Optical properties
Physics
Radio
radio continuum: galaxies
Stars & galaxies
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Summary:We compare the optical properties of the host galaxies of radio-quiet (RQ) and radio-loud (RL) Type 2 active galactic nuclei (AGNs) to infer whether the jet production efficiency depends on the host properties or is determined just by intrinsic properties of the accretion flows. We carefully select galaxies from SDSS, FIRST, and NVSS catalogs. We confirm previous findings that the fraction of RL AGNs depends on the black-hole (BH) masses, and on the Eddington ratio. The comparison of the nature of the hosts of RL and RQ AGNs, therefore, requires pair-matching techniques. Matching in BH mass and Eddington ratio allows us to study the differences between galaxies hosting RL and RQ AGNs that have the same basic accretion parameters. We show that these two samples differ predominantly in the host-galaxy concentration index, morphological type (in the RL sample the frequency of elliptical galaxies becoming larger with increasing radio loudness), and nebular extinction (galaxies with highest radio loudness showing only low nebular extinction). Contrary to some previous studies, we find no significant difference between our radio-loud and radio-quiet samples regarding merger/interaction features.
ISSN:0004-637X
1538-4357
DOI:10.3847/1538-4357/aa8326