Type 2 AGN Host Galaxies in the Chandra-COSMOS Legacy Survey: No Evidence of AGN-driven Quenching

Abstract

We investigate the star formation properties of a large sample of ~2300 X-ray-selected Type 2 Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) host galaxies out to z ~ 3 in the Chandra COSMOS Legacy Survey in order to understand the connection between the star formation and nuclear activity. Making use of the existing multi-wavelength photometric data available in the COSMOS field, we perform a multi-component modeling from far-infrared to near-ultraviolet using a nuclear dust torus model, a stellar population model and a starburst model of the spectral energy distributions (SEDs). Through detailed analyses of SEDs, we derive the stellar masses and the star formation rates (SFRs) of Type 2 AGN host galaxies. The stellar mass of our sample is in the range of 9 < log M_(stellar)/M⊙ < 12 with uncertainties of ~0.19 dex. We find that Type 2 AGN host galaxies have, on average, similar SFRs compared to the normal star-forming galaxies with similar M_(stellar) and redshift ranges, suggesting no significant evidence for enhancement or quenching of star formation. This could be interpreted in a scenario, where the relative massive galaxies have already experienced substantial growth at higher redshift (z > 3), and grow slowly through secular fueling processes hosting moderate-luminosity AGNs.

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