J/ApJ/925/218ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/925/218doi:10.26093/cds/vizier.19250218CDSXie Y.Ho L.C.2025-05-22T20:11:52Z2023-10-09T10:42:09ZCDS support team

CDS, Observatoire de Strasbourg, 11 rue de l'Universite, F-67000 Strasbourg, France

cds-question@unistra.frquasarsinfrared-astronomyspectroscopyredshiftedinterstellar-mediumactive-galactic-nucleiWe reanalyze the mid-infrared (5-40{mu}m) Spitzer spectra of 86 low-redshift (z<0.5) Palomar-Green quasars to investigate the nature of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission and its utility as a star formation rate (SFR) indicator for the host galaxies of luminous active galactic nuclei (AGNs). We decompose the spectra with our recently developed template-fitting technique to measure PAH fluxes and upper limits, which we interpret using mock spectra that simulate the effects of AGN dilution. While luminous quasars can severely dilute and affect the detectability of emission lines, PAHs are intrinsically weak in some sources that are otherwise gas-rich and vigorously forming stars, conclusively demonstrating that powerful AGNs destroy PAH molecules. Comparing PAH-based SFRs with independent SFRs derived from the mid-infrared fine-structure neon lines and the total infrared luminosity reveals that PAHs can trace star formation activity in quasars with bolometric luminosities <=10^46^erg/s, but increasingly underestimate the SFR for more powerful quasars, typically by ~0.5dex. Relative to star-forming galaxies and low-luminosity AGNs, quasars have a comparable PAH 11.3{mu}m/7.7{mu}m ratio but characteristically lower ratios of 6.2{mu}m/7.7{mu}m, 8.6{mu}m/7.7{mu}m, and 11.3{mu}m/17.0{mu}m. We suggest that these trends indicate that powerful AGNs preferentially destroy small grains and enhance the PAH ionization fraction.2022ApJ...925..218Xhttps://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/ApJ/925/218CatalogResearchIsServedByTAP VizieR generic serviceIsServedByConesearch servicerelated-toVII/157 : The Extended 12um galaxy sample (Rush+ 1993)J/ApJ/269/352 : Quasar evolution (Schmidt+, 1983)J/A+A/357/839 : AGN 2.5-11um spectroscopy (Clavel+, 2000)J/ApJ/653/127 : 9.7um silicate features in AGNs (Shi+, 2006)J/ApJ/656/770 : Mid-IR spectrum of star-forming galaxies (Smith+, 2007)J/ApJ/705/885 : PAH in galaxies at z~0.1 (O'Dowd+, 2009)J/ApJ/719/1191 : Mid-IR indicators of SF and AGN in galaxies (Treyer+, 2010)J/ApJ/723/895 : IR luminosities and aromatic features of 5MUSES (Wu+, 2010)J/ApJ/758/1 : SDSS-Spitzer AGN properties (LaMassa+, 2012)J/ApJS/214/23 : IR spectra and photometry of z<0.5 quasars (Shi+, 2014)J/ApJ/790/124 : Dust and gas physics of the GOALS sample (Stierwalt+, 2014)J/A+A/578/A74 : Nuclear obscuration in LINERs (Gonzalez-Martin+, 2015)J/ApJS/219/18 : LIRAS: LoCuSS IR AGN survey (Xu+, 2015)J/ApJ/819/L27 : Stellar masses of optical & IR QSO hosts (Zhang+, 2016)J/MNRAS/470/3071 : PAH features of AGN (Jensen+, 2017)J/ApJ/854/158 : z<0.5 PG quasars IR energy distributions (Shangguan+, 2018)J/ApJ/884/136 : PAH features of star-forming gal. using Spitzer (Xie+, 2019)J/ApJ/905/55 : Bright-PAH gal. from AKARI & Spitzer (ASESS) (Lai+, 2020)J/ApJ/910/124 : Star formation rates of low-z QSOs from 1-500um (Xie+, 2021)https://cds.unistra.fr/vizier-org/licences_vizier.htmlhttps://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/925/218https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/925/218http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/925/218https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/ApJ/925/218https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/ApJ/925/218http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/ApJ/925/218GETtext/xml+votablehttps://tapvizier.cds.unistra.fr/TAPVizieR/tapCone search capability for table J/ApJ/925/218/table1 (Physical properties and measurements of PG quasars)https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/conesearch/J/ApJ/925/218/table1?https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/conesearch/J/ApJ/925/218/table1?http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/conesearch/J/ApJ/925/218/table1?GETtext/xml+votable180.050000true1.496824416.16361720.0055555555555555566/4215 4506 5091 5244 5437 5481 5576 5687 5731 6028 7246 7998 8017 8071 8299 8528 8636 8641 8845 8881 8893 8906 8927 8941 9018 9181 9194 9262 9959 10039 10162 10217 10269 10472 10578 10691 10694 10709 11217 11354 11388 11668 11829 11924 12317 12380 12632 17819 18127 18918 19287 19315 19416 19433 19567 19700 19730 19746 19767 19883 19932 25403 25735 25742 25965 26310 26509 26736 26859 26902 27023 27025 27227 27293 27349 27580 27720 27848 27862 28060 28164 28356 28471 31650 44785 44988https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/moc/J/ApJ/925/218?format=asciiInfrareddefaultJ/ApJ/925/218/table1Physical properties and measurements of PG quasarsDist[113/2723] Luminosity distanceMpcpos.distanceintrecnoRecord number assigned by the VizieR team. Should Not be used for identification.meta.recordintSimbadSimbad column added by the CDSmeta.ref.urlcharzsp[0.025/0.472] Spectroscopic redshiftsrc.redshiftfloatlogMBH[6.62/9.9] Log of black hole mass (1)log(solMass)phys.massfloatlogLbol[44.6/47.2] Log of AGN bolometric luminosity, in erg/s (1)log(1e-07W)phys.luminosity;em.IRfloatlogMs[9.7/12.1] Stellar mass of the quasar host galaxylog(solMass)phys.massfloatl_logMs[* ] Flag on source of logMs (2)meta.code.errorcharfAGN[1/110]? AGN fractionstat.fit.omcfloatnullablel_logLPAH6Limit flag on logLPAH6meta.code.errorcharlogLPAH6[39.3/43.33]? PAH luminosity at 6.2 umlog(1e-07W)phys.luminosity;em.IR.4-8umfloatnullablee_logLPAH6[0.02/0.14]? Lower uncertainty on logLPAH6log(1e-07W)stat.errorfloatnullableE_logLPAH6[0.02/0.14]? Upper uncertainty on logLPAH6log(1e-07W)stat.error;stat.maxfloatnullablel_logLPAH7Limit flag on logLPAH7meta.code.errorcharlogLPAH7[41.38/44] PAH luminosity at 7.7 umlog(1e-07W)phys.luminosity;em.IR.4-8umfloate_logLPAH7[0.01/0.14]? Lower uncertainty on logLPAH7log(1e-07W)stat.errorfloatnullableE_logLPAH7[0.01/0.14]? Upper uncertainty on logLPAH7log(1e-07W)stat.error;stat.maxfloatnullablel_logLPAH8Limit flag on logLPAH8meta.code.errorcharlogLPAH8[40.23/43.65] PAH luminosity at 8.6 umlog(1e-07W)phys.luminosity;em.IR.8-15umfloate_logLPAH8[0.05/0.14]? Lower uncertainty on logLPAH8log(1e-07W)stat.errorfloatnullableE_logLPAH8[0.05/0.14]? Upper uncertainty on logLPAH8log(1e-07W)stat.error;stat.maxfloatnullablel_logLPAH11Limit flag on logLPAH11meta.code.errorcharlogLPAH11[40.98/43.77] PAH luminosity at 11.3 umlog(1e-07W)phys.luminosity;em.IR.8-15umfloate_logLPAH11[0.03/0.14]? Lower uncertainty on logLPAH11log(1e-07W)stat.errorfloatnullableE_logLPAH11[0.03/0.14]? Upper uncertainty on logLPAH11log(1e-07W)stat.error;stat.maxfloatnullablel_logLPAH17Limit flag on logLPAH17meta.code.errorcharlogLPAH17[40.9/44] PAH luminosity at 17.0 umlog(1e-07W)phys.luminosity;em.IR.15-30umfloate_logLPAH17[0.02/0.14]? Lower uncertainty on logLPAH17log(1e-07W)stat.errorfloatnullableE_logLPAH17[0.02/0.14]? Upper uncertainty on logLPAH17log(1e-07W)stat.error;stat.maxfloatnullablel_logLPAHtLimit flag on logLPAHtmeta.code.errorcharlogLPAHt[41.8/44.4] PAH luminosity within 5-15umlog(1e-07W)phys.luminosity;em.IRfloate_logLPAHt[0.01/0.14]? Lower uncertainty on logLPAHtlog(1e-07W)stat.errorfloatnullableE_logLPAHt[0.01/0.14]? Upper uncertainty on logLPAHtlog(1e-07W)stat.error;stat.maxfloatnullablelogSFRPAH[-0.5/2.1] Log, SFR derived from the PAH luminosity within 5-15umlog(solMass.yr**-1)phys.SFRfloate_logSFRPAH[0.03/0.2]? Lower uncertainty on logSFRPAHlog(solMass.yr**-1)stat.errorfloatnullableE_logSFRPAH[0.03/0.2]? Upper uncertainty on logSFRPAHlog(solMass.yr**-1)stat.error;stat.maxfloatnullableb_logSFRNe[-0.13/1.25]? Lower bound on logSFRNelog(solMass.yr**-1)phys.SFR;stat.minfloatnullableB_logSFRNe[0.47/1.51]? Upper bound on logSFRNelog(solMass.yr**-1)phys.SFR;stat.maxfloatnullablelogSFRNe[0.19/2.4]? Log, SFR derived from the neon line luminositylog(solMass.yr**-1)phys.SFRfloatnullablee_logSFRNe[0.14/0.81]? Lower uncertainty on logSFRNelog(solMass.yr**-1)stat.errorfloatnullablelogSFRIR[-0.7/2.5] Log, SFR derived from the total IR luminositylog(solMass.yr**-1)phys.SFR;em.IRfloate_logSFRIR[0.01/0.16]? Lower uncertainty on logSFRIRlog(solMass.yr**-1)stat.errorfloatnullableE_logSFRIR[0.01/0.2]? Upper uncertainty on logSFRIRlog(solMass.yr**-1)stat.error;stat.maxfloatnullableE_logSFRNe[0.14/0.81]? Upper uncertainty on logSFRNelog(solMass.yr**-1)stat.error;stat.maxfloatnullablel_logSFRIRLimit flag on logSFRIRmeta.code.errorcharS14Display the IR spectral data from Shi+ 2014, J/ApJS/214/23meta.ref.urlchar_RARight Ascension (J2000) from SIMBAD (not part of the original data)degpos.eq.ra;meta.main_DEDeclination (J2000) from SIMBAD (not part of the original data)degpos.eq.dec;meta.mainPGQSO name (HHMM+DDd; B1950)meta.id;meta.maincharl_logSFRPAHLimit flag on logSFRPAHmeta.code.errorchar