TY - JOUR
T1 - AGN and star formation at cosmic noon: comparison of data to theoretical models
AU - Florez, Jonathan
AU - Jogee, Shardha
AU - Guo, Yuchen
AU - Cora, Sofía A.
AU - Weinberger, Rainer
AU - Davé, Romeel
AU - Hernquist, Lars
AU - Vogelsberger, Mark
AU - Ciardullo, Robin
AU - Finkelstein, Steven L.
AU - Gronwall, Caryl
AU - Kawinwanichakij, Lalitwadee
AU - Leung, Gene C. K.
AU - LaMassa, Stephanie
AU - Papovich, Casey
AU - Stevans, Matthew L.
AU - Wold, Isak
N1 - 20 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS
PY - 2021/11/1
Y1 - 2021/11/1
N2 - In theoretical models of galaxy evolution, active galactic nucleus (AGN)
and star formation (SF) activity are closely linked and AGN feedback is
routinely invoked to regulate galaxy growth. In order to constrain such
models, we compare the hydrodynamical simulations IllustrisTNG and
SIMBA, and the semi-analytical model SAG to the empirical results on AGN
and SF at cosmic noon (0.75 < z < 2.25) reported in Florez et al. (2020).
The empirical results are based on a large mass-complete sample drawn
from 93 307 galaxies with and without high X-ray luminosity AGN (LX ≳ 1044 erg s−1), selected from a 11.8 deg2 area (∼0.18 Gpc3 comoving volume at z =
0.75–2.25). The main results of our comparisons are: (i) SAG and
IllustrisTNG both qualitatively reproduce the empirical result that
galaxies with high X-ray luminosity AGN have higher mean SFR, at a given
stellar mass, than galaxies without such AGN. SAG, however, strongly
overproduces the number density of high X-ray luminosity AGN by a factor
of 10–100, while IllustrisTNG shows a lack of high X-ray luminosity AGN
at high stellar mass (M∗>1011M⊙) at z
∼ 2. (ii) In SIMBA, the mean SFR of galaxies with high X-ray luminosity
AGN is lower than the SFR of galaxies without such AGN. Contrary to the
data, many high X-ray luminosity AGN in SIMBA have quenched SF,
suggesting that AGN feedback, or other feedback modes in galaxies with
such AGN, might be too efficient in SIMBA.
AB - In theoretical models of galaxy evolution, active galactic nucleus (AGN)
and star formation (SF) activity are closely linked and AGN feedback is
routinely invoked to regulate galaxy growth. In order to constrain such
models, we compare the hydrodynamical simulations IllustrisTNG and
SIMBA, and the semi-analytical model SAG to the empirical results on AGN
and SF at cosmic noon (0.75 < z < 2.25) reported in Florez et al. (2020).
The empirical results are based on a large mass-complete sample drawn
from 93 307 galaxies with and without high X-ray luminosity AGN (LX ≳ 1044 erg s−1), selected from a 11.8 deg2 area (∼0.18 Gpc3 comoving volume at z =
0.75–2.25). The main results of our comparisons are: (i) SAG and
IllustrisTNG both qualitatively reproduce the empirical result that
galaxies with high X-ray luminosity AGN have higher mean SFR, at a given
stellar mass, than galaxies without such AGN. SAG, however, strongly
overproduces the number density of high X-ray luminosity AGN by a factor
of 10–100, while IllustrisTNG shows a lack of high X-ray luminosity AGN
at high stellar mass (M∗>1011M⊙) at z
∼ 2. (ii) In SIMBA, the mean SFR of galaxies with high X-ray luminosity
AGN is lower than the SFR of galaxies without such AGN. Contrary to the
data, many high X-ray luminosity AGN in SIMBA have quenched SF,
suggesting that AGN feedback, or other feedback modes in galaxies with
such AGN, might be too efficient in SIMBA.
KW - astro-ph.GA
U2 - 10.1093/mnras/stab2593
DO - 10.1093/mnras/stab2593
M3 - Article
VL - 508
SP - 762
EP - 780
JO - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
JF - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
SN - 0035-8711
IS - 1
ER -