Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jan 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010aas...21541104y&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #215, #411.04; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.240
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
We present a study of star formation in the host galaxies of 8 bright Palomar-Green quasars. AGN activity and star formation have been shown to coincide, and quasar host galaxies are the probable sites of the assembly of the stellar populations that dominate present-day elliptical galaxies. Our work aims to study the rates and morphology of star formation in quasar host galaxies. Using HST WFPC2 and NICMOS images in narrow band filters, we estimate star formation rates for these galaxies using calibrated emission line (primarily Hβ) luminosity to star formation rate relationships. The main challenges of this analysis are correcting for extinction and separating the contributions stellar and quasar excitation to the Hβ luminosity. We also use the Paα/Hβ ratio and extinction indicator and the Paα luminosities as an alternative star-formation indicator, which is less sensitive to extinction. To determine the source of excitation, we make use of diagnostic line ratio (BPT) diagrams. We detect extended line emission in our targets on scales of order 1-2 kpc. A preliminary analysis suggests star formation rates of order 10 M&sun;/yr.
Ciardullo Robin
Eracleous Michael
Gronwall Caryl
Lutz Dieter
Netzer Hagai
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