Post-starburst Quasars: Still Star-forming or Blowhards?

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

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Scientific paper

Post-starburst quasars (PSQs) show simultaneously a luminous, healthy, quasar and a massive, moderately-aged starburst (few 10^10 solar masses, few 100 Myr). PSQs are potentially important in the cosmogony of galaxies, providing an evolutionary link between young, early-type, gas-rich star-forming galaxies and old, late-type, gas-deficient, dead galaxies. In an effort to understand the role these objects play in galaxy cosmogony, we have spectroscopically-selected 600 PSQs from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. To this, we have added imaging data from GALEX, HST, and IRTF. In two accompanying posters, we present the results of our studies with GALEX for about two-thirds of the full sample, and our results from HST and IRTF for about 30 objects. In this talk, I will focus on the objects for which we have data from all sources as well as 2MASS. The high-resolution HST and moderate-resolution IRTF images provide a means at separating the flux from the quasar and the host galaxy. Comparison of the underlying quasar spectrum to the GALEX photometry yields one of three possibilities: (1) consistency between the UV fluxes and the quasar spectrum; (2) an excess UV flux over the quasar; or (3) a decremented UV flux relative to the quasar. An excess UV flux likely arises from the presence of young stars, indicating star-formation long after the massive, moderately-aged starburst. A decremented UV flux is possible from either dust obscuration or significant absorption by quasar outflows. I will present examples of each of these three scenarios, the frequency with which they occur, and the discuss the implications of these results in the context of galaxy cosmogony.
We acknowledge support from the US National Science Foundation through grant AST 05-07781, and NASA through grants NNG05GE84G and NNX08AK67G.

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