2021/11/22 by Laura Ceccarelli, Ceccarelli, Laura, Fernanda Duplancic +3
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) #Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO) #FOS: Physical sciences #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2111.11488
openalex publication_date 2021/11/22 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We study the population of active galaxies in void environment in the SDSS. We use optical spectroscopic information to analyze characteristics of the emission lines of galaxies, accomplished by WHAN and BPT diagrams. Also, we study WISE mid-IR colours to assess AGN activity. We investigate these different AGN classification schemes, both optical and mid-IR, and their dependence on the spatial location with respect to the void centres. To this end, we define three regions: void, the spherical region defined by voidcentric distance relative to void radius (distance/r\rm void) smaller than 0.8, comprising overdensities lesser than -0.9, an intermediate/transition shell region (namely void--wall) 0.8 2. We find statistical evidence for a larger fraction of AGN and star--forming galaxies in the void region, regardless of the classification scheme addressed (either BPT, WHAN or WISE). Moreover, we obtain a significantly stronger nuclear activity in voids compared to the field. We find an unusually large fraction of the most massive black holes undergoing strong accretion when their host galaxies reside in voids. Our results suggest a strong influence of the void environment on AGN mechanisms associated with galaxy evolution.