Study of the effect of agn activity on star formation in nearby galaxies using uvit

Abstract

The study of star formation is an important aspect of understanding the galaxy evolution in the Universe. While many processes can aand#64256;ect star formation in galaxies, we have explored the eand#64256;ect of active galactic nuclei newline(AGN). AGN are compact regions located at the centres of some galaxies with luminosities unexplained by stellar populations, and they can even outshine the host galaxy. Galaxies that host AGN are called active galaxies. newlineThe source of AGN energy production is now universally accepted to be accretion onto the supermassive black holes found in the central region of galaxies. The star formation rate in an active galaxy can be regulated due to the copious amounts of energy released by AGN to the gaseous components of the galaxy (AGN feedback). AGN feedback, in the form of radiative and mechanical modes, can suppress/trigger star formation by heating/compressing newlinethe gas. There is a scarcity of high spatial resolution studies exploring the inand#64258;uence of AGN on star formation activity in nearby galaxies. In this work, we studied a sample of three nearby galaxies Cen A, NGC 3982, and NGC 628 (all within lt 16 Mpc) and evaluated the role of AGN in regulating star newlineformation. For this purpose, we used ultraviolet observations from UVIT and GALEX, supplemented with multiwavelength information, to derive a meaningful picture of the star formation activity in these galaxies. The excellent imaging capability of UVIT onboard AstroSat space observatory newlineis evident in the high-resolution images and the derived science presented in this contribution. Centaurus A is the nearest active galaxy known, and we studied the mechanical mode of AGN feedback in this galaxy using UVIT observations augmented by multiwavelength data. An edge-on galaxy with a jet approximately perpendicular to the galaxy disk, Centaurus A has ongoing star formation within and outside the galaxy disk. We present a census of star formation properties in the Northern Star-forming Region of Centaurus A.