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Characterizing AGN Influence on the Calculated Metallicities of Adjacent Star-Forming Spaxels

Khelil, Aidan
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oberlin1654211455268775

Abstract Details

2022, BA, Oberlin College, Physics and Astronomy.
In this thesis, I introduce a method to identify and characterize the effects of active galactic nuclei (AGN) on the spectra of nearby star-forming regions. I analyze spatially-resolved areas of galaxies called “spaxels” within Data Release 15 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) with the goal of locating those which are physically close to AGN. I find those spaxels with calculated metallicities which lie adjacent to AGN-flagged spaxels and characterize their metallicity values relative to the spaxels which are not adjacent to AGN-flagged spaxels, using a total of 11 separate metallicity calibrations. I find that the current methods to mask AGN-influenced regions for large-scale investigation are, in general, robust, as the largest median deviation between metallicities in border spaxels and those in non-border spaxels is 0.0467 dex. The largest mean difference in metallicity between border and non-border spaxels is 0.0522 dex with a standard deviation of 0.0590 dex. However, on a spaxel-by spaxel basis, I find that the differences in metallicity between border spaxels and non-border spaxels can be as large as 0.9350 dex. These results are concerning for spaxel-by-spaxel analysis, and indicate the need for an improved masking process in the future.
Jillian Scudder (Advisor)
54 p.
Astronomy; Astrophysics; Physics
Galaxy; Metallicity; Spaxel; AGN; Sloan; Digital; Sky; Survey; SDSS; Galactic metallicities; Astronomy; Astrophysics; Border spaxels; Metallicity calibration;

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Khelil, A. (2022). Characterizing AGN Influence on the Calculated Metallicities of Adjacent Star-Forming Spaxels [Undergraduate thesis, Oberlin College]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oberlin1654211455268775

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Khelil, Aidan. Characterizing AGN Influence on the Calculated Metallicities of Adjacent Star-Forming Spaxels. 2022. Oberlin College, Undergraduate thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oberlin1654211455268775.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Khelil, Aidan. "Characterizing AGN Influence on the Calculated Metallicities of Adjacent Star-Forming Spaxels." Undergraduate thesis, Oberlin College, 2022. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oberlin1654211455268775

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

oberlin1654211455268775
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© 2022, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License Characterizing AGN Influence on the Calculated Metallicities of Adjacent Star-Forming Spaxels by Aidan Khelil is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by Oberlin College Honors Theses and OhioLINK.