The eROSITA final equatorial-depth survey (eFEDS): host-galaxy demographics of X-ray AGNs with Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam

Abstract

We investigate the physical properties, such as star-forming activity, disc versus bulge nature, galaxy size, and obscuration of 3811 SRG/eROSITA-detected AGNs at 0.2 < z < 0.8 in the eFEDS field. Using Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam imaging data in the grizy bands, we measure the structural and stellar properties for their host galaxies by performing a 2D AGN-host image decomposition. We find that (1) AGNs can contribute significantly to the total optical light down to log LX ∼ 42.5 erg s−1, thus ignoring the AGN component can significantly bias the structural measurements; (2) AGN hosts are predominately star-forming galaxies at log M ≲ 11.3 M; (3) the bulk of AGNs (64 per cent) reside in galaxies with significant stellar discs (Sérsic index n < 2), while their host galaxies become increasingly bulge dominated (n ∼ 4) and quiescent at log M ≿ 11.0 M; (4) the size–stellar mass relation of AGN hosts tends to lie between that of inactive (i.e. non-AGN) star-forming, and quiescent galaxies, suggesting that the physical mechanism responsible for building the central stellar density also efficiently fuel the black hole growth; (5) the hosts of X-ray unobscured AGNs are biased towards face-on systems, suggesting that some of the obscuration of the nuclei could come from galaxy-scale gas and dust. This will bias against the detection of unobscured AGNs in gas-rich star-forming galaxies, which may partly account for the deficiency of star-forming discs as host galaxies for the most massive AGNs (missing star-forming fraction up to ∼ 40 per cent). Our results are consistent with a scenario in which the black hole and galaxy transform in structure and star-forming activity while grow in mass, as desired to establish the local MBH − Mbulge relation.