Stellar Populations of AGN-host Dwarf Galaxies Selected with Different Methods

Abstract

In this paper we investigate the stellar populations and star formation histories of 235 active galactic nucleus (AGN)-host dwarf galaxies, consisting of four samples identified separately with different methods (i.e., radio, X-ray, mid-IR and variability), utilizing the synthesis code STARLIGHT and spectra from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 8. Our results show that the variability sample is the oldest, while the mid-IR sample is the youngest, for which the luminosity at 4020 Å is dominated (>50%) by the young population (t < 108 yr). The light-weighted mean stellar age of the whole sample is in general about 0.7 dex younger than the optical sample studied in Cai et al. We compare the population results between fitting models with and without a power-law (PL) component and find that the neglect of a PL component would lead to an under- and over-estimation by 0.2 and 0.1 dex for the light- and mass-weighted mean stellar age, respectively, for our sample of dwarf galaxies, which has a mean fractional contribution of ∼16% from the AGN. In addition, we obtain further evidence for a possible suppression of star formation in the host galaxy by the central AGN. We also find that there exists an anti-correlation between the extinction-corrected [O iii] luminosity and light-weighted mean stellar age, confirming our previous finding that there is a physical connection between AGN and star-forming activities in AGN-host dwarfs.