Astronomy & Astrophysics (A&A) is an international journal which publishes papers on all aspects of astronomy and astrophysics

We present an in depth study on the evolution of galaxy properties in compact groups over the past 3 Gyr. We are using the largest multiwavelength sample to-date, comprised 1770 groups (containing 7417 galaxies), in the redshift range of 0.01 < z < 0.23. To derive the physical properties of the galaxies, we rely on ultraviolet (UV)-to-infrared spectral energy distribution modelling, using cigale. Our results suggest that during the 3 Gyr period covered by our sample, the star formation activity of galaxies in our groups has been substantially reduced (3 to 10 times). Moreover, their star formation histories as well as their UV-optical and mid-infrared colours are significantly different from those of field and cluster galaxies, indicating that compact group galaxies spend more time transitioning through the green valley. The morphological transformation from late-type spirals to early-type galaxies occurs in the mid-infrared transition zone rather than in the UV-optical green valley. We find evidence of shocks in the emission line ratios and gas velocity dispersions of the late-type galaxies located below the star forming main sequence. Our results suggest that in addition to gas stripping, turbulence and shocks might play an important role in suppressing the star formation in compact group galaxies.

We analysed 385 Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 (SDSS-DR7) galactic spectra that belong to the catalogue of isolated pairs of galaxies by Karachentsev. The spectra correspond to physical pairs of galaxies defined by a difference in velocity ≤1200 km s⁻¹ and a pair separation ≤100 kpc. We study the incidence of nuclear activity, both star formation and non-thermal – active galactic nuclei (AGNs). After a careful extraction of the nuclear spectra, we use diagnostic diagrams and find that the incidence of AGNs is 48 per cent in emission line paired galaxies and 40 per cent for the total sample (as compared to ∼43 per cent and 41 per cent, respectively, in a sample of isolated galaxies). These results remain after dissecting the effects of morphological type and galactic stellar mass (with only a small, non significant, enhancement of the AGN fraction in galaxy pairs). These results suggest that weak interactions are not necessary and/or sufficient to trigger low-luminosity AGN. Since the fraction of AGN is predominant in early-type spiral galaxies, we conclude that the role of a bulge, and a large gas reservoir are both essential for the triggering of nuclear activity. The most striking result is that Type 1 nuclei are absent from the AGN sample. This result is in conflict with the Unified Model, and suggests that high accretion rates are essential to form the broad line region in active galaxies.

The 4D (four-dimensional) eigenvector 1 (E1) sequence has proven to be a highly effective tool for organizing observational and physical properties of type-1 active galactic nuclei (AGNs). In this paper, we present multiple measurements of metallicity for the broad line region gas, from new and previously-published data. We demonstrate a consistent trend along the optical plane of the E1 (also known as the quasar main sequence), defined by the line width of Balmer hydrogen H$\beta$ profile and by a parameter measuring the prominence of singly-ionized iron emission. The trend involves an increase from sub-solar metallicity in correspondence with extreme Population B (weak Feii emission, large H$\beta$ FWHM (full width at half maximum)) to metallicity several tens the solar value in correspondence with extreme Population A (strongest Feii optical emission, narrower H$\beta$ profiles). The data establish the metallicity as a correlate of the 4DE1/main sequence. If the considerably high metallicity ($Z\gtrsim 10Z_{\odot }$, solar metallicity) gas is expelled from the sphere of influence of the central black hole, as indicated by the widespread evidence of nuclear outflows and disk wind in the case of sources radiating at a high Eddington ratio, then it is possible that the outflows from quasars played a role in chemically enriching the host galaxy.

Quasars accreting matter at very high rates (known as extreme Population A (xA) or super-Eddington accreting massive black holes) provide a new class of distance indicators covering cosmic epochs from the present-day Universe up to less than 1 Gyr from the Big Bang. The very high accretion rate makes it possible that massive black holes hosted in xA quasars can radiate at a stable, extreme luminosity-to-mass ratio. This in turn translates into stable physical and dynamical conditions of the mildly ionized gas in the quasar low-ionization line emitting region. In this contribution, we analyze the main optical and UV spectral properties of extreme Population A quasars that make them easily identifiable in large spectroscopic surveys at low- ( $z\lesssim 1$ ) and intermediate-z (2 $\lesssim z\lesssim$ 2.6), and the physical conditions that are derived for the formation of their emission lines. Ultimately, the analysis supports the possibility of identifying a virial broadening estimator from low-ionization line widths, and the conceptual validity of the redshift-independent luminosity estimates based on virial broadening for a known luminosity-to-mass ratio.