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Margaret E. Verrico

Publications and source records attributed to Margaret E. Verrico.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

SQuIGGLE: Radio AGN Found Predominantly in Young, Gas-rich Post-starburst Galaxies at z ~ 0.7

The processes that rapidly quench massive galaxies and maintain their quiescence remain poorly understood. Substantial molecular gas reservoirs can survive this shutdown in post-starburst galaxies, raising the question of what prevents the remaining gas from efficiently forming stars. We present deep, subarcsecond VLA 6 GHz observations of 52 massive SQuIGGLE post-starburst galaxies at $z\sim0.7$ to test the prevalence and mechanical impact of radio activity during the gas-rich post-burst phase. We detect 6 GHz continuum emission in 18/52 galaxies ($\approx$35\%), spanning $\log(L_{1.4\,{\rm GHz}}/{\rm W\,Hz^{-1}})\simeq23.0$--$25.0$ and generally exceeding the contributions expected from ongoing star formation and the fading starburst, favoring an AGN origin. Ancillary data at other wavelengths provide little evidence for a population of luminous, radiatively efficient AGN, suggesting that these sources are instead dominated by comparatively weak, mechanically powered radio AGN. Radio activity is strongly concentrated within the first $\sim$200 Myr post-burst and is predominantly associated with galaxies retaining substantial gas reservoirs. Above a common radio luminosity threshold, the radio detection fraction is enhanced by a factor of $\approx$2.5 relative to the radio AGN candidate fraction in mass- and redshift-matched quiescent LEGA-C galaxies, primarily due to lower power sources. For efficient jet--ISM coupling, the inferred mechanical power could supply the approximate energy required to unbind the molecular gas on timescales comparable to its observed decline. Together, these results identify a population of radiatively inefficient AGN hosted predominantly by young, gas-rich post-starburst galaxies at $z\sim0.7$ and suggest that they may have a role in maintaining inefficient star formation.

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Extreme MgII Emission in Recently-Quenched Galaxies: A New Sample of Intermediate-Redshift Post-Starburst Quasars from the DESI Early Data Release

Post-starburst galaxies are galaxies which have recently and rapidly shut off star formation. AGN activity is often invoked to explain this rapid quenching, but most post-starburst selection methods select against optical AGN, motivating searches for "post-starburst quasars." We present DESI observations of ten post-starburst quasars with significant MgII emission ($L_{\text{MgII}} \geq 3 \times 10^{41}$ erg/s). This is the first sample of post-starburst quasars to be selected from a post-starburst galaxy parent sample rather than a quasar catalog. Quasars make up $4.6^{+1.6}_{-1.2}\%$ of the post-starburst parent sample at $0.49 \leq z \leq 1.39$. Using multiwavelength AGN diagnostics, we find that $26^{+3.0}_{-2.8}\%$ of post-starbursts in the parent sample host AGN. We find that post-starburst selection methods are biased against AGN with $\text{L}_{\text{Bol}}\gtrsim10^{45} \textrm{erg s}^{-1}$, potentially removing the quasars responsible for driving outflows that aid in quenching. Finally, we find that 9/10 post-starburst quasars in our sample have no detected broad H$β$, similar to so-called "MgII emitters" that may be the remnants of fading quasars; if confirmed, these objects suggest a link between post-starburst galaxies and variable AGN. Our new sample of post-starburst quasars provides a link between previously reported local and high redshift post-starburst quasars during the epoch when star formation throughout the universe was declining.

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SQuIGG$\vec{L}$E: Spatially resolved NIRSpec Pa$α$ reveals that the most CO-luminous, $z\sim0.7$ post-starburst galaxies exhibit falling---but still active---star formation behind optically thick dust

One of the fundamental uncertainties in the study of galaxies at the interface between star formation and quiescence--post-starburst galaxies--is their instantaneous star formation rate. While these galaxies appear quiescent in the rest UV-optical, many of the youngest systems are highly CO luminous, implying dense molecular gas, and potentially star formation. However, their instantaneous star formation rates have proved elusive, as measurements with rest-optical emission lines or UV-to-IR SED fitting yield order-of-magnitude uncertainty. Here, we present JWST/NIRSpec G395M/170LP integral field spectroscopy of the three most CO-luminous massive galaxies in the SQuIGG$\vec{L}$E survey, spatially resolving Pa$α$/Br$γ$/Br$β$ to map the dust-corrected star formation rate. We find that these galaxies host star formation rates of $27-80$ $M_\odot \ \mathrm{yr^{-1}}$, though $\sim30-40\%$ of the emission may arise from non-star-forming ionization (AGN or shocks), implied by high [FeII]/Pa$α$ in central spaxels. We also find effective $A_{\mathrm{Pa}α}\sim1$ and individual $\sim700$ pc spaxels with $A_{\mathrm{Paα}}\sim2$, implying significant dust obscuration of nebular regions that contribute little to the rest-optical lines. These galaxies are not consistent with total quiescence; the measured star formation rates place these galaxies on or above the main sequence. However, their star formation rates \textit{are} significantly lower ($\sim0.5-1$ dex) than the peak star formation rates inferred from spectrophotometric fitting. We propose that the CO luminous post-starburst phase represents the last gasp of star formation in galaxies on the rapid quenching pathway, and that dust-obscured star formation, outflows, and (speculatively) an uncertain CO-to-H2 conversion reconcile their gas exhaustion with observed timescales of fading.

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SQuIGG$\vec{L}$E: Ubiquitous Cool Gas Outflows with Large Mass-Loading Factors in $z\sim0.7$ Post-starburst Galaxies

While recent James Webb Space Telescope studies have highlighted cool gas outflows as an important mechanism for rapid quenching at $z\gtrsim2$, such space-based spectroscopic samples remain limited in size. In this work, we search for and characterize cool gas outflows traced by Fe II $λλ$2586,2600 and Mg II $λλ$2796,2803 absorption in post-starburst galaxies (PSBs) at $0.5<z<0.9$, which are accessible to ground-based spectroscopy. Utilizing the SQuIGG$\vec{L}$E survey containing over 1300 PSBs, we stack spectra in bins of stellar mass, (specific) star formation rate, burst mass, burst mass fraction, and time since quenching. We observe blueshifted line centroids indicative of outflows in all stacks except the one containing galaxies that quenched more than 260 Myr ago. Outflow velocities decline with increasing time since quenching, while showing little correlation with other galaxy properties. The inferred outflows have large mass loading factors of 1 -- 120, maximum velocities above the interstellar medium escape velocities of their host galaxies, and energy and momentum fluxes exceeding those expected from the current star formation. Our results suggest that cool gas outflows are ubiquitous in intermediate-redshift PSBs and are likely relic outflows launched by previous starburst or AGN activity. These outflows have the potential to quench star formation by transporting gas into the galactic halos, consistent with outflows playing an important role in rapid quenching from intermediate to high redshift.

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The Delay Time Distribution of Quasi-Periodic Eruptions

Quasi-periodic eruptions (QPEs) are quasi-periodic X-ray bursts observed in the nucleus of a galaxy. Multiple pieces of observational evidence link QPEs to tidal disruption events (TDEs), which occur when stars are disrupted after approaching a supermassive black hole too closely. Post-starburst galaxies are overrepresented among the host galaxies of both TDEs and QPEs, though the mechanism causing this overrepresentation is unknown. While their physical origin is unclear, the delay time distribution (DTD) of QPEs, or rate of QPEs as a function of time since a burst of star formation, can constrain what mechanisms influence the QPE rate and possible QPE formation channels. We compile a catalog of 10 QPE host galaxies with optical spectra, model the stellar populations with Bagpipes, and retrieve the age of the most recent burst of star formation to construct the DTD of QPEs. We find that the QPE rate increases with post-burst age to reach a peak at ~1 Gyr relative to a control sample, similar to the observational TDE DTD, though we cannot rule out a flat distribution of burst ages relative to a control sample. However, the fraction of QPE host galaxies with high (>1%) burst mass fractions is larger than the fraction of galaxies with high burst mass fractions in either a sample of TDE host galaxies or a sample of control galaxies. If the preferred QPE formation channel requires extreme mass ratio inspirals (EMRIs), then such EMRIs may be more readily produced by large, ~1-Gyr-old bursts of star formation.

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FEADME: Fast Elliptical Accretion Disk Modeling Engine

We present FEADME (Fast Elliptical Accretion Disk Modeling Engine), a GPU-accelerated Python framework for modeling broad Balmer-line emission using a relativistic elliptical accretion-disk formalism. Leveraging JAX and NumPyro for differentiable forward modeling and efficient Bayesian inference, FEADME enables large-sample, reproducible analyses of disk-dominated emission-line profiles. We apply the framework to 237 double-peaked emitters (DPEs) from the literature and to five tidal disruption events (TDEs) with disk-like H$α$ emission, fitting three physically motivated model families per spectrum and selecting the preferred model using the widely applicable information criterion (WAIC). After posterior-quality filtering, the disk-bearing active galactic nuclei (AGN) analysis sample contains 165 sources and the TDE sample contains 27 usable epochs. We find that AGN occupy a broad, continuous distribution of disk geometries and kinematics that is usefully summarized by five phenomenological Gaussian-mixture morphology bins. The TDE disk parameters overlap substantially with the AGN population in radial scale, local broadening, and emissivity slope, but TDEs are systematically less eccentric and show broader non-disk Gaussian components. The majority of both AGN and TDEs favor models that include both a disk and an additional broad-line component, suggesting that disk emission commonly coexists with more isotropic or wind-driven gas. These results indicate that once a line-emitting disk forms, its spectroscopic appearance is governed by similar physical processes in both persistent AGN and transient TDE accretion flows, and they demonstrate the utility of FEADME for population-level studies of disk structure in galactic nuclei.

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Molecular Gas Excitation in z ~ 0.7 Gas-Rich Post-starburst Galaxies from SQuIGGLE

Many post-starburst galaxies at $z\sim0.7$ have been shown to retain substantial molecular gas reservoirs yet host low ongoing star formation, suggesting that the remaining gas may be inefficient at forming stars during the early post-burst phase. We present new Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array CO(5-4) observations of nine gas-rich post-starburst galaxies at $z\sim0.7$ from the Studying Quenching in Intermediate-z Galaxies: Gas, angu$\vec{L}$ar momentum, and Evolution (SQuIGG$\vec{L}$E) survey, providing a view of the molecular gas excitation in these systems. Combined with existing CO(2-1) data, we detect CO(5-4) in 8/9 targets and find that most have moderate CO excitation with $r_{52}\equiv L'_{\rm CO(5-4)}/L'_{\rm CO(2-1)}\approx0.1-0.3$. These systems show no clear trend between $r_{52}$ and either total or surface-density of star formation. Specifically, all objects have $Σ_{\mathrm{SFR}} \sim 0.01-1\ \text{M}_\odot\ \text{yr}^{-1}\ \text{kpc}^{-2}$, consistent with compact, modest star formation, even when allowing for buried activity, as these galaxies decline from their peak. One object J1448+1010, which has clear optical, mid-infrared, and radio indicators of an active galactic nucleus, is an outlier with $r_{52}\approx0.6$; its elevated excitation likely requires significant non-stellar heating, with a contribution from potentially obscured star formation. Together, most gas-rich SQuIGG$\vec{L}$E post-starbursts have moderately excited molecular gas alongside little to modest star-forming activity, indicating that the remaining gas hosts relatively suppressed star formation efficiencies instead of strong buried starburst activity.

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Identifying Changing-Look AGN Transitions in Light Curve Data with the Zwicky Transient Facility

Changing-Look AGN (CL-AGN) are AGN which transition between Seyfert types, challenging AGN unification models. Most CL-AGN have been identified via repeat spectroscopy, making it difficult to determine the duration and magnitude of the CL-AGN transition. As such, the physical mechanisms behind this transition are still unknown. We use synthetic photometry in combination with ZTF light curve data to develop a new criterion to identify photometric CL-AGN transitions based on changes in g-band magnitude and g-r color. We find that a CL-AGN criterion of $| Δg| > 0.4$ mag and $| Δ(g-r)| > 0.2$ mag recovers a photometric transition in $9.6^{+4.9}_{-3.4}\%$ of CL-AGN hosts over the six-year ZTF survey, including a candidate repeating changing-look event in SDSS J084957.78+274728.9. Using simulated AGN light curves, we estimate the false positive rate among the simulated Seyferts to be $1.6^{+0.19}_{-0.17}\%$. We find that the rate of similar flares among Type 1 Seyferts is $1.2^{+0.87}_{-0.50}\%$ , and among Type 2 Seyferts is $\leq 0.39\%$ over six years. Photometric CL-AGN transitions last between 21 and 560 days, with a median duration of 360 days, consistent with the thermal or orbital timescales for AGN disks. We do not detect a correlation between black hole mass and transition duration, likely due to the small sample of detected photometric transitions. This method can be applied to the upcoming Legacy Survey of Space and Time to identify CL-AGN candidates and test theories of their origins

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The Delay Time Distribution of Tidal Disruption Events

Tidal disruption events (TDEs) can be observed when stars get too close to supermassive black holes and are torn apart and accreted. The delay time distribution of TDEs, or rate of TDEs as a function of time since a burst of star formation, can be used to determine what mechanisms influence the TDE rate. We compile a catalog of 41 TDE host galaxies with optical spectra, model the stellar populations with Bagpipes, and retrieve the age of the most recent burst of star formation to construct the delay time distribution of TDEs. TDEs occur more frequently in post-starburst galaxies than in other types of galaxies, though the mechanism causing this rate enhancement is unknown. We find that the TDE rate increases with post-burst age to reach a peak at ~1 Gyr relative to a control sample. We compare the observational TDE delay time distribution to theoretical models, which propose overdense stellar nuclei, radial anisotropies in stellar orbits, supermassive black hole binaries, and AGN disks as potential mechanisms that may enhance the TDE rate in post-starburst galaxies. Most models predict a TDE rate that declines with post-burst age, in contrast to our observational results, though some models are still feasible at certain ages (e.g., the black hole binary model matches at old burst ages and the stellar overdensity model matches at intermediate burst ages).

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AT 2024ahzi: A Type IIP Supernova Discovered by the LSST Commissioning Camera

As part of its commissioning, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory observed several fields repeatedly for a month with ComCam, an instrument that uses the same hardware as the LSST camera but covers a smaller field of view. We photometrically classify AT 2024ahzi, a transient discovered by ComCam, as a Type IIP supernova (SN IIP) using both ComCam and DECam photometry. We find that the duration, luminosity, and color of AT 2024ahzi's photometric plateau are all consistent with those from a large sample of SNe II. By comparing its multi-band light curves to SN II models and analytic relations, we place constraints on the SN progenitor, explosion dynamics, and circumstellar environment. We argue that the progenitor has an extended density profile indistinguishable from a slowly accelerating CSM. We discuss how a similar workflow can identify and characterize future Rubin SNe II.

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A Multiwavelength Evaluation of AGN in the Post-Starburst Phase

The quenching of star formation is a crucial phase in galaxy evolution. Although active galactic nuclei (AGN) feedback has been proposed as a key driver of this transition, the lack of strong AGN in nearby quenching galaxies raises questions about its effectiveness. In this study, we investigate AGN activity in post-starburst galaxies (PSBs), star-forming galaxies (SFGs), and quiescent galaxies (QGs) at $z<$ 0.2, using multiwavelength data from eROSITA/eFEDS (X-ray), WISE (mid-infrared), and FIRST (radio). We assess AGN incidence and strength across different stages and apply stacking techniques to undetected galaxies to recover average AGN properties. Comparisons between observed luminosity and that expected from star formation (L$_{\rm obs}$/L$_{\rm SF}$) show that PSBs are consistent with star formation dominating their radio and X-ray emission. Although PSBs exhibit a MIR AGN incidence rate twice that of SFGs, their estimated AGN luminosities are small compared to those of MIR AGN in the literature. PSBs overall do not display significantly enhanced AGN emission relative to mass- and redshift-matched SFGs and QGs. While the presence of obscured, low-luminosity AGN in PSBs cannot be excluded, such AGN, if present, could be fueled by residual gas from the preceding starburst and may not play a dominant role in quenching. Our findings suggest that AGN's role in quenching at low redshift is more subtle than violently removing the gas -- the feedback is likely more "preventive" than "ejective".

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Selecting Post-Starburst Galaxies Based on Star Formation History

Post-StarBurst (PSB) galaxies are galaxies that have undergone a large burst of star formation followed by rapid quenching. Understanding their properties as a population can help us better understand how galaxies evolve to quiescence. This project aims to use Star Formation History (SFH) measurements from the Integral Field Spectroscopy (IFS) surveys MaNGA, CALIFA, and AMUSING++ processed with the Pipe3D analysis pipeline in order to select PSB galaxies as well as PSB regions in galaxies. Most PSB selection methods use cutoffs determined by spectral features, but in this work we introduce a new PSB selection method based directly on the property we are most interested in; inferred SFHs. IFS data allows us to probe a galaxy's star formation on a spatially resolved scale, enabling us to examine the size, shape, and location of PSB regions within a galaxy. We select 107 PSB galaxies, only 7 of which are among known PSBs selected by other methods. Unlike traditional PSB selection methods, our approach is not biased against Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). Despite this, we still find no evidence for a significant Seyfert 2 PSB population, suggesting that strong AGN activity is uncommon throughout the PSB phase. Our spatially-resolved SFH selection identifies a wide range of galaxies, including globally quiescent elliptical galaxies with centrally-concentrated PSB spaxels, galaxies with ring-like PSB spaxels and a preference for inside-out age gradients (contrary to what has previously been observed in the literature), and galaxies with widespread PSB regions that have significant star formation elsewhere in the galaxy.

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Picture an Astronomer: Best Practices for Retaining Talent in Astrophysics

Women are consistently underrepresented in astrophysics yet are simultaneously subject to disproportionate attrition at every career stage. This disparity between demonstrated efficacy in job performance and ultimate career outcome was the primary motivation for the Picture an Astronomer series, which included both targeted public outreach to increase representation of women in astrophysics and high-level, solution-oriented discussions among professional astronomers. In March 2025, more than 200 astronomers came together in a hybrid-format symposium focused on the state of the field for female scientists, combining scientific exchange with discussions of policies and practices to strengthen retention of talent in the field. This white paper is the result of those discussions, offering a wide range of recommendations developed in the context of gendered attrition in astrophysics but which ultimately support a healthier climate for all scientists alike.

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Unusually High Gas-to-Dust Ratios Observed in High-Redshift Quiescent Galaxies

Tracking the cold molecular gas contents of galaxies is critical to understand the interplay between star formation and galaxy growth across cosmic time. Observations of the long-wavelength dust continuum, a proxy for the cold gas, are widely used in the high-redshift community because of their ease and efficiency. These measurements rely on the assumption of a molecular gas-to-dust mass ratio, typically taken to be GDR ~ 100 in massive, metal-rich systems. We present Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations of the 870um dust continuum in a sample of five massive quiescent galaxies at z ~ 1 with existing detections of CO(2-1). We find surprisingly weak dust emission, falling a factor of >~0.4-0.8 dex below the typical correlation between CO and continuum luminosity. We interpret this dust deficiency as evidence for unusually high GDR in these galaxies, which we calculate to range from 300 to at least 1200. Our results and other observations from the literature are generally compatible with predictions from the SIMBA cosmological simulation that dust is preferentially destroyed in quiescent galaxies. Ultimately, we conclude that the dust continuum is a highly unreliable tracer of the molecular gas in high-redshift quiescent galaxies. As a consequence we may know much less about the cold gas contents of this population than previously thought.

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Meet the Neighbors: Gas Rich "Buddy Galaxies" are Common Around Recently Quenched Massive Galaxies in the SQuIGG$\vec{L}$E Survey

In this work, we characterize the environments of massive ($\log(M_\odot/M_\star)\sim11.2$) $z\sim0.7$ post-starburst galaxies (PSBs) by studying serendipitously-detected CO(2-1) emitters found in targeted observations of the SQuIGG$\vec{L}$E sample. We report $31\pm6\%$ of the galaxies from this survey host nearby gas-rich ``buddies'' with stellar masses $\geq 10^{10},M_\odot$ and molecular gas comparable to their central PSBs ($M_{H_{2}} \sim 10^{10} M_\odot$), but $\sim0.8$ dex lower stellar mass ($\sim 10^{10.4} M_\odot$). Based on their location in position-velocity space, each buddy is consistent with being bound to the haloes of their SQuIGG$\vec{L}$E host galaxies. We compare to the UniverseMachine model and find that SQuIGG$\vec{L}$E galaxies host a typical number of neighbors for their stellar mass, suggesting that PSBs live in environments typical of co-eval similarly-massive galaxies.

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SQuIGG$\vec{L}$E: Buried star formation cannot explain the rapidly fading CO(2-1) luminosity in massive, $z\sim0.7$ post-starburst galaxies

Observational and theoretical studies have long held that rapid gas consumption in starbursts is responsible for the formation of quiescent galaxies. However, studies of recently quenched ``post-starburst" galaxies have discovered that a number of them are surprisingly luminous in CO, challenging this assumption. We present deep ALMA CO(2-1) observations of 50 massive ($\log(M_\star/M_\odot)\sim11.2$) post-starburst galaxies from the SQuIGG$\vec{L}$E sample at $z\sim0.7$. We detect a large fraction (27/50) of the galaxies in CO(2-1). Furthermore, we find that the CO luminosity correlates with the age of the recent starburst, suggesting a gas-removal timescale of $\lesssim140$ Myr, an order of magnitude shorter than is implied by their rest optical star formation rates. We perform new spectral energy distribution fits incorporating mid- and far-IR photometry to test whether dust-obscured star formation can explain this trend. We find that while allowing for buried star formation can raise star formation rates by $\sim0.5$ dex, for almost all galaxies it is neither required to fit the observed IR SED, nor is it sufficient to explain the observed depletion trend. Even the combination of significant buried star formation and ULIRG-like $α_{CO}$ is not enough to explain this decay in CO luminosity. Furthermore, there is no strong evidence to support either of those modifications to the depletion time. Therefore, it remains a distinct possibility that the age-CO luminosity trend should not be interpreted as an evolutionary sequence, and that gas-rich SQuIGG$\vec{L}$E galaxies will soon rejuvenate.

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Radio Variability in Recently-Quenched Galaxies: The Impact of TDE or AGN Driven Outflows

Outflows and jets launched from the nuclei of galaxies emit radio synchrotron emission that can be used to study the impact of accretion energy on the host galaxy. The decades-long baseline now enabled by large radio surveys allows us to identify cases where new outflows or jets have been launched. Here, we present the results of a targeted VLA program observing four post-starburst galaxies that have brightened significantly in radio emission over the past ~20 years. We obtain quasi-simultaneous observations in five bands (1-18 GHz) for each source. We find peaked spectral energy distributions, indicative of self-absorbed synchrotron emission. While all four sources have risen significantly over the past ~20 years in the 1-2 GHz band, two also show clear recent flares in the 2-4 GHz band. These sources are less luminous than typical peaked spectrum radio AGN. It remains unclear whether these sources are low luminosity analogs of the peaked radio AGN from accreted gas, or driven by tidal disruption events with missed optical flares. Regardless of the source of the accreted material, these newly-launched outflows contain sufficient energy to drive the molecular gas outflows observed in post-starburst galaxies and to drive turbulence suppressing star formation.

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Modeling Star Formation Histories of Changing-Look AGN Host Galaxies with Prospector

Changing-look active galactic nuclei, or CL-AGN, are AGN which appear to transition between Seyfert Type 1 and 2 over periods of months to years. Several mechanisms to trigger these transitions have been proposed, but we have yet to conclusively determine their cause. Recent studies suggest CL-AGN are hosted primarily in galaxies which are shutting down star formation (Dodd et al. 2021; Liu et al. 2021, Wang et al. 2023), which may indicate a link between galaxy quenching and changing look events. We use Prospector stellar population synthesis software (Leja et al. 2017; Johnson & Leja 2017; Johnson et al. 2021) to model non-parametric star formation histories for 39 CL-AGN host galaxies. We find that $43^{+13}_{-12}\%$ of our gold sample CL-AGN at z < 0.15 are star forming, while $29^{+13}_{-10}\%$ fall in the Green Valley of the stellar mass-sSFR diagram. At z > 0.15, $57^{+13}_{-18}\%$ of CL-AGN in the gold sample are star-forming and $29^{+19}_{-14}\%$ are in the Green Valley. CL-AGN hosts have similar star formation properties to the host galaxies of Seyfert 1 and 2 AGN at z < 0.15 and to Seyfert 2 AGN at z > 0.15. We find no statistically significant differences in the star formation properties of turn-on and turn-off CL-AGN. We also find no evidence for rapid quenching in the Green Valley CL-AGN. We conclude that CL-AGN state transitions are not associated with the formation history of CL-AGN host galaxies on large spatial scales, implying CL-AGN state transitions may instead result from nuclear-scale or accretion disk effects.

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