Investigating central star formation in local AGN host galaxies: Is there tension between coeval growth and AGN feedback?

¹ Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik (MPE), Gießenbachstraße 1, D-85748 Garching bei München, Germany
² Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Grenoble INP, LPSC-IN2P3, 53, Avenue des Martyrs, 38000 Grenoble, France
³ Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam (AIP), An der Sternwarte 16, 14482 Potsdam, Germany
⁴ Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik (MPA), Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 1, D-85741 Garching, Germany

^★ Corresponding author: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Received: 18 September 2025
Accepted: 22 April 2026

Abstract

It has been argued that supermassive black holes (BHs) coevolve with the central parts of galaxies as a result of the common fuel for both the BH and star formation in the galaxy central region, as supported by the particularly significant relation between BH growth and the central mass density within 1 kpc (Σ₁) found among star-forming galaxies. In the context of this scenario, one would naturally expect a close observational link between active galactic nucleus (AGN) activity and star formation activity in the central regions, e.g., the surface star formation rate density in the central 1 kpc region (Σ_{SFR, 1 kpc}), as a manifestation of coeval growth. With ≈ 3000 galaxies in the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey that have X-ray coverage from SRG/eROSITA, XMM-Newton, or Chandra, we studied how the X-ray AGN fraction varies with Σ_{SFR, 1 kpc}. We found that the fraction of X-ray AGNs with relatively higher specific BH accretion rates increases with Σ_{SFR, 1 kpc}, consistent with the expectation. A comparison of the mean star formation rate surface density (Σ_SFR) profiles of the host galaxies of these AGNs and normal galaxies sharing similar properties reveals elevated Σ_SFR in AGN hosts across the entire central region. As for optically selected AGNs, their hosts also tend to show high Σ_SFR in the central regions on average compared to normal galaxies, but they differ from X-ray AGNs in terms of the trend of AGN fraction versus Σ_{SFR, 1 kpc}, which can be explained by selection effects. While these general trends all support the coeval growth scenario, they do not contradict observational evidence for AGN feedback suppressing star formation, as the average effects of such feedback might be modest in the local Universe.