The discrimination between star-forming and AGN galaxies in the absence of Hα and [NII]: A machine learning approach

Abstract

In the absence of the two emission lines H$α$ and [NII] (6584à ) in a BPT diagram, we show that other spectral information is sufficiently informative to distinguish AGN galaxies from star-forming galaxies. We use pattern recognition methods and a sample of galaxy spectra from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) to show that, in this survey, the flux and equivalent width of [OIII] (5007à ) and H$β$, along with the 4000à -break, can be used to classify galaxies in a BPT diagram. This method provides a higher accuracy of predictions than those which use stellar mass and [OIII]/H$β$. First, we use BPT diagrams and various physical parameters to re-classify the galaxies. Next, using confusion matrices, we determine the `correctly' predicted classes as well as confused cases. In this way, we investigate the effect of each parameter in the confusion matrices and rank the physical parameters used in the discrimination of the different classes. We show that in this survey, for example, $\rm{g - r}$ colour can provide the same accuracy as galaxy stellar mass to predict whether or not a galaxy hosts an AGN. Finally, with the same information, we also rank the parameters involved in the discrimination of Seyfert and LINER galaxies.

Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 12 pages, 14 figures