Star formation in the central kiloparsec of nearby active galaxies

We investigate star formation (SF) activity in the central kpc of a sample of nearby Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs). AGN activities are expected to either trigger SF via accreting ISM to the central regions of the host galaxies or quench the SF via the energy feedback of the AGNs. To study the AGN-SF relation we select 113 nearby galaxies that host 8 GHz central radio sources. We use 8 GHz radio emission to represent the AGN activity and 8 micron dust emission in the central kpc regions of these galaxies to estimate the SF rate (SFR). The SFR is found to be correlated with the stellar mass for stellar mass greater than 10¹⁰ solar mass and looks scattered for stellar mass less than 10¹⁰ solar mass. There is no correlation between the specific SFR (SSFR) and the AGN activity for all sources. However, if we exclude the sources with the central stellar mass greater than 10¹⁰ solar mass, we find that the 8 GHz radio emission is well correlated with the SSFR. These results suggest that the AGN activity is significant in triggering SF activity only for small galaxies. Besides, we also select about 20 nearby AGN galaxies to investigate the radial variation of their surface specific star formation rate.