Spectral Properties of Galaxies in Void Regions

We present a study of spectral properties of galaxies in underdense large-scale structures, or voids. Our void galaxy sample (75,939 galaxies) is selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 with z\lt 0.107. We find that there are no significant differences in the luminosities, stellar masses, stellar populations, and specific star formation rates between void galaxies of specific spectral types and their wall counterparts. However, the fraction of star-forming galaxies in voids is significantly higher (≥slant 9%) than that in walls. Void galaxies, when considering all spectral types, are slightly fainter, are less massive, have younger stellar populations, and have higher specific star formation rates than wall galaxies. These minor differences are totally caused by the higher fraction of star-forming galaxies in voids. We confirm that active galactic nuclei (AGNs) exist in voids, already found by Constantin et al. in 2008, with similar abundance to that in walls. Type I AGNs contribute ∼1%-2% of void galaxies, similar to their fraction in walls. The intrinsic [O iii] luminosities, spanning over {10}⁶-{10}⁹ {L}_⊙ , and Eddington ratios are similar comparing our void AGNs versus wall AGNs. Small-scale statistics show that all spectral types of void galaxies are less clustered than their counterparts in walls. Major merger may not be the dominant trigger of black hole accretion in the luminosity range we probe. Our study implies that the growth of black holes relies weakly on large-scale structures.