Photoionization models

We find that the metallicity gradients of RPS and field AGN do not present significant differences within the errors, but that 2 out of the 10 RP-stripped AGNs show lower oxygen abundances at any given radius than the rest of the AGN sample. Overall, this result highlights that the interplay between AGN and RPS seems not to play a major role in shaping the metallicity distributions of stripped galaxies within 1.5 times the galaxy's effective radius (r<1.5Re), but larger samples are needed to draw more robust conclusions.

By adding a control sample of SF galaxies, both experiencing RPS and in the field, we find that the AGN hosts are more metal-enriched than SF galaxies at any given radius, but that the steepness of the gradients in the nuclear regions (r<0.5Re) is higher in AGN hosts than in SF galaxies. Particularly, AGN hosts show a metal enrichment in the nuclear regions ~=1.8-2.3 times higher than the enhancement in the disk at r~1.25Re, regardless of the host galaxy's stellar mass.

These results favor the hypothesis that the AGN activity is causing metal pollution in the galaxy's nuclear regions.