Table · dataset · 2020
Galaxy mergers and AGN activity
Listed in IVOA Registry (Virtual Observatory)
Active galactic nuclei (AGNs), particularly the most luminous AGNs, are commonly assumed to be triggered through major mergers; however, observational evidence for this scenario is mixed.
Description
To investigate any influence of galaxy mergers on AGN triggering and luminosities through cosmic time, we present a sample of 106 luminous X-ray-selected type 1 AGNs from the COSMOS survey. These AGNs occupy a large redshift range (0.5<z<2.2) and two orders of magnitude in X-ray luminosity (~10^43^-10^45^erg/s).
AGN hosts are carefully mass and redshift matched to 486 control galaxies. A novel technique for identifying and quantifying merger features in galaxies is developed, subtracting GALFIT galaxy models and quantifying the residuals. Comparison to visual classification confirms this measure reliably picks out disturbance features in galaxies.
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No enhancement of merger features with increasing AGN luminosity is found with this metric, or by visual inspection. We analyse the redshift evolution of AGNs associated with galaxy mergers and find no merger enhancement in lower redshift bins. Contrarily, in the highest redshift bin (z~2) AGNs are ~4 times more likely to be in galaxies exhibiting evidence of morphological disturbance compared to control galaxies, at 99 per cent confidence level (~2.4{sigma}) from visual inspection.
Since only ~15 per cent of these AGNs are found to be in morphologically disturbed galaxies, it is implied that major mergers at high redshift make a noticeable but subdominant contribution to AGN fuelling. At low redshifts, other processes dominate and mergers become a less significant triggering mechanism.
Links
Where it is published
- Reference page cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/MNRAS/470/755 ↗
landing page · from IVOA Registry
Documentation and papers
- ADS 2017MNRAS.470..755H ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017MNRAS.470..755H ↗
publication · from IVOA Registry
Catalogue records · 2
- VOResource record dc.g-vo.org/oai.xml?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=ivo_vor&identifier=ivo%3… ↗
metadata API · from IVOA Registry
- Registry record (GAVO) dc.g-vo.org/I/cds.vizier/j/mnras/470/755 ↗
catalogue entry · from IVOA Registry
Topics
- From keywords
- Astronomy & Astrophysics
Provenance · 1 source records, 9 field assertions
| Source | Key | Last seen | Raw |
|---|---|---|---|
| IVOA Registry (Virtual Observatory) | ivo://cds.vizier/j/mnras/470/755 | 15 d ago | JSON v1 |
| Field | Assertion | Extractor | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| access_level | source · IVOA Registry | connector:ivoa_registry@1.0.0 | |
| concepts[field].local:field:astronomy | mapping · IVOA Registry | connector:ivoa_registry@1.0.0 | |
| concepts[modality].ivoa_waveband:optical | source · IVOA Registry | connector:ivoa_registry@1.0.0 | |
| concepts[modality].ivoa_waveband:x-ray | source · IVOA Registry | connector:ivoa_registry@1.0.0 | |
| description | source · IVOA Registry | connector:ivoa_registry@1.0.0 | rr.resource.res_description |
| license_text | source · IVOA Registry | connector:ivoa_registry@1.0.0 | |
| publication_date | source · IVOA Registry | connector:ivoa_registry@1.0.0 | |
| title | source · IVOA Registry | connector:ivoa_registry@1.0.0 | rr.resource.res_title |
| updated_date | source · IVOA Registry | connector:ivoa_registry@1.0.0 |