Morphologies of hard X-ray selected AGN

These trends are found after controlling for redshift and i-band magnitude, suggesting a preference for AGN activity in gas-rich, dynamically disturbed environments or transitional disk systems. We also find a higher bar fraction among AGN hosts than in a control sample (~50% vs. ~30%). We further explore the relationships between AGN properties (e.g., X-ray luminosity, black hole mass, and Eddington ratio) and host morphology, finding that high-luminosity and high-accretion AGN preferentially reside in smooth or point-like hosts.

At the same time, lower-luminosity AGN are more common in disk galaxies. These results underscore the importance of morphological studies in understanding the fueling and feedback mechanisms driving AGN activity and their role in galaxy evolution. Our dataset provides a valuable benchmark for future multi-wavelength surveys (e.g. LSST, Roman, and Euclid) and automated morphological classification efforts.