J/MNRAS/470/755ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/MNRAS/470/755doi:10.26093/cds/vizier.74700755CDSHewlett T.Villforth C.Wild V.Mendez-Abreu J.Pawlik M.Rowlands K.2024-08-17T20:20:03Z2020-06-13T09:54:54ZCDS support team

CDS, Observatoire de Strasbourg, 11 rue de l'Universite, F-67000 Strasbourg, France

cds-question@unistra.fractive-galactic-nucleix-ray-sourcesphotometrygalaxy-classification-systemsActive 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. 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. 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.2017MNRAS.470..755Hhttps://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/MNRAS/470/755CatalogResearchIsServedByTAP VizieR generic serviceIsServedByConesearch servicerelated-toII/284 : COSMOS Multi-Wavelength Photometry Catalog (Capak+, 2007)J/ApJS/172/29 : XMM-Newton survey in COSMOS field. I. (Hasinger+, 2007)J/A+A/497/635 : XMM-Newton wide-field survey in COSMOS field (Cappelluti+ 2009)https://cds.unistra.fr/vizier-org/licences_vizier.htmlhttps://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/MNRAS/470/755https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/MNRAS/470/755http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/MNRAS/470/755https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/MNRAS/470/755https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/MNRAS/470/755http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/MNRAS/470/755GETtext/xml+votablehttps://tapvizier.cds.unistra.fr/TAPVizieR/tapCone search capability for table J/MNRAS/470/755/agnsamp (AGN sample)https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/conesearch/J/MNRAS/470/755/agnsamp?https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/conesearch/J/MNRAS/470/755/agnsamp?http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/conesearch/J/MNRAS/470/755/agnsamp?GETtext/xml+votable180.050000true149.73922.220530.005555555555555556Cone search capability for table J/MNRAS/470/755/control (Control sample)https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/conesearch/J/MNRAS/470/755/control?https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/conesearch/J/MNRAS/470/755/control?http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/conesearch/J/MNRAS/470/755/control?GETtext/xml+votable180.050000true149.90642.51020.0055555555555555565/6814 6/27245 27247 27344https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/moc/J/MNRAS/470/755?format=asciiX-rayOpticaldefaultJ/MNRAS/470/755/agnsampAGN samplerecnoRecord number assigned by the VizieR team. Should Not be used for identification.meta.recordintXIDIdentification number, XMMC NNNN in Simbad for AGN, COSMOS NNNNNNN in Simbad for galaxiesmeta.id;meta.mainintRAJ2000Right ascension (J2000)degpos.eq.ra;meta.mainDEJ2000Declination (J2000)degpos.eq.dec;meta.mainmPSPoint source magnitudemagphot.mag;em.opt.Ifloate_mPSrms uncertainty on mPSmagstat.errorfloatmGal? Galaxy magnitudemagphot.mag;em.opt.Idoublenullablee_mGal? rms uncertainty on mGalmagstat.errordoublenullableRe? Effective radiuskpcphys.size.radiusdoublenullablee_Re? rms uncertainty on Rekpcstat.errordoublenullablen? Sersic numberstat.fit.paramdoublenullablee_n? rms uncertainty on nstat.errordoublenullableSimbadSimbad column added by the CDSmeta.ref.urlcharJ/MNRAS/470/755/controlControl samplerecnoRecord number assigned by the VizieR team. Should Not be used for identification.meta.recordintXIDIdentification number, XMMC NNNN in Simbad for AGN, COSMOS NNNNNNN in Simbad for galaxiesmeta.id;meta.mainintRAJ2000Right ascension (J2000)degpos.eq.ra;meta.mainDEJ2000Declination (J2000)degpos.eq.dec;meta.mainmPSPoint source magnitudemagphot.mag;em.opt.Ifloate_mPSrms uncertainty on mPSmagstat.errorfloatmGal? Galaxy magnitudemagphot.mag;em.opt.Idoublenullablee_mGal? rms uncertainty on mGalmagstat.errordoublenullableRe? Effective radiuskpcphys.size.radiusdoublenullablee_Re? rms uncertainty on Rekpcstat.errordoublenullablen? Sersic numberstat.fit.paramdoublenullablee_n? rms uncertainty on nstat.errordoublenullableSimbadSimbad column added by the CDSmeta.ref.urlchar