Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Kocevski, Dale D
• Faber, S M
• MOZENA, MARK
• Koekemoer, Anton M
• Nandra, Kirpal
• Rangel, Cyprian
• Laird, Elise S
• Brusa, Marcella
• Wuyts, Stijn
• Trump, Jonathan R
• Koo, David C
• Somerville, Rachel S
• Bell, Eric F
• Lotz, Jennifer M
• Alexander, David M
• BOURNAUD, FREDERIC
• Conselice, Christopher J
• Dahlen, Tomas
• Dekel, Avishai
• Donley, Jennifer L
• Dunlop, James S
• FINOGUENOV, ALEXIS
• Georgakakis, Antonis
• Giavalisco, Mauro
• Guo, Yicheng
• Grogin, Norman A
• Hathi, Nimish P
• Juneau, Stephanie
• KARTALTEPE, JEYHAN S
• Lucas, Ray A
• McGrath, Elizabeth J
• McIntosh, Daniel H
• Mobasher, Bahram
• Robaina, Aday R
• Rosario, David
• Straughn, Amber N
• van der Wel, Arjen
• Villforth, Carolin

Titel

CANDELS: CONSTRAINING THE AGN-MERGER CONNECTION WITH HOST MORPHOLOGIES AT z ∼ 2

Ist Teil von

• Astrophysical journal. Letters, 2012-01, Vol.744 (2), p.1-9

Ort / Verlag

United States

Erscheinungsjahr

2012

Quelle

EZB Electronic Journals Library

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Using Hubble Space Telescope/WFC3 imaging taken as part of the Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey, we examine the role that major galaxy mergers play in triggering active galactic nucleus (AGN) activity at z ~ 2. Employing visual classifications, we have analyzed the rest-frame optical morphologies of the AGN host galaxies and compared them to a mass-matched control sample of 216 non-active galaxies at the same redshift. Results suggest that the hosts of moderate-luminosity AGNs are no more likely to be involved in an ongoing merger or interaction relative to non-active galaxies of similar mass at z ~ 2. The high disk fraction observed among the AGN hosts also appears to be at odds with predictions that merger-driven accretion should be the dominant AGN fueling mode at z ~ 2, even at moderate X-ray luminosities.