arXiv · astro-ph/0608381
AEGIS: Host Galaxy Morphologies of X-ray and Infrared-selected AGN at 0.2 < z < 1.2
Abstract
We visually and quantitatively determine the host galaxy morphologies of 94 intermediate redshift (0.2 < z < 1.2) active galactic nuclei (AGN), selected using Chandra X-ray and Spitzer mid-infrared data in the Extended Groth Strip. Using recently developed morphology measures, the second-order moment of the brightest 20% of a galaxy's flux (M_{20}) and the Gini coefficient, we find that X-ray-selected AGN mostly reside in E/S0/Sa galaxies (53^{+11}_{-10}%), while IR-selected AGN show no clear preference for host morphology. X-ray-selected AGN hosts are members of close pairs more often than the field population by a factor of 3.3+/-1.4, but most of these pair members appear to be undisturbed early-type galaxies and do not tend to show direct evidence of gravitational perturbations or interactions. Thus, the activation mechanism for AGN activity remains unknown, even for pair members.
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C. M. Pierce, J. M. Lotz, E. S. Laird, L. Lin, K. Nandra, J. R. Primack, S. M. Faber, P. Barmby, S. Q. Park, S. P. Willner, S. Gwyn, D. C. Koo, A. L. Coil, M. C. Cooper, A. Georgakakis, A. M. Koekemoer, K. G. Noeske, B. J. Weiner, C. N. A. Willmer. 2006-08-17. AEGIS: Host Galaxy Morphologies of X-ray and Infrared-selected AGN at 0.2 < z < 1.2. https://doi.org/10.1086/517922
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