Statistics of AGN in Rich Clusters Revisited

Abstract

Using spectrophotometry of a large sample of galaxies in 19 Abell Clusters, we have selected 42 candidate AGN by the criteria used by Dressler et.al. 1985 (DTS) in their analysis of the statistics of 22 AGN in 14 rich cluster fields, which are based on the equivalent width of [OII]3727, Hbeta, and [OIII]5007 emission. We have then discriminated AGN from HII region-like galaxies (hereafter HII galaxies) in the manner developed by Veilleux & Osterbrok 1987 using the additional information provided by Halpha and [NII]6583 or Halpha and [SII]6716+6731 emission, in order to test the reliability of the selection criteria used by DTS. We find that our sample is very similar to that of DTS before we discriminate AGN from HII galaxies, and would lead to similar conclusions. However, we find that their method inevitably mixes HII galaxies with AGN, even for the most luminous objects in our sample. Other authors have attempted to quantify the relative fraction of cluster to field AGN since the study of DTS (Hill & Oegerle 1993, Biviano et al. 1997) reaching similar conclusions, but using similar criteria to theirs to select AGN (or using the [OIII]5007/Hbeta flux ratio test that also mixes HII galaxies with AGN). Our sample of true AGN is left too small to reach statistically meaningful conclusions, therefore a new study with the more time-consuming method that includes the other lines will be required to quantify the true relative fraction of cluster to field AGN.