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Stéphanie Juneau

Publications and source records attributed to Stéphanie Juneau.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

DESI Bright Galaxy Survey: Final Target Selection, Design, and Validation

Over the next five years, the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) will use 10 spectrographs with 5000 fibers on the 4m Mayall Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory to conduct the first Stage-IV dark energy galaxy survey. At $z < 0.6$, the DESI Bright Galaxy Survey (BGS) will produce the most detailed map of the Universe during the dark energy dominated epoch with redshifts of >10 million galaxies over 14,000 deg$^2$. In this work, we present and validate the final BGS target selection and survey design. From the Legacy Surveys, BGS will target a $r < 19.5$ magnitude-limited sample (BGS Bright); a fainter $19.5 < r < 20.175$ sample, color-selected to have high redshift efficiency (BGS Faint); and a smaller low-z quasar sample. BGS will observe these targets using exposure times, scaled to achieve uniform completeness, and visit each point on the footprint three times. We use observations from the Survey Validation programs conducted prior to the main survey along with realistic simulations to show that BGS can complete its strategy and make optimal use of `bright' time. We demonstrate that BGS targets have stellar contamination <1% and that their densities do not depend strongly on imaging properties. We also confirm that BGS Bright will achieve >80% fiber assignment efficiency. Finally, we show that BGS Bright and Faint will achieve >95% redshift success rates with no significant dependence on observing conditions. BGS meets the requirements for an extensive range of scientific applications. BGS will yield the most precise Baryon Acoustic Oscillations and Redshift-Space Distortions measurements at $z < 0.4$. It also presents opportunities to exploit new methods that require highly complete and dense galaxy samples (e.g. N-point statistics, multi-tracers). BGS further provides a powerful tool to study galaxy populations and the relations between galaxies and dark matter.

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Lyman-Alpha Escape from Low-Mass, Compact, High-Redshift Galaxies

We investigate the effects of stellar populations and sizes on Ly$α$ escape in 27 spectroscopically confirmed and 35 photometric Lyman-Alpha Emitters (LAEs) at z $\approx$ 2.65 in seven fields of the Boötes region of the NOAO Deep Wide-Field Survey. We use deep $HST$/WFC3 imaging to supplement ground-based observations and infer key galaxy properties. Compared to typical star-forming galaxies (SFGs) at similar redshifts, the LAEs are less massive ($M_{\star} \approx 10^{7} - 10^{9}~M_{\odot}$), younger (ages $\lesssim$ 1 Gyr), smaller ($r_{e} <$ 1 kpc), less dust-attenuated (E(B$-$V) $\le$ 0.26 mag), but have comparable star-formation-rates (SFRs $\approx 1 - 100~M_{\odot} {\rm yr^{-1}}$). Some of the LAEs in the sample may be very young galaxies having low nebular metallicities (${\rm Z_{neb} \lesssim 0.2 Z_{\odot}}$) and/or high ionization parameters ($\log{(\rm U)} \gtrsim -2.4$). Motivated by previous studies, we examine the effects of the concentration of star formation and gravitational potential on Ly$α$ escape, by computing star-formation-rate surface density, $Σ_{\rm SFR}$ and specific star-formation-rate surface density, $Σ_{\rm sSFR}$. For a given $Σ_{\rm SFR}$, the Ly$α$ escape fraction is higher for LAEs with lower stellar masses. LAEs have higher $Σ_{\rm sSFR}$ on average compared to SFGs. Our results suggest that compact star formation in a low gravitational potential yields conditions amenable to the escape of Ly$α$ photons. These results have important implications for the physics of Ly$α$ radiative transfer and for the type of galaxies that may contribute significantly to cosmic reionization.

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A New Infrared Criterion for Selecting Active Galactic Nuclei to Lower Luminosities

We present a spectroscopic and photometric analysis of a sample of 416,288 galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) matched to mid-infrared (mid-IR) data from the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). By using a new spectroscopic fitting package, GELATO (Galaxy/AGN Emission Line Analysis TOol), we are able to retrieve emission line fluxes and uncertainties for SDSS spectra and robustly determine the presence of broad lines and outflowing components, enabling us to investigate WISE color space as a function of optical spectroscopic properties. In addition, we pursue SED template fitting to assess the relative AGN contribution and nuclear obscuration to compare to existing mid-IR selection criteria with WISE. We present a selection criterion in mid-IR color space to select Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) with a $\sim$80% accuracy and a completeness of $\sim$16%. This is the first mid-IR color selection defined by solely using the distribution of Type I and Type II optical spectroscopic AGNs in WISE mid-IR color space. Our selection is an improvement of $\sim$50% in the completeness of targeting spectroscopic AGNs with WISE down to an SDSS $r<17.77$ mag. In addition, our new criterion targets a less luminous population of AGNs, with on average lower [O III] luminosities by $\sim$30% ($>0.1$ dex) compared to typical WISE color-color selections. With upcoming large photometric surveys without corresponding spectroscopy, our method presents a way to select larger populations of AGNs at lower AGN luminosities and higher nuclear obscuration levels than traditional mid-IR color selections.

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Data Preservation for Cosmology

We describe the needs and opportunities for preserving cosmology datasets and simulations, and facilitating their joint analysis beyond the lifetime of individual projects. We recommend that DOE fund a new cosmology data archive center to coordinate this work across the multiple DOE computing facilities.

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The Black Hole-Galaxy Connection: Interplay between Feedback, Obscuration, and Host Galaxy Substructure

There is growing evidence for physical influence between supermassive black holes and their host galaxies. We present a case study of nearby galaxy NGC 7582, for which we find evidence that galactic substructure plays an important role in affecting the collimation of ionized outflows as well as contributing to the heavy active galactic nucleus (AGN) obscuration. This result contrasts with a simple, small-scale AGN torus model, according to which AGN wind collimation may take place inside the torus itself, at subparsec scale. Using 3D spectroscopy with the MUSE instrument, we probe the kinematics of the stellar and ionized gas components as well as the ionization state of the gas from a combination of emission line ratios. We report for the first time a kinematically distinct core (KDC) in NGC 7582, on a scale of ~600pc. This KDC coincides spatially with dust lanes and starbursting complexes previously observed. We interpret it as a circumnuclear ring of stars and dusty, gas-rich material. We obtain a clear view of the outflowing cones over kpc scales, and demonstrate that they are predominantly photoionized by the central engine. We detect the back cone (behind the galaxy), and confirm previous results of a large nuclear obscuration of both the stellar continuum and HII regions. While we tentatively associate the presence of the KDC to a large-scale bar and/or a minor galaxy merger, we stress the importance of gaining a better understanding of the role of galaxy substructure in controlling the fueling, feedback and obscuration of AGN.

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Physical Drivers of Emission Line Diversity of SDSS Seyfert 2s and LINERs After Removal of Contributions by Star Formation

Ionization sources other than HII regions give rise to the right-hand branch in the standard ([NII]) BPT diagram, populated by Seyfert 2s and LINERs. However, because the majority of Seyfert/LINER hosts are star forming (SF), HII regions contaminate the observed lines to some extent, making it unclear if the position along the branch is merely due to various degrees of mixing between pure Seyfert/LINER and SF, or whether it reflects the intrinsic diversity of Seyfert/LINER ionizing sources. In this study, we empirically remove SF contributions in ~100,000 Seyfert/LINERs from SDSS using the doppelganger method. We find that mixing is not the principal cause of the extended morphology of the observed branch. Rather, Seyferts/LINERs intrinsically have a wide range of line ratios. Variations in ionization parameter and metallicity can account for much of the diversity of Seyfert/LINER line ratios, but the hardness of ionization field also varies significantly. Furthermore, our k-means classification on seven decontaminated emission lines reveals that LINERs are made up of two populations, which we call soft and hard LINERs. The Seyfert 2s differ from both types of LINERs primarily by higher ionization parameter, whereas the two LINER types mainly differ from each other (and from star-forming regions) in the hardness of the radiation field. We confirm that the [NII] BPT diagram more efficiently identifies LINERs than [SII] and [OI] diagnostics, because in the latter many LINERs, especially soft ones, occupy the same location as pure star-formers, even after the SF has been removed from LINER emission.

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Jupyter-Enabled Astrophysical Analysis for Researchers and Students

The advent of increasingly large and complex datasets has fundamentally altered the way that scientists conduct astronomy research. The need to work closely to the data has motivated the creation of online science platforms, which include a suite of software tools and services, therefore going beyond data storage and data access. We present two example applications of Jupyter as a part of astrophysical science platforms for professional researchers and students. First, the Astro Data Lab is developed and operated by NOIRLab with a mission to serve the astronomy community with now over 1500 registered users. Second, the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument science platform serves its geographically distributed team comprising about 900 collaborators from over 90 institutions. We describe the main uses of Jupyter and the interfaces that needed to be created to embed it within science platform ecosystems. We use these examples to illustrate the broader concept of empowering researchers and providing them with access to not only large datasets but also cutting-edge software, tools, and data services without requiring any local installation, which can be relevant for a wide range of disciplines. Future advances may involve science platform networks, and tools for simultaneously developing Jupyter notebooks to facilitate collaborations.

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Observing Strategy for the Legacy Surveys

The Legacy Surveys, a combination of three ground-based imaging surveys, have mapped 16,000 deg$^2$ in three optical bands ($g$, $r$, and $z$) to a depth 1--$2$~mag deeper than the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Our work addresses one of the major challenges of wide-field imaging surveys conducted at ground-based observatories: the varying depth that results from varying observing conditions at Earth-bound sites. To mitigate these effects, two of the Legacy Surveys (the Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey, or DECaLS; and the Mayall $z$-band Legacy Survey, or MzLS) employed a unique strategy to dynamically adjust the exposure times as rapidly as possible in response to the changing observing conditions. We present the tiling and observing strategies used by these surveys. We demonstrate that the tiling and dynamic observing strategies jointly result in a more uniform-depth survey that has higher efficiency for a given total observing time compared with the traditional approach of using fixed exposure times.

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Unveiling Sizes of Compact AGN Hosts with ALMA

We present rest-frame far-infrared (FIR) and optical size measurements of AGN hosts and star-forming galaxies in the COSMOS field, enabled by high-resolution ALMA/1 mm (0.1 arcsec - 0.4 arcsec) and HST/F814W imaging (~ 0.1 arcsec). Our sample includes 27 galaxies at z<2.5, classified as infrared-selected AGN (3 sources), X-ray selected AGN (4 sources), and non-AGN star-forming galaxies (20 sources), for which high-resolution Band 6/7 ALMA images are available at 1 mm from our own observing program as well as archival observations. The sizes and SFR surface densities measured from both ALMA/1 mm and HST/F814W images show that obscured AGN host galaxies are more compact than non-AGN star-forming galaxies at similar redshift and stellar mass. This result suggests that the obscured accretion phase may be related to galaxies experiencing a compaction of their gaseous component, which could be associated with enhanced central star formation before a subsequent quenching driving the formation of compact passive galaxies. Moreover, most of the detected and stacked rest-frame FIR sizes of AGNs in our sample are similar or more compact than their rest-frame optical sizes, which is consistent with recent results of ALMA detected sources. This might be explained by the fact that the dusty starbursts take place in the compact regions, and suggests that the star formation mechanisms in the compact regions of AGN hosts are similar to those observed in star-forming galaxies observed with ALMA.

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Rejuvenated galaxies with very old bulges at the origin of the bending of the main sequence and of the "green valley"

We investigate the nature of star-forming galaxies with reduced specific star formation rate (sSFR) and high stellar masses, those `green valley' objects that seemingly cause a reported bending, or flattening, of the star-forming main sequence. The fact that such objects host large bulges recently led some to suggest that the internal formation of bulges was a late event that induced the sSFRs of massive galaxies to drop in a slow downfall, and thus the main sequence to bend. We have studied in detail a sample of 10 galaxies at $0.45<z<1$ with secure SFR from Herschel, deep Keck optical spectroscopy, and HST imaging from CANDELS allowing us to perform multi-wavelength bulge to disc decomposition, and to derive star formation histories for the separated bulge and disc components. We find that the bulges hosted in these systems below main sequence are virtually all maximally old, with ages approaching the age of the Universe at the time of observation, while discs are young ($\langle$ T$_{50}\rangle \sim 1.5$ Gyr). We conclude that, at least based on our sample, the bending of the main sequence is, for a major part, due to rejuvenation, and we disfavour mechanisms that postulate the internal formation of bulges at late times. The very old stellar ages of our bulges suggest a number density of Early Type Galaxies at $z=1-3$ higher than actually observed. If confirmed, this might represent one of the first direct validations of hierarchical assembly of bulges at high redshifts.

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High Redshift Obscured Quasars and the Need for Optical to NIR, Massively Multiplexed, Spectroscopic Facilities

Most bulge-dominated galaxies host black holes with masses that tightly correlate with the masses of their bulges. This may indicate that the black holes may regulate galaxy growth or vice versa, or that they may grow in lock-step. The quest to understand how, when, and where those black-holes formed motivates much of extragalactic astronomy. Here we focus on a population of galaxies with active black holes in their nuclei (active galactic nuclei or AGN), that are fully or partially hidden by dust and gas: the emission from the broad line region is either completely or partially obscured with a visual extinction of 1 or above. This limit, though not yet precise, appears to be the point at which the populations of AGN may evolve differently. We highlight the importance of finding and studying those dusty AGN at redshifts between 1 and 3, the epoch when the universe may have gone through its most dramatic changes. We emphasize the need for future large multiplexed spectroscopic instruments that can perform dedicated surveys in the optical and NIR to pin down the demographics of such objects and study their reddening properties, star-formation histories, and excitation conditions. These key studies will shed light on the role of black holes in galaxy evolution during the epoch of peak growth activity.

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Astro2020 Science White Paper: Black Holes Across Cosmic Time

Supermassive black holes are located at the center of most, if not all, massive galaxies. They follow close correlations with global properties of their host galaxies (scaling relations), and are thought to play a crucial role in galaxy evolution. Yet, we lack a complete understanding of fundamental aspects of their growth across cosmic time. In particular, we still do not understand: (1) whether black holes or their host galaxies grow faster and (2) what is the maximum mass that black holes can reach. The high angular resolution capability and sensitivity of 30-m class telescopes will revolutionize our understanding of the extreme end of the black hole and galaxy mass scale. With such facilities, we will be able to dynamically measure masses of the largest black holes and characterize galaxy properties out to redshift $z \sim 1.5$. Together with the evolution of black hole-galaxy scaling relations since $z \sim 1.5$, the maximum mass black hole will shed light on the main channels of black hole growth.

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Mapping the Inner Structure of Quasars with Time-Domain Spectroscopy

The ubiquitous variability of quasars across a wide range of wavelengths and timescales encodes critical information about the structure and dynamics of the circumnuclear emitting regions that are too small to be directly resolved, as well as detailed underlying physics of accretion and feedback processes in these active supermassive black holes. We emphasize the importance of studying quasar variability with time-domain spectroscopy, focusing on two science cases: (1) reverberation mapping (RM) to measure the broad-line region sizes and black hole masses in distant quasars; (2) spectroscopic follow-up of extreme variability quasars that dramatically change their continuum and broad-line flux within several years. We highlight the need for dedicated optical-infrared spectroscopic survey facilities in the coming decades to accompany wide-area time-domain imaging surveys, including: (1) the next phase of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-V; ~2020-2025), an all-sky, time-domain multi-object spectroscopic survey with 2.5m-class telescopes; (2) the planned Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer, a dedicated 10m-class spectroscopic survey telescope with a 1.5 sq. deg field-of-view and multiplex of thousands of fibers in both optical and near-IR (J+H) to begin operations in 2029; (3) the Time-domain Spectroscopic Observatory (TSO), a proposed Probe-class ~1.3m telescope at L2, with imaging and spectroscopy (R=200, 1800) in 4 bands (0.3 - 5 micron) and rapid slew capability to 90% of sky, which will extend the coverage of Hbeta to z=8.

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Deciphering an evolutionary sequence of merger stages in infrared-luminous starburst galaxies at z ~ 0.7

Based on optical/near-IR Magellan FIRE spectra of 25 starburst galaxies at 0.5 < z < 0.9, Calabrò et al.(2018) showed that their attenuation properties can be explained by a single-parameter sequence of total obscurations ranging from A(V)=2 to A(V)=30 towards the starburst core centers in a mixed stars and dust configuration. We investigate here the origin of this sequence for the same sample. We show that total attenuations anti-correlate with the starburst sizes in radio (3 GHz) with a significance larger than 5sigma and a scatter of 0.26 dex. More obscured and compact starbursts also show enhanced N2 (=[NII]/Halpha) ratios and larger line velocity widths that we attribute to an increasing shock contribution toward later merger phases, driven by deeper gravitational potential wells at the coalescence. Additionally, the attenuation is also linked to the equivalent width (EW) of hydrogen recombination lines, which is sensitive to the luminosity weighted age of the relatively unobscured stellar populations. Overall, the correlations among A(V), radio size, line width, N2 and EW of Balmer/Paschen lines converge towards suggesting an evolutionary sequence of merger stages: all of these quantities are likely to be good time-tracers of the merger phenomenon, and their large spanned range appears to be characteristic of the different merger phases. Half of our sample at higher obscurations have radio sizes approximately 3 times smaller than early type galaxies at the same redshift, suggesting that, in analogy with local Ultraluminous Infrared galaxies (ULIRGs), these cores cannot be directly forming elliptical galaxies. Finally, we detect mid-IR AGN torus for half of our sample and additional X-ray emission for 6 starbursts; intriguingly, the latter have systematically more compact sizes, suggestive of emerging AGNs towards later merger stages, possibly precursors of a later QSO phase.

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The FMOS-COSMOS survey of star-forming galaxies at $z\sim1.6$ VI: Redshift and emission-line catalog and basic properties of star-forming galaxies

We present a new data release from the Fiber Multi-Object Spectrograph (FMOS)-COSMOS survey, which contains the measurements of spectroscopic redshift and flux of rest-frame optical emission lines (H$α$, [NII], [SII], H$β$, [OIII]) for 1931 galaxies out of a total of 5484 objects observed over the 1.7 deg$^2$ COSMOS field. We obtained $H$-band and $J$-band medium-resolution ($R\sim3000$) spectra with FMOS mounted on the Subaru telescope, which offers an in-fiber line flux sensitivity limit of $\sim 1 \times 10^{-17}~\mathrm{erg~s^{-1}~cm^{-2}}$ for an on-source exposure time of five hours. The full sample contains the main population of star-forming galaxies at $z\sim1.6$ over the stellar mass range $10^{9.5}\lesssim M_\ast/M_\odot \lesssim 10^{11.5}$, as well as other subsamples of infrared-luminous galaxies detected by Spitzer and Herschel at the same and lower ($z\sim0.9$) redshifts and X-ray emitting galaxies detected by Chandra. This paper presents an overview of our spectral analyses, a description of the sample characteristics, and a summary of the basic properties of emission-line galaxies. We use the larger sample to re-define the stellar mass--star formation rate relation based on the dust-corrected H$α$ luminosity, and find that the individual galaxies are better fit with a parametrization including a bending feature at $M_\ast\approx10^{10.2}~M_\odot$, and that the intrinsic scatter increases with $M_\ast$ from 0.19 to $0.37$ dex. We also confirm with higher confidence that the massive ($M_\ast\gtrsim10^{10.5}~M_\odot$) galaxies are chemically mature as much as local galaxies with the same stellar masses, and that the massive galaxies have lower [SII]/H$α$ ratios for their [OIII]/H$β$, as compared to local galaxies, which is indicative of enhancement in ionization parameter.

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Cosmological simulations of black hole growth II: how (in)significant are merger events for fuelling nuclear activity?

Which mechanism(s) are mainly driving nuclear activity in the centres of galaxies is a major unsettled question. In this study, we investigate the statistical relevance of galaxy mergers for fuelling gas onto the central few kpc of a galaxy, potentially resulting in an active galactic nucleus (AGN). To robustly address that, we employ large-scale cosmological hydrodynamic simulations from the Magneticum Pathfinder set, including models for BH accretion and AGN feedback. Our simulations predict that for luminous AGN ($L_{\rm AGN} > 10^{45} {\rm erg/s}$) at $z = 2$, more than 50 per cent of their host galaxies have experienced a merger in the last 0.5~Gyr. These high merger fractions, however, merely reflect the intrinsically high merger fractions of massive galaxies at $z=2$, in which luminous AGN preferentially occur. Apart from that, our simulations suggest that merger events are not the statistically dominant fuelling mechanism for nuclear activity over a redshift range $z=0-2$: irrespective of AGN luminosity, less than 20 per cent of AGN hosts have on average undergone a recent merger, in agreement with a number of observational studies. The central ISM conditions required for inducing AGN activity can be, but are not necessarily caused by a merger. Despite the statistically minor relevance of mergers, at a given AGN luminosity and stellar mass, the merger fractions of AGN hosts can be by up to three times higher than that of inactive galaxies. Such elevated merger fractions still point towards an intrinsic connection between AGN and mergers, consistent with our traditional expectation.

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Near-infrared emission lines in starburst galaxies at 0.5 < z < 0.9 : Discovery of a merger sequence of extreme obscurations

We obtained optical/near-IR rest-frame Magellan FIRE spectra (including Pa$β$ and Pa$γ$) of 25 starburst galaxies at 0.5<z<0.9, with average star formation rates (SFR) x7 above the Main Sequence (MS). We find that Paschen-to-Balmer line ratios saturate around a constant value corresponding to $A_{\rm V}\sim$2-3 mag, while line to IR luminosity ratios suggest a large range of more extreme obscurations and appear to be uncorrelated to the former. This behavior is not consistent with standard attenuation laws derived for local and distant galaxies, while being remarkably consistent with observations of starburst cores in which young stars and dust are homogeneously mixed. This model implies $A_{\rm V}=$2-30 mag attenuation to the center of starburst cores, with a median of ~9 mag (a factor of 4000). X-ray hardness ratios for 6 AGNs in our sample and column densities derived from observed dust masses and radio sizes independently confirm this level of attenuation. In these conditions observed optical/near-IR emission comes from surface regions, while inner starburst cores are invisible. We thus attribute the high [NII]/H$α$ ratios to widespread shocks from accretion, turbulence and dynamic disturbances rather than to AGNs. The large range of optical depths demonstrates that substantial diversity is present within the starburst population, possibly connected to different merger phases or progenitor properties. The majority of our targets are, in fact, morphologically classified as mergers. We argue that the extreme obscuration provides in itself smoking gun evidence of their merger origin, and a powerful tool for identifying mergers at even higher redshifts.

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Infrared Selection of Obscured Active Galactic Nuclei in the COSMOS Field

We present a study of the connection between black hole accretion, star formation, and galaxy morphology at z<=2.5. We focus on active galactic nuclei (AGNs) selected by their mid-IR power-law emission. By fitting optical to far-IR photometry with state-of-the-art spectral energy distribution (SED) techniques, we derive stellar masses, star formation rates, dust properties, and AGN contributions in galaxies over the whole COSMOS field. We find that obscured AGNs lie within or slightly above the star-forming sequence. We confirm our previous finding about compact host galaxies of obscured AGNs at z~1, and find that galaxies with 20-50% AGN contributions tend to have smaller sizes, by ~25-50%, compared to galaxies without AGNs. Furthermore, we find that a high merger fraction of up to 0.5 is appropriate for the most luminous (log (LIR/Lsun) ~ 12.5) AGN hosts and non-AGN galaxies, but not for the whole obscured AGN sample. Moreover, merger fraction depends on the total and star-forming infrared luminosity, rather than the decomposed AGN infrared luminosity. Our results suggest that major mergers are not the main driver of AGN activity, and therefore obscured AGNs might be triggered by internal mechanisms, such as secular processes, disk instabilities, and compaction in a particular evolutionary stage. We make the SED modeling results publicly available.

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