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Galaxy And Mass Assembly (Gama): A Wise Study Of The Activity Of Emission-Line Systems In G23, H. F.M. Yao, T. H. Jarrett, M. E. Cluver, L. Marchetti, Edward N. Taylor, M. G. Santos, Matt S. Owers, Angel R. Lopez-Sanchez, Y. A. Gordon, M. J.I. Brown, S. Brough, S. Phillipps, Benne Holwerda, A. M. Hopkins, L. Wang
Galaxy And Mass Assembly (Gama): A Wise Study Of The Activity Of Emission-Line Systems In G23, H. F.M. Yao, T. H. Jarrett, M. E. Cluver, L. Marchetti, Edward N. Taylor, M. G. Santos, Matt S. Owers, Angel R. Lopez-Sanchez, Y. A. Gordon, M. J.I. Brown, S. Brough, S. Phillipps, Benne Holwerda, A. M. Hopkins, L. Wang
Faculty Scholarship
We present a detailed study of emission-line systems in the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) G23 region, making use of Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) photometry that includes carefully measured resolved sources. After applying several cuts to the initial catalog of. 41,000 galaxies, we extract a sample of 9809 galaxies. We then compare the spectral diagnostic Baldwin, Philips & Terlevich (BPT) classification of 1154 emission-line galaxies (38% resolved in W1) to their location in the WISE color-color diagram, leading to the creation of a new zone for mid-infrared "warm"galaxies located 2μm above the star-forming sequence, below the standard WISE active …
Mergers Trigger Active Galactic Nuclei Out To Z ∼0.6, F. Gao, L. Wang, W. J. Pearson, Y. A. Gordon, Benne W. Holwerda, A. M. Hopkins, M. J.I. Brown, J. Bland-Hawthorn, M. S. Owers
Mergers Trigger Active Galactic Nuclei Out To Z ∼0.6, F. Gao, L. Wang, W. J. Pearson, Y. A. Gordon, Benne W. Holwerda, A. M. Hopkins, M. J.I. Brown, J. Bland-Hawthorn, M. S. Owers
Faculty Scholarship
Aims. The fueling and feedback of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) are important for understanding the co-evolution between black holes and host galaxies. Mergers are thought to have the capability to bring gas inward and ignite nuclear activity, especially for more powerful AGNs. However, there is still significant ongoing debate on whether mergers can trigger AGNs and, if they do, whether mergers are a significant triggering mechanism. Methods. We selected a low-redshift (0.005 < z < 0.1) sample from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and a high-redshift (0 < z < 0.6) sample from the Galaxy And Mass Assembly survey. We took advantage of the convolutional neural network technique to identify mergers. We used mid-infrared (MIR) color cut and optical emission line diagnostics to classify AGNs. We also included low excitation radio galaxies (LERGs) to investigate the connection between mergers and low accretion rate AGNs. Results. We find that AGNs are more likely to be found in mergers than non-mergers, with an AGN excess up to 1.81 ± 0.16, suggesting that mergers can trigger AGNs. We also find that the fraction of mergers in AGNs is higher than that in non-AGN controls, for both MIR and optically selected AGNs, as well as LERGs, with values between 16.40 ± 0.5% and 39.23 ± 2.10%, implying a non-negligible to potentially significant role of mergers in triggering AGNs. This merger fraction in AGNs increases as stellar mass increases, which supports the idea that mergers are more important for triggering AGNs in more massive galaxies. In terms of merger fraction as a function of AGN power we find a positive trend for MIR selected AGNs and a complex trend for optically selected AGNs, which we interpret under an evolutionary scenario proposed by previous studies. In addition, obscured MIR selected AGNs are more likely to be hosted in mergers than unobscured MIR selected AGNs.