The Role of Active Galactic Nuclei in the Major Merging Process

Details The Role of Active Galactic Nuclei in the Major Merging Process The Role of Active Galactic Nuclei in the Major Merging Process

Jan 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011aas...21733535c&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #217, #335.35; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 43, 2011

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We investigate the AGN activity of major mergers and post-merger remnants among massive galaxies in the local universe. A merger-fueled AGN and its subsequent quenching of star formation is postulated to be a central mechanism in explaining the formation and growth of the red and dead spheroid galaxy population over cosmic time. Starting with a volume-limited (z<0.08) and stellar mass-limited (Mstar > 1e10 Msun) sample of 32,500 emission-line galaxies from the SDSS, we identified over 900 galaxy pairs (mergers), and 100 individual systems (remnants), with tidal signatures associated with major merging activity. Using nebular emission line data based on SDSS fiber spectra from the MPA-JHU Emission Line Analysis, and employing a variety of emission-line flux ratio diagnostics that allow us to separate our sample into HII, AGN (both Seyferts and LINERs) and composite spectral types, we compare mergers and remnants to each other and to the non-merging galaxy population. At our mass cut, we note that galaxies that emit strong emission lines (S/N>3) never have purely star-forming central spectra as found in lower-mass emission-line systems. We find that more than half of the mergers and remnants in our sample have measureable AGN activity in their central spectra; at least 50% of each type are LINERs. Our results indicate that AGN activity is common among high-mass mergers, but with no apparent difference in activity strength relative to non-merging systems.

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