Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - AGN host galaxies at z ~ 0.4-1.3
T2 - bulge-dominated and lacking merger-AGN connection
AU - Grogin, N. A.
AU - Conselice, C. J.
AU - Chatzichristou, E.
AU - Alexander, D. M.
AU - Bauer, F. E.
AU - Hornschemeier, A. E.
AU - Jogee, S.
AU - Koekemoer, A. M.
AU - Laidler, V. G.
AU - Livio, M.
AU - Lucas, R. A.
AU - Paolillo, M.
AU - Ravindranath, S.
AU - Schreier, E. J.
AU - Simmons, B. D.
AU - Urry, C. M.
PY - 2005/7/10
Y1 - 2005/7/10
N2 - We investigate morphological structure parameters and local environments of distant moderate-luminosity active galactic nucleus (AGN) host galaxies in the overlap between the HST/ACS observations of the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS) and the two Chandra Deep Fields. We compute near-neighbor counts and BViz asymmetry (A) and concentration (C) indices for ≈35,500 GOODS/ACS galaxies complete to , including z850 ≈ 26.6 the resolved hosts of 322 X-ray–selected AGNs. Distributions of (1) asymmetry for 130 AGN hosts z z 850 850 ! 23 and (2) near-neighbor counts for 173 AGN hosts are both consistent with non-AGN control samples. z850 ! 24 This implies no close connection between recent galaxy mergers and moderate-luminosity AGN activity out to appreciable look-back times ( ), approaching the epoch of peak AGN activity in the universe. The distri- z 1.3 bution of z850 C for the AGN hosts is offset by compared to the non-AGN, a 6.4 DC ≈ 0.5 j discrepancy much larger than can be explained by the possible influence of unresolved emission from the AGN or a circumnuclear starburst. The local universe association between AGN and bulge-dominated galaxies thus persists to substantial look-back time. We discuss implications in the context of the low-redshift supermassive central black hole mass correlation with host galaxy properties, including concentration.
AB - We investigate morphological structure parameters and local environments of distant moderate-luminosity active galactic nucleus (AGN) host galaxies in the overlap between the HST/ACS observations of the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS) and the two Chandra Deep Fields. We compute near-neighbor counts and BViz asymmetry (A) and concentration (C) indices for ≈35,500 GOODS/ACS galaxies complete to , including z850 ≈ 26.6 the resolved hosts of 322 X-ray–selected AGNs. Distributions of (1) asymmetry for 130 AGN hosts z z 850 850 ! 23 and (2) near-neighbor counts for 173 AGN hosts are both consistent with non-AGN control samples. z850 ! 24 This implies no close connection between recent galaxy mergers and moderate-luminosity AGN activity out to appreciable look-back times ( ), approaching the epoch of peak AGN activity in the universe. The distri- z 1.3 bution of z850 C for the AGN hosts is offset by compared to the non-AGN, a 6.4 DC ≈ 0.5 j discrepancy much larger than can be explained by the possible influence of unresolved emission from the AGN or a circumnuclear starburst. The local universe association between AGN and bulge-dominated galaxies thus persists to substantial look-back time. We discuss implications in the context of the low-redshift supermassive central black hole mass correlation with host galaxy properties, including concentration.
U2 - 10.1086/432256
DO - 10.1086/432256
M3 - Journal article
VL - 627
SP - L97-L100
JO - The Astrophysical Journal
JF - The Astrophysical Journal
SN - 0004-637X
IS - 2
ER -