Related papers: Major Galaxy Mergers Only Trigger the Most Luminou…
The origins of the stellar-mass black hole mergers discovered by LIGO/Virgo are still unknown. Here we show that, if migration traps develop in the \add{accretion} disks of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) and promote the mergers of their…
This is the fourth paper in a series that reports on our investigation of the clustering properties of active galactic nuclei (AGN) identified in the ROSAT All-Sky Survey (RASS) and Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). In this paper we…
The contribution of major mergers to galaxy mass assembly along cosmic time is an important ingredient to the galaxy evolution scenario. We aim to measure the evolution of the merger rate for both luminosity/mass selected galaxy samples and…
A key unresolved question is the role that galaxy mergers play in driving stellar mass growth over cosmic time. Recent observational work hints at the possibility that the overall contribution of `major' mergers (mass ratios $\gtrsim$1:4)…
Supermassive black holes require a reservoir of cold gas at the centre of their host galaxy in order to accrete and shine as active galactic nuclei (AGN). Major mergers have the ability to drive gas rapidly inwards, but observations trying…
The role of large-scale bars in the fuelling of active galactic nuclei (AGN) is still debated, even as evidence mounts that black hole growth in the absence of galaxy mergers cumulatively dominated and may substantially influence disc…
In this review we discuss the evidence for galaxy interactions and mergers in the distant universe and the role of mergers in forming galaxies. Observations show that the fraction of massive (M> M_*) galaxies involved in major mergers is…
The close relationship between mergers and the reorientation of the spin for galaxies and their host dark haloes is investigated using a cosmological hydrodynamical simulation (Horizon-AGN). Through a statistical analysis of merger trees,…
It has been suggested that merging black hole (BH) binaries in active galactic nucleus (AGN) discs formed through two-body scatterings via the gas-capture process may explain a significant fraction of BH mergers in AGN and a non-negligible…
Massive black holes detected in the centers of many nearby galaxies are linearly correlated with the luminosity of the host bulge, the black hole mass being about 0.1% of the bulge mass. An even stronger relation exists between the BH mass…
Galaxy-galaxy mergers and close interactions have long been regarded as a viable mechanism for channeling gas toward the central supermassive black holes (SMBHs) of galaxies which are triggered as active galactic nuclei (AGNs). AGN pairs,…
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…
Although recent work in numerical relativity has made tremendous strides in quantifying the gravitational wave luminosity of black hole mergers, very little is known about the electromagnetic luminosity that might occur in immediate…
Galaxy mergers are a key driver of galaxy formation and evolution, including the triggering of AGN and star formation to a still unknown degree. We thus investigate the impact of galaxy mergers on star formation and AGN activity using a…
Observational data show that the correlation between supermassive black holes (MBH) and galaxy bulge (Mbulge) masses follows a nearly linear trend, and that the correlation is strongest with the bulge rather than the total stellar mass…
The empirical relationship between the broad line region size and the source luminosity in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) is used to obtain black holes (BH) masses for a large number of quasars in three samples. The largests BH masses found…
As a natural consequence of galaxy mergers, binary active galactic nuclei (AGNs) should be commonplace. Nevertheless, observational confirmations are rare, especially for binaries with separations less than ten kpc. Such a system may show…
Recent observations and simulations have challenged the long-held paradigm that mergers are the dominant mechanism driving the growth of both galaxies and supermassive black holes (SMBH), in favour of non-merger (secular) processes. In this…
At the highest redshifts, z>6, several tens of luminous quasars have been detected. The search for fainter AGN, in deep X-ray surveys, has proven less successful, with few candidates to date. An extrapolation of the relationship between…
The role of major mergers in galaxy and black hole formation is not well constrained. To help address this, we develop an automated method to identify late-stage galaxy mergers before coalescence of the galactic cores. The resulting sample…