Related papers: Tracing the AGN-Merger Connection: insights from c…
LIGO/Virgo has detected several binary black hole (BBH) merger events that may have originated in the accretion disks of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). These events require individual black hole masses that fall within the pair instability…
Merger events can trigger gas accretion onto supermassive black holes (SMBHs) located at the centre of galaxies, and form close pairs of AGN. The fraction of AGN in pairs offers critical insights into the dynamics of galaxy interactions,…
We use the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) to confirm a connection between dust-obscured active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and galaxy merging. Using a new, volume-limited (z <= 0.08) catalog of…
It has long been known that galaxy interactions are associated with enhanced star formation. In a companion paper, we explored this connection by applying a variety of statistics to SDSS data. In particular, we showed that specific star…
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,…
The morphology of galaxies reflects their assembly history and ongoing dynamical perturbations from the environment. Analyzing i-band images from the Pan-STARRS1 Survey, we study the optical morphological asymmetry of the host galaxies of a…
We investigate the possible link between mergers and the enhanced activity of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) at the centre of galaxies, by comparing the merger fraction of a local sample (0.003 =< z < 0.03) of active galaxies - 59 active…
Galaxy mergers have been shown to trigger AGN in the nearby universe, but the timescale over which this process happens remains unconstrained. The Multi-Model Merger Identifier (MUMMI) machine vision pipeline has been demonstrated to…
The origin of the mass scaling relation between supermassive black holes (SMBHs, $M_{\rm BH}$) and galaxies ($M_*$) remains a key open question. Rather than invoking AGN feedback, a non-causal mechanism has been proposed in which multiple…
Gravitational-wave (GW) recoil of merging supermassive black holes (SMBHs) may influence the co-evolution of SMBHs and their host galaxies. We examine this possibility using SPH/N-body simulations of gaseous galaxy mergers in which the…
Internal gas inflows driven by galaxy mergers are considered to enhance star formation rates (SFR), fuel supermassive black hole growth and stimulate active galactic nuclei (AGN). However, quantifying these phenomena remains a challenge,…
The observational link between Supermassive Black Holes (SMBH) and galaxies at low redshift seems to be very tight, and statistically the global evolution of star formation activity and BH accretion activity also seem to trace each other…
The dense and gaseous environments of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) can catalyze repeated mergers of stellar-mass black holes (BHs), potentially explaining the high-mass tail of binary black hole (BBH) mergers observed by LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA…
Galaxy mergers are key events in galaxy evolution, often causing massive starbursts and fueling active galactic nuclei (AGN). In these highly dynamic systems, it is not yet precisely known how much starbursts and AGN respectively contribute…
The origin of stellar-mass black hole mergers discovered through gravitational waves is being widely debated. Mergers in the disks of active galactic nuclei (AGN) represent a promising source of origin, with possible observational clues in…
Using HST/WFC3 imaging taken as part of the Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS), we examine the role that major galaxy mergers play in triggering active galactic nuclei (AGN) activity at z~2. Our sample…
Recent observations show that the space density of luminous active galactic nuclei (AGNs) peaks at higher redshifts than that of faint AGNs. This downsizing trend in the AGN evolution seems to be contradictory to the hierarchical structure…
Galaxy pairs with separations of only a few kpc represent important stages in the merger-driven growth of supermassive black holes (SMBHs). However, such mergers are difficult to identify observationally due to the correspondingly small…
We study fast nuclear winds driven by Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) feedback in merging galaxies using high-resolution hydrodynamics simulations. We use Stars and MUltiphase Gas in GaLaxiEs (SMUGGLE) to explicitly model the multiphase…
Galaxy interactions are thought to be one of the main triggers of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), especially at high luminosities, where the accreted gas mass during the AGN lifetime is substantial. Evidence for a connection between mergers…