The Relation between AGN and Host Galaxy Properties in the JWST Era: I. Seyferts at Cosmic Noon are Obscured and Disturbed

2024/01/15 by Nina Bonaventura, Jianwei Lyu, Bonaventura, Nina +47 · 1 citation
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomical Observations and Instrumentation #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) #FOS: Physical sciences #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2401.07863

openalex publication_date 2024/01/15 · openalex created_date 2024/01/19 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

The morphology of a galaxy reflects the mix of physical processes occurring within and around it, offering indirect clues to its formation and evolution. We apply both visual classification and computer vision to test the suspected connection between galaxy mergers and AGN activity, as evidenced by a close/merging galaxy pair, or tidal features surrounding an apparently singular system. We use JADES JWST/NIRCam imagery of a complete, mutliwavelength AGN sample recently expanded with JWST/MIRI photometry. This 0.9-25 μm dataset enables constraints on the host galaxy morphologies of a broad range of AGN beyond z∼1, including heavily obscured examples missing from previous studies. Our primary AGN sample consists of 243 lightly to highly obscured X-ray-selected AGN and 138 presumed Compton-thick, mid-infrared-bright/X-ray-faint AGN revealed by MIRI. Utilizing the shape asymmetry morphology indicator, A_S, as the metric for disturbance, we find that 88% of the Seyferts sampled are strongly spatially disturbed (A_S>0.2). The experimental design we employ reveals a \gtrsim 3σ obscuration-merger (N_H-A_S) correlation at 0.6

Cited by

• The Relation Between AGN and Host Galaxy Properties in the JWST Era: II. The merger-driven evolution of Seyferts at Cosmic Noon

Related

• The Relation Between AGN and Host Galaxy Properties in the JWST Era: II. The merger-driven evolution of Seyferts at Cosmic Noon
• Host Galaxy Morphology and the AGN Unified Model
• Morphologies of low-redshift AGN host galaxies: what role does AGN luminosity play?
• AGNs and Host Galaxies in COSMOS-Web. I. NIRCam Images, PSF Models and Initial Results on X-ray-selected Broad-line AGNs at 0.35\lesssim z \lesssim 3.5
• JWST Catches a Strongly Gravitationally Lensed AGN In Transition from Type II to Type I